Freebase has been built by a community that loves open data.  For many first time visitors to the site, the words “An entity graph of people, places and things” might not sound sexy or form any mental association with improved ecommerce but the announcement that Google acquired Metaweb woke a few people up.

The  Freebase blog announced Metaweb joins Google saying nothing would change other than “getting better, and yes, even more open”.  The hope is that the announcement will encourage even more individuals, institutions and companies to use and contribute to Freebase..

Why? Everyone involved in web commerce will benefit from the linking and reuse of open data.  By combining the ongoing development of core semantic technologies with new innovative ways of making the web smarter, such as linking  entities, there will be a sustainable improvement in efficiency and accuracy.  Here is Metaweb’s explanation of what an entity is.

I’ll let you work out for yourself how the fundamentals might improve your business model.

What next if you are in business?

If  that sparked the neurons and opened your mind up to  a wealth of possibilities you’ll be jumping for joy to find out that semantic  ecommerce developments are well under way and a common ontology model (structured set of facts)  for describing products or services (making a product entity?) is already being used with success.   Search engines other than G have been reusing linked data for a while.

As it says at the GoodRelations data space

GoodRelations is a standardized vocabulary for product, price, and company data that can (1) be embedded into existing static and dynamic Web pages and that (2) can be processed by other computers. This increases the visibility of your products and services in the latest generation of search engines, recommender systems, and other novel applications.

From an SEO perspective this is a game changer because the ecommerce data layer is all about verifiable facts from verifiable sources.  In a busy world would you want more words than you can verify instantly?    You can still add a human readable description but at this point in time the focus seems to be on providing the basics for a transaction to occur … but the opportunities are there.  It is very much a case of ‘work with the web and let the web do the rest’.

Here is a cloudofdata.com podcast from February, 2010 where Paul Miller talks about GoodRelations, with Martin Hepp, and Jamie Taylor of Metaweb.  Listening to it is recommended for developers and others who want a better grasp of the capabilities of the web of data for buying and selling anything.   Second generation affiliate marketing will sound good to a few people I can think of as will open linked advertising space

Also interesting in this interview was what Martin Hepp who (if you’ve not heard the name before is seen as one of the global thought-leaders on The Semantic Web)  said Freebase could be with a minimal tweak.  Professor Hepp will be speaking at the International Search Summit in October.

Those who are beginning to understand the possibilities that the  linked data/ semantic web presents could also look at Triplify as a way of beginning to expose other content for use by the web.  My word of warning is to read the ‘about’ page at Triplify and understand issues on exposing private data.  I was surprised how easy it was to implement.

What can The Semantic Web do for us?

Probably the best way of seeing for yourself is to watch Tim Berners-Lee’s 2010 Ted Talk The year open data went worldwide These are some of the results just one year after his initial call for ‘Raw Data Now’. Impressive.  People helped all that happen

Now imagine if your business or organisation worked with every other business and organisation in other sectors or regions and you all shared common and open data using currently available structured methods.

Do you think the people developing exciting new applications using open source licensing might just do some very interesting things with your data that can help you become more web effective or even work in a more sustainable way?

Don’t Just Dip Your Toe In

Jump in … the water is warm, the swell is building and these little waves already have momentum but it’s not too deep yet.  Take heart from the fact there isn’t yet a community ‘how to guide’ (at least I haven’t found one yet) that helps every one at any level understand just how big the pay off can be by just doing the basics now and then implementing the improvements learnt during the crawling stage.

Come to think of it there isn’t a common starting guide that all applications link to.  Effectively the book is still being written at all levels in all sectors for the new web and it could be said that virtually everyone will have to learn to adjust how they swim or float because of a positive change in web buoyancy.

and Google ….

As more people like you and I start making custom searches from our desktops and mobile devices using an ever increasing range of open search data sources and apps, I have an image in my head of G people having meetings.   Upon meetings.

I can only hope that G treat the web of linked open data to more respect than they have shown some of their customers by banning some of them for breaking rules that are not published or open and with no right of correction or appeal.  Even G have to work with the web and the web has the potential to be a great leveller.

If you use or are about to use ClickBank to sell your products or to try to make a living as an affiliate you need to read this.

I’ll be upfront here … I don’t like officious organisations that are too big for their boots and I really think action needs to be taken against organisations that have unreasonable and unrealistic terms and conditions.  In this case I’m hoping that Clickbank are not too big for their boots and will be reasonable because in my opinion (and that of others ) I think they do have an unreasonable and unrealistic term and condition which they need to change in order to keep up with the times.

The article that has caused me to put this post out there is Is Clickbank Scamming Affiliate Marketers? by Len Thurmond and I urge you to read it in full to understand the full implications to your business.

The focus of the argument is that one of Clickbank’s terms says that before they will pay you any money you are owed, you must have made at least five sales from 5 different credit card numbers, and have two different payment methods (either Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal) … and multiple Paypal sales don’t count towards your 5 different credit card numbers!  – and it gets worse!!! – read Len’s article on how Clickbank can take money from your account if you fail to meet this requirement.

Years ago when I was starting out with ClickBank I struggled to get those five sales with five unique cards but I did get there … eventually.  These days it’s  not going to be that easy for those starting out as Mastercard isn’t as popular as it was and in the online world, these days PayPal is a (if not the) dominant payment force.

In the interests of fairness it has to be said that once you do meet these requirements Clickbank do pay out on a regular basis and have been more reliable than some affiliate programs I’ve used.

I also understand Clickbank’s reasoning and I quote from their Customer Distribution Requirement

This requirement is in place to help prevent Affiliates from abusing the ClickBank Affiliate program by using their accounts for the sole purpose of fraudulently collecting rebates and/or discounts on their own purchases.

But surely technology and PayPal’s own anti fraud measures mean that Clickbank can and should now review a condition that existed when they started out, has served it’s purpose and that can be improved without detriment to the company.

I may be wrong but verified PayPal accounts are tied to real people and banking accounts.  PayPal accounts are funded from unique credit and debit cards as well as banking accounts so why can’t (or won’t) Clickbank class PayPal sales as unique and allow them to count towards those five unique sales?

What do you think?

On June 7, Cisco Systems’ Web-tracking subsidiary, ScanSafe started tracking the affects of a new web attack that has been described as the “worst since a large number of Wordpress-based sites were hacked in April,” by Andre DeMino, a co-founder of the Shadowserver malware-tracking group.

Some sites are totally compromised while others only have small sections affected.

Security researchers at this point are still unsure how the attacks work, but they think that hackers are using an SQL injection attack to run database commands, which then allow the hackers to install malicious HTML which then redirects victims to another malicious Web server. This server attempts to load software on Web visitors’ computers which if successful give the criminals a way to remotely control their victims’ computers.

The team at Sucuri.net have so far found that all of the infected sites appear to be using the Microsoft Internet Information Services Web-server software running with Active Server Pages.

“The SQL injection attacks that allow the systems to be compromised are occurring due to vulnerabilities in third-party web applications and do not demonstrate vulnerabilities in Microsoft software,” said Microsoft spokesman Jerry Bryant via e-mail :  Source

The third party applications that Microsoft refer to appear to be servers running supplementary services such as advertising.  Often, hackers get limited access because they break into a partner site — an ad company, for example — that is allowed to post on certain parts of the larger company’s Web site.

HP and Microsoft have released a free tool called Scrawlr that helps users check their Web sites for SQL injection vulnerabilities.

SophosLabs is adding detection for this SCRIPT injection as Mal/Badsrc-C.

While many marketers use linux based hosting systems and are not directly affected at this time it is a timely reminder to make sure you are taking the appropriate steps to secure and back up your site files and databases on a regular basis.

Wordpress users can follow the Triple “P” Of WordPress Security advice  or Top 5 WordPress Security Tips You Most Likely Don’t Follow

It might not be your site that gets hit directly but if you are pulling content from somewhere else you may at some point be affected by attacks like this.

UPDATE:

While the post above outlines how the servers might be attacked, web users should update Adobe Flash Player ASAP and take extra care when using Reader and Acrobat.

In an advisory Adobe said “Adobe has released a product update to Adobe Flash Player to resolve the relevant security issue. For more information, please refer to Security Bulletin APSB10-14

We expect to provide an update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.3.2 for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX by June 29, 2010.”

For more info on the vulnerability see CVE-2010-1297

Following on from yesterdays post about GTrafficLoophole and how to get cheap clicks through Google, I thought I would follow things up with a fuller review explaining the pros, cons and some initial feedback on the method.

Semantically speaking advertising ROI is getting better thanks to targeting improvements, not just with Google but other ad networks as well.  Add to that the introduction of third party advertising space to Google’s inventory and all of a sudden (it seems) Image Ad placement is back in the lime light.

What is G Traffic  Loophole about?

Text based Adwords PPC is getting more and more expensive.  The guide provides a simple outline method to get cheaper traffic from Google’s ad network using images.  The concept is not new but is generally overlooked by many business owners and internet marketers.  As a result, there is capacity to drive targeted traffic to your websites a a cost that is lots lower that normal PPC.

The Five Step Method

1. Choose your market or niche. – No great shakes here, there is an 84 minute video that gives you guidance and a few tips. Be warned not all markets will have high traffic levels.
2. Building A Keyword List – Again no great shakes but this method turns on it head the existing advice given my top people and with good reason.
3. Creating and Ordering (If you are not designing them yourself) Image Ads – Again the information is very basic but at the same time useful for beginners.  There is a handy spreadsheet to keep a track of what is going where.
4. Launching Your Campaign – The guide goes through the process with screen shots to make sure yo tick the right boxes at the right time.  There are also a few warnings which are well worth taking not of!  There are also a few differences to setting up a normal PPC campaign that are worth remembering.
5. Optimising Your Campaigns – Based on previous experience this is where the money is made or lost but this guide doesn’t (IMO) spend enough time to explain how.

The Pros of Gtraffic Loophole

• It is an ABC guide of what to do to start your campaigns
• It does explain the basics
• There are a few golden nuggets of info for semi experienced marketers
• It is a good starting point for beginners to advertising with images
• It does work
• The traffic you get IS cheaper than normal PPC
• The basics you need are in one place
• It has an 8 week money back guarantee

The Cons of GTraffic Loophole

• Don’t expect traffic at 1 cent a click. Be realistic even at 5 – 15C a click it is much cheaper than normal ppc traffic
• The method itself is not new and this info is available elsewhere
• It is basic information
• It will take you time to design your ads
• You will need more info on tracking and testing (especially if you start getting good results)
• You could spend more than you make IF you don’t keep an eye on your spend.

Is GTraffic Loophole worth the money?  Yes if you are new or semi experienced.

Does the gtrafficloophole method work?  Yes, you can drive traffic to your site but be prepared to pay more than the 1c a click advertised – especially in some markets and given that as method gets more coverage and more people start trying it the costs will go up.

You can try gtrafficloophole here

Want an Avalanche of targeted traffic? 1000’s of Visitors every day? At less than 2c per click

On 25th May, GTrafficLoophole was released by the the well regarded Alex Goad.  As soon as I watched his free video explanation of what the Gtraffic loophole was I snapped it up and I have to say it’s possibly the best guide on getting nearly free traffic I’ve read this year.  I mean who wouldn’t want 20 red hot visitors for just 26c when your competitors are paying $4.50 or more for the same traffic?

Or how about getting 3,500 visitors interested in your product or service at less than 2c each – all in just a couple of days.  The way I figure it, even if you had an abysmal conversion rate you can make a profit at those prices! It’s all legal and above board and Google love you doing this.

Recently media buying has hit the headlines in a big way and to some extent Google Adwords is getting negative coverage because of the high cost per click many of you have to pay in your ad campaigns.  The reality though, is that Google hid in plain sight one of the most effective promotion and advertising tools your business has available and the G Traffic Loophole shows you what it is, where it is, how to set it up and how to start using it to maximum effect.

The PDF Blueprint and companion videos are a no fluff A, B, C guide that a child could follow.  What you learn works in any marketplace or niche and because this is so new some of the best results are currently being seen in the most competitive markets.

Even if you are on a shoestring budget and have no experience in advertising or promotion you can make a killing.

In short it’s a simple 5 step process, much of which you’ll have heard of or done before. I’m not going to spoil the surprise or tell you the secret but I will say that there is a first mover advantage and based on Alex’s other material he will be putting the price up if not pulling the product off the market completely within a few days. He’s done it before.

Click here to watch the FREE video explanation and make your own mind up, it won’t cost a bean. Personally I’ve already recovered the cost AND made a 2700% return on my initial outlay. It might be luck but I’ve got a good feeling there’s much more on the way.

Here’s the link: www.gtrafficloopholepro.com

If times weren’t hard enough American FTC have decided that in some cases it’s wrong to review products and to implement a fine of upto $11,000.

Until now online promotions via blogs were not covered by any guidelines and this worried some consumer groups. The issue being that the links between the products being reviewed or talked about, the publishers (companies & individuals) and the companies selling the products was not transparent. i.e. if I reviewed ‘product A’, I didn’t need to tell anyone that I was an affiliate for that product and I would get a commission if my reader bought that product through my link.

I understand that it was a 30 year old law that has been updated, in order to get in touch with the times and I can appreciate a need to protect web users but all so often laws are implemented by people who have read reports but have not a clue how the web works or how to implement the said changes.

These changes come into effect on December 1, 2009 and you can read for yourself the FTC Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials:

What struck me was that everyone in the Internet Marketing business is going to be affected when I read this.

“Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.”

The new policy will also apply to Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and other forms of new media advertising.

Today is the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman which as we now all know was the catalyst for the world wide recession we have all had to endure.  Vast sums of money have been pumped in to support and bail out financial institutions and other big businesses which has supposedly made the effects of the financial collapse less than they could have been but at what real cost?

Last night I watched a report from the BBC’s Robert Peston where he said that level of UK support has cost each of us in the UK £43k (we’ll be paying that for years to come) and in his interview with Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday, the world-wide figure equates to $2000 for every person on the planet.  Given that huge numbers of the worlds population struggle on less than a dollar a day and we have global issues with water and climate I personally still struggle to come to terms with having had to support banks and businesses that should have known and done better.

I know in the grand shape of things I’m a no-one but I can’t help but wonder if our world leaders have missed a big opportunity to really straighten things out more effectively.

Banks have been ripping us all of for years with unreasonable charges and less than adequate services while hiding behind their terms and conditions.  And still the dinosaurs at the helm of these once respected institutions deem it appropriate to pay themselves vast bonuses.  One thing that they all seem to forget is that these days having money does not equate to having power.   The real power these days is having power or energy.  Ask yourself where these practicing dodos would be if they didn’t have electricity

I also feel that our leaders have also missed the boat by supporting car manufacturers and other ‘dirty’ industries in the way they have.  I understand that we need these companies for transport and jobs but surely …. our climate should have taken a much higher priority.

From my viewpoint rather than pander to ‘dirty’ motor manufacturers we would have all been far better off if our ‘leaders’ realised that the majority of the ‘voters’ knew how bad things were and had the balls to make the big changes needed.  Rather than heading for ‘as close to old business as usual’ why didn’t they think outside of the box.  Why didn’t they opt for something radical like saying “OK.  There’s a big problem so lets make a massive changes no we have the opportunity”?

There may be green shoots of recovery on the horizon for some but the damage for many has been done.  I sure that as time moves on and linked data technologies improve that person on the street will have the last laugh.  The internet is a wonderful thing, it’s amazing what you can find out if you look hard enough.

We are not out of the woods yet but as long as we all live within our means and plan ahead smartly things will improve.

What are your thoughts?

With 101 ‘Must Have’ recession busting hints & tips, How To Beat Recession is one ebook everyone should read sooner rather than later.  You’ll discover simple ways to recession proof your life and business.

Let’s face it, another year is nearly over and what a year it’s been for business.  Who would have thought this would happen, this time last year …

I don’t know about you but I’ve decided to make the best of this holiday break.  I know it’s tough but small and home business owners deserve to say.  “I’m having a real break this holiday. I’m going to enjoy it and make the most of my time with the people that matter.”

With so much going on in the world that we have no control over.  It makes more sense than ever (beginning now and during the holiday period) to make time for yourself to think ahead.  Use that time to begin to make or revise your plans for the future.

As luck and co-incidence will sometimes have it around Christmas, I just finished reading one of the first copies of “How To Beat Recession — 101 ‘Must Have’ Recession-Busting Hints & Tips” which is an extremely useful and timely new ebook written by an old friend, Michael Green.

I’ve read it from cover to cover, twice now.  There are little gems throughout that will help to make ends meet at work and home.  Even if you only take on board or implement a handful of the 101 recession proofing nuggets this year and throughout 2009, you’ll be laughing.

In my personal experience, Michael is one of the good guys and for years he has consistantly given solid advice and information that really does help people at all levels of business.

There is something in his new ebook that will appeal to help almost everyone.  It doesn’t matter what walk of life you’re in, what background you’re from or where you live.  A recession affects every one.  How To Beat Recession is going to help you and lots of others weather the storm.

Normally Michael sells information of this quality but being the kind of guy he is, for a limited time over Christmas, he has agreed to allow me to offer a copy to my readers, without charge, but only if you download your copy now.

It’s well worth reading and shouldn’t be overlooked.  Accept this gift in the spirt it is given and download your copy from here now:
http://www.mutualadvantage.co.uk/how_to_beat_recession

I hope you also find it as usful as I did.  Somehow after reading it things didn’t look as gloomy.   Maybe because I discovered I had more options than I initially thought

Let me know what you think with a comment here once you’ve read it.

Some of My Thoughts for the Short Term:

Everyone can see the world economy is going through massive changes and being realistic, this means there will be an affect on our businesses for 18 months or longer.  What every business needs to do more than anything right now, is a have good review of it’s own business growth plan.

The oportunities for any business owner who embraces working with the web are out there.  But only for those who take action and make it happen.  Did you notice I called it a business growth plan, not a survival plan.

I like to look at it like this.  Lots of bigger companies who for so long out priced smaller businesses based on ‘credit line’ buying power are now paying the price.  As one door closes others open up somewhere else.

The plain fact is that smaller businesses can adapt quicker to take advantage and fill the gaps and cracks that are starting to show.

Shopping Patterns and Trends Changed.

This year we did over 90% of our Christmas shopping online.  The food, the wine and most of the presents. All bought and paid for.  All logged in to Santa’s new global web digital delivery system.  And we still somehow managed to catch nasty colds

Overall the experience has not been as good as it could have been because we haven’t been able to shop as locally online as we wanted to.  Having said that, it hasn’t been hard to get what we wanted and we made some great savings.

The point I want to get accross, is that I’m not alone in these tough times.  The web is helping everyone to become a shrewder buyer and demand better value for every pound or dollar we spend.

In January I’ll be showing you how you can take advantge of new online shopping trends by taking action to fix the simple things that make a big difference.

Until then have a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it.  Seasons greetings if you don’t but either way, may your New Year be happy and financially fruitful and

… don’t forget to download your copy of How To Beat Recession

According to Wikipedia the world population is approximately 6.8 billion people.

According to the BBC financial bail out figures,  in the US and UK the cost of the bail out is $1,575 Billion ($700 Bn in the US and £500 Bn in the UK)  These figures do not include other countries.

Said quickly, we know it’s a lot but it doesn’t really comprehend.

However … if we divide the cost of the banking industry and money market bailouts by the world population (1575Bn / 6.8Bn) that means everyone on the planet could have been given $231Million.

Now that can’t be right.

So lets divide the world population by the cost of the bailout (6.8Bn/1575Bn)

Hey that’s much better – everyone on the planet has could have been paid $0.004Bn  (whoa – is that $4Million each)

Considering my bank has screwed me for unfair charges, fees and who knows what else for years (and got away with it so far) it makes me sick that now as a tax payer I (and probably my kids) are expected to be paying for the banks negligence.

Personally I’d rather I was given my $0.004Bn – At least I know I can be trusted to spend it wisely and contribute to the economic growth of the planet.

What about you?

Improving the effectiveness and profitability of online advertising looks set to become much easier and accurate thanks to semantic technology.

Well established Italian software company Expert System yesterday announced the launch of a new contextual advertising solution with semantic intelligence called Cogito.

In his post ‘Semantics in Advertising‘ for ZDNet, Paul Miller of Talis says “On the surface, a release phrased in that way might easily be dismissed as jumping on the ’semantic’ band-wagon, but there appears to be substance behind the sometimes over-hyped language.” and that will interest many.

In Expert System’s release we read:

The main issue limiting the online advertising market today is the disconnect between advertisement placement and the relevance of the copy. This is due to the reliance on keyword frequency without considering the meaning. Oftentimes, ads may appear on pages that have little significance to the assigned page or may produce counterproductive effects. For example, an ad for a Caribbean vacation package may inadvertently appear near an article about a massive hurricane that ripped through that region.

I can’t remember where I saw it but the best example I’ve seen to date on negative or counter productive advertising was a news item about a cruise liner (or was it a ferry?) sinking and right next to the article was an advert for Caribbean cruises.  What the ??.

That’s like saying “Hey why not come on our cruise.  If you don’t sink you’ll have a great time”.  – Not quite what the advertiser wanted I’m sure but ongoing semantic research is starting to bring about change.

Semantic technology does have the capability to make a huge impact in targeted advertising for all of us.  While it’s not all of the way there yet, I can see that in the near future I’ll be able to say “I want my ads to appear only to website visitors who are Male, aged between 40 – 55, who live within 5 miles of X and are interested in Y”

I hope to be able to add in more parameters and cover more than one ad network but for the time being I’ll have to live in the ‘here and now’ and keep an eye on the other emerging semantic research companies who are helping to shape the future of ecommerce on the web.