The Pixel-Bricks Blog - Online Money Making Tips

Small Business Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:53:00 +0000

The return on investment for the engagement of MJH Group for Small business marketing is based on the following;

Business Growth

• Increased sales and profit from effective strategy and campaign outcomes

Marketing Strategy

• The insight and direction provided by our strategic recommendations

• Provision of a documented strategic marketing plan which acts as the blue print for the successful marketing of your business

• Allowing you to proceed with confidence

• A planned and structured approach to marketing success

Campaign Outcomes

• Effective communication of your brand and offer

• Generate awareness in the market to achieve

• New customer acquisition

• A greater share of wallet from existing customers

• Increased sales and business growth

Commercialisation

• Assess the viability of new products or services

• Develop and implement strategies for the introduction or relaunch of products and services to provide commercial success

Direct Bottom Line Savings

• Direct Bottom Line Savings due to effective marketing management

• Measuring the ROI of promotions and campaigns to determine effectiveness

• Customer focus reducing the risk of ineffective promotion or campaigns

• Redirection of marketing investment into areas with the greatest return

Effective Brand Management

• Long term business growth through the ongoing and positive development of your brand in the marketplace

Effective Positioning

• Identifying the positioning strategy and building a strong market position to insulate against competition and the threat of new entrants

• Maintaining the desired position of your business in the market place

Communication

• Effective communication via regular meetings and easy to follow project plans to ensure you are kept informed and up to date on the progress of activities throughout the life of the program

Peace of Mind

• Experienced marketing professionals providing peace of mind that the marketing program is taken care of: you have one less thing to worry about

• MJH Group is transparent in our selection of clients to ensure no conflict of interest during engagements

• A marketing resource dedicated to the growth and development of your business.

Types Of Computer Hardware

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Computer hardware is a physical part of a computer that executes within the hardware. It is unlike computer software or data that can be frequently changed, modified or erased on a computer. Computer hardware is not frequently changed and so is stored in hardware devices such as read only memory (ROM) where it is not readily changed.

Most computer hardware is embedded and so is not visible to normal users. Below are the different types of hardware's found in a computer.

Ø Motherboard: It is the central or primary circuit board making up a complex electronic system such as a computer. A motherboard is also known as a main board, logic board or system board.
Ø Central processing Unit: A CPU is the main component of a digital computer that interprets instructions and process data in computer programs.
Ø Random Access Memory: A RAM allows the stored data to be accessed in any order. RAM is considered as the main memory of the computer where the working area is used for displaying and manipulating data.
Ø Basic Input Output System: BIOS prepares the software programs to load, execute and control the computer.
Ø Power Supply: Power Supply supplies electrical energy to an output load or group of loads.
Ø Video Display Controller: It converts the logical representation of visual information into a signal that can be used as input for a display medium.
Ø Computer Bus: It is used to transfer data or power between computer components inside a computer or between computers.
Ø CD-ROM drive: It contains data accessible by a computer
Ø Floppy disk: It is a data storage device
Ø Zip Drive: It is a medium capacity removable disk
storage system.
Ø Hard Disk: It is a non-volatile data storage system that stores data on a magnetic surface layered unto hard disk platters.

Get The Internet On Your PSP

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:21:00 +0000

You may not know that a PSP can pick up free wireless internet! So many users are blissfully unaware of what their machine is capable of, but it can be quite easy to set up if you know what to do! This guide will tell you exactly how to get internet on your PSP!

Requirements:
You will need to obtain two essential needs before you can start surfing the web with your PSP. You must be able to get some form of wireless internet source. It could originate anywhere, either from within your own home or in your local Starbucks, you just need to be in an area where the internet is available. Psp wireless settings adhere to the 802.11b wireless networking protocols, probably the most common anywhere, so virtually any wireless network connection will work for this. You will also need to get hold of a copy of Wipeout:Pure, which you need to get internet on your PSP.

Ready to start? Now we will start to learn how to get internet on PSP!

Step 1- Switch on the PSP and go to the System Menu, and then enter “Network Settings”. Go from there to “Infrastructure mode”, and select a connection to edit. Select your home connection if you already have one set up. Don't alter the name of the profile, keep it as it is, and leave the WLAN settings alone if they are already set up.

Step2- Go into “Address Settings” click on “Custom” and make sure you leave “IP Address Setting” as Automatic. If you adjust this, you could have a lot of trouble getting internet on your PSP!

Step 3- Go into “DNS Setting” and click on manual. Here we need to enter the address of our web gateway. For this, the most popular one to use is the gateway at Endgadget, so enter the numbers “208.42.28.174” as the Primary DNS IP, and put zeros for the Secondary DNS IP. (0.0.0.0). If this gateway doesn't work for you, you can find alternatives by doing a quick search engine search.

Step 4- In the “Proxy Server” options, select “Do Not Use” Once you have done this, you just need to confirm everything, and when you are prompted to, save it all by pushing X.

Step 5- Launch Wipeout:Pure in the usual way, and go into the Downloads menu. As soon as you are asked to pick a connection, select the one that you have edited in the earlier steps, and you should find the Endgadget web screen right in front of you. That is how it is done! How to get internet on PSP!

As long as you have access to the resource mentioned earlier, it isn't difficult to get the internet on your PSP. When you have managed to get access to it, you will realise what a useful feature it is!

Have a Website Or Business And Need A Logo?

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:40:00 +0000

Anyone who wants to establish a presence in business or on the internet with a website will know that a good logo is vital. Unfortunately, those people will also tell you how expensive it can be to get a logo designed for you.

Worry no more, we've found a great solution that is nothing short of a bargain. There is a member of eBay who offers to design buyers (the winning bidders, but he also does buy it now) a logo for whatever their needs. The best part? His example designs are very professional looking and he only charges (at the time of writing this) around £14.oo for buy-it-now and about £11.00 as a starting auction price.

Surely this is a no-brainer. Why spend £300 on a professionally made logo when you can spend £15 on a professionally made logo.

You can check out his page to see what he's offering by clicking here.

Update: We've been in touch with him and he informs us that, if you come across his page wanting a logo but he doesn't have any "on sale" (by that we mean his designing services because he custom makes them) then just message him and ask him about it and he'll list a new project on eBay for you to buy. By going through eBay, it's ensured that they will handle the whole process making this a very safe option.

The best deal i've seen in a long time - Friends!

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:35:00 +0000

I had to write about this because, frankly, it's an excellent deal and one that i wish i had known about before i bought it myself for over double the price. The Friends box set which contains all 10 series of Friends can be bought from Zavvi for an amazing £49.99. paid £120 for mine about 6 months ago. The reason for this is because the box which it comes in is the black edition which i, apparently, more expensive to make. So, their getting rid of all stock of this black addition (hence this low price) and from now on they'll just be making the red edition; exactly the same, just different coloured boxes. So, click the link below to bag yourself the best deal this year.

Friends for £49.99 from Zavvi, click here.

We're Back!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Sorry it's been longer than normal since our last blog posting but we had to go away on an unexpected trip with that horror of horrors; no internet!!! I've personally never felt so alone. You may have noticed that things have been quiet on both this blog and on Pixel-Bricks.com for the past week as a result but don't worry, we're back now and ready to go. Check back soon for something good to read.

In the mean time, why not have a quick peruse through our archives, there's some great reads in there.

Money Casino - 3 Years And Still Going!

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:48:00 +0000

Right now, Money Casino is celebrating its 3rd birthday. It seems barely any time ago that online casinos were just emerging and becoming well known. Now, all of a sudden, we’re celebrating a 3rd birthday for one of them. In keeping with its good name, Money Casino is offering new types of bonuses to celebrate its 3rd year of operation.

If you’ve never played at a casino online then you couldn’t pick a better time than right now. So, why should you be interested in doing so? Read on and find out.

Money-Casino.com is an online casino site that offers a fresh new software where players can play several games at the same time by opening different tabs in the software window.

To celebrate its 3 year anniversary, Money Casino has introduced new bonus features from the world of brick and mortar casinos. In addition to regular bonuses, players can get cashbacks on a part of their bets, and matchplay coupons that double the bet the player makes.

New members get a 100% match on all of their 5 first purchases of chips. That means that a player that buys $100 worth of chips actually has $200 to play with. The total of bonus chips players can get is $500!

In addition, the casino hosts are always online rewarding active players with free bonuses and special promo coupons to give them longer playtime and more chances to win.

New progressive jackpot games have been added, and right now the casino offers 15 different progressive jackpot video slots and classic slots, with over $100K.

Surely you’ll agree that this is a great series of offers from Money Casino. Give it some thought. If you’ve ever wanted to try a casino website for yourself then now is the best time to get started when you consider all of the bonuses that you’ll get in celebration of this, Money Casino’s 3rd birthday.

Jeff Dunham Is Brilliant!

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:02:00 +0000

I've recently become aware of the ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and i've got to say, i'm impressed. I've never really been a big fan of ventriloquism but this guy has me flored. My favourite of his acts is Achmed the dead terrorist! Achmed, the Dead Terrorist is a skeleton suicide bomber, with a beard and a white turban. He is used by Dunham to perform comedy based on the contemporary issue of terrorism. He is known for yelling "Silence! I kill you!" at anyone in the audience who dares laugh at him, as well as "Holy crap!," and "You racist bastard!". Achmed has become a fan favourite as evidenced by the fact that his video on YouTube has received well over 60 million views, as of August 2008 and is one of the most watched videos on the entire site. Achmed has expressed a distaste for Chinese cuisine and Lucky Charms cereal explaining that the foods "go right through [him]!" Despite the jokes Achmed tells, he claims he isn't Muslim because 'Made in China' is written on his ass. His cause of death is uncertain. In "Spark of Insanity" he said he had a "premature detonation," while in the song "Jingle Bombs" he said he was "shot in the ass by the U. S. Military" while a bomb was strapped to his back.

If you've not seen any of this guy well take a look at the video below which is a scene with Achmed the dead terrorist.

Visit The Algarve, I Did!

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:38:00 +0000

The Algarve is widely recognized as an area of great charm and beauty, an unspoilt haven with inviting beaches set against dramatic cliffs and rugged coastlines, interspersed with traditional fishing villages.

The climate of the Algarve is so mild that out door sports and activities are enjoyed all year round. Relaxation is easy here.

Read more about the region, view Oceanico's various great value holiday packages and book your Algarve Holiday today.

I myself visited the Algarve back in 1999. I remember enjoying it very much. It was just what i was after at the time; a relaxing holiday by the beach. If you want more info then make sure you check out www.oceanicoresorts.com.

About Us

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:30:00 +0000

OK, so you regulars will know all about Pixel-Bricks but there's some new comers who just don't know yet. Primarily, we are a pixel advertising and product review website. We also offer this blog to keep up to date with us as well as to discuss whatever we think you want to hear about; things from our own interests to specific things which we know you might be interested in. Pixel-Bricks started as just a pixel-advertising website so here's a bit more about that part of us.

We, the creators of this website, are a young couple from the U.K.. We were lying down one day talking about our future together and how we'd need to start saving for a home together. The conversation soon moved on to jobs and since we are graduates of multimedia and web design, the idea of making a website that we could run to earn a living came to us; this was the start of what was to become Pixel-Bricks.

After about a month of discussing various ideas for a website, some good, some awful, we finally came up with the concept of this website. This is the second rendition of the website as we have re-designed it. The concept for the website came in three parts. 1 - We would make a website where people could buy space to advertise their own website on. 2 - The website would have a stylish appearance, a style which would attract people of all ages and thus generate the most traffic possible. 3 - The website would be designed in a way that made it stand out from other pixel advertising websites.

We originally chose the name 'Pixel-Bricks' because the original website design was made to look like the advertising spaces that were bought acted as bricks to the overall image of a house. We thought that, by adding the links to the wall of the house, it was almost as if buyers were contributing to the building of the house; the pixels that they had bought became the bricks of this home. Though this is not the design any more, we still love the name and it still applies to pixel advertising in general. Finally, we would also make a blog to go with the website. We would use this blog to keep visitors up to date with what was happening at Pixel-Bricks but primarily, it would be a blog about different ways of making money using the internet. We realised that since Pixel-Bricks is a cheap way of advertising for a period of years then this is obviously great value and will generate our advertisers more custom, making them more money. As a result, it made sense to do a blog about how to make money online. Here's a live banner for the blog which shows the headlines from our most recent posts.

So, to summarise, Pixel-Bricks has been designed and created as a personal project of us, a young couple from the U.K.. We can think of a million different reasons for anyone wanting to make this kind of website but we feel we've been very transparent with our reasons. We're putting our skills to use in a way that enables us to run a commercial website. The website is now in it's second design form. We like to call it Pixel-Bricks V2.0. This websites offers an excellent opportunity for you to promote your own website by placing an ad on the homepage of ours. The ads that you submit will be linked to your own website, generating you more visitors.

We love this website and think it's fun to look at even though it acts as a mass collection of adverts. These advertisements are what make the site what it is; probably the best pixel advertising website on the web. So, maybe now you know more about Pixel-Bricks. If you spent some time on our website already then by now you may feel the need to purchase your own squares on the homepage. If you do, please head to the 'Buy Space' page and be part of this amazing opportunity.

Holidays in Pembrokeshire

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:12:00 +0000

Pembrokeshire is located in South Wales. It is a very popular spot for tourism in this great country. It is certainly the most popular coastal destination in Wales and is somewhere near to my heart. I visited Pembrokeshire when i was a child with my parents. I was very young at the time so my memories are far from complete, however my general reaction to thinking about it is one that brings me happy feelings. It's one of those events that you can't remember lots of, due to your young age, but you remember enough to know that you loved it and it's firmly inserted in to your mental Rolodex as one of those things which makes up part of the great childhood you've had.

Anyway, enough of my nostalgia for now. You're not a four year old and you want to know what Pembrokeshire has to offer you by way of a good holiday destination. Firstly, let's face it, Wales is a beautiful country, wherever you are in it. Pembrokeshire is the jewel of Wales i think. There's plenty for the holiday-maker to do. If you're after a Golf Holiday Wales is a great destination for this. Pembrokeshire offers what all great coastal holidays offer, the best of these being great memories and a well spent holiday.

Bad News For Harry Potter Fans

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:06:00 +0000

Well, everyone who's in to Harry Potter (so pretty much everyone) will likely have heard the terrible news relating to the films. No, no one died. Warner Brothers have decided to move the film. Whereas it was originally meant to be released in November this year, it's now been moved back to July 2009. This news is very bitter-sweet. Although this now means that you'll have to wait many more months until you see Half Blood Prince, it also means that the gap between HBP and film 7 is now reduced.

I think you'll agree that this news is bad on the surface but with a silver lining of course, from this point of view, most of us hate this decision. The truth is, come July (or June maybe), you'll be glad of the decision, knowing that you've got 6 months less to wait for part one of Deathly Hallows.

What We're Up To

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:10:00 +0000

It's been quite some time since I gave a report on what me and others involved with Pixel-Bricks have been doing. The main thing that we've been concentrating on is the Product Reviews section of the website. When we first started with this a few months ago, we had a list of 15-20 that we wanted to get through. We've now done 115 so far are planning on expanding this even further very soon; we're just taking a break from that for a week or so. As for the Pixel-Bricks website itself, we've been working on attracting more and more visitors to it so that people who have bought space can be sure of a lot of people viewing the ad link. Our Alexa rank is looking great now. About 2 months ago, we were around the 22 million mark (the higher the number, the worse the website is doing) and now we're down to about 800,000. That's a massive leap in popularity for us. Apart from that, here's a list of all websites we currently have links to on the homepage.

* www.Pixel-Bricks.com
* www.streamline.net
* www.websitesandthings.co.uk
* www.click2bepaid.com
* www.linkgrand.com
* www.amazon.co.uk
* www.google.com
* www.play-asia.com
* www.yougov.com
* www.freefivers.co.uk
* www.myshoppingrewards.com
* www.greasypalm.co.uk
* www.TopCashBack.co.uk
* www.rpoints.com
* www.pay2surf.net
* www.Paid2Seek.com
* www.tiredmouse.com
* www.pixeladlist.com
* www.pixelsitelinks.com
* www.pixel-bricks.blogspot.com
* www.aidan-g.co.uk
* www.Sendit.com
* www.visit4cash.net

www.eurograduate.com Reviewed

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:10:00 +0000

I recently became aware of www.eurograduate.com. This is a good website which offers graduate career advice & information for anyone who visits it. The website offers a good few pages of information which anyone who is looking for career advice should benefit from. Among other things, they have a section for student offers which contains some handy links to various offers, the best one being free SMS messages in my opinion. Their careers database lets you search for a career that suits you right down to the specifics or just in a general field of interest. The education database allows you to search for various course to help your further your own skill base. There's even a helpful section on working abroad.

That which should be given special note is the Lifestyle section. This is a great place for you to get all the latest news and information regarding things which you may find interesting. At the time of writing this blog, a few of the current headlines in this Lifestyle section include: "Microsoft to slash Xbox 360 price", "Seeking solace in gadgets" and "Films flounder at Venice festival". This whole lifestyle section is broken down in to various sub-categories such as fashion, entertainment, food and drink, and gadgets.

So, to sum up what this website is, it's a great place for people of all ages who are wanting to look towards their future and make some decisions. Whether you're wanting to get some more education, begin a career or just keep up to date with what's current, www.eurograduate.com is sure to have something to suit your interests. My particular favourite section (probably because i'm personally not looking at career or educational prospects at this current time) is the Lifestyle section. I often go to a handful of websites to keep up to date with the information which is all collected in this one place. I think that I'll be bookmarking this website and looking at it often myself; maybe you'll find it as useful as i do too.

Changes to the Terms and Conditions

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:27:00 +0000

Hi one and all. There's a new update for the Pixel-Bricks website. The Terms and Conditions have been updated slightly. Don't worry, it's nothing that will affect anyone who has already bought pixel space and has only changed to reflect new (lower) prices. I just thought that it's best to get the T&C's seen by as many people as it relates to as possible and so the best way to do this was to blog about it. Below you'll see the updated T&C's for Pixel-Bricks.com

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

a) When you 'buy' pixel space on this site, you will not 'own' any part of this website. What you are purchasing is the right to have your image, linking to your chosen URL, displayed on the website, covering the amount of pixel space you have paid for.

b) The minimum purchase is £2 (one 'pixel square', displayed as a 9x9 image); there is no limit to the amount you can purchase, only the number of available squares.

c) The position of the image and the area covered can not be altered at any time, nor can the image. For this reason, ensure that you are satisfied with the area of coverage and position of your image at the time of purchase.

d) You have the right to request that your image and/or link be removed from this website. This does not entitle you to a refund and the newly released space will become available for purchase.

e) Links and images that are deemed to be of an offensive or pornographic nature will not be accepted. If your image and/or link is considered, by Pixel-Bricks.com, to be unacceptable under these terms, then you will have the opportunity to submit an alternative image and/or link. If this can not be done, you will not be refunded and you will lose your pixels.

f) If your image and/or link is accepted and the content of the linked site is altered to show what is considered, by Pixel-Bricks.com, to be offensive material then your image and/or link will be removed until you can provide a replacement (for a £10 fee) that is acceptable under these terms and conditions. Refunds will not be given for removal of images and/or links in breach of these terms and conditions; nor will refunds be given for any downtime.

g) The image(s) you provide must:

* NOT be animated
* be of a reasonable/acceptable file size
* be the exact size you have paid for
* be in .GIF, .JPEG or .PNG format

h) You must have full authority to provide any images and/or links and all images must link to websites/web pages only. Any URLs provided must begin with 'http://'.

i) Your image and link will only be placed on the website once payment has been received.

j) Once payment has been received and cleared, the aim will be to have your image and link online within 24hrs, however in rare circumstances it may take longer, though this is unlikely.

k) Payment is non-refundable after your image is displayed on the website.

l) Downtime of this website for maintenance purposes will be kept to a minimum. If we encounter any problems which cause a prolonged period of downtime (e.g. denial of service attacks etc) we can not be held responsible and will endeavour to get the site online as quickly as possible.

m) We reserve the right to edit any images you submit to us. This will usually be a simple resizing which will only happen if you submit the wrong size image for what you have paid for.

n) All information in the 'product reviews' section of the website is copyrighted © Pixel-Bricks.com. No part of it may be copied or reproduced in any way without the express permission of Pixel-Bricks.com

Website and the information therein is Copyright © Aidan G 2007-2008.

Hope this helps.

Student Debts

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:33:00 +0000

A student debt consolidator provides a debt relief by suitably merging together the undergraduate's exceptional loans. The meaning of this is that the debt consolidator will get in touch with all your lenders, "pay off" the balances on your behalf and subsequent to this instead of two or more credits, you only be indebted to one lender! By signing up with an student debt consolidation curriculum, you will be in favor to begin a new credit with the lender.

Fundamentally, this kind of curriculum falls under 2 categories:

1) Unsecured consolidation loan

2) Secured consolidation loan

The earlier category of debt consolidation loan does not force you to raise collateral. Though you will require putting more finance for your monthly refund, you can induce this consolidation loan in a moderately rapid time.

A secured consolidation loan in contrast, requires appropriate collateral and since you are not expected to hold properties of your own, you might require enrolling for assistance from your parents or custodian. With security, you can have a loan of more money but do make a note of the fact that the repayment phase for this loan group is typically longer than normal ones.

With the help of student debt consolidation loans you begin with one loan with a small interest charge which is reasonable and which will assist you to perk up your credit score. Accepting this loan will discontinue any collection mediators harassing calls and provide you a strain free future to construct your credit for upcoming borrowing. Thus for easy repayment of the debts one should go for secured debt consolidation loans.

The University of Bedfordshire Are In Clearing

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:17:00 +0000

This is an important time of year. Many young people are deciding what to do with their future. If i can make my suggestion, i'd suggest going to university. I did and i think that it was the best thing i ever did. At this moment, there are many options available at the University of Bedfordshire. A lot of people think that, with it being so close to the new educational year, it's too late to apply for a university course. Of course, this is an incorrect assumption. Right now, i would suggest taking a look at the University of Bedfordshire - Clearing 2008. There's lots of courses which still have places available on them during the clearing time. PErhaps there's one there for you. It can't harm to take a look and if you decide to go for it, it won't be a decision you regret. As i said, university was the best few years of my life. You meets some great people, make friends for life and learn something at a level which truly sets you up for your future.

The University of Bedfordshire started recruiting students onto their courses from Thursday August 14th. There's still time if you're interested so make sure you take a look and consider your options. Clearing will go on until mid-September. Think you might be interested? You can phone them on 0800 013 0925 and they'll be able to give you loads of information to help you get started as easily and as stress-free as is possible. Good luck with your application and your future.

Reward Credit Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:22:00 +0000

Reward credit cards or loyalty cards earn their owners certain incentives in terms of cash back or redeemable reward points. These benefits and reward points keep mounting as more charges are applied to the card, i.e. more you spend more you get. The best-known reward cards are those that offer frequent flyer miles or cash based upon the amount of purchases made with the card. There are numerous companies that offer you ‘fantastic' or ‘unbeatable rewards' for the privilege of providing you with their credit card, however, whichever card you use should be chosen carefully.

Annual Fees

Convenience users or people who use credit cards for frequent purchases reap the maximum benefit out of reward credit cards. Many of these reward credit cards come with an annual fee, sometimes higher depending on your ‘reward' level. This fee should be taken into consideration when estimating any future reward level. Consider the kinds of reward schemes being offered and the minimum amount you need to spend each month in order to avail the reward bonuses. Analyze your spending habits, since the level of spending determines the level of benefits earned.

Golden Rule of Reward Cards

There is one golden rule concerning any type of reward card, whether it be an affinity credit card or cash back, you must pay the balance in full every month. If you do leave a balance and interest accrues on this it will negate all benefits that you received from the card, in fact it could end up costing you more in interest than you earn with rewards.

Which Reward Card?

These credit cards do not just earn you flyer miles. You can earn reward points redeemable against discounted or in some cases free gasoline, gift certificates for merchandise at particular retailers or for general online use, and even discounts on your next automobile. Though free flyer miles might lure you to buy an air miles reward card but ultimately if you do not fly frequently enough to redeem those miles, you will be at a loss. However, on the other hand cash back or discount points card could be more beneficial to raise a sloping budget.

Conclusion

In general choosing the correct reward card for your needs is probably the most difficult decision that visitors face when choosing a credit card. Most other types of credit card are simple enough to choose, whether it is a balance transfer card, an introductory 0% purchase rate or an adverse credit card. However, with the reward card you must be able to pay the balance in full, calculate the annual fee cost then, estimate your spending level and then calculate your estimated rewards.

Email Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:12:00 +0000

Most online businesses set up email lists of some sort, then proceed to just send out emails. This document will show you, from the perspective of the person RECEIVING the emails, what mistakes many people make. Avoid these mistakes to ramp up your email list to profitability.

1. Putting an unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email. How could this be bad? Because when a subscriber wants to change their email address, they can't? If you expect someone to unsubscribe one email address, then go back to your site and resubscribe with another, that's expecting a lot. The best thing to do is have "Manage your subscription" link that takes them to a page that they can unsubscribe, change their email address, and even change which lists they subscribe to. Then, have an "Quick Unsubscribe" link next to that.

Another thought here - I have signed up as a member of forums, and then gotten emails. When I wanted to change the email address or unsubscribe, I clicked on "Change subscription info" and it asked me to sign in to the forum first. If I don't remember the forum login info I used when I created my account, I simply CAN'T get in to change my email address or unsubscribe. So, of course, I just report the emails as spam. I've had this happen at least four times that I can remember.

2. Making too much information required upon sign up. You only need their email address. You might want their first name, so you can personalize their email, but even this should be optional. Don't require postal address, last name, and especially phone number. Requiring a phone number will cut your signups by at least 80%. And don't require fields that are silly, like Title (Mr., Mrs., Ms.) or birthday. Why make it hard? Take as an example The Venetian, a casino in Las Vegas. Here's their signup form: https://secure.venetian.com/APPS/EmailSignUp/. It requires birthdate, but they have to for age verification. But it requires Title! I clicked submit without my Title, and it gave me an error message. So the first thing I get in my email relationship with The Venetian is a beep and popup error message. That's not a good start.

3. Making unsubscribing difficult. Let's look again at The Venetian. In their emails there is an unsubscribe link. It goes here: http://venetian.com/APPS/Unsubscribe/. In order to unsubscribe, I have to enter my email address. If I have multiple email addresses (I have 12), I have to remember which one I used and enter it. So what do I do instead? I hit the Spam button in my email program to make them go to my Spam folder to be deleted. Simple for me, but it also sends a notice to my Spam filter company that The Venetian's emails are spam. Too many of those, and you get banned, especially from AOL, where it's almost impossible to get removed from a spam list. Instead, make it easy to unsubscribe. Do you really want someone on your list who doesn't want to be? I suggest putting an unsubscribe (or at least Manage Subscription) link at the TOP of every email. It is MUCH better to lose a few subscribers easily, than to get Spam-reported.

4. NOT unsubscribing when someone requests unsubscribing. ProFlowers... If you ever sign up for their emails, expect to be on their list for life. I have unsubscribed at least five times from their lists, and they still keep sending. So I keep reporting them as spammers. Unfortunately, they're so big, and not enough people are reporting them, apparently, that I still keep getting them in my inbox. I absolutely hate ProFlowers now, and will NEVER do business with them again.

5. Sending to people who may not know how they got subscribed. Do you auto-subscribe all customers? Do you have a "free report" that you send people, but don't mention in the signup form that they'll be subscribed to an email newsletter? If you send ongoing emails to these people, you may be a spammer.

You don't want people to get emails who don't WANT to get emails, do you? So, for customers, in checkout, just say, "as a new customer you will be subscribed to our newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time." Or, better yet, have a check box in checkout for "Subscribe." Finally, you can have a subscribe form on the Invoice/Receipt page so AFTER they have happily sent you money, they can subscribe.

If you send to customers without a specific subscription notice/form, I suggest sending them an email invitation to subscribe. You're allowed to do that without it being spam, since they've done business with you. Take the last email newsletter you sent, and, ABOVE it, put a paragraph that says, "As a new customer with XXX, we'd like to invite you to subscribe to our newsletter and receive Special Sale Notices, Coupons, new product info, and more! We promise not to overwhelm you with emails, and you can unsubscribe at any time." Have a link to subscribe. Send it only once.

6. Too many emails. I once signed up for TigerDirect emails. It must have been during an experiment, because I got at least one email a day, and sometimes two, for about a week. I finally unsubscribed. It was over a year until I resubscribed, and now they're only about once a week. So, while experimenting with what would happen with overwhelming emails, they lost me for a year. Remember, people get between 20 and 200 emails a day. We're ALL overwhelmed. Why would you want to become a negative contribution to that feeling of being overwhelmed??

If you have "daily updates," or "new product notices" that might be daily, have multiple levels of subscriptions. Let people decide how frequent they'll get emails. Some people want to know everything right away, especially online shopping addicts. But most don't. Have multiple email lists, "daily, weekly summary, monthly" and let them choose. And NEVER violate the frequency. If I pick monthly, and I get them weekly, I'm gonna spam-report it.

7. Too few emails. Hey, doesn't that sound like the opposite of (6)?? Yep. If I sign up for email newsletters in January, and I don't get anything until May, I probably have forgotten I signed up. At that point, I think it's spam, and, you got it - you're being reported as a spammer.

Remember, emails don't have to be huge. At a minimum, send a text email at least once a month keeping in touch, with something basic like a special offer, new product notice, or even a "Happy Mother's Day" mention. Check out Hallmark - there's a holiday about every day now, so there's always SOME excuse for an email. If you drop the ball for more than 3 or 4 months, you should probably send another invite to resubscribe. In the very least, at the TOP of your email, in bold, say, "You Subscribed to this List because you wanted xxxxx" to remind them that they did, indeed, subscribe. Keep in mind that, while YOU are obsessed with your business, most people forget you even exist most of the time.

8. No deals or coupons. I sign up for emails from local restaurants a lot. Sometimes, I'll get emails that tell me about new menu items, or encourage me to celebrate a holiday at their restaurant, but NO offer! There's no call to action! Why do I care about Don Pablo's having Cinco de Mayo if it doesn't mean I get 10% off or a free Margarita? After two or three of these email ads, usually all pretty and graphical, I unsubscribe. Why would I want someone to just send me ads? If I liked ads, I wouldn't fast forward through them with Tivo.

9. Too many deals and coupons. I did it again - contradicting my previous point, right? This one really isn't too bad unless you create expectations of discounts. I'll tell you a quick story. A company I worked for started doing email newsletters. In each newsletter was a 10% off coupon that was good for one week. Since it was every time, what do you think happened? Sales disappeared for the three weeks that there was no coupon code. Then, the email would go out and we'd get pummeled with sales at a discount. Customers expected the same 10% discount off everything, and waited to get the code to order. After a bunch of these, there was no turning back - people expected their 10% off coupon code. So, the only solution was to extend the expiration period to the full month, and then accept that our income was reduced by 10%.

How do you balance (8) and (9)? By offering discounts and deals off specific items or services, changing it each time. Focus on your newest items, or even some of your lesser sellers. Have a clearance every now and then. Change it up, so people don't expect anything in particular in each email, but still they have a reason to stay subscribed.

10. No confirmation emails. When I subscribe to a list, I'm never 100% sure it worked. Too many online scripts are broken. So let people know they succeeded with an email saying so. Tell them on the Success page that they will be receiving an email confirmation. This way, if they don't get one, you might already be in their spam filter and they can white-list you. Tell them how to white-list you.

Some people say you should "double opt in." This means that your system would send a confirmation email with a special link. If the subscriber does NOT click that link, the subscription has not completed. Some systems will send a second attempt in 24 hours. This is certainly the safest way to avoid spam-reports. However, expect about half the people to not click the link for some reason. If someone doesn't get the confirmation email because of a spam filter, they will simply assume that you just aren't sending any emails. It's up to you whether you want to do this, but it's not necessary in my opinion.

Conclusion. Clean up these mistakes and you'll increase subscriptions, decrease unsubscribes, and overall have a more positive email relationship with your customers. One final point of advice... I suggest using a service, such as iContact (http://www.chucklasker.com/icontact), instead of sending emails from your own server. Not only are the emails easier to manage, more professional looking, and bounces are taken care of, but you'll also be better off if people click the Spam button on their email programs. If you're using your own server, it might get banned easily. But iContact is able to handle the big spam-protection-companies much better. Give them a try with their free trial, I believe you'll find it's worth the price.

Want A Website? Consider This First

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:42:00 +0000

After the registration of domain name selection of web host is another rational step a user need to consider. Though, finding an ideal host is a daunting task. One can find several companies offering web-hosting services to the clients. While locating keyword web hosting in the search engines one will find more than 100 million outputs!

One cannot deny the fact, for a successful online presence a dependable web hosting is must. Online presence and accessibility of a web site is must. If not, one should remain ready to loose clients and prospects. For an instance, if one compare this with a traditional business.

CATEGORIES OF WEB HOSTING:

One should select a web hosting deal according to his/her site. One cannot fulfill his/her requirements from same hosting deal for a personal web site, web site meant for email newsletter subscription and archives, e-commerce site or web forum. Web hosting can be divided into four prime categories:
1. Virtual (shared) hosting,

2. Dedicated server,

3. Collocation server and

4. Reseller hosting.

Two most applicable hosting are virtual (shared) hosting and dedicated server.

What is Virtual (shared) hosting? It is a condition in which several web sites share one server. It is a low cost hosting because price is divided between several users. One can locate a standard virtual hosting at a rate of $100 a year.

In a Dedicated server hosting company lease the whole web server from a particular web hosting company. The site of web server is the web hosting company. One can opt dedicated server as a suitable option who does not wish to share a server with other web masters. One can find a dedicated server in two forms managed and un-managed. If one talk about managed server, company will take care of all the setups of user’s server. However, in unmanaged server user needs to take care of all these by him/her self. The benefit of this sort of hosting is that one can fully lodge web hosting as per his/her requirements. Moreover, for a site with ample amount of visitors a dedicated server is the only rational choice. Due to higher cost, starting from $100 per month, those companies that know the worth of Internet business generally use it.

One can say that Collocation server is quite identical to dedicated server. Disparity lies in the fact that company doesn’t take the web server on lease. Their own web server is placed in the web hosting company. In addition to it, company has material access to their web server, which is not available while talking about a dedicated server.

If one mention about Reseller hosting it is aimed to those companies only wishes to begin their own web hosting business.

ASPECTS, WHICH ONE NEEDS TO CONSIDER:

There are many factors which a user needs to consider to prevent any future miss happens:

Web space:
Requirement of Web space vary from site to site. Off course, if user requirement is only a web site containing basic information about him/her and his/her work excluding the use of web applications, then space of 50 MB is quite sufficient. However, a complex e-commerce site along with numerous products in one’s database demands a capacity of 1 GB.

Bandwidth:
The term Bandwidth refers to data transferred from user’s web site and that comprise of graphic details, images, banners and files for download. One should have accurate knowledge of Content before going for an amount of bandwidth. When one talks about the majority of sites, bandwidth of 10 GB a month is quite sufficient, though for few other sites like sites related to desktop wallpapers can frequently consumes even hundreds of GB a month.

Up time or visibility:
It symbolizes time articulated in percents displaying the period a site remained online. One should not be cheerful because someone assured him/her to provide say for 98% up time because it is not going to fulfill his/her requirement. One should get at least 99.7% uptime. Believe it or not, it definitely matters.

Email accounts:
Email accounts are an integrated and crucial part of web hosting package. It is quite interesting to know for how much will one get only a so called catch –all forwarding which means that all emails sent to somewhere@mydomain.com will arrive to one’s email address or one can set-up email accounts for several users? Also the thing is for how much? Is it intended for 5, 10, 100 or limitless email accounts? In addition to it, there is no harm to verify whether user get a so-called POP3 email address (“real” email address), web mail or rather both? If one has a POP3 email address then he/she can check his/her emails via favorite email client and web mail facilitate the user to inquire his/her emails at any place demanding just a computer and Internet connection.

Form of Server, tools and control panel:
When one mention the two generally utilized hosting then the name of Unix-based or Windows platform comes first. It matters for the result program languages, databases and scripts that one can apply. When one talks about Unix-based platform, general selection is relayed to PHP language along with MySQL, however, when it comes to Windows platform ASP or ASP.NET language will be along with SQL Server. One should enquire that is database is available with package or not, if yes, then how many? Nowadays, contemporary web site must be database-driven.

Too, one should have full knowledge related to tools coming along with web hosting package, if there is only applications for web statistics, file manager and things it is not an concern issue.

Technical support:

A crucial aspect while selecting a web hosting particularly for a user without having adequate technical skills is technical support. A proper technical support does not take a responsive time more then a day. This is not liable only to selection of web hosting company, but, crucial to any of the company selling products and services, Software Company can be one of the examples.

The coordination of few of the companies is so well thought-out that it takes only 1 hour to give response to user’s queries! Through their source of contact one can predict about the future response. Do the concern company has only email support or also have phone support? Does they provide a toll-free number? Do they offer the facility of trouble-ticket system? Working time is another crucial aspect. What is their strategy of providing technical support is it during working hours only i.e. 9 to 17 or does they provide the facility of 24x7 technical support? An ideal way to detect their professionalism one can create a list of fake queries, drop a line to them and hang around to know their reply time.

Testimonials:

Several web hosting and software companies have this smart way to increase their customer strength. Testimonials section contains the approval of satisfied customers, attracting more people to their service. This section is not completely reliable. Several hosting companies offer their clients to analyze their portfolio, instead of doing that one should contact webmasters who are taking the service of concern host and register their opinions. One can take help of several sites for further information regarding best web hosting deals and suggestions.

Buying Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:41:00 +0000

The reason we compare car insurance quotes from multiple car insurance companies is to make sure we‘re getting the best rates possible. Of course nobody wants to pay more money than they have to, but in the other hand we also want to make sure that our car insurance company is going to respond quickly and fairly in case of an accident.

What is unknown to many is that there is not one single car insurance company that is cheaper than others. One particular car insurance company can be the cheapest for one person but the most expensive for another. Each car insurance company has a certain category of drivers they want to insure. If you fit their category they will offer you a cheap rate, if you don’t, they will offer you an expensive rate. That is their way of filtering the people they want and do not want to insure. That is the reason we need to compare insurance rates from multiple car insurance companies, to find out which company will offer us the cheapest rate. The key is to find the company that offers the cheapest rate for you, but of course, it is important to compare rates from quality companies only.

There are many quality car insurance companies out there; however, some of those quality companies also have a high price to go along with them. How do we find a quality company for a cheap price? That, my friend, is the key question.

The traditional method of shopping for car insurance is to call around which we all know can be a long process. Another drawback of shopping for car insurance by phone is the probability of getting caught with the old “bait and hook” trick. That is when someone gives you a low quote by phone and hikes it up on you when you go into their office to purchase the car insurance policy.

In today’s world, luckily, we have the internet. The internet makes life a lot easier for all of us. Using the internet, we can shop for many types of things we may need which include shopping for car insurance.

We're Converted! - Blaze Media Pro Multimedia Software

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:54:00 +0000

I've come across a great solution for converting file types and formats. What's so good about it? It's an all-in-one solution! For a long time now, I've been after an all-in-one converter product but never really had much success getting any good software. If you've been in this same boat well now your prayers are answered. Whether you've wanted to convert WAV to MP3 or whether you've wanted to convert WMV to AVI, now you can.

Blaze Media Pro is a powerful all-in-one multimedia application that offers conversion, ripping, editing, recording, burning, playback, and much more. Powerful, yet easy to use audio, video, and data CD/DVD burning are all fully supported. VCD, SVCD, and DVD burning are supported. Other advanced features include video capture, video creation, combining, and extraction, video editing, copying of music CDs, audio and video merge (joining), MusicID audio recognition, lyrics search, audio tag editing, FreeDB support, and more.

What did i tell you? ALL-IN-ONE! That's quite an impressive array of features to be packin'. What's more, the audio content of video files can be extracted and saved to sound files, and frames can also be extracted to images files in batch mode. Video files can also be created from still frame images and/or other videos.

Still need convincing (and if you do then you must be VERY hard to please)? OK, here's some specifics on the actual format types that the Blaze Media Pro Multimedia Software can handle.

Formats supported for audio conversion include CD, MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, MPEG-4, AIFF, M4A, AAC, AC3, FLAC, and ALAC, and two-way conversions among MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, WMV, ASF, Flash (SWF and FLV), iPod, PSP, 3GP, and MOV are available for video. MPEG options are available for VCD, SVCD, and DVD compliant output. DVD ripping, and audio compression functionality are also present. When converting from audio CD, track information can be dynamically downloaded from the CDDB and used to automatically name saved files.

Video editing is available for AVI (uncompressed and compressed using any available codec), MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV, and ASF. Comprehensive video editing operations are provided (delete frame, delete selection, crop, resize, rotate, mirror, flip, trim, text overlay, adjust audio volume, etc.). In addition, an extensive list of over 30 effects and color adjustment operations allow for powerful video enhancement and alternation. Audio files can be inserted into the video or extracted from the video; and image files can be inserted or extracted as well.

See? I wasn't kidding. I personally know that i've never come across a software of this nature which offers such a wide variety of tools and allowances. This really is that all-in-one conversion solution that you've been looking for.

What's This 'Internet' I Keep Hearing About? - Part Nine - The World Wide Web

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:25:00 +0000

I've explained how the Internet works, but not yet how the web works. The web is the publishing system that most people don't realise is distinguishable from the Internet itself.

The Internet uses IP addresses (often found via domain names) to identify resources, but the web has to have something more sophisticated as it would be silly if every single page on the Internet had to have it's own 'domain name'. The web uses 'URLs' (uniform resource locators), and I'm sure you know about these as nowadays they are printed all over the place in the real world.

A typical URL looks like this: :///

For example: http://www.ocportal.com/index.php

HTTP is the core protocol for the web. This is why URLs usually start 'http://'.

Typically the 'resource identifier' is simply a file on the server computer. For example, 'mywebsite/index.html' would be a file on the server computer of the same path, stored underneath a special directory.

We now have three kinds of 'Internet Address', in order of increasing sophistication:

• IP addresses
• Domain names
• URLs

If a URL were put into web browser software by a prospective reader then the web browser would send out an appropriate request (usually, with the HTTP protocol being appropriate) to the server computer identified by the URL. The server computer would then respond and typically the web browser would end up with a file. The web browser would then interpret the file for display, much like any software running on a computer would interpret the files it understands.

An 'HTML' file is the kind of file that defines a web page. It's written in plain text, and basically mixes information showing show to display a document along with the document itself.

I've explained how typical web pages are just files on the disk of a server computer. Increasingly, things are slightly less direct. When you visit something like eBay you aren't just reading files. You're actually interacting with computer software, and the web pages you receive are generated anew by that software every time a request is made. These kinds of systems are known as 'web applications' and are becoming increasingly prevalent.

What's This 'Internet' I Keep Hearing About? - Part Eight - Meaningful Dialog

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:12:00 +0000

I've fully covered the essence of how messages are delivered over the Internet, but so far these messages are completely raw and meaningless. Before meaningful communication can occur we need to layer on yet another protocol (recall IP and TCP protocols are already layered over our physical network).

There are many protocols that work on the communications already established, including:

• HTTP - for web pages, typically read in web browser software
• POP3 - for reading e-mail
• SMTP - for sending e-mail

I'm not going to go into the details of any of these protocols because it's not really relevant unless you actually need to know it.

The information transferred via a protocol is usually a request for something, or a response for something requested. For example, with HTTP, a client computer requests a certain web page from a server via HTTP and then the web server, basically, responds with the file embedded within HTTP.

Each of these protocols operates on more or more so-called 'ports', and it is these 'ports' that allow the computers to know which protocol to use. For example, a web server (special computer software running on a server computer that serves out web pages) uses a port of number '80', and hence when the server receives messages on that port it passes them to the web server software which naturally knows that they'll be written in HTTP.

What's This 'Internet' I Keep Hearing About? - Part Seven - Names, Not Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Pixel-Bricks) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:42:00 +0000

When most people think of an 'Internet Address' they think of something like 'www.ocportal.com' rather than '69.60.115.116'. People relate to names with greater ease than numbers, so special computers that humans need to access are typically assigned names ('domain names') using a system known as 'DNS' (the 'domain name system').

All Internet communication is still done using IP addresses (recall '69.60.115.116' is an IP address). The 'domain names' are therefore translated to IP addresses behind the scenes, before the main communication starts.

At the core, the process of looking up a domain name is quite simple - it's a process of 'homing in' by moving leftwards through the name, following an interrogation path. This is best shown by example - 'www.ocportal.com' would be looked up as follows:

• Every computer on the Internet knows how to contact the computers (the 'root' 'DNS servers') responsible for things like 'com', 'org', 'net' and 'uk'. There are a few such computers and one is contacted at random. The DNS server computer is asked if they know 'www.ocportal.com' and will respond saying they know which server computer is responsible for 'com'.

• The 'com' server computer is asked it knows 'www.ocportal.com' and will respond saying they know which server computer is responsible for 'ocportal.com'.

• 'The 'ocportal.com' server computer is asked if it knows 'www.ocportal.com' and will respond saying that it knows the corresponding server computer to be '69.60.115.116'.
Note that there is a difference between a server computer being 'responsible' for a domain name and the domain name actually corresponding to that computer. For example, the 'ocportal.com' responsible DNS server might not necessarily be the same server as 'ocportal.com' itself.