The Fox Blog

It’s been a while since I blogged… Maybe I’ll get back to it soon.
For the moment, if you’re a GoDaddy customer, make sure you use this coupon when you register or renew a domain name. You get the domain for $6.95 instead of $8.95. I just used it, enjoy!
Coupon Code: cjc695dom
Expires: 12/31/06

Yahoo! Publisher is to become the advertising wing of Yahoo! and it will probably become the #1 direct competitor of Google AdSense once it gets fully working and available worldwide – maybe in one or two months. Webmasters will be able to generate revenue by displaying content targeted ads - an advertising concept that has been running for a couple of years now every since Google AdSense was launched. The site mentions “You’ll earn revenue from qualified clicks”, so they probably have an extensive anti-cheat system.

Currently, Yahoo! Publisher is in public BETA mode. The only restriction to try it is being a resident of the U.S. Too bad for me, I can’t try it for the moment… However, I was able to spot some Yahoo! Publisher ads on a couple of web sites, they are similar to Google ads: text-based with a blue border, an ad format that is becoming standardized.

When searching, I also found Google vs. Yahoo! Interface Design, a nice article comparing all the features of Yahoo! and Google!

Just to make it clear from the start, a domain name is an internet URL address such as: www.google.com or www.google.net or else…

I’ve recently renewed some of the several domain names I own and/or manage. My domains registrar is GoDaddy.com, the best in the business if you ask me. They offer the most competitive prices on the market, one of the lowest, and their service is just great. They also are very reliable: I’ve been with Go Daddy for a couple of years now and never had any problems related to hardware failure, I also never received from them a single spam email – they have a very strict policy regarding spam, a part of their site is just dedicated for reporting abuses by Go Daddy domain owners. Another product sold is web hosting packages, inexpensive compared to other hosting companies who charge you $20 a month for a 50 Mb package.

You sometimes even get surprised by free stuff they are willing to give away to you just for being a customer. Some time ago, they offered 100 free email forwarding for each domain name owned by customers; I was surprised to get a couple of hundreds of these just for free without buying anything, I was actually being rewarded for purchasing a product a couple of month earlier. More recently, they added a free pop3 account with each domain name registration or renewal (a feature they used to sell for $9.95). Another amazing offer is the sale of domain names for $3.99 with every non-domain purchase you make; you could thus get a domain name and 1 month hosting for the price of only the domain name (even lower actually).

Another issue GoDaddy.com is getting known for is Radio Go Daddy, an internet radio station that broadcasts once a week during two hours. The show is strictly domain-related and hosted by Bob Parsons (check his blog), founder and president of Go Daddy. I’ve been a listener of the show for some time now, I must admit it’s pretty good; guests are brought to the show (a porn star once, a weird guy another time…) to talk about their domains.

You can get $1 off any purchase at GoDaddy.com by entering “david” as a coupon code. Enjoy!

I’ve been away for a week or so and haven’t checked the progression of one of the site during the time. I remember having in the guestbook something like 15 messages. When I just checked it up today, I got over 70. Wow what a success I told myself… After reading some of the messages, it turned out to be just spam. Check it here.

All the messages include a small word about the site and a link to a web page, the subjects vary, the most common I’ve been seeing on my sites are about selling valium, phentermine or other drugs. Also got some bunch of poker sites spammers.

Ever since some site unleashed the so-called “secrets” of Google ranking, spam messages in forums, guestbooks and more generally the entire web has been increasing dramatically. It is believed that the more sites link to your web page, the better it is ranked on Google, the better it is rank the more traffic you get, the more money you make (you probably already know the story). Google is really great but success has its price, lots of people are abusing from Google services, not just when it comes to page ranking, AdSense as well is an obvious target.