I’m a keen student of human nature…comparing people from different cultures, especially with regard to how they tackle problems.
Here’s a hard truth I feel compelled t state: I’ve found many Nigerians/Africans unwilling to actively apply their mental abilities to solve everyday problems they face in the physical realm.
Our Culture Influences Our Attitudes Towards Thinking Up Lasting Solutions to Problems
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If you’re a Farm CEO or independent professional (e.g. experts-who-speak
and consultants in various fields) looking to cost-effectively reach potential buyers, an intelligent Web Marketing System(WMS) can help you.
This article outlines key elements that comprise such a system …including my special service offer to support YOU!
I’ll tell you.
First, let me say that further down I tell you how to request a PDF download about my offer to help you get started, and also teach you to carry on by yourself.
When you go through it, you’ll be shocked to discover that my offer effectively lets you eat your cake, and still have it!
Now, I’ll explain those key elements you need in your arsenal, to achieve Web Marketing success…
So, you definitely need a website. But let me tell you this.
It’s not just any kind of website.
First it must NOT be a static html based one. Secondly, it must be dynamic and database driven.
And thirdly, it must be user friendly, to the extent that a novice owner can quickly learn to make most content updates and modifications to it, without help, once s/he has been taught how.
Remember this: Stay away from bells and whistles!
You see, functionality (what you want the website to do for you) must be the main determinant of the shape/form you choose to give your website.
Today’s serious minded and smart buyers pay bells and whistles little attention. They know something better can turn up tomorrow – even from a high school kid. And they know it’s rarely a sign of quality, and credibility. Even scam websites look better than some authentic corporate websites!
A better way to impress is to offer useful content on a regular basis.
That’s the core of web marketing success. Indeed marketing success generally!
That’s why I offer all clients a FREE WYSIWYG based dynamic/database driven website, charging a fee for only the content copy writing.
If you pay for 3 or more years hosting with my CB Solutions web hosting platform, and you request it, I will build your website for you, using a powerful CMS (either Joomla! or WordPress) that allows YOU manage it yourself.
And you’ll also get the content copywriting at no charge.
View Business & Pro hosting plans here….
Article writing is at the heart of today’s credibility boosting web marketing.
Ultimately, nothing else beats it as a means to achieving the end of timeless marketing that attracts sales leads to you, even while you sleep.
You’re reading this right now, NOT because you saw an advert I paid for somewhere on or off the web.
Like many thousands of other readers who follow my work online, you most likely found me via the trail of my past writings, syndicated via social media, on other websites, and/or thrown up in search engine results pages.
Some people spend good money to get similar exposure. But after their money "expires", their "visibility" also diminishes as well.
In my case, and the case of those smart others who use this strategy, what we publish online stays there, and keeps getting found by others.
Our names become more recognized over time, and this confers an authority status on us, that boosts the credibility of the solutions we offer.
If you adopt a similar strategy, you will reap the same, or even better rewards.
This is related to 2. above.
But this time you’ll be writing to further cement the credibility you earn with those who read your articles and sign up for your newsletter.
Your newsletter should ideally be branded with a unique name that accurately describes what you do, and how it benefits those you want to sell to, or influence.
Even more important, for this and item 2. above, is that you must convey the impression of consistency by following a regular schedule in implementing these 2 strategies.
Otherwise, those you seek to attract may struggle to buy into you, for the long term. And you do need that to happen to ensure selling success!
Again, I offer to help those who signup for my offer.
For the 1st 3 months: I will create & subsequently publish YOUR branded monthly HTML e-mail newsletter using an automated mailing list software.
This is crucially important.
You need a blog to act as your mouthpiece – Your PR manager, if you will.
This is where your "news" and latest updates, and ideas will be published from.
In other words, your articles and newsletter will ideally be deployed from this platform.
But you’ll also need to link it to your other online self-promotion channels (e.g. Google plus, Facebook, Twitter etc).
Where possibly, you will set them up to be be automatically updated from the blog, anytime you add new content. That will save you time, and effort and boost your content syndication efforts dramatically.
I call this "implementing blog content driven, zero cost search engine optimization and social media marketing to make potential customers contact YOU."
No problem.
I can collaborate with you and/or anyone you assign from your team, to write, publish & syndicate articles online in YOUR name.
All you need do is signup for my Web Marketing for CEOs offer. Details further down.
This service is NOT open to groups or large organizations (e.g. educational or religious institutions, or social clubs etc).
Instead, Farm CEOs, and independent professionals (especially experts-who-speak, consultants and solopreneurs in various fields) are the main target audience.
a. Give You Free Web Marketing Coaching
I will prepare for you – and coach you to use – a PDF Web Marketing Plan (think of it as a Biz Plan for your online presence) written and customized specially for you/your company, so you can continue your web marketing after I leave.
b. Send you a Weekly Web Marketing TIPS Newsletter
You will get a LIFETIME subscription to my new Web Marketing for CEOs TIPS newsletter – delivered ONLY to web marketing clients/club members."
I DO NOT sell subscription to this resource.
c. Give You a Lifetime 50% Discount to my Products/Services
After the first 3 months (in which I do 2, 3 and 4 for you) expire, you will FOREVER be able to purchase all my products/services at 50% off.
In case you’re wondering…the products/services include:
(a). Items 2 to 4 above…
(b). My Custom Excel-VB driven software e.g. Payslip Generator; Biz Contacts Manager; Invoice Generator, Poultry Farm Manager etc (but excluding my Feed Formulation products).
(c). My Cost-Saving Best Practice Farm Business Support Services (e.g. the BOPMS for Profitable Farm Management)
(d). My information products at www.lulul.com/sdaproducts (but excluding my Feed Formulation Handbook).
You’ll simply note down those you want, and send me your request.
Answer: I want MORE people to KNOW me. I also want MORE web hosting clients – who will REAP web marketing profits, THEN tell others about what I DO for them!
Click here to send me a request for my PDF offer which contains full details.
My reason for doing this is to further boost my name recognition as a Performance Improvement Specialist in the area of Web Marketing Systems development and implementation.
The LOW entry fee is designed to make it easier for as many as may need support, to come on board..
However, this is NOT an all comers club. Not everyone who indicates interest, and says s/he is ready to pay will be accepted by me.
I WILL therefore have a serious discussion with EACH person who indicates interest, to decide if I can work with him/her.
If my gut tells me you’re unlikely to be willing/able to meet me halfway, to achieve the goals we agree, I won’t take you on.
And that’s also why the offer is ONLY open to a limited number of people at a time.
It’s possible some people will be able to take what I’ve said above and run with it, to achieve their desired goals.
If you’re able to do that, my congratulations to you – and do let me have some feedback on how you get on 
Incidentally, this is not the first time I’m writing about all this.
But it is the first time I’m making an offer of this kind.
And that’s because what I see suggests most people still do NOT get it!
So, if you’re one of the many I have over time come to discover need support to get it done (and there is NOTHING wrong with needing support), then the offer I’ve made here is for you.
Starting today 30th May 2014, I began sending a time limted demo EXE version of my popular Excel-VB driven Ration Formualator, to susbcribers who’d submitted requests at www.tayosolagbade.com for it.
To give other interested persons an idea of what they got, I publish below a verbatim text of the message they got. If you want a trial, simply fill/submit this form now.
===Message Starts===
As promised in the autoresponse you received when you signed up to access my downloads page (see your submission below this email), find below, the download link to the Excel-VB Ration Formulator demo:
<Download URL here removed>
Download and unzip it to a preferred location.
A small workbook named “RF-Export.xls” comes with it. Make sure that workbook and the PDF userguide mentioned below, are placed in the same location as the app.
Click the link below, to download a zipped folder (RF-pix-guides.zip) which contains 4 JPEG screenshot based quick instructional guides, that you can study to quickly get started using the app.
<Download URL here removed>
NB: You can still watch the demonstration videos (like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99xm1EQJJdo) on my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/TKSolagbadeSDAc
IMPORTANT:
Remember that this is a limited time demo version. It is NOT an MS Excel workbook – even though it opens into MS Excel!
As you will see when you unzip the folder, it is an EXE app. You will therefore NOT need to enable macros in Excel to use it.
Note that it starts counting three (3) days from tomorrow. By the end of the 3rd day, it will stop working.
Let me know if you have any problems downloading the files, or you need any help, or require further clarification.
Should you decide you’d like to purchase the unlimited use app, I can be reached via this email, or using the contact information provided below.
With kindest regards,
Tayo K. Solagbade*
Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist
*Sole Agent For Burt Dubin’s Speaker Mentoring Service In Africa
Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic)
http://www.tayosolagbade.com
===Message Ends===
That’s it.
After years of sending out the MS Excel Workbook version, I now offer interested buyers the EXE version which is not only more secure, but also does NOT require the hassle of “enabling macros”. And that’s in addition to being more tamper-proof!
As has always been the case, ALL buyers of this app will get future upgrade versions/improvements sent to them at no charge. So you only pay once.
Once again, if you’d like the demo sent to you, fill/submit this form now. Alternatively, for details of how to purchase the unlimited app, visit my Cost-Saving Farm Business Ideas website at http://www.iff.tayosolagbade.com and click on Feed Formulation.
I LOVE results focussed business owners. And I’ve found Livestock Farm CEOs especially fit that description better than most other business owners I’ve worked with.
For instance, within hours of purchasing my Feed Formulation Handbook and Software, a few days ago, a new (Jos, Plateau state – based) buyer called to ask how he could safely use Blood Meal to boost protein content of rations he formulates.
He wanted to know if collecting and using raw blood directly from an abbatoir he’d visited would be okay…
I quickly explained that raw blood was not the same as blood meal. The latter is a product derived from the former, via certain processing steps. If the former is used without such processing, a great danger of passing infection to one’s animals exists.
That’s apart from negative effects on physical compounding of the ration.
I was however in a meeting with a Piggery farm business consultant, inside the Berger branch of Tantalizers Fast Food restaurant, when his call came in. So I promised to compile some notes with more detailed explanations, and email to him later on.
Hi H<name removed for privacy>,
It took me a while to get back to you on this, because my client – the Director of a Private University here in Cotonou – called AFTER I purchased the domain name and hosting for their university’s website that they paid for, and asked that I help build it as well. So, I’ve suddenly had to take on additional tasks, as they want the project started immediately.
Anyway, I think I’ve now compiled enough relevant page excerpts that you can study to get a feel for how blood is obtained and used for making blood meal.
===
1. http://www.feedipedia.org/node/221
This website discussed features of blood meal, and provides a description of the process that is entailed in producing this high animal protein content feed ingredient.
2. http://ingredients101.com/bloodmeal.htm (BLOOD MEAL, WHOLE)
This website offers a description of a more sophisticated procedure for processing blood into blood meal. This involves the use of equipment such as on-site cooling tanks, which have in-built agitators to stop the blood coagulating.
And then in the final stage, a centrifuge is used to separate out foreign matter from the blood, before it is sent through a “disintegrator” which removes any remaining extraneous bodies after which it is subjected to “spray drying”. Some details about how the finished product is bagged and stored are also mentioned.
Something you may find interesting is a chemical composition analysis result table published on that page. It confirms the fact that blood meal is a very good source of Lysine, a key amino acid for ration formulation.
3. http://msucares.com/pubs/bulletins/b1041.htm
In addition to also describing Blood Meal, and what it is made from, this third website makes interesting references to different animal rations in which blood meal is known to be used.
The feed mill in Oko Oba, Lagos, where I conduct practical Feed Formulation & Compounding Training for Farm Owners who sign up for it, to the best of my knowledge does NOT sell Blood Meal.
And I have never heard any of the numerous customers that come there to make bagged feeds request for it.
It would appear most people would rather avoid the risk of using ready made ones or the hassle of making their own.
Neither issue however stops anyone willing to do it right from going ahead and succeeding. So if it appeals to you, just take the needed precautions and do it.
Usually 5%, to an upper limit of 10% is what I have seen used.
This is mainly because apart from its tendency to pre-dispose the resulting feed to quicker deterioration (being a rich medium for microbes to grow), blood meal also tends to reduce palatability as it’s inclusion level (usage) is increased in a ration.
The reactions will of course vary from one animal group to another. That goes without saying.
Which is why I always encourage farmers to use what they read or are told by support specialists (like me!) ONLY as a guide.
FIRST try it out on a micro/pilot case. Possibly by isolating a few animals and trying out the new ration to see how they respond, before deciding to use it across farm.
That’s the way it’s done ALL over the world.
Like I keep trying to tell as many Farm CEOs as will listen: You do NOT need a PhD in Agricultural research to conduct trials on YOUR farm.
All you need it guidance to proceed intelligently, so you can get RELIABLE results.
I offer that guidance via my Best Practice Support Solutions, to those who take up my offer.
As long as you’re careful, and painstaking, you should eventually find out what works best for your animals.
[UPDATE: 16th August 2023 – Click HERE to download PRINT-READY PDF version of this article.
The approach described in this article can help you find buyers for ANYTHING you sell, at low to zero cost. And your domain name would NOT really matter.
Incidentally, one group of people I believe BADLY need this kind of solution are Farm Business Owners.
Why?
Because what they sell is often produced at a cost that leaves them relatively small margins to play with in fixing their selling prices, compared to counterparts in other industries. What’s more, most farm owners still do not know how to use the web in conjunction with offline effortsm they make, to generate profitable sales!
If the above describes you, then I urge you to read this article right till the end.
The ideas and strategies I teach, cover both online and offline marketing channels. They are unusual, but tried and tested…
“Tayo, get your head out of the American clouds, and bring yourself back down to the Nigerian earth.”
Actually no one ever said those exact words to me. But a good number spoke in tones that strongly suggested the same thing
Only my experience based conviction kept me from making the mistake of listening to them.
I’ve now arrived at a stage where potential buyers of solutions I offer readily use my name, to find me and my solutions. I say this based on years of carefully studying the trends and patterns relating to sales leads that bring subscribers and buyers to me through the different online channels I employ.
Just today, yet another enquirer contacted me via www.tayosolagbade.com – which he found via a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
That’s why – as I explained in recent articles – I refused to buy back my 9 year old domain (www.spontaneousdevelopment.com) that got taken over .
In the past, such loss of a domain often meant certain death for online brands.
Back then, in the 90s especially, people spent thousands of dollars protecting and buying back their domains from “thieves” who snatched them up on expiry, if the owner delayed or did not have protective lock on it.
But today – with the exception, possibly of a person’s name – things have changed a lot.
The age of the domain name also matters…but NOT as much as the QUALITY of the content provided…AND the creativity with which it is presented in multiple formats (e.g. video, graphics, text, audio etc) and deployed via key online channels.
Anyone who knows how to do the above consistently will find success in using the web to market his/her offerings to target audiences.
Think about it. I’m sure Google and other search engines are simply too smart to let themselves make the mistake of placing too much weight on domain age.
It’s just like I’ve written in the past about work-related experience of employees. Forget how long you’ve been on the job. Focus instead on the value you’ve added during that period.
Imagine Richard Branson decided to launch a blog about angel investors, and the kinds of businesses they would be interested in supporting.
But there’s one thing: He decides to deliberately do this anonymously!
How well do you think that new website would fare if Branson chose NOT to publicly link himself with it?
Some people would say not as well as it would if he told every one he was the owner.
I argue that it would matter little or none at all, IF the website delivers QUALITY to its target audience.
Let’s say Branson hires a virtual assistant to post weekly updates about a “group” of featured angel investors, and what they are looking to invest in.
Branson also gives him/her tips about what to say, and how to say it.
But ALL the content is published is under a “Pen Name” that visitors cannot link back to Branson.
What is likely to happen, is people will read and respond to the website’s contents possibly via comments and also sending emails or web form submissions.
Even the media would not fall over themselves to report the arrival of the blog, or its evolution.
The blog would therefore have to survive on its own merit for the most part.
Based on the above scenario, a passionate audience of business owners looking for “friendly” source of financing and support for their businesses/ideas, is what will make the blog grow in followership.
I believe iIt’s the relentless creative publishing, and propagation of information, and featured opportunities, that visitors to the blog perceive as useful and/or potentially rewarding.
That’s what would keep them coming back while also telling others to do so!
Eventually, search engines will follow the human traffic to the blog, and indexed relevant pages…
From then on, and for as long as it continues churning out useful content, search engine traffic to it would climb rapidly.
The key to cost-effective, long term web marketing success is to get yourself found via NATURAL search engine results and other non-sponsored channels.
At least that is my preferred approach.
I favour a long term investment of time, effort, and creativity, in populating the Internet, with timeless marketing content (i.e. that NEVER stops sending you quality leads) over any paid strategies.
It’s just that what I sell, and the part of the world I sell from, make this preferred approach of mine more profitable that it would otherwise be.
For each of us, careful assessment of our circumstances will often determine what will best serve our needs. I will however add that this method I favour is one used by many highly successful experts across the world that I have closely studied and related with. They all confirm it delivers superior long term, and cost effective benefits.
Are you considering paying for coaching or mentoring to develop a new skill or ability?
If yes, know that no matter how good your “teacher” is, YOUR attitude towards what you’re taught is what will ultimately determine how well you learn.
This is important. Think about it for a minute or so. If you wanted to teach someone to do something you already know how to do e.g. drive a car, use a computer etc – imagine how encouraged you would be if everyday that you meet your student he/she shows impressive evidence (via performance) of having mastered most – if not all – of the things you covered the day before!
Would’nt you LOVE to be a teacher to THAT kind of student? Would’nt you be encouraged to teach more of what you know without fear of it being too much for him/her to cope with?
I would, and I know many other people would too! So, the challenge is for you display your enthusiasm to learn what your teacher is teaching you, and you will win a formidable ally (in your teacher) who will make it a personal mission to see that you achieve the objective you set for yourself.
This was exactly what I succeeded in doing with my French teacher, in 1999, when I enrolled for private coaching classes in his Benin city, Edo state based language school.
He took a personal interest in me, going out of his way to arrange stay for a 3 week period with his family in Douala and Yaoundé in Cameroon.
Yes, my teacher was Cameroonian. Today, he runs an NGO back in Cameroon.
In order to show continuous enthusiasm for something you do, you must have deep interest (and take delight) in doing it. It’s pretty difficult to feign enthusiasm!
So, check yourself and be honest in your assessment if you find you are not on fire about learning the language, dont even bother to start!!
What I did was aim to exceed my teachers expectation in every way possible.
For instance, when we had a class, I ensured I committed my fullest attention to him for the usually 3 to 4 hour stretch of time we had.
After classes, I would often stay back to listen to other classes plus sometimes I would go with him to meet his fellow teachers in other institutions who would often only speak French when together.
Then I would present my efforts to him at a later date. With time, this helped build my vocabulary.
My attitude made him search for additional books, literature and videotapes from many sources (including some produced by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs!) for me to use.
Now, if I had not shown such dedicated interest, I doubt that he would have bothered to go to all that trouble in the first place!
I say this based on over 3 decades of personal experience and achievement, as an adult learning from all sorts of people – including one expert I paid, who was less than forthcoming in delivering what was agreed.
Today, you are reading this article on my flagship blog that I built using self-taught skills, because I used my passion to drive myself to learn what I needed, in spite of him!
Many adults today make the mistake of assuming when they pay a coach or mentor, s/he will then magically transform them into geniuses, and champions.
But no. It never works that way.
In reality, you will have to work hard to learn, under the guidance of your coach or mentor.
And – unless you hire an incompetent coach – how long it takes to succeed, will very often depend on how hard you’re prepared to push yourself.
And THAT is a secret unknown to many, whi2h makes them fail, and then blame the coach?
Enquiries from livestock Farm CEOs regarding my Best Practice Farm Business Solutions continue to reach me – despite the recent loss of my domain. But I’ve noticed consistently, that most of them started out using haphazard methods to formulate rations for their animals.
Usually, they contact me using my website’s contact form or sometimes via email.
However, more recently, an increasing number of them are getting across to me via Facebook.
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If you’ve been following me online before May 2014, you most likely will want to know why I moved my website to www.tayosolagbade.com.
My first online presence was located on the primary domain www.spontaneousdevelopment.com. And I built it up over a period of 9 years to one that generated high value income generating sales leads that won me clients within and outside Africa.
On 1st April 2013, I began traveling slowly across West Africa as a Location Independent Multipreneur, sharing updates on this blog.
But on 4th May 2014, my 9 year old domain was taken over and made inactive by Aplus.net – a web host that I moved my website from 2 years ago, in protest about VERY base service and support they were giving me.
THIS (i.e. http://tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets – see screenshot), is the “reincarnated” Self-Development (SD) Nuggets blog, to which I just successfully installed the MAIN database containing over 630 posts, on my new domain: TayoSolagbade.com.
So this was not the first time I was getting a raw deal from that company.
Click here to continue reading…
Quick Take Away: This article was first published online in 2006. It is based on a true occurrence on my former primary domain – spontaneousdevelopment.com – which got taken over on 4th May 2014 by Aplus.net . Now that I’ve successfully relaunched my website on tayosolagbade.com, re-publishing this article on my new primary domain, I believe, will help those who read my writing understand that these things CAN – and do – happen. So we must simply learn from them and MOVE ON to better heights!
On Tuesday 20th June 2006, I discovered that a hacker exploited a site recommendation script I installed 3 days earlier(!), to send out spam email from my website, causing my web host to take it offline for 7 days i.e. up till Wednesday 28th June 2006 a.m. If you own a website, and are trying to build online credibility towards doing legitimate business, you may (want to?) know how damaging this kind of attack can be – and what you can do to protect yourself.
Incidentally, no matter how big or small your website is, spam robots will come to it – and hackers will test your website for loopholes they can exploit to launch spam attacks – so you must learn latest security concerns and take preventive action to protect yourself.
If you think it can never happen to you, let me warn you: that’s exactly what I thought, UNTIL I made the slip which allowed a spam artist drive a massive “spam mail truck” through my website!
In this article, I offer you an insight into my personal experiences and learnings, plus provide URLs (some sent to me by the support department of my web host – others I found through my own subsequent research) leading to useful advice from experienced webmasters, and professionals with proven competence in this area.
It was the evening of Friday 16th June 2006, and I was rounding up the updates on my websites, when I decided to search online for and install another site recommendation script on my website in place of the one that for some reason I could not fathom, continued to return a “500 – Internal Server Error”. The Google search results page threw up a slew of referral scripts offerings from various authors – some free, others for sale. At this time I was just keen to test and see if I could get one to work on the site.
Soon I settled for one called “The PCman Website Refer a Friend”. Within minutes, I had it installed and running. One thing I did not do, and which I would advise (based on the benefit of painful hindsight) ANYONE who uses third party scripts on his/her site to do, is to check and confirm the programmer has taken pains to secure the script code against exploitation (Specific details/links to URL resources on how to go about this provided further down).
Note: It was only after the event, and following prompts from my hosts, that I checked and found the PCManrefer script had inadequate security written into the code. The resulting “security hole” was what the hacker later exploited remotely to launch a massive spam attack.
After trying repeatedly, and confirming I was using the correct password, I decided to try logging in to my webmail – so as to send an email to the support department for assistance.
This presented a problem as well. Each time, I tried, I got a message like “Dropped by ISMAP server”. Now quite alarmed, I decided to type the URL to my website – http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com. My worst fears came to pass – The browser printed a “Page Not Found” message in bold! At this point, I promptly went to my host’s website and initiated a chat session with the operator.
The following chat conversation took place:
—–start of chat session——
<operator name deleted>: Hello! How may I help you?
<operator name deleted>: hi
Visitor42152: Hi
Visitor42152: I cannot login to my webmail or access my entire website
Visitor42152: MY reg no is <number deleted>
<operator name deleted>: We are writing to inform you that during the past 30 minutes your web hosting account (username = deleted) has sent 625 messages to the email subsystem of the hosting server. This is in violation of our terms of services, and as such, any websites
<operator name deleted>: belonging to that account have been taken offline.
<operator name deleted>: In order to reactivate your account you will need to contact our support department and agree not to abuse our servers again. Any further incidents like this will cause our system to remove your account completely and without warning
Visitor42152: I am working from a cyber cafe I normally do not use though it’s close to my home
Visitor42152: I am certain this is due to activities of email spammers who use the same ISP as these guys
<operator name deleted>: send an email to <email deleted>
Visitor42152: How long will it take to resolve this?
<operator name deleted>: 6 -12 hours
—End of chat session——
Well, I did not get it resolved in 12 hours. In fact, by the time I was finished exchanging emails with the support department, I learnt my account would be suspended for 7 days, with the warning that if it happened again, my account would be reconsidered for termination without notice.
Below, I reproduce the exact text of the explanation given by my host’s Abuse Department, when I requested for details that could help me understand how the problem had occurred, and what I could do to prevent a re-occurrence. You will notice that the Perl script I installed (i.e “pcmanrefer.pl”) some days before the problem, was identified by the administrator as one of three found to have poor security built into their code.
— “Aplus.Net Abuse Department” <email deleted> wrote (I have re-arranged – but NOT edited – the text for readability):
> Hello,
> Basically the attack is performed on scripts that trust the information that the submitter enters and are therefore easily exploitable. You can refer to these two documents that describe in details this very specific attack:
> http://www.anders.com/projects/sysadmin/formPostHijacking/
> http://www.nyphp.org/phundamentals/email_header_injection.php
> I have reviewed the spam evidence sent to us and in the headers the subject is different every time which means the script used is taking the input data from the visitor and doesn’t edit it at all:
> Subject: Incredibly undervalued, you’ll not want to miss this opportunity the protracted I have found several such scripts in your FTP space:
> /cgi-bin/mailer/simplemail.pl
> /cgi-bin/mailer/mailer.pl
> /cgi-bin/pcmanrefer.pl
> There might be others that are compromiseable too but you know better the structure of your website and which exactly script is sending the data unchanged. The bottom line is to filter out all input data as suggested in the two articles above.
> Thank you,
> <administrator name deleted>
When I eventually gained access to my server space, I found confirmation that it was indeed the “pcmanrefer.pl” script that had been exploited: Its referral log file (refer-log.txt), had grown to a massive 11.1 Megabytes size(many million bytes up from its 0 bytes size when I uploaded it less than 9 days before)! Opening the file revealed huge volumes of email addresses and message contents, originating from bogus “addresses” at my sub domain e.g.InvestorsWeekly@spontaneousdevelopment.com; my@spontaneousdevelopment.com; stephannie@www.spontaneousdevelopment.com (“who is SHE??”, I said to myself) – and many, many more!
When my hosting account was suspended, my websites could not be visited, nor could I access mails sent to my webmail account at my domain during that seven day period. But that was just one side of it. ALL the short URLs that I had created to point to various sub domains on my main website were put up for removal by the service provider, who placed a bookmark update link on a page leading to the respective home pages – with the following message:
“Due to enormous phishing spam with our sub domains (<domain names listed here deleted>) we will close this short url re-direction. Please update your bookmarks”
One example of a short URL that was affected by this problem is http://www.cbsolutions.v27.net, which I had set to point to cbsolutions.spontaneousdevelopment.com– the mini site for my Creative Business Solutions (CB Solutions) delivery service.
My mind raced back to all the articles I had published at the Ezine articles directory, in which I had used the short URL addresses in the resource box invitation to readers(at the end of the article). A number of those articles carrying the short URLs had been syndicated on other websites, where I would not have access to make changes to them. I realised that it would only be a matter of time before readers of some of my articles would find themselves confronted with a “Page Not Found” browser error, or a general advert page for domain names sales etc – instead of my site: Definitely not good for the image I was trying to build online!
I provide the above details to give you an idea of just how bad this can be – so you can really understand why it would be in your best interest to make sure you never leave yourself open to the extent that this type of problem can affect your website.
I deleted the “pcmanrefer.pl” script, and the other two that were identified by the hosting provider’s administrator (see email above). I also removed another mailing list managment CGI script that I installed a month before.
In a way, I felt like I was taking medicine after death. But at least by this time, I actually had a better idea of WHAT had happened, HOW, and WHY – and what I could do to protect myself for the future.
Next, I visited the URLs emailed to me by my web host. Out of curiosity, I also did a number of searches on Google, to see what else I could learn about “form post hijacking”, and spamming in general.
IMPORTANT NOTES!
1. It would interest you to know that I no longer use a site referral script on my wesbsite. Instead I have developed a simple email recommendation template that anyone who is so keen to tell another about my site can use. Visit http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com/referus.htm to see what I mean. There are many other effective ways to get marketing exposure for a website, and I am currently modifying my website design/marketing strategy to accommodate them. As time goes on, visitors to my website will see ample evidence of this.
2. Some of the resources whose URLs are listed below, were published as far back as 2002, so they might not exactly offer relevant or effective remedies that can be successfully applied today. However, the educational value they offer towards understanding the problem(s), in my opinion, would still make them worth a visit.
So, with that note of warning, I wish you happy reading and good luck in your fight to protect your website against exploitation.
1. Using Apache to stop bad robots | evolt.org – by Daniel Cody
http://www.evolt.org/article/Using_Apache_to_stop_bad_robots/18/15126/
2. Why Some Scripts are dangerous to use on your Website – http://webnet77.com/help/dangers.html
3. http://www.anders.com/cms/75/Crack.Attempt/Spam.Relay – By Anders Brownworth
Interesting Crack Attempt to Relay Spam (Comment: this is actually a precursor to the full article referred to me by my web host titled “Form Post Hijacking – How to solve the problem.”)
4. By Anders Brownworth – Form Post Hijacking – How To Solve The Problem article author
http://www.anders.com/projects/sysadmin/formPostHijacking/
5. http://handsonhowto.com/cgi101.html – A Hands-On How-To(Securing the CGI script section – useful) – from Brass Cannon Consulting
6. WWW Security FAQ: CGI Scripts – http://www.w3.org/Security/Faq/wwwsf4.html -by Lincoln Stein (lstein@cshl.org) and John Stewart (jns@digitalisland.net) – hosted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a service to the Web Community.
7. Stopping Spambots: A Spambot Trap – http://www.neilgunton.com/spambot_trap/
8. How to block spambots, ban spybots, and tell unwanted robots to go … Spamming of referer logs is a growing nuisance:
The Phoenix is a mythical bird. Click here to learn more about it, to understand why I’ve referred to it here, with regard to my re-incarnated website presence :-))
I’m gradually putting finishing touches to the new look website and content at TayoSolagbade.com. It’s now leaner, and smarter!
Many thanks again to those who “forced” my hand by taking over Spontaneousdevelopment.com (click to read the full story about how I lost that 9 year old domain)!
I developed an elaborate Web Marketing System for him in June/July 2013.
I should point out that most of my authentic clients have similar relationships with me. We relate more like FRIENDS, than business associates. And that includes those I have NEVER met in the flesh!
By the time we parted ways he’d told me about 3 projects he wanted me to handle. Two for him. One for a private university he runs with Victor Ogar, his Nigerian partner of many years. All three relate to the Web Marketing based Hosting Service I provide.
He has since paid for 2 of the 3 projects. So, it was not all talk :-))
Think about it. One day my website was gone, some days later, I put a better one up.
All the while, some of my clients would have been watching (including prospective ones!) to see how I would deal with the challenge.
What I’ve now successfully done with TayoSolagbade.com, can only make me look more convincing than ever, with regard to my competence as a Web Marketing Specialist who offers website hosting services!
And it’s likely to make it easier any serious minded person, to choose me over any other provider s/he is considering.
“May you also get to live your dream too!“
And while you’re working at it, remember that no matter how bad it looks or feels, there will always be something better that turns up…IF you do NOT give up.
Having said all the above about my hosting service, it only makes sense that I provide some details for anyone who may be interested.
First, let me state this: My hosting service is VERY targeted.
In reality, I mainly offer it to clients who hire me to develop Web Marketing Systems for them.
The number of plans I offer, and their pricing reflect that. And so it may be difficult to compare the “prices” with what some other web host may offer you!
Below is the link to my Hosting Service website:
You’ll notice that the “WebMarketingforCEOs” plan is NOT listed.
That’s because I reserve it for clients who engage my services in Web Marketing Systems development.
Instead, you’ll see the Business and the Pro hosting plans alongside the “Budget Base” plan.
If you wish to host with me, without taking up my FREE Web Marketing Support offer, I recommend you pick either the Business or the Pro hosting plan.
If you pay for TWO years you get FREE Monthly Web Marketing support from me (details when you contact me). And you’ll also be FREE from worrying about renewing your domain name/hosting for 2 years.
Simple. I’ve seen that my clients’ busy schedules makes web marketing hard for them.
This promo enables me help you, since YOUR website’s success is MY success. By helping your website succeed, I make it easier for you to continue making renewal payments.
