Posted by admin on November 29th, 2009 — Posted in Net Tips + More
“Are you good spam or bad spam?” This is the question I find echoing in my head sometimes when I am going through my email, as if it is part of some electronic Wizard of Oz. Have you ever given any thought to the fact that there really is a difference in spam? Not that I am defending anyone, but let me make my point and then you can decide for yourself.
Spam is such a hot issue and no one knows the “right” view of spam that fits everyone. You either: - will take all measures to prevent people from sending it to you - don’t mind it at all and happily delete, delete, delete every day - OR hate it sometimes and ignore it other times.
I think I fall in the last category, which is what started me thinking about good and bad spam. My point of view has now developed into this:
BAD Spam- -It is bad spam when you reply to it to be removed and it is returned to you because the address is made up. -It is bad spam when the removal link does not open a real url. -It is bad spam when you paste the message source into Spam Cop and the info you get back before clicking the “Send spam report” shows tons of dead ends and made up domains, etc.
This means that this “Cowardly Lion” harvested your address, and went to great lengths to cover their tracks in order not to get caught sending spam.
GOOD Spam- -It is good spam when there is an actual person on the other end, apologizing for inconveniencing you.
What made it good spam? Because here is spam that you most likely will not get again, because it is more legit then the bad spam. These people are not out to break any rules, upset anyone, or ruin your day. 9 times out of 10 they really don’t know any better and will learn, very quickly I might add.
Also, keep in mind that the Scarecrow in us does not ALWAYS remember every email we sign up for. It is possible to have signed up for something and a week later be flipping out because you are getting email from some unknown. If we only had a brain sometimes (Speaking for myself, of course).
It is also highly possible that someone is having fun subscribing you to things. Never count that one out, it happens all of the time.
GOOD vs BAD Personally, I would much rather get NO spam, however if I had to choose, I would have to go with good spam. Bad spam demonstrates that the sender KNOWS what is NOT acceptable and went to all of this trouble and expense to hide behind this long trail of fake addresses. These are malicious acts, and down right dirty. Do they really think that what they are trying to sell in this manner is actually worth it? These are the people we should be upset with. These are the people that we need to be telling, “I’ll get you my pretty, and your little server too!”
So, whether you agree or disagree, just try to keep in mind that -1. The whole world is not out to get you. -2. Not every piece of spam is sent with the same intent. And… -3. As the world around us continues to change, we will be seeing more and more companies resorting to sending their junk mail through email rather then the post office. (I think this is becoming a more desirable thing to us all, as it would be much safer, take less effort to get rid of, & is better for the environment.)
Now is the time to try to adjust our view and approach the issue with a level head. If we don’t we will drive ourselves mad, and for what purpose? The changes in our world cause the internet to change. Soon you probably will find yourself saying, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore”.
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Posted by admin on November 29th, 2009 — Posted in Web Of Search Engine Optimization
If you are like me, you created web site metatags with the help of your Web master. Maybe like me, you didn’t spend time or money submitting to search engines because you weren’t techie enough.
Now you can optimize your search engine placement these five easy, non-techie ways. My Web site is now # 1 in Google.com and others. If you are in the top ten listings in your category (mine was book coaching) you are in good shape. This placement has put my web site URL on 4700 other sites with a link back to mine. With targeted viral marketing my sales are 30 times what I started with each month–now over $4500.
Here’s Five Ways to Get Search Engines to Boost your Ratings:
1. Makeover your signature file that goes out with every email you send. Include your fre.e report or ezine offer, your email, URL, and phone numbers plus a line with your product or service name on it. See more on this in my fre.e article “Top Ten Things to Do to Make your Signature File Sell” at www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article124.shtml.
2. Submit short articles to dozens of opt-in ezines who need content daily. Make a special offer in each signature file that relates to your article. Through a hyperlink, offer a free ezine with a free report by autoresponder. To get started, go to www.yahoogroups.com and subscribe to one of the opt-in ezines (no spam).
3. Rewrite your best list of key words and phrases you used for your Web site. Incorporate them into your excellent, well-edited short articles or tips. For more information go to www.goodkeywords.com or see my special fre.e report “Know Which Key Words Will Bring Targeted Visitors to your Web Site” at www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article-47.shtml
4. Submit to top Web sites looking for new content.. They want and need your information, because that is why people visit any site–for free information. Follow directions for each site. Many want a list of key words and a description. Others require your article by autoresponder. Four years ago, my URL was on 987 other Web sites. Today it’s on 4700. Amazing viral marketing!
5. Makeover your Web home page. Place those top key words and phrases in the top half of this page and in the links you list along the bottom or side of your page. Search engines pick up these and you receive a higher placement. For instance, my top key words include: book coaching, eBook, ePublishing, self-publishing, Online promotion, Web copywriting, Free Publicity.
Yes, you can buy key words and put paid ads in Google and Overture, but when I tried that I got almost 0 results and spent a lot of money. The above ways to boost your search engine placement are totally free. It’s a building process this viral marketing, but if you are willing to stay a while, you’ll get money results as well as becoming well known and trusted for your product or service.
Judy Cullins ©2004 All Rights Reserved.
Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people’s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Author of 10 eBooks including “Write your eBook Fast,” “How to Market your Business on the Internet,” and “Create your Web Site With Marketing Pizzazz,” she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, “The Book Coach Says…” and “Business Tip of the Month” at http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml and over 155 free articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com.
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Posted by admin on November 25th, 2009 — Posted in Your Business
Decidedly careful annotations made known by the Bank of England yesterday led straight to the surprising latest UK Sterling revival individuals have beheld being stifled. The surprising assessment by the UK Central Bank was undivided for interest rates to remain on hold and to keep up the current degree of quantitative easing. Even so, the members of the Monetary Policy Committee also known as the MPC, nodded in the direction that British Stirling’s contemporary improvement was probably not positively the ‘green shoot of recovery’ legions of people are also anticipating and additionally could possibly in reality damage trade and thus, hamper the UK economic mending.
The above unexpected comments saw the pound drop down one US cent against both the American Dollar and Euro and over one sent and a 1/2 against the Swiss Franc. Stop and look at the current market conditions before youexchange foreign currency .
On this day British high street retail figures and additionally public financial facts will present more indications as to the wellbeing of the United Kingdom economy and additionally could possibly cause continued precariousness in the money markets. Therefore, make absolutely sure you are in close contact with your account handler so that they could keep you knowledgeable regarding market changes.
Intelligence publicized yesterday from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) verified that unemployment in the UK has increased to over 2.2 million the peak intensity since November 2006 Despite the escalation the figure was certainly not as bad as assumed still, with the national unemployment rate remaining more that 0.07 it was seen as unconstructive for the sterling. This news, on top of the wary explanations from the Monetary Policy Committee merely served to raise UK Stirling’s woes. David Kern, the chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, commented: “These jobless figures are slightly better than feared, but the overall situation remains grim… It is much too early to talk about the end of recession”
The fear at present is that the above figures can worsen as school as well as uni alumni go into the job market at the most horrible potential occasion which is possibly going to lay lots of weight on Sterling. For that reason, if you have an upcoming foreign currency exchange speak to a dedicated foreign money broker who can often be able to clarify all the possible options open to you including fixing your currency exchange rate for a pre-determined period of time in the future for simply a small deposit on a forward contract just right to assist you budget.
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Posted by admin on November 10th, 2009 — Posted in Social Parlor
Forums a.k.a. “message boards” can be great marketing tools for your website. They attract repeat visitors and provide a meeting place for them to share their thoughts, ideas, questions and concerns.
Unfortunately many webmasters that attempt to launch a board on their site, end up closing it down due to lack of activity and popularity.
So what’s the key to success, you ask?
Below you will find 5 quick tips on creating and promoting a message board for your website.
1. You Need Plenty of Traffic
If your site is receiving small amounts of traffic per day, then it will be very hard to get the conversations going on your board.
Keep in mind not everyone that comes to your site will even notice or visit your board, and those that do stop by may just browse without posting. In fact, the majority of the visitors to your board will only look around.
Your site should be getting at least 1,000 unique visitors per day before you even launch. Don’t open it up prematurely because it can make your site look uninhabited if no one posts.
2. Create Some Starter Conversations
Once you’ve created your board, post a few questions to get the ball rolling. This may coax people to jump in and post some comments.
And if you are using a free board like http://www.phpbb.com, you can create polls to spark participation. People like interactivity and to give their opinion. Post a few polls and allow your visitors to vote on topic.
Also, don’t be ashamed to talk to yourself. What I mean by that is you may want to create a few usernames on your own and have them post questions and answers. It may sound silly but if you’re lacking activity, this may help get some conversations going. No one will know they aren’t real people, except you! 
3. Promote! Promote! Promote!
Don’t just provide one or two links to your message board. Link to it from every page on your website. Include it in the signature of your emails, and if you have a newsletter, devote a special edition to the launch of your board.
On your “Contact” page, suggest that your visitors post a question on the message board as an alternative to emailing you. This will force some people to browse the board and possibly find the answer they need. If your visitors begin finding the board useful, they’ll return often and hopefully will start posting.
4. Keep The Categories to a Minimum In The Beginning
A big mistake that people make with new message boards is that they create too many categories. Remember that for most new forums, the number of posts are going to be small at first. So if you have 10 categories and only 1 or 2 are being used, it makes your board look scarce.
Try creating just one or two in the beginning and then once the traffic starts coming in you can add new ones.
5. Make The Board Easy to Use
Don’t force your visitors to search for instructions on how to use your forums. If they have to figure things out, they will be discouraged and leave. Be sure to use a script that is neat and intuitive.
I recommend http://www.phpbb.com. Not only are they free, but the setup is easy and the layout is nice and clean.
Hopefully these quick tips will help you as you launch your new messaeg board. Again, don’t forget to promote it like crazy. If you can build an active community, it can be quite the marketing tool for your website.
About The Author
Lisa Irby is the author of 2 Create a Web Site — a site that encourages you to plan accordingly before diving into the web site creation process.
http://www.2CreateAWebSite.com
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Posted by admin on November 2nd, 2009 — Posted in Education Special
Ian Lancaster Fleming (1908-1964), the author of the James Bond 007 novels, was the grandson of a Scottish banker and the son of a Conservative MP (Member of Parliament). His father died in the first world war. In his will, he bequeathed his property to his widow on condition she never remarries.
Ian’s youth was inauspicious. He was expelled from Eton following a sexual liaison with a girl. He left Sandhurst without obtaining an officer’s rank, having been caught violating the curfew. He continued his education in Kitzbuhel, Austria, in Munich and in Geneva where he studied languages. But the chain of disappointments continued apace. He failed in a Foreign Service exam and had to join Reuters as a journalist. There he successfully covered a spy trial in Russia (1929-32).
He then joined a British investment bank as a stockbroker and moved to live in a converted temple in Belgravia, a fashionable district of London, where he entertained the members of the Le Cercle Gastronomique et des Jeux de Hasard.
In 1939, Fleming took on an assignment for The Times in Moscow - in effect a cover. He was spying for the Foreign Office and later for Naval Intelligence where he attained the rank of Commander.
During the second world war, he worked from room number 39 in the Admiralty building in Whitehall as assistant to Admiral John Godfrey. He was involved in the evacuation of Dieppe in 1940, in the smuggling of King Zog out of Albania and in setting up the Office for Special Services, the precursor of the CIA.
As commander of the 30th Assault Unit, he sometimes operated behind the German lines, trying to secure important documents and files from destruction. But, mostly, he directed the Unit’s operations from London.
When the war was over, he built a house - Goldeneye - in Jamaica. He worked for the Kemsley group of papers and vacationed every winter in the island.
While awaiting the divorce of one of his numerous paramours - the pregnant Lady Anne Rothermere - the 44 years old Fleming wrote “Casino Royale” published in 1953. It was the first of 12 James Bond thrillers, translated to 11 languages and with total sales of 18 million copies. James Bond novels are now being authored by a new generation of writers.
In 1961, John F, Kennedy, the newly elected president, listed a James Bond title as one of his favorite books. Many movie plots were loosely based on Fleming’s novels and have grossed, in total, more than $1 billion. The 007 trademark was merchandised and attached to everything, from toys and games to clothes and toiletries.
But Fleming was also renowned for his non-fiction: tomes like “The Diamond Smugglers” and his “Atticus” column in The Sunday Times where he served as foreign manager (1945-9). He successfully branched into children’s literature with “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (1964), also made into a movie.
Ironically, his mother died and left him a fortune in 1964 - when Fleming was already wealthy and dying. The trip to her service may have done him in. His son committed suicide in 1975 and his wife died in 1981. He left behind one heir: James Bond.
Sam Vaknin ( samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.
Visit Sam’s Web site at samvak.tripod.com
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Posted by admin on November 2nd, 2009 — Posted in Life Of Traffic
A classic way of getting seen and noticed on the web is to make sure your site is linked to as many other sites as possible. The strategy of link-exchange has been so overused and abused that search engines are now wary of it and may penalize sites that are linking to “link farms”, or to any other sites with non-relevant content.
This is the way it should be. We all want our web browsing experience to be smooth and pleasant. We don’t want to get frustrated by stumbling over irrelevant content while following links between sites. On the other hand, webmasters all want more traffic to their sites, and get frustrated when they don’t get it. There are two types of benefits from having many links to your website:
- Get improved ranking by the search engines - if you are popular, you are probably worth a visit
- People (not just search bots) actually follow the links and find your site!
If done properly, link popularity improvement is an extremely important strategy to make your website successful. Broadly speaking, you can achieve this in a number of ways:
1. The classic link exchange (link swap) method; two webmasters agree to swap links
2. You pay to get incoming links from high-ranking websites
3. By writing articles and getting them posted on other websites; including a link to your own site
4. By getting your articles published in E-zines, with links back to your site
5. You participate in online forums, where a link to your site may be included with each post
6. You start a blog/RSS feed, and get it spread to many subscribers!
All these methods involve work, in varying amounts. Method #2. costs you money, the rest may be essentially no-cost. Method #4. will probably not contribute to search engine ranking, but may give you droves of targeted visitors.
The problem with method #1. is that it’s tedious. But you can get software that may automate it by helping you find link partners and manage your link collection. I am aware of these software tools:
ARELIS I have tested this tool, and it seems very promising. It goes out and searches for link exchange partners according to different search methods which you specify. For me, looking for incoming links at sites similar to my own gave the best results. The program then quickly returned many relevant sites. Next, it helps you contact webmasters and keeps the link collection neatly organized. It also creates the link pages.
Zeus A bit similar to ARELIS, but I find it much clumsier. The only way it can search for link candidate sites is thru a list of 100+ search phrases. In my hands, this method produced very low-quality results. At the time of writing, I am trying to get a refund from the company that sells Zeus. They seem very reluctant to honour their money-back guarantee. Buyer beware!
Links Manager This program does not go out and search for link partner sites; it only handles swap requests and organizes the link collection. I have not tested it myself.
When building a link swap strategy, note that the search engines are getting increasingly sophisticated in judging the quality of your links. Some things to remember:
- Outbound links ONLY to quality sites with content relevant to your site; never “link farm” type sites
- Make sure the sites that you link to have not been penalized. This would affect you also!
- Incoming links that are placed on the same page as 100:s of other links won’t help you; their value gets “diluted”
- The anchor text in the incoming links is very important. It should contain relevant keywords; but all links should not have identical text - this looks artificial in the virtual eyes of the search bots
If you follow these guidelines, I believe link swap can still be an important strategy for building a successful web presence.
Conclusion: Link popularity improvement, if you do it the proper way, is still of enormous importance for a successful website. But if done the wrong way, it may backfire. If you want to try the classic link swap method, I recommend using ARELIS ( www.axandra.com ) to make it less tedious.
Kai Virihaur runs The Hosting Finder ( http://www.thehostingfinder.com ), a web hosting directory featuring articles and RSS feeds on web development, website promotion, and online marketing.
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