01.30.08
Posted in SEO Topics at 1:41 pm by blog
Google’s arrogance has been well-documented before and we don’t need to dwell on it here. When Arkesini.com first disappeared (completely) off Google’s horizon about three years ago, I went over the site with a fine toothcomb to identify any areas that might have been in breach of Google’s guidance and acceptable use policies. After a while, arkesini.com made a brief appearance for a few months and then off it went again! I have emailed Google to no avail. I have (three times) filled in the ‘Request Reconsideration’ form but never got a reply or a change in status.
Google is the greatest Search Engine in the world and I have long been a fan of its (original) corporate objectives and credo. Where arrogance creeps in is in Google’s unwavering faith in the infallability of their automated algorithms - so much so, that their software is allowed to be judge, jury and executioner without any humans questioning its decisions.
This benevolent dictatorship with its paternalistic approach to what’s Right and Wrong has no doubt cost thousands of small web entrepreneurs their livelihoods. Apparently, operating a referrals site is Wrong, Search Engine Optimisation is Wrong, not having ‘real conent’ (whatever that is) is Wrong.
Well, let’s see what is Right:
www.teeniesxxx.com
www.3pic.com
www.shliq.com
teenfeedlist.com
www.youngpervs.com
midwestteensexshow.com
www.teensex.nl
That’s just a small selection of sites that obviously qualify to be in Google’s index. ‘Teen Sex’ is a search term that Google’s automated intelligence (and moral authority) finds totally acceptable and rewards us with 1,960,000 results.
Something stinks…
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03.07.07
Posted in General at 10:23 pm by blog
A disclaimer before we start: .htaccess can do wonderful things for your website as long as the web server that runs it is Apache! The ideal environment would be Linux and Apache but the concept is supported on NT/Windows 200x implementations of Apache.
First, what is it? .htaccess is a text file that is placed in the root of your web site to control how the Apache web server daemon interprets requests from users’ browsers. It works as the configuration file for Apache’s Mod_Rewrite module and deals with, amongst other things, the password protection of specific pages, directories or the whole site. It also determines what pages are served when particular requests are received:
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} ^(.+)\.zip$
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ / [nc]
These cryptic lines of text simply take the visitor to your home page every time they request a file with a .zip extension. Replace ‘zip’ with any other extension (e.g. jpg) that you want to keep private. You can save the above as .htaccess in the root of your site or inside a directory that contains zip archives that you don’t want visitors to access.
My main use of .htaccess is mapping several domain names onto different directories of the same web site. For instance, you’ve bought d1.com, d2.com, d3.com. You only want to pay for the hosting of one web site, let’s say d1.com. Provided your domain name broker lets you set the IP address of each one of your domains, you can do the following:
- Set up your website for d1.com using your hosted space.
- Set the IP addresses of d2.com and d3.com to the address of d1.com
- Create directories d2 and d3 off the root of your d1.com site.
- ftp the websites for d2.com and d3.com into these directories. You can check them by directing your browser to: http://www.d1.com/d2 or http://www.1.com/d3
- Make sure that the root of d1.com contains a robots.txt file with at least the following lines:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /d2/
Disallow: /d3/
Create (or edit) the .htaccess file in the root of your main website:
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*)d2\.com [nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.d1.com/d2/$1 [P,nc]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*)d3\.com [nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.d1.com/d3/$1 [P,nc]
Now, http://www.d2.com will serve out the pages found in www.d1.com/d2 although the user’s browser will still display www.d2.com in the address bar.
A great resource for unravelling many of the secrets of .htaccess files and the mod_rewrite module is:
corz.org
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07.07.06
Posted in Link Exchange at 9:02 pm by blog
LinkMachine has been my favorite Link Exchange system as you’ll find elsewhere in this blog (Have I said it enough times??). The way links are exchanged automatically with other users of LinkMachine is superb while the resulting pages don’t look robotic and Search Engine-repellant!
There are literally thousands of participating sites which you select by category or keyword. Of course you can also invite any other relevant site you wish but that involves the other webmaster physically adding a link to your site.
There is only one problem with any link exchange:
If you haven’t yet been blessed by Google with a Page Rank (i.e. you still have a PR of zero), the site you are inviting to exchange links with you may turn you down. The rationale is well known - if a zero PR site links to another, in Google’s distorted logic, this consitutes a bad mark, it’s like you are keeping bad company and your own reputation is soiled!
The complex algorithm that Google uses looks for the high-quality social connections you have and the better connected to the elite, the higher your chances of a good PR. If the majority of peers who carry links to your site are from amongst the ‘hoi polloi’, i.e. low or zero PR, Google marks you as a site that has no web gravitas and ignores you until you become more upward mobile.
So, if you have issued 1000 invitations but only 100 are reciprocated, check your PR. If it’s 0 or very low, I’m afraid you have been snubbed by the other webmasters so that you don’t affect their good social standing!
This is of course a vicious circle since your Page Rank won’t improve until some quality, high-traffic sites link to yours!
Answers to this dilemma on a virtual postcard, please 
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04.03.06
Posted in General at 10:08 pm by blog
A few months ago we came across an excellent piece of php software written by Sam Stephens in Australia. We all know how selling software or ebooks as downloads is fraught with difficulties - before you know it, half the Internet is downloading your product for free! At the time we were offering a small range of ebooks on eBay and were looking for a better way of supplying the goods to the purchaser than pointing them to an ftp server or sending them as email attachments (ouch!)
Then, quite by chance, we discovered DLGuard and never looked back! The neat way in which a PayPal payment following a purchase is integrated into the delivery is just magnificent. The whole process becomes totally automated as, the moment the PayPal payment is made, DLGuard sends the buyer an email with a unique download link, set to expire after the number of hours you specify. You don’t need to intervene unless the buyer has any problems or queries.
The great admin interface shows you all your sales, the number of downloads, your customer details and your database of products. The latest version even offers you a full Shopping Cart and Mailing List management.
In summary, DLGuard offers the following:
Secure your digital products quickly and easily. DLGuard provides you with a secure sales link that helps to prevent people skipping your credit card processing system. DLGuard will then make sure a valid payment was made, and then pass your customer on to their secure download area and send them a custom download email containing their link.
Stop download link sharing and thankyou/download page sharing with expiring download links. A large amount of download theft is by people who share their download link after they buy your product.With DLGuard, your customers get a unique download link that expires after the amount of time you set.
Do you provide a paid or free membership area? DLGuard is the perfect tool to easily manage your memberships. With automatic signups and removals, and protected download links within your membership area, creating a recurring sales website has never been so easy!
With the ability to limit the number of download attempts allowed, you can squash link sharing. So even if your download link or download page is posted in a public forum, the link will be automatically disabled after the download attempt limit that you set. Download access can be reinstated quickly and easily if needed.
With DLGuard’s built in shopping cart system you can offer your customers the choice of which products they would like to buy, allow them to add them to their shopping cart and then make one single payment for all their products. This is perfect for people who sell ebooks, software, downloadable music, and more!
DLGuard is fully integrated with the popular payment processors: Paypal, Clickbank, 2Checkout, Stormpay, PayDotCom and Ebay digital delivery.
DLGuard will automatically add your customers to your mailing list after a sale is made. No more manual submissions, no more annoying your customers by asking them to jump through hoops. Just easy, instant, and invisible autoresponder signup.
Author: Sam Stephens
Author’s Blog: Sam Stephens
Version: 2.0
Price: $127
Supported Systems: PHP compatible web servers
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03.30.06
Posted in General at 10:42 pm by blog
When I first discovered a web site that sported a free submission to 24 Search Engines, I got quite excited. Reading on I found it had been created entirely as JavaScipt+HTML by Olav Hellesų-Knutsen, a very talented man from Oslo, Norway, as early as 1997! Back in 1998, I was copiously submitting my website to each individual Search Engine manually, so a tool like this was a godsend. Olav’s complete system consisted of about 28 html pages, 24 of which were small javascript files dedicated to each engine.
It took me some time to collect all these pages together so that I could offer the facility from my web site. Olav’s contact details had long become defunct and there was no way I could get any help or advice from him. I had to unscramble his code whenever any of these Search Engines closed down and became a dead link, so that I could introduce an alternative.
It wasn’t until a few years later that a random search on the internet revealed that only months after the first version had been produced, Olav had been at it again - this time offering free submission to 300 Search Engines and FFA pages. In the mean time I discovered that he had moved on to become one of Norway’s most successful Mobile phone web entrepreneurs running the remarkable Esato web site that specialises in products and support for the Sony-Ericsson range.
I emailed him care of Esato but didn’t get an answer. I had to extract the 300-odd pages one by one from one of the sites that had got hold of his script. By this time a number of Search Engines and Directories were out of business and the thing just got stuck after 25 submissions!
I replaced the most offending entries (there are still some duds but they are harmless) and put it up on Arkesini.com. You can find the result of my labours here.
If you don’t want to fire-up SubmitWolf Pro or Webposition and just want a quick and dirty submission to several Search Engines and FFAs, just give it a try. If you are a Sony-Ericsson user, you may decide to stop by Esato and download some cool software or ringtones!
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