JimWorld Gazette Issue #43 02/27/1998

Gazette - Issue #43 - February 27, 1998

-- Some Housekeeping
-- No Opportunity Left On The Net?
-- The Coming Trend
-- Why Go To Conferences And Trade Shows?
-- Tips From The Hitman - Part XXV
-- More About Blocking Software
-- e-Commerce Fraud
-- Snippets

Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g43

SOME HOUSEKEEPING

Sorry about the delay of the Gazette this week, but the servers that distribute the newsletter were down and just now are available again to send this out. This came on top of the complete loss of email service for most of the week. My access provider (@HOME) as well as several other big access providers, was hit by an email spam that generated millions of big email messages and brought many email servers to their knees. This kind of vulture is what will undermine the Web and bring in government regulation to bury the remainder of the Web.

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Thanks to Edwin Hayward edwin@pr2.com> JimWorld is featured in this week's Yahoo Internet Life "Guide To The Best Of The Best" published by Ziff-Davis (ZDNET) Check it out.

As luck would have it, this week ZDNet reviewed the SmartDesk WebSuite Web Server and gave it their highest rating - 5 stars! Check it out. Wait until they get their hands on the upcoming version 2.0 release <http://www.smartdesk.com/websuite/v20/>. They might have to invent a 6-star rating. 2.0 does everything except give the dog a bath. Of course, it there were enough demand.......

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Every day, about 800 of you are taking advantage of the amazing amount of information available in the Search Engine Forums. That's a lot of people getting the best information anywhere on the Net about real life tested methods of rapidly building traffic from the search engines. Webmasters are reporting back that they are getting almost immediate listings in Yahoo simply be using the simple tips in the Yahoo Forum. If you are not visiting the Forums, you are falling behind. Visit the Forums at http://searchengineforums.com/

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Voting for the Helpware look is over and there is a winner. I will be setting up the complete Helpware sub-site this week and launching it next week in the Gazette.

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If you are a game developer, you should see the new tools available for your development efforts at <http://www.smartdesk.nu/game/> The SmartDesk VirtualMachine is heading into the game world in a big way.

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Another neat trick from the VirtualMachine is the Virtual Tour system. At its most flexible, it allows a sales person to dynamically guide a remote user's browser through any series of web pages completely under the control of the sales person. Imagine having a prospective customer on the phone and instead of telling him/her to look at a web page by reading them the URL, now you can just force their browser to that page. And you can continue to move from page to page as the conversation develops until you arrive at the order page and it's back in their hands. This is a powerful selling and customer support tool that adds the one-on-one back into the Internet equation. Try it at <http://www.smartdesk.nu/tour/sdtour.htm>

NO OPPORTUNITY LEFT ON THE NET?

To take some liberty with an old saying, nature abhors a monopoly.

When competition has ceased to exist, that is when a company or technology is at its most vulnerable. That is when the maximum opportunity exists for the brave hearted. Monopolies create their own demons. Demons like indifference, cockiness, conservatism, public resentment and stagnation. When any of those demons appear on the scene, that is the signal to mount your attack. Seize the moment and run like heck towards the goal.

I remember when you asked for a Coke any time you wanted a soft drink.

When you went to the Xerox room to make Xeroxes, not copies.

When you didn't call your long distance carrier, you called Ma Bell.

When Wallmart wasn't the largest retailer in the world. In fact, they didn't exist.

When computers were made by IBM.

When cars were made in Detroit.

When televisions were made in America. All of them, instead of none of them.

So maybe you aren't going to change the course of history with your business idea. Maybe Sam Walton didn't really change the face of retailing in America. Maybe you will fail. So what? If you don't try, I guarantee you won't win.

Can't sell books on the Internet because Amazon has that all tied up? If they had actually figured out the answer to the right way to sell books on the Net, don't you think they would be making money, instead of losing millions? Maybe you'll be the one to figure all the angles and take the lead.

Can't start a niche web directory because the search engines have locked up all of the traffic? Don't tell that to the hundreds of directory operators that are making money every month serving their niche markets while the big search engines battle to see who can lose the most money each month.

Can't start a paid membership information site because people won't pay for information on the Net? Don't tell that to Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Watch who got so many paid subscribers that Meckler Media bought him out.

Don't even try to tell me that you can't do anything because everything that can be done on the web has already been done. Every day I see one or more new services or products that make me slap my forehead and exclaim 'Why didn't I think of that?'

But to topple a monopoly, you have to work hard. You have to listen to the public to find out what they are unhappy with or what they would really like to have. You have to take chances. You have to find the other guys weak spot and shoot your product arrow directly into it. Mainly, you have to try. If you fail, you can always get another job. But what if you win?

Someday you might be trying to explain to your kids what it was like back when Microsoft produced operating systems.

THE COMING TREND?

I sure hope not!

Goto.com has launched itself as a new search engine, but from all appearances, it would more accurately be called a yellow pages directory. A paid yellow pages directory.

Goto.com feels that web sites will want to pay to be listed in their 'search engine' and that they will enjoy the novelty of bidding for higher placement in the search results. Here's what they have to say about themselves:

"Monterey, CA, February 21, 1998 - idealab!, one of the Internet's leading business incubators, today announced the launch of GoTo.com <http://www.goto.com/>, the first search directory fully enabling web sites to purchase placement within search results using a real-time competitive bidding process. This new search directory removes the clutter and confusion of Internet searches by enabling consumers to find what they're looking for faster, and web sites to reach targeted consumers in the most efficient way."

"Until now, search engines have either used impersonal database search algorithms to blindly rank web pages according to keyword density or relied on the manual efforts of limited editorial staffs to review every page on the web. GoTo introduces the simple approach of empowering the marketplace to determine the ranking and relevance of search results. Using a proprietary open-auction system, GoTo posts the per-word pricing so that web sites can bid for higher placement within a list of search results for any given topic. At the same time, consumers clearly understand that placement on the list reflects a web site's desire to reach them, similar to advertisers in a yellow pages directory. This process means the interplay between consumers and advertisers will determine the value of a given click-through. Web sites will pay only for actual visits to their sites instead of for simple "exposures.""

Are you starting to recognize this 'product' yet as just a pretty face on the same old 'I'll sell you visitors for a quarter a piece for as long as you continue to pay'?

We've all seen this for a long time and it hasn't made any significant inroads into the mainstream yet, but it could catch on. Like I said, I sure hope not. Buying traffic puts a serious limitation on content developers. They will only be visited if they have money. They can only get money by selling their content to their visitors. The visitors loose. Again.

WHY GO TO CONFERENCES AND TRADE SHOWS?

This seems an appropriate time to discuss a subject we haven't had the opportunity to address before this. Trade shows and conferences.

I get a pretty steady flow of email asking questions like: "I've got my site up and looking good and traffic is building, but the sales are pretty low compared to what I need. What to do?" or "Where can I get new ideas to.........?"

One of the places, in fact the best place, to get new ideas to help you grow or solve problems (obviously, JimWorld and the Gazette are in a class of their own) is by going to trade shows and conferences. The booths on the show floor are a wonderland of new tricks, toys and tools. Everyone there is trying to show you how to increase something by using their whatever. Talk to the experts in the booths. Take home the literature and demo software. Read it, think and answers will come to you.

But the real meat is in the conference center. Tuition is usually required, but by carefully picking the presentations you attend you will come home with months worth of ideas and answers. The presenters are usually the leading experts in their particular area of expertise. That is why you pay to hear them. And the subject matter is seldom about the past, or even the now. It focuses on the future. The near future and how you can get ahead of your competition in that near future. Make them start going to conferences looking for ways to beat you!

One reason to attend shows is to meet the other people that are at the show. They can become part of your extended network. They each have areas of expertise that may blend with yours someday to solve a problem and create income for both of you. They will be able to give you ideas for your problems. Maybe they'll just motivate you by example. Potential clients, media sales reps, colleagues, etc. And the speakers are also usually attendees, so they're available for questions and general conversation during the entire conference.

When a show has an exhibit floor, take lots of business cards and a good day pack to carry the stuff you collect. Even better, have everyone send you the information so you don't get a back ache.

When you are signed up for a conference, select the presentations you want to attend carefully and prepare for them as if you were going to be tested later. You will be tested. Every day you are in business. Prepare a detailed list of problems you want answers to. Be ready when the expert says "Are there any questions?" You'd be surprised how often nobody wants to ask any questions. What a waste of a golden chance to have a high priced expert solve your problems just for the cost of admission.

Take a look at the presenters at the Thunder Lizard Web Marketing '98 conference coming up (see above) Try to tell me that you won't get a lot for your money. I've got about 100 questions for each of the presenters. So maybe you shouldn't bring your own questions.

TIPS FROM THE HITMAN - PART XXV

On reading last week's Gazette, the article on Infoseek caught my attention:

"Infoseek's submission page is down again this weekend. If you only try to submit on weekends, you are destined to fail with Infoseek. For several weeks now they have been turning submissions off on Friday and turning it back on sometime Monday."

Infoseek is also turning off the submission page late at night. As a mater of fact, it has been off every night this last week that I tried to use it. I assume it is now off every night. The following message has been appearing weekends and evenings.

"We are not accepting submissions via the Add URL at this time. We are performing routine maintenance to ensure the quality of our service. Please try again during our business hours (Pacific Standard Time)."

In addition, the following warning has been added to the instant submission page.

"By submitting a Web page to Infoseek, users agree to abide by Infoseek's Guidelines and Policies. Attempts to spam or subvert the Infoseek index will result in the exclusion of an entire site and/or domain from the Infoseek index. Repeat violators are subject to legal action."

An entire page has been devoted at Infoseek to give a detailed explanation of what they consider to be spam. Rather than go into a lengthy discussion of what is on the page, look at it a your leisure.

The word on the "street" is that there has been too much late night and weekend spamming of Infoseek using the bait and switch technique. Bait and switch is the the using of one page designed to get a good listing for a popular keyword, then switching to another page in five minutes after the quick indexing has taken place. The switched page may be adult or whatever and it may only have a life span of 12 hours, the time it takes for Infoseek to find it or get a complaint and check, but this is enough to get hundreds of hits. For instance breaking news such as when Princess Di was killed can make for thousands of hits from a Infoseek listing on the keyword every hour.

The abuse of the instant system has gotten to the point that Infoseek has had to take steps. They could have just shut down the system and gone back to the old way, but the new system has made Infoseek more popular. It is the only place you can get a legitimate "breaking news" type site on a search engine as soon as the site is up and running.

The solution as seen by Infoseek was to limit the times that a site can be submitted to the office hours when there is a staff to do the baby sitting and keep the most egregious abusers at bay. I for one am sorry to see that it has come to this, but to be honest, I am surprised it has not happened sooner. Ever since the instant submit system was put in place it has been manipulated. At first it was all word stuffing and loaded meta tags, but over time the methods have become very sophisticated. There are many sites out there now that use server side software to detect the Search Engine robots and show them one page but any other visitor gets the real page. This kind of bait and switch is tolerable if in fact the pages match the keywords. The real problem comes when the keywords are used only because they are on a list of the 100 most searched words or phrases.

Where will it end? I am not sure but we bet that the actions of the few will once again ruin a good thing on the Internet.

MORE ABOUT BLOCKING SOFTWARE

This one made me consider bringing back the Scumbag Watch column. A new player comes to the Safe Surf world. They call themselves "ChiBrow - The Parent controlled, Children's browser. Allows kids to safely explore and benefit from the Net's educational content without being placed at risk. Simple, Safe and Secure. Does not require IE or Netscape. ISP Unlimited Distribution License offered. Downloadable Evaluation Copy."

As it is one of my hot topics right now, I of course hopped over to their site at <http://www.chibrow.com>. I really enjoyed their product description. Instead of blocking objectionable sites, they deliver a list of sites that they approve of that is the limit of what the kids can see on the web. True, they tell the parents that the parents can 'allow' any other sites, but since this is for parents that don't want to have to bother with raising their kids, how often is an override going to happen?

Here's what they have to say about their product:

"How does the child browse? ChiBrow maintains a Database of allowable sites which the child can access in a Drop-Down List, at the top of the browser. Once a page is displayed, the child may browse using hyperlinks contained on the pages.

Each link is verified before allowing the child to surf away. Allowable links are those within the same domain and/or located within a domain/site that you have included in the URL Database. When the child comes across a link that he/she would like to visit, which is not currently allowed, the child can request that you enable access to that site. Note it's location (URL), Review it yourself and make your decision.

CAUTION! When allowing sites, be careful not to allow domains containing public areas for Members Web pages, such as members.aol.com... Doing so will place the child at risk, as these areas are loosely governed and controlled.

If ever there's a doubt, feel free to Email us for assistance with a questionable site. We'll investigate the site and respond with our findings.

Database Updates ChiBrow comes complete with pre-defined allowable sites that have proven to be safe. On an on-going basis we'll provide you with updates that can be uploaded into the database. Along with the update, you'll be given a description of each of the sites to be added to your database. Should you desire to disallow any of these, you can use your Supervisor Access to Update the database and then Delete those you wish to disallow."

The first tip-off I got as to how well they are going to do as the 'Guardians Of Public Morals' was the invisible-print search engine spam on their home page. Big block of invisible words like I haven't seen for a while. About 4K characters of prime spam.

They even used the spam to put their banner ads from Link Exchange way off of the screen where no one would see them so that they could get free advertising from other web sites without having to 'clutter' up their own page with ads for other sites. Of course, below the Link Exchange banner which is at least displayed at the right size, they have displayed their banner from LinkTrader so small as to be almost invisible. Way to go, ChiBrow! Next I'll be getting dozens of email spams from you every day. Then commercial posts to discussion lists and newsgroups. I strongly suggest you hire an ethical promotion consultant to clean up your image.

They did miss the opportunity to add a HitBox 1000 counter to their site, and putting it on every page to artificially inflate their hit counts. I'm sure they'll get around to it.

E-COMMERCE FRAUD

The Game has Changed!

This is my 5th in a series of articles written to assist small businesses conducting E-commerce. The focus of these articles has been on preventing credit card fraud committed against merchants.

In previous articles I have covered several techniques and tools we use that have greatly reduced our losses due to this type of fraud. I was afraid this fifth article would have to be a re-hash of my previous material, but I have been graced on two fronts that have spared you from such a re-hash.

On one front - the site we have been working on is up and ready to assist you. Go to <http://antifraud.com>. Among other things you will find a summary of my previous articles under the "Fraud Prevention Tips" page. On the other front, it seems certain criminals out there are getting a little smarter when it comes to committing online fraud.

If I didn't know better, I would swear these guys must have read my previous articles and have adjusted their methods to compensate. However, what I'm about to cover is no reason to panic. In any criminal activity there are usually three classes of perpetrators. First, you have you rank amateurs who are easily thwarted with simple precautions. Then you have your "small-time hoods" who, while a little more proficient than the rank amateurs, are not much more of a threat. Then you have the professionals. These guys do this for a living and have enough smarts to outwit the precautions that deter the others. Fortunately, their numbers are few.

You may recall some of my previous suggestions for preventing the majority of online fraud. We no longer accept any orders from a free, or web-based, or Email forwarding address. This list is currently over 700 and about to increase to over 1500 as soon as we update our database next week. Secondly, unless we recognize the Email domain as being from one of the large ISP's such as ibm.net, mci2000.com, earthlink.net, etc., we always go to a browser and put a "www." in front of the Email domain to look at the website associated with that domain. We make a determination from there where to check further. We also use coding on our order forms that captures the IP address of the sender.

So how has the game changed? We have encountered 3 different cases of this during the last two weeks. I am not making any accusations nor condemnations, nor am I suggesting that you refuse to accept orders from the individual cited in the example below. I am merely stating facts as we discovered them. You will have to draw you own conclusions. OK - my lawyers say I can continue now:

On February 21, 1998 at 1:53a.m. EST, an individual placed an order for our Web Promotion Spider software using the name of Alex Williams from Nashville, Tennessee. "Alex" placed his order using a Master Card and the Email address of dknight@dknight.com. Since this is neither a free nor an ISP based Email address, I went to <http://www.dknight.com>. As of Sunday, March 01, 1998, the page as I first saw it is still there. In case its gone if you want to check it out, it was nothing more than a "Under construction, come back later" page.

This made me a little uneasy so I quickly went to <http://antifraud.com/ipcheck.htm> to do a WhoIs on the domain name of "dknight.com". I quickly found this domain is registered to a Mr. Fahad Al Blehed with both phone and fax numbers of 000-000-0000. This made me even more uneasy so I used the same form to WhoIs the IP address he was using at the time he placed the order. You know, its funny, the IP address of 195.34.28.87 belongs to the PTTNET Dialup Network - out of Moscow, Russia.

Now, you can call me paranoid or overly suspicious, but I sort of doubted that Mr. "Alex Williams" of Nashville, TN was over in Russia placing an order for web promotion software for a site that barely existed. A quick call to VISA/Master Card security confirmed the card number provided belonged to neither "Alex Williams" nor "Fahad Blehed." The card was immediately put on hold while the actually card holder could be contacted and, needless to say, I did not process the order.

Had I processed the order, I would have been out not only the $100 software but also a $15 chargeback fee when the actual card holder disputed all the charges. So, was all the extra effort worth it? It took me less than 3 minutes to complete all the steps above, including the call to VISA. I saved a $115 plus a blemish on my merchant account record. Let's see, $115 for 3 minutes of work, that works out to $2,300 per hour. My corporate attorneys barely make that much :-)

In another case, we received an order from a shihwai@acsshell.net. This domain belongs to a Mr. Chong Shihwai of Shihwai Networks located in West Caldwell, NJ. Unfortunately, there is no such person. However, the individual that does live at the address found by doing a WhoIs on this domain has received over a half-dozen invoices from Internic for domains the real culprit has registered and is using as fronts to commit credit card fraud. In our case it was a stolen VISA card from Australia. The poor guy in West Caldwell has received hundreds of phone calls from merchants trying to track down Mr. Shihwai.

As a side note, I went the extra step in all these cases and contacted the System Administrators of both the hosting services and the ISP's to alert them to the illegal activity being conducted by these individuals. Hopefully, I stopped them from victimizing too many other merchants.

Review all the steps we use on our AntiFraud.Com site. Take an extra step or two if you are at all suspicious. You might save yourself and many others from getting burnt by these guys. If you would like additional tools and technology to automate these techniques, please consider becoming an active member of AntiFraud.Com. And, be careful out there.

SNIPPETS

I love those little graphics that change every time you move your mouse over them. In a web-world where names usually have nothing to do with the subject, it's also nice to see that they are called 'mouse overs'. The only problem with them is that they are really tedious to write. Really tedious.

Now comes Charity Kahn to the rescue. Featured by C/NET as 'SuperScripter', Charity presents the Mouseover Machine, a realtime, online tool to create the Javascript and HTML code you need to put into your page in order to have mouse overs on your site. Just answer a few simple questions, cut and paste and as if by magic your page comes to light -- for most browsers. Be aware that Javascript doesn't work on older, off brand browsers (like IE) but it does work for most people (meaning: Netscape) so go create some painless animation.

While you are there, check out the other cool interactive tool builders.

Window builder lets you generate the Javascript code you need to be able to open a new browser window with full control over the features of the window. Size. toolbars at the top or not. Resizable. All kinds of control.

Cookie Cutter generates the Javascript code needed for you to issue cookies to your visitors. Very cool tool.

Menu Maker generates the code needed to put Javascript menus on your pages. Very handy tool. Try this one out.

Charity's tools are so handy, I even bookmarked her site.

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Hi Jim

I would like to share something I hope would be of help to readers of the Gazette. I am putting together a directory of real estate agents. In doing so I am going to a lot of real estate web sites. I would like to bring up something I am seeing a lot of. On a good number of sites when you click on their e-mail link it brings up a fill out form. I have nothing against fill out forms I use one on my site. What bothers me is that on most of the sites that have the fill out form they leave no alternative for people whose web browser does not support forms or people who would rather not fill out all the information the form asks for. On a lot of the sites I have been visiting lately I have searched for an e -mail address that could be used in lieu of the fill out form and can not find one. In designing our web sites we need to remember not everyone has the latest greatest web browser that supports forms. And even if a person's web browser does support forms, maybe they would be more comfortable just sending an old fashioned e-mail.

Ray Childs
Find a real estate agent anywhere in the USA
<http://childs.olm.net/re/agents.htm>

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This week's traffic held steady at 1.25 cents per visitor from my usage of Link-O-Matic free for all submission services. Try out Link-O-Matic at <http://www.linkomatic.com/index.cgi?10097>