Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2010 00:53:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Josey Yelsef <hg_exposed@...oo.com>
To: full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk
Cc: brent@...tgator.com
Subject: Fw: hostgator

Hi Brent,

I'm doing good too, thanks.

Sorry for the delay. You own a multi-million dollar hosting business and your mail hit my spam box.

Making Good Money With HostGator. 2010-10-30. 
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/176979-making-good-money-hostgator.html
http://bit.ly/9pT1G4 Accessed: 2010-10-30. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5ts7nfD9b)

Let's say these "sponsored conversations" mentioned are not created by your management or company and all in fact affiliates: Just because they are affiliates doesn't make you less culpable for the noise your business causes. You are allowing the net with garbage and puff pieces posing as authentic reviews of your business.

You run a hub for affiliate link spam. Your business is a call center filled with monkeys paid at minimum wage where you cram clients into ungodly spaces on ancient web 1.0 software.

How is this different from spamming porn or viagra? The only difference is it's crappy hosting.

You haven't denied your online advertising budget on Google not being 7figs. While mentioning affiliates, you did not deny you didn't market yourself, only the denied the subjective term Google bombing. I am not "quickly seeing" you're not google bombing.

You're not the only company guilty of this, you're right that the other garbage web hosts like 1and1, bluehost and etc. play similar games. Look, McDonalds gets clients, Walmart gets clients, but they rely on cost, product and dependability, while your type is cram n' cruft.

I am working on a new exposé on a "penny auction site" scheme that uses similar marketing techniques called quibids (and their copycats). Will expose mass-sock puppetry and of course fraud. Should be ready next week.

--- On Sat, 10/30/10, brent@...tgator.com <brent@...tgator.com> wrote:

> From: brent@...tgator.com <brent@...tgator.com>
> Subject: hostgator
> To: hg_exposed@...oo.com
> Date: Saturday, October 30, 2010, 4:59 AM
> Hi Joey,
> 
> 
> I just read http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2010/Oct/466?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
> 
> 
> We have over 400,000 customers with the majority of them
> being extremely happy with us. I'd be happy to send you over
> our net promoter score if you familiar with this and
> interested to prove this.
> 
> 
> It is true that we have many ex employees that aren't happy
> with us, as well as many current. We let our customers
> decide who we terminate, who gets, raises, as well as who
> gets promotions based on customer ratings.
> 
> We have about 450 employees currently. In the last year
> alone we've had to fire somewhere around 250 employees. We
> lost about another 20 to other companies as well as people
> moving for personal reasons. I could find out exact numbers
> on this if you are interested.
> 
> Employees who are rated well by our customers are usually
> very happy with us, employees who are rated poorly usually
> aren't as we actively document their write ups until they
> either improve or we are forced to terminate them. A lot of
> what you documented is true as well as much of it being
> completely false.
> 
> We have never google bombed. What you are seeing are many
> affiliate sites that are created by our 10,000+ affiliates.
> Many of them are hosted with us and very happy with our
> services. There are also many that are just trying to make a
> sale and have never used our services. I'd say a good
> portion of this group push us as well as our major
> competitors that have an affiliate program. If you do a
> little more research you will quickly find that hostgator
> does not participate in google bombing.
> 
> All in all your review seems to nothing more then a smear
> campaign. It would be nice if you gave us a fair review by
> actually testing our service after all wouldn't that be
> truly exposing us?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> Brent Oxley
> Owner and Founder
> HostGator.com, LLC
>




      

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