I’m seeing the concept of social networking pop up all over the internet, and more and more its being touted as a business tool. If you’re thinking of investing some time into social marketing to grow your business, make sure you’re thinking about the big picture and the possible negative consequences to what you’re about do.

With that in mind, the most important reason I’ve found NOT to get into social networking (or at least to be extra careful when you do) is that your contact list and confidential business relationships are some of the most important assets your business has!

This is especially true if you sell any kind of product that relies primarily on customer service as its primary selling point. Let’s say you’re an insurance agent contracted with one of the major carriers. In my experience insurance is a highly competitive field, but can be effectively marketed using face to face networking. Once you’ve pounded the pavement to build up a client list, are you sure it’s a good idea to publicly advertise their names and contact information? What’s stopping your competitor from contacting each of your customers with a better deal?

For retail distributors, you might want to think twice before you publish your wholesale supplier’s contact information on your Facebook friends list. For those who outsource, you may want to reconsider letting your customers contact your vendors directly.

Information is one of the largest assets most companies have available to them. While there are many positive aspects of social marketing, it’s just as important to consider what you have to lose.

I found out today that you can decrypt md5 hashes by comparing the string to a known value database. Here’s an md5 decryption search engine designed to do just that. I got this from procodr which has consumed my morning with interesting articles.

The other day, one of my clients got an email from a search engine optimization specialist. I was thrilled when he asked my opinion regarding the outfit that was wanting to do business with him, and I thought there were some points worth publishing.

Here’s the original email forwarded by my customer:

xxx,

I just got off the phone with your assistant; she was calling to find out more information about the message I left you regarding xxx xxx. She mentioned that you currently have a contract with someone who is optimizing your site to show up in Google for terms such as “Fort Worth bankruptcy lawyer.” The conversation ended pretty quick when I let her know from a professional standpoint that your website is not showing up for the major terms and probably will never show up if the work done on your site stays consistent (I think you are on page 25).

I mentioned xxx xxx to showcase our capabilities; he is a well know Dallas criminal (DWI) lawyer. We have optimized his site so that it shows up on the first page for “Dallas DWI lawyer,” and like terms (www.xxx.com). If you know anything about the market you will recognize that these are probably the most competitive terms in the market. I have met with 4 other bankruptcy attorneys in Fort Worth and am looking to work exclusively with just one. If you plan on growing your firm via the internet then it probably makes sense that we set aside time to speak at some point before the end of the week or on Monday. You may reach me at xxx.xxx.xxxx. If you would like more information please visit our site www.xxx.com.

And my response:

Hi xxx,

His is an extremely competitive industry, and it’s also a very new industry. There are some legitimate firms out there, but there a lot more snake oil salesmen. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. He’s talking about Search Engine Optimization which is designed to help your web site show up in the natural search results. This is different from the paid search campaign that we’ve been discussing.
2. If search engine optimization is something you’re interested in, I would ask about their pricing, whether they intend to put you on contract, and whether they can guarantee results.
3. The first thing most SEO companies will do is come in to work with the structure of the web site. This generally includes things like title tags, meta tags, proper use of headers, and the actual content of the site. These were all taken into consideration as we rebuilt the site, and it’s not something I charge for.
4. Lastly, there are a lot of “tricks” to search engine optimization, but the most successful method is often times the least used because it requires a lot of effort. There is no substitution for publishing original, valuable content online. If his estimate comes back as high as I’m guessing, I would consider hiring a content writer to fill out your site rather than an SEO specialist. This is just an opinion.

Call me sometime and we can talk a bit more about this. I’ve had a good bit of success jockeying two of my projects to the top of the search engines over the last few years and I’m more than happy share what I know. They are:

Itintl.com
http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+import

1km1kt.net
http://www.google.com/search?q=free+rpg+games

Keeton

I’m sitting in my office trying to come up with an effective way to make the leap from web site revenue driven by advertising, to one revenue driven by payment for use of the service.

Right now, I have four web sites that are candidates for the pay-per-use business model. They are:

• http://www.firmscode.com - on online lookup tool for US Customs FIRMS codes.
• http://www.signatureconfirm.com - a digital signature service for signing contracts online.
• http://www.deliveryconfirm.com - a web based email return receipt service.
• and http://linktrack.info - an online link shortening and tracking service.

Here are the issues I’m facing. FYI - I don’t have answers to these questions yet (that will probably come in a later post).

• How can I implement a pay per use model without losing a significant portion of the users?
• What can I reasonably charge for the service?
• How should I charge? Subscriptions? Individual Transactions?

I’m really starting to believe that online services are the next generation of the web, and I want to be a part of it.

I recently tried to update a client’s PayPal account from an individual account to a business account. After submitting the update form, I got a page entitled “Page Not Found” with a link to retry or go to the PayPal home page.

I assumed that this was a temporary issue and that they were experiencing an outage or upgrading their system. After a week of trying at different intervals I sent an email to their support department. You can see the support message below.

After receiving the reply from the support team, I re-attempted the upgrade process several more times over a few days using different browsers at with a variety of security settings.

Still unable to upgrade my PayPal account, I finally phoned in and was informed that this was a known issue and that they were unable to provide an estimated completion date. In addition, there was no way to upgrade my account manually and that I should continue to try the online form.

So, if you’re having trouble upgrading your PayPal account, this might be why.

Here’s the message I sent to support:

Original Message Follows:
————————
Form Message
customer subject: Business upgrade problem - page not found.
customer message: What would you like to do with your account type?:
‘upgrd_acct’
Additional Information: ‘When I fill out the form to upgrade my account to a business account, I get a page titled “page not found” with a link to retry the form. When will this be working again and is there another way to upgrade my account?

Thank you,

Keeton

Here’s the response:

From: webform@paypal.com [mailto:webform@paypal.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 7:57 PM
To: XXX
Subject: Re: MyAccount (Routing Code: XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXX) (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) :ppk1

Dear XXX,

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

I apologize for the delay of our response.

My name is Solad and I am happy to assist you today. I understand that you are having difficulty upgrading your account to a business account. I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. I’ll be happy to check that for you.

If you are receiving the error message ‘page cannot be displayed’ or ‘page cannot be found’ while attempting to access your account or open a new one, it may be because your browser’s security level is set too low.

For maximum security, you should consider upgrading to a Netscape or Microsoft browser supporting 128-bit encryption. Below are the instructions for viewing your browser security level.

For Microsoft Internet Explorer:

1. Open your Internet Explorer browser and select ‘Help” from the toolbar

2. Select ‘About Internet Explorer’

3. On the About Internet Explorer window, you will be given a version number and a cipher strength (encryption rate)

4. If your cipher strength is less than 128-bit, you may update by going to your ‘Tools’ tab and select ‘Windows Update’. (You may also click Help, click About Internet Explorer, and then click Update
Information.)

5. This will direct you to the Microsoft web site to upgrade your browser

You will also need to check the browser settings:

1. Click Start–>Settings–>Control Panel and open ‘Internet Options’

2. Click the ‘Advanced’ tab, scroll to the bottom of the scroll window

3. Ensure that ‘Use SSL 2.0′, ‘Use SSL 3.0′ and ‘Use TLS 1.0′ place a ‘check’ in the checkbox next to each of these options

For Netscape Communicator or Navigator:

1. Click ‘Help’ and then ‘About Communicator or Navigator’

2. In the window that opens, look for a section on RSA security

3. If this section reads, ‘This version supports U.S. security’, then your browser supports 128-bit encryption.

4. Otherwise, it will indicate you have an export version, which only supports 40-bit. (Further details are also available by clicking on Security in the Navigator toolbar)

5. If you need to upgrade your Netscape browser, go to http://home.netscape.com and click the ‘Download’ graphic at the top of the page

For other browsers, please view your help files for more information about upgrading to a more recent version.

If the cipher strength is already set to 128 bit, you will need to clear your cookies.

Double-checking your time and date on your computer may also help with your issue:

1. Click the Start button in the lower left hand corner

2. Scroll up to Settings and click on Control Panel

3. Double click Date/Time

4. Make sure the year is set to the correct year

Once your changes have been made, you may need to reboot your computer.

Please Note: If you are getting ‘Page Cannot be Displayed’ when trying to open a new account, it could be your cookies are not enabled. Once your cookies are enabled, you should be able to view the PayPal pages.

If this still doesn’t work, try clearing your cookies and cache on your computer.

If you are experiencing problems with our website that have not been encountered before, it is likely that you have a corrupted cookie. The easiest way to clear cookies is to remove them from your computer rather than the web browser.

Cookies are small text files (usually less than 1K in size) that websites send to your computer’s hard drive to identify you when you return. Think of them as your ID (identification) badge. Cookies are harmless and cannot affect the performance of your computer.

Without the cookie file, websites you frequent, like PayPal.com, will treat you as a new user each time you return.

Follow these simple steps to clear your cookies:

1. Open your Internet Explorer browser by clicking on the blue “e.”

2. Click “Tools” located at the top of the browser and select “Internet Options.”

3. Click “Delete Cookies”.

4. Click “OK” and “OK” again.

5. Restart your browser.

These steps should work for most Browsers types.

For IE 7, XP, and Vista users:

1. Open your Internet Explorer browser.

2. Click “Tools” located at the top of the browser and select “Internet Options.”

3. Under Browsing history, click the “Settings” button.

4. Click the “View files” button.

5. Click “Edit” at the top of the browser and then “Select All.”

6. Press the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

7. Click “Yes” if you are prompted with “Are you sure you want to delete the selected Cookies?”

8. Restart your browser.

To clear cookies for Macintosh using Internet Explorer, follow the steps
below:

1. Click “Explorer” or “Edit” at the top of the screen.

2. Click “Preferences.”

3. Under Web Browser preferences, click “ADVANCED.”

4. Click “Empty Now” on the right.

5. Click “OK”.

6. Restart your browser.

If it still doesn’t work, kindly contact your internet provider to change some settings on your account with them.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
Solad
PayPal Consumer Support
PayPal, an eBay Company

Google recently announced that there would be an “Important Change to URL Policy Enforcement” primarily focused on matching domain names, Display URLs, Landing page URLs, and Destination URLs.

What I was unaware of prior to the article (and I’m still not sure) is that Google allows the use of tracking URLs that don’t match the landing page URL domain name. I always assumed that the landing page URL had to match the domain of the display URL - no exceoptions.

Apparently, however, it is acceptable to use a tracking URL from a service like LinkTrack to monitor link activity.

You learn something new every day I guess, but this is definitely something I will be taking advantage of in the future.

Not too long ago we put together a site for an up and coming company, 100% Clean. They’re starting to sign with some very impressive professional atheletes and are issuing press releases, so I figured I should probably mention them in the blog!

These guys were great to work for, and their campaign against performance enhancing drugs is a really fantastic cause. They’re launching a clothing line over the next few months, so if you’re reading this take a few minutes to check it out.

I recently finished a project for a new customer, Kiddos! Kids’ Salon, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m glad when we have the opportunity to depart from the corporate web sites to do something a little more fun, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the way this one came out.

If you have little ones and you’re in the area, I highly recommend you stop by and check them out.

My sincerest thanks to everyone for being a part of Danifer Web Services this year. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to share it with so many wonderful people. Best wishes to our customers, colleagues, friends and family this holiday season, and I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.

From everyone at Danifer Web Services, happy holidays!

Thank you,

Keeton