| LED Digest 1515: Competing with SEO Spammers |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest ................................................. February 11, 2003 Issue #1515 ................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ===== NEW ====================== --== Competing with SEO Spammers ==-- ~ Mick Force "Is there a way to spot those who may be cheating and is it appropriate to report [them]?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Outsourcing Web Development ==-- ~ Mark Laing "Low price and value...are not always the same thing." ~ Kathy Wilson Anderson "One additional consideration...is language differences..." ~ Mark Brownlow "...look at all the pros and cons...and make a decision based on diligent research..." --== Techniques for Publishing Contact Info ==-- ~ Jackie Monticup "There is nothing like looking at all relevant emails in your business inbox!" ===== GEEK TIPS ================== --== Alternative to Macromedia Contribute? ==-- ~ Bridget Martin ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Domain Registration Encore ==-- ~ A Brantley ~ Ivan Jimenez ~ Carlos Martinho ======= NEW ===================================== From: Mick Force Subject: Competing with SE spammers I am new to SE marketing and am in the process of optimizing my companies web site for maximum placement. In doing so I am noticing some competitors that are consistently in the top positions but are relatively new to the industry that we are in. Since beginning the effort last December I have dramatically improved our SE results but am still shooting for first page / top ten placement. I applaud any company that has earned top placement with a well designed site and legitimate optimizing practices but suspect that others may be using unfair tactics (spamming). I am not implying that these sites are doing any wrong but I can't help but be curious about how some of them are getting the results that they are getting. Also, I am very much open to hiring a reputible SE Marketing company to help in our efforts but am a little concerned that they may use less than ethical methods on our behalf. Is there a way to spot those who may be cheating and if so is it appropriate to report the ones who are? P.S. This digest has been invaluable in my efforts. Mick Force, Web Developer Handicomp, Inc. ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Mark Laing Subject: Outsourcing I've been watching the posts re: outsourcing with interest. Running a Canadian based firm with more American clients than domestic ones, I am sympathetic to Steve Pronger's comments (issue 1514). While we, like the Australians, have a weaker dollar and a slightly lower cost of living that that found in the U.S., my experience is that price is not the reason we are attracting and retaining U.S. clients (in fact, we have been beaten on price by American firms on more than one occasion). Service and ability to meet their needs is. It has been my experience that, as far as advertising and marketing goes, a Canadian, Australian or Briton is not really worlds apart from an American. In a global context, the differences are negligible compared to the differences between a North American consumer and a consumer in, say, Bangladesh. I would argue that instead of looking at the whole outsourcing topic in the context of the U.S. against the rest of the world, it might be useful to keep in mind that the bigger issue is probably designers and content creators from industrialized nations competing against those from less industrialized nations. I guess we're facing what workers in the textile and other industries have been dealing with for years. Which brings me to another point. Is graphic design (web or print) just a matter of creating pretty pictures, or is it something a little more complex? A web designer in Eastern Europe or India may be able to do great technical work at a fraction of the price charged by North American, Australian, NZ or Western European firms, but can they create a site (or brochure) that will sell to consumers in Kalamazoo, Liverpool or Melbourne? That is the question a firm might want to ask before they start focusing on the price. Low price and value for your money are not always the same thing. Mark Laing Graphicsandwords www.graphicsandwords.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Kathy Wilson Anderson Subject: Outsourcing One additional consideration about outsourcing to an offshore company is language differences and the difficulties that this can cause. One of my friends who has ties in India decided to have her website done in that country. The website has a shopping cart with over 10,000 items on it. Both she and her employee on this side, who was inputting the information to the people in India, called me on several occasions because they didn't understand what the India people were saying. The people in India didn't have the expertise with our language to be able to converse about the most simple of exchanges. Nor did my friend have the expertise with their language to understand what they were saying. I've had experience trying to understand what a tech support person who lived in Thailand was saying to me about a hosting problem I was having. The hosting company had outsourced their tech support to an offshore company and those people no doubt were highly qualified technologically. But it was of no good to me because I couldn't understand what they were saying. The people who sell you their offshore services may speak your language flawlessly, but you may not be dealing with them when it comes time to have the work done. One solution to this issue is to ask if you can speak to the person with whom you will be working, before you sign on for their services. The other solution is to outsource only to countries where you speak the language fluently. Kathy Wilson Anderson http://www.under-one-roof.net ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Mark Brownlow Subject: Outsourcing > ... what's the point [in outsourcing], except to > show everyone that you can't afford to hire local, > more inventive and better talent. - Bob Harrington, LED 1513 Ouch! Given the economic and educational circumstances prevailing in places like India, I'd respectfully suggest that their inventiveness, resourcefulness and self-reliance is way better than mine, who as a westerner had everything served up on a plate. Every population and region has its talent and its wasters. For those considering any business choice, it's incumbent to look at all the pros and cons, gather references and testimonials and make a decision based on diligent research and your own circumstances, not on generalizations. Mark Brownlow email-marketing-reports.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Jackie Monticup Subject: Publishing contact info > If you really must ignore this and use a form, include > an email as well... never build a business website > without a straight forward email address. - Jonathan Webb, LED 1514 Jonathan Webb's suggestion is a good one, but does not go far enough. The danger of posting a straightforward email address on your website is that webbots will be able to automatically find your address and add it to thousands of spam mailing lists. While you may be helping your customers who prefer to email you, you will also be inundated with unwanted email. Here's the solution we use: We have a single page with all of our contact information on it (direct phone number, address, fax, etc.). Every page on our site has a link to that contact page. The contact page also has a link to several forms, each form dealing with a specific issue (order problem, support issue, etc.). In addition, the contact page also shows a straightforward email address, but it is not clickable. The email address is actually an image. The customer can see the address and can type it into his or her email program to send us a regular email, if that is the way he or she wants to communicate. However, the webbots cannot read the email from the image, and our email is not added to the spam lists. To also cut the spam to a trickle, we came up with a handy solution using email aliases. If you have your own domain, this is no problem to set up. Our hosting company allows us to have unlimited email aliases. Here's how it works: rather than use a single email address for all correspondence and also every time we sign up for a newsletter or make an online purchase, we set up an email address specific to the activity we are using the email for. An example: when registering with Dell after buying a computer recently, we set up an email alias for the email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it When setting the alias, you determine where you want mail to that alias forwarded so that you only have to look in one mailbox for all your mail. Let's say we have This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it forwarded to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it If we sign up for a newsletter at Great Deals,com, we would create an alias for This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it and have mail going to that address forwarded to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it You don't have to give each and every event its own email; for events that you think will be one-time occasions, you can use an email like This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it and forward that to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Now, when you get spam, take a look at the header. If you are getting spam that's addressed to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , you know that Great Deals has sold your name - and you can simply delete This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it from your aliases to stop the spam. All of your other clean email contacts remain unaffected; you will continue to get the emails you want and you can turn off the spam only from the offending addresses. This works like - magic! We began using this system back in September, and went from more than 500 spams a day down to 0 immediately. When spam eventually does begin to leak through, we simply deleted the contaminated address and the spam was stopped. Yes, it takes a few minutes of time here and there to set up an email alias when you are registering for something, but it sure saves time and aggreavation in the long run. There is nothing like looking at all relevant emails in your business inbox! Jackie Monticup MagicTricks.com http://www.magictricks.com ===== GEEK TIPS =================================== From: Bridget Martin Subject: Alternative to Macromedia Contribute Hi All, I have downloaded Macromedia Contribute and was very excited about it until I tried to connect to a web server over a LAN. I couldn't get connected and went to the users forum to see that this is a big problem. Tech support say that CT and Dreamweaver are not designed to work over a proxy server. Many of our clients would like to update their web sites quickly without leaning and purchasing Dreamweaver or similar and I thought this would be the solution, but many of them access the web over a network. Does anyone have experience of similar software that will allow you to make changes off-line first, get approval from the boss and then publish online? And around the same price as contribute, at the moment $99! Thanks in advance Bridget Martin ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: A Brantley Subject: Domain Renewal > Our domain is up for renewal at Network Solutions... > To whom should we go for registration that is fast, > accurate and competitively priced? - Don Johnson, LED 1512 No doubt there will be some who disagree, but we have been very happy with GoDaddy and subsequently have moved all our domain registrations there. For the price of one year renewal, you often can find a bonus at GoDaddy that will give you two years renewal. They offer free domain redirect, which is a definite plus. Email options are available for a nominal fee. Control panel makes managing the domains easy and painless. They update the DNS faster than any other registor we have used. Granted, we are "small potatoes" compared to many businesses, but our 30 domain names are all at GoDaddy. Good luck! A Brantley http://epaganauction.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Ivan J. Jimenez Subject: Domain registration In the past, our best experiences have been with Network Solutions -- we've tried many of the bigger names and boy do we regret it! Recently however, we started using http://www.imcdomains.com It's only been about a year and a half but everything has been much, much better. None of the problems that have been listed in previous LEDs. Give them a try. All the best, ivan j. jimenez, business development cosmicbreath.com marketing group ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Carlos Martinho Subject: Domain registration Hi Don, I had similar problems and I found Dotster ( http://www.dotster.com/ ) as a very good solution. You pay just $14.95 /year for new domains and I just saw that they are charging, till February 28th, only $8.95 on all .COM-.NET-.ORG transfers (see page at http://web.dotster.com/specials/transfer.php). There are out there cheaper registrars but I'm with Dotster about 3 years and never had a single problem. My last transfer from Register.com to Dotster was on December and it was very fast: Two days! Carlos Martinho awesomereports.com ------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995-2003 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Powder snow isn't fun, it's life." |
