Keep Spam Messages From Disrupting Your Work Flow

Almost all businesses today rely heavily on the email. With this people can communicate, send important documents, share files and store data-all in a matters of minutes. Most business transactions are done through email and this also makes it a good way of recording the date and transcripts of deals. While this is an important tool for business, it can also be the cause of its downfall. Hackers have found a way to infiltrate and damage businesses through emails, provoking many company owners to hire firms that offer email filtering service.

Spam emails are those you receive in your inbox appearing as a mass email for a certain product or service. These messages perform involuntary tracking or worse, spread viruses and spyware if opened. Spyware causes slow internet connection, web history tracking and unwanted CPU activity. This becomes a way for hackers to get into your system and use your personal information for dubious transactions. An email filtering service becomes useful if you want to keep your inbox organized and free from these junk mails.

All you need to do is find a good company that will equip your system with mail protection software and methods. The software can assess if a certain incoming message could be a spam and will try to block any suspicious messages. Some methods may be moving potentially harmful messages into a different folder. Before, the only way to remove spyware and other security threats is to back-up the current files and reformat the whole system. Companies today offer tons of options for keeping your computers safe from these spamware.

Email continuity, meanwhile, helps keep your system secured when it is experiencing an error. Productivity declines greatly when employees can't access their email or use it properly. Internal and external processes of the company rely on this heavily for easier communication. So what happens when your server malfunctions? You can lose tons of important information. Since computers are just machines and are susceptible to damage, different factors may cause it to malfunction. Whether it may be data failure, problems with hardware or a mistake of an employee, it can lead to bigger problems once you lose all the necessary information used in your business. Email continuity simply recovers these files in case of an outage.

Aside from these services, consulting an expert firm may also guide you on how to keep your network from being infected. They can provide you guidelines or suggest alternative techniques. As these companies are always on the lookout for new ways of attacks from hackers, you can learn about securing your own processes. It is important to always look ahead and prepare for the worst. Consider hiring email filtering service experts as an investment. In this day and age when hackers come up with new methods faster than you can say email protection, it is wise to stay on track and protect your venture from these attacks.

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Claim Your Own Share of Your Site Business

How Do Search Engines Work?

What we refer to today as a search engine is a more complex search portal. Search portals are generally synonymous with gateway, for a World Wide Web site that is or proposes to be a major starting site for users when they get connected to the Web and need to find information. There are portals of a generalised nature and specialized or niche portals. Some major general portals include Google, Yahoo, Excite, Netscape, Lycos, CNET, Microsoft Network.
Here, I will examine the typical composition of a search engine results page (SERP). Every search portal delivers results from different data sources. The different ways in which each search portal prepares and serves these information to the users is what gives each portal its own unique identity.

The SEO strategy you adopt for your site can be affected by changes to the way a major search portal presents its search results.

A typical search engine results page is comprised of three major components: spider-based (organic) listing, sponsored listings, and directory listings. Not all SERPs contain all three components, and some portals incorporate additional data sources depending on the search term used.

1. Spider-based (Organic) Listings

Spider based results are featured as the primary element of SERPs by most search portals. These listings are referred to as editorial, free, natural, or organic. For consistency, I will be referring to spider-based listings as organic listing throughout the rest of this article.

Each spider based engine uses its own unique algorithm, or formula to determine the order of search results.The databases that power organic search results primarily contain pages that are found by web crawling spiders. Some search providers offer paid inclusion and trusted feed programs that guarantee the inclusion of certain pages in the database.

Organic search listings are the primary focus for search engine marketers and consultants, but they are not the only focus. The continued use of pay-per-click is essential to a well rounded strategy. It paramount to know that most of today's search portals do not operate their own spider-based search engine; instead they acquire results from one of the major search players like Google and Yahoo. There are many search portals in the market, but only a handful operate crawling search engines. The following major search portals operate their own spiders, Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN.

2. Sponsored (Pay-per-click) Listings

It costs alot of money to run a search portal. Spider based engines operate an extremely high expense, and expense that most can't afford. Portals that don't operate their own spider based search engines must always pay to obtain spider search results from portals that does. Today, even the smallest size search portal can generate revenue through sponsored listings. Sponsored listings is simply where a company has paid to have their site prominently listed when someone searches for certain words or phrases. Sponsored listings is used primarily used as their primary search results by Meta search engines.

Sponsored listings in addition to helping search portal stay afloat, provide an excellent complement to organic search engines by connecting searchers with advertisers whose sites might not otherwise appear in the search results.

Majority of portals do not operate their own pay-per-click advertising service. They instead show sponsored results from one or more partners and earn a percentage of those advertisers' fees. The major PPC providers are Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft's adCentre.

The PPC advertising model is simple. Advertisers place bids against specific search terms. Advertisers' ads are returned with the search results, when searchers click on one of those words or terms. Advertisers are charged per click amount they bid for those terms each time searchers click on those words or terms.

Different ranking methods are used by different PPC providers to rank their sponsored listings. These methods start by advertisers bidding against each other to have their ads appear alongside the results returned for various search terms' but each method has its own broad matching options to allow a single bid to cover multiple search terms.

PPC ranking systems are no longer as simple as allocating the highest positions to the highest bidders.Google's methodology, combines the click through rate of an advertiser's listing (that is, the number of clicks divided by the number of times the sponsored listing is displayed) with the advertiser's bid in assessing where the PPC advertisement will be located. One of the reasons why Google has gained popularity significantly is, that its method tends to optimise the revenue generated per search.

3. Directory Listings

Directory originate from human edited web directories, such as Look Smart, The Open Directory, and the Yahoo Directory. Most search portals offer directory results as an optional search, thereby requiring the user to click to see them. Search portals have lately reduced their emphasis on directory listings, as quality of organic search results improved.

However, the importance of directory listings has not diminished in obtaining organic engines rankings.

Search Engine Optimisation

It is vital to note that there are two steps involved in getting a web page into search results pages.

1. Getting in the search index.
2. Getting the web page to the top of the final indexed results before it is presented to the searcher.

The first step is relatively easy to accomplish. You need to let the spiders know that your new web pages exists and how to find them. This can be easily be achieved by pointing to the new page from an already indexed page. Some search providers provide an option for a new URL to be manually submitted for inclusion into their index.

Achieving step 2 successfully is the most difficult. Bulk of Search Engine Optimization tasks is centered around this. Search engines spend some incredible amount of time and effort on making their algorithms find find the best ways to effectively rank sites. According to the Search Engine leader Google, there are in excess of 200 factors that determine the rank of a web page in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

SEO is the process of making changes to your web pages to conform to Search Engines standards in order to rank at the top of Search Engine Results for related keywords that your site optimised for.

What Do Search Engines Look For?

Before delving into the specifics of SEO, let me first explain what search engines really want.

Search Engines have a goal of been able to fulfill the search needs of its users by providing with highly targeted relevant information. Google makes most of its money from selling advertisements that are served along with regular search results. Google is able to do this because it is the market leader and the most popular search engine in the world.Google is widely used because it provides users with the relevant results from their searches.

What Search Engines Don't Like

It is extremely important to have a sound knowledge of what search engines don't want in order to succeed in your SEO campaign. The lack of this knowledge may mean that, your perfectly optimized site may not be indexed and could even be banned. Therefore, when you learn about factors that influence search engine rankings, you should also learn which tactics to avoid.

Spam

Search providers hate tactics intended to fool them into awarding high rankings to irrelevant pages. These tactics are called "spam." They strive to provide the most relevant results to their users, but spam clutters their indices with irrelevant information.

Some website owners create spam after they have learned which criteria spiders use to rank pages. For example, they give high scores to pages filled with keywords. This is termed as keyword stuffing. Website owners and Webmasters came up with a way to add more keywords without sacrificing a site's appearance. Invisible text are used ( the background and the text are the same colour, so the text is not seen by the visitors). Previously, robots that indexed invisible keywords ranked those sites higher for keyword frequency and weight.

Spiders are now familiar with this technique and class it as spam. The use of invisible text can get your site banned from most leading engines.

The following techniques are usually considered spam by major search engines:

• Meta refresh tags
• Invisible text and overuse of tiny text
• Irrelevant keywords in the title and meta tags
• Excessive repetition of keywords (classed as keyword stuffing)
• Overuse of mirror sites (same sites that point to different URLs)
• Submitting too many pages in one day
• Identical or nearly identical pages
• Submitting to an inappropriate category (for directories)
• Link farms
• Frames, dynamic content and Flash intros.

Although search engines won't penalize you for the use of frames, dynamic content and multimedia files, they will have difficulty indexing such pages.

Recently, some engines started to index dynamic content. However, most search engines are still unable to index multimedia and dynamic pages, and those that are, don't index all of them. Here's a list of files that search engines don't index:

• Text in graphics (use ALT tags)
• Pages that require registration, cookies or passwords
• XML
• Java applets
• Acrobat files (PDF), except Google
• Dynamic content (URLs with "?" in them), except Google, AltaVista, FAST and Inktomi
• Multimedia files (Flash, Shock wave, streaming video)

Build Workaround Pages to Avoid Indexing Problems

If your site consists largely of files that search engines don't index, create workaround pages. Workaround pages should contain the most important information about your products or services. Workaround pages should be optimized just like doorway pages.

Search engines will index workaround pages even if they can't index the rest of a site. Always link to these pages from your site map to make sure search engines can spider them, and submit workaround pages rather than non-optimized pages.

Conclusion

SEO Best Practices to Consider

There are tried and tested SEO tactics that you can use to ensure your site is successfully crawled, indexed, and positioned in the major search engine results pages. Though SEO tactics evolve with the technologies used to render Web sites, certain fundamentals remain constant.

How can you tell if your site adheres to current SEO best practices? You should start by providing honest answers to the following questions.

• Are the keywords you're targeting relevant to site content?
• Are targeted keywords popular phrases used in search engine queries?
• Do page titles start with your targeted keywords?
• Does your site employ H1 header tags for prominent content titles?
• Is your permanent body copy contextually sufficient and keyword-rich?
• Do text links include targeted keywords that point users to pages within your site?
• Do you use CSS image replacement in graphical navigation on the site?
• Do graphics used in the site have descriptive, keyword-rich alternative attributes that are useful for visitors to your site?
• Does your Web site have a site map with text links?
• Do the URLs of your dynamic, database-driven pages look simple and static?
• Does your site have a flat and simple directory structure?
• Does your site's home page and other key category pages have PageRanks?
• Is your site listed in Open Directory?
• Do you routinely list your site in other trusted, human-reviewed online directories?
• Does all pages in your Web site have keyword-rich meta tag descriptions?
• Does your site have a custom error page?
• Does the site's file names and directory names include targeted keywords?
• Does your site avoid using pop-ups?
• Is the exact same content visible to both users and search engine spiders?
• Do you avoid free-for-all linking offers?

If you take time to Implement the above 20 most fundamental elements of SEO best practices (or at least bulk of them) and avoiding the worst seo practices should provide you with a sound approach to better visibility for your Web site in major search engines.

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Ensure Optimum Results With Data Center Solutions

As an enterprise business, it's essential that you are able to maintain your lead in the industry. However, doing so has become more and more difficult today. One of the most important elements of maintaining and increasing business success is connectivity - from your business office to your servers to your website. Connectivity is essential, and the only way that a company can achieve reliable, constant connectivity is to work with a data center provider.

-  Considerations for Co-Location Services

When considering a data center for co-location services, there are several key elements that should go into your decision. Here are some of the most important considerations when choosing a data center for your needs.

Data Backup and Archives: 

Data backup is essential to business success. Any lost data represents lost revenue. No business can support revenue loss today. With the right services provider, you can ensure that your data is backed up and archived on a regular basis. This ensures that you have constant access to reports, sales information, employee data, customer databases and everything else. In addition, data backup should be done through redundant systems to avert potential disaster.

Always On:

Another advantage to using a data center is the fact that you'll be able to rely on redundant power. Power outages can spell downtime for your website, your catalogues and your databases. They can also mean disaster for data. However, data centers offer redundant backup power systems to ensure that your servers are always on and always operating.

Defense from Threats:

The Internet is rife with threats, from viruses to malware and hackers. It can be impossible for you to protect your server from these threats on your own. With a professional firm, you can ensure that there is always protection in place and that there is someone monitoring your server for potential threats as well. There is no better way to protect against malicious threats in today's world.

Technical Support:

Traditional web hosting usually doesn't have very good technical support. However, with a data center, you can ensure that you have access to live, efficient technical support at all times. This provides significant time savings for your company, as well as the ability to avoid lost revenue because of technical problems.

-  Not all Data Centers Are the Same

In order to ensure your company is able to realize all the benefits listed above as well as many others, it's important that you choose the right provider. 

Not all centers are the same, nor do they all offer the optimum range of services. It's in your best interest to do a bit of research and ensure that the company you choose is indeed on the leading edge of innovation and has a long history of customer satisfaction. 

Verify the services offered with a representative prior to making any agreement as well. Whether your company requires private cages or multiple rack ownership, customized services or the full suite of offerings, choose your provider with care.

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5 Pitfalls of Daily Deal Sites

Daily deal sites hold promise for small businesses since they help them gain access to a wider market and generate profits through higher volumes at lower prices.

One of the latest website services available, daily sites like 'Groupon', Living Social and etc', help small businesses reach their target clientele that is searching online for their specific products. These sites offer heavy discounts on selected products to lure more and more customers. The promise of more business, getting noticed by the masses, higher profits and wider market access pushes small businesses towards such sites.

However, this route to sales success is fraught with pitfalls, five of which are listed below:

1. A high percentage of the sale price has to be shared

Daily deal sites like 'Groupon' expect 50% or more of the final sale price as service charges. This is not a small amount and the small business only gets so much that will barely cover its costs, with little scope left for making profits. The hype about making money is not delivered.

2. Hefty discounts bring down the brand image

A discount dilutes the brand value of a product and it loses its appeal in the customer's eyes. Initially, there may be a spur in sales, but this will not be sustained since people's perception is that these products are not superior. Small businesses need to build a brand image, not see it slashed in its nascent stages.

3. Getting repeat customers is tougher

Signing up with a daily deals site may be suicidal since customers may never return. The success of a small business lies in its ability to get repeat customers. This is because it will dilute the image of the product and cast doubts on its quality.

4. Serves deal hunters not relationship oriented, brand loyal customers

The market today has two kinds of customers, one who are deal hunters with no loyalty or preference for specific brands. Such customers will always look for the best deal and buy the cheapest product. The second kind of customer is the one who seeks quality, likes a discount, but would rather pay a bit more for a better product, which if he likes, he will buy over and over again. Such customers are better to connect to, build relationships with, and they are the ones who will sustain the small business.

5. Loss of price integrity

Price integrity refers to a standardized price being charged from all customers. To make some direct customers pay a full price, while others get a discount for the same product almost at the same time from a different site, is unfair. It casts a doubt on the small business and makes a certain set of customers unhappy, who may never return.

Daily deal sites may offer benefits to small businesses, but they must be used selectively, perhaps for a special range sold exclusively through them, so that the pitfalls listed above can be avoided, and they can be utilized for better business prospects.

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Are You Putt All Your Links In One Basket ?

Are You Putt All Your Links In One Basket ? Diversification is the key.

There are many - many methods, tips, tricks and advices regarding how to market your website over the internet. Yet, it is so difficult to choose which one is the best fit for your business. How would you know that directory submission is the best way to go? Or is Social Media the best place for gaining visibility for your website? Internet marketing is such an endless field - only your imagination can limit you. However, there are a few tried and tested methodologies which have been prevalent over the years and have the assurance of achieving results sooner than others.

With so many options at hand, it is not absolutely necessary for you to choose from and implement any one technique. The last thing you would want to do is place all your eggs in one basket. Internet Marketing has many techniques that you can take advantage of. You have keywords to work on - with appropriate density and strategic placement amidst your content; you can accomplish half of the task. You have global SEO and Local SEO where you can narrow down your target market, you have directory submissions, Link building, you can even use social media to get your website to be seen by customers at large.

The point we are trying to arrive at is - these are all known techniques and absolutely low cost. Implement them with proper planning and choose the one's you think apt for your business. After all you do not have anything to lose and you never know which one will work for you. Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimizations do not have a specific formula to go by - so give it your best.

Focusing on one method would mean that you are creating a dependency for yourself. One that you do not have any control of. Isn't that a risky business? Of course it is. Use a mix and match of techniques. Use directory submissions to local directories and Local SEO techniques, if you are in a localized business, use social media and global SEO and link building appropriately for a more widespread customer base. Plan your Internet Marketing strategies correctly - they are the key to the success of your website.

With a long list of permutations and combinations regarding usage of Search Engine Optimization Techniques, don't allow yourself to be baffled by the many advices of one being better than the other. Because what works for someone else does not necessarily work for you. Start with a clean slate and base your Internet Marketing plan on your company's analysis of the market and target your marketing strategies accordingly.

Finally, we cannot emphasize enough on the fact that "market research" should be the basis for your marketing plan. The method by which you implement it should also be based on market research. With a singular medium, you create for yourself a dependency on a third party. Diversification of Internet Marketing methodologies is the way to go. In this way you always have a contingency plan. And you have not put all your "links" in one basket.

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How Media Firms Adapting to The New Internet Trends

One of the biggest challenges to the new internet is being faced by media companies. This new internet is the fact that being online has gotten out of our living rooms and dens, but is now found in the palm of our hand. More and more people are turning to smart phones and tablets allowing them to have internet access no matter where they are at a particular moment. 

This means that many traditional ways of getting the news such as a newspaper are going by the wayside. No longer do we have to wait until morning to find out what went on the day before. We now have instant access to events all around the world.

In fact, this trend of getting news through a mobile platform shows no sign of slowing down. Take, for example, a small country. While a small country with a population of only five million people, it is considered one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. 

Recently, a study in small country found that one in five citizens got their news on a mobile platform. In fact, those numbers were more than double what they were just a year ago. This is certain to be a trend that will be repeated in other western countries.

This trend is one that media companies are going to have to embrace, although many reader's habits are changing faster than the companies can adapt. There are several reasons that can be attributed for the change in how we get our news. One is the proliferation of the smart phone. Now, more and more people are using their phones in order to get online. In addition, the iPad or other tablets are also becoming more popular allowing the internet to be accessed at any time and in any place.

Another example of the change in how readers get their news is seen by examining one particular media company.

Even more interesting are when people are getting on news sites. Most news content which is accessed from a PC occurs throughout the entire day with no clear peak in usage. The most access from an iPad was seen during the evening hours from six until eleven. The usage from a mobile phone has a large peak early in the morning as people are getting up and again from eleven until midnight as people are going to bed.

All of this means that media companies are going to have to adapt at a fast rate by building apps and other software in order to deliver the news to people whenever they want it. The challenge will also be to develop cross platform products to satisfy consumers.

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Tips for Internet Marketing : The Importance of Leadership in Internet Business

There are certain skills you typically need to be in an executive-level position, and they are all helpful in introducing your online business. Although there are big gaps between small home based business and large corporations the principles of business operation and management are similar. Obviously the focus on products or services, and client base has different strategies, but anyone with a solid experience in entrepreneurship has the potential to be very successful.

Here are common executive level skills specifically matching any online business.

Leadership Skills

Executives are regarded as leaders in their companies, and they are literally responsible for motivating and managing their employees to accomplish their assigned tasks and meet desired objectives. Although an online business only comprises of the owner, the field itself is searching further for new executives. A leader is an entrepreneur who assists other people in becoming successful. So, anyone who has the characteristics of being a leader can potentially become a reliable business executive who guides, teaches, and leads other business people.

Organizational Skills

Any prolific executive must have the ability to control a busy regular schedule and an infinite to-do list. This kind of skill is more vital in a network marketing business, as many businessmen work solely in isolated surroundings. Being a great manager of all tasks is important for an online business.

Sales and Marketing Skills

While it may sound obvious that marketing and sales skills are important components of every online business, many entrepreneurs regard themselves as being unprepared for their new endeavour. Sometimes it is because of lack of familiarity with their product. In other instances, it can be lack of awareness about the process itself. Excluding a person’s point of view, however, a marketing and sales background is a great base for a successful business online.

Sales and marketing experts recognize how to perceive and enhance powerful messages that invite future customers to a business opportunity. Moreover, anyone with prominent sales experience understands how to deal with clients and prospects and to close a deal process. Although technical terms for this may be different, the basic principles implemented are similar. So, anyone with strong background in skyrocketing sales and marketing is highly qualified to build his internet business.

Technology and Computer Skills

Since the internet is where your business is carried out, it is essential to embark on continuous education in computers and associated technologies. This solid understanding of computer-related matters will boost your success rate. However internet business people who do not possess sufficient knowledge in this aspect may select to hire experts for particular technical work. Luckily there are more budget friendly methods out for the newbie today than ever before. Do not be demoralized if you are not computer savvy. While it is true that an entrepreneur who already has these skills has an edge, your skills can still be upgraded through continuous education and little investment from outsourcing.

Motivational Skills

There are two motivational skills you need to have in order to succeed in an online business—team motivation and self-motivation. Because a virtual business owner works alone, commonly from a home environment, a great amount of self-motivation is needed to be successful. By managing your own motivational levels on a daily basis you will stay in focus and dedicated to the tasks at hand.

Building a big business requires great motivational skills. While it is true that a virtual business opportunity is basic without some of the challenges of a bricks and mortar business, this does not necessarily mean that it will be easy. Individuals often get demoralized and unfocused when they don’t see immediate results.

The productive entrepreneur concentrates on creating a dynamic business plan. He must provide the motivational support for himself that is required to help stay focused on becoming successful.

Self-Discipline Skill

The most successful businessmen get to the top by putting in a huge amount of self-discipline and hard work in their business. Self-discipline is a major component of any online business. Since online business owners work at home alone, they must have discipline to concentrate on their tasks. They must avoid being sidetracked by the numerous distractions they have in their lives.

Furthermore to be a successful online entrepreneur, you will need a continuous, dedicated effort because there will always be ups and downs as the business grows, and good discipline is vital to keep focused and dedicated to long term profitability.

When reflecting on your previous experience in your business endeavours bring these to your new online enterprise, it is vital to realise that in spite of the new surroundings the same principles apply. The skills and strengths that you utilized in the past will create similar effects for you tomorrow.

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