- Darusha’s Network » archive for 'House Of Websters'
-
All About Spyware
- June 5th, 2009
You’ve heard about and, you know it’s bad. We hear alarming statistics like “over 90% of personal computers are already compromised by spyware” and “spyware and other potentially unwanted programs are rapidly becoming the number one threat to business systems”. But just what is it?
According to McAfee Inc., the leader in spyware protection solutions:
Spyware is any software whose function includes the transmission of company or personal information to a third party without their knowledge. The consequences of undetected spyware and other potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) could include identity theft, system and network corruption, slower Internet access, reduced system productivity, and an increased number of pop-up ads.
To put it another way, spyware on your computer can send out to another computer, and ultimately another person, anything and everything on your computer and everything you do on your computer.
A better but much longer (and my personal favorite) definition of spyware comes from geekpatroloncall.com. They define spyware as:
Spyware is potentially more dangerous beast than Adware because it can record your keystrokes, history, passwords, and other confidential and private information. Spyware is often sold as a spouse monitor, child monitor, a surveillance tool or simply as a tool to spy on users to gain unauthorized access. Spyware is also known as: snoopware, PC surveillance, key logger, system recorders, Parental control software, PC recorder, Detective software and Internet monitoring software. Spyware covertly gathers user information and activity without the user’s knowledge. Spy software can record your keystrokes as you type them, passwords, credit card numbers, sensitive information, where you surf, chat logs, and can even take random screenshots of your activity. Basically whatever you do on the computer is completely viewable by the spy. You do not have to be connected to the Internet to be spied upon. However you define it, spyware is plain old bad.
Here are a few tips to help protect you from spyware:
1. Buy a good, comprehensive software program that protects your computer. I use McAfee Internet Security Suite and XoftSpy, which is a malware scanner. These products can stop spyware. If it’s already on your computer, they find it and delete it for good (http://www.delete4good.com)
2. There is no such thing as a free lunch. When you download freeware or shareware, chances are that you are downloading spyware with it. Therefore, only download software from sources that you can absolutely trust.
3. Certain “types” of websites are notorious for injecting your computer with spyware. Those “types” of websites include: peer-to-peer sites, free games websites, and pornographic sites. If you frequent these type of website, make sure your computer is protected (see number 1 above).
4. Make sure that your web-browser security settings are configured correctly. This can prevent spyware or other malicious software from automatically downloading on your computer.
5. Never, never, never click on pop-up ads. I know that some pop-up are irresistible. But they are irresistible for a reason. Pop-ups are meant to get your attention. But if in the pursuit of your attention, they get you to click on them, you may get more than you bargain for.
If you happen to see a pop-up that is advertising something that you just have to have more information on, just take note of the item it’s advertising and do a keyword search on it. But never click on the actual ad.
Spyware protection has turned into a multibillion-dollar business. But, even the best spyware protection is useless if you don’t take necessary precautions. Reducing your risk to being exposed to spyware better than anything. Doing just a little bit of research and taking a few precautions can greatly reduce your risk of being exposed to not only spyware but also adware, viruses, trojans and other so called malware.
-
Internet Sharing using a Linux Box
- May 26th, 2009
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
– George Bernard Shaw
The computer world was similar to all of us having an apple each till some time back. And then the wise men from the industry made networks. Ideas started flowing all over and soon came in the internet. The internet has been the best thing that has happened to the computer world so far. It has created a platform where we can share our ideas.
Since the Internet is a large network composed of smaller networks, it made sense to break the address space into smaller chunks. Network classes enable us to break down this address space. In IPv4 the various classes of networks are -
Class A networks have an address range between 1.0.0.1 to 126.255.255.254 and support 16 million hosts on each of 127 networks.
Class B networks have an address range between 128.1.0.1 to 191.255.255.254 and support 65,000 hosts on each of 16,000 networks.
Class C networks have an address range between 192.0.1.1 to 223.255.254.254 and support 254 hosts on each of 2 million networks.
Class D networks have an address range between 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 and are reserved for multicast groups.
Class E networks have an address range between 240.0.0.0 to 254.255.255.254 and are reserved for the futureSuch a system makes things simple and networks are manageable. However, they cannot communicate with each other. The scenario is very similar to how communities grew around the world. With time people from different communities needed to communicate with each other, however language was the barrier. The solution they found was people who understand both the languages i.e. translators. So if you need to talk to a beautiful French girl, all you need to do is get somebody who understands French and can translate English to French and vice versa. Routers /gateways do the same in computer networks. Different networks communicate with each other using routers.
A router allows hosts that are not on the same logical network, like an IP subnet, to communicate with each other. The router receives packets (chunks of data) on an interface and routes them to where they need to go based on a routing table; the table allows the router to have knowledge of where a given logical network is located.
Most offices and homes have small class C private networks. These networks need to communicate with the servers in the internet. The only logical way for them is to use a gateway/router. Linux has routing functionality in the kernel itself which makes it an ideal choice for as routing box.
One simple way of sharing the internet connection using linux is using the IP forwarding feature of the kernel and network address translation (NAT). For NATing one can use either ipchains or iptables. It is assumed that the private network is in the 192.168.1.0-255 range.
Let us take the example of a simple network. The server is used to connect to the internet. It’s IP address is 192.168.1.1. There are 4 workstations 192.168.1.2-5. They are connected to the server via the switch. All the workstations share the internet through 192.168.1.1The first step is to enable ipforwarding in the kernel of the server (192.168.1.1).
$ vi /etc/sysctl.conf
Change the line
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0
to
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1This would enable ip forwarding.
Then we need to get the server to NAT which can be done via ipchains or iptables.
If ipchains is used, create a file called rc.fw and add following lines
$ vi /etc/rc.d/init.d/rc.fw
#!/bin/bash
# First Load the ipchains kernel module. Required only if ipchains is compiled as a module
.
/sbin/modprobe ipchains
insmod ipchains# MASQ the full 192.168.1.0/24 network
/sbin/ipchains -A forward -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j MASQ# List the rules
/sbin/ipchains -L -nIf iptables is used instead of ipchains, create a file called rc.fw and add the following lines -
$ vi /etc/rc.d/init.d/rc.fw
#!/bin/bash
# First Load the ipchains kernel module . Required only if iptables is compiled as a module
/sbin/modprobe iptables
insmod iptables# MASQ the full network
/sbin/iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE# List the rules
/sbin/iptables -LThis would look after all the entire data traffic from the local network to the internet.
Finally add this to the startup -
$ vi /etc/rc.local
Add the line
/etc/rc.d/init.d/rc.fwThis ensures that the settings are retained after a reboot also.
After rebooting the server would do all the routing functions for the entire network.
On the client side all that is required is to set the default router/gateway as the server’s IP i.e. 192.168.1.1. The entire network is now set to share the internet connection.
Amarjyoti Krishnan heads bobcares.com, a tech support company for webhosts and ISPs. He is the co-founder of Poornam Info Vision Ltd., a software and IT services company which specializes in Linux based solutions for Webhosts and ISPs. Poornam Info Vision is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company with a team of over 100 engineers.
Amarjyoti is a Computer Engineer based in India and has over 7 years of experience in the hosting industry. He has spoken and written extensively on the subject. His articles have been published both online as well as in print in magazines.
-
The Next Marketing Tool: Deisgn
- May 20th, 2009
Design sells. It’s something that all of us know, but few of us consciously acknowledge. There is an age old adage that warns people not to “judge books by their cover.” In other words, we shouldn’t judge people or products by their appearance. But this isn’t true in America. We do judge books by their cover – in fact we spend billions of dollars on products that have prettier “covers.”
Many people are aware how easy it is to create a web page and put your business online, but you have to ask yourself: is it going to be enough? Sure, you can get all the vitals of your business online and available for the whole world to see, but will your visitors remember your site? Will they trust it? More importantly, will your site cause them to contact you after leaving the web site?
iPods, cargo pants and cell phones
Oh my! What do these three items have in common you might ask? Design, of course.
Back in 2001 Apple Computers unveiled their new offering to the tech world: the iPod. This smart looking little gadget was an MP3 player, one of thousands already on the market. Against all odds, the iPod has risen above its vast competition and become a common household term. What can we attribute to Apple’s success? The iPod did not offer any features that other MP3 players were already offering, except a sleek design, stunning advertising and Apple’s clever branding. Great design has obviously paid off for Apple. In the first quarter since releasing the iPod, Apple more than tripled its net profits and sold nearly 900,000 iPods! Some may even speculate to say that the iPod has taken Apple from a failing company to the leader in portable music.
Old Navy started off as just another value clothing store spawned from the successful Gap Inc. While this company had the advantage of already having a multi-billion dollar brand backing it, it had no incentive for customers to actually buy the clothes. Old Navy has since become one of the leading clothing retailers in America becoming a multi-billion dollar brand on its own feet. Old Navy’s president, Jenny Ming, attributes this success to design. Old Navy has taken a new approach to advertising and clothing style relying on fresh, new design. It seems to have worked, attracting millions of customers to their cargo pants, PJ bottoms and fleece jackets.
Cell phones. They’re everywhere: on the street, in cars, and even the hands of thirteen year old girls. No amount of numbers is needed to prove that cell phones have become an everyday accessory as common as a pair of sunglasses. Back in the early nineties, Nokia realized that cell phones might one day catch on and become something of an accessory. The idea was brought up that cell phones could be made in a variety of colors and in attractive shapes. Shortly after concept, Nokia’s rounded cell phones with changeable plates were introduced into the market. They were an instant success. Since then Nokia has come to be the world leader in cell phones, owning nearly 40% of the world market. Cell phone design hasn’t been the same since.
Taking these ideas to the internet
Okay, so it’s understandable how design sells, but web sites aren’t tangible products like iPods or cell phones. Design of web sites goes beyond designing something that “looks cool” or uses fancy fonts. The design of web sites goes into the realm of usability, information design and graphical appearance. All three of these aspects must come together to create a great web site design.
First off, your web site must be usable. This means that the web site visitor must be able to read, navigate and use the different elements of your site. A web site is no good if visitors cannot find where your nearest office is located. Secondly, the information contained within the web site must be arranged in a way that visitors will naturally find the information they need in the least amount of effort possible. Lastly, your web site has to look great. It has to have a professional look and one that’s both pleasing to the visitor and conveys the image you need your company to portray. Would you expect a criminal defense attorney’s site to be composed of light blue and pink hues? Strong, vibrant colors project authority and power; qualities you would definitely want in a criminal defense lawyer.
Wrapping it up
Design is a major part of modern day business. Making sure your business has a well designed web site ensures you are giving your business the best possible chance. A poorly designed site can be a waste of money and effort. Don’t take the chance; hire a professional to do the job.
About The Author
Kyle Neath is an experienced web developer, developing dozens of successful web sites across California. See more of his work at www.neathdesign.com
-
Data Back-Up in Web Hosting Industry
- April 7th, 2009
Data is very important in any business whether it is online or offline. Data stored in your server cannot be lost as it puts a full stop to your business. If you lose data then you have to spend a lot money, time and effort to replace them. In some critical applications it is not even easy to replace the data. Hence a wise decision is to find some ways to retain your data. This is where Back-up comes into picture.
Data back-up is a process in which you save your valuable data to some remote server or in some media which can be used to restore them back when you need it. You may face situations in which you application becomes corrupt or your data file is corrupted. Intentional damage, natural disasters, and hardware failure are some of the other situations which makes your lose your data. During such situations you can use the data that is backed up in your remote server to restore.
A periodic backup is necessary so that you do not lose much data when a contingency occurs. Data backup in web hosting industry is common and is also a must, since they face a lot of contingencies mentioned above. With ever increasing viruses and worms you may not when you will lose your data. Hence taking backup of your data is a must in these days.
Any web hosting account that you purchase also comes up with a comprehensive backup scheme that can be used to backup the important data that you might have in the server. If you have a site that has many users (members), then it is important that you also backup the data of your users also. Under such situations it is better to backup the site data and the users’ data separately so that you can restore which ever you want.
A backup can be incremental or full backup. Full backup is to take a backup of all the data available in the site, whereas the incremental backup is to take a backup of the data that has changed since the last backup. It takes a lot of time and space to take a full backup of your site. Backup is taken usually in the tar format or the .gz format. Taking backups in these formats saves a lot of space and time.
Most of the web hosting services provides a backup plan which could be monthly, weekly, or daily basis. The data thus backed up is stored offline on a secure server. Some services charge you for the backup services provided by them. Some of the hosting providers provide you the necessary tools to take a backup so that you can schedule backup on your own. If your site has critical data then hourly backup can also be sought after. Such exclusive backups are charged by the hosting provider.
Hence taking a backup of the important data and the site is important in the web hosting industry so that the website can be restored in the minimum time with minimum interruption to the users.
Author recommends web hosting provided by Marble Host. Marble Host offers daily data back-up and 99.9% uptime guarantee. Visit http://www.marblehost.com for more information.
-
Professional Web Hosting
- March 5th, 2009
Web hosting is an Internet service whereby you are provided online storage space for images, data and other user information that you would like to share with other surfers. The idea is that you can host a web site without investing your time in technicalities. That is taken care of by web hosts, the companies which provide you with storage space, either in their own servers or by allotting a server for you. They also sometimes host a server at a remote location and take care of it for you.
Free hosting services are very often inferior to professional web hosting services, as the former comes with little accountability. If you don’t let a professional handle your web space, you might end up with a shabby looking website that nobody ever visits because it is also filled with irrelevant advertisements put up by your web host. This will in turn reduce your client base as free web hosting with a sub-domain name does not carry credibility.
The advantage of professional web hosting is that you get your own chosen domain name and full authority over any content, graphics and advertisement that are published on it. Professional web hosting service providers give you support round the clock also offer a number of services that make web site management very easy. With more disk space, it also can handle more Internet traffic.
While choosing a web host, you should go for one that gives you basic features at a reasonable price. Choose a host that has a decent customer base and a track record of customer satisfaction. Some of the important features that you cannot avoid include 24-hour technical support, a minimum of 20MB space, ability to use your own domain name, email creation and hosting and hit history. You should be choosing a professional web hosting service that gives you SSL Encryption access and also free server access through FTP.
Professional Web Hosting provides detailed information on Professional Web Hosting, Professional Web Site Hosting, Professional Web Hosting Designs, Professional Web Site Hosting Services and more. Professional Web Hosting is affiliated with Web Hosting Solutions.
-
Let’s Make It Real, or How to Avoid Being a Cyber Ghost – Is Your Site User Friendly?
- February 27th, 2009
My boss found a nifty little software program on line the other day that had to do with search engine optimization. In fact, it looked so nifty that he wanted to buy it provided he got an answer to one, nagging little question that was bothering him. And he wanted an answer — NOW. That’s when the fun began.
First stop was the web site to hunt down the contact info. I don’t remember what the site was ranked, but let’s say it had a PageRank of 5 – certainly respectable, right? A nice respectable PageRank, a seemingly good product, finding the contact info should be a no brainer, right? Wrong.
I spent over an hour trying to locate the telephone number of that company on its web site. I scoured the web site, to no avail. A colleague thought he heard that the company resided in Canada, so I got on the phone with a Canadian information operator, and she had no listing of the business, at least under its website name. I tried a few other avenues, not the least of which were more Google searches using just about every word on the company’s web site, as well as the name of the self-espoused software’s guru. All of these efforts came up blank, so guess what? We said, we’re not going to touch that product with a ten-foot pole, because if we can’t find them to ask a simple question, what happens when we have a product problem?
We also wondered if this wasn’t an instance of vaporware, a suspicious operation trying not to be found for reasons we could only imagine were unethical and perhaps even illegal. We couldn’t wait to flush this company and its products down the proverbial toilet, never to be seen or dealt with again.
But, you say, how do you know this company is unethical, or into illegal stuff? Isn’t that rather extreme? Yes, it IS extreme, but that’s just the point. There are over 8 billion pages indexed on the web by Google alone. As a potential customer, why should I waste my time tracking down contact information for a product about which I have questions anyway?
The average time you have to capture a visitor to your web site is 7 seconds. My over-an-hour far exceeded that time frame, and I only remained engaged “because the boss said so!” We are among that type of potential customer who wants our answers NOW, and when we couldn’t get them, and couldn’t even figure out HOW to get them, that left a rather sour taste in our mouths about this company and its perceived methods of doing business.
There’s a point to be had here for those of us in SEO, and of course, the irony that this was an SEO company couldn’t be more tantalizing in a literary sense. No matter how superbly optimized your web site might be, what good is it if you make it difficult for people to contact or find you? And, as shown in our little story here, think of the potential damage it could cause your business and reputation.
So what can you do to avoid becoming the cyber ghost in your business category?
1. Show them brick and mortar: People want to know they can touch and feel your operation, to know you are “real” and physical. Give them an address, a real, honest-to-goodness street address, not a post office box. Post it on the front page of your website. If you don’t want it on the front page, then at least make an obvious link to it from the front page. Better yet, put a photo or illustration of your place of business on your web site, if possible. A friend of mine has a quaint little, indie bookstore in a small town near by, and he has several photos of the shop on his site, including the fireplace, complete with roaring fire!
2. Give your telephone number: Be accessible to people. Just like in story above, being available to answer those quick questions over the telephone may make all the difference. You’ve got to take into consideration your audience: not everyone wants to communicate just by email, some people want to hear the sound of a real, live human voice. And if you have to have a second line put in your home to handle calls, it’s a small price to pay for success. But do make sure you have an answering device with a professional message, including the business/website name so people will know they have the right place. It’s also a really good idea to change the recording daily, including the current date, so callers know they have reached a real, live, working business.
3. Tell them about yourself: Put a face to your site; talk about your credentials. Tell people something (true, of course) to give them confidence in your site and yourself. It’s all part of the “Let’s Make it Real” campaign!
One last thought here. I got to thinking that in its efforts to give users quality, respectable results in their searches, Google certainly wouldn’t be happy with sites such as the one we ran across that leaves visitors in limbo. What if they altered their algorithms to take into account the kind of contact information offered on a site: where it’s located, whether it’s a “real” address or a PO box, if there’s a telephone number, and also, a contact name?
Knock, knock, are there any Google engineers listening out there??
Mary Anne Donovan is both a scholar and a practitioner, a balance that “gives me the best of both worlds: the theory behind digital communications and the hands-on experience to know what really works and what doesn’t.” She is in her tenth year as a professor of technical writing and business communications while at the same time serves as Vice President and Director of U.S. Operations for SEOLinkingCourses, Inc., a search engine optimization consulting and training company. Mary Anne has worked with computers since they first came out of the closet and into more general application, starting with computerized quality control systems for Kodak photographic and printing processes and now with the fine points of SEO theory and application.
Resources:
- SEO Linking Courses, Inc.
-
Linkihg – This is it!
- February 23rd, 2009
Linking – This Is It ! Well I find it time to speak again about linking as I have a couple of times in the past two years. I think I have gone the cycle and I think I have arrived. What do we want linking to do for us and what can linking actually do for us? Well we want it to get us traffic. Most of us think it can get us traffic two ways. One way we hope to get traffic is by making the search engines think we are good because of all the links to us. We are hoping that will rank us higher in those search engines. All the SEO companies want to help us be on the FIRST PAGE of Google. Well with the billions of websites now and all the keywords maxed out – can we all be on the first or second page? Of course not! So, how much does it really matter where you rank in Google? Let me give you an example provided by David Notestine from Zeus link management programming. He will provide server logs to back up stats that show: - they get 6000000 hits per month for Zeus - about 20 of those hits are from search engines - about 3 percent result from paid adwords (not profitable he says) - the remainder are from hits from links on other websites What should we really expect from our linking strategy. Let’s get hits from links on other sites. Forget that other stuff about pleasing the Google Gods! So why don’t we all help each other with good linking practices? If you are going to link to me so that others can find my site, why in the hell don’t you make it easy for those visitors to go from your home page to your link index? WHERE IS THE DAM Text to click on for links? If I can’t find it to verify my link, then I know damn well that your site visitors won’t find it or even look for it if it’s that hard to find. As you can see, this really irks me. Secondly, for your link site to be useful to me, visitors need to find me or my product in that huge directory that we all are trying to develop. The best way to make it easy for searchers to find a link to a website or product is with a “search utility” installed and kept current on the page of that big link directory. Visitors can then search for a product, name or contact and get easy and immediate results. The difference we see here is that a few little things like this will make linking work the way it should for ALL of us and not for just ten or twenty websites!
-
Earn Money from your Website
- February 23rd, 2009
So you have heard that there is money to be made out of websites. By setting up a number of websites you can make money from home, become a millionaire and retire! Well, if it was as easy as all that anyone would be doing it!
Once you have set up any website you can become an affiliate of any number of organisations and put adverts up on your site. If anyone buys a product through a link on your website you get paid a commission. The only problem with this is that the products really need to be in line with the subject matter of your site. If people have found your site because they searched Google looking for photos of puppies, they may not be all that interested in the ads for mobile phones or MP3 players they see there!
One way of getting adverts which are targeted to your site is to use Google Adwords. Google displays adverts on your site which are connected with the content on your pages – you do need to have a content rich site, as Google may not accept you if you don’t. When people click on the adverts you get paid – sometimes it is only one or two cents a click, but sometimes you get dollars for each click!
So how much income can I get?
Most webmasters can at least expect to pay for their hosting fees from hosting Google ads on their sites, but you shouldn’t expect to be able to retire on the income.
I’m not after earning pennies – I want to get a proper second income!
If you really want to get serious money there are some things you can do.
1. Have a number of different websites – you may not make a fortune from each, but having a number on different subjects will allow you to experiment, try different ideas and generate a better income!
2. Base your websites on keywords where clicks on google ads pay the highest amount – but you will need to make your site attractive so that you get enough visitors to make it pay!
3. Base your websites on keywords where there are only a few competing websites (thus guaranteeing you a position on page 1 of the search engines) which will ensure you get the number of visitors you need!
OK, good advice but where on earth do I start?
Firstly, remember that for each website you are going to need to purchase a domain name. Multiple websites are therefore an investment. Make sure that your hosting company enables you to have more than one domain on your account – otherwise it is going to be very expensive to set up and before you see any return!
I’ve got an idea, but is it competitive?
Wordtracker is a progam that is extremely useful when you are deciding to set up a website for making money. It will tell you how many people actually search for the keywords you have in mind, and how many other sites there are that will be in competition with you for that top spot in the search engines!
Remember, people normally only look at the first 10 items returned by a search engine. If there are many competing sites, the chances of you being in the first 10, or on the first page is very small.
Keywords are just one element – although some sites do read like a list of key words (a trick search engines are aware of and will black list) – what is really necessary is to put up some quality content based around the key words you have chosen. This way you will be offering something to your visitor, and can now start to put targetted adverts to generate an income stream as well. Remember though you do need to get visitors – it is no use using keywords which no one ever searches on!
Pat Ransom has worked in the IT industry for 15 years and is experienced with local government and company websites. Having designed and published a successful and acclaimed website in her own right the secrets of website design and publishing are now shared at http://www.webmasterproductions.co.uk
-
The Power Is In The Pipes: How To Get Maximum Leverage From Your Website
- February 23rd, 2009
What is the most important part of your online business?Many people would say: “my website”. And that’sunderstandable – it’s the most visible part of an internetbusiness.
But the real power in your online business is email. It’sthe ability to reach your database of contacts at the clickof a button. The efficiency of your email pipeline willdetermine how much money your business makes.
Your website is just a way of building your mailing list -by collecting the email addresses of your visitors.
In fact, we’re not talking about one list, but several.Here are the lists that I maintain – they’re all people whoat one time or another have visited my websites:
- people who have bought my products- people who have signed up to receive my articles- people who have joined my affiliate program- people who have signed up for my email course- people who have joined my newsletter
So why are these lists so important?
Because most of your visitors won’t buy on the firstcontact. Statistics show that most people will need to seeyour message 7 times before they make a purchase. So ifyou’re not collecting the email addresses of your visitors,you are losing out on a lot of sales.
But there is one list in particular that is like gold. It’syour list of previous customers. These people arepredisposed to buying from you. In fact, some businessesmake 80% of their sales from previous customers.
All well and good – but what do I do with these lists?
Here are some ideas:
- announce your latest product to your customer list
- announce your latest product to your affiliates list
- send your latest article to your articles list
- announce your latest product in your newsletter
- publish your latest article in your newsletter
- announce ‘related’ products to your customer list
- send your latest article to your affiliates list so they can use
it to promote your products
For each list that you manage you will need (1) anautoresponder account or an autoresponder script and (2) away of capturing your visitor’s email address.
(1) Autoresponder Accounts
An autoresponder account gives you the ability to manage alist without installing software – it’s all done on aremote website. Most autoresponder accounts will give you:
- an email address for subscribing- an HTML form for subscribing- seven or more follow-up messages- a confirmation email to you every time someone joins- the ability to broadcast messages to your list- the ability to personalize your messages- database of your prospects- online stats
Here are some sites that offer autoresponder accounts:
http://www.proautoresponder.com/
http://www.infogeneratorpro.com/
http://www.auto-responder.co.uk/
Now, autoresponder accounts cost between $17 and $20 permonth. And with most autoresponder services you can onlymanage one list per account. So if you are managing 5lists, that quickly adds up to a hefty monthly bill.
But there are a few services that allow you to managemultiple lists with one account. Here are some of them:
(2) Capturing Email Addresses
The most popular way to get new subscribers to your list isa ’subscribe form’ that pops up when your website loads. Iget 25 to 30 new subscribers a day using this technique.The HTML code for the subscribe form usually comes withyour autoresponder account.
Another way to invite visitors to join your list is an’alert box’. An alert box is a small gray dialogue box thatpops up when someone visits your website. It usually sayssomething like: “Please subscribe to my Newsletter. 5 FreeeBooks when you join”. It’s impossible to ignore an alertbox – you have to either close it or click OK to continue.
Alert boxes have two advantages over subscribe forms.Firstly, there’s no form to fill in, so it’s much easierfor people to join your list. People who have switched froma subscribe form to an alert box report 3 to 5 times asmany subscribers.
Secondly, alert boxes capture only “real” email addresses -the email address from the visitor’s client browser. Youend up with very few Hotmail and Yahoo addresses, whichmeans you’ll have a much more responsive list. For moreinformation about alert boxes, visit:http://www.optinlightning.com/
So to sum up, use your website to build several optinmailing lists and you’ll have a private audience of peopleyou can market to over and over again – it’s the key torunning a successful online business.
————————————————————
Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
———————————————————— -
Do Small/Medium Size Businesses Need a Website?
- February 19th, 2009
The answer to that question is probably “Yes” but then you will say, I would say that because it is my business- so don’t take my word for it you figure out if your business need a website. Before you spend any money ask yourself the following questions:
Do your customer look for your services/products on the net?
Yes! most of the average British house hold have access to internet and they would research before they part with their hard earned money. So your customer will expect to find you on the net.Do your competitors have a website?
Imagine that a prospective client is considering hiring your business and is attempting to use the web to compare your services to the competitors. If you don’t have a site, it makes you appear less established and professional. Its like not having a business card.Are your competitors larger than you?
If your business is very small, or you’re just starting out, you may want it to appear larger than it is. A well-designed and highly professional website gives the appearance that your business is large and established.Do you want to expand your customer base?
If you want to grow your business, you will need a web site to reach clients in new areas. Suppose you’ve always focused on one industry, but now want to offer a new service tailored to a different industry. Your website can be easily modified to accomodate the intended audience.Investing in website is not very expensive business now, if you go for a right company- There are company offering basic website package starting from £250. Some company also offer a free basic training along with the web package to get you started.
Rubelon WebTec – We specialize in creating professional custom-made web sites for small and medium sized businesses, not-for-profit organisations and personal web sites.
We are qualified software professionals specialised in web designing. We are located in Crawley, West Sussex, UK.
We believe in helping charity organisations, small/medium size businesses to have a web presence. We are open to new ideas and challenges.
We work with you to create what you want right from the initial planning.
We provide complete professional design at fixed prices from a range of web design packages to match the needs of all types of customers. – Basic web package starting at £250
Visit – http://www.RubelonWebtec.com or http://www.RubelonWebtec.co.uk
