Month: May 2008

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AdWords Hijack What You Can Do

Just how could someone hijack your Google AdWords account without you knowing? How can they get your Google account email address and then password in order to change the password to lock you out? It appears that visiting a website with a virus or responding to one of the AdWords phishing emails that has gone out recently may allow bandits to compromise your system and your account.

First and foremost, don’t ever click links you get in emails from Google AdWords or even PayPal. Take any action requested by logging into your account with your browser to assure that you are really going to the site you intend to be visiting.

Second, make sure that you are using Internet Explorer 7 and have the phishing filter enabled. This will let your browser help you to know when a website is pretending to be a site that it is not.

Third, periodically change your passwords and look to use a secure password of a combination of numbers and letters.

Fourth, be careful of the sites you visit and routinely check your computer for malware. It appears that there is a bug out there that is downloaded from a malware site masquerading as a legitimate website and the bug seeks out your AdWords information and mails it to a bot for fraudulent use. It will keep you locked out of Google properties so you cannot access www.Google.com or even AdWords to check on your account.

Don’t think it could happen to you? Well it just happened to one of our previous clients and they got hit in one day for $10,000 of clicks to their American Express. Google is investigating and shut down their account in one day, but the absolute aggravation of communication of the issue, concerns about charges, not being able to get into your account, shutting down their legitimate business account for the period to resolve the issue, and why it would happen to you, is just something you simply do not want to experience.

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Facebook Thrashes Google Friend Connect

Well the deal is down for the count. Facebook has just stated today that Google’s fledgling Friend Connect violates it’s terms of service and will block its use of their network. You can read the full post here.

Not only is this really bad news for Google as Facebook was the most important site on its implementation list, but it is bad news for Friend Connect users. Without Facebook the other services, other than LinkedIn, in the Friend Connect network are marginally used.

The only way that Friend Connect will really get off the ground is to have other great social networking sites buy into the program.

But does Facebook’s decision surprise you? Not me, Facebook is in talks with MSN so why would MSN want to let Google has access to one of its “cherry” potential properties. Let Microsoft implement its own version of Friend Connect tied in to Facebook and that’s sure to be winning combination and a perfect ad vehicle for Microsoft adCenter – you go Microsoft!

The war between MSN and Google will be ramping up again for sure on this one.

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Twitter Your Way to More Traffic

If you are not using Twitter you may want to strongly consider giving it a whirl. My Twitter site is http://www.twitter.com/mccordweb

I have been having fun with Twitter for about the last 30 days. I went from posting all the time to posting every day or so and include interesting links in my posts.

Twitter is like a mini-blog. I like it, it is easy to use, and I am using it to keep on top of the NOW news on the Web. I have found more really cool applications using Twitter and links from other peoples Tweets than taking the time to read a full blog.

What I like is also the ability to subscribe to Twitter Feeds of others in my industry and real celebrities in my industry as well like Matt Cutts (Google engineer) and Danny Sullivan (SEO guru). I find it hugely interesting to see what they are watching and even seeing their mundane day Tweets as well.

If you are looking for a bit of fun, check out Twitter, you may become addicted too.

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Outsourcing Your Blog Content Creation Overseas

The old adage you get what you pay for is exactly right when it comes to outsourcing your blog writing overseas. Indian and Philippine writers simply do not have the grasp of the American language to communicate properly with blog readers. When you are serious about communicating your message, you simply do not want a United Kingdom spelling of a common word that Americans may consider a misspelling as well or the strange use of everyday term.

Your website and blog content is about communicating your business message and should not have the distractions that a non-native speaker may include in an important post or online message. It is not as if they do it on purpose, clearly non-native speakers want and try to write and speak like a native speaker, but they can miss commonly used syntax or introduce strange wording or meanings without knowing that they are doing so.

I’ve seen some bloggers charge $5 a post for blog writing, but on analysis the post was worded strangely or included misspellings. There is simply no replacement for a native speaker when it comes to crafting your message for your blog or website.