Web-based Insurance businesses are in for a tight competition online. There are many other insurance websites that offer the same type of services, specializes on the same niche of insurance marketing and both of these factors alone can already set you apart from them. What you should do for your website is to stand out among other insurance websites; but at the same time, offer content and still, quality service.
If a customer is deciding between two insurance websites but still caught in the middle because of the almost identical features and mechanics, there's a 50-50 chance that that customer will choose you or the other website for insurance. When the other website is chosen over you, you wouldn't have a clue how often it happens or will happen, so watch out and the sooner you update your website, the better.
At this point, you need to assert that your insurance services, or your website to say the least is different and much better than the others. There are some areas in your website which you can develop right away or one step at a time. It doesn't matter how immediate you can start, as long as you make sure that you're better than the rest. When the customer knows that they can find justification from a service they want, the quality of your website will spread like wild fire in the internet.
As a content-based insurance website, you always need to make sure that you have good website content. Also, don't stick to what you already have, explore and increase the quality of your expertise. You also have to make sure that you continue to learn and develop the insurance niche you're working on because that is the part which customers will likely go after.
If you still want your site to get better in another way, try putting a section on your website where both customers and visitors can leave their comments.
Selasa, 11 Desember 2007
Rethinking Website Content: Content That Entertains
In case you've missed it, the Web has changed; it seems like just yesterday it was good enough to take all your brochures and advertising collaterals and convert them to digital format, add a little search engine optimization, throw-in a little PHP programming and bingo, you've got a website. And if you wanted to show how cutting edge your company was, maybe you'd add a little dash of Flash animation, or some royalty free music. Well here's a bulletin from the frontlines, that isn't going to cut-it in the new multimedia Web-business environment.
Almost daily I receive emails from people asking me to review their websites and tell them why they can't convert visitors to customers even when they are attracting significant numbers of visitors on a regular basis to their sites.
The answer is both simple and complex: simple, because these websites fail to communicate the company's message in a meaningful manner to their visitors, which means no dialog is opened, and without a dialog, no business can be done; and complex, because the implementation of the solution requires a new way of thinking about communicating with your audience using sophisticated presentation techniques that put a higher premium on creativity than they do on facts, figures and old-school direct marketing tactics.
If you are looking for a mantra to begin any new website initiative or to correct an existing website disaster: Think Audience Not Customers.
New Words For A New Web-Business Environment
In the past while I've run across three newly coined words or phrases (Communitainment, Branded Entertainment, and Snack-o-tainment) that attempt to capture the fundamental change that has taken place among Web-user expectations.
All of the new terms have two things in common: one, they require the marketer to think of website visitors as an audience and not as customers; and two, they all require the marketer to use entertainment techniques as the basis for delivering content.
Communication + Entertainment + Community
The Piper Jaffray Internet Media and Marketing research team recently released a report entitled 'The User Revolution' in which Safa Rashtchy coined the concept of 'Communitainment,' a blending of the words communication and entertainment. Rashtchy uses the term to denote the "melding of communication, community, and entertainment," as a new formula for implementing the delivery of marketing content.
The report points out that "Video ads will be the driver of the next major growth in brand advertising
Almost daily I receive emails from people asking me to review their websites and tell them why they can't convert visitors to customers even when they are attracting significant numbers of visitors on a regular basis to their sites.
The answer is both simple and complex: simple, because these websites fail to communicate the company's message in a meaningful manner to their visitors, which means no dialog is opened, and without a dialog, no business can be done; and complex, because the implementation of the solution requires a new way of thinking about communicating with your audience using sophisticated presentation techniques that put a higher premium on creativity than they do on facts, figures and old-school direct marketing tactics.
If you are looking for a mantra to begin any new website initiative or to correct an existing website disaster: Think Audience Not Customers.
New Words For A New Web-Business Environment
In the past while I've run across three newly coined words or phrases (Communitainment, Branded Entertainment, and Snack-o-tainment) that attempt to capture the fundamental change that has taken place among Web-user expectations.
All of the new terms have two things in common: one, they require the marketer to think of website visitors as an audience and not as customers; and two, they all require the marketer to use entertainment techniques as the basis for delivering content.
Communication + Entertainment + Community
The Piper Jaffray Internet Media and Marketing research team recently released a report entitled 'The User Revolution' in which Safa Rashtchy coined the concept of 'Communitainment,' a blending of the words communication and entertainment. Rashtchy uses the term to denote the "melding of communication, community, and entertainment," as a new formula for implementing the delivery of marketing content.
The report points out that "Video ads will be the driver of the next major growth in brand advertising
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Senin, 10 Desember 2007
The Nitty Gritty of choosing a website hosting company
If you have a website or would like a website you're going to need a website hosting company. The good news is there are tons out there to choose from. The bad news is you're going to have to learn a little bit about web hosting to be able to choose the right one for you. That is what we are going to discuss in this article, to help you choose the right web host for your company/personal website.
What is a web host company?
A web host provides the service that allows you to store the information that makes up your website. A web host stores your website's information on a web server. Each time you type a web address into your browser , the browser asks for your website's information from the web hosts server and then the browser displays it on your screen. Basically, if you don't have a web host or your own server, you don't have a website. Some ISP's (Internet Service provider) provides web space but, this is not the type of web hosing we will be discussing.
Types of hosting plans
The next thing you are going to need to know is that there are different types of hosting that is available to you. There is virtual / shared hosting. What that means is that the web host company hosts more than one account on that server. There is also dedicated which basically means you would get your own server. Another type (which is not as common as the first two) is VPS (Virtual Private Server) and what it is, is " virtual " servers on the actual server and the user can add different modules within their server. The user can also allocate how much CPU usage or memory easy module gets. Most users will generally only need shared hosting unless you have a large website with over 5,000 visitors per day and large scripts. If that is the case you will need dedicated hosting.
Types of Operating Systems
There are three different types of operating systems for servers. There is Linux, Unix and of course Windows. Just because your computer is a PC doesn't mean you have to opt for Windows web hosting. The operating system you use on your desktop has little to do with your choice of web hosts. As long as you understand how to use your FTP or web publishing software, your can use either operating system.
When it comes to Web hosting, Linux has for some time, been widely considered the best Operating System for Web servers. It's typically found to be the most reliable, stable and efficient system. If your website, like most web sites, is what might be termed "brochure-ware" then Linux servers are ideal. A web site housed on a Linux operating system will have very high up-time and very low downtime.
If you intend to create your website using ASP, FrontPage, the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other Microsoft proprietary technologies then you probably need to use a Windows host. All other languages are able to be hosted on either platforms. Basically, unless you are specifically using features that are unique to one platform or another your time will be much better spent looking for a really good quality host than a really good quality server.
Email
If you have your own site, you would probably want to have email addresses at your own domain, like you@yourdomain.com. Does the host provide this with the package? Does it allow you to have a catch-all email account that allows any_e-mail@yourdomain.com to wind up being routed to you? Will you have the option to send auto responders for your e-mail accounts? Can you retrieve your mail with your email software? Can it be automatically forwarded to your current email address? Can you check your e-mail on the web? These are questions that you should ask when searching for the right web host.
Down time
This is extremely important. A website that is frequently down will lose a lot of visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and clicks on it to find it us unavailable, they will simply shop somewhere else. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors. How do you know if a web host is reliable or fast? The best way to find information about a web hosting company is to search the net. Once you have decided on a web host to check out, typetheir name in Google. As you look through the results, you will see that some of the pages that come up are actually reviews of that company. Now look at the review websites to see what everyone else is saying about potential web hosting companies. Remember to take reviews with a grain of salt. As reviews can usually be posted by anyone anonymously and you can't please everyone all the time!
Traffic or Data transfer
Data transfer is the amount of bytes transferred from your website to visitors when they browse your website. Always look for details on how much traffic the package allows. To give you a rough idea of the typical traffic requirements of a website, most new websites are likely use less than 3GB of bandwidth per month. Your traffic requirements will grow over time, as your website becomes larger and more popular. You will need to check to see if you will automatically be charged for going over your bandwidth limit or are you expected to pre-pay for it. Personally, with my web host I have 30 GBs of data transfer and I host 7 domains and one sub-domains. I currently only use 750 MBs /month. My websites have a total of 30, 000 visits per month and have about 2 million hits/month.
Price
Unfortunately price is always a factor. You should realize that you often get what you pay for, although it's not necessarily true that the most expensive hosts are the best. Your best bet would be to go with a web host that is neither cheap nor expensive but, in between.
Technical support
Does the web host company's technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year around? Make sure you get a response for the web host company quickly not just the next day. Another thing to check is that the phone number they provide actually is answered by a real person. This I know from personal experience. Make sure it is not an automated system that eventually ends with an answer machine that asks you to leave your name and number. Besides speed of responses, check to see if they are technically competent. You wouldn't want to sign up for a host that is run by kids. Would you?
What is a web host company?
A web host provides the service that allows you to store the information that makes up your website. A web host stores your website's information on a web server. Each time you type a web address into your browser , the browser asks for your website's information from the web hosts server and then the browser displays it on your screen. Basically, if you don't have a web host or your own server, you don't have a website. Some ISP's (Internet Service provider) provides web space but, this is not the type of web hosing we will be discussing.
Types of hosting plans
The next thing you are going to need to know is that there are different types of hosting that is available to you. There is virtual / shared hosting. What that means is that the web host company hosts more than one account on that server. There is also dedicated which basically means you would get your own server. Another type (which is not as common as the first two) is VPS (Virtual Private Server) and what it is, is " virtual " servers on the actual server and the user can add different modules within their server. The user can also allocate how much CPU usage or memory easy module gets. Most users will generally only need shared hosting unless you have a large website with over 5,000 visitors per day and large scripts. If that is the case you will need dedicated hosting.
Types of Operating Systems
There are three different types of operating systems for servers. There is Linux, Unix and of course Windows. Just because your computer is a PC doesn't mean you have to opt for Windows web hosting. The operating system you use on your desktop has little to do with your choice of web hosts. As long as you understand how to use your FTP or web publishing software, your can use either operating system.
When it comes to Web hosting, Linux has for some time, been widely considered the best Operating System for Web servers. It's typically found to be the most reliable, stable and efficient system. If your website, like most web sites, is what might be termed "brochure-ware" then Linux servers are ideal. A web site housed on a Linux operating system will have very high up-time and very low downtime.
If you intend to create your website using ASP, FrontPage, the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other Microsoft proprietary technologies then you probably need to use a Windows host. All other languages are able to be hosted on either platforms. Basically, unless you are specifically using features that are unique to one platform or another your time will be much better spent looking for a really good quality host than a really good quality server.
If you have your own site, you would probably want to have email addresses at your own domain, like you@yourdomain.com. Does the host provide this with the package? Does it allow you to have a catch-all email account that allows any_e-mail@yourdomain.com to wind up being routed to you? Will you have the option to send auto responders for your e-mail accounts? Can you retrieve your mail with your email software? Can it be automatically forwarded to your current email address? Can you check your e-mail on the web? These are questions that you should ask when searching for the right web host.
Down time
This is extremely important. A website that is frequently down will lose a lot of visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and clicks on it to find it us unavailable, they will simply shop somewhere else. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors. How do you know if a web host is reliable or fast? The best way to find information about a web hosting company is to search the net. Once you have decided on a web host to check out, typetheir name in Google. As you look through the results, you will see that some of the pages that come up are actually reviews of that company. Now look at the review websites to see what everyone else is saying about potential web hosting companies. Remember to take reviews with a grain of salt. As reviews can usually be posted by anyone anonymously and you can't please everyone all the time!
Traffic or Data transfer
Data transfer is the amount of bytes transferred from your website to visitors when they browse your website. Always look for details on how much traffic the package allows. To give you a rough idea of the typical traffic requirements of a website, most new websites are likely use less than 3GB of bandwidth per month. Your traffic requirements will grow over time, as your website becomes larger and more popular. You will need to check to see if you will automatically be charged for going over your bandwidth limit or are you expected to pre-pay for it. Personally, with my web host I have 30 GBs of data transfer and I host 7 domains and one sub-domains. I currently only use 750 MBs /month. My websites have a total of 30, 000 visits per month and have about 2 million hits/month.
Price
Unfortunately price is always a factor. You should realize that you often get what you pay for, although it's not necessarily true that the most expensive hosts are the best. Your best bet would be to go with a web host that is neither cheap nor expensive but, in between.
Technical support
Does the web host company's technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year around? Make sure you get a response for the web host company quickly not just the next day. Another thing to check is that the phone number they provide actually is answered by a real person. This I know from personal experience. Make sure it is not an automated system that eventually ends with an answer machine that asks you to leave your name and number. Besides speed of responses, check to see if they are technically competent. You wouldn't want to sign up for a host that is run by kids. Would you?
Minggu, 09 Desember 2007
Simple & sure ways to make money with your website
I think most legitimate work from home/online money making method is designing your own website and then turn it to a host of money making activities. Web site is ultimate money making machine, it earns even when you are sleeping. Today, the Web is an intensely commercial medium, offering plenty of ways to make money. So your best strategy is to earn as much money as possible.
I have enlisted simple & sure ways to earn cash with your website.
ADVERTISING ON YOUR WEBSITE : The best and most proven method of making a profit out of your website is using advertising. Internet advertising is on an ascending trend, which shows plenty of potential for the near and distant future.
1. Contextual ads : The popular search engine - Google has introduced a dramatic new contextual advertising service called AdSense which allows virtually any website owner to make money without having to do too much. AdSense is a program in which you get paid for targeting your readers to another websites product or service. Google AdSense simply requires the host site to paste in a few lines of HTML code on their pages where they want those ads to appear. This code creates the ads that you see and when someone clicks on one of these ads they go to the advertiser's site. The advertiser is then charged for the click by Google and Google shares the money with you.
Sign up for Google Adsense and place Google ads on your site. Google will display the most appropriate ads according to your content and you will get paid for every click on an ad. People are making thousands a month with this.
2. In-Text Ads : When you mouse over one of these doubly underlined sponsored links you will be presented with a Tool Tip describing an advertiser's product or service. If someone click on the key-word and it will act like an ordinary link taking visitor to a page belonging to the advertising company. For every click on a highlighted key-word, you will receive a small payment.
In-Text Advertising solution lets you monetize your content in real-time, enabling an incremental increase in ad revenue by providing a new source of untapped ad inventory that does not compete with the other ad programs running on the site. Thereby providing you with a new revenue stream from the content within your site. Intellitxt and ContextWeb provides in-text ads to websites.
3. DISPLAY AFFILIATE PROGRAM'S LINKS & BANNERS : Another method of monetizing your traffic by putting links/banners of affiliate programs on your website. Concept is really quite simple. Every thing is based on paid referral system. Visitors come to your website, you introduced them to product or service from a third party vendor through a banner or text link and you get paid a commission by merchant in various way: a. Paid per click, b. Paid per lead . Paid per sale. You can choose affiliate networks where different advertisers offer their banners codes and links that will display their banners on your site along with tracking of your sales and leads. Best affiliate networks to get affiliate programs are :
a. Commission Junction
b. Clixgalore
c. Linkshare
4. SELL AFFILIATE PRODUCTS : Another profitable way to earn money is to sell affiliate products. You simply direct traffic to their Web site and earn commissions when people buy products.
a. A good way to start with affiliate products is to sign up with ClickBank. There are well over 10,000 different Digital info products. Write up some reviews and recommendations and send traffic to the ClickBank merchant, and if the product sells, you get commissions sometimes as high as 75%. This type of Web site is very simple to setup, however, it requires a large amount of visitor traffic to earn significant money. It's easy to complement an existing Web site with affiliate links for offering related products to your visitors and, at the same time, earning money.
b. Make money selling other company's products through affiliate programs. They'll give you a link to track your sales. Amazon.com is great place to get HTML codes for various products to promote and earn commission. Thousands of people are making a full time income just by driving traffic from their site to merchant sites, never touching or shipping a product.
5. Charge a fee to access a section of your site - Provide free access to main sections of your website, but you can charge a fee for an access to members lounge where more lucrative information is often available. If your content is unique and valuable, you can make money charging for it online. People will pay for access, if it's useful to them. Your members lounge could be a forum, downloadable software, eBooks, listings, etc.
6. Collect and sell information - Creating a information database isn't just a good idea - it
I have enlisted simple & sure ways to earn cash with your website.
ADVERTISING ON YOUR WEBSITE : The best and most proven method of making a profit out of your website is using advertising. Internet advertising is on an ascending trend, which shows plenty of potential for the near and distant future.
1. Contextual ads : The popular search engine - Google has introduced a dramatic new contextual advertising service called AdSense which allows virtually any website owner to make money without having to do too much. AdSense is a program in which you get paid for targeting your readers to another websites product or service. Google AdSense simply requires the host site to paste in a few lines of HTML code on their pages where they want those ads to appear. This code creates the ads that you see and when someone clicks on one of these ads they go to the advertiser's site. The advertiser is then charged for the click by Google and Google shares the money with you.
Sign up for Google Adsense and place Google ads on your site. Google will display the most appropriate ads according to your content and you will get paid for every click on an ad. People are making thousands a month with this.
2. In-Text Ads : When you mouse over one of these doubly underlined sponsored links you will be presented with a Tool Tip describing an advertiser's product or service. If someone click on the key-word and it will act like an ordinary link taking visitor to a page belonging to the advertising company. For every click on a highlighted key-word, you will receive a small payment.
In-Text Advertising solution lets you monetize your content in real-time, enabling an incremental increase in ad revenue by providing a new source of untapped ad inventory that does not compete with the other ad programs running on the site. Thereby providing you with a new revenue stream from the content within your site. Intellitxt and ContextWeb provides in-text ads to websites.
3. DISPLAY AFFILIATE PROGRAM'S LINKS & BANNERS : Another method of monetizing your traffic by putting links/banners of affiliate programs on your website. Concept is really quite simple. Every thing is based on paid referral system. Visitors come to your website, you introduced them to product or service from a third party vendor through a banner or text link and you get paid a commission by merchant in various way: a. Paid per click, b. Paid per lead . Paid per sale. You can choose affiliate networks where different advertisers offer their banners codes and links that will display their banners on your site along with tracking of your sales and leads. Best affiliate networks to get affiliate programs are :
a. Commission Junction
b. Clixgalore
c. Linkshare
4. SELL AFFILIATE PRODUCTS : Another profitable way to earn money is to sell affiliate products. You simply direct traffic to their Web site and earn commissions when people buy products.
a. A good way to start with affiliate products is to sign up with ClickBank. There are well over 10,000 different Digital info products. Write up some reviews and recommendations and send traffic to the ClickBank merchant, and if the product sells, you get commissions sometimes as high as 75%. This type of Web site is very simple to setup, however, it requires a large amount of visitor traffic to earn significant money. It's easy to complement an existing Web site with affiliate links for offering related products to your visitors and, at the same time, earning money.
b. Make money selling other company's products through affiliate programs. They'll give you a link to track your sales. Amazon.com is great place to get HTML codes for various products to promote and earn commission. Thousands of people are making a full time income just by driving traffic from their site to merchant sites, never touching or shipping a product.
5. Charge a fee to access a section of your site - Provide free access to main sections of your website, but you can charge a fee for an access to members lounge where more lucrative information is often available. If your content is unique and valuable, you can make money charging for it online. People will pay for access, if it's useful to them. Your members lounge could be a forum, downloadable software, eBooks, listings, etc.
6. Collect and sell information - Creating a information database isn't just a good idea - it
The History Of Social Media Websites
Man has always been a social animal and hence, has always lived in complex social structures. The Internet added a new dimension to this aspect through the concept of social media websites.
How It All Started
As the Internet began to permeate into every home, teenagers found a new way of expression via the Internet. One way teens found of sharing common interests with other like-minded teenagers was through MySpace. This mode of expression had no immediate checks or rules clamped on by adults-- parents actually felt safer having their teenagers play on their computers at home instead of partying outside.
Teenagers as well as adults found MySpace to be exceptionally fast and viable way of communicating with one another. They could use Myspace --and now Facebook or Second Life-- to interact with one another, to share files with one another, and to coach one another into the fulfillment of their dreams.
The popularity of social networking websites grew with the need for the teenagers to have a space of their own, away from the prying eyes of their parents and other
How It All Started
As the Internet began to permeate into every home, teenagers found a new way of expression via the Internet. One way teens found of sharing common interests with other like-minded teenagers was through MySpace. This mode of expression had no immediate checks or rules clamped on by adults-- parents actually felt safer having their teenagers play on their computers at home instead of partying outside.
Teenagers as well as adults found MySpace to be exceptionally fast and viable way of communicating with one another. They could use Myspace --and now Facebook or Second Life-- to interact with one another, to share files with one another, and to coach one another into the fulfillment of their dreams.
The popularity of social networking websites grew with the need for the teenagers to have a space of their own, away from the prying eyes of their parents and other
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