That Payday Punch

1. Use a hand written letter on your ad copy instead of text. Write the ad on a piece of paper, scan it and publish the ad on your web page. Adding a personal touch will always increase your sales.

2. Publish a list of famous and respected customers who have bought from you on your a copy. People will think that if these people bought from you, they should also trust your business and purchase your products. Make sure to get their permission first.

3. Show before and after photos for your products on your web page copy. Show the problem picture and then beside it, show the picture of the resolution to the problem when they use your product.

4. Include an article or review that has been written about you or your business with your ad copy. This will show people that your business is respected and will increase your credibility.

5. When you offer free bonuses in your ad copy, also list the dollar value beside each bonus. People will feel they’re getting a good deal and it will increase the value of your product.

6. Hire a famous person to endorse your product or service. Make sure the person is well known to your target audience. Include their picture and statements on your ad copy.

7. Include your own picture on your ad copy. This will show people that you’re not hiding behind your ad copy and will increase their trust. Also, include your contact information below the picture and a brief statement or quote.

8. Tell your potential customers on your ad copy that you will donate a percentage of their purchase price to specific charity. This will show them you really care about the people. They may just buy your product to donate to the charity.

9. Ask your potential customers plenty of yes and no questions in your ad copy. The questions should remind them of their problem and make them think about what will happen if they don’t purchase your product.

10. Tell your potential customers they will receive a free prize if they find the five words in your ad copy that are misspelled or spelled backwards. The longer you can keep someone reading your copy the greater chance of them purchasing.

It never ceases to amaze me how few sales people make the time to follow-up after they have made initial contact with a prospect or customer. In the last few months, I can think of at least eight different situations in my own life (business & personal) when a salesperson did not bother taking this initiative. These included a landscaper who designed plans for our property, two different people who spoke to me about creating a promotional piece of literature for my business, a sales rep for a pool company, and a men’s fashion salesman who was asked to send information. In each of these situations I was very interested in the product or service offered by the vendor. This got me wondering…why don’t people follow-up? I think there are several reasons. They don’t want to appear pushy. It may be true that following up too frequently will come across as being pushy. However, very few salespeople ever come close to crossing this line. In fact, one the few times, I left a salesperson was pushy was more because of his tone, rather than fact he actually followed up. As a sales professional, I believe it is our responsibility to keep following up with our prospects until we know for certain if they want to do business with us. However, I also strongly believe that we can cross that line by making too many calls in a short period of time. So where’s the happen balance? It depends on your business. A weekly call is more than enough to keep in touch providing you make sure your call is short and to the point. Don’t waste your prospect’s time by droning on and on. Also, if possible, provide some additional value during your follow-up call. This may give your prospect a reason to choose you instead of a competitor. They forget. It’s easy to forget considering how busy we are. We may have every intention of calling our prospect but we get caught up in our business. Unexpected problems crop up, we find ourselves spending more time in meetings ad stuck in traffic, and because we didn’t schedule the follow-up, it doesn’t get done. This is a common dilemma but one that can be avoided by considering the follow-up like a scheduled appointment. They make false assumptions. I once submitted a proposal to a company and told them I would follow-up on a certain day and time. Unfortunately, I was extremely sick that particular day and it was several days before I recuperated. I then wrestled with whether or not I should call him. I was concerned he would question why I didn’t call as scheduled. In the end, a simple apology was enough to rectify the situation and move the sales process forward. When someone doesn’t immediately return our phone call or email message, we usually assume the worst – even if this assumption is not verified. I have learned from experience that a lack of response can often be attributed to the fact that the other person is just too busy to respond or does not have an answer for you. They think that the customer or prospect will contact them. I think this is one of the most common myths sales people fall prey to. They think that if they do a good job the customer will automatically call us back – we don’t need to follow-up. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on this if we want to achieve our sales goals. People get busy, they forget or procrastinate and the more time that slips by, the less important your product or service may be to that prospective customer. They have never been taught. Many people have never received formal sales training and have not learned why they should follow-up and how to make this happen. This is relatively easy to remedy. Start by asking or telling your prospect that you will follow-up on a specific day or time. Tell them how you will follow-up (telephone, email, face-to-face) and record this in your day planner or time management system. I use Outlook and now include a reminder so I don’t forget to follow-up. Follow-up should also be completed after the sale is completed. A quick telephone call after your product or service has been delivered confirms their decision to buy from you. I make an effort to send every client a handwritten thank-you card once the sale has been confirmed and again when the services they requested have been delivered. Here’s the bottom line. You can easily differentiate yourself from your competition by making the effort to follow-up with your prospects and customers. Don’t take it for granted that they will call you. Be proactive and contact them.

© 2005 Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved

Of course, the number one way you can improve your client’s online purchasing experience is to accept credit cards on your site, because most of your clients will prefer to use their debit or credit card, rather than send checks through the mail. Credit and debit card purchases are immediate and secure; paper checks are the least secure method of making a purchase from an online seller.

Accepting payments online will also make it far less likely that customers will forget about your site or its address, decide to buy from a competitor who accepts online payments, or put off making a buying decision.

Once you’re accepting credit cards online, there are several other ways that you can improve the buying experience, particularly for those who are new to the Internet and may be apprehensive about completing a transaction online.

#1 – Explain what will happen during checkout and keep the customer informed during the buying process.

Giving a brief description of the process, reassures the customer that they’re on the right track to a successful purchase and let them know when the transaction is complete. For many people, buying online is something they do with great hesitancy; anything you can do to lessen their concerns will be appreciated by your customers.

#2 – Let your customers know that their information is protected and their transaction is taking place on a secure server.

Ensure that your payment page can be clearly identified as a secure site. The components of a secure site include a web address that starts with https; that indicates that the payment page is located on a secure server, and the display of a padlock symbol or logo that can be ‘clicked on’ to confirm that there is a valid secure certificate associated with the secure server.

It can also help if your secure page starts with the word “secure” as the first part of the web address.

#3 – Send automated Thank You Notes and Personal Receipts to your customers

The transaction isn’t necessarily over when your customer has paid their money and collected their goods. One of the ways you can follow up with your client is to send them an automated note thanking them for their business, as well as a means to contact you after the sale. This also allows you to mention other services and products that you sell, that your customer may be interested in at a later date. Many merchants don’t do this – going the extra mile sets you apart from the crowd.

Subsequent to the thank you note, give your clients another indication that you’ve received their order, by sending a personalized receipt once the order is complete. That way, they have an immediate record of what they’ve bought and can print it for their records.

#4 – Brand your Payment Pages

Having a branded payment page not only makes you look more professional, it will increase your ‘conversion rate’ and reduce your ‘abandonment rate’. Customers will be more trusting and therefore more likely to complete a purchase online if your payment page has the look and feel of your web site. This is especially true of individuals buying online for the first time and those who are buying from you for the first time. Trust, comfort and confidence play a major role in the buying decision of all online customers.

A branded payment page will also allow you to determine what information your customer must provide to complete a purchase rather than having to provide account numbers and other extraneous information that generic payment services require. The simpler and more intuitive your checkout process is, the less likely it is that a potential customer will ‘abandon’ a purchase mid sale because they were confused or didn’t understand what was required to complete a purchase.

#5 – Place your Logo on your Payment Pages

A generic payment page can imply a generic company. You want your company to stand out in your customer’s mind so that they will remember you and buy from you again. There are millions of generic payment pages online; no-one remembers them. Take every opportunity to brand yourself and your business. Generic is grey in a colored world; branded done right, gets noticed and remembered.

#6 – Put your business name on your customer’s credit card receipt

An important part of accepting online payments is ensuring that your customers can tell to whom they made a payment when they receive their credit card or bank statement. Ensure that your payment services provider can put your business name on your client’s credit card or bank statement. This will save you from dealing with chargebacks and provide you with another way to reinforce your brand and keep it in the mind’s of your customers.

#7 – Make Checkout Simple

The easier it is to take an order from you, the less likely it is that the customer will abandon the sale at the ordering page. Simple is best; simple and branded is better.

Keeping those guidelines in mind will enhance the purchasing experience at your site. All that remains is finding your next customer.

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Spyware is more dangerous than a virus. It can steal personal data and track your internet habits. It might be concealed in a free screensaver or other software that you download. Computer safety expert Leif Wheeler advises us to be aware of any offer of free software. Many times, spyware is hidden in legitimate software. Be cautious of deals offered by well-known companies. Crooks and thieves often create web sites that resemble Adobe, Google or Microsoft, says Wheeler. They instruct you to download upgrades which secretly contain spyware. Common sense should tell you to download things like screensavers or wallpaper only from a company’s registered web site. Have a safety talk with anyone who uses your computer. Run an anti-spyware application. The schemes for stealing are the same, notes Wheeler. What’s changed is the technology. The rest of us have to try to stay one step ahead.

There is a type of spyware that the New York Times has labeled as “Stealware” and what spyware researcher Ben Edelman refers to as “Click Fraud”, also known as “Affiliate Fraud”. The most notable vendors of this kind of spyware are 180 Solutions and WhenU. This spyware redirects the payment of the rightful affiliate’s commission to the account of the spyware vendor.

An instance of spyware rarely “exists” alone. An afflicted computer can rapidly become corrupted with a lot of spyware devices. Frequently, users will notice erratic behavior and a decline of the system’s operation. Spyware contamination can cause considerable inappropriate CPU activity, network traffic, disk usage and the slowing-down of the legitimate uses of these resources. Stability issues, system crashes and application crashes are also very common. Spyware which disrupts the networking software normally causes problems connecting to the Internet.

A Trojan horse, by definition, sneaks in a danger-some program cloaked as something acceptable. Many spywares get spread in this way. The representative of the spyware presents the program as a suitable utility, for example, as useful software or as a web-accelerator. Users then install the software not suspecting that it could do harm to their computer. A classic case of this is Bonze Buddy, a spyware application designed to trick children, claims that: “He will explore the Internet with you as your very own friend and sidekick! He can talk, walk, joke, browse, search, e-mail, and download like no other friend you’ve ever had! He even has the ability to compare prices on the products you love and help you save money! Best of all, he’s FREE!”

Often times, spyware programs are revealed by visibly presenting advertisements. Some spyware simply displays pop-up ads on a pre-determined schedule. For example, a pop-up may appear when the user opens a new browser window. Yet other types display ads when the user visits a specific type of site. Spyware developers use this as a selling point when pitching their wares to advertisers who want to buy ad placement in pop-ups shown when the user lands on a particular site. It is also one of the reasons why spyware programs collect and store information on user behavior.

Leif Wheeler began marketing on the internet in 1992 and he retired in 2004.
Leif’s internet-time is now spent researching and writing articles
that improve everyone’s internet experience.
Benefit from Leif’s vast experience at http://www.leifwheeler.com.

The HOTEL LENTO to few minutes from the heart in Naples and from the most important cultural and sporting centers. Well connected to Naples by bus of line, station F.S. of Aversa and station meter of Melito, it is found between Naples and Caserta and it is the ideal center for a stay rich in excursion.

HOTEL LENTO has 22 comforting and pleasant rooms, all allowed with:
Private Bathroom, TV, Frigobar, Conditioned Air, direct Phone, Phon.

The room Cafe is very pleasant: a warm and soft atmosphere, besides the ristorazione it is particularly accurate of, with kitchen casereccia and local specialty.
The restaurant offers spaces devoted to Ceremonies, Banquets, Birthdays.

Hotel Lento is easily accessible in car and it is well connected with the means of transport (bus, metr and train).

Tangential: “Capodichino” exit 8 Km.
Airport Capodichino 8 Km.
Port: Beverello 10 Km.
Bus: stop at 50 mt.
Median axle: exit 250 mt.

Planning a trip to Italy? The top 3 destinations in Italy are Rome, Venice and Florence; for example, in order to make it easy to find an hotel in Rome, you can have a look at our advanced search. Simple as 1-2-3, the same method can be applied to find an Hotel in Florence, or to compare price for different accommodations in Venice, from bed and breakfast to Hotels.

Cleanup in Aisle 451

Well, that depends on which list you mean. There are several crumb trails that can reveal your web whereabouts to others who might be snooping around your computer. Let’s look at some ways to clear your digital tracks with the most popular browsers.

First, there’s the address box (up near the top of the screen), where you type in web addresses (URLs) of sites that you want to visit. Those addresses accumulate in the dropdown box that you can access with the little down-arrow on the right of the address box, and some of them will display below the address bar as you enter URLs. This can be very handy or very embarrassing, depending on who’s watching over your shoulder and where you’ve been.

And then there’s the browser history, which logs the date, time and web address of every page you have visited. A lot of people are not aware that this history log even exists, so if it’s YOU that’s spying on your colleague, spouse or child, it’s the first place to look. Just press Ctrl H and the History panel will appear on the left side of your browser screen.

Fortunately, it’s very easy to clear out the address bar entries and the browser history. With Internet Explorer, click on Tools -> Internet Options and then whack the Clear History button. Firefox users, click on Tools -> Options, click on Privacy, then hit the Clear button next to History. That’s it — tabula rasa, squeaky clean.

Almost…

If you’re surrounded by non-techies, that should take care of the snoopers. But you may also want to remove some traces that more determined folks (i.e. “geeks”) might find laying around on your hard drive. Namely, there is the browser cache, cookies and saved form data.

Firefox has a handy Clear All button on that Privacy page which will clear everything that your browser may store while you’re browsing. If you want to clear these items selectively, there are individual Clear buttons for each.

With Internet Explorer, it’s slightly more complicated. Go back to Tools -> Internet Options, and then press the Delete Cookies and Delete Files buttons. Now click on the Content tab, and hit both the Clear Forms and Clear Passwords buttons.

NOTE: I generally do NOT recommend that people delete their cookies. They’re useful when it comes to customizing your browsing experience at many sites, and can save you the trouble of re-entering information on web forms. Anti-spyware programs that identify cookies as “threats” are silly and should be avoided. For more info on this see my article Eat Your Cookies.

Feeling Fabulous?

For most users, that should erase all traces of where you’ve been hanging out in the digital domain. But there are a few more things to consider.

If you run a desktop search enhancer such as Google Desktop be aware that it may also catalog your browser history. You can clear items from this history, but it’s a tedious process. You have to do a desktop search, click on Remove Items, select the offending items, then press the Removed Checked Results button. Over and over… I did find a program called Mil Shield which can clean your browser history and the Google Desktop history. It offers a free trial and costs US$29 if you want to purchase after the trial ends.

Do you have a software-based firewall? If so, it may have some caching built in. Check the firewall options to see if there’s a way to clear the history and/or cache. The same goes for various browser plugins, such as Yahoo Toolbar, MSN Toolbar, etc. Poke around in the settings menus to see if there’s a “clear my tracks” option.

If your computer is at work, your employer may monitor all Internet access. If you’re not sure about this, or about your employer’s Acceptable Use Policy, check with them. Or just don’t go there at work. You know where…

Finally, if you have any adware, spyware or viruses on your system, all bets are off. These things are designed to violate your privacy and it’s common for them to report your browsing habits back to Malware HQ. If you need help with scanning your system for spyware, adware and other unwanted pests, see my article Spy, Counter-Spy for details on how to protect yourself from those risks.

BOB RANKIN… is a tech writer and computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several computer books, and creator of the http://LowfatLinux.com website. Visit Bob Rankin’s website for more helpful articles and free tech support.

When it comes to reporting Internet scams most of us either don’t have a clue who to contact or just ignore them in our email. But according to an FBI report in December 2004, nearly ten million people last year didn’t ignore them and fell for the latest Internet scams. The money those victims lost totaled nearly $5 billion.

That number of victims and their losses are probably much higher because several cases go unreported every year. People either don’t want to admit that it happened to them or have no idea who to report it to.

But that’s how these thieves get away with Internet email scams for so long without getting caught. The only way to stop these con artists from operating is by reporting Internet scams to the proper authorities.

If you or someone you know has become a victim one of these scams here is where you can report it and do your part to catch these criminals. The best place to report email scams is The Internet Fraud Complaint Center or (IFCC). They are a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). Their web address is: http://www1.ifccfbi.gov

The IFCC’s mission is to address fraud committed over the Internet. For victims of Internet fraud, IFCC provides a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of a suspected criminal or civil violation.

Reporting email scams to The Internet Fraud Complaint Center helps them arrest and convict the criminals that are ruining the Internet for everyone. Anyone should have the right to safe Internet surfing without having to worry about predators stealing their money or their identity.

Identity theft and these recent Internet scams are the fastest growing crimes in America today. You can make the Internet safer for everyone and help put a stop to this terrible crime just by reporting Internet scams to the IFCC. It will make a difference.

Copyright © 2005 Spyware Information.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is provided by http://www.spyware-information.com where you will find free spyware cleaners, downloads, removal software, valuable tips and updated articles about adware and spyware that show you how protect yourself from identity theft. For other informative spyware and identity protection articles go to http://spyware-information.com/articles_1.html

Around eight WiFi VoIP handsets and deskphones have been put to the test by leading security professionals, who say that security problems range from potential denial-of-service attacks to more serious issues that allow “deep access” to the handset that lets a hacker get hold of any sensitive information on the phone.

Such threats are inevitable. So whose responsibility is it to forestall them? It has been suggested that if we see practices like this develop as these devices as used more widely then the manufacturers will only have themselves to blame when there’s a widespread attack.

Voice over IP hacking is the modern days version of war dialing – a method of automatically scanning telephone numbers using a modem, usually dialing all telephone number in surrounding area to find where computers or fax machines are available, then attempting to access them by guessing passwords.

Still there are precautions people can take to mitigate the risk. Here’s a list of WiFi VOIP security issues, and some effective ways to protect against them:

Multiple directions of attack:
As the VoIP phones get more sophisticated, so could the points of entry for malicious attacks increase. Email, client Web browsers, Bluetooth, SMS, WiFi, media players, and image viewers could all provide a window of opportunity for hackers. Though users can use open-source as well as commercial tools to regularly test their phones and networks, they’ll ultimately have to rely on vendors to also do effective testing on these VoIP devices.

Targeting phones in public environments:
For example a Bluetooth scanner could be concealed at the entrance to a major public space and be used to grab user data. It may be best to keep Bluetooth and other wireless features swicthed off when not needed.

Rogue access points:
Meanwhile at the office or on the road, customers will have to keep their guard up and scan for rogue access points. Unscrupulous individuals will set up access points to specifically target WiFi phones in the corporate space as well as at conferences and other places business people like to congregate. Decent device authentication and encryption can help provide protection here.

Specific attacks:
Select attacks on specific voice-over-wireless networks can also be an issue, albeit one that the victims may prefer to keep quiet.

Even though Property Index is generally viewed as a recent organization, having been registered in March 2007, they have very quickly established their expertise. De facto, they are a pretty informal organization focusing entirely on counseling any individual who is determined to sell, buy, rent or let assets just about anywhere. They guarantee help you out discover precisely what you desire quickly as well as straightforwardly.

Property is being offered no matter where nowadays, undoubtedly the most exclusive area being property for sale in Italy. It should really be easy as one-two-three to list some of the mega cool real estate for sale in Italy, the argument for looking into realty here is properties you can purchase and the option of being able to live together with this strenuous populace. This is one of the most fashionable regions nowadays, and in view of the beauty and the sunshine surrounding you here, how could you be wrong. Property in Italy is immersed in culture, art and history, this country has a long tradition as a home to a good number of indigenous cultures.

Review one of the world’s greatest selections of properties in Italy here!

About thirty years back you’d find a mere trickle of English who are looking for real estate in Italy. Just ask anyone who has removed to Italy and they’ll be sure to substantiate this. Many would see it as a vogue and others see it as a near to an addiction. Clients set on moving here extend from young families looking for a challenge in life to the older generation planning on relaxation and enjoyment. Bear in mind, though, that you might encounter some predicaments when trying to acquire real estate abroad; of course there are a million disparate, sometimes not very transparent, procedures be it when scheduling, inspecting or actually purchasing. If you only miss one minor procedure that could engender broad predicaments and, most importantly, financial damage.

As you will likely have expected with this well-liked destination, real estate might well be rather costly in this location and that is just caused by the high market demand. Despite this the patron truly is spoilt for choice in such an area so full of bright site and scenery. It can boast the whole ball of wax any of us could long for, and then some.

The ancient book of Gita, which is the treatise on the living has led a great stress on the karma. Karma is defined as the action and its fruits. Ancient Hindu saints have believed that a man’s life is the direct result of his karma. Good thoughts, words and deeds lead to good and happy life while bad thoughts, words and deeds lead a person to disaster. This has been postulated in the 18th century by Isaac Newton, who gave his law as “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

The branch of yoga that deals with karma is called as the karma yoga. Usually you are bound by the cravings and desires associated with your act but you can free yourself by doing the act but dissociating yourself from its consequences. This is the basic concept behind karma yoga and the person who follows this path is known as karma yogi. His behaviour is of indifference and while the world may think he is not interested, in reality he has mastered his desires and has developed awareness of the real significance of the events that occur around him.

This yoga involves doing your duty without any reservations but is free of the cravings of the results that are obtained from the act. This attitude is difficult to acquire because we are taught to hanker after the fruits of our labour and any failure to obtain the desired results leads you to frustration and negative thinking. Also, constant attachment to the results leads you to stress, competition and aggressiveness. This has led to increased incidences of stress, diabetes, depression, heart ailments and suicides and has led many youngsters to use drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Hence following the teaching of Krishna in Gita, wherein he advises Arjun: “You are entitled to an action but not its fruits” will lead you to a happy and stress free life.

A karma yogi realizes this and hence he follows the path of detachment. But this does not make him dull or inefficient. On the contrary, he channelizes his entire energy into the tasks at hand with complete vigour as his energy is not dissipated and gives it a best shot. Hence the results of his actions are the best and he gets good fruits. He does not run after pleasure but pleasure follows him. This makes him a pleasant person to be around and thus enjoys success in his life.