Here is the reality if your social media or email accounts get hacked there is a 99.99% chance that you somehow started the chain of events that made it happen.  Now a lot of people will dismiss that idea right away.  The reality though is if you really think about it having that information means you have the power to be almost 99.99% sure that you won’t be hacked again.

First let’s talk about the 99.99% I use that term because there are only really two kinds of hacks.  The first kind of hack is targeted which means the bad guy is specifically trying to get your account information…he doesn’t want everyone’s account information he wants to target you specifically.  The second kind of hack is completely untargeted and just meant to get a hold of as many accounts, emails and computers as it can to use for some malicious purpose, usually a scammy marketing campaign.

99.99% of what we see on facebook and twitter and in emails is the 2nd kind of hack.  No one is targeted you or wants your specific account they just want to use your account for a little while and send their spam messages.  That is why I use the 99.99% because if someone is targeting you and really wants your info that can be difficult for you to stop but if they are just grabbing up accounts in mass frenzy you can avoid them.

To understand how to avoid them it is important to understand how they get to you in the first place.  The first and most prevalent way is through phishing.  Phishing means that they set up a dummy page that looks like the login for the site you are signing into and you fill in the account and password box hit the login key and you have successfully added yourself to their database to be used as a spam bot.

I have found that people just do not believe that anyone could have phished their account.  They believe someone hacked into their computer or they got it because they are friend with John on facebook or I have even seen people on facebook blame the new timeline on being hacked.  Reality is statistics say the most likey scenario is they were phished.  You have to really pay attention to make sure you do not get phished.

The best rule of thumb for avoiding phishing is to never log into anything where you did not initiate login.  For example…you get on your computer and you decide you are going to visit Twitter.  You go to Twitter.com and see the login screen and login in.  You can feel safe doing this because you typed Twitter.com into your own address bar and you are 100% sure what site you are logging into.

So you go to your feed and you are reading what your friends have to say and you click on a link that a friend posted and click on it.  All of a sudden you are back at the login page.  You may think something funny happened with the computer and you got logged out and you type in your account and password and hit the button and once again you have successfully submitted your information to be used for spam.  You should never log in unless you specifically typed the URL in the browser and are 100% sure you are on the main site.  Pages will look exactly the same, the url in the address bar may even say the right site…none of this is an indication you are somewhere you should be logging in.  Don’t log in anywhere unless you initiate it.

Another way to get your password stolen is when some random company gets hacked that you happen to be a member of.  Recently Walgreens.com got hacked and all of their user data was stolen.  Now you may think why does a scammer want with my Walgreens.com login?  They don’t…but they are hoping it’s going to work on facebook, twitter and get them access to your email account.

Most of the time that bet pays off for them.  You cannot use the same password out on the internet as you do for your most important accounts.  If you want to use a dummy password on 3rd party sites that you use everywhere that is ok but that CANNOT be the same password as what you use for important stuff such as banking, email or social media sites.  Any password used for banking or anything tied to a credit card or bank account should always have a unique password you do not use anywhere else.

The next way that people get access to your accounts is through apps.  People think they should get an app for everything without once considering that each app they join gives someone somewhere very intimate access to their accounts.  Apps are very useful and many legitimate companies use them but there are a lot of crap apps out there.  You have to ask yourself do I want to know my indian name bad enough to give some stranger access to my account.  The answer is probably no.

Once an app has access to your account it does until you revoke it.  So if you get your indian name today and never think about it again those people still have access to your account forever.  Everytime you get a dialog asking you if you want to install the app think are these people I trust with access to my account?  If the answer is not yes just don’t install it….live your whole life without knowing your indian name but knowing your accounts are safe.

You should also check through and delete any unused apps often. Use MyPermission.org at least once a month and go through each of your accounts and get rid of any unwanted apps.  So let’s review what we have covered:

1) If you got hacked there is a 99.99% chance it’s your fault.

2) Never login when you have not initiated the login.

3) Don’t use your banking, email or social media passwords anywhere else on the internet.

4) Don’t install strange apps.  Delete unused apps frequently.

If you follow these steps and are vigilant about them you can decrease your chance of having your email or social media accounts hacked tremendously.

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Real Comp. – Pages that are actively ranking for that term (the real amount you are competing against)

CP Strength – This is an indication of competitor strength. IE how well are the pages you are competing against ranked.

Average PR – Average PageRank of Competing Pages

PR Strength – Is the average page rank low, high, etc

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In my line of business I do web design and internet marketing for small to mid size businesses.  I have been doing it for about 5 years and have a lot of customers I have been working with for a very long time.  As a result of these relationships we have formed and their trust in my judgement they often approach me with various websites and “systems” they are interested in buying and want my opinion on .  More times than not I have burst their rock star bubble sadly.

Now I want to make it clear right now I am not saying automation is bad.  Quite the opposite automation is great however if you are automating a failed or spammy practice you aren’t going to get anywhere.  That means before you buy a program to automate a specific task you have to actually understand what the program is doing and if that tactic is actually good for your marketing.

The reality is a whole lot of people who have never made any real money with internet marketing have decided instead to build tools to sell you and make their money that way.  So  you need to ask yourself a few questions before considering any system.  Does what the person is offering seem realistic?  Does this program automate a proven marketing method?  Do I understand that method well enough to know the difference between something that is going to help and something that can actually cause damage?

I am almost always exclusively leery of people who claim to have made thousands of dollars daily using this system.  There main reason is that I have known enough people through time making serious money on the internet and the reality is they are not going to share their method that is making thousands of dollars a day with  you.  Online saturation is real and once a method is used up it is gone.  A good method will never be shared.  So if they are selling it and actually ever did make money with it they likely aren’t anymore if they instead turned it into a “system.”

So what’s left after you take away all the snake oil salesman promising you big riches once you push their button?  The answer is programs that automate real and proven marketing techniques such as email marketing, backlinking, opt-in list builders, social media managers and the like.  There are tons of legitimate ways to market your business that have long term lasting effects that  you can automate to be more efficient.

The other option if you don’t think you understand a method enough to make a decision on a product is to hire a service provider to help you test the waters with a specific type of marketing.  This will allow you to get out there and try your marketing technique without having to know what the best software is or the required knowledge you need to do something right.

Using twitter followers as an example there are many automation techniques for getting Twitter followers.  However, do you know the ratio of followers/following you need to keep to not get your account banned?  Do you know how to target the exact kind of followers you want?  If you do not know how to do something by hand then you can get into big trouble trying to automate it.

If you are trying it with a company first and seeing success, ask them about their methods.  If someone doesn’t want to give you details about what they are doing with your account, move on.  This will allow you to learn what is happening and what is working which you can then use to learn how to automate the process yourself effectively.

The other reality is that every automation tool requires real work and input from you.  No automation tool is better than the information you put into it.  So for example, if you have a program that creates backlinks for you but you have no idea how to find good sites to put them on for our program to post, you are not going to be successful.  So if you want to be able to automate and scale your traffic with your marketing methods regardless of what a website tells you expect to put in hard work to make it happen.

That’s it for my rant today on automation and “systems”.  I just see so many people getting ripped off everyday online buying theses systems and not getting anything out of it that if I can help someone decide to market their business for the long term instead of hoping for get rich quick ponies….my rant will have been worth it.

To end on a positive note here are a few automation tools I use and believe in.

Instant Sales System – This program is an opt-in list builder on steroids.  It allows to create opt-in forms for all of your websites and maintain lists.  It has both traditional web opt-in forms and floating forms that can include video as well.  It allows for one time mailing, auto responding and even has holiday messages that automatically go out to your list.  I used Constant Contact for years and recently switched to this system and absolutely love everything about it.

Hummingbird – Hummingbird is a program for following and unfollowing people on Twitter.  This tool is great for adding targeted people to your twitter pages but you do need to have an understanding of Twitter’s rules before you use this or you could get your account banned.  There used to be a forum, not sure if there is anymore but that is a great place to learn more about Twitter marketing.

My Backlink Manager – This program allows you to place backlinks on various types of wordpress blogs.  It allows for anchor keyword backlinks and you can rotate URL’s, Keywords and comments with the token system.  The best thing about this tool is that you can add your own lists of the blogs you want to post too which allows you maximum quality.  So you are still finding quality places to put backlinks and just automating the process of doing it.  There also plugins available for specific comment systems such as comment luv and discus.

Hootsuite - This is the only tool listed that is a web app but this is one of the tools I use the most throughout the day.  Hootsuite allows you to post to multiple social media networks at one time.  You can also use it to schedule tweets and status updates but I don’t really use that option because I am more of a spontaneous tweeter and facebooker.  What I love about it is that it allows for the Hootlet tool bar button so wherever I am on the internet when I am seeing something I want to share with my followers I just push the button in my browser and the link is shortened and the tweet/status message created and ready to post without me ever leaving the page.  This allows you to quickly and easily share relevant and interesting content with your followers.

So those are some of my favorites….you will notice none of them promise riches or glamor they just promise to do a job and do it effectively and that is what any good automation tool should do.

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.

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

Lapband VS Cheeseburger

Be back later headed to Whataburger!

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

The two biggest changes Facebook made were these.

1) Live Feed is only 1 click away!

The live feed consists of everything that is happening in your network including status updates, page updates, photos, links, application feeds and pretty much any other piece of content Facebook creates is here.  Prior to the site re-design you had to click on “News Feed” on the left hand menu and then had to click on view live feed.  Now you simply click on “Most Recent” across the top and WALA you have your live feed.  It may seem like a small thing but for people who look for this live feed several times a day it’s way more convenient.

2) Finally logical group bookmarking!

In the past if you had room for exactly 5 bookmarks on the side and 3 were taken by facebook.  So if you played multiple games or had a lot of apps you frequented a lot there was really no easy way to get to them quickly.  Now facebook has grouped them into nice little packages such as Groups, Games, Applications, Causes so when you want to find something related to on of these things it’s right there at your fingertips.  This is a major and big change for Facebook and probably the thing their users complained about most.  So kudos for listening and making it easier for us to get to the content we want quickly.

In addition to these two major changes there were also a few other features added including a list of online friends in the right column so you can quickly see who is online without opening your chat function.  The notification icons have changed you now find your notifications on the top bar with the little globe icon which before was a little box in the bottom left corner.  You can find a map of all the changes made here along with a more detailed description of each change.

For any of you confused about the new page I hope this helps you navigate it a little bit.  I think many of us are going to find this page provides a much better facebook experience.

Do you like the new design?  Let us know your thoughts.