After years of surfing without any major virus infections, I got hit by a lean mean virus twice this month. First, I found the System Fix virus had settled onto my computer. It took me two days to clean everything up, two days in which I couldn't spend time on running my business.

Earlier this week, my PC got infected by the Federal Computer Crime Unit ransomware.

"Ransomware (also referred to in some cases as cryptoviruses, cryptotrojans or cryptoworms) comprises a class of malware which restricts access to the computer system that it infects, and demands a ransom paid to the creator of the malware in order for the restriction to be removed. "

It completely blocked my system and I had to call in a professional to get it removed and get my system operational again. Time loss: 3 days!

Now I've decided: no more! I can't afford to lose all this time, and I assume neither can you!

Below are a few easy, cost-effective steps you can take to make your computer more secure:

1. Always make backups of important information and store in a safe place separate from your computer.

2. Update and patch your operating system, web browser and software frequently.

3. Install a firewall. Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet. Consideration should be given to the benefits and differences between hardware and software based firewall programs.

4. Review your browser and email settings for optimum security. Why should you do this? Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computers. While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they do still track your movements on the Internet to build a profile of you. At a minimum set your security setting for the “Internet zone” to High, and your “trusted sites zone” to Medium Low.

5. Install anti-virus software and set for automatic updates so that you receive the most current versions.

6. Do not open unknown email attachments. It is simply not enough that you may recognize the address from which it originates because many viruses can spread from a familiar address.

7. Do not run programs from unknown origins. Also, do not send these types of programs to friends and coworkers because they contain funny or amusing stories or jokes. They may contain a Trojans horse waiting to infect a computer.

8. Disable hidden filename extensions. By default, the Windows operating system is set to “hide file extensions for known file types”. Disable this option so that file extensions display in Windows. Some file extensions will, by default, continue to remain hidden, but you are more likely to see any unusual file extensions that do not belong.

9. Turn off your computer and disconnect from the network when not using the computer. A hacker cannot attack your computer when you are disconnected from the network or the computer is off.

10. Consider making a boot disk on an external disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised by a malicious program. Obviously, you need to take this step before you experience a hostile breach of your system.

We all know that ‘the money is in the list’ but actually building your list can be a struggle, especially if you are new to internet marketing. So how would you like to start building your list TODAY? I’m being serious here. Follow the article below and you’ll be on your way to creating what is probably the single most valuable asset an internet marketer can have.

The method I’m about to detail involves creating a WSO (a Warrior Special Offer)…

What is a WSO?

The Warrior Special Offer Forum is a special section of the Warrior forum, an online community for internet marketers, where you can post what are effectively paid ads. The only thing to bear in mind is that your offer must be better or cheaper than that is available to the general public.
Using WSOs to build your list.

Step 1: Create a product of value. You’re going to give this away to people who join your list. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but make sure it is something other internet marketers will want and that it has a catchy title.

Step 2: Create your squeeze page. This is where people will subscribe to your list, and ideally it should have graphics. Sell your product to people as though they are going to be paying for it.

Step 3: Create an upsell. It costs money to post a WSO ($20) but it’s well worth it, and if you stick an upsell behind your offer you’ll make money AND build your list.

Step 4: Post your WSO. Link to your squeeze page and make sure people know it is a freebie. Again sell your offer as though it is paid…

That’s it! Using WSOs to build your list is one of the most effective things you can do online. Get it right and you should see opt-ins coming in within minutes of posting your offer.

Why is it so effective?
Quite simply the Warrior forum gets THOUSANDS of visitors every day and they are all highly targeted ones too. Using WSOs to build your list can kick start your efforts in an instant. Try it and you’ll be hooked.

Find more tips in the report List Building Basics For Newbie Internet Marketers

We all know you need to build a list. ‘The money’s in the list’, ‘the gold’s in the list’… and I completely agree. To build it, however, what you need is a great squeeze page. You need a free offer that converts like crazy – something which turns your visitors into subscribers and captures their attention to the point where it’s something they simply can’t refuse.

Here are 4 tips for creating a great squeeze page….

1. Use professional graphics

It’s important that the offer on your squeeze page looks professional and valuable. A great way to do this is to have some eye catching graphics made. If you can’t do it yourself then pay a designer to do it for you. Even though you’ll be shelling out money to create something you’ll be giving away for free, trust me when I say it will be well worth it because it will massively increase the perceived value of your freebie.

2. Offer something of value

Even with a free offer you can’t get away with giving away crap. People are becoming increasingly choosy about what they will opt-in to receive, so make sure your squeeze page offers something which is actually worth having. Make sure it is high quality and if it’s unique to you then even better.

3. Use an exciting title

As well as using the graphics to ‘sell’ your product, you can also increase conversions by giving your product an exciting title. Make it a complete formula or a system.  Use ‘buzz’ words which the top products in your niche use.

4. Use something else other than ‘submit’

Don’t leave ‘submit’ as the text on your opt-in button. Changing it to something else such as ‘free access’ can greatly increase the number of people who join your list. I can’t prove why, but my own theory is that ‘submit’ is quite negative in that it makes people think they are joining a database (which of course they ARE) but what you need to do is refocus their attention on the fact that as soon as they’ve clicked the button they will be able to access their freebie.

Find more tips in the report List Building Basics For Newbie Internet Marketers

Having a large mailing list is all well and good, but if your subscribers never actually see what you are sending them then it means nothing. You need your list to be responsive. You need them to open your emails and hang on to your every word.

When I think about all the emails that land in my inbox every day, there are certain people I especially look out for. If it’s from a particular marketer then I will ALWAYS read what they have sent to me, purely because of who it’s from…

Here’s how to build that relationship with your list and get more subscribers to open your emails.

1. Give people a reason to open your emails

If all you do is sell then people latch onto this pretty damn quickly! Even if they don’t unsubscribe in the first place they are highly unlikely to open your emails because they know that each time you’re trying to sell them something. Give people a reason to open what you send. Of course you need to sell from time to time, but also provide good content that people can actually use. Make people look forward to receiving your emails. You want people to see your name and think ‘hey I must open that because it’s from such and such a body and I know I’ll benefit from reading it…’

2. Think about your subject line

Your email subject line is crucial in your quest to get more subscribers to open your emails. It really helps if you can either make people curious about the content or if you can convey the point of your email within the subject line. Both tactics can be effective – it depends on your target market, the style, and the type of email you are sending. I like to make sure that the subject line is relevant and related to the actual content.

3. Consider the time

Sending emails on certain days and times will yield much better results than others. Again, it all depends on your target audience and where they live. When will your subscribers be at their computers? Try different times and test to see which times work best for you. A lot of people take the opinion that Tuesday is a good day, however I have always found it pretty poor and the competition is massive! Find out what works for you and don’t forget time differences. If you live in the UK but most of your subscribers are in Australia, for example, then don’t hit them when they will all be in bed!
 

Find more tips in the report List Building Basics For Newbie Internet Marketers

Twitter is a popular social marketing network and it can help you connect with people and stay updated with them. All of the Twitter users can share information quickly. Marketing on Twitter should be simple and it has a purpose of maximizing your exposure. There are many effective marketing strategies that can help you turn Twitter members into your customers.

Creation of a Twitter Profile

You should describe your business in a simple way that is beneficial to your customers. Let them know what you have to offer and why they should be interested in your products and services.

You need to include a link to a landing page on your website. On that page, you need to provide special offers and informative articles or a free e-book. When your fellow Tweeters sign up and confirm their request to receive detail information, you need to give them a comprehensive explanation of your niche market and how can it meet their needs.

Squeeze Page

Use a squeeze page to build a relationship with your customers. This squeeze page should provide additional resources and free content. If you want to build good relationship with your customers, you need to provide them with consistent and informative communication.

You need market specific and high quality information to educate those Tweeters who decide to subscribe and receive your information. You can write a series of articles or create a periodical newsletter with important information about your specific market.

You need to add links to those information on the squeeze page and on your Twitter profile. This will help you to generate traffic to your website. The purpose of squeeze page is to direct traffic to your web page and increase your sales.

You can use some free blog sites to create a blog and a squeeze page blog. You need to sign up and create the blog. After that, you can begin to add your free content. There is also an option of the blog autoresponder. You can use it to schedule your free content to auto post.

You should also include an opt-in box on each page or post of your blog. This will increase the list of your subscribers.

How to Attract Followers

You can click on the Find Friends tab on your Twitter home page and choose contacts from other networks, such as Gmail, Facebook, AOL, LinkedIn or Yahoo contacts.

You should try to join a Twitter community directory that is called WeFollow.com. You can add your profile information and this will help the other members to find you quickly and follow you.

How to Turn Followers into Customers

You need to tweet often and try to become comfortable with the system. Your page should be active in the Twitter community.

Write a few posts and begin to start following people on Twitter. When you do, see who begins to follow you.

When you write a few posts, it is time to start following other people on Twitter.

You should focus on giving useful information and answering questions. You will establish yourself as an expert in your field and this will make it much easier for you to build business relationships with other Tweeters.

You should use passive aggressive marketing. This doesn't involve any direct selling on Twitter. When you follower visits your blog or website, he will be able to see all the benefits of your products and services.

Get more Twitter traffic strategies here:  Twitter Traffic Flow System

There are many ways that you can incorporate different traffic tactics along with your Twitter account.  Some of the most effective ways are through link building techniques and your blog.  Let's take a closer look at how each of these methods can prove beneficial to your Twitter account as well as your website, business, and services.

Link Building – This is a very powerful technique that you definitely want to incorporate in your Twitter account.  Back links are links from another website or internet location that leads people to a particular page, in this case your business website.  You can use back links and Twitter hand in hand together to maximize exposure for your website as well as potential customers buying your offers or services.  When you tweet a certain message regarding your business, offer, or services, you always want to provide them a link to your website at the end of your tweet. 

For many people they find it hard to create a message and include a link with just 140 characters.  However, there is a way that you compromise and give yourself more space to write what you want to say and still include your link.  There are programs available that will automatically shorten the length of your back link which will give you more writing space and still provide your followers with the links that you are wanting them to check out. 

You can give them back links to many different things such as a recent blog post you have placed on your blog, an article that is related to your niche, or even a link to an informational website that they can find use in.  There are many different ways that you can incorporate back links with your Twitter account and you want to make sure that you use as many back links as possible to generate the most traffic to your website and services.

Your Blog - Every business, in my opinion, should have a blog set up for their customers to be able to find out resources and valuable information that will help them in your particular niche.  On your blog you can place things such as articles related to your niche, polls, surveys, informative videos, and back links to your website as well as other people's websites.  Every time that you update your blog with new content you want to make sure that you tweet it to your followers.  You can also apply a plug in within your blog that directly links your Twitter account with your blog and every time your blog is updated it sends out an instant tweet to all of your followers.  This is a great way to build a relationship with your potential customers and send them from your blog to your website or services.

So make sure that you use all of the many traffic tactics that you are using right now with your Twitter account.  You can literally see a mega increase in the amount of followers that you gain as well as potential customers just by using these simple and effective tactics with the ever popular social networking site, Twitter. 

Find more Twitter traffic tactics: Twitter Traffic Flow System

As most business owners know, online marketing is the best way to reach out to people, but it seems like some have no idea how to use the websites properly. Though it can seem like a simple task to use a website like Twitter, some have trouble with gaining more traffic. Business owners know that traffic is the most important piece of the puzzle and so you will need to know these helpful Twitter traffic strategies to ensure that your online presence will continue to grow.

Use Your Other Social Networks

This is something that some people do not do. They don't understand that the other social networks out there will actually work together. You must promote your Twitter on places like Facebook, and YouTube  so that you will be able to gain more traffic on Twitter. If you simply just focus one area, you will never be able to see the full potential of your online advertising. If you use all the social networks that you can think of, you will surely see just powerful they can be for your business' future success.

Make A Contest

A great way to get more exposure on Twitter is to run a contest that will have people winning a prize. However, the trick is to make sure that the only way for them to join is to "ReTweet" the post. When you are making contests on Twitter, try your best to incorporate as much information as you possibly can so that everyone will know what to do. You can even add a link to the contest so that it will be easier for people to know how to join. It will also be a requirement that they follow you so that you can get more people involved with the contest and at the same time still drive more traffic to your Twitter account.

Follow, Reply & Network

The most important thing to do on websites like Twitter is to be active. When you follow other accounts, reply to everyone and network, you will be able to see just how much you can reach out to people. This is essentially all that you need to do to increase traffic almost instantly. There will be people online all throughout the day and so you can't be afraid to reach out to them. Try your best to make as many friends as you possibly can and to simply network with the people. When you follow, reply and network with a lot of people, you will surely start to gain more traffic.

Overall, Twitter is one of the best ways to make your online presence heard. If you are a business owner, then it is important that you use this platform as a way to reach out to people and to add more exposure for your company. Though this may take time, remember that it is highly recommended that you make your online presence known early so that you will be able to truly see your business grow.

Get more Twitter traffic strategies here:  Twitter Traffic Flow System

When first starting out on an online marketing strategy for your company, it can be a highly daunting prospect – where do you start? Unfortunately, it is very easy to get your online marketing campaign wrong, but by following these dos and don'ts you can rest assured that you are off to the best start:

Do:

•  Keep your domain name short and memorable. If people cannot remember your domain name because it's too long or too unrelated to your field, you're going to find it very difficult to get return visitors. A short domain name also makes it easier to include on all of your promotional material.
•  Keep your website simple and straight forward, as this encourages visitors to come back. Forcing visitors to wait too long for pages to load is also more likely to discourage them to return.
• Utilise SEO in all aspects of your website, as this will help to generate hits and will increase your profit margin, as you will not have to pay for traffic.
• Create a short email signature to use in all areas of your online marketing campaign. Make it punchy and attractive, and include links to your website and social media profiles.
• Keep an eye on your competition – this is one of the first rules of online marketing. What kind of campaign are they running? What sorts of promotions and special offers?

Don't:

• Make visitors register before they can receive information or view your website, as this actually repels more people than it attracts. If, for some reason, your online marketing campaign requires registration only ask for the essential details (such as a first name and email address).
• Spam your existing or potential customers through emails, discussion boards, and so on. Whilst some online marketers claim to receive good results this way, it is more likely to get you penalized or banned.
• Utilise ‘black hat' SEO techniques, as this is considered just as bad (if not worse) than spamming.
• Hold special offers too often, as companies that do this train their customers to wait for sales. Having less promotions and offers will make people more likely to buy during that time.
• Copy your competition. Just because one of your competitors appears to be doing something different doesn't mean that you have to do it too. You never know, their online marketing campaign may not be working for them at all, so don't fall into the same trap.

By following the online marketing dos listed above, you can be sure that your campaign will be much more successful then if you followed the don'ts. By attracting visitors to your website, you are increasing the visibility (and, hopefully, sales) of your brand.

About the Author:

Article source:

http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/online-marketing-dos-and-donts-5664687.html

The internet has made it possible for anyone, no matter what your educational background, to make a nice living from the comfort of your home. Mark Ostrofsky said, "the internet is today's gold rush, creating more millionaires and doing so faster than any other medium in history." The internet has created more opportunities for the little guys than ever before. And now is the perfect time to jump on board and start making money from home.

Here are the 3 best ways to make money online in 2012.

#1 " Affiliate Marketing

Clickbank, the largest digital marketplace, has paid out over $2 billion dollars in commissions as of December 2011. And according to Forrester research, the affiliate marketing industry will hit $4 billion annually by 2014. That's why now is the perfect time to get involved with affiliate marketing.

As a affiliate marketer your job is to promote someone else's. When a sale is made or a lead is generated, you get paid. Depending on which networks you are working with, you can either get paid weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Some networks will even pay you via paypal. The key to being successful with affiliate marketing is to constantly put out good content. Content is what will drive visitors to your site. And the more visitors you have, the more money you will eventually make.
Ads by Google

#2 " Content Sites

When people get online they are looking for one thing and that is information. If you set up a simple site that provides a lot of valuable information you can make money. Actually you can make a lot of money. By putting adsense ads on your site you will make money anytime someone clicks on the ads. And depending on how the advertiser has it set up, you can also get paid based on number of impressions.

There are people who make millions a year with simple content sites. The key is to put as much valuable content on your site as you can. You should also update it on a regular basis so visitors will come back often. If don't right you could easily replace your 9 to 5 with a content site.

#3 " Ebay

Many people have forgotten about eBay when it comes to making money online. But truth be told, eBay is still a money making powerhouse. People are always looking for great deals and one of the first places they look is eBay. If you can position your products the right way on eBay you could make some nice money. Of course there is a lot you need to know about eBay if you truly want to be successful. I would suggest investing in a book that can teach you all of the ins and outs.

About the Author:

Article source:
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/the-3-best-ways-to-make-money-online-in-2012-5542631.html

To become a successful JV Giveaway marketer, you don't have to be a rocket scientist, but it does take some knowledge to do it right.

On Tuesday, July 5, 2011 (which is tomorrow), Giveaway hosts Paul Teague and David Walker are holding a webinar to discuss how to MASSIVELY improve your peformance in Giveaway events.

In this webinar you will learn how to MASSIVELY improve your peformance in Giveaway events from Giveaway hosts Paul Teague and David Walker.

4) The complete set of Giveaway Pro tips to make sure you get the best from these events.

Since registration is free, I suggest you sign up immediately…

You can also grab a free copy of the Giveaway Expert package, which contains both info-products and tools to make your giveaway experience a success.
Get it here