PALM BEACH, FL – Most of the dust has now settled, but back in late June/early July of this year, restaurant ordering service GrubHub, found itself boiling in hot water when a domain name strategy of building ‘micro-sites’ or 'landing pages', using what you could call, confusingly similar domain names of its customers, was called out in media headlines far and wide across the Internet. Grubhub Inc. GRUB (NYSE) is a Chicago-based online and/or mobile food ordering service … [Read more...]
Businesses With 15+ Employees on Hook for ADA Compliance, Growing Lawsuit Trend
PALM BEACH, FL – If your business employs more than 15 people, it might be a good time to ensure your website complies with the rules required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These standards state that all electronic and information technology must be accessible to people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. Over the past few years, thousands of lawsuits have been filed against websites for … [Read more...]
Edmonton Police Seize Three Canadian Domain Names from Fake Job Scam
PALM BEACH, FL – Three more domain names have vanished from the Internet due to a fake job scam; something frequently being used to steal money from unsuspecting victims. According to Canadian Yahoo News, Edmonton police have seized three Internet domains as part of an investigation involving fake job ads posted on the employment site Indeed.com. Police say the scam has cost victims over $240k. Visitors of the Canadian sites (which were not disclosed) are now … [Read more...]
Savvy Business Owners Know That Great Domain Names Can Grow Your Business
PALM BEACH, FL – I enjoy seeing great use-cases for domain name acquisitions where an end user recognizes the power of a great domain name and how they can help you grow your business. There has never been as much noise and competition to break-through on the Internet than there is right now, and a great domain name can be the ‘differentiator’ in how you stand out in a sea of consumer choice. For example, in reviewing the DNJournal.com year-to-date sales list, you’ll find … [Read more...]
German Police Raid Hosting Facility Dubbed “CyberBunker”; Seize Domains, 200 Servers
BERLIN – Thirteen people were arresting during a raid in Germany on September 27, 2019. According to Brian Krebs, a security journalist and investigative reporter for Krebs on Security, the raid targeted the physical premises of a Dark Web hosting operation that described itself as a “bulletproof” hosting provider that was willing to provide web site hosting services to any business, no matter how illegal or unsavory. This past Friday, 600 military equipped officers … [Read more...]
22 Year Old Adult Domain “Orgasms.com” Sells for $19,000 on Flippa Marketplace
PALM BEACH, FL – Someone just ‘scored’ an easy entry point into the adult webmaster business with the acquisition of premium adult domain name Orgasms.com for $19,000 when it sold on Sunday, September 29, 2019. The domain name Orgasms.com shows a 'best-guess estimate' of $143,000 US on domain appraisal site Estibot.com. The domain name was listed for sale with a description including: Here is your chance to own the ULTRA premium adult domain name: Orgasms.com! The … [Read more...]
Own a Patent? Your Web Address and Site May Need to Reflect It Properly to Protect It
PALM BEACH, FL – I’ve registered a few trademarks before, but I have never registered an actual patent; they are much more complicated, and unlike “phrases”, “symbols”, or “words”, which can easily be trademarked and filed online for a few hundred dollars, a patent is an “invention”, “method” or “process” (think Google’s algorithm) and there is a ton more paperwork involved including diagrams of how the patent works and functions clearly detailing its uniqueness. There are … [Read more...]
Top 10 Ways to Market Your Small Business Online; Do-It-Yourself Marketing Strategies
WEST PALM BEACH - Every once in a while I'll come out with a list of goodies for those who look for website owner tips. Below is a list of these including the top ten best and/or most popular ways (in my opinion) to market your small business on the Internet including both do-it-yourself strategies and for those which aren't, reasons why you might be better off hiring a fully managed solution provider or Internet marketing company to do it for you. Some of these ideas you … [Read more...]
Search Optimization or Sponsored Search, Which One Is Better for My Business?
NEW YORK, NY – Whether a company embarks on typical optimization processes or just gives in and goes straight for Google’s recently re-branded “Google Ads” program is probably a question best answered only by someone who has been watching both of them evolve over the years, because both of them do work, and both can be used to grow your business exponentially, but figuring out which one works better or which will cost more is something the average business owner just has no … [Read more...]
What Is Web Site Hosting and Why Do I Need It? Seems Like A Monthly Rip Off
NEW YORK – Once in a while I come across a person, customer or prospect that doesn’t understand what website hosting is and why they might have to pay for it. They seem to feel that hosting is some unknown, unexplained add-on which seems confusing at best or a rip-off at worst. The particular people seem to think a website just 'exists' out there on the Inter-webs or are somehow part of the World Wide Web; they have trouble understanding what website hosting is and why … [Read more...]
Today’s ‘Successful’ Business Owners Become Experts at Doing More with Less
NEW YORK, NY – At a time when the economy is said to be continually improving, if you ask around to fellow business owners, most seem to be in a never ending phase of finding ways to efficiently cut costs and reduce expenses. In fact, this is a good practice for any business owner to keep top-of-mind, annually, or even monthly. To do this effectively, you must identify ways to implement change with minimal effect on production, products and service quality. The changes … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurial Inspiration: Jeff Bezos, Amazon and Earth’s “Blue Origin”
NEW YORK, NY - Jeff Bezos, the guy who built and envisioned Amazon, the largest and most successful online only shopping site, isn’t much different than your average entrepreneur. He was raised in Houston Texas, is a child of divorce, was later adopted, worked at McDonald's as a young boy and went on to attend Princeton University where he graduated with a 4.2 grade point average. He is very much human - and - certainly a hard worker. Bezos held several good jobs after … [Read more...]
ICA Lays Ground for Compelling Argument Even the Most Bias of Opinion Cannot Deny
NEW YORK, NY – Two things happened on November 1, 2018, when the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it would renew its Cooperative Agreement with Verisign while removing price caps on fees it charges registries: Verisign’s stock (VRSN) shot up $25 per share in a single day (then levelling off at still a healthy gain), Verisign came out blasting domain industry participants, calling them “Domain Scalpers” near suggesting that … [Read more...]
Domain Name ‘Bill of Rights’ Proposed by Global Domain Name Registrar Uniregistry
NEW YORK, NY – This past week, the man who virtually created the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, spoke about his “Contract for the Web” initiative; something he believes is fundamental to ensure a protected, free and open Internet for all of society. Early backers of the initiative, which can be viewed at ContractForTheWeb.org, include notable support from some of the webs largest innovators such as Google.com, Facebook.com, Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist.org), the W3C … [Read more...]
Human Quality Ratings and Guidelines Continue to Become Center of Debate
NEW YORK, NY – It’s nothing short of amazing to see all of the time, money, resources and effort search giant Google engineers are putting towards accessing the trustworthiness of specific web-pages these days. I remember when the entire Google algorithm was simply based on the HTML code which made up a website. However, these days Google uses not only artificial intelligence to rank sites, but they also use 'real people' to give websites something called “QR” ratings … [Read more...]
Alphabet Releases App to Prevent DNS Manipulation, Deter Online Censorship
NEW YORK, - Google’s Alphabet has released a new Android app called “Intra” which prevents “DNS manipulation”, a process used often by ISPs to redirect invalid domain name resolution to their own version of branded search results, usually accompanied by search engine ads – when used nefariously, it is also a tactic of hackers who steal and redirect users to phishing sites or to otherwise dupe them into downloading viruses and spyware. The app is made available by a company … [Read more...]
Google Trends: Past Five Years in Review
NEW YORK, NY - Google Trends is a tool provided by Google which allows you to review what words, phrases and terms are trending and measure their popularity based on what people are searching for on Google.com. Users can sort and review search history based on region, dates and time periods as well as view top lists within certain categories of content types. Below is a list of what keyword and keyword phrases were trending for the past five years from 2017 to 2013. These … [Read more...]
Yellow Pages Goes Green® Offers Annual Scholarship to High School Seniors Pursuing Environmental Careers
EAST NORTHPORT, NEW YORK - YellowPagesGoesGreen.org (“YPGG”), a telephone directory at the forefront of the environmentally-conscious “Green” movement, has announced that beginning in 2019, the company will be offering a $1,500 College scholarship annually to a distinguished graduating high school senior whose career path is slated to take them into any fields related to environmental science or preservation. The goal of this scholarship, which will be awarded to at least … [Read more...]
Ebay.com to Begin Collecting Internet Sales Taxes Regardless of Physical Presence
NEW YORK, NY - Back in June of this year, the US Supreme Court made a ruling on Internet sales tax that overturned the long-standing physical presence requirement which prevented sales tax to be collected from certain online sellers. This change means that regardless of where you’re physically located, if you sell to buyers in certain states, those states may require you to collect applicable taxes on your transactions. For Ebay.com sellers, the service will begin to … [Read more...]
UK Print Yellow Pages to Cease in 2009; Are US Based Yellow Pages Soon To Follow?
NEW YORK, NY – Yell, publisher of the UK’s Yellow Pages, announced that, due to consumer demand and general lack of need or use, they will cease production of their print phone books as of January 2019 after annually releasing them for over 50 years. The shift in business strategy, Yell officials said, is due to a corresponding shift in consumer use of online phone directory options over print, as well as a growing concern among the general populace over the negative … [Read more...]
The Slow Yet Sure Death of LinkedIn: LinkedIn Lead Generation Programs
NEW YORK, NY - A few weeks ago I elaborated on what I believe will lead to the demise of LinkedIn.com as a business related service and as a social network. Today, as well as over the last few days, I received several reminders about this coming collapse; one of which I will detail and share with you below. See Related: Writing on the Wall: LinkedIn to Become Haven for Spam, Scams and Solicitations It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where all of this is … [Read more...]
27 Ways to Increase Website Traffic in 2018
NEW YORK, NY - I remember when Internet marketing was easy. Back then, it did not take 27 things, it took more like three. For me, it was all about: Knowing who I was trying to reach by doing some initial keyword research, then Optimize my web site for particular keywords and phrases my research showed traffic for, and Find links to point to my site including related keywords and keyword phrases in the anchor text of the links. Basically, I could do those three … [Read more...]
