Ok. This is a shameless plug for myself.  My website clients.robbluther.com is designed around internet marketing.

Stop by and let me know what you think so far.

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Ok, I knew this for awhile but didn’t get around to looking at them till this morning.  The first one I saw that I loved was the Google Dual View that allows you to split the browser window into two frames.  Awesome of you are copying and pasting from window to window.  Amazingly useful for me anyhow.

Check it out.

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Spam: Where it Came From, and How to Escape It

Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

In 1936, long before the rise of the personal computer, Hormel Foods created SPAM. In 2002, the company will produce it’s six billionth can of the processed food product. But that mark was passed long ago in the world of Internet spam.

• Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)
• Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?
• Stop The Flood to Your Inbox
• Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future
• Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.
• The Final Blow

The modern meaning of the word “spam” has nothing to do with spiced ham. In the early 1990’s, a skit by British comedy group Monty Python led to the word’s common usage. “The SPAM Skit” follows a couple struggling to order dinner from a menu consisting entirely of Hormel’s canned ham.

Repetition is key to the skit’s hilarity. The actors cram the word “SPAM” into the 2.5 minute skit more than 104 times! This flood prompted Usenet readers to call unwanted newsgroup postings “spam.” The name stuck.

Spammers soon focused on e-mail, and the terminology moved with them. Today, the word has come out of technical obscurity. Now, “spam” is the common term for “Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail”, or “UCE.”

Chances are, you’ve been spammed before. Somehow, your e-mail address has found it’s way into the hands of a spammer, and your inbox is suffering the consequences. How does this happen? There are several possibilities.

Backstabbing Businesses
Businesses often keep lists of their customers’ e-mail addresses. This is a completely legitimate practice and, usually, nothing bad comes of it. Sometimes though, the temptation to make a quick buck is too great, and these lists are sold or rented to outside advertisers. The result? A lot of unsolicited e-mail, and a serious breach of trust.

Random Address Generation

Computer programs called random address generators simply “guess” e-mail addresses. Over 100 million hotmail addresses exist – howhard could it be to guess some of them? Unfortunately for many unsuspecting netizens – not too hard. Many spammers also guess at

“standard” addresses, like “support@yourdomain.com”,

“info@yourdomain.com”, and “billing@yourdomain.com.”

Web Spiders

Today’s most insidious list-gathering tools are web spiders. All of the major search engines spider the web, saving information about each page. Spammers use tools that also spider the web, but save any e-mail address they come across. Your personal web page lists your e-mail address? Prepare for an onslaught!

Chat Room Harvesting

ISP’s offer vastly popular chat rooms where users are known only by their screen names. Of course, spammers know that your screen name is the first part of your e-mail address. Why waste time guessing e-mail addresses when a few hours of lurking in a chat room can net a list of actively-used addresses?

The Poor Man’s Bad Marketing Idea

It didn’t work for the phone companies, and it won’t work for e-mail marketers. But, some spammers still keep their own friends-and-family-style e-mail lists. Compiled from the addresses of other known spammers, and people or businesses that the owner has come across in the past, these lists are still illegitimate. Why? Only you can give someone permission to send you e-mail. A friend-of-a-friend’s permission won’t cut it.

Already drowning in spam? Try using your e-mail client’s filters – many provide a way to block specific e-mail addresses. Each time you’re spammed, block the sender’s address. Spammers skip from address to address, and you may be on many lists, but this method will at least slow the flow.

Also, use more than one e-mail address, and keep one “clean.” Many netizens find that this technique turns the spam flood into a trickle. Use one address for only spam-safe activities like e-mailing your friends, or signing on with trustworthy businesses. Never use your clean address on the web! Get a free address to use on the web and in chat rooms.

If nothing else helps, consider changing screen names, or opening an entirely new e-mail account. When you do, you’ll start with a clean, spam-free slate. This time, protect your e-mail address!

Want to surf the web without getting sucked into the spam-flood? Prevention is your best policy. Don’t use an easy-to-guess e-mail address. Keep your address clean by not using it for spam-centric activities. Don’t post it on any web pages, and don’t use it in chat rooms or newsgroups.

Before giving your clean e-mail address to a business, check the company out. Are sections of its user agreement dedicated to anti-spam rules? Does a privacy policy explain exactly what will be done with your address? The most considerate companies also post an anti-spam policy written in plain English, so you can be absolutely sure of what you’re getting into.

Many a first-time marketer has inadvertently spammed his audience. The first several hundred complaints and some nasty phone messages usually stop him in his tracks. But by then, the spammer may be faced with cleanup bills from his ISP, and a bad reputation that it’s not easy to overcome.

The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding of what spam is: If anyone who receives your mass e-mails did not specifically ask to hear from you, then you are spamming them.

Stick with your gut. Don’t buy a million addresses for $10, no matter how much the seller swears by them! If something sounds fishy, just say no. You’ll save yourself a lot in the end.

The online world is turning the tide on spam. In the end, people will stop sending spam because it stops working. Do your part: never buy from a spammer. When your business seeks out technology companies with which to work, only choose those with a staunch anti-spam stance.

Spam has a long history in both the food and e-mail sectors. This year, Hormel Foods opened a real-world museum dedicated to SPAM. While the museum does feature the Monty Python SPAM Skit, there’s no word yet on an unsolicited commercial e-mail exhibit. But, if all upstanding netizens work together, Hormel’s ham in a can will far outlive the Internet plague that is UCE.

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Polaris Google Analytics on 12seconds.tvPolaris Google Analytics on 12seconds.tvSWEET! A Google Analytics desktop application made in Adobe Air.  Not great for hardcore data mining but a great executive overview.  You can download it free for one website or pay $15.00 for all the sites you want.  This is a great little app to monitor your sites very easily.

There is even a nifty uptime monitor for those of you using Vista.

Download: Google Analytics Desktop Access with Polaris

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So this was pretty exciting for me.  I was talking to a nice lady from Maryland who wanted some private Joomla lessons and I asked her (as any good marketer would) how she learned of me.  I totally expected a YouTube answer… but was very surprised when she told me Joomla for Dummies.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“Yep, on page 311.  You have a full page for your YouTube tutorials.”

So, I thought that was pretty cool and decided to scan in my page to show it off.  Thanks Steven Holzner, PhD and Nancy Conner, PhD for thinking of me while writing the book!

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Artisteer – Website Template Generator

Home Edition: $49.95
Standard Edition: $129.95

Free Trial Download

Artisteer 2 is an amazing program designed to make professional templates for the leading content management systems: Joomla, WordPress, Drupal and now DotNetNuke.

Artisteer 2 uses an interface similar to the Microsoft 2007 Suite that takes you through the template development process step by step.  This software is great for developers who want to make simple websites for their clients.

There are two purchase options: Home Edition and Standard. Home edition will only allow you to develop WordPress Templates but only costs $48.95. Given the ever increasing flexibility and power of WordPress this may be all you need. Still, with the Standard edition coming in at $129.95, it adds a full library of textures, photos and other aspects to improve your design.

While this is a great tool for throwing out Templates, the code level is pretty heavy but still maintains compliancy.  I seem to have some issues with drop-downs in Joomla, but there has been an update since that may have fixed this issue.

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If you don’t have a WebmasterTools account, you need to learn about it and use it. WebmasterTools gives you a glimpse into your website through the eyes of Google. It also has some great tools to help make your site seo efficient.

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Step 1.  Choose your Hosting Provider.

The first thing you need is a hosting provider.  This tutorial is designed around using GoDaddy.com for hosting.  Not only does their deluxe plan offer unlimited space, is very affordable and easy to use, but GoDaddy also offers the most up to date application platform which is critical for Step #3 of this guide.  At the time of this writing you can get your hosting for an entire year for only $79.68 for the Deluxe Plan.

Step 2.  Choose Your Domain Name.

Ever see the bumpersticker, “AllTheGoodDomainsAreTaken.com”?  It isn’t necessarily true.  You can take two approaches for your domain, Clever or SEO.  Celver is picking a catchy domain that people will remember easily and are great for branding.  SEO is choosing a domain based on what someone would search on.  For Example, GeekEpic.com was a mediocre attempt at being clever.  PaBeeRemoval.com is an SEO domain designed to harness the power of search.

What are they exactly?

What is a domain name?

A domain name is a Web address, such as godaddy.com, that is linked to an IP address (which represents a physical point on the Internet). When someone types a domain name into a Web browser, the requested Web page displays.

A domain name consists of a top-level and a second-level domain. A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the domain name located to the right of the dot (godaddy.com). The most common top-level domains are .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Some other popular top-level domains are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME and .WS. These TLDs have certain guidelines but are, for the most part, available to any registrant, anywhere in the world.

The part of the domain name located to the left of the dot — “godaddy,” in this case — is called the second-level domain (SLD) name. The second-level domain name is the “readable” part of the address and refers to the organization or entity behind the Internet address. Second-level domain names must be registered with an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)-accredited registrar.

Copyright © 1999 – 2007 GoDaddy.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

Step 3.  Installing WordPress Publishing Platform.

If you are just looking for a basic website or are not too technical, I am going to recommend you use WordPress.  It is an amazing platform and is much easier to use than Joomla.  Don’t worry, WordPress is NOT just a blogging platform but has turned into a powerful content management platform for business websites.  In order to do this, login to your GoDaddy Account and follow these steps:

1. Under “My Products” on the left, click on, “Hosting”.
2. Under your Linux Hosting Plan click, “Manage Account”.
3. Above the, “Account Summary” Bar you will see a graphic labeled, “Your Applications” – Click on it.
4. On the left Navigation, click, “Blogs” and then “WordPress”.
5. You are now on the “WordPress” Install page.  Click on, “Install Now!” to begin WordPress installation.
6. Select the domain that WordPress will be installed under and click, “Continue”.  If you haven’t registered a domain yet, you need to.  Reffer to Step 2.
7. Set up the Database.
   1. Add a good description for your database.
   2. Create a Database Password
   3. Click Next
8. Choose Install Directory
   1. Delete “WordPress” to install on the Root Directory
   2. Click Next
9. Configure Install
   1. Enter Admin Name
   2. Enter Admin Password
   3. Verify Admin Password
   4. Enter Email
   5. Enter blog title, You can change this later.
   6. Click Finish.

Now go and grab a cup of coffee.  Your New WordPress Installation will be complete in about 10-15 minutes.  When you get back you can login to your new website at www.yournewdomain.com/wp-admin.  Don’t forget to write down your UN and Password you entered during the installation process.

My next post will cover setting up your WordPress installation as a usable website.

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SEO Power Suite

Link Assistant offer a range of software products designed to help you handle a variety of SEO tasks from link building to monitoring your search engine ranking. All and all it is a great package. The programs tend to take a very long time to open, but once running it speeds through tasks like lightening.

You can try SEO PowerSuite for free .

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