May 2010

May 2010 – Issue #58

WhyPark Teamed with AdSense 

WhyPark and AdSense can be a powerful combination.  You may recall that there was a period where some domains that used WhyPark were banned from Google’s AdSense program. WhyPark scrambled to develop their own ad network, which was greatly strengthened when they were bought by domain parking powerhouse Parked.  My domains that were with WhyPark at that time still won’t show AdSense ads, but new domains that I host with WhyPark usually do show AdSense ads.

I had a few domains that were getting pageviews with parking companies but little income.  These seemed like perfect domains to move to WhyPark. Whenever I move a traffic domain to WhyPark I generally use AdSense for monetization.   So far this experiment is paying off, thanks in part to the content on the pages and the fairly good keyword I am using.  The sites are being ranked in Google for terms related to the theme of the site.  While monetization with WhyPark’s internal feed has improved, I get better results from AdSense in most cases.

Interestingly, others are complaining that Google is de-indexing their sites.  Ads still appear, but the sites are no longer in the Google index.How can you avoid this fate?  

1. Use their premium feed that includes more content.
2. Write at least 1 or 2 original articles (or commission them through WhyPark or Guru.com).
3. Always include a newsfeed on your site that pulls relevant headlines.
4. Modify their template and mix things up a little.  
5. Avoid the temptation to load pages up with extra ads.   

GoDaddy Hosting Compromised

If you have sites hosted with GoDaddy you should probably check on them.  There are numerous reports of GoDaddy sites being attacked with malicious code injected in the sites.  At first it appeared to be a WordPress vulnerability, but Joomla and other sites are also being attacked.  You can read first-hand accounts at NamePros and at the WordPress.org forum. Please note that this does not affect you unless you use their hostingservices.  Domains registered at GoDaddy are still safe if you are pointing the domains elsewhere, such as a parking company.

A poster at WordPress.org posted the following “official” response from GoDaddy (although I was unable to find this on their site):

Timeline of Events:

April 7: Database injections are identified on our WordPress hosted accounts.

Actions: websites are scanned and cleaned and steps are commenced to contain the issue.

April 16: Additional malicious code appears on customers’ website files.

Actions: operations team continues to run scans that identify code and clean customer websites.

April: 18-24: The criminals dynamically inject code on customers’ websites and change signatures each time. The criminals add viruses and/or malware to customers’ sites.

Actions: security and network experts work to contain the infections and prevent additional issues.

April 25-present: Security and network teams confirm that security measures continue to contain the malicious code.

Ongoing: We continue to monitor and implement additional measures as needed to protect our customers. Customers who have not logged in to their sites for at least three weeks are now reporting infections and are being escalated to technical services. The security team confirmed that these are not new cases of infections.

April 7: Database injections are identified on our WordPress hosted accounts.Actions: websites are scanned and cleaned and steps are commenced to contain the issue.

April 16: Additional malicious code appears on customers’ website files.Actions: operations team continues to run scans that identify code and clean customer websites.

April: 18-24: The criminals dynamically inject code on customers’ websites and change signatures each time. The criminals add viruses and/or malware to customers’ sites.Actions: security and network experts work to contain the infections and prevent additional issues.

April 25-present: Security and network teams confirm that security measures continue to contain the malicious code.

Ongoing: We continue to monitor and implement additional measures as needed to protect our customers. Customers who have not logged in to their sites for at least three weeks are now reporting infections and are being escalated to technical services. The security team confirmed that these are not new cases of infections.