We love tips and features which simplify or improve results. Anything which will permit you to cram more in less time or in the business world – improve productivity. You can spend hours searching for specific results in search engines, however, if you learn a few of these simple operator requests or tips you will drill down much quicker and find more relevant results.

Use these “commands” to improve your search results:

• Use Negative Keywords

If you’re seeing irrelevant results, identify a keyword that has nothing to do with what you’re looking for and make it your “negative keyword”. Simply add it to your search query with a minus symbol in front of it, for example if you were looking for the band Gossip, you would search for [gossip -celebrity] (without the brackets).

• Use Quotes

This is most commonly used to find an exact match. Since Google already uses the AND operator to connect single keywords per default, you won’t need quotes to find exact matches in most cases.

However, if you find that Google returns results with highlighted keywords that are spelled completely different from what you entered, try to put these single words into quotes and try again. This will prevent Google from returning more popular keywords that are only vaguely similar to your search term.

• Search Within a Specific Website

If you don’t want to search the entire internet, but instead a specific URL, this operator is of great help. Type [site:URL "your search query"], for example [site:http://domainprotege.com "website hosting"].

Here are a few of our favorite new features in WordPress 3.0:

1. You can run multiple blogs from one WordPress install. WordPress Mu is part of the core WordPress code now. This new feature is called Multisite now
2. Customizable menus are now part of the core, instead of being dependent on themes
3. New default theme – Twenty Ten as Kubrick has been retired.
4. Custom background color is choose-able with a visual color picker

For more details checkout WordPress Thelonius

Domain Protege has an eight (8) page web hosting contract we are offering to our readers for free. Subscribe and upon confirmation of your e-mail address you will receive it instantly via digital delivery in word format.

Some providers even offer Free web hosting. Web site hosting is a critical part of your business, therefore, accepting a free web hosting offer should only be for a blog or site that your are not dependent on for revenue. Losing your site for several hours can typically negate any potential savings offered by these free web host sites.

This competition means many businesses are vying for your hosting dollars and competition usually drives down cost. How do you make a decision and whom do you trust to manage and host your array of websites?  For us, cPanel is crucial, as it allows people with limited knowledge manage our own sites, it allows users to add programs like WordPress and it simplifies overall site management.

But the bottom line is reliability, quality of service and for us cost effectiveness. Most hosting companies today guarantee a 99.9% up-time so you should focus on support ticket response times and what options or benefits you are getting for your dollar. Monthly Bandwidth Transfer and Disk Space Usage…some offers get you in the door cheap but then you are forced to upgrade when you get some traffic and some providers are counting on the fact you do not want hassle of moving your blogs so you feel trapped and pay the higher rate.

We will give a shout out to LaceHost Hosting whom we have been using for over two years. They are a dedicated group that respond immediately to support tickets or any other service related inquiry. For us, this is the #1 selection criteria we use when making our internet related decisions.

Looking for a Hosting Agreement Template? Our next post will detail the types of verbiage you should include if you are in the business of providing third party hosting services.

More Internet or Computer Resources

We love software and whenever we get an opportunity to highlight a software program that is a 10 out of 10 and to top it off FREE we have to give it a shout out.

The task of defragging your hard disk  is a major pain when using programs delivered with our standard operating system software but Auslogic Disk Defrag makes it painless and is a tool that should be in everyone’s tool box.

We use it frequently and exclusively.

Some Features

• Optimizes file system
• Consolidates free space
• Can defrag automatically
• Provides flexible scheduler
• Can defrag a single file or folder
• Supports multi-terabyte volumes

Let me share how I spent about $100.00 of my time on a $5.00 item and how a business should not to do it. Recently, I purchased a subscription for a link building service. The communication was acceptable but slow and the correspondence received had nothing to do with my order or my problems. There was no ticket system for tracking customer service questions or issues so the responses were inadequate or non-existent. You had to start over with every e-mail sent because there was no paper trail. By the time I was refunded on PayPal I bet it cost me more than $100 of my time and I had to issue a request via PayPal before the company provided the refund. I became agitated and could not believe how this person survived on-line. I even started to wonder if I should go into competition with this business …if others were experiencing similar issues my customer service would blow them away and I would easily earn their business. I did not pursue this but sure was tempted… my question why do people waste time sending irrelevant e-mails when they can simply respond to the issue or complete a refund in the same time it takes them to send a flowery response?

Some managers are unwilling to delegate and they try to run their business independently and with out-dated systems or technology. Other mistakes often made are they are afraid to invest in software or client management tools to help them deliver a higher quality service level. Customer retention should be your #1 priority and responding with flowery e-mails on how busy you are is a total waste of time. Your auto responder should show action and that the user is getting one step closer to a resolution. People are busy and a response should have some meat to it. If you are going to provide a refund why not just do so rather than pen numerous e-mails saying what you are going to do. Instead of e-mailing the client and saying you going to e-mail a refund just do it. Wow, can never understand that…the seller wasted 2 minutes telling you they will refund you instead of just completing the task which would have saved everyone time and frustration.

Customer service is important to your on-line clients. Use an automated response to let the buyer know status of orders or refunds. Acknowledge payments quickly. Ship immediately, and inform the customer when the product is in transit or shipped. Customer service strategies include providing a tracking link to the product whenever possible.

Let’s recap — customer service strategies for your on-line clients are not any different than traditional on-line stores. Make sure the product is as good as you say it is, don’t inflate shipping and handling, ship quickly, and have a liberal return policy. Always keep the client in the loop with relevant facts relating specifically to their order. This is the best method to ensure customer retention, to achieve high customer satisfaction and grow your business.

Even the most conscious individuals can find themselves squandering 30 minutes reviewing an extended sales pitch and yanking out their charge card at the conclusion to take advantage of the time sensitive offer.

Initially, I too was enticed by well written copy or those well written sales or squeeze pages …. Especially felt pressured or challenged  when presented with a DEADLINE.

They give you a time frame which a special offer will come to an end and interestingly enough it’s just a couple of hours away or for a limited time only! It provides you with a sense of urgency like you might miss out if you don’t buy it NOW! Sometimes there’s even a clock countdown.

They insert this Pressure Cooker FAKE DEADLINE once you have sifted over the Sales Funnel. You have studied testimonials, they have tugged at your heart strings and you barely have any reservations remaining concerning the merchandise …. Then WHAM!

“This 50% discount offer is only valid for a limited time”

“Buy at this special discounted price only available until midnight tonight”

“We are going back to our original price when current stock runs out”

The perception is you are receiving a bargain, when in fact it was never priced at the excessively high price anyway. At this time the best thing to do is take a step back and contemplate whether it is a WANT or a NEED! Ever wonder why gum and candy bars are at the grocery store checkout? They are looking for compulsive buyers and know many will grab a little something extra when waiting to pay. Marketing 101. Okay back to compulsive spend… Keep in mind you are in control of the situation. It’s your cash and you have worked hard for it, so don’t separate yourself from it!

When I initially became suspicious about this technique I did something they do not want you to do. I added the website to my favorites and returned at another time …. And you know what? The Pressure Cooker FAKE DEADLINE was still there. I tested it again and again with the same results.

Do you follow the slap chop guy…buy one and get second one free so buy now cause we cannot do this all day blah blah…that commercial has been running for two years!

When shopping we have to control our urge to emotionally spend, so if I really want something I ask the sales assistant to hold it for an hour. If I return for it, then I know I truly need or want it. If I don’t then I know it might have been an EMOTIONAL purchase.

There are many other sneaky things marketers do to entice you into purchasing their products or services. You can find out more in my future posts, but until then remain aware of your wants and needs. Be prudent!

On the surface this portal appears to be on the up and up. They use SSL and have the credit card images in the footer to implore credibility, however, as someone that has tried this service our opinion is much different.

So far they have neglected and or failed to payout an outstanding balance due, they do not have a customer service phone number, do not respond to inquiries and no where on the site is there a physical address of their business….strike three. This site has all the elements or making of a scam portal. When you whois the domain name it is protected which means you cannot glean any contact information on the developer or owner of the site….strike four.

A credible business will post a physical or business address, phone number and contact information. Gazhoo has none of the above. Well if you are like me you simply chalk it up or write off the experience and move on…sort of moving on as writing this article to make others aware is my only recourse. The lesson was minor, yes they sold some of my information but they did not physically steal money out of my pocket, they only cheated me out of my intellectual property by reselling it to unsuspecting third parties and not paying the rightful owner. Be warned (caveat emptor) and advise your colleagues of the Gazhoo fraudsters as it is posts like these or reviews from credible people that help police the internet. If this article goes viral and puts Gazhoo on the right track it will discourage the scammers or ripoff artists from taking advantage of people. Help us make an example out of them, please forward or post this article on your site.

If anyone has had a similar experience let us know or if you have been paid in the last month we would love to hear from you.

UPDATE: April 4, 2010 Gazhoo finally made payment. We have opted to leave this post up in an effort to hopefully keep them honest.

Proof of scam..

I visited your site http://www.__________.com and like what you have put together. I have a related website and  would like to know if you would consider exchanging links? If so, please consider listing us here: http://www.___________.com/links.html Our text link details are:

Title:
Description:
URL: http://www.__________.com/

Please let us know where our link is located on your site and send me your information if you would like a link in return.

Thanks,
Your Name
Website
Address, City, Zip

Alias Addresses
An alias address allows you to have alternative email addresses automatically forward to your main mailbox. For example, if your email address is sarah@domain.com you could have sara@domain.com as an alias in case of a spelling error.

Applet
An applet is an embedded program on a web site. Applets are often written in the coding language known as Java. They are usually used for creating a virtual object which may move or interact with the web site. An applet is like a small piece of executable code that needs a full application to operate it.

Auto Responder
An auto responder is a user defined message that will automatically be sent in reply to any incoming email. For example, this is useful if someone is away on holidays and would like others to know their return date.

Backbone
A high-speed line or series of connections that completes a major pathway inside a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network. In general, the better the backbone of the hosting company, the higher the availability of the web sites that operate on their computers.

cPanel
is a Unix based web hosting control panel that supplies a graphical interface and automation tools designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site. cPanel makes use of a 3 tier framework which offers functionality for administrators, resellers, and end-user website managers to control the different aspects of website and server administration via a standard web browser.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
Used to add additional functionality to simple HTML pages. Internet Explorer version 3. and up support a good portion of CSS, while Netscape 4. and up supports a small amount of CSS – a fully compliant browser does not exist yet.

Database A database is a collection of information that can be queried to find certain results. An example of a database would be a searchable phone number directory.

DNS
Domain Name Server. A service which translates domain names to IP addresses and vice versa. This allows for any domain name you register to point to your website.

Domain Name
A unique name that identifies an Internet address.

Fantastico
Fantastico is a commercial script library that automates the installation of web applications to a website.

FTP
File Transfer Protocol. A way of transferring files over the Internet from one computer to another. An example of this would be uploading your website onto the web server; you would do so by using FTP. We use Filezilla to mange this process and it is a FREE program.

IP Address
An IP address is a unique number given to a computer when it is on the Internet. This allows any other computer to communicate with it in order to view web pages and send email.

Perl
A robust programming language used for creating web applications.

PHP
PHP is a popular web application programming language which is used on thousands of sites.

Python
Another web application programming language.

Server Space
Server space is how much room you have for files and email on the server.

Spam Filtration
A spam filter allows you to block junk mail from your inbox. You can block email based on keywords, email addresses, names and more.

SQL
Structured Query Language. A language used to insert, modify or retrieve information from a database.

SSL
Secure Socket Layers. A technology used on the Internet to secure web pages and transactions by means of encryption. For example, this would be useful for protecting sensitive data during online banking.

Sub Domain
A sub domain allows you to have a prefix on your current domain name. An example of this would be members.domain.com for an easy-to-remember address.

Traffic Allotment
Traffic allotment is the amount of file transfer you are able to use per month. Every time someone views a page on your site they are using traffic to do so.

Virus Scanner
An application to scan files for any virus they might contain. If a virus is found the file can be deleted or contained for further evaluation.

WebMail
WebMail allows you to access your email account from any computer in the world. It is basically a web-based version of an email application that allows you to read, reply, forward and create email all via a web browser.

Website Statistics
Statistics can provide you with a wealth of information about the traffic and people that visit your site. You can see how many visits you get each day, which search terms they are using to find your site, which sites are linking to you, and much more.

Here is a link to the WP Minify Plugin

If you are trying to generate a revenue stream with your website and you do not have your own products you can sell others by using an affiliate program like CLICKBANK. If you are thinking about selling a product or if you have an e-book your want to promote… CLICKBANK is a good choice. It has a history in the marketplace and when investing your time into building a successful online business you want to partner with a vendor that plans to be around for the long term.

Now that you have selected your product to market you should consider using a statistical program to track results and performance. Here is a great tool to help you follow statistics generated by your link. As much as some of us hate tracking or reporting, to be successful, it is critical that an affiliate marketer glean results from their links to determine effectiveness.  http://bit.ly/

Looking for a list of article databases to submit to? Some we use:

1. Ezine Articles
2. Articles Base
3. GoArticles
4. Article Dashboard
5. BusinessKnowHow
6. SearchWarp
7. Article Alley
8. Buzzle
9. iSnare
10. Idea Marketers
11. Promotion Data
12. Article City
13. Article Set
14. Article Snatch
15. Uber Articles
16. Authors Den

Some other Web 2.0 sites you can add content to are Squidoo, HubPages and Google Knols.

Joyce runs Sentias Software Corp., a Vancouver firm specializing in Internet applications for the tourism and retail sectors. Galley has helped numerous clients with e-marketing projects.

They both stress the importance of being well prepared before meeting with prospective website developers.

You should start the process by asking yourself some important questions. What do you intend to do with your website and why? Do you want to generate sales leads, sell products online or handle bookings? Do you expect to generate a measurable return on investment from your website? What is your budget?

Look at other websites and decide what you like in terms of look and feel so that you have an idea of what you want.

Joyce also recommends developing a web plan. “It keeps you focused and serves as a blueprint for your project,” he says.

Your plan should lead you to ask a developer the following questions.

1. How much do you know about my business and the industry I’m in?
Familiarity with your business and industry makes a difference. “If you are in the heavy manufacturing business and the developer has only worked for non-profits, for instance,” says Galley, “they may not be the right fit for you.”

2. Do you have the right technical, business and creative mix for my company?
Choose a developer you are comfortable with. Do you prefer a team that has been around for a long period of time and has a traditional approach, or a young team with more creative flair?

3. How many repeat or long-term clients do you have?
This can be an indication that the developer nurtures client relationships and follows up with maintenance and upgrades. “A lack of repeat business can be a sign that something went wrong on previous projects,” Galley says. “Get referrals,” adds Joyce.

4. How many other projects are you currently working on?
A small shop with lots of work on the go might not be able to give you the attention you need to complete the project in a timely fashion. Make sure the firm you choose has the resources available to complete your site on time.

5. How will the project unfold?
Find out what the major milestones are and when you should expect them to be completed. “These should include creative options, site structure and page layouts, and then a test run,” Galley says. She and Joyce agree that six to eight weeks is a reasonable timeframe in which to produce a website.

6. What happens after completion of the website?
Joyce points out that maintaining and updating a website is crucial to its success. “You wouldn’t leave the same display in a storefront all year long,” he says. “A website is no different. You need to keep the content fresh. This also helps with search engine optimization. You should plan for ongoing maintenance, adding new photos and keeping product information updated.”

Find out whether the developer will turn the site over to you so you can do the updating, or whether you will have to go through them.

Check to see whether the developer provides monthly reports regarding traffic to your website.

7. What is the payment structure, including ongoing and future costs?
Payment structures vary from developer to developer. If you meet with several, make sure you are aware of how each one works and where the money is going. What percentage is being spent on programming? How much on creative work? And so on.

8. What options are included?
Much like buying a car, points out Galley, you can select the “fully loaded” website or the basic one. If you can’t afford all the options, determine which are essential and which you can add later. Maybe a shopping cart is essential, but you don’t need to add social networking feeds right away.

9. How much of the project will be outsourced?
How much is the developer doing and how much is being subcontracted? “For example, find out who is hosting your website,” says Galley. “If it is being contracted out, make sure you have the passwords and access codes.”

10. What are my responsibilities as a client?
The developer will most likely expect you to provide photos, logos and content. “If you are selling a product online, you need photos,” says Joyce. “The web is a visual medium and your photos need to be compelling.” Clients also need to develop content, such as product descriptions and pricing.

“There are rules for writing web copy that differ from print copy,” explains Galley. “It’s worthwhile hiring a writer with web expertise to help you.”

Stay in close touch with the developer. Assign a person within your organization to be the main contact. “This should be someone who can make decisions or who is close to the decision-makers and can respond quickly,” Joyce notes. “This will help to keep things moving.”

Credit:  BDC

To build a successful following one needs to offer your readers valuable content, solve problems, build trust and in the end hopefully a relationship. Trust is the biggest factor when it comes to any online transactions. Offer up plenty of free items to entice your readers to join your e-mail list, protect their privacy and only transmit offerings when you have something valuable to share. It is then and only then will you begin to build a profitable client base….many online marketers send you every lame offer because this is how they make their money. Peddling affiliate programs is their bread and butter so they are not putting the customer first they are thinking profit. BIG mistake and this is troublesome . When I see the quality of offerings stoop to this level I quite often opt out of their listing and they lose creditibility in the marketplace.

To manage your opt-in mail marketing list you can use several free software services such as Gammadyne Mailer or Your Mailing List Provider. Once you grow your list you will want to move to a provider like AWeber …they do offer a free test drive to see if their service meets your requirements.