September 3rd, 2010
In the past, TV sets, stereos, and video game consoles were what made for good home entertainment. It’s apparent that the Web was a catalyst for transformation. As much great entertainment as you can handle can be brought straight to your screen with service provider Wild Blue. Wild Blue lets you browse the Web while visiting your favorite web pages as long as you have clear views of the southern sky. Catch up with up to date news reports on web pages like CNN.com, visit your pals on MySpace, listen to audio files, play games, or do anything else you want. There are lots of web-based programs and tools to use; they include costless word processors, conversion calculators, thesauri, and many more. Enjoy meeting exciting friends but networking has become a chore? With Wild Blue internet, socializing becomes a dream. Networking web pages such as Twitter or Facebook and web pages such as YouTube where you can upload and share videos are massively popular at the moment. Miss out at your peril. Social bookmarking web pages allow you to note and rank assorted web pages and share them with others. Enjoy a good public debate? Millions of webforums and web-based journals are waiting for you to sign up.
Do you have an MP3 player? You should try an online music program such as iTunes with Wild Blue, and you’ll be savoring those songs dearest to you. You can stream the tunes held dearest to you with no filler material. Beyond tracks, these types of web pages often offer audiobooks, films, podcasts and many other electronic wares you can enjoy practically everywhere with direct tv satellite internet. You’ll be spoiled for choice should you start using the internet to get films and TV shows, Wild Blue can be your entrance to that world. It’s all available to download from both paid and free web pages. Get yourself online and experience the joy of instant entertainment. It’s true that web-based games are the current craze, anybody can join in the fun, even you! There are massively multi-player online role playing games and web pages that provide card, puzzle and shooting games. Scores of them are provided absolutely free of charge. Internet service providers pushed the domain of entertainment to fresh heights and fresh locations. It’s now feasible to enjoy yourself almost anyplace. Should you desire an affordable and highly reliable internet service provider and you have open views of the sky in the south, join Wild Blue today.
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June 17th, 2010
Home entertainment was once all about TV sets, stereos and game systems. That was all altered with the creation of the net. Washington’s service provider WildBlue brings fresh entertainment directly to your screen with superfast file transfer speeds of up to 30 times faster than dialup. Actual rates may vary. WildBlue lets you browse the net and visit all your favorite web pages. Thought about checking out Facebook or Myspace? Go ahead. With WildBlue Internet, the world is your oyster. There are thousands of online tools and programs to use; they include costless text editors, conversion calculators, thesauruses, and many more.
Feel like making more friends? WildBlue Internet makes socializing a pleasure. Want to use YouTube and Twitter? With wireless Internet, it’s easy to connect, talk and share info. Social bookmarking web pages allow you to note and rank different web pages while sharing their contents with others. Enjoy a good discussion? Plenty of webforums and blogs are ready for you to sign up. Is your MP3 player your pride and joy? Try a web-based audio program like iTunes with WildBlue, and you’ll soon be relishing those tunes you adore. There’s no detriment to a system which lets you choose how many songs you purchase from an album. Using satellite Internet service will present to you a stimulating domain of electronic fun. Download audio books, podcasts, films and many other digital products at a click of your mouse. If life kept you away from this week’s installment of your favorite tv series or you have a hankering to check out a film but don’t want to drive to the video rental store, WildBlue Internet lets you watch the programs you like from your house. Join the Internet with WildBlue and have fun streaming tv and movies from both free and paid web pages. It’s true that online gaming is an immense market right now; don’t you want to join the fun? At an introductory level, you’ve got massively multi player online role playing games and web pages that provide card, quiz and fighting games. Some of them are provided totally free of charge.
There’s an astonishing selection, so isn’t it time you signed up with an excellent wireless ISP? Should you have a clear view of the southern sky then wildblue in Washington can give you an affordable and highly reliable service.
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June 16th, 2010
“Are you good spam or bad spam?” This is the question I find echoing in my head sometimes when I am going through my email, as if it is part of some electronic Wizard of Oz. Have you ever given any thought to the fact that there really is a difference in spam? Not that I am defending anyone, but let me make my point and then you can decide for yourself.
Spam is such a hot issue and no one knows the “right” view of spam that fits everyone. You either: - will take all measures to prevent people from sending it to you - don’t mind it at all and happily delete, delete, delete every day - OR hate it sometimes and ignore it other times.
I think I fall in the last category, which is what started me thinking about good and bad spam. My point of view has now developed into this:
BAD Spam- -It is bad spam when you reply to it to be removed and it is returned to you because the address is made up. -It is bad spam when the removal link does not open a real url. -It is bad spam when you paste the message source into Spam Cop and the info you get back before clicking the “Send spam report” shows tons of dead ends and made up domains, etc.
This means that this “Cowardly Lion” harvested your address, and went to great lengths to cover their tracks in order not to get caught sending spam.
GOOD Spam- -It is good spam when there is an actual person on the other end, apologizing for inconveniencing you.
What made it good spam? Because here is spam that you most likely will not get again, because it is more legit then the bad spam. These people are not out to break any rules, upset anyone, or ruin your day. 9 times out of 10 they really don’t know any better and will learn, very quickly I might add.
Also, keep in mind that the Scarecrow in us does not ALWAYS remember every email we sign up for. It is possible to have signed up for something and a week later be flipping out because you are getting email from some unknown. If we only had a brain sometimes (Speaking for myself, of course).
It is also highly possible that someone is having fun subscribing you to things. Never count that one out, it happens all of the time.
GOOD vs BAD Personally, I would much rather get NO spam, however if I had to choose, I would have to go with good spam. Bad spam demonstrates that the sender KNOWS what is NOT acceptable and went to all of this trouble and expense to hide behind this long trail of fake addresses. These are malicious acts, and down right dirty. Do they really think that what they are trying to sell in this manner is actually worth it? These are the people we should be upset with. These are the people that we need to be telling, “I’ll get you my pretty, and your little server too!”
So, whether you agree or disagree, just try to keep in mind that -1. The whole world is not out to get you. -2. Not every piece of spam is sent with the same intent. And… -3. As the world around us continues to change, we will be seeing more and more companies resorting to sending their junk mail through email rather then the post office. (I think this is becoming a more desirable thing to us all, as it would be much safer, take less effort to get rid of, & is better for the environment.)
Now is the time to try to adjust our view and approach the issue with a level head. If we don’t we will drive ourselves mad, and for what purpose? The changes in our world cause the internet to change. Soon you probably will find yourself saying, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore”.
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November 9th, 2009
Outsourcing your mail server and spam removal to a hosted service reveals several advantages
With rising volume of spam e-mails that drain a substantial amount of companies financial resources and eat bandwidth, outsourced hosted server could give them freedom from this headache and increase their productivity.
You need the Internet for your daily activities both privately and professionally, but when a major part of it contains unwanted e-mails and malware, is suddenly is a factor that creates stress and frustration for the entire organisation from IT administrators to end users.
The world wide web continues to spread out and becomes available to more and more people - young and old - spam follows this spread out trend resulting in increasing time and finansial resouces spend on filtering junk mail from legitimate mails. It is very common to underestimate the cost of getting rid of spam - the reason is that is just takes a couple of seconds to remove one single spam e-mail. But when spam mails suddenly appear in hundres or thousands on a daily basis it becomes a serious problem - consuming time and users’ focus.
Junk mails are more than just irritating in their nature, they also put significant stress on the entire operation of a company because they occupy network and waste bandwidth. Every unsolicited message delivered uses bandwidth and in some cases spam account for nearly 50% of the entire network.
A slow and ineffective network hits all businesses - from the large companies the have their own dedicated team taking care of IT securiry to small businesses, that has a smaller budget for online protection. Furthermore, governments at all levels - local and regional - have tried to implement legislation aimed at spammers, unfortunately this has not helped fight spam sufficiently as spammers are able to continue their criminal activities using the latest and most advanced technologies.
Spammer have set up their underground base with access to widespread networks of mail servers combined with advanced and custom technology. A number of studies have shown that spam are draining financial resources and posting security threats to organizations by exposing their networks to malware, spyware and other malicious codes.
Such security threats stress the need to implement advanced malware detecting on hosted mail servers to decrease the cost of operating and protecting the internal network from collapse. Oursourcing all mail services can especialy help companies to remove the online threats caused by spam.
A strong argument for using outsourced hosted services for mail is the amount of time companies save becayse the no longer have to worry about handling hardware, software, integration and maintenance of the spam filter. Trained and experienced personnel keep and eye on their systems 24/7 and ensure removal of all spam before it is passed to the company’s internal network and the end users.
The responsibility removing all spam before it reaches the end users is now placed at the outsourced hosted mail server, and understanding the entire process is now much easier for less technical users.
Author:Martin Faklor
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November 2nd, 2009
Have you started or are you thinking in starting an online business?
I bet that you know that the bulk e-mail marketing technique it’s widely used on Internet, it’s free, it’s easy and it’s fast…
But on the long run it can cost you more than you will gain with it!
Many people identify bulk e-mail with spam. Spam used to be referred about posting or broadcasting ads to unrelated discussion groups, but now this term has grown meaning “any unsolicited e-mail” or “any email sent to people that didn’t ask for it”. And the Internet Service Providers are taking steps that can be very dangerous to your business if you decide to use bulk e-mail as your promotional tool.
If the people that receive your unsolicited e-mail, complaint to your ISP and or your virtual host service, you may end up loosing one or both of them. This means that your web site will be shut down, and you will lose your connection to the Internet.
Of course that you can get another ISP and virtual host server, but this will harm you in three ways:
* It will be a waist of time * It will cost you money * It will damage your reputation
So this free medium for online promotion, can be the source of too many problems, and the best that you can do, is to do not get involved with it.
But SPAM can give you problems…
EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T WANT TO SPAM!
And this brings us to our next topic…
FREE SPAM CHECKING
Let’s say that you’re about to mail out your e-zine…
You can’t have an idea of how many will actually REACH your subscribers and how many will get filtered, junked, trashed, or stomped by ISPs, HotMail, Yahoo! Mail, etc., along the way.
Why?
Simple answer… spam.
You know how important e-mail is to YOUR business, right? What if I told you 10%, 20%, maybe 50% or more of it is not getting through?
Spam has reached epidemic levels. So much so that ISPs have been forced to combat it with filtering software.
Alas, many legitimate marketers aare getting caught up and hurt, even though they are not the target.
Now, instead of JUST hoping for the best…
With our SpamCheck feature, you can know exactly what to do to reduce the “spamminess” of your e-zines and promotional e-mail!
As a result, you will know that your e-mail and newsletters are being delivered directly into INBOXES of your clients and affiliates…
…. and NOT into the Junk Mail Folder.
It’s no longer just enough to send the mail… You must be sure that you can reach the INBOX!
What should you do to protect your honest business from being recognized as spam when it is not?
Send your marketing letters and e-zine issues to my special autoresponder, and you will get a SpamCheck Report.
Even if you don’t have an ezine or newsletter you should check your email signature file!
Why?
Simple answer… the average marketing sig file can contain enough “spam triggers” to throw you into Yahoo! Mail’s Junk Mail folder.
STEPS TO SPAM CHECKING YOUR MARKETING TOOLS
Send an email to spamcheck-RB@sitesell.net with the word TEST (in caps, no quotes)preceding your subject in the Subject line.
I repeat, because it’s important… Start the subject line with… TEST …. or we assume it’s spam (since the spambots will add affiliate spamcheck addresses to their dirty databases), and follow up with your usual e-mail or ezine’s Subject
i.e. if your Subject is:
“The best home business”
you should write:
TEST “The best home business”
On the body of the email put your ezine’s issue content or your marketing email’s content
Send it to: spamcheck-RB@sitesell.net
And that’s it, that’s all there is to it!…
You will receive an Instant free spam-checking, and a free Report telling you the results. 
Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi
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October 29th, 2009
Unsigned artists have much more chance of success than any other time through history. On one hand, composing and performing songs without the shadow of a struggling record label hanging overhead leaves musicians free to express themselves without constraints. Otherwise, it leaves unsigned bands the responsibility of market themselves.
While the Internet has become the most vital and effective marketing tool, taking music to the streets has become the bread an butter for many acts. On a smaller scale, Heath & Jed have made a living off of the CD sales and tips they’ve received playing the streets and subways of New York City. In their Gothamist tour diary (8/14/06), they revealed: “We’ve sold over 10,000 CD’s this year. One fan at a time…We came and we conquered and we made some money to live another day as musicians, doing what we love.”
Sony’s Connect music site did a feature on unsigned Fullerton, CA band Cold War Kids who “have risen to the top of the hipster rock heap through their relentless touring.” In the related interview, lead singer Nathan Willett talked about the process of peddling their homemade EPs during their non-stop tours: “Basically (the EPs) were available at our shows at best, and we ran out of them a lot, and it was kind of a bummer because we couldn’t put the effort into being at home and getting more made. But it was cool because we had a limited amount of them and people seemed to want them, and we were surprised that people wanted them as much as they did.”
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April 3rd, 2009
Nobody likes receiving spam and having to spend time dealing with it. Even with sophisticated filtering and avoidance mechanisms discussed in my previous articles entitled “Use A Spam Filtering Tool To Manage Spam And Save Hours Everyday” and “7 Steps To Effectively Take Control Of Your Inbox And Reduce Spam”, these unwanted spam messages keep on appearing. By understanding how the system works, we can effectively take steps to significantly reduce the amount of spam that we receive daily.
What we have to understand is that email marketing is by far the most effective way to promote products and services on the internet today. The basis of this system it to collect as many email addresses as you can and repeatedly send email messages out to them. There is a legitimate way to do this and then there is the way spammers do it.
The legitimate way is to collect email addresses only from people who volunteer it to you on a website in return for some information that you offer. In addition to this every email sent out must include a link or instructions on how to unsubscribe. I would take it one step further and say that unsubscription must be instantaneous. Having to wait for a few days is unacceptable with the software tools available today. Following this method, you will only receive email messages that you have opted-in for and as soon as you are not getting any value out of it, you unsubscribe.
The spammers mode of operation is to collect email addresses by any and all means available. This could be by building software spiders to crawl websites 24 hours day looking for email addresses on any page. Usually they search for the HTML tag “mailto:” but as users have stopped hyperlinking in response, the spiders are getting more sophisticated and are putting together text like “john dot smith at domain dot com” into the proper valid email address “john.smith@domain.com”. Some websites list all their employees contact emails on one page and is a prime target for spam. Harvesting guestbooks where emails are displayed is also a very common practice.
Other methods are more malicious and involve virus-like or worm software being installed on your computer and feeding the names in the address book back to a spam server that collects them.
Spammers trade email addresses for money. This is why the system is out of hand - it is an income producing activity. Every email address has a value to it and no matter how little the value, putting together a list of 100,000 can provide a neat income for a spammer. Most spammers have spam lists many times larger than this.
Spammers also include the unsubscribe link at the bottom of spam emails. These links when clicked and actioned, tells the spammers that this email address actually got through to a live person and that email address is now moved onto a much higher value list and is traded for more money. Those of us who have actioned these links have found the flood of spam coming in to vastly increase within only days.
So now to the question of how to use this knowledge to reduce the spam you get?
First, understand that everytime you give out your email address to a website, that it can potentally be sold and traded. Therefore, if you are unsure about it, use an email address that is not your primary one. Webmail services like Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are perfect for this. You only get the messages when you want them and log into those services. I’ve used a Yahoo Mail address for this for years now. Everytime I log in there are more than a thousand messages but the one that I want to look at is at the top. I never have to delete these messages, Yahoo takes care of it automatically. The only requirement is that I log in to the service within a set period usually 90 or 120 days to keep the account active.
Once you are comfortable that the site concerned is legitimate, you can then change your email address to your primary one. On the other hand, if you start getting spammed, then you do nothing, let the spam emails build up and get deleted automatically by the system.
In my article entitled “7 Steps To Effectively Take Control Of Your Inbox And Reduce Spam” I discuss an elegant way to safely give out email addresses and shut them down in case they get spammed. This is by far the most effective method that I have used.
Other things to watch out for?
Spammers are facing tougher times and they are finding it harder to get new email addresses. While this is a good sign that means the general public are getting more educated, it does mean that we have to be careful of where our email addresses are shown or advertised. For example, magazines and newspapers often are great places for a spammer to collect email addresses. This is a much slower method but if we think about it, these email addresses are of much higher value because somebody has paid money to advertise and so it is bound to be a real address. This means that we have to think laterally in order to stay ahead of the spam game.
Last but not least, we can surely help significantly reduce the problem by not responding to any spam email message whether it is by clicking on a link, replying to the email or unsubscribing using a supplied link. If you really must look at the site, just type in the domain name part of it into your browser and leave out everything after the domain name. This will take you to the site without the spammers tracking identification code.
Together we can surely put a dent in this system by understanding it and staying one or a few steps ahead of spammers.
Balraj Dhaliwal is an Internet Consultant for BSD Register, a well respected and liked domain and hosting provider because of its no nonsense simple approach to getting things done. Visit BSD Register at http://www.BSDRegister.com
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January 1st, 2009
Whenever you turn on the TV news, or read any newspaper and news magazines, one of the hot topics of conversation is identity theft. There is little reason why, as identity theft is skyrocketing. It’s a crime that can affect anyone, regardless of credit history or financial status.
We are seeing reports every month about thieves stealing massive amounts of personal information. From 250,000 veterans to 400,000 individual social security numbers from one of the major credit card companies, the odds of someone getting access to your personal information are increasing with each passing day.
How do we protect ourselves against identity theft? One of the best ways to protect yourself is by being educated. We should all keep ourselves aware of how to reduce the chances of someone stealing our identity. Here are 15 easy tips to help prevent you from becoming the next victim of identity theft.
1. You can talk with people in person or on the phone who you don’t know, but never give them your personal information. This could have disastrous consequences in the wrong hands.
2. Try not to talk about financial events going on in your life while out in public around others. Things like capital investments, big ticket purchases, etc.
3. Don’t carry your checkbook and check register with you. Leave them in your home. Carry 1 or 2 blank checks with you in your wallet. Many identity theft victims have reported that having their check books stolen from them helped thieves get even more of your personal information.
4. Memorize your Social Security number. You should never carry your SS card in your wallet or purse. You have an increased chance of it being taken and becoming a victim of identity theft.
5. Carry only one or two credit cards with you when you are out in public. Leave the others at home.
6. Do not keep personal information stored on your laptop computer. Items such as social security number, bank account numbers, passwords, etc. should always be deleted.
7. Avoid charging a high total on one card. Use both cards and keep things as even as possible in order to avoid attracting attention.
8. Make sure you maintain a list of all your different credit cards along with the various 800 numbers to call if they are lost or stolen. Keep this list in a safe place, not your wallet.
9. Try to limit the use of ATM machines. If you must use one, be sure no one is around you at the time. Stand where others can’t see the keypad while you key in your password. ATM machines are a great target for those who would like to steal your identity.
10. One way to destroy old documents you no longer need to keep is to shred them. You can also destroy them by letting them soak in warm water for several minutes. When they turn to pulp you can simply throw it away. Identity theft is impossible by doing this.
11. Take personal items out of your wallet. Never keep receipts in your wallet, or leave them lying around in your car.
12. If you are traveling, memorize your hotel room number. Don’t leave it on a piece of paper somewhere.
13. Be sure you have your mail stopped by the post office if you are going to be away from home for any length of time. A mailbox full of delivered mail can be a goldmine to any potential identity thieves.
14. When you are using a credit card to make an online purchase, be sure to only use it on sites that use SSC technology. This can’t be stressed enough.
15. Never put personal information or personal letters in the trash. Always shred them or destroy them by other means.
By using these tips you can greatly reduce the possibility of becoming a victim of identity theft. Even so, there is still no guaranteed way of protecting yourself completely. Continue to educate yourself in this area. By doing so you can make it next to impossible for any would be thieve to steal your identity and make life miserable.
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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Identity Theft
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December 31st, 2008
Is your email inbox filled with junk emails, SPAM and crap? Well you are not alone and it does not appear to be going away anytime soon. You see the Federal Trade Commissions; FTC’s war on SPAM is killing small businesses and flooding their inboxes with junk mail. This is causing issues with their ability to maintain productivity.
America Online indicated that it culls 75% of the incoming SPAM thru filters and many other companies are able to do this too. But what if you are a small business which does not have such features on your website? What do you do then? You cannot do a thing. Neither can the Federal Trade Commission as per their recent report to the United States Congress, which gave little hope in the War in Spam, as the insurgent Spammers are coming from over the border. But there is some good news. No this is not about saving money in your car insurance by switching to Gieko.
A concocted report from MX Logic purports that SPAM is down a whopping 9%? If you believe that you are on drugs just like the FTC. If you are a small business getting 300 junk mails per day, obviously this is not going to help you in the least as it still means you are getting over 275 junk mails a day. Worse the figure of nine-percentile is said to be a complete misrepresentation and convenient fabrication. Think on this.
“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
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December 18th, 2008
Paypal is becoming the online payment processor of choice for many users. Paypal allows virtually anyone to except credit card payments. Paypal is also a great way to send and receive electronic payments. Unfortunate fame has it’s price and in the case of Paypal that means scam artists preying on the Paypal members
The Most common Paypal Scam Involves E-Mail, You will receive an E-mail from Someone claiming to be Paypal requesting you Verify your Information. That is Warning Sign 1 Paypal will never send you an E-Mail Requesting Your Personal Information
Often this E_mail will be sent to an E-Mail Address that is not the same one that Paypal has on File. That is Warning Sign 2
The Third Warning Sign is forged Headers (From Address). This is often hard to detect without knowledge of the Internet. Many Spam filters are now setup to block E-mail that has forged headers. Ask your E-mail provider how you can block Forged Headers.
The Fourth Warning Sign is the Greeting says something like Dear Paypal user or Paypal Member. Paypal knows who you are they will use the name you registered with.
The Fifth Warning Sign is the threat. The E_mail will threaten to suspend your account if you don’t take immediate action.
The Sixth Warning Sign is a Non Secure Page. If you do click on the link in the E-Mail you will not be on a secure Page, No Https in the URL and no little Padlock in the lower left hand corner of your browser.
Bad Grammar or Misspelled words in the
If you receive an E-mail from Paypal with even 1 of these warning signs more likely then not it is a scam. Forward the E-Mail to Paypal and ask for assistance if you have any doubts.
Don’t let these modern day thieves keep you from go about your every day life. Life is a risk the key of course is to do all you can to protect yourself and still enjoy life.
About The Author:
Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001 When he Built
an Organization of over 100,000 Members
Get Mike’s Newsletter:
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Copyright © 2005-2006 Mike Makler the Coolest Guy in the Universe
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