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Went Hot: October 25, 2008 - 3:54 pm
Posted By: toddmintz 254 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.semportland.com)
Category: Other Social Media
29 Comments
Went Hot: October 25, 2008 - 3:54 pm
Posted By: toddmintz 254 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.semportland.com)
Category: Other Social Media
29 Comments
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Comments
Scott,
Thank you so much for saying all the things we want to say and sometimes don't have the courage to say. It's imperative for the business community we serve to make it clear what's good SEO and what isn't. Good call.
While the obsession with links continues, and while people keep posting "top SEO tips" like "get lots of links from blogs and forums" the posting of such junk will continue unabated.
"Spam Bombed" might not be the right word, since it was only two posts, but here's a link to the backstory, that's only getting better as time goes on.
I'm stunned and amazed that he didn't just do a mia-culpa, and thank me profusely for bringing his employees behavior to his attention. Some people simply have no common sense.
This guy now wants ME to make a public apology, and I swear here and now that I'll resign from the board of SEMpdx before that ever happens.
I'm not a forum sniper, and I dont seek out trouble, but this guy is completely clueless.
There's no need for you to apologize about anything, its your forum and you make the rules. Anybody with a clue would not try to pass off an ad for services in a forum post. You noticed the postings and he should have said sorry about that and gone his way instead of giving you a hard time.
"I took a look at your website over at searchcommander.com and understand what you may not like about the post. You do a lot of the things we warn people of."
LOL - that's classic Scott.
@DariaGoetsch - thanks, that's how I feel! I'm just blown away...
@Nick - Maybe I mention somewhere on my site that I'm still a smoker? ;)
Hey Quince Wyss, the jerk store called. JERK STORE!
SearchCommander rocks. +1
Forum spam is any violation of your House Rules, period. Make sure your policies and terms are clear, make them agree to them when registering and then kick them out when they act like uncivilized guests.
Good job Scott! You should talk about this when you come speak to the students at the upcoming SEO Workshop.
That was a very satisfying read.
You go Scott. I loved this honesty:
It's a matter of perspective. This time you have it; other times when some people seem all bent out of shape, it's probably because of a perspective they have. Bottom line is, these people are spammers and are ok with it. Debate won't change that. Good you highlighted it for the rest of us.
If you guys like this, you may want to join the ihelpyou forum where they out spammers and make fun of them every day.
Seriously though.. Why is this "news"?? I see this at several SEO forums I mod at nearly daily.. We usualyl just ban them instantly and don't think another thought about it..
But there are occaions where we taunt, humiliate, and generally make sport of them out of boredom.. We've even had a couple threaten lawsuits and then demand we remove the posts.. It's not a big deal and can make for an entertaining afternoon if you are bored.
We won't even bring up the self proclaimed seo experts asking what nofollow is, or what anchor text is.. That's a whole 'nother class of moron..
Agreed. Unfortunately, Scott had been put in a position to respond, mostly because, "People who know the very least seem to know the loudest"
You also have to understand Scott is a straight up individual... unlike the more cynical amongst us, he doesn't assume the worst and he gives people a fair shot from the start, no mater how they initially behave. That's why I think this is worthy... it demonstrates a brazen statement that this business of SEO is open to spamming as status quo.
Sure there are hustlers and shysters but how many industries are willing to stand up and claim it's okay to spam? With a straight face? And then defend it with righteous indignation?
Forum spammers are extremely annoying. The occasional "taunting and humilation" as mentioned is good - but never really seems to stop the buggers.
It won't stop until the "internet gurus" stop listing "get lots of links from forums and blogs" as one of their top tips, and start saying "join a community to participate in the discussions and to share information, and thereby build online reputation".
Nice to see all the comments, and glad to see it went hot over the weekend.
@jill - Now that would have been funny, if they had submittted their "helpful articles" to Doug Heil's forum. ;)
@johnandrews - Thank you John, sincerely - (your check is in the mail ;)
@responseim - You can count on this discussion being included. This is a perfect example of the "backfiring" which I briefly spoke about last time.
@feydakin - To me what made it newsworthy was the fact that instead of thanking me for the phone call and then sending us an email apologizing for his employee, the owner of Peak Studios in Colorado actually emailed me back and defended what was written!
He said he thought it wasn't spam, despite the fact that carbon copies (typos and all) were on other forums. Apparently, he's now gotten Warrior forum to pull down their copy, so maybe he's starting to see the light?
About three weeks ago, I was in a social setting at a charity fundraiser table for 12, where someone asked me what I did.
For the very first time in 5+ years, instead of getting peppered with questions when I shared my profession, I had more than one person imply that "search marketing is a scam".
Before I could even say much, the conversation degenerated into no less than THREE negative experience stories by three different business owners about search marketing firms all at one table.
I did my best to defend our industry, but it's clear that reputation damage is being done out there by companies like Peak Studios and their inability or unwillingness to distiguish between good and bad, right and wrong, or black and white.
@g1smd - Exactly
Spammy Comment
maybe you should tell the entire story. Though in my opinion, I doubt you could handle the truth. Your headlines and criteria for the two areas where things were posted were exactly what was posted. It wasn't like you had an area for pictures and they posted it there, your area said to post things there about your comapny if you wanted a new gig not if you were hiring emplyees. The other area where the second comment was, which by no means was a solicitation of their services, was also in a catagory described to fit their comment. Spam I would think not. It was only two posts in correct catagories and it wasn't automated. You wasted all this time over two posts, which you could have deleted? I understand why you wouldn't like their comment, you make money off PPC advertising and they don't believe in it as stated in their comment. Probably casue it has such a low ROI in comparision to other SEM. What I don't understand is why you didn't just delete their posts instead you made a big stink of it. Work must be slow for you if you have hours of time to waste on something that would have taken two seconds to delete. If it was me I would have countered and defended my PPC type of advertisments instead. FYI it isn't the SEM industry that is bad it is people like you who destroy it from the inside. Your concept of SEM is PPC which is only part of it.
FYI there is no mention of you calling to impersonate the president of the comapny not to talk about the posts but to rant and rave. (is it really that samll or should we ask your wife.. ops you probably don't have one.)
haha now I see why opiumden is spamming all todds entries! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
... Attack the SERPs, not eachother.
@opiumden huh?
@scottfish - you are right of course, but i cant resist one more.
@opiumden - You sure seem to know a lot about what happened. Since you've never commented before, and you've never submitted anything at Sphinn, nor have you ever even added a single Sphinn vote to an existing item, I guess I can conclude that you must be Quince from Peak Studios in Colorado - or perhaps Jason, the employee that wrote it in the first place.
Either way, thanks very much for proving my point so well here.
Oh, and congratulations on getting one of those comments removed at Warrior forums - or perhaps they caught it and deleted it, without the same courtesy phone call i gave you?
That's what makes this all so astounding. I phoned you as the owner simply out of courtesy to tell you that an employee was doing you harm.
For anyone interested, here's a screen shot i grabbed because I have so much extra time -
http://www.searchcommander.com/images/Peak-studios-forumspam-at-warrior.gif
Reputation management/damage control at its finest. LOL.
Jeremy needs to learn how to spell correctly... yikes...
I love the first line:
"local directories are a great way to market your company but are only truely [sic] effective if you know what you are doing."
Bolded for emphasis.
actually i am neither jason or quince but i do think you are in the wrong and have called and talked to peak studios instead of you Mr. Scott. I talked to you recently too, but when i realized i was basicly getting robbed if i did business with you i decided to look elsewhere thanks for leaving theri info up it lead me in the right direction to a cost effective SEM program!
opiumden-My objections list to your ongoing comments is far too long to post and I wouldn't spend the time because part of wisdom is having a great deal to say and knowing when the effort would be wasted. But quickly, two things:
1) Please quit bolding your comments, it's the equivalent of yelling and quite impolite.
2) You might inform an entire industry (successful SEO firms, Fortune 500 companies, Google) about your brilliant hypothesis that there is little ROI in PPC, it would save us all a lot of time and effort. God speed.
let me guess lisa you are also working for SEMpdx? or is your name just hidden in the about us page as a board member? So how many of you on here are actually part of SEMpdx? 80%, 90%, all of you?
Just to clarify from the research I have done, SEO is part of SEM
I will bold what i want your not my mother. I do however wonder why your entire board of directors or a great percent of them is on here comenting as if you are not all a part of the same company.
Just as an FYI the owner of Peak Studios knows a lot of the high end developer community and will probably be calling other people they have done work for, like they did me to explain this situation from their point of view. I agree with them your company is acting innapropriatly and if you are truely a non-profit company you would not have been so defensive of their comment. It didn't say you guys were nuts or crazy or in cahootz. It was simply an opinion of SEM and where they would recomend clients to invest money to optimize their ROI. no one ever said there is n't a ROI with PPC they and i agree said it is lower with PPC than with SEO. Which is only true if you use the right SEO company. there are SEO companies that charge way too much. If I was to do PPC I would surely go directly to the source and do it with Google rather than pay a third party.
The most shooking thing to me is that in all the things i have read from your company SEMpdx and all of yoru individual sites is that none of you mention or defend your PPC postion instead you just bash Peak Studios. If you are all so righteous and ethical and hosest and non-cynical, you would think you would take critisim and use it to defend yoru position. I read a post where Scott said he never does anyting that isn't 100% in his clients best interest but does he offer them or inform them of the options he doesn't offer? (I don't know the answer to this question but with as defensive as he was in his posts I have read I am guessing he doesn't).
I have spent enough of my time here today, you all have a great day at SEMpdx!