SEO Scammer Busted!

I have many teams under my control. I regularly expand and change each team to suit the workload we have and number of staff we need. Each team I manage is easy to deal with, find new staff etc. However, there is one team that is always a bitch. That team is my SEO team.

SEO (search engine optimization) is a process that involves streamlining a website and its content, pusing it to search engines and obtaining exact results and ranking. Websites do not get to the top of Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines by accident, they pay me and I instruct my team to do it for me.

The SEO market is a minefield. It is filled with cheats, liars and scam artists. There are a shit load of e-books, videos, guides etc about fresh new ways that you can do SEO. Each gives it a stylish name as if they have discovered some mystical untold search engine secret. Some are even marketed as “Google Search Engine Secrets Revealed” or some similar such eye catching, meaningless bullshit. Every book on this subject that I have ever read has been complete and utter bullshit. Some of which are sold for hundreds of dollars!

There are so many people who have watched youtube videos about SEO, or illegally downloaded a few e-books and suddenly they are talking like a pro. They have no idea what the hell they are talking about, they simply talk shit and drop in buzzwords. When you ask them the difference between the techniques that they claim to know and normal techniques, they will have no idea. The truth is that they have no or little idea about any of it. They’re just following the youtube instructional video they saw or an e-book they downloaded. Yet they think that they have sufficient knowledge to be paid for it. The very same knowledge they got from a freely available location on the net that anyone can go to and then know everything these people know about SEO.

Let me show you an example. This is me interviewing a prospective employee about linkbacks. Link backs are simply links to one site from other sites. This person claims to be able to use White Hat Link Building Techniques. To test her knowledge I wanted them to tell me what the differences were between White Hat techniques and normal techniques. Take a look at what they say and how long they take to reply. This is supposed to be in interview damnit!

(11:30:24 PM) me: what experience do you have creating directory linkbacks?

(11:32:01 PM) Applicant: I have been an assistant of a former odesk provider before I created my own account at odesk. I have gone through many successful projects
(11:32:38 PM) Applicant: I am a user of the white hat techniques of SEO and these are the link building. I can do 70-100 links each week

(11:32:56 PM) me: what type of techniques?
(11:33:10 PM) me: I do seo myself, but have a huge order from a client and can not do all of the order myself

(11:34:13 PM) Applicant: Well, I can do help you with you link building projects.

(11:34:35 PM) me: what type of white hat techniques?

(11:38:45 PM) Applicant: like Link Building

(11:41:49 PM) me: how is it different to link building? what does it involve?

(11:46:27 PM) Applicant: Linking is an important subject for search optimization. Obviously links are important to search engines and to site owners

(11:47:07 PM) me: But how are white hat techniques different from normal techniques?
(11:52:07 PM) me: hello?
(7/7/2010 12:00:05 AM) me: are you there?

It took them 15 minutes to reply to this. I suspected that they were googling for answers so they could sound like they knew what they were talking about. That is why I sent follow up messages. I could tell that they were entering text into messenger slowly.

(12:01:26 AM) Applicant: white hat tends to produce results that last a long time

(12:02:54 AM) me: I dont understand. What techniques are different to normal link building techniques that would make it last longer than when normal link building techniques are done?

(12:05:27 AM) Applicant: i mean, white hat technique produces results that last long unlike the black hat which produces fast results.

(12:06:06 AM) me: ok, but I was asking what the differences were between white hat link building and normal link building

(12:17:14 AM) Applicant: Link building helps in getting quality traffic from relevant sites which increases sales.  Also when there will be high quality incoming links the site will also be seen as a valuable resource. it helps in creating awarness, visibility and credibility of your site.
The site also obtains wider search engine exposure. It also helps the website get indexed by search engines.

(12:19:43 AM) me: I know what link building does. I do it. But what does white hat link building do that normal link building does not do? what are the differences betwen the two and between the two techniques?
(12:20:17 AM) me: I am asking because I want you to demonstrate your knowledge in white hat seo and linkbuilding so that I can confirm that you know what you are doing.

(12:34:43 AM) Applicant: A link building method is said to be white hat if it adheres to the set out guidelines of a search engine. This is aimed at ensuring that Internet users seeking information are provided with links that direct them into acquiring relevant and useful information.
(12:35:02 AM) Applicant: This means that website owners should only submit their website links only to sites that have similar information

(12:48:54 AM) me: is that in your own words?

(1:26:44 AM) Applicant: yes

(1:37:09 AM) me: Do you own http://atniz.com/2010/06/01/learn-link-building-the-white-hat-way/?
(1:37:29 AM) me: cause that is the only place on the internet that has word for word what you said

Applicant did not respond. They had been caught. I knew it was not their own words because I googled it and found it was copied directly (word for word) from another site. You can see the page they copied it from here. (link removed as the site is down)

I could tell as soon as they said “White Hat Techniques” that they were talking shit. I just wanted to pound them for answers so I could demonstrate their lack of knowledge. These scammers could easily trick someone who did not know what they were talking about and its not cheap. You’re looking at $280 for 1000 links.

But that’s not where it ends. I also had some other people contact me asking if I wanted to buy a link on a website. They provided the details of the website and it all checked out. I was interested right up until he said the following:

(11:55:18 PM) Applicant: site is for sale too

(11:59:36 PM) me: why would i buy a link to a site you are selling?

(12:00:11 AM) Applicant: because site has manual traffic.
(12:00:21 AM) Applicant: not crap traffic
(12:00:29 AM) Applicant: its  38k alexa
(12:00:44 AM) Applicant: and has listed in best article directory in internet

(12:01:48 AM) me: yes, but would I get any guarantee that the new owner would keep my link there? for all I know they may delete it

(12:02:13 AM) Applicant: I’m the owner
(12:02:28 AM) Applicant: i will keep it.

(12:03:12 AM) me: I thought you just said it was for sale?

(12:03:38 AM) Applicant: Incase, if i sell the website in future, i will give you details and the owner email to you
(12:03:54 AM) Applicant: i’m thinking about selling

(12:04:01 AM) me: but there is no guarantee that he will keep the link on the site?

(12:04:01 AM) Applicant: i havent sold yet.
(12:04:09 AM) Applicant: he will keep the link.
(12:04:28 AM) Applicant: its my guarantee

(12:04:38 AM) me: sorry, i dont like the idea of paying for a link on a site that is going to be sold.

(12:05:01 AM) Applicant: no, i’m not selling ste
(12:05:05 AM) Applicant: *site
(12:05:23 AM) Applicant: i just want to know if someone is intrested and if yes how much will they pay
(12:05:25 AM) Applicant: thats all.

(12:07:30 AM) me: so youre just finding out how much you can get for it? I was confused because you said ¨site is for sale too¨ so i assumed that the site was for sale too

(12:08:32 AM) Applicant: yes, i just want to know the price of site.

Normally, I would not want to show up people I interview. But with these two people, I thought it was worth showing what a pack of lying bastards these people are. How they can go back on what they say when it is all right there in black and white.

Seeing how these people are makes me proud of the SEO team that I have up and running. We provide high quality, fully guaranteed results. I know what I am talking about as I designed our entire and fully unique SEO process.