hoops2.jpgI’ve met Matt McGee of Small Business SEM and I can honestly say I never saw this coming. My impression of him was that he’d be great to network with professionally and also great to know as a friend. Well, he must be much different because it seems as though he’s rigged the largest and most popular basketball tourney in the US. Many of us received an innocent email from Matt asking us to join an NCAA Basketball tournament pool. Seemed fun, so I joined in. What we all got seems to be one of the biggest conspiracies of our time.

Matt slowly started to say he was going to win it all. We all laughed and had fun with it. Then he started to talk about what the winner would get out of it. No, not money, but LINKS. Yes, links into his or her site from the people who lost. This happened while he was in the middle of the standings. So, we all agree and then he starts to slowly climb into first place. He let’s us all have a little hope we might have a chance then he slams the door on us in the end and wins. What are the chance someone organizes an NCAA tournament, gloats he’s going to win, proposes a link bait strategy, and then actually wins? No chance at all! How did he do it, you might ask? Well, lets look at some options:

  1. Matt creates an alternate NCAA tournament in the virtual world of Second Life. He manipulates online search results to bring his virtual tournament to the top and then he masterminds the results in his favor.
  2. Under a false name, Matt publishes a story of false game results and Digg’s it himself. Others pick it up and the power of Digg is unleashed as the story overtakes reality and his Florida Gators win.
  3. Luring teams other people have chosen to win, Matt engages these teams with his Local Search expertise. The players become intrigued and begin to realize the power of Local Search. They use Local Search a bit too much and find themselves out on the town way to late before their games. Thus, their performance is hampered and they lose. Meanwhile his Florida Gators are asleep in their hotel rooms.
  4. Before major games, Matt introduces his SEO/SEM blog to official score keepers at the games. They become enthralled with his expertise and they lose track of game scoring, thus giving Matt many unexpected wins.

Okay, I have no proof of any of this and as you can guess I’m having fun with Matt. I’m just speculating on how an SEO can pull off this feat.

Thanks Matt for organizing the pool and congrats on the win! Hopefully, you’ll get some links!

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