Internet Marketing: Putting Your Internet Marketing Site Online

This third in a series of "Getting Started with Internet Marketing" articles is about pointing your new web host (in article 2) to your new domain that you purchased in article 1. This linking is important because if you don't do it, you'll never see your Internet marketing site online. Period. But no problem! We're going to fix that right now.

A server (or name server or domain name server or DNS) is a computer that translates domain names into IP or Internet protocol addresses. These are expressed in a series of numbers which other servers will understand. It makes things much simpler for us because instead of needing to type in series of numbers we can just type in coolwebsite.com and everything works.

But we have to tell servers where to find our websites, and because you just purchased your domain, you probably still have the registrar's name server (or nameserver) addresses, and in order for your website to be seen, you'll have to change them over to your hosting account. This won't be the case if you've purchased a hosting account where you got a free domain or two for perks of joining, but never base your hosting decision on that alone. (See article 2 in the Getting Started with Internet Marketing" series for more buying tips.)

For this exercise, let's say you're going to have a separate hosting account. You'll need to "point" your domain to your host's name servers so that when someone types in your domain, they'll land at your web site. So, at your domain registrar's site, navigate to where the name servers are located. It may just say "DNS." These are usually located near your domain listing or accessible through a link nearby your domains.

What you're going to find are two addresses and they'll look something like this: "ns1.yourregistrar.com" and "ns2.yourregistrar.com." Both of those addresses will have to be changed. Now, open a new tab or window and go to your hosting account. Look for "name servers," "nameservers, " or "DNS." Because these are sometimes hard to find, you may want to search for one of those terms.

When you find the hosting company's name server addresses, write them down or select and copy. Then, go to your domain registrar's tab or window and plug the new addresses in. That's it! You're done!

Though the Internet has become very fast and it can take only minutes to have these addresses changed, it can sometimes take a few hours. If it takes more than that, go back to the registrar and be sure that you entered the host's DNS addresses properly. (You may have entered .com when it should be .net, for instance.) If you haven't made a mistake, then call your hosting company's support department and find out what the problem is.

Internet Dating Tips: A Free Internet Dating Guide

Online dating is one of the hottest subjects on the romance and relationships scene. If you have not yet dated online, chances are you know someone who has, or does. This article offers internet dating tips for beginners.

1. Look into thyself: The first mistake most online dating beginners make is to sign up with a dating site, through a friend’s recommendation, an advertisement or just blindly. Different sites, including popular sites, have certain differences. To find out which best fits your needs, you need to know what you want. What type of relationship are you seeking? What are your hobbies/passions? Knowing what you want will help narrow down the field and avoid overwhelm.

2. Set up shop: Now, it’s time to find a dating service. This is where knowing what you want gets important. If you want a serious relationship or marriage, a matchmaking service is probably the best place to go. There are also specialty dating sites that serve people who are passionate about something (dog lovers, for instance), religious dating sites for people who are serious about their faith and a whole range of dating sites for just about anything you can imagine. Not sure which way to go? Simply sign up with one of the large popular dating sites as they serve a wide range of interests.

3. Decide on a budget: Unless money is really tight, avoid free sites. Especially if seeking a serious relationship. Why? Free sites comprise all sorts of characters and personalities, with a good number of whom are not serious about finding love. Some free dating site members are really just minors who will pull pranks on poor lonely souls. Matchmaking sites will usually cost slightly than other internet personals sites, since they offer more services and features.

4. Test the water: Sign up for a free trial and see how you like the site, its features as well as quality of singles. Does offer assistance/advice in things like profile-writing and posting photos? How fast are your questions answered or emails responded to by the customer service? If a site does not have a free trial, don’t sign up. It is recommended that you sign with more than one site during the testing phase. After all, it’s free and you get to test more sites quicker.

5. Post photograph: Surveys by dating sites indicate that you are more likely to get a response when you post a photo with your personal ad. Too, most people first look at your photo before deciding whether to read on. Most dating sites allow more than one photo, but the main photo should be a head shot. And please make it a good one, of yourself, and one that looks like you today not several years ago.

6. Write a lively personal profile: No, you don’t Shakespearean prowess. Write like you talk. Be specific. Instead of saying, “I love movies” you might say something like “I hate to say this, but I waited in line all night and into the next day to just to watch the last of the Star Wars series”. Reading other peoples’ profiles and noting which ones interest you might help you build up yours.

The Use Of Formal English vs. Internet English: How Has The Internet Degraded Language Skills?

At one time, in the not so distant past, computers were not commonly found in homes. Computers served as a time saving device for businesses and offices and they were big, heavy, unattractive and very expensive. Over time computers, have become smaller, lighter, operate faster and have price significantly dropped in price. Thus many more of us have incorporated computers into our daily lives and homes. Today, most of us would be lost without our computers, electronic devices and the Internet!

Before the age of computers, the only way to correspond with others at a distance was through letters written by hand or on a typewriter. There was no spell check or grammar check to make life easy. People had to rely on their own proof reading and language skills in order to be understood.

In the 1990’s when computers began popping up in homes all over the world and the Internet became readily available, chatting programs such as ICQ, MSN, and AOL Instant Messenger made their debut. With these developments, communicating through writing was forever changed, and the English language has never been the same.

The development of instant messaging programs has resulted in the use of a new ‘spin-off English’ and has quickly become the de facto means by which many young people communicate. The most common spinoff would have to be using short forms and it is common to see entire phrases abbreviated. This new language is often referred to as “Internet slang”. Examples include:

• lol = laugh out loud
• ur = you are, your, or you’re
• h2gtw - have to go to the washroom
• cmitm - call me in the morning
• btw = by the way
• b4n = bye for now
• l8er = see you later
• teotwawki - the end of the world as we know it
• p911 - parent emergency / parent near

Internet slang is a form of chat room shorthand that should only be used informally. However, this slang has spilled over the chat room wall and has made it into e-mails, written correspondence, and yes, it has even found its way into research papers and the homework of schoolchildren and college students.

When writing formally, important points such as capitalization, punctuation, and grammar structure should always be used. Writing English is a craft, and this craft should be practised regularly in order to train and engrain proper techniques. Unfortunately, the use of chat rooms and slang has begun to replace reading and letter writing as primary forms of communication, ultimately harming our language skills.

The use of Internet slang has undeniably affected grammar, punctuation and spelling. Grammar is the foundation of the English language. Punctuation sets the tone and the overall meaning of a sentence - without tone, meaning can be easily misconstrued. There are often many mixed-messages in chatroom slang and e-mails!

Today many people spend more time conversing over the Internet than they do face-to-face. The Internet (including instant massaging and e-mail) is quickly becoming the most prevalent form of written correspondence. It is therefore easy to understand how the use of Internet slang for hours a day can lead to the development of poor English habits. People even belting out “LOL” in the middle of a conversation instead of laughing when speaking to a friend or colleague!

So what can be done to keep slang out of formal writing such as research papers and homework? Upon finding slang in homework and test, are deducting are more pints than they would for the usual grammar mistake. This makes the student more mindful of what they are writing and for whom.
Replacing the use of chat rooms and slang with regular reading and writing with a conscious effort to observe proper English grammar, punctuation and spelling will go a long way. Practice certainly makes perfect where the English language is concerned.

Internet Marketing Strategy News: 10 Tips For An Effective Internet Strategy

The vast majority of economically active people are Internet savvy today and are using the Net to research products and services before they buy. Your web site has to be an effective marketing and PR tool and without an Internet marketing strategy you will simply be cut out of the picture. The rules of the marketing game have changed big time.

Over 80% of all web traffic is coming via search engines. The Internet has reversed the flow of communication in the marketing cycle. It used to be:

A company (wanting to get publicity) sends a message (called a "news release") to the media (newspapers, magazines, radio & TV) who may or may not publish anything to a passive target audience who hopefully will reach for your product or service and eventually result in a sale.

Now we have networked communication lines (a.k.a. the Internet) and the prospect controls what they see or read. Now we have:

An active prospect searching on the Internet for a product or service, finding a company, reaching for the product -- resulting in the sale.

You also have customers talking directly to each other about the company. Companies are no longer in complete control of their communication and their messages.

However, there is nothing better than a hot prospect who is actively looking for your product or service. This levels the playing field. You just have to be there when they are looking, with the right offering in the right place.

Here is the sequence that has to occur for success on the Net:

1. Know Who Is Online Searching For What

This takes keyword research and an understanding of how the search engines work. Once you find where the viable online market is, you can use this to create your website so it fits what they are looking for.

2. Get Found On The Search Engines

When your market goes online to do a search on these keywords, you have to come up high in the search results--preferably on the first page. And the best possible result would be that you come up in the first three on the first page of the search results.

Research shows that searchers regard good placing in the natural search results (as opposed to pay per click or sponsored links) as an indicator of a company who is tops in their field. 80% of all business on the Internet goes to the first three on the first page of a search result. The design, content and programming of your site all influence your search rankings.

3. Get Picked Out Of All The Names On The Search Page Results

So you are on the first page. That means you are displayed along with 10 - 20 other companies. Your description of your website on the search result page has to be carefully crafted so it appeals to the searcher. I have seen companies who have achieved a Number 1 status on their chosen key phrase, yet the description of their website does not say anything about the service, is totally boring or missing some other key data. So they still don't get the traffic.

Example:
Would you pick this one?
Lavender Baby Soap
... Business Hours: Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 3:30 pm Mountain Time.

Or this one?
Baby Soaps - Specialty Soaps - Hills of Galillee
Your baby's tender skin deserves the tenderest care, doesn't it? Protect your baby's health with our three specialty Baby Soaps. No chemicals or harsh ingredients, all natural.

4. Set Up Your Home Page To Receive This Traffic

Now that you have got through the hurdles of being found and picked, your home page has to speak immediately to why they searched on that word or phrase--they have to know right away that they are in the right place and you can help them.
It has to entice them to come right into the website. Otherwise you have spent time and effort getting traffic all the way to your front door only to have then turn around and leave. Stats show that, on average, business sites lose 60% of their traffic off the home page and 80% within three clicks.

The home page has to be intuitive -- easy to use and understand.

5. You Need Good Content To Keep Their Attention And Keep Them Coming Back To The Website

People are still skeptical of doing business with someone they don't know and so several interactions on the Internet are necessary. Research shows that it takes 7 - 10 visits to a website before a prospect calls or buys.

How do you keep them coming back? Gathering names and emails is vital to your internet marketing strategy.. You can then get their permission to communicate with them. Send them a newsletter so you can become a source of useful and valid info on your industry or subject. Send them notifications that your content has been updated.

6. Make Sure Your Site Can Easily Deliver The Buying, Booking Or Contact Process.

Recent research shows that making a booking online, for airlines or hotels, costs about 5 cents. A call to a toll free number at a call center costs $5 and booking at the actual hotel or airline costs $14. The same applies to getting customers. The cost of a lead coming via the Net is low, but using other advertising and marketing methods is costly. One of our clients who supplies business phone systems just got their first lead off their website after it was optimized. No marketing or sales dollars spent - the prospect sent an email requesting a sales person call her. And she is actively looking for a phone system! Far better than trying to persuade someone they need a phone system.

Conversion rates are a low 2 - 5% on the average business website. When it is too hard or confusing to take an action, they won't take the action.

7. Update Your Content

You want to constantly update your web content based on the key words found in #1. This keeps you high on the search results and also keeps visitors interested and coming back to the site.
Get a full review of your website to find any reasons why it is not performing. This will result in an effective internet marketing strategy to get the site doing well. This could include a new layout for the home page according to best practices that get results. Get the Home Page text written to the researched keywords (on average this action alone can raise results by 150%).

8. Start a blog

A blog (slang for weB LOG) is a 'journal' that is available on the web. Its purpose is to attract interest in your company and to get the reader to come to your web site.

Blogs are like a personal web site that is easily updated and are an important marketing and public relations tool. Many news stories in newspapers or magazines started with a blog. A blog that uses key in the text along with links is a winning combination.

Another very important plus is that search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo love blogs. (A picture may be worth a thousand words but not to a search engine.) The media are watching blogs and may start their research for a story there. A good blog includes news feeds that were set up for targeted journalists in the media.

The result should be more traffic to your business, which should increase your prospects and sales.

9. Issue Optimized Press Releases

Since people are searching directly into the News and Search Engines today, it is vital to have your press releases go directly into these channels based on your keywords. An optimized press release can also be fully tracked and show you the exact results of your online campaigns. This also helps your targeted journalists find your press releases, which would also be posted on your web site.

10. Create An Online Media Room

Once you create this buzz of interest journalists will visit your website. If you don't service them correctly they go elsewhere. Studies done with journalists show conclusively that those companies with a good media room, one that is set up with the content they want, get more coverage than those who don't cater to the media.

A web site is like a giant yellow pages or a store on Main Street. Use these internet marketing strategy tips to drive business to your site and make those cash registers sing!

Online Internet Marketing – 3 Top Tools And Services For An Effective Internet Marketing Solution

Everyone knows the Internet is growing exponentially and continually evolving. The major players in the continual evolution of the Internet are the major search engines and consumer generated media such as blogs. Because of the continual changes, a well rounded Internet marketing strategy must include a variety of proven marketing options to ensure success. I will outline 3 of the most effective Internet marketing solutions available and how they relate to your marketing strategy.

SEO Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the first because the free advertising afforded by the search engines is partly determined by on-page optimization techniques. With thousands of new Websites being created daily, the competition for a listing on the first search result page is increasingly saturated for the popular keywords. Statistics show better than 75% of people only look at the first search result page, and a similar percentage only click on the top search listing.

In order to compete effectively, a Web page must be designed around a keyword or more effectively, a keyword phrase. The keywords should be included in the page’s title, keyword META tag, page’s description, the first heading (using the H1 HTML tag), throughout the body of the page and within the last 25 words on the page. These are just a few of the basic SEO on-page options that although will not guarantee a first page listing, are definitely required as a starting point in an effective Internet marketing strategy.

In most cases, there is too much competition for certain keywords such as “golf clubs”. A better strategy would be to use “golf clubs Chicago” or “handcrafted golf clubs”. The more specific you make your keyword phrase the better. A number of free tools are available that will show the popularity of keywords and how often they are used in the search engines on a monthly basis. These will allow you to customize your Web page knowing the keyword phrase’s popularity. If you get the first page listing for a keyword with less than 100 searches per month for instance, then it doesn’t matter because your traffic will be very limited.

Link Exchanges

Once the on-page optimizations are complete, the off-page optimization options need to be addressed. Link exchanges are perhaps the best off-page SEO technique available. Google uses an algorithm to determine a page’s rank, which is determined by the number of other sites linking to it; and the QUALITY of the link is a major consideration. Pages are ranked from 1 to 10. The higher the PageRank of the site linking to yours, the better. Sites with a PR7 and above are considered as authority sites and a back link from them will send Google’s spider to your page on a regular basis.

There are a number of ways to get a back link to your site. You can email a request to the Webmaster for a link exchange. If they agree, you would return the favor by placing a link to their site on your page. You can also purchase the link. A number of sites offer this service for a monthly fee. So if you want to quickly get your site listed by Google and the major search engines, then paying for a PR8 back link for a month or two might be well worth the investment in the long run; as new sites are placed in a “sand box” by Google for several months until they prove their longevity.

One back link from a PR8 site is worth hundreds of back links from PR2 or less sites. As a matter of fact, numerous links from low ranking sites will actually be detrimental to your site. Each back link is like a vote for your site. If you have too many low ranking sites voting for yours, Google will be reluctant to reward your site with a higher PR. You have to do your research on the site that offers to link to yours because if they were blacklisted by Google, your site will receive the same fate and you probably will never recover from this.

A PR 4 or 5 is relatively easy to attain. So your best bet is to limit your back links to PR5 and above for the best results. And by all means avoid link farms. Before Google upgraded its algorithm, just the number of back links was considered. But now the actual PageRank of your back link is considered AND the PageRank of the sites linking to THAT page. Links from link farms are now looked upon as basically spam links. You would be better off purchasing a listing in a major link directory like Yahoo or DMOZ. It’s definitely worth the investment as these are authority sites and are a major vote for your site!

Blogs

As previously indicated, consumer generated media is a major factor in the evolution of the Internet. Case in point is the enormous effect blogs had on the last Presidential campaign. A very large percentage of most searches will include blogs on the first page listing. Over 50% of purchases, online and offline are preceded by an online search for more information. And a large percentage of the information is offered by blogs. People are very interested in the opinions of others on their topic of interest.

The major blogs are updated on a daily basis, which is very important to Google’s algorithm, which uses the frequency of updates (daily, hourly and by minute) as a determining factor in the search result ranking. A powerful marketing method used by the major blogs is to submit articles on a particular topic to the major article hubs such as http://EzineArticles.com. The article hub benefits by having continually updated information (which Google likes) where they can place their money making AdSense ads. The blogger benefits by having a back link to their blog in the resource section of the article.

As numerous other bloggers and Webmasters access the article hubs for fresh information, the article can be syndicated virally to a number of sites on the Internet. This creates a number of back links to your blog or your site; generating an enormous amount of pre-qualified free traffic.

In Summary

These are just a few of the more effective online Internet marketing options available. Other options such as auto-responder email, EZine advertising and pay per click advertising should be included in a well rounded Internet marketing strategy. No matter what options you use, you definitely need to start with your on-page SEO techniques. Your listing in the search results will be enhanced by a properly optimized page.

Further optimization must include the off-page SEO techniques such as generating back links with the major site directories, link exchanges and articles submitted to the major article hubs. Using a blog for a reference in your article can be a good thing as people will be more inclined to visit a blog since it’s not a sales page. Once they have received enough information and you have generated their confidence in your opinions, you can end up with a lifetime customer.

Satellite Internet vs. Cable Internet

Cable TV versus satellite television is an old rivalry that can be seen discussed on TV at all hours of the day. The comparison seems to end however when it comes to satellite internet and cable internet access. This seems strange as cable and satellite companies are pushing packaged services over anything else. So, which is the superior Internet service provider, cable or satellite? Here we will examine both and see if we can answer the question.

Cable Internet:

Cable modems allow Internet access through the same lines that over 60 million Americans now receive cable TV. The infrastructure is proven and sound and more importantly already paid for. The coaxial cable allows dual band transmission, one for uploads the other for downloads. Cable Internet offers about as much bandwidth as any consumer customer would ever need boasting downloads of up to 30Mbps and uploads passing 512Kbps in some areas.

Cable also offers a high degree of reliability as it has been in service in many markets for over a decade, and of course the cable companies date back to the early 1970's. Generally 99% uptime can be expected.

Bundled together, cable TV and cable Internet will cost around $90.00 per month, or around $55.00 for Internet-only. This is comparable cheap for a broadband Internet service, with DSL being a slightly less expensive option in most areas.

Satellite Internet:

Internet over satellite, or IoS Service, is the technology that provides Internet access via a low, geosynchronous orbiting satellite. This means that the static position of the satellite relative to Earth allows customers to maintain connections any time of day.

One serious drawback to satellite Internet access is signal latency. Every data packet sent and received must travel from the consumer's computer, through the Internet, through a transmitter, into orbital space, then return. The round trip is around 45,000 miles, and can create a great deal of lag. Although satellite ISPs offer up to 1.5 Mbps downloads speeds, the average signal speeds are closer to 512Kbps. Add latency to this and you can see how the connection can be very slow compared to cable or DSL.

Satellite internet access is also far from affordable. The service typically costs around $50.00 to $120 per month. This doesn't include the equipment investment which can cost around $300.00 to $600.00 or more, and this is most often an upfront cost. This additional cost does not bring any additional reliability. Many customers complain about slow or even no Internet access during inclement weather, and though these interruptions are generally brief they certainly don't help justify the cost.

Conclusion:

It appears as if there is no competition between cable and satellite Internet access. Cable is superior in performance and pricing, as well as reliability. If this is truly the case, then how can satellite companies intend on competing with cable Internet? The answer is they don't. Satellite has one thing cable does not, and that is the ability to send access to any dish anywhere in the country. Rural America may for the first time have a broadband solution in satellite Internet.

If you can get cable, get it. If you can't, then at least satellite provides you with a viable (but expensive) alternative to your old 56Kbps dial up Internet service.

Internet Basics: The Internet Is Like A Refrigerator

Ever stop and think about how cool a refrigerator is? (pun intended)

And what makes refrigerators even cooler appliances is that they’re not just one big icebox. You got the crisper section with vents to keep veggies fresh. You got the dairy section with a sealed drawer to keep cheese nice and dry. Then there’s the super-insulated freezer section, the easy-to-reach condiments section, and with each section comes the great things it contains.

Put it all together and you got a refrigerator.

That’s what the Internet is like.

It’s really a large container that holds a bunch of sub-containers together. In this case, all the containers are networks. So the Internet is a network that holds a collection of sub-networks. So what are these sub-networks? Here’s the biggies:

* World Wide Web (that’s right, the Web and the Internet aren’t the same thing!)
* email
* FTP
* Chat
* Telnet
* Gopherspace
* P2P
* Instant Messenging

And just as each section in the fridge is different (e.g., vented drawer), so too, each sub-network of the Internet is different. And since each sub-network is different, you use a different type of software to work with it.

For example, you use a browser (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer) for the World Wide Web. You use an email client (e.g., Eudora or Outlook Express) for email. You use FTP software for FTP, and so on.

And when you put all the sections together, you’ve got the Internet.

And that’s why the Internet is like a refrigerator.

Copyright (c) Grant Pasay 2005. All rights reserved.

Internet Marketing Is A Map To Internet Billboard

Companies selling merchandise or products online need all the help they can get inviting people to their web site to make a purchase. There is an old internet marketing conclusion that says no matter how good the web site or how good the product, without visitors a web site is a waste of time and effort. Imagine a billboard along the side of the road and the road is closed. If no one travels down the road, they will not the see billboard.

A web site is a virtual billboard on the side of the internet highway and the goal of internet marketing is to get people to travel down that road. Once they find the site they can then make a choice about whether to buy from the company or not, but the first concern needs to be getting people to their site.

With millions of internet web sites the odds of stumbling across one that is not part of any internet marketing network is essentially zero. Internet marketing drives the customers to the site and a string network promotes the company that operates the site. Having it all work together is what drives sales and multilevel marketing is ab out the fastest way of building that strong network.

Everyone who joins in the network wants to make money and will have their own web site promoting the company and/or the product. Their problem is that everyone who is part of the network will be vying for the same internet customers and trying to promote their individual site so the sales are credited to them. Each owner of the site will be marketing their own business page while the main company wins all the way around. The network member with the best marketing plan wins while the others may either beef up their marketing effort or move on to a different multilevel marketing program.

This is probably where most new internet marketing people lose their interest in the online sales business. They do not know enough about how to promote their web site and watch as others become successful selling the exact same product. After asking themselves what they are doing wrong for a few weeks, they will usually blame the product, the main company or the entire process, unwilling to accept their own inability to market their business successfully.

As they drop out and move on, someone else who sees the success of the remaining marketers are willing to take their place in the profit leg of one of the successful business owners. Most of the ones who leave are unable to admit defeat because of their own failings and convince themselves they can do better with a different program or a different product line. After all, it is not their fault their business did not make it.

Perhaps it is the term marketing that confuses people and the word advertising simple sounds expensive to many. The term promotion can be substituted for either of the terms as the end result is essentially the same. The difference is internet marketing is today’s buzzword while promotions ended when the internet began.

If You Allow Your Children To Access The Internet You Should Look At Using Internet Filters

Internet Filters

The Internet is growing at a rapid pace. Though I have no idea how fast it is growing, I know that there are thousands and thousands of new items added each day, and in fact, this estimate might be very low. Most of the information on the Internet is rather harmless, but there are also a lot of things you may not want your children to see. That is why Internet filters are a great idea if you have children who are getting on your computer to go online. I know that when my daughter is old enough to start surfing the web, I will be using these filters myself.

Internet filters come with your Internet service at times. In other instances, you may have to go out and purchased this for yourself. Either way, it is a wise investment. You may think your child will not go looking for porn, or other things you don’t want them to see, but that does not mean they will not stumble upon them accidentally. Even on message boards that are meant to be child friendly there are people who might post links that you would not want your child to click on. If you have Internet filters in place, this is something you will not have to worry about.

Though Internet filters are not perfect, they are far better than having nothing at all. They may not be able to block everything you wish to keep from your child, they will keep a majority of the bad stuff away from their impressionable eyes. You can also set Internet filters on your search engines so that your child will get the sites that you want them to see. You may be surprised at what may come up on an Internet search for a harmless search term. Some people who have pornographic sites will list harmless keywords on their site in order to get more traffic.

When you install Internet filters on your computer, make sure you take the time to adjust them as time goes along. They will not work perfectly at first, and will need a lot of input from you. You should think of the as an ongoing project. Keep an eye on the history section of your Internet browser to see where your child has been going. If you see any sites that are unacceptable, you may have to at just your Internet filters.

Strategic Internet Marketing Can Help Your Internet Business

Many businesses are popping up today and they want to expand. They want to take their product, service, or cause and bring it to the masses. As every business professional knows, the easiest and most effective way expand your business is through the use of the Internet. With such a vast expanse of information and the constant access to any number of potential customers, it is absolutely necessary to use the Internet to market your business. Because of this another marketing tool has evolved. Many new strategic Internet marketing firms have come into prominence and are now offering services to these businesses that were not previously afforded to them. Learning what strategic Internet marketing is exactly and how can it help your business will take some research. The answers are not all that complex and they are very important to your success.

A simple definition of strategic Internet marketing is that it is a technique for defining a potential market before you enter it. While this might be a very simplistic answer to a pretty advanced question, it is the basic building block upon which the Internet marketing industry is built. If you were to start a restaurant, hotel, or jewelry store without first looking into the possibilities within that market, you would probably fail miserably. The Internet is no different. If you want to start a business there, you must approach it as if it is a normal business. This means putting in the time and research to get things right. It also means that you probably want to hire professionals to determine what you can do within the market with your product. Some people like to look at the Internet as a huge world all its own, that you can cover the entire web at once with your product. It is actually very different. The Internet is more like a little nation, with different sects and towns liking different things. The right people will never make their way to your website if you do not put the right roads in front of them.

Through strategic Internet marketing, businesses can assess their possibilities and the reality of their situation. When that is done, it is possible to set goals and objectives for a business. In order for any business to be successful, it must have those high-water marks that it seeks to hit in order to be successful. By using a strategic Internet marketing firm, your business will know exactly what you are working with in a given market. From there, you can begin to formulate a business plan.

Strategic Internet marketing is a process that will allow you to not only define your company’s goals on the Internet, but also decide who your customers are and how you will reach them. Marketing is all about specialization and getting the right information to the right people. By taking a deeper look at what the market might look like, your business professionals can work with a strategic Internet marketing firm in order to bring these potential customers into your grasp.

Strategic Internet marketing firms are a great way to get a leg up on the competition within your given market. It is important to utilize these great tools in order to be successful. Failing to prepare is almost certainly preparing to fail. Approach an Internet business just as your would any other new business venture. It should include a great business plan as well as some solid product promotion in order to be truly successful.

Internet Marketing Strategy – Online Internet Business

Three Things NEVER To Do with your Online Business.

In business there are certain things you must not do if you want to be successful in your online home based business. But if you already run a successful business you would already know this. If you are new to business ownership the following tips can be very helpful. First of all never ever skimp on promotion advertising and marketing. Without adequate marketing your business can end up making a huge loss in product or services sales.

A perfect example is a small business that sells audio CD's for children that is introducing a new item on the market. This business is unknown and relatively new. They have a great website which they advertise in a couple of the local newspapers, Only a small handful of people will be aware of this new company and its audio CD product. A much better way of marketing and advertising would have been to advertise in larger nationwide newspapers or putting there website address on a Billboard that can be seen by allot of people in heavy traffic areas. This might be a little more expensive but you will get more bang for your buck, you will reach a greater audience base.

Secondly never underestimate your competition; use the internet to do some investigating and always keep your guard up. If you are in a very competitive market you should consider this. If for example you own a Music Site you would want to know if any sites have any special offers. Do they have a greater selection? What are there rates like, are there prices cheaper or more expensive? Do the have discounted packages like buy 5 get one free? You need to pay close attention to both the bigger and smaller Music Sites both in your area and nationwide. You want to be competitive with there prices so if you can't go cheaper try to at least match there prices. Customers love to get cheaper prices even if it only saves them a couple of cents.

Lastly you should never go into business without properly researching it. You want to ensure you know as much as you can about the home business you are planning to get involved with. You want financial details and as much information on your potential competition, the internet can help you get this information. When you devote time to do research you improve your chances for success, it is almost guaranteed, you would not want any surprises coming up later down after you have invested your time and money. You want your business to run as easy as possible

If you follow the internet marketing strategy above your online internet business would be on the right track. This will help you create a good business foundation. Remember do not enter into any business venture without proper planning and research. Treat your company like you would treat your children. Nurture it, give it allot of loving care and all the things that it will need to grow and you will be happy with the results If you would like to know more on this topic check out the link below for “Dotcomology” the art of making money with your home business.

Internet Marketing Promotions: The Lifeblood Of Your Internet Business

Having a business on the internet is a great opportunity. You will need to come up with effective ways to market your product or service in an effort to generate traffic to your website. The more people who come to your website, the more sales you will have. Marketing is very important for new online businesses. It doesn’t matter how great what you are offering is if people don’t know about it.

There are great ways to market your business on the internet that doesn’t cost you are large amount of money. You can choose to advertise by setting up a promotion about your company and your products or services, then distribute it by email. You will have to identify your target population then purchase a list of email names and addresses that fit that demographic.

Another great approach is to use an internet marketing broker. They will be able to initiate wonderful marketing strategies for your business. They best part is you don’t pay them unless the traffic they generate results in sales. This will mean they work hard as that is how they earn their money. If your business does well then they do well. If the marketing they do doesn’t generate sales then they don’t make any money of you.

Writing a blog that is interesting about your business is a great way to get people to click the link and to check it out. Make sure you update your blog regularly so that people will come back to read it. You should place it where your target audience is sure to see it.

Marketing is a very important part of a successful internet business. There are many great options that won’t cost you very much money. If possible, try more than one marketing approach so that you are sure to generate traffic to your website. Make sure it downloads quickly and get ready for some great sales levels!

The Seeds Of Lasting Internet Profits For The Internet Novice

How can any internet novice make internet profits that continue? Well its simple how can any child learn the alphabet? All of it is learnt step by step, the first step being simply to start! Sounds a little odd to say that but it’s not because most of us have toyed with the idea of making money while we sleep or making money 24-7. How many of us actually have a website let alone an internet income stream? Not many!

When you start out you should do everything yourself! Your online business is nothing yet so you can’t pay someone for all the tech work out of your non-existent internet income stream! You will obviously need to have some time, commitment and little money to start. You need to buy and register a domain name get a hosting account then start to build a basic website.

If you don’t know how to you will need a basic education as to what needs to be done and how. Look at other websites for layouts and ideas, visualise what you want your website to look like and what you are actually going to sell or promote. There are various ways to learn how to get it started; 3 weeks ago I had no idea how to build a web page let alone a website now I own and am in the process of building (albeit slowly) four websites.

I haven’t got my own product yet, one day I may have one, that’s because I have decided to start tapping into one income stream by being an affiliate, that’s where you promote someone else’s products or sites for a commission for every customer they get through your site.

Building an internet business and making internet profits that last will require determination especially initially as you plant your seeds for future profit. The likes of Yahoo, MSN, and Google aren’t the top 3 visiting sites because of what they are doing now – remember it’s not long ago that there was no internet. Google floated on the stock exchange in 2004, the share price has more than tripled! Imagine - the work you do now for your website could result in your very own Google in 10 or 20 years time. Bringing you back down to earth again, you can’t make any profit from the internet without any traffic coming to your site!

Many of the things mentioned here can be learnt for free on various courses online. Without learning there can’t be much earning. So the tip for any internet newbie is to invest time and effort in a free practical course that gets you the basic knowledge and the continue seeking information to help build on that so that you can plant the seeds that create internet profits that last.

Internet Home Business – Making The Internet Work For You

Have you ever considered an internet home business? Would you like to make money and work at home at the same time? Let’s face it who wouldn’t. The internet can reach across the globe. It is one of the single most important inventions of our time. You can purchase goods, talk or read emails with the click of a button. The internet has also opened up a new marketplace, one which is available and easily accessible by the general public. It’s called the make money online industry and everyone wants to get in on the action.

Take jewellery for instance. For years people have made their own handmade jewellery and sold it at farmers markets or to their friends. This very simple idea, with the help of the internet, can now be used to make your very own profit making internet home business.

All you have to do is get a business web site. These web sites will allow you to take orders using credit cards or paypal. You can set up shopping carts and design your own web site to attract customers. You can also hire a professional to do it for you. Either way, your web site is the ultimate marketing tool. It’s important that you make it easy to use and appealing to your customers.

Next thing to worry about is your product. You have to have something to sell. If you’re using the jewellery idea, you need to make sure that your product is the best that it can be. Having a wide assortment of jewellery is probably the best idea and if you don’t have any you can always sell other peoples, that the great thing about these excellent work from home ventures, you don’t have to have your own product to make money online.

Any successful work from home business is what you make it. You are ultimately your own boss and to be successful you need to be both ambitious and be able to take chances. You will have to buy supplies, set up your web site and work out the details before you’ll see one penny. This means having a budget, and working within it, probably at a loss, for some time.

Millions of people make money online and work at home. You can too you just need to believe in yourself and take the plunge. Start your profit making internet home business now.

Security And Internet Browsers – Firefox Vs. Internet Explorer

Introduction

The Internet is becoming a more and more dangerous place to be, due in no small part to the inherent security risks posed by viruses and spyware. Additionally, applications that access the Internet as part of their normal operations may have errors in their code that allows hackers to launch attacks against the computer on which those applications are running. The safety and integrity of digital assets is further compromised by the fast-growing threat of cybercrooks who devise and implement large-scale hoaxes such as phishing and ID theft.

In the light of all this, it’s clear that users need a reliable and secure web browser between them and the Internet, which will be free of these problems and won’t let harmful content invade the computer.

The web browser industry continues to be dominated by the Windows-bundled Internet Explorer, with an 85% market share, but in recent years a new breed of free, more functional and resilient browsers has appeared – the most popular being Mozilla/Firefox and Opera. All have received serious security upgrades to help protect against recent scares and safeguard users online.

Internet Explorer is at version 6.0, essentially the same product that was included with Windows XP in 2001. Eighteen months ago, the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 substantially increased IE safety; however, it did not eliminate many of the loopholes exploited by hostile program code. At present, Firefox is at version 1.5, but its very different development history (see next section) means that it can be considered at a similar level of maturity as Internet Explorer.

Currently, Microsoft is preparing its next-generation browser, Internet Explorer 7.0, which it plans to introduce sometime during the first half of 2006. The company has stated that it intends to make the browser stronger and more secure to help protect its users against the many problems that have dogged the software over the years.

We, along with Internet users everywhere, await the final results with interest. In the meantime, we decided to undertake our own security evaluation of both IE 7 (beta) and its closest rival, Firefox 1.5.

History and overview

Internet Explorer is a proprietary graphical web browser developed by Microsoft. In 1995, the company licensed the commercial version of Internet Explorer 3.0 from Spyglass Mosaic and integrated the program into its Windows 95 OSR1 edition. Later, it included IE4 as the default browser in Windows 98 – a move which continues to raise many antitrust questions.

Firefox is an open-source browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation; anyone who is proficient enough can collaborate in writing and improving its program code. Mozilla is known for its stringent approach to security, promising a bounty of several thousand dollars for any major vulnerability found in the product.

Security incidents and threat response

While no browser is perfect, major security lapses happened rather more frequently with IE than with Firefox. To be fair, Firefox has less than a 10% market share and is thus a rather less enticing target than IE; that’s probably also why security researchers focus much of their attention on the vulnerabilities of Microsoft’s browser, not Firefox’s. Some people have argued that if the market shares were reversed, bugs in Firefox would start appearing on a more frequent basis, as has recently been the case with Internet Explorer.

The open-source architecture of Firefox contributes to the overall safety of the browser; a community of skilled programmers can spot problems more quickly and correct them before a new release is available for general use. It’s been said that threat response time for Firefox averages one week, while it may take months for Microsoft engineers to fix critical bugs reported by security analysts – an unacceptable situation for users who remain unnecessarily vulnerable to exploits (hacker attacks) during that time.

From the threat response standpoint, Firefox is clearly the winner.

Security features

- Phishing safeguard

New protection against financial fraud and identity theft has been incorporated into the new IE. A so-called “phishing filter” now appears on the Internet Options menu, which is intended to protect users against unknowingly disclosing private information to unauthorized third parties. Here’s how it works:

If a user visits a spoofed site which looks exactly like a genuine one – usually as a result of clicking on a link in a fraudulent email - the browser senses a phishing attempt and compares the site against a list of known phishing sites. If the filter finds the site is a phishing culprit, it blocks access to the site and informs the user of the danger of leaving his/her personal details on sites like this. The database of known phishing sites is updated regularly, and users have an option to report a suspected phishing instant to Microsoft for evaluation.

We’re pleased to report that, even in beta, the filter appears to work quite well, correctly identifying half of the test sites we visited as phishing sites.

In Firefox, phishing protection is delivered through third-party extensions such as Google Safe Browsing (currently in beta for US-based users only (see http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/safebrowsing/index.html); this can be plugged into the browser’s extension menu.

As additional protection against accidental phishing, the authors of IE have stated that they plan to make their product display the URL of every visited site. With IE 6, this capability was not available and many pop-ups appeared without displaying an address in the previously non-existent address bar. Unfortunately, in neither browser were we were able to achieve more than a fifty percent URL display ratio; we trust that this percentage will increase as the release of IE 7 approaches and Mozilla continues to work on improving its functionality in this area.

- Restriction of executable Web content

In the current version of IE, suspect websites have been free to install almost any software they want on visitors’ machines. While XP SP2 has dramatically reduced this possibility, many unnecessary add-ons and toolbars can still be easily installed by inexperienced users. IE 7 should provide more protection for naïve users, as it will offer to run in protected mode, thus restricting access to the host OS files and settings and making these critical elements of the computer inaccessible to malware.

The default setting for Firefox 1.5 is to have installation of extensions and add-ons disabled; the user must manually change settings in order to enable adding extensions to the browser.

There will always be a tradeoff between security and functionality, but security experts always maintained that letting websites unrestrictedly launch executable code within the browser creates unlimited potential for exploitation. IE 7 will offer much greater flexibility in configuring which external code will be permitted to run within the browser and what impact it would have on the OS.

ActiveX restrictions

Aside from some graphics enhancement of web pages, in most cases ActiveX is more damaging than beneficial. Many sites that serve up spyware and pop-up ads use ActiveX scripting technology, and ActiveX scripting in the Windows environment can be allowed to run unrestrictedly with administrator (root) privileges. Firefox 1.5 does not support Microsoft’s proprietary ActiveX technology and so the Firefox browser is more resilient against spyware infection.

In IE6, even with SP2, ActiveX is allowed to run by default, which automatically renders IE users less protected against the threat of spyware. In the upcoming IE 7, it is not yet known whether Microsoft will continue this approach, but early indications point to this being the case. This would be unfortunate, since the current approach is a clear security vulnerability.

Of course, IE users can manually disable ActiveX scripting on a particular website and let ActiveX be started automatically on all other sites visited. Or, vice versa, they can disable ActiveX scripting on most of the sites visited and permit it to run on a particular site. All this can be configured under the Security tab in IE’s Options menu. However, it is hardly realistic to expect Internet novices, who need the most protection, to do this.

Java, JavaScript and Visual Basic components

Java and JavaScript can be enabled and disabled by both browsers. Firefox allows users to specify permissions for particular actions performed by these scripts. IE 6 allows users to create a group of trusted sites to which global limitations on these scripts will not apply. In IE 7, more flexibility will be added that will lead users toward a more customized display of web pages belonging to a particular site; it appears Firefox also plans to introduce more flexible parameters.

- Internal download manager

IE 7’s download manager will be revamped, and feature an option to pause and resume downloads - a feature not available with the current version. Specific actions will be able to be defined following the completion of a download, and users can check the newly-downloaded file with their anti-virus before running it. This approach is already in place with Firefox, so Microsoft appears to be playing catch-up here.

- Encryption of data on protected sites

When you submit sensitive information, such as transaction details to a bank or financial institution, it travels in an encrypted form through a secure HTTP (SHTTP) connection. The information is encrypted by your browser and decrypted at the receiving end. The new version of IE will use stronger encryption algorithms to reliably transfer your data without the risk of being intercepted and deciphered by someone in transit. A padlock icon indicating that a user is on a secure site will be placed in a more obvious place than currently, and more detailed information will be provided to help visitors check the authenticity of such sites.

Firefox currently has a better-organized display of security certificates for its users, so clearly Microsoft has a room for improvement.

Updating

Both browsers are updated automatically when new code is ready. Firefox has this update mechanism already in place, and for IE 7, it is expected that updates will be provided through Windows update technology.

Privacy enhancements

IE 7 will have the ability for users to flexibly set what private data will be saved and can be applied to different sites; users will be able to easily remove browsing history and other private details such as passwords, cookies, details submitted on web forms, download history, and temporary files. In IE 6, these files were stored all over the place and users have complained that there is no clear way to delete this information. Firefox 1.5 already provides this capability.

Conclusion

IE 7 promises a lot of interesting security and privacy enhancements that will help users stay more secure. With the final release users will receive a good, solid browser that, if Microsoft promises are fulfilled, will help it to compete well on the security front. As we have seen, Firefox 1.5 is already a role model, and it will be interesting to see what lies ahead for this talented challenger.

Free Internet Advertising - Unwritten Rules Of Internet Forums

Free Internet advertising is sought after by most Internet marketers and one readily available source of free Internet advertising is the Internet forum. For Internet marketing novices, I'll briefly explain how free Internet advertising is obtained from Internet forums.

Basically, Internet forums are message boards where members can exchange information, obtain advice or just chat. There are Internet forums to cater for every topic you would care to imagine (and a few you would probably prefer not to dwell on). The Internet marketer advertises his product simply by posting messages on the forums. There are some Internet forums that forbid the posting of advertisements but, on many of these forums, it is still possible to obtain free Internet advertising by use of a signature file. The signature file is a short piece of text which can contain a link to a website and which can be annexed to every posting a member makes on a forum message board.

If you have never tried forums as a source of free Internet advertising, you should bear in mind that there is an unwritten code of etiquette which need to be observed. The following are some of the unwritten rules which need to be followed if you intend to use forums for free Internet advertising for your business.

Read the Forum Rules

You need to read the rules of any Internet forum before you try to post a message there. I know this sounds obvious but it is clear that many forum users don't bother to read the rules, despite the fact that the forum registration process inevitably includes a requirement for the applicant to check a box indicating that the forum rules have been read and will be adhered to. Don't just sign up with the idea of getting as much free Internet advertising as possible from the forum. Many forums prohibit the posting of affiliate urls anywhere apart from in the members' forum signature file. If you become a member of one of these forums without reading the rules and start posting your affiliate urls in messages, you will quickly find yourself labelled a "spammer". In case you didn't know, spammers are considered to be the lowest of the low on the Internet. If there was a virtual prison for Internet crime, Internet advertising spammers would have to be kept in solitary confinement for their own protection.

Lurk Before You Leap

Internet forum etiquette demands that you spend a little time "lurking" ie logging in at the forum and reading previous and current threads before you even think of starting to use the forum for free Internet advertising. Although lurking is not an official rule of Internet forums, it is largely accepted as an essential part of the unwritten code of behaviour. The practice is very useful. Lurking will enable you to get the feel of how a forum works, you will be able to ascertain the tone of the messages, the type of subject matter which is welcomed and the level of expertise of other forum members. You might even find that a particular forum is not for you and this could save you the embarrassment of posting an inappropriate message on the forum.

Be Subtle

You know that you are visiting the forum merely for the free Internet advertising for your website but it is better not to make this obvious if you want other members to react well to your advertising. Forums are rather like private clubs where members strike up friendships and make business deals. If you rush in waving your "FREE INTERNET ADVERTISING" placard you will not become popular, other members will consider you to be an abuser of their "club". You will do much better if you quietly introduce yourself and keep the free Internet advertising down to a whisper in your signature file.

Remember Your Manners

How hard is it to say "thank you"? If you visit a forum and receive valuable advice which helps you in some way, take a moment to post a brief message of thanks to your advisor. If someone helped you out of a spot in the bricks and mortar world you would thank them. Remember that people who post on Internet forums are real too and they are under no obligation to help you. It is as easy to make a friend with a warm word as it is to create an enemy with a harsh word and you never know when you might meet these people again.

Help Whenever You Can

Help other people whenever you can. Even if you don't have any specialist knowledge, you will find occasions when you can pass on good advice. If you received advice that took you to a solution, post a message to say how the advice helped and what steps you followed to sort things out, this will act as a signpost for other people who might find themselves in similar difficulties. Even though you joined the forum with the idea of using it merely as a form of free Internet advertising, make time to give something back. People will be more inclined to take an interest in your advertising if you become known as a helpful type. What goes around comes around and, in any event, the reputation of being a problem-solver is a bit of free Internet advertising in its own right.

Be Moderate

The majority of Internet forums have moderators to ensure that members stick to the rules. The job of a forum moderator is to keep the content of the forum appropriate. Remember, it is not just a place where you can indulge in free Internet advertising, so keep your messages within the forum rules. Any graffiti posted by members will be cleaned up by the moderators so that the forum environment is preserved for all members to enjoy. If you wish to retain the respect of your fellow forum members, make sure your posts never need to be cleaned up, be your own moderator. As well as sticking to the forum rules on content, you should also keep your messages moderate in tone. The Chambers dictionary includes the following definitions of "moderate": kept within measure or bounds; not excessive or extreme; temperate. If you avoid drama and pathos in your forum posting and keep your messages moderate, you will not attract "flamers" and you can quietly enjoy your free Internet advertising.

Ration Your Reading

Internet forums can be addictive. There is a serious danger that you might log in to a forum with the idea of posting a message or two in order to get your daily ration of free Internet advertising but, the next thing you know is that half an hour has passed by while you have been engrossed in reading. There is nothing inherently wrong with spending time reading posts made by other forum members, it's free entertainment and that's fine. The problem is that, if you are trying to run an Internet marketing business and you lose yourself on forums for half an hour every day, you will be wasting something like half a day during the course of each week for the sake of posting a couple of links back to your website. That is not an economical use of your time. In fact, if you account for the value of your time, you will find you are actually paying a high price for your free Internet advertising on forums.

Internet Business Idea – Selling Internet Tutorials On The Web

An internet business that focuses on supplying quality tutorials on the web could be lucrative. Imagine being able to offer courses ranging from how to run a small business, learning to play the guitar and how to pass the physics exam. The range of courses on offer could be huge and could cover every aspect of life ranging from hobbies, education, sports, business, languages and much more.

The great thing about this idea is that your target audience could become international. It would be a good idea to probably focus on English courses and the English speaking world as your marketplace.

This is not a short term business idea but rather one that will keep someone busy for the next ten years at least. Over time it will be possible to amass a huge number of tutorials and simple courses and categorize them neatly into their respective folders.

The aim would be to have only decent and quality tutorials so that new clients would come back and give you repeat business. Long term you can even add video and audio to your site to make it easier for your customers to learn quickly.

Video tutorials will be huge in the future! If a picture speaks a thousand words imagine the power of teaching by video. Unlike normal teachers internet tutorials never get angry or lose their patience. Bright pupils can go at a faster pace whilst others might have to replay a course several times before they master it.

You would need to offer various forms of payment whether it is by cheque or credit cards. People no longer mind paying money on the internet as long as they are sure that their supplier has taken all the steps to safeguard their security.

There are many sites on the internet that do offer free courses but I haven’t found one yet that has all the courses laid out neatly on a decent website. You would have to build a custom designed website from scratch and improve on it year on year. It is important that the website is designed by a professional so that when new surfers come online they can easily find the course they are looking for.

This business could initially be run from home as there are no stock requirements and your courses are all downloaded from the internet. Longer term if the business grows you might have to move to dedicated offices.

So if you have plenty of capital, love education and are willing to commit for the long term then setting up an internet tutorial website could be both enjoyable and lucrative in the long term.

Internet Services - Tips For Choosing Internet Service Provider

For those who are relocating or moving from dialup to broadband internet access, choosing a broadband ISP can cause some headaches. Should you go with DSL or cable internet access? Which ISP is better? You may need to spend hours or days visiting individual ISP sites, reading detailed service plans, checking for service availability in your area. Here are some simple tips to help you choose a good ISP.

The first thing you need to find out is service availability. In the past, you might have to go to the websites of different ISPs and scan for service availability for your geographical area. This is no longer necessary as some broadband service resellers have installed sophisticated software technology. This technology allows you to compare and choose from dozens of national ISPs simply by entering your phone number or home address.

What about price? Should you pick the one with the lowest price? Before you can make an objective comparison, ask yourself: what do you do most over the internet?

If you like to play real time online games or you need to download video clips, music files, games and software frequently, connection speed should be your primary concern. In general, ISP and service plans offering higher connection speed also cost more.

For a family with more than one PC at home, the ability to set up home networking is important. If you have a large family, you may want to choose a plan offering multiple email accounts. However, this is less important these days as free email accounts can be obtained from other sources such as Yahoo and Google.

For family with children, parental control is a useful feature. You can also compare the entertainment pack which comes with high speed internet access.

Almost all broadband ISPs provide free virus protection, pop-up blockers and anti-spam software. However, high speed internet access is often connected via a static IP address which makes your computer vulnerable to hacker attacks. You should also install a good personal firewall program yourself.

Read the terms and conditions of service carefully. Do you need to sign a one-year contract? Does the ISP provide money back guarantee? You may be charged a penalty fee if you cancel the service before the contract ends. It is also important to check if the ISP provides good customer service and 24/7 technical support.

You can ask your friends which ISP they currently use. However, please bear in mind that internet connection speed is affected by many factors. For examples, DSL internet speed is affected by the distance from ISP service center and the speed of cable internet is affected by the number of people sharing the bandwidth in your neighborhood. Therefore, people from different locations may experience different connection speeds using the same ISP. Usually, you will get a better idea of actual performance by getting feedback from your neighbors than friends living in other areas.

To sum things up, although price is an important factor in choosing an ISP, you should also consider your personal need, family structure, features and terms of the service plan, and the reputation of the internet service provider. Using comparison tools provided by some broadband service resellers can also save you time and money in the selection process.

Free Internet Marketing Methods That Will Save Your Internet Business

Best things in life are free, as many would say. This especially holds true with efforts in advertising one's products or services. With free Internet marketing services, one can save a lot. Instead of shelling out for the marketing aspect of your product or services, that chunk of money could be put to other important elements of your business since many information websites now offer knowledge regarding Internet marketing services that comes with no price tag at all.

This is not to tell you that better focus on plain Internet marketing. It still will do your business a lot good if you mix traditional advertisement efforts such as traditional and new marketing media.

Here are few of the free methods that you could employ to make your products and services be in their most visible, thus saleable, form.

1. Promote your business through free search engine submission and optimization.

Submit your website to various search engines monthly. This will make many more people know that your website actually exists. Aiming for the top search engines will help a lot in this endeavor.

2. Improve your articles.

Remember that information on articles with good content as traffic-bringer of websites? This time it's about making these articles serve your website better by using keyword suggestion tools that are offered for free. Update your web site's content by regularly checking the standing of your keywords with the current market.

3. Acquire free content.

If you have no time to increase the SEO or search engine optimization-friendliness of your articles, you can look for free content from article directories. All you need to do is retain the resource box of those write-ups.

4. Avail of free comprehensive web traffic analyzers.

These are tools that you can make use of without costing you a cent. Your website's hits statistics will be produced by this kind of Internet marketing tool for your own analysis.

5. Learn to manipulate web design templates.

You don't have to be too techie-geeky to be able to design your web site. Oftentimes, web design templates or custom-made layouts are available for the Internet marketer to use.

6. Monitor your website's visibility.

Tools such as search engine position trackers may be used to see your website's standing.

These processes are very convenient to use as long as you keep in mind that you use and try to master their use for your own benefit. Just don't get obsessed with your achievements when you finally learn how to use them and incorporate them in your Internet marketing feat.

Internet Marketing Strategy For Online Internet Business - Budgeting Your Money

One of the more difficult things to do when you're starting a new home business is planning and putting together a financial budget. Without any past data on which to base expenses and income it might seem like your guessing, but as part of any companys’ business plan an estimated budget can be done with some thought of future operations.

In almost all companies there are really two categories, expense and income. Under your expenses category there could be several smaller sub-categories most often falling within two areas uncontrollable and controllable expenses. While most small business owners claim that they have control over all expenses involved in their campaign, they are just burying there heads in the sand as some costs such as rent, utility cost, and other fixed costs can change, without any control by the owner.

Some other expenses like insurance, payroll, advertising and promotion can be subjected to a budget and are considered to be a controllable expense. If the company begins to slip off, you can try to control a few of these expenses by sending home staff and cutting spending on promotion and advertising.

Depending on the sustainability of your company if the business is going through a bad spell it often is a good investment to take the bull by the horn and pay employee salaries, continue to provide a good service to the balance of the remaining loyal customers until business is back on its feet. It might be hard to pay staff but by trying to do all the work yourself not only will you quickly burn out , and if no one is handling the customers it wont be long before there are no clients left to take care of.

There are normally a couple of ways you can budget your companies money and that is through percentage of income and set dollar amount. Many companies will try to budget their controllable expense by dollars and non-controllable by percentage of income. It goes without saying that a great part of the owners’ time will be spent towards bring money and new customers to the company and how much they have budgeted on controllable expense will directly related to income.

An example is, a business earning $200,000 per month in income who has budgeted of six percent for wages, providing $12000 for salaries. If the salaries level increases to $500,000 the budgeted salary percent does not change but the money available for wages climbs to $30,000 with the aim to increase sales and business profits, the business owner might probably need the extra assistance to help take care of company.

There are other types’ expenses like Social taxes paid by employers can also end up into the payroll account also workers’ compensation charges and paid leave time or other bonuses that might be given by the company. Although budgets could be very difficult to calculate for new companies, it is necessary for all small business entrepreneurs. If you would like to know more check the link below to get a free copy of “Dotcomology” the art of making money on the internet.

Internet Fax – A Guide To Sending And Receiving Faxes Using Internet Faxing Services

How would you recognize a good innovation? It must improve a certain process in a simple and easy method. According to this definition internet fax is a great innovation. Find out how you can send and receive faxes using internet fax services.

Internet fax improves the process of sending and receiving faxes – No more investing and maintaining an expensive fax machine, no more frustrated waiting to delayed faxes or free phone lines. Internet fax brings a new era to the data transmission world.

A guide to sending faxes using internet fax services – email to fax services:

1. If you do not have one, you must create an email account.

2. Make an account on one of the internet fax services. Just go to their site and log in. You can use the free trial or pay almost nothing to get an account.

3. Install the internet fax service software and fill in the required parameters.

4. Open a new email message.

5. Write the content of the fax in the body section of the mail or attach a text file with the content.

6. Fill in the destination number in the “To” field. The destination number will be a combination of the fax number and the internet fax service. For example, if the fax number is “12345678” and the internet fax service is “efax”, then the destination number would be: 12345678@efax.com.

7. Fill in the recipient name in the subject field of the email message (not mandatory).

8. Choose the “Send and Receive” to send the fax.

9. The fax will immediately reach the recipient as a regular fax.

A guide to receiving faxes using internet fax services – fax to email service:

1-3. The first three phases are identical to the ones in the email to fax guide.

4. Once a fax is sent to you, it will automatically be converted into an email message, which you could read as any other email.

Well, internet fax service is a real innovation. Try it. The only question now is which internet fax service is the best one for your needs.

Using Other People's Articles To Boost Your Web Site Profits

By: Alexis Dawes
I've always been the kind of webmistress who has shyed away from using other people's articles on my web site. I figured once I got people to my site, I didn't want them clicking off willy-nilly to follow someone else's words of wisdom.
However recently I changed that song-and-dance. And if you're a webmaster who follows that line of thinking, you should probably re-think your strategy too. It's flawed for one very simple reason.
People are online mainly for information. And no matter what you do - or don't do - many of your sites visitors are eventually going to click off to your competitors web sites anyway.
That doesn't mean they won't buy something from you, or perform some other desired action. It's just a fact of doing business online, where your closest competitors are really just a click away.
That's why avid, hard core golfers buy golfing videos, subscriptions to golfing magazines, they read golfing books, they may even have simulated golf course video games at home. People just want great information, and they'll continue looking for it even if they've read volumes already.
So in all actuality by feeding this desire for information (your information... other people's information) you might actually be keeping visitors on your site longer, and giving them incentive to come back. Cool huh?
But more importantly, by including other people's articles on your site, you can also enhance your own profits.
How? Follow these simple steps:
1) Create an article directory on your existing site.
2) Collect targeted articles from directories like ezinearticles.com, isnare.com, and so on. Add them to your sites article directory. Make sure that each article is given its own individual web page.
3) Add AdSense advertising or Affiliate Sensor ads to each article page. AdSense has optimization tips at (https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html). Their hot zone map will help you determine the best placement for advertisements on your web page.
By following these 3 steps you've done a couple of things.
First and foremost you've created an additional revenue source. Each time someone clicks on an AdSense ad, you make money. Or if you opted for Affiliate Sensor ad's, each time someone clicks on one, and purchases something, you make money.
And secondly, you've added some new content for your sites visitors. This will keep them clicking around a lot longer.
It's easy, relatively painless, and you can continue adding new articles to further increase you profit opportunities. Just think of it as your good karma for giving the article authors a little free publicity.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

A Covert Nitro Tactic To Capture 70% of Your Competition's New Subscribers

By: Rick Miller
In a recent interview with Tellman Knudson for the List Crusade program, Kevin Wilke, co-founder of Nitro Marketing, revealed some of the insider secrets that allowed his company to quickly become one the most respected and profitable Internet marketing companies.
(Note: To access Kevin Wilke's complete audio interview for free, see end of article)
Last year, his company did more than $1 million online, paying out more than $115,000 to affiliates, and earning more than $125,000 from various affiliate programs. Nitro's total business is expected to more than quadruple in the next 12 months.
When asked for one of his top Internet Marketing secrets, Kevin said:
"First I want to give you one very valuable tip on how to go out there and build your opt-in list, your webcast list, or just your general newsletter list.
It's something that we've found to be extremely effective, and probably one of the least used assets in your business.
When somebody subscribes to your newsletter, they're going to go to a confirmation page that tells them 'thank you for subscribing' and that's usually just about all. And what we've found is that's probably the most valuable asset right there.
What we've been doing for about five years is to recommend another newsletter on that page, as a thank you for subscribing to my newsletter.
I put 'I also found this newsletter extremely valuable and I recommend that you sign up to it, too.'
We found anywhere between 50 and 70% of the people also subscribed to that newsletter also. So, if you connect the dots, if you go out and find other people that have their own newsletter and you ask them if they would recommend people to subscribe to your newsletter after they subscribe to theirs, all of a sudden you're getting 50 to 70% of their subscribers on to your list."
In the List Crusade interview Kevin also revealed:
How he took a website that pulled only measly $100 a month and within 30 days had it selling more than $100,000
The key secret to amassing thousands of loyal customers and subscribers who are hungry for everything you offer them
A new technology that will explode your list and have your subscribers totally excited about pulling out their credit card to get your product
How to train your customers to buy your products at your command and take action immediately
How to motivate thousands of affiliates to promote your product for you while you sit back and rake in profits
Discover the revolutionary affiliate software that allows Nitro to manage a huge army of affiliates Take these secrets from Kevin Wilke's interview and use them today. The more you use them, the more you'll find that your Internet Marketing business is exploding, your opt-in list is sky-rocketing, and your bank account is bursting at the seams.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

What is the most profitable internet application?

By: Michael Lever
Have you ever wondered what the most profitable internet application is?
Web hosting?Book or CD selling?Merchant account providers?
You may be surprised to learn that it is none of the above although they can all be profitable in their own right (particularly industry leaders such as Amazon and Paypal).
Why did I choose the above examples?
Because they are perceived to be ideally suited to online marketing and the fact that there are so many offering those very same products/services means they have to be profitable, right? Wrong!
The problem with the above examples and for merchants in general are that for the vast majority it is just too competitive to succeed online without viable offline sales channels as well.
Without any shadow of a doubt, the most profitable of all internet applications are those that provide exchange services. That is the single most important ingredient to any online success story. The reason is simple, they match buyers and sellers of a myriad of wants and needs. Economically speaking, they match supply and demand.
Lets look at some examples.
Perhaps the most obvious success story is Ebay - an online auction service that matches buyers and sellers for an unrestricted choice of product.Other good examples are search engines like Google and Yahoo which match information demand with supply.
Another biggie is MSN messenger which matches communication desires between friends (although they face stiff opposition from mobile phones in the offline world).
And I don't want to elaborate on the hugely successful marriage of pornographic sites to the demand for sexual fantasy.
High usage demand for these exchange services means huge exposure and advertising revenue in addition to any actual cost of using the service itself.
Many wise heads have identified the huge profit potential of online exchange services. Online dating, gambling, school reunion, broking (share and real estate), affiliate networking, and even customer acquisition exchange websites all utilise the exchange application.
The trick is to go out and find a niche exchange service, one that hasn't already got 10,000,000 search listings for it. If you can be one of the first to develop and market a new exchange service then watch out - your profits will be about to soar!
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Adding Profit to Your Work from Home Internet Business

By: Jeff Casmer
Many individuals, from all walks of life, are making the decision to work from home. There are an unlimited number of work at home business ideas; however, the internet has the most potential.Internet websites are often developed for personal or business use. What once may have been considered a personal site may now even be used to make money. Affiliate programs, commonly referred to as associate programs, are a way for website owners to make money through internet marketing. Affiliate programs work by connecting people to another website. There are a wide number of well known national companies who use affiliate programs to increase the traffic to their website. Individuals who have their own website will generally display a banner or link to a certain website. The linking website is often a business that sells something. Affiliate programs are profitable to website owners because whenever an internet user signs up for something or buys a products, they are paid commission. Affiliate programs are an effective marketing technique that offer benefits to everyone involved. Website owners are paid for their participation and the businesses on the other end are promoting and selling their products.Deciding to participate in an affiliate program is a fairly easy process and can sometimes involve little work. If you are a website owner, the more work you do on your website, the more likely you are to receive affiliate clickers. This is due to search engine optimizations. Many articles or topics inside a website contain keywords that search engines may pick up. If an individual is searching for information on popular children's toys and your website has articles or information concerning them, they may be linked to your site. Internet users love to see new articles, information, or products. For this reason, constantly updating your website may bring in new visitors and also keep existing visitors coming back.Developing a website can be for fun or a part of home employment. Home employment is on the rise and many individuals are making the decision to work from their home. Home employment allows parents, elderly, or disabled individuals to work from the comfort of their home. Although these individuals are common work from home people, just about everyone has the ability to work from inside their home. A work from home internet business can including selling merchandise or offering a service. For instance, many individuals sell homemade or wholesale merchandise or some offer their web design or writing skills. Affiliate programs are an effective tool in obtaining additional profits for a work at home internet business. Although affiliate programs are used and are widely popular among internet businesses, they are also successful with personal websites. Blogging has greatly increased in popularity. In fact, a large number of internet users have a blog. It is possible to link up affiliate programs with a blog. Affiliate programs are becoming extremely popular among website owners or bloggers. It is a fairly simple way to acquire additional profits through an existing work from home internet business. It is great programs, such as affiliate marketing programs, that allows many individuals to successfully work from home and make a profit.

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6 Steps to Attracting Black Customers Online

By: Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva" (TM)
In the rush to keep up with technology, many African-American business owners are so busy trying to add the latest bells and whistles to their Web sites, get to the top of the search engines, and learn the latest database technology that they often forget this simple fact: people do business with other people, not computers. Understanding the importance of relationships is key to attracting African-American buyers online. Here are a few practical tips to getting Black customers to buy more from your Web site.Here are a few practical tips to getting Black customers to buy more from your website.Step 1: Make a personal connection... put a face on it.Adding photos of realistic-looking people to your Web site will increase your sales. Photos jump out from a page, so even if someone just skims over the words, the photo will create a lasting impression. If you don't have photos of your actual employees or customers, use stock photography.Here are a few of my favorite sources for photos:
FotoSearch
Getty Images
Corbis Royalty-free images start at around $19-35 per image and are much less expensive than rights-managed images. If you have a bigger budget, you can purchase CDs with entire collections of African American stock photographs and illustrations.Step 2: Establish trust.When you walk into an establishment, you usually can tell right away if you feel comfortable doing business there. You can see if the place is clean and well maintained, brightly lit, and whether someone friendly is available to greet and help you. On the Internet, your Web site has to do all the talking and all the handholding. If this is a potential customer's first visit to your Web site, they may be uncertain if you're a legitimate business and if they can trust you.There are a number of ways to alleviate these fears and give your customers peace of mind. First, provide full contact information - including a telephone number - on your Web site. Second, show a picture of your location and employees, if applicable. Third, if you are a member of any professional organizations, such as the Better Business Bureau and/or professional trade organizations, this is a great time to display your membership logos. Most importantly, display quotes and testimonials for your current happy customers to show how what great quality products and service your company provides.Step 3: Use the "word of mouth" network.From the griots of Africa to barbershops and hair salons to the chat rooms on BlackPlanet.com, at the center of African American culture is the oral tradition. Use this ready-made network to your advantage, and give people the tools to tell their friends and colleagues about your products. A great way to do this is with an instant "Tell a Friend" button on your Web site. Constant Contact (see Step 6) includes this service as part of it's e-newsletter management program.Step 4: Network with other Black Web sites.One way to jump-start the flow of traffic to your Web site is by recruiting customers from other high-traffic sites. You can buy ad space on a well-trafficked site that also attracts a high percentage of your target market. A cheaper alternative is to swap ads with a business that offers products or service that complement, but don't compete with, your own offering. For example, if you offer Web site design, look for someone who offers Web site hosting or network services. This strategy can work both with ads on a Web site, but don't overlook swapping ads in each business' promotional e-mail newsletter.(NOTE: Do not swap customer databases or lists of email addresses unless you have specific permission from your customers to do so.)Step 5: Give your customers a reason to act now.How many times have you visited a Web site and thought to yourself: "What a great product! I'd like to buy it, but I think I'll come back later." Did you actually go back and buy it? Perhaps not. Help your customers make their decision today: make them an offer they can't refuse. For example, use promotions like "limited time only", "this week only", "act today and take $10 off," etc.Step 6: Keep in touch.Remember, it's about relationships. Did you know that customers who buy online usually do so on the fourth to eighth visit to your Web site, and not the first visit? So you'll need to come up with a strategy to get them back to your Web site a second, third, and fourth time. The easiest, simplest, and cheapest method, hands down, is an e-mail list. It isn't enough just to collect e-mail addresses on your Web site and at your vending events - you have to actually write and send messages to the list! Strive to get your newsletter out at least twice a month, but if you're just getting started, do quarterly, then build up to monthly, and then build up to every other week.Here are a few e-mail list services I like:
Aweber
Constant Contact
YahooGroups (free) Essentially, what successful online marketing boils down to, regardless of ethnicity, is relationships, relationships, relationships. Find meaningful ways to connect with your customers, and they will not only reward you with their loyalty, but they'll be happy to spread the word about your Web site as well.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com

Eight No-Fail Steps for E-Commerce Marketing

By: Jamila White, "The E-Commerce DivaTM"
I know how to get a blank stare from just about any e-commerce web site owner. All I have to do is ask them about their web site marketing plan!When I ask them about their web site marketing plan, I get that look. First the eyebrows go up. Then the eyes glaze over for a minute. And then the stammering begins."Uh, well, you know - I have my URL on my business card." "I, ah, I'm going to start an e-mail newsletter."Some of them may even mention something about "search engines."But practically no one has a plan! And you know how the old saying goes: "Failure to plan is a plan to fail."Most small business owners I talk to are frustrated. They think their web site is a big waste of money. An "online business card." A "marketing expense" that doesn't return any of its investment. And no wonder:You've spent thousands on a pretty web design. You shell out dough each and every month for web site hosting. You may even be paying a webmaster to update the web site regularly. And month after month, year after year, the sales barely trickle in.Marketing your web site is frustrating. It's confusing! So we end up doing what all of us do when we're frustrated and confused: deal with it "later." And later never comes.Know what? It's not your fault! No one ever taught you how to market on the Internet, this new medium. (They sure didn't cover that in my marketing class when I was in school.) And there's all that hype on the Internet - so called web marketing gurus who've made millions online. But guess what? The only thing they've ever sold is reports and e-books on - what else - "how to market on the Internet." They've never packed and shipped a box or ran down the street after the UPS guy.But what if there was a formula you could follow, a step-by-step guide to creating an online sales machine? After 10 years of marketing and selling on the web, I've boiled it down to a winning eight-step formula. This formula works for any web business, for any product from amber gemstone jewelry to zebra-print home accessories. In a nutshell, the eight no-fail steps of this formula are:
Define Your Goals: With no clearly defined purpose, your web site can't succeed. Be specific with each goal, adding both an amount and a timeframe.
Take a Snapshot: How's your web site performing now? Know your traffic stats and your "three magic numbers."
Define Your Market: Who are you talking to? Be specific about who your products are for, and where these customers exist.
Get Them There: Build targeted web traffic by getting your target audience's attention and creating an ongoing dialog.
Turn Site Visitors into Customers: Once you've gotten them to your web site, make sure you seal the deal before they leave. Know what they're looking for, and what information they need to make a purchasing decision. Give it to them, then ask for the sale.
Increase Their Spending: Would you like some fries with that hamburger? Since they've got their wallet open, ask for the add-on or upsell.
Get Them Back: It's cheaper to get an old customer to buy again than it is to recruit a new one. Make the experience memorable, and make the next one convenient.
Get Their Friends: A happy customer can be your best sales tool. Empower them to spread the word about your products and web site.
When you work each of these steps, your e-commerce marketing can't fail.

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