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John Scott Interview
John Scott V7N Interview
If you are into SEM surely you have heard of John Scott and his v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest, but if you are not a forum junkie, you might not know who he really is. I was aware of him by name and noticed that he posted a heated response in my blog to Mike Grehan, so I contacted him and asked him if he would like to be the first guy to step into the ring of my new SEO Fight Club, he agreed. Judging from his picture he must have a strong chin. Let’s learn more about John Scott from V7N.
Matt Cutts ripped into Greg Boser and Oilman basically saying “You hijacked John’s contest so you should expect him to respond negatively to you” did you listen to that? What are your feelings about Greg and Dax trying to hijack your buzz?
I did listen to that, and I think that Matt is one of the few people who have held onto some perspective in this contest. I believe the word he used to describe my handling of the situation was “finesse”, and I gotta say I love Matt for what he said there yesterday.
I really am a laid back guy, despite the accusations to the contrary. I don’t hate Greg Boser; I don’t stay up nights plotting my revenge. I think what he did was great for the contest - he added the conflict needed to make it newsworthy.
The interesting thing I found is that most folks participating in the contest are totally blowing off Greg’s requirements and his prize offering. His “don’t link to V7N” requirement has just been ignored, so you really gotta wonder how many people read his blog.
Is this v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest 100% “link baiting”? What are you learning from this, got any interesting data to share?
Despite all the nefarious ulterior motives assigned to me by Greg Boser and others, the SEO contest was intended to be nothing more than something fun to do as a community, while generating a modest amount of publicity in the process.
I have long been a critic of SEO as the primary marketing of a website. There are many, many more effective ways of promoting a website which yield more traffic than search engine optimization, yet SEO’s think in terms of search engine rankings.
When I first announced the contest, I stated that the link back could be in non-SE-indexable form. That is because I want people to visit V7N, not search engines.
My highest traffic in a day for one site we own was 60,000 UV in one day. Of that, less than 2,000 UV came by way of SE. Search engines aren’t the end all, be all of website traffic. Brand building activities will build more traffic in the long term than search engines will; but most SEO’s will refuse to learn that simple fact and they will continue to think in terms of rankings and links for rankings.
Links are indeed good for rankings, but they are better when humans click on them. Spiders don’t have credit cards, humans do.
What is it you do for a living; excuse me for not knowing a damn thing about you other than what I have picked up from multiple channels, I have yet to focus in on you though I joined your forum yesterday.
I, um, well, it’s hard to say.
We own websites and sell advertising. I also do some consulting and run a web design service; although I don’t do any design myself. BlueFind and SevenSeek did very well for us and I haven’t found the need to actually work, as of yet, so I spend my time writing and traveling, mostly.
I posted a lengthy update on my blog which pretty much covers the last two years.
Tell use about your forum, I read the “About” section and I have to say I liked what you said about community, is that Aaron Wall I see as a moderator in there?
Aaron Wall is indeed a moderator there, but not as active as he used to be.
Aaron Wall is a great friend, without a doubt my best friend online. We chat quite a bit by phone, and he’s one guy who I’ll swear by. He never has been a sell-out to the SEO establishment that occupies itself with sucking up to the SES speakers, and I love him for it.
He used to be a bit more confrontational than he is today, but that’s okay. People mellow with the passing of years.
The V7N forums are supposedly the friendliest forums on the Internet. It’s a medium sized community, with focus on the members. We may not be the biggest forum out there, and that’s okay by me. Our members on V7N tend to stay for years, and that’s got to say something for they type of community we have.
Are there any other things that you want to clear up about yourself?
At no time was I involved in any bondage or S&M groups.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for having me.
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May 29th, 2006 at 6:35 am
Great interview.
May 29th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Great information, i hope you put more like this stuff on your forum. Keep it up!
Regards,
John Bertrand