Aaron Wall Interview on Search Engine Radio

For those of you who missed Aaron Wall's Interview on Search Engine Radio on June 15th, the archive is now up at the website for you to listen to.



The show entitled "Blogging and Other SEO Techniques" is guest hosted by Andy Jenkins in which Aaron explained some of his techniques for using blogs for SEO purposes as well as his strategy for using a blog to sell his ebook, which is a departure from the standard 'sales letter only' approach which is very popular. Aaron also discussed other blog spam, other SEO techniques, so-called 'black hat' SEO, and more.



Aaron often has a unique tongue-in-cheek attitude toward SEO, with this classic line from the Interview which was in regards to his Fatty Weight Loss blog:

"My goal is to lose 30 pounds and to rank number one for 'weight loss' in two months. Both are very difficult to do."

Google Bans Traffic Power and it's Clients

GoogleGuy recently broke his silence (and so does Mark Carey) to confirm that Google has taken action against an SEO firm and it's clients for spammy techniques. The SEO company convinced some its clients to use javascript redirects and place hidden links to doorway pages created by the firm. GoogleGuy explains:

I believe that one SEO had convinced clients either to put spammy Javascript mouseover redirects, doorway pages that link to other sites, or both on their clients' sites. That can lead to clients' sites being flagged as spam in addition to the doorway domains that the SEO set up.

GoogleGuy later reassured webmasters that those who use javascript mousover to place text in the status bar do not need to worry about beeing banned.



Mark continues:

While the SEO company was not named in the thread, discussions in other forums reveal that the company in question was Traffic Power. I think it is important to mention the company name, so that others can learn to stay away from them. There have been numerous reports of people losing their job for hiring this firm to do their SEO, and rumors are brewing about a lawsuit in the works.



Thanks to Jan Willamowius for pointing me to this thread. I have been quite busy lately, without much time to scan the discussion threads looking for GoogleGuy's comments, which have been few and far between, and mostly insignificant.

A commenter named Johnny confirms the suspicions about a class-action lawsuit against Traffic Power with this link http://www.girardgibbs.com/traffic-power.html



If you notice any significant posts by Google, please send Mark an email at googleguysays at markcarey.com. He is apparantly pretty busy. Thanks.

Price Media's Cascade DTP - CSS Editor (FREE)

Just released by Price Media - Cascade DTP is a new kind of web page composition tool that harnesses the powerful features of cascading style sheet (CSS) layout and formatting commands.



Until recently, web designers were forced to use HTML tables as a means of controlling the position of page elements. But since the launch of IE5, Netscape 6 and later browsers, over 95% of web users can now view pages written using CSS.



Unfortunately, most of the major web editing packages still incorporate CSS tools as an add-on, which causes confusion and discourages a break with the compromises of the past.



Cascade DTP is different. Nearly all its functions are based entirely on the CSS layout model. The result is far cleaner code and much enhanced control over positioning and typography. This typically means pages download quicker because it is no longer necessary to convert text to images in order to give headings and logos the desired look.



If you want to see what can be achieved with this ground breaking application - look no further. The Price Media website was built entirely using Cascade DTP.



Features:

• Complete freedom to position text and images anywhere on the page



• Custom file format (.cas4) enables you to save layouts and text for further editing



• Precise control of colour for all text and page elements (borders, backgrounds and fonts)



• Numerous typographic settings for font type, size, text justification, letter and line spacing



• Work with embedded or linked cascading style sheets



• Images used as page backgrounds may be set to repeat vertically, horizontally or both



• Full control of scrollbar colour scheme



• Unique 'live' preview of text box appearance enables you to see the affect of changes instantly



• Fully integrated body text and cascading style sheet editors

"Scob" Web infection may be aimed at stealing financial data

In a MercuryNews.com article, a Web infection may be aimed at stealing financial data. A computer virus designed to steal valuable information like passwords spread Friday through a new technique that converted popular Web sites into virus transmitters.

Though the impact of the "Scob" outbreak was mild compared with recent infections like "Sasser" and "Blaster," security experts worried about its method of delivery.

With Scob, virus writers have discovered yet another way -- beyond e-mail and network techniques -- of distributing their malicious code.

Now that the exploit is out, it won't be long before others adapt it for spamming and for launching broad attacks to cripple the Internet, said Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering at security company Symantec Corp.

It is recommended to get the latest security updates from Microsoft, as well as updates for your anti-virus and firewall programs. Turning off the JavaScript function will lower your risk in the meantime. This exploitable flaw only affects MicroSoft Internet Explorer for Windows, the Mac version is not affected nor are other browsers such as Mozilla and Opera.

Users can search their computers for the files "Kk32.dll" or "Surf.dat" to see if they are infected. Removal tools are available from major anti-virus vendors.

More in the Band of Gonzos Virus Warnings Forum.

Dave Winer to Leave the RSS Advisory Board

An announcement by Dave Winer in the Scripting News:

"An announcement. After giving it much thought, I've decided to resign from the RSS Advisory Board, effective July 1. I feel that the process for clarifying the spec is now well-understood by the existing members, and we have started a positive working relationship with several leading aggregator developers. Frankly, most of the time I was spending on the board has been in avoiding and dealing with flamers, which as others have noted is not a good use of my time. Now that I'm leaving Harvard, I want to spend much of my technical work time on the open source release of the Frontier kernel and other forward-looking projects. I want to be out of the business of avoiding flames, if possible. I wish the continuing members of the board the very best, and of course I will continue to be a huge booster of RSS and syndication technology, and I will offer my opinion, through this blog, naturally, as always."

Web Standards Links

As a result of the SimpleBits Great Book Giveaway Contest, 485 comments were collected, each with a link to a favorite article, web site or weblog entry relating to web standards. Steve Smith formatted these comments into a nice, neat, easily digestible list of links, complete with titles. Look for a similar list being compiled by Shaun Inman which will list every URL posted, along with a tally of how many folks shared the same article.



This is a great collection of links. Although there are some that you may already be aware of, you will be pleasantly surprised of what other resources are out there.

GetMail - Hotmail Forwarding Made Easy

I recently posted about the Gmail importer from your web-based email accounts, check this out E-Eeasy.Com - GetMail Hotmail Forwarding Made Easy.



GetMail is a mail forwarding program that started life because of the lack of POP3 availability for Hotmail. From these humble beginnings it has evolved into a flexible Hotmail/MSN/Pop mail directing forwarding program.



Features include:

• HotMail Forwarding
• MSN Forwarding
• Read your hotmail on your e-mail enabled mobile phone
• Optionally forward on Bulk Mail
• Make managing multiple mail accounts on multiple servers easy
• Pop forwarding via smtp
• Unlimited number of accounts
• Mark forwarded mail as read OR delete
• Pre-defined pop settings
• Forward mail through (effective) spam filtered accounts
• Forward legacy mail to web enabled accounts
• Discreet (Tray icon) existence
• ... and it is FREE!