Tag: spam

Block Those Comment Spammers

Guest post
by Gordon Long

For those of you who run blogs (and don’t we all?) and are getting a lot of spam emails and attempts to put up garbage in your comments section, I’ve been doing some work on it. Last month I got trouble from my website host for too much database use. In trying to figure out why, I discovered that I had over 10,000 spam emails in my mailbox! In one month. Sort of fills up the disc space.

So what can you do about it? Most of us think, “That’s too complicated,” but I found out I could at least get started. It’s a learning process we all should take a stab at.

Continue reading “Block Those Comment Spammers”

Search Engine Ranking- The Value of Social and Search

The role of search and socialWe’ve talked a lot about Google+ the past few weeks. So much so, you’re probably wondering if I’m getting a kickback! No, that’s not the case. It’s really simple, actually. Combining social and search is a powerful combination.

The days of static websites dictating Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking is over. You might even think that setting up a Pinterest or Facebook Page gets you in the game, but it doesn’t. Activity plays a huge role in the business of discoverability. Continue reading “Search Engine Ranking- The Value of Social and Search”

Social Media and Social Graces

I like you, will you like me? Here’s my Facebook author’s page… And you’re all reading that sing-song style like that annoying purple dinosaur, right? Does it irritate you when you log into Facebook and find you have a message from someone who said they liked your page, and will you like theirs? To me, that’s SPAM. If you discovered my page through someone or some outlet (like the back of one of my books), that’s cool. There’s probably not a single author out there that would turn down a “like” on their fan page (unless it’s someone who is an ex, a stalker, or just plain creepy). But to ask for a reciprocal like just because they liked your page—that’s bordering on rude. Continue reading “Social Media and Social Graces”

No Paragon

Sooner or later any writer on the web (especially on Linked In) will run into mega-spammer Paradon Books (a revolution in publishing they will tell you) or Indie Writers Support. They exist, they say, only to help you get to be a star. But there are a few problems… like they don’t seem to actually exist.

This innovative publisher—though it’s hard to pin down what is so revolutionary about them, or what they actually publish–lists a PO box in Great Falls Montana, and sometimes a street address there: 804 47th Street S, Great Falls MT. And a photo of their huge glass building with their name on the front. But Google Street reveals that address to be a small residential building, and the big glass skyscraper doesn’t exist. At least not in Montana. The post office box is unconfirmed and their phone number is an 866 non-geographical toll-free. Which does not answer, or even ring (sometimes it returns a “fax screech”.) All email addresses for the company and people associated with it are hotmail or gmail, none use their own “names” in the addresses. If you Google them up, you run into a chorus of deep suspicions, including mentions on “419” sites that have reason to suspect them as originating from that area code—Nigeria—which is richly associated with email spamming and scamming. Continue reading “No Paragon”