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.

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