viernes, 12 de diciembre de 2008

Why are they building spyware?

The average computer is packed with hidden software that can secretly spy on online habits. The US net provider EarthLink said it uncovered an average of 28 spyware programs on each PC scanned during the first three months of the year.

There are currently over 38,000 spyware and adware programs that are infecting innocent Internet users such as yourself through downloadable games, music, screensavers, pictures, pop-ups, emails, and the list goes on and on. Spyware and Adware can cause your PC to run extremely slow and even crash, and allow hackers and advertising companies to invade your privacy whenever they wish.

What Is Spyware?

Spyware is a broad term for programs that collects information from your computer without your knowledge or consent. Spyware is a software program that transmits a unique code to identify you (for tracking purposes) without your knowledge or consent. The programs collects or transmits information about your computer use, or other habits without your knowledge or consent.

This internet pest which is better known as spyware installs itself on your computer without your knowledge or consent. It performs other unwholesome duties, and continue to reinstalling itself no matter how many times you remove it.

Spyware!

It has become so pervasive that lawmakers in the US are looking into ways to prevent or regulate it. The Spy Audit by EarthLink reflects the results of scans involving over one million computers between January and March. It uncovered more than 29.5 million examples of spyware.

Why should I be concerned about spyware or adware?

Passwords, credit card details and other personal information could end up in the wrong hands. Your computer could get unwanted viruses, worms or even Trojan. You would receive unwanted emails. Your computer could be used by malicious operators to do damage not only your own computer, but to other computer users too.

How did I get spyware on my computer and how do I eliminate it?

It usually happens when you visit a web site, and are prompted to download something that is said to be "necessary" to view or use features of that web site. Also, you might want or download a program that has some nice features, but also installs program code that can send information out without your knowledge.

"By tracking and publicizing the growth of spyware, we can better educate consumers of its risks and encourage them to take steps to protect themselves and their families while online," said Christine Stevenson of Webroot, which conducted the scans.

People concerned about what might be lurking on their machine can download software such as the popular ZoneAlarm Pro, Pest Patrol, and Spybot to disinfect their computer.

Wife comments about BlackBerry Bold 9000 Smartphone

This phone is awesome. Like a lot of people I had been stalking and reading up on this phone for quiet sometime. When it was finally released I had to have it. This is my first blackberry and I am officially a fan. Initially, the iphone was what I wanted, but when I tried to use the touchscreen with my acrylic nails (which by the way you can't) I decided to wait until something better came along. Enter the Blackberry bold. It's fabulous. Other online reviews have stated that this is the first Blackberry with more features geared toward everyday consumers rather than business users (which is exactly what I am).

I wanted something that allowed me to keep in touch, get organized and be entertained on the go. The only thing the iphone wins hands down on is browsing online. If a site doesn't have a mobile application expect to give up in frustration. The side to side scrolling is annoying to say the least, I wish the text would wrap somehow. Even in column view it isn't an enjoyable process. The good thing for mac users, the online support forums are awesome. There are a lot of Blackberry fans doing amazing things and there are applications galore. I spent about a day adding things like Cram, and upgraded documents on the go - which allows pdf files to be read (something that should be included, but I won't complain much). I have been having trouble with pocket mac (minus a star for having to pay for pocket mac support - there was a lot of online discussion about problems and the need for an update and I had the hardest time trying to find the update - actually I never found it, I finally gave up walked away for a few hours, came back and everything was fine). The screen is nice, I am totally able to become engrossed in a movie. Mac fans and techies expect to spend a few hundred more dollars doing cool upgrades to your phone. It supports a 16 GB micro SD card, that will set you back about 100 (or wait until Christmas, bound to be a sale somewhere). Highly recommend Roxio 9 to get the media to your blackberry. You can move Tivo shows to your blackberry, remote access, streaming.

You can't do a bluetooth transfer for data and that is a minus, even the Razr could do that. People kept saying the Blackberry is really intuitive, and it is, but if you are coming from a different phone, expect a learning curve similar to going from PC to Mac. Sit down, do the tutorial, read the book, google for tips and pointers. Things are in places, I never would have looked. (Of course that could be a bigger reflection of me than the phone). All in all, this is the only phone I was willing to go back under AT&T contract for. I am very glad I waited. Another minus for battery life, I need to charge my phone everyday, so spend some money and pick-up a spare battery.

How to get your computer to work faster

I'm sure you've come across tons of articles and even suggestions from some of your friends on how to get your computer to work faster. Its really not that hard to increase your internet speed. I'm going to make it real simple for you and you don't need to be a computer geek to make this work. The first thing you need to remember is to never, and I mean absolutely never download programs especially free software without reading the fine print. Most free computer software will bombard your computer with spyware which will eventually bring your internet speed to a screeching halt! If your computer is already infected with spyware you can download the leading spyware remover called ad-aware which will scan your computer and remove spyware and tracking cookies from your computer.

Another way of making your computer and internet connection faster is by clicking on start, then run and typing in msconfig. Go to start tab and remove any program except your antivirus software and any other program which you must have start when windows starts. This tip will increase your computer start up time dramatically!

Step number 3, and I do this almost on a daily basis is to clean up your internet cache. Go to your control panel which you can access from your start button and click on internet options. Go to temporary internet files and clear your history. I would recommend that you also set internet history to a maximum of 2 days. Next step is to delete your temporary internet files including offline content. Last step is to delete cookies. Be careful though because deleting your cookies will also delete useful information from your computer.

These steps are the basics you can take which will speed up your internet connection immediately. I would also recommend doing a virus check on your computer on a weekly basis. If you don't have antivirus software, get it! You'll be happy you did. Just one virus can wreak havoc on your computer! Make sure you test your internet speed whether its broadband or dial-up, before and after you take these simple steps so you can compare if these steps you've taken have worked. Taking these basic steps will make you a happy surfer and will restore your faith in the World wide web!

Common Network Security Breeches

As more people are logging onto the Internet everyday, Network Security becomes a larger issue. In the United States, identity theft and computer fraud are among the fastest rising crimes. It is important to protect your network and ensure the safety of all computers and users in that network.

What is a Network?

In order to fully understand network security, one must first understand what exactly a network is. A network is a group of computers that are connected. Computers can be connected in a variety of ways. Some of these ways include a USB port, phone line connection, Ethernet connection, or a wireless connection. The Internet is basically a network of networks. An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is also a network. When a computer connects to the internet, it joins the ISP’s network which is joined with a variety of other networks, which are joined with even more networks, and so on. These networks all encompass the Internet. The vast amount of computers on the Internet, and the number of ISPs and large networks makes network security a must.

Common Network Security Breeches

Hackers often try to hack into vulnerable networks. Hackers use a variety of different attacks to cripple a network. Whether you have a home network or a LAN, it is important to know how hackers will attack a network.

One common way for a hacker to wreak havoc is to achieve access to things that ordinary users shouldn’t have access to. In any network, administrators have the ability to make certain parts of the network “unauthorized access.” If a hacker is able to gain access to a protected area of the network, he or she can possibly affect all of the computers on the network. Some hackers attempt to break into certain networks and release viruses that affect all of the computers in the network. Some hackers can also view information that they are not supposed to see.

Destructive Attacks

There are two major categories for destructive attacks to a network. Data Diddling is the first attack. It usually is not immediately apparent that something is wrong with your computer when it has been subjected to a data diddler. Data diddlers will generally change numbers or files slightly, and the damage becomes apparent much later. Once a problem is discovered, it can be very difficult to trust any of your previous data because the culprit could have potentially fooled with many different documents.

The second type of data destruction is outright deletion. Some hackers will simply hack into a computer and delete essential files. This inevitably causes major problems for any business and can even lead to a computer being deemed useless. Hackers can rip operating systems apart and cause terrible problems to a network or a computer.

The Importance of Network Security

Knowing how destructive hackers can be shows you the importance of Network Security. Most networks have firewalls enabled that block hackers and viruses. Having anti-virus software on all computers in a network is a must. In a network, all of the computers are connected, so that if one computer gets a virus, all of the other computers can be adversely affected by this same virus. Any network administrator should have all of the essential files on back up disks. If a file is deleted by a hacker, but you have it on back up, then there is no issue. When files are lost forever, major problems ensue. Network security is an important thing for a business, or a home. Hackers try to make people’s lives difficult, but if you are ready for them, your network will be safe.

domingo, 7 de diciembre de 2008

Affiliate big guys

Have you ever wondered how "the big guys" earn so much money on the internet? Sure, some of them have huge advertising budgets, which puts small business owners at a disadvantage.

But some of the biggest names today started out just like you and me. They had low advertising budgets and fumbled their way around the internet trying to get visitors to their websites and sell their products.

Even though they had terrific products, they couldn't sell them if no one knew about them. They put on their thinking caps to find the easiest and least expensive way to get visitors and make sales.

They finally came up with a plan that would benefit not only them, but others as well. If they could get other people to promote their products and websites, they could earn more money.

And so, Affiliate Programs were born! What a concept! A better way to get visitors to a website and sell more products!

They offer their visitors the opportunity to "partner" with them, often for free, to help sell their products. And many of them offer two-tier affiliate programs.

So if I sign up as an affiliate I can get others to sign up under me as my sub-affiliates. I earn a commission for sales I make directly to my customers. But I also earn a smaller commission for sales that my sub-affiliates make.

It's a winning situation for everyone! The "big guy" made money because he sold his product. However, he might not have made that sale if it wasn't for my advertisement. And I made money because I advertised his products.

The concept of affiliate programs is really not so new. It's similar to selling cosmetics or other products for many well-known companies.

For instance, I have no idea how to invent a new cologne, but I know how to sell it. Therefore, I could sign up as a representative for a cosmetics company. They, in turn, would pay me a commission for selling their products.

Why would they do that? Because they can't possibly reach all the potential customers by themselves.

By becoming an affiliate for someone who knows much more about computers and digital products than I do, I have the advantage of selling quality products that I can't create myself.

And they have the advantage of their affiliates doing some of the "leg work" for them because they can't possibly reach all the potential customers in this vast internet world.

The next time you visit a website offering products you like, check to see if they offer an affiliate program. Even if you don't wish to place an order for a product at that time, you can sign up as an affiliate.

In the future when you do order you may be able to use your own affiliate URL and give yourself the commission. Most companies allow this procedure.

In the meantime you can let your customers know that you have new products available, as well as affiliate programs for them to join. It's a great way to get backend sales.

So there you have it! The reasons for affiliate programs and why it makes sense for people to sign up. By offering well-known products on your website or in your ezine you are in a win-win situation and can potentially earn big money like the "internet gurus."

PPC arbitrage. Risky business?

Choose Your Product Wisely. The program should pay a commission of $15 or more, otherwise it won’t be worth paying for your clicks. And if the commission is very high, be careful. Some products like web hosting and satellite dish installations may pay commissions of $100, but you face intense competition from other affiliates, so the price you need to pay to get ad exposure and clicks will probably also be very high. Sometimes it is better to identify a niche product with less competition from other affiliates.

Track Your Campaigns Carefully. If you’re paying around 7 or 8 cents per click for a program that pays close to $20 commission, you need to make at least one sale for every 250 visitors. If you send 300 to 400 visitors with no sale, consider dropping it.

Days Of The Week Do Matter. When testing campaigns keep in mind the day of the week and even the time of day. Some products sell better on Mondays through Fridays, during business hours. Others, like entertainment products, sell better in the evenings and on weekends.

What top affiliates marketers do now?

No doubt you’ve heard of the 80/20 rule – which states that
20 percent of affiliates generate 80% of affiliate income, and
conversely, remaining 80 percent of affiliates generate only
20 percent of all income for most affiliate programs.

There are ten basics that will put your affiliate marketing
in the top 20 percent of affiliate earnings. Ten suggestions
that will transform your affiliate income from a trickling
creek that barely covers your hosting fees, to a roaring river
of extra disposable income.

TOP AFFILIATE MARKETERS DO MOST OF THESE TEN ITEMS

1.Top affiliate marketers cloak web site links

Cloaking affiliate links should not be necessary, but is. Oddly
many site visitors refuse to visit your links if they see an
affiliate code appended to the URL when they hover their mouse
over a link on your web page. Sometimes they will type the
affiliate domain directly to the browser address bar while
removing your affiliate ID from the URL. To short circuit this
odd behavior, simply cloak the URL.

2.Top affiliate marketers write & distribute articles

Writing articles about your market niche is essential to gain
reputation as an expert in your field. But the biggest benefit
comes not just from writing those articles, but from having
those articles published by other web site owners and ezine
publishers. Your article gains you both reputation and links
from other web sites from the resource box appended to the
end of each article.

3.Top affiliate marketers focus on a market niche

Filling a web site with content reflecting a narrowly focused
product or service niche is a well known method of gaining web
traffic in your area of specialty. An excellent resource that
can help you determine relevant and focused areas to fill your
site with is called NicheBot. They offer innovative tools to
research and pinpoint market niches for your web site based on
the WordTracker Database and Google.

4.Top affiliate marketers use autoresponder series

Autoresponders are incredibly valuable tools that allow you to
send a timed series of email messages to those that sign up for
them. Most often those autoresponders are sent through a third
party provider. Some of the top providers are Sendfree.com and
aweber.com.

5.Top affiliate marketers create web pages to pre-sell

Creating either testimonial pages or review pages that discuss
and pre-sell the product or service you are affiliated with is
the best method of getting increased orders for your chosen
affiliate programs. Many programs actually provide either an
article or recommended text to sell their products for you and
allow reproduction of those articles with your links embedded.

6.Top affiliate marketers gather email addresses

The best affiliates collect email addresses on their web site
by offering free reports via the above mentioned autoresponders
or by giving away ebooks or through newsletter signup forms.
The best use all of these methods or more to build their list
of email addresses. This also allows you to contact potential
customers that would otherwise never see your site again after
clicking away to the affiliate program web site.

7.Top affiliate marketers advertise SOMEWHERE

Depending on your market niche you should advertise using PPC
and/or ezine advertising. Some categories of Pay-per-click can
be prohibitively expensive, but advertising somewhere is all
but mandatory to gain substantial additional traffic to your
site. There are some great bargains in ezine advertising and
some less popular PPC engines other than Yahoo’s Overture and
Google’s Adwords. Try 7search, Kanoodle and FindWhat for lower
Bids than the big boys of PPC.

8.Top affiliate marketers optimize for search engines

Search engine optimization is becoming more complex as more
and more webmasters participate, but the basics applied to
your site can increase visibility dramatically over time. The
most critical of the many SEO techniques is to use title tags
that reflect individual PAGE content. Many webmasters write a
master title tag and apply that site-wide. This is the worst
thing you could do for search engine ranking.

9.Top affiliate marketers give away ebooks or freebies

Everyone knows by now that giving something away is a great
traffic generator and allows you to gather email addresses
to allow contact of potential customers at a later date. This
strategy is employed by EVERY successful web-based company at
one time or another. Think of all the free things YOU have
collected online over time. Screensavers, software, ebooks,
discount codes, toolbars, white papers. They work!

10. Top Affiliate marketers have their own mailing lists

The best of affiliate marketers have their own newsletter or
ezine and gather email addresses on their site to build their
list of subscribers. Having this list allows regular contact
with potential customers interested in your site, your product
and your market niche. If you don’t write your own material or
think you can’t produce weekly content, there are hundreds of
authors out there that will gladly product articles for you.
The article distribution lists provide free content and ghost
Writers provide high quality content for a fee.

If you implement ALL the above techniques, you are guaranteed
to become one of the top affiliate marketers on the web. Then
you can create your own product telling everyone how YOU did
it, create your own affiliate program and have hundreds of us
selling for you.

Starting your own affiliate program, the easy way

Affiliate programs (also called Referral Programs or Partnership Programs) are essentially commission-based sales schemes.

Joining an affiliate program is a neat way to make money from your users. But just as you can join someone else's affiliate program, so you can set up your own program and invite webmasters to sign up. Here are my top 3 tips to succeed with your own affiliate program.

1. How to attract affiliates

One of the biggest fears new Affiliate managers have is in finding new affiliates. This fear is a stumbling block that stops many site owners from getting started with affiliate marketing. Interestingly, with a proper marketing strategy, getting affiliates may not be very difficult. Given below are some tips that may help in attracting new affiliates.

Find complimentary sites - "Complementary" sites are sites that sell products or services that compliment your offers. If you sell "gardening tools", a site that sells books on "gardening tips" would be a perfect affiliate.

Find content sites - There are many sites that do not sell any kind of product or service but are mainly content oriented sites. Such sites promote an idea, concept, study or belief. Content sites that are used as a resource for your target market are ideal affiliates.

Finally, there are several sites on the Internet dedicated to listing affiliate Programs. Get your program listed in these directories.

2. Classifying Affiliates for Better Management

The hardest part of administrating an Affiliate Program is deciding what your affiliates need to help make the sale. But, by carefully categorizing your affiliates, you can easily determine what their needs are and how to accurately meet them.

The first step is to pick at least three types of affiliate. Take a look at your affiliates and try to determine one outstanding characteristic that can easily be compared across the board and choose at least three types of the characteristic.

The Second Step is to determine the needs of each type. Each of your affiliate types will have different needs; some of their needs will overlap, but you should find a distinct difference in many of their needs. If you find that all of them have the same needs, go back to step one and re-think your types.

The Third Step involves the process of creating and compiling linking methods for each group of affiliates. Based on the needs you identified in Step two, create and compile linking methods for each type.

3. Safe Guarding Against Spam

Any time you run a program where your affiliates rely on other signups to generate profits, you will eventually have a problem with spam. One of your affiliates will inevitably get it into their head to blitz the Web with unwanted garbage.

When this happens you need to be ready to take action otherwise it will cost you! Your Internet company can boot you off your server and you can find yourself blacklisted. Not good for business. If you get an email from someone claiming they received spam with your URL, then take it as an early warning.

I am not advising you to immediately terminate the affiliate's account, but be sure to contact them to follow up on the complaint. Let your affiliate know you received a complaint and advise them to remove this person from their list.

If you only get one or two complaints, it's probably not spam, the complainants might simply have signed up for an email list and forgotten all about it. You will know when one of your affiliates is spamming, because you will get anywhere from 10 to 100 complaints in the same day all regarding the same URL.

The best thing to do in this case is to immediately terminate or disable the account of the affiliate URL that was spammed.

Running your own affiliate program can become an extrememly profitable venture for your business. You can recruit a HUGE sales force promoting your products for you, and ONLY pay them when you make a sale!