Recently I have a slew of calls, emails and even a letter from the Better Business Bureau accusing my business of fraudulently making continuous credit card charges on their accounts.  When I got the first call, I figured it was just an anomaly and I helped the guy determine what happened, we found the company he was looking for and moved on.  The second call I got started to get me a little worried.  The third call, an email and a letter from the BBB downright freaked me out.  In Oregon, there is a business using a name similar to mine, and they are scamming people out of their money.  I decided to write a post on how it works and what you can do to make sure you don’t fall victim to something like this.

My company name is Moore Web Exposure. The company scamming people is called WebExposure. The problem gets worse given the fact that I run my business in Portland, OR and these con artists run theirs in Clackamas, OR.

What they are doing:

From what I have been told,WebXposure tells its victims that they will put their business Google Local listings for a fee of a couple of hundred bucks.  The first problem with this is anyone can get a Google Local account for FREE.  But this alone is not a big deal.  What is a big deal is once the victim gives this company their credit card information, WebXposure keeps billing them without authorization until the victim catches on and cancels the card.

So, how could these victims avoided this altogether?  Simple.  Start asking questions.  Had they done a simple Google search for this business, they would have found the following:

Chances are good that the people who got scammed here will never get their money back.  Best thing they can do is call their credit card company and report it.

The moral of the story is DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!! Ask for testimonials, look for their footprint on the internet, see what others have to say about them.  If it is a legitimate business, they should have a large footprint on the internet.  If you cannot find them on the internet, turn and run as fast as you can!

Google Insights offers up real time feeds for search terms going on around the world. Check out what people in Portland, Oregon have been searching for over the last seven days:

Want to define your own search criteria? You can put in any region in the world, specify time periods and create your own widget by clicking on Google’s Insights page.

As an avid user of Craigslist I feel it is my duty to post a quick blurb about all the scams I have run into and how I have thus far avoided falling for them.  It is no secret that Craigslist is full of scammers and sheisters but how can you weed them out and not fall for their tricks? The answer is three part:

1. If it is too good to be true, it usually is
2. Check the Email Address
3. Google it

It’s that simple. Lets look at some examples.

Recently I was looking for a new vehicle on Craigslist and I saw a Jeep that was posted and had an amazing price (too good to be true).  Ignoring rule #1, I emailed the seller, and engaged in an amusing conversation.  Here is the exact email I received:

Hello Chris,
The 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited is still available for the price listed ($9500). No trades at this time!!!
My name is Jose Lopez and I thank you for the interest in my car. Before we go any further I must inform you of my present situation. Tomorrow I’ll be flying to Yellowknife, Canada, as I just got a great job at Nuna Logistics, the company in charge with the ice road to the diamond mines in north. That is also the reason for selling. The only way we can complete this deal is online. I already left the car within the custody of a shipping company which will handle the delivery. I can proof that as soon as I’ll get an online tracking number from them.
And as a safety way to do this, I suggest we use eBay. I will list my car on their website with a buy it now offer for you. You may then purchase it and take advantage of their vehicle purchase protection program which will assure you that you’ll get what you’ll pay for. Rest assure that my car is in perfect working condition with outstanding autocheck score.If you are really interested in it let me know and we will find a way to finish this asap.
Thanks for understanding.
Jose A Lopez

Needless to say, I ended communications with this guy immediately.  Another neat little trick he had was to mask his email address.  He used an email address that made it appear that he worked for a school however when I hit reply it changed his email to something different.  You will also find that if you do a Google search for “ Tomorrow I’ll be flying to Yellowknife, Canada, as I just got a great job at Nuna Logistics, the company in charge with the ice road to the diamond mines in north.” it pulls up multiple results showing that this is a scam.

Now I am also trying to sell some wheels on Craigslist and again I have run into a scammer.  Here is the email I received this time around:

Well, i’m okay with the condition and price also ready for purchase. I could make payment via my business or personal check which could be cashed instantly or deposited for clearance so you can be rest assured all is okay before the pick up.

I’ll be responsible for the pick-up and the movers fee will be included in your payment to avoid delay, cost of postage and to enable them schedule an appropriate time for the pick-up at your location as i have other properties to be moved.

Would love to view it but i’m afraid that might not be possible due to my work frame. Do send me more pictures of it. If you’re okay with the plans do write back to me with your full name and address including your cell and land number so i can make out payment.

Hoping to read from you!
Thanks.

Once again, if you Google portions of this email it pulls up results indicating this is a scam.  I am not sure how it works, as I would be selling an item and would not release it until the funds actually showed up, but regardless it is a scam.

So to avoid falling for these you should ask yourself is it too good to be true?  And if it seems legitimate hit reply and see if the email address changes.  If you are still in question, Google both the email address and various parts of the email.  This should pull up results if it is a scammer that has been around for awhile.  And finally, all Craigslist dealings should be done in person and with cold hard cash or at a bank.  This will reduce the likelihood of getting conned.

Here is a short list of some of the free research tools available out there.  I know it is not comprehensive but these just happen to be a few that we prefer.  Enjoy!

Free Keyword Suggestion Tool

Another keyword tool but this one will also give you suggestions.  Probably a good cross reference with Google’s keyword tool among others.
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Keyword Questions

A nifty idea that will show you what people type in the form of a question when it comes to keywords.  For example, “how to I change a light bulb” might be a questions for the keyword phrase “light bulb”.

Google Alerts

Stay on top of the competition, your market and what people are saying about your company with Google Alerts.  These are sent directly to your inbox as they happen and are a great way to stay in the know.  A personal favorite.
http://www.google.com/alerts

Google Trends

A tool that shows you what is the most popular topic in nearly real time.  You can also search certain trends and it will give you an awesome chart and all sorts of fun facts in relation to how trendy your search phrase is like what city it is most popular in.
http://www.google.com/trends

Google’s Keyword Tool

A keyword research tool that shows you some cool things like how popular a word or phrase is, how competitive it is, what month it is most frequently searched for and a whole lot more.
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Google Insights

This little tool can help your marketing efforts by showing you charts and other information about what people think is most important and you can search by regions.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#

Yahoo! Site Explorer

See who is linking to your site or your competitors site by simply entering the domain name in the search box.  This also shows you what pages are indexed by the Yahoo! Search engine.
http://www.google.com/alerts

SEO Quake

SEO Quake is a Firefox plugin that can help you research keywords, meta tags, inlinks and more right from your browser.  This is a must for SEOers.
http://www.seoquake.com/

Rank Checker

Rank Checker is a great tool that will show you where you rank in the top 3 search engines for whatever search strings you input.  This is great for tracking your SEO progress and see where you stand amongst the competition.  This is free but you have to sign up for the SEO book emailer.  Worth it.
http://www.seoquake.com/

As Firefox becomes an increasingly competitive browser in the overall marketplace I find myself

Firefox Explained

getting more and more questions (mostly from family) about how to get setup on it. I decided to do a write up geared toward the non-techies out there to help them get the most of Firefox and to understand it’s differences.

Why Firefox?
Firefox is the Internet browser that was released by the Mozilla folks and has been around for many years now. It was released as an open-source (Means that anyone can alter the code and make improvements or changes) browser primarily designed to compete with Internet Explorer. Over the years Firefox has grown into a feature rich browser that has really put a dent in Microsoft’s browser market share. As of the writing of this article, Firefox boasts nearly 47% market share compared to Internet Explorer’s shrinking share of roughly 40% (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp). This means if you haven’t already, its time to get on the bus (or at least take it for a spin).

Because Firefox is open source, anyone and their mother can create and release add-ons or plugins to tweak the browser to their specifications. To give you an idea, one plugin called ad block plus allows you to block common advertisements thus creating not only a cleaner browser experience, but making your pages load faster. I have also noticed that, in general, Firefox is a more stable browser that crashes less and loads pages faster. So lets get started.

Should I get Firefox?
Yes. Unless you are on a computer owned by your employer, you should get Firefox. If anything I would suggest taking it for a test spin and keeping it on your system as a backup browser should you have issues with your other browser of choice. Now there certainly are some scenarios where you may want to take a rain-check on Firefox. For reasons unknown to me, some developers do not build secure websites that are Firefox friendly. A good example might be your company’s Intranet. While Firefox works on most websites, sometimes there are issues when logging into secure sites and using remote connections. Not to worry though, if you do happen to try to login to a system or site that is not Firefox friendly you are not going to create any major problems. Just simply log out and revisit the site with Internet Explorer. These sites are few and far between and you will surely know pretty quickly if your site is not displaying properly.

Installing Firefox
So on to the good stuff… lets install Firefox. Point your browser to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ and click on the displayed link to get yourself the latest version of Firefox. Either choose to open the link from its location or download the installer and run it from your desktop. When you run the installer it will ask you if you would like to make Firefox your default browser. This means that if you click on a link in an email or anywhere else, it will automatically open up in Firefox. If you are unsure of what to do just keep your current default browser and click no. You can always go back and make Firefox your default browser once you are sold on it. Follow the rest of the directions in the installer and you should be good to go.

When you first open up Firefox it will ask you if you want to import your passwords, bookmarks and settings from Internet Explorer. This is a huuuuuge time saver and I would suggest doing it. Next, make sure you have your homepage of choice. If Firefox is not pointing to the right homepage click on the “tools” tab from the menu bar and then choose “options”. Click on the “Main” tab and make sure that it says “When Firefox starts: show my homepage” then make sure below that you have the right home page. Next, while still in the options menu, click on the “tabs” tab. I personally like to always see the tab bar and if you do too, make sure “always show the tab bar” is checked. I also like to have the “warn me when closing multiple tabs” box checked. You can now go through the rest of the options area and make any other changes you might want. You’re ready to start browsing!

Note, if by accident you choose Firefox as your default browser and didn’t want to you can change it back to Internet Explorer by doing the following. Open Internet Explorer and click on “tools” on the top menu and then go down to “options”. Click the “Programs” tab and then make sure the check box that says “make Internet explorer your default browser” is checked. That’s it!

Getting the most out of Firefox
Now that you have Firefox installed and ready to use it is time to optimize it. Make yourself familiar with https://addons.mozilla.org/ . This is the site where all the great add-ons for Firefox can be found. You can browse through all these add-ons and read the general descriptions of each one and decide if it is right for you or not. Did I mention these are for the most part all free? Well they are.

The first add-on I would start with is adblock plus. This nifty plug-in allows you to block all those annoying ads that usually pop-up and slow down your browser. When you install adblock Firefox will ask you to restart. It will save all your tabs and return you to where you are so click OK. When you restart Firefox it will then take you to a page where you configure which ads to block. Make sure you choose the North America setting. Now for a fun test. Open up Internet Explorer and also keep Firefox open. Go to a site that is usually slow to load… I like to use www.weather.com (it also is full of ads). Open the site in both browsers and see how much faster Firefox loads!

Next I would suggest browsing through the add-ons by popularity. Some suggested add-ons are:

• Flash Got
• Any Color
• Flag fox
• Fox Tab

At this point you should be all setup on Firefox and ready to browse. Enjoy!

As the use of personal computers continues to grow the demand for software at a reasonable price seems to be increasing day by day. As most of us know, there is no shortage of overpriced software packages out there ranging from Intuit Quick books to Microsoft Office. Many will argue that these programs are a necessity in today’s business world however the savvy Internet user can find many alternatives to these types of programs that will suite them just as well. This is the start of a multi-part list of free (or close to free) online tools and software that I found to be extremely useful. For this list I will be covering some of the great communication tools that are available out there. Enjoy!

Communications Tools:

Mozilla Thunderbird:
Thunderbird is an alternative to the pricier Microsoft Outlook with just as many features and the ability to add on user developed gimmicks. Thunderbird is a desktop email application that allows you to manage all of your email accounts within one program. So if you are like me and have on account for registering at sites and unavoidably collecting spam (usually hotmail), another account for personal use (gmail for me) and then finally another account for business, you can manage them all within one simple interface. Tough it does not come with it built in, Thunderbird also has a feature that allows you to manage a calendar, or calenders if you prefer, much like one would within Outlook. This add-on is called Lightning and can be found with a simple add-on search at the Thunderbird website. There are many other free add-ons to this program so feel free to search around and see what you like. Thunderbird is free!
www.mozillamessaging.com

Digsby:
Digsby was developed in the wake of the onslaught of social media applications we have been bombarded with lately. From Facebook to Twitter to Linked in, Digsby can help you manage them all. Do you use AIM? How about Google Chat? Digsby can help you. All you do is download Digsby (Be sure to watch out for all the third party installs they try to get you to sign up for) and set up your various accounts one time only and you are good to go. If you are a social media addict Digsby will be your new best friend. It will alert you of status updates from your friends and you will be able to keep you finger on the pulse of your online life at all times. Digsby is free!
www.digsby.com

Google 411:
This little feature brought to you by the folks at Google is something you can use in your everyday life and not just at the computer. Google offers a free 411 service that is fully automated and can be used from any phone free of charge. Just call 1-800-goog-411 and you will be connected with the Google folks who can help you find what you are looking for. This is particularly helpful if you are out and about and trying to find a store or restaurant. Just call Google. Like most everything else at Google, Google 411 is free! www.google.com/goog411/

Mobile 17:

Mobile 17 gives you the ability to make your own customized ring tone from any mp3 and then have it sent to your phone. The best part about all of this is that it is a free site. The only drawback is that if you choose the free option you have to wait about an hour to have the ring tone sent to your phone. For a small fee you can pay to have the ring tone sent to you immediately.

www.mobile17.com

Magic Jack:

Magic Jack is not a free service but it might as well be. Magic Jack is a usb tool that allows you to connect your home phone to your computer to make phone calls in a VOIP type of setting. It is an initial cost of $39.99 for the actual adapter and that includes the first year of phone service. Every year after that cost $19.99. That’s $19.99 for a whole year of unlimited phone service and unlimited long distance (within the US). You can also configure a Magic Jack to work with your fax machine if you change a few simple settings. Overall Magic Jack is a heck of a deal for what you get.

Google Voice:

Google Voice is a soon to be tool that should it deliver all that it promises will be a big hit. Google Voice promises to be a one stop for all of your phone lines. They say that you will be able to have all your phones ring to one line, be able to record phone conversations, screen calls before you answer them and much more. Google Voice has not yet been released and for more info visit www.google.com/voice .

I will be adding more and updating this list as they come or as I stumble across them.