Brad Callen recently released a new tool for pay per click marketers called “PPC Web Spy.” PPC Web Spy, in a nutshell, is a Firefox extension that allows you to actually view the keywords of your Google AdWords competitors.
There are a few different versions of the tool. I personally purchased the version that allows you to view 100 keywords upon selecting an ad. Other versions allow 50 keywords, or 10 keywords. The tool also has the ability to automatically generate related keywords using Google’s own External Keyword Tool.
The PPC Web Spy tool also allows you to view the destination URL of your competitor’s ads, which in effect lets you see the landing page they are promoting without actually clicking the ad and costing them money. Brad Callen has always been known as a fantastic marketer who develops great software tools, yet always keeps it very “ethical.”
The tool also has a feature which will let you generate keywords based on the contents of the landing page itself.
The tool is free at the entry level which gives you most of the functionality described above and allows you to view up to 10 keywords per ad. There are options to upgrade and even brand the tool, which allows you to place your own affiliate links above all else on searches done by your referrals. I personally took the platinum option for the branding purposes alone I thought I’d make my money back and then some by just sharing it as the valuable tool that it is…
Check it out yourself and grab a copy – at least get the free version, it’s fantastic:
WordPress has an iPhone app that’s been available in the app store for quite some time.
I’ve only recently begun using the app more regularly and have to say it’s quite handy.
If you have a WordPress blog it’s great just for the simple task of managing visitor comments if nothing else.
The app also has the ability to add and edit posts and pages. If you have an iPad or iPhone and want to have another convenient way to stay on top of your blog or blogs (there is support for multiple WordPress blogs / accounts) this is a convenient tool I highly recommend.
I actually created this post using my iPhone!
There’s a nice feature for adding photos as well.
Here’s a link to the WordPress page with more information:
I’m putting the finishing touches on a free squeeze page creation tool that’s going to become a standard resource for all PFG Insiders. By the time the overhaul of the site is finished, this nifty little tool should be ready to meet the world.
I’ve already made several squeeze pages using this tool and this tool alone and I have to say it makes squeeze page building so simple I don’t think I’ll ever want to build a squeeze page again without using this thing!
I’ll post an update when it’s ready to unveil.
Aside from that, I’m working on lots of other similar tools & resources that will soon be incorporated into the new member’s area.
Stay tuned for details and watch for updates.
The new discussion forums are going to be a nice addition to the site as well. They’re also undergoing their finishing touches…
I’m expanding my business services on all fronts and in addition to dabbling with copywriting, web design, and SEO – SEM (Search Engine Optimization – Search Engine Marketing) projects for a tiny handful of clients I’ve decided to offer more in-depth services to a wider range of potential customers.
You see, before I only worked with known clients on a case by case basis depending what I had going on with my own projects. At this point, however, I’ve built up a great team around me and have trained resources available to help me with SEM project management.
SO, in a nutshell – I now plan on working with a broader range of clients outside of those in my inner circle which mainly consisted of friends, people I’ve worked with in the past, and close internet marketing contacts.
For the first time ever I’ll basically do SEO, web design, and other related projects for total strangers. I’m just beginning to entertain these notions and as I get everything together and more accurately define exactly what types of services I’ll be offering, you’ll see the shape & form of this website start to change.
I plan on re-designing the site to more accurately represent available services and move the member’s area to the back burner in a way (not to suggest by any means that it’s going away, just that it will no longer be the focal point of PFG).
I hope to use PFG as a place to show the services I have to offer (SEO, web design, moving certain business processes to the “cloud,” and possibly PPC Management sometime soon) in addition to providing training and resources for internet marketers who would like to learn these skills for themselves.
Search Engine Optimization will be the main new offering as I begin to phase these new services into my business and re-vamp the information and appearance of the ProFromGo website to reflect.
Regular readers of this blog will be well aware of my spam issues. Whether it be outdated WordPress plugins, scripts or the Butterfly Marketing script problem I had, it’s really something that annoys me greatly. So I set out today to rid my blog of spam, once and for all.
This article on PR Log was a great help, but after following the relevant steps, I was still getting spam injected left, right and center into my blog. I was honestly about to abandon ship and start afresh, new blog, new posts, the whole nine yards, but then doing that just means the spammers have won. I’m not letting that happen without a good old fashioned e-fight, so I decided to look deeper.
The first step (as detailed in the aforementioned article) was to change my admin password. In fact I created an entirely new administrator account and de-activated the old one. However, what I found while I was changing it surprised me. Alot.
I wasn’t actually the only one with administrator access. In fact, there were a few of us. And furthermore, I didn’t know who the heck these people were. Needless to say they no longer play a part in my blog, but it then raised another question. If they’ve had administrator access, just what else could they have done to my blog.
So I continued to look around an after inspecting my blog’s posts (use the HTML tab) I realised there was an incredible amount of spam hidden within each post. In fact, there was more spam in each post than there was content. Naturally, this had to go, so I sat down and spent a few hours removing each and every piece of spam, manually.
After this, I decided to see what these spammers could do using the huge amount of plugins I had installed. Many of them were reputable plugins by highly respected coders in the WordPress community, but I am sure they wouldn’t have liked to see what their plugins had become. Yet more hidden and malicious code. I was really not impressed. I went through again, and downloaded the clean, latest versions and eliminated this problem.
NB: I should really mention at this point, since it slipped my mind, that before each step detailed above, I was viewing the source code of my blog as it was published, looking for hidden spam and anything else that seemed out of the ordinary.
So, where were we? Admin and Users. Check. Posts. Check. Plugins. Check. But looking at my source, I still had spam, and about 200 lines of it, all pointing to pages of a site selling comics. I won’t name the URL, because to be frank, that miscreant has had enough one way backlinking from my site for free.
Using my powers of deduction, I was fairly confident that those lines of code could only be in one of two places. Either the infiltrator had modified the WordPress source code (which would have been stupid since it runs the risk of future updates overwriting it), or they had modified my custom theme.
And surprise, surprise, the theme was exactly where it was. More specifically, 200 lines of spam in my header which the admin panel wouldn’t even let me change – it had to be done via FTP- and similarly a lengthy amount of code in the footer. The footer’s code wasn’t quite as straight forward however. What I found inside my footer was a few lines of encoded base 64 code.
Now I would love to go into much greater detail about this type of code, but you’ll have to do the groundwork yourself. My blog won’t even let me mention this sort of encoding now without throwing a hissyfit, and I certainly can’t insert it into the database. My apologies.
Fortunately Google pointed me (as it will you) in the right direction and I was able to decode the offending information to see what was what. It was then removed and touch wood, my blog is clean,at least for now.
Whether I’ve removed all back doors and malicious code I can really have no idea. All I can hope is that I’m winning my own battle against spam. The war is far from over.
This has happened to me twice. You know the old saying…
You got me once, shame on you. You got me twice, shame on me…
Well, that’s how I felt when this happened the second time because I overlooked a known security issue in the butterfly marketing script.
I thought I’d bring this to light and I hope it’s something that eventually gets removed from future iterations of the script.
Anyways – let’s get to the point shall we?
When you install the butterfly marketing script on your domain there’s a built in promotional tool called a “tell a friend” (TAF) script. In theory it’d be great if all of your members were to tell their friends about your site and thus get you some viral exponentially growing waves of traffic. However, in reality, this TAF script is going to bring you much more trouble than it’s worth.
Twice now I’ve been had by unethical members who make a living of going around to every butterfly site they can find, signing up, and then abusing the TAF script.
Here’s what these low-life scum bags do:
1. They sign up for your site.
2. They go to your tell a friend script and either pay someone in a third world country to do it, or design their own “robot” type of script to do step 3 automatically…
3. They replace your default promotional message with their own nonsense including their own affiliate link. It will likely be a promo email that has absolutely nothing to do with your site or anything you’ve ever heard of and it will break all the rules of email marketing.
4. They use YOUR TAF SCRIPT to email THOUSANDS of people by importing lists of email addresses that they scraped up off the web or purchased somewhere.
The worst part of all is that all the email headers will contain YOUR server information so when it’s time for your host to come down on you it’s ultimately going to be your fault for letting it happen.
My advice: Remove the tell a friend script from your promotional tools page on all of your butterfly sites and ALSO be sure to remove the php file that makes the script work. Otherwise, an advanced hacker/spammer can still send out their spam garbage on your behalf.
This is the file you need to remove from you butterfly script to make sure this doesn’t happen to you, I suggest making this part of your personal checklist when installing and administering new butterfly sites:
do.taf.php
This file is located in the top-level directory.
Hope this helps spare you some of the major headaches it’s caused me… twice.
I picked up a sweet tip recently that saves me a ton of time on a daily basis. Here’s a little background:
I use FireFox, Gmail, and recently decided that I hate MS Outlook. I used to use MS Outlook for everything but I totally jumped ship and now firmly believe Gmail is a far superior option. MS Outlook is clunky and not very user friendly. You can’t check MS Outlook messages when you’re out on the road. Plus, Gmail plays great with my new iPhone (which is a whole ‘nother story). Although I consider myself pretty adept at using MS Outlook (I used it for years with up to 20 different email accounts & over a hundred message rules to sort incoming mail into specific folders), I now despize it and am finding myself more & more in love with Google products, more specifically in this case – Gmail.
I’m intimately familiar with some very advanced MS Outlook features but now I just find Gmail so much more user friendly and convenient. Recently, I went on a mission to figure out a way to make Gmail work with “mailto” links on web pages. If you’re unfamiliar with a mailto link it’s basically a link on a web page that usually says something like “Contact” or “Contact Us” and when clicked, it opens an email draft pre-addressed to the appropriate email address. Unfortunately for about 70% of all internet users plagued by Windows & MS Outlook an Outlook draft message will open by default. Many of us don’t like MS Outlook so everytime we inadvertantly click one of these links we have to be bothered with the task of memorizing the email address, waiting for MS Outlook to open & run only to close it again & then go to Gmail…
I suspect by now you either know exactly what I’m talking about or you have no clue what I mean, there’s no in-between here. If you have no idea what I’m talking about don’t waste your time with the rest of this blog post because it’s not intended for you… If you’re nodding your head and screaming out loud, “Chris, just tell me how the heck do I ditch MS Outlook & use Gmail for these here ‘mailto whatchamacallits’ from now on” – then keep readin’ ) . . .
For a long time, I totally avoided clicking these links altogether and my main method of emailing people via these links was to hover over the link, observe their email address in my information bar, and then remember it & type it in a new Gmail message. Well I’ve found a much better solution that converts all of these “mailto” links into a nice one-click “Gmail compatible” option!
Here’s how it works…
(Keep in mind this is for Gmail lovers who are using Firefox…)
Step 1. Install the FireFox add-on known as “Grease Monkey.” It’s free and allows you to take advantage of many nifty scripts just like the one I’m about to reveal that lets you ditch MS Outlook for good. (I give Microsoft mad props for designing so many applications to use their software solutions by default because it’s good marketing, BUT people like options dammit!). You can get Grease Monkey for free here:
Step 2. Once you’ve got Grease Monkey you’ll now be able to take advantage of many scripts designed to “play” with Grease Monkey. One of which is the script I recommend to banish MS Outlook from annoying you ever again. This one is called “Mailto 2 Webmail” and you can get it for free here:
In order for the Mailto 2 Webmail install to work properly you’ll first need to have Grease Monkey installed. Remember, after you installed Grease Monkey you’ll have to restart FireFox in order for Grease Monkey to start operating. If you click the “Install” button on the Mailto 2 Webmail page without having first fully installed Grease Monkey you’ll see a pageful of goofy code rather than actually getting Mailto 2 Webmail installed properly.
After you’ve properly installed Grease Monkey & restarted FireFox, go to Mailto 2 Webmail and install it too. Then, restart FireFox one more time so that Mailto 2 Webmail is also functioning & installed properly.
That’s it, you should be good to go! Oh yea, if you like Yahoo Mail you can re-configure Mailto 2 Webmail to work that way as well. As of now, Mailto 2 Webmail does not support Hotmail but that might change in the future…
About 2 weeks ago I picked up the new iPhone 3GS. You know, the one all over TV right now. I don’t make a cent telling anyone to run out and buy one but I’ll say it anyways… run out and buy one! I wanted to throw together a quick post summarizing what makes this little contraption so great.
After only having it about 24 hours I recall wondering how I ever lived without it… Now that I’ve had it for about two weeks I can’t remember what it was like to have anything else. Nothing comes close.
I’ve had several smart phones… Treo’s, Blackjacks, and others. Windows mobile, Palm OS, generic operating systems – you name it I’ve probably tried it.
I feel like I’ve finally gotten through the gauntlet of bug-ridden and glitchy phones and have reached my prize at the end of the long tunnel of abuse. It’s the iPhone 3GS. And it’s fantastic, here’s 10 reasons why it’s so great along with a few direct references of how it can benefit internet marketers:
10. Email
I like being able to get my email on the go. I’m also a big Google fan (no surprise to my long time subscribers) so of course I use Gmail. The iPhone embraces “PUSH” technology which means you get your email when you want it… and with the new speed, you can get your full emails quick. When I say “full” emails I mean including any and all attachments, and of course with all embedded images appearing without a hitch. And oh yeah, speaking of speed…
9. Never Before Seen Speed On A Mobile
Browsing the internet on this phone compared to what most of us are used to is like watching a Suzuki GSX-R superbike take on an ’87 Dodge Shadow (both of which I’ve once owned at different points in my young life. In case you’re confused, the GSX-R would smoke the Shadow any day. No competition…).
8. When I Feel Like Rockin’ Out To MJ And Some “Thriller” . . . I Just Say So!
The voice control on this thing is pretty freakin’ cool. I hold it up and say “call John Smith mobile” or “call John Smith work” and it dials the right number. This is great for when you’re driving but what sets it apart from other voice controlled phones I’ve had is that you can also fire up your tunes with the voice control and even ask for specific songs, songs by a certain artist, or for an album you have in mind. “Play songs by Michael Jackson” or “Play song Thriller” or “play Michael Jackson greatest hits album” are all examples of voice commands your iPhone will understand.
7. The Camera Rocks.
No cell phone takes pictures like this. Plus, the new iPhone 3GS takes great videos too. Throw in the massive amount of available storage and you can snap photos and shoot videos until your heart’s content. There’s options to upload videos right to YouTube straight from your iPhone immediately after shooting. There’s apps in the works that will support real-time streaming too… Think “UStream” from anywhere there’s a signal… (super cool).
8. The Storage Is Worth Mentioning Twice…
You get a lot of storage space… For many people it will be far more than you’ll ever need but if you’re really into music, or possibly even watching videos and movies on your phone, you’ll have the space available to support your mutlimedia cravings. I got the 32 gb version and I literally put thousands of songs on it and still haven’t filled it up even halfway!
7. Unparalleled Web Surfing…
One of the most upsetting things about my other phones was the limited web browsing capabilities. I like checking stats on the go, logging into a membership site now and then and browsing around, you know… the usual internet marketing related stuff… With my other phones web browsing basically sucked. With this phone I can even log in to Clickbank! The way you can drag the screen and zoom in and out makes it easier than ever to get full web access in the palm of your hand.
Let me put it this way… I rarely take stuff back to the store once I buy unless there’s a pretty major issue. I picked up one of those portable little “NetBooks” and a WiFi adapter about a week before I got my new iPhone because I wanted something great for web browsing on the go and easy to tote around. The iPhone was so great for surfing the internet I took the NetBook back a few days after I got my iPhone and cancelled the WiFi access plan because frankly, the iPhone serves the surfin’ purpose good enough to nullify my need for a “Netbook.”
6. Throw Away Your iPod or Any Other MP3 Player For That Matter…
You won’t need it anymore! Just plug in your headphones, sync with iTunes on your computer, and jam to your favorite music any time you want right on your phone. The great part of all this is when you want to put down the air guitar and get back down to your IM business it’s quite simple to setup an “Internet Marketing” playlist and drag n’ drop all your favorite interviews, podcasts, and other how-to audio files into it – so you can multi-task and listen to your favorite internet marketers sharing great lessons anywhere headphones are permitted.
5. iTunes Gives You Any Music, Any Place, Any Time.
Ok, so this has little to do with “IM” but darn it it’s pretty convenient to be able to preview and buy any song or album you can think of within seconds. The podcast search feature will also allow you to check out business related podcasts and etc if you just absolutely refuse to let loose and check out some good tunes.
4. An App For Every Occassion.
Games, organization, helpful tools, heck there’s even a flashlight in there! The “there’s an app for that…” commercials hold true. Sometimes when I’m bored I surf the app store and find cool gizmos I can have installed and running in a snap. I found an app to check my bank accounts, pay people via PayPal and check my PayPal balances, and I got lots of games for screwing around when I’m stuck some place where having a really cool phone comes in handy.
3. Apple Plays Nice With Google.
Being a big fan of Google products such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Reader, Bookmarks, and more you could imagine my pleasure when I saw how nice the iPhone works with these solutions. I had my contacts, email, and calendar all syncing in real time in seconds. That’s something I never got with my Treo. Best of all it only took me a few minutes to figure out how to set it all up so that everything played nice and syncs automatically. I remember trying to get my Treo to work with Gmail, Google Calendar, and etc. It was a major operation and wasn’t very user friendly as compared to the easiness of the iPhone.
2. The Social Networking Is Outta Control.
Social networking is an important traffic source and tool in any internet business. Social networking helps you make key connections, find JV partners, and more. With the iPhone it’s never been easier to take full advantage of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and more thanks to all the great apps that are available.
TweetDeck lets me check out DM’s, @replies, and make new posts on Twitter. The Facebook app lets me upload photos, check out friend’s profiles, and do nearly everything you can do on the actual Facebook site! The MySpace app is great (although I rarely use MySpace these days) and the YouTube app provides endless entertainment while still offering the ability to do very basic account maintenance.
1. It’s An All In One Package & It Just Looks Sexy…
It fits in my pocket nice and it does everything I’ve mentioned here in this post in one tight little package. It’s way smarter than carrying around a video camera, digital camera, MP3 player, cell phone, and net book. It’s a must have in my mind.
I think it’s important to give full disclosure and at the time of typing up this post I only have
two gripes about the iPhone. Number one: MMS picture messaging still isn’t supported. Supposedly this new version of the iPhone is capable but the AT&T network is not yet ready to allow picture messaging with the iPhone. Once this kink gets ironed out the iPhone will be one step closer to perfection.
My second and final complaint is that data tethering isn’t offered yet and that’s really not an iPhone problem, it’s another AT&T problem. So in reality, my two gripes aren’t really with the phone, they’re with AT&T. Get your stuff together AT&T! We want pictures and data tethering dammit!
That’s my iPhone review in a nutshell. Bottomline… if you’re looking for a new phone look no further. Everyone deserves an iPhone 3GS.
) . . .