My friend's experience with Gotwebhost (baddog)
 

A friend of mine, knowing that I surf the boards asked me who people are using for an SEO host. I said, theres a guy on GFY who posts all over the place and his site is called 'gotwebhost'. I never heard anything bad about the guy other than he's 100 years old and spends alot of time on this forum. So my friend decided to contact baddog.

Let me explain a bit about my friend. He holds a number of top 5 and many number 1 positions on competitive mainstream keywords and he owns a number of keyword rich generic domains, which are perfect for SEO. He is an SEO expert himself and has hundreds of sites and was looking for an SEO host with multiple c-blocks and IPs and whatever (I'm no expert in SEO myself). Like anybody at the top of his field, he's always looking for new innovative techniques to get that edge over the competition.

First I hear back from my friend, he told me that he contacted baddog and that baddog will only converse through some archaic support ticket system. Never by chat or phone or even email. Furthermore, he will not discuss anything unless you purchase a package. With the package you supposedly receive a free one hour SEO consultation and that will be sufficient to get all the sites mapped out and integrated into the network. Seemed strange but oh well, I have no experience with SEO specific hosts. So I said, 'fine, the guy might be a little eccentric, I mean he does wear t-shirts with his own cartoon caricature on them, I would just order his cheapest package and if he can offer any helpful advice on how to set up your SEO network then you can upgrade to the package you really need'.

So my friend ordered and emailed me today a link to the support ticket thread which is just a back and forth over a week and about 20 Q and As with baddog who now wants $500/hr. for the supposedly 'free 1 hour SEO consultation', and is now saying that he can only provide the consultation after month two and that it is only done via the support ticket channel also, not on the phone or chat or whatever. All baddog says in the support thread is basically accusing my friend of trying to get his 'secrets' for free. My friend holds a number of very prominent SEO positions, after doing some research on baddogs own website, he holds no prominent positions that I can find. All my friend wanted was consultation on how to set up the network (he was willing to move 100 of his sites over to this new network, which is a pretty valuable hosting account), but baddog would not give him even 5 minutes of his precious time on the phone, only to belittle him constantly through the support ticket system.

I would love to post the support ticket thread, I will ask my friend's permission. Meanwhile, what did my friend get for signing up with baddog? Here is his latest email to me:

Thanks for embarassing me baddog. If you actually took 5 minutes to talk to my friend and help him set everything up on your servers, you would be sitting on a $300+/month account. Instead you chose to get very confrontational and provacative right from your first contact and just got worse and worse. I guess this fits your argumentative board personality to a tee. I know alot of people (myself included) who are dicks on the boards, but to be so in real live business and you will end up a broke failure with nothing but an old harley, beat wife and apparantly a single t-shirt. :321GFY

Diving in for a sig spot, what is SEO hosting?

Ha. I know nothing about the guy other than the fact that he once refused to order an illustration from me because he didn't understand my sarcasm in some random thread he read and told me I was 'too stupid to do business with'.

Oh well.

never pay for seo... best seo comes from friends who are willing to share experiences

He just wanted the hosting, which was a setup with multiple IPs over multiple C-blocks. Like I said, I don't know much about SEO, but there is SEO friendly hosting and that is what gotwebhost.com supposedly offers. He never wanted the 'secrets', just the optimal setup for his sites.

Apparantly having multiple IPs over different C-blocks you can cross link or something and it is beneficial. This is what baddog supposedly says he offers, but apparantly it is all just a facade. :1orglaugh

This would be funny if I didn't look like such a moron to my friend for recommending the guy to him.:Oh crap

Why would anyone who is into seo be asking for shit in tickets, RTFM. Anyway you say a $300 + hosting account, fuck just get a bunch from diff hosts like normal people.

Interesting story about BD.

That is how SEO Hosting works. You basically get a number of different C-Class IP's, and then spread them across different name servers, and then you can do basic A-B-C linking strategies between your OWN sites. This saves you endless aggravation of trying to trade links.

It is even better if you can spread them by not only IP, but by GEO.

The only way baddog will communicate is a support ticket. This is even prior to ordering. I think my friend just wants somebody to do the leg work for him, he dosent want to have to sign up for 100 different hosting accounts. All he wanted was for baddog to tell him where to put what site for the optimal SEO performance that he advertises. My friend makes alot of money, and will pay the premium for convenience.

That is more information than my friend received in his 1 hour SEO consultation. Baddog wanted $500/hr for the 'follow-up'.:1orglaugh

Thats hilarious.:1orglaugh

Rollinthunder: Your story is not even close to being the truth. Total bullshit.

Now, you are out and out lying. This will be a proof or be banned post.

I'll sit right here and wait for the rest to pan out... until then.. a question... You as a you say are not a SEO expert, then why is an actual expert coming to you and asking for SEO hosting advice?

I would like the truth even if we can't handle it :2 cents:

I have no reason to lie about it, its not even my experience. My friend came away from an experience with you saying 'wow, this guy is such a tool'. You treated the guy like an asshole from the first contact. I persuaded him to continue with the order and give it a try and maybe you just are a bit anti-social or something. Nevertheless your belittling him got worse and worse on every reply. It seemed like a game to you to abuse him with your almighty SEO prowress. I'm the one who looks bad, I guess next time I need to some more due diligence before recommending somebody.

He asked if I knew a host that advertises SEO type hosting services, catering to SEO people.

Anyhow, baddog is quick to reply and spends 24/7 on this forum but absolutely refused to have a 5 minute phone conversation because he is far too busy! This guy is a maniac.

Your "SEO Expert" friend sounds like a fucking idiot.

Just like Baddog. Match made in heaven fuck faces.

Someone please explain to me, how a company can offer something they can't even do themselves? I.E - Baddog's sites are all horribly SEO'd. I mean, GotWebHost.com is using the wordpress plugin - All in One SEO Pack.

how is that being an expert?

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh gotwebhost??? :disgust

don't you realize baddog collects pension? he doesn't actually make any money on the internets. :thumbsup

Well unlike your friend's experience he has done fine by me... communicating through email, ICQ, facebook, phone and in person...

Now Im not calling you a liar.... but the square block dosnt seem to fit in the round hole...

Perhaps we need the proof that is being asked for :winkwink:

Why would I talk to him on the phone about the SEO? I am not the SEO. You have been fed a pack of lies. In fact, I felt like something smelled when he first came up. I should have turned him down from the gate.

Please provide the proof. Your "friend" is a liar. Why didn't he post this instead of you? Because he knows he is full of shit.

Well now you can either PROVE IT or be banned :uhoh :thumbsup

Really?

The report you sent him came off of one of those free sites which you enter your domains and it gives you info.

Forget about the ban, why do you keep being so confrontational? I never said you are a scammer, in fact my friend said you did refund him, you are just more of an asshole, bad business man and time waster. You turned a potential lucrative account into nothing just because you are a dick and would rather belittle the guy than help him set up on YOUR network.

If your buddy needs a 5 minute conversation on the basic SEO Hosting, and link strategy have him contact me. I will break it down what he needs, and then he can make an informed decision.

Bravo on the post, a screenshot would be better though :thumbsup

I'll come back later.

Then just use normal hosting, if he doesn't want to have distinct non connected registrar accounts and no common factors AT ALL, including email address, physical addy, accounts and obviously no wm tools or gmail etc.

Then I see no real point, I guess all private whois would be the exception and make "seo hosting" more sensible.

Good point.

woah woah woah... you are not THE seo? :uhoh wtf does that even mean? :1orglaugh :disgust


Where can I sign up to pay you 500$/hour for SEO ADViCE? :winkwink:

Well for only 500$/hour baddog will install that SEO plugin for you. (It will take 2-3 hours). :thumbsup

BD is providing you the backbone, or the TOOLS needed to do your SEO via hosting.

No offense meant to BD or you. However, your analogy would be like saying, how does Mansion, ElevatedX, MechBunny know about pay sites and CMS if they do not run one themselves for profit and have a track record. There are endless examples of this, and it's not saying either side is right or wrong.

However, BD is providing the assets. You are required to do the work.
:2 cents:

I had a feeling this would just get more bizarre by the moment.

This baddog guy is a fucking nutcase. This is the first time I ever sent somebody some business and they treated whoever I sent like such an asshole.

Based on just perusing the forums I have an idea of people who can design or do banners or whatever and from time to time, people do ask me and I just throw out a referral and so far other than some people who were not as competent as they may seem, its all been good. This baddog guy though is just a prick and thats wrong.

Post all the emails. Not part of one. And no, it did not come off any free site. It is a script we paid for, and your friend said he found the info valuable.

Really? Thats why he emailed me this:

Anyhow, I thought I'd bring it to your attention how I feel that you treated my friend like an asshole despite him being a legit customer. What I posted was not part of an email, but a complete response by you in the support ticket system. My friend isn't on GFY so I'm not going to start posting his support ticket thread without his permission. You are threatening to have me banned unless I posted proof, so there it is.

We must all have Logs!!!! Forthwith!

Kinda just seems like a personality conflict or something.

I'm still waiting for the Hell's Angels baddog supposedly sent my way back in like 2004.

This shit makes no sense