Spoiler alert: No, I didn’t get the job in the end, but that is another story.

The Plasma Science and Fusion Centre department of the Massachussets Institute of Technology (AKA M.I.T.) provides the following definition of Plasma:

“Plasma is often called “the fourth state of matter,” along with solid, liquid and gas. Just as a liquid will boil, changing into a gas when energy is added, heating a gas will form a plasma – a soup of positively charged particles (ions) and negatively charged particles (electrons)”.

In another way, Plasma is an ionised gas, meaning it consists of highly charged particles known as ions and free electrons. Plasma is created when gas is subjected to extreme heat or when a strong electric field is applied, causing the gas atoms to lose electrons and become charged. In a plasma state, the atoms of the gas break apart, resulting in a mixture of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons. This separation of charges allows plasma to conduct electricity and be influenced by magnetic fields, making it a unique and versatile state of matter.

Why Plasma is important for the Industrial applications?

Plasma can be artificially created and controlled in laboratories for various applications, such as fusion research, plasma cutting in metalworking and nano electronics. In particular:

• Thin Film Deposition: Plasma is employed to deposit thin films of materials onto various substrates. This process is widely used in the production of microelectronics, solar cells, optical coatings, and other advanced materials.
• Plasma Etching: In semiconductor manufacturing, plasma etching is used to remove specific layers from microchips during the fabrication process. This helps create intricate patterns and structures on the chip’s surface.
• Plasma Sterilisation: Plasma is used for sterilisation in the medical industry and for various sensitive equipment. It provides an effective and chemical-free way to kill bacteria and other harmful microorganisms.
• Surface Modification: Plasma treatments can alter the surface properties of materials, such as making them hydrophobic or hydrophilic, improving biocompatibility for medical applications, or enhancing wear resistance in mechanical components.

What is a Plasma sensor?

Every research, industrial processes, and technologies that involve working with plasma has a Plasma sensor to detect, measure, or analyse plasma. It can provide valuable information about plasma parameters, allowing researchers and engineers to monitor, control and calibrate plasma-based systems effectively. Some common types of plasma sensors include:

• Langmuir Probes: Langmuir probes are widely used in plasma diagnostics. They consist of small electrodes inserted into the plasma, and by measuring the current-voltage characteristics of the plasma-electrode interaction, they can determine properties like electron temperature, electron density, and plasma potential.
• Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) Sensors: OES sensors use the light emitted by excited atoms and ions in the plasma to analyse the plasma’s composition and temperature. Different elements emit characteristic wavelengths of light when excited, enabling researchers to identify the elements present and their concentrations in the plasma.
• Electrostatic Probes: Electrostatic probes are similar to Langmuir probes but operate based on the electrostatic potential difference between the plasma and a collector electrode. These probes can provide information about plasma potential and electron temperature.
• Magnetic Probes: Magnetic probes, also known as magnetic field probes or magnetometers, are used to measure the magnetic fields produced by currents in the plasma. These measurements can help understand the behavior and confinement of plasma in magnetic fusion devices.
• Microwave Interferometers: Microwave interferometers measure the density of the plasma by analysing the phase shift of microwaves passing through it. Changes in density cause variations in the microwave phase, which can be used to determine the plasma density.
• Residual Gas Analysers (RGA): RGAs are mass spectrometers used to analyse the composition of gases in plasma chambers or vacuum systems. They help identify the presence of different elements and molecules in the plasma environment.
• Plasma Optical Density Sensors: These sensors measure the optical density of the plasma, providing information about the plasma’s opacity and its interaction with light.
• Plasma Current Probes: Plasma current probes measure the electric current flowing in the plasma. This is particularly important in magnetic confinement devices for studying plasma stability and confinement.

If you arrived here at the end of the page, well done! Maybe now you learned something new. As for me, probably even if I knew the answer, I wouldn’t have gotten the job anyway.

Till the next weird post, take care yourself!

The post What is Plasma? Why should you know? appeared first on Donald Piccione.

when hovering on it you can read “Gmail couldn’t verity that domain.com actually sent this message“. This is very common and it is almost related with missing or misconfiguration with your DMARC, DKIM and SPF. Your email could end up into the spam folder.

There are various servers and different set up so I wouldn’t be able to cover all the cases. What I can write you is what I did in my case. Also, I take for granted that you have already the DKIM Key on your server, usually it is generated by default so hopefully you don’t need to set up one.

I am using CPANEL

I manage a domain that is hosted in a virtual server I purchased on Altus Host (more info on this company here) which uses CPANEL. I set up the email account like info@domain.com and I got the pop and smtp configuration for the mail client. I did a test sending one email to Mail Tester website. This is a free online tool that analyzes your email, telling if it is spam or not. The result was absolutely horrible: 2.9/10 that means I was considered a spammer 🙂 As you can see now from the header image above, after fixing this, I got a 9.2/10 which is perfect.

Using this tool you get also the report of all the issues you can fix such as:

• SPF: Sender Policy Framework (SPF) designed to prevent email spam by detecting email spoofing, a common vulnerability, by verifying sender IP addresses;
• DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is a method for associating a domain name to an email message to claim some responsibility for the message. It uses a private and a public key to match the autenticity of the message sent by you. This is the official site for the DKIM organization
• DMARC: it is a policy that allows a sender to indicate that their emails are protected by SPF and DKIM, and give instruction if neither of those authentication methods passes. More information about this policy can be found on the official website dmarc.org

These above are the main areas where you can be flagged as spammer. Therefore you need to fix it.

What access you need to fix this

• DNS settings page, in my case I use Cloudflare. It is free and it works great. You might have the DNS settings with your domain registrar, so you need to log in to your registrar (eg. Register365, GoDaddy, etc) and go to the DNS setting section (dns management);
• CPANEL page: you need to be the administrator;

On the CPANEL scroll down to EMAIL section and click on “Email Deliverability”

Once the new page has loaded, you will see something like the following image. If you have more than one domain, you will see first a list of domains. Clicking on the interested domain it will load this page:

DKIM configuration

As you see above, you have 2 fields, one is the Name and other is the Value. On your DNS you have to add a new TXT record default._domainkey (in the image above advice default._domainkey.domain.com but you can just omit the domain.com) and assign the value which is the string of the public DKIM record. In this case it starts with v=DKIM1…etc. Save the record.

SPF configuration

Scrolling down the same page you will see a similar image below. In my case, as I took this screenshot after configuring, it tells me that it is properly configured. In your case will show a message that is not configured (such as the other image above).

Again, you have to go to your DNS settings and create a new TXT record with the name equals your domain address and copy the value provided into your Cpanel. As you can see, the value in this case starts with v=spf1 +mx +a etc. Save the record. A complete and official documentation about SPF can be found here.

DMARC configuration

This is a policy that you need to create regarding the DKIM & SPF. You can find this info on the Spam Testing Result page of the tool mail-tester.com. Usually you need to create a new TXT in the DNS record called _dmarc and assign the value of v=DMARC1; p=none

Questions

I don’t have a DKIM key? What should I do? There are websites on the Internet that offers a free Key generator, such as Socket Labs. If you need others who do the same service, please let me know in the comments. The case that you need a DKIM key it is pretty rare because if you run a virtual server usually it is included into the service and generated automatically once you start the set up as above.

After I added the new records to DNS I still see errors. Why? If you set up properly, wait at least 12 hours for the DNS propagation, then test it again.

If you have further questions please leave it in the comments.

Donald

The post Email: How to Setup DKIM SPF and DMARC if you use CPANEL appeared first on Donald Piccione.

Alternative and Cheaper options to Sky TV
Although there are not too many alternative options in the Republic of Ireland, as the same as the Internet Broadband providers, you can move towards Netflix for a fraction of the price. Funny enough, Sky TV itself offers an alternative way to watch their programs without contract, called NowTV. You won’t need any decoder, just a device to plug to your TV or the app if you have a smart TV and that’s it. If you have a smart TV such as LG or Samsung, you can also install All 4 app and watch their TV programs on demand for free.

How to Cancel SKY TV: Little bit of T&C lingo
Before starting, you need to know what Sky Ireland writes in its help page about cancelling your Sky TV subscription . This will probably set some lingo on the T&Cs (Terms and conditions) page you should know so to avoid early cancellation fees:

1. Cancellation Period: “A minimum of 31 days’ notice (cancellation period) is required to cancel your Sky TV services”
2. Minimum Contract Period: Is the minimum length you will have to pay for the Sky TV service. Mine was 18 months but probably because related to an offer.
3. Early Cancellation Fee: If you cancel the Sky TV service before the minimum contract period, you will incur to pay a “fine” for early cancellation, unless you are within your cooling off period. Sky Ireland is very vague about this in its pages and you have to dig further till you find a page that tells you something. I found this page and also this PDF file, where it tells you (in their own way) how much is the damage.

Sky TV Early Cancellation Fee Explained
You pay the early cancellation fee if you cancel your subscription before the end of the contract.
How does it much cost? It mainly depend on the service you subscribed. For example, mine was a Sky Q bundle. So the monthly penalty or fine is € 33.

Example of early cancellation fee
If I subscribed 12 month contract to Sky TV with a Sky Q box on 1 January 2019 and I cancel this service on the end of June 2019, I will be charged € 33 x 6 (rest of 6 months of the contract) = € 198 Penalty fee. So basically you have to count how many months/days are left to the end of contract. In the case above were 6 months. If we are talking about a Sky TV Package (€ 21.64 per month left) would add a total of € 129.84 penalty fee for early exit.
If this is the case, you have 2 options: First, wait till the end of the contract and then cancel the service. Second, see if you can downgrade the package to the minimum amount, such as just basic TV, then when the contract expires ask to close your service.

How did I cancel my Sky TV Subscription?
The quickest (and only way) is to contact their phone support on 0818-719-819
Once you get the line you have to tell to an automated bot that you want to cancel your subscription. Subsequently you will be asked if you are the sole account owner, then you will have to state on the phone your password (you set when you activated the service the first time on the phone with the agent). Once this is done you will put through a real operator.

>>>First Tip: Contact Sky TV Customer Support phone line in the morning. They opens at 9:00 am so be sure to call them between 9 and 10 am to get through a customer representative quickly instead of waiting in the queue. This because the number you call is not free but it has a cost per minute. If you call in the early morning you will get through quicker.

Get ready for the Retention Agents
After you are connected to a customer support representative, they know already what you are going to do. They are trained as “customer retention agents”. So they will try to stop you from leaving the TV service. I put in the title above “Agents” because you will talk to more then one.

Here what happens…

The first agent who gets the call will ask you how can help (they know already you want to quit) but this is a trick because you might feel bad telling to a very sincere voice that “I want to cancel my Sky TV account”. Once you tell your request, they will start asking “May I ask you why you want to cancel your Sky TV account?“. Usually is the price, the monthly price is expensive. Either or not this is your problem, never ever tell that the problem is the price, because they would narrow you down offering a downgrade of the TV service or offering some particular package which is less expensive but you will end up staying with them.

What to tell them then? You have to tell them something that cannot be argued. In my case I told them that I was moving towards an healthier lifestyle and I wanted to start reading books instead of watching TV. As you can see, it is not an issue about price, hence it cannot be addressed by offering something better, because it is a subjective reason. Also I have added that I was selling my TV (so to give more weight to my statement).

Of course this won’t stop them to try changing your mind. On the contrary you still have to deal with more agents as per their standard protocol. My advice is to let them do their job and at the end of their conversation just stay tight with your main reason. Don’t give them too many information because it can be used to profile you, finding a way to let you change your mind. If they know you less they cannot find weak points to challenge you. One thing that is though to NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) is to find or create the “rapport” with the other part. This often happens when asking questions and getting answers.

What we talked about?
The first agent proposed me to downgrade my package offering me a basic Sky TV so I could keep Sky instead of closing. I was told by this person that once the account is closed, in case I wanted to reopen in 6 months (for example) I might had to pay an activation fee. So it was better to keep it basic, wait some time and then if I wanted to get back with my package they could do it. Nope! I wanted to cancel my account. Once I said this, they put me on hold telling me that they were going to prepare the request to send to the accounts department. After 3 minutes, another operator talked to me asking me why I was going to cancel my account. Same answer as above. Again they will offer you a downgrade package, then another offer so to keep you with Sky. I said again thanks but I wanted to cancel my account. This thing lasted for a while and I talked to 4 agents in total. Once they understood that they couldn’t convince me to stay with them, the last one asked me if I was using a broadband. Why? Because they will try to sell you their broadband service. In this case you can just tell them that you have “All you can eat data” on your mobile and you use it to check your email now and then. Bingo! You nailed it. Now it is the time to talk to the accounts agent. It is not just an accounts agent but again, he/she will ask you the reason why you want to leave etc. You know what to say at this point. After that you will see the light and in 31 days you will be free from Sky TV. Just another thing, be sure that you get your free parcel from them so you can return their decoder. This because if you don’t give it back you might incur of a fine. Example the Sky Q will cost you € 300 fine.

Just last thing I promise. Don’t cancel the SEPA direct debit payment with Sky unless you are officially done with them. Once they got their decoder back you can happily cancel it, not before. In case you have still to pay something to them before the official cancellation and your direct debit is removed they will escalate this to a credit collector company which will also charge you interests and fees on top of the debit.

I hope you enjoyed this article and it was helpful to you. If you want to share your experience please leave a comment below and I would be happy to read it.

The post How to Cancel Sky TV Ireland Subscription Easily appeared first on Donald Piccione.

Just to be clear, if you change your hosting, it is not compulsory you have to transfer your domain to the hosting provider. In fact you need just to change in the DNS configuration of the domain the IP address that points to the new hosting. Same if you have a CDN you just need to change the IP into the dashboard. As the title of this post says, I will help you to know more about transferring a domain.

Give some time for the Expiration Date of the current domain

This means that if you are going to transfer your domain you should do it within 60 days of it’s expiration. Domain authority states that it might take up to 30 days to do the transfer so, in extremely case you need to act it earlier before its domain expiration.

Unlock your current domain

When purchase a domain, in some cases its status is on locked. This means that nobody except you may transfer or purchase this domain. It is a kind of security and piece of mind. Before asking the other provider to accept your current domain you have to unlock it. In any dashboards in the domain section, usually DNS or domain information, you can find this option.

Get the authorization code

Same as in the before mentioned section there would be a box where to get by email the domain authorization code. This authorization code has to be given to the new service provider so that they can start the procedure to get your domain. The authorization code is sent to the email used to register the domain.

New Provider: Time to start the procedure to transfer your domain

On the new domain provider dashboard, usually under the domain section, you will see a field called “Domain Transfer” or “Transfer your Domain“. You have to type into the box the domain name, plus its extension (.com, .org, etc). Next step is to set the Nameservers. If you are managing your DNS with this new domain provider, then you will see hints of what nameservers to type. Sometimes this are already populated. If you are using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for example in my case Cloudflare, I will have to type in their nameservers. Next step is to type in the Authorization code you got before and finally make the payment for purchasing your domain.

This is a generic but standard procedure on how to transfer a web domain. Some domain providers might have similar names or sections mentioned above, but I wanted to give you a clear process on what you need to do to transfer your domain.

It is also important to know:

-Every domain seller provider has its own knowledge base on domain transfer. It is advisable to read that page to get familiar with the dashboard domain section.

-Some domain providers or hosting providers give your a free domain transfer service. This because they can acquire a new customer. If this is the case, you can contact them or send them an email and it will be even more easier.

-If you are not confident with this procedure, you might ask to a friend or a colleague who has more experience and get advice or ask them if they can do it for you.

-If you feel you need help, you can leave a comment below and I will try to answer to your questions

The post How to Transfer a Domain without headaches appeared first on Donald Piccione.

Usually, a connection on LinkedIn should be something where we have met or done business with the other person, what Reid Hoffman (co-founder of Linkedin) refers to a “Closed Network“. Hence, he says “For the network to have value as an introduction tool, the connections need to have meaning”. If that is very true, in recent times I think Linkedin has slowly but surely started to become similar to other social media platforms. I remember when I joined 10 years ago, the tone of voice was strictly professional and you had to be sure writing the right comment. I got admonished once because my reply was not properly on topic. Not today.

Asking for a LinkedIn connection is something legit, and you are absolutely free to do your way, but before, ensure you have done the following checks. It will increase the chance of being accepted into somebody’s network.

Add a decent, professional profile picture

If you have recently graduated from school and you are transitioning to the job world, one of the first things they must have told you is to have a LinkedIn account. This way you can apply for jobs or connect to your fellow students. Always remember that LinkedIn is a professional Network, so you should keep it professional.

The first thing to look after is your profile picture. I still see on some connection requests images of people taken while they are drunk, in a pub, during concerts, among other people at a party. Upload a picture of yourself while you are sober, well dressed (not necessarily a suit). Be natural and that’s it. Try not to take the picture as you take a selfie. Ask a friend or your parents to take the headshot.
Remember: A profile picture is the first thing that potential LinkedIn peers are going to check/see in a connection request. LinkedIn itself offers great bits of advice on photo filters and other tips you might want to know to bring your profile picture to the next level.

Have a strong, complete, realistic, up to date cv

No matter if you have 10 years experience or just out of the College. What is important is to write key information on what you have done so far. Don’t inflate your experience or knowledge. Professionals and HR Recruiters know instantly that. Same for your Profile’s summary. Catch the attention but not “overcook”. I read sometimes in profile summaries phrases like “Marketing Guru”,  “Expert Marketer”, “The coolest guy in town”, etc.  If you don’t have job experience, add what you have done in school, what subjects you studied and what assessments/projects you have done. Be interesting and show you have a good attitude presenting yourself. There is a good article written by Jasmine Sandler about good vs bad  LinkedIn profile. For example, she emphasizes having well-written content and targeted skills.

Now you are ready to grow your LinkedIn Network

Once your profile is “bulletproof” it is time to grow your network. I personally don’t recommend to ask anybody for a connection just for the sake of increasing its number. You might get lucky because they are eager to grow their network too. What’s the point on that? The scope here is to grow a meaningful peer relationship so that you can interact and be introduced to their peers, focusing on the Country you are working/living. After all, you may agree with me that you use LinkedIn to grow your job career. Adding unknown, unreliable, off topic industry connections might just damage your profile. Also, connecting with unknown people will attract further other unknown who just look to increase their network. In the end, you want to move towards your work career ladder. Moving from junior to senior to manager with connections you don’t have an idea of what they doing is not and healthy growth.

What to focus on if you want to increase your Linkedin Network

1. If you live and working in Ireland I would focus on the Irish and Uk market, this will increase the quality of your network (for example if somebody makes a search on LinkedIn, filtering on geolocation). Also, as a native Italian speaker, I would keep in touch with professionals in my native country. This also helps to benchmark strategies or tactics done in different countries, as well as trends. You should do the same if you speak a second language or if your native language is not English.

2. Follow your industry leaders, like, comment, share. LinkedIn also offers help on this, suggesting who to follow or connect.

3. If you recently finished studying at College or University, you should have connected with all the teachers/lecturers and alumni you met in school. Usually, a school has a Linkedin Page or an Alumni page group. For example, National College of Ireland, where I obtained my Master Degree in Marketing has an alumni page.

4. Write a recommendation to peers who studied or worked with you. They will bring you to another level and you will be remembered. You can ask also for recommendations.

5. Attend local Networking events or conferences based on your sector. Introduce yourself, then ask on LinkedIn for connection. If you want to try connecting with the event speaker, don’t just send the request but write a note explaining who you are, where you heard about them and why you want to connect. One good resource in Ireland for events and networking is Eventbrite.

6. To grow a meaningful network, add a note when you send the request. Like in life, introduce yourself. There might be the chance you want to connect to a 2d level peer (a connection of your connection) where you ever talked to them. Writing an introduction note they will be more willing to add you back because you tell them who you are.

7. Once your network grows, start chasing the 2d degree connections. They will be more interested in connecting with you because you have the leverage of having a connection in common.

8. Look after your network: Like posts, comment and share. Write a short sentence the reason why their post should be read when you share. Add some insights if you can. Every time you comment on others’ posts, their connection see it, meaning you are getting attention. Hence they might decide to connect with you, feeling that you might enjoy their posts or published articles. Don’t be afraid to reach the post’s author expressing your interested in the reading at one condition that you will have to explain the reason.

9. If you plan on posting something on your profile, do it during working hours. Usually, in the morning a post gets better attention than afternoon/evening when the office closes down. According to Jane Fleming’s Linkedin Business blog post, the best time to post on LinkedIn is:

7:30 – 8:30 a.m. / 12:00 p.m. / 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays and 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. on Tuesdays

In conclusion

Following this article, you will be able to increase your LinkedIn Network and improve your profile. Just an extra tip, don’t be afraid to ask a recruiter or senior LinkedIn member for feedback on your profile.

The post How to Grow your Network on LinkedIn (Best Way) appeared first on Donald Piccione.

Take for example Facebook with over 1.7 billion users in Ireland in 2017 (according to Ipsos) is one of the most used platforms in the Country. This is one platform you should consider to use it if you are still not using.

So, how to use Social Media in the Smart Way and in Simple Steps?

Step 1: Know what your goals are

Before even start to post or doing anything else in Social Media, it is important to identify your goals. What do you want to achieve from Facebook or Instagram in the short and long-term? Without any defined goals you won’t be able to benchmark your performance and also assess your Return on Investment. If your first goal is to increase the number of followers, you have to set a daily or weekly target (example: 5 per day or 40 per week). If your Facebook page has already enough followers, you might need to define a target based on engagement, such as: how many likes your post gained? Can you get more? For example, if you have 3,000 followers and after publishing a post you get 10 likes, this means this is something you need to address and assess. This is a low engagement, which is going to affect your ranking.

You can set more than one goal to establish if your strategy is going in the right way. Also, if you invest some budget in Paid advertising, you will know if it was well spent or not. If you need any advice regarding this, you can contact me using this form.

Step 2: Identify your target personas

This might be seen as funny or time wasting, but once you know who are your online users and potential clients, it will help a lot to know what content you can deliver and the tone of voice to use. Try to group your customers and identify a persona. Some of the key information can be retrieved from your database and based on clients you have met so far.

For example, you might have one group made by Women, 45 – 50 years old, home owners, married with children, who are using Facebook to read recipes online and ideas for gardening. Having a house clean and tidy is their main concern. They call a carpet cleaner, like my friend Brendan once per year because they believe that using a domestic vacuum cleaner will keep the carpet clean, ensuring a healthy environment for her children.

Following the example above, you can create a tailored promoted post on Facebook, choosing the similar target audience discussed above. The topic of the post would be to raise awareness about having the carpet cleaned regularly by a professional, rather than hoovering by themselves. This because using a pressurised hot steam vacuuming system, guarantees that the carpet is cleaned internally (under the layer) because the hot steam kills moth larvae and bacteria.

Now, try to create other personas and think on what message you would like to tell them. The more personalized, the more change to connect with them and get also leads.

Step 3: Listen to the conversation about your industry and competitors

Before playing a game, you must know the rules and most important who are your opponents to understand how good they are at this. First, start doing searches on topics and keywords related to your industry. Second, write a list of the most engaging competitors. This can be the number of followers, posts, likes received. It is important to study what they talk about so you know already what works best and what not. Are the pictures of “after and before” their work more engaged? How many followers commented on a post? Is there a particular promotion or time of the day that drove the most engagement? The more info you can get, the more you can use to your advantage for your strategy. There is no copyright in doing or adapting what your competitor is already doing well. This will save you time in doing experiments or tests.

Step 4: What services do you provide? Be sure your users know it

Be sure that your potential followers/clients understand right on the spot what are your specialties. Be as much clear as possible. When necessary remember to write plain English using a non-technical language. Think again about step 2. Do you clean only carpets? Do you clean rugs? Can you find among one of your services something unique you can propose to your followers? This is the secret to differentiate from a competitor. This is called Unique Selling Points. For example: “Time for drying the carpet is very short if compared to the standard, because we use a new technology who doesn’t require too much water and still guarantee perfect results”. Or in the case you are a painter you might say the same adapting to your job.

Step 5: Create a Content Calendar 

Each persona has potentially a golden hour where to reach on Social Media. For example, if one commutes by car from 7.30 to 8.30 to work, in theory, they won’t be able to read your post within that time-frame but only after when they reached the workplace. If somebody else will use the bus, it can be a good idea to post on that hour because they will check Facebook and other Social Media platforms while commuting. Once your post is published it will be among others (competitors too). The more the time passes, less chance your persona will have to see it and to engage. Having limited time during the day is important to create a calendar where to schedule post publishing.  

One idea is to use a free app such as Hootsuite or Postify and let it post for you during the day while you are working. If somebody contacts you by Facebook, you will be able to get their message through your smartphone and not worry about posting. 

You can also consider allocating some budget in Facebook Ads to attract more followers to your page and convert them into potential clients. In this case, the posts will be shown automatically at the best time your persona is using Facebook. This further optimises your Social Media activity and therefore your Social Media Strategy.

To conclude, if you want to optimise your social media, reaching the right people and getting more results, you can follow my steps above. If you need more information or some tips, you can leave your comment below as well.

The post How to deliver a Perfect Social Media Strategy in Simple Easy steps appeared first on Donald Piccione.

As explained by Google in its Knowledge base, “In general, a link from a site is regarded as a vote for the quality of your site” so in Seo this is usually one crucial task, called link building strategy, aimed to increase the number of backlinks, gaining visibility and Page Rank to a website. Sometimes when it is done aggressively or by an inexperienced person it could generate penalization more than improvement. In this article, I won’t cover the causes or mistakes for a penalization because I want to stick with the subject on how to use Google Disavow Tool. The following what you need to do.

Step One: List the URL’s to disavow (exclude) in a text file

Create a list of URL’s into a .txt file that will be uploaded when completed. You can use any editor as far as you can save a text file. There are two options to list an URL:

• Disavow the exact URL link: you found only 1 static page that contains your website URL. In this case just put the full URL. Example: http://www.domain.com/bestlinksever .
• Disavow the domain: When a domain has more than one pages that contains a link to your website. You can use the syntax called domain. Example: domain:bestspamlink.com

If you are creating a disavow file because you are working on a reconsideration request, ensure to put as much detailed info in the comment as possible such as date when you contacted the website owner and the outcome. Once you finish listing all the bad backlinks, save your file. You can name it as you prefer, for example disavow.txt .If a domain has more than one urls that link back to your website, don’t waste time and just add the whole domain.

Step Two: Upload your disavow.txt file
Go to Search Console Disavow Links section here and select the website (if more than one you have) related to the links to disavow. Click on the red button “DISAVOW LINKS”.
You will read a message that “this is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution…” (you can read all the message in the next image).
If you are confident with this you can press again the disavow links button and you will see this message:

Press choose file to upload your disavow.txt file previously created and press Submit (blue button). A further message will display your successful submission or eventually an error if there is an error into your .txt file.

Once the file has been submitted successfully you have to wait some time before Google will consider those links disavowed. You should receive an automatic email from Google Search Console, once this file has been activated.

The post How to use Google Disavow Links Tool appeared first on Donald Piccione.

Usually, in case of bots, the chance that you can actually do something is very limited because they might use proxies or mask their identity. In this case it is advisable to hide your email address from your page, adding instead a contact form like mine. See it here. If you need help with setting a page like this, give me a shout and we can talk about it. Another thing you can do is to block any unrelated countries from accessing to your website. For example, if you are working as a plumber in Dublin, you don’t need to show your website to China, Africa, Kazakhstan, etc.

In case instead, you are receiving emails from spammers, like a company who wants to sell you something and they are so crap at their job that nobody wants to buy from them, I have something for you as a surprise to them: You can report them!

How to report an email spammer? I explain it to you. It is very easy

1.Check their email address and their domain left into your email. For example: sales@spammingdomain.com . To be sure it is the real domain, you can go deeper and open the email as “view the source”. This depends on the email client you have (the app you use to read email). As there are too many, please leave a comment in case you cannot find it and I will search for you.

2.Connect to WHOIS database at https://www.whois.com/whois . There you can type in the domain, in this example spammingdomain.com

You will see a list of information about the domain. Scroll down till you see a section that relates to abuse@domainsomething. This is the email address where to forward the spammer email. The following is an example:

In the image above, you got the email where to send your complaint, which refer to the Registrar Abuse Contact Email.

3.You have to forward the email you received and mostly, you have to attach the source of the spamming/abusive email. In my case I use Thunderbird by Mozilla, so I just click on the menu and select “View Source” then opens a text file. I then save as TXT and that’s it. Again, in case you need to how what it the way to see the source file in your email, leave me a comment below.

Once you have sent the email, you should receive an automatic reply telling you that your case has been received and they will investigate. Depending on the case and the number of complaints, they could remove that domain.

The following is an example of the response I received which disabled the domain associated with the reported email:

Conclusion

This is the correct way to report a spammer or abusive email received into your inbox. It is effective but on the other side little bit time consuming and it maybe requires a little bit of technical skill to search in the whois database and retrieve the source code of the email. If you followed my steps above you should have done all correctly and now you are waiting for a reply from the domain authority. Well done. Please share below in the comments your experience.

The post How to report unsolicited emails from spammers today appeared first on Donald Piccione.