05.05.2009
Uncategorized
Here at FIM, we have put a significant amount of time and effort into the proxy niche.
We operate a few proxies, such as A Bebo Proxy, but mainly we run proxy lists like Proxy Leech and @ Proxy.
Financially speaking, this is a horrible niche. I think we’re spending more in terms of development and promotion than we’re earning in terms of revenue. That doesn’t even consider the costs of hosting and of dealing with the ridiculously high levels of hacking attempts these sites endure.
These sites are very rewarding, however, in non-monetary terms. Government organizations all over the globe are growing far too powerful. They are forgetting that government only exists at the consent of the governed.
The founding fathers of the United States placed freedom of speech at the top of the Bill of Rights — even above the right to keep and bear arms. They saw free speech as the most important right a free people, and I am inclined to agree with them.
Unfortunately, free speech requires a certain amount of anonymity. It is simply not safe for many people to speak their minds when their opinions might disagree with those held by powerful governmental organizations.
I am not referring only to the mad mullah’s of Iran. Even in America, young people have been punished for speaking freely about events occurring in their public schools and universities. The United States government oppresses those most whom we entrust to their care. It raises American children to believe that censorship is acceptable and that their opinions are not worthy of sharing. In government colleges and universities, students are punished for disagreeing with the propaganda being preached by their schools academic and administrative staff.
These people need to be opposed — both at home and abroad. Free speech is important for everyone if we intend to live in a prosperous and peaceful world. This is why we both operate and support proxy sites.
09.03.2009
Uncategorized
The crew at NetBuilders decided to kick off a SEO Contest.
It turns out that we’re not alone. The folks at forums.seo.com are planning to start SEO Contest 2009 if they receive enough entries by 30 April.
Entry into the NetBuilders contest is free; there is a $50 entry fee to join the forums.seo.com contest.
The NetBuilders contest has announced prizes of $1,000, $500, and $250 — but those prizes may increase as sponsors sign up. The forums.seo.com contest has announced a $500 prize — but that prize may increase if more participants sign up.
The NetBuilders contest runs from 15 March to 15 August. The forums.seo.com contest runs from 1 April to 31 December.
Both of these contests should be great learning experiences for everyone involved. Here’s a big good luck to the participants in both contests! 
01.02.2009
Uncategorized
In addition to the sites which drive revenue here at Free Internet Media, we also operate a number of sites primarily for the purpose of making the world a better place.
Some of these sites are apolitical, such as Make Happiness, but many are very political in nature, such as People’s Democracy.
Unfortunately, our experience with political web sites has introduced us to a very disturbing phenomena: Google often penalizes web sites which do not support Google’s fascist liberal agenda.
People’s Democracy receives plenty of search engine traffic from Yahoo and MSN — but Google has chosen to completely deindex the site. Google has repeatedly ignored Reconsideration Requests and has refused to discuss the issue with us. Yahoo Site Explorer shows 42,134 inbound links for the site. Google Webmaster Tools shows zero. Google has quite effectively silenced the voice of People’s Democracy.
Of course, not all penalties are that complete, which make those much more difficult to detect. Google dropped our political blog, Fort Liberty, in the SERPS so far that Google referrer traffic fell over 90%. Fort Liberty is still indexed by Google and still shows a PageRank of 5, but is now unable to rank for any competitive search terms in Google’s search engine. Shortly thereafter, Google kicked Fort Liberty out of the AdSense program.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt campaigned for Barack Obama. That’s his right as an American. However, Google should not be using it’s considerable corporate muscle to make it difficult for other Americans to express their political views. That is an affront to the American concept of liberty and it is a great disservice to Google’s shareholders.
Google’s stock has fallen over 50% from it’s high of 711.25 on 2 November of 2007, prompting Google to initiate it’s first round of layoffs. Perhaps Schmidt should quit focusing on politics and start focusing on creating value for Google’s struggling shareholders. Instead, Schmidt used Google’s corporate funds to throw an inaugural party for President Obama. Every Google shareholder, willingly or not, contributed to paying for that party.
So what can we do?
- We refuse to purchase Google stock.
- We refuse to spend money with Google AdWords.
- We spread the word about Google’s politically tainted search engine results and convince searchers to use alternate search engines like Yahoo.
Today, Google is the 900lb gorilla in both Internet search and Internet advertising. Nothing we do will affect them overnight — or even in the next few years. Eventually, however, Google will be forced to deliver unbiased search results or it will lose it’s place as the preeminent search engine on the net.