28 April 2010 0 Comments

MakeADare.com – A Place For Making Dares

Make A Dare is a social site of its very own. It is all about daring people to do crazy/silly things, and accumulating reputation for completing these dares that have been put around. Of course, the site lets users upload videos of them as they are completing dares. Read more Learn more about MakeADare.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much MakeADare.com is worth with Stimator.com Have a business question? Ask Startups.com

13 April 2010 0 Comments

Is Escrow A Necessity, Or Is Your Word and a "Hand Shake Deal"…

“I’ve sent money all around the world, never relying on escrow, because I firmly believe that there are MANY people who value their reputation far

6 April 2010 0 Comments

Chatmeter Joins the SMB Reputation Management Field

Chatmeter Joins the SMB Reputation Management Field

I continue to catch up on missed items from the last few weeks of conferences and iPad frenzy.

2 April 2010 0 Comments

Josh 4 Info » Your business, your domain name registrations

It is important to choose your domain name wisely. The name you choose can make or break your reputation online. The success of your site depends a lot on the domain name that you choose. A domain name distinguishes your website from …

28 March 2010 0 Comments

Fabeetle.com – For Those Looking For Financial Advice

Fabeetle is a new community resource that intends to bring financial advisors and consumers closer, and provide them with a platform where questions can be answered and reputation can be gained. The site lets anybody look up for advice based on the actual area of focus (such as retirement and financial planning, or bonds and equities), the classification (including “Bank”, “Independent”, “Real Estate” and “Mutual Funds”) and also the designation. In that case you can have your pick from options like “CFA”, “CDFA”, “CFP”, “CIMA”… On the other hand, advisors can set up their profile pages in order to make it clear what it is that they specialize in. Read more Learn more about Fabeetle.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much Fabeetle.com is worth with Stimator.com

23 February 2010 0 Comments

Ricochet PR Names Valerie Carter Vice President of Washington, D.C … – Earthtimes

Veteran of Merck and PMI’S public affairs teams adds deep healthcare and industry domain expertise. New York, NY (PRWEB) February 22, 2010 – Ricochet Public Relations Inc., a stakeholder communications and reputation management firm working in …

19 February 2010 0 Comments

Woman Suspects Ex is Behind Website Trashing her Rep – First Coast News

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Deborah Riley hasn’t been able to find a job in months. Google her name and you’ll understand why. You’ll find deborahkayriley.com, a website dedicated completely to trashing her reputation. Riley believes her ex-boyfriend …

16 February 2010 0 Comments

Dirtch.com – Keeping Your Reputation Intact

The name and reputation of your company is the one true asset you have at the end of the day. The thing is, social media makes it very easy for anyone to post disparaging and dismissive comments about you, sometimes for mere retaliatory purposes. As such, tools for controlling the damage and minimizing it are necessary. Read more Learn more about Dirtch.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much Dirtch.com is worth with Stimator.com

13 February 2010 0 Comments

Court in France Restricts Ebay’s Use of Misspellings – New York Times

The online auction site was found liable for harming the reputation of Louis Vuitton trademarks, the company name and domain name, all held by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. An eBay spokeswoman, Alina Piacentino, said the company would appeal the …

11 February 2010 0 Comments

eBay loses another suit over Louis Vuitton brand – CNET News

eBay has lost another lawsuit filed against it by luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton Malletier. The Paris District Court ruled Thursday that eBay was liable for harming the reputation of LVM’s trademarks, company name, and domain name. LVM had sued …

10 January 2010 0 Comments

There’s an app for this – Boston Globe

You probably know an iPhone owner or two who just can’t wait to demonstrate their virtual Zippo lighter or I Am T-Pain, the auto-tune recorder. A cursory look at the app store only supports iPhone’s reputation as the flippant teenager of …

5 January 2010 0 Comments

Local Search: A Winner-Take-All Market?

Earlier today, David Szetela asked for big bold predictions for paid search for 2010, for his PPC Rockstars show. Partly jumping off Aaron Wall’s earlier guest post about Google testing flat-rate pricing on local search ads , I called in to predict that there would be a further shakeout in local — not that one particular local search engine (like Yelp) would win, but rather that in the race for growth and low cost leads by small to midsized local companies in any given market, there’s going to be a major change afoot. (So I’m really making a broader point about a massive shift that is happening in the local listings category – though that point was motivated by the experiments Google is working on right now in the PPC space.) Local businesses may have a history of doing a lot of marketing without thinking in the past, but that’s because the core medium (yellow pages, primarily, for many) didn’t reward thinking, and didn’t offer much means (other than buying a really big ad) to differentiate yourself. Google’s new flat-rate click pricing for the local little guy may be a way to “relieve” them of the pressure of actually marketing. But that just illustrates that those looking to relieve themselves of the effort of marketing will be out-marketed by those who take a special interest in it. This state of affairs will continue for the majority who sheepwalk their way through local lead generation and reputation management efforts. A small minority will outwork, out-savvy, and out-hustle the rest. They’ll win big. While winning big in a local market isn’t the same as the “winner take all” quest for customers in the Amazon sense, it’s still cool & lucrative to be a winner. Small is the new big, remember? Let’s walk through an example. The pitter-patter of little feet here at home (mice, squirrels, or possibly raccoons partying in our attic, and ready for a long, toasty winter) has started to disturb those wintry sweet dreams. We went to our usual go-to source for “pest control”. The Yellow Pages? Are you kidding? Word of mouth is fine, but what if you run out of information before you have the problem solved? It’s pretty cold out. I don’t want to go up and down my street knocking on doors telling people I have a raccoon problem. Being a co-founder of HomeStars has its benefits: you believe so strongly in the local ratings and reviews concept, you want to use it for real! Turns out the search for pest control companies in my town produced a no-brainer “best vendor”. One pest removal company in Toronto has 105 reviews — all resoundingly positive. I like to think I’m good at picking up on fake reviews, and on top of that, so is the HomeStars editorial team, so I’m not too worried. Normally, if a company scored perfect, I’d be suspicious. In this case it looks legit. Success begets success here. Once you get such a great reputation, you keep coming up as a company with a great reputation. More homeowners will hire this company, because others have vouched for them. That’s regardless of the level of investment by the company, GTA Wildlife Removal and Pest Control (sorry the word “Control” is obscured by the crown denoting “Best of ’08″). Clearly, they need to understand how to help their customers find the website to write happy reviews (and be open and aware that any unhappy customer could write a negative one if they so choose). It also helps that they reply to customers — shows they have a pulse and are even more engaged. And it helps that most of their competitors didn’t make the effort! That’s a far cry from the days of yore. How did a business like this get noticed in the Yellow Pages? Pay more? Not really fair, was it? And it offered consumers no voice. Since most people searching categories are looking for the “best,” it’s not going to cut it if you don’t have positive reviews. Or if you’re great at bringing in leads through high pressure marketing but then fail to deliver great service. In fact, the traditional ways of using cash to bring in local home improvement leads, when you’re a less than reputable provider, can backfire! The more disgruntled customers you leave in your wake, the more race online to post about their experiences. The situation snowballs. It’s not 1974. It’s nearly impossible to pull off a “coverup”. Winner take all doesn’t matter as much in pizza or Greek food, over at Yelp. People like to try different restaurants, and what tastes good is pretty subjective. $50 is at stake, not $1,000 or $50,000. By contrast, most homeowners aren’t planning to hire a variety of pest control companies, or window installers, or garage architects, in the next year or two. They want to hire the one that people like themselves say is the best. At the very least, they’d like confirmation that the company they do plan to hire delivers quality service for the money, and that in the event of problems, they’re present and accountable, and follow up. So that’s where we stand with getting rid of the furry critters from our attic. Can 105 reviewers be wrong? I’ll be hiring this company. And will keep you posted! [photo credit: Tammra McCauley] —– Download a FREE E-Book by Andrew Goodman: Google AdWords: A Brave New World Are you new to search marketing and looking to come up to speed quickly to Google AdWords? Or maybe you’ve just fallen a tiny bit behind, and you’re looking to re-engage with the latest thinking. If so, Andrew’s free e-book is for you.

19 December 2009 0 Comments

How Iranian Cyber Army Hacked Twitter | Inside Story

A few days ago Twitter Home page was hacked by some organization calling itself Iranian Cyber Army. Twitter has a clumsy reputation with security issues. Even TechCrunch reported that one of their Admin Interfaces has ‘password’ as the password. This is what the hackers left on the home page. Twitte …

10 December 2009 1 Comment

26 Tools for Social Media Monitoring

This morning I read Dave Chaffey’s post on Online brand reputation or listening software – a review of 26 tools and found a lot of richness in the list, including the idea of segmenting the list of Social Media tools by function (see below): Category 1 – Wide scope analytical and reporting tools for …

10 December 2009 0 Comments

ILM:09: Reputation Management Defining Local Space

BIA/Kelsey has been promoting the development of reputation management for some time now and sees this area as defining the local space in the next three years. On a panel this morning BIA/Kelsey analyst Matt Booth hosted a discussion that included three players in the reputation management space: Matthew Berk of Marchex , Ben Smith of MerchantCircle and Alex Hawkinson of SMBLive . Berk kicked off the panel by showing a few examples of Marchex’s reputation management solution that essentially captures three areas of content as it relates to SMBs’ existence online: ratings and reviews; snippets from the Web in the form of Twitter feeds, blogs and the like; and directory data to keep track of potential inaccuracies in business name, phone number, etc. Berk touted reputation management as a way for small businesses to save time and money by staying on top of their digital footprint. He believes the next step of reputation management is getting an SMB engaged in a conversation by engaging in leads, publishing content, offering specials and coupons. “Four years ago there weren’t review for dentists,” said Berk. “Now there are dentists with hundreds of reviews. That’s just a fact. There’s going to be more of that and it’s going to get more fragmented.” As Ben Smith of MerchantCircle noted, one common piece of feedback his company receives from its users is that they want a way to immediately respond to a negative review or correct, say, inaccurate directory information. As he indicated, right now, that’s just not possible with the push of one button. One approach to reputation management that attempts to simplify the complex process of managing an SMB’s presence online is what SMBLive is doing via its CloudProfile offering. The idea is that a user can use one application to publish in numerous places via syndication such as making updates to their Web site, Facebook account, Twitter feed and the like. Berk indicated that he’s betting on three things regarding the future of reputation management. He believes there’s going to be more and more content about SMBs and it will become more and more fragmented. He sees SMBs, particularly new SMBs, as being more willing to use and invest in technology. And lastly he’s betting that the tools will become more simplified and will not need as much sophistication for SMBs. He sees these things occurring and that SMBs will see the value in paying a premium to manage their reputation online.

12 November 2009 0 Comments

Twhois.net – Learn More About Every Twitter User

Do you feel like opening up you circle of Twitter followers and recruiting a couple more who turn out to be loyal? That is not necessarily easy, but using a tool like Twhois the process is not that hard either. You see, Twhois is a search tool that will empower you to look up just any Twitterer that you might be interested in, either because someone put his name about or because he already has a certain reputation. In the first case you can know more about that utter stranger, and in the second you will be capable of figuring out if what is said about him is true. Read more Learn more about Twhois.net in Dataopedia.com Find out how much Twhois.net is worth with Stimator.com

5 November 2009 0 Comments

Snapnames.com – Show Me The Money

Over the past few years, I have been involved in purchasing high level generic domains. Some of those domains were bought through auctions at Snapnames. When I heard yesterday that a former employee was doing sham bidding, I was in shock. I always had high regards for the company, which I could not say for the other major drop player at the time. There had always been rumors about auction companies doing things like this, but I never thought twice. In a small industry like ours, trust plays a crucial role. I commend Oversee for dealing with the issue, however their reputation is tarnished. One step that I’d like Snapnames to do is to post a public list showing every auction this person was involved in. This way we can compare our records to see if in fact they are truly trying to make good on all auctions. I for one like to know if I’m owed any money.

19 October 2009 0 Comments

Koego.com – The Quality Of Blogs Measured

If you have a blog and wish to have a good umbrella knowledge of the way its content is going down, this new site has enough features as to merit a visit and some consideration. In general terms, we can define Koego as a set of tools whereby you can measure not only the quality of your content but also your overall reputation across the World Wide Web. These two concepts as a whole are what the site names “ego”. Read more Learn more about Koego.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much Koego.com is worth with Stimator.com

9 October 2009 0 Comments

BIA/Kelsey Webinar: Online Reputation Management

This coming Wednesday, BIA/Kelsey will host a free webinar about reputation management and how it’s becoming a growing area of local online ad spend. It will feature commentary from BIA/Kelsey’s Matt Booth as well as executives of Marchex and SMBLive. This will be a key topic of interest to local media companies in the coming months, and something we’ll increasingly focus on (including the upcoming ILM conference ). Get a sneak peek of what we’re talking about and why this will be big. Register for free here . The Communications Revolution: E-Mail, Reputation and Presence Management Wednesday, October 14 2pm-3pm EST The rapid growth of digital word-of-mouth through online reviews and social media presents a challenge for small and medium-sized business owners, who are not typically involved in, and are often unaware of, the online conversations taking place among consumers. BIA/Kelsey predicts this is about to change as SMBs adopt more sophisticated marketing practices that require advanced communications platforms for e-mail, reputation and presence management (ERPM). During this Webinar, BIA/Kelsey Senior Vice President Matt Booth, is joined by Alex Hawkinson, Founder, SMBLive and Matthew Berk, Executive VP, Product Engineering, Marchex , to provide an in-depth look at the unfolding business, market and what it means. The panelists will discuss the latest revenue forecasts, challenges facing SMBs, as well as how technology and partnerships can evolve to better enable businesses to respond to consumers’ opinions, concerns and requests.

5 October 2009 0 Comments

Twitzee.com – A Tool For Secretive Tweeting

If tweeting secretly is the order of the day, this website will do the trick, and in a very simple way at that. Essentially, through the site it is possible to tweet out messages without having to employ your regular Twitter account . In this way, you will able to say whatever you want without tarnishing your reputation, or the reputation of your brand. Read more Learn more about Twitzee.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much Twitzee.com is worth with Stimator.com

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