| LED Digest 2611: Who Controls Your Domain? |
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The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom http://www.AudetteMedia.com : the LED's Publisher Boutique Internet Marketing: SEO, SEM, Social Media http://www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 20, 2008 Issue no. 2611 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Evading Email Harvesters ==-- ~ Erik Perkins "How well, if at all, do the little email masking tricks work these days?" --== Hosting & Registrar Issues ==-- ~ Michael Linehan "I'd like to send a few words out across the land about who has control of your domain." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Retail Product Management ==-- ~ R. Neilson "Save money and speed up the process by doing all of your own photos." --== Domain Parking ==-- ~ Ed Clark "Gimmicks, fraud, deceit. I guess these are all problems of any business." ~ Chris Nielsen "We have over 600 domains now..." ========= NEW ===================================== From: Erik Perkins Subject: Evading Email Harvesting Spiders How well, if at all, do the little email masking tricks work these days? I used to use ascii to mask an email address in a mailto link. (You can find a generator for those here, among other places: http://digitalcolony.com/lab/maskemail/maskEmailASCII.aspx) I'm now using ascii combined with a tiny bit of javascript, like this: <script language="JavaScript">eval(unescape('%64%6F%63%75%6D%65%...%71%75%69%72% 69%65%73%3C%2F%61%3E%27%29'))</script> In a browser (with more ascii characters where my elipsis is) it looks like a mailto link with the text "Wholesale Inquiries" and clicking it works just like any mailto link. In fact, when "mousing over" this link it appears to function exactly like a mailto link, with " This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it " appearing in the status bar. That got me wondering if these simple email masking methods work at all any more. If it works just like a mailto in a browser, then couldn't that information appear to a cleverly designed spider just as easily? I have formmail forms in other areas of my site, and I'm tempted to just remove all simple, clickable email links site-wide. However, my natural impulse is that users prefer a more straight-forward connection to the email recipient. I do. It just has a more honest feeling to me. For aesthetic reasons, I would prefer a link on a page to cluttering up the page with fields and buttons. I don't like the idea of a separate page with a contact form, as it adds another step for the user -and is another step away from the content of the site. Am I being too sensitive? What, if anything, are people doing to hide email addresses from spiders and bots without reducing the functionality of their sites? I'll be back here with the other lurkers. Thanks, Erik Perkins Liberty Graphics http://www.lgtees.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: Hosting and registration troubles... Following on from "Domain-parking" Chris Nielsen stated, "I understand the pain, but the word needs to go out across the land to educate domain owners about a few simple things." (LED 2609: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2024/190/ ) I'd like to send a few words out across the land (again), about who has control of your url and domain. This is similar to a previous post. But some of the issues about hosting, rates, who's reputable, etc. prod me to send this again. Right now, yet again, I'm helping someone whose site was registered by her web developer who refuses to give up control. He has thrown a hissy-fit and refuses any further contact. Well, we're proceeding in other ways, but --- it should never be necessary to have to deal with such matters at all!!! If you had a retail store, would you ever let your head carpenter, interior decorator or building contractor hold the lease? Obviously not. So why would you ever have the lease on your url held by your "online building contractor" - i.e. your web developer or designer? The justification that is given by reputable developers is that it saves the client a lot of bother and learning about some odds and ends that may come up in administering the registration or hosting. Sorry. Reasonable and thoughtful is it sounds, I believe this is no justification at all, any more than it would be if given by a building contractor offline. For a bricks-and-mortar store, any business owner would just bite the bullet and learn about leases and whatever municipal regulations they needed to know. You should do the same online. A lot of these problems about losing domains and so on cannot happen if *you* control your online business and learn a very few, very simple basics about registration and hosting. One last point - don't think that if there ever is a problem you can just go to the registrar, explain you are the real owner of the domain, and everything will be fine. Registrars vary widely in their responsiveness to this, and in having a procedure in place to correct any such inappropriate registrations. The one I'm dealing with now was stonewalling me by saying the old, "Sorry, but is far is the Internet is concerned, the person who registered the domain is the owner of the domain." So that says it, right there. Do you want to be in that position? In this case I said, "Look, you know this is not legitimate. This happens all the time. You clearly see this person is the real owner. If you are going to just stonewall on this, I am an Internet marketer... you wouldn't believe how far I'm going to spread this, etc. etc." I laid it on thick. And you know what is horrible --- then was when they said, "Well, let me speak to my supervisor and see if there's something we can do" --- and they gave me a procedure to correct the situation. But again, you would never have to do any of this, if you simply had the control of your url and hosting. Whatever you do, and whatever company you use, make sure the account at your registrar and at your host are YOUR accounts, with your name and contact information on them. And you reputable designer and developers, please consider changing your practice, however ethical and well-meaning you are. With all due respect, your honesty and ethics are not relevant. For example, the impeccable ethics of some realtor does not mean it is appropriate or logical for them to sign the mortgage on all their clients' houses. The owner of the business should own their url, hosting and site. Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy www.marketing-alchemy.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: R. Neilson Subject: Product management > We run several online clothing and > accessories stores and take our own > photography. We are finding the process of > managing new product additions to our > website very inefficient. - Alicia Allen, LED 2608 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2023/190/ Save money and speed up the process by doing all of your own photos. You shouldn't need a graphic designer. If you are sending the photos to them you can easily get a simple program like Microsoft picture it and do all your own photos cropping and touch up and uploads in a matter of minutes. R. Neilson H. L. Supply Co. www.hansons.net -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Ed Clark Subject: Domain parking > You need to know that often when a domain > expires, there is also a couple of clues > that owners don't often notice. The clues > are that the web site and email fails to > work for that domain. This is not just for > a few days, the domain deletion process > generally works like this... - Chris Nielsen, LED 2609 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2024/190/ Thanks to Chris for pointing out the do's and don'ts of domain maintenance. I guess I skimmed across the main point. I have only been involved in the hosting end of sites for about 5 years now and am always learning new and exciting things. Mike James at james-ranch.com was just an example of the many small business owners I continually run into, that did not follow Chris' rules for domain maintenance. In his case the lost email address was due to the sale of cable companies hosting his account. This only made it more difficult, because (Now I introduce a good point) he had no idea of his domain registry account number and password. We know how to find out the particulars of the domain registry, but if you can't get into it the domain name will expire. Many of the Big Name companies take advantage of small businesses and people lacking the knowledge of domain maintenance, by breaking the rules Chris mentions. For example, purchasing the domain name in their own name and then using a form of extortion on the ones paying the bill. Have you tried transferring a domain from some of the Big Names to your servers??? While we can not help everyone gain the knowledge we have, it still can be a frustration to those of us that would love an ethical playing field. I deal with a lot of smaller companies...and yes, because of their lack of judgment, they often get taken advantage of by the unethical companies. My recent move from California to Arkansas has been a big wake-up in this area. I am finding time and again these problems.(High Cost with template pages, Poor Communications, Lost Domains, etc.) Why am I concerned? There are so many of these smaller businesses that once bitten, don't want anymore to do with the Web. This hurts all of us. Perhaps a new direction on this discussion would be: How can we get a bitter taste out of their mouths, and show them the advantages to their company on the Internet? If you have experience in this area, I am most interested because many of these companies need a Web presence. Another example is: How many of us that register our own domain names, receive a legal looking envelope, trying to get us to renew our domains for some really high prices. I personally get at least 10 of these letters per year. Is it ethical to send a mass mailing to domain owners, trying to get then to renew a domain for $35-$50 that is being renewed for $10 by the web host, using the ploy that they will lose their domain name if they don't use this service? Gimmicks, fraud, deceit. I guess these are all problems of any business. It is still a shame, that in a world where there exists so much wonderful technology, our world is intent on screwing the little guy. Myself, I will continue to try and be a friend to those to the best of my ability. And I would love nothing more than to bring down some of the giants using these techniques to their knees. But "ethics" often take a backseat to "business". Most domainers would never "steal" a domain, but they would have no problem "buying" one that is available. The fact that you or your client failed to pay the $8 to renew it for another year should not really affect the sleeping patterns of someone who was able to take advantage of the mistake. Of course, when a porn site appears where a non-profit site used to be, few would not be upset by that, and I fail to see the logic as a domainer: The target is not well targeted for the most part, but perhaps it does make money...? As to Chris' idea about buying, the way I look at it is these so called "domainers" are like a Hawk in the tree waiting for the mouse on the ground or a Priest clergyman having relations with a church member because they know it is not being taken care of at home. No problem, its available, just taking care of the mistake . If the domain name is not purchased...and I mean a name like Grahams Antiques...it is still available to the persons that can use the name. Likewise, the church member is available to the rightful owner. Even big companies like my new bank in Arkansas can fall prey. About a month ago, when I went to check my account, I was surprised to see that (Network Solutions) the registry for the banks domain had put up a parking page, which included a link with the banks name to a porn site, up until the bank realized it had not renewed the domain. Ed Clark -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Chris Nielsen Subject: Domain parking > Would parking the domain for the time being > (until I want to actually use it) harm me > in terms of SEO?? If I'm thrown out of > google's index (like Steve says could > happen), I assume I wouldn't be wanting to > park it. - Hein van der Honing, LED Digest 2609 Parking a domain should not hurt it, but in general it won't help it either. Most parking services do not allow you to do any type of promotion, so you can cannot advertise or put up any links to your domain while it is parked. If your parking service is one of the good ones, then you can actually see traffic, PR, and backlinks increase. This means if you later decide to put a site on the domain that you will have a good head start with the traffic. We have over 600 domains now and while the gains are modest we have a number of domains with PR they acquired while parking and at least one domain is up to a PR4. Thank you, Chris Nielsen DomainIncubation.com (c) Copyright 1995-2008 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was." - Dag Hammarskjold |
