With the popularity of the internet as one of the indispensable necessity nowadays ,  most business owners start to realise the importance of  having an online presence. They understand the impact of having a website can make a huge difference in their business.

For most people, creating is a website a nightmare. Well, most people know nothing about the website design, let alone the long string of php and html codes which they have no idea about.

Well, Put your worry aside.

First Online is having a crazy deal where you can put together your very own website without costing you an arm and a leg to do so. You definitely do not need to be a technical geek or pulling your hair out just to understand web jargons like FTP, CHMOD, PHP, CSS, etc.

The crazy deal which is going to start on 8 June 2012 till 22 June 2012 comprised of 3 core components to get you up and running in record time. The components include:

(a) DIY Site Builder

(b) Malaysian domain name (.my/.com.my/.net.my)

(c) Plus 25GB Hosting Account

Best of all you do not have to pay for individual component. Everything is bundled into an convenience package. Best of all, you get to enjoy a saving of 56% if you take advantage of the offer.

For more info, please visit http://www.firstonline.net/eweb/viewpromo.php?ids=19

If you need further details on the package, kindly contact us our nearest office or simply leave us a message at Facebook.

If you have missed all previous offers, this might be the biggest offer that you are waiting for!

Mark your calendar and secure your domain before it was taken by others.

Domain Pricing as follows:

Terms and Conditions:

1. The promotion is subject to change without prior notice
2. The promotion is valid for ONE YEAR new domain registration only
3. The promotion is NOT valid for existing domain renewal
4. The promotion is valid for prepaid customer and online order customer only
5. The promotion is NOT valid for customer under credit term

First Online is now accepting bill payment option under Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). Customer who have SCB Internet Banking can make payment to First Online using credit card or Deposit account and earn 20% cash back offer by SCB.

Want more ? Customer will also stand a chance to be one of the winner of MacBook Air from SCB. Please refer to the details from SCB website at this link

How to make payment ?

Making online payment is a breeze. Follow the steps below for a hassle-free payment process.

• Login to Standard Chartered Bank Internet Banking

• Select Bill payment option
• Look for Merchant name FIRST ONLINE
• Fill-in the necessary information and proceed to make payment

If you still facing problem or have any question, just ring up SCB and their friendly customer service are more than glad to assist you.

Are you ready to hit 2 birds with 1 stone ? Well, with the top-notch range of products from First Online, you are actually hitting 3 birds!!

Typography

Typography of your content is important and as an website owner, you have to ensure it is adapt and used appropriately. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily.

Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

User-Friendly

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle.

Website Loading

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn’t load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

To find out the exact pricing for each domain extensions, refer to our previous post Enjoy 50% discount for all .my domain name registrations

Feel free to contact our nearest office if you need more info.

You probably have seen this three-letter acronym in the course of your internet surfing. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; syndicating means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website.

An RSS is a means of publicizing updates about websites. It may or may not include a summary and photos of the latest posting. But those that provide summaries (thus Rich Site Summary) allow users to skim through the article so that they could decide later on if they want to access the website source. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the update originating from the website. It is also usually the link to the website source.

The RSS feed is usually represent by an orange RSS icons which come in different shapes, sizes, and designs.

What are the benefits of RSS?

RSS gives benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers.
1. It gives you the latest updates.
Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updates site learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.

2. It saves on surfing time.
Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user’s time by helping s/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.

3. It gives the power of subscription to the user.
Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.

4. It lessens the clutter in your inbox.
Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.

5. It is spam free.
Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from spam mails.

6. Unsubscribing is hassle-free.
Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why s/he is unsubscribing and then the user would be asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.

7. It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool.
Users who subscribe or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending spam mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.

What are the drawbacks of RSS?
The disadvantages of RSS use are brought about by its being a new technology and some user-preference concerns.

1. Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.

2. Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds.
For conciseness and ease of publication, RSS feeds do not display the photos from the original site in announcing the update except for some web-based aggregators

3. The identity of the source website can be confusing.
Since RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the website, it can sometimes get confusing on what feed a user is actually reading.

4. Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they would not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.

5. RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server.
Most readers still prefer the whole update over a brief summary of the entry, thus they still access the site.

6. Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.

How do I start using RSS?
There are two things needed: an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. The RSS feed comes from an RSS-supported website. There are also websites that provide a list of RSS feeds of different websites. An RSS aggregator is used to read the RSS feed from the source website. It scans and collects data on latest RSS feeds from the worldwide web.

An aggregator comes in two forms: a downloadable program also known as desktop aggregator and an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators may require payment before they can be acquired, while internet-based aggregators are usually free of charge. All you need to do is to register an account then you are ready to use their services. Both versions allow you to customize or choose which RSS feeds to enter. Paid aggregators are usually chosen by more experienced users and they usually allow more freedom in customizing feeds.

1. Choose an RSS aggregator to use. For beginners, web-based aggregators are recommended since they are usually user-friendly

2. Scan the homepage of your target website for the RSS or XML button. It contains the RSS code you need to enter in the aggregator. Copy this code. Syndic8 provides a directory of websites that support RSS.

3. Paste the code (which contains the URL of the website) in your aggregator. There is a space provided for pasting the code.

After you have done these three easy steps, you can start reading the RSS feeds coming from the website. New postings appear as they are published real time at the source website.

Clearly, RSS is an innovation in information management in the worldwide web as well as online marketing. We can expect better RSS technology in the not-so-distant future as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.

Have you subscribed to our blog RSS feed yet ? Get an email notification whenever we post any new updates automatically. Go here http://feeds.feedburner.com/sellingonlineeasy

eCatalog Plus is simple to use software and is absolutely newbie-friendly. The admin interface is very clean and self-explanatory and each section is clearly-defined (with drop-down menu and icon-based navigation menu) which makes it easy to operate even for those without programming knowledge.

Through continuous research and development, First Online has recently came out with the improved version of eCatalog Plus. (a.k.a eCatalog Plus v3).

Compared to its predecessors, this newly improved version has much to offer to satisfy those who opt for simple shopping cart with presentable outlook. The eCatalog Plus v3 has been designed with much cleaner and smoother interface which gives a great first impression to the potential customers. Combining with web 2.0 feel, additional built-in features and attractive price, this is truly irresistible product especially those who plan to venture into the online marketplace with minimal cost and zero hassle.

Clean and smooth interface is important so as to not bombard the potential customers who visit the website. The standardized and easy to navigate menu is yet another factor that keep your visitors to read more and stay on your site. Coupled with relevant product info, it allows you to convey the right marketing message to your customers effectively.

The newly added newsletter feature allows you to build your database ( i.e marketing list) and keep your customer in the loop of the latest happenings or promotion so as to encourage them to buy more of your products. Admin can easily manage the newsletter subscription within the admin panel.

Another exciting add-on is the social networking buttons which includes Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Blog. This social networking and web 2.0 sites are no doubt a great traffic booster if you take advantage of it fully. Having said that, if you are not yet ready to harness the power of social networking or plan to do it in at a later time, you can disable the relevant buttons within your admin panel with ease.

In addition to that, the search function comes in handy for a quick look-up of the products that your customer are searching for.

The discount coupon is yet another feature which make eCatalog Plus v3 a preferred platform for selling online. Offering discount coupon is one of the proven marketing strategy to boost sales simply because people love spending especially when they get the discount! With eCatalog Plus v3, coupons can be created in mere seconds and voila, they are ready to be distributed.

The other additional add-on that has been implemented is the Payment collection report. The report provides a summary listing of the total payment collected by bank, ipay88 (credit card/bank-in/etc), and Paypal. Admin user can also see the details or breakdown of the transaction by clicking on the relevant payment method.

For more info, you may contact First Online nearest office or visit the product page for more details.

With traffic comes a potential customer which basically means sales which in turn means profit. E-commerce site are aware of this and they are targeted on certain groups of people and drive them to their website to showcase their products and services.

It’s a common business notion that if you want to make money, you have to spend money. One good way of spending money for business gain is through advertising. Advertising brings in the people because through advertising, they know that there is such a company or product in existence. With the right type of advertising, you can see traffic growth to your site and with a high volume of traffic, even if only a small portion or percentage turns out to be buying customers it is still a good average of profit generating income.

Right now, there is no other advertising scheme that would be worth every cent than using Google’s Adwords. The surge in popularity of Google’s Adwords is very evident as you can see so many sites and companies are participating in this advertising scheme.

In using Google’s Adwords, you pay a certain fee depending on the number of keywords your ad target at. Each time a person does a search in Google, the keyword or keywords use generate ads in the side of Google which are generated by the keywords they have assigned for their ads.

This method laser targets the traffic a site wants for their site. This also ensures that you are readily visible in the first page of a search result. Paying Google for this ad scheme ensures that your target group of people sees your ads. You drive your laser targeted traffic to your site which provides for their needs and wants. You can also be sure that you can meet their demands and needs.

Aside from Google, you can also be featured in other sites which are closely related to the keyword you specify. These sites also show Adwords ads that has been optimized (in terms of placement, layout, color, etc) by the website owners and thus increase clickthrough rate (CTR).

It is important for you to target a right niche or group of potential customers so that your ads won’t go to waster. You could drive laser targeted traffic to your site by using keywords or keyword phrases for your Goggle Adwords that pertains to your company and to your products.

There are many online internet tools that can help you in choosing keywords and keyword phrases that are currently in demand that could help drive laser targeted traffic to your site. One of the free one is the keyword tool provided by Google. With your Google Adwords ad, you are ensured that every click to your ad is a potential customer that is precisely looking pr interested in what you have to offer.

Using Google Adwords to help boost the drive to increase laser targeted traffic will prove to be very beneficial as many other companies can attest to. The benefits are high with the cost relatively justifiable.

Using Google Adwords is one of the quick and effective method you can use to drive traffic to your website. It doesn’t matter whether your website is e-commerce related (eg MyBizCart or eCatalog Plus) or simply a static or CMS company webpage (eg DIY Site Builder). The bottom line is you need traffic to benefit from your online presence.

When it comes to domain names, don’t think that you only need to worry about the ones that you registered. This is because with the phenomenon of cybersquatting, domain names that are similar to your company’s trademark could be registered to unscrupulous webmasters, intending to use them in bad faith.

What happens is once the cybersquatter has gotten sales from their domain name, they will try to sell it to the original entity holding the trademark. When things get to this point, the price is significantly higher, sometimes even thousands of dollars. This is despite the fact that the individual or organization buying the domain name originally had the rights to it in the first place.

So, how does a company protect themselves from cybersquatting? Well, first they need to be aware of whether or not domain names related to their trademark are being registered and used in bad faith. The best way to do this is to sign up for Google Alerts. This is a service that allows individuals or organizations to track any websites, comments, articles, etc. that are being made about their website or brand.

If they receive an alert that shows a domain name that is similar to their trademark, they could be dealing with a potential cybersquatter. The keyword of course is ‘potential.’ The person may not have any intention on selling the domain name back, though they are still using it in an illegal manner.

Either way, website owners can exercise their right to an arbitration proceeding if they found their trademark has been used in bad faith.

Another way companies can avoid cybersquatting is by trying as best they can to register any domain names relating to their trademark. This would include obvious derivatives where their whole trademark is included, as well as more creative derivatives where only a part of the trademark is used.

In conclusion, no one should have to succumb to a cybersquatter. Too much money and work goes into building a brand to have to spend thousands to a shady webmaster. Instead, website owners should be aware of how their trademark is being used. In the meantime they need to try to get as many domain names containing their trademark as possible, so cybersquatters won’t have an opportunity to do their dirty work.

In conjunction with the Malaysia Merdeka Celebrations, National ICT Month (NIM 2011) and Breast Cancer Month, all .my domain name registration and renewals will be offering at 50% discount. Get more detail at .my Domain Name Discount

With the recent software launch by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, the enquiries received by First Online has double if not triple from enterpreneurs and hoteliers who are amazed at the software capability. Feedback on the software has been encouraging, with many think the software is underprice and those customers who have purchased considered it a steal and absolutely happy which what they have got.

First Online eHotel includes frontend, backend and is integrated with marketing tools. These modules when put together really makes the software standing out from the crowd. It’s akin to a 600-pounds gorilla .

The problem with most hotel software in the market nowdays was that they lacked of one thing or another. Some of the software are doing a great job on the backend processing but unfortunately there are no front end module for the customers to check the room availability, make booking, etc. To accommodate this discrepancy, hotel admin has to pay thousands to hire programmer just to integrate the online functionality (front end) to their existing website. At the other point, some other software are lacking of backend processing and management module which makes managing customer booking the manual way a real chore!

Understanding this issue, First Online with its in-house experienced and dedicated development team has put together a simple but yet powerful piece of hotel software with the hope to provide a complete solution to the current market. This has greatly beneficial business owners who run hotels, motels, resorts, inns, guesthouses, lodges and even self catering apartment.

Apart from its frontend and backend functionalities, First Online eHotel also incorporated marketing tools that includes SMS and bulk email. With just a push of the button, latest promotion and announcement can reach the potential customers (who signed up the hotel e-newsletter), as well as hotel guests who are always be kept in the loop of the latest activities. This by no doubt helps to significantly improve sales from the repeat customers.

If you wish to learn more about the software, kindly visit http://www.firstonline.net/ehotel/ or contact First Online for more info.