| LED Digest 1953: Remember Word of Mouth? |
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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 This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 31, 2005 Issue #1953 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ======= NEW ===================== --== Beware of Internet-centricity ==-- ~ Martha Retallick "And remember word of mouth?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Should I Worry? ==-- ~ Joe Halbrook "James brings up a valid concern..." --== How Important is Server Location? ==-- ~ John Smart "What about an international host?" ~ Veronica Yuill "What I wonder about though is the legal aspect." --== Blogging ==-- ~ James Miller "I see blogs as a simple way of getting people used to uploading a daily news..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== To Bounce or not To Bounce ==-- ~ Tom Aman ======= NEW ====================================== From: Martha Retallick Subject: Beware of Internet-centricity Here's a news flash from the Real World. Most consumers spend a lot less time on the Internet than the members of this discussion list. In fact, many of them have jobs that, get this, don't even require the use of computers, and if they did, the computers aren't connected to the Internet. They spend a great deal more time watching television than we do, and, thus, are much more dependent on TV to tell them about new products and services. And remember word of mouth? As in, one person talking face-to-face with another? That's still a very powerful concept out there in the Real World. Hence, it's important that we not get too Internet-centric in our promotions. Martha Retallick "The Passionate Postcarder" http://www.postcardmarketingsecrets.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Joe Halbrook Subject: Should I Worry > My worry is that someone will report daisy.co.uk as a > spammer and I'll have to go to all the trouble to change > my e-mail address to something else. - James Miller, LED 1952 James brings up a valid concern, and one that has plagued many for years. Domain spoofing (or forging of From: addresses) has been used to spam under legitimate domains, with little chance of catching the spammers. Many of these actions are completed using a web site's contact form, which are simply front-ends that format an email back to a web site owner. Unfortunately, the spammers have figured out ways to abuse the email address field on many of these contact forms. What they do is embed a carriage return, followed by a Bcc: header, followed by hundreds or thousands of email addresses from their spam databases. Unless a contact form processor (CGI script called by the form's ACTION= parameter) is smart enough to check for the Bcc: header or carriage returns, there is little that can be done to stop the spam. And the end result is that the victim's (site owner) domain is sometimes blacklisted, which makes it difficult to utilize email at that domain. I'm working on a project to offer a new CGI script that will format a secure RSS feed that is updated when a contact form is submitted. The script simply adds an RSS item, each time a form is submitted. The web site owner uses an RSS reader to monitor the secure feed. From the feed, the site owner can then click on the hyperlinked email address to continue the dialogue. Using this approach, no email is sent, and thus spammers can not abuse the contact form. The web site owner can still receive communications from site visitors, and the script can even enforce required fields and call the site's backend process(es) to append the form data to in-house databases, etc. I hope to have the project completed in the next 30 days, and will welcome anyone who would like to help in beta-testing the script. You may register to do so at this URL: http://www.cleanmymailbox.com/beta.html Joe Halbrook Permission Technologies http://www.rss-contact-forms.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: John Smart Subject: Server location > We use a UK based dedicated server and I wonder if I would > benefit from the cheaper [server hosting] deals available in the > US. Now I have heard all sorts of opinions regarding location > of servers and wonder which are urban legends and which > are real considerations. - Richard Stubbings, LED 1951 I read so many questions and answers, and get so much from all that others can put in, I am thrilled that I can answer one like this! > These opinions are > - it is better to have a UK located machine for > UK site as the majority of your customers are > UK based and will have quicker access to your site. A few years ago this was sometimes true! Sometimes we noticed lagging between the UK and the US. However, there are so many pipes going across the water now (and through the air) this really is not a problem. >- It is better to have a UK location because a UK IP > address will improve your rankings on Google.co.uk I have heard talk of this. It is possible to work out a physical location (approximately, and with some caveats) from an IP address. I do not know that Google relies on this though. > - It is better to have a UK location as your > support will work teh same hours as you Depends on who you work with. Good hosts have 24/7 support. The people who look after some of our servers are as helpful when I call them at 2 in the afternoon as they are when I call them at 2 in the morning. Do remember the cost of support though. In England, even if they don't have a toll free solution, the most you will be paying is national rate for support. Calls to America are a touch more expensive -- no matter what phone plane you have. How often will you need to talk to your hosts at peak rates? That could soon eat up the price differential between using an English or American host. What about an international host? We have some servers with Datapipe.com and they are fantastic. They have support centers and data centers all over the place, NY, CA and London. I really couldn't sing their praises enough, and if the UK version as good as the US version then they must be one of, if not the best in England. Having sung their praises like that, I wonder if they will give me a months free hosting? If they do, I will let you all know, and we can all sing their praises and get free hosting!! :o) John Smart InternetDesign.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Server location > It's not a question of geography. It's a question of > service standard of your host. If you choose a cheapo > host in your own country, don't make the quantum > leap of thinking that you'll get quality service even > during office hours. - Trevor Johnson, LED 1952 How true! Actually my experience is that even when I paid more for a UK-based host, I got much worse service than from my cheaper US-based host. My current US host replies to all emails within 15-30 minutes, no matter what time of day or night it is; I never need to phone them. I'm sorry to say that I have always had better, prompter service form US hosts than UK ones. What I wonder about though is the legal aspect. For example, if you are storing personal information on EU-based customers on a server in the US, might you be breaking European data protection laws by housing the data in a country that doesn't adequately protect it? I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know ... Regards Veronica Yuill Archetype Information Technology Ltd http://www.archetype-it.com/english/ ------- new post - new topic -------- From: James Miller Subject: Blogging > A blog is just a frequently changing Web page. Yes, it offers > the ability for folks to reply and trackback, but if you boil it > down, it's just frequently changing content. The key word > is "frequently." - Ken Evoy, LED 1948 Very true! I have advised some of my clients to use a blog with their web site as a cheap way of doing news. None have started yet, but they will. I see blogs as a simple way of getting people used to uploading a daily news about their products, company, sports club etc. The next phase will be the embedded blog, where you define an area in a web page called News or something and the blog is neatly placed in there in a form that suits your web site. I know this will work, as I've been experimenting with an editor that can edit a defined area of a web page. It make updating things like phone books and news pages very easy. All you do is edit the area as if it were text. Isn't that how Blogger works? James Miller Daisy Analysis: www.daisy.co.uk ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Tom Aman Subject: Bouncing > We use an outside service, Postini, to filter email > before it reaches our POP3 server... Several companies, > including my company, 1-us.com, sell email boxes > complete with upstream spam filters,... - John Brumage, LED 1952 Just a comment on the dangers of upstream spam filters: Be aware that, if you use an upstream filter such as one of these, it is guaranteed that you will miss the occasional good email. Just pray that, when it happens, it is not something of any importance. Selling shareware means that most of my business happens over the Internet - customer downloads the program, tries it out, likes it, registers online via credit card, I send the registration information to the customer via email. Two or three times a year my email to the buyer gets filtered out as spam by an upstream spam filter. Predictably, a few days later I will get a query (sometimes quite hostile) from the customer wondering why they never received the registration for which they have paid. I have to maintain 3 other separate email accounts to give me alternative methods of attempting to get the email through. In a couple of cases I have had to resort to telephoning the customer because all of the alternate accounts fail to get through. Maybe one of my fellow LEDers can figure out why a spam filter would my email as spam. Here is a copy of the email that I normally send for a registration: ----------------------- The subject line reads: Re: CyberSpyder Link Test Registration The body of the email reads: Thank-you for your registration. When you run the program, select "Register" from the reminder screen and enter the following: Name: (registered name here) Key: (numeric key here) Serial: (numeric serial here) Keep this information in a safe place in case you need to re-install the program and have to record the registration information again. Check the CyberSpyder site regularly for updates. The site will also contain up to date information on any "bugs" that have been found but have not yet been corrected. Note that future upgrades are free to registered users. The Web site is at http://www.cyberspyder.com/ The current version available is Version 2.2.1. Thank-you. ----------------------- Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "These days I seem to think a lot About the things that I forgot to do And all the times I had the chance to." - Nico |
