ecomZera Blog

India has successfully launched its first mission to the Moon.

The unmanned Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft blasted off smoothly from a launch pad in southern Andhra Pradesh to embark on a two-year mission of exploration.

The robotic probe will orbit the Moon, compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals.

The launch is regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia.

Indian PM Manmohan Singh hailed the launch as the "first step" in a historic milestone in the country's space programme.

"Our scientific community has once again done the country proud and the entire nation salutes them," Mr Singh said in a message.

The launch was greeted with applause by scientists gathered at the site.

The chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Madhavan Nair, said it was a "historic moment" for the country.

"Today what we have charted is a remarkable journey for an Indian spacecraft to go to the moon and try to unravel the mysteries of the Earth's closest celestial body and its only natural satellite," Mr Nair said.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says there has been a lot of excitement about the event, which was broadcast live on national TV.

Competitive mission

An Indian-built launcher carrying the one-and-a-half-tonne satellite blasted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, at about 0620 local time (0050 GMT).

One key objective will be to search for surface or sub-surface water-ice on the Moon, especially at the poles.

Another will be to detect Helium 3, an isotope which is rare on Earth, but is sought to power nuclear fusion and could be a valuable source of energy in future.

Powered by a single solar panel generating about 700 Watts, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) probe carries five Indian-built instruments and six constructed in other countries, including the US, Britain and Germany.

The mission is expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m), considerably less than Japanese and Chinese probes sent to the Moon last year.

The Indian experiments include a 30kg probe that will be released from the mothership to slam into the lunar surface. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will record video footage on the way down and measure the composition of the Moon's tenuous atmosphere.

It will also drop the Indian flag on the surface of the Moon. The country's tricolour is painted on the side of the probe and, if successful, India will become the fourth country after the US, Russia and Japan to place its national flag on the lunar surface.

Professor David Southwood, director of science and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency congratulated India's space agency on the launch.

He added: "While the exploration of space calls for new challenges to be overcome, joining forces is becoming more and more a key to future successes."

Barry Kellett, project scientist on the C1XS instrument, which was built at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in the UK, said: "Chandrayaan has a very competitive set of instruments... it will certainly do good science."

C1XS will map the abundance of different elements in the lunar crust to help answer key questions about the origin and evolution of Earth's only natural satellite.

Researchers say the relative abundances of magnesium and iron in lunar rocks could help confirm whether the Moon was covered by a molten, magma ocean early on in its history.

"The iron should have sunk [in the magma ocean], whereas the magnesium should have floated," Mr Kellett told BBC News.

"The ratio of magnesium to iron for the whole Moon tells you to what extent the Moon melted and what it did after it formed."

The instrument will look for more unusual elements on the Moon's surface, such as titanium. This metallic element has been found in lunar meteorites, but scientists know little about its distribution in the lunar crust.

Chandrayaan (the Sanskrit word for "moon craft") will also investigate the differences between the Moon's near side and its far side. The far side is both more heavily cratered and different in composition to the one facing Earth.

The spacecraft will take about eight days the reach the Moon. During its lunar encounter, Chandrayaan fires its engine to slow its velocity - allowing it to be captured by the Moon's gravity.

bbc.co

Note: A site should contain more incoming than outgoing links. Due to search engine requirements, incoming links have more value in page rankings than reciprocal or outgoing links. Please see my article on one way linking versus reciprocal linking for more information on this topic. 

To successfully obtain backwards or non-reciprocal direct links to your Web site you need to run an on-going campaign, just as you would for any product or service. We've identified 15 bullet points which we cover below. Not every point will apply to every Web site, and the emphasis on each bullet point may vary according to your situation. These include:

1) Get your site listed in the major human edited directories
2) Get your site listed in directories relevant to your particular product or service
3) Obtaining Links From Other Web Sites
4) Purchasing Ad Banners on Other Web Sites
5) Get Your Product or Service Reviewed by other Websites
6) Issue a Press Release
7) E-mail Lists
8) Newsgroup/forum Announcements
9) Publish Articles on Other Web Sites
10) Provide Qualityl Content on Your Own Site
11) Running On-Site Events
12) Conducting Direct e-Marketing Campaigns
13) Issuing an E-Newsletter
14) Integrating Your Traditional Marketing and Sales Programs
15) Measure your results

1) Get your site listed in the major human edited directories

Presently the two most important human edited directories are Yahoo and the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org). Despite the mighty rise of Google, the addition of a yearly $299 fee, and changes in the way they display their listings, a link to your site from Yahoo's main directory can increase the standing of your site much more than a few links from an undistinguished unknown website.

The other well known directory, the Open Directory Project or DMOZ has no listing fee and is entirely human edited by volunteers. Not like Yahoo, whose editors are paid for their work DMOZ editors are all volunteers whom edit at their own pace. It is often difficult to get a listing if your site doesn't offer unique content and is not considered a valuable resource to the internet community. If your site consists only of affiliate links, then the editors will reject your application. In addition the volunteer editors have been unable to keep pace with the amount of sites to be reviewed and they can take months to process your entry. Despite possibly taking months to get included into DMOZ the problems of inclusion here is well worth your effort, and you should by all means be persistent, without spamming the directory with multiple submissions. Inclusion in Yahoo and the Open Directory Project can mean the difference between your keywords coming up on the first page or page 10 in search results, especially in competitive categories.

2) Get your site listed in directories complimentary to your particular product or service

If you offer electronic repair equipment that would be helpful to electronic repair shops, for example, then do a search for electronic resource directories and you will find sites where you can add your URL. Did you write a novel? Then, find book directories, and apply to be listed. You will have to spend some time accustoming your self to what to look for, but once again persistence will definitely pay off. You will not only see improvement of your page rankings but listings in specific related industry directories to your company will bring you targeted traffic, particularly interested in what you have to offer. What we like to call a qualified lead.

3) Obtaining One Way Links From Other Web Sites

There are two types of links: 1) one-way links to your Web site, which is more valuable in your page rankings; and 2) two-way links where you provide a return link to the other Web site in return for a link to yours, which is less valuable than one way direct links.

In acquiring links, look for sites that have similar relevant content to your own site. Site owners look for resources that would be helpful to their site visitors to link to. It is advantageous if a site can link to your main page. However, requesting a link to a specific page that offers the resources a site owner desires is still beneficial.

Seek out partners for trading links including vendors, suppliers and providers of complimentary products.
Locate reciprocal link partners who have multiple sites. Ask for a link from one of their complimentary sites and in return you will link to their main site. This in essence will show a search engine that your incoming links are true in nature based on the public's perceived quality of your site and not based on a shoulder tapping reciprocal linking campaign.

For more information and to view an example directory please visite KosmosCentralWeb.com.

4) Purchasing Ad Banners on Other Web Sites

If your marketing budget allows you the room to purchase add banners then by all means do so. The more links that appear on any given page becomes a way to stand out from your competition with advertising. You can sponsor another site through barter or direct payment. In either case, you can find appropriate sites to sponsor yourself or have another SEO company find them for you.

5) Get Your Product or Service Reviewed by other Websites

Are you a networking components manufacturer? Then offer a discount to high quality websites whose themes are similar to yours. If they write and publish a review, then you will get a link back to your site. In addition, you can publish their reviews on your own site, which will add a lot of weight to your own claims about the validity of your product or service. Keep your eye open for sites in your field and make your offer. In the process you will also build potentially important partnerships and alliances.

6) Issue a Press Release

A press release will allow you to reach prospects through publications that cover your topic of interest. A release will need to be coordinated with the launch of your new site (or it's not news) and may be distributed by e-mail, newswire, fax or mail. The main keys to a successful press release are: 1) having content that is newsworthy; 2)targeting editors that are interested; 3) matching distribution method with editor preference; and 4) formatting the release properly for each method of distribution chosen.

7) E-mail Lists

E-mail lists are much like a newsgroups. The key difference is that messages go directly to a participant's e-mail box rather than the participant going to the newsgroup to read the postings.

8) Newsgroup/Forum Announcements

Newsgroups also known as news forums are electronic bulletin boards where people with similar interests can communicate with whole communities of bulletin board postees. There are over 20,000 newsgroups on the Internet with millions of daily participants. If done right, postings to forum newsgroups can generate tremendous amounts of free advertising.

If your looking to post in a newsgroup, target those groups that cover topics related with your service or product. The first thing you need to determine is if the newsgroup accepts any postings. If so, monitor all postings and participant response. When you post, provide useful advice or information and not annoying advertisements for your product or service. Be helpful, specific and keep it short. You can end your helpful feedback with mentioning that your site has additional useful information on the topic you are posting. If possible, become a known participant by posting frequently with both advice and questions. And don't forget to include your signature on every e-mail or posting. If you have any announcements be sure to post it to the "announcement newsgroups" which are designed for announcements. And, finally if there's sufficient interest, you may even want to create your own forum newsgroup.

9) Publish articles on Other Web Sites

With millions of websites on the web, large percentages are very hungry for quality content. Since you have published your own website and have provided useful information to the public, this in turn makes you an "expert" in your field. Use your expertise to write simple, but useful articles in your field and forward them to other webmasters hungry for additional content. If your articles are published, they will in turn include a "resource box" giving credit to you with a link back to your site. The link will once again boost your Page Rank, but just as importantly, it will establish you as an authority in your field and will help "brand" your product or service. Don't worry about writing to hundreds of webmasters individually to get your article published, go to www.yahoogroups.com, or do a keyword search on google and do a search for "Internet Articles Publishing" and you will be able to locate many groups enabling you to reach webmasters whom are looking for articles to publish.

10) Provide Quality Content on Your Own Site

The original focus behind the Page Rank rating system was to try to highlight the sites that are offering the most valuable content, and offering something unique to the Internet. If you publish an Internet version of your company brochure, no one is going to link to you unilaterally. However, if your site is filled with interesting articles, reports, data, free software and reference material then you will get links without even asking for them. By writing and publishing your own articles you can add quality content to your site, the same articles that you will offer to other sites, as well as by publishing the articles of others. Again, the publishing groups for articles at www.yahoo.com or sites such as www.articlecity.com will provide you with a plethora of information and useful material.

11) Running On-Site Events

Promoting events on your site is a strategically outstanding method of encouraging repeat traffic. Events are a good way to bring traffic back to a site once interest begins to fade. Tactics include: games, online interviews, contests/tournaments, chat sessions, and audio or video broadcasts.

12) Conducting Direct e-Marketing Campaign

Direct e-marketing on net is in its formative stages. You can send your message in e-mail or HTML format; solicited or unsolicited. We do not recommend using unsolicited e-mail as the receiver bears the cost.

13) Issuing an E-Newsletter

You can always ask site visitors to sign up for a newsletter, then distribute it by e-mail. An e-newsletter allows you to keep visitors up-to-date on site changes and new offerings. It also serves as a channel for delivering valuable information related to your products that can help convert prospects into customers.

14) Integrating Your Traditional Marketing and Sales Programs

Start by promoting your Web site address on business documents and correspondence, including: letterheads, flyers, and brochures. Encourage use of the web site for certain information, services, products, or programs if it advantageous to the business to offer these services online. Also offer incentives through traditional marketing that would lead potential customers to the web site.

15) Measuring Your Results

To measure the effectiveness of each point of your campaign, first determine where your traffic originates. Then measure what individuals do once they get to your site to determine if traffic generated from one source is more valuable than others. Note that this is different than measuring the effectiveness of the site itself. With data in hand, you can begin the process of fine-tuning your Web site marketing programs.

What is an affiliate program?

With the proliferation of goods and services now available on the Internet, advertisers look to individuals and companies to help sell their products by utilizing webmasters and others to spread the word.

This can be in the form of banner advertising on affiliate sites, text links, reviews written by affiliates, direct email etc. The advertisers compensate webmasters by paying them for displaying the ads, or for click throughs sent to them, or (as is most common these days) a commission on sales resulting as a referral from their web site or email message.

How can I make money from being an affiliate?

There are many thousands of affiliate programs out there, all claiming to be the best. Some of them will give you the impression that all you have to do is implement their banners and links and wait for the commission checks to start rolling in. This CAN be the case, but this scenario usually only applies to very large sites with massive web traffic that is relevant to product or service on offer. For most of us, being a successful affiliate requires a little more work!

As the range of goods and online services offered via the Internet has grown at an incredible rate over the last few years, therefore so has the competition. Web site visitors need to have a very good reason for clicking on a link or banner.

Choosing the right banners

In most affiliate programs, you are offered a wide variety of banners to place on your site - very few of them will be effective. If you can attain a click through rate of 2%, then you are doing very well. It has been our experience, and this is generally speaking, that graphically rich banners do not perform as successfully as their simpler counterparts. The main reason for this is download time. If a banner is the last thing to load on your page and the banner ad is excessively byte "heavy", by the time it has loaded your visitor may already have scrolled down the page - missing it entirely. Heavy banner ads can also slow down the loading of your pages, or critical elements of your page and you can lose your visitors altogether! A graphically rich banner can also confuse the actual message - the artwork and marketing blurb can be imbalanced. For these reasons, we suggest that banners you implement be no more that 15kb wherever possible.

Banners that have "extreme" animation, such as rapid flashing, are also something to consider very carefully. While these do achieve high clickthrough rates, they are also highly annoying. If you do decide to implement this form of banner advertising, use it very sparingly.

When selecting any form of graphical advertising, try and keep the theme of your site in mind - while graphical ads are meant to stand out and catch a visitors eye, it shouldn't be to the point that everything else on the page is totally ignored. Wherever possible, ensure that all banner ads (and any advertising for that matter) uses a link that opens in a new window. That way, if a visitor does choose to visit one of your advertisers it is easy for them to return to your page and review what they actually came to your site for!

Pop ups and pop unders

Many companies, but mostly agencies representing a number of advertisers, now give their affiliates the options of using pop up and pop under ads. Our opinion - pop ups are evil. They annoy visitors and are usually closed before they even have a chance to load. Go for pop-unders and preferably those that only display once per visit. See below for further articles on this subject.

Using Text Link Ads.

One of the most successful forms of advertising are text link ads. They are bandwidth friendly, don't take up a lot of space and can be easily implemented into most page layouts. Good text links ads don't just scream "buy me!", they also offer some information as to why your web site visitor should investigate the offer. A company should also supply you with very short text links which only state the product or company name. The reason for this is so that you can implement the links directly into the content of related articles and reviews.

Articles and product/service reviews

Now, this is where a bit of hard work comes in. Your regular site visitors will view you as an authority on particular subjects, so why not write a review on a product or service you are advertising? This also supplies excellent content for search engine spiders to latch onto. We have attracted many visitors to our site using what I call "adarticles".

But there's a catch......

If you are going to use the adarticle concept to promote products, you need to believe in what you write. Research the product and company well. Contact the company and let them know what you are doing and ask for further resources and assistance. Once you have created the review, send them the link - you may be surprised at the response you get.

One of our advertisers was so impressed with the effort we put into promoting his company's product that he gave us an extra 15% commission on each sale! This form of web site advertising is a bit time-consuming, so choose your products carefully. The information that you supply to your web site visitors will help them formulate a decision, so be honest in your sales copy. If you are successful in this promotion strategy, over time your reviews won't be seen as hype and bluster, but as a reliable source of information - everybody wins!

Email advertising as an affiliate marketing tool

Direct promotion via email has boomed over recent years, but has brought with it mountains of spam. If you intend on using email as a method of advertising products and services, ensure you stand behind the products you're promoting and make yourself available to answer any questions.

An effective promotion technique we have found is to combine email with the adarticle strategy. In our ezine we occasionally put a summary of a product or service, just enough information to stir the curiosity of our readers. The summary then contains a link to the adarticle on our site. The benefit of this is not only that you have a good opportunity to promote the product or service, but while visitors are on your site they may also look at other sections. The advertiser benefits through having highly targeted potential clients visit their site.

Original marketing strategies

Using the two above strategies combined, you can tailor your own campaign. Visitors sometimes become blind to the advertising resources supplied by companies and your efforts in coming up with something original may spark their (and the company's) interest.

Successful affiliate marketing requires patience

If you are certain that your web site can generate fantastic sales for a certain company, contact them to negotiate a tailored arrangement. If they aren't too enthusiastic to begin with, be patient - companies are approached every day by affiliates wanting to cut a "better deal".

The reality of it is that many affiliates cannot deliver what they promise, and the companies are aware of this. Implement their links and banners, go the extra mile with adarticles and other unique strategies, generate some sales and then approach them again. You'll probably find that they'll have a change of heart. Good affiliates are a scarce thing, and if you are performing they'll be very keen to keep you!

Also bear in mind that most forms of advertising take some time to kick into gear. Putting a link up for a couple of days and then pulling it down because it is not generating any interest may not be a reflection on the product, but just in the way that it is being presented to your web site visitors.

If you have run successful campaigns before, try to remember the elements that made it a success. What works for one product may not necessarily for another, but it's worth a try. Again, if you are having problems with promotion, contact the company. They will more than likely have thousands of affiliates and will know what strategies are working. A good advertiser may even go to the trouble of reviewing your site and provide you with some tips and hints based on their observations.

Network Advertising Agencies vs. individual advertisers.

One of the easiest ways to get involved with affiliate programs is through one of the major advertising agencies. They will offer you hundreds or thousands of advertisers to choose from and payment will be consolidated.

It can be quite difficult to keep track of a number of individual advertisers, but this shouldn't turn you away from considering individual companies to represent on your web site. If the company is well known, has a good product, offers excellent affiliate support and commits to regular payments with a low payout threshhold, they can actually perform better than some of your agency associations.

This is particularly the case if the company offers residual income; i.e. that you receive monthly commissions from referred clients to services such as web hosting, magazine subscriptions - for as long as the client is with the company. Affiliation with these individual advertisers, over time, can build a steady stream of income for you.

By the way, be extremely wary of affiliate programs that you have to pay to join - they are really MLM (multi-level-marketing) associations. There are some very successful and respectable MLM offers around, but also many that are scams. Do your research into the company offering the program.

Successful Affiliate Marketing - unplugged.

Be careful of who you advertise for. Many companies set a minimum payout level they know not many will achieve. They greatly benefit from the fact that thousands of affiliates will not make any real money from the association and over time these affiliates will drop off when they can't hit the target - but the company has benefited from the traffic, with minimum outlay.

One sale here, two sales there - it all adds up for them. Consider this - a company launches an affiliate program with a minimum payout level of US$25 (industry standard). They then recruit over 20,000 affiliates. Only the top 1,000 affiliates actually generate enough sales to receive payouts on a regular basis. The remaining 19,000 only average one sale each, lose interest and drop away. These 19,000 affiliates made nothing, but the company still raked in what could run into millions of dollars of sales.

Successful affiliate marketing boils down to survival of the fittest, the fastest, the wisest - but mainly those who put the most effort in. Don't be discouraged if after a couple of months you haven't made enough money to retire - it does take time!

Looking back over our figures, it was approximately 6 months from when we began getting *really* involved with affiliate programs to when it really started to pay off the effort we had put in. The longer you are involved with affiliate marketing, the more savvy you will become as to what will work and won't. Then your effort vs. return will reap greater income in shorter periods of time.

Affiliate marketing can be exciting and frustrating with many highs and lows, but one thing's for sure - it's never boring!

Affiliate marketing - resources

Looking for further affiliate strategies, tutorials and resources? Try Affiliate Marketing tips, tools, guides, articles and tutorials

Regards,

Shashi

Customer service Executive

PickUpFlowers.com

With Barack Obama moving close to victory in the Democratic presidential primary campaign, the internet has proved one of the key tools to his success. And it may well give the Democrats a big advantage during the Presidential race itself.

The internet has been moving to the mainstream of political life in the US for some years.

But in this presidential cycle it has been particularly important for the Obama campaign, which was starting from scratch with few resources and little name recognition.

The internet favours the outsider, and gives them the ability to quickly mobilise supporters and money online.

And the more nimble use of the internet by the Obama campaign in its early stages helped him overcome the huge initial lead of Hillary Clinton in the presidential nominating race.

Ready to go

Mr Obama's internet strategy was at the heart of his plan to win the Democratic nomination, according to expert Phil Noble, who tracks trends in relation to the internet and politics.

When Senator Obama announced his campaign, his internet site was already fully developed and ready to go - with a set of tools which allowed supporters to meet and organise as well as contribute money.

According to Michael Turk, the e-campaign director for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, the Democrats had learned the lessons of 2004 very well in an "arms race" between rival teams of developers.

Mr Noble says he expects Mr Obama to raise $1 billion online during the 2008 campaign, 12 times as much as John Kerry raised through online fundraising in 2004.

And he says that two million Obama activists have already been mobilised to become volunteer workers for the campaign - a key advance in the "ground war" of getting out the vote.

And some key internet stunts - including the independently developed "Obama girl" mock ad on YouTube - helped increase Mr Obama's public profile early on.

Primary advantage

Both the fundraising and the mobilising potential of the internet proved key advantages for Mr Obama during the primary season. He was able to get more local volunteers on the ground in key states earlier than the Clinton campaign, which was especially important in smaller states and caucus states.

And his early success soon generated a wave of small-size campaign contributions that have continued to roll in.

This gave him a crucial advantage in campaign organisation and advertising over the Clinton campaign, which had raised a large sum of money, mainly from larger donors.

Funding shortages forced Mrs Clinton to dip into her own pockets, and limited the number of states she could campaign in.

He was able to get more local volunteers on the ground in key states earlier than the Clinton campaign, which was especially important in smaller states and caucus states.

And his early success soon generated a wave of small-size campaign contributions that have continued to roll in.

This gave him a crucial advantage in campaign organisation and advertising over the Clinton campaign, which had raised a large sum of money, mainly from larger donors.

Funding shortages forced Mrs Clinton to dip into her own pockets, and limited the number of states she could campaign in.

ndeed Mr Obama's decision to run was influenced by the fact that a page created on MySpace by supporters not connected to any official campaign quickly signed up 160,000 supporters.

According Paul Zube and Rebecca Hayes of Michigan State University, Mr Obama is far more popular on Facebook - the social networking site most widely used by college students - than any other candidate.

And joining Mr Obama's Facebook site - unlike responding to an email message of support - is a public expression of support which can have a broader political impact.

As such, it may be a more powerful mobilising tool to gain new supporters than sending out emails or expecting activists to come to your website.

Youth vote His use of social networking sites has helped Mr Obama to mobilise young people, a group which has traditionally been uninterested in politics, according to Professor Thomas Patterson of Harvard University. "Since the start of this campaign in early 2007, I think what we've seen is a second source of energy for young voters and that's the Obama campaign. They were attracted to him in the first instance by his early opposition to the war in Iraq. At the same time, he happened to have the kind of personality, the kind of message that appealed to them," he says. Mr Obama has consistently performed extremely strong among younger and highly educated voters, whose increased turnout could be critical to the general election. Lessons of recent history

In some ways, Mr Obama has drawn the lessons of the failed Howard Dean campaign in the 2004 primaries.

Mr Dean was the first Democratic presidential candidate to use the internet - through his Blog for America - to mobilise his supporters.

But he failed to connect with the voting public in Iowa and crashed out of the race.

Mr Obama has therefore also drawn lessons from the very successful Republican internet campaign that helped re-elect President Bush in 2004

As Michael Turk, the Bush-Cheney e-campaign director in 2004 explained, the Republicans were able to mobilise their supporters through a combination of email lists and internet 'data mining'.

They identified potential Republican supporters in every precinct around the country, using technology which predicts voter preferences on the basis of commercial data on car ownership, magazine subscriptions, and the like.

And then they sent their campaign volunteers detailed instructions on who to visit, including local maps of the area and walking routes, and issues that each potential voter was likely to be most concerned about.

Mr Obama has been utilising similar data to target primary voters - where turnout is crucial - through both telephone banks of volunteers and personal contacts.

Looking forward

Mr Noble believes that the Democrats will continue to enjoy an enormous advantage over their opponents in the use of the internet for campaigning in this election cycle.

Ironically, the McCain campaign in 2000 - when he unsuccessfully challenged George Bush for the Republican presidential nomination - was an early example of using the internet to raise money online.

But according to Phil Noble, this time round, Republicans are far behind in resources and investment in internet tools, and that Mr McCain is having difficulty appealing to the traditional Republican base.

The most important advantage could be in fundraising.

If Mr Noble's predictions are right, then Mr Obama could have a massive lead in the money needed to carry his message to the American electorate.

Source: news.bbc

Follow the ABC's of search engine optimization:

A - Alt Tags
All images should include ALT tags. The ALT attribute in HTML is used for three main reasons: the ALT tag provides further details about an image or hyperlinked graphic, the ALT Tags enhances web access for individuals with vision impairments. The ALT tags will also help search engines discern what an image represents.

B - Bandwidth
Compress images and use a mixture of text with images to conserve bandwidth and help your webpages load quickly. Use good design techniques to reduce bandwidth and maintain a fast loading website. This will save both storage space and data transfer allowances.

C - Content Management System
Many businesses have adopted CMS systems for web design. Unfortunately these systems are not always designed to be search friendly.

D - Description
Each page of a website should contain a unique, and relevant description. The description should make use of relevant keywords and keyword phrases.

E - Error Page (404)
Use a custom 404 page to capture any traffic from mistyped URLs or abandoned web pages. Sometimes it takes a while for the search engines to catch up to abandoned pages, so they may send traffic to a web page that no longer exists. Using a custom 404 web page in order that you capture the traffic and provide visitors navigation options.

F - Fresh Content
Fresh content is the corner stone of search engine optimization. New content shows that a website is updated on a regular basis. Content is a critical part of search engine optimization. A website must contain both unique and fresh content to rank well.

G - Google
Google dominates other search engines, so it is important for webmasters to optimize pages in a way that will help the web page perform well in a Google search.

H - Header Tags / H1
Use H1 Tags in the HTML to emphasize keywords or sub-headings on a webpage.

I - Image Optimization
Images should be optimized for web pages. Use standard web formats and compress the images without compromising quality. It is important to specify the width and the height of your images in the HTML code. If the height and width of the image is not specified, the web browser will have to reposition the text once the pictures load, consuming more time.

J - Javascript
Avoid the use of javascript for navigation. Search engine spiders often have a difficult time following javascript links.

K - Keywords
Keywords are the hallmark of search engine optimization. Keywords should be integrated into the body of the website and the meta tags of the web page.

L -Link Building
Link building is an important aspect of SEO. In order for a website to generate organic ranking. Submit the website to large directories and niche portals to generate incoming links.

M - Meta Tags
Meta tags should be defined and included in all of the web page's HTML header information. Each web page on a website should contain unique meta tags.

N - Navigation
Not only is it important to have a clear navigational structure for human visitors, but also one for search engine spiders which follow a website's links to index the web page's contents. Have a navigation structure that is viewable by both web visitors and search spiders.

O - Optimize
Optimization is a continuous process. Optimize the website and monitor web logs to determine the effectiveness of the changes that you have made.

P - PageRank
PageRank is one of the methods Google uses to determine the relevance or importance of a web page. PageRank is a vote, by all the other web pages on the Internet, about how important a Web page is. To raise PageRank, one must have a large number of incoming links from trusted sources.

Q - Quality Link
There is more to linking than just getting a large number of incoming links. The quality of the incoming links is important as well.

R - Robots.txt
Robots.txt files should be used to tell search engines what web pages should and should not be spidered.

S - Social Bookmarks and Social Networks
Social bookmarks and social networks can be using to build incoming link structure.

T - Title
All web pages within a website should contain unique title tags. Titles should include keywords and be descriptive in nature.

U - URLs
URLs are also part of search engine optimization. Using hyphenated keywords to name the sub-pages of a website has been known to play a role in search engine ranking.

V - Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is a marketing strategy that encourages people to pass along messages to others in order to generate added exposure. The viral piece is a self-propagating practice or pattern of Internet use that moves from person to person.

W - Web Design
Web design should not focus solely on aesthetics. The design should be done with search engine optimization in mind. X - XML XML is eXtensible Markup Language it is used as a standard to transfer data.

Y - Yahoo
Yahoo still has one of the best web directories. Be sure to manually submit your website to the Yahoo Directory.

Z - ZeeEnd

Source: PromotionWorld

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In the first part of this article, I outlined some frightening statistics regarding credit card fraud and chargeback fees. to merchants. It's worthwhile reviewing if you haven't read it as yet; as is my guide to chargebacks

Protecting your online business from fraud :

One of the great things about the Internet is anonymity. One of the worst things about the Internet is anonymity - especially if you're an ecommerce merchant. If you utilize payment gateways for credit card transactions or are considering doing so, it is important to ask the gateway provider about their screening features (this precedes actual credit card payment processing). Some offer none at all or may not have certain features switched on by default!

Many payment gateway providers use the Address Verification System (AVS). AVS provides a degree of protection by comparing some of the billing details on the order to those held by the cardholders bank - But:

The transaction may be approved even if the address verification information does not match! The merchant faces the possibility of chargebacks if the payment gateway decides to continue with the transaction on a questionable match. If you have AVS features in place, check the settings in your interface. AVS should just be used as an indicator of a possible attempt at fraud; a flag to help determine if an order should be more thoroughly investigated.

CVV2 takes things a step further. A CVV2 number is the three last digits located on the back of a credit card, or the four stand-alone digits on the front of an Amex card. It's certainly very useful for further minimizing fraud, but fraudsters can get hold of this information, so again, don't rely on this alone. Fraud screening really needs to be approached holistically.

The following fraud screening strategies are worthwhile considering whether you're using offline facilities for payment processing or third party credit card processing systems.

Request information :

While consumers value their privacy and require quick checkout processes, it is of the utmost importance that you gather sufficient customer identity details during the ordering process. The customers name, credit card number and expiry date is not enough. Tell your customers why you need the information and what you will do with it - after all, it's in their best interests too. The fewer chargeback fees you have to pay, the cheaper you can offer goods and services.

Check the IP address :

It's important that each order processed from your site also contains information regarding the IP address of the person placing the order. An IP address is a unique network identifier issued by an Internet Service Provider to a user every time they are logged on to the Internet.

The IP address can be easily traced using free tools such as Geobytes IP locator - it's the most accurate I've come across in terms of free services and there are other premium products around that offer additional features.

If the order has a billing address of the USA, and the IP originates in Africa, you can be fairly certain it's fraud.

While this is a very good anti-fraud mechanism and useful for tracking fraudsters, be aware that IP addresses can also be forged.

Check your payment gateway interface :

Depending on the type of payment gateway service you use, you may have access to a log of all attempted transactions, including declines - these will appear in the unsettled transactions list for the current day or you can run a search on previous dates. Look for a series of declined transactions around the time the order was made. These will usually be within a few minutes of each other and may note a variety of names and card details - but all a common IP.

When fraudsters obtain a list of credit cards from wherever; these are often distributed to other fraudsters as well. They go to work on them right away and as a consequence, some cardholders are alerted early on and their cards cancelled. Fraudsters using old data will often have to try multiple sets of details before finding a set that is still active.

Email address awareness :

Fraudsters rarely use their own "real" email address and with the proliferation of free email services, it is quite easy to establish a fake email account in under a minute.

Some online businesses now refuse to process online orders that list free email address services as the primary point of contact, opting to request from customers their ISP or business email addresses. This comes at a price; i.e. reduced sales.

You can check an email address quickly by going to the originating domain and seeing if it provides a free email service.

Shipping addresses :

If the shipping address is different to the billing address, be wary; although it is not uncommon for people sending gifts to others to request a different shipping address, or if the billing address is a post office box.

You'll rarely find a fraudster sending goods to the legitimate cardholders address; although this has been known to occur on occasion.

At the point of ordering, request a telephone contact number from the purchaser. State that you need this number in order to contact them if there are any problems. Many cardholders of compromised accounts have been alerted in this way. The fraudster more than likely won't give you his own phone number as he/she can then be traced. If an order is suspect, try to confirm the phone details provided are indeed that of the customer by checking a relevant online phone directory; then call the customer to confirm the authenticity of the transaction. Fraudsters hate merchant contact of any kind.

Log analysis :

There's plethora of site traffic tracking services and software available now that will not only return very valuable demographic data, but can also assist you in pinpointing the origins of fraud.

Still one of the best ways to analyze your log files is manually. By examining your logs carefully, you will be able to find out a suspect order's originating Internet address if it's not included on your order receipts (but most will these days). This tracking is made easier if you include a Time Stamp on each submitted order. If you find that an order originating from Russia states a billing address of Sydney on the order form, make further enquiries.

Most web hosts will have a server log available for your account. It's basically a text file that records every single request to the site, including images. Contained in every request is an originating IP i.e. the ISP issued address of the computer that "asked" for the file.

If you aren't sure about how to access your raw server logs, enquire with your hosting service. Learn more about interpreting server logs.

Overseas orders :

Can be risky, but an important part of your online business - by refusing to ship outside your country, you may be leaving a lot of money on the table.

It is very difficult to retrieve goods or apprehend fraudsters once the goods have left the country, so don't hesitate in making further enquiries with the customer or credit card company if an order seems suspect.

Unfortunately, Eastern Europe is still a very high risk region for the origin of credit card fraud, with some online business owners refusing to process orders from that region. Other high risk regions are Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Africa and Israel.

Unusual orders :

Unusually large orders requesting express delivery definitely warrant further investigation, especially if the customer has not purchased from you before. Customers are pretty cautious, and will tend to place small orders in the first instance to test the efficiency and integrity of your online business, or they'll make some sort of contact with you prior to ordering.

When in doubt, call the cardholder or bank :

I can't stress this enough - call the relevant credit card company or cardholder BEFORE attempting to process the order if in doubt... that extra 5 minutes may save you big dollars! Even if the order has been processed through automated systems, it's not too late to follow up before shipping the goods or providing the services. The idea is to deal with the situation before the cardholder is issued a statement, notices something on it that they didn't purchase and then contacts their bank.

Ask for photo identification :

If you're dealing with high value items, I don't think it's overkill to ask for photo identification to be emailed to you if an order seems suspicious. You just need to weigh up the risks - possibly lose a couple of hundred dollars profit from a disgruntled client not willing to provide photo ID, or lose the couple of hundred dollars, plus the product, plus the chargeback fee and possibly your merchant account if you decide to go ahead with the transaction. Make your anti-fraud policy visible.

Visual deterrents are still one of the most effective ways of minimizing crime. In a bricks and mortar store, signs and cameras do prevent shoplifting to some degree, especially amongst amateur criminals. Why not use the strategy on your site?

Add bold notices and third party security seals to the checkout pages stating your stance on fraud and that systems are in place to monitor all transactions. Not only might this decrease attempts at fraud by wannabe fraudsters, but will also demonstrate to your clients that you take transaction security very seriously.

Other indicators :

As fraudsters are often overseas in countries where English isn't the primary language, look for things like the incorrect spelling of common words, mixing up first name and last name fields, incorrect spelling of common names and street names, nonsensical email addresses and poorly structured additional comments. Again, none of these on their own indicate definite fraud, but it helps you to build a more accurate picture and better assess the risk.

Utilize specialist fraud screening services :

Like so many online business owners, perhaps you don't have time to carry out rigorous fraud screening. With the increase in fraudulent transactions, many companies such as preCharge have sprung up to act as screening services to help minimize credit card fraud risks to merchants. preCharge offers a global screening service that's totally transparent to your customers, can be implemented with any type of cart setup and also offers a guarantee.

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Dussehra | Forward this Picture

1. Vision

One of the most important keys to getting great results from your team is the creation of a common vision for all the team members. This is essential to organizational success and team building. You should spend time as a team brainstorming the overall vision for the team- you should know where you want to go and what you are striving to create.

This is also a great time to celebrate the current successes of your company. Is your vision clearly defined? Do all of the team members have the same vision? When everyone shares your vision, you work better together and have better results.

2. Goals

The second key is to develop common goals for the team. You should ensure that your program and project goals are completely understood and that they are supported by all of the members of the team.

The members of the team should understand how their individual efforts are feeding the larger objectives. Do all of the team members know the role they are playing to support the larger goals of the team or organization? Does everyone know what the goals are?

3. Roles and Responsibilities

The third key is to know make sure that everyone knows what their roles and responsibilities are as a member of the team. When those roles are clear, they will help to support and achieve the common goals and vision.

Do the members of the team know what their roles are? What they are responsible for? Are there overlaps between the team members and departments?

4. Support

The fourth key is to make sure that there is adequate support from managers and supervisors. Make sure that they are following up with the staff members and finding out what they need.

They should also check to see how the efforts of team building can be enhanced. The managers are also going to be play a key role in making sure that the learning that is gained from team building is brought back into the office and used.

Are there any systems in place to make sure that members are retaining their learning?

5. Challenge

The fifth key is to make sure that the members of the team are challenged and engaged throughout the process of team building. Think about bringing in someone from the outside to make sure that your efforts are supported.

You should make sure that the team is challenged and that they don't get bored when they are working on the team building exercises.

In order to have the best results from your team, everyone has to be on the same page about goals and the vision. They have to know what is expected of them and what the role is that they all play in the company.

They should be kept challenged and know that they are going to have support from the managers and the other staff.

When you follow these five keys, you are going to find that your team is working more efficiently, and there aren't any questions about who does what in the company. Everyone knows what their goals are and how they should be achieved. Good team results are a team effort.

Source: ezinearticles

Every day things go wrong in the service world and we are faced with the challenge of turning service failures into service recoveries. But what does it really take to restore customer confidence and regain goodwill? I began to explore that question more than 10 years ago and since that time I have studied service failure and service recovery from every possible angle and I have benchmarked best-in-service companies throughout the world. My research has led to me uncovering a series of 7 simple, but remarkably effective strategies that will unequivocally position any organization to keep customers coming back after even the worst has happened. Each of the 7 strategies is scientifically proven and surprisingly easy to execute.

I present to you How to Completely Restore Customer Confidence After Things Go Wrong: The 7 Things You Must Do...