An Internet Marketing Tutorial for the rest of us

Marketing on MySpace

Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
As I'm sure you've heard, MySpace is one of the top sites on the Internet today. The latest figures I could find were from August 2005, when MySpace generated 9.4 billion page views, more than Google.



Now wouldn't it be nice to tap into this market? MySpace is where today's 14-30 year-old manages their digital and/or social life. You can post photos of yourself and your friends, create a blog, list your favorite bands, look at and share videos, list things to do and post a set of people they consider "friends." This "friends list" is a prime spot for marketing opportunities.



Suppose you made a MySpace account to discuss your product or service. You can blog about it and search for people that share your interests.



Then invite them to be your friend. When they are your friend you start “soft sell” pitching your product to them.



They will start appreciating it, blogging about it and sharing it. You could get hundreds or even thousand of people talking about you and your product or service.



Here's a good example of this in real life: several bands have posted their music on MySpace and have developed a loyal following. Before long, these same bands have secured record deals.



Finally, some other services you may wish to consider besides MySpace, if that doesn't quite fit your needs, are Linkedin, Yahoo's MyWeb, Flickr, and del.icio.us . Give one or all a shot, and let me know how it goes! Also, please check out all oour free affers today!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Source: Rob Sullivan, Site Reference

AOL catches some BIG Phish!
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
America Online (AOL) filed suit in federal court in Alexandrai, Virginia, against three international groups who allegedly stole information from AOL users by sending "badmail" disguised as an official email from AOL.

Come get your 24hourtaxrefund

Three separate suits were filed, asking for $18 million in damages. Thirty phishermen allegedly broke Virginia's 2005 anti-phishing laws. Since AOL is based in Virginia, they were able to file under this new law. They also cited the Lanham Act protecting trademarks and the Federal Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, an anti-spam law.



The three phishing networks are in the US, Germany and Romania. They stole financial information as well as screen names and passwords.



This isn't the first time AOL has gone after phishers and spammers. They have been involved in about 3 dozen cases and have won tens of millions of dollars in judgements.

Thank you to John Stith of SecurityProNews for this insightful information.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Tags: AOL, phishing, Virginia, lawsuits

The Holiday is over for Mac
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
As a follow-up to the newly found flaws discovered in Macs that we recently reported on, here are some comments from leading security experts, courtesy of TechWorld.com.



"In Apple's case, you can credit the media and all those folks who said the [OS X] platform was inherently secure" for drawing attention to it, Pete Lindstrom, an analyst at Spire Security, said. This added publicity made the OS X a more appealing target for hackers. The publicity surrounding Apple's recent decision to move to Intel's microprocessors did not decrease the hackers' efforts, either.



Ken Dunham, director of the rapid response team at iDefense, said that these threats "show[] increased activity and viability for future Macintosh-based threats on the Mac OS X platform." He also mentioned that the last real threat to Macintosh computers was the Autostart worm in 1998. "As a result, many Macintosh users are more likely to be complacent toward computer security and therefore are more likely to be vulnerable to any future threats that emerge against the Macintosh operating system," he said.



On the bright side, Vincent Weafer, senior director of security response at Symantec, said, "You are no more at risk than a week ago, but it is a good time to go back and take a look at your security practices."

So please follow safe surfing practices, don't open emails from people you don't know, keep your anti-virus updated, and keep coming back here for the latest updates. You can syndicate us through MyYahoo or any of the other syndication partners at the top of the page.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Newfie Girl!
Mood:  happy
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Greetings to our newest blog tenant, Newfie Girl! Check her out in the link on the top right below the BlogExplosion tag! She is self-described as a "Writer. decorator. photographer. comic book villian. Newfoundland. Canada. Wife. Mommy to furbabies. geek."



Now really, she's not that bad. She actually has some pretty cool things to say and is currently showing a really awesome cheescake recipe, complete with pictures and a link to a video of her cooking it.



So go ahead and visit Newfie Girl. You'll be glad you did!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Tags: blogs, cooking

How to Block MySpace in 3 Easy Steps
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
MySpace has become a hotbed of contention in my house. My children lie about their ages and give way too much information on their profiles. This worries me because just a few weeks ago a teen was kidnapped and murdered near my home due to information a predator gathered about her from her MySpace account. Older child predators can lie about their ages, too.



So I decided to block MySpace on my computer. Here is how to do it:

You will be modifying the Hosts file by hand.

First, open the following file with Notepad. (Note: The Hosts file does not have a file extenstion, this is by design so don't give it a file extenstion because you think it needs one)

Note: You should make a backup of the Hosts file and put it somewhere safe in case you mess up.

Windows XP
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Windows 2000
C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Windows 98
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Panda Antivirus Platinum: Kills more than 63,000 viruses. Dead.

Second, copy the following IP's...

# block myspace.com
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.219
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.24
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.25
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.28
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.40
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.41
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.42
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.43



Third, paste the IPs into the Hosts file after 127.0.0.1 localhost

It should look like this...

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

# block myspace.com
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.219
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.24
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.25
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.28
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.40
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.41
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.42
127.0.0.1 63.208.226.43



Then save the Hosts file and you're done.

Please let me know if you run into any difficulties or have any questions. I can be reached at randy@internetmarketing4.us.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Tags: MySpace, internet security

Islamic Hacker Nabbed
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
On Tuesday, 2/21/06, the Paris PJ arrested the Morroccan hacker known as Yanis. Yanis would hack into sites and leave "cyber-graffitti."



Yanis allegedly hacked 1,161 sites during his "career," which included sites for the Universities of Strasbourg and Toulouse and the website for the city of Lyon.



Yanis is accused of "Apology of war crime and incitation to racial hate", because he hacked Danish websites due the Prophet Muhammad cartoons. The accusation centers on his boycott campaign against Danish products.



John Stith adds,
With thousands of websites hacked and defaced just last week, this issue is far from over and many more individuals other than Yanis are involved. This is just the beginning as well. One can only expect this defacement process to continue.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Sources: SecurityProNews, zone-h news

More Security Problems with Apple
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
On the heels of the discovery of the Inqtana virus, three new variants have cropped up. In addition, a serious security hole has been discovered in the way Apple handles downloaded files.



This bug is similar to the one that plagues Windows systems with spyware and adware. It was discovered by University of Ulm student Michael Lehn. So far, no actual incidents of compromised OS X systems have been reported, though this makes three security alerts for Apple in less than a week.



CIAO for now,
Randy

Source: BBC News

Tags: Apple, OS X, security, Michael Lehn

Teens Fined for Spreading Computer Viruses
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Two Finnish teens, aged 17 and 19, were sentenced to fines on Monday for creating internet pages that spread computer viruses and Trojan horses.



The teens allegedly copied these harmful programs from elsewhere on the Internet. Their web pages also contained links to other harmful pages. According to Finnish law, publishing these links is illegal.



The 19-year-old also allegedly broke into the websites of 2 organizations, using passwords obtained from the 17-year-old. Both were found guilty of "causing a potentially dangerous IT situation, unlawful use of websites, and criminal mischief, among other things."



The teens have received fines of 360 and 300 Euros. The 17-year-old received the 360 Euro fine. They also have to pay 250 Euros for the additional work they caused the Internet service provider of the two companies they infiltrated. They committed these crimes in 2004.



Again muchos kudos to the international cybercrime-fighting agencies, such as the one in Finland. Although the teens allegedly just wanted to "test out their skills," not meaning any damage, if they were not prosecuted, a dangerous precedent would be set for their adult lives, when, presumably, their hacking/phishing skills would increase and they would become a real danger.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Source: Helsingin Sanomat
Tags: security, Finland, hacking, phishing, cybercrime

Anniversaries Galore!
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Wedding
Good afternoon, my faithful readers! So glad you joined me, whether from an internet search, Blog Explosion, or an autosurf! Today is my 3rd wedding anniversary, and while that may not seem like a long time, the travails we have been through over the past 3 years would have broken up many couples.



I won't bore you with the details...suffice it to say things haven't been nearly as entertaining as a night with Tony from Fugetaboutit. Please visit him for a good laugh. Also, if you have an anniversary or wedding coming up, please visit either our sponsors in this post or The Perfect Wedding.



Instead of doing something extravagant as we have in the past, instead we went to a marriage seminar at church. It began with a formal dinner at a country club Friday, followed by a half-day of inspirational seminars at church on Saturday. We had a really wonderful time!



CIAO for now,
Randy

Brazil Nuts and Phish - YUM!
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
The latest international cyber-crime news, courtesy of our dear friend John Stith: Brazilian police broke up a phishing scam in which they arrested some 55 people, led by a 19-year-old and utilizing several minors. These "kids" allegedly stole some $4.6 million from several banks and numerous accounts.



Starting in May of 2005, this gang used Trojan horses to steal information from users of internet bank sites. Thankfully the international community at large is no longer tolerating cybercrime in any of its guises, as we have demonstrated here in the past several weeks. Many congratulations go to the Brazilian authorities on their fine police work.



CIAO for now,
Randy