Being popular at APSense

I've been a member of APSense for about 3 years.

I've seen a lot of members come and go. From time to time, some of them decide to acquire a lot of likes for their profile, along with many recommendations.

After they've done this for a while, at first glance, their profile makes them look like popular members.

When you take a serious look, you realize they haven't written many articles or RevPages. All they've done is click "like" on many pages all over the place. Or write tons of recommendations. Or ask many general questions.

The recommendations they get are mostly empty, things like: "nice person", "good marketer", "best member of APSense", stuff like that.

It looks to me as if they asked for recommendations to people they probably didn't even know. I might be wrong, of course.

Today, I checked a member's profile, after being told he does many campaigns for his profile. He's not a new member,  he's been around since 2010. He got a bit more than 10 recommendations.

In my opinion, it's the ugliest profile I've ever seen. The "About" section has hundreds of links. Talk about lack of focus.

I took a look at his APSense Business Center. There, on the Testimonials page, we see all the recommendations a member got at APSense. They are listed by date, and we see the dates the member received the recommendations. That member started receiving recommendations a few months ago.

I guess he saw other members use the "let's make myself look popular" tactics and he started using it himself.

I have a few questions for these members. Has it helped you make long term income? Do you believe serious marketers will trust you? Do you care about that?

Do you think these techniques you use to become popular helps build APSense' reputation as a good marketing site?

Please let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Have an amazing day!