Archives for 2011

Don’t Fall For The AdWord Express Scam

December 5, 2011 by Sonja Ray 2 Comments

AdWord Express — not to be confused with Google’s AdWords Express — sent me a spam the other day touting their “exclusive top placement” service to put my site at the top of “ALL MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES.”

They actually guarantee that my site will appear above all other sites on every search engine for my selected keywords.

I knew, of course, that it was some sort of scam, but I was curious about exactly what the scam was. They never actually say it in so many words, but apparently their “service” is a browser-based plug-in that inserts an ad for your site at the very top of the page in your web browser.

They key point that they don’t tell you is that only people with their browser plug-in installed will see your ad. Here’s a screenshot of their home page:

The only way AdWord Express could be accomplishing that is with a browser plug-in. Google doesn’t sell ad space like that, and neither do any of the other major search engines.

And here’s a screenshot of their “Browser Upgrade” page:

They very cleverly don’t tell you anywhere that their “EXCLUSIVE TOP PLACEMENT” will only appear to people who install these browser plug-ins, but that’s obviously what they’re doing.

And here’s a screenshot of the status bar for installing the “Upgrade for Internet Explorer” and the “Upgrade for Firefox”:

AdWord Express will install plug-ins to your browsers. Probably malicious malware-laden plug-ins. After all, a company that will scam you in one way is likely to scam you in other ways.

See what’s going on there? The IE “upgrade” will run a program called “Upgrade.exe,” and who knows what that will do on your computer….. The Firefox “upgrade” will run “install_tb_XPI(),” which will install something to Firefox —The name suggests a plugin that displays a toolbar, but who really knows?

AdWordExpress is found at adwordexpress.com. They have a private registration through Network Solutions. I swear that the day I received their spam, they were at adwordexpress.net, but that domain now has a GoDaddy parking page. The two domains were registered on 10/4/11 and 10/6/11, just 2 days apart, so they’re probably the same people. It appears that perhaps GoDaddy has already detected their scam and deactivated their site. The .com is still live through Network Solutions, though.

Please…… don’t anyone fall for this scam. And whatever you do, do not install their “browser upgrades.”

The Cardillo Group

October 3, 2011 by Sonja Ray Leave a Comment

This real estate site combines blogging and real estate MLS listings for an effective visitor experience. Visitors can browse or search real estate listings (pulled from the IDX feed from the local MLS service) and keep up with local news and activities. Showcasing property listings by homes, condos and land in a selection of local communities makes it easy for visitors to find real estate for sale that they may be interested in seeing.

The site uses Google’s language widget to allow visitors to view the site in a language of their choosing. Property listings display a Google map that indicates the location of the property, and each listing page includes a contact form to encourage visitors to contact the Cardillo Group.

The Cardillo Group

Peace River Dog Fanciers

October 2, 2011 by Sonja Ray Leave a Comment

Peace River Dog Fanciers was another pro bono project. I have served on the club’s Board of Directors for several years and I also act as the group’s Webmaster. One of my first actions was to rebuild the site from scratch using WordPress; the old site was created using an old Microsoft online sitebuilder that was not only kludgy and difficult to use, but Microsoft had red-lined it for removal.

The site includes an events calendar, a members-only section, class schedules, online payment of class fees and membership dues via PayPal.

Peace River Dog Fanciers

Ryan’s Subs & Sports Grill

September 18, 2011 by Sonja Ray Leave a Comment

My neighbor needed a simple website with his restaurant’s menu, prices, and operating hours. This fills the bill. Yummy mouthwatering photos, menu, Facebook link. Even a map to the location.

Ryan’s Subs & Sports Grill

Firefox 5/6 — No New Windows!

July 21, 2011 by Sonja Ray 7 Comments

I have Firefox 5 and Firefox 6 installed on my Mac. Nice browser, still my favorite, but it’s got a bug that’s making me batty!

If I have the focused Firefox window on my secondary monitor, I can’t open a new window. I also can’t do anything that would normally result in a new window, such as “View Source” or see “HTTP Live Headers” or open Firebug in a new window.

I have to drag the window over to my primary monitor, get the new window launched, then drag the other window back over to the second monitor.

Firefox, I love ya, but you gotta do windows better!

Lion: The King of All Operating Systems?

July 21, 2011 by Sonja Ray Leave a Comment

Read my account of my initial Lion impressions.

StudioPress Themes

July 21, 2011 by Sonja Ray 4 Comments

The Charlotte Harbor Community Sailing Center uses the Lifestyle theme.

I broke down not long ago and bought the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package — a collection of themes that are all based on StudioPress’s Genesis framework. I have not previously been a WordPress power-user, and I hadn’t previously used WordPress all that much. So I’ve been reluctant to spend money on commercial themes when there are so many free themes readily available. But something about the StudioPress design approach, and their attention to detail and customizability has been catching my eye for a long time.

When I realized how powerful and capable WordPress has become, I knew I needed a collection of themes that I could customize and re-use over and over, so that I didn’t have to keep spending hours hunting for a suitable theme, and then more hours learning how to customize it.

The StudioPress designs are attractive: clean and elegant, not cluttered. The themes are fully widgetized, with plenty of built-in customization options, plus a special plug-in to take advantage of the “hooks” that the Genesis framework uses. They’re mobile responsible and built with HTML5, so they’re able to take advantage of all of the most recent technological advances in website architecture.

There’s a built-in subscription form. Default layout options – Content-Sidebar, Sidebar-Content-Sidebar, extra custom menus in the header. Drop-down menus. Many of the StudioPress themes offer color choices and other extras. Oh, and they’re very search-engine optimized.

One of my favorite aspects is that StudioPress explicitly allows me to use these themes on clients’ sites. I can send a client to the main StudioPress Themes page and tell them, pick out any one that you like, they’re all already paid for.

I created a site for the Charlotte Harbor Community Sailing Center on the Lifestyle Theme. I have to say, I love the Lifestyle theme. I’ve used the Lifestyle theme for several client sites, and I’ll probably switch a couple of others over to Lifestyle. It’s a very clean, elegant design, easy on the eyes, easy to customize, and easy to navigate. Magazine Pro is another favorite. This site uses Agency Pro.