Price Grabber Phishing Email

Keep an eye out for this professional looking email that's just looking to 'Grab' your details! I spotted it because it called me 'ebusiness2' which is the beginning of an email address I only use on my website so I can flag this sort of thing.

When you hover over the link in the email, if you get a link preview, you'll see it's not going to the site is says it's going to.

Trash!!!

Think Before You Pay for an Online Directory Listing

Before you read this post, you may want to know my opinion on how to build a good business model. For a full account see my guest post on the Irish Internet Association blog Can an Ethical Online Business be a Successful Online Business? Here I pretty much say that developing solid long term relationships, providing value to your customers, is the best business model -- and one that you can be proud of. I've never been a fan of online directories. I believe that many people that start up online directories do so because they see easy pickings amongst small businesses desperate to get more visitors to their websites, but I do realise that this isn't the case for all online directories. Some genuinely believe they have a good idea and either go about it poorly or are out classed by the competition. Of course some, the vast minority, have a brilliant business idea that will help their customers as well as themselves.

General International Web Directories That Have Survived
Two international web directories that are still around from the earlier days of the Internet are Yahoo Directory and
The Open Directory Project. Both have been considered good links to have to help your Google results, but that may soon change.
- A few years back Yahoo started charging $299/year for new listings. I still recommend to new site owners to pay for one year to help get a jump start with search engine results, but the importance of the Directory for it's own sake is waning and it's value to Google may follow, especially as Yahoo has teamed up with Microsoft for it's search results.
- The Open Directory was once considered a link builder's best friend. Listings were easy to add and free and it feeds the Google Directory. A few years back it started taking ages to get a listing reviewed for inclusion and eventually it became known that, due to a lack of editors, some categories were not being reviewed at all, so many have given up submitting. Others have realised that if they volunteer to be an editor in their own category, they can keep the directory going and get their site included.

Other directories from those early days either no longer exist or are completely insignificant.

Irish General Web Directories
When I first moved to Ireland and started a web design business The Doras Directory was the main Irish online directory. It was good because 1) it was Irish when there wasn't a lot of pure Irish content and 2)they reviewed each site and you'd get a rating in shamrocks you could note on your site. So what happened to Doras? At some point Eircom decided to start charging for submissions (some say that they threatened some sites to pay up or be delisted) and the overall quality of the directory went downhill and then eventually disappeared.

This has been the fate of most of the lesser online directories that have been put onto the Internet, so...

Why do people still keep starting up new online directories?
1) It's a good project for an up and coming web designer, or as a marketing tool for an existing web development/online marketing company. If you don't have a portfolio of sites, what do you show prospective clients? You come up with your own project ideas and online directories are a natural choice. When I first moved to Ireland I found it really difficult to find out when and where activities and events were going on so one of my first web design projects was a directory of events going on in West Cork: West Cork Week. It was hard work getting all the listings together and keeping them up to date. The natural progression was then to create West Cork Directory - listings of businesses in the area. The small amount that people in the area were willing to pay for advertising wouldn't cover the time it would take to create and manage them, so I gave up on that idea. As I built up my list of clients, I had less time to keep up these sites and so added easy to manage Google AdWords to the site. It covers the cost to keep the sites going on a minimal level and as people are getting free listings I don't feel guilty about having those GoogleAds or that I don't have the time to update the sites more often.

2) There is a need for a directory to promote businesses and services in a specific region, industry or other marketing/networking group. Most tourism groups and business networks include a directory of members as part of their own websites. It provides value for their members and helpful information for visitors. In many cases inclusion in such a directory will be part of the membership fee.

3) The online directory offers potential to make a profit by charging for listings or advertising. Just after I quietly 'launched' West Cork Week in my home office, Dublin based web design company Webtrade decided to start up their Irish wide online communities in West Cork with West Cork Live. They had a big catered launch and our then local TD and Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh did the honours. They held meetings with business and tourism groups around West Cork and got a number of businesses to sign up for €100/year for a page on the site. (This pretty much made it impossible to get people to advertise on my site.) I don't think the momentum of that web directory lasted more than a year or two. I did end up doing business with many of those advertisers in the following years and most of them felt that they were really let down by that experience.

The funny, or not so funny, thing is that nearly ten years later more web directories, with less going for them than West Cork Live, are starting up and people are paying even more than €100 for a listing.

10 Things to Consider Before Paying for an Online Directory Listing
1) Is the directory THE definitive directory for your region, industry, niche marketing (i.e. West Cork Tourism, Irish Internet Association, Slow Food Ireland, Wedding Directories)?
2) Is there a significant number of visitors to the website? Are there a good number of page views in the section of the site where your listing will appear? (Are the site statistics audited so that you can trust the numbers?)
3) Does the site come up well in searches on phrases related to your business/organisation?
3) Will your listing appear in a section of the site that is easy to get to from the homepage?
4) Will your listing include your contact details, including a link to your own website? Is the information laid out to naturally bring the visitor to contact you and not just trap them within the directory? Will the link add to the 'authority' of your site which may improve your site's search engine results? (Read about Google's PageRank) Some directories use a method of linking so that they can see how many clicks you get, but this may keep Google from passing the value of that link onto your site.
5) Is the site well designed, easy for the visitor to use and does it use current web technology (RSS feeds, user interaction, etc.)
6) Is the cost of the link justified based on the return you expect? If a directory charges €300/year and you make an average of €30 profit per sale, will you make 10 sales over a year?
7) Are there other similar directories that may be better established, higher ranking, better publicised or more cost effective?
8) Is this the best way to spend your marketing budget?
9) How is the directory being promoted (advertising on other sites, in newspapers magazines related to the region, industry, etc.)?
10) Is the directory being run by an established business that appears to be around for the long term? Are you comfortable with their sales and marketing practices?

Think about this listing within the big picture of your entire marketing plan.
- Don't just try it out because they are the first to ask you, or you feel that you should help out someone starting up a new business.
- Look at what other marketing opportunities you have (online and off) and what free directory listings are available to you.
- Talk to people that are currently using the directory, or similar directories and see what the results have been like for them.
- Seek advice from others in the online marketing industry. There are a number of good, honest online marketing professionals providing such advice on our online networking channels (blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

If you run an online directory with paid listings, how does your site stand up to these questions? Are you truly providing value to the people that take listings in your directory, or are you just going to take their money and run?

The previous post on this blog; Link Building, more than just Link Exchanges and other posts under Link Building; will give you some alternatives to get more visitors to your website.

Google Won't Ring You About Advertising on Their Website

Now it seems obvious to those of us experienced in online marketing and dealing with Google, but it has to be said clearly GOOGLE WILL NOT RING YOU ABOUT ADVERTISING ON THEIR WEBSITE.

A few years back, just after Google set up their European operations in Dublin, a prospective client told me that Google had contacted her and were going to help her manage a Google AdWords campaign. I assumed it was legitimate. I didn't look into it further at the time, they weren't clients and were choosing to do this rather than use my SEO services so I didn't think much about it.

Earlier this year our receptionist said that Google had contacted her husband about setting up an AdWords campaign for his very small website. As I've gained a lot more experience in dealing with Google and using AdWords, it was obvious to me then that it wouldn't be the case. Shortly after this, Twitter friend @whatswhat_sian (Sian Phillips), started posting about a company that was contacting businesses listed on her online directory WhatsWhat.ie offering a similar deal. Then they contacted her, not realising she had copped on to them. Read her post about it. She was really adamant about getting the word out on this and there was a piece in the Sunday Business Post by Adrian Weckler Rogue 'Google' firm targets Irish SMEs.

I didn't take too much notice again, but then today they rang a client of mine, who had the sense to tell them they needed to ring me. Again, she thought they were calling from Google. I rang them back myself and it was indeed the company that Sian was talking about, UK based Matchmaker Marketing. You can Google the name if you want to see their site and also notice on Google a long list of sites with posts by people concerned about them, like:
- http://www.t2.ie/blog/?p=270
- http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=88096

When I rang the number given to my client, he did answer the phone "Matchmaker Marketing" and said that he did not claim to my client that he was from Google, but that he was a reseller for Google. He also claimed that they were the only company licensed to use the Google logo, but very little of what he said rang true with me. As he saw that I was not going to avail of their services he said that I was wasting his time - rich for someone that does cold call sales for a living.

My fear is that this sort of 'marketing' will turn people off of Google AdWords and other online advertising that has potential to increase sales. A lot of companies set up and manage Google AdWords and other pay per click online advertising campaigns, some successfully and others not so successfully, but a potential customer has the right to be dealt with in an honest and straight forward manner.

You may have to pay a good amount for a successful campaign, especially if you are hiring an experienced professional, but it may bring you more sales to justify the cost. Because of this you should do a bit of research before you select a company to manage your online marketing campaign. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

- Get references from the company and talk to their customers about the results that were actually gained from the campaign.
* What was the return on the amount spent?
* Did the company communicate well what their objectives were?
* Where they comfortable dealing with the company?

- Do you want a company to manage the campaign for you completely or just set it up so that you can manage it yourself over the long term?

- Does the company have experience with PPC advertising in your specific industry or similar industries?

- Do you need a company that can do SEO as well as PPC - and perhaps changes to your site as well?

- Can you set up the campaign yourself? The AdWords system is made to be very user friendly and there is a lot of information available via Google and other sites on how to manage a successful campaign. It does take time and you may be better off spending to at least get the campaign set up by someone with experience.

The following are also important points to consider:

- Organic search listings are the ones that you do NOT pay for. To get good results with these you need to certain things on your website and boost your sites popularity through relevant links to do this. Pay per click advertising campaigns will not get you higher organic search results, though it can boost awareness of your site. If a company claims this, question everything they are saying.

- No one can guarantee that you will get on first page or top of organic or pay per click listings - especially not the organic listings. Some companies get away with guaranteeing that you'll be top for pay per click advertising listings by 1) bidding very high for the the phrase to be certain to outbid all others (which isn't financially sustainable over a long period of time) or 2) bidding on very uncompetitive and unpopular search phrases that no one else would be bidding on. This does not give you much potential for a good return on the amount spent. Most legitimate online marketing companies will not use the word "guarantee" because it has such a bad connotation in this area.

- Google does run a "Google Advertising Professional" Programme.

A person can become a "Qualified Individual" by doing the following:
"1. Sign up for the programme successfully and be in good standing. This means that you have accepted the Rules of Use and are not in violation of them.
2. Manage at least one AdWords account (yours or someone else's) in My Client Centre for 90 days.
3. Build and maintain at least US$1000 (or your local currency equivalent) total spend for your or your team's My Client Centre account during the 90-day period.
4. Pass the Google Advertising Professional Exam. We suggest that you take the exam after you meet the above requirements. However, you can take the exam at any time."

A company can become a "Qualified Company" by doing the following:
"1. Have a billing and mailing address in a country where company qualification is available.
2. Employ at least two Qualified Individuals in the programme. Individuals must be qualified under the main company-registered My Client Centre account and not their own account. See the requirements for becoming a Qualified Individual.
3. Build and maintain the minimum 90-day required total client spend (spend requirements vary by country) for the company's My Client Centre account."

See more in Google's section on AdWords Professionals.

It is not that difficult to achieve qualification as long as you have clients with the budget to do AdWords and know the basics on how to run an account to pass the exam. Qualification has nothing to do with bringing good results for your customers in these campaigns.

If you feel that you do need to work with an "AdWords Qualified Professional" you can confirm that they are indeed qualified by checking that they have a Professional Status page, which they would normally link to from the Google AdWords Professional logo on their own site.

- Some web development companies push AdWords over optimizing your site for better organic search results. Why?

* Google used to give commissions for AdWords spend, but they no longer do so. This was a big incentive for developers to push the AdWords in the past.
* It is a way to give a quick boost of traffic to your site when optimization for organic results (SEO) may take months.
* They don't have the skills/time/desire to do optimization for organic search results. I actually saw this stated on a web development company site yesterday and thought the honesty was refreshing.

I agree that AdWords can be a good way to get started while waiting for organic results. I also feel that AdWords can be a good part of an overall online marketing campaign, as part of the "big picture". But you don't need to hire a Qualified Professional. A local online marketing professional may be able to get you just a good results as well as being someone that you trust better than someone "up the country". I am not a Qualified AdWords professional. This is just because I have not reached that spending requirement in the required time period. This is because most of my clients are smaller businesses with smaller online marketing budgets and we've chosen to concentrate on getting better organic results.

So you may choose to work with Matchmaker Marketing, they have a lot of customers and maybe some of them are getting results, but you then have to keep in mind the type of company you are dealing with and make your own mind up.

Unfortunately Google will NOT set up your AdWords campaign themselves. Online marketing is just not that easy, but I am giving a workshop "Hands On: Your Own Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign" on the 2nd of October. In the half day workshop I will take you step by step through setting up and managing your own Google AdWords campaign. Click here for more details.

10 New Year Resolutions for Website Owners

January is a busy time for people searching the net for bargains, holidays for the year, new business ideas, etc. So it is a good time to make sure that your website is getting you the best possible results. It's also a good time to set out the goals for the results you want from your website in 2009, in order to make sure that your website is working for you. Here are my recommendations:

1. Get a face lift. Take a good, objective look at your website and ask yourself, "Does the design of my site reflect the image I want to portray for my business?" In the past you may have felt that you didn't have the budget for a professionally designed website and took on the job yourself; you may have used a student, relative or other less experienced designer; or perhaps the image of your business has changed over the years since your site was first designed. Now is the time to make the changes to make sure that your site is appealing to your market and portrays your brand in a way that will increase your sales. Find an experienced web development company with a portfolio of websites for clients in similar industries to yours, that shows that they can capture the image required for your business. It's important that your site isn't just a bit of text about your business, products and services -- make sure your site is based around proven online marketing techniques to move the visitor to become a customer.
   
2. Get Management. (Content Management System vs. Website Management Service). It is important to keep your website fresh, interesting and attractive to keep visitors coming. Ask your web development company about adding a Content Management System , so that you can either update all the pages of your site or perhaps just relevant sections (i.e. News, Events, Rates, etc.) If you think that you will not have the time or desire to make changes to your site yourself, you may prefer to take out a Website Management Service. Most web development companies offer a contract service that will save you money on site alterations and perhaps include other benefits; such as priority or expedited service, a higher level of support, etc.
3. Get Results (as in the best possible Search Engine Results). You cannot overlook the great opportunities to increase your traffic through better search engine results. If your site was developed a few years ago, or if you web developer wasn't search engine savvy, there may be some simple things that can be done throughout your site to improve results. If you are in a very competitive market on the Internet you probably understand the value of search engine placement, but better results may take more time and effort. I still get a lot of new clients that think that search engines are not going to be an important source of visitors to their sites, but within a year they then see the benefit of all that unexpected traffic to bring them new business, as well as PR/marketing and networking opportunities.
   
4. Get Links. Quality incoming links are important for a few reasons. It's a good way to bring in more traffic. Link building is a good opportunity to network with like minded business people. Search engines track the links into your site and a number of good quality links will improve your search results. For more information, see my post on Link Building the DIY Way.
5. Get Freedom (from Spam). Spam has gotten to be an expected factor in using the Internet. The problem is that it is easy to lose the good messages in the spam filter. First consider if you can stop using any addresses that are already getting spammed. Once they are in the spammers lists, they are not coming off and the amount of spam will just grown and grow. Use one address for yourself that will never be used on a website and kept absolutely safe, use another on your website (but encrypted so not exposed to email address harvesting programmes used by spammers) and a third address that you can post on third party sites that may be accessed by spammers (you know this one will get spammed, but you can change this account as needed). Make sure that your web developer "spam proofs" your enquiry forms.
6. Get E-Mailing. A few years ago Email Marketing was called the killer marketing Tool. This is still very true and it's stood the test of time (well a few years is a long time in this rapidly developing industry). Start by adding a subscription form on your website and ask people to sign up every chance you get (enquiry forms, point of sale, etc.). Be sure that you don't spam - by sending messages to people that have not requested the information - besides being illegal, it's annoying and not a good way to market your business. Your best targets are people that have used your business before, and it's usually easy to get them to subscribe for special offers, news and other interesting information that you can pass on. Some businesses find it sufficient to send a newsletter 1-2 times a year, perhaps to help boost business during the slow period. If you can generate interesting, relevant content more frequently - and it suits the nature of your business - you may want to send mailings as often as needed (i.e. whenever new products/services are added, when you are offering a special offer, etc.) We recommend using a third party mailing list management service, like iContact, as it provides a secure way to maintain your list, an easy way to compose professional looking newsletters, makes it easier to get through spam filters and provides good statistics on how many recipients opened your message and clicked links, etc.
7. Get Blogging. A blog - a user friendly, online 'diary' - is another way to provide interesting, up to date information about your business. The search engines 'love' blogs and regular Internet users do as well. There are many tools to make it easy for visitors to refer your blog posts to others using the net. You just need to add links into your website and your blog becomes an excellent marketing tool. Including useful, timely information also helps to establish yourself as an expert in your field and is a good 'magnet' for incoming links.
   
8. Get (Social) Networking. If any of the names MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. are not completely foreign to you, you are ready to take the plunge and use one/all of these Social Networking sites to promote your business. Like blogs, these sites are set up so that it's easy to send 'your message' to a large community of people. It takes time to build your community, but as you do, more and more people find out about your business. Using these sites can be less time consuming than writing regular blog posts -- but the more time you put in, the more you will get out of it.
   
9. Get a 'Tech Check'. The best €150 I spent in 2008 was to the West Cork Enterprise Board for a Tech Check, technology audit of our business. The result was a detailed, independent report on the technology we were currently using in our business, along with recommendations for new systems and procedures that we could use now and for any expected expansion. I hesitated to sign up for the service initially as I assumed that the person assigned would be pushing his own services and his recommendations would be geared to that; but it is part of the scheme that the auditor cannot provide the follow up services. In fact, my auditor doesn't provide such services for a living and most of his recommendations were things I could do myself, were free or very cheap and easy to download from the Internet. So if you have concerns about the security of your data, how to do back-ups more efficiently, if you need a better programme to manage your accounts, etc. this service will get you the answers you are looking for.
   
10. Give Outstanding Service. The one area where many web businesses fall down is in providing a decent level of customer service, so this is a great opportunity for you to stand out from your competitors. Many Irish e-commerce site owners are concerned about the fact that Irish VAT, one of the highest in Europe, has risen and UK VAT has dropped; so prices on Irish sites will appear higher than ever. Yes people are more price conscious these days, but when shopping online more people are concerned about doing business with a reliable, established business that they can talk to if needed. Be sure that your website provides clear contact details. Answer enquiries within 24 hours (sooner, if possible, even if just to say that you've received the message and will get back to the sender promptly). Offer delivery times and costs equivalent to your competitors (even if in neighbouring countries). Focus on the customers needs and strive to provide that to them, even if it means giving that little bit extra. This will set you apart from the pack.
    

With the concern about keeping your business going strong in the current economic climate it's important to make the most of your current resources, so resolve to make the most of your website and see the results in 2009.

Rick Astley Subject of Massive Internet Prank

I was searching the internet for videos of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (the one thing I miss most about the holiday since I've lived away from the US). They don't show the parade online - hard to imagine these days, especially as it something from the USA - but you can get clips here and there. I went straight to YouTube and searched and found loads of references to Rick Rolling. I had no clue what it was, but found a clip that had 'Rick Astley performs at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade' so clicked on it, but it was just the video for 'Never Gonna Give You Up' from the '80s, so went back and clicked on another link that showed the actual 'performance' by Rick Astley lip synching to the original track on the Cartoon Network float. The comments to the video were mentioning 'Rick Rolling' again so I did a search.

"The 1987 tune has become the subject of an online phenomenon called “rickrolling,” in which a Web user is tricked into clicking on the link to the song’s music video. Real-life rickrolling–randomly playing the song as a means of surprise or disruption–has turned into a popular offshoot among pranksters." (thanks to pranks.com for that definition). Click here to read more.

As a young adult of the '80s I am happy that all the old - and I mean OLD - icons coming out of the woodwork and bring back so many wonderful (and not so wonderful -- like my Annie Lennox Eurythmic's era hair style) memories. I was pretty amused that this phenomenon has come about because of this.

More 'Phishing' Emails - From 'PayPal'

In this case the Subject is 'Regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedures.' and it's come from paypal@verification.com but they could appear to come from various other accounts. Once again, do not click the links or reply to the email. Just delete it! My ISPs Spam Filter didn't get it, but my AVG did.

More Phishing Emails - 'Google AdWords Alert'

Do not click any links in this email or reply with any of your login details!!!!

There has certainly been a rise in these kinds of emails. Maybe with the bad economic conditions, more people are turning to these evil tactics to make ends meet!!!!

Watch Out for Emails 'Phishing' for Your Login Details!

Two of my clients received emails over the weekend that claimed to be from the companies that their domains are registered through. Both emails prompted the client to click a link in the email to login and confirm their contact details. The actual links were to bogus sites, looking exactly like the site of a legit company, where when you log in it captures your details for use by them at a later date.

One of the emails purported to be from enom.com, a legitamate company that maintains domain registration details, saying that someone had made a complaint that the contact details for the domain were incorrect.

The other email said they were from Network Solutions, a large domain registrar, and that the clients domain was due for cancellation due to non-payment.

They get a lot of people with these messages because many people forget who their domains are registered with and when their renewal dates are. Luckily both clients thought to check with me before taking any action themselves.

If you get an email asking you to click a link to login and confirm or update your details, you need to be certain that you are clicking a legitmate link. It may say www.legitimatesite.com but, even a beginning webmaster could make that bit of text actually link to www.legitimatesite.com.scamartist.biz and you may be none the wiser.

Go to the legitimate site yourself by typing the correct web address in your browser and see if there is any notice of 'phishing' emails being reported or if the email may be legitimate.

PayPal has been a major target of these sorts of phishing emails in the past, which brought his sort of scam to the attention of many internet users -- the hard way, unfortunately.

When in doubt, look for help, either on the internet or from your friendly webmaster!