| LED Digest 1914: Keeping the Harvesters at Bay |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. 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 4, 2005 Issue #1914 ............................................... .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== <Moderator Comment> ~ Good to be back --== Profitable Non-Profits ==-- ~ Don Coggan "I'm looking for ways the sites can generate revenue..." --== Keeping the Harvesters at Bay ==-- ~ Marsha Kopan "I'm looking for any other suggestions that might keep harvesters at bay." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Problems for Linkers ==-- ~ Derek Andrews "I must admit that I was confused by Dave's approach..." ~ Phil Tanny "I got so frustrated with cold contacting webmasters for one site that I closed the site rather than continue." --== The PayPal vs Merchant Accounts Debate ==-- ~ Robert Ellis "One is never too old to learn...I had a red face to match Rudolf's nose!" ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Inside PageRank ==-- ~ Carrie MacKenzie --== Theft of Copywritten Material ==-- ~ Andrew Falkingbridge <Moderator Comment> Greetings LEDer, It's good to be back. I hope your holiday was well spent, relaxing and with friends and family. It is with a heavy heart that we welcome in the New Year, though. Our friends and loved ones suffering the tsunami devastation need all the help we can offer. Here is a list of links where you can contribute direclty to the aid efforts: Unicef Support South Asia tsunami relief efforts. www.unicefusa.org Feed the Children Relief for Asian tsunami survivors. www.feedthechildren.org International Rescue Committee Help the International Rescue Committee provide emergency aid. www.theirc.org Asian Tsunamis Relief Emergency Medical Supplies Needed www.cfhi.org American Red Cross Help the American Red Cross Assist Victims in Asia www.redcross.org Now on a lighter note -- it's great to be back. I've missed the good 'ol LED! Best wishes and Happy New Year, Adam --------------------- From: Donald Coggan Subject: New Post - Profitable Non-Profits Hello All, On a volunteer basis, I have created and maintain a bilingual web site for a non-profit organization at www.synaxis.ca and I'm starting another at www.isa-montreal.org. Once a month I update the Synaxis site using content prepared by other volunteers in a way that allows me to do my part in about 4 hours (including phone calls, emails, redoing things, etc.) Getting maximum results with minimal volunteer input is a real challenge. I'm looking for ways the sites can generate some revenue to pay for some services like content preparation and site updates. Perhaps some other LEDers have some experience with this? The only things coming to mind so far are: - generous sponsors within the group - Google type ads on technical content pages Thanks in advance for any ideas for traffic and revenue generation. Don Coggan don,coggan.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Marsha Kopan Subject: New Post - Harvesting e-mail addresses As an Executive Director I manage two trade association's websites. One of the groups has opted to have me receive the officer's email and I forward important emails to their private email accounts. A membership perk is to be listed on the site with contact information, links and email addresses. Recently, there has been a barrage of spam on the officer's e-mail accounts and a few of the Association's members have mentioned receiving the same junk. One of the spammers touts being "in the industry" and when I challenged him and asked him to stop spamming our members he claimed that he obtained the e-mail addresses from a list broker. He gave me links to the companies that he purported to use. All claim to be opt in list sellers. I find that highly doubtful since not one of our officers would have opted into an email promotion. I have done as much as I possibly can to make it difficult for visitors to harvest email addresses from the websites. Short of making the member list available only to subscribers, I'm looking for any other suggestions that might keep harvesters at bay. Marsha Kopan, IVAA CVA Executive Secretarial Services www.execsecsrv.com Delegate, don't stagnate. ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Derek Andrews Subject: Linking In LED issue 1913, Dave Roberts raised some problems he is encountering with his link campaigns for his clients. His approach is to look for high-end websites to exchange links with, but is finding that few of these sites participate in reciprocal link exchanges, and many don't have e-mail addresses. Well, I really don't find this surprising. A high-end business probably neither needs or wants to get involved in the murky world of link exchanges. They most likely promote their website through branding, off-line advertising, or PPC campaigns. They are also likely to get lots of organic links because their site will offer good products, good services or good information that others will want to link to or will get discussed on forums of many types. In fact they may even offer bad products that get lots of links from disgruntled customers, but to a search engine a link is a link! Google bombing Bill Gates or George Bush will do nothing but good for their link popularity. I must admit that I was confused by Dave's approach. On one hand he is looking for relevant, quality sites, which must surely limit the number of sites available to approach, but on the other hand he is sending bulk e-mails. To me, that seems like diametrically opposed tactics. And surely a good quality site deserves a good quality approach, not a form letter with a few personalised names and URL's dropped in for good measure? I must admit that I do some reciprocal linking, but I am picky. Very picky. I probably only look at one in fifty of the offers I receive, and fewer still make it through my selection process. The standard e-mail tells me where my link has been placed, how to reciprocate, and all the wonderful benefits of exchanging links. Very seldom does anyone bother to tell me what is special about their site / products / services, and why I would want to recommend their site to my visitors. I also have explicit instructions on my site about linking to it, but very few people bother to follow them. I have little desire to exchange links with the lazy and brain-dead who can't handle anything a little out of the ordinary. And on my latest e-commerce site, my links exchange system is different from the norm. I call it "Sites I Like", and each site gets a review which I write myself. This gets me away from having duplicated content on my site. Multiple links are often made to deep within the site, using relevant anchor text which will help the page relevancy as well as its link popularity. Link pages are kept small, focussed, and I hope both interesting and useful to my visitors. At present it is difficult getting many webmasters to see the benefits of this method, but eventually I hope that quality and relevance will win over sheer numbers in the the linking game. Wishing you all a happy and very prosperous New Year. Derek Andrews, woodturner Wedding Favors ~ Artisan Crafted Gifts ~ One-of-a-Kind Woodturning http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Phil Tanny Subject: Problems for linkers Dave Roberts outlined some of the obstacles that are making it harder for him to find reciprocal link partners. I can relate to Dan's post. I got so frustrated with cold contacting webmasters for one site that I closed the site rather than continue. Dave asked if there is a better way to find link partners, and I'd like to offer one solution that may help. In late December I released http://Links-For-You.com, a free service that emails the contact info of willing link partners to other willing webmasters in the same niche. Everybody involved signs up via a 2 step confirmed opt-in subscription process, so spam is not an issue, and you know your info is being mailed to webmasters who are sincerely interested in linking. Your info is sent only to other subscribed webmasters in your niche, not to every webmaster in the phone book. If you support this service by providing a link to it, you receive these mailings on an ongoing basis, which automates the process of meeting other willing link partners in your industry. The technical apparatus to make these connections via email is now in place, and we're off to a good start in membership thanks largely to Allan Gardyne, and Dr. Andy Williams, who both graciously introduced Links-For-You to their newsletter readers. Thanks guys! I hope some of you will find this service useful. Sincerely, Phil Tanny http://links-for-you.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Robert Ellis Subject: A salutory tale > I have received similar emails supposedly from CitiBank > but I have no account at CitiBank so it was obvious immediately > it was a trawl for identity theft. - Peter D'Aprix, LED 1912 Happy New Year Adam and all Leders, Phishing - I was caught in one of these scams. No I did not give anybody my intimate bank details but I did respond to an email offering "Homework" The story was that I would simply move cash and occasionally goods around the world for a percentage. I was not particularly suspicious because in the past I have bought and sold in various countries without always handling the goods myself. I supply a number of countries with Ballistol products which are sent directly from the manufacturer - it saves hassle and quite often the shipping rates are lower. There is always paperwork of course and money is always sent by bank transfer or credit card. I duly supplied my bank account number and sort code and received a transfer into my account. My instructions were to send the money by Western Union (in cash) to Russia. I was a little puzzled because the transfer was from a UK Lloyds bank account and I did not recognise the name of the sender. However as the transfer had cleared ok, I duly drew cash with enough to pay the fees and sent it off. They did say thank you! That was on a Friday, the following Monday I was unable to log-on to my Lloyds account and rang the helpline who promised someone would call me back. They did and I was subjected to a great deal of trouble. I was accused of stealing from another customers account and informed my accounts had been "blocked"! It took some three weeks to sort things out and convince the Lloyds security people that I was an innocent (if somewhat naive) party. In the meantime I was forced to open another account elsewhere and my finances were suddenly in a hell of a mess - I had money, but could not use it! So, if anyone offers you a situation where you have to send cash to a third party - forget it! One is never too old to learn - or get caught out - I had a red face to match Rudolf's nose! All the best for 2005. Robert Ellis. ballistol, vital.co.uk ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Carrie MacKenzie Subject: PageRank > The driving factor is genuine raw link popularity > from as many unique domains as possible, and > there is really not much of a need to over analyze it. - Dirk Johnson, LED 1913 My question is... When folks ask to recip-link to me, they usually already have about 50 outgoing links on the page they are putting my information on. Is that harmful, or still beneficial? Sometimes I'm sure nobody will ever see it when the pages are crammed like that, but if they would still count as a unique domain, and be beneficial, then I guess in the long run it would be best to get as many links as possible, and not think about traffic coming direct from that link. I've been keeping my links pages to around 25 to 30, or taking the one's that are probably of the most interest to someone on this page of mine, and putting the link on that same page. Thanks for the help :) Carrie MacKenzie http://www.candybarwrapper.ca ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Andrew Falkingbridge Subject: Copy theft > I have discovered that a competitor has stolen > the logo and words from my web sites... Any > suggestions? - Beth Vance, LED 1906 Coincident to the current discussion on copy theft, just today I received notification of a new service that searches for instances of copy theft from your site. Visit www.copyscape.com for "online plagiarism protection" Regards Andrew Falkingbridge www.aibet.com
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