I was at ad:tech San Francisco 6 months ago when this little Asian guy came up to me and asked me how I liked the post he had been writing. I had no clue who he was or what he was talking about. He introduced himself as Dennis Yu and told me the posts that Harrison Gervitz guest posted on ShoeMoney.com here and here were actually written by him. I was surprised but in this industry as I have said before everyone is full of shit so… whatever. Ironically 2 minutes later Harrison happened to be walking by us and I called him over to get it straightened out. The actual deal was Harrison had written the posts but Dennis proofed them for him… ok big deal.
After ad:tech Dennis emailed me repeatedly saying he wanted to do something together. He said he had a company called Blitzlocal that was funded by Plenty of Fish creator Markus Frind. He said he had a lot of interns for the summer that were banging our projects with many people. He dropped every name in the book including telling me they were about to name SEOMOZ founder Gllian Muessig as their Chief Financial Officer. Dennis also told me Scott Richter was involved in some of Blitzlocal’s ventures and was getting hooked up with rent and amazing payouts from Scott’s affiliate.com.
Dennis offered to fly me and put me up for a couple days in Denver so we could talk about what we were working on and see where there was a good fit. I later found out this was taken care of by Scott Richters people.
My visit there was really awesome. I was really impressed with Dennis’s setup. He had about 5 or so interns all very very smart kids. I was very impressed with them. Dennis is not very technical so I had a lot more dialog with his interns (who all looked like right out of highschool). demonstrated his blitzlocal product to me and I was pretty blown away by it. Its an amazing product for small businesses. But when I asked about revenue thats when things go really weird. They said nobody was actually paying for the service….
I was confused. I had emailed Markus Frind and not only did he confirm that he was an angel investor in BlitzLocal but that he had already gotten a great multiple return on his investment… Markus also told me he introduced Dennis to affiliate marketing a couple years back when Dennis left Yahoo! (even though he claims to have been doing it since the late 90′s in all his speaker profiles)
So obviously my next question to these kids was how the hell are you making money if nobody is buying your product. Thats when they told me the real deal.
They went on to explain that the BlitzLocal local product was for now just a cover for the company and that they made almost all of their money from porn websites. They showed us a bunch of the porn sites they were doing, what they were doing with them and some small talk about their revenues. I was surprised but not like taken back or anything. Anyone who knows me knows I have no problem with stuff like that and am pretty open minded when it comes to making money online. If anything I gained more respect for Dennis because being a badass in the porn business is about as hard (no pun intended) and competitive as it gets.
The one thing that did stick out was the Gillian SEOMOZ owner connection. I just don’t see Gillian as CFO of a company that specializes in porn… and I am pretty sure everyone in this industry would be equally surprised. But they did have Gillians son Evan as their SEO expert and he was a big part of what they were doing so when they told me Gillian knew about the porn and stuff i was like OK well whatever, proceed…
They also showed us some of the affiliate things they were doing and told us that Affiliate.com took ZERO margin.
They made a proposal to me that they would redesign Nextpimp, we could leverage their higher payout on ringtone leads (yes even I can’t get zero margin payouts), and they would maintain the website day to day and take 50% of the additional revenue they brought into the website. Sounded like a massive win!
I talked to his interns about doing a lot o different stuff. I had many ideas for lots of different web services. Things looked promising. But again this kind of stuff happens with us a lot of the time and works out maybe 5% of the time. Everyone gets excited talking about doing things but nothing really every happens after that.
Again though Dennis really was not involved that much in discussions.
After our meeting we went to dinner with Scott Richter and a bunch of affiliate managers. Once dinner was done we went to one of Denver’s hottest night clubs Suite 202 where Richter is quit the VIP. They kicked out some Denver Nuggests players (no bullshit) from Scotts normal table and we partied on. Was a great night.
The next day I flew back to Lincoln but was pretty pumped about working with Dennis’s team on stuff. Evan Fishkin started emailnig me right away talking about SEO strategies about what we were working on. I was not quite ready to jump into the sack though with these guys and insisted we have another meeting where I could bring down David Dellanave to sketch out stuff.
It also worked out really well that Affiliate Convention was like 10 days away and we were going to be in Denver anyway. So we planned to meet all around that event. Our meetings went well. They went through everything with David that they did with me. I really enjoy having David size up people cause between us we usually can spot the bullshit. We sketched out some stuff for nextpimp on what we wanted them to do. David was impressed with Dennis’s interns. They seemed very technical and skilled. David was not very impressed with Dennis and said his initial impression was that he was all smoke and mirrors. Dave is not big on talk and wants to see results. Plus we are working on some giant projects on our own and don’t want to get side tracked with dumbshit that could amount to nothing. During our time there though we went out almost every night and were pretty wined and dined with Dennis (Scott Richter funded though).
Over the next couple months I would ping Dennis and ask him where they were at with our project. Never got a very detailed response. Just that we would do a webinar showing where they were at. Now at the same time I had done some small SEO tweaks to the site that really helped in rankings and increased revenue about 25% or so.
The funny thing was…. ya you guessed it… even though they had done absolutely nothing to the website Dennis felt like he was entitled to 50% of the extra revenue per our deal… ermm… thats not how it works =P. So I told him like dude you know what show us what you are doing or are going to do or this deal is off. I am not going to give you a revenue share from something I built over almost a decade and your doing nothing.
So the next week one of Dennis’s interns showed us wire frames of what they were thinking of doing for the site. It was done REALLY well but it was a total change of the site. Like a DRASTIC change. It was going to fundamentally transform the site a total different way. The whole reason I wanted to have Dennis’s people eventually running the site day-to-day was cause I did not want to have to do anything… I had already invested a decade of r&d for that demographic and this entire new approach was a huge thing. I told them at this point I think we should can our deal. Now I take full blame for not properly communicating exactly what I was wanting them to do. The work the intern had done was amazing and I encouraged them to launch their own website with the path they were on. So we parted ways on that project.
Over the course of the next couple months Dennis volunteered to help us with a variety of things for me everything from some basic graphics work to helping with our shoemoneyx.com course and every once in a while would ask for introductions to people in the industry for him. Even though every major thing we talked about doing had fallen through he had come through for some small stuff that was really needed and important for us.
I felt very comfortable doing intros for him… I even scored him a position to moderate the Monetizing Facebook Panel. Things seemed fine right?
At Affiliate Summit East things started to turn. As we were doing our panel and Dennis was talking I realized some of the stuff he was talking about was complete bullshit. After the panel I talked to my Facebook friends and even some of his own employees were like, “I can’t believe he said that. He is just straight up lying. We do not do what he is saying we do with Facebook”.
Shortly after Affiliate Summit I was contacted by these 2 guys who specialize in Facebook PPC. They asked who did all of our Facebook ppc and if we were looking for some people to manage it. I told them as of then it was 100% done by me. They told us they had a lot of experience and would love to be contractors for us for a revenue share of the profits. We allocated them a small budget of like 100k for a week and they did incredible. They were a great missing piece of the puzzle for us.
While we are sitting on a lot of capital and have lots of connections in the industry we did not have any dedicated PPC people so we were not doing that much stuff. This seemed to make sense. What I did not know at the time is that they also had a similar deal with Dennis Yu but he had burned so many bridges with companies doing super sketchy stuff that they were now literally making nothing doing his Facebook stuff (more on that later).
One day out of the blue I got a email from Dennis Yu talking about how awesome *our* Facebook revenue was. I was like umm wtf? I contacted our Facebook guys and they said they had some deal with Dennis and was sharing revenue stuff out of their cut. I was really surprised Dennis was involved and did not understand it. I told them I don’t like a lot of people in my business and if they wanted to do anything with us they were not going to be able to share data with people. If they had some previous deal then cool honor that deal I can appreciate it but don’t be sharing my day to day operation stuff.
We continued on and these guys were doing very very well. We were constantly testing new niches. Between our technology and relationships with companies and their management of the campaigns it was really a great fit.
During the weekend of AzoogleAds Playboy mansion party Dennis flew down to Los Angelas. He was not invited to any of the Azoogle stuff but was just kind of tagging along… only he couldn’t cause he was not invited it was awkward for him =P.
At the same time I got messages from 4 of his 5 employees I had met that said they were no longer doing anything for him. Something was up. I was also told a rumor that he had been officially banned and even gotten some other companies banned (allegedly) from Facebook who he was running their accounts for. Something was up…
Anyway he texted me and said we had a security problem and needed to talk right away. I was like ok sure, gave him my room number, and he showed up a few minutes later.
In what would be the most insanely awkward meetings I had ever had in my life Dennis acted like he was managing all of my Facebook PPC stuff and the contractors that we had hired were actually his employees thus I had a deal with Blitzlocal and he was entitled to 50% of the profits that those guys had made. I was like … wtf .. it was really really a strange situation.
He went on to tell me that we were using their intellectual property and stuff… and that he would be coming after us legally as well as the contractors we were using if we did not pay up.
I don’t respond well to threats like that. I basically said, “thanks for stopping by. I don’t know what previous agreement you had with these guys but my agreement is and always has been with them. I never even knew you were involved at all. Here is our lawyers contact information. Peace out.”
He kept trying to convince me that it was him all a long that was running my Facebook PPC account and not these guys.
I was not buying it.
Two days later I had a meeting in Palo Alto with 3 different people at Facebook. One of them emailed and asked if I was coming with Dennis Yu? I was like why would I come with Dennis Yu? They said well isnt he going to be running your facebook campaign cause if so we have concerns. I was stunned… and said uh he is not touching my facebook account. They were like, “well that is the only reason we agreed to meet with him was about your accounts”.
I said “Better find a new topic”.
When I got back to the office I heard from a bunch of people that Dennis Yu was going to sue me and because Scott Richter was an investor in his company Scotts dad was going to represent him probono. That was a little troubling. Steven Richter is a BEAST in this industry and has no equal. That is the last guy I want problems with.
But this is when all the house of lies around Dennis started coming down (for me).
I have gotten to know Scott Richter a bit and I gave him call. We had about a 2 hour conversation. He said not only was he not an investor in Dennis’s company but he was about to kick the free loader out of his office building. He also said no way in hell his dad would be representing Dennis. A lot of other things were said that opened my eyes to Dennis and all of his bullshit.
Then one day out of the blue I get a call from this dating advertiser we were working directly with for some stuff on Facebook. They said Dennis had told them he was going to sue me and get a judge to issue an injunction against them so they could not do business with me and it would be in their best interest to shut me down …. strange…
Then one day all of my Facebook accounts were paused…. When I talked to Facebook about it they said Dennis had told them I was cloaking and sent them all kinds of docs and info about what I was doing with Facebook PPC. At first I laughed it off but then realized they were not going to turn me back on until they conducted a full investigation of my account(s). I provided Facebook with all the raw server logs and even logins to all of our affiliate accounts so they could match up all the clicks and see without any possible doubt he had made the whole thing up. We were turned back within 48 hours, got a bunch of apologies and stuff from Facebook. That outage probably cost us about 10-15k in profit or so… not cool…
At the same time I get a call from Neverblue ads, AzoogleAds, Clickbooth and other networks saying Dennis had contacted them with the same crap as the others.
The funny thing about these affiliate networks is most of them have been doing business with me since they have been IN BUSINESS. I have many many years business relationship + reputation with these companies. Dennis has been doing this affiliate thing for what? 6 months? To them he is just another affiliate clown who comes and goes.
A week or so later Dennis spoke at DK’s thinktank in Del Mar. His whole talk was about “How to be deceptive on Facebook and get away with it”. The joke of the event though was…. he had been banned (allegedly) for some time! But some people didn’t know and bought into the Dennis Yu bullshit train much like I did. I remember Bryn Yungblut coming up to me telling me I should have Dennis run my Facebook stuff… I just looked at him and was like man you dunno do you… He seemed to really be on the Dennis bandwagon so I just left it… I figured eventually he would find out for himself. Hopefull it does not cost him much time or money.
Funny thing is to my face Dennis is like mr nice guy asking if I need any help with anything and how he is working hard on some guests posts for my blog… Meanwhile he is knifing me in the back.
In the course of the next couple weeks everyone who had ever said anything nice about Dennis Yu had contacted me and told me they got burned and sorry they had said nice things about him. Most saying whatever he had told them was bullshit.
Then he posts this guest post on Techcrunch with one last ditch effort to get me banned from Facebook…
Cloaking – One of the largest Facebook advertisers (I’m not going to out you, but you know who you are) employs this technique to this day, using a white-listed account. Our supposition is that it makes too much money for Facebook to stop him. Believe me, we have brought this to Facebook’s attention on several occasions.
Ya so if you have not guessed it… its me he is talking about. I like how he doesn’t want to “out” me in public. I mean then he might actually have to back up facts… nice try weasel.
I actually never even saw the TC post until 2 days after it was originally posted. I started getting all these crazy random emails from people.
Everything from what a lying weasel Dennis Yu was to companies actually saying he never made NEAR the money he claimed. Once I saw the post I saw what all the fuss was about. Incredible.
I mean the actual companies Dennis said (on techcrunch) he made millions of dollars with wrote to me and said he was COMPLETELY FULL OF CRAP.
Everyone was kind of perplexed by Dennis would make a post like that. Really nobody knew the connection to me… Or the fact Dennis was a failure at Facebook advertising, banned (allegedly) , and super bitter.
He got his 5 minutes of fame and made a name for himself… unfortunately for him his name will always be associated with weasel.
Dennis is a very very smart guy and a brilliant example of a modern day con man. A lot of people don’t know the history of the term con man. It comes from “confidence man”. Way back in the day people would use the term a lot. They would ask you if you had confidence in them to purchase something from them.
In a couple short months Dennis Yu had gained the confidence at one time or another of about everyone in the affiliate industry.
He gained my confidence. I mean he had Markus Frind as his primary investor and told us SEOMOZ owner Gillian Muessig was coming on board to be their CFO. I had no reason to question their business relationship… Gillian was spending a lot of time with Dennis and the two of them including Plenty of fish owner Markus Frind took me and my team to dinner one night in vegas. I definatly had confidence this guy was legit…. He certainly acted the part.
Not only did he gain my confidence but he also gained the confidence of Shawn Collins to speak at affiliate summit on Facebook advertising (just shortly before he allegedly got banned). This was my fault. I did the intro and vouged for him.
He also gained the confidence of Dr. David Klein (DK) who allowed him to speak at his ThinkTank conference after I introduced them.
He even gained the confidence of Michael Arrington who allowed him to make a guest post on TechCrunch because the story, even though factually completely incorrect, was a great story for his readers. Maybe Dennis dropped my name to Mike and showed the guests post he has done on shoemoney.com? I dunno…
So whats the story in the end. Well I feel embarrassed. I fell for it. AND I was leveraged to get other people to fall into Dennis’s crap. I have heard people tell me Dennis used my name and told people he did everything from run our ppc campaign, to geeze just about name it. Each time I hear that I’m like damn… I’m sorry…
The good thing is that pretty much everyone that matters knows the jig is up. Here at Pubcon Dennis was brought up to me at least 25 times… and not nice things were said.
Evidently now Dennis has lost his most of his staff, his lease where he had his offices and is now working for some company in Chicago he was able to con.
In the end I apologize to you guys, my readers, for maybe giving you some confidence in Dennis Yu. In my 8 years in this business I have never had to make a post like this about vougeing for someone that is really a bad guy and has hurt a lot of my friends. Weasels like this really hurt the industry because it makes its just one more case of someone “full of shit” in our industry damaging it.
postscript: Markus Frind has clarified his involvement in Blitzlocal here.
November 16, 2009 at 7:45 am
What an asshole.
Like you say, he had his 5 minutes of fame and now he’ll never get far in this business again with the big names, I admire his intelligence, it’s too bad he couldn’t of put it to better use.
November 16, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Wow,
Just yesterday I wrote-up a blog post analyzing some of the comments Dennis made that I found unsettling.
He initially tried to attack me by saying that “While it might be fun to attack me, perhaps the larger issue is of more practical value and interest to your users.”
I think he was a bit surprised when I followed up, by explaining to him that I had provided extensive documention to the FTC on one of their recent Operation Shortchange cases and signed an affidivat that the attorney working on the case said would be helpful for them to move forward on it – and also advised him that one of my friends who runs Eagle Research Associates and has an assigned federal agent often helped me with helping people file appropriate complaints depending on the fraud scenario.
I also pointed him to some of the discussions on the blog where people who had been defrauded were being helped – including a GoogleMoneyTree post that currently contains 847 comments.
After that he followed up by saying:
“Wow– this is impressive! I wish there were more people like you. Send me a note at my email if you’d like chat further– got some things that I’m not going to post publicly, but which you might be interested in.”
Again, something seemed strange about the offer, but I couldn’t quite place it, but now I’m starting to understand more why he made me uneasy from the beginning, considering some of the details ShoeMoney has provided here.
His attempt to attack me is here:
http://www.workathometruth.com/blog/2009/11/15/blitzlocal-ceo-explains-how-to-trick-people/
November 17, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Paul, You handled that quite valiantly. I don’t get how he could go from FU!!! to I would like to have a heart-to-heart chat with you. That just seems kind of bi-polar… Anyone have some zoloft we could send him?
November 17, 2009 at 6:39 pm
All the Zoloft in the world wouldn’t help that man. For him, every person is thought as either a super genius rockstar or the lowest idiot scum; the funny thing is that each person changes from one category to the other frequently.
November 16, 2009 at 8:07 am
Wow, what a mess! This serves as a great reminder to all of us just getting started out, to be on the look out for scams and con-men. Great thing you were smart enough to get it sorted out!
November 16, 2009 at 8:14 am
Jesus christ, I mean Holy Crap!
I saw his guest posts everywhere, on seomoz’s Youmoz, on techcrunch…etc I’ve never ever realised he is this kind of person. I though he is really star at improving local business.
Is there anyway to ask TechCrunch to post this statement? I mean, people HAVE to see his truth phase…
And btw, this is the most interesting post for me so far, a good story about the real battle in this industry.
November 16, 2009 at 8:15 am
how did harrison gevirtz play into all this? wasn’t blitzlocal his company?
November 16, 2009 at 10:37 am
Ya there are rumors that Blitzlocal was half owned by Harrison.
Dennis told me he just used him for the face of the company cause he had a great story (15 year old and all).
November 16, 2009 at 8:25 am
Well, time to delete Dennis Yu off my feed reader.
Thanks for telling the truth about this guy Shoemoney
November 16, 2009 at 8:27 am
Much respect for doing this post.
November 16, 2009 at 8:40 am
Dam
November 16, 2009 at 8:42 am
Good enough for a thriller, too bad it’s real experience.
I wonder whether you are going to hire all the smart young men working for him? In a way, getting to know them is a gain.
November 16, 2009 at 8:44 am
(In Del Mar) The funny thing is while you were telling me to stay away from Dennis he was telling me the same thing about you…but cmon it’s shoe and I’ve known you much longer than Dennis.
I just wish I didn’t trust people so easily. I think one of the major factors of why people like(d) and trust(ed) dennis so much is because he is smart and very transparent. He literally opened up his facebook account, aff networks, etc and didn’t hide much.
November 16, 2009 at 9:19 am
Good point. You read and hear a lot of stuff but can’t believe all of it. But if the guy shows you then seeing is believing.
November 16, 2009 at 10:36 am
Thats interesting. You are a good kid.
November 16, 2009 at 8:49 am
Wow. This post is full of epic.
Dennis Yu is a failboat, and in his TechCrunch article you can tell he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about.
Fool.
November 16, 2009 at 9:05 am
I’m not a regular reader of the blog, but this is a fantastic post dude. Props.
July 31, 2010 at 4:13 am
A long post. I think i need have time to read it
November 16, 2009 at 9:14 am
The thing is: how could you have prevented that from happening? Seems like you were suspicious in the beginning anyway, but ultimately were convinced by the connections he had. Who wouldn’t have been?
Any idea of another safeguard to prevent that from happening?
November 16, 2009 at 9:16 am
Wonder if screwYu.com is registered. You could have some fun with that guy for years to come!
November 16, 2009 at 9:18 am
The thing about a post like this is you have to have everything ready to prove. Just like you said that he didn’t drop your name on TC because he would have lost that battle.
So you’re saying the best part about knowing Yu in the past 6 months was the fun free nights out on the town.
November 16, 2009 at 9:30 am
Legend. What a post.
Were you the ‘anonymous worker’ who gave info to ppc.bz barman?
November 16, 2009 at 10:35 am
Nope… That person had a lot more information then I do.
November 17, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Believe me, Barman has his sources. He told me he has enough content for a 3rd, epic post again Dennis but he’s biding his time. I know who the anonymous worker was, and trust me – He didn’t give you every bit of what happened, But it’s pretty infuriating how mistreated he was.
November 16, 2009 at 9:45 am
I am surprised you could not tell off the bat that this guy was full of it. Year ago you spoke about how if the website of a business does not look legit then the business is probably not legit. His blitzlocal site had horrible pixelated graphics and was all over the place. I was surprised that when everyone started talking about him and letting him guest post that he was legit, because his website was a joke. So why did you not use your own advice and think twice when you saw his site. Plus if he had all of these funders do you not think that his site would of looked more professional ?
November 16, 2009 at 10:22 am
First as far as I read it the investors were for real, and looking at Markus Frind’s Plenty of Fish, a crappy website just fits the story…
November 16, 2009 at 10:35 am
It wasn’t so much him as the people who were supporting him. I think I made my case above… or tried to =P
November 16, 2009 at 11:33 am
You did make a good case.
I just found that something you said is the 1st thing to look for is something you overlooked.
If he had the workers,interns he had then why did his site look so bad.
I know all of Scott’s site don’t look bad. And he was working out of his building.
But good job calling this guy out.
See ya at the next event
November 16, 2009 at 9:47 am
This is crazy! Glad you posted this Shoe!
November 16, 2009 at 9:53 am
wow this is epic.. i mean dennis yu was like a sensation for quite some time, seeing him on big well reputed blogs doing guest posts and really hearing a lot of buzz about him.. then comes nickycakes post and i was like what?
And this post is probably the icing on the cake detailing everything to make it clear..
November 16, 2009 at 9:58 am
WOW…just, wow!
November 16, 2009 at 10:10 am
Wow, what an eye-opening post!
Serves as a reminder to look out for weasels once you make a name for yourself.
November 16, 2009 at 10:13 am
I wish I could say it surprises me that someone could stoop to the level Dennis did, but it happens every day. You have to be careful who you show your cards to- but on the bright side, maybe you can hire some of his interns, they seemed pretty good!
November 16, 2009 at 10:48 am
Dina dunno if you can say but did you guys do any business with this guy?
BTW I think your hot!
November 18, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Hi Paul,
We don’t share the identities of affiliates we work with, good or bad. I can tell you that anyone who has malicious intentions within the industry is not someone we promote or choose to do business with. It’s unfortunate that so many people were affected, but I’m glad Shoemoney was able to share his experience.
Also, thanks- I’m blushing!
November 16, 2009 at 10:16 am
Fantastic post shoe.. sucks you had to make one like this, its a shame that one shady somebody can do so much damage so quickly..
i’m not in the loop or really know any of these people personally but when Yu started using words like “spam” and “scam” in his techcrunch article he made it clear that he was looking for shock value and his following post about local advertisers only further added to the fact that he was willing to sell out everything to make a few quick bucks or get his biz out there..
thanks for outing this moron giving the details..
November 16, 2009 at 10:16 am
Going off your post as fact, I think con men like Dennis exploit that fact that people do business quickly in America. Perhaps if we slowed down a little bit we could all avoid these pitfalls of our culture. I myself have been a victim as well of going too quickly into a deal or starting a project without planning and losing money and time as a result.
Let’s slow down and treat business relationships like they are going to be your wife or husband. One night stands in business is only good for people like Dennis.
Also, about 2 years ago you got me into affiliate marketing. Now your blog is 10x better and I really love the honest posts and case studies. Education is truly the key to connecting with your audiences and you proved that to me as well.
Cheers,
JC
November 16, 2009 at 10:44 am
Man look at the list of people that were backing him (which he later screwed over).
Scott Richter is as big as it gets in the affiliate industry.
George Avery is as big as it gets in the email world.
Gillian from SEOMOZ is a really good person (I also was told she was involved with blitzlocal).
I got sucked in just like Shoe. All the puzzle pieces fit. You would not like to think this could happen to you but this is why con men are who they are
November 16, 2009 at 11:36 am
I’m not saying someone could prevent this incident at all. I mean all those big names could fool anyone. I was trying to make more of a overall cultural point.
Hell- I got sucked in trying his failboat tactics he spread!
I hope this posts gets on Tech Crunch so it gets even more exposure.
November 16, 2009 at 10:42 am
Shoe I don’t think you have realized how many people you have changed the life of. I was working 2 jobs before I found your site a year ago.
Your local affiliate marketing guide allowed me to setup my own company quitting my 2nd job and now I am about to do that full time.
I know its off topic but I just wanted to say thanks. I am sure there are many stories like mine out there.
I appreciate this post (like many of your others) because not only do you call him out but you also admit your own downfalls and mistakes and even give him credit a few times.
Thanks for all your hard work on this blog, transparency, and honesty.
November 16, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Joe thanks man thats nice of you to say.
November 16, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I wanted to say thanks too, your X-course was like eye-opener for me, now I’m doing some AM and enjoy that. You’re da man!
November 16, 2009 at 10:45 am
Wow Schoe, this is some serious stuff… I almost feel bad for him, Google is going to ruin his reputation forever (but, it sounds well deserved).
November 16, 2009 at 10:47 am
Ya its Google that ruined his reputation. Sounds like he ruined it for himself.
November 17, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Precisely – Google didn’t commit the crime, Just chugs along and indexes all of the accounts.
November 16, 2009 at 12:26 pm
As hard as I bust my ass for as small as my returns, I can’t say I feel at all sorry for him.
November 16, 2009 at 10:46 am
I honestly never thought much of you from what I read on wickedfire but major props for this post.
Your willingness to share your personal story and interaction with him will make a difference in this industry.
November 16, 2009 at 11:06 am
I totally agree, opening up to something like this is quite shocking either way damn you guys make alot of money with facebook.
Mad props!
Dino | Dinono.com
November 16, 2009 at 10:49 am
Shoe are you worried Dennis will take legal action against you for posting this stuff?
November 16, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I think Dennis has enough legal action of his own currently (and pending) to worry about.
But we do have a law firm on retainer if it comes to that.
November 16, 2009 at 9:45 pm
What legal action? It’s not libel if it’s true
November 17, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Dennis does in fact have a lot of fish to fry. There’s many people jumping at the chance to watch him burn, So a lawsuit again Jeremy would be unwise, considering there are a handful of witnesses to the wrongdoings. In fact, I’m amazed Shoe hasn’t went after Dennis for mucking up his campaigns and spreading shit around.
November 16, 2009 at 10:53 am
When I was at the Affiliate Convention in Denver Dennis and SEOMOM (Gillian from SEOMOZ) were inseparable.
Some of you out there started rumors that Dennis and here were….
well you know who you are =8
November 16, 2009 at 10:56 am
There was something I didn’t like about Dennis when I saw him on ASE. Now it explains it!
November 16, 2009 at 11:04 am
Nothing makes me angrier than people who lie, and lie, and lie, to get ahead. It just goes to show that you cannot trust many people in this world, and you know no one but yourself.
Great post shoe, this really has opened my eyes, and made me a lot more cautious of who I do business with.
November 16, 2009 at 11:12 am
Thanks for the heads up, insight, and humility Jeremy.
I might have made a major mistake.
November 16, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Hoo Kang…RADEON! Sub Zero! FIGHT!
Seriously, I had no idea the extent of this problem. I thought most people were “hating” on him. I thought his motives were simply to get publicity (which might have been ok even) but now it seems he had already pissed everyone off even BEFORE the Tc article. I guess this guy has been demoted from guru to plain jane affiliate.
November 16, 2009 at 11:13 am
Wow. quite surprised. Solid post Jeremy.
November 16, 2009 at 11:25 am
I think many have seen this coming for a long time as Yu never could back up everything he says. Somehow he was making millions but had no real idea about SEO, PPC, or just general marketing strategies.
November 16, 2009 at 11:26 am
Very good post…really makes you watch your back if someone with your experience in the business can be fooled by this guy.
November 16, 2009 at 11:28 am
Wow, what drama! I read a thing or two about Yu after that TC article got published, but I never saw such a thorough description of the whole thing as in this post.
Thanks for sharing this. It was an interesting read for sure.
November 16, 2009 at 11:29 am
Were there ever any contracts signed or anything? I heard of this guy, and even been to his site several times. The guy pulls it off well, but I knew there had to be some BS’ers in this industry. Thanks for letting the cat out of the bag, sometimes you have to do this to protect others!
November 16, 2009 at 11:38 am
Great post. I dug around his stuff and was pretty unimpressed, but glad to see someone putting it out there in a public way.
November 16, 2009 at 11:53 am
Lots of shady folks in this biz. Too bad you spent so much time doing damage control but I’m glad you called him out on the carpet!
November 16, 2009 at 11:55 am
Dennis really was all talk and no game as charismatic as he is he was still all full of shit
November 16, 2009 at 11:56 am
Nice article.
This post ranks 3rd in Big G for “Dennis Yu”. :O
Good job.
November 16, 2009 at 12:02 pm
this is crazy and I was gon to work with him on a ‘project’ too. good thing I didnt, something told me not just get information first and when details weren’t being setup I was very hesistant
November 16, 2009 at 12:02 pm
What a real drama!! What a black game Dennis played for a short time, but finally he dropped out all the cakes into mud and now difficult to collect it for him.
November 16, 2009 at 12:09 pm
This was a post I just kept reading and reading cause it was good.
How could you trust someone you met 6 months ago? Open up all your shit to them…Just cause he took you out and wined and dined your ass…I would have rather sat with the Denver Nuggets IMO.
Was it cause all these high profile people were backing him and talking? Him lying about writing entire posts for Gervitz should have been your cue.
But I just can’t understand how you trusted someone so quick.
I’m the type of guy, that if you sat there and told me everything about your businesses inside and out for a year straight. If we popped bottles together for weekends in and out…You would probably just get from me, “I make money on the internet too”..But hey that’s me…Your the millionaire.
good post…
November 16, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Great!! shoe no outgoing link for Blitzlocal, but while reading the issue on TechCrunch ,there is…….
November 16, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Believe me, the things this man has done runs even deeper, so deep that you could probably write a definitive guide on it. Way to commit business suicide, Mr. Yu.
November 16, 2009 at 12:19 pm
that was probably the most entertaining post you have ever written.
Shoe are you going to play yourself in the movie when it comes out?
That whole situation is a life lesson for sure. the whole thing totally sucks but hopefully you and a lot of other people will come out of the situation with some solid lessons learned.
thanks for having the balls to post something like this on your blog
November 16, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Looking forward to the interns sharing there story or landing on ppc.biz site
So did Dennis Yu even pay the full $5k price to get in to thinktank?
Until this post I was on Bryan Y. original side during the TechCrunch post debate. Not any more.
November 16, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Yeah it really is a shame dude…oh well you live and you learn.
November 16, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Wow, now that is just a great post there! Good thing to out people who think they are nailing an entire industry. Now, he just looks like a total dumbass.
November 16, 2009 at 12:40 pm
That explains the feelings I had about him in person at things like Think Tank. Seemed sharp but something didn’t seem right to me so I shrugged it off.
Just saw him at Pubcon hanging out with some what I believe are good people so he’s still trying.
November 16, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Yea thats actually what pushed me over the edge to post this.
I needed to tell my story and let it be known my opinions and dealings with him before more people get taken.
November 17, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Good on you for doing it, Jeremy, You’ve done many a great service by bringing it to light. I’m curious how many naive people actually benefited from this post and the accounts of what’s been going on. Like it’s been said, it’s a testament about how you should always research someone before jumping in the water with them – Who knows what foulness comes forth from their pores.
November 16, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Good thing you have caught up on him. Trying to call out internet marketers on Arrington’s TechCrunch should of been a warning sign that something was awry.
I didn’t catch up on that before I read the post on Barman/Dullspace’s ppc.bz blog.
From the facebook end of things, he seemed amicable and such, but weird in a way, a way that kinda shyed me away from taking him seriously.
It just makes the masses of affiliate marketers increase their vigilance because of con men that do exist in our industry. Con men are just about in every industry and you don’t know that you have been had until it is too late sometimes.
November 16, 2009 at 1:00 pm
It feels good to be on the same side as ppc.bz doesn’t it? We’re one big happy family now. I hope you’re looking forward to ASW.
November 16, 2009 at 1:35 pm
wow, never knew there was so much drama in the ppc world. Good write-up for those “trying” to get into the game – be honest and upfront people.
November 16, 2009 at 1:41 pm
It’s stories like this that make me so happy that I’m just a small time, non-ballin, IM that makes enough money to pay the bills and do what I want. Mo money, mo problems. Take that to the bank.
November 17, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Dennis ain’t ballin’ – Last i’ve heard, he’s broke as all hell. No money, Mo problems is more like it.
November 16, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Weasels will be weasels and try to ride your coattails. Having your blog for PR self-defense is sure handy eh? It is posts like this that raise your status ShoeMoney.
Reminds me of a time when we got sued. The case was meritless and we had a motion to dismiss granted with summary judgment and prejudice.
The real funny part though is the guy who sued us had over 100 pages of deposition testimony and other evidence about an affair with a subordinate in the public record. I am sure his wife greatly appreciated that! Additionally, we counterclaimed for attorney fees and because he got fired on his birthday his cash reserves were low and the only way to pay was with his ‘pride and joy’: a bass fishing boat. LOL.
There no substitute for adding real value and acting with honesty and integrity. Truth will cleave its own way so a lesson is to be on the side where it will not hurt you as it cleaves the lies and illusions like a hot knife through butter.
November 16, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Great post, enjoyed a lot reading it. I think most of those kind of stories never get out. It was a bit like reading a good roman
November 16, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Winniest article ever.
November 16, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Meaning Win+best=winniest
November 16, 2009 at 2:13 pm
lol almost looked like “whine-iest”
November 16, 2009 at 4:19 pm
LOL yea – that’s why I had to clarify! haha
November 16, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Glad you cleared that up JV. Originally didn’t sound like something you would say
November 16, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Wow, had to read this twice! This sounds like it would make an interesting movie plot… Nice post, thanks for sharing!
November 16, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Thanks Shoe for proving you don’t have to know how to spell to be rich.
November 16, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Shoemoney- Thank you for this post. It must have been awkward to have to write this, but sounds like Yu needed to be exposed and fast before he did any more damage. I supposed it goes to show that even the most savvy, tech minded and smart entrepreneurs can be taken in now and again. Above all, we are all human. Glad you are not beating yourself up about it too much. He’s not worth it.
November 16, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Wow. That guy is scum.
November 16, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Top 5 posts of all times shoe. Laying it all out there man for the world to see takes stones bro and you got tennis balls for stones.
November 16, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Great post Jeremy. I have to say, I commend you for your no BS attitude. We need more people in the industry like yourself.
I know that you aren’t the type to pull the trigger quickly when it comes to legal action, and that’s a good thing, but you’ve got quite a case against Dennis for tortious interference, among other things…
November 16, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Well, damn.
November 16, 2009 at 3:12 pm
He was smart enough to understand this old saying in business… it’s not what you know but who you know that matter… he simply scaled to the limit…
The lesson here even if the person does have great endorsement, always double check everything, you can’t trust anyone until you double or even triple checks that person…..
November 16, 2009 at 3:48 pm
hahaha just Googled up his name and Shoemoney’s post is ranking third!
November 16, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I doubt it will last… probably just fast indexing… also I am not much of a seo
November 16, 2009 at 10:51 pm
You always say you’re not an SEO, but your site has a lot of links pointing to it and does rank for quite a few terms: “how to give a lap dance,” “Disa Johnson,” and now “Dennis Yu.” Those were all great posts and deserve to rank high, but I’d have to say you know what you’re doing when it comes to ranking for some names and keywords.
November 16, 2009 at 3:57 pm
As I am not well acquainted with the Affiliate space, this is more than a little confusing to me all around.
I would like to clarify that I am not now and have never been employed by BlitzLocal in any capacity whatsoever. I have not been offered, nor will I accept a position as CFO or any other position. As president and co-founder of SEOmoz, I continue to focus my work as an evangelist for SEOmoz and the SEO community in general.
My sole involvement with the Affiliate marketing space is to speak at conferences and spread the word about the SEOmoz toolset which may be of value to Affiliates in their search marketing effort.
I hope this will quell any rumors now and in the future.
November 16, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Gillian thanks for clarifying. I am sure it will help a lot of others who Dennis used your name to.
November 16, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Gillian so you are saying Dennis is good people? You back him up and say Jeremy is lying?
I am not sure what is so confusing. Just be honest.
November 16, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I am now confused.
Gillian – Dennis just told me at Pubcon you were involved with his company.
You guys might want to get your story straight!
November 17, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Neil- DENNIS said it, not Gillian. That would be like me, myself, saying Gillian and I are in business together. I can say that all day, doesn’t make it true.
Besides, Gillian is a super lady.
November 16, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Just a heads up
http://www.blitzlocal.com/stephan-spencer-joins-blitzlocals-board-of-advisors/
“In Stephan’s words, “I am honored to have been invited to join BlitzLocal’s Board of Advisors and look forward to serving as a resource to Dennis and his team.”
Other members of the Board of Advisors include Gillian Muessig, Todd Malicoat, Chris Downie, and Dr. David Klein”
November 16, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Wow that is surprising….
November 21, 2009 at 3:19 pm
It’s been edited.
http://www.blitzlocal.com/press-release-clarification/
But the memory, it lives on forever in our minds, not to mention on google: http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:jdG1ye3le-wJ:www.blitzlocal.com/stephan-spencer-joins-blitzlocals-board-of-advisors/+http://www.blitzlocal.com/stephan-spencer-joins-blitzlocals-board-of-advisors
I love you, Goog.
November 22, 2009 at 6:00 am
As I had said elsewhere, I have never been and am not on Blitz Local’s board of advisers. dk – purposeinc – Dr. David Klein
November 16, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Gillian, you have, are, and will be my hero
November 16, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Life is way too short to deal with people like that. Thanks for the inside scoop.
November 16, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Well, now people will refer to being conned “Yu’d” as in “Oh man, I got Yu’d on that one”, like Munson’d..lol
November 17, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Or he can be analogous with gremlins…
“It wasn’t me who borked your facebook ads! It was totally Yu!”
November 16, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I love how this idiot wrote a guest post for John Chow and had the first few links in it redirecting to Blitz Local – http://www.johnchow.com/going-from-zero-to-popularity-real-examples/ when they were suppose to be pointing at examples of successful blogs.
I’ve seen him around, but he tried to call something out that he was actively participating in on TechCrunch and then trying to cover it up I knew this guy was bad news.
November 16, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Jeremy,
I’ve interacted with Dennis on a number of instances. Ironically that Techcrunch article was supposed to go on AllFacebook until he called me and said that Markus Frind wanted the post to go on Techcrunch.
That’s what makes this all a bit confusing. I’m guessing he could have just been flat out lying but I also know of other advertisers who were doing sketchy stuff.
While I don’t know the whole cloaking process, I’ve heard about other networks running this, not just “you”. I’m not sure he was talking specifically about you as well because I know a lot more sketchy stuff that has taken place and it’s not just what Dennis has said, but all the other people I’ve spoken to.
There are some questionable things from Dennis, no doubt, but it’s hard to believe that he’s the source of all these issues.
When you deal in sketchy businesses, sketchy things happen.
Best,
Nick
November 16, 2009 at 5:11 pm
as a former Blitz employee, thank you. just thank you
November 16, 2009 at 10:01 pm
There’s many former Blitz employees and to be honest everyone I know is glad that people are actually finally saying something about being fucked over hardcore by him. In the past few months he has showed his true character and I could never trust the man again. and I too am a former Blitz employee….. go get ‘em shoemoney
November 17, 2009 at 1:07 pm
As another ex-employee for Blitzlocal, I would like to say that this post has inspired me to a level that hasn’t been felt since before I signed on to that team. The people I met while working there were amazing and completely clouded my judgment on this company as a whole. This post has completely purged any bad feelings about myself working under Dennis and I’m happy to feel free again. Thank you Shoemoney!
November 16, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Great post! Seems Dennis Yu is now the “Bernie” Madoff of the PPC world and look where he is today….
November 16, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Jeremey,
I’ve been following you for for a couple of years now and I think you’re a smart guy and great marketer. But truth be told you’ve come off arrogant and like a know it all sometimes which may be justified considering what you’ve accomplished. But reading this post has made you human to me.
It takes real guts to be able to admit to the world when you’re wrong about a situation and that you were a victim of a con. I think it’s a great lesson we all can learn from in this industry. It’s very easy to discuss how well you’re doing which is great but I think this post was far more inspirational to me. Thanks for being man enough to share this story. Hopefully Dennis gets what’s coming to him and others learn from this experience. Lord knows I have.
Thanks again man. You’re now my hero for what it’s worth.
Eddy
November 16, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I completely echo this comment.
November 16, 2009 at 5:47 pm
lol, I’m putting together the dots with the conversation we had at the Elite Retreat now hah hah. I didn’t know that Dennis was the guy trying to cause a lot of trouble.
November 16, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Seriously? Wow, what a douche. Good on you making this post. Very brave.
November 16, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I just wrote a lengthy post about this battle between you and Yu.
http://seoblogmoney.com/the-battle-between-dennis-yu-and-jeremy-schoemaker-yu-you-are-done/
I’ve combined some thoughts from wickedfire, also took few takeaways.
1. Fooling people seems to be smart for a while, but finally you will find out you are fooling yourself
2. Business is dirty, as always
3. You have to investigate someone deeply before trusting him
4. Big liar is revealed, how about other small ones in affiliate industry?
5. Never burn the bridge
November 16, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Dude, can you do a word count on that post and let us know if it is the longest blog post you ever wrote? Interesting but would be better as a videoblog maybe with some music to build up the anticipation and some scenes of the girls from the nightclub, etc.
November 16, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Its 4000 words and yes its the longest post I have ever written. Average blog post is about 600 words.
November 16, 2009 at 9:00 pm
and its the longs post I have every read in 1 sitting. Thank you for this blog post though shoe, many others may have been conned if you had not outted this fool. Dennis yu is the “Bernie Madoff” of the affiliate world.
November 16, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Wow. Sounds like this guy lives in his own fantasy land and borders on believing his own lies. Very dangerous. A liar who knows they’re lying you can deal with – when you get those liars who actually convince themselves, they’re dangerous – because they are SO convincing.
November 16, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I come back to read the follow up comments on some of these interesting posts…
I find it hard to believe people of great status are like whining like little brats still in high school… People are coming in saying no this isn;t correct, never worked for them, did work with them, blah blah blah…
Who cares, something that is true, someone is lying and deceiving, that’s all you can leave it at…
And to explain your stories on the internet, geez…
Someone is getting played out like an old jheri curl…
November 16, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Not sure if you are going to go after him for damages, but if you do, best of luck! Con men can be found anywhere, from politics to promotions. The good ones are the hardest ones to spot.
November 16, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I didn’t get a good vibe off him at thinktank either… guess there was a good reason for that
November 17, 2009 at 1:26 am
Funny, I had the same bad impression. I spoke with Jeremy right after Think Tank and said basically I thought everyone I met at Think Tank was great except Dennis. As you say, apparently with good reason.
November 16, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Hey Jeremy,
First thing I wanted to do upon reading this was drop you an email (since I am always reluctant to get into such things in public) however I decided given the questions it raised about a good friend, Gillian Muessig, I would post my comments here.
While you do not know me as well as some do in this space, I think you probably know that I am a very good friend & long-time supporter of Gillian & SEOmoz, helping them out when they were ramping up. Everyone who knows me, knows that for me integrity is most important to me.
So with this in mind, I can say that there are few people in our industry with as much integrity as Gillian. While I have helped a lot of people over the years, I can honestly say she is at the top of the list of the people I am so glad I have.
Oh and maybe I am wrong about her being a CFO BUT I do not think so as Gillian is like me – a Rainmaker..not an account so I cannot imagine how this even was out there. As for her son, Evan, there is not a nicer young man out there (I am proud he is both my friend and best friends with my son) and while he is no longer with Blitzlocal..Dennis gave him a start for which I am thankful to Dennis. Evan has now moved on to work with Ian Laurie of Portent Interactive and anyone who knows Ian knows that Evan must be special else Ian would not have brought him inhouse.
As for Dennis, I do not know him well enough to comment on these allegations, except to say that there are always 2 sides of every story. Also I am not able to comment on any of this as I just do not know..BUT when I comes to Gillian Muessig I do know and what I know is that she is a lady of the highest integrity whom if I had to tomorrow, I would trust her with every nickle I had to my name.
November 16, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Hi Curtis-
I am not sure what your point is. I have not accused Gillian of anything. Gillian has my phone number and many other ways to contact me. if anything I have posted is untrue please let me know and I will correct it.
November 16, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Hi Jeremy,
I know you did not say anything negative…I just wanted to make sure that anybody reading this understands what a wonderful a person she is…with the highest level of integrity. I know you know it, just in the context of this post, I did not want anyone to come away with anything but a strong sense of the fact that no matter what, she should not be colored by what happened here.
November 16, 2009 at 8:44 pm
totally… that was my whole point. Dennis sold me by lying about his connection with Gillian. If I did not hold her in such high regard It would not have been a issue
November 16, 2009 at 9:28 pm
As a former Blitz employee, this was refreshing to hear. Thank you, just…….thank you.
What else you’re not hearing is that Dennis has intentionally screwed over not just his acquaintances in business deals, but his employees, the people who lived with him, and pretty much anyone he ever met out and around Denver.
I was at the affiliate convention. I was shocked as Dennis introduced me to all the big wigs (Shoemoney included) and this gave credence to Blitzlocal and how big and important he said they really were.
The problem was, Blitzlocal was not a real company, because it was helmed by Dennis. With another person in charge, like Chad King (the CFO at the time, if I’m not mistaken, he’s since left the company) maybe they would have gone somewhere. But no.
Instead, Blitzlocal was essentially Dennis Yu sitting on a couch, sending off email after email while interns and a few other underlings did all the work for the company. Solid work individually, but with no direction. The leadership was the problem, and that was Dennis. It also doesn’t help that everything he says is shrouded in lies and deceit; so much so that if/when you finally confront him about it, he’ll reverse accusations and throw lie on top of lie to make himself the victim.
But that’s Dennis Yu. Blitzlocal isn’t necessarily a bullshit business, good work was done there, but Dennis Yu is like a virus in that body of work – seeking to corrupt and contaminate it any chance he gets.
This article, along with the the PPC.bz one (http://www.ppc.bz/people-that-suck/dennis-yu-hypocrite-defined) pretty much typify the man.
I’d call him a weasel, but really I just feel sorry for him. Life must be tragic when you burn every bridge in sight.
November 16, 2009 at 9:32 pm
You guys are impressed that this is ranking on Google? You should try to get this on the trending topics for Twitter. TWEET IT!
Good Post
November 16, 2009 at 9:33 pm
As a former Blitz employee, this was refreshing to hear. Thank you, just…….thank you.
What else you’re not hearing is that Dennis has intentionally screwed over not just his acquaintances in business deals, but his employees, the people who lived with him, and pretty much anyone he ever met out and around Denver.
I was at the affiliate convention. I was shocked as Dennis introduced me to all the big wigs (Shoemoney included) and this gave credence to Blitzlocal and how big and important he said they really were.
The problem was, Blitzlocal was not a real company, because it was helmed by Dennis. With another person in charge, like Chad King (the CFO at the time, if I’m not mistaken, he’s since left the company) maybe they would have gone somewhere. But no.
Instead, Blitzlocal was essentially Dennis Yu sitting on a couch, sending off email after email while interns and a few other underlings did all the work for the company. Solid work individually, but with no direction. The leadership was the problem, and that was Dennis. It also doesn’t help that everything he says is shrouded in lies and deceit; so much so that if/when you finally confront him about it, he’ll reverse accusations and throw lie on top of lie to make himself the victim.
But that’s Dennis Yu. Blitzlocal isn’t necessarily a bullshit business, good work was done there, but Dennis Yu is like a virus in that body of work – seeking to corrupt and contaminate it any chance he gets.
This article, along with the the PPC.bz one (http://www.ppc.bz/people-that-suck/dennis-yu-hypocrite-defined) pretty much typify the man.
I’d call him a weasel, but really I just feel sorry for him. Life must be tragic when you burn every bridge in sight.
November 17, 2009 at 12:23 pm
That was my take when reading all about him, it’s a bit sad that someone feels they have to lie and cheat to get a step up in this industry.
The funny thing is you read his blog and he’s talking about how much business the Techcrunch article will bring him and the “hits” he’s received!? He really didn’t realize the effect it would have and has had. I think he’s deluded…
November 16, 2009 at 9:40 pm
This has got to be one of the best blog posts from Shoemoney I have read. I’m not really a huge fan of the site, but damn this was a good post
November 16, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Life is short… The average person lives to be 75, subtract your age from that and what’s left over is a good approximation of how long you’ve got left if you’re average.
Long and short… You got played a little; but you got wise to it. You let people know to clear your name; and to warn them not to get taken by the same thing. Cool.
So you lost a little money, lost a little face and got embarrassed… Not Cool, but it’s life… and it builds character.
The bright side is…
You got to learn some about porn (that’s just rad)…
You got some life experience in dealing with people (that’s priceless)…
You got a trip to Denver to go party VIP and made some Nuggets get out of your booth (which is pretty cool)…
You got a great dinner in Vegas (come on dude, Vegas is wonderful)…
In a year from now… in 10 years from now… in 20 years from now; the only time you’ll think of this is when you read this old post.
I’m looking forward to your next post being positive.
November 16, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Great post, I see he’s being exposed on plenty of blogs. I bet he’s listening to this song right now all alone in a small 1 bedroom apartment with like 5 dudes. lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnxEcOoUsUs&feature=player_embedded#at=156
November 16, 2009 at 11:40 pm
That might be the longest post you have made since I started reading your blog. Really does a good job of describing the inside world of affiliate marketing.
November 16, 2009 at 11:42 pm
I like Dennis Yu’s style. I know he a punk, but dude knows how to get things popping! To bad he flammed out so fast.
November 16, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Reading this post reminded me of NickyCakes.com post about Dennis’s article at TechCrunch….
LMAO….
November 17, 2009 at 12:01 am
wow..!!! fantastic.. to be on the look out for scams and con-men
November 17, 2009 at 12:22 am
I had no idea this kind of stuff was going on. I know that Dennis had been contacting people to “interview” them about AM (before ASE). Good thing some said no.
November 17, 2009 at 1:01 am
Another master blogger and marketer that I just know here. That means not only American can do this
November 17, 2009 at 2:25 am
Wtf? I really do not get it. So this guy Dennis Yu contacts Jeremy about working together on some sort of proposed project. He runs a “legit” front end type of business that yields low returns but requires significant investor funding/backing. He monetizes his business on the backend running shady stuff to please the investors such as Scott Rictor who himself was in the limelight as a posterchild for running a shady operation until he went more “legit.” Dennis’s interns do some work for shoemoney’s business which he welcomes but feels is insufficient to warrent rev. share. Then mr.yu goes on to convince facebook and shoe’s facebook management team that he is somehow involved and that there is shady stuff going on after he got banned for similar tactics??? What is the point???
Dennis then posts some stuff outing the shady stufff in the industry and everyone is pissed because a-they were victims, b-their tactics got outed.
Everyone is a hyporcrite. I think the problem is much deeper. The fact that Dennis even managed to weasel his way to the “top people” and panels of this industry attest to how BAD it is. In no other industry do proprietery business practices & tactics get outed or sold. This includes bloggers who feel they need to get fame, traffic, authority or whatever gratification they get for posting hot niches, campaigns, tactics, etc (maybe it started when shoemoney outed ringtones a few years ago) as well as marketeers & networks who lure mostly young men to start “Making Moniez Online.” This lure of easy money attracts Lazy and desperate people who the majority of which copy or make shadier and shadier versions of working campaigns with total DISREGARD for the consequences leading to the CURRENT Major shifts in our industry. So maybe everyone should just stfu and actually think before running, copying, outing or even allowing shady offers on networks.
November 17, 2009 at 2:43 am
There may have been signs…it looks like he is firing an imaginary gun at you in the picture.
November 17, 2009 at 4:40 am
THE PSYCHOPATH – The Mask of Sanity
http://bit.ly/SVP6d
November 17, 2009 at 5:06 am
wow….you save many souls. You know, as newbie…I found too many BS in searching information and just realized that the real challenge to be a newbie is not a learning process but start with choosing the right information.thx for share
November 17, 2009 at 6:37 am
I heavily suspected he was a do nothing blow hard from the beginning. He always seemed more interested in networking and name dropping the actually making any money. I was somewhat doubting myself and reached out to do some business through Scott when I saw him running around with Richter because Scott usually sniffs out useless people pretty quick. Glad to know my initial instincts were correct.
November 17, 2009 at 7:45 am
I always have the opinion that every coin has two sides. What Jeremy has written here is his personal opinion. Dennis may indeed have a different version of story all together .
November 17, 2009 at 4:53 pm
….Personal opinion laced with factual occurrences – while as it’s Jeremy’s take on the situation, he speaks of things that have happened; Many people can back up what has been discussed here, nevermind a different story or not from Dennis. He’ll say anything to stop himself from sinking deeper.
November 17, 2009 at 10:01 am
I think we should all celebrate this post and the EPIC Failure of Dennis Yu with a T-shirt for shoe to wear. I made it at zazzle and it is called “Yu Bull Shit”
http://www.zazzle.com/yu_bull_shit_tshirt-235656791980585000
I think I may make another one called “Don’t F with the Shoe”
November 17, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Think i’ll buy 3.
November 17, 2009 at 10:04 am
LOL, it looks like he has set his employees to give negative votes on all the comments that give him negative feedback
November 17, 2009 at 11:52 am
You mean the ghosts he claims he has working for him? He only has like 4 employees.
November 17, 2009 at 10:26 am
November is a bad month for Dennis. Local marketer Tom Crandall busted him last week for not knowing the difference between SEO & PPC (end of article):
http://www.semreportcard.com/dex-landing-pages-dominating-google-local-search-ads/
Does Dennis give “guest posting” a bad name when he frequently links to other guest posts that link to him?
November 17, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Ouch! And they say any press is good press…
November 17, 2009 at 10:53 am
Shoe – Karma’s gonna get him one way or another. You were just being decent and trying to help out someone else. Taking that chance and getting burned will only turn up your BS radar.
As you said in your post, at this point in time, his rep is shot and his 15 minutes of fame are over.
November 17, 2009 at 3:34 pm
good jop
http://rodolphjarastv.com/forums/
http://dir.rodolphjarastv.com
دليل مواقع برابط عربي
November 17, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I once let Dennis Yu make sweet sweet love to me only after he told me he’d slept with you too…
Now I realize I’ve been conned!
November 17, 2009 at 4:19 pm
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/75925-shoemoney-calls-out-dennis-yu.html
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/76025-make-your-own-dennis-poo.html
November 18, 2009 at 7:42 am
I lol’d hard at sexy vacuum Dennis
November 17, 2009 at 5:10 pm
This is almost as good as Housewives of Orange County, win
November 17, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Burned. Ouch. A lot of people got hurt. Listen to your friend next time =)
November 17, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Appreciate the fact you are willing to be straightforward with this, most would be worried about potential libel from sharing the truth, it seems that the affiliate market has a good bit of scammers that put everyone in the industry in a negative light from time to time.
November 17, 2009 at 9:20 pm
wow. that’s all i can think. i assumed he was legit bc of his background at yahoo. sorry to hear about all the drama. i understand how hard it would be to write and publish this kind of post — i can’t stand liars. ugh. at least all the other companies can back you up.
November 17, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Great post Shoey.
Sorry to hear what went down, but that was a very interesting read.
Shows the pitfalls of having a high ‘public’ profile online too.
For us smaller players online, it makes us value the benefits of anonymous!
November 17, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Jeremy,
I had similar situations happen with sales guys that promised the world when selling clients on our SEO services, and been in the same spot.
It forces you to waste money & precious time and emotions on such wastes of skin.
Thank you VERY much for clearing up things and being the bluntly honest person that you are, you’re an inspiration to all the bloggers like myself who sometimes find it difficult to come right out and say what’s on our minds. Sometimes that’s the very best content.
November 17, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Well what do you know- Dennis is hosting a webinar for readytalk about Facebook Advertising techniques tomorrow!
“7 Effective Facebook Advertising Techniques for Brands and Direct Marketers”
I’m registered!
http://www.readytalk.com/web-seminar-series/detail.php?id=849
November 18, 2009 at 7:39 am
Do i smell a call to arms for a little of the old ultra-trolling?
November 18, 2009 at 8:49 am
I love how it says this in his profile on that page:
“Dennis Yu is CEO of BlitzLocal.com, a 50 person agency based in Westminster, Colorado”
Didn’t sound like a 50 person agency from Jeremy’s article…
November 18, 2009 at 6:59 pm
He counts the hairs on his nutsack as employees since they’re his only friends.
November 18, 2009 at 4:05 am
This post should have been in 3 parts for effective reading “:p
November 18, 2009 at 8:37 am
That was a great read Shoe. Balls up for not letting this guy f with you and for outting him. I can’t imagine he will show his face at any other conferences…
~ Corey
November 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I’ve been a long time reader of your blog. I just want to point out one thing: Dennis could be the biggest crook on the planet of earth, but why say things like “this little Asian guy”. Should others refer you as “the bald white guy”? I’m not accusing you of being a racist, and I trust your best intentions. But, this type of language is inappropriate in my opinion.
thanks.
November 19, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Got to agree with Andrew, Shoe, there was no need for the “little Asian guy” part. Many will see that as a clearly racist comment.
November 19, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I agree with Andrew. I don’t think you meant it in a negative way Shoe, but the underlying connotations are there. Some of your readers may take it the wrong way. You are in the spotlight and like Spiderman, with it comes some responsibility.
November 30, 2009 at 4:11 am
I’ve met Dennis Yu. He’s little. He’s Asian. Saying he’s a little Asian is somehow a bad thing instead of simply factual? Stop your whining.
November 18, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I’ve been reading your blog for a while and the one lesson I’ve learned from you is that there are a lot of people in this business who talk a lot of shit.
I’m sure this prat won’t dent your reputation too much.
Oh and in that picture you look evil as you have red eyes.
November 18, 2009 at 8:38 pm
DAMN… Great read… I would ask if there was a Sequel going to be written for this but that would be like bad luck, wouldn’t it?
November 18, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Epic story with an appropriate title.
Thanks. It was a very timely reminder to look a lot closer at potential biz partners…
November 19, 2009 at 7:21 am
Jeremy Shoemaker helps the Dennis and he really some awesome decision to back the business of the dennis. He give him the opportunities to develop the business again and he achieved one of the biggest goal in life to be succeed and by the help of the Jeremy shoemaker.
November 19, 2009 at 12:18 pm
English – Do you speak it?
November 20, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I think this comment is auto generated somehow …
November 21, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I find it funny how these bots spam this blog but all of the website links are nofollow – wasted effort.
November 19, 2009 at 3:06 pm
This is the longest post I have ever read by you Shoe. Totally insane how people can deceive others in such a way that they hurt them and sleep well at night… as someone has mentioned this guy will burn down to the ground. Just like all con men the ride is sweet but the fall is bitter. Good post Jeremy and I hope this Dennis Yu realizes how F***d he is.
November 19, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Interesting, now i know why a con man is called a con man.
November 22, 2009 at 2:35 am
Yeah this was the first time I heard the definition of con man too.
November 20, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I read the original tech crunch and I was not sure wheter to believe his story, Tech crunch must be hurting right now.
You do not know what money does to people, a friend of mine ran with my money after we were making profits on his account.
Shoemoney this guy is over,
November 21, 2009 at 9:46 am
Shoemoney are you saying Marcus is making money from porn websites?
November 22, 2009 at 1:15 am
I dont know or dont honestly care what all markus frind does.
November 21, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.
November 21, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Man you really find some losers in this industry. I had someone that I used to work with write a damaging post about our company. Luckily he is a loser and has no influence so I wasn’t worried about it.
Your guy seems like a real psycho though.
BTW. What does vougeing mean? I noticed that you used it a couple of times in your post. Did you mean vouching?
November 22, 2009 at 1:14 am
it means i have really bad proof readers
November 22, 2009 at 2:33 am
It’s okay, it was a really long post and nobody’s perfect I can see how they could miss it.
November 21, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Hey I have one more thig to ask you. After reading your blog post I went over to Mark Frind’s blog. On his blog he has the following statement posted:
“I’ve never talked to anyone on the board of directors at blitzlocal or seen any business plan or spoken with any employees”
But you are saying:
“Gillian was spending a lot of time with Dennis and the two of them including Plenty of fish owner Markus Frind took me and my team to dinner one night in vegas. I definatly had confidence this guy was legit”
Please clarify this situation for me. Thanks
November 22, 2009 at 1:13 am
I stand by what I said no clarification needed. There are pictures to prove it.
November 22, 2009 at 2:32 am
I like your atitude. Keep up the good work. It seems like all the snakes in this operation are trying to weasel their way out of it.
The reason I believe you over them is because you really have no reason to lie. You posted this before he posted that trash about you on techcrunch. The only thing that he did when he did that was make himself look like an @$$.
You know what though, you will be okay, you are way bigger than this idiot and you’re of good character.
Keep up the good work Jeremy but make sure not to let your guard down because these morons are capable of just about anything.
Have a good weekend.
December 2, 2009 at 5:42 pm
That has to be the longest blog post I have ever read! People come at you all the time from many different angles in this business. I guess when you build a profile such as the one you have shoe then you should expect the good, the bad and the ugly of this industry.
December 3, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Fascinating reading! I can’t believe how easily Dennis managed to build up a believable business front. Just goes to show how easy it is online.
December 5, 2009 at 1:17 pm
It’ll be interesting to see if Dennis Yu will step down from the facebook panel. Seems like his ego is HUGE and he might stay on it for that reason alone. He is a guy that doesn’t seem to care about his reputation.
December 6, 2009 at 8:19 am
LOL, check out his profile on SMX’s site, it says “[Dennis] at one point managed 80% of Yahoo’s search engine marketing budget”.
http://www.searchmarketingexpo.com.au/agenda/speakers/dennis-yu-ceo-blitz-local/
December 13, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Nice post! Interesting story! Enough long to read!
January 15, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I know, I know…I’m a “little” late with this comment…
I think you’ve done the right thing though Shoe…I mean, you can’t live your life second guessing everyone and trusting someone is critical in forming relationships, business or otherwise. There was really no early warning signs that this guy was a con man. It’s good to know that he won’t be screwing with the Shoe ever again though!
Take care!
Richard
January 15, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Wow awesome story Shoe!
May 5, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Wow, that guy had a lot of nerve to try and butt heads with you, Shoe. To think he did it after he bailed on a deal with you, too. Tsk, tsk. Some people.
May 5, 2010 at 10:05 pm
The problem with con men is that they’re usually charming, intelligent, and in many cases, well-educated (and yes, the same can be said for many serial killers, but I digress).
He must have convinced some people in power that it was all a big misunderstanding, or that it had never even happened at all. It usually works for a while, but eventually, they’re always found out. One has to wonder how long it’ll take before he’s totally ruined in the industry and none of the big players will work with him any more.
May 5, 2010 at 10:10 pm
There’ll always be newbies he can exploit, though. Someone should put out a warning or something.
May 5, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Don’t worry, maybe Shoe’s post will come up every time a newbie seeking to work with this guy does some background research on him.
May 12, 2010 at 10:07 am
I’m surprised to see him on the Facebook panel at SMX Advanced this year. I would have thought that Danny had more sense than that.
May 17, 2010 at 8:48 am
smellyfish Says:
May 17, 2010 at 1:45 pm | Reply
“Simply put BlitzLocal is the future of local search, its genius is in its simplicity.”
- Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyOfFish.com
http://www.blitzlocal.com/client-testimonials/
smellyfish Says:
May 17, 2010 at 1:47 pm | Reply
“One of the most brilliant ideas to come along to serve Boomers – and beyond – in a long while.”
- Gillian Muessig, SEOmoz
http://www.blitzlocal.com/client-testimonials/
May 22, 2010 at 4:59 pm
This is some serious news which should be developed more in the industry to show who’s scamming who and what. I’m really shocked by what happened but when there’s more money, more problems. Thanks Shoe for putting yourself out there and bringing yourself to the light. I’m sure news like this will reach many like me whose naivete may be blinded by these scam artists.