Google….

by Lorelle on October 22, 2011

Part of me wants to avoid free services online. Their usual aim is to get me hooked on something I find useful, and use it against me. And Google is Just.So.Big. Shouldn’t we be suspicious of these freebies it’s so liberally handing out just for the taking? I have been such a holdback against the [...]

Dilemma: Censor a negative Facebook comment?

by Lorelle on October 16, 2011

Facebook is beginning to show us how much of a challenge reputation management will be now that social media rules the day. And you thought it was bad when a negative website came up first in Google for your product’s or company’s name. There wasn’t much you could do in that situation beyond trying to [...]

Comcast email account hacked?

by Lorelle on October 14, 2011

A friend bemoaned, “I just spent time on the phone with comcast after seeing that another round of spam email was sent from my account. I thought that the anti-virus scan I ran had taken care of it. Comcast told me I just needed to reset my password.” That may not stop the virus from [...]

Secure your wireless router, or it may cost you!

by Lorelle on September 30, 2011

This week I started receiving the first of many “Copyright Infringement Notifications” at an email address I alone monitor. (Because it occasionally gets spam due to being easily harvested from my client’s website.) It turned out not to be spam, but a bona fide infringement warning for my client! Apparently, someone piggybacked on my client’s [...]

Monitor your online reputation

by Lorelle on June 11, 2011

Nowadays it’s critical for business owners to protect your reputation online. Once your company’s name or your own name gets an unfavorable mention in Facebook, someone’s blog, a forum, or on some website it can wind up at the top of search results in Google, and there’s not a lot you can do about it. [...]

Keep your website up to date!

by Lorelle on June 6, 2011

Today I was searching a client’s host’s website (Drizzle.com) for information on which version of php they’re using. Not only was this info nowhere “in site” (pun intended, haha), but when I clicked their prominent Support button, the page was nothing but a long list of drop-down menus. Thinking they might post server upgrade info [...]

What’s the worst thing to forget…

by Lorelle on May 25, 2011

…to include in a website that sells a product? You guessed it: PRICES! Last night I visited a beautifully done, modern website. Nice, clean layout with easy-on-the-eyes colors. And that’s all well and good, because they sell premium themes for WordPress. But they seem to have left something out. From the home page, their conversion [...]

Every few years I find it necessary to revisit topics as advances in technology render previous workarounds useless. Many years ago on this very website, long before the CAN-SPAM Act went into effect, I wrote about the importance of keeping spam-spiders from harvesting email addresses in web pages. Recently I was asked whether I have [...]

It’s too bad the blog spammers have to ruin it for everyone! “This internet site carries a very good offer of very good straight down to earth well getting information also it will require to hold out tremendously well, if it hasn’t already? I liked studying about some while using products!” “Hi and many thanks [...]

What a rat: Domainregistrat.com

by Lorelle on February 7, 2011

Watch out for domain renewal scams. Some of them, like this one, are actually for a nonsensical fee for “search engine registration.” I have no idea what services they will do for that $75; likely nada, zero, nothing. Worse-case scenario: If they’re a registrar and you pay them for domain renewal, you will transfer your domain away from the company you CHOSE to manage your domain registration!