The launch of ConsultantDirectory.com has goine well, but I didn't realize how much time is involved with reviewing, editing, and approving submissions....! I knew it was work, but I did not know how much, and the site has not even been submitted to search engines and other dorectories yet...!!

Still, it's fun so see all the sites, please stop by and add yours, or that of a company you like.

(hristian

Consultant Directory web site has been launched! If you are an expert, consultant, our professional in your field, you can register to list your business for free in the Consultant Directory.

We will be offering premium listings at a very resonable cost comparied to the other sites that are currently out there that we have seen:

Consultants Mall
The Consultant Directory

(hristian
Boycott Verisign

Related information for sitefinder.verisign.com at Alexa.com :

If you check out Verisign's page at Alexa.com you will find that there has been many people posting reviews since the sitefinder thing came out. I've written two myself now.

I got a chuckle when I noticed that the first site listed as a related site was "Strategic Profits Inc"...!

(hristian
[[ Join the Verisign Boycott! ]]

No new word about Verisign, so the boycott is still on!

(hristian

I just got the newest copy of the I-Domain newsletter and they have some great news about Verisign, so I'm going to re-print the part with the happy news:

I-Domain Digest Domain Name Strategy
____________________________________________________________

Moderated by: Keith Pieper mailto:domain@marketingwonk.com
Published by: Up2Speed LLC http://www.marketingwonk.com

Tell friends to subscribe for free by sending email to:
mailto:join-idomaindigest@list.marketingwonk.com
____________________________________________________________

September 23, 2003 IN THIS DIGEST Issue #420


MODERATOR COMMENT
____________________________________________________________

TOPIC: Verisign is Going Down

Just exactly how many licks does it take
before Verisign is down for the count? Within a week,
Verisign's SiteFinder service (http://snurl.com/2ct4)
has...

-stirred up privacy violation issues by using
Overture and Omniture tracking bugs and services
(http://snurl.com/2fe8 and http://snurl.com/2feg and
http://snurl.com/2fed)

-attracted a $100 million anti-trust lawsuit
(http://snurl.com/2fe6)

-attracted a lawsuit to block
SiteFinder(http://snurl.com/2fox)

-potentially violated countless trademarks

-potentially violated existing patents
(http://snurl.com/2feh)

-and generally pissed a lot of people off

The Internet Software Consortium (who serves nearly
80 percent of ISPs) has issued a patch to bypass
SiteFinder (http://snurl.com/2fe7). ICANN and the
Internet Advertising Bureau have asked Verisign to
discontinue SiteFinder (http://snurl.com/2fef).

Despite all of the uproar, Verisign sticks with the
service, claiming a large number of pleased customers
and users (http://snurl.com/2fe9).

But really, it's all about the moola. A potential
cash cow, SiteFinder has taken some 20 million typos
each day and driven Verisign's Alexa traffic rank
from 783 to 21 within three months (that means
Verisign has the 21st most visited site on the
Internet). Verisign's Alexa reach rank has
skyrocketed from 301 to 12 (only 11 more web sites
reach more unique user's than Verisign's site).
According to Alexa, 65 percent of Verisign's traffic
is now derived from SiteFinder.

What a great business idea. What a great opportunity.
What poor implementation and planning. SiteFinder is
only the most recent snafu Verisign has added to
their list of troubles. Let's not forget the Wait
List Service controversy.

These problems all stem from one thing...a
monopolistic company that does not care about the
customer or stakeholders. To this point, why should
they. They've had it all. But this might be the last
straw.

Keith Pieper


All of the "I" series of discussion lists are great and you should check them out if you have not hear of them before. There are a number on different topics like Search, Sales, Design, Etc.
Very Highly Recommeneded.

(hristian

A Furniture Porn Movie!

Make sure the kids are out of the room if you visit this site, unless you want to answer some difficult questions...

Verisign in the news!

Site finding system faces suspension

A controversial change to the way the net handles mistyped domain name queries could soon be suspended.


(hristian

Boycott Verisign

What more can I say...? They won't listen, and it seems no one wants to, or is able to take them on, so it's up to us.

Buy domain names www.DirectNIC.com
Buy SSL certificates www.GeoTrust.com

Both are cheaper and give better service anyway...

Contact me if you want to form a club, or do some kind of more formal, organized thing...

(hristian

Read comments about Verisign at Alexa.com

Some people are finding an outlet for their outrage at Alexa.com. Please come and join the Vesign-bashing party... VerySad...

(hristian

..........
...................

Sigh, I'm going tired of this game... I finally got a link to the document that they referred me to, thinking it was from some Internet authority that gives them the right to steal the DNS error traffic, but no, the document was published by Verisign!:

Dear Christopher013,

Thank you so much for providing the information that I was directed to review.

I have done so, but I see that the document was authored by your company.

I hardly think that a document that you have created can give you the authority to steal the DNS error traffic that you have done, so I must again request that the Site Finder "service" be discontinued, or the paid search results options that you present be removed.

Thank you for your understanding and compliance,
Christian Nielsen


-----Original Message-----
From: Network Solutions [mailto:CustomerService@NetworkSolutions.com]
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2003 3:45 PM
To: christian@nielsentech.com
Subject: Re: DNS re-direction for non-existent domains

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

Thank you for contacting Network Solutions.

Please be advised that you may visit the URL below to read the document.

http://www.verisign.com/resources/gd/sitefinder/bestpractices.pdf

Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and we value your business.

Best regards,

Christopher013
Network Solutions Inc.
http://www.networksolutions.com

(hristian

More whining to Verisign got me this reply:


Dear Mr. Nielsen,

Thank you for contacting Network Solutions.

You can get more information on this link

http://sitefinder.verisign.com/pdf/sitefinderdevguide.pdf

Please know that your inquiry is important to us, and we value your business.

Best regards,

Marvin003
Network Solutions, Inc.
http://www.networksolutions.com

(hristian

This is my repy to NSI's request that I "contact us live via telephone or email":

Dear Florante001,

Your message is just a little confusing, but I'll do my best to comply with your requests. This time I am sending you a live email unlike my previous emails that were composed off-line and then sent to you. This time I am really writing this message to you.

Now, you mention contacting "us", but you also mention contacting "them", so for now I am contacting both of you rather than just choosing one or the other. I prefer not to play favorites and it may help me to get the information that much quicker.

My domain name is tcgid.com and if I have a Website ID, I do not know what it is.

Now, could you please tell me where I can find the document, of "Domain Name System Wildcards in Top-Level Domain Zones ("the Guidelines") [1]" that is referred to on the site and which Ronilo001 quoted to me in the message below.

I am very interested to see these Guidelines...

Thank you,
Christian Nielsen


These exchanges are not without value. I think they provide some insight into a corporation that thinks it's better than the rest of us. But like dealing with a single individual, the reality of where the person is never completely hidden. So to when dealing with a large company can the true inner nature that reflects the heart and soul be asertained.

Befuddling communication, even if intentional, indicate an inner sickness, or "corp rot", if you will, that is a cry for help. Did you notice that staff members are not allowed to use a real name? I had at first thought that they were realted from looking and the last number, but then realized they may not even be people, but automated email robots that are programmed with their responses. This may be the real meaning behind the slip in referring to "us" and "them"...

(hristian

This is a Verisign response to my request for information on where I can find the document that gives them the right to steal web errror traffic. The document is mentioned on their web site, and in an email that I got from them. Their response is less than helpful, but at least they provide a toll-free number:

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

Thank you for contacting Network Solutions.

In order to address your inquiry, we must request that you
contact us live via telephone or email.Our telephone number is 800-891-3341. You may also contact them through e-mail: websitesupport@networksolutions.com

Please have the following information available when you contact us:

1. Your Domain Name
2. Your Website ID


Enhance your site by adding interactive features that will keep
your customers coming back! With GuestBook, BoardServer and
EZpolls, you can quickly and easily add a guest book, message
board, or online poll to your site. The design and functionality
of each service is customizable and there are no unwanted banner
ads or promotional branding displayed. Start gathering information
directly from your customers today that will improve both your site
and your products and services!

Simply login to your Website Manager and add any one of these Site
Tools located at the bottom of the Control Center.

Best regards,

Florante001
Network Solutions, Inc.
http://www.networksolutions.com

--- Original Message ---
From: "Chris Nielsen"
Received: 09/18/2003 05:38pm Central Standard Time (GMT - 5:00 )
To:
Subject: RE: DNS re-direction for non-existent domains

Dear Mr. Ronilo001,

Thank you for your message. I was not aware of the link you sent me, so
I thank you for that.

I don't have any technical questions about Site Finder, other than how
Verisign/NSI thinks they can justify "stealing" of error traffic that
should belong to the Internet as a whole. If Verisign had just implemented a
simple error page, or search options from which they would not profit, or not
profit much from, I don't think too many people would be bothered.

Anyway, I would like to confirm that ICANN or some other authority
really has established that this is all well and proper. From what I read over
at ICANN, they were pretty bent out of shape over this whole theft thing
too...

But while I used the link that you gave me, I am unable to find the
source of "Domain Name System Wildcards in Top-Level Domain Zones ("the
Guidelines") [1]" that is referred to on the site and which you quoted.

Can you please tell me where I might locate this document?

Thank you,
Christian Nielsen
Nielsen Technical Services
http://www.nielsentech.com


(hristian

More Verisign communications. This is from the SiteFinder group:

Dear Chris,

Thank you for your feedback on the Site Finder service. It is not
possible to opt out of the service. The Site Finder response is incurred
when a non-existent domain name query in com/net is directed to us. It
is not a service in which someone would subscribe to or sign up for.

For more information please refer to our FAQs:
http://www.verisign.com/nds/naming/sitefinder/

We remain committed to ensuring that Site Finder improves Web navigation
and the user experience.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Chris Sheridan
Customer Service
VeriSign, Inc.
www.verisign.com
sitefinder@verisign-grs.com

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Hi,

Please turn off Site Finder, or remove the paid search options.

You have no right to the income you will get from this, or at least not
the millions that you yourself have projected it will return.

No reply is needed.

Thank you,
Christian Nielsen
Nielsen Technical Services
http://www.nielsentech.com


Ok then.... well, it's pretty clear to me what needs to be done. Everyone needs to tell everyone they know about the problem and change configurations to not allow traffic to go to Verisign. As soon as I have some info on how to configure a Windows PC to do this, I will let you know.

(hristian

So, I sent an email the other day to Verisign, telling them how upset I was about this whole "Site Finder" deal. And today I upped the stakes by sending another message, but this time I copied Investor Relations and Press Contacts. And today I got a nice little response:

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

Thank you for contacting Web Site Support.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Unfortunately, this is not a service created or offered by Network Solutions, Inc. This product is not related to any registered domain names. If you have any technical questions regarding Site Finder, please contact Verisign Global Registry Services at sitefinder@verisign-grs.com. If you would like to read more about the service and its implementation, I would like to refer you to the Site Finder FAQ’s on the VeriSign Registry web site at http://www.verisign.com/nds/naming/sitefinder/faq.html. VeriSign's processing of queries for nonexistent domain names is in full compliance with provisions of the DNS protocol that address wildcards as well as the operational best practices described in the document entitled Domain Name System Wildcards in Top-Level Domain Zones ("the Guidelines") [1].

We appreciate your message and look forward to providing you with continued quality service in the future.

Should you need anything else, please do not hesitate to contact Web Site Support through e-mail or through the toll free number 1-800-891-3341.

Best regards,

Ronilo001
WebSite Support Team
Network Solutions, Inc.
mailto: WebSiteSupport@NetworkSolutions.Com


But I'll be darned if I can find the document that he, and the page he referred me to mentions, so I respond:

Dear Mr. Ronilo001,

Thank you for your message. I was not aware of the link you sent me, so I thank you for that.

I don't have any technical questions about Site Finder, other than how Verisign/NSI thinks they can justify "stealing" of error traffic that should belong to the Internet as a whole. If Verisign had just implemented a simple error page, or search options from which they would not profit, or not profit much from, I don't think too many people would be bothered.

Anyway, I would like to confirm that ICANN or some other authority really has established that this is all well and proper. From what I read over at ICANN, they were pretty bent out of shape over this whole theft thing too...

But while I used the link that you gave me, I am unable to find the source of "Domain Name System Wildcards in Top-Level Domain Zones ("the Guidelines") [1]" that is referred to on the site and which you quoted.

Can you please tell me where I might locate this document?

Thank you,
Christian Nielsen
Nielsen Technical Services
http://www.nielsentech.com

More to come? I hope so... and sy, if you have a minute, let sitefinder@verisign-grs.com know how you feel about this whole thing...

(hristian

Verisign ate my "Page not found" error...!

Well, my old friend Verisign has been up to their old tricks again.... After putting in place the means to route failed DNS searches for non-existant or mis-typed domain names to a special search options page that they control, it looks like they have taken it down.

Before, if you entered a bad site address in your browser you saw an error page, or in some cases, if the BROWSER was configured for it, you might go to a search screen at say MSN.

What Verisign did last Monday, since they control the root part of the DNS system, was to set it up so that any bad domain addresses with .com, .net, and .org would be directed to a special error page, that also offered to let you search for whatever you were looking for.

Great idea. Nice service, and much more friendly for users that are thrown by error messages.

The problem is that at least some of the search options were provided by a company called Overture, which is a Pay-per-click "search engine" that will pay Verisign a percentage for any paid clicks that people make. Even Verisign has admitted that there is the potential to make MILLIONS from this scheme.

So what's wrong with that? What's wrong with that is that Verisign has no right to generate money from what should be public property. ICANN, perhaps, but not Verisign. Besides, many people that make the errors will not know that what they are seeing is paid search advertising, not pure search results. Also, Overture search results are limited and sub-standard as far as quality goes, in my opinion.

It's something like this: Let's say that the phone company decided to start selling advertising on their system, and the advertising would be played when ever someone dialed a number that was not working. If the phone company owns the lines and the equipment, then I would not have much of a problem with that. But if the phone company just MANAGED the lines and equipment, and did not own it, then I would have a problem with them setting up such a system and profiting by it.

See the NY Times story

See the original post that I first read on the issue

Search engine optimization for XXX adult porn websites

I'ts a nasty disgusting job... but someone has to do it, right? Actually, we are in the middle of our first such project. It's not a porn site, but a site that reviews porn sites.

In all of our other projects we always had to put aside keyword phrases that were not very nice, but on this project, that's all we use!!! It's really a lot of fun to figure out all the best dirty words to use on which page! And combining phrases is really easy and pretty amusing, since many rules of grammer and proper English are out the window with a porn site, and who cares?

And crafting the phrases into good copy is not only easy, it's also fun. Ohhh, I feel so nasty pertending to be nasty....

Now, the real question is, can good general optimization really compete well in an area where adult webmasters and SEOs are known for their "balls to the wall" optimization and promotion of adult web sites...? I think so... it's not just the keywords, it's the copy writing too...

(hristian

Fighting SPAM takes time and I had cut waay back on the amount of time that I had been spending on reporting it to www.spamcop.net, but today my in-box was jammed and I thought, "Ok, this is it! I'm going to report every single piece of trash that I get! It's time to end this spam-fiestia!". So I've been working on it, not just for me, but also for you. I mean, you aren't reporting spam, are you? I thought not! I know, it's too much work, all that clicking and copying, and pasting and forwarding... it's just too hard...!

Oh, don't I know it! It's rough... so you just delete it, or use some kind of spam filter or maybe even just change email addresses when the spam to email ratio goes above 50 to 1...!

Well, I discovered my Spamcop account was almost down to zero, so I logged in and filled up the tank again. The last $15 I sent them lasted almost 2 years! So I sent them another $15. This is a donation, I could have just kept using them for free, but they make it possible for me to report spammers and actually get some of them shut down! Yes, I've gotten thank you messages from the ISPs that were infected by them, and that is how I know. I figure most are too busy fightning this crap to let me know, so I'm going to get that only 1 in 100 sends a message. If this is true, then I am shutting down maybe 50 spammers a month. Of course, it's not just me. There are others reporting them also.

Anyway, I rolled up my sleeves, put on the latex gloves and started reporting spam, when I noticed that some of the reports as the spam was being processed were saying that no links were found in the spam. It seems that there are some problems with the header information that concerns the "content type", but I discovered that a small edit will allow the links to be found and processed as normal. Drop me a line if you want the fix.

I'll report back to let you know what I notice in the spam level, but as the spammers lose their accounts, it should drop off. And while some will give up and find honest work, or different scams to run, there's alwasy new suckers (greedy suckers) that will take their place, and will also spam me with the same dummy email address that is reserved for spammers. :-)

(hristian

Plan now to attend ----- The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference!
http://j-walk.com/blog/docs/conference.htm
What can your business learn from the masters of email marketing?
_____________________________________________________________________

Triceron.com: root It's not everyday YAD (Yet Another Directory) can impress me, but that has just happened at Triceron.com.





This site seems to be a class act and have a great attitude from what I can tell. I was most impressed but their interest to let professionals add listings with greater ease than just average visitors.

Those that work in the SEO industry need to work with search engines and directories to make it easy on both of us. They need the content, and we need to place the listings for our clients. We should have been working together YEARS ago.

Please visit Triceron when you get a chance. I really think they are worthy of the support of SEOs and webmasters everywhere.

(hristian

Let's set the record straight right now before the rumor goes any farther: While my name is Christian, I am not the person behind the site, www.chriseo.com, or the newsletter that they send out. It's not that I have a problem with what they do or say, it's just that it's not me. Check the owner of the domain name if you think I'm trying to hide something.

I have to admit that some of the posts reflect some of the feelings and attitudes about the SEO industry that I have, when they comment about www.engine-spam.com. You should read the article on www.chriseo.com, but the main idea is that it's impractical for a small group of SE spam vigilantes to play policeman. We submitted our last client project to 161 different search engines and directories. We don't spam, but if we did, would this group report us to all 161 sites? I think not. Would there reporting have much affect? I think not. Do these people have lives outside of spam reporting? I would hope so.

Their main thing is being upset at sites that hide and repeat keywords on the page code. They "intend" to report any and all violators, and it sounds like they are not concerned with what the specific engine guidelines are. Yawn....!

I have a suggestion that may be helpful in many ways: Forget about reporting sites that may or may not be using spam on specific search engines. You are trying to plug the leak, when you could be turning off the water main...!!! Let me explain....

Don't report sites that are using SPAM. Contact and work with the search engines to have them DETECT and IGNORE the spam that you are talking about. A little bit of effort to improve SE filter methods would do much more to level the playing field then thousands of person-hours wasted in reporting all the funky sites out there. If you can see it and it's got a pattern, you can program for it.

It's pointless to go after those that make use of "loopholes" or lack of enforcement. Ask the search engines to enforce their rules, and help them to get the job done if it's so important to you....

(hristian

Most of you that know me, know that I've been fighting SPAM for quite some time. I don't just mean deleting it, but actively fighting it as much as anyone can. For a couple of years now I have been using www.spamcop.net to report spam. While reporting spam, and adding additional research information on the spammers to the reports has taken quite a bit of time, it has allowed me to keep on using email addresses that I would have otherwise been forced to abandon.

The thing that kept me at it, was the occasional report back from an ISP that an account had been closed. It has not happened often, but oh, what a great feeling it has been to get those messages. And I figure that the ISPs are so busy that they just can't report back to everyone that alerts them to the problem, so I would guess that there have been hundreds, if not thousands of spammers who had the door shut in their face.

And my reporting has also included using the spam notification email address at the Federal Trade Commission (uce@ftc.gov). No idea of what effect that may have had, but the effort was small to forward the messages.

Well I just got a message from SPAMCOP that is reporting that SPAM is now a crime in Italy, as reported by Spamhaus.

Time for the DMA to get serious if they care about their members!!! The benefits of SPAM are largely MYTH, and it would be unfortunate if email was completely unusable for business purposes.

(hristian

Time for another rant.....
===================================================================
The Next Boon On The Internet-Keyword Ownership

Did you know you can now eliminate all your competition in every single search engine,
without spending thousands of dollars with pay-per clicks or sponsored site listings. Find Out More

No I did not know that, in fact, it's not true and you must be on powerful drugs to think so...

It's Called Keyword Ownership

You have seen keyword ownership before , it's where a company asks you to use their
keyword on "AOL", then you are directed to their website.

That's not keyword ownership, it's keyword assignment, and is done by the owners of the system, like
on AOL or Compuserve. The problem is, this cannot work without some kind of add-in program. And if few people, if any have the add-in to make this work, why would anyone pay you for the "ownership" of some keywords?

Who is using this cutting edge technology?

Some Fortune 500 clients include: MasterCard, Disney, Home Depot, Hallmark, Barnes &
Noble, Pizza Hut, Wells-Fargo and Lexus just to name a few

You lie like the mangy cur that you are...

If you would you like to have control over your website's destiny

Find Out How Today-Before Your Competition Does!
=============================================================================
Ok, here's what this is all about. This keyword ownership is based on the idea that you could type in a keyword or a brandname in the browser address window and you would then go to the website of the company that registered that keyword.

This technology is real and it works. However there is a little catch.... and that is you must load in a program or plug-in to make it work. You don't have it, I don't have it, and the truth is, we don't want it if it's offered to us.

So if you hear anyone talking about this, please let them know that it's just yet another scam going around and to pay no attention to it.

(hristian

Computers really suck sometimes..... I just spent about an hour getting rid of a browser toolbar that installed itself, I should say infected and burrowed into my browser.

I'm not sure where I picked it up, but all of a sudden I this popup window open and even though I closed it, it installed this thing call a "Surferbar" and I had a third toolbar in my browser. Then I found that it's like a worm or virus and it's not going without a fight.

Remeber this URL: www.PCHell.com

This site has fixes for Surfbar and a bunch of other crap that can glom onto your system. I HIGHLY recommend this free site if you have a problem like I did!!! After you get rid of the parasite, scroll down to the bottom of their home page and donate a few bucks to them, they deserve it for having such a fine site and valuable service!!


Hey, someone from eMedia Group just rang the Blog Bell! ...cool! I used to work their up until last March...

(hristian

Mall web site services can be a real trap sometimes. I just visited some forums that are for the site owners over at www.tias.com, which is a mall hosting service. The users are upset over the fact that the Google traffic has dropped off the past few months. The problems seem to be related to the fact that all of the shops are under the tias.com domain, and the amount of optimization available to the owners is limited.

This is not as bad as some companies that offer a catalog of products and a site you can customize somewhat, but all the sites have pretty much the same content and the ability to optimize the sites is very limited. Those people, and I have talked to two in the past year on completely different systems, have real problems.

So if you are considering a mall site of some kind, find out what kind of traffic they are getting, and if you can "brand" your site with your own domain. A good mall site hosing company wll help you as much as possible.

(hristian