| LED Digest 2015: Recommended Merchant Services? |
|
|
|
================================================== 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 24, 2005 Issue #2015 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ======= NEW ===================== --== Merchant Services? ==-- ~ Carl Miura "Can someone recommend a reasonable service with good ROI?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Yahoo Directory Listings Worthwhile? ==-- ~ Don Baker "...the reason for a Y! Directory listing is not to snag directory searchers..." ~ Tom Anson "I've seen a substantial increase in both my traffic and sales..." --== Email Filtering ==-- ~ John Barendrecht "One problem with ISP email is that it is free, you get what you pay for." --== Meta Tags Count! ==-- ~ Donna Donohue "Take out your meta tags and see if you still rank as high." --== E-book Options ==-- ~ Joe Halbrook "...you might check out the ClickLocker service..." ~ Jennifer Thomas "...your statement is based on a lack of experience." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Open Source & Microsoft ==-- ~ Rob Hegemann ======== NEW ===================================== From: Carl Miura Subject: Yahoo Overture I have a Yahoo legacy store and I once signed up for Yahoo pay per click. Gosh it was so expensive and it was not worth the ROI. I have been using Bizrate.com / Shopzilla.com for about half a year now. However, recently they have not gotten back to my inquiries nor put up my newest products for over two weeks. I am looking around for another referral service. Can someone recommend a reasonable service with good ROI? Thank you. Carl Miura Pahoa Sunrise L.L.C. http://www.pahoasunrise.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Donald L. Baker Subject: Yahoo Listing > Of some 11,500 visitors referred from Yahoo in the > past six months, only 95 (0.8%) came directly from > our listing in the legacy Yahoo directory. - Chris Allen, LED 2013 Chris used that as the justification for not renewing his company's Yahoo Directory listing. Forgive me if I missed others making the point earlier, but the reason for a Y! Directory listing is not to snag directory searchers, but to get a rankings boost on Google and other spidered indexes (Yahoo, MSN, AJ) from the highly respected Y! Directory link. While we've recommended a number of our well-ranked clients stop paying the Y! Directory fee, I recently advised a client with Google rankings difficulties to ante up the Y! $299 fee. I can't prove this alone will boost his rankings, since we're doing other work on his site, but in this case I think it will help. His competitors are all in the Y! Directory and rank high in Google, so I think it's a necessary part of his overall SEM package. Don Baker NSI Partners http://www.nsipartners.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Yahoo Listing I can certainly identify with Chris Allen's perceptions of the relative "benefits" of a listing in the Yahoo! Directory. At $1.50 per click, it sounds a little high. I've had a lot the same experience with Yahoo! Yellow Pages. I haven't seen any business coming directly from my Yellow Pages listings. But I wonder if he's looking at this quite right. I've seen a substantial increase in both my traffic and sales since I began this advertising -- from areas not "served" by my Yellow Pages listing. It seems to me that the listing qualifies as an incoming link for the search engines, whether that be Google, Yahoo! or MSN. So, even though I don't see any traffic directly from the link (as referrals), it *is* bringing in traffic and sales. At the price per month for this Yahoo! Yellow Pages listing, it might be a lot more cost effective to just get a listing in the Yahoo! Directory; but I've concluded that for my website (www.therapeutic-grade.com), having this listing is worth the money. Tom Anson Anson Aromatic Essentials ------- new post - new topic -------- From: John Barendrecht Subject: Email filters > RBLs (real-time blacklists) used by ISPs are simply > not the solution, mostly because spammers can easily > circumvent blacklists - they just change their Sending > address on each broadcast! - Joe Halbrook, LED 2014 RBL's and mail server blacklists are usually 2 different things. Most RBL's also block by IP... "The SBL is a realtime database of IP addresses of verified spam sources (including spammers, spam gangs and spam support services)." The combined SBL user base (mailboxes protected by the SBL) now exceeds 480 Million internet users. http://www.spamhaus.org/effective_filtering.html We notice a spammer will connect and try 2 or 3 sending addresses before disconnecting. While I agree that users should have control over email filter, a good RBL is a must. We get emails from customers, thousands per month, we could not begin to whitelist. The mail server would slow down to a crawl if you had a list of 10,000 names. We use a combination of RBL's, black & white lists, anti-virus and multiple anti-spam filters. Our mail server rejects mail that contains a virus. All other mail is either delivered to inbox + spambox or marked as spam and sent to inbox. It takes time to set up a good mail server and train the spam filters and check the mail logs, but in the end it is worth it. One problem with ISP email is that it is free, you get what you pay for. Best regards, John Barendrecht http://www.centralhome.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Donna Donohue Subject: Meta tags > I keep reading this on this forum that no one is looking at > meta tags. How do myths like this get started? This is > completely incorrect. I have the incontrovertible proof. - David Spahr LED 2010 David, I have not had meta tags on my site for over a year. I am on the first page in MSN, Yahoo, and Google (#1, 2 or 3) for all of my very generic keywords in a very competitive field for keywords. I was there before I removed them and I am still there and actually higher place in Yahoo than before. I don't think you can be so smug in your assumption that SEO professionals are ALL wrong. I am not a SEO professional. I do not believe that anyone can make any statement like yours. Remove your meta tags and do the same experiment I did. Yes I did it as an experiment. To see if it was really content they were looking at, and my results say that it is. I would bet that if your content was real good, if you removed your tags, that your placement would stay the same without them. You are using a ONE case scenario. SEO professionals do experiments like what I did to test things. Have you? Yes, if you have meta tags they will be used in what is seen by the public. Before I took mine out they were what was seen in the returns. Now my content is seen. I challenge you to back up your statement with proof. Take out your meta tags and see if you still rank as high. If you do it proves my point. If you drop, then you are king. Donna Donohue -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Joe Halbrook Subject: Ebooks > Is there any way to use a system such as Paypal > or Clickbank and still maintain some degree of > control over forwarding and downloads? - Brian Rotsztein, LED 2013 Brian, I have not tried this personally, but you might check out the ClickLocker service at: http://www.clicklocker.com It looks interesting, and they offer a 90-day money back guarantee. The premise is that buyers of your eBook can still pass it on to a few friends. But if anyone tries to pirate it, ask for a refund and then still use it, or pass it to many people, you can actually lock them out of the eBook. Joe Halbrook Permission Technologies http://www.cleanmymailbox.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Jennifer Thomas Subject: E-books > Most people who pay for a product don't immediately > start gifting their friends with it...You'll be so much better > off if you stop focusing on the fear or loss and instead > look toward your honest clients... - Kathryn Martyn, LED 2014 Hi Kathryn, Actually, your statement is based on a lack of experience. Parents and educators of children with disabilities are always looking for information and materials, and they are more than willing to pass it along to others with no concern for copyright issues (just like anyone else). I have worked with many families who would get access to this type of product and mass email it to a dozen parents and other educators within minutes. Of course from there it gets forwarded to more people and so on. I also knew a mother who posted an membership username and password on a message board. It happens all the time so his concern about theft is completely legitimate. Jennifer Thomas ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Rob Hegemann Subject: Open source > People in general want what works, what's > relevant, and what saves them time and money. - Paul Baugher, LED 2014 I personally want what works, and saves time. Downloading and installing patches every week (sometimes every couple days) for IE was not my idea of saving time, and I was sick and tired of drive-by downloads, hijackings, etc. I always felt that I was walking on glass when surfing with IE. I could care less who makes the browser......I just want one that WORKS. Then came the series of headlines, approx 6 months ago, in which 'experts' were actually recommending people switch to alternative browsers if they want to be safe. The proof is in the pudding, and I have had zero problems since switching to Firefox. I am not anti-MS. This is simply about IE. USA Today: http://snipurl.com/9fd0 [usatoday.com] "Beware of spyware. If you can, use the Firefox browser." Forbes: http://snipurl.com/h7cm [forbes.com] "Better than Internet Explorer by leaps and bounds." As a side note, I am not a programmer, but I appreciate what they do. I always buy shareware even if it stays functional if you don't pay. Rob Hegemann http://www.hydrabrush.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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill |
