Saturday, 21 January 2006
The Latest Google News
Mood:
 energetic
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
David Utter, of WebProNews, reported on the recently released November 2005 figures on search share from Nielsen/Netratings. Almost 3/4 of all searches pass through Yahoo or Google. See earlier postings and the podcast for information on how to add your blog or website to these powerful search engines. If you would like a say in Nielsen/Netratings, click the link below to join as a member.  Google accounted for 46 percent of searches, or about 2.4 billion queries. Yahoo had 23 percent of searches, or about 1.2 billion queries. MSN had 11 percent (583 million searches) and AOL had about 7 percent (350 million searches). Free $10.00 Wal-Mart Gift Certificate!
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Absolutely FREE!What these figures tell us is which search engines you need to focus your efforts on. It may be easy to get listed on a minor search engine that we have not listed here, but, then again, you will likely see little traffic also. Utilize the methods we have discussed in prior posts (e.g., the blog and ping method, updating frequently with quality content, etc.) to get your site listed in the top four and watch your traffic soar!  CIAO for now, Randy
Who's Afraid of Virginia Splog?
Mood:
 caffeinated
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Well, you should be for one! Along with the nefarious tricks posed by phishers, scammers, ID thieves and the like, are the sploggers. According to Wikipedia, splogs are blogs where the articles are spam, and does not include random comments on the blogs of innocent bystanders. Sheila Coggins says that the term is short for "spam weblogs," and splogs are used as a deceptive way of boosting search engine ratings for a particular site. Splogs ruin search engine results, and are frequently used in phishing schemes. On the brighter side, no need to panic, states CJ of Upforanything.net, because most splogs "are just banner farms that steal RSS feeds and plaster the pages with ad content. Fortunately, they aren't very successful and rarely manage much of a google ranking" ( Dean's World, 10/31/2005).  What can you do if you've been splogged and how can you stop it? Nicole Lee, of Wired News, has three very good suggestions. First, find out if your blog is getting ripped off by subscribing to news feeds at search engines like Technorati. Use search terms like your name or url. A splog will have a high number of buzzwords in the main content area, as well as a redirect to another site. When we did that for this blog, we were pleasantly surprised to see what Tino Buntic had to say about us in his Sales Leads and Business Marketing blog. Nothing, however, was listed to indicate this blog has been splogged.  The second thing Ms. Lee suggests you do is report the splog. If it's hosted by Blogger, report the splog by clicking the Flag button in the top right corner. Furthermore, if the site has Google ads on it, report it to Google's Adsense program.  The last main point of Ms. Lee's we want to focus on is to be vocal about combatting splogs. "Demand accountability and diligence from hosting providers, and demand additional barriers in the blog-creation process," she says, and it appears Google is beginning to listen.  Some sites suggest reporting splogs to splogreporter.com or splogspot.com. We're not certain how effective these sites are or could be, especially since there has been no activity listed on either for almost a month. That's why we did not include an active link for either. Besides, we prefer the direct approach. CIAO for now, Randy
Friday, 20 January 2006
Fragile Bob & How to Build Organic Links
Mood:
 a-ok
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
The other night, I was surfing on Blog Exp;losion, when I came across Fragile Bob's blog. Well, not only is Fragile Bob hilarious & better-looking than Sawyer from Lost, but he's also the spitting image of yours truly. We could pass for twins, tho I think HE's the evil one!  So, naturally, I had to post a comment. His blof allowed me to list my web page (even tho it is moderated), and, in addition, Fragile Bob emailed me, asking for my picture for him to compare + post on his blog. Last I checked, he hadn't yet, but this whole process illustrates how to build organic links.  Namely, organic means "natural." You don't want to link to just any old site to try to boost your rankings in the search engines. [Search engines frequently look at how many sites link to you.] Likewise, you don't want to comment on just any old blog to get a link there.  Comments should be substantive and add something to internet discourse; i.e., more than "Nice blog!" If done correctly, as illustrated herein with Fragile Bob's blog, organic linking leads to a conversation and 2-way links, which benefits both An Internet Marketing Tutorial for the rest of us and Fragile Bob! CIAO for now, Randy
Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Applephishing
Mood:
 accident prone
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Applephishing is a term we've coined to describe the latest in internet fraud and phishing, mostly because it's directed at Apple users. John Leyden reports on this latest scam in The Register.  Apple users are receiving bogus emails with a twist. Usually the bogus emails claim to be from online banks and attempt to pursuade a small per cent of the recipients, who are actually bank customers, into visiting a fake site and submitting account information.  The twist in "Applephishing" is that these latest scam emails target Apple IDs, which the phishers can use to access the victim's iTunes Music Store or AppleStore account, perhaps even using the info to purchase computers and other high-end merchandise under a covert ID.  "Applephishing" is just another example of how prevalent internet fraud has become and how sophisticated the tactics can be. Phishers are even beginning to send out targeted emails. The bottom line? Be careful and don't fall for any traps. If you receive a "security check" email from what appears to be a reputable source, contact the source either via phone or type their web address in the address bar, rather than clicking the email link. CIAO for now, Randy Tags: Apple, Phishing, Spam, Blog, scam, itunes, Apple Store
Tuesday, 17 January 2006
Search Engine News
Mood:
 spacey
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
This week there have been some really startling developments in the world of the search engines. Three things we would like to focus on in this edition of An Internet Marketing Tutorial for the rest of us are Google's recent purchase of dMarc Broadcasting and what that means for the internet marketer, Yahoo's purchase of Searchfox, and Technorati's enhancements to chart blogging.  Google plans to implement dMarc technology into AdWords. The hope is to create a new radio ad distribution channel for its Adwords advertisers. They also hope to use dMarc to attempt to monetize podcasting. Searchfox, an RSS feed reader startup had said that they were shutting down on January 25th, howver, Yahoo has stepped in to buy parts of the company, according to TechCrunch. Searchfox prioritizes content from feeds based on past reading behavior. Yahoo has not confirmed the buy, but some of SearchFox's engineers have taken up residence at Yahoo. In further Yahoo news, Corel's latest version of WordPerfect features a Yahoo Search functionality that allows searches from within the program.  Charts have been available on Technorati for a few weeks. These charts show how many posts mention a particular search topic over the past 90 days. These charts are now available to site surfers with more data. You can now change the time period for the chart from its 90 day default to 7, 30, 180, or 360 days. You can also filter by language, by particular blogs, and other options. Be sure to check out the top 5 hot tags and the top 15 searches du jour. The iPod tops the tag list currently, while Jack Bauer narrowly leads Al Gore in top searches at this time. CIAO for now, Randy News courtesy of Google, Adsense, dMarc, SearchFox, Yahoo, Corel, WordPerfect, Technorati, charts
How to Combat Spam
Mood:
 happy
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
When you start to become successful with your internet marketing efforts, spammers will pick up on the increased traffic to your site, and you will soon find yourself deluged with unwanted spam emails. We have covered some of this topic in previous posts, but it bears repeating and Sophos.com has some excellent tips. The best way to reduce the amount of spam you and/or your company receive is to implement an email filtering program. Email in Focus offers complete spam elimination for email inboxes. They prevent spam from ever reaching your inbox using Challenge-Response technology. This technology lets you eliminate ALL of your spam while still receiving all of your legitimate email. You don't even have to sift through the junk to find the good!  Email users should also follow these recommendations: Don't purchase from a spam email.Email users can fall prey to a potentially fraudulent sales scheme, and his or her email address can also be added to the numerous email lists that are sold within the spamming community. Thus cometh the deluge of spam. If you don't know who sent an email, delete itMost spam is just plain annoying, but spam could potentially contain a virus. Don't respond to any spam messages or click on any links in the message.Don't even "unsubscribe" or ask to be "removed." This clever tactic just confirms your email to the spammer and marks you as a future target. If you send email messages to a large number of people, use the blind copy (BCC) field to conceal their email addresses.Sending email where all recipient addresses are "exposed" in the "To" field makes it vulnerable to harvesting by a spammer's traps. Think carefully before you provide your email address on websites, newsgroup lists or other online public forum."Web bots" are a popular tool spammers use that automatically surfs the internet to harvest email addresses from public information and forums. Don't give your primary email address to anyone or any site you don't trust.Share it only with your close friends and business colleagues. Have and use one or two secondary email addresses.If you need to fill out web registration forms, or surveys at sites from which you don't want to receive further information, consider using secondary addresses to protect primary email accounts from spam abuse. Also, always look for a box that solicits future information/offers, and be sure to select or deselect as appropriate.  Spam will be drastically reduced if all these measures are followed. CIAO for now, Randy
Monday, 16 January 2006
Building a Second Income Stream
Mood:
 hug me
Topic: Make Money with Your Blog
Welcome to our newest blog renter, Building a Second Income Stream! The author shows you how to build a second income stream using Google Adsense and affiliate programs. The author spotlights blogs and gives a step-by-step recipe for success, much like we do here! Go ahead and check 'em out on the right!
 CIAO for now, Randy
Saturday, 14 January 2006
Internet Marketing Strategy
Mood:
 loud
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Today we will show you our basic marketing strategy for your use. You should try to do most of them most days, especially the first three. Feel free to join any of the programs you are not currently a member of - and remember they are all free to join. TradeBit offers a turn-key platform to anyone who wants to show, share or sell digital goods online. New features: Now with a free Blog and Gallery PRE-INSTALLED. Daily Marketing Tasks1) Autosurf 12 Daily ProUpgrades are only $6, which we got from StormClix (see below). Surf 12 for credit on your account, 30 for extra traffic. They also have a ProClicks section, which you can use for added traffic. 2) Manual surf LinkReferralLinkReferral is a click for credit-type program, with ranking criteria. Manual surf 30 for instant traffic. 3) BlogExplosionThere are many many ways to promote your blog here, not the least of which is the BlogRocket. You start at the bottom of a list of 25 blogs, and rocket to the top. While on the rocket, you will receive many visitors. You can also ping your blog here, but the best way to generate traffic is through thir blog surfing program. Every 2 sites you visit nets you one in return, and, if you comment on some of the blogs that interest you, you'll receive even more visitors from people who read the comments. And, if you feel your blog has what it takes, you can use some of your credits in the Blog Challenge and get 15 guaranteed targeted visitors.
 4) Autosurf 100 sites
The sites we have had the most success with are:
*AutoSurf 4 Christ
*SmileyTraffic
*HoneyHits
5) TrafficSwarm
6) Blog and ping daily and the surf engines will come crawling to your site.
7) StormPay and StormClix
As mentioned earlier, we used seed money from StormClix (each worth between $5 and 1 cent) to fund 12Daily Pro. We have also used money from StormClix to purchase PPC ads on StormClix. Each spend has to be at least $5.00.
As mentioned earlier, even if you only have time for the first three on a given day, you will still see an upsurge in traffic. Remember to relist your blog on BlogExplosion often. You will receive an email when you need to relist. Doing these simples steps that take maybe an hour has resulted in 500+ visitors daily.
CIAO for now,
Randy
Technorati tags: marketing, blogs, autosurf, blog and ping, stormpay,
Friday, 13 January 2006
The Sago Mine Scam
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Today we are continuing our series on phishing and other identity fraud tricks by focusing on one recently profiled by the FBI: the Sago Mine Scam.  According to John Stith of SecurityProNews, the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently released a bulletin concering a phony e-mail asking for financial assistance for the survivor of the Sago Mine disaster, Randal McCloy.  The email is allegedly from an attending doc at McCloy's hospital. It describes his condition and how much money is needed to help give him a full recovery. The Bureau urges people, just as we have done here, not to even open or respond to these emails. If you really want to contribute to Randal McCloy's hospital fund, can call the Sago Mine Fund at 1-800-811-0411.  The Sago Mine Scam is just another example of the opportunistic nature of phishers and their low moral standards. Similar scams emerged after 9/11, the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Phishers will stop at almost nothing to take advantage of people's good will. The FBI said: The FBI takes these matters seriously and is working with other law enforcement and private industry partners to identify the person(s) responsible. Anyone who has received an e-mail of this nature is asked to file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. You can access the Internet Crime Complaint center here. They'll need your name, address, phone number, and specific details as to why you feel you've been phished, scammed, defrauded or cheated on the internet. Please note they do not ask for banking information, social security numbers, or passwords. If you are ever directed to a site that demands any of these, outside of legitimate auction sites (e.g., E-Bay or StormPay Auctions), payment processors (such as PayPal or SFIPay), and banking sites that you have typed the address for in the address bar, ex out of it. CIAO for now, Randy
Wednesday, 11 January 2006
Protect Yourself from The Volkswagen Lottery Scam
Mood:
 not sure
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Good evening and welcome to "An Internet MArketing Tutorial for the rest of us." Tonight we'll continue with our series on internet security, focusing on the latest scam that, according to John Stith, is "running rampant," namely the Volkswagen Lottery Scam. While I have not personally been a target or a victim of this scam, I have been targeted by the so-called "Nigerian Scam," which it mimics. In a nutshell, the scam runs like this: you receive an email announcing that the "Lottery Department" of Volkswagen Automobiles has started a new contest to win a new VW and 1 million pounds sterling. Sounds great, especially since your e-mail was chosen at random from 250,000 others. They even give winners a contact number.  Only thing is, there is no car and no money. Its just a more elaborate way of trying to dupe you out of your personal banking or other info. Bottom line, if you see any e-mail announcing "You have won the Lottery" (or Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, for that matter), don't even open it. Delete it on site and thus protect yourself. As your website becomes more popular and more widely viewed on the internet, fraudsters and hucksters are going to try even more dastardly deeds to con you out of your hard-earned money. Don't let them.  CIAO for now, Randy
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