| LED Digest 2272: Scraper Sites in the Online Ecosystem |
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Does Google consider scraper sites and the like a natural part of the online ecosystem? An informative post on both motivating your current clients and speaking to your potential clients. Practical tips on form spam and tracking. ================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. October 23, 2006 Issue no. 2272 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== <Moderator Comment> ~ Google's Web Optimizer "...is Google cornering the market on Web usage data?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== AdWords Arbitrage - How it Works ==-- ~ Ray Campbell "[Google] said...that scraper sites were legitimate parts of the online 'ecosystem'..." --== Motivating Clients ==-- ~ Michael Linehan "...people never buy your service: they buy their *perception* of your service." --== Tracking Clicks ==-- ~ Cayley Vos "...you can use this excellent ad software." ~ Adam Boettiger "Set up a server-side redirect..." ~ John Smart "So I would link to a PHP file..." --== Junk Mail from Contact Forms ==-- ~ Mark Whitman "...I would try recoding the IP address of everyone who submits the form..." ~ Wes Hopper "I added some brief code to the PHP script that tests for HTML links..." ~ Jim King "I encoded the path to the CGI script on my contact page in Unicode..." --== Publishing Text Content as Images ==-- ~ Will Bontrager "...hiding text with external JavaScript files is another option..." ~ Tom Anson "...keyword density really isn't an issue for rankings anymore." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== PR Auction - Breast Cancer Awareness ==-- ~ Anthony Kirlew ========== NEW =================================== <Moderator Comment> We recently had a discussion of Taguchi multivariate testing (see issues 2244-2248: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/5/28/55/20/20/ ). Now Google is offering multivariate testing with their "Web Optimizer" service aimed at improving conversion rates... http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/ . It appears an AdWords account is required before you can use the service. With their XML sitemap service (called "Webmaster Tools"), their analytics service, AdSense, AdWords, and now this conversion optimization service, is Google cornering the market on Web usage data? What sort of possibilities does access to this information open up for them? Have a great week, Adam ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Ray Campbell Subject: AdWords arbitrage [Re: "How AdWords Arbitrage Works," LED Digest 2270 http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1257/55/ ] Arbitrage and scraper sites are two different things. Arbitrage exists in all economic markets, and will exist in online economic markets, whether we like it or not. If Microsoft sells the same keyword way cheaper than Google or Yahoo, someone will buy it on Microsoft and and "sell" it on Google ad or Yahoo YPN pages. If PPC long tail terms are way cheap compared to the revenue that can be gained by sending searchers for those terms to affiliate sites, someone is going to buy those terms and send them to an affiliate sites. It tends to be a PPC phenomenon, since PPC can be turned on and off instantaneously, but if the imbalance is long lived enough you will see it in organic as well. The sites created to collect this revenue may or may not be terrible sites, and may or may not be a burden on the internet. It's just the market at work, and like all markets it can lead to good or bad things. Scraper sites are quite different. Scraper sites are autogenerated mishmashes where content is pulled from other folks' sites or search results, and served back up to the Google spiders. Generally, the folks running these sites point a bunch of links at them (many spammed into forums or blog comments) to give them some weight with Google. As a general rule, they make their money from Google ads. The amazing thing is that Google doesn't shut these down, because it ruins their SERPS. On the other hand, they make a bunch of money off them when people click on the ads. It's not clear to me that Google wants to shut them down. Kim Malone, who runs the Google ad business, had an interview on WebmasterRadio.fm. Pushed on the issue, she said (and I'm paraphrasing) that scraper sites were legitimate parts of the online 'ecosystem.' She certainly did not say, "We are hunting them down and killing them as fast as we can." I suppose so long as Google sees them as part of the ecosystem, we can just expect to keep seeing sites, scraping our content, serving it back up to Google, and Google passing it along while taking a share of the revenue. Ray Campbell -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: Motivating Current and Prospective Clients > This brings up a good question - how DO you get clients > to do things that are good for them? ... If you've have any > success in this, please provide concrete suggestions or > real-life stories. Look at it as official sanction to brag. - Beth Earle, LED Digest 2269 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1252/55/ Well Beth, I think you've gone straight to one of the core questions, not only for us, but for anyone in coaching, therapy, academics, parenting, and many other fields of human endeavor! Dina [Beach Lynch, issue 2270] was right on the button with "People act in their own self interest" and "Sometimes it's a fear instead of a desire that can be the trouble." And again, Dina made a critical point with, "Try to remember that your clients are responsible for the ultimate outcome not you." You can only offer your very best. If they don't want it, that's their problem, and their loss. I'd also like to offer a few more ideas. I may be way off for you, but here is my take on motivating business owners. I obviously don't presume to know how you talk to prospective clients and clients. But maybe what I'm saying about "most business owners" has some usefulness for you. Key in this is that people never buy your service: they buy their PERCEPTION of your service. And you have ENORMOUS control over that perception. Frankly, most business owners fall down badly in this area. They hold back from articulating everything, and from saying it in language that is inspiring, educational and captivating. My experience is that earlier in my life, I was a bit more tentative when speaking with anyone. I would let out my conviction, intensity, interest or excitement in small doses - observing the other person's reaction - let out a little more - and so on. Trouble is, it just takes way too way long! By the time I might be getting around to saying anything substantial, most prospective clients have already gone to sleep, wandered off to meet someone else, or said, "Thanks very much. I'll think about it" (which they usually won't). Or I'd get to say the words of my message, but it would all be let out so carefully that there would be little emotion and, therefore, little impact. Explain ALL of your benefits thoroughly and in plain language. (Most business owners do not do this.) Distinguish yourself dramatically from your competition. (Most business owners do not do this.) People want solutions, i.e. quality advice not just information. They want to hear, "Here's what to do and here's why." Give them the gift of your leadership and expert assistance. Show them both the emotional and rational reasons why dealing with you is absolutely the best, logical thing to do. (Here's a good one ---- If YOU were on the receiving end, why would you want to take advantage of your offer? Ask yourself... 'So what?') I do all this myself and can attest to the enormously greater effectiveness when speaking with a prospective client. For every one who might be taken aback by my intensity, there are twenty who respond along the lines of, "Wow! That sounds great." And finally, there is enormous power in not caring. (HUH!?) What I mean is that if you are talking to a prospect and inside you are feeling anxious and thinking, "Oh, I need this. I'm not having a very good month. Pleeeeease hire me", you are pretty much doomed. They can feel that. And if they get any hint that you NEED the sale in that way, they'll think you mustn't be very good. On the other hand, if you are thinking, "I don't really care whether you hire me or not - I barely have any time to fit you in. I'm offering you something really great. If you want it, great. If you don't want it, that is totally OK, too", you are in a much better position to make that sale. So whether you are having your best month or not, being in the second attitude will make it better! Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy www.marketing-alchemy.com -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Cayley Vos Subject: Tracking clicks > I have a non-commercial web site that someone > wants to [advertise] on... How can I track how many > people click on his banner / link to his web site? - Rob Forker, LED Digest 2271 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1261/55/ If you have PHP / MySQL enabled on your server you can use this excellent ad software. It is a bit overkill for 1 ad, but it works well: http://phpadsnew.com/two/index.html Cayley Vos http://netpaths.net -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Adam Boettiger Subject: Tracking Link Clicks Free option #1: Set up a server-side redirect and review your server logs weekly or monthly to determine exit traffic via that link. Most web hosts will allow you to easily set up as many server-side redirects as you want or need. Free option #2: Install an open-source ad-serving script like PHPAdsNew http://phpadsnew.com/two/ and create it as a link campaign. Also: Many others available. Try before you pay any money: http://www.google.com/search?q=link+tracker Finally, after a couple of years in Cryogenic Freeze, I just defrosted I-Advertising (http://www.i-advertising.com/), which is an online community for advertising and marketing professionals I founded way back in 1996 in the days of I-Sales. I-Advertising 2.0 includes a searchable knowledgebase of questions and answers specific to advertising and marketing. I'll probably be reviewing link tracking programs there after I have time to test a few. Join at http://www.i-advertising.com/subscriptions/. HTH Adam Boettiger I-Advertising http://www.i-advertising.com/ adam, i-advertising.com -------- new post - same topic --------- From: John Smart Subject: Tracking-clicks The usual way is to redirect the link. So I would link to a PHP file (easy to do in any language, PHP is my one of choice -- ASP, CFM, PL can all oblige here). <.a href="bannertracker.php"><.img src="banner.jpg"/><./a> ... then bannertracker.php would contain something like: <.?php # A bit of code to either e-Mail you news that someone has hit the link, or add it to a database or flat file # A bit of code to send the person where they want to go: header ('Location: http://www.banner.owners.site.com'); exit; ?> So the link links to a page on your site, allowing either custom tracking as detailed above, or simple stats tracking (remove the code to add to database or flat file, then every time someone clicks on the link, another 'hit' will score against the PHP file, showing you in your stats how many people clicked the banner. I hope that helps, John Smart InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Mark Whitman Subject: Form junk > ... someone has come up with a piece of software > that automatically fills out my contact us forms online > and submits them. Now I get emails coming through > my CGI script that are full of ads. - Mark Frank, LED Digest 2270 I haven't dealt with this problem (I get zero spam) so I don't know how effective this really is but I would try recoding the IP address of everyone who submits the form. When you get spamed, program your script to reject submissions from the spammers IP address. If the spammer is sophisticated this may not work but it's worth a try if no one else comes up with something more bulletproof. M.Whitman -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Wes Hopper Subject: Form junk Thanks to the previous posters for some very good information on this topic. I've dealt with it on several of my sites and have two simple remedies that seem to work well. First, to prevent hijacking of the forms by spammers I have created forms in which ALL the fill-in information goes into the message body, including the sender's email address. No $mailheader access is provided through the form. Second, I added some brief code to the PHP script that tests for HTML links in the message body and gives an error if there are. This has stopped the form spam to me. For now, anyway. Thanks to LED for keeping us up to date on these issues. Wes Hopper http://www.dailygratitude.com -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Jim King Subject: Junk Mail from Contact Forms I encoded the path to the CGI script on my contact page in Unicode and all my contact form spam disappeared. Although I'm not sure about the exact mechanism, apparently the harvest robot chokes on the Unicode. There is no impact on the legitimate user since the browser automatically decodes the link. Online Unicode generator here... http://www.mailtoprotector.com/ Jim King -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Will Bontrager Subject: Text as images > I wanted to ask if it will be a good idea to turn > some text into an image (text that is general info > and hardly has keywords in it)... - Baruch Avraham, LED Digest 2269 While I am unable to say whether or not hiding certain text from spiders to manipulate keyword density is a good idea, my personal sense of ethics wouldn't let me do it. However, there might be other reasons for hiding certain text from spiders. Therefore, I want to mention that hiding text with external JavaScript files is another option for as long as spiders don't parse JavaScript. JavaScript is easier to edit than is text in an image. Will Bontrager http://willmaster.com/ -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Text as images Hi Baruch and other LEDers, In my opinion (which clearly isn't worth as much as some of the others in this group), it is better to stay away from using graphics for text unless the design of the site (with the user's needs in mind) would be better served with a font style that is not commonly available on other computers. For one thing, if the text is enough to matter at all with the search engines (in terms of keyword concentration), it is likely enough that the viewer would like to have some control over it. This includes sizing options, but a lot of people like to highlight text as they read online. Another consideration is that some people don't have graphics turned on. For them, the text would simply be unavailable. If that doesn't matter, why have the text on the page at all? unless it's just a design element. Lastly, I think I've heard that keyword density really isn't an issue for rankings anymore. The way pages are indexed now, everything on the page is included, so density just doesn't matter. It's more important to have keywords in the headings. Hope this helps. Tom Anson Anson Aromatic Essentials http://www.therapeutic-grade.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Anthony Kirlew Subject: PR Auction - Breat Cancer Awareness I wanted to let the LED'ers know about a PR Auction that we are holding in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The winner will receive a PR campaign and most of the proceeds (at least 80% depending on our costs) will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. This is a great opp for a company to get some good PR by earning the winning bid. Here is a link to the info: http://www.theprauction.com Thanks in advance for letting me share Adam. Anthony Kirlew Web Traffic Team www.webtrafficteam.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2006 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "History keeps her secrets longer than most of us. But she has one secret that I will reveal to you tonight in the greatest confidence. Sometimes there are no winners at all. And sometimes nobody needs to lose." - John Le Carre |
