The 4 Ws of Junk E-mail

Junk e-mail or spam has become the scourge of the modern computer world. It eats bandwidth. Spam is like a disease. It doesn’t care about age, religion, wealth. It doesn’t discriminate. Junk e-mail affects us all.

There are 4 keys to the junk mail question – Who, What, Where and Why.

Who they are

The typical profile of a junk mail sender is as follows. Male, 18 – 30 years of age, single, technically competent and with little regard for their status as a public nuisance. There are female junk mailers out there but, unfortunately, this is predominantly a male preserve.

What they use to send spam

There are many tools available to the spam merchant. The main ones are e-mail extractors, newsgroup harvesters and CD lists.

E-mail extractors are programs which wander around the Internet gathering e-mail addresses from websites and often from web based forums (unprotected forums). A “good” e-mail extractor can gather 15,000 e-mail addresses per hour.

Newsgroup harvesters are programs which search through newsgroups for valid e-mail addresses. Most newsgroups users are aware of this and take measures to counteract these harvesting programs. Despite these measures a newsgroup harvester application can gather 20,000 – 30,000 e-mail addresses in an hour.

CD lists are one of the worst sources. 90 million e-mail addresses available on a single CD for as little as $20. A lot of the addresses on these CDs would be junk (many would no longer exist) but an equally large number of these addresses would be valid. A CD like this is a junk mailers dream.

Where they do it from

Those involved in sending out bulk e-mail are “entrepreneurs” or at least they think so. The vast majority of those involved in the spam business are self-employed and work from home. Sending spam is almost the ideal home based business. You name your hours and the business itself is almost automatic. Maximum gain from minimum effort.

Why they do it in the first place

Their motivation is money. Considerable amounts of cash actually. Each spammer who sends out 1,000,000 junk e-mails is certain of approximately 100 sales. Many of the products they sell are worth $50 - $100 dollars to them in commission. Yes. Shocking isn’t it? The average bulk mailer earns in excess of $100,000 per year! Maximum return for minimum effort. Unless of course you get caught and get jail time.

Know How DNS Works

Know How DNS Works
by: Pawan Bangar


Domain name Servers (DNS) are an important but invisible part of the internet, and form one of the largest databases on it. Each machine on an internet is assigned a unique address, called an IP address, which is 32 bit number and is expressed as 4 octets. The method user to represent these IP addresses is known as dotted decimal Notation". A typical address looks like this: 199.249.150.4

It is very difficult to keep in mind the IP addresses of all the websites we visit daily, because it's not easy to remember strings of numbers. However, we do remember words. This is where domain names come into the picture. If you want to connect to a particular site, you need to know its IP address but do need to know its URL. The DNS gets the mappings of the IP addresses and the corresponding names.

Names and numbers

DNS converts the machine names (such as www.xyz.com) to IP addresses (such as 199.249.150.9). Basically, it translates from a name to an address and from an address to a name.

The mapping from the IP address to the machine name is called reverse mapping .when you type http://www.xyz.com into your browser, the browser first needs to get the IP address of www.xyz.com. The machine uses a directory service to look up IP addresses and this service is called DNS. When you type www.xyz.com your machines firsts contacts a DNS server, asking it to find the IP address for www.xyz.com. This DNS server might then contact other DNS servers on the internet. DNS is therefore is considered as the global network of servers. The great advantage of DNS is that no organization is responsible for updating it. It is what is known as distributed database.

The three letter codes

A DNS server is just a computer that's running the DNS software. The most popular DNS software is BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) DNS is hierarchical, tree-structured system. The top is donated by'.'. And is known as the root of the system. Below the root there are seven immediate sub domain nodes and these are 'com', 'org', 'gov', 'mil', 'net', 'edu', 'Int', etc.

DNS consists of two components

1. Nameserver
2. Resolver

Nameserver:

This performs the task of looking up the names. Usually, there is one nameserver for a cluster of machines. If the nameserver does not contain the requested information, it will contact another nameserver. But it is not required for every server to know how to contact every other server. Every nameserver will know how to contact the root nameserver, and this in turn will know the location of every authoritative nameserver for all the second level domains.

Resolver:

This runs on a client machine to initiate DNS lookups. It contains a list of nameservers to use. As we have read, the function of each of these nameservers is to resolve name queries. There are three types of nameservers-primary nameserver, secondary nameserver, and caching nameserver. The secondary nameservers are configured for backup purposes. Caching nameservers only resolve name queries but do not maintain any DNS database files. It is important to note here that any change to primary nameservers needs to be propagated to secondary nameservers. This is because primary nameservers own the database records. The changes are propagated via a 'zone transfer'.

HOW 'CACHING"WORKS

DNS uses principle of 'caching' for its operation. When a nameservers receives Information about a mapping, it caches this information .further queries for the same mapping will use this cached result, thereby reducing the search cost. The nameservers don't cache forever. The caching has a component called time to live (TTL) and the TTL determines how long a server will cache a piece of information. So when the nameservers caches receive an IP address, it receives the TTL with it. The nameserver caches the IP address for the period of time then discards it.

When a process needs to determine an IP address given a DNS address, it calls upon the local host to resolve the address. This can be done in variety of ways:

Table look up. On UNIX hosts, the table is /etc/hosts.

The process communicates with a local nameservers. This is named on a UNIX system.

By sending a massage to the remote system that is identified from the information in the file/etc/resolve.conf.

When a nameserver receives a query for a domain that is does not serve, it may send back a referral to the client by specifying better nameservers. Typically operate in the recursive manner wherein any DNS server passes requests it cannot handle to higher level server and so on, until either the request can be handled or until the root of the DNS name space is reached.

The nameservers contain pointers to other nameserver with the help of which it is possible to traverse the entire domain naming hierarchy. A host with the initial nameserver addresses has to be configured. After this, it is able to use DNS protocols to locate the nameserver responsible for any part or the DNS naming hierarchy.

Thus when a nameserver receives a request, it can do one of the following:

It can answer the request with an IP address. This method is called iterative. In this, the client simply asks the server to resolve a domain name. The server accesses its database, finds its IP address and sends that back. If the server does not find the address, it sends back an error ;DNS not found'). Contact another nameserver and try to find the IP address for the requested name. Send back a referral to the client specifying the IP address of better nameservers.

A popular user interface, called 'nslookup'is available on the UNIX system. With this, you can perform any DNS function. This program also displays the result to the user. Using is nslookup, you can obtain a listing of all the hosts in a zone. In order to do this, you first need to identify the nameserver for the zone.

The threats that are associated with the DNS are due to the lack of integrity and authenticity checking of the data held within the DNS. Also, other protocols can use host names as an access control mechanism. The internet engineering task force (IETF) has come up with DNS security (DNSSEC) extensions to DNS protocol. The main objective to DNSSEC is to provide authentication and integrity to the DNS. These are provided through the use of cryptographic'

About The Author

Pawan Bangar,
Technical Director,
Birbals, Ebirbals, SeoBirbals, Hbirbals
India.
Visit us at:
www.birbals.com
www.ebirbals.com
www.hbirbals.com
pawan@ebirbals.com

This article was posted on September 22, 2003

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How to Achieve # 1 on Free Hosting

A domain name and paid hosting are considered essential for an internet marketer.Majority of the websites that are successful have their own domain name and a paid host.However , is it possible to run a successful website on free hosting ?

A lot of people will answer no to that question.But it is very much possible if the right marketing techniques are applied.First of all , what is free hosting ? A website is basically stored for free on a company’s server and in return some will put their ads on your site for free.

This can be very annoying indeed sometimes.In the case where there are two or more pop-up ads displayed , some people will not bother to look at your content.

Another thing to look at is that you will lose some credibility. Having a website on free hosting will not show you up as being truly professional. People will wonder what are you doing with your revenue if you generate any.

Still, this can be overcome to a certain degree. How can this be done ? Simply. By giving your visitors the best quality information as possible. Make that the best original content.

Optimising your website is also key. Title, description and keywords tags are very important to your site’s success. The title, description and keyword tag combination can send your ranking mile high. Test several variations and see which one works best.

Link popularity can make or break your website. Almost all of the major search engines use this as the main factor when giving you a ranking. You need to find quality websites similar to yours to link with. The more quality links, the better it is for you.

So, you still don’t believe it is possible ? My very first website is hosted free on the Geocities network. It has achieved #1 and top ten positions in dozens of search term categories on MSN, Google, Yahoo, Lycos, Excite and AOL.com.Plus two awards.

A domain name and paid hosting are considered essential for an internet marketer. However, if these are not in place your website can still be successful. All you need to do is apply yourself and the right marketing techniques.

P.S. A little secret here. A positive mindset is the best marketing tool you possess. Learn to use it wisely in your marketing campaigns.

How To Host Several Websites Under One Account

If you operate several websites, each with its own domain name, signing up of separate hosting accounts can be an expensive proposition. Even if your hosting company offers the add-on domain feature (which will allow you to add different domains to the same hosting account) you will be charged a monthly fee for each domain you add, sometimes costing almost the same as your full hosting fee.

The solution is to open a reseller account. Reseller accounts were created to allow web designers to offer hosting services to their customers, to create a one-stop-shop for all their web design and hosting needs. However, you don't need to be a reseller to buy a reseller hosting plan.

Reseller accounts are usually slightly more expensive than regular hosting accounts, but they will allow you to host different domain names without incurring in the add-on domain fees, making more efficient use of your space and bandwidth.

You want to choose a reseller account that offers:

* no limit to the number of domains you can add.
* the possibility of hosting your main website free, without using any of the space and bandwidth in your hosting plan. If you are a reseller, your main website will be your business website, and the space and bandwidth will be reserved for your customers. If you are not a reseller and just want to manage different websites, you can designate one of your domains as your main website (usually the largest and/or most popular, since you won't accrue any space or bandwidth for it).
* the possibility of upgrading to another plan without any penalties or fees.

To find out how much space and bandwidth you will need, first determine how many sites you are likely to host, how many pages each site may have, and how many visits will those sites most likely have. If you plan to host 10 sites with 20 pages each, at an average of 50KB per page and 100 page views per site per day, you will need 10MB of space (10 x 20 x 50KB) and 1.5GB of bandwidth per month (10 x 100 x 50KB x 30).

As far as pricing is concerned, there are reseller accounts costing as little as $10 / month up to several hundreds (or even thousands). It all depends on your requirements and the hosting company you choose, so shop around to get the best possible deal in terms of cost and reliability.

World On IP Community versus Telecoms' Monopoly

World on IP community versus the TELECOMS' monopoly or a dream of a visionary

Why VOIP will grow over the usual telephony

Without qualification, if one had to choose between usual telephone lines or IP telephony for carrying the voice, the first would be a better fit for the needs of voice communications. Also, IP telephony is generally subject to transmission delays.

Voice communications is highly sensitive to delays or irregularities in the transmission of voice signal components.

Even when transmitted in digital form, not only must the transmission delay be small (so as to be imperceptible to the listener), but also the time between the arrival of digital signal samples at the receiving end of a transmission must be at regular intervals. Any significant form of delay, whether delay of all samples or one sample relative to the other, can significantly degrade the quality of the voice signal recreated at the far end of the transmission.

Besides, Ip telephony during network congestion is subject to the loss of "packets" and with them part of the words of a conversation.

In the usual telephone lines, this doesn't occure, because new calls are blocked from entering the network and there is no network congestion.

Why so much activity was spent in the last few years to overcome these problems?

Now, we are definetly able to offer a very good and reliable VOIP , with phones that can be used also on a Modem or ISDN connection. ( very attractive for the countries that are mostly penalized with high cost of telephone charges: India, Africa and rural zones in general.) A high compression and a new algorithm for it will allow the transmission of voice without any delay, the priority given to the voice packets will kill the congestion, all this resulting in a gorgeous quality of voice.

Although voice communications continues to dominate the market today, this will ultimately change as data communications grows at 100% per year, ( in Italy last year we had a 250% growth of DSL lines and they say next year will even be better) while voice only increases by 8 to 10% per year. Thus, the doubling of the existing lines ( creation of voice over IP world ) only makes sense in the case the data customers want to use the data line for voice communications as well. For example, a multi-location user that uses a commercial data network service to connect those customer locations might want to cut down expenses by using that same network for voice communications, as well. It has been estimated that companies can lower their communications costs by as much as 80% by placing their voice traffic through the unused space in their data networks .

How we plan to compete with the giant Telecoms of today

Entering the market against the Telecoms is downright dangerous and potentially fatal in today's capital environment. The net revenue derived from investment should be small relatively to the size of the investment. A single large business may generate many thousands of dollars per month in revenues for an investor , while a big residential consumers investment would generate very little revenue compared to the infrastructures required.

That considered, it should not surprise us if firms try and serve large businesses rather than residential customers.

If competition is less likely when the revenue is small relative to the size of the investment, there are three ways to increase competition in a market:

a) increase revenue

b) reduce the investment required

c) do both.

What has all this to do with being a Utopistic dreamer or visionary as many defined me while I explained my project?

I have an exciting project, which, if succesfull, will allow all the people who own a DSL line to be able to call the world with a portable IP phone. I will try to explain it as much as possible ( you can also see my web pages at http://www.worldonip.com/community. )

It is very simple.

Instead of sharing the bandwidth to download illegal MP3 or movies, we share it to telephone for free.

You need to connect to your DSL line an Access Point, to place the antenna on a window. You do not even need to have the computer on 24 hours a day, just connecting the access point. You will create a " Hot Spot" that every other member of the community will be able to use. You will then need a (real) portable IP phone, you will connect to the Net either through your own Hot Spot or through the hot spot of any other member, wherever you will be ( all the continents will have people sharing hot spots. )

A call with our device consumes maximum 20 k, thanks to to high compression of the voice and the quality is absolutely gorgeous.

Our telephone will have a price around 200 - 250 US dollars. An access point costs not more than 100 US dollars. The value of the investment highly overcomes the amount.

Imagine, being able to call for free for the rest of your life!!! And imagine what kind of doors opens a connection like that!

Going back to the market competition.

In my particular case

a) Increase the revenue. Every member would have enormous revenues under the voice" Free call wherever he wants".

b) Reduce the investment. Being a shared investment, every member will invest in the enterprise the cost of an Access point ( around $100 or even less). Considering that in the beginning we will have members who already have a DSL line with a flat rate, and already use it for other purposes, also the cost of running the system and relative bandwidth will amount to almost zero. The cost of the phone is irrilevant compared to the benefit of having FREE CALLS.

Not only does the Community reduce the investment required to provide a competitive service to almost ZERO, it also significantly reduces the risk involved in funding a telecom start-up venture. The Community allows an entrant to begin a new service at minimal sunk capital cost.

Further, once a critical mass of customers is signed up on the Community, it becomes far more cost effective for the entrant to build a new " Hot Spot".

To the unskilled eye, it appears as if the competition envisioned by the authors of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for residential and small business markets was not much more than a dream - an unrealized and unrealizable nirvana.

The project of the Community is making that dream a reality and offers the potential for building a really strong TELECOM able to compete against the World Telecoms' monopoly.

Our model is easy to realize ( because the infrastructure already exists), brings enormous revenues to the members of the Community and the investment is really minimal.

Without considering the NON-Polluting system that will be created in competition to a Highly polluting system existing.

World on Ip community versus Telecoms' monopoly. A real challenge?

Patrizia Demaria

What is PTRE and Is It Worth Your Time?

PTRE stands for Paid To Read Email programs. Online companies that pay you to read email that they send to you. You get paid when you click a link in the email and visit the site that they’re advertising, usually for a set amount of time.

Here are steps you should take before joining a PTRE program:

* Check the Programs Terms - Some PTRE programs don’t pay until you accumulate $200. It’s unlikely you’ll ever reach that amount, especially with what some of these companies are paying per email read. I personally don’t join a program that’s payout minimum is higher than $10, unless they offer bonuses. You’ll also find what countries they’ll allow you to join from.

* Signup Bonus - Do they offer you a sign up bonus when you first join? This can be important, especially if their payout minimum is high. Some companies will either offer a signup bonus or a referral bonus of a set amount.

* Categories – When you sign up do they offer to send you emails to categories you’re interested in. Most programs allow you to pick from a list of categories that they want to receive emails about.

* Payment Per Email Read - Realistically you can earn between .025 and 3 cents per email link. Many programs will offer to pay you more, but never do or if they do you’ll only get one email per month from them. Programs will often send more than one link advertisement per email and/or a few emails to you per day.

* Point Emails - Most programs also offer you points to read emails. Points are usually redeemable for advertising on the programs site and/or entries to win prizes.

* Referrals - See how much commission you’ll make on the people you refer to the PTRE program. Also see how many levels deep their referral program goes. Referrals do help, but be realistic on how much you’ll earn on your downline.

* Payouts - Most PTRE programs offer you advertisement options before you reach the cash out level. In other words, if the minimum cash payout level is $10 you can often redeem $2 for an ad campaign on their site.

* Advertising - Whether you pay cash or use your points to advertise on a PTRE site it’s a good investment. Most programs offer targeted advertising. The people that receive your ad have requested the category your offer belongs to. You can also track your stats to see how well your campaign did.

Here are 3 other ways PTRE programs also offer to make you some money:

1. Paid To Search - Get paid to search from the programs site or from search sites their affiliated with. Many times you’ll receive paid search links in your email.

2. Paid To Click - Get paid to click on banners and/or links in the programs paid to click section. You usually have to stay on the visited site for a set time to receive credit (an average of 30 seconds).

3. Paid To Join – Offering a set amount of money for you to join programs, services, newsletters and other related offers. Some programs even pay you a commission to shop from their site.

You won’t get rich with PTRE programs, but you can earn a few bucks, plus quality advertising for your site. Just make sure you don’t get carried away and join too many programs or you’ll be clicking emails for an hour a day.

For a list of quality PTRE programs with full descriptions visit http://www.links2see.com/email.html

SOBIG.F Virus Promises "I'll Be Back"

On 21 August 2003 Symantec Security Response upgraded the W32.SOBIG.F threat to a category 4.

It is the sixth version of this worm.

SOBIG.F follows a computer worm known as "Blaster," or "MSBlaster," which infected at least 500,000 computers all over the world only a week ago. The “Nachi” worm which is designed to protect pcs from “Blaster” caused its own havoc including infiltrating unclassified computers on the Navy-Marine intranet and the collapse of the check-in system of Air Canada.

Associated Press has stated that 1 in 17 emails sent around the world has been infected.

According to Paul Wood of MessageLabs it took anti-virus companies at least 12 hours to release updated software to combat the worm.

W32.Sobig.F@mm is, in fact, a worm, not a virus. This worm sends itself to every email address it finds in files with the following extensions:

* .TXT
* .WAB
* .MHT
* .HTML
* .HTM
* .HLP
* .EML
* .DBX

The “SOBIG” worm is found in emails in your inbox with the following subject headings:

* RE: DETAILS
* RE: THANK YOU!
* RE: YOUR APPLICATION
* RE: YOUR DETAILS
* RE: DETAILS
* RE: APPROVED
* RE: THAT MOVIE
* RE: WICKED SCREENSAVER

I have personally received emails with all of these subject headings on a daily basis. The body of the email simply refers you to an attached file. It is absolutely critical that you DO NOT open this attachment. It is this attachment that contains the “SOBIG” worm.

The “SOBIG” worm is attached to files with the following names:

* Movie0045.pif
* Your_document.pif
* Thank_you.pif
* Document_all.pif
* Details.pif
* Document_9446.pif
* Wicked_scr.scr
* Application.pif

The last day on which the “SOBIG” worm will spread is 9 September, 2003. Although this means email address collection and mass-mailing will stop at that date a computer infected with the worm will still try to download updates from master servers even after this date.

The worm affects Windows 95, 98, Me, Nt, 2000 and XP but leaves Unix, OS/2, Windows 3.x, Macintosh and Linux unaffected.

Thankfully Symantec Security Response has created a removal tool which is free to clean an infected computer. To access Symantec’s free removal tool visit: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sobig.f@mm.html

For a free virus scan visit: http://www.stop-sign.com

This past month’s computer attacks follows a historical trend – virus activity surges when college students have free time on their hands in the summer.

However, there is a suspicion that these kind of virus attacks may be driven by profit motives because worms such as SOBIG.F place a “trojan horse” on infected drives of unsuspecting pc owners which allows spammers to quickly distribute millions of unsolicited emails around the world.

Poorly designed software is declared the main cause of increased virus activity by computer designers as software is often distributed without appropriate amounts of testing.

Microsoft last year announced its intention to slow down software development so that software can be made more safe from infiltration.

Regardless of the cause, here is the reality:

* Sobig.A was found on January 9 2003 with no expiry.
* Sobig.B was found on May 18, expiring May 31 2003.
* Sobig.C was found on May 31, expiring on June 8 2003.
* Sobig.D was found on June 18, expiring on July 2 2003.
* Sobig.E was found on June 25, expiring on July 14 2003.
* Sobig.F was found on August 19, to expire 10 September 2003.

The spread of the SOBIG.F worm is being hailed the fastest ever.

History, therefore, tells us that Sobig.G is, in fact, just around the corner, faster and stronger than each of its predecessors.

As Sobig.F nears its expiry on 10 September 2003 I can almost envisage its evil grin as it declares, “I’ll be back.”

Convert Your Passions Into Dollars

On Cyberspace (Internet), there is a method from which you can make thousands of dollars per month without needing to have your own product or service. This method is highly flexible, and can be used in different forms to produce income by different people with different knowledge and skills. But one definite use of this method can make money for almost any human who is willing to just do it. This specific style can be defined as:

Transform Your Hobbies or Passions into Income Generating Websites

How? Through Affiliate Programs – The Method for Anyone to Go Smiling All The Way to the Bank, or to Wait Laughing Every Month While Waiting Commission Checks To Come to Your Feet. Let’s talk about...

Affiliate Programs

In 1997, Amazon.com launched the pre-existing idea of affiliate programs. (Amazon.com practically sells anything, but primarily books, and sells online only).

Since books are all-inclusive on any subject of human activity, Amazon.com thought why not utilize all websites out there, who offer knowledge, in such a way that these websites will offer links from their sites to Amazon.com (thus boosting traffic levels and revenue for Amazon.com), and Amazon.com in return will pay commissions to the referrer (affiliate) for each product sold. That's how affiliate programs started and the idea circulated.

An affiliate program works, using Amazon as the example, as follows; the affiliate provides links from his site to certain books on the Amazon site, books that are related to the affiliate's site content. Amazon uses advanced software that tracks who sends each visitor. If and when the visitor buys, Amazon pays the affiliate a commission. Affiliate program is a service offered to people who want to make money.

Affiliate programs work for anyone, since there are thousands of merchant companies out there who offer affiliate programs on thousands of different products. Online Businesses that offer Affiliate Program are broad in scope; Computing & Internet, Fun & Entertainment, Health & Fitness, Home & Family, Marketing & Advertising, Money & Employment, Society & Culture, Sports & Recreation. There are, surely, offline businesses that offer partnership too, but this article is indifferent to Offline Business. At any rate, online business is immensurable easier then an offline business and success rate is higher, partly owing to the easiness of starting an online business, and also due to the fact that online business stands steadfast in front of a Global Massive Market, instead of a Local Market. Of course this may not always be true. Success of some businesses depends on promotional efforts.

Let’s Get Back To Affiliate Programs:

All the book-keeping, order processing, shipping and handling is taken care by Merchant companies. Your only goal is to make people click on the link which will send them to the merchant company. And Its FREE Join affiliate programs.

Broad nature of affiliate programs makes it possible for anyone to leverage Internet, which brings us to the specific method I mentioned on the headline.

Transforming your hobbies into income generating websites

Let me tell you one thing before going further, To transmute hobbies into income is only one way to make money through affiliate programs. There are other ways, such as, if you have an established business, you can promote related affiliate products on your website as recommendations. If you are conducting an e-mail campaign then you can advertise affiliate products in your e-mail campaigns. The way I am talking about is largely desirable for beginners, but it is universal. Let’s move on…

People who have website

Take a look at any website that doesn't sell anything but has some content on a particular subject, and you will find an online business that will offer an affiliate programs for that subject. And the owner of that website can make money. So if you own a website, consider searching for a related affiliate program(s).

If your website is about Movies, you can get affiliated with Amazon.com and get access to their movie database; you can advertise anyone of their Movies on your website and get commissions if any visitor from your website follows your advertisement and buys from Amazon.com. As I said earlier, companies identify which visitor came from which affiliate by the use of advanced software technology. Each Affiliate has a unique URL that points to the merchant company. When you get affiliated with any company you are told how exactly this tracking process is handled.

People who don't have website

If you don’t own a website, then here is what you can do if you are interested in affiliate business (this is only one way to do it, I just want to give you an idea, but remember, most companies will give you tips and tricks to jump-start once you get affiliated with them).

One way which works well for many people is to concentrate on a small niche. Choose a topic in which you are passionately interested, and create a web site around that theme. Then select associate programs which closely fit the theme of your site and blend them into the site, using text links.

* Write articles or find articles with reprint rights that match your passions. You can find articles with reprint rights on http://www.articlebank.com

* Select affiliate programs that fit the theme of your articles

* Create an informative website containing these nice Articles. To create a quality website, I recommend http://www.websitewizard.com. With this service you can create a website if you can stack blocks.

* Ingrain into your website, your unique affiliate links, wherever you see fit.

* Once your website is ready, promote it by submitting to search engines. I have provided for you a free software that will submit your website to search engines. Click here to download.

This is what might happen; supposing that people are now visiting your website. Interested People will come and read your articles; they will like your webpage (for whatever reason) and will perceive that you know what you are talking about and so check out your recommendations (your affiliate advertisements), and they might click and buy through them. Thus, you will make commissions. Of course, that’s only a possible outcome. Whatever I am saying in this article is not scientific or proven information. You might make money or not. But it largely depends on your website content, and your promotion.

Affiliate Programs are very good way to make money, since you don’t need to own products.

There is one other advantage for signing up with affiliate programs, which is, you get extensive, tested and proven marketing materials, tips and tricks on how to improve your promotion and get more visitors to your website, hence bigger commissions. All this material is yours free if you sign up with their program. Why? Because your success is their success.

Do-It-Yourself Keyword Optimization

Do-It-Yourself Keyword Optimization
by: Mario Sanchez


The first step in a search engine optimization campaign is to choose your keywords or keyphrases for each of your web pages. Keywords are the terms that search engine users type in the search box to conduct a query. The right keywords are those that:

1. clearly describe the purpose and content of your site, and,
2. allow your site to show up as close to the first results page as possible.

A good position doesn't depend only on your choice of keywords. It also depends on how well do you position those keywords in your web page, and how many quality external pages link to you. However, choosing the wrong keywords can throw off your entire search engine optimization strategy, so you need to invest a few hours and make sure you do it right.

Let's start with your homepage. Look at it carefully and write down the words and phrases that best define your site. Try to form two or three word phrases, since competition for one-word keyphrases is fierce, and it is virtually impossible to get a top position for them. That is why, from now on, we will talk about keyphrases, not keywords.

Once you have developed your list of potential keyphrases you are ready for the next step: to analyze the demand and supply for those keyphrases, and choose the best ones (those with good demand and not enough supply).

We will first check the demand for your selected keyphrases. For this, we will go to Overture's Search Term Suggesion Tool:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Overture is a popular pay-per-click search engine (as we know, pay-per-click search engines are the only ones that disclose keyword poplularity for free). You will then type each of the keyphrases you selected, and see how many people search for those terms. This tool will show you only those searches conducted in Overture (and only in one month time). However, the relative popularity of each search term will be very similar in other search engines as well.

In addition to telling you if your selected keyphrases are popular, this tool will show you other keyphrases that you may not have thought about, which may even be more relevant to your site. For example, if your first keyphrase was "Italian Restaurant", the Search Term Suggestion Tool will also display other popular search terms, like: "Gourmet Italian Restaurant", "Northern Italian Restaurant", "Italian Restaurant Pizzeria", "Italian Restaurant Miami", etc. You may also try other keyphrases, for example: "Italian Cuisine", and come up with more specific keyphrases, like: "Fine Italian Cuisine", "Italian Cuisine Miami", "Northern Italian Cuisine", "Italian Cuisine Fine Dining", "Gourmet Italian Cuisine", etc.

What you have done is to validate and enlarge your pool of popular, in-demand, potential keyphrases for your web page.

The next step is to check the supply, or, in other words, to see how much competition there is for your selected keywords. Naturally, you want to focus on keyphrases where competition is less fierce. For example, chosing "Italian Restaurant" alone will certainly hurt you. There are so many of them that your chances of showing up in an advantagous position within the search results are pretty slim.

Having said that, get your list of keyphrases, go to Google ( http://www.google.com ) and type-in each of them in the search box. Enter your keyphrases within quotation marks (to filter-out less relevant results), and see how many results each individual query produces, making a note of those with a relatively small number of results (less competition). You will stick with the keyphrase that:

1. Best describes the topic and content of your page.
2. Is a popular search term according to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool.
3. Generates a relatively small number of results after performing the Google search.

If "Gourmet Italian Restaurant" is the keyphrase that best meets these three criteria, it will become your primary keyphrase. To get even better results, you can choose a second keyphrase to make your page more relevant to an even more specific niche. For example, if your restaurant is in Miami, you can consider "Miami" a second keyphrase.

Once you have chosen the keyphrases for you homepage, do the same for the other pages on your site.

You will then take your selected keyphrases and optimize your pages heavily for them. This involves placing them in strategic locations in the title, headings and body of each page.

About The Author

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), an online collection of web design and Internet marketing articles and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, newsletter or ebook.

This article was posted on August 15, 2003

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Professional Web Surfer Offers Tricks Of The Trade

Library assistant turned Yahoo! Canada surfer, Kate McCabe shares search tips.

(NC)—After working as an educational administrator, a library assistant, and a movie reviewer, Kate McCabe admits that her career path took an unexpected turn when she became a professional Web surfer.

"I was looking for a career change when one of my colleagues suggested that I apply for a job at Yahoo!," said McCabe. "At first I wasn't sure what kind of job I could expect but my diverse interests and my passion for Canada were exactly what they wanted in a Web surfer."

Many say it's the human touch and expertise that differentiates Yahoo! Canada Search (www.yahoo.ca) from other online search engines, many of which rely strictly on algorithms to pull together search results. As the company's surfing manager, McCabe's main job responsibility is to help users find the information they want. As well, because Canadian users are primarily looking for Canadian sites she ensures the search and directory functions reflect this need. For example, Canadian sites appear at the top of the main directory categories and are noted with a Canadian flag.

McCabe also spends a great deal of time studying people's searches to help determine how Yahoo! Canada can best present search results and help people find what they are looking for, witnessing first-hand the common mistakes consumers make when researching information online.

The most common pitfalls include selecting search terms that are either too specific or too vague, or entering terms that have dual meanings. For example, when you type the word, "Iroquois," are you seeking facts about Iroquois native people or are you looking for information on HMSC Iroquois or are you hoping to find information on Iroquois Falls, Ontario?

With search challenges such as these, the importance of someone like McCabe comes in with her skill to direct your search so it produces category results for both topics.

Tapping into her experience as a library assistant, she offers a simple tip: before you begin an online search, imagine you are at a library information desk describing a book for which you are looking. The more accurately you can describe your search, the more likely you will get better results.

Although it is not her job responsibility, McCabe is fascinated by what people search. One of the most of the most interesting trends she has noticed is that Canadians use search engines for travel. "I picture people researching and booking a trip to a tropical island or even a summer getaway within Canada because they need a break or time off with their families," said McCabe.

With professional Web surfers like McCabe working behind the scenes, Internet enthusiasts can easily and quickly research their dream vacation and a whole lot more.

Free Software for Newbies and Web Developers

Here is some free software tools to help you build your own websites and create web products.

Learning new skills is not difficult. It just takes a bit of willingness to give it a go. You will feel great satisfaction knowing that you can do this stuff.

Zip Utility

HTML Editor

FTP Software

Screen Shot Software

Zip Utility

You just gotta have a zip utility if you intend to spend time on the Internet. I use Winzip for all my zipping and unzipping needs. It is fast and easy to use. If you would like to check out other zip utilities, go to download.com and do a search.

HTML Editor

To build web pages and eBooks, you'll need some kind of HTML editor. I use 1st Page 2000 for all my HTML editing. It is 100% Free for ever with all features working. This page and web site is being built with this editor.

After the editor is installed, you'll need some web pages to study. Search Google with the key words "free web page template". Don't worry, I just did it. Here is the search results.

Quick Lesson:

All I did to begin learning was to simply open up these templates and study the code from within the editor and try to relate it to what I could see on the actual web page. For example, here is a shot of code from within the HTML editor:

This is a screenshot of some code from this web page. Study the code and relate it to what you see on this page. The red and blue codes are commands which create a hyperlink and cause the link to open in a new browser window.

Take it easy. Learn one command at a time. It won't be long before you get some web pages happening.

When you are ready to learn some more commands, go to HTML Goodies for a good range of Free tutorials.

FTP Software

To transfer your web site to the Internet, you'll need an FTP program. Go to download.com to find several Free FTP programs available for download. I like WS_FTP because it is fast to learn and easy to use. Another popular program is CuteFTP.

Screen Shot Software

To capture images from your computer screen, you'll need a program that will cut the image quickly and easily. I use a freeware program called SRip32. No installation is required and it is very user friendly.

You can also do a search at Google for even more free screen capture software programs.

Web-Safe Fonts for Your Site

Choosing the right typeface for your website copy is important, since it will affect the way your readers perceive your page (serious and formal, or friendly and casual). Aside from this, there are also important usability concerns. For example, some font types are more easily readable than others, and some are more widely available.

You want to choose font types that:

1. fit the character of your site,
2. are easy to read on a computer screen, and
3. are widely available across many browsers and operating systems.

There are basically two types of fonts: serif and sans serif. Serif fonts are those that have fine cross-lines at the extremities of the letter. Sans serif ("sans" being the French word for "without") are fonts that don't have serifs. The most common serif font is probably Times New Roman. Arial is an example of a common sans serif font.

Let's go briefly through the most popular font types and evaluate their availability, readibility and character:

Arial:

* Availability.- Thoroughly available. It is probably the most common sans serif font. It is the default font for Windows, and it first shipped as a standard font with Windows 3.1.
* Readability On Screen.- Not the worse but definetely not the best, especially at small sizes, when it becomes too narrow and the spacing between characters too small.
* Character.- Has a streamlined, modern look but is also plain and boring.
* For Mac users, the equivalent of Arial is Helvetica.

Times New Roman:

* Availability.- Thoroughly available. It is probably the most common serif font. It is the default font for web browsers. It was first shipped as a standard font with Windows 3.1
* Readability On Screen.- Acceptable for font sizes of 12pt. and up, but terrible for smaller sizes.
* Character.- Serious, formal and old fashioned.
For Mac users, the equivalent of Times New Roman is Times.

Verdana:

* Availability.- A widely available sans serif font, Verdana was first shipped with Internet Explorer version 3, when the exponential growth of the Internet demanded a new font that was easy to read on the screen.
* Readability On Screen.- Exceptional. It's wide body makes it the clearest font for on-screen reading, even at small sizes.
* Character.- Modern, friendly and professional.

Georgia:

* Avaliability.- Good. It is a serif font introduced by Microsoft with Internet Explorer version 4, when the need for a serif font which much better readability than Times New Roman became evident.
* Readibility On Screen.- Very good. It is the best serif font for on-line reading, since it was specifically designed for that purpose.
* Character.- Modern, friendly and professional.

Microsoft has also popularized two more fonts: Comic Sans Serif and Trebuchet.

Comic Sans Serif was launched with Internet Explorer verion 3 and mimics the hand writing used in comics. It is easy to read and is informal and friendly, but it is not considered appropriate for more serious, professional sites.

Trebuchet is another sans serif font, similar to Arial but with more character, although it can be difficult to read in small sizes.

Finally, we can mention Courier New, a serif font that was widely popular with old, mechanical typewriters, and that is now used only to present simulated computer code (if you need to present snipets of sample HTML code in your web pages, this is the font to use.)

Therefore, from a usability perspective, the clear winner is Verdana. If you are inclined to use a serif font, Georgia is the best option. Arial remains a good option for specific parts of text, like headlines and titles, where a different font must be used and you can use larger sizes.

Nigerian Scam

Although this scam has its root from Nigeria dated a decade back, nowadays, you receive similar scam letters from many African countries, notably, Nigeria, Benin, Togo and even South Africa.

The subject lines of these emails are pretty similar. Something like: Business relationship, Urgent Assistance needed, Soliciting for your assistance, A cry for help etc. Most of the emails from this scam begin in the same way. Here are two excerpts from most recent emails that we received:

"I am Engr Moses Ekpen a director in the budget and planning department of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources (FMPNR), I had a seven man Tenders Board Committee in charge of contract award and Payment approvals. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential transaction, which involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account."

Or

"I am Mrs. Mariam Abacha, the widow of Gen. Sani Abacha, The Late Nigerian Military Head of State. You were introduced to me through the Chamber of Commerce. I am presently in distress and under House arrest while my son Mohammed is undergoing trial in Lagos and Abuja. He is presently detained in prison custody. The government has frozen all the family account and auctioned all our properties.

To save the family from total bankruptcy I have managed to ship to Europe and Asia through a Shipping company, the sum of US20, 000,000.00 respectively kept by my late husband."

The essence of these emails are also basically the same – the person although does not know you, thanks to your business reputation, has decided to contact you with a very confidential proposal to transfer a mind boggling amount of money from his country to any foreign land.

There could be numerous stories but the bottom line is they require your help to transfer the amount. For your service they will promise you something from 10 to 40% of the whole amount. There would be a telephone no or an email address to contact the person.

You may wonder how they swindle people.

There are various ways that the crooks rip off their victims. Some of the most commons ones of them are described below:

They will ask you to open a bank account under their name. On their second step, they will ask you to deposit a sum of say US$ 10000 to that account, explaining if the account does not have any decent amount, the officials those who are responsible for transferring the promised millions of dollars would become suspicious and won’t authorize the transaction. Once you deposited the asked sum, they simply withdraw it and disappear. Usually they choose a bank where they might have some connections. So you, after losing your money, do not get any help from the bank either.

They will ask you to send some merchandize or gifts for the officials they need to bribe in order to make the transactions of the assumed millions of dollars smoothly. Naturally, you never hear from them once you sent the requested gifts to their address.

We even heard stories like this one: A man was persuaded to come to Nigeria to look after the transaction by himself. Over there he was kept hostage until he shifted all his liquid assets to the thugs.

Looking at the increasing quantity of scam emails that we receive, this only convinces that many fall for this seemingly simple trap. According to FBI these swindlers have defrauded millions of dollars from gullible people.

There could be other variations of this scam, next time you read an email that feels suspicious, just delete it! There are other ways of making money!

Some words of cautions! Although most of these scams originate from African countries, please do not generalize and consider that all companies form these countries are bad. As usual a few people are responsible for tarnishing the reputation of a country.

Internet in Russia and Ukraine - Part 1. General Information and Statistics

User Base

The non-US and non-English Web segments have been boosted by a growing trend towards PC penetration and cheaper Internet access in the last couple of years. The US share of the global population online, once above ninety percent, is now under a quarter, while the number of Internet users who do not speak English at all continues to grow.

The Asia-Pacific region remains a key contributor to the increase in the number of non-English speakers on the Web, but the Russian Internet, aka Runet, demonstrates the accelerated pace of development as well.

The Russian language on the Web was represented by 2.7 percent in March 2003, said Global Reach (http://www.global-reach.biz/globstats/index.php3), a consultancy that tracks non-English online populations. The share is quite minor, compared to English with its 35.2 percent. However, the growth rate of Runet is far more exciting; the Russian Internet audience has tripled over the last two years, registering a 40 percent increase annually. The February 2003 Report by SpyLOG (http://gs.spylog.ru/interesting.phtml?id=51%20) indicates that the total users who surf the Russian portion of the Internet have reached about 15 million, 60 percent of whom live in Russia and seven percent in Ukraine. Moscow and St.-Petersburg account for 53 percent of the total Internet users in Russia. Similarly, the Ukrainian Internet surveys reveal that the vast majority (70 percent) of Ukrainian users live in Kiev, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Donetsk, according to freenet.kiev.ua and mct.kiev.ua as quoted in Kyiv Post Business March 20, 2003.

The Ukrainian user base grows as fast as its Russian counterpart. The total Internet users in Ukraine reached 2.5 million by year-end 2002, a 150 percent increase in a year, said the head of the Ukrainian State Committee for Communications and Information Technologies (http://mignews.com.ua/events/ukraine/73927.html). Independent marketers confirm the recent trends on the Ukrainian Internet, or Uanet for short. For example, eRus.ru (http://www.e-rus.ru/news/2003/03/251511_3939.shtml) quoted GfK-USM, a marketing company, as stating that the regular Internet users in Ukraine accounted for 6.4 percent of the total population (3.1 million of 48.4 million) in February 2003, and the number of the users who purchased products or services through the Internet was doubled when compared to February 2002.

Internet Access and Prices

Dial-up connection is the most common way of accessing the Internet in both Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian dial-up users, for example, pay $0.1 to $2.0 an hour for Internet access, depending on an ISP, time of day and availability of callback services. The monthly charge for unmetered access in Kiev currently ranges from about $4 (midnight to 9.00 a.m. with no callback support) to about $40 (24-hour access via callback service). The callback service in Kiev will save you about $0.4/hour, an additional fee charged by Ukrtelecom for connection to the local telephone line.

The broadband access is rather expensive, ranging from $40/month (IDSN, 64 K/s, 1 GB monthly data transfer) to $300/month (dedicated line, 64-128 K/s, unlimited transfer) with a set-up fee of $200 to 300, plus some hidden charges that are quite common for the local providers. Thus, only corporate clients can enjoy the privilege of broadband subscription.

What Users are Searching for?

Like Internet users worldwide, the majority of Russian and Ukrainian surfers search the Web for information. A Yandex poll (http://www.yandex.ru/polling/9.html) shows that about 24 percent searchers use the Web for easy reference and over 15 percent use it as a research tool. A further 12 percent of those polled said the Internet was a news source for them while only 14 percent preferred online entertainment services. An increase in personal consumption in Russia and Ukraine has made a positive impact on the regional Internet. Russians and Ukrainian are increasingly relying on the Internet in order to evaluate products or services before they make their final decision to buy, whether online or offline. Currently, about 1200 online shops are listed in Magazin.ru, the largest Russian e-commerce catalogue, while CNews.ru (http://www.cnews.ru/reviews/online/) reported last year that the total number of operational online shops in Runet was 500 at the beginning of 2002. The most e-shops are online outlets of bricks-and-mortar businesses, but some "pure" online stores have opened their virtual doors as well. Most notable are bookstores such as Ozon, Biblio Globus and Books in Russia, and Bookshop, AzBooKa and Bambook in Ukraine. Despite a certain lack of high-quality online offerings in Runet and Uanet, surprisingly few Western sites offer the products and services that need no customs clearance. For example, web hosting fees in Ukraine are about two to eight times higher than those somewhere in the United States, but the service providers abroad seem to be in no hurry to enter the local market. This is also true for e-books, especially on programming and computing.

Spam and Spamdexing

Despite spam is still flourishing on the Russian Web, unsolicited email messages in Runet are far less aggressive than the email marketing campaigns in the US, when a news subscriber may receive bundles of advert mailings that are vaguely associated with his/her initial subscription.

The more pressing issue for both users and search engines is spamdexing, i.e. unfair tricks aimed at attaining high rankings in search engines. Searching Runet for a particular key phrase can give you dozens of mirrors and doorways. Some successful SE optimizers in Russia and Ukraine openly advertise that their promotion techniques are solely based on building doorways or cloaking, which currently seems unwise on the global Internet.

The top Russian search engines fight against spam in much as the most popular search engines do worldwide. For example, Yandex and Rambler penalize websites for using unfair tricks and encourage Runet users to report search engine spam. Many professional programmers and webmasters also voice their concerns about spamdexing. Articles by A. Shkondin at ClubPro.spb.ru (http://clubpro.spb.ru/) provide some classic examples of how spammers play games with the Russian search engines and Internet surfers.

Common Sense Approach to Search Engine Optimization

Most web surfers start their sessions at a search engine or a web directory. There are a number of different methods you can use to capture their traffic and drive it to your site:

1. Stick to the big names: The two largest directories: Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) and the Open Project Directory (http://www.dmoz.org), and the two largest search engines: Google (http://www.google.com) and Inktomi (used by MSN search (http://www.msn.com) and AOL (http://www.aol.com) are likely to deliver 80% of your traffic, so concentrate on those and don’t spend too much time on anybody else.

2. Yahoo and the Open Project Directory are administered by humans, so an editor will inspect your site before it's added. They receive so many submissions that it can literally take months before your site is reviewed, and nothing (not even paid subscriptions) guarantees that it will be listed. It’s worth to keep trying, though, so check back every month or so and, if your site isn’t listed, submit it again.

3. Google and Inktomi are robots (software programs) that “crawl” (find and read) millions of sites on the web, and add them to their index. That's why it is not absolutely necessary to manually submit your site to a search engine, since they may find your site and add it automatically when they find a link to your site on another page.

4. You don’t need to submit all the pages on your site to a search engine. Once the search engine finds your main page (homepage), it will find the other ones by following links. To improve the chances of your secondary pages being found, create a link called ‘site map’ in your homepage, and have it point to a page that is nothing but a collection of links to all the pages on your site. This way, the search engine will follow the link and “suck in” all your pages. Try putting this link as close to the top of your homepage as possible, since it will have a better chance of being picked up by the search engine.

5. Your site will stand a much better chance of showing up at the top of the search results list if you choose keywords that are as specific as possible. In general, niche sites that use very specific keywords have a better chance of being at the top of the list than generic sites that use more common keywords. For example, a restaurant that specializes in brick oven pizza (keywords: brick oven pizza) has a better chance of showing up in a prime position than an all-encompassing Italian restaurant (keywords: Italian restaurant).

6. A good search engine ranking is also conditioned by the amount of inbound links to your site that the search engine finds in other websites. A significant amount of links to your page from high ranked, quality sites with content related to yours, will significantly boost your rankings. Try contacting the webmasters of the leading websites for the keywords of your choice and try to get them to link to your site. You can offer a link exchange or place a paid link (advertising) on their pages, if that’s an available option.

7. Creating a good page title tag is also key, since it’s usually the first thing the search engines display in the search results page. Also, you must create a well written, easy to understand ‘Description’ meta tag, since some search engines will use it to describe your site. The more your title and description match your preferred search keywords, the more likely web users will click into your site. Don't pay too much attention to the 'Keywords' meta tag, since most search engines ignore them nowadays, due to the potential for abuse.

Finally, one last word of advice: don’t obsess with search engines, since they are not the only way to generate traffic to your site. Try different approaches, like writing articles and posting them in discussion groups and newsgroups. Also, don’t overlook bricks-and-mortar techniques like passing around business cards embedded with your website address, or advertising in traditional media. It is a combination of all these things, and high quality, original content, what will make your site popular.

Tread Towards A Successful “Internet Research”

Internet is a terrific resource containing billions of web pages dedicated to thousands of topics. Since the amount of information available on the Internet is so vast and mind baffling you may feel lost.

Your expectations from “The Information Superhighway” will crash if you proceed with the general view that exaggerates the ease of Internet usage. What is required is a moderate, balanced approach keeping one’s head on shoulders. Approaching the net should be similar to any other research endeavor i.e. by adopting a formal strategy to maximize results. “Motivation” is the key word here. If you do not have a serious research goal, you cannot dig far.

To make the search a more meaningful exercise and profitable too, you should know where to search and how to search. Be clear about what you are looking for? Be specific in the identification and use of keywords. Being an advanced Internet researcher, you should always use the advanced services when available on a search engine or a directory or a look-up. Have a list of Boolean search strings ready before proceeding on for advanced search in a search engine. For preparing Boolean expressions the following may be used as required:

“AND” is used to tell the search engine to find both terms on the same page.

“OR” is used to find one term or the other. Looking for one term is very useful when the same term may appear in two different ways.

“NOT” tells the search engine to look for web pages with the first term but not the second.

“NEAR” instructs the search engine, only to return the web pages in which the terms are near each other.

Categories of Search Tools available are:

Search Engines – They use keywords or phrases to search the Internet. Many of them allow you to enter questions rather than simply a few search terms. Most search engines have catalogues that sort a limited number of sites on the topic. Some frequently used search engines are:

* Alta Vista
* AOL
* Excite
* Google
* Hotbot
* Lycos
* MSN Search
* Northern Light
* Overture
* Web Crawler

Meta Search Engines - They quickly and superficially search several individual search engines at once and return results compiled into a convenient format. They only catch about 10% of search results in any of the search engines they visit. Some examples of Meta S.Es are:

* Ask Jeeves
* Copernic
* Meta Crawler

Subject Directories – They are the collection of web sites picked by editors (sometimes experts in a subject) and organized into hierarchical subject categories. They are often carefully evaluated and kept up to date. Some widely used directories are:

* About.com
* BigHub
* DMOZ
* Invisible Web
* Yahoo

Search engines are wonderful but the problem is that none of them has indexed even half of the Internet. Each search engine indexes the web differently, searches the web differently and thus has very different results. This means if you enter a search into Altavista and get zero results, this may not be the case if you go to Northernlight or Google. A good web researcher must search a few search engines before exhausting the search.

What is MUST before setting out for search is a glance at the FAQs. As each search engine is different from each other, it is essential to set your doubts at rest before you proceed.

X-raying the websites – At times you will not be allowed to access a particular page on the website as it may not be linked with any of the pages on that URL. A good researcher knows that just because you are not allowed access to a page, does not mean you can’t still get in. If you can’t get in from front door of the website, then try the back door of the server by using the advanced function on a search engine. Even if a page is not linked, the search engines might have indexed it. All you need to do is go to the advanced search function on Altavista and type in host:XYZ.com AND the words you expect to find on your page.

Flip Searching – Flipping is a technique in which you look for pages containing links to specified URLs. Use linkdomain:ABC.com to tell the search engine to locate all the pages that are linked to “ABC URL”.

Every great researcher should have an organized library of resources. Whether this comes in the form of organized bookmarks and favorites or a notebook, it is imperative to track your research.

The Internet is like an ever-changing medium. What worked yesterday, may not work today. Therefore, a good researcher should always have “Ever Onwards” as the motto and should not surrender the search easily. With over billions of pages on the Internet you can turn all odds in your favor and succeed in finding what you are looking for.

A Closer Look at Cyber Crooks

I work from my home, the most peaceful workplace I can think of so far. As a Homemaker and part time Freelance Writer, I submit articles and subscribe to various respectable writing newsletters and do endless research online. But before signing up, I read privacy policies, some brief while others boringly lengthy.

I am just one among millions of unknown but honest Internet users. Why, to my mind, would I worry so much about anyone in the Internet community making me a target for nasty tricks or harassments?

Nonetheless, I feel safe just knowing that the websites that interest me run a committed sense of policy on security.

But when my computer screen started flashing as if gasping for air and slowly died down months ago, I blamed electric current fluctuations. But when my files disappeared and my computer turned alarmingly uncooperative, I referred the case to the expert, my husband.

For the first time, I was hit by a computer virus.

It was not as simple as unplugging the computer connection, sleeping on it for a few days while a computer surgeon works on the damage so everything could be good as new.

I saw months of hard work on research, completed manuscripts stashed in my hard disk, long hours spent online, time, money, and effort my spouse has invested in setting up the whole system, all go down the drain and turn into nothingness.

Going through the process of repair and reconstruction is painfully tedious, time consuming, and costly.

I was angry. I took it as an attack on my person. The perpetrator has no heart.

A series of disturbing yet quite interesting cyber intrusions that followed prodded me to quench my curiosity and do a personal research on what inspires the behavior behind the waste of skill, time and resources involved in these damaging cyber pursuits and other elctronic petty crimes that make life miserable for honest internet users.

CYBER OFFENDERS

Anyone who enters your home without your consent is committing an offense theoretically. Your computer system is an extension of your boundaries and must not be infringed. When someone gains unauthorized access to your computer in any manner or utilizes the computer technology in performing a felony, he/she commits a cyber crime.

The Hacker is always the first person that comes to mind in relation to cyberspace violations. After all, who else can be as knowledgeable and bold enough to break into someone else’s computer system?

Hackers used to have nobler objectives for their being. In the earlier days of the Computer technology, they were the computer experts/geniuses who tested computer systems, with the owners’ consent, for loopholes and recommended better programs or fixed the errors themselves to frustrate any effort to exploit the defective system by more dangerous ‘creatures.’ They even had the Hackers’ Code of Ethics.

There are two types of Hackers: The Ethical Pros, the highly skilled professionals who hire out their skills to organizations concerned about their own network’s safety. They represent Hackers of earlier generation. The other type is the CyberRambos or plain crackers-despised by the Elite Hackers, Crackers crack/break systems for superficial reasons. (UC San Diego Psycho. Dept.: Computer & Network Resources)

But by what many Hackers have become these days, it is difficult to ascribe their destructive behaviors to nobility instead of outright violation.

And by whatever name they are called, these cyber felons have become simply faceless and nameless ‘hackers’ to their victims.

ON MOTIVES

An online article by David Benton entitled: ‘What’s Inside a Cracker?’ from SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Information Security Reading Room, states seven psychological profiles of malicious hackers as documented by Canadian Psychologist Marc Rogers M.A., Graduate Studies, Dept. of psychology, university of Manitoba and a former Police Computer Crimes Investigator:

Newbie/Tool Kit (NT): new to hacking, have limited computer/programming proficiencies; rely on ready-made pieces of software (tool kits) that are readily available in the Internet;

Internals (IT): disgruntled employees or ex-employees proficient in how the company’s internal systems work;

Coders (CD) and Virus Writers: programmers who’d like to see themselves as elite; they write codes but not for personal use. They have their own networks to experiment with “zoos.” They leave to others to introduce their codes into the “wild” or Internet. (Hacker Psych 101 by Jeremy Quittner);

Cyber-Punks (CP): antisocial geeks, the most visible, socially inept, and burdened with unresolved anger that they take into cyberspace; they relate better to computers than humans and have better computer skills and some programming capabilities; capable of writing their own software, they intentionally engage in malicious acts such as defacing web pages, spamming, credit card number theft, etc.;

Old Guard Hackers (OG): have no criminal intent in its real sense but display an alarming disrespect for personal property with great interest in intellectual endeavo;.

Professional Criminals (PC) and Cyber Terrorists (CT): most dangerous; They are professional criminals and ex-intelligence operatives who are guns for hire. They specialize in corporate espionage, are extremely well trained and have access to state of the art equipments;

Further, Rogers pointed out that not all Hackers are criminals. He has categorized them as follows: (Jeremy Quittner, Hacker Psych 101);

Old School Hackers: akin to the 1960s style computer programmers from Stanford MIT for whom it is an honor to be a hacker; interested in analyzing systems with no criminal intent; they believe the Internet was designed to be an open system;

Script Kiddies/ Cyber –Punks: wannabe hackers and crackers; use other Cracking programs carelessly with the intent to vandalize and corrupt systems; often caught red-handed because they brag their exploits online.

Professional Criminals: breaking into systems and selling information Is their livelihood; they get hire for espionage; often have ties with organized Criminal groups; not interested in disrupting systems but more on stealing intelligence data;

The list of motives is endless: boredom, illicit thrill, addiction, blackmail or low self esteem, and a desperate need for recognition from the hacker peer group, all cowardly performed under the protection of anonymity.

“Underlying the psyche of criminal hackers may be a deep sense of inferiority. The mastery of the computer technology or the shut down of a major site causing millions of dollars of damage is real power trip.” (J. Quittner, Hacker Psych 101, Hackers: Computer Outlaws)

Jarrold M. Post, a George Washington University Psychiatrist says: It’s (Hackers) a population that takes refuge in computers because of their problems sustaining real world relationships.”

The less information you share in the Internet the better. But as computer wizards, Hackers will always find ways to reconstruct your identity even with very little details in their possession.

However, there are varied ways by which you, a legitimate Internet user can be protected. Know the warning signs and get educated on how to thwart any attempt to victimize you. Don’t take the wired blows sitting down.

“Constant awareness and updating of knowledge is the best defense to any attack,” wrote Shayne Gregg, CA (NZ), CISA, CMC, in ‘A Response to Recent Cyber Attacks.’ (Information Systems Audit & Control Association InfoBytes)

I recommend The Complete Idiot’s Guide to: Protecting Yourself Online by Preston Gralla, Executive Editor, ZDNet. It is comprehensive, easy to understand, and a must for every Internet user’s library.

HACKERS, CYBERPUNKS, et al

Cyber Crime is not monopolized by hackers or crackers. The pedophile, thief or drug dealer in your community who hire computer experts to carry out their illegal activities online are as guilty and despicable.

Just like the criminals roaming out in the real world, Cyber felons are a bunch of psychologically imbalanced and misguided citizens who happen to have the dexterity to commit electronic transgressions or hire a computer expert to do the job and will never get enough despite their Cyber Glory and ‘conquests.’

Still the tendency to commit a crime lies hidden in wholesome images, while the unsuspecting is often caught by surprise. What you don’t see is sometimes what you get.

Hackers cannot be strictly stereotyped. Peter Shipley, Chief Security architect for the Big Five firm KPMG avers: “I know a lot of hackers, including one who spends an hour and a half in the gym everyday. He is built. I know of women who are knock-down gorgeous who are hackers.”

No Exceptions

Whenever high tech-crazed folks travel through your wires to make your computer system malfunction, steal your identity or get paid to give you trouble, it’s a sign that you do not take the needed precaution whenever you log in.

When I asked myself quietly back then “Why me?” I guess the reply would be “And why not?” As with most inventions, the Internet is being abused and mishandled. And as always, a helpless victim completes the drama.

Anyone can be a casualty at random regardless if one is honest, educated, high profile, residing at the far end of the globe or a Stay-at-Home- Mom working hard and peacefully from her abode.

Hackers won’t care how his/her prey will feel.

But I am still hoping that such an impressive brainwork will be put to good use by present day hackers, just how their predecessors intended Hacking to be used.

What to Do if You Fall in Love With More Than One Screensaver

If you don't know where one screensaver goes when you install another one then this article is for you. Learn about the standard way of switching between installed screensavers and get prepared to a much more convenient one.

It was a great surprise for me to get dozens of emails complaining about what I myself would have never thought of. Many people installed my Rainy Screensaver ( http://www.elasticsystems.com/rainy/ ) and found it quite entertaining. But then they got upset because their previous screensaver was very fun too and now it wouldn't come up anymore.

What has happened to their old screensaver after the installation of another one? Today we will deal with this question.

Probably, many of you will find this information rather obvious. I am really sorry for not being very helpful to this part of my readers this time. But I receive too many emails of described nature. This leaves me with the hope that some people will learn something new in their quests for becoming Screensaver Gurus.

Here we go. The root of the problem is that screensaver installation hides many steps happening behind the scene. This is very convenient but it's what makes the answer to our question not so obvious for many people.

I hope you were following my articles. In Windows Screensavers Explained I told you about the place where screensavers live in your system. But don't worry if you missed that article. Here's the information you need.

Your operating system (and we are talking about Microsoft Windows here) expects to find available screensavers in two folders on your hard drive. These folders are C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System if you use Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me. If you have Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP then these folders are C:\WINNT and C:\WINNT\System32. Note that I suppose you system is installed on your hard drive C. If your system is on drive D, you should look into D:\Windows. The same goes for other drives.

When you install a screensaver it gets into one of these folders. The screensaver simply copies itself over there. Some screensavers have more than one file. Usually they copy other files into a separate folder under your Program Files. But it makes no difference for the purpose of our discussion.

The main idea behind all this is that your previous screensaver doesn't disappear. A new screensaver copies itself into one of the mentioned folders. But copying is not removing. The previous screensaver is not removed unless you uninstall it manually. That is, if you install two or more screensavers, you can still enjoy all of them.

What exactly should you do to admire all screensavers installed on your system? The answer is simple and you could easily find it yourself by an accident. Try the following. Right click anywhere on the empty desktop and choose Properties. You will see Display Properties dialog. This dialog has many pages but you need the one named Screen Saver. Activate it by clicking on its title. You should see a preview window with the last installed screensaver. Now look below that window. There's a drop down list with the name of that screensaver. This drop down list is the answer to our question. You can select any screensaver installed on your system by clicking on the list. After that Windows will launch only the screensaver you have selected.

The described solution is perfect if you have two or three favorite screensavers and would like to change between them once in a week. But what if you have five or ten favorite screensavers and want to see them on a day-by-day basis? We will beat this problem next time by introducing a few quite useful tools. They can make switching between screensavers a lot easier and more entertaining. Stay tuned...