Recently, I learned that two of my web sites were listed on a general magic web site that calls itself the center for all magical places. This was done without my permission.

Some would ask, "What's the problem? Why does it make a difference? After all, you want web traffic and high listings on Google, don't you?"

Well, actually, I don't. Both of these links go to web sites that are for specialists. One is my cups and balls museum web site, the other my publishing company. I don't really want a lot of traffic on either one. I just want a moderate presence, which I already have.

Here's a fact about web sites. If you exceed a certain bandwidth of material transferred, the people who host your web site will charge you more money for it. Or they will stop access to that site for a period of time that they determine.

I don't need that.

I also do not need to have hyperlinks on web sites like MySpace.com (AKA Predators' Shopping House), any site that sells diet drugs, or anything that has to do with any religion, political party, subversive group or fringe nut group. I also will not allow hyperlinks on web sites that expose magic. I recently removed the link to the Cups and Balls Museum from Wikipedia, because it was in an article that exposed the cups and balls.

One of my web sites, not among the ones that were listed, has over 100 hyperlinks on it. Each one of these was done with the express permission of the owner/operator of the web site in question. Some were done by their request.

I get requests all the time to link up to other people's web site on that site. That particular site is devoted to banjo setup. I link only sites that have to do with banjos, bluegrass, dixieland or Celtic music. Anything else has nothing to do with me.

So, if you want to put a hyperlink to someone else's web site on yours, please ask first. Some people relish this kind of publicity. Others don't.

It's just good manners and good citizenship.

Here's something to watch out for. If you have a "Smart Pages" listing with your telephone account, and you have an office in home, you might want to make sure your mailing address is not in the listing.

Why?

Here's what happened to me. I used to have a listing under Audio-Video Production. One afternoon, two guys knocked on my door. They had a couple of PAL format tapes thay wanted to have changed over to NTSC.

They also had very heavy Arabic accents.

This was right after 9/11, so I was kind of taken aback. I asked them where they got the address.

"Is on Smartpages.com"

After they left, I took action to get the addresses and maps off my pages.

I have received some very nasty e-mails and private messages from "Internet Experts" who have grossly misinterpreted what I have posted so far. They also display a lack of knowledge about the subject of unauthorized links.

I do not claim to be an expert on the internet. I don't claim to be an expert on IP law or internet law; however, I do know that there are ways that you can regulate the traffic on your web site. I did not want to implement them, because I wanted people to be able to find it without too much trouble.

I do know this. Once you have informed anyone that you don't want a link to their web site, they are supposed to remove it. If they don't, you can inform their web hosting service. The web hosting service can shut them down. I have seen this happen before.

There was a case involving a major toy company, in which they objected to a link that took people directly into a certain page in their web site, rather than taking them through the front. They successfully sued to have the link removed.

Many web sites have prohibitions on one or more of their web pages against unauthorized links.

Now, the cups and balls museum is password protected. I didn't want to do that, but I managed to fix it very quickly.