Just like all things in life, the ways to run a business are rapidly changing and evolving. The potential involved with having a domain name/web site is staggering to say the least. A web site gives the consumer a ‘shop front’ that is not only open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but is also situated right on their desktop. Instead of being locked into only the immediate area, the whole world’s marketplace becomes your sphere of interaction.
Customers can access information on all your products, no more salesperson with limited knowledge trying to explain something they no little about. No more waiting in lines for help, all people have access immediately.
The domain name of the website gives great freedom to the business process. Having your own name is like having an address, then infinite emails can be added to the name so different departments within the company can be reached without having to wait at reception. For example, sales@ Mary’s Plants.com will put the shopper in direct contact with Mary’s sales section.
As a business, the domain name adds professional authenticity, as your address is not affiliated with other companies. In the area of communication, the email system opens up many avenues. Instead of having to put clients on hold because of limited personnel, innumerable emails can arrive at once, even when there’s no one in the office. Then you can pick and choose which one’s to reply to first (the most urgent), while people browsing can wait till later. First come, first serve becomes obsolete as necessary customers automatically reach the front of the line.
Getting a website and domain name is an easy, simple, cost-effective process. You can register your name through web domain registrars like DomReg-M6.Net for as low as $15.00 U.S. per year. That is definitely a very limited risk compared to opening a store, renting a location, and the thousands of dollars involved in overhead costs. How can this be true? A key to the door for anyone who wants to enter a mega-mall that is as big as the Earth. Let’s hope you’ve got something special to share and trade with the global community!
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Where on Earth is your Websitee?
You've just finished congratulating your marketing team. After six months of concentrated effort you can now actually find your own company web site within the search engines. Everyone is busy handshaking and back patting when a voice from the back of the room rises above the din. "Yeah this is great! Can't wait until we can find ourselves on wireless devices."
All conversation comes to an abrupt halt. Eyes widen. Everyone turns to the fresh-faced intern standing in the corner with a can of V8 juice in one hand and a PALM device in the other. You, being the Department Manager, barely managing to control your voice not to mention your temper, ask the now nearly frozen with panic intern, "What do you mean find ourselves on wireless? We just spent thousands on our web site visibility campaign!" "Well... Explains the sheepish intern, "There is no GPS or GIS locational data within our source code. Without it, most wireless appliances won't be able to access our site."
Guess what? The intern is absolutely correct. Anyone interested in selling goods and services via the Internet will soon be required to have some form Geographic Location data coded into your web pages. There are approximately 200 satellites currently orbiting the Earth. (even Nasa won't confirm the exact number) Some are in geosynchronous or geostationary orbit 27,000 miles above your head. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the name given to the mechanism of providing satellite ephemerides ("orbits") data to the general public, under the auspices of the International Earth Rotation Service Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Sounds like Star Wars doesn't it? It's pretty close. The NAVSTAR GPS system is a satellite-based radio-navigation system developed and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
The NAVSTAR system permits land, sea, and airborne users to determine their three-dimensional position, velocity, 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, with amazing precision. http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/
Wireless devices, WAP, Cellular, SATphones and a whole host of newly emerging appliances and indeed, new software applications, will all utilize some form of GPS or more likely GIS data retrieval. GIS stand for Geographic Information System and relies on exact Latitude and Longitude coordinates for location purposes.
Several car manufacturers currently utilize GPS for on-board driver assistance and the Marine and Trucking Industries have been using it for years. Obviously your web site is a stable beast. It sits on a server somewhere and doesn't move much, so at first glance it seems quite unplausible you'll need GIS Locational Data within your source code. On the contrary. One aspect your web site represents is your business's physical location(s) and if people are going to try to find your services and products, shouldn't you at the very least, tell them where it is and how to get there?
Let's look at it from the other end of the spectrum. The end user approach. Let's say you're vacationing in a new city for the first time. Once you get settled into your Hotel room, what's the first thing you want to find? Restaurants? Bank machines? Stores? So you pull out your hand-held, wireless, device, log onto the web and search for "Italian Food in San Francisco." Five Hundred results come back so you click the new "location" feature on your hand-held (which knows exactly where you are) and ten Italian restaurants, who were smart enough to code their web sites with GIS data, light up on the screen. Guess which restaurants didn't get selected? The other four hundred and ninety. Starting to get the picture?
How does this affect you and your web site marketing? GIS Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates will soon be a must have on every web site operators and web developer's list and an absolute necessity for anyone wishing to trade good and services via the Internet. This data may relate to the physical location of the web site or where the site is being served from (if applicable) or where the actual business represented by the site is physically located. There may be multiple web site locations and coding involved, if for example, you have a franchise with multiple locations, each location will probably need a page of it's own with the correct corresponding location data.
If you run a home-based business, I doubt if the co-ordinates to your living room are going to be necessary, but you should provide the latitude and longitude of the closest city or town. Large corporations such as banks may want to code the exact location of every automated teller machine across the country.
Industry standards and the methods of serving out this data are still in the development phases but it's a safe bet to assume there are plenty of people working on the solutions right now and given the speed of technology, implementation will probably be much sooner than later. Give yourself an edge. Find out where in the world your web site is...before your web site is nowhere to be found.
All conversation comes to an abrupt halt. Eyes widen. Everyone turns to the fresh-faced intern standing in the corner with a can of V8 juice in one hand and a PALM device in the other. You, being the Department Manager, barely managing to control your voice not to mention your temper, ask the now nearly frozen with panic intern, "What do you mean find ourselves on wireless? We just spent thousands on our web site visibility campaign!" "Well... Explains the sheepish intern, "There is no GPS or GIS locational data within our source code. Without it, most wireless appliances won't be able to access our site."
Guess what? The intern is absolutely correct. Anyone interested in selling goods and services via the Internet will soon be required to have some form Geographic Location data coded into your web pages. There are approximately 200 satellites currently orbiting the Earth. (even Nasa won't confirm the exact number) Some are in geosynchronous or geostationary orbit 27,000 miles above your head. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the name given to the mechanism of providing satellite ephemerides ("orbits") data to the general public, under the auspices of the International Earth Rotation Service Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Sounds like Star Wars doesn't it? It's pretty close. The NAVSTAR GPS system is a satellite-based radio-navigation system developed and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
The NAVSTAR system permits land, sea, and airborne users to determine their three-dimensional position, velocity, 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, with amazing precision. http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/
Wireless devices, WAP, Cellular, SATphones and a whole host of newly emerging appliances and indeed, new software applications, will all utilize some form of GPS or more likely GIS data retrieval. GIS stand for Geographic Information System and relies on exact Latitude and Longitude coordinates for location purposes.
Several car manufacturers currently utilize GPS for on-board driver assistance and the Marine and Trucking Industries have been using it for years. Obviously your web site is a stable beast. It sits on a server somewhere and doesn't move much, so at first glance it seems quite unplausible you'll need GIS Locational Data within your source code. On the contrary. One aspect your web site represents is your business's physical location(s) and if people are going to try to find your services and products, shouldn't you at the very least, tell them where it is and how to get there?
Let's look at it from the other end of the spectrum. The end user approach. Let's say you're vacationing in a new city for the first time. Once you get settled into your Hotel room, what's the first thing you want to find? Restaurants? Bank machines? Stores? So you pull out your hand-held, wireless, device, log onto the web and search for "Italian Food in San Francisco." Five Hundred results come back so you click the new "location" feature on your hand-held (which knows exactly where you are) and ten Italian restaurants, who were smart enough to code their web sites with GIS data, light up on the screen. Guess which restaurants didn't get selected? The other four hundred and ninety. Starting to get the picture?
How does this affect you and your web site marketing? GIS Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates will soon be a must have on every web site operators and web developer's list and an absolute necessity for anyone wishing to trade good and services via the Internet. This data may relate to the physical location of the web site or where the site is being served from (if applicable) or where the actual business represented by the site is physically located. There may be multiple web site locations and coding involved, if for example, you have a franchise with multiple locations, each location will probably need a page of it's own with the correct corresponding location data.
If you run a home-based business, I doubt if the co-ordinates to your living room are going to be necessary, but you should provide the latitude and longitude of the closest city or town. Large corporations such as banks may want to code the exact location of every automated teller machine across the country.
Industry standards and the methods of serving out this data are still in the development phases but it's a safe bet to assume there are plenty of people working on the solutions right now and given the speed of technology, implementation will probably be much sooner than later. Give yourself an edge. Find out where in the world your web site is...before your web site is nowhere to be found.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Short Live Telecoms' Monopoly
"Free will cannot be debated, but only experienced like a colour or the taste of potatoes."
My question: can we really experience it?
In a world in which everybody talks of nothing else than Democracy, is our wolrd slightly democratic?
Have we really come a long way through History?
Or are we just repeating the same mistakes all over, just changing the pattern of them?
" We go on discovering that we are this, that and other things and sometimes we have astounding experiences. We are unfinished, we are growing and changing.
Yet that future personality which we are to be in a year's timeis already there, only it is in the shadow.
These potentialities naturally belong to the dark side of the ego.
We are all aware of what we have been, but we are not aware of what we are going to be."
But do we really change and improve or we are just the same all over?
" In point of fact what is interesting about people is the mask that each one of them wears, not the reality that lies behind the mask.
It is a humiliating confession, but we are all of us made out of the same stuff.
Where we differ from each other is purely accidental:in dress, manner, tone of voice, religious opinions, personal appearance, tucks of the habit and the like.
The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear.
Sooner or later one comes to the dreadful unioversal thing called Human Nature."
For two thousand years or more man has been subjected to a systematic effort to transform him into an ascetic animal.
He remains a pleasure seeking animal.
And some are pleasure seeking animals at any cost.
Cheating, robbing, killing is nothing that a mean to achieve it.
The biggest the Corporation, the more polithically involved, the more cheating and crooking.
Look at the Politicians of today, at the big Monopoly corporations...
When will we wake up?
They try to shut our mouths and minds with any kind of stupid fullfilling devices, but still keeping the hand ( and the profit) in it.
Once they said man built his own pleasures, now they say he has to pay for them.
They also say it takes gut to be a dreamer and a visionary, I think on the contrary it comes naturally, either you are or you are not.
Either you see reality or you see what they want you to see.
The economy of means is founded on the richness of thought.
I have just started my personal peaceful war and I am looking for people who can share my dreams.
Short live the Telecom monopoly!
My question: can we really experience it?
In a world in which everybody talks of nothing else than Democracy, is our wolrd slightly democratic?
Have we really come a long way through History?
Or are we just repeating the same mistakes all over, just changing the pattern of them?
" We go on discovering that we are this, that and other things and sometimes we have astounding experiences. We are unfinished, we are growing and changing.
Yet that future personality which we are to be in a year's timeis already there, only it is in the shadow.
These potentialities naturally belong to the dark side of the ego.
We are all aware of what we have been, but we are not aware of what we are going to be."
But do we really change and improve or we are just the same all over?
" In point of fact what is interesting about people is the mask that each one of them wears, not the reality that lies behind the mask.
It is a humiliating confession, but we are all of us made out of the same stuff.
Where we differ from each other is purely accidental:in dress, manner, tone of voice, religious opinions, personal appearance, tucks of the habit and the like.
The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear.
Sooner or later one comes to the dreadful unioversal thing called Human Nature."
For two thousand years or more man has been subjected to a systematic effort to transform him into an ascetic animal.
He remains a pleasure seeking animal.
And some are pleasure seeking animals at any cost.
Cheating, robbing, killing is nothing that a mean to achieve it.
The biggest the Corporation, the more polithically involved, the more cheating and crooking.
Look at the Politicians of today, at the big Monopoly corporations...
When will we wake up?
They try to shut our mouths and minds with any kind of stupid fullfilling devices, but still keeping the hand ( and the profit) in it.
Once they said man built his own pleasures, now they say he has to pay for them.
They also say it takes gut to be a dreamer and a visionary, I think on the contrary it comes naturally, either you are or you are not.
Either you see reality or you see what they want you to see.
The economy of means is founded on the richness of thought.
I have just started my personal peaceful war and I am looking for people who can share my dreams.
Short live the Telecom monopoly!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Meta Tags- What Are They and Which Search Engines Use Them?
Meta Tags- What Are They and Which Search Engines Use Them?
by: Richard Zwicky
Defining Meta Tags is much easier than explaining how they are used, and by which engines. The reason is very few engines clearly lay out what they do and do not look at, and how much emphasis they put on any one factor. So, we’ll start with the easy part
Meta Tags are lines of HTML code embedded into web pages that are used by search engines to store information about your site. These "tags" contain keywords, descriptions, copyright information, site titles and more. They are among the numerous things that the search engines look for, when trying to evaluate a web site.
Meta Tags are not "required" when you're creating web pages. Unfortunately, many web site operators who don’t use them are left wondering why the saying "If I build it they will come" didn’t apply to their site.
There’s also a few naysayers in the search engine optimization industry who claim that Meta Tags are useless. You can believe them if you like, but you would be wise not to. While not technically "required", Meta Tags are essential.
If you simply create a web site and register the URL with the search engines, their spiders will visit your site, and attempt to index it. Each search engine operates slightly differently, and each one weighs different elements of a web site according to their own proprietary algorithms. For example, Altavista places an emphasis on the description tag and Inktomi states on their web site that;
Inktomi "(...) indexes both the full text of the Web page you submit as well as the meta-tags within the site's HTML."
Other search engines like Exactseek are true meta tag search engines which clearly state their policy:
"Your site will not be added if it does not have Title and Meta Description tags."
They also use the keywords tag.
Of course, not all search engines work this way. Some place their emphasis on content. The search engines have over 100 individual factors they look at when reviewing a web site. Some of these factors deal with page structure. They check to see that all the 't's are crossed, and the 'i's dotted. They note sites that have omitted basic steps, like missing tags.
One reason so many engines de-emphasized the meta-keyword tag had to do with spam. There was a time when 'search engine promotion specialists' would cram keywords tags full of irrelevant information. The web site would be selling garbage cans, but the keywords tags were chock full of irrelevant terms like "mp3" or "Britney Spears". They figured that if enough people visited their site, some would buy.
So today, to avoid and penalize this kind of abuse, some search engines don’t specifically use the keywords tag as part of the scoring of a site, but they monitor the keywords to ensure they match the content in the site. The reasoning being that, if the tags are irrelevant, they must have an alternate purpose. Is it a spam site? When keywords tags are completely irrelevant to the content, some search engines, that don’t specifically use keywords tags, will penalize that web site.
Even for those engines that have downplayed the value of Meta Tags, there are situations where Meta Tags gain considerably in importance, e.g. sites with rich graphics, but poor textual content. Unfortunately, a picture is worth 1000 words to you and me, but zero to a search engine. If a site has poor textual content, the engines will be more dependent than ever on the Meta Tags to properly categorize it.
Even if you ensure you have completely relevant Meta Tags, some search engines will still ignore them. But better they ignore them, than they ignore your whole site because they suspect something is less than above board. Never hope that having Meta Tags will make the difference in all the search engines; nothing is a substitute for good content. But in cases where the engine depends on that content, it may be the only thing that does work for your site.
So How To Use The Meta Tags?
Meta tags should always be placed in the area of an HTML document. This starts just after the tag, and ends immediately before the tag. Here’s how the most basic set should look:
Search Engine Optimization Software - Metamend
Always make sure that your meta tags do not have any line breaks, otherwise the search engines will just see bad code and ignore them. You should also avoid use of capitals in your code (html5 standard) as well as repetition of terms within the keywords tag.
What Goes Into a Meta Tag?
For the Description tag: ; Many search engines will display this summary along with the title of your page in their search results. Keep this reasonably short, concise and to the point, but make sure that it’s an appropriate reflection of your site content.
For the keyword tag;
Keywords represent the key terms that someone might enter into a search engine. Choose only relevant keywords. If the terms are going to appear in your keywords tag, they must appear in the content of your site, or be a synonym to a term on your site. Most search engines compare your meta content with what is actually on your page, and if it doesn’t match, your web site can get penalized, and suffer in search results.
for the Robots tag ;Many web pages have this tag wrong. An example of the wrong usage is content="index, follow, all" - wrong because some spiders can't handle spaces between the words in the tag or the word "all". Most engines by default assume that you want a web page to be indexed and links followed, so using the wrong syntax can actually result in the spider coming to the wrong conclusion and penalizing, or worse, ignoring the page outright. If by chance you do not want your links followed, or the page not indexed, then you would substitute "noindex" and or "nofollow" into the tag.
With the Internet growing at a rate of over 8,000,000 new pages per day, and the search engines adding a fraction of that number, Meta Tags are a common standard which can reasonably ensure a measure of proper categorization for a web site. So, always ensure that you cover all the bases, and use completely relevant terms in properly structured Meta Tags. Using tags properly will pay dividends in the short and long term. After all, using them properly only helps the search engines, which means they will send you more qualified traffic - customers.
About The Author
Richard Zwicky is a founder and the CEO of Metamend Software & Design Ltd., www.metamend.com, a Victoria B.C. based firm whose cutting edge Search Engine Optimization software is recognized as the world leader in its field. Employing a staff of 10, the firm's business comes from around the world, with clients from every continent. Most recently the company was recognized for their geo-locational, or GIS, along with their phraseological and context sensitive search technologies.
articles@metamend.com
This article was posted on November 25, 2003
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<< Back to "Computers And Internet" Index
by: Richard Zwicky
Defining Meta Tags is much easier than explaining how they are used, and by which engines. The reason is very few engines clearly lay out what they do and do not look at, and how much emphasis they put on any one factor. So, we’ll start with the easy part
Meta Tags are lines of HTML code embedded into web pages that are used by search engines to store information about your site. These "tags" contain keywords, descriptions, copyright information, site titles and more. They are among the numerous things that the search engines look for, when trying to evaluate a web site.
Meta Tags are not "required" when you're creating web pages. Unfortunately, many web site operators who don’t use them are left wondering why the saying "If I build it they will come" didn’t apply to their site.
There’s also a few naysayers in the search engine optimization industry who claim that Meta Tags are useless. You can believe them if you like, but you would be wise not to. While not technically "required", Meta Tags are essential.
If you simply create a web site and register the URL with the search engines, their spiders will visit your site, and attempt to index it. Each search engine operates slightly differently, and each one weighs different elements of a web site according to their own proprietary algorithms. For example, Altavista places an emphasis on the description tag and Inktomi states on their web site that;
Inktomi "(...) indexes both the full text of the Web page you submit as well as the meta-tags within the site's HTML."
Other search engines like Exactseek are true meta tag search engines which clearly state their policy:
"Your site will not be added if it does not have Title and Meta Description tags."
They also use the keywords tag.
Of course, not all search engines work this way. Some place their emphasis on content. The search engines have over 100 individual factors they look at when reviewing a web site. Some of these factors deal with page structure. They check to see that all the 't's are crossed, and the 'i's dotted. They note sites that have omitted basic steps, like missing tags.
One reason so many engines de-emphasized the meta-keyword tag had to do with spam. There was a time when 'search engine promotion specialists' would cram keywords tags full of irrelevant information. The web site would be selling garbage cans, but the keywords tags were chock full of irrelevant terms like "mp3" or "Britney Spears". They figured that if enough people visited their site, some would buy.
So today, to avoid and penalize this kind of abuse, some search engines don’t specifically use the keywords tag as part of the scoring of a site, but they monitor the keywords to ensure they match the content in the site. The reasoning being that, if the tags are irrelevant, they must have an alternate purpose. Is it a spam site? When keywords tags are completely irrelevant to the content, some search engines, that don’t specifically use keywords tags, will penalize that web site.
Even for those engines that have downplayed the value of Meta Tags, there are situations where Meta Tags gain considerably in importance, e.g. sites with rich graphics, but poor textual content. Unfortunately, a picture is worth 1000 words to you and me, but zero to a search engine. If a site has poor textual content, the engines will be more dependent than ever on the Meta Tags to properly categorize it.
Even if you ensure you have completely relevant Meta Tags, some search engines will still ignore them. But better they ignore them, than they ignore your whole site because they suspect something is less than above board. Never hope that having Meta Tags will make the difference in all the search engines; nothing is a substitute for good content. But in cases where the engine depends on that content, it may be the only thing that does work for your site.
So How To Use The Meta Tags?
Meta tags should always be placed in the area of an HTML document. This starts just after the tag, and ends immediately before the tag. Here’s how the most basic set should look:
Search Engine Optimization Software - Metamend
Always make sure that your meta tags do not have any line breaks, otherwise the search engines will just see bad code and ignore them. You should also avoid use of capitals in your code (html5 standard) as well as repetition of terms within the keywords tag.
What Goes Into a Meta Tag?
For the Description tag: ; Many search engines will display this summary along with the title of your page in their search results. Keep this reasonably short, concise and to the point, but make sure that it’s an appropriate reflection of your site content.
For the keyword tag;
Keywords represent the key terms that someone might enter into a search engine. Choose only relevant keywords. If the terms are going to appear in your keywords tag, they must appear in the content of your site, or be a synonym to a term on your site. Most search engines compare your meta content with what is actually on your page, and if it doesn’t match, your web site can get penalized, and suffer in search results.
for the Robots tag ;Many web pages have this tag wrong. An example of the wrong usage is content="index, follow, all" - wrong because some spiders can't handle spaces between the words in the tag or the word "all". Most engines by default assume that you want a web page to be indexed and links followed, so using the wrong syntax can actually result in the spider coming to the wrong conclusion and penalizing, or worse, ignoring the page outright. If by chance you do not want your links followed, or the page not indexed, then you would substitute "noindex" and or "nofollow" into the tag.
With the Internet growing at a rate of over 8,000,000 new pages per day, and the search engines adding a fraction of that number, Meta Tags are a common standard which can reasonably ensure a measure of proper categorization for a web site. So, always ensure that you cover all the bases, and use completely relevant terms in properly structured Meta Tags. Using tags properly will pay dividends in the short and long term. After all, using them properly only helps the search engines, which means they will send you more qualified traffic - customers.
About The Author
Richard Zwicky is a founder and the CEO of Metamend Software & Design Ltd., www.metamend.com, a Victoria B.C. based firm whose cutting edge Search Engine Optimization software is recognized as the world leader in its field. Employing a staff of 10, the firm's business comes from around the world, with clients from every continent. Most recently the company was recognized for their geo-locational, or GIS, along with their phraseological and context sensitive search technologies.
articles@metamend.com
This article was posted on November 25, 2003
Read More Articles from the "Computers and Internet" Category:
Blu-ray: A Primer
by Kenny Hemphill
Microsoft Great Plains internet marketing campaign – notes from the trenches
by Andrew Karasev
Home Networking – Wireless or Wired
by James Streep
How To Get Targeted Search Engine Traffic Quickly
by Matt Bacak
Website Accessibility Important For Disabled Visitors
by Farhad Divecha
Selecting The Right Cable Modem Service
by Ron Eletrick
What Digital-SLR-Photography Is All About
by Low Jeremy
Use The Power Of New MySQL 5 Features With MySQL Maestro!
by Alex Zan
New Features of Macromedia Flash MX
by Maricon Williams
Figuring Out Your Role as an IT Consultant
by Joshua Feinberg
<< Back to "Computers And Internet" Index
Monday, September 18, 2006
Search Engine Rankings for Beginners
Search Engine Ranking for Beginners
Search engine optimization is best left in the mystical land of the Intenet Marketing Guru right? Good Search engine rankings are tough to achieve. Understanding search engine marketing takes years of studying and only people with true insider knowledge and secret tools rank well in Google right? WRONG. Pure crap as a matter of fact.
Ranking well in the search engines is not difficult. In fact search engine optimization is relatively easy. What stops most people from ranking well in search engines is misinformation. Every week there's yet another quick fix to ranking well in search engines and people jump from one quick fix to the next hoping for that Top 10 position in Google and never achieving it.
There are 6 key areas of search engine optimization that you need to know about. These are the basics. Getting these right will help you achieve the Google rankings that you've always wanted.
Domain Name - The jury is still out on the how relevant a keyword rich domain name is. What I mean by keyword rich domain name is say for example your site was going to be about money making ideas then an idea domain name could be either www.moneymakingideas.com or www.money-making-ideas.com. My own personal preference is with the hyphenated approach e.g. www.money-making-ideas.com simply because I believe that search engines can read it more easily. To registed your domain name I would suggest using either 000Domains.com or GoDaddy.com
Content - Useful content. Not keyword stuffed, spammy pages. Write something useful for your visitors. If you can't write then you'll need to learn. Turn Words Into Traffic is a great resource for learning how to write content and is a resource that I use personally. Turn Words Into Traffic gives you an A-Z on article writing - from a writers perspective. If you don't want to learn how to write content then you could always use Create Website Content Fast to help you speed the process up.
Keywords - Keywords are the words or phrases that you expect people to search for your site/service/content with. There are two distinct factors to consider when choosing keywords for your site.
1. You need to target specific keywords. For example if you have a website about dating then you'll probably find it quite difficult to achieve high search engine rankings initially with that single term. However if you were to refine an area of your site to target say Gay & Lesbian Dating that's more specific. You could also regionalize your keywords or key phrases e.g. Gay & Lesbian dating in Toronto. This refining process is often referred to as niche (pronounced neech) marketing.
2. You need to choose the keywords that you want people to find your site with. Put yourself in your visitors shoes - think about what they might use to find you in the search engines. What keywords or key phrases would you type into a search engine to find your site? What keywords or key phrases would your potential visitor use to search for you? Always, always think like a typical websurfer.
If you're interested in seeing what people are searching for on the web and how profitable that might be for you I would recommened that you check out Good Keywords. It's free and does a wonderful job of helping you find good keywords :-)
I would also suggest that you try Wordtracker also. It's a brilliant service for tracking down specific, popular keywords.
Keyword density - This is how often your keyword is used on the the page itself. For example if you have 100 words of text on a single page and you mention your keyword 5 times then you have 5% keyword density.
Opinions vary on this but anywhere from 1% - 7% is considered ideal. If this doesn't make sense to you then it's ok. The simple rule is this: less is more. Do not alter the text on your webpages to include your keyword over and over again because.........well.... it looks stupid, won't instill any confidence in your prospective customer and might also get you penalized or removed from the search engines.
Page title - Your tag is critical to your page being ranked well. Stuffing your tag with keywords in the hope of ranking well is pointless. Your tag, once constructed properly, will see you moving up the search engine rankings quickly. Bear this simple fact in mind when building your websites and it will serve you well.
Links - Having good links pointing to your site and good links within your site (an often overlooked aspect of search engine optimization) is pretty important as far as search engine ranking goes. Having other sites linking to yours proves the importance of your site to the search engines i.e. if the content on your site is so valuable that other site owners want to link to it then it must be important.
META Tags - Meta tags are dead baby. Well not quite dead but they are only used as a point of reference for search engines. It's a shame to see websites that have their META tags still stuffed with keywords. It's pointless. Put your primary keywords in the Meta Keyword part of your webpage but apart from that don't lose any sleep or waste any energy on them.
There's not enough space in this article to explain all of the above in the detail that I'd love to. Also I'm not a search engine expert so some of the explanation is best left to those that I learned from (Sean Burns and Jay Stockwell take a bow please :-)
Having learned the basics of search engine optimization and submission I have achieved Top 10 Rankings for all of my websites. It's not hard to do this. It just takes work, a little patience and a little common sense.
Search engine optimization is best left in the mystical land of the Intenet Marketing Guru right? Good Search engine rankings are tough to achieve. Understanding search engine marketing takes years of studying and only people with true insider knowledge and secret tools rank well in Google right? WRONG. Pure crap as a matter of fact.
Ranking well in the search engines is not difficult. In fact search engine optimization is relatively easy. What stops most people from ranking well in search engines is misinformation. Every week there's yet another quick fix to ranking well in search engines and people jump from one quick fix to the next hoping for that Top 10 position in Google and never achieving it.
There are 6 key areas of search engine optimization that you need to know about. These are the basics. Getting these right will help you achieve the Google rankings that you've always wanted.
Domain Name - The jury is still out on the how relevant a keyword rich domain name is. What I mean by keyword rich domain name is say for example your site was going to be about money making ideas then an idea domain name could be either www.moneymakingideas.com or www.money-making-ideas.com. My own personal preference is with the hyphenated approach e.g. www.money-making-ideas.com simply because I believe that search engines can read it more easily. To registed your domain name I would suggest using either 000Domains.com or GoDaddy.com
Content - Useful content. Not keyword stuffed, spammy pages. Write something useful for your visitors. If you can't write then you'll need to learn. Turn Words Into Traffic is a great resource for learning how to write content and is a resource that I use personally. Turn Words Into Traffic gives you an A-Z on article writing - from a writers perspective. If you don't want to learn how to write content then you could always use Create Website Content Fast to help you speed the process up.
Keywords - Keywords are the words or phrases that you expect people to search for your site/service/content with. There are two distinct factors to consider when choosing keywords for your site.
1. You need to target specific keywords. For example if you have a website about dating then you'll probably find it quite difficult to achieve high search engine rankings initially with that single term. However if you were to refine an area of your site to target say Gay & Lesbian Dating that's more specific. You could also regionalize your keywords or key phrases e.g. Gay & Lesbian dating in Toronto. This refining process is often referred to as niche (pronounced neech) marketing.
2. You need to choose the keywords that you want people to find your site with. Put yourself in your visitors shoes - think about what they might use to find you in the search engines. What keywords or key phrases would you type into a search engine to find your site? What keywords or key phrases would your potential visitor use to search for you? Always, always think like a typical websurfer.
If you're interested in seeing what people are searching for on the web and how profitable that might be for you I would recommened that you check out Good Keywords. It's free and does a wonderful job of helping you find good keywords :-)
I would also suggest that you try Wordtracker also. It's a brilliant service for tracking down specific, popular keywords.
Keyword density - This is how often your keyword is used on the the page itself. For example if you have 100 words of text on a single page and you mention your keyword 5 times then you have 5% keyword density.
Opinions vary on this but anywhere from 1% - 7% is considered ideal. If this doesn't make sense to you then it's ok. The simple rule is this: less is more. Do not alter the text on your webpages to include your keyword over and over again because.........well.... it looks stupid, won't instill any confidence in your prospective customer and might also get you penalized or removed from the search engines.
Page title - Your tag is critical to your page being ranked well. Stuffing your tag with keywords in the hope of ranking well is pointless. Your tag, once constructed properly, will see you moving up the search engine rankings quickly. Bear this simple fact in mind when building your websites and it will serve you well.
Links - Having good links pointing to your site and good links within your site (an often overlooked aspect of search engine optimization) is pretty important as far as search engine ranking goes. Having other sites linking to yours proves the importance of your site to the search engines i.e. if the content on your site is so valuable that other site owners want to link to it then it must be important.
META Tags - Meta tags are dead baby. Well not quite dead but they are only used as a point of reference for search engines. It's a shame to see websites that have their META tags still stuffed with keywords. It's pointless. Put your primary keywords in the Meta Keyword part of your webpage but apart from that don't lose any sleep or waste any energy on them.
There's not enough space in this article to explain all of the above in the detail that I'd love to. Also I'm not a search engine expert so some of the explanation is best left to those that I learned from (Sean Burns and Jay Stockwell take a bow please :-)
Having learned the basics of search engine optimization and submission I have achieved Top 10 Rankings for all of my websites. It's not hard to do this. It just takes work, a little patience and a little common sense.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Technical Writing for the Terrified
Introduction
Sometimes it may be beyond a companies or individuals budget to hire a professional writer to address their technical documentation. Although in an ideal world all technical documentation should be produced by a highly trained expert, unfortunately we do not live in an ideal. In the same way that many people will attempt to repair their own home appliances, many people will attempt to write quality technical documents. Just as fiddling with a toaster can result in electrocution, attempting to write technical documents from scratch without prior advice will ultimately result in failure. As a rough rule of thumb you should always seek to employ a specialist, but if for whatever reason you can't and you are the poor unfortunate that has had documentation duties foisted on them, don't despair. This brief guide outlines some of the core skills you will need to bring to your writing, technical conventions to be aware of, software packages you can consider, and definite things to avoid. Hopefully even if you have never written a sentence in your life about anything vaguely technical you will have at the very least, a broader picture of what technical writing entails.
What is Technical Writing?
Technical writing unsurprisingly enough, refers to writing that is technical. Although this may seem like a fallacious definition, it's an important one to remember. Too many technical authors make the mistake of creating documentation that is either too technical, or too 'literary'. A good technical author should be able to adjust the balance between the two to suit the end user of the documentation. Technical writing is a lot like fresh air, pervasive and yet pretty much invisible. In the weird wired world in which we find ourselves, technical writing is everywhere. Software manuals, user guides for home appliances, instructional leaflets, emails, letters, reports, technical news reports, statistics and biographies on television sports shows all are examples of technical writing to which people are exposed to on a daily basis. If you have ever tried to program the time settings on a home video recorder and flung the manual across the room in disgust, you threw a piece of technical writing (although obviously not a very good one!). Too many times technical literature is produced by writers with not a large enough grasp of technology, or technologists that lack an ability to write. As a prospective technical author you must tread the very delicate line of being technically knowledgeable in your specialist field(s) as well as being a 'good' writer (as opposed to 'bad' writers who can usually be found mugging sweet old ladies or something). Technical documentation is usually produced for two distinct user groups, namely expert level users, and naive users. As a technical author one of your first tasks is to sort out what audience you are writing for, which brings me deftly to:
Know thy foe
As the old cliché goes, everyone's a critic. This is particularly true of most sane people's reaction when faced with technical writing. As was highlighted in the example of the video recorder above, technical writing can be impenetrable to the end user. If this is the case, it is because whoever wrote the documentation, didn't bother to identify their audience and write to their level. It seems an obvious point to make, but one that is often overlooked, that the user of the documents your are creating, may not actually be an expert. Obviously if you are creating a document on a particular specialist product for a particular advanced user group (a good example could be auditing software for computer system administrators) then you will need to compose this is an entirely different way than if you are creating for example, a technical manual for mass market computer software aimed at the inexperienced home user. One of the first tasks you must accomplish before you even put pen to paper, of finger to keyboard, is to identify who the user of your documents will be and construct documents aimed at that particular target group(s). If you get this stage correct, it should avoid your documents being thrown across rooms in annoyance!
Planning for perfection
Once you have identified the target market for the documents you will be creating, you will need to start to plan how the documents will be organised. This process is largely dependent on what documentation is being produced, but you can follow a few rough rules of thumb. Firstly, if the documents are to support a particularly detailed product (such as a computer application) get your grubby hands on it as quickly as you can. By examining the product in detail you can formulate a plan of attack and begin to compose an organisational structure. Whilst you are exploring the product in detail, take copious notes, as doing this during the initial exploratory stages can save you time which can be absolutely vital if you are working to deadline. Even at the planning stage you must ensure there is a consistency to layout, and organisational structure for the document. Select numbering conventions, paragraph styles, and generate rough ideas for layout purposes now, and save vital time later.
Let a Draft in
Before diving headfirst into creating the documentation, draft out each section first. This will allow to reorder if the documents being created do not have a logical 'flow' without seriously having impact on the project. Many technical documents (especially for more detailed products) are made up of numerous (and in some cases practically countless) iterations. This is because the product shifts and changes over time, and one of the principal duties of a technical author is to keep abreast of these changes, and to ensure that they are all well documented. Good technical authors will always push their documents through as many drafts as humanly possible, refining on each draft, until they reach a position whereby they (and their employer) is satisfied that the documentation is timely, accurate and a true reflection of the product or process it documents.
The devil is in the detail
As already identified, technical writing is called that because it is technical in nature. Part of being technical is to be precise, and part of precision is to be as detailed as humanly possible. Even if the documents you are creating are for an advanced and technologically sophisticated user group, your documentation must focus on the details of a process, or in using a product. This can be a difficult feat to accomplish, but not if you write to your audience. Never assume that the reader knows anything about the product or process be documented, but in the case of advanced / expert users at least have the common sense to recognise the fact that they probably do not need to be told how to use the equipment they operate on a daily basis. When describing how to carry out a particular activity or task, identify each stage involved (number them if this fits the conventions of the document type you are creating) and to ensure the accuracy of what you have written test it yourself, or even better, rope in a volunteer of the same skills level as the end user.
Choose the right tool for the job
Although it is possible to create technical documents using parchment and blood, it's not advisable. Many specialist software applications exist to help you create powerful documentation, and part of your duties as a technical author, include selecting the right tool for the job. Largely this depends on the nature of the documents being produced, and the nature of their eventual distribution. If the documents can be delivered using the Internet, this is certainly an avenue to consider. To that end make use of packages such as Flash MX and Dreamweaver to achieve this goal. For integrated online help, you may wish to create raw HTML documents, or alternatively select a specialist package such as RoboHelp or similar. In the case of print based documents, you will need to select a software package powerful enough to handle what you will throw at it. Many inexperienced technical authors instantly turn towards Microsoft Word (as it is ubiquitous in may commercial and private environments). Unless your documentation is going to be beneath 150 pages, and you know how to create templates and make macros, avoid MS Word. As any technical author will tell you it has nasty habits all it's own, and can often be an unstable package to work with. If you are creating graphics heavy documentation, you may wish to consider Quark Xpress, or choose potentially the industry leader in the field, Adobe Framemaker. Whatever software you select, you must ensure you become incredibly proficient with it, either by investing in training, or by using it day after day after day!
Communicate - that's what you are paid to do!
Many people will tell you that creating technical documentation is tedious and repetitive. These people, are wrong, and possibly morons too. Although you may find the process of creating technical documentation 'boring' (if you do you are in the wrong job!) it isn't. Creating quality technical documents is a vital stage in allowing people to adequately and correctly use technology. Although no user will approach the documentation you create in the same way as they approach a novel, you can ultimately help them achieve what they want to achieve using technology. No matter how 'dull' the process may appear to be, allowing users to achieve their goals by reading your documents should give you a rush of pride and indeed, happiness. As long as you remember the positive effects that technology can have on people's lives, when you create your documents you can communicate more effectively, as you will be happier in the communicative process. Throughout the documentation life cycle, you should seek to liaise with colleagues as often as possible (if applicable). Let them read your documents, listen to their criticisms, and adjust your documents (if you can't argue your corner!). A technical author is paid to communicate, make sure that you do, and never forget why your are communicating, and to whom, in the documents themselves.
Common Mistakes to avoid making
When creating technical documents there are a number of fatal flaws you can make. Although by no means exhaustive, this section details some of the more common mistakes new authors make, in the hopes that you will avoid making them too:
Being Patronising - Although technical documentation should be clear, it should never be patronising. You are not creating documents to be read by morons but consumers and clients. You should always write to the skills level of your audience, but no matter what technical level people are on, they are not morons. Even children get offended when patronised, don't make that mistake with someone who is paying your salary, child or otherwise.
Overuse of humour - People do not read technical documents to be entertained, they read them in the hopes of successfully completing a process, or extracting information. Unless it is relevant to the end user, avoid humour wherever possible. If you are writing a book, fine and good. If you are writing a manual, avoid humour like the plague, as more often than not users will miss the joke and just end up loathing the patronising idiot that wrote the documentation.
Inconsistency - Even at the drafting stage, you should ensure that all the elements used in your document are consistent. This applies as much to the 'tone' of the document as to the layout of it. Ensure you use consistent senses (first person, etc.) as well as page layout, pagination elements, headers and footers, and all other textual elements.
Proof read - By the end of creating a piece of technical documentation, you will probably be sick of the sight of it. That doesn't matter. What matters is what leaves your office or home, is accurate. To that end proof read the document throughout all it's drafts, and before it is distributed proof read it again, and again, and again. Never rely on spell checkers (they never work) and if you can avoid it, never rely solely on your own judgement. Get your document read by as many pairs of eyes as possible prior to distribution, after all, they could spot the one thing you have been missing throughout the creation process.
Conclusion / Shameless self promotion
Technical writing is not regardless of what you may think, an easy job. It requires expertise, patience and a very odd mixture of skills. Just like any other job, you can learn how to do it, but even that tuition will not necessarily make you any good at it. To be a good technical author, you have to be anal yet creative, focussed yet communicative, and a flexible expert. This, as you can probably imagine, is no simple task. Although you may think creating technical documents is easy, creating accurate, consistent and timely documentation to a high commercial standard is a highly challenging role. Regardless of your budget, in the long run it will provide significant ROI if you hire a specialist. After all, they will be able to do in days, what you tear your hair our attempting to accomplish in weeks if not months.
Sometimes it may be beyond a companies or individuals budget to hire a professional writer to address their technical documentation. Although in an ideal world all technical documentation should be produced by a highly trained expert, unfortunately we do not live in an ideal. In the same way that many people will attempt to repair their own home appliances, many people will attempt to write quality technical documents. Just as fiddling with a toaster can result in electrocution, attempting to write technical documents from scratch without prior advice will ultimately result in failure. As a rough rule of thumb you should always seek to employ a specialist, but if for whatever reason you can't and you are the poor unfortunate that has had documentation duties foisted on them, don't despair. This brief guide outlines some of the core skills you will need to bring to your writing, technical conventions to be aware of, software packages you can consider, and definite things to avoid. Hopefully even if you have never written a sentence in your life about anything vaguely technical you will have at the very least, a broader picture of what technical writing entails.
What is Technical Writing?
Technical writing unsurprisingly enough, refers to writing that is technical. Although this may seem like a fallacious definition, it's an important one to remember. Too many technical authors make the mistake of creating documentation that is either too technical, or too 'literary'. A good technical author should be able to adjust the balance between the two to suit the end user of the documentation. Technical writing is a lot like fresh air, pervasive and yet pretty much invisible. In the weird wired world in which we find ourselves, technical writing is everywhere. Software manuals, user guides for home appliances, instructional leaflets, emails, letters, reports, technical news reports, statistics and biographies on television sports shows all are examples of technical writing to which people are exposed to on a daily basis. If you have ever tried to program the time settings on a home video recorder and flung the manual across the room in disgust, you threw a piece of technical writing (although obviously not a very good one!). Too many times technical literature is produced by writers with not a large enough grasp of technology, or technologists that lack an ability to write. As a prospective technical author you must tread the very delicate line of being technically knowledgeable in your specialist field(s) as well as being a 'good' writer (as opposed to 'bad' writers who can usually be found mugging sweet old ladies or something). Technical documentation is usually produced for two distinct user groups, namely expert level users, and naive users. As a technical author one of your first tasks is to sort out what audience you are writing for, which brings me deftly to:
Know thy foe
As the old cliché goes, everyone's a critic. This is particularly true of most sane people's reaction when faced with technical writing. As was highlighted in the example of the video recorder above, technical writing can be impenetrable to the end user. If this is the case, it is because whoever wrote the documentation, didn't bother to identify their audience and write to their level. It seems an obvious point to make, but one that is often overlooked, that the user of the documents your are creating, may not actually be an expert. Obviously if you are creating a document on a particular specialist product for a particular advanced user group (a good example could be auditing software for computer system administrators) then you will need to compose this is an entirely different way than if you are creating for example, a technical manual for mass market computer software aimed at the inexperienced home user. One of the first tasks you must accomplish before you even put pen to paper, of finger to keyboard, is to identify who the user of your documents will be and construct documents aimed at that particular target group(s). If you get this stage correct, it should avoid your documents being thrown across rooms in annoyance!
Planning for perfection
Once you have identified the target market for the documents you will be creating, you will need to start to plan how the documents will be organised. This process is largely dependent on what documentation is being produced, but you can follow a few rough rules of thumb. Firstly, if the documents are to support a particularly detailed product (such as a computer application) get your grubby hands on it as quickly as you can. By examining the product in detail you can formulate a plan of attack and begin to compose an organisational structure. Whilst you are exploring the product in detail, take copious notes, as doing this during the initial exploratory stages can save you time which can be absolutely vital if you are working to deadline. Even at the planning stage you must ensure there is a consistency to layout, and organisational structure for the document. Select numbering conventions, paragraph styles, and generate rough ideas for layout purposes now, and save vital time later.
Let a Draft in
Before diving headfirst into creating the documentation, draft out each section first. This will allow to reorder if the documents being created do not have a logical 'flow' without seriously having impact on the project. Many technical documents (especially for more detailed products) are made up of numerous (and in some cases practically countless) iterations. This is because the product shifts and changes over time, and one of the principal duties of a technical author is to keep abreast of these changes, and to ensure that they are all well documented. Good technical authors will always push their documents through as many drafts as humanly possible, refining on each draft, until they reach a position whereby they (and their employer) is satisfied that the documentation is timely, accurate and a true reflection of the product or process it documents.
The devil is in the detail
As already identified, technical writing is called that because it is technical in nature. Part of being technical is to be precise, and part of precision is to be as detailed as humanly possible. Even if the documents you are creating are for an advanced and technologically sophisticated user group, your documentation must focus on the details of a process, or in using a product. This can be a difficult feat to accomplish, but not if you write to your audience. Never assume that the reader knows anything about the product or process be documented, but in the case of advanced / expert users at least have the common sense to recognise the fact that they probably do not need to be told how to use the equipment they operate on a daily basis. When describing how to carry out a particular activity or task, identify each stage involved (number them if this fits the conventions of the document type you are creating) and to ensure the accuracy of what you have written test it yourself, or even better, rope in a volunteer of the same skills level as the end user.
Choose the right tool for the job
Although it is possible to create technical documents using parchment and blood, it's not advisable. Many specialist software applications exist to help you create powerful documentation, and part of your duties as a technical author, include selecting the right tool for the job. Largely this depends on the nature of the documents being produced, and the nature of their eventual distribution. If the documents can be delivered using the Internet, this is certainly an avenue to consider. To that end make use of packages such as Flash MX and Dreamweaver to achieve this goal. For integrated online help, you may wish to create raw HTML documents, or alternatively select a specialist package such as RoboHelp or similar. In the case of print based documents, you will need to select a software package powerful enough to handle what you will throw at it. Many inexperienced technical authors instantly turn towards Microsoft Word (as it is ubiquitous in may commercial and private environments). Unless your documentation is going to be beneath 150 pages, and you know how to create templates and make macros, avoid MS Word. As any technical author will tell you it has nasty habits all it's own, and can often be an unstable package to work with. If you are creating graphics heavy documentation, you may wish to consider Quark Xpress, or choose potentially the industry leader in the field, Adobe Framemaker. Whatever software you select, you must ensure you become incredibly proficient with it, either by investing in training, or by using it day after day after day!
Communicate - that's what you are paid to do!
Many people will tell you that creating technical documentation is tedious and repetitive. These people, are wrong, and possibly morons too. Although you may find the process of creating technical documentation 'boring' (if you do you are in the wrong job!) it isn't. Creating quality technical documents is a vital stage in allowing people to adequately and correctly use technology. Although no user will approach the documentation you create in the same way as they approach a novel, you can ultimately help them achieve what they want to achieve using technology. No matter how 'dull' the process may appear to be, allowing users to achieve their goals by reading your documents should give you a rush of pride and indeed, happiness. As long as you remember the positive effects that technology can have on people's lives, when you create your documents you can communicate more effectively, as you will be happier in the communicative process. Throughout the documentation life cycle, you should seek to liaise with colleagues as often as possible (if applicable). Let them read your documents, listen to their criticisms, and adjust your documents (if you can't argue your corner!). A technical author is paid to communicate, make sure that you do, and never forget why your are communicating, and to whom, in the documents themselves.
Common Mistakes to avoid making
When creating technical documents there are a number of fatal flaws you can make. Although by no means exhaustive, this section details some of the more common mistakes new authors make, in the hopes that you will avoid making them too:
Being Patronising - Although technical documentation should be clear, it should never be patronising. You are not creating documents to be read by morons but consumers and clients. You should always write to the skills level of your audience, but no matter what technical level people are on, they are not morons. Even children get offended when patronised, don't make that mistake with someone who is paying your salary, child or otherwise.
Overuse of humour - People do not read technical documents to be entertained, they read them in the hopes of successfully completing a process, or extracting information. Unless it is relevant to the end user, avoid humour wherever possible. If you are writing a book, fine and good. If you are writing a manual, avoid humour like the plague, as more often than not users will miss the joke and just end up loathing the patronising idiot that wrote the documentation.
Inconsistency - Even at the drafting stage, you should ensure that all the elements used in your document are consistent. This applies as much to the 'tone' of the document as to the layout of it. Ensure you use consistent senses (first person, etc.) as well as page layout, pagination elements, headers and footers, and all other textual elements.
Proof read - By the end of creating a piece of technical documentation, you will probably be sick of the sight of it. That doesn't matter. What matters is what leaves your office or home, is accurate. To that end proof read the document throughout all it's drafts, and before it is distributed proof read it again, and again, and again. Never rely on spell checkers (they never work) and if you can avoid it, never rely solely on your own judgement. Get your document read by as many pairs of eyes as possible prior to distribution, after all, they could spot the one thing you have been missing throughout the creation process.
Conclusion / Shameless self promotion
Technical writing is not regardless of what you may think, an easy job. It requires expertise, patience and a very odd mixture of skills. Just like any other job, you can learn how to do it, but even that tuition will not necessarily make you any good at it. To be a good technical author, you have to be anal yet creative, focussed yet communicative, and a flexible expert. This, as you can probably imagine, is no simple task. Although you may think creating technical documents is easy, creating accurate, consistent and timely documentation to a high commercial standard is a highly challenging role. Regardless of your budget, in the long run it will provide significant ROI if you hire a specialist. After all, they will be able to do in days, what you tear your hair our attempting to accomplish in weeks if not months.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Internet Security Threats: Who Can Read Your Email?
Before being able to choose a secure Internet communication system, you need to understand the threats to your security.
Since the beginning of the Internet there has been a naive assumption on the part of most email users that the only people who are reading their email are the people they are sending it to. After all, with billions of emails and gigabytes of data moving over the Internet every day, who would be able to find their single email in such a flood of data?
Wake-up and smell the coffee! Our entire economy is now information based, and the majority of that mission critical information is now flowing through the Internet in some form, from emails and email attachments, to corporate FTP transmissions and instant messages.
Human beings, especially those strange creatures with a criminal mind, look for every possible advantage in a dog eat dog world, even if that advantage includes prying into other peoples' mail or even assuming your identity. The privacy of your Internet communications has now become the front line in a struggle for the soul of the Internet.
The New Generation Packet Sniffers:
At the beginning of 2001, most computer security professionals began to become aware of an alarming new threat to Internet security, the proliferation of cheap, easy to use packet sniffer software. Anyone with this new software, a high school education, and network access can easily eavesdrop on email messages and FTP transmissions.
Software packages such as Caspa 3.0 or PassDetect - Ace Password Sniffer automate the task of eavesdropping to the point were if you send an email messages over the Internet with the phrase "Credit Card", it's almost a certainty that someone, somewhere will capture it, attachments and all.
(Caspa 3.0 - from ColaSoft Corporation, located in Chengdu, China http://www.colasoft.com ,PassDetect - a product whose advertised purpose is to sniff passwords sent in email, over HTTP, or over FTP from EffeTech Corporation, http://www.effetech.com )
A good example of this new class of software is called MSN Sniffer, also from Effetech, and it highlights the "party line" openness of today's LAN and Internet environments. Just like old telephone party lines, MSN sniffer lets you listen-in on other people's conversations, just like picking up another phone on a party line.
On their web site, Effetech advertises MSN Sniffer as:
"a handy network utility to capture MSN chat on a network. It records MSN conversations automatically. All intercepted messages can be saved as HTML files for later processing and analyzing. It is very easy to make it to work. Just run the MSN Sniffer on any computer on your network, and start to capture. It will record any conversation from any PC on the network."
Just as the Internet has been flooded by a deluge of spam messages after the introduction of cheap, easy-to-use spam generation software, the same effect is now taking place with sniffer software. The major difference is that, unlike spam, Internet eavesdropping is totally invisible, and ten times as deadly. How much of the identity theft being reported today is a direct result of Internet eavesdropping? Its hard to tell, but with the every growing dependency by individuals and corporations on Internet communications, opportunities to "capture" your sensitive data abound.
Most FTP transmission are unencrypted!
As of November 2003, the majority of corporate FTP transmissions are still unencrypted (unencrypted is geek speak for "in the clear" ) and almost all email communications take place "in the clear". Many email and FTP transmissions travel over 30 or more "hops" to make its way from the sender and receiver. Each one of these hops is a separate network, often owned by a different Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Any Idiot in the Middle
Even a well run corporation must still primarily rely on trusting its employees, contractors and suppliers to respect the privacy of the data flowing over its networks. With the new sniffer technology, all it takes is one "idiot in the middle", and your security is compromised. It could be the admin assistant sitting in the cubical next to you, or a network assistant working for one of the many ISPs your data will travel over, but somewhere, someone is listening. Maybe all he is looking for is his next stock trading idea, or maybe he wants to take over your eBay account so he can sell a nonexistent laptop to some unsuspecting "sucker" using your good name. its all happening right now, at some of the most respected companies in the world.
Access to your network doesn't have to come from a malicious or curious employee-many Internet worms, Trojans and viruses are designed to open up security holes on a PC so that other software can be installed. Once a hacker has access to one computer in your network, or one computer on your ISP's network, he can then use a sniffer to analyze all the traffic on the network.
So I'll password-protect my files, right?
You're getting warmer, but this still isn't going to do the trick. It's a good way to stop packet sniffers from searching for key words in a file, but unfortunately it is not as secure as you might think. If you ever forget a Zip, Word or Excel password, don't worry, just download the password tool from Last Bit Software www.PasswordTools.com, it works very well. There are many other packages out on the Internet but Last Bit's tool is the most robust and easy to use, if a bit slower that some others.
So what can I do about it?
OK, so now that you understand the threat, what can you do about it?
Stop using the Internet? - More than a few professionals are returning to phone calls and faxes for all their important communications.
Complain to your IT department? - If you have an IT department in your company this is a good place to start. But did the spam mail stop when you complained about it to your LAN administrator? Unfortunately he is almost as helpless as you are.
Encrypt your communications with PKI, etc. - For email this is a bit drastic, and can be very expensive, especially since you will need to install a key on each PC and coordinate this with the receivers of your email messages, your IT organization, etc.
Use FileCourier - This is by far the easiest and most cost effective way to protect your email attachments, or replace FTP transmissions. It takes out the "idiot in the middle" with a very clever solution.
The FileCourier approach to Security
I believe that FileCourier is the easiest out-of-the box secure communication system available.
FileCourier approaches Internet data transfer security in a unique way. Until FileCourier was first released in December of 2002, all secure email and file transmission systems relied on encrypting the data during the tried and true method of "upload, store, and forward". When you send an email, it and any documents attached to it are first transmitted to one or more intermediate servers. These mail server store the documents and then attempt to forward it to the receivers email server. To secure the transmission of the email requires either the servers to use extra encryption software technology, or forces the individual sender and receivers to install encryption software and their associated keys, or both. Not only is this a costly and time consuming exercise but it also often fails to protect the data over the complete path of the transmission. What do you do if the receiver is in another company and doesn't have any encryption software installed? What if his company is using a difference encryption standard? Ignoring the complexity of existing secure email and FTP systems their biggest failings continue to be the "idiot in the middle". From a nosey email or FTP server administrator, to a hungry co-worker, to an incompetent who lets a hacker have free reign of their server, if your sensitive documents are stored on a server maintained by someone else then that person, or his company, can view your documents.
The FileCourier approach is creative, yet simple. FileCourier utilizes existing email and instant messaging systems in the same way you use an envelope to send a letter thru the US postal service, as a wrapper for the real content. We assume that EVERYONE can read what is in the email, so we don't send your documents in the email at all. In fact your documents never leave your PC, until the receiver of the email requests it.
How it works:
FileCourier lets you ticket the file you want to email, and then instead of sending the file in the email, sends a "FileTicket" instead. The file is only transmitted to the receiver of the email when he opens the FileTicket and is "authenticated". After the receiver is authenticated the file is transmitted through an SSL (secure socket layer) tunnel directly from the sender's PC to the receiver's PC through our secure relay servers. SSL is the same security used by banks and is impossible for packet sniffers to penetrate. With FileCourier each packet is encrypted using a 1024 bit key and is delivered to your receiver through his browser. FileCourier lets your communications go un-detected by any sniffer, and removes the "idiot in the middle" threat by never storing the data on an intermediate server. More over, FileCourier is the easiest way to secure your sensitive data transmission in both an Internet and corporate LAN environment.
Take Action Now!
Internet communications security is one of the most important privacy issues we face today. It might feel a bit paranoid for a law-abiding citizen to encrypt his email communications and computer document transmissions, but would you send a customers contract thru normal mail without an envelope? How would you feel if your employer sent your next pay stub to you on the back of a postcard? Use FileCourier, just like you would use a envelope for regular mail. Download the no obligation free trial today at www.filecourier.com and send 50MB of data securely for free!
Since the beginning of the Internet there has been a naive assumption on the part of most email users that the only people who are reading their email are the people they are sending it to. After all, with billions of emails and gigabytes of data moving over the Internet every day, who would be able to find their single email in such a flood of data?
Wake-up and smell the coffee! Our entire economy is now information based, and the majority of that mission critical information is now flowing through the Internet in some form, from emails and email attachments, to corporate FTP transmissions and instant messages.
Human beings, especially those strange creatures with a criminal mind, look for every possible advantage in a dog eat dog world, even if that advantage includes prying into other peoples' mail or even assuming your identity. The privacy of your Internet communications has now become the front line in a struggle for the soul of the Internet.
The New Generation Packet Sniffers:
At the beginning of 2001, most computer security professionals began to become aware of an alarming new threat to Internet security, the proliferation of cheap, easy to use packet sniffer software. Anyone with this new software, a high school education, and network access can easily eavesdrop on email messages and FTP transmissions.
Software packages such as Caspa 3.0 or PassDetect - Ace Password Sniffer automate the task of eavesdropping to the point were if you send an email messages over the Internet with the phrase "Credit Card", it's almost a certainty that someone, somewhere will capture it, attachments and all.
(Caspa 3.0 - from ColaSoft Corporation, located in Chengdu, China http://www.colasoft.com ,PassDetect - a product whose advertised purpose is to sniff passwords sent in email, over HTTP, or over FTP from EffeTech Corporation, http://www.effetech.com )
A good example of this new class of software is called MSN Sniffer, also from Effetech, and it highlights the "party line" openness of today's LAN and Internet environments. Just like old telephone party lines, MSN sniffer lets you listen-in on other people's conversations, just like picking up another phone on a party line.
On their web site, Effetech advertises MSN Sniffer as:
"a handy network utility to capture MSN chat on a network. It records MSN conversations automatically. All intercepted messages can be saved as HTML files for later processing and analyzing. It is very easy to make it to work. Just run the MSN Sniffer on any computer on your network, and start to capture. It will record any conversation from any PC on the network."
Just as the Internet has been flooded by a deluge of spam messages after the introduction of cheap, easy-to-use spam generation software, the same effect is now taking place with sniffer software. The major difference is that, unlike spam, Internet eavesdropping is totally invisible, and ten times as deadly. How much of the identity theft being reported today is a direct result of Internet eavesdropping? Its hard to tell, but with the every growing dependency by individuals and corporations on Internet communications, opportunities to "capture" your sensitive data abound.
Most FTP transmission are unencrypted!
As of November 2003, the majority of corporate FTP transmissions are still unencrypted (unencrypted is geek speak for "in the clear" ) and almost all email communications take place "in the clear". Many email and FTP transmissions travel over 30 or more "hops" to make its way from the sender and receiver. Each one of these hops is a separate network, often owned by a different Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Any Idiot in the Middle
Even a well run corporation must still primarily rely on trusting its employees, contractors and suppliers to respect the privacy of the data flowing over its networks. With the new sniffer technology, all it takes is one "idiot in the middle", and your security is compromised. It could be the admin assistant sitting in the cubical next to you, or a network assistant working for one of the many ISPs your data will travel over, but somewhere, someone is listening. Maybe all he is looking for is his next stock trading idea, or maybe he wants to take over your eBay account so he can sell a nonexistent laptop to some unsuspecting "sucker" using your good name. its all happening right now, at some of the most respected companies in the world.
Access to your network doesn't have to come from a malicious or curious employee-many Internet worms, Trojans and viruses are designed to open up security holes on a PC so that other software can be installed. Once a hacker has access to one computer in your network, or one computer on your ISP's network, he can then use a sniffer to analyze all the traffic on the network.
So I'll password-protect my files, right?
You're getting warmer, but this still isn't going to do the trick. It's a good way to stop packet sniffers from searching for key words in a file, but unfortunately it is not as secure as you might think. If you ever forget a Zip, Word or Excel password, don't worry, just download the password tool from Last Bit Software www.PasswordTools.com, it works very well. There are many other packages out on the Internet but Last Bit's tool is the most robust and easy to use, if a bit slower that some others.
So what can I do about it?
OK, so now that you understand the threat, what can you do about it?
Stop using the Internet? - More than a few professionals are returning to phone calls and faxes for all their important communications.
Complain to your IT department? - If you have an IT department in your company this is a good place to start. But did the spam mail stop when you complained about it to your LAN administrator? Unfortunately he is almost as helpless as you are.
Encrypt your communications with PKI, etc. - For email this is a bit drastic, and can be very expensive, especially since you will need to install a key on each PC and coordinate this with the receivers of your email messages, your IT organization, etc.
Use FileCourier - This is by far the easiest and most cost effective way to protect your email attachments, or replace FTP transmissions. It takes out the "idiot in the middle" with a very clever solution.
The FileCourier approach to Security
I believe that FileCourier is the easiest out-of-the box secure communication system available.
FileCourier approaches Internet data transfer security in a unique way. Until FileCourier was first released in December of 2002, all secure email and file transmission systems relied on encrypting the data during the tried and true method of "upload, store, and forward". When you send an email, it and any documents attached to it are first transmitted to one or more intermediate servers. These mail server store the documents and then attempt to forward it to the receivers email server. To secure the transmission of the email requires either the servers to use extra encryption software technology, or forces the individual sender and receivers to install encryption software and their associated keys, or both. Not only is this a costly and time consuming exercise but it also often fails to protect the data over the complete path of the transmission. What do you do if the receiver is in another company and doesn't have any encryption software installed? What if his company is using a difference encryption standard? Ignoring the complexity of existing secure email and FTP systems their biggest failings continue to be the "idiot in the middle". From a nosey email or FTP server administrator, to a hungry co-worker, to an incompetent who lets a hacker have free reign of their server, if your sensitive documents are stored on a server maintained by someone else then that person, or his company, can view your documents.
The FileCourier approach is creative, yet simple. FileCourier utilizes existing email and instant messaging systems in the same way you use an envelope to send a letter thru the US postal service, as a wrapper for the real content. We assume that EVERYONE can read what is in the email, so we don't send your documents in the email at all. In fact your documents never leave your PC, until the receiver of the email requests it.
How it works:
FileCourier lets you ticket the file you want to email, and then instead of sending the file in the email, sends a "FileTicket" instead. The file is only transmitted to the receiver of the email when he opens the FileTicket and is "authenticated". After the receiver is authenticated the file is transmitted through an SSL (secure socket layer) tunnel directly from the sender's PC to the receiver's PC through our secure relay servers. SSL is the same security used by banks and is impossible for packet sniffers to penetrate. With FileCourier each packet is encrypted using a 1024 bit key and is delivered to your receiver through his browser. FileCourier lets your communications go un-detected by any sniffer, and removes the "idiot in the middle" threat by never storing the data on an intermediate server. More over, FileCourier is the easiest way to secure your sensitive data transmission in both an Internet and corporate LAN environment.
Take Action Now!
Internet communications security is one of the most important privacy issues we face today. It might feel a bit paranoid for a law-abiding citizen to encrypt his email communications and computer document transmissions, but would you send a customers contract thru normal mail without an envelope? How would you feel if your employer sent your next pay stub to you on the back of a postcard? Use FileCourier, just like you would use a envelope for regular mail. Download the no obligation free trial today at www.filecourier.com and send 50MB of data securely for free!
Friday, September 8, 2006
Guide to Safe Online Shopping
Despite the many benefits of shopping online, many people still have some reluctance towards parting with their cash on the net, therefore we've compiled a general checklist and answers to the most common questions to help put your mind at rest.
Vendor Checklist
If the answer is no to any of these question then do not purchase from the retailer in question.
1. Do they have a secure server?
2. Are their contact details clearly visible on the site?
3. Are their contact details authentic?
4. Do you trust them?
How Do I Know I'm in a Secure Server?
Whilst in a secure server a closed padlock symbol should be visible somewhere along the bottom of your browser, you should also notice that the beginning of the site address will have changed from http:// to https:// again signifying that you are on a secure server.
It should be noted that a large majority of sites only make use of their secure server during the payment procedure.
Note about Actinic Sites
Please note: shopping sites powered by the Actinic software use a 128-bit encryption Java applet to encrypt credit card information this method is approved for merchants account holders at Barclays Bank, HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Always email the retailer in question if you have any doubts.
Helpful Hints
1. Always keep a copy of the order confirmation .
2. Always read the small print.
3. Contact the retailer if you have any questions or doubts.
4. Never shop with a retailer you don't trust, no matter how good their prices.
Useful sites:
Office of Fair Trading
www.oft.gov.uk
Includes helpful online shopping advice.
Trust UK
www.trustuk.org.uk
Non-profit organisation endorsed by the Government to enable consumers to buy online with confidence
Trading Standards
www.tradingstandards.gov.uk
Offers consumer protection information in the UK.
Vendor Checklist
If the answer is no to any of these question then do not purchase from the retailer in question.
1. Do they have a secure server?
2. Are their contact details clearly visible on the site?
3. Are their contact details authentic?
4. Do you trust them?
How Do I Know I'm in a Secure Server?
Whilst in a secure server a closed padlock symbol should be visible somewhere along the bottom of your browser, you should also notice that the beginning of the site address will have changed from http:// to https:// again signifying that you are on a secure server.
It should be noted that a large majority of sites only make use of their secure server during the payment procedure.
Note about Actinic Sites
Please note: shopping sites powered by the Actinic software use a 128-bit encryption Java applet to encrypt credit card information this method is approved for merchants account holders at Barclays Bank, HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Always email the retailer in question if you have any doubts.
Helpful Hints
1. Always keep a copy of the order confirmation .
2. Always read the small print.
3. Contact the retailer if you have any questions or doubts.
4. Never shop with a retailer you don't trust, no matter how good their prices.
Useful sites:
Office of Fair Trading
www.oft.gov.uk
Includes helpful online shopping advice.
Trust UK
www.trustuk.org.uk
Non-profit organisation endorsed by the Government to enable consumers to buy online with confidence
Trading Standards
www.tradingstandards.gov.uk
Offers consumer protection information in the UK.
Saturday, September 2, 2006
Choosing the Right Strategy for your Online Business: Pay for Inclusion vs Pay per Click
Back in the old days of the Internet - in 1993, - there were 284 locations on the entire World Wide Web. According to Bill Clinton, only 8 of them ended in .com or .net when he was sworn into office. As of January 1, 2003, there were 171,000,000 domain hosts in use. In 1995, the largest search engine database was Altavista, and it had most of the Internet categorized. Today Google and FASTsearch own the largest databases. Yet neither one of them has even 10% of the Internet covered. It's estimated that more than 8,000,000 web pages are added to the Internet every day. None of the search engines are able to keep up to that pace. So how will your website stand out? How will it acquire the traffic it needs to succeed? There are many ways to approach the issue of marketing an online business, but for the sake of this article, we'll concern ourselves solely with online tools, and ways to expedite success. In that vein, we'll concern ourselves with Pay for Inclusion and Pay for Placement (or Pay per Click) advertising.
Some engines, such as AltaVista, Inktomi, Looksmart and FAST, use a pay for inclusion model. What this means is that to be guaranteed to be found within that specific search engine index, the website operator must pay a fee to be listed. It's similar to the fee a business pays for a Yellow Pages listing. These fees vary from monthly to annual. Looksmart charges a listing fee, plus a fee of $0.15 per clickthrough.
Engaging a Pay-for-Inclusion service does not come with any placement guarantees. If your website is not properly optimized, but you paid an inclusion fee, it is guaranteed to be indexed and listed somewhere within that search engine. If you want to ensure success with a Pay-for-Inclusion search engine, then your website must still be optimized. Without proper optimization, which includes an analysis from the perspective of all the factors that the search engines look for, a pay for inclusion service will not deliver the desired benefits to the website operator.
When properly matched with a comprehensive Search Engine Optimization regimen, a Pay for Inclusion program will result in powerful results: Qualified Traffic, Customers, and Relevant Traffic.
Pay per Click advertising is the process by which a web site operator can arrange for a website to be placed in a pre-defined position within certain search engines, such as Overture.
Search Engine Placement is always a Pay-Per-Click solution. While advertising websites are only permitted to buy advertising in search queries that are relevant to their content, they are not sorted by relevance but rather purely based on bid value.
Pay per click services allow advertisers to bid for each visitor directed through to their web site, based upon the number of clicks the ad receives. Pay per Click search engine placement should be realistically viewed for what it is - an online auction. Advertisers bid against each other for a fixed position within a list of search results. The advertiser who bids the most is given the top spot in the list. Each advertiser bids according to their budget, and has to know his or her Return On Investment (ROI) to determine how much money should be spent on acquiring new customers.
How Do I Know Which Strategy Is Right For My Website?
For those advertisers where the ROI is sensible or worthwhile, pay per click search engines are valuable customer acquisition tools. But is it right for you? While it can be expensive, here's a way for you to easily determine the ROI for your online business, and determine if it is the right choice for you. Take out a sheet of paper, and at the top of the sheet mark down the average price of the goods you sell - we'll use $100.00 for the purpose of the example. From that number, make some simple and basic calculations, outlined here:
$100.00 Sale Amount
-$ 50.00 Cost of Goods
-$ 5.00 Transaction Cost (bank charges, credit card)
-$ 8.50 Shipping Fees (This assumes you're delivering a product, it needs a box, label, and has a delivery cost.
-$ 10.00 Customer support costs - time on phone, email, etc... supporting and processing the transaction. What's 1 hour of your time worth?
$ 26.50 = Margin
Assuming this margin is correct for your website, is a Pay per Click campaign right for you? You'll need to look at your stats to judge this properly. You need to determine how many of your visitors are converting into buyers. IF your website has a 4% conversion rate, and your category is moderately competitive, you will probably need to budget at least $1.00 per click to get spot #3. Spot #3 is important because more often than not it's the top 3 spots per page of search engine results that are reserved for Pay per Click advertisers.
Assuming your website gets into the top three spots, here's how the math works if you get 100 clicks in a month. Since it's all percentage based, the same holds true if you get 25 clicks or 10,000 clicks.
100 clicks @ $1.00 per click = $100.00 cost 4% conversion = 4 sales = 4x $26.50 (margin on sale) = $106.00 Profit = $ 6.00
So, if the above were true, and IF the pay per click advertisement sent you 100 visitors per month, you would make only $6.00. Would you make much less having spot #4 instead of spot #3 ? If it meant one less sale a month, that would be worth it. You would make $70.00 more by selling less! Does spot #3 get much more traffic than relevant results in spots 4 through 10? Not at all for spot # 4, 5, 6, and only a little bit more for spot #'s 7-10. Remember, people usually look at the title or site description to see if it is relevant. Pay per Click is worth the money if your website is not found under any relevant queries in the top 20, but its value drops quickly if a website is found easily in the free listings within the search engines.
Is Pay for Inclusion Less Expensive?
If we use the same calculation as above, and your website had 4 sales from a pay for inclusion engine where you paid $39.00 per year, or $3.25 / month, your profit would have been $103.25.
What About The Cost Of Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization does not have to be expensive. You can do the work yourself, but you need to ensure that it makes sense to do so. By this I mean, is doing it yourself a cost efficient, business proposition? Any time that you as an individual put into search engine optimization is time that you take away from business fundamentals and essentials. It's time away from customer support, content creation, service, administration, product research, other marketing, etc... What is that time worth? It's got to be part of the ROI calculation too. More and more people are choosing to outsource this work. It's estimated that 70% of online businesses will outsource non-core operations this year. It only makes sense. It's smart business to focus on what you know and do well and to hire others to support you in the other areas. Not many smart businessmen write their own contracts - they get their lawyer to do it. They want to ensure it's done right. Doing it right in the first place saves money in the long run. Outsourcing means getting someone else to do the work for you, properly. It does not mean getting someone to tell you what to do, or how to do things.
What's Right For Your Website?
In the long run, a website operator that has a well optimized website will beat out a non-optimized website that concentrates on Pay per Click advertising for customer acquisition every day of the year. He may make fewer sales in a year, but he will make more profit from each sale. If the website is properly optimized, it will enjoy better placement in more search engines. This means it will survive, and prosper in the long run.
Some engines, such as AltaVista, Inktomi, Looksmart and FAST, use a pay for inclusion model. What this means is that to be guaranteed to be found within that specific search engine index, the website operator must pay a fee to be listed. It's similar to the fee a business pays for a Yellow Pages listing. These fees vary from monthly to annual. Looksmart charges a listing fee, plus a fee of $0.15 per clickthrough.
Engaging a Pay-for-Inclusion service does not come with any placement guarantees. If your website is not properly optimized, but you paid an inclusion fee, it is guaranteed to be indexed and listed somewhere within that search engine. If you want to ensure success with a Pay-for-Inclusion search engine, then your website must still be optimized. Without proper optimization, which includes an analysis from the perspective of all the factors that the search engines look for, a pay for inclusion service will not deliver the desired benefits to the website operator.
When properly matched with a comprehensive Search Engine Optimization regimen, a Pay for Inclusion program will result in powerful results: Qualified Traffic, Customers, and Relevant Traffic.
Pay per Click advertising is the process by which a web site operator can arrange for a website to be placed in a pre-defined position within certain search engines, such as Overture.
Search Engine Placement is always a Pay-Per-Click solution. While advertising websites are only permitted to buy advertising in search queries that are relevant to their content, they are not sorted by relevance but rather purely based on bid value.
Pay per click services allow advertisers to bid for each visitor directed through to their web site, based upon the number of clicks the ad receives. Pay per Click search engine placement should be realistically viewed for what it is - an online auction. Advertisers bid against each other for a fixed position within a list of search results. The advertiser who bids the most is given the top spot in the list. Each advertiser bids according to their budget, and has to know his or her Return On Investment (ROI) to determine how much money should be spent on acquiring new customers.
How Do I Know Which Strategy Is Right For My Website?
For those advertisers where the ROI is sensible or worthwhile, pay per click search engines are valuable customer acquisition tools. But is it right for you? While it can be expensive, here's a way for you to easily determine the ROI for your online business, and determine if it is the right choice for you. Take out a sheet of paper, and at the top of the sheet mark down the average price of the goods you sell - we'll use $100.00 for the purpose of the example. From that number, make some simple and basic calculations, outlined here:
$100.00 Sale Amount
-$ 50.00 Cost of Goods
-$ 5.00 Transaction Cost (bank charges, credit card)
-$ 8.50 Shipping Fees (This assumes you're delivering a product, it needs a box, label, and has a delivery cost.
-$ 10.00 Customer support costs - time on phone, email, etc... supporting and processing the transaction. What's 1 hour of your time worth?
$ 26.50 = Margin
Assuming this margin is correct for your website, is a Pay per Click campaign right for you? You'll need to look at your stats to judge this properly. You need to determine how many of your visitors are converting into buyers. IF your website has a 4% conversion rate, and your category is moderately competitive, you will probably need to budget at least $1.00 per click to get spot #3. Spot #3 is important because more often than not it's the top 3 spots per page of search engine results that are reserved for Pay per Click advertisers.
Assuming your website gets into the top three spots, here's how the math works if you get 100 clicks in a month. Since it's all percentage based, the same holds true if you get 25 clicks or 10,000 clicks.
100 clicks @ $1.00 per click = $100.00 cost 4% conversion = 4 sales = 4x $26.50 (margin on sale) = $106.00 Profit = $ 6.00
So, if the above were true, and IF the pay per click advertisement sent you 100 visitors per month, you would make only $6.00. Would you make much less having spot #4 instead of spot #3 ? If it meant one less sale a month, that would be worth it. You would make $70.00 more by selling less! Does spot #3 get much more traffic than relevant results in spots 4 through 10? Not at all for spot # 4, 5, 6, and only a little bit more for spot #'s 7-10. Remember, people usually look at the title or site description to see if it is relevant. Pay per Click is worth the money if your website is not found under any relevant queries in the top 20, but its value drops quickly if a website is found easily in the free listings within the search engines.
Is Pay for Inclusion Less Expensive?
If we use the same calculation as above, and your website had 4 sales from a pay for inclusion engine where you paid $39.00 per year, or $3.25 / month, your profit would have been $103.25.
What About The Cost Of Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization does not have to be expensive. You can do the work yourself, but you need to ensure that it makes sense to do so. By this I mean, is doing it yourself a cost efficient, business proposition? Any time that you as an individual put into search engine optimization is time that you take away from business fundamentals and essentials. It's time away from customer support, content creation, service, administration, product research, other marketing, etc... What is that time worth? It's got to be part of the ROI calculation too. More and more people are choosing to outsource this work. It's estimated that 70% of online businesses will outsource non-core operations this year. It only makes sense. It's smart business to focus on what you know and do well and to hire others to support you in the other areas. Not many smart businessmen write their own contracts - they get their lawyer to do it. They want to ensure it's done right. Doing it right in the first place saves money in the long run. Outsourcing means getting someone else to do the work for you, properly. It does not mean getting someone to tell you what to do, or how to do things.
What's Right For Your Website?
In the long run, a website operator that has a well optimized website will beat out a non-optimized website that concentrates on Pay per Click advertising for customer acquisition every day of the year. He may make fewer sales in a year, but he will make more profit from each sale. If the website is properly optimized, it will enjoy better placement in more search engines. This means it will survive, and prosper in the long run.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
High-Speed Internet Access For Remote Canadian Communities
(NC)—We are in the information age dominated by an on-demand knowledge society. Canada is one of the most connected countries in the world and the Internet has become so central to our lives that many people can't do their work or stay in touch without it.
In short, today's world demands high-speed Internet access.
And the demand for speed is growing as the Internet becomes an essential part of modern life and new bandwidth-hungry services, applications and devices are rolled out.
But what if you're among the more than 7.5 million Canadians in rural and remote communities who don't have cable or DSL high-speed broadband access? Typically, these areas of the country have been underserved by the simple fact that the economics of a land-based system will never justify mass deployment.
Fortunately, there is a solution for many of these remote residents – a high-speed satellite Internet service offered by Bell ExpressVu's DirecPC. Essentially, the system uses the same Bell ExpressVu satellite dish as the Bell ExpressVu TV service, but works independently from the satellite receiver to deliver data to your computer.
How fast is satellite Internet? DirecPC features download speeds of up to 400 kbps - that's up to seven times faster than a traditional 56k modem.
In every day terms, that means users can download a 4MB audio file in 60-70 seconds compared with over 19 minutes using a 56K modem. Or download a 1MB video file in a little over 16 seconds compared with almost 5 minutes using a 56K modem.
It's a broadband Internet access service that is always on and is available to anyone, anywhere in Canada with a phone line and a local Internet Service Provider.
Increasingly, high-speed Internet is becoming a must-have service. According to Canada's National Broadband Task Force, the vast majority of Canadians are going to require high-speed Internet access to use new online services from governments and businesses that are increasingly placing information and products on secure Web sites. All aspects of our society are being altered by the availability of the Internet to the point that e-business and e-learning are seen by many as crucial to the development of our economy.
Without high-speed access, the benefits of these new services are generally restricted to Canadians living in the largest urban areas of the country. DirecPC satellite, however, levels the playing field for those living in remote or rural areas.
DirecPC is available from Bell ExpressVu dealers throughout Canada or by contacting Bell ExpressVu at 1-888-DirecPC (347-3272) or direcpcinfo@expressvu.com. For more information, please visit www.bell.ca/direcpc.
In short, today's world demands high-speed Internet access.
And the demand for speed is growing as the Internet becomes an essential part of modern life and new bandwidth-hungry services, applications and devices are rolled out.
But what if you're among the more than 7.5 million Canadians in rural and remote communities who don't have cable or DSL high-speed broadband access? Typically, these areas of the country have been underserved by the simple fact that the economics of a land-based system will never justify mass deployment.
Fortunately, there is a solution for many of these remote residents – a high-speed satellite Internet service offered by Bell ExpressVu's DirecPC. Essentially, the system uses the same Bell ExpressVu satellite dish as the Bell ExpressVu TV service, but works independently from the satellite receiver to deliver data to your computer.
How fast is satellite Internet? DirecPC features download speeds of up to 400 kbps - that's up to seven times faster than a traditional 56k modem.
In every day terms, that means users can download a 4MB audio file in 60-70 seconds compared with over 19 minutes using a 56K modem. Or download a 1MB video file in a little over 16 seconds compared with almost 5 minutes using a 56K modem.
It's a broadband Internet access service that is always on and is available to anyone, anywhere in Canada with a phone line and a local Internet Service Provider.
Increasingly, high-speed Internet is becoming a must-have service. According to Canada's National Broadband Task Force, the vast majority of Canadians are going to require high-speed Internet access to use new online services from governments and businesses that are increasingly placing information and products on secure Web sites. All aspects of our society are being altered by the availability of the Internet to the point that e-business and e-learning are seen by many as crucial to the development of our economy.
Without high-speed access, the benefits of these new services are generally restricted to Canadians living in the largest urban areas of the country. DirecPC satellite, however, levels the playing field for those living in remote or rural areas.
DirecPC is available from Bell ExpressVu dealers throughout Canada or by contacting Bell ExpressVu at 1-888-DirecPC (347-3272) or direcpcinfo@expressvu.com. For more information, please visit www.bell.ca/direcpc.
Monday, August 28, 2006
What Stands Behind The Software Description?
With thousands of web pages added to the Net every day, it's getting more and more frustrating both to submit the information to the attention of those, who are interested in it and to find the information one needs.
The problem is even aggravated with the fact that customers become more exigent to the products they are offered. When it comes to the issue of software development and B2B solutions, they can't be considered ignorant any more. Customers are backed up by the basic knowledge of programming tools and their "should-have" functionality.
The recent online surveys show that customers are not attracted by price or discounts. Below you can see the enumeration of the factors influencing customers' decision on web application purchasing by their measure of significance:
1. Technical performance
2. Brand
3. Reliable customer support
4. Price
Let's go deeper into the nature of every factor.
Technical performance factor. Today it is not enough to say, that your PHP+MySQL solution has "a complete list of features" or "can be integrated into any web site". People, who are interested in the given products, are aware of the fact that the difficulty of implementing the principles of data integrity in MySQL and PHP depends in large degree on how many tables and relationships the database has. Most of scripts offered on the Web for online dealership constructing do have the problem of server slowing down by traffic or large database of listings or users:
"I came to Esvon with a sluggish, text based dating site that was slowly running into the ground. Esvon has taken my site and has developed a fast, robust, and exciting medium for my customers. From the lightning speed of front end programming in PHP to the powerful backend database in MySQL, the site is now one of the most advanced dating sites available."
Brand factor. As practically everything in software development science, there are a small number of ways to develop it right, and almost an infinite number of ways to develop it wrong. Still, Esvon guys have come to the profession of software development deliberately: they like to create things from pure thought, things that give life to machines and that matter to many businesses. Those, who are guided by brand images, sometimes risk being trapped: since brand awareness very often compensates the poor functionality of the software. And vice versa: the brand, which is not well known yet, generates the solutions, which well worth paying money for:
"Esvon Classifieds is built with performance in mind: I should stress its highly optimized database and PHP code, as little SQL queries as possible, ability to generate static HTML content to allow large databases and high visitors traffic handling, search engine friendliness, adaptability of the system and other beneficial features. I would underline its scalability, real-time configured custom database fields (text boxes, menus, checkboxes, unlimited images, files to upload, etc.), ability to generate HTML pages from databases, user authentication and paid membership support. It does distinguish from other existing solutions."
Reliable customer support factor. Software can be simple, it can be complicated, it might be easy-to-install, it might be user-friendly, it might require no programming skills, etc. But it is nothing without timely and helpful support. Customers do pay attention to this aspect: they study the Support Policy, require toll-free numbers, ask dozens of questions to be sure they can rely on the proper support after the product installation. But, unfortunately, customers often bump into the problems, when they do need manufacturer's help and don't receive it. I won't go deep into the reasons of it. But those manufacturers, who are not interested in short-term financial success, but strive for long-term cooperation, can't afford such approach:
"I wanted to migrate from my existing script to Esvon Classifieds. I wanted Esvon to handle data conversion from my database to the needed format. Why? Coz I was tired of constant complaints from my customers, as for slow loading pages, constant database errors, etc. I should say, Esvon was very responsive in work, patient in support, and reasonable in price, and I would definitely recommend Esvon's products to everyone who has the desire to have a successful website."
Price factor. If you are not guided by price factor while choosing the software, you are doing well. Our customers claim that they do not want to buy a pig in a poke, even if it is twice cheaper than other similar "pokes". There is no universal formula of defining good classified ads software at first sight. One should dig into the description of the program, view the demo version and screenshots, and discuss it with the manufacturer. But, unfortunately, it is sometimes insufficient as well.
To make the conclusion, I want to underline, that price, as many people think, is not a No. 1 driving force in a customer' decision-making engine. The best guidelines for selecting good classified ads software are its highly optimized database and PHP code, ability to generate static HTML content and adaptability of the system.
I hope the foregoing information will contribute to your successful choice. Be reasonable and you will be all set!
The problem is even aggravated with the fact that customers become more exigent to the products they are offered. When it comes to the issue of software development and B2B solutions, they can't be considered ignorant any more. Customers are backed up by the basic knowledge of programming tools and their "should-have" functionality.
The recent online surveys show that customers are not attracted by price or discounts. Below you can see the enumeration of the factors influencing customers' decision on web application purchasing by their measure of significance:
1. Technical performance
2. Brand
3. Reliable customer support
4. Price
Let's go deeper into the nature of every factor.
Technical performance factor. Today it is not enough to say, that your PHP+MySQL solution has "a complete list of features" or "can be integrated into any web site". People, who are interested in the given products, are aware of the fact that the difficulty of implementing the principles of data integrity in MySQL and PHP depends in large degree on how many tables and relationships the database has. Most of scripts offered on the Web for online dealership constructing do have the problem of server slowing down by traffic or large database of listings or users:
"I came to Esvon with a sluggish, text based dating site that was slowly running into the ground. Esvon has taken my site and has developed a fast, robust, and exciting medium for my customers. From the lightning speed of front end programming in PHP to the powerful backend database in MySQL, the site is now one of the most advanced dating sites available."
Brand factor. As practically everything in software development science, there are a small number of ways to develop it right, and almost an infinite number of ways to develop it wrong. Still, Esvon guys have come to the profession of software development deliberately: they like to create things from pure thought, things that give life to machines and that matter to many businesses. Those, who are guided by brand images, sometimes risk being trapped: since brand awareness very often compensates the poor functionality of the software. And vice versa: the brand, which is not well known yet, generates the solutions, which well worth paying money for:
"Esvon Classifieds is built with performance in mind: I should stress its highly optimized database and PHP code, as little SQL queries as possible, ability to generate static HTML content to allow large databases and high visitors traffic handling, search engine friendliness, adaptability of the system and other beneficial features. I would underline its scalability, real-time configured custom database fields (text boxes, menus, checkboxes, unlimited images, files to upload, etc.), ability to generate HTML pages from databases, user authentication and paid membership support. It does distinguish from other existing solutions."
Reliable customer support factor. Software can be simple, it can be complicated, it might be easy-to-install, it might be user-friendly, it might require no programming skills, etc. But it is nothing without timely and helpful support. Customers do pay attention to this aspect: they study the Support Policy, require toll-free numbers, ask dozens of questions to be sure they can rely on the proper support after the product installation. But, unfortunately, customers often bump into the problems, when they do need manufacturer's help and don't receive it. I won't go deep into the reasons of it. But those manufacturers, who are not interested in short-term financial success, but strive for long-term cooperation, can't afford such approach:
"I wanted to migrate from my existing script to Esvon Classifieds. I wanted Esvon to handle data conversion from my database to the needed format. Why? Coz I was tired of constant complaints from my customers, as for slow loading pages, constant database errors, etc. I should say, Esvon was very responsive in work, patient in support, and reasonable in price, and I would definitely recommend Esvon's products to everyone who has the desire to have a successful website."
Price factor. If you are not guided by price factor while choosing the software, you are doing well. Our customers claim that they do not want to buy a pig in a poke, even if it is twice cheaper than other similar "pokes". There is no universal formula of defining good classified ads software at first sight. One should dig into the description of the program, view the demo version and screenshots, and discuss it with the manufacturer. But, unfortunately, it is sometimes insufficient as well.
To make the conclusion, I want to underline, that price, as many people think, is not a No. 1 driving force in a customer' decision-making engine. The best guidelines for selecting good classified ads software are its highly optimized database and PHP code, ability to generate static HTML content and adaptability of the system.
I hope the foregoing information will contribute to your successful choice. Be reasonable and you will be all set!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Keyword Ownership: What It Is And Where It's Headed
Have you ever got one of those silly emails that offers to let you own a keyword? Silly question. How many such emails do you get every day?
A number of such services regularly email me offering keyword ownership of premium keywords for $300/year. They say that anyone can type the keyword I bought in the address bar of Internet explorer, instead of typing in a URL, and they will be sent directly to my site. In total it seems that there are about 2% of Internet users worldwide who have enabled one type or another of this system, spread out between a few competitive services.
Data shows that between 4% and 7% of search queries are performed by entering something in the address bar. By default for IE users, these searches are automatically routed through to MSN search. Many of us however have installed so much software over time, and unknowingly, some of this software has re-routed these search queries to other search portals, such as iGetNet, or others. This often happens if you've installed any file sharing software. We have all heard / read about how many extra 'features' come with programs like Kazaa. This means that your default search from the address bar may no longer be MSN, and may have been rerouted elsewhere, but the basic principle still applies. Of the queries that are actually run from an address bar, at least half of them are unintentionally instigated by people mistyping the desired URL. This means that between 2% and 4% of Internet users actually search via their address bar.
So how exactly do these address bars work? There are many of these companies offering this kind of service, with each one of them selling the very same keywords to different and sometimes competing companies. To make things worse, the keywords you might buy will only work with the issuing companys proprietary address bar plug-in. Then, to actually offer search capabilities from the address bar, each of these service providers needs to get individual Internet users to download and install their plug-in, and remember to run searches from the address bar.
How effective can a marketing strategy of this nature be when the various tools are not interchangeable, there are numerous competitors selling the same key words to different companies, and you are targeting only a small fraction of Internet users? If your ad is being displayed because its similar to the search query, are you paying for irrelevant results? This can happen; If there is not a perfect match to a search query, the next closest match may be displayed.
Competing with these companies is any search engine that offers its own toolbar. You can download a toolbar from any number of engines, and run searches on any key word or phrase quickly and easily. You then get the search engines selection of closest matches, from all the web sites they have indexed. They offer more than just one choice, and dont cost anything
Who Started This?
Started in 1998, Realnames was the first company that tied searching via the address bar to a web browser. At the time, it was touted as a value added solution for businesses around the world who were attempting to get their products found quickly, but didn't want customers to have to wade through a sea of Web addresses to reach their destination.
In part, it was deemed necessary because so few web site operators were search engine savvy, and fewer still knew anything about search engine optimization and promotion. What the Realnames solution did was allow a web site operator to buy a keyword, and then when any user of Internet Explorer would type that keyword into the IE address toolbar, they would get directed to the web site that owned the keyword.
The company hoped to profit from businesses which wanted to reach Internet users who would type keywords into their browsers address bar instead of remembering the url, or going through a standard search interface.
Unfortunately for the company, the service was entirely dependent on Microsoft; and when Microsoft stopped supporting the technology in May 2002, the company was forced to close. The reason it was so totally dependent was simple; Unlike the new companies on the market today, Realnames did not depend on an end user downloading and installing a plugin, instead it was essentially integrated into Internet Explorer by Microsoft. Therefore everyone who used IE automatically had the plugin.
The Legal Question
Each of the companies offering these services has a policy designed to ensure that a web site only buys keywords related to their content, and their review process is designed to keep cybersquatters from hijacking popular names and products. Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that any one of these keyword ownership services adheres to any naming standard, or even ensures that any purchaser has the legal right to any of the terms they are buying. This means that the rights to copyrighted material like "Pepsi" or generic words like "business" could end up in the hands of the first buyer. While Pepsi is a well known brand name, there are millions of copyrighted and trademark protected terms, covered in multiple jurisdictions. It would not be cost effective or practical for these services to police copyright and trademark infringement.
In the summer of 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, denied Playboy's request for an injunction barring a search engine from selling advertising based on the terms playboyand playmate. In the precedent setting ruling regarding keyword advertising, Judge Stotler of the United States District Court in Santa, Ana, California, dismissed a lawsuit brought by Playboy Enterprises against the search engine Excite, Inc. and Netscape. The ruling limited the online rights of trademark holders, as it recognized that a trademark may be used without authorization by search engines in advertising sales practices.
Playboy claimed that the search engines were displaying paid banner ads from pornographic web sites whenever "playboy" or "playmate" were used as a search term. As the owner of the trademarks for both terms, Playboy argued that the use of its trademarks for a third party sales scheme was trademark infringement and branding dilution.
In the ruling dismissing Playboy's case, the Judge found that Excite had not used the trademarks "playboy" and "playmate" in an unlawful manner. This was because Excite had not used the trademarked words to identify Excites own goods or services and therefore trademark infringement laws did not apply. It was further determined that even if there was trademark usage, there was no infringement because there was no evidence that consumers confused Playboy products with the services of Excite or Netscape.
What about within Meta Tags?
Is it illegal to use trademarked terms in your meta tags? Sometimes. The problem occurs with how and why you are using the terms. Web sites that use the tags in a deceptive manner have lost legal battles. However, legitimate reasons to use the terms have resulted in successful defenses.
In a case involving Playboy, the firm was able to prove trademark infringement, based on use of their trademark in meta tags, url and content on the web site. The case was filed by the firm against web site operators for stuffing their web pages with the words Playboyand Playmatehundreds of times. Furthermore, the defendants were also using the terms Playboy and Playmate in the site names, URLs, and slogans. In this case the Judge ruled for Playboy, as there was a clear case of trademark infringement.
In the separate case, Playboy vs. Terri Welles, the court refused Playboy's request. The reason was simple. Terri Welles was Playboy's 1981 Playmate of the Year. She had used the terms "Playmate" and "Playboy" on her web pages and within her meta tags, and the Court felt she had a legitimate right to use them to accurately describe herself, and to ensure that the search engines could catalog her web site properly within their databases. Playboy's appeal was dismissed on Feb. 1, 2002.
In Summary
It is clear that if you have a legitimate reason to use a trademarked word or phrase in your web site you can. You may also rent their ownership from one of the keyword ownership companies. Be careful, though, it is possible that may get sued.
Does the technology work? Yes, but only for some of the approximately 3% of Internet users worldwide who have installed any one of a variety of competing plugins that enable this type of searching. I stress a fraction of the 3%, as you would need to buy the keywords from each individual vendor to ensure reaching all 2%.
A number of such services regularly email me offering keyword ownership of premium keywords for $300/year. They say that anyone can type the keyword I bought in the address bar of Internet explorer, instead of typing in a URL, and they will be sent directly to my site. In total it seems that there are about 2% of Internet users worldwide who have enabled one type or another of this system, spread out between a few competitive services.
Data shows that between 4% and 7% of search queries are performed by entering something in the address bar. By default for IE users, these searches are automatically routed through to MSN search. Many of us however have installed so much software over time, and unknowingly, some of this software has re-routed these search queries to other search portals, such as iGetNet, or others. This often happens if you've installed any file sharing software. We have all heard / read about how many extra 'features' come with programs like Kazaa. This means that your default search from the address bar may no longer be MSN, and may have been rerouted elsewhere, but the basic principle still applies. Of the queries that are actually run from an address bar, at least half of them are unintentionally instigated by people mistyping the desired URL. This means that between 2% and 4% of Internet users actually search via their address bar.
So how exactly do these address bars work? There are many of these companies offering this kind of service, with each one of them selling the very same keywords to different and sometimes competing companies. To make things worse, the keywords you might buy will only work with the issuing companys proprietary address bar plug-in. Then, to actually offer search capabilities from the address bar, each of these service providers needs to get individual Internet users to download and install their plug-in, and remember to run searches from the address bar.
How effective can a marketing strategy of this nature be when the various tools are not interchangeable, there are numerous competitors selling the same key words to different companies, and you are targeting only a small fraction of Internet users? If your ad is being displayed because its similar to the search query, are you paying for irrelevant results? This can happen; If there is not a perfect match to a search query, the next closest match may be displayed.
Competing with these companies is any search engine that offers its own toolbar. You can download a toolbar from any number of engines, and run searches on any key word or phrase quickly and easily. You then get the search engines selection of closest matches, from all the web sites they have indexed. They offer more than just one choice, and dont cost anything
Who Started This?
Started in 1998, Realnames was the first company that tied searching via the address bar to a web browser. At the time, it was touted as a value added solution for businesses around the world who were attempting to get their products found quickly, but didn't want customers to have to wade through a sea of Web addresses to reach their destination.
In part, it was deemed necessary because so few web site operators were search engine savvy, and fewer still knew anything about search engine optimization and promotion. What the Realnames solution did was allow a web site operator to buy a keyword, and then when any user of Internet Explorer would type that keyword into the IE address toolbar, they would get directed to the web site that owned the keyword.
The company hoped to profit from businesses which wanted to reach Internet users who would type keywords into their browsers address bar instead of remembering the url, or going through a standard search interface.
Unfortunately for the company, the service was entirely dependent on Microsoft; and when Microsoft stopped supporting the technology in May 2002, the company was forced to close. The reason it was so totally dependent was simple; Unlike the new companies on the market today, Realnames did not depend on an end user downloading and installing a plugin, instead it was essentially integrated into Internet Explorer by Microsoft. Therefore everyone who used IE automatically had the plugin.
The Legal Question
Each of the companies offering these services has a policy designed to ensure that a web site only buys keywords related to their content, and their review process is designed to keep cybersquatters from hijacking popular names and products. Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that any one of these keyword ownership services adheres to any naming standard, or even ensures that any purchaser has the legal right to any of the terms they are buying. This means that the rights to copyrighted material like "Pepsi" or generic words like "business" could end up in the hands of the first buyer. While Pepsi is a well known brand name, there are millions of copyrighted and trademark protected terms, covered in multiple jurisdictions. It would not be cost effective or practical for these services to police copyright and trademark infringement.
In the summer of 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, denied Playboy's request for an injunction barring a search engine from selling advertising based on the terms playboyand playmate. In the precedent setting ruling regarding keyword advertising, Judge Stotler of the United States District Court in Santa, Ana, California, dismissed a lawsuit brought by Playboy Enterprises against the search engine Excite, Inc. and Netscape. The ruling limited the online rights of trademark holders, as it recognized that a trademark may be used without authorization by search engines in advertising sales practices.
Playboy claimed that the search engines were displaying paid banner ads from pornographic web sites whenever "playboy" or "playmate" were used as a search term. As the owner of the trademarks for both terms, Playboy argued that the use of its trademarks for a third party sales scheme was trademark infringement and branding dilution.
In the ruling dismissing Playboy's case, the Judge found that Excite had not used the trademarks "playboy" and "playmate" in an unlawful manner. This was because Excite had not used the trademarked words to identify Excites own goods or services and therefore trademark infringement laws did not apply. It was further determined that even if there was trademark usage, there was no infringement because there was no evidence that consumers confused Playboy products with the services of Excite or Netscape.
What about within Meta Tags?
Is it illegal to use trademarked terms in your meta tags? Sometimes. The problem occurs with how and why you are using the terms. Web sites that use the tags in a deceptive manner have lost legal battles. However, legitimate reasons to use the terms have resulted in successful defenses.
In a case involving Playboy, the firm was able to prove trademark infringement, based on use of their trademark in meta tags, url and content on the web site. The case was filed by the firm against web site operators for stuffing their web pages with the words Playboyand Playmatehundreds of times. Furthermore, the defendants were also using the terms Playboy and Playmate in the site names, URLs, and slogans. In this case the Judge ruled for Playboy, as there was a clear case of trademark infringement.
In the separate case, Playboy vs. Terri Welles, the court refused Playboy's request. The reason was simple. Terri Welles was Playboy's 1981 Playmate of the Year. She had used the terms "Playmate" and "Playboy" on her web pages and within her meta tags, and the Court felt she had a legitimate right to use them to accurately describe herself, and to ensure that the search engines could catalog her web site properly within their databases. Playboy's appeal was dismissed on Feb. 1, 2002.
In Summary
It is clear that if you have a legitimate reason to use a trademarked word or phrase in your web site you can. You may also rent their ownership from one of the keyword ownership companies. Be careful, though, it is possible that may get sued.
Does the technology work? Yes, but only for some of the approximately 3% of Internet users worldwide who have installed any one of a variety of competing plugins that enable this type of searching. I stress a fraction of the 3%, as you would need to buy the keywords from each individual vendor to ensure reaching all 2%.
Monday, August 21, 2006
MSN & Yahoo Communities (The Basics)
I'm sure at one time or another, we've all explored either an msn or yahoo community or both. Communities are a FREE service that allows us to build and manage, discussion groups,family sites, business communities etc.
These communities can be a powerful tool to promote your business only if you know how to use them effectively.
There are 100's of very popular communities that allow anyone to post as many "Classified Ads" as possible. Unless you to spend hours doing this, I suggest you leave if be for the time being.
What I'd like to focus more on is "WHY" you should create your own msn & yahoo community for yourself!
See, many of the best search engines will pick up your community because of the sheer size and popularity of msn & yahoo.
Also, I see many marketers waisting a lot of time because they are trying to promote too many services or opportunities at one time. A community will allow you to add ALL that you promote into one site and then all you have to worry about is promoting that one site!
This won't happen over night and learning how to easy it is to build & manage your own community will be posted in the next issue #2.
Before we get into that, you'll want to join the "Top Rated" communities in the business sections. Doing this will allow you to familiarize yourself with what's "the norm" with these communities. Also, after you've made the necessary adjustments and you've prepared your own community, you'll be using all the top communities to promote your own.
I must appoligize to those who have never joined and msn or yahoo community. You'll need to sign up for a user passport which is simply an msn or yahoo e-mail and password.
For an msn passport click below: http://register.passport.net/default.srf?sl=1
For a yahoo passport click below: http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_register?.intl=us&new=1&.done=http%3a//www.yahoo.com&.src=www&.v=0&.u=0f49rckvhg06m&partner=&.p=&promo=&.last=
When signing up for an msn community, you'll want to click the option "READ ALL MESSAGES ONLINE". This way you won't fill your e-mail account with countless messages that are posted everyday... Also, click on "KEEP MY E-MAIL PRIVATE" so that you don't get any junk this way either.
And now you have the basics of communities, please look for the sequel to this article titled:
"Building & Managing your own community"
These communities can be a powerful tool to promote your business only if you know how to use them effectively.
There are 100's of very popular communities that allow anyone to post as many "Classified Ads" as possible. Unless you to spend hours doing this, I suggest you leave if be for the time being.
What I'd like to focus more on is "WHY" you should create your own msn & yahoo community for yourself!
See, many of the best search engines will pick up your community because of the sheer size and popularity of msn & yahoo.
Also, I see many marketers waisting a lot of time because they are trying to promote too many services or opportunities at one time. A community will allow you to add ALL that you promote into one site and then all you have to worry about is promoting that one site!
This won't happen over night and learning how to easy it is to build & manage your own community will be posted in the next issue #2.
Before we get into that, you'll want to join the "Top Rated" communities in the business sections. Doing this will allow you to familiarize yourself with what's "the norm" with these communities. Also, after you've made the necessary adjustments and you've prepared your own community, you'll be using all the top communities to promote your own.
I must appoligize to those who have never joined and msn or yahoo community. You'll need to sign up for a user passport which is simply an msn or yahoo e-mail and password.
For an msn passport click below: http://register.passport.net/default.srf?sl=1
For a yahoo passport click below: http://edit.yahoo.com/config/eval_register?.intl=us&new=1&.done=http%3a//www.yahoo.com&.src=www&.v=0&.u=0f49rckvhg06m&partner=&.p=&promo=&.last=
When signing up for an msn community, you'll want to click the option "READ ALL MESSAGES ONLINE". This way you won't fill your e-mail account with countless messages that are posted everyday... Also, click on "KEEP MY E-MAIL PRIVATE" so that you don't get any junk this way either.
And now you have the basics of communities, please look for the sequel to this article titled:
"Building & Managing your own community"
Friday, August 18, 2006
Kick-Starting E-mail Profits Growth From One Single Shot!
Perhaps the most critical step in guaranteeing the success of your e-mail promotions is to send your messages to a targeted list of opt-in subscribers who have specifically requested to receive information on a particular topic from you. That's your "in-house" email list.
Sooner or later, you'll face the same challenge: how to build a list of qualified, targeted prospects from scratch.
When it comes to building an e-mail list, online marketers tend to spread on too many options. Offen, they neglect to focus on a single promotion 'til the end and exploit to the fullest potential. Here's an example.
Suppose you run a newsletter and have a web page or popup window which invite prospects to subscribe. As a reward for giving their e-mail address, you offer them a bonus.
That's fine -- but not enought! You are loosing money simply by leaving empty profit places in your message.
Wouldn't be nice to build actually 3 different mailing lists from one "stroke"? Of course! For better understanding, I'll stick with the same newsletter example. So, clear-up your newsletter invitation and insert couple of extra carefully selected phrases. Follow these steps:
Step #1 --> Insert a Newsletter Subscription
Obviously, this is your primer objective. A new subscriber is a potential new source of profit. It is a common sense to tell people what to expect up front. The more relevant seems your offer to the desired relationship, the better.
Step #2 --> Insert a Special Report
Be smart: upload your report to an autoresponder. The trick is to provide high-quality content AND an offer that will earn you a profit!
You know the rest: the autoresponder send out automatically additional reports and follow-up messages to those who get the initial report. The results: more sales and profits.
Step #3 --> Insert an eCourse
Each lesson of the eCourse provides at least one offer (and usually multiple offers) for the reader to consider. Many buy, some don't. But it's another automated profit system.
Step #4 --> Insert a Mystery Bonus
Mystery bonus? Yes! People universally love mystery. Be sure you won't let the prospects know what is all about up until they subscribe.
What you need at this point: an ebook that is coded with your own affiliate links! (Psst... invite them to pass it out as an incentive!)
The final results: 3 separate lists (from newsletter subscription, special report, and ecourse) and a viral marketing tool (the mystery ebook)! Everything easy to set- up and ready to upload to your web site in less than an hour of work. Not bad!
Things to remember BEFORE you implement this e-mail marketing strategy:
* be accurate and clear with your messages.
* spell out features/benefits/advantages in your offer.
* don't go only after e-mail list quantity. Your e-mail list should balance QUALITY with QUANTITY issues.
* ALWAYS provide high-quality content.
* implement your system ON EVERY PAGE of your web site.
* always use professional sequential autoresponders to PERSONALIZE each of your e-mail messages.
* test subject lines and messages until you get the highest results.
* check your messages to make sure links work properly.
* use high quality graphics to first-impress.
* NEVER forget to 'THANK YOU' prospects once they give you their e-mail address.
* ALWAYS allow prospects to self-remove from your e-mail lists.
**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners**
Feel free to reprint this article is its entirety in your ezine or website as long as you leave all links in place, do not alterate the content and include our resource box as listed below. If you do use the material please send us a note so we can take a look. Thanks.
Sooner or later, you'll face the same challenge: how to build a list of qualified, targeted prospects from scratch.
When it comes to building an e-mail list, online marketers tend to spread on too many options. Offen, they neglect to focus on a single promotion 'til the end and exploit to the fullest potential. Here's an example.
Suppose you run a newsletter and have a web page or popup window which invite prospects to subscribe. As a reward for giving their e-mail address, you offer them a bonus.
That's fine -- but not enought! You are loosing money simply by leaving empty profit places in your message.
Wouldn't be nice to build actually 3 different mailing lists from one "stroke"? Of course! For better understanding, I'll stick with the same newsletter example. So, clear-up your newsletter invitation and insert couple of extra carefully selected phrases. Follow these steps:
Step #1 --> Insert a Newsletter Subscription
Obviously, this is your primer objective. A new subscriber is a potential new source of profit. It is a common sense to tell people what to expect up front. The more relevant seems your offer to the desired relationship, the better.
Step #2 --> Insert a Special Report
Be smart: upload your report to an autoresponder. The trick is to provide high-quality content AND an offer that will earn you a profit!
You know the rest: the autoresponder send out automatically additional reports and follow-up messages to those who get the initial report. The results: more sales and profits.
Step #3 --> Insert an eCourse
Each lesson of the eCourse provides at least one offer (and usually multiple offers) for the reader to consider. Many buy, some don't. But it's another automated profit system.
Step #4 --> Insert a Mystery Bonus
Mystery bonus? Yes! People universally love mystery. Be sure you won't let the prospects know what is all about up until they subscribe.
What you need at this point: an ebook that is coded with your own affiliate links! (Psst... invite them to pass it out as an incentive!)
The final results: 3 separate lists (from newsletter subscription, special report, and ecourse) and a viral marketing tool (the mystery ebook)! Everything easy to set- up and ready to upload to your web site in less than an hour of work. Not bad!
Things to remember BEFORE you implement this e-mail marketing strategy:
* be accurate and clear with your messages.
* spell out features/benefits/advantages in your offer.
* don't go only after e-mail list quantity. Your e-mail list should balance QUALITY with QUANTITY issues.
* ALWAYS provide high-quality content.
* implement your system ON EVERY PAGE of your web site.
* always use professional sequential autoresponders to PERSONALIZE each of your e-mail messages.
* test subject lines and messages until you get the highest results.
* check your messages to make sure links work properly.
* use high quality graphics to first-impress.
* NEVER forget to 'THANK YOU' prospects once they give you their e-mail address.
* ALWAYS allow prospects to self-remove from your e-mail lists.
**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners**
Feel free to reprint this article is its entirety in your ezine or website as long as you leave all links in place, do not alterate the content and include our resource box as listed below. If you do use the material please send us a note so we can take a look. Thanks.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
The Hard Disk
The Hard Disk Guide ;
From throwing our unnecessary files, to defragmenting, from partitions to formats-learn how to keep your hard disk in top shape
The hard disk is the place where all your programs and data are stored. If the hard disk Stops working you could end up losing all your data. What we’ll do here is take you on. A quick tour of the different things you need to know about it, so you can keep it working smoothly.
What is the hard disk?
The hard disk is a magnetic mass storage device installed in special bays within the system unit. The hard disk could do compared to a large cupboard having several shelves
With different items being neatly arranged and stored on each self. The hard disk stored all the data you need to store on your PC-the operating system (for example, Windows),
Software program (for example an office suit), business or household applications and data, games, e-mail message, address books and so on.
A hard disk off the assembly line is just a mass of magnetic media. The magnetic surface of the hard disk has to be structured into specific areas where data can be stored properly, a process known as formatting. When you buy a new computer, the system comes with a formatted hard disk.
A hard disk needs to be divided into partitions before it can be used. The hard disk on a newly purchased computer comes configured with a single large partitions, the primary partition (C: in My Computer) and an extended partition, which may be further subdivided into logical partitions (D: E: and so on in My Computer) if required. Partitioning makes the storage of data more efficient and reduces the access time to retrieve data.
The storage capacity of hard disk has increased by leaps and bounds since IBM XT’s first 10 MB hard disk. Nowadays, 10GB is the entry level and 17 GB is common. The hard disk communicates with a PC’s motherboard through an expansion card or a disk interface card.
How does it wok?
The disk is formatted to divide its magnetic surface into concentric circular paths called tracks (these are like the grooves on a phonograph record) and wedge-shaped slices called sectors. Data is stored in the form of a file or groups of disk sector called clusters. A disk drive locates data by moving its magnetic read-write head to specific track within a specific sector.
When a new file is created in a freshly formatted hard disk, it is assigned cluster numbers in a sequential order. If the file is expanded, then the first available clusters are assigned. When file is deleted, their cluster numbers are simply marked as available. Over course of time, when files grow in size to require additional cluster or are deleted, the perfectly ordered sequence of clusters gets disturbed, a process known as fragmentation.
Partitioning the hard disk
Partitioning divides a large hard disk into smaller virtual-not physical-hard disk or partitions, leading to an efficient utilization of space and boosting your PC’s performance. Partitioning could be very useful in following circumstances:
1-One PC, several users-If several persons have to work on the same PC, partitions could be assigned for each of them so that each person has his or her own “working space.” This could be useful in home setting too, where you could have separate partitions for your spouse, children’s games, business applications and data and so on.
2-Work on multiple operating systems-You may want to work on more than one operating system on your PC, for example Win98, Linux and Windows95. (Maybe you have applications that work perfectly in Win95 but suddenly crashed in Win98). You can keep these various operating systems safely on the same hard disk by installing them in separate partitions.
Partitioning Tools There’re several partitioning tools available for your hard drive. Two of the most popular ones are:
1-PartitionMagic Version 4.o for Windows95 and 98-Partition Magic, from Power Quest is a useful and powerful partitioning program. It effortlessly creates, moves, converts and resizes partitions on your hard disk without the necessity of reformatting the disk of erasing valuable data.
2-FDISK- is a freely available partitioning utility that runs in the DOS environment. Its greatest UPS is that it is available for free. It is cumbersome to use and also requires formatting of the hard disk (perhaps its biggest drawback).
Formatting a hard disk
As with most mechanical devices, prolonged use of the hard disk results in inevitable wear and tear and malfunction. Repeated adding and deleting of files takes its toll on the hard disk and you may get disk error, including the notorious “fatal error” of Windows. This is an indication that you may need to re-format your hard disk to have it working properly again.
However, before deciding to re-format the disk it may be worthwhile to try out other alternative-
1-Run Disk Defragmenter
2-Use a cleanup shareware programs such asregclean.exe, available for download.
However, if after trying out these alternatives, you continue to get fatal error message, then you probably need to format your hard disk.
The procedure of formatting is simple enough but has to be done carefully. When you format the hard disk, all the data on the disk is lost-Windows operating system, software programs, business applications data, games, e-mails messages. In short everything.
How to do the formatting
Windows 95
1- Double-click on My Computer icon. Then click the icon for the drive you want to format. (e. g. C:)
2- On the File menu, click Format and follow the instructions.
Remember that you can not format a disk if there are files open on that disk. If the disk has been compressed, use Drivespace or other compression to format the disk.
Windows 98
1- Click Start, click Shutdown, click Restart, and then click on OK.
2- Press and hold the CTRL key until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears.
3- Select Command prompt only and press Enter.
4- At the C:\prompt, type format C: and press ENTER.
5- Follow the instruction on the screen.
After formatting you’re left with a blank hard disk with more space then before. The next step is to restore the programs you need on your disk.
1- First reinstall Windows and then application programs you use.
2- Restore your backups into appropriate files. If you use a Zip drive or a CD-writer, these need to be installed first.
3- Reinstall all drivers for the printer, modem or other peripherals.
Do the defrag
A file on your disk may not be stored all in one place or cluster. For example, if you create a Word document and make changes to it at a later date, the change may get saved in a different cluster from the original file. The more often you make changes to a file, the more disorganized the cluster becomes, and the disk becomes fragmented. This makes the magnetic head that reads and writes data to and from the disk, works harder to retrieve the entire file. Fragmentation of hard drive reduces the storage efficiency and then access time for retrieving information.
The process of defragging helps to rearrange the files and unused space on your hard disk so that programs run faster.
Before Defragging, it may be a good idea to check how much of your hard drive is fragmented. You can do this by running ScanDisk. Empty the temp folders and Recycle Bin before defragging.
Windows 95 and Windows 98-: Open the Start Menu, choose Programs, choose Accessories, and choose System Tools and click on Disk Defragmenter.
You defragging schedule will depend on how much you use the PC. A good rule of the thumb is to defrag every two weeks.
Make sure all your files are closed and then you have turned of the screensaver also.
Spring Cleaning
No more hard disk space left? Getting disk error or illegal operations? It may be time to clean up your hard disk. A few spring cleaning pointers to help you out.
1- Toss out unwanted applications-: check out all the software applications you have loaded on the PC. Delete the old applications if you have installed newer versions. Go to the Control Panel’s Add/Remove program option and uninstall those applications you don’t need.
2- Run ScanDisk-: the ScanDisk option in Windows is very useful application which fixes problem like lost clusters, invalid directory entries and physical disk errors. Run ScanDisk once a month.
Go to start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, and choose System Tools and click on ScanDisk. Click the drive that contains the folders and files you want to check.
3- Defrag often, once in two weeks.
4- Empty Recycle Bin-: Right-click on Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop and choose Empty Recycle Bin from the dropdown menu.
5- Clean out your folders-: do you really need all those download you had undertaken for a past research project or those games you seldom plays? Delete those folders that are not required.
6- Delete .tmp files and create more space on hard disk.
Close all programs. Go to Windows Explorer. Press the key to open find dialog box. Enter *.tmp in the box. Make sure that C: Drive is listed in the Look-in box. Include subfolders by checking them. When .tmp files appear, delete them.
7- Delete temporary Net files to create more space.
Go to the temp Internet Files folder in Windows Explorer. Delete all present files.
8- There are several Windows components on your hard disk that you could do without. You could remove these individual components from the Add/Remove Windows setup option and create more space on your disk
Some windows components that are not necessary are accessories such as Desktop Wallpapers (a saving of 700kB) and games (a saving of 600kB
Before you format…..
1- Enter the hard drive’s technical specifications (number of cylinders, tracks, sectors etc.) into the PC’s BIOS setup table so that it is available for the machine’s Startup program.
2- Backup all your important data onto another hard disk, recordable CDs, Zip Drive, magnetic tapes or floppies. If you have a sort of backup space or are in hurry, copy only important folders. Backup your e-mail and address books too. After taking the backups, check them out to make sure that they are okay.
3- Backup any folders that you share with others over a network.
4- Keep handy the installation disks or CDs of the application software you use, such as Windows or an office suite. These will have to be re-installed after formatting.
5- Keep handy the driver disks for your printer, sound card, CD ROM driver, modem or other devices. These will have to be re-installed after formatting.
FAT Facts
When a hard disk is formatted, a File Allocation Table (FAT) is created on the disk. FAT keeps a record of the locations of all the files on the disk FAT 16 is the file allocation system used in DOS and Windows 95. FAT 32 file system is used in Windows 98 or Win 95 OSR 2. FAT 32 is considered to be more efficient as it saves more space on the disk.
The performance of hard disk largely affects the overall performance of a PC. Hard disk performance factors include storage capacity, data access time (the time it takes for the read write heads to find a required position on the magnetic surface), data transfer time (measure how many million bit per second can be transferred from disk to RAM) and reliability.
TIP
Keep your hard disk in tip-top condition and optimize its performance.
1- Create separate folders for each business application, data or for each family member. This will keep your disk clean and organized.
2- Avoid the compression
Though file compression increases the amount of storage space, it also considerably slowdown system performance.
3- Keep 10% free. Always keep at least 10% of your hard disk free-filling it beyond 90% of its capacity will lead to system slowdown and potential loss of information.
4- Run the Maintenance Wizard utility of Windows 95 and 98. This utility make your programs run faster, checks your hard disk for problems and free hard disk space. You can schedule it to0 run on a regular basis at a specific time, for example once a week or other interval of your choice.
Start maintenance Wizard by clicking on Start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, choose system tools and click on Maintenance Wizard.
5- Use software package that help to optimize your hard disk’s performance, e.g. Symantec’s Norton Utilities.
From throwing our unnecessary files, to defragmenting, from partitions to formats-learn how to keep your hard disk in top shape
The hard disk is the place where all your programs and data are stored. If the hard disk Stops working you could end up losing all your data. What we’ll do here is take you on. A quick tour of the different things you need to know about it, so you can keep it working smoothly.
What is the hard disk?
The hard disk is a magnetic mass storage device installed in special bays within the system unit. The hard disk could do compared to a large cupboard having several shelves
With different items being neatly arranged and stored on each self. The hard disk stored all the data you need to store on your PC-the operating system (for example, Windows),
Software program (for example an office suit), business or household applications and data, games, e-mail message, address books and so on.
A hard disk off the assembly line is just a mass of magnetic media. The magnetic surface of the hard disk has to be structured into specific areas where data can be stored properly, a process known as formatting. When you buy a new computer, the system comes with a formatted hard disk.
A hard disk needs to be divided into partitions before it can be used. The hard disk on a newly purchased computer comes configured with a single large partitions, the primary partition (C: in My Computer) and an extended partition, which may be further subdivided into logical partitions (D: E: and so on in My Computer) if required. Partitioning makes the storage of data more efficient and reduces the access time to retrieve data.
The storage capacity of hard disk has increased by leaps and bounds since IBM XT’s first 10 MB hard disk. Nowadays, 10GB is the entry level and 17 GB is common. The hard disk communicates with a PC’s motherboard through an expansion card or a disk interface card.
How does it wok?
The disk is formatted to divide its magnetic surface into concentric circular paths called tracks (these are like the grooves on a phonograph record) and wedge-shaped slices called sectors. Data is stored in the form of a file or groups of disk sector called clusters. A disk drive locates data by moving its magnetic read-write head to specific track within a specific sector.
When a new file is created in a freshly formatted hard disk, it is assigned cluster numbers in a sequential order. If the file is expanded, then the first available clusters are assigned. When file is deleted, their cluster numbers are simply marked as available. Over course of time, when files grow in size to require additional cluster or are deleted, the perfectly ordered sequence of clusters gets disturbed, a process known as fragmentation.
Partitioning the hard disk
Partitioning divides a large hard disk into smaller virtual-not physical-hard disk or partitions, leading to an efficient utilization of space and boosting your PC’s performance. Partitioning could be very useful in following circumstances:
1-One PC, several users-If several persons have to work on the same PC, partitions could be assigned for each of them so that each person has his or her own “working space.” This could be useful in home setting too, where you could have separate partitions for your spouse, children’s games, business applications and data and so on.
2-Work on multiple operating systems-You may want to work on more than one operating system on your PC, for example Win98, Linux and Windows95. (Maybe you have applications that work perfectly in Win95 but suddenly crashed in Win98). You can keep these various operating systems safely on the same hard disk by installing them in separate partitions.
Partitioning Tools There’re several partitioning tools available for your hard drive. Two of the most popular ones are:
1-PartitionMagic Version 4.o for Windows95 and 98-Partition Magic, from Power Quest is a useful and powerful partitioning program. It effortlessly creates, moves, converts and resizes partitions on your hard disk without the necessity of reformatting the disk of erasing valuable data.
2-FDISK- is a freely available partitioning utility that runs in the DOS environment. Its greatest UPS is that it is available for free. It is cumbersome to use and also requires formatting of the hard disk (perhaps its biggest drawback).
Formatting a hard disk
As with most mechanical devices, prolonged use of the hard disk results in inevitable wear and tear and malfunction. Repeated adding and deleting of files takes its toll on the hard disk and you may get disk error, including the notorious “fatal error” of Windows. This is an indication that you may need to re-format your hard disk to have it working properly again.
However, before deciding to re-format the disk it may be worthwhile to try out other alternative-
1-Run Disk Defragmenter
2-Use a cleanup shareware programs such asregclean.exe, available for download.
However, if after trying out these alternatives, you continue to get fatal error message, then you probably need to format your hard disk.
The procedure of formatting is simple enough but has to be done carefully. When you format the hard disk, all the data on the disk is lost-Windows operating system, software programs, business applications data, games, e-mails messages. In short everything.
How to do the formatting
Windows 95
1- Double-click on My Computer icon. Then click the icon for the drive you want to format. (e. g. C:)
2- On the File menu, click Format and follow the instructions.
Remember that you can not format a disk if there are files open on that disk. If the disk has been compressed, use Drivespace or other compression to format the disk.
Windows 98
1- Click Start, click Shutdown, click Restart, and then click on OK.
2- Press and hold the CTRL key until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears.
3- Select Command prompt only and press Enter.
4- At the C:\prompt, type format C: and press ENTER.
5- Follow the instruction on the screen.
After formatting you’re left with a blank hard disk with more space then before. The next step is to restore the programs you need on your disk.
1- First reinstall Windows and then application programs you use.
2- Restore your backups into appropriate files. If you use a Zip drive or a CD-writer, these need to be installed first.
3- Reinstall all drivers for the printer, modem or other peripherals.
Do the defrag
A file on your disk may not be stored all in one place or cluster. For example, if you create a Word document and make changes to it at a later date, the change may get saved in a different cluster from the original file. The more often you make changes to a file, the more disorganized the cluster becomes, and the disk becomes fragmented. This makes the magnetic head that reads and writes data to and from the disk, works harder to retrieve the entire file. Fragmentation of hard drive reduces the storage efficiency and then access time for retrieving information.
The process of defragging helps to rearrange the files and unused space on your hard disk so that programs run faster.
Before Defragging, it may be a good idea to check how much of your hard drive is fragmented. You can do this by running ScanDisk. Empty the temp folders and Recycle Bin before defragging.
Windows 95 and Windows 98-: Open the Start Menu, choose Programs, choose Accessories, and choose System Tools and click on Disk Defragmenter.
You defragging schedule will depend on how much you use the PC. A good rule of the thumb is to defrag every two weeks.
Make sure all your files are closed and then you have turned of the screensaver also.
Spring Cleaning
No more hard disk space left? Getting disk error or illegal operations? It may be time to clean up your hard disk. A few spring cleaning pointers to help you out.
1- Toss out unwanted applications-: check out all the software applications you have loaded on the PC. Delete the old applications if you have installed newer versions. Go to the Control Panel’s Add/Remove program option and uninstall those applications you don’t need.
2- Run ScanDisk-: the ScanDisk option in Windows is very useful application which fixes problem like lost clusters, invalid directory entries and physical disk errors. Run ScanDisk once a month.
Go to start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, and choose System Tools and click on ScanDisk. Click the drive that contains the folders and files you want to check.
3- Defrag often, once in two weeks.
4- Empty Recycle Bin-: Right-click on Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop and choose Empty Recycle Bin from the dropdown menu.
5- Clean out your folders-: do you really need all those download you had undertaken for a past research project or those games you seldom plays? Delete those folders that are not required.
6- Delete .tmp files and create more space on hard disk.
Close all programs. Go to Windows Explorer. Press the key to open find dialog box. Enter *.tmp in the box. Make sure that C: Drive is listed in the Look-in box. Include subfolders by checking them. When .tmp files appear, delete them.
7- Delete temporary Net files to create more space.
Go to the temp Internet Files folder in Windows Explorer. Delete all present files.
8- There are several Windows components on your hard disk that you could do without. You could remove these individual components from the Add/Remove Windows setup option and create more space on your disk
Some windows components that are not necessary are accessories such as Desktop Wallpapers (a saving of 700kB) and games (a saving of 600kB
Before you format…..
1- Enter the hard drive’s technical specifications (number of cylinders, tracks, sectors etc.) into the PC’s BIOS setup table so that it is available for the machine’s Startup program.
2- Backup all your important data onto another hard disk, recordable CDs, Zip Drive, magnetic tapes or floppies. If you have a sort of backup space or are in hurry, copy only important folders. Backup your e-mail and address books too. After taking the backups, check them out to make sure that they are okay.
3- Backup any folders that you share with others over a network.
4- Keep handy the installation disks or CDs of the application software you use, such as Windows or an office suite. These will have to be re-installed after formatting.
5- Keep handy the driver disks for your printer, sound card, CD ROM driver, modem or other devices. These will have to be re-installed after formatting.
FAT Facts
When a hard disk is formatted, a File Allocation Table (FAT) is created on the disk. FAT keeps a record of the locations of all the files on the disk FAT 16 is the file allocation system used in DOS and Windows 95. FAT 32 file system is used in Windows 98 or Win 95 OSR 2. FAT 32 is considered to be more efficient as it saves more space on the disk.
The performance of hard disk largely affects the overall performance of a PC. Hard disk performance factors include storage capacity, data access time (the time it takes for the read write heads to find a required position on the magnetic surface), data transfer time (measure how many million bit per second can be transferred from disk to RAM) and reliability.
TIP
Keep your hard disk in tip-top condition and optimize its performance.
1- Create separate folders for each business application, data or for each family member. This will keep your disk clean and organized.
2- Avoid the compression
Though file compression increases the amount of storage space, it also considerably slowdown system performance.
3- Keep 10% free. Always keep at least 10% of your hard disk free-filling it beyond 90% of its capacity will lead to system slowdown and potential loss of information.
4- Run the Maintenance Wizard utility of Windows 95 and 98. This utility make your programs run faster, checks your hard disk for problems and free hard disk space. You can schedule it to0 run on a regular basis at a specific time, for example once a week or other interval of your choice.
Start maintenance Wizard by clicking on Start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, choose system tools and click on Maintenance Wizard.
5- Use software package that help to optimize your hard disk’s performance, e.g. Symantec’s Norton Utilities.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Tips for Buying a PC
Buying Your PC
Buying a PC that’s right for you and your family is not all that simple task. More so if you’re going to buy an unbranded or an assembled one. But branded or not, you have to get you facts right before you shell out your money. First, why do you want to buy a PC? Is it because almost every one has one these days, or that you have the money to spare. If these are the reasons are that you want to end up spending a lot of money on something you’re unlikely to use. But if your reasons are that you want it for home based business, or for your kids for their education, or to work at home, or that you want to surf the net, you are on the right track. Now let’s get down to specifics.
What do you need it for?
Take a piece of paper and write down what all you need to do with the pc.
Spreadsheets, Word processing, Surfing the Web, sending e-mail, playing games. Running multimedia, Watching movies, playing music ,CAD drawings, graphics designing, Web designing. Programming and Online learning.
Make your list. Why? Because different needs need Different PCs. You really don’t need the latest computer if all you’re going to do is browsing, no matter what the vendor tells you.
When you make your list be sure to look a little ahead and see what all other things you might be using the computer for. For instance, do you think you are likely to take up graphics designing? Or will the kids start playing all those high-end games?
How much money do you want to spend?
Get hang of the money you can spend on the PC. Then you have to look for the PC that suits your needs and your budget. This may need some balancing even, if your requirements are huge and the budget isn’t. This will also decide if you should go for branded PC or an assembled one.
Brand or assembled?
This is a question that has gone on for a while now. A year ago, branded ones. We recommend that you go for a PC for which you can get assured service and support. Fort a more detailed analysis, catch our July story called Branded or Not?
What is it?
This is the part that has the computer’s basic circuitry and components. The processors, meomory, BIOS, expansion slots, etc all go on the motherboard.
What’s available?
Right now you have two broad choices for a motherboard. The motherboards based on Intel 810 chipset have the graphics and audio capabilities on to the board itself-that’s what they mean by integrated graphics and audio onboard. In case you’re looking for better graphics (say, you will be moving to high-end games, or graphics, or CAD or need better sound environmental audio, sound-editing), you’ll have to get some high-end video and audio cards. Which such a motherboard won’t support. You could, in such cards.
What to ask the vendor :
What are the upgrades possible on this motherboard? Which processors are supported? How much are the upgrades going to cost?
What is it?
The brain of the PC. You don’t always have to go for the fastest. And just having a processor that’s fast won’t do. The rest of the system has to keep up with it.
What’s available?
Among the low-end ones available are Celeron, AMD K6.2 and K6-3, and now AMD”S Duron. They are available in different clock speeds-go for the one you can afford. A Celeron 600MHZ. Among the high-end processors are Pentium III and AMD’s Anthon. A PIII 667 MHz.
Also remember that a processor alone can’t make the PC zip. For instance, A PIII on an 810 motherboard that doesn’t have much graphics capability isn’t of much use.
How much do you need?
If you are going to work on office application like word processors and spreadsheets, and some browsing, a Celeron or an AMDK6 series, or Duron would do. For work that needs more processing power you have to go for a Pentium III or an Anthon. You’ll find some Pentium IIs in the market but Intel Doesn’t makes them anymore.
What is it?
This is the place where all your program and data will b stored on the PC. Your PC’s performance will depend upon the rate at which your hard disk can read data and give it to the other parts. The speed of a hard disk is measured in rpm. These days most hard disks come with a speed of 7200 rpm. And some other available in hard disk 7.5 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, and for more on how to take care of your hard disk, check out The Hard Disk Guide in this issue.
How much do you need?
Most PCs now come with 8-10 GB of hard disk space. With fat OSs and fatter office suites and games, you’ll need some bit of space. 17 GB is quite common, now even 30 GB doesn’t raise eyebrows. So do take those offers of 1GB with a huge bag of salt.
What is it?
The place where information is stored for a while so that the processor doesn’t have to keep hunting for it on the hard disk.
What’s available?
The more you have the better it is. A lot of PCs still come with 32 MB RAM-we advise you to go for 64MB at the very least. If you’re a gamer or into heavy graphics, you’ll need 128 MB.
How much do you need?
The more you have the better it is. A lot of PCs still come with 32 MB RAM-we advise you to go for 64 MB at the very least. If you’re a gamer or into heavy graphics, you’ll need 128 MB
What is it?
This is a card that carries out the processing for all that’s related to the display. You could have a fast processor, lots of ROM and hard disk that keeps pace with it all. But if the display can’t match all this-the speed at which the things have got processed will take ages to show up on screen. The card has its RAM- called video RAM (VRAM).
What’s available?
As we said earlier, some motherboards have this function inbuilt, but others need you to have a graphics card for this. You get a range of cards now.
How much do you need?
If you’re into heavy gaming and graphics and CAD and 3D modeling, you need to have a card with at least 8 MB VRAM, 16MB if you can afford it. For other purpose, 4 MB VRAM is good enough.
All software comes on CDs. A lot of computers magazines that teach you how to use computers come with CDs. So a CD-ROM drive is a must. Now you have the option of going for CD-RW drives or even DVD drives. And some vendors have the check to see PCs without them.
Higher X ratings-such as 48X, 52X for a CD drive doesn’t mean that the drive will run at blazing speeds. In fact for routine things opening a CD tray, making a CD auto run-an 8X will do just fine. But if you were to rip songs from your audio CDs to convert them into MP3s you would need a faster drive.
A DVD drive is great if you are going to be watching a lot of movies on your PC- but make sure video card and sound card and speakers match up to it.
Go for a CD-RW drive if you are going to be burning a lot of CDs-keeping backups, making MP3 CDs, and so on.
The basic PC:
For running productivity applications: word processors, spreadsheet, presentations, Surfing. Using e-mail, using personal information mangers. Play music and videos, some light games and multimedia CDs
Specs:
* Celeron 550 MHz or above/AMD K6 series or Duron 550 MHz or above
* 64 MB RAM
* 15” color SVGA monitor
* 10-12 GB ATA/66 hard disk
* On board video abd sound
* 48 x or higher CD-drive
* 101-keys Keyboard
* 3-button mouse
* 56 kbps modem
The high-end PC –
For heavy gaming, graphics, multimedia creation, sound editing
Specs:
* Pentium III 700 MHz/ k-7 700 MHz or higher
* 128 MB RAM
* 17 GB ATA/^^ hard disk drive
* video card with 32 MB VRAM
* 101-keys keyboard
* on board sound (for those into sound editing and composing, a high-end sound card like Creative SoundBlaster Live is needed)
* 17” monitor
* Scroll mouse
* 56 Kbps modem
Sound card and Speakers:
The sound card processes the sound that you hear on your PC. These days sounds cards not only make multimedia application sound great, they also let you compose record and edit your own music.
Monitor:
14” monitors are out. You can get in your some other type of the monitor in 15”, color monitor, 16 inches and 17 inches monitor are available in the market.
PORTS –
Ports are where you plug in peripherals. The mouse and keyboard go into their respective ports. Serial ports take in modems. Parallel ports take in printer, scanners, etc, There are now USB ports for USB printers, scanners, digital cameras, etc. Now there are Fire Wire ports t00-but these are useful for those into video-editing and such tasks that need a lot of data to be transferred in a shot.
Keyboard and Mouse-
There is a range of mice to choose from Look for one that you fell comfortable working with. There are different types of keyboards. Again look for one that doesn’t require you to thump hard to type, feels ergonomic. You could also go for devices go for devices that have programmable buttons/keys.
Software-
You need an operating system-the common one is of course, Windows 98. Now the latest version of Windows for the home is Windows Me.
You need an office suits, or at least programs that do word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. You need a browser to the Web, and an e-mail program. You’ll also need an antivirus, some system diagnostic tools, some graphics programs, and some useful things like media players (to run your movies and play music), file compression tools like WinZip. Then of course, there is a world of games and multimedia titles to explore .
Buying a PC that’s right for you and your family is not all that simple task. More so if you’re going to buy an unbranded or an assembled one. But branded or not, you have to get you facts right before you shell out your money. First, why do you want to buy a PC? Is it because almost every one has one these days, or that you have the money to spare. If these are the reasons are that you want to end up spending a lot of money on something you’re unlikely to use. But if your reasons are that you want it for home based business, or for your kids for their education, or to work at home, or that you want to surf the net, you are on the right track. Now let’s get down to specifics.
What do you need it for?
Take a piece of paper and write down what all you need to do with the pc.
Spreadsheets, Word processing, Surfing the Web, sending e-mail, playing games. Running multimedia, Watching movies, playing music ,CAD drawings, graphics designing, Web designing. Programming and Online learning.
Make your list. Why? Because different needs need Different PCs. You really don’t need the latest computer if all you’re going to do is browsing, no matter what the vendor tells you.
When you make your list be sure to look a little ahead and see what all other things you might be using the computer for. For instance, do you think you are likely to take up graphics designing? Or will the kids start playing all those high-end games?
How much money do you want to spend?
Get hang of the money you can spend on the PC. Then you have to look for the PC that suits your needs and your budget. This may need some balancing even, if your requirements are huge and the budget isn’t. This will also decide if you should go for branded PC or an assembled one.
Brand or assembled?
This is a question that has gone on for a while now. A year ago, branded ones. We recommend that you go for a PC for which you can get assured service and support. Fort a more detailed analysis, catch our July story called Branded or Not?
What is it?
This is the part that has the computer’s basic circuitry and components. The processors, meomory, BIOS, expansion slots, etc all go on the motherboard.
What’s available?
Right now you have two broad choices for a motherboard. The motherboards based on Intel 810 chipset have the graphics and audio capabilities on to the board itself-that’s what they mean by integrated graphics and audio onboard. In case you’re looking for better graphics (say, you will be moving to high-end games, or graphics, or CAD or need better sound environmental audio, sound-editing), you’ll have to get some high-end video and audio cards. Which such a motherboard won’t support. You could, in such cards.
What to ask the vendor :
What are the upgrades possible on this motherboard? Which processors are supported? How much are the upgrades going to cost?
What is it?
The brain of the PC. You don’t always have to go for the fastest. And just having a processor that’s fast won’t do. The rest of the system has to keep up with it.
What’s available?
Among the low-end ones available are Celeron, AMD K6.2 and K6-3, and now AMD”S Duron. They are available in different clock speeds-go for the one you can afford. A Celeron 600MHZ. Among the high-end processors are Pentium III and AMD’s Anthon. A PIII 667 MHz.
Also remember that a processor alone can’t make the PC zip. For instance, A PIII on an 810 motherboard that doesn’t have much graphics capability isn’t of much use.
How much do you need?
If you are going to work on office application like word processors and spreadsheets, and some browsing, a Celeron or an AMDK6 series, or Duron would do. For work that needs more processing power you have to go for a Pentium III or an Anthon. You’ll find some Pentium IIs in the market but Intel Doesn’t makes them anymore.
What is it?
This is the place where all your program and data will b stored on the PC. Your PC’s performance will depend upon the rate at which your hard disk can read data and give it to the other parts. The speed of a hard disk is measured in rpm. These days most hard disks come with a speed of 7200 rpm. And some other available in hard disk 7.5 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, and for more on how to take care of your hard disk, check out The Hard Disk Guide in this issue.
How much do you need?
Most PCs now come with 8-10 GB of hard disk space. With fat OSs and fatter office suites and games, you’ll need some bit of space. 17 GB is quite common, now even 30 GB doesn’t raise eyebrows. So do take those offers of 1GB with a huge bag of salt.
What is it?
The place where information is stored for a while so that the processor doesn’t have to keep hunting for it on the hard disk.
What’s available?
The more you have the better it is. A lot of PCs still come with 32 MB RAM-we advise you to go for 64MB at the very least. If you’re a gamer or into heavy graphics, you’ll need 128 MB.
How much do you need?
The more you have the better it is. A lot of PCs still come with 32 MB RAM-we advise you to go for 64 MB at the very least. If you’re a gamer or into heavy graphics, you’ll need 128 MB
What is it?
This is a card that carries out the processing for all that’s related to the display. You could have a fast processor, lots of ROM and hard disk that keeps pace with it all. But if the display can’t match all this-the speed at which the things have got processed will take ages to show up on screen. The card has its RAM- called video RAM (VRAM).
What’s available?
As we said earlier, some motherboards have this function inbuilt, but others need you to have a graphics card for this. You get a range of cards now.
How much do you need?
If you’re into heavy gaming and graphics and CAD and 3D modeling, you need to have a card with at least 8 MB VRAM, 16MB if you can afford it. For other purpose, 4 MB VRAM is good enough.
All software comes on CDs. A lot of computers magazines that teach you how to use computers come with CDs. So a CD-ROM drive is a must. Now you have the option of going for CD-RW drives or even DVD drives. And some vendors have the check to see PCs without them.
Higher X ratings-such as 48X, 52X for a CD drive doesn’t mean that the drive will run at blazing speeds. In fact for routine things opening a CD tray, making a CD auto run-an 8X will do just fine. But if you were to rip songs from your audio CDs to convert them into MP3s you would need a faster drive.
A DVD drive is great if you are going to be watching a lot of movies on your PC- but make sure video card and sound card and speakers match up to it.
Go for a CD-RW drive if you are going to be burning a lot of CDs-keeping backups, making MP3 CDs, and so on.
The basic PC:
For running productivity applications: word processors, spreadsheet, presentations, Surfing. Using e-mail, using personal information mangers. Play music and videos, some light games and multimedia CDs
Specs:
* Celeron 550 MHz or above/AMD K6 series or Duron 550 MHz or above
* 64 MB RAM
* 15” color SVGA monitor
* 10-12 GB ATA/66 hard disk
* On board video abd sound
* 48 x or higher CD-drive
* 101-keys Keyboard
* 3-button mouse
* 56 kbps modem
The high-end PC –
For heavy gaming, graphics, multimedia creation, sound editing
Specs:
* Pentium III 700 MHz/ k-7 700 MHz or higher
* 128 MB RAM
* 17 GB ATA/^^ hard disk drive
* video card with 32 MB VRAM
* 101-keys keyboard
* on board sound (for those into sound editing and composing, a high-end sound card like Creative SoundBlaster Live is needed)
* 17” monitor
* Scroll mouse
* 56 Kbps modem
Sound card and Speakers:
The sound card processes the sound that you hear on your PC. These days sounds cards not only make multimedia application sound great, they also let you compose record and edit your own music.
Monitor:
14” monitors are out. You can get in your some other type of the monitor in 15”, color monitor, 16 inches and 17 inches monitor are available in the market.
PORTS –
Ports are where you plug in peripherals. The mouse and keyboard go into their respective ports. Serial ports take in modems. Parallel ports take in printer, scanners, etc, There are now USB ports for USB printers, scanners, digital cameras, etc. Now there are Fire Wire ports t00-but these are useful for those into video-editing and such tasks that need a lot of data to be transferred in a shot.
Keyboard and Mouse-
There is a range of mice to choose from Look for one that you fell comfortable working with. There are different types of keyboards. Again look for one that doesn’t require you to thump hard to type, feels ergonomic. You could also go for devices go for devices that have programmable buttons/keys.
Software-
You need an operating system-the common one is of course, Windows 98. Now the latest version of Windows for the home is Windows Me.
You need an office suits, or at least programs that do word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. You need a browser to the Web, and an e-mail program. You’ll also need an antivirus, some system diagnostic tools, some graphics programs, and some useful things like media players (to run your movies and play music), file compression tools like WinZip. Then of course, there is a world of games and multimedia titles to explore .
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