5 Tips for Improving Your Web Site

5 Tips for Improving Your Web Site

Visit the sites of other companies to find out what you like and dislike. Do some sites seem to “work” while others don’t? Decide what objectives you want your site to meet. Do you want it to be fun, funny, educational, “cool,” or all of those things? Consider your corporate culture and your company image. Your site should support both. Design or re-design the site to meet your objectives. Unless you have a real expert on staff, hire a consulting firm to do the job. Get feedback. Ask customers how your site can be made more useful to them, and keep making improvements.

5 Tips for Ensuring Your Customers’ Privacy

5 Tips for Ensuring Your Customers’ Privacy

Understand that protecting customers’ privacy is essential to maintaining and increasing sales and profits online. Develop a privacy policy, post it on your web site, and live by your policy. For guidelines, visit three Web sites: www.privacyalliance.org, www.respectprivacy.com and www.privacyrights.org. Put top-notch security systems in place to make sure that customer data is not lost, misused, altered or stolen. Require that third parties with whom you deal provide similar data security. Don’t provide personal information collected from customers to third parties unless you have explicit permission from the customers to do so.

5 Tips for Dealing with a Computer Virus

• Isolate. If you suspect that you have been infected by a computer virus, unplug the infected computer from the office network. If the virus has spread to other machines, remove the network from the Internet to avoid spreading the virus. Some viruses can send copies of themselves automatically, so limiting exposure is critical.

• Diagnose. Run a virus scanner program to determine what is causing the problem. If your computer does not have a virus scanner, you will need to purchase and load one. There are many to choose from, such as McAfee, Symantec or TrendMicro, and costs range from free to under $100. Often, the virus program will identify the virus that you're dealing with.

• Treat. Virus scanning software can clean up the virus on your computer. 90 percent of the time, these programs will be sufficient enough to figure out the problem. However, when a virus is so new that there are no "definitions," you will need to go to your vendor and look for new updates.

• Learn. After putting out your virus fire, look for opportunities to enhance security on your computer or network. Make sure that your virus software is up-to-date and consider adding a personal firewall in order to provide additional protection.

• Protect. Keep your virus software updated and renew annually. Always be sure to back up your computer systems to protect against the loss of important data.

5 Tips for Domain Naming

1. Create an online identity. Get a Web domain now, even if you aren't building your site until later.

2. Pick three domain names that fit your business. Your first choice may be taken, so have a few domain name ideas. If your top three picks are available, consider getting all three. It's not too expensive and then you have flexibility to create a site for a special promotion or use a special landing page for an event.

3. Check out domain name vendors. You can register your domain with your choice of vendor. Here are some well-known domain name registrars:

• Network Solutions, www.networksolutions.com

• Yahoo Domains, www.yahoo.com

• GoDaddy, www.godaddy.com

• 1and1.com, www.1and1.com

• Domaindirect.com, www.domaindirect.com

4. Keep your renewal current. Don't forget to renew your domain name. Businesses have been known to let a name expire and then find that their Web site has disappeared from the Internet. Don't let that be you.

5. Once you have a domain, name your URL mycompany.com, place your URL on every marketing and business document that you produce. Let your company be known.

5 Tips on Electronic Contracts

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Take note: federal law now makes electronic contracts and electronic signatures as legal and enforceable as those on paper. Consider what advantages e-contracts might have for your business. Some companies will be able to conduct their business entirely on line, often with great savings. Be aware that if you start using e-contracts, you have to let customers know whether paper contracts are available and what fees might apply for the paper agreements. Proceed with caution. The law does not define what an electronic signature is, and e-signature technology is still evolving. Visit these Web sites for more information: the American Bar Association , or www.nolo.com, a site that specializes in legal issues.

Business Planning

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eCommerce Trends: How Online Storefronts Provide Options for Business Online

Thanks to new online technologies, the Internet now affords everyone an opportunity for profits. One of the latest business trends on the Internet is something called Effortless Commerce, an integrated, turnkey managed eCommerce solution that enables even those folks who don't have their own websites to sell and deliver content to a worldwide audience. The technology enables people to profit from their content who otherwise could not easily do so. They can literally create a product, put it on a storefront for sale, and make profits.

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet.

Let's say you are a personal trainer who has a new DVD to sell, or a young aspired musician with the latest music that you would like to get out to the world. Spending money for a website is not possible. You have explored the route of getting a manager and sales team to sell your product into retail stores, but this cuts into the percent of profits that you could make. Where can you turn?

The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown dramatically since the wide introduction of the Internet. The Census Bureau of the US Department of Commerce estimated that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of 2007 was $33.6 billion, an increase of 6.4 percent (0.8%) from the first quarter of 2007.

Online storefront using Effortless Commerce requires no coding or technical expertise. People have the option to offer products in downloadable formats so that their customers can purchase physical disks, digital downloads, or both. Their online store will automatically display options in the local language and currency for visitors; provides automated calculation for taxes, filing, and also payment; has special pricing for content suppliers; editing, and graphic design services; uses an On Demand Production Engine whereby CD/DVD products are manufactured upon purchase with zero inventory; offers automated order processing ... everything happens automatically and on time, from the time of purchase until shipping products; multiple shipping methods and delivery globally; provides email notifications to customers with shipping confirmations and tracking numbers; and features automatic payment.

Another trend in online business is a new phenomenon called pretailing, which Garter says, "consists of the multi-channel shopping activities consumers do before they even visit a retailer's Web site or local store. Pretailing will increase in importance as consumers get access to more retail information and services on the Internet." (Source: Gartner Group, 28 February 2007)

And if you don't think that eCommerce is important enough to the global economy, according to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2006-2010, online advertising spend predictions will reach $26 billion by the year 2010.