7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

by: Kyle Dusang

With literally thousands of web hosting companies in the industry all vieing for your business, carefully consider these key points to ensure you make the most well informed decision possible.
1. Server Space
First, think about how much space your site will take up on a server. Unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery, the files that make up your website will probably only use between 1 and 5 megabytes of disk space. Many companies will offer several hundreds of megabytes of webspace for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors, but ask yourself กDo I really need that much space?ก. Though itกs true that you should allow your site กroom to growก, don’t opt for what seems like a great deal on a massively sized account if youกll never use all of the space offered. Chances are youกll find an even better deal on an amount of space more suitable for your site size.
2. Data Transfer Allowance
This decision should be based on the same principal as above. Though you may be convinced that your site will be the next Amazon or Yahoo and receive a gazillion visitors a day, you really shouldn’t need an extremely high data transfer allowance unless, as stated above, you’re running a software download site or a large image gallery. Even heavily trafficked normal HTML sites usually only use a few gigabytes per month in bandwidth allowance. Don’t go overboard just because it seems like an awesome deal. You may also want to be wary of companies who offer กunlimitedก data transfer as there are usually some fineprint stipulations that make this claim not entirely true. Be sure to read their terms and conditions very carefully before opting for this type of account. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth allowance is usually plenty enough for a small to medium sized business or personal site.
3. Technical Support
A very important point to consider when choosing a web host is the types of technical support offered by the company and how easy they are to contact when you need them. Ideally, a company should offer 24/7 tollfree telephone support and email. I have seen companies that do not even offer a telephone number on their website. You should look for a company that is very easily accessible in your time of need. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of working on your site and needing an important piece of information to finish the job and not being able to contact your hosting company to find it out.
4. CGIBin Access
No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called กCGIBinก. Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use กpreinstalledก scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their serverกs performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, itกs always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.
5. UpTime Guarantee
Another very important issue in determining the value of a hosting company is how often and for how long their servers กgo downก. No matter how good a deal you get on server space or bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully the companyกs tech support takes care of you, your site can’t receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine on which it is hosted is not up and running. Naturally you want a company who can guarantee the highest uptime percentage possible. Servers are taken down briefly from time to time for maintenance or upgrading, so no company can ensure 100% uptime, but you want your site to be hosted on dependable, well managed machines that are not constantly having problems which require them to be down for long periods of time.
6. Email Accounts
Again, like data transfer allowance and server space, some companies will offer you loads more email accounts than you will ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited email accounts as a selling point. This is an important factor if you are Bill Gates and have thousands of employees, each who need their own email box, but not such a big deal if you’re just one person or a small company. You should be okay with 10 or 15.
7. Reputation
This is probably the most important factor to consider when choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay attention to any negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular hosting company. There are several sites arount the Web that feature discussion forums that allow people to discuss and critique various hosting companies. Ask specific questions about any company you might be interested in using to see if anyone else has had any negative experiences with them. As a beginning webmaster, I had initially contracted the services of a particular web hosting company to host my first site, who promised very good, dependable service for a very cheap price. Then one day, for no apparent reason, decided to delete my entire site without warning or explanation. Only then did I visit some hosting forums and find that many others had similar negative experiences with that company. Don’t make the same mistake I did, find out for sure from the start that your hosting company is not going to let you down.

About The Author

Author: Kyle Dusang

Webmaster of http://www.verybesthosting.com

Looking for a web host? Compare plans, features, and pricing from several of the Webกs most reputable hosting companies all in one place at eryBestHosting.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 28, 2004

by Kyle Dusang

กBloggingก For Fun & Profits

กBloggingก For Fun & Profits

by: Jim Edwards

Unless youกve been under a rock for the last year, youกve heard the term กblogก once or twice.

To most people, a กblogก simply represents a glorified online กdiaryก where geeks, computer nerds, and lonely teenagers record their thoughts in cyberspace.

However, many people don’t realize that กblogsก are quietly revolutionizing the way companies and customers interact about everything from existing products to new ideas and improvements in customer service.

In short, กblogก style communication has come of age and anyone with an online business better sit up and take notice fast!

In the beginning, กblogsก were basically an online diary to record your thoughts; but กblogsก have now evolved into dynamic websites that nontechnical people can update immediately without html editors or ftp programs.

Blogs allow their authors to make instant website updates through a computer anywhere in the world with a Web browser and Internet connection.

Blogs also allow readers to respond to the authorกs posts, provide additional information, links, expanded opinions, and more.

In short, an active กblogก creates an interactive community with the author as the hub and the readers as the spokes of the wheel that keep the whole cycle turning round.

Unlike traditional กstaticก web pages where content rarely (if ever) changes, an active blog evolves in a state of constant and neverending renewal.

With blogs, smart online businesses rediscovered a principal that small กmom and popก stores understood for years: know your customers and stay in close tune with their wants, needs, and desires.

Large companies throw billions of dollars down a black hole every year to literally กguessก what people want to buy. Most call it the กMarketing Department.ก

On the flipside, smart online businesses understand that blogs allow you to avoid guessing whatกs on your customersก minds and provide an active and uptotheminute means for them to tell you exactly what they do and don’t like about your services, products, and virtually any other aspect of the market.

This lightning fast communication makes it possible for small companies to literally snatch huge market share away from more traditional companies.

Blogging also has a distinct advantage over traditional email newsletters in that subscribers can get udpates without having to receive an email message. Through the power of RSS (real simple syndication), subscribers get notified of updated content though an rss news reader.

Bottom Line: publishing a blog with an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to means your content NEVER gets blocked by a SPAM filter.

Blog software basically comes in 2 flavors: hosted and standalone. Hosted blogging solutions make it extremely easy to get set up with a blog, often in just a couple of minutes.

If you know how to type, you can create a blog. Log on to Blogger.com and you can set up a blog free of charge and start posting in just a few minutes.

Blogger.com (owned by search giant, Google) will even host your blog on their servers.

Typepad.com, which charges as little as $4.95 per month, is also an excellent hosted service offering additional features that enable you to quickly get your own blog up and running.

The alternative is standalone blogging software installed on your own website.

A very popular solution is Moveable Type, available from moveabletype.org, which provides a very versatile and powerful suite of tools for creating a fullfeatured blog to rival that of any size company in the world.

This is the solution Iกve chosen for my blog at http://www.IGottaTellYou.com/blog/

Whichever blogging solution you choose, if you plan to successfully conduct any form of business online, understand that a กblogก must form an integral part of your overall plan for customer communication and interaction.

© Jim Edwards All Rights reserved

http://www.thenetreporter.com

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the coauthor of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Simple ‘traffic Machineก brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months… without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

This article was posted on August 13

by Jim Edwards

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

by: Dean Phillips

I seem to have created quite a stir, on a particular SEO forum recently. In fact, rumor has it, at one point, my article, กGoogleกs Trap, DMOZกs Nap, And Yahoo!กs Crapก was the hottest topic discussed on this particular forum.

The aforementioned article was also bestowed the title of, กWorst SEO Article Everก by someone on the forum.

Why all the animus? I have no idea. Perhaps they view me as a threat to their livelihood. Whatever the reason, certain SEOกs seem to be taking my articles personally. Thatกs their problem!

My articles are not aimed directly at SEOกs or search engines per se. My articles are aimed at the people who utilize their services.

Iกm trying to get these people to realize, they can’t depend solely on search engines and search engine optimization. You have to have a multipronged attack.

I don’t depend on the search engines! I never have. I refuse to play that game. My traffic comes from the dozens of articles Iกve written that have been picked up and published on popular web sites all over the Internet. I also get traffic via word of mouth, newsletters and ezines that my articles are published in, and a few other secret methods that I use.

And you can do the same thing. You just have to get out of that search engine mindset.

There are many other proven and effective ways to market your web site. Here are just a few: ezines, newsletters, forums, online magazines, sponsor listings on other web sites, exchanging links.

Here are a few offline options: magazines, direct mail, shopper newspapers, cable television, radio, flyers, hospital newsletters, card decks, trade journals and directories, bulletin boards, tabloid newspapers.

Yes, I know Google and Yahoo! are the biggest, most powerful search engine and directory on the planet! Forget about them! Why? Because despite what certain corrupt SEOกs may claim, they CANNOT guarantee you a top ten listing in either Google or Yahoo!

No legitimate SEO would ever make that kind of guarantee in the first place. They couldn’t, because they know they wouldn’t be able to deliver on that promise. Now they may be able to get you to the top of the search engines with certain less popular keywords. However, what good does it do you to rank number one for keywords that nobody searches for?

I want to make one thing perfectly clear, right now. I am not suggesting that all SEOกs are corrupt. I don’t believe that for a second. There are many fine, honest and hardworking SEOกs out there, who are doing a wonderful job for their clients.

I have the utmost respect for people like Jill Whalen, Bruce Clay, Robert Woodhead and many, many other fine and reputable SEO experts. These individuals don’t overhype their services or your expectations.

They also have excellent rankings on the search engines. So, they definitely know what they’re doing.

Then, thereกs the other end of the spectrumthe companies that give good SEOกs like the aforementioned a bad name. Iกm sure youกve all seen some of these headlines:

‘top 10 and Top 20 Rankings Guaranteed!ก

กGuaranteed Number 1 Ranking!ก

กGuaranteed Top Ranking!ก

‘top 10 Placement Guaranteed!ก

Well, the next time you see this kind of advertisement, make a mental note to check out that companyกs ranking. Youกll be shocked at what you find out. Some of these companies making these outrageous claims are ranked at number 3 million. Thatกs not an exaggeration!

Now let me point out something very important to you. A companyกs search engine ranking doesn’t always tell the whole story. I know of many companies making a nice living on the Internet that aren’t ranked that highly in the search engines. You probably know a few yourself. You may even be one of those companies.

However, if you’re considering hiring an SEO, I think where they rank is very important. Why? Because if they aren’t capable of getting their own web site a high ranking, how can they possibly achieve a high ranking for someone else? They can’t!

You should bear that in mind, when checking out SEOกs.

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: [email protected].

Visit his website at: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on October 26, 2004

by Dean Phillips

Become a More Creative Person

Become a More Creative Person

by: Granny’s Mettle

Used to be when we talk about generation gap, it almost always applies to the difference in thinking between the supposedly adult generation and the younger ones. Then, it was easier to understand because our parents used to say that itกs all about difficult teenagers. Period.

However, the principle of generation gap has evolved in a different meaning particularly in the workplace. The trend nowadays is to have a more vibrant and creative staff working for companies. And who best exemplifies creativity and fun? The young, fine arts degree holders, who else.

A person with a fine arts degree used to have trouble in getting himself employed. But now, itกs the companies who are getting as much as they can; recruiting young people with a fine arts background, believing that with creative staff aboard, they become more creative and innovative themselves. Especially that thereกs a growing belief nowadays that to stay ahead, companies should become more inventive, innovative and creative.

Nevertheless, you don’t need to be a fine arts graduate to get inside the best companies. Or you get your own fine arts staff for your own company. You just need to enhance your creativity to get a crack of the business you have chosen. As the author of Vivation said, the idea that a few people are creative and the rest are not is definitely a myth. All we need is to let some of our infinite creative power leak through from the unconscious so we can apply it to our conscious state.

Or, we could always rely on software and programs available in the market to help us produce a creative and innovative environment for our company and business.

There is a barrage of applications from Adobe, Microsoft, and other software developers, to help us create better and vivid media materials that enhance our corporate identity.

At the TypoTechnica 2005 conference, Quark Inc. introduced QuarkXPress 7, an updated version of their page layout program. The program fully supports both Unicode and OpenType. With QuarkXPress7กs support for Unicode, it provides a new feature called Font Fallback that allows users to specify a fall back and alternative fonts when a specified font does not contain a full set of glyphs for nonRoman characters. Furthermore, the program will support a total of around 23 OpenType features, including standard and discretionary ligatures and swashes.

On the other hand, Adobeกs Creative Suite boasts having a complete design environment for print and Web publishing. They add that users will be able to create and publish content for print and the Web faster, more easily, and more affordably. The application has tools for creating artwork, editing images, creating photo compositions, and drawing vector graphics.

Then thereกs Microsoftกs Digital Image Suite 9 and Digital Image Pro 9 that comes with wizards and tutorials that walk you through the process and help you get started right away. The software includes thousands of design templates to help you create projects not only for your business, but also for the home.

There are a lot of ways and means to let our creativity flow. We just have to use our minds to imagine fresh ways or put together already existing ideas and innovate, to make our company click with our target clients. And with new technology to help us, business life is simpler and easier.

About The Author

Grannyกs Mettle is a 30something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: กWriting gives me pleasure… pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine.ก

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 07

by Granny’s Mettle

Where to Get Cheap Web Hosting

Where to Get Cheap Web Hosting

by: Jay Moncliff

If you are looking for a cheap web hosting company you may wish to know where to look. Cheap web hosting is available to anyone. But the cost of it depends on several factors. For some people, it may be impossible to get cheap web hosting. You will have to see what is available based on you needs.

First, to see if you can use cheap web hosting you need to know how much disk space you will need. How large is your website? How many pages, video files, music files, etc. do you need? Second, a cheap web hosting company will need to know how busy your sight will be. If your site is going to have a lot of visitors, cheap web hosting may not be for you. Third, how many email accounts do you need? Cheap web hosting companies do not usually provide many. Lastly, how much are you willing to spend? Cheap web hosting is not as technical as the more expensive web hosting.

If you go online, you can find a list of the top 10 cheap web hosting companies. The top 10 cheap web hosting companies are rated by their price, quality, and service provided. The cheap web hosting companies are priced between $4.95 and $19.95 a month. The cheap web hosting companyกs price varies on what kind of things you need. The disk space provided can be from 3000MB to 5000MB. The bandwidth varies from 40GB to 300GB. If this is not enough for you, then a cheap web hosting company is not an option for you. Most of these cheap web hosting companies offer free set up. This will make things much easier for you. Be aware of cheap web hosting that offers unlimited disk space. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

The top 10 web hosting companies reviewed are: Blue Host, Power Hosting, Pages Garden, Pro Logic Hosting, Easy CGI, Gigabyte Package, Yahoo! Hosting, iPower Web, Lunar pages, and Dot5 Web Hosting. All of these are very cheap web hosting companies. You will find them listed at top10webhosting.com. At this website you will also find customer testimonials and thorough listings about the cheap web hosting companyกs services they offer to you.

For those of you who still think that this is not cheap web hosting, you can also find free web hosting. It still comes with a price, however. Comcast offers free web hosting to anyone who subscribes to their internet service. You still have to pay for the internet service, but the web hosting is free. Thatกs the best that can be done about cheap web hosting. Weigh the odds, and see which route is best for you.

About The Author

Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.cheaphostingcenter.info a blog focusing on the Web Hosting, resources and articles. This site provides detailed information on Web Hosting. For more info on Web Hosting visit: http://www.cheaphostingcenter.

This article was posted on September 11

by Jay Moncliff

How to Protect your PC from Spyware in the Cyber A

How to Protect your PC from Spyware in the Cyber Age.

by: George Papazoglou

Wouldn’t you be shocked to find that your personal sensitive information, like files, credit card information, operating system / software and other nondisclosed data to be penetrated by unscrupulous prying eyes? Even worse…

กIs your computer infected by Spyware?ก

What is Spyware? Spyware are infectious programs developed to secretly subtract and transfer electronic information over the Internet, without a Userกs apprehension.

Norton AntiVirus or any other กvirus protectionก solution, will not protect your computer from malicious applications like Spyware.

Ever Downloaded any kind of Music, Video or กFree Softwareก?

On the Internet, anything กfreeก has a hidden cost… much more than the cost of a highlypriced product.

How much is your Privacyกs worth to You?

To diabolic marketing companies, your identity my friend, is worth thousands of dollars… they get rich by capitalizing and selling your privacy to third parties, who will in return, sell (again!) or use you as a guinea pig for their promotions

your AntiVirus won’t protect you from Spyware!

Hint: Some even sell your information to telemarketers, or bulk email marketing companies.

The question is… are the gigantic companies selling กantivirus solutionsก, a part of this greedy industry?

Two of the best กSpyware Scannersก you musthave to protect your computer and identity from prying Spyware.

Free Spyware Removal Tools

No Adware : Stops privacy invaders like Gator, Kazaa or Adware and PC cluttering popups.

http://cybersoftware.com/spywareremoval

XBlock Probably the most powerful tool to automatically tracking, cleaning and informing you about malicious spyware, Trojans and Privacyintruding programs.

http://cybersoftware.com/xblock

Scan your Computer now for free. Open the program here and then opt to choose กRUNก instead of downloading it. You will be probably shocked to see how your Computerกs system is infected with several spyware programs.

About The Author

Article written by George Papazoglou This article maybe freely republished provided that it is left intact including Authorกs credits and this resource box at itกs total entirety. © CyberSoftware.com

This article was posted on March 06, 2004

by George Papazoglou

Absolute Top Five Search Engine Marketing Myths Un

Absolute Top Five Search Engine Marketing Myths Uncovered!

by: Lee Traupel

It’s no secret that Search Engine marketing can drive significant amounts of very qualified traffic to a web site – as 85% of Internet users utilize search engines to find/research for goods and services. The problem for many companies is the difficulty they face sifting through conflicting information and hyperbole! Here is my top five list of myths that need to be run to ground.

Big Picture Myth One – Search engine ranking leads are not as good as those which originate from other forms of traditional marketing (print, direct mail, PR, etc.) – this is absolute hogwash, the truth is many agencies don’t have a clue about s/e ranking, so they push their clients to ignore this form of advertising. They simply don’t want to recommend anything they don’t understand and/or utilize an interactive marketing vehicle that requires a blend of very specialized technology and processes.

We’ve in fact found just the opposite when we’ve analyzed s/e traffic versus other types of leads for our clients; i.e. search engine traffic can be much better, as it is comprised of individuals who are actively seeking info, not just people whose curiosity has been piqued by an eyecatching publication ad or press release. And, when we’ve analyzed the data by tracking leads via a landing page (on a web site) we’ve discovered that CPL (cost per lead) numbers can be much lower for s/e ranking than other more traditional marketing methods.

Big Picture Myth Two – Effective s/e marketing can be done in house – this is rarely the case, the sheer complexity and online competition (digital warfare!) for rankings makes this extremely difficult for most companies. Based upon our analysis over 73% of corporate accounts don’t understand the basic fundamentals; i.e. how to properly use keywords, meta tags and titles and worse, don’t submit their web sites to top tier Directories (Yahoo, LookSmart, OPD) and the hundreds of second tier directories.

Most companies delegate the s/e submissions to the webmaster or web site development staff and they just don’t have the time to understand the daunting complexities required to generate page 13 rankings or to stay abreast of the shifting submissions and ranking criteria standards, as modified monthly by top tier search engines. And, in many companies the s/e ranking is added to the over worked webmaster’s tasks purely as an afterthought – as opposed to being addressed formally by the marketing department, with dedicated personnel and a budget.

Big Picture Myth Three – off the shelf software that submits a site to thousands of web sites and presents snazzy reports can do it all. This is so inaccurate and nothing can be further from the truth – it takes a tremendous amount of labor and time to identify keyword sets (not just words), optimize the content for these keywords, submit the pages while obeying the rules of the road and then continually analyzing rankings and tweaking to maintain and drive rankings (web site visibility).

Software can certainly help to automate some facets of the process and be used for back end analysis – but you can’t expect any application to make the job easy, there is too much inherent complexity in the processes. And, competition for keyword sets is fierce – as there are an estimated 510M registered domains (the numbers vary widely) with 60K new domains being registered every day.

Big Picture Myths Four and Five – Any page listing will help to drive traffic to a web site – this is another misconception. If you are aren’t achieving page 13 rankings then your wasting a great deal of time and resources – most people never drill down below these pages. Another common mistake is trying to achieve s/e rankings for a specific URL or product – if people know the name of a company or product they will find your web site easily, it’s a waste of resources to optimize for these specialized terms in 80% of most cases.

About The Author

Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, a resultsdriven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies. [email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 25, 2002

by Lee Traupel

Data Recovery From Laptops

Data Recovery From Laptops

by: Jakob Jelling

A lot of important data is being stored on laptops today. Laptop use has increased significantly in recent years. Increased demands for portability and convenience have been envisioned in this mobile technology.

Demand for laptops has gone up in part due to the spread of telecommuting in businesses today. Businesses often allow employees to work on laptops at home and bring them to work.

Data loss in a laptop can end up costing the company a lot of employee hours worked. Even people who use their laptops for personal use are not pleased if they lose any important data. Carrying around a laptop all day can cause stress on the machine and increase the chances of data loss.

There are many companies that can help you with the laptop data recovery process. After you contact a company, first you will likely go through an evaluation process to evaluate the extent of damage done.

A lot of companies will offer a free evaluation and a quote if they feel they can successfully perform recovery operations. It may be a good idea to shop around for services to make sure you are getting the best deal. Each company may offer a different price. Some companies even have fixed pricing.

If you are panicking over a blank laptop screen or a hard drive crash, you will be happy to learn that a high percentage of the requests data recovery companies get are successful completed. However you still need to be prepared that some of the data may never be recovered. The only way to find out is get proactive and contact representatives from data recovery firms.

Several data recovery companies have specialized departments for performing data recovery operations on laptops. You can get a lot of your data recovered and receive it in a readable format, even from badly damaged storage devices.

Laptop systems are more fragile and therefore highly susceptible to damage to their hard drives.

There are many companies online that can offer you internetbased laptop data recovery. This allows you to ship of your laptop to company headquarters and have it shipped back to you after the data has been recovered.

Some problems you may experience with your laptop is a dead screen, hard drive crash, etc. There are different types of laptop data recovery operations you can perform. Laptop data recovery can allow you to recover files after such events and after technical malfunctions. You may also be able to recover MS Word, Excel or Power Point files that you may have accidentally deleted.

Laptops can receive a lot of abuse and their hard drives can get damaged. You may need laptop data recovery support if:

You dropped your notebook and it no longer turns on.

An unsolicited email has downloaded a Trojan or virus on your laptop.

The laptop’s hard drive crashes.

You accidentally deleted some important company files and you want them retrieved in a hurry before your boss finds out.

If you have lost important company data and your boss just says to go and recover it, rapid data recovery can be a solution. Often companies can perform emergency operations to recover lost data and get you on your way in only 2448 hours. However be prepared to pay up for these services. The services will be worthwhile depending on how important the lost data is to you or your business.

If you are involved in the management of a company, you may want to keep the contact information of a reliable data recovery specialist near your desk. You never know when you may need one.

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

This article was posted on February 12

by Jakob Jelling

The Power Of Niche Marketing

The Power Of Niche Marketing

by: Terry Stewart

Have you ever been over whelmed by all the competition on the internet. All the other companies going after the same customers that you are. Well panick not the world wide web is a MASSIVE market place and the best strategy is to create your own market.

Dont Compete Be Unique

The benifits of niche marketing

Dont dissappear in the crowd

The importance of a niche business

Ways of creating niches

Dont reinvent the wheel

1. Niche marketing is the best way for the smaller business person to level the playing field against the larger companies. Niche marketing is where you find a corner of your particular market which is exclusive to you. There are a few ways of finding your niche and this article is about some of the aspect concerning niche marketing

2. The great thing about having a niche business is the fact that you are not struggling to compete against established marketers. Therefore you will not be invisible and you wont disappear in the crowd.Recreating products and concepts is a vital business skill I would go as far as saying it will keep you ahead of the game. Most big companies hire developers to improve on their products and service. So it is no difernt for the small business person.

3. A way of developing a niche is to sell to people you are familiar with eg. You could be a ex chef selling Automatic self lighting ovens which cleaned itself every night.

Do you get it, if you are familiar with a certain business you can cater for it like no other company.

Also you can concerntrate on a smaller part of the market and become a specialist in that field. Like concentrating on helping diabetic people losing weight, instead of the whole weight loss market.

Just imagine for one moment that you were the only one selling automatic self cleaning cookers to the catering trade. You would corner the that market and make a fortune.

4. The japanese are great at taking otherกs ideas and improving on them and they are not doing to bad are they? Great inventors like Henry Ford and Edison have created great inventions and others have taken them to another level. The Japanese have shown the imortance of understanding the power niche business that is why they are one of the wealthier countries in the world today.

5. Creating niche business doesn’t require you to invent the wheel, it only requires thinking of ways to improve it. That is where you will get more sales, and more referals. So that in the end your business will grow without competing with the bigger companies.

In general you can see the benifits of niche marketing which is by cornering the market in your particular field,you differienciate your business. You avoid competing with the big boys. Therefore gaining your own exclusive market, which in turn will lead to more profits.

Stone Evans publishes home business tips a fresh and informative newsletter. Dedicated to supporting people like YOU! If you are looking for the *Best Rated* home business opportunities, the lates time saving tools and helpful support from an honest friend in the business come by and grab a FREE subscription today at: http://www.telnelbiz.com

About The Author

Terry Stewat:

After years of doing different types of jobs I decided to go into the home based business field. I and I have not looked back since.I dont have all the answers but I do know what not to do, as I have learned from my many mistakes.

Http://www.extraemoney.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 16, 2004

by Terry Stewart

Can I Really Make Money At Home Filling In Online

Can I Really Make Money At Home Filling In Online Surveys?

by: Nicole Boles

It’s true, this is a very viable approach to many stay at home moms, and dads, college students, retirees, and you name it. No one really believed you could actually earn a monthly income just from getting involved with survey companies and focus groups. It is a simple approach to earning an honest income at home. Most people who desire to work at home, don’t have 8 to 9 hours a day to devote to working, therefore filling in surveys and participating in focus groups is the perfect job. The reason for this is that you can accept whatever assignments you choose and work on them, whenever you choose. The beauty of this job is that when you put your kids to bed at night, you can actually go sit down at your computer and fill out 2 to 3 surveys and earn about $80 to $100 for your time. To give you more assurance that this is a career you can have at home, take today for example, I got a phone call this morning to invite me to participate in a focus group – the pay is $85 for one hour, when I went to my email I had a consumer review survey, paying $15 for 30 minutes. I also had invites to 2 surveys that paid $5 for 10 minutes each of my time. So for one day, I made $110 for less than 2 hours’ work. It is a beautiful thing!

Companies in United States and Canada spend an average of $250 billion in advertising. These companies need to know what the public wants and what they will buy. They also need to know which of their marketing campaigns would encourage consumers to purchase their products. This is where the survey fillers come in. These companies need your opinion and will pay you handsomely for it. It is imperative to their business to have an everyday persons’ opinion on their products and services. For these companies and for the paid survey filler, it is a winwin situation.

Think you would be interested in getting paid for your time, opinions and observations? Read on…

HOW DO YOU GET STARTED EARNING MONEY FILLING IN SURVEYS?

Letกs get started with how to start an at home career by filling in surveys, to do this you need to follow these steps:

Step1: REGISTER WITH ALL THE COMPANIES: This can seem like a long task, but take our word for it, it will pay off. The more companies you register with the more invites to participate in surveys, and thus…more money for you. Even if a survey only gives prizes as rewards, register with them anyways. You would be amazed how many of our members have earned big rewards by winning those survey draws.

Step 2: BE HONEST IN YOUR OPINION: Companies are looking for individuals from all walks of life to fill surveys, there is not one mainstream demographic that they are searching for.

Step 3: CHECK COMPANIES FREQUENTLY: There are several companies that don’t send out email invites to every survey, make sure to browse these companies often to see if there is any paid surveys to participate in.

Step 4: FILL IN THE ADDITIONAL PROFILES: There are several companies that urge you to fill in additional profiles (i.e.: what vehicle you drive, your spending habits online, etc.) I too, urge you to fill in these additional profiles, as they will qualify you for even more surveys, and you will get more invites.

STEP 5: WORK FOR YOURSELF: You are now working for your own income, and it is up to you how much you earn. Your effort in this process is what will pay off, be determined in your surveys, and you will see the benefits!!!

For more information on working from home opportunities or surveys, please visit us at www.popularpay.com

About The Author

Nicole Boles is the creator of popularpay.com, small businessowner and author of many articles on at home employment, paid surveys, and mystery shopping. She is a professional on กat home employmentก and also publishes a popular quarterly newsletter on working from home. For more information on surveys or more work at home opportunities, please visit us at: www.popularpay.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 30, 2004

by Nicole Boles

Microsoft CRM Implementation US market lessons

Microsoft CRM Implementation US market lessons

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions. If you compare it to other traditional CRM applications, such as Siebel you will see that Microsoft CRM does use all the resent Microsoft technologies, that means that Microsoft targets its CRM to Windows market exclusively, plus this means that Microsoft CRM is more difficult in its installation. Microsoft doesn’t even have to care about other platforms, such as Linux/Unix or Apple. Now we see kind of paradoxical situation when Microsoft CRM is gaining market share even in recession and early postrecession time. Where is the secret?

Let us give you our vision, based on our three years of MS CRM implementation practice in USA and internationally.

1. Microsoft CRM is for MCSE / Microsoft oriented IT departments – Microsoft CRM would be beloved system for IT specialists. If you are MCSE+I CRM will recruit all your MS Exchange, Active Directory, MS SQL Server, Windows domain security, Windows 2003 Server, Web publishing and HTML knowledge and experience. This is completely opposite to earlier Apple Computer believe that computer systems should be easy in service and completely intuitive. MS CRM is kind of intuitive for end user, but not for its administrator.

2. Microsoft CRM is not CRM but rather simplified CRM if you do remember old days whitepapers about CRM in general, or even itกs predecessor Lotus Notes/Domino these papers were full of predictions about the future and were written for top level company executives, not for regular computer specialists. This was probably why so high percentage of CRM sales failed in implementations. Microsoft CRM has the highest ever rate of successful implementations, because it is not a CRM, but rather popularized version of it it just does the job as cheap and reliable car.

3. Transportation Companies about 30% of our clients in the States are transportation and freight forwarding companies. This actually proves the hypothesis that MS CRM is very simple solution these companies usually do not have extra money to spend on their computer system, but need the solution for its sales people to instantly see the cargos, plus have simple customization, allowing them to integrate with legacy system.

4. Movement down to small and tiny companies – this is completely new trend for CRM market. We know the examples when 5 employees companies make a decision to implement and have surprising success in Microsoft CRM implementation.

Happy implementing!

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, California, Colorado, Texas, New York, Georgia and Florida, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com) You can reach Andrew at 16309615918 or 18665280577. He is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 06, 2004

by Andrew Karasev

Paid To Read/ Paid to Click Programs: Can You Real

Paid To Read/ Paid to Click Programs: Can You Really Make Money From It??

by: Jon Dell

Paid to read and paid to click programs, otherwise known as PTR/PTC are legitimate online scheme that are now proliferating on cyberspace. This method is employed by many internet companies in their advertising campaigns. These companies pay people for reading emails. They pay you when you click a link in the email and visit the site that they are advertising, usually for a set amount of time. Others offer payment for surfing, clicking links, banner or just for joining or subscribing to a program. They also give additional money when you get other people to join under your link.

Some people say, itกs not worth they time. กYes they pay, but for a measly sum.. and it takes so much time and effort before you receive your checkก.

About two years ago, I joined some of these PTRE companies and started reading emails and clicking links hoping that I can earn some amount for my gas. I earned a few bucks after six months and I am tempted to stop. But I realized that I only did one part of the system. I never advertise and tell anyone about it… and thatกs the reason why I never accumulate my earnings.

The secret to making money on PTR/PTC is to build a network of members under your name. You see, these companies give additional bonus if those people under you read their emails. And thatกs where the real buck is. Imagine, if you have 10 people under you and those 10 recruited 10 each, you will then be entitled to some amount everytime those 110 people click their emails. The good thing is that most of these PTR/PTC pay up to 5 levels of your downline.

But certainly, you will not accumulate thousands of dollars reading emails and clicking banners. But if you have the habit of sitting in front of the computer daily, maybe, you might as well give this a try. Spending an hour opening your inbox will not harm you anyway. And sometimes, you can really find good offers and products that you do not find in your usual surfing cruise.

May I just give you a few tips in case you are tempted to join a few of these PTR programs. Before joining any program, it is important that you read exactly their offers. What you should look carefully are the following:

Payout Scheme: it is advisable to pick those that give low and reasonable payouts;

Mode of Payment: usually, most PTR/PC pay in check but others also offer payment through egold, paypal or stormpay. Select what will be the most convenient on your situation;

Pay rates: The range is usually from 1 cent to 10 cents, but others also give special rates for special click options and pay to join program;

Signup Bonus: Usually, itกs better to pick those that offer lower signup bonus. Those that give $50, $100 will put you waiting because, their payout will also be much higher.

There is one last thing: Joining too many PTRE programs may clutter your mailbox. For starters, it is advisable to pick at least 10. Make sure that these programs also give you some freedom to choose the type and categories of product ads that you wish to receive. That way, you can also have some enjoyment of viewing the offers.

To build you network, it is important to put those ten PTRE companies into one URL to make your referral task more easier. There are some sites that offer site consolidation.

One can be found at www.ptre.allreal.net.

Good for starters. If you join from their site, you also learn to setup your own mini website that will offer all the programs that you join.. all for free. I suggest that you visit the site to overcome your possible difficulty in building your downlines.

PTRE is all for real and its free. If you need money and looking for a job, certainly this can help. But never expect to get enormous riches out of it.

About The Author

The author is a selfgrown marketer and also owns the following websites.

http://www.smartliving.4all.cc

http://www.ptre.allreal.net

This article was posted on November 14, 2003

by Jon Dell