Techy Crap
HotlinkALARM Stymies Image Hotlinkers and Digital
Saturday, January 19th, 2008Hotlink ALARM is a powerful software tool that alerts users via email when their website graphics and digital property are being used without authorization by image hotlinkers and product thieves.
“It gives the advantage back to honest owners of online businesses who’ve been plagued for years by hotlinkers and digital pirates,” said Will Bontrager, a software engineer and co-developer of HotlinkALARM.
HotlinkALARM was conceived by Bontrager, Willie Crawford and Patrick Pretty.
Will Bontrager began his software programming career in 1980, and has produced website software exclusively since 1997. Willie Crawford is a renowned online merchant and Internet Marketer who maintains hundeds of websites. Patrick Pretty is an online entrepreneur and founder of the Patrick Pretty line of digital information products.
“Not only does the unique Hotlink Alarm technology alert users via email when their digital images are being hotlinked, it also enables users to substitute the image being hotlinked with a customized message,” Crawford said.
“Visitors to the thieve’s website will see the substitute image, which alerts them that the hotlinker is using unauthorized images,” Crawford explained. “By employing the special PowerALARM technology built into HotlinkALARM, users can redirect traffic back to the website from which it was stolen.”
HotlinkALARM users receive the software, a default HotlinkALARM substitution graphic to alert visitors to the presence of unauthorized images, plus a package of six optional substitution images.
“Users of HotlinkALARM even can tailor a message they’d like visitors to the hotlinker’s website to see,” said Patrick Pretty. “Hotlink ALARM enables users to recapture traffic lost to hotlinkers, while empowering owners of the product to make a strong statement that they don’t take digital theft lightly.”
The email HotlinkALARM users receive when an unauthorized hotlink is detected includes the URL of the hotlinking web page, information on the type of file that’s being hotlinked, and other pertinent information.
A user of HotlinkALARM can use its built-in control panel to set the system to send an email each time a hotlink is detected or once a day.
“HotlinkALARM also is designed to protect against product theft,” Bontrager said. “Users can set the system to guard against the hotlinking of video, audio, JavaScript files, off-site CGI programs such as forms, and PDF and ZIP files,” Bontrager said.
“If a digital pirate hotlinks files, the owner of the files pays a double penalty,” Crawford said. “Not only does the theft result in lost sales, it often also means the owner is paying higher bandwidth costs because the files are plucked from the owner’s web server.”
Patrick Pretty, who specializes in Internet Marketing branding, said hotlinkers routinely try to gain an advantage by using the owner’s brand identity to create the appearance that a website is legitimate.
“A hotlinker often tries to trick website visitors by posting branded images that have been stolen,” Patrick Pretty said.
“They trade off of the hard work of the website owners and then send them a bill in the form of brand dilution and higher bandwidth charges.”
Also inluded with HotlinkALARM is “Image No Copy,” a software application that makes it difficult for thieves to copy images for exploitation later.
“Image No Copy gives Hotlink Alarm users an extra level of protection,” Bontrager said. “Our specialized technology frustrates thieves, especially when they see that the image they just tried to save to their computer desktop is not the one they thought they were saving.”
HotlinkALARM and its components came to life after the co- founders’ own businesses were affected by an online thief.
Willie Crawford is founder of the The Internet Marketing Inner Circle (TIMIC), a gathering place for online entrepreneurs.
Will Bontrager and Patrick Pretty are TIMIC members.
In October 2007, the members of TIMIC released “20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online,” an information product that became an instant bestseller.
On a Saturday morning shortly after the release of the product, “20 Ways” appeared in an unauthorized eBay listing.
The eBay seller had stolen the product, posting it for one- third of its retail price. And he hotlinked to the “20 Ways” website, stealing images and other intellectual property.
“People were posting postive feedback on eBay for a product that was stolen,” Willie Crawford said. “We set out to do something about it.”
“HotlinkALARM” and its components were the co-founders’ response to the growing problem of online theft.
“It’s time for hotlinkers and digital thieves to stop profiting at the expense of hard-working online merchants and producers of digital merchandise,” Bontrager said.
“Users of HotlinkALARM have an advantage over the pirates,” Bontrager said. “HotlinkALARM was designed to give users a victory over the thieves.”
I highly recommend that you get this product right now! You can get it by going to tomeymarketing.com/recommends/HotLinkAlarm
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Playing With My iPod Again…
Monday, November 12th, 2007Today I was playing with my iPod again. Ever since I got one of the Video iPod’s I’ve been a total crack head about loading it with every marketing thing imaginable.
That way if I’ve ever stuck anywhere, I can just whip out my iPod and watch marketing videos, or listen to marketing audios. Yeah that’s sick… I know… How do you think I got this good though. 
So, I have noticed that there are tons of great marketing related videos on YouTube.com and wanted to find a way to sync my tube with my pod. Meaning Sync my YouTube account with my iPod.
I found a really cool video showing how to sync my iPod with my YouTube account and thought you guys would enjoy too!
Check it out…
Told you I could make ANYTHING related to marketing.
Till next time…
Let’s Learn To Speak Geek
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007Tonight we’re going to get all “geeky” and talk about the technical side of things. Now before you shut your eyes and put your hands over your ears, this is stuff that will make you a geek the easy way.
One of the biggest hurdles for people who want to start a business online or just make some extra coin, is the technical side of things. Uploading files, installing scripts, dealing with 404 pages, making things password protected, redirecting pages, MySQL, subdomains, and all that other “stuff”.
I learned this stuff a LONG time ago, but I learned it all the hard way. Trial and error. Now that I can do these things though I can virtually create anything I want, and do those little tasks that make me a lot of money. I also save a ton of money by not having to hire someone to do this stuff for me.
Well now, you can take the easy way, and get your hands on Bob Jenkins’ “Discover cPanel Diamond Kit” This kit includes 10 step-by-step hold you by the hand videos that show you how to use cPanel (which is included with most hosting accounts) to do all of these “little things” that you have to be a geek to do.
tomeymarketing.com/recommends/cpanelkit
For less than $50 you can get all the video tutorials to teach you everything I named above and more! This is a good investment for your business because it will allow you to do more things to make you money, and will save you money because you no longer will have to pay someone to do this stuff for you!
I highly recommend Bob’s “Discover cPanel Diamond Kit” and if the “geeky” stuff is something you’ve been struggling with then grab it right now from tomeymarketing.com/recommends/cpanelkit
On the front page, you’ll be offered a free video and as soon as you sign up for it, you’ll be able to snatch up the “Discover cPanel Diamond Kit”
Okay, still in “geek mode” here, I have one last cool tool to tell you about that can send your products into a viral frenzy. I’m talking about having stuff passed around the Internet all pointing back to your product. I’ve done a post on the blog all about it and you can see it at tomeymarketing.com/im-truth-newsletter/a-brand-new-kick-butt-video-tool
Okay, that’s all for today… I hope that what I’ve told you about today can help those of you who have been struggling with the technical side of things. I know I tease about it being “geeky” stuff, but these are the real things you need to know to be able to run an online business!
What The Heck Is This Web 2.0 Stuff Anyway…
Thursday, June 14th, 2007We’ve been talking about web 2.0 traffic tactics for the last several months. I’ve gotten a few emails asking me to explain what web 2.0 is and why it’s so important.
So, let’s first talk about WHAT web 2.0 is, and then I’ll tell you why it’s important.
To get the exact definition of web 2.0 you can see what Wikipedia has to say about it by going to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2
The Liz Tomey version of web 2.0 is…
“Anything that you can “do” to interact with other users while promoting your business.”
So, take for example social bookmarking sites. You can interact with thousands (in the case of MySpace millions) of different people and there are tactics that you can use to promote your business to those people.
Another example are video directories like YouTube, Blip.TV, vSocial, and MANY more. These are sites filled with users who watch videos. They could be watching YOUR visitors and by using the right tactics, you could have them coming to YOUR site.
Now, I could go on and on with examples, but I’ll get to web 2.0 tactics in another post.
So, why is this “web 2.0 stuff” so important? Because it’s easy and most of the time free to reach a wide audience of targeted people. It’s like throwing out a HUGE net and getting all the fish you can with each tactic that you use.
Now this is all important because now like never before, you have the chance to get REAL traffic pretty easy, and most of the time VERY quickly.
Just take a look at this screenshot. This is just a little blog that I run for testing…
As you can see in the screenshot, on the days that I am implementing web 2.0 tactics, I am doubling my traffic.
This alone should show you why you should be web 2.0′ing RIGHT NOW!
How did I learn all of this? From Jack Humphrey’s Friday Traffic Report site on blog marketing, his Authority Blackbook, and Ross Goldberg’s Traffic Hurricane step-by-step web 2.0 video tutorials.
Now my secret is out…
Loading My Marketing Videos To My iPod
Friday, June 8th, 2007I finally figured it out…
I have gigs and gigs of marketing videos I’ve downloaded. Infomercials from websites, hot to stuff, you name it. Well I never have time while I’m at home to watch them. My husband got me a video iPod for Christmas and I’ve downloaded from favorite shows from iTunes (like Greys Anatomy and Desperate Housewives) and a few movies for the kids, but I really wanted to get my marketing stuff on it, so when I was traveling I could watch them on my iPod.
I also got this cool little player that looks like a portable DVD player, but I can slip my iPod into it, and it shows on a 6inch screen instead of on my little bitty iPod screen. I got it off eBay for like $90. They sell in stores for around $200… Just an FYI…
Okay, so I was wanting to get these marketing videos on to my iPod, and had absolutely no clue what to do. So I assigned the job of finding out how to do it to of course my husband. Those of you who know him know that I make him do all my dirty work. He’s a good sport though…
After a few hours searching and playing with this and that, he found what I needed and I actually got it to work. Now I have taken these videos that were in .swf and .flv format and have them in a format that plays on my iPod. Whoo hoo… So, how’d we do it?
Okay, I guess I’ll tell you guys. That was the point of this post, right?
First, you’ll need a software to do it. The one I found was allformp3.com/guides-dvd-to-ipod.html
Basically all you have to do is follow the instructions there and you can convert just about anything to mp4 format which is the format that iPod’s play.
Something else I have been wanting to do is take my movies from DVD’s and put them on my iPod. Found out how to do it at that same site. Check out allformp3.com/dvd-to-ipod.html
And here’s something else… Yeah, I’m on a role here…
There are tons of cool marketing videos on YouTube.com here’s a free software that will allow you to take YouTube videos and play them on your iPod allformp3.com/guides-youtube-to-ipod.html
Same site… I love allformp3.com!
Okay, that’s about as techy as I can handle today! Hopefully this info helps. If you guys eat, sleep, and breath marketing info like I do, and have an iPod now you can take your marketing videos where ever you go!
Edit: Something I forgot to mention… If you have .swf files and you want to convert them to your iPod, you will need this allformp3.com/flash-swf-to-ipod.html
Okay, I swear I’m done with the whole video to iPod thing.
