Here’s a fake email that is purportedly from PayPal… LOL
—————————————————————————————————-

During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedure we have detected a
slight error in your PayPal account.

This might be due to the following reasons:

1. A recent change in your personal information (ie. change of address, email address)

2. An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due to an internal
error within our systems.

We have attached a form to this email. Please download the form and follow the
instructions on your screen. NOTE: The form needs to be opened in a modern browser which has
javascript enabled (Internet Explorer, Firefox ,Netscape)

Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to temporary suspend your account.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department.

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address are not monitored.
For assistance, log into your PayPal account and choose the “Help” link in the footer of any page.

—————————————————————————————————-

Pretty funny. I suppose people fall for this. The form asks for my credit card number.

Here’s the header, where the server plainly identifies that it’s forged email…

From – Mon Aug 30 17:48:10 2010
X-Account-Key: account2
X-UIDL: UID2-1282847278
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 10000000
X-Mozilla-Keys:
Return-path:
Envelope-to: info@music-city.net
Delivery-date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:13:58 -0500
Received: from bearcomstores.com ([76.12.88.205]:3765 helo=mail.bearcomstores.com)
by gator1153.hostgator.com with esmtp (Exim 4.69)
(envelope-from )
id 1OqCc1-00078E-Vo
for info@music-city.net; Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:13:58 -0500
Received: from UnknownHost [71.54.209.101] by mail.bearcomstores.com with SMTP;
Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:58:39 -0400
From: “PayPal”
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:57:03 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary=”—-=_NextPart_000_0121_01C2A9A6.67AB01C2″
X-Priority: 1
X-MSMail-Priority: High
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
X-Spam-Status: Yes, score=5.8
X-Spam-Score: 58
X-Spam-Bar: +++++
X-Spam-Report: Spam detection software, running on the system “gator1153.hostgator.com”, has
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn’t spam) or label
similar future email. If you have any questions, see
the administrator of that system for details.
Content preview: During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification
procedure we have detected a slight error in your PayPal account. This might
be due to the following reasons: 1. A recent change in your personal information
(ie. change of address, email address) [...]
Content analysis details: (5.8 points, 5.0 required)
pts rule name description
—- ———————- ————————————————–
0.0 MISSING_MID Missing Message-Id: header
1.6 MISSING_HEADERS Missing To: header
4.2 FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK Forged mail pretending to be from MS Outlook
X-Spam-Flag: YES
Subject: [SPAM] Negative Balance
X-Antivirus: AVG for E-mail 9.0.851 [271.1.1/3102]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

I got to thinking… Which of course can be dangerous. I am now beginning to wonder how if search engines keep incorporating more, and more and more bits and pieces of websites that make them popular… how can said website can stay in business???

If you can get the basic idea, or the popular video, son or excerpt from a new novel, or whatever it is you are search for right from the search page, why click over? Since websites and search engine have a symbiotic relationship, I personally think that search engines should slow down trying to incorporate everything but the kitchen sink, even if tastefully and cleverly done like Bing… Which I really like, presentation-wise. They rely a little too much on Wikipedia results!

Anyway, can you see the double edged sword? Google on the other hand wants you to go to websites, (so adWords, and AdSense continue to progress and profit) and it’s obvious that Microsoft doesn’t focus on that, but wants to get everyone to their site more so that direct web searchers to others websites. Of course Bing traffic is FLAT, and probably will continue to be, no matter how cute and well laid out their results, features and search results are. So perhaps I’m pondering nothing?

Food For Thought.

Have Search Engine Gone Too Far?

Okay, I think that lately, Yahoo has made some really stupid decisions. First there was their famous, “Redesign” (From which they disabled pretty much all the functionality they had built in, and we’re pretty much just left with, “Open QuickView” bubbles.

My bet it that they don’t get opened all that often. Anyway this isn’t about that. It’s about these really boring, dull and IN YOUR FREAKING FACE flash advertisements.

They stretch across the whole screen, the twirl, spakle jump, grind jitter and dance at the edges of your peripheral vision, and then some.

ENOUGH ALREADY! Design-wise Yahoo has a lot to answer for.

The Most Annoying Ad Ever

Directory Submissions Surfer 1.5 Splash Screen

I am projecting that this SEO Software Solution will be available for download by September 15th, 2010. If something changes I will reflect that on this post.

The application is “Directory Submissions Surfer” it is a database-enabled program which allows users to store all the details of their websites inside a database, and use the semi automated form filling abilities of the application to submit their websites to a database of over 12,000 free directories.

It is only semi-automated in the sense that it will fill in the form. It will not attempt to fill in any captcha fields, or circumvent any type of other form security on any website. The end-user must fill in the value of any security question and click the submit button of the form.

As I said: My application will track submissions, run reports, import new directories, rotate fill data, and can handle unlimited websites, and has many unique abilities and features which I feel will make it invaluable to millions of webmasters needing links.

The program is developed in Delphi, contains no malicious code, and my only desire is to be able to present ads to the end-user to make this venture both possible and profitable. I appreciate in advance for the support downloaders will give!

Directory Submissions Surfer 1.5 – Features & Benefits

What it Does…

• 12,000 + Directories Included.
• Editable Directory Database.
• HTML Submission Report Creation & Delivery.
• Rotates Submission Data.
• Doesn’t fill out form if already submitted. (Intelligent Design)
• Highlights web page, if submission successful.
• Fills out (Most Forms) completely.
• Preselects correct directory category.
• Imports new directories easily. Even a list of ones you’ve created.
• You manage your own database.
• You can add directories easily.
• Creates reports.
• The list goes On!

What it Does NOT do…

• It doesn’t modify system setting or registry database.
• It doesn’t pop up windows to disturb normal software use.
• It doesn’t auto create process without user’s knowledge.
• It doesn’t change user’s browser or add any extension.
• It doesn’t gather user browsing behavior and personal information.

I hope that this post will give you a little taste of what’s to come, and I am in the final process of wrapping up error handling routines, and finalizing advertising deals.

It takes a lot of hard work to craft and build a number one domain name. Number 1 in Google, Yahoo, Bing and the rest that is. I’m pretty sure it starts with a good domain name. We’re not going to discuss the semantics of hyphens, .net versus .coms, or anything like that. Just a few simple rules for making your domain #1 and keeping it that way. Feel free to add to this list! Everybody needs constructive criticism, and tips they might have forgotten to include, it’s not like this list is written in stone…

By the way, I have created and sold several #1 domains, including, Freight Bill Post Audit #1 in Google, Bing, and Yahoo, for over six years.

Madman’s RULES

1. Key a Keyword-rich domain name from a fully accredited domain name registrar.
2. Build a standards compliant XHTML site, or use a XHTML content management system. (CMS)
3. Mae simple navigation links, and make you site simple to navigate. (although this rule must be bent on certain occasions)
4. Make sure your website validates with the W3C webpage validation service.
5. Keep your webpages lightweight, scripts, images, and all, make sure all that stuff is optimized!
6. Give your website time to catch on, because Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Google has a SandBox effect. (In other words… the longer a domain has been online with some content, the better it will be evaluated and trusted by Google and other search engines)
7. For Goodness sakes, make sure there are not any misspellings, amazingly tough to do in the age of spell check. It’s one reason why I code a lot of sites by hand.
8. If you aren’t going to be using a CMS, don’t use a WYSIWYG editor. Most of these add crappy code, and make your source code hard to read. Of course it HAS BEEN A WHILE since I tested any of those softwares, so thing might have changed, but I highly recommend you learn to code standards compliant XHTML if you are seriously wanting a #1 website.
9. Make sure you use keywords in image alt text and link title attribute text
10. Include complete contact information.
11. Include a complete privacy policy.
12. Include a Google Map to your location (Not really necessary, but a great touch, and super easy)
13. If possible create or use a creation service for an XML site Map.
14. Make sure you have an HTML site page reachable from your first page.
15. Style with ease (Make your visual appeal pop by making it easy on the eyes, grays, blues, silver, cream, some red)
16. Make sure you content isn’t repeated over and over, write unique content for every page, and make sure it’s legible complete and easily understandable. (Not often easy to do!)
17. Link Build, Link Build, Link Build, Link Build, Link Build, Link Build… Need I say more?

Of course there’s a couple little goodies that I’m not telling you as they are Internet Madman proprietary secrets. Needless to say the rules above should get you there. I can’t give away my total sum of knowledge, because it can only be duplicated if you are building a site from scratch anyway.

So I run Google Adsense on my blog, in my business directories, and most commercial sites that I own and operate. The big “G” has decided to make some changes to at least two of their most popular Adsense formats As you can see from the image gallery included, the “LeaderBoard” 728X90 rectangle has been changes in various ways. Instead of columns, the ads appear straight down, with the URL, title, and description all on one line. Are these changes good for advertisers? Are these changes good for publishers? Are these changes ultimately good for Google? All these questions are hanging in the air, and need to be answered.

The Google Adsense format 336X280 and the 300X250 Square Adsense formats reflect that the URL will now be the same color as the title and follow the title on the same line as the title. I have mixed emotions regarding these changes, as they have just rolled out over the last couple days. My CTR yesterday sucked. Today’s it’s somewhat lower than normal, but traffic, and people fluctuate. It will take at least one month for me to determine if I need to redesign my main Adsense earning sites, or change to different Adsense formats that these, because I do use all these formats regularly. I’m sure that Google knows what they are doing, and this is the most important part of their business… Or is it? I have more questions than answers at this point.

I’m an avid Halo3 fan, and take my games seriously. So if you are a Halo3 gamer but haven’t been able to find the time or right mix of team mates to help you get it, BUT you do have a Palm Pre or other SmartPhone, here is a nice little free Halo3 wallpaper featuring recon armor. Makes you salivate for Halo Reach… I KNOW!

Well obviously, you may have tried to use the Crystal Reports VCL component inside a Delphi ISAPI webserver application, and crashed and burned repeatedly. It took my a long time to properly integrate Crystal reports inside an Isapi application with Borland / CodeGear Delphi. After literally weeks of research in 2004 I was able to properly utilize almost all of Crystal’s functionality inside an ISAPI.

Why am I just now writing about this? Well… As time rolls on, the technology is still very viable. Especially if you have a ton of Crystal reports you’d like your users to be able to download in .Doc or .PDF, or other printer friendly formats. Crystal Reports is a great reporting tool, and Isapi is a great, fast web serving technology.

Here Goes…
Import the Crystal Reports type library, save it as CRAXDRT_TLB; (into new unit) This would apply to Crystal Reports version 9. Don’t forget to add the “cr” in front of all of the import units object names, because they will try to replace Delphi existing types!!!

Here’s the source code example: Please forgive any poor formatting on my part I wrote an automated .Pas to HTML conversion program, in about ten minutes, and right now it’s imperfect. So I will work on that program as I continue to post Delphi Tips. Thanks and enjoy.

PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT IF YOU LIKE!

This is a short post to share what I think are some very important tips for writing effective emails. We’re talking about the email message itself, in HTML format, and not the overall aspects of effectively starting, managing, implementing or the legalities of involved in email campaigns. I would check out WebPro News for in depth information on that. This article will focus on design and content of the message itself.

First of all. You need to have a hook! If you don’t have something exciting to talk about or offer, consider waiting until you do before wasting your email capital, and reputation.

Rule #1 – KEEP IT SIMPLE
One to three small graphics. Keep the information limited to two-three concise and short paragraphs. People WILL NOT read below “the fold” (They don’t like to scroll). It’s important to remember that a lot of people use desktop software application to read their email such as Eudora, Outlook, Thunderbird, etc…

Rule #2 – SHINE ON OR FLAME OUT
If you can’t write catchy copy… Get someone else to write it! But for goodness sakes make sure you see previous examples of their work.

Rule #3 – SOCIAL INTEGRATION
Ensure that your Twitter account, FaceBook, and other sharing information is readily available, either in the message or on the landing page. Marketers cannot miss a single opportunity to have their message shared. Consider it FREE PRESS!

Those are the rules. On to the other suggestions.

Make sure your domain name is available on the top, bottom and maybe even in the middle.
Use few colors, and make sure they are subdued. If using graphics make sure the mesh and match in color and presence.
Include you contact information, phone, fax, and street address if you have one.

If you follow these rules and suggestions for creating an effective email marketing message, you will see you click-throughs and sign-ups increase, and your business will gain valuable followers and or customers.

If you enjoy this article, please share it!