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An Interview with Scam Detectives

Posted by Fiona Monks

10 Mar 2011 in BT Tradespace blog, Expert advice, Featured Tradespacers

A recent survey published by VISA and the US National Cyber Security Alliance said that 85% of small business owners think that they are at less risk of being targeted by cyber-criminals than big firms, and 50% of those interviewed said that what risk there is doesn’t justify the cost of securing their business.

Charles Conway, web designer and editor of scam awareness website Scam Detectives doesn’t agree. He believes that small businesses are actually more at risk of being ripped off.  That’s why he’s launched a new book exposing the methods used by hi-tech criminals to part hard working business owners from their cash, giving practical advice and tips on how you can secure your IT systems, train your staff and arm yourself with the knowledge to outwit the scammers.

We had a chat with Charles about how he came to launch Scam Detectives, the idea behind the book, and some of the online risks faced by businesses in today’s Global online marketplace.

Scam Detectives has become a hugely popular website, what prompted you to build the website in the first place?

The website started, as many projects do, with a throwaway comment. My wife came home from work one day telling me about a colleague who had bought a load of Christmas presents online but hadn’t received them. It became obvious that her friend had no idea what to look for when shopping online.  “Why don’t you build a website to help people like her” said Christine.  A month later I launched Scam Detectives and the rest, as they say, is history!” We’re now attracting over 5,000 readers every week.

I’m sure many Tradespacers would like to know how you’ve attracted so many readers to a site that’s only been online for just over a year. What’s your secret?

There’s no “magic bullet” but I’ve been very lucky.  The media has taken a real interest in what we’re doing, and I’ve appeared on a number of radio shows talking about current scams and giving advice on how Internet users can stay safe. Back in July, Scam Detectives was shortlisted for a Nominet Internet Award in the “making the Internet safer” category alongside BeatBullying, The Vodafone Parent’s Guide, E-Crime Wales and the Business Crime Reduction Partnership, which was a fantastic achievement for such a new project.  We’ve also featured on the BBC news website and have loads of press clippings in our scrapbook!

The online community has also been fantastic, really getting behind Scam Detectives and featuring the content on their own websites and blogs. Twitter and Facebook have played their part too, along with BT Tradespace of course!

What are the major online threats facing business owners right now, and what can they do to protect themselves?

Whilst awareness of scams such as “phishing” and advance fee fraud is growing, people are still falling for them and losing significant amounts of money. Scammers are getting smarter and varying their approach drastically to catch people off-guard, so whilst a business owner may delete an email from an “exiled Nigerian ex-President”, an opportunity to help a foreign firm invest a large amount of money in the UK in return for a hefty commission could be very tempting.

Businesses are now quite used to receiving email enquiries from all over the world, so it’s quite commonplace to be approached by a potential client from the other side of the world, and it’s easy to be blinded by the chance of earning a quick profit and to take these emails at face value.

Corporate Identity Theft seems to be very much on the rise at the moment too, with hacked email accounts being used to place large orders with suppliers which to all intents and purposes seem perfectly legitimate, until the client queries the invoice at the end of the month.

Businesses also need to be very aware of threats to their IT security which could come from within, with naive members of staff accidentally downloading viruses or spyware from social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, incorrectly using email in a way that could expose your business to a fine for breaching data protection, or even using seemingly innocent electronics like mp3 players, smartphones and digital cameras to steal sensitive Company data for their own ends.

The biggest threat however is complacency. The moment a business owner starts to think “But it couldn’t happen to me” is the moment that they become most at risk of being targeted by cybercriminals intent on taking them for a ride.

There’s plenty that business owners can do to protect themselves but the key is education. If you and your staff know what “red flags” indicate a scam, how to recognise dodgy links on social networking sites and what subtle indicators they should be looking for when placing (or receiving) an order online, that’s half the battle.

You’ve just launched a new book aimed at helping businesses to stay safe online. What’s it all about?

The book’s called “Scammers, Spammers & Social Engineers: A Scam Detectives guide to keeping your business safe online”. Basically, it’s the culmination of a year’s work investigating scams and social engineering techniques, talking to victims and scammers alike, to get an inside look at how businesses are targeted, how the scams work and what businesses can do to protect themselves.

Over 8 chapters, the book explores the threats that could emanate from within your own organization, looking at how your own staff could use your IT systems to steal money or sensitive data, or accidentally infect your systems with viruses and malware, the risks of allowing your staff unrestricted access to social media websites, other ways that viruses and malware could infect your systems and some of the scams that could lead to your business losing hard cash or goods to criminals who have no intention of paying you for them, or even land an unwary entrepreneur in serious trouble with the authorities. As well as explaining the techniques used by scammers and hackers, I’ve outlined some practical, inexpensive steps that any business can take to protect their systems and train their staff to be more security conscious.

Now you’ve got the book launched, what are your plans for developing the Scam Detectives project over the next year?

We have a lot of exciting stuff in the pipeline.  I’m already writing my second book, which will look at scams that target consumers, and we’re very close to launching a suite of resources for primary schools to teach kids about how they can use the Internet safely, which has been trialled successfully in one school already.  I’ve had some discussions with a couple of TV production companies and have just agreed to write a regular column in Spain’s largest English language newspaper, Euro Weekly News.

“Scammers, Spammers and Social Engineers: A Scam Detectives guide to keeping your business safe online” is available in paperback for only £9.99 plus P&P or in pdf format for only £7.99
You can buy it from the Scam Detectives website at www.scam-detectives.co.uk, where you’ll also find a huge amount of information about how you, your business and your family can stay safer when using the Internet.


Links:
Clear as Crystal Web Design
http://www.clearascrystal.we.bs
Tradespace: http://clearascrystalwebdesign.bttradespace.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/crystalweb

Scam Detectives
http://www.scam-detectives.co.uk
Tradespace: http://scam-detectives.bttradespace.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scam_detectives
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scamdetectives

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How to manage which products appear on your Business homepage

Posted by Fiona Monks

12 Nov 2010 in BT Tradespace how to guides, How to sell online

Update 22nd July 2011:

Tradespace Storefront is currently closed to new registrations. If you already have a Tradespace Storefront you can continue to manage your shop as normal.

The beauty of BT Tradespace is that as well as offering the powerful ecommerce tools available in your Tradespace Storefront, your customers can also get to know you through your business profile.

Creating an eye-catching Tradespace is a great way to engage with your customers. And one way of achieving that is through the product carousel on your Business Homepage.
First things first, you’ll to have set up enhanced business profile on BT Tradespace and registered for Tradespace Storefront

How do I activate my product carousel?

Your product carousel will automatically appear when you have at least 3 valid products in your store (see below).

How many products can I have in the carousel?

The product carousel will hold up to 9 products in total.

How can I determine which products will be displayed?

The product carousel will display:

  • Items you have selected as featured on your shop homepage
  • Items currently on sale
  • Your 3 most recently added products

But I have lots of products, how will I know which will appear?

If you have a lot of products that fulfil the above criteria, the product carousel will display the most recently updated items in each category.

Therefore your carousel will always display:

  • 3 featured items
  • 3 new items
  • 3 sale items

What if I don’t have enough in each category?

That’s not a problem. If, for example, you don’t have any items on sale we’ll fill up your carousel with either featured or new items.

How frequently will the items in my product carousel change?

The items displayed in your product carousel with change automatically as and when you update your products. So the more frequently you add new items to your store, the more often the items in your carousel will change.

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How to manage which products appear on your Shop homepage

Posted by Fiona Monks

12 Nov 2010 in BT Tradespace how to guides, How to sell online

Update 22nd July 2011:

Tradespace Storefront is currently closed to new registrations. If you already have a Tradespace Storefront you can continue to manage your shop as normal.

Setting up your Our Shop Home Page

Here’s our step by step guide to making your Tradespace Storefront homepage look fantastic.
First of all you’ll need to be logged into Seller Central, which you can access via your ‘My Tradespace‘
Once in Seller Central, the Categories & Pages section is where you can create and customise your home page. The Categories & Pages section provides options that enable you to:

* Provide the introductory text your customers will see when they open the home page
* Add products to the Sale Item Section of the home page
* Add products to the Featured Item Section of the home page
* Choose a highlighted category of products that you would like to show on your home page
* Choose a display image that corresponds to the highlighted category you have selected

To open the Categories & Pages page:

Click the down-arrow next to Store Design and then click Categories & Pages.

To add introductory text to your shop homepage and category pages:

1. Click the down-arrow next to Store Design and then click Categories & Pages.
2. Click in the Introduction text field and enter some text that introduces your site to your customer. Your introduction must be in plain text. You cannot use HTML

3. To format your text, use the formatting buttons located above the text field.

You can add products that you want to feature as sale items by adding products to the Sale Item Section of the home page.

To add a product to the sales items selection:

1. Click the down-arrow next to Store Design and then click Categories & Pages.
2. Under the Sale Item Section, click Add Products. The Assign Products list appears.
3. Use the search tools at the top and bottom of the list to locate the correct page.
4. Select the desired SKU for the product and then click Assign Selected Product

You can add products that you want to show in Tradespace Featured Product results by adding products to the Feature Item Section of the homepage.

To add a product to the feature items selection:

1. Click the down-arrow next to Store Design and then click Categories & Pages.
2. Under the Feature Item section, click Add Products. The Assign Products list appears.
3. Use the options at the top and bottom of the list to navigate to the desired page.
4. Select the desired SKU for the product and then click Assign Selected Products

You can also highlight a particular category that you want to show on your homepage. This includes adding an image to highlight the category you have selected.

To choose a highlighted category:

1. Click the down-arrow next to Store Design and then click Categories & Pages.
2. Under the Highlighted Category section, click Choose a Category. The Select Browse Nodes window appears
3. Select the desired category, and click select node, and then click OK

NOTE: Clicking on the Go to Categorybutton takes you to the Category Page list.

To choose an image to display for the highlight category you selected:

1. Click the down-arrow next to Store Design and then click Categories & Pages.
2. Under the Highlighted Category section, click Choose a Product Image or Upload an Image to choose an image you have previously uploaded or to choose a new image that is stored on your computer. Images display best if they are 160 x 160 pixels. If you want to replace an existing image, use the Remove button to remove the image you currently have displayed for your highlighted category before you add a new one.

3. This module will also display the introductory text for the category you have selected. To add introductory text to a category, select the category from the left hand list and enter text as described above for the Shop homepage

Select Save changes to save the changes you have made.

Then, once you’re happy with how everything looks, you’ll just need to ‘Publish’ your site to make your changes live.

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How to set up a shop on BT Tradespace

Posted by Fiona Monks

3 Nov 2010 in BT Tradespace how to guides, General guides, How to sell online, Managing your Tradespace, Selling online

Update 22nd July 2011:

Tradespace Storefront is currently closed to new registrations. If you already have a Tradespace Storefront you can continue to manage your shop as normal.

Registering for your new Tradespace Storefront is easy.

It’s best to have your business information to hand before you start along with a few product details to get you started.

1. Log in with your username and password.

You’ll need to have an enhanced business profile to add a shop to your Tradespace. This is quick and free to set up, plus we’ve step-by-step instructions to guide you through.

2. Open the shop set-up wizard to begin selling online.

You’ll find this in My Tradespace.

  • Click on ‘Manage my Tradespace’.
  • Go to ‘Our shop’.
  • Click on ‘Set up yout Tradespace Storefront’.

3.  Amazon registration.

The next screen you will see will look like this:

Sign in

If you already sell on Amazon Marketplace (a subscription based service from Amazon that allows you to see on Amazon.co.uk), sign in with your existing username and password. If not, complete the registration section.

4. Complete your business details

Then all you have to do is complete a few business details as prompted on the screens

You’ll need a credit card to register for Tradespace Storefront

This is for two reasons:
1) It helps to verify your identity so we can ensure everything is secure
2) The credit card is used to bill any Final value fees you may have through sales via Tradespace.

You only pay when you make a sale. Storefront is free to set up, with no monthly fees and no listing charges, just a 10% final value fee is applied to all successful sales. But there is a special offer on between now and the end of the year and you will pay no fees at all until after December 31st 2010.

Once you’ve entered all you business details, the next step is to start loading your first products and categories. It can up to 7mins for the Set up wizard to load, so please be patient.

5. Complete the set up wizard

  • Add information to your Shop homepage
  • Load your first few products
  • Create your first categories

You’ll be able to edit these details and add additional information later as well, but it’s a good way to get your shop started. Once you’ve completed the wizard your shop will be created! This can take 15 – 30minutes

6. Ready to launch?

You will receive an email from Amazon confirming your registration with a link to the Seller Central platform from where you can continue to customise your Tradespace Storefront, upload products and create additional categories.  One key thing to do before you launch your store is to set up your Shop homepage.

There are plenty of help documents and tutorials, in ‘Help’ section of Seller Central, you’ll find link to help in the top right of all the pages.

Once you’re happy with the information you’ve loaded you then just need to ‘Launch’ your Shop to ensure it appears on the Tradespace site as soon as we go live. You’ll find the buttons to launch your store on your Seller Central homepage, and also in the ‘Publish’ section.

For more information on categories, product loading and publishing, see the ‘Help’ section within your new Seller Central account.

7. You’re done!

We’re sure you’ll like your new Tradespace Storefront, but if you have any questions please just drop us a line in the BT Tradespace customer service community

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Tips for small business SEO

Posted by Rob Weatherhead

24 Feb 2010 in Announcements, Expert advice, Newsletter articles

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of optimising a website so that it ranks highly in the natural results of the search engines. For many small internet businesses, SEO is essential to generate revenues.

In fact, studies from comScore reveals that 50% of internet purchases are immediately preceded by a search on a search engine, and that 85% of all internet purchases start with a search. Furthermore, it is common knowledge that people searching for services or goods on internet don’t go further than the 2nd or 3rd page of the search results, often no further than the first one. Therefore, it does make sense to make your website rank high, and for many small businesses good rankings are the difference between commercial success and commercial failure.

Set reasonable targets

The first thing you should do when building your SEO strategy is to set your targets. To do that, you need to have an understanding of what internet users are searching for in your field of activity, and how strong the competition is on these searches. Some tools can help you: Google Keyword Tool, Google Insights, Yahoo! Site Explorer (these are not exclusives, just examples). Depending on how many results and how strong the competition is, you’ll know how difficult it will be to rank above them, and therefore how much time and effort you should put in.

  • Beware that SEO is not an easy thing, and often many companies are competing for few places at the top. Hence why it’s important to target not only the most searched keywords but also long tail keywords, for there is less competition.
  • Also remember that achieving good rankings cannot be done overnight, it will often take a few weeks to see an impact, and a few months to achieve your targets.

Focus on the most important ranking factors

Once you’ve set up your targets, you need to start your SEO activity. This splits in two: on-site (optimisation of your website’s content and structure) and off-site (link building).  Given the high volume of work required by SEO, it’s sometimes difficult to do it all. You then need to know what the most important ranking factors are, and focus on these ones for a maximum impact. Here is a list of what is commonly accepted by the SEO community as the most important ranking factors:

  • Page Titles: include your target keywords in your page titles but remember that searchers will view a page title before selecting which website to visit so make it appealing to the user as well as the search engine.
  • Use of headings and sub headings: use H1 and H2 tags for headings and sub headings within a page to help tell the search engines what your content is about.
  • Internal linking and navigation: in order to ensure the search engine crawlers can find the pages of your website and index them accordingly it is important to ensure you website navigation is usable and that where useful you link from one page to another. Navigations built in flash or using images are less accessible for the search engines so you should aim to use a menu system which uses a text link based system for maximum accessibility.
  • File names and URL structure: Many people starting out in SEO pay little attention to the URLs where their website pages sit but the search engines use the URL content as an indicator of page relevancy. A page on a plumber’s website about boiler repair for example should be placed at www.website.com/boiler-repair rather than www.website.com/services. This is just another opportunity to indicate to the search engines the topic of a page’s content.
  • Content: too often websites don’t have enough content on their website, or don’t make the most of their existing content. Make sure your content includes the keywords you’re targeting, but don’t get keyword crazy – make sure your content makes sense both for the search engines and for the users reading it
  • Relevant links: a large part of the current algorithm of search engines is based on links. You can see links to a website as a testimonial of its “popularity” and relevance to web users, and so does search engines. Generating relevant links is one of the most impactful SEO activities and thus shouldn’t be overlooked.
    Making changes such as these should help you build a platform for your websites SEO to grow from.

Measure the success

Don’t forget what your main objective is: to generate more revenues for your business. Therefore you need to measure the impact of your SEO activity as your search ranking evolves – and to make the most of your SEO, there is nothing better than a website that delivers.
So rankings are not the only thing to monitor, but how do you measure the impact of your SEO – and more generally of your online marketing and website success? You do it through web analytics. Have a look at my previous post on this subject, Web analytics: improve your website’s revenues. For SEO the main things to watch are the quantity and quality of visits generated through organic search, and if you have a transactional website the sales generated.

Don’t focus solely on SEO, and get some help if necessary

SEO is a great way to generate traffic and revenues, but is not the only one in the online marketing toolbox. Pay Per Click (PPC), display, affiliate marketing, social media are worth the consideration, and web analytics are a must do for anyone serious about building an online business. So make sure you don’t become a “ranking junkie”.
Finally, if you don’t have time to do it all yourself, you might consider outsourcing your SEO activity. Whether you just need to be led or you need a full service, the experience and knowledge of a SEO consultant or an agency having worked on many websites will definitely help your success, and will save you a lot of time. However, selecting a consultant or an agency is not an easy thing to do. Beware of false claims such as guaranteed positions on Google, or promises of surprisingly fast results. Make sure the agency / consultants you hire have a proven track record, adhere to your objectives and are totally transparent in regards to what they are going to do to improve your rankings.

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