What Spam Blocker is Best For You?

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Categories: General
by: Niall Roche
With the number of spam filtering solutions increasing each week it’s getting tougher for consumers to make informed choices in their purchases.There are 3 basic types of spam blocker:

1. Integrated
2. Standalone
3. Online

We’ll look at each type of spam filter and at the end you should be able to decide what spam filter is right for you.

Integrated spam filters
This type of spam filtering software is the most common. Once installed it sits “on top” of your existing email software and installs a new set of buttons into your email software. In future when you collect
email you’ll see options for marking email as Spam, marking the email as Not Spam, Bounce the email back to sender, etc. The description and position of these buttons varies from one product to the next but their purpose remains the same.

Most integrated spam filters automatically place suspected junk email into a separate folder on your PC for you to review or
delete later on.

The newer integrated spam filters are also “intelligent”. They can basically learn the difference between what is
spam and what is not and delete the junk email you don’t want.

The most popular integrated spam filters are:

iHate Spam
Spambully
Spam Inspector

Integrated spam filters are most popular amongst people who want a one click solution to collecting their personal email and filtering junk email at the same
time.

Advantages:
One click solution.

Disadvantages:
Software specific. Some work with Outlook and Outlook Express only.

Standalone spam filters
These are less common than their integarted counterparts but that doesn’t make them any less useful. A standalone spam filter is basically a separate piece of software installed on your PC that you use to check your email for spam.

Standalone filters have the big advantage of being able to preview your email on the mail server before it’s downloaded to your PC. This one single feature has the
huge benefit of allowing you to just download the email that you want as opposed to downloading all of your email, including the spam, and then sorting through it.

Using a standalone spam filter is a little more work simply because it’s a separate piece of software that you have to run
before you open up your email software. Most standalone filters do allow you to configure them so that your standard email
application is opened once you’ve chosen what spam to filter. This suits some people and not others.

The most popular standalone spam filter is:

Mailwasher Pro

Advantages:
Doesn’t rely on specific email applications to work properly.

Disadvantages:
Two step process. Load standalone filter and then your email application.

Online spam filters
There are really two types of online spam filters. One is for business use and one is for home use. A typical example of
a business type product is iHate Spam server edition where the software deletes junk email directly from the mail server before the end user even sees it. Large companies employ this type of technology.

Home users will be using Spam Arrest or similar. Spam Arrest offers an inventive solution to spam whereby any email sent to
the users account has a challenge request sent back to it which the sender must authenticate. The automatic junk email software used by spammers can’t currently deal with this type of response.
Any failure to authenticate the challenge email results in the junk email being left to die in cyberspace. A user is authenticated with Spam Arrest only once for security just to make sure the software
doesn’t become a nuisance.

The most popular online spam filter is:

Spam Arrest

Advantages:
Users are guaranteed to only receive the email that they want or requested.

Disadvantages:
Any techncial problems with the Spam Arrest server and you have no defense against spam.

Now you’ve seen what spam filtering options are available to you just ask yourself which one suits you most. If you’re still not sure drop by www.spam-site.com and check out our product reviews – we have something for everyone.

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Nov
11

5 Linking Strategies that Work

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Categories: Internet Marketing, SEO

 by: Jinger Jarrett

 

 One of the most effective ways to promote your business online, especially if you use search engine optimization to build traffic, is linking.

However, as a certified Web CEO professional, and someone who also uses only “white hat” optimization strategies, I see people make a lot of mistakes when using this technique.

Below are some of the strategies that I use to make linking more effective, as well as raise my rankings in the search engines.

1. Do your homework first.
You’re probably wondering what “white hat” techniques are.

“White hat” techniques are techniques that will always work with the search engines, like writing articles, blogs, and press releases, and optimizing individual pages for the search engines.

These are the primary techniques I use in addition to linking because they work.

Just ask Tinu Abayomi-Paul, the owner of http://www.freetraffictip.com. Tinu is an expert when it comes to using search engines to build traffic to her sites.

She wrote me the other day to thank me for “inspiring her”. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I do know that she uses a lot of the same techniques I do to promote my sites. She now has over 90,000 relevant entries in Google, more than a lot of the top “gurus” on the internet.

The fact is, the more pages you have listed in the search engines, and the more links you have pointing back to your site, the more likely you are to be found.

Although writing articles, blogs, press releases, and optimizing pages definitely works, you still have to do your homework. This means actually doing a search in the search engines to find out how sites get to the top, i.e. what keywords they use, how their pages are optimized, etc.

I use Alexa, http://www.alexa.com, for this because it allows me to look at traffic stats, as well as see what sites are linked to eachother.

To get started, search for the keywords you are targeting. Take a good look at the sites at the top. This includes studying the keywords, titles, and descriptions they use in their headers. Also, read the text of the pages. It’s not that hard to optimize your page(s). Just write search engine friendly content that repeats your keywords. Make your content easy for your readers to read and understand though.

Now this may sound juvenile, but again, it works. Tools like Keyword Density Analyzer, http://www.keyworddensityanalzyzer.com, and Web CEO, http://www.smallbusinesshowto.com/ht/search.html, can tell you if you are on the right track.

You can also read Linking Matters, http://www.linkingmatters.com. This short, and free ebook in PDF, will give you more tips on linking.

2. Link to complementary sites.
I get link requests all the time, and I have to reject about half of them. The reason why is that I won’t link to sites that have nothing to do with mine.

I offer small business, internet marketing, and search engine optimization and submission products and services. Links to quote sites, joke sites, and shoe sites don’t fit with this.

The key here is to understand that not only does Google, the most important of all the search engines, look at how many links are pointing back to your site, but they also look at the relevance of the links.

Sites that are similar, or complementary to yours, give you more credibility and higher page rank than having tons of sites pointing back to you that have nothing to do with your site.

Make the links pointing back to your site relevant.

3. Choose relevant, highly searched for, low competition keywords for your anchor text.
This tip relates to tip four. Before you start sending out link requests to other webmasters, make sure that you’re targeting the right keywords. Not only are a lot of relevant links important, but your keywords should be keywords that will get you traffic.

4. Change your anchor text.
Recently Google decided that links with the same text between your {{a href=”"}} and {{/a}} text should be different. Too many links pointing back to your site that had the same text “looks” like spam. This doesn’t mean it is spam, and sometimes, you don’t have control over how others link back to your site.

However, if you decide to exchange links with others, vary your anchor text.

5. Try other alternatives to software.
Although there are many software programs out there you can use to help you automate this process, I caution you to be careful when using this kind of software. Although it may speed things up for you, you may also end up with a lot of links pointing back to you that have no relevance. Also, these programs really won’t help you as much as you think if you don’t change your anchor text once in awhile.

If you do choose to use software to automate the process, make sure that you personalize your emails. Again, do your homework and make sure that you are actually sending out email to sites that complement yours. No one likes to receive emails that say “Dear Webmaster”.

Using a directory script on your site can help you because others can visit your site and add their links. Just make sure that you check your directory once in awhile to see who is linking to you. Also, make sure that you set up your script in such a way that others have to have a link pointing back to you first before your script will accept their site.

Link Management Assistant – http://www.dirfile.com/link_management_assistant.htm

You can also find reciprocal link exchange sites like Link Metro, http://www.linkmetro.com. Sites like this will allow you to choose your partners, search for new partners, and exchange links without being bombarded with email or generic requests.

Regardless of how you develop a linking strategy for your site, you need to develop one if you want high rankings in the search engines.

 

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Nov
11

AbyandTessa.com Now Launched

admin
Categories: General

Yes it’s been launched! AbyandTessa.com is a brother and sister group from Racine, WI. Their genre of music is country. They’ve been played on 106.1 fm which is a country music station in Milwaukee, WI. They’ve made appearances at many festivals and some music festivals. They are up an coming group that you don’t want to miss. You can get their CD titled “I Can” here. For more information please contact them here.

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Nov
11

101 Twitter Tools

admin
Categories: Internet Marketing

Twitter has become an incredible tool not just for communication, but for improving your life. Anyone can use it to expand their social circle, promote their side business, keep their coursework organized, and more. Whether you want to achieve your Twitter goals, or just use it as a tool to achieve others, these tools will help you get there.

Twitter Analysis

If your goal is to be popular and influential on Twitter, be sure to check out these tools that will tell you how you’re doing.

  1. Twitter Grader: Learn your Twitter grade, your local Twitter Elite, and find new people to follow through Twitter Grader.
  2. Twitterholic: Check out the top Twitter users and find out your Twitter stats on Twitterholic.
  3. TweetStats: TweetStats offers a graphical analysis of your Twitter stats.
  4. Twitter Friends: Carefully measure your Twitter conversations using Twitter Friends.
  5. Twinfluence: Twinfluence will measure your Twitter influence based on reach, velocity, and social capital.
  6. Tweetwasters: Find out how much time you and other users waste on Twitter.
  7. Tweet-Rank: Learn about the quality of your tweets by finding out which ones won or lost followers.
  8. Mr. Milestone: Get a tweet when you reach various milestones using this Twitter tool.
  9. Retweetrank: Find out how many retweets you and other Twitter users have through this service.

Information Gathering

With these tools, you and gather information for market research, blog posts, and your own simple curiosity.

  1. search.tEarn.com: Unique, social network for viewing photos and videos on any topic and chatting with Twitter users interested in the same subject. Search on any topic.
  2. @myflightinfo: Use @myflightinfo to stay updated on your flight’s status.
  3. Twitterverse: Check out archived timelines and tweets through Twitterverse.
  4. Twitscoop: Twitscoop shares what’s hot on Twitter at any given moment.
  5. Twitbuzz: Twitbuzz tracks the latest conversations as well as popular Twitter links.
  6. StrawPoll: Use StrawPoll to make sharing your opinion as easy as sending an @reply.
  7. Retweetist: This service ranks the hottest links being retweeted on Twitter.
  8. Monitter: Get real time keyword monitoring on Twitter from Monitter.
  9. TweetNews: TweetNews ranks stories based on the amount of related tweets.
  10. TwitterBuzz: TwitterBuzz will tell you what’s being linked to the most on Twitter.
  11. Tweetscan: Set up Tweetscan to make sure you don’t miss any @replies, and to get alerted of your search queries.

Network Building & Management

Find more relevant Twitter users with the help of these tools.

  1. Twitter Local: With this service, you can see tweets from Twitter users in a specific location.
  2. Twubble: Twubble will expand your Twitter bubble, picking out people you may like to follow.
  3. MyCleenr: Sort your friends by their last tweets, and you can get rid of the inactive and useless accounts you’re following.
  4. Follow Cost: This tool will tell you how much effort it takes to follow someone.
  5. Tweepler: Use Tweepler to organize your tweeps based on whether you’re following them or not.
  6. Just Tweet It: Find Tweeple, tools, Twitter bots and more through this directory.
  7. TweetWheel: TweetWheel will help you discover which of your Twitter friends know each other.
  8. SocialToo: SocialToo will help you keep track of all of the people who have followed or unfollowed you.
  9. Twitoria: Reduce your clutter on Twitter by finding your friends that haven’t tweeted in a long time.
  10. TwitDir: With TwitDir, you’ll be able to search for people, and exploring categories including top followers and updaters.
  11. Who Should I Follow?: Using this site, you can get good recommendations for Tweeps to follow.
  12. Nearbytweets: Learn about all of the Twitter users in a specific area with the help of Nearbytweets.
  13. Twellow: Find Twitter users in a specific industry using this service.
  14. Mr. Tweet: Mr. Tweet is a personal networking assistant for Twitter, helping you find relevant followers.
  15. Qwitter: Qwitter will help you manage your network by sending an alert when a person unfollows you.

Twitter Management

Save your time and cull your Twitter list with the help of these tools.

  1. Summize: Retrieve information on Twitter quickly to search Twitter in real time.
  2. Tweet O’Clock: Trying to reach someone? Tweet O’Clock will help you find the best time to get their attention.
  3. Just Signal: Set up a filter using Just Signal to get only the tweets that discuss the keywords you’d like to read about.
  4. TweepSearch: Put your Twitter network to good use and search your followers for specific parameters.
  5. Friend or Follow: Manage your Twitter contacts and find out who’s not following you back through Friend or Follow.
  6. TwitResponse: TwitResponse makes it easy for you to schedule the delivery of your tweets ahead of time.
  7. TwitterSnooze: Put the pause button on a particular user for a while with Twitter Snooze.
  8. Twitterless: Get notified when someone stops following you with Twitterless.
  9. Twilert: Track specific keywords to receive alerts for using Twilert.
  10. Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck has a groups function that will help you more efficiently follow the people you really want to listen to.
  11. Twalala: Put the mute button on certain people and topics for a while if you are receiving lots of updates you’re not really interested in.

Sharing Tools

Promote your business, share photos, and more using these Twitter tools.

  1. Tweetburner: Use Tweetburner to share links, and you can track their usage.
  2. Twitpic: Twitpic makes it easy to take mobile phone photos and share them using your Twitter account.
  3. TwitterHawk: Get targeted marketing on Twitter through TwitterHawk.
  4. Acamin: Acamin makes it easy to share files on Twitter with your followers.
  5. Glue: Post links to books, movies, restaurants and more on Twitter through Glue.
  6. Ping.fm: This service will update all of your social networks at once.
  7. TweeTube: TweeTube makes it easy to share videos on Twitter.
  8. twiggit: Use this automated service to share the articles you digg on Twitter.
  9. Twisten.fm: Share what you’re listening to on Twitter through Twisten.fm.

Organization & Productivity

These Twitter tools will make your life a bit more streamlined.

  1. Twittercal: Link your Twitter account and Google Calendar to easily keep up with your events and appointments.
  2. Timer: Use Timer to get reminders about tasks through your Twitter account.
  3. TwitterNotes: Organize your notes using Twitter with TwitterNotes.
  4. Remember the Milk: Use Remember the Milk on Twitter to update your to do list.
  5. Tweetake: Tweetake will back up your Twitter timeline for archiving and more.
  6. Nozbe: Nozbe makes it easy to add and update your to do list on Twitter.
  7. Toodledo: This popular to do list app integrates nicely with Twitter.
  8. TrackThis: Send TrackThis your tracking number, and you’ll get Twitter messages every time there’s a change in location.
  9. Joint Contact: Get project management productivity on Twitter using Joint Contact.
  10. Tempo: This time tracking tool allows you to send in updates from Twitter.
  11. Tweet Later: Tweet Later offers a great way to set up alerts, schedule tweets, send thank you DMs, and more.
  12. OutTwit: OutTwit will make it easy for you to use Twitter inside of Outlook.
  13. Jott: Jott makes it easy for you to tweet without ever having to type, transcribing your voice message to Twitter.

Life Tools

With these tools, you can work on relationships, life tracking, and more.

  1. MyMileMarker: Keep track of your mileage with info sent via Twitter every time you fill up.
  2. 21Tweets: 21Tweets offers personal coaching on Twitter.
  3. TwtTRIP: Organize your travel plans and find other Twitter travelers on your way with TwtTRIP.
  4. Tweet Answers: Twitter Answers makes it easy to ask questions and get answers on Twitter.
  5. Twtvite: Twtvite is a simple event organizer that will help you create a tweetup.
  6. Vacatweet: Set up an autoresponder for your Twitter account with Vacatweet.
  7. plusplusbot: Share when someone goes out of their way to help you, or otherwise make your feelings known using plusplusbot.
  8. TrackDailyGoals: Use this site and the #dailygoals hashtag to keep track of your goals every day.
  9. ConnectTweet: Put the voices of your group or business together through ConnectTweet.
  10. Tweeteorology: Find tweets about the weather in any location through Tweeteorology.
  11. DreamTweet: Keep a reminder of your dreams and nightmares, and follow the dreams of others through DreamTweet.

Business & Finance

Use these tools to improve your business and finances through Twitter.

  1. Chipin: If you’re raising funds on Twitter, make use of Chipin to set a goal and let your supporters track the progress of the campaign.
  2. Xpenser: You can Twitter your expenses to Xpenser and they will be recorded for you.
  3. Twittertise: Schedule your tweets and track their clickthroughs with this app designed for Twitter advertising.
  4. TwtQpon: Create simple Twitter coupons for your business with TwtQpon.
  5. CheapTweet: Get all of the deals, sales, coupons and more being discussed on Twitter through CheapTweet.
  6. Tipjoy: Like Chipin, Tipjoy offers a way to create social payments for your cause, content, or people.
  7. SalesTwit: Get contact management for Twitter with the help of SalesTwit.
  8. Tweet What You Spend: Track your cash in a really effective way using Tweet What You Spend.
  9. StockTwits: StockTwits shares the investment discussions on Twitter in real time.

Health

Track your health using these Twitter tools.

  1. Qwitter: Update Qwitter to shame yourself into quitting smoking.
  2. TweetPlot: Use TweetPlot to chart your food and fitness statistics.
  3. Tweetwhatyoueat: Keep a food diary to track what you’re eating every day using Tweetwhatyoueat.
  4. gtFtr: Use the gtFtr tool to record your exercise activity on Twittr.
  5. SugarStats: Track, monitor, and share your blood sugar through Twitter with SugarStats.
  6. FoodFeed: This Twitter-based food log makes it easy for you to track what you’re eating.

Blogging

Bring your blog life and Twitter life together with these tools.

  1. Add to Any: Get your posts shared on Twitter by using Add to Any on your WordPress blog.
  2. TwitThis: Make use of this plugin to send Twitter messages about your blog post.
  3. MyTwitter: Use the MyTwitter plugin to display your Twitter status on WordPress.
  4. Twitpress: Twitpress will send out a Tweet every time you post a new blog entry.
  5. TwitterCounter: With this plugin, you can display the number of followers you have on Twitter.
  6. TwitterFeed: Announce your blog post on Twitter with a customized message using TwitterFeed.
  7. FriendFeed: Announce your blog post on Twitter.

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Oct
10

Top 7 Ways to STOP Junk Email

admin
Categories: General

by: Jim Edwards
(c) Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Nothing makes me angrier than opening my email in-box to find over 150 messages, wading through them all, and discovering that 135 of the messages rate as nothing more than junk.

The problem with junk email or “spam” (the popular slang for unsolicited commercial email) only seems to get worse with each passing day.

Luckily, we can fight back in ways that will actually cut down significantly on the amount of spam we receive on a daily basis.

Try these tips and see if they can’t cut the spam you receive down by at least half.

** Don’t Respond

Much of the spam you receive contains an “unsubscribe” link saying something like “To unsubscribe, click here.” Do NOT click that link.

Clicking it lets spammers know they’ve got a live email address!

** Use Mailwahser

Get a program like “Mailwasher” from Mailwasher.net that allows you to view the email you receive before you download it.

The program makes it simple to delete dozens of emails, including viruses, before they reach your computer.

** Use Your Filters

Your email program most likely contains filters you can use to weed out emails containing the usual spam words like “opportunity, $$$, sex, viagra” and a host of others.

You can set the filters to delete messages containing these words before ever downloading them to your computer.

** Use An “Assassin”

Spam “killer” services offer users high-powered filtering, often requiring a sender to prove their identity before an email gets sent to the recipient.

One such service, SpamArrest.com, forces email senders to go to a website and type in a random word before their email gets delivered. This service has gained a lot of popularity lately and seems reasonably effective.

** Use a Temporary Email

Maintain a public and private email address and never give your private email to anyone other than family and friends.

Go sign up for a free email account with Hotmail.com or mail.yahoo.com to use whenever you subscribe to a newsletter or request a free report. That way, if the spam ever gets too bad, you can simply abandon the free account and open another.

Your private email address should remain safe because nobody will know it except the people you trust.

** Never Post Your Email

Never post your private email address in forums, guest books, news groups or on a website. Spammers use little robots that comb the Internet looking for email addresses they can collect and sell to others.

Always use a free account or set it up so you can shut off the exposed email address once the spam gets too bad.

** Abandon Ship

Shut down your current account and just start over! This may seem a drastic move, but it may represent the best course of action if your sanity or your email box can’t
handle another offer for sexual enhancements, a great business opportunity, or a free cruise.

Notify everyone you want to know your new email address and
get on with life.

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Oct
10

3 Fastest Ways To Get Traffic To Any Website

admin
Categories: Internet Marketing, SEO

by: Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oct
10

Simple 3 attempt login in .NET

admin
Categories: .Net Programming

Here is code to a simple login that gives you 3 attempts to login or else it will tell you to contact a administrator.

Delcare your variables:

Private strPwd as String = “Password”
Private strEntry as string

In the button event you place t his code:

Static counter as integer

If counter < 3 then

strEntry = txtPwd.Text

strEntry = UCase(strEntry)

If  strEntry = strPwd then

‘If login is successful you get  a successful message

messagebox.show(”You have properly logged in…”)

Else

‘ If attempt fails you get message box

messagebox.show(”You have not properly logged in  ” & vbCrlf  & _

“Please try again..”)

‘Adds one to the counter

counter = counter + 1

End If

Else

‘If all 3 attempts failed then you get this message

messagebox.show(”You have exceeded your 3 attempts. Please contact your system administrator for help”)

End if

Author – Admin

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Oct
10

Web Based CRM Systems: Get Mobile. Get Results.

admin
Categories: Internet Marketing

by: Cameron Brown

Everyday more web based companies enter the business scene. The low initial investment, potentially high revenue, and convenience of owning and operating a business from your home PC or laptop is enticing an ever-increasing number of entrepreneurs to try their hand at e-business. Unfortunately, most of these would-be companies disappear shortly after their initial market entry.

Many of these businesses might have been more successful if they had invested in a web based CRM system. CRM (customer relationship management) systems have been around as long as business has as a way to keep track of what good was sold and who made the purchase.

Most start-up companies quickly go under because they fail to understand their customers. Without putting substantial effort into collecting and making sense of customer data, a small company is effectively flying blind. They don’t know whose buying what, why they’re buying, or what they would like to see I future products or services. Most new companies not only provide little or no opportunity for voluntary customer feedback, they also fail to make demographic data collection an integral part of their sales and marketing efforts.

Anyone who has just entered the e-business arena ought to be very interested in finding a web based CRM system. While their initial product and service offerings may sustain business operations in the short-term, without proper customer relationship management the company will quickly stagnate or fold.

Today’s web based CRM systems are more versatile than ever and are ideal for startup and growing companies alike. Not only do they offer features like power dialing, voice messaging, and fax/email customization, but web based CRM packages also offer the benefit of portability; a web based CRM system operates wherever there is an internet connection. With the ability to allow sales representatives to be kept up to date on the latest leads, a web based CRM system goes from merely tracking sales to creating them.

As far as paying for a web based CRM system, the great thing about a quality package is that it helps you free up sunk costs on essential services you already spend money on to pay for the system. Most all-in-one CRM systems allow you to coordinate efforts between customer service, sales, marketing, and shipping. Again, the benefit of a web based CRM system can be seen in the ease of communication and coordination between departments, even those operating remotely.

If you currently run or are thinking starting up your own web based company don’t try to guess what you’re customers want-find out for sure with a web based CRM system.

Oct
10

I have a small business do I need a website?

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The answer is YES!!! I’ve been asked this question several times and everytime I’ve answered “yes you do”. It doesn’t matter if you have a small business selling hats or have a repair business of some type or a small construction business. Even if you have  a personal hobby like painting and want to showcase your art this could very well open doors and make you some money!  This is they way I look at it, think of the very early years of the internet where there wasn’t really a buzz of the internet. When you want to look up a company or need some kind of service you would open the Yellow Pages and look up your plumber or laywer correct?!

Now depending on the company has their ad it could be a very information filled ad in the phone book OR just a number. Well now with the age of the internet you can capture so much information in one web page. What they do, contact information maybe some FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) and prices. So I tell my clients think of the internet as a huge telelphone book. You can look up any company from any part of your country and other countries across the world.

Suppose you had a moving company in London and you were moving from California to London because of a job offer. It would be good to beable to find a moving company half way around the world right?! Of course it would, it would give the business they are looking for and the ease of moving there without having to find a way to move your stuff when you got there. So for all of you that ask “I have a small business, do I need a website?” the answer is always, yes you do!

If you are need of a web design or have a site and need a facelift contact us at info@ptdesignz.com for more information.

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Sep
9

9 Reasons to Use Promotional Products

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by Global Marketing – Internet Marketing

YourPromoBuddyPromotional products are not limited to a single objective. There’s a lot more to promotional products than promotion itself. Here are 9 reasons why your promotional budget will pay off:

1) Promotional products enhance the image of the company. These items build customer goodwill. They can be a token of appreciation for marketing research participants, guest speakers, and other friends visiting your office.

2) Promotional products promote brand awareness and customer recall. Brand awareness and loyalty will be developed as customers use the promotional items you’ve given them..

3) Promotional products are a way of saying “thank you”. Sending an imprinted gift to your business partner is a way to show them you appreciate their business and at the same time establish a lasting partnership.

4) Promotional products announce change in your business. Your business can use customized items to advertise your new products or your newly opened branch. They can be your mobile billboard on imprinted shirts or bumper stickers.

5) Promotional products can be a memento to recognize loyal employees. You can use promotional products as service awards or recognition awards. These items help boost employees’ morale and motivate them to achieve greater productivity.

6) Promotional products help inform the public. They can be an instrument for public awareness campaigns on public safety, health hazards, environmental campaigns and the like.

7) Promotional products help produce sales leads. These items help you introduce your company, your products and services to a new market.

8) Promotional products builds better public relations. With promotional items, your company can show it cares by being a part of a community service event or charity.

9) Promotional products help create tradeshow traffic. It has been shown that all it takes is a small gift to build tradeshow traffic. Promotional products help you get more prospects for your business.

To order or for more information you can email us at info@yourpromobuddy.com or call toll free: 877.422.8339

9 Reasons to Use Promotional Products / Author: Remy

Sep
9