My recent post garnered far more attention than I thought it would. I wrote exactly how I felt and though I still stand by it, I feel badly for Liana about how this is all shaking out. I did not intend on hurting her in any way. My blog post was a way for me to vent and respond to hers.
In Liana’s defense, what I perceived to be an outright injustice was probably more about poor communication. She did attempt to tell me about her stunt before it happened. I didn’t know the exact specifics (maybe because we didn’t discuss them in detail enough) but I practically sorta kinda gave her a go ahead (remind you -I didn’t know it would be practically the same stunt, poorly duplicated).
Liana is a smart person who is more seasoned in the conference circuit than I. I do not think her intentions were bad. Regardless of fault, opinion, who was first, who’s was best, etc. I don’t wish Liana any harm or negativity. Liana, I apologize for any negativity that this has probably caused you. It got out there, and got blown out of proportion. That was not the intent.
To the members of SEO / SEM community who don’t appreciate linkstunting, offline linkbaiting, buzz linking, buzz marketing stunts or whatever you want to call it: I apologize to you as well. I never intended to disrespect anyone and I certainly hope nobody takes any of my campaigns or stunts that way.
I owe our community a lot. I came from this community, and because of it I have a successful career and a great life for me and my family. I don’t want to be burning bridges or hurting others, I just want to have fun and experience success with / like the rest of you.
SEOs and marketers, here’s a good takeaway. This is a lesson on how a good idea in theory can cause problems in the execution. Just like any form of SEO, offline buzz marketing / link baiting is new and will likely rub at least some subset of SEOs the wrong way. We all need to grow with it and push it in the right direction we would like to see it go in the future. It is OUR responsibility to respect others’ dignity if / when we decide to implement these tactics that involve others.
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