Blog Marco - The Internet

Internet Marketing Jobs

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:46:54 -0700

I'm still on the lookout for jobs... from photography jobs to employment in the internet marketing industry. I was looking through seek.com.au and I sound a few jobs relating to employment with the Internet Marketing industry. Interesting to see a varied range of renumeration packages. One job offers $500-$600 per day?! for a three month contract. Another for an online marketing assistant offers only a $30,000 per annum salary. While another for a higher internet marketing job position called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Manager offering $50 - $70k per annum. Check them out:

Warning! Scam PayPal Email

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:49:53 -0700

Don't get caught by this scam PayPal email... it looks VERY convincing...

From: service@paypal-team.com

Reconfirm your bank account

Your bank account attached to your PayPal account has expired. You need to reconfirm your bank account in order for you to be able to use your PayPal account like before.

To reconfirm your bank account attached to your PayPal account you need to make 2 small deposits of 15.12 EUR and 21.25 EUR into the bank account of the PayPal agent in charge with your account security management. As soon as the deposits are confirmed into the bank account of the PayPal agent in charge with your account security management the funds will be returned into your bank account.
Confirmation of your bank account takes 3-5 days.

The details needed for the deposits are:

Amount to deposit: 15.12 EUR and 21.25 EUR
PayPal agent name: Liviu Rupa
Bank name: Caja Laboral
Bank address: Perez Galdos
IBAN: ES5930350250472500014927
SWIFT/BIO: CLPEES2MXXX

Stupid Nigrerian Email Scam Spam

Wed, 14 May 2008 06:02:20 -0700

Here is another one of those Nigerian scam spam emails... If you want to have a laugh and perhaps help out stamping out this kind of scam go visit: http://www.419eater.com/. They have a great community of "anonymous" people scamming the scammers. Instead of simply pressing the spam email button, these internet citizens click reply and actually start a relationship with the spammers. Their goal? To get a trophy: which usually consists of a photo of the scammer holding up a bogus sign or product. I simply can't believe people are still being taken in on this type of spam crime...

Blacktown has no Internet

Sat, 03 May 2008 02:52:47 -0700

Teaser:
Blacktown has no Internet this weekend... SouthPark and Overlogging...

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One of Sydney's Western suburbs, Blacktown, is out of phone, internet and EFTPOS services this weekend after vandals cut a Telstra communications cable around 8am this morning (Vandals are awake so early these days?!?!). The vandals severed two fibre optic cables affecting these telecommunication services in Blacktown, Rooty Hill, Erskine Park, Arndell Park and Shalvey. Sort of similar to the very recent episode of SouthPark called "Over Logging" when the whole town lost their Internet. Of course it wasn't from vandals, but rather, the Internet was lost because of too many people using the Internet and the network simply gave up.

A Scary Case: Google Maps

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:41:08 -0700

Google has been taking photos of streets as a part of their Google Maps project. (I know this is OLD news... this is just for those who aren't aware of it yet) What Google Maps does is drivve a car around and take snap shots which they then stitch together so that instead of viewing a street from above you can view the street from a horizontal viewpoint.

Types of Websites on the Internet

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:29:55 -0700

I found a list of the "Types of Websites On the Internet". This list may be useful for research.

blog
commercial presence
forum
articles / news
directory
e-commerce
social networking
games
search engine

Drupal Installation Venting!

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:45:28 -0700

ARRRRGGGHHHH!!! I hate moving to new hosts. Something always goes wrong. Maybe it's me. So here's a venting blog entry about my recent ordeal with a Drupal Installation on HostGator which I just solved a few minutes ago. Call it a debrief on my experience and see what lessons I can learn from my mistakes. There isn't anything wrong with HostGator. I realise now what I was doing wrong.

I always go about Drupal installations systematically. Actually I wasn't leaving my long time hosting service (MediaTemple). I just wanted another host and wanted to try out another service (and also to use them as a backup, in case anything happens).

So I sign up to HostGator (which was painless except for the hip pocket - although their hosting prices are competitive). I bought a new domain name from GoDaddy and another from a company called IntaServe which offer registrations for *.com.au's. I've had experience with GoDaddy before - so that went smoothly - although for the uninitiated - you'll probably get lost in the jungle of promotions that they have. I'm slightly annoyed with Intaserve. I guess that's where my attitude started down a downward spiral. I came into the new project all optimistic and now this Australian registrar is screwing my workflow. Why? Because their business systems are screwed. I think they need to have a look at their registration systems: just a few tweaks with their wording in their emails and automated systems and they would be really good. But no, it took me a while, emails to Intaserve took a while to get answered. I was emailing HostGator at 11pm on a Sunday night in Australia and I was getting a response from them. So I had to give Intaserve a call to fix things. In five minutes the pain was all over. Thank God I don't have to deal with Intaserve again until the next time I need to renew my domain.

Craigslist Crime

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:19:47 -0700

For those that follow this blog, know that I like to collect a very vast variety of information. I like to collect snippets of information which depict the Internet as the Wild West of today. Laws are simply trying to catch up to this wildly popular "thing" we call the World Wide Web (WWW). Here's another proof of that concept: Craigslist Crime.

I'm not talking about the coaxers and the get rich quickers, I'm talking about real Criminals, real robbers that are into Craigslist Crime. These bums post up bogus classified posts on Craigslist which advertise to the world that anyone is welcome to anything in the house (furniture, lawn mower and even the kitchen sink...) since they were moving out - a house which they don't own. The criminals are indeed creative in the way they conduct crime, but please, use that creativity in a positive manner.

Facebook Privacy

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:24:53 -0700

Facebook privacy has been a major talking point at the water cooler. Everyone - including me - are pissed at how Facebook handles our privacy. But now, things are changing. They're giving us the power to change our privacy levels! I'm not giving any more information away to my applications (besides the info that I type into their app)

It's bloody amazing at how much stuff Facebook knows about us: They have a picture, they know our birthday sex, hometown, political views, and when you last updated your profile, Personal info (activities, interests, etc.), Current location (what city you're in), Education history, Work history, Profile status, Groups you belong to, Events you're invited to, Photos taken by you, Photos taken of you, Relationship status, What type of relationship you're looking for, What sex you're interested in, Who you're in a relationship with and Religious views. That's a tremendous amount of power.

Facebook is tweaking the privacy settings on its popular online hangout to let users exert greater control over which of their friends are allowed to see personal details they post.

PayPal and Credit Cards

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:24:50 -0700

Isn't PayPal smart with Credit Cards? When you go shopping around on the internet, find something to buy and purchase it through the PayPal payment system you are often served a page which lists how much the transaction will withdraw from your account. But which account? This is the page which you must read carefully.

First time I came across this page, I didn't read it properly and I just clicked to proceed with the transaction assuming my Credit card will automatically be charged by PayPal. But that wasn't the case. I instead got a statement from my bank a month later saying that the transaction actually went through my standard banking account and not through the credit card. I shrugged it off at that time, thinking it was a glitch and relieved I wasn't double charged for my purchase.

Second time around, I read the PayPal payment page carefully. Then I realised. You have to manually select the credit card option by clicking another link on that page to change your payment type: whether it be from your Paypal funds, your bank account (which you have on file with Paypal because you would withdraw your funds from Paypal to that account), and your credit card account. So I chose the credit card option. It doesn't cost any extra for you the user of Paypal to use the credit card option over the bank option. But for Paypal it costs them money. That's why they prefer you to use the bank option. Paypal has credit card fees to pay which they pay to the credit card companies for the privilege of using their payment system (i.e. Merchant fees). Something the end user doesn't see.

Blog Marco Million Milestone

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:37:32 -0700

Teaser:
Accomplished a major milestone - Blog Marco served 1 million pages

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Blog Marco hits a million milestone... and I didn't even see it happen. Since I've installed the Google analytics software back on the 7th April 2006 till today, Blog Marco has had 711,468 visitors come through these very pages. About 5 percent of you came back for more. Where's the million milestone? It's in the pageviews. This blog has served 1,103,197 pageviews to its visitors since that date. Next milestone? The millionth visitor. It'll probably happen in the next quarter to a half year... Time to don the party hat and celebrate this great milestone!

Virtual Stealing

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:08:02 -0700

I can't get enough of these court cases dealing with the internet lately. Here's another one in regards to "Virtual Stealing" or better known as "sharing" online. This is the the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the internet where a single mother from Minnesota was ordered to pay US$220,000 (AUD$247,549) for sharing 24 songs online. Thats US$9,166.67 per song! It's crazy how this giant corporate company is chasing after the small fry: the harmless individuals. Are they desperate? If they really want to eliminate the problem of sharing songs (i.e. their intellectual property) shouldn't they be chasing down the people behind the file sharing networks and shutting them down? Jammie Thomas, 30, was the first among more than 26,000 people sued by the Recording Industry of America and six major music labels after refusing a settlement. A jury took just five hours to decide that evidence provided by the music labels showed otherwise and found Thomas guilty of copyright infringement, court records showed. The fine could have reached $US150,000 ($168,700) a song if the jury had found "willful" copyright infringement. Had the record companies sued her for all 1702 songs found in the online folder the fine could have run in the millions.

Deceptive Advertising On Google

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:49:55 -0700

The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) has dropped their "Deceptive Advertising on Google" case against Google's Australian and Irish subsidiaries. They will now focus their efforts on Google's US parent company and Trading Post. What's all the kerfuffle about? We're still in the Wild West days of the Internet. The frontier is being tested. There is the case of Virgin Australia being sued from breach of copyright from taking an image of Internet website off Flickr. Then there was the case of the 15 year old being sued in Finland for a YouTube video.

In ACCC's case against Google they launched legal action against Google Australia, US-based Google Inc., Google Ireland and the Sensis subsidiary Trading Post in July, alleging misleading and deceptive conduct over search results. In documents filed with the court, the consumer regulator claimed Google did not clearly distinguish between normal organic search results and advertisements at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), which Google calls "Sponsored Links". Google was therefore misleading search enginer users because they claimed to rank search results based on relevance, not the money it received from advertisers.

Increase Blog Traffic With Reciprocal Review Carousel

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:25:46 -0700

Here is yet another way to increase your blog traffic: this time its called the Reciprocal Review Carousel; first started on this page. by Alex Sysoef. I got introduced into the concept by Carlo Selorio. The goal of this linking strategy is to combine Web 2.0 technologies and share some resources to ours and your readers (if you choose to participate - just follow the instructions below...).

— copy and paste the Reciprocal Review Carousel and instructions below this line —

Reciprocal Review Carousel idea is based on few simple and yet effective link-building and bloggin techniques I have learned:

Build value of the blog by creating a link from within content.
Provide a value to community by doing a review on blog you personally like.
Link to YOUR blog has exact anchor text you want and helps you boost Google Rankings.
No more then 30 outbound links from any page to prevent penalties for link farming.
Viral effect of the link – as more bloggers participate, link to your blog with YOUR anchor text, coming from quality content post will spread.

Here is How to participate:

Copy the entire text between the specified lines.
Create a post on your site and put at least one paragraph explaining how you joined the Reciprocal Review Carousel.
Paste the text you copied into your post.
Remove the Bottom Review and At the Top add your own review with a link to a site reviewed, at least 2 sentences about the site and a note – Reviewed by: Your Anchor Text. Link your anchor text to your site. Here is an example:

WordPress Web 2.0 Guide is a blog providing very useful information on building your very own Web 2.0 portal based on WordPress. Detailed instructions and howto guides make it possible for anyone to create a sparkling and engaging blog and join the community of like-minded individuals. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Spot-er

Sites Reviewed:

Share Trading is a blog about trading Australian stocks as well as investing and news about the Aussie sharemarket. Reviewed by Marco.

Pinay Pix is a photoblog about international Filipina celebrities. Reviewed by Marco.

Forex Trading HQ is a forex trading blog the latest news in the worldwide foreign exchange markets. Reviewed by Marco.

My Forex Cashback blog reviews forex trading strategies. Reviewed by Marco.

Carlo Selorio's Internet Entrepreneur's Journey is a blog about growing an internet income stream online, growing traffic and Internet marketing. Reviewed by Marco.

Blog Marco Blog is about Celebrity Photos, Videos and interesting insights of a University students travel journey. Reviewed by Carlo Selorio

John Cow dot Com blog is about parody of John Chow dot com. Talking about making money online with all things blogging related. Reviewed by Carlo Selorio

ChrisG.com is a blog about thoughts and advice on the business of new media, blogging and online marketing. Chris aims to teach you ways you can create compelling resources, provide your audience more value, build trust and loyalty, and generate more rewards for yourself. Reviewed by Carlo Selorio

Andy-Coates.com is an original creator of Viralink concept and a blog publishing information on Magic, Personal development and blog development. I have found a wealth of information on getting your blog noticed and generating the traffic for free. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Guide

FitForFreedom is well-established blog where you can find multitude of information on achieving financial freedom. Blog is run by Marco Righter and his writing style greatly adds to the value of information he provides. Reviewed by: Alex

Friday Traffic Report run by Jack Humphrey is all about most effective Web 2.0 promotion of your site, link building and proper monetization. One blog I read on daily bases and highly recommend. Reviewed by: Alex

Secure Your PC For Internet blog run by Colin and provides essential information everyone accessing internet should know. Identity theft is becoming more and more of an issue and by visiting his blog you can minimize the risk of being compromised. Reviewed by: Alex

VI-SU blog is all about WordPress, AdSense, SEO and Internet Marketing. Although mostly written in German I have found that using Google translate is worth the effort for his posts. Reviewed by: Alex

— copy and paste the Reciprocal Review Carousel and instructions above this line —

Virgin Sued

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:43:48 -0700

Teaser:
Virgin sued for using teens photo in advertising campaign

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In typical American style where everyone gets sued for something, a Texas family has sued Australia's Virgin Mobile phone company, claiming it caused their teenage daughter grief and humiliation by plastering her photo on billboards and website advertisements without consent. The family of Alison Chang (who features on the billboard advertisement) says Virgin Mobile grabbed the picture from Flickr, Yahoo Inc's popular photo-sharing website, and failed to credit the photographer by name. Chang's photo was part of a Virgin Mobile Australia campaign called "Are You With Us Or What?" It features pictures downloaded from Flickr superimposed with the company's ad slogans. People who post photos on Flickr are asked how they want to license their attribution. The youth counsellor chose a sharing licence from Creative Commons that allows others to reuse work such as photos without violating copyright laws, if they credit the photographer and say where the photo was taken. His Flickr page appears at the bottom of the ad. We are still testing out the Internet - The Wild West of Today as Virgin gets sued for using a valid CC (Creative Commons) license..