Words from the Cyber Thieves.
Last week I “outed” 22 companies,who thought it was okay to steal my testimonials, on “A wall of shame for website testimonials thieves”
I have had some interesting feedback from many of these companies and I thought I’d spend 5 minutes sharing them with you today. There were not many apologies but plenty of excuses.
- ” We didn’t mean to use your testimonials, they were just filler text on our web site” - from a company who stripped out my company name and added their own.
- “The content has been removed. This is not a business website and did not intend to create profit from displaying it” - so it’s ok to steal if you don’t plan of making any money?
- “A copy writer produced the content for our website”
- “Go Daddy has shut me down and I want you to help me get my site back online” …umm why?
- “I’ve learned a valuable lesson”
- “They are not so great testimonials that I want to keep them for life.” This made me laugh
- “I am not a Cyber thief but a TALENTED website designer who creates real stuff for the client and take due regards from them in return“
- “We do apologize for this action and have since removed them and fired the designer that did this. Again we do apologize for this as we had our own testimonials.”
- “ No idea how this happened, I have asked our web supplier in India to fix the issue.”
My plan of action in cases like these is always to contact the site owner first. If they ignore my requests I will then approach their hosting companies and a file a DMCA. This can result in the sites getting shut down.
One cyber thief considered my mission to out these companies a complete waste of time. I think not!
© 2011 Chicago Web Designer
Wall of Shame : Website Testimonial Thieves
With over 10 years in the web and graphic design business, we have amassed a fine collection of testimonials from our clients, heart felt words that reflect the quality of our work and the level of our service.
It is with sheer disgust when we come across unscrupulous companies/designers who steal our testimonials and fraudulently use them as their own. It is time to “out” these unethical and dishonest cyber thieves with a wall of shame.
Not one of these companies can be trusted.
Media Majik
Stole 3 testimonials.When caught they claimed it was a mistake and were using our testimonials as filler text. >> View our testimonials on a screenshot of the Media Majik site.
Fast Web Designz
All 5 the testimonials on their site were stolen from us
>>View our testimonials on a screenshot of Fast Web Designs
Systemtek Technologies
Here is a Chicago web design company who stole 5 of our testimonials
>> View our testimonials of a screenshot of Systemtek Technologies
SeizePro Design
Helped themselves to 2 of our testimonials and even kept the client names intact.
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of SeizePro Design
Mpire Solutions
They have three testimonials on their site and 2 are ours.
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of Mpire Solutions
Compuask Group
Swiped 2 testimonials from our site.
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of Compuask Group
Nexxpoint
All 5 testimonials on their web site were stolen from us
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of Nexxpoint
360 Scenes
At least 2 of the testimonials on their site are ours
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of 360 scenes
Moynahan Multimedia
1 stolen testimonial they use on many pages of their site
>>View our testimonial on a screenshot of Moynahan Multimedia
Pittsburgh IT Solutions
Shamelessly stole 1 testimonial
>> View our testimonial on a screenshot of Pittsburgh IT Solutions
Technical CAD
Guilty of the theft of 1 testimonial, taken down the entire page so there are probably more false testimonials.>> View our testimonial on a screenshot of Technical Cad
Website Design City
2 stolen testimonials
>>View our testimonials on a screenshot of Website Design City
Best Coder
Swiped 2 testimonials from our site
>>View our testimonials on a screenshot of Best Coder
BML Design
Helping themselves to 1 of our testimonials
>> View our testimonial on a screenshot of BML Design
Crystal Eye Design
Stole 1 testimonial
>>View our testimonial on a screenshot of Crystal Eye Design
Hire Web Developer
Stole 1 testimonial
>> View our testimonial on a screenshot of Hire Web Developer
Iqra Creation
Stole 1 testimonial
>> View our testimonial on a screenshot of Iqra Creation
Outsource Website Development Company
Stole 2 testimonials
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of Outsource Website Development Company
Vikas Kapoor
Stole a whopping 7 testimonials. Would you trust this web designer?
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of Vikas Kapoor
BrightZone Design
Stole 2 testimonials
>>View our testimonials on a screenshot of BrightZone Design
Simple
All 3 of the testimonials on their site belong to us. They even “forgot ” to remove our company name.
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of Simple
Prosites Online
Again all 3 of the testimonials on their site belong to us including 1 for Pro Bono work
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of Prosites Online
SpinWeb Creations
Shamelessly used a testimonial I received for pro bono work
>> View our testimonial on a screenshot of Spinweb Creations
SmartHo
Thinks it’s ok to swipe 2 testimonials
>>View our testimonials on a screenshot of SmartHO
WebTotal
Stole 2 testimonials
>> View our testimonials on a screenshot of WebTotal
All of these companies/individuals have been contacted regarding the fraudulent use of our testimonials. If they don’t remove the offending copy we contact their hosting companies and get them shut down.
Fraudulent use of website testimonials
Would you believe it if I told you in just a few hours today I have found 22 web design companies using my client testimonials as their own, yes TWENTY TWO.
This investigation was kicked off by a call from a client over the weekend, who had found the wonderful testimonial she had given me, on an unfamiliar site. I found that they had not only used hers, but testimonials from two more of my clients, including one I did for some pro-bono design. The only change they had made to the testimonials was to replace my company name with theirs.
This is not the first time I have had content stolen from my web site but it is the first time for testimonial swipes. Luckily I have a tried and tested method for dealing with this highly unethical behavior.
- Take a screen shot of the offending page. Always good to have visual proof of the “offense”
- Contact the offending web site and request immediate removal of material. I prefer to do this via email than over the phone so I have a paper trail of communication. If the only contact is through an online form I make sure I take a copy of what I send.
- Visit whois.net and run a search on the domain name to see where the site is hosted – you can establish this by copying the nameservers and running them through Google.
- Contact the hosting company and alert them to the fact they are hosting a website with fraudulent or copyrighted content. Hosting companies take this very seriously and will quickly shut a site down if the webmaster does not rectify the situation.
- Contact Google and get any ranked pages excluded from their search
The initial offending company responded quickly to my email this morning and called me to say that it had been a mistake and they were just in the process of building their web site and were using my client testimonials as filled text. Ummm, if that is the case why bother removing my company name and replacing it with your own? They did take down the fraudulent page but the testimonial swipe was by no means a “mistake”. They must think I was born yesterday.
So that is 1 down and 21 to go. It is going to be a busy week but I will not stop until I have addressed everyone of these pathetic web site companies. Even found a couple of companies here on my own turf in Chicago
I am considering creating a wall of shame and naming names to bring to light all of these unscrupulous web design companies, got quite a stash of screen shots to share.
© Copyright 2011 Chicago web designer
What is a call to action?
Its all very well getting a ton of traffic to your web site but are your visitors doing what you want them to do, or quickly bouncing off your site? If you don’t have some serious “call to actions” in place chances, are they are wandering around aimlessly or worse still hitting that back button and leaving your website all together.
What is a call to action?
Simplistically, it is a set of actions you would like your users to carry out, for example signing up for a service, filling out a contact form or subscribing to a news letter. It gives your visitors focus and is a great way to measure how your site is performing.
Lets look at a couple of “call to actions” in operation.
The website for hardscapestl.com, an excellent resource for landscaping ideas and a fine oiled lead generation machine.
The home page offers a number of routes into the site depending on visitors needs but two recently added components are highlighted with splashes of red to create primary call to actions; register to win a gift card and Free download of patio plans.
The gift card call to action leads to a simple sign up form.
The Free patio plan button leads to this page which offers a number of plans to download with a call to action for each plan.
When the visitor has selected their plan they are taken to this page
and need to fill in a form to download their plan. The visitor gets a free plan and hardscapestl.com get an excellent qualified lead to follow up on.
A win win for both.
Does your website have call to actions?
© 2011 Chicago web designer
Extreme Couponing for Web Designers
I watched my first episode of TLC’s Extreme Couponing last week and was amazed at the ingenuity and lengths some people go to, to get stuff for free. The internet plays a huge part in their ability to get the best deals on all sorts of products.
So in the spirit of that program I thought I’d do a series on Extreme Couponing for web designers.
Let kick off with What you can get for FREE – no coupons required for this stuff
Google Products: Google offers a load of free products, from the igoogle home pageyou can fill with gadgets to manage your bookmarks ( even have a folder for all your coupon web sites), see the weather for the week, read the news etc, to Gmail for your email needs. They even offer free storage of photographs through Picasa and you can build a basic website using Google sites
Blogging Platforms
Google’s blogger is great for simple blogs but Wordpress is better for the more complex.
Content Management Systems
Wordpress is being used more and more these days as a CMS system ( I read recently that 14% of all new web site being built today are built using Wordpress). Joomla is a great application for building member type web sites, Drupal is another good contender.
Internet Marketing
Set up free social networking accounts with Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and monitor traffic and SEO efforts with the wonderful Google Analytics
Next time coupons for domain names hosting and stock photography.
© 2011 Chicago web designer
Eye of the Chicago web designer: Creativity on my Desk
As a web and graphic designer it is my job to be creative, to come up with new a novel ways of presenting things, to create designs that a visually alluring and engaging.
Well the creative aspect of my job tumbles into my everyday life and there is nothing like this little pop of color on my desk to make me pick up one of these lovely home made pens and start sketching out logo ideas or architectural wire frame details.
© 2011 Chicago web designer
New website for Solon Gershman Inc
Launched today is a re-designed web site for Solon Gershman Inc, a St Louis commercial real estate company.
We completely reworked their old site, creating a fresh new professional look which is easier to use and consistent throughout. The home page features a slide show of properties with easy access to property search tools and the latest company news. The site integrates data from a 3rd party property listing service and offers the site visitors a seamless experience.
Just in case you were wondering here is what the old site looked like.
©: 2011 Chicago web designer
