Jay Dee's Technology News and information

Nokia starts new phone line with C5 model

March 2, 2010 – 10:26 am

Nokia starts new phone line with C5 model

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia unveiled a new C5 smartphone model on Tuesday, hoping to benefit from a booming demand for cheap smartphones and from rising consumer appetite for mobile social networking.

The C5 handset will be one of the cheapest smartphones from Nokia, selling for 135 euros ($183), excluding taxes and subsidies, and hitting the shelves next quarter.

“It is products like this that will grow Nokia marketshare in the smartphone segment and help them to increase their average sale prices,” said John Strand, chief of telecoms consultancy Strand Consult.

Volumes on the smartphone market are seen surging in 2010, with some analysts forecasting up to 50 percent growth, as handset vendors are pushing advanced features, once exclusive to pricey top-end models, into cheaper and cheaper phones.

Nokia continues to lead the global smartphone market with an around 40 percent market share, but it has lost ground to Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry.

The Finnish firm is in the midst of a massive revamp of its smartphone offering and has said in 2010 almost all of its smartphones would have a touch screen, a full keyboard or both, compared with less than half in 2009.

NAME CONFUSION

After introducing the C series — focused on personal social networking — Nokia has four smartphone product families. The E series phones are for business users, X series for youth and music, and N series for the most advanced models.

It plans to use the new names across its smartphone offering.

Nokia has historically flooded the market with phone models little different from each other, with additional confusion arising from their four digit names, which have been hard to differentiate for consumers.

However, the new naming of X series phones may also create confusion as Sony Ericsson has used the name for few years — X1 and X2 smartphones are from Sony Ericsson, while Nokia has launched the X3 model.

Sony Ericsson’s new flagship device is the X10, while Nokia is also widely expected to launch an X10 cellphone.

By jaydee | Posted in Cellphones | Comments (0)

Republicans to Push Against Net Neutrality; FCC Says Start of Process

September 22, 2009 – 4:01 am

Senate Republicans moved Monday afternoon to prevent the FCC’s proposed rules on net neutrality with an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill that would tie up funding at the agency for new regulatory mandates. Observers said, however, that the move was unlikely to be approved in the Democrat-majority Congress.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), ranking member of Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said in a release:

“We must tread lightly when it comes to new regulations. Where there have been a handful of questionable actions in the past on the part of a few companies, the Commission and the marketplace have responded swiftly,” Hutchison said in the release.

“The case has simply not been made for what amounts to a significant regulatory intervention into a vibrant marketplace. These new regulatory mandates and restrictions could stifle investment incentives,” she said. Senators John Ensign (R-Nev.), Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), David Vitter (R-La.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and John Thune (R-S.D. co-sponsored the amendment.

Rebecca Arbogast, head of technology policy research at Stifel Nicholas, said the move was a standard vehicle for Congress to block what regulatory agencies were trying to achieve in the executive branch or in a regulatory agency. “But the likelihood of it getting passed it pretty low. This is standard procedure and a time-honored tradition but the Republicans are in the minority.”

The two Republican commissioners at the five-member FCC issued a joint statement

in response to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s announcement, expressed concern that conclusions have been prematurely drawn about how consumers and businesses are being affected by Web policies.

“We are concerned that both factual and legal conclusions may have been drawn before the process has begun,” said Commissioners Robert McDowell and Merideth Baker. “We do not believe that the Commission should adopt regulations based merely on anecdotes, or in an effort to alleviate the political pressures of the day, if the facts do not clearly demonstrate that a problem needs to be remedied.”

An official at the agency stressed, however, that Genachowski viewed the proposal as the start of a process to investigate how new rules for the Internet should be approached for different technologies. Some wireless providers have balked at the proposal, with AT&T saying it does not agree that the rules should apply to its giant national wireless network because of capacity constraints. Genachowski said in his speech that the rules would apply to all platforms – which would include wireless – but that such questions would be part of a process that will begin late October to come up with new rules. If approved, final rules could be drawn next spring.

via The Washington Post

By jaydee | Posted in Tech News | Tagged net neutrality | Comments (0)

Five Myths About High Speed Internet

July 15, 2009 – 7:47 am

By Chris Rawluk

There are a lot of misconception about high speed internet. With the increasing popularity of broadband service and variety of technologies that power our internet connections, it is important to understand what’s true, what really matters and what is quite simply…myth.

Myth 1: High Speed Dial-Up

Dial-up is dial-up. There is no way to turn a regular modem connection into a lightning fast portal to the Internet universe. Essentially “high speed” dial-up is a regular dial-up service that is “enhanced” by the compression of common file types like text and graphics so they are more quickly transmitted, and by storing frequently used files locally so they don’t have to be downloaded each time you visit a page. While it may help you access your favorite web pages more quickly it won’t increase your Internet connection speed in any way. If you want speed, get a real high speed internet connection such as DSL, Cable or Satellite.

Myth 2: Internet Speed Tests

When you request a file or a web page over the Internet, it is transmitted to you in small data packets that are passed along the Internet from the source to your computer. The speed at which the information arrives at your computer is dependent upon the path it takes. Think of it like maneuvering though traffic. The busy intersections and slow roads can increase travel time. While a fast connection is nice, it won’t help you if traffic is heavy or the web site you are visiting is slow to respond. When you visit a speed test website you can gauge the speed of that web site in sending you data at that time. Nothing more. Nothing less. Does it help you to know this?

Myth 3: High Speed Internet Performance is Not Dependent on my Computer

Often we hear people justifying the purchase of a cheap or outdated computer: “I only need it for Internet and e-mail.” While accessing the Internet is certainly less taxing on a computer than some other tasks, the performance of your high speed internet connection may be severely limited by a poorly outfitted or old computer. An underpowered computer will not be able to render a web page for viewing, stream music, or show a video nearly as fast as a modern machine. With the increasing complexity of Internet content, the need for modern equipment is even more necessary. Your broadband connection may transmit data at a faster rate, but your computer puts it all together into something you can use.

Myth 4: I can “Uncap” my Cable Modem and Freely Enjoy the Blazing Speeds that I Deserve.

Your cable company is secretly holding out on you and they are terrified that you will discover the secret to unlimited speed. Sorry. Not true. First, your cable company is not secretly holding out on you. They are intentionally holding out on you – it’s their business. If you pay for their lowest level of service they will give you their lowest level of service. If you pay for their top speeds they will give you their top speeds. This myth developed out of a half truth: A few years back, certain cable modems could be hacked to bypass the service limits imposed by the cable provider. Broadband technology has matured over the last few years. Modern cable modems can’t be “uncapped”, but if they could, your theft of service would not go unnoticed by the provider.

Myth 5: I Don’t Need a Router Since I Don’t Have a Home Network.

A few years ago you might have found a router in the back office of a business network. Now, you can pick up a router at any department or electronics store for less than the price of the latest video game. It’s true that a router allows a number of computers to share a single internet connection, but even if you’re only using a single computer connected to the internet, a router is an extremely useful piece of equipment to own. Your router sits between your Internet connection and your computer. In addition to acting as a traffic cop in a multi-computer or home network environment – it acts as a firewall – blocking unwanted traffic before it ever gets to your computer. While it is useful to have a firewall installed on your computer, the built-in firewall in a router cannot be beat for simplicity and overall protection. In addition, many routers now function as Wireless Access Points, feature parental controls to block questionable content and can even schedule or restrict access during certain times. They will also allow you to network your modern electronics, such as a gaming console or a TiVo®. A router is the technology centerpiece to any home with a high speed Internet connection.

Learn more about broadband technology and compare high speed deals http://yourcheapestrate.com

By jaydee | Posted in Metro ethernet, T1, VOIP, ethernet | Comments (0)

Registry Cleaners: Why do you need one?

July 13, 2009 – 11:54 am

The registry is the place where your computer stores the configuration information about your computer and your installed programs so that your operating system can use them.

Maintaining the registry is an important step in keeping your computer healthy. Registry problems can include slow performance, computer crashing, and the annoyingh Microsoft Windows error messages.

If any of these describes you as a computer user:

- Has old drivers on their system that have not been removed.

- Installs or uninstalls software very often.

- Have third party programs running such as Spyware and Adware (you can’t stop these from being installed)

- Remove software by deleting them from the Program Files folder.

- Installs or Uninstalls hardware.

Then you absolutely need to be repairing your Microsoft Windows registry regularly! All of the above leave traces in your registry that will only hurt your computer in the long run. If you don’t clean your computer to fix your registry than you are going to be in a whole world of trouble.

Make sure that you backup your registry before you try to clean or fix anything. Most registry cleaners have registry backup automatically for you, but be sure to check them out. Remember, don’t try to edit anything in the registry yourself unless you are very computer savvy.

Why do you need a registry cleaner? Registry cleaners are important because it protects your PC from harmful processes. Is your computer slowing down for no apparent reason? Are you having errors that are not solved by your anti-virus or anti-spyware program? Your PC might be affected by applications that are running without your knowledge. Registry cleaners are a must! Registry cleaners ensure that your registry is clean.

Some errors are just a quick registry fix, while others could be more problematic.

If you keep your registry clean, free of viruses and spyware your computer will last much longer. Spend the time or money now for a registry cleaner to save you even more time or money later down the road.

By jaydee | Posted in Tech News | Comments (0)

Save A Bundle When You Self Bundle

July 11, 2009 – 4:53 pm

High-speed internet, TV and digital phone on same bill!

Cable and telephone companies, both large and small have been offering discounted bundled services for years. Bundled local and long distance, or cable TV and Internet have saved consumers thousands on elective utilities.

With the outbreak of new broadband Internet technologies, emerges a new market for bundled services. You may have noticed your local cable company offering telephone service, and your telephone company offering satellite TV services in their bundled packages.

These bundled services do in fact provide consumers a reduction in monthly service cost, and the big pitch is you get it all on one bill, and all from the same company. To the average consumer this looks to be the “beat all to end all” deal in bundled services.

The frugal know better. Satellite TV and VoIP are both Independent services one can find and use outside the restrictions of your local cable or telephone companies bundled prices. When you start to figure in your own choice of broadband Internet it takes on a different light.

There are many satellite TV, VoIP, and broadband Internet companies to choose from and you do not have to be bound by the rates of your local providers anymore. Do the research and you’ll find you could be saving a pretty good chunk each month by bundling your own services.

Sure, you won’t get it all on one bill, but if that’s what you want, you are likely over paying for those services. You’re really paying for the convenience of having everything on one bill. Shave ten or fifteen dollars off each service, and it really starts to add up.

Saving twenty five or thirty dollars a month might not sound like much, but try multiplying that figure by twelve months. What you’ll save in a year paints a whole new picture and is probably worth taking 5 extra minutes each month to pay a couple bills separately. That’s an hour a year for those with their calculators out.

Why let the local cable or telephone companies decide what features you get with your bundle ? You’re paying for it. You should choose exactly what you want, and what works best for you. When you self bundle your elective utilities you’ll not only save a few dollars, but get what you want too.

By jaydee | Posted in Tech News | Comments (0)

TRAFFIC GENERATION ~ The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow. (Part 3 of 3)

July 7, 2009 – 5:48 pm

If you’re feeling a bit of confusion and frustration about how to get visitors to your website and generate more sales, I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way until I stopped listening to every “big time” marketer that came along with the latest traffic generating trick.

You’ve got dozens of gurus vying for your attention and every one of them has the solution to all of your problems. Right? The proliferation of messages that promise a traffic explosion using new techniques can become overwhelming.

Time out.

Take a deep breath.

Sit back in your chair.

Relax.

Now, if you will focus your energy on a very short list of traffic generation strategies that actually DO work, and commit to continually improving your skills in these few areas, you will be amazed at what you can achieve… WILL achieve.

In part 1 of this article series, we discussed the fact that…

There are only 3 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
3) Steal it.

Since 3 is not an option we’re going to consider, that leaves us with “buy it” and “borrow it”.

We also talked about the “Holy Grail” of web traffic. What is it? FREE TRAFFIC! I want it. You want it. Every disillusioned internet marketer wants it.

Here’s the truth…

It’s a myth.

It doesn’t exist.

There is no such thing as free website traffic.

We’ll resume our discussion where we left off…

In parts 1 and 2 of this series we discussed what your first two priorities should be for buying website traffic (PPC search engines and ezine advertising). Next, let’s talk about borrowing traffic.

There are 2 traffic borrowing strategies that we’ll talk about here.
1) Search engines.
2) Writing and submitting articles.

There’s no disguising the fact that the print books, ebooks and reports written on these two strategies number in the hundreds and even thousands. Therefore, I’ll make no attempt to provide comprehensive treatment on either of them.

However, they’re both important and worthy of at least a primer. So, let’s start with search engines.

If you want to make money with your website today, this week or this year, what is the absolute worst investment of your time?

Search engine optimization.

I know that some marketers don’t want to hear this, but it’s a fact for some of the reasons stated above and plenty of others. The mathematical (im)probabilities of achieving a top ranking for a search phrase that will result in meaningful traffic that includes buyers is… let’s just say the odds aren’t in your favor.

There are strategies that work with search engines to drive traffic to websites, but one thing they absolutely do not include is any attempt to optimize a sales page or for that matter an entire website that’s designed to convert visitors into customers. The strategies that work with search engines offer them what they crave most, which is content. Perhaps in the future we can discuss this in some detail.

The next big time waster that’s closely related to search engine optimization is submitting your website to the search engines. If your site won’t be listed in the top 2, 3 or 4 pages of a search engine, nobody’s going to see it anyways. This debate rages back and forth even with SEO experts who make their full time living doing nothing but consulting on SEO. Submit? Don’t submit?

Following is an excerpt from Jill Whalen’s High Ranking ezine. Jill does this stuff full time and she’s well respected. I’m including this because it’s enlightening. Here we go…

*** BEGIN EXCERPT ***

READER QUESTION: Is manually submitting each site better?

JW: You don’t actually need to submit your site at all to search engines — neither manually nor in an automated fashion. They all have spiders that “crawl” the Web and find all pages that exist, as long as there is a link to them from a page they already know about.

READER QUESTION: Once submitted …do you keep submitting …if so how often? (So you don’t get kicked out.)

JW: Never.

READER QUESTION: The Microsoft submit supposedly submits to hundreds of search engines and directories

JW: It’s a waste of time and bandwidth.

READER QUESTION: Is this good or bad (the number of SE’s submitted to)

JW: It’s neither, just useless.

READER QUESTION: I heard the more the better …but there are some pretty cheesy search engines out there

JW: “The more the better” is incorrect. There are only 4 major search databases that matter: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask Jeeves. Their databases power all of the other engines that make a difference.

*** END EXCERPT ***

Interesting, huh? So, let’s move on.

Writing and Submitting Articles:

I KNOW that there are talented writers online who have not capitalized on their writing skills yet.

If you’re in this group, you need to write and submit articles.

IF YOU’RE NOT IN THIS GROUP, you need to write and submit articles.

You see, nobody is out there grading you. Google does not moralize over your ability (or lack thereof) to write a coherent article. Google will, however, spider the links back to your IBSoftShop if you include it in your article’s resource box. The more you do this, the better you’ll get.

Writing and submitting articles is a long term approach to generating traffic that you should start right now. Set time aside weekly to consistently get your name and your site’s URL out there in various article directories. Can you spare one hour a week? If yes, do this.

I just published an article on this topic titled “How to Vote for Your 0wn Website in the Search Engines.” You can read it here: http://www.gothrive.com/articles/vote-for-your-own-website.html

Next, can I save you some time?

Here’s a short list of activities and “programs” that will consume your time with very little if any result:

- Start Page Networks
- Exit Traffic Exchanges
- Safelists
- FFA Pages
- Lurking in Forums

There are others too, but who really benefits from a start page network, exit traffic exchange, safelist or FFA page? The person who owns and runs it. They benefit because they get to market to you and you get to market to other people who want nothing other than free traffic. Remember free traffic? Forget it.

You could spend the next year whiling away the hours on free traffic schemes or you could find PPC traffic that will turn your $10 investment into $49.85 in profit and then duplicate this success 10 times, 50 times or 100 times. Which will you choose?

By jaydee | Posted in Tech News | Comments (0)

TRAFFIC GENERATION ~ The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow. (Part 2 of 3)

July 6, 2009 – 3:42 pm

Time out.

Take a deep breath.

Sit back in your chair.

Relax.

In part 1 of this article series, we discussed the fact that…

There are only 3 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
3) Steal it.

Since 3 is not an option we’re going to consider, that leaves us with “buy it” and “borrow it”.

We also talked about the “Holy Grail” of web traffic. What is it? FREE TRAFFIC! I want it. You want it. Every disillusioned internet marketer wants it.

Here’s the truth…

It’s a myth.

It doesn’t exist.

There is no such thing as free website traffic.

We’ll resume our discussion where we left off…

Ezine advertising.

I’ll spare you all of the details regarding conversion ratios, etc. since we’ve already covered that in part 1 of this series.

Ezine advertising is very much a viable way to pay for traffic, but don’t use it until you’ve formulated a profitable ad in the PPC search engines. It’s important that you know you have a winning ad before spending money on ezine advertising. Use something that’s proven to get results.

Ezine ads can be purchased at reasonable rates and the cost will vary from one ezine to another depending on the newsletter’s circulation, track record of producing sales and the exposure that you’ll get.

By exposure, what I’m referring to is the type of ad that you buy. Your options typically include solo ads, top sponsor ads, middle sponsor ads, bottom sponsor ads and classified ads. A solo ad is sent in an email with no other distractions. You get all of the attention, and for this reason it’s also the most expensive form of ezine advertising. Top sponsor ads allow you between 5 and 8 lines of copy and are included in regular ezine issues near the very beginning of the newsletter. Middle sponsor and bottom sponsor ads will be similar to top sponsor ads with the exception of the position within the newsletter. And lastly, classified ads are usually shown in groups near the end of a newsletter and are the lowest cost.

My personal opinion is not to advertise in ezines that you haven’t subscribed to. If you’re considering advertising in any particular ezine, subscribe to it and read it for a few weeks before spending any money there. That way you’ll be able to get a feel for the value of the content, the kind of reader that will be interested in the publication and whether or not the advertising opportunity is a good one.

Here are a few sites where you can begin researching ezines that accept advertising:

http://www.gothrive.com/directory-of-ezines-lifetime
http://emailuniverse.com/
http://www.ezineadvertising.com
http://www.ezinehub.com
http://www.ezine-marketing.com
http://www.ezinewizard.com

There are only 2 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.

In part 3 of this series, we’ll continue our thoughts on “(2) Borrow it” – traffic that is.

By jaydee | Posted in Tech News | Comments (0)

TRAFFIC GENERATION ~ The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow. (Part 1 of 3)

July 5, 2009 – 12:55 pm

Time out.

Take a deep breath.

Sit back in your chair.

Relax.

Websites come in a wide variety of flavors, including…
- Minisites designed to sell individual products
- Portal sites designed to sell a broad selection of products
- Content sites designed to provide information

Of the above site species (minisites, portal sites and content sites), which do you think has the best chance of selling a product and putting income in your bank account?

ANSWER: Minisites.

Let’s talk about web traffic.

Imagine 5 different internet users going to Google, MSN, Yahoo or whatever their favorite search engine happened to be, and each individual enters one of the following search queries:

Search #1: hazards

Search #2: household hazards

Search #3: chemical household hazards

Search #4: chemical household hazards for infants

Search #5: protecting infants from chemical household hazards

If you had a website that sold a device that guaranteed the safety of infants by locking cabinets containing hazardous household chemicals, which of the above visitors do you think would be most likely to buy what you’re selling? I know. I hear you. “That’s pretty obvious, Ron.”

We want internet user #5 most. We may also want #3 and #4. Do we want #1 and #2? Maybe… Maybe not. The answer to that is going to depend on what it takes to get them to our site. But before we attempt to answer that question, HERE’S SOMETHING CRITICAL…

My Question to You: “If you were assured that you could get visitor #5 to your website, where would you send them?”

Let’s say that your website had a variety of home safety products available. You sell everything from fire extinguishers to first aid kits to carbon monoxide detectors to child safe locks.

Your site’s home page has just a little bit of information on each of your home safety product lines. Would you send visitor #5 to your home page?

Or…

Since visitor #5 just did a search for “protecting infants from chemical household hazards”, would you have better results by sending them directly and immediately to the web page where they can order your device that guarantees the safety of their child from chemical household hazards?

Please don’t think that I’m trying to insult your intelligence. I’m not. It’s just that I have received correspondence from other direct marketers online concerned about the low sales of their websites only to find out that whenever that person sent traffic to their site, the traffic was going to their home page rather than to a page that spoke directly to the needs and desires of the visitor.

Alrighty then? Traffic time.

There are only 3 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
3) Steal it.

Since #3 is not an option we’re going to consider, that leaves us with “buy it” and “borrow it”.

Before we go any further, let’s talk about the “Holy Grail” of web traffic. What is it? FREE TRAFFIC! I want it. You want it. Every disillusioned internet marketer wants it.

Here’s the truth…

It’s a myth.

It doesn’t exist.

There is no such thing as free website traffic.

“Ya but Ron, what if I could be #1 in Google for ‘Internet Marketing’ or ‘Website Tools’?”

If you were able to get there or anywhere close, what would be required? What investment in time and resources would be required to land a prized spot such as this? Would you be able to get there for free? Furthermore, how long would you stay there?

Let’s face it, neither Google, Yahoo, Altavista nor MSN wants any individual to be able to control the results of their search engines. That’s why they spend millions upon millions of dollars every year taking steps to ensure that nobody has the knowledge to control all of the top positions.

Is search engine positioning something to aspire to? Perhaps. Given time. But it will not put any money in your pocket in the short term. That’s pretty well guaranteed.

There are only 2 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.

Buy it? Yes, buy it. We’re not talking about fortunes changing hands. There’s no need to take out a second or third mortgage on you home to use this strategy. Traffic can be generated to your site for literally pennies per visitor.

Where will you buy traffic to your website? PPC Search Engines. PPC (“Pay Per Click”) search engines give you the best opportunity to find the most motivated buyers and get them to visit your website. This is what you should be considering for your primary method of generating traffic to your website.

Remember above where we considered searcher #1 – searcher #5? We want searcher number five on our website, right? Right. We can and will find searcher #5 on the PPC search engines if we take the right approach. In a little bit I’ll give you a list of PPC search engines to consider using, but first let’s formulate a game plan.

Here’s the basics of PPC advertising:

1) We have a product to sell.

2) We determine what the product has to offer and why someone might want to buy our product. (hint: focus on benefits, not features)

3) We do some keyword research to see if people are out there actually looking for the solution that our product offers.

4) Assuming that there’s sufficient demand for our product /solution, we make a list of the keywords and keyword phrases that people are actually using to conduct their searches.

5) We write an ad for our product in such a way that it gets the attention of the searcher. This may mean changing ad copy slightly from one keyword phrase to the next. Try to put yourself in the position of the person doing the search.

6) We bid on the keywords that we’re targeting with the ad that we’ve written and…

Wa-la! Traffic.

Is this a viable option? Absolutely. Google Adwords ads can be had for as little as $0.05 per click. Overture traffic can be had for as little as $0.10 per click.

If you’re selling a product for $19.95, how many clicks can you buy and still be profitable? One sale out of 199 clicks and you’re profitable. At this rate you only made a nickel, but that was at a conversion rate of only 0.5%! What if you had a conversion rate of 3%? 3% (3 visitors out of 100 become customers) doesn’t sound like too much does it?

If you did indeed have a 3% conversion rate on a $19.95 product and were able to buy traffic for $0.10 per visitor, here’s how the math works:

100 visitors cost you $10.00

3 visitors became customers and spent a total of $59.85.

Subtract your $10.00 advertising cost from your $59.85 revenue, and you have profited $49.85 (or somewhere close after PayPal or other selling fees).

So now, how much can you afford to spend on traffic?

If you’ve been running the above advertising campaign long enough to feel confident that a 3% conversion ratio is something that you can count on, then do the math backwards.

Your net profit is $49.85 for 100 visitors. Therefore, your “per visitor” value is $0.50 (I’m rounding up very slightly). Knowing this is a huge advantage.

Can you find more visitors to your site for $0.20, $0.30 or even $0.40? Of course you can, and it will still be profitable! Obviously, the less you spend on advertising, the more you keep. But if you could find a source of automatic traffic that you knew was profitable, wouldn’t you buy as much as you could find?

This is exciting stuff! PPC traffic can work for you. Yes, there’s a little bit of a learning curve, but that’s true with anything new that you do.

Here’s a list of PPC Search Engines that you should consider starting with:

Google AdWords (http://www.adwords.google.com)
Overture (http://www.overture.com)
FindWhat (http://www.findwhat.com)
Enhance Interactive (http://www.enhance.com)
GoClick (http://www.goclick.com)
7Search (http://www.7search.com)
Kanoodle (http://www.kanoodle.com)
ePilot (http://www.ePilot.com)
Search123 (http://www.search123.com)
SearchFeed Interactive (http://www.searchfeed.com)
eSpotting (http://www.espotting.com)
Xuppa (http://www.xuppa.com)

There are only 2 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.

In part 2 of this series, we’ll continue our thoughts on “(1) Buy it” – traffic that is.

By jaydee | Posted in Tech News | Comments (0)

3 Freebies That Guarantees Constant Traffic

July 4, 2009 – 7:58 am

By Oluwafisayo

In 1931, Ted and Dorothy Hustead decided to move to a town that had four things; a good school, a Catholic Church, a doctor and an opportunity.

They wanted to open their own pharmacy.

They eventually chose Wall, South Dakota, as the perfect location. To others, however, Wall seemed to be in the middle of nowhere – somewhere between the Black Hills and the Badlands.

The first year was a tough one – thick dust, intense heat, and strong winds. In their desire to move on to a more welcoming place, tired, throat – perched travellers rarely stopped. Then, Ted and Dorothy came up with an idea. They made a sign that read: Free Ice Water At Wall Drug Store. The sign became something of a novelty. They made more sighs and put them farther and farther from Wall – eventually, as far as other countries of the world.

All druggists, of course made “free” ice water available for their customers. Nobody however, had thought of advertising the luxury. Eventually, some 4000 to 6000 customers a day stopped at Wall Drug Store.

Josh Billings remarked, “Common Sense is instinct and enough of it is genius.

“When it comes to attracting traffic, everybody has ideas BUT it all seem not to
work!”

I was almost ready to quit when I found a blend of strategies that work. Top Internet marketers use it to achieve tons of results, brand their names all over the Internet, explode sales and achieve record breaking list size in minimum time with little or absolutely nothing spent.

It is all captured in the word FREE and truthfully, if you have nothing FREE working hard for you out there, it is time to get down to work and get up with one!

Here are 3 easy to implement freebies you can start with right now.

1. Give Out A Collection Of Free eBooks.

Go around the web and harvest a collection of free ebooks, then give it away for free on your website in exchange for people doing something e.g. signing up for your newsletter.

2. Write Articles and Give It Away Free.

I wrote 2 articles last year and got 700+ subscribers from it without lifting a finger after submitting it to a few article submission sites. It is surprising to note that my list still grows today as a result of those articles.

3. Put Your Articles Into A Report and Give Away Reprint Rights To it Free.

This sounds insane but if you are smart, it can make you a success overnight. All you need to do is bury your other programmes in the middle of your ebook and “wham,” you start getting dangerous results.

By jaydee | Posted in Tech News | Comments (0)

Follow-Up Marketing: How to Win More Sales with Less Effort

July 2, 2009 – 12:49 am

A study done by the Association of Sales Executives revealed that 81% of all sales happens on or after the fifth contact. If you’re a small business owner and you’re only doing one or two follow-ups imagine all the business you’re losing.

Not following up with your prospects and customers is the same as filling up your bathtub without first putting the stopper in the drain!

But don’t be disheartened if you’re among the 90% of business owners I talk to that don’t do any follow up. The good news is you have ample room for profitable improvement.

Consistent follow-up creates a predictable and profitable stream of prospects and customers that buy. Small businesses that capture leads and follow-up with them enjoy higher conversion rates and a higher percentage of referrals than those that don’t.

After asking many small business owners the reason they don’t follow up I often hear responses such as, “I don’t have the sales staff to chase down all our leads”, or “We’re usually too busy to do a lot of follow up.” These responses automatically set off red flags that tell me that they lack a systematic process for following up.

The problem is not that they don’t have the capacity to follow up with prospects, it’s that they don’t have the systems in place to do it.
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What Does a Good Follow Up System Look Like?

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A good follow up marketing system should have three attributes.

It should be systematic, meaning that the follow up process is done the same way every time.

It should generate consistent, predictable results.

It should require minimal physical interaction to make it run, meaning it should be able to run on autopilot.

Sounds like a dream come true for most small business owners doesn’t it? Not only can it be done, it’s being done every day. The secret to “follow-up marketing” is to make it automatic so that you don’t have to lift a finger but the job still gets done.

With today’s technology it’s simpler than ever. Automating your follow-up processes gives you more time to work “on” your business rather than “in” your business.

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Three Types of Follow Ups

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There are three types of people you should be following up with, suspects (people in your target marketplace), prospects (people who have responded to your marketing but have not purchased, and customers (people who have purchased something from you.)

Each follow up message and offer will be different for each type of person. With suspects, you’ll want to entice them to call you or visit your store / office.

With prospects, you need to persuade them to make their first purchase. And with customers, you want to convince them to come back and do more business with you and give your referrals.

Obviously the hardest type of person to follow up with is a suspect because they haven’t shown any interest yet in a pool or hot tub and you usually don’t have their contact information.

But that’s not true with prospects and customers. You not only know who they are, but you should already have their contact information.

And if you follow up with your customers with consistency you’ll find that they will help you turn your suspects into prospects and prospects into customers for you through referrals.

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Your Follow Up Marketing Tools

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Your principal follow up marketing tools are the telephone, direct mail, and email. Many pool and hot tub business owners make the mistake of jumping right on the telephone to follow up; however, most prospects don’t want a pushy sales message right away and most prospects have been trained to consider anyone who calls up to be a pushy salesperson.

Instead, you should try to develop a relationship of trust with your prospect by quickly sending informational items such as special reports, audio CDs, or videos before you make a phone call.

Remember to always include a “next-step-offer” to accompany your educational materials. If the next step is to visit the store, then entice them with an appropriate offer or if the next step is to call you, entice your prospect to call you immediately.

People move through the buying process in baby steps, especially when considering buying high-ticket items such as hot tubs or pools. Your offer should always help them take the next step.

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Your Follow Up Sequence

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The power of your follow up will lie in your follow up sequence. Your follow up sequence is a series of communications with your prospect that are “linked” together, with each communication building on the previous message.

For instance, you might start your second letter by saying, “10 days ago I sent you a letter…” You might also consider stamping the message, “2nd Notice” on the envelope to let people know this is the second time you’ve contacted them.

Referencing the previous communication links what you’re saying with what you’ve already said and reminds your prospect that you care enough to continue the conversation.

Usually, when doing direct mail you should include three to five mailings spaced out about seven days apart. When using a sequential autoresponder you can have as many follow ups as you want because using email is basically free (that’s why you always want to get a prospects email address).

One of my clients has over 20 follow-ups in his autoresponder sequence that go out over a six month period.

Each sequence should follow a logical argument and you might consider bolstering the offer with each communication using a deadline as a motivator to act now.

As an example, in the third communication you could say, “I’m surprised you haven’t taken me up on my generous offer. What’s holding you back?” Or consider saying, “I’ve written you three times and you still haven’t taken me up on my offer so I’m going to pull out all the stops and make you an offer you simply can’t refuse.”

Notice how the language always links the previous communication and increases the boldness of the offer. It’s the same type of conversation you might have in a regular sales conversation.

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How to Put Your Follow Up Marketing System on Autopilot

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What I’m about to reveal to you is the key to developing a powerful follow up marketing system because it overcomes the number one reason most businesses don’t follow up.

You must automate your follow up system as much as possible so that there are few, if any, physical interactions from your employees with the system. It’s the required physical interactions (i.e. printing letters, sending emails, inputting leads etc.) where 99% of all the breakdowns happen in well-intentioned follow up marketing systems.

To automate your follow-ups you should consider using robotic marketing systems and outsourcing any manual interactions to a dedicated service.

For instance, to capture your leads you should consider using a toll-free automated recorded message system that captures your prospects contact information and automatically transcribes it and sends your leads to you in a spreadsheet every morning via email.

If you’re using a direct mail follow up system (and you should be), find a fulfillment house to do the mailings for you. To find a fulfillment house, simply go to your local printer and ask them to refer you to a fulfillment house in the area.

Now step back for a moment and see the power of what I’ve just revealed to you. Imagine running an ad, having your prospect call up and give their contact information via your recorded message system.

Then having your leads automatically sent to your fulfillment house via email, after which your prospect receives a five-sequence direct mail package containing your most persuasive marketing message — without you lifting one finger!

You can set up the exact same type of “hands-free” follow up marketing system using an email autoresponder system. Your prospect will not only be receiving your direct mail messages, but you can insert your email messages in between your mailings.

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What About Calling to Follow Up?

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You’ll notice that I didn’t say anything about calling your prospect. That’s because you want your prospect to have already received your educational marketing messages and have most of their questions answered before they call you. An educated prospect is your best prospect.

They already know why you’re different, what your value proposition is, and how you’re uniquely qualified to meet their needs. In essence, they’ve pre-qualified themselves before you ever have to spend time physically speaking to them.

This drastically reduces the sales cycle and increases your conversion rate because you have positioned your small business to be their only logical choice.

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Conclusion

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Follow-up marketing will boost your closing rate and dramatically increase your customer satisfaction. Following up with systematic processes allows you to leverage your salespeople’s time and enhance their productivity, which will result in more sales with less effort and isn’t that what you want? Start winning more sales today by implementing your own follow-up marketing system.

Phones for your Business

By jaydee | Posted in Tech News | Comments (1)

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