Friday, 24 May 2013

Scrape detection and how Visual Web Ripper can help deal with this problem

Recently we have encountered the web scrape detection issues in some of our projects. So as we’ve consulted with the Sequentum developers we present to you some points on this topic. Here are a few lines about web scraping detection and how Visual Web Ripper can help deal with this problem.

1. Detection by IP Address

If a website tries to detect web scraping activity, it will nearly always try to use your IP address. The website will simply count the number of requests from a single IP address and block your IP address or display a CAPTCHA if you are requesting too many webpages from a single IP address. Some websites may take it a step further and look at the frequency of requests, since web scrapers will normally request pages much faster than a human.

The best way to prevent detection from such websites is by using a proxy rotation service. Such as service will have a large pool of IP addresses and rotate the IP addresses every time you make a request for a webpage, so the target website will see very few requests from the same IP address and requests from the same IP address will have a long delay between them.

We offer a FREE account at Private Proxy Switch for our customers and trial users to use with Visual Web Ripper. Private Proxy Switch is a high performance proxy server with a large pool of elite anonymous proxies. A new IP address is randomly assigned to you when you make a request for a new webpage, making it impossible to detect your identity, and very difficult to detect and block web scraping activity. The free account is restricted to 500MB per month.

Visual Web Ripper also offers semi-automatic or full automatic processing of CAPTCHA pages. Full automatic processing of CAPTCHA requires a subscription to a CAPTCHA recognition service such as Decaptcher.

2. Detection by Request Signatures*

Most advanced web scrapers use an embedded version of a normal web browser to extract data, so the request signatures will be exactly the same as when using a normal version of the web browser, and it will therefore be very difficult to block access based on the request signatures.

Visual Web Ripper uses an embedded version of IE when extracting data in Web Browser mode. This is the same embedded version the full version of IE uses, so the request signatures will be the same, and all asynchronous requests triggered by JavaScript will also be the same.

You can use software such as Fiddler to monitor all web requests in order to confirm the web requests are in fact the same.

When Visual Web Ripper runs in Web Crawler mode, it does not use an embedded version of IE and works like a simple web scraper, so in this case the request signatures are likely to be different from IE. Websites can easily block such web scraping sessions by delivering some information asynchronously.

3. Scraping Data from Restricted Areas of a Website

A website may restrict some areas by a login or by only allowing specific IP addresses to access the area. If you need to extract data from such a website you need to be very careful if you don’t want your activity to be detected.

You can obviously not use a proxy rotation service, since the website can just count the page requests per login instead of per IP address, or you may not get access to the website at all if it is restricted by IP address.

First of all you need to accept that you cannot process more pages per day than what a normal human would reasonably be able to process manually. You may still want to use a web scraping tool, since it would be very tedious to process all these pages manually even if it was reasonably possible.

The following recommendations are for users who are very paranoid about being detected when scraping data from restricted areas of a website. Most websites will not have advanced techniques in place to detect web scraping, except for counting the number of page requests per user.

1. Always use a web scraping tool that uses an embedded web browser, so the request signatures are the same as a normal web browser. In Visual Web Ripper you need to process the website in Web Browser mode.

2. Set a random time delay between page requests, so the requests are consistent with how a normal human browses a website. Visual Web Ripper allows you to set a random time delay with a minimum and maximum delay.

3. Do not schedule your data extraction project to start at a fixed time every day.

4. You may consider building multiple versions of your data extraction project that extracts separate chunks of data, and then run the projects at random times during the day.

Source:http://extract-web-data.com/scrape-detection-and-how-visual-web-ripper-can-help-deal-with-this-problem/

Website Traffic Generation - 3 Things To Watch Out For

When it comes to setting up websites online, it has never been quite so easy to get lost in the shuffle. People on the Internet today are just as bad as drivers are sometimes, in that they are impatient with the process of getting traffic. When it comes to visiting a new site, the search engines make it really hard to get noticed, and you have to deal with them or else you will not get any major traffic to your website. Sure, you could pay several hundreds of dollars a month and get mediocre results on click through, or you could watch out for some special website traffic generation tricks of the trade.

The first thing to look for software that promises to deliver real visitors to your blog or website. There are a few options like this online, and they all prove to be adequate in many ways in regards to boosting the numbers. Find software that works on your operating system and utilizes only white hat and clean coding to generate the traffic. Do not fall prey to the sites that promise to deliver a lot of traffic than disappear when you really need them.

The second thing you'll need to watch out for in regards to gaining more visitors is duplicate content and spam. You'll find that there are a lot of spammers and duplicate content scrapers online. Simply search for a line you've written or a title of your post online, and you'll most likely get more than you bargained for. If you do some quick detective work and find that there are websites stealing your content or spamming the search engines with your name, make sure you contact the search engines and explain what is going on. Most often, companies can shut down websites that have copyrighted content on them. Be vigilant and watch out for the changes, they come by fast.

Another way to gain serious traffic is to make friends with other websites in your niche and have them post a link from their website to yours. Try to get a one-way link if possible and you'll soon be rated higher in search engines. This strategy takes some time, but the more backlinks you receive the higher you will be listed in any given search engine, no matter what you're trying to find.

The above website traffic generation tips are just quick things to look out for. Most often, people forget just how big the web is and how it can be complicated to go from 0 to thousands of visitors in a short span of time. By adjusting a few plans and working within the infrastructure that the search engines have been pushing, anyone can turn a hobby website or blog into a money making venture. Even in these hard times, people can make serious financial moves by sending targeted traffic to a website that has ad networks running on them. Even if you don't sell anything, you could earn a passive income on the web by simply positioning yourself to make gain higher rankings in the search world.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Website-Traffic-Generation---3-Things-To-Watch-Out-For&id=7319499

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Collecting Data With Web Scrapers

There is a large amount of data available only through websites. However, as many people have found out, trying to copy data into a usable database or spreadsheet directly out of a website can be a tiring process. Data entry from internet sources can quickly become cost prohibitive as the required hours add up. Clearly, an automated method for collating information from HTML-based sites can offer huge management cost savings.

Web scrapers are programs that are able to aggregate information from the internet. They are capable of navigating the web, assessing the contents of a site, and then pulling data points and placing them into a structured, working database or spreadsheet. Many companies and services will use programs to web scrape, such as comparing prices, performing online research, or tracking changes to online content.

Let's take a look at how web scrapers can aid data collection and management for a variety of purposes.

Improving On Manual Entry Methods

Using a computer's copy and paste function or simply typing text from a site is extremely inefficient and costly. Web scrapers are able to navigate through a series of websites, make decisions on what is important data, and then copy the info into a structured database, spreadsheet, or other program. Software packages include the ability to record macros by having a user perform a routine once and then have the computer remember and automate those actions. Every user can effectively act as their own programmer to expand the capabilities to process websites. These applications can also interface with databases in order to automatically manage information as it is pulled from a website.

Aggregating Information

There are a number of instances where material stored in websites can be manipulated and stored. For example, a clothing company that is looking to bring their line of apparel to retailers can go online for the contact information of retailers in their area and then present that information to sales personnel to generate leads. Many businesses can perform market research on prices and product availability by analyzing online catalogues.

Data Management

Managing figures and numbers is best done through spreadsheets and databases; however, information on a website formatted with HTML is not readily accessible for such purposes. While websites are excellent for displaying facts and figures, they fall short when they need to be analyzed, sorted, or otherwise manipulated. Ultimately, web scrapers are able to take the output that is intended for display to a person and change it to numbers that can be used by a computer. Furthermore, by automating this process with software applications and macros, entry costs are severely reduced.

This type of data management is also effective at merging different information sources. If a company were to purchase research or statistical information, it could be scraped in order to format the information into a database. This is also highly effective at taking a legacy system's contents and incorporating them into today's systems.

Overall, a web scraper is a cost effective user tool for data manipulation and management.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Collecting-Data-With-Web-Scrapers&id=4223877

Scraper Pro Gold - The Secret to ENDLESS Leads!

There are a number of reasons that home-based businesses fail today but the primary reason is insufficient lead generation. If you asked the average home-based business owner if they would benefit from having an unlimited source of sales leads available with just the click of their mouse, they would answer with a resounding "YES!" Fortunately, there is an answer to the dilemma where sales lead generation is concerned. It's called Scraper Pro Gold and it is one of the most unique yet effective sales lead generation systems on the market today.

The software enables you to harvest sales leads from the internet by using different targeted keywords. As an example of how this works, you can type in the keywords "home-based business" the Scraper Pro Gold system will pull in dozens of leads from a number of directories and search engines that relates to the keywords you entered. Additionally, you can use the names of different MLM products as keywords in order to obtain a list of their distributors which opens up more sales avenues for you.

Click Here to watch the Scraper Pro Gold video that we have posted there. Once you implement the system, you will be amazed at how quickly you will obtain hundreds of FREE sales leads which oftentimes include e-mail addresses, fax numbers, and phone numbers. You basically start contacting these leads asking them the question "Would your business be more successful if you had an unlimited source of FREE sales leads for life?" You can also contact home-based business owners as well.

Naturally, they are going to tell you "YES" which will give you an opportunity to discuss how the Scraper Pro Gold system works. This is by far the easiest software that you can use and operate. You simply type in the keywords, then choose the directories and search engines (as well as the states) that you want to target. After that, just let the system run and see how you will never have to purchase any sales leads again. It's just that simple.

You're probably wondering "if the system is so great, why do you want to share it with others?" The main reason is that the company that created and developed the Scraper Pro Gold software system has created an outstanding referral program that you will quickly benefit from, along with the multitude of leads! If you visit the scraper pro gold website here, you can learn more about this amazing system and get started generating unlimited FREE sales leads TODAY!

Best of all, there is only a one-time fee for marketing this program and starting to generate hundreds, if not thousands, of ongoing sales leads. You can create revenue in one of two ways with the Scraper Pro Gold system. You can either contact your leads and start telling them about the primary program, or you can sell the program to others if you want. One way or the other, you're going to generate an unlimited amount of leads and start benefiting from the system immediately!

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Scraper-Pro-Gold---The-Secret-to-ENDLESS-Leads!&id=5106877

Corporate Website Development Marketing Tips

Corporate website development is much more than just creating your website and putting it online. When developing your site you must consider marketing as a foundation to the development of your online presence. Businesses who fail to approach development from a marketing mind often find themselves dissatisfied with results of their site.

Corporate Marketing Tips

These are a few things to consider when developing your site that you want to make sure you communicate with your developer. Remember, often times people who develop or build websites are good at the technical aspect of the process but have minimal knowledge as to the successful marketing implementation.

1.Prominent and focused call to action - this is the process of leading your visitor down a path that is predefined by you. Most websites fail to guide the visitor down a specific path, which results in a site that does not perform as it should. An example of this could be a video that invites the visitor to put in their information to receive something of value. Additionally, it could be as simple as direct verticals that is has clear navigation and specific action.
   
2.Social media integration - the online world has drastically changed with social media being a driving force effecting the way we communicate and validate as a culture. This corporate website development marketing tip is critical if you want to engage your visitor. Social media integration can drastically increase your marketing results as other people share and approve of your content.
   
3.Blog Integration - this is a must for any new corporate development. This concept is foreign to most businesses as they don't understand the value in having a blog integrated on their corporate site. There are many reasons why a blog should be included. A few main reasons include, adding value to the visitor, giving people a reason to come back to your site, creating relevance in the search engine and increasing website authority.
   
4.Niche Keyword Research - this is a major downfall of most online development companies. They are able to make a nice looking site, however, they fail to understand the importance of developing the corporate website around the keyword research. Think of keyword research as the foundation, just as if you were to build a sky scraper, the strength of that structure begins with laying the proper foundation.

These are just a few of the important marketing tips to consider when developing your corporate website. Focusing on these will position your site ahead of those in your market who don't understand successful online asset development.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Corporate-Website-Development-Marketing-Tips&id=6087459

Promoting Your Website Through Writing Articles

One of the most popular methods of helping your website is through the writing of articles and then publishing them on websites / ezines who allow articles to be submitted. There are several things to bear in mind for the successful use of articles.

1. For articles to have the best effect they should not be duplicated on your site. If you submit articles already on your site, you will lose the unique content from your site. Unfortunately this approach does mean hard work. If you write a good article it seems a shame not to have it your own site as well. One approach I would suggest is that if you wanted to promote "yoga exercises" I would first create good pages and articles about "yoga exercises". I would put these on my own site. (Before promoting a site you should make sure there is something worthwhile promoting). Then I would write an article specifically for the purpose of promoting this site with appropriate links. This means no matter how many times the article gets copied you will not get any duplicated content issues and not be associated with "scraper sites"

2. Of course there are no hard and fast rules, some people have said they have reproduced their own articles without any adverse consequences. Also it may depend on your goals of writing articles. If it is really good article publishing it in more than one place may give you the benefit of having many people reading it. However I would be careful about doing this too much, especially since Google is likely to be working to devalue this SEO technique.

3. If you want to promote a site on "yoga exercises" make sure you write articles on a related theme. This might be general articles on yoga, meditation, personal well being e.t.c. Links will only be valued when they come from sites and articles with the keywords you want to promote.

4. Related to the above point is developments from Google. Google is working hard to stop "google bombing". Remember the days when "miserable failure" used to return a page on an American President? Now it is no longer does, Google is increasingly suspicious of links from unrelated pages. Thus if you link to your yoga site from an article on "Varieties of English Cheeses during the late medieval period of 1600-1700". Google will probably view your yoga links as "link spam". It is not inconceivable your site may get a bad reputation with Google if you do this too much.

5. Correct linking from your article. Usually ezines allow 1 or 2 links in your article to your own site. To get the most benefit from link I would suggest this:

a) link anchor text of a keyword you wish to promote "yoga exercises" or "guide to yoga"

b) It is also useful to have one link as the site URL make it a live link. This means even if other sites strip out html you will still have a link.

c) Vary links. Don't always use the same resource box. Google likes natural links. Change the anchor link text, link to different pages. Don't just link to the homepage. The key is variety.

d) Putting links in the main body of the article will reduce the chance of it being copied by other sites. However for some articles I will still add a link in middle of text because these are more valuable than links at bottom.

6. The key to success is to write an article that other website will want to copy this will give you the widest exposure and maximum number of links. Good articles are informative, simple and easy to read. They are not ego driven. Also don't make a blatant sales pitch in your article. As Christopher Knight of  says "You are aiming to promote your article not your site"

7. Make sure your title has good keywords. It should be at least 3-4 words and be descriptive of your article. If the keywords are good it will improve your chance of getting good Google ranking for the article. In turn this will increase the chance of it getting copied by other sites.

8. Do try to have a good quality article so that it gets copied by good quality websites. There is little if any benefit from it being copied by many of the scrapper sites. (sites which offer no unique content but just copy others and then add Google adsense)


Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Promoting-Your-Website-Through-Writing-Articles&id=434948