Here is the statement from facebook:

“Broaden your age targeting automatically! You can now get more clicks and impressions outside your target age range, and we’ll make sure you get a good deal! Previously, if you chose to target people aged 24 – 35, your ad would only be shown to people aged precisely 24 – 35. But isn’t someone who’s 36 and is interested in your ad just as valuable as someone who is 35? After extensive testing, we found that by allowing the system to increase delivery of your ads slightly outside your target age range, you can receive additional discounted impressions and clicks that are nearly as valuable as the impressions and clicks within your target age. As a result, you see more value from your ads on Facebook and a better return on your investment. You can update your existing campaigns to broad age match today: Go to the Settings page and click on the “Update” button at the bottom of the page.”

So basically if you let them go outside of your age range by a few years in either direction you will get discounted clicks/impressions. Could result in a quick way to get a little more bang for your buck and a better overall value when you are placing ads on Facebook.

Whenever I see these lawsuits I have to wonder what the point is.  Now I understand that downloading a movie is against the law and that when you do it you are committing a crime essentially but these people who are sued are rarely charged with crimes just  civil suits.  Civil suits are expensive and are a long and hard process so usually a positive end result is necessary to want to endure it.  These cases in the past end in huge judgments that the defendants would never have the means to pay in a lifetime.  So I have to wonder the point?!?

Even in the very best scenario, which is them winning a large monetary judgment from each defendant as well as having all their legal fees covered, how many of the people who they sue actually make that kind of money in a lifetime?  So they get a big judgement but they likely see a small fraction of it ever come back and they still have very real legal fees that have to be paid.  So even if they win big they actually lose.

I guess it could be said that it makes an example out of the people and will scare some people “straight” into not downloading illegal media anymore.   However, that theory totally disregards the fact that people download movies and music from these sites because it’s the only place it’s available in the format that people want.  There is nothing the movie or music industry can do to drive us back in droves to the movie theater or standing around the corner of a music shop all night waiting for a CD to come out.  Those days are gone…these industries have chose not to keep up with what their consumers want and the best answer they have is to go to war with their customers.

Up until now the movie and music industries have given us nothing to get media the way we want it.  We get tiny little teasers such as hulu.com (which I love) which offers limited choices of the last 4-5 episodes of television shows and mostly made for TV movies and documentary’s.  There is iTunes which requires you are tied to apple products to use so there is no choice in that.  iTunes also doesn’t let you really own your music, they own it and are nice enough to let you listen to it after paying them for it.  There is Netflix.com which offers more movies and entire TV seasons but the movie industry won’t let us watch anything on there until almost 6 months after it’s initially released.  So every choice we are given has a hold back to truly just being able to buy and watch what you want to when you want to and until they do that illegal downloading is going no where.

Another point to be made is these lawsuits do nothing to stop the actual distribution of movies, these movies will always be available illegally and there will always be ways you can mask yourself from ever being seen from downloading them.  The more people learn about encryption and other ways to protect their privacy on the internet the harder it will become for the RIAA or the US Copyright Group to even try to figure out who is downloading what.  Not to mention with the amount of computers in the world that are infected as bots someone could be using your connection right now to download a few movies and it looks like it’s coming straight from your house.  Some experts claim as much as 60% of computers in the US are infected with bots.  Which means that 60% of the computers can be used by other people to connect to the internet and it’s services.

So I just fail to see how the music and movie industry think investing money in a lawsuit is a better idea than investing money in the proper technology to serve us music and movies they way we want.  Blockbuster.com can manage to give me a movie let me watch it for 24 hours and give it back to them…..so why can’t all these highly paid executives at the record and movie industries come together and create a system that works in the world they live in today and not the world 20 years ago they are hoping to bully us into going back to.

So the product was launched a month or two ago and I know Phil Henderson, the creator, to be a quality guy who genuinely wants to help people so I signed up for it and never touched it.   Over the last few weeks Phil has been sending emails keeping everyone up to date and has also sent along quite a few testimonials from other people using the system, so finally my curiosity got the best of me.

Last Thursday I started trying out the system, the first day I created 4 different pages the entire process took me a few hours and each one ranked on page one of Google and all in under an hour! I was blown away…and that’s not that easy for me if you ask anyone I know they will tell you I don’t get into systems. I come from an old school media background and believe in very traditional models of advertising so to speak. Ones that require creativity and hard work, but Phil’s system does require those things it just gives you easy step by step instructions and if you follow them you will find that precious pot of gold in the form of getting on the front page of Google.

So for the first time ever I am going to say that I highly recommend a marketing system so check it out by clicking here and I promise you you will be blown away like me and everyone else I know who has tried it.

Twitter Phishing – Twitter is an amazing tool…it brings us live feeds from around the world that we can search through to find information on news or anything else we are interested in. However, with Twitters open environment and simplicity it makes it a breeding ground for scammers and thieves. Twitter in my opinion is the most insecure platform on the planet…and if numbers and news stories are any indicators the scammers agree with me.

As I say that, it’s not that I believe Twitter has created a sub-standard product or doesn’t care about security it’s just the platform they use with such openness breeds insecurity. So for example, let’s say someone has created a hack or an exploit they want to place on your computer so they can then use your computer as a bot to go wreak havoc on the internet. Well before twitter they had to reach out to you, send you an email, place a fake ad on a site and hope you would click on it to get you to download their malicious code but now Twitter has given them an easy platform for you to reach out to them.

One of the ways to accomplish this easily is to use the trending topics against you. If everyone in the world is focused on one news story or event or person…it’s the perfect place for the scammer to inject himself. He can create a tweet about whatever topic is trending and instead of linking to the story just link to a page that installs spyware or a page that makes you think you somehow logged out of twitter and allow you to enter your credentials right into their database. This problem is compounded on twitter because everyone uses shortened URL’s to stay within the 140 character requirements so links aren’t clearly visible. So how do you protect yourself? Simple, you use common sense. If you don’t know someone, don’t click their link. If someone you do know sends a DM like I thought you might be interested in this, don’t click the link. If you truly want to find something that is on Twitter but the link comes from an unknown source…Google the info instead. The other piece of information that will save you time and time again it to NEVER user your username and password on any site other than Twitter.com or through their OAuth service which I will talk more about in a bit.

Facebook Phishing – I am seeing so many people lately who all of a sudden start posting a status every hour for a new fan page they joined or a new event they are attending, only problem is it’s not my friends it is the people who phished their accounts.  Right now the biggest way to phish your account on facebook is to use your vanity against you!  I think social media in general has made us very self important, we want people to read the most mundane things about us and “like” them and leave witty comments!  And that is what the spammers are using against us.  Ever see those “groups” that tell you that you can see who has been viewing your profile?  Of course you have they are everywhere…but what a lot of people don’t realize is there is nothing legitimate about this.  This scam is designed to use social engineering of human curiosity and vanity to simply steal your login and password.  There is no technology available for you to see who is viewing your profile.  None period, no way to see who looks at your pics all day, no way to see if your crazy ex girlfriend stalks you, this technology does not exist.  Any page promoting a service like this is designed for one thing and one thing only to steal your information.  Once some one joins one of these “groups” and gives the spammers their login credentials, you will start to see a stream of this friend joining every spying app out there and inviting all their friends several times a day to join them.  Don’t let your vanity or curiosity overcome your common sense, stay away from these apps.

Now while I think the spying apps are the number one threat on Facebook right now there are so many others.  Many target gamers.  Facebook has a huge gaming community that is addicted to their favorite game and scammers hope to capitalize on that.  Any page, group or app that offers you free items, game cash or other freebies outside of the game is a scam!  I have yet to see one page that promised something that it actually delivered.  What it really does is gets your attention by promising a second chicken coop or 30 billion mafia dollars and then requires before it gives it to you that you become a fan and invite all  your friends.  You will never get you free gift and you have set yourself and all of your friends up to possibly be phished.

Facebook scam pages all have some tell tale signs this is what you are looking for.  Like I mentioned above anything talking about people seeing your profile or offering you a free game prize are 100% off limits.  But there are other creative approaches but the signs are all the same.  Fake pages will usually not have anything on their information tab.  Also check the wall tab if there are no posts there but the site has 1 million fans there is a problem.  Active groups should have activity if they don’t it’s a tell tale sign something is not right.  Many scam pages have also started using a little creativity in regards to this…usually a scam page will have 4-5 “sample” comments on the main page usually if you click on any of these people you are just re-directed back to the page you are already on.  Also be weary of any page that makes you become a fan or invite your friends before you get to see the info.  If the content was worthy it would not be necessary for them to ask you to do these steps before you have had a chance to check out what they are offering.

One thing to keep in mind is both Facebook and Twitter offer officials ways to use your logins on third party sites.  You should never put in your username and password unless you are doing it through these official services.  Facebook has Facebook Connect which is a secure way to use your login on a third party site without the third party vendor having direct access to it.  Collection of your username and password through any other format is a violation of the Facebook TOU.  Twitter has a similar service called OAuth which also allows you to log in using Twitter but does not pass your information along to the third party.  Both of these services are designed to protect the integrity of your login, if a site is not using this to collect your information not long after you enter it you will find that you have a problem.  Even if you see these it’s still not 100% because at least with Facebooks option these things could be duplicated atleast in look and feel and if they haven’t already, they will be soon no doubt.  So make sure you know the company you are using these 3rd party logins with are reputable.

Another thing to note is that Facebook does not vet it’s applications at all.  There is no process to check what they do, who created them or if they are filled with malicious code.  Facebook believes that open walls create more creativity and while that is very true in theory it’s also a breeding ground for malicious behavior.  So everyone should be aware…apps are swim at your own risk kind of things!

This blog post went on so much longer than I originally anticipated but our social media profiles are precious to us they have our friends, pics of our families and a journal of our life.  So I think protecting these pages is important and the more people that understand how to do that the harder it will be for spammers to take advantage.

To find out more just click on the link most of these sites have time and location information posted as well.

PF Changs – 15% Off Coupon 4/15/10

Maggie Moo’s – small sample slices of its new MaggieMia’s Ice Cream Pizza (ice cream shaped like a pizza) from 3 to 7 p.m. local time. 4/15/10

Cinnabon – Free Bite Size Cinnamon Rolls 4/15/10 5-8pm

Taco Del Mar –  ”Taxes Suck. Tacos Don’t.” Register at the Taco Del Mar website for an e-mailed coupon for a free tax day taco. 4/15/10

McCormick & Schmick’s – $10.40 food deals all day in its bar.

Starbucks – pours free brewed coffee all day today for customers with any reusable mug or tumbler.  (Actually an earth day promotion…but it’s on today, so take advantage)

IHOP: The restaurant chain is offering free dinner for one child age 12 or younger with each adult meal purchased from 4 to 10 p.m. all month long.

Whole Foods Market – They ease the tax burden a bit by picking up everyone’s sales tax for the day.

Subway – Free cookie.  4/15/10

McDonald’s – Select restaurants to offer BOGO Free Southern Style Chicken Biscuit

Chick-fil-a – Return before April 30th to receive the same order for free

T.G.I. Friday’s – Diners receive a $5 gift card w/purchase of $15-$25 or a $10 card w/purchases of $25 or more

Hope this helps ease the pain a little!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I will try to answer it as best as I can.

The first thing I noticed was the billing across the top for a “Safer, Easier, Friendlier” classifieds, clearly a stab at online classifieds giant Craigslist. They claim to have better safeguards against spamming, easier to use posting interface and quick and friendly customer service ready to assist you. So I decided to give it a try.

I posted an ad in Austin for my blog design service. Simple text ad with a link to my blog service. Easy enough right! The posting process was quicker than either Craigslist or Backpage so the easier part seemed to be true. I was sent to my email to confirm my ad. After I confirmed the ad I saw they have buttons for me to share my ad on Twitter and Facebook. Nice! So I tweeted it.

This is where my Ebay Classified experience started to go downhill. The listings of ads is horrible looking it actually is worse than Craigslist and the ad page even worse. Small tiny font, if your picture doesn’t fill the box it just sits in the middle of this big grey box and the strange grass across the bottom makes me feel like they just threw up a wordpress template. Very ugly!

So while waiting on my ad to show up in the listings I checked out the ad management page which showed my ad was in process and I had had a total of 6 views to it, I thought this was a cool feature. My ad never showed up however….eventually I got an email and this is where the big #FAIL came in. Now I was posting an ad for my marketing company so I posted in computer services, simple ad link to my site. Well the email informs me my ad has been deleted from their database because it contains a link to a third party website. Well of course it does ebay it was an ad for my business and I just thought since people are obviously online anyway the quickest way to learn more would be to visit my website but for some reason you think people want to stop and email me or stop and call me. I don’t agree and it basically makes your services listings pointless and complete waste of time for a business. The best part was the line “posting a link for the sole purpose of getting visitors is prohibited.” UMMMM, Why else would someone create an ad for a service if they weren’t hoping to get visitors?!? There are really some days I feel like I am in the twilight zone on the internet!

Now I already know the standard classified sites response to this “we want to be a place where people can sell bikes and i phones” not a place for spammers. While I can’t change that attitude I do find it extremly unfortunate. Newspaper classifieds were always a large source of sales for small businesses. Now when newspapers ran these ventures it was easy, you paid your $$ just like the guy selling the bike and your ad was there. Since the revolution of online classifieds came in and stole the newspaper audience away small business was cut out. Online sites decided they were only interested in the consumer side and have never cared about the business side. The only classified site that I know of that actually has an interest in small business advertising is Backpage but leads through that site are so slow that it’s still not a great option for small business.

So I guess the answer is atleast for now there is no classified site that has an interest in helping support small businesses. I hope someone fills this void soon or maybe one of the supposedely more socially responsible classified sites will take a real look at the damage it does to small business.

Users can create a profile on any business they want to rate and then add any information they know about the business as well as their review.  So this is a site you really need to make sure you are managing your brand on.  Yelp offers an easy and quick way for owners to “claim” their listings and not only that but they give you tons of free tools to help you better promote your business.

So if you already have a profile you may be missing out on a large group of people that love your business enough to post about it or you may miss an opportunity to deal with a complaint that is posted.  By claiming your Yelp profile it gives you some of the control over the image your company has there.

So head on over to Yelp today and claim your business page.

Lapband VS Cheeseburger

Be back later headed to Whataburger!

Use Facebook to promote your business?  Here is a cool automation tool for facebook.