Archive for November, 2009

When it comes to shopping online, there are still people who have safety concerns. They are afraid of sending their information “out there,” not really knowing where it is going. However, with a few precautions, online shopping can often be safer than using your credit card in person.

Take a few steps to recognize the warning signs of fraud and take steps to avoid being a victim. One of the best ways to protect yourself is by being informed. Just as you are aware of your surroundings when you use an ATM machine, you should be cautious with your online dealings.

Never give out your credit card information in response to an email. If you don’t know why you are being asked for your credit card, don’t give your information. Unless you are sure who is asking for your information, why they are asking for it and how it will be used, don’t type a word or number.

Make sure that you have downloaded the most recent version of your browser in order to take advantage of advances in encryption capabilities. These capabilities protect your personal information as it is transmitted online.

When on any secure site, you will notice two things that tell you that the page is safe:

There will be a padlock icon on the status bar at the bottom of your browser window.

The page address will begin with an “https.” This indicates that the server is secure.

Before you submit your personal information to a site, make sure you read the privacy policy to see how your information will be used. The privacy policy will tell you if your information will be sold or shared with other businesses. If you are uneasy with what you read in the policy, don’t submit your information.

When shopping online, use your credit card for purchases. Debit cards do not give you the same protections as credit cards when it comes to liability and fraudulent usage. You are safer using your credit card.

Make sure that your computer has software that detects spyware. Install a firewall or a security program that will ensure that spyware isn’t installed on your computer. Keep your computer in healthy working order. This will make it easier to protect your information.

When shopping online, you have to use your common sense, just like when shopping in person. Don’t give out information to anyone you don’t know and make sure that site is secure. If you are uneasy about giving out your information online, you can always call a company’s customer service to conduct the final transactions over the telephone.

Shopping online is a great way to find a virtually anything you are looking for. It is quick, easy and great for those unable to spend a lot of time browsing the mall in person. By becoming aware of Internet security issues, you will be able to take advantage of online shopping safely.

Martin Lukac
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/you-can-safely-shop-online-84412.html

After checking out the exterior of a home, the possible client then goes in and checks the interior. The furniture is regarded as accessories of a house, but it is the other crucial stable points in the house – such as the windows, roof, fencing, patio and porches – that provide the foundation and must also be taken a look at.

When it is a fixer-upper home, it is the seller’s task to replace parts of the house that needs replacing. That may be costly but it is an investment that is wisely done and compensated afterwards.

Like the rule often applied in life, why let someone do it, when you can do it yourself?

1. Window
Check if the window needs repainting or new glass. If they do then make sure that the measurements are accurate so as to not waste time, effort and money in putting in newly-bought glass to the window’s structure, only to find out that it doesn’t fit.
Brush the glass clean to make it attractive for the possible buyer.

The difference between repairing to replacing the window is the acquired cost. If you are to repair the window, it would cost less than if you have it entirely replaced. If you believe that you have enough skills to repair the window yourself, then just get the materials and do the work hands-on. If not, call your nearest window provider and assist them by giving them the dimensions of the windowsill.

2. Roof
Now when you first see a fixer-upper house, check if there are leaks coming from the roof. Signs would be the stagnation seen on floor. Constantly wet floor that is resulted from the ceiling’s drip would leave brownish or yellowish marks. These are found on the edges of the floor.

This is hard work if you are to repair it yourself and is costly if you have someone replace it for you. This is a job that is often left to the experts. Carpenters pretty much know the 411 on roof foundations and when they are called in, not only will they patch up the holes on the roof, they’ll also check if the roof is infected by termites and other unwanted colonies that ruin a house’s foundation in time.

3. Fencing
What’s a good garden if fencing is blah? It helps to present the fixer-upper house at its finest, inside and outside. So from the windows to the roof, we head back to the garden and check out fencing.

This can easily be done on your own. Walk to your nearby handy-store and purchase the needed wiring that would highlight the garden. If the fences need to be painted, go. It’s always better to get a new set – something that shows starting anew.

If you are replacing the fence on your own, check if the lines are straight and not crooked. One jagged area may be a turn-off for a possible buyer. It is all about presentation.

4. Patio
Everyone needs a place to relax. Patios can never be overlooked in a fixer-upper house. When repairing the patio area, check if the patio set is still usable. If not, replace them by buying new ones. Make sure that the design goes well with the room.

What is important in the patio is the atmosphere. You must be able to enter and unwind. Check if appliances have to be bought such as little centerpieces you could put on the table or vases for flowers. Candles are also an option.

Double check if the ventilation is alright. If not, then consider your options in revamping the room for airflow.

5. Porches
Just like the garden, the porch also needs to be checked out. The porch is the welcoming party of the entire house. A porch must be inviting for the possible buyer. Therefore, it is advisable that the texture of the porch is comfortable and relaxing. Some houses even have swings. It’s always up to the owner what kind of porch he prefers. The important thing is the porch is one of the first things a buyer sees.

As mentioned earlier, repairing or replacing these areas of a fixer-upper house may be strenuous and costly, but who knows what the end product will result to? There’s a possibility that you could sell the property double the price you paid it for or better yet, re-think of selling it and just keep it for yourself!

Caroline Miller
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/a-fixer-upper-house-has-to-have-pretty-windows-and-more-63958.html

Many people get confused over ADD and ADHD but learning about the differences between the two conditions helps to lift the common misconceptions about the 2 distinctly different disorders and the nature of each one of them. ADD is a complex condition known as Attention Deficit Disorder, which may have a physiological beginning but multifarious results may arise due to it while ADHD is the short-form of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder with consequences such as increased activity and greater impulse-prone decisions taken by the person suffering it.

Noticeable hyperactivity is apparent to the observant person studying the affected person diagnosed with ADHD. On the other hand, persons suffering from ADD typically have reduced powers of concentration, but there are still various sub-types to both conditions that characterize the problems of the disorders. Some of these are given below:

For example, many readers will recall the common picture of an ADD afflicted person being associated with the image of a small boy bouncing off walls and driving educationists and care-givers batty. The stereotyping for ADHD is easier to identify since it is less difficult to define as compared to the more complicated condition of ADD: it is resposible for causing disturbances in the classroom and other associations set-backs in a group environment and is easier to pick up also. The sad part about ADD though, is that it has many negative side-effects even in the instance of the condition being less visible.

If not attended to urgently, an ADD afflicted person may seem unnaturally ’spaced-out’ or disoriented to onlookers, which is really not the case but only look to be so as in the case of an ADD-er gazing out the window with nothing apparent to others to look at! This makes ADD a difficult condition to diagnose and thus many potential patients may go many years without proper treatment as diagnosis has not been reached, giving them the reputation of ‘not being all there.’

The result of this lack of timely diagnosis and subsequent missing out on treatment for ADD may cause the mind to drift, which is no less disconcerting for a person suffering the condition. Besides this, the common belief about ADHD was that it only affected boys, which is a myth that has recently been busted: experts reveal even girls can be affected by attention deficit disorder and it may carry on till they reach middle age! However, one major difference is that girls afflicted with ADD seem to record the inattentive type of this condition, which is why it has been misdiagnosed frequently as depression. It may also have something to do with the fact that inattentive ADD causes less noticeable problems for the person suffering it and since there is minimal disruption to people around them, many ADD-ers may suffer in silence, without treatment, for years at end, thus adding to their misery.

This is also the reason why it is imperative for proper treatment to take place that both these limiting disorders are accurately diagnosed in the initial stages and academic situations are the best bet for zoning in on implications of either disorder; then, be it ADD or AHDH, interuppted or incomplete school work will not be an issue and subsequently, timely diagnosis will help parents keep a watchful eye over wards with academic, psychological and general problems. From issues of peer socialization to lack of orderliness to inability to sit still for even short periods or mood swings (quiet to talkative), there are many indications of ADD or ADHD that observant parents can watch out for and get help with if their children show these telling signs indicating either disorders so as to get best scope of treatment from timely counselling and therapy.

Thus, it can be concluded that for a child’s complete wellness program to succeed, one must concentrate equally on the psychological as well as the physical aspects of the child’s upkeep.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/adhd-articles/add-and-adhd-differences-how-to-distinguish-between-the-two-703342.html

Welcome to the third and final article of this series. I had a tough time deciding which of the many free advertising options to cover. In the end I went to the search engines and ran a series of searches for pizza and restaurants. From these, I selected two items which typically showed up in the top ten search results.

The Open Public Directory Project

The Open Public Directory project is a group of volunteers who strive mightily, without compensation or reward, to find the best websites and include them in their directory. These volunteers have high standards. They ruthlessly discard websites with redundant or questionable content. Only the highest quality sites, those with original content or which are the primary source of information on a topic get into the OPD.

As part of the OPD, the volunteers maintain a separate space just for restaurants. This restaurant directory is located at www.chefmoz.org. It contains restaurant names, addresses, phone numbers, style of cooking, web addresses and truly exhaustive descriptions of the restaurants amenities.

Every single restaurant owner in the world should visit www.chefmoz.org and add their information. You can even include reviews and links to other websites on the Internet which contain reviews of your restaurant.

Since every listing is reviewed by an editor, search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN use the Chefmoz directory as one of the highest quality resources. The directory is logically organized by country, state and cities. In many cases, when someone searches for restaurants in a particular city, the Chefmoz.org directory listing for that city is among the top 10 search items returned. So it is a good idea to have your restaurant represented, have your web site available and your menu online.

To add your restaurant, navigate to the correct www.chefmoz.com local directory, and click on “Add Restaurant.” You will be guided through a series of pages where you can provide all your information and submit the information to be reviewed by an editor. If your town is not already included, you can click “Add Restaurant” at the state level and your listing, if accepted, will create the new directory for your town.

Online Yellow Pages

One of the most popular places where consumers search for local businesses is the online yellow pages sites. There are several, such as www.superpages.com and www.switchboard.com. They all attempt to have at least the minimal information for every business in a particular town. Some will even let businesses list their website for free. The www.superpages.com site will let a business create a free business profile which includes a link to their website. Take advantage of this and create your free business profile on superpages.com. The superpages.com listings are frequently among the top 10 items returned for local searches for restaurants or pizza. You want to be there when people go looking for you.

Offline Online Marketing

Unless you are located on a rest stop for a major interstate highway, all of your customers are going to live within a few miles of your store.

Fact: 80% of your customers use computers. And that percentage is growing.

Fact: most people find websites outside of the internet. They hear them on radios, read them in magazines and newspapers, see them on business cards, flyers and circulars and read them on window, vehicle and sidewalk signs.

These medias are excellent ways to get your web address and online ordering message in front of your customers. Your website and online ordering message should be included as a matter of course in every one of your advertising pieces, whether it is your takeout menu, your window sign, your pizza box, your delivery vehicle sign or a newspaper insert ad.

Your web address is easier to remember than your phone number. Take advantage of this by putting it where your local customers can see it.

By providing your web address, you are inviting people to visit you and check you out in a completely comfortable way. The web visitor does not feel awkward about checking out your menu online. They do not have to engage in an uncomfortable phone conversation as they try to decide whether to give your food a try. They are comfortable and relaxed and when they see your online ordering menu, these comfortable and relaxed people may just place their first order with you then and there.

One of my clients built up their online ordering from $100 per month to over $1,000 per month with more than half their online customers identifying flyers, newspaper ads and the window sign as the source where they found the restaurant’s website.

You want everyone within a couple of miles of your store to know your web address. So don’t make the mistake of limiting your Internet advertising only to the Internet.

So how is this free Internet advertising? Because these are marketing strategies you are, or should be using anyway. It costs next to nothing to add the words “Order online at our website – www.yourpizzeria.com” to your next batch of menus and flyers. And don’t forget that window sign.

One of our clients used a window sign to announce their web site and online introductory offer and got a constant stream of new customers registering for online ordering.

Low Cost Internet Advertising

In addition to the free marketing strategies, consider using some low cost paid Internet marketing.

One of the least expensive Internet advertising strategies is called Pay Per Click. As you might expect, it means that the advertiser pays for every person who clicks on their Internet ad.

Search engines such as yahoo! and Google provide this advertising service and display ads to people who enter specific search terms into the browser. The advertiser can choose exactly what search terms he wants entered to make his ad appear.

For example, a restaurant can use search terms such as “pizza delivery Jersey City” or “pizza restaurant Jersey City” and have his Internet ad show up only when someone enters that search term.

If the person doing the search clicks on his ad, the advertiser is charged. The cost per click is usually very low. Typically 25 cents or less, depending on competition. A bidding system is used to let the advertisers set their limits and daily and weekly budgets let the advertiser manage and monitor the ad campaign expenses.

One reason the cost is so low is because competition for highly local keywords is still very small. A restaurant owner in Pittsburgh is not going to select “pizza restaurants Bangor Maine” as his keyword. At the same time it is a mistake to use too general a keyword, for example just using “pizza restaurant” will not only cost much more per click, but will be seen by people who are hundreds and thousands of miles from your store. So using the highly localized keyword not only reduces the cost of the pay per click, it also pre-qualifies the people who see that add.

It is a good bet that someone searching for “pizza delivery Jersey City” lives in Jersey City, wants to order a pizza and would prefer it to be delivered.

Sources of Pay Per Click advertising are Google Adwords, adwords.google.com, Yahoo!, www.overture.com, and City Search, www.citysearch.com.

Final Thoughts

I hope you found this and my previous articles useful. We have barely scratched the surface of Internet marketing. There are many, many other techniques and strategies ranging from local link exchanges to banner ads, search engine optimization (SEO) and many many other strange and wonderful topics which can help bring visitors to your website and customers to your food.

In the end, your online business will prosper because you decide to take advantage of the power of the Internet and let it work for you. Like any other part of your business, it has to be done as part of the whole. Your website and online ordering will bring you revenue only when your customers learn about it and are encouraged to use it.

Spread the word and watch your online takeout and delivery orders grow!

Rudy Vener
http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/restaurant-marketing-tips-advertise-online-for-free-part-3-61551.html

If you are going to be successful running Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns for your business, then you must use analytics to measure the performance of various elements of your campaigns. For instance, you need to know which keywords generate the most conversions. This will allow you to allocate your budget to those keywords that generate the highest return on investment.
To turn analytics on:

1. Log into your Yahoo! Search Marketing account.
2. Click the Administration tab.
3. Click the “Analytics” link on the sub-menu.
4. Click the blue “Enable Analytics” button.

It will serve you well to have some kind of well-defined conversion event on your web site. This gives you something to measure. If you sell products, it’s easy. You just pass the amount of the sale to the analytics, and Yahoo! will calculate how much profit you are making on your campaign. If you sell services, it’s a little more difficult. In that instance, what you need to do is assign some kind of value for having a visitor complete some action on your web site.

Conversion tracking like we are talking about here, where you can actually determine with precision the profitability of every keyword in your campaign, is accomplished by placing a snippet of JavaScript code on the page of your web site that signifies the completion of a conversion event. Examples are an order confirmation page for a web site that sells products, and a mailing list signup thank you page. Into the JavaScript code you pass the value of the transaction. So if you sell products, you would pass through the actual amount of money you made on the product. If you sell services, you might pass through a static value like $1 every time someone signs up for your mailing list.

If you have enough data, you can more accurately assign a value to an event like a newsletter signup. For example, if you know that your average customer is worth $100 in profit, and you know that 5% of the people who sign up for your newsletter eventually become customers, then you can assign a newsletter signup a value of $5 ($100 X 5%). This means that every newsletter signup is worth $5 in revenue, because for every 20 you will make $100 in profit. You should be able to come up with a reasonable guess about how much profit you earn on the average customer. After you have generated a few hundred newsletter signups, you will have a good idea what your average conversion rate is for newsletter subscribers.

To start tracking your campaign financially, you need to enable “Conversion Only” analytics.

To enable Conversion Only analytics, tags that record conversion events and revenue:

1. Click the radio button next to “Conversion Only Analytics”.

2. Click the blue “Activate” button.

You will see a section of the page that contains a snippet of code something like:

window.ysm_customData = new Object();
window.ysm_customData.conversion = “transId=,currency=,amount=”;
etc…

As the instructions say, you need to place the code snippet in the header section of the page on your site that represents your converting event.

If you sell items that can be different prices, such as items in an ecommerce shopping cart, you will need to have your web site administrator or programmer place some code that will dynamically insert the price. It should be appended to “,amount=” in the appropriate line of the JavaScript code snippet.

For example, if the sale is for an item that costs $24.95, line 4 of the code snippet above would end:

…conversion = “transid=,currency=,amount=24.95″;

If you only sale a single-priced item, or if you are a service business that is going to assume some dollar value for the converting event, you can always pass the same dollar amount through by setting the “Revenue Value:” dropdown on the Analytics Settings page to “Constant Average Value”, typing the amount in the textbox, and clicking the “Save” button. If you do this, you don’t have to worry about modifying the JavaScript code to pass the amount of the sale through.

When you activate analytics, some new columns of data are added to your campaign summary, campaign detail, and ad group detail charts: conversions, revenue, CPA (cost per acquisition), and ROAS (return on ad spend). This will show you at a glance how well your campaigns, ad groups, and even keywords are doing financially.

If you need some more detailed information about setting up analytics, such as configuring your ecommerce platform to pass revenue data to the tracking code, refer to the Yahoo! Search Marketing Analytics Setup Guide, which is a PDF file that can be downloaded from Yahoo! at help.marketingsolutions.yahoo.com.

Jerry Work
http://www.articlesbase.com/sem-articles/how-to-use-yahoo-search-marketing-analytics-to-improve-your-campaign-performance-366404.html