Another Agency Promising Top Positions, How do they plan to achieve this? Options

[eragon]

I got the following e-mail today:

Dear Customer,

Be the very first listing in the top search engines immediately.

Our company will now place any business with a qualified website permanently at the top of the major search engines guaranteed never to move (ex: Yahoo!, MSN, Alta Vista, etc.).  This promotion includes unlimited traffic and is not going to last long.  If you are interested in being guaranteed first position in the top search engines at a promotional fee, please contact us promptly to find out if you qualify via email at <snip> Please include the URL(s) you are interested in promoting.

This is not pay per click.  Examples will be provided.

Sincerely,

The Search Engine Placement Specialists

I wouldn't touch them with a 10 ft. pole, but if this isn't a PPC tactic, then what else could it be? Pay For Inclusion?

[qwerty]

If it's not PPC, it may be that their clients' listings only appear at the top of the SERPs for those users who have installed (probably without their knowledge) some piece of software that hijacks the browser and alters the SERP.

Or they're just making the claim up out of nothing...

[Hyperformance]

Hey eragon - (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

Would you PM me this company? I like to know more on these type promises since I usually have to combat these type companies with a prospect who got their email as well.

Thanks -

[torka]

Generous of them to include "unlimited traffic" in this offer. <_<

The top of the page on all three SEs mentioned is occupied by "sponsored listings". Only things I can think of are either querty's theories (spyware or they're making it up), or that they've got some kind of deal where they charge you a boatload of cash -- flat fee -- then bid on top PPC spots using el cheapo key phrases/words that nobody in his or her right mind would ever search for, much less click on. Then they pay for whatever few clicks you get from people whose fingers slip and they accidentally click on your link, while pocketing the remainder of the cash -- so technically, you're not doing PPC. Maybe they even click on the links themselves every so often, just to keep up the illusion that these "rankings" are doing you some good. (Maybe they set up an AdSense site targeted to your key phrases, so they can recoup a part of the click cost as well...)

Which might be why Google is conspicuously absent from their list of "top search engines." Since ads with too low of a click-through rate will get disabled in fairly short order there, this sort of scheme wouldn't work as well on AdWords.

You know, sometimes it concerns me how devious my own mind is... (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/naughty.gif)

--Torka (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif)

[eragon]

Thanks everyone. All very insightful ideas! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/thumbup1.gif)

It really disgusts me that people out there try to do these sorts of things. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/ranting.gif)

[Hyperformance]

Really good Torka - that's all probably all true to some degree.


Devious? Use the Force Torka (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/lol.gif)

We like you on this side.

[Betty]

I got a similar message. Not sure if it's the same company or not. I just *had* to know so I emailed them and they called me.

They told me: They buy (through a special deal with mentioned search engines) all the ad space at the top for key phrases. They put your domain name in that area. It's a flat fee - not pay per click.

I don't know if that's actually true or not - but that's what they told me. I didn't ask about pricing.

[Shane]

I get a truckload of emails from this company. They're all from free email addresses and never mention the name of the company. I finally decided to find out who they were, so I emailed them back. Got a reply email a week or so later with a phone number to call [removed]. This time it actually mentioned a company name [remoevd], but there's conspicuously no website active under their domain name.

These guys are really good at being bad.


[Removed company info, please see our [url=http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?act=boardrules]Forum Rules[/url] on this subject.]

This post has been edited by Jill: Nov 30 2004, 06:13 PM

[ihelpyou]

hmm. I come in here to read the "spam" threads just ever so often, and see that "another" traffic power type company is blatantly misleading the industry and ALL people new to the internet, but only to see that this said company cannot be shown to the world?

What gives with that Jill? Why can't you allow your viewers to see a bad company? What are you afraid of? It can only help your viewers AND this industry.

I guess the only way is to PM someone? That's nutso. That's like protecting the criminals against society.

[Jill]

Please read our [url=http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?act=boardrules]Forum Rules[/url], Doug. We don't discuss specific companies by name here, simple as that.

Btw, the original email in question is just another spam out of a zillion. I get hundreds a day. Just delete 'em with the rest of the (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/poo.gif)

[ihelpyou]

Yes, I know what your rules are. Thanks!

So you would rather wait until this company rips off as many webmasters as they can? And then get banned by Google, and only then will you "post" the company name?

I don't see the difference Jill. You are "now" posting the Traffic Power company name at will and with zero problems. You did this when they got their clients banned from Google. You waited until that happened.

So is that what you want to do again? Wait until this company screws thousands first before you finally post the name?

I don't agree with that line of thinking at all. If that is how you want things, then you have no reason to "ever" post the name of Traffic Power either, right?

Really, really "Strange" type reasoning Jill.

It seems you would rather "protect" the spammers, than protect the regular people trying to earn an honest living.

[Jill]

Rules are rules.

I made one exception with Traffic Power because there were proven bans because of their spam.

You are welcome not to like our rules here, Doug. I didn't like your rules of outing spammers, which is one reason I left your forum.

Feel free to post only in forums where you agree with the rules, that's pretty much what I do.

[ihelpyou]

Good.

Feel free to "OUT" this spammer in my forums as well. I don't "Protect" bad companies. I keep bad companies from hurting my members businesses.

[Jill]

We are lucky to live in an age of multiple forums all with their own culture and rules. Different strokes for different folks...makes the world go round.

(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/cheers.gif)

[ihelpyou]

I agree with you there.

But if more forums would have "outed" Traffic Power like my forums did along time ago, maybe only a few hundred websites would have been hurt instead of thousands. Instead, forums like this one protect the spammers and hurt the members who view and are trying to learn. Not mine.

It was fun anyhoo.