How To Get Free Advertising By Trying To Buy Votes On Digg

There’s a thread on Techmeme about a new Digg payola scandal — posts at Pronet Advertising and The Blog Herald reproduce the following email (I’m about to be complicit in the free advertising scam):

Hello,

I need a favor. I run a website bringpopcorn.com.

Would you get my website to the Digg first page, and if successful I’ll pay $500.

The site is of interest to most Digg users anyhow, it’s just people only listen to top Digg users.

If interested please email back.

Alex

At first you think, how stupid could this guy be? But then you realize that he has his URL, bringpopcorn.com, in the email, which is now being printed on top blogs — I confess that I popped the URL in my browser to check it out, out of curiosity. Suddenly, it starts to dawn on you — maybe this guy isn’t as stupid as here appears. Either that, or he’s getting a nice consolation prize.