Awesome Ad Of The Year

Awesome Ad Of The Year

5 Benefits of QR Codes for Small Business

 

By: admin | posted on: May 28, 2013 | in: Business, Tips

Each year more and more people are using smartphones. Over half of all Americans now have smartphones with more people using these devices than land lines and other mobile devices.  For marketers, the mobility of smartphones makes it possible to reach customers without any attachment to a specific location. QR codes play an important role in this process for many small businesses.  Are you still skeptical about QR codes? The following list details five benefits of QR codes for small business that will convince you to give them a try. It is important not to get overwhelmed with all of these strategies. Pick one or two that are most relevant for your particular company and build from there.

Benefits of Using QR Codes

Build customer relationships

Many businesses struggle to get customers to complete surveys about products. If they receive a survey in a store, most people are just not interested in taking them home to fill out later. QR codes give customers the opportunity to participate while they finish at the cash register, wait in line, or seated at a table in a restaurant. Customers appreciate the convenience, and businesses appreciate the rapid turnaround time. Don’t forget to tell customers how you will use their feedback. People want to know that their comments will be taken seriously. Small businesses can also use QR codes to gather business reviews for online sites such as Yelp. Many companies choose to offer incentives such as special discounts or free items for people who write reviews.

Get free promotion

QR codes allow people to “like” and “follow” a business quickly and easily without having to search for it later. Consider creating codes that link directly to Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. QR codes also allow people to “pin” your products, blog posts, and other website links on Pinterest. Many small businesses create their own Pinterest accounts to post pictures of products and services and other relevant industry information. One of the key aspects to success on Pinterest is high quality images. All of the pictures of your own products and services that you post should be good enough that potential and existing customers will want to share them with others.  The chances that your content will go viral increases when that content, such as videos, are high quality and shared appropriately on social media.

Boost website and blog traffic

It is always important to place QR codes, each with a clear goal and purpose, in convenient locations so people will take the time to visit your sites.  Offering something of value for your customers will help drive the kind of traffic you desire. For example, a restaurant may put QR codes on their menus with nutritional information about the dishes.

Cater to a local audience

There isn’t a better method for advertising local promotions than directly in front of a business. QR codes cultivate relationships with customers and, in a sense, bring them to you. The codes get them talking about your company, and with enticing incentives, these customers are more likely to become repeat customers. Discovering a great new company and then getting an immediate deal for one of their products or services is a sure way to get a new customer to share the story with friends and family. Many small businesses also use QR codes for local event registration. Don’t let people walk away without giving them the opportunity to register or at least get more information about the event. Make a flyer or poster with content that is visually appealing, and consider offering an incentive when people sign up for the event.

Build an email subscription list

Every small business should give all potential and existing customers a simple method for signing up for a company email newsletter. Although there are a number of successful methods for building lists, many companies make use of QR codes for subscription sign up. Newsletters allow new customers to stay connected to and learn more about businesses. In turn, they allow companies to further customer relationships and increase the chances of gaining return customers.

Low cost

You can signup for services that you cannot track results with for free, or for as little as $19 a month you can track the success of each code you create.

About the author:

Kristen Gramigna is Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay, a credit card processing firm offering different types of credit card terminal options. She brings more than 15 years of experience in the bankcard industry in direct sales, sales management, and marketing to the company and also serves on its Board of Directors.

 http://qreateandtrack.com/2013/05/28/5-benefits-of-qr-codes-for-small-business/

Cyber-attacks eclipsing terrorism as gravest domestic threat – FBI

Counter-terrorism chiefs urge Congress to resist altering controversial surveillance programs except 'at the margins'

 

The threat of a major terrorist attack inside the United States is lower today than before 2001, three of the country’s most senior counter-terrorism officials testified on Thursday.

But the heads of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center urged Congress only to change controversial surveillance programs at the “margins".

A devastating, 9/11-style attack is “more likely now to be overseas than it is in the homeland”, Rand Beers, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told a Senate panel, “but that is not to say we should drop our guard in any way”.

Testifying for the first time since becoming FBI director in September, James Comey told the Senate homeland security and government affairs committee that cyber-attacks were likely to eclipse terrorism as a domestic danger over the next decade.

“That’s where the bad guys will go,” Comey said. “There are no safe neighborhoods. All of us are neighbors [online].”

Comey said the threat to online networks in the United States, to include business and government data, came from disparate actors with different motivations, from spies to “hacktivists”, which he likened to an “evil layer cake”.

Cyber-security concerns eclipsed those about terrorism in a hearing dedicated to updating the Senate on domestic threats. Beers and Comey urged Congress to pass new cyber-security legislation expanding government access to private-sector data, ostensibly to redress vulnerabilities in business and other non-governmental networks.

Senator Tom Coburn, the top Republican on the panel, sounded skeptical, arguing that private firms ought to have the opportunity to voluntarily comply before being compelled to turn over that data. But Coburn agreed with Beers that any such legislation ought to provide legal protections for companies compelled to disclose proprietary or customer data.

Beers said legislation ought to be “carefully crafted” to avoid “a total blanket liability protection”, which he said would potentially violate civil liberties.

Congress created similar protections for telecommunications and internet providers in 2008 when it expanded the government’s powers to spy on Americans’ foreign communications with non-individualized warrants.

Comey, Beers and NCTC director Matthew Olsen testified that al-Qaida’s ability to attack the US was diminished, but not eliminated. “The risk of a spectacular attack in the homeland is much smaller than it was before 2001,” Comey said.

But all three individuals said the threat of copycat attacks from self-radicalized individuals – so-called “lone wolves” – remained, and they said the agencies had difficulties in preventing them.

Self-radicalized terrorists do not necessarily “hit the trip wires”, Olsen said. Comey urged Americans to report what they considered suspicious activity: “Listen to that feeling in back of your neck.”

Even though the threat of a major domestic terrorist attack has receded, all three government officials warned Congress against rolling back the sweeping bulk surveillance authorities granted to intelligence and law enforcement agencies to prevent one.

Comey, who in 2004 resisted a warrantless surveillance effort that collected Americans’ email data, told the Senate panel he could accept changes around the “margins” of surveillance powers, but “don’t make changes at the expense of core capabilities”.

Beers, who will soon leave the Department of Homeland Security after five years, echoed intelligence officials who have resisted surveillance reforms beyond increased transparency to Congress.

“Make sure you are comfortable with the oversight,” Beers said, “but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/14/cyber-attacks-terrorism-domestic-threat-fbi

Microsoft: We Have Lots of Windows 8 Apps, but We’d Rather Not Say How Many

OCTOBER 24, 2012 AT 9:40 PM PT

Many people will look at the Windows 8 storefront and find the number of apps lacking, whether in terms of number, or in terms of big names.

Yes, apps from Netflix and Hulu Plus are there, along with Evernote and eBay. But all one need do is plug in an iPhone or try to update their Quicken portfolio to see the major omissions. Intel, for one, is touting that fact — along with its compatibility with older Windows apps — as a key selling point for machines that use its processors.

Still, for its part, Microsoft notes that its App Store will have more apps than any other store at launch. Indeed, the number of apps is triple that of just a few weeks ago.

So, how many apps is that exactly? Well, um, we’d rather not say, Microsoft says. After all, there are many ways to count apps, and …

It’s nothing new for Microsoft to launch a new version of Windows with few apps designed for its new features. On day one of Windows 7 or Windows Vista, one would be lucky to name 10 apps that really took advantage of new features.

The difference with Windows 8 is that older Windows Apps really look like second-class citizens in a world designed for touch-centric programs. What’s worse, Microsoft has a second operating system, Windows RT, that works with phone and tablet chips, but only runs the new-style apps.

“Those are not all going to be there day one,” agrees Antoine Leblond, the Microsoft executive responsible for the Windows storefront that is home to the new Windows 8 apps. The key, Leblond says, is the momentum that Microsoft will get as the number of Windows 8 machines quickly grows into a significant figure worthy of developers’ attention.

Then the OS will benefit from a number of factors, including the ability of developers to write in multiple languages, the flexibility to use Microsoft’s payment system or not, as well as the potential for developers to earn 80 percent of store revenue, rather than the standard 70 percent cut once apps have generated $25,000 in revenue.

Although Microsoft has been accepting paid app sales since it finalized Windows 8 this summer, Leblond says the real test will come as machines preloaded with the new OS go on sale.

“The store opens Friday,” Leblond said. “That’s when things will get interesting.”

Make Money Blogging

Do you want to make money blogging? If you do – you’re not alone. More and more bloggers are finding that blogging is a profitable medium. Whether it be to earn a few extra dollars a week to feed their coffee habit, or making enough money to stop them having to get a part time job to get through college, or whether they’ve got it to a point where they are able to make a full time living from their blogging – there are tens of thousands of bloggers who make money blogging.

How to Make Money Blogging

In this page I want to share some information for beginners on how to make money blogging. For a very quick and broad visual intro – check out this Make Money Blogging MindMap which visualizes just SOME of the ways bloggers make money blogging.
Firstly – lets get our expectations right. Not everyone who tries to make money blogging becomes rich. In fact those who do well from blogging are in the minority. I’m sorry if this disappoints you – but I’m not here to hype this up or make any promises. It is possible to make money blogging – but it takes time and a lot of hard work – and it doesn’t happen for everyone!
For a picture of how realistic it is check out my post – Can You Really Make Money Blogging: 7 Things I know about Making Money from Blogging.
Secondly – let me start by sharing my own top Money Making Methods but below that point you to some great resources and teaching on how to increase your income from blogging.

What follows is a quick summary of my main income streams from blogging. Before you read it though – keep in mind that every blog is unique in how it can make money. Some of the following income streams will work on some blogs a lot better than others – the key is to experiment with as many as possible and see what works best for you.
The following income streams (from a number of blogs) have helped me to earn a six figure income each year for the last 5 years from blogging. I’ve ranked them from highest to lowest.
I hope you find it useful to see the mix and variety of ways that I earn a living from blogging.

1. AdSense

Despite not using it here at ProBlogger any more (here’s why) I continue to use AdSense with amazing effect on my other blogs. I have them all set to show image and text based ads and find that 250×300 pixel ads work best (usually with a blended design). I don’t have much luck with their ‘referrals’ program but their normal ads work a treat and continue to be the biggest earner for me.

2. Affiliate Programs

I run a variety of affiliate programs on my blogs – most of which bring in smaller amounts of money that don’t really justify a category of their own (but which certainly add up).
These include recommending quality products like these here on ProBlogger: Thesis WordPress theme, Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Coaching Program and How to Launch the F*** out of your E-Book (and others) as well as some great products on my photography blog including 123 of Digital Imaging, David DuChemin’s amazing Photography E-Books and Mitchell Kanashkevich’s great ebooks.
The great thing about many of these programs is that they are of such high quality that they sell themselves and I am being emailed from readers who sign up to them thanking me for the recommendation!

3. E-Book Sales

Last time I did a wrap up of how I make money blogging this category did not exist for me – I didn’t really have any of my own products to sell at all. However in the last year or so I’ve released 3 E-books – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography and Photo Nuts and Bolts: Know Your Camera and Take Better Photos. While these products all only sell for under $20 they certainly add up and some months this has been my biggest category of income. The reason they were only ranking at #3 in the last month was that I didn’t do a product launch (I wrote about one launch which brought in $72,000 in a week here). This is an income stream I see growing as I add more E-books to my range (expect 3 in the coming few months).

4. Continuity Programs

This is another newer category for me but one that continues to grow.
A continuity program is a site where you earn a recurring income from people who subscribe to a service you offer.
For me this includes two sites – ProBlogger.com and Third Tribe Marketing. Both programs are membership sites and generate monthly income from the thousands of members that they have as a part of them.

5. Private Ad Sales/Sponsorships

Private ad sales directly to advertisers have fallen for me in the last year (they previously ranked #3 on this list). This is partly due to a change in my own focus but also partly due to the economy as it is. I should note that this area does vary a little from month to month depending upon the campaigns we’re asked to run – we’ve had a couple of months where it actually ranked #2 in the last year.
This includes ad sales of the 125 x 125 ads here at ProBlogger as well as a campaign or two at Digital Photography School.

6. Chitika

Chitka continues to be a great performer for me on my blogs. They traditionally have worked best on product related blogs although their Premium ad units now convert well on a larger range of blogs.
While I’ve focused a little less on Chitika in the last 6 months (mainly as I’ve released my own products and moved a little away from advertising) they do continue to perform well where I use them and over the time I’ve been using Chitika they’ve now earned me over a quarter of a million dollars – as a result I can’t recommend them enough!

7. Amazon Associates

Amazon’s affiliate program has been one of my big movers in the last 12 months. I used to make a few odd dollars from it – however in recent times it has become a significant earner for me (in fact it’s now earned me over $100,000 since I started using it). Christmas time (and the lead up to it) is a particularly good time for Amazon – last December it would have ranked #2 on this list.

8. ProBlogger Job Boards

The job boards here at ProBlogger continue to grow each month in the number of advertisements that are being bought. This enabled me to invest most of the money that they’d earned a while back into getting a new back end for the boards and to redesign them. These job boards now bring in over $1000 a month in revenue which is pretty nice considering that they are so low maintenance to run. They also offer a service to readers and add value to the overall blog.
The only problem that I face with the job boards is that there are so many bloggers looking for work that the demand for jobs far exceeds the supply. On the good side of things is that advertisers are reporting getting amazing quality of applications.

9. Speaking Fees

I get asked to do a lot of speaking and increasingly they are paid opportunities. I’m not able to do as many as I would like (mainly because I live in Australia and most of what I’m asked to do is overseas and I only travel 2-3 times a year) – however in April I did a couple of events and the income was enough to include in this list.

Other Income

In addition to all of the above there are many smaller incomes. Many of these are from smaller advertising programs that I test but none are big enough to really rate a mention here.
The other income stream that there was no actual money from in April was book royalties from the ProBlogger Book. These are only paid every 6 or so months (not in April). It’s probably also worth mentioning that authors don’t tend to make a whole lot of money on book royalties – you don’t write books to get rich (unless you sell a lot of them).

Useful Resources for Bloggers Wanting to Make Money Blogging

A lot has been written on the topic of making money online from blogs. There is a lot of wonderful information out there – but also a lot of hype and sometimes dangerous information.
Below are a number of articles that I’ve written exploring some of the different ways that bloggers make money.

Recommended Reading on How to Make Money Blogging

• A Reality Check on Blogging for Money – I don’t like hype – this post attempts to paint a realistic picture of blogging for money.
• How Bloggers Make Money – a post that I wrote in 2005 (updated) which gives a broad introduction to how bloggers make money blogging.
• Making Money from Your Blog – Direct Methods – bloggers make money from blogging in two main ways – directly and indirectly. This post explores some of how they do it directly.
• Making Money Because of your Blog – Indirect Methods – and here’s an exploration of indirect methods.

How to Make Money Blogging from Advertising

• Advertising Optimization – A series of posts on how to optimize advertising on your blog including posts on Traffic, Ad Positioning, Ad Design, Ad Relevancy and High Paying Ads.
• AdSense Tips for Bloggers – an 8 part series of posts that walk bloggers new to Google’s AdSense (the way I make much of my income) through how to use it effectively to make money on their blogs.
• Positioning Your AdSense Ads - a 3 part series on how I literally doubled my AdSense earnings overnight by repositioning my ads
• How to Guarantee that You’ll Never Make More than 0.14 cents per month from AdSense – 10 points to help you earn more money from AdSense
• How Quickly After Starting a Blog Should I put Ads on it? – one of the most common questions I am asked
• 10 Ways to Make Your Blog More Attractive to Advertisers – an Ad Guy tells all

How to Make Money Blogging from Affiliate Programs

• 10 Tips for Using Affiliate Programs on Your Blog – these tips helped me grow my affiliate earnings many times over
• The Power of Getting Readers in the Door at Amazon - a case study on how linking to Amazon can lead to some surprising results
• 9 Reasons Why I am an Amazon Affiliate – Amazon is one of my bigger earners

Other Articles on Making Money from Blogs

• Principles of Choosing a Profitable Topic for Your Blog – key factors to consider before choosing a topic for your blog
• Should I Blog for Money? – before you rush into monetizing your blog – here is a post on whether you should at all

http://www.problogger.net/make-money-blogging/

What Google knows about you

by Tom Gara
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com

By: Tom Gara
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/
Let’s run through a little thought experiment.
Imagine there’s a list somewhere that contains every single webpage you have visited in the last five years. It also has everything you have ever searched for, every address you looked up on Google GOOG +0.26% Maps, every email you sent, every chat message, every YouTube video you watched. Each entry is time-stamped, so it’s clear exactly, down to the minute, when all of this was done.
Now imagine that list is all searchable. And imagine it’s on a clean, easy-to-use website. With all that imagined, can you think of a way a hacker, with access to this, could use it against you?
And once you’ve imagined all that, go over to google.com/dashboard, and see it all become reality.
For a piece complementing today’s story on Google and privacy by the WSJ’s Amir Efrati, I took a deep dive into Google Dashboard, a kind of Grand Central Terminus for all the information the company has stored on you. It’s a truly amazing amount, especially if, like me, you have been a heavy Gmail user since its launch in 2004. As long as you are logged into Gmail, or any other Google account, the company isn’t just keeping track of how you use its own service — it’s noting every site you visit on the web.
Here’s a snapshot of the kind of data we found on my Google Dashboard, put together as a graphic for today’s newspaper. It includes my 64,019 Google searches, and 134,966 Gmail conversations:

A few caveats: First, this data can only be collected when you are logged in to a Google service. Second, Google gives you options to turn the collection off, or delete archived data. And third, access to all this information is password protected. But once you get past the login screen, the amount of information there is staggering.
The idea that all of this data exists as a mass of ones and zeros deep in a server farm in California, being studied by disinterested robots to serve up better search results and more relevant ads, is something most of us can process in the abstract.
But the fact that it is all viewable right now, on a user-friendly Web page complete with its own search service (yes, you can run Google searches on your own web history), is something else entirely. For example, I searched for every website I’ve ever visited containing the word “octopus.” And yes, the results were wonderful.
Of course, if somebody else managed to access my Google Dashboard — and the chances of this happening are well above zero — they could search for things far less innocent than an eight-tentacled sea creature. The bad possibilities seem endless, from digital blackmail to much deeper forms of identity theft.
For example, how many people with even marginally public profiles, or aspirations for public office, would happily hand over a few hundred dollars in virtual ransom money to a hacker who agreed not to dump our entire web browsing history online and publicize it?
And how many husbands or wives would pay more to prevent a significant other from getting a package of edited highlights in the mail? Perhaps an address frequently searched for on Google Maps, or visited with a location-enabled Android phone? Any bosses out there who might stump up some cash to prevent their late night web-surfing habits from becoming an email sent to the entire office?
There’s another side to this, of course. In the long run our online histories will become one of our most cherished forms of memory, in some ways far more powerful than anything our brains are capable of. Gmail was one of the first Google services we signed into, and that was less than a decade ago. The Chrome browser has been around less than half as long. Our web histories are still young.
Give them another ten years and they will paint a picture of our past — of who we were — more detailed than any memory. Imagine thinking back to a specific day 20 years ago, and seeing the people we spoke to that day, what we spoke about, how they looked, the links they sent us, the things we said about them. We’ll be able to see the places we were on that day, and the photos we took on our phones, and the people we were with.
Maybe Google’s All Seeing Eye will eventually know things about us — patterns, gradual changes, small habits — that even we aren’t aware of. It might see the worst of us, but it could also see the better.
Philip K. Dick hinted at this in A Scanner Darkly, a 1977 novel well ahead of its time on matters of the surveillance state. Reflecting on the omnipresent surveillance devices that surrounded him, the protagonist wonders (see here for the beautifully-done movie version):
“What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me— into us—clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can’t any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone’s sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we’ll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.”

Here’s to hoping Google, and others, help us see clearly. They certainly have the data to do so — and this is based on what is being stored prior to the age of wearable computers in our glasses, self-driving cars, or the “internet of things”. As time goes on, our Google Dashboards will tell us more and more about who we are, and who we were.

http://muslimvillage.com/2013/08/10/42421/what-google-knows-about-you/

Doing Business in Indonesia ?

Market Overview

• Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy and has delivered consistently high annual growth exceeding 6% in both 2007 and 2008. Growth of between 2% and 4.5% is expected in 2009.
• The consumer market continues to grow in the world’s fourth-largest country. There are more than 237 million citizens, 50% of whom are under the age of 30.
• GDP per person exceeds its ASEAN neighbors such the Philippines and Indonesia has a GDP per person three times that of Vietnam. Indonesia is a thriving democracy with significant regional autonomy. It is located on the world’s major trade routes and has extensive natural resources.
• It is a top-ten market for U.S. agricultural products and within the top 30 overall markets for U.S. exports. Indonesia has ratified the Cape Town Treaty, which gives U.S. aircraft exporters access to financing through international protection and registration of financial interests.

Market Challenges

• The business environment in Indonesia is challenging. U.S firms often find it difficult and time consuming to enter the market.
• Although improving, rule-of-law issues persist. Dispute settlement mechanisms are not highly developed. Local and foreign businesses cite corruption and ineffective courts as serious problems. Business and regulatory disputes, which would be generally considered administrative or civil matters in the United States, may be treated as criminal cases in Indonesia.
• Competition from companies from Singapore, China, Japan, Malaysia and other regional players is intense.
• Deregulation has been successful in reducing some barriers by creating more transparent trade and investment regimes, but the bureaucracy can be cumbersome.
• The Rupiah has depreciated by approximately 20% against the U.S. dollar since January 2008, making U.S. exports relatively more expensive.
• The public trade statistics may significantly understate market opportunities and trends due to the large numbers of shipments that are recorded as U.S. exports to Singapore but which ultimately enter Indonesia via Singapore.

Market Opportunities

• Important opportunities exist in mining and agribusiness equipment and services.
• The aircraft market favors U.S. products. Aircraft, replacement parts and service are valuable and significant markets.
• Telecommunications technology and satellites remain excellent areas for American products and services.
• The expansion of banking to previously underserved customers offers software and systems opportunities.
• Education and professional training, research, medical equipment and high-quality American agricultural commodities all retain their market edge even with premium prices.
• Emerging opportunities include palm oil biofuel processing and refining.
• U.S. franchises continue to attract Indonesian demand.
• Growing markets include: renovation and construction of regional and municipal infrastructure and water systems, military upgrading, safety and security systems and protection of sea-borne traffic.

Market Entry Strategy

• Although it may be possible in some cases to sell directly to the Government or state-owned companies, local services of agents, local offices or distributors are often critical to successful project development and to assure timely delivery, installation and follow up service needs. Most government procurement decisions favor proven providers or assurance of service based on long-established relationships.
• Small- and medium-sized U.S. firms entering the Indonesian market increase their likelihood of success with strong local agents or distributors. The U.S. Commercial Service Jakarta helps U.S. companies identify and qualify potential Indonesian representatives.
• U.S. companies must visit the Indonesian market in order to properly choose an appropriate agent or distributor. Appointment of a representative requires care, since it is difficult to get out of a bad relationship. Qualified representatives will not take U.S. principals seriously unless they make a commitment to visiting the market on a regular basis. Patience and presence are key success factors.
• Key factors affecting purchasing decisions in Indonesia are pricing, financing, technical skills, and after-sales service. Firms should be prepared to invest capital and manpower into making their local representative a first-class service provider.
• Indonesian non-financial firms obtain nearly 50% of their financing from abroad via loans, bonds, and other credit thus Indonesian exports often depend on trade financing. 

http://export.gov/Indonesia/doingbusinessinindonesia/index.asp