Issue of bloggers sued in Malaysia
Jefff Ooi is in the news. Not that he is an unknown though. He merits quite a mention in Wikipedia. Jeff is a pioneer Malaysian blogger who writes a popular blog called Screenshots. Started in 2003, the blog covers current issues relating to Malaysia, mostly concerning politics.
This website is termed "Malaysia's Most Influencial Blog" by Malaysiakini, a popular local online news publication. Also in 2005, Screenshots won the Asia category of the Freedom Blogs Awards given by Reporters Without Borders.
In early January, Ooi was sued for alleged libel/defamation by New Straits Times Press and several of its top executives. Also sued together with him is another local blogger Ahirudin Attan a.k.a. Rocky who writes the blog Rocky's Bru.
The lawsuits are the first of their kind in Malaysia, if not the world. The Malaysian blogging community and some NGOs have called it an attempt to stifle freedom of expression over the internet and some called it going back on the government's guarantee of no censorship on the internet.
However, I think they have the right to bring on the lawsuits if they think they have been wronged, provided they can prove to the court the articles/postings in the two blogs were defamatory.
By defamatory it is meant that they cause injury to the reputation or character of someone resulting from malicious false statements.
Malaysian laws protect every citizen from harm to their reputation by false and derogatory remarks. Every citizen can seek redress if they believed that they have been defamed. But they have to prove it to the court.
Another important point is, if the articles/postings are proven to be defamatory, they would be so whether they are over the internet, published in newspapers or broadcast over radio and TV. But if they were not defamatory, they were not, regardless of the medium they appeared in. Not censoring the internet has nothing to do with it; the law takes its course irrespective.
So it is wrong to say that defamation laws don't hold in cyberspace just because the government said it would not censor the internet. But the defamation has to be proven in court.
The Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has defended legal action launched against Jeff and Rocky, saying that the internet was not exempt from defamation laws.
However, this lawsuit has spawned the Bloggers United Campaign to defend the freedom of expression.
Jeff and Rocky will be embroiled in court in an intensified situation which causes a lot of blogger related headlines in various newspapers, local and international.
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other websites at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs and http://tinyurl.com/vervd and http://www.all4webs.com/r/8/dalengz .
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Three important Adsense clarifications
I received an email from Joel Comm the AdSense Guru, informing the good news that Google has relaxed its rules on other contextual ads being on the same pages as AdSense ads.
Now, contextual ads like those provided by Kontera, Intellitxt, Amazon and Chitika are allowed on the same pages as AdSense ads.
Joel says, however, you may not run ads that are designed to resemble AdSense ads. For example, Yahoo! Publisher Network ads look very much like AdSense ads. So you can't use them on the same pages as AdSense ads, although they can be on the same website. Other than that it's all right.
Since Joel has made a good deal of income with Kontera and Chitika apart from AdSense, and he has written ebooks on the two types of ads, he is recommending that we apply for those two programs to use in conjunction with AdSense. He says now we can apply for those programs and implement them on our pages without fear of losing our AdSense accounts.
However, after some checking up, I found that it is impractical for me and a lot of others to do so because of the requirements of the programs. Kontera requires that a website should have at least 500,000 page impressions per month and Chitika requires at least 10,000 page views per month.
I have less than 10,000 page views per month for both my blog and my website. As such this information is not useful to me. It will also not be useful for those who have bought Joel Comm's instant AdSense templates because they will be just starting off and will definitely not be able to chalk up 10,000 page views per month for a start.
So, thank you Joel for offering to sell your Chitika ebook at a discount, but it will be not of any use for the time being for this group of people. They just cannot fulfil the minimum requirement of page views set by Kontera and Chitika.
The email from Joel also points out that Google prefers that publishers avoid images that are lined up directly next to the ads so that it appears each ad is associated with an image. But if the dimensions of the images are completely different from the dimensions of the ads, then it's okay.
The idea is that Google does not want visitors clicking on ads because they have been deceived in believing the image is associated with the ad.
Also another point covered by the email is that whenever you see an ad for a Google service, Google is paying the publisher for that ad just as they would for any other ad. They are bidding in the auction and the publisher will be paid according to those bids.
This is good news for those who wondered if Google was trying to have a freebie by placing their own ads on their network without paying.
Joel received these clarifications from the AdSense team and he says he is very encouraged by these clarifications which make matters very clear now.
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other websites at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs and http://tinyurl.com/vervd and http://www.all4webs.com/r/8/dalengz .
I received an email from Joel Comm the AdSense Guru, informing the good news that Google has relaxed its rules on other contextual ads being on the same pages as AdSense ads.
Now, contextual ads like those provided by Kontera, Intellitxt, Amazon and Chitika are allowed on the same pages as AdSense ads.
Joel says, however, you may not run ads that are designed to resemble AdSense ads. For example, Yahoo! Publisher Network ads look very much like AdSense ads. So you can't use them on the same pages as AdSense ads, although they can be on the same website. Other than that it's all right.
Since Joel has made a good deal of income with Kontera and Chitika apart from AdSense, and he has written ebooks on the two types of ads, he is recommending that we apply for those two programs to use in conjunction with AdSense. He says now we can apply for those programs and implement them on our pages without fear of losing our AdSense accounts.
However, after some checking up, I found that it is impractical for me and a lot of others to do so because of the requirements of the programs. Kontera requires that a website should have at least 500,000 page impressions per month and Chitika requires at least 10,000 page views per month.
I have less than 10,000 page views per month for both my blog and my website. As such this information is not useful to me. It will also not be useful for those who have bought Joel Comm's instant AdSense templates because they will be just starting off and will definitely not be able to chalk up 10,000 page views per month for a start.
So, thank you Joel for offering to sell your Chitika ebook at a discount, but it will be not of any use for the time being for this group of people. They just cannot fulfil the minimum requirement of page views set by Kontera and Chitika.
The email from Joel also points out that Google prefers that publishers avoid images that are lined up directly next to the ads so that it appears each ad is associated with an image. But if the dimensions of the images are completely different from the dimensions of the ads, then it's okay.
The idea is that Google does not want visitors clicking on ads because they have been deceived in believing the image is associated with the ad.
Also another point covered by the email is that whenever you see an ad for a Google service, Google is paying the publisher for that ad just as they would for any other ad. They are bidding in the auction and the publisher will be paid according to those bids.
This is good news for those who wondered if Google was trying to have a freebie by placing their own ads on their network without paying.
Joel received these clarifications from the AdSense team and he says he is very encouraged by these clarifications which make matters very clear now.
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other websites at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs and http://tinyurl.com/vervd and http://www.all4webs.com/r/8/dalengz .
Monday, January 15, 2007
Time to update to Adobe Reader 8
On the subject of software for Internet marketers, I would like to mention that it's time to update to Adobe Reader 8 if you haven't done so. This will be free from a security flaw that plagues versions 7 and earlier, as notified in one of the Adobe advisories. However, if your system is too old to update to version 8, Adobe says you should do a full install of the patched version 7.
Adobe says that the flaw let hackers use a technique known as cross-site scripting, in which they blend malicious JavaScript with a link to a PDF file on a Web site to hijack a user's computer.
The problem does not affect PDF documents themselves, and can only be used when someone attempts to retrieve a PDF document by clicking a malicious link, such as one a spammer might embed in unwanted e-mail.
There are no security issues with the actual PDF files but someone could possibly download a PDF, and then upload it to their server and put the nasty code in the link.
So to be on the safe side, don't open email attachments, or PDF files from strangers, or even from people you know, unless you were expecting something, as it's very easy to spoof an email address.
To avoid this, the easiest and safest thing to do, is to upgrade to the latest version, that is Acrobat Reader 8 or Acrobat Professional 8.
Here are the official Adobe Security Bulletins and Advisories:
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/index.html
You can update your Adobe Acrobat Reader here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other websites at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs and http://tinyurl.com/vervd .
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Asia Internet intermittently painfully slow
Reports from Hong Kong say Asian companies say they have overcome most of the problems with their communication networks a week after an earthquake off Taiwan damaged undersea fibre-optic cables in Asia’s worst disruption to Internet services.
Last week, companies resorted to faxes and mobile phones after parts of the region lost Internet access. Now, from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, voice and Internet services are almost back to normal. Well, almost.
Indosat, Indonesia’s second largest phone carrier, was running at 80 percent capacity as of New Year’s eve. It rerouted its services to cables connecting Australia, Hong Kong and the US and is providing Internet services at 1.2 gigabytes per second, compared with the normal capacity of 1.5 gigabytes per second.
China Telecom Corp. said at the weekend that Internet service had returned to 70 percent of the company’s normal operation, while voice services to Hong Kong and Macau were back to normal.
From the end user point of view, services would have returned to normal because usage is low at this period of time in the year. However, intermittently, the Internet is still painfully slow and it is a torture trying to do some serious surfing of the Internet.
Apart from rerouting Internet signals to spare lines, ships had been dispatched to the affected areas with the damaged fibre-optic cables and are supposed to have started repair work today. It will take two or three weeks to get the repairs done.
Meanwhile, it this part of the world, Internet will be intermittently very painfully slow if you have to deal with websites hosted in the US, Europe and Australia. Well, let’s hope the repairs are done soonest possible without any delay.
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other website at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs .
Reports from Hong Kong say Asian companies say they have overcome most of the problems with their communication networks a week after an earthquake off Taiwan damaged undersea fibre-optic cables in Asia’s worst disruption to Internet services.
Last week, companies resorted to faxes and mobile phones after parts of the region lost Internet access. Now, from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, voice and Internet services are almost back to normal. Well, almost.
Indosat, Indonesia’s second largest phone carrier, was running at 80 percent capacity as of New Year’s eve. It rerouted its services to cables connecting Australia, Hong Kong and the US and is providing Internet services at 1.2 gigabytes per second, compared with the normal capacity of 1.5 gigabytes per second.
China Telecom Corp. said at the weekend that Internet service had returned to 70 percent of the company’s normal operation, while voice services to Hong Kong and Macau were back to normal.
From the end user point of view, services would have returned to normal because usage is low at this period of time in the year. However, intermittently, the Internet is still painfully slow and it is a torture trying to do some serious surfing of the Internet.
Apart from rerouting Internet signals to spare lines, ships had been dispatched to the affected areas with the damaged fibre-optic cables and are supposed to have started repair work today. It will take two or three weeks to get the repairs done.
Meanwhile, it this part of the world, Internet will be intermittently very painfully slow if you have to deal with websites hosted in the US, Europe and Australia. Well, let’s hope the repairs are done soonest possible without any delay.
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other website at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs .
Monday, December 25, 2006
Blogkits for your blog this Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone! I would like to tell you some good news if you haven’t heard of it yet. Recently, on Monday Dec 11, a wonderful thing happened. Blogkits.com was launched and it promises to be a great thing for the small blogger whose blog does not have so much traffic.
When you do not have much traffic, you won’t earn much with AdSense but it is said that you can earn much more by putting Blogkits ads which are Cost Per Action (CPA) ads. It’s the latest wonderful thing that is happening in blogosphere. Now there is a trend towards CPA in Internet marketing and this couldn’t come at a more opportune time.
Actually, BlogKits was created by Jim Kukral in early 2005 as a solution to help bloggers find new ways to earn a profit with their blogs.
BlogKits was acquired in 2006 by Forge Corporation, a global affiliate marketing firm, and has been transformed into a world-class affiliate marketing tracking network built for bloggers (affiliates) and advertisers. Bloggers, it will pay you to check it out http://www.blogkits.com/ .
I’ll let Jim Kukral do the talking:
BlogKits... In A Nutshell
Our business model is simple...
Help 99% of 50-70 million low-traffic bloggers make a few extra bucks by giving them easy to implement tools and partnerships that lets them keep blogging, instead of trying to be an expert marketer.
We're an alternative to things like Google Adsense. We believe that low-traffic blogs will never make more than a few pennies per day with Adsense, and argue that those bloggers are better served shooting for a CPA return on investment.
Please view our Google Adsense Blog Earnings Calculator Tool to see what we mean.
The More, Official Explanation...
BlogKits is the first, and only affiliate marketing network built for bloggers. It's an alternative monetization method for millions (99% of all blogs) of low-traffic bloggers who aren't expert marketers.
Why Is BlogKits Different Than Say A Normal Affiliate Network?
BlogKits ends the confusion, makes it simple & provides the best options that benefit the blogger. Here's how.
The BlogKits system will rotate the pre-selected ad units for the blogger. Each time a reader clicks and purchases, the blogger earns a % of that order.
Read the FAQ for more answers.
How can BlogKits help my blog?
So, there you are. You have a blog and want an honest, easy & effective solution to earn a few bucks. Log in for a 1-minute free signup at http://www.blogkits.com/ and easily put the ad codes on your blog to get started straightaway.
When you do not have much traffic, you won’t earn much with AdSense but it is said that you can earn much more by putting Blogkits ads which are Cost Per Action (CPA) ads. It’s the latest wonderful thing that is happening in blogosphere. Now there is a trend towards CPA in Internet marketing and this couldn’t come at a more opportune time.
Actually, BlogKits was created by Jim Kukral in early 2005 as a solution to help bloggers find new ways to earn a profit with their blogs.
BlogKits was acquired in 2006 by Forge Corporation, a global affiliate marketing firm, and has been transformed into a world-class affiliate marketing tracking network built for bloggers (affiliates) and advertisers. Bloggers, it will pay you to check it out http://www.blogkits.com/ .
I’ll let Jim Kukral do the talking:
BlogKits... In A Nutshell
Our business model is simple...
Help 99% of 50-70 million low-traffic bloggers make a few extra bucks by giving them easy to implement tools and partnerships that lets them keep blogging, instead of trying to be an expert marketer.
We're an alternative to things like Google Adsense. We believe that low-traffic blogs will never make more than a few pennies per day with Adsense, and argue that those bloggers are better served shooting for a CPA return on investment.
Please view our Google Adsense Blog Earnings Calculator Tool to see what we mean.
The More, Official Explanation...
BlogKits is the first, and only affiliate marketing network built for bloggers. It's an alternative monetization method for millions (99% of all blogs) of low-traffic bloggers who aren't expert marketers.
Why Is BlogKits Different Than Say A Normal Affiliate Network?
BlogKits ends the confusion, makes it simple & provides the best options that benefit the blogger. Here's how.
- When a blogger logs into a typical affiliate network, she sees thousands of programs to choose from. Once she selects a progam to promote, she then sees a large assortment of banners and text links. What does she choose? She's not an expert marketer. Which banner should she use? Where should she place it on here blog? Which product sells best?It shouldn't be so hard, BlogKits makes it easier...
- When a blogger logs into BlogKits, she has to complete two simple steps. The first is to choose which type/style of advertisement to use. Either a simple text ad, or an understated sidebar banner ad, both built specifically for bloggers.
The BlogKits system will rotate the pre-selected ad units for the blogger. Each time a reader clicks and purchases, the blogger earns a % of that order.
Read the FAQ for more answers.
How can BlogKits help my blog?
- By adding an additional, non-competitive, revenue generator on your blog that can earn you more money
- By making your blogging efforts even more worthwhile
- By giving you an easy to implement method to make money from your blog through trusted merchants and brands
So, there you are. You have a blog and want an honest, easy & effective solution to earn a few bucks. Log in for a 1-minute free signup at http://www.blogkits.com/ and easily put the ad codes on your blog to get started straightaway.
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other website at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs .
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Mistakes and the Internet marketer
As an Internet marketer you should never fear making mistakes in your Internet business, for as George Bernard Shaw said, a life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life doing nothing.
As the year is coming to an end, we should pause a little and scrutinize our mistakes made during the year and learn from them. However, when you make a mistake, don’t look at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.
Also, we must learn from the mistakes of others, for it has been said that wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from :-)
There is a wise man in Joel Comm, a top Internet marketer. Here is Joel Comm’s list of BIG mistakes in Internet marketing you should avoid making:
Big Mistake #1--------------NEVER click on your own AdSense ads and don't ever invite anyone to click on your AdSense ads! This is the fastest way to end up without an AdSense account.
Big Mistake #2--------------DON'T become a infoproduct-aholic! There is a lot of fantastic products and services out there to help you with your business, but don't buy so much that you can't usewhat you already have purchased! Stay focused and disciplined, with a plan of action, and you may find that you already have everything you need. Just because I, or another teacher, recommend a product or service doesn't necessarily mean that it is for absolutely everyone.
Big Mistake #3--------------NEVER accept an email list from someone claiming to offer "opt-in" addresses that you can send email to! This is a completely illegitimate way to market and you will officially become a SPAMMER if you use one of these lists to market your site, product or services. I've seen at least one high-profile marketer offering "new opt-in" email lists as bonuses. Avoid these like the PLAGUE unless you want to end your online career early.
Big Mistake #4--------------DON'T invest in products or services for the bonuses offered! There have been some incredibly ridiculous bonuses given away with products recently. Forgive me for saying so, but if you are buying a revenue-generating opportunity because it comes with a scooter or dvd player, you have been totally distracted from the reason you are purchasing the product in the first place and should probably just hang on to your wallet. If a product isn't worth investing in on it's own merits, it probably isn't worth investing in at all.
Big Mistake #5--------------DON'T try to do too many things at once! It is way too easy to spend time learning how to become an HTML expert, graphic designer, copywriters, marketing guru, product creator, and so forth. But none of us are wired to do ALL things. I believe that's why God gave us each other, with each person uniquely wired to do their part. Instead, learn to outsource those things which don't come naturally to you. You'll find that you are far more productive and effective doing the things you ARE good at... and you'll probably enjoy your work more and feel less stressed.
That’s very good advice from Joel Comm, the top AdSense guru. And he’s not top notch for nothing. He’s a prudent, clever and wise man.
However, I will take leave with a parting thought…The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one…
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other website at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs .
As the year is coming to an end, we should pause a little and scrutinize our mistakes made during the year and learn from them. However, when you make a mistake, don’t look at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.
Also, we must learn from the mistakes of others, for it has been said that wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from :-)
There is a wise man in Joel Comm, a top Internet marketer. Here is Joel Comm’s list of BIG mistakes in Internet marketing you should avoid making:
Big Mistake #1--------------NEVER click on your own AdSense ads and don't ever invite anyone to click on your AdSense ads! This is the fastest way to end up without an AdSense account.
Big Mistake #2--------------DON'T become a infoproduct-aholic! There is a lot of fantastic products and services out there to help you with your business, but don't buy so much that you can't usewhat you already have purchased! Stay focused and disciplined, with a plan of action, and you may find that you already have everything you need. Just because I, or another teacher, recommend a product or service doesn't necessarily mean that it is for absolutely everyone.
Big Mistake #3--------------NEVER accept an email list from someone claiming to offer "opt-in" addresses that you can send email to! This is a completely illegitimate way to market and you will officially become a SPAMMER if you use one of these lists to market your site, product or services. I've seen at least one high-profile marketer offering "new opt-in" email lists as bonuses. Avoid these like the PLAGUE unless you want to end your online career early.
Big Mistake #4--------------DON'T invest in products or services for the bonuses offered! There have been some incredibly ridiculous bonuses given away with products recently. Forgive me for saying so, but if you are buying a revenue-generating opportunity because it comes with a scooter or dvd player, you have been totally distracted from the reason you are purchasing the product in the first place and should probably just hang on to your wallet. If a product isn't worth investing in on it's own merits, it probably isn't worth investing in at all.
Big Mistake #5--------------DON'T try to do too many things at once! It is way too easy to spend time learning how to become an HTML expert, graphic designer, copywriters, marketing guru, product creator, and so forth. But none of us are wired to do ALL things. I believe that's why God gave us each other, with each person uniquely wired to do their part. Instead, learn to outsource those things which don't come naturally to you. You'll find that you are far more productive and effective doing the things you ARE good at... and you'll probably enjoy your work more and feel less stressed.
That’s very good advice from Joel Comm, the top AdSense guru. And he’s not top notch for nothing. He’s a prudent, clever and wise man.
However, I will take leave with a parting thought…The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one…
Posted by Dale Ng, an Internet entrepreneur enthusiast who shares tips, info, news and articles on Internet marketing. Feel free to visit his website on Internet home business at: http://www.homewebbiz.com/ . You can also visit his other website at: http://tinyurl.com/jcsqs .
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