Website: https://seotographer.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seotographer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelthomas0821
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostographer
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@seotographer
Google Reviews: https://tinyurl.com/2za9mpuw
BBB: https://www.bbb.org/us/fl/tampa/profile/commercial-photographer/seotographer-0653-90435327/complaints
THIS PHOTOGRAPHER HAS NOT STOLEN IMAGES
Guess we’re back with another entry into the Photo Shyster category with another person trying to be an industry leader but instead takes money and doesn’t always deliver. SIGH.
Today we’re here to talk about Michael Thomas Ireland who ran “SEOtographer” but now is focusing on his new business Tanooki Marketing.
The summary is SEOtographer has taken a lot of money from people and not always delivered the goods.
This post is an attempt to reach more possible clients who are also waiting for work that hasn’t been completed.
Update 7/14/2023 @ 9AM EST:
- Michael sent me his rebuttal, you can read and judge for yourself here. The clients all maintain their stories are true as posted.
- Added Client #6
- Added supporting evidence that Michael may be behind Tanooki
To back it up a bit, I somewhat knew OF Michael Thomas Ireland as he posted pretty frequently on a popular Facebook Group and was routinely tagged whenever anyone had SEO questions and people were then referred to his group/business.
His comment in this group (and likely others) would be something similar to this whenever there was an SEO question asked. He was inviting because he didn’t just shill his business if you want an answer which is rare in the photography industry.
However, these people are so fly by night that I never really paid him much attention since I’d learned my lesson about hiring someone to help with SEO Optimization (spoiler alert: it didn’t go well).
I am still getting information from the clients of Michael but it seems that some were on payment plans, some paid one lump sum, some paid a couple installments. The clients who didn’t get what they paid for go all the way back to 2020.
It seems the overwhelming theme is that for the clients reaching out to me** is that they paid for SEO Optimization and gave Michael all the pertinent info for logins to their websites etc. and he never did anything. He has claimed to some that most of his work is done with his partnership with Google and he doesn’t need to login to their website for optimization.
**I realize there may be some clients who DID have satisfactory work done by Michael**
The clients below are just the tip of the iceberg as I gather the information behind everything going on. Please reach out if you are another victim and would like to be connected to everyone else.
Client 1 paid SEOtographer $647.50 in April 2023 for SEO optimization on their website during the half price sale. This was the fee for one month of service. There is no record of Michael ever logging into the website to do any work. This client filed a chargeback and has temporarily been granted the refund. Michael is still in contact with this client even today so the lies he’s no longer part of the company are suspect.
Client 2 paid SEOtographer $1190 in two installments in February 2023 for SEO optimization on their website. There is no record of Michael ever logging into the website to do any work. The client was able to get one charge reversed through her credit card (NOT SEOtographer) and while Michael claims on the Google Review that this client was refunded in full they are still owed $595.
Client 3 paid SEOtographer $1000 in November 2020 for SEO optimization of their website. Michael claimed to be giving away packages at a discount to use for video and this client jumped on the deal. They are a website designer so know their stuff so despite Michael claiming he did work unknown on the website the client knows that isn’t possible.
Client 4 paid SEOtographer in $1200 starting in November 2022 for SEO optimization of their website. SEOtographer charged the client an additional $300 (an additional monthly payment) on top of the agreed upon fee and refused to get on a conference call with PayPal to sort out the billing issue. No apparent SEO work was performed during this time.
Client 5 paid SEOtographer $21,000 starting in 2020 for SEO optimization of their website. Many issues with payments and little to no actual SEO work was performed. They fired SEOtographer in December and were charged for the next 4 months. The client was able to get those 4 months refunded through their bank but the rest was not.
Client 6 paid SEOtographer $600 in 2019. They asked for SEO optimization for Raleigh and instead Michael kept bringing up work he was doing for Spring Lake instead (a city she did not ask for). The client still believes very minimal, if any, work was actually done for her website SEO.
There are more clients but I’m still getting their full stories regarding payments and timelines. This post will be updated as I get more information.
It seems that Michael is now trying to distance himself from SEOtographer and is moving towards his Tanooki Marketing and ventures into being an author (how ironic is THAT book?).
Since this posting Michael sent the PDF to me asserting he doesn’t own Tanooki nor is he employed by them and alludes to a woman owning the company.
So some digging happened into Tanooki Marketing.
There is only one employee at Tanooki Marketing on LinkedIn: Michael Thomas.
The Twitter feed for Tanooki is… curious… with a lot of WWE tweets.
Also Mike is the name associated with it on Twitter:
Fine, let’s meet the author, “Kristen” shall we?
The file name of the image file is, “Mikey_A_beautiful_asian_woman_with_short-length_curly_brown_hai_……”
Here’s the image:
Do you notice anything off about it??
Me thinks there’s more than just AI writing happening at Tanooki.
It is also interesting that this testimonial mentions the pandemic (which we are not in the middle of anymore) when Tanooki is a new business in 2023.
Finally the company is Tanooki Marketing, the AI is Tanooki Writer and the publisher of Michael’s book is Tanooki Books. That’s wrapping yourself up a lot in a company you’re only a temporary 1099 employee for (if you believe Michael).