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September 30, 2007
Bad Spelling Makes Money
Remember back in school when you learned how to spell? It almost went hand in hand with the "Don't color outside of the lines!" attitude. It was something you were expected to do - color within the lines and spell correctly.
You lost points for bad grammar, incorrect spelling, and oh yes, coloring outside the line.
If you consider words as a business commodity, correct spelling is usually put up for sale and purchased by those of us who are eager to devour it through magazines, novels, books, newspapers, membership sites, and all kinds of downloadable online content. To name but a few outlets.
So, what happens to all the incorrect spelling? Where does it go?
You would think that most of it gets stomped upon and eradicated in the classroom, or by the magazine or book editor, or even the newspaper editor. And, for the most part this ib, oops, is true.
Yet, with the dawn of text messaging, instant chat rooms, email, and a host of other "who cares how I spell" applications, incurrect speling is becuming the informal norm.
So, who cares if you spell incorrectly?
Well, despite what your teacher told you, there are people who actually want you to misspell - in fact, they're counting on it!
Entrepreneurs like Kevin Ham from Vancouver get excited when you absent-mindedly type in prpsi.com instead of pepsi.com. Try it. The 'r' key is so close to the 'e' key on the keyboard that people mistakenly type the 'r' key instead.
So, how much money can you make from spelling errors?
According to the June 2007 issue of Business 2.0 magazine, Ham's business is worth over $300million, with much of it coming from owning misspelled domain names that people type directly into their Internet browser address windows.
In 2004, Yun Ye sold his portfolio of 100,000 domain names for $164million.
Mark Schilling owns over 320,000 domain names and still works out of his home in the Cayman Islands.
In 2006 Ham hashed out a deal with the government of Cameroon in Africa - who have the '.cm' country code (U.S.A. has .us, Canada has .ca, and the U.K. has .uk). Why? Many people who intend to type ".com" as part of a web address end up missing the 'o' of com and type .cm instead.
Surfers who make this mistake end up on the Cameroon servers where the name is checked to see if it is registered there. If not, the surfer is redirected to agoga.com, which Ham claims to have upwards of 8 million unique hits per month.
So, how is the money made?
For the most part, these sites contain simple "park" pages containing money-generating pay-per-click ad links that relate somewhat to the keywords used by the searcher. Each time the visitor to the page clicks on a link, the site owner makes money from that click (pay per click).
Other ways these "domainers" make money is from buying popular names like greeting.com and adding a park page to it.
Other than joining this bandwagon, one way you can profit from this with your site is to consider different, or even incorrect spellings people would use to access your site. Then figure what the most common mistakes would be and register those sites, and have those sites redirect to you main site.
So, next time someone corrects your spelling you can tell them about Kevin Ham.
Happy domain naming!
Posted by billenross at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2007
Powerful PowerPoint
In the hands of a skillful communicator, PowerPoint can be a great tool. Unfortunately, there are many who use PowerPoint poorly. A report in the online Wall Street Journal claimed that millions of dollars are being wasted each day due to bad presentations. Whether this is a realistic figure or not, most people have had to suffer through poor presentations at some stage.
The most common mistake in PowerPoint is using too many words. Research suggests that having lots of words on the screen to match a spoken presentation increases the cognitive load on the brain. The end result is that the message actually becomes less clear. Using lots of words can also tempt the presenter into using the slides as a teleprompter. If this is the case, it would be better to write the points on cards and not show them to the audience.
A related problem is using too many bullet points. Again, your key messages can become lost if you have a vast variety of bullet points. Some commentators suggest that you should have no more than six bullet points and the number of words per point should be restricted to a maximum of six. A good guide is to write your points as ‘headlines’.
There are others who suggest that a presentation can be better with no bullet points at all. Because PowerPoint is essentially a visual medium, many advocate using one key message per slide mixed with the use of interesting and relevant images. In fact, slides which contain only an image or a collection of images with no text at all can often make a powerful statement. The beauty of PowerPoint slides is that they don’t cost anything, so you can use as many as you want.
A poor choice of background is another source of aggravation for audiences. If you are going to use text, it needs to be seen. A busy background or one that doesn’t provide enough contrast between it and the words can lead to text that is unreadable. Distracting backgrounds can be used if the text is placed inside a text box with a plainer background that allows it to be read. Another cause of unreadable text is using a font size that is too small.
Some people seem to be natural presenters. However, the good news is that the skills to construct a good presentation can be learnt. Even a mediocre presenter can shine if they put the effort into designing a winning presentation.
Posted by billenross at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2007
Higher Search Engine Ranking
Keywords are an essential component of producing a web site. These are the words which the search engines use to help categorize and rank your pages. For instance, if your web site is about 'writing articles' then your keywords could include 'writing', 'articles', 'article writing' and so on.
The advice from many web designers and search engine optimizers has been to find as many keywords as you can. They advise you to search for keywords using a variety of online tools and software programs which can identify leading keywords. At first sight this seems attractive, but it actually defies logic.
Let's take a look at the aim of a search engine. It's job is to track down pages that meet the specific search term that a web surfer has typed in. The more closely the pages it serves up match the search term, the better it is for users. Search engines need to be as accurate as possible in delivering the right material to their users. Otherwise the web surfer goes elsewhere.
Now imagine you are a search engine algorithm - the mathematical program which calculates the probability of any web page matching the search term typed in. If the page has hundreds, or thousands of keywords you'll be a bit confused. For instance, is this web page about 'article writing', or is it about 'feature writing for journalists'. They are different things. You'll end up knowing the page is relevant but not that relevant. So you rank it down the bottom.
But what if the page only has the keyword 'article writing' several times? You're absolutely clear the page is about article writing and so you rank it highly.
Admittedly, it's not quite as simple as this. But this is the principle of search engine technology. It is trying to find the most relevant pages that match the search term.
What this means for Internet marketers is that you need separate pages for each keyword. Focus each page on each individual keyword. Use the keyword in headings, sub-headings, the page text, the page title tag and in the meta tags. Avoid having pages which contain several keywords as that simply confuses the search engines and lowers your rankings.
So forget the advice to have hundreds or thousands of keywords. Go for single pages that match single keywords and you will find your page traffic increase.
This trick also works for Google AdWords. Each advert should apply to just a handful of keywords - you get much greater click through rates and therefore cheaper advertising when you only have a couple of keywords per advert. If you have hundreds of keywords you'll find you'll get greater results by having keyword specific ads, rather than one advert with hundreds of keywords.
So go against the advice of filling your pages and adverts with keywords. Go specific.
Posted by billenross at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2007
That First Step
We all know it and we've all had experiences where we realized the truth of it. The first step is often the hardest one to take. Not necessarily because it is so complicated. Although in some situations it can be hard because so many things are unclear at the start. The main reason that getting started with something can be so 'difficult' is because to take that first step requires making a decision and then take it one step further by taking action on that decision.
This goes for babies as well as for adults. A child that starts to walk isn't sure if it can. After all walking is quite a balancing act. Especially if you've never done it before. The child already has the ability to walk. They have the necessary leg muscles and they also have a certain amount of balance since they can already stand. What they lack is confidence. It is mainly this lack of confidence that will keep them from taking that first step. Once the child discovers that it can move around quite easily, as long as they don't try to cross too much distance at once, they become pretty comfortable. Before you know it you wish they were back to their crawling days; there is no more stopping them.
You would think that we grow over this "lack of confidence" thing as we get older. After all, as we grow we develop the ability to reason. And that should give us the ability to make better assessments about what we can and can not do. Apparently this is a bit over optimistic. Our ability to make good assessments is probably slightly overrated. Most decisions, if not all of them, are still made on an emotional basis, not a rational one.
Of course the first step is often used as a metaphor. But taking this literal can help in driving this point home. Tony Robbins, in his Unleash the Power Within seminars, organizes firewalks for thousands of attendees at a time. In firewalking the first step is most definitely the hardest. After the fist step all you do is just keep on walking. You don't think about every step that you take. You just put one foot in front of the other and focus on the person standing at the other end of the burning hot coals. It's that very first step that takes all the courage. The other steps are merely an extension. It doesn't take much courage to keep on going once you've started walking. Stopping is pretty much the last thing on your mind.
It's like this with many other challenges in life as well. Many times we fuss about decisions; things we might want to do, know we should do but somehow just put off again and again. We dread what might happen if things don't turn out perfect. We worry about everything that can go wrong and we develop into masters at coming up with unlimited numbers of excuses. Of course we would rather call these "sound reasons for not moving forward". After all "excuse" is such an ugly word.
Even if you've done something similar before and you were successful at it, you can still get scared another time around. After all, circumstances could be different this time. Perhaps your performance isn't what it used to be. You could have gotten rusty in some areas. Maybe you were just lucky the other time. This phenomenon can even occur in firewalking. For example; imagine you're at a firewalk at a Tony Robbins event in London in February. Around that time of year it will be pretty cold outside. Due to the amount of participants, about 12.000 at such an event, it takes quite a while before you actually get to the burning bed of coals. They have set up the site in such a way that all the people can walk the fire within a 60 to 90 minute timeframe. Before you get to the fire your feet will be so numbed by the cold that you could hardly care less about some glowing coals under your feet. For a short while you may even consider slowing down your pace so you can warm your feet a little. Now take the same firewalk experience in June, when temperatures are a lot more pleasant. This time when you stand in front of the bed of coals your feet won't be numb at all, and you know it. The thought of storming across does seem a bit more challenging when you realize this.
Some doubt is fairly logical when you're trying new things. Even when you have proof that you've done something very similar before and succeeded, fear and doubt can creep back in and stop you dead in your tracks. But if you've done your homework. If you've properly prepared and you know the reasons why it will work, don't spend too much time worrying. It won't do you any good. Just focus on what you need to do and remember that after that first step it all gets easier.
Posted by billenross at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2007
How To Find Good Clipart and Photos For Your Projects
Whether you are writing an ebook, putting together an HTML newsletter, or setting up a personal web site, you may find that you need good, quality artwork, either illustrations (clipart) or photos.
There are generally two problems you may encounter when you look for clipart or photos online. The first problem is finding something that you can legally use. If you do not know that you have the permission to use a piece of art, then you probably do not. You can use work that you have purchased the right to or have been given the right to use. You cannot use your favorite cartoon character or a professional photograph of your favorite singer.
The rule of thumb in looking for graphics online is to look for royalty-free clipart and photos. This means you may use the work without paying a continuing royalty fee for use. You may receive the right to use the artwork free of charge, you may pay a fee to access such artwork (say $15.95 a month for unlimited downloads), you may pay for the right to use that particular piece, or you may agree to link back to the creator's site in exchange for the royalty-free use of the artwork.
The second problem with finding clipart and photos online is that good royalty-free art may be more expensive than you would hope. This is changing rapidly as sites like StockXchange, iStockPhoto and Dreamstime make it easier for photographers to sell their work and for consumers to find clipart they need.
The key to finding exactly the right art for your project is to have a very good idea of what you are going to need before you start. Think about color, shape, size and resolution (whether it will be printed or posted online makes a difference).
While you cannot predict exactly what you want without looking at some art and having an aha moment, you can know in general what you are looking for. When you find the right art for your project, try to get a low-resolution file (sometimes called a comping image), to try in your layout. This image cannot be used in your project and will have a very large visible watermark on it but it will allow you to see firsthand how it will look.
Especially if you have selected a fairly expensive image, this is a crucial step in deciding whether you have found exactly the right image for your project. It is surprising how often the "perfect" image looks positively awful once it is placed.
The most important thing may be to realize that you are not going to find the "perfect" image and just go for what you believe works. You may find something that looks great, but your are tempted to keep looking to see if anything else can be found that is better. The advice is don't!
Decide what you need, find something that fits the bill, and move on with the rest of your project. Otherwise you may spend a waste a lot of time searching for something that may not exist. The biggest obstacle to finishing a project on-time and on-budget is trying to go from great to perfect, when great is usually good enough.
Posted by billenross at 07:55 AM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2007
Podcasting Basics and Benefits
The top word for the year 2005 was "podcasting," as selected by the New Oxford American Dictionary. According to one dictionary, podcasting is "the web-based broadcast which works with software that automatically detects new files and is accessed by subscription."
There are two explanations of the etymology of the word, "podcasting." One explanation is that it is a combination of the words "iPod" and "broadcasting," because early listeners generally downloaded audio broadcasts to their Apple iPod mp3 devices. The other explanation is that the root of the word comes from the acronym for "personal on demand," which would be pod. Personal on demand broadcasting becomes podcasting.
Podcasting began as a means to distribute music files, but soon website owners realized that podcasting the spoken word was an important way to increase the amount of useful content on their website. For example, all of the major news agencies which distribute countless pages of written information now also offer their subscribers portable audio content as well.
Podcasting is produced from two separate actions. The first action is to design, create, and record an audio show that is to be broadcast later. An audio file is created and is made available on the podcaster's website in order for listeners to download the file directly to their listening device or to listen to the file as it streams from the website. Additionally, the smart podcaster will make the audio file available through a subscription based feed. The subscrition is generally free, but some podcasters charge a small fee for the subscription. The web feed stores the audio file so that a listener can have access to the file at any time they choose.
The second action is for the listener to periodically check for new content from their favorite shows. The listener can either search for new content and download it to their digital audio device or they can enlist the help of a podcatcher or feedreader. The feedreader will search for new content from the listener's favorite shows and notify the listener when new content is available. The obvious advantage to this system is that the listener will receive new content without ever having to search for it themselves.
Audio podcasting is an important way for a website owner to distribute their content to their audience. Many people would rather listen to audio content than to read the same content. With the use of portable audio devices, the website content can be enjoyed at a time and place that is convenient to the listener. The website owner will be able to increase the amount of visitors to their website by being able to offer podcasts as an additional source of information.
Posted by billenross at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2007
Blogging Revisited
“Blogging, Blogging everywhere, not a penny in my account”. Some people are able to earn a handsome amount of money from blogging, but for some people, earning from blog is a far fetched dream. If you are among the few who are yet to know what blogging means or if you do not know how to earn from your blog, here is an attempt to present a road map to start earning from your blog.
Blogging is defined as “A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links”. Simply speaking blogging means writing and publishing your thoughts and views. Blogs attract lot of traffic as they have a casual approach of presentation of views and they provide an excellent platform for discussion.
Blogging usually begins with selecting a topic for your blog. Though you can create a blog for your random thoughts, it will not earn you money. You will find lot of articles on how to choose profitable niche for your blog. You might even be tempted to look for ways for find the most profitable keywords which will help fill your bank accounts. The most important aspect to look for when selecting a topic for your blog is whether you really know anything on the selected topic. After all you are the one who would be writing on the blog. Certain keywords like Mesothelioma are supposedly good paying keywords on Google Adsense, but would you be able to write on this topic on an on going basis. If the topic is on something that interests you, you will find yourself writing new articles and eventually providing a lot of interesting content for your readers.
You should always remember that just because you like to gossip about your neighbor and you can write about it, does not mean you will have a lot of readers visiting your blog. You need to be imaginative and creative when selecting a topic for your blog.
Lot of search engines and keyword research sites provide ways to see recent searches done by their users along with the search frequency. If you find any such search term interesting and relating to your favorite hobby, you can be assured of having a good traffic to your blog.
You can setup your blog on one of the free blog sites like Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad etc. For those who are pretty new to blogging, the blog sites provide simple and easy to understand setup instructions. When setting up your blogs you need to select a relevant name and URL for the blog. Having a relevant URL is considered as one of the factors in search engine optimization and will ensure your pages rank well in search engines, for searches related to your blog topic. If you already own a domain name and hosting space, you can setup your blog on your own server. Setting up the blog on your own space provides you lot of flexibility in terms of the design, control and plug-in setup.
Once you have setup your blog, you need to ensure you get regular traffic to your blog. You will never earn from your blog if it has no traffic. You need to plan well on getting regular traffic. You should begin by submitting your blog to various blog directories. Some directories will ask for reciprocal link while some will be paid. If you can afford, you can opt for the paid directories. You should submit your blog to at least one directory per day. You should also take care to submit your blog to most relevant category. Blogs submitted to irrelevant directories are considered spam and will not be accepted. Usually directories take 2-3 months to approve submitted blogs.
Any Blog software you use, will provide RSS feed. You should submit your blogs RSS feed link to various RSS directories. Such directories are a good source of return traffic. Some sites also provide ways to earn money from your feeds by putting in advertisements. Sites like FeedBurner will help you earn money once you have certain number of readers subscribed to your feed. You should also consider bookmarking your blog on sites like Digg, Technorati, Yahoo, Google, MSN. Bookmarking of your blog on the various bookmarking sites will get your blog indexed quickly by the search engines and will help you get organic traffic. You should also add your blog link in your profile on various social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook. One of the quickest ways to get traffic is to create and submit a video to sites like YouTube. This will get you good source of traffic. You need to ensure that the video is related to the blog topic.
The quickest way to earn money from your blogs would be from placing content relevant ads in your blogs. Google Adsense, Yahoo, Auction ads are some sites which allow bloggers to publish content relevant advertisements on their blogs and earn money when someone clicks on these ads. You can also look at affiliate marketing on your blogs. You can review and provide your feedback on the products sold through affiliate networks like Commission Junction, Revenue Gateway. Such affiliate network sites allow you to select the product you want to endorse on your blog. You earn money when someone clicks on the product link on your blog and buys the product. These commissions usually are in certain percentage of the product price. If you have a niche blog and are able to provide the user all information on the topic, you would be seen as an expert on that topic and any visitor will buy products recommended by an expert.
If you are not technology savvy and hate to maintain blogs, you can always register yourself with sites like PayPerPost or iBibo, where you are paid per blog post that you write.
Today internet provides lot of opportunities to earn some extra money. Its up to you how you use the opportunity.
Once your blog is all set up, you can start getting more traffic by adding the BlogRush widget.
Posted by billenross at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2007
Computer Crash!
How to Prevent Loss of Valuable Data
Have you ever had a computer crash whereby all your data was lost? What very likely happened is that your computer's hard drive became defective. Yes, it happens more frequently than one might expect. There are all sorts of reasons why computer hard drives can fail and there's not a whole lot that can be done to prevent these failures. Another consideration for the protection of data is the possibility of fire and theft. The main objective of this article is to provide you with some practical strategies that will allow you to easily protect and recover your data.
First let's talk briefly about what is meant by valuable data. On any given computer system there are generally two types of data stored on the computer's hard drive. The first type is "software" data and the second type is "user" data. Many people don't actually realize that software is data in its own right. But software data is not the kind of data that you really need to concern yourself with when it comes to recovery of data. The reason for this is that software data is easily recoverable from the installation disks received when software is purchased.
The data that we will focus on in this article is "user" data. Let's define user data specifically. User data is the data that users create from the software that is run on a computer. For example, if a word processor is used to create a document or a letter, the word processor provides functions to save this data. The data that is created and saved through the word processor is "user" data. Most programs will create and save data somewhere on the hard drive.
There are many kinds of user data that can and will be created on the hard drive. For example, picture files, documents, accounting data from a money management program, music files, video files, and email and email address data are all different types of user data. This is not an exhaustive list. But it does highlight the types of data that accumulates on most computer hard drives through the use of various programs or software.
Here's the bottom line when it comes to recovery of data of both types. If a hard drive crashes and the operating system needs to be completely reinstalled or, in the worst case, the hard drive needs to be completely replaced, software can easily be recovered by simply reinstalling these from their installation disks. However, if the "user" data has not been backed up, then it is lost for good. Most people do not pay enough attention to this basic fact about computer systems until it's too late.
Remember, the key concept here is "prevention" and in order to prevent loss of valuable data you must always anticipate the possibility of hard disk failures, fire damage, or theft. So let's talk about some basic options that are easily available to implement a good data management plan.
Option 1: Consider having two internal hard drives.
Most home computers generally all come with only one internal hard drive. This one hard drive stores both software and user data. Which means that this one single hard drive is experiencing a lot of wear and tear. Every time a program is launched it's being accessed. Every single function that the operating system invokes will likely hit the hard drive etc. This heavy wear and tear can eventually lead to physical failures. Also, many viruses are designed to hit the operating system. If the user data is on the same physical drive as the operating system, then it can be severely impacted by viruses as well.
So why not install a second internal hard drive. Very few people ever think of this option and, with the price of hard drives going down drastically, it's a very cost effective approach to securing user data. What does this accomplish? Well first of all, using this approach, the user data can be physically separated from the software data. The main drive, also known as the boot or master drive, would be strictly dedicated to holding only the operating system and all other software. The second hard drive (known as the slave drive) would be strictly dedicated to storing only your user data.
Here are the benefits of this approach. First and foremost the user data is completely isolated to a more secure and less used drive. This drive would experience a lot less wear and tear. Also, it would be much easier to back up your data onto other storage mediums such as writable compact disks (cds) or digital versatile disks (dvds). That's because this data would be in one centralized place. In other words, user data is much easier to find when it is isolated on a separate drive.
Another key point regarding storing user data on the primary drive is that it is also much more at risk for viruses. Again, by isolating user data onto a physically separate drive, the risk of data loss or corruption from viruses would be greatly minimized.
Another strong point for this option is that total system recoveries (i.e. re-installing the operating system) is much easier if you don't have to include re-installing the user data as well. The main hard drive can quickly be reformatted without worrying about backing up the user data and then re-imaged with a fresh copy of the operating system.
Option 2: Save your data to cd or dvd disks.
This is by far the cheapest option and a very good approach to securing user data. All that is needed is a cd or dvd burner and some blank disks, which cost pennies to buy. This option can be the only option used for securing data but it is highly recommended that option 1 be used in conjunction with this option for two reasons. First, the back ups to cd or dvd will only be as current as the last time the backups were done. Secondly, if the operating system needs to be completely re-installed, the user data will also need to be copied from cds or dvds onto the single hard drive. Thus making the recovery a bit more cumbersome but still doable.
The main benefit of saving user data onto cds or dvds is that it is being further isolated and one step removed from the hard drives. When using this option, two copies should be maintained. The reason for maintaining two copies is so that one of the copies can be stored off site. This means keeping one set of disks at some other location other than at home or the office. The reason this is an important consideration is because of the possibility of fire and theft. Another reason is that a cd or dvd backup can also become corrupted. It's better to have two or more copies.
Option 3: Attach an external USB Hard Drive to the system.
With the price of hard drives getting much cheaper, this is another really good option. By attaching an external USB hard drive to the system, special backup programs can be installed and scheduled to run over night. There are many cost effective backup programs available. Do an Internet search on these. Backup programs can be configured to save user data to the external hard drive. This option can also be used in place of options 1 and 2. But some of the benefits achieved by these other options are lost or minimized if this is the only option you choose. However, it is another good option because the back up process is fully automated and the user data is still physically separated from the main hard drive.
Hopefully this article has raised the importance of user data. The options presented here are the very same options used by many highly experience data processing centers and can be easily adopted by the average computer user. The most important point to remember is that good planning for potential disasters is the best protection against loss of valuable user data. You may not think of it this way at first but the user data that you accumulate on your computer takes time to build up and acquire. If you value your time then you'll value your data. Your data has a lot of value. So why not take a few simple steps to protect it.
Posted by billenross at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2007
Customer Service: Top 10 Things You Should NEVER Do
If you're a smart business owner or manager, you know that to gain new customers and keep existing ones, your employees must continuously provide exceptional customer service. Unfortunately, getting that point across to your employees, who tend to lapse into a coma at the start of formal customer service training, can be challenging.
Because the use of humor often helps to make training more interesting (and therefore more effective), let's borrow a bit from late-night funny man David Letterman. Share the following Top 10 list with your employees to give them a chuckle--and sneak in a little customer service training at the same time!
"Top 10 Things You Should NEVER Do When Striving to Provide Exceptional Customer Service"
10. Post a sign proclaiming "Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part!"
9. Laugh hysterically when a customer asks if you can provide requested information by the end of the day.
8. Put a customer's letter in the bottom of your In Box (otherwise known as the Black Hole).
7. Think about your dream vacation in Bakersfield while a customer is explaining what he/she needs.
6. Set a new land speed record heading out the back door when you spot a customer approaching with an "I have a problem" look on his/her face.
5. Do your famous grizzly bear impersonation when a customer interrupts your real job by asking for help.
4. Say "I'm working on that right now" when a customer calls to ask about the status of his/her request--while you're reading a tabloid story about celebrities who give their babies weird names.
3. Put your customer's call on hold while you head home for the weekend.
2. Use the following nonverbal cues while expressing your desire to help: sticking out your tongue, rolling your eyes, shaking your fist, pounding your head on the desk.
And the number-one thing you should NEVER do when striving to provide exceptional customer service...
1. Answer every question with "It beats the hell out of me" or "You've mistaken me for someone who cares" or "Why are you still here?" or "The dog ate my brain."
Here's one more important customer service tip you should share with your employees: everyone they deal with is a customer. This includes their coworkers, their subordinates, and their superiors (including you), as well as the people who buy your company's products or services. You can easily adapt the above Top 10 list to internal customer service tips by substituting the word "coworker" for "customer."
Posted by billenross at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2007
Don't Fall into the Pixel or Wiki Page Trap
The million dollar homepage was a novel idea. Advertisers flocked to purchase pixels and the creator collected more than a million dollar. Now there is a gold rush to buy wiki pages. However, today the Alexa ranking of million dollar homepage stands at 48,000. It will continue to decline. The same fate awaits the paid wiki pages.
These type of web sites lack in sustained traffic for a long time. Why do you visit a web site? You go to a web site for getting information or accomplishing some tasks, interacting with your online network or sharing your feelings, having some fun or making a purchase. You do not visit a web site to stare at a page full of pixel ads or read a random wiki page.
The Wikipedia has more than two million english language articles. It is full of comprehensive information on any imaginable topics. It is the largest information repository known to human race.
Ask a 12 year old kid her favorite information source and her answer will be Wikipedia. There are niche wikis on "how to", travel, politics, space, etc. There is no reason for a web surfer to visit a paid wiki site for anything.
The paid wiki sites are not even wikis. A wiki is a collaborative tool for adding, editing, and sharing information by a large number of people in a single space. Similar topics are linked together for easy navigation. The crowd intelligence makes it possible to record information accurately and completely.
However, credit goes to the paid wiki developers for portraying free Geocities, not even MySpace, type pages as wiki pages. Advertisers fall into the trap and moron reporters tout it the greatest invention since sliced bread.
Look at a paid wiki page. It is full of logos, banners, menus, color scheme, etc. of the site it resides on. Even MySpace allows you to customize your pages.
A better option for advertisers is to start creating Squiddo lenses or pages on any topic for free. Squiddo provides you all the free pages you need to create contents on any topics you wish. You can also make money from Squiddo if your lenses are popular.
Another option is to get a 10 year lease on a domain and redirect Google Blogger pages to the domain. You collect money using AdSense.
If you pay for website pages, evaluate the system based on the following four criteria.
1. Customization: You should be able to fully customize your pages, removing all logos, banners, menus, and color scheme of the site.
2. Traffic Model: The site should have a web model to attract visitors for a long time.
3. Page Promotion: You should have complete control of when and how your pages are linked on the homepage of the site. It should not be random.
4. The site should not monetize by placing ads on any pages.
Use these four filters to evaluate a site that sells you pages for traffic and fun.
Posted by billenross at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2007
The Business of AdSense
Even though AdSense is a very popular income source for many online marketers, few will make enough money from it to make AdSense their primary business. If you are currently trying to increase your AdSense earnings there are some tried and tested rules that will help you achieve more clicks and make more money.
As an online marketer, you realize that you must be consistent and persistent to achieve the goals that you set for yourself. The AdSense business is no different. Yet the people who make the most money with AdSense are the ones who work at it smarter rather than doing the same things over and over that do not produce good results.
In fact, it is a popular myth among online marketers that you must only develop and promote websites that pertain to high paying keywords. As a rule the marketers that make the most money from AdSense are the ones who consistently keep building websites around medium priced keywords within a theme. Then as they go along, they build websites that are related to that common theme.
For example, you might build your websites under the theme of 'computers'. The mistake some people make is to develop one site devoted to only computers. It is advantageous to the marketer to make many websites related to computers such as laptops, computer hard drives, computer keyboards, etc. It is the concept of more is better that will make you the most money.
As you start building your AdSense publishing business, here are some major rules to consider that will maximize your profits:
1. Track your successes and failures.
2. Use the latest tools and software available.
3. Keep your AdSense sites easy to navigate. Do not promote anything else on these websites.
4. Treat your AdSense business as a real business.
The marketers that make the most money with AdSense are the ones who treat it as a business and consistently continue to produce high quality websites around themes or 'niches' daily.
If you are just starting out, you have to realize that there is a lot of work involved to set up your websites, do the seo optimization, track your your results and then repeat the process.
You can use the latest tools and software to automate the keyword selection process, create good websites and do most of the tedious seo optimization for your AdSense websites. In this regard investing some money in the right software will turn more profit in the long run because you will be able to make more sites faster. The name of the game in the world of AdSense is to make highly profitable websites and keep making more of them all the time.
A large AdSense income does not happen overnight. The best way to make the most money with your AdSense business is to follow the rules outlined here and constantly build more websites. Like planting seeds in a garden, you will reap AdSense income according to what you sow.
Posted by billenross at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2007
Ads That Make You take Action
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As it turns out, all of our spices were 'ok', but I'll bet the next time we shop for spices, we're drawn to McCormick before Durkee.
Posted by billenross at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2007
Understanding Home Broadband Bandwidth
Your home broadband, typically ADSL or cable modem access, usually has a different speed for downloading and uploading respectively. Typically you will have a downlink speed in the range of 512 kbit/s up to 8 Mbit/s and an uplink speed substantially lower than that, often 128 kbit/s to 1 Mbit/s. However, even when downloading things from the Internet, traffic flows in both directions, because the protocol that is used to transfer the data uses acknowledgments to make sure that the data has been transferred properly. Since your download speed is substantially higher than your upload speed, in a lot of cases you will not be able to use your full download speed if you are uploading data at the same time.
Your Internet service provider will often quote the speed of your home broadband as being "up to" a certain speed. There is a reason for that. Let's say you have a home broadband connection of up to 2 Mbit/s in download speed and up to 512 kbit/s in upload speed. Does this mean that you are always guaranteed to get that bandwidth for your transfers?
Definitely not! In fact, all Internet service providers sell much more bandwidth than they can actually deliver. If all the customers of a service provider would try to use their connection to download at the same time, the average bandwidth would be much lower than the maximum value given. In fact, it is not uncommon to sell 50 times more bandwidth than they can actually deliver.
Does this mean that they are tricking you? It certainly sounds so, but this is a practice that has been used a long time, even in telephony networks or cell phone networks. If everyone in the world tried to use their telephone at the same time, it simply would not work. But that just doesn't happen, most people only use the telephone occasionally.
The same thing applies to your home broadband. Most customers in your service providers network only use their home broadband occasionally. Some users fill up their broadband all the time, and there are those that rarely use it at all. But on average, the usage is quite low compared to the maximum possible. For instance, when you're surfing on a web site, you spend most of the time reading the pages. Also, most people only spend a fraction of their day in front of their computer at home.
If the service provider was going to guarantee that you could always get your maximum bandwidth, your home broadband would be much more expensive. The service provider would have to make sure that you had dedicated bandwidth for your usage only. This would be a waste, and cost much more than most people are willing to pay.
Instead, service providers carefully monitor the bandwidth usage in a network, to make sure that connections are not overloaded. Some low quality service providers will overload their connections more, and give you a lower average bandwidth.
Service providers also use the same over provisioning for business customers, but the "over provisioning factor" tends to be much lower. This is not surprising, because a business connection is used by many people so on average these connections will be more utilized than a home broadband connection. Furthermore, a business customer generally pays more for the same bandwidth, so the service provider can afford to give a higher quality to these customers.
Posted by billenross at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2007
Keep Your Computer Virus-free!
Somewhere out there in cyberspace are malicious vandals hard at work dreaming up new computer viruses. Eugene Kaspersky, (of Kaspersky Lab Virus Research), in a November 23, 2005 article posted in Security News, said, "The number of new viruses and Trojans is now increasing every day by a few hundred. (Our) virus lab receives between 200 and 300 new samples a day." That is Not a misprint. He said 200-300 per DAY!
The worst ones we hear about. The large majority are quiet and anonymous like termites, often doing much damage before they are detected. Like human viruses, their effects run the spectrum from mostly benign to potentially fatal to their unwilling and unwitting hosts. Also as in human viruses, there are two different approaches to dealing with them: Prevention and Cure.
Preventing virus infection begins with guarding the portals of contact. Do not open suspicious e-mails or attachments without scanning them first. Most anti-virus programs have a right-click option to scan a selected file for viruses, which makes scanning easy. Similarly, when you download software, eBooks or whatever, always save to a file, then scan the file before opening. If you bring in data or software by floppy disk, CD or other portable media, the same rule applies; scan it first!
A good firewall can help somewhat in keeping viruses at bay, but there are too many ways to hide them in regular data or software transfers for a firewall to catch them all. A firewall (like chicken soup for human flu) can help, but don't rely on that alone.
As Benjamin Franklin said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." However, sooner or later, some viruses are going to get through your defenses somehow, and you will need to turn to cures.
If you should get hit by a really bad virus, you could lose most of your files before you know that there is a problem! The first step to enable cures is to prepare well in advance, positioning and backing up your files for easy recovery. Set up your computer with a small hard drive (4-10giga) for your C: drive and a much larger hard drive for all your data. Use your C: drive for programs only. Keep copies of your software purchase receipts, registration and activation codes and setup info in a file on your data drive. You can always download them again, if you can give the seller your purchase info to show that you already bought.
Almost all virus infections will be in the program section of the C: drive, so scan it daily. This won't take much time since you have arranged for it to be relatively small. Then scan your (larger)data drive once or twice a month.
You should still back up your data files frequently. If you cannot backup everything, at least backup the crucial information that would be difficult or impossible to replace. CD and DVD burners are a good way to do this backup, as are removable hard drives.
Finally, you will need good anti-virus programs to go after the viruses and either quarantine or (preferably) destroy them. There are many anti-virus solutions being touted and hyped out there. Some are good, most are not. Here is how to find the good ones:
1. Look for programs that offer both active and passive protection. Active protection means that part of the program remains memory-resident, actively watching for potential incoming viruses. When they detect a virus they can sound an alarm and give you a series of options for dealing with it. Passive or on-demand protection will let you ask for a scan of specified areas when you want it, but it waits for you to ask.
2. Select your anti-virus software based on the recommendations of independent testing agencies. Checkmark (by westcoastlabs.org), AV-test.org and PC World magazine are among the most respected independent testers of anti-virus software. For ratings of anti-trojan software, check with Anti-trojan - Forum. Use more than one anti-virus and anti-trojan program. Very few detect all problems, but what one program misses, another may find and defeat.
3. Keep your anti-virus programs up to date. There is a running gun battle going on between virus writer-disseminators and virus catch-and-destroy experts. New viruses are found; new anti-virus program patches to find and destroy them are usually ready within hours or days. Until your software is updated, you are still vulnerable to the new viruses.
In addition to using anti-virus software on your personal computer, consider using an Internet Service Provider or e-mail service that includes server-side anti-virus and spam e-mail filtering as a third layer of protection.
In summary, be careful, get good software, run it often and update it frequently... and stay alert to new developments! This struggle between new viruses and better anti-virus software is ongoing, and developing rapidly.
Posted by billenross at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2007
Contact Management Software
In business, what you know about your prospect or customer could determine whether or not you make the sale. So tracking that information is paramount. Contact management software is designed to help you stay on top of all of your valuable contact information.
There are two types of contact management systems -- the personal ones designed for the individual or sales person who needs the contact's name and other essentials at his fingertips while on the road or phone. The other type of contact manager allows a number of people in a company to share and update information about prospects and customers. For larger companies, there are customer relationship management (CRM) systems with many features tied to a large data base.
What are the benefits of Contact Management Software?
Manufacturers say they are designed to improve the efficiency of your business by making your people more productive. A good contact manager can cut costs while increasing revenue. Also, contact management software can make it easier for a company to satisfy customer needs and provide better reporting for management oversight.
Typically, a contact management system lets you automate some customer relationship tasks. Some programs let you create a series of activities that are carried out in sequence as prospects are added to your sales funnel. For example, you can specify that a prospect receive a postcard on day one, followed by a sales letter, three days later, and then a phone call followed by another postcard.
All contact managers include a calendar system. And most let you attach a word document, spreadsheet or sales presentation, so you have everything in one place when you are communicating with a customer or prospect. More powerful CRM systems provide tools to improve a company's ability to forecast sales and integrate the sales and marketing function.
You have a choice between software that runs on your desktop or web-based solutions that you can access anywhere. Most solutions let you synchronize your data with a Blackberry or Pocket PC.
With so many options, how do you choose the right contact management software for your needs? Here are some questions to consider before you shop:
1. What functions would you like the system to perform?
2. How many employees need to be able to share the information? A Desktop solution might provide everything you need, but it might be easier for a far-flung sales force to stay current with a web-based solution.
3. Are you using some other system currently?
4. How soon do you need to implement the new system? Some contact management solutions have a steep learning curve or require programming expertise to implement properly.
5. Will you need the contact management system to integrate with your accounting software, Microsoft Outlook, or a data base?
6. Can you customize the system to fit the way your business is organized?
Armed with the answers to these questions, you should be able to find the contact management software that will work best for you.
Posted by billenross at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2007
How To Avoid Online Mistakes
It's amazing and unfortunate that many website owners inadvertently put up barriers that discourage site visitors from actually doing business with them. This is especially true for people with brick-and-mortar businesses who are trying to build an online presence and who do not yet understand the differences between online and offline marketing.
If someone walks into your local storefront, especially if they've had to drive to get to it and drop a few coins in the parking meter, they're at least partly committed to spending some time in the store. Either they want something specifically, in which case you're nearly guaranteed to make a sale, or they think your store probably offers what they want, so they're willing to spend the time to look around.
In either case, your friendly staff, attractive promotional displays and compelling sale prices can influence someone to make a purchase, even if it wasn't what they originally came for.
This seldom happens online. Your nearest competitor is only a quick Google search away, a new website visitor may have little or no solid reason to look around your site, and it often happens that you lose a would-be customer in the click of a mouse.
That's why it's important for website owners to remember that you need to put the most important, most compelling, most commonly-requested information right up front, preferably on the home page.
This is the exact opposite of a physical storefront, where you can put your sale items in the back of the store and count on people walking past the new merchandise to get to the clearance racks. Online, a visitor to your website will not spend any time looking around unless they can tell immediately that you probably have what they're looking for, whether that's information or designer handbags.
You must also consider the fact that website visitors need more overt assurance as to your company's legitimacy and trustworthiness than visitors to a physical storefront.
Someone who walks into a local store is subtly and sub-consciously bombarded with all sorts of sensory and intellectual cues that reassure them (or not) that it's safe to do business with this particular merchant. A store that is clean, well-lit, intelligently laid out, with merchandise that fits the price being asked and helpful salespeople is more likely to be profitable than one which is not.
These factors are less visible online. Most would-be website owners realize that a site with blinking fonts and inconsistent navigation is a visitor turn-off, but still miss the mark by failing to reassure potential buyers. They neglect to include information on shipping, returns, privacy, guarantees and other store policies in a prominent location, which makes the customer uneasy and less likely to make a purchase.
One last tip for the storefront-owner-turned-website-owner, and that's to remember where and when site visitors come to your website. Many of your site visitors log on from work, or late at night, or when the kids are napping - and their first panicked impulse is to click away from your site if they're immediately greeting by loud music or an audio message from the company president. Those site add-ons can add value, but should be optional.
These differences between online and offline storefronts are among the most ignored. Paying attention to them right from the start can help make sure your website is as profitable as you dreamed it could be.
Posted by billenross at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2007
Outsourcing
As an entrepreneur, it is important to have continuous growth in your business in order to be successful. One of the ways that can help your business grow is outsourcing.
Outsourcing is when you choose certain business activities that you currently handle and then deciding to use an outside business source to handle the activity instead. This simple definition can bring peace of mind to an overloaded entrepreneur.
Case in point, as a web designer, clients may expect you to have the ability to create or install everything that revolves around the Internet. However, your skill set may not include some of your client needs such as creating an online shopping cart. So it would be good to find a business associate that you trust and outsource the online shopping cart to them.
However, make sure when you choose an outsourcing business partner that you keep the following things in mind:
1. Choose someone that you can trust not to steal your clients away.
2. Choose someone who has the same business ethics as you.
3. Make sure that this person has the skills to complete specific tasks before outsourcing to them.
4. Ask for client samples and references so that you can get feedback from their clients regarding their work habits.
5. Make sure to have a contract that includes a non-compete clause in it.
The list above is just a running start on some of the things that you need to keep in mind when outsourcing. After you have determined whom you will outsource projects to, make sure to have a service level agreement (SLA) with them too.
The SLA should fully explain your expectation of the type of service they will provide to your clients along with time frames for completing the projects. The SLA should be put in place the same time as the outsourcing contract.
Finally, you should make sure that you have a process in place for handling your outsourcing project. For instance, you need to include the following in your outsourcing to do list.
1. Client name
2. Outsourcing project details
3. Time line
4. Special requirements
There are other things that you may need to add to this list but the list above are the basic items that need to be included in your outsourcing to do list.
Now that you have a template for outsourcing projects, you can start planning for adding more clients to your business. Do not be afraid of outsourcing but embrace it and learn how it will free you up to do more with your business to grow it.
Posted by billenross at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
