Casual Articles - Internet and Businesses Online

Profile of a New Business – A Working Mum's Success
Taking the plunge is not a decision to be made lightly. My motivation came from the desire to spend as much time as possible with my son. What your motivation may be is up to you, but it must be strong. Owning your own business is hard work, and you must be sure you really want it. I’m not going to talk here about the qualities needed for success, and many other people wax lyrical on what is needed. I’ll give you an indication of how I got here, and where I’m going next, as a guide to how it can be done. It’s not the right way, or the only way, it’s my way. So far it’s going well.There are few things as heart wrenching to a new mother as the choice between staying at home with the baby, and losing income, social input, the esteem of a career and contact with the world at large, and going back to work, being well off, but coping with the guilt of separation and the fear of missing so many important developments in your child’s life. This is the choice I faced two years ago when pregnant with my first child. My choice may have been easier as I was disillusioned with my career and wanted a change of direction, but the fear of going it alone and severing the ties t

without any major effort.

* Tip: Even after you've gone through the websites where you had put your cloaked link and removed it I would recommend keeping the file on your domain because there might be a few "ghosts" left out there on the internet who still link to this file.

Also, if the product or service you're promoting changes its affiliate system and you have to use a different URL to get commissions you can just easily update the URL through your cloaking file - and you'll not lose commissions by having an old, unusable link out there on the internet.

Resources To Help You Cloak Links

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you don't know how to create HTML files and edit them or if you don't trust yourself to do it there are many services available to help you:

* AdTrackz Software (highly recommended). This one creates a

frame-based cloak file automatically and javascript-encodes the

source code which makes it close to impossible for people to

steal your hard earned commission:

http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/adtracker.html

* Affiliate Link Cloaker - makes it all easy and secure:

http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/recommended/cloaklinks.html

* NameStick - cloak a link with an easy to remember domain:

http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/recommended/cloakdomain.html

* TinyURL - cloak a link with 1 click:

http://www.tinyurl.com

* shorlify

Ultimate Safelist Survival - What Is A Safelist Anyway?
What is a SafelistBasically a safelist is a gathering of like minded individuals who have agreed to exchanges ads. You agree to receive ads from all the others members in exchange for the opportunity to send your own. This concept has many advantages, here's a couple of them.The advantages of safelist marketingFor one it's spam free as people have to double opt-in to the safelist and thereby agreeing to receive your ads, should some nutter decide that the safelist mail is spam anyway it's not really your problem as the mail is not sent from your email address or server. Actually this is the origin of the name, a safelist is a closed community where it is safe for members to exchange ads.The second advantage is quite obvious but many people fail to see this, what does all safelist members have in common? They have something to sell, but they have not advanced far enough in their internet marketing carreer to dismiss a very mundane task as posting to safelist is. That means that if you have a product, report, ebook, income opportunity etc. that can help people on the way to internet glory, the average safelist user is an excelle

You've most likely seen them in ezines, websites, etc. and quite possibly clicked on a few of them. If you've been in affiliate marketing you might have even used them yourself... or at least you should have. Because it can save you both time and money.

What I'm talking about are cloaked affiliate links. That is, small HTML files that hide your referral ID, username, member #, etc... and/or shorten the full URL.

How Do They Work?

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Usually the HTML file you use to cloak your affiliate URL forwards the user to the actual affiliated website just moments after clicking your cloaked link (or entering it into the web browser). The HTML file can also be frame-based, meaning that it will put the affiliate URL in an invisible frame so the user will only see the URL to your cloaked link and not the URL of the website you are directing the user to.

What Is The Purpose?

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Many dishonest people will do anything they can to prevent affiliate marketers from getting their commission for their hard work. When people see a link that they recognize as an affiliate link they might cut your username off and buy directly from the website or even worse, they might replace your username with theirs and take your commission.

Also, some people might be uncomfortable clicking on a link they recognize as an affiliate link.

What link would you rather click on:

http://www.madisondynamics.com/index.php?13523.artcl
or
http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/recommended/madison.html

Tests have shown that up to 30% of all affiliate commissions are STOLEN by people who replace with their own link to "buy at a discount" and it's a serious problem.

How Can You Prevent That?

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If the service you are affiliated with uses cookies or other tracking devices using a cloaked link that refreshes to the affiliate URL should make sure that you get the commission/ referral you deserve. Because once the user clicks your cloaked link and is redirected to your affiliate URL a cookie with your referral ID is saved on the user's computer and the user should be less likely to succeed in stealing your commission.

Here is a sample of the HTML code you can use to create a HTML file that refreshes to your affiliate URL:

<#html>
<#head>
<#title>Loading... please wait<#/title>
<#meta http-equiv="refresh"

content="0;URL=http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com">
<#/head>

<#body>
<#p><#b><#font size="+1">Loading... please

wait<#/font><#/b><#/p>
<#p>If you are not redirected in 10 seconds

<#a href="http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com">click here<#/a>.<#/p>
<#/body>
<#/html>

Just replace "http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com" with the referral URL your affiliate program gave you.

However, if your affiliate service/program doesn't use cookies or if you're not sure, it would be safer for you to use framed cloaked links because then the user won't see your full affiliate URL and won't be able to cut off your referral ID.

Here is a sample of the HTML code you can use to create a HTML file that puts your affiliate URL into an invisible frame:

<#html>
<#head>
<#title>Name of your affiliate program<#/title>
<#/head>

<#frameset rows="100%,*" frameborder="NO" border="0" framespacing="0">

<#frame src="http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com" name="mainFrame" border=0>

<#frame border=0 scrolling="NO" noresize>
<#/frameset>
<#noframes><#body>
<#/body><#/noframes>
<#/html>

(Note from author: In order for the HTML code to be seen correctly I've added "#" signs. If you intend on using this code just remove the "#" signs.)

Just replace "http://www.YourAffiliateURL.com" with the referral URL your affiliate program gave you. You should also change the title to the actual name of your affiliate program or something else you think is appropriate.

You should know though that people will always be trying to get passed the cloaked links so there is never a 100% way of ensuring your rightful commissions. But using cloaked links will definitely decrease the chance of you losing out on a commission.

But How Can It Save You Time?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that we have seen how cloaking your links can save you money how can it save you time?

Well, I realized this recently when I decided to drop out of a certain affiliate program. I had been promoting this program on several places on the internet and the URL I was promoting was a cloaked link I had created on my domain.

You can understand that I no longer wanted to promote a program I was not affiliated with any more. So I was looking forward to at least a half hour of searching the internet for places where I had put a link to this program and either change it or delete it.

But that's when I realized I didn't have to hurry and delete all these links so I wouldn't be wasting money and credits on this program. All I had to do was log in to my website and edit the HTML file I had created to cloak the program's URL and make the file direct people to another URL I was comfortable promoting.

I could then later on when I had the time go find the places where I had been promoting the program and update the information. I could even just skip that if I didn't want to, and if the information promoting that URL wasn't misleading, related to the new URL. But even if you want to update the information or delete the link sometimes you can't. For example, on certain places where you buy text links, etc.; then instead of that link promoting a program you're no longer affiliated with you are able to promote another website, without any major effort.

Resources To Help You Cloak Links

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you don't know how to create HTML files and edit them or if you don't trust yourself to do it there are many services available to help you:

* AdTrackz Software (highly recommended). This one creates a

frame-based cloak file automatically and javascript-encodes the

source code which makes it close to impossible for people to

steal your hard earned commission:

http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/adtracker.html

* Affiliate Link Cloaker - makes it all easy and secure:

http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/recommended/cloaklinks.html

* NameStick - cloak a link with an easy to remember domain:

http://www.workathomemadeeasy.net/recommended/cloakdomain.html

* TinyURL - cloak a link with 1 click:

http://www.tinyurl.com

* shorlify

Using Surveys To Help Grow And Improve Your Business
One of the most effective methods for growing and improving upon your current business is to solicit feedback regarding your products or services directly from your customers. There are many ways the information you attain from customers can be valuable, including:Gauge overall customer satisfaction - You can see just how satisfied your customers are, and if they aren't, ask them exactly what the problem was and what you can do to fix it. For customers that are satisfied, you can learn more about what they like about your company.Estimating customer loyalty - You can gauge the likelihood that a customer will use your products or services again through their survey answers.Gauge effectiveness of marketing campaigns - By simply asking the client how they found out about your company, you can see what marketing campaigns are bringing in the sales and which are not, and make adjustments to your marketing efforts accordingly.Estimate interest in new products and services - You can present the customer with sample products and services that you have not yet launched and get their feedback on whether they would be interested in it.Test new

ou rather click on: