Elatronic.com/e-card.exe link from greetingcard.org

There seems to be another wave of greetingcard.org malware spam being distributed in the internet. The other day, I received an email with the subject "You have received an Greeting eCard" (notice the use of an) and like most legal ecard notices, the email tells me to click or copy paste a link into my web browser. I noticed however that the url contains an executable file which usually appears in email spam messages that contain virus and malwares.

The link given to me was http://elatronic.com/e-card.exe. I advice people who received similar greeting card messages from greetingcard.org not to open the link and delete the elatronic message right away because clicking the link may cause harm to their PC.

Phising Email: Notification from Citibank

Citibank card holders, beware of this phising email that presents itself to have come from Citibank. I received the email entitled "Notification from Citibank" today and thankfully, my email identified it as a spam.

The email addresses you as citibank customer and tells you that during their scheduled account maintenance and verification procedures, they have identified some error in your American express account.

The email will advise you to update and verify your information by clicking the citibank online update form link which is obviously an attempt to steal your log in information if you are using the citibank internet banking.

What is scary with this email is that it actually implies recipients of the message that it will be okay if they cannot access their account:

"If you account information is not updated within 48 hours then your ability to access your account will be restricted."

The "E-mail intended for your account" comes from "Citibank , Billing Department" but this actually come from phishers. It also fools people to check the "authenticity" of the message by telling them to click on links that they provide.

If you want to learn more how you can protect yourself from My Citi and Citibank, N.A. phising emails, visit the citibank website directly from your browser. Make sure that you input the correct web address.

How to delete the Cool USEP Scandal Computer Virus

Red Tube Virus
If your computer is infected with the cool USEP scandal virus, your default homepage regardless whether you are using firefox or internet explorer directs to redtube.com. Red tube is an adult website and like the funny UST scandal virus, users with infected computers find it difficult to remove or delete the Cool USEP scandal virus.

So how do you get rid of the cool usep scandal PC infection? Here are some tips and recommendations I gathered online:

Option 1: Use System restore.

Jinky doodle used the system restore to remove the cool usep scandal

1. From your computer's menu options, click programs, accessories, system tools and system restore. Choose a date before your computer got infected by the virus.

2. Press ctrl+alt+delete and delete the cool usep scandal from the infected drive.

Option 2: Use a noob virus removal tool

The tech reports recommends the use of the noob killer anti virus.

Download the Noob Killer

Option 3 Use Quicksmash

RC Guzon recommends quicksmash.

1. Download quicksmash and save it to your pc or flash disk.

2. Double click quicksmash

3. Check the checkboxes except "Mark legit logs"

4. Click the smash button.

Note: I have not used any of the options above. Use them at your own risk. For more information and thorough instruction on how you can remove the cool usep scandal, please visit the links I have mentioned above.

Free yahoo messenger on your phone with Unlichat

Globe is offering free use of yahoo messenger on cellphone to both their postpaid and prepaid subscribers via the Globe Unlichat.  Unlichat is an application that allows users mobile access to their yahoo messenger. The free YM usage will be available from September 5 to October 4 only.

How to Use Unlichat

You can start using Globe's unlichat by downloading the application. You can download unlichat at http://www.unlichat.com/ and read the thorough instructions and FAQs at www1.globe.com.ph/contentrn.aspx?sid=1&artid=133

Rates

Users who wish to continue using cellphone based yahoo messenger after the unlichat beta trial period may continue to use unlichat by purchasing credits. One day unlimited access costs PhP 25; five days unlimited access costs PhP 100 and 15 days unli use of unlichat is PhP 200.

5 Guaranteed Ways to Increase Your Google Adsense Earnings

I started using adsense some time in 2006 but because I did not earn from it, I stopped using adsense until March 2007* when I decided to display google ads in my site again. This time, however, I have been receiving adsense payouts regularly and for the past three months this year, I noticed an increase in my google ads earnings. How did I do it?  Here are five tips that can help you increase your adsense profits, these are the things that I did which increased my adsense clicks and earnings:

1. Observe how successful sites use and display google ads. Some of the bloggers who earn lots of money from adsense may not tell you their tricks and strategies but you will know if you take time to read and study their websites. Where do they place the ads? What ad size do they commonly use? Try to apply "their ways" on your site, the strategies may work for your site too.

2. Use adsense for search. If you are using a search form in your site, why not use adsense for search box instead? Ads displayed in the results page are targeted and likely related to what your site visitors are looking for and so increases the chances of them clicking the ads.

3. If you are your site's visitor, will you click the google ads? Ask yourself. Will you notice and be likely interested in the ads located at the bottom of your site?

4. Learn SEO. Who will click your google ads if you don't have site visitors? Do you know that visitors who come from search engines are likely to click your ads than visitors who just clicked your link in a fellow blogger's sidebar? This is the reason why learning SEO is crucial. I recommend reading SEO ebooks such as Dan Thies' SEO Fast Start.

5. Take heed of adsense tips, tricks and advices. Don't be hard headed. If the adsense help center tells to blend, complement or contrast color palettes of your ads to your site's background, then do it. This also goes true with ad formats. I also advice reading blogs that tackle about selecting profitable niche and keywords.

*Content scrapers would steal contents from my wordpress.com blog and post them in Made for Adsense sites. My husband encouraged me to use adsense again so I can get financial benefits from my posts too.

Is page rank useless or important?

"Got spanked", this is the term some bloggers and website owners use to describe their web sites and blogs which have been penalized by google. Bloggers whose sites have been "spanked" either lost or decreased their page ranks and usually attribute this to the practice of selling of links from their sites.

A site's page rank is supposed to show how a search engine, google in particular, values a particular site based on the number and quality of links that it receives. Unfortunately, following the "page rank dances", many web site owners and bloggers now consider page rank as an unreliable and useless site ranking system.

Question: Is the page rank system already a thing of the past or is it still important and bloggers should improve and "take care" of their page ranks?

Some blog sponsorhip companies like payperpost and sponsoredreview have their own means of ranking sites. It is evident though that site owners still prefer to get links from older sites with higher pager ranks. As such, web site owners who are selling links from their sites should really be cautious about their page rank or risk losing potential link buyers. Therealstats.info can provide useful tools for web site owners who would like to check out their page rank online as well as the age of their domain. The SEO tools are free but Professional Evaluation Reports can be availed for a more thorough information on improving a site's performance.

Fortunately, web site owners can do something about page rank penalties by learning and applying SEO in their websites. I have read several posts on the web saying that the higher a site's page rank is, the more likely is its post to appear in the first pages of the SERP. Based on my experience with several of my sites however, higher page rank does not necessarily mean more traffic and for those bloggers and websites who earn from their sites by selling products or offering services to their visitors or through pay per click programs, traffic, not the page rank is the key.

So is page rank useless or important? Yes or no. It depends on how you want to use or monetize your site. As for me, I have been focusing on my traffic lately and not on my page rank and it is quite obvious why, my site got spanked and I am not yet sure when google will bring me back some page ranks again.