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The internet is teeming with thousands of hackers that are constantly searching for any weaknesses that they can exploit. Aside from monetary motivation, these hackers may also want to defame your website, just for fun! Any online business owner should be aware of the practices of these hackers, especially if they engage in ecommerce practices directly through their website. Protecting the privacy of your customers is of the utmost importance and most webmasters realize this and take the necessary precautions to do so. However, many webmasters and online business owners don’t realize that protecting the privacy of their business is just as important. The information found in this article could save you form a lot of financial and personal distress ion the future.

Protecting More than Your Assets

I am sure by now you are aware of the financial risks that are so common on the internet. However many people overlook the villains that are not seeking your money, but are driven by a darker motivation. These people are called online predators, and they seek to exploit and take advantage of any private information they can. Many of them socialize in chat rooms, looking for vulnerable and gullible people that they can take advantage of. In fact there are many crimes each year committed by people that met and seduced their victims online. The problem is, these predators can find you and your family a lot easier than you think ,and they don’t have to do it in a chat room!

Should This Information Be Public?

If you have never heard  of the WHOIS database, then now is the time to become familiar with it. When you register your domain, all of the information about your domain such as the name of the domain owner, and the address, are recorded in the WHOIS database. This information can be researched for free by anyone whom so desires. That means that anyone can find your address whether it be business or home, which obviously presents a real threat, especially if you have known enemies. Even if you don’t have enemies now, it is all to easy to find them online. If you run an online business, it would not be unrealistic for a dissatisfied customer to look up your information to slander or harass you, as this has occurred in the past. Some advertising agencies will use information to place annoying marketing calls to your registered number. Do you really want this kind of information to be public?

Protecting Yourself With Private Domain Registration

If you have come to the conclusion that you would lie all of this information to be hidden form the public, then you may want to register your domain as a private domain. Private domains will still receive all of the publicity and popularity of a regular domain, except the only difference is that your information is not put in the WHOIS database. Once you have made the decision to do so, registering a private domain is actually quite simple, simply check the option at checkout when you;re buying your domain name. If you’re having trouble locating this option, then you may want to contact customer service for assistance.

The art of search engine optimization is made to seem like rocket science by many SEO “experts”. However, the truth is search engine optimization can be learned by anyone with an hour or two of extra time per day. Successful search engine optimization can be achieved by focusing on only two aspects of page ranking; high quality backlinks and correct keyword usage. To master the two aforementioned attributes all that is needed is  bit of persistence and the following knowledge.

Domain Name Keyword Usage

One of the easiest ways to gain page ranking for your site is to choose a domain name that is close to or identical to the targeted keyword.  For example, if your targeted keyword is “ basketball goals,” then it seems the best name you could possibly have would be basketballgoals.com. However many SEO experts note that search engines give credit to sites with dashes between words, so if your primary option was taken, you could also choose the domain name basketball-goals.com instead. The most important thing to remember is that your sites name should be memorable.

Keyword Density

As mentioned earlier, keywords are one of the most important factors of search engine optimization.  However, the way the keywords are sued are just as important as the keywords themselves. Keywords should be used at a density of 3-5% of the total content. Keyword optimization is best achieved when the keyword is used in the beginning of the text, in the middle and within the last twenty five words of the content on the page. Keywords should also be used strategically within the design of the website, as in title tags, meta tags and anchor texts.

Simple HTML Coding

Search engines index the internet using crawlers, which comb your website for content. These crawlers do a good job of indexing text coded in basic HTML format but cannot effectively index Flash and Javascript content. Therefore, keeping your site encoded with simple text initially will let your site receive a higher page ranking.

Optimizing URL Extensions and Linking

Using keywords in URL extensions is also a good way to target search engine queries. Make sure you separate the extensions with dashes as we mentioned earlier. You also want to get a lot of incoming links from other websites, particularly sites that are authoritative in your niche. However before you being searching for backlink opportunities from other websites, it is a good idea to link your site together internally. The more internal links you have pointing towards your homepage, the better your chances are of the homepage showing up in search engine queries. Using a site map to index your internal links is a good way to optimize your site as well. It is important to submit your site map to Google once you have finished making it.

Ecommerce has its ups and downs just like most other things in life. Knowing the ropes will help ensure that you experience more ups than downs when it comes to your ecommerce endeavors. Let’s take a look at a few common problems experienced by those who sell products and services via the internet:

1. Customers can’t figure out how to pay— Is your checkout process confusing or complicated? Low-cost website hosting plans sometimes come with limitations that are hard for the not-so-tech-savvy entrepreneur to overcome. These limitations sometimes contribute to a poor buyer checkout process. As one frustrated buyer puts it, “I finally gave up on contributing to my favorite charity online because it’s just too hard to give them money!” If your website technology limits you, do a simple fix like placing a shopping cart icon or a “buy” link on essential pages. You could also include a text box or quick audio or video that walks a visitor through the buying process.
2. Your buying process is too long. A checkout process that seems to take forever is as disastrous as one that confuses the buyer. Visitors expect to fully complete the checkout process within one to two minutes of their start time. If your checkout process is more like an inquisition, you’re bound to have more visitors who abort the buying process than those who complete it. The person who is buying a one-time gift may not want to become a “member” or receive emails from you for the next two years. Give them the quick checkout option. If they love what you offer, they’ll be back.
3. Your shopping cart doesn’t provide enough payment options. You could be losing sales if you only allow your buyers to pay one way. Study the buying trends of your market so that you’ll know what buying terms and methods suit them best. It won’t benefit you very much to limit your payment method to American Express cards if you serve a market that primarily uses Visa and MasterCard debit cards. You’re better off providing your visitors with more than one way to complete their order.
4. Your purchase confirmation process is generic or incomplete. Your “thank you” page or confirmation email should be detailed enough that the buyer will not feel the need to call you right away. You will also want to do everything you can to eliminate the fear that they have just become a victim of fraud. It’s easy to know if you’ve made this mistake. Take a look at the number of canceled or disputed transactions you have.  Disputes from unhappy customers could jeopardize your status with your payment processor. An easy ecommerce rule to remember is “tell them what they’re buying and then tell them what they bought.” This way you can be certain that they understand what they get for the money. If you are selling a seminar or digital media, be sure to provide additional details that clearly explain what the buyer can expect or will want to do next.
5. Broken links – Nobody likes to click on a link and have it go nowhere. Worse yet is the experience of clicking on a link and being taken to the wrong place. Take a moment to test and then re-test every page or link you publish. If you communicate via email frequently, set up a test account on every major email account client so that you have a chance to see what your list sees. An email that looks great on Cox may not look so good to an AOL recipient. Knowing this in advance will allow you to choose a format that works well for all email clients.

The world of ecommerce can be fun and exciting when you know what to do. Making the time to take note of what is working for the ecommerce veterans in your industry, may be just what you need to keep your head in the game

The best way to know how ones online business is doing is by allowing customers to leave feedback.  Many businesses are incorporating blogs into their web sites to not only disseminate information but to also engage with their customers.  While the gain is knowledge in what works and what needs to be fixed, the downside is the opening up of the floodgates known as spamming and trolling.

Spam

Spam is defined at the sending of unsolicited bulk messages.  This form of abuse can take place in a forum, Usenet newsgroup, wiki, instant messaging program, e-mail or blog.  The messages sent usually have no tie-in or bearing on the conversation at the time and quite often are used to sell a product or service.  The costs of such unrequested messaging is one that is borne by the web site owners and ISPs (Internet Service Providers).  Fortunately, the growing trend has been to prosecute those found guilty of spamming online entities.

Troll

In the same vein but not for the same reasons, trolls are those who actively participate in online conversations with the sole purpose of creating controversy.  Trolls will purposely leave off-topic and inflammatory comments in the hopes of invoking an emotional response and thereby completely disrupting the conversation.  In its most basic form, trolling is simply a form of harassment.

Prevention

For the prevention of e-mail spam, many experts suggest a number of tips.  The first of these is creating an alias email address that can be replaced when needed.  This e-mail address can be listed out on public web sites and, should it become compromised, tossed and replaced with a new alias.  Never use the “unsubscribe” link that is quite often offered within spam e-mails.  These links are used to authenticate e-mail addresses and will ensure further spam will ensue.

To effectively prevent spam or trolls from infiltrating a web site, many web site software programs used for online communications will often come equipped with spam filtering or “comment jailing”.  A great example is WordPress.  This blogging program will allow web site owners to set all comments to being placed in a monitoring pool.  Once the owner has perused the comments recently left, they can be either approved or be marked as spam.  WordPress also allows web site owners to see the IP addresses used by spammers – great for reporting issues to ISPs should the need arise.

“Do not feed the trolls” is a phrase often used when faced with trolling behavior.  Basically, if the troll is ignored, they will eventually give up and move on.  However, if the behavior is having a negative effect on a web site and needs to be placed under control immediately, the use of post or comment moderating that is standard with most blog, bulletin board and other online communications programs should allow a web site owner to quickly and efficiently get things back under control.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is that with a business web site that is geared toward communicating with its customers, spam and trolling will occur.  A bit of prevention and a lot of monitoring will go a long way to ensuring the issues do not get out of hand.

Today there are many control panels available for many different uses. You have control panels that are geared towards large businesses, and control panels that work well in the dedicated hosting environment. However one of the more recent types of control panels are those that cater specifically  to the needs of bloggers. One such control panel is FirePow.  Many professional bloggers use FirePow to setup blogs quickly and efficiently. In fact, once you learn how to use this control panel effectively, you’ll be able to create an incredible amount of blogs in a short period of time. The practice of setting up blogs in such a short time span is called autoblogging. Many people make their living off of autoblogging. Some of them make the blogs for others and sell them as a service, while others setup blogs in hot niches to earn revenue with AdSense. Whatever your reasons for blogging are. FirePow is control panel that will increase your productivity as a blogger.

Blog Management With FirePow

The features included in FirePow make blog management extremely simple. Since FirePow is also compatible with a plethora of web applications, the expandability of the software offers supreme flexibility.  The user has extensive control over multiple blogs within a single interface. You can access unlimited blogs within the same control panel module, giving you the ability to edit many blogs in a short period of time.

On Demand Information For Multiple Blogs Simultaneously

In FirePow’s control panel interface you’ll find important information next to the name of each blog. You’ll also be able to access web applications for each blog by simply clicking the icons located next to the blog names. Some of the information shown next to the blog name is the blog’s post count, as well as the date of the last entry. Having this information at hand is very helpful, especially when you have multiple blog’s to handle.  Your WordPress status, including the current version you’re using is also displayed in the main control panel, and you can easily update to the latest version of WordPress with a single mouse-click!

Taking Your Blogging to the Next Level

With FirePow bloggers can go from being an ordinary blogger to becoming an autoblogger with hundreds of blogs. Having access to this many blogs really gives you an enormous web presence that can be used for so many purposes. These blogs can be linked to each other to create an enormous link network that will increase the backlink count of each blog, or you can link them all to one central domain to build your main website’s search engine ranking. You can drive traffic from one blog to the next and create a seemingly infinite network of blogs that could potentially dominate a particular niche. With the power to mange and create so many blogs in such a short period of time, you could take advantage of the most recent trends and set up twenty blogs about a hot topic in a matter of minutes! You could then sue these blogs to promote affiliate offers, make revenue with advertising, or simply resell them later on for a profit once you’ve built a substantial visitor base.

E-commerce is quickly becoming  a business standard, with virtually every kind of service imaginable available online. The internet gives business owners access to an unlimited customer base. Web site owners use a variety of tactics to market their business and become known, however the simplest yet seemingly most effective way to market a business is branding. Brands hold power over markets based on recognizable names and logos that people come to remember and trust. The best way to establish your brand online is to have an authoritative and memorable domain name. Since domain names are so important when building an e-commerce business, they have become somewhat of a commodity in the world of online trade. Many companies are willing to pay hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars for a simple domain name! So how can you go about making a profit from this opportunity? Let us take a closer look.

Profiting In a Saturated Market

Most of the best domain names have already been taken, primarily because of  “squatter,” or people that purchase many domains in hopes of selling them for a lot of money in the future. It is important to note that trademark infringement is a huge problem in the domain name game, because companies can and do sue squatters for purchasing domains with their name as the primary focus. There are however more sensible alternatives to make money with domain names.

Generating Revenue with Your Domain

The most obvious way to make money with a domain is to sell products or services on your website.   Of course there are other ways to profit from your domain without having to do much work at all.  You can build websites with autoblogging programs, and then resell them for a small fee, or you can sell packages of premade websites. Alternatively you can make money with an advertising scheme like Google Adsense. This approach gives you the ability to make a substantial amount of money without having to access a particular product or service. All that is need to make money in this manner is good informative content and a little bit of marketing efforts.

Affiliate marketing is another way you could make money without having an actual product or service to sell.  With affiliate marketing you focus on selling someone else’s product, and you receive a commission for every sale or lead you bring the merchant. Many people make thousands of dollars each money with very little effort with affiliate marketing. You could also make money with your domain by parking it. When you park your domain you are basically putting it up for sale. Parking your domain requires no investment because there are many companies that are willing to let you use their server space to park your domain in exchange for a commission when the domain is sold.

Many companies make a substantial amount of income based on commissions from parked domain sales alone. Parking your domain is probably the easiest way to generate revenue with your domain, as it requires no investment and no effort whatsoever. However parking your domain is definitely not going to be the most profitable endeavor, and it is possible to park a domain indefinitely with no sale.

With so many choices available, picking a content management system for your business website can be a very difficult task. All of them claim to be the best, and the truth is that most of them are capable of the same basic functions. However there are some CMS that go beyond the boundaries of what a normal CMS is capable of by offering unlimited expandability within the software. These CMS are called “open source” CMS, because they are an ongoing open project.

Any developer or programmer  that is interested in designing web applications for these CMS can do so without any limitations or legal ramifications. Fir this reason, the features and capabilities of these CMS are rapidly expanding. As the capabilities of your CMS expands, so does the capabilities of your website, and ultimately your online business.

The Cost of an Open Source CMS

With all of these wonderful benefits, you would expect an open source CMS to be very expensive. Surprisingly most open source software is free, including open source CMS! One such example is the ever-so popular WordPress which is used by millions of webmasters around the world to handle everything from everyday tasks such as email, to more complex tasks such as website design. WordPress even gives you the ability to outsource the work to multiple users within a single account. These users can be given certain permissions, such as uploading, content publication, and template administration. This feature alone really helps boost the productivity of your site by giving you a workforce that you can deploy with full control. It really is hard to believe that all of this comes at zero cost!

Just How Expandable are Open Source CMS?

Even without all of the incredible plugins and applications that are available, these tools provide powerful administrative capabilities. Now imagine adding an unlimited amount of features. Imagine having the ability to say “ I want this,” and then making it happen by hiring a freelance programmer. This is the kind of freedom and expandability experienced by open source CMS users on a daily basis! With literally thousands of applications available, even the worst open source CMS can be made into a fully functional super software with just a few additional applications. Although WordPress is already capable of just about everything one could ask for, the applications available for it really take it to the next level. Thanks to CMS like WordPress, webmasters can setup websites with pre-designed themes and templates in a matter of minutes.

Why Use a Free Software When You Can Afford an Expensive One?

The answer to this question is really quite simple – you don’t need to pay, because all of the features you’re “paying for,” are available for free through web applications that can be added to your free CMS in a matter of minutes. In fact some CMS  even have integrated applications that will make the installation of additional applications quick and simple. With features like these, the real question should be Why should you pay for a CMS, when you can get one for free that does the same thing…. and more?

Blogging is one of the easiest way to express yourself on the internet. Anyone can start a blog for free and discuss anything they’d like with ease. For this reason it is now wonder there are tons of new blogs created everyday.  Blogging can be done on free sites, or even on your own hosted domain. If you decide to make a serious blog related to your business, then you may want to consider a hosting package that will suit the needs of your blog.

Blogging Platforms

Blogging platforms such as Blogger and WordPress are extremely popular ways to host a blog. WordPress is actually considered the best by countless bloggers and their testaments may be a factor to consider when choosing your blogging platform. WordPress is extremely user-friendly and customizable, offering the user a wide variety of themes, “widgets” and plugins. These blogging applications will take your blog to the next step, and can help you make the entire process of setting up and creating a blog completely automated. In fact, some people utilize these blogging applications to initiate autoblogs.

Free VS. Paid Blog Hosting

There is a choice of either free or paid hosting services for your blog. For most people, a free blog host will suffice, as they are not looking for overly complex features or high amounts of bandwidth. However, you should remember that if you are serious about blogging, then sooner or later you will reach a limit in what you can do with free hosting. If you want your blog to grow and expand into a very large and highly visited blog, then it may be in your best interest to consider a paid web hosting package that includes blog support. It is not hard to find such services at very affordable prices in today’s competitive market.

Choosing a Paid Host

Choosing a paid host means that you will want to weigh your options carefully, as you do not want to pay for a service that does not meet your needs fully. It used to be quite difficult to find the right match for your web hosting needs. However it is now far easier as the market is more competitive and there are more resources available that will help you choose the right web hosting service.  Once you have chosen several prospective web hosting services that are interesting to you, you can then search for a review on each company to see which one is most suitable for you.

Regardless of whether you use free or paid hosting, blogging is an excellent way to share your opinions with the world. Blogging is also a great way to make money if you know how to market your blog in an efficient manner. If you are not comfortable using paid services in the beginning, then you can try using free services until you are ready to upgrade to a more comprehensive hosting plan with better blog support. Most of the time you can add your existing free blog to a paid hosting account, so your hard work is not really lost.

Most people never go through the experience of dealing with a cyber attack, so they assume that it is not something they should worry about when setting up their online business. If you’ve been operating a personal computer, then this is probably the reason why you’ve never been targeted. Hackers tend to attack networks and computers that are of value to them, so don’t be surprised if your “longstanding immunity” to attacks suddenly diminished after your online business begins to thrive. One attack in particular that you should be aware of is the infamous inference attack. In an inference attack, also known as a SQL injection, the perpetrator inserts an SQL code into a form to gain access to crucial information that is stored in on of your website’s databases. While this may sound like something that only happens to small business owners, it actually happens to large corporations as well. In fact, in recent years this kind of attack has resulted din millions of dollar in fraud. To protect yourself from an inference attack, heed the following tips.

Encrypt All of Your Site’s Data

If your website frequently exchanges sensitive date such as credit card numbers or bank information, then you’ll want to make sure all of your website’s data is encrypted with SSL or TSL. Keeping your data encrypted ensures that in the event of a security breach, the intruder will not be able to use the encrypted information to their advantage.

Use Secure Web Applications and Forms

Although there are many useful web applications available, many of these tools represent the biggest security risks for companies.  This is because hackers use these applications to gain access to the back-end of your website. Therefore, you should be very cautious about which web applications you use in the administration of your website. Make sure all applications and forms used are designed with secure code.  You should also make sure your website’s users do not have the capability of sending SQL queries, as this is how most hackers execute inference attacks. Avoiding malicious code input from hackers is the first line of defense in preventing an inference attack. You should also avoid using dynamic queries. Dynamic queries allow hackers to send and receive SQL information over the internet in plain text, therefore these queries present a substantial security risk. Many experts recommend avoiding the use of dynamic queries altogether.

Execute Updates Regularly

Keeping your operating system and website updated is an important part in maintaining the security of your online business. Many people don’t realize that maintaining the security of their website is a full time job that needs to be tended to daily. For this reason most security companies update their software as soon as a vulnerability is recognized.  To avoid an inference attack, or any other attack, you should keep you website and operating system updated, and make sure you are ware of any new developments.

E-commerce web hosting solutions are designed specifically for the online business owner and most of them will be able to accommodate your site’s needs. However, there are some very basic differences between each plan, and these differences need to be scrutinized carefully. Without knowing the importance of each feature, it can be difficult to prioritize and make a decision based on performance. Instead, most customers choose their ecommerce hosting plan based on price and popularity.

Basing your decision on these factors is a poor decision, because in the need you still don’t know what you’re paying for. Ecommerce hosting solutions are supposed to be all-inclusive packages that help your online business thrive, yet many of them are basic packages that only provide frustration and a long learning curve.

Although the popularity of a web hosting company is a good indicator of it’s service, basing your decision solely on price and popularity will almost always result in mishap, and in the end the performance of your hosting endeavors will suffer. In the world of ecommerce hosting, there are several main attributes that comprise the performance of a particular plan: Reliability, Features, and Cost Effectiveness.

Reliability

Perhaps the most important attribute an ecommerce hosting company can have is the reliability and support it provides. Without proper support you could find yourself dealing with confusing dilemmas on your own. This can result in loss of time and money, and even downtime for your website. When it comes to testing the reliability of a web hosting company, you should take the initiative yourself, rather than relying on the opinion of others. Make a few phone calls to the customer service department and ask a few questions. This way you can see how long it takes them to address your issues, how friendly they are, and how knowledgeable their service representatives are.

Some companies may require you to have an account with them before they provide customer service, however you can always make an inquiry about their services, which will serve the same purpose. Only once you’ve tested the customer service for yourself should you rely on the opinions of others. Customer reviews on forums may be helpful, but you don;t want to base your decision solely on this information.

Features

All good ecommerce hosting plans should include a variety of features that make your job as an online business owner easier. Although there are many features to consider, the only one that should be noted here is the shopping cart. Shopping carts make the shopping experience more convenient for your customers, which ultimately translates into more sales and a greater return on your investment. Without a convenient shopping experience, many of your customers will leave your site and find another online business to spend their hard earned money with.

Cost Effectiveness

While price should not be a deciding factor, you also want to make sure you aren’t overpaying for a solution that may prove to be incapable in the long term. Be sure to compare the cost effectiveness of each ecommerce solution before making your decision. If you notice that a particular company is charging more than another, then make sure you understand why the price is higher. If there is no logical explanation for the raise in price, then they may be overcharging you, which is a good indicator that they are not a trustworthy business.