Data Security; Are your Assets Secure?

Is your data secure? Think again. Securing data is unlike any other corporate asset, and is likely the biggest challenge your company faces today. You may not see it, but almost all of your company's information is in digital form somewhere in the system. These assets are critical because they describe everything about you; your products, customers, strategies, finances, and your future. They might be in a database, protected by data-center security controls, but more often than not, these assets reside on desktops, laptops, home computers, and more importantly in email or on some form of mobile computing device. We have been counting on our firewall to provide protection, but it has been estimated that at least fifty percent of any given organization's information is in email, traveling through the insecure cyberspace of the Internet.


Digital Assets are Unique

Digital assets are unlike any other asset your company has. Their value exceeds just about any other asset your company owns. In their integral state they are worth everything to your company; however, with a few "tweaks" of the bits they are reduced to garbage. They fill volumes in your data center, yet can be stolen on a keychain or captured in the air. Unlike any other asset, they can be taken tonight, and you will still have them tomorrow. They are being created every day, yet they are almost impossible to dispose of, and you can erase them and they are still there. How can you be sure that your assets are really safe?


Understanding Physical Security Architectures

Physical assets have been secured for thousands of years, teaching us some important lessons. An effective security architecture uses three basic security control areas. Let's assume you want to create a secure home for your family; what would you do? Most of us started with the basics; doors, windows, locks, and perhaps a fence. Second, we rely on insurance, police protection, and we may have even purchased an attack dog or a personal firearm. Given these controls, you may have taken one more step to provide some type of alarm. Not trusting your ears to detect an intrusion, you might have installed door and window alarms, glass break sensors, or motion detection. You may have even joined the neighborhood watch program in your area. These are the controls everyone uses, and they are similar to the controls that have been used since the beginning of mankind.

Which is most important? Looking at the three categories of security controls used, the first consists of protective devices that keep people out; doors, windows, locks, and fences. Secondly, alarms notify us of a break-in. Finally we have a planned response control; the police, use of a firearm, or recovery through insurance. At first glance it may appear that the protective controls are the most important set of controls, but a closer look reveals that detection and response are actually more important. Consider your bank; every day the doors are open for business. This is true of just about every business, home, or transportation vehicle. Even the bank safe is generally open throughout the day. You can see it from the bank teller counter, but step over the line and you will find out how good their detection-response plan is.


Evaluating your Company's Approach

Now look at your digital assets; how are they protected? If you are like most organizations, your entire security strategy is built on protection controls. Almost every organization in America today has a firewall, but does not have the ability to detect and respond to unauthorized users. Here is a simple test; run a Spyware removal program on your system and see what comes up. In almost every case you will find software installed on your system that was not installed by an authorized user. In the past this has been an irritation; in the future, this will become the program that links uninvited guests to your data. Bruce Schneier, a well known security author and expert writes in his book, Secrets and Lies, "Most attacks and vulnerabilities are the result of bypassing prevention mechanisms". Threats are changing. The biggest threats likely to invade your systems will bypass traditional security measures. Phishing, spyware, remote access Trojans (RATS), and other malicious code attacks are not prevented by your firewall. Given this reality, a detection response strategy is essential.

It's time to review your security strategy. Start by asking three questions. First, which assets are critical to your business, where are they located, and who has access to them? Second, what threats exist? Determine who would want your data, how they might gain access, and where the possible weaknesses in your security architecture lie. Finally, how comfortable are you with your company's ability to detect and respond to unauthorized access. If someone wants access to your data, preventative measures alone won't stop them.

Begin planning a balanced security architecture. Start by adding detection controls to your prevention architecture. This does not mean simply adding intrusion prevention software (IPS), but rather creating a system to proactively monitor activity. Intruders make noise, just like in the physical world, and with proper event management, combined with zero-day defense technologies of IPS, network administrators can begin to understand what normal activity looks like and what anomalies might be signs of an attack. In a recent interview with Scott Paly, President and CEO of Global Data Guard, a Managed Services Security Provider (MSSP), Scott said, "Threats such as worms and new hacker techniques constantly morph, so the most viable model for optimum security is a blend of preventive and predictive controls based on analysis of network behavior over time". By balancing prevention, detection, and response, companies can defeat most of the latest hacker attempts.

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CleverDocs for IFAs - Compliance, Relationship and Document Management system specifically for Independent Financial Advisors

Cost of compliance with new FSA regulations can now be reduced

The additional cost of compliance with the new FSA (Financial Services Authority) regulations for insurers can now be contained thanks to Accounting Products (www.cleverdocs.co.uk) enhanced customer relationship/document management software CleverDocs for IFAs.

Accounting Products document management system – CleverDocs for IFAs - has already substantially reduced operating costs for Denyer Insurance by streamlining many of the processes for compliance, sales, customer interaction and document management. Denyer, which pioneered commission-free life, critical illness, pensions and general insurance, sold via the internet, is the first IFA to incorporate the enhanced software. CleverDocs for IFAs helps ensure this by improving productivity across all aspects of an IFA business:
• Compliance
• Business Management
• Relationship Management
• Document Management
• IFA Intelligence

Compliance
Comprehensive client and policy registers
Fact find recording
Terms of business agreement status
Logged communications with providers and clients
Business Management
Financial Services and General Insurance
Commission statements can be retrieved by time and/or providers
Renewal commission forecasting
Commission tracking at IFA, insurer and even client level
Reduced administration
Greater responsiveness
Business Intelligence
Relationship Management
Client policy history and status is available on-line
Authorised agents have access to documents
Automated communications with clients when policy status changes
Standard letters can be created and sent automatically
Document Management
All communications scanned and accessible on line
Documents can be filed against providers, clients and policies
Documents can be filed against any number of clients and policies
Thumbnail view of documents available for quick reference or
Documents can be opened and printed, emailed or faxed from the screen

IFA intelligence
Comprehensive policy register
One or multiple parties to a policy
One or multiple lives to assure
Policy extensions
Key dates available on policy records (Application, Acceptance , On-risk)
Reasons (Letter, Objectives, Risk Attitude)
Policy numbers (internal and provider)
Status policy application with compliance/sales process
Advice and policy history available

From 2005 the new FSA regulations will demand increased transparency and compliance auditability. Simon Hill, Managing Director of Denyer says “while creating a new way of selling insurance, it became apparent that we also had to transact our business in a new way. The cost of dealing with paper has always been a key factor in operating a paper based business. The creation of CleverDocs has allowed us to automate many processes. From an initial interest on our website through to policy acceptance and follow-up we have been able to make the most of our key processes to become paperless and yet retain the feel, as far as clients are concerned, that we are looking after their needs in a traditional manner.”

CleverDocs was created on time, on budget and, after three years’ continuous operation, without a single failure”. He continued “after we implemented CleverDocs and went live, we were able to immediately transact more business and release staff to do more productive work. We also had one place for customer records, quotes, policy documents, e-mails, correspondence etc. With this system in place, everything became accessible at the touch of a button”.

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Choosing A Web Designer: A Plan To Guide You Through The Minefield

Choosing a web designer can seem like a daunting task. They come in all shapes and sizes – from freelancers working at home to glossy new media agencies, and there is as much variation in prices and service as there is in size.

So how do you choose the right one for your business?

Select Your Marketplace

Firstly, decide what market your would like to select from: local , national or overseas.

If you would feel more comfortable meeting your designer, and running through your project face to face (maybe it’s the kind of project that needs to “evolve”) ,and your ethos is “quality of service” rather than “Pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” then a local web designer is for you. They can usually provide better back up, and be able to meet face to face to discuss your project and iron out any problems should they occur.

If you are a bit more budget conscious, then it makes sense to select from a “wider pool”. Getting quotes from designers across your country will usually obtain a more competitive quote. What you lose in face-to-face service is made up for in cost savings, and all but the largest web projects can usually be sorted out via telephone and email these days.

For the extremely cost conscious and value for money orientated (some would even say “brave”!) there is the overseas market. If you know exactly what you are looking for and can explain your project thoroughly and clearly in writing, then there are huge savings to be made. But what you save in price is invariably countered by having to do a little more work on your side – particularly when it comes to communication!

Finding Web Designers

To find a list of local web designers consult your Yellow Pages (or equivalent) or do a web search for “web designer “ “your area”. Looking further a field, you can do a web search or check out directories such as www.recommended-web-designers.co.uk . For overseas designers, go to web sites such as www.elance.com or www.rentacoder.com, the latter offering the benefit of escrow and arbitration services.

Draw up a shortlist

Draw up a shortlist of 3 or 4 designers to speak to. You can do this by visiting their websites, getting a feel for the type and size of business they are and looking at their online portfolio. Then call them – ask them questions about the type of clients they work for, timeframes and any other technical questions you have. Get a feel for how they communicate – whether they are on the same wavelength as you.

If you opted to go overseas, the websites already mentioned have ratings systems which can help you decide, and you can also send and receive private messages to ask questions.

Get Quotes

Once you have your shortlist, you can get quotes. For a straightforward website this can be a simple fixed price – for a more complicated project that is likely to evolve, you may just want to get a budget price at this stage, and then pin down details and a fixed price with your preferred bidder later. Always specify your expected timeframe for completion when obtaining quotes as this can affect prices.

Get References

Once you have your preferred bidder, get references. Any established web designer will be able to provide details of satisfied clients. Email them and ask if they were happy with the service received, if the job was completed on time, how unforeseen problems were dealt with etc.

Remember to trust your instincts: If you are not entirely happy with the references you obtain, walk away and select another designer.

Appoint your web designer

You now have a fixed price, references, and confirmed timescale for your project. Now appoint your designer!

Most have standard agreements –read them carefully, and if in doubt get your legal adviser to look them over. Make sure timescales and project milestones are specified, as well as payment terms. Find out how alterations to your project are dealt with – in terms of cost and delays – and how disputes if they arise would be settled.

Finally, when you are completely happy, sign on the dotted line and look forward to a productive working relationship with your web designer!

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Can You Survive In An Online World?

Do you have the skills to make it in a computer driven, increasingly online world?

Your immediate, knee-jerk reaction may be "Yes! Of course I have the skills.

I know how to send and receive email and surf the web.

I can even download and install files."

Well, three or four years ago, email, Web surfing and downloading files qualified you as "electronically literate," but not any more! Computer and online survival skills now encompass much more than that.

Surviving in an online world involves maintaining a high degree of "electronic literacy," which means focusing on and developing skills in the following areas:


** Personal Computer skills **

In the old days of 1998, the ability to use a computer, keyboard and mouse rated anyone as computer-literate.

In fact, you were a real pro if you could burn a CD, scan documents and manipulate digital pictures.

Fast forward to today and "personal computer skills" carries a whole new meaning. You must know how to maintain and update not only anti-virus, but "anti-spyware," and firewall software too.

You also need to understand how operating with Windows ME, or 2000, or XP will affect your ability to use certain software along with specific security precautions to avoid trouble from hackers.


** Internet Skills **

In the bygone era of 1998, friends considered you an online genius if you possessed basic surfing and navigation skills.

They watched in awe as you used search engines like InfoSeek.com (a long-defunct search engine) to find and download programs, pictures, and information on specific topics.

Now electronic literacy means the ability to set up, upload, and maintain basic web pages and blogs.

It also means understanding terms such as "RSS" and "news aggregator" because that's the next generation of how information will get disseminated online (and it arrives for the masses this year).


** Email Skills **

Perhaps the most deceptively simple of all the areas of electronic literacy, email actually presents the most challenges for keeping up with the times.

Previously, clicking the "send and receive" button meant you were proficient at using email.

Now, because of spam, viruses and "phishing scams" (identity theft schemes delivered through email), email requires a whole new set of skills, "street smarts" and software just to survive.

You must understand how to use an email "preview" program such as MailWasher.net to eliminate spam and virus email messages before they ever reach your computer.

You also must learn to protect your identity and avoid "phishing scams" by learning to recognize and defend against online con-artist tactics.


** Buy or Borrow Expertise **

Though you should constantly upgrade your skills through personal education, nobody can do or know it all (except maybe your know-it-all bother in law).

The good news is that you can always buy or borrow someone else's expertise to solve any online challenge.

A prime example of outsourcing in the consumer market is all the little stores popping up in strip malls to help you sell your stuff on eBay.

Through outsourcing, online survival skills can also mean taking what was previously the exclusive realm of computer geeks and making it as easy as dropping off the dry cleaning.

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Can the Internet Foster Intelligent Conversation?

Can the Internet foster intelligent conversation and help to form new ideas and moral beliefs?

A weird thing happened yesterday as I walked through my university campus. A young man approached me from a political organization that obviously was canvassing for new members. This is nothing new as there are always people attacking me for one cause or another. I am very interested in the ways in which life and human society works especially in the realm of spirituality and morality. However, I have to admit that I've never really gotten much out of politics, or economics which politics seems to be mainly focused on. For some reason I got into a conversation with this fellow and the resulting experience affected me profoundly.

I don't know if his political group is relevant to this article but I will mention it is based around a U.S. Democrat named Lyndon Larouche. The guy was telling me in detail about how the present world economy based around George Bush's American system is destined for failure and causing much trouble in the world. This I agreed with wholeheartedly as I can't condone or imagine spending huge amounts of energy on killing people in a war as being a positive act.

He also mentioned one of my favorite human rights activists: Martin Luther King Jr. The guy was saying that under current conditions the ruling fascist 'Empire' is suppressing individual thought and creativity and that the masses of the world had become mindless cattle. He said that the key to evolving a new morally upstanding world society we will need individuals to once again think for themselves and change the current economic structures that control life on earth. He used a lot of big economic-type terminology so some of what he said went over my head, but I generally took the guy to be a nice, intelligent person who believed passionately about what he did. He gave the impression that people like King are the great transformers of beliefs in society, and that only truly awakened souls will be happy when they die.

I try not to take myself or life on Earth too seriously as this has caused many problems for me in the past. However, I do think that life and love are very important ideas to focus on when one is growing spiritually. I decided to sign the group's list and get a little bit more information so as to really make up my opinion about these matters that I know so little about (economics and politics). Here is where the story goes strange. I wrote down my name and my email address and the fellow asked if I'd put down my phone number as well. I said that as I am a writer I don't like being interrupted by the phone ringing and that I'd rather communicate via the Internet. This is when the trouble began.

The man was visibly upset and said that the Internet was not a good place for people to exchange ideas and have conversations. I laughed and replied that the Internet is very young and how could he judge it so harshly in such a black and white manner? He ironically sounded a little like the fascists that he disliked so much when he retorted that no great ideas had ever come from people on the Internet, and for that matter, a 'real' conversation between people had to be conducted face to face. Well, I could have mentioned that on the telephone you cannot 'see' anyone's face, but I thought I'd try to explain my position on the matter a bit more positively.

I told him that the Internet was just a simple tool of communication that was bringing individuals closer together. You can see someone across the world with a web cam whilst hearing his or her voice perfectly. I then mentioned that the Internet was doing exactly what he felt was necessary for society to flourish in the future; it is giving voice to individuals' ideas like never before in human history. The guy was then really starting to lose his cool and was getting quite upset. I then thought I'd mention the idea that the Web was dissolving the concept of national borders as anyone could talk to anybody else freely with the simple realization that all people are the same. People are no longer forced to think of other nationalities as separate 'types' of people that one should steer away from.

By this time the guy had become very irate and said vehemently that there is nothing wrong with having separate nations. He then contradicted himself and agreed with me by saying that the 'Empire' only wanted to 'divide and conquer' and split countries into even smaller entities that could then be taken over. I replied softly that that process inevitably produced more unnecessary borders between fellow humans.

The main point that stuck with me after the conversation ended was the fact that it was the mentioning of the Internet as a positive medium for communication and enlightenment that so severely upset the guy. I guess no matter how knowledgeable about the world and sure of yourself that you are, if there are things that you are still unaware of, or in this case close-minded to because of some irrational fear; like a link that snaps in a chain, so will your peace and calm will be shattered by ignorance and anger.

Spirituality and morality can be discussed on many different mediums...Politics and economics must be the same.

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Can I make money online with the Adsense program?

Sure you can. If you will learn how many other people make money online with Adsense, I mean really study how and ask a lot of questions on marketing forums, there is no reason in the world you cannot make money with the Adsense program.

Before starting to develop this opportunity to make money online you need to understand some basic things about Adsense. I will outline some benefits and disadvantages about Adsense here.

Let's start with the Adsense benefits:

You don't have to pay a fee to use this program. You can apply for free.

You can join the Adsense program very easy. After you are accepted into the program you just have to paste a bit of code into your pages.

Because of their method to identify what a page is all about you don't have to spend time finding advertisers, they will place on your page the exact advertisers you need.

If you own a really big network of sites, you don't have to apply for each of them. Just apply once and use the same code on every site.

And many other benefits but let's take a look at the disadvantages too:

The biggest disadvantage that most users report is that the stats Google supplies are inadequate. Even if they're very easy to understand they don't tell you which ads people are clicking on, or which keywords are involved. That's very frustrating.

The minimum payout is $100, users that have sites which don't receive much traffic say that it's too high. If you plan on doing from adsense a successful business. don't worry about this.

If you want to display adsense ads you may not display other text based ads on the same page with them. When you apply humans will check your site for approval, if you are rejected just try to understand why they did, fix it and appeal again.

You will never know how much from the amount that advertisers pay you will receive. You will just receive an unknown percentage from that amount.

With this benefits and disadvantages in mind you can now start to learn all the inside secrets of adsense and develop a real online business. You can start doing so by reading about it on major make money online forums, tring to understand all there's about it many users discuss this topic very deep.

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Best Way To Send Anonymous Emails

There are moments when you need to send an anonymous e-mail for the simple fact that you don't want that particular person to reach your address or because you don't want people to know you have sent that e-mail.Another common situation is the one in which people use your e-mail address to do illegal things and, due to the fact that we are talking about your e-mail adress you can be arrested. This is way, sending anonymous e-mail is sometimes beneficial. There are of course, many ways to do this and the purpose of this article is to present some of them.

One method to send an e-mail anonymously would be the usage of a remailer server to hide id information or anything elated to yourself.These remailers can be used not only for hiding your identity , but also to surf the Internet without anyone knowing it is you. In this case, there is a certain type of utility which allows you to send anonymous e-mail. It is generally free but a delay of 20 seconds on the browser can appear unless there is paid the amount of $15(three months) for the entire package. Moreover, you should know that in this case, the person who receives the e-mail cannot respond. There are however some other utilities which let you create an anonymous e-mail as you can also receive mails.

There is an easier way to send these anonymous e-mails. It is free and the one thing about it is the fact that you do not need to create an account for being able to send the e-mail. This is wanted in most cases as creating an account can take a lot of time; moreover, in the case of sending an anonymous e-mail an account is not needed even if it is for free. We have always wanted to have as utility e free emailer where we could just type the message, introduce the address of the receiver and sign out. This is what a free emailer does. Besides the fact it is free, you can send the e-mail in no time and the free emailer will make sure it is anonymous.

In conclusion, it is my strong belief that any person can be smart enough to make the right election: it is like choosing between two almost identical options, a difference being that the first is not free and the last is more easy and rapid. What should you do?

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Banned By Google And Back Again.

The date: 29th July 2005. The time: early morning. I got out of bed and fired up my PC. Opened my browser to check my site. Had a look at the third-party Google toolbar plugin (http://toolbar.google.com/) on said browser (FireFox). It showed grey.

Ice formed in my stomach. I opened my bugged version of Internet Explorer: my PageRank was 0. By now I was frantic. I went to http://www.google.com and typed in 'site:www.tigertom.com': no pages listed. I did this for two other satellite sites of mine: ditto.

What had happened?

TigerTom.Com (http://www.tigertom.com) had been banned by Google. I went to the WebmasterWorld forum (http://www.webmasterworld.com), and found out the awful truth. Google was doing one of its periodic updates of its algorithm, and had filtered out my sites completely.

Further research there, and a bit of soul-searching, revealed why. I had too many pseudo-directory pages with auto-generated external links. Snippets from search engine results were used as descriptions of said links. Said links were run though a redirect script. These are hallmarks of pseudo-directories and 'AdSense scraper'* sites. Google is reportedly trying to filter these from its 'SERPs'**. I say reportedly, because Google doesn't announce these purges. They are inferred.

To compound my sins, these pages were also effectively doorway pages†.

The theory was that legitimate sites had been hit as 'collateral damage'. I say theory, in that Google rarely comments on individual cases. It won't tell you exactly why your site was banned. I guess this is for reasons of time, and to give no clues to spammers.

In my case the ban was justified for my two satellite sites; while not looking like spam, they were effectively doorway sites.

My main site was different. It had offending pages, but was mostly a diverse labour of seven years; a personal site on steroids.

Google bans sites algorithmically: a site that fits their 'spammer' profile gets dropped via software from their index automatically. Real spammers shrug their shoulders and move on; honest webmasters write emails begging for mercy.

Like me.

I did some searching via Google, to find out how to do a re-inclusion request. Here's how:

1. First, you check your site is truly gone, by going to http://www.google.com, typing 'site:www.yourdomain.com' without the apostrophes. If it returns no pages at all ...

2. You check Google's webmaster guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. These are not really guidelines; you should treat them as iron-clad rules.

3. You stop the offending content from being web-accessible, permanently.

If you're familiar with Apache web-server mod_rewrite you can:

- Send a 410 'Gone' response to requests for the offending pages, or
- CHMOD them to 600, which will return a 403 'Forbidden' response, or
- Move them to a different directory if you need to keep them, or
- Just delete them.

Don't try to be clever. Just get rid of them.

4. You go to http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py, tick the relevant boxes, and type 'Re-inclusion request' in the subject box of the form.

4a. You add the complete URL of your site i.e. http://www.naughtydomain.com,

4b. You state that you have read the webmaster guidelines above,

4c. You admit what you did wrong; simply, succinctly, with no carping or special pleading.

Don't try to be clever. Don't argue. Don't lie. Don't waffle.

Google has cached copies of your site. When an engineer checks your site, he'll look for the offending content, and compare it against their cache. He'll spend about two minutes on it; don't give him a reason to continue to exclude you.

5. You ask for re-inclusion.

6. You wait.

In my case, it took about a week; a long, unpleasant, fretful week. I sent follow up emails saying what I was doing, and a fax, and I was going to write letters if that didn't work. That was probably excessive. Once you have a ticket number, that's all that should be necessary.

They emailed a standard reply saying "the problem had been passed to their engineers". That's good. I understand they send no reply to spammers.

A week later my site was back in. Lesson learnt. To make sure I'm not so vulnerable again, I'm splitting my content to different sites, on the principle of 'best not to have all your eggs in one basket'.

Have I learnt anything from this? Yes. Have more than one site as your 'money-maker'. Spend less time on search engine optimisation and more on traditional marketing. Come up with a unique selling proposition that compels people to link to your site. Easy(!)

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Backup and Save your business!

There you are busily typing away on your PC or your
Laptop, and all of a sudden the strangest thing happens.
The screen goes black, extinquished like a candle in the
wind.

A message appears saying: "The file hal.dll is missing or
corrupt. Windows can not start." Well you know that 95% of
computer glitches are solved by a simple reboot, so
click…oops, can't click, no Windows. Ok then, you reset,
and you think you are sure to be OK when the reboot
completes.

Wrong! The same error message appears "The file hal.dll is
missing or corrupt. Windows can not start." How is it
possible for one measly file to kill your system?

DISASTER…What to do now? Phone your tech friend and ask
his advice. He tells you the bad news. You are obliged to
re-install Windows from the original disc! Oh My God! Will
I lose all my programs and data? Yes, you will have to re-
install all your programs. No your data may be safe, but
only if you don't have to reformat your hard disc.

But, your friend asks, I hope you have all your backups.

DO YOU, because that is the key to saving your business.
You know that in today's business world, 95% of your
business information is stored on your computer. This
applies not only to online businesses, but also to offline
ones. In this paperless society of ours, business people
are printing less and less of all their transactions.

Think hard. Where the heck did I hide my original Windows
disc? Really, are you organized enough that you can easily
find your original installation discs, along with the code
numbers they need to re-install.

You own some programs you downloaded off the Net, but they
are stored on your hard drive. Are they backed up? When is
the last time you backed up your data, the lifeblood of
your business.

What backup system do you use? Do you use the old-
fashioned tape systems, or do you backup to CD or DVD?
Whichever one you use, the key is that your backups must be
frequent enough to keep you out of major trouble.

Program backups do not have to be constantly repeated like
Data does. Programs do not change, unless you downloaded an
update. Then your update must be saved on your hard drive,
and also backed up.

Data includes so many different things that it's easy to
forget to back up some items. 'My Documents' contains much
of the data, but not nearly all. Do you know where your
Favorite links are stored? Where is your email that you
saved? Along with your email address book, Microsoft hides
these files quite well.

It took me weeks to find, and then remember where they are
hidden in Documents and Settings. I never did find the
email settings, so have not saved those.

Bottom line: what should you back up, and how often?

Whatever media you use, you must have at least 2 current
backups of everything, and preferably 3. If you use CD or
DVD, have you ever noticed how some discs suddenly become
unreadable, and for no apparent reason. It happens oh too
frequently.. I lose up to 15% this way. CDs have an
expected shelf life of maybe 2 years. Some will surely last
longer, too many die prematurely.

Does that mean you should not use CDs or DVDs to back up?
Of course you should. It is the cheapest backup system I know about. But you MUST have more than one copy. I prefer 3.
The proof of this comes when you save your business by
being able to start over because your backups are up to
date.

Imagine if you lose all your programs and have to buy them
over again.

Imagine if you lose all your emails that have your
registration codes for the programs you bought online. And
what about all the sales and purchase data in your emails.
What about your contact list, your email lists, etc.

Imagine losing all your accounting data that you must have
for year-end tax reporting!

Enough said. Programs already backed up on 2 or 3 copies only need to be updated by adding new programs you buy, and upgrades that come out.

Data should be backed up based on the frequency of your
transactions. It could be daily, or every 2 or 3 days if
your business is in the early growth stage..

Without backups…your business may be dead in the water!
Don't get careless. You may say I will save a disc or two
by backing up less often. Why? One CD-rom disc costs a
buck. Big deal when it means life or death for your
business.

Why take chances. Can anyone predict when you will have a
problem, a computer crash, a new virus? Of course not.
Don't live dangerously, this is not a thrill ride, it is
your life.

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Baby Boomers, Do You Blog? Learn What Your Grandchildren Already Know.

Baby Boomers: Blog for your grandchildren.

It is a fact that baby boomers have grandchildren. Some of you may have lots of grandchildren. Now is the time to keep connected. A blog is an easy, low-tech way to stay in touch.

I am not going to define blogs, or give you a long history on blogging. It is a technology that has been available for years, but now it's the hip thing to do.

If you have ever thought of having a travel journal or cooking lessons for your family, this is the way to go.

Doesn't it seem that the grandkids are far more advanced in technology? They have a language of their own, and they rarely share. Often, you will find kids on a computer, cell phone or mp3 player. Catching their attention is difficult and you want to be able to communicate with them.

What can we do to keep up? If you use email to replace snail mail then you are on the right track. Have you heard of blogging?? Don't be afraid, it is easy to start one.

What would be some reasons to get a blog?

The whole family can visit a blog, anytime. The pages never go away, so information is not lost. Blogs are interactive. When you post to your blog, others can comment about that post. Blogs allow photos. Say you want to write about--your tomato plants. You can talk about how they have grown, how many tomatoes you have this year and then snap a photo with your digital camera.
Blogs have voice recording. You can set up your blog to have little conversations recorded. What would it be like to read a book into the phone, and that recording would be posted for all the grandchildren.

You can't do all that easily with email. It may sound too technical, but baby boomers will find it's as easy as setting up a new email account.

Google has it all. You've heard of Google, it's a household verb now. We don't do a search on line anymore, we Google it.

Google has a service called Blogger. This page has all the information to get you started. http://www.blogger.com/start

Oh, and the best part… It's all free!!

You could be the coolest Grandparents on the block.

Take the plunge boomers; it's easy and painless.

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Avoid, Shun, Thwart, Prevent, and then Filter Spam

Email is rapidly becoming the standard means of communication among businesses, associates, and even friends. While many people have now been using the internet and email for years, there are thousands of new users on the internet each day. With inexpensive web hosting, free email services, and the blog burst upon us, getting your own slice of the internet pie has never been easier.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a refresher course, or you’re new to the internet and email and want to start off right, here are some easy steps to follow to reduce the amount of spam you receive.

Don’t choose an obvious email address. Spammers will generate lists of email addresses based on common names. A common list would be something like: nick@yahoo.com, nick1@yahoo.com, nick2@yahoo.com, etc. If you create an email account with less obvious combinations of your name plus some numbers, chances are better that you won’t find your way onto one of these lists.

Treat your personal email address with care. Only give out your personal email address to close friends and family who you trust. Give your direct business email only to clients and other contacts you trust to only use your address for legitimate business purposes.

Use different accounts for different functions. Create different aliases with your business’s domain name or create a few free accounts from free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Excite, etc. Use one account that you don’t care about for posting to forums or discussion groups. Use another to subscribe to newsletters and newsgroups. When any of these addresses starts to get spammed too heavily, simply delete the account and switch to a different one.

Remove your email address from your website. Between blogs and cheap web space, it seems everyone has their own piece of cyberspace. Before you put a link to your email address on your site, remember that spammers have bots that harvest these addresses. They will even find addresses printed in plain text. Consider using a web-based form for communication from you website, or place your address as a gif or jpeg.

Do not open, respond to, or purchase from spam. Interacting with spam in any of these ways indicates to the spammer that not only is your address valid, it’s also active. Do not respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, or click on any links to remove your name out of the database, as both of these are common ploys to confirm your email address. Remember, because sending email is so inexpensive, spamming can be profitable even if only a small percentage of people purchase what they’re selling. Don’t support what you’re trying to stop.

Finally, Filter you incoming email using filtering software. Even if you guard your email address religiously, you’ll likely still receive spam. Filtering software is usually inexpensive and effective, but there are some important features to consider with any filtering package:

• Make sure you can control what comes to your inbox and what gets deleted. The best programs create a spam folder for you to review before permanently deleting emails.

• The software should block images from incoming emails. Many jpegs in spam actually hide code that notifies the spammer when the email is viewed. Blocking images will not only keep offensive content off your screen but will also help prevent more spam in the future.

• Choose software that provides you with updates - as new spamming techniques are created and proliferated, filtering software should keep up.

While eliminating spam from coming to your email address is nigh unto impossible, following these simple steps will mean you’ll have to spend less time deleting spam from your inbox, giving you more time for the important things of life – like reading this article.

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Are You Prepared For A Hard Drive Crash?

Its just a matter of time before you experience a hard drive problem. Are you prepared to loose your data? If your hard drive crashed right now do you have an action plan to follow?

Most people only think of backing up their data after they experience a problem. Don't set yourself up for a data loss disaster.

Your data integrity action plan should consist of the following:

1) How often you will back up your data

2) What data you will back up

3) What back up procedure you will use

How often you back up your data can only be determined by how important you feel it is. Answer this question "If my hard drive crashed right now, I would be alright if I had the data from at least (time) ago".

Of course you would want everything but if you could have the data from 1 month, or 6 months ago would that be sufficient? Whatever time is sufficient mark it on your calendar both a hard copy and set up a meeting on your PC to remind you.

You change your smoke detector batteries when you turn your clock back and when you turn it ahead right? Well back up your data then too.

If you don't change your clocks then pick some holidays or special dates that happen close to the timeframe you want to back up your data so you won't forget.

What data you back up depends on how you use your PC. Some of the key directories, if you are using Windows, are the My Documents, Favorites and Desktop directories.

Remember if you are using multiple profiles on your PC then the three directories above can be different for each profile and each one would need to be backed up.

You will also want to include your email data. Don't forget to write down the email accounts you have. You should also write down any username and passwords so they are not lost. You should look at every directory to see if it has information that you would need.

Make a list of all the software programs you are using. If you have the physical CDs put them all together in a safe location.

Don't forget the CDs for your peripherals like your scanner, digital camera, PDA etc… Collecting these CDs may remind you of additional data that you need to back up.

If you are running software that you installed from downloaded files, burn them to a CD-R and add it to your collection. If you use a CD-R or DVD-R you can update it as you download and install new applications.

What procedure you use to back up your data can be determined by the amount of data you want to back up. Your data might fit onto a CD or DVD in which case you just need to burn it and you're done.

If it spans multiple DVDs then you might want to consider getting a second hard drive to copy your data onto. If you are not comfortable with adding a second internal hard drive or you are using a laptop then you can purchase an external hard drive to back up your data.

The information you have on your hard drive could disappear in a flash. If you don't want to spend up to $3,000 to have a data recovery company retrieve what information they can from your hard drive, then take a few minutes right now and create your back up action plan.

If you ever have a data emergency your action plan will be your insurance policy. If you adhere to it, your valuable data will adhere to you!

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Are There Any Ebay “Secrets” That Are Worth Buying?

If you look around a little on the web, you’ll no doubt come across people trying to sell you ebooks about eBay’s ‘secrets’ for as much as $20. Here’s a sample:

“Along with 400,000 other excited eBay fanatics I now make a living using the Internet and eBay. I can go days without ever speaking to a single customer, but I have a world wide customer base. My online business runs like a well oiled machine with a part-time effort!”

You too can get such valuable tips as:

“All you need to do is write a list of questions other people would pay to get the answers to, give that list to a friend, have the friend call you on the phone and ask you those questions, record the call, have the recording transcribed, and edit the transcription! Presto - you've just created a ‘meaty’ ebook fast!”

So What Do These Books Contain?

Don’t be deceived by the slick sales copy and promises of ‘automatic sales machines’ and unique sales strategies. Most of these ‘winning money-making strategies’ boil down to the same thing. Follow their advice, and you’ll be writing long, old-fashioned sales copy in an effort to sell shoddily-written downloadable ebooks to gullible souls, either directly through eBay or by trying to redirect people through your About Me page to your website.

The theory is that the rubbish ebooks will sell themselves, and you won’t have to do a thing.

Here’s a question to ask yourself: if these ‘secrets’ work so well, then why aren’t the ebooks authors spending every hour they have putting them into practice, instead of trying to sell you ebooks? If these secrets were so valuable, then why would they give them away for that price, or any price? Out of charity? Yeah, right.

Here’s the reality: trying to sell ebooks on eBay or anywhere else is very likely to get you nowhere, and fast. The bottom fell out of the ebook market a long time ago – in fact, it’s doubtful whether it ever had a bottom to begin with. The ebooks are an effort to get to you sign up for all sorts of services, making money for the ebooks’ writers each time. In short, the only way to profit from ‘secrets of eBay’ ebooks is to be selling them, not buying them – and do you really want to become a con artist?

If you’d like to take a look at one of these ebooks, try searching for the name and picking through results. The chances are you’ll find an excerpt or review – and if it’s not by someone trying to sell you the ebook then it won’t be a favourable view. The fact that most ebooks you buy for $20 come with unlimited resale rights should tip you off if nothing else does.

It’s All Out There for Free.

You can almost any information that someone might be trying to sell you in an ebook for free using a search engine, if you take the time. Ebooks aren’t worth the paper they’re not printed on.

If you’d like a real way to make more money, look out for our next email: we’ll show you how and when to use eBay’s powerful ‘Second Chance Offer’ feature.

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A Look at IT Help Desk Software

IT help desk software can be a valuable resource for technicians to manage and resolve troubleshooting tickets. Most companies realize the benefits of purchasing help desk software since it is a reliable way to manage customer inquiries and complaints. IT help desk software is preferred by both companies and clients over a traditional call center.

In traditional call centers, customers often complain of long hold times and unreturned voicemails. Other times, the less-than-technically-savvy customer may become frustrated in his or her attempt to explain the problem. Help desk software allows an IT department to effectively manage and direct certain issues to the appropriate personnel.

Many IT help desk software programs offer the convenience of a user-friendly menu and easy-to-manage files. Customers can choose from a variety of help topics and even copy and paste error messages to send to IT. For those customers who are not technically advanced, menus can be set up to offer a variety of common questions.

HelpDesks.com is an excellent resource for extensive IT help desk software reviews and information. This site allows you to compare the leading providers of the products to find the right program for your needs. Convenient charts allow you to see various amenities offered such as whether or not the program is web-based, costs associated with purchase and upgrades and the number of users allowed for each program.

One of the most popular IT help desk software programs, according to consumer reviews, is FootPrints. On a scale of one to ten, it has a rating of 9.2 and has multiple consumer reviews. This is a web-based program, and the initial cost is around $6,000. FootPrints offers unlimited user capabilities and free upgrades with their annual maintenance contract. This program is compatible with Linux, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Unix operating systems. It also offers searchable databases, assignment of reference numbers, F.A.Q databases, billing databases and much, much more.

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Adware Installation Stealth Tactics

When adware can't trick you into installing it, it often resorts to a secretive invasion. Find out how to defend yourself.

Adware Installation Stealth Tactic 1: Expensive Freebie

• How it works: adware may get installed with so-called free software without any mention of it being included anywhere in the software's license or documentation. Or any mention of the bundled software is buried deep within a click-wrap licensing agreement.

• How to protect yourself: It's become an endlessly repeated cliché, but it's true: only install software from developers you trust. That doesn't mean you can never try any software from a new company. Just familiarize yourself with the developer's reputation before opening wide your hard drive. Search the developer's name on search engines. If a dozen anti-spyware advertisements are listed alongside the search results, that's not a good sign.

• How to fight back: If you've already downloaded the expensive freebie, it's probably too late to simply uninstall it. The bundled adware will likely stick around on your computer long after the software that came with it has been sent to the recycling bin. Instead, you need to use an anti-spyware program, and preferably two to be sure.

Tactic 2. Adware Drive-by

• How it works: adware may hide in a website's code and download itself automatically onto the site visitor's hard drive. This is often called a "drive-by" installation.

• How to protect yourself: drive-by installations of software tend to happen on obscure commercial websites, rather than personal homepages, blogs, or the websites of established businesses. If you can avoid surfing in those kinds of rough waters, you'll be a lot safer from adware attacks.

• How to fight back: If you do suspect that a site has downloaded software onto your computer, close it immediately and fire up your anti-spyware and antivirus software. You may also want to delete your browser's cache and also any program downloads folders and temporary internet folders, just in case the adware is a new kind of adware that isn't in your anti-spyware software's database yet.

Tactic 3: The Old-Fashioned Way: Email

• How it works: you know the drill: just as with viruses, adware may come as an email attachment. The stealth part is that simply not opening attachments may not be enough to protect you. The attachment may not display an attachment icon and is set to auto-install as soon as the message is opened.

• How to protect yourself: make sure your email software does not open attached files automatically. With most new email software applications the option to block automatic downloads of attached files is set as the default. But to be really safe, you should set your anti-spyware software to automatically monitor all email.

• How to fight back: delete the offending email without opening it or the attachment (assuming that hasn't happened already). Run a full scan of your hard drive using anti-spyware and antivirus software.

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A brief history of email

The desire to communicate is primal among most living creatures, and especially among humans. Since time immemorial, the means and techniques of communication have been worked upon and refined. The early humans communicated verbally or in writing. They used pictorial representations, still visible on ancient cave walls. If there was a physical distance between the parties that wished to communicate, messages were physically carried by a messenger. Early ‘jungle drum’ and ‘smoke signal’ transmissions were evidence of the first form of remote communication where a messenger was not physically sent to the desired destination.

Email stands for ‘electronic mail’. By this definition, the first electronic mails were sent in the last century via telegraphic transfer and Morse code transmissions.

Business extensively used the telex network for communication all over the world from the mid 1920’s through the mid 1980’s. A telex machine would connect and communicate with any other telex machine anywhere in the world, independent of the telephone network. Security was also tight as telex machines did an identifying handshake. However, to send telex messages, a dedicated telex line had to be installed and then telex messages were charged on the basis of the amount of data transmitted. This requirement of a dedicated line, made telex communication an expensive affair. Additionally, in order to use telex, a telex terminal was usually needed which needed trained operators to operate it. Surprisingly, telex is still popular all over the world, despite the growth of the Internet.

Mainframe and miniframe computers were quite popular with many large companies in the 1960’s and 1970’s. They exchanged email on these computers. Users (in this case, employees of the company) of their computers (terminals) could send messages to each other. Gradually, companies’ central systems, known as hosts, began to be connected to branch offices. Now the employees could communicate with their counterparts via email on a world wide basis.

The APRANET was developed by the US Department of Defense as part of its research on computer networks during this time. Network email was developed for the APRANET, and has now evolved into the email technology in its current form. The first APRANET email message was sent in 1971.

The late 1970’s and 1980’s saw the astronomical growth in the personal computer market with the entry of Apple and IBM. This led to the creation of new email technologies. Proprietary ‘dial up’ systems such as MCI Mail, Telecom Gold and AppleLink were to be found among these. This meant that for two people to communicate via email on these systems, both had to be subscribers. Most of these systems eventually became obsolete because they were not reliable. It should be noted here, that email messages were being sent and received by thousands of personal computer users using ‘dial up’ systems before the Internet became available for use by everybody.

Another development was taking place parallel to the above – the development of ‘LAN-based’ email systems within companies, by connecting the personal computers being used by their staff to the mainframe systems. These systems were easier to use, and more functional. They even allowed for attachments to be sent with emails.

Gradually, the use of the Internet for access to information was gaining immense popularity. With time, as more and more people had access to the Internet, email applications evolved from proprietary email systems within company networks to ‘Intranets’ which can be best described as private mini-Internets.

Hence, we can say that ‘electronic mail’ itself is not a new phenomenon. What is new is that it is more easily available on a world wide basis, is cheap and a lot easier to use.

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90s Web Design: A Nostalgic Look Back

A nostalgic look back at 90s web design, and a warning to anyone whose website is an accidental anachronism.

Remember the days when every PC was beige, every website had a little Netscape icon on the homepage, Geocities and Tripod hosted just about every single personal homepage, and "Google" was just a funny-sounding word?

The mid-late 1990s were the playful childhood of the worldwide web, a time of great expectations for the future and pretty low standards for the present. Those were the days when doing a web search meant poring through several pages of listings rather than glancing at the first three results--but at least relatively few of those websites were unabashedly profit-driven.

Hallmarks of 1990s Web Design

Of course, when someone says that a website looks like it came from 1996, it's no compliment. You start to imagine loud background images, and little "email me" mailboxes with letters going in and out in an endless loop. Amateurish, silly, unprofessional, conceited, and unusable are all adjectives that pretty well describe how most websites were made just ten years ago.

Why were websites so bad back then?

Knowledge. Few people knew how to build a good website back then, before authorities like Jakob Nielsen starting evangelizing their studies of web user behavior.

Difficulty. In those days, there weren't abundant software and templates that could produce a visually pleasing, easy-to-use website in 10 minutes. Instead, you either hand-coded your site in Notepad or used FrontPage.

Giddiness. When a new toy came out, whether it was JavaScript, Java, Frames, animated Gifs, or Flash, it was simply crammed into an already overstuffed toy box of a website, regardless of whether it served any purpose.

Browsing through the Internet Archive's WayBack Machine, it's hard not to feel a twinge of nostalgia for a simpler time when we were all beginners at this. Still, one of the best reasons for looking at 90s website design is to avoid repeating history's web design mistakes. This would be a useful exercise for the tragic number of today's personal homepages and even small business websites that are accidentally retro.

Splash Pages

Sometime around 1998, websites all over the internet discovered Flash, the software that allowed for easy animation of images on a website. Suddenly you could no longer visit half the pages on the web without sitting through at least thirty seconds of a logo revolving, glinting, sliding, or bouncing across the screen.

Flash "splash pages," as these opening animations were called, became the internet's version of vacation pictures. Everyone loved to display Flash on their site, and everyone hated to have to sit through someone else's Flash presentation.

Of all the thousands of splash pages made in the 1990s and the few still made today, hardly any ever communicated any useful information or provided any entertainment. They were monuments to the egos of the websites' owners. Still, today, when so many business website owners are working so hard to wring every last bit of effectiveness out of their sites, it's almost charming to think of a business owner actually putting ego well ahead of the profit to have been derived from all the visitors who hit the "back" button rather than sit through an animated logo.

Text Troubles

"Welcome to…" Every single website homepage in 1996 had to have the word "welcome" somewhere, often in the largest headline. After all, isn't saying "welcome" more vital than saying what the web page is all about in the first place?

Background images. Remember all those people who had their kids' pictures tiled in the background of every page? Remember how much fun it was trying to guess what the words were in the sections where the font color and the color of the image were the same?

Dark background, light text. My favorite was orange font on purple background, though the ubiquitous yellow white text on blue, green or red was nice, too. Of course, anyone who will make their text harder to read with a silly gimmick is just paying you the courtesy of letting you know they couldn't possibly have written anything worth reading.

Entire paragraphs of text centered. After all, haven't millennia of flush-left margins just made our eyes lazy?

"This Site Is Best Viewed in Netscape 4.666, 1,000x3300 resolution." It was always so cute when site owners actually imagined anyone but their mothers would care enough to change their browser set up to look at some random person's website.

All-image no-text publishing. Some of the worst websites would actually do the world the service of putting all their text in image format so that no search engine would ever find them. What sacrifice!

Hyperactive Pages

TV-envy was a common psychological malady in 1990s web design. Since streaming video and even Flash were still in their infancy, web designers settled for simply making the elements on their pages move like Mexican jumping beans.

Animated Gifs

In 1996, just before the dawn of Flash, animated gifs were in full swing, dancing, sliding, and scrolling their way across the retinas of web surfers trying to read the text on the page.

Scrolling Text

Just in case you were having a too easy time tuning out all the dancing graphics on the page, an ambitious mid-1990s web designer had a simple but powerful trick for giving you a headache: scrolling text. Through the magic of JavaScript, website owners could achieve the perfect combination of too fast to read comfortably and too slow to read quickly.

For a while, a business owner could even separate the serious from the wannabe prospects based just on how (un)professional their business websites looked. Sadly, the development of template-based website authoring software means that even someone with no taste or sense whatsoever can make websites that look as good as the most biggest-budget design of five years ago.

Of course, there are still some websites whose owners seem to be trying to spark a resurgence in animated gifs, background images, and ugly text. 'll just have to trust that everyone is laughing with them, not at them.

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12 Steps to Creating a Business Online

"E-commerce"

A word pervading our society, making headlines around the world, and causing the stock market to rise and fall with
startling ease.

It seems every business news story centers on some technology company’s "DOT-com" or "DOT-bomb"!

With all the positive and negative hoopla, business owners of any size company can throw up their hands and feel the "E" world has left them behind.

Every business owner, salesperson, or professional asked one of two questions in the past year, either "Am I using e-commerce correctly?" or "How do I effectively get involved in e-commerce?"

You can buy hundreds of books and pay thousands in consulting fees to analyze and debate the answer to the first question.

To answer to the second question just follow these 12 steps.

Step 1 - Buy a domain name (your own DOT com). Go to www.NetworkSolutions.com and research names. Can a customer easily spell and remember it?

Step 2 - Write down your online goals and prepare a time and money budget.

How soon do you want your e-commerce site up and running?

How much will you spend?

How many hours will you devote to the site and when?

Step 3 - Surf the web to find other sites you like and dislike. Learn from others’ successes and mistakes by taking the best of what their sites offer and adapting it for your own use.

Step 4 - Design your site on paper. Define elements, look, feel, colors etc.

Step 5 - Hire a professional to set up the graphics and navigation, but with the intention of you or your staff maintaining the site’s day to day operations, communication and updates.

Step 6 - Invest in a digital camera and web publishing software such as Microsoft Front Page or Adobe Acrobat to keep up with the site’s maintenance.

Step 7 - Maintain, change, and update your site at least once a month. (The one exception to this rule are those one- page, sales letter websites. Once you have one of those that performs well and makes sales, don't change it!!)

Step 8 - Promote your site at every opportunity. Tell people about it. Put your web address on your business cards and in all your ads. Some companies even advertise their web address when they put you on hold on the telephone.

Step 9 - Give people a self-serving reason to visit your site. Coupon savings, discounts, special incentives, free information, and free newsletters represent excellent enticements for attracting visitors to your site.

Step 10 - Concentrate on obtaining an email address from every customer and potential customer.

Obtain permission to send periodic, value added malings to your database.

Use a list server to organize and maintain your mailing list.

Step 11 - Always look for and use the simplest solution or option.

Whether adding a shopping cart, database or other option to your e-commerce operation, seek out and use the simplest answer for your needs.

Step 12 - Become educated and stay current in the world of e-commerce.

Learn the marketing and sales techniques of the online world.

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11 Proven Methods For Maximizing Your Business (While You Sleep) By Using The Magic Of Autoresponders

Have you ever heard of the expression, "You'll laugh all the way to the bank"?

Well people who've discovered the magic of autoresponders don't even do that anymore, because when the money rolls in it's automatically sent to their bank accounts...they just laugh!

If you don't know what an 'autoresponder' is, it's simply an 'email automatic responder'.

But the simplicity stops there, because autoresponders are probably the single greatest business innovation to happen since the birth of the Internet.

They have completely revolutionized what can be done.

And you can use them too, to make an instant impact on your business.

So here are eleven proven methods for maximizing your business, even when you're fast asleep, using the magic of autoresponders.

1. Instead of answering every customer question that's sent to you, publish a "Frequently Asked Questions" using your autoresponder. This saves you time, money and effort.

2. Use them like a library. Make all your past newsletters or promotional pieces available from your autoresponders. Visitors appreciate having access to your archives.

3. Create an email training course in several parts delivered by autoresponder. This automatically builds a relationship with your prospects which positively influences their decision to become your customers. To see an autoresponder training course in action send an email to trainingcourse@aweber.com and you'll receive a course showing you the '20 Quick Tips' on how to use training courses to increase your traffic and sales.

4. Collect valuable customer satisfaction information by publishing a survey via autoresponder. People like to give their opinions and you benefit from this by knowing what your customers want.

5. Publish reports with your autoresponder. The reports should be related to your business or web site. Giving away good content will quickly increase your traffic. This gives you greater exposure, makes you an instant authority and ultimately results in more sales.

6. Provide instant customer acknowledgement to those who send you a message. Let the autoresponder message reassure them you have received their message and when to expect your reply.

7. Offer an e-book through your autoresponder in easy to read chapters. You could include promotional resource links covering each chapter of the book when delivered.

8. Create an index of all the information which is available from your autoresponders. Then set this up as an autoresponder to enable your customers to retrieve the particular information they are interested in.

9. Publish a complete list of all your products and services which you offer with their order forms and other sales material. Consider including a time sensitive discount coupon code in the autoresponder message to stimulate more sales.

10. Convert your entire web site into autoresponder format. Visitors may not want to stay online reading web pages. Give them the option of downloading all the information from your autoresponder to print off and read at their leisure.

11. Upload all your testimonials, endorsements and articles to your autoresponder if you don't have space in your advertising copy. The more interactive you make the experience for your prospects the more sales you will likely make.

Now that you have eleven sure-fire ways to use autoresponders in your business, the most pressing consideration is how to implement them without it becoming a headache.

As with any vital business operation, rock solid reliability is the most important factor when choosing what kind of autoresponder solution to go for.

In autoresponder terms this is deliverability of your messages and information. There's little point using autoresponders if what you send out ends up in a virtual black-hole because of vicious Internet Service Providers' anti-spam filters.

That's why when choosing how to implement autoresponders in your business you must check on the solutions deliverability.

It is the absolute key for a service you can put your trust in.

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10 Ways to Avoid Being Ripped Off on eBay

It is important to remember that eBay is a lot like a marketplace. There will always be a dodgy guy in the corner, selling things that most people wouldn’t touch. The trouble is that, on the Internet, these people can be a little harder to spot. Here are ten tips to help you keep an eye out for the rip-off merchants.

1. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is: This holds for everything in life, but especially for eBay. Things that seem too cheap are usually too cheap for a reason – it might be a complete scam, or the items might just be of extremely poor quality. Investigate before you go further.

2. Know the value of what you want to buy: There are people on eBay who regularly bid such high prices for used cameras that they might as well have gone out and bought them brand new. Check around for prices first.

3. Only bid on real things: eBay has plenty of people who are trying to sell all sorts of schemes and scams. It is never worth bidding for these, no matter how cheap they might be.

4. Don’t do anything outside eBay: Occasionally people will ask you to send them money outside eBay, to avoid the fees eBay charges sellers. Any money you send this way is entirely insecure – don’t do it.

5. Be careful where you send payment: People may hack into others’ accounts, and ask you to send payment to addresses that eBay has not confirmed as belonging to that account – you might send your money and receive nothing in return.

6. Look out for sellers who suddenly change what they sell: Sellers can look like they’ve made lots of transactions, when really they’ve never sold anything of worth. If they suddenly start selling $1,000 televisions, steer clear – the chances are they’re planning to run off with the money.

7. Beware the shill bidder: If someone who doesn’t seem to have bought anything before is constantly outbidding you on a certain item, be suspicious. It might be a seller ‘shill bidding’ to force up his item’s price.

8. Don’t use the seller’s escrow service: If an escrow service is recommended to you by a seller, it could well be owned and run by them – and they’re quite likely to keep your money and send you nothing.

9. Pay electronically: You are more likely to be able to recover any losses if you pay using a credit card instead of sending out cheques and money orders – these low-tech payment methods can’t be tracked as easily.

10. Buy from reputable sellers: Each seller has a number next to their name, which is their feedback rating. The higher this rating, the more you can trust them.

On that last point, feedback ratings are the most important way that buyers and sellers can protect themselves on eBay – and you, as a buyer, have a rating too! Now that you won’t get ripped off, the next email will be all about your rating, and what you can do to make sure people know that you’re not going to rip them off either.

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10 Helpful Tips For Running A Profitable Web Site

1. Address your targeted audience on your business site. Example: "Welcome Internet Marketers". If you have more than one, address them all.

2. Make sure your content and graphics are relevant to your web site's theme. You wouldn't want to use a bird graphic on a business web site.

3. Alert visitors by email when you add new content to your web site. This will remind people to revisit your web site.

4. Offer a way for visitors to contact you on each web page. List your email address, fax number and phone number.

5. Give people the option of viewing your web site offline. Offer it by autoresponder or printer friendly version.

6. Make sure a least 50 f your content is original. The other option is to offer something else original other than content, like software or an online utility.

7. Offer your visitors incentives for revisiting your web site. You could give them new content, ebooks, software, ezine, etc.

8. Publish a FAQs for your business, product and web site. They could have questions about multiple parts of your business.

9. Make sure all links on the navigational bar are clickable. If people can't get to where they want to go, they will leave.

10. Organize you web site in logical and profitable sequence. You don't want to give a freebie before they learn about the product(s) you're selling.

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10 Great Ways To Source Low Cost Products For Ebay.

So you’re having trouble finding stock cheaply enough to sell it for a good profit? Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Garage sales. The chances are you’ve gone most of your life seeing ads for these and ignoring them. Start going to as many as you can. You won’t find good things at every one, but when you find one person with good stuff, make them an offer for the lot – they’ll be so happy about it that you can get a real bargain.

Markets. If your area has a market, then go there and look around for anything good. You could buy it there if it’s cheap enough, or try to make friends with the market traders and find out who their suppliers are.

Pawn shops. Pawn shops don’t usually know what to do with the junk they accumulate (unless it’s jewellery, of course). Generally, they put their stock out on the shelves haphazardly, hoping that someday someone with a little money will just happen to come in, search around and buy wildly obscure things. Get them to offer you a discount for bulk.

Real auctions. Go to a real auction, as the chances are that you can resell things for more than they will sell them. After all, they only have a few hundred people in that room – you have a few million to sell to!

Local newspapers. Place an ad in the local paper that reads “I pay cash for [your item type]”, with your phone number. If you can afford it, make it a big display ad, so it’ll be noticed.

Ad boards. Get one of those little ads in the grocery store.

Friends. Ask your friends if they have anything they’d like to sell you, and ask them to spread the word to their friends.

Become known. Give out business cards, mention to people what you do. The chances are that you’ll come across someone who’ll say “Oh, really? I’ve got a load of [item] I don’t want”.

Shops. This might be a little surprising, but some real shops even sell things more cheaply than they sell on eBay. Take a look around your local deep discounter, and pay special attention to any shop that takes trade-ins from customers. The chances are they take a loss on trade-ins as a promotion, and are dying to get rid of that stock.

And finally: eBay! When you’re looking at the completed items view, you’ll notice the massive range of prices that items can sell for on eBay. Try taking the highest-priced item and searching for it on its own, then sort by lowest price first: I can almost guarantee that you’ll see an auction for the same item where it sold for almost nothing. The trick is to find these flawed auctions before they close, win them using a bid sniping service, and then turn around and resell the item.

After all that trouble, though, when do sell the item you might find that a buyer leaves you a feedback rating you just don’t think is fair. The next email will show you what to do about it.

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9 Steps to Protect your MS Windows System from Viruses

Nowadays as the Internet and other networks are greatly developed computer viruses are distributed rapidly and intensively. Everyday several new viruses capable to damage considerably your computer system arise. Anti-virus specialists work hardly to make updates their software against new viruses as soon as possible. The viruses can get inside computer in different ways. That is why there is no simple method to protect system. Only series of measures can give you reliable protection from the infection. Below are 9 steps to protect MS Windows based PC system from viruses.

1. Make regular backups.
It should be said that there is no absolutely safe way of protection. Virus creators regularly find holes in new computer products to use them for infection of computer systems. Some dangerous viruses can considerably damage data files or even erase entire file system. Make regular backups of your data files to separate file storage device. It can be separate hard drive, flash card, compact disc or another file storage device which you choose. To ease the procedure you can use some automatic backup software. And be ready if the system will die because of virus infection.

2. Be ready to reinstall your system if it dies because of viruses.
Get distributives of your operation system and distributives of software which you use and keep them together, for instance, on a set of CDs not far away from you. In this case if virus infection will cause unrecoverable system failure you can rapidly reinstall your working medium.

3. Protect your network connection with Firewall.
Firewall is a software which blocks suspicious potentially dangerous connections to preventing viruses from network to penetrate into your system. Windows XP system has quit simple but reliable built-in firewall. You can enable it as follows. 1) in Control Panel, double-click Networking and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections. 2) Right-click the connection on which you would like to enable firewall, and then click Properties. 3) On the Advanced tab, check the option to Protect my computer and network.

If you need more flexible control of connections with network you can get and install more advanced firewall software like Norton Personal Firewall or Outpost Firewall. If you use this software you have ability to permit or to block particular connections and to monitor network activity.

4. Use antivirus software.
Install antivirus software which will scan your system searching and erasing viruses on a regular basis. Leaders in antivirus software products for Windows systems are Norton Antivirus, McAfee, Kaspersky Anti-Virus and PC-cilin.

5. Regularly update operating system.
Windows XP has built-in automatic update service. It regularly contacts Microsoft server to find updates and notifies you if updates are ready to be installed. Updates are important because hackers regularly find holes in operating system which are often used by virus creators.

6. Don't install and don't run suspicious software.
Check new programs which you are going to install with anti-virus software. Don't download software from suspicious websites. To download software always seek website of software creator or official distributor. Do not open applications received by email from unknown persons.

7. Limit access to your computer.
Protect enter to system with password.

8. If you use Internet Explorer, consider moving to another browser.
As IE is the most distributed browser today virus creators actively use defects in its security system to infect computers. Infection may arise if you will visit webpage which contains invisible harmful code. You are more safe if you use less known browser only because virus creators do not pay much attention to it. Major IE competitors Firefox and Opera browsers provide now the same comfortable interface and range of services for working on the Web.

9. Use spam protection.
Viruses are often distributed via email. Switch on spam filters in your email box to block spam receiving. If you need assistance with using of the filters you can ask your email service provider.

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7 Reasons NOT to Take Your Laptop on Holiday!

Heading off on vacation soon?

Then perhaps you're tempted to take your trusty laptop along
for the trip.

After all, you bought it for its mobility, and it's nice to
stay in touch via email with your family and friends back
home.

However, just before you start packing, its pays to consider
the downside of traveling with a laptop, particularly if
you're planning to go abroad:

1. Weight

A laptop (plus accessories) starts to feel heavy very
quickly. And who really needs MORE luggage to carry around?

2. Security risk

To you, it's a laptop computer. To a thief, it's a bag of
easy money. (About $1000). And that bag is something you
have to guard every second of your vacation.

3. Power supply problems

You'll need a different power adaptor plug for each country
you visit. And depending on your laptop power supply cable,
you may also need a step-up / step-down voltage transformer.

4. Connection complications

You'll need to find a way of connecting to the Internet. If
your laptop is suitably equipped and you can find a local
hotspot, you can take advantage of wireless Internet access.

Otherwise you're stuck with dial-up modem access, which
means a choice between:

- using your existing ISP's local call number in the
country you're visiting (provided your ISP has a local
number! AOL and Compuserve generally do.)

- making a long-distance telephone call to your regular
dial-up number back home

- signing up with a local ISP (rarely practical in the
short-term)

5. Telephone socket trouble

Different countries have different types of telephone
socket. If you're planning on connecting via dial-up access,
you'll have to bring a suitable telephone adaptor plug.

You'll also need a digital signal tester to test for higher-
voltage digital telephones lines. Otherwise you could end
up frying your modem and possibly the motherboard too.

6. Extra insurance cover

It's highly unlikely your travel insurance policy extends to
laptop computers. You'll therefore need to arrange separate
specialist insurance cover, which isn't cheap.

7. You're on holiday!

Do you really want your office with you on vacation? Aren't
you supposed to be getting away from it all?

If you're beginning to think that traveling with a laptop
computer is a major logistical exercise, then you're right.
(Just ask any "road warrior"!)

However, there IS an alternative:

An Internet Cafe.

Almost every city and large town now has several Internet
cafes. To locate one when you're abroad, just ask your
hotel receptionist or a friendly taxi driver.

You'll also find Internet cafes in airports, railway
stations, major hotels, business centers, public libraries,
and even onboard cruise ships.

Before you leave on your travels, simply ensure you can
access your email via a web browser. (This is known as
"webmail". Most ISPs offer this option automatically - just
ask them if you're unsure.)

Alternatively, set up a free webmail address (at
hotmail.com or yahoo.com) for the duration of your trip and
give it to anyone who might need to contact you.

With webmail set up, all you have to worry about is
remembering your email login and password. Everything else -
hardware, connectivity, security - is somebody else's
problem.

To summarize:

Unless you have a very good reason for taking your laptop on
holiday, you'd be wise to leave the darn thing at home and
use an Internet cafe instead.

And who knows - maybe your laptop could use a vacation from
you!

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5 Ways To Drive Visitors Away From Your Website

There are tons of resources available that will teach you how to make money on the internet. Heck, I've written tutorials like that myself. But, perhaps it's easier to demonstrate what to do, with a lesson on what not to do. This article will teach you how to drive visitors away from your website screaming "Get me outta here!" If you prefer being alone with your website and don't want all those pesky visitors bothering you, then follow the guidelines below and you'll get rid of them quick as a blink.

1. Don't state on your website what you do or what you sell. Make it a complete mystery why you decided to build your website in the first place. It's like a secret club -- your visitors are left in the dark. Have you been to sites like this where you show up and think "What the heck is this site about?" If you're not presenting a clear statement about why your visitors should spend their money (or at least come back again), then you're on your way to hermit-land.

2. Overwhelm visitors with lots of information. Almost as bad as the "What the heck is this site about?" problem is the "Oh my Goodness! Oh my Gracious!" sites. As a visitor, you know the sites I'm talking about. The page opens and your jaw drops. There is a sea of banners, with links everywhere and articles galore. Where do you go? What do you do? I'll tell you what I do. Click the little "x' in the upper right-hand corner to get the heck outta there!

3. Make the ordering process really complicated. There's nothing I love more than putting items into my shopping cart and then spending 20 minutes trying to figure out how to set up an account and pay. Guess what? I sure don't click the 'contact us' button. I click the "x" instead. You've succeeded in getting rid of yet another pesky customer who wanted to spend money.

4. Fill your site with outdated information and broken links. Pfshew. You dodged a visitor with that one. They clicked on a link that was broken -- and off they went.

5. Make sure there's no way for an interested customer or business partner to contact you. Heaven forbid, you might get some spam if you have your contact information on your site.

Thank Goodness you don't have those gosh-darned customers emailing you while you're trying to read up on Brad Pitt's love life.

Obviously, I'm being silly, but you do know that these examples are true. You've seen sites that seem like they are trying to drive you away. If you are spending time and energy putting up a website to make money, then, make some money. You CAN do it!

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5 Good Reasons For Using Yahoogroups To Start Your Own Ezine

If you are new to Internet Marketing, or just new to the way of web business, and there's all these other things to learn and think about, there are five VERY good reasons to leave commercial list serving software systems alone for now and simply use a Yahoogroup to do all the work for you.

1. EVERYBODY Knows ...

... what a Yahoogroup is, and even if they don't, they'll soon pick it up. By using Yahoogroups, you are tapping into a long, long established institution that is globally known and trusted; this will make it much easier to get people who don't really know you yet to subscribe to your ezine or newsletter.

2. Yahoogroups are very easy.

Even for absolute beginners, Yahoogroups are easy to set up and easy to manage. You don't have to worry about the vagaries of AOL emails, double opt in procedures, anti-spam declarations, unsubscription features or any of it, it's all taken care of for you. They also come with little sign up boxes and buttons, and the admin interface, although not exactly intuitive, can soon be worked out by trial and error.

3. Yahoogroups messages don't get caught in spam filters.

Spam filters are the SCOURGE of ezines and email delivery. When you send your messages via the Yahoogroups delivery system, this is not a problem; as Yahoo is such a mega beast, it has its own exceptions in mostly all spam filters known to mankind and your messages WILL at least reach their intended recipients.

4. Yahoogroups have useful extra features.

You can do a lot with a Yahoogroup if you are willing to spent some time on it. Weblinks, an attractive group page, bookmarks, file downloads and more are all available for the beginner web entrepreneur to optimise and use, easily at that.

5. Yahoogroups are FREE.

Alright, so the group messages carry third party advertising, but that is a very small price to pay for access to a system that can easily and very elegantly serve hundreds of thousands of messages, that is reliable and steady and so well known. Other than that, there are no set up fees, no ongoing charges, and it's there for you whenever you want it.

Once you are ready to do so, you can export your list and put it on your own personal commercial list server systems, complete with technicians who take care of everything behind the scenes - until then, and if you haven't done this before, to simply use Yahoogroups for ezine delivery is a really good way to get started with your ezine and to build up your subscriber base.

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3 Fastest Ways To Get Traffic To Any Website

After all the debate over website design, shopping carts
and credit card processors, every website owner eventually
comes to the startling realization that they need one more
thing to survive - website traffic!

Without website traffic it's the same as building an
expensive billboard and, instead of placing it alongside a
busy highway, hiding it in your *basement* where nobody can
see it.

Upon realizing they need traffic, most website owners run
out and start blowing chunks of money and time trying to
get "hits," but they fail to grasp that there are really
only three (3) reliable ways to get traffic to any website.

Method #1 - Buy Traffic
Currently, the fastest way to get traffic to any website
involves using the little classified ads on the right side
of search giant Google's results pages.

Called Google AdWords, the system allows any advertiser to
open an account with a $5 activation fee and start seeing
their ads appear on Google within about 15 minutes.

Advertisers only pay when visitors actually click through
from their ad on Google to their website or affiliate link.

Overture.com also sells traffic by the click, but they make
you wait three to five days to go through their editorial
review process before allowing ads to appear on their
network.

You can also buy advertising on dozens of other pay-per-
click search engines.

They all follow the same basic model of only charging
advertisers for targeted visitors who read an ad based on a
keyword search and decide to click through for more
information.

Log on to www.payperclicksearchengines.com for a list of
over 600 choices ranked by market penetration.

A word to the wise on pay-per-click advertising: Watch your
costs and track and measure everything. Even though you can
get traffic for as little as a penny, you should track your
results by search engine and by individual keyword if you
want maximum success.

Many a company has lost its entire advertising budget
paying only a nickel or a dime per click, but not watching
their conversion rates and pouring money into keywords that
don't convert... while neglecting the keywords that do
bring sales (mainly because they don't know which is
which!).

Method #2 - Borrow Traffic
If you need traffic to a website, then borrow it from
people who already have it... especially people with lists
of loyal subscribers or traffic from search engines,
affiliates, or other steady sources.

"Endorsed Mailings" and "Reciprocal Linking" by other
people represent the two fastest ways to borrow someone
else's traffic.

If they maintain a list of subscribers, convince them to
send an email out to their people telling them why they
should check out your site.

Also, negotiate a prominent link on their web pages to
siphon off targeted visitors who find their website.

Often the best way to persuade someone to do this involves
paying them a commission, agreeing to do a similar mailing,
or providing a link to them on your site (or a combination
of all three).

Imagine how much traffic you could get if someone with a
list of 10,000 loyal subscribers told their people to go
look at your website!

Method #3 Recycle Traffic
The most economical way to get traffic involves turning
one-time visitors into regular, repeat visitors that you
direct to multiple sites over time.

You do this by pulling website visitors into your sphere of
influence by enticing them to sign up for your newsletter,
autoresponder sequence, or "mini-course."

Then you keep in contact with regular articles, special
reports, and recommendations enticing them to visit your
own and other people's websites.

Ultimately, every website owner should orient all of their
marketing efforts towards this end of developing a stream
of recycled traffic, because it costs the least and creates
the best return on time and money invested.

It doesn't matter if you promote your own product, promote
only as an affiliate, or some combination of the two... if
you don't recycle traffic and get more than one hit out of
each visitor, you're making one of the biggest mistakes
anyone can make online.

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