Five Rules for Dealing with Spam

By: Aubrey Jones

Do you bank online? Do you store or use passwords on your computer or the Internet? Do you send personal information in emails? Do you conduct business on your computer? If you answer yes to any of these questions you could be putting yourself at risk just by opening some spam emails.

Whether you use Outlook®, Outlook Express®, MSN Hotmail®, AOL®, Eudora®, Thunderbird™ or any other email program you will be likely exposed to some spam and other junk email.

Spam is not just an annoyance. It can be dangerous! Simply opening and reading a spam message can open you to viruses that can damage your computer and the information that is on it. Spam that has spyware attached is the most often used way for criminals to gain access to your computer and more importantly the private and personal information you have on it.

Just because you receive spam, doesn't mean it has to be a problem for you. Follow these rules to reduce or eliminate the SPAM and junk email you receive and protect yourself from the unwanted emails you do receive.

1. DELETE. If you don’t recognize the sender, just delete the email. Do people you don't know ever really send you 'important' email?

2. DELETE. If the email asks you to ‘click here to verify your account,’ just delete the email. No reputable company will ask you to provide confidential information through an email. If your account has really been ‘compromised’ you will get a phone call or postal letter, not an email.

3. CONFIRM. Okay, you really think someone may have gotten into your bank account and your bank needs you to ‘verify’ your account. All you have to do is make a phone call and confirm that the email is legitimate. Go directly to the website for the company supposedly sending you the message. (IMPORTANT: Don’t rely on the link in the email since the contact information could be fraudulent. Type in the company’s web address or Google™ them). Look for a Customer Service or ‘Report Fraud’ number and call it. If the email is real, they will know, otherwise refer to Rule 1 or Rule 2.

4. DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE. The ‘unsubscribe’ link on most SPAM email is really just a ‘confirm your email address so we can get more money selling it to other SPAMMERS’ link. Unsubscribing to SPAM won’t reduce your volume of email and in most cases will actually increase the amount you receive. If you want to unsubscribe to an email list that you signed up for at some point but just don’t want to receive it any longer (technically not SPAM) go to the company’s website and unsubscribe.

5. PROTECT. Install Anti-Spam software such as LIST AFFILIATE LINKS HERE or use an internet service provider or email service who does this for you. Find an email provider that provides spam filtering. Remember though, even with the best protection, some SPAM gets through. When it does, refer to Rule 1 or Rule 2.

Follow these simple rules and you can take control over spam.

Aubrey Jones is President and founder of Riverbank Consulting, Inc. Since 1996 he has worked to protect internet banking clients for one of the top US financial institutions.

Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com

Articles Are The Quickest Way To Your Customers Wallet

One way of promoting your website and product can be achieved for free. As an additional bonus, this “free” method can boost your sites and sales, doubling and even tripling your income.
Articles. One of the easiest ways to promote your website in order to generate traffic and increase your earnings.

How does this work?
Write articles relating to your website and submit them to “free content” submission sites. Easy to do, takes little time and can increase your website traffic, sales and of course, your income.

How can article writing boost traffic and income?
The article on the free content site contains a link to your own website. Readers, after reading your articles, may choose to click on the link and pay you an unexpected visit. Having them on the free content sites is also making these articles available to other webmasters who may wish to publish that article on their site. If they do, your article will include a link back to your site. And anyone who reads the article on that site can still click on the link to visit your site. As the list of your published articles grow larger, and more and more of them are appearing on different websites, the total number of links to your site increases also. Major search engines are placing a lot of significance on incoming links to websites so they can determine the importance of a certain site. The more incoming links the website has, the more importance search engines attaches to it. This will then increase your website’s placement in the search results. If you site is into promoting a product or service, the links that your articles have achieved will mean more potential customers for you. Even if visitors only browse through, you never know if they might be in need of what you are offering in the future.

There are also those who already have specific things they need on their mind but cannot decide yet between the many choices online. Chances are, they may stumble upon one of your articles, gets interested by the contents you wrote, go to your site and became enticed by your promotions. See how easy that is?

Search engines do not just index the websites, they also index published articles. They also index any article that is written about your own website’s topic. So once someone searches for that same topic, the list of results will have your site or may even show the articles that you have written. And to think, no effort on your part was used to bring them to your site. Just your published articles and the search engines.

It is no wonder why many webmasters are suddenly reviving their old writing styles and taking time to write more articles about their site than doing other means of promotion. Getting their site known is easier if they have articles increasing their links and traffic and making it accessible for visitors searching the internet. Since many people are now taking their buying needs online, having your site on the search engines through your articles is one way of letting them know about you and your business. The good thing with articles is that you can write about things that people would want to know about. This can be achieved in the lightest mood but professional manner, with a little not-so-obvious sales pitch added. If you think about it, only a few minutes of your time is spent on writing one article and submitting to free content site. In the shortest span of time also, those are distributed to more sites than you can think of. Even before you know what is happening, you are getting more visitors than you previously had.
If you think you are wasting your time writing these articles, fast forward to the time when you will see them printed and wide-spread on the internet. Not to mention the sudden attention and interest that people are giving your website and your products or services. Try writing some articles and you will be assured of the sudden surge in site traffic, link popularity and interest. Before you know it, you will be doubling and even tripling your earnings. Nothing like getting benefits for something you got for free.

So Many Affiliate Programs! Which One Do I Choose?

Ask questions first before you join an affiliate program. Do a little research about the choices of program that you intend to join into. Get some answers because they will be the deciding point of what you will be achieving later on.

Will it cost you anything to join? Most affiliate programs being offered today are absolutely free of charge. So why settle for those that charge you some dollars before joining.
When do they issue the commission checks? Every program is different. Some issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. Select the one that is suited to your payment time choice. Many affiliate programs are setting a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed in order for their checks to be issued.

What is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. This factor is extremely important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale.

How are referrals from an affiliate’s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system? You need to be confident on the program enough to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can credit for a sale. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. Know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months from a certain day.

What are the kinds of affiliate stats available? Your choice of affiliate program should be capable of offering detailed stats. They should be available online anytime you decide to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is the one clicking on the banner or text links.
Does the affiliate program also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales? It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers low sales to be able to hit ratio.

Who is the online retailer? Find out whom you are doing business with to know if it is really a solid company. Know the products they are selling and the average amount they are achieving. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site.

Is the affiliate a one tier or two tier program? A single tier program pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Some two-tier programs are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee.

Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid? 5% - 20% is the commission paid by most programs. .01% - .05% is the amount paid for each hit. If you find a program that also pays for impressions, the amount paid is not much at all. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important.

These are just some of the questions that needed answering first before you enter into an affiliate program. You should be familiar with the many important aspects that your chosen program should have before incorporating them into your website. Try to ask your affiliate program choices these questions. These can help you select the right program for you site from among the many available.

Keeping Affiliates Motivated

Running affiliates programs is easier than ever with
the software and help available now. However, keeping
your affiliates motivated and selling isn't quite
as easy to do. If the success of your business rests
upon how your affiliates perform, you make want to
provide them with the right tools to get the job
done successfully.
If you are already running an affiliate program for
your products, you should know that a large number of
people who sign up for your program never to be
heard from again. You can however, reduce the number
of non productive affiliates by remaining in touch
with them constantly.
Remind them of their usernames and passwords, and
tell them where to log in to check their stats or
get creative. Always keep them informed of new
product lines or changes in policy or procedures.
The key to motivation is making sure that you stay
in touch. Always pay attention to who your top
sellers are, and make sure that you contact them
on a regular basis. Pay attention to who your worst
producers are, and make sure you stay in touch
with them constantly as well.
The main reason most affiliates don't perform that
well is because they don't possess any leadership
or guidance. This can easily be changed by writing
a marketing course, which you can even offer for
sale to non affiliates, although you should make
it available to your affiliates at no charge.
Keep your creatives and sales copy up to date. You
should also provide new material for your affiliates
to use on a regular basis. Providing them with
nothing but a text link and one banner just
doesn't generate much excitement at all.
Provide your affiliates with sales letters, reviews,
ads, banners of different shapes and sizes, and
anything else that comes to mind. Be sure that your
affiliates know the material is there for them to
use. Always listen to your affiliates, and get
the proper feedback on your material.
You should also hold virtual meetings. Set up chat
rooms where your affiliates can attend virtual
meetings on a weekly basis. Be sure to answer any
questions, have motivated speakers, and aything
else you can think of to make the meetings more
motivated.
Given your affiliates the credit they deserve is
also very important. Each month, you should give
credit to the best performers in your affiliate
newsletter. Give small bonuses to those that
perform well, and you can even set up a payment
structure that rewards higher commissions and bigger
volumes of sales.
Always make sure you do everything you can to
help your affiliates succeed and make money in
your program. If they are making money - you are
succeeding and making money as well. In reality -
their success is your success.

How To Capitalize On The Hidden Profits In Junk Mail

HOW TO CAPITALIZE ON THE HIDDEN PROFITS IN JUNK MAIL

Don’t just glance at your junk mail and throw it away! Save it - it can put extra money in your pockets! As a matter of fact, you can make some 'easy' extra money with all your incoming mail...

First off, take a pair of scissors and clip off those cancelled postage stamps. Put them in a shoebox or envelope box and save them until you have a box full, and then send them in to either Fun Mates, PO Box 6466, San Francisco, CA 94101; DuVall Press, 920 West Grand River, Box 14, Williamston, MI 48895; or to any of the stamp collection outlets you see advertised in all the magazine and gossip-type papers. They’ll pay you $15 to $20 for each box of stamps you send to them, and if they should find a 'truly valuable' stamp in with those you send in, they’ll pay you even more.

The next thing is to save all those envelopes after you’ve clipped off the stamps. Be sure that each of your envelopes has a return address in the upper left hand corner - if it doesn’t, and you know the return address, write it in. Save these until you’ve accumulated a box full, and then send them in to either Prime Source Lists, 103 Washington St., Morristown, NJ 07960 or to the List Buyers Group, Manalpan 1000 Office park, Manalpan, NJ 07726. These companies will pay you $10 to $20 for each box of envelopes with return addresses - and a visible postmark - that you send to them.

From here, you simply save all the sales letters, advertising circulars, and other materials you receive - later on, you simply package it into 9 x 12 envelopes and send it out to people who pay you to send junk mail to them. Indeed, there are literally 'millions' of people out there who will pay you to send them package of junk mail!

Here’s how you make it work: Pick up a copy of all the mail order publications you can find - check the classifieds section specifically for people 'selling big mails'. When you spot one of these ads that looks especially appealing, clip it out, take it to the near-by print shop and have them type-set some kind of name, and your address 'in over' the name and address on the ad you clipped out. Run the finished product through the copy machine a half dozen times - clip out and paste enough of these onto an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper to fill up the whole page - and then have 50 or a hundred of these sheets of ads either printed or copied for you. Take these home and save them until you’re ready to advertise.

When that day comes, you simply clip out one of these ads, and along with your letter and payment requesting advertising space, you send it in to the publication you want to advertise in.

Back to all those mail order publications, you’ve collected... Check all those listings of 'Big Mails Wanted', jot their names and addresses down on 3 by 5 index cards and file these in zip code order and alphabetically within zip codes. You then write a letter or make up a sale circular stating that you would like to supply these people with 'Big Bundles' of Big Mail on a regular basis - about once every other month for $20 a year. Have a supply of these letters printed or copied for you, fold them up and send them off to each of the names you’ve collected of people interested in receiving Big Mails... Nothing to it, once you start the ball rolling, the orders will come in and all you’ll have to do is: Keep looking for names of people wanting Big Mails; keep sending out your sales letters offering to send them bundles of big mail on a regular basis in exchange for whatever fee you want to charge; and then, fill up envelopes to these people with junk mail you’ve received and accumulated...

Once you’ve got your first orders, take some of the money and use it to place your ads in the mail order publications you’ve seen or know about. At the same time, besides getting your name on as many mailing lists as possible, send in a letter to the publications carrying lists of people wanting Big Mails and request that your name/address be added to their regular list.

How do you get your name on mailing lists? Take a stack of postcards and type or write out: Please send more information, and either print or type your name/address below it. Then you go through the ads carried in all the publications you want to wade through, and address one of these cards to each of these advertisers. Within just a few days after dropping these cards in the mail, you’ll be inundated with all kinds of offers and opportunities - what most people call junk mail.

You can develop and/or refine this program even further by collecting/compiling and selling or renting the names from the people sending things to you in the mail - this is how many people compile the mailing lists they rent/sell - or you might want to make up a dynamite sales letter, offering to send a couple of hundred names per month to people interested in receiving names for their mail order business, for $50 to $100 per client per year. If you opt to pursue this line of development, your best bet will be to concentrate on selling all the small mail order publishers - again, much of the who and where can be compiled from your incoming mail...

Of course, if you’ve got a 'red hot' line of products you’re trying to sell by mail order, this little operation can just about pay for all your postage costs. You simply include one of your advertising circulars with each Big Mail package you send out. It works - Anyone can do it - So have at it, and the best of luck to you!!!

Get Free Content at http://www.ContentMart.com

More Affiliate Programs 4U

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Earn money by referring new active members to us. ... Many affiliates earns hundreds of dollars each month! We do all the work for you! ...

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Affiliates Knowledge Exchange (login required) ... What Are Affiliates. Become an Affiliate. Affiliate Locator. Affiliate Regions ... What are Affiliates? ...

How to Boost Traffic with Articles

By: Jenny Harvard

Unless your website is just for your own viewing purpose, else internet traffic extremely important as the key driver for you online business. Without the internet traffic generated to you website, you will definitely failed in online business because nobody able to find your website, no matter how good is your sale page, how attractive is your website and how wonderful is your product. The bottom line is no traffic, no sales & no money earn.

That's why to be success in online business, besides having wonderful products and strong sales page at your website, you need to generate as much internet traffic as positive to website. As long as there are people visiting your website and looking at your products or services, only that you have chances to make a sales.

There are many ways to generate traffic to you website. Among the common use methods include:

• Pay-per-click advertising, such as Google Adword, Yahoo PPC & etc
• Email marketing
• List building
• Free Reports
• Newsletter
• Article writing & submission

Article writing and submission is among the most effective and cheapest source of internet traffic. It is the No. 1 internet marketing method that not only generate traffic but also back links to your website.

Article writing is not that hard, you write article related to your products or services and submit these articles to various article directories. Most of article directories will accept article at about 300 words in length, but the safer length would be 500 words which will cover 95% of article directories. Keep your article with 1000 words if you have long story; you will make your readers bore if your article is too long.

At the end of your article, remember to put your author's bio & some information about your products or services. This is the area where you link back your article readers to your website and expose your wonderful products or services. Most of article directories allow you to put 3 hyperlinks on your article.

Submit your article to as much article directories as possible for maximum exposure. Once the article directories approve and publish your article, it will expose your website to many webmaster and other site publishers and if there are interested in your article, they will publish on their website and newsletter. More readers will be directed to your website via the links you place at the end of your article.

Then, start over again, write as many articles as you can and submit to as many article directories as you can found on internet. You should see a dramatic in increase in traffic. With more traffic generated to your website, you have more chances to sell more quantity and earn more.

The Catch Of Article Submission

Internet marketing through article submission is a recognized to be the most effective traffic generation. But it has one major catch which may stop many internet marketers from effectively using this method to boost their online business. The catch is article submission takes time; not just a little of time, a lot of it. And it is a very tiring task.

For example, you have 10 articles and you want to submit them to 300 article directories, each submission may take you 3 minutes (it may be longer if you need to register and confirm your account). You will need 150 hours to complete the submission.

Fortunately, your 150 hours can be saved by out source the time consuming article submission task to article submission services and article submitter software. There are many article submission services doing the perfect jobs. And if you are serious about internet marketing through article writing and submission, then invest on a good article submission software is worthy. Good article submitter software should allow you to effectively manage and monitor your article submission.

In Summary

Article writing and submission is the proven method of internet marketing that will boost internet traffic to your website. Article writing and submission is the most effective and cheapest ways of internet traffic generation and it can be made easy with article submission service or article submitter software.

Article Source: http://www.ApprovedArticles.com

How Many Affiliate Programs Should I Promote?

by Elston Tuitt

The fact is that there are many people who are a member of too few affiliate programs and there are many people who are a member of too many. There are only a handful of people who have found the magic "sweet spot" right in the middle and those are the happy people who are making the most money.

Why is too few affiliate programs a problem?

Joining too few affiliate programs is a problem for 3 major reasons:

1. The bottom line is that you absolutely, positively MUST start earning multiple streams of income. One income stream, even 2 is not enough in today's world. If you are only relying on your job as your main source of income right now, you're a sitting duck for a financial disaster. If you lose your job or your health, God forbid, you could be in big trouble financially. Most people are just one paycheck away from bankruptcy.

Affiliate marketing is the same way. If you're relying on just one or two affiliate programs to pull in the bulk of your income, you're extremely vulnerable. Even if you've built up a big residual income in a program, if it goes out of business so do you.

2. Joining only one or two affiliate program does not give you enough experience to compare strengths and weaknesses of different programs. It leaves you being unaware of different possibilities and that's very dangerous to your fiscal health.

3. There's a saying that "If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." If you only have one or two different products or programs to promote, that's not enough to solve the many different problems people will be coming to you for. You need to have a variety of tools in your affiliate toolbox so you can pull out the right one at the right time for the right person. If you don't, you will be leaving money on the table. It's that simple.

Why is too many affiliate programs a problem?

Joining too many affiliate programs is a problem for 2 MAJOR reasons:

1. You will get way too distracted. Focus has great power and if you have too many things to think about at one time, you'll get confused. When you're confused, you don't take action. When you don't action, you don't make money.

2. People won't take you seriously. If you're promoting everything and anything, people will sense your lack of sincerity and have no desire to do business with you. One of the big secrets to affiliate marketing success is promoting things you have some experience with and believe in.

But there a magic "sweet spot" somewhere in the middle of having enough products and programs to promote that keep you diversified and capable of solving multiple problems for people.

For example, if you get 100 people to visit your website and only have one product you're promoting and your website successfully converts 1 out of 100 visitors to a sale, then you've made 1 sale. But if you have a couple more products on your site that are related but different, you may find that you get 3-5 people out of 100 who buy from you because they find other things that solve their problems. So just having a few different options for people can multiply your income 300% or more without any additional effort.

In my experience, 5-6 different affiliate programs in a niche is the generally the best starting point. This gives you enough experience with different programs to compare their strengths and weaknesses. It gives you enough diversity so you can offer your prospects the right solution at the right time. And it broadens your own affiliate portfolio enough so that you can survive a disaster just in case one of the affiliate programs you are promoting falls on hard times.

No matter what niche market you are in, I encourage you to you diversify your affiliate portfolio and get at least 5-6 high quality, top paying affiliate programs to promote in order to ensure your short-term and long-term success.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com