May 23, 2013

Authorize.Net Mobile Application

April 16, 2013 By

authorize.netThe free Authorize.Net Mobile Application allows you to securely accept payments anywhere you want using an Apple iOS device or Android phone. Increase your sales by providing an easy way to accept payments on the go using your Authorize.Net Payment Gateway account.

Features and Benefits

The mobile app is ideal for anybody who sells products at outdoor markets and trade shows, or provides on-site services, such as repairmen, dog walkers or landscapers. The app is available as a free download from the Apple App Store or iTunes, as well as Google Play.

The Authorize.Net Mobile Application provides several benefits:

  • Multiple Payment Types — Process real-time credit and signature debit transactions from major payment networks (e.g., Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover)
  • Secure Access — Integrated with the Authorize.Net Merchant Interface — use your existing credentials to access the app and validate the legitimacy of a specific device from within the Merchant Interface itself
  • Flexible Settings — Set up a default tax rate, accept tips and gather shipping information when necessary
  • AVS Support — Enter customer billing information to use the Address Verification Service (AVS)
  • History — Review transaction history (processed or pending) and perform voids and refunds
  • Email Receipt — Your customers can receive a transaction receipt by email
  • Free Support — Continue to receive Authorize.Net’s award-winning customer support for the mobile app through our online support center, eTicket, email, chat and phone

Need an eCommerce website? Visit www.cpcom.com

Filed Under: Online Business

Hacked PCs falsify billions of ad clicks

March 22, 2013 By

By Tim Bradshaw and Emily Steel, FT.com

(Financial Times) — Online investigators have exposed a network of hijacked computers that defrauded advertisers by generating billions of fake ad views.

The so-called botnet scheme, which hijacked 120,000 residential PCs in the US and cost advertisers millions of dollars a month, highlights the increasing complexity and opacity of online advertising.

Spider.io, a London-based start-up that tracks web browsing activity, estimates traffic from the “Chameleon” botnet accounted for almost two-thirds of the total visits to certain websites. The inflated number of page views increased advertising revenues for the websites’ owners.

In a report published on Tuesday, Spider.io said the hijacked PCs generated up to 9bn ad views or “impressions” every month across a network of more than 200 sites. Sophisticated software even mimicked cursor movements and mouse clicks, giving the impression that potential consumers were visiting the sites.

“It is difficult to imagine why one would run this type of botnet across a cluster of 202 sites other than to commit display advertising fraud,” Douglas de Jager, Spider.io’s chief executive, said in the report. The websites that attracted the traffic charge an average 69 cents per thousand ad impressions, meaning the botnet is costing advertisers about $6m a month.

Mr de Jager told the Financial Times that the scheme was just one of many that the online advertising industry had been fooled by — or had chosen to ignore: “We have already identified at least one other large and wholly distinct botnet — targeting a wholly distinct cluster of websites.”

Spider.io did not disclose which sites received the botnet traffic. But industry executives identified sites owned by San Francisco-based Alphabird, such as ladyshopspot.com, as among the recipients. Advertising space on Alphabird’s sites is sold indirectly through exchanges.

Alphabird described itself as a victim of the scam, noting that it pays for advertising slots on other websites and did not know it had received botnet-generated traffic.

“We buy a lot of media from lots of different people at very high velocity,” said Alex Rowland, Alphabird president. “Anyone that has any significant scale in this marketplace knows that this is a problem in online advertising. Some of these actors are very sophisticated in how they disguise this traffic.”

The issue raises new questions about the controls used by ad technology providers, especially given the ever-changing tactics employed by cyber criminals. Networks of hijacked computers have previously been used to overwhelm a website with traffic, after which botnet operators sometimes demand a ransom to halt the attack. They also frequently seek to collect large numbers of credit card details.

But as online security improves and such attacks become easier to track, botnets are being compared to “victimless” crimes such as insurance fraud — where large numbers of people lose small sums of money, with few of them ever realising they have been ripped off.

Christian Carrillo, a vice-president at DataXu, a digital advertising technology provider, said the fraud could be hard to prosecute even if its perpetrators were tracked down, because of the terms of trade in the online ad business.

Filed Under: News, Search Engines, Website Marketing

CP Communications and Bongo International Combine Ecommerce Efforts

March 20, 2013 By

CP Communications and Bongo International Combine Ecommerce EffortsSan Ramon, CA (PRBuzz.com) March 19, 2013

CP Communications and Bongo International have recently integrated their online services in order to best serve CP clients and their global customers. CP Communications offers retailers superior website design and continued development. They also provide online marketing techniques including; email campaigns, video production, social media strategies, and media placement in order to take online businesses to the next level of success. Bongo is a reputed global eCommerce solution provider that enables retailers of all sizes access to foreign markets without altering their current operations.

The partnership with Bongo is a result of the need for online retailers to gain access to international eCommerce markets which have proven to be a powerhouse for driving revenue in recent years. Global eCommerce sales have grown an average of 13% annually throughout the past 5 years, and are projected to continue on this upward trend for years to come.

Through the integration with Bongo’s Checkout solution, CP clients now have access to consumers in over 220 global destinations which allow international visitors the same seamless experience as domestic shoppers. This includes a simple and secure international checkout process that offers the full landed cost prior to checkout. Bongo’s checkout process is localized to the language specific to the IP address or language selection of the user. This complete solution also supplies shoppers with a Unified Tracking Number that is active from the retailer’s warehouse until arrival at the international destination.

CP Communications has a superior reputation due to their overall comprehensive approach and long-standing track record. Their development team offers the perfect on-line storefront with enticing product display and user-friendly checkout pages. The effective storefronts created by this design team are able to continually process business for retailers across the globe. This maximizes the opportunities for sales coverage and allows online retailers access to more profitable global markets.

Bongo has first-hand experience of the eCommerce industry, and is able to streamline all efforts in expanding globally. The combination of these providers creates a solid means for enabling retailers to reach beyond their projected goals. CP Communications invites you to take a look at their website portfolio or complete their contact form so they may better respond to your inquiries. Click here to Contact Bongo and read further on how their eCommerce solutions can benefit your online business.

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About Bongo
Bongo International, LLC was founded in 2007 to overcome the challenges associated with International Cross Border Ecommerce transactions by both Consumers and Businesses. Today Bongo services over 140,000 customers globally with a team spanning 3 continents. Bongo helps merchant partners transact international orders through a series of services that provide the merchant with fraud guarantees, multi-currency payment options, language translation, and international fulfillment. Bongo owns and operates 100% of their services enabling them to be the most flexible international solution in the marketplace. For more information, please visit www.bongous.com/checkout/index.php or contact Bongo at Partner@BongoUS.com.

Contact: Bongo – Sarah Lee
Sarah.Lee@BongoUS.com

Contact: CP Communications – Robb Capielo
(800) 796-3683 or by email

Filed Under: News, Online Business

Bing is Scrooling Google

December 5, 2012 By

Have you been Scroogled? Try Bing and don’t limit your shopping choices.

n the beginning, Google preached, “Don’t be evil”—but that changed on May 31, 2012. That’s when Google Shopping announced a new initiative. Simply put, all of their shopping results are now paid ads.

In their under-the-radar announcement, Google admits they’ve now built “a purely commercial model” that delivers listings ranked by “bid price.” Google Shopping is nothing more than a list of targeted ads that unsuspecting customers assume are search results. They call these “Product Listing Ads” a “truly great search.”

We say that when you limit choices and rank them by payment, consumers get Scroogled.

http://www.scroogled.com/

Filed Under: News, Search Engines

Google Introduces Disavow Links Tool for Webmasters

October 22, 2012 By

Google introduced a tool that enables you to disavow links to your site. If you’ve been notified of a manual spam action based on “unnatural links” pointing to your site, this tool can help you address the issue. If you haven’t gotten this notification, this tool generally isn’t something you need to worry about.

First, a quick refresher. Links are one of the most well-known signals we use to order search results. By looking at the links between pages, we can get a sense of which pages are reputable and important, and thus more likely to be relevant to our users. This is the basis of PageRank, which is one of more than 200 signals we rely on to determine rankings. Since PageRank is so well-known, it’s also a target for spammers, and we fight linkspam constantly with algorithms and by taking manual action.

If you’ve ever been caught up in linkspam, you may have seen a message in Webmaster Tools about “unnatural links” pointing to your site. We send you this message when we see evidence of paid links, link exchanges, or other link schemes that violate our quality guidelines. If you get this message, we recommend that you remove from the web as many spammy or low-quality links to your site as possible. This is the best approach because it addresses the problem at the root. By removing the bad links directly, you’re helping to prevent Google (and other search engines) from taking action again in the future. You’re also helping to protect your site’s image, since people will no longer find spammy links pointing to your site on the web and jump to conclusions about your website or business.

If you’ve done as much as you can to remove the problematic links, and there are still some links you just can’t seem to get down, that’s a good time to visit our new Disavow links page. When you arrive, you’ll first select your site.

You’ll then be prompted to upload a file containing the links you want to disavow.

The format is straightforward. All you need is a plain text file with one URL per line. An excerpt of a valid file might look like the following:

# Contacted owner of spamdomain1.com on 7/1/2012 to

# ask for link removal but got no response
domain:spamdomain1.com
# Owner of spamdomain2.com removed most links, but missed these

http://www.spamdomain2.com/contentA.html

http://www.spamdomain2.com/contentB.html

http://www.spamdomain2.com/contentC.html

In this example, lines that begin with a pound sign (#) are considered comments and Google ignores them. The “domain:” keyword indicates that you’d like to disavow links from all pages on a particular site (in this case, “spamdomain1.com”). You can also request to disavow links on specific pages (in this case, three individual pages on spamdomain2.com). We currently support one disavowal file per site and the file is shared among site owners in Webmaster Tools. If you want to update the file, you’ll need to download the existing file, modify it, and upload the new one. The file size limit is 2MB.

One great place to start looking for bad links is the “Links to Your Site” feature in Webmaster Tools. From the homepage, select the site you want, navigate to Traffic > Links to Your Site > Who links the most > More, then click one of the download buttons. This file lists pages that link to your site. If you click “Download latest links,” you’ll see dates as well. This can be a great place to start your investigation, but be sure you don’t upload the entire list of links to your site — you don’t want to disavow all your links!

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Filed Under: News
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