An Internet Marketing Tutorial for the rest of us

Unfair Justice in Perceived Public Opinion
Mood:  irritated
If you don't like my opinions, go write your own blog!!

Granted, I don't normally take a political vein in this blog, usually running with the dual themes of internet marketing/how to make money with your blog or phishing/internet fraud + how to protect yourself (altho I myself did fall prey briefly to the 12 Daily Pro Ponzi scheme - didn't lose any money but more on that later).

But recently here in Florida there has been a lot in the news + on talk radio about a couple of sex offenders and their punishments that I would like to address.



First is Joseph Smith, convicted and sentenced to death for raping and killing 11 year-old Carlie Brucia. While I fully agree with the sentence and wish that it would be carried out immediately rather than going through the lengthy appeals process (in Florida, all death sentences are automatically appealed to the Florida Supreme Court), I would like to focus on the perceived public opinion (PPO) of the crime + the punishment, as displayed variously on the media, such as the MJ Morning Show.

PPO has it that child sex offenders be given 2 chances: after the 1st offense, the more vocal say, chemically sterilize him or remove it. Second time: Death Penalty! Effective Deterrent? Maybe...but what about education? Educating parents about sexual deviants and educating parents on how to teach their children about avoiding sexual deviants and, of course, teaching the youth!



And also ( and this is my point), what about female child sex offenders? I'm thinking here of Debra Lafave, the middle-school teacher who was convicted in 2 different Florida counties of child sexual abuse with a 14-year-old boy. Why weren't her breasts cut off for the first offense?

UNFAIR!!!

And why wasn't she sentenced to death the second time?

UNFAIR!!!

Instead she got house arrest (think Martha Stewart), {sniff} some probation, and CELEBRITY STATUS!!! The top local story on all media a few days ago was Debra Lafave's engagement to her high-school sweetheart...Give me a break! My engagement didn't make headlines...if yours did, be sure to leave me a comment.

UNFAIR!!!

Why don't YOU be fair, leave me a comment, visit my advertisers, let me know if you like my irrreverent politicking. I'm finishing this post in the Hospital ER on St Patty's day, cuz' my wife cut her thumb at work. She's not true Irish, tho, 'cause she didn't bleed green!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Beware of the Nigerian Scam
Mood:  surprised
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
I just received an email from Paul Agbogwu. It was entitled "Obeying God," and came in my regular email. Reading through it, it sounds good, until you realize that the author calls me a "fellow believer" (I don't know him) (Flag 1), states he's from Nigeria (Flag 2) and that he has $6 million US dollars in a Trunk Box (flag 3). I.e., if you contact him, he'll proceed with the next step in the Nigerian scam, asking for a deposit to get access to that money.

This version of the scam particularly disgusts me though, because it is couched in Christian terminology. I am a Christian and make no bones about it, as you can tell from my web site. The author probably figures that if he can pull at your heart strings by convincing you that you are helping out a "Christian brother," that you'll be more likely to reposnd. As I've said before, don't respond to any unasked-for emails from people you do not know. Just delete them.

I am including a copy of the email here so you can see what I am talking about. Don't try to contact him, even if you have received your own copy of this email. I have removed his contact details.

Dear Fellow Believer,
Greetings in the name of our lord Jesus Christ.
To God be the Glory that I received Christ. Having known the truth, I had no choice than to do what is lawful and right in the sight of God for eternal life and in the sight of man for witness of God's mercy and glory upon my life.
I have the pleasure to share my testimony with you; I am Mr. Paul Agbogwu, the Personal Lawyer of late Mr. Protasov Salenko, a Russian that lived in my Country Nigeria for 20 years before he died in the plane crash last year. He was a very good Christian, he is so dedicated to God but he was not married nor had any child till He died, may His soul rest in peace, Amen. Throughout His stay in my country, he acquired a lot of properties like lands, house properties, etc.
As his legal adviser, before his death, Mr. Protasov Salenko, instructed me to write his WILL, because he had no child, he dedicated his wealth to God. According to the WILL, the properties have to be sold and the money be given out to a ministry or individual for the work of God. As his legal adviser, all the documents for the properties were in my care. He gave me the authority to sell the properties and give out the fund to a Ministry or individual for the work of God.
In short, I sold all the properties after His death, as instructed by Mr. Protasov Salenko before he died. And as matter of fact, after I sold all his properties, I realized up to USD$6,000,000.00 (Six million US dollars). The total amount will be invested into God's work as instructed by the original owner. But Instead of giving the fund out for the work of God as instructed to me by the owner before his death, I converted the fund to myself with the intention of investing the fund abroad for my personal use. I was afraid of putting the fund in the Bank, because I have to give account to the bank on how I got the money. I then packaged the fund in two Trunk Boxes and deposited the Trunk Boxes with a security company here in Nigeria. I did not want the management of the Security Company to know the content of the Trunk Boxes; therefore I registered the content of the Trunk Boxes as Family Treasure. Now the security company believes that what I deposited with them was Family Treasure.
I had a turnaround in my life few weeks ago, when I was watching a program on television. The name of the program is HOSSANA HOUR, and the man of God was preaching concerning Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5:1-11. After hearing the word of God, I gave my life to Christ and became a born again Christian. As a born again Christian, I started reading my bible and one day, the Lord opened my eyes to Ezekiel 33: 18 and 19 where the word of God says: "When the righteous truth from his righteousness, and committee iniquity, he shall even die thereby. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby". From the scripture, I discovered that the only way I could have peace in my life is to do what is lawful and right by giving out the fund as instructed for the work of God by the owner before his death.
I have asked God for forgiveness and I know that God have forgiven me. But I have to do what is lawful and right in the sight of God by giving out the fund to the chosen ministry or individual, for the purpose of God's work as instructed by the owner before his death. After my fasting and prayers, I asked God to make his choice and direct me to a honest Christian or the chosen one that deserves this fund by his Grace. I then came across your address on the Internet as I was browsing through a marvelous site, and as a matter of fact, it is not only you that I picked on the site initially, but after my fervent prayer over it, then you were nominated to me through divine revelation from God, so these are how I received such a divine revelation from the Lord, and I then decided to contact you for the fund to be used wisely for things that will glorify the name of God.
I have notified the Security Company where I deposited the Trunk Boxes that contained the fund, that I am moving the Trunk Boxes abroad, and the security company has since been waiting for my authority for the Trunk Boxes to leave my country.
So if you know that you will use this fund honestly and wisely for God's work, then do contact me back immediately.
Waiting for your response.
Yours Sincerely,
Brother Paul Agbogwu.

- Paul Agbogwu

CIAO for now,
Randy

What is Article Marketing?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Article Marketing is currently a popular buzz word on the internet now. According to some, write articles with a link to your page, submit them to popular sites and watch your vistors increase "exponentially."



Maybe, maybe not. The articles may be rejected by the publishers, and the deliberate inclusion of a link to your web site could technically be considered spam.



Thus, you could possibly waste a lot of time creating brilliant articles that no one would see, and your website could potentially be banned from the major search engines. I know this is an extreme view, but I am an extreme person. Let me detail our own approach.

1) Write your own articles on your blog, either free or on your own domain. You can summarize other articles, as long as you include author recognition and a backlink to the original source.

2) Ping the major search engines. We like using the aggregated services, like pingoat.com and pingomatic.com. (Thank you to The Blogateer for confirmation of the success of this approach - check the comments for "Internet Marketing Secrets", below) They're also listed on the right under "The Daily Ping."

3) Do this on a regular basis. Lives do get hectic, but if you want results from either affiliate marketing or Adspace, et al, you need to write at least one article a day.

4) Don't "Joe Friday" your article. Joe Friday was "just the facts." Interject yourself and your own life experiences into the article. It makes for much more interesting reading and a wider audience.

5) Make sure your grammar and spelling is correct before publishing your article to the web. Nothing is harder to read than an article filled with inconsistencies, misspellings, and bad grammar. There are plenty of free services available on the web that could do this for you, as well.

6) It often helps if you develop a theme for the articles you write on your blog. The "everything but the kitchen sink" blogs are frequently quite entertaining, but if I were looking for an article on how to increase the size of text in my email (View - Text Size), I wouldn't necessarily want to read through 6 points on Article Marketing to find that out. See ma point? Readers want answers and you can provide them without sending them on a bunny trail.

Thank you for your comments, and for supporting our advertisers!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Tags: article marketing, comments

New Phishing Scam: Chase Manhattan
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
The e-mail reads:

Dear Chase Bank Customer,
Congratulations!
You have been chosen by the Chase Manhattan Bank online department to take part in our quick and easy 5 question survey. In return we will credit $20 to your account...

Sounds good, right? I thought so too until I realized I don't even have an account with Chase Bank. This is a scam (and Sophos.com backs me up on this) resembling the infamous Nigerian letter scam.



After all, who wouldn't mind answering a few questions for $20? Sophos calls it the "419 Advanced Fee Fraud," designed to "fool innocent users into believing that a large amount of money will be transferred into their bank account, but are really designed to steal information about the user's identity and bank account, or demand a 'handling fee' for the money transfer."

In fact, this reminds me, I was in Amscot a few months ago to get a money order. I was there for quite a while, however, because the guy in front of me was trying to cash a fraudulent check received from one of these fraudsters. The police took him away. Bottom line, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Especially if you don't have an account with a particular bank, online payment processor (read PAYPAL), or auction service, don't even open the email. The senders have become more sophisticated and are able to bypass many spam filters. Protect yourself and delete anything that even appears "phishy."

CIAO for now,
Randy

Tag: chase manhattan phishing scam

New Search Marketing Study
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Make Money with Your Blog
DoubleClick Inc., a leading provider of marketing solutions, has unveiled a new study that reveals some rather interesting facts about the relationship between online consumers and search marketing. For instance, "while it is widely accepted that searches that lead directly to a purchase are often brand-related search queries, the study shows that brand names of online retailers were in the minority of all the purchase-related searches made during their shopping research."

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Here is a summary of the rest of their findings:

1) Buyers make many related searches prior to purchase

2) Many buyers do their searching 2 or more weeks before purchasing

3) Pre-purchase search usually uses generic search terms

4) Brand searches and clickshappen more frequently closer to the time of purchase

“The findings of this milestone study suggest to marketers that there is an opportunity to attract and engage searchers throughout the buying cycle, and not only with their own branded keywords,” said Stuart Larkins, vice president of partner dervices, Performics, a division of DoubleClick. “Marketers should track search click-throughs for weeks prior to the purchase session to fully account for the longitudinal impact of generic keywords in search. Generic keywords provide greater reach for marketers and contribute to the overall lift in a search program.”

Intriguing, and somewhat counterintuitive, but extremely useful when we try to make money with our blogs.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Internet Marketing Secrets
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
What I'm sharing tonight are not really "secrets," per se, as much as oft-overlooked common-sense approaches. These tips come courtesy of Dennis Regling, Bella Online's Magic Editor.

Dennis states that, as we all know, the Internet can be a "wonderful sales and marketing tool."

Then he debunks the oft-believed myth of "Build it, and they will come." Just because you build a website and get a lot of hits, doesn't necessarily translate into a lot of profits. Many people sink a lot of money into buying hits, which is about as effective as "mass mailing your offer to everyone in the phone book."



Then Dennis writes, "You may use Google AdWords to generate hits only from those searching for your "key words." Unfortunately, unless your key words are very specific, you may be paying for hits from curiousity seekers. However, key words that are too specific will not generate leads."

Quite a conundrum, n'est-ce pas? Your business should be easily found by customers who are ready and willing to buy. A functional website with good navigation, some good meta-tags, search engine submission and pinging the major search engines make it a snap for people looking for your services to find you.

It is even better business to find qualified prospects, send them to your webpage and then stir them to action. Develop qualified relationships within your neighborhood and your business field.

CIAO for now,
Randy

New Renter on An Internet Marketing Tutorial!
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Welcome to our latest renter, Grand-pa! It's a wonderful blog, lauded for its originality by fellow BlogExplosion members, who gave it an 87% approval rating! The author, Espen, is not a grand-pa, however, as he's a 20-year-old from Singapore.



This blog will entertain you with very funny + sometimes pretty lame jokes, as well as interesting, motivational, or educational stories. It will also teach you fun facts that will improve your knowledge and will give you tips on staying healthy. Please visit Grand-pa and our other sponsors today!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Updates to Unrapped Ministries Site
Mood:  happy
Topic: Trail Happiness
As many of you know from previous postings, I also run Unrapped Ministries, a website devoted to proclaiming Jesus Christ and the Gospel message through international Christian news, devotions, prayers, Christian WebTV, and a Gospel store. I have been spending a lot of time of late updating the site, adding many new items, including Gospel items for Spanish and Malayam speakers. Please check it out and check out the sale room also!

Enjoy!
CIAO for now,
Randy

Check out the New Subsciption Button
Mood:  hug me
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
In our ongoing quest to serve you, our faithful blog readership, we have instituted a Subscription system. Just enter your email in the box on the top right and you will be notified each time we post something new here. It's an auto-responder, so we won't sell your email to spammers; we don't even know what your email is. Plus which, it would defeat one of the secondary purposes of this blog - to guard against spammers. So please keep informed and subscribe to "An Internet MArketing Tutorial for the rest of us" today!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Other Hacked Networks
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
The Internet is not alone in being hacked now-a-days. Citibank and Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado have both been hacked. According to John Stith, Citibank locked down ATM cards for customers travelling in Canada, Europe, or Russia. Too bad for their customers, because they were not informed before they tried to access their money.

At MSC, a laptop containing college records dating back ten years was stolen. Too bad for the students, none of the information was encrypted. What a shame that banks and colleges have such a slippery grasp on the information we entrust with them.

Have you ever been the victim of a hacker or identity theft? Please leave a comment and we will discuss it and suggest alternatives to keep your privacy safe.

CIAO for now,
Randy