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I’d like to call everybody’s attention to something that all internet marketers need to be aware of and keep an eye on, whether you’re involved with this particular business or not. The reason is that the CA Attorney General has decided to declare war on companies that sell web sites for money-making purposes and are coupled with monthly maintenance fees, especially when most of the buyers either mis-interpret what’s being sold and/or fail to take the action needed to earn any money from those businesses.
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Someone emailed me with a question relating to domain names, and it motivated me to write down something that I’ve had rolling around in my head for a while.

This is just a “theory” I have.  However, it’s totally consistent with everything I’ve learned about SEO and how the SEs work.  I have no solid proof that things work this way, other than tons of empirical evidence that really doesn’t contradict it.

Ok, so here’s the general idea…
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I’ve been listening to a terrific audiobook version of a new book entitled Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

This is a really fascinating account of several experiments done by the author, Dan Ariely, who’s a “Social Economist”. If you think this stuff is boring, you’ve got another thing coming. Actually, the audiobook version is quite fun to listen to. The guy reading it has a nice British accent, and in many situations it’s really amusing.

If you’d like to learn some new business strategies that work because of the way people just tend to act, then you really want to read this book.

One example they discuss is a strategy for “getting the guy/girl at a party”.

There’s also an excellent discussion on “Why People Cheat” and how you can predict when it’s most likely to happen.

The audio book contains 7+ hours of material, and it would take quite a while to go through it all. Just visit the link here and see what else it contains. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!

Phishing fradusters are everywhere.  I get “PayPal Fraud Alerts” several times a week.  I get stuff from banks I’ve never heard of, and banks I don’t do business with.  But the ones you need to be most careful of are the ones you DO work with.

Well, I just got a Phishing spoof purporting to be from Google advising me of the following:

Dear Advertiser,

This is your official notification from Google AdWords that the service(s) listed below will be deactivated and deleted if not renewed immediately.

As the Primary Contact, you must renew the service(s) listed below or it will be deactivated and deleted.

Renew Now your Google Search Advertising services.  <<— FRAUDULENT LINK!

SERVICE: Google Search Advertising
EXPIRATION: July, 23 2008

Thank you for using Google AdWords service.
We appreciate your business and the opportunity to serve you.

Since your Google AdWords account is tied not only to credit cards but to stuff that can cost you a LOT OF MONEY if it’s messed with, be VERY CAREFUL with these kinds of things!

Do NOT click the link!  Rather, go to your AdWords account the way you usually do (adwords.google.com) and see if you get any kind of notice when you login.

Personally, I’ve never been advised that my AdWords account needs to be renewed — only that my credit card is expiring and that I need to update my records.

Be informed, and be careful.

-David “The Tool Wiz” Schwartz

I just got done restoring the previous version of someone who asked me to upgrade their Wordpress blog.

The good folks at Wordpress.org released V2.6 “over a month early”.  But it has a problem if you’re upgrading from an earlier blog: the Categories get messed up.

So if you’re going to upgrade, do NOT move to 2.6 yet.

And always remember to do a backup of you database before you run the upgrade!

BTW, I’m available to do installs and upgrades for Wordpress, Rapid Action Profits, and other scripts at $50/hr.

I just stumbled into this:

http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202422768997

It’s about a free site where you can search for legal briefs and whatnot.

You might think, “so what?”

How about this:

Check out the blog the article refers to. You’ll find it contains some surprisingly interesting articles!

What are your thoughts?

-David

Well, I’m finally getting around to posting something here after a long silence.  Something went wonky with my blog and I couldn’t access anything on the plugins page and some other stuff.  So I just stopped posting things.

I don’t really have more to say at the moment.  But I’ll be posting a little more regularly again shortly.

Hello

I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to wish all of my
clients and customers a really Happy Easter!

I’ve been hanging out today at the “Mile High Grill” in
Jerome, Arizona. It has a wonderful east-facing view over
the Verde Valley. At the other side of the valley are the
Red Rocks of Sedona, about 15 miles away. It looks an awful
lot like the view from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Only in this case you get to see the setting sun making the
Sedona area take on a wonderful shimmering red glow as it
goes down behind us here. It’s truly humbling and inspiring!

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