'Hacktivists' deface Philippine govt websites over cyber law

Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - Several government websites, including that of the National Food Authority (NFA), were defaced early yesterday the "hacktivist" group Anonymous Philippines, drawing attention to the cybercrime law.

The hacking took place a day before the Supreme Court holds oral arguments on the CyberCrime Prevention Act of 2012, or Republic Act No. 10175, which Anonymous Philippines said threatened freedom of expression.

The law became controversial because it criminalises online libel, among other things, angering journalists who have been campaigning for the decriminalisation of libel.

Background: Cybercrime law: Yay or nay?

Shortly after President Aquino signed RA 10175 into law last September 12, the high tribunal suspended its implementation for four months until February after consolidating 15 petitions against it.

Early yesterday, Twitter users reported the hacking of the NFA website (nfa.gov.ph). The NFA, whose previous head is being linked to rice smuggling in the country, is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said in a phone interview early on Monday that while it was not known why the NFA website was targeted, those in charge of the website were tasked with restoring the system.

Related story: 'Bloody Monday': Hackers strike gov't websites anew

At 9:24am, Alcala said via text message that the website would be restored "soon". In about 30 minutes, the website was up and running again.

Also hacked were the websites of the National Maritime Polytechnic (nmp.gov.ph) and the municipality of Jose Panganiban (mambulao.gov.ph), formerly known as Mambulao, in Camarines Norte province.

#OccupyPhilippines

In an operation called "#OccupyPhilippines," Anonymous Philippines left hacked pages with messages beginning with, "Protect our Right to Freedom of Expression!"

The message was still on the home page of Jose Panganiban town but it had been taken out of the NMP website as of press time.

The Cebu Port Authority (http://cpa.gov.ph) website did not have the message on it but the site was disabled throughout yesterday.

The Anonymous Philippines' message read in part: "1987 Philippine Constitution. Article III, Section 4 states that 'NO LAW SHALL BE PASSED ABRIDGING the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.'"

Also read: Senators flip-flop on Cybercrime Law

The group also said: "What happened to the law? Are all laws meant to be broken? Are they made to fool people, deprive them of their rights in exchange for what we believe as 'Heavens for Politicians'? Some say we are against the law because it would hinder our 'criminal activities,' but WE do not oppose the said law in any way, if it is for the greater good."

Not the first time

It was not the first time the group defaced government websites to draw attention to the controversial law. A number of petitioners said this would make it easier for authorities to spy on and/or harass citizens, especially critics, using electronic media.

Many critics of the cybercrime law have also alleged that legislation may have stemmed from criticisms against lawmakers in social media, particularly at the height of the plagiarism charges against Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto.

In September last year, the websites of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, the American Chamber of Commerce, the Philippine Anti-Piracy Team and the Agusan del Sur website were hacked by Anonymous Philippines.

Those of the Official Gazette, Senate and National Bureau of Investigation were either defaced or suffered denial-of-service attacks.

Black screens

At the height of the outcry, many Facebook and Twitter users in the Philippines and the portals of some media organisations replaced their profile pictures with black screens in protest of the new law.

Related story: Pinoy netizens ‘go black’ on Facebook to protest Cybercrime Law

In October last year, the Supreme Court ordered that the implementation of the law be suspended until February 6 and set a January 15 hearing of petitioners' arguments. Fifteen petitions asked the high court to declare the law wholly or partially unconstitutional.

While the new law against cybercrime is suspended, authorities may deal with related cases using existing laws such as RA 8792 or the E-Commerce Act of 2000, RA 9995 or the Anti-Photo and Voyeurism Act of 2009, RA 9725 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009, RA 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, RA 8484 or the Access Device Regulation Act of 1998 and RA 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law.

A primer on cybercrimes committed in the country, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier released, said nearly nine out of 10 Filipino Internet users have been victimised by "cybercrime" or malicious activity on the Internet.

The primer was prepared by the DOJ as part of its advocacy programme to prevent abuses in cyberspace as the legality of the new law against cybercrime is being deliberated in the Supreme Court.

In other news: Philippines up 10 notches in 'economic freedom' list

The law, according to petitioners, violates citizens' constitutional rights, including freedom of speech, right to privacy, protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, due process, equal protection and protection against double jeopardy.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will give those questioning the suspended Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 a chance to make their case heard.

Five lawyers are set to tackle certain provisions in the first oral arguments to be presided over by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno since her appointment as head of the judiciary last August.

It will be the turn of the solicitor general to argue for the law's continued implementation on January 22.

10 minutes each

Under the guidelines and advisory on how the oral arguments will be done, five petitioners/counsels are assigned to speak on specific issues. Each will have 10 minutes to make their presentations. The high court issued the guidelines last week.

Also read: Hope against hunger

Tuesday's speakers are University of the Philippines law professors Harry Roque and Jesus Disini Jr., Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, Philippine Bar Association legal counsel Rodel Cruz and National Union of People's Lawyers representative Julius Matibag.

Roque said he would ask the high court if it could allow Sen. Teofisto Guingona III to make an opening statement before the oral arguments.

Among the provisions to be tackled include that which criminalises online libel and the so-called take-down policy in the law that will allow the DOJ to block or restrict a website found to be violating the cybercrime law.

All speakers will be asked whether the provisions they will be discussing violate constitutional rights such as those on due process of law and freedom of expression.

"The rest of the issues raised by the various parties that are not covered by the oral arguments shall be heard on written memorandum by the petitioners concerned," the advisory said. - source

Read More

Ericsson tests 500-Mbps VDSL2 technology

Line bonding, noise cancellation solutions could enable high-speed broadband access, mobile backhaul over copper lines.

Ericsson on Monday announced it has successfully tested high-speed VDSL2 technology at speeds of over 500 megabits per second.

The Swedish equipment vendor achieved the high data transfer rates over twisted copper pairs using new line bonding and crosstalk cancellation technology, which it calls 'vectorised' VDSL2.

Six lines were bonded in order to reach speeds above 500 Mbps at 500 metres. Crosstalk cancellation technology reduces the effects of noise from other copper pairs in the same cable bundle, enabling Ericsson to extend the capacity and reach of the signal to more people.

The company said standards for VDSL2 line bonding are already available, while standardisation of vectoring is expected by the end of 2009.

VDSL2 enables operators to offer access to the latest high-speed broadband services using their existing copper lines.

"With this technology, operators can enhance fibre access deployments with copper access in the last mile and thereby maximise the reuse of existing infrastructure," the vendor said in a statement.

"It also proves Ericsson's abilities to provide future mobile backhauling, which will enable quick and cost-effective introduction of Long Term Evolution (LTE) solutions," said Hakan Eriksson, CTO of Ericsson.

Ericsson said VDSL2 will allow a larger number of consumers to access demanding services including HDTV and video-on-demand (VoD) via their broadband connection.

Eriksson said the demonstration confirms Ericsson's "commitment to the continued research and development of DSL technology to improve operators' business with new access solutions." - source

Read More

Tegra 4 newly world's fastest mobile processor

Chip maker Nvidia has formally introduced the Tegra 4 mobile processor, claiming it is the world's fastest mobile chip.

The Tegra 4 -- which was previously known by the codename "Wayne" -- has at its heart 72 custom Nvidia GeForce GPU cores, giving it six-times the graphics processing power of the current Tegra 3. Backing up the GPU is a new quad-core variant of ARM's Cortex-A15 CPU, a chip that Nvidia claims "delivers 2.6x faster web browsing and breakthrough performance for apps."

The Tegra 4 also comes with worldwide support for 4G LTE voice and data by utilizing the optional the fifth-generation Nvidia Icera i500 chipset. Not only is this new chip far more power efficient than conventional modems, the i500 is 40 percent smaller than its predecessor, yet delivers four times the processing capability.

"Tegra 4 provides enormous processing power and efficiency to power smartphones and tablets, gaming devices, auto systems and PCs," said Phil Carmack, senior vice president of the Tegra business at Nvidia. "Its new capabilities, particularly in the area of computational photography, will help improve a whole range of existing products and lead to the creation of exciting new ones."

To allow devices to last longer between charges, the Tegra 4 includes a second-generation battery saver core for low power usage, and PRISM 2 Display technology that reduces backlight power. These, and other improvements means the Tegra 4 consumes up to 45 percent less power than the Tegra 3, allowing for up to 14 hours of HD video playback on devices.

The Tegra 4 also comes equipped with Computational Photography Architecture, which automatically delivers high dynamic range (HDR) photos and video by combining the processing power of the GPU, CPU and the camera's image-signal processor. - source

Read More

Asus WL-330NUL World's Smallest Wi-Fi Router

Asus has quietly revealed what they claim to be the world's smallest Wi-Fi router. It's form factor shows that it looks slightly larger than a flash drive, and it's perfect if you're traveling all the time.

The WL-330NUL weighs 25 grams, and the router includes an ethernet port on one end for sharing and a wired connection on the other. It can be plugged into an outlet if you want to spare your laptop's battery. The WL-330NUL also doubles as a USB ethernet adapter too.

Read More

EDUP EP-MS1532 802.11n Dual Antenna

Product Description:

• MIMO technology improves data throughput and range over existing 802.11b/g products
• Add high-speed Wireless-N (draft 802.11n) Internet access to any USB enabled computer
• Offers greater coverage than Wireless-G networks for internet access throughout your home or office
• Works with older Wireless-G and Wireless-B networks
• WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) simplifies setup and operation
• Operating distance of up to 300 feet indoor, and up to 900 feet in open space
• Data transfer rate of up to 300Mbps
• Supports USB 2.0 interface, backward compatible to USB 1.1 and 1.2
• Enhanced WEP and WPA wireless security for protected Internet access
• 64-bit / 128-bit WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), TKIP, AES 2.400GHz ISM
• Frequency Band Modulation Method: QPSK / BPSK / 16-QAM / 64-QAM
• Supports Ad Hoc and Infrastructure modes
• Supports IEEE 802.11e standard

Specifications:

Wireless Standards	IEEE 802.11n (draft) IEEE 802.11g IEEE 802.11b
Host Interface	High speed USB2.0/1.1 interface
Data Rate	802.11n: up to 300Mbps (downlink) and 150Mbps (uplink) 802.11g: 54 / 48 / 36 / 24 / 18/ 12 / 9 / 6 Mbps auto fallback 802.11b: 11 / 5.5 / 2 / 1 Mbps auto fallback
Frequency Band	2.4GHz ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) Band
Chipset	Ralink RT3072
RF Frequency	2412 ~ 2462 MHz (North America) 2412 ~ 2472 MHz (Europe) 2412 ~ 2484 MHz (Japan)
Radio Channel	1 ~ 14 channels (Universal Domain Selection)
Coverage Range	Up to 3 times further than 802.11g
Antenna type	Detachable Dual Antenna
Roaming	Full mobility and seamless roaming from cell to cell
RF Output Power	13 ~17 dBm (Typical)
Modulation	11n: BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM with OFDM 11g: BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, OFDM 11b: DQPSK, DBPSK, DSSS, CCK
Data Security	64/128-bit WEP Encryption WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2, WPA2-PSK. TKIP/AES
Network	Auto-switch to use 802.11n or 802.11g or 802.11b mode Supports Ad-Hoc, Infrastructure WLAN network Wireless roaming Data rate auto fall-back under noisy environment or longer range distance Site Survey with Profile function
Configuration & Management	Plug-and-Play setup and installation Management Utility supports 2000 / XP/ Vista / Windows 7
Media Access Control	CSMA/CA with ACK
LED Indicator	Link/Active ( Green )
Operating System	Windows 2000, XP 32/64-bit, Vista 32/64-bit, Windows 7 32/64-bit Linux and MAC OS X
Environment	Operating Temperature: 0oC to 40oC Storage Temperature: -20oC to 75oC Operating Humidity: 10% ~ 90% (Non Condensing) Storage Humidity: 5% ~ 95% (Non Condensing)

Available Windows Driver for XP,Vista & Win7 can be download here; Win8 here; Linux here; Mac here.

Read More

Praia Vermelha

The Quiet City Beach and Tropical Forest Trail !

Praia Vermelha is the smallest city beach in Rio de Janeiro,and it lies in a sheltered cove between the 688 ft Morro da Urca and the 754 ft Morro da Babilonia. It's here where you catch the 2 stage cable car up to Morra da Urca and then on to the 1300 ft Sugar Loaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar) out in the bay.

It's very easy to get here from the tourist beach areas, and the best way is by taxi (R$10) or by bus.

Praia Vermelha means 'Red Beach' and derives its name from the reddish yellow sand found here. This is contrasted to other beaches in Rio de Janeiro that have white sand. As this beach is set back and protected from the rough surf of the Atlantic Ocean, the water is quite calm. However it is occasionally not clean and thus not always suitable for swimming.

There's a nice little park directly behind this beach with many tree lined low walls on which to sit and take in the scenery. Several food vendors set up here throughout the day, so this makes for a nice place to enjoy a cheap lunch or afternoon snack.

Families of Tiny Monkeys !

However, the real draw here is the wonderful 2 km paved trail - Pista Cláudio Coutinho, which starts just next to Praia Vermelha and hugs the rocky coastline out around the base of Morro da Urca.

This lush short stretch of tropical forest is almost completely tree covered. Along the way you will likely encounter families of small monkeys living in the trees that line and cover the trail. Most of the monkeys dart about in the canopy overhead, but some relax in the trees surprisingly close to eye level.

This very safe trail is managed by the government, and it's prohibited to feed the wildlife. However, Cariocas (Rio natives) and tourists alike feed bananas to the small monkeys, who will eat them right out of your hand! As is quite common in Brazil, there are minor rules which are meant to be broken...

Pista Cláudio Coutinho is a wonderful excursion and is a safe place to bring a camera. There are many opportunities to take photos of the plant life in the forest, the little monkeys, looking out towards the sea, and looking back to Praia Vermelha. You can also take some dizzying photos looking up to Morro da Urca.

Walking on this shaded trail makes for a comfortable and highly enjoyable mid day excursion when the sun is at it's peak. After visiting Praia Vermelha and walking the trail out and back, head up to Morro da Urca and Sugar Loaf by cable car to enjoy the late afternoon and then a beautiful Rio de Janeiro sunset!

Via Rio De Janeiro

Read More

Kuwaiti Jailed for 'Offensive' Tweet

A Kuwaiti man has been sentenced to two years in prison for insulting the country's ruler on Twitter, Reuters reported.

Rashid Saleh al-Anzi, 26, allegedly wrote the tweet directed at emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah (pictured below) in October. Reuters said that al-Anzi, who has more than 5,700 followers on the networking site, plans to appeal the charges.

The arrest is one of several recent Gulf area crackdowns on political opposition through social media. On Monday, Reuters reported that an additional Kuwaiti blogger, Ayyad al-Harbi, was sentenced to two years following his arrest in late 2011 — also regarding a critical tweet toward Al-Sabah.

Other areas of the Gulf Region have taken similar actions. According to the Associated Press, a Qatari poet was sentenced to life in November for an Arab Spring-themed poem that officials claimed insulted the country's emir. He is appealing the charges as well.

Watch the video above to learn more. Do you think this is fair? Should online criticism be reason for an arrest?

Via mashable

Read More

Aaron Swartz Internet Activist Laid at 26

Internet activist and computer prodigy Aaron Swartz, who helped create an early version of the Web feed system RSS and was facing federal criminal charges in a controversial fraud case, has committed suicide at age 26, authorities said on Saturday.

Police found Swartz's body in his Brooklyn, New York, apartment on Friday, according to a spokeswoman for the city's chief medical examiner, which ruled the death a suicide by hanging.

Swartz is widely credited with being a co-author of the specifications for the Web feed format RSS 1.0, which he worked on at age 14, according to a blog post on Saturday from his friend, science fiction author Cory Doctorow.

RSS, which stands for Rich Site Summary, is a format for delivering to users content from sites that change constantly, such as news pages and blogs.

Over the years, he became an online icon for helping to make a virtual mountain of information freely available to the public, including an estimated 19 million pages of federal court documents from the PACER case-law system.

"Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves," Swartz wrote in an online "manifesto" dated 2008.

"The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. ...haring isn't immoral — it's a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy," he wrote.

That belief - that information should be shared and available for the good of society - prompted Swartz to found the nonprofit group DemandProgress.

The group led a successful campaign to block a bill introduced in 2011 in the U.S. House of Representatives called the Stop Online Piracy Act.

The bill, which was withdrawn amid public pressure, would have allowed court orders to curb access to certain websites deemed to be engaging in illegal sharing of intellectual property.

Swartz and other activists objected on the grounds it would give the government too many broad powers to censor and squelch legitimate Web communication.

But Swartz faced trouble in July 2011, when he was indicted by a federal grand jury of wire fraud, computer fraud and other charges related to allegedly stealing millions of academic articles and journals from a digital archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

According to the federal indictment, Swartz - who was a fellow at Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics - used MIT's computer networks to steal more than 4 million articles from JSTOR, an online archive and journal distribution service.

JSTOR did not press charges against Swartz after the digitized copies of the articles were returned, according to media reports at the time.

Swartz, who pleaded not guilty to all counts, faced 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted. He was released on bond. His trial was scheduled to start later this year.

On Saturday, online tributes to Swartz flooded across cyberspace.

"Aaron had an unbeatable combination of political insight, technical skill and intelligence about people and issues," Doctorow, co-editor of the weblog Boing Boing, wrote on the site.

Doctorow wrote that Swartz had "problems with depression for many years."

Swartz also played a role in building the news-sharing website Reddit, but left the company after it was acquired by Wired magazine owner Conde Nast. Recalling that time of his life, Swartz described his struggles with dark feelings.

In an online account of his life and work, Swartz said he became "miserable" after going to work at the San Francisco offices of Wired after Reddit was acquired.

"I took a long Christmas vacation," he wrote. "I got sick. I thought of suicide. I ran from the police. And when I got back on Monday morning, I was asked to resign."

Swartz also had been a fellow at a Harvard University research lab on institutional corruption, according to his website.

Tim Berners-Lee, who is credited as the most important figure in the creation of the World Wide Web, commemorated Swartz in a Twitter post on Saturday.

"Aaron dead," he wrote. "World wanderers, we have lost a wise elder. Hackers for right, we are one down. Parents all, we have lost a child. Let us weep."

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Doina Chiacu and Philip Barbara)

Via Yahoo News

Read More

Getting Best Seo Professional Within Budget

To the recent years most of the companies are having their online presence in order to reach global customers. But it is not enough to have a stunning and fully functional site, perfect promotion is equally important to earn a success.

SEO, the popular acronym of Search Engine Optimization is the most popular practice for promoting a website on the web. This is in fact a chain of processes which include various on page and off page optimization strategies. The process not only enhances site popularity but also causes the rate of sales to increase.

Now, in order to take your website to the top of the popular search engine result it is essential to perform expert SEO and quite evidently which is accepted as the White Hat SEO. It is said that India is the best place to Outsource SEO as the talent pool is available here at the very affordable cost.

The best part is most of the well established companies provide SEO service all across the globe and so you dont have to be in India to outsource the SEO service. However, even if you are hiring Indian SEO Company, choosing the right professional is very important for any online business success. As the SEO companies are just mushrooming around it is advisable that you evaluate actual status of the companies and their level of potential in order to find the most out of your expense.

There are quite a number of companies that claim to provide with guaranteed result within a certain period of time, which is not really that easy to commit especially in White Hat SEO practice. Therefore you need to get well aware of the fact that you are going to pay for ethical SEO to get a sustainable outcome. It is always wise to ask for the references and list of client website to take a look at the level of experience and rate of success of the company you are about to hire. You should also check with the page rank or PR of the service providers website.

This is quite evident that they will optimize their own website first in order to reflect their potential. In case you are planning to get your web presence developed from the scratch you can look for the companies offering website design, development and promotional services under the single roof. Search Engine Optimization Companies normally come up with a web development set up as the processes are all interrelated. So, no matter if you want to develop your new website or just want to revamp the existing one, the complete support services are all available to the Search Engine Optimization companies.

Besides all these you must find that the professionals you are about to hire are patient enough to listen to your specific requirements and communicate in a responsive manner. If not, you have thousand options waiting at your mouse tip! Service cost is one of the most vital factors that you will evidently consider over being in a limited budget. However, here you must keep the fact in mind that the word cheap seldom goes along with quality. So, it is advisable that you make your search carefully keeping all the requirements in mind to find the best SEO Company within your affordability.

About the Author:

Steven Brown is a professional internet marketer. To get the Indian seo company, social media marketing or search engine optimization visit seomantra.net.

Read More

Adsense Click Fraud

Click fraud occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating an improper charge per click. Click fraud is the subject of some controversy and increasing litigation due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud whether they like it or not.

Use of a computer to commit this type of internet fraud is a felony in many jurisdictions, for example as covered by Penal code 502 in California and the Computer Misuse Act 1990 in the United Kingdom. There have been arrests relating to click fraud with regard to malicious clicking in order to deplete a competitor's advertising budget.

In 2004, a California man created a software program that he claimed could let spammers defraud Google out of millions of dollars in fraudulent clicks. Authorities said he was arrested while trying to blackmail Google for $150,000 to hand over the program. - Wikipedia

Types of Click Fraud

1. Basic clicker cheat - This is a noob. This guy knows almost nothing about web technology or network architecture. He clicks on his ads every time he has chance. It can be a few clicks to hundreds of clicks daily. Most likely he doesn't even read the AdSense Program Policies and Terms and Conditions.

2. Proxy clicker cheat - She knows a thing or two about cookies and IP address. Or she doesn't know, but somehow guessed that if she use the things called anonymizer, Google will not be able to trace her, because her identity is hidden.

3. Multiple computer clicker cheat - He knows that somehow Google will detect if the clicks are originated from his own computer. So he will try to even out origin of the clicks. He will recruit his friends, family members, relatives, neighbors, his cats, and his dogs on single mission: to click on the ads. He will also click on the AdSense ads when he is using the library computers, or his office workstation.

4. Software clicker cheat Graduate to the next step is buyers of clickbots / click-bots. These are specialized robot software to click on AdSense ads. It will browse around your websites, clicking on the ads every few minutes. The more advanced ones will cloak the IP address too, so the website seems to be very popular worldwide. To cover the track, this clickbots will browse around the advertisers sites too while continuing its "click quest".

5. Paid-clickers cheat - If you don't like automated things, there is always other option for you. Just pay $50 dollars a month to the professional AdSense clickers. These are groups of highly specialized Internet surfers with office in the dark rooms in street corners of India, Pakistan, and China, helping AdSense account owner to earn good amounts of money - before the AdSense account is disabled, that is. They will browse around your websites, clicking on the ads every few minutes. Because they use human eyes, they know which ads worth more. And to be more convincing they can click a link or two, or sign up free offers / newsletters on the advertiser sites.

6. Click-rings cheat - Network is power. So says many business gurus. Instead of taking things into their own hands, these people realize that they can join hands with those with similar goals and distribute AdSense clicks among themselves, the so called AdSense click-rings. Joining this click-ring network means that your website address will be made known to members, who will regularly browse the website and click on your AdSense ads. In exchange, you will also browse other members' sites and click on their AdSense ads. The medium used varies. Some click-ring groups use mail-list for communications. Some are using bulletin boards/forum, Yahoo groups, or Usenet. IRC is another popular way. Slightly more complicated is specialized AdSense exchange software for collecting members website address and displaying others' websites for clicking.

7. Other medium cheat - I have tens of thousands email address on my newsletter subscriber list. If I include AdSense ads on my newsletters, with 5% CTR, I can get a thousand clicks per one email. Not bad. Or I can pay someone to write some useful/nice/funny/cute toolbars or firefox extensions or screensavers that people can download and use for free, and display my AdSense ads there.

8. Visitor cheat - Simply putting "Visit our sponsors" or "Check out the ads above" on your website is cheating. This might not be very clear-cut cheat to some. But Google AdSense program policies has stated clearly, the only text allowed are "Advertisements" or "Sponsored List"

9. Spam cheat - This is the highest level all click-frauds, the Maestro of Fraudsters. She spams millions of emails regularly, offering to "satisfy your inner needs if you can help me check on the links on my website". Of course, email is not the only way. What IRC and instant messaging (IM) are for, after all. She will look for unsuspecting victims, offering something too-good-to-be-true "if only they will visit the website and click on the links".

10. Click-through-rate cheat - Whichever method(s) above used, there is one limiting condition: the CTR(click-though-rate). Any CTR that exceeds certain percentage (probably around 10%) will raise red flag in Google AdSense back room. To lower the CTR, the professional cheaters will create some pages on the same domain that attracts very high traffic. Some interesting freebies will sure do the tricks. AdSense code is pasted there, thus creating a very high page impressions. Whether or not the the ads are clicked does not matter anyway, because they are targeting low paying keyword that does not have much competition. The fake clicks are, of course, on where the big money is, the low traffic pages stuffed with high-paying keywords. 

Why You Shouldn't Cheat AdSense

If you applied for AdSense account with intention to cheat and earn fast bucks, I hope by now you have understood that you shouldn't.

Why? You say. Google is so rich, losing some pennies won't hurt.

Well. Probably. But when I say you shouldn't, trust me. You really shouldn't. These are just some reasons...

1. You can't cheat Google

Every once in while, someone will comes out with ingenious idea of how to get more money from AdSense in less than honorable ways. He will announce to the whole world, posting in every forum and tell people how smart he is. His idea is always untraceable by Google, it is always original, and it always gives easy money.

What he doesn't know is, few months after that, he will get caught by Google, always. And his AdSense account will be disabled. Always. And he is banned from ever applying for AdSense account again. Always.

Google is a giant, with 2005 revenue of almost US$ 10 billions, and profits of more than US$ 1 billion. A large chunk of this comes from Adwords / AdSense advertisements.

More click fraud means less trust, less advertisers and less money, to the extent that if unsolved it will bring collapse to pay-per-click advertisement business. Now. Do you think Google will let you jeopardize their billion dollar business model?

They have money and ability to bring together many of the the smartest and brightest engineers and scientists on earth, has been doing that and will continue to do so. How smart do you think you are that you can outsmart collaborative effort of the brightest brains?

You might be able to pull through for two or three months, but eventually the fraud detection algorithm will catch up and you are caught. And you get banned from Google AdSense, among other things.

2. Cheating is stealing

No matter how you want to justify, face it, cheating is stealing. You are not only stealing from Google, but also from Adwords publishers. Majority of these are are not big companies, but small webmasters depending on Internet to make a living.

Moreover, even if your morality (or lack thereof) permits stealing from your own fellow, bear in mind that stealing is illegal. Regardless of whether it is done offline or online, a crime is a crime. You might get jailed for that.

In fact, Google has started to bring AdSense fraudsters to court a few months ago. Some were jailed, and some others were fined heavily.

It is just too easy to earn more, legally

Let's say you managed to cheat AdSense undetected. You don't use clickbot or proxy or click-ring or paid clickers. You managed to somehow get the clicks from distributed IP. You don't use pop-ups, spyware, adware. You are careful that your CTR does not exceed 10%. Still, your earning is limited. There is a cap you can't cross, else you will invite unwanted attention to your account.

With so much effort to cover your traces, actually you will get better result if you concentrate your effort to improve the website.

Write more content, submit articles, improve on your search engine optimisation, improve adsense placement, and you can get the same earning or even more. Sure it will take some time, but this is legitimate.

Some of the methods which Google uses to determine and detect cheating Still thinking to cheat AdSense? Stop that. It will never get you anywhere. You might pull it off with smaller ads network, but definitely not with Google. Here are some detection methods they might use. At the very least, they have the resources to do so.

• IP Address - If the AdSense click is originated from the same IP Address as the one used for accessing your AdSense account, your account is flagged.
• Cookies - Most home users do not use static IP Address for Internet connection. In most cases just disconnect and reconnect will give you a new IP Address. But don't forget, Google has set cookies on your computer.
• Other Google Services - Thinking that you are safe just because you do not access your AdSense account? Think again. This time, consider these: GMail, Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Toolbar, Google Talk, Google Sitemap, Google Desktop, Blogger, and so on, and so on. With the wide range of services they provide, Google can trace the originator of most (or probably almost all) clicks.
• Click Pattern 1 - Oh, why this computer / IP address / person is so trigger-click-happy on this particular website but never click on the ads on other sites?
• Click Pattern 2 - And why is it that people accessing these sites direct (type-in URL or from bookmark) tend to be very active ad-clickers compared with those referred from search engine or other sites?
• Click Pattern 3 - And why the ad-clickers like to hit and run, compared with non ad-clickers that surf a few pages before leaving?
• Click-Through-Rate (CTR)- Your CTR may range from 0.5% to 10%, but if it exceeds a certain point (probably around 10%), you are flagged.
• Geo-Location - Used Urchin (Google Analytics) before? Then you should know that Google can trace traffics origin down to the small town. Different IP doesn't mean much. Unless you site is really targetted to one small geo-point, a high number of clicks from nearby location will get you banned quickly.
• Hardware address? - MAC address of the LAN card, modem, and router works almost like a fingerprint. I'm not sure if Google can track this, but probably they do. They have rocket scientist, remember?
• Advertisers conversion rate - Ad click is one thing. But does it bring value to the advertisers? If none of the clicks on your site translate to conversion to the advertiser, you are in trouble. First the Smart-Pricing hits, then your AdSense account disabled.
• Search Engine Ranking - Your website is not indexed on any search engine, not linked by any prominent website, but get consistently high traffic? That sounds like something is in play. Regardless of whether it is an adware-embedded software, spam, trojan clickbot, or intentionally installed click-exchange network, it doesn't sound right.
• Webpage design - How about the "click here" or "support us"? Google has the best search engine in the world. Is it really that hard to find those words?
• Combo - Each of these detection methods might seem rather weak. But combine them together, and not many click-fraud can pass-through these filters. Even the smartest clickbot will have a hard time.

Read More

Google Makes Better Adsense Banning and Appeal Process

The Google Adsense is no doubt one of the great source of revenue for the Bloggers/Publishers. In last years Google has paid 6.5 Billion Dollars to the Adsense Publishers. It always frustrates a Publisher whenever he gets hit by Adsense Ban. Now here is a good news for all the Publishers that Google has softens it’s rules to Ban the Adsense account and the appealing process by the Publishers.

I am going to highlight the points, which Google has announced in their recent Blog Post.

• Age/Tenure of Adsense Account: Now Google will consider the Account of Adsense Age. Google will only suspend the account instead of terminating, and will ask Publisher to fix the highlighted issue. Once the Issue is Fixed – Adsense will be back.
• Google has given publishers tools to submit more informative appeals via a new form, which may help resolve issues more quickly.
• Google will provide more transparency with more details on invalid activity’s causes via email and the AdSense console. If Googlle detects a violation of their policies Publsihers will receive an email and a notification to your account with further information and instructions. And Publishers can read all about the causes of invalid activity at Google’s Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center.
• Google has expended their AdSense Academy.

Google launched a new series of videos for this specific topic. This is something very good from the Google – In fact the Publishers have taken a deep breath. Lets Hope for the best in future as well.

Via pakzindabad

Read More

Track Invalid Clicks to Safeguard Adsense Account

Lately, many blogs (including us) are facing this issue of being bombarded with invalid clicks on adsense ads – with an aim to get their adsense accounts blocked.

This activity is usually carried out by your rivals or those who are not happy with your existence, call it professional jealousy, personal grudge or any other possible thing.

So here are tips to track invalid adsense clicks, to make sure you are on safe side.

Frequently Monitor of your Adsense Account

• Make sure that you are monitoring your adsense account at least once a day, 3-4 times a day is even better.
• Keep a watch on CTR (Click through rate) – to make sure it’s around your daily average
• If your CTR goes significantly high, then it’s time to start worrying and to do the necessary to make sure you are safe.

Tracking Invalid Adsense Clicks:.

If there’s an invalid click activity in your adsense account – there are chances that Google will suspend your account without asking you anything. You will be given only one chance to prove that the clicks were invalid, and didn’t originate from your computer or your friends’ computer.

Google may ask you for IP details or other logs that you may provide them in order to get your account reinstated.

We know that you have Google analytics installed but unfortunately Google Analytics doesn’t provide much details about the visitors, such as their IP addresses, exit links and so on.

So what to do in this situation?

• Register an account on statcounter.com (I am assuming you are familiar with basic setup, hence not going deep into details)
• Follow the wizard to add new project (i.e. is your website)
• Install the code on your website provided by statcounter.com – there’s an option to deploy invisible code (meaning that no counter button will be displayed)
• You are good to go…

Statcounter will instantly start tracking your website for each single incoming visitor, outgoing links, or you can call them exit links, downloads and much more.

You need to focus on exit link activity to make sure that clicks on ads are valid – and there’s nothing suspicious going on. For this, go to your statcounter account, open the project you just created and check for stats, exit link activity being most crucial of them:

As you can see, there are two google adsense clicks – that ProPakistani has got in last few minutes. We can click on magnifier to see more details, such as IP address, referrer, and more.

Check below screen for one of visitor who clicked on adsense:

If you feel that Ad clicks are suspicious, and are coming from same IP with-in short interval of time – then note down the details, taking screenshots is even better and notify Google Adsense by clicking this link: http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=invalid_clicks_contact&rd=1

Via propakistani

Read More

SNSD 2010 Korean Wave Performance Pictures

SNSD 2010 Korean Wave Performance Pictures taken on the 29th of August at the Incheon World Cup Stadium during and after the concert. Other Top Pop artist performers groups were also on the concert stadium like BoA, Se7en, Taeyang, KARA, Supernova, Super Junior, 2PM, SNSD, SG Wannabe, SHINee, U-Kiss, CNBLUE, MBLAQ, BEAST, Son Dambi, and After School. The concert was hosted by the team of Oh Sang Jin, plus Yuri and Tiffany from SNSD.

Read More

South Korea Invaded by Kpop Groups

South Korea has been invaded, not by it’s neighbor from the North, but from troops of long-legged girls in the guise of carefully manufactured Kpop groups. The small peninsula of around 50 million people has seen an explosion of Kpop girl groups in the past year who all pretty much look and sound alike (arguably) but somehow manage to maintain popularity among a shared fan base. While it might be easy to dismiss this as eye-candy for teenage boys (of which there is some truth) they appear to have considerable staying power among a diverse demographic of both men and women -

In the past, one or two similar bands won fans and massive popularity, while the rest disappeared quietly after a month or two. What we are experiencing is a brand new phenomenon in which several girl bands are sharing fans and popularity among themselves – Kim Hong-in

What differentiates this new generation of starlets is their ability to cross multiple mediums such as TV dramas, movies and talk shows in addition to their musical endeavors, possibly accounting for their increased longevity and ability to dominate online as well as offline. Digital downloads have brought in a new era of affordability for casual and fanatical fans alike.

Of course behind all the glamor are entertainment conglomerates with money to burn and who work tirelessly to tweak and perfect each groups image (including the copious use of cosmetic surgery). Most groups spend as much as 2-4 years preparing for their debut and with such demanding schedules nearly all have suffered casualties from fatigue and ill health. Whilst their compexions may be perfect accusations of plagiarism are rife within the industry with lawsuits regularly being filed and many questioning the originality of locally produced content (mostly bubblegum pop).

Whatever the reasons for this uprising it’ll be interesting to see if such a large number of groups can be sustained in a relatively small market and if this trend spreads elsewhere.

To see what it’s all about for yourself videos are provided after the break in HD (apologies to Chinese readers – YouTube is blocked so you wont be able to see them directly). You can also find more info on allkpop.com.

Wonder Girls

Wonder Girls (원더걸스) is a band with five members (Min Sun Ye, Park Ye Eun, Kim Yoo Bin, Sun Mi and Ahn So Hee), formed under the guidance of male R&B singer Rain. They are signed to South Korean label JYP Entertainment and debuted in the beginning of 2007 on M! Countdown, singing Irony, the title song of their debut album, “The Wonder Begins”.

Girls’ Generation

Girls’ Generation (소녀시대), also known as SNSD, the acronym of So Nyeo Shi Dae is a large nine member girl group formed in 2007 by SM Entertainment. The group debuted on SBS Inkigayo in 2007, performing their first single, “Into the New World”. The members are Yoon A, Tiffany, Yu Ri, Hyo Yeon, Soo Young, Seo Hyun, Tae Yeon, Jessica, and Sunny. Some members speak multiple languages as they were raised outside Korea.

2NE1

2NE1 (투애니원; pronounced “to anyone” or “twenty-one”) was created by YG Entertainment. First appearing in a Cyon commercial campaign with Big Bang for LG Telecom, their debut single “Fire” was released on May 6, 2009. The group’s name stands for “New Evolution of the 21st Century”. The group consists of Lee Chae Rin (CL), Park Bom (Bom), Sandara Park (Dara) and Gong Min-ji (Minzi).

4minute

Consisting of Ji Hyun, Ga Yoon, Ji Yoon, Hyun A, and So Hyun 4minute (포미닛) was created by Cube Entertainment. Their debut song, “Hot Issue”, was released on June 15. Their style is called “The Candy Funky Style” which apparently mean their music, fashion, and performance will “show sides of sweetness and funk while being rebellious and carefree at the same time” (try saying that out loud with a straight face).

KARA

Kara (카라) debuted in March 2007 under Daesung Entertainment (DSP). Kara comes from the Greek word “chara” (χαρά, lit. “joy”), which the group interpreted to mean “sweet melody”. After losing a member in 2008, Kara regrouped to become a 5-member band and eventually achieved their first #1 song with “Honey”.

After School

After School (애프터스쿨) is managed by Pledis Entertainment and debuted on January 17, 2009 with their first dance song, “Ah”. They were also recently featured in a digitally released single titled “AMOLED” for a new Anycall Phone (Amoled Haptic) with Son Dam Bi whom is part of the same entertainment company.

For even more check out f(x), and Brown Eyed Girls. Via randomwire

Read More

K-pop girl idols draw young Japanese with Net blitz

Thanks to the Internet and an early fascination with South Korea’s boy bands, young Japanese girls and women are shifting in droves to the latest pop idol sensation—Korean girl groups.

Rio Nagasaki, a 15-year-old junior high school student, is among a growing number of fans smitten by South Korean pop music—dubbed ‘‘K-pop’’—performed by artists of about her own age.

‘‘I learned about KARA a year ago before their debut via the Net,’’ she said, referring to the all-girl five-member group that is so far the most visible K-pop girl group in Japan.

‘‘They are very cute and dance well, and I like the fact that they are not that familiar with the Japanese language,’’ said Nagasaki after making a purchase from one of the stores selling K-pop goods in Tokyo’s Okubo district, which has become a focal point for K-pop fans.

Barely a minute’s walk from JR Shin-Okubo Station are several shops selling K-pop paraphernalia such as notebooks, mugs and accessories that shoppers flock to.

Lee Keun Hang, chief of Hanryu Hyakatten (Korean Department Store), said, ‘‘Customers have grown threefold now from last year, and almost 100% of our customers are female.’‘

‘‘Female fans in their 30s and above are already customers because of their love for South Korean dramas and boy bands, but recently I’m seeing more and more teenagers and those in their 20s coming here,’’ Lee said, noting that for avid fans visiting the Okubo district is like experiencing a ‘‘little South Korea.’‘

Masayuki Furuya, a radio DJ, journalist, and TV celebrity who is an expert on Korean pop culture, explained that the boom in K-pop girl groups stems from two factors—the captured fan base of popular South Korean boy bands and the accessibility of information via the Internet, especially the YouTube video-sharing site.

‘‘What happened was when fans of boy bands such as TVXQ and BIGBANG were searching the Internet in 2009, there was so much information about K-pop girl groups, which were becoming increasingly popular, and as they learned more about K-pop they discovered the charm of these girl groups,’’ Furuya said.

As if to illustrate his point, two women in their 20s, who were shopping for Girls’ Generation items, said they were fans of the five-member TVXQ, popularly known in Japan as Toho Shinki, and this had ‘‘extended’’ to their fascination with the nine-member Girls’ Generation.

Furuya also pointed to the crucial role of YouTube, where the artists’ official music videos or songs have been made accessible for promotion, a far cry from the situation several years ago.

Realizing the potential of this industry, the South Korean government has thrown its full support behind its K-pop artists and Korean TV drama actors, and now their celebrities and the products they endorse are well-known in China, Vietnam, and Thailand, said the Japanese trade and industry’s June report, which noted the tough competition Japan now has with South Korea in terms of capturing the Asian market for pop culture.

According to Furuya, Japanese girls are attracted to K-pop female idols as there is currently no real Japanese idol to look up to, unlike in the 1990s with the likes of pop sensation Namie Amuro, and these idols have perfect bodies, can sing and dance, and perform songs that have catchy lyrics and can be sung easily in karaoke sessions.

According to the Korea Creative Content Agency Japan Office, exports of broadcasting content from South Korea in 2009 amounted to $183.59 million, up 1.9% from 2008. The main market is Asia, with Japan accounting for more than 60% of it.

Exports of music alone, based on the agency’s latest figures, were worth $16.50 million in fiscal 2008, of which the Japanese market accounted for 68%. The agency predicts the fiscal 2009 figures will higher due to the surge of K-pop girls’ groups around that time.

Since last summer, KARA and Girls’ Generation have made forays into the Japanese market. Their singles have ranked in Japan’s Oricon music charts, their concerts were jam-packed, and they are being featured in fashion magazines and on TV. While some of the members can speak Japanese, some fans said that when it comes to performing they prefer to listen to them sing in their native tongue.

Miho Matsumoto, a 31-year-old resident of Shizuoka Prefecture, said she prefers to listen to the Girls Generation’s original version of ‘‘Gee,’’ their debut single in Japan.

‘‘Korean songs have melodies that are not in Japanese songs, and when they sing it there’s already so much emotion in it, so I prefer them singing in Korean,’’ said Matsumoto, whose love of K-pop and all things Korean has made her take up studying the language.

Cha Yu Jin, one of the managers of KoreaPlaza, which has a vast collection of original and Japanese versions of K-pop songs, said that a great percentage of the original CDs have been sold.

But whether this phenomenon will grow to embrace the whole of Japan remains is to be seen.

‘‘In terms of music sales, the K-pop girl groups and boy bands are doing well, but on the other hand their popularity is more concentrated in one area, mostly in the metropolis and big cities, and this has yet to gather steam in the rural areas,’’ Furuya said.

Via dkpopnews

Read More

Earning Hands Free Income with AdSense

Google Adsense is the most tried, true and sturdy form of website monetization on the internet. Even if your website is already monetized through other methods like affiliate programs, PPS, banner and text ads, there is still room for Adsense. There are some internet entrepreneurs who have figured out how to use Adsense as their sole source of full time income.

If you approach it correctly, anybody can realize that goal. Here are a few ways that you can utilize Adsense to help you achieve your financial goals as well as gaining a real understanding of the ins and outs of the program.

In order for relevant ads to appear on your site you must take a few things into consideration. So how do you get relevant ads. All you have to do is write tightly themed content that relates to your keywords. When you think about how AdSense works you’ll understand how easy it is to get relevant ads to appear; Google uses a sophisticated program to read your content and they place ads on your page that is relevant to your content.

When you have the right content with the appropriate keywords, you’ll obviously start getting ads that are more targeted. If your content is good then your readers will want to read other pages of your site. So everything connects and falls in place when your site has content that is good not only for the search engines, but also for your human visitors.

Keep adding fresh, relevant content to your website so that you can have more pages where you can add AdSense. Google likes to see fresh and unique content on sites when it crawls them for page ranking purposes as well, so use this as just another reason to keep your site consistently updated. You can add this content based on a new keyword variation or an extension of the main keyword. So you can have the content based on your main keyword on the homepage and all the other pages can have content based on related keywords. The more content you have on your site, the higher will be the number of ads being displayed on your site. And the more ads you run, the higher will be your income. It is all about using your existing knowledge and some common sense to build your income every day.

Also, never just concentrate on Adsense as your only means of income. This is important because you never know when Google could ban you or your ads quit showing on your page. If you have other ways to make money, instances like that won’t matter very much. Just keep in mind that Adsense isn’t the only way to monetize your site, as you can sell affiliate products, put text link ads up or even banner ads for extra income streams. You must take some calculated risks, but you need to make sure your income remains the same.

In conclusion, before you jump into Google AdSense, keep in mind that it will take some time before you see results. But keep your motivation high and don’t think like that. Just do a little bit at a time and once you start seeing income, keep doing what you’re doing so that the money flow will only increase. Eventually, what matters is how much you’re making at the end of the day, and with AdSense this figure will only increase with time.

Read More

Safeguarding Your Adsense Account

Google AdSense is one of the easiest and the most effective ways to monetize your website or blog. One reason so many people go with Adsense is simply because of they know the source and feel confident about using it. As you know, you simply must have a decent to great amount of traffic visiting your site.

Do be aware that Google is probably the strictest company on the planet, and you will suffer account deletion if you try to game their system. It is understandable that you should be interested to know the landscape and rules so your account stays open.

The Internet is filled with sites that have one sole purpose – get clicks on the AdSense ads. Made for Adsense sites can be smartly made so they do not really look like MFA sites; however, many of them do look pretty crappy. So if Google finds out about an MFA site, then it is de-indexed rather quickly because they tend to provide no real value. Making a serious go at Adsense will require you to be willing to be patient and put in a lot of effort to see it through. Really, the only way you will be successful is if you treat it like a real business.

Keep things relevant at all times and not just with Google because when you think about this it really is all about being targeted. They want your website to be updated with the most relevant content that is not deceiving in the least and provides highly valuable information to the visitors. This will ensure that the ads that are displayed are relevant, which will automatically increase your ad’s click through rate and give you high returns. You really do need to take care that you do not overdo it with ad blocks. Simply create your site with a reasonable amount of content before you try to run Adsense ads.

The one particular metric you always need to track is your click through rate, or CTR. There is an average CTR which is between one and five percent, and if it exceeds that then you need to investigate. We mention this because if all of a sudden it is very high, then that means someone, somewhere, is clicking too much on your ads. You simply just want to protect your business, and that is why this is a concern you need to address. If you want to succeed with Google AdSense, then, it’s important to pay attention to many different issues to protect your account.

Marketers who achieve the best results with AdSense are those who have figured out that the best strategy is to work with Google and not against it, and who learn how to get the most lucrative ads on their sites rather than trying to cheat in some way. As long as you’re aware of Google’s rules and policies, you shouldn’t have any problems keeping your AdSense account in good standing.

Read More

Writing Effective SEO Copy

SEO copywriting can be viewed as one of those skills that can take your website higher in the search engines. We want to discuss this more and offer some helpful tips so you can see better rankings.

How does a writer produce good SEO copywriting? The reason why many people fail at creating effective SEO copy is because they don’t focus on the content and rather look at other factors. You need to have content that is compelling and good so your readers will actually want to continue reading the material. The life blood of search engines is user satisfaction, so they really only want to rank content that is of good quality and useful. If you provide the highest quality content, then some websites may want to link to you on their own. Your website must either have something extremely interesting, funny, or otherwise very informative for this to happen, though.

The truth about that is it’s a bit rare and not the way to go when it comes to getting backlinks. Apart from that, when you’re creating your content, make sure that you use keyword variations so that you don’t end up keyword stuffing. Ok, when you find yourself really needing to repeat a keyword too many times, then just the appropriate synonym for it – no problem. Keywords used with too much frequency can look like keyword stuffing and you could get penalized by Google and others. Using appropriate and relevant keywords becomes a totally new picture with the search engines, and it is looked upon favorably. Then you’re talking about LSI, or Latent Semantic Indexing, and then it’s all well and good with Google. So this all has to do with the degree of relatedness of the various words on your site relative to the main keywords you’re optimized for, etc.

Another SEO copywriting tip that you can take home is the use of bullet points in your content to make it more organized, readable and above all, appealing. Be sure to list your bullet points and make them short and to the point. It also adds a lot of white space to the page, making the content more scannable. The net result is your readers will understand pretty fast what the most important items are in your article, or copy. Is there an SEO benefit here? Search engines view bullet points positively when ranking pages, which means using them would definitely help you boost your search engine ranking.

Never, but never do fluff – every word in excellent copy has a reason for being there, so never violate that principle. Of course every word of the copy must be part of your plan for that sales page, in other words – it must be relevant. The readers of your copy appreciate relevant information as much as the search engines. That has nothing to do with the quantity of your copy, in fact that consideration should never enter your mind. It’s not hard to write with enough quality and still hit your target for length. The length can vary with the situation, but a good rule of thumb is to aim for roughly 400 words. However, this is subjective and really it is your call. For example, if you’re trying to explain something that’s taking you more than 1,000 words, then by all means keep it that way. Just like with keywords, don’t pad your writing just because maybe it looks more impressive, etc.

Just try to provide good information and help for your readers, and that just usually works out best. Always continue your learning and build on what you’ve read today. But do keep in mind that you should never stuff your keywords anywhere, Google is heavy on that one. Keep moving forward and improving your SEO copywriting skills and you’ll be fine.

Read More

Marian Rivera's 2013 Sexiest

Filipina actress and commercial model Marian Rivera heats up the cover page of one of the famous men’s magazine FHM Philippines for the month of January 2013 issue.

The 28-year-old ‘Marimar’ and ‘Darna’ star covers the magazine for the first time and became the FHM Philippines 150th issue cover babe.

According to Marian Rivera, "Siguro it's time na rin na may bago akong i-offer sa mga nagmamahal sa akin na matagal na nilang hinihiling.”

Read More