Self-Publish or Traditional Publish A Book: #BizBookAwards Chat

#BizBookAwardsJoin the Small Business Trends team and guests for a text chat on Twitter.com - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 from 3 to 4 pm Eastern (New York time zone).

Topic:  Self-Publish or Traditional Publish A Book - Which is Best

For authors, entrepreneurs writing a book now, or those planning to write a book â€" we’ll be discussing the pros and cons of traditional versus self-publishing.  Should you go the traditional publishing route by seeking a contract with a traditional publisher  Or should you self publish your book  And if you self publish, should it be an ebook-only format,  a print book, or both

What are the pros and cons of services and platforms such as Lulu, Book Baby, Smashwords, CreateSpace, eJunkie, ClickBank and others  And what about some of the cutting edge approaches such as using Kickstarter or other crowdsourced platforms to finance your book

Book club regulars and book lovers, we’d also like you to weigh in.  Do you think traditionally-published books are better, or do you like self-published books  Or do you notice any difference today

Who will be there

This is an open chat. EVERYONE is welcome to join in.  Let’s make it a party! Confirmed guests include:

  • Ramon Ray (@RamonRay) - Author of newly released book, The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing. Ramon has 5 copies of his latest book he will give away during the chat.
  • Nicole Fende (@NicoleAFende) - Known by her clients as the “Book Shepherd,” Nicole guides newbie authors through the process of writing, publishing and marketing their books.
  • Jennifer Canzoneri, Marketing for BenBella Books (@BenBellaBooks) - Jennifer creates and facilitates the marketing campaigns for BenBella titles. She also works with authors to provide tools and resources and manages the social media presence for this boutique publishing company.
  • Ivana Taylor (@DIYMarketers) - Publisher of DIYMarketers and Book Editor for Small Business Trends. Co-Author of Excel for Marketing Managers, a book “self-published” by MrExcel.com.
  • Anita Campbell (@SmallBizTrends) -  That’s yours truly â€" I will be there. I am the Founder of the Small Business Book Awards, and the co-author of Visual Marketing, published by Wiley.

Special giveaway

We will be doing a giveaway of Ramon Ray’s new book, the The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing (read a review).  For a chance to win, just follow along and share great tips and insights.

How does one participate

It’s easy.  Just log in at Twitter.com.  Then do a search on Twitter for the hashtag #BizBookAwards to see what is being said. To join in and be heard, just add the hashtag “BbizBookAwards” to the end of your tweets during the hour.

PS:  This chat is in honor of the Small Business Book Awards. Now accepting nominations through March 3, 2013.




Buying a camera phone What to contemplate in Camera

Samsung Galaxy Mini

Thinking of shopping for a Phone with quality Camera OK, you then may find this text helpful.Carrying different gadgets for various purpose isn't practical on this age media convergance. Everyone desires to have a compact device with various features. Choosing a cellular phone with best built-in camera is abit hard job. It's very wise to study different brands of camera phones offering various features before spending your money.

Last week, i purchased Samsung Galaxy Mini Smart Phone without reviewing much. Now I came to grasp that there's no Macro Focus feature on this camera. i'm feeling uilty which means that. Macro focus is among the important features to be considered while purchasing a sensible Phone. So listed here are three major features to think of before buying a Camera Phone.

1.Megapixel

One of the most important things to think about before buying a phone with a camera is it's pixel size. The collection of pixels is a side regarding the standard of a camera, or the real quality of a photograph it's able to producing. Digital images are made of millions of those tiny, tile-like picture elements(1 Megapixel=1 million pixel). Resolution relates primarily to print size and the quantity of detail a picture has when viewed on a pc monitor. So, higher megapixels mean better picture quality.

 2. Macro mode

Macro feature of a camera enables to take close-u! p shoot of an object. Digital cameras with macro feature are able to taking clear shots of objects, texts or bar-codes within a variety of few centimeters. It is usually great for shooting insects, flowers, or other small objects. Smartphones with macro mode has many important applications corresponding to:

  a) Taking picture of your documents, certificates etc

  b) Scanning barcodes, QR Codes

3. LED flash

There are two forms of camera flash technologies 

  a)Xenon flash tube,

  b)white LEDs. 

The xenon flash are universally used for film cameras and digital still cameras. In digital still cameras, a high brightness flash is wanted, and the dimensionsand gear consumption are less important because a digital still camera may give more space for the specified drive circuit and its battery capacity is dedicated entirely to operating the camera and flash. Undoubtedly a xenon flash is the best option for a digital still camera.

On the opposite hand, a LED flash offers lower power consumption with drive circuitry that takes up little or no room. Additionally, there's no significant electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated from driving an LED flash.

These advantages help push the usage of an LED flash in camera phones. And, obviously, the identical LED flash will also be operated as a continual light source making it suitable for video applications and as a free flashlight incorporated within the phone. 

There are various quality of phones offering excellent photo experie! nce but d! on’t forget to go looking for above mentioned features before buying one.

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Computer Networks Special IP address definition

IP addressing

In the IP protocol, there are several standards that should be followed regarding particular interpretations of IP-addresses.

The following special IP addresses are defined by international standards:

  1. If the whole IP-address includes only binary zeros, then it indicates the address of the node that generated the packet. This mode is barely utilized in some reports of ICMP protocol. 
  2. If the network number inside the field are just zeros, then the default is that the destination node belongs to an identical network because the node that sent the packet. 
  3. If all of the bits of the IP-address are equal to one, the packet with this destination address can be sent to all nodes at the same network because the source of this packet. This traffic flow is named a limited or directed broadcast. 
  4. If the number field of the destination node are just ones, the packet has an address this is sent to all network nodes with a given network number. As an instance, consider the network 192.190.21.0 with mask 255.255.255.0. Then a packet with destination address 192.190.21.255 is a packet which needs to be dropped at all network nodes of the precise network. This communication known as a printed message.

IP addressing and IP configuration are concepts which are core in computer networking, so if you're interested to pursue a networking certification (akin to Cisco CCNA for instance) you ought to learn all information about IP addresses and routing.

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Making Adsense account check easy with ‘Adsense Publisher Toolbar’

adsense publisher toolbar How often do you check your adsense earning I check my adsense earning greater than my email. a up to date study shows that the majority of the adsense publishers check their adsense earning greater than thrice an afternoon. It really is quite hassel to log in over and over again to adsense account. For low bandwidth users, it takes long term to load the ajax interface.

Now, Google has came up with an excellent solution for this. Google has added a brand new feature in Google Chrome Browser for Adsense publishers and officially launched it as 'Adsense Publisher Toolbar'.

Once you put in this extension, the toolbar sits next to the omnibox on Google chrome browser  and fetch the info from the associated adsense account on every occasion you might want to check your adsense earnings using secure authentication. All you should do is download the extention, enter your adsense username and password just once and the extension will commit it to memory.  Then you're done.That's the screenshot.

The good thing about this toolbar is it makes easier for adsense publisher who maintain different accounts for various Google services. You don't want tolog out out of your primary email address with a purpose to login in your adsense account, if it uses di! fferent email ID. To view your adsense earning, click the toolbar and a pop-up box displays which shows the ensuing information.

- Account earnings summary (today to this point, yesterday, this month thus far, last month)

- Top 5 custom channels

- Top 5 URL channels

- Lifetime revenue

All in all, it's a great news and useful gizmo for adsense publisher. Thanks Google.

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7 easy steps to unlock Android Phone

Android logo Some cellular phone producers design cell phone to exploit a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card, or microchip that stores subscriber data. These phone only recognize those SIM card issued by a specific carrier and only works by activating any phone into which it's inserted. One of these phone is named locked phone. When a cellphone is unlocked by way of certain software, it'll recognize a SIM card from any carrier. The locked state in a phone is software setting that keeps the mobile phone works just for a definite carrier.

Many Android users are looking to unlock their phones to apply them with local SIM cards when traveling or on domestic carriers that don't offer a Android phone on the market. To Unlock an Android Phone, you'll want Android unlock code and SIM card. Follow the setps to unlock your Android phone

  1. Get an unlock code. The users of T-Mobile must wait three months from the date their contract starts and so they can request a free unlock code from T-Mobile. If you're not a T-Mobile customer or wish to unlock your phone immediately, you should purchase an unlock code online.
  2. Find International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) collection of your cellular telephone which you could find by going to Settings > About Phone > Status.
  3. Turn off your Android phone and take away the back cover and battery. 
  4. Remove the SIM card from the telephone whether it is already in use.
  5. Insert a brand new SIM card and replace the batt! ery and back cover.
  6. Turn in your cellular phone. Once it boots up, this can ask you for an unlock code for the recent SIM.
  7. Enter the unlock code and your phone may be unlocked.
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Why to Blog

Why to blog According to Wikipedia , a blog (a mix of web and log) is a private journal published at the World-wide-web such as discrete entries typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the latest post appears first. Blogs tend to be the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and frequently are themed on a single subject. Blog will also be used as a verb, aspiring to maintain or add content to a blog.

Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services hich includes GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). Within the 1990s, Internet forum software, created running conversations with "threads." Threads are topical connections between messages on a virtual "corkboard."

Then why to blog

Every day, Blogging is becoming increasingly popular. There are millions of blogger blogging on different genres.  People blog for varied reasons.  Some bloggers blog to share knowledge, some blog as hobby and a few blog to make some money. There are not any concrete it's because people blog. Following points can assist you're making your decision about blogging.

1. To precise Thoughts and Opinions

Blog is among the best places to share something and be heard. In case you choose a www.blogspot.com or www.blog.com , you'll be able to speak your words without cost. Whilst you choose a hosting company, you must pay to initialize your blogging platform.

2. To advertise products or service

One of the least expensive type of promoting services, products and other things is a blog. So people choose blogs to advertise their products or service.

3. To assist People

Blog can be a spot where people share something similar they experienced. Some of these blog are very helpful to get and supply solution for a selected problem. Blogs relating to health related and parenting are written for this purpose.

4. To introduce yourselfas an Expert

Blogs are amazing tools to assist bloggers recognize themselves as experts in a field or topic. If you are searching for a role or seeking to build a career in a selected field, blogging might help legitimize your expertise and expand your online presence and platform.

5. To connect to Similar people

Blogging helps to bring people of same thinking and opinion in a standard place. After you start a blog, you'll discover those who need to share same opinion, knowledge, feelings and thoughts.

7. To remain Updated in a Field or Topic

Success of any blog mostly is dependent upon frequency of posts and freshness of knowledge you provide. Blogs permits you to be updated for your field.

8. To remain Connected with Friends and Family

Due to the disc! overy of ! Internet, The arena has become a small village. Blogs are the nice easy methods to be connected in your friends and families from any portion of the area by sharing photos, videos and things of interest.

9. To earn Money

Blogs have gotten more popular tool to generate money from online advertisement. In spite of the fact that, most bloggers are not making some huge cash blogging, but there's a great potential. All you want is dedication, exertions, practice and patience. 

10. Finally, to Have Fun

Blogging may be a hobby for lots people. They take it as a fun. People have hobby to share knowledge through a blog. 

Now, suggest me when you've got any further reason to blog. Happy Blogging!!!!



Why to select a dedicated server

A dedicated hosting service or dedicated server, or managed hosting service is one of those Hosting wherein the client leases a whole server. This sort of server isn't shared with every other clients. A dedicated hosting service or dedicated server is more flexible than shared hosting as the organization that purchase this service have full control over the server(s) via software that will remotely manage the server, that's actively maintained inside the hosting provider's data center. 

Dedicated servers are most often utilized by people who have outgrown the shared hosting environment and now require the maximum in flexibility, reliability, security and control. The ke benefit of a dedicated server is administrative authority it provides. Almost always, you've the choice to put in the software programs of your choice. This ranges from operating system and control panel to programming languages and security applications. A dedicated server is likely one of the most flexible and scalable hosting solutions you'll find available on the market today. 

What to seem when buying a dedicated server

If you're planning to possess a dedicated server, many factors must be considered. Following are some major points to remember when buying it.

  1. Annual cost: Here is a very powerful factor which determines what sort of dedicated servers or services should be taken. That you need to plan in step with your budget.
  2. Processing speed of the server
  3. Memory used: A lot of the hosting company hav! e used 2-8 GB DDR3 Memory for his or her dedicated servers. Servers having 4 GB DDR3 memory are suitable for many of the purchasers.
  4. Hard drive space: In this day and age, a few of the dedicated hosting service providers user 2 x 250 GB Hard disk drive. It could be upgraded in accordance with the desire of the purchasers.
  5. Allocated bandwidth: While you are having your personal dedicated server, try to be responsive to bandwidth allocated. Bandwidth is vital in case you have to deal with the massive amount of traffic.
  6. Dedicated IPs : 
  7. Operating Systems (For instance Linux or Windows)
  8. Rating of the Hosting Company 
  9. Support : Support is among the major thing you would like if you're having any product and repair.

Top 5 companies providing ddicated servers:


Rank

Web Hosting Provider

Core Specification

Features

1

Inmotion

Ultra Fast Servers

! CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz

RAM: 4GB HDD: 500 GB

Free & Easy Setup, 10 Dedicated IPs, Full cPanel License

2

DedicatedNow

Fully Managed Servers

CPU: Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz

RAM: 1GB HDD: 1000 GB

Fully Managed, Free cPanel/WHM, Offsite Backup 

3

SingleHop

Advanced Servers

CPU: Core2Duo 3GHz

RAM: 6 GB HDD: 250 GB

cPanel/WHM/Plesk, 5 Dedicated IPs

4

UltraHosting !

!

Cheap Dedicated Servers

CPU: Core2 Duo 1.8

RAM: 1 GB HDD: 80 GB

1 Dedicated IP, A whole lot Extras!

5

Acenet

High Performance Servers

CPU: Quad-Core 2.4 GHz

RAM: 2 GB HDD: 500 GB

Free & Easy Setup, 6 Dedicated IPs

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What\'s hosting

web hosting If you're contemplating buying an internet hosting plan or running an internet site, this text could answer a number of your basic questions about internet hosting. This text is appropriate for absolute beginners.

For someone who's new to running websites, the internet hosting concept can also be very confusing in the beginning. The following article, I even have tried to explain the terminologies regarding hosting in quite simple way with hopefully a number of details in it.

What is Web Host/web hosting

A web host is a agency (or an online hosting company) who provides space to your website on their computer (an intrnet Server). Their computers are connected to the net to give access in your website to the folks who surf the web. 

The website hosting companies are hosting websites for thousands of consumers on many servers. To serve the requests coming from millions of web surfers for these websites, the net host uses powerful servers and intensely fast internet connection speed. 

The web host is de facto renting out some space on their server to permit you to put your website on the net.

What is Datacenter

Most of the bigger website hosting companies operates their very own datacenters. 

According to Wikipedia, “A data center or data centre (also datacenter or datacentre) is a facility used to deal with computers and associated components, which include telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redunda! nt or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., aircon, fire suppression) and security devices.”

The high speed, reliable (365/7/24) internet connection, HVAC (Heating, ventilation and Air con), security and  backup power supplies facilities within the datacenters makes it very expensive to possess and operate.

Only large webhosting companies have their very own data centers. Smaller hosting company rent a server from a bigger hosting company after which resell the internet space under their very own name. 

Webpage and Website

Webpage might be defined as basic building blocks of global Wide Web (WWW). These are documents written in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and are translated by Web browsers to teach the particular contents to the net surfers. 

Web pages ar either designed to teach the identical content every time they're viewed(Static websites) or to point out contents that changes whenever they're accessed (Dynamic internet sites) Dynamic internet sites are written in scripting languages similar to PHP, Perl, ASP, or JSP. 

Similarly, a web site is a group of related webpages containing texts, audio, video or images All websites include a beginning page referred to as homepage using which other pages are navigated a domain is hosted on not less than one web server.

Web pages on an internet site are accessible via a network inclusive of the web or a personal local area network through a web address often called a Uniform Resource Locator.(URL) Each website is owned by someone, company or organization 

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Is it essential to protect your gadgets with password

Password protect gadgets

Are you actually aware of data security If you're , then you definately should have locked your gadgets with pretty strong password. 

Every day, we see new gadgets with new technology out there and all of us like to have one. But unfortunately, these shiny gadgets also attract burglars, muggers and pickpockets. Thieves are generally seeking to offload your gadgets for some quick cash, however the data they contain could be of way more value to you.

Typing in a password each time that you must use your gadgets is a bother, but leaving them unlocked is obviously a risk. Our smartphones specially are our gatewa to the area and for the sake of convenience we have a tendency to fill them with sensitive data and stay logged right into a range of services. Often it’s a mixture of personal and company data.

If someone stole your notebook, phone or tablet at present, what would they have got access to Are your gadgets locked down with a password, or would a thief have access in your contacts, calendar, email and social networking in addition to other services and sensitive data What kind of havoc could they cause, especially if they’ve access for your calendar and know when you’ll be faraway from home or the office How difficult would it not be to regain control of your digital identity What types of problems would it not cause at work if corporate data fell into the inaccurate hands

Now imagine in the event that your gadgets went missing at a business conference as opposed to in the street. What would happen if an unscrupulous competitor got their! hands in your phone or notebook

While you’re inquisitive about the safety of your mobile devices, it’s worth sparing a thought for the tech that sits around your home or office. What havoc could thieves cause in the event that they grabbed the tablet to your coffee table, the pc for your desk and the USB or network storage drive at the shelf Is that this data locked down Do you log off of everything Do you will have a backup of irreplaceable files including family photos and business records

Worrying about data security may appear overly paranoid when you think about most thieves are not likely that tech-savvy, but on the way to change through the years. You don’t want to know much about technology to twig that the information in your devices is amazingly valuable, no less than to you. many years ago we saw a spate of trojans which encrypted your hard disk and held it to ransom. How long before someone realises that there’s money to e made in holding your gadgets to ransom

What data security precautions do you take

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What\'s SEO : Definition from TOP 5 SEO BOOKS.

1.The Art of SEO

The Art of SEO

By Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, and Jessie C. Stricchiola

Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc.

“Search engine optimization” is a marketing function, and it must be treated like one. SEO practitioners ought to understand the services, products, overall business strategy, competitive landscape, branding, future site development, and related business components just up to members of alternative marketing divisions, whether online or offline.

Like the other marketing function, you will need to set specific goals and objectivesâ€"and if the goal is just not measurable, it isn't useful. Putting in such objectives is the sole way you'll determine whether you might be getting your money’s worth out of your SEO effort. And although SEO might be viewed as a project, the simplest investment, in our opinion, is to regard it as more of a processâ€"one that is iterative, is ongoing, and requires steady commitment from the stakeholders of a corporation.

Viewing SEO like PPC (like something you decidedly activate and rancid) is like viewing a nutritious diet as something you do only when you find yourself overweight, in place of eating a nutritious diet as a way of life choice. Too heavy Crash diet.  PPC too expensive Pause the campaigns. The strategy may fit inside the right application, but with SEO, people with the foremost success are folk! s who view site optimization as a way of life choice. The outcomes won't appear instantly, but they'll handsomely reward a business after patient and prudent commitment.

2.The recent Rules of promoting and PR

The New Rules of Marketing and PR 2nd Edition

By David Meerman Scott

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

“Search engine optimization” (SEO) is the art and science of ensuring that the words and phrases in your site, blog, and other online content are found by the various search engines and that, once found, your site is given the very best ranking possible within he natural search results (i.e., what the quest engine algorithm deems important for the phrase entered).

3.Seo An Hour an afternoon 2rd Edition

Search Engine Optimization An Hour a Day 2rd Edition

By Jennifer Grappone, Gradiva Couzin.

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.

The term “Search Engine Optimization” describes a various set of activities for you to perform to extend the collection of! desirabl! e visitors who come in your website via engines like google (you can also have heard these activities called Search engine optimisation or Search Marketing). This includes belongings you do for your site itself, comparable to making changes on your text and HTML code. It's also communicating directly with the major search engines, or pursuing other sources of traffic by making requests for listings or links. Tracking, research, and competitive review also are section of the SEO package. 

SEO shouldn't be advertising, even though it may include an advertising component. It isn't public relations (PR), even though it includes communication tasks a twin of PR. As a continually evolving area of internet marketing, SEO may sound complicated, however it is highly simple in its fundamental goal: gaining targeted 

4.Marketing within the Age of Google

Marketing in the Age of Google

By Vanessa Fox.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,

‘‘Search engine optimization’’ implies optimizing a domain for se's, but understanding how search fits into your corporation isn’t really about that in any respect. It’s about operating your corporation effectively inside the current landscape.

5.The Beginners Guide To SEO

! The Beginners Guide To SEO

By www.seomoz.org

Published by www.seomoz.org , PDF version.

“Search Engine Optimization” is the method of taking a page built by humans and making it easily consumable for both other humans and for search engine robots.

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7 considerations for getting an internet Hosting Plan

​ Today, there are literally thousands of website hosting companies in the market with varieties of selling plans, facilities and costs. It's extremely difficult to settle on a hosting plan from thousands of hosting plans out there, especially if you're new to internet hosting.

In the method of preparing this text, I GOOGLED many ti hosting-servers ​ mes to go looking criteria for the choice of excellent hosting plan with different search terms. And as a rule, I got comparative charts (comparative rating) of various webhosting companies. The interesting thing is that, these comparative studies on hosting cmpanies have considered many common features which I actually have listed down to your reference.

1.   Price

Price is the very first thing that the majority folks will take a look at first while considering an internet hosting plan. During this age of competitive marketing, there are many offers, discounts and promotional plans offered by hosting company. However price, discounts and gives shouldn't be the deciding factor while choosing an online host.

In a few of the cases, the value offered by the net host for the 1st year is not up to the renewal cost. a more in-depth examine the primary time price and recurring cost (annual renewal charge) permits you to plan in your longer term budget.

Once we focus on hosting price, we need to keep three things in our mind:

a.      Annual /monthly cost

It's the actual cost you will pay on your website hosting company either on monthly ! or on yearly basis in line with their payment plan. But the various hosting companies only offer yearly accounts

b.      Cost of domain (When you are buying a brand new domain)

While hosting a domain, you will have a website name. In case you already own a site name, you could simply host your website on that domain. Or you need to buy a brand new domain.

You can either buy this with any domain registrar out there(for instance, www.godaddy.com) or ask for a similar hosting company for brand new domain for which you'll be charged certain quantity for domain name registration.

c.       Setup fee.

Some hosting companies charge for one time setup fee for brand spanking new account. The price varies from as low as $10(for easy website) to as high as $1500 (for dedicated server hosting). However the comparative study on internet hosting companies found on different websites shows that the pinnacle hosting companies normally don' charge for website setup.

2.   Platform

In internet hosting terms, a platform refers to an operating system at the top of which your website runs. Today, customers can select from various operating systems consistent with their business needs. The important thing players in today’s market of webhosting platforms are: UNIX/Linux, Microsoft Windows and FreeBSD.

3.   Programming Language support

The improvement and use of kind of programming languages on web programming business has forced the net hosting companies to present support for every of them. Many of the popular web programming languages in use nowadays are PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, ASP, .Net, Java and Cold Fusion. Before hosting your site, you may visit the internet sites of respective hosting company to substantiate the language support required by your website

4.   MySQL Databases

This refers to, what number MySQL databases you are able to create inside the disk space allocated for your account Today, many hosting providers allow unlimited number of MySQL databases on all their  webhosting  plans. The sole restriction stands out as the web space allocated to each hosting account. However, there are still some hosting providers who limit this facility to let's consider 10, 20, 100 or 200. So, it can be wise to study this number before you buy any hosting plan.

5.   Control Panel

In website hosting, a control panel is an interactive web interface provided to control their various hosted services in one place.

Control panels provide services which simplify tasks along with uploading and managing websites, creating email accounts, installing web-based applications like blogs, sopping carts, and forums, backing up data, generating and viewing statistics about visitors and reviewing error logs to find broken links and other problems.

Today, just about all internet hosting companies offers control panels  in one form or another. Cpanel, Plesk, Ipage and Vdeck are some examples of website hosting control panel.

6.   Bandwidth (transfer/month)

Bandwidth is the measurement of information it really is sent out of your web host's server all the way down to the visitors computer. When you have numerous visitors and so they download large files from you, then you definitely will desire a large amount of bandwidth.

plenty of bandwidth options are provided by the internet hosting companies of their plans. The principle difference between the elemental and dear plan of any hosting provider is the variation within the amount of bandwidth per thirty days. Most hosts will define the bandwidth amount in GB ! (Gigabyte! s).

Uptime

Uptime refers back to the period of time that your web host's server (on that you have hosted your website) has stayed up and running. Uptime is a smart measure of ways good an online hosting provider is at keeping their systems up and running. That is usually measured within the percentage like "99% or  98% " uptime.

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Three Tips To Follow To Ensure Your Safety In The Cloud

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today cloud sharing services are in vogue, with providers offering 2GB of storage to infinite storage, all for prices ranging from free to thousands each month. There’s a reason for the popularity of the cloud - gone are the days of filling inboxes with email attachments and having team members scattered when it comes to the logistics of reviewing and commenting on documents. Although collaborative tools have long been in existence in enterprise settings, the convenience of the cloud allows small businesses to implement centralized file share and review systems without requiring an information technology team.

Despite the boosts to productivity cloud file sharing provides, one of the biggest concerns to many businesses is security. In a recent survey of business owners by global strategy and consulting firm IntraLinks, when it comes to online file sharing 63% confirmed that security is the most important aspect when selecting a provider. Unfortunately, while it is easy for a vendor to promise security, actually delivering on those promises is a whole different situation. Fortunately, by following a few simple tips, businesses can ensure their data is secure while in the cloud.

Encrypt Your Files Yourself. The first tip is that when uploading files to the cloud, encrypt them yourself even if the vendor already uses encryption. The reason being that some encryption schemes have backdoors in them for various reasons, meaning that while your data might appear to be private, the cloud provider will have the ability to view your data. Although many companies are  honest, when it comes to securing sensitive data, it is better to be safe than sorry. TrueCrypt is a leading program which provides military grade encryption for free. By being open source meaning the code is open, users can be assured it is free of backdoors.

Make Sure Your Online Server is Secure. In cases where online collaboration is necessary, self-encryption becomes prohibitive because it prevents the applications from functioning properly. Fortunately online security has come a long way from the days of people running companies via servers hosted in their closets. Today virtually all reputable sharing services house their servers in state of the art data centers which cost millions of dollars to fortify to meet today’s rigorous industry standards. When shopping around for a provider to house your files, make sure their facilities meet all applicable standards. For example, financial firms are required to use providers  compliant with SAS70 while medical firms are required to utilize HIPAA compliant firms. Even if you are not in a regulated industry, going with a compliant host is a valuable perk as it provides an additional layer ofsecurity which can be verified by neutral third parties.

Don’t Put It In The Cloud If You Can’t Afford To Have It Leaked. The final rule of using online sharing services is to keep the following in mind - never put something in the cloud if you cannot afford to have it leaked to the public. Even with the greatest precautions, since technology changes so rapidly, what is secure today might be vulnerable tomorrow. As security is never absolute, never assume your data is completely safe in the cloud. Although the probability of data breaches often are low, occasionally providers slip up. In this case, having a contingency plan also is mandatory to protect from a worst case scenario.



14 Days of Facebook Marketing Tips. Tip #13: Leverage The Facebook Platform

14 Days of Facebook Marketing Tips. Tip #13: Leverage The Facebook Platform

Welcome to 14 Days of Facebook Marketing Tips, on the occasion of the upcoming launch of “The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing  ” (Wiley) by Ramon Ray, of Smallbiztechnology.com and Infusionsoft.

Buy Ramon’s latest book   on February 19th and get a digital box of goodies as your gift for buying the book, educating yourself and growing your business with Facebook.

In The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing  , you will overall learn how to get more customers and keep the ones you have. You’ll also learn how to leverage overall online marketing, how to better use social media and, more specifically, how to use the power of Facebook for YOUR business.

Tip #13: Leverage The Facebook Platform

Once upon a time, if a business wanted to get in front of a large audience of potential customers they had to create a webpage. Those webpages were one-way mirrors - customers could get a look at your company and learn who you are, but that was it. There was no reciprocal view back to that customer from the company’s viewpoint. The world’s changed, significantly, since those days. While webpages are certainly still an essential for growing your online presence, the one-way mirror has been cracked and the opportunity to interact and communicate with your customers, and potential customers, is now wide open thanks to social networks, such as Facebook.  

Smart companies have moved beyond just using Facebook as a place to post information and interact with customers - they are leveraging Facebook as a platform for communication and collaboration on their websites and other digital properties. So, what are we talking about Here’s an example.  Let’s say you own a hot dog stand and you offer your customers a loyalty card, which if they link to their Facebook account gets them additional loyalty points. If you customers do this, then every time they use that loyalty card at your hot dog stand, their Facebook friends are automatically alerted from a post that appears in their Timeline. Tie this back to your website, with one of many social plug-ins that are available, and visitors to your site will also see who’s visited the hot dog stand. Pretty clever, huh! By leveraging Facebook as a platform, and the many tools the platform offers, you can create additional marketing opportunities that have a reach beyond most traditional marketing methods.

There are three key pillars of integrating Facebook’s platform into your website. They include:

  • Social Plug-ins. These are plug-ins that you can add to your website that shows your visitors whose ‘Liked’ your page or products on Facebook.
  • Authentication. This is an integration to your website that allows visitors to identify, or authenticate, who they are using their Facebook credentials.
  • Personalization.  This integration allows you to ‘personalize’ a visitors experience by using their Facebook logon information.

The sky’s the limit with many of these integration tools and with some solid thought, and possibly the help of a skilled programmer, you can create an experience between Facebook and your website that brings your marketing efforts to a whole new level.

For more great tips on how to market your business with Facebook, check out ‘The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing’. And don’t forget - buy it on Feb. 19th and you’ll get the great digital ‘Goody Bag’ of special discounts and gifts!



14 Days of Facebook Marketing Tips. Tip #13: Leverage The Facebook Platform

14 Days of Facebook Marketing Tips. Tip #13: Leverage The Facebook Platform

Welcome to 14 Days of Facebook Marketing Tips, on the occasion of the upcoming launch of “The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing  ” (Wiley) by Ramon Ray, of Smallbiztechnology.com and Infusionsoft.

Buy Ramon’s latest book   on February 19th and get a digital box of goodies as your gift for buying the book, educating yourself and growing your business with Facebook.

In The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing  , you will overall learn how to get more customers and keep the ones you have. You’ll also learn how to leverage overall online marketing, how to better use social media and, more specifically, how to use the power of Facebook for YOUR business.

Tip #13: Leverage The Facebook Platform

Once upon a time, if a business wanted to get in front of a large audience of potential customers they had to create a webpage. Those webpages were one-way mirrors - customers could get a look at your company and learn who you are, but that was it. There was no reciprocal view back to that customer from the company’s viewpoint. The world’s changed, significantly, since those days. While webpages are certainly still an essential for growing your online presence, the one-way mirror has been cracked and the opportunity to interact and communicate with your customers, and potential customers, is now wide open thanks to social networks, such as Facebook.  

Smart companies have moved beyond just using Facebook as a place to post information and interact with customers - they are leveraging Facebook as a platform for communication and collaboration on their websites and other digital properties. So, what are we talking about Here’s an example.  Let’s say you own a hot dog stand and you offer your customers a loyalty card, which if they link to their Facebook account gets them additional loyalty points. If you customers do this, then every time they use that loyalty card at your hot dog stand, their Facebook friends are automatically alerted from a post that appears in their Timeline. Tie this back to your website, with one of many social plug-ins that are available, and visitors to your site will also see who’s visited the hot dog stand. Pretty clever, huh! By leveraging Facebook as a platform, and the many tools the platform offers, you can create additional marketing opportunities that have a reach beyond most traditional marketing methods.

There are three key pillars of integrating Facebook’s platform into your website. They include:

  • Social Plug-ins. These are plug-ins that you can add to your website that shows your visitors whose ‘Liked’ your page or products on Facebook.
  • Authentication. This is an integration to your website that allows visitors to identify, or authenticate, who they are using their Facebook credentials.
  • Personalization.  This integration allows you to ‘personalize’ a visitors experience by using their Facebook logon information.

The sky’s the limit with many of these integration tools and with some solid thought, and possibly the help of a skilled programmer, you can create an experience between Facebook and your website that brings your marketing efforts to a whole new level.

For more great tips on how to market your business with Facebook, check out ‘The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing’. And don’t forget - buy it on Feb. 19th and you’ll get the great digital ‘Goody Bag’ of special discounts and gifts!



Three Tips To Follow To Ensure Your Safety In The Cloud

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today cloud sharing services are in vogue, with providers offering 2GB of storage to infinite storage, all for prices ranging from free to thousands each month. There’s a reason for the popularity of the cloud - gone are the days of filling inboxes with email attachments and having team members scattered when it comes to the logistics of reviewing and commenting on documents. Although collaborative tools have long been in existence in enterprise settings, the convenience of the cloud allows small businesses to implement centralized file share and review systems without requiring an information technology team.

Despite the boosts to productivity cloud file sharing provides, one of the biggest concerns to many businesses is security. In a recent survey of business owners by global strategy and consulting firm IntraLinks, when it comes to online file sharing 63% confirmed that security is the most important aspect when selecting a provider. Unfortunately, while it is easy for a vendor to promise security, actually delivering on those promises is a whole different situation. Fortunately, by following a few simple tips, businesses can ensure their data is secure while in the cloud.

Encrypt Your Files Yourself. The first tip is that when uploading files to the cloud, encrypt them yourself even if the vendor already uses encryption. The reason being that some encryption schemes have backdoors in them for various reasons, meaning that while your data might appear to be private, the cloud provider will have the ability to view your data. Although many companies are  honest, when it comes to securing sensitive data, it is better to be safe than sorry. TrueCrypt is a leading program which provides military grade encryption for free. By being open source meaning the code is open, users can be assured it is free of backdoors.

Make Sure Your Online Server is Secure. In cases where online collaboration is necessary, self-encryption becomes prohibitive because it prevents the applications from functioning properly. Fortunately online security has come a long way from the days of people running companies via servers hosted in their closets. Today virtually all reputable sharing services house their servers in state of the art data centers which cost millions of dollars to fortify to meet today’s rigorous industry standards. When shopping around for a provider to house your files, make sure their facilities meet all applicable standards. For example, financial firms are required to use providers  compliant with SAS70 while medical firms are required to utilize HIPAA compliant firms. Even if you are not in a regulated industry, going with a compliant host is a valuable perk as it provides an additional layer ofsecurity which can be verified by neutral third parties.

Don’t Put It In The Cloud If You Can’t Afford To Have It Leaked. The final rule of using online sharing services is to keep the following in mind - never put something in the cloud if you cannot afford to have it leaked to the public. Even with the greatest precautions, since technology changes so rapidly, what is secure today might be vulnerable tomorrow. As security is never absolute, never assume your data is completely safe in the cloud. Although the probability of data breaches often are low, occasionally providers slip up. In this case, having a contingency plan also is mandatory to protect from a worst case scenario.



Three Tips To Follow To Ensure Your Safety In The Cloud

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today cloud sharing services are in vogue, with providers offering 2GB of storage to infinite storage, all for prices ranging from free to thousands each month. There’s a reason for the popularity of the cloud - gone are the days of filling inboxes with email attachments and having team members scattered when it comes to the logistics of reviewing and commenting on documents. Although collaborative tools have long been in existence in enterprise settings, the convenience of the cloud allows small businesses to implement centralized file share and review systems without requiring an information technology team.

Despite the boosts to productivity cloud file sharing provides, one of the biggest concerns to many businesses is security. In a recent survey of business owners by global strategy and consulting firm IntraLinks, when it comes to online file sharing 63% confirmed that security is the most important aspect when selecting a provider. Unfortunately, while it is easy for a vendor to promise security, actually delivering on those promises is a whole different situation. Fortunately, by following a few simple tips, businesses can ensure their data is secure while in the cloud.

Encrypt Your Files Yourself. The first tip is that when uploading files to the cloud, encrypt them yourself even if the vendor already uses encryption. The reason being that some encryption schemes have backdoors in them for various reasons, meaning that while your data might appear to be private, the cloud provider will have the ability to view your data. Although many companies are  honest, when it comes to securing sensitive data, it is better to be safe than sorry. TrueCrypt is a leading program which provides military grade encryption for free. By being open source meaning the code is open, users can be assured it is free of backdoors.

Make Sure Your Online Server is Secure. In cases where online collaboration is necessary, self-encryption becomes prohibitive because it prevents the applications from functioning properly. Fortunately online security has come a long way from the days of people running companies via servers hosted in their closets. Today virtually all reputable sharing services house their servers in state of the art data centers which cost millions of dollars to fortify to meet today’s rigorous industry standards. When shopping around for a provider to house your files, make sure their facilities meet all applicable standards. For example, financial firms are required to use providers  compliant with SAS70 while medical firms are required to utilize HIPAA compliant firms. Even if you are not in a regulated industry, going with a compliant host is a valuable perk as it provides an additional layer ofsecurity which can be verified by neutral third parties.

Don’t Put It In The Cloud If You Can’t Afford To Have It Leaked. The final rule of using online sharing services is to keep the following in mind - never put something in the cloud if you cannot afford to have it leaked to the public. Even with the greatest precautions, since technology changes so rapidly, what is secure today might be vulnerable tomorrow. As security is never absolute, never assume your data is completely safe in the cloud. Although the probability of data breaches often are low, occasionally providers slip up. In this case, having a contingency plan also is mandatory to protect from a worst case scenario.



Vine Tweet Report: Analytics Tool for Twitter’s Vine App

Since Twitter launched its Vine mobile video app in January, many users including brands have signed up to create six-second looping videos to share with their social networks. But since the platform is still so new, it may seem difficult for brands and businesses to measure exactly how their creations on the Vine app are received and how they might impact current and potential customers.

Now, free analytics report provider Simply Measured has released a new tool to help brands make sense of all the noise surrounding Vine. The analytics report shows which Vine app users are interacting with your videos, as well as your brand’s top influencers, and how your network engagement on Vine compares with engagement on other social platforms.

vine app

The photo above shows a sample user analysis, which includes the amount of posts your brand has made on Vine and other media such as YouTube and Instagram, and how the engagement on each of these platforms stacks up against the engagement your brand receives on Vine. It also shows your brand’s top followers and influencers, based on interactions with tweets that contain Vine videos.

You can also choose to filter your analytics results by city or country, and see which of your Vine videos has gained the most views and has the most potential for impact. There’s also a section called “Your Vines by the Numbers,” which shows the number of total users your Vines have reached, how many times users engaged with your Vines, the potential reach (the number of users who have interacted with your Vines and their total combined followers), and the potential impressions (the potential times your Vines could have shown up in users’ feeds).

Twitter’s Vine app is still a very new tool that brands are using to reach social audiences, so there haven’t been many ways for these brands to actually measure engagement and figure out if posting these six-second clips can actually be worth it. But analytics tools like this one have become a big part of social media strategies for many companies that use other social media platforms, so it was only a matter of time before such tools became available for Vine app users as well.

Simply Measured was first introduced in 2010 and has helped to track more than 173,000 social media profiles on various sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more.  The different free reports offered by the company can cover anything from followers to traffic sources. The analytics tool for vine is the Seattle-based company’s newest offering, launching just about a month after Vine app debuted in the app store.




Vine Tweet Report: Analytics Tool for Twitter’s Vine App

Since Twitter launched its Vine mobile video app in January, many users including brands have signed up to create six-second looping videos to share with their social networks. But since the platform is still so new, it may seem difficult for brands and businesses to measure exactly how their creations on the Vine app are received and how they might impact current and potential customers.

Now, free analytics report provider Simply Measured has released a new tool to help brands make sense of all the noise surrounding Vine. The analytics report shows which Vine app users are interacting with your videos, as well as your brand’s top influencers, and how your network engagement on Vine compares with engagement on other social platforms.

vine app

The photo above shows a sample user analysis, which includes the amount of posts your brand has made on Vine and other media such as YouTube and Instagram, and how the engagement on each of these platforms stacks up against the engagement your brand receives on Vine. It also shows your brand’s top followers and influencers, based on interactions with tweets that contain Vine videos.

You can also choose to filter your analytics results by city or country, and see which of your Vine videos has gained the most views and has the most potential for impact. There’s also a section called “Your Vines by the Numbers,” which shows the number of total users your Vines have reached, how many times users engaged with your Vines, the potential reach (the number of users who have interacted with your Vines and their total combined followers), and the potential impressions (the potential times your Vines could have shown up in users’ feeds).

Twitter’s Vine app is still a very new tool that brands are using to reach social audiences, so there haven’t been many ways for these brands to actually measure engagement and figure out if posting these six-second clips can actually be worth it. But analytics tools like this one have become a big part of social media strategies for many companies that use other social media platforms, so it was only a matter of time before such tools became available for Vine app users as well.

Simply Measured was first introduced in 2010 and has helped to track more than 173,000 social media profiles on various sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more.  The different free reports offered by the company can cover anything from followers to traffic sources. The analytics tool for vine is the Seattle-based company’s newest offering, launching just about a month after Vine app debuted in the app store.




Small Business Book Awards: Nominate Through March 3, 2013

book awardsGo ahead - make an author’s day.  Nominate your favorite business book in the 2013 Small Business Book Awards. The nomination deadline is March 3, 2013.

The 2013 Small Business Book Awards celebrate books for entrepreneurs, small business owners, CEOs, managers and their staffs.

This is the 5th year for these community Awards. In the past, almost 100,000 votes were cast by the community.   Winners receive publicity and the right to display winners’ insignia on books, websites, brochures and elsewhere. Ten overall winners and 5 winners in each category will be named.

Nominating is fast â€" and free.

What’s New for 2013

In 2013 there are more categories than ever before â€" and more opportunities  to be recognized. This year features 10 book categories, along with a new non-book category.

Business books may be nominated if published in 2012, relevant to small businesses, and covering one of these topical areas:  marketing, technology, social media, management, economics, startup, self-help, leadership or personal finance.  There’s also a category for business classics, which is for all-time favorite business books published prior to 2012. Be sure to check out the overview of some of the new book nominations so far in this year’s Small Business Book Awards.

The non-book category is for publishing resources such as book publicists, ghost writing services, author apps (such as Story Tracker and the Write or Die app), and similar resources.  So if you know any good author apps, copywriters, publishing platforms and other resources, nominate them!

Welcome Namecheap, Our Sponsor

Namecheap is showing its commitment to the small business community through its generous support as Presenting Sponsor of the Small Business Book Awards. Namecheap is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and Web hosting company managing 3 million domains with more than 800,000 clients.

Authors, if you need a website for you book, look to Namecheap, which offers some of the most affordable domain names in the industry, full-featured Web hosting packages, SSL certificates and more.  Thank you, Namecheap!

Details

Who: Anyone can nominate. Authors, feel free to nominate your own books. Book lovers, nominate your favorites.  Publishers and editors, also feel free to nominate your books.

What: 2013 Small Business Book Awards

When: Nominations end March 3, 2013 at 11:59 pm Los Angeles, California time.

Once nominations end, voting starts immediately thereafter and runs through March 26, 2013.

Where:  Visit the Small Business Book Awards site.  Or jump directly to the nomination form .



4 Must-Have Local Marketing Resources for 2013

Most businesses take to online marketing, but most don’t see the forest for the trees. While the need for local marketing purely depends on the type of business and the overall marketing strategy, it’s often overlooked by businesses that do “need” local marketing. The Internet ushered in a spate of opportunities for local businesses, even if nothing is ever sold online. Here are some local marketing resources and tips you can use for local marketing this year.

 

Find the Top Directories 

Online directories have fallen off the radar for SEO, traffic generation, and for linkbuilding for the Internet marketing community, but hey still hold considerable value for local business listings. Customers still look for businesses, vendors, contractors, and products off business directories - especially if local businesses are desired. Andrew Shotland helpfully created a humongous list of some of the top local business directories and local citation Sources in U.S. Another helpful post by Myles Anderson - founder and CEO of Brightlocal.com - lists some of the top 50 Citation Sources For US ( and UK) local businesses.

Which one of these is your local business listed on If you are looking for local traffic, you may want to ensure you’re listed on many that will bring people to your door.

Getlisted.org

If your business is Local, Search optimization works much more efficiently for you. Seomoz.org recently acquired getlisted.org, which helps you to check if your business is listed, suggests more relevant places to list your business, educates you on specific search engine optimization for local businesses, and even provides professional help if you so need. Getlisted.org already helped more than 2 million small, local businesses boost their online presence and benefit from it.

Go to Get Listed to see if this is a tool that will help your local marketing efforts.

SignPost

With SignPost, your local business can open up to 98 million local customers and ramp up 95% more views, visits (and increased sales opportunities) thanks to their gigantic network of 1200+ national and local partners including Google, Amazon, and Yellow Pages. SignPost is an automation software featuring a dashboard-like interface to help you deploy local marketing campaigns, monitor these campaigns, leverage marketing with a substantial exposure with automated featuring on directories, mobile apps major search engines, and local media sites.

Small business owners don’t have to tech savvy and can skip any additional, onerous account management responsibilities. You might want to read up more on SignPost by Gerald Hedlund - one of our contributing authors on Small Business Technology.

Tools for Citation Building

Listing your local business is a crucial task. As such, tools exist that can help you find & track your listings (active citations); identify your competition’s citations; compare and prioritize citations using citation values; and even automate monitoring of your citation campaigns. Consider using BrightLocal and WhiteSpark  to improve your chances of improved search rankings, more exposure for your listings and hence your business.

Are you itching for something more creative Create custom Soundtracks for your local business using Pandora’s association with DMX.

What are your favorite tools for local business marketing



4 Must-Have Local Marketing Resources for 2013

Most businesses take to online marketing, but most don’t see the forest for the trees. While the need for local marketing purely depends on the type of business and the overall marketing strategy, it’s often overlooked by businesses that do “need” local marketing. The Internet ushered in a spate of opportunities for local businesses, even if nothing is ever sold online. Here are some local marketing resources and tips you can use for local marketing this year.

 

Find the Top Directories 

Online directories have fallen off the radar for SEO, traffic generation, and for linkbuilding for the Internet marketing community, but hey still hold considerable value for local business listings. Customers still look for businesses, vendors, contractors, and products off business directories - especially if local businesses are desired. Andrew Shotland helpfully created a humongous list of some of the top local business directories and local citation Sources in U.S. Another helpful post by Myles Anderson - founder and CEO of Brightlocal.com - lists some of the top 50 Citation Sources For US ( and UK) local businesses.

Which one of these is your local business listed on If you are looking for local traffic, you may want to ensure you’re listed on many that will bring people to your door.

Getlisted.org

If your business is Local, Search optimization works much more efficiently for you. Seomoz.org recently acquired getlisted.org, which helps you to check if your business is listed, suggests more relevant places to list your business, educates you on specific search engine optimization for local businesses, and even provides professional help if you so need. Getlisted.org already helped more than 2 million small, local businesses boost their online presence and benefit from it.

Go to Get Listed to see if this is a tool that will help your local marketing efforts.

SignPost

With SignPost, your local business can open up to 98 million local customers and ramp up 95% more views, visits (and increased sales opportunities) thanks to their gigantic network of 1200+ national and local partners including Google, Amazon, and Yellow Pages. SignPost is an automation software featuring a dashboard-like interface to help you deploy local marketing campaigns, monitor these campaigns, leverage marketing with a substantial exposure with automated featuring on directories, mobile apps major search engines, and local media sites.

Small business owners don’t have to tech savvy and can skip any additional, onerous account management responsibilities. You might want to read up more on SignPost by Gerald Hedlund - one of our contributing authors on Small Business Technology.

Tools for Citation Building

Listing your local business is a crucial task. As such, tools exist that can help you find & track your listings (active citations); identify your competition’s citations; compare and prioritize citations using citation values; and even automate monitoring of your citation campaigns. Consider using BrightLocal and WhiteSpark  to improve your chances of improved search rankings, more exposure for your listings and hence your business.

Are you itching for something more creative Create custom Soundtracks for your local business using Pandora’s association with DMX.

What are your favorite tools for local business marketing



4 Must-Have Local Marketing Resources for 2013

Most businesses take to online marketing, but most don’t see the forest for the trees. While the need for local marketing purely depends on the type of business and the overall marketing strategy, it’s often overlooked by businesses that do “need” local marketing. The Internet ushered in a spate of opportunities for local businesses, even if nothing is ever sold online. Here are some local marketing resources and tips you can use for local marketing this year.

 

Find the Top Directories 

Online directories have fallen off the radar for SEO, traffic generation, and for linkbuilding for the Internet marketing community, but hey still hold considerable value for local business listings. Customers still look for businesses, vendors, contractors, and products off business directories - especially if local businesses are desired. Andrew Shotland helpfully created a humongous list of some of the top local business directories and local citation Sources in U.S. Another helpful post by Myles Anderson - founder and CEO of Brightlocal.com - lists some of the top 50 Citation Sources For US ( and UK) local businesses.

Which one of these is your local business listed on If you are looking for local traffic, you may want to ensure you’re listed on many that will bring people to your door.

Getlisted.org

If your business is Local, Search optimization works much more efficiently for you. Seomoz.org recently acquired getlisted.org, which helps you to check if your business is listed, suggests more relevant places to list your business, educates you on specific search engine optimization for local businesses, and even provides professional help if you so need. Getlisted.org already helped more than 2 million small, local businesses boost their online presence and benefit from it.

Go to Get Listed to see if this is a tool that will help your local marketing efforts.

SignPost

With SignPost, your local business can open up to 98 million local customers and ramp up 95% more views, visits (and increased sales opportunities) thanks to their gigantic network of 1200+ national and local partners including Google, Amazon, and Yellow Pages. SignPost is an automation software featuring a dashboard-like interface to help you deploy local marketing campaigns, monitor these campaigns, leverage marketing with a substantial exposure with automated featuring on directories, mobile apps major search engines, and local media sites.

Small business owners don’t have to tech savvy and can skip any additional, onerous account management responsibilities. You might want to read up more on SignPost by Gerald Hedlund - one of our contributing authors on Small Business Technology.

Tools for Citation Building

Listing your local business is a crucial task. As such, tools exist that can help you find & track your listings (active citations); identify your competition’s citations; compare and prioritize citations using citation values; and even automate monitoring of your citation campaigns. Consider using BrightLocal and WhiteSpark  to improve your chances of improved search rankings, more exposure for your listings and hence your business.

Are you itching for something more creative Create custom Soundtracks for your local business using Pandora’s association with DMX.

What are your favorite tools for local business marketing



David Adler: Legal Risks Facing Affiliate Marketers Today #AMDays

David Adler, a partner at Leavens, Strand, Glover & Adler, LLC, and a seasoned lawyer focused on counseling businesses across the interrelated areas of intellectual property law, media & entertainment, information technology and corporate law will be speaking at Affiliate Management Days SF 2013 (April 16-17, 2013) on the topic of “Managing Risk: Legal Issues for Merchants & Affiliate Managers.” This is a pre-interview with David.

* * * * *

legal risks affiliate marketingQuestion: It isn’t unusual to hear one describe affiliate marketing as a “risk-free channel” Looking at it as a lawyer, wouldn’t you say that it should be called a “high-risk” industry 

David Adler: As a lawyer, I consider affiliate marketing to be fairly “high risk,” if not done properly. This is due to several factors related to ease of setup, creation and use of marketing content, marketing tactics and lack of oversight.

First, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to get into affiliate marketing. Therefore, it can attract unsophisticated, misinformed and unscrupulous people looking to make a fast buck. The speed and ease with which websites and landing pages can be launched, taken down, and relaunched elsewhere leads to a never ending game of “whack-a-mole” for companies trying to protect their products and brand from illegitimate or unscrupulous marketers.

Second, the purpose of affiliate marketing is to drive traffic to a sales channel. This works best when marketers use compelling, eye catching content that attracts visitors. This means using trademarks, keywords and content that people are seeking.

Affiliates frequently use a network of landing pages with content customized for different audiences. The risk is that, often, the responsibility for creation and use of such content lies with the affiliate. Unscrupulous affiliate marketers have been known to use text, photos and videos of others and even “celebrity endorsements” without permission.  The most notable case involves the unauthorized use of Dr. Oz in connection with efforts to market acai berry health products.

Third, marketing channels such as email and social networking pose risks as well. Again, since the goal of affiliate marketing is to drive Web traffic, it only makes sense to go where the users are. However, many affiliate marketers are unfamiliar with state and federal laws that regulate the use of email for marketing purposes. Likewise, many social networking platforms have terms of service that directly address not only marketing, but affiliate marketing specifically. In addition, marketers must stay within the bounds of truth-in-advertising laws, privacy disclosure requirements and tax laws.

Lastly, Affiliate Marketing depends on thin, almost anonymous relationships with third parties. Because companies often have no direct relationship with the affiliate marketers who are promoting their products and brands, it is difficult to police these marketers activities to ensure that they are not creating an unreasonable risk of liability by using unauthorized content or improper methods.

Question: What steps can an online advertiser take today to avoid some of the key problem areas, minimizing risk and liability

David Adler:  The first step that anyone in the affiliate marketing ecosystem should take is to do “due diligence.” This means checking out the publisher network and the products being offered to make sure they are established and reputable.

For brands, this means doing “background” checks on the proposed marketing partners and making sure the legal risks outline above, such as intellectual property rights and approved marketing methods, are addressed in the parties contracts.

Question: What do you see as the main challenges for affiliate managers and advertisers with affiliate programs

David Adler:  The biggest challenges that I see facing the industry are two-fold. First, the rapid adoption of mobile technologies means that marketers must address this platform. In addition to traditional laws and regulations, the mobile platform faces additional hurdles from industry groups issuing their own guidelines in an effort to preempt ever more government regulation.

Second, privacy and security of information gathered and shared on and across mobile devices has heightened concerns among consumers and lawmakers alike. The challenge to marketers is connecting with mobile consumers using content optimized for a smaller screen and driving consumers to make purchases. Marketers now have access to a wide range of personal information never before available. How they choose to access, store and share that info will affect both individual marketers and the industry as a whole.

The upside, of course, is that unlike desktop computers which are stationary, consumers with smartphones are able to make purchases any time, any where. Even with the increased challenges, there are increased opportunities.

Question: What do you think 2013 holds in store for us abd how do you expect the legal landscape to change in relation to e-commerce and online advertising

David Adler:  As the mobile platform continues to mature, the risks and uncertainties will continue to shift. For e-commerce and online advertising, I see new developments in two fronts, privacy and consumer protection.

First, state and federal government agencies are keenly aware of the privacy concerns raised through use of mobile platforms, such as location data and access to information like contact lists and photos.  This year will continue to see FTC and state enforcement of privacy policies, and violations of those policies, by all parties in the mobile advertising and commerce area.

Second, be on the lookout for more actions in the name of consumer protection that are aimed at unfair or deceptive business practices, particularly with respect to how marketers gather, cross reference and share consumer information for more targeted advertising or behavioral advertising.

* * * * *

The Affiliate Management Days conference, where David Adler will be speaking on managing risk in affiliate marketing, takes place April 16-17, 2013. Follow @AMDays or #AMDays on Twitter. Early bird registration runs until February 22, 2013. When registering, make sure to use the code SBTAM250 to receive an additional $250.00 off your two-day (or combo) pass.

The rest of the interview series from #AMDays may be found here.