Blog, Web, Domain, and Business Online Articles

Image taken on 2010-06-02 10:36:13 by UW Digital Collections.

Times are tougher than ever for small business owners. And that means we need to be smarter than ever to keep our businesses alive, if not thriving. There’s no “easy button” in the real world but there are some simple things you can do to stay ahead of your competition and even open a whole new revenue stream in the process.

I’ll show you, step by step, how I got a new lease on my company’s life and how you can do the same. Just replace your needs with those I mention and follow the same process. This works for any business with online interests, whether it’s a full Web store or a shop on Main Street with nothing online but a simple homepage.

Step One: Start by identifying what is most important to your business and go from there. For me, it was being found on search engines; Google, Yahoo and MSN specifically.

Step Two: Determine what new skills or tools will get you what you need. In my case I needed search engine optimization or online marketing. With a little research I found that if I wanted to rank high on Google I would need to build one way inbound links to my site (not reciprocal links since Google no longer counts them.)

Step Three: Find a software tool or training package that will get you where you need to go. I found a product called Link A Minute to take care of my needs. When you find the product you want DON’T buy it! Not yet at least.

Step Four: Once you have found the product you need, visit Google.com and search for its name followed by “affiliate program.” If you can become an affiliate for the product it is well worth it. I found an affiliate quick signup page at http://www.linkaminute.com/jmap.htm (JMAP stands for Join My Affiliate Page) and got an eighty dollar link building package for ten dollars.

Note: If you cannot find an affiliate program for your product of choice, try adding “/affiliate.htm” or “/JMAP.htm” to the main URL. These are common page names for affiliate signup. Also keep an eye out for free bonuses offered to affiliates. I got a training guide called Monetizing Your Links that proved quite valuable. Just look for deals like this. It is in the product owner’s best interest to help you as an affiliate so they often offer nice bonuses like this.

Step Five: Use it internally, then as a new revenue stream… I got lucky here. The system I used provided almost immediate results without any real learning curve. But don’t be disappointed if you need to invest some time in whatever skill you choose to build. It is worth it! Not only will your new skill benefit your existing business, it can open a whole new line of possibilities as well.

I chose link building because I needed it for my business. But as it turns out, I now earn slightly more with this new sideline than I do from my main copywriting business. Just try to find a niche you can use right away and later try to make money from it. You will be amazed at how profitable this can be.

There is a secret to making your website more accessible to anybody who tries to access it while at the same time increasing signups for newsletters, ezines, ecourses, opt-in, sales, or whatever else you’re trying to get in front of more people. When I first learned the technique I thought it was too technical, but it is actually extremely easy.
I’m talking about using the error pages that come up when somebody doesn’t enter the URL correctly, or for some other reason is taken to an error message. Perhaps you’ve already noticed how major sites have personalized error notification pages and wondered, “Wow, how do they do that?” A lot of websites that know how to do this correctly still don’t even know how to make money doing it.
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty how-to segment to make this work wonders. What you need to do is create an “.htaccess” file and upload it to the server where your site is hosted. If you have no idea how to upload a file to your hosting service, most providers have how-to sections on that or you can download SmartFTP for free which has easy to follow video tutorials. Open the notepad on your computer since we’ll be creating a new simple text file that will make miracles happen.
All you need to do in this text file is add a few lines that will tell your server to redirect visitors to the page of your choice instead of the typical error message. Let’s just focus on three of the most common errors so you’ll get the hang of this. On the first line of the text file type “ErrorDocument 403 put-URL-here” and of course change the text that says “put-URL-here” with the complete URL of your choice. Then, instead of visitors getting the typical white text page that says Error403 they’ll see the website you inserted!
This gets pretty exciting, especially if your site gets lots of traffic. Before I implemented this tactic my site got about one thousand error messages in a single month, and I’m sure most of those visitors were lost to me forever. Next line in the text file should say “ErrorDocument 400 put-URL-here” and the line after that should say “ErrorDocument 404 put-URL-here”. Your file should now be properly prepared to redirect visitors to the page of your choice when a server error occurs.
Now we need to make your document functional. In Notepad you can go ahead and save it as htaccess.txt for now. Now log in to your server and upload the file to your site’s root directory (that’s the main one where all the main pages are). Don’t put it into the subdirectories.
Once you’re online with your server’s interface and you’ve uploaded the text file, use the server’s interface to rename the document, and instead of being “htaccess.txt” you should rename it “.htaccess” with no file name extension. Don’t forget to include the period at the beginning of the name of the file or else this won’t work for you. You’re all set!
To test that you’ve gotten the settings right, type your main domain name into your browser then backslash anything you want. For example, yoursite dot com slash blahblahblah and instead of getting the typical Error404 message you should see the URL you put into the .htaccess file you just uploaded. If this didn’t work for you, review the steps. If you still have trouble, contact your server’s support line and they should be able to guide you to making it work.
Many hosting providers have forms on their interface that allow you to do this very simply by filling in the blanks, but the system I’ve outlined here for you today will work universally. Enjoy the bigger profits!

Image taken on 2008-07-07 00:51:40 by irwebreport.

File sharing is getting more and more advanced day by day. It has become first and foremost important need of all the computer workers and computer-savvy people’s communities. From students to professionals all need to share files either for the home assignment or for their business need. Some want to share music while some want to share pictures and videos. File sharing practices are so common nowadays that everybody is indulging in some sort of file sharing every now and then.

Because the file sharing is so common, there are many ways of sharing files. Some of them allow users to hassle-free sharing while some of them are actually quite dangerous. Some sort of File sharing may also compromise your computer and put you at risk of identity theft. No need to mention here that many of the peer-to-peer or P2P sharing networks not only spread harmful viruses and spywares but they also eat up your entire bandwidth and slow down your computer.

To use any P2P network you have to open a specific Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port through the firewall for the P2P software to communicate. In fact, once you open the port you are no longer protected from malicious traffic coming through it. Many of the computer crashes are the result of the malwares and spywares. For P2P sites to be successful, they need everyone to share everything. 95% of the software used on Peer-2-Peer systems ’sharing’ is infected with backdoors to your computer system. These networks open wide your computer to the risk of globally sharing files with other unknown users.

The concept of sharing seems benign enough so, there is no need to compromise anymore with your computers as there are now many File distributor websites available on-line to give you the power to find what you want and share what you have. They give you easy, fast and secure sharing. If you need to send private information, you can find options with password protection so that your files are not intercepted. These way users can share documents securely either with the whole world or with limited persons. You can share pictures, videos, Mp3s, or any other types of files easily. These sites allow users to upload files and give them links which can be easily send to anyone they want to share with. Only people knowing the exact download URL are able to download your file.

These websites help you share files with your friends all around the world. They redefines the way consumers and businesses access, share and protect their documents, photos, videos, music and all their data. These sites give free space to store your data and also fast download facility. You can customize your pictures and make your photo albums. There is no need of using harmful P2P software anymore because it is easy to share your files and folders by emailing tiny links to the people you want to share with.