How to Protect Yourself Against Hackers
As you may be aware, one of my servers was recently hacked — and although I don’t want to alarm you, you should know that your sites could be subject to attack at any time.
To help you protect your sites and your data, I posted a new article “How to Protect Yourself Against Hackers” in which I share what happened to my sites and why.
More importantly, I tell you what I learned about how to defend your server, sites and computer against hackers.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Website Advertising Enquiry Spam
Over the last couple of weeks the email address posted on my domain records has been completely inundated with emails sporting subject lines such as “Website Advertising Enquiry” as shown in the screenshot below.
These emails typically show up with one of the following subject lines:
- Website Inquiry
- Website Advertising Inquiry
- Marketing Inquiry
- Website Partnership
Although it may be tempting to respond to someone who is offering to pay to advertise on your site… do not take the bait and DO NOT REPLY.
They’re spammers and it’s a phishing scam just to get your email address.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Prayer for Spammers
If you tried to access the site yesterday, you probably found it a slow load - if it loaded at all.
That’s because some dastardly, rotten, no-good email spammer hacked into the server and used a forgotten test blog to send upwards of a quarter million emails. The server crashed, but fortunately my fabulous web guy, Steve, at DataWebPro, brought her back to life again.
Now, you may remember that Steve provided me with an incantation to solve database errors.
Well, I have a prayer for anyone affected by spammers and it goes like this:
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who screws up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch… AMEN
Many thanks to my nephew Andrew for sending that prayer to me. I’ve had it up on my bulletin board for years, and always knew there would come a good time to share it. 
Popularity: 4% [?]
87 Months in Prison for Software Piracy
It always does my heart good to hear about instances in which the justice system works. Here’s just such a case.
According to a September 8th Department of Justice press release, Nathan L. Peterson, 27, of Antelope Acres, Calif. , owner of a massive for-profit software piracy Web site was sentenced in federal court to 87 months in prison and ordered to forfeit the proceeds of his illegal conduct and pay restitution of more than $5.4 million.
U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg of the Eastern District of Virginia said, “Stealing the intellectual property of others is always a bad idea in any context. It’s theft. And, so, a sentence of seven plus years in prison and restitution of $5.4 million is richly deserved,” said Rosenberg.
I couldn’t agree more and can only hope that perhaps that news convinces the copyright infringing thieves to stop selling pirated copies of ebooks on eBay.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Blog Posts about Zango Attract Attention
I took calls from presidents, V.P.’s and P.R. representatives of Adult Friendfinder and Zango last week after a number of my blog posts related to their activities attracted attention.
(Talk about the effectiveness of blogging for traffic! Have you joined BlogClassroom.com yet?)
Although the situation isn’t likely to be resolved any time soon some very interesting discussions ensued.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Affiliate Rip-Off
Here’s a question I received this week from D.R. about the potential for affiliates to get ripped off by merchants under certain circumstances.
Is it true that ebook writers using an email capture box on their sales pages are ripping affiliates off when customers being sent to them sign up for the emails, then they sell them a book weeks or months later and we never see a dime for it.
Also if a ebook writer has 2 forms of checkout on his order page if the customer uses the optional one (not clickbank) then again we get no commission.
You have the clout, can you find this out and answer in your newsletter. I received an email from a guru about this very practice. If true then they will lose ALL affiliate selling their product by the thousands.
Thanks.
Well D.R., I’m not sure that I have any clout, but I do understand your concern and do know something about these issues. Read more
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Ros Calls Zango Reply “Bullshit”
In my previous entry, I posted the letter from Zango to its affiliates. The letter was rife with lies and deception…
Most noteably, “AdultFriendFinder stopped the campaigns in question and reconfigured them to avoid the potential of having a cookie overwritten or a home page targeted. In short, much ado about very little.”
I call “Bullshit”. Read more
Popularity: 18% [?]
Zango Confirms Adult FriendFinder’s Participation
Here is the response that ZangoCash offered it’s affiliates after one affiliate blasted them in his blog for cooking stuffing… Read more
Popularity: 14% [?]
Bidding on Affiliates’ Domain Names at Zango
Apparently it doesn’t suffice for Zango’s advertisers to bid on industry-related keywords.
They are also bidding on the domain names of affiliate sites. Here is a screen capture that shows how my main domain names are being bid on at Zango… Read more
Popularity: 18% [?]
Adult FriendFinder is Commission Shaving
A friend sent me the following screen capture the other day and I’m SERIOUSLY pissed off. Read more
Popularity: 8% [?]
