Consumers and businesses agree that security remains a primary concern in the development of e-commerce. Identity theft, stolen credit card information, credit card fraud, hackers are among the most common threats. The dangers are real. As your online business matures, you have to make a real effort to secure your web presence.
Failure to secure your web presence can result in a variety of complications such as financial loss, loss of customers, damage to your credibility, and data loss. Worst of all, it can potentially cost you your business. You have many options to build a secure online business. In the past few years, the number of security related services have grown exponentially. Arming your business with hardware and software is less expensive than you think. The challenge is to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
Hackers, frauds, and other criminals are constantly searching for the weakest link. Keep in mind that you are not only protecting your business, but your customers. It is common for customers to arrive to websites with their computers already compromised. Your job is to ensure that the shopping experience is safe.
Fortune 500 corporations are frequently reporting security breaches. While it is alarming to read about security violations, many security breaches are never reported. The larger your business the more someone has to gain from breaking into your system. Small companies are just as vulnerable to break in, denial of service attacks, social engineering, and more.
As a business owner you should concentrate on preventative measures as opposed to reactive measures. It may take you days or months to realize your system has been compromised. The resulting damage could have devastating effects on you and your customers. Damaging, sharing, selling user information is a real security threat.
Equally important to providing a secure shopping experience is communicating it to your customers. If your customers don’t trust your site, all the security in the world won’t close the sale for you. Explain it loud and clear throughout your website the measures you took to create a secure environment. Explain what industry standards you use to help keep their information secure.
And make sure you keep your site away form hackers. For a short time, you can get WP Lockdown for only $17.
Many people are put off with the term cyber security. They think it involves highly technological processes and elaborate computer knowledge. Not at all. Cyber security is foremost about identifying threats and taking measures as simple as creating an indecipherable password. There is nothing too technical about that. In fact, cyber security measures are all too simple to follow. Check out the following cyber security tips.
1.) Use strong passwords. Avoid using names, birthdays, addresses, and other personal information as password. Do not use a word found in the dictionary as well, since hackers have found a way to decipher dictionary-generated passwords using certain tools. In general, a good password is at least eight-characters long and should be hard to crack. You can combine upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. One good practice is to form a password from a phrase. For example, you can create t1$!C4gtMpSd from “This is so I can’t forget my password.” You can use other methods with which you can form unique and cryptic passwords.
2.) Change your password periodically. This is important especially if, at some point, you have to disclose your password. Remember not to write it down, or if you should, discard the paper immediately. You never know the danger negligence can impose on your security.
3.) Be scrupulous with emails. Unsolicited emails are sometimes the onset of cyber attacks. Remember not to open attached files from unknown senders, as they may contain malware that can open backdoors for hackers. Clicking on the links can also direct you to some compromising websites, so be cautious. If a link looks suspicious, look it up on the web and do a quick research. Avoid giving information to unknown senders as well. The rule of thumb is to ignore seemingly malicious mails. Do not reply to and forward them.
4.) Install security programs on your computer and keep them updated. It is very important to have anti-virus and anti-spyware software and to keep your firewall on. Poorly secured systems are open doors for attackers and intruders, but these software programs keep viruses and spyware from penetrating and crippling your system. The firewall, on the other hand, guards your system from unauthorized access to your computer. Some operating systems allow automatic security updates. Check if yours have this option.
5.) Avoid opening files sent through Instant Messenger. These files do not undergo scanning and might carry security threats to your computer.
6.) Ignore the links on pop-up windows. Block pop-up ads and windows to close an entryway for malware and other forms of attack.
7.) Avoid downloading files, programs, applications, or tools from unknown websites. More often than not, these free downloadable stuffs are loaded with threats. Before you download, make sure the website is a credible source.
8.) Make sure to keep your system clean. Remove any tool, application, or program that is not used. Check also unused default programs installed on your operating system. It’s better to have few programs than have many but unused ones, which can only slow down your computer and be an opening for malicious attacks.
A poorly secured computer runs the risk of being hijacked and left as a zombie machine. Secretly, the hacker uses this computer to gain access to personal and confidential accounts and information. Next thing you know, your credit card has been used for unauthorized purchases, your savings account has been ransacked, your competitor has spied on your company, and the list can go on and on.
But some simple and easy-to-follow cyber security tips can eliminate the possibility of falling prey to any of these cyber crimes.
Now, if you want to keep your WordPress sites safe form hackers, make sure you check out the WP Lockdown.
There are a lot of people all over the world making a good living by providing quality services online. Here are five examples of service-based businesses you can start from home.
1) Content Writer
A content writer writes articles, blog posts and informational reports for website owners who choose to outsource their content creation.
Generally a content writer will make between $3 and $12 per article, depending on experience. To start, you may only be able to do one or two articles per hour, but in time you’ll be able to do three to four in an hour, for up to $40+ an hour.
2) Graphic Designer
A graphic designer’s job is to come up with designs that look great. They can design for web or for print. Jobs may be for logos, for brochures, for site layouts and any number of other things.
A graphic designer can make anywhere from $10 an hour initially to $80+ an hour after a few years of experience.
3) Website Builder
A website builder’s primary skill set is not design, but the ability to put together great web pages in a short period of time.
The primary skills you need to know are CSS and HTML, plus the basic principles of design.
Unless you’re incorporating high-end design with your website-building skills, you’ll generally be making $200 to $500 per site, which would usually take less than a day to build.
4) Link Builder for Site Owners
Website owners who want to rank well in search engines often outsource their link building.
Link building usually entails submitting sites to directories, creating Squidoo lenses, spinning articles, creating forum and blog posts, among many other techniques.
Depending on how much value you can bring to clients, you can make anywhere between $5 an hour to $40+ an hour through building links for clients.
5) Online Personal Assistant
Business owners often times want to have PAs to answer their phones, respond to emails and handle their personal lives. Instead of paying $3,000 a month or more to hire a full-time in-office PA, business owners often choose to hire an online personal assistant instead.
The beauty of being an online PA is that you can generally manage several different clients at once. Although each client won’t pay you as much as you’d make if you were working full time, combined the income can be quite good.
How much you can make per client really varies depending on where you get your clients from. If you get your clients from eLance or Guru, you can expect to make $300 to $600 per client. If you get your clients through personal relationships and recommendations, you could make a lot more.
These are just five examples of service-based businesses you can start from home. If you find a business you love and build a solid client base, you can be making very, very good money in just a few months’ time.
Once your product is created you’re going to spend the majority of your time marketing it. If you enjoy your topic then marketing it will be fun. If you’re not interested in your topic then marketing will be tough. Many people have the wrong idea about marketing. It’s not a hard sell. Marketing is sharing your love for your product and topic with others. If you like to write and talk about your niche topic then marketing will be a breeze. Make a marketing plan first. Here are some things to include in your plans.
Website/Blog
In order to market and sell your information product you’re going to need a website. Your website can be a single page site with a sales page and that’s it. It can also be a content rich website packed with information. The choice is yours.
The benefit to a content rich site is that people will come back to your site again and again. You can sell a number of information products. You can benefit from affiliate sales and advertising income.
The foundation of a website or blog is content. This means writing a lot of articles or blog posts. You can also create audio or video content. When you’re creating your business plan decide what type of website you want to create. While you may be turned off by the content creation aspect of a blog or multi page website remember that you don’t have to create it all yourself. You can outsource it and use PLR.
Content
Apart from your blog or website content you can use content to market your business. For example articles can be written and published on article directories. This content will generate links to your website and website visitors. You can also publish content in a newsletter. Additionally, content written and published n your website will help you get listed on the search engines.
Whenever someone is looking for information on your topic your website will show up in the results. You get visitors and potential customers. For many information publishers content both on their website and on article directories is a primary marketing tactic.
Social Networking
Social networking has become a mainstream pastime. Savvy business owners have caught on. As a social networker you can post links to content on your site. Mingle promotions with interactions to establish a genuine presence and following. You can also create a business profile on a social networking site. Facebook Fan pages have become significant marketing tools for many business owners.
Email
Email marketing has been a long time success strategy. As an information publisher you’d likely motivate people to sign up for your email list by giving away free information. For example, you might give away a report on the top ten garage organization mistakes. You now have permission to send your subscriber more valuable information and promotions. You can market your book to them through strategic email marketing messages.
Email is a great way to build a relationship with your customers and prospects. They may turn to you repeatedly for information and become lifelong customers.
Advertising
Of all of the marketing tactics discussed, advertising is the only one that really can cost a lot. However, with a strategic plan and control over your budget advertising can generate a good return on investment. There are different types of advertising: Pay Per Click, banner ads, Facebook, etc. Before you advertise make sure your ad is targeted. Maintain tight control over your budget. Test and track your ads to make sure they’re effective.
Affiliates/Partnerships and More
As your business grows you may look into affiliate programs. In this case you’d pay people a commission to promote your information products. You may also establish partnerships with other relevant companies. Partnerships work well to cross promote and to build an email list. For example, you might partner with a home organization retailer and promote their products. In exchange they would promote your book.
Resources for marketing information products:
Happy Outsourcing
Craigslist Outsourcing Secrets
Outsourcing Webinar With Rachel Rofe
Free Quality Traffic
Video Traffic Secrets
You might be surprised to know that in addition to selling your products, you can make money in other ways. Information publishing lends itself to many profit models.
Affiliate Income
You can make money on affiliate sales. In fact, many information publishers make just as much money in affiliate commissions as they do in book sales.
Affiliate marketing enables you to earn a commission by promoting products. If you’re writing an ebook on how to organize your garage then you might link to garage or home organization products. Each time a customer clicks on a link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. In addition to including affiliate links in your information products you can also write content. This content drives traffic to your website. It also boosts your marketing and your SEO. In the body of this content include affiliate text links. It’s another opportunity to earn money.
Advertising Income
Another way to earn money is to sell ad space on your website. If you have a lot of traffic selling ad space can be quite lucrative. Generally, ad space isn’t something you can charge much for in the beginning of your business. However, as your business grows you can start selling ads. In the meantime you might consider filling the ad space on your website with on-subject affiliate banner ads. You can at least earn money when someone clicks on them and makes a purchase.
AdSense income is another possibility. AdSense pays you money each time someone clicks on an ad on your website. You can place the ads anywhere: copy and paste your advertising code and you can start earning.
Up Selling and Other Opportunities
Finally, many people find that their initial product sells so well that they decide to expand. An ebook can be the beginning of an information publishing empire. You might write more books or courses on your topic or you may choose another niche. You may also find that partnership and growth opportunities come to you. You may get offers for teaching or guest speaking. Information publishing can lead the way to a whole new future.
