Jeremy Zawodny Apologizes
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |
UPDATE 8: Jeremy Zawodny has changed his post and apologized to me via email. Here’s what he said on his blog:
You see, the little voice that normally tells me when to step away from the computer wasn’t working today, and I ended up making a big mess as a result. I’m really sorry about that…Andy, the MyBlogLog guys, and anyone else who wasted time reading this: I f#cked up. I know better (most of the time) and should have just gone on with life….I’ve already emailed you all privately, but wanted to say so in public as well.
I’m grateful that Jeremy has changed the title of the post. My reputation is important to me - I left two companies to protect it - so it was the title that irked me the most. I now consider the issue closed
======
Jeremy’s decided that he needs to suggest to his readers that I am spamming MyBlogLog. Yep, Jeremy believes that he is the guardian of all that Yahoo decides to buy and he should make wild claims - maybe he’s just pissed because we discovered the spammy tactics Yahoo was employing.
Jeremy, do you even know the difference between spam and marketing?
Jeremy obviously has no idea of the amount of spam that is already going on at MyBlogLog - have you read the comments and messages people leave each other Jeremy? Here I am, encouraging people to join the Marketing Pilgrim MyBlogLog community - something I did before it took off and before Yahoo acquired it - and he accuses me of spamming. Just because my community profile - not my personal profile which is the one that shows up on other sites - happens to promote the contest.
Jeremy, get a damn clue. I’ve been working to help MyBlogLog flourish and here you are making lame public statements.
UPDATE: I’m removing MyBlogLog from the site. I get no noticeable traffic from it and I’m not prepared to be treated like a crook, by someone that is allowed to post crap in the name of Yahoo. Done.
UPDATE 2: Yes, I am pissed.
UPDATE 3: Oh, and another thing Jeremy, MyBlogLog’s Scott Rafer gave his approval for the contest. Thanks to Shoemoney for reminding me.
UPDATE 4: The Zune contest is still running. I’m just not prepared to promote MBL or use the widget until either Jeremy apologizes or I decide to scratch a mad place and get glad.
UPDATE 5: I’ve put back the widget. Eric, Scott, the hard-working people at MyBlogLog, and our readers, should not have to suffer for the ramblings of a Yahoo employee that has nothing better to do. I’m extremely disappointed with Zawodny, I considered him a “blogging buddy” and he could have just emailed me. Now he has egg on his face and I’m sure is answering a lot of internal questions about now. Maybe I can start a “nofollow me to Zawodny” link campaign. 
UPDATE 6: Zawodny doesn’t appear to care about clarifying his screenshot. You only see the “Win a Zune” image if you you take the time to navigate to my community. My personal avatar is my actual face. When I visit your site, you see my face. I’m not ramming any advertising down the throats of the sites that I visit.
UPDATE 7: Zawodny has convinced me to change my site photo. I’ve seen the light.
** Want Marketing Pilgrim updates in your inbox? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!
Similar posts you may like...
Save & Share: 
Category: Pilgrim News
Forward: Email This Post
January 30th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
[…] Here is Andy’s reply: Jeremy Zawodny Get A Damn Clue Filed in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with 0 comments […]
January 30th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Clearly Yahoo wants bloggers to keep using the service but doesn’t want them to look at it as a marketing tool. I wonder how that’s going to work…
January 30th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Definitely one of the most asinine posts ever made by Zawodny.
Move along, nothing to see here….
January 30th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
[…] Andy Fires one back with Jeremy Zawodny Get A Damn Clue […]
January 30th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
I thought it would be funny to put a spam link in my comment…but maybe it would add to the drama…nah, better not.
January 30th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Andy — you’ve always been a great partner and I hope that after some reflection (and maybe a few more jabs between you and Jeremy) you’ll come back to MyBlogLog.
I tend to say stupid things when I don’t think for a while, so I’m not going to make apologies or say someone was in the right. I can see where you and Jeremy both have valid points. As we continue to grow (knock on wood) we’re going to constantly add new developers and new members to the mix and they’re all going to have different ideas about MyBlogLog’s direction.
At a high level, I think your disagreement represents a very good thing for MyBlogLog. I’d rather that we have members who are invested enough to argue about what’s acceptable than folks who sleepwalk through the service and ultimately find themselves somewhere else.
January 30th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Sorry Andy I’m still cleaning up my keyboard from Shoemoney’s “Chill your dill” comment. I’ll be back later when I have unstuck the left side of the letters.
January 30th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Thanks Eric. A very good response, considering you need to keep the peace between your new boss (Yahoo) and the people that actually made the service popular (bloggers).
I honestly cannot see where Jeremy is in anyway “in the right”. I know him well enough that he can email me to ask what’s going on, before posting anything slanderous.
I had the blessing of MyBlogLog, I was promoting the community, I’ve come back to the service, despite the hiccups with the servers, and I get treated this way.
Jeremy is a programmer. You and Scott understand communities. When you get a chance to meet him, maybe you can bring him up to speed.
At this stage, I have no idea whether I’ll return to using MBL. I joined because of the sense of community. I offered a Zune as a way to encourage others to use it. I feel betrayed and like any relationship - it’s going to take a lot to overcome that. Dramatic, I know, but that’s just how I feel.
January 30th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Damn, I wanted that Zune! This is pretty lame even with that “I do not represent Yahoo” disclaimer. For chrissakes, it’s a MySpace for Bloggers.
I still like MLB. It’s great for small-timers like myself. But yeah, if MLB is the major force driving traffic to your blog, it’s time to work on something else.
I guess Jeremy never really took a peek at all the shady crap already going on within MLB.
Still, don’t you think you’re being unfair to the MLB buys who blessed you to start with? I kinda feel sorry for them getting punished because Jeremy lost it.
January 30th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Baron, the contest is still running. I’m not about yank it because of him. I’m just not going to display the widget.
January 30th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
[…] Zawodny’s move is kind of surprising considering the fact Beal has never openly endorsed any spammy promotional techniques. While the use of the avatar in question is perhaps dubious at best, in his entry addressing the situation Beal expresses MBL’s Scott Rafer approved the initial contest to begin with. […]
January 30th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Andy –
You’ve seen all the posts about spam on MyBlogLog. It’s not all about sending messages asking members to visit my community. There are members who get pissed at people who make everyone a contact. There are member who get pissed at people who constantly visit other communities so that they show up on the list of “people who recently stopped by” and there are people, like Jeremy, who get pissed when people use their avatars and screenshots for blatant marketing uses (whether it’s a guy who makes his avatar a hot woman so that he stands out on a reader roll or a member who uses his screen shot area to entice people to join through a contest).
I think it’s perfectly cool for someone to join MyBlogLog and then a month, or a week, or even a day later say “I think that MyBlogLog would be better with tags, or nothing but porn, or no marketing.” Punk rock ethos, man
January 30th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Eric, you’re a cool dude, I hope we get to meet sometime soon. I’ve put back the widget, I don’t want Zawodny’s actions to impact your great community.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
I’m with you on this on Andy, totally out of order for JZ to have a go at you for spicing things up.
I was amazed you got singled out for this.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
[…] In a stunning display of assy-ness, this morning Jeremy Zawodny sold out Andy Beal by showing the world he has been spamming MyBlogLog. After a blistering race of commenting, Andy Beal wrote his response to Jeremy in which he states “Yes, I am pissed. I’m removing MyBlogLog from the site.†Threadwatch & WebProNews have picked up the fight and ShoeMoney (who is slowly becoming my preferred blogger) aids in Andy’s rebuttal. […]
January 30th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
I’m a fan of MBL and sure appreciate Eric’s diplomatic approach above - you *deserve* the millions man!
Andy - I thought Jeremy was hitting you too hard by calling this “spam”, especially if you had prior permission to do this, but I agree with him that “Win a Zune” is out of the normal spirit of MBL.
I’ve been frustrated to see MBL weighed down with marketing “tricks” to inflate communities rather than innovative uses of MBL as the blog community tool it was intended, and is destined, to become.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Actually Joe it was bought as a marketing tool
January 30th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Andy - I’m surprised, too, by Jeremy’s post. I think he doesn’t understand the concept of “spam,” as you’ve noted. I did join your MyBlogLog community, however, and I think I’ll urge SEOmoz readers to do likewise.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Jim - at the risk of sounding like a Prick2.0, I don’t agree. In fact this is a *great* debate about what lies in the online future.
Like many Yahoo aquisitions MBL was probably seen as a nicely done 2.0/community building/marketing environment. It’s Jeremy’s job to keep this on track as a community site, and Andy’s to build traffic to his site.
Andy needs to clarify for me why he thinks the Zune promo is more for MBL’s benefit than his own - I don’t get that.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Can’t we all just get along and blog and not compete
with each other and bitch. Blogging is turning into a big bitch fest! He said she said crap is annoying and is not good for loyal readers IMHO.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Joe - the Zune promotion has led a lot of people to join MyBlogLog, not just my community. Sure, I get people coming to my site, but it’s not like I get any revenue from MBL. I could have just set the contest based on who comments on my posts, instead, I wanted to build the community.
ToddW - I agree. I try not to bitch about other bloggers. I may critique a site here or there, but Jeremy has my email and cell, he could have contacted me privately and saved us this whole mess.
I have no issue with him taking offense at my promotion, but to suggest I am spamming is an insult.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Thanks to everyone for their support, both here and on Jeremy’s blog.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Just kidding about the Zune (I have an iPod). Glad to hear there’s a happy ending to all this.
MLB guys busted their behinds to put out a great service and if major players bow out because someone outside the team made a misinformed remark, then the whole system starts sucking and becomes a parlor trick for small time bloggers.
Andy, kudos for being the bigger man in all this.
January 30th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
No problem Joe I’m always open for discussion and I do see the thoughts behind what your point is, but if you think Yahoo spent that kind of money to make them feel good and be a part of a community you may be not seeing the forest for the trees.
MBL is becoming the new Myspace for blogs or so I’ve seen it stated. They bought this app for the community yes, but they bought it for the power that community brings. This community will be used as a marketing tool for Yahoo. In fact, they have already begun that transfer of other tools purchased to make it even more powerful in that regard. It’s like playing Risk, you buy up all the army you can and when the Marketing war is unleashed against Google and other armies, they hope to have the power they have purchased.
January 30th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
[…] Andy Beal shot back angrily that he was not spamming and even had permission to run the contest from MyBlogLog’s founders. Cheap trick or not, if he had permission I think Jeremy owes him an apology - or at least an upgrade to “officially approved MBL spammy tactic”. […]
January 30th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
[…] Andy and Jeremy, back and forth, back and forth about MBL. This is a good example of a blog post that is not well thought out before posting (on the part of Jeremy Zawodny). Using the word “spamming” and Andy Beal’s name in the blog post title was flat out lame, whether there was an objection to Andy’s contest or not. […]
January 30th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I think I’d consider Jeremy’s foray into selling text links to the highest bidder on his site much closer to SPAM than this.
I’ve lost a lot of respect for Jeremy on this one.
January 30th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
[…] Is it me or does it seem like there has been a lot of fights between bloggers lately? The most recent one involves Andy Beal vs. Jeremy Zawodny. Jeremy posted a story complaining about how Andy was running a contest for people to join Andy’s MyBlogLog community. A winner would win a Microsoft Zune. Jeremy who works at Yahoo and who also now owns MyBlogLog believed Andy was spamming. Andy fired back with a story of his own where he was unhappy to say the least. I also recommend reading the comments on both stories as they are interesting and tells even more of the story. […]
January 30th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
you’re going to have to pay people to accept that Zune…
January 30th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I love the new site photo. I for one only joined the site because of your zune promotion, and then I started hearing about it leading up to the Yahoo purchase.
January 30th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Thanks Andy, now I understand what you meant by helping MBL with the promotion and agree you were helping them. Scott checked in over at Jeremy’s blog and agreed this was appropriate behavior in his eyes. However I’d like to see MBL as a policy stick to conventional avatars.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
[…] Jeremy Zawodny Commits Headline Terrorism On Andy Beal What else are we gonna call it? Honestly, what Jeremy did is the worst thing you can do to someone in the online business, and that is to insinuate negative things, purposely, through a link-bait headline. Case in point. […]
January 30th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
I was taken aback at his post as well… but not as surprised as the number of sites that instantly jumped on the bandwagon to promote it. Had they looked at the ad, they would have seen it was a marketing contest. I’m disappointed in the sites that promoted the garbage in the first place. I hope you take them to task as well.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Where is Jeremy’s response to this post?
January 30th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Andy,
While I still think the Zune contest was interesting and a good way to draw more users to MyBlogLog and your MyBlogLog Marketing Pilgrim community, and I do not think you were spamming them,…
I would like to say that I’m already pretty sick myself of seeing so many other businesses and blogs running ads in their screenshot AND/OR avatar spot. Especially in the avatar spot.
I’m also tired of getting those little “You visited our blog and we suggest _______.com messages in my “Check It!” MyBlogLog messages
There’s a thin red line between networking, pitching and ’spamming’ and MyBlogLog seems to be a new breeding ground for such. I’d rather use it as a way to connect with like-minded users than push my blog or my community onto others outside of the faceroll or MyBlogLog tools. But, that’s just me.
So, you gonna send Jeremy a Zune?
January 31st, 2007 at 1:29 am
[…] And now, it’s Jeremy Zawodny calling the well known White hat SEO Andy Beal, a spammer. And Andy Beal said back to Jeremy indirectly calling him an idiot (that’s my opinion). Jeremy, do you even know the difference between spam and marketing? […]
January 31st, 2007 at 2:17 am
I’m glad to see that Jeremy finally apologized.
Everyday it becomes more and more clear to me the awesome responsibility bloggers have.
It is so easy to wake up in the morning on the wrong side of the bed, and say something that you’ll regret later.
The web is an unforgiving place. By the time you figure out you said something wrong, it has been archived by a dozen places already.
Hopefully enough positivity will come out of the conclusion to offset some of the bad vibes it caused.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:20 am
You are owed an apology Andy. Surely this will not harm your business but having your name attached to the word spam by a respected Yahoo! figure is wrong.
On the business side how many clients have you counseled to use Yahoo! marketing services?
Perhaps Yahoo! should apologize.
I do like the new avatar, very clever!
January 31st, 2007 at 11:30 am
I hated watching you experience this Andy. Anyone who knows you would have also been here when you and Shoemoney first started your “competition”. It was done out in the open and had Mybloglog had any objections to it, THEY could have spoken up or contacted you, back then.
There’s something more happening here, which is rampant now all over the Internet. And that is the ease, freedom and ability to publically blast an individual, company or website to hell. It’s common to see public accusations made in an emotional state, or delivered with no research. It seems to be accepted behavior to purposely pick on people, no matter who they are, just because you can. Jeremy Z. even admitted to knowing you. That somehow makes what he did okay? We meet someone and they become an easy target?
When someone with a huge following or strong reputation also publically goes after someone half-cocked, I lose respect for them and rarely do they get it back. It’s especially important, in my mind, that though a blog may be considered one’s own opinion, when the blog writer is an employee or representative of a large corporation, they are a public face to that company, whether they want to be or not.
I’m sorry for a long comment. I think there’s more to your experience that’s worthy of exploring, for those interested in human behavior and the Internet
January 31st, 2007 at 11:34 am
Thanks Kim. I agree that no matter who you are, when you blog, you represent your employer, regardless of the disclaimers.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:48 pm
[…] Ich halte die Fähigkeit Fehler einzugestehen und Streits nicht eskalieren zu lassen für eine der wichtigsten überhaupt. In einer Welt wo alle Übeltaten online archiviert werden und Fehltritte von Suchmaschinen leicht vor dem eigenen Webauftritt gelistet werden können ist es unheimlich wichtig seine Integrität zu schützen und eine halbwegs weiße Weste zu bewahren. Das ist nicht der einzige aber ein guter Grund für ethisches Verhalten. Andy Beals scheint das ähnlich zu sehen. Die Reue und Reflektiertheit, die Jeremy auszeichnet, lässt Matt Cutts leider vermissen. Auf die Plagiatsvorwürfe von (zufällig auch) Jeremy reagiert Matt Cutts wie ein Kind, dem man das Spielzeug weggenommen hat. Auch sonst finde ich Matts Äußerungen in letzter Zeit zumindestens fragwürdig. […]
January 31st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Andy,
I am glad to see this was resolved.
January 31st, 2007 at 7:59 pm
[…] In a recent post to his blog, Jeremy Zawodny accused Andy Beal of spamming the MyBlogLog website by utilizing an avatar that promoted a contest Andy was promoting. […]
February 1st, 2007 at 4:52 am
[…] Ich halte die Fähigkeit Fehler einzugestehen und Streits nicht eskalieren zu lassen für eine der wichtigsten überhaupt. In einer Welt wo alle Übeltaten online archiviert werden und Fehltritte von Suchmaschinen leicht vor dem eigenen Webauftritt gelistet werden können ist es unheimlich wichtig seine Integrität zu schützen und eine halbwegs weiße Weste zu bewahren. Das ist nicht der einzige aber ein guter Grund für ethisches Verhalten. Andy Beals scheint das ähnlich zu sehen. Die Reue und Reflektiertheit, die Jeremy auszeichnet, lässt Matt Cutts leider vermissen. Auf die Plagiatsvorwürfe von (zufällig auch) Jeremy reagiert Matt Cutts wie ein Kind, dem man das Spielzeug weggenommen hat. Auch sonst finde ich Matts Äußerungen in letzter Zeit zumindestens fragwürdig. […]
February 1st, 2007 at 10:12 pm
[…] I’m sure most of you have heard about the little “JZ vs. Andy Beal” drama that went in the last day or two. To sum it up, Shoemoney and Andy Beal made a little bet or something to see who could get the most new members in their MyBlogLog communities. Shoemoney decided to use an icon of some woman with a nice rack, and Andy Beal took the “Win a Zune” approach. Jeremy’s take on the “Win a Zune” icon was that it was spam, and wrote about it here. […]
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:56 pm
[…] Andy Beal: Andy has been a favorite of mine for years. Back when I was the lead programmer and web marketer over at Radiator Express, I followed Andy’s posts back at Keyword Ranking and when he started Fortune Interactive, I was lucky enough to have Radiators.com be one of his first clients. Andy, in my opinion, is one of the most poignant voices out there; he pulls no punches. Over the past week Andy and Zawodny went head-to-head (which I posted about) – for those who aren’t caught up, it’s a good series of threads to read. […]
February 2nd, 2007 at 5:12 pm
[…] In the last year I have found many little holes in applications and with networks like Google, Microsoft, Firefox and ect… I shoot them a email with what I find and they email me back and its fixed. I was doing this with the MyBlogLog people but now that they are owned by the man it seems they would rather out things publicly and try to embarrass people rather then email so lets just get these out in the open then shall we. […]
February 13th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
[…] The last cool thing Yahoo did was to grab Flickr. Since then, they’ve watched Google snatch up YouTube, spun their wheels on Facebook, and took us for a bumpy ride through the revamp of their ad platform. Sure they managed to acquire MyBlogLog, but the jury is still out on that one. It might become a powerful marketing medium, or just another $10 million dollar nifty social media tool. […]
February 24th, 2007 at 3:38 am
[…] The backlash has begun with Internet marketing consultant Andy Beal boycotting MyBlogLog until they reinstate Shoemoney’s profile. He argues that anyone could have looked up the MBL data and that it was hypocritical to expect an email from Shoemoney first (pointing out that notable Yahoo! blogger Jeremy Zawodny didn’t email Andy prior to publicly accusing Andy of being a spammer). Photographer and CEO of Flickr competitor Zooomr Thomas Hawk and SEO blogger Graywolf have both removed their accounts in boycott as well. […]
May 6th, 2007 at 1:13 am
[…] Ding Ding - Beal vs. Zawodny Is it me or does it seem like there has been a lot of fights between bloggers lately? The most recent one involves Andy Beal vs. Jeremy Zawodny. Jeremy posted a story complaining about how Andy was running a contest for people to join Andy’s MyBlogLog community. A winner would win a Microsoft Zune. Jeremy who works at Yahoo and who also now owns MyBlogLog believed Andy was spamming. Andy fired back with a story of his own where he was unhappy to say the least. I also recommend reading the comments on both stories as they are interesting and tells even more of the story. […]
May 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Just kidding about the Zune (I have an iPod). Glad to hear there’s a happy ending to all this.
MLB guys busted their behinds to put out a great service and if major players bow out because someone outside the team made a misinformed remark, then the whole system starts sucking and becomes a parlor trick for small time bloggers.
Andy, kudos for being the bigger man in all this.
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:26 pm
LOL. I love threads like this. Great link bait guys. Really, well done.
July 7th, 2007 at 3:23 am
Just kidding about the Zune (I have an iPod). Glad to hear there’s a happy ending to all this
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:29 am
Clearly Yahoo wants bloggers to keep using the service but doesn’t want them to look at it as a marketing tool.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Just kidding about the Zune (I have an iPod). Glad to hear thereâs a happy ending to all this