Power Ideaz

By Pinaki Ghosh
In the early January,1996 two 24 year PhD, Stanford University students, Larry page and Sergey Brin, spent long hours on a research that they believed would change the way people searched information on the internet. In order to develop and showcase the existing techniques of unscientific way of ranking websites in search engine listings these two spent most of their time researching. Their subject of the thesis was based on the search-engine listings in order of the importance of a website. Page and Brin started their very own search engine as a part of the Website of Stanford University, with the domain name: www.google.standord.edu. The name www.google.com was registered on Sep 15, 1997.
After almost a year, on Sep 7, 1998, the duo got own company working which was known as Google Inc. The company kick started from a friend’s garage which had very little space in Menlo Park, California. The general audience that the Google had maintained required just the page to be simple and which would not distract which was majorly due to the unwanted text and the graphics. After much development and the improvement, Google shifted their office to 165 University Avenue, in Palo Alto in 1999, the area which was already inhabited by the Silicon Valley giants. Again in no time, Google shifted to their present address, Googleplex, Mountain View, California.
Mainly focused towards increasing the revenue from advertisements, Goggle took over the 54% of the search engine market, ranking world number one. To this date, Google faces more than 1 billion search requests daily and is predicted to have over 450,000 servers. Google has also announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which involves the Google building a 1-million square foot R&D center at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Together NASA and Google are deciding on working in various areas. The motto of Google has always been (from the beginning)—‘Don’t Be Evil’. The entire Google team has its growing number of offices worldwide which proves their success. Hence, the Google story has indeed a motivating past and a brighter future.

Pinaki Ghosh

When one adds the website to any of the search engine, it automatically uses a scanning software called ‘spider’ to go through the content of web pages. The so called spider then adds the links to the other pages to read all information on the different pages and join them in a larger database of the search engine. If then there is any need of the information on certain keywords from the search engine, it would help in searching its database and look out for sites offering information on the keywords that are needed. Most search engine have there own crawlers which vary in code from each other, but at the same time, have a similar set of rules which one can then apply to look on the web.
The simplest forms that are used by these crawlers are the HTML codes that are used by the sites and come free from errors. Why make a face if one does not find his site cached by the search engines; the mistake lies in the poor coding of that particular site. It also can mean that the menu system design restricts the technological spiders to follow it. In such a case your site will not be indexed by the search engines.

You can correct by following the ways given below:

(a) Change the menu system to CSS type, text based menu system.
(b) Add a text menu below the web page (as a second menu system).
(c) Update the latest code to a search engine friendly version.
You can also optimize your web page by keeping the following advices in mind:
(i) When it comes to understanding pictures the search engines are useless. They really understand nothing much but only the text names of the pictures. Thus, using the ‘alt tags’ which are text equivalent of the pictures on the site helps.
(ii) Try and make up a site map away connecting from the main page, to let the search engines find out the other pages of your site.
(iii) Never use the same kind of color of the text and background. Also, making the text appear transparent can get you penalized by any of the search engines for using irrelevant ways.
(iv) Try not to use the ‘hidden text’ in your CSS files.
Make use of the traditional techniques like the title, description, metatags, and at the same time some good content in your site; and then be convinced that your page will be cached.

Pinaki Ghosh

Google allots a value to almost all the web-pages in the Google index which is based on a complex formula. The search that Google performs has the results based on algorithm, which includes the Page Rank value. The higher is the Google Page Rank of your site, the more are your chances of getting a top listing, when someone performs a search Larry Page) and Sergey Brin   using keywords from your site.
Larry Page bought in and developed the Page Ranks System (The name Page rank comes from his surname) and Sergey Brin at Stanford University, while researching on a new search engine project. Together, Page and Brin gave birth to Google Inc.
You can easily download and install the Google toolbar (which is pretty simple). Then by choosing the ‘advanced’ option and you can view the Page Rank of any site on the toolbar.
The way Page rank works is best understood by the mathematicians as it’s complicated and involves a lot of calculations. For you to understand, let me put it in a simpler form:
PRA = 1-d + dPRt1/Ct1 + … + PRtn/Ctn
To understand the above Google PageRank formula, here’s the English meaning: The more links that point to your site, the higher is your rank. The higher is the Google PageRank of the sites, pointing (linking) to your site, the higher will be your Google PageRank.
Supposing, a site with PageRank 10, and 5 other sites link to your site it will give you more value, than any site with PageRank 20, and 100 other sites linking to your site. Besides, your PageRank goes on increasing if other sites with content similar to your site point to your site. Thus you see the formula has a lot of variables, and complications.

Your Google PageRank can be increased by:
(a) Getting the higher number of incoming links i.e. links to your site. The PageRank for your site falls by the increasing number of outgoing links.

(b) By getting the incoming links to your site from good sites with high PageRank, will increase your Google PageRank!

(c) To increase your PageRank you can increase the number of pages of your site.

(d) Your PageRank also increases if other sites with similar web content point to your site.
Every month your Google PageRank changes once, as Google updates the rankings once a month.

By Pinaki Ghosh

If you have still not heard of Alexa; don’t feel shy, beauause many internet users still are not aware of Alexa. So, what’s Alexa?

It helps in giving rankings to the sites, and is therefore an extremely powerful tool which can compare the traffic of a site to the rest of the web. Alexa a brand owned by the very famous www.Amazon.com, gives ranking to any site with the help of the users participation. It also includes the webmaster services and data services.
To see the ranking of your site you can either log on to http://www.alexa.com, and then type in the name of any site, whose rank you would want to see, or else install the Alexa toolbar on your browser which is much more convenient. After you have installed the Alexa toolbar, you can view the various numbers on the toolbar, as you visit the sites. These numbers are basically the rankings of the sites. The lowest the number, the more visited site it is. Like Yahoo ranks no1, Google no5 and Amazon.com no 14; it means Yahoo is the most visited site on the internet.
Want to know how it works? As you install the Alexa toolbar on the browser, it starts scrutinizing all the sites that you visit; at the same time using the data to rank the sites. Then Alexa casts a vote to that site for the day. However you do not get more votes if you visit the same site several times during the same day. Soon after, It monitors the number of pages of the site you visit, and then adds up the number of pages you visit during the day (again, it does not count the same page twice, if you have visited it twice). The reach is the counting of each view, and the counting of page visits is called page views. Alexa combines these figures and uses the same data for three months to calculate the traffic visiting a site.

By Pinaki Ghosh 

The Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns work the best in comparison of the other ad campaigns. By using the keyword search, the Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines have worked in benefit of the people. But they also give the special benefits to the sites which pay them. If you shell out some money with the Google AdWords, your site’s name will flash on a good ranking on the search results. If you pay the ‘Yahoo Search Marketing’ then even Yahoo will list you in the 3 major positions on their search engine. This means they control the natural listings and pull up the names of sites that pay them.
Discover the 7 secrets to improve the performance of your PPC ads. To know more, read the following:

1. Optimize
‘Optimize’ has two meanings:
(a) Make the advertisement copy or banner perfect, professional-looking, and target oriented. As you pay heavily to run the ad campaigns, you must understand which phrase or copy will attract the maximum number of visitors. Use a professional and get the banners and the copy done, rather than trying them yourself. (b) Make your site optimized with a high keyword density for the keywords which you will be paying to run the PPC ad-campaign. Most of the people make the mistake of paying for the PPC keywords, but not optimizing them in their own sites, which means their sites have a low keyword density, resulting in poor campaign-result and wasted funds.

2. Consider increasing your budget if you want your PPC ads to appear more frequently
If some organizations which lie in the same category bid for the same keyword; the highest bidder, will appear on position no. 1 in the search engine listings, followed by the second highest bidder and then the third. When the ads appear in any other websites, the advertisements of the highest bidder (and the payer) will appear most frequently followed by the others. If you want your ads to appear on position number 1, or more frequently, you have to consider paying more.

3. Go with the giants
There are a lot many organizations which provide the PPC ad service, but it is always the best to go with the biggies like the Google (AdWords), Yahoo (Yahoo Search Marketing) or MSN (MSN AdCentre). The others like LookSmart, Kanoodle, Findwhat, BlowSearch are good but cannot be compared and their tools for preventing click fraud are not so well developed.

4. Avoid Flash and flashy pages
The Flash landing pages and pages with music take a long time to load, resulting in visitors pressing the ‘back’ button and moving away from your website. This will be a heavy loss for you. Not only will you lose your customers and still have to pay for their visit. Colorful pages do not look good or professional. The light pages in combination with the formal colors look best to the visitors.

5. Make the correct judgment about landing pages
Most of the sites make their guests land on their home page from the PPC ads. The home page is not always the best page for the business purposes. Try and understand which of the pages are the most convenient to give the maximum business, and link the ads to that particular page. The page should have the ‘buy now’ tabs which can be located conveniently.

6. Run campaigns seasonally
Since these campaigns are not a minor cost, it is advisable to run them seasonally, mostly during your high seasons.

7. Narrow down on keywords
Try and avoid adding many keywords or keywords that are not specific, as that would result in increasing your budget unnecessarily. Mostly try to target the specific interest groups rather than the entire world. Like, ‘vintage car tyres’ will cost much less than just ‘tyres’, as there will be people bidding for the keyword ‘tyres’.
If you’re bidding for $40 PPC, you will have to pay $40 in advance, and the entire sum will be deducted from your account when 100 people click their mouse on your name in the list. Thus, when your PPC balance reaches zero, you will have to pay in advance again.

By Pinaki Ghosh

First used in 1992, the web banners have evolved rapidly in the most innovative ways as a form of advertising since then. They come in several sizes and forms, like static banner, and flash banner which is animated. Banners serve much the same purpose as print ads with the added advantage of being linked to the advertiser’s site.
Banners are the main form of advertising for click ads, and affiliate programs.

Text links are not renowned but related to the banner ads, with no graphics, and serving pretty much the same purpose such as the banners.
A typical banner ad

Common sizes for banner ads are:

i. Full Banner: 468 by 60
ii. Half Banner: 234 by 60
iii. Micro Button: 80 by 15
iv. Micro Bar: 88 by 31
v. Button 1: 120 by 90
vi. Button 2: 120 by 60
vii. Vertical Banner: 120 by 240
viii. Square Button: 125 square
ix. Leader board: 728 by 90
x. Wide Skyscraper: 160 by 600
xi. Skyscraper: 120 by 600
xii. Half Page Ad: 300 by 600

By Pinaki Ghosh

Google AdSense has come like a boon for the small businessman wanting to make their mark in the internet world and make some money. It has opened the magical doors for the small website owners who want some extra income. Then why should you stay out?

1. Make you own site or a blog. This is just the first step. First decide about the main category that your site will deal with. Start with a website for a club or an educational institution so you will get some visitors from that particular institution. If you are thinking on a larger perspective, do something that offers real good tips on the success. Maybe purchasing a good dot com name would help but at the same time choose a dependable web-hosting company.

2. Log on to http://google.com/adsense and click the apply button and sign up for the Google AdSense. The same way, you can log on to Yahoo Publishing Network. Yahoo does pay you more, but at the same time they are choosier and take a longer time to accept you into their network. Just recently, Microsoft has introduced their version of a similar program.

3. Herein you will have to submit the name of your own website while filling this form. Keep in mind that your website should be complete and uploaded when you apply. Google takes a few days to assess your website. If they feel your website is not fit or has adult content, your application will not be accepted. You will receive a mail from them in 2 – 3 working days which will inform you of their decision.

4. If you do not get selected on the grounds of incomplete website, do not think that it ends there. Keep updating your website and if it is incomplete, do not take time in completing it. There will be no chance of you getting de selected!

5. An account will be opened in your name that can be checked out by clicking on the following link: http://google.com/adsense. Then, you will get a java code, which will enable the advertisements that will appear on your site. The colors of the advertisements can be modified to match the color of your website which will work positive in case of presentation. You then have to paste the java code or ask a professional who understands the internet better. Then with the HTML codes of your site, and Google advertisements will start appearing at places where you have placed the java codes.

6. Make your site popular, but be sure that people do not identify you as a spammer. You must have a steady traffic flow for your site.

7. You earn every time someone clicks on the advertisements. If you want an Idea of how much you can earn, I’ll give you a fair idea: suppose you want to earn $1 each day per page, which is not a bad idea, for doing nothing! What you need for every page is:

• 400 visitors a day at 5% click-through rate (CTR) and average 5cent payout rate.
• Or, 200 visitors a day at 10% CTR and an average 5cent payout rate.
• Or, 100 visitors a day at 10% CTR, and an average 10cent payout rate.

8. Never click on your own advertisements. This is called click-fraud, and is illegal. Google has a check on the same, and can also cancel your agreement with them.

9. In case you want to check your account reports log in to your AdSense account, and know how much you are earning.

10. Google does not pay by Pay Pal. They send the cheque to your address, roughly 45 days after an accounting month.

If you have consistency, and do not quit midway, no one can stop you from being a successful internet-businessman that is for sure.

Given below is a typical agreement which you can sign with your ghostwriter.

CO-WRITER/GHOSTWRITER-AUTHOR AGREEMENT OVER A BOOK

By this memorandum of understanding, signed this _____________ 2008; both the parties described herein under as PARTY A, represented by ______________, address, _____________________________________ also described as the ‘author’; and PARTY B, represented by ___________, address ____________________________________________________________________________________, also described as ‘ghostwriter’, do hereby agree to all the terms described and given below:

1. Party A is commissioning Party B to begin the project of writing a book on the subject: _______________________________________________________.
2. The tentative working title of the book shall be _______________________________________________________’. This title is subject to change subject to mutual consent of both the parties.
3. The deadline for completion of this book is _______ days after the signing of this agreement.
4. Party A agrees to pay Party B a consolidated sum of $_________ for the project that will include the following:
   1. Writing the content of the book on the guidelines of Party A.
   2. Getting it edited by a pro-editor before submission.
5. The fees of the co-writer/ghostwriter will be paid as follows:
   1. 50% advance to get the project started.
   2. 50% within 10 days of complete work submission (irrespective of whether Party A found time to go through it in 10 days or not).
6. Party B (ghostwriter) is subject to NO royalty or commission on the sales of the book. He is only entitled to the one time fees of $_________.
7. Party B (ghostwriter) will maintain full confidentiality about this project.
8. The book will be __________ pages long.
9. Party B agrees that he will not take the help of any plagiarism, meaning he will avoid using borrowed material in this book exactly as they are found elsewhere.
10. Party A will own all copyrights for this book, including sale and distribution rights.
11. Party A will have full freedom to set the retail price of this book, deal with any publisher, and may even distribute it free of cost if she wishes. Party B will have no say on setting the price of this book.
12. Party A can request party B to make a reasonable number of changes and edits during the period of production of this book and within 7 days of completion of the book.

Both the parties do hereby agree to the terms laid and set above.

Signature

Party A (author)

————————————————————————————-

Signature

Party B (ghostwriter)

Date:

By Pinaki Ghosh 

Who is a ghostwriter and why are they hired?

People who pen down the articles on behalf of any other person are known as Ghostwriters. He generally does not get his name published in those writings. Most of the time, the celebrities get their autobiographies done from these Ghostwriters. The rich people too, hire these ghostwriters for the same. To name a few, Hillary Clinton, JF Kennedy and also the pop diva Madonna have hired their writers for the books. As these celebrities cannot find time to write themselves, but have the money to hire a ghost writer, they go in for one. The politicians too have their own Ghostwriters who are the people who write the speeches and the other correspondences.  As the Ghostwriters do not get any name or recognition for the service, they take heavy one time fees.

Recognition
Not always do the ghostwriters go unnoticed. Most of the times, the names of these writers are given on the acknowledgements page or sometimes as the co- writers. Thus, here they aren’t called the Ghostwriters, but collaborators.

Varieties of Ghostwriters
Not always do the people who hire these Ghostwriters lack the talent of writing. Sometimes established professional writers hire ghostwriters due to their lack of time, and also for refinement of their work. Just like, the Star Wars Novel, which was mainly a ghostwriter’s work, anmd also the Hardy Boys series that had the main author as Franklin W Dixon.

Why do you need a Ghostwriter?
It is definitely a good idea to get professional writers, especially a Ghostwriter for your articles. The best reasons are:

• They can give you the best content for your site
• They can write a blog everyday according to your requirement
• They can prepare you tailor-made, refined and good e-books

You can get some good writers and ghostwriters from the following sites:
• www.writerpinaki.com.com (bestseller ghostwriter hire)

• www.writer4me.com (affordable ghostwriter hire)

• www.123writer.com

These sites charge you somewhere in between $ 9.99 to $20 for every web-content piece/page that you order. For e-books the rate is about $400 to $1000 for every 100 pages.

Okay, now for some laugh… here are some common office phrases compiled by us, with what these phrases mean. Whether you agree is up to you. Cheers!

1.”We will do it” means “You will do it.”

2.”You have done a great job” means “More work to be given to you.”

3.”We are working on it” means “We have not yet started working on the same.”

4.”Tomorrow first thing in the morning” means “Its not getting done “At least not tomorrow!”

5.”After discussion we will decide-I am very open to views” means “I have already decided, I will tell you what to do.”

6.”There was a slight miscommunication” means “We had actually lied.”

7.”Lets call a meeting and discuss” means “I have no time now, will talk later.”

8.”We can always do it” means “We actually cannot do the same on time.”

9.”We are on the right track but there needs to be a slight extension of the deadline” means “The project is screwed up, we cannot deliver on time.”

10.”We had slight differences of opinion “means “We had actually fought.”

11.”Make a list of the work that you do and let’s see how I can help you” means “Anyway you have to find a way out… no help from me.”

12.”You should have told me earlier” means “Well even if you told me earlier that would have made hardly any difference!”

13.”We need to find out the real reason” means “Well I will tell you where your fault is.”

14.”Well Family is important; your leave is always granted. Just ensure that the work is not affected,” means, “Well you know…”

15.”We are a team,” means, “I am not the only one to be blamed.”

16.”That’s actually a good question” means “I do not know anything about it.”

17.”All the Best” means “You are in trouble”

By Pinaki Ghosh

Why search engines love unique content?
In the world of internet, there goes a famous saying ‘Content is king’. But for an internet user or anyone who plans to set up their own one soon, you sure must be updated with the fact that the search engines usually catch the unique content.  The content on the sites must be edited and updated all the time so that the search engine ranking is maintained high. What actually decides the ranks of search-engine listings? Good and original content is one main deciding factor. The content should be entirely different and unique compared to the other sites.
“The content on the sites must be edited
and updated all the time so that the search engine
ranking is maintained high.”
Just like the human visitors, the wants and the similarities of the search engines are the same. Search Engines usually have search engine spiders which are actually the robots that walk through the net. The robots cannot enter poorly coded pages which have poor html, or JavaScript and Flash. During this, the robots aren’t patient enough. If the page content is not detected, it is directly rejected by the robot. Robots act the same way with poorly colored pages, whose background and letter colors are close to each other. Even if the robot tries to find his way in, the poor resolution of the pages might restrict them. That also means it’s a poor site map.
Not only search-engine robots, but also human visitors get confused and reject a website if the site map is complicated. The search engine robot will not be able to discover many deeply underlying pages with poor site planning.
The content along with the site must be quick in loading. If there is an excessive usage of graphics and Flash, the site takes a lot of time to load which in turn can make the search engine robot leave it. The website must take less than 5 seconds to load so as to let the robot find it. Even the new visitors would not want to wait too long and then go on to leave the site in case it’s too slow.
You may think that it would be alright if the search engine robot would leave you site. But this means that your site will not make it in the search engine listings and hence, the people who do not know the name of your site will not be able to visit your site ever.

By Pinaki Ghosh

You can see a lot of products flooding the internet sites and also the ecommerce sites. But as one may see, not all products get to do the equal business. Some rules go in without consideration and need to be known by the people. The following are a few rules that you may have to follow develop if in case you want to sell your product and in turn earn profits.
1. Go for high profit margin products
The maximum number of people that went on to become millionaires was due to the internet business. Online business is the only business wherein one can expect around 100% profit. The margin of the profit that one can get during the other business is merely 20% to 33%. The original cost price of the product is around 67% - 80% is covered by the cost price. But if the product is a virtual one, there isn’t much of a cost-price or production cost (except the early investments), and as such you can expect to make a 100% profit from every sale. You can take the example of the software giants who gain 100% profit from every sale that they make. It is just the same for e-books.
2. Target niche market rather than the general market
Whenever we experience a heart pain, we take the initiative to visit the cardiologist rather than the normal physician. The same way, it’s a not a bad idea to select a position a niche market than targeting the general market, which is often over-saturated. As you go into the niche market, which deals with just a specific range of products, the chances of you getting noticed are much higher. You must try and develop the product which is aimed at specific interest groups.
3.  High quality
While selling your product, one thing that is utmost necessary is that you never compromise on the quality of the product. Remember, the old or the existing customers and clients are your best clients. Keeping them happy with the quality would compel them to remain satisfied with the product that they receive from you. If you have around 300 customers who are satisfied with the service and the quality, you will get a steady sale from them all the year round. Therefore keep them updated with the newsletters especially while announcing your new products.
“
Remember, the old or the existing customers and clients are your best clients… If you have around 300 customers who
are satisfied with the service and the quality, you will get a steady sale from them all the year round.
”
4. Quick delivery
One might observe that the humans are highly impatient. They would want quick service. Thus, your products must be easily accessible and auto downloadable, preferably quickly downloadable…something that the customers would be able to get their hands on immediately after payment.
5. Trial version
When you deliver a trail version of the product which is absolutely of no cost to access, sometimes, there are 40 % chances that the people who get to access this, would want to purchase the original full version. Therefore, in such cases, the trial version that is, when the product has a time limit, the item needs to be downloadable then may it be a software, e-book or a mere courseware.
6. Research
Look out and find more about the products that you need to sell online. Better if you can get the copies of the product and study them. If they sell well, then you can be assured of the plan and the product. You must try and do something related to the subject or may be the same in a different fashion. To start with, your product must be better than that product and at the same time, at a lower price than that product.

7. Keep upgrading
If the item that you are promoting and dealing with is the one related to the software field like the e-books, constant up gradations and improvements are necessary. At any level when you stop you tend to stall your business which is the untimely death. Thus, you must upgrade the same at least every 6 months. Even a minor up gradation would work.
As you may notice, the 7 tips are neither costly nor very difficult to keep in mind. The lower versions of the software’s and the games or even the e-books can be rated around $30 for every time that one downloads.  If you have around 200 visitors every day, one can expect 3% - 5% conversions which may increase later on after the trail versions have been tried and used, which also means approximately $250 of the daily sales which sums upto about $7500 every month. If you go on at this rate, this figure would be achieved along the 4th month. Therefore, why wait, put along your best foot forward!

By Pinaki Ghosh

If you are planning to start up with your own ecommerce site or already own one, you must get your updates and facts revised. Here are 7 main strategies which would help you instantly to gain profits. These policies are tested and confirmed.
1. Solid product description
While advertising your product online you must be able to make some good descriptions about the product which can create an interest among your customers. The products (in case of 50 plus articles) must be described in around 125 -150 words in length. For quality sake, getting the articles done from a professional person is imperative.  In case you are on the look out for professionals or freelancers, you may log on to sites like Writer4me (www.writer4me.com), 123writer (www.123writer.com), Guru (www.guru.com) and Elance (www.elance.com) to hire copywriters/content-writers who will work on your descriptions and give an amazing outcome or even help sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo.  In the case that you are selling an e-book or some course through your site, you can get the sales copy made, which may comprise of 3000-5000 words in length. Also, you can add in the feedbacks from your clients.
2. Accompanied by picture
Sometimes pictures provide the best explanations ever. Until and unless you put pictures on the products for the net, you really would not be able to create the interest on the customers. People like to see the products that they would want to buy, as said by Mark Luetke the marketing guru. But messy images are not really appealing. In case of really small products you can give them the satin background or maybe give it a cropped look and can even replace it with maybe a plain background. When the products such as car and bikes are promoted, you may get the shots outdoors. The cover pages of the e-books must be of high quality, cost of which is $30 upwards. You can visit the sites such as Writer4me (www.writer4me.com), if your budget is around $50, to get the best and the most professional e-book covers in the market.
3. Cross selling
Chain your other items just below the description of the products of each item so that people who want to purchase the product can also look out for other related products.  This way you can increase your sales upto 30%.
4. Free gifts to visitors to get their email address
Give out free gifts like ebooks from your squeeze page to any visitor who gives his/her email address. This way you can create your own database of your visitors whom you can keep updated with your newsletters.
5. Newsletters
Spam mails differ from newsletters. I would be surprised if anyone says he/she likes spam mails. They are advertisement-mails that go directly to the folder that has been assigned in your email account for ‘spam’. But newsletters give some really useful information to the customers and thus, most people mark the mails as ‘not spam’. This may be one of the powerful tools in keeping the update on the new products and schemes. Newsletters are far better than spam mails as promotional tools.
6. Discount
Giving various discounts throughout the year such as ‘winter bonanza: 25% off’ or maybe the ‘Spring Festival-up to 50% discount’ can boost up your sales. Keeping a track of your old customers and the ones that rely on you and then complementing them by giving some additional benefits can help.
7. Show professionalism with your affiliates
In case you are heading an affiliate program, you must act professionally. Clearing off the payment of your affiliates on time, and giving them codes for your banners can help in keeping good relations with them. Do not keep the affiliates hanging for a lot of time to get their commission.
Also, you can work on increasing your sources of getting some extra income by tying with the other service providers as an affiliate (and get commission) and also Google YPN (contextual pay per click). You can earn several hundred or even thousands of dollars every month from this.

By Pinaki Ghosh

So, are you all set to put your best foot ahead in the internet business field? Greetings to the internet marketing field of the world! The success stories such as those like Yahoo and Google are true, especially with the internet based business, it’s also true that a website which does not have any marketing plan is more or less like a store about which one would not know, and thus would not see a bad happening. Merely setting up your site is not important but how to gain the popularity is what is important. What would actually make your website popular and work is what one should be stressing on. Ultimately your site is your own money minting factory in just 6 months?
1. Writing articles
Content is often crowned as the king. Your site visitors are often attracted to the content more than anything. A good-looking site without good content is like food that looks yummy but does not have any taste, and hence finds no takers. Not many master the art of writing good articles.
“
A good-looking site without good content
is like food that looks yummy but does not have any taste, and hence finds no takers.
”
The articles should be keyword rich (repeated use of the keywords), so that they are found quickly during keyword search. Informative articles are extremely helpful and thus these articles must be posted in the various blogs and article banks, directories and ezines. And they should in turn be linked to your site. If you are very busy, hiring a copy writer is a good idea.
2. Pay per Click Marketing
One of the most expensive but the best ways of drawing the traffic is pay-par-click marketing. If you do not lie in the lower budgets but are keen on the profits, you should without hesitation try PPC. Mostly, success comes guaranteed.
Some of the popular Pay per Click schemes is:

•   Google Ad Words
•   Yahoo Search Marketing
•   Microsoft AdCenter

When you go for PPC advertisements, you must pay beforehand. Every time someone clicks on your ad, your pre-paid balance instantly gets debited. The advertisements also appear in the websites which have similar content such as your own site; as well as Google, Yahoo and MSN search engine listings. Sponsored results appear over natural search results. There have been however reports of click fraud, which may result in your loss of money.
3. Traffic purchase
Some of the sites offer visitor packages for fixed prices. The ultimate decision maker is you, who can make your decision and choose from the various packages that are available. Example: you can choose from a package of 1000 guaranteed visitors per month for a payment of $50 or 5000 visitors for $180 so on. You can choose the one that fits in your pocket and can get the traffic diverted to your site according to your requirement. But you must also keep away from the frauds.
4. Buying expired domains
Supposing someone hands over the keys of a new car which has been purchased by someone else, and then says, “Have fun! It’s for you!”  Would you instantly take it? Most possibly you would take it. Well, most of us would in such cases. In the world of internet too, sometimes websites that are owned by one, are often handled by people who get to manage it. To talk in clear terms, if I have my own website, I work hard to build up a traffic that can be beneficial to me, but gradually, maybe my other commitments and busy schedule and forgetfulness or maybe my carelessness to renew the website adds up, and after a time, the website expires. People are on constant vigil. As soon as the site expires they start up their own with the same domain name, and thus get a ready made traffic flow.
5. Viral marketing
One of the cheapest and the affordable ways of internet marketing is Viral Marketing. It works on the concept of chain mails, just the way hotmail used it for its popularity. Pictures, videos and e-books which are free are mostly loved by people. Especially when these items are placed on your site, people love to use them and forward them to their loved ones. Thus, by personalizing them and giving your name somewhere on the items, you end up marketing your site. Also, in case your product is liked by people they would end up forwarding it and thus, the number of viewers of your site goes only higher. The popularity of your site increases.

By Pinaki Ghosh

Keeping a track of your emails isn’t a big problem when you’re receiving a mere ten or less than ten mails a day. As your business grows the picture will change. As you end up sending approximately hundred mails a day, you too will receive as many mails. Thus, planning out a mail management system is advisable than to find yourself in a pretty nasty soup. The following tips may prove to be of great help:
1. Do not open your mails every time they arrive
One of the worst time killers, which often goes unrealized are incoming emails. Most of the email programs, have the email notifications like, when one receives a mail, you have little pop ups or some beeps and some shiny icons which act like mail alerts. But immediate reactions can end up as a distraction for those who work. While working, you must continue to work and not react to these mails. Time yourself to read the mails too. Set aside 2 or 3 fixed time in the day when you will read and answer mails…rather than reading them the moment they arrive. This is one of the most accepted and the best remedy overall.
2. Managing storage space 
Nowadays, one can see a lot many email programs which have a highly large space to offer. For example, Yahoo Mail got its Yahoo Mail Beta into market and offered a total 1 GB storage email space which was in turn a huge up gradation factor. Thus, the end result is such that if one is a light user of the emails, he would never have to delete mails. The same was the case when Microsoft launched its Windows Live Mail and the storage space was twice the space that Yahoo offered.

2 GB mail storage space was astonishing! This also meant that one would never have to delete mails and can also keep the attachments!
For those who have opted for the other programs or sites, they should keep in mind the 2 basic principles: (a) you must try and shift or go in for some mail program which would offer you a better space to store your mails (b) you may erase most of the mails as you receive them especially those which aren’t necessary. Once the attachment has been downloaded, you could delete the mails or just if you want to save them, you can do so in one of your separate folders. Adding any of the advertisements and the junk mails could be named as ‘spam’ and eventually you spam folder can be cleaned after a period of time.
3. Sending heavy attachments with your mails
Winzip can condense attachments of your mail to some extent. Most of the people who excel in this field know that this is not really sufficient, mainly when one has to send in the mails with heavy attachments and content with large graphics. Leave aside the others, MS Word documents which have graphs and graphics are not really lucky enough to be delivered as attachments if they are heavy files exceeding 10 MB. Thus, people have to find a solution for the same. Programs like http://rapidshare.com, http://megaupload.com, or http://4shared.com to upload the most important and heavy files are helpful. Once you are done with the uploading, you would receive a downloading link. All you have to do is mail the link to solve the entire problem. The main receiver must click on the link to download.

4. Keep a copy of sent items
Saving the mails that have been sent is another good option. To keep the sent items folder enabled always would help you keep a record and not lose any important information ever.
5. Spell Checking
It’s really sad that most of the email sites and programs do not offer the spell check facility like Microsoft Windows Live Mail. Thus, it’s advisable that you are a little cautious about your spellings when one is sending the mails to the big companies. A lot of the typos may change their attitude about you.
6. Use filters for better email management
One must make proper use of filters or even better known as folders. If you receive a lot of mails from many organizations, you may sort them according to your preferences in different folders. Naming the folders by different names would help you locate faster. When all the mails accumulate in one place it gives your inbox a messy look.
7. How to find email addresses
It gets annoying when you cannot find the email addresses of the person you are wanting to mail while sending an email. A Gmail or the Yahoo Mail Beta user would find that easy as the contacts appear when you happen to type in the first or the first two letters of the person you intend to mail, which is extremely convenient. Even Windows Live Mail happens to give you the freedom to check the email address of the person from the icons given next to compose and send column. If the email program that you are using does not help you out here, you may use the sites such as www.four11.com, www.switchboard.com and www.whowhere.com.
Once you follow these seven simple steps, it will help you in the management of your emails which is otherwise a nightmare, especially when have your business at the peak.