Shoe Spam on Facebook (again)

Shoe spam is being distributed on Facebook again. Delete it when it shows up on your wall.

Spammers are trying to use your FB wall as a free advertising billboard and you don't get a penny of the profits. Plus, they're doing it without your permission. And -- the links under the shoe photos could be going to virus, phishing, and other malicious sites.

What happens is a spammer will upload a photo, typically of cool looking Nike tennis shoes to their own wall.

They tag the photo with names of people on Facebook that they target as spam victims. This makes the shoe spam photo appear on your FB wall, without your permission or awareness, if you have your settings configured that anybody can post things to your wall (not a good idea). It's a notorious and effective way to spam a lot of Facebook users without much effort.

What makes this malevolent tactic even worse is when unsuspecting friends start posting comments like "Cool sneakers" or "I want a pair" and so forth. This comment activity helps the spam post seem legitimate and it lures your other friends into the spam trap.

God help you if a lot of your family and friends on Facebook get sucked into this, click on the links, go to a phishing site, and end up with their FB accounts hacked or become the victims of identity theft. They will blame it on you.

If you meet it, delete it.


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Black Hat SEO vs Web Users

Tonight on GooglePlus, I had an argument with an SEO (search engine optimization) professional. You should see the sparks flying on this debate. SEO is supposed to be about using legitimate methods to drive traffic to a website. Some practitioners don't see it that way.

Some SEO "pros" are deceptive and use temporarily effective but unethical gimmicks to drive traffic to websites that do NOT deserve traffic.

Google is clamping down on these "black hat" SEO companies, so that search engine results pages are more beneficial to customers and researchers. Black hat techniques are increasingly identified and the websites that use them get demoted or banned from SERPs by Google and other SEs.

The whole purpose of search is to find webpages that deserve to be high ranking based on intrinsic value to users, i.e. high quality, original, relevant content. The SEO guy to whom I stated these basic principles is LOLing me and asking what planet I live on. This pretty much identifies him as a "black hat" SEO affiliate link farm spammer operative.

He said he hoped I was "joking" about what I think about SEO.

Joking? What other kind of search ideal is there?

This is what the web is all about, isn't it? Do you want fly-by-night, spammy, malicious, or criminal websites appearing at the top of search results pages? Or do you prefer that reputable, ethical, benevolent business with a proven track record for quality products and customer service be dominant?

Gaming the system is not in anybody's benefit, right? When you search for a solution to a problem, a product you desperately need, do you want freaking Manta listings with no information about the products a company offers? or page after page of unhelpful directory listings? or link farms full of ads? or article submission spam?

SEO is an interesting topic, but there are many ways to shoot yourself in the foot and do it in a manner that is only temporarily seemingly effective. There are many con artists in this field that is so complex and esoteric to most business people.

Web design, SEO, social media marketing, and website content development can be full of dangers if you don't know much about these fields.

If you ever need some advice, contact me.

steven [dot] streight [at] gmail [dot] com

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Arts Partners of Central Illinois Oct. 2012 Promotion

Our marketing campaign for "All About the Arts: The Arts Are Everywhere", spearheaded by Suzette Boulais and Arts Partners of Central Illinois, has reached all the way to the heights of the nation's leadership.

Soon we will reveal the honorable dignitaries involved -- but for now, consider joining us if you're a business that appreciates and supports The Arts in your home town.

CONTACT ME NOW -- if you want to participate in the month long marketing campaign, coinciding with the Grand Opening of the Peoria Riverfront Museum, all through October 2012.

This is a HUGE opportunity for YOUR business to be associated with elite innovators and leaders in the arts and society. The advertising exposure for YOUR company will be of super high prestige and visibility.

This campaign and associated events will be what everybody's talking about in October. Don't miss this opportunity. ACT IMMEDIATELY. Slots are filling up fast. We have room for just a few more businesses, then the door will be shut.

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Infographics Suck

Infographics suck. That's right. They annoy me.

They rarely cite sources for their data, they are often hard to read, and they use a lot of fancy formatting to visualize data that is not that big of deal. Infographics are like PowerPoint and PDFs. 

Use them sparingly, not as a crutch for information that is boring or presented poorly -- and cannot be saved by elaborate design flourishes.

I don't understand why people keep linking to infographics images. I find the visual renderings of information to be cheesey and not very helpful. I prefer the plain text, a simple list of points or a concise statement with links to further research.

Charts and graphs can assist in comprehension of things like growth and change, but I find most infographics to be boring, with the text explanations in tiny type.  A lot of fancy and sometimes distracting formatting -- for a little bit of data.

BuzzFeed "Awesome Truth about Infographics"

ReadWriteWeb "6 Reasons Why Infographics Don't Cut It"

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