Google's Matt Cutts Confirms Traffic Power Ban

Aaron,
I am an ex-employee of Traffic-power. But I do know about your case because I do read the papers, and also read the lawsuit they filed. There is a reason they call them "Public Records"
The gentlemen who own 411edirectory are in fact good friends of mine, this is how I do know about them. I did not enter into this conversation to get adversarial with you. I was then and am still in favor of freedom of speech. I think it was nothing more the Matt Marlon using the courts to shut you up, and I cheered when the case was dumped. But this has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject matter. From where I'm sitting you are trying to do the same to me. When someone places an opinion you don’t seem to like, you attack them. I am employed by an SEO firm, which at no point I tried to promote. I don't think you are using this platform to have fair and balanced conversation, you simply bash whatever opinion comes along that seems to differ from yours. I believe the actual subject was Bob running down a company he knew little to nothing about. At least I have a good amount of knowledge in the subject Im speaking of. I do however believe that freedom of speech is something that shouldn;t be abused. Freedom of speech does not allow for ill-informed persons to destroy a company for the sole purpose of general conversation. As your website gets a "fair" amount of readers, it would be remiss of me to allow this "rumor" the propigate to the point of ruining a company, in it's infancy.

I am not saying anyone is right or wrong.

I have stated before that not all cold calling companies are bad, but on average in this vertical I think that most of them are below average. Could someone have been lying about saying they were cold called? Sure.

If you believe this page to be inaccurate you are free to express your opinion, and I am not going to edit your post that says I am biased. Letting your content stay on the page and engaging with you should show you that in fact I am not trying to be overtly biased.

The stuff in your most recent comment that adds context to your opinion would have been helpful to post earlier.

Whenever I say anyone is wrong I usually try to say why and give a bit of perspecitive about myself...it just adds credibility to my position.

I am not holding you to a higher standard than person x y or z...just simply stating that when you refute claims it is usually best to give more information than the person making the claim. Specifics are always helpful.

Like a post "I am friends with XZY and they run a tight ship. As a former employee of YQP I don't think the comparison is very reasonable..."

Something like that.

Keep in mind I have had many biased hate pages and hate sites express their opinions about me. Most of them didn't allow me to type my opinions into those pages. And if they did they typically deleted them.

By virtue of your opinions being posted on the site and staying posted you can see that I have nothing against you or 411edirectory.com.

Aaron, this must feel great. Congratulations and I hope good forutne continues to smile upon you.

Matt, I don't know if you realize how important this is to the SEO community but, on behalf of all those who have gone out on a limb to write about Traffic Power in the past, THANK YOU!

Whoa! Major slam dunk for you, Aaron!!!!! Major karma points for Matt Cutts also.

That iss great news. Well done that Cutts chap.

I just hope you manage to get something out of these wankers as a result.

What price all that stress and bollocks?

They should be made to pay for their persistant arrogance.

Congrats!

Excellent news, looks like there is some cosmic balance out there.

Well bob Completely wrong.
411edirectory is not now or ever been a product of Matt Marlon. They are a new company trying to get off the ground with a couple of real cool ideas, and you shouldnt go trashing companies until you know what you are talking about, which obviously you dont.

Hi Michael

a couple of real cool ideas

Like?

If you are going to say someone else is wrong then it helps to state why and how. Saying someone has good ideas but then not stating what ideas are good doesn't do much to prove their credibility.

I am not sure if that 411edirectory site uses cold calling, but the only SEO firms that have ever cold called me were trying to scam me. One even sued me for being honest about their shady business practices...and then they were too lazy to state actionable claims or even file in the right jurisdiction.

It is worth noting that you are tracking 411edirectory.com brand mentions more than they are. This mention is not hard to find, especially since if you search Google for 411edirectory this page ranks in the top 5.

Google's related links for 411edirectory show few internet marketing related sites, which either indicates the site is new, or is likely NOT a good quality signal for the marketing methods being deployed.

Aaron,
The thing is, why I should have to explain why Bob was wrong as he didn’t take the time to explain why he was right. This fact is, by alleging any affiliation with Traffic-Power, is quite frankly a kick in the teeth to ANY company and should not be taken as lightly as Bob throwing a blanket over Las Vegas and calling any company in Las Vegas part of Matt Marlon's little evil empire. As I understand it, you were sued for displaying company property that was considered internal use only, on the internet-it really had nothing to do with truth or hearsay. Lets be honest here, if your company was untruthfully tied in with Traffic-power, would not immediately stand up and exclaim HELL NO!! I think you would.
They are also not an "SEO" company-they are a simple business card website for persons with little or no web-presence, and nothing more. They do not promise website owners any sort of placement, they offer placement of your name and Forte' as it were, on an area in their website. I think that would not be considered Search engine optimization, it seems to me it would be more like "advertising" I do apologize if you feel that I unjustly replied to Bob but as I stated before, Bob didn’t bother to explain his allegations or how he came about this epiphany… I would also take note in the fact that it didn’t seem to matter to you that he bad mouthed 411edirectory.com with his big news scoop.

As I understand it, you were sued for displaying company property that was considered internal use only, on the internet-it really had nothing to do with truth or hearsay.

Wrong. I was sued without reason, most likely because a shady outfit that thought they could bully me.

They do not promise website owners any sort of placement

How do you know so much about their business?

if your company was untruthfully tied in with Traffic-power, would not immediately stand up and exclaim HELL NO!!

If 411edirectory.com is your company than your speaking of them in third person was at best misleading.

That Guy owes me money, Alot

Anthony Flood?? is that you-can you please come and get your sister? she wont leave me alone.

That Funny, Michael Helwig

Sorry Dude!!!

Maybe Be Some One Will See This Blog And Claim Her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaron,

Love your site and your tools.

Just got a call from a company whose pitch sounded all too familiar. After listening for 15 seconds, I asked where they were calling from... Go figure, Las Vegas.

411edirectory(dot)com
A geo-targeted listing (page) that the salesman showed me mentioned the city name 305 times! Classic T.P.

Buyer beware.