Here's an analogy. Suppose you were a webmaster and had a product to sell. You spend your good money creating a beautiful brochure which you are going to pass out at local mall. The brochure includes some helpful content and some advertisements of your product. You are proud of it because you've put your heart and soul into it's creation and you expect to make a few sales as well.

Now as you walk around mall handing out your brochure, some sleazy guy in a trench coat is following you around. Once in a while, as you give brochure to someone, he steps in front of you, takes brochure out of your hands, pulls out a pen and makes a few changes. He crosses out a few words, writes in some new advertisements (along with some "content" to make it seem legitimate), then hands it off to person you were giving it to. Worse yet, you don't see this happening and as far as you are concerned end user received your brochure with your ads. Only it's been changed without your knowledge or permission.

You, webmaster, have no control over these links. They could be competitors. They could be links of pornographic sites (I couldn't find anything on Ezula site which excluded such sites). They could be links to sites which you disagree with for ethical, moral, religious, racial or any number of other reasons. The point is you (the webmaster) have no control over links from YOUR site. To user, these appear to be YOUR links.

In fact, they will be sites of people and companies who are unethical and scummy enough themselves to sink to this level of advertising. They will be sites of any company which is willing to shell out cash.

Want more information? Check out following site for whole story.

http://scumware.com/

If you want to help stop this special brand of evil, then you can take some steps yourself. First, don't install product on your computer systems. If you've already installed thing, then immediately uninstall it.

Second, if you do have a problem with this form of scum, then by all means file a report with better business bureau, write an article of your own, send tell your friends and spread word. You might also send an email to advertisers who purchase this "service" (if you installed product you would find out who they are) and inform them of your distaste. Be sure and point out that you will not purchase their products as long as they advertise in this method. The mighty dollar speaks volumes.

Finally, if you are a webmaster, you can add following graphic to your pages, along with a link to http://scumware.com

http://scumware.com/images/bugverysmall.gif

While I don't want to run out and start buying every program out there that might save me time, I have broken out of pattern of saying, "I can't". Now I'm asking, "Can I afford not to?"

The benefits of this approach are many. I find that I have more time with my family, less stress, and I again have time to do what I love most....write, research and grow my business.

I'm resolved to keep this from happening again. Here are some things you can do to avoid straying from your path to success:

-Keep things in perspective Write down reasons that you started your business in first place and post them somewhere where you can see them and look at them periodically.

-Prioritize Ask yourself, "Is this really best use of my time?" Recognize when you need help and make changes.

-Evaluate Continually look at your processes and ask, "Could there be a better way of doing this?"

-Network Peers are a great source of advice and support. Chances are one of them has been in your situation and will have good advice. Join discussion lists or peer groups that share similar goals and challenges. Research your options and make informed decisions.

By way, client that I lost? He came back. When I contacted him to let him know what I'd been doing to improve my search engine results, he was so impressed with my responsiveness that he placed another order with us.

I got lucky with that one, but I've learned a valuable lesson--- I can't let my business run ME.