| LED Digest 2008: The Dublin Core, also E-books |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. August 10, 2005 Issue #2008 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== The Dublin Core and SEO ==-- ~ Robin Estlin "...a number of websites appear to be *inappropriately* including Dublin Core meta tags." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== E-book Options ==-- ~ Val Waldeck "I have been publishing ebooks for some time now...on the Amazon.com edocs site." ~ Thomas Yoon "I have created ebooks in .exe format and I am selling the passwords." ~ Mark Frank "I would recommend the you not put a 14 day expiration on the file you sell." ~ Will Bontrager "...put continuously updated information into a membership area of your web site." --== Not Just Linking ==-- ~ Steve Pronger "There are many ways to establish inbound links." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Recommended Email Clients? ==-- ~ Sheryl Coppenger ~ Kathryn Martyn --== Revenge of the Spammers ==-- ~ R. Neilson ~ Rich Dudley ======= NEW ===================================== From: Robin Estlin Subject: The Dublin Core Initiative and SEO Adam, LED has been a wonderful resource for us ever since we first joined up six years ago. Many, many thanks to you and to all those who support LED! As Web Designers specializing in Search Engine Optimization here in Victoria BC Canada, we encounter some interesting situations from time to time. One of these is the apparent misuse of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. While examining their source code, we have found that a number of websites appear to be *inappropriately* including Dublin Core meta tags. The DCI people refer to index spam abuse on their website (http://dublincore.org/): ----------------------- "The well-known 'all the Web' search engines including AltaVista, Yahoo, HotBot, etc. tend to avoid using the information found in meta elements in their indexing. This is because, unless the pages are from guaranteed 'trusted' servers, the meta information is commonly used by unscrupulous content-providers for spamming, to mislead the indexes into giving Web-pages a misleading rating." ----------------------- We would very much appreciate some comments from our learned fellow LED'ers! Very best regards to all, Robin Estlin, Owner/Projects Manager YellowDawg Web Design www.yellowdawg.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Val Waldeck Subject: Ebooks > ... what is the best way to sell these books? - Brian Rotsztein, LED 2007 I have been writing and publishing ebooks for some time now and publish them on the Amazon.com edocs site. Do a search on "Val Waldeck" on their site to see examples. They handle all the financial and downloading aspects and thousands (if not millions) of people browse their site. Publishing with them is free (PDF format), but they take 50% of the sale price. Val Waldeck www.valwaldeck.com - reaching our generation one book at a time -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Yoon Chee Tuck Subject: ebooks Dear Brian, I have created ebooks in .exe format and I am selling the passwords. The way I do it is I made many passwords, so that the chances of anyone finding the same password is minimized. Obviously, the more passwords you create, the better it is to prevent people passing off the password to others. The software make it such a way that each person's pc will ask for different passwords. When they are ready to pay for it, they will be directed to the payment service provider where they will pay by credit card. After paying for the password, they will receive an email containing a link to a page with the required password. It works automatically and I do not have to respond at all. This method works very well with me. You can see how it works when you download one of the ebooks at http://www.free-marine.com Best Wishes Thomas Yoon http://www.free-engineering.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Mark Frank Subject: Ebooks Brian, You have come to the right place. Many of us have gone through this process, with the same concerns. Two of the most common ways to sell ebooks without getting your own credit card processing are PayPal and ClickBank. PayPal has a lower commission, but it also has higher risk. Your PayPal sales page will contain the URL of your download page hidden in the HTML. Anyone who knows how to view the HTML can go directly to your download page without going through the purchase process. PayPal has a work-around for this, but many users find it difficult to set up. There are also some after market software packages you can buy to protect yor product, but those that I looked at were ineffective or difficult to use. If you want to get your ebook online quickly, ClickBank is the way to go. Set up is easy and your product is more secure, but the commission is higher. As to fraud, your best protection is to use a PDF format. Buyers can still share the file, but the PDF format makes it much harder to extract and copy pieces of your information. And don't spend too much time worrying about illegal copies. Most people will buy your book and keep it. Some will share it, and there isn't much you can do about it. You should occasionally do a Google search on the title of your book and on extracts from your book to make sure that no one else is selling it. I would recommend the you not put a 14 day expiration on the file you sell. A product that expires will guarantee that most of your buyers will want refunds. Passwords in general are a pain, and anyone who is willing to share the file will also share the password. Set your pricing by testing. It is not the number of pages that determine the value of your ebook. It is how valuable the information is to your target market that will set the price. Unlike a paper book, you don't have to set the price and live with it. You can change your price as often as you want to find the optimum price point. Just be sure to give your tests sufficient time. You will find that sales are seasonal and are impacted by changes in search engine performance. If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me directly through my website at http:www.WebsiteDesignBiz.com Mark Frank, Author Start Your Own Home-Based Website Design Business http://www.websitedesignbiz.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Will Bontrager Subject: E-book Options > ... we are worried about fraud and copyright > infringement. Since our work will be of value > to so many people, it is conceivable that if > one parent or educator likes our work, they > would email the file to "everyone else." - Brian Rotsztein, LED 2007 Your concern is valid, not that people are basically thieves but that some don't consider sending a copy of something beneficial to their friends to be a bad thing. And there are a few real, intentional thieves, of the kind that would copy a product and sell it as their own. Yet, overmuch focus on prevention of theft can reduce the time spent on income producing activities and/or cause a high rate of product returns because of password frustrations. Some niche markets might expect their ebook purchases to be password protected. Others might be thoroughly taken aback by the idea, to feel cheapened, and wonder why they should trust you if you don't trust them. Every merchant who deals with the potential of electronic theft decides how to deal with it, or ignores the potential altogether. Some soft, subtle, or more or less transparent procedures to consider: 1. Have a notice in the PDF where it is likely to be read say something like, "If you received this from a friend, you can be sure they think highly of it. Please purchase your own copy and be sure you have the very latest information." 2. Provide two versions of the product, one marked "For You" and the other marked "For Your Friends." The "friends" PDF provides enough good information that the purchaser considers it valuable and actually does send it out. The PDF encourages readers to order their own complete set of information. If you have the software to customize and track things, the "friends" version could have a special link that credits the original purchaser should the friend decide to buy. 3. If your product lends itself to this, put continuously updated information into a membership area of your web site. The instructions could say something like, "The area where your updates are posted is not for the general public. To access the updates, simply type in your receipt number." If receipt number sharing is a consideration, membership software is available with anti-theft code that consults cookies, IP addresses, and/or browser and operating system identification to determine a percentage of probability of unauthorized access. The software might automatically block or send you an email, or both. 4. Use software that creates temporary download links after a sale so valid download links themselves can't be distributed. If you know your niche well, you're in better position to judge how best to approach the possibility of theft. Sincerely, Will Bontrager Software that Works! http://willmaster.com/master/ -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Steve Pronger Subject: Linking > Michael has been claiming that nearly all > reciprocal linking is being nullified. - Dirk Johnson, LED 2006 > Once again you put words into my mouth. I have never made > any such claim. I have simply pointed out that reciprocal linking > is NOT NECESSARY. - Michael Martinez, LED 2007 C'mon Michael. In LED 1998 you stated: > It [reciprocal linking] hasn't been [necessary] for a very long > time because Google has long since adjusted its algorithms > to compensate for the practice. The words came from your mouth. Or keyboard. Perhaps you intended some other meaning to "compensate for the practice"? > Writing good press releases is a bit of an art, and > it would probably behoove this discussion group for > us to start a discussion on how to do it. Agreed. Press releases are an overlooked recourse for establishing good inbound links. So yes, let's see some discussion and experiences on this topic. There are many ways to establish inbound links. Smart webmasters explore them all. Reciprocal linking is just one of those methods. Write what you like in your "papers" Michael but as far as I am concerned it's still a highly effective method. That doesn't come from blind adherence to a theory. It comes from real world experience. Well, cyber-world anyway. That doesn't mean you should link to every site that links to you. Far from it. I also see nothing ethically wrong with the practice as long as you carefully scrutinize your link partners. Do sites reach the top for a particular keyword without recip linking? Sure they do. Do those sites operate in a highly competitive marketplace? Not usually. OK, there are always exceptions. But if you analyze high ranking sites for competitive keywords, more often than not you will find a link exchange program in place. You can argue, as Michael does, that those site achieved their high rankings in spite of recip linking, and not because of it: > While I and a few other people continue to do active research > in Google ranking analysis, most people just look at the sites > that get to the top in selected search results and conclude, > "Well, it's happening because of links". but that's a difficult theory to prove. How many of those webmasters would be willing to remove all their recip links on the assertion of that's not what got them to the top? They have adopted a linking strategy. They are at the top. I know what I would say. Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Sheryl Coppenger Subject: Email apps > I recommend Pegasus to my customers, as safer than > Microsoft's software. The newbies to PCs like the ease > of use. The experienced users appreciate the power. - Paul Ding, LED 2007 Thanks for the recommendation. I've heard of Pegasus and Mercury mail, they've been around for ages. But since I didn't come from a Novell background I never tried it in the early days. I use Pine, which comes in a PC version and a UNIX version. It's basically a text mailer, and since I'm a systems administrator in my "day job" I like to use something that's not going to be transmitting viruses. Tom Anson wrote: > I have a question, too: What is "safe computing"? There is no "safe computing", but there is "safer computing". Used to be that people running HTML email were vulnerable to malicious code that might be included. Text email is safer. Of all of the html mailers, Outlook has a particularly bad reputation for security. Satirewire ran a cute parody of the problem a few years ago: http://www.satirewire.com/news/0103/outlook.shtml Sheryl Coppenger ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: Email apps > If you run Windows, and switch to Mozilla-Firefox for > browsing, and Mozilla-Thunderbird for email, and > practice safe computing, then you can throw out your > anti-virus scanner too. - Charles Oertel, LED 2006 I use Firefox and am starting to use Thunderbird too, but I do have to disagree with the last comment about throwing out your anti-virus scanner. Never, under any circumstances should one stop using an anti-virus scanner. New viruses are written every day for sport, and if you don't make an effort to stop them, you'll be the prey. Remember when they bite, it can hurt. ;-) > I have a question, too: What is "safe computing"? Unplugging your computer, and sitting on your hands? Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: R. Neilson Subject: Spammer revenge > A couple of weeks ago I wrote to you of a site that I had made > as a result of receiving spam ["A Little Humor", issue 2000]. > Although it was tongue in cheek, it obviously hurt somebody > because for the last week I have been the target of scammers > using my domain name to run a phishing scam. - John Quinlan, LED 2006 The problems you are having with the server are exactly why I have stayed with an local ISP. I can call them and talk with real people who work at correcting any problems that arise within the hour or day if it is something major. Sure I pay a little more a month, but it is well worth the money compared to the problems you are having. I have been with the same local ISP for 6 years and have never had any trouble getting problems solved and my website has been up almost nonstop during that time. The only time our site was down was when a backhoe cut thru some T1 lines a few years back but they knocked out over half the phone lines in Northern California for about 4-6 hours. If you don't have any other way to contact your server then by e-mail, you should consider switching to another server. Any reputable server should have phone numbers and e-mail available to conctact them when a serious problem arises. R. Neilson H. L. Supply www.hansons.net ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Richard Dudley Subject: Spammer revenge Could be a 302 redirect hijack. Check out: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/28329.htm or http://snipurl.com/gu9k [forum.weborum.com] Rich Dudley www.bloomeryweddings.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." - Soren Kierkegaard |
