Not necessarily.

> Your "detective work" is WWWWAAAAYYYY off base here. Trust me.
> (And great work on using Google there, Mel).

I thought so. A similar message got toasted on another board (apparently) and he apologized and said he had stepped over the line and wouldn't do that again. So he knew already it wasn't a good tactic. And there were other complaints about his messages and links to some where he'd been zapped, so others were more than annoyed at his tactics.

> His style is unorthodox I admit. But it's just a way to generate some
> controvery. His blog IS called the Internet Marketing Controversy Blog...

Frankly, it's not that good as a tactic. Yes, it works well IF he's on his own territory (being controversial on his own web page.) It can work well on a perceived neutral territory (ad in a magazine.) But, when a person shows up in someone ELSE's home territory and is controversial, the person delivering the controversy is often perceived as a troll and is frequently banned.

"Controversial marketing" is a current fad with the "rich jerk" success ("fad", actually) of recent times. It has been used in major ad campaigns -- but the difference is that the Big Guns understand the BIG rule: you have to know the rules about WHAT controversy you can bring up where. If you don't know that rule, then you come off as an annoying troll and your posts get zapped from blogs and boards and people get angry with you.

> That little contest for Coolest Guy was just a lark and all in fun. A bit
> of a challenge.

Yup. I saw that. I thought it was fun. And, you know, if he'd come in here and offered advice just like anyone, and then maybe offered a couple of articles for people to read and THEN said "hey, I'm doing search engine optimization and we've got a silly contest and you can participate, too" -- he'd have been welcomed and everyone would have loved him and recommended him.

Heck, that's just Good Board Manners. He'd have been welcomed.

> Speaking of Mike, he took part in it as well. So did Willie Crawford. Brad
> Callen. Brad Fallon. And a few others. It was a friendly contest. So
> there's no conspiracy to "use" this board. There was no
> "lesson" he was trying to get across. It was just a game.

Oh yes. I got that completely, and I looked at some of their efforts as well. Sam couldn't match that so he started linking on boards along with his other tactics. I noticed that he did well on the boards where he was honest about what he was doing and that folks played along with him and enjoyed it.

Mike and Willie certainly didn't go to other boards, present an 'attitude' and link to themselves. They were gracious guests on others' spaces and picked other ways of getting to the top. They made some smooth marketing moves and smooth SEO actions.

> You all get it now, right?

Yes -- but do you? The readers here deserve fairness. They don't deserve to be treated like fodder or prey. They don't deserve to be treated like a massive "I can get rich off these losers" pool. They don't deserve to be a game field that promotes someone's personal interests. They deserve to be given a helping hand and to know where the agendas are. After all, the stock market reviewers (the honest ones) state when they have shares in a company they are reviewing.

Our readers deserve the same openness.

What would have been wrong about coming in with kindness and friendliness -- as he did in other areas -- rather than coming in with arrogance and attitude?

> I am disappointed, really. The real losers in this fiasco are those you will
> be denying Sam's tidbits of money-making information.

I don't think so. And yes, I read over his tidbits on many boards. It's nice that he makes supportive references to Napoleon Hill and shares some of his Adsense tips and his SEO tips -- but frankly, that isn't all there is to owning or running a business and it's not going to help some poor single mom who can't afford ad campaigns or the time and attention to do all the SEO stuff.

SEO won't help the machine vendor who has a dying sales route. SEO won't help the poor person who bought into a wild plan to sell a product that no one has an interest in. Adsense won't bring a living revenue to most people.

What's needed is NOT hype and NOT arrogance. What's needed is good step-by-step information and some hard reality checks along the way, and alternatives for those who work their hearts out but simply don't have the right set of circumstances (and may never have them) to make a go of things.

What's needed is help and not the Fad Of The Moment.

> Well, here's one guy that won't be back.