Dr. James Martin International, Fibber, Plagiarist
Everyone looks at their competition online - dentists, doctors, marketing consultants and website builders - we all want to see what the other guy is doing. Sadly, Dr. James Martin, a chiropractor (or his agents), decided to steal copyrighted content from The Visible Dentist website and use it as his own.
Backstory
Last week my blog got a spam post that led to an amateurish website. The site, dentalinternetmarketingsecrets.com, has video and details that purport to improve Google Places profiles for dentists. The site also guaranteed a 1st page spot in Google’s Local Maps for dentists — even for those spots representing cities with huge populations, for an ongoing monthly fee.
Promoted as Dr. James Martin International of Lincoln CA, his business targets Search Engine Marketing for the medical professions. His Google profile expounds on Martin’s prowess saying, “His revolutionary marketing and innovative thinking puts systems and tools in place to drive doctors to success.”
I often call my online competitors and fellow Web developers and introduce myself; sometimes I make a friend. However, this time I discovered a charlatan and scam artist — hours later he became a plagiarist too.
I phoned his number and reached the guy making the claims, Dr. James Martin in Brentwood, CA. His main website is drjamesmartininternational.com. He also has a Youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/DrJamesMartin.
Scam Artist, or Just A Dummy?
During our brief conversation I asked Dr. Martin how he could guarantee dentists first page prominence in Google Places when no one else does, or could make such claims. He giggled, then proudly proclaimed that a Google programming engineer he knew was diverting proprietary information about Google’s algorithm to him — which gave him an edge to help his clients.
Yes you heard correctly…
Dr. Martin actually boasted of how a programmer at Google is sacrificing his or her future for the privilege of helping an unknown entity advance their career as an online marketer. Whether or not Dr. Martin is fibbing, I don’t know for sure; though I seriously doubt a Google engineer is going to jeopardize his livelihood by passing insider trade secrets to another guy outside Google’s inner circle of influence — as simply a gesture of friendship.
Dr. Martin’s preposterous statement ended our phone conversation and I went back to work; a couple days later I found evidence that Martin was copying content from TheVisibleDentist.com and using it for blog comment fodder.
Unscrupulous Behavior
Rather than create original textual content of his own, Dr. Martin or his representatives, without my permission copies snippets of text from my website and then uses the material to spam blogs and forums hoping to elevate his positions in the search engines to promote his “services.”
Screenshots / proof: (plagiarised content highlighted in yellow)
3,000+ Spam Posts & Counting
The above 3 blog posts are only a few that I’ve identified so far — I’m still finding 1,000’s of their spam posts all over the Web. Needless to say, Dr. Martin has been busy; though his methods certainly do not symbolize ethical business standards for “revolutionary marketing and innovative thinking.”
Conclusion
I go to great lengths to create original content for my clients and myself; and I do not take kindly to someone plagiarizing my hard work for their own personal gain. James Martin, DC has destroyed his reputation as an online marketer with his blatant disregard for another person’s property. How could a patient, a dentist or another medical practice ever trust him?
I’m in the process now of sending Cease and Desist letters, DMCA Notices and considering whether to bring a copyright infringement suit against Dr. Martin for his egregious violation of ethics and law.
For The Visible Dentist, I’m John Barremore
June 13th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Update:
Just got a few emails from James Martin…
1st - he denied all knowledge of any content theft or blog posts
2nd - said he might be the victim of a competitor attack
3rd - now says he has an idea of who might be responsible
4th - retracts last and decides none of his blog commenters did it
5th - says sorry - he didn’t intend me or my site harm
I find it difficult to believe a competitor is going to take time to post hundreds of blog posts and links to another fellow’s website for keywords the other fellow is targeting, especially when the site which holds the #1 position is mine and the content in their spam posts was taken from my website!
There are no coincidences, especially not of this magnitude - not to mention that James Martin now concedes he has a blog comment team cruising the Web pasting his junk on every possible website that hasn’t banned him yet.
I pity the poor dentist who makes the mistake of hiring these bozos.
jb
June 14th, 2010 at 6:30 am
Businesses of every size can benefit from utilizing local listings. Having completed, accurate, and consistent data on listings like Google Maps and Yahoo Local can help increase awareness for your business and bring in more sales. Thank You
June 14th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
U r a moron. He probably can guarantee it. I can. All day long. Sorry. You just haven’t read the correct books. So he may be a liar. But some of us guarantee lucky local 7 placement all day long and deliver and have never had a chargeback. Keep your nasty views to yourself. Some of us were at the Geneva convention. Were you? That’s what I thought.
June 14th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
@Michael
Sir, Dr. Martin’s inherent right to guarantee listing positions in Google Places was never an issue. He’s certainly free to do and say as he wants. However, there are consequences for one’s actions — that’s why we have laws and social order.
Unless we return to a primitive dog-eat-dog society, we must consider how our actions affect other people around us. This blog post only reflects my experience; my views are not the last word on anything.
As for prisoners of war, or the treatment of war victims re: Geneva Convention, I haven’t a clue what you’re even talking about. What do humanitarian standards and international law have in common with Google Places, or my blog?
FYI, you couldn’t have possibly been in attendance at any of the four Geneva Conventions. They do not represent a time and place where people came together; they constitute landmark, international agreements.
In the future, consider choosing a more suitable metaphor (or fiction) to convey your meaning; the Geneva thing is not working well for you.
jb
August 8th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
I am a client of Dr. Martin who happened to be looking up his contact via google and found this blog posting ridiculous. Dr. Martin and his seo team had me at the #2 google places position in 6 days.
So, Yes…I agree with Michael above and his statement that you are a moron.
Just because you can’t achieve those results doesn’t mean others can’t.
Maybe you should spend your time learning how to do your seo or what you claim is seo. Makes you sound questionable charging dentists for seo when you can’t even perform a simple google places seo task.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
Dr. C eh? Would that be Dr. Keith Currie aka DrKeithCurrie?
Did it ever occur to you that when you post on someone’s blog, it leaves distinguishable traces behind that could be used to identify your location and the other sites you’re posting on?
Author : dr c (IP: 64.38.198.53 , equipmentadvice.com)
E-mail : keithcurrie@gmail.com
URL :
Whois : http://whois.domaintools.com/64.38.198.53
Since you also use the same name and email address of the person associated with Dr. Martin who spams blogs using MY CONTENT FROM MY WEBSITE, I can only wonder if you decided to post here by your own volition, or if James Martin instructed you to do so.
Dr. Keith Currie
See an example of this spammer’s craft
You may even be Dr. James Martin himself, or his “partner in crime.” Checking another one of your spam posts elsewhere, shows the website linked is registered to none other than James Martin.
A few minutes searching reveals all sorts of spam and scams with the common denominator always pointing to Dr. James Martin, the renegade chiropractor turned jack of all trades marketing guru. Apparently Dr. Martin and his friends have confused online marketing with spamming blogs.
Yet another Dr. Keith Currie spam blog post:
hey now I’m an SEO too
linked to:
sacramentoseoservices.com
registered to: who else, James Martin
sacramentoseoservices.com - WHOIS
Is there a central nest where you spammers work/live?
Either way, you sir/madam are a liar AND a thief and you have only confirmed the unprincipled nature of Dr. James Martin’s associates, namely you. Not to mention you’re a really dumb crook!
BTW, the anonymous surfing proxy software you’re using isn’t hiding you; I think it requires an IQ. Move on scammer and get an honest profession.
jb
August 16th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Heeee-larious! JB: I’m sure you are too involved to see the humor in this series of comments, but it really did make for some entertaining reading! I especially appreciated how you referenced his site in your post but were careful not to gift him with a precious link.
Dr. James Martin of Dr. James Martin International (who strikes me as an uber-creative individual based on the company name alone) sounds like an interesting fellow! He can effectively SEO my website while aligning my spine and correcting my acne? Dr. Martin, are you superhuman?
I’m still chuckling at this whole debacle!
Keep rockin JB!
August 16th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
@Robyn
There are so many shenanigans online these days, if a person had the time and inclination to do so, they could create a whole new career around reporting on them — just in dentistry alone there are all sorts of marketing wannabes who for lack of skills often end up going over to the ‘dark side.’
Thanks for stopping by.
John
September 28th, 2010 at 6:00 am
hahahaha.. nice one John! They are all wannabes (dark side).
Andre
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Hey, thanks for posting the “free and cheap” Stock photo article over at DentalTown. Trying to do better myself at giving credit where credit is due, but it really crosses the line when intellectual property is stolen just so that some superficial linkfarmer can make a buck.
It’s been way too long since I visited your blog.
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:23 pm
You’re welcome Trish — good to hear from you — thanks for commenting!
John
March 12th, 2011 at 12:56 am
Hi, although I am not a healthcare professional, I am a very experienced IT professional in the metro Minneapolis/St. Paul area and am looking to seriously market myself. I found Dr. Martin’s SEO services and thought he might be able to help me get ranked. However, it sounds to me like this guy is definitely NOT a good choice. Who would you suggest I go with instead?
Thanks!
Seth
March 12th, 2011 at 1:19 am
@Seth
Regardless the niche or market audience you wish to reach via the search engines, I suggest you adopt a few, common sense measures to justify hiring any SEO service. If what you’re promoting is highly specialized, look for an SEO with experience in that field or industry.
If the market is more general in focus, any competent SEO would fit your needs. Always ask them specific questions and look for clear, direct answers. Expectations must be discussed and goals established long before any work is done.
Here’s a few more tips to hire an SEO and avoid getting burned:
Simple Steps To Avoid SEO Scams
John
March 12th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Hi John, My friend was the one that sent you the post yesterday. Seth above. Anyway. My name is Dr. Michael Martin and I made the sad mistake of hiring Dr.James Martin for SEO work. I paid monthly a fee of $497 for 1 keyword and additional $250 for a website.In total I payed $1741. Needless to say he did NOT deliver the rankings he promised. He promised after 45 days I would be ranked #1 on google, never materialized, and then after 90 days (because I wanted to believe in him) he said I was now #1 on google. But in fact I was #8 at the time.
I asked for a refund and the username, password to my website (which was not even completed and spotty at best) and he denied the refund, but jokingly wouldn’t give me the website username and password so I could correct the mess he made. I wrote this because I saw this post a few months back when checking out his background and chose to ignore on account of sour grapes. I hope any future person thinking of doing business with this unprofessional crook will heed the warning you put out there, as well as read my story. You can look at the shotty work he did on the website at http://www.weightlosstwincities.weebly.com for yourself.
Dr. James Martin should be ashamed for the lousy service he provides. Hope this saves someone, because I sure didn’t listen and now I regret it..in so many ways.
Sincerly Dr. Michael Martin
March 12th, 2011 at 9:27 pm
This is Seth again. I DO feel bad for my friend, Michael. Between you (John) and his recent experience, I don’t think I would touch this guy with a ten foot pole! In my shopping around for good SEO experts, it seems like the field is filled with more land mines than actual gems. Unfortunately, it seems Michael stepped on Dr. James’ Martin’s mine, which did nothing but blow up in his face, cost him nearly 2 Grand, and over 3 month’s worth of empty promises, useless excuses, and a constant barrage of unprofessional, wishy-washy, and deliberate falsehoods all designed to string along this guy who is only trying to launch his career. — I think like Michael, I’m just going to do whatever I can to figure this thing out for myself.
Thanks!
- Seth
March 12th, 2011 at 10:02 pm
@Dr. Michael Martin
Wow, that’s all you got for nearly $2,000 bucks? That’s not even a website by most standards. Gee, you could’ve created that on Weebly yourself, for nothing; it’s a free Web development platform; anyone can do it.
Still, Weebly’s not you’re best first choice. If I were you, I’d register my own domain and have someone (an actual webmaster) build you a real website. For the money you spent, you should already have a pretty nice one.
BTW, the “SEO” you paid for consists of hot air and a half dozen links from free profiles posted on mostly obscure websites; essentially, it’s crap. This is why it’s so important to get a guarantee for defined keyword goals and not pay until those goals are reached.
I am sorry to hear about your loss - unfortunately though, about your only recourse when dealing with fly-by-nights is just accept it as a learning experience. It would be too costly to pursue the matter in court across state lines.
You can however post reviews warning others like yourself to avoid this person’s “services.” Here’s a convenient list of review sites for you. Click to sort the ‘industry focus’ column for business oriented.
Everything happens for a perfect reason; you’re now better prepared for the road ahead. Pop over to Freelancer.com and hire someone in a developing economy to build you a site; you could probably get a fairly good, basic site for about a 100 bucks.
Good luck to you.
John
March 12th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
I hear you Seth - it can be frustrating. If it’s any comfort, SEO isn’t rocket science; any ten year old can grasp the core concepts and apply it tomorrow. The main factor for success is calculated persistence.
John
March 13th, 2011 at 8:48 am
Hi John,
That is exactly right. I learned the hard way. It forced me to become educated in the matters of ranking a website. One cannot “game” google by spam and forum posts with just keywords dropped and no content provided. It takes new content placed on quality and quantity backlinks with high page ranking. You know 5’s and 6’s. It has to be consitent so google knows you are for real. There is a ton of other work like to be done with the google maps like citations,reviews,photos and videos. Google is essential a content machine. So give it what it wants, what it was built for. Do this more than the sites you are competing against, and over time google will rank you higher. Don’t expect quick results, it could happen, but count on it as a long term stragedy. I get that now, I was forced to learn that because James Martin took advantage of my ignorance.
I asked him why did he create a weebly account. Why not create weightlosstwincities.com (which I bought later for $5). His answer was I didn’t want to charge you more money. When James and I agreed upon the price for a website of $250, I assumed he would get the most professional domain. Instead he chose the latter. It was just a number of unprofessional mistakes this So-called Seo has done. I chalked it up as a learning experience. It was just sad that when I told him, that I was down to my last $3000 for marketing. He said you are looking for “results”. So I hired him because he knew the chiropractic business and claimed to successful. I got “results” alright…just the unpreferred kind. Thank-you for the reviews list. I might post them to warn others if they dont do their diligence, but i suspect this happens often to the trusting and naive.
Thank-you again for your comments.
Dr. Michael Martin
March 13th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
@Michael
Yep, live and learn - some lessons are more painful than others.
For the record, there isn’t a single company or person found (on Google) offering guaranteed marketing services for chiropractors; only those saying they’ll give your money back (maybe) or discount their recurring, monthly fees (i.e. pay ‘em forever). Some even warn you NOT to get a guarantee!
– chiropractic marketing guarantee
– chiropractic seo guarantee
In the SEO industry at large, a ‘Money Back Guarantee’ is really no guarantee at all. Why should you pay anything until results in the search engines are achieved?
If the SEO is worth his salt, he’ll be confident in his ability, he’ll establish competitive keyword goals for your project and he’ll be happy to perform the SEO campaign for you in advance of payment.
I have one chiro client (my chiropractor) that I built and positioned a website for in Texas. He’s currently one of the better ranked sites for keywords indigenous to his city and practice. If you like, call my office and I’ll share insights about the website/SEO development process with you.
Best wishes,
John
March 14th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Thanx John,
I’ll keep it mind. I have purchased training to be able to do what we are talking about. You are right, once you know the core principles, its not really that hard, you just have to follow the steps and be persitent. Bottom line is fresh,new,relevant content submitted to authortative websites for backlinks is the cornerstone..not the only thing you do, but it should be the main staple. The problem was I needed to be pointed in the right direction and have access to the information to solve the puzzle. I have that now. On a side note, I got another text message from our fibber Dr.Martin yesterday. He sent me an email stating I was #1 again for the keyword phrase “weight loss twin cities”. So I checked this morning and again I was #7 on page 1. I even confirmed it on google scraper (which is a more accurate account) and I was #7 again. So its official now 3 times a charm. If he had any common sense at all. He would just wait if what he says was true and let the google dance stop till I was secure in whatever spot he is claiming. Instead he goes like a little kid. you are #1 You are #1. Maybe over time he could get me ranked #1 in the organic listings. But don’t claim you do until “the proof is in the pudding” The funny thing he told me that he was teaching other Seo’s in Dallas over the weekend. Now that is a scary thought. “The blind leading the blind.” Anyway Thanx for your input and your offer to help with SEO insight.
March 14th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
@Michael
The term ‘weight loss twin cities’ is #7 on Google from here. Though I must say that regardless of ranking, quick keyword research indicates the phrase is hardly ever searched by anyone. You’ll want to conduct indepth analysis of those more competitve keywords which are likely to bring you the most traffic and configure your website in such a way as to convert site visitors into patients.
Glad to hear you’ve got a handle on your situation!
Have a great day,
John
March 14th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
I know , after my training that i bought I did a keyword search. There was 110 searches for “weight loss twin cities, My agreement with James was 1 keyword phrase for $497. I laugh now because “weight loss minneapolis” is 590. You think an SEO that knew what they are doing would go for the more highly searched term with less competetion to rank. But that would make sense, Right!! LOL I brought all this up when I asked for money back. I had over 9 different issues pointing to his incompetance. I just shake my head and move on. There world is the way it is, not the way it should be.
Later John
March 15th, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Hi John,
I have a question for you. I have learned that everytime I post http://www.weightlosstwincities.weebly.com on your blog I get a backlink for my website because I posted on your blog. But when I checked I had 10 backlinks. Does everytime you answer my questions that counts as a backlink as well??? I noticed I had 10 new backlinks and I thought google had found new ones That James Martin had put out there, but infact it came from your blog.
I don’t want to keep bothering you. But I received another email from out fibber friend James Martin Yesterday and a text today. I can’t believe the denial on this guy. He’ll say anything. He claimed again, for the 4th time that I was #1, and guess what I was #7. Then today and I quote the text message “Mike, Just as I told you…you’re website is #1 for weight loss twin cities. I sent you a text and an email. I understand you may feel embarrassed for accusations that implied I didn’t and wasn’t going to get you to #1 and I was right and you are #1 But I forgive you and will still help you if you want it..” I just checked I’m still #7. Thanx for your understanding john. He probably saw the backlinks and is trying to damage control.
Best Regards,
Dr.Michael Martin
March 15th, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Oh Ps
My website has still not been fixed. Nothing like having a finished, polished website for conversions.
Dr.Martin
March 15th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
Hi John. I’m Back. James Martin is claiming alot. He just texted me again. He must have saw the backlinks to your website or is even reading and responding to this very blog. He texted this ” Oh. I forgot..I went and checked all these “low quality” links you claimed we made..It seems you don’t understand high level seo…you need more studying. All links made were page rank 3-7 in general with pass thru rank juice..which your seo research obviously failed to tell you.”
You checked my backlinks out John, Did you feel these are quality backlinks?? Because I saw nothing but spams and forums which usually have a page 1-2 rank. What do you think??
March 16th, 2011 at 1:03 am
@Michael,
The multiple links showing from my blog are from both this blog post dialog and the navigation menu on the right (seen on every blog page). FYI, you’ll only get search engine benefit/credit from 1 link per domain.
The particular SEO strategy which Dr. James Martin incorporates is typical of cheap, spamming techniques that are not only frowned upon by Google, they can also result in your site getting banned or penalized, as in the recent example of J.C. Penny and Google.
The links provided by Dr. James Martin et al are posted to pages with little or no content, and/or topic irrelevancy. I visited about a half dozen of the pages and none of the URL’s had any PR.
Topic relevancy is just as important as Google PR (pagerank) - maybe more so. When topic/subject synergy (between both sites) and PR are combined, the two become a powerful SEO force that will contribute significantly to relevancy of your website (for both people and search engines), and ultimately improve your site’s search engine positions.
If I were you, I would immediately abandon the free Weebly site and focus efforts on building and promoting your own content-rich domain/website.
John
March 16th, 2011 at 6:53 am
Thank-you John,
That was exactly the path I was already on. You also confirmed what my new training is saying. New content on high PR websites = relevancy and authority.
I gave up on James Martin along time ago, because I too went through all the backlinks and saw what he was doing.
Thank-you again for your advice.
Dr.Michael Martin
March 27th, 2011 at 6:26 am
Hi everyone,
Sorry to interfere, but I couldnt help reading some of the comments here. The first question I had on my mind was, why hire a former doctor for SEO services??? That smells a bit fishy already, sorry. It also doesnt make quite sense that he built you a site on weebly. I always tell my clients that without having a proper site, content and domain, I wouldnt do SEO for them - fullstop. Apart from that, because you have a new site, in particular no domain, content or any links or authority, SEO would be a long-term investment - at least 6 months. Thats a fact.
I dont know how long it took him to rank you #7 on Google, but because most back links he created are forum and blog based and look spammy to me, this is only a very short-lived strategy. See, this spamming in forums and blogs, directories etc. can bring you results. And he may charge you an enormous amount of $1000-$2000 for that. But whats after that? Well, you rankings will drop again and you have to spend another $2000. Well, thats not great, isnt it? It is better, from my perspective, to build up rankings slow and consistently, especially for new sites. In your case over a 6 to 12 months period, depending on your keywords and competition. This way, it may take longer to get results but in the long term you would build solid back links that will keep your rankings for longer.
Again, I want to stress, SEO is NEVER a quick fix. It needs to be done in the long-term. Good luck! Regards, Christian
March 27th, 2011 at 6:45 am
Christian, welcome and thanks for your input.
I agree with most of what you said with one exception. You forgot to consider that Dr. James Martin has a Google programmer in his pocket who ensures that everything he (Martin) does online is totally and permanently successful. Maybe that’s the reason why people hire this “doctor” for SEO.
Hey, he told me himself - so it must be true!
John
August 7th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Ha, I love that you’re brave enough to actually call out SEO scammers, name and site and all. “I have a programmer in my pocket”, indeed, how pathetic is that? Sheesh.
Keep up the good work!