Designing Web Success

It seems more and more these days, I am seeing increased similarities with spam and the flu. With Yahoo and AOL in the news lately about a possible pay to email to avoid spam, this brought be to think about the flu and spam correlation.

If you cannot beat it, or at least stop it completely at this time, why not try to make money off of it (that is unless there’s a permanent solution against it). Right now you could easily relate this statement to spam or the common cold/flu.

We can easily relate spam emails to the virus that will cause you to get sick. With some of the top email providers, you have the option of upgrading your email (pay of course) and have the option of increasing the number of filters to help combat the war against spam. With the flu/cold, we try our best to avoid it, purchase products to help prevent it, and once we do get it, off to the store to get the good ole cold/flu medicine.

With Yahoo and AOL, which I am sure you have probably heard of by now, a possible (most likely) option of paying to avoid the spam filters so your email will get to its intended place. Maybe it is time to start phoning people again?

It will be interesting to see how paying to avoid the spam filters will work out for some of the major players such as Yahoo and AOL. I just hope if the pay to email does come through, I just don’t see an increase in spam emails, but I guess as time goes on, that is very unlikely.

Gerard Manning is an SEO Consultant for Search Engine Marketing Firm Manning Search Marketing based out of Atlantic Canada.

Wouldn’t you be shocked to find that your personal sensitive
information, like files, credit card information, operating
system / software and other non-disclosed data to be penetrated
by unscrupulous prying eyes? Even worse…

“Is your computer infected by Spyware?”

What is Spyware? Spyware are infectious programs developed to
secretly subtract and transfer electronic information over the
Internet, without a User’s apprehension.

Norton Anti-Virus or any other “virus protection” solution, will
not protect your computer from malicious applications like
Spyware.

Ever Downloaded any kind of Music, Video or even “Free Software”?

On the Internet, anything “free” has a hidden cost… much more
than the cost of a highly-priced product.

How much is your Privacy’s worth to You?

To diabolic marketing companies, your identity my friend, is
worth thousands of dollars… they get rich by capitalizing and
selling your privacy to third parties, who will in return, sell
(again!) or use you as a guinea pig for their promotions - your
Anti-Virus won’t protect you from Spyware!

Hint: Some even sell your information to telemarketers, or bulk
e-mail marketing companies.

The question is… are the gigantic companies selling
“anti-virus solutions”, a part of this greedy industry?

Two of the best “Spyware Scanners” you must-have to protect your
computer and identity from prying Spyware.

Spyware Removal Tools

No Adware : Stops privacy invaders like Gator, Kazaa or Adware
and PC cluttering pop-ups.

http://cyber-software.com/spyware-removal

X-Block Probably the most powerful tool to automatically
tracking, cleaning and informing you about malicious spyware,
Trojans and Privacy-intruding programs.

http://cyber-software.com/x-block

Scan your Computer now for free. Open the program here and then
opt to choose “RUN” instead of downloading it. You will be
probably shocked to see how your Computer’s system is infected
with several spyware programs.

What’s the big deal? All you read on the internet is spam, spam, spam. Spam protection this, spam protection that. Oh my God! Be careful don’t let any one see your SACRED email address! I read they even put a spammer in jail. What kind of a barbaric country would do that? Now I am not a spammer. I don’t know how to send spam. If I did I would!

I am not afraid of placing my email address to the ends of the earth. I look forward to my spam everyday! If spam comes that I have no interest in. You know what…I HAVE GOT a DELETE button all free provided by Yahoo! And it works perfect!!!

However, I am getting very annoyed with Yahoo.

Why?

Because I hold the World’s Record of the most girlfriends of any man on the planet. Needless to say I can’t see every girl every day. So I email them my Casanova love letters! When I try to send my love letters to my darlings. I usually send 50 at a time. That’s all my old computer can stand. Yahoo puts characters in my face before I can send letters to my girlfriends. Add insult to injury now Yahoo says I can only send 50 emails per hour. Put your calculator to work and see how many hours it will take me to send my dolls a love letter, after all, I have over 1000 active 18 to 22 year old dream girlfriends and I am 55 years old man! And believe me my girls are waiting by their computers for my romantic love letters!

I am looking for a sidekick who loves girls. Preferably a rich buddy who loves girls. As I am running low on cash. Who would’nt with over 1000 girls!!! Any great spammers out there who know how to spam. Maybe you can help me find my rich sidekick who loves girls! Let’s spam him!

Thank you very much…

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. I also ask that you activate any html links found in the article and in the byline. You may make minor editorial corrections only. A copy would be appreciated at seniorplayboy1@yahoo.co

Elvis Preston King was born in Mississippi and grew up in Memphis. Not to be confused with the other great King, Elvis Presley. Elvis has always had an eye for girls since he first saw one as a baby. Elvis is a 55 year old senior who doesn’t want to let go of being 18. He has over 1000 sexy girlfriends 18 to 22 years old. He is now looking for just ONE gentleman sidekick to share in his good fortune. His office is based out of Los Angeles, Ca.

You can email him at loverboybachelor@yahoo.com or visit http://bachelortours.blogspot.com/ and http:http://www.msnusers.com/BachelorDreamTours

As our lives become more dependant on conveniences like credit cards, the Internet and other technologies we also open up doors to opportunistic thieves. These identity thieves seek to use our name, credit and money to steal and commit fraud. Victims are left fighting – sometimes for years – to overcome the debts, clear their reputation and deal with the emotional consequences of being victimized.

With estimates of nearly 10 million Americans being victimized within a year along with millions of others around the world it is crucial that you learn the steps you must take to prevent, identify and combat identity theft.

Did you know that thieves do more than just steal credit cards? They can open new accounts or commit fraud in your name and you may not even realize it until the creditors or police come to get you!

Did you realize that many of the methods identity thieves use can be easily prevented by taking simple precautions?

Are you aware of the ways that identity thieves find your information? Methods used to steal your information right in front of your eyes without you ever being aware of it? By not knowing these methods you may be making yourself an easy target!

If you know that your personal information has been accessed or otherwise tampered with there are steps you must take to stop the thieves and try to repair the damage. It is important to stay alert to signs that your information is being used without your consent even when you don’t suspect you’ve been a victim.

Staying alert to these signs will help you respond quickly if your identity has been stolen:

Unfamiliar charges or withdrawals

Always check your bank and credit card statements and make immediate inquiries to unfamiliar charges and withdrawals.

Missing mail

If your bills and other mail have gone missing a thief may have broken into your mail box or had your mail redirected to a new address.

Calls from Creditors

If you are being contacted by creditors you did not do business with you need to take immediate action to find out who has.

New Credit Cards

Receiving new credit cards or bills that you didn’t sign for is a danger sign that your identity may have been stolen.

Denial of Credit

Unexplained refusal of credit requires investigation on your part. You need to get access to your credit report right away.

You could be a Victim of Identity Theft - Learn the 14 common mistakes and 5 Red Alerts that you’ve been attacked. Learn What to Do If you’ve been Victimized and How to Prevent Thieves from Targeting You!

The Identity Theft Guide http://www.theidentitytheftguide.com/

RSS content syndication is relatively new legitimate practice in
the world of search engine optimization (SEO). Marketing
professionals specializing in SEO techniques are beginning to
recognize the value of RSS content syndication however, and it
seems that the more popular this technique becomes the more
effective the results.

The value of RSS content syndication lies in the links contained
within the content. This is because the big search engines like
Google, Overture and Yahoo! pay a whole lot more attention to
incoming links to a website than they did in the past. We’ll get
to content a little later, because it still counts, but it is so
important to understand why syndicating content to RSS feeds
across the web may make you more money and cost you LESS!

RSS feeds are appearing on websites across the internet in order
to keep people up to date with the latest news or information on
a particular topic quickly. And we all know that users expect
quality content, but even more so they expect that content to
appear immediately! And, they want to see the content. They do
not want to look for the content. They do not want to link to
the content. They want the content to jump off of the screen and
into their brains in 10 seconds or less!

Perhaps this is why Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, came
about in the first place. It’s great news for web site owners
too, however. Taking advantage of the huge variety and sheer
number of RSS feeds that accept submissions from other websites
provides a very cheap and simple way to develop more web site
traffic and higher income.

Did I mention cheap? A minimal amount of time invested will
allow you to not only provide a way for your loyal visitors to
stay aware of your newest updates, but also to expand the
awareness of the world about your services or products. I did
mention cheap, right? Well, RSS content and article syndication
allows you to spend some time preparing content in the standard
XML RSS format and then to make it available to many free RSS
feeds across the world.

If you have ever spent a large amount of money on an online
marketing program - you already know the drawbacks of
traditional internet marketing. Mass emails are no longer
effective due to the increasing power of spam filters. Directory
listing services are finding that their clients are removing
their links due to retribution by the major search engine
algorithms. And, Pay Per Click… well it’s just really
expensive if you intend to see real results.

With RSS syndication, you are never going to face any of these
issues. If you can write an html file for your website, you can
syndicate your own RSS content. The basic process is quite
simple to master, and as you become more familiar your skills
will expand quickly as well.

What’s even better news for web site owners? The major search
engines are not only approving of RSS syndication, they are
providing RSS feeds open for submission in a huge array of topic
areas like sports, entertainment, world news, travel, health and
technology. There is a topic for every web site owner willing to
put in a little effort! And people use their sites already, so
what a better place to syndicate your content?

When you place content in an RSS feed, a link appears to your
web site. This is noticed by the major search engines, and helps
to increase your link popularity among the search engines. Link
popularity will potentially move your site up in the search
engine results pages (SERPS). Combine these two facts, and you
will see that no matter how you look at it, RSS syndication will
get you more traffic.

It doesn’t really matter whether your additional visitors found
you through an RSS feed, or if your visibility and increased
link popularity allowed them to find you through a major search
engine! Think about that, and you are sure to see the true
benefit of RSS content.

There’s that word again… “Content.” RSS content is different
from what you might normally expect in an SEO campaign. The
reason that most web sites containing RSS feeds put them there
in the first place is to provide extra information for their
visitors.

Think about it, if you publish a web site geared towards IT
professionals you might be providing content that is of a fairly
specific nature. You may be giving information, tutorials or
even advertising for a certain software package. Although this
information is important to a large majority of the visitors who
click on your link, some visitors may be more interested in a
different area of the IT field.

Providing an RSS feed that displays the latest in the world of
IT news may be a great answer. If the information found in your
RSS feed is quality and relative to your visitors’ interests,
they will bookmark your site. Then they will COME BACK!

But what does that mean to you as the RSS syndicated content
provider? It means that you will need to produce quality content
- because it’s your content that keeps the users coming back to
the original site. As long as your content is quality, and you
remain a part of that RSS feed, you will see increased new and
return visitors.

And generating traffic is the largest goal of an SEO campaign,
so why wouldn’t you want to syndicate quality content for RSS
feeds? This simple and inexpensive method of marketing your
website is gaining popularity, and becoming visible now as a
content provider will only mean greater returns in the future.

No. I’m not talking here about the outdoor activity enjoyed
by many. And no again; I did not misspell it. Phishing is
the name given to the latest online scam where millions of
unwary Americans are getting their identities stolen.

This fraudulent activity is considered the fastest growing
crime of modern times. The favorite target groups of
phishers seem to be very young children and senior citizens,
as they do not often ask for credit reports, fill out credit
card applications or solicit loans. This allows the thieves
to go undetected for longer periods of time; but still, be
careful. We all are potential targets.

Remember when throwing away unshredded documents with
personal information in the trash bin was considered a big
risk for identity theft? While this still happens, identity
thieves have become more sophisticated in recent times, and
this is how they do it…

Phishers create bogus e-mails that look as if they came from
large, well-known institutions and banks, such as eBay,
Paypal, Citibank, EarthLink, and Wells Fargo among others.
These e-mails claim that you are due for an account update,
or that the account number, password, social security number
or other confidential information needs to be verified. Then
they warn you, stating that if you do not do it within a
certain period of time, that your account will be closed,
terminated, the service discontinued, or something to that
effect.

They even provide you with links to websites that look
legitimate, because they hijack the real logos of these
well known banks, and trusted institutions and companies.
And that is the scary part… these e-mails look 100%
legitimate, but they are not.

In some cases it goes even further… some of these phishers
are installing spyware on your computer to monitor your
online activities. So… should you leave the online world for
good? Not necessarily.

These are a few things you can do to protect yourself from
these scammers:

1. Do not respond to any e-mail that asks for personal
information from you, such as account number, credit card
number, user names, passwords, etc. If you suspect that the
e-mail, indeed, be legitimate, contact your bank or
institution to verify this.

2. When in doubt, visit the Anti-Phishing Working Group for
an update of the latest scams, and tips to avoid becoming a
victim. The website’s URL is www.antiphishing.org

3. Websites like www.Paypal.com, www.citibank.com, and
www.ebay.com, offer security tips and tell you what
information they’d never ask for in an e-mail.

4. Get anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date.

5. If you suspect you have received a fraudulent e-mail, do
not click on any links within it, and forward it to the FTC
at uce@FTC.gov

Finally, if you suspect you’ve been a victim of this fraud,
get a copy of your credit report immediately to check for
unusual activity. If you discover that you’ve been a victim
of identity theft, close your account at once and…

- Call the Credit Bureau.

- File a police report.

- Call the FTC ID theft hotline at (877)IDTHEFT.

- Alert other financial institutions where you have accounts.

According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, phishers send
millions of e-mails a day, getting about 5% response. Even
with this low response, it is estimated that about 150,000
Americans have fallen prey to these scams since May of 2004.
Get informed. Do not become a victim yourself.

==============================================

You have permission to publish this article electronically
or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are
included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be
appreciated.

E-mail: marketingplanet1@aol.com
November, 2004.

==============================================

Tamara Baruhovich is the author of “Straight Talk about
Network Marketing” A no hype, no B.S. e-course that
shouldn’t be missed if you are serious about starting
a successful career in Network Marketing! Get your
complimentary copy here… e-course04@aweber.com

Boy, I must be really new to the Internet! Everyone keeps
talking about all the canned meat they’re getting and I’m hardly
getting fed over here.

I do get some, but I’m sure not getting fat on it. I receive a
couple of hundred or so emails a day so I’m not surprised that I
get a few offers for credit cards I don’t need and junk I’m not
going to buy.

Although I probably average only a dozen or so letters a day in
the big metal box at the end of the drive,some days more that
half of that mail is junkmail.

While I find basically none of this junkmail useful to me, the
electronic spam is much easier to deal with. I’m brand new to
email and I still know at least three ways to hit delete! And,
if need be, I can let my ISP gobble it up.

Since I live in the country and I no longer have to pay the
garbage man to haul away the paper junkmail, I don’t even resent
that as I once did. In fact, I hear that I have a neighbor who
actually solicits the stuff as he heats his house with it. An
idea, I suppose?

I can almost hear you saying “Wait a minute! You said you get
hundreds of emails a day.” Yes, indeed I do. I would say that
96% of them are from ezines that I’ve subcribed to, offers I
asked for more information about or email courses I wanted.

In my 3 months on the Internet, I’ve subscribed to over 400
ezines. Am I nuts, as an ezine editor friend of mine implied?
No, I’m out here to get information. The only way to do that is
to go to where the source is. Many ezines are wonderful sources
of a wide variety of information.

Unfortunately, I’ve found that not all ezines are entertaining
or informative. Do I read them all? Yes, I do, to a point. I use
an automatic ’shelving’ system in Outlook Express for my ezines.

I have a folder named ‘Ezines’ and inside that I have many
subfolders.

When I read my first issue of an ezine, if I am instantly
totally impressed, I set up a subfolder for that ezine and a
message rule that puts every issue in that folder. I generally
eagerly read them as soon as I see I have unopened mail in that
folder. If I find later that I am not enjoying that ezine as
much, I move the whole folder to another catagory or I
unsubscribe and delete the folder.

I also have a subfolder called ‘Checking Out’. If I am not
totally enamored with the ezine, it goes into a subfolder in
that file. I have these labeled: ‘Daily’s”, ‘Weekly’s’ and
‘Monthly’s. I add the from address to the appropriate message
rule and those ezines go to their folders.

I read the ‘Checking Out’ ezines as time allows. Very often, by
the second or third issue, the ezine has graduated it its own
folder. I sort by name and read the ‘Daily’s’ more often that
the others but I do at least scan them all.

If I have received 5 or 6 issues of an ezine and it still
remains in my just looking folder, I am not very interested in
that ezine. I unsubscribe. Ezine editors might want to note
that, when they send me 4 or more ’solos’ in a day, I am
probably only seeing one real issue of their ezine when I’m
trying to decide if I want to remain subscribed.

I have to admit that I’ve recently added a new subfolder called
‘Free Ad Subs’. Yep, you guessed it, stuff I don’t read unless
have extra time or I need an ad code. I will stay subscribed
though until I figure out a better way to market.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just too new out here to know what
canned meat is.

If you’d like some helpful hints on how to manage 400+ ezines in
your mailbox, send for my free helpful article “Manage Your
E-mail” mailto:wonderclass1@GetResponse.com.