False Security: 'Scareware' Spreads

• APRIL 15, 2009

By JOSEPH DE AVILA

While surfing the Web in December, Keren Brophy got a message on her computer screen telling her to update her antivirus software. The pop-up message looked similar to Windows security warnings she'd routinely received. She paid $49.99 for a program called Antivirus 2009 from a company calling itself Meyrocorp and thought she was safe.

A few days after she installed the software, Ms. Brophy's computer wouldn't boot up properly and soon was unusable; she noticed the desktop icon for the software she'd bought had disappeared. She had to wipe her hard drive clean to get the computer working again. Hoping for a refund, she sent email to Meyrocorp but got only automated replies.

"I never got a dime back from them," says Ms. Brophy, a 37-year-old restaurant hostess from North Port, Fla. Meyrocorp couldn't be located for comment.

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Microsoft

Web sites selling phony antivirus software can appear legitimate.>>>

What started out as a small-scale racket to defraud computer users is becoming big business. Rogue antivirus programs -- also known as "scareware" -- had a banner year in 2008. A recent report published by Microsoft Corp. found that scareware infections increased 48% in the second half of 2008 compared with the previous six months, hitting nearly 8 million. One program turned up on 4.4 million unique computers, a 66.6% increase over the first half of the year, according to the report.The Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry association, said the number of scareware programs more than tripled from July to December 2008, to hit 9,287. Experts expect attacks by scareware purveyors to climb higher this year. "The reason is because they are making an awful lot of money," says Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications at McAfee Inc.'s McAfee Avert Labs.Digits

Hard Times on Earth Inspire Some to Look to the Stars

• APRIL 1, 2009

By JEFFREY ZASLOW

On many evenings, as darkness sets in, Jamie Vogel turns off his TV and computer, steps outside his home in Raleigh, N.C., and tilts his head upward to contemplate the stars.

We may be living in bad times, says Mr. Vogel, a 43-year-old computer engineer, "but it's never a bad time to look up at the sky."

NASA

What NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle might look like in lunar orbit.

Yes, much of the world is focused on the travails of the global economy. We're bombarded by news of layoffs and foreclosures. But Mr. Vogel and others like him are making an extra effort to look beyond our little planet. They argue that this age of uncertainty is actually a good time to dream mankind's biggest dreams. And they're being encouraged by space-exploration proponents who are finding new ways to involve amateur astronomers.

The Planetary Society, a nonprofit advocacy group, recently asked its 50,000 members to vote on issues such as establishing a human presence on Mars, mining asteroids for resources and searching for extraterrestrial life. People could check either "Take it on!" or "Don't even try."

The Space Telescope Science Institute>>>

Wireless Cybercriminals Target Clueless Vacationers

Friday, July 10, 2009
By Steven Kotler

The newest trend in Internet fraud is "vacation hacking," a sinister sort of tourist trap.

Cybercriminals are targeting travelers by creating phony Wi-Fi hot spots in airports, in hotels, and even aboard airliners.

Vacationers on their way to fun in the sun, or already there, think they're using designated Wi-Fi access points. But instead, they're signing on to fraudulent networks and hand-delivering everything on their laptops to the crooks.

"More and more people are traveling with Wi-Fi devices like smartphones and laptops," says Marian Merritt, Internet safety advocate at the computer-security giant Symantec. "Airports and airlines and hotels are responding. They're setting up free Wi-Fi networks to lure in customers. Now they're luring in hackers as well."

In 2008, Silicon Valley-based AirTight Networks, a wireless security company, sent a team of "white-hat" hackers — good guys who try to thwart "black hat" hackers — around the world on an international airport study.

They checked the Wi-Fi networks at 27 airports — 20 in the U.S., five in Asia and two in Europe — and the results were not good.

At John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the baggage-handling system was being run on an insecure network. At other airports, ticketing systems were similarly exposed.

And everywhere they looked, they found fake Wi-Fi hot spots set up by hackers phishing for suckers — and there were plenty of suckers to be had.

"We found a lot of people using insecure Wi-Fi,">>>

Blog Tips - Comments on Blogs

By Anne Abelman and Katie Dubois

Blog Commenting

It takes a while for people to find your blog and get into the habit of visiting it regularly. When you first start blogging, and you don't have many subscribers, comments make your blog look more active. Initially you may find that users may not post comments to your blog. It's going to be up to you to get things going.

Blog Tip No. 1 - Add Some Comments

If you find that your blog readers are yet comfortable to leave comments on your blog then have your friends or family members start leaving comments on your blog as it can make your blog seem more active.

People like to see activity; if your blog seems dead you'll likely get no responses. If you would rather not have your family even know about your blog, then you can post comments yourself but as a "Guest" or as registered user instead of admin. Respond to your own posts initially to create activity, and then you'll start to see other real users placing comments as well.

Blog Tip No. 2 - Controversial Comments

Leaving a controversial comment usually works best to stimulate some activity from the visitors to your blog. Start making comments that are guaranteed to elicit a response. You can even create "characters" that post controversial statements on your blog to really get user interest going. This "character" may disagree with a blog posting you make, creating a sequence of posts that increase the activity comments of my post. Once you see that users have taken interest in your blog you can now rely on their posts rather than creating fake ones of your own.

Remember if you are going to do fake comment posts, to space the timing between posts. For example never post two minutes after you've posted as admin, as it's too obvious that you're the same person. Allow some time to pass by before making your "fake user comments post".

Blog Tip No. 3 - Pay Per Comment

If you would rather not do the "fake posts" yourself, some bloggers have actually paid users to reply to posts on their blog. If you go to popular webmaster forums, you'll find that users get paid for making posts on forums. The usual rate is about .10 cents per post or something within that range. The same theory applies for blog comments. You can hire a set of 10 to 20 people to comment on your posts and pay them a small fee, this way you generate some interest in your blog.

There are websites available to post a project on for "blog posters" such as Scriptlance.com or Getafreelancer.com. On these websites you can find people who can get your blog active, by making comments and paying them a small fee. You can do this until you get users posting on your site in reply to the posters you have paid. Within a few weeks your blog should be very active. This benefits you in the long run as the search engines will be visiting your site often due to the constant updates.

For more great blog tips download our free report 9 Things You Really Need to Know About Blogging http://www.videotimesavers.com From Anne & Katie.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anne_Abelman

Definitive Guide to Creating Blog Traffic - Newsletters

By Thomas W James

Whether you know it now or not, having a way for visitors to sign up for a newsletter and then being able to e-mail them, letting them know of new article postings and other information, is one of the best ways to get visitors to come back. Good newsletters get a high response rate in return visitors. Similar to a well-known E-commerce site, e-mail can account for 90% of traffic and is critical for your Blog. If the list becomes big enough, it is a source of advertising revenue, expertly recommended affiliate links as well as product, service & consultancy promotion. By all accounts, the Blog is where the content is, but the newsletter fans the traffic fire.

So, what is the best way to start one? Well, most of the Blogging platforms out there have some form of email newsletter system built in, either as a standard feature or plug-in. If you find that these are not acceptable, you may want to try others like one of the most popular called Aweber. It's low-cost and has rich features.

No matter what you use, the important thing is to get people to join. That doesn't happen simply because you ask them to. Some Blog newsletters get about 5-10% of their visitors to join while others have as high as a 90% membership success rate. The difference in your long-term traffic will be enormous. So, how do we get nearly everyone to subscribe? We utilize the magic of "an offer they can't refuse." Some of the best are "Top 10 Reports" or "A Secret Case Study" or "Free use of a very special Internet tool." No matter what it is, make it worth every second. Anything less will ruin your credibiity.

An excellent example of this is if your Blog was about Internet video production, and you had a tool (had you thought of it first!) that easily converted YouTube FLV videos to a format people could download and watch, or send to others. Such tools already exist nowadays, and the sites that have them get a huge amount of traffic. These sites normally use Google AdSense to make revenue. My suggestion, if they are reading this, is to run forced, non changeable 30-second video advertisements prior to the free conversions. This is the latest thing and many news and other sites do this now, including the NFL and Fox News. Although adding a great tool for newsletter bait would be a worthy weapon in getting visitors to subscribe to a newsletter, it is really in the realm of SEO (link-baiting) which will be discussed further in the book.

No matter how you do it, once you have a very good reason to get visitors to join you want to create a signature (SIG) file for all your emails (not just Blog mail) but all of them, even personal. The SIG (e-mail signature file) should include the standard stuff like name, business and web address, but should also include your golden carrot. In other words, a special report or video that can be linked to in all your e-mail correspondence like below:

John Doe

Author - Definitive Guides to Internet Video

www.mydomain.com

Get Your Free Video on the Top 3 Trends in Internet Video so you can be the first to implement them!

What we are doing here is 1. Baiting them with high-quality content that will make sure they are keeping up with or getting ahead of the competition. 2. Getting them over to the signup page where they will join your newsletter with only their email and first name to get access to the video. This will help build the list and future traffic because once they join you are able to maintain communication. The rule is, If they are interested in this video, then they are more than likely interested in the Blog. Now, I am not saying that the Blog itself is less important than the email list; what I am saying is that without it you are probably not going to get very far.

The content:

Writing powerful e-mail copy is a skill many don't have, but since you are a Blog owner, I assume you have a good set of skills that can be carried over to e-mail. People want to get e-mail. They look forward to it everyday. They also sit down thinking "What can I delete right away so my Inbox does not get out of control." Therefore, the subject and content of the e-mail must be the best it can be. The best rule is to review the frame of mind of your audience. What are they thinking about on this topic? What are they looking for? Write to them as if you are writing to one person, not a thousand. Make it personal. If they joined your newsletter for the best Internet video tips, then you'd better deliver. If you choose to market in these letters, then by all means do it right - expertly recommend a high-value link that you are partnering with. It doesn't even have to look like an ad but a anchor-text link in a paragraph that naturally flows and urges them to take action. This goes for your Blog as well. Don't just throw an obvious ad up on the home page. Do it right. Make it look natural.

Never include words in the e-mail subject line such as Amazing, Buy Now, Opportunity, Congratulations, Dear Friend, Great Offer, Guarantee and so on. These words are automatic spam filter words. Try a free service such as Lyris's Content Checker before sending stuff out. It will rate your e-mail's content for spam filters.

Regarding subject lines, take a look at the following and ask yourself which one you would be most likely to open and read:

Two-Day Early Christmas Specials - Act Now!

Save 70% Until Midnight!

To Our Loyal Customers - Get a Free 1GB Flash Drive Just for Visiting.

Free Rooms at Vegas MGM!

I assume you chose #3. It's personal and has current value. Other good and personal subject lines are:

I really appreciate all the comments on my recent article...

Why 9 out of 10 video converters fail with SWF...

Lose the sub-domain with WordPress in 10 minutes.

I am sure you can think of a lot more. Just be personal and focus on what they are thinking, not what you want to tell them. It's all about starting a relationship like a friend. Think of it that way and you will be successful. Remember, your newsletter should provide value they can not get anywhere else. What makes information valuable is the gains in productivity, money, or time. They must be relevant to readers' lives.

Thomas James

The full blog traffic guide with over 40 techniques is available at: http://www.premiumboxes.com/how-to-increase-blog-traffic

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_W_James

Using a Blog to Make You Money Fast

By Danielle Theos

The Internet has become the information center of our world. If you need to know something, you go to the Internet and look it up. The Internet is also full of advice, tips and tricks on how to make money quick using your blog. The blog, SEO and article writing are vital when you are trying to make money fast, and if you are looking for a constant flow of money coming in. There are hundreds of ways you can make money on the Internet, but choosing a method that will make you an income almost immediately is the key that many people are looking for.

Pay Per Click - Many of you, if not all of you already know how a pay per click ad works. These ads can be placed on your blog site and every click the ad receives from your blog site will add up to cash in your pocket. Your website must have content that compliments the ads. You don't want to have a kid's clothing store with ad pushing lawn mowers. Chances are the ads won't get very many clicks. Of course if you have a landscape design service ads for lawn mowers are not that far fetched. Just remember the more clicks the ads on your site receive the more money you make.

The Banner Ad - Adding a banner ad to the beginning and end of your blog page is another method you can use to put money in your pocket quickly. These ads will be the first and last thing your readers will see on your blog page. Just like the pay per click ads the ads and the website needs to compliment each other to increase the number of clicks you will receive and the money you make.

The Blog Content - The pay per click ads and the banner ads rely on the blogs that are written daily. You will want these blogs to attract the attention of the search engines. The way to accomplish that is by using your keyword several times in your blog and for your blog to be informative as possible. The visitors to your sight will not stay to read your blog or click on the ads, if your blog does not have content that is worth their time to read. You can write your blog content as an article if you wish, but these articles still need to use a keyword that will capture the attention of an audience.

Banner ads and pay per click ads will vary in the amount of money they pay per click and the orders they receive from the click. To make the most money quickly with your blog, make sure you choose a topic that is in conjunction with the text in the ads.

Danielle Theos has made her living online for the past six years. If you want to know more about making money using your blog visit http://www.indeptreviews.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Danielle_Theos

15 Features to Look For in Themes For Blogs

By Panah C Rad

Buying a WordPress theme is more than choosing the first attractive theme that you see on the Internet. Depending on the type of blog that you want to host, you'll need to buy a theme that allows you the best chance to present your information and enhance your work in the future. Your goal is to have a design that helps your visitors find what they are looking for fast without having to spend hours using your search feature. Not only that, you want your pages to load up fast. And it doesn't hurt to be found by search engines.

If you plan to start your website or make an upgrade, you want to get a theme that not only looks attractive but helps your website grow as well. Here are some of the features that you need to look for in a premium WP theme:

• Option pages: having the ability to make changes easily from the back-end is a big plus.
• Thumbnails: many top templates support them.
• Files: you want to make sure you get the Photoshop for your design in case you want to make changes later.
• Valid XHTML + CSS: a plus as it saves you time.
• Lightweight design: having bells and whistles on your template is great, but you want a site that is lightweight not cute.
• WordPress N compatible: you want your code to be compatible with the latest WP release.
• Color schemes: being able to choose among multiple color options is a big plus.
• Threaded Comments: a new WP feature that brings more interactivity to your site. Make sure your site can handle it.
• Layouts: having multiple pre-designed layouts can help you customize your weblog fast.
• Gravatar: needs to be supported on weblogs these days.
• Browser compatible: not everyone uses IE to visit your web-site. Make sure you support all popular browsers
• Advertisement Ready: this is a must have if you want to monetize your weblog.
• Mobile: if you want your visitors to be able to reach you on their mobile phones, you need this feature.
• Video ready: if you want to host videos on your site, you are going to need this feature.
• SEO ready: who doesn't like getting free traffic from search engines?

There you have it. Not all WP-themes come with all the above features, but it's up to you to figure out which of the above factors are important to you the most (depending on the type of your website).

Looking for best WordPress themes?

We at WPJedi have reviewed hundreds of WordPress themes to help you make a more knowledgeable decisions. For more WP themes and tips, log on to: http://www.wpjedi.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Panah_C_Rad