| LED Digest 2284: Web Editor Recommendations? |
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================================================== 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 .............................................. November 8, 2006 Issue no. 2284 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== HTML Editors ==-- ~ Mary Findley "What program do you recommend?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Web Accelerator and Traffic Stats ==-- ~ Tom Aman "Suddenly I am very aware of just how big the pages on some sites have become." --== Shopping Wish List Feature ==-- ~ Eva Rosenberg "Why not go directly to the source? WishList.com!" --== Click Fraud ==-- ~ Karl L. Baldwin "...Miva, Kanoodle and Enhance made me jump through hoops to get any information..." ~ Michael Motherwell "...some click fraud can't be stopped by the SE, but can be stopped by the site owner..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Domain Name Theft ==-- ~ John Smart ========== NEW =================================== From: Mary Moppins Subject: Website Editors Hi Leders, Does anyone know a good website editor? I just do not have the time to learn HTML since my company keeps me busy and away from home. I need an editor to make changes on my website that is easy to use yet offers various editing abilities such as working with RSS feeds and possibly preparing articles to submit to the press. I understand that Editwrx is beginning to have problems "breaking" since servers are reconfiguring their php.ini files to increase security. Is there an editing program like Editwks that can circumvent this problem? When I've tried to use the Control Panel for my website I keep having problems with the pictures and whole pages disappearing or strange letters cropping up. It has been a headache. Without a doubt it is my lack of knowledge that causes the problem so that is why I'm looking for an easy to use editor. What program do you recommend? I'm not necessarily looking for a free program because I find that paid programs supply far more options and stability. I need a good dependable program. Thank you! Mary Findley, Owner Mary Moppins www.goclean.com Co-author, "The Complete Idiots Guide to Cleaning" ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Tom Aman Subject: Web Accelerator > Google's new accelerator threatens to invalidate all traffic > data. The accelerator pre-fetches web pages to your browser > so, when you click on links, pages will appear immediately. > It means a lot of pages will be prefetched that are never viewed. - Shaun Johnston, LED Digest 2283 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1320/55/ Think about the significance of the accelerator. To quote from Google's site, "Dial-up users may not see much improvement, as Google Web Accelerator is currently optimized to speed up web page loading for broadband connections." Do you think, just maybe, too many pages are too big (where "big" means the total number of bytes of text + the total number of bytes in images + the total bytes resulting from other bells and whistles)??? Do too many pages use too many graphics? Do too many pages use graphics that have not been optimized (an optimizer can reduce an image file's size by as much as 50% without much loss of quality)? Do too many pages contain too many bells and whistles? When an operation the size of Google sees a need for an accelerator optimized for broadband and they are getting enough downloads to make continued development worth their while, maybe it is time for Web sites to reconsider their designs and do something about reducing page sizes. I had been using a broadband connection since 1996 and I know that some sites were still slow to load (probably an overloaded server that was never intended to send out so much data). A month ago I had to move (personal reasons) and we have ended up in a lovely location with a view of a lake and many other good things. About the only downside to this move was that broadband is not available (except via satellite, but the cost is a bit prohibitive) so I have had to fall back to a dialup connection. Suddenly I am very aware of just how big the pages on some sites have become. I did many of my address changes online and, for one of the sites, it took over 20 minutes to finally get to the page where I could submit the actual change - big pages, the necessary page was 4 levels down from the home page and the navigation was not particularly intuitive so I ended up several times having to backtrack. On thing I did run across was on the Canada Post site (see http://www.canadapost.ca/segment-e.asp). On dialup, their site is relatively slow to load (graphics, again) but I noticed a link at the bottom of the page that said "Text Only". Very fast to load, even on dialup, and, in many ways, much simpler to navigate and to locate information. Seems that Canada Post has realized the need for fast loading sites for dialup users as they have duplicated much of their site with "Text Only" pages. I wish other sites would follow their example. Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Eva Rosenberg Subject: Wishlist > We need a wish list that will work independently of our shopping > cart. Any suggestions on free or reasonably priced software to use? - A. Brantley, LED Digest 2283 Why not go directly to the source? WishList.com! They have already created the ideal wishlist program for retailers to add to their sites. http://wishlist.com/company/for_retailers.htm I don't know the cost - but don't see one listed. These are the folks who bought up my site - My WishList years ago. Eva Rosenberg TaxMama.com - A daily cure for your tax blues http://www.taxtwist.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Karl Baldwin Subject: Click fraud I concur completely with Mary Johnson's appraisal of Kanoodle, Miva and Enhance [see issue 2281: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1301/55/]. I too have been blown off the multiple times I have contacted customer support on any of them. Not one of them will tell me where my ads were appearing. About a year ago I set up a proxy server from a company that I don't recall, which recorded the click data and the IP address of the clicker, and then sent them on to my website. The program on the proxy server was then able to identify a huge number of "suspicious" clicks. The program even created a refund request that included the pertinent data which I then sent to the proper PPC company. Google and Overture's filters apparently work very well as they did not charge for the clicks that I found to be suspicious. On the other hand, Miva Kanoodle and Enhance made me jump through hoops to get any information or refunds, which were nowhere near the dollar amount for those fraudulent clicks. OH, and for Miva to "investigate" they had to disable my ads for 7 days. For the last two months I set up my own type of test. I have set up identical PPC accounts with the same keywords on 6 search engines, the aforementioned plus MSN. I set all the daily spending caps at $25 dollars. Kanoodle is the worst in that my daily cap has been reached every day between 2:30 AM and 3:15 AM. My daily spend cap on Google, Overture and MSN aren't used up until noon or later! What's an additional curiosity is that my log files, for the month of October, had only one visitor from Kanoodle. I have been exchanging several emails with Jim Jacka (Client Services Representative Kanoodle) about this curious disparity in burn rates, considering that Kanoodle has nowhere near the amount of traffic as the big dogs. Here is what he had to say in his last email; -------------------- "Our Traffic and Accounting Departments are looking into your account and as soon as I hear back from them, I will be able to let you know where your account stands. Generally a review can take about 10 business days." -------------------- Right; I can hardly wait. Best Regards, Karl L. Baldwin MountainLodging http://www.mountain-lodging.com Vacation Cabin Rental Listing Service -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Motherwell Subject: Bogus Clicks > Let me share my personal experience with > click fraud. It does exist and I can prove it. - Mary Johnson, LED Digest 2281 It does indeed exist, and that has never, and will never, be in doubt. I think people confuse the black and white of does it exist with the grey of "and then what". Once past the point of debating if it exists, the "and then what" debate is one that is much harder to be certain about. That is evident by the almost complete lack of detail from those that claim "it must be stopped". When people focus on the "we are being wronged and it needs to stop" rather than the "how do we get the best outcome", I get very annoyed, because it what we want is the most fair system, and I could (can and will) make a strong case that this isn't a blanket stopping of all "click fraud" as many people think of it. Sure, it is very easy to get upset about paying too much, which is usually the focus of click fraud comments, but emotion doesn't make it easier to find a positive, productive outcome for all concerned. Let's focus there instead of on fear mongering (not that the quote above did, just to be clear). > There are 2 types of click fraud. There's organised, mass clicking > by humans or robots. Google ought to be able to detect that... - Barry Mills, LED Digest 2281 How? If they "ought to", then you must know HOW they ought to. So, please, tell me :) I think it is harder than people think, because the thresholds need to be precise. Mass, thousands of clicks an hour can be detected, or should be. But one click every four hours? What about one per day? Where is the line, how do we get there, and what point is no longer profitable, to all parties, to detect? Because to be honest, if the minimum cost of clicks rises to, say, $0.30, that would ^%$^%$ me off much more than the odd click that is "fraudulent" (which we still haven't defined BTW). > What surprises me is all the talk of advertisers losing > and Google gaining. I don't think so, not in most cases. > PPC is a "perfect market" and if fraudulent clicks were > reduced, the value of clicks would go up, bids would > follow, and equilibrium would be restored. Exactly what Eric Schmidt said, and got hounded for, and that I agree with to a large degree. [see http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/07... for Google's official response to the media blitz on Schmidt's comments. -ed] Unfortuantely, click fraud isn't a standardised problem, with some accounts receiving more fraud than others. I think that needs to be remembered when the "30% click fraud" stuff is proclaimed. Averages mean nothing, like this old joke shows: two statisticians are out hunting. A duck takes off, and they both shoot. One shoot is a metre low, the other a metre high. The two statisticians turn to each other and yell "we hit"! I personally think that some click fraud can't be stopped by the SE, but can be stopped by the site owner by scaring people. If your competitor clicks on your ads regularly, which is almost impossible to detect for an SE because the pattern is to small, a simple JavaScript message that they have clicked XYZ times in a month, and that their IP Address has been logged to forward to police to check for fraud etc etc, that might stop that sort of (I would say semi-common) occurence. > As an advertiser, I'm more worried about the PPC ads on > irrelevant parked domain names than I am about bogus clicks. I think we need to seperate click fraud into two categories: proper search PPC and content stuff. The content stuff is a whole 'nuther kettle of fish, IMHO, and is separate, or at least should be, from the search stuff. The best way to stop AdSense et al fraud is simply not to bid on content match, or to do so at significantly reduced bids that are tracked separately from the search ads. That would go a long way to reducing such fraud, and even further towards reducing the problems fraud from one type has on the other. Michael Motherwell ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: John Smart Subject: Domain Name Theft My e-Mail address is associated to about all of the domains we manage (to protect clients from spam in days gone by). I got a post from lnoa.com saying that one of my clients should "click here" to complete transfer of domain. I thought it odd that a client would move to a more expensive registrar, given our existing relationship, so I called to check. My client had never heard of this company, and does not want to move anywhere else (hosting or domain management). For those who do manage client domains, you may want to warn your clients. One of the messages looked like a receipt, and said that $40 had been paid. A lie. Don't you miss the good old days where the bad guy just wore a black hat, or carried a swag bag? John Smart InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World ------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "There is near-universal consensus that the melting is due to global warming, though the Bush administration counters that the ice caps are not melting; rather, the water has been liberated." - John Stewart |
