Exposing EarthWeb.com & Jonathonspire.com Scam
Do you know what EarthWeb.com & Jonathonspire.com have in common?
They are operated by the same person (along with 20+ other web properties) to defame legit businesses and abuse the search with fake reviews and stolen content.
Initially, I was supposed only to mention our experience, but after googling around, I quickly realized we are not the only ones.
I am sure that exposing this and other tactics, including fake reviews across his PBN network, will get soon Google’s attention.
So if it happens, he crossed your line too - this is a good day for you.
In today’s article, you will learn:
- How EarthWeb.com abuse search with paraphrased articles
- What EarthWeb.com & Jonathonspire.com have in common
- Get to know interesting PBN with fake reviews
- How you can fight back if you are a victim
Too bad they took on the wrong guy.
Little Backstory
For the last 6 months we have been a victim of content theft and plagiarism, where our articles are paraphrased and published on EarthWeb.com.
It was not a single occurrence - until now, over 100 of our articles have been stolen and re-published on EarthWeb.com.
Each article has been paraphrased to avoid duplicate content, but there was still a clear, striking resemblance, and it was undeniable that the text originates from Grow Following.
It isn’t the case where they write the articles on the same topics - lots of websites do that, and we get that. It was a deliberate theft done for SEO purposes.
I despise theft in any shape or form: stealing and benefiting from others is the lowest effort.
After emailing the owner, the only reply was “f*#k off” - what else would I expect from someone who has been getting away with this for so long?
However, it looks like this shameless copycat cared enough and started rewriting his content right after receiving our initial warning.
We suspected that the moment he saw the email, he would try to conceal the evidence.
For that reason, we did the copies of all infringing URLs so that if anything changes, we would know.
Since then, we started to actively monitor EarthWeb and other websites in their PBN network (this gets fun, so keep reading) for any content that resembles articles published at Grow Following.
At some point, we got blasted with negative SEO (does that even work in 2022?) and services we work with received fake TrustPilot reviews (these have been removed by TrustPilot team since).
We issued over 60+ Google DMCAs up until now and we are ready to take this to the court if we even get a single counter-notice.
Its Not Just Us, There Are Others
The rabbit hole goes deeper - an I have a lot of free time to actually follow it.
We quickly realized we are not only victim - his unethical tactics are being exposed across the web with many more complaints and examples of targeted fake reviews.
So let this article act as yet-one-more-evidence against Earthweb.
One thing is for sure - marketing is not their strength, so the only way for them to rank in Google is to steal and deceive other, genuine creators and businesses.
So let’s dive in:
More About Earthweb & Co
The owner is runs a bunch of websites and currently lives in Thailand.
Apparently, Facebook lawsuit wasn’t enough and the person hiding behind EarthWeb.com is asking for more (you can Google this one too).
Here is the network of sites this person runs/is associated with:
- earthweb.com
- bumped.in (now redirects to earthweb.com)
- gainmorefollowers.com (now redirects to earthweb.com)
- SelectedBest.info (now redirects to earthweb.com)
- washingtonsblog.com
- thesmallbusinesstimes.com (aged domain, set up this year)
- bountii.com (now redirects to washingtonsblog.com)
- increditools.com
- spireusa.com
- jonathonspire.com
- jonathanspire.com (now redirects to jonathonspire.com)
- influencive.com
- quantummarketer.com
- thesmallbusinessblog.net
- pixelb.in (now redirects to thesmallbusinessblog.net)
- incomeartist.com
- geekhealthjournal.com
- FreeYourSpine.info (now redirects to geekhealthjournal.com)
There are also fake review sites/domains that are/been used:
- trustadvisor.io
- igreviews.co
- igreviews.org
- scamadviser.com
- igcompare.com
- flagr.com
They Sell Guest Articles
One way hey monetize their site is via guest articles where they charge others to publish pieces on their website.
Here is their pricing (screenshot from one of the emails sent by them):
They Are Affiliates with Various Companies
If you are a company and being promoted by them - you might want to give it a second thought. Do you really want to be represented by someone who needs to resort to shady tactics?
Do you want your brand name next to fake reviews of your competitors?
How Do You Fight Back?
Remember you are not the only one who have to deal with this - there are others and that’s an upper hand for all of us in the court.
Don’t send any emails
First and foremost: don’t send them any emails and try to resolve things with them - it won’t work.
You won’t achieve anything by messaging them, so don’t bother. We got blasted with negative SEO for the fact we demanded to take down the content he blatantly stole.
Document evidence
Whether its a fake negative comment/review, a stolen copy of your article, negative SEO or anything else: document everything. This will be crucial evidence in the court.
We keep all the copies of the stolen articles that were published, so even if the content changes over time, we have all the evidence and can pinpoint any changes made.
Submit DMCA/defamation via Google
Use this link to notify Google.
If you are a victim and found a paraphrased version of your article, you can put this into description:
“A paraphrased version of our article. [Identical/similar] headings, paraphrased copy. Original article published on [original publish date], infringing copy published on [copy publish date].”
Replace [identical/similar] with what’s true and use the correct publish date. Don’t be like EarthWeb that tried submitting a DMCA against us with a false statement and incorrect dates - Google aren’t that stupid ;)
Get In Touch With Us
If you are a victim, please get in touch with us:
P.S. Wondering whether he is going to copy this article too?
Oliver is GrowFollowing founder and covers topics ranging from fintech to Internet.
Steve specializes in cryptocurrency and finance. As a born researcher, he won’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to topics he covers.