Negative SEO blog : SEOassassin

*sigh* Busy, busy, busy. I’ve had ideas for loads of posts, but I’ve been far too busy to DO anything about them…

Soon, soon, the weekend is coming, and I only have 1 piece of outstanding work…

Via Threadwatch, I hear another stupid SEO lawsuit has arisen. Details are still a bit sparse, but the crucial item in the original post seems to be this :

The client sueing me is whining about work done 4 years ago

4 years ago?!? Good grief, you neglect a site for 4 years, and are surprised when it slips off its rankings? The client should be thankful for the last 4 years of free traffic…

Now, if there were a genuine conflict of interest, say an SEO taking 2 clients in the same exact industry simultaneously, you may be able to find a legal case in that. With 4 years separation between clients, we hit the point of absurdity - there can surely be no reasonable expectation that any professional (let alone one in a fast-moving environment like SEO) is going to hamstring themselves for all time by only ever working for a single client in a given field?

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Well, interesting times eh? Rumours abound that a major consolidation or two are on the cards in the UK affiliate marketing sector. It seems that there may be one fewer major networks in play, as merger and acquistion fever starts to bite here.

The question, really, is pre- or post-Christmas? The festive season is traditionally a very strong trading period for affiliate networks, so the choice is between leaving the signing of contracts until after sales figures are in to see a good reflection of the true value of your new toy (and perhaps adjust pricing accordingly), or to jump first, and gamble on a Merry Christmas.

It’s a tough call either way, but it looks like 2007 may well be the year of the long awaited shake-up the market has so badly needed. Serious amounts of outside investment are starting to flow, as the potential of the affiliate marketing model dawns on those outside the industry.

Grab your popcorn, and take a seat. It should be fun to watch.

SEO is a tricky business - small things can have huge effects, and it’s not entirely predictable, if you know what I mean… It has struck me that SEO bears some similarities to chaos theory in that regard.

Before your eyes glaze over, I’m not about to throw maths (or “math” for the benighted Merkins who may read this) at you - no, it’s a game. You place the little orange ball, and it gets pulled around the screen by the “planets”. It has to survive for a certain amount of time for you to go to the next level, which has more planets, making the problem more complex. Try it, it’s fun.

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I’m going to attempt a trackback again…

I saw a pointer to this post, listing several top affiliates and estimates of their incomes. Whilst any list like this is bound to be (very) incomplete, it’s interesting to note that it’s perfectly possible for individuals to make it onto the list, as well as the moneysupermarket.com’s of this world.

It’s even more amazing to note that I actually know a few of those guys, although only slightly. I know several of their competitors too, and I think I can safely say that the listed guys are genuinely at or near the top of the pile. There are probably 10 affilates who *don’t* talk about their income in public very much at all, if ever, for every one who has said something, but you can occasionally get them to talk a bit in private.

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For the uninitiated, “RTS” is a Real Time Strategy game (Command and Conquer, Warcraft / Satrcraft etc). Imagine what the chat room traffic would have been like 1939 - 1945 :

Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks!
paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks
T0JO: lol
Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression!

You can find the whole thing here.

Despised.co.uk. Quality domain name, funny posts. Fortunately, the owner seems to be having a bad time of it recently, and is letting off some steam again. Somebody find out where he lives, and start calling him at random times, then hanging up. That should provoke a stream of posting.

I’ve just seen over at A4U that Keith Budden’s lymphoma has returned. Whilst he is a fair way from expiring yet, having beaten the condition once before, it’s sparked memories of the recent passing of Dave Bellis, aka DaveAtIFG. Last year saw the demise of Cory Rudl, a pioneer of internet marketing.

I don’t wish to get too morbid here, but everyone dies sooner or later. Internet marketing is such a new industry that we haven’t had many major figures, or major figures of an earlier era die. If the GoogleJet crashed tomorrow, with Larry and Sergey on board, imagine the shattering effect it would have on the industry. Imagine the effect it would have all over the internet. Imagine what it would do to Googles stock price. Such an event could, conceivably, produce a noticeable effect on the US and / or world economy.

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