SEO Selling SPAM Services Again

[ihelpyou]

I caught this elsewhere and thought it pertained:

http://www.discountcatholicstore.com/catholicartL01.html

View the source code and then scroll to the bottom. Company name is at the bottom of the code. I truly pity new people to SEO who are taken by this company as they have great marketing hype on their site.

So disgusting how companies can live with themselves when doing things such as this to other human beings.

[MsSearch]

i've seen this same the page before...

in the source code:

[quote from source code from above link] <!--Not only must you design a site that looks attractive and is easy to navigate, but you must also decide what extras bell and whistles are needed. After you decided what you want, then you will need monthly hosting to get to anyone who wants to view it anywhere in the world.--> [/quote from source code from above link]
UNBELIEVABLE!! :green:

[ihelpyou]

You know, this type of thing should have laws against it. This is a scam and should be stopped. All companies that prey on new webmasters saying they are a SEO should be stopped. To me, this should be deemed in a court as fraud. It is not as of now, but truly should be.

Not only that but the company where this page came from has a copyright notice at the bottom of the page. This page is on the clients domain and server. How can they claim sole ownership? WOW.

[MsSearch]

If the industry had some sort of code of ethics that was industry-wide as discussed in a previous thread....or some sort of SEO BBB where innocent victims of these companies can file complaints ...and have these complaints investigated...webmasters could do a bit of research (thru this SEO BBB-like organization) to see which companies have good reputations and which don't...

[ihelpyou]

Yes but even with that, many new webmasters would not know about this BBB and we would still have these type companies out there preying on the innocent.

I license that a site would HAVE to purchase if they wish to sell SEO or submission services would be good. If this is not displayed on a site, then the site could be arrested. It could be an internet wide type license that is stated at every registrar in the world.

The SEO business is only going to get bigger as more sites come online. They all need help. A license earned and purchased might be the thing to do.

[ihelpyou]

That exact company just made a post over there. Could someone PLEASE set that idiot straight!?!

That makes me sick. If I EVER see one of those pages in a search engine, it and HE will be reported immediately and Banned.

[ihelpyou]

Good post MsSearch. More posts are needed about this in there.

It is companies like these that we all should work hard to abolish from the net.

[MsSearch]

Stick a fork in him....he's done....

:green:

[ihelpyou]

Yep. Looks like he is done now as no more posts by him. There is NO way he can defend the scam business he is running.

[MsSearch]

He dug his own grave in a public forum nonetheless...there's a brilliant CEO for ya.

[Hope]

Sorry Doug, but I am gonna do a bit of advertising. Go ahead and delete it if you wish, I will take no offense.

I don't know that there will ever be a SEO BBB, but WAIM is trying to develop standards across the industry. WAIM members have to follow ethical guidelines. We are trying to get scam artist like the one featured here out of the picture. Scam artist make real SEO and Marketers look bad.

Heidi

http://www.waim.org

[MakeMeTop]

I went to the WAIM discussion on how we set up some sort of ethics body in Cambridge last month and will be at the Berlin meeting with a view to trying to move this whole thing forward as quickly as possible. As SEO grows in importance we all get more and more people turning to us who have been stung by people like this the first time around and it needs to be stopped somehow.

The main problem with organising a body to monitor this profession is:

a) Who is going to do it? Are we going to self-regulate and how?
b) Who is going to pay for it?

We need something with teeth if it is going to be taken seriously by the buying public - and that is going to be difficult to arrange on a worldwide basis.

However, I agree it needs to done and now!

A few of us in the UK who know each others work recommend each other (for no remuneration) where we might have a conflict in one of us taking on a client which would compete with an existing client of ours. This has been much appreciated by enquirers - who are also surprised when we describe these major competitors as fellow SEOs who we respect and know will do a good job. Maybe this can be expanded as something which might help in the short term?

[ihelpyou]

Good points! The only problem I see contining to be one no matter what is done is what I posted above.

We will still have the Spam sites popping up to Prey on the new webmasters. The only way to get around it is to somehow make it illegal to all the sudden pop up to be a spam SEO. The registrars would have to be in on this and would have to issue warnings stating illegality for a site to become a SEO with NO prior training or getting the okay from some kind of organization. If a site violates this, then that site is pulled down.

Big problem is SEO WILL and IS getting more important for web sites. More sites coming online daily and they all struggle to get found. AND, they all are looking and many are brand new without a clue. They stumble across this marketing hype/scam stuff and are taken from their money. Not right.

[JuniorHarris]

In order for any "body" to be successful, I feel it *must* include the search engines and the registrars as well!~ With all parties involved, not only can we ensure reputable SEOs, but it also provides the ability to track down and identify those which do not operate above board. An entity would greatly improve its authority and credence with "independent" involvement from search engines and registrars.

[Hope]

WAIM is trying to work with the search engines, but there is an issue of conflict of interest. There is a fine line between working with the search engines and the appearance of working for the search engines.

[ihelpyou]

Yep. Very true. The body would have to consist of people NOT affiliated in SEO or search engines. An "overseer" type thing.

[Advisor]

I personally think it's up to anyone purchasing a product or service to do their homework first. No matter what rules or regulations someone throws out there, the bad guys won't give a hoot and will do what they want. People aren't dumb, they can check references and stuff. If they don't, then it's their own fault if they get burned. This may sound harsh, but that's life. It's the same for anything you want to contract out. You don't just fork over hundreds or thousands of dollars to someone without knowing a bit about them. Otherwise, don't be surprised if you get burned.

Jill

[JuniorHarris]

I understand the conflict of interest, but only the search engines would have the ability to verify members were above board since they could see/cache what the engine indexes. With tom trickery or ip delivery, it could appear to all members the page was well above board, but in reality if could be vastly different.

Jill's point is also well taken. Always do your homework, check references and review the previous work. This is where word-of-mouth can carry much weight!~:chat:

[ihelpyou]

That is a good point and the reason I posted about Google having some kind of a list. We all know that the engines have a "black" list of SEO spammers, sites, etc. Why not have a "above-board" list as well?

[Lead]

I could not find www.traffic-power.com on Google or a couple other search engines. They are most likely banned already.
I can't believe people can sell junk like this.

On another subject you just brought up about blacklists.

I have always wondered if I am on a search engine blacklist.
I have a newsletter that goes out to 2,000 subscribers.
Now all the sudden I started getting my monthly newsletters rejected as spam, and can hardly send an email without being rejected as spam. I only send the letters to subscribers who signed up for it at www.ptcruisersales.net
Now I am having trouble getting any of my new sites on the search engines.
Can this be somehow related?

Thanks,
Lead :hi:

[ihelpyou]

Not related at all with the engines Lead. With any list, you will always have a subscriber who sometimes forgets that he/she signed up.