Monday, June 23, 2014

How to Choose the Right SEO Firm for Your Online Business

Firstly, what is SEO?

SEO (Search engine optimization) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or "organic" search results. The more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.

Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.

Google's PageRank system is the way of determining which websites are the most applicable and useful for every search term. An SEO specialist's task is to make a page as applicable and useful as possible, thereby improving its rank.



Before looking for SEO firm, it's important and necessity to find an SEO firm that is comfortable working with small to medium businesses and has experience working in your niche.

1. Budget and Fees

The first thing you need to take into consideration before you even look at fees is how much you can actually afford to pay. Fees will vary across the board, so it's important for you to have a figure in mind and find a reliable SEO firm or consultant who can work on your budget.

The firms may ask you to pay by the webpage, by the hour, by the project, or ask for a pre-determined amount of money to cover the cost of their work for the month.

2. Background Check

Most SEO firms will have testimonials on their website, but they're not the referrals you're interested in, since they're likely the company's biggest success stories. You want to hear from run-of-the-mill customers to see how the SEO firm performs across the board. Ask for the names and numbers of at least three companies for an honest opinion.

If the client you're speaking with has been particularly successful, ask them how much they paid to achieve that success and how much it has cost them to maintain it.

Also check out the Better Business Bureau and Ripoff Report to make sure the firm you're considering has a clean reputation. It might also be worth checking the firm's own page ranking to see how well it handles its own SEO.

3. Communication and Reports

Once you've determined how much you can reasonably expect to pay, you need to ask the firm how much you can expect to get paid. What will the return on investment (ROI) be and how does the company plan to track it?

Some basic steps they should be taking to optimize your search ranking include, keyword optimization, headline and link-building from other sites. You should discuss the techniques the firm plans on implementing.

They should give you updates and reports, because if they're not, they may be doing stuff that Google doesn't approve of that may have a short-term gain, but a long-term loss.

Ask them how often you'll receive progress reports and what tracking processes they'll have in place to prove your ROI. Some of those tracking techniques may include monitoring the number of e-mail requests, newsletter sign-ups and phone calls you receive.

4. Ask for SEO Experts

Look for SEO groups and online forums like Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, High Rankings, Search Engine Guide and Digitalpoint. The members and forum users are willing to share their tips and experience.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Set up your website without a designer or a programmer

If you are a small business or plan on having an online shop (commonly known as e-commerce), Webs.com is a website builder you should consider, you can try out for free before subscribe to their packages. The key reasons being that their e-commerce tools allow you to present multiple images per store item, product search and inventory tracking, and also their integrated Apps helps you to manage your business better and will save you time.

Webs.com have enough tools to provide the ultimate solution for your small businesses, micro-businesses and entrepreneurs and allow you to build a pretty decent website.

Webs.com

Webs.com has become the world's largest do-it-yourself website-creation solution. Over 55 million sites have been built with Webs.com and, together, these sites receive 300 million page views each month and customers trust Webs.com to help them create, manage and host their websites.

Webs.com provided a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website builder, meaning you build the entire website right in front of you and what you see when you are building, is what actually shows up after you publish the website.

Webs.com gives you the option to either build “Normal pages” or “Specialty pages”.

Normal Pages:

Webs.com provide you with 6 different page layout configurations, so whenever you create a new page, you can choose which page layout to use. You can change the page layout later on if you want.  The modules that you insert into the page (i.e. your content) will be automatically transferred into the new layout so you won’t lose any information.

Specialty Pages:

Webs.com also give you “specialty pages” that they have dedicated, pre-set structured webpages for you to choose from. These include pages dedicated to blogs, web stores, photos, membership, videos, forums, guestbooks and appointments. You will find these pre-set pages in the App store and these are nice to have especially if you have a need for them.

It is a very intuitive and easy to use website builder. Combining normal pages and specialty pages will allow you the ability to create a more interesting website without making the building process complicated.

Creating a website from a blank canvas can be a seriously daunting task. That’s why many sitebuilders offer templates over which users can lay their content, logo, images, etc. when creating a website. This option makes attractive websites infinitely more accessible to personal and small business website owners.

Webs.com designers have created several dozen attractive and flexible themes that can be individualized to suit the needs and branding of each user’s website. Areas that can be customized include colors, fonts, background images, and more. While they do offer a number of Premium themes for upgraded users, most are free and available to everyone.


Webs.com templates for everyone

How it Works

1. Set up your website
  • Select a professionally designed theme for your site.
  • Add dynamic pages (about, services, contact).
  • Include powerful apps like a web store, blog, or calendar.
2. Add your content
  • Brand your site header with your company's logo.
  • Drag and drop content areas like slideshows, forms, and maps.
  • Bring it to life with your images and videos.
3. Publish and share
  • Launch your website with a single click.
  • Create a custom domain name to add a little extra polish.
  • Share your masterpiece with family and friends.
4. Get ready for visitors
  • Optimize your site for search with our SEO booster.
  • Learn about your traffic and visitors with the Stats tool.
  • Watch your traffic grow as you make recommended changes.
Ready to get started? Visit Webs.com to get more helpful tips and resources for your business websites.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Will e-mail marketing still works?

With the rise and powerful of social media marketing and the increase in purchases being made on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Plus+ and many more, you may be wondering if you should continue to focus efforts on email marketing in 2014? The answer is “Yes!” Because social media has become an important part of marketing for businesses, email is still the a powerful marketing tool.


Email is one of the top ways to get new customers, and what’s more, this channel has continued to grow considerably over the past year. Most importantly for your business, customers that come to you via email rather than social media tend to shop more and spend more, as stated in the Forbes article,

“Why Email is Still More Effective Than Social Media Marketing.” 

That’s a definite win for email!

Mobile email opens just hit 51%, meaning not only are people still reading their email, but more emails are being opened on a mobile device than on a desktop. “Email is effective because it’s permission-based. 

Why Email Marketing Still Works?

1. Personalisation and Segmentation
Email marketing gives you the luxury of quickly personalising campaigns, in order to specifically target your intended audience. If your product or service is intended for a certain demographic, you can easily stylise your emails to reflect their interests. This allows you to target niche markets and make instant changes to make the campaign more effective. - See more at: http://blog.bellcom.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/10-reasons-why-email-marketing-still-works/#sthash.dJSpIllH.dpuf
1. Personalization
Email marketing gives you the luxury of quickly personalizing campaigns, in order to specifically target your intended audience. If your product or service is intended for a certain demographic, you can easily stylize your emails to reflect their interests. This allows you to target niche markets and make instant changes to make the campaign more effective.

Less Intrusive
Almost everyone at some stage has been disturbed by a cold call or skipped through television adverts to get back to their programme. This is because we are frequently interrupted in prior activity with messages that are often unsolicited. Email marketing works because customers actively open your email and are engaged with your message when they see it. If you’ve done a good job in designing your email, customers will look forward to seeing what you have to say! - See more at: http://blog.bellcom.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/10-reasons-why-email-marketing-still-works/#sthash.XoZxPL4C.dpuf
2. Less invasive
Email marketing works because customers actively open your email and are engaged with your message when they see it. If you have a great and nice looking mail layout, your customers will look forward to seeing it.


3. Cost saving

Advertising marketing need to spend a lot by using designing, printing and sometimes uses posting.
Telemarketing can involve a lengthy process of prospecting for customers, qualifying them and closing the sale. This can put significant pressure on sales teams and absorb a lot of their time. On average, email marketing is likely to cost less than 10% of a direct marketing campaign, whilst reaching a considerably larger audience.  


4. Interactivity and effective
Emails are an amazing marketing tool and perhaps the best example of how interactive marketing can take your messages to an entirely different level. You customer can forward your email to their friends as they like, they will click on your links to view more information, products and services to their shopping carts, access their personal accounts, update subscriptions, visit and read your sites, post to your Facebook page and follow you on Twitter only using one mail.


5. Increased measurability
Email marketing campaigns offer a range of in-depth analytical and tracking tools, allowing you to see who has opened your email and what specific links have been followed. Depending on how inclusive your analyzing tool is, you can even profile your ideal customer by finding out a range of demographic information to aid your future campaigns. A great feature is the ‘unsubscribe’ button, which alerts you to those who wish to be removed from your communications, this a good and prevent your email campaigns being marked as spam and penalized.


6. Tops the list of active users
Both Facebook and Twitter make up just 0.2% of the number of emails sent every day. Many marketers will state that they've "tried it but it didn't work" but email marketing should be an integral component in your marketing and sales approach.


7. Still the best for building business relationships
When it comes to building business relationships, the best medium is still email. Not only does it suggest a more serious, grown-up conversation, business professionals generally do not go on to social media websites for private, business-related conversations.


While email is a very effective performer, using multiple channels to drive purchases is still the best bet. Remember that social media sales are only going to grow, so mix in marketing on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, as well as email to keep your business growing.

If you're new to marketing with email, you probably need a bit of expert advice.

Visit "Email Marketing Guides" to learn and find out the best guides for different industries as well as instructions for some advanced processes that'll really fine-tune your campaign.


Or you can multiply profits and automate your business by trying "AWeber's email marketing software". Learn how they can do it for you, too. Take A Free Test Drive Today!
1. Personalisation and Segmentation
Email marketing gives you the luxury of quickly personalising campaigns, in order to specifically target your intended audience. If your product or service is intended for a certain demographic, you can easily stylise your emails to reflect their interests. This allows you to target niche markets and make instant changes to make the campaign more effective. - See more at: http://blog.bellcom.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/10-reasons-why-email-marketing-still-works/#sthash.dJSpIllH.dpuf
1. Personalisation and Segmentation
Email marketing gives you the luxury of quickly personalising campaigns, in order to specifically target your intended audience. If your product or service is intended for a certain demographic, you can easily stylise your emails to reflect their interests. This allows you to target niche markets and make instant changes to make the campaign more effective. - See more at: http://blog.bellcom.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/10-reasons-why-email-marketing-still-works/#sthash.dJSpIllH.dpuf
1. Personalisation and Segmentation
Email marketing gives you the luxury of quickly personalising campaigns, in order to specifically target your intended audience. If your product or service is intended for a certain demographic, you can easily stylise your emails to reflect their interests. This allows you to target niche markets and make instant changes to make the campaign more effective. - See more at: http://blog.bellcom.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/10-reasons-why-email-marketing-still-works/#sthash.dJSpIllH.dpuf

Highest paying affiliate program for health and beauty website or blog

Do you have a nice and great looking Health and Beauty website or blog? If you are interested in making money off the explosive sales in the health and beauty industry, then MarketHealth.com is perfect for you.

Market Health is now the world's largest integrated online marketing company in the health and beauty industry. The Market Health Affiliate Program allows you to market and promote the world’s leading health and beauty offers on the net. They offer the highest paying affiliate commissions and the most advance tracking software in their industry. Choose from over 50 offers which include herbal supplements, skin care, vitamins, beauty products, health care, weight loss and more.

Join MerketHealth.com

Commission payments are sent twice a month on the 1st and 16th with a $20 minimum. The sales you generate from the 1st - 15th get paid on the 1st of the following month.
The sales you generate from the 16th - 31st get paid on the 16th of the following month. Therefore, there is a two-week accounting period before you receive your payout.

Payment option:
  • Check by Mail
  • Bank Wire
  • PayPal
  • Pre-Paid Debit Card via Payoneer
Special commission for Super Affiliates:

If you can send 20 or more sales per day, they are happy to negotiate special commission and payment requirements. They want your business and can guarantee you the best deal right here at MarketHealth.com.

Visit markethealth.com

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Intuit "Payroll Processing Request" Malware Email

"Payroll processing" emails purporting to be from financial software provider Intuit, claim that are large amount of money is about to be withdrawn from the recipient's bank account to cover employee paychecks. The recipient is invited to click a link in the message to download payroll details.

The email is not from Intuit and the claims in the message are untrue. Those who fall for the ruse and follow links in the email will be taken to a website that harbours information stealing malware.


The emails are not from Intuit. In fact, the emails are designed to trick recipients into downloading malware to their computers. The criminals responsible for the scam hope that recipients, panicked into believing that several thousand dollars is set to be withdrawn from their bank accounts, will click the link in the message without due forethought. Clicking links in the messages, will actually take victims to a compromised website that harbours malware. The victim is taken to a site that supposedly contains more information about the payroll withdrawal and then asked to wait until the page fully loads. However, the page then automatically redirects to other sites where trojans and other types of malware may be downloaded to the visitor's computer.

Once installed, this malware can change computer settings, steal sensitive information stored on the computer and connect to remote servers.

Example mail:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Intuit Payment Network
Subject: We have received your payroll processing request.

Direct Deposit Service Communication
Information Only


Dear [email address removed]

We obtained your payroll on June 16, 2014 at 3:25 AM Pacific Time.

Funds will be withdrawn from the bank account number ending in: XXXX on June 17, 2014.
Amount to be withdrawn: $7,956.50
Paychecks will be transferred to your employees' accounts on: June 17, 2014
Please download your payroll here.
Funds are as a rule withdrawn before normal banking hours so please make sure you have enough funds available by 12 a.m. on the date funds are to be withdrawn.


Intuit must obtain your payroll by 5 p.m. Pacific time, two banking days before your paycheck date or your employees will fail to be paid on time. QuickBooks does not process payrolls on weekends or federal banking holidays. A list of federal banking holidays can be accessed at the Federal Reserve website.

Thank you for your business.

Sincerely,
Intuit Payroll Services

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to protect yourself from a phishing attack:
  1. If you suspect you have received a phishing email from Intuit, please forward it immediately to spoof@intuit.com. Intuit will look into each reported instance.
  2. Make sure you subscribe to an anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date.
  3. Make sure you have updated your web browser to one that includes anti-phishing security features, such as Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox version 3 or higher.
  4. Make sure that you keep up to date on the latest releases and patches for your operating systems and critical programs. These releases are frequently security related.
  5. Do not open up an attachment that claims to be a software update. We will not send any software updates via email.
  6. Do not respond to emails asking for account, password, banking, or credit card information.
  7. Do not respond to text messages or voicemails that ask you to call a number and enter your account number and pin.
  8. Make sure you have passwords on your computer and your payroll files.
Three common methods that phishers use in their emails:
1. Spoofed email address.
Don't reply to unsolicited email and don't open email attachments. It's easy to fake a From or Reply To address, either manually or with spam software, so never assume an email is real by looking at its header. You might be able to spot fake addresses by checking for domain name misspellings, but this isn't foolproof. Some email service providers combat the problem of spoofed addresses by using authentication techniques to verify a sender's integrity.
2. Fake link. 
When in doubt, never click on a link in an unsolicited or suspicious email. Scam emails can contain a hidden link to a site that asks you to enter your log on and account information. A clue: if the email threatens you with account closure if you don't log on soon, you could be the target of phishing. You may be able to tell if a link is real by moving your mouse over it and looking at the bottom of your browser to see the hidden Web address - it will look different than the one you see on the surface.
3. Forged Website. 
If you must visit a financial site, like your bank or credit card company, enter its known address into the browser location field manually. Use a browser with an anti-phishing plug-in or extension, like FireFox version 3 or higher or Internet Explorer 7. These browsers warn you about forged, high-risk sites. Phony Web sites mimic real sites by copying company logos, images, and site designs. Malicious webmasters can also use HTML, Flash or Java Script to mask or change a browser address.
Visit security.intuit.com to get the most up to date information about phishing.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Income potential using 5 monetization tips for your blog

Many bloggers want to find a good ways to generate an income from their blogs. If your blog is ready for this, let's start and create some interesting make money tools. Here are basic and easy to use of monetization tips for blogging efforts.


1. Advertising or Affiliate Program

Put some ads on your blog is the most obvious way to derive an income from your blogging efforts. Ads can come in the form of text links or banner ads, and advertising options are available that you can easily tap into through pay-per-click, pay-per-post and affiliate programs online. Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, Clickbank, eBay Affiliates and Pay-Per-Post are just a few of the most common advertising programs available to bloggers.

Read more about Ad Networks

2. Writing or Selling Ebooks

Another great way to make some online income from your blog is by writing an ebook and offering it for sale through your blog. Ebooks are particularly successful for bloggers who have positioned themselves as experts in their fields and advertise their ebooks as additional or exclusive information just for readers of their blogs. You can join Kobo or Amazon books affiliate program to monetize your blog.

3. Merchandise

This is a simple way to monetize your blog by selling merchandise through a service such as CafePress. CafePress is the world's creative minds join forces to provide an unparalleled marketplace. They give you the power to create custom products and personalized gifts on a variety of high-quality items such as t-shirts, hoodies, posters, bumper stickers and mugs and also allows you to set up online shops where you can design and sell your own unique merchandise.

4. Reviews for Pay

Bloggers can make money by reviewing products, events, businesses and more through blog posts. Many businesses will look for these posts on your blog before they'll consider sending you free products to review and pay you. Create a category and use tags or labels to identify product review posts, so it's easy for visitors and businesses to find them. When you request free products from a business, you'll need to be able to prove that you publish well-written reviews. Popular per-per-post site are Payperpost and ReviewMe.

You can write a request for free products that you can email to businesses, share all of the data gathered above as well as links to prior product review posts. The goal is to make your blog sound like a place where the business is sure to find a sizable number of people that match their desired target audience.

5. Sell Your Blog Ad Space Directly to Advertisers

You can attempt to sell your own ad space directly to advertisers, but unless your blog is established with a sizable audience and high traffic, it can be difficult to manage and make money selling ad space directly.  Fortunately, there are sites like BuySellAds.com that link online publishers up with online advertisers to make selling your ad space easier.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Bogus Holiday Scams Alert

Holiday or travel scams is one of the most costly scams, according to the reported, the average victim losing more than $5,200, how they work? You're handed a scratch card and discover you have won a free holiday. You have to attend a presentation to collect your prize. The presentation is usually at a swanky hotel, with glossy brochures and posters all adding to the air of authenticity.

After committing yourself you will suddenly find that your 'free' holiday has a lot of extra costs, such as transport and other less obvious but nonetheless 'compulsory' extras. Be especially wary of presentations that ply you with unlimited alcohol or offer special discounts that only last that day, and withstand the pressure to sign anything until you have taken the information away with you to study in your own time.


Generally, a genuine holiday clubs will allow their customer to look over a contract before signing it, while bogus holiday clubs will pressurise hopeful holidaymakers into signing on the dotted line, without reading through everything properly.

What usually holiday and travel scams look like?

If somebody promises you a break from the old routine, at a fraction of the normal cost, of course you’ll be tempted. There are some genuinely good deals on holiday and travel and scammers know it. Whether you’re buying holiday vouchers, booking accommodation online, or sorting out a visa for your trip, it pays to do your homework. Make sure holiday and travel deals are genuine, so that you don’t end up disappointed.

Types of holiday and travel scams:

Fake holidays or accommodation
You’re planning your overseas holiday. You find some great accommodation that seems very reasonable. You send them an email to make a reservation, and are asked to pay by a money-wiring service like Western Union. You start to get worried when you haven’t received confirmation of your booking. You do a search online and find that several people have been caught out by the same scam.

Free vouchers or holiday dollars
You received overseas call centre congratulates you – you've "won" a holiday pacakege. You’re given a run-down of where you can go, and the hard-sell on what an incredible deal this is. You’re promised a holiday, flights or accommodation worth thousands of dollars. All you have to do is pay a nominal fee.
You’re asked for your credit card details (including the security number on the back) and told that you’ll receive some vouchers. The vouchers arrive and you discover they’re worthless. You realise that you’ve been scammed and that the scammers now have access to your credit card to use as they please.

Major events
Scammers will often take advantage of major events like the Olympics or the Rugby World Cup.  The spike in demand these events create makes for rich pickings. It's a good idea to be particularly alert to potential scams if you are booking travel or accomodation for a major event.

Fake visas
You’re travelling overseas and need to organise a visa. You do an online search and find a good helpful and looking site that’s in the featured listings. Great! You fill in your details and pay by credit card.

How to protect yourself from holiday scams?
  • If somebody calls you about a holiday voucher scheme, ask for the details of the hotels or airlines that are involved. Contact the hotel or airline directly to check whether the offers are real, remember to use the telephone numbers from a trusted source, not ones given to you by the person who has called you. If the hotel or airline is part of a voucher scheme, ask for the telephone number of the company that sells their vouchers. That way you can give the company a call to make sure that the person who phoned you is legitimate.
  • Before taking up a holiday or travel offer, run an online search using the company name, followed by "scam". If it is a scam, you may find reports from other people.
  • When searching for holidays and travel online, check out any company's contact details before you make a booking. Try the best to get through to their customer services number. If you send them an email, is their response in broken English or in any way suspicious? Is there a contact address? When you do an online search, is it listed as the business address of any other companies?
  • If you've been trapped by a holiday and travel scam, and have paid using your credit card, contact your bank to see if you can claim a cashback.
  • Be wary if any companies that ask you to pay using a money wiring service like Western Union.
If you've been affected by a holiday or travel scam, you can report your scam at consumeraffairs.govt.nz

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Mobile phone scams

Mobile phone scams involves a variety of scams that either persuade you to buy phone-related products or services that turn out to be substandard or non-existent; or to make phone calls or texts to premium services by accident; or to unknowingly sign up to expensive subscription services.

There are a variety of mobile phone scams around the world. Let's see some of the most common:

Text message scams

Sometimes you'll received a text from some strange three or five digit number you don’t recognise, but it’ll be worded as if it's from a friend. For instance: 'Hi, it's Mike. I'm back! When do you want to catch up?' So you call it back, thinking you’re doing them a favour by telling them they’ve got the wrong person, only to be charged a fortune for a premium rate call. Or you may text back and end up engaging in a lengthy SMS exchange. You find out that you’ve been charged a high rate for your texts and sometimes for your received texts as well.

Phone insurance scams

If you’ve bought a new mobile phone, a fraudster may call you to sell you phone insurance, making out that they are calling from the shop where you bought it from, or from your mobile phone network. At best, you end up with poor quality phone insurance or, at worst, none at all.

Steal your personal information and your mobile phone

Mobiles phones and smart devices like iPads are now capable of holding a lot of your personal information such as access to your emails and mobile banking apps, it’s more important than ever to know how to keep data on your mobile phone or device secure. Some smartphones pre-installed a security apps to secure your personal data, if you couldn't found the related apps, just surf online or the app store to download one.

Ring tone scams

These scams might attract you with an offer of a 'FREE' or low cost ring tone. By accepting the offer, you’re actually subscribing to a service that will keep sending you ring tones, and of course, they will charging you a premium rate for them. There are many legitimate companies selling ring tones, but there are also scammers who will try to hide the true cost of taking up their offer.

Missed call scams

Ssometimes your phone received a missed call. You don’t recognise the number so you call it back. Most of the time the call will be perfectly above board, but you may be redirected to a premium rate service which can cost up to $20 ~ $30 per call.

Recorded message scams

The number you’re asked to call back may be a recorded message telling you that you’ve won a prize, and giving you another number to call to ‘claim’ it. But this second number may be a premium rate one. Also, your prize may be nothing more than a ring tone subscription which can also be a scam.

iPhone or Smartphone winning contest
"Send more SMS to win an iPhone" - Sound similar? See if a thousand users send this SMS contest, if each SMS costs $0.30, then the total amount is $300 ($0.30 x 1000), what about a hundred thousand users? or even millions users sending a same SMS? That scammers might earn up to million dollars but given away few prizes just costing few thousand bucks.

How to avoid mobile phone scams?
  1. Don’t respond to unknown numbers.
  2. Most phone service providers have their own security policies in place to help protect your data; examples include a secret question or a personal PIN for your account. It’s always worth checking what they have and make sure you sign up to use them.
  3. Set up a password or pass-code on your phone or tablet and keep it locked when you’re not using it. Refer to your user guide or manual to learn this. 
  4. Never allow application or files to be installed from unknown sources particularly on smartphones or tablets (e.g. Android apps outside of Android Market).
  5. If you visit a website through your mobile or tablet and the URL looks suspicious, close it down immediately.
  6. Never store your personal details like passwords or PIN numbers in texts or emails that are accessible through your phone or tablet. If you want to, install and use the mobile security app.
  7. If your phone is stolen, tell your provider straight away, they can blacklist and deactivate it remotely. You should then change any passwords for online accounts you access through your phone as soon as possible.
  8. If you sell your phone or tablet or give it away, make sure you do a factory reset to clear all your important data like contact, sms, email account and banking information, you’ll find out how to reset your phone in your user guide. 
  9. Set up a secure pin on your voicemail so that only you can access your messages. Call into your voicemail service to do this. Follow your service provider’s guidelines if you're unsure.
  10. Many smartphones and tablets now come with the ability to remotely lock and track it if it’s lost or stolen.  There are a number of apps but some handsets themselves are capable of this. Check with your manufacturer’s website to find it.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

New credit card scam alert

There are many cardholders don't check their credit card statements all that carefully. Did you notice your recent statements for unexplained charges of $9.84? Don't fall for it!




How this scam works: 

You found a recent strange charge of $9.84 on your credit card statement. The information listed on your bill is an unfamiliar website. Whe you try to browse the web address, and it's not the business website and it's a generic landing page that claims to offer "Customer Support." The text promises to "refund 100% of your last payment" and provides a phone number and email address.

Scammers are charging stolen credit card numbers for a small amount of money. (Recent victims were all charged $9.84, but scammers may change that amount as word gets out.) The expectation is that many cardholders won't notice the small amount of charge, and the credit card companies won't go after such a minor sum.

Victims report calling the "customer support" site and receiving verbal confirmation that the charge would be canceled.  However, don't take the scammers at their word. Contact your bank to report the charges and request a new credit card. Your credit card information has been compromised, and it's likely scammers will be back for more.

Tips to avoid the risk of Credit Card Scam:

Report lost cards and incorrect charges promptly
If your credit card is lost, stolen in the United States and Canada, or used without your permission, you may be responsible for up to $50. If you report the loss before the card is used, you're not responsible for any unauthorized charges. In addition, many cardholders are protected by zero liability policies set in place by credit card companies.

Never lend your card to others
Do not place or leave your cards, statements and receipts laying around your home, office or car.

Request a new card if you notice unauthorized charges
Fraudulent charges mean your card information has been compromised. Be on the safe side and request a new card immediately.

Never sign a blank charge slip
Draw lines through blank spaces on charge slips above the total so the amount can't be changed.

Use caution when ordering online or over the phone
Always be cautious about disclosing your account number on the telephone or online unless you know the person you're dealing with represents a reputable company.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

How to increase Adsense CPC

Everybody wants to increase their AdSense earnings and the good news is that there is a way to start gaining more money from Adsense almost instantly without breaking any rules or guidelines.

In regards to Adsense,  it is possible to make money with Adsense but you have to ensure that you do everything in right way and without doing a wrong steps that may put your Adsense account in danger.

When we talk about Adsense optimization, there are many things but the main target is to get high eCPM and get more Cost per click. Else, despite of good Adsense CTR, you might not be making good money.

CPC stands for Cost per click, in short money which you make/click is what CPC. Now, you might have noticed Adsense publisher talking more about CTR and less about CPC. Getting thousands impression on your ad won’t be of much help but a blog with good CPC with decent CTR can create a huge difference. CPC has nothing to do directly with your traffic, if you would realize and noticed micro-niche blogs, you might have realized despite of less traffic such sites make more money from Adsense. The eCPM for such blogs are very high that will get paid really well for CPC and then there are other factors like Ad competition, Keywords and many more.

Let's find out some important points that Affect Adsense CPC:

1.  Niches

Yes! Choosing a right niche for your blog or website is of utmost important. CPC of an ad directly depends upon the topic on which you’re writing your blog. There are niches that can pay you high CPC. Below is the list of niches that can give you high return.

Note: List arranged in decreasing order of CPC
  • Domains – Blogs on Internet Domains Like Yahoo, Go Daddy etc. ( highest CPC )
  • Gadgets – Tech Gadgets like Apple products
  • Google – Google Products
  • Microsoft – MS office
  • Banking
  • Automobile
  • Health
  • Real Estate
  • Home Loans
  • Jobs
  • Dating & Romance ( lowest CPC )
2. Content

Some people do not pay much attention to site content. You must write content that should answer readers query. So before writing blogs try to find what your readers are searching on the Internet and then try to present them with solutions.

Your content must be tailored according to your niche so that more and more readers can read your blogs. Hence good content will certainly ensure higher Adsense CPC rates. More over, good content is what search engine loves, hence more click and more revenue if your ad is highly targeted and your traffic is from the countries like U.S.A, U.K. When you do a Keyword research, make sure to use Approximate CPC column.

3. Using Ad Review Center

Google Adsense provided users a very useful tool - Ad Review Center. You can use it to check how much each ad category is paying. This will show you different ads category that are showing on your website. If you find some ad category is not paying much, then you can block the category.
Try to block those category which are completely irrelevant to the content or niche of your blog. If the blog is about Technology, then block the ad categories for Dating, Politics, Religion etc. This will definitely increase your Adsense CPC and revenue.

4. Page Rank

Google Page Rank is not a new phenomena. Your entire website or a particular page in a website are ranked from 1 to 10. Therefore try to rank above 4, if your PR is 5 or 6 then Google will show ads on your site which will pay you higher if someone clicks on them. Simply it means that ads of higher quality will be more shown on your website. For example your CPC will automatically increase from 10 cents to 40+ cents. So always try to improve the quality of your blogs as CPC directly depends on higher Page Rank.

5. Platform

Your blogs are browse read from different platforms like Desktop, Laptop, Mobile etc. Although CPC is generally not much affected by the platforms on which ads are shown but you should try your best to target as many as readers. You will get most of the readers from desktop and laptop devices.

If you are able to reach to hand-held or mobile readers than CPC may increase as ads shown on cellphones are of higher quality. If you are blogging on WordPress platform, you can use plugins like WP touch which will make your blog mobile friendly and your Adsense ads will optimized for mobile screen size.

6. Country Targeting

One of the most important factor that can increase CPC is the country you are targeting. For example a click on an ad from USA can pay you up to $2 to $3 and click on same ad from India can end up paying only 20 to 30 cents.

Hence always tailor your blog and its content to audiences in English-speaking countries. It will also increase Page Rank of your website. So always pay more attention for the country you are targeting.

7. Text & Image Format

Always remember that choosing the right ads format will effected you Adsense earning. If you can place three ads on a single page, then choose two 336 x 280 ads and one 468 x 60 ad.

Then ad format must be text because text ads have higher CTR (click through rate). You can even try ad format for both text & image simultaneously as it gives you more CPC. Image ads are usually less preferred for both reasons less CTR and lower CPC. Though at times, depending upon the niche and blog type, image ads perform better in terms of higher CTR but CPC won’t be as good as text ads.

8. Competitive Ad Filter

Just like Ad Review Center, there is Competitive Ad Filter in Google Adsense. You can block some specific or general ads from appearing on your web pages. You can block the ads for entire domain or just a particular website in that domain name. Block the ads that may belongs to your competitors. Therefore you can increase your CPC by not showing those particular ads.

9. Ads Placement

Never neglect the placement of your ads on the web page as it is directly proportional to your Adsense revenue. So where to place ads for maximum CPC? You can place 2 ads inside your blog post and 1 outside the post. Place a 336 x 280 rectangle ad on the top of the blog just below the title and place second 468 x 60 ad in between the blog post. Another ad you can place on your right side (left or right sidebar) that is outside your post.

10. Keep Experimenting

Always keep trying something new. Experimenting can really pay you high dividends. You can try out for different niches, choose different ad placements. Take some times to research and get a help from Google Adsense center.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Can you really earn money with online surveys?

Many people very likely seen pitches like this via mail spam:

"Earn $120 per day! Earn $840 a week! Earn $10,080 a year! All by just sitting home, sipping coffee, and filling out surveys."

Is this too good to be true?

Yes. Although it does make sense that a few companies are willing to pay for market research by using online surveys, we believe this is not a good way to spend your time.

Why?

Here's how the scam works:

Scammers use spam and promise you quick money for little effort. They claim that you only need to spend a few minutes and you'll earn excellent money. Of course, you have to pay the "low" price of $35.95 to learn how to do this.

So their goal is to get thousands of people paying $35.95 (or whatever amount is charged) for the info.

This would be fine if they didn't spam and actually delivered what they promised. However, the vast majority of these online survey products are worthless.

Now, you may be thinking, "Well, I'll go online and find a site that screens out the scammers and ranks paid survey sites, and that way I'll find the legitimate online survey companies."

This makes sense on the surface, but unfortunately, many of these "ranking" sites may actually be middlemen who are paid commissions by the survey companies for referrals. Often, whoever pays the most to the ranking site gets the highest rating, and the online survey companies they rank well are not necessarily reliable.

Are there legitimate online survey companies? Yes, there must be, but unfortunately, it's almost impossible to find them. It's like picking a needle out of a 113,000,000 haystack (type "online surveys" into a Google search for similar results).

In fact, legitimate online surveys often are quite long, which means they take awhile to fill out. That's one of the reasons the hype isn't true.

Yes, you definitely can earn money on the Internet working at home. Many people do this very successfully. But not by doing online surveys, stuffing envelopes, or medical transcription!

Now, we'll probably get a lot of email telling us that we're wrong. We've followed this area for quite awhile, and we believe that our advice about online surveys is correct for the vast majority of our subscribers.

Before you become a survey stasher, there are a few things worth knowing.

Note: Patience and Consistency are key virtues.

DO...
Keep a log:
Some sites are better than others at tracking which surveys you've completed. To avoid wasting 20 minutes, keep a record of all surveys filled out, jotting down the title and the promised payment. Take a screenshot and make a note of any reference numbers.
Missing some cash? Chase the sites up, asking them to give you the correct points. Survey sites are often happy to add them to your account.


Set up a dedicated email address:
Don't use your normal email address - it'll be immediately flooded. Instead, set up a dedicated email account. As a powerful free option, Gmail is among the best.

Spend gift vouchers ASAP:
If you have a choice, opt to get paid in cash. If you do get paid in gift vouchers, spend them ASAP. That way the retailer can't go bust on you, invalidating them. Plus you can't lose them or forget them until they go out of date.

DON"T...
Tell porkies:

When a survey pops up that's clearly aimed at a certain group, it's temping to say, "Yes, I am a 41-year-old, tobacco-chewing dentist from north Manchester who was a middle child." Yet, in the long run, you'll lose out. Companies often corroborate previous answers, and will uncover any fibs.

Forget to check your emails:

The key is logging in often, because surveys close once enough people have responded. If your boss doesn't mind, check surveys in your lunch hour with a cuppa.

Forget tax:

Before you start counting the dosh, don't forget some of it belongs to the taxman. For most people it'll be around a third. Survey earnings are unlikely to push non-taxpayers over the threshold, however.

Store cash in survey accounts:
Survey companies aren't banks. There's no protection if one closes, taking your cash with it. So withdraw your cash as soon as you reach the payment threshold. When a previous survey firm closed down, many lost money. 

Expect to be instantly rolling in it:
One downer is you've no control over how many surveys you're picked for. So it can take a while to earn enough to hit survey sites' payout thresholds. If you give up, it means the surveys were done for nothing.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Twelve guidelines you should follow to stay safe online shopping

There are many advantages to shopping online, you can shop at any time, you don't need to worry about parking and your purchases are delivered to your door. Online shopping can be a lot of fun, rewarding experience and can also help you find good deals.


But there are some security traps to watch out for. Follow these basic guidelines and you can shop online with confidence and safe.
  1. When you visit a bank or retailer's website enter the address manually, remember never follow an email link. 
  2. Keep account details and passwords secret, if you surrender them yourself you may not be covered in the event of fraud. 
  3. Stick to trusted companies, don't judge a company or person on their website alone – look for a telephone number and address.
  4. Be wary if the website looks suspicious or unprofessional or makes unrealistic promises, bargains which look too good to be true often are.
  5. Know what you are buying and read the description of the product carefully, check the size, colour, value and safety of the product.
  6. Check the currency, postage and handling and other charges, there may be extra charges you aren't aware of. Only pay via a secure web page-one that has a valid digital certificate.
  7. Read all the fine print. This includes refund and complaints handling policies.
  8. Use a secure and trusted payment method such as PayPal, BPay, or your credit card. Avoid money transfers and direct debit, as these can be open to abuse.
  9. Never send your bank or credit card details via email.
  10. Always print and keep a copy of the transaction, also includes refund and complaints handling policies. Keep all the records of any emails to and from the seller. 
  11. Never do a private contact or payment directly with buyers or scammers will often use this ploy to offer a better deal.
  12. Always conduct transactions within the auction website

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Work From Home Scams

Most commonly used by internet scams

There are several work at home scams, here is a list of the work at home scams that are in operation:
  • Envelope stuffing
  • Pyramid scheme
  • Advanced fee payment
  • Paid for survey
  • Typing
  • Data Entry
  • Medical claim
  • Assembly
  • Online businesses
  • Posting ads
  • Multi Level Marketing

Tips to help you to avoid it:
  1. Check the job listing. Ask several questions to clarify certain things about the work at home job such as how you will be paid, what are the hours you will work, how do they evaluate your work and will you need to be contactable online.
  2. There is no such job that you can earn money quickly and also earn a high income. If there is a job site that is offering twice the money you are getting now working form home its likely that this site is a scam.
  3. Sites that ask you to pay money upfront to work at home are scams.
  4. Check the authenticity of the work at home opportunity. Ask for references and contact that you get in touch.
  5. Be vigilant when you get email offering work at home opportunities.
  6. Check if the company is registered and have fulfilled all legal obligations.
  7. Check if these types of businesses are scheme that are offered by sites as work at home opportunities are legitimate.
  8. Be ware of envelope stuffing and other work at home scams that are using other excuses and plots to lure you into their schem.
  9. Carry out an investigation about the company you will be work for or the work at home job opportunity that you have been just offered.
  10. Ask family and friends to recommend some reliable work at home sites. Chances are that you will not get caught to a scam this way.
  11. Check the disclaimer and the company details out. If you are not successful in finding any details, chances are that the site you are looking for is a scam.
  12. Join a scam forum so that you get to share your knowledge about scams as well as see what others have to say about scams.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Beware of Internet Scams

A genuine or real online job websites never request a upfront fee or joining fees. You don't have to pay and work online. If there is a fees for joining, subscription or membership, step away from this site, that's may be a scam.

The contact details and address is not very clear. Check the address out its one way of spotting an internet scam. You may never be able to find the street address or a genuine telephone number. If it's a mobile number then is a sure sign that it's a scam.

Does it feature testimonials that are too good to be true. Testimonials on scam sites are always positive and very appealing.

Are you asked to send money to several people like the pyramid scam. Never even think about offering money to one person let alone 5 or 7.




Some scammers request for an insurance payment or your credit card details. If you won a prize, you don't need to spend money to insure it.

If the word scam is mentioned somewhere in the email or letter then you can be sure it's a scam. The genuine offer never refers to a scam in their introduction letter or email.

If you received an email that showing you about "Get rich quick and easy" program or system, that's a scam. There is no such thing as getting rich fast. So never believe for this trap.

Asking for your account password or personal secret information. Never give your password out to anyone.

100% Risk Free In 30 Days Money Back Guarantee - Don't believe that you will get your money back.

Advertising a high return for your small investments. No one pays you a high return or interest rates on your investments, that totally bogus.

There are a lot of attractive messages such as "you can be a winner" or "you have just won" or "your bank had just credit $$$ to your account" are featured as subject lines for internet scams.

Never respond or reply any suspicious email like - "We are customer service department of XXX Bank, please send us you bank account information for updating our database for security reason,...!". Please note that the bank will never ask for your personal password and information via email or telephone.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Money transfer scam alert

Money transfer scams are the most common scams that consumers fall for, according to research from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Fraudsters dupe victims into handing over their bank details or cash either by email, phone or text. This type of scam accounted for nearly two in five (39%) scam victims in the past year, according to OFT figures.

Victims typically respond to appeals from supposed charities, to help release funds from a corrupt country or because they believe they are entitled to an inheritance.



The money transfer scams are sent out on a mass scale and advice service, Consumer Direct has also received more complaints about money transfer scams than any other type of scam, highlighting how prevalent they now are.

Scammers are using ever more sophisticated and cunning tactics to dupe people out of their cash. People need to recognise the warning signs, and feel confident enough to seek advice from friends and family or from Consumer Direct.

Before responding to a money transfer request, consider the following things.

1. Are you the chosen one?

Is it really likely that you have been specifically chosen for this offer? It's far more likely that thousands of others will have received exactly the same information.

2. What could you lose?

How much money could you lose by replying to this type of scam?

If you only have to send off a small amount of money you could decide the gamble is worth taking for the chance of a much greater sum but your willingness to reply will make you more susceptible to receive further scam emails, calls or letters and you could be put on suckers' lists – scammers put together lists of people who have responded to scams in the past.

3. Giving to charity isn't always good

Giving to a good cause or charity can be done direct rather than through an email. While charities do send out emails, if one you haven't heard of appeals to you for bank details stop and ask yourself why you are being contacted by an organization you've had no involvement with. Go to the organisation's website directly rather than click through to links.

4. Has someone you know been targeted?

Would your family or friends be suspicious? Given the number of bogus money transfer scams, it's likely that someone you know has either received a similar request or knows someone else who has. Ask people you know for their opinion and if they have any background knowledge.

If still unsure, contact Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06. However, the very act of consulting others suggests you already suspect it's a scam.