Comments on: Why You Might Not Want to be Number One in Google http://www.oldschoolseo.com/2009/04/02/why-you-might-not-want-to-be-number-one-in-google/ Anthony Kirlew's Internet Marketing Blog Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:14:40 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: oldschool http://www.oldschoolseo.com/2009/04/02/why-you-might-not-want-to-be-number-one-in-google/comment-page-1/#comment-19741 oldschool Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:47:22 +0000 http://www.oldschoolseo.com/?p=153#comment-19741 Disa, thanks for your further insights and validation of my point. Thanks as well for the memories. I do remember Jim Wilson of JimWorld Fame. A funny story RE: "be careful what you wish for". I had a friend who used to work at Yahoo and he had someone ask "can you send me a million hits?" to which he replied "ahh, you want a million hits from Yahoo?" The guy insisted... something about seeing something amazing in his stats. Well, the funny thing is that after some back and forth dialogue, he did just that and sent 1,000,000 hits (pings) to the guys site and crushed his server. Then the guy got upset with him. I won't out him (he doesn't work there anymore), but I'd be curious to know if anyone reading this worked at Yahoo during that time and remembers that story. If my memory serves me correctly it was around 2001. Disa, thanks for your further insights and validation of my point. Thanks as well for the memories. I do remember Jim Wilson of JimWorld Fame.

A funny story RE: “be careful what you wish for”. I had a friend who used to work at Yahoo and he had someone ask “can you send me a million hits?” to which he replied “ahh, you want a million hits from Yahoo?” The guy insisted… something about seeing something amazing in his stats.

Well, the funny thing is that after some back and forth dialogue, he did just that and sent 1,000,000 hits (pings) to the guys site and crushed his server. Then the guy got upset with him. I won’t out him (he doesn’t work there anymore), but I’d be curious to know if anyone reading this worked at Yahoo during that time and remembers that story. If my memory serves me correctly it was around 2001.

]]> By: Disa Johnson http://www.oldschoolseo.com/2009/04/02/why-you-might-not-want-to-be-number-one-in-google/comment-page-1/#comment-19715 Disa Johnson Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:04:39 +0000 http://www.oldschoolseo.com/?p=153#comment-19715 Here is an old school reference some will recognize: Jim Wilson. When he came to Lennart Svanberg's Internet Marketing Conference in Las Vegas back in 2000 (I believe), he had a profound thing to say to people who want to be number one on a competitive term: Can you afford the traffic? Bandwidth can be expensive, and back then it was more than it is today. What's true is, the so-called 'Digg effect' of melting sites is something akin to what Jim was saying back then. Imagine being number one for travel, what that would mean in terms of traffic and new bills. Immense. Can you *really* profit, or would you melt down? So, be careful what you wish for. I've spoken to a number of people who have at times been number one for search engine optimization. I've determined it to not be trouble that I want to invite, personally. It can lead to business, sure, but the offset is all the other stuff that starts happening. People will try to take you down and you get so many inquiries that aren't worth anything that it becomes tough to sort the value from the mess. You invite envy and anger from all the sites beneath you that are trying their best to vie for your spot. You get crawled by more bots, your content and code gets poked and prodded and criticized and mischaracterized. Thank you Jim Wilson. RIP. Here is an old school reference some will recognize: Jim Wilson. When he came to Lennart Svanberg’s Internet Marketing Conference in Las Vegas back in 2000 (I believe), he had a profound thing to say to people who want to be number one on a competitive term: Can you afford the traffic?

Bandwidth can be expensive, and back then it was more than it is today. What’s true is, the so-called ‘Digg effect’ of melting sites is something akin to what Jim was saying back then. Imagine being number one for travel, what that would mean in terms of traffic and new bills. Immense. Can you *really* profit, or would you melt down?

So, be careful what you wish for. I’ve spoken to a number of people who have at times been number one for search engine optimization. I’ve determined it to not be trouble that I want to invite, personally. It can lead to business, sure, but the offset is all the other stuff that starts happening.

People will try to take you down and you get so many inquiries that aren’t worth anything that it becomes tough to sort the value from the mess. You invite envy and anger from all the sites beneath you that are trying their best to vie for your spot. You get crawled by more bots, your content and code gets poked and prodded and criticized and mischaracterized.

Thank you Jim Wilson. RIP.

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