Stealing Testimonials, Photos, Text

[DJMC]

hehehe ---NOT ME

this has been happening alot lately. DJs do a "Google search" with key phrases from their customer letters in "quotes", only to find 2 or 3 sites using these same letters in their own web pages.

This is EXACTLY why I don't trust "online testimonial pages" when they are sited on the same domain as the vendor (too easily faked).

For this reason, I resisted putting up customer letters (by scanning or otherwise) since if I think people are faking them, my potential customers might think the same way.

Enter CITY SEARCH (www.citysearch.com)

currently the 3rd largest directory of its kind on the Internet (owned by Ticketmaster, Inc--not AOL as I originally thought)

I got myself a 'free listing' at CitySearch.com

It took about 3-4 months before they got around to calling me to verify my business info.

After the phone call, my listing went up in about 7 days.

I then proceeded to e-mail all of my most recent clients, asking them to post their comments 'verbatim' online. 8 of 12 have complied with my request, giving me an average Customer Service Score of 9.7

One of the 'accolades' was deleted on my request (a '10' from a fellow Wedding Vendor), as it was inappropriate to have a Vendor that I am doing business with to be making positive reviews--I think its called Conflict Of Interest. Leaving me with 7 excellent reviews, for parties done in the months of October, November, and December 2002.

When your score exceeds 7.9 or higher, CitySearch gives your business a "Best Of" designation, with a big Icon that distinguishes your business from the rest of the pack.

All of my potential customers are given a link to my "References Page at CitySearch.com":
http://sacramento.citysearch.com/profile/35697896/

since this program was initiated (about 8 weeks ago) my requests from customers to "audition" me have dropped to almost nil.....Its become alot easier to sell w/o a pre-sale meeting, because all potential clients see this "Consumer Report" on DJMC.

PS: alot of the "10" ratings were attained by throwing in some free "spin and pukes" at some November/December holiday parties. Some were attained because of my very talented offspring!

[ January 14, 2003, 12:29 PM: Message edited by: djmaine ]

[Jim Casey]

I looked after I saw Bryan's post on this and so far no thievery from my site...yet.

I am aware and watching

[Bryan Durio]

I just don't get why someone with such a professional-looking website would stoop to stealing someone else's accolades. Well, on the other hand, if they suck so bad that they can't get any clients to write nice things about them...!

[DJMC]

which is why I waited until I stumbled on the CitySearch idea.

Last nite, my host told me "I'M TELLING EVERYONE ABOUT YOU AND YOUR LOVELY DAUGHTER!!!"

I said: "You CAN really do this, I'm sending you the link to CitySearch where you can post an online review!"

[Jim Casey]

Someone stole DJ Ed's

Ed's Seniors party photo
http://www.edsdjservice.com/senior.jpg

This clown DJ Delight's
http://djdelights.com/photos.htm

[Wolfie]

Matt, of all people I never expected to see you posting over here. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

At any rate, there may be something we can do to stop website thievery. I recall reading a post awhile back where the poster said he had set up a password-only function on his site. Information that would only be of interest to serious clients needed a 4-digit passcode to access.

His email link was there for prospective clients to use to obtain a temporary password to access his music library listing and referrals. Also, they could call his office for a password as well. As I recall, the passcode was good for 24 hours only.

It's not wholly foolproof, I agree but it may discourage some of the crooks.

[BillyT]

I use the "No Right Click" javascript on my site. Although it's not totally foolproof I'm sure it will fend off some crooks. I also use frames, so when you view the page source the index frame always shows up.

Enjoy!

[Jim Casey]

You could watermark your pictures as well...

That way, your DJ company name always shows in the pictures

[DJMC]

Wolfie.....hehehe....its all good!

Does anybody know where I can get some "Real Audio" samples or MP3 samples of popular songs. I don't need the whole song (I want this to be legal).

Just some "clips" of songs. Even better would be a legal "mixtape" (I would give credit to the artist along with a link back to their site).

[Farenheit? Are you listening? hehe]

Anyway, I'm pretty much everywhere these days and you'll find that I reveal some of my best "net secrets" on this board since its less likely that local competitors will read it.

[Wolfie]

Hi Billy,

A right-click disabler code may stop down the average 'puter user... but they're just a minor inconvenience to experienced users. They also won't stop screen rippers like Paint Shop Pro.

Also, some codes work with Internet Exploder but not Nutscrape. DJ Dennis has written a disabler code that is supposed to work with all browsers. I haven't tried it yet.

Matt, I know of a couple of sites that contain songs in WAV format... but the sound quality is so poor I'd avoid using them. Some of the e-greeting card sites contain WAV and MIDI files as well.