I managed to recover my domains from the scammer.
In the process, I had started a small claims court case against GoDaddy that I am going to still proceed with. I will post details on that when it has completed later this year.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone out in the forums who helped me by providing me with information when I needed it. That is key here. If we stick together, domain thieves will have a difficult time unloading stolen domains, making the act of stealing them a high risk activity with little chance for reward.
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tags: Webmaster News, Warnings And Alerts author: Admin comments: No Comments
AOYC.COM, BXXN.COM, EWXZ.COM, FXVV.COM, QRSQ.COM, QXQZ.COM, WZMK.COM, ZLMK.COM, ZXQS.COM, ZXQV.COM Stolen Domains!!!
This is a warning to everyone and an appeal for help. If you are offered any of these domains for sale, they are stolen domains and they belong to me. I sold them in good faith to a scammer at Digital Point forums on May 1st, 2008. The scammer paid me with Paypal against my better judgement, but I overlooked the red flag because the scammer had 30+ iTrader points at DP and offered to buy the whole lot for a pretty good price, but not a ridiculously high price. I came to find out that the DP user account of the scammer had been hijacked as well as the Paypal account used to pay me.
The thread that I offered these domains for sale in is here…
AOYC.COM, BXXN.COM, EWXZ.COM, FXVV.COM, QRSQ.COM, QXQZ.COM, WZMK.COM, ZLMK.COM, ZXQS.COM, ZXQV.COM Stolen Domains
If you have any information about anyone trying to sell one of these domains to you, please contact me immediately!
And stay far away from GoDaddy! I notified them of the fraud that had taken place. They refused to transfer the domains back to me, even after I had informed them that the account holder in question has actually defrauded a number of people. The scammer has been using the e-mail address: angeluniversity22@gmail.com and has the MSN IM user account: theonespecialk@hotmail.com.
If you are approached to buy any domains from either of these 2 addresses, please notify me immediately. This person has hacked user accounts at DP and multiple Paypal accounts. This person is dangerous and needs to be stopped.
AOYC.COM, BXXN.COM, EWXZ.COM, FXVV.COM, QRSQ.COM, QXQZ.COM, WZMK.COM, ZLMK.COM, ZXQS.COM, ZXQV.COM Stolen Domains
AOYC.COM STOLEN!
BXXN.COM STOLEN!
EWXZ.COM STOLEN!
FXVV.COM STOLEN!
QRSQ.COM STOLEN!
QXQZ.COM STOLEN!
WZMK.COM STOLEN!
ZLMK.COM STOLEN!
ZXQS.COM STOLEN!
ZXQV.COM STOLEN!
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tags: Webmaster News, Warnings And Alerts author: Admin comments: No Comments
This post is going to be review for the great majority of webmasters, but I am still seeing people on forums asking questions about this topic so I am going to cover it.
Some people ask…
Should I be submitting my website to the search engines to be included in their search results? How can I make sure that search engines find my website?
The major search engines all have a page where you can submit your website for inclusion in their database. Google’s is here. Yahoo’s is here. MSN’s is here.
Those submission pages should work. But, to be honest, I never use them. Whenever I create a new website, I just link to it from another website and I get indexed in the major search engines within a few days. The process is sometimes even quicker than that.
Now… On the subject of linking… You should always link to your website with your chosen keywords. Use the keywords that you are trying to target in the anchor text of the actual link. For example…
Don’t link to http://www.newrss.net.
Link to Market Your Website.
Both of those links point to the exact same website. The difference is that the first link will help me rank better for my URL. Not very useful as I should be ranking for my URL anyway. The second link will help me rank better for the keywords “market your website”. If I want my website to show higher in search engine results when someone types “market your website” into a search engine, then that is the way to try to accomplish it.
There are many ways to obtain links (also known as backlinks) to your website. Some are free. Others are not.
You can submit your URL to paid directories. Pay for inclusion directories would include Yahoo and Aviva Directory.
You can also submit your website to the thousands of free web directories out there. There literally are thousands of them. This is very time consuming, but economical as the submissions are free. Do a search for free web directory and get started.
Forums are also a great way to start getting backlinks to your website, especially webmaster forums. You can put a link to your website in your forum signature and get posting. Forum signatures are usually not live until after 10 or 20 posts or so. The great thing about this idea is that you get to meet a lot of really great webmasters and learn what you can about SEO while getting some links to your website to help you get indexed by the search engines. Forums are also a good place to buy links on other webmasters’ websites.
One last thing… If you want to check to see if one of the major search engines, use the site: command, like so.
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tags: Webmaster Tips, Webmaster Tricks author: Admin comments: No Comments
You’ve created a website, poured your energies into it for a while and now you have decided to sell it. I have seen more than a few people ask about selling their website. When you do decide to sell, one of the hardest questions to answer for yourself is the question of worth. What is my website worth? After all, if you don’t know what your website is worth, it will be impossible to figure out an asking price or a minimum price you are willing to sell for.
When you are trying to figure out the value of your website, there are several factors that you should take into consideration. Different buyers have different things in mind when looking to purchase a website. You have to remember that your website is really only worth what some buyer is willing to pay for it. With that in mind, the idea is to provide as much useful information to the largest audience possible so that you have the best chance to attract the highest offer for your website. You need to look objectively at your website, as if you were a shrewd buyer who always does their homework on a sale in order to be best prepared to sell to that buyer. So, you need to provide as much accurate and relevant information as you possibly can to your target audience, the potential buyer. If you can do this, then your chances of getting a better price will increase over the idea that you can just post the URL and an asking price on a forum and get what you want for it.
Some of the factors to research and provide information on are:
1. The age of your domain and the domain name. Older domain names are viewed by some as more valuable than one that was created 3 months ago. The domain name itself is also a factor. .COMs tend to be worth more than .NETs and .NETs tend to be worth more than .BIZ or .INFO or .US.
2. Your website’s monthly income. A standard rule of thumb on many forums where websites are sold indicates that one measuring stick being used is a factor of twelve times your website’s monthly income. Sit down and figure out how much money your website takes in each month. You should use the last three months as a guide, dividing that number by 3 to get the amount of income for a single month and then multiplying that number by twelve to estimate yearly income. Take your income from all sources (AdSense, Affiliate Income, Link Sales, Other Sales). Provide screencaps as proof of monthly income wherever possible.
3. Assets. Are there any assets that belong to this website? Assets would include things that you have paid for that are an integral part of the website you are selling. Are there any software licenses that you are including with the sale? What is the current cost (or actual cost, if the software can no longer be purchased) of the software? What about giveaways on your website or products that you sell? Do they have a value? For example, I have a website where I give away free beautiful and creative phpLD templates. Each template I give away is an asset that has cost me approximately $100. You should consider that factor when selling.
4. Work that has gone into your website. This one is usually a little tougher to put a value on, but you should mention it all the same. If you’ve had custom programming done to change a standard script to make it better than what everyone else has, you should mention it. Did you get a unique and professional design made for you? Mention it.
5. Current Google Page Rank. This is almost always going to be high on the list of concerns for almost anyone who is looking to buy your website. It should definitely be included in your informational “for sale” posting. Don’t make a prospective buyer look it up. They are going to want to know this for sure.
6. Current Alexa Rank. This one doesn’t seem to matter as much as Google PR, but it is still important to include your Alexa rank because there is a subset of website buyers who are going to want to know this information.
7. Current Backlink Counts. How many backlinks does your website have? Provide backlink counts for Google and Yahoo. It would also be nice if you can link to backlink counts so that people who are looking at your post can check for themselves easily.
8. Indexed Pages Counts. How many pages of your website are reported in Google’s index? Yahoo? You should include this information in your post. It is an important factor that is sometimes overlooked.
9. Unique Visitors And Visits. How many unique visitors does your website get each month? How many total visitors? Is the number on the rise? All of this is important. You should include your monthly uniques and visitors and provide a screencap of a stats program as proof of this traffic. Traffic is extremely important to your potential website buyer.
10. Monthly Searches For Your Keywords. You don’t necessarily have to give the keywords away in your post, but it would be nice if you could provide some information to your prospective buyer about how often your targeted keywords are searched each month. That will give your website buyer an indicator of potential traffic.
11. Subscribers Or Members. If you are selling a blog, the number of subscribers to your feed may be an important factor for your buyer. The number of contributors (comment authors and post authors) may also be an important factor in selling your website. Include these numbers. If you operate some kind of membership site, include the number of members that you have. Your members (or subscribers) are a potential audience for your buyer. Show them off.
In short, when you set out to sell your website, you should be playing Devil’s advocate and try putting yourself into your potential buyer’s shoes. Be very thorough in your research of your website. A well thought out and presented website sale forum thread is more likely to attract serious offers. After all, that is what the end goal is here, to get the best price you can for your website. The best chances of that lie with providing as much of the above information as clearly and accurately as possible in an organized manner.
One more thing I feel that needs to be mentioned. That is payment. When making your “for sale” post, clearly state what methods of payment you will accept. This will avoid any misunderstandings that might lead to a website sale disappearing into thin air. And, if you can avoid using PayPal, you should. There have been far too many chargebacks with PayPal to even consider it as a reliable method for accepting payment on a website sale. I would recommend using escrow.com. It will likely cost you more, but you don’t have to worry about chargebacks.
Good luck with the sale of your website!
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tags: Webmaster Tips, Webmaster News author: Admin comments: 1 Comment
It’s been a while, I know, but…
I have released another new phpLD theme called “Square Pages”. I really liked this theme when I first saw it.
The theme is ”AdSense Ready”, meaning that you just need to edit two files and plug in your publisher ID before uploading.
Here is a screenshot…
You can see a demo and download the Square Pages phpLD theme at our sister site.
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tags: PHPLD Themes author: Admin comments: No Comments
We have released yet another great phpLD theme available FREE!
The theme has the phpLD script integrated already so there’s no guessing about which files go where. They are all AdSense ready too! You just replace the publisher code in one single file and install as you normally would install phpLD!
Here is a screenshot…
You can see a demo and download the Future Comix phpLD theme at our sister site.
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tags: PHPLD Themes author: Admin comments: No Comments
