Find Your Market On The Internet

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Kurt D. Lynn


An All-Too-Common Perspective

I was interviewing a new client recently and was running through the usual qualifying questions with him - the first of which was: "Can you tell me which market your products are targeting?" His response startled me. He said: "well that's easy, it's the Internet!" I paused, not quite sure, how to break the news to him.

I'm sure he was thinking: Wow, this guy is really lame, I offer Internet services, who did he think my market would be?

And I was thinking: No wonder he's got no traffic to his site and he's spending $200 a day on Adwords advertising and getting no conversions.

The problem is that his view mirrors that of many businesses - that the Internet, all by itself, is a market and all that it takes to tap it is to be present in it.

But The Internet is NOT a Market

The Internet is no more a market than a post office or television channel is. Like those, it's a medium - it is a means of reaching a market. Potential buyers can reach through the Internet to find your products or services or you can reach through the Internet to find them. But just being on the Internet - having a website, for example - is no guarantee that you are present to your potential market. In fact, only posting a website is a bit like holding up a sign in the middle of Grand Central Station in New York City hoping somebody will stop and order from you.

Finding Your Market On The Internet

So if you're on the Internet, how do you reach into that amorphous mass of would-be buyers to find your market? It's not as hard as you think. There are several reliable ways to do just that:

Use targeted outbound marketing to drive traffic to you site. Direct marketing is more targeted than posting a website. Use direct mail or direct email to drive traffic to your site. Using banners in market-specific e-newsletters is also a good way to get market-specific traffic.

Use search engines optimization efforts focused on market-specific keyword to narrow the traffic to your website more to those in your marketplace.

Create carefully constructed keyword search engine PPC marketing campaigns to drive traffic to your site.

Ensure that your site is listed in market-specific directory sites to pre-screen traffic to your site.

Use partner and affiliate links to push pre-qualified traffic to your site.

Article marketing - using market-specific content with backlinks to your site is an excellent way to drive relevant and qualified traffic to your site.

A Few Precautions...

Whatever form of market targeting you use make sure they include strong and market-specific offers. A weak offer or an offer with too-generalized appeal defeats your purpose. Also, in whatever you do, it's always a good idea to construct a few test offers or test campaigns first.

Why Target Anyway?

Some businesses do get away with generalized marketing or poorly targeted Internet campaigns - for a while. They might get the "low-hanging fruit" but it never works in the long run. First, generalized marketing is only a symptom that the business does not really know who its market is. This means that the business will have more than selling problems to hamper their growth. Second, generalized campaigns will always prove to be more expensive than targeted campaigns and will always result in a worse ROI than market-targeted campaigns.

Get Serious

Using the Internet as a medium for your market and means of boosting your sales offers many benefits. But if you are going to use the Internet as a marketing vehicle, get serious about it - make sure you don't lose your market focus by throwing offices to the general Internet visitor. Invest in going all the way with it - carefully target everything you do on the Internet - it's not expense and it will pay off big.




About the Author:
Kurt D. Lynn is offers business consulting services to growing businesses in the U.S. and Canada. For more information or more articles, check out his blog at http://www.KlynnBusinessConsulting.com/blog


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Maximizing Profits by Lowering Health Care Costs in an Obamacare Society

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Thayne Carper


Health care costs are a growing concern amongst small and large business owners throughout America. The cost of medicine in the United States is out of control, with the average CT Scan or MRI costing thousands of dollars. Simple and complex treatments, office visits, and procedures are costing employers millions of dollars while decreasing the profitability of their organizations. Because of the rising health care costs, employers are forced to reduce bonuses, reduce spending, and sometimes layoff employees, which increases stress.

Employers can manage health care costs in a society that is preparing for major health care renovation by monitoring the eligibility of spouses and dependents, investigating and reporting all claims, switching to different policies, encouraging spousal health insurance, reducing workers compensation payouts, and developing a legal team to handle litigation and settlement issues.

Utilizing competitive business strategies that monitor expenses closely can control health insurance costs. In 2007 the average employer paid $12,106 in health care costs, with the employee picking up $3,281 of the bill. Health care costs continue to rise, causing employers financial distress.

Conduct Family Eligibility Audits

An employee's family is one of the largest health care expenses businesses deal with, as children and spouses become ill over the course of their policy. It is commonplace for businesses to spend millions on an employee's dependent or spouse. Companies can reduce the amount of money spent on spouses and dependents by actively investigating all non-employee claims.

In most policies a dependent is defined as someone under 18 or who is a full time student below a certain age. The new Obamacare insurance reform requires employers to pay for dependents under 26; however, many current policies set the age at 23 or 24.

Employers can minimize health care costs by ensuring any person over 18 is a full time non-exempt student. Employers can encourage employees to set their dependents up with school-sponsored insurance, which reduces the employers overall cost. Additionally, employers can alter the policies to remove unrestrictive verbiage from the documents, such as policies that do not require older dependents to be in school. Verification of a dependent's status can be obtained from leading national clearinghouses and verification services at a fraction of the price of their health plan.

There are other health insurance loopholes employers can leverage, such as retiree benefits for dependents as well as dental and vision services. Limit the scope of retiree health plans by removing dependent coverage, only providing medical services to the employee's spouse. Additionally, consider modifying vision and dental coverage for dependents by limiting it to essential and preventative services.

Deductibles and Out of Pocket Expenses

Employers can significantly reduce the amount of money they spend on an employee's health insurance plan by utilizing plans with high deductibles, which ensure that their workers are protected in case of major illness or injury. Additionally, deductibles place most of the annual expenses on the employee, with the employer serving as backup in case of life threatening illness, expensive operations, and other expensive procedures, such as CT Scans or MRIs.

High deductible plans are ideal for small and large businesses that want to minimize health care costs and risks associated with high premium traditional plans. Employees are made aware of their high deductibles and take a proactive approach to their health, avoiding expensive hospitalizations for otherwise preventable diseases, such as diabetes.

When employees are aware of the true cost of health care, their overall demeanor towards a healthy lifestyle improves. They also are more appreciative of the services and benefits their current employer offers.

Minimize Health Care Costs by Splitting or Switching Plans

Encourage employees to utilize their spouse's employer paid health insurance package if it is available. The strategy can be marketed as providing them with the maximum coverage, pointing out how their spouses program is a viable alternative. Educate employees on the open enrollment procedure, fostering communication within their family regarding the topic.

Employees can save up to $5,000 by switching to their spouse's insurance, especially if said employee was on a high deductible policy. Another option is to encourage employees to split their dependent's coverage amongst both of the health plans, minimizing financial risk to your business.

It is illegal to demand that employees switch to their spouse's plan or remove dependents from their policy. Incentive programs are unethical but may drive lower health care costs in your organization. Use this method as a last resort, as some employees may take action against the company. Insurance commissioners frown upon the incentive or spousal switching program, thus it is best to encourage the splitting of spouse and employee coverage.

Start a Healthy Living Program

The fastest and most efficient way to decrease health care costs is by encouraging your employees and management staff to live a healthy and preventative lifestyle. Preventative care costs far less than other medical procedures, which reduces the out of pocket expenses for both the business and employee. Offer awards or incentive programs for employees who quit smoking, lose weight, stop drinking, or take a proactive approach to their health.

Be careful when publicly honoring the employee in front of their coworkers, as some may be nervous or reserved, these are sensitive topics after all. Healthy living programs foster a wholesome lifestyle, in which the employee receives routine checkups and works to reduce preventable conditions, such as obesity and high cholesterol. Healthy lifestyle programs can target diet, weight loss, smoking, alcoholism, aging, and stress. Additionally, healthy employees can participate by continuing to exercise on a routine basis and reducing their stress levels. 


About the Author:
Thayne Carper spent 4 years of college competing in student business plan competitions. He's never won a business plan competition and was dropped from his college's entrepreneurial program for lacking potential. Today, he is one of the youngest published experts on the topic of business turnarounds and cost reduction. Visit his website lower supply costs up to 30% for a copy of his report "The Definitive Guide to Doubling Your Profits in less than 6 Months" and learn how you can easily lower supply and service costs up to 30% without hiring a consultant. Learn more: http://www.ThayneCarper.com/


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Plagiarism Detection: How to Win Against Thieves Who Steal Your Articles

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Royce Tivel


Plagiarists love your original content published at EzineArticles and other honest publishers because it ranks high in Google's search results. The trouble is that plagiarists do not include a link back to your site or author credit--because they do not publish the resource box or include a link back to the article source. Here are 5 steps you can take to protect your content, detect plagiarism, and get unauthorized copies of your content removed from the World Wide Web:

1) Include copyright and author information when creating your articles,

2) Set up an early detection system for finding plagiarists,

3) Identify and contact the offenders,

4) Identify and contact their registrars or hosts, and

5) Submit a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint.

1. INCLUDE COPYRIGHT AND AUTHOR INFORMATION WITH YOUR ARTICLES

The first step in the war on plagiarism is to provide copyright information in the article body as well as author information in the resource box. Within the article body, you can include a copyright notice and the article title with it's date of publication. Here is an example of what I use at the end of my articles:

Copyright © 2010 [Your Name Goes Here] [Your Site Name Goes Here] [Site URL Goes Here].
[Article Title Goes Here], [Date Published Goes Here]

If you can do so, use an active link for either the site name or site URL. Depending on the publisher's article-submission requirements, you may not be able to use an active link or domain name in the article body. Even if these are permitted, all active links and URLs in the article could be stripped by the plagiarist, although a non-hyper linked reference to your site might still remain--especially if the plagiarist is using software to automate the theft.

You can use the resource box to positively identify yourself as the author and can include an active link to your web site or blog. Here is an example:

"About the Author: [Your Name Goes Here] has written extensively about [What You Write About], and more. Visit his/her web site at [Your Site Name Goes Here], [Site URL Goes Here], for additional content on these subjects, including many images related to his/her articles published at [Publisher's Name Goes Here]."

I would *strongly* recommend using an active link to your site in the resource box. An honest publisher will include the resource box, will not tamper with the article body, and will provide a link to the article source. If a plagiarist strips out the resource box or neglects to include a link to the article source, the chances are still good that the copyright and author information will be left in the article body.

2. DETECT THE PLAGIARISM EARLY

Plagiarism detection begins by setting up an early warning system for plagiarists. I estimate that 90% of all article theft is done when the article is first published. The worst offenders appear to be plagiarists with blogs. Today, content can be easily gathered with content-aggregator software through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, manipulated, and placed on a blog. "White hat" content aggregation that includes author credit and article source information is great for authors--but "black hat" manipulation of the aggregated content, which removes the author and source information is just plain article theft.

Many WordPress sites are using the Multi User (MU) version and offer "members" a free WordPress blog as a sub-domain. An offshoot of WordPress is BuddyPress--and I have found plagiarized content at these sites, too. I have found that there is little or no supervision or monitoring of the "members." I have also found that the administrators of the MU sites will terminate a blog when they receive a report of plagiarism. In the case of a subdomain on an MU site that has plagiarized your material, the registrant in a lookup will be the "owner" of the domain who is responsible for the sub-domains. Your plagiarism detection system must first identify the plagiarist before you can report them to the administrators.

Because of the blog problem, a Google Blog Search on the title of the article, a keyword, a phrase, or a "snippet" from the article--using quote marks around the search term(s)--is probably your best *no cost* tool for plagiarism detection. Jonathan Bailey at plagiarismtoday.com has this advice for searches:
"I would focus not on titles but statistically improbable phrases within the work, 8-10 words long. Those produce good matches and are easy to find in a work."

Once the search is completed, and if there are results matching your quoted search query, you will be able to look through the results for plagiarized content. I would certainly want to check out a search result that came neither from my web site nor from my article publisher.

Google's search results include a title (blue), a snippet (black text), and a URL (green). The URL will include the domain name of an offending site. Clicking on either the title or URL will take the browser to the actual blog or web page. The domain name will also appear as part of the URL in the browsers address bar.

Even if the snippet of a search result contains plagiarized text from your article, the title or URL may take you to pages with no trace of your article. This can happen when your plagiarized article is published by the plagiarist, gets listed in Google, and then the plagiarist substitutes his own page content for your article: the plagiarized content remains in the snippet but the links go to the plagiarist's own content, thus hijacking your traffic! The remaining "footprint" left by the snippet can be enough to shut down a site or blog.

A great feature of the Google Blog Search comes at the bottom of the results page. At the end of the results are options for setting up email alerts--the early warning system--so you can be notified when sites use the search term in the future.

You are most likely to see plagiarized results show up within the first few days of publication; so, I recommend that you set up your alert to receive an email once each day. You can end the alerts at any time. The alerts can be limited to blogs or contain comprehensive results for the Web as well: for my alerts, I elect the "comprehensive" option for email alerts.

3. IDENTIFY AND CONTACT THE PLAGIARIST

The best way to identify a plagiarist is to do a "whois" or similar "lookup" on the domain name. Using a "whois" lookup for the domain name will display contact information for the domain-name registrant. In my experience, plagiarists do not usually leave contact information on their pages, but the domain registrant is required to include it when the domain is registered--but plagiarists do not always include valid contact information! If you do not find valid contact information for the registrant, you can contact the registrar about this.

Depending on the lookup service used (internic, domaintools, domainwhitepages, etc.), the contact's email address might be an image and not text. In that case, you will have to type out the email address. Here is the registrant's information from a lookup of my web site:

Address lookup
- canonical name: selectdigitals.com.
- addresses 71.18.121.106

Domain Whois record
- Queried whois.internic.net with "dom selectdigitals.com"...
- Domain Name: SELECTDIGITALS.COM
- Registrar: ENOM, INC.
- Whois Server: whois.enom.com
- Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
- Name Server: NS5.IXWEBHOSTING.COM
- Name Server: NS6.IXWEBHOSTING.COM
- Status: ok
- Updated Date: 19-feb-2009
- Creation Date: 08-feb-2004
- Expiration Date: 08-feb-2011
- Last update of whois database: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:45:21 UTC
- Registration Service Provided By: NameCheap.com
Contact: support@NameCheap.com

Registrant Contacts
- Queried whois.enom.com with "selectdigitals.com"...

- Registrant Contact:
Select Digitals
Royce Tivel
261 SE Craig RD #3
Shelton, WA 98584


- Administrative Contact:
Select Digitals
Royce Tivel (rtivel@selectdigitals.com)
+1.3604261221
261 SE Craig RD #3
Shelton, WA 98584


- Technical Contact:
Select Digitals
Royce Tivel (rtivel@selectdigitals.com)
+1.3604261221
261 SE Craig RD #3
Shelton, WA 98584


- Status: Active

- Name Servers:
ns5.ixwebhosting.com
ns6.ixwebhosting.com

- Creation date: 08 Feb 2004 16:50:50

- Expiration date: 08 Feb 2011 16:50:50

In the case of selectdigitals.com, all of the information necessary to contact the registrant is available. In my experience, registrants of MU sites have responded promptly to my complaint and have removed the offending "member"; so it is worthwhile to make the attempt and allow two or three business days for a response. This gives the registrant a chance to comply with the original publisher's terms of service or to remove the content completely.

Sometimes, the registrar or registration service will provide a "firewall" for a registrant. At NameCheap.com, this is called "WhoisGuard." The registrar's contact information is given in the lookup and emails to the registrant are forwarded without giving away the registrant's "real" contact information.

Your goal in contacting the registrant is to get the article published accurately, completely (including resource box), and identified with the complete article source. You can help the honest publisher by supplying the article title, a link to the article source, and a copy of the resource box. You might not always end up getting everything you ask for. At the very least, though, you should be identified as the author and there should be an active link back to your site.

I have found that contacting a plagiarist by email is the least effective method of removing plagiarized content. Still, this attempt should be made to give the honest publisher a chance to make necessary changes. Also, the fact that you have made the attempt will give more weight to your complaints sent to the registrar, host, or to Google. Give the suspected plagiarist two or three business days to respond.

Translating Your Documents into a Foreign Language

If you are trying to contact a registrant, registrar, or host in a foreign country (non-English speaking, in my case), you can take advantage of the Google Translate service. I first create the letter in English and then use the translator to convert it into the foreign language. It is very important to test any links you wish to include in the translated version: you might have to modify a translated link so it works. My practice is to email the letter in English (my native language) together with a translated version. Note: I suggest "plugging" the translated copy back into the translator as a check: translating back to the original language might reveal problems with the translation that will have to be fixed.

4. IDENTIFY THE REGISTRAR OR HOST

A lookup of the plagiarist's domain name will include a list of the domain-name servers (DNS). From the DNS information listed in the lookup above, the web host is clearly identified as "IXWEBHOSTING.COM":

Name Server: NS5.IXWEBHOSTING.COM
Name Server: NS6.IXWEBHOSTING.COM

A lookup on a DNS will yield additional information about the host used by the plagiarist--and the host's contact information. Here is some of the information available from a lookup of "ixwebhosting.com":

Host Contact Information
- canonical name ixwebhosting.com.
- addresses 98.130.254.120

- Administrative Contact:
Said, Fathi fathi@ecommerce.com
1774 Dividend Dr
Columbus, OH 43228
US
6147079374

Similarly, a lookup for the registrar listed in the original "whois" will result in additional information about the registrar. A reputable registrar or host will provide information about reporting copyright infringements.

Registrars often use resellers for the business of domain registration. The resellers also have stringent policies against abuse. For my domain, the reseller is listed in the original lookup as follows:

Registration Service Provided By: NameCheap.com.

Contacting the registrar or host is probably the most effective way to take a plagiarist's site or blog off the air. Here is what I typically do. I create a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint, just as I would for a complaint written for Google, except I do not use a title directed to Google. Both hosts and registrars take these complaints very seriously and, in my experience, take fast action to block the offending sites from web access. Give the registrar or host two or three days to respond before going any further. I use this format for my complaints:

1) To: [registrant, registrar, or host name]

2) Date: [date and time]

3) Identify the copyrighted work,

4) Identify the offending web page, including the search query used to find it ("tower trainer 40"),

5) Provide your contact information,

6) Provide contact information (if any) for the plagiarist (the email address you used for the registrant),

7) Include specific language as to the accuracy of your complaint, and

8) Optional: If I have additional information, I put it here.

When you identify a plagiarist from another country, it might seem like an impossible task to get the content removed, but you might be surprised. Recently, I was able to get a web site blocked by a Korean registrar, co.cc. After identifying the registrar, I looked at their terms of service and here is what I found:

"You agree that you will not upload, distribute or reproduce on the Web Site:

a. any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights...."

After I submitted my complaint to the domain service registrar, co.cc, I got a response the next day:

"Dear Sir, In reponse to your request, we have suspended ..., the domain won't work with co.cc domain for now.

However, I would like to inform you that we are just a domain service registrar. For that reason, we do not have any authority over deleting original web site. It seems keep happening no matter how many times we block up this kinds of sites, abuser do not stop abuse co.cc domain.

Please let me know if you face this kind of issues in the any future, I will try to take prompt action.

Thank you."

The response reflects, I think, the frustration registrars and hosts feel in dealing with the huge problem of plagiarism. In this case, even though the site did not get deleted, it is no longer visible on the Web. If the site still remains in Google's search results, a Google DMCA should take care of the problem. Jonathan Bailey has this to say about contacting registrars:

"...even though it can work, I tell people to avoid sending notices to registrars as almost none will actually revoke a domain over a copyright issue. They will only do it if there is an issue with the domain itself. Your interaction with co.cc was the exception, not the rule (for better or worse)."

5. SUBMIT A GOOGLE DMCA COMPLAINT

If nothing else seems to work, you can FAX a DMCA complaint directly to Google. Google has both legal support and AdSense support. Each support group has it's own FAX number for DMCA complaints (legal: (650) 963-3255; AdSense: (650) 618-8507). For action against a Google blogger, you can file a DMCA complaint online.

If AdSense is on the site along with the plagiarized content, a DMCA complaint to Google AdSense support just might hit the offender in the pocket book. Revenue from AdSense is often the primary reason plagiarists use your articles--your valued content draws increased traffic to the AdSense site.

A useful add-on for FireFox users is SeoQuake. When this add-on is activated, hovering over an AdSense ad will bring up the "AdsSpy" with a link to information about the plagiarist's AdSense ID. The plagiarist's ID can be included with the DMCA complaint.

Plagiarism, Plagerism, Plagirism, Plaigarism

You don't have to know how to spell "plagiarism" to join the fight against plagiarists. You can still detect plagiarism and join the war to remove it by

Putting your copyright information in the article body,

Begin plagiarism detection right away,

Identify the plagarism and the plagarist,

Try to contact the plagiarist and resolve the issues,

Contact the registrar or host about the plaigarism,

File a DMCA complaint against the plagiarist, and

Contribute your ideas and experiences with respect to detecting and fighting plagiarism by joining a forum on the topic or, better yet, write your own article.

After four years of college and after writing this article--I can still misspell plagiarism with the best of 'em. My favorite way to misspell it is, "plagerism."

Copyright © 2010 Royce Tivel Select Digitals http://www.selectdigitals.com/
Plagiarism Detection: How to Win Against Thieves Who Steal Your Articles, May 26, 2010




About the Author:
Royce Tivel has written extensively about digital photography, Adobe, radio-controlled (RC) airplanes, WordPress, travel, and more. Visit his web site at Select Digitals http://www.selectdigitals.com/ for additional content on these subjects, including many images and resource links related to this article.


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How to Decide if Selling, Trading or Donating a Car is the Best Financial Choice

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Leona Arwine


Anyone who is getting rid of a used car has seen advertisements from charities that encourage car donation. Most car owners have also seen commercials from car dealerships offering lucrative trades or know people who have sold their used vehicles through online or newspaper based ads. Unfortunately, all this information does little to clarify which method is best in any given situation. The truth is, there is no universally right way to dispose of a used car. Decide which of the following statements best describes your situation for some specific advice on how to get rid of your used car.

Money is no object, but you have time constraints. If you are not worried about recouping any money from the sale of your used car, donation is by far the best option. Most charities that accept used cars are willing to come to your home or garage to pick them up at a mutually convenient time. This saves you the time and hassle of posting for sale by owner ads, and gives you the added benefit of helping a worthy cause. To streamline this process even more, work with a charity that auctions used cars. In most cases, they will provide you with a receipt that states the sale price of the car, which will make it easier to file a deduction. This receipt will also decrease the chance of an audit.

You own a restored vintage car or a car in pristine condition. Selling your own vehicle is always the best option with a car that is rare or whose true value is more than the Blue Book value. Most dealerships that accept trades offer credits based on the Kelley Blue Book value. For cars with newly replaced parts or those that feature expensive custom touches, this value may be far less than what a car would sell for on the open market.

The same principle applies when it comes to the tax deductions that come with car donations. While the amount that an owner can claim is based on Fair Market Value (FMV) not just the Blue Book listing, deducting a higher price can raise red flags on your tax forms and may bring on an audit. In order to avoid this, make sure that you carefully document all the improvements that were made to the car and take pictures to confirm the condition.

You own a low value car that does not run or requires significant, expensive repairs. In this scenario, donation is the best way to go. Often, charities will accept cars, regardless of the condition they are in. While the deduction will be small, it will save the owner the costs associated with having a non-functional car towed or disposed of. For cars that are worth less than $500, do not expect to receive a huge tax break, but this deduction will have some impact on the amount that you owe.

You are buying a new replacement car from a dealership. This is really the only situation in which making a trade can be worthwhile. Typically, the money that is garnered through a trade will be applied to the purchase price of your new car. Most dealerships will actually offer less for used cars than owners can get on the open market, but the ease with which trades are made can more than make up for the lost funds.

When deciding whether selling, trading or donating a car is right for you, consider both the value of your car and the amount of time that you are willing to spend finding it a new home.


About the Author:
Written by Leona Arwine. Car donation is a great way to donate to charity. If you decide to donate a car, the next step will be choosing which charity. Visit the author's website at http://www.cardonationscharity.com/ to view a list of charities that accept vehicles as donations and how your contribution will help them.


Read more of Leona Arwine's articles.

Almost There - YouTube and Social Networking

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario


Innovation doesn't wait for anybody. It's a constant, vital force, thriving on new ideas, new interpretations of old ideas, and a deep desire to understand the next important step. This generation has been defined by its technological advances, and the creation of a global society on the Web. This society is as complex and dynamic as any physical city or province, and has become the important battleground of ideas for the foreseeable future.

YouTube has played a vital part in this process virtually since its inception. In less than a decade it has grown into a tool for political discourse, a venue for amateur filmmakers and artists to showcase their talents, and a means by which the common citizen opposes tyranny by posting film of those abusing their station and authority. Without a doubt, it is one of the major forces in modern innovation.

Part of innovation is of course the combination of ideas. The telephone wasn't strictly a new concept; electrical transmission of messages existed in the telegraph, and the transmission of recorded sound existed in the phonograph. Combining these two technologies is what led to the telephone. This is also the path much of the Web seems bent on taking, combining and integrating services, and YouTube seems to be no exception.

YouTube's designers have, for example, pledged to implement more Social Networking functionality in future versions of the site. They also set up a new interface that focuses on Playlist content rather than individual videos. What other ideas may be unveiled is a mystery, but while the Web is waiting for more concrete information there are a few steps that can be taken to integrate YouTube into an existing social media program.

Step 1 - Familiarize

Whoever said 'familiarity breeds contempt' only had part of the story. Yes, being exposed to something consistently can cause someone to gloss over or underestimate its value. On the other hand, being intensely and exceptionally familiar with a process or a tool can open up many varied ways to understanding it.

Consider the humble knife. On the surface it's made to cut, either as a tool or as a weapon. However, if the blade is heated up it can sterilize a wound. Knives with a strong enough blade and enough surface can be used as screwdrivers, or to pry open containers. Or think of a car engine. The average user can probably learn enough on their own to keep it running in reasonable condition, but someone familiar with the specific model type in front of them can get exceptional performance out of the machine.

To this end, become familiar with YouTube's new layout. Learn how to put together a playlist, and look at how the rating and comments systems display themselves. Examine the interface aesthetically; does your channel warrant a flashy, playful background, or does it need something more conservative? Spending time with the site on a regular basis will begin to fill in your understanding, and allow you to innovate when it's really needed.

Step 2 - Observe

There is a saying that, "All good ideas having already been discovered, what remains for the innovator is to borrow judiciously." No one has all the best people, and no one has the strongest notions under monopoly. Select YouTube channels that are performing well, and try to discern why. Consider the quality of comments available, and the presentation of videos.

Note, however, that this admonition is to observe, not to imitate. Yes, feel free to borrow a good idea or a presentational technique that will work with your group. However, your group is not the same as any other. Don't try to slavishly duplicate another organization's technique or content. You will be called on it, and despite its penchant for hyperactivity, the Web tends to have an incredibly long memory for failure.

Step 3 - Discourse

As mentioned, YouTube's designers intend to implement greater social networking functionality. What's interesting is that there is already a limited sort of social networking already present on the site, in several forms.

The first is in the comments section for each video, and for channels. People can leave the feedback they feel is relevant, and they do so in staggering numbers. It's not uncommon for even unremarkable videos to garner thousands of views and comments, some of them profitable and others drivel. The trick is to use the social media techniques that work elsewhere to cultivate the image you wish. Converse with them, share ideas and give hints about upcoming projects, and do what is needed to gather their interest in your channel.

Second is the 'reply to' style of video. In short, one party will make a video, and another party who sees it will create a second video and flag it as a response. This can be done for any number of reasons, ranging from tribute and commentary to rebuttal and confrontation.

This is an excellent social marketing tool, as it creates a 'link back' friendliness. Respond to a video you found interesting, and you will send at least some of your audience to that video, increasing their numbers. They may return the favor, or the site may simply link your video in the search function as a related topic. Either way, your traffic increases, and your message gets out.


About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/

In Their Own Way: Stories of Online Branding Success

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Enzo F. Cesario


One of the most important elements of any venture is inspiration. Humans like to have heroes or idols to look up to, people to examine and hold up as the best examples of success. It is reassuring on a very basic level to be able to point to someone and say; "They did it, so I know it can be done."

With that in mind, consider the following web branding success stories. These are not the names that are usually thrown about, like YouTube or Facebook. Rather, these are people who have developed a niche success in their own field, and have become world-famous brands in their own way, and their own time.

Zero Punctuation: The Saga of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

Few stories are as appealing as those of overnight success, and the story of Yahtzee seems to fit the bill. Around late 2007, he posted a pair of video animations to YouTube. In these videos little paper-cutout-style characters enacted humorous scenes against a yellow backdrop while Yahtzee reviewed video games in a slightly frantic tone of voice. Yahtzee tore into the games' flaws with a vigor and incisive sense of humor that spoke directly to the irony-conscious gamers of today. Shortly thereafter, an online gaming magazine called The Escapist hired Yahtzee to produce the videos on a weekly basis for its site.

The result was an explosion of interest. The Escapist's traffic jumped nearly 400 percent following the addition of Yahtzee's series, dubbed "Zero Punctuation" because of his increasingly trademark style of rapid-fire speech with few pauses for breath. The white avatars on yellow background have become icons of the gaming world, recognizable at a glance. Major game designers such as Fable's Peter Myoleneaux have responded directly to Yahtzee's criticism and sent him their newest game to review as well, even knowing that he is likely to treat this second effort even more brutally than the first.

Of course, Yahtzee actually isn't an example of overnight success at all. He's been a gamer for more than 20 years, having played others' games and designed his own as well. He's developed his signature style with dedicated hard work, and the hard work ultimately was rewarded when the right audience was found. The lesson here is both that brands must be ready to jump on the opportunities of the moment, but also be prepared to put in a great deal of work and effort for their brand to succeed.

Yahtzee currently writes for the Escapist, as well as his own website, Fully Ramblomatic, and the Australian magazine Hyper. He resides in Australia, and still produces the weekly ZP show.

Nostalgia Critic: Remembering It So You Don't Have To

Continuing the theme of YouTube branding success, another tale is that of Doug Walker, popularly known as That Guy With the Glasses. A few years ago, Doug began uploading a series of short videos to YouTube touching on things he found entertaining. His 5-second-movies feature was a deconstructionist look at popular films by editing them down to brief impressions, while the Nostalgia Critic was a persona he used to examine popular films and series his generation grew up with. From there, everything exploded into a story of epic web success.

He left YouTube to found his own site with several friends who had lost their retail day jobs. They expanded on the content of the site, adding new characters, additional writers and performers. A team of fellow critics and reviewers became Team TGWTG, video gamers come to the site under the title of Blistered Thumbs, and the site has gradually prospered (if by gradually of course one means that from 2008 to 2009 the site began making $10,000 per month).

Perhaps the biggest element of this brand's success is Walker's rivalry with fellow nostalgic reviewer, the Angry Video Game Nerd. AVGN is a series reviewing nostalgic cartridge video games, and the similarities between the two series sparked comments among the series' fans that one or the other might be stealing the concept. Taking this idea to a perhaps bizarre new level, the Critic and the Nerd launched a series of videos detailing their epic battles and struggles to claim the title of "winner," and both their viewerships prospered from it.

Walker's story is an inspiring one because of the sheer scale of his success. In less than a decade he has gone to making sums of money one would normally associate with a major business venture. Yet at the core of it, he and his friends make short videos about old movies from the 1980s, in their homes, with software and equipment you can pick up at any computer store. Yet now there are people going to comic and movie conventions costumed as the Critic or his cronies, and the various pop culture lines he references have become a new canon of online in jokes.

Closing Thoughts

These two stories are not the rule. There are many reviewers out there who haven't achieved the level of success these people have. However, the fact that they have achieved it at all shows that it can be done, and both stories share the same important lesson for anyone interested in branding: Do what you love.

Neither of these two Internet heroes has branding as his first priority. Instead, the priority is on doing something they love, and always doing it well. Walker's first Nostalgia Critic video is of noticeably poorer quality than his newest videos, and Zero Punctuation has grown more eclectic and daring in its animations as time has gone on. These two have a passion for what they want to see done, and the brand has grown as a result of the effort and love they have put into it. If you take no other lesson from their story, take this one: do something you love, and do it well.


About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the "voice" of our client's brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/


Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Payday Advance Loans Are Now Only One Toll Free Call Away

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Tom Tierney


A friend of mine recently went through financial troubles and asked me, knowing that I'm a finance writer, if I could push him in the right direction for a short term loan to help out with his expenses. Here's his story:

I have finally taken a positive step. I made one phone call and took out a payday advance loan. Our finances are stretched to the limit and one more unexpected expense will sink the family budget. I decided not to take any chances.

The past months

The past few months have been one expense after another. It started when the head gasket in the engine of our 9 year old car blew. I got a quote and fainted on the spot when I heard what it was going to cost. I tried to do it myself and added to the final cost. Then Jimmy turned 10 and we had to give him the bicycle that we had been promising all year. Have you priced a good bicycle lately? The washing machine motor died and I couldn't complain - it had worked faithfully for years. Luckily we got a good deal on a new machine.

Every month

In short, there has been a major expense, sometimes more than one, every month this year and I'm sinking under the weight of all these unexpected expenses.

How about a loan?

"Can't you take a loan?" asked Lisa one evening. "I could I suppose, but that's a last resort. I have to search through the loan company ads, find a company and call them. Then I have to bare myself in front of some person who is going to ask me a million questions. They will ask for every detail of our lives, how we live, how we spend, where we shop, what we buy, how often we go to the movies, every detail of our lives. I can't even stand the thought of all that! There must be some other way..."

The last straw

The note that came up on my computer screen at the office was the final straw. "Until further notice, all overtime work is cancelled". Short, sweet and to the point. Almost as if the bosses know that I survive on overtime work. If it wasn't for the overtime we would be in deep trouble financially. But we like our lifestyle and I don't mind taking work home or staying late at the office a couple of times a week. Now I don't have a choice, I have to take a loan to get us through the next couple of months. Where do I start?

The ads

The papers are full of loan company ads. Many of them are sleazy, mixed in with the night clubs and the racing results. So I asked my good friend Tom who I remembered writes about money stuff, for his job. He told me about one of his clients who give short term cash loans, honest company, no bs etc etc, so I checked it out.

They offered up to $1500 in one hour and I could either apply online or call their toll free number, this was at 11pm and I always prefer to speak to a real person instead of using the computer so I called them up. Everything was smooth and I had the cash in my bank the next morning, simple as that. So ok it costs a bit more in interest than a normal loan but I only took it out for like a week and half. Anyway it saved me a lot of hassle and stress.


About the Author:
Tom Tierney is a writer who covers finance and where to get great deals. His specialty is loans and payday advances. He highly recommends http://www.Advanceloan.net/ for cash advance and payday loans, noting that they offer an online service and a toll free telephone service.

Online Fax Solutions For Your Small Home Business

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Titus Hoskins


Mainly because of these uncertain economic times, more and more individuals are starting their own small companies or operating a business from home. In most cases, their place of work has shifted from a large crowded office building to the comfort of their own home. And that as they say, has made all the difference in the world.

However, along with this freedom comes some major problems of how to stay in contact with the outside world on a limited budget. If you have your own business you will know operating expenses have a nasty habit of increasing quickly and subtracting from your profit margin. A small business owner or anyone working from their home must be able to keep all their operating expenses in check.

As mentioned before, one of the ongoing expenses will be your communication costs. Phone bills, fax costs, Internet fees... if you're not careful all these can add up to a hefty monthly charge or expense. You must find a solution that is cost-effective while still giving you the freedom or the convenience of operating a small business can produce.

One solution many small business owners are turning to is online fax. Instead of operating the traditional fax machine, they are opting for a virtual fax machine or service, where all your faxing chores are outsourced to an online fax service provider.

Online or Internet faxing is simply using your email program and your web connection to send and receive all your faxes. Your chosen fax service provider acts as your intermediary to handle all your faxes for you and your faxes are sent as email attachments (Tiff or Pdf format).

Now, there are many benefits for the small business owner by going this route. First, online fax is truly mobile, you can do your faxing anywhere, anytime. You can fax from any mobile device such as a cell phone, netbook, laptop, smart phone or PDA. This mobility can give any home business or small company extra freedom and reach.

Next, online fax is much cheaper than using a regular fax machine mainly because it is web based so you don't need an extra fax phone line and because it's paperless faxing, you don't have the ongoing expenses or costs of inks, paper and toners. Depending on the amount of faxing your company or home business requires... costs can run as low as $4 or $5 a month, although the average monthly charge is around $8-$10.

To get online fax you have to sign-up to one of the many Internet fax service providers, where you're given a Local or Toll-Free fax number to use. You are also given an online interface or site where your faxes are stored. You can also logon to check and/or send your faxes from here. Keep in mind, each of these different fax providers have different prices and rates; plus, they also vary in the numbers of faxes you can send each month. The average is around 300, but shop around and you will find better deals.

If you're on a strict budget and watching your pennies, you should make sure you check the overage fee which is charged to your faxes once you go over the monthly limit. The average here is around 10 cents but shop around and you will find much better rates. This factor is very important if you send a lot of faxes each month. Actually, if you will be sending a lot of faxes, you should look into an unlimited fax plan, these will cost more but you could save money over the long-run. Likewise, another option which many home business go for is a complete PBX service where fax is just one component, you get all your phone services, call forwarding, voice mail... handled through one convenient system.

One of the best reasons for any small business or home office to use online fax concerns scalability. Because everything is computer and web based you can quickly scale up or down the number of fax lines you have since there is no extra hardware to install. For a small business this is ideal because it gives you great flexibility and growth potential. You can quickly tailor your fax services to meet your company's needs.

One last point to mention about operating a small business and online fax is competitiveness. Having your business totally reachable 24/7, simply means your office or store is open around the clock. This can make your business more competitive in these uncertain economic times and it something you should consider.

Overall, online fax is the perfect solution for the small business owner. It is cost-effective, convenient, portable and available anywhere you have Internet access. It can truly make any business or company more competitive in this dog eat dog business world. It is one solution you should definitely consider for your business.


About the Author:
For more information on Internet Fax Services use this handy online Comparison Guide to: online fax Or if you want more detailed information on Internet Faxing try here: internet fax services.
Copyright (c) 2010 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com/ This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Cloud Computing: Does Your Business Belong in 'The Cloud'?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2010 Anne Sych


The 'Cloud' has rolled in and by all accounts is here to stay, but is it really the magic bullet for most businesses and is it right for you? And are all clouds the same? Here's what you need to know about computing in 'the Cloud'.

The SaaS model that began a few years ago has now evolved into the 'Cloud' computing model being utilized today. Improvements were made to enhance performance and strengthen security. It is a great option for many organizations because it provides:

Lower maintenance and support costs than premise based alternatives

Lower entry point than a licensed purchase

Fast Deployment

Reduced challenges associated with upgrades, updates, and security patches

The ability for remote employees to stay connected

Reduce workload on already busy IT departments

Highly customizable user settings

Lower risk with the ability to easily change vendors if desired

Pushing information in the cloud improves collaboration; business partners, employees and customers all benefit from the ease and availability that Cloud computing delivers. Anyone with access to the Internet can now engage in operations through these web based services.

Another key benefit of computing in the Cloud is the cost savings. Businesses today are cash strapped and are looking to reduce costs without compromising services. The financial benefits of Cloud computing are huge. The Yankee Group estimates that Cloud computing brings cost reductions of 50% or more for IT spending. Typically IT savings demands high up front costs, with savings being realized over time. Cloud computing brings almost instants savings, since there are no large, front end costs around implementation.

Types of Clouds:

Cloud computing offers organizations improved options that were not available with SaaS. Cloud models include:

Private/Internal Clouds -emulate cloud computing on private networks capitalizing on data security, corporate governance, and reliability concerns. Users "still have to buy, build, and manage them" and as such do not benefit from lower up-front capital costs and less hands-on management.

Hybrid Clouds - consist of multiple internal and/or external providers; an organization provides and manages some resources in-house and has others provided externally.

Community Clouds - several organizations have similar requirements and seek to share infrastructure so as to realize some of the benefits of cloud computing.

Public Clouds - a shared environment where service provider makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the Internet. Public clouds may have hundreds or even thousands of businesses running in isolated containers within the same physical environment.

With the advances is security and delivery, Cloud computing is proving to be an excellent tool to improve business services while reducing costs. Author Nicholas Carr, argues that the cloud computing paradigm shift is similar to the displacement of electricity generators by electricity grids early in the 20th century. At first there was fear about pooling services with other businesses, but security measures were put in place and costs were greatly reduced by sharing infrastructure.

The Novo Private Cloud:

Through Rackspace, a trusted leader in Cloud computing services, Novo Solutions has adopted a secure, private cloud for our customer's data. Novo data is physically separated on dedicated hardware exclusively for Novo Solutions, providing high levels of security, reliability, and performance.

At Novo Solutions we offer all of our software as Cloud, Annual Subscription, and Licensed On-premise software deployment options. This gives you the option to try one environment, and switch to other if desired - keeping your data in tact. Please contact us for a free trial, so you can try our software using your own data. Quickly, you can be expediting services and saving money 'in the Cloud'.




About the Author:
Written by: Anne Sych, Marketing Manager for Novo Solutions, Inc.
Novo Solutions, Inc. is an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) in Virginia Beach, Virginia specializing in Customer Support Software. Free trial versions of the Novo Help Desk Software, Knowledge Base Software and suite of web-based Customer Support Solutions are available. Contact: sales@novosolutions.com for more information. http://www.novosolutions.com/


Read more of Anne Sych's articles.