Choosing a good domain name for your business website can be very hard but it is also essential to get it right, after all you want it to work for you. In this article I explore the many different aspects that you should be considering when deciding on a suitable domain name. I also take you through the steps I follow when choosing an appropriate domain name for my websites.
All things considered what we are trying to achieve is a website domain name that adequately describes your product or service, is broad enough to allow for some growth and scope in product or service, is simple enough for a person to recall and contains your most important keywords/phrases. From an Internet marketing perspective there are also considerations of company and product branding that may be brought into this specification. From an SEO perspective it may be better to use an older or established domain name that has been registered and known by the search engines for over a while, these tend to be rated more highly by Google in a respect point of view.
In this article I shall cover choosing the best new domain name that you can without considering your individual marketing or brand requirements.
To do the following tasks I like to have a couple of browser windows open and a spreadsheet program. It may be required that you signup and login to certain websites, but these are all well known and respectable websites and do this at your discretion.
1. Load up overture inventory keyword volume checker in your browser window. Type in your product name or service and submit. Copy the results across into your spreadsheet.
2. load WordTracker in your browser, either using the free trial account or if you have a normal account, login. Now using the wizard type in the same product or service you type in the previous step. Run through the wizard and again, highlight and copy your results across into a new space in the spreadsheet.
3. Load up Google Adwords in your browser. Navigate to tools->keyword tool and type in the same keyword we used in the previous two steps. Ensure use synonyms are checked. Copy all words across into selected keywords and click estimate search traffic. Copy all results into a new space on the spreadsheet.
4. Using the spreadsheet we should have three columns and what we are looking to do is this step is weed out all items that are unrelated or irrelevant by deleting them from the spreadsheet.
5. Sort the three lists by search volume. Working from the top down, highlighting and copying to a 4th space in the spreadsheet the highest searched on and most relevant phrases. Repeat these steps until you have the top 10-15 phrases and keywords.
6. Identify your target market. Are you customers searching for your product in your local region or are they open to World wide suppliers? Having identified this we should use this as the domain extension (.com, .co.uk, .com.au etc) in the next step
7. Using this basic list identified in step 5, you might be lucky and be in an industry with little or no competition, so what we do here is remove any white space in the phrases and input them directly into your favorite bulk domain name registering tool. Check them all and see if we are lucky to find one of these is still available for registration. If the highest searched on term you have identified is still available and this strongly relates to your product/service you should register it now. If none of these terms is available then try using a dash (-) between words and also try adding words to the domain, like "the" or "buy" to get as close to the highest searched on term that you possibly can. You can also try re-arranging the words in the sentence.
So, now you have your list of 10+ domain names for your website to choose from and you should feel quite confident that they are relevant to your product or service, contain highly search terms and are short in length. If you are in debate over which one to choose then always go for relevant and high searched terms first.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
your traffic exchange has a forum
If your traffic exchange has a forum, get comfortable using the exchange and then, join it! Forum posts are a way to connect with other marketers and just as in offline business, networking is what online marketing is all about. When people get to know you, they trust you and this may spark them to buy your product or join the program you're promoting. And, it's always a great way to make new friends.
The first thing you must do after joining a forum is to introduce yourself to the other members of the group. Usually, this will include information about the area where you live, what your interests are, and a blurb about being happy to be in the forum. Keep it simple and allow veteran members to welcome you. Then, respond to their comments or questions. It's a great way to get your feet wet and to satisfy the "getting to know you" requirement of most forums.
Then, just read posts for a while. Old-timers in a forum, those who have been members a while, can often be great sources of information. You can learn a great deal just by reading posts, especially if the forum is very active. Take advantage of the free tutoring. It's worth its weight in platinum.
Another advantage of posting to a forum is that you are usually able to use a signature file, meaning a link to a program or product you're promoting underneath your signature. This is a great way to advertise! Your link attaches to every post you make or will ever make and it will add up to a lot of free advertising over time. Just be sure to follow the rules about posting sig lines. Some forums allow several, while others may allow none at all, and the last thing you want to be is a forum rule breaker. The members will never let you forget, if you do it consistently over time.
Don't become a forum lizard, either. Posts that have no substance are generally frowned upon. These are the "Yahoo!" posts or the "Sure, I agree," posts with no relevant comments to legitimize them. Don't spend all your time in forums, either. Find a thread or two that interest you and post something important to those. Reading every post by every member can take up most of your day in large forums, if you allow it. Just be involved enough to become known as someone whose point of view holds interest by providing food for thought, interesting URLs on a topic, or especially humor, if you're able to write funny things without being corny. Forum members won't mind if you post once or fifteen times, if what you have to say resonates.
Traffic exchanges have many features, and you should explore all of them. If the exchange has a forum, get in there and make some posts, even if it's only to respond to what others have posted. First, read the terms and conditions of the forum and read some posts before you go barging into someone else's living room. Get a feel for the tone of its posters. And never post ads, unless the forum has a specific board for doing so. That's a big no-no and will get you into trouble. But don't be shy. People in forums are generally nice and very helpful, and networking is what n-e-t-w-o-r-k marketing is all about!
The first thing you must do after joining a forum is to introduce yourself to the other members of the group. Usually, this will include information about the area where you live, what your interests are, and a blurb about being happy to be in the forum. Keep it simple and allow veteran members to welcome you. Then, respond to their comments or questions. It's a great way to get your feet wet and to satisfy the "getting to know you" requirement of most forums.
Then, just read posts for a while. Old-timers in a forum, those who have been members a while, can often be great sources of information. You can learn a great deal just by reading posts, especially if the forum is very active. Take advantage of the free tutoring. It's worth its weight in platinum.
Another advantage of posting to a forum is that you are usually able to use a signature file, meaning a link to a program or product you're promoting underneath your signature. This is a great way to advertise! Your link attaches to every post you make or will ever make and it will add up to a lot of free advertising over time. Just be sure to follow the rules about posting sig lines. Some forums allow several, while others may allow none at all, and the last thing you want to be is a forum rule breaker. The members will never let you forget, if you do it consistently over time.
Don't become a forum lizard, either. Posts that have no substance are generally frowned upon. These are the "Yahoo!" posts or the "Sure, I agree," posts with no relevant comments to legitimize them. Don't spend all your time in forums, either. Find a thread or two that interest you and post something important to those. Reading every post by every member can take up most of your day in large forums, if you allow it. Just be involved enough to become known as someone whose point of view holds interest by providing food for thought, interesting URLs on a topic, or especially humor, if you're able to write funny things without being corny. Forum members won't mind if you post once or fifteen times, if what you have to say resonates.
Traffic exchanges have many features, and you should explore all of them. If the exchange has a forum, get in there and make some posts, even if it's only to respond to what others have posted. First, read the terms and conditions of the forum and read some posts before you go barging into someone else's living room. Get a feel for the tone of its posters. And never post ads, unless the forum has a specific board for doing so. That's a big no-no and will get you into trouble. But don't be shy. People in forums are generally nice and very helpful, and networking is what n-e-t-w-o-r-k marketing is all about!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
increasing visitor use forum
Using forum posting to drive traffic
Post relevant information to forums and genuinely contribute to discussions. And have your signature along so that your link will be there. When you visit sites with guestbook, forums, or blogs make posting leaving your link behind. And people will click it and find your site and shop.
Go to http://www.big-boards.com for a list of forums.
But all the forums are yelling, "Don't abuse forum rules!" What are forum rules? They don't want you to post a link, even if it offers help. If you do, the moderator will delete your entry immediately and have you banned. If your signature is even allowed, nobody reads signatures. Ask this: when is the last time you personally read a signature?
It is only when your comments and discussion is so powerful that people will trace you. Like most traffic techniques, fun comes in first.
You should just try to help other and have fun while posting in forums and leave your signature so that anyone interested in you can find you.
Post relevant information to forums and genuinely contribute to discussions. And have your signature along so that your link will be there. When you visit sites with guestbook, forums, or blogs make posting leaving your link behind. And people will click it and find your site and shop.
Go to http://www.big-boards.com for a list of forums.
But all the forums are yelling, "Don't abuse forum rules!" What are forum rules? They don't want you to post a link, even if it offers help. If you do, the moderator will delete your entry immediately and have you banned. If your signature is even allowed, nobody reads signatures. Ask this: when is the last time you personally read a signature?
It is only when your comments and discussion is so powerful that people will trace you. Like most traffic techniques, fun comes in first.
You should just try to help other and have fun while posting in forums and leave your signature so that anyone interested in you can find you.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Tips On How To Get A good Domain Name
How to get a domain name? This is just one of so many questions that surround the field of domain name. Today, as the domain names continue to create a certain impact to the people, many people were asking the domain name experts on how to get a domain name for a certain web site.
Given such fact, I have here some answers not only for the problem on how to get a domain name for a web site per se, but this will give you an idea on how to get a domain name which is good and interesting. So here it is.
As the problem on how to get a domain name for a web site continue to come out from the mouth of various domain name consumers, many experts and resources have given some tips or tactics to solve the problem on how to get a domain name. In particular, one of the main considerations in line with such dilemma is to know that naming a particular site after a domain name may seem natural to many people, but then it is surprising to know that not every web site is named after the domain name even when a particular web master owns such domain name.
Naming a certain web site after the domain name is considered to be important. Why? For a simple reason, such move of naming a particular site will give the people a hint to think not only of your web site, but by name. If your domain name is also your address, then they will automatically know where to go. It is also noted that nowadays, where most of the people automatically turn to the web for information, naming a web site after your domain name works better.
How to get a domain name? Here is another answer to the problem on how to get a domain name. It is considered in most resources that if you are willing to know the answer on how to get a domain name, you should consider what you want, whether it is a generic name or brand name domains. However, many resources have considered that getting a name that matches your brand name is much better than generic names. Having the brand name domains, everything will be made easy to the domain name consumers.
It is also important if you are really interested for an answer on how to get a domain name that you know how to balance the length of the domain name. In general, the domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters. So for an answer on the problem on how to get a domain name which is good, you should know that many preferred short names because they are easier to remember, easier to type, and far less susceptible to errors.
Also considerable for answering the dilemma on how to get a domain name is to know that hyphenated names are far more disadvantageous than the non-hyphenated one. Many resources mentioned that hyphenated domain names lead to more potential mistakes when typing than the names that do not contain hyphens. It is indeed a pain in the neck to type. Enough said.
So if you want to solve your problem on how to get a domain name which is good, then you better weigh things out before rushing to domain name registrars to register for a domain name.
Given such fact, I have here some answers not only for the problem on how to get a domain name for a web site per se, but this will give you an idea on how to get a domain name which is good and interesting. So here it is.
As the problem on how to get a domain name for a web site continue to come out from the mouth of various domain name consumers, many experts and resources have given some tips or tactics to solve the problem on how to get a domain name. In particular, one of the main considerations in line with such dilemma is to know that naming a particular site after a domain name may seem natural to many people, but then it is surprising to know that not every web site is named after the domain name even when a particular web master owns such domain name.
Naming a certain web site after the domain name is considered to be important. Why? For a simple reason, such move of naming a particular site will give the people a hint to think not only of your web site, but by name. If your domain name is also your address, then they will automatically know where to go. It is also noted that nowadays, where most of the people automatically turn to the web for information, naming a web site after your domain name works better.
How to get a domain name? Here is another answer to the problem on how to get a domain name. It is considered in most resources that if you are willing to know the answer on how to get a domain name, you should consider what you want, whether it is a generic name or brand name domains. However, many resources have considered that getting a name that matches your brand name is much better than generic names. Having the brand name domains, everything will be made easy to the domain name consumers.
It is also important if you are really interested for an answer on how to get a domain name that you know how to balance the length of the domain name. In general, the domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters. So for an answer on the problem on how to get a domain name which is good, you should know that many preferred short names because they are easier to remember, easier to type, and far less susceptible to errors.
Also considerable for answering the dilemma on how to get a domain name is to know that hyphenated names are far more disadvantageous than the non-hyphenated one. Many resources mentioned that hyphenated domain names lead to more potential mistakes when typing than the names that do not contain hyphens. It is indeed a pain in the neck to type. Enough said.
So if you want to solve your problem on how to get a domain name which is good, then you better weigh things out before rushing to domain name registrars to register for a domain name.
Monday, October 4, 2010
How to Boost Your Adsense CTR
How to increase your adsense revenue? Increase traffic or increase CTR!
Traffic and CTR, these two just like " King " and " Queen ", both important! But everyone know, increasing traffic is a longtime work, you should work hard on it constantly, more unique contents, more backlinks, more exposed…, So if you want to inrease your adsense revenue of your exsiting traffic, try increasing CTR!
How to increase your CTR?
First of all: The Right Adspaces!
What is the " Right Adspaces ", a right adspace is a position where you can extract maximum profit out of it, also we can say it's a position where our visitors normally have a look at!
And now you should get an idea: how to find out and which part of your sites your visitors click on! Of course you can play the vistor's role and image your clicking behaviour, but this just your action, not others! So, if you want to figure out what other vistors do, you need " heatmap " service! Just do a search in Google and you can find out there quit a few companies provid this service, some are free! Just sign up one and put the scripts they provided to your sites, and you can get a detail of your visitor's activites on your site pages, also you can get an advice on where to place your ads!
Here 3 tips below can help you better increase your CTR:
1. Keywords URL
Use Keyword in your URL: you can use this trick to better target your ads! Google agree you to use keywords in your URL, but you should use the target keywords! Of course you'll keep the keywords targeted for your site!:)
You can Achieve this by appending your URLs with ?k 1 = keyword1&k2=keyword2 .
Example:
URL before: http://www.tearsea.com/
URL before: http://www.tearsea.com/?keyword1=make money
2. Colors
This Colors inclue two sections: site color and ads color!
How to choose the color for your websites? The only one thing you should know is that vistors will stick arround the sites using lighter background a longer time than those darker and shiny colors!
And the Ads link color: Blue is always the first, cos a " blue colored" text is always a link has already in our brain for a long time! So white or lighter background + blue colored ads = profit!
But this is just a common style, you should test this to make it work for you better~!
3. Image
Images normally catch the attention, So it's very important to insert images arround your ads smartly~
Not only images, you can use everything that will catch visitor's eyes, a from, a quoteblock…!
After of all, these tricks are just some tricks, you can use them to increase your adsense revenue of your exsiting traffic, but the traffic is always the King, so if your want make more and more money, you should increase more and more traffic for your sites!~
Good Luck!
Traffic and CTR, these two just like " King " and " Queen ", both important! But everyone know, increasing traffic is a longtime work, you should work hard on it constantly, more unique contents, more backlinks, more exposed…, So if you want to inrease your adsense revenue of your exsiting traffic, try increasing CTR!
How to increase your CTR?
First of all: The Right Adspaces!
What is the " Right Adspaces ", a right adspace is a position where you can extract maximum profit out of it, also we can say it's a position where our visitors normally have a look at!
And now you should get an idea: how to find out and which part of your sites your visitors click on! Of course you can play the vistor's role and image your clicking behaviour, but this just your action, not others! So, if you want to figure out what other vistors do, you need " heatmap " service! Just do a search in Google and you can find out there quit a few companies provid this service, some are free! Just sign up one and put the scripts they provided to your sites, and you can get a detail of your visitor's activites on your site pages, also you can get an advice on where to place your ads!
Here 3 tips below can help you better increase your CTR:
1. Keywords URL
Use Keyword in your URL: you can use this trick to better target your ads! Google agree you to use keywords in your URL, but you should use the target keywords! Of course you'll keep the keywords targeted for your site!:)
You can Achieve this by appending your URLs with ?k 1 = keyword1&k2=keyword2 .
Example:
URL before: http://www.tearsea.com/
URL before: http://www.tearsea.com/?keyword1=make money
2. Colors
This Colors inclue two sections: site color and ads color!
How to choose the color for your websites? The only one thing you should know is that vistors will stick arround the sites using lighter background a longer time than those darker and shiny colors!
And the Ads link color: Blue is always the first, cos a " blue colored" text is always a link has already in our brain for a long time! So white or lighter background + blue colored ads = profit!
But this is just a common style, you should test this to make it work for you better~!
3. Image
Images normally catch the attention, So it's very important to insert images arround your ads smartly~
Not only images, you can use everything that will catch visitor's eyes, a from, a quoteblock…!
After of all, these tricks are just some tricks, you can use them to increase your adsense revenue of your exsiting traffic, but the traffic is always the King, so if your want make more and more money, you should increase more and more traffic for your sites!~
Good Luck!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
learn to make e-commerce site
How To Setup Merchant Account Details
If you are interesting in learning more about merchant services, you will need to know something about setup merchant account details. This may seem like the hardest part of getting a merchant account, especially if you are uninvolved with many e-commerce or technological business systems. Here are some details that can help to give you a better idea of merchant account setup.
For setup merchant account information, you will want to contact the merchant account provider that you are thinking of working with. This could be your local banker, the one that manages your company's regular accounts at present. Or it might be another lender with a better merchant account deal that includes lower terms or more useful services. When you select the underwriter for your merchant account, find out which fees will apply. Some merchant account providers seem to charge for a host of things, including the application, setup, gateway, membership, and maintenance, among others. After applying to your account provider of choice and being approved for merchant services, an account representative can work with you to set up merchant account details that will soon have your business equipped for credit card payments.
At that point you can ask more detailed questions about setup merchant account services. For example, if there is a service fee for setup, will you need to pay it first, will it be billed, or will it be deducted from your first month's sales? Find out who will install the credit card processing software program and whether you must pay for it. Perhaps it will pay for itself in a few months, saving you this initial start-up cost. It is important to find out whether a customer services representative will be standing by to answer customers' questions and deal with problems that may arise at the Website. Up-to-date contact or email information is essential to reassure customers they can get help when needed. You will need to know if you must find and pay someone for backup of this type or if the merchant services provider will handle this for you.
Your setup merchant account fees should be minimal, but make sure you find out ahead of time what to expect so there are no unpleasant surprises when you can least afford them. After all, you don't want to go to the trouble and expense of opening a merchant services account only to find that you cannot afford to provide the necessary components to make it operational and customer-friendly. If possible, get a list of services and their prices before signing the contract on your merchant account.
The timeframe for setup merchant account operations should not be excessive. Most underwriters can have your Website ready to start accepting credit card payments within a few days. When they do, you will probably ask yourself why you waited so long to apply for this helpful tool. You also may be interested in getting a wireless credit card processor for travel-related sales and a pager to maintain office-to-employee communications. An e-check processor may be the logical next step.
The commercial sky is the proverbial limit when you inquire about setup merchant account options
If you are interesting in learning more about merchant services, you will need to know something about setup merchant account details. This may seem like the hardest part of getting a merchant account, especially if you are uninvolved with many e-commerce or technological business systems. Here are some details that can help to give you a better idea of merchant account setup.
For setup merchant account information, you will want to contact the merchant account provider that you are thinking of working with. This could be your local banker, the one that manages your company's regular accounts at present. Or it might be another lender with a better merchant account deal that includes lower terms or more useful services. When you select the underwriter for your merchant account, find out which fees will apply. Some merchant account providers seem to charge for a host of things, including the application, setup, gateway, membership, and maintenance, among others. After applying to your account provider of choice and being approved for merchant services, an account representative can work with you to set up merchant account details that will soon have your business equipped for credit card payments.
At that point you can ask more detailed questions about setup merchant account services. For example, if there is a service fee for setup, will you need to pay it first, will it be billed, or will it be deducted from your first month's sales? Find out who will install the credit card processing software program and whether you must pay for it. Perhaps it will pay for itself in a few months, saving you this initial start-up cost. It is important to find out whether a customer services representative will be standing by to answer customers' questions and deal with problems that may arise at the Website. Up-to-date contact or email information is essential to reassure customers they can get help when needed. You will need to know if you must find and pay someone for backup of this type or if the merchant services provider will handle this for you.
Your setup merchant account fees should be minimal, but make sure you find out ahead of time what to expect so there are no unpleasant surprises when you can least afford them. After all, you don't want to go to the trouble and expense of opening a merchant services account only to find that you cannot afford to provide the necessary components to make it operational and customer-friendly. If possible, get a list of services and their prices before signing the contract on your merchant account.
The timeframe for setup merchant account operations should not be excessive. Most underwriters can have your Website ready to start accepting credit card payments within a few days. When they do, you will probably ask yourself why you waited so long to apply for this helpful tool. You also may be interested in getting a wireless credit card processor for travel-related sales and a pager to maintain office-to-employee communications. An e-check processor may be the logical next step.
The commercial sky is the proverbial limit when you inquire about setup merchant account options
Saturday, October 2, 2010
web page access control
When most people think about Internet censorship, the usual suspects immediately come to mind : Communist China and repressive Islamic countries. Unfortunately, Westerners have an embarrassment all their own : Australia's net censorship law, established in 2000.
Freedom House, a non-profit U.S. organization dedicated to spreading human rights and freedom, undertakes regular surveys on press freedom and censorship. Last year's survey found that out of 186 countries, 69 had a free press, 51 had a partly-free press, and 66 countries had no press freedom. Freedom House suggested that only 21% of the world's population enjoy access to a truly free press.
Some nations control Internet access through government servers that censor incoming news and information, and in China "cyber dissidents" have been imprisoned. Censorship is justified by claims that Western democratic practices are disruptive to the social values propagated by the local regime, or that society must be protected from corruption by outside influences. One Saudi spokesman for business interests commented that Saudi Arabia's limited opening to the Internet was delayed until technology was available to prevent access to information contrary to Islamic values and "dangerous to our society". Almost all Internet users in China and the Middle East are blocked from accessing political Web sites that criticize the government of their country.
However, Arab and Communist societies have a long history of suppressing freedom of speech, so internet censorship in these nations comes as no surprise. However, at the time Australia first proposed its own form of internet censorship, it was still considered a country with a completely free press. Freedom House described the new Internet legislation as a measure that is "onerous, privacy-intrusive, and will chill freedom of speech".
The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999, the Australian Internet censorship legislation, came into effect on January 1, 2000. Under this legislation, broad categories of Internet content were prohibited. Australians are forbidden from seeing online any material which could be inappropriate for children, which includes any material classified RC or X by the Classification Board. Such content includes material containing detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use; child pornography; bestiality; excessively violent or sexually violent material; real or implied depictions of sexual activity; and material which deals with issues or contains depictions which require an adult perspective.
Enforcement of the regulation of the Internet is complaint-driven. Individuals, organizations, or the Commonwealth, a State or Territory can make a complaint to the ABA. If the ABA determines that the "prohibited content" is hosted in Australia, it will direct the local ISP to remove it.
If the "prohibited content" is hosted outside Australia, the ABA will notify the suppliers of approved filters of the content in accordance with the Internet Industry Association's code of practice. The Australian Internet Industry has a list of 16 approved filters. The criteria for selecting these filters include ease of installation, ease of use, configurability, ability for updates in respect of content to be filtered, and availability of support. Effectiveness is not included in the selection criteria. The filtering software is offered to consumers, but is not compulsory.
Testing by Computer Choice (September/October 2000) found that inocuous content, such as medical sites, were often blocked while some adult content passed through the filter. For example, iFilter blocked several Biblical sites, a family and child mediation service approved by the Australian Federal Attorney-General, the Institute of Australasian Psychiatrists, and information about Catholics helping street kids. Apparently technology is no substitution for parental supervision.<
Aside from costing Australians 2.7 million Australian dollars per year and making their country the laughingstock of the free world, the legislation has had minimal effect. Despite the multitude of pornography sites on the internet, there was no pent-up demand to shut them down; within six months of introducing of the legislation, the ABA received only 201 complaints about Internet content. By the end of June 2000, 197 investigations had been concluded. Of these, 37 were terminated due to lack of information (for example, the details provided with the complaint were insufficient to locate the content). Of the remaining 160 completed investigations, 93 resulted in the location of prohibited or potentially prohibited content, while 67 were found not to contain prohibited content. Around one third of complaints related to content hosted in Australia.
The prohibited content included content hosted in Usenet newsgroups, which is treated as content hosted in Australia if the complainant has accessed the content from his or her ISP's newsgroup server. The ABA issued final take-down notices for 62 postings of Internet content and referred 94 items to the makers of approved filters. Of the 62 items of Internet content that were the subject of take-down notices, at least 17 were later moved to ISPs outside Australia. (ABA Annual Report 2000-2001). So approximately one-third of the offensive websites were simply relocated to servers outside of Australia.
In summary, filtering software products are ineffective, and Australia cannot control websites hosted outside its borders. The government won the approval of a few moralists who were happy that "something has been done" about online smut, whether or not the measures had any real effect.
However, a dangerous precedent has been set, and it is entirely possible that the categories of prohibited Internet content will be expanded in the future to ban political websites which threaten "Australian values".
Incidents of this nature occured almost immediately after the introduction of the censorship legislation.
In a 2001 case, Victoria anarchist Matthew Tayor was prosecuted by the Australian Federal police at the behest of the FBI after posting threatening statements inspired by Jim Bell's "Assassination Politics" on websites in Ohio and California.
In 2002, NSW Police Minister Michael Costa wrote to the Australian Communications Minister, Richard Alston, and Justice Minister, Chris Ellison, requesting that 3 anti-WTO websites (including Melbourne Indymedia) be shut down or that access to them be restricted. Costa claimed the sites were providing information "designed to aid the violent disruption of the forthcoming WTO meeting in Sydney in November". Alston labelled the sites "insidious, anti-democratic and interested in causing violence, mayhem and anarchy".
Alston referred the matter to the Australian Broadcasting Authority, which cleared Melbourne IndyMedia and Sydney anti-WTO s11.org website of any wrongdoing. The ABA concluded that grassroots news and activist websites were operating within the law and that their rhetoric did not reach a "threshold" of inciting violence. Costa then declared "we will be doing everything we can to pursue it internationally". However, Indymedia is a large network of independently-hosted international sites, so further action proved impossible.
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), an online civil liberties organization, has described the Federal Government's online censorship legislation as a failure, and recommended that Internet censorship legislation "...be repealed and the costly and failed Internet regulatory apparatus be dismantled."
Freedom House, a non-profit U.S. organization dedicated to spreading human rights and freedom, undertakes regular surveys on press freedom and censorship. Last year's survey found that out of 186 countries, 69 had a free press, 51 had a partly-free press, and 66 countries had no press freedom. Freedom House suggested that only 21% of the world's population enjoy access to a truly free press.
Some nations control Internet access through government servers that censor incoming news and information, and in China "cyber dissidents" have been imprisoned. Censorship is justified by claims that Western democratic practices are disruptive to the social values propagated by the local regime, or that society must be protected from corruption by outside influences. One Saudi spokesman for business interests commented that Saudi Arabia's limited opening to the Internet was delayed until technology was available to prevent access to information contrary to Islamic values and "dangerous to our society". Almost all Internet users in China and the Middle East are blocked from accessing political Web sites that criticize the government of their country.
However, Arab and Communist societies have a long history of suppressing freedom of speech, so internet censorship in these nations comes as no surprise. However, at the time Australia first proposed its own form of internet censorship, it was still considered a country with a completely free press. Freedom House described the new Internet legislation as a measure that is "onerous, privacy-intrusive, and will chill freedom of speech".
The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999, the Australian Internet censorship legislation, came into effect on January 1, 2000. Under this legislation, broad categories of Internet content were prohibited. Australians are forbidden from seeing online any material which could be inappropriate for children, which includes any material classified RC or X by the Classification Board. Such content includes material containing detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use; child pornography; bestiality; excessively violent or sexually violent material; real or implied depictions of sexual activity; and material which deals with issues or contains depictions which require an adult perspective.
Enforcement of the regulation of the Internet is complaint-driven. Individuals, organizations, or the Commonwealth, a State or Territory can make a complaint to the ABA. If the ABA determines that the "prohibited content" is hosted in Australia, it will direct the local ISP to remove it.
If the "prohibited content" is hosted outside Australia, the ABA will notify the suppliers of approved filters of the content in accordance with the Internet Industry Association's code of practice. The Australian Internet Industry has a list of 16 approved filters. The criteria for selecting these filters include ease of installation, ease of use, configurability, ability for updates in respect of content to be filtered, and availability of support. Effectiveness is not included in the selection criteria. The filtering software is offered to consumers, but is not compulsory.
Testing by Computer Choice (September/October 2000) found that inocuous content, such as medical sites, were often blocked while some adult content passed through the filter. For example, iFilter blocked several Biblical sites, a family and child mediation service approved by the Australian Federal Attorney-General, the Institute of Australasian Psychiatrists, and information about Catholics helping street kids. Apparently technology is no substitution for parental supervision.<
Aside from costing Australians 2.7 million Australian dollars per year and making their country the laughingstock of the free world, the legislation has had minimal effect. Despite the multitude of pornography sites on the internet, there was no pent-up demand to shut them down; within six months of introducing of the legislation, the ABA received only 201 complaints about Internet content. By the end of June 2000, 197 investigations had been concluded. Of these, 37 were terminated due to lack of information (for example, the details provided with the complaint were insufficient to locate the content). Of the remaining 160 completed investigations, 93 resulted in the location of prohibited or potentially prohibited content, while 67 were found not to contain prohibited content. Around one third of complaints related to content hosted in Australia.
The prohibited content included content hosted in Usenet newsgroups, which is treated as content hosted in Australia if the complainant has accessed the content from his or her ISP's newsgroup server. The ABA issued final take-down notices for 62 postings of Internet content and referred 94 items to the makers of approved filters. Of the 62 items of Internet content that were the subject of take-down notices, at least 17 were later moved to ISPs outside Australia. (ABA Annual Report 2000-2001). So approximately one-third of the offensive websites were simply relocated to servers outside of Australia.
In summary, filtering software products are ineffective, and Australia cannot control websites hosted outside its borders. The government won the approval of a few moralists who were happy that "something has been done" about online smut, whether or not the measures had any real effect.
However, a dangerous precedent has been set, and it is entirely possible that the categories of prohibited Internet content will be expanded in the future to ban political websites which threaten "Australian values".
Incidents of this nature occured almost immediately after the introduction of the censorship legislation.
In a 2001 case, Victoria anarchist Matthew Tayor was prosecuted by the Australian Federal police at the behest of the FBI after posting threatening statements inspired by Jim Bell's "Assassination Politics" on websites in Ohio and California.
In 2002, NSW Police Minister Michael Costa wrote to the Australian Communications Minister, Richard Alston, and Justice Minister, Chris Ellison, requesting that 3 anti-WTO websites (including Melbourne Indymedia) be shut down or that access to them be restricted. Costa claimed the sites were providing information "designed to aid the violent disruption of the forthcoming WTO meeting in Sydney in November". Alston labelled the sites "insidious, anti-democratic and interested in causing violence, mayhem and anarchy".
Alston referred the matter to the Australian Broadcasting Authority, which cleared Melbourne IndyMedia and Sydney anti-WTO s11.org website of any wrongdoing. The ABA concluded that grassroots news and activist websites were operating within the law and that their rhetoric did not reach a "threshold" of inciting violence. Costa then declared "we will be doing everything we can to pursue it internationally". However, Indymedia is a large network of independently-hosted international sites, so further action proved impossible.
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), an online civil liberties organization, has described the Federal Government's online censorship legislation as a failure, and recommended that Internet censorship legislation "...be repealed and the costly and failed Internet regulatory apparatus be dismantled."
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