Tag Archives: don 39;t
Beating Adware, The Sneakiest Software (Page 1 of 2)
Promoters of adware, software that shows advertising on a user’s computer, use some cunning tricks to get you to install their software on your machine. Here’s what to look out for.
Adware is, by definition, something reasonable people don’t want on their computers. That’s why malware can’t just come out and ask people to install it. Often, the computer owner is completely unaware of it being installed. But not always.
When adware doesn’t want to sneak in through an open window, it will try to trick you into letting it in through the front door. Don’t think you could be tricked? Don’t be so sure until you’ve checked out these most common ways people have been tricked into allowing malware to be installed on their machines.
Adware Installation Trick 1: Piggybacking
How it works: malware may come bundled with a legitimate piece of software the user actually wants, such as a game or emoticon. The malware is merely labeled “companion software,” without any indication of what it will do.
How to fight it: be very suspicious of any software that comes bundled with other software. Don’t installed software that comes bundled with other software unless you know everything that the bundled software does. After all, if the bundled program has anything to do with the program you actually want, why couldn’t the software developer just get both programs’ functionalities into a single piece of software? Software developers are now very sensitive to malware concerns and will provide a lengthy explanation of just why the bundled software is necessary, in the cases when they actually do need to use bundled software.
Adware Installation Trick 2: Bait and Switch
How it works: since people are getting more and more suspicious of bundled software, the malware’s developers may simply label it as valuable software, for instance, a browser plugin that supposedly accelerates web browsing (but in reality only shows ads).
How to fight it: again, a suspicious mind is useful in avoiding malware. Ask yourself some questions:
o What will this software actually do? Malware often comes with very fuzzy claims attached. Sure, it says it will improve your browsing experience, but how? Often, this improved browsing experience just means a browsing experience with more advertising.
o If the software is so great, why is it being given away free? Most commonly, software is only given out free in two cases: if it’s OpenSource (designed by a community of developers and not proprietary–OpenSource software is always clearly labeled as such); or simply a come-on for a fuller-featured version of the software. If neither case is true, there’s a real chance the software is financed by adware.
Adware Installation Trick 3: Outright Lying
How it works: malware may even be labeled as something else entirely, such as a well-known piece of software or a crucial component of the computer operating system.
Beating Adware, The Sneakiest Software (Page 1 of 2)
Promoters of adware, software that shows advertising on a user’s computer, use some cunning tricks to get you to install their software on your machine. Here’s what to look out for.
Adware is, by definition, something reasonable people don’t want on their computers. That’s why malware can’t just come out and ask people to install it. Often, the computer owner is completely unaware of it being installed. But not always.
When adware doesn’t want to sneak in through an open window, it will try to trick you into letting it in through the front door. Don’t think you could be tricked? Don’t be so sure until you’ve checked out these most common ways people have been tricked into allowing malware to be installed on their machines.
Adware Installation Trick 1: Piggybacking
How it works: malware may come bundled with a legitimate piece of software the user actually wants, such as a game or emoticon. The malware is merely labeled “companion software,” without any indication of what it will do.
How to fight it: be very suspicious of any software that comes bundled with other software. Don’t installed software that comes bundled with other software unless you know everything that the bundled software does. After all, if the bundled program has anything to do with the program you actually want, why couldn’t the software developer just get both programs’ functionalities into a single piece of software? Software developers are now very sensitive to malware concerns and will provide a lengthy explanation of just why the bundled software is necessary, in the cases when they actually do need to use bundled software.
Adware Installation Trick 2: Bait and Switch
How it works: since people are getting more and more suspicious of bundled software, the malware’s developers may simply label it as valuable software, for instance, a browser plugin that supposedly accelerates web browsing (but in reality only shows ads).
How to fight it: again, a suspicious mind is useful in avoiding malware. Ask yourself some questions:
o What will this software actually do? Malware often comes with very fuzzy claims attached. Sure, it says it will improve your browsing experience, but how? Often, this improved browsing experience just means a browsing experience with more advertising.
o If the software is so great, why is it being given away free? Most commonly, software is only given out free in two cases: if it’s OpenSource (designed by a community of developers and not proprietary–OpenSource software is always clearly labeled as such); or simply a come-on for a fuller-featured version of the software. If neither case is true, there’s a real chance the software is financed by adware.
Adware Installation Trick 3: Outright Lying
How it works: malware may even be labeled as something else entirely, such as a well-known piece of software or a crucial component of the computer operating system.
Blogging for Links (Page 1 of 2)
Blogging is a great way to get quality back links. It’s simple, well recognized, and quick. In order to implement a successful blog linking campaign, you must first understand a few blogging rules. Once you understand these rules, it’s just a matter of gathering your content and posting to your blog.
If the content you write in your blog is relevant, informative, and helpful, your chance of getting back links rises considerably.
Four Important Blogging Rules
1. Write your blog posts just like you would any other article. The temptation is to stuff your keywords in your posts and overdo it. Google is looking for quality sites maintained by real people. Blogs have been abused so much in the past that it’s a very important you post your own content that you’ve created. I don’t recommend using free content that’s so widely available or even private label content.
2. You need to offer something of value to anyone who visits your site. Remember that you’re the expert on your topic. Not everyone knows what you know about shoes, landscaping, or whatever else you’re writing about. A good technique is to review other products or websites and offer something of value that can help someone in a pre-purchase decision. I also don’t recommend putting RSS feeds in your posts since this is a common technique that blog spammers have used in the past.
3. You need to make your blog unique. Give somebody visiting for the first time a reason to come back. Make sure you have a way for readers to subscribe to your content. This is usually done with an RSS reader button somewhere on your page. This is also a great place to put an opt in newsletter box where people can sign up and get free articles or free e-books.
4. Whatever you do, don’t neglect your blog. If you keep your blog updated and offer new posts on a semi regular basis, you will increase your back links and visitors to your site. The worst thing you can do is start strong and simply let your blog die out. We’ve all seen the blogs with 4 or 5 consecutive posts on successive days only to have ZERO posts the last few months, or years! This can actually hurt you in the long run. If visitors see that you can’t maintain your own blog, they might assume that you can’t provide a good product or service. So make sure once you start your blog that you continue to maintain it.
Getting Links
Getting back links from a blog is a natural process. You can put links from your blog to your own website. Make sure you don’t put links that only point to your website. Add resources, information, and other directories and sites where people can go to if they come to your website.
The natural progression is that somebody will visit your blog read your article and hopefully click a link to go your website. Or even better, someone will like your post and link to your post or link directly to your website. The benefit to blogs is that your posts will be syndicated to other sites and directories almost immediately. While syndication is a benefit, it also means your content will become stale faster.