When you click on the link, then you see the familiar Google Gmail Welcome page. 

Except that this is not the regular Google page.  If you look up at the address field, you will find the URL is on the domain, .

Checking WhoIs for this page you will find that the administrative contact is the following person.

Undoubtedly if I had keyed in my Gmail username and password, that gentleman would have had access to my Gmail account and could do whatever he wished with it.  Needless to say I immediately changed the password, in case he had already been there.

This is a particularly difficult one to spot, so it is important to be extra vigilant.  Google has some good information about Messages asking for personal information.  It also provides more detailed information about Suspicious results and strange behavior: Phishing attacks in other words.

You can forward such phishing Gmail messages to phishing@google.com and can send the Phishing URL to the Google Phishing team using their Phishing Report.  Google also provides a link to Stopbadware.org, where you can learn more about malware that can infect your computer.

Some phishing attacks are not too difficult to spot, often including spelling mistakes and somewhat curious links.  This particular current Gmail phishing incident is highly professional and the only clue is that URL address when you click on the apparent Google link. 

Please spread the word rapidly.  If you are on Twitter, then please ReTweet the message below.

Undoubtedly many people will be taken in.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Latest Gmail Phishing Very Tough To Spot – Watch Out

Monthly Highlights

The Google Bombshell

The biggest news item this month was the bombshell that Matt Cutts delivered in an SMX conference in Seattle that rocked the SEO world. Danny Sullivan described why SEO experts were so incensed in signaling that Google Loses “Backwards Compatibility” On Paid Link Blocking & PageRank Sculpting. The key points that emerged were:

1. Google for over one year had not revealed that it had reversed a significant search algorithm policy which it had previously recommended.
2. Non-of the major SEO experts had spotted this feature was no longer working (and apparently had missed others according to Cutts).
3. Clients had therefore paid for SEO effort that was without effect.

A new domain for BPWrap

The blog BPWrap has now been transferred from a subdomain of the Cre8asite Forum’s website to its own domain, www.BPWrap.com. Using a 301 permanent redirect, visibility and ranking in Google keyword searches have been maintained without interruption. The toolbar page rank indicator is updated infrequently so does not yet show a rating for the new domain.

If you have linked to BPWrap posts, it would be appreciated if you would update the URLs. If you wish to transfer a WordPress blog to a new domain successfully, then please contact us.

A new domain for Local Business Online Smart Tips

This SMM mobile website is now to be found at www.lbost.com. The Internet world is increasingly going mobile. In some parts of the world, the mobile web is now much more active than the traditional Internet. Your traditional website is almost guaranteed to be unsatisfactory when viewed on some mobile device. If your most savvy customers might be checking you out via their iPhone or Blackberry, then you should carefully check your mobile presence. Contact us for assistance on this.

Top Twelve Posts

We hope you will find this round-up of a dozen of the most popular posts instructive and in some cases thought-provoking. You can receive an e-mail version of this if you prefer. In that case, please subscribe via the field in the middle of the right sidebar.

SEO Clients Deserve NoFollow Discounts – 06/24/2009 SGL

Google now say PageRank Sculpting and the use of the NoFollow tag on hyperlinks is ineffective. SEO clients have paid to have such work done.

A URL Shortener For Maximum RTs (ReTweets) – 06/22/2009 OBB

StumbleUpon has introduced a new URL shortener that displays the blog post within a frame that maximizes the possibility that the post will be retweeted.

SEO Gets Simpler In 2009 – 06/19/2009 BPW

PageRank sculpting has largely been downplayed as a useful technique by Google. This still leaves important issues to address in SEO.

10 Reasons For Editing Your Published Blog Posts – 06/18/2009 SEP

Editing previously published blog posts is very effective in improving the value to readers and optimising search engine visibility.

Canada Text message rates have huge markup – 06/17/2009 SGL

Testimony before the US Senate suggests that Canadian text messaging fees are way above the cost. This has stifled the demand for these services.

Blog Comments And Google – 06/15/2009 OBB

Based on recent discussions on pagerank sculpting and the nofollow tag, the wisest course seems to be to limit the number of comments on a blog.

Google Mobile gives search by voice whatever your accent – 06/15/2009 SGL

Search by voice and transit directions comes to Google Maps with a whole host of new features. You can now search Google Maps for Android using your voice,

Retirement Planning – Pensions Galore – 06/14/2009 SMm

While UK pensioners, particularly those abroad with frozen pensions, have a hard time making ends meet, the politicians have all the pensions they could wish for.

Tweet Tips For Max ReTweets (RTs) – 06/11/2009 SGL

By carefully crafting the tweet signaling a new blog post with hashtags, the number of retweets can be significantly increased.

PageRank Calculation – Null Hypothesis – 06/09/2009 BPW

PageRank as it applies in the Google search algorithm may possibly be calculated in two phases. Phase 1 calculates PR for all URLs: Phase 2 applies filters and tags.

Avoid WordPress Duplicate Content Problems With Google – 06/03/2009 BPW

WordPress is an excellent blogging software but can produce many web pages with duplicate content. This can be avoided by using the right robots.txt file.

With A Little Help From My Friends – 06/03/2009 SSc

By establishing a good reputation in social media, it is possible to have friends assist in publicising new blog posts.

If you need creative help or ideas for important blog posts for your own blog, why not check out the new SMM Title-Plus Service. You will be amazed how little it costs.

Barry Welford

Footnote: If you are looking for more information on how to run your business more effectively, why not check out these Top Selling Business Books from Amazon. This is an affiliate link but if you do buy a book the small commission does help to underwrite a small part of the cost of providing these newsletters and blog posts.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

BWelford’s Monthly Round-Up For June 2009

We are all used to “Sound Bites” – a short few seconds of words which are normally taken out of context to create sensational headlines. Few people realise that speech writers have for years worked on developing speeches to include a couple of perfect “sound bites” for use by others. Of course while some social media is audio based we are much more likely to rely on humble text to create a “social bite”.

What Is A Social Bite? – A social bite is a short piece of text to describe an article, post or idea which is easy to understand and easy to distribute through viral networks. A social bite must still carry the post’s message and goal but in a way that quickly impacts with users. The Perfect Social Bite has two parts, the hook and the line.

The hook are the words within the message – the thing to grab attention. This is doubly important as the hook will have no context once it has left the site. For example a hook is unlikely to reference the site so must be compelling, so that someone would visit the page without knowing where they were going.  The line is simply the url, sometimes this will be the page url but more likely to conserve space a url shortening service would be used. This compounds the need for a good hook as the only other potential reference to the site will be hidden.

Done well, social bites can be very effective, so the Twitter stream now seems to have more social bites than mere status messages as in  ( … off to feed the dog. )

If you are unaware of ReTweeting, then this is the next big buzz item in the Twitter world.

A ReTweet is based upon the word Tweet.  Tweet is slang used in Twitter that means whatever message you post up on Twitter is considered a Tweet.  Hence a ReTweet is a Tweet that is re-copied that begins with either a RT or ReTweet.

Techchrunch wrote a post on how ReTweets are viewed as a proxy for Authority in the Twitter world.  This means that the more Retweets you gain from other Twitter users based on the article you have written or have found and submitted to the Twitter world, will prove that you are an Authoritative expert in Twitter.

Your tweeting efforts therefore should be focused on creating social bites that will receive the maximum retreats.  That is where the choice of URL shortening can be important..  Lee Odden did a fine survey and review of URL shorteners and covered the following URL shorteners:

• cli.gs    
• budurl.com
• tinyurl.com
• zi.ma
• bit.ly    
• twurl.nl (aka tweetburner)
• is.gd
• snipurl.com (aka Snurl Snipr Sn.im)
• poprl.com
• ad.vu (aka adjix)
• tr.im

He found that cli.gs was the most used and certainly it has many fine features including powerful analytics.  One of its most useful features is that it can be used in a plugin by Joe Dolson (WP to Twitter) that automatically creates a tweet when a WordPress post is published.

One URL shortener that was not included was that created by Digg.  It has received some adverse reactions since it puts the original post within an iFrame that is part of the Digg online presence.

Another one that is just now in beta might appear to be similar in ‘framing’ the original post.  However I go along with Pallab in saying that su.pr from StumbleUpon is Awesome.

Like Digg, su.pr also frames the contents of the target webpage and displays floating toolbars which is what make su.pr so awesome. The sidebar automatically highlights other popular content from your website(s) and encourages the reader to further explore. Not only that, su.pr also provides the option to retweet your message, and share the link on Facebook. Other options include the standard thumbs up and thumbs down buttons and option to stumble through the URL submitter’s favourites.

That ReTweet (RT) option is highly visible in the top right corner and should maximize the chances of getting even more RTs.  If you want to see what it looks like just check out the URL in the following social bite.

StumbleUpon is one of the more effective social media in bringing website visitor traffic, so this URL shortener should be a most useful complement.

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A URL Shortener For Maximum RTs (ReTweets)

The incident that triggered the thought was that my news feed aggregator service, Bloglines, added a new look and functionality. To each news feed item, it now adds at the right-hand end a column of possible related search terms you might wish to explore with Ask. The problem it creates is that I wish to see as many news items on the screen line-by-line as I can. This allows me to scan many more items and I rely on the Titles to determine whether they need to be perused. Now with each item taking up a space five times as high I have only one fifth of the productivity. You might assume that there would be a button that would allow me to switch off this unwanted extra service. Not so. It seems impossible to return to the classic simple look.

I tried to get some information on a way to correct the situation via Twitter. Someone with the username Bloglines did suggest I use a Firefox Addon to change the style. It was partially successful but I never managed to get back to the original simplicity. Reluctantly I have now switched to Google Reader, which with a little manipulation gives me close to what I want. I have been a long time Bloglines user and it is only with the greatest reluctance that I made the switch.

The counter view on these matters was one that Tom Peters suggested, and there is even a book about it now. If it Ain’t Broke…Break It!: And Other Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing Business World (Paperback) by Robert J. Kriegel and Louis Patler.

Being product directed is often said to be the reverse of being customer centric and this really sums it up. Microsoft is an extreme example of this ‘Break It’ approach with its constant upgrades. Overall they may make more money this way, but they leave behind them a trail of disgruntled customers. When something does exactly what the customer wants, it takes a lot to have them accept that they need the product or service to be changed. If it ain’t broke, please don’t fix it.

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If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

Given recent Google pronouncements with respect to the nofollow tag and PageRank sculpting, it is prudent to limit the number of comments that blog posts receive and methods are discussed to do that.

Introduction

Blog authors often agree to differ on the subject of comments.  Some feel it is essential to have a dialogue going with their readers through comments.  Others are turned off by all the spam comments that can often be added and so avoid comments.

An additional issue with respect to comments is whether comment authors should be allowed to have a link back to their own websites.  WordPress by default inserts a nofollow tag on such links, given the risks of spam entries.  Those who feel commenters should be allowed to have a link can use a WordPress Dofollow plug-in which removes that nofollow tag.

Google has then made this subject more complex by suggesting that paid links should be flagged with a nofollow tag since they should not influence search engine rankings..  Some SEOs have then decided they would use the nofollow tag to modify the PageRank flow within their website: this was labeled as PageRank Sculpting.  A Google comment at the SMX conference in Seattle ten days ago has now further thrown everything into confusion.

PageRank On Comments May Evaporate – Matt Cutts

The Matt Cutts comment that sparked this discussion, as reported by Lisa Barone, ran as follows in the You&A With Matt Cutts session:

It seems like you supported PageRank sculpting a year ago and now it seems like you don’t support it anymore. Why is that and will it become a negative indicator?

No, it won’t hurt your site. You can do your links however you want. You can use it to eliminate links to sign in forms and whatnot, but its a better use of your time to fix your site architecture and fix the problem from the core. Suppose you have 10 links and 5 of them are nofollowed. There’s this assumption that that the other 5 links get ALL that PageRank and that may not be as true anymore (your leftover PageRank will now “evaporate”, says Matt.). You can’t shunt your PageRank where you want it to go. It’s not a penalty. It’s not going to get you in trouble. However, it’s not as effective. It’s a better use of your time to go make new content and do all the other things.

Andy Beard has clearly stated what is needed.  In asking Can Comments Kill Your PageRank?

I do have some thoughts though:-

1. I think we need a strong statement that external links with nofollow would not cause PageRank to evaporate.
2. Nofollow is a simple solution for user generated content and comments, but if it has any effect of PageRank disappearing, we are going to lose the links on tons of blogs totally.  It would be a sad day that an action by Google reduced the interlinking of the web.
…
5. Links that lead to pages blocked with robots.txt and other hanging pages really need to be nofollowed. I think we need to know that in that situation PageRank wouldn’t normally evaporate, but I can understand why that might not be confirmed.

As yet, there has been no clarification on this issue from Google.

Webmasters Handle Comments Differently

It is interesting to note that Webmasters do handle Comments differently.  Michael Gray with his latest entry, The Big Fat RSS Lie, adopts what seems to be his normal policy in displaying, Comments on this entry are closed.

On the other hand, the Daily SEO Tip blog actively seeks comments from as many as possible, as with the latest post:Let’s Create the Ultimate List of Keyword Research Tools by Ann Smarty.  This seems to be the approach that most blog writers adopt.

PageRank Null Hypothesis Suggests Limit Comments

What is the best policy given what Matt Cutts had said.  One possible line of reasoning is set out in a post on a PageRank Null Hypothesis.  This would suggest that all links are included in a first phase PageRank population.  This means that the more links one has from a blog page (including comments), the lower PageRank contribution that each outlink carries.  This argument might suggest avoiding comments to limit the number of outlinks.

Conversely, comments often add useful content that is of interest to readers.  The resulting post and comments then has more content which may rank better in keyword queries.  This suggests that it may be better to have a balance allowing a number of comments but cutting these off after a certain time.

Avoiding PageRank Comments Problems

Given the above, the Comments Policy on the SMM blogs has been changed.  To capture worthwhile comment content while avoiding the more spammy comments, comments are now closed off after 21 days.

In order not to lose the possibility of useful comments after 21 days, the Google Friend Connect Social Bar has been added to the bottom of every SMM blog post so that visitors can comment there.  Such comments would not be part of the Web page content for search engine ranking terms but it does mean that other visitors can read the further comments.  Hopefully this gives the best of both worlds.

Here is a short video introduction to the Google Friend Connect Social Bar:

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Blog Comments And Google

If there are fewer customers with less money to spend, it might seem obvious that your customer service needs to be top-notch to get more than your share of whatever demand there is.

That obvious lesson seems to be lost on the usual cast of characters according to the MSN Money’s third annual Customer Service Hall of Shame. It found that AOL LLC ranks as consumers’ top pick for the worst customer service — the second year in a row AOL has ranked worst.

The survey found that AOL received a “poor” rating for its customer service experience from nearly 45 percent of respondents. Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp. ranked second with 41 percent of consumers rating their customer service experience as “poor.”

Banks also scored low for customer service. Bank of America, Capital One and HSBC all made repeat appearances on the Hall of Shame list, joined by Citibank, the only new company on the 2009 list.

Here is MSN Money’s 2009 Hall of Shame:

1. AOL
2. Comcast
3. Sprint
4. Capital One
5. Time Warner Cable
6. HSBC
7. Qwest
8. Abercrombie & Fitch
9. Bank of America
10. Citigroup

MSN Money also puts together an annual Hall of Fame list, with companies that score the highest for customer service. Military banking, insurance and investment giant USAA ranked No. 1 for best customer service. Here is the list:

1. USAA
2. Trader Joe’s
3. Netflix
4. Amazon
5. Nordstrom
6. Publix
7. Whole Foods
8. Apple
9. Costco
10. Southwest Airlines

What may be surprising is not that the Hall of Shame companies continue to do poorly but that their raw scores remain low at the very time other businesses are improving customer service in response to market uncertainty.

It probably is a good indicator of the quality of management that these companies have.  They may well be consoled by the mantra, we’re no worse than our competitors.  How much better they would do, if instead they were looking for ways of improving results.  Customer service is a powerful lever in such endeavors.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Tough Times Demand Better Customer Service

We hope you will find this round-up instructive and in some cases thought-provoking. You can receive an e-mail version of this if you prefer. In that case, please subscribe via the field in the middle of the right sidebar.

Social Media Is An Oxymoron – 05/29/2009 SGL

Social Media is an oxymoron since social deals with individuals and media are often mass media. Twitter exhibits both types of behaviour.

Stronger Titles Or Headlines For More Visitor Traffic – 05/28/2009 OBB

A new service is available from Lyndon Antcliff on stronger headlines and content for link-building. SMM offers a Blog Post Title-Plus service.

Alarming Debt For Canadians – 05/26/2009 SMm

A CGA survey of 2013 Canadians in November 2008 shows an alarming increase in household debt to cover living expenses rather than for assets.

Arial Font No Longer – 05/25/2009 BPW

For improved legibility on the screen, Verdana is an improvement on Arial, which has a slightly cramped look. Both are sans-serif fonts.

U.S. Credit Card Industry Faces Much Greater Regulation – 05/20/2009 SMm

In both the US and Canada, new legislation for credit cards will bring much needed changes to stop abuses. Credit card borrowers are naturally very happy.

Giving Your WordPress Blog An Elegant Face – 05/20/2009 SSc

The standard out-of-the-box WordPress Blog has a series of blog posts on the home page. A single post and a popular posts list is more elegant.

Being Asked Beats Asking – 05/18/2009 OBB

Seth Godin suggests you should be very careful in planning how you ask someone to do something. Much better is to get them to do the asking.

Multiple WordPress Loops For A New Blog Look – 05/17/2009 BPW

Using two loops within a WordPress blog can allow more user-friendly layouts such as one post followed by a list of most popular posts.

Using Analytics to Spot Problems with your Website – 05/15/2009 DIR

Analytics can be the performance instruments on any website in removing problems and in helping a continuous improvement process to better achieve goals.

Do you trust your people enough to let them talk to customers? – 05/08/2009 BPW

Brian Kalma, Zappos, encourages a corporate climate where employees are encouraged to dialogue with customers in social media and it shows in sales increases.

Time For A Mobile Website – 05/07/2009 SGL

Mobile devices need websites specifically designed for them to maximize the usability and the revenue generating potential of this growth sector.

10 Reasons Why Visitors Do Not See Your Calls To Action – 05/06/2009 SSc

Visitors may not arrive at your website or may not see the Calls To Action. This is a list of 10 reasons why the website does not produce results.

If you need creative help or ideas for important blog posts for your own blog, why not check out the new SMM Title-Plus Service. You will be amazed how little it costs.

Barry Welford

Footnote: If you are looking for more information on how to run your business more effectively, why not check out these Top Selling Business Books from Amazon. This is an affiliate link but if you do buy a book the small commission does help to underwrite a small part of the cost of providing these newsletters and blog posts.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

BWelford’s Monthly Round-Up For May 2009

There is a strong emphasis on headlines with some information provided for free in the associated blog. For example a recent post covers Headlines for Article Writing. That caught my eye and was the genesis of a new SMM service. Headlines is, of course, a term that comes from the print media and Antcliff is a master of creating headlines that smash a brick into the face of the reader. An associated term for blogs is the Title and the two are not always the same.

Titles versus Headlines

This SMM service is all about Titles. The Title of a blog post is usually also the Headline but we prefer to use the term Title to make absolutely clear what is intended. The reason for this emphasis is that the Title is of critical importance in creating posts that will rank well in Google keyword searches. Since most blog posts will see the majority of their visitor traffic coming via keyword searches, it is important to think about search engines as well as human visitors in creating Titles that work well.

SMM offers a low-cost Blog Post Title-Plus Service. For an introductory period, an even lower price is offered. If you need help in developing winning Titles, you should check this new service out.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Stronger Titles Or Headlines For More Visitor Traffic

AdAge previously reported that Microsoft was planning a major ad campaign to promote a relaunch of Live Search this spring. It now says that Microsoft will spend between $80 and $100 million on advertising, almost double the amount typically spent on the launch of a consumer product. The campaign will span TV, print, and online. It is so large that ad firm JWT is actually hiring while most of its competitors are shedding employees. AdAge says the campaign will “focus on planting the idea that today’s search engines don’t work as well as consumers previously thought by asking them whether search (aka Google) really solves their problems.”

Google would strongly refute that message, perhaps by pointing out that it offers More Search Options.

We have spent a lot of time looking at how we can better understand the wide range of information that’s on the web and quickly connect people to just the nuggets they need at that moment. We want to help our users find more useful information, and do more useful things with it.

We are announcing a new set of features that we call Search Options, which are a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your results and generate different views to find what you need faster and easier. Search Options helps solve a problem that can be vexing: what query should I ask?

That approach may well counter the Microsoft challenge. After all powerful advertising campaigns do not necessarily mean that the new Microsoft Search – Bing, Kuomo or whatever it is called – will be any better than the previous Live Search that has been notoriously erratic.

What Google Search Options may not do is help in the more heated arena where Google battles Facebook.

Google increasingly sees social networks such as Facebook as challengers to its search engine. As people search out advice online for everyday, personal decisions, the standard list of links served up by Google is not seen as intimate or trustworthy. For decisions such as choosing a restaurant or a day care provider, social networking sites or known review sites have an advantage, said Google Group Product Manager Ken Tokusei. Such sites offer information from friends or acquaintances, and users tend to trust that information more.

Google does allow users to add opinions to search results but this approach really has not gained any traction. However I believe the key battle-ground is regular search where Microsoft will pitch its Bing. I believe Google is in a position to adopt an approach that the others will have a very hard time matching. This will be outlined in a follow-up article entitled, Google Can Continue To Dominate Search With A Customer-Centric Strategy.

Please make sure you have subscribed to the RSS News Feed so that you can see the follow-up when it is published.

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Google Search Battles On

He then quickly back-pedals and announces that actually, it does hurt. It does hurt to ask the wrong way, to ask without preparation, to ask without permission. It hurts because you never get another chance to ask right.

He then offers the following sage advice: invest some time and earn the right to ask. Do your homework. Build connections. Make a reasonable request, something easy and mutually beneficial. Yes leads to yes which just maybe leads to the engagement you were actually seeking.

Of course any red-blooded sales person may feel that they must ask for the order. In some cases it is the only way. However if you have prepared the ground well, there is a better way.

In a way it is almost an outcome of the Internet. Now consumers are in the driving seat. They can search and find the possible choices and do research on the features and benefits. If your company can be visible on the Internet and stand out from the competition (that old Unique Selling Proposition), then it may well be that the prospect comes calling on your company.

In such cases, they are the ones doing the asking. That’s a very much better scenario. You avoid all those risks that Seth Godin was warning against. This situation is certainly something that is worth striving to create. It is exactly the same approach that was suggested for overcoming cold calling resistance.

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Being Asked Beats Asking