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dpeddle Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 269
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Posted: 04/21/2004 01:50 pm
wow.. i was just on the phone with them.... and showed them this page hahaha the guy starts yelling at me.... and i am the client....(it was pretty funny) .... then he proceeds to argue with me that they are not creating doorway pages they are creating "mouse over pages" hahahahaha...... THEN!!! he directs me to this page to "END THIS RIDICULOUS ARGUMENT" and get the doorway mentailty out of my head: http://www.traffic-power.com/sep-screenshot.html i dunno.... but that look like a doorway page to me. Too funny... Anyway....they are making some good cash.. and they do have some pretty solid rankings.... but its all fabricated.... and of course they can't guarnatee ranking.... even though their 'unique software' monitors and understand exactlywhat the google search engine wants. I swear... that is what they said to me.... after i told him i had been doing this for 5 years.... they still talked to me like a was some kid off the meat truck. |
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g1smd Moderator
Joined: Jul 28, 2002
# Posts: 10055
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Posted: 04/21/2004 02:05 pm
Google will figure out what they are doing and trash the whole lot overnight sometime. |
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scottfla Joined: Feb 26, 2004
# Posts: 354
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Posted: 04/21/2004 02:05 pm
Now that's funny. When they approached my client he asked me to give them a call. They showed me a couple of examples, I questioned the rep... before the end of the call I had a "manager" berating me on the phone. You're right about the cash though. I'm still tracking one of there "mouse-over pages" and it's still #1. They've added a bit of text(when I first looked it was literally 1-200 text links with keywords in the anchor text) and an animated gif "loading page" in case people miss the mouse-over. I guess with that being one of my first experiences in "SEO" it causes me to be a little more sceptical about "penalties", "banning" etc. Hell if they're still rolling, we oughta be able to do almost anything. Thanks dpeddle. |
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scottfla Joined: Feb 26, 2004
# Posts: 354
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Posted: 04/21/2004 02:07 pm
P.S. I saved a text file of the original if anyone's interested. I won't post it as it would be a tremenous waste of space. |
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garris Joined: Apr 23, 2004
# Posts: 15
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Posted: 04/23/2004 02:28 am
Unfortunately I got taken in by Traffic-Power. It seemed to work great for one site (capsandvisors.com), so I signed up for another (texas-medical.com). It appears that both sites have been dropped by Google. What do I do now? I'm in the hole for over $4,000, so I don't want to cut them out presumptiously, but at the same time, I don't want things to get worse. If I delete all their Attraction pages, will I be able to get back on Google? (sure wish I found this forum 6 months ago) |
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scottfla Joined: Feb 26, 2004
# Posts: 354
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Posted: 04/23/2004 04:42 am
garris, how about a link to one of the doorway pages. From what I've seen... doorway pages, particularly if they meet the minimum standards for "normalcy" are rarely the reason for a site getting banned or dropped. Oops, I meant attractor |
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jennid Joined: Mar 30, 2004
# Posts: 29
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Posted: 04/23/2004 06:48 am
Garris - Traffic Power and the changes they made to your sites are definitely the reason you were dropped from google. You are not alone. I have heard from many others who were working with TP and have had URL's banned from google and yahoo in the last few months. Some of these companies are on TP's reference list! My site alone is down in revenue a few thousand dollars a day due to being pulled from google and yahoo. (You should check yahoo too - many of us were pulled from both). We are compiling a list of affected indivduals and investigating further action. If you'd like to be kept up to date on our efforts, please send me an email. For reinclusion into google, take all of the traffic power "junk" off of your site, then send an email to help@google.com. Unfortunately it takes several weeks or even months before you will be reincluded. Some of us were in for a week and pulled back out again, even though our sites were cleaned up. Hang in there! |
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dpeddle Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 269
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Posted: 04/23/2004 06:48 am
don;t you mean 'mouse over' pages scott HAHAHA.... Well.... garris.... not sure what you signed on with.... but obviously you are not getting the service you were expecting.... you got smoke and mirrors..... this company has a bad reputation around many circles... so if you really wanted to...(especially if you paid via credit card) ... you could demand a refund..... if your business has a decent record behind it.... the credit card company won't think twice about it. As for the pages..... i look at it this way..... you are no longer listed.... something is wrong..... and all bets point to the crap traffic power has given you..... why risk it..... copy the pages to your local computer for safe keeping (if they actually gave them to you)..... delete them.... and see what happens with google (first worry about being listed...then worry about ranking) . Also ... this may sound like a bad idea to many here.... but I would email webmaster@google.com .... explaining your problem...focus on the fact your site is not indexed after being in the index for 'x' period of time and you can't figure out why you are gone from the index.... (play dumb) ... you will get some typical autoresponder response back for sure..... THEN.... reply to that email again (it usually has an ticketnumber).... and keep replying til you get a personal response... usually takes 2-4 emails...... when you do get a response... in most cases they will tell you if you have been banned..... For all i know you could be keywrod stuffing, etc etc.... but from what you have said in your post... it seems pretty cut and dry..... drop traffic power... request a refund (couldn't hurt) from them...then from the credit card company......and drop their pages |
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123ibuy Joined: Apr 23, 2004
# Posts: 18
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Posted: 04/23/2004 09:57 am
My first post here . . . Just got off the phone with a T-P sales shark (third conversation in less than a week). I have a policy of not spending that kind of money the same day I hear about a "deal" and I haven't missed anything yet. My 2 cents: if intense sales pressure has to be applied then something is wrong with the product. Good products basically sell themselves. Sales reps for good products are merely needed to carefully identify areas the product can address and politely answer my questions. T-P's sales pitch was neither polite nor respectful. My existing website search positions were ridiculed (while not great, they're not too bad either). I was put down and JimWorld posts on this topic were put down. Some sales pitch! Great way to win friends and influence people. Beware! If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Oh, and he denied they were mouseover pages (and I was ignorant for thinking they were). Life is fun! |
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justmyluck Joined: Apr 23, 2004
# Posts: 2
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Posted: 04/23/2004 06:22 pm
Well, this is my first post on this forum. Just signed up with Traffic Power 2 weeks ago and now I feel like a fool. I requested a refund and told them the comments I've heard and read and I also questioned why don't they have a PR themselves. I contacted my credit card company and hope these people don't get away with this "robbery". Any suggestions? I'm a newbie and need help help help! Thanks  |
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justmyluck Joined: Apr 23, 2004
# Posts: 2
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Posted: 04/23/2004 06:26 pm
Anyone ever hear of a SEO called Ezrankings.com? Any comments? |
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scottfla Joined: Feb 26, 2004
# Posts: 354
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Posted: 04/23/2004 06:38 pm
justmyluck, Welcome to the forums. I've never heard of Ezrankings, but then again there's alot I haven't heard of. Regarding TrafficPower... I'm assuming you've taken the time to wade through the other post on them. Your options there will likely be a function of the agreement you have with them. I know that Dpeddle had a couple of suggestions near the end of that post for unhappy clients. You may want to PM him directly. Personally, my distaste for their practices is just that. The pages I've been tracking are still ranked highly with no penalties using techniques that are advised against by the search engines. |
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garris Joined: Apr 23, 2004
# Posts: 15
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Posted: 04/24/2004 01:01 pm
I'm one of those naive fools who got sucked in by Traffic-Power. I tried one of my sites, and had immediate results. Since it seemed to work so well, I gave them another, and then BANG! I lost my Google inclusion for both websites. Only after wondering what happened did I find this forum... and after I sank a hefty down payment. I am considering transferring their "attraction pages" to one of my dummy sites while I clean up my primary site just to see what happens. That, and cancel the debit card I used so I dont have to pay anymore monthly fees to Traffic-Power. They're not going to refund any money because, as they have said, "they've already done the work". $3,000 is a big hicky to have to swallow and I'm wondering if I can play both ends against the middle. Any ideas? Am I being sneaky? |
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Rezac Joined: Jan 25, 2004
# Posts: 811
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Posted: 04/25/2004 12:09 am
damn, I can't believe this you guys/gals. How are there so many people here that have worked with TP and there are so many SEO firms out there and ya'll picked some shady fellas(and expensive) |
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dregna Joined: Apr 24, 2004
# Posts: 7
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Posted: 04/26/2004 02:13 am
These guys have been pitching their sale to my company for over 2 months now. Finally on Thursday I was called up by a sales rep that had all the right words for a company struggling to get noticed. I did the usual with them, whent on google (what about yahoo?), typed in a bunch of keywords and saw #1 and #2 listings. The sales rep flattered my business and told me what a great match my site would be for their service. I started thinking about the possibility of partnering up with these guys, they've got a solid pitch. The pitch took a different tone once I informed the sales rep that whats really keeping me from this is finances. My business is a start up and my budget simply can not afford such an expense at this time ($4000). The sales rep told me we can work something out let me have you talk to the sales manager. Looking back on things the sales manager was down right pushy. He told me the best thing to do would be to put the transaction on a credit card and then just pay it off monthly. I told him theres no way Im putting this on my business credit card. He didn't seem to understand what would keep me from doing this. I'm a new business, banks dont really extend a huge line of credit to start ups. Thats when the great deals started coming my way. I'll bring the price down to $3200, you can pay half up front and the remaining balance on a 10 month payment plan. I started thinking about this, dam the business needs some exposure!! I told him I needed some time to think about this. He then whent on to tell me how they've got such a solid reputation with the Better Business Bureau, out of over 10,000 clients only a handful ever complained. He whent into detail how they've got the search engines figured out, they've got a great bit of software and a crew of finely trained technicians that figure every search engine angle out for your benefit. I still told him I'll need some time to think about this. He told me no problem I'll give you to the end of the week. This week? Thats one day, the week ends on Friday this call took place on Thursday. He says what do you need more time for, check out the BBB, check out some of our clients, how long could that take? This is when this guy pointed out to me that right now hes in an office surrounded by 4 of his sales reps and they're all watching him close this deal. Only he can give me this great 20% price break, and this deal expires on Friday. He re-itterated how great this would benefit my business and how great of a deal this really is since he rarely even gets on the phone, as hes THE SALES MANAGER. Now the deal was turning into a sale, I really didn't want to pass up this great deal. I was going with it, he started punching in my information into his invoice. Only he could do this because only he had the discount code needed to give me this great deal. Once he took all my information down he wanted my credit card info. He told me he couldn't process the paperwork unless he had my CC info. I told him I didn't have my wallet on on me, and theres no way to get to it at this time. He instructed one of his sales reps to copy all my information down on a piece of paper so he could redo the invoice tomorrow. We then set up a time to close the deal on Friday at 1:00pm Eastern Time. Right on the dot I got a call at one o'clock. The first words I said when I received the call were "I'm backing out of the deal". ???!!! Thats usually what happens when someone can't find their wallet he said. This is when the guy started actually getting angry. He said, "so you dont wanna make money on the web, huh". Then he asked me for my reasoning, why would I back out of such a great service at such a great price. #1 I typed in traffic power, traffic-power, and trafficpower on google and your nowhere to be found. #2 Your page rank according to the google tool bar is a big fat zero #3 I dont like doorway pages and neither do the search engines in the long run #4 The idea of my site directory being saturated with a hundred or more spam infested files does not do much for me #5 The more i thought of that sales manager the more I wanted to slam a steel toe boot up his a$# Later that day I got another call from a sales rep trying the whole pitch over again. This guy actually claimed to not have an idea of my conversation earlier in the day. I'm sure many more calls will come my way, and I actually kind of look forward to them especially now that Im actually learning a bit about SEO. Any recommendations of some SEO companies that are trusted? The business is really starving for some exposure but I'd much rather work with a solid company. Maybe this company has truly helped out some sites in the short term, but down the road these same companies might run in to quite a jam down the road. dregna |
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thejenn Joined: Aug 08, 2001
# Posts: 9196
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Posted: 04/26/2004 01:14 pm
"Any recommendations of some SEO companies that are trusted? The business is really starving for some exposure but I'd much rather work with a solid company." You're surrounded by them here in the forums. Take some time to identify posters that know what they are talking about and that have a tone and personality that you feel comfortable with, and then drop them a PM to see if they are taking new business. I can think of dozens of posters here that would do an excellent job for you. |
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tex_dude Joined: Apr 22, 2004
# Posts: 25
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Posted: 04/26/2004 10:22 pm
I own several sites, some business others just fun. I've been doing my own SEO work for a few years now myself (and two webmasters who work for me). Lately I've been hearing a lot of clatter about google updates and so on, a lot of people out there claiming to have been blacklisted etc etc by this or that SEO company. From my experience, Google isn't really obsessed with blacklisting websites for white or grey hat SEO (doorway pages are greyhat at best). More serious infractions by SEO blackhats would be under the 'cloaking' category which is quite complex and involves server side technology. For a good example of what Google actually lets go by these days check out some of the blatant spam created by the likes of gogenerator like this example http://www.gogenerator.com/car/215/car-dealer-fort-used-worth.html . Cripes! they fed google back their own SERPS!!! LOL 
For a few more good laughs, go check out some brilliant 'black hat' SEO at http://www.blackhatseo.com have fun kids! :D |
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garris Joined: Apr 23, 2004
# Posts: 15
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Posted: 04/28/2004 10:13 pm
I'm supposed to be making $200/mo payments for each of the 2 sites I have with Traffic Power. Both got dropped by Google and Yahoo. All my other sites are still listed,so the connection has to be obvious. I cancelled the debit card I used and am waiting to see how loud they are gonna scream. I'd like to threaten them with a Class Action lawsuit for lying to me about the legitamacy of their techniques -- even if its just for the chilling effect. I'm not a lawyer and have no idea if that is a credible threat. Anyone have any ideas about that? |
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phonegirl Joined: Apr 28, 2004
# Posts: 1
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Posted: 04/29/2004 12:32 am
I feel SO lucky to have found this forum  . My friend Bill at www.ecommerceconfidential.com (he has some cool reviews and a related newsletter on internet products at his site), turned me on to JimWorld when I told him I was in contact with T-P and was wondering if he had heard of them.
Thank you so much for all of your posts! The whole T-P thing seemed too good to be true, but I was open to the idea after losing some of my main Google placements in March 2004. T-P offered me 20 keywords for 2K. No budging on price (which surprised me given the salesy nature of the guys). I had the first guy, then the more "technical" guy thing, too. Anyway, they were nice enough and respectful, so they almost had me. Gosh, am I glad that I asked for help. Now I won't even bother to continue researching. Last but not least, I just wanted to say that one of my sites was listed #1 on like 5 of my search terms (one term for over 2 years). And, I was completely dropped from Google on those terms early March, as I mentioned above. I knew this might happen someday. Google folks are really helpful and did reassure me that I was not blacklisted. I had not done anything, but I thought the worst! Nevertheless, I was not alone. Thereafter, there was a write up about the latest shifts at Google in my favorite SEO newsletter from www.highrankings.com. Jill is totally on the up and up - ethical. Using her ideas is how I got my high rankings in the first place. I have now decided that I am going to sit tight and rely on my GoogleAds for awhile (which, BTW, T-P said Google wanted to kick me out so I would buy ads - I paid a whopping $25 last month!  ). |
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d_stew Joined: Apr 12, 2004
# Posts: 128
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Posted: 04/29/2004 11:27 am
garris, I'm not a lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt. If you really feel you must threaten them to get results, I would avoid the term class action suit. Rather, if you want to tell a litle white lie, tell them that on advice of your lawyer, you're telling them verbally of your intent to cancel your contract with them, and that you will be following it up with a letter of intent to nullify your contract. Tell them that you have prepared documentation to send to your credit card company to get your monay back, but you'll accept a refund by the end of the business day today. The reason for this is, they don't want to get a charge back. If this happens too often, the credit card company will cancel their account, and they won't be able to accept that particular credit card again. |
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