I have been an avid Court TV fan and Internet junkie for many years, so when I saw the show, Katie.com, being advertised on Court TV about a 13 year old girl who was the victim of an Internet sexual predator whom she met in a chat room 9 years ago, I had to watch it.

Let me first say that 9 years ago, the Internet was quite different than it is today. It was populated by mostly men.  This young child came forward at the risk of ruining her reputation to prosecute this fellow for a crime that most authorities knew little about at that time nor knew how to handle. Three cheers for Katie Tarbox who also wrote a book about her experience titled, "Katie.com".

Image my surprise though when I visited www.katie.com today all warm and fuzzy with the feeling of a job well done by Katie and discovered that Katie.com is not owned by Katie Tarbox. This domain is owned by a gal in the UK, Katie Jones, who has non the less been a victim herself of unwanted attention ever since Katie Tarbox wrote her book and is now having television broadcasts produced using a domain name that she does not own. I cannot image the personal turmoil Katie Jones has had to endure as well as high bandwidth costs. Perhaps Katie Tarbox should seriously consider monetarily reimbursing Katie Jones for the high website traffic costs she has had to pay for and the public humiliation she has had to endure.

Ironically, Katie Tarbox has her own website, KatieT.com.  In all honestly, I was quite impressed by the show but this domain situation has tarnished that impression. I feel very badly for Katie Tarbox. No child should ever have to go through what she went through, but quite frankly, the Katie who really owns Katie.com is just as much as a victim. I'm surprised that one victim of this crime would cause another to be victimized in any way, shape or form.

The Court TV show also talked about a website that is sort of a vigilante toward this type of crime as they publish information about online sexual predators that they "catch" in the act. This website is "Perverted-Justice.com - Exposing wannabe perverts on the 'net" but I was unable to reach it today likely due to high traffic congestion. I could not even get to a Google cache.

It is a sad, sad world when folks use wonderful tools such as the Internet that were developed for positive reasons to commit crimes against innocent people. Once I get to the Perverted-Justice.com website, I most certainly will have to comment on its contents. I'd me eager to hear your thoughts as well.

// posted by BasicDeidre on 7/29/2004 11:24:07 AM / Permanent Link  

Great news! The upgrade to our affiliate program has been completed and what an outstanding program we have waiting for you.

Here are a few of the newest program features:
http://www.basictemplates.com/programs/resellers.shtml

• totally new Affiliate Admin Interface
• 2nd-Tier sales have been added: Get 5% of second-tier sales!
• downloadable sales and stats reports
• ability to use and track Sub-IDs
• same quality real-time stats
• updated affiliate training center (What is a 2nd-tier? What is a Sub-ID, coding explanations, etc.)
• request marketing materials for "your" specific targeted market
• tons of NEW Promotional Materials:

 ..... banners, buttons
 ..... link menus
 ..... over 100 articles
 ..... full-page ad copy
 ..... newsfeed 
 ..... blog feed
 ..... text ads

So what are you waiting for? If you are not already a BasicTemplates.com affiliate, you are missing out on a great program to supplement your income.

If you are a current affiliate, run that mouse (don't walk him) on over to your affiliate account admin area.

As always, we appreciate our affiliates for choosing a BasicTemplates.com's "Make More Money" program. We appreciate all partner relationships and wish everyone continued success.

Mike - Programs Manager
BasicTemplates.com

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Discover more ways to supplement your income and Make More Money! .... MMM
www.basictemplates.com/programs/

// posted by BasicMike on 7/27/2004 06:26:33 PM / Permanent Link  

BasicTemplates.com has reached a milestone this week. We now have over 1000 templates for members access or individual purchase by non-members. That's quite a few additions since we began our membership service in May 2002. And we have only just begun to bring you quality web templates that are effective (do not contain excess, unnecessary graphics that weigh down your web pages), utilize external CSS for global cosmetic changes on your website and enables the end user to swap-out or interchange graphics with ease.

We have two important announcements coming this week, so be sure to subscribe to our newsletters (in case you haven't already).

// posted by BasicRic on 7/26/2004 02:28:54 PM / Permanent Link  

They say silence is golden and in our case this week that statement is true. We are just about to release our upgraded affiliate program and a few other new features (shhhh.....) are just around the corner. So we have all been busily buzzing about our 15-hour day work activities. Everyone is so excited about the new affiliate program. I'm sure you will agree too when you see how much money you will be able to make.

The funny thing is each of us thought the other was keeping our blog updated this past week. LOL ... guess there was too much silence resulting in an e-communication breakdown. Anyway, I've put a cyber-bug in each of their ears urging them all to post to our BasicBlog soon. We certainly aim to keep our promise of frequent postings despite how busy we may be in our professional lives and personal lives.

Have a good weekend folks. If you are in the northern hemisphere, keep cool. It's brutally H-O-T out there.

// posted by BasicBeca on 7/24/2004 07:27:51 AM / Permanent Link  

Hi folks. Today (Monday, July 19, 2004) our affiliates/resellers program will be undergoing a major upgrade. During this process, you may experience problems logging into your affiliate administrative account but all of your affiliate promotional materials will continue to function properly.

After the upgrade is complete, we will notify you again regarding specific changes that were made. However, we do not anticipate that any actual coding will need to be changed by you.

Thanks to all of our affiliates and resellers for choosing a BasicTemplates.com's "Make More Money" program. We appreciate your partner relationship with us and wish you continued success.

Mike - Programs Manager
BasicTemplates.com, Web Site Templates with External CSS
www.basictemplates.com

Discover more ways to supplement your income and Make More Money! .... MMM
www.basictemplates.com/programs/

// posted by BasicMike on 7/19/2004 02:39:07 PM / Permanent Link  

How do you spell ... " A GOOD DEAL" ?
 
" B-A-S-I-C-T-E-M-P-L-A-T-E-S-.-C-O-M "
 
If you are like the majority of folks who thought our web templates and swap-out graphics membership rates were already an excellent value for the quality of the designs you receive, wait until you see what's coming VERY soon!
 
Yes, you guessed it. This is a teaser post. Keep one eye on this blog or sign up for our newsletters to get the scoop.
 

// posted by BasicBeca on 7/19/2004 02:28:17 PM / Permanent Link  

Check out Google's Blog entry posted yesterday by their Google Doodles guy. It is fascinating to see all of Google's special holiday logos over the years.

We have saved most of our BasicTemplates.com holiday logos, and thought you might find our blast from the past presentation interesting as well. Take a trip down the Basic Logos memory lane.

In the past we have written several articles regarding the importance of recognizing special holidays and events on your website, and we offered ideas on how to cost-effectively complete the project. Here's a re-post of the article links for those who may have missed it. [Reference Articles: Is Your Website Ready for the Holidays? Part 1, 2 & 3

// posted by BasicBeca on 7/09/2004 08:57:14 AM / Permanent Link  

For all Photoshop users, you may want to consider attending this year's PhotoshopWorld Conference & Expo which will be held in Orlando, Florida on September 1-3. It is an unbelievable experience! Get More Info here. With more than 60 classes to choose from this year, there most certainly will be something for everyone. Even if you are not a PhotoShop user, you may become one after attending this awesome conference. Maybe we will see you there, eh?

// posted by BasicRic on 7/08/2004 12:14:45 PM / Permanent Link  

We believe we have the incoming email server issue resolved, however, it is being tested and will be for a few days longer. So we will continue to leave the temporary email address available until we are absolutely sure all mail is arriving safely as normal.

Thanks again for your patience, everyone!

// posted by BasicRic on 7/08/2004 12:06:55 PM / Permanent Link  

I just love technology when things go smooth. But when high tech suddenly goes awry for no apparent reason, it drives everyone over the edge. Okay, just close to it. ;(

I'm sure you have been there ... you switch hosting companies, email services, scripts, whatever, and daily routines are going smooth. Suddenly you wake up one morning, sit down at your computer while sipping your early morning java and discover that *#&(#*@#$% incoming email servers [substitute the problem with your own high-tech hiccup] stopped working. {sigh}

Thus our entire day yesterday was spent on the phone and submitting support tickets to various services we outsource trying to determine what is happening. That wouldn't be too bad, but today the same problem exists, and we have no alternative but to resort to drastic measures in order to communicate appropriately and in a timely manner with our loyal customers and website visitors.

Even one day without the proper ability to communicate with our customers and site visitors is one day too much. We receive a ton of customer email every day and 100s of orders are delivered every week. Properly functional email is an absolute must. Glitches will happen every now and then, but not for a full day.

So today will be spent on Plan B. In the meantime, please continue to direct any inquiries you may have to a temporary email address we have setup on a separate server which is functioning fine:

---> cs @ basicWEBtemplates.com

As always, thanks again to all for your patience, understanding, return business and continual support and referrals for our web templates and membership services.

// posted by BasicRic on 7/07/2004 08:39:42 AM / Permanent Link  

Hey folks, this does not happen often. In fact, in the three years I've been with BasicTemplates.com I've never seen this type of discount offer across the board. For a limited time (?), you can get 15% off a 12-month membership.

Limited Time? Don't you just hate it when a merchant uses this terminology? I do and I tried to talk them out of it. Just what does "limited time" mean? Well, I've heard rumors that it will be at least through the first half of July. So make a note of it.

If you are interested in joining this very popular web template membership service, you can get more information here: www.basictemplates.com/J4/

// posted by BasicRic on 7/02/2004 01:47:13 PM / Permanent Link