Journal News “Exposes” Talk of the Sound Domain Redirect SEO Strategy

I received a bizarre phone call Journal News reporter Ned Rausch on Wednesday. Being the day after the election I figured he was calling about the election but when I began talking about it he cut me off, adopting a tone of breathless outrage.

Rausch demanded to know if it was true that I owned the domain name “barryfertel.org” which I do. Of course, Raush already knew this because that domain redirects traffic to Talk of the Sound. It is obviously the case and a matter of public record. I own a number of domains. The purpose is to use domain keywords to drive traffic to Talk of the Sound or other sites that I own. This is a common SEO strategy (“Search Engine Optimization” strategy).

Rausch asked if I thought it was “right” that I owned a domain name based on another person’s name without their permission. Obviously I do since I own the domain. I explained to Rausch that I am not required to obtain permission to buy a domain name if it is available. Raush became increasingly confrontational and accusatory as the “interview” proceeded, claiming that I was using other people’s names to “promote” my site because I set barryfertel.org to forward to Talk of the Sound and that I was “cybersquatting” because I was buying domains in order to sell them none of which is the case. He repeatedly reformulated my responses to his questions into his own misleading characterizations.

For example, he asked me if I would sell barryfertel.org to Barry Fertel. I said that I would always consider an offer for something I owned. He then asked how that was different from “cybersquatting”. I asked him to define cybersquatting. He said it was buying a domain for the purpose of selling it to make money. I said that in that case I was not cybersquatting because my purpose in buying the domain was to re-direct traffic to my site as part of an SEO strategy. He got angry again, claiming I had said that I would sell the domain to Barry Fertel. I had to point out to him that I had not said that nor had I said it was my purpose in buying the domain only that, since he was asking, that I would consider an offer if was one was made but not that I would sell it. I have no desire to sell any of the domains I own but if Barry wants to make me an offer I will certainly take his call and hear him out.

While the entire premise of the interview was absurd, that Raush would actually be angry that I owned barryfertel.org suggests to me that he was not reporting but advancing an agenda on behalf of someone else. You can insert your own guesses here as to who he is carrying water for here or why Rausch went so far as to ask whether I would sell the domain to Barry Fertel. Apparently Rausch has gone from reporter to domain name broker on behalf of elected New Rochelle Democrats.

As I explained to Rausch, web site publishers use a variety of SEO or Search Engine Optimization techniques to boost their web traffic, buying up domain names by relevant keywords and redirecting them to a web site is standard practice. He appeared clueless about how domains are purchased and how they are used. I suggested he check with his own employer, Gannett, about the techniques they employee to drive traffic to sites like lohud.com.

Pressing on Rausch demanded to know how many domains I owned and which ones and why. I would not answer those questions because he is asking me to disclose my business strategy for increasing traffic to my site, something I am not inclined to share with a newspaper reporter in the same way that his bosses do not share their strategy for boosting circulation with me. He asked me specifically about whether I owned domains for Marianne Sussman, Lou Trangucci and Al Tarantino which I confirmed to him. He did not ask about Noam Bramson’s domains which Noam owns and later revealed that he already knew that Noam and Richard St. Paul owned their own domains.

Rausch seemed especially perturbed that I would buy domains of people mentioned on Talk of the Sound, failing to note the rather obvious point that if I buy a domain and re-direct it to Talk of the Sound it is because the term is somehow newsworthy and thus something that would be mentioned on Talk of the Sound. It is the whole point. What did not appear to perturb him is that he was being used by members of the Democratic Party to present as sinister and mysterious something that is open, public and benign. How open? Anyone in the world can type in barryfertel.org or louistrangucci.org and see that the domain redirects to Talk of the Sound.

What makes all of this particularly amusing is that this is the first time I can recall a reporter for the Journal News doing anything approaching “investigative” journalism – albeit at the behest of Noam and his cronies. Forget about the investigation of the DPW or the Jose Martinez case or the no-show jobs or municipal corruption he wants to spend time reporting on whether it is really true that I own barryfertel.org. Gasp!

The real question should be why haven’t these people bothered to buy up their own internet domains. It only costs $13.50 to buy a domain. Fertel has been an elected official in New Rochelle for over 10 years yet only thought to look at his own name as a domain this week? Noam Bramson and Richard St. Paul are the only two members of Council who own their domain names. Why didn’t these two elected officials mention to their colleagues that they all ought to buy domains based on their own names, if available.

The entire line of questioning was idiotic but incredibly, the Journal News is actually writing a story about this faux controversy which Ned says may run on Sunday.

The one good thing about Ned’s call is that it reminded me to check on domains for Shari Rackman, the new candidate for District 6.

I now own her domains too.