Archive for June, 2009
Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company?
June 30th, 2009 | 
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Web design companies have a lot of control over their clients. I refer to this as “False Power”. The sad reality is that most of their clients don’t even know they are stuck in this potentially painful predicament. This power is usually exercised when a client of a web design company finds a better deal on hosting for their web site and they simply want to switch their hosting provider, or when the “client” wants to upgrade their web site for a better rate than their current web development provider is offering. Here’s what usually happens to so called “traitor clients”: – Current web design company sends their client a hefty bill for switching – The web design company cancels their client’s account – They may point the domain name to another place – They sometimes take down the entire website until further notice You get the point! Too much power is given to the web design company. I truly believe that it is your right to shop for better prices and it is your right to own your domain name even if you didn’t have a hand in registering your domain name. As the owner of the website, you put your trust into your web design company to represent your business appropriately and honestly, only to find out down the road that honesty isn’t in their vocabulary. I truly believe there should be a law against web design companies that can be summarized as such: For any domain name registered by the web design company on behalf of their client, the domain name may not be disputed or need to be disputed, the domain name is automatically owned by the client and is automatically bound by their web development contract. With every new venture, there is always going to be loopholes. From the aforementioned example, what if there is no contract? If you are reading this and are in the process of searching for a web design company, please ENSURE that you have a contract drafted, outlining everything you are entitled to and that you have sole rights to your domain name. See what most business owners fail to realize is that their domain name is as important as registering their business name itself. I will repeat that… Your domain name is “hot real estate”, would you want someone else owning your property? The same applies for your domain name. Don’t get caught with your pants down while asking, why don’t I own my domain name. It is as important as owning your own company name. There are people out there searching for suckers to take their domain name – don’t be the one who gets caught! How to avoid this “Power Stricken” disaster: The best solution is to go out and register your domain name BEFORE you hire a web design company. This ultimately gives you the power over your domain name. At any given time, you can go back and log into your “domain name registrant” in order to switch your web site to any hosting company you choose. When searching for an “all around” package for your web design project, make sure that your hosting is suitable for your needs. 95% of all web design projects don’t need a large hosting package that costs between $150-$500 a year. The most you should pay for your hosting in this case is around $100.00 a year, no more. You only need a large hosting package if: – Your web site is 1000+ pages in size – You’re going to buy traffic in the 1000’s every month – You need over 25 email accounts setup Ask questions when shopping for a web design company! Here are a few questions you should be asking right away before you sign any contract… – Do you provide a contract for all your projects? – If you register my domain name, will it state in my contract that I own the domain name under all circumstances? – If I am late making payments, is it your company policy to cancel the account? – Why are your hosting services so high in price? Why wouldn’t I go somewhere else for $100 a year? – Does it state within your contract that I cannot switch to a different hosting company later on? – Going forward, am I going to be able to hire any web developer for my website updates, if I am able to negotiate better prices? This is another important note: Make sure your web design company gives you the “FTP (File Transfer Protocol)” access to your website. The FTP allows you to hire another web design company to go in and update your website at any time. Without the FTP information, no one can update your website besides the original web development company or hosting company that you hired. In Conclusion: Be weary of web design companies that don’t provide contracts for all of their projects. Be careful with your domain name; make sure that in the end, you own all rights to your domain name, not someone else. I hope this article helps you out! For more of Martins articles, go here: http://www.smartads.info/newsletter
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Simple Steps to Shading Like the Masters
Copyright 2006 Todd Harris Shading is an important skill for every artist to develop. Every artist realizes or should realize the importance shading makes in his/her drawings. Without good shading techniques, drawing people and faces masterfully, is a moot point. Shading is a technique that every artist should attempt to master and practice continually. Shading requires certain tools and steps to be developed in order to master. The ability to shade is determined on how well you can see value relationships, along with a basic understanding of how light works. Value, or how light or dark something is, is relative. Like many things artists experience, no single value can exist by itself. Our eye will automatically lighten or darken. A medium grey will look almost white next to black and very dark next to white. When determining value, it is important to squint or open your eyes very wide. This keeps you from focusing in on a single value and look at all of the value relationships together as a whole. Without doing this our eye will play a trick on us. For example, if we focus in on a shadow area of our subject, our eye will adjust to that specific value field and give us a false reading. We will have a tendency to start averaging our values, making our lights to dark and our darks to light, failing to see the over all relationships. Your sensitive touch to the pencil is very important in shading. Shading can range from blacks, dark grays, middle grays, lights, all the way to whites. Each of these tones is usually represented in your drawings. Your pencil and the pressure applied to it, is another key to shading. It is important that as an artist you understand pressure and pay attention to how it affects your drawings. Blending is also a skill in shading. Blending graphite can be done easily with the correct method. Laying pencil on smoothly with the strokes close together (so much so that it’s hard to tell one stroke from another) is essential and necessary to good shading. A controlled stroke laid carefully with even pressure is important. I also recommend using the end of a kneaded eraser to help you blend. Again, practice is the most important advice I can give any artist. Passion and practice will overcome any lack of talent. If you have questions, feel free to contact info@learning2draw.com.
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Knowing Your Cell Phone
No one doubts that cell phone (cellular) is one of the most used consumer electronics worldwide. But have you ever asked yourself how does a cell phone work? What is a cell phone? The amazing fact about a cell phone (cellular) is that it is a radio – a very special one. The gurus in the line are Bell (1876), Tesla (1880) followed by Marconi and Bose (late 19th century). It is known that the concept of cell phone was produced by Bell Laboratories with the permission of FCC (Federal Communication Commission), and had everything to do with broadcasting and sending a radio message out over the airwaves. In cell phone technology cells divide the city, allowing for the facility to be frequently reused throughout the city. Millions can simultaneously avail of it. In devices that are half-duplex (walkie-talkies and CB radios) two communicators use a single frequency. This means that at a single point of time only one can talk. On the other hand a cell phone (cellular) being a full duplex tool has two frequencies: one for talking and the other for listening. Thus a real-life conversation can take place. Cell phones (cellular) glide through 1,664 channels whereas the walkie-talkie group has to be content with only 40. The walkie-talkie and the CB radio respectively reaches out to 1 mile and 5 miles but the cell phones, because of their ability to switch from cell to cell can cover incredible distances, even while driving at top speed. Each cell is approximately 10 square miles. The cells are usually depicted as hexagons. The unique frequency tiers avoid all possibilities of cross connections. Generally a carrier of cell phone can avail of 832 radio frequencies in a city. Each cell phone (cellular) uses 395 voice channels (per carrier), that is 56 voice channels per cell. It means 56 persons can simultaneously say hello on the phone. In digital transmission technology the number of channels increases even further. For each cell phone 168 channels is available. The distinctiveness about cell phones (cellular) is their low-power transmitters. Most use 2 strengths: 0.6 watts and 0.3 watts. In comparison it is 4 watts for CB radios. The advantage of this is that it can be frequently reused consuming less power. Cell phones are battery operated. The lower the power the smaller the battery. This makes the set handy and light. For cellular technology a city requires a good number of base stations. This can run into some hundreds of towers. But because of the huge number of users costs per head remain very low. Each carrier has one center called MTSO or Mobile Telephone Switching Office. Its work is to see to all the connections. Cell phones (cellular) each have codes, which enable identification of the phone, its user and its server. When someone tries to reach a phone the first thing is to locate the SID (system identification code) on the control channel, that is find out if the phone is within range or not. A message relays no-service when it is out of range. But when the SID is received then the next step is to find out whether the call is within its own home zone or not. The phone also tracks the location of the phone called on a database. Thus the MTSO knows the cell of the called number and caller. Communication is transmitted through the control channel and it is this link that activates the phone being called and calling. These are the facts of a cell phone (cellular) as explained for a layman. It is always advisable to know at least the basics of a cell phone since it has become an integral part of our life.
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Direct Mail Sales Letters
Direct mail sales letters are more difficult to read than most types of business correspondences because of two primary reasons: firstly, direct mail sales letters are unsolicited which basically means you’ve no right to expect that your recipient will indeed read your letter, much less open it. This leads to the second reason – people who had actually taken the time to open them were unfortunately bombarded with so much junk that they become cynical about all direct mail sales letters in general. And the worst part about all this is that you can’t really do anything about it. You can’t force people to open your mail. What you can do however is write a killer copy that will reward people who generously took the chance on your direct mail sales letter. You’ll learn how to reward these people with an effective copy that benefits you both as you read on. What is a Direct Mail Sales Letter? Before anything else, it’s important that you understand what a direct mail sales letter. A lot of businesses start sending such letters without even being aware of what its real purpose is leading to failure in their part and further compounding the problem with cynical customers for businesses who are doing things right. Although there’s certainly an intention to sell with a direct mail sales letter, that isn’t your primary purpose. What you should hope to obtain is actually a confirmation or a positive sign from the customer about his openness of receiving similar mail about other products and services offered by your company. When permission is granted for further contact, your direct mail sales letter has achieved its objective and sooner or later, you’re sure to make a sale. So remember: go after leads and not sales! But if you manage to sell something outright then that’s certainly nothing to be ashamed about. Hooray for you, actually! Unsolicited but Personalized You have to compensate for the fact that direct mail sales letters are unsolicited by personalizing the letter. Don’t address the recipient as “the customer” or something equally impersonal. Use the pronoun “you” to strike a conversational tone for your letter. Also, take the time to know more about your recipient and make sure that you address him or her by their given name. Talk about common interests and always think about their viewpoint and how things would seem when you’re in their shoes. What’s in it for Them? That’s the most important question in readers’ minds when they “deign” to open a direct mail sales letter. And they want to know about this immediately. No beating around the bush. No long explanations. If a list must be provided, it must be done so in bullet form. Focus on what they’d get and not how great the product or service you’re offering is. Not Everyone are Bookworms Don’t make the mistake of assuming that all of your recipients would be willing to read one long paragraph another about your products and services even if it adds up to a simple one-pager. Only a few people are willing to digest a heavy amount of information that they haven’t asked for much less are interested in. If you want them to read your direct mail sales letter up to the very last postscript, you need to break down your letter into short but fact-filled paragraphs. Discursive may work for a number of fiction genres, but it’s definitely not something that helps direct mail sales letters gain their objectives. Be brief. Skip a line after every paragraph. And most important of all, don’t waste your reader’s time with useless information. A Call for Action The last part of any sales letter –direct mail or not– must always contain a strong call for action. It must make the recipient feel that responding in the desired way is urgently needed. Be careful however in avoiding crossing the boundaries of assertiveness and aggressiveness by becoming pesky and irritating. Visuals and Overall Effects Matter Proofread your direct mail sales letter for grammatical and punctuation errors. Use the right format. Use the appropriate margins, font type, size, and color. Highlight words if necessary. Use bold, italics, or a change in font color to stress important facts. Incorporate these tips into your direct mail sales letters and you’re already rewarding your readers more than you know!
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Businesses Catching Up With Technology
The fast pace of technology and the presence of the Internet has provided more than just plain surfing and gathering of information from anywhere in the world. The Internet offers an opportunity to undertake business and money-making endeavors for people who have a knack of the entrepreneurialism -like attitude of getting into business and studying the rate of returns from getting into such. Given the chance, peoples and technology adept people would surf the net to find various ways of being able to raise money for themselves while at the same time honing their business experience level without much leg work needed. With this said the opportunity for aids and software development has slowly adhered to this evident demand and need. Among the sites that most people see today is a ready online business where transactions can be made. All of this is done by mere sign-ups and registrations for affiliation with such sites. Taking note of the disclaimers and policies to abide by, anyone can practically put up his or her online store in matter of minutes. The system implement always aims to answer all the possible questions that a person would ask and look for. Trading is the best way to term most people who do business online. Selling items or services online is the easiest way to adapt to such online businesses. There are a number of sites that have offered this type of a business, answering all the needs of the common consumer and entrepreneur as far as trying to dispose of items and earning profits from such transactions as well. The issue regarding the compatibility of such software also lies in the type of programming language that is used. Java, Html and Perl type of programming languages depend on the requirements set by the hosting mother site. In most cases, the programs that offers the easiest way of interface would be the one chosen, since technically, people are not much concerned about how sophisticated and convincing the system methodology that is implemented as long as they are easy to understand and digest. This is something that is also taken into account. Not all people are technologically educated to fully understand the whole system that is implemented. All people care about is how to sell their goods and the popularity and incoming traffic that an online website such as Fine Store has. This concept has been adapted by Fine Store, optimized to ensure that all items, affiliates and the entire site is seen all over the world. This is why that search engine optimization for the site is a key attraction so that people may be able to consider sites as Fine Store as one of their stops as far as becoming affiliated with their venture for pushing online buying and selling. The technology adapted for such sites will sure draw the attention of competing websites who are after the same business and consumer base. There are a lot of sites that are into the same concept, like Ebay and Amazon, two of the largest auction and online selling websites known to this day. Moreover, no implemented system is guaranteed to be perfect. Continuous improvements and revisions for a better system to enhance current processes by implemented systems will be also on the minds of developers and site owners everyday. The best bet for being able to identify areas needed for improvement will always be the affiliated people and visitors of the site. This widens the ideas for improvement for a better operating process as far as the online business is concerned. It is the only way to be one step ahead since no matter how impressive developed systems are, areas for improvement and enhancements will always be an issue. The best feedbacks come from another point of view. In most cases, a one sided view on the part of the hosts and managing party does not cover the entire ordeal. While not all feedbacks may be of value, all comments and suggestions for the improvement of the business aspect will surely be something worth hearing from. Just like in actual businesses, software development of programs for business improvement and related purposes will always have bugs and loopholes in them. That is why the endorsement and patronization of people will be a key indicator in identifying such loopholes and once again compile a complete system to answer the demands and needs that most people look for in a system.
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Posted in web development | 
Tags: applications, computers, operating systems, software | 
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How To Have A Quick Start In Network Marketing
The first thing that we to understand when starting our own network marketing business is that this is not going to be something that will net us two million dollars in two weeks. We have to treat it like any business and put in both our time and money. With that said, let us look at some ways to explode our business in the shortest time possible and the least amount of dollars spent. The first thing that we need to do is register a domain and forward it to our affiliate site. This will help make our business more professional looking which will help drive more cash into our pockets. This can be done through many sites; just do a search for domains and you will find a ton of companies selling them. I personally use Godaddy for all my domain needs. Then next thing that we can do to explode our business is advertise via signature files. All we need to do is simply search for forums we would like to participate in and set up a signature file (also known as a resource box) with our domain in it. The goal is to add one post everyday to each forum, keeping in mind people only want to read legitimate posts. This may take some time to generate results but it is well worth the effort. The next thing that we need to look at is using pay per click tools such as Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing to drive traffic to our site. This is easy to set up and can bring in a lot of site hits. The biggest thing here is not spending too much for each click. Take a look at what other people are paying for the same type of services and what the return on the investment would be. Finally, another way that we can we can open our business with a bang is through the use of ezines. Ezines are essentially online magazines where you can pay to have an advertisement placed. This is a fairly cheap method of marketing and can generate wonderful results. It’s time to get off to a great start.
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Posted in Internet |
Tags: affiliates, home business, marketing, mlm, mlm help, network marketing, work at home, work from home |
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Keeping A Customer Relationship Scorecard
Keeping a customer relationship scorecard can help your business employees be aware of their duties and the way they are supposed to interact with customers on a regular basis. The customer relationship scorecard is a simple and effective way of keeping track of how well your business does in relationship with customers on an ongoing day to day basis. By providing a clear definition of what you expect and desire from employees and staff, the customer relationship scorecard can effect a communicating of desires to your customer relationship team in general. Once the customer relationship staff is focused on following the customer relationship scorecard to a tee, it is amazing how much smoother that the organization flows and their relationship with their customers and the way that they handle customer service and customer related issues. Utilizing the customer relationship scorecard can bring staff members in line with the concept of making the customer feel as if they are the number one entity in the business chain of events. Thanks to the customer relationship scorecard, each and every individual employee and staff will have full knowledge of how to deal with customers on a day-to-day basis and what they expect to see from the customer relationship employees. In the event that your business focus is on customer service and customer relationships, it is even more important that the customer relationship scorecard be adhered to and utilized as often as possible in the attempt to create the most customer friendly environment and a perfect relationship with available clientele. With this extremely high standard in mind, creation of the customer relationship scorecard should take into consideration all the different aspects of customer relationship management and other functions of customer relationship staff. Maintaining a healthy and functional communication with staff and management employees is an important part of maintaining the customer relationship management oriented workforce and keeping them abreast of current and ongoing company policy. This method of maintaining a customer relationship scorecard and staying current with the needs and relationships of consumers and staff can bring a whole new aspect of customer service and customer relationship management to the company and its attempts to garner interest with their consumer and clientele base. Knowing that you are being cared for is a big part of making a customer comfortable, and this should be addressed on the customer relationship scorecard. As employees and staff are hired on, the customer relationship scorecard can be explained to them in detail so that from day one, each and every employee and staff knows the entire routine of how to accommodate the customer relationship scorecard and the rules set down by staff management. Once this information has been passed on, the new recruit can begin learning more and more about how to deal with customers and obey the customer relationship scorecard, which at this point should be a well thought out and robust instrument. Completing the customer relationship scorecard and ensuring that every employee and member of your staff is aware of the relationship scorecard is a critical element in effectively providing strong customer service.