MT.Net

There are 145 posts filed in MT.Net (this is page 5 of 15).

Google search turns up many infographic mentions

This Google search on “infographic my team built” seems to find many of these spam emails posted on various websites.

Look closely and you’ll find a few sent by our friend Tony Shin, too. Here’s another, and another, and another.

Here’s a whole blog post of Tony Shin’s infographics. Here’s another.

Here’s another from Peter Kim. It was taken from the HackCollege.com website, which is (surprise!) also registered through Moniker:
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Mystery infographic email part of stealth SEO/marketing scheme?

Looks like I’m not the only one who’s gotten the mystery infographic emails. I found this post on blogger Andrew Gelman’s blog:

A personal bit of spam, just for me!
Posted by Andrew on 13 March 2012, 6:50 pm

Hi Andrew,

I came across your site while searching for blogs and posts around American obesity and wanted to reach out to get your readership’s feedback on an infographic my team built which focuses on the obesity of America and where we could end up at the going rate.

If you’re interested, let’s connect. Have a great weekend!

Thanks.
***

I have to say, that’s pretty pitiful, to wish someone a “great weekend” on a Tuesday! This guy’s gotta ratchet up his sophistication a few notches if he ever wants to get a job as a spammer for a major software company, for example.

Similar formula. It’s pretty slick, actually.

The real Peter Kim?

Peter Kim


A Google search shows that Peter Kim is a search engine optimization guru. Note his bio on Amazon.com for his soon-to-be-released book:

Peter is currently Chief Strategy Officer of Dachis Group.

He is a leading advisor on social business, working with clients on strategy formulation and driving global industry discourse. Peter has been quoted by media outlets including CNN, CNBC, NPR, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and featured as a speaker at events including SXSW, Web 2.0 Expo, and Dachis Group Social Business Summits.

?Peter was previously an analyst at Forrester Research and head of international marketing operations, e-commerce, and digital marketing at PUMA AG.?? He holds degrees from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania.
This biography was provided by the author or their representative.

He also has a blog on seomagpie.com, as does Response Mine Interactive. I don’t know if this is the same Peter Kim who wrote me but it’s possible.

Update: SEO guru Peter Kim grew up in Atlanta, where Response Mine is located. I don’t know if they’re connected or not, however. I do know that his Twitter page lists his email address as hello@beingpeterkim.com, which is strikingly similar to the hello.pkim@gmail.com address that was on the email I received. I’m leaning towards this being a SEO stunt of some sort.

Update 18 March: Peter Kim, SEO guru, says he’s not behind the infographics.

Mystery of the Infographics

Who is Peter Kim?


I’m really not sure what’s going on here but it’s gotta be something. And hold on to you hats, I’m going to be doing some serious geeking out with this post. You have been warned. 🙂

Out of the blue a few weeks ago I got an email from a complete stranger who had this to say:

From: Peter Kim hello.pkim@gmail.com
To: “Mark” blah blah blah at gmail.com
Subject: Re:SOPA and PIPA
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:16:40 -0800

Hi Mark,

I was wondering if this is the correct contact in regards to the content on the http://markturner.net. I came across the site while searching for resources around PIPA and SOPA. I just created a graphic on the topic and was wondering if you’d be interested in taking a look, I’d love to get your thoughts.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Peter

Well, I don’t normally have Copious Free Time to be dicking around with critiquing infographics. But what the heck, I decided to humor the guy and answer:
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The joys of blogging

A neighbor approached me after school yesterday and began the conversation with “I was reading your blog…” I can’t help but cringe when I hear this, thinking okay, what did I write that pissed someone off? Lately, though, the feedback is positive and I’m pleasantly surprised at how many folks agree with what I’ve written. In my neighbor’s case, she was excited to read about the Little Raleigh Radio project and wanted to find out more.

This morning I discovered the budding blog of an old friend of mine, Deidre Armstrong. Deidre and I were pals in our high school journalism class. Our lockers were also near each other’s. I even took her out on a date once, though we mutually agreed that staying friends was best.
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Ten years of blogging

Today marks the ten year anniversary of my blog, MT.Net, with the first post being added 17 January 2002. I couldn’t have possibly known on that day how active I would become at blogging, with over 5,304 posts logged. That’s an average of almost 1.5 per day for ten years. Not too shabby!

Besides all the obvious fame and fortune, blogging has made me a better writer and speaker. It has led to lasting friendships. It has emboldened me to have an opinion on things – any things – and be able to defend my position. It has shown me that there are others who think like I do but might have not have been brave enough to say so until I did. It has changed minds and made me a better leader. But to put it in simple terms, it has provided me a platform with which I can help form my world through my thoughts and the words that convey them.
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Highlights of 2011: blogging milestones

This year marked a few milestones for my humble blog: my 5,000th post as well as ten years of owning my domain, markturner.net! The official ten-year anniversary of my first blog post happens next week, so that doesn’t count towards a 2011 highlight.

I’m proud to say that I’ve since blown past my 5,000th post. This entry marks my 5,289th, which means that at this rate sometime in 2013 I will reach my 6,000th post.

A few of my fellow bloggers have said that their blogs are dead or dying. While my blog’s visitor count may have already peaked, I don’t really care. I write it because I love to write it, not because I expect anyone to gain any value from it. I’m not obsessed with the page counts or anything like that. It is what it is.

Certainly there are other distractions out there and each has its appeal, but I don’t see myself ever giving up blogging. I love the fact that this is my voice on the web and that I own it 100%. I love that it’s open to anyone who wants to visit, not just to “subscribers.” I also love that I have nearly unlimited space to express my thoughts, rather than being limited to 140 characters or some other arbitrary limit. I believe in an open and free exchange of information.

Thanks for joining me in the conversation!

Deal with it: spammers already have your email

A postscript to the state park spam snafu: some folks seem to be under the mistaken impression that this incident exposed their email address to spammers. I hate to break it to them, but spammers already have their email addresses. They have yours and mine and everyone else’s. If you’ve ever emailed anyone, anywhere, then your email address is ripe for the picking by spammers.

There’s nothing magical about your email address that keeps it from being easily guessed by spammers, if not outright copied. Why some people still think that by keeping their address “secret” they’ll somehow cut down on spam is beyond me.