Looking for somewhere online to meet new people, discuss hobbies, plan events, or just have fun chatting? Online forums have been around for some time on the internet and often free and easy to setup. Forums are basically online discussion web sites where people share information and chat grouped around a set of topics. One example might be a local photography club. You could setup topics around types of cameras, locations for shooting, local events and meetings, printing tips, etc. Often there are administrators and moderators that help to keep the discussion orderly and on topic.
Some items to consider when starting an online forum include…
Cost – Often you can find them for free. There will probably be some advertising on the site, but don’t most sites now a days?
Features – Does the forum support avatars, private messages, user levels, themes, etc.
Security – Is it possible to create forums that only register users can post in? Helps to avoid those spammers.
I cannot stress the last one enough. You should be completely able to control who is in your forums. One bad apple spoils the bunch. On that same note, it is common for a forums to have moderators. These are people that help enforce the rules in the forum. Make sure your choose your help wisely. When it comes to administrators, there should only ever be one. Administrators have the keys to the city and can set your forum ablaze.
Finally to make a forum a success you need to attract people to it to join. Obviously if it is for a church or some other established group, this is relatively easy. Tell your friends, family, club members. If you are starting from scratch, do the same. Tell people, show people, invite people. Check to see if your forum site is listed in search engines like google. Once you get past that initial setup and recruitment your will soon be on your way to having a forum that you and your friends can enjoy.
About the author:
George Hubka has a masters degree in software engineering has been building and running web sites for more than a decade. Visit http://www.AtTheForum.comto get started with your own online community today!
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Sunday, February 17, 2008
Computer-Virus Writer's: A Few Bats In The Belfry?
"Male. Obsessed with computers. Lacking a girlfriend. Aged
14 to 34. Capable of creating chaos worldwide."
The above description is the profile of the average computer-virus writer, according to Jan Hruska, the chief executive of British-based Sophos PLC, the world's fourth-largest anti-virus solutions provider.
"They have a chronic lack of girlfriends, are usually
socially inadequate and are drawn compulsively to write self-
replicating codes. It's a form of digital graffiti to them,"
Hruska added.
To create and spread cyber infections, virus writers explore
known bugs in existing software, or look for vulnerabilities
in new versions.
With more and more new OS (operating system) versions, there
will be more new forms of viruses, as every single software
or OS will carry new features, and new executables that can
be carriers of the infection.
Executables are files that launch applications in a
computer's operating system, and feature more prominently in
new platforms like Microsoft's Windows 2000 and Windows XP
than they did in the older DOS or Windows 3.1.
Virus writers also share information to create variants of
the same infection, such as the Klez worm, which has been
among the world's most prolific viruses.
The Klez, a mass-mailing worm that originated in November
2001, propagates via e-mail using a wide variety of messages
and destroys files on local and network drives.
But the news gets worse. Recent events have uncovered what
may be a new trend: spammers paying virus writers to create
worms that plant an open proxy, which the spammer then can
use to forward spam automatically. Many suspect this
occurred with the SoBig virus.
The Sobig worms, began spreading in the early part of
2003. The unusual thing about them was they contained an
expiration date and were given a short life cycle to see how
features worked in the wild.
Having an expiration date also makes the virus more
dangerous, because most people would have been alerted to
the new worm within a few weeks and anti-virus definitions
would have been updated.
A variant of Sobig, Sobig-F was so efficient that just a few
infected machines could send thousands of messages. Sobig-F
created a denial-of-service effect on some networks, as e-
mail servers became clogged with copies of the worm.
According to Mikko Hypponen, manager of anti-virus research
for Finland-based F-Secure Corp, Sobig-F sent an estimated 300 million copies of itself.
Computer Economics, Inc. states, "Nearly 63,000 viruses have
rolled through the Internet, causing an estimated $65
billion in damage." However criminal prosecutions have been
few, penalties light and just a handful of people have gone
to prison for spreading the destructive bugs.
Why is so little being done? Antiquated laws and, for many
years, as crazy as it sounds, a "wink, wink" or even admiring attitude toward virus creators.
One person has been sent to prison in the United States and
just two in Britain, authorities say. But the low numbers
are "not reflective of how seriously we take these cases,
but more reflective of the fact that these are very hard
cases to prosecute," said Chris Painter, the deputy chief of computer crimes at the U.S. Department of Justice.
So what can you do to protect yourself against computer viruses?
Well, first and foremost, make sure you have proven anti-virus protection like like Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee's ViruScan.
In addition, If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend installing Microsoft's Service Pack 2. SP2 tightens your PC's security with a new Windows Firewall, an improved Automatic Updates feature, and a pop-up ad blocker for Internet Explorer. Plus, the newly minted Security Center gives you one easy-to-use interface for keeping tabs on your PC's security apps.
"Male. Obsessed with computers. Lacking a girlfriend. Aged
14 to 34. Capable of creating chaos worldwide."
Now, I'm no psychiatrist, but to me, the above description
sounds more like someone with a few "bats in the belfry!"
About the author:
Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer,
publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be
reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net
Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net
Circulated by Article Emporium
14 to 34. Capable of creating chaos worldwide."
The above description is the profile of the average computer-virus writer, according to Jan Hruska, the chief executive of British-based Sophos PLC, the world's fourth-largest anti-virus solutions provider.
"They have a chronic lack of girlfriends, are usually
socially inadequate and are drawn compulsively to write self-
replicating codes. It's a form of digital graffiti to them,"
Hruska added.
To create and spread cyber infections, virus writers explore
known bugs in existing software, or look for vulnerabilities
in new versions.
With more and more new OS (operating system) versions, there
will be more new forms of viruses, as every single software
or OS will carry new features, and new executables that can
be carriers of the infection.
Executables are files that launch applications in a
computer's operating system, and feature more prominently in
new platforms like Microsoft's Windows 2000 and Windows XP
than they did in the older DOS or Windows 3.1.
Virus writers also share information to create variants of
the same infection, such as the Klez worm, which has been
among the world's most prolific viruses.
The Klez, a mass-mailing worm that originated in November
2001, propagates via e-mail using a wide variety of messages
and destroys files on local and network drives.
But the news gets worse. Recent events have uncovered what
may be a new trend: spammers paying virus writers to create
worms that plant an open proxy, which the spammer then can
use to forward spam automatically. Many suspect this
occurred with the SoBig virus.
The Sobig worms, began spreading in the early part of
2003. The unusual thing about them was they contained an
expiration date and were given a short life cycle to see how
features worked in the wild.
Having an expiration date also makes the virus more
dangerous, because most people would have been alerted to
the new worm within a few weeks and anti-virus definitions
would have been updated.
A variant of Sobig, Sobig-F was so efficient that just a few
infected machines could send thousands of messages. Sobig-F
created a denial-of-service effect on some networks, as e-
mail servers became clogged with copies of the worm.
According to Mikko Hypponen, manager of anti-virus research
for Finland-based F-Secure Corp, Sobig-F sent an estimated 300 million copies of itself.
Computer Economics, Inc. states, "Nearly 63,000 viruses have
rolled through the Internet, causing an estimated $65
billion in damage." However criminal prosecutions have been
few, penalties light and just a handful of people have gone
to prison for spreading the destructive bugs.
Why is so little being done? Antiquated laws and, for many
years, as crazy as it sounds, a "wink, wink" or even admiring attitude toward virus creators.
One person has been sent to prison in the United States and
just two in Britain, authorities say. But the low numbers
are "not reflective of how seriously we take these cases,
but more reflective of the fact that these are very hard
cases to prosecute," said Chris Painter, the deputy chief of computer crimes at the U.S. Department of Justice.
So what can you do to protect yourself against computer viruses?
Well, first and foremost, make sure you have proven anti-virus protection like like Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee's ViruScan.
In addition, If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend installing Microsoft's Service Pack 2. SP2 tightens your PC's security with a new Windows Firewall, an improved Automatic Updates feature, and a pop-up ad blocker for Internet Explorer. Plus, the newly minted Security Center gives you one easy-to-use interface for keeping tabs on your PC's security apps.
"Male. Obsessed with computers. Lacking a girlfriend. Aged
14 to 34. Capable of creating chaos worldwide."
Now, I'm no psychiatrist, but to me, the above description
sounds more like someone with a few "bats in the belfry!"
About the author:
Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer,
publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be
reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net
Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net
Circulated by Article Emporium
COMPUTER COURTESY
The tips that follow should help you to write e-mail that will be well received every time
Pay attention to punctuation, spelling, grammar and capitals. It shows that you value us and that you’ve thought about what you’ve written rather than an off-the-cuff rushed message in the heat of the moment.
Your subject line should be descriptive, especially when we get so many emails or if we like to save the emails in a file. It’d be great a practice to start the subject with “Recipient or group name” then a hyphen, your subject (specific and changed for each email), another hyphen and then the date.
E.g. Thea–Email tips attached–15Oct05 Make the subject crystal clear.
Use short paragraphs and leave lines between them. This makes for more easy and quick reading when you experience a lot of email activity on a regular basis.
Tidy up all those ">" characters when replying or forwarding. I use a handy tool for this http://www.dsoft.com.tr/stripmail/ I’ve downloaded it and I keep it on my desktop.
Check the source of any "news" or "chain" mailings before passing on. Here is a good resource for that: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/
Avoid sending unsolicited, large attachments. That 3MB movie file may be the funniest thing you've seen for a long time, but don't automatically send it to everyone to know. Ask them first if they want to receive it. A great tool for large file sending is http://www.yousendit.com/
Ensure that your PC is protected against viruses. Your virus scanner might not protect against Spyware and Adware. Good quality free tools are: ~ http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 ~ http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ ~ http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm ~ Remember to set your email service to scan viruses for emails coming in and out.
Use lower case font. When in all capitals, it is harder to read and may be perceived as aggressive.
Thou shalt not spam!
Go to http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.65690:STANDARD:298294164:pc=PC_1965
Or click here for same http://yatuc.com/a0 Another handy tool http://yatuc.com/index.php?lang=en
Re-read your message before sending. Read it from the perspective of the recipient.
Consider first if your message needs the “Reply To All” treatment, or if it is sufficient to simply “Reply To Sender” only. Always ask permission if wanting to pass another's contact details forward. If you need to keep another’s email details hidden when you “Cc:” then place their email address in the “Bcc:” text box.
Limit your “non-group related topic” emails to e.g. one per week, when using the group email option.
Keep emails short i.e. to a single screen page. When it’s a more complicated issue to discuss, why not use the telephone and speak? In emails to busy people, tell recipients if/when you do/don’t want a reply.
Be mindful of when you use the ‘priority’ or the ‘request receipt’ options (these are under ‘Tools’ and ‘Message’ when you have email open & ready to send). Less use has greater impact when you need it.
Is it clear who’s the sender? Use an email signature that has contact details and change the “From:” option for your emails. As an email signature I use http://www.addbranding.com/ or you can go to your task bar Tools, Options, Signatures. To change what shows in the “From:” box, go to Tools, Accounts, Properties and change “Your Name:” in User Information. It won’t impact account settings, it’s safe to do.
EMAIL HUMOUR Purely for your entertainment: http://www.pmaco.com/humor/Tomatoe_Cart.html
About the author:
©2005 Thea Westra is an international life coach who resides in Perth, Australia. She is editor and publisher of a free, monthly newsletter which you can receive by going to her website http://www.forwardsteps.comauShe also publishes a blog called Triggers http://forwardsteps.blogspot.com
Circulated by Article Emporium
Pay attention to punctuation, spelling, grammar and capitals. It shows that you value us and that you’ve thought about what you’ve written rather than an off-the-cuff rushed message in the heat of the moment.
Your subject line should be descriptive, especially when we get so many emails or if we like to save the emails in a file. It’d be great a practice to start the subject with “Recipient or group name” then a hyphen, your subject (specific and changed for each email), another hyphen and then the date.
E.g. Thea–Email tips attached–15Oct05 Make the subject crystal clear.
Use short paragraphs and leave lines between them. This makes for more easy and quick reading when you experience a lot of email activity on a regular basis.
Tidy up all those ">" characters when replying or forwarding. I use a handy tool for this http://www.dsoft.com.tr/stripmail/ I’ve downloaded it and I keep it on my desktop.
Check the source of any "news" or "chain" mailings before passing on. Here is a good resource for that: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/
Avoid sending unsolicited, large attachments. That 3MB movie file may be the funniest thing you've seen for a long time, but don't automatically send it to everyone to know. Ask them first if they want to receive it. A great tool for large file sending is http://www.yousendit.com/
Ensure that your PC is protected against viruses. Your virus scanner might not protect against Spyware and Adware. Good quality free tools are: ~ http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 ~ http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ ~ http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm ~ Remember to set your email service to scan viruses for emails coming in and out.
Use lower case font. When in all capitals, it is harder to read and may be perceived as aggressive.
Thou shalt not spam!
Go to http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.65690:STANDARD:298294164:pc=PC_1965
Or click here for same http://yatuc.com/a0 Another handy tool http://yatuc.com/index.php?lang=en
Re-read your message before sending. Read it from the perspective of the recipient.
Consider first if your message needs the “Reply To All” treatment, or if it is sufficient to simply “Reply To Sender” only. Always ask permission if wanting to pass another's contact details forward. If you need to keep another’s email details hidden when you “Cc:” then place their email address in the “Bcc:” text box.
Limit your “non-group related topic” emails to e.g. one per week, when using the group email option.
Keep emails short i.e. to a single screen page. When it’s a more complicated issue to discuss, why not use the telephone and speak? In emails to busy people, tell recipients if/when you do/don’t want a reply.
Be mindful of when you use the ‘priority’ or the ‘request receipt’ options (these are under ‘Tools’ and ‘Message’ when you have email open & ready to send). Less use has greater impact when you need it.
Is it clear who’s the sender? Use an email signature that has contact details and change the “From:” option for your emails. As an email signature I use http://www.addbranding.com/ or you can go to your task bar Tools, Options, Signatures. To change what shows in the “From:” box, go to Tools, Accounts, Properties and change “Your Name:” in User Information. It won’t impact account settings, it’s safe to do.
EMAIL HUMOUR Purely for your entertainment: http://www.pmaco.com/humor/Tomatoe_Cart.html
About the author:
©2005 Thea Westra is an international life coach who resides in Perth, Australia. She is editor and publisher of a free, monthly newsletter which you can receive by going to her website http://www.forwardsteps.comauShe also publishes a blog called Triggers http://forwardsteps.blogspot.com
Circulated by Article Emporium
Choosing Your Web Hosting Reseller Software
As a web host reseller, one of your most important business decisions is your choice of web hosting control panel software. The web hosting software you use will save or cost you time, money, and frustration.
What reseller control panel features will reduce your workload? What hosting software programs are integrated with the reseller control panel or work with it? What website control panel features will your clients like?
In this article, we’ve compared four quality web hosting reseller software programs:
• Alabanza
• cPanel
• H-Sphere
• Plesk
All of these reseller control panels come with control panels for your clients. They all have numerous features — advanced email management, web statistics, pre-installed scripts, multi-language support, and more. They all work on Linux platforms, while H-Sphere and Plesk also work with Windows. According to the cPanel website, a Windows version of cPanel is in development.
Other features that set these control panels apart are their degree of automation, the number of features and ease of use for the end user, and the features and ease of use for you, the reseller.
Alabanza
When you become an Alabanza reseller, you don’t just have a reseller account — you lease a dedicated server from Alabanza. Alabanza owns the control panel the server, and you resell directly for Alabanza. If you lease a dedicated Alabanza server, you can create your own reseller accounts. However, only you can set up hosting plans; resellers below you will be limited to hosting plans that you create.
Alabanza offers resellers a high degree of automation with its Domain System Manager (DSM), which can significantly reduce overhead and time spent on routine tasks:
• Account creation
• Billing and invoice management
• Credit card processing
• Domain registration
• Email notifications
• Ordering fraud protection
Even novices can sell hosting with this level of automation.
DSM also integrates with bulkregister.com for domain name registration. It does not easily integrate with other domain registrars, though.
A key Alabanza feature that resellers can offer their clients is the Xpress Product Suite, which provides web development and email management tools. The Xpress Product Suite includes SiteXpress, a website-building program that features over 300 templates and requires no web design skills.
cPanel
For resellers and end users, cPanel is known for its ease of use and range of features. cPanel’s collection of over 50 pre-installed scripts and Fantastico auto installer help clients set up their sites with little web development knowledge.
A basic cPanel reseller account comes with two separate programs for resellers to manage their business:
• WHM (Web Host Manager) is used to create accounts and packages, add and suspend sites, modify passwords, view bandwidth usage, park domains, install SSL certificates, and perform other administrative functions.
• From the reseller’s cPanel control panel, a drop-down menu takes the reseller to the control panels for each of the sites on the reseller account, including the reseller’s site.
With the addition of an optional program, WHM AutoPilot, you can automate account creation and suspension, email notifications, and other tasks. WHM AutoPilot also integrates with common payment gateways and has a helpdesk, an invoice module, and other tools.
H-Sphere
H-Sphere is designed for both Linux and Windows platforms. Moreover, resellers can set up plans for both Linux and Windows and administer sites on different servers from the same control panel. The control panel, actually a separate server, also provides administrative access to the integrated helpdesk.
The H-Sphere control panel server automates account configuration, credit card processing, domain registration, and email notifications. It also includes a built-in billing module and supports over 20 payment gateways.
From the reseller’s point of view, H-Sphere has a higher learning curve than most other control panels because of its numerous features. For example, when setting up a new plan, the administrator has two pages of features to choose from, including setup and monthly pricing for optional services.
Beginning webmasters may find H-Sphere too complicated for their needs. More advanced users, however, appreciate the features and control that H-Sphere offers the end user. A key feature is the ability to have control over separate domains with multi-domain hosting.
H-Sphere comes with the website builder SiteStudio, which guides users through a variety of style choices and stores content separately from the layout. No HTML or FTP knowledge is required.
Plesk
Plesk is known for its stability and security. Resellers and end users like its simple navigation, its clean interface, and its professional appearance. It comes in versions for both Linux and Windows platforms.
With Plesk, all users use the same control panel but with different levels of control:
• Server administrator
• Client / reseller
• Domain owner
• Mail user
Each level of the control panel gives the user control of that level and the level(s) below it. Email users, for example, can log into their mail user control panel to change their password, add autoresponders, and change other personal settings without having access to the domain owner control panel.
Plesk handles SpamAssassin at the mailbox level rather than at the domain level.
This feature enables users to whitelist or blacklist email for each email address, allowing each email user to have individual settings.
SWsoft, the company behind Plesk, also offers SiteBuilder, a five-step website builder using pre-built templates. SiteBuilder has over 300 templates in different categories to choose from, and users can publish their sites without any HTML or FTP knowledge.
If your Plesk reseller account is with a web host that offers HSPcomplete, you will have some automation available with your account, such as credit card charges and email notification.
About the author:
About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.
Circulated by Article Emporium
What reseller control panel features will reduce your workload? What hosting software programs are integrated with the reseller control panel or work with it? What website control panel features will your clients like?
In this article, we’ve compared four quality web hosting reseller software programs:
• Alabanza
• cPanel
• H-Sphere
• Plesk
All of these reseller control panels come with control panels for your clients. They all have numerous features — advanced email management, web statistics, pre-installed scripts, multi-language support, and more. They all work on Linux platforms, while H-Sphere and Plesk also work with Windows. According to the cPanel website, a Windows version of cPanel is in development.
Other features that set these control panels apart are their degree of automation, the number of features and ease of use for the end user, and the features and ease of use for you, the reseller.
Alabanza
When you become an Alabanza reseller, you don’t just have a reseller account — you lease a dedicated server from Alabanza. Alabanza owns the control panel the server, and you resell directly for Alabanza. If you lease a dedicated Alabanza server, you can create your own reseller accounts. However, only you can set up hosting plans; resellers below you will be limited to hosting plans that you create.
Alabanza offers resellers a high degree of automation with its Domain System Manager (DSM), which can significantly reduce overhead and time spent on routine tasks:
• Account creation
• Billing and invoice management
• Credit card processing
• Domain registration
• Email notifications
• Ordering fraud protection
Even novices can sell hosting with this level of automation.
DSM also integrates with bulkregister.com for domain name registration. It does not easily integrate with other domain registrars, though.
A key Alabanza feature that resellers can offer their clients is the Xpress Product Suite, which provides web development and email management tools. The Xpress Product Suite includes SiteXpress, a website-building program that features over 300 templates and requires no web design skills.
cPanel
For resellers and end users, cPanel is known for its ease of use and range of features. cPanel’s collection of over 50 pre-installed scripts and Fantastico auto installer help clients set up their sites with little web development knowledge.
A basic cPanel reseller account comes with two separate programs for resellers to manage their business:
• WHM (Web Host Manager) is used to create accounts and packages, add and suspend sites, modify passwords, view bandwidth usage, park domains, install SSL certificates, and perform other administrative functions.
• From the reseller’s cPanel control panel, a drop-down menu takes the reseller to the control panels for each of the sites on the reseller account, including the reseller’s site.
With the addition of an optional program, WHM AutoPilot, you can automate account creation and suspension, email notifications, and other tasks. WHM AutoPilot also integrates with common payment gateways and has a helpdesk, an invoice module, and other tools.
H-Sphere
H-Sphere is designed for both Linux and Windows platforms. Moreover, resellers can set up plans for both Linux and Windows and administer sites on different servers from the same control panel. The control panel, actually a separate server, also provides administrative access to the integrated helpdesk.
The H-Sphere control panel server automates account configuration, credit card processing, domain registration, and email notifications. It also includes a built-in billing module and supports over 20 payment gateways.
From the reseller’s point of view, H-Sphere has a higher learning curve than most other control panels because of its numerous features. For example, when setting up a new plan, the administrator has two pages of features to choose from, including setup and monthly pricing for optional services.
Beginning webmasters may find H-Sphere too complicated for their needs. More advanced users, however, appreciate the features and control that H-Sphere offers the end user. A key feature is the ability to have control over separate domains with multi-domain hosting.
H-Sphere comes with the website builder SiteStudio, which guides users through a variety of style choices and stores content separately from the layout. No HTML or FTP knowledge is required.
Plesk
Plesk is known for its stability and security. Resellers and end users like its simple navigation, its clean interface, and its professional appearance. It comes in versions for both Linux and Windows platforms.
With Plesk, all users use the same control panel but with different levels of control:
• Server administrator
• Client / reseller
• Domain owner
• Mail user
Each level of the control panel gives the user control of that level and the level(s) below it. Email users, for example, can log into their mail user control panel to change their password, add autoresponders, and change other personal settings without having access to the domain owner control panel.
Plesk handles SpamAssassin at the mailbox level rather than at the domain level.
This feature enables users to whitelist or blacklist email for each email address, allowing each email user to have individual settings.
SWsoft, the company behind Plesk, also offers SiteBuilder, a five-step website builder using pre-built templates. SiteBuilder has over 300 templates in different categories to choose from, and users can publish their sites without any HTML or FTP knowledge.
If your Plesk reseller account is with a web host that offers HSPcomplete, you will have some automation available with your account, such as credit card charges and email notification.
About the author:
About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.
Circulated by Article Emporium
Choosing Domain Names for Your Business
Let's say that you're creating a website for Barb's Specialty Pet Products. Should the domain name be barbsspecialtypetproducts.com?
Perhaps -- but don't stop there. Having the right domain name, or domain names, can bring more traffic to your site.
Why more than one domain name?
One domain is all you need to set up a website. But with more domains directing to your site, you can have these additional benefits:
- Bring site visitors who type variations of your domain name
- Acquire traffic that might otherwise go to your competition
- Harness the marketing power of keyword domains
Your primary domain name
If it's feasible, use your business or brand name in your primary domain. People will remember it and associate it with your business. Also consider the following factors when choosing your primary domain.
Domain name extensions
Should your primary domain end with .com, .net, or .biz, or with a country-specific extension such as .ca or .co.uk?
If your website is aimed at people in a specific country, having a country-specific domain can help:
- Site visitors will recognize right away that the business has a presence in the country of the extension. They may therefore be more comfortable buying from you.
- Some country-specific search results include sites with the relevant country-specific domain extension even if the site isn't hosted in that country.
On the other hand, if you're targeting an international audience, a country-specific domain could work against you. People from outside the country of the extension may be less inclined to buy if the business looks foreign to them.
If you want to attract both people within your country and those in other countries, have both. Each domain could direct to the same site, with each audience seeing the domain intended for them. For country-specific search results, the primary domain should be the country-specific one.
Chances are that the .com domain you want is already taken. If you use the .net or .biz version, you risk having potential site visitors go to your .com competition instead. Be sure to use the full domain name on all promotional material to reduce this risk.
Domain name length
A short domain is easier to remember, it has less risk of being mistyped, and it'll fit easily on your business cards and correspondence.
Conversely, if a short name doesn't represent your business, it's more difficult for people to remember. The short names you like may already be taken anyway.
If your business name is up to three easy-to-spell words, it'll probably work as a domain name. For a longer business name, the initials or just one or two words may be easier than remembering a combination of words.
Secondary domain names
Secondary domains directing to your site are for online use:
- For people who type your primary domain name incorrectly
- For people who search for your products or services online
Typing and spelling variations
How many ways can people spell and type your business name?
barbsspecialtypetproducts.com
barbs-specialty-pet-products.com
barbspecialtypetproducts.com
barbsspecialitypetproducts.com
barbsspecialitypetproducts.com
barbspecialtyproducts.com
barbspecialtyproduct.com
Hyphens aren't recommended for your primary domain. When people tell others about your site, they're likely to omit the hyphens. They may also forget to type them.
For secondary domains, hyphens make long domains easier to read. Each word stands out when people see your domain. However, domains such as buy-keyword-product-now.com make some people view hyphenated domains, especially those with more than one hyphen, as spam-like.
Having the words in domains separated may help some search engines recognize keywords. With Google, though, hyphens don't make any difference.
Consider all of these variations for secondary domain names:
- With and without hyphens
- Different ways of spelling some words
- Singular and plural versions of nouns
- Extensions with .com and .net as well as a country-specific extension if relevant
What people search for
If you want to find the website for Time magazine, you might do a search for it, or you might try typing in time.com. If you do the latter, you'll find yourself at the Time site.
This type of search behavior extends to generic words too. Searching for dog collars? Try dogcollar.com, for example, and you'll be redirected to dogidcollar.com. Do you want life insurance? Lifeinsurance.com redirects to nmfn.com (and so does northwesternmutualfinancialnetwork.com).
While having keyword domain names may not draw a lot of site visitors, using them is a technique to consider.
How to use more than one domain
Set up your website with your primary domain, and use that domain on your correspondence and with your customers.
Point secondary domains to your site using URL forwarding (also called domain forwarding, domain redirect, or URL redirect). To have the secondary domain appear in the browser, use domain masking. You can set up these features when you log in to your account with your domain registrar (if your registrar offers these services).
With domains that are simply variations of your primary domain, you can expect additional traffic just from having set up these domains. With domains that contain keywords, you can get more from them by using them to list your site in online directories. When these domains appear in search results, searchers will see the keywords.
The next step
Once you decide on the available domains that you want, register them immediately. They might not be available tomorrow.
If you don't already have a business name, you'll find it easier to market your business online if you choose a primary domain and a business name together. If your first choice for a business name doesn't work well with any available domains, consider a business name that you can easily market with an available domain. Once you've registered that domain name and your business name, register secondary domains and put them to use.
Is it worth registering multiple domains for one site? That depends on your site, but any variations that you don't register will be available for competitors to register and use. If a domain is valuable to a competitor, it's valuable to you.
About the author:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com,http://www.lowpricedomains.comand http://www.speedfox.comwith experience in website hosting.
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Perhaps -- but don't stop there. Having the right domain name, or domain names, can bring more traffic to your site.
Why more than one domain name?
One domain is all you need to set up a website. But with more domains directing to your site, you can have these additional benefits:
- Bring site visitors who type variations of your domain name
- Acquire traffic that might otherwise go to your competition
- Harness the marketing power of keyword domains
Your primary domain name
If it's feasible, use your business or brand name in your primary domain. People will remember it and associate it with your business. Also consider the following factors when choosing your primary domain.
Domain name extensions
Should your primary domain end with .com, .net, or .biz, or with a country-specific extension such as .ca or .co.uk?
If your website is aimed at people in a specific country, having a country-specific domain can help:
- Site visitors will recognize right away that the business has a presence in the country of the extension. They may therefore be more comfortable buying from you.
- Some country-specific search results include sites with the relevant country-specific domain extension even if the site isn't hosted in that country.
On the other hand, if you're targeting an international audience, a country-specific domain could work against you. People from outside the country of the extension may be less inclined to buy if the business looks foreign to them.
If you want to attract both people within your country and those in other countries, have both. Each domain could direct to the same site, with each audience seeing the domain intended for them. For country-specific search results, the primary domain should be the country-specific one.
Chances are that the .com domain you want is already taken. If you use the .net or .biz version, you risk having potential site visitors go to your .com competition instead. Be sure to use the full domain name on all promotional material to reduce this risk.
Domain name length
A short domain is easier to remember, it has less risk of being mistyped, and it'll fit easily on your business cards and correspondence.
Conversely, if a short name doesn't represent your business, it's more difficult for people to remember. The short names you like may already be taken anyway.
If your business name is up to three easy-to-spell words, it'll probably work as a domain name. For a longer business name, the initials or just one or two words may be easier than remembering a combination of words.
Secondary domain names
Secondary domains directing to your site are for online use:
- For people who type your primary domain name incorrectly
- For people who search for your products or services online
Typing and spelling variations
How many ways can people spell and type your business name?
barbsspecialtypetproducts.com
barbs-specialty-pet-products.com
barbspecialtypetproducts.com
barbsspecialitypetproducts.com
barbsspecialitypetproducts.com
barbspecialtyproducts.com
barbspecialtyproduct.com
Hyphens aren't recommended for your primary domain. When people tell others about your site, they're likely to omit the hyphens. They may also forget to type them.
For secondary domains, hyphens make long domains easier to read. Each word stands out when people see your domain. However, domains such as buy-keyword-product-now.com make some people view hyphenated domains, especially those with more than one hyphen, as spam-like.
Having the words in domains separated may help some search engines recognize keywords. With Google, though, hyphens don't make any difference.
Consider all of these variations for secondary domain names:
- With and without hyphens
- Different ways of spelling some words
- Singular and plural versions of nouns
- Extensions with .com and .net as well as a country-specific extension if relevant
What people search for
If you want to find the website for Time magazine, you might do a search for it, or you might try typing in time.com. If you do the latter, you'll find yourself at the Time site.
This type of search behavior extends to generic words too. Searching for dog collars? Try dogcollar.com, for example, and you'll be redirected to dogidcollar.com. Do you want life insurance? Lifeinsurance.com redirects to nmfn.com (and so does northwesternmutualfinancialnetwork.com).
While having keyword domain names may not draw a lot of site visitors, using them is a technique to consider.
How to use more than one domain
Set up your website with your primary domain, and use that domain on your correspondence and with your customers.
Point secondary domains to your site using URL forwarding (also called domain forwarding, domain redirect, or URL redirect). To have the secondary domain appear in the browser, use domain masking. You can set up these features when you log in to your account with your domain registrar (if your registrar offers these services).
With domains that are simply variations of your primary domain, you can expect additional traffic just from having set up these domains. With domains that contain keywords, you can get more from them by using them to list your site in online directories. When these domains appear in search results, searchers will see the keywords.
The next step
Once you decide on the available domains that you want, register them immediately. They might not be available tomorrow.
If you don't already have a business name, you'll find it easier to market your business online if you choose a primary domain and a business name together. If your first choice for a business name doesn't work well with any available domains, consider a business name that you can easily market with an available domain. Once you've registered that domain name and your business name, register secondary domains and put them to use.
Is it worth registering multiple domains for one site? That depends on your site, but any variations that you don't register will be available for competitors to register and use. If a domain is valuable to a competitor, it's valuable to you.
About the author:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com,http://www.lowpricedomains.comand http://www.speedfox.comwith experience in website hosting.
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Can You Survive In An Online World?
© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Do you have the skills to make it in a computer driven, increasingly online world?
Your immediate, knee-jerk reaction may be "Yes! Of course I have the skills.
I know how to send and receive email and surf the web.
I can even download and install files."
Well, three or four years ago, email, Web surfing and downloading files qualified you as "electronically literate," but not any more! Computer and online survival skills now encompass much more than that.
Surviving in an online world involves maintaining a high degree of "electronic literacy," which means focusing on and developing skills in the following areas:
** Personal Computer skills **
In the old days of 1998, the ability to use a computer, keyboard and mouse rated anyone as computer-literate.
In fact, you were a real pro if you could burn a CD, scan documents and manipulate digital pictures.
Fast forward to today and "personal computer skills" carries a whole new meaning. You must know how to maintain and update not only anti-virus, but "anti-spyware," and firewall software too.
You also need to understand how operating with Windows ME, or 2000, or XP will affect your ability to use certain software along with specific security precautions to avoid trouble from hackers.
** Internet Skills **
In the bygone era of 1998, friends considered you an online genius if you possessed basic surfing and navigation skills.
They watched in awe as you used search engines like InfoSeek.com (a long-defunct search engine) to find and download programs, pictures, and information on specific topics.
Now electronic literacy means the ability to set up, upload, and maintain basic web pages and blogs.
It also means understanding terms such as "RSS" and "news aggregator" because that's the next generation of how information will get disseminated online (and it arrives for the masses this year).
** Email Skills **
Perhaps the most deceptively simple of all the areas of electronic literacy, email actually presents the most challenges for keeping up with the times.
Previously, clicking the "send and receive" button meant you were proficient at using email.
Now, because of spam, viruses and "phishing scams" (identity theft schemes delivered through email), email requires a whole new set of skills, "street smarts" and software just to survive.
You must understand how to use an email "preview" program such as MailWasher.net to eliminate spam and virus email messages before they ever reach your computer.
You also must learn to protect your identity and avoid "phishing scams" by learning to recognize and defend against online con-artist tactics.
** Buy or Borrow Expertise **
Though you should constantly upgrade your skills through personal education, nobody can do or know it all (except maybe your know-it-all bother in law).
The good news is that you can always buy or borrow someone else's expertise to solve any online challenge.
A prime example of outsourcing in the consumer market is all the little stores popping up in strip malls to help you sell your stuff on eBay.
Through outsourcing, online survival skills can also mean taking what was previously the exclusive realm of computer geeks and making it as easy as dropping off the dry cleaning.
About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
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http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Do you have the skills to make it in a computer driven, increasingly online world?
Your immediate, knee-jerk reaction may be "Yes! Of course I have the skills.
I know how to send and receive email and surf the web.
I can even download and install files."
Well, three or four years ago, email, Web surfing and downloading files qualified you as "electronically literate," but not any more! Computer and online survival skills now encompass much more than that.
Surviving in an online world involves maintaining a high degree of "electronic literacy," which means focusing on and developing skills in the following areas:
** Personal Computer skills **
In the old days of 1998, the ability to use a computer, keyboard and mouse rated anyone as computer-literate.
In fact, you were a real pro if you could burn a CD, scan documents and manipulate digital pictures.
Fast forward to today and "personal computer skills" carries a whole new meaning. You must know how to maintain and update not only anti-virus, but "anti-spyware," and firewall software too.
You also need to understand how operating with Windows ME, or 2000, or XP will affect your ability to use certain software along with specific security precautions to avoid trouble from hackers.
** Internet Skills **
In the bygone era of 1998, friends considered you an online genius if you possessed basic surfing and navigation skills.
They watched in awe as you used search engines like InfoSeek.com (a long-defunct search engine) to find and download programs, pictures, and information on specific topics.
Now electronic literacy means the ability to set up, upload, and maintain basic web pages and blogs.
It also means understanding terms such as "RSS" and "news aggregator" because that's the next generation of how information will get disseminated online (and it arrives for the masses this year).
** Email Skills **
Perhaps the most deceptively simple of all the areas of electronic literacy, email actually presents the most challenges for keeping up with the times.
Previously, clicking the "send and receive" button meant you were proficient at using email.
Now, because of spam, viruses and "phishing scams" (identity theft schemes delivered through email), email requires a whole new set of skills, "street smarts" and software just to survive.
You must understand how to use an email "preview" program such as MailWasher.net to eliminate spam and virus email messages before they ever reach your computer.
You also must learn to protect your identity and avoid "phishing scams" by learning to recognize and defend against online con-artist tactics.
** Buy or Borrow Expertise **
Though you should constantly upgrade your skills through personal education, nobody can do or know it all (except maybe your know-it-all bother in law).
The good news is that you can always buy or borrow someone else's expertise to solve any online challenge.
A prime example of outsourcing in the consumer market is all the little stores popping up in strip malls to help you sell your stuff on eBay.
Through outsourcing, online survival skills can also mean taking what was previously the exclusive realm of computer geeks and making it as easy as dropping off the dry cleaning.
About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
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Buying a laptop that you can use as a personal assistant
Don’t be surprised but buying a laptop can be even harder than buying a desktop computer. In fact, buying a computer is very straightforward. Laptops, however, are very personal stuff because it’s something that you will carry around with you and sometimes act as more than just a computer for you to work on. They become a companion! That’s why finding and selecting the right laptop can be very tricky.
Hard core computer gamers or people who will use their laptops for designing or video production may need more help than just reading about buying laptops. For conventional laptop users, here’s something for you to digest.
The price for laptops varies drastically from brand to brand. Some laptops can cost $500 while some laptops can cost you $6,000. Some entry-level (meaning basic laptops) can be bought for between $600 and $900. If you grab a laptop off eBay or other rebate or dropshipping websites, you might get a mid-range laptop for far less than that.
Even for basic laptop users, the description and specifications for the laptop is very, very important. If you’re not sure, check around and ask your friends for advice on how to buy a good laptop for the lowest price possible. You should be getting a laptop that comes with AT LEAST 512 megabytes of memory. The size of the memory ensures that your laptop can run multiple programs smoothly. As for hard drive, invest in as big a hard drive for your laptop as you can afford. Another thing that you may have to look out before you invest in the laptop is to find out how many USB ports that the laptop has. Most laptops come with at least 2 USB ports, the more the better. If you use a camera or thumb drive (disk key), this is where you insert the cable – the USB ports. You don’t want to have to remove the USB cable for your printer and mouse every time you try to save pictures from your camera to your laptop! Some laptops come with slots for camera memory cards, for instance, your compact flash cards.
If you’re keen on getting a Windows based laptop, the security of your laptop should be at the top of your priority lists. Windows SP2 XP should be ideal because it comes with antispam, antispyware, antipopups and antivirus programs. Some laptop retailers may offer you cheap or free programs that you can install into the laptop as a second layer protection to your laptop.
Other factors to take into account when shopping for laptops are the screen size, the life of the battery, the processor of the laptop, screen and keyboard, wi-fi networking, size and weight of the laptop.
Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.laptop-source.net on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.
About the author:
Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.laptop-source.neton which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.
Circulated by Article Emporium
Hard core computer gamers or people who will use their laptops for designing or video production may need more help than just reading about buying laptops. For conventional laptop users, here’s something for you to digest.
The price for laptops varies drastically from brand to brand. Some laptops can cost $500 while some laptops can cost you $6,000. Some entry-level (meaning basic laptops) can be bought for between $600 and $900. If you grab a laptop off eBay or other rebate or dropshipping websites, you might get a mid-range laptop for far less than that.
Even for basic laptop users, the description and specifications for the laptop is very, very important. If you’re not sure, check around and ask your friends for advice on how to buy a good laptop for the lowest price possible. You should be getting a laptop that comes with AT LEAST 512 megabytes of memory. The size of the memory ensures that your laptop can run multiple programs smoothly. As for hard drive, invest in as big a hard drive for your laptop as you can afford. Another thing that you may have to look out before you invest in the laptop is to find out how many USB ports that the laptop has. Most laptops come with at least 2 USB ports, the more the better. If you use a camera or thumb drive (disk key), this is where you insert the cable – the USB ports. You don’t want to have to remove the USB cable for your printer and mouse every time you try to save pictures from your camera to your laptop! Some laptops come with slots for camera memory cards, for instance, your compact flash cards.
If you’re keen on getting a Windows based laptop, the security of your laptop should be at the top of your priority lists. Windows SP2 XP should be ideal because it comes with antispam, antispyware, antipopups and antivirus programs. Some laptop retailers may offer you cheap or free programs that you can install into the laptop as a second layer protection to your laptop.
Other factors to take into account when shopping for laptops are the screen size, the life of the battery, the processor of the laptop, screen and keyboard, wi-fi networking, size and weight of the laptop.
Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.laptop-source.net on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.
About the author:
Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.laptop-source.neton which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.
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BUSTED: Anti Spam Forces Bankrupt Super-Spammer Scott Richter
Microsoft scores one for the good guys
Scott Richter, the self-proclaimed “Spam King,” just can’t seem to get enough attention. Admittedly responsible for sending literally billions of Unsolicited Commercial Email messages (UCE), Richter made headlines again recently when his spam-fed cash cow, OptInRealBig.com, filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. federal court in his home state of Colorado. According to Richter’s father (who is also his attorney), “It’s the legal fees that are battering the company. OptIn is profitable but for these lawsuits.”
At the time of its bankruptcy filing, OptInRealBig.com claimed assets of less than $10 million and liabilities of over $50 million. Richter claimed his company made $15 million a year sending more than 15 million email messages per day. However, in 2003, OptInRealBig was dealt a powerful 1-2 punch from Microsoft and Eliot Spitzer, the Attorney General of New York; both sued Richter under local state anti spam laws. Although the New York case was settled out of court last year, Richter has had no such luck dealing with Microsoft, whose claims top $19 million.
A Case of Global Amnesia?
Richter's company and others like it market products ranging from diet pills to pornography. He’s also been accused of using spam to extract personal information from unsuspecting recipients. For instance, one alleged scheme hatched by Richter and his associates promised recipients a copy of a "Girls Gone Wild" DVD if the recipient registered on a website. The registration information was then used to bombard the recipient with more and more spam.
Richter contends that his methods are all legal, and that he’s just a regular guy trying to do right by the world; he’s even gone so far as to claim that he’s a “victim” of overzealous anti spam companies and prosecutors. “We don't spam,” explained Richter in an August 2004 PC World interview. “The biggest problem is when people get an email that they think they didn't sign up for or don't remember signing up for, and they call it spam.”
To hear Richter tell it, tens of millions of people simply forgot that they had previously asked to receive his messages. According to the state of New York, however, he falsified header information and used deceptive routing and domain purchase practices in order to get his messages through. The lawsuit also accused Richter of using a network of approximately 500 “zombie” computers to send his messages. When asked how so many users could have subscribed and not remember doing so, Richter claimed the signups must have been via anonymous "partners of our partners" web sites, the names of which slipped his mind.
Not Just an Online Threat
Evidently not satisfied with stealing bandwidth, Richter also shows a penchant for heavy equipment. In an unrelated 2003 case, he was put on probation after pleading guilty to a felony charge of receiving stolen items worth more than $10,000. According to court records, an informant's tip regarding a stolen Bobcat loader led undercover officers to Richter. Over the course of 13 months, the officers proceeded to strike deals with him for a Honda generator, hundreds of cases of cigarettes, three laptop computers and other items, all offered at suspiciously low prices and purchased in some of Denver’s seediest neighborhoods. In addition to probation, Richter was also ordered to pay $38,000 in restitution for the stolen goods.
Despite his guilty plea, Richter maintains his innocence, saying he pleaded guilty to the felony charges because it was "easier to be done with it," and he had "too much stuff going on in my life."
What’s Next for Scott Richter?
The 5-year-old OptInRealBig.com, which employed 25 people last year and had 350 clients, will continue to operate under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While the bankruptcy filing shows the power of legislation and legal action from parties with a vested interest in stopping spam, Richter is not likely to fade quietly into the sunset. Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws, the company must follow a court-supervised “debt rehabilitation” plan to pay off creditors, but is not required to modify its business practices. None of OptInRealBig’s assets will be liquidated, meaning the company’s stable of spam cannons will remain active. The bottom line: Scott Richter will not be required to stop sending UCE in the immediate future, pending ongoing litigation intended to determine exactly what spam is in legal terms. In the meantime, the best defense against spam is a comprehensive gateway solution that will guard against all manner of email threats, especially spammers like Scott Richter.
About the author:
Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry's largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.
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Scott Richter, the self-proclaimed “Spam King,” just can’t seem to get enough attention. Admittedly responsible for sending literally billions of Unsolicited Commercial Email messages (UCE), Richter made headlines again recently when his spam-fed cash cow, OptInRealBig.com, filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. federal court in his home state of Colorado. According to Richter’s father (who is also his attorney), “It’s the legal fees that are battering the company. OptIn is profitable but for these lawsuits.”
At the time of its bankruptcy filing, OptInRealBig.com claimed assets of less than $10 million and liabilities of over $50 million. Richter claimed his company made $15 million a year sending more than 15 million email messages per day. However, in 2003, OptInRealBig was dealt a powerful 1-2 punch from Microsoft and Eliot Spitzer, the Attorney General of New York; both sued Richter under local state anti spam laws. Although the New York case was settled out of court last year, Richter has had no such luck dealing with Microsoft, whose claims top $19 million.
A Case of Global Amnesia?
Richter's company and others like it market products ranging from diet pills to pornography. He’s also been accused of using spam to extract personal information from unsuspecting recipients. For instance, one alleged scheme hatched by Richter and his associates promised recipients a copy of a "Girls Gone Wild" DVD if the recipient registered on a website. The registration information was then used to bombard the recipient with more and more spam.
Richter contends that his methods are all legal, and that he’s just a regular guy trying to do right by the world; he’s even gone so far as to claim that he’s a “victim” of overzealous anti spam companies and prosecutors. “We don't spam,” explained Richter in an August 2004 PC World interview. “The biggest problem is when people get an email that they think they didn't sign up for or don't remember signing up for, and they call it spam.”
To hear Richter tell it, tens of millions of people simply forgot that they had previously asked to receive his messages. According to the state of New York, however, he falsified header information and used deceptive routing and domain purchase practices in order to get his messages through. The lawsuit also accused Richter of using a network of approximately 500 “zombie” computers to send his messages. When asked how so many users could have subscribed and not remember doing so, Richter claimed the signups must have been via anonymous "partners of our partners" web sites, the names of which slipped his mind.
Not Just an Online Threat
Evidently not satisfied with stealing bandwidth, Richter also shows a penchant for heavy equipment. In an unrelated 2003 case, he was put on probation after pleading guilty to a felony charge of receiving stolen items worth more than $10,000. According to court records, an informant's tip regarding a stolen Bobcat loader led undercover officers to Richter. Over the course of 13 months, the officers proceeded to strike deals with him for a Honda generator, hundreds of cases of cigarettes, three laptop computers and other items, all offered at suspiciously low prices and purchased in some of Denver’s seediest neighborhoods. In addition to probation, Richter was also ordered to pay $38,000 in restitution for the stolen goods.
Despite his guilty plea, Richter maintains his innocence, saying he pleaded guilty to the felony charges because it was "easier to be done with it," and he had "too much stuff going on in my life."
What’s Next for Scott Richter?
The 5-year-old OptInRealBig.com, which employed 25 people last year and had 350 clients, will continue to operate under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While the bankruptcy filing shows the power of legislation and legal action from parties with a vested interest in stopping spam, Richter is not likely to fade quietly into the sunset. Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws, the company must follow a court-supervised “debt rehabilitation” plan to pay off creditors, but is not required to modify its business practices. None of OptInRealBig’s assets will be liquidated, meaning the company’s stable of spam cannons will remain active. The bottom line: Scott Richter will not be required to stop sending UCE in the immediate future, pending ongoing litigation intended to determine exactly what spam is in legal terms. In the meantime, the best defense against spam is a comprehensive gateway solution that will guard against all manner of email threats, especially spammers like Scott Richter.
About the author:
Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry's largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.
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Building Links To Your Site
Over the years there has been lots of discussion in the SEO community regarding building links to a web site. The debate is particularly heated at the moment, as Google rolls out its "Jagger" upgrade.
Let's start with what we mean by inbound links, also called backlinks. These are links from other sites to your URL, which direct the surfer directly to your site when the link is clicked. The basic premise is that if you have high ranking sites linking to you, then you must yourself be important and have valuable content, and hence you should rank highly. The way in which Google ranks sites is called Pagerank and can be seen as a green line on the Google Toolbar representing ranks 0 to 10. As Google states
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
So, back to the question "Does having inbound links to your site help your site's credibility", and hence visibility when searched. The broad answer to this question is "yes", but with a number of very important caveats which we will cover in the other sections.
OK, so backlinks are basically good, especially from high ranking sites, so how do we get them? The first way, and best way, is by having such great content on your site that all these high-powered sites want to link to you. Downside to this method is that it is slow and takes lots of time and effort on your part. But don't worry, when anyone tries to build a level playing field there are always people out there that will provide work-arounds.
The first one was reciprocal links, whereby you say that you will link to a site if they also link to you. That's stretching the original idea, but it's not too bad because how many of these sort of links are you going to set up? Well, actually, some people have created thousands of such links between sites, maybe not what Google initially intended!
But then, due to the emphasis Google placed on link popularity, the concept of link farms was born. These are sites that link to other sites purely to increase the links to the site. Pay a few dollars and get thousands of links to your site. Too good to be true - you bet. Google hates link farms and sees these links as spam and will actively penalise sites that use such links. So, the first rule of linking is do not use link farms. The second rule is do not use lots of reciprocal links, Google can easily check this and the "Jagger" update that is currently rolling out seems to be particularly focused on penalising sites with lots of reciprocal links. The jury is still out on whether "themed" links will be treated in the same way. "Themed" links are links to sites that are very closely aligned to the same primary topic as your own site. If you think about this, it makes a lot of sense and is much more likely to be based on real content-based linking.
We believe another area Google is focusing on is how quickly your site gains backlinks. If your site is one month old, it is hardly believable for it to gain 100 real backlinks in that time. So, the third rule of linking is to ensure your links build in a realistic way. In all of these ways, Google is trying to ensure fairness and that's why new sites are often held back in the results pages.
Finally, we should mention the sites that will improve your ranking - the Directories. There are many of these, but the most important is DMOZ, also known as the ODP. DMOZ is the Open Directory Project and is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. It gets the name DMOZ from the acronym for Directory Mozilla, as it is administered by Netscape Communication Corporation. It's Pagerank is 9 and hence a link from DMOZ will help your site. We recommend that everyone visits http://dmoz.org and attempts to get listed, it's free. The Yahoo directory is also important and free for non-commercial sites, but $299 a year for business.
So, in summary, by far the best way of getting links is by having a quality site that other people want to link to. So again, we are back to content. If you provide quality information, over time, more and more sites will link to you, and if they are in the same business sector as you, so much the better.
And now a poem
Written by my partner, reflecting the Jagger update.
Just when you thought it was safe,
To step once more into the water,
Google throws in an undertow,
For doing things you didn’t oughta,
Just when the surfboard is glistening,
And you're ordering champagne,
Google has been quietly listening,
And feels you need more pain,
Those link farms you visited,
Weren't health farms after all
Reciprocal now is the term
For what Big G's doing to you all,
Your trillions of two way linkages
Now millstones to make you stagger,
Your new nightmare shrinkages,
Brought to you today by Jagger,
A strident voice proclaiming links,
Are running quickly out of time,
Under the boardwalk of history,
Lying decimated all down the line,
This will not be the last time,
That your website is torn and frayed,
That Google will paint it black,
Or the devils sympathy card is played,
Just shine a light on your website,
Is it still under your thumb?
Or is it hijacked like flight 505,
By others who would become,
Your link promoting partners,
Who just ask your link return,
And now you owe the reaper,
And your harvest starts to burn,
Simmering in the torrid glare,
Of a Google bent on being cool,
Where everyone should fight fair,
Everyone obey the golden rule,
And slowly and inexorably we move,
Out of shadow and into light,
With every upgrade evening up,
The distance twixt wrong and right,
And every route 66 drives towards,
Eliminating devious spam-like crimes,
And ever inexorably inches forward,
Towards its own stated guidelines.
About the author:
John Fowler trained as a Mathematician and has worked in the IT industry for over 30 years, much of the time in sales related functions. He now spends his time between being a partner in SEO Gurus and as a sales and management trainer for ICT companies. John can be contacted via http://www.seo-gurus.co.uk
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Let's start with what we mean by inbound links, also called backlinks. These are links from other sites to your URL, which direct the surfer directly to your site when the link is clicked. The basic premise is that if you have high ranking sites linking to you, then you must yourself be important and have valuable content, and hence you should rank highly. The way in which Google ranks sites is called Pagerank and can be seen as a green line on the Google Toolbar representing ranks 0 to 10. As Google states
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
So, back to the question "Does having inbound links to your site help your site's credibility", and hence visibility when searched. The broad answer to this question is "yes", but with a number of very important caveats which we will cover in the other sections.
OK, so backlinks are basically good, especially from high ranking sites, so how do we get them? The first way, and best way, is by having such great content on your site that all these high-powered sites want to link to you. Downside to this method is that it is slow and takes lots of time and effort on your part. But don't worry, when anyone tries to build a level playing field there are always people out there that will provide work-arounds.
The first one was reciprocal links, whereby you say that you will link to a site if they also link to you. That's stretching the original idea, but it's not too bad because how many of these sort of links are you going to set up? Well, actually, some people have created thousands of such links between sites, maybe not what Google initially intended!
But then, due to the emphasis Google placed on link popularity, the concept of link farms was born. These are sites that link to other sites purely to increase the links to the site. Pay a few dollars and get thousands of links to your site. Too good to be true - you bet. Google hates link farms and sees these links as spam and will actively penalise sites that use such links. So, the first rule of linking is do not use link farms. The second rule is do not use lots of reciprocal links, Google can easily check this and the "Jagger" update that is currently rolling out seems to be particularly focused on penalising sites with lots of reciprocal links. The jury is still out on whether "themed" links will be treated in the same way. "Themed" links are links to sites that are very closely aligned to the same primary topic as your own site. If you think about this, it makes a lot of sense and is much more likely to be based on real content-based linking.
We believe another area Google is focusing on is how quickly your site gains backlinks. If your site is one month old, it is hardly believable for it to gain 100 real backlinks in that time. So, the third rule of linking is to ensure your links build in a realistic way. In all of these ways, Google is trying to ensure fairness and that's why new sites are often held back in the results pages.
Finally, we should mention the sites that will improve your ranking - the Directories. There are many of these, but the most important is DMOZ, also known as the ODP. DMOZ is the Open Directory Project and is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. It gets the name DMOZ from the acronym for Directory Mozilla, as it is administered by Netscape Communication Corporation. It's Pagerank is 9 and hence a link from DMOZ will help your site. We recommend that everyone visits http://dmoz.org and attempts to get listed, it's free. The Yahoo directory is also important and free for non-commercial sites, but $299 a year for business.
So, in summary, by far the best way of getting links is by having a quality site that other people want to link to. So again, we are back to content. If you provide quality information, over time, more and more sites will link to you, and if they are in the same business sector as you, so much the better.
And now a poem
Written by my partner, reflecting the Jagger update.
Just when you thought it was safe,
To step once more into the water,
Google throws in an undertow,
For doing things you didn’t oughta,
Just when the surfboard is glistening,
And you're ordering champagne,
Google has been quietly listening,
And feels you need more pain,
Those link farms you visited,
Weren't health farms after all
Reciprocal now is the term
For what Big G's doing to you all,
Your trillions of two way linkages
Now millstones to make you stagger,
Your new nightmare shrinkages,
Brought to you today by Jagger,
A strident voice proclaiming links,
Are running quickly out of time,
Under the boardwalk of history,
Lying decimated all down the line,
This will not be the last time,
That your website is torn and frayed,
That Google will paint it black,
Or the devils sympathy card is played,
Just shine a light on your website,
Is it still under your thumb?
Or is it hijacked like flight 505,
By others who would become,
Your link promoting partners,
Who just ask your link return,
And now you owe the reaper,
And your harvest starts to burn,
Simmering in the torrid glare,
Of a Google bent on being cool,
Where everyone should fight fair,
Everyone obey the golden rule,
And slowly and inexorably we move,
Out of shadow and into light,
With every upgrade evening up,
The distance twixt wrong and right,
And every route 66 drives towards,
Eliminating devious spam-like crimes,
And ever inexorably inches forward,
Towards its own stated guidelines.
About the author:
John Fowler trained as a Mathematician and has worked in the IT industry for over 30 years, much of the time in sales related functions. He now spends his time between being a partner in SEO Gurus and as a sales and management trainer for ICT companies. John can be contacted via http://www.seo-gurus.co.uk
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BT Internet Broadband
What Is BT Broadband?
The figures on broadband use in the UK are impressive. There are 4 million people in the UK who use ADSL and there are also another 2 million using cable connection. This means that there are 6 million people in the UK who use an always-on type of Internet connection. BT is considered the main supplier of broadband in the UK, because over 1.7 million people subscribe to one of BT's broadband packages.
It was in August of 2000 that BT first launched their high-speed Internet connection. While it was only available to around one third of UK households in the beginning stages, and it cost ?500 a year to have, it was the first step in a series to Broadband Britain.
Currently, there are only 2 ways to connect to ADSL in the UK. With the introduction of a new technology called Local Loop Unbundling, many more people were able to have broadband service. This Local Loop Unbundling makes it possible to connect without having a BT phone line. At this time, however, only about 1% of households in the UK have this kind of connection. The only other way to have a broadband connection is by transforming a current BT phone line into a high-speed digital line. This presents a problem for subscribers, because this is only available with a BT phone line, so if you are not a BT subscriber, your ISP has to pay money to BT for them to connect and maintain the line. BT has been in the enviable position to dictate how available broadband is throughout the UK.
Fears have surfaced that Ofcom, the UK telecom's watchdog, would force the separation of the company because they had a monopoly by owning all the phone lines and therefore the access to all broadband connections. Because of this fear, BT is now agreeing to let rival companies have access to the "Local Loop." This is a network of telephone lines around the country. The downside of this action is that BT could stand to lose many customers now that other companies can offer their broadband services directly without having to pay BT for access.
The introduction of ADSL in the UK found many potential customers with local exchanges that were out of date, and lines that were too old to handle new technology. BT's solution is to offer countrywide campaigns to upgrade exchanges if there is enough interest. Since ADSL is still not widely available in rural villages and smaller areas of Britain, BT is expanding and upgrading its network to meet the needs of these areas. Broadband is now currently available in at least 96.6% of all UK homes.
The standard package of BT is 2Mbps with a 1 GB monthly download limit. What this means for the average user is that you can only download 1 GB's worth of content, (movies, music, web pages, etc) per month. Most people find this adequate. But for people who do not abide by the monthly limit, they can have their account suspended or severely limited for the rest of the month. Users who want or need more can upgrade their broadband to a 15 GB monthly limit for an additional fee. To service every type of user, BT also has a Pay As You Go dialup and dialup contracts with no limits.
BT Broadband also has packages and upgrades designed to suit every user. It is simple to set up a gaming account to play Xbox and PS2 games online with others, and you get a variety of tools to help you protect your children and your computer from spam, junk mail, pop-ups, and viruses.
Reliability is one of the main reasons people will continue to subscribe to BT. They pride themselves on having excellent customer service, from setting up your line to many years in the future.
A new goal for BT is to make available for trial use their 8Mbps connection. It is their intention to have it in common use by the end of the year. BT's ultimate goal continues to be making broadband service available throughout the country, including rural areas.
About the author:
Robert Michael is the owner of Best Broadband Review which is a great place to find Broadband Links, Resources and Articles. For more information go to: http://www.bestbroadbandreview.co.uk
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The figures on broadband use in the UK are impressive. There are 4 million people in the UK who use ADSL and there are also another 2 million using cable connection. This means that there are 6 million people in the UK who use an always-on type of Internet connection. BT is considered the main supplier of broadband in the UK, because over 1.7 million people subscribe to one of BT's broadband packages.
It was in August of 2000 that BT first launched their high-speed Internet connection. While it was only available to around one third of UK households in the beginning stages, and it cost ?500 a year to have, it was the first step in a series to Broadband Britain.
Currently, there are only 2 ways to connect to ADSL in the UK. With the introduction of a new technology called Local Loop Unbundling, many more people were able to have broadband service. This Local Loop Unbundling makes it possible to connect without having a BT phone line. At this time, however, only about 1% of households in the UK have this kind of connection. The only other way to have a broadband connection is by transforming a current BT phone line into a high-speed digital line. This presents a problem for subscribers, because this is only available with a BT phone line, so if you are not a BT subscriber, your ISP has to pay money to BT for them to connect and maintain the line. BT has been in the enviable position to dictate how available broadband is throughout the UK.
Fears have surfaced that Ofcom, the UK telecom's watchdog, would force the separation of the company because they had a monopoly by owning all the phone lines and therefore the access to all broadband connections. Because of this fear, BT is now agreeing to let rival companies have access to the "Local Loop." This is a network of telephone lines around the country. The downside of this action is that BT could stand to lose many customers now that other companies can offer their broadband services directly without having to pay BT for access.
The introduction of ADSL in the UK found many potential customers with local exchanges that were out of date, and lines that were too old to handle new technology. BT's solution is to offer countrywide campaigns to upgrade exchanges if there is enough interest. Since ADSL is still not widely available in rural villages and smaller areas of Britain, BT is expanding and upgrading its network to meet the needs of these areas. Broadband is now currently available in at least 96.6% of all UK homes.
The standard package of BT is 2Mbps with a 1 GB monthly download limit. What this means for the average user is that you can only download 1 GB's worth of content, (movies, music, web pages, etc) per month. Most people find this adequate. But for people who do not abide by the monthly limit, they can have their account suspended or severely limited for the rest of the month. Users who want or need more can upgrade their broadband to a 15 GB monthly limit for an additional fee. To service every type of user, BT also has a Pay As You Go dialup and dialup contracts with no limits.
BT Broadband also has packages and upgrades designed to suit every user. It is simple to set up a gaming account to play Xbox and PS2 games online with others, and you get a variety of tools to help you protect your children and your computer from spam, junk mail, pop-ups, and viruses.
Reliability is one of the main reasons people will continue to subscribe to BT. They pride themselves on having excellent customer service, from setting up your line to many years in the future.
A new goal for BT is to make available for trial use their 8Mbps connection. It is their intention to have it in common use by the end of the year. BT's ultimate goal continues to be making broadband service available throughout the country, including rural areas.
About the author:
Robert Michael is the owner of Best Broadband Review which is a great place to find Broadband Links, Resources and Articles. For more information go to: http://www.bestbroadbandreview.co.uk
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Bayesian Spam Filters Explained
In a word Bayesian spam filters are "intelligent". Bayesian spam
filters are intelligent in so far as they're capable of comparing two sets of information and acting on the result. This
is in direct contrast to the vast majority of other spam filters who use pre-built rules to decide which email is spam and which is not.
Bayesian spam filters can take one group of legitimate email and another group of spam and compare the values and data of
each. The definition of legitimate email that it creates at the end of this comparison session is what it uses going forward to scan your inbox for spam.
FYI Bayesian spam filters are named after Thomas Bayes an 18 century cleric who created something known as Bayes Theorem. In
summary Bayes Theorem is as follows: .."in statistical inference to update estimates of the probability that different hypotheses
are true, based on observations and a knowledge of how likely those observations are, given each hypothesis." In plain English it looks for obvious repeating patterns to form an "opinion" on something. In spam filter terms that "opinion" becomes a rule which keeps you spam free (or pretty close.)
The really neat thing about Bayesian filters is that they're capable of learning. For example if they decided to block an email because the filter perceived it as junk but the user marked it as valid mail the Bayesian filter then knows not to
block that type of email in the future. So, in time, this type of spam filter learns enough to block spam far more effectively.
AOL have embraced this type of spam filter with the launch of AOL 9.0 and AOL Communicator- if the big dog wants it then it must be worthwhile.
So what Bayesian spam filtering options are available to you? Well quite a few to be honest and you'll be pleasantly surprised
by some of the names involved :-) The first one on the list is AOL with their AOL Communicator product. The spam filtering
features in AOL Communicator and AOL 9 are, to be honest, impressive. Think what you will of the provider themselves AOL
Communicator is an excellent product and is suitable for use by both PC and Mac OSX users.
Next up we have Eudora. The nice folks at Qualcomm have designed an excellent email client that also has built in Bayesian spam
filtering. I've used Eudora in the past and it's a neat little package. Again the benefits here are advanced integrated spam
filtering with your e-mail automatically. Mac OSX and OS9 users are in luck with Eudora providing support for both.
Bayesian spam filters are providing a more rounded defense for computer users of all levels in fighting spam. As an indication of the strength of Bayesian spam filters more and more companies are either:
a. Updating their spam filters to include bayesian technique as a plugin or;
b. Basing their new products on bayesian filtering principles from the ground up.
About the author:
This article was provided courtesy of Spam-Site.com which reviews and tests spam blockers for the business and end user.
Circulated by Article Emporium
filters are intelligent in so far as they're capable of comparing two sets of information and acting on the result. This
is in direct contrast to the vast majority of other spam filters who use pre-built rules to decide which email is spam and which is not.
Bayesian spam filters can take one group of legitimate email and another group of spam and compare the values and data of
each. The definition of legitimate email that it creates at the end of this comparison session is what it uses going forward to scan your inbox for spam.
FYI Bayesian spam filters are named after Thomas Bayes an 18 century cleric who created something known as Bayes Theorem. In
summary Bayes Theorem is as follows: .."in statistical inference to update estimates of the probability that different hypotheses
are true, based on observations and a knowledge of how likely those observations are, given each hypothesis." In plain English it looks for obvious repeating patterns to form an "opinion" on something. In spam filter terms that "opinion" becomes a rule which keeps you spam free (or pretty close.)
The really neat thing about Bayesian filters is that they're capable of learning. For example if they decided to block an email because the filter perceived it as junk but the user marked it as valid mail the Bayesian filter then knows not to
block that type of email in the future. So, in time, this type of spam filter learns enough to block spam far more effectively.
AOL have embraced this type of spam filter with the launch of AOL 9.0 and AOL Communicator- if the big dog wants it then it must be worthwhile.
So what Bayesian spam filtering options are available to you? Well quite a few to be honest and you'll be pleasantly surprised
by some of the names involved :-) The first one on the list is AOL with their AOL Communicator product. The spam filtering
features in AOL Communicator and AOL 9 are, to be honest, impressive. Think what you will of the provider themselves AOL
Communicator is an excellent product and is suitable for use by both PC and Mac OSX users.
Next up we have Eudora. The nice folks at Qualcomm have designed an excellent email client that also has built in Bayesian spam
filtering. I've used Eudora in the past and it's a neat little package. Again the benefits here are advanced integrated spam
filtering with your e-mail automatically. Mac OSX and OS9 users are in luck with Eudora providing support for both.
Bayesian spam filters are providing a more rounded defense for computer users of all levels in fighting spam. As an indication of the strength of Bayesian spam filters more and more companies are either:
a. Updating their spam filters to include bayesian technique as a plugin or;
b. Basing their new products on bayesian filtering principles from the ground up.
About the author:
This article was provided courtesy of Spam-Site.com which reviews and tests spam blockers for the business and end user.
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Banned By Google And Back Again.
The date: 29th July 2005. The time: early morning. I got out of bed and fired up my PC. Opened my browser to check my site. Had a look at the third-party Google toolbar plugin (http://toolbar.google.com/) on said browser (FireFox). It showed grey.
Ice formed in my stomach. I opened my bugged version of Internet Explorer: my PageRank was 0. By now I was frantic. I went to http://www.google.com and typed in 'site:www.tigertom.com': no pages listed. I did this for two other satellite sites of mine: ditto.
What had happened?
TigerTom.Com (http://www.tigertom.com) had been banned by Google. I went to the WebmasterWorld forum (http://www.webmasterworld.com), and found out the awful truth. Google was doing one of its periodic updates of its algorithm, and had filtered out my sites completely.
Further research there, and a bit of soul-searching, revealed why. I had too many pseudo-directory pages with auto-generated external links. Snippets from search engine results were used as descriptions of said links. Said links were run though a redirect script. These are hallmarks of pseudo-directories and 'AdSense scraper'* sites. Google is reportedly trying to filter these from its 'SERPs'**. I say reportedly, because Google doesn't announce these purges. They are inferred.
To compound my sins, these pages were also effectively doorway pages†.
The theory was that legitimate sites had been hit as 'collateral damage'. I say theory, in that Google rarely comments on individual cases. It won't tell you exactly why your site was banned. I guess this is for reasons of time, and to give no clues to spammers.
In my case the ban was justified for my two satellite sites; while not looking like spam, they were effectively doorway sites.
My main site was different. It had offending pages, but was mostly a diverse labour of seven years; a personal site on steroids.
Google bans sites algorithmically: a site that fits their 'spammer' profile gets dropped via software from their index automatically. Real spammers shrug their shoulders and move on; honest webmasters write emails begging for mercy.
Like me.
I did some searching via Google, to find out how to do a re-inclusion request. Here's how:
1. First, you check your site is truly gone, by going to http://www.google.com, typing 'site:www.yourdomain.com' without the apostrophes. If it returns no pages at all ...
2. You check Google's webmaster guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. These are not really guidelines; you should treat them as iron-clad rules.
3. You stop the offending content from being web-accessible, permanently.
If you're familiar with Apache web-server mod_rewrite you can:
- Send a 410 'Gone' response to requests for the offending pages, or
- CHMOD them to 600, which will return a 403 'Forbidden' response, or
- Move them to a different directory if you need to keep them, or
- Just delete them.
Don't try to be clever. Just get rid of them.
4. You go to http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py, tick the relevant boxes, and type 'Re-inclusion request' in the subject box of the form.
4a. You add the complete URL of your site i.e. http://www.naughtydomain.com,
4b. You state that you have read the webmaster guidelines above,
4c. You admit what you did wrong; simply, succinctly, with no carping or special pleading.
Don't try to be clever. Don't argue. Don't lie. Don't waffle.
Google has cached copies of your site. When an engineer checks your site, he'll look for the offending content, and compare it against their cache. He'll spend about two minutes on it; don't give him a reason to continue to exclude you.
5. You ask for re-inclusion.
6. You wait.
In my case, it took about a week; a long, unpleasant, fretful week. I sent follow up emails saying what I was doing, and a fax, and I was going to write letters if that didn't work. That was probably excessive. Once you have a ticket number, that's all that should be necessary.
They emailed a standard reply saying "the problem had been passed to their engineers". That's good. I understand they send no reply to spammers.
A week later my site was back in. Lesson learnt. To make sure I'm not so vulnerable again, I'm splitting my content to different sites, on the principle of 'best not to have all your eggs in one basket'.
Have I learnt anything from this? Yes. Have more than one site as your 'money-maker'. Spend less time on search engine optimisation and more on traditional marketing. Come up with a unique selling proposition that compels people to link to your site. Easy(!)
About the author:
T. O' Donnell (http://www.ttfreeware.co.uk/) is an ecommerce consultant and curmudgeon living in London, UK. His latest project is an ebook on getting a loan in the UK (http://www.tigertom.com/personal-loans-uk.shtml). His blog can be read at http://www.ttblog.co.uk/
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Ice formed in my stomach. I opened my bugged version of Internet Explorer: my PageRank was 0. By now I was frantic. I went to http://www.google.com and typed in 'site:www.tigertom.com': no pages listed. I did this for two other satellite sites of mine: ditto.
What had happened?
TigerTom.Com (http://www.tigertom.com) had been banned by Google. I went to the WebmasterWorld forum (http://www.webmasterworld.com), and found out the awful truth. Google was doing one of its periodic updates of its algorithm, and had filtered out my sites completely.
Further research there, and a bit of soul-searching, revealed why. I had too many pseudo-directory pages with auto-generated external links. Snippets from search engine results were used as descriptions of said links. Said links were run though a redirect script. These are hallmarks of pseudo-directories and 'AdSense scraper'* sites. Google is reportedly trying to filter these from its 'SERPs'**. I say reportedly, because Google doesn't announce these purges. They are inferred.
To compound my sins, these pages were also effectively doorway pages†.
The theory was that legitimate sites had been hit as 'collateral damage'. I say theory, in that Google rarely comments on individual cases. It won't tell you exactly why your site was banned. I guess this is for reasons of time, and to give no clues to spammers.
In my case the ban was justified for my two satellite sites; while not looking like spam, they were effectively doorway sites.
My main site was different. It had offending pages, but was mostly a diverse labour of seven years; a personal site on steroids.
Google bans sites algorithmically: a site that fits their 'spammer' profile gets dropped via software from their index automatically. Real spammers shrug their shoulders and move on; honest webmasters write emails begging for mercy.
Like me.
I did some searching via Google, to find out how to do a re-inclusion request. Here's how:
1. First, you check your site is truly gone, by going to http://www.google.com, typing 'site:www.yourdomain.com' without the apostrophes. If it returns no pages at all ...
2. You check Google's webmaster guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. These are not really guidelines; you should treat them as iron-clad rules.
3. You stop the offending content from being web-accessible, permanently.
If you're familiar with Apache web-server mod_rewrite you can:
- Send a 410 'Gone' response to requests for the offending pages, or
- CHMOD them to 600, which will return a 403 'Forbidden' response, or
- Move them to a different directory if you need to keep them, or
- Just delete them.
Don't try to be clever. Just get rid of them.
4. You go to http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py, tick the relevant boxes, and type 'Re-inclusion request' in the subject box of the form.
4a. You add the complete URL of your site i.e. http://www.naughtydomain.com,
4b. You state that you have read the webmaster guidelines above,
4c. You admit what you did wrong; simply, succinctly, with no carping or special pleading.
Don't try to be clever. Don't argue. Don't lie. Don't waffle.
Google has cached copies of your site. When an engineer checks your site, he'll look for the offending content, and compare it against their cache. He'll spend about two minutes on it; don't give him a reason to continue to exclude you.
5. You ask for re-inclusion.
6. You wait.
In my case, it took about a week; a long, unpleasant, fretful week. I sent follow up emails saying what I was doing, and a fax, and I was going to write letters if that didn't work. That was probably excessive. Once you have a ticket number, that's all that should be necessary.
They emailed a standard reply saying "the problem had been passed to their engineers". That's good. I understand they send no reply to spammers.
A week later my site was back in. Lesson learnt. To make sure I'm not so vulnerable again, I'm splitting my content to different sites, on the principle of 'best not to have all your eggs in one basket'.
Have I learnt anything from this? Yes. Have more than one site as your 'money-maker'. Spend less time on search engine optimisation and more on traditional marketing. Come up with a unique selling proposition that compels people to link to your site. Easy(!)
About the author:
T. O' Donnell (http://www.ttfreeware.co.uk/) is an ecommerce consultant and curmudgeon living in London, UK. His latest project is an ebook on getting a loan in the UK (http://www.tigertom.com/personal-loans-uk.shtml). His blog can be read at http://www.ttblog.co.uk/
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Avoid, Shun, Thwart, Prevent, and then Filter Spam
Email is rapidly becoming the standard means of communication among businesses, associates, and even friends. While many people have now been using the internet and email for years, there are thousands of new users on the internet each day. With inexpensive web hosting, free email services, and the blog burst upon us, getting your own slice of the internet pie has never been easier.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a refresher course, or you’re new to the internet and email and want to start off right, here are some easy steps to follow to reduce the amount of spam you receive.
Don’t choose an obvious email address. Spammers will generate lists of email addresses based on common names. A common list would be something like: nick@yahoo.com, nick1@yahoo.com, nick2@yahoo.com, etc. If you create an email account with less obvious combinations of your name plus some numbers, chances are better that you won’t find your way onto one of these lists.
Treat your personal email address with care. Only give out your personal email address to close friends and family who you trust. Give your direct business email only to clients and other contacts you trust to only use your address for legitimate business purposes.
Use different accounts for different functions. Create different aliases with your business’s domain name or create a few free accounts from free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Excite, etc. Use one account that you don’t care about for posting to forums or discussion groups. Use another to subscribe to newsletters and newsgroups. When any of these addresses starts to get spammed too heavily, simply delete the account and switch to a different one.
Remove your email address from your website. Between blogs and cheap web space, it seems everyone has their own piece of cyberspace. Before you put a link to your email address on your site, remember that spammers have bots that harvest these addresses. They will even find addresses printed in plain text. Consider using a web-based form for communication from you website, or place your address as a gif or jpeg.
Do not open, respond to, or purchase from spam. Interacting with spam in any of these ways indicates to the spammer that not only is your address valid, it’s also active. Do not respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, or click on any links to remove your name out of the database, as both of these are common ploys to confirm your email address. Remember, because sending email is so inexpensive, spamming can be profitable even if only a small percentage of people purchase what they’re selling. Don’t support what you’re trying to stop.
Finally, Filter you incoming email using filtering software. Even if you guard your email address religiously, you’ll likely still receive spam. Filtering software is usually inexpensive and effective, but there are some important features to consider with any filtering package:
• Make sure you can control what comes to your inbox and what gets deleted. The best programs create a spam folder for you to review before permanently deleting emails.
• The software should block images from incoming emails. Many jpegs in spam actually hide code that notifies the spammer when the email is viewed. Blocking images will not only keep offensive content off your screen but will also help prevent more spam in the future.
• Choose software that provides you with updates - as new spamming techniques are created and proliferated, filtering software should keep up.
While eliminating spam from coming to your email address is nigh unto impossible, following these simple steps will mean you’ll have to spend less time deleting spam from your inbox, giving you more time for the important things of life – like reading this article.
About the author:
Nick Smith is a client account specialist with 10x Marketing - More Visitors. More Buyers. More Revenue. Find more information about how to filter spam at ContentWatch, Inc.
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Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a refresher course, or you’re new to the internet and email and want to start off right, here are some easy steps to follow to reduce the amount of spam you receive.
Don’t choose an obvious email address. Spammers will generate lists of email addresses based on common names. A common list would be something like: nick@yahoo.com, nick1@yahoo.com, nick2@yahoo.com, etc. If you create an email account with less obvious combinations of your name plus some numbers, chances are better that you won’t find your way onto one of these lists.
Treat your personal email address with care. Only give out your personal email address to close friends and family who you trust. Give your direct business email only to clients and other contacts you trust to only use your address for legitimate business purposes.
Use different accounts for different functions. Create different aliases with your business’s domain name or create a few free accounts from free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Excite, etc. Use one account that you don’t care about for posting to forums or discussion groups. Use another to subscribe to newsletters and newsgroups. When any of these addresses starts to get spammed too heavily, simply delete the account and switch to a different one.
Remove your email address from your website. Between blogs and cheap web space, it seems everyone has their own piece of cyberspace. Before you put a link to your email address on your site, remember that spammers have bots that harvest these addresses. They will even find addresses printed in plain text. Consider using a web-based form for communication from you website, or place your address as a gif or jpeg.
Do not open, respond to, or purchase from spam. Interacting with spam in any of these ways indicates to the spammer that not only is your address valid, it’s also active. Do not respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, or click on any links to remove your name out of the database, as both of these are common ploys to confirm your email address. Remember, because sending email is so inexpensive, spamming can be profitable even if only a small percentage of people purchase what they’re selling. Don’t support what you’re trying to stop.
Finally, Filter you incoming email using filtering software. Even if you guard your email address religiously, you’ll likely still receive spam. Filtering software is usually inexpensive and effective, but there are some important features to consider with any filtering package:
• Make sure you can control what comes to your inbox and what gets deleted. The best programs create a spam folder for you to review before permanently deleting emails.
• The software should block images from incoming emails. Many jpegs in spam actually hide code that notifies the spammer when the email is viewed. Blocking images will not only keep offensive content off your screen but will also help prevent more spam in the future.
• Choose software that provides you with updates - as new spamming techniques are created and proliferated, filtering software should keep up.
While eliminating spam from coming to your email address is nigh unto impossible, following these simple steps will mean you’ll have to spend less time deleting spam from your inbox, giving you more time for the important things of life – like reading this article.
About the author:
Nick Smith is a client account specialist with 10x Marketing - More Visitors. More Buyers. More Revenue. Find more information about how to filter spam at ContentWatch, Inc.
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Avoid Internet Theft, Fraud and Phishing
Since its birth, the Internet has grown and expanded to unprecedented, unmanageable proportions. Information, software, news, and much more flow freely through its twisted pathways. Online services such as Internet banking save time and money. However, from the depths of its vast expanse have come the dregs of society intent on preying on the new, the naïve, and the less informed.
Phishing is one of the main scams in the present moment. People set up phoney websites and email addresses. Then they spam Email inboxes with official-looking messages explaining that your account with Company X has encountered a problem and that they need you to login and confirm some details. The email addresses are masked to appear official and the links provided in the email all seem to check out. If you click on the link provided then you will usually be taken to a site that looks for all intents and purposes to be official. When you click 'submit' your details will be sent to a criminal somewhere who will do as they please with your information, such as withdrawing money from a bank account or purchasing things in your name. The scam has been labelled 'Phishing' because the criminals engaging in the activity behave similarly to a fisherman throwing bait out in the hope that they'll receive just one bite from the millions of people that receive the email.
So how do you avoid these online scams? First and foremost, it is important to realise that no legitimate organisation should be sending you a request to fill out your personal details because of some server error or for any other reason. Your bank will never send you an email with content along the lines of "We've lost your bank account number and password... please supply them again for our records". You should also know that no bank is going to require your social security number, bank account number, and PIN number just to log in to your account or retrieve your password. Other sites such as Ebay, PayPal, and the like will not email you asking for these details either.
If you're a little unsure as to whether or not an email is official, scroll down a bit until you find the link that they are requesting you to click and simply hold your mouse pointer over the link text without clicking. Now take a look at the bottom left-hand corner of your browser window. The link text is often the address that the phisher wants you to think you will be heading to but the real address will be revealed in the bottom of the browser. This address will most likely not have anything whatsoever to do with the company that the email is attempting to imitate. It could be a dodgy web site or even just a page on someone's personal computer. If the address doesn't appear in the bottom left-hand corner then you can right-click on the link, select 'properties' from the pop-up menu and then read the address listed in the information box.
To avoid further scams make sure that you have updated firewall and anti-virus software active on your system at all times. This will make it harder for anyone to install key loggers, Trojans, spyware, or other similar devices intended to retrieve your information. Keep your operating system up to date with the latest security patches and updates and be careful where you enter your details. Always look into the reputability of the site that is requesting your details and keep an eye on the lower right-hand corner of your browser. If the page you are viewing has a little padlock symbol appear in the corner, then it means that your details are being secured by some encryption method. You can double click on the icon to get more details if you wish. Sites without the padlock icon don't have encryption, which means that your details are a lot easier for malicious crooks to get a hold of. Even if you're sure the website is legitimate, it's not a good idea to send your details over an unsecured connection. By the way, email does not count as a secure connection, and neither does any instant messaging program, (such as MSN, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, AIM etc.) so don't give out personal details that way either.
Another common scam very similar to phishing involves the emailing of promises of great wealth. Seriously, what do you think your chances are of winning the lottery, let alone one that you never even entered? Or of some obscure yet ridiculously rich person in Africa dying and you being legally allowed to pick up their money? Or of a foreign prince wishing to smuggle money out of his country using your account? These emails are all scams. I wish it were true that I won three different lotteries every single day, but if you get in contact with the people sending these messages they're going to do their utmost to clean out your pockets. Unfortunate as it may sound, the 'Please Donate to Charity' emails sent are usually also scams. If you really want to donate money to a charity, look them up and send it the usual way, don't respond to a multi-recipient email that may or may not be real. You also shouldn't donate to some random charity that no one has ever heard of before. Some of the Internet lowlifes have started up fake charities, 'dedicated to helping Tsunami victims' or similar and are simply pocketing the donations.
Everything in this world can be used for either good or evil purposes and the Internet is no exception. Staying alert and having just a little bit of Internet know-how can keep you out of harm's way for the majority of the time, and allow you access to the wonderful online services available with relative safety.
About the author:
Daniel Punch
M6.Net Web Helpers
http://www.m6.net
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Phishing is one of the main scams in the present moment. People set up phoney websites and email addresses. Then they spam Email inboxes with official-looking messages explaining that your account with Company X has encountered a problem and that they need you to login and confirm some details. The email addresses are masked to appear official and the links provided in the email all seem to check out. If you click on the link provided then you will usually be taken to a site that looks for all intents and purposes to be official. When you click 'submit' your details will be sent to a criminal somewhere who will do as they please with your information, such as withdrawing money from a bank account or purchasing things in your name. The scam has been labelled 'Phishing' because the criminals engaging in the activity behave similarly to a fisherman throwing bait out in the hope that they'll receive just one bite from the millions of people that receive the email.
So how do you avoid these online scams? First and foremost, it is important to realise that no legitimate organisation should be sending you a request to fill out your personal details because of some server error or for any other reason. Your bank will never send you an email with content along the lines of "We've lost your bank account number and password... please supply them again for our records". You should also know that no bank is going to require your social security number, bank account number, and PIN number just to log in to your account or retrieve your password. Other sites such as Ebay, PayPal, and the like will not email you asking for these details either.
If you're a little unsure as to whether or not an email is official, scroll down a bit until you find the link that they are requesting you to click and simply hold your mouse pointer over the link text without clicking. Now take a look at the bottom left-hand corner of your browser window. The link text is often the address that the phisher wants you to think you will be heading to but the real address will be revealed in the bottom of the browser. This address will most likely not have anything whatsoever to do with the company that the email is attempting to imitate. It could be a dodgy web site or even just a page on someone's personal computer. If the address doesn't appear in the bottom left-hand corner then you can right-click on the link, select 'properties' from the pop-up menu and then read the address listed in the information box.
To avoid further scams make sure that you have updated firewall and anti-virus software active on your system at all times. This will make it harder for anyone to install key loggers, Trojans, spyware, or other similar devices intended to retrieve your information. Keep your operating system up to date with the latest security patches and updates and be careful where you enter your details. Always look into the reputability of the site that is requesting your details and keep an eye on the lower right-hand corner of your browser. If the page you are viewing has a little padlock symbol appear in the corner, then it means that your details are being secured by some encryption method. You can double click on the icon to get more details if you wish. Sites without the padlock icon don't have encryption, which means that your details are a lot easier for malicious crooks to get a hold of. Even if you're sure the website is legitimate, it's not a good idea to send your details over an unsecured connection. By the way, email does not count as a secure connection, and neither does any instant messaging program, (such as MSN, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, AIM etc.) so don't give out personal details that way either.
Another common scam very similar to phishing involves the emailing of promises of great wealth. Seriously, what do you think your chances are of winning the lottery, let alone one that you never even entered? Or of some obscure yet ridiculously rich person in Africa dying and you being legally allowed to pick up their money? Or of a foreign prince wishing to smuggle money out of his country using your account? These emails are all scams. I wish it were true that I won three different lotteries every single day, but if you get in contact with the people sending these messages they're going to do their utmost to clean out your pockets. Unfortunate as it may sound, the 'Please Donate to Charity' emails sent are usually also scams. If you really want to donate money to a charity, look them up and send it the usual way, don't respond to a multi-recipient email that may or may not be real. You also shouldn't donate to some random charity that no one has ever heard of before. Some of the Internet lowlifes have started up fake charities, 'dedicated to helping Tsunami victims' or similar and are simply pocketing the donations.
Everything in this world can be used for either good or evil purposes and the Internet is no exception. Staying alert and having just a little bit of Internet know-how can keep you out of harm's way for the majority of the time, and allow you access to the wonderful online services available with relative safety.
About the author:
Daniel Punch
M6.Net Web Helpers
http://www.m6.net
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Are You A Spam Zombie?
Over the past few years you've all become familiar with the terms spam, spam filter, whitelists, blacklists and a whole myriad of other terminology associated with the problem of spam. You now have to add a new and extremely worrying phrase to that list - spam zombie.
With the net closing in around them spammers are looking for new and more inventive ways to send out their junk email. Spam filters and challenge response systems are becoming progressively more intelligent and blocking more spam each day. What was a spammer to do? The spammers took the next step - infiltrating your PC and using it as a spamming tool.
When most of you think of the word zombie you're reminded of old B movies with groaning zombies chasing the terrified actress through a castle, swamp or whatever low cost setting the movie revolved around. Spam zombies are, however, far more real and far more dangerous.
A spam zombie is when your computer is taken over by a type of virus called a Trojan. Once this Trojan virus is on your computer it sets up an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) application which allows it to begin sending email directly from your PC to tens of thousands of victims. This all happens invisibly in the background and can be difficult to detect for even the experienced computer user.
How do these Trojans get onto your computer? As in most cases they come from porn, warez or similar sites. One of the first spam zombie trojans to appear became available via a link on sites promising viewers free access to a porno webcam. One click later and the Trojan is installed on your computer ready to send out spam. Phatbot and Proxy-Guzu are two of the more common Trojans used for the purpose of turning your computer into a spam zombie.
How can you check if your computer has become a spam zombie? Make absolutely certain that both your anti-virus and firewall software have current detection signatures and have been completely patched and updated. Working online without taking these necessary security precautions is simply asking for trouble.
Internet Service Providers are under huge pressure to quarantine the IP address of any computer which has been turned into a spam zombie. This is done on the basis that the ISP risks their entire IP range being blacklisted or banned by some spam filtering services or companies.
The very least you owe yourself is to run a full virus and spyware scan on your computer today. You might be unpleasantly surprised at what you'll find lurking there.
About the author:
This article was provided courtesy of Spam-site.com which reviews spam blocking software
and other anti spam utilties.
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With the net closing in around them spammers are looking for new and more inventive ways to send out their junk email. Spam filters and challenge response systems are becoming progressively more intelligent and blocking more spam each day. What was a spammer to do? The spammers took the next step - infiltrating your PC and using it as a spamming tool.
When most of you think of the word zombie you're reminded of old B movies with groaning zombies chasing the terrified actress through a castle, swamp or whatever low cost setting the movie revolved around. Spam zombies are, however, far more real and far more dangerous.
A spam zombie is when your computer is taken over by a type of virus called a Trojan. Once this Trojan virus is on your computer it sets up an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) application which allows it to begin sending email directly from your PC to tens of thousands of victims. This all happens invisibly in the background and can be difficult to detect for even the experienced computer user.
How do these Trojans get onto your computer? As in most cases they come from porn, warez or similar sites. One of the first spam zombie trojans to appear became available via a link on sites promising viewers free access to a porno webcam. One click later and the Trojan is installed on your computer ready to send out spam. Phatbot and Proxy-Guzu are two of the more common Trojans used for the purpose of turning your computer into a spam zombie.
How can you check if your computer has become a spam zombie? Make absolutely certain that both your anti-virus and firewall software have current detection signatures and have been completely patched and updated. Working online without taking these necessary security precautions is simply asking for trouble.
Internet Service Providers are under huge pressure to quarantine the IP address of any computer which has been turned into a spam zombie. This is done on the basis that the ISP risks their entire IP range being blacklisted or banned by some spam filtering services or companies.
The very least you owe yourself is to run a full virus and spyware scan on your computer today. You might be unpleasantly surprised at what you'll find lurking there.
About the author:
This article was provided courtesy of Spam-site.com which reviews spam blocking software
and other anti spam utilties.
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Are Surf For Money Ventures For You?
What Does Surf For Money Really Mean?
If you've been in any internet circles within the last eight years you've probably been approached by an eager "surfer" wanting you to register for a surf for money or surf for cash program. What exactly are those and are they profitable? Let's see.
Basically surf for money programs are advertising programs that allow their members to participate. The member makes money by watching the advertisements in a surf rotation, and makes a commission from doing so.
In most of these programs, the member also makes an income from telling others about it, and they then can sign up, using the member's referral link.
Do members have to actually open the advertised sites, or just watch them appear?
In some current surf for money programs, the advertised sites do not necessarily have to be viewed, however the catch is there are oftentimes sites of interest that may not be a nuisance to learn from - or be entertained by.
With more advanced scripting in use, viewers are given the option of opening any site of interest in another window while not losing their place in the site rotation so the quota for the day can be reached.
Auto-surf is a new option in some control panel menus that allow the member to "visit" websites with a new site automatically loading every 20 seconds. No clicking involved.
After the member has finished surfing, the member's page is refreshed manually and credit is placed on his/her account. Depending on the level of investment, more or less sites must be surfed involving more or less time of the member.
Reputable surf for money or surf for cash programs disallow pornographic sites or those utilizing pop-ups or abusive language.
How is the Surf For Money Member Paid?
Often these programs use third-party gateway payment systems such as Paypal and still others use an in-house payment processor.
Additional Surf for Money Concepts
Members who have their own commercial interests to promote can also accrue advertising "credits" towards free "hits" for other surfers in the same program to visit. This allows people to
advertise their sites to an audience of potential customers for
free or at a low cost. When a site is listed, it can be placed
into a rotation system. There's also the option to buy more credits and banner ads.
But Are Surf For Cash Programs For You?
It can't be denied that anything associated with referral marketing has been given a bad name because of greedy administrators and even greedier users who try to spam the system in one's favor. In fact, one popular surf for money program has been in internet news for failure to process pay-outs. (Sorry, it can't be listed for legal reasons).
However, the concept of surf for money is solid and when properly employed can earn a member a few coins. Especially if the integrity of the company is sound - but remember that principle applies to any business venture.
The popularity and feedback from enthusiastic users of surf for money programs attests to its potential and has helped more than some meet their advertising goals. And reputable surf for cash companies allow a money back guarantee. The Terms and Conditions are to protect both parties and to ensure everyone knows what their obligations are.
So there you have it! If there's no investment and the risk is low, perhaps surf for money is for you.
About the author:
Earn a nice little income from surfing for money using ethical and profitable means. Learn More: Surfing For Cash
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If you've been in any internet circles within the last eight years you've probably been approached by an eager "surfer" wanting you to register for a surf for money or surf for cash program. What exactly are those and are they profitable? Let's see.
Basically surf for money programs are advertising programs that allow their members to participate. The member makes money by watching the advertisements in a surf rotation, and makes a commission from doing so.
In most of these programs, the member also makes an income from telling others about it, and they then can sign up, using the member's referral link.
Do members have to actually open the advertised sites, or just watch them appear?
In some current surf for money programs, the advertised sites do not necessarily have to be viewed, however the catch is there are oftentimes sites of interest that may not be a nuisance to learn from - or be entertained by.
With more advanced scripting in use, viewers are given the option of opening any site of interest in another window while not losing their place in the site rotation so the quota for the day can be reached.
Auto-surf is a new option in some control panel menus that allow the member to "visit" websites with a new site automatically loading every 20 seconds. No clicking involved.
After the member has finished surfing, the member's page is refreshed manually and credit is placed on his/her account. Depending on the level of investment, more or less sites must be surfed involving more or less time of the member.
Reputable surf for money or surf for cash programs disallow pornographic sites or those utilizing pop-ups or abusive language.
How is the Surf For Money Member Paid?
Often these programs use third-party gateway payment systems such as Paypal and still others use an in-house payment processor.
Additional Surf for Money Concepts
Members who have their own commercial interests to promote can also accrue advertising "credits" towards free "hits" for other surfers in the same program to visit. This allows people to
advertise their sites to an audience of potential customers for
free or at a low cost. When a site is listed, it can be placed
into a rotation system. There's also the option to buy more credits and banner ads.
But Are Surf For Cash Programs For You?
It can't be denied that anything associated with referral marketing has been given a bad name because of greedy administrators and even greedier users who try to spam the system in one's favor. In fact, one popular surf for money program has been in internet news for failure to process pay-outs. (Sorry, it can't be listed for legal reasons).
However, the concept of surf for money is solid and when properly employed can earn a member a few coins. Especially if the integrity of the company is sound - but remember that principle applies to any business venture.
The popularity and feedback from enthusiastic users of surf for money programs attests to its potential and has helped more than some meet their advertising goals. And reputable surf for cash companies allow a money back guarantee. The Terms and Conditions are to protect both parties and to ensure everyone knows what their obligations are.
So there you have it! If there's no investment and the risk is low, perhaps surf for money is for you.
About the author:
Earn a nice little income from surfing for money using ethical and profitable means. Learn More: Surfing For Cash
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Are opt-in email lists still valuable in this SPAM age?
One of the things that the introduction of blogs has done is to cause an exodus of sorts from email newsletters or ezines to online publishers simply publishing the information on their blogs.
It is not too difficult to realize why online publishers embraced blogs so quickly and enthusiastically. Actually the SPAM monster appeared to be slowly squeezing the life out of their online business. To meet the SPAM challenge most ISPs have set up SPAM filters that are so powerful that they quite often filter out mail that has been requested, especially mail of the massive opt-in kind. This has meant an increasing number of bounces and undeliverable mail.
With the arrival of blogs there was an easy way out of all this anxiety. Ezines could easily be posted on blogs and no ISP SPAM filter would touch it. And what is more the email aspect of feedback was not lost because readers could easily post a comment at the blog. The huge advantage over email here was that one could see another readers comment and quickly support or disagree with it. Blogs have actually revolutionized publishing the way no other tool has in the history of mankind.
So have blogs made email newsletters and opt-in email lists obsolete? The answer is a firm “NO”. Nothing would be further from the truth. Even when an online publisher delivers their weekly or daily content at a blog, what is the best way of sustaining and growing traffic to the blog?
Actually even with a website, there is no other more effective way of sustaining high traffic than by harvesting email addresses. This is done by offering and email newsletter or an email course of sorts. This builds up a valuable opt-in email list that you can use again and again to direct traffic to your site. You can even sell them something. As internet marketing experts often point out, the money is in the list.
This is the reason why experts advice affiliates to set up their own sites or blogs to play a key role in their efforts to market their affiliate site. This is simply because it is a huge waste to drive so much traffic to your affiliate site and end up having only a tiny fraction signing up for your affiliate program. By driving traffic through your own site, you have an opportunity to harvest emails and build up a huge, valuable targeted opt-in email list that you can still market the very same affiliate program to, later. In fact research has clearly shown that most people buy only after several repeated encounters of the same product or service.
Even with the introduction of the extremely useful blogging tool and the change of business models by many online publishers, opt-in email lists still remain the most valuable online marketing tool.
About the author:
About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.
Circulated by Article Emporium
It is not too difficult to realize why online publishers embraced blogs so quickly and enthusiastically. Actually the SPAM monster appeared to be slowly squeezing the life out of their online business. To meet the SPAM challenge most ISPs have set up SPAM filters that are so powerful that they quite often filter out mail that has been requested, especially mail of the massive opt-in kind. This has meant an increasing number of bounces and undeliverable mail.
With the arrival of blogs there was an easy way out of all this anxiety. Ezines could easily be posted on blogs and no ISP SPAM filter would touch it. And what is more the email aspect of feedback was not lost because readers could easily post a comment at the blog. The huge advantage over email here was that one could see another readers comment and quickly support or disagree with it. Blogs have actually revolutionized publishing the way no other tool has in the history of mankind.
So have blogs made email newsletters and opt-in email lists obsolete? The answer is a firm “NO”. Nothing would be further from the truth. Even when an online publisher delivers their weekly or daily content at a blog, what is the best way of sustaining and growing traffic to the blog?
Actually even with a website, there is no other more effective way of sustaining high traffic than by harvesting email addresses. This is done by offering and email newsletter or an email course of sorts. This builds up a valuable opt-in email list that you can use again and again to direct traffic to your site. You can even sell them something. As internet marketing experts often point out, the money is in the list.
This is the reason why experts advice affiliates to set up their own sites or blogs to play a key role in their efforts to market their affiliate site. This is simply because it is a huge waste to drive so much traffic to your affiliate site and end up having only a tiny fraction signing up for your affiliate program. By driving traffic through your own site, you have an opportunity to harvest emails and build up a huge, valuable targeted opt-in email list that you can still market the very same affiliate program to, later. In fact research has clearly shown that most people buy only after several repeated encounters of the same product or service.
Even with the introduction of the extremely useful blogging tool and the change of business models by many online publishers, opt-in email lists still remain the most valuable online marketing tool.
About the author:
About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.
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Are link popularity guidelines in the mayor search engines about to change? Are you be prepared?
Analyzing link popularity and its evolution one can suspect that another step further into its evolution for better search results might be on the drawing board on some of the most important search engines. If not, it will probably be soon. However this will not come as happy news for many website owners that have invested a lot of their time and effort, not to mention money, mostly, if not solely, in link exchanges for the purpose of increasing their link popularity. Link exchange service providers won’t be too happy either.
What could be this next big step? - you may be asking yourself
Before I answer this question you need to understand how I came up to this conclusion in the first place in order to fully understand it.
In order to provide their users better quality search results and keep their own resources from getting exhausted, search engines needed to put a stop, or at least slow down the use of doorway pages and link farms, among other techniques that they now consider spam. As a penalty they either lower their rank or in the worst of cases, ban them completely.
Search engine technology is becoming more complex and sophisticated every day due to advances in technology and also because since they are receiving an ever increasing amount of listing requests they need to keep up with this demand. Due to the large amount of these requests and their bulging data bases they need to get even more discriminating than ever before when they rank a web page. Ranking determines in the search results which are the most relevant and important pages to show first, second, third and so on, up to the last page. A page will be “rewarded” because of its relevancy to the search term in a query (inquire) and importance will be according to some factors including amount of content pages and most importantly, link popularity.
Link popularity used to be determined by how popular your website was or how many back links it had. Not anymore. Now you have to add “relevant” to the link equation.
What’s next? How about “link exchanges are not and will not be taken into account for increasing or even influencing link popularity”? Why not? What’s wrong with an innocent link exchange? ….you may be asking yourself.
Link exchanges - How innocent are them in reality?
Link exchanges are done for two basic reasons: traffic and link popularity. Naturally there is nothing wrong with getting visitors from other websites you exchange links with and vice versa. Also, if other websites recommend your website by linking to it, that makes your site popular. That means that your website is, at the very least, worth looking at. BUT can you honestly say that your website is popular because other websites have links pointing to your site and as a fair exchange you are ALSO linking to them? Are both you and them really linking to each other because your website and theirs have great or excellent content? You know very well that the answer is a resounding NO.
If you look at this in an objective way you can realize that your website have been made popular by artificial means, by “plotting” with other websites to get an advantage and not by the real value of your website’s content. And here is where the whole problem resides.
If other websites link to your website and they are not asking for a link in return that means that your website must have something that they consider valuable. This is true link popularity. But if you have to return the favor in order to keep your link in their sites, they do not consider your website of much value, just their link in your site. However for now this is being considered link popularity… but for how much longer?
If search engines want to show in their search results websites that are relevant and also popular for their own true value - they will still need to check to see how many back links they have and disregard those that are also getting a link back to them. These links cannot prove that these websites are linking to a specific site because they think that it has good or excellent content but because they want to take advantage of this search engine algorithm loophole. They will still get the traffic from the link exchanges but not the popularity status from them.
If this come to pass, and I believe that it will, sooner or latter, there will be many websites affected by this. Only those that get prepared will not suffer the consequences and will actually gain a lot from the change.
Who is to gain the most from this next step in the link popularity saga? The web searcher since he or she will be able to find a lot of content that other websites truly consider to be very valuable. As a side effect, website owners will see the need to make their websites more professional and with more and better content in order to gain popularity by getting linked from other sites..
People who may still want to trick the search engines instead of doing the right thing, will make arrangements with other websites in order to try to hide their link exchange schemes. Website A will link to B. B will link to C and C will link to A, closing the loop. When search engines begin spotting this and not taking them into account for link popularity, these websites will turn around and will probably make a bigger loop with ABCDE and F in order to keep from being spotted. However the more websites they introduce into this loop, more will be the risk of getting the loop broken somewhere and eventually disappearing completely. Eventually it will be much easier and less complex to simply make better websites and forget about cheating the search engines in order to gain link popularity.
If search engines want to offer optimum search results, they will have to make some radical changes that will affect many people in Internet related Industries in one way or another. When this come to pass there will be some winners (those that were prepared) but also some losers...
Start preparing now
If you want to be prepared for these changes you must start getting your one way links soon for your site, which, by the way, are more permanent than links from link exchanges. How can you get one way links?
1- Add your URL to the directories, under the category related to your topic. Better yet, to those directories that specialize in your topic.
2- Invite your visitors to link to your website. They will if they want to show your content to their visitors.
3- Send e-mails to other websites with similar characteristics as yours and invite them to link to your site.
4- Post a free link demand in the Link Popularity Directory and invite other webmasters browsing this directory to link to your website. Just let them know what kind of content you have. If they are interested, they will link to you.
5- Go to linkpopularitydirectory.com and get more tips on how you can get even more one way links for your website.
About the author:
This article was submitted by the Link Popularity Directory team.
http://linkpopularitydirectory.com
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What could be this next big step? - you may be asking yourself
Before I answer this question you need to understand how I came up to this conclusion in the first place in order to fully understand it.
In order to provide their users better quality search results and keep their own resources from getting exhausted, search engines needed to put a stop, or at least slow down the use of doorway pages and link farms, among other techniques that they now consider spam. As a penalty they either lower their rank or in the worst of cases, ban them completely.
Search engine technology is becoming more complex and sophisticated every day due to advances in technology and also because since they are receiving an ever increasing amount of listing requests they need to keep up with this demand. Due to the large amount of these requests and their bulging data bases they need to get even more discriminating than ever before when they rank a web page. Ranking determines in the search results which are the most relevant and important pages to show first, second, third and so on, up to the last page. A page will be “rewarded” because of its relevancy to the search term in a query (inquire) and importance will be according to some factors including amount of content pages and most importantly, link popularity.
Link popularity used to be determined by how popular your website was or how many back links it had. Not anymore. Now you have to add “relevant” to the link equation.
What’s next? How about “link exchanges are not and will not be taken into account for increasing or even influencing link popularity”? Why not? What’s wrong with an innocent link exchange? ….you may be asking yourself.
Link exchanges - How innocent are them in reality?
Link exchanges are done for two basic reasons: traffic and link popularity. Naturally there is nothing wrong with getting visitors from other websites you exchange links with and vice versa. Also, if other websites recommend your website by linking to it, that makes your site popular. That means that your website is, at the very least, worth looking at. BUT can you honestly say that your website is popular because other websites have links pointing to your site and as a fair exchange you are ALSO linking to them? Are both you and them really linking to each other because your website and theirs have great or excellent content? You know very well that the answer is a resounding NO.
If you look at this in an objective way you can realize that your website have been made popular by artificial means, by “plotting” with other websites to get an advantage and not by the real value of your website’s content. And here is where the whole problem resides.
If other websites link to your website and they are not asking for a link in return that means that your website must have something that they consider valuable. This is true link popularity. But if you have to return the favor in order to keep your link in their sites, they do not consider your website of much value, just their link in your site. However for now this is being considered link popularity… but for how much longer?
If search engines want to show in their search results websites that are relevant and also popular for their own true value - they will still need to check to see how many back links they have and disregard those that are also getting a link back to them. These links cannot prove that these websites are linking to a specific site because they think that it has good or excellent content but because they want to take advantage of this search engine algorithm loophole. They will still get the traffic from the link exchanges but not the popularity status from them.
If this come to pass, and I believe that it will, sooner or latter, there will be many websites affected by this. Only those that get prepared will not suffer the consequences and will actually gain a lot from the change.
Who is to gain the most from this next step in the link popularity saga? The web searcher since he or she will be able to find a lot of content that other websites truly consider to be very valuable. As a side effect, website owners will see the need to make their websites more professional and with more and better content in order to gain popularity by getting linked from other sites..
People who may still want to trick the search engines instead of doing the right thing, will make arrangements with other websites in order to try to hide their link exchange schemes. Website A will link to B. B will link to C and C will link to A, closing the loop. When search engines begin spotting this and not taking them into account for link popularity, these websites will turn around and will probably make a bigger loop with ABCDE and F in order to keep from being spotted. However the more websites they introduce into this loop, more will be the risk of getting the loop broken somewhere and eventually disappearing completely. Eventually it will be much easier and less complex to simply make better websites and forget about cheating the search engines in order to gain link popularity.
If search engines want to offer optimum search results, they will have to make some radical changes that will affect many people in Internet related Industries in one way or another. When this come to pass there will be some winners (those that were prepared) but also some losers...
Start preparing now
If you want to be prepared for these changes you must start getting your one way links soon for your site, which, by the way, are more permanent than links from link exchanges. How can you get one way links?
1- Add your URL to the directories, under the category related to your topic. Better yet, to those directories that specialize in your topic.
2- Invite your visitors to link to your website. They will if they want to show your content to their visitors.
3- Send e-mails to other websites with similar characteristics as yours and invite them to link to your site.
4- Post a free link demand in the Link Popularity Directory and invite other webmasters browsing this directory to link to your website. Just let them know what kind of content you have. If they are interested, they will link to you.
5- Go to linkpopularitydirectory.com and get more tips on how you can get even more one way links for your website.
About the author:
This article was submitted by the Link Popularity Directory team.
http://linkpopularitydirectory.com
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Anti-Spam Case Study: Pacesetter Claims Service
When catastrophe strikes, many insurance companies tend to get flooded with new claims. These sudden surges in client demands can be overwhelming, and that's where Pacesetter Claims Service, an independent adjusting agency, comes in.
Founded in 1997, Pacesetter Claims Service is a well-established company with offices in five different states, as well as Puerto Rico. They are dedicated to providing the extra support companies such as American Family Mutual Insurance and Farmers Insurance Group need in the aftermath of a catastrophic event.
Having multiple offices spread across the country, and no way of predicting where or when the next disaster will strike, immediate, effective communication, such as email, is vital for Pacesetter's success. With the company dealing with upwards of 100 to 150 emails per day that are not only valid, but also possibly contain critical information from multiple sources, filtering out the junk email becomes essential.
According to Pacesetter IT Coordinator David Borg, more than 80% of their incoming email was a bombardment of spam. Pacesetter couldn't afford to have their employees wasting time sorting through these unwanted emails. They also didn't want to risk the possibility of inadvertently filtering out legitimate messages. They needed a highly effective, highly accurate anti-spam software solution to their spam problem.
Solution
Choosing Securence was an easy decision for Pacesetter Claims Service. Securence offered everything Pacesetter was looking for: accuracy, ease of use, great customer service and cost effectiveness.
"The reps stayed in touch real closely in the beginning to make sure things went smoothly," says Borg, who also likes the option that Securence is a service as opposed to just an application he has to
install and maintain himself. Perhaps most importantly, Borg is impressed with the accuracy of Securence's email filtering software. "During our 30-day trial period," says Borg, "we didn't have any false positives, and the few junk e-mails that did slip through were because we couldn't completely secure things on our end. We're extremely satisfied."
By selecting Securence, Pacesetter Claims Service was able to reduce their incoming junk email by more than 80% with nearly perfect accuracy.
About the author:
Securence offers anti-spam software, antivirus software and internet filtering software for business and consumers.
http://www.securence.com
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Founded in 1997, Pacesetter Claims Service is a well-established company with offices in five different states, as well as Puerto Rico. They are dedicated to providing the extra support companies such as American Family Mutual Insurance and Farmers Insurance Group need in the aftermath of a catastrophic event.
Having multiple offices spread across the country, and no way of predicting where or when the next disaster will strike, immediate, effective communication, such as email, is vital for Pacesetter's success. With the company dealing with upwards of 100 to 150 emails per day that are not only valid, but also possibly contain critical information from multiple sources, filtering out the junk email becomes essential.
According to Pacesetter IT Coordinator David Borg, more than 80% of their incoming email was a bombardment of spam. Pacesetter couldn't afford to have their employees wasting time sorting through these unwanted emails. They also didn't want to risk the possibility of inadvertently filtering out legitimate messages. They needed a highly effective, highly accurate anti-spam software solution to their spam problem.
Solution
Choosing Securence was an easy decision for Pacesetter Claims Service. Securence offered everything Pacesetter was looking for: accuracy, ease of use, great customer service and cost effectiveness.
"The reps stayed in touch real closely in the beginning to make sure things went smoothly," says Borg, who also likes the option that Securence is a service as opposed to just an application he has to
install and maintain himself. Perhaps most importantly, Borg is impressed with the accuracy of Securence's email filtering software. "During our 30-day trial period," says Borg, "we didn't have any false positives, and the few junk e-mails that did slip through were because we couldn't completely secure things on our end. We're extremely satisfied."
By selecting Securence, Pacesetter Claims Service was able to reduce their incoming junk email by more than 80% with nearly perfect accuracy.
About the author:
Securence offers anti-spam software, antivirus software and internet filtering software for business and consumers.
http://www.securence.com
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Anti Spam at the Enterprise Level
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir
Every one of us knows how spam impacts us. Every day we either get a ton of spam - or if we're fairly well protected by spam filters - only a few pieces.
Like a large number of people, I don't use any spam filters. Ah. You think I'm insane. But wait. My problem is that I get a lot of email from marketing types which I want to receive. And the spam filtering software is not very sensitive to my needs. Even white-listing doesn't always work. So, I prefer to get all that spam and just delete it.
Now this solution can work for me despite the time it takes to delete my daily overdose of spam. However, at the enterprise level, it's a whole different story. If you have a relatively large internal network with even a modest number of email users, you're looking at a major problem. And the more users you have, the worse the problem is.
Sure, you can put up software on the mail server. Works, kind of. But pretty soon you may find you need to upgrade the mail server. And that's after you already put it on a stand-alone machine.
Rather than continuing to buy ever more expensive software to run on a machine that keeps needing to be upgraded, you might want to think about a dedicated anti spam appliance.
To give you some idea of what's possible let's take a look at Barracuda Networks dedicated anti spam appliance. All you need to do is put this baby in front of your mail server. I say baby, advisedly because this one will learn by doing and by training provided by your users.
Dean Drako, CEO of Barracuda Networks said, "Bayesian filtering is still one of the most accurate defenses against spam. The new plug-ins allow users to directly train the Bayesian filter, making the Barracuda Spam Firewall even more accurate based on the users individual email preferences. Viruses and other threats can infect the network quickly if they are not stopped at the network edge. With Intent Analysis our customers have an advantage over these threats because the Barracuda Spam Firewall is able to block them real time. Consequently we have consistently been a first responder when some of the most malicious virus attacks have hit, saving our customers from potentially devastating damage to their networks."
This is one beautiful little machine. A Barracuda Spam Firewall can support from 1,000 to 30,000 active users. It can usually be installed in less than five minutes and receives automatic hourly updates for new forms of spam and viruses. It has a 10 layer defense system beyond the use of open source anti spam and anti virus solutions: denial of service and security protection, IP block list, rate control, virus check with archive decompression, proprietary virus check, user specified rules, spam fingerprint check, Intent Analysis, spam rule-based scoring, and Bayesian analysis. Plus it also does both inbound and outbound email filtering with the inclusion of sophisticated outbound email filtering techniques (just in case you've got a spam zombie on board or somebody's got an infected PC).
However, it isn't exactly cheap. Still, when you consider the time, bandwidth, user frustration and potential hardware upgrade costs, the price may look a lot more reasonable. You can check it out at http://www.barracudanetworks.com/
If you are in the market for an anti-spam appliance, the Barracuda Spam Firewall isn't your only choice. The impact of spam on internet businesses - even those who primarily use it for just email - is so great that a simple search for "anti spam appliance" will find you a number of alternatives to examine. Even McAfee is getting into the anti spam hardware game.
I'm hoping that it won't be too long before I can pick up a Bayesian multi-level anti spam, anti virus firewall appliance for my home PC that keeps me safe and cuts my need to delete without deep-sixing the email I want or costing me more than I can afford. I suspect it's on the way.
About the author:
Richard writes in a variety of areas involving eBusiness and the internet. For more on spam visit http://anti-spam.werkz.organd for general eCommerce go to http://building-ecommerce-websites.com
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Every one of us knows how spam impacts us. Every day we either get a ton of spam - or if we're fairly well protected by spam filters - only a few pieces.
Like a large number of people, I don't use any spam filters. Ah. You think I'm insane. But wait. My problem is that I get a lot of email from marketing types which I want to receive. And the spam filtering software is not very sensitive to my needs. Even white-listing doesn't always work. So, I prefer to get all that spam and just delete it.
Now this solution can work for me despite the time it takes to delete my daily overdose of spam. However, at the enterprise level, it's a whole different story. If you have a relatively large internal network with even a modest number of email users, you're looking at a major problem. And the more users you have, the worse the problem is.
Sure, you can put up software on the mail server. Works, kind of. But pretty soon you may find you need to upgrade the mail server. And that's after you already put it on a stand-alone machine.
Rather than continuing to buy ever more expensive software to run on a machine that keeps needing to be upgraded, you might want to think about a dedicated anti spam appliance.
To give you some idea of what's possible let's take a look at Barracuda Networks dedicated anti spam appliance. All you need to do is put this baby in front of your mail server. I say baby, advisedly because this one will learn by doing and by training provided by your users.
Dean Drako, CEO of Barracuda Networks said, "Bayesian filtering is still one of the most accurate defenses against spam. The new plug-ins allow users to directly train the Bayesian filter, making the Barracuda Spam Firewall even more accurate based on the users individual email preferences. Viruses and other threats can infect the network quickly if they are not stopped at the network edge. With Intent Analysis our customers have an advantage over these threats because the Barracuda Spam Firewall is able to block them real time. Consequently we have consistently been a first responder when some of the most malicious virus attacks have hit, saving our customers from potentially devastating damage to their networks."
This is one beautiful little machine. A Barracuda Spam Firewall can support from 1,000 to 30,000 active users. It can usually be installed in less than five minutes and receives automatic hourly updates for new forms of spam and viruses. It has a 10 layer defense system beyond the use of open source anti spam and anti virus solutions: denial of service and security protection, IP block list, rate control, virus check with archive decompression, proprietary virus check, user specified rules, spam fingerprint check, Intent Analysis, spam rule-based scoring, and Bayesian analysis. Plus it also does both inbound and outbound email filtering with the inclusion of sophisticated outbound email filtering techniques (just in case you've got a spam zombie on board or somebody's got an infected PC).
However, it isn't exactly cheap. Still, when you consider the time, bandwidth, user frustration and potential hardware upgrade costs, the price may look a lot more reasonable. You can check it out at http://www.barracudanetworks.com/
If you are in the market for an anti-spam appliance, the Barracuda Spam Firewall isn't your only choice. The impact of spam on internet businesses - even those who primarily use it for just email - is so great that a simple search for "anti spam appliance" will find you a number of alternatives to examine. Even McAfee is getting into the anti spam hardware game.
I'm hoping that it won't be too long before I can pick up a Bayesian multi-level anti spam, anti virus firewall appliance for my home PC that keeps me safe and cuts my need to delete without deep-sixing the email I want or costing me more than I can afford. I suspect it's on the way.
About the author:
Richard writes in a variety of areas involving eBusiness and the internet. For more on spam visit http://anti-spam.werkz.organd for general eCommerce go to http://building-ecommerce-websites.com
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An quick guide in Payment Processing Services and Terms
Most successfully businesses use one or more 3rd party payment processing services to process their credit card orders on Internet, since this doesn't require to obtain a direct merchant account or to setup expensive ssl certificates. The 3rd party payment processing services handles payment by credit card (and usually can handle checks and other forms of payment as well), and sends the seller a monthly (typically) check or wire transfer, minus various processing fees, which vary from service to service.
These 3rd party payment processing solutions give the seller a link to a secure webpage where they can redirect their customers to, for completing the order. While the method has many benefits, it also has disadvantages.
Below I would like to make an introduction of the basic terms and concepts used by the standard payment processing services, to help sellers
Understand better what they need to compare when choosing an payment processing service.
Payment Cycle
- the time interval during which orders are taken for one payment. Can be monthly, bimonthly, weekly, etc. After each payment cycle ends, the payment should be sent to the seller.
Payment Hodling Time
- unfortunattely every payment processing service deliberately holds the payment for an amount of time that varies between a few days up to several months. They do not send the payment immediately after the payment cycle has ended, but instead they hold the payment for the specified payment holding time. They say this is to protect them against fraud, chargebacks, and it also helps them with increasing their profit ( by holding the money in bank for an interest ). For example, for a monthly payment cycle and a payment holding time of 15 days, the money resulting from orders during October will be sent to you on or after 15th November. This is not a big issue if the payment holding time is not long, but some services have a payment holding time of 2 months or more, and you will receive your payment for October sales in January the next year.
Payment Processing Day
- is the date of the month ( for montly payment cycles ) when the payment cycle should end, and the payment calculated. Usually this is the last day of the month, but some services let you specifically set it.
Signup Fee
- the fee for signup. Some charge non-refundable fees, other application fees, other do not charge a fee at all.
Transaction Fee
- the per transaction fee, usually a percentage with a minimum fixed value.
Chargeback Fee
- when a chargeback occurs ( it happens in case of fraudulent orders or when the customer is not satisfied with the product ) not only that the payment processing service takes back the amount of the order, but it also charges you with a chargeback fee.
Some payment processing services have additional fees, such as product download fee ( for virtual goods ), monthly fee, statement fee, refund fee, wire transfer fee, contract canceling fee. You need to ask them about all these fees, because most services do NOT clearly specify it on the website nor in easy to find documentation; and you might have unpleasant surprises later if you do not. Especially with the payment holding time, it's disappointing to expect to receive the first payment just to find out that it will be sent to you months later.
It is a good practice to read the TOS ( terms of services ) and the contract before signing up, as many payment processing services state they reserve the right to terminate or suspend their services to any customer, for any and no reason at all, without notice, and they also state that the last payment will be held 6 months, for chargeback protection.
You can learn more on http://www.ordersoft.net
Alexandru Marias is an IT student mentaining websites like http://www.amicutilities.com , http://www.downloadsplaza.com ,
http://www.fungamesplaza.com , http://www.web-site-templates.org and http://www.zero-spam.org
About the author:
Alexandru Marias is an IT student mentaining websites like http://www.amicutilities.com, http://www.downloadsplaza.com,
http://www.fungamesplaza.com, http://www.web-site-templates.organd http://www.zero-spam.org
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These 3rd party payment processing solutions give the seller a link to a secure webpage where they can redirect their customers to, for completing the order. While the method has many benefits, it also has disadvantages.
Below I would like to make an introduction of the basic terms and concepts used by the standard payment processing services, to help sellers
Understand better what they need to compare when choosing an payment processing service.
Payment Cycle
- the time interval during which orders are taken for one payment. Can be monthly, bimonthly, weekly, etc. After each payment cycle ends, the payment should be sent to the seller.
Payment Hodling Time
- unfortunattely every payment processing service deliberately holds the payment for an amount of time that varies between a few days up to several months. They do not send the payment immediately after the payment cycle has ended, but instead they hold the payment for the specified payment holding time. They say this is to protect them against fraud, chargebacks, and it also helps them with increasing their profit ( by holding the money in bank for an interest ). For example, for a monthly payment cycle and a payment holding time of 15 days, the money resulting from orders during October will be sent to you on or after 15th November. This is not a big issue if the payment holding time is not long, but some services have a payment holding time of 2 months or more, and you will receive your payment for October sales in January the next year.
Payment Processing Day
- is the date of the month ( for montly payment cycles ) when the payment cycle should end, and the payment calculated. Usually this is the last day of the month, but some services let you specifically set it.
Signup Fee
- the fee for signup. Some charge non-refundable fees, other application fees, other do not charge a fee at all.
Transaction Fee
- the per transaction fee, usually a percentage with a minimum fixed value.
Chargeback Fee
- when a chargeback occurs ( it happens in case of fraudulent orders or when the customer is not satisfied with the product ) not only that the payment processing service takes back the amount of the order, but it also charges you with a chargeback fee.
Some payment processing services have additional fees, such as product download fee ( for virtual goods ), monthly fee, statement fee, refund fee, wire transfer fee, contract canceling fee. You need to ask them about all these fees, because most services do NOT clearly specify it on the website nor in easy to find documentation; and you might have unpleasant surprises later if you do not. Especially with the payment holding time, it's disappointing to expect to receive the first payment just to find out that it will be sent to you months later.
It is a good practice to read the TOS ( terms of services ) and the contract before signing up, as many payment processing services state they reserve the right to terminate or suspend their services to any customer, for any and no reason at all, without notice, and they also state that the last payment will be held 6 months, for chargeback protection.
You can learn more on http://www.ordersoft.net
Alexandru Marias is an IT student mentaining websites like http://www.amicutilities.com , http://www.downloadsplaza.com ,
http://www.fungamesplaza.com , http://www.web-site-templates.org and http://www.zero-spam.org
About the author:
Alexandru Marias is an IT student mentaining websites like http://www.amicutilities.com, http://www.downloadsplaza.com,
http://www.fungamesplaza.com, http://www.web-site-templates.organd http://www.zero-spam.org
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Anatomy Of A Reciprocal Linking Campaign
Reciprocal linking means forming partnerships with other sites who place a link from their Web pages to yours. You then give them a similar link in return.
When you look for people to swap links with, make sure that you don't reduce the quality or content of your own site. You don't want users to click straight through without reading your content; you want them to take action on your own site rather than have them leave empty handed.
One way to stop them from running away too quickly is to create a "Webmasters Resource Page" and link to that page from your homepage. This doesn't take away from the content on your homepage and the links are just one click away rather than being buried deep within the site, giving value to your partners.
In any case, you want to be sure that your site is more than just a page full of links. If your site contains more links than content, it will look like a link farm and it will certainly not be attractive to webmasters, search engines or users.
Picking your partner
Your link partners should be sites your target market will visit. Think about your product and its subject area and brainstorm to determine where people interested in your product might be looking online.
For example, if you're trying to shift your book about blackjack strategy, it makes sense that the people visiting online casinos would make great customers. Online casinos then could be good partners. Identify top-ranked, high quality casino sites and find the email address, telephone number and snail mail address of their webmasters.
You can also identify your competitors and see where they trade links. After all why reinvent the wheel when you can use your competitors hard work!
Seven Top Tips For Requesting reciprocal Links...
1. Before you contact webmasters, place a link to their site on your resource page to assure them that you will actually provide a quality link.
2. Create a subject line that will encourage them to read your message rather than deleting it - you don't want them to think you're spamming them. (Something about their site or product is sure to capture their attention; they will open it, thinking you're a potential customer.) Hint - subscribe to their ezine and then reply using the ezine subject line as the subject of your reply.
3. Begin your message by talking about your visit to their site and what you found interesting about it. Detail your product or service in one line and ask them to exchange links with you.
4. Tell them in detail where you have placed their link, include the precise URL, tell them where to find their link on the page and emphasize that it is only one click away from your homepage.
5. Tell them that if you don't hear back from them in a specific number of days, you will consider that to a negative response and that you will remove their link from your site. Give them enough time to respond but don't leave it open ended.
6. Sending a reciprocal link request by email is becoming less and less effective due to Spam filters and the high volume of email traffic received by webmasters of busy sites. Try sending your request on a postcard or better still make a phone call.
7. Tell the webmaster how they will benefit from the reciprocal linking arrangement - explain what's in it for them and use your selling and persuasion skills!
Copyright John Taylor PhD August 2005 - All rights reserved.
About the author:
To learn more information about Reciprocal linking I strongly recommend that you visit http://www.Link-Advantage.com
Circulated by Article Emporium
When you look for people to swap links with, make sure that you don't reduce the quality or content of your own site. You don't want users to click straight through without reading your content; you want them to take action on your own site rather than have them leave empty handed.
One way to stop them from running away too quickly is to create a "Webmasters Resource Page" and link to that page from your homepage. This doesn't take away from the content on your homepage and the links are just one click away rather than being buried deep within the site, giving value to your partners.
In any case, you want to be sure that your site is more than just a page full of links. If your site contains more links than content, it will look like a link farm and it will certainly not be attractive to webmasters, search engines or users.
Picking your partner
Your link partners should be sites your target market will visit. Think about your product and its subject area and brainstorm to determine where people interested in your product might be looking online.
For example, if you're trying to shift your book about blackjack strategy, it makes sense that the people visiting online casinos would make great customers. Online casinos then could be good partners. Identify top-ranked, high quality casino sites and find the email address, telephone number and snail mail address of their webmasters.
You can also identify your competitors and see where they trade links. After all why reinvent the wheel when you can use your competitors hard work!
Seven Top Tips For Requesting reciprocal Links...
1. Before you contact webmasters, place a link to their site on your resource page to assure them that you will actually provide a quality link.
2. Create a subject line that will encourage them to read your message rather than deleting it - you don't want them to think you're spamming them. (Something about their site or product is sure to capture their attention; they will open it, thinking you're a potential customer.) Hint - subscribe to their ezine and then reply using the ezine subject line as the subject of your reply.
3. Begin your message by talking about your visit to their site and what you found interesting about it. Detail your product or service in one line and ask them to exchange links with you.
4. Tell them in detail where you have placed their link, include the precise URL, tell them where to find their link on the page and emphasize that it is only one click away from your homepage.
5. Tell them that if you don't hear back from them in a specific number of days, you will consider that to a negative response and that you will remove their link from your site. Give them enough time to respond but don't leave it open ended.
6. Sending a reciprocal link request by email is becoming less and less effective due to Spam filters and the high volume of email traffic received by webmasters of busy sites. Try sending your request on a postcard or better still make a phone call.
7. Tell the webmaster how they will benefit from the reciprocal linking arrangement - explain what's in it for them and use your selling and persuasion skills!
Copyright John Taylor PhD August 2005 - All rights reserved.
About the author:
To learn more information about Reciprocal linking I strongly recommend that you visit http://www.Link-Advantage.com
Circulated by Article Emporium
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