Comments on: How to avoid the SEO link building scam

By: Aerin

Aerin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:21:01 +0000

Sorry to hear about you experience Roger. Do you still have admin access to your site? If so you might be able to fix the DB error and get the site back up and running. With luck all they have done is edited the config files and left the database in place.

By: Roger Reed

Roger Reed — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:04:39 +0000

I had this bunch of cowboys, who now call themselves Addpeople, tell me they could put my website at a higher ranking and specific items at No.1. After signing up and paying my first payment, all the rules changed. Suddenly it’s only three items they are going to push and now the first payment is now a deposit an 6 payments are due not 5. Within weeks my web site disappeared off Explorer and was only visible with errors on Firefox. Of course they denied having touched it and suggested I looked at who had logged in. With them using my access, of course they could not be blamed. Now I have refused to pay the last payment, my web site has inexplicably disappeared, showing MySQL error. How magically co-incidental, I don’t think. This company is economical with the truth, fantasises it’s capabilities, and tells fairy tales to it’s customers. If you complain to them because they fail to do what you asked, you get a phone call from a Professional Blagger who you can only stop by turning off the phone. Anyone who cold calls is likely to be them but they won’t admit it. I even said to different people from their company that I had already been bitten by It’s Cold Outside and not once did they admit to being that company. DON’T TRUST THEM. DON’T TALK TO THEM. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.

By: Peterborough Photography

Peterborough Photography — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:30:33 +0000

Follow googles webmaster guidelines and you cant go wrong.

By: Mina

Mina — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:48:16 +0000

I have also worked along side them with a few placements. It was just a general message I received and they wanted to add a website hosting comparison link to my site, which I run about web design. So I found this useful and fully relevant so I said okay. They sent the details, I added the link, and I got $30 the same day it went active. When you stop and think about it, there’s really nothing to lose, except on their part. The link was relevant, so I knew Google would read the link as a related resource and I wouldn’t get penalized. Google actually says they ‘frown upon’ other sites that do link building because they prefer people use their AdSense services and it’s true, there are some companies out there that do in fact perform Black Hat practices and link with link farms and spammy sites. But as long as people link out considerately and do their research before placing, you’ll have nothing to worry about. But Linkbuilding.net also added these “publisher guidelines” to their last email about how to link out considerately in order to maintain quality. This simply just tells me that they do try to link out with nice quality sites in respect to all the other publishers they have, not just for the benefit of their client.

By: addpeople - scam - Affiliate Marketing Discussion

addpeople - scam - Affiliate Marketing Discussion — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:47:30 +0000

[...] addpeople – scam addpeople in uk promised me first page organic listings. now i know that no company can assure anyone of that. i looked into this company, and it works out they have changed their name from 'it's cold outside'. let me tell you, if you use their services, it will be more than cold ourtside; it'll be wet and windy too. do not trust them. addpeople are a scam SEO Link building, Internet Marketing, Web Design & PPC management itscoldoutside.com http://aerin.co.uk/how-to-avoid-the-…building-scam/ [...]

By: vehicle shipping

vehicle shipping — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 11:41:47 +0000

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Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:19:40 +0000

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By: Aerin

Aerin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:18:26 +0000

There is a world of difference between placing a signature link on a respected and authoriative forum and proflagration of spammy links on a plethora of low level forums.

No amount of argument will ever convince those with an ounce of intellignence that spamming the forums is ever going to acheive anything useful.

And as I said before, links are placed because they are a marketing tool not a because they may have a ranking influence. Incidentally, I’ve never even seen my forum signature appear in a link checking report so I suspect it’s influence is zero.

By: tobi

tobi — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:36:15 +0000

Thanks aerin, please dont misunderstand my comment wasn’t an attempt to hijack the argument, simply to get your views on using links on various sites, I believe the anchor text links your placing on forum are helping to sustain your position on page one of google for the search term ‘effective web design’

By: Aerin

Aerin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:13:22 +0000

Hi Tobi (who works for AddPeople by the way),

There are millions of links whose only purpose is to market websites. Every banner you see, every advert and a whole set of directory links are only there to promote aebsite. The forum signature links I employ are for this purpose as well in the same way I add the link to no-follow blog comments.

The post here is specifically about about link building activites which are sold as means of artificially boosting the rank of a website. So sorry Tobi, but your attempts to hijack the arguement are as false as those proffered by ‘Dave’ and ‘Jason’ from It’s Cold Outside (who you once were).