Matt Inman - 0at.org - Marketing & Design

This morning I was featured in the technology section of The Guardian, a British newspaper with a daily circulation of around 400,000 readers. The article was about my viral marketing tactics and although slightly inaccurate, it paints a pretty fair portrait of what I do:

How to get online advertising for free

Prior to this morning's article, Charles Arthur of the Guardian had written two articles about me, both of which were unfair, highly speculative, and sensationalistic. He apparently used one of my blog widgets and then wrote two scathing blog posts about it, accusing the widget creator (me) of being a hacker and of exploiting bloggers. It's a fine example of someone with editorial power operating on fear and ignorance instead of factual data and insight.

Luckily, Charles asked Michael Pollitt to do a follow up story and dig deeper. Michael, a freelance journalist also located in the UK, did his homework and wrote a much better story. Although there's a few minor inaccuracies, for the most part he got it right. I thought this quote was pretty funny though:

Hiding link code in a widget like this is basically using the same methods as you would use to spread a virus, and while this is essentially just to aid someone's Google ranking, the fact they felt they had to hide it in such a way makes me a little annoyed.

I'd say that's a bit over the top. Deceptive? Maybe a little. A virus? I don't think so.

This marks the second time I've been called a genius. Clearly these people have never seen me try to assemble Ikea furniture, where I mysteriously end up with a pile of extra pieces and the entire dresser leans to the left.

Comments

• Rebecca Kelley writes on 14/2/08
  Clearly you're buying the "Leaningratzen" model of IKEA furniture.
• Matthew Inman writes on 14/2/08
  I blame the lack of documentation for the furniture. I'm all about RTFM, not looking at pictures in TFM.
• Zak Nicola writes on 14/2/08
  I love how the print press gets so worked up.
  I've always ripped the links out of the code... but then I look at what HTML I'm putting up.
• Tamar Weinberg writes on 14/2/08
  I heart Matt
• markus941 writes on 15/2/08
  It's cool to get in a large publication, even though they always slaughter the facts and sensationalize everything about seo's. kudos.
• Dustin writes on 15/2/08
  I was going to agree that you were a Evil Genius, but I'm saddened at the thought of you reaching for the 'enter' key to launch your next major exploit, only to have your chair fall to pieces.
• Terry writes on 15/2/08
  Matt, great post. Time to go own some noobs.
• kelleen writes on 15/2/08
  Haha, I find that hilarious. I could have told them long ago that you were evil.
  Quinn says you should get a lair and a pit with sharks.
• Matthew Inman writes on 15/2/08
  Haha, hell yes. I also need a secondary lair located on the moon or inside a volcano.
• Lori writes on 15/2/08
  I've heard that genuises generally outsource their Ikea assembling needs; you might want to look into that.
  Did you remove the "cash advance" link and alt text from the Blog Readability Quiz? Or am I missing something?
  I miss your posts at SEOmoz, but I'm so glad to find you blogging here!
• Matthew Inman writes on 15/2/08
  No, we haven't removed the cash advance links from the blog readability widget, simply because the website it's linking to has been banned from google...so it's kind of a non-issue at this point.
• Lori writes on 15/2/08
  Ah, I see. Sorry about that. Does your comment box not allow paragraphs? My previous comment looks very stream-of-consciousness. :)
• Amar Reddy writes on 16/2/08
  Link - a virus. Very extreme reaction. Good for you ;-)
• Gab Goldenberg writes on 16/2/08
  Matt, I'm really entertained by all this. Not sure if the publicity is good or not (since it brings more attention from Google engies to you), but I think it's awesome work you're doing. Keep it up!
• Snel Lenen writes on 18/2/08
  This really shows how the majority of the people still don't have a clue in the way that Search Engines work :)
• Pete W writes on 18/2/08
  People with pens and an audience have a way of making me weep...