With My Mind on My Money and My Money on My Mind

 

SunCity SEOcon was traditionally an underground Arizona SEO meetup that happened in the heat of the summer, during the day, to enjoy splashing around with cold beers, some good ole BBQ, and to pick the brains of local search marketing experts.  Year after year we had a blast.  This year, we opened it up to the public.

We’re keeping the theme similar, a good mix of fun in the sun / SEO conference / networking event.  It’s nothing like any other conferences.

Here’s a long winded analogy to kind of give you an idea of the way this thing will feel, as compared to the other known conferences.  SES is like a band playing a sold out stadium. PubCon is like a local band who hit the big time and come back to their home city’s biggest club. SMX is like a rave. Elite Retreat is like an intimate club with a bad ass band… SunCity SEOcon is like Snoop Dogg playing at MTV Beach Party.

I gotta say, I’m pretty excited about the whole thing.  The speakers are the real deal on this thing.  I mean, check out this allstar line up!

It’s going to be crazy.  Register now before it’s sold out!


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Having your identity stolen is far more damaging than just losing money.  I never realized how much of a tangled web finances and real life obligations where until I had to rebuild that web from scratch.  When a thief cleared out my checking account from 5 different Bank of America branches using a fake ID, it basically turned my life upside down.

I learned the hard way.  There are lots of things I could have, should have, and would have done better to avoid some of this mess. But I trusted the system and I did what I thought I was supposed to do.  I had no idea that the system could fail me as hard as it did.  Regardless, even the most paranoid person can get be a victim.  No amount of looking over your shoulder can guarantee that a really motivated criminal can’t screw up your life.

The Time Drain - You Pay for Other People’s Mistakes

The amount of work that you have to do to regain and protect your identity is a lot bigger than one might think. Get a new license.  Close bank accounts.  Open bank accounts.  Contact all credit bureaus to freeze your credit and activate fraud alerts.  Contact the FTC and report ID theft.  Call here, email here, drive here, sign this, mail this, certified mail that, change all your accounts everywhere for everything.  Update all your passwords and *remember* them. (for me, there are hundreds of those, I’m a web geek)

I found out the hard way just how bad customer service is in the US.  When dealing Corporate America your work is basically tripled. Fixing this mess takes days, not minutes or hours.

Your Tangled Financial Web

Think about this for a minute.  I have numerous mortgages, insurance policies, car payments, security systems, hosting, domains, financial products, water, electricity, phones, internet, cable, exterminator, HOA fees, etc etc.  The list goes on.  And almost every one of those bills has it’s own bill pay system.  Initially I used my Bank of America Bill-Pay to consolidate all this mess, but after a few mishaps with the system causing late payments, I moved the automation to all the external systems.  It’s a huge intertangled web.  All of it was connected to my checking account in one way or another.

So when you shut down your bank account, the onus is on YOU to rebuild this web.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell how big the web is until you step back an look at it.  It’s probably bigger than a lot of people think.  Add a new driver’s license to the mix, and things can get hairy.  Some systems rely on old information to authenticate you, so updating your identity can also cause problems when moving accounts or changing your bank information.

Online Account Management- Managing to Waste Much More of Your Time Because it’s Free

Now let’s just look at the online portion of your new part time job.  Common sense says, use a very esoteric password that would take a computer a zillion years to crack.  Okay, that’s not hard.  But some systems require at least one number and some don’t let you use numbers.  Some require at least one special character and some don’t let you use special characters.  Some force you to use exactly 8 digits.  Some are 4 digit pins that can only be numeric.  Some are email addresses (and I have like 50, including some old ones that are no longer active).  Some require you to change them at intervals, and you can never repeat a previous password… So now you have a pile of user names and passwords.  And there is no real secure way to have these stored except in your head.

Point is, just logging in to your online account management systems for various creditors and payees takes *HOURS* to accomplish.  Then their systems that bury phone numbers and force you to use awkward FAQ sections that are never even close the what you are looking for.  You’re spending an inordinate amount of time bouncing around a website, growing contempt for the company you’re trying to contact.  You can tell they are trying to avoid you from picking up that phone and calling a CSR because those cost money.

The Phone System is a People Trap Manned by Robots and Degenerates

Now, if you’re lucky, you finally found a phone number on the website.  Try calling that number to get to an actual person, and you wade through menu after menu of the same crap the website was trying to tell you.  Recorded voices trying to prevent you from talking to a real person.  Asking you to type in personal information, or God forbid your frikkin account number.  Now, like a good identity theft victim should, you’re already shredding all your mail and trying to prevent any bills from ever hitting your mailbox anyways by going paperless.  How the hell can I key in my account number if I can’t find it on the website and I shred all evidence that an account even exists?  Some of them say “No account, no problem, just type in your Social security Number!” Uhm, yeah.  I’m about to start typing my SSN now that I am completely paranoid about it.

Now, you finally figure out how to get to a person.  (tip, always try hitting 0 when asked to key in stuff and you don’t want to) And you’re on hold.  Forever.

Customer Service?  More like Call Center Quota Service…

Usually after about 5-10 minutes of navigating through the phone system (provided it didn’t hang up on your or disconnect you by “mistake”) then maybe if you’re lucky you get to a real live person.  Sometimes you get a really nice, pleasant, and somewhat sharp person who knows how to listen and is motivated to help, but that’s rare.  Usually it’s a degenerate who wants to put you on hold to keep the phone call as long as possible so they hit their call center’s connect time quota.  Or a degenerate who wants to push you off the phone as fast as possible to hit their call center’s call volume quota.

And in the worst case, you get a used care salesman who doesn’t care about your problem and is pushing you hard to buy something, to hit their call center’s sales quota.

There is No Such Thing as Privacy when You’re Just Another Number

In all, it has been an eye opener on many fronts.  Corporations that handle your money for the most part don’t give a crap about you as an individual.  Smaller companies tend to have people who are more in touch.  A lot of people have access to the general public’s private personal information.  A lot of people you don’t know have access to almost everything about you.  There is no such thing as privacy.  And customer service sucks across the board for the most part.

Now, I got a lot of feedback about missing work to take care of this stuff, but you know what?  I have missed work already a couple of times because of it, and I am still not done cleaning up the mess. Identity theft is the gift that keeps on giving.

Who is at Fault?

As much as some people on Digg want to point out that I am at fault for some of this, it’s hard to hear that when information about you that is non-private is all a thief needs to walk into a bank and clean out your checking account.  Now, I did lose my wallet… Or it was stolen.  On that part I’m not sure.  It’s not like the guy used my debit card.  That was canceled immediately.

I did have a high balance in my checking account, but it was an interest bearing account which was just moved out of a CD for reasons I don’t feel I need to explain to the internet.  I’m not irresponsible with my money or my identity.  Sure, I could have taken more paranoid measures to try and lock it up, in retrospect I wish I did.  But I don’t think I need to be any more paranoid than I already am, and if a theif can walk into a bank with a fake ID and take out 40k without any problems, then no amount of credit monitoring or home security would have helped.  And I didn’t know you could put alerts on your accounts, I never thought I needed to.  I trusted the bank’s system. I thought those kind of alerts were a given.

I have a home security system, and a home surveillance system.  I own a gun, which comes with it’s own set of problems but still, it’s another type of home security.  I don’t write my passwords down anywhere.  I watch people closely.  I’m not paranoid, but I am not mindlessly fumbling around in life waiting to become a victim.  I thought I was doing what I was supposed do, but of course, now I’m much more vigilant about such things.

But the problem still remains.  As long as the system is designed so that numerous people have easy access to your personal information and your money, you will *always* be relying on somebody else to protect them.

Also FYI- I was told from a person in the fraud department that I should be getting a call from Bank of America’s executive communications people.  Stay tuned, I’ll post their response to the problems I encountered.  I’ll also be posting the actions Bank of America has taken since the crime occured.  Bank of America has already paid the claim, so I have my money back.


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I used to think identity theft was just an over-hyped gimmick to get people to pay for credit reports and monitoring. That is, until my checking account was cleared out. Turns out, most major banks are not well equipped to handle ID theft, or even your money for that matter.

It was a Sunday night a few weeks back, and I went to Target to grab some groceries. I had been swimming most of the day, so I was still in my board shorts. With no pockets. So I had my wallet *firmly* in hand the whole time.  I run through target, grab my stuff, pay with my debit card, and head out to pack my car up- still clutching my wallet. This was the last time I saw that wallet. Nothing suspicious had happened. I spotted nobody that set off my spidey sense (other than the sleeve tattoos and multiple piercings from the girl running the register, but that’s not exactly suspicious).

When getting ready for work the next day, my wallet was missing. I know where my wallet is at all times. This was really strange. I ripped my house apart, searching every square inch.  I even rummaged through the garbage (in AZ heat, the term “hot garbage” is not a simile) before I realized it really was gone. So I reviewed the security footage from my home surveillance system to see if anybody broke in while I was sleeping. No signs of entry. The wallet was just gone. Could have been lost, could have been stolen, but I had no clues to go on.

So, I call work to let them know I’m taking the day off.  I had to get to a Bank of America branch and the DMV to cancel my debit card and get a new license. Got home and checked my online banking, and there was no sign of suspicious activity. So, I figured the wallet was lost, the bank card is useless, and there isn’t much somebody can do with my driver’s license; I figured everything was cool. Had a frustrating day, so I head back to the pool  to relax and have a beer.

Everything is business as usual for the next few days. Until late Thursday night, I got a call from the Phoenix Police Department. The officer said they had a subject in custody who had two forms of ID with my information on it.  Then the guy asked what I looked like. At first I thought it was a prank because people were joking around the office that I missed work on a Monday because I “lost my wallet”. As the officer began rattling off my personal information, I quickly realized this was no joke.

They said they caught this guy at BestBuy trying to use somebody else’s credit card to buy a whole bunch of computers. Apparently BestBuy’s register system pops up an alert code if there is somebody trying to use a card that has been reported lost or stolen, and they call the cops. Impressive. The police caught the guy red handed. With drugs. And paraphernalia. And a bunch of people’s personal information.

At the time, I thought they got the sucker before he could do any real damage. But just to be safe, I checked with Bank of America. I was shocked to see my account was overdrawn by almost $300. Last I checked, I had almost 40k in there.

A quick review turned up 5 suspicious transactions. Two were deposits, and three were withdrawals. All five transactions occurred *inside* five different Bank of America banking centers. What amazed me most is the final two transactions. A withdrawal of 26k. And later that day, another withdrawal of 12.5k. Way to spot suspicious activity Bank of America. They handed the guy almost 40k in cash in one day.

Turns out the first two transactions where not just deposits. They were checks written to me, Christopher Hooley. The first one was $6200. The guy kept $5k and left $1200 in my account. The next one was a day later at a different center for $7500. Again, the guy kept $5k. I saw the debit slip online, and this guy’s signature wasn’t even a remote attempt to copy mine. To make matters worse, it turns out he was forging checks from another valley business, who subsequently called the police on ME!

After seeing his writing, all of the sudden it felt personal. That was MY name, written as sloppily as I had ever seen it. Now I had to find out who this guy was.

A detective from the Phoenix PD was already assigned to my case. I never actually even spoke with him. I sent the detective an email with the list of fraudulent transactions on my bank account and that was pretty much all he needed. But I had his email address, so I shot him an email asking who the thief was.

The detective told me the suspect’s name was Christopher Cantrell. An identity thief heavily involved in drugs. That’s all I needed to know to find his case on MCSO.org. And right there in front of me was his mug shot and list of charges.

Check this out:

Christopher Cantrell

Chris Cantrell

CANTRELL, CHRISTOPHER MCKAY #P438548

Booked: 07-09-2008

Sex: MALE
Race: WHITE
D.O.B: 10-11-1975
Height: 5′09
Weight: 200
Eye: BROWN
Hair: BLACK

In Custody For:
001 FELONY COUNT OF DANGEROUS DRUG-POSS FOR SALE
001 FELONY COUNT OF THEFT-CONTROL PROPERTY
001 FELONY COUNT OF ADMIT TKT-FRAUD CREATION/POSS
001 FELONY COUNT OF FORGERY-W/WRITTEN INSTRUMENT
005 FELONY COUNT OF FORGERY-POSS FORGED INSTRUMENT
001 FELONY COUNT OF FORGERY-POSS FORGED INSTRUMENT
001 FELONY COUNT OF FORGERY-POSS FORGED INSTRUMENT
001 FELONY COUNT OF FORGERY-OFFERS FORGED INSTRUM
001 FELONY COUNT OF TAKING IDENTITY OF ANOTHER
001 FELONY COUNT OF TAKING IDENTITY OF ANOTHER
001 FELONY COUNT OF TAKING IDENTITY OF ANOTHER
001 FELONY COUNT OF DANGEROUS DRUG-POSS/USE
001 FELONY COUNT OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA-POSSESS/USE

As you can see from the picture above the huge rap sheet, he’s pretty much a spitting image of me. So it’s understandable why 5 separate bank of America branches where confused, and allowed him to make huge cash withdrawals. He has trusting eyes.

But just for conjecture’s sake, here’s a picture of me.

Chris Hooley

The moral of this story is, if you want to steal somebody’s identity, you don’t need to mess with all that online stuff. Just get somebody’s info, make a fake license with your picture on it, and walk right into any Bank of America branch and just ask them to hand you the money in cash. It doesn’t matter if you look like a doper, or even if you’re on drugs at the time. Doesn’t even matter if you know your victim’s signature. All you need is their name and address and a fake ID, and you can clean out any Bank of America account!

In my next post. I’ll explain the aftermath and how Bank of America’s service is only second to their ability to protect your money from identity thieves. Stay tuned.


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Patrick Sexton, if that is your real name, I am in Phoenix. And it is possible to contact me through this site. I tried to comment on YOUR POST but as it turns out, comments are not allowed. What are you afraid of?  There is also no contact info on your site.  I call FOUL!  I CALL FAIL!!!

I am calling you out.

Call me, text me, IM me. I will put you under the table, and you will cry like a sissy girl.  And we’ll videotape it and post it to YouTube so the world knows who’s the moffuggin’ man, and who’s perpetraytin’ a fraud!


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The time has come to announced the winners for the 2008 SEO Superlatives. But before the announcement, I’d like to thank everybody who contributed. The SEO Superlatives Committee was awesome. All you crazy guys and gals who where socializing this, kick ass. Thanks so much for making this contest so much fun!

And without any further, here are your winners!


SEO Most Likely to Succeed


Danny Sullivan

SEO Conference Clown


Chris Hooley
In the running: Neil Patel

Best SEO Couple


Carolyn Shelby and Dave Rohrer
In the running: Greg and Barbara Boser

Best Dressed SEO


Brett Tabke
In the running: Kid Disco

SEO Party Animal


Chris Hooley

SEO’s Best Hairdo


Chris Winfield

SEO’s Biggest Flirt


Kimber Cook
In the running: Lisa Barone, Becky Ryan

Smartest SEO


Stephan Spencer
In the running: Aaron Wall,Bill Slawski

Most Athletic SEO


Cameron Olthuis

Best SEO Blogger


Lisa Barone
In the running: Loren Baker

Best Smile


Jane Copland

Best SEO Conference


Search Marketing Expo
In the running: PubCon

Best SEO Conference Speaker


Matt McGee

Best SEO You’ve Never Heard Of


Jeff Dempsey
In the running: Jon Heinl, Karl Ribas

Most Creative SEO


Lyndon Antcliff

Most Likely To Be Banned


Quadzilla

Biggest SEO Nerd


Aaron Wall
In the running: Neil Patel, Barry Schwartz,Bill Slawski

Best SEO Nickname/Handle


SexySEO
In the running: Captain Thundercock, FeedtheBot, the MadHat

Cutt’s Pet


Rand Fishkin

Best Technical SEO


Stephan Spencer

Top Linkbaiter


Andy Hagans (RIP!)
In the running (CLOSE RACE!): Lyndon Antcliff , Matt Inman

Best Up and Coming SEO


Eric Lander
In the running: Gab Goldenberg, Rhea Drysdale, Melanie Nathan

SEO Social Media Addict


Tamar Weinberg
In the running: Chris Winfield, Brent Csutoras

Biggest Google Fanboy


Ann Smarty
In the running: Brent D. Payne

Least Likely to Date Hooley


Jill Whalen
In the running: Greg Boser

Biggest PageRank


Matt Cutts
In the running: Bruce Clay

Most Fiery SEO


Michael Gray
In the running: Rae Hoffman

SEO Most Likely to Become President


Barry Schwartz
In the running: Danny Sullivan

Most Likely To Get Kicked Out Of The Bar


Chris Hooley
In the running: Rae Hoffman, Greg Boser

Most Likely To Close The Bar


Chris Hooley
In the running: Rae Hoffman, Patrick Sexton

The SEO You’d Be Most Afraid To Bring Home to Mom


Rae Hoffman

Most Feared in SEO


Matt Cutts

Mr / Ms Congeniality


Rand Fishkin
In the running: Vanessa Fox

Most Likely to Start an Argument


Michael Martinez
In the running: Michael Gray, Doug Heil

Most Likely to Win an Argument (even if they’re wrong!)


Rae Hoffman

Best Tweeter


Chris Winfield
In the running: Todd Friesen

Noisiest SEO


Chris Hooley

Most Traveled SEO


Danny Sullivan

Snarkiest SEO


Rebecca Kelley

Best SEO Ranter


Michael Gray

Most Networked SEO


Matt McGee

SEO Hater Award


Jason Calacanis
In the running: Jason Gambert

SEO’s Biggest Douchebag


Jason Gambert (forgettable SEO Trademark guy)

The Results

The winners were chosen almost 100% from the unfiltered voting results, allowing SEOs to game the voting system to the best of their abilities. And game they did.

There were more polls that only voted for one single person than completed surveys. IN all, half the votes were spam. HALF. Numerous nominees, especially in the categories for unknown or up and coming SEOs had bots voting themselves up in an almost embarrasingly traceable way. Same IP from nominee’s city votes for self 100 times in an hour? yep. Lots of that. Rushes of voters from India, Russia, Malaysia, and Poland overnight? Some of that too.

Despite attempts at altering the vote, much like Google we also had manual review. And much like Google, the popular vote still overpowered the spam for the most part, so the committee’s job was pretty darn easy in that regard.

Below are the unfiltered results of the vote.

As you’ll see, the committe only chose one or two winners over the unfiltered voting results. And sorry Michael, but it’s hard to believe you’re more feared than Matt Cutts in the SEO world.

Report: SEO Superlatives Summary - Compiled 07/04/08


1. SEO Most Likely to Succeed

Nominee Count Percent %
Danny Sullivan 228 41.76%
Barry Schwartz 159 29.12%
Rand Fishkin 80 14.65%
Aaron Wall 54 9.89%
Todd Friesen 25 4.58%


2. SEO Conference Clown

Nominee Count Percent %
Chris Hooley 309 60.00%
Neil Patel 166 32.23%
Darren Slatten 23 4.47%
Gab Goldberg 14 2.72%
Gab Goldenberg 3 0.58%


3. Best SEO Couple

Nominee Count Percent %
Carolyn Shelby and Dave Rohrer 197 38.70%
Greg and Barbara Boser 161 31.63%
Chris Hooley and Anna Rule 94 18.47%
David & Irma Wallace 30 5.89%
Jeff Quipp & Jennifer Osborne 27 5.30%


4. Best Dressed SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Brett Tabke 208 38.88%
Kid Disco 127 23.74%
Pamela Lund 87 16.26%
Mikkel deMib Svendsen 66 12.34%
Pimp McFly 47 8.79%


5. SEO Party Animal

Nominee Count Percent %
Chris Hooley 238 45.33%
Todd Friesen 76 14.48%
David Harry 54 10.29%
Rae Hoffman 51 9.71%
Kid Disco 32 6.10%
Frank Watson 31 5.90%
Greg Boser 18 3.43%
Jon Heinl 11 2.10%
Greg Hartnett 8 1.52%
Aaron Chronister 6 1.14%


6. SEO’s Best Hairdo

Nominee Count Percent %
Chris Winfield 361 69.16%
Dana Todd 61 11.69%
Greg Boser 44 8.43%
Krazy Korean 32 6.13%
David Harry 24 4.60%


7. SEO’s Biggest Flirt

Nominee Count Percent %
Kimber Cook 161 34.26%
Lisa Barone 131 27.87%
Becky Ryan 84 17.87%
Lora Lufark 50 10.64%
Patrick Sexton 44 9.36%


8. Smartest SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Stephan Spencer 278 52.85%
Aaron Wall 113 21.48%
Bill Slawski 79 15.02%
Rand Fishkin 40 7.60%
Brent D. Payne 12 2.28%
Joe Sinkwytz 4 0.76%


9. Most Athletic SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Cameron Olthuis 247 49.40%
Becky Ryan 102 20.40%
Barry Schwartz 96 19.20%
Kid Disco 55 11.00%


10. Best SEO Blogger

Nominee Count Percent %
Lisa Barone 230 42.28%
Loren Baker 109 20.04%
Rebecca Kelley 50 9.19%
Aaron Wall 46 8.46%
Barry Schwartz 41 7.54%
Jane Copland 35 6.43%
Ann Smarty 20 3.68%
Bill Slawski 13 2.39%


11. Best Smile

Nominee Count Percent %
Jane Copland 276 51.21%
Becky Ryan 104 19.29%
Chris Winfield 62 11.50%
Zak Nicola 52 9.65%
Danny Sullivan 22 4.08%
Lyndsay Walker 18 3.34%
Greg Boser 5 0.93%


12. Best SEO Conference

Nominee Count Percent %
SMX 392 75.24%
PubCon 96 18.43%
SES 33 6.33%


13. Best SEO Conference Speaker

Nominee Count Percent %
Matt McGee 227 45.77%
Stephan Spencer 83 16.73%
Rand Fishkin 71 14.31%
Todd Friesen 44 8.87%
Greg Boser 35 7.06%
Neil Patel 22 4.44%
Jeremy Schoemaker 14 2.82%


14. Best SEO You’ve Never Heard Of

Nominee Count Percent %
Jeff Dempsey 131 20.44%
Justin Boeckman (asked to be removed from the competition) 92 14.35%
Michael Streko 88 13.73%
Kay Dinsdale 82 12.79%
Jon Heinl 64 9.98%
Karl Ribas 64 9.98%
Clint Danks 28 4.37%
Lyndsay Walker 26 4.06%
Melanie Phung 26 4.06%
Leslie Rohde 21 3.28%
Adam Moro 19 2.96%


15. Most Creative SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Lyndon Antcliff 223 42.88%
Michael Gray 187 35.96%
Aaron Wall 59 11.35%
Jeremy Schoemaker 46 8.85%
Michael Campbell 5 0.96%


16. Most Likely To Be Banned

Nominee Count Percent %
Quadzilla 280 54.26%
Dave Naylor 103 19.96%
Slightly Shady SEO 88 17.05%
Irish Wonder 27 5.23%
Earl Gray 18 3.49%


17. Biggest SEO Nerd

Nominee Count Percent %
Aaron Wall 151 27.61%
Neil Patel 137 25.05%
Barry Schwartz 113 20.66%
Bill Slawski 96 17.55%
Tim Nash 28 5.12%
Dan Thies 17 3.11%
Adam Moro 5 0.91%


18. Best SEO Nickname/Handle

Nominee Count Percent %
SexySEO 158 29.48%
Captain Thundercock 139 25.93%
FeedtheBot 96 17.91%
the MadHat 64 11.94%
Seocracy 30 5.60%
SearchBuzz 18 3.36%
SEO Idiot 18 3.36%
OldSchoolSEO 13 2.43%


19. Cutt’s Pet

Nominee Count Percent %
Rand Fishkin 235 44.34%
Shari Thurow; 136 25.66%
Danny Sullivan 104 19.62%
Melanie Nathan 25 4.72%
Audrey Sieberling 21 3.96%
Lyndsay Walker 9 1.70%


20. Best Technical SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Stephan Spencer 265 51.36%
Aaron Wall 92 17.83%
Bill Slawski 52 10.08%
Hamlet Batista 47 9.11%
Dan Thies 30 5.81%
Joe Sinkwytz 30 5.81%


21. Top Linkbaiter

Nominee Count Percent %
Andy Hagans (RIP!) 134 25.52%
Lyndon Antcliff 130 24.76%
Matt Inman 125 23.81%
Todd Malicoat 43 8.19%
Rand Fishkin 39 7.43%
Neil Patel 35 6.67%
Debra Mastaler 19 3.62%


22. Best Up and Coming SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Eric Lander 198 37.50%
Gab Goldenberg 74 14.02%
Rhea Drysdale 67 12.69%
Melanie Nathan 60 11.36%
Jon Heinl 47 8.90%
Darren Slatten 37 7.01%
Doug Heil 18 3.41%
Melanie Phung 15 2.84%
Jeffrey Smith (couldn’t find his blog / site) 12 2.27%


23. SEO Social Media Addict

Nominee Count Percent %
Tamar Weinberg 226 36.63%
Chris Winfield 187 30.31%
Brent Csutoras 65 10.53%
Zak Nicola 45 7.29%
Lee Odden 26 4.21%
Martin Bowling 25 4.05%
Barry Schwartz 24 3.89%
Brent Cstustoras (lol!) 16 2.59%
Tad Chef 3 0.49%


24. Biggest Google Fanboy

Nominee Count Percent %
Ann Smarty 238 49.90%
Brent D. Payne 194 40.67%
Alex Chitu 45 9.43%


25. Least Likely to Date Hooley

Nominee Count Percent %
Jill Whalen 222 44.49%
Greg Boser 110 22.04%
Matt Cutts 84 16.83%
Stoney DeGeytor 60 12.02%
Dave Naylor 23 4.61%


26. Biggest PageRank

Nominee Count Percent %
Matt Cutts 225 44.29%
Bruce Clay 192 37.80%
Aaron Wall 64 12.60%
Danny Sullivan 27 5.31%


27. Most Fiery SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Michael Gray 262 50.48%
Rae Hoffman 169 32.56%
Aaron Chronister 54 10.40%
Michael Martinez 23 4.43%
David Harry 11 2.12%


28. SEO Most Likely to Become President

Nominee Count Percent %
Barry Schwartz 217 41.65%
Danny Sullivan 159 30.52%
Rand Fishkin 70 13.44%
Jason Calacanis 41 7.87%
Andy Beal 34 6.53%


29. Most Likely To Get Kicked Out Of The Bar

Nominee Count Percent %
Chris Hooley 189 36.99%
Rae Hoffman 150 29.35%
Greg Boser 67 13.11%
Aaron Chronister 52 10.18%
Dave Naylor 39 7.63%
David Harry 8 1.57%
Earl Gray 6 1.17%


30. Most Likely To Close The Bar

Nominee Count Percent %
Chris Hooley 205 42.01%
Rae Hoffman 122 25.00%
Patrick Sexton 84 17.21%
Kid Disco 30 6.15%
Melanie Nathan 27 5.53%
Aaron Chronister 13 2.66%
Jon Heinl 7 1.43%


31. The SEO You’d Be Most Afraid To Bring Home to Mom

Nominee Count Percent %
Rae Hoffman 234 48.55%
Dave Naylor 70 14.52%
Chris Hooley 64 13.28%
Michael Martinez 64 13.28%
Greg Boser 26 5.39%
Earl Gray 13 2.70%
David Harry 11 2.28%


32. Most Feared in SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Michael Gray 202 38.62%
Matt Cutts 171 32.70%
Rae Hoffman 66 12.62%
Dave Naylor 38 7.27%
Greg Boser 24 4.59%
Lora Lufark 22 4.21%


33. Mr / Ms Congeniality

Nominee Count Percent %
Rand Fishkin 230 43.98%
Vanessa Fox 130 24.86%
Chris Sherman 74 14.15%
Dazzlin Donna 62 11.85%
Barry Schwartz 27 5.16%


34. Most Likely to Start an Argument

Nominee Count Percent %
Michael Martinez 140 26.57%
Michael Gray 105 19.92%
Doug Heil 98 18.60%
Jill Whalen 62 11.76%
Rae Hoffman 55 10.44%
Darren Slatten 49 9.30%
Dave Naylor 12 2.28%
Brian Turner (couldn’t find his site) 6 1.14%


35. Most Likely to Win an Argument (even if they’re wrong!)

Nominee Count Percent %
Rae Hoffman 208 40.08%
Rand Fishkin 150 28.90%
Li Evans 84 16.18%
Jill Whalen 44 8.48%
Dazzlin Donna 18 3.47%
Shari Thurow; 15 2.89%


36. Best Tweeter

Nominee Count Percent %
Chris Winfield 290 55.24%
Todd Friesen 141 26.86%
Lee Odden 49 9.33%
Melanie Nathan 45 8.57%


37. Noisiest SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Chris Hooley 244 53.74%
Brent D. Payne 126 27.75%
Darren Slatten 84 18.50%


38. Most Traveled SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Danny Sullivan 189 37.43%
Todd Friesen 155 30.69%
Mike Grehan 84 16.63%
David Temple 45 8.91%
Lee Odden 32 6.34%



39. Best SEO Ranter

Nominee Count Percent %
Michael Gray 281 52.52%
Lisa Barone 155 28.97%
Michael Martinez 46 8.60%
Michael VanDeMar 29 5.42%
David Harry 19 3.55%
Darren Slatten 5 0.93%


40. Most Networked SEO

Nominee Count Percent %
Matt McGee 230 40.49%
Danny Sullivan 158 27.82%
Tamar Weinberg 95 16.73%
Lee Odden 43 7.57%
Chris Winfield 42 7.39%


41. SEO Hater Award

Nominee Count Percent %
Jason Calacanis 275 52.38%
Jeremy Schoemaker 97 18.48%
Jason Gambert (forgettable SEO trademark guy) 83 15.81%
Dave Pasternack 38 7.24%
Michael Gray 32 6.10%


42. Biggest SEO DoucheBag

Nominee Count Percent %
Jason Gambert (forgettable SEO trademark guy) 530 100.00%

 

THANKS SO MUCH to all who participated! I owe a lotta people beers on this one. David made some AWESOME badges for all nominees and winners. Feel free to grab one, and proudly display it on your blog! Linking back is optional (srsly, I pinged Matt Cutts like 10x on this blog post) but if you do, you know I got nuttin but love for ya.

Next post up will be a more in depth analysis on how this whole thing went down. I thought some of the behind the scenes stuff was really interesting. I’ll also have a post for those who got shafted this time around. There were a bunch of people who would have been nominated that were not, and a bunch of categories that would have been fun. We’ll get them in next time. But for this year, we’ll call the next vote the "SEO Shafties!" - coming soon peeps :-)


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