| LED Digest 2336: Domain Name Hoarding |
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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 .............................................. January 30, 2007 Issue no. 2336 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== <Moderator Comment> ~ Our 10th Year "The LED officially turned 10 years old on Sunday!" --== Domain Name Hoarding ==-- ~ Marsha Kopan "I've even asked him to tell me a purchase price and got no response." --== Google's Daily Data Refresh ==-- ~ Kevin Condon "Is it safe to change your site?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Alternatives to PayPal ==-- ~ Steve Pronger "The thing to remember is PayPal has over 100 million accounts." ~ Mary Findley "Nova deposits directly into my bank account usually within 2 to 3 business days." --== Presenting a Trustworthy Image ==-- ~ Phil Scimone "No seal...no business from me." ~ R. Neilson "Any website that only lists an e-mail for contact is an automatic red flag to me." --== Long Email Sig Files ==-- ~ Shel Horowitz "I use some 20 different sigs depending on context..." <Moderator Comment> =========== NEW ================================== <Moderator Comment> Wow, I almost let this slide by... The LED officially turned 10 years old on Sunday! The first issue of the LED was sent on January 28, 1997, with my dad (John Audette) moderating. Pretty amazing run so far. Here's to another 10 years :) Have a great week, Adam ---------------------- From: Marsha Kopan Subject: Buying Domain Names Just for a Library I have a question about the purpose of hoarding domain names. About 2 years ago I took over the management of an international society. The previous administrator let go kicking and screaming. One of her screw ups was to not renew the client's domain name. They are currently using a back up. I contacted him directly by phone and email to see if I could purchase the domain name from him. He ignored my calls and emails. When I first discovered the problem the person who purchased the domain name also kept some of our proprietary (copyrighted) material. In order to get his attention I sent him a copyright infringement notice about our content. That he acknowledged by removing our content. However, he is still mildly implying that the site is my client's because the link names remain. However the site has junk links. I then went through "proper channels" to make an offer for the URL. He ignored the offer. I suspect it was too little, however I just don't understand why someone would want to own literally thousands of URLs if one didn't intend to sell them. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get this guy to respond to my inquiry? I've even asked him to tell me a purchase price and got no response. I've made requests by email and by phone. The guy is in NYC Marsha Kopan, IVAA CVA, CRESS, PL Executive Secretarial Services www.execsecsrv.com Delegate, don't stagnate. -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Kevin Condon Subject: Google Daily Data Refresh - is it safe to change your site? > Google has implemented a "daily data refresh" since > at least the end of November / beginning of December... - Michael Martinez, LED Digest 2330 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1718/55/ I refer to Michael Martinez comments on Google's "daily data refresh" that has been operating since around November. I have experienced what appears to be this effect and one of the outcomes it seems to me is that if you make change to your web pages, you risk the whole of your ranking in Google. I am sure this is not what Google intend as it will create moribund sites but let me tell you why I think this is so. During November and early December, I noted that if I made any changes to our index page in particular, we could suddenly disappear off page 1 and end up page 3. Our site - jazzles.com - has traditionally held the No 1 spot for alphabet songs for the last five years - so from 1 to 37 was disappointing. I discovered that if I restored the original page quickly enough I would get it back. (This was noted by John Smart, LED Digest 2329 http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1717/55/.) This happened a couple of times. For Christmas I instituted a new seasonal offer which I took off last week. In the process, I added one new paragraph on our index - ensuring key words. Over the next couple of days our site soared with Google - usually contributing 40% of traffic converting over 50%. Our index page was No1 as were other pages like 'fish songs' which we used Google No 1 on for a short time but failed to maintain. I can not say it was because of minor new content - I think we were just doing really well across Google. Emboldened, I made a simple change to all my web pages of a new buy me button as a direct link from our shopping cart. In the process, I deleted the alt= image description from my own jpegs. Next day - WIPE OUT. Our index page appears to have disappeared from Google. Their traffic to our site is down 80%. I restored the index page 3 days ago, but unfortunately it needed a new file date. The other 120 pages, I removed the linked buy_me button yesterday to go back to me previous hosted buy-me images and we shall see what happens. These are the only changes made - really small. We do not use link farms and I can think of no reason why this could happen. So far no recovery - in fact we appear to be still going down the Google abyss! It could be other factors but it appears directly related to the times of change. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Kevin Condon www.jazzles.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Steve Pronger Subject: Paypal alternatives > Be *very* careful when you start reading posts on > a site such as paypalsucks.com and don't believe > everything you read or at least take it with a grain of salt. - Tom Aman, LED Digest 2334 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1728/55/ I have to agree with Tom. If you read through some of the posts on that site the majority of them appear to involve ebay transactions and fraud. As Tom says, there are two sides to every story. One post I read involved a merchant whose store processed a high volume of sales and he run into problems using PayPal's *free* API. Clearly, what this guy needed was a full merchant account and payment gateway right from the start. For some sites PayPal is a logical choice. For others, it isn't. The thing to remember is PayPal has over 100 million accounts. Pick any company with that many customers and it won't be hard to find someone with a tale of woe. I'm not suggesting that they don't screw up or sometimes have less than stellar customer service. I'm sure they do. Personally, I've never had a problem. But, no one's ever tried to pay me with a stolen credit card. Given the service I provide, that's unlikely because I usually have an established relationship with my customers before I invoice them. If you're selling a laptop to a stranger on ebay - different story. > Does anyone have suggestions on an alternative to PayPal? - Susie Redfern, LED Digest 2331 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1720/55/ Susie, if your site is selling an info-product then Clickbank is a good alternative. Your product does have to be downloadable immediately after purchase in order to use Clickbank. Your customers can still pay by PayPal if they wish, as PayPal is offered as an option during the Clickbank checkout process. Plus you get an instant commissioned sales force to sell your product. But to be honest, I found it a little bit hard to determine exactly what it was you were selling. I'd certainly want to know a lot more before I clicked on that PayPal link. Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Mary Moppins Subject: Paypal alternatives Hi Susie, You are not alone in your frustration with PayPal. I was with them for about a year and bowed out quickly. My credit card system ever since has been through Nova Systems which I started through Costco. Costco is a large warehouse type store. Nova deposits directly into my bank account usually within 2 to 3 business days. I believe to purchase a machine is now up around $400. They do have a computer program which I have in my laptop that I use when traveling. That would eliminate the need for the expensive machine. I have no monthly fees to pay but your monthly charges may have a bearing on that. They charge me 1.99% fee for standard cards and 2.99% for business cards plus a 28 cent per transaction fee. My lower volume of sales accounts for the higher rates but even at that they were cheaper than Pay Pal. Nova has never caused me to reach for a bottle of aspirin. When they update their system, they send you a letter telling you to call and schedule a time to adjust your system. They called to set up my system at home and spent all the time I needed to make sure I knew how to run it. They answer my phone question accurately and politely. Doing my own entry allows me flexibility to make adjustments for affiliate or distributor accounts, quantity purchases etc. When I started looking for a system like this, the banks had higher rates. If you have a warehouse club close to you, it might be worth a call. Good luck, Mary Findley Mary Moppins http://www.goclean.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Phil Scimone Subject: Trust I always check for a BBB seal before I would even consider doing business with an organization. The fact that I know how much it costs indicates to me if the organization is in for the long haul or in it to make a quick buck and gone tomorrow. No seal... no business from me. Sorry, I disagree that it is a waste of money. Regards, Phil Scimone www.orangetreeweb.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: R. Neilson Subject: Trust The quickest way to build trust in your website is list all of your contact information not just an e-mail. You should have name, address and phone number, fax numbers etc. where they can be found easily. Any website that only lists an e-mail for contact is an automatic red flag to me. It means they don't want customers to contact them or they are fly by night. This also applies to e-mails if there is not contact information in the e-mail or signature line other then e-mail I don't want to do business with that firm or individual. R. Neilson H. L. Supply www.hansons.net -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Shel Horowitz Subject: Sig files [In response to long signature files...] > When is it too much? Any 'rules' out there... or > am I totally wrong? Is this behavior acceptable? - Nancy Cardinali, LED Digest 2333 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1727/55/ The answer is, as so often, "it depends." I would think her long sig would be acceptable as a one-time communication with a new prospect, as it short-cuts a lot of stuff. But it would be deeply offensive in a discussion group where she posted to or three times a week. And let's face it, the tone is a bit over-the-top hypey. I use some 20 different sigs depending on context, and some of them are quite long. Such as this one, which is one of several that I use in communicating with reporters who don't know me: ------------------------ Shel Horowitz, Author, 6 books.... [22 lines removed for brevity] ------------------------ That's 22 lines on my screen, counting white spaces but not the divider lines. I use this sig, which would be absurdly long in other contexts, to establish my credibility as a source when writing to journalists who are getting dozens of responses to their requests for sources. It shows that I'm an experienced interviewee with some major clips and various books that the world takes seriously, that I'm familiar with the need to set up a press room, and that I know how to speak in sound bites. And in using sigs like that for nearly ten years, I have not gotten a single complaint that I can remember from any recipient. My sigs going after speaking gigs are also pretty long, and again no complaints. Yet I have been criticized on certain discussion lists for using an excessively long sig that was only seven or eight lines. At the other extreme, back in the days of I-Sales with its three-line sig limit (oh, Adam, BTW, 3-line sigs would be a wonderful addition that would foster cross-communication among LEDers off-list) -- I developed nine variations emphasizing different parts of my business in as concise a manner as possible. This is one example (the custom on I-Sales was not to use divider lines): --------------- Shel Horowitz, copywriter/speaker/consultant 413-586-2388 Books: Grassroots Marketing http://www.frugalmarketing.com Principled Profit http://www.principledprofit.com --------------- In general, I usually do 4 to 6 lines for discussion groups, but 10 or 12 for general correspondence. Hope this helps, Shel Horowitz http://www.business-ethics-pledge.org <Moderator Comment> Shel and LEDers, Sigs 3 - 4 lines (sometimes longer) are allowed on the LED. I'm mostly concerned with keeping things uniform and readable, though, which is why sigs usually need to be shortened and edited; and of course keeping the content : sales hype ratio in check is always a priority. Actually this is a good time to publish a link to the official signature policy: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/39/79/#A9. Note that I definitely allow more leniency to frequent / quality posters. -Adam ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/120/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/77/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/86/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "I shall be as secret as the grave." - Miguel de Cervantes |
