Newsletter Archive

The Internet 800 Directory - http://www.inter800.com
The Internet 800 Directory Newsletter
This issue is for Friday, December 03, 2004
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Table of Contents
01. Stealing Domain Names
02. The Hype
03. Tip Of The Week
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*01 Stealing Domain Names

On November 12, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) changed a rule in the transfer of domain names that could allow
your domain to taken over. This adjustment to the rules was prompted
because, when changing Registrars, both the "gaining" and "losing"
Registrars had to approve the change, and some Registrars weren't
allowing any changes. With the new rules changes, the transfer can occur
without the approval of the registrar "losing" the account.

Under the new rule Registrars are encouraged to notify domain owners
about a transfer request, but it's not mandatory. Even if you're
notified, after five days with no response, the domain name
automatically switches. With all the spam we receive, it's very possible
to never see an e-mail notice or if you do to not realize it importance.

ICANN did put in a provision requiring the person asking for the change
to provide valid identification but the identification can be an
electronic signature or an e-mail confirmation.

The best way to protect your domain against an unauthorized exchange is
to request that your domain be locked. Some Registrars let you lock your
domain by changing the setting on your account. If it's not apparent how
to lock your domain, ask the Registrar for help.

If your domain is part of your business, nothing could be worse than
logging on one day and finding your domain pointing to a porn site

Take a few minutes and protect yourself.

Chuck Arning chuck@inter800.com
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*02 The Hype

Is the Opportunity Starting to Catch Up With The Hype?

I don't know how many of the readers out there keep up with Internet
demographics, but we do, and the last several months, the information
and statistics have been fantastic.

For examples:

"More people than ever chose to let their fingers do their holiday
shopping. Consumers spent $250 million online on Friday, a 41% increase
over the $174 million they spent online on the same day a year ago,
according to ComScore Networks, a Reston, Va., company that tracks
Web-site activity. For the November-December holiday season, online
spending is expected to surpass $15 billion--marking as much as a 26%
increase over last year, ComScore said." This article goes on to say
that the majority of the shopping is done at work, greatly due to
high-speed Internet access.

"Online advertising grew 2.5 times as fast as overall U.S. advertising
in the first three quarters of 2004, according to data released by TNS
Media Intelligence/CMR. Online advertising in the U.S. totaled $5.59
billion for the first three quarters of this year, up 25.8 percent over
the $4.45 billion measured over the same time period in 2003."
These articles go on and on about the growth of e-commerce related
transactions and the increase in online advertising, but what does it
mean? Is it due to the increasing recovery of the economy? Obviously not
altogether, because the GNP, etc. has not grown that rapidly. Is it due
to the big growth in high-speed Internet services and broad bandwidth. I
believe a fair amount of it is. Or is it due to the realization that the
Internet really works, and is cost-effective for the sales of goods and
services and for advertising to this rapidly growing audience. I believe
that it is substantially that.

Since the novelty of the  "surfing" aspect" has effectively disappeared,
it has become more evident that consumers are accessing the Internet
specifically to search for goods or services or information that they
want. This has led to the tremendous growth in the sales of key word
advertising and paid positioning by firms such as Google, Yahoo, etc.
(As a very interesting aside, both Canada and France use Google more
that the US. What do we make of that?)

I feel that advertising on the Internet will continue to grow both in
importance and utility. I also believe that key words placement will
continue to act as a model, however one must be careful not to consider
it a cure-all. Paid key word positioning can simply get lost in the vast
ocean if not carefully targeted. A recent study also shows that for
higher volume key words, conversion rates generally fall as rank
decreases, which should be fairly self-evident. The study says, "Atlas
DMT, an operating unit of aQuantive focused on how paid search engine
rankings impact traffic. According to that research, there is about a
ten times difference in potential traffic between the first and tenth
paid search position rankings. Google showed a 40-percent drop between
the first and second positions, while the difference on Overture was not
so pronounced." Therefore be careful how you spend your money, but you
need to be in the fray of the rebirth of the vision and the hype.

One last thought - as impressive as these new growth figures are, it
seems that spam is outstripping the growth.

Steven Jackson - saj@inter800.com
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Once every second someone searches the Internet 800 Directory looking
for someone to supply them with goods or services.

Will they find you or your competition?

Call 800-299-1879!
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Tip of the Week

Check for New Graphics Drivers

Does your computer display the "Blue Screen Of Death" every so often?
The problem might be the driver you are using for your video card. The
video driver is the software that your computer uses to communicate with
your graphics hardware. If your driver is not current it might not
connect your computer software to the hardware properly. Bad
communication in computers leads to the "Blue Screen" and/or poor
performance.

Check your manufacturers' websites for updates to your video driver. You
may increase performance and stop crashes on your computer.

If you have any tips or shortcuts that you think the readers of this
Newsletter will find useful, send them to chuck@inter800.com

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