So I figured I’d have some fun with a spam email that was sent to one of my clients:

===================
trrankingtop@gmail.com
Sales
Team
202 657 7095
1 221, 6th Block, Malleshwaram
Bangalore
Kansas
309804
Subject: SEO Trial Offer – xxxx.com Dear Head of Business Development at xxxx.com, If you’re interested in showing up as a first page result for more search terms on Google, Yahoo and Bing, reply back with all addresses you’re looking to promote. I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting more organic (free) search engine traffic for xxxxx.com 1. Your home page rank is 0, this can be improved further. 2. Open directory listing is not available. 3. Your site has 0 Yahoo back links, this can be improved further. We are looking forward in doing business with your company and we are certain that you will be HAPPY with this business connection. For your convenience we offer 30 day FREE trial. Please email or call us today USA Toll Free: 8888 TRYSEO USA Direct: 202.657.5242 UK: 207.193.0857 Australia: 28.011.3995 India: 674.258.2780 Best Regards Sales Team ——————————————————————————– PS: This is one time email; we will not contact you again if you do not respond to this email. You may also ask us to “remove”. PPS: We will be happy to provide our information like 24×7 CRM support, Skype, Web-based live chat, video conference, go to meeting, IM etc. upon getting response from you.
Submit Submit

================

So I figured I’d email them back of course

Do you resort to spamming?
Maybe you resort to spamming web forms in hopes of getting new SEO clients?

Perhaps you suck so bad at obtaining clients the only thing you can do is resort to spamming….

If this sums up you, then have we got an offer you can’t refuse!

You’ve automatically been enrolled in:
“How I Suck So Bad I Get My Clients By Spamming”

You’ll learn how to find forms online and then fill out information. This sure fire way is guaranteed to piss everyone off and get you zero clients…..BUT WAIT theres more! Now for only $595.00 per month, you can learn to:
- Analyze Site Links
- Create Viral Buzz
and thats it! For just $595.00 thats all you will get. There are no extras, nothing else to offer you because $595.00 is one hell of a deal! What do you expect for $595.00 per month?

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now for $595.00 per month and you’ll be the biggest sucker of all!

=======

Do you think they’ll bite

=========
UPDATE: 9:01am the 11th
I found out who they are!

Hello Sir,

Thanks for the response.

Yes, we do have a website you can look at www.AuroIN.com

About Our Company
We started our Operations in 1999 and our SEO business initiated in the year 2004. We are proud of our growth rate and today we are the largest SEO Company India, Certified by ISO 9001:2008, DIC, DGFT and STPI.

If you require I will happy to provide more information about our company, process etc, I look forward to hearing from you.

If you are interested, please confirm us to prepare a Site Analysis Free of Cost that will provide you a roadmap of how we can promote your site. Ideally that report should reach you in 24 hours from now.

Regards,
Raj

To know more about:
Why SEO with AuroIN http://www.auroin.com/why-seo-auroin.htm
SEO Plans, features and prices http://www.auroin.com/seo-plans
Talk to our 24/7 support team http://www.auroin.com/contact.htm

===================

Everyone knows how I love LAL, well it appears that iJango is on the verge of trying to repeat history. David Kyle first mentioned this on Twitter and apparently they’ve got a meeting planned for Charlotte. I’ll have more updates on iJango as they take place.

Update July 21, 2009:
Do you think people are interested in reading about the latest hype…just a snapshot of my traffic over the past hour.

We had a fantastic turnout once again and the reviews so far have been great. Over at meetup.com where members can vote and voice their opinions, everyone seemed to have loved the networking part the most. The first part of the presentation featured a few local professionals including myself, David Kyle, Jon Payne, and Robert Enriquez. The audience members through out several questions which were debated and discussed.

The second portion of the night featured a networking event where local business owners got to mingle and pick the brains of the professionals. We also held a ‘link swap’ per se, for folks looking for a little link love. I met a business owner that sells Charlotte granite countertops thats new to the business and he seemed to enjoy the presentation and networking. Thats one of the benefits of the meetup every month, networking with other business owners.

We hope you can join us next time either online or live in person at our next meetup. Enjoy the vid!

Creating your own brand as a real estate agent is very important. Having it focus solely on YOU is even more important. Agents leave their brokers in charge all of the time. Chances are you’ll move from Re/Max to Keller Williams to the latest and greatest thats offering you the best opportunity at that time. What you may not realize is you are branding the company you work for before you brand yourself. Its especially true when you’re starting out in the business. Those that have been practicing real estate for some time probably understand this already.

Email

What does your email address read? Is it branded for you or for your agency? Are you branding Bellsouth the phone company instead? (Very popular in the south, yourname@bellsouth.net) – Every time you move or even relocate, do you have to change email addresses? Branding your email address as your business helps retain clients. They know how to find you and they won’t receive bounced emails if you change it. Having your own domain means having your own email address.

Website

You know where I’m going with this by now. Does your website URL look like this?
http://barbaraalexander.yourkwagent.com/

Can you imagine spending thousands of dollars on marketing materials, search engine optimization services, pay per click advertising to send traffic to that web address? What happens if Barbara leaves Keller Williams? All of those years of hard work and search engine optimization down the drain. All because of the little perk of a ‘free website’ provided by the agency. That agency isn’t dumb. They’ll simply redirect all of that traffic to their main site if she leaves.
At the very least, you should be branding your name as your domain name. And even thats a little suspect in today’s day and age.

“It’s not supposed to be about you. Its supposed to be about what you are doing for me.”
http://realestatetomato.typepad.com/the_real_estate_tomato/2008/02/is-your-website.html
(ps. no affiliation, just a great article)

So if you’ve been on the fence about branding your business, theres no time like the present. Start working on your branding now and once this market turns you may just be surprised how many people will remember your expertise because of how you branded yourself.

Ever hear of BurnLounge?

Wikipedia – “The company claims that it provides record labels and artists with a fan-driven promotional channel. The advertisement videos on each BurnLounge store, however, promote recruitment rather than music.”

“On June 10, 2007, it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on June 5, 2007 against specific BurnLounge participants and their involvement with BurnLounge’s alleged pyramid scheme. One person named in the lawsuit is former University of South Carolina football star Rob DeBoer, who says that he recruited about 45 other people to open their own BurnLounge sites. Those recruited would then pay a commission on their sales to DeBoer. DeBoer stated that he made almost US$300,000 from BurnLounge. The lawsuit is the result of a year-long investigation into BurnLounge by the state of South Carolina.[15] Others named in the lawsuit include BurnLounge CEO Alex Arnold, and two Texas men who promoted BurnLounge similarly to DeBoer. The FTC’s claim is that BurnLounge is a pyramid scheme because the company pays more money for recruiting new store owners than for selling music. According to the lawsuit, BurnLounge operators earned bonuses of up to US$50 for recruiting two new members and selling two albums per month, but only pays US$0.50 per album sold.[citation needed]”

In August 2007, Burnlounge laid off the vast majority of its New York employees. As of November 2007, the company is no longer operating pending the FTC litigation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnlounge

Notice the last name – Rob DeBoer?

Guess who is the “National Sales Director” for LocaladLink? – Yup, you guess it. Rob Deboer.

http://www.google.com/search?q=rob+deboer+localadlink&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=lnv&start=0&sa=N

So, Rob made over 300K from pushing Burnlounge and was shut down due to FTC Investigations.
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/07/02/ftc-settles-burnlounge-operator-over-pyramid-scheme

Who else is behind LocaladLink?

Scott Elliot

http://www.google.com/search?q=Scott+Elliott+localadlink&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Who just happened to be a part of BurnLounge

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/07/elliott.shtm

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/07/02/ftc-settles-burnlounge-operator-over-pyramid-scheme

Are we finished yet? No, not really.
How about Jason Borne’?

a VP Founding Partner it looks like.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=2Ib&q=jason+borne+localadlink&btnG=Search

And where did Jason come from?
http://www.google.com/search?q=jason+borne+burnlounge&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Yup, you guessed it, BurnLounge.

So it looks like a few ‘higher up’ in the company are/were former MLM scammers. Well, don’t take my word for it, thats what the FTC says anyway…

Any LocalAdLink Reps still out there wanna comment?

Maybe they should rename LocaladLink to “Burn Local Biz Owners” instead.