California based online goods payments processor once popular with affiliate marketers, has shut down many of their vendors, and affiliates, in certain markets.  While that in itself wouldn’t be a problem, Plimus shut down these vendors without warning!  Not even 24 hours notice, so no time to find an alternative payment and affiliate platform to sell their wares.   In addition they are withholding payments owed to vendors for up to 3 months, and plimus affiliates up to 30 days.

In an email to vendors just yesterday, Plimus explains “The credit card associations (including Visa and MasterCard) are increasing their scrutiny of merchants selling products within a number of online segments. Affected market segments include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Online auctions
- Foreign Exchange (FOREX)-related products
- Media
- Poker chips and other virtual currency

Next the complete lack of notice, the second scariest part of the plimus statement above is the “market segments include, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO….” portion.  Basically, if you’re using PLIMUS for products/services  in ANY market, they are saying, “dear valued customer, Plimus may have plans to screw you too, in the near future.”

If you sell affiliate products, either your own as a vendor, or someone else’s as an affiliate, I highly recommend you steer well clear of Plimus, as they clearly DO NOT have their clients best interests in mind.  Any company who would just shut down vendors with no warning after years of problem free service, clearly have another hidden agenda.  It’s rumored Plimus shut down these vendors and affiliates, and suspended outstanding payments owed indefinitely, due to a cash crunch on their part.  That is, Plimus doesn’t have enough cash to meet the payments they owe their vendors and afffiliates.  Is this true?  I certainly have no way of knowing.  Is it possible?  Definitely, as they decided to spring this sudden suspension just 4 days before they were obligated ot make payments to their vendors and affiliates.  Coincidence?  I’ll let you decide.

As an affiliate, this webchicklet only stands to lose $1200.  Vendors, on the other hand, stand to lose much, much more.  In addition, all their recurring payments with existing clients are lost forever!  Shame on you Plimus.  This incident shows a complete lack of any kind of professional conduct on Plimus’ part, as well as a complete lack of business ethics.

Here’s two different letters sent to vendors:

“Dear Vendor,

We are writing at this time to notify you we are exercising our right to suspend your account and payment as your business is in violation of the Plimus Prohibited Items Policy under this section: Financial services and of any type including and not limited to financial advice, all types of trading, insurance, currency exchange, trading signals, payment services.

Should there be any reference to Plimus on your web site, we ask that you remove it at this time.

In order to cover potential refunds and chargeback as well as any legal costs incurred to Plimus any payments due to you from Plimus are held for a period of three months and fifteen days starting from the last day of the month of your account suspension date; after which funds will be released to you per a monthly ongoing review and based on refund and chargeback impacting your account. In case of a negative balance in your Plimus account, Plimus will invoice you for the balance amount and expect payment within 30 business days.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you success for the future and thank you for thinking of Plimus for your business needs.

Please let us know should you have any questions or concerns.”

and the other letter from Plimus:

The credit card associations (including Visa and MasterCard) are increasing their scrutiny of merchants selling products within a number of online segments. Affected market segments include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Online auctions
- Foreign Exchange (FOREX)-related products
- Media
- Poker chips and other virtual currency

As you offer products that fit within one or more of these segments, Plimus must now undertake a detailed and exhaustive review of your account, and its compatibility with the Plimus platform. This review will take approximately 30 days; at its conclusion, we hope to be able to advise you that we can continue to provide e-commerce services to your business.

During the period of this review, we must undertake two steps. First, the payout scheduled for the 15th of this month will be suspended for a period not to exceed 30 days, pending our confirmation that all transactions will be honored by the card associations. Second, your account will be suspended as of Thursday, January 12th, which will mean that no further transactions can take place until further notice.

We recognize that this represents a significant business challenge, and apologize for the inconvenience. If you believe your account should not be considered to be within one of the stated market segments, or if you have any questions of concerns, please contact Vendor Support directly.

And here’s the one sent to Plimus affiliates affected (I got mine at 10:40 ET!!):

Dear Affiliate –

The credit card associations (including Visa and MasterCard) are increasing their scrutiny of merchants selling products within a number of online segments.  Affected market segments include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Online auctions
• Foreign Exchange (FOREX)-related products
• Media
• Poker chips and other virtual currency

As you currently are promoting products that fit within one or more of these segments, Plimus must now undertake a detailed and exhaustive review of your account to assess the stability of the products sold via your efforts.

During the period of this review, we must suspend payments for your account for a period not to exceed 30 days, pending our confirmation that all transactions will be honored by the card associations.

We recognize that this represents a significant business challenge, and apologize for the inconvenience.  If you believe your account should not be considered to be focused on any of the stated market segments, or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact Vendor Support directly.

Best Regards

The Plimus Team

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Android OS phones continue to chip away at the iPhone market share, so it’s time we give some press to the amazing Android market with the top 5 Android Apps, free and paid, top 5 books, top grossing, top new free Android Apps, and top new Paid apps, and top movies.  These reports give you a quick grasp on what’s hot, what’s not, and what your need on your Android phone.

Here’s the top 5 Android Apps on Android Market, for the week ending Monday November 14, 2011:
Cut the RopeTop 5 Paid Android Apps:

1. Beautiful Widgets
2. Widget Locker Lockscreen
3. Swiftkey X Keyboard
4. PowerAMP Full Version

Top 5 Free Android Apps

1. Facebook For Android
2. Facebook Messenger
3. Angry Birds
4. Skype
5. Crack Your Screen

Top Grossing:

1. DocumentsToGo Full Versionm
2. Defender
3. Tap Fish
4. My Country
5. Lockout Security & Antivirus

Top 5 New Paid Android Apps:

1. Duke Nukem 3D
2. SimCity Deluxe
3. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
4. ShadowGun
5. VinGo: SAQ, LCBO, BC Liquor

Top 5 Free Android Apps:

1. Defender
2. Contract Killer: Zombies
3. Kijiji Canada FREE
4. Virtual City Playground
5. Photo Warp

Top Selling Android Books:

1. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
2. The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
3. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
4. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
5. Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The trend towards cloud computing is currently one of the hottest in the tech world. For individuals, cloud computing offers online storage, document synchronization, and easy collaboration tools. For business, the trend means a move towards platforms that can host much of a company’s electronic data. These platforms further offer advanced security features, managed server configurations, and cloud-based infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
But what does cloud computing mean for you, the web designer? Or, more to the point, how can cloud computing improve your web design tools? While we are still at the forefront of the cloud revolution, and there’s little doubt that many yet to be developed cloud features will have an impact on web design, there are already a couple ways that the current technology can make your designing process an easier and better one.

First, cloud computing can allow you to design your webpage without needing to rely on programs installed on your computing. Instead of editing photos on your computer in Adobe, and being limited by the capabilities of your hardware and the amount you spend on software, you can now find programs that allow you to do all this online. Programs like Aviary can give web designers many of those tools needed for vector creation and image editing. These cloud-based services will often run faster and cost less than traditional ones, and they can be used from any computer, anywhere. Thus, the web designer can have greater flexibility and capabilities when they turn to the cloud.

Second, there are cloud services that provide web fonts – or online typefaces – for use by designers and developers. Rather than being stuck with the same old options given on a traditional computer, you can now go online and customize a typography that best fits your website. With better typography, a site can look bolder, come across as more unique, and vastly increase its read-ability. Some web designers see no need for this service, but many others have already forgotten what they did before it was available.

There are further options available to web designers, and these can be found with minimal research. But even if cloud computing doesn’t appeal to you right now, it’s not going anywhere and it’s only likely to grow. For web designers, cloud computer will soon become a very important tool – if it is not already.

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Have you ever started a new website project and stared at your computer screen trying to figure out what color palette scheme to use for you shiny new website?  I have, in fact, just last week.  Some people are great at website design, some people are great at color scheme selection. Rarely, are people good at both.  So unless you’ve got deep pockets and can hire out the color selection process, you’ve got to come up with some great complimenting colors for your website.  Lucky for you, there are many online color palette generators to choose from that make your job easy.  Even luckier for you, this Webchicklet has done the leg work in checking out the various sites that provide this service.  Here are my top 4 best Color Palette Generators below.

To qualify as useful, every site had to give the option of uploading (directly from your computer) large photos to generate the color palette, and not limit the file size and/or picture resolution.  Some sites do limit the photo size, and at least one made you upload the photo to a website and then provide the picture url.  Far too much for this lazy Webchicklet!

Awesome Online Color Palette Generators

1.  Big Huge Labs (http://bighugelabs.com/colors.php)

I found the Color Palette Generator at Big Huge Labs provided the cleanest, easiest, and quickest user interface.  Sure, it has a lot of ads, but hey, they’ve got to pay the bills like everyone else, and they are providing a VERY useful service for FREE.  The color palette generated was the best of the bunch.  As you can see in the photo, Big Huge Labs gave me a great selection of colors based on my photo.  They also give you the option to download the swatches in Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) format for Photoshop and the like, AND also gives you the sample CSS  to copy and paste at your leisure.

2.  CSS Drive (http://www.cssdrive.com/imagepalette/)

CSS Drive has a nice looking, intuitive user interface for their color palette generator, and much less advertisements, too.   They provided a large number of color options, and also break them out in Light Color Palette, Medium Color Palette, Dark Color Palette, and Complete Color Palette.  So why aren’t they my number one?  Well, I may be a little bit simple, but I felt overwhelmed by the vast number of color options that this one provided.

3.  Pictaculous (http://www.pictaculous.com/)

I had high hopes for the Pictaculous color palette generator at first load.  I found it’s ultra clean, ad free main page very appealing.  However, I found that it took a while to generate the palette, and it only came up with 3 colors.   It does give the option to download an Adobe Swatch File.

4.  Color Hunter (http://www.colorhunter.com/)

Like all the others, Color Hunter is an easy to use, quick to produce, color palette generator, made a little bit too busy with the 3 large Google adsense ad banners.  They keep it pretty simple with only 5 colors generated from my photo….maybe a little to simple.  You can toggle vibrant/dull palettes, but the little icon is easy to miss with all the ads making me blind.  Another negative, there didn’t seem to be any sample css to copy or Adobe swatch to download.

So there you have it, next time you’re stuck on picking colors for your new website project, check out these free online color palette generators.  And remember these aren’t just for web developers!   You can certainly use a color palette generator to come up with some new colors for your house too!

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

For all the web publishers out there that rely on Google Adsense for website monetization, here’s a new twist.  Google has just announced to their publishers that they will be adding the +1 button to to Adsense for Content, as well as Adsense for Mobile Content.

Google says they will be adding the +1 button to image ads, animated gifs, and flash ads.  They say that the +1 will be yet another signal they use to determine whether an ad is relevant for a given site and/or user.  In that way, they will be able to deliver the best ads and therefore the most revenue for you, the Google Adsense publisher.

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. No One Likes Your Posts? Don’t Worry, Google Plus One’s For Sale Two segments of the internet population cheered when Google came...
2. The Top Operating Systems According to Google Analytics It’s always interesting to see the trends in operating system...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tablets and eReaders are frequently grouped into the same category which may seem harmless, but is ultimately like comparing the original Nintendo gaming system to the Wii. Numerous companies that specialize in eReaders actually market their products as tablets which for the general consumer can be a little confusing. While all tablets can perform the same functions as an eReader, an eReader definitely falls short in performance.

The eReader, whether it be a Nook, Kindle, or Kobu, can perform only basic functions. The screen itself was designed to reduce strain on the eyes and to reduce overall glare. The focus of these devices was to allow people the ability to read the books they want on the go, and to give them the ability to download them no matter where they are.

Only recently have many of these eReaders begun to incorporate web browsers, and many of them are in their beta phase. They just don’t function on the same speed as a tablet. Simply put, you only buy an eReader to read books, magazines, or other print items.

Tablets, on the other hand, are practically large smart phones without the ability to make calls or mini laptops without keyboards. They have advanced IT Management teams running the apps that are created for them, superior Wi-Fi and browsing capabilities, and a large variety of functions that can help a person to anything from read the morning paper to create their monthly budget.

Recently, I heard that Amazon intended to sell 5 million tablets in their next quarter. I was stunned, but mainly because I didn’t even realize that they had a tablet available. After realizing that they were talking about the Kindle, I felt a little mislead. The Kindle isn’t a tablet.

A tablet is a highly functional mobile device, such as the iPad 2 or Galaxy 10.1. With a tablet, you can play games, scour the web, and play around on your Facebook profile. An eReader is simply that – an electronic device used for reading. It’s a great device to have for travel as no one wants to tote around heavy books in their carry-on, but otherwise – that’s all an eReader offers: convenience.

So before you invest in a Kindle or a Nook, consider all that you will be missing out on if you invest your money in one of these devices. Why spend $200 on a device that only provides access to printed items, when you could spend a little more on a tablet that allows you the same type of access while also providing you with several other features – including basics like internet browsing.

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Two segments of the internet population cheered when Google came out with Google Plus One, those that provide great content day in and day out, and those that make a (great) living selling to new markets. And the latest, greatest new market is the Google Plus One for sale market. That’s right, you can buy Google Plus one’s until your ATM tells you you can’t.

So you’ve got the big websites that put out new, unique content on a regular basis. They are happy because there thousands (millions) of daily readers, like what they read and click on the Google Plus One button. These, Google Plus One’s are, in a way, a popularity contest not unlike the Facebook like, or the Digg, etc. But Google Plus Ones are different in one big way, at least according to Google: More Google Plus Ones = higher rankings and/or traffic from the Google search engine. So it’s not wonder that web entities who put out great content are happy, as they are rewarded with increasingly higher rankings and traffic in the Google Search engine wars. Win/Win.

But what about the majority of sites out there that put out copied, rewritten, reworded, regurgitated, bad grammar, well you get the idea….CRAP content? What about them and their search engine rankings? They go to all that trouble to set up a WordPress blog, copy some material from another site, or better yet, set up an auto blog CRAP posting machine, and now suddenly Google changes the landscape on them!?

Not to worry CRAP spinners, those new market makers have swarmed to your rescue, out of the goodness of their hearts (or maybe for the money). They’ve set up shop and created thousands of Buy Google Plus One e-stores, websites, or just sell them on Fiverr.com. People are selling “real” google plus one votes for anywhere from 20 to 100 or more Plus One’s for 5 bucks. So, as expected, now the lazy crap spinners can just open their wallets and “try” to improve their rankings on Google. I say “try” because it’s not yet known whether these Plus One votes really do help your rankings or not. The only thing I’m sure of: these guys selling the Plus One votes are making a crap-load of money.

Here’s a screenshot from Fiverr.com ( a great site to find cheap freelancers) searching for Google Plus One…..note at the top there are 208 best matches:

So, what do you think about Google Plus One?  Have you noticed your rankings improve?  Did you buy Google Plus One’s?  Have checked out any of the Google Plus One’s for sale sites?  Let our readers know whether they worked for you.

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. The Top Operating Systems According to Google Analytics It’s always interesting to see the trends in operating system...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Not a day goes by that someone asks me what I do.  Then I give them my generic answer:  I do internet marketing.  They then scratch their heads and then ask: what is Internet Marketing?  I go on to tell them that I make money online via Google Adense, affiliate product sales (Amazon, Commission Junction, etc) and “various other methods”.  Invariably, they ask “Can you start an Adsense Website for me?”

99.9% of the time I usually tell them I’m too busy to  take on clients, as I can make more money making new niche websites for myself.  Well, it’s the summer slowdown, so I thought I’d to a series of articles on newbie steps to create a website to earn Adsense income and affiliate income.  I’ll say it again, this is a quick guide for people totally new to internet marketing.  Since most people who are new to internet marketing have never setup a website, or registered a domain, this article will focus on the steps to register a domain name and setup hosting.

How To Start A Website: Register a Domain

First you’ll need to pick a good domain name.  That is an article in itself on keyword research, niche research, competition research etc.  That will be the next post.

I recommend and use myself, Name.com.  They have great pricing on all domain suffixes (.com, .org, .net, etc.) and a fast and easy to use website to snag all those great keyword domains you’ll be registering before you know it.

How To Start a Website: Setup Web Hosting

There are hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of hosting companies out there.  However, when it comes down to it, most of them are just resllers, selling hosting on behalf of one of the major web hosting companies.  So really it comes down to reliability, price, good cpanel admin, and excellent customer service.  For that reason, I use HostGator for almost all of my web hosting needs.  You’ll find their pricing middle of the road, their uptime is outstanding, they have a great cpanel admin interface, and the technical support is above and beyond any other web hosting company.

Hostgator’s live chat support is perfect.  You almost never have to wait for a host gator support rep, they always have a ton of reps online at any given time, and they are really nice.

If you intend to really dive into internet marketing, you’ll be setting up many different domain names and Hostgator’s Baby Plan is perfect for this type of thing.  The HostGator webhosting allows for unlimited domains.  This means you sign up for a year for the first site (just under a $100 per year) and then every new domain you buy at name.com after that is free to host at hostgator!

I’m not going to get into how to set up the hosting, as the Hostgator people are great at getting you setup.

How to Start a Website: Setting up WordPress on Hostgator

Now that you have your domain registered and your web hosting setup for that domain, all you have to do is setup WordPress.  Hostgator makes setting up WordPress super easy.  In cpanel, you just click on “Fantastico De Luxe” at the bottom of cpanel, under Software/Services.  Then click on WordPress near the top of the left menu bar.  Then just follow the instructions, and voila, your site is up and running.

Now, you can log into the wordpress admin menu and play around and get to know the wonderful world of WordPress.  There are thousands of free themes and plugins, and lots of premium paid themes and plugins to choose from.  At this point you can get by just fine with the free themes and in a later article I’ll let you know the essential free plugins for your sites.

That’s enough for now.  Next article, I’ll let you know how you can come up with some excellent  niche markets using keyword research.

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Hostgator Marketing Pokes Fun At Godaddy Elephant Killing The web hosting and domain registration business has always been...
2. The Top 3 Clickbank Scams (Out Tens of Thousands of ClickBank Scams) I’m sitting in my local Mexican Starbuck’s enjoying a nice...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This Webchicklet is all about continuing education, and my learning project for this spring was:  becoming a Wireshark Certified Network Analyst.  As usual, I learn by reading, and there are plenty of good choices in books on Wireshark tutorials and Wireshark network analysis in general.  But what I needed was the best Wireshark Certified Network Analyst Guide to get me up to speed quickly and efficiently.

Of course, some readers may be scratching their head and asking themselves “what the heck is Wireshark Network Analysis?  Well, in that case, before I tell you what I found to be the best Wireshark study guides, I’ll give you the quick and dirty on what Wireshark is.

What is Wireshark?

Well, in a nutshell, Wireshark is an open source (yep, that means free!) packet analyzer used for analyzing and troubleshooting networks.  It’s a handy dandy multi platform package that runs on various operating systems including Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, and even Microsoft Windows.  Simply put, Wireshark allows users to see ALL traffic being passed over a network, even wifi networks.  It’s won many industry awards including InfoWorld and PC Magazine.

So, now that we got that out of the way….To earn the coveted (by me) Wireshark Certified Network Analyst, all you have to do is pass the WCNA-100x exam.  Easy right?  Yes, if you are armed with the correct knowledge needed for the exam.  So without further ado:

The Top 2 Wireshark Certified Network Analyst Guides

1. Wireshark Network Analysis: The Official Wireshark Certified Network Analyst Study Guide

This book was one of the top rated Network Security books (#2) by sectools.org, and also had good positive feedback and a solid rating on Amazon (where I bought it).   So it seemed like an easy choice for my number one (and only) Wireshark guide.  It’s very well written, organized and easy to read that is chock full of solid content, and a lot of content there is..whew.

While it naturally does a great job of explaining howto use Wireshark to its full potential, the real value of this book is in the amazingly detailed explanations of network traffic analysis.  Along with this, the book has plenty of screenshots, and very handy review questions (with answers!) after each section.  This official Wireshark Certified Network Analyst Study Guide was a life saver, and in my own opinion, the best guide on the market.

2. Official Exam Prep Guide: Wireshark Certified Network Analyst [Kindle or Book Edition]

This one, while not completely necessary, helped give me the confidence to write the exam.  It is a bit thin on the number of sample questions (100 questions and answers).  I would have liked to seen more questions, but at the same time, the questions were the ones I need to review, so this one served its purpose.   By no means would I use just this exam prep guide only.  It really is a good backup to the Official Wireshark Certified Network Analyst Study Guide above.

So, if you’re considering taking the Wireshark CertifiedNetwork Analyst exam, then I would highly recommend these two books.  They helped me pass the test the first time!

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

When you get a pop-up or a website telling you to download some type of software, or that a particular piece of software crashed and you need to update it, think twice about following the suggestions. The reason that you should think twice is that this software they want you to download could be malicious.

According to a report by Microsoft, approximately 1 out of fourteen programs, which are downloaded to your computer, turns out to be a Trojan or malicious. In Internet Explorer Microsoft has installed a feature that tries to keep users from downloading software that Microsoft does not recognize and could possibly be untrustworthy. In spite of these warning, a small group of users do not heed the warning. They will just download the malicious programs anyway. Some users have other programs that they use to get on the internet instead of Internet Explorer so they do not have the benefit of the warnings.

These users just have their antivirus software to warn them of dangerous downloads, and if the antivirus software is not up to date, then that will not even help.
It use to be easy for internet criminals to put their code into computers but now, five years later, the security of the internet has gotten better. The browsers are more secure plus software makers, when they see a problem, can quickly put out patches to fix the problems.

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. The Top Operating Systems According to Google Analytics It’s always interesting to see the trends in operating system...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.