bits & bytes - Ping! Zine Web Tech Magazine

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BETWEEN THE COVERS 

22 

FEATURED ARTICLE 

SERVER COMPROMISED 

What to do in the event of a security breach, 

and how to prevent them in the first place. 

Major security breaches can be disastrous to a web hosting firm. Besides 

the obvious “black eye” that a security issue creates, you also have to 

consider the resulting downtime, potential exposure of customer data, 

customer service time (explaining the situation and helping clients repair 

any damage), and potential client loss that result for almost any major 

security breach. The total cost of these incidents is difficult to accurately 

calculate, and often takes weeks to fully realize. 

8 

BITS & BYTES 

COMODO APPOINT CARLOS REGO AS 

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF PSOFT 

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HOUSE COMMITTEE RELEASES PLAN FOR 

TELECOM REFORM 

BILLS.COM DOMAIN NAME AND TRADEMARKS 

SOLD FOR $964,500 

MODERNBILL INTRODUCES A TCADMIN MODULE 

FOR AUTOMATED GAMESERVER ORDERING 

DOMAIN NAME SOLD FOR $1 MILLION IN CASH 

COMODO APPOINT JUDY SHAPIRO 

TO HEAD GLOBAL MARKETING OPERATIONS 

IPOWER RECEIVES TOP WEB HOSTING AWARD 

FROM TOPTENREVIEWSTM 

JACUZZI, INC. TAKES A BATH IN AUSTRALIA 

AUDRP RULING 

INTERLAND ANNOUNCES SALE OF DEDICATED 

SERVER ASSETS TO PEER 1 NETWORK 

SUPERSERVERS.NET OPENS NEW DATA CENTER 

MICROSOFT ENHANCES HOSTED MESSAGING AND 

COLLABORATION SOLUTION WITH NEW MOBILITY 

FEATURES AND HOSTING TOOLS 

WEB HOSTING COMPANIES UNITE BEHIND 

HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS 


Volume 3 Issue 5 

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HOSTING GURUS 

VALUE ADDED HOSTING FOR RESELLERS 

HISTORY OF MICROSOFT HOSTED EXCHANGE 

A CRITICAL FACTOR: WEBSITE TITLE TAGS 

SERVER SECURITY 

MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE OF IDENTITY AND 

TRUST ASSURANCE (ITA) 

THE SPAM ECONOMY 

SALES & MARKETING 

SIX STEPS TO ENSURING SITE 

VISITOR RETURN 

EMAIL MARKETING: TIPS FOR IMPROVING 

RESPONSE AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT 

BUSINESS ISSUES 

HOW TO DRIVE CUSTOMERS 

TO YOUR WEBSITE 

TRANSACTION FEES: 

DEBIT CARDS VS. CREDIT CARDS 

WINNING THE CLICK FRAUD BATTLE 

JUST REPLACE THE PILOT 

PRODUCT REVIEW 

PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINE 

MARKETING HANDBOOK 

JUST FOR FUN 

HOST LAUGHS 

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www.pingzine.com 5

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS 

Blue Pay............................................................................. 2-3 

Bocacom ............................................................................... 7 

1 & 1 Internet ............................................................................ 9 

Touch Support..................................................................... 11 

Press Advance ...................................................................... 13 

Webhosting Prospector ...................................................... 13 

IRun ....................................................................................... 15 

Bizland .................................................................................. 17 

Matrix Reseller ..................................................................... 19 

EV1 Servers ................................................................ 20-21, 41 

Control Scan ......................................................................... 25 

Host Gator ...........................................................................27 

Design Var .......................................................................... 29 

Ad Watcher ........................................................................ 33 

Rackmount Micro ................................................................. 35 

Extreme Internet Solutions ................................................... 39 

Demo Demo.......................................................................... 43 

Searchfeed .......................................................................... 47 

Rackmounts Etc. .................................................................. 49 

Techpad Agency.................................................................. 51 

Host Hideout ...................................................................... 55 

SWsoft ............................................................................. 57-59 

Psoft ...................................................................................... 61 

iPower........................................................................... 65 

Modern Bill........................................................................... 67 

Site 5 ..................................................................................... 68 

Our Team Contributing Writers 

Publisher Keith A. Duncan 

Publications Director Kunal Jhunjhunwala 

Senior Editor Reece Sellin 

Editor/Senior Graphic Designer Derek Morris 

Sales Executive Jennifer L. Bayly 

Accounting Sheryl Duncan 

Daniel J. Briere 

Conrad Agramont 

Derek Vaughan 

Steve Roylance 

Eran Aloni 

Searchfeed.com 

Dan Lok 

Brad Stone 

Brad Bialas 

Ron Dunlap 

Boris Mordkovich 

Jeff Huckaby 

Advisory Board 

Isabel Wang, Former Publisher Web Hosting Magazine 

Deb Discenza, Former Asso. Publisher HostingTech 

Ben Fisher, Co-Owner TechPad Agency 

Aaron Shapiro, Owner HostHideout 

Dave Waldack, VP Thruport Technologies 

Contact Information 

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Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine c December 2005, Published and copyrighted 

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www.pingzine.com 7

BITS & BYTES 

Comodo Appoints Carlos Rego 

as Managing Director of PSOFT 

Comodo Inc, a global leader in Identity and Trust 

Assurance Management solutions today announced the 

appointment of Carlos Rego as Managing Director of 

PSOFT. 

Mr. Rego has worked for PSOFT since 2002 as 

Director of Business Development and will now assume 

full control of global sales, marketing and business 

development operations. Prior to joining PSOFT, Carlos 

served in a wide range of senior management positions 

including president of datacenter and hosting company 

Datacolo, and CEO/Owner of WizardsHosting. 

“From day one, Carlos took an energetic and 

proactive approach to the establishment and nurturing 

of relationships with key business partners,” commented 

Igor Seletskiy, Technical Director Comodo Inc. “His 

extensive knowledge of the web hosting and data center 

industry has been invaluable both to the continuing 

growth of PSOFT and to the development of our range 

of hosting infrastructure solutions. We are delighted that 

Carlos will use this track record to help shape PSOFT 

and H-Sphere into the dominant force in the web hosting 

industry.” 

PSOFT, whose assets include offices in Brooklyn, USA 

and a huge development center in Ukraine, were acquired 

by Comodo in 2004. 

Further information can be found at www.psoft.net and 

www.comodo.com. 

House Committee Releases 

Plan for Telecom Reform 

The New Draft Improved, But Still Flawed says 

Competitive Enterprise Institute Technology Counsel 

The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce 

this week released a “Staff Discussion Draft” of its plan for 

reforming regulation of the telecommunications industry. 

The Staff Discussion Draft is a noticeable improvement 

over the draft previously circulated by the Committee. And 

while it updates current law to reflect new technologies and 

ways of communicating, for IP-based communications it 

actually creates new regulation. Consumers and industry alike 

would be best served by legislation that is deregulatory in all 

aspects. 

The draft bill includes troubling provisions that prevent 

video providers from targeting early adopter consumers 

(“redlining”), even though this business practice is common 

in most other technology industries. It still requires the filing 

of registration statements with the FCC for broadband, VoIP 

and video providers – regardless of size, messaging platform 

or need for price regulation – that raises potential civil liberty 

implications. And the draft bill does nothing to reduce the 

number of telecommunications lawyers in Washington, D.C., 

due to broad language on interconnection, consumer protection, 

and universal service. 

Broadly speaking, new telecom legislation should be more 

than just an update of existing law to reflect new technologies. 

It’s time to go back to first principles and not just revisit the 

1996 Telecom Act, but analyze the basis for communications 

regulation itself. Market players – both consumers and 

telecom companies – deserve more than a mere “update.” 

For maximum benefit, the structure and powers exercised by 

the FCC need to be radically re-examined and, in most cases, 

phased out altogether. 

....................... 


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www.pingzine.com 9

BITS & BYTES 

Bills.com Domain Name and 

Trademarks Sold for $964,500 

by Derek Vaughan, The Hosting News 

www.thehostingnews.com 

The domain name and trademark of bills.com has been sold 

for $964,500 and other considerations. Payment Data Systems, 

Inc., an integrated electronic payments solutions provider, 

today announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to sell the 

domain to Alivio Holdings, LLC (Alivio), parent of Freedom 

Financial Network, LLC (FFN), Freedom Debt Relief, LLC 

(FDR) and Freedom Tax Relief, LLC (FTR) of San Mateo, 

California. 

The intended asset sale has a number of key and important 

strategic elements to it: 

-- PDS will sell the 

assets (domain and 

trademarks) of bills. 

com and related services 

to Alivio for $964,500 

dollars. 

• PDS will retain all assets of bills.com exclusive of the bills. 

com domain and bills.com trademark and gain new revenue. 

• PDS and FFN will agree that PDS build and run a private 

labeled bill payment site for FFN. 

• FFN will pay to PDS, a recurring fee for each subscriber 

they acquire into the new bills.com program, and guarantee 

$72,000 in minimum subscriber fees to PDS. 

• FTR, a wholly owned affiliate of Alivio Holdings, LLC, 

will engage PDS for additional services not directly related 

to the bills.com transaction. This includes ACH processing, 

Returned Check processing, and credit card processing. 

• FFN will commit a minimum of $180,000 to be applied 

to marketing bill payment services for the new bills.com 

website. 

• FFN is projecting that the FFN bills.com website, powered 

by billx.com, could have over 5,000 subscribers within the 

next twelve months. 

This projected growth will generate over $25,000 a month in 

additional subscriber revenue for PDS. 

Additional and important aspects of the transaction include: 

• PDS will rename their subsidiary Bills.com, Inc. to Billx. 

com, Inc. or similar name. 

• All existing customers of the current bills.com service 

will be ported to the new billx.com domain without service 

interruption. 

• PDS, through billx.com, will not lose any existing revenue 

as a result of this transaction. In fact, servicing the new FFN 

bills.com website will bring in new revenue. 

The anticipated effects of the agreement and the associated 

follow on transactions are: 

• The transaction and related agreements should be accretive 

to earnings for PDS over the term of the agreements. 

• Positions PDS for positive EBITDA (earnings before 

interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and net income 

in the fourth quarter of 2005 and eliminates our debt. 

• Positions billx.com to accomplish a number of existing and 

new initiatives include: 

• Expands and enhances our ability to acquire and deliver 

private-labeled sites for banks, debit card issuers, and credit 

unions quickly and efficiently. A differentiating and valuable 

component of our solution allows these private-labeled sites 

to be operated as payment consolidators for all bills not just 

their own bills. 

• Enhances PDS’ ability to expand delivery of bill payment, 

account transfer, and debit-card loading technologies to new 

clients, particularly those in the debt management industry 

with “customer-facing” needs. 

“We are very pleased with this event,’’ stated Michael Long, 

Chairman and CEO of PDS. ‘’Clearly the agreements when 

fully executed validate the viability of our strategy of private 

labeling and create a cash position that significantly changes 

our financial profile and opens up new opportunities for PDS. 

We expect these agreements to be completed within the current 

week.’’ 

Andrew Housser, Co-CEO of Alivio and Freedom Financial 

Network, added, ‘’We are very excited about the acquisition of 

bills.com and see this as a key step in enhancing our brand and 

profile in the consumer debt management industry. In addition 

we look forward to entering the fast growing bill payment space 

by partnering with one of the leading players in the industry.’’ 

To learn more, please visit: www.paymentdata.com or www. 

freedomfinancialnetwork.com. 


ModernBill introduces a TCAdmin 

Module for automated gameserver ordering 

ModernGigabyte, LLC, a leading developer of automated and 

integrated billing solutions for hosting providers, and Balance 

Servers, producer of the TCAdmin game control panel, today 

announced support for TCAdmin in the latest build of ModernBill 

4.3.2. The integration between ModernBill and TCAdmin 

represents a complete solution for Gaming Service Providers 

(GSPs), providing them a scalable and automated system for 

delivering their products. 

TCAdmin is the first GSP panel to have a built-in integration 

module within ModernBill. This will mean that GSPs will be able 

to completely automate the ordering, payment, fraud verification 

and service provisioning for game servers. This automation 

will significantly lower overhead costs of operating a GSP and 

improve the service delivery to game players everywhere. 

Balance Servers found that the two products are very similar 

in their design. Both offer the flexibility to do things the GSPs 

own way, instead of forcing a method on their companies. And 

both companies seem to have found out that by listening to their 

clients, and incorporating new features that their clients want, 

the software becomes even more flexible and appealing to new 

clients as well. 

“With the release of the TCAdmin Module for ModernBill, 

we as a company can honestly say that ModernGigabyte and its 

staff are truly a great group of people to work with,” said Balance 

Servers Co-owner, Kevin O’Donnell. “And we would fully 

encourage other companies to work with them as well.” 

ModernBill’s order process has the ability to accept many 

additional variables that create package add-ons. When used with 

the TCAdmin module, the order process supports over 20 add-ons 

that let the GSP collect all of the required information from the 

customers and fully automate the order based on those variables. 

ModernBill supports every administrative variable found in 

TCAdmin. The system can automatically create, delete, suspend 

and unsuspend services based on payment or nonpayment. 

www.pingzine.com 11

BITS & BYTES 

Domain Name Sold 

for $1 Million in Cash 



Domain name broker, Afternic.com has announced that it 

managed the $1 million sale of Fish.com between an undisclosed 

private party and www.dog.com, a discount dog supplies 

company and the new owner of the high-value domain name. 

The all-cash sale sets a new record for e-commerce transactions 

this year. 

Only one other domain name sale, a transaction related to 

off-shore gaming, had a higher nominal price tag. That deal, 

however, included a cash payment of well under $1 million plus 

stock of still-indeterminate value. 

Afternic President Roger Collins commented on the 

transaction, “The Fish.com transaction underscores the value of 

owning a mission-critical domain name. There is no question 

that premium names help businesses establish the impression 

of brand leadership and allow them to become more effective 

Internet marketers.’’ 

Mr. Collins said that not only does a domain name like Fish. 

com generate excellent search engine results, but it is an ideal 

domain to drive “type-in” traffic to the new owner’s business. 

Type-in traffic is generated by consumers who simply type a 

generic URL into a browser and land on a site. 

Facilitating the record-breaking deal, Afternic guided the 

acquisition by delivering the offer, serving as agent during 

escrow and acting as a conduit in negotiations that preserved 

both parties’ anonymity while ensuring all expectations were 

met. 

‘’Due to the explosive growth of business and consumer 

usage of the web, good domains are becoming more and more 

valuable, and the best and most memorable names have already 

been registered. This is where an aftermarket partner such as 

Afternic can be instrumental in acquiring that key domain 

name,’’ Collins said. 

Dog.com CEO Dr. Alex Tabibi agreed that working with 

Afternic ensured security and confidentiality for a transaction 

that otherwise could have been much more complicated and 

might have required extensive legal fees. 

Dr. Tabibi commented, ‘’Afternic’s involvement created an 

atmosphere of trust and as much of a turnkey experience as 

one could expect with a transaction of this size. Even parties 

conducting much smaller deals than ours would benefit from 

their services, which included a secure escrow account.’’ 

Mr. Collins noted that Afternic.com has posted triple-digit 

annual growth since he acquired it from Register.com in 2002. 

He attributed the site’s success to its creation of an extensive 

exchange network in which members gain greater exposure 

for their listings and partner domain name registrars earn 

commissions from Afternic. Afternic provides a “one-stop 

shop” where consumers can purchase secondary domains in a 

secure, anonymous environment. Some of the industry’s leading 

registrars, including Register.com, eNom.com and Eurodns. 

com, are Afternic partners. 

Dr. Tabibi, the owner of other premium pet-related domains 

such as Horse.com, Bird.com and Ferret.com, plans to create a 

user-friendly super-site that caters to an array of fish fanciers’ 

needs. The site will be designed as a source for supplies, 

information, forums and news. Fish.com plans to offer customer 

discounts of up to 70 percent on supplies such as aquariums, 

food and fish tank accessories by eliminating retail middlemen. 

The site, which is scheduled to go live in the second quarter 

of 2006, will also offer multi-tiered pricing for both industry 

professionals and hobbyists. 

With the acquisition of Fish.com, Tabibi believes he has 

created a unique commodity on the Internet, where several key 

domain names in one category are leveraged to foster crosstraffic. 

‘’The combined synergy of the other names means we 

will be very strong across the pet-supply category,’’ he added. 

‘’No one else has done this online to this extent.’’ 

Since the demise of Pets.com, Tabibi noted, the pet-supply 

space has been largely abandoned with no significant “e-tailer” 

focusing on the channel. He plans to lead the space. Evidencing 

this, he points to sales at Dog.com, which grew 80 percent this 

year, with similar projections for 2006. 

To learn more about Afternic.com, please visit: www.afternic. 

com. 


Comodo appoints Judy Shapiro 

to head global marketing operations 

Comodo Inc., a global leader in Internet security, authentication 

and assurance services, today announced the appointment of 

Judy Shapiro as VP of Marketing. Ms. Shapiro’s background and 

experience in technology marketing will strengthen Comodo’s 

substantial leadership and growth in Identity Assurance 

Management solutions for businesses, infrastructure service 

providers and end-users. 

Ms. Shapiro joins Comodo from Computer Associates 

where most recently she was VP, Marketing responsible for 

customer acquisition, retention and upsell efforts. Prior to 

joining Computer Associates, Ms. Shapiro held several senior 

management positions at Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs, 

Metropolitan Telecommunications and AT&T in the areas of 

marketing, market development, new technologies and corporate 

strategy. Ms. Shapiro also had been a Vice President at NWAyer, 

an advertising agency, where she managed numerous accounts 

including Procter & Gamble, JCPenney, Gillette and Chemical 

Bank. 

“Judy immediately identified Comodo’s core competencies 

and built a plan to leverage them,” said Melih Abdulhayoglu, 

President and CEO Comodo; “She will take a strong, customerfocused 

organization to the next step by developing and 

executing strategies designed to promote Comodo’s innovative 

range of products and solutions. We recognize her distinctive 

leadership style will be a strong and positive impact on the 

performance of the business.” 

Ms. Shapiro earned her degree from the City University of NY 

within numerous disciplines including Marketing, Advertising 

and History. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two 

children. 

www.pingzine.com 13

BITS & BYTES 

IPOWER Receives Top Web Hosting 

Award from TopTenREVIEWS TM 

IPOWERWEB, Inc., a leading Web site hosting provider 

for small businesses, announced it has been awarded the 

top award – the Gold Award – for Web Hosting by Top 

TenREVIEWSTM for 2006. Top TenREVIEWS is an 

Internet publisher of expert product reviews for software 

and web services and has served over 25 million visitors 

since its in inception in January of 2003. 

“This web host offers an astounding 10 GB of storage 

and a monthly transfer ability of 250 GB,” stated Top 

TenREVIEWS on their Web site. “They also offer more 

eCommerce tools than any other host, including a choice 

of shopping carts, marketing tools and a shared SSL 

Certificate.” 

“We are very excited to receive the top honor for Top 

TenREVIEWS’ Web Hosting category for 2006,” said 

T. Griffin Conrad, Executive Vice President and V.P. of 

Marketing at IPOWER. “We work hard to create Web site 

packages that address our customers’ needs, and we are 

very proud to receive such a distinctive award as this for 

our efforts.” 

“When considering a web hosting service, you need a 

provider that offers robust features in hosting, versatile 

product offerings and exceptional customer service,” said 

Jerry Ropelato, CEO/President of TopTenREVIEWS. 

“IPOWER has accomplished this and clearly surpasses all 

the competition.” 

IPOWERWEB, Inc., founded in October 2001, is the 

5th largest Website hosting company worldwide. Over 

350,000 customers in over 100 countries depend on 

IPOWER to build, manage, promote and profit from an 

online presence. 

Established in January 2003, TopTenREVIEWS, Inc. is 

an Internet publisher of expert product reviews for software 

and web services. The company provides online shoppers 

with free access to in-depth product reviews, side-by-side 

feature comparisons, industry-related news and articles, 

online help, and safe links to purchase products. We do 

the research so you don’t have to. For more information 

about TopTenREVIEWS, visit www.toptenreviews.com. 

Jacuzzi, Inc. Takes a Bath 

in Australia AUDRP Ruling 

by Jeffrey A. Cohen 

Jacuzzi, Inc. of Dallas Texas initiated administrative proceedings 

against the Jacuzzi Unit Trust of Patterson Lakes, Australia to 

recover the domain name jacuzzi.com.au. The three judge panel 

found that although Jacuzzi Inc. has registered the JACUZZI 

trademark, or variations thereof, in at least 83 different countries 

including Australia, and although the domain in question was found 

to be confusingly similar to the JACUZZI trademark, the evidence 

was insufficient to order the transfer of the domain name. 

This will likely not be the end of the question, however. The 

Jacuzzi Unit Trust denied infringement on the grounds that the 

Complainant’s registered trademarks, or the term “Jacuzzi”, is 

or has become “descriptive” – a common defense to trademark 

infringement allegations. The panel found that the issues raised in 

the matter required a more in-depth analysis of the issues than could 

be provided in a WIPO administrative hearing. The panel stated “A 

proper assessment of [the issues] requires much wider evidence 

gathering powers, including discovery and cross-examination 

of witnesses, than is available in an administrative proceeding 

of this kind. In view of the limited nature of these administrative 

proceedings as proceedings on the papers, therefore, the Panel’s 

finding cannot, and should not, be taken as a final endorsement of 

the Respondent’s claims.” 

The opinion noted in particular that shortly after the 

commencement of the administrative proceeding, Jacuzzi, Inc. also 

commenced Federal Court proceedings No VID316 of 2005. The 

panel’s comments indicate clearly that in matters with significant 

issues of fact such as were involved in this matter, the courts offer a 

better forum and a fuller investigation of the issues presented than 

....................... 

can be offered by the WIPO arbitration process. 


www.pingzine.com 15

BITS & BYTES 

Interland Announces Sale of Dedicated 

Server Assets to Peer 1 Network 

Interland (NASDAQ: INLD), a leading provider of Web sites 

and online services for small and medium-sized businesses, 

announced that it has sold its dedicated server assets to Peer 1 

Network Enterprises, Inc., a provider of high performance Internet 

infrastructure, for a purchase price of approximately $14 million in 

cash. Under the terms of the agreement, Peer 1 Network acquired 

approximately 8,300 servers, as well as operating facilities in 

Atlanta, GA, Miami, FL, and Fremont, CA. The dedicated server 

assets accounted for approximately 37% of Interland’s revenues 

for the nine-month period ending May 31, 2005. 

“The sale of the dedicated server assets is an important milestone 

in our restructuring plan and allows Interland to invest in our 

core lines of business - providing Web sites and online services 

to small and medium-sized businesses,” said Jeffrey M. Stibel, 

CEO of Interland. “This transaction gives the company increased 

financial flexibility and is the first step toward focusing on our 

core competencies while realigning our revenues with high 

margin, high growth business initiatives.” 

The company’s dedicated customers, which represent 

approximately 5% of Interland’s total accounts, should experience 

no immediate change in services and should receive continuity of 

Web site operations under Peer 1 Network. The goal is to ensure 

a seamless transition for employees and customers, enabling both 

companies to focus on their core lines of business. Interland will 

provide more detail on the transaction’s impact on its business 

in its future SEC filings and on the next quarterly earnings 

conference call. 

Disposing of the dedicated server assets will allow Interland to 

realize significant savings, including long term lease obligations 

associated with the three data center facilities, capital expenditures 

associated with the ongoing purchase of dedicated servers, 

multiple bandwidth contract eliminations, and a substantial 

reduction in the number of employees. The $14 million in gross 

cash proceeds will be reduced by $2.8 million that will be held 

in an escrow account for 12 months and by approximately $1.4 

to $2.2 million in transaction-related expenses. The company 

expects that the transaction will have a net negative effect in the 

range of $1.5 to $3.0 million on its reported net earnings for its 

fourth quarter mostly as a result of non-cash charges. 

Under the deal, Interland employees will continue to run the 

dedicated server business, under Peer 1’s management, for 

approximately 90 days after closing. Peer 1 will have the 

opportunity to extend employment offers to those employees 

during the 90- day transition period. 

SuperbServers.Net 

Opens new Data Center. 

SuperbServers.Net, a subsidiary of Superb Internet 

Corporation, a world leader in managed Internet and e-commerce 

solutions, unveiled its third Data Center today. 

The state of the art facility, located just south of Seattle, 

Washington will host between 5000 and 7000 customer 

servers. 

Equipped with three 500KVA N+1 redundant UPS’s and a 

1.5MW diesel generator power backup system, 180 tons of AC 

power, with easy expandability up to 540 tons, fibre redundancy 

through multiple private SONET rings via multiple carriers, 

and a redundant architecture Gigabit Ethernet-based internal 

network using Cisco backbone-grade equipment, the SEA2 

Data Center is among the very best in the business. 

“We’re tremendously proud of this new facility”, said 

Haralds Jass, President & CEO, “Everything is top of the line 

and designed to provide the very highest level of service to our 

customers.” 

SuperbServers.net is committed to providing flexible, 

customizable dedicated server solutions at affordable prices. 

“The Seattle Data Center allows us to offer an even wider range 

of services and support a broader range of customers. We are 

planning for significant growth in 2006 and Seattle is a critical 

component of that plan,” said Sasha Wilson, VP Sales and 

Marketing. 

Superb Internet has offices and 24-hour/365-day operations in 

Washington, DC, McLean, VA, Tukwila, WA, and Vancouver, 

....................... 

BC, serving customers in over 150 countries worldwide. 


BITS & BYTES 

Microsoft Enhances Hosted Messaging 

and Collaboration Solution With New 

Mobility Features and Hosting Tools 

Microsoft Corp. announced Microsoft® Solution for Hosted 

Messaging and Collaboration version 3.5, a hosted solution that 

enables service providers to equip small and midsize businesses 

(SMBs) with enterprise-class e-mail services, mobile device 

data access, team Web sites and online presence information. In 

version 3.5, Microsoft incorporates new mobile synchronization 

capabilities, a variety of security enhancements, and new tools 

that lessen management time and extend customer acquisition 

opportunities for hosting partners. Further, with the latest release 

of the solution, Microsoft underscores its commitment to building 

strategic relationships with telecommunications and hosting 

service providers to deliver a range of services to businesses. 

“More and more small and midsize businesses require advanced 

enterprise-class features once reserved only for corporations with 

extensive IT budgets. The latest release of Hosted Messaging 

and Collaboration addresses that issue with unprecedented new 

features for these organizations,” said Pascal Martin, general 

manager of Worldwide Hosting at Microsoft. “Hosting providers 

are clamoring for ways to meet the demands of their customers 

while keeping a tight rein on costs. By providing a consistent 

platform, we give our hosting partners the tools to upgrade to 

the latest software and thereby differentiate their offerings with 

minimal effort and cost.” 

Business-Class Communication Tools for SMBs 

Targeted at companies with between 10 and 250 users and 

delivered through hosting providers, version 3.5 provides businessclass 

communication tools on a variety of computing mediums, 

such as a desktop computer in the office or a mobile device 

on the road. This update offers small and midsize businesses a 

cutting-edge messaging and collaboration solution with minimal 

upfront costs, and helps reduce the need for internal IT resources. 

End users can now benefit from Microsoft messaging solutions 

through Windows Mobile-based phones and personal digital 

assistants (PDAs) running Windows Mobile 5.0. With direct push 

technology, users will now have up-to-the minute access to e- 

mail, calendar appointments and task notifications. New mobile 

security features include the ability to wipe data from devices 

that have been lost or stolen and set up automated rules to help 

prevent access by unauthorized users. 

“For a company our size, running and maintaining our own 

e-mail and document-sharing server is a proposition we would 

prefer to avoid. Yet communicating with both customers and our 

employees is such a critical component of business, it’s not an 

area of operations we can neglect,” said Graeme Lloyd-Roberts, 

technical director at Bellwether Enterprises Ltd. “Through 

our hosting provider, we have a robust, stable e-mail system, 

document-sharing capabilities, and access to the latest and 

greatest software. We have enterprise-class technology at smallbusiness 

prices.” 

“Small and midsize companies see a benefit in choosing 

enterprise-class hosted e-mail services in response to the growing 

complexities of in-house messaging systems, brought on by the 

challenges of managing spam, virus prevention, storage, archiving 

and compliance requirements,” said Marcel Nienhuis, senior 

market analyst at the Radicati Group Inc. “Microsoft Solution 

for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration is an attractive option 

for service providers because it allows them to meet this demand, 

along with helping provide additional revenue opportunities. 

With service providers hosting the solution, small and midsize 

businesses can focus on their business without worrying about 

technology concerns or recurring costs.” 

Enabling Service Providers 

With Microsoft Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 

3.5, service providers can help simplify application deployment, 

accelerate customer acquisition and improve customer satisfaction 

through a complete, end-to-end messaging and collaboration 

suite. The pre-engineered solution includes deployment 

automation tools and scripts, code samples, and documented 

procedures and best practices that help allow for rapid time to 

market. Management and monitoring tools ease administration of 

the solution and help provide superior service levels to end users. 

Additional new features in version 3.5 include these: 

· Automated password synchronization between hoster 

directories and end-customer accounts 

· New customer migration tools and updates to key 

technology components 

“Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 

has enabled us to cut our solution deployment time two-thirds 

by using the pre-tested provisioning system as the foundation 

for our turnkey private-label Hosted Exchange platform,” said 

Ravi Agarwal, chief executive officer of groupSPARK Inc. “Our 

resellers see mobility as a key driver for their small and mediumsized 

business customers, and the version 3.5 upgrade allows us 

to quickly meet their demand without making a large investment 

in our platform.” 

“Microsoft provides a consistent platform that enables us to 

fully upgrade to the latest solutions available without having to 

perform a forklift upgrade every two or three years,” said Mark 

Adams, managing director of Cobweb Solutions Ltd. “The 

resellers we engage with see mobility as a key driver for their 

small and medium-sized business customers. Microsoft Solution 

for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 3.5 will allow us to meet 

that demand, while also cutting deployment time of the entire 

solution by 67 percent over the best alternative of building the 

capabilities from scratch.” 

“For a communications company like TELUS, [a large 

Canadian teloc], the Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging 

and Collaboration is a very good way to simultaneously offer 

connectivity and hosted services,” said Robert Tasker, vice 

president of product marketing at TELUS Business Solutions. 

“It allows us to combine our expertise in hosting and services 

management with Microsoft applications so we can offer the 

business market a complete managed solutions portfolio.” 

Availability 

Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 

version 3.5 is nowavailable worldwide. More information 

on Microsoft’s hosting solutions can be found at http://www. 

microsoft.com/serviceproviders/hostedmessaging. 

Those interested in more information on Microsoft Solution 

for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 3.5 can attend a 

free Microsoft seminar, running worldwide from December 2005 

through February 2006. Registration information is available at 

http://www.msattend.com. 

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide 

leader in software, services and solutions that help people and 

businesses realize their full potential. 


WEB HOSTING COMPANIES 

UNITE BEHIND HURRICANE 

RELIEF EFFORTS 



The web hosting community was directly impacted by 

hurricane Katrina earlier this year. Here is a summary of the 

broad-based humanitarian effort across the entire industry: 

Affinity Internet, Inc. donated to the Red Cross and matched 

employee contributions. Go Daddy announced a $250,000 

donation to Americares. Interland worked with customers that 

were actively involved in using the Internet to provide relief such 

as Ken Burton of the GulfCoastNews.com. The GulfCoastNews. 

com is operating the Katrina Survivor-Connector List, an 

interactive database that permits users to list the person or 

families they are looking to find. IPOWER, one of the nation’s 

largest hosting providers, has recently relocated its headquarters 

to Phoenix, Arizona, and collected goods for the over 500 

evacuees that were brought to the Phoenix area. Rackspace 

Managed Hosting provided free hosting to a number of missing 

persons sites and a relief portals. In addition, the company and 

its employees made a large cash donation to the Food Bank. 

Website Host Directory, a leading web hosting portal, in addition 

to donating to the Red Cross, worked together with the greater 

hosting industry to announce relief efforts underway, and help 

its web hosting clients respond effectively to the disaster. At the 

peak of charitable activity, the redcross.org donation site was 

receiving 1.7 million page views and 512,000 unique visitors 

in a single day. The overflow of traffic could potentially have 

overwhelmed the site, if not for a different type of charitable 

giving - the hardware, software and human resources to keep 

the site live and accepting the critical donations. This task was 

generously undertaken by Yahoo! Small Business. The Red 

Cross and Microsoft launched a tool that the two organizations 

created together - a website that consolidates data on missing 

persons and evacuees to help families locate and register missing 

relatives at http://www.katrinasafe.org. These are but a small 

portion of the donations and efforts put forth for Katrina victims 

by the web hosting industry. 

www.pingzine.com 19


www.pingzine.com 21

SERVER COMPROMISED 

What to do in the event of a security breach, and how to 

prevent them in the first place. 

by Adam C. Greenfield 


[featured article] 

Major security breaches can be disastrous to a web hosting 

firm. Besides the obvious “black eye” that a security 

issue creates, you also have to consider the resulting 

downtime, potential exposure of customer data, customer service 

time (explaining the situation and helping clients repair any 

damage), and potential client loss that result for almost any major 

security breach. The total cost of these incidents is difficult to 

accurately calculate, and often takes weeks to fully realize. 

It’s thus unsurprising that security is an area of high concern 

for most hosting providers. Keeping a server secure, while 

maintaining a high level of usability with the wealth of software 

offered on a modern hosting server, is a delicate balance to 

strike. Your server may be extremely secure, but if that security 

negatively impacts features important to your customer, it won’t 

matter, because your customers will leave. Similarly, offering a 

“Wild West” server with no security considerations at all will 

result in angry customers when the downtime due to re-installs 

starts piling up. As your company grows, scale becomes a major 

concern too; spending ten minutes per day on each server for 

installing updates and fixing security issues may be acceptable 

when you only have half a dozen servers, however you will 

quickly find such a time commitment is not acceptable when 

you’re talking about three hundred servers. 

When making decisions about how best to secure your systems, 

you should first consider the nature of the beast. Security is not 

some sort of isolated goal that can be addressed in a vacuum; 

It needs to be considered in conjunction with all the other 

operational decisions you make on a daily basis. New flaws, 

exploitation methods, and software updates literally occur minute 

by minute. If you’re going to keep up, you need to make sure that 

you can quickly address potential security problems as they are 

discovered. 

One of the most critical systems to put in place is the ability to 

deploy updates and fixes across your fleet of servers. The most 

efficient method I’ve found for this is utilizing existing package 

management tools. Almost every major operating system offers 

some solution for deploying updates on a regular schedule (i.e. 

daily). Properly leveraging this ability is crucial. I also recommend 

not only subscribing your machines to trusted updated sources 

(such as those from your software vendors), but also creating your 

own means for deploying, at will, updates that you deem critical. 

This will enable you to deploy customized fixes and potentially 

release critical security updates prior to your vendor making them 

available for you. 

Another critical system to implement is one that allows you 

to quickly verify the integrity of the software installed on your 

servers. Again, most package management utilities offer the 

ability to verify installed packages, however you must bear in 

mind that if you consider a machine to be suspect, the output of 

any software on that machine should also be considered suspect 

as well. If someone has gained root (or Administrator) access to 

your machine, they could potentially alter any component of the 

system, causing it to present whatever data they wished. 

Monitoring baseline trends of system resource usage (such as 

memory usage, processor usage, and disk space) can also provide 

an invaluable first warning system to alert you to a potential 

security breach. Often, the person breaking into your system wants 

to utilize your system resources to further another goal (such as 

trading warez, sending spam, and potentially even compromising 

additional systems). If you notice a spike in resource usage, it 

may alert you to a problem before you receive any complaints, or 

before you notice anything has been changed. 

These systems are a solid asset to server security, not only 

because they yield tangible benefits in the form of improved 

www.pingzine.com 23


uptime and service reliability, but also because you can implement 

all three of them, on any number of machines, with some simple 

automation. Automation is one of the keys to good system 

security, because it ensures that security policies and checks 

are implemented uniformly, as scheduled, and helps keep costs 

down by limiting person-hours spent performing repetitive tasks. 

Believe me, nobody wants to recompile Apache on a hundred 

servers when a security update is released! 

Now that we have discussed how to better maintain security 

monitoring and apply software updates, let’s discuss some of the 

aspects of server security that require the human touch. First, I 

recommend that every hosting company establish a documented 

policy on how servers should be configured. Start by disabling 

all the system services that will not be used on the server. Do 

you use centralized name servers? If so, disable your DNS server. 

When you go through each entry of the service list, you should 

also note services that don’t need to be publicly accessible and 

restrict them only to sources that need access. 

You should also consider removing software that doesn’t fit into 

your hosting model (e.g. print servers, IRC clients, unused web 

server modules), because that lowers the number of applications 

that you need to maintain and update. Each additional piece of 

software you leave installed on your system (that isn’t going to 

be used) creates a pointless security liability. 

Keep in mind that your policy needs to be constantly updated, 

as customer needs change. If you suddenly begin seeing demand 

for a piece of software you don’t have installed you should be 

prepared to deploy that software to your fleet (using the package 

management tools discussed above) and make sure it is installed 

on future machines. Consistency is a primary goal here, because 

if each of your systems is unique with its own blend of installed 

software, making good security decisions that apply equally to 

each of your machines becomes more difficult, if not impossible. 

Consider this situation: One of your staff members receives 

a request for a specific software application to be installed on 

one of your hosting servers. If he (or she) installs an application 

specifically for one machine, the chance is very low of that 

software being properly updated in the event a security flaw is 

discovered. 

So, now your fleet has a consistent security policy, you are 

regularly applying security updates on every machine, and you 

have a solid automated monitoring system. What’s next? A 

realization that none of these things are any good unless your 

staff properly utilizes available resources. Anyone working on 

your systems should thoroughly investigate any potential security 

situation, and let you know if something is consistently a false 

positive (so you can make changes to your systems and policies 

as needed). Vigilant staff can make a huge difference in the use of 

any of these systems (and likewise can cause any or all of these 

systems to become worthless). 

Staff should also be vigilant not only when responding to 

notifications, but also in their daily tasks. If something doesn’t 

feel right, it usually isn’t. Strange log messages, console 

messages, applications acting strangely, and files damaged or out 

of place, could all indicate a security issue. These things should 

be investigated and reported. 

We can’t talk about security without mentioning a few of the 

pitfalls that are all too common in the web hosting industry. One 

of the biggest mistakes I still see companies making is shared 

authentication. If all of your servers share the same password (or, 

to a lesser degree, utilize a public key authentication token), then 

a compromise of one of your systems can easily result in the viral 

compromise of all of your systems. 

Each system must have unique authentication data, and 

that authentication data must be changed on a regular basis. I 

recommend that you cycle authentication data no less than once 

per calendar month (and every time you experience a system 

compromise on any server, or lose a staff member). It is also 

critical that your hosting servers do not have trust relationships 

with one another, because these interrelationships can also cause 

a viral compromise in the event one server is compromised. If 

your servers must trust one another, that trust should be limited to 


www.pingzine.com 25


the specific task that must be performed. 

A server that was compromised will always 

be suspect. I always recommend reinstalling any 

system where administrator (or root) level access is 

compromised, because even if you cleaned up the 

apparent damage from the compromise, missing 

even one file can quickly land you right back in 

the same (leaky!) boat. This includes procedures 

when restoring backups; you should never assume 

that your previous backup is free of traces of the 

compromise. You should ensure that configuration 

files don’t contain instructions to allow access 

to an outside party. Also, system binaries should 

never be restored from backup – the restore should 

be limited to user data and system configuration 

only. User data should also be reviewed as it is 

restored, while all passwords should be changed, 

following a compromise. Even if your intruder is 

only able to obtain user access to your machine, 

that still allows them to get their “foot in the door,” 

and may provide further potential exposure to 

exploitation. 

Another pitfall that is still far too common is the 

use of shared accounts (like nobody or apache) to 

execute web scripts. Not only does this potentially 

allow for the defacement or removal of user data 

accessible by the shared account, but it also makes 

tracking down the point of entry more difficult in 

the event a compromise does occur. Web scripts 

should run with the privileges of a specific system 

user, eliminating both of those issues, and limiting 

the damage of a script exploit to the user with the 

exploitable script. 

Also, check the locations that a potential intruder 

may use. I’ve found that on a Linux system /tmp, / 

var/tmp, /dev/shm, and Apache’s proxy directories 

(all writable by default to anyone) are common 

places used to store exploit, scanning, and other 

potentially malicious applications. Strange files 

in these locations can be a good indicator that 

your machine may be compromised – even if the 

intruder has not gained root access yet. 

There are a number of other security tools that 

may or may not be of use to you. Obviously, 

everyone has a unique situation, and considering 

other solutions such as a hardware-based firewall, 

Network IDS, and commercial security software 

can be useful. Remember, though – if you just 

take a few simple steps, you can easily improve 

the security of all your servers. While the time 

investment can seem like a lot up front, in the long 

run the benefits truly outweigh the associated cost. 

Security is a serious concern, but if you consider it 

as a factor when making decisions, and take basic 

steps to improve your system security, it doesn’t 

have to be a huge draw on your time nor does it 

have to increase your blood pressure! 

P! 

PING! ZINE WRITER BIO 

Adam C. Greenfield currently serves as Site5’s Chief Technology Officer. He has 

been involved in web hosting for almost 10 years as both a Systems Administrator 

and a Developer. Currently his primary focus is leading the Site5 Engineering 

Team. He maintains a professional weblog at http://www.adamgreenfield.com/. 

Adam can be reached at adam.greenfield@site5.com 


Some businesses are this easy to start. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.pingzine.com 27

HOSTING GURUS 


Daniel J. Briere is the Founder and Chief 

Executive Officer of GlobalWebBrands, 

a website hosting reseller company 

through LiquidNet, HostCentric, and XO 

Communications. He can be reached at 

dbriere@globalwebbrands.com. 

VALUE-ADDED 

HOSTING FOR RESELLERS 

by Daniel J. Briere 

How to Add 

Value to Your 

Website Hosting 

Services and Sell 

Them at a Profit. 

28 Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine 

Reselling. It’s a great way to break 

into the website hosting business, isn’t 

it? And yet it’s so easy to lose your way 

and become like every other hosting 

provider out there. Ahhhhh, the joys of 

being a hosting reseller! 

But, did you know that there are 

indeed many ways to differentiate your 

hosting company and stand out from 

the crowd? Yes, it is true – you can rise 

above the rest in your own little niche, 

while fulfilling your dream of owning a 

hosting company that contributes value, 

and adds to others’ successes. Although 

it’s not necessarily easy, it can be done 

in a few simple steps. 

The first step starts at one of the 

basic fundamentals of your business: 

pricing. Although it may be tempting 

to compete with GoDaddy and others 

who offer hosting at extremely low 

prices, this is not the required path 

to success, especially if you’re just 

starting out. You want to make sure 

that you are covering your costs and 

turning a worthwhile profit before 

pricing yourself out of existence. If 

you can price at the levels of GoDaddy 

and others, great. If you can’t, don’t 

lose any sleep over it! Both HostGator 

and Site5.com have shown remarkable 

success at the $6.95 per month price 

point – well above the $3.95 per month 

of GoDaddy’s cheapest plan. 

So, the first thing you’ll need to do is 

calculate your expenses. Then, decide 

how much of a profit you would like 

to make. Only after determining those 

numbers can you arrive at the price 

you’ll charge for your hosting plans. 

Instead of working from the top down 

(setting your prices and molding your

usiness around them), work from the 

bottom up, structuring your business and 

setting your prices to match. I guarantee 

you that you’ll have a much greater chance 

of success, just by following this first step 

alone. 

Step two involves locating any 

efficiencies and advantages that your 

hosting services might offer without any 

value-add. Do you use particularly fast 

servers and internet connections? Are you 

using proprietary control panel software? 

Do you offer unlimited e-mail accounts 

and MySQL databases? Examine your 

offerings and look for those things that 

would immediately attract your attention if 

you were shopping for a hosting provider 

yourself. Pull out a sheet of paper and 

write down everything you can think of 

that stands out to you. 

This is a fairly simple and easy-tounderstand 

step, so that’s all the time I’ll 

spend on it. If you can’t locate anything 

in this area, don’t worry – it doesn’t mean 

you’ll go the way of the dodo bird – just 

keep reading! 

The third thing you’ll want to do is 

decide which market you’re going to target. 

Are you going to host real estate websites, 

chiropractic websites, small e-commerce 

websites, or something else? Or, are you 

going to strive to cater to everybody? 

While the latter can be a very profitable 

strategy for many, there are already many 

hosting providers who have found greater 

success by specializing in a certain niche. 

For instance, a while back I came across 

a company that had just started a host for 

garage bands. As long as they advertise in 

the right places (where these bands will 

see the ads), they should have no problem 

competing and carving out a niche for 

their business. This is the only host I 

know of that is targeting this market (and 

likely the only host many are likely to find 

targeting garage bands). The lesson is that 

targeted marketing works if you can make 

an emotional connection between your 

potential customers and your service. 

Once you know who you’re selling 

to, the fourth step is very simple. Ask 

yourself what website-related services 

you can add to your hosting packages to 

entice your target market to purchase from 

you. This is where the value-add really 

comes into play. What will set you lightyears 

apart from your closest competitors? 

Perhaps you can offer a budget-priced 

website hosting/design package where 

you provide both their website hosting 

and design a simple website for them. Or, 

perhaps join forces with SubmitNet or 

Template Monster, through their affiliate 

programs, and offer their products to your 

hosting clients once they have signed up 

for hosting. My company has done this, 

not only to differentiate our offerings, but 

also as another way to pull folks into our 

website – and it works! Find something 

that is beneficial by itself, and then make 

sure it is relevant to your target market. 

Depending on the impact of the items you 

choose, you may need just one – or you 

may need several. 

The possibilities in this area are 

absolutely endless. The main thing is to be 

creative and come up with combinations 

that you know your target market will 

love. Know your market, and this will be 

easy. As long as you’re making money, 

providing affordable services, and keeping 

your clients happy, there’s nothing to lose, 

and a whole lot more to gain! Happy 

hosting!P! 

B2B 

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www.pingzine.com 29

HOSTING GURUS 

by Conrad Agramont 

The History 

of Microsoft 

Hosted Exchange 

The latest incarnation of the Hosted Exchange 

solution has now been renamed from 

“Microsoft Solution for Hosted Exchange 

2003” to “Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging 

& Collaboration 3.0”. With the name change 

comes some additional capabilities, an upgrade to 

the provisioning system, and several items. With 

all of these ongoing changes, I thought it may be 

interesting to describe a bit of the history of the 

Hosted Exchange solutions. 

Microsoft Commercial Internet System 

(MCIS): The End of an Era 

Just to give you an idea of how Hosted Exchange 

came into being, it’s helpful to have a little history 

of the product and its important sub-components. It 

all started back in the late 1990s with a Microsoft 

product called MCIS. I won’t go into too much 

detail on MCIS (and there’s lots of it), but succinctly, 

MCIS was a product Microsoft created in late 1997 

that focused on the ISP market. 

MCIS’s components included Webmail, SMTP, 

POP3, IMAP, personal web pages, commerce, 

chat, and news (NNTP) services. Anyone that has 

deployed MCIS will tell you how difficult it was 

to install, mainly due to issues with Windows NT 

4.0, Service Packs, Option Packs, Microsoft Site 

Server, and other various components that had to be 

installed in the proper order on all servers. (If you 

missed a step in certain places, you had to reinstall 

the server and start over!) It was often frustrating, 

but once you got the product up and running, it ran. 

It even performed very well and was generally easy 

to manage. 

The notable thing about MCIS, though, was 

how well it scaled! The directory service was an 

LDAP server that used ADSI as a public API 

and SQL Server 6.5 for the data store. The MCIS 

LDAP database could even be partitioned across 

multiple, clustered SQL instances, which allowed 

one to scale the user database as much as they 

desired. No customer ever pushed MCIS to its 

limits in terms of scalability – there were a few 

instances of MCIS with more than a few million 

users in production. The mail services used a 

Front-End/Back-End architecture and stored all of 

the mail files on file servers (which could also be 

clustered and distributed to provide fault tolerance 

and scalability). The platform was truly ahead of its 

time. As a matter of fact, sometimes it seems like 

Exchange 2000 ended up looking a lot more like 

MCIS than Exchange 5.5. 

MCIS (in the version 2.0 release) included a 

tool called the Microsoft Automated Provisioning 

System (MAPS). MAPS was designed to help ISPs 

provision MCIS Services, and also included a very 

crude method for integrating third party solutions 

such as billing systems. One major downside to 

MAPS was a poorly defined API, which made it 


difficult to extend or even understand. 

MAPS was also difficult to deploy, but 

worked fairly well when installed and 

configured properly. 

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending 

on your perspective) Microsoft had other 

plans for its high-end messaging platform, 

and that was to focus on Exchange Server. 

With the introduction of Exchange 

Sever 2000, Microsoft began creating an 

architecture in Exchange Server that was 

similar to MCIS. This included the use 

of Front-End/Back-End servers, using 

Active Directory (which was called 

“Membership” in MCIS) as its core 

storage for configuration, user mailbox 

association, and the ability to distribute 

services at multiple layers to achieve scale 

and fault tolerance. 

Microsoft Provisioning System 

The Microsoft Provisioning System 

(MPS) was created as successor to 

linear provisioning actions defined in an 

XML document called a “named procedure” 

(a collection of named procedures are 

encapsulated within something called an 

“MPF Namespace”). The extensibility 

results from the ability to leverage an 

“MPF Provider” (a low-level integration 

point between MPF and a given service). 

Essentially, an MPF Provider is a DLL that 

is responsible for communicating with the 

individual service (i.e. Active Directory, 

Exchange, File System, IIS, FrontPage, 

DNS, etc.). Custom MPF Providers can 

be developed in a variety of languages 

(C++, VB6, or .NET Assemblies) and 

provide the ability to participate in the 

same transaction/compensation model as 

the standard MPF providers. 

At the heart of a Hosted Exchange 

deployment are the core components that 

make up a typical single-site Exchange 

deployment. A single site Exchange 

deployment consists of a collection of 

Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 1.0 

The first version of the “Hosted 

Exchange and Collaboration Solution” 

was focussed on providing a complete 

method of deploying a Hosted Exchange 

offering. This included documentation, 

automation via MPS, hardware guidance, 

hardware pricing through a partnership 

with Compaq (prior to its merger with 

HP), and partnership with other vendors. 

The idea was to give a Service Provider 

that was interested in deploying an HMC 

environment everything they needed to 

go into production, with a final cost to get 

that done. For the most part, this is the 

type of thing that most customers look for. 

However, there were three reasons why 

this wasn’t a huge success. 

The first reason is that HMC used 

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000. Where 

Exchange Server 2003 is a great product, 

and a solid platform for Enterprise 

MAPS. It was a product that focused on 

provisioning Hosted Exchange 2000 and 

Web Hosting on IIS 5.0. 

A key component of MPS is the ability 

to deploy a secure shared Active Directory 

structure. This is important as it allows 

Service Providers to deploy web hosting 

and Hosted Exchange services while only 

allowing customers to be able to see and 

manage their own organization’s accounts 

and services. At the heart of MPS is the 

Microsoft Provisioning Framework (MPF). 

MPF is a COM+ application that provides 

an extensible transaction/compensation 

platform for service provisioning. (By 

compensation we mean that any transaction 

that fails will result in the rollback of all 

the tasks that were completed before the 

failure.) This results in a consistently clean 

platform. 

The MPF Engine performs a series of 

physical servers with Windows Server 

(where the version depends on what 

version of Exchange is being deployed) 

as the operating system. Active Directory 

is deployed too, and all servers in the 

environment act as member servers. 

Exchange Server itself is also deployed. 

(Admittedly, there are a lot of other 

components such as DNS Services, IIS, 

and SMTP, that are also deployed, but 

these are the “high level” pieces that 

are not at the base of the deployment.) 

Taking this base Exchange deployment 

and turning it into a “Hosted Exchange” 

deployment is a mixture of configuration 

settings deployed on Active Directory and 

Exchange, and repeatable provisioning for 

isolated organizations and users. This is 

where MPS is used to provide the ability 

to repeatedly provision organizations and 

users. 

deployments, with Exchange 2000 

there were many capabilities that were 

insufficient for customer demands. The 

most noticeable was support for Microsoft 

Outlook XP – in order to get the full 

capabilities of Outlook, connectivity 

between the Outlook client and the 

Exchange server must be done using 

Microsoft Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). 

The RPC protocol is used heavily within 

a Microsoft Windows environment and 

opens the door to many other services on a 

given server beyond Exchange. To have a 

HMC offering and allow clients to connect 

with their Outlook clients, it required 

giving those customers access to the 

Service Providers back end environment 

via a firewall, VPN or Microsoft Internet 

and Security Accelerator Server (ISA) 

which was recommended by Microsoft. 

This indicated additional hardware and 

www.pingzine.com 31

HOSTING GURUS 

The “Microsoft Solution for Hosted 

Exchange 2003” (HE2003) was a giant 

step forward in the ability to support a 

large number of customer organizations 

and services. 

network costs, higher operations expenses, 

and increased complexity. 

The second reason was scalability as it 

relates to the number of “Organizations” 

that could be deployed in a single 

deployment of HMC. HMC v1 could 

only support up to 800 organizations that 

required Outlook client support. This was 

due to an issue in Active Directory and the 

implementation of multi-valued attributes 

within the schema. There was no hard 

limit to the number of organizations that 

a Service Provider could host if they only 

required support for Outlook Web Access, 

POP3, or IMAP. 

The third reason was the bursting of 

the .com bubble. When this happened, 

there was a huge downturn in the number 

of companies that wanted to come online 

and host corporate email. Many Service 

Providers went out of business, while 

others decided to focus on their then 

current customer base, and defer new 

ventures. There were still plenty of Service 

Providers that did deploy HMC, but those 

deployments didn’t match the deployment 

scenarios defined in the solution. Often, 

hardware was scaled back and a “bare 

bones” approach was taken. Two or three 

years earlier, hosts would have deployed a 

solution that anticipated huge growth and 

over-building the platform. 

Hosted Exchange 2003 

The “Microsoft Solution for Hosted 

Exchange 2003” (HE2003) was a giant 

step forward in the ability to support a large 

number of customer organizations and 

services. The largest of the changes was 

the ability to support Outlook 2003 clients 

through an Exchange Front-End server. 

This was accomplished by supporting 

RPC over HTTPS, thus removing the 

requirement to host a VPN for clients that 

wanted to access their Exchange data via 

Outlook. 

Exchange Server 2003 also provided 

additional improvements to Outlook Web 

Access, allowing for greater customization 

and providing additional features that 

could be enabled or disabled on a per-user 

basis. Upgrading to Exchange Server 2003 

also enabled a number of features and 

improvements that made it a better platform 

than its predecessors. For example, as the 

Exchange Server 2003 product improved, 

so did the solution that made Exchange 

Server ready for Service Providers. 

HE2003 also included a new namespace 

called, “Hosted Exchange,” the key feature 

of which is support for “Plans” (which 

leverage a SQL Server Database to define 

“feature bundling”). This allowed hosts 

to enable and track services that were 

deployed for hosted organizations and 

users. The “Hosted Exchange” namespace 

also leveraged the improved Resource 

Manager that shipped with MPS. The 

Resource Manager allows the host to 

keep track of how resources are allocated 

(e.g. Exchange databases, web servers or 

disk usage). The new Hosted Exchange 

Namespace also provided a new set of 

“extensions” to the Resource Manager to 

allow for additional support for queries, 

moves, and reallocation of storage for 

users and organizations. 

The HE2003 solution also took a 

different approach to HMC as it didn’t 

have any direct tie to any third-party 

product or hardware. This is both good 

and bad, because it provides (or at least 


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HOSTING GURUS 

gives the appearance of) more hardware 

deployment options. However, with this 

agnosticism comes a lack of capacity 

planning documentation on the part of 

hardware vendors. This means that while 

the platform was more scalable and 

feature-rich, it has to make more generic 

recommendations about how to scale and 

improve performance. 

Overall, the Microsoft Solution for 

Hosted Exchange 2003 provided a 

comprehensive solution for Service 

Providers to deploy a service for small 

business looking to outsource their 

Outlook 2003 clients. 

Hosted Exchange 2003.1 

A few months after HE2003 came 

to market, a new interim release was 

shipped. The goal of this release was to 

overcome some of the scalability issues 

found in HE2003. The HE2003.1 release 

provided the ability to scale beyond 

the 1000 organization limitation in all 

previous Hosted Exchange solutions. 

This was done by providing some new 

tools as a part of the solution which made 

modifications to Active Directory (http:// 

weblogs.asp.net/conrad/archive/2005/0 

6/03/410238.aspx) and by developing a 

workaround that allowed for more than 

1000 Offline Address Books (OAB) 

within a single Exchange Organization. 

These improvements allowed Service 

Providers to feel comfortable in deploying 

an environment that would scale out and 

provide some platform longevity. 


Hosted Messaging & Collaboration 3.0 

The “Microsoft Solution for Messaging 

& Collaboration 3.0” (HMC3) shipped 

in the first half of 2005, and leverages 

the components found in the HE2003.1 

solution while adding new hosted services. 

HMC3 includes Windows Sharepoint 

Services (WSS) and Live Communication 

Server 2005 (LCS). There are also a few 

new tools included within the solution for 

additional Hosted Exchange functionality. 

One of the more interesting and underpublicized 

Hosted Exchange additions 

is the inclusion of a new MPS “Import” 

namespace. The “Import” namespace 

is much needed if you have an existing 

Exchange environment with production 

customers, users, and mailboxes and want 

to import these into an HMC3 Hosted 

Exchange architecture. This allows 

Exchange Hosters to leverage their current 

deployment environment and move/ 

migrate/import those users into the new 

HMC-specific deployment. The solution 

also provides an MPF Provider and an 

MPF Namespace to provision Windows 

Sharepoint Services. Planning and 

Deployment documentation is provided in 

the solution for WSS as well. 

Provisioning of LCS services is provided 

via an MPF Namespace of its own. This 

namespace is leveraged within the Hosted 

Exchange namespace to provision LCS 

Services (e.g. a SIP Address) for all new 

organizations and users when a user is 

given an Exchange mailbox. For more 

information read (http://weblogs.asp.net/ 

conrad/archive/2005/05/16/406890.aspx). 

At the time this article was written, 

Microsoft is focussed on the next version 

of HMC. The core of the next release 

will include support for Windows Server 

2003 Service Pack 1, and a few additional 

features. In addition, Microsoft is working 

on future versions of the solution that 

will leverage the mobility features of 

Exchange 2003 SP2. This should serve as 

evidence to the Service Provider industry 

to demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment 

and investment to shipping solutions that 

meet their customer’s requirements. 

Conclusion 

Microsoft continues to invest a great deal 

of time and money in the development, 

testing, and release of these hosted products 

and solutions. Over the past five years, 

Microsoft has consistently delivered new 

versions of Hosted Exchange solutions that 

give Service Providers the added features 

they need to host a rich mail platform for 

small to medium size businesses. 

P! 


Conrad Agramont is a Senior Architect for 

eQuest, a division of Planet Technologies 

Inc., a firm specializing in architecting 

automated solutions for Microsoft products 

and technologies. Previously, Conrad worked 

for Microsoft as a Program Manager for the 

Microsoft Provisioning System 1.0, Service 

Provisioning component in Microsoft Solution 

for Hosted Messaging & Collaboration, Hosted 

Exchange 2003, Hosted Exchange 2003.1, 

and Windows based Hosting 3.0. Paul Edlund 

also deserves an honorable mention, as he 

provided a great deal of editing and additions 

to the article.

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www.pingzine.com 35

HOSTING GURUS 

> 

A Critical Factor: 

Website Title Tags 

by Derek Vaughan 

A Critical Factor: Website title tags. 

Have you ever noticed that in the 

upper-left corner of the main bar of your 

web browser, there is some text on every 

website you visit? You can also usually 

see the first portion of this text when you 

minimize the browser window. This text is 

displayed from the website’s Title tag – and 

it’s vitally important to any commercial 

website. 

Although the title tag is easy to see in 

the browser, it originates in the underlying 

code used to design the website. If you 

‘right click’ on a website with your 

mouse, you will see a pop-up menu with 

several menu items listed – if you click on 

‘View Source’ (or ‘View Page Source’ in 

FireFox) – you will see a text display of the 

underlying code for that website. Here are 

the first few lines of HTML code from one 

of our sites (http://www.webmaster911. 

com): 

 

 

 

Webmaster, Web Hosting, 

Domain Name, Internet Marketing 

Resources - Webmaster911.com 

As you can see, the page title is enclosed 

by the tags. The text within those tags is 

what appears in the browser’s main title 

bar. 

“Okay – I get it!,” you may say. “So I 

can put any message I want in there to sell 

my goods (or and services).” That’s true, 

but the title tag is important for a much 

more significant reason: Search engines 

treat your title tag as an indicator of your 

site’s main purpose. Therefore, the title tag 

determines how your site is categorized 

and what search terms it is placed under. 

If you want to be found under a specific 

search term in search engines, you must 

include that term in your title tag. 

So, how do you determine which search 

terms are best to include in your title tag? 

I would suggest using a great tool from 

Yahoo! Search Marketing, which will help 

you find popular search terms that can help 

you generate more traffic to your site. It is 

called the “Keyword Selector Tool,” and it 

can be found at http://inventory.overture. 

com/d/searchinventory/suggestion. 

To use the tool, simply type in a keyword 

that you think is relevant to your site. The 


tool will display various search terms related to your original 

query, and list them in order of popularity (based on the searches 

conducted in the previous month). For example, suppose that you 

sell mobile phones on your website. If you type in the search 

term ‘mobile phone,’ the Keyword Selector Tool generates the 

following list (shortened from actual): 

Searches done in June 2005 

Count Search Term 

3225909 cell phone 

98607 cell phone plan 

28751 nokia cellular phone 

10921 samsung cellular phone 

8879 att cellular phone 

8809 ericsson cellular phone 

7593 cheap cellular phone 

7210 lg cellular phone 

6382 cellular phone wallpaper 

5616 verizon cellular phone 

5517 cellular phone ringtone 

4841 cellular phone number lookup 

4526 cellular phone company 

4124 cellular phone directory 

4064 free cellular phone wallpaper 

3710 cell phone headset 

3621 us cellular phone 

3523 cellular phone numbers 

3509 sprint cellular phone 

3299 free cellular phone ringtone 

3293 cellular phone deal 

found in titles that display to users. The optimal length for a title 

is shorter than 50 to 60 characters, [as] longer titles are cut off in 

search results, in browser windowpanes, and make poor [default] 

bookmarks.” 

So, the lessons are clear: while there are many important 

activities that will result in great search engine placement, you 

must absolutely address your title tag. Give it some thought, use 

the techniques and suggestions mentioned above, and you should 

have a great title tag for your site that helps you obtain more 

website traffic. P! 


Derek Vaughan has been an active Internet marketer since 1995. 

His marketing experience includes online direct marketing of books 

for NYSE-traded book publisher Thomas Nelson, serving as online 

marketing manager for the ESPNstore.com, and being marketing 

manager for the launch of the NASCAR Online Store. In web hosting, 

he served for three years as Senior Director of Marketing for Affinity 

Internet. Most recently Mr. Vaughan has been consulting with http:// 

www.cheaphostingdirectory.com. He holds degrees from Indiana 

University School of Music and Purdue University, as well as an 

MBA from the Owen School at Vanderbilt University. 

As you can see, according to the tool, ‘mobile phone’ is not 

commonly searched – at least relative to other terms. It would 

thus be better to be found under the search term ‘cell phone’. 

Experimenting with the tool and starting from the general (e.g. 

you could use the search term “phone”) will give you a sense of 

which terms are best for your title tag. 

Another important tip – be sure to place your most important 

keywords at the beginning of the title tag. For most companies, 

this will not be your company name (you should save that for the 

end of the title). 

Brent Conver, Manager of Professional Services at Affinity 

Internet, Inc. had this to say regarding a website’s title tag: “The 

title tag is crucial to any optimization effort, as it is the first item 

on the website that is seen by the search engines. It is important 

that your targeted keyword phrase be in your title tag, as close to 

the front of the tag as possible.” He continued, stating that “an 

effective title tag has greater implications to your website than 

just ‘SEO’ [search engine optimization] – it has real marketing 

value as well.” 

An additional word of caution – don’t put everything under 

the sun into your title tag, thinking that you will benefit from 

having a vast number of terms listed. Asked for his thoughts on 

title tag usage, Mr. Detlev Johnson, Vice President of Consulting 

with Position Technologies (http://www.positiontech.com) 

stated, “The importance of writing titles cannot be understated 

– keyword stuffing is a mistake, [because] branding and clicks 

are too important.” He continued, “Search engines credit terms 

www.pingzine.com 37


Making the Right Choice 

of Identity and Trust Assurance (ITA) 

Infrastructure Can Boost E-commerce 

by Steve Roylance 

As the Internet continues to expand, so do the challenges 

for new e-business brands wishing to differentiate 

themselves from a multitude of “similar” providers, all 

of whom are vying for a share of increased online business. With 

a plethora of experts offering new and innovative ways of driving 

additional traffic to emergent sites, and with the simplicity of 

advertising campaigns such as Google Adwords, in most cases 

“traffic generation” is not the biggest problem. “Conversion” 

– taking a visitor and turning them into a customer – is one of 

the most important hurdles that new e-business brands must 

overcome. 

Optimizing conversion in website traffic is a direct function of 

managing consumer trust. The higher the consumer trusts a site, the 

higher the conversion rates for that site. Well-established brands 

rely heavily on their brand integrity, improved service levels 

and expanded offerings to entice business from new consumers. 

Larger brands therefore have effectively translated the internet 

“web trust” model into a revenue-generating strategy. 

However, “unknown brands” are at a significant “trust” 

disadvantage, and they experience tremendous pressure to 

differentiate themselves to survive. With no means to compete 

directly with stronger, more established brands, new brands 

are forced to focus on two alternative methods to grow market 

share. The first, and rather more risky strategy, entails providing 

higher and higher discount levels. By its very nature, it minimizes 

margins and profitability, and more often than not, results in a far 

greater failure rate. The alternative method relies on maximizing 

the use of an ITA (Identity and Trust Assurance) infrastructure. 

This method yields a far higher rate of return on investment, and 

more importantly, it proves to be highly effective at building 

loyalty in a shorter time frame. 

So, what is Identity and Trust Assurance and why does it 

succeed when compared to the alternative choice of offering 

lower prices? For example, consider two competing restaurants, 

both offering a similar selection of foods. If the higher-priced 

restaurant actually has customers sitting down and eating, this 

offers a far more powerful influence to potential new consumers 

than the restaurant with lower prices. This clearly indicates how 

trust and assurance can be more persuasive than price, and is one 

of the reasons why many websites offer case studies (i.e. people 

already eating) to provide reassurance to new customers. Even 

more powerful tools and techniques to provide trust and assurance 

should also be implemented, right across the website, to provide 

consumers with recognized trust credentials that can help them 

manage their risk. Some examples of these technologies include 

high assurance SSL certificates – or a web seal to assure customers 

that the site is “Hacker Proof.” 

How Trusted Technologies Work 

To date, one of the key reasons for the growth of the Internet 

as an e-commerce engine has been the widespread deployment 

of security technologies implemented within browsers and web 


servers – most notably the use of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) 

encryption. The use of SSL has invariably encouraged online 

commerce, and as a result, the Internet economy has come to 

depend on SSL to provide the trust infrastructure. Since the SSL 

protocol was released by Netscape as a security technology in 

1996, consumers have been educated to look for the SSL padlock 

before passing any critical details over the Internet. Technically, 

the SSL protocol provides an encrypted link between two parties, 

however in the eyes of the consumer, seeing the SSL padlock has 

become so much more, letting people know that: 

• That they have a secure, encrypted link with the website 

• That the website displaying the padlock is a valid and 

legitimate organization, or an accountable legal entity 

Unfortunately, however, whilst this was originally the true 

meaning of the padlock, changes in the validation practices of a 

handful of Certification Authorities created an alternative, lowercost 

SSL certificate type that did not fulfil the previous stringent 

validation practices used to verify the authenticity of the applicant. 

Over time, these ‘Low Assurance’ certificates were incorrectly 

deployed on numerous e-commerce websites, rather than being 

used for the actual role they were designed to fulfil (i.e. serving 

the needs of mail servers, Intranets, SSL VPNs or other similar 

devices where organizational details were not a requirement). The 

result was an erosion of trust in the internet experience. 

To combat this new confusion in the market place, web browsers 

such as Opera 8 and the forthcoming Internet Explorer 7.0 will 

display new information within the padlock, to help consumers 

differentiate between “high assurance” and “low assurance” 

certificates. Opera has chosen to display the organizational 

details next to the padlock, whilst Microsoft have released a 

white paper on their enhanced security status bar, highlighting 

the ease by which information can be found on the ‘entity’ 

through new dropdown padlock functionality. They state that 

“With the explosion of small- and home- based business websites 

selling goods that span the pricing spectrum, users are even more 

likely to encounter unknown entities asking for their financial 

information. These factors combine to create a situation ripe 

for malicious abuse. Internet Explorer 7 addresses this issue by 

providing users with clear and prominent visual cues to the safety 

and trustworthiness of a website” 

It is therefore absolutely essential that any new e-commerce 

business uses a “High Assurance” SSL certificate on their secure 

payment and data collection pages, to ensure the highest level of 

consumer trust. 

Another strategy to improve trust credentials of a site that 

“levels the playing field” for many new e-merchants is to 

utilize additional site seal/trust indicators, proven by numerous 

consumer study groups to be a particularly effective technique 

of influencing consumer buying behavior. These act to provide 

a positive indicator of trust in the authenticity of the site, while 

the additional brand strength from the seal itself gives consumers 

additional confidence. Examples of cross industry third party 

www.pingzine.com 39


site assurance seals include those offered 

by the Better Business Bureau® (www. 

bbb.org – certifying business practices), 

TRUSTe (www.truste.org – certifying 

privacy and assurance practices), and 

HackerGuardian (www.hackerguardian. 

com – certifying vulnerability-free 

hardware). When combined with industry 

specific accreditations, the branding mix 

offers a compelling level of trust and 

assurance to new visitors. 

Site seals were initially proven to be most 

effective when used on landing pages and/ 

or home pages, providing confidence at the 

time of arrival to the website. However as 

search engines now efficiently index entire 

sites, the possibility exists that any page 

becomes a landing page and therefore 

needs to evoke trust and assurance 

immediately. The latest evolution in site 

seal technology – “Corner of TrustLogo” 

– was announced by Comodo last month, 

and offers a consistent image which can 

be used across an entire website. With 

active “Point to Verify®” technology, the 

seal allows essential trust credentials to 

be presented to users by simply moving 

a mouse across the seal. Therefore, a 

combination of High Assurance SSL 

and the associated site assurance seals, 

together with the right mix of third party 

trust providers, can provide a baseline ITA 

infrastructure. 

But how do emergent brands also evoke 

trust in their own brand? There are two 

possibilities – visitors may recognize the 

name of the organization, or they may 

not. If they do, they need some way to 

verify that they truly are the company they 

claim to be (or an authorized member of 

a credentialed organization), which will 

enable them to decide whether to entrust 

it with their card details (and their money). 

If they do not recognize the company, 

they need to be provided with a method to 

verify that a trusted third party recognizes 

the organization. For example, consider 

the way a currency exchange works: 

Bank notes handed to a traveler may be 

completely unrecognizable to a traveler, not 

having visited that particular destination 

before, however trust is provided by 

the currency exchange that the notes are 

genuine. Also, the notes themselves have 

verification technologies built into them, 

such that the traveller is able to recognise 

alternative denominations on arrival at 

their destination. 

In much the same way, ‘Content 

Verification’ technologies such as 

VerificationEngine (www.vengine. 

com ) are freely available to consumers, 

such that by simply moving their mouse 

over a logo or brand, an indicator will 

appear around the border of their system 

if the brand is to be trusted. As advocacy 

groups continue the process of education, 

these technologies will herald a new level 

of understanding in consumers. This will 

in turn drive merchants to increase still 

further their ITA infrastructure, building 

more confidence into the internet, building 

trust in the internet and a still further 

increased demand for e-businesses. 

P! 


Steve Roylance is the Technical Marketing 

Director for Comodo, based in their European 

Headquarters in Manchester, UK. Steve is 

directly responsible for the implementation 

of the go-to- market strategy for the Identity 

and Trust Assurance product range, 

funneling the feedback from major partners 

into the various development groups, and 

harnessing the power of Comodo’s Digital 

Trust Lab to bring to market an ever widening 

portfolio of ITA products. 


www.pingzine.com 41



Eran Aloni is marketing director for Blue Security, 

developer of the The Do Not Intrude Registry, a 

community-based anti-spam solution that stops the 

flow of unsolicited e-mail to people who do not wish 

to receive it. Previosly, Eran was a senior program 

manager at Microsoft’s ISA Server group and an 

assistant VP at Comverse, a leading provider of 

software and systems-enabling, multimedia valueadded 

services in wireless and wireline networks. 

THE 

SPAM 

ECONOMY 

When one considers the 

remarkably low operating 

costs involved in operating a 

spam business, and the facts that at least 

seventy-five percent of worldwide e-mail 

traffic consists of spam (with roughly ten 

percent of internet users reporting having 

purchased products or services advertised 

by spam), it is clear that spam is a very 

lucrative business concept. 

While few statistics exist regarding how 

much money can be made by sending spam 

messages, recent court victories provide a 

glimpse into the world of spammers. Scott 

Richter, formerly known as the “Spam 

King,” has recently reached a settlement 

with Microsoft, agreeing to pay $7M in 

damages. The New York Attorney General, 

Eliot Spitzer, estimates Richter cleared 

millions in monthly profits, all derived 

from sending spam. 

Most current solutions to spam consist 

of defensive filtering concepts. While 

filters may hide the problem from the end 

users that can afford to buy and maintain 

them, this technology suffers from, among 

other weaknesses, lack of accuracy in 

distinguishing spam from legitimate 

messages. Additionally, filters do not 


by Eran Aloni 

address the dynamics of the spam economy 

that motivate spammers to continue 

sending millions of messages every day 

– in fact, filters actually cause spammers 

to increase the amount of spam they send, 

in an effort to maintain their spam’s total 

reach. Because sending e-mail is almost 

free, increasing e-mail output can be done 

at almost no additional cost. Consumers 

and organizations that need to continually 

invest in better filters to process all this 

additional traffic pay the price. 

On the legal front, industry heavyweights 

such as Microsoft and AOL have been 

aggressively suing spammers for violation 

of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. While 

both of the aforementioned companies 

have had their fair share of court winnings, 

the number of spammers actually brought 

to justice is minimal. 

Faced with legal threats and technical 

challenges, such as more advanced filters, 

spammers are as persistent as ever. All the 

efforts and financing put into the “spam 

wars” have not yielded the desired results 

– spam remains on the rise, affecting 

essentially anyone with an e-mail address. 

It is clear that a viable solution to spam 

must address the spam economy, while 

ensuring that the spammer’s incentive 

to send spam is eliminated (or at least 

reduced). 

Let’s take a deeper look into the works 

of a spammer to better understand the 

allure of spam. 

The Spam Cycle 

A typical spam cycle includes the 

following steps: 

1. E-mail address collection – also 

known as harvesting – is a process in 

which the spammer retrieves millions of 

e-mail addresses which can be sent spam. 

The one-time cost of a mailing list with 

millions of addresses is typically less than 

$60. 

2. Spam site creation – the spammer 

creates an online store from which 

prospective customers can place orders, 

following the spam-driven campaign. 

A specific “spamvertised” site remains 

online for the duration of the campaign. 

Designing a simple website can cost a few 

hundred dollars, and the monthly hosting 

fee from a spam-friendly ISP can amount

www.pingzine.com 43


to another few hundred dollars a month. 

3. Next is the spam run” – the 

process in which the spammer sends out 

millions of e-mail messages as part of a 

specific campaign. Sending spam from 

compromised computers (“zombies”), a 

very common practice, does not incur any 

costs at all. 

4. Revenue generation – with the 

campaign on its way, and the online store 

live, the spammer sits back and counts 

the money coming in. Assuming a 0.01% 

sales conversion rate on one million e- 

mails, a spammer’s gross profit can range 

from$3,000 (porn website subscription), 

to $10,000 (Sex-related products) or 

even to $150,000 (home refinancing) per 

campaign. 

Getting Your Address 

Let’s take a look at the process from 

an economic standpoint, starting with e- 

mail lists. A list containing 300M e-mail 

addresses can be purchased online from 

$29.99 to $59.99. These lists are often 

automatically created by special software 

modules (called ‘bots’), which crawl the 

internet in search of e-mail addresses. 

For example, if you have participated in 

a newsgroup discussion and used your 

e-mail address, chances are you will be 

receiving spam to the e-mail address 

you’ve used for posting. 


Since e-mail addresses are easily obtained 

from across the internet, e-mail lists are also 

relatively low-priced. Spammers utilize 

a variety of other technical methods to 

harvest addresses too, such as “dictionary 

attacks” (automatically guessing common 

e-mail addresses) and “P2P harvesting,” 

in which spammers exploit peer-to-peer 

(e.g. filesharing) networks to obtain e-mail 

addresses. 

Sending You Spam 

Each spam campaign advertises a 

specific type of product. The types of 

products favored by spammers include 

generic prescription drugs, mortgages 

and sex-related products. The spammer 

usually sets up an online store selling the 

advertised product. Those online stores 

exist only for a few days, and are moved 

from one hosting provider to another. 

Typically, those hosting providers are 

“spam-friendly” and are willing to host 

spam-sites in exchange for high hosting 

fees. 

Once spammers obtain an e-mail list 

and set up an online store, running a 

spam campaign is the next step. Although 

the spammer is interested in sending out 

millions of e-mail messages, but sending 

such massive amounts of e-mail would 

normally incur significant costs, if done in a 

conventional manner. To avoid these costs, 

spammers do not typically send out all 

these messages from their own servers, but 

rather use compromised machines, known 

as “zombies,” to send their messages. 

Notably, many recent virus outbreaks were 

launched to create a network of “zombies” 

that could be controlled remotely. Such 

machines are used to send out spam e- 

mails, often without the knowledge of 

their owners. 

Assuming spammers rely on 3rd party 

infrastructure like zombies, their costs for 

sending spam are limited to their own ISP 

hosting fees. In such a situation, there is 

almost no difference in cost for the sender 

to send an e-mail message to one million 

recipients versus sending it to a single 

recipient. So, in essence, when running 

a spam campaign, the spammer actually 

uses other people’s resources, incurring 

little expense in the process. 

Making Money 

at Your Expense 

With the e-mails on their way, the 

spammer waits for customers. Industry 

surveys show at least ten percent of the 

population actually buys products and 

services advertised via spam. In specific 

product categories, the percentage of 

people buying spamvertised products is 

even higher – a recent survey conducted 

by the Better Business Bureaus showed 

twenty-one percent of American e- 

mail users have bought software from 

a spammer, while twenty-two percent 

purchased apparel and jewelry advertised

y spam. Another thirty-nine percent 

admit to clicking on spam links even if 

they don’t actually buy the goods. Thus, 

the business case for a spam operation is 

clear – send out millions of messages (or 

ads) at very low cost, and expect a high 

conversion rate of paying customers. 

Although spam is indeed an appealing 

business from the spammer perspective, 

it is one of the greatest annoyances to e- 

mail users in general, creating immense 

losses in productivity costs. In the last few 

years, despite significant efforts to fight 

spam, spam volume actually increased to 

above seventy-five percent of all e-mail 

traffic. Another ten percent is composed of 

phishing attempts (scams imitating known 

brands to fool users into giving their 

account details) and viruses aiming to 

create bot networks of zombie computers 

to facilitate spam sending. According to 

the 2004 National Technology Readiness 

Survey (NTRS), online users in the United 

States spend an average of three minutes 

deleting spam each time they check e-mail. 

Aggregating their usage across the 169.4 

million online adults in the United States, 

this equals 22.9 million hours a week, or 

$21.58 billion annually when based on the 

average working wage. 

Fighting 

Spam with Filters 

The technology industry has been 

waging war on spam for a few years. 

Spam filters are the most established 

technical solutions in the market. Filters 

are a passive means of defense, analyzing 

incoming messages and separating the 

spam from legitimate messages. As a 

result, spammers are constantly coming 

up with ways to bypass them. 

While filters may alleviate some of the 

problem for end users that can afford them, 

they introduce their own set of problems. 

Being an automatic sorting technology, 

filters suffer from false identification of 

spam and legitimate e-mails. If a spam 

e-mail passes through the filter (known 

as a false negative), the user must waste 

time in seeing the message and deleting 

it. If a legitimate e-mail is tagged as 

spam, and does not reach the intended 

recipient (known as a false positive), the 

result is a lost business or communication 

opportunity. In general, filters reduce e- 

mail reliability as an effective business 

communication tool. 

Unfortunately, filtering does not impact 

the spam economy, but rather encourages 

spammers to innovate and invent new 

means to bypass filtering schemes. In 

addition, spammers are inclined to send 

even more spam since they know that a 

large percentage of their traffic is blocked 

by filters. 

Fighting 

Spammers in Court 

In January 2003, the US government 

stepped forward and enacted the CAN- 

SPAM Act. The Act defined the guidelines 

for sending unsolicited commercial e- 

mails, such as including a valid return 

address and providing a working, opt-out 

link in each message. The CAN-SPAM act 

also outlawed certain spammers practices, 

such as address harvesting and the use of 

“zombies” for sending mail. 

Almost three years after CAN-SPAM 

was passed, it has not done much to stop 

spam, although several industry giants, 

such as AOL and Microsoft, have been 

aggressively bringing spammers to court 

for CAN-SPAM infringements. Microsoft 

won a $7M settlement from Scott Richter, 

a man known as one of the world’s most 

prolific spammers. AOL even ran a spam 

sweepstakes among its members, sharing 

the money it was awarded by the court in 

its lawsuits. 

Legal efforts to bring spammers to court 

do impact the spam economy, at least for 

those spammers affected directly. However, 

the number of spammers brought to court 

is very small. In general, anti-spam laws 

are extremely hard to enforce due to the 

global nature of the internet and spam 

operations. 

Registry and 

Opt-Out Solutions 

Before there was spam, there were 

telemarketing calls. When the annoyance 

was too much, the US government 

stepped in and created the “Do Not Call” 

registry. Now people had a choice – they 

could join the registry and stop receiving 

telemarketing calls altogether, or they 

could opt-in and continue to receive 

commercial calls. In a similar line of 

thought, the CAN-SPAM Act called for 

creating a national do-not-spam registry, 

created to stop spammers from sending 

spam to registered e-mail addresses. It was 

later decided that such a registry would 

not be enforceable by the government, and 

thus would not serve its purpose. 

Taking the lead on this initiative, some 

companies, such as Blue Security, have 

created commercial “Do Not Disturb” 

registry-based solutions. Other companies, 

such as LashBack Technologies, have taken 

the “Safe unsubscribe” approach, allowing 

users to automatically unsubscribe from 

those spammers that are likely to honor 

such request. 

E-mail Payment Systems 

And, finally, there are those who tout 

using a stamp-like system for e-mail. There 

are a number of variations on this idea, 

including making senders pay for e-mails 

rejected by their recipients, or paying for e- 

mails with computational power. However, 

these ideas have not matured enough to 

gain widespread industry support. 

How Will 

This Battle End? 

Analyzing the way spammers work, it is 

clear a new approach is required to solve 

the spam problem. We need to change the 

spam equation and raise the cost of sending 

spam. Tying the cost of sending spam to 

the number of recipients will ensure that 

spammers diligently clean their list of those 

who do not want to receive spam offers in 

their e-mail. Eventually, we’ll reach a point 

where spammers will send advertisements 

to the approximately twenty percent of the 

population that actually buys from them. 

The rest of us will be able to reclaim our 

internet experience and enjoy spam-free e- 

mail once again. Only time will reveal the 

outcome of this battle – but, let’s hope it is 

not the spammers who prevail!P! 

www.pingzine.com 45



For further details on this topic or related 

Pay Per Click affiliate information, 

contact Tiffany Guarnaccia {Tiffany. 

Guarnaccia@Searchfeed.com} or visit 

www.Searchfeed.com 

by Searchfeed.com Corporate Communications 

............................................................ 

A captivating and successful Pay Per Click (PPC) affiliate 

implementation encourages internet visitors to leave a site through a 

profitable exit route, while still ensuring they will come back for return 

visits. Accomplishing this goal means integrating relevant content that 

maintains branding and creates a valuable site resource through proper 

content placement and advanced integration tools. This may seem like a 

difficult process, but it can easily be achieved through the following six 

simple steps. 


1Create a place of value and interest for online visitors. 

Start by adding site features that encourage interaction. 

For example, providing polls, review sections or article 

submissions creates a more robust resource that visitors will want 

to return to. This prevents the affiliate site from being seen only 

as “a middle man” and provides visitors with an additional outlet 

of informational sources. 

2 

Research your site’s user behavior patterns. Studying and 

understanding visitors’ activity patterns can offer valuable 

insight, and allow for fine-tuning of site content to further 

satisfy the visitors’ needs. This will capture their interest, and 

help to establish a more solid site audience. 

3 

Only add relevant site content – it’s as simple as that. Content 

or information-based affiliate sites should provide relevant 

content that matches their site’s theme or focus. Don’t make 

the mistake of adding non-relevant terms, just because they have 

a higher cost per click. If an internet surfer comes to a site looking 

for refrigerators, they are not likely to click on a paid link for diet 

pills. Relevant content presents more options to the visitors, again 

ensuring confidence, and prompting return visits. 

4 

Place sponsored content where it is immediately visible. 

Without overwhelming a site, place content “above the 

fold” or where it is clearly visible upon first viewing the 

homepage. This places the information at the visitors’ hands, 

allowing them to either choose to further explore the site, or click 

on an ad to transport to outside sources. 

5 

Be conscious of site aesthetics – a particularly important 

consideration, as they can dramatically influence the 

visitors’ experience. Coordinating all fonts and colors, thus 

ensuring consistency with the site’s branding, can easily create a 

visually pleasing site. With most types of text-based ads, the look 

and feel can easily be adjusted to exactly match a site. 

6 

Use all integration tools available. Take full advantage 

of integration tools that provide value-added services for 

site visitors. Tools like Searchfeed.com’s Search Engine 

Generator or the MIVA Ad Revenue Xpress’ Search Box 

feature simply places a paid search box on an affiliate’s site. 

These methods maintain site branding, and create an additional 

resource for visitors. Using tools that maintain branding through 

seamlessly integrated content further secures a higher percentage 

of site visitor returns. 

In conclusion, if knowledge is power, then any affiliate has 

a powerful advantage if they use the above six steps to get 

maximum results from a PPC program. The use of enriched 

content, combined with ensuring excellent matches between 

informational and ad placement can provide a positive experience 

for visitors, ensuring their return. 

P! 

P! 

www.pingzine.com 47


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

E-mail Marketing: 

Tips for Improving 

Response & 

Return On 

Investment 

by Dan Lok 

E-mail has resulted in a revolution in marketing – indeed, a 

veritable explosion in messaging. For some it is a godsend, in its 

role as a technology and method that allows people to sell products 

and services quickly and effectively. For others, it’s a “doomsday 

device,” resulting in a flame-filled mailbox with angry messages 

from those who insist they will never again be customers. 

Web conversion expert Dan Lok says you must learn several 

special techniques before you can truly leverage and make 

maximum use of e-mail—the internet’s wunderkind. 

Here are some of Dan’s most important keys to successful e- 

mail marketing campaigns: 

1. Get Permission. Use web page sign up forms or “postcard” 


return cards, but get permission in a valid way. Also, consider 

creating and offering incentives for people to sign-up online to 

receive value-added information. 

2. Target carefully and make it relevant. Send only relevant e- 

mail to opt-in subscribers. Develop and give people what they 

want and what you promised; avoid sending e-mail that is outside 

the scope of what was promised to those who opted in. Also, 

consider targeting and segmenting your subscriber base, to tailor 

your messages to specific demographic characteristics. 

3. Your Subject Line is Critical. Don’t make it look or sound like 

spam. The purpose of the subject line is not to sell, but is rather 

to get people to open the e-mail – and that’s it! So, be careful 

of the words you select. Also, check your e-mail against a spam 

checker, to see that it doesn’t contain words or patterns that will 

likely result in deletion. 

4. Use your personality. Talk in the first person (i.e. use “I”) and 

develop your persona as a friend or as an expert. E-mail is far more 

effective if you define your persona based on your customers’ 

needs and desires, as well as on professional behaviors. 

5. Don’t sell – Advise, advise, advise! Offer value-added problem 

solving information, advice, tools and help. You can thus use your 

e-mail to inspire others to call you or visit your web site. Also, 

offering people more of what they like helps build your personal 

relationship with them, and by extension, your customer base. 

6. Create a single, clear and benefit-laden “call for action.” 

Focus on getting people to take one action, and don’t offer more 

than one action. Identify the action clearly and persuasively, and 

track the results. The goal is to get them to click (thus transporting 

them to a relevant landing page), which can then “net” them to 

take further action. 

7. Create a life-cycle campaign. Design a program that results 

in you sending out four to six messages over a six-to-eight week 

period. These recurring campaigns can be created in advance, and 

operated in a totally automated fashion. 

8. Use “triggered” e-mail. Design and set up automated e-mail 

campaigns, so that when clients order a product, sign-up for 

items, or request information online, a suite of e-mail messages 

are automatically sent to them periodically. 

9. Use e-mail to get them to click! E-mail is most effective when 

kept short; strive for no more than three or four pages. Relate the 

first paragraph to the subject line. Also, try to drive people to a 

web page, and then close the sale there – don’t try to close the 

sale with an e-mail. Also, don’t mention price or cost in e-mail 

– the purpose of the e-mail is to pre-sell. Again, the goal is to get 

them to click, then go to your web page, where you can do the 

selling there. 

10. Comply with CAN-SPAM Act requirements. Send from a 

valid address, and promptly comply with all remove requests. 

Never send a second e-mail to someone who has requested 

removal. P! 


For more information, visit http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com. 

Dan’s web site contains one of the best lists you’ll 

ever find of recommended online marketing technologies to 

enhance and update marketing. Or, get in direct contact with 

Dan Lok at (604) 583-4999, or by e-mail at danielok@shaw.ca

www.pingzine.com 49


How To Drive 

Customers To Your Website 

....................................................................... 

by Brad Stone 

As I mentioned in my last article, 

having a website will not magically 

result in customers visiting, without 

you driving them there. I compared 

improperly marketed websites to being 

equivalent to retail stores without 

windows, doors or signs, located on 

property with no roads or sidewalks. 

In other words, having a great website 

that looks professional and is salesoriented 

is very important – but it 

won’t give you business, unless you do 

something to direct potential customers 

there. There are several ways of doing 

just that: 

1. List your Web Address – Put your 

web address on all of your business 

cards, stationery, brochures, flyers, 

signs, and yellow page ads. (By the 

way, did you know that if you and your 

competitor have the same size yellow 

page ad, but they have their website 

listed while you don’t, 65% of the 

customers looking for your service or 

product will go to your competitor’s 

business before they go to you? See 

http://www.yellowpagepartners.com 

for more information.) 

2. Leverage Search Engine 

Optimization (SEO) – Getting your 

website listed “high” in the common 

search engines is not quick nor easy. 

Although we don’t have the exact 

formulas or algorithms that Google or 

Yahoo use to determine the rankings 

of websites, we do have a pretty good 

understanding of the things that lead to 

better ranking – both engines put a lot 

of importance on the web pages that 

are linked to your site. 

3. Consider Pay Per Click (PPC) 

Advertising – This is when you pay 

search engines such as Google or 

Yahoo to list your (linked) ad on 

the first or second pages of certain 

keyword searches. You normally 

bid against other advertisers for the 

placement position of your ad – the 

higher you bid, generally, the higher 

your placement. We have been using 

this avenue for our business and are 

currently receiving a 400% return on 

our marketing dollars. 

4. Submitting Articles on your 

Business – There are many sources 

that will receive your articles for 

publication. By getting your articles 

on the internet you’ll have many, many 

article pages that will be pointing back 

to your website. If someone is searching 

for a certain piece of information that 

your article covers, they will find your 

article through a search, and eventually 

end up at your website. Check out the 

following link for more information: 

http://www.ezinearticles.com 

I hope that I’ve given you a few things 

to think about. If you have questions, 

or would like more information, 

please feel free to give us a call at: 1- 

800-266-0799, or simply email me at 

brad@heritageusa.net. P! 


www.pingzine.com 51


Transaction Fees 

Debit Cards vs. Credit Cards 

by Brad Bialas 

....................................................................... 

Many may ask: Is the cost of 

accepting a debit card the same as 

accepting a traditional credit card? 

Although the simple answer is “no,” 

your transaction processor may not be 

passing on the decreased processing 

cost. Many merchants believe that 

receiving a lower cost for debit cards 

requires additional equipment to enter 

the cardholder’s PIN at the time of an 

order. This is no longer the case. 

So-called “offline” debit transactions 

(i.e. those processed without a PIN) 

now qualify for lower rates, as a result 

of a class action lawsuit settlement 

against the primary credit card 

associations on June 4, 2003. Under the 

old system, debit card processing fees 

were traditionally the same as credit 

cards, unless a PIN was entered. Under 

the terms of the settlement, however, 

Visa and MasterCard were directed to 

significantly reduce the costs to process 

offline debit transactions. 

The initial debit rate was lowered 

in August of 2003, and focussed 

on “card present” transactions (i.e. 

transactions where the cardholder and 

the card are physically present at the 

time of purchase). Since then, Visa and 

MasterCard expanded the reduced debit 

processing costs to include “card not 

present” transactions – an action that 

can directly benefit mail/phone order 

and internet merchants. Unfortunately, 

the rate changes do not automatically 

ensure that your business is actually 

benefiting from the lowered rates. 

Whether you receive a reduced rate 

depends on your processor passing the 

decrease through to your business. 

In order to fully understand how 

to capitalize on these rates, you need 

to first understand each of the rate 

classifications and how they work. 

Step 1: Understand the basic rate 

categories 

The most common pricing method 

used by transaction processors is a 

three-tier categorization. Transactions 

are thus one of: 1.) Qualified, 2.) Mid- 

Qualified, or 3.) Non-Qualified. 

In most cases, for a purchase to be 

categorized as a Qualified transaction, 

the card must be physically present 

at the time of purchase and swiped 

through a point-of-sale terminal. For 

example, if I purchase a hockey stick 

from my local sports store, and the 

cashier swipes my credit card, that 

transaction will most likely be charged 

at the Qualified rate. However, if the 

cashier hand-keyed my transaction 

into a terminal, the transaction would 

likely move to the more expensive 

Mid-Qualified rate. Lastly, if I were 

to make the same purchase using one 

of my rewards program or corporateissued 

cards, the transaction would 


likely move to the most expensive 

Non-Qualified category, regardless of 

whether it was swiped or hand-keyed 

by the cashier. 

Step 2: Understand how these rates 

work with your business. 

Because most of you reading 

this article are probably not selling 

hockey sticks in a retail environment, 

it is worthwhile to review how these 

rate categories affect internet based 

transactions. 

The first thing to understand is that 

processing rates are generally higher 

for an internet merchant than for a 

merchant that swipes all transactions. 

Typically, internet transactions are 

classified as Mid-Qualified in the case 

of consumer cards, or non-qualified if 

they are reward program or corporate 

cards. So, if you do not swipe credit 

cards in a face-to-face setting, and 

someone is trying to sell you on a 

1.64% Qualified rate, you’re probably 

best to run away, because very few (if 

any) of your transactions will be in this 

rate category! 

Unfortunately, a great many 

merchants are lured with low Qualified 

rates, while the Mid-Qualified and 

Non-Qualified rates are significantly 

higher. To avoid surprises on your 

monthly merchant statement, it’s 

critical that you understand all possible 

rate categories and how your processor 

will classify transactions. 

Once you are satisfied with your 

Mid-Qualified and Non-Qualified 

processing programs, you want to 

ensure that you receive the decreased 

cost for “offline” debit transactions. As 

we stated earlier, Visa and MasterCard 

lowered the costs for these rates, 

however most processors are not 

passing the savings to the merchant. 

This is particularly distressing in light 

of our research – we have found that 

the average hosting company accepts 

internet debit payments for as much as 

thirty percent of their overall business. 

Moreover, after having seen hundreds 

of credit card processing statements 

specifically from hosting companies, 

we can report that only a handful 

of them have had the Internet debit 

rate correctly segregated, and even 

fewer have had the appropriate cost 

associated. Thus, leveraging the new 

rate structure can almost always have 

a very positive impact on your bottom 

line. 

Step 3: Make the new debit rate 

work for you. 

The easiest way to confirm that you 

are receiving the decreased cost for 

debit sales is to review your monthly 

merchant statement. The debit rate 

should be identified as a separate 

category, and be billed at a lower rate 

than your other sales. One still needs 

to be cautious, however! We have seen 

numerous advertisements and emails 

trying to lure in companies, by offering 

a low two-tiered plan. In other words, 

they offer a median priced Qualified 

and Non-Qualified rate, but they are 

not reporting a Mid-Qualified or Debit 

rate. In cases like this, the processor 

is capitalizing on your debit sales 

as opposed to passing the additional 

savings on to your business. 

To avoid the problems of a two-tiered 

system, be sure that you work with a 

three-tiered program: one that provides 

you the cost for a Debit transaction, a 

Mid-Qualified transaction, and a Non- 

Qualified transaction. 

To view a few examples of 

competitive debit rate programs being 

offered in this hosting industry, visit 

either 1) ModernAuthorize at http:// 

www.modernauthorize.com (Click 

on the American flag) or 2) SWsoft 

at http://www.bluepay.com/landings/ 

swsoft/programSWsoft.html 

Step 4: Make sure you are partnering 

with the right providers. 

Akin to almost any product you 

purchase for your business, the closer 

you get to the source, the lower your 

transaction processing cost will 

be. Unfortunately, many hosting 

companies purchase their payment 

processing services from sales agents 

and/or resellers that may be three or 

four levels down from the source. 

That means your business is filling 

the pockets of those independent sales 

agents, as opposed to building your 

bottom line. 

It can thus be very valuable to find out 

from who you purchase your payment 

gateway and merchant account. If you 

are not buying from the source (i.e. 

the direct merchant account provider 

and the author/development company 

behind the payment gateway), it may 

be time to look for another provider. 

By taking this step, you will inevitably 

be able to save on your processing 

costs. P! 


BluePay is a market-leading provider of direct payment processing 

solutions. With a focus on the ISP and Hosting markets, BluePay 

offers some of the most cost effective payment processing 

solutions available today. In addition, BluePay can customize 

their payment gateway to address any payment-processing 

environment. You can contact BluePay at http://www.bluepay. 

com or toll free at 866-613-5422. 

www.pingzine.com 53


Winning 

The Click Fraud Battle 

by Boris Mordkovich 

....................................................................... 

Is Click Fraud a Problem? 

If somebody were to tell you that 20% 

of your advertising budget was being 

wasted on fraud, would you be worried? 

If you advertise on pay-per-click search 

engines, such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! 

Search Marketing (formerly Overture), 

MIVA, or others, you have a reason 

to be concerned. 

According to industry metrics, up 

to 20% (http://www.adwatcher.com/ 

?clickfraud) of all pay-per-click activity 

delivered to advertisers is fraudulent. 

Two of the most common sources include 

competitors trying to deplete your 

account by repeatedly clicking on your 

ads, or a search engine’s partner or affiliate 

increasing their own bottom line 

by clicking on your ads. 

Whatever the source, the situation 

is even more complex because search 

engines never reveal their click fraud 

monitoring tactics. In fact, most simply 

state that they use a number of methods 

designed to filter out repetitive or invalid 

clicking, and then ensure that all 

clicks reported to their advertisers are 

genuine. For security reasons, however, 

they cannot disclose details of their protection 

methodology nor give any visual 

or system clues to indicate that click 

protection is active. 

What does this mean to you? As an 

advertiser you must rely on the effectiveness 

of the search engine’s fraud 

monitoring techniques. However, given 

that they actually stand to gain financially 

from fraudulent clicks (since your ad 

account is charged each time any click 

is made on the ad), this apparent conflict 

of interest with search engines is a 

tough pill for advertisers to swallow. 

Fortunately, there are a number of 

third-party tools available that monitor 

your ad campaigns and track potential 

fraudulent activity for a nominal monthly 

fee, such as AdWatcher.com and 

WhosClickingWho.com. These tools 

analyze every single click on your ad(s) 

and let you know if they detect suspicious 

activity. 

The question of the day, though, is 

what to do once a third-party tool tells 

you it has detected click fraud? What’s 

the correct process to follow to get your 

money back? 

The following is a step-by-step guide 

to help ensure a refund from the search 

engine: 

Getting Your Money Back 

1. Gather all of the information 

you have on the fraud occurrences over a 

specific time frame. You will need the ad 

campaign name, IP addresses, referring 

pages, geographic origin of the clicks in 

question, keywords that were searched 

for, the number and times of the clicks, 

and any other relevant data required by 

your search engine to process a claim. 

Third-party tracking services are able to 

provide you with all of this information, 


and therefore are particularly helpful in 

such cases. 

2. According to guidelines from 

Google, Yahoo, and other search engines, 

you should also include a paragraph 

describing the trends in logs and/ 

or reports that have led you to believe 

the click activity is invalid. 

3. Once all the information is 

ready, contact the search engine. If you 

have an account representative, forward 

the data to him or her. If not, I highly 

recommend that you ask for one, as it is 

easier to deal with the same person on 

an on-going basis. 

Alternatively, you can send in the 

claim request to an email address specific 

to the search engine, such as: 

Google AdWords: adwordssupport@google.com 

(or use their Contact 

form) 

Yahoo! Search Marketing: 

feedback@overture.com (or use their 

Support Center) 

Other search engines have relevant 

contact procedures on their websites. 

4. After you submit the information, 

you will likely receive a response 

similar to one of these from a low-level 

representative: 

a) They have conducted the investigation, 

found the clicks fraudulent, 

and will issue the credit to your account. 

b) They are requesting additional 

supporting information, such as your 

traffic trends, server logs, etc. 

c) They may refuse to acknowledge 

that the clicks were fraudulent. 

Unfortunately, this happens quite often 

because search engines are reluctant to 

admit click fraud has made it through 

their monitoring system (for example, 

Google never refers to clicks as 

“fraudulent”, just “invalid” – https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer. 

py?answer=6432). 

5. If scenario a) or b) occurs, follow 

whatever instructions are provided. 

If (c) occurs, ask to speak to your 

contact’s supervisor. It may require 

numerous emails and/or phone calls to 

accomplish this, but remember – don’t 

take the first “no” as a final answer. You 

are, in effect, asking the search engine 

to hand over part of their profits, which 

is not something they likely will easily 

agree to. 

If fraud is detected using a 3rd party 

auditor, we recommend that you submit 

click fraud reports about once a month, 

since it takes time for the search engine 

to process and investigate them. This 

way, keeping track of the status of your 

refund will be less time consuming and 

easier for both sides. 

Click fraud is a growing problem for 

many advertisers – no matter how much 

you spend on pay-per-click advertising 

monthly. To make sure that you are not 

a victim, it’s necessary to take matters 

into your own hands: detect click fraud, 

and claim the refunds you are entitled 

to. P! 

www.pingzine.com 55


Just Replace 

The Pilot 

by Ron Dunlap 

....................................................................... 

Taxiing down the tarmac, a jetliner 

abruptly stopped, turned around and 

returned to the gate. After an hour-long 

wait, it finally took off. A concerned 

passenger asked the flight attendant, 

“What was the problem?” “Oh. It wasn’t 

anything that important really. The pilot 

was bothered by a rumbling noise he 

heard in the engine,” explained the 

Flight Attendant, “and it took us a while 

to find a new pilot.” 

Yes, it’s a joke, but it reminded me 

of a conversation I had with a web host 

owner several years ago. “John” had 

just hired a new support manager to 

replace “Robert.” Robert had been with 

the company since they had opened, and 

was a very good support manager. It was 

surprising to me, because I knew Robert 

loved working there, so I asked what 

happened to Robert. I thought he was 

doing a pretty good job. 

John told me that his company was 

going through a growth spurt and it 

seemed his company’s support efforts 

were lagging behind. They were getting 

more and more emails and calls for 

support from their customers. I asked if 

the increased requests were complaints, 

or just the typical setup and operation 

questions that are expected with the 

influx of new customers. John said they 

were mostly setup questions, but there 

were so many of them they couldn’t get 

to all of them. 

Robert had been with the Web Host 

company from day one, and was a very 

good manager. I was eager to find out 

why Robert left so I asked, “Did Robert 

quit from not being able to deal with the 

added pressure or something?” “No,” 

said John rather abruptly, “Robert was 

doing everything he could to keep up 

with the problems, but he constantly 

complained that we needed to hire 

more people to handle the increased 

number of support questions!” That was 

reasonable, I thought, but John wasn’t 

finished… “His complaints finally got 

to me and I couldn’t take it anymore, so 

I finally just put a cork in it!” 

“Put a cork in it,” I asked, not sure 

where he was going with his story? 

“Yes! I fired him and hired a new 

support manager!” 

I was dumbfounded. “Well, maybe I 

am not following you. You fired Robert 

because he told you he needed to add 

more staff to handle the increased 

support requests?” 

“Yes, I sure did,” John said with 

conviction. 

Scratching my head, I asked another 

“dumb” question. “Well, did hiring 

the new manager decrease the support 

requests, or something?” I was still 

incredulous. 

“Nope. But the new manager never 

complains to me about adding more 

staff and that takes a lot of pressure off 

my shoulders!” 

Amazing! 

John thought it was better to get a “new 

pilot” that didn’t complain about the 

noise, rather than fix the real problem. 

Just so you know, the web host lost a lot 

of customers when Robert was let go. It 

also lost credibility over the next year, 

and was eventually bought out by one 

of the “mega-hosts” that gobbled up 

quite a few web hosts back then. John 

complained that he should have sold his 

company when they had more customers 

(ironically, that was when Robert was 

with them). And, sadder still, Robert was 

disillusioned with Web Hosting and left 

the industry. The remaining customers 

were absorbed by the “mega-host,” and 

hopefully received better treatment. 

I hear this kind of thing happening 

every so often and I always believe 

that greed is the motivating factor. All 

companies face problems, but not all 

web hosts deal with them the same way. 

Quality web hosts fix the “engine noise.” 

Bad web hosts just replace the pilot. 

P! 


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PRODUCT REVIEW 

Unless you have been 

living under a rock, 

you know that payper-click 

(PPC) advertising 

continues to buzz. The 

US Marketing Forecast by 

Forrester Research (May 2005) suggests that we will see 33% 

growth in search engine marketing (SEM) this year and sustain 

11% growth per year over the next five years. This rapid 

growth will propel SEM spending to more than $11.6 billion by 

2010. As SEM grows, the cost of PPC advertising for popular 

keywords will increase significantly. With a large market and 

increasing complexity in PPC advertising, many small-to-mid 

sized businesses hesitate to use PPC advertising. Empowering 

small-biz owners to use SEM and PPC in particular is the goal 

of Boris and Eugene Mordkovich’s new book: “Pay-Per-Click 

Search Engine Marketing Handbook.” 

The Mordoviches PPC Handbook guides small business owners 

though the maze of PPC marketing. Covering topics from “What 

is Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Advertising?” to “Types of Pay- 

Per-Click Search Engines and Reviews” the book targets PPC 

neophytes. The introductory chapters provide an introduction 

to the pay-per-click concept, terminology and benefits. Copious 

amounts of jargon fill SEM, so understanding terms like CPC, 

CTR, and conversion rate are essential to an effective campaign. 

The PPC Handbook will certainly help you with these topics. If 

you’ve never deployed a PPC campaign, these early sections will 

arm you with sufficient information to get started at places like 

Google’s AdWords, Yahoo!, and similar PPC search engines. 

Though, I don’t do a lot of PPC advertising, I have used 

Google’s AdWords and Yahoo’s Search Marketing. If you have 

ever used either of these services, then you will probably find 

much of the information in this book a synopsis of information 

found at these PPC outlets. If you’ve not used PPC advertising, 

early chapters will teach you how to develop a campaign, how 

to open an account and how to track your results. For those with 

experience in PPC, you may glean the most from the chapters on 

tracking click fraud and contextual PPC advertising. 

The Mordoviches provide good tips on how and when to 

use contextual ads instead of paid search listings. The authors 

advise testing landing pages to determine which page provides 

the best results. Since you can often create multiple ads with the 

same copy, you can easily test landing pages by just changing 

the URL in the ad. Though simple, I suspect many of us rarely 

do this. Another good tip is to setup the same ad at different 

search engines and PPC outlets. In my own experience with 

FindWhat, Kanoodle, AdWords, and Yahoo!, I have found that 

I get dramatically different results. Since it is sometimes hard 

to know where your ad will be published, trying multiple search 

engines will help you determine the best place to maximize your 


Pay-per-click Search Engine Marketing Handbook: 

Low Cost Strategies to Attracting New Customers 

Using Google, Yahoo & Other Search Engines 

Author: Boris Mordkovich, Eugene Mordkovich 

...................................................................................................... 

by Jeff Huckaby 

return on the investment (ROI), sound advice when you have 

limited PPC dollars. 

Chapter 6 provides help on tracking click fraud. With experts 

estimating click fraud as high as 50%, keeping tabs on the 

fraudsters is essential. Click fraud lowers your ROI and clouds 

tracking statistics. The authors point out that click fraud can 

increase your advertising even if you are not targeted directly. 

Since click fraud increases the cost of a keyword, your advertising 

costs may increase, an impact I had not considered. The authors 

also highlight what they call “impression click fraud” using 

Google’s AdWords program. Using this technique, a competitor 

uses a script or robot to visit pages with your ads. They do not 

click on the ads, but simply lower your overall click through rate. 

If your rate falls to a very low level, Google may disable your ad, 

thus allowing competing ads to rise to the top. 

The PPC handbook includes reviews of several major PPC 

services. The reviews list the pros and cons of each engine, then 

minimum deposit and bid process. Having the bid prices and 

minimum deposits summarized can save you a lot of time. 

The section of the book I found most useful was the “Tips for 

the Experts” chapter. This section is filled with a few nuggets 

that I’ve not dug up elsewhere. For example, smaller screens will 

have fewer ads above the fold. So just as in designing, you need 

to bid appropriately to get your ads the best exposure. If you bid 

too low, the visibility of your ads may drop below the fold. So 

just as in designing, you need to bid appropriately to get your ads 

the best exposure. If you bid too low, the visibility of your ads 

may drop below the fold and your campaign may suffer. Another 

good tip is to use exact matching of keywords and to track these 

keywords individually. Though this requires more work, you 

can fine tune your keyword list to maximize your ROI. You 

will discover several more tips scattered through out this section 

which has input from many of the top names in SEM. 

Overall, Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Handbook is a good read 

for people very new to PPC. However, if you’ve every managed 

an ad campaign or do significant PPC advertising, you will 

likely need a more advanced book to ferret the most out of your 

advertising dollars. Even if you have experimented with PPC, the 

contextual advertising and tips chapters provide valuable insights. 

You have to overlook the poor publishing quality – it simply does 

not mirror the quality of the content. Given that you can pick this 

book up for less than twenty dollars, I suspect most people new 

to PPC marketing will benefit. 

P! 


Jeff Huckaby is founder and CEO of rackAID, a outsourced server management 

company located in New Haven, Connecticut. Prior to rackAID, 

he managed a strategic consulting fi rm that assisted non-profi t organizations 

with online business developments and provided system support 

services at Yale University. In his spare time, he enjoys baseball, dining 

out, and spending too much time at the local bar.

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Reseller Hosting Info & Daily New 


www.pingzine.com 65

Host 

Laughs 

by Web Host Magazine & Buyer’s Guide 

The New Son-In-Law 

The CEO of a very successful Web Hosting company in the 

mid-west invited his new son-in-law to the company data 

center. He walked him around and explained all the ins and 

outs of the Hosting business. When they got done with the 

tour the CEO brought his son-in-law into his spacious offi ce 

where they both sat down to talk. 

“As you can see, I run a very successful, multi-million dollar 

Web Hosting company. I wanted you to see the operations, 

because, I want the man that won my daughter’s hand in 

marriage to start off successfully. I want to welcome you 

into the family and show you how much we care for you.” 

The CEO smiled at the young man. “Because of that, I’ve 

already drawn up the legal papers to make you a 50-50 

partner in my business! How does that sound?” 

The young man was excited “That’s great! Thank you sir!” 

He replied. 

“Good. Then as of this moment, you own half the company! 

Beginning Monday I want you to be here at 8:00 AM, sharp, 

and I’ll show you your offi ce and you can get started!” 

“That’s great sir! But, I hate offi ce work. I can’t stand being 

behind a desk all day,” said the son-in-law. 

“Good! Then you want to get right in there and work with 

your hands! I’ll have you work in the data center where you’ll 

learn networking and troubleshooting techniques from the 

best technicians...” 

His son-in-law interrupted him “Ahh, that’s something I can’t 

do sir.” 

“Why Not?” 

“Well, sir, I can’t stand being around computers,” said the 

young man 

“Can’t stand computers! Wait a minute,” said the father-inlaw. 

I just made you the half-owner of a multi-million-dollar 

organization, and you can’t stand desk work, and you can’t 

stand computers! What am I going to do with you?” 

“Easy!” Said the young man. “Buy me out!” 


Overheard in the Parking Lot 

Two Web Host executives were overheard at the last 

HostingCon in the parking lot. The fi rst one had a coat 

hanger trying to unlock the door of the new Mercedes while 

the second one stood there, in a frustrated pose. “I can’t 

believe you locked the keys in the car!” Just then the coat 

hanger slipped. 

“Darn! I almost had it,” said the fi rst one. The second one, 

looked up at the sky, palm outstretched, feeling a drop of 

rain. “Well you’d better hurry up and try harder! It’s starting 

to rain, and the top is down!” 

The Trouble’s At Your End 

A well known Windows programmer from Microsoft decided 

he needed a bigger challenge in his life so he enlisted in the 

Marines and went to Boot Camp. 

At the rifl e range, he was instructed on how to use his 

rifl e, given some bullets, and told to fi re at the target. He 

fi red several shots at the target and waited for the results. 

The report came back that all of his shots had completely 

missed the target. The Windows programmer looked at his 

rifl e, and then at the target. He looked at the rifl e again, and 

then at the target again. He put his fi nger over the end of 

the rifl e barrel and squeezed the trigger with his other hand. 

The end of his fi nger was blown off, whereupon he yelled 

toward the target area, “The bullet’s are leaving here just 

fi ne! The trouble must be at your end!” 

Ordering Drinks 

A Programmer, a Web Designer and a Web Host lawyer 

headed into a bar and ordered their drinks from the 

bartender. 

Programmer: “I’ll have a B and C.” 

Bartender: “What’s a B and C?”. 

Programmer: “Bourbon and Coke.” 

Web Designer: “And, I’ll have a G and T.” 

Bartender: “What’s a G and T?” 

Web Designer: “Gin and tonic.” 

Web Host lawyer: “I’ll have a 15.” 

Bartender: “What’s a 15?” 

Web Host lawyer: “7 and 7”

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