Passive Aggressive Attack or Misunderstanding?

This says it all...

So I’m quite irked by one of the recent Going Natural videos from StomperNET, titled “Warning – Advanced SEO Technique Does NOT Work“.

I’ve expressed my feelings on Jerry West’s blog on a post titled, “Leslie Rohde Slams the LSI Model“, and it could be possible that I’m jumping to conclusions.

But it is undeniable that the controversy this video has generated, has caused many of the people who saw the video to believe that the methodologies Leslie was attacking were that of Bruce Clay and my friend & mentor, Russell Wright from ThemeZoom. (According to Jerry West, they are not and I would lean towards believing him.)

If you look at the comments on the SN Anti-LSI video, members of their community are railing on Russell Wright with no response from anyone from StomperNET. Now you may be asking, “how is that StomperNet’s fault?”

Well, my position is that if your emails and video aren’t clear about what you are speaking out against, and as a result, your followers start spewing negative crap about someone on your own blog, it is your responsibility to clear up any misunderstandings… especially if you approved those negative comments on your blog, without properly addressing them.

That aside, if anyone has any doubt about the methods Bruce Clay and Russell Wright teach, here’s my personal perspective/experience:

I don’t know Bruce personally, but the results he’s produced for his own personal website speaks for itself.

BruceClay.com has some VERY VERY impressive rankings including top rankings for “search engine optimization“, among many other extremely competitive terms. All you need to do is look at the title tags on his website, and do a Google search for the keyterms in the tags.

I don’t know of anyone with more impressive results, with a single website, thanks to his silo methodology and impressive inbound linking campaigns.

I do know Russell Wright personally, and I have to say that he has to be the most intelligent human beings I’ve ever met and spoken with. And I don’t say that lightly, considering I spent 4 years at MIT studying, working and learning from some of the most brilliant scientist, professors and academics in the world while earning my bachelors there.

Russell’s teachings about SEO and on running a consulting business, have been directly responsible for our thriving business, and over $100,000 in revenue since November of 2008 when my partner and I joined the Theme Zoom Protege program, with Jon Keel and ThemeZoom.

I’ll admit that when friends of mine and people I trust are attacked, I might over react and maybe I did that on Jerry West’s blog by accusing SN of passive aggressive marketing tactics.

But the fact remains that the folks from StomperNET have remained pretty silent with regards to the baseless and negative comments directly attacking Russell, and TZ, which they approved on their blog.

Leslie Rohde responded with regards to silo’ing (which he endorses btw), but not about the attacks.

That being said, there is no denying that the technical content in the Going Natural videos is outstanding as is their product. What I’m looking for is the restoration of the integrity in their marketing.

Jerry West told me to have a beer and chill out… I had the beer and it tasted like crap. (I normally love beer.) I’d like Leslie or someone from StomperNet to address this issue directly to kill the unfair and negative buzz, once and for all.

Then I can feel ok with recommending STSE program to our list and members. (Not that they need it.)

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6 Comments

  1. chris

    on 13th Apr, 09 08:04pm

    Quite frankly, I have no idea why you cut StomperNet so much slack. Attacks have always been been part of their marketing approach. Maybe you never noticed before because you didn’t know the target of attack…

    Plus labeling StomperNet’s content as “quality” is beyond me. The only “quaility” is the slick production value. Most of StomperNet’s technical content is laced with half-truths at best, and outright fabrication at best… There was a video they did about a year ago witha “screen print from Yahoo store” had it been a real screen print you’d of thought the numbers would match the totals… they didn’t. To use Bruce Clay and Russell Wright names in the same breath as StomperNet is a disservice to both men

  2. Ferny

    on 13th Apr, 09 09:04pm

    Hi Chris,

    Well, I cut them some slack because I don’t want my emotions to get in the way of the truth. If I attack them, then they will feel less compelled to respond in a way allowing a win-win situation to result.

    ThemeZoom has responded to the “controversy” on their blog:

    http://www.theme-zoom.com/411/there-is-no-lsi-controversy/

    They basically say there is no controversy, which kinda sucks the wind out from under the premise of the SN marketing message.

    There is nothing wrong with using LSI to build a website. If you are trying to capture the most important keyterms in a market, it would be wise to do so.

    -Ferny

  3. Technology Goddess

    on 18th Apr, 09 06:04am

    Ferny, You rock. Period. And you are getting some love from the Goddess over this post. (link love that is). ~ Erika, Technology Goddess

  4. Ferny

    on 18th Apr, 09 06:04am

    Shit. Damn. Okay. Wow!

    I just read a post by Rex Freiberger, regarding this whole StomperNet LSI Controversy mess and I was blow away.

    I actually wouldn’t call it a post. More like an essay and on par with the type of technical papers I use to hate writing while at MIT.

    I highly recommend it if you are serious about understanding the role LSI plays in SEO and building websites:
    http://www.rexfreiberger.com/2009/04/11/lsi-and-co-occurrence-does-work-debunking-stompernets-ploy/

    -Ferny

    (Note: I graduated from MIT without ever having to write a thesis… Thank God! Buy me a beer and I’ll tell you how this was possible.)

  5. Rex

    on 7th May, 09 01:05am

    lol thanks for the shoutout

  6. Adriano Juarez

    on 30th Jun, 09 01:06pm

    Hi Ferny, I would like to know if you speak Spanish, so if I want to get in touch with you to your consultation. From already thank you very much.

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