When will my blog die (A study)

Codemakit once conducted a study on a single question, "What happen when you do not post for a week". Let us take this question further and ask another, "What happens when you do not blog for a month?". 

Note. If you think you've missed the previous part, check out the 'When will my blog die?' study from the start.

When does your blog die if your do not post about anything?

The complete article is in the form of a study presented in a simple way (as is always done at codemakit website research)

The following study was conducted in the time frame of 19th Sept, 2014 to 1st November, 2014, i.e. a total of 44 Days.

The Experiment

This was an experiment proposed in which no changes were made on a blog for a total of 44 days. 

Based on the current data from the website, the data was plotted on graph and extrapolated forwards to find out, when will the blog die. Here are some examples, (though for the sake of clarity, I would suggest you to read the parameters separately).

Parameters Compared

The study measured the following parameters, Number of Visitors, Bounce Rates, Pages per Session, percentage new sessions, Percentage of returning Sessions and Average Session time.

The death of a blog in simple words is basically a blog having the following parameters.

1. Number of Visitors = Zero

2. Bounce Rates = 100 %

3. Pages per Session = Zero

4. Percentage new sessions = 0

5. Percentage of returning Sessions = 0

6. Average Session time = Zero

Let us first define the parameters first, the number of Visitors is fairly easy to decipher, it has been extensively covered in various articles on Method to double your visitors and What to do for higher blog visitor series.

The Bounce Rate too is basically the percentage of visitors who bounce off from your page. (though bounce rates are not a true indicator of your blog's health). Those would be discussed in further articles describing each parameter in detail. 

Pages per session is the number of pages a person opens at the blog when he/she browses through the website.

Percentage new sessions are the number of visitors who have come to your page for the first time. 

Percentage of returning sessions are the number of visitors who has visited the website once or more before. 

Average session time is the amount of time a person spends on the website before moving on. if you're interested about the parameter itself, you can view another codemakit article on make your visitors stay longer at your website, which is same as increasing the average session time.

The Results

During the period of Study, the six parameters showed some differences. 

Obviously the number of visitors would reduce down to zero, the Bounce rate would increase to 100%, Pages per session too can reduce to zero. 

But there was one anomaly in the data, within 44 days of the study, it was found that the average session duration did not reduce down to zero, in fact, it actually would never come close to zero. The Average Session Duration of the blog kept on increasing as the time progressed. 

However for more detailed results on the different changes to the parameters of the blog, it is advisable to check the individual articles first.

The Complete Study

The Complete 5 Part Study can be accessed from here as it is published,

What happens to Page Views when my blog dies?
[Published on 8th Dec 2014]

What happens to Bounce Rates when my blog dies?
[Published on 15th Dec 2014]

What happens to Session Duration when my blog dies?
[Published on 22th Dec 2014]

What happens to Pages per Sessions when my blog dies?
[Published on 29th Dec 2014]

What happens to New and Returning Visitors when my blog dies?
[Published on 19th Jan 2015]

This will answer,

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Which Font Size is the Best?

How do you know if your font size is readable enough?

What font can be called too large and how many pixels are too small? 

Learn what font sizes are used by award winning websites. Also find out how people improve readability and retention of their text by modifying the font size.

Blogs

If yours is a personal or a professional blog, written by on or many authors about one particular subject and the views are of the author only, then it’s a blog.

The size of font used by the sample of bloggers considered in the research was perfectly conclusive. After the study, It was like a known fact, that a 14px font. More than 40 percent of bloggers thought 14Px is the magical number one should size their text on. 

Another interesting fact which popped out of this graph is that more than 80 percent of bloggers thought, font size must be greater than 12px. This might be attributed to the major aim of filling more space with lesser text. 

Another reason could be that people respond positively towards things they can understand (Remember the face your teacher or boss makes when you rant on something you’re not clear on). A larger font would surely help in that.

News based websites

If you are not into information or Ideas, and just want to talk about current affairs (i.e.) what is happening currently in the world, country or your locality, you my friend, have a news website.

News websites too showed similar trend i.e. about half news websites had a font of 14 pixels and more than 70% websites thought any size more than 12 pixels is good enough for text to look readable. Least preferred font size was anything more than 16 pixels (You’ve got to stop somewhere).

Academic Journal Websites

If you do not blog or write about facts and events, but like to experiment and jot your results down for others to see, then your website is an academic journal. Examples include anything from journals to private research diary.

Journal websites were by far the most unpredictable as far as the study goes. Their values were erratic and difficult to extrapolate. Font size for most journals based websites never exceeded 14 pixels. 

About 92 percent of journal based websites had a font size less than (or equal) 14 pixels, as opposed to a paltry 60 percent in blogs. Just 8 percent journal websites had a font size of more than 14 pixels. Surprisingly the higher font size was mostly found in medical journals.

Information based websites

And if you are none of the above, you're involved in an information based website.

Information based websites followed the trend of journals, 80% of information based websites thought it would be better if they kept their font size less than (or equal) to 14 pixels. Just 20 percent thought of exceeding the 14px mark.

Findings Explained

Some notes on Font sizes

Now there is a reason why everybody is so gung-ho on keeping their fonts near 14 pixels. Though Bonn, from smashing magazine contests that 16px isn't too bad, but let’s face it, it is a magazine. 

Ergonomics

You should not keep your font less than 12px. The reason being, your websites are to be accessed on desktops too, lesser font sizes would put strain on the users eyes.

According to smashing magazine, most people sitting comfortably are about 20 inches (about half a meter) from their computer screen.

Why Font Sizes matter

People can argue saying, Font size doesn’t matter, on can obviously zoom and change the size.
Of course users can zoom their screen by holding control key and scrolling upwards, but most people do not know the feature (not all are computer geniuses like you)

Conclusions

So all-in-all, here are the conclusions,

1. If you're a blog, best font size you could use is 14px to 16px. In a blog if you don't write much and expect people to get your meaning in few lines 16px might just be fine.
2. If you are into news 14px is the best you can do. A larger font size might mean you do not have enough to show and anything smaller would hamper the reading. 
3. If yours is a research journal (Which is mine too partially), it is better to follow the trend and have the font size in the range of 12px and 13px. I guess the concept of “using large fonts if you do not have anything" hasn’t really caught on in the minds of people wearing lab coats. 
4. If you plan on starting an information based website, i.e. a dictionary website, or a private encyclopedia, your best bet would range in 13px or 14px.
5. If you still haven't decided on which category your website falls in, close your eyes and keep 14 as the font size. 

Further reading,

You could have a look at W3C's advice on font sizes too
Stackexchange on User experience too hosts a series of interesting conversations between knowledgeable participants on the optimal font size

More in font research Series

Find out Which Font Color is the best? - Did you know font colors can alter moods? Learn how professional award winning websites change text colors to ensure maximum user interaction and understanding.

Find out Which Font Type is the best? - Which font type is most favored by readers? Which font would keep them hooked to your website?

Find out Which Font Size is the best? - How do you know if your font size is readable enough? What font can be called too large and how many pixels are too small? 

This answered your question,

Read More

Which Font Type is the best?

Which font type is most favored by readers? Which font would keep them hooked to your website?

Learn about different fonts and font types. Find out what fonts do award winning websites use to keep their readers eternally happy and loyal.

A primary article on smashing magazine asking 'which font should I use?' was among the best ones which explain in detail what fonts are, what families do they belong to and which one should be used where. So if you're generally confused about the names of fonts or font families, you should probably go to the linked pdf.

The same question was asked by me during the research at Google Product forums on Maximum User Interaction for fonts, and was presented with some of the best answers ever.

The Findings

In the blogging sphere, it was found that majority of bloggers used Georgia in their creations. Helvetica and Arial came in second with a near equal prevalence. The important fact to be looked is that Verdana with a mere 4% usage was the least preferred font for any blogger.

Font Families at Blogs

If yours is a personal or a professional blog, written by on or many authors about one particular subject and the views are of the author only, then we're talking about a simple blog. Examples include any blog.

During the research, I found that Georgia, which was the most preferred, was often used in blogs which featured miscellaneous content (i.e. the content that no one dared to pick up). Helvetica on the other hand was preferred by web design and development blogs.

Font Families at News Websites

If you are not into information or Ideas, and just want to talk about current affairs (i.e.) what is happening currently in the world, country or your locality, you are a newsman (or a newswoman). Examples include websites which host news as individual articles.

News based websites had virtually no sample using Georgia, Verdana or Times New Roman. The reasons were simple enough, Georgia and Times New Roman feels archaic and Verdana in my opinion doesn't feel authentic. The most used font in News websites was Arial (About 60%).

Font Families at Academic Journals

If you do not blog or write about facts and events but like to experiment and jot your results down for others to see, then your website is an academic journal.

To determine a trend from the data in journal based websites was difficult. However, one thing was clear; here too Arial was the winner with 34 % websites using it, (Followed by Helvetica and Verdana)

Font Families at Information Based Websites

And if you're not interested in events or ideas or your opinion, but just want to create a ready reference for others which would help them find information, you have an information based website.

Surprisingly, Information based websites followed the trend of News websites. Virtually no website used Georgia, Verdana, Times or Trebuchet. They just used Helvetica (35%) and Arial (55%).

Discussion

From a psychological study in Wichita, the following were the emotions attributed to the fonts. The study included attributing 15 personality traits to 20 fonts and the top three personality trait for each font was considered (i.e. the maximum number of occurrences of a particular trait for each font).

Concluding Remarks

• So if you have a blog, the best bet would be Georgia, Helvetica or Arial in their order of precedence.
• If yours is a News based website, you need to give an illusion of updation and authenticity, which can be achieved with Arial.
• If yours is an academic Journal, then use Arial. If it’s an information based website, use Arial or Helvetica (in their order of precedence)
• If you could not categorize your website, just close your eyes and type Arial.

More in font research Series

Find out Which Font Color is the best? - Did you know font colors can alter moods? Learn how professional award winning websites change text colors to ensure maximum user interaction and understanding.

Find out Which Font Type is the best? - Which font type is most favored by readers? Which font would keep them hooked to your website?

Find out Which Font Size is the best? - How do you know if your font size is readable enough? What font can be called too large and how many pixels are too small? 

This answered,

Read More

Which Font Color is the best?

Did you know font colors can alter moods? Learn how professional award winning websites change text colors to ensure maximum user interaction and understanding.

I recently read an article 'Evoke Emotion through typography' where the author talked about connecting emotionally with people with the help of fonts.

The author stresses on the need of creating a relationship with the visitors on the website, a concept loosely labeled as 'emotional design', which isn't that illogical. Emotions help in decision making, increases motivation, affects memories and much more.

So here's an analysis on different colors (or different shades of grey) that award winning websites use for exceptional user experience. However, before going any further, you must first determine which category your website falls in.

The Study

For better understanding of the readers, the color  variations used by different websites have been clubbed into 7 parts  i.e. #000000, #111111, #222222, #333333, #444444, #555555, #666666 which can be assumed to contain  the color black as percentage 100.0, 93.3, 86.7, 80.0, 73.3, 66.7, 60.0 respectively as shown in the following table.

% of Black	Red	Green	Blue	Hex Code
100 % Black	0	0	0	#000000
93.3 % Black	16	16	16	#111111
86.7 % Black	34	34	34	#222222
80 % Black	51	51	51	#333333
73.3% Black	68	68	68	#444444
66.7% Black	85	85	85	#555555
60% Black	102	102	102	#666666

Font Colors for Bloggers

If you have a personal or a professional blog, written by one or many authors about some particular subject and the views are of the author only, then its blog.

The color variations used by bloggers varied a lot, however majority of them about 75% never crossed the 73.3% black mark (Or 75 % websites had fonts darker than #444444 hex).

If you're a blogger I would suggest #222222 or #333333 as your best bet.

Font Colors for News based Websites

If you are not into information or Ideas, and just want to talk about current affairs (i.e.) what is happening currently in the world, country or your locality, you have a news based website in your hands.

News websites on the other hand were fairly obvious; half of them used the color #333333 (Which contains 80% of Black and 20% white).

So If you run a news based website close your eyes and use #333333.

Font Colors for Journal based Websites

If you dig research with charts and tables, then your website is an academic journal.  Examples for such might include anything ranging from journals from academic institutions to private research diary.

Journal websites showed a different trend, in those websites there were two classes. One had the darkest possible color #000000 (i.e. 100% black), which were 44% of the websites.

The second class believed in a lighter approach which used #333333 (i.e. 80% of black and 20% of white), which were 30 % of the websites in the sample.

For research minded Journals, You have an option between #000000 and #333333.

Font Color for Information based Websites

And if you're not interested in events or ideas or your opinion, but just want to create a ready reference for others which would help them find factual information, you're involved in an information based website. E.g. Websites like Wikipedia, dictionary.com or thesaurus etc.

Information based websites too had nothing concrete to show, there was no definite trend visible in information based websites.

In short you can use anything.

Conclusion

News based websites can use #333333 as their font color. Academic Journals have a choice between #000000 and #333333. However for Bloggers and news based websites, instead of using any color combination, I would like to attract your attention to the following paragraph.

According to the research conducted on 'The Impact of Web Page Text-Background Color Combinations on Readability, Retention, Aesthetics, and Behavioral Intention', the author contests that color combinations with a higher contrast will ensure higher readability and retention than the ones with lower contrast. According to them, the priority of the color combinations looks like this,

Rank	Background color	Text Color	Example
1	White	Black	Example
2	Dark Blue	Light Blue	Example
3	Cyan	Black	Example

If you're not sure, which category your website falls in, close your eyes and use #000000 or 100% black as your default font color with a white background.

Website Category	Font Color
Blog Based Websites	#222222 or #333333
News Based Websites	#333333
Journal Based Websites	#000000 or #333333
Information Based Websites	#000000

Related reading,

• For those who would like to understand more about colors and their combinations, you can view the information at tiger colors.
• You can check out a thread at stack exchange on User experience on the best type of color combination too.

More in font research Series

Find out Which Font Color is the best? - Did you know font colors can alter moods? Learn how professional award winning websites change text colors to ensure maximum user interaction and understanding.

Find out Which Font Type is the best? - Which font type is most favored by readers? Which font would keep them hooked to your website?

Find out Which Font Size is the best? - How do you know if your font size is readable enough? What font can be called too large and how many pixels are too small? 

This research was about,

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An interview with Vinay at TechPrevue

Here we have an eminent blogger with us today. He isn't like the type you see every day. He helps vernacular blogs. 

What attracted me towards TechPrevue was the desire to understand the challenges faced by a vernacular blogger. My understanding that SEO techniques do not work at blogs containing vernacular language was further cemented by Vinay's admittance. 

Read as Vinay explains how he overcame the most formidable of hurdles in SEO, making Google understand something other than English.

An Introduction

Mohit: Tell us about yourself. Being a NIFT alumnus, how did you stumble towards Website SEO?

Vinay: As a person it’s difficult to identify myself. I am a human who love creative things. I am involved in blogging since 2007. I created first blog to publish my poems. But after sometime I got many requests to reveal the secrets of blog design, widgets and template. So I created my Hindi tech blog तकनीक द्रष्टा(2009) to help bloggers. After that I learned about monetization of blog and tried it on my blog but after few months AdSense made Hindi unsupported language. That was the main reason why I switched to English and renamed my blog to Tech Prevue (2012).

I dint stumbled to website SEO because I never quit blogging after 2009. In May 2010 I joined 2 year program Master of Fashion Technology (Strategic management in Apparel production and Fashion retail) at NIFT, Gandhinagar. After completing MFTech in 2012 I tried to continue blogging because many of blogger friends always want me as blogger to help them. 

Again I started तकनीक द्रष्टा in January 2014 when I met with kind people from Google. We talked about Hindi content promotion on web, Hindi software and Android localization. After a healthy discussion I found Hindi blogging as an opportunity because Google AdSense for Hindi content will be available very soon. So now [I’m] still doing blogging as hobby and extracurricular activity and monetization in my second objective.

Mohit: Tell us something about Tech Prevue and the Blog.

Vinay: Tech Prevue is a platform where we publish articles related to blogging, monetization, web development, Smartphone and technology etc. It is in existence because of people who love it. Our objective is to simplify tech noesis and make it understandable to audience. First we targeted only bloggers but now we are concentrating on all including business persons who want to keep their business alive with the help of technology. Now number of software companies relies on techprevue.com and sponsor article to promote their products and services.

Tech Prevue is not only a blog. We are consultant to bloggers about blog, blogging, design and SEO. We are crafting beautiful blogs and giving cent percent satisfaction to our clients. 

Mohit: What are your upcoming Projects?

Vinay: We are working on two projects Fashion Reveries and Digital Brainiac.

‘Fashion reveries’ [is] in alpha stage but serving fashion aspirants and professionals.  We are planning to build a new name for web consultancy and development job apart from Tech Prevue. 

So Digital Brainiac is different project of early age and yet not fully implemented. We are constantly working on it before providing our services. 

On Social Networks

Mohit: Be it Facebook or Twitter, Social Media was never the strong point for a majority of bloggers, yet, you boast of more than 3000 Fans on facebook and more than 2000 Blog followers? How did you manage it?

Vinay:  We are in existence since 2009 but that time only Hindi bloggers knew us. We are constantly working on quality over quantity. Those have interest in our niche love us and have special care. One of our old gadgets is ‘Google friend connect’. We have 2150+ followers. On Google+ number of followers are 1100+. Yes we opted for Facebook page a year before to give blog updates to our readers who are on Facebook savvy and their count is now 3150+. 

On Revenue

Mohit: How important are web Advertisements to running a good blog?

Vinay:  Monetization is always a tool to run a blog. No one can afford a blog from his pocket for life time. Monetization can be direct or indirect. When you earn a dollar from your blog you earn hundred dollar’s motivation to make a next post on your blog. I have seen many bloggers who invested lots of money in early phase but dint get any revenue from their blog. In Hindi blogging it is happening to every third blogger. 

Thus web advertising is very important to run a blog. When you earn from your blog you can afford more professional resources to promote your blog and content. It is an opportunity to avail professional SEM and SEO. Professionalism definitely brings success in your life whether you blogging or other things. 

On Search Engine Optimization

Mohit: You also host Online Tools at Techprevue.com. So tell me how efficient online tools are in bringing potential clients?

Vinay:  Online tools bring potential clients who have a unique kind of requirement if they found bugs in your tool they need solution for it. A very [few] clients come for additional features in your tools. We host Hindi tools which are used by numerous end users but they don’t ask for additional features because don’t want to pay you. So it seems client is wrong word for users. But for other tools situation might be different. I have no experience other tools so I can’t say anything about it. 

Mohit: Referred to some of your testimonial websites, do you think SEO techniques for a Non-English website (e.g. Hindi) differs from an English website?

Vinay: Yes, I don’t want to take other blog. I will talk about my Hindi blog तकनीक द्रष्टा. It is really difficult to opt same SEO strategy as Tech Prevue, because search engines does not understand Hindi well as they can do English or Spanish. Audience is different for Hindi blogs because most of the blog readers know English and have subscribed English blogs of same niche. If they come to your blog, only come for specific reason. For a Hindi tech blog, second kind of audience [are] newbie in blogging and want to learn everything from scratch. [Since] very few have good command in computer and computing. So you have to calculate for every post and content language. At last, each time you need a different strategy to build new audience for your blog.

Something Personal

Mohit: Now something personal, you’ve used cartoons instead of your real face. Most Bloggers do not mind putting their faces on their creations. Why it that your real face is not visible on the website?

Vinay: Of course, I want to tell you about this. It is part of our research – How do people react when you use cartoon charters of yours rather than using your image. From Google search point of view it is not good to choose cartoon image for face. But if we talk about blog audience it reacts well. In my case I found ten percent audience is appreciating my new avatar and happy with it. I have not any survey report but I got good remarks them about this avatar. Well you can see my real picture on my Facebook account in picture gallery.

Finally

Thank you Vinay; I guess, we’ll all wait eagerly for that research. That was all for today, we wish well and bid adieu to our guest today.

Readers can contact him here and connect with him here. For any question that you would like to ask Vinay, drop it in the comment box below and I’ll make sure, you’ll be replied to.

Further

An interview with an Indian individual is really interesting, but if you need to find something about an Indian web design firm you can read an Interview with JetBro design firm. On a totally non related matter, they actually wrote about codemakit too!

This was,

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A Case Study on Fair Use Copyright Policy

There was a time when I was cleaning up codemakit back-links. This means removing codemakit name from websites that are not relevant or not important or are simply degrading.

The pretense of the exercise was that if the quality of back-links is improved, the website stats will improve.

The exercise dictates opening each and every website from Google search results which looks like a domain analyzer, i.e. a website that hosts information about other domains. So, for codemakit, one would find websites, hosting DNS information about codemakit.com.

An Average DNS Based Website

DNS (Domain Name Server) information hosted on such websites include, the following information,

1. Name of the website, 
2. Name of the Owner of the Domain,
3. Email address of the owner, 
4. Email address of the technical staff of the website, 
5. Contact details for privacy violation

Now obviously websites with such content are not relevant at all. So that means mailing each and every one of them asking them (Politely) to take down any content related to codemakit.com.

The problem however lies in one place. Most websites never respond to your mail. Some do respond after a week or so, apologizing that they were busy. However, there is one type of website which hosts not only the DNS information of blogs but also their content.

Such websites host the following information in addition to the DNS information

1. Meta Description
2. Meta Tags
3. Category of the website
4. Content of the website

New Type of DNS Based Website

Some often say that this was because of web owners submitting their websites to several search engines as a part of their naïve SEO strategy, only finding out later that those were not search engines but just directories hosting such information.

They use specially designed bots to copy information from your personal blog/Website and host it on their websites. On one look this can be called as a blatant violation of your copyright. (Assuming your website has a copyright notice). But only when you visit such websites you find that not only have they shirked any responsibility of violating a digital law, they are justifying their actions as well.

How do they justify or rationalize copying data from a website? By citing a Policy named as fair use Policy.

In the following example, one can see how content from codemakit.com was copied on a website. When one rushes to the contact page in protest of its violation of copyright, one would find that the website is protected by fair use policy and "threats" would not work.

In the following example, "Just one question arises, "Does the snippet provided on the website qualify as a preview?"

Related Reading,

• A really nice article on Fair use can be found at center for social media impact in their article about how journalists think about fair use
• You can also found a FAQ on Fair use at US copyright Webpage
• You can take a look at a previous article by codemakit.com on a method to find out if someone is copying from you. This is exceptionally useful if you think you too are a victim of fair use policy.

This was,

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9 Types of Phishing Scams

There are 9 different types of Phishing attacks. How would you recognize a Phishing Scam? How do you know if you've been phished by a scammer and how to protect yourself from one.

Scamsters often try to convince you that they're authentic, respectable, important persons of the society. So let me ask you a question, Name some professions who get respect and adulation from their fellow citizens? 

First Doctor, A doctor is seen as a healer, a life giver and hence people associate many of their positive feelings towards a doctor. Maybe he once saved you or your near one, hence your gratitude gets attached to any doctor you see. He/She might ask for your passwords and you'll happily divulge your web accounts passwords. Another is an Astronaut but since the probability of an astronaut mailing you is excruciatingly low, we'll leave them aside. 

Another profession is a corporate big shot. The directors, chairmen etc are the people who sign your paychecks (Most of you), also a tinge of adulation comes from the fact that they've probably worked a lot and hence have reached at such a position. So, It is actually overwhelming that a corporate big shot actually mailed you something. So you'll be tempted to look for once.

Types of Phishing Scams

There are actually 9 Types of Phishing Scams

1. The Corrie Wright Scam

2. The Scam Victim Compensation Scam

3. Loner Loaner Phishers.

4. The Plastic Money Phishers

5. The ‘Make 400$ in a week’ scam

6. The ‘Damsel in Distress’ Phishing Scam

7. The Phishing Attachment Scam

8. The Dishonest Banker Phishing

9. The Threatening phishing Scam

The Corrie Wright Scam

In this type of Phishing Scam, Corrie is a doctor (Corrie could be an overweight unemployed bald man sitting in front of a computer with a pack of nachos in his hands).

I chose Corrie because majority of phishing scams of this type had the name of Corrie in it.

Now she tells the story of how she got scammed and traveled to Nigeria for her compensation. She finally advises to contact Mr. Michael Craig to whom she gave 420$ for the paper works. It is ironic to note that Section 420 of Indian Penal Code deals with scams and Cheating.

The Scam Victim Compensation Scam

Here the Phisher would innocently offer a way out of scams by shoving your mouth with another phishing attempt. They often disguise themselves as senior official (A director in this case who does not have any work other than sending emails to thousands of people with UPPERCASE subjects) of some really famous bank or a financial institution, who say that they have your file with them. 

Now they will claim that you have been scammed already and they’re here to help you get your compensation back. A dishonest person would think, “Wait! I was not scammed!” But “Sc** it! I’ll receive compensation, which means lots and lots of money!” 

Now, I’ll request you to read through the message first, find out the director’s name then come back to this page.

So be honest and think, “Why would a director of a company offer me compensation by putting the message subject in UPPERCASE? I’ll find out if the director is legal.” and then you’ll find the truth about the director. The director is a reputable figure Mr. Hikmet Ersek and his name nowhere resembles Mr. Mark James as given in the email.

Loner Loaner Phishers.

Phishing Loansters are another breed of scammers that scam you with loans with irresistible interest rates. But as usual, you need to pay some processing fees to make it happen. More than often your loans get rejected and you're left cursing.

The Plastic Money Phishers

They’ll offer you credit cards and an offer to save thousands of rupees. It is usually aimed at the mathematically challenged.

The ‘Make 400$ in a week’ scam

One of the most famous and intricate web scam is the make 2000$ or 4000$ per week scam. You'll encounter several testimonials from people who "used" the system and "got rich in a week”. The Website boasts of making you rich in a week. However, more daunting is the attempt from these websites to legalize the mail by adding a small Para at the end of the mail. 

It subsequently explains the readers that the mail was sent in compliance of a law or a bill and is in no way an infraction of the law. 

In this message there are two things wrong; 

• First, a bill is not a law, (It can be called as a draft as it has not been implemented) 

• Second, Spammers never provide actual email addresses/Names/Numbers etc so that you could unsubscribe.

They use the fact that people often don't check if the email was authentic or if the websites were certified. But, when many have used the law card, some often use the god card, i.e. some small phrases in the email like "God Bless us all" or "God bless you" etc. This is said to attach spiritual emotions filled with a theists' adulation. 

Some often use the confidentiality notice which essentially states that the mails between you and the party are confidential and should not be divulged to anyone. This tries to cement your understanding that the mail was authentic.

In short they'll use anything and everything to make sure you read and respond.

The ‘Damsel in Distress’ Phishing Scam

This was instantly recognized as a scam. However for the sake of this article, Reply was provided. They reply was to be short and sweet with a touch of interest and indifference. But to the two words I gave, the Phisher bombarded me with a 1600 worded essay delving into a girl’s heart breaking story. 

The scammer tries to include information based on real world events to fortify its lie. 

Phishing Attachment Scam

It is said that playing with fire will only burn you. On the search towards phishing and email scams, I burnt my hands too. The following message was delivered to my personal mail address, which never happened before.

Attaching a message/letter to an email actually lessens its chances to be read by any email provider’s filter. This sends the email directly into the inbox rather than your spam box thereby increasing the credibility of the mail.

The following mail was attached as a docx file. I’m sure, Gmail servers could not read through a docx file as it was delivered straight to the inbox.

The Dishonest Banker Phishing

There is always one banker who holds millions in his pocket but still wants to share it with you. The banker’s customer died without declaring a next of kin. Now the banker is interested in gulping down the money but instead wants you to pose as a beneficiary and get 50 % of the money.

The Threatening phishing Scam

You’ll be mailed by an authority,( Could be a policeman, toll booth, mail account provider etc) You’ll be threatened to do what they want or your services will be terminated immediately.

The Phisher Below did not provide me with a link, or else we could have gone further.

Related Reading,

You can read all about The Simple Steps to stay safe Online.

Find out about How Passwords are stored on Websites

Download Complete Report

Now you can download the Complete 23 Page Official Report on Different Types of Phishing Techniques.
You can also download the Funny Version of the Official Phishing Techniques Report, where we make fun of the phishers and their useless attempts at scamming people.

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Why some countries hate your website

Its 2:00 AM and you're sitting in front of your computer with chips in one hand and a beverage in another. You are reviewing the analytics data. Where do the visitors come from? Where do they go?  Which pages they visit and for what time etc. 

You start thinking, "Hey! Why are my visitors more from US than UK. Why are there minimal visitors in China and why are hordes of them in Australia?"

The answer though mind boggling, is quite simple indeed. Before getting into the details of the visitor demographics Let us get rid of some irrelevant factors.

Is it Blocked?

There is a lot of speculation regarding website metrics in China. Some report large number of visitors some report a fraction of its fraction. With the government exercising excessive control over what can be published or what can be viewed, one thing can be concluded with surety, it is not your fault if your website does not receive thundering applause from china or any other country.

Chances are your website has been blocked there. (However, there is a way to find if your website is blocked). Same might be the case with some Middle East countries too. Though you can still move around it, but that’s not the point.

New Google Algorithm?

"Change must always be embraced", the supposed motto of the people working at Google Search, The Guys sitting there are responsible for any modification in the search algorithm used by Google.

With a simple change from their side, cause great repercussions in the visitor inflow in our websites. So that cannot be ruled out. You can actually see through a case study, how Google's algorithm change lead to the change in visitors geographically.

The Actual Reason

Now that we've removed them from our scope, we can focus on much more pressing issues on hand. Why do some countries love your articles and some do not? Do you offend the countries? Or is there some problem with your language? (As an accent cannot be a problem in written content). The answer is really simple. "Spelling".

Color or Colour or Couleur?

It is the way you spell your words that makes the difference. let us look at some examples from Wikipedia. Like for the simplest of example. A word used extensively in almost all websites, "Colour" or "Color". 

It is fascinating to note that the word is spelt "color" in United States but is spelt as "Colour" in almost all English speaking countries. (French however introduce another twist and spell it as "Couleur").

Organisation or Organization?

Another example can be "Organisation" or "Organization". This one however is a tricky one. UK, New Zealand, South Africa are known to use it interchangeably. US on the other hand prefer "Organization".

The Story

My friend used to wonder why his blog receives more visitors from US and not from India, his target audience. His was a commercial website and he started a blog to help in sales. But the website received more visitors from outside the country and his sales started to drop. 

Simple psychology says, “you would obviously buy from the nearby shop than order from abroad”. His puzzlement increased when the blog started to increase visitors, actually started hurting his income as most readers were from United States. His competitors got the better of him and he was going to shut down for good.

The answer to the problem is simple enough. The man used Microsoft Word to spell check his blog posts or Item descriptions. His plan to avoid spelling errors actually backfired. What he didn't know was the spell check in Microsoft word in his system was preset at English (US). So, confusing words were automatically corrected to those spelled in US. He used to post the spell checked article at his blog. 

How do Spellings Affect your Website?

Let us suppose he had an article named the "Colors of Flowers". When a needy slash curious person from India/UK types in the search string, "Flower Colours", she/he would not be presented with my friend's article. 

But when another needy slash curious guy from US types in the string "Flower Colors", he will be presented with my friend's article. This is how your spellings could change who you cater to.

Now increasing the usability of this concept by a notch, we can safely say that if you want your visitors from a specific country, set your spell check in that language. The steps are outlined here,

How to change the preset Language in Microsoft Office

1. First click on Review Tab in Microsoft Word 2007.
2. In the proofing option, select "Set Language".
3. Now you'll be presented with a window containing all languages. Select the one you find suitable and click OK. You’re good to go.

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