BustAThief.com - Dealing With Fraudulent Activity
Oct 24, 2008 Business
Fraud over the internet isn’t funny. It is a serious problem, and lately I’ve found myself dealing with these idiot criminals. Since I’m on the topic, I want to get this out of the way first: I don’t care what the media tells you, people who use computers to steal your private information are not hackers. They are simply criminals who use technology to their advantage. Sorry, that’s just a pet peeve of mine. Now, on to the real content.
In the past few months, I have discovered that some idiot has set up a bank account and taken out a loan using my social security number. I found this out totally by accident. It just happens that we use the same bank that I do, and the clerk asked me if I was Mr. [name of criminal]. As luck would have it, that isn’t me. This past week, some other jerk tried to transfer money out of my PayPal account to other random accounts. It didn’t work, but it has definitely caused me a couple of headaches. As a side note, I think I’ve figured out how that scam works. It would appear that they hack multiple accounts and transfer cash to other random accounts, then move it to their bank accounts (which are added to the accounts that the cash is moved to). Anyway, I’m getting off topic.
So my point is this: I’ve been trying to find information on how to report fraud to the proper authorities. It’s been difficult to get the time to gather all the leads I need to in order to hammer these idiots into the ground, legally speaking. Fortunately, I found BustAThief.com. The site is packed with information on scams that can target not just you personally, but your online business as well.
As affiliate marketers, most (if not all) of our business is carried out on the internet. Unfortunately, we put our business security in the hands of people and companies we have very limited knowledge of, let alone their morals. BustAThief.com even has a good article on affiliate fraud, which can ruin your day faster than the Slashdot effect.
From BustAThief.com:
The only way to fight affiliate fraud successfully is to meet the problem head on, with a comprehensive approach. The range of tricks goes from the traditionally unmistakable monkey business such as cookie stuffing, bogus leads, fraudulent credit card usage to the more creative and well executed cons such as posing as webmasters of high-profile websites and changing their name and address just before the affiliate checks are issued.
Fraud is a reality that anyone (not just web entrepreneurs) have to deal with on a daily basis, and there’s no other way to explain it except that it sucks. Fortunately, BustAThief.com is here to help keep us on our toes.
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Tags: bustathief.com, fraud
Just how much bandwidth do you need, Bob?
Oct 22, 2008 Business, Internet, Uncategorized
Look out, it’s pay-per-megabit! If you are needing some serious bandwidth (as in, you are either John Chow or planning to be Slashdotted sometime soon) you may want to check this out.
From PRWeb:
Netriplex releases Uber Bandwidth (http://UberBandwidth.com), a new high-performance, premium Internet connectivity network designed specifically for Web 2.0. Uber Bandwidth costs $3.99 per megabit and is initially available at Netriplex’s newest data center in North Carolina.
Asheville, NC (PRWEB) October 20, 2008 — Netriplex, a leading U.S. data center provider, announced today the release of Uber Bandwidth (http://UberBandwidth.com), a new high-performance, premium Internet connectivity network designed specifically for Web 2.0. Uber Bandwidth costs $3.99 per megabit and is initially available at Netriplex’s newest data center in North Carolina.
Jonathan Hoppe, Netriplex’s Chief Technology Officer, explains: “Businesses are increasingly using the Internet for mission critical applications. With the proliferation of VOIP, video-on-demand and social networking, our customers demand high-performance Internet connectivity in unprecedented quantity. Uber Bandwidth was created to meet their needs with an extreme network featuring multiple ten-gigabit connections to every major network in the U.S., Canada and Europe which is then available to our customers for $3.99 per megabit.”
Uber Bandwidth is available at Netriplex’s newest data center in Asheville, North Carolina. Netriplex offers collocation from 1 rack unit all the way up to 1000 sq. ft. plus private suites. Through IT infrastructure colocation, customers can acquire Uber Bandwidth and direct access to thousands of networks through Uber’s 1-terabit-capable infrastructure featuring a diverse path fiber network powered by best-of-breed Cisco routers and switches, intrusion protection systems and proprietary best-path internet routing engines.
“Today’s Web 2.0 online businesses no longer settle for data centers with just a few transit providers. The Uber Bandwidth network gives customers the fastest and shortest path to the end user. It ‘leap frogs’ networks they traditionally had to transit, shaving valuable time off the trip and increasing performance,” states Hoppe.
Through 24/7/365 support and remote-hands-and-eyes services, businesses anywhere in the world can colocate servers in Netriplex data centers. As demand for the Uber Bandwidth network grows, Netriplex will deploy it at its six other datacenters across the U.S. and London.
ABOUT NETRIPLEX
Founded in 1999, Netriplex is a global provider of IT infrastructure hosting and business continuity solutions. Its new 15,000 sq. ft. SAS70 Type II certified datacenter in Asheville, NC, offers web hosting, grid computing, server colocation and disaster recovery office space in a state-of-the-art and completely redundant environment designed for 100% uptime. Netriplex operates other datacenters in Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, San Jose, Seattle and London, U.K.CONTACT INFORMATION:
John Thompson
Chief Operating Officer
828-650-8500 x8530
828-650-8501 fax
http://www.netriplex.com# # #
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Tags: bandwidth, Hosting, slashdot effect
Google On Money: ‘Hey, Whatever Works…’
Oct 21, 2008 Business, Internet, Uncategorized
Note: I’m thinking that one of these things could be very useful when it comes to marketing and making AdSense rock. I’ll let you figure out which one.
From TechCrunch:
Google turned in healthy third-quarter earnings largely thanks to the fact that Google is finally getting serious about cost containment. But that is only half the story. Going into the expected economic downturn, Google is now turning on every additional source of advertising revenues it can. For instance, so far earlier month it began offering AdSense in Flash games, new AdSense links at the bottom of Google Maps, and introduced click-to-buy buttons on YouTube videos. But there are at least two more ways Google is trying to juice those AdSense revenues: an AdSense search box and AdSense ads that link to syndication pages filled with . . . more AdSense ads!
Google might just be testing these, but these efforts are starting to get noticed. One reader who runs a site about Google Chrome
, for instance, runs AdSense. But instead of a regular text ad, Google served up the search box at left, inviting people to search for specific ads. In effect, Google is saying, “We are not 100% sure what ads you’d like to see, so why don’t you just tell us?” An ad-only search box is a departure from Google’s past policy of showing the most relevant results, with ads on the side. Although it is clearly labeled, some people might still confuse the AdSense search box with a regular Web search box. Others might find it more helpful than the regular text ad links. [Update: Some readers say this search box is nothing new, see comments].
More troublesome is Google Syndication. Another reader, Michael Oxley, noticed that the AdSense text links on his golf site
If Google starts using its Google Syndication pages more widely (they’ve actually been around for a while, it seems
Google now takes into account the “landing page” that the ad links to, and, for example, gives low grades to pages whose sole purpose is to show more ads.
The lower the quality score, the higher an advertiser has to bid for a given keyword. Google itself provides the following guidelines
Relevance:
* Users should be able to easily find what your ad promises.
* Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful information about the product or service in your ad. For instance, direct users to the page where they can buy the advertised product, rather than to a page with a description of several products.Originality:
* Feature unique content that can’t be found on another site. This guideline is particularly applicable to affiliates that use the following types of pages:
o Bridge pages: Pages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company
o Mirror pages: Pages that replicate the look and feel of a parent site; your site should not mirror (be similar or nearly identical in appearance to) your parent company’s or any other advertiser’s site
* Provide substantial information. If your ad does link to a page consisting mostly of ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), provide additional, unique content.The question here is: Why isn’t Google heeding its own advice?
And is it in effect running house ads that it wouldn’t tolerate from an outside advertiser (or at least punish by increasing the minimum bid required to run them)? When times are tough, anything goes.
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Do you know more than your boss?
Sep 2, 2008 Business
I’ve noticed from time to time that many companies have people running the show who just seem to be untouched by the Genius Fairy.
Too often, a company will turn a supervisior, manager, or worse - CEO loose with a degree and a sincere faith that a piece of paper confirms that the new ‘guy in charge’ knows what he is doing.
But does he really know what he’s doing?
It’s one of my pet peeves: supervisors who scream at you for being too slow, etc. when you (and everyone else) can see that the boss couldn’t do the job himself to save his life. What’s with that? Why doesn’t experience mean anything?
I understand that CEO’s need to have something proving that they know what they are doing, but what about the poor goon that works his life away, perfecting the art of whatever it is that he/she does only to be told that they have hit the ceiling because they don’t have a degree…regardless of whether or not they can do the job?
Yeah, I’m in that boat. I’ve been there many times before. One day, I want to be the guy with the paper to boost my experience to what it needs to be in order for me to get the career that I need.
You can get another point of view of what a CEO would need to do to gain some experience by checking out this blog by Dennis Carey on leadership and CEOs . He’s got some good insight on what it takes for a new CEO to learn from his co-workers.
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Milking Social Networks For Fun and Profit
I have a family/friends blog at a small social/blog network (that shall remain nameless at this time…no, it’s not a major network, it’s small). The cool thing about this network is that there are different groups you can join to discuss different topics, such as religion, politics, and other interesting things…like finding good deals on products online.
And this is where the milking comes in.
I have found in the past couple of days that this is an awesome place to drop ads from my affiliates, especially Market Leverage and Amazon. I tend to stick with the email/zip submits (because they pay out with very little effort on the part of the user), and the money just starts to flow.
Granted, it’s not a bunch of money. However, it does generate something that, to me, is more valuable than money: the knowledge of how to make more money.
If you aren’t a member of Market Leverage, now would be a good time to join and start making some money.
If you haven’t tried this technique, I’d highly recommend you give it a shot. You really have nothing to lose.
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Tags: learning, market leverage, money
