Of couse you need some publicity when you run a site or business but what is the extent of the publicity that you need to make a success?

Not so long ago i was approached by a reporter called Brad Stone from Wired.
Brad Stone wanted to interview someone about search engine optimization and he had been told about me (Earl Grey) and the site i own called syndk8.

I was a bit aprehensive about this reported asking questions but it turned out he was looking for the normal representation of the industry (white hat).

Brad Stone asked me to recommend somone and the first person i thought of was my good friend Rand Fishkin.
The main reason i mentioned rand apart from our friendship is the way he is honest, honerable and reasonably open.

I called Rand first before i even mentioned his name to the reporter becuase i thought it was better than just passing a name along as it may have been unwelme attention that Rand didnt want.

So Rand said yes and i had a chat with Brad Stone and it seemed to work out ok but i was always careful what i said.
I know that Brad Stone would be looking for the best angle and he didnt care who he stepped on so from the second that i made contact with him i was very unsure of how much to tell him.

I had about 3 interviews and helped him out on certian things and all the while this was happening Rand and i kept in close contact to make sure we didnt say anything bad about each other by mistake or to make sure anything that we said couldnt be turned around.
I did actually comment to Rand that `if i read that you have said anything bad about me i will instantly know it is twisted and the same goes if it looks like i have said anything bad about you`.

Things went quiet for a while and then i heard rumbling that the interview was going to be in Newsweek and not Wired which meant nothing to me because i had never even heard of Newsweek.

Thankfully Rand has thrown Brad Stone enough of a bone to chew on without him having to go too much in detail about me which was a relief.

One thing i said was `please do not mention any of my sites` and of course Brad Stone didnt mention any of my sites but gave the exact details of how to find them.

I guess it caused a bit of a fuss at the search engines headquaters because the google employees were crarling round me like flies round shit.

Matt cutts was especially keen to try and exact some revenge on me becuase i had made them look like fools publicly.

Anyway,, i will just keep my moth shit next time.

Peace out, The Earl of Grey.

Related Links from this article:
Brad Stone`s Blog Newsweek Article Rand Fishkin

Links of interest about publicity and interviews: