Hi Robert and HTers, My firm¹s recent blog post addresses this issue of the legions of SEO scammers these days, and how to ascertain whether a firm is good: www.2disc.com/blog/avoid-seo-scams/ Best Regards, Rob Laporte President and CEO DISC, Inc. - "Making Web Sites Make Money" 413-584-6500 Fax 413-553-0745 Rob at 2disc.com www.2disc.com Note: Increasingly, ISPs, companies and individuals use spam blocking systems that block legitimate email too. Important emails should be followed up with a phone call if no reply happens within an expected span of time. From: Neal Priestly <neal.priestly at gmail.com> Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 20:18:42 -0400 To: Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> Cc: Hidden Tech Discuss <hidden-discuss at mm01.tnrnet.com> Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] 'SEO Marketing sales pitches': scams or what? ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area. ** If you did, we all thank you. Most of the ones I get look to be scumbag scammers. I'm not checking them out too deeply, but I'm not in the market for SEO and I'm not selling via the web so it's not worth me checking them out. It's entirely possible that you are getting different folks than I am, but the ones that wind up in my professional inbox all seem to have read the same book(s) on social engineering. -Neal On Sat, Aug 23, 2014 at 10:43 AM, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote: > ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area. > ** If you did, we all thank you. > > > I've been getting sales pitches from SEO Marketing companies, both via > telephone (Robot calls mostly) and via E-Mail (and via my contact page on my > website). All with more or less the same basic pitch: "We can place you the > first page of Google searches..." or some variation on that theme. > > These companies charge something like $300-$500 / month (which is way outside > what I could afford). > > What *exactly* are these companies really doing (other than looking to pocket > a pile of *my* cash)? Some claim to be using a propriatory system -- whatever > that means. > > Note if I do a search for "Linux Administration North Quabbin" *my* website > shows up as the first and second results (at least with duckduckgo), so my > website can't be that bad as it is. I do get some business, maybe not vast > amounts, but I am not sure I could handle vast amounts of work anyway -- I am > a one-man operation and there are only so many hours in the day. I would need > to get more work than I could handle to cover the $300-$500 / month anyway -- > that is I would end up becoming a cash cow *for the SEO Marketing company* and > my net income would not be much more than it currently is! What would be the > point of that? > > Most of the pitches say that my website is not findable, but somehow these SEO > Marketing companies have found my website (is it a chicken or an egg?). What > are they doing: doing a search and then working backwards from the *last* page > of results? Or are they really finding my site easily enough and thinking > 'this might be an easy mark', since I might not be at the top of all of the > search results (or the search results for the searches they are doing). I > wonder: maybe my website is really good in that it looks like a bigger company > than I really am? > > Is this some sort of scam or what? It has all of the look and feel of a scam, > much like the credit card robot calls, which start with "This is your final > wanring about your credit card..." (and I *don't* have a credit card!). > > -- > Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 <tel:978-544-6933> > Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services > http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services > heller at deepsoft.com -- Webhosting Services > > _______________________________________________ > Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net > > You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list. > If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members > page on the Hidden Tech Web site. > http://www.hidden-tech.net/members _______________________________________________ Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list. If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members page on the Hidden Tech Web site. http://www.hidden-tech.net/members -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20140825/5c2e7385/attachment.html