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MarketSmart Interactive Closes Doors

posted on January 5, 2007


It’s a sad day for all of us who helped grow KeywordRanking/WebSourced – now MarketSmart Interactive – as I’ve heard the company closed the doors on its Morrisville offices at exactly 2:30pm today.

Since I left the company in July of 2005, the company has been on a steady decline, seemingly laying off employees each month and steadily losing clients. It’s been sad to watch the events unfold from the sidelines, but even outside observers saw the writing on the wall. Maybe now the company has finally closed the doors, I’ll write up an obituary for what was once a great search marketing firm.

In the meantime, there’s going to be a lot of talented SEMs looking for work. A reliable source tells me that the parent company, Think Partnership, kept on just six employees and offered no severance to those fired (despite many having worked there for 5+ years).

If any ex-MSI employees need help finding work, drop me an email. If you’re company is looking for talented search marketers, leave a comment and let them know you’re hiring.

UPDATE: Post your open job positions at the Marketing Pilgrim Job Board.


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  • http://www.toprankblog.com Lee Odden

    Wow. If that happened with MSI, I wonder how Fortune Interactive is doing?

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  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    FI’s not fairing much better. Since I left, they’ve lost around half of the talented people there. Unfortunately, the investment group is pretty much running the show now.

  • http://www.artisaninteractive.com Scott Woodard

    I wasn’t surprised but I’d been hoping that they would turn it around – there were a ton of great folks still working there.

  • http://www.interwebshop.com M. L. Jones

    I need a free lancer and if successful they could do very well

  • Anthony

    I left FI for AOL, and I’m looking for linking ninjas, seo gurus, and seo copywriting geniuses to take some of our channels to the next level and beyond.

  • http://www.evilgeniusmarketing.com Eric G. Myers

    I’ll be in the position to hire a search marketing manager in Columbus, Ohio perhaps as soon as February 1st. If anyone is interested, please drop me a line with your resume at:

    ericmyers (at) columbus dot rr dot com

    And if you can’t unravel that cleverly disguised e-mail above, you probably shouldn’t apply. *grin*

    Hey Anthony! Good to see you here. How’s it going at AOL?

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  • http://www.paulzhao.com Paul Zhao

    Wow, sad. I left the same time around Andy Beal, and those were some good times. I’m just glad I left right before bad things started happening, and I had some very great memories there.

  • Anthony

    Guess an email address would help those wanting to apply: anthonylong06 (at) aol dot com.

    EGM, I’ve been thinking about reaching out to you. I’ll be contacting you shortly.

  • http://www.elixirsystems.com Fionn

    Andy,
    We are looking for an SEO specialist no relocation. The Ad will be out this week in the normal channels.

  • http://www.marketnet.com Bill Hartzer

    Andy, MarketNet.com is looking for search engine marketers, both SEOs and PPC experts. Marketnet is located in Dallas, Texas. Send me an email if you’re interested: bill dot hartzer at marketnet dot com.

  • http://www.greenlightsearch.com Warren Cowan

    Sorry to hear about everyones job losses. It really sucks when horrific companies suffoctae great people.

    If anyone’s inerested in coming to the big apple, Greenlight (Europe’s leading search agency) has opened its New York office and is looking for a multitude of mid level and senior people on both SEO and PPC sides, including a head of agency for the NY office.

    Send your resumes to warren.cowan@greenlightsearch.com

  • http://www.cadwebsitedesign.com Jeff Phillips

    My name is Jeff Phillips and I own CAD Enterprises LLC out of Madisonville KY. This is the parent company of CAD website Design, RSStatic.com, MyEZShop.com, Classadrivers.com, and a few others. I would be interested in talking to someone about marketing and promotion with respect to providing those services to our clients.

    I see SEO becoming integrated into development of a website, not just a stand alone function. I have great programmers and graphics people, but what i would really like to provide is branding and marketing services along with the development.

    I can be contacted via our online contact form at http://www.cadwebsitedesign.com or at http://www.cadenterprisesllc.com

  • http://www.acronym.com Jenny Halasz

    I was laid off from MSI in the first round – back in February of 06, so I can personally attest to the wonderful talent of the people who worked there.

    I’d be honored to work with any of them again. Please send me your resumes – jennyhalasz at gmail dot com and I’ll forward them on to our HR Director at Acronym Media with my personal recommendation.

  • http://www.marketingpunk.com Marketing Punk

    I feel sorry for the employees over there and all, but KeywordRanking was basically a scam anyway – at least in personal (and very expensive) experience. No, it wasn’t anything like TrafficPower…but pretty darn close.

    And yes Andy, we were clients when you were still with the company. The fact that you were associated with KeywordRanking (and that you looked me in the eye and told me we should work with KeywordRanking) has always made me question your values a bit. But hey, I worked for some scammy companies in the past…it happens.

    In the end, I’m glad there is one less company out there to give SEO a bad reputation. Now there are only a few hundred more to go, eh?

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    I’m sorry you got burned. When the CEO hires his brother and cousin and lets them run customer service into the ground, it’s hard to stomach. When it was clear they wouldn’t listen to me, that’s when I left.

    It’s a shame cos there were a lot of great people there.

  • WorldMallRules

    I doubt you will post this, but I had to drop a line…What would you expect? MSI, Websourced, KeywordRanking.com….all the iterations of this company were built on the back of a straigh-up CON JOB called WorldMall.com in 2000-2001 where a group of 15 guys, including you and I, sat in a single cramped office and conned little old ladies out of $50-$500 (as much room as they had on their credit card) to boost traffic to their knitting website.

    The products? Nothing but the best….

    First we have: SUPERMALL…For just $500 we will link you to 500 carbon copy websites with site addresses Mallking1 all the way through Mallking500!!!! Just imaging the traffic that will generate!!!!!

    However, if you don’t have that kind of bank, we would gladly sell you $50 in PPC money on WorldMall.com that will last you at least into the 22nd century.

    Finally, if you really wanted to shoot the moon, we would gladly bill your credit card for $3000 for the service of re-doing your meta-tags.

    I quit, with no notice, and no other job, the day I found out that it was a total and utter scam (Should have realized after the 3rd time Sprint shut us down due to spamming, but hey, I was young).

    To be fair, I am sure that as WorldMall was acquired by Think (then CGI Holdings),and became Keyword/MSI they tried to build a real business out of it…and you were absolutely a great sales guy, and you have also obviously built considerable expertise in what is now a very real field….

    However, with that kind of foundation, I was really suprised it lasted as long as it did for MSI/Websourced/KeywordRanking/Worldmall….and was even more suprised that it didn’t go out ‘Boiler Room’ style with the Feds walking people out in handcuffs…

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    I have no problem publishing your comment. Your information isn’t exactly accurate, but hey, it was a long time ago. Worldmall was a piece of crap, that’s why it was dumped early on – and good riddence! BTW, you forgot the joke called GoHeelsMall – or had you left by then?

    For a period of about 3 years (2001-2004), KeywordRanking was a great company that got great results for clients. The first 18 months (1999-2000), focused too much on Worldmall and the last 18 months (2005+) focused too much on profits over service, but the middle 3 years were great.

  • WordMallRules

    Fair enough. I left right before they started focusing on SEM. Like I said, I am sure they tried to build a real company out of it and you are right, from the growth in that period, it looks like they were doing well. You have to admit that some of the business practices back then were a bit suspect at best.

    I left right as we moved into the permanent building off Davis Dr from the little rent-an-office off the 55/54 exit. I think it was right around the end of 2000. Right when Think bought it from Pat.

    Anyway, definitely was a long time ago, and I am glad you are doing well!

  • http://www.etrafficjams.com/careers/index.htm eTrafficJams.com

    Hey Guys / Gals….

    eTrafficJams.com is hiring talented SEO’s / SEM’s and sales reps. Located in Clearwater Florida. Full time remote work is available as well.

    877-785-9977 or send your resume to careers @ etrafficjams.com

  • http://www.naptimecards.com Kerri Brimmer

    We were clients of MSI for a year and a half. We had a series of very helpful and dedicated reps, who changed every few months. After major changes to our site, and much work, we are finally starting to see results… a combination of MSI team knowledge and our persistance (relentless). Any recommendations from you knowledeable ex-MSI employees for solid, honest SEO companies to consider? Or perhaps some leads for freelance SEOs?

  • http://www.ephricon.com Jon Payne

    I’m a bit late here, but if anyone from MSI happens to be in the Baltimore, MD area my firm is always interested in discussing employment possibilities.

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  • http://www.rtcpromotions.com RTC Support Team

    RTC Promotions is hiring as well! We are looking for talented SEO Analysts as well as Sales Reps. We are located in Rocky Mount, NC which is just an hour away from Raleigh, NC.

    Call us 252-428-0200 or send your resume to support @ rtcpromotions.com!

  • Jordan McCollum

    That’s great, RTC. But this post is over 5 months old. If you’d really like people to see your job listing, how about posting it on the Marketing Pilgrim Job board?

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