| LED Digest 2024: New Stuff, Old Stuff |
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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 .............................................. September 15, 2005 Issue #2024 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= <Moderator Comment> ~ New Stuff --== Dealing with Image Theft ==-- ~ Colin Flack "...this lets Google get at the image files on my site." --== Web Site Forums Worthwhile? ==-- ~ Mary Lee "Used correctly a forum can be an invaluable business tool." --== Design Theft ==-- ~ Mark Frank "I have yet to find a host who will risk legal action over someone else's website." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== The Small Business Arena ==-- ~ Martha Retallick ===== CONTINUING ================================= <Moderator Comment> LEDer, Things have turned a bit slow around here as several lively discussions have now run their courses. Since there aren't many new posts to use and I've got some good ones I've been filing away over the last few months, this issue (and subsequent issues, if necessary) will be a sort of "clearing house" for topics we've discussed in the past. Also, a couple of interesting topics: 1) Is Microsoft heading for greener pastures (viz., more wild financial successes) or are they heading out to pasture? There may be subtle signs of a slow, dwindling death; see "Gates on Google" at cnet: http://news.com.com/Gates+on+Google/2008-1082_3-5863514.html One humorous quote: ------------------- "CNET: So that would be the philosophical difference between Microsoft and what Google is up to at this point? "Gates: Well, we don't know everything they are up to, but we do know their slogan and we disagree with that." ------------------- I'm sure they're not worried, but things might be tricky for Gates and company in the software sphere: there's a shift to develop more applications based on capabilities dependent on the Internet, rather than just the PC. But Gates is hedging his bets that the PC remains the major focus, not the Internet. If that's true, then he really has nothing to worry about with giants Google and Yahoo. All this overlooks the fact that Microsoft is building a massive gaming empire with the Xbox 360 (due out this winter); every sign points to their domination of this arena for some time (although the PSP is making large inroads as a worthy competitor to the handheld market there). What are your views? I'd love to hear them, besides I get kinda sick of listening to my own voice (I'm sure I'm not alone there). :-) 2) Here's where you can post a new topic or idea you'd like to discuss (I know, I'm sort of bailing out here, but hey - it's your discussion list after all!). Remember - *practical* problems, quandaries, and concerns are always good! (Just read my topic idea above and do the opposite). Best wishes, Adam ----------------- From: Colin Flack Subject: Image stealing > Now the only question I have, is that if you stop the bandwidth > stealing as above, how do you let Froogle show your images. - Richard Graham, LED 2023 .. modifying my post from last week... ----------------- RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yourdomain\.com [NC][OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?google\.com RewriteRule \.(avi|bmp|css|gif|jpg|js|mid|mov|mp3|mpg|png|pdf|ra|ram|wav)$ - [F] ----------------- .. this lets Google (and therefore Froogle) get at the image files on my site; something like the above should work for you. Maybe just adapt to suit your setup. Colin Flack ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Mary Lee Subject: Forums > In 2005 is it worth it having a forum on your site? - Richard Graham I had to write of my personal experience in this area. I sell murder mystery games which many people are interested in, but know very little about. I offer free phone customer service, which I found was taking up massive amounts of my time from people with general questions about how murder mystery games work or how to solve a problem they were experiencing in downloading or other areas. I had a FAQ which was mostly ignored. It just covered the problem areas that customers could experience. Last year I decided to start a forum in which I have topics that cover all aspects of how murder mystery games work, how to solve problems, how to decorate for your party, recipes, customer feedback, my monthly contest and other relevant areas. In the 5 months I have had this forum up it has become an important part of my site. People love surfing the forum to find answers. My phone support calls have dropped from 25 a day to 2 or 3. My email message support requests have followed the same pattern. I check my forum once a day. Since the forum answers almost any question someone can have I very seldom have to reply to a question. I can tell you from my experience that if you implement a forum in a way that your visitors will find useful, then it will be rewarding to you and your visitors. I get messages everyday from people saying they spent hours on the forum and loved all the information it provided. Used correctly a forum can be an invaluable business tool. Mary Lee Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games http://www.dinnerandamurder.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Mark Frank Subject: Design theft I have been the victim of copyright violations on several occasions. A letter to the site owner is usually sufficient, but if they don't respond, you have to go to the next level. I have found that sending the following email to the offender's hosting service is very effective. All hosting services have policies against copyright violations, and I have yet to find a host who will risk legal action over someone else's website. Just make sure that you really own the copyright and that you can prove the material in question is really yours... --------------------- Subject: Notice of Copyright Violation Sirs, (Hosting Service Name) is hosting a website that contains copyright violations. Now that you are aware of the issue, you are jointly responsible for the copyright violation and for any legal action the may follow. The website in question is http://www.*****.com. This site contains information taken from http://www.xxxx.com without authorization. Specifically, the text and images information found on page http://www.*****.com/page2.html were taken from http://www.xxxx.com/pagename.htm. xxxx.com has been online since 2003. The material on the site is copyrighted and is not available for unauthorized reproduction. If you visit archive.org (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://xxxx.com) and page through their archives of xxxx.com , you will find early versions of the material as it was written and developed. I can also provide additional data that will establish the authorship and date of creation of the material in question. According to the registration information, your offending site is registered as follows: (Insert registrant's name and contact information...) Domain servers: (Insert domain servers...) Please remove this copyrighted information from your server. --------------------- I occassionally get a return email from the host asking for additional information or asking me to fill out an online form. Once I respond, the copyright violation (or the entire site) is normally gone within a day. Mark Frank, Author Start Your Own Home-Based Website Design Business http://www.websitedesignbiz.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Martha Retallick Subject: Web Design: Making a Profit in the Small Business Arena Having been part of the business community for more than a decade, permit me to share the following insights on dealing with small business -- profitably: 1. Office supply superstores like Staples, Office Depot and Office Max make quite a bit of money dealing with small business people. Like other superstores, they do so by keeping their staffing levels low. Meaning that when you're looking for file folders and a new floor lamp for your home office, you're not going to get a lot of hand-holding. In fact, you probably will have to send out a posse to locate an "associate" to help you find what you're looking for. So, the takeaway lesson is: If you want to deal profitably with small business customers, cut out the hand-holding. Make your operation as self-service as possible. For Web designers, that means selling templates that the small biz people can download from your website and set up themselves, rather than custom-designed websites that you must personally handle. 2. In addition to keeping staffing levels and customer hand-holding to a minimum, automation is crucial. Hence, the proliferation of "no human being present" voice mail ordering systems -- Fedex's phone system provides a good example of this -- and the increasing use of self-checkouts as opposed to human cashiers. And, those of us who sell e-books and software online can vouch for the fact that these sales systems work best when the customers come to our websites, buy the product, download it, and then go on their merry way. Customer follow-up is handled via autoresponders. (Not the lack of hand-holding in this purchasing system.) Some enterprising Web designers have used this same purchasing system to sell prepackaged website templates to (you guessed it!) small business people. 3. Offering of customized work to people who don't have the money to buy it is a big mistake. That's why you don't see custom home builders targeting the entry-level, first-time homebuyer market. Reason: Those people usually don't have much money. But they're a prime market for those large, mass-produced "all the houses look the same" communities that were much reviled in Tom Lehrer's song, "Little Boxes." Or they do what I did, and buy fixer-upper specials. And let me tell you something about buying a fixer. It will indeed need fixing. (In fact, as I write this, I'm waiting for Tom the Handyman to show up to make a couple of repairs.) When you call the various tradespeople out to do your house repairs, they are going to charge you whatever they feel they need to charge in order to do the job. They're not going to cut you any sort of deal because you're a struggling small business person. And don't even bother asking for such a deal. Because the next thing you'll see is your trades guy or gal getting back into the truck and driving away. Web designers would do well to value their work in the same fashion. Martha Retallick http://www.westernskycommunications.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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "...within the heart of man there are bridges extending to the infinite in all directions. The heart is the gateway to the eternal..." - Manly Palmer Hall |
