This is a guest post by John on things to consider when starting a make money online blog. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

Blogging is the most popular and the best online profession nowadays. Are you also one of those who are here to make money online
and are passionate about writing their blogs? Here I will discuss few tips that can help you to become a successful blogger. Hold on, these are not ordinary tips that such as how to bring traffic and what type of content you must upload on your blog.

First of all, keep in mind that blogging is a passion and people who love reading and writing can create a successful blog. Play with words and experiment with new happenings, then nothing can stop you from being successful in this venture.

Here are few tips that you must consider before starting on making money online through blogging.

Face your Fright

We always remain uncertain about our capabilities and give many irrational logics to us for why we should not proceed on the way but remember this, unless you won’t fight back your fears, you will always remain deprived of success. See the history of successful people they defeated their fears and made their way.

If you want to be victorious in blogging quickly, beat your boundaries and go after your passion. Do not consider blogging as a burden but love it and get things done as fun. Accept challenges and turn them into fun otherwise, it will make you away from this making money online venture.

Make a long-term plan

It never goes in vein if you start blogging with a plan and that is making money online from it for sure. There is nothing wrong in it but be specific about your plans and be sure to execute them in time. making money online from blogging is like an offline or online business where you must have a long-term plan to move on accordingly.

The plan must be flexible enough that you can mold it and adjust it with timely requirement. Have a bigger plan for yourself, write it what you exactly want out of it, and work accordingly.

If you feel like plan is not working accordingly, make some necessary amendments in it and get started again. Never give up easily.

Be Original

Show up others what you really are, as you are unique, remarkable, original and different from all others. Be confident about yourself and have courage to showcase it to others. People like you will love to read what you are writing, not because of piece of content but the man behind it who is writing.

Be informative and original in your creation and people will love to read your blog.

Develop connection with readers

Think about it just once before selling your stuff to people that how you would like to be treated if you are out to buy something. How it feels to be pulled up and people toss information towards you about the particular stuff in which you are interested to buy? Even once, you were interested but after sinking into such situation, you will certainly reject the idea to buy that item. Same is the case with your readers and other folks.

Being connected with real people and making a sale to them is a cherished experience. Therefore, learn how to mingle up with people like friends and then how to present your offers to them. You should neither be rude nor be needy, but you must delight people in a normal way. Help them in making decision, do not impose things on them and soon you will see these people would love to come back to you. Always remember, happy customers are loyal customers.

I hope I have summed up few yet applicable tips in this post regarding how to make money online from blogging, take benefit of it and do let me know about your thinking.

About the Author:

This is a guest post by John Simmons who writes on making money online.

This is a guest post by Susan on alternate Social Media Networks. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

Twitter and Facebook: they’re the undisputed kings of the social media industry whose names are practically synonymous with the web. Thousands upon thousands of blog posts are dedicated to the sole purpose of getting web users to maximize their potential on Twitter and Facebook for personal gain, for sharing a blog URL, or for helping out a small business.

The huge amount of time that we dedicate to talking about these two services is stunning, considering the equally huge amount of time many of us spend on actually using them. To the few outsiders, the point seems clear: if you don’t utilize Twitter or Facebook, you risk being left behind.

But I don’t think that it’s absolutely necessary to use either service on the web in order to achieve some modicum of success. Let me explain.

Other forms of social media do exist

Believe it or not, there are countless other social media platforms out there beyond Twitter and Facebook. There are so many other options out there for the savvy web user; it just takes some effort to find them.

For example, one of the more prominent social media services on the scene is Pinterest, an invite only service (thus far) that allows the user to pin up photos, videos, text, and other media on a virtual pin board for other users to pursue at their leisure. Despite it’s simple premise, Pinterest has taken off in recent months, attracting millions of page views per month along with ample interest from companies and entrepreneurs looking to leverage the service into a marketing machine.

Tumblr is another deceptively simple but wildly popular social media tool that has done great things to link people and professionals together. So take the time to check out what else is out there; you won’t be disappointed!

Sometimes it’s better to choose targeted social media platforms

One of the drawbacks to Facebook in particular is that it appeals to such a wide and general audience. If anything, Facebook is a casual space for friends to talk to one another; it feels a little off when businesses try to make a social media pushing using the service.

If you’re in the insurance industry, for instance, Facebook might not be the most professional pathway towards networking with potential clients and customers. You would be better off networking among professionals in a social network that’s specifically targeted to your needs, like LinkedIn which caters solely to business professionals of all industries.

Targeted social media platforms will help narrow the field of users that you have to sift through—you’ll be able to find what you want faster and more efficiently.

Give the other guy a chance

Now I’m not trying to vilify Facebook or Twitter; I understand that it clearly has a real and lasting use on and beyond the web. My contention is that people just get too caught up in the social media storm to realize that there’s more to the web that these two companies that constantly vie for our attention.

Startup companies pop up every day with the intention of becoming the next big thing in social media, the thing that can redefine the online experience. Why not give them a chance to change your mind?

About the Author:

This is a guest post by Susan Wells. Susan is from insurance quote guide, she writes on topics including health/car/life insurance, mortgage, real estate.

This is a guest post by Susan on securing your PayPal account. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

PayPal is today one the most sought after payment system. If you are an affiliate marketer, I am sure you will prefer a payment mode through PayPal, primarily because of the low fees and charges. Other modes of payment like Wire Transfer and Direct Deposit involves a lot of charges which means that your commissions effectively are lower than it actually was.

But is PayPal a safe method?

While statistics say that PayPal is safe, it is extremely important that you too be cautious about your account and the way you transact.

Popularity of PayPal

With booming online presence of different business enterprises, self employed activities and blogging, the role of PayPal has really improved in financial transactions. People are using the platform to get or send payments online through PayPal but it should be noted here that your account can be easily hacked. This becomes an easy target for the hackers and your money gat lost or transferred where you never wanted. The trend of fake emails and immediate opening of emails on PayPal is the biggest concern which leads the hackers to enter into your personal account.

Protecting PayPal accounts from hackers

Well, there are a number of things to consider when you think of protecting the account on PayPal from hackers. With increasing risks and concerns over the safety of those accounts, it becomes really essential to take care of some important steps and tips. You should be in regular contact with the customer support of the website and try to report any mischief or activity which bothers you about the protection of PayPal account. It further becomes important for you to change your password on regular basis rather than keeping the same lock for a whole year.

How to keep PayPal account safe from hacking

• The valued account users should always try to avoid clicking the masked links. Whenever you are asked to click links that contain some brackets and hrefs coded in HTML tags, you should definitely avoid them. In place, you can type the URL manually in your browser to visit the official pages.
• It should be noted here that everything related to your PayPal transactions and balance will be displayed on the official webpage of the company. What happens if you are provided with fake and spam emails? When clicked, these links will try to steal your personal data like account balance, user ID and password which is not a good safety indication. Thus, it is always suggested that to not click on the emails that notify you of paid or any sort of transactions.
• When you receive emails from PayPal, you should always check the email header to verify whether it has come from the genuine source. In fact, the website never asks for your password once you have registered but hackers will do the same.
• The internet experts also suggest of typing https://www.paypal.com which will lead you to most secure and official website. The letter‘s’ which http ends with should be taken care of. This is in fact, an internet protocol which is the sign that you are visiting a secured webpage.
• One of the most secured ways of protecting PayPal account from hacking is to often change your password. Hackers usually crack the passwords by using the Dictionary Attack. Many a people and PayPal; users also take help from password managers like KeyPass which is free and open source.
• Hackers may also use key logger software or programs in hidden mode on your desktop. Thus, it becomes important for you to make use of on-screen keyboard while logging into your PayPal account.

Summary: -

For keeping your PayPal account safe from hackers, you should always try to keep alphanumeric passwords while changing them. Use of on-screen keyboard is also recommended and never click on the spam, fake or masked links in your account.

About the Author-

I am Susan Hannan from Exams key  Looking for Exams key exam assistance? Let’s take benefit of Exams key self-paced ISEB Certifications training material and clear your IT certification on first try.

This is a guest post by Francesca on some Essential Twitter accounts to follow. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

When the topic of using Twitter for business comes up, most people would automatically get into utilizing it to promote your brand or connect with customers. And while the microblogging site is indeed great for self-promotion and talking to customers, don’t forget that it’s equally important to listen to what others have to say.

As an entrepreneur, it’s extremely important to learn about the most innovative business tools out there. After all, your customers deserve the best and most up-to-date services out there, and the only way to give them that is to keep yourself educated and informed about what’s happening in the industry.

Thankfully, there isn’t a shortage of brilliant coaches and websites out there that are more than happy to help entrepreneurs like you succeed. And while you may not have the time or budget to get in touch with all them and enroll in every single business course or software that they offer, a quick and easy way to get instant knowledge from them is through Twitter. Following the right people on Twitter will enable you to get tons of bite-sized insights and entrepreneurial advice.

This blog post will highlight a few Twitter accounts that every online entrepreneur will find useful. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; if you’re working to have more online success, then be sure to have these accounts in your Twitter stream.

Andrew Warner (@AndrewWanrner) –

What better way to learn about entrepreneurship than from people who’ve done it themselves? Andrew Warner is the founder of Mixergy, a site that offers courses and interviews from successful entrepreneurs. He interviews successful founders on a regular basis and picks their brains so that listeners can hear about their experiences and lessons. Warner has already interviewed a lot of great minds out there, including Groupon founder Andrew Mason, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, Barbara Corcoran of the Corcoran group, and many more. Check out his site and follow him on Twitter to make sure that you never miss an interview again!

AppSumo.com (@AppSumo) –

Think of AppSumo as the Groupon for online products. This site offers daily deals for people who are trying to find success on the web. From WordPress action videos and courses on HTML5, to Internet Marketing software and Business Apps, this site has you covered. The AppSumo Twitter account is also constantly pushing upcoming deals and exciting contests for web geeks and Internet entrepreneurs.

KISSmetrics.com (@KISSmetrics) –

KISSmetrics is an online software that lets businesses analyze data in order to identify trends and guide their decision-making and growth.  Now even if you don’t intend to buy the software, KISSmetrics is still worth following on Twitter if you have an online business. The KISSmetrics team constantly tweets and blogs about useful insights for online entrepreneurs. They’re always releasing infographics about the latest online data that can help you learn more about what you need to do on the Internet to be successful.

Alyssa Gregory (@alyssagregory) –

Need down to earth advice on running a business? Be sure to check out Alyssa Gregory’s account. She tweets helpful and practical articles for small biz owners on a daily basis, and she’s also the founder of Small Business Bonfire, an online community just for entrepreneurs. Check her out to gain valuable insights and to connect with like-minded individuals.

Dear PR (@DearPR) –

Public Relations (AKA: the act of chasing after journalists to make your company look good in front of the public) is something that you have to master if you want to put your name out there and generate buzz. If you’re struggling with Public Relations, then perhaps you’ll have a little more luck if you follow Dear PR, an account that teaches people how NOT to do PR, one clever tweet a time. Dear PR constantly publishes witty and often hilarious tweets about Public Relations fails and worst practices.

Image credit: Rosaura Ochoa on Flickr

About the Author:

Francesca StaAna is from AdMedia, an online advertising network that connects advertisers to consumers through a number of innovative products including ad remarketing, affiliate programs, pay per click advertising, and more.

Affiliate Marketing has changed in the past couple of years. Some ideas of promoting affiliate products do not work anymore. New ways of promoting affiliate products have come up and a lot of affiliates who did not change their promotion methods have started to see the pinch.

I had seen one of this situation about an year back and it took me more than 3 months to come back on track. My affiliate income dipped and since I was not a million dollar earning affiliate, the setback created a serious dent in my income. But fortunately for my marketing efforts I was able to recover in time.

So what is a change-proof affiliate marketing formula?

To be frank, there is no change-proof affiliate marketing formula. The mantra for success in the ever changing internet world is to be updated with the changes and change your strategies accordingly.

I owe my affiliate marketing success to a few people who taught me everything about affiliate marketing. I had spoken about one such person in one of my earlier post – Andrew Fox. The other marketers who I have followed are Mark Ling and Yaro Starak.

Mark Ling is a very successful affiliate marketer and has also helped a lot of affiliates make money online and be successful with his affiliate marketing courses. I was part of his coaching program earlier and this was what helped me ensure that I do not fail when the affiliate marketing world changed.

AffiloBlueprint 2.0 was the last course Mark offered. He is now readying to launch the latest version of the course – AffiloBlueprint 3.0.

AffiloBlueprint 3.0 Review – The Course?

Needless to say that AffiloBlueprint 3.0 is an upgrade over the last course and hence includes all that was there is the earlier version and something more as well.

There are thousands of other courses available today. Then what different does AffiloBlueprint has to offer?

You can signup for any good course from a good and reputed marketer, but then what is important is that the course hand-holds you to build your affiliate marketing business. Success requires taking action and not everybody joining a course will take action (else the entire world would have been successful). But it is important that the tutor at least guide people and take the students to setting up a business. If a course cannot do that, then it is useless.

AffiloBlueprint  is one such course I recommend joining. Wealthy Affiliate is another course. You can check out this too.

Though I termed it as an AffiloBlueprint 3.0  review, I really did not want to do a review of the product because you will pretty much see everything that this course covers at the sales page itself. And there is not need to tell you what these things will be and how they will help you in your affiliate marketing effort.

All that I would like to say it, Mark Ling has a track record that talks for him. His past courses have been amazing and I can vouch for the quality of it.

If you really plan to make some money with affiliate marketing and be successful in it, then Mark is the man you should follow and AffiloBlueprint 3.0 is the course to join.

You can check out AffiloBlueprint 3.0 here. Don’t waste another minute and go and check out AffiloBlueprint 3.0 right away.

This is a guest post by Ruben on A/B Testing. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

Commerce sites and online retailers set up websites for one main reason: to increase sales. The first challenge in managing these sites is getting sufficient traffic and sustaining it. Once this is out of the way, the next step should be to find ways and means to increase the rate of conversion of the website’s existing traffic by testing.

What is A/B Testing?

A/B testing is a method that involves modifying one element in a website and showing both variations to site visitors and prospective buyers. The version that gets the most favorable or positive response is deemed as the better one and the changes are then implemented on the actual website.

A/B testing is commonly used to test different versions of banner ads, website layouts, landing pages, and email newsletters. They are relatively easy to conduct because of their simplicity, which has made the technique one of the most popular in the world of Internet marketing.

The Benefits of A/B Testing

Webmasters and designers are able to learn a lot by conducting A/B tests. Conducting surveys can shed some light on what your site visitors want, but they’re often hard to conduct given how so many users don’t like taking surveys. In a way, these A/B tests are like surveys because you’re still measuring responses from your users in an indirect manner.

An optimized website can help you convert on your current traffic because users are more willing to make a purchase or stay on your site longer—that is, if you cater to their preferences and give them what they want. You will also be able to gain a better understanding of your site visitors and use this knowledge for running your future campaigns.

Source: http://www.sitefinity.com

Step-by-Step Guide to Conduct an A/B Test

A/B testing isn’t rocket science. You don’t need to take courses on IT or programming because there is a number of software that you can use to do the tests. You can also hire firms do the testing for you, if you prefer.

Decide what to test

Assess your current site from top to bottom and make a list of elements that could use some improvement. For example, you could consider doing an A/B test for your site layout, image placement, banners, length of content featured on each page, menu bar, and so on.

Design your test.

Once your list is ready, choose one element to test and then create two variations of it. The difference between the two can be subtle or they can be more pronounced; it’s entirely up to you to decide what options you’re going to be laying out for your test.

Run your A/B test.

When the variations are ready, it’s time to run the test. You can use testing software and programs to do it, like Google’s Website Optimizer. This tool is being provided by Google for free, although what you can do with it is a bit limited. If you’re looking to do more with your tests, then you can consider getting premium software instead.

Interpret the results.

A/B tests typically run for a few weeks, depending on your site traffic. When it’s done, gather the data, interpret the results, and implement the version that got the best results from the test. Depending on the criteria you’re working with, this could be the variant that gave you more clicks or sales.

Do it all over again.

When your current test is done, move on to the next thing on your list and go through all of the steps again. Keep running A/B tests so you can continue optimizing your website and increasing your conversions.

About the Author:

Ruben Corbo is a freelancer writer which specializes in different topics including technology, online marketing with AB and Split Testing and Product Recommendation Engines, music, art, and motivation. When Ruben is not writing he is producing and composing music for short films and other forms of visual arts.

Photograph Courtesy:http://www.getbusymedia

This is a guest post by Ashlee on some useful Blogging Tools For Android. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

Theoretically, it has been possible to “blog” from a smartphone for many years now. You could awkwardly tap posts, perhaps, and maybe upload a terrible quality phone photo, if you were lucky.

Today, however, smartphones offer ubiquitous Internet, modern browsers, excellent screens and cameras, and a robust selection of apps. With all these factors together, you can indeed perform advanced blogging functions, and go beyond words to create and upload photos and videos.

For this blog post, I will focus on a handful of high quality Android apps that allow you create content and manage your blog on the go.

Blogging Services

WordPress: This excellent, free app may just offer all the tools you need to manage your WordPress blog. Creating new posts, managing comments, uploading multimedia, and viewing visitor statistics can all be done through the app. (Free)

Text Editors

QuickOffice: If you like writing content in Microsoft Word before converting it to HTML (or simply pasting it), I recommend QuickOffice. Built with connections to both Dropbox, Google Docs, and other popular online document services, you’ll find an excellent option for accessing and editing your rich documents. ($14.99)

Writer: For those that may find an “office” app too unwieldy, I can recommend the simple, free plain text editor Writer. Unlike many other mobile text editors, this one is stripped of formatting features and all distracting buttons and options. Just sit down and let your thoughts flow with this. (Free)

DroidEdit Pro: I know I’m going heavy on the text editors, but I promise this one’s worth it. DroidEdit Pro offers about as good an environment for writing and editing HTML as you’ll find on a smartphone. Power users will love features like syntax-based color-coding, keyboard shortcuts, HTML previews, and connections to Dropbox. ($1.69)

Image Editing

FX  Photo Editor: Image editing has never been an ideal task for smartphones. I find, however, that FX Photo Editor does an admirable job on my Samsung Galaxy from T-Mobile. You’ll find options for simple commands like resizing images to more complex operations such as color corrections and adding powerful filters. ($3.99)

Photoshop Touch: If you have an Android tablet, you can’t go wrong with Photoshop Touch. Take advantage of your screen size and capabilities to use incorporate features like layers and blending. ($9.99)

Analytics and Social Media

gAnalytics: Both free and powerful, gAnalytics offers a user-friendly atmosphere for viewing your Google Analytics website statistics. (Free)

Hootsuite: For sharing your blog posts and following social media, I recommend Hootsuite. Made with professionals in mind, this social media management dashboard offers the ability to add multiple accounts for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The app includes a URL shorter and tracks clicks to your links, which is vital data for understanding what works and what doesn’t in social media. (Free)

File Management

Explorer + File Manager Pro: For accessing files directly on your Android phone, I recommend this robust file explorer. ($3.99)

FTP Café: Most of you won’t need an FTP manager, but if you do, FTP Café offers a good blend of features and convenience. ($3.99)

Dropbox: You may have already seen this file storage service mentioned several times already. I recommend Dropbox because it plugs into so many other apps, and its dead-simple to use. (Free)

Notes and Reading

gReader Pro: Keep up with your favorite blogs with this excellent Google Reader client. Stories look great and are easy-to-access on this popular app. ($5.99)

Evernote: For researching my blog posts, I love cloud-based notes service Evernote. On this web, Windows, and phone app, I can keep lists of links I might refer to, outlines of possible posts, and even just brainstorm ideas. (Free)

About the Author:

Ashlee McCullen is a staff writer for ApronAddicts.com, a website about kitchen fashion and home style. She also writes about mobile technology and self-improvement.

This is a guest post by Laura on the how to improve communication at your Blog. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

Your blog is on its way to success and you’re surely working hard to see it up. Still there’s one thing that any pro can surely do better. I’m speaking about the ability of your blog to stir instant reactions and to inspire people to exchange messages, not just passively read what you are posting – all in all, to keep doors open for communication.

It’s easy to maintain a good environment for exchanging viewpoints (after all, it’s what all of us do each day). Yet too many blogs remain covered in silence – no visitor’s message, few comments and a lot of spam. How to optimize your blog to make it a friendly place for communication? Keep an eye on the following main points.

Comments and trackbacks

Does anybody particularly enjoy shouting in the void? Of course not. Comments on your posts give you and your readers a sense of belonging – you feel listened to and the relationship with your readers grows with every reply you leave below their notes.

Let’s face it: many commenters are driven by SEO reasons. Hence, they will search for topics that they can comment upon plus leave a valid link to their website. It’s your call if you leave your blog do-follow or not, but be aware that if you don’t, the buzz will be seriously pushed back. A good idea would be to leave it so and do manual comment moderation.

A bit of automatizing is always necessary. Each blogging CMS has dedicated plugins or widgets for handling comments. You can rank them by popularity, enable discussions on social networks and create a “Top commenters” list to show courtesy towards your fans. WordPress has the wonderful CommentLuv (which should be part of your online marketing kit) and many other comment plugins. Blogger, on the other hand, provides widgets such as Easy comments, Recent comments, Top commentators and Disqus.

While comments help build your relationship with readers, trackbacks are a great method to nurture your network of fellow bloggers. Not to mention you will benefit from the backlinks on the blogs that referenced you. Make a habit of regularly approving trackbacks from quality blogs even if they have lower page rank than yours, this won’t hurt your rankings by any means but you’ll make somebody happy.

Web forms

You can display them as you wish: on separate pages, in light-boxes or as buttons on the side of the page. Forms are the primary way to convert blog visitors into subscribers, by offering them an opt-in field to sign up to your newsletter promotion campaigns. It’s also a handy method to gather organized feedback right to your inbox without having to display your e-mail address publicly.

Use a web form builder or create your own forms for scratch where it’s possible. From the essential contact form with maybe three fields, Name – E-mail – Message, up to all-purpose forms (order form for e-commerce, registration form online surveys), you can optimize them for good fill-in rates.

Choose a proper placement for the tab containing the form: in the page header, footer or sidebar. Divide form content into sections or branches, use less text boxes and choose a form design that fits your image. Remember, it takes 8 to 10 seconds for users to decide if they stay on the page or leave it, so make wise use of their time.

Social media sharing

Most of your readers, if not all of them, are active on social media. Share your content via your own profiles and make it easy for readers to share on their turn. For each social network there is the possibility to add a sharing button on your blog.

The major social sites have applications for synchronizing your blog RSS feed with the public profile. Take for example Facebook Simply RSS or RSS Connect, LinkedIn Blog Link that would post on your profile or on groups, Twitter Feed that makes RSS visible to everyone but with no-follow links. Generally, these apps help build reputation and buzz, not necessarily aid your SEO. And your primary aim is to please humans not bots, isn’t it?

Other communication tools

Your blog can do even more than receive comments and facilitate mail exchange. There are plugins and widgets that enable real-time messaging from administrator to visitors or chat between community members. This means you won’t have to waste time exchanging IDs and testing networks, the connections are already available.

Want to be the next official speaker of your blog? WordPress offers a variety of message bar plugins and video conference alternatives such as VideoWhisper. If you are on Blogger, you can use widgets for Google Talk, Meebo Me, Skype and many others.

A positive mindset

Yes, that’s right. Technology can help, flair is definitely a key part of your blogging kit, but it’s the overall quality of your blog that can really give your visitors a taste for communication. Write about topics that you enjoy, do the necessary legwork with positivity and it will show. With a door that’s open, you can surely expect to have visitors around in no time.

About the Author:

Laura Moisei is a blogging passionate. She writes for 123ContactForm, a web form builder that helps users create beautiful forms for any blog or webpage.

This is a guest post by Charlotte on organizing your inbox. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

If you regularly use one email account and you get a large influx of emails every day, keeping your inbox neat and tidy could be a job in itself. Setting up automatic filters that send your emails to certain folders can help you to keep on top of everything, and it will also ensure you always know where your important emails are kept.

A lot of people assume you need to be a computer whiz to set these filters up, but it can actually only take a couple of minutes and it can be done on all of the major email providers. So, if you’re struggling to sort your emails, follow these simple tips for setting up filters in Gmail, Hotmail or Outlook.

Gmail

Gmail’s filter system can automatically delete, archive, star or forward your emails and you can set it to work on all messages being sent to you.

To apply a filter you just need to click on the ‘settings’ button in Gmail and then on ‘filter’. You’ll then be shown a criteria box, which allows you to specify what you want Gmail to look out for when searching your emails. You can choose between ‘from’, ‘to’, ‘subject’, ‘doesn’t have’, ‘has the words’ and ‘has attachment’. So, for example, if you wanted all your Facebook emails to go into one folder, you would simply need to set the filter to look for messages being sent from an email address with Facebook mentioned in it.

You can select from a number of actions when applying your filter, including ‘archive’, ‘mark as read’, ‘star it’, ‘apply the label’, ‘forward to’, ‘delete’ and ‘never send it to Spam’. You simply need to select the action you would like and click ‘create filter’.

Hotmail

To set a filter system up in Hotmail, click on the ‘options’ button, select your Hotmail account type (Windows Live or Hotmail), go to ‘mail’ and then select ‘Rules for sorting new messages’ under the ‘Customising Hotmail’ heading. Click on the ‘new’ button on the next screen and you can then start setting up your filters.

You can set your filters to look for any part of the email, such as the subject, the sender’s address or the content. There are various actions you can choose, including ‘move to inbox’,  ‘move to a new folder’, ‘delete’, ‘add category’, ‘remove category’, ‘mobile alert’, ‘flag’ and ‘forward to’. Just choose your action, set your filter and hit save.

Outlook

Microsoft calls its filter system ‘rules’ and you can set it up based on messages currently in your inbox or for a completely new email address you’re using on Outlook. Assuming you’ve already got some emails though, to set up rules for an existing email address you can right click a message and go to the ‘rules’ option. You can either hit the ‘create rule’ button, or you can select one of the following options – ‘always send messages to’ and ‘always send messages from’. This just means that it’ll always send messages sent to or from a certain person to another folder once the rule’s been set up.

If you want to create a rule with different parameters, choose the ‘create a rule’ option. You can select the following specifications: ‘from’, ‘subject contains’, ‘sent to’, and the actions available include ‘display in the new item alert window’, ‘play sound’ or ‘move to folder’. You can then do this for all of your emails to set up multiple folders.

Tell us how do you organize your inbox by commenting below.

About the Author:

Post contributed by Charlotte Watson for EKM Response. Charlotte is a regular contributor to numerous affiliate marketing and SEO communities. Charlotte is an expert in email marketing and email marketing solutions for those involved in internet entrepreneurship.

This is a guest post by Mark on the importance of a Logo. You can read the guidelines for guest posting at our guest posting guidelines page.

The logo of a business is often the most recognizable aspects of the brand. The logo not only tells customers that the products are created by that brand but gives customers something that is a strong, immediate visual cue that represents that business. When a company doesn’t have a logo or has a weak and forgettable one, the name of the company is often easier to forget and may be judged as amateurish or even generic.

In every industry, having a company logo is expected as an important part of brand building and marketing.

Creating Trust

When customers look for a company to do business with or buy a product from, they want to have confidence that the company takes their business seriously and is there to stay. From food products to legal services, any product or service is largely sold through trust earned by the company. The logo of that company is a significant part of that trust. Without a logo, a business appears unprofessional and even unstable to a large segment of potential customers.

Customers remember a strong logo, allowing them to see the company as one that will endure. When they see the logo again later, they have a better sense of the stability of the company.

Building Your Brand

Trust and brand recognition are the two building blocks that create the foundation for a company’s growth. When customers see a logo, they not only remember what the company sells, they remember their own experiences with the company. Customer service and product satisfaction are important aspects of a business, and both of those aspects are immediately recalled when a past customer sees a logo. If you’ve put time, effort and money into creating positive customer experiences, you risk losing the memory of those experiences without a logo to place them firmly into the mind of the customer.

People remember what they see better than what they read and that is the principle behind creating a visual image to create memories in the public. A strong logo is often what customers most associate with a brand. Think of how you feel when you see the McDonalds arches or the round Starbucks logo. With these iconic symbols, these brands have created a cohesive following of people who recognize the logo and have an immediate reaction to it. In many ways, the logo is the one memorable visual representation of a brand. It is often the first thing that customers think of when they think of your company, making it vital to have a strong, professional logo.

Marketing Materials and a Strong Logo

Seeing a logo on a business’ sign is one way to keep the brand visible to customers. However, the logo’s representation of your brand doesn’t end there. Your stationary, brochures, door hangers, fliers, website, email signature and anything else that you use to market your business should feature it prominently. The marketing materials may be the first time your customers find out about your brand, and keeping the logo there is the best way for them to begin to associate it with your company. Once the association is made, customers will remember what you sell and remember you the next time they need it.

Having a visual representation is particularly important when your company’s name is long or simply unfamiliar to most people. The logo provides a visual shortcut to help customers remember it. It also keeps you separate from your competition in the minds of consumers. To ensure that your logo does this, the logo should be distinctive and original. The more distinctive and unique it is, the better customers will be able to differentiate it from the other logos they see each day. Then, when your marketing materials appear, they know immediately which company they’re from.

Changing Your Brand

When you revamp your company, either by changing its direction or simply by updating it in some way, changing your logo is a fast way to convey that to customers. Companies often unveil a change in their brand by unveiling a new logo. A logo leaves such a lasting impression that as soon as customers see a new version of one; they know that something within the company has changed.

About the Author:

Matt Jones frequently contributes on behalf of Icon ID, a nationally recognized signage display company Matt’s expertise lies in all things related to custom signage and sign design, and is enthusiastic about the impact signage and logos can have on your target demographic.