Enterprise SEO Blog

I know, long title. But we want to rank for the names. This is the second post, original story starts here.

The story so far, quick version:

- Bob fixed a penalty for MyrtleBeachNow.com, Trey Harris' website.
- 6 months later we are not paid, instead lied to multiple times.
- We threaten SEO recourse, still don't get paid.
- We follow through on recourse via newsfeeds, sites, this blog.
- Attorney Reese Boyd III, on behalf of Trey Harris, attempts to force conditions onto the long standing debt.
- Bob insists on unconditional payment.
- Reese Boyd III agrees to unconditional payment.

It's getting better and better, folks. When we last left this, there was an agreement to pay unconditionally. No one is surprised to find we did not get paid yet. But starting yesterday, litigation attorney Reese Boyd III started making phone calls to Bob.

"Started with a message several days ago wanting our address from Boyd's office. Then yesterday started getting messages from Boyd himself - he called after hours and left his cell. I tried to call that number twice in spite of a gut feeling that more conditions were behind the call. But his voicemail was curiously full. Today (23 Dec 09) he caught me between conferences and we spoke for 15 minutes. He told me - I love this - that the check was ready to be sent, even dated 24 November, but..."

It seems that some of the negative press has started ranking, and now perhaps it's time to re-incentivize Bob by dangling the money in front of him. But of course there's a catch. Those websites publishing the inconvenient truths about DSLmarketing.com, MyrtleBeachNow.com, and Trey Harris need to come down if we pay you.

But Bob Sakayama is not on board. "We've already written that payment off. We're much more interested in a principled position that creates a real consequence for all involved. It is probably in our interest to be taken to court over this, because number one they would lose while being forced to spend money to attack us, and secondly, the publicity from the personal interviews would be devastating. From a bad publicity point of view, this would be catastrophic for Trey."

"Reese Boyd III claimed we were harassing his client with our sites. He actually said that. Can you believe this? Our sites are harassing someone? We put up sites publicizing the fact that we are being defrauded of our fees, and we're harassing the defrauder?"

As you can see, this is turning into a fantastic internet, SEO and Google based story. It involves a company that defrauds its vendors, and a dispute with an SEO guru that's headed for the mainstream media. And then there's the whole role reversal part - Bob, who is owed money and the one with the actual legal claim, is being hounded by a lawyer who suggests he only wants to pay him.

We already have broad interest in any Google oriented story we put out, because of the leadership position we carry within the enterprise seo community and the general interest in all things Google. This dispute is not very interesting if it's only about an unpaid bill. But once it involves a Google penalized website, a successful fix, a willful attempt to defraud, an effort to legally intimidate, silence and force conditions onto an existing contract, the story gets really interesting. Lawyers, please comment, & advise.

After speaking with former and present employees of the company, we decided that it would be in the public interest to expose this company's (DSLmarketing.com and MyrtleBeachNow.com) unethical ways, and to create consequences for their behavior. Since we have a long standing unpaid balance, we first thought the story of the dispute would center on this. But attorney Reese Boyd III's entrance into this, and the obvious attempt to intimidate us caused Bob to focus instead on the publicity this story deserves.

Bob sees this turn of events as strengthening his hand. "Once you don't care about the money, you're pretty much free to ignore the noise and focus on the malfeasance. We're doing just that, and Reese Boyd III is contributing to the storyline as if on cue."

RSS feeds to this blog and our main site are now available on every page, top right. Share the truth, publish widely.

I realize you probably have attorneys on this, but I am willing to volunteer time to help out. You can contact me via the email used to comment. This is a fascinating story that is very likely to require some legal strategizing. My firm has a strong constitutional background and we support your efforts regarding the online free speech initiative, and the work you guys have done to educate the public on the need to regulate the search engines. Love the fact that you're walking away from payment to take an ethical stand. Totally love it. Bob is my hero.

Read the document prepared by Boyd. This is no doubt an attempt to intimidate and will be viewed as such by any court, especially since it originates from the debtor - a huge problem all by itself. But it appears that much more is going on here. The "contract" has language that insinuates criminal behavior, and unlawful activity on your part and demands acknowledgment of these actions to motivate payment. While many lawyers may use such a document to scare unsophisticated players, the attempt here has clearly backfired, and in my opinion you should focus more attention on this effort by Boyd - while legal action against him may not succeed, publicizing the motive behind this document is in your interest. I also agree that any action taken by this attorney to silence your posts will end up with opposite effect, and rightly so. Trey is in a bad spot, and Boyd is digging him in deeper.

Lawyer here. Don't forget that Boyd is paid to advocate on behalf of his client, however corrupt that client may be. While an attorney must be held accountable for his actions, his efforts must be seen in the light of how his client's interests are advanced. Problem here is that the client sent him up against a brick wall with bogus info and an unethical motive. In my view, the client takes all of the bad rap so far, not the attorney.

Am an attorney & an SEO. Love the bogus harassment claim - like a web page can harass. Typical ignorant lawyer rant. The harassment must come from exposure to too much truth.

Bob has the genuine harassment claim, not them. Given the circumstances, someone who owes you money calling you repeatedly to add conditions is real harassment - ANY calls to you are unless he's calling to give you a credit card payment. I would double the number of sites ranking for this and include Boyd in the search - I see you already doing that but he's not on page 1 yet. In essence, this is a first amendment fight, and if it goes to court you will clean their clocks. I think you hold all the cards, and may have won already.

Derrick: Right now don't need help, but we'll be sure to contact you if this goes anywhere.

Vogel: Comments appreciated. Already addressing legal motive of Boyd's first document in all releases of this story. Got it covered.

DMZ: Great point. Agree and we will now definitely focus more attention on Boyd's harassment claim in our telling of the story. Love the idea of being harassed by the truth. Cracks me up.

If it's harassment, more harassment please! Clearly this is the tack you need to take.

Bob, DMZ is saying you should go after Boyd for harassing you. They owe you money, yet they're the ones bugging you. Not a lawyer, but I think he's got a point you missed.