Hercules-HD720p


I recall just a few short years ago that webcams were these little balls that sat on your desk and recorded fuzzy video at low frame rates. They weren’t really good for much, other than choppy video conversations with long-distance friends thanks to slow internet connections. However, with faster internet speeds, and the immense popularity of YouTube, webcams are quickly catching up with the times. This new Dualpix HD 720p cam from Hercules would be one such device.

The Dualpix HD 720p is one of the latest webcams to offer full 720p HD resolution to the average consumer. Hercules is targeting the notebook crowd with its small size, secure attachment system and a pair of rotational axes. The rotational axes would be a nice addition, allowing you to place it on either the side or top of your screen without shooting video on its side. If you’re looking for technical specs, hit the jump to check them out.

  • 1 megapixel CMOS sensor (1280×800 pixels) for perfect image quality, even in low-light conditions
  • Photo resolution: 5 megapixels! (interpolated mode)
  • Video resolution: HD720p (1280×720), up to 30 frames/second for perfectly fluid 16/9 HD videos
  • USB 2.0 Video Class (UVC) interface for high-speed transfers and ultra-simple driverless installation (in Windows® XP SP2, Vista® and Windows® 7)
  • Autofocus lens with a wide viewing angle. Awesome! Now you can be seen from head to toe!
  • High-quality built-in microphone
The Hercules Dualpix HD720p will be available for $60 starting next month.

Source:ohgizmo.com

Company Profile:

Fasthosts has delivered market-leading online services to the home, office and SME markets since 1999. They have a successful track record in providing high value, award winning products and currently promote themselves as a one-stop-shop for internet services.

Year Established: 1999

Number of Employees: 100+

Number of Accounts: 1 Million+

Awards:

Fasthosts regularly receive prestigious industry plaudits - most recently being rated Number 1 for budget hosting by the leading industry news portal, Web Host Directory. Their dedicated servers have been ranked in the PC Plus magazine Hotlist, for unbeatable value for money. They were also twice listed in the Sunday Times Tech-Track 100 Fastest Growing Technology Companies, and have also been named as the No.1 choice for ecommerce hosting, three times.

Products and Services:

As one of the UK's largest web hosting providers, Fasthosts offers a comprehensive range of web solutions including domain name registrations, email solutions (including mobile email services), shared web hosting, dedicated servers, online payment services, reseller web hosting and feature-rich broadband packages.

Web Hosting:

Fasthosts Web Hosting packages cater for beginners and experienced users alike. They currently offer three main solutions;

Plans:

Home - £3.99 pm + VAT / 1.5GB web space / 200 Mailboxes / Websites Statistics
Developer - £7.99 pm + VAT / 4GB web space / 600 Mailboxes / Websites Statistics
Business - £15.99 pm + VAT / 10GB web space / Unlimited Mailboxes / Websites Statistics

The Home package poses amazing value, offering you the use of the Fasthosts site-builder tool (more on that later), 1.5GB of web space, graphical visitor statistics and virus, spam protection and 200 standard mail boxes, 5 of which offer advanced features.

The Developer package offers all of the above plus a rise to 4GB of web space and 600 mail boxes, 10 of which offer advanced features. Many other technical advances are included or available as add-ons, but unfortunately some can be quite pricey.

Also offering superb value for money, the Business pack, which provides all of the above plus a rise to 10GB of web space, unlimited mail boxes including 15 with advanced features. As with the Developer package there are a variety of additional technical add-ons available.

As mentioned above, Fasthosts offer a free site-builder tool, aptly named Sitebuilder. This is offered with every hosting package, albeit only a 10-page version. If required you can upgrade instantly using your online control panel, to either a 25 page version costing a very reasonable £2 extra per month or to the unlimited version, which will cost you an extra £3.75 p/m.

Sitebuilder allows you to build a website using templates and a whole host of tools, without the need for any HTML knowledge. Initially Sitebuilder can prove a little tricky, but with a little perseverance it doesn’t take long to create a great looking layout and design for your website. There are few limitations, and everything can be amended should you change your mind. When you really get the hang of what you are doing it is possible to add virtually anything. It is even possible to add your own HTML code and/or alter any code that is already in place. This lets you add such things as buy-it-now buttons, enabling you to take credit card payments or, with the setting up of an account, make use of Pay-pal.

Domains:

Fasthosts is fantastic for Domain Registration, enabling easy registration for both UK and International domains alike. All domains are registered through an associated service UKreg - www.ukreg.com

The general registration process is efficient, professional and very fast, especially in comparison to other providers.

The pricing is also fairly competitive - expect to pay £5.90 for a .co.uk (2 year registration), and £8.89 for a .com (1 year registration).

One thing worth mentioning are the regular special offers – at the time of writing this article Fasthosts were offering a FREE .co.uk domain for 2 years with every .com domain purchased – not bad!

Servers:

Fasthosts Dedicated Servers are unique in combining the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors with unlimited bandwidth. The solutions are extremely attractive for users who need to upgrade their dedicated server affordably, or for businesses seeking to reduce investment costs by outsourcing their server solution.

Fasthosts Dedicated Server packages are ideal solutions for hosting data such as websites or business application software. They provide a secure environment for data which is stored on its own dedicated server unit. Users enjoy the full power of the hardware and dedicated access to bandwidth, as well as root access and independent remote management of the server at all times.

Fasthosts Dedicated Servers are an extremely cost effective choice as they are supplied with unlimited traffic which can be a costly extra and risk factor with many other providers. Coupled with Fasthosts’ high-speed internet connectivity, via 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) channels, users have peace of mind that there are no limits on the data that they can exchange. Fasthosts Servers are also guaranteed to be maintained with the latest security and operating system updates.

Fasthosts' latest range of Dedicated Server packages comprises the DS250 (80GB disk space), priced from £49/month+VAT, DS450 (250GB disk space), priced from £69/month+VAT, the DS650 (500GB disk space), priced from £99/month+VAT and the DS850 (500GB disk space), priced from £189/month+VAT. With no set up fees and prices comparable to high-end hosting packages, Fasthosts Dedicated Servers offer top-spec server technology with minimal upfront investment and a remarkably low total cost of ownership. Fasthosts’ 1 Month Free offer is the company’s latest move to help demanding users upgrade to the best server technologies affordably and with ease.

Dedicated 250 - £49 pm + VAT / 2 x 1.8 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo / 512 MB RAM / 80GB HD
Dedicated 450 - £69 pm + VAT 2 x 2.13 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo / 1GB RAM / 250GB HD
Dedicated 650 - £99 pm + VAT / 2 x 2.4 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo / 2GB RAM / 500GB HD
Dedicated 850 - £89 pm + VAT / 2 x 2.66 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo / 3GB RAM / 500GB HD

Significantly, all Fasthosts servers are housed in a superior data centre environment in the UK. All service and technical support is provided 24/7 from the UK by email or phone.

E-Commerce Solutions:

Fasthosts were previously voted as the leading eCommerce web host. Easy to set up and ready for all types of business - when combining any of Fasthosts' web hosting or server solutions with the professional payment gateway eMerchant, your site will instantly have the facilities to compete with the very best eCommerce websites out there.

eMerchant is priced at only £20 a month, with a one off set-up fee of £100. eMerchant is one of the most affordable payment solutions on the market which can be seamlessly integrated with new or existing websites.

eMerchant allows acceptance of credit and debit card payments directly through your website with a full internet merchant account, in association with the Bank of Ireland.

Find out more

Email:

All Fasthosts email hosting packages include a range of mailboxes with features to suit your needs. From POP3 to business-class Microsoft Exchange, all Fasthosts mailboxes are designed to work on your own domain name, providing a highly professional email service.

Setting up mail accounts is a relatively painless process through, as is using them. Access to mail accounts is made available through your personal control panel.

Mail Plus

-

£1.25 pm + VAT / 2 Advanced POP3 Boxes / 5 Standard Boxes

/ Webmail

Exchange

-

£9.99 pm + VAT / 5 Standard POP3 Boxes / 1 Exchange 03 / Webmail / Mobile Mail
Business

-

£19.99 pm + VAT / Unlimited Standard POP3 / 2 Advanced Boxes / 3 Exchange / Web/Mobile Mail

Fasthosts' powerful email infrastructure enables you to "mix & match" different types of mailbox on the same domain name, for complete flexibility. Start by signing up for a Fasthosts email package, and then add extra mailboxes instantly when you need them.

Reliability:

One thing you can rely on with Fasthosts is reliability of service. This is ensured by way of multiple Tier 1 connections with redundant server disks, firewall protected servers, and raw log files.

Fasthosts have invested millions in making their data centre the most reliable and secure anywhere, and it is certainly evident. Their data centre offers the ultimate in security, uninterrupted power, climate controls, and state of the art server hardware and software.

Fasthosts corporate website was monitored for 909 days, ending up with an overall uptime of 99.99%.

By providing the uptime percentage for Fasthosts corporate website, we hope to help you in your research on their past uptime performance.

At 99.99% overall uptime, Fasthosts uptime is considered excellent.

Control Panel:

Fasthosts control panel is segmented between its different offerings, with additional features as you move to more expensive packages. The reseller tab enables management of customer details, and allows for creation of multiple FTP accounts, user control panels and so on.

The general interface has several main icons including; configuration, Web building, Webmail and statistics and Fasthosts dial, a free local rate access service. The web building icon takes you to an HTML creation system – as mentioned above - called Sitebuilder.

When you select the configuration menu, you are presented with an overview of your sites settings with navigation links that take you to more detailed options. You can analyse your sites bandwidth between specific dates, configure POP3 accounts and auto-responders, and add virus protection and spam filtering.

The entry level account is fairly basic, but more powerful packages give you the ability to create secured directories, multiple logins and so on. There are also sections to configure MSSQL and MySQL databases and to add streaming media to your site.

Fasthosts uses their Matrix Stats system for its statistical reporting which provides stacks of information, including hits, hits per session duration, average hits per session duration, average hits per session and so on. You also get detailed referrer information including search engine referrals, and a “whos on” feature that shows the site visitors currently accessing your site.

Fasthosts control panel is simple enough for beginners, but provides lots of features for power users.

Customer Support:

Customer support is all UK based, and currently available by phone or e-mail, both methods requiring pin/account numbers for security reasons.

Phone support is the quickest, as you would expect. The call centre is UK-based and operates any time of the day or night. Our calls where answered and dealt with promptly. If the person who answered our call couldn’t assist, we were quickly passed on to a more experienced member of the team.

Email support took a little longer, but when the response arrived it was succinct, to the point and solved my problem.

As a side note, Fasthosts also offer a thorough FAQ, searchable how-to articles, whitepapers on using all the included technologies, setup guides, user manuals, and customer discussion forums.

Price and Value:

Fasthosts offer a good range of plans to meet the various needs of their customers, all offering good value. The best value is clearly evident in the mid-range and above levels of shared hosting plans. The benefits to these packages are clearly worth the investment.

In terms of price, Fasthosts is very reasonable in comparison to many other web hosting companies. The one down-side is the extra charges extra for additional features, which can be a little pricey. We feel your primary factor when searching for a good web host should not be price. Yes, price is one factor but you need to take into consideration other factors before deciding, including reliability and customer service, 2 areas in which Fasthosts excel.

Source:hostinggeek.co


General

Host Papa is a shared hosting company operating 100% on green energy, which is sufficiently rare to be noticed.

Host Papa’s data centers are located in Toronto, Canada which allows for the same high speed connections as US datacenters while helping to maintain costs lower than in the US.

  • Created: 1995
  • Offices: Ontario, Canada
  • Data center: Toronto, Canada
  • Domains served: 15,000+
  • Servers: owned by HostPapa

User Experience

Our HostPapa test site showed excellent response and uptimes.

Follow up:

  • Control panel: cPanel
  • Application installer: Fantastico Deluxe

HostPapa’s technical support can help you install or upgrade to the latest version of most popular web application, including – of course – b2evolution.

We were able to perform 5 simultaneous FTP uploads, which ensures easy site maintenance and updates.

Customer satisfaction

HostPapa has been reported to provide both a good infrastructure and good support.

Technical specs

  • MySQL 5.0.45 - Up to date
  • PHP 5.2.45 - Up to date
  • UTF-8 and mbstring: supported

Overall, the platform is state of the art.

Section updated April 30th, 2008.

Security

Web Hosting Pad is running suPHP and there is strong isolation between user accounts.

SFTP is not available.

Overall security is good.

Hosting Plans

HostPapa offers a single hosting plan:

HostPapa Plan
Monthly fee (× 12 mo) $6.95
Monthly fee (× 24 mo) $5.95
Monthly fee (× 36 mo) $4.95
Disk space Unlimited
Transfer Unlimited
Included domain name free
Domains per account Unlimited
b2evo auto install yes


Source:b2evolution.net


General

InMotion hosting has been providing businesses with web hosting since 2001 from their offices in Los Angeles, CA and Virginia Beach, VA. They do not outsource tech support -- all support is done from their Virgina Beach office.

They are the only host in this price range to give you the option of hosting from two geographically different data centers - one in downtown L.A. and the other just outside of Washington, DC.

Having the option to choose a datacenter near you can save you a lot of time if your business heavily relies on interacting with your website backoffice during the day.

InMotion's position is definitely oriented towards business hosting rather than personal web hosting. They offer the whole range of hosting plans from starter shared hosted plans, to virtual private servers to dedicated / managed servers.

User experience

InMotion test site showed to be very responsive.

Follow up:

We were able to perform 10 simultaneous FTP transfers, which is outstanding and makes site maintenance extremely fast.

InMotion uses the industry proven cPanel architecture. No surprises there. The default settings allow for good operation without running into annoying limitations.

The default settings allow for reasonable operation without running into annoying limitations.

Customer satisfaction

Our satisfaction surveys show that what their customers appreciate the most is the quality of the tech support.

This concurs with our own findings that InMotion Hosting focus on the latest proven stable version of server software components in order to provide their clients with the highest stability and a seamless experience.

We have also noticed that InMotion was rated "A" by the Better Business Bureau (L.A.) which is excellent and sufficiently rare in the hosting industry to be noted.

Technical specs

  • PHP version: 5.2.6 -- Up to date
  • PHP security: Very Good (suPHP)
  • MySQL version: 5.0.67 -- Up to date
  • GD library: 2.0.34 -- Up to date

Overall, the platform is state of the art (16GB or 32GB of RAM, 2 Quad Core Xeons, 15,000 RPM SAS Hard Drives...)

Section updated on Feb 26th, 2009

Security

SFTP is not available.

Overall security is good.

Hosting Plans

Basic Launch Power Pro
Monthly fee (× 1 mo) - - - $19.95
Monthly fee (× 6 mo) - - - $19.95
Monthly fee (× 12 mo) - $7.95 $9.95 $18.95
Monthly fee (× 24 mo) $4.00 $6.95 $8.95 -
Disk space 150 GB Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Transfer 1,500 GB Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Included domain name free free free free
Sites per account 1 2 6 16
Domains per account 2 6 26 unlimited
MySQL databases 1 2 50 200
b2evo auto install yes yes yes yes


Source:b2evolution.net


mimo-720s


MIMO Monitors have released their latest Touchscreen Slider that connects to your machine through USB - the MIMO 720-S monitor. This USB-powered mini-display tips the scales at less than one pound, while boasting foldable characteristics that make it highly portable, boasting full resistive touchscreen functionality that provides netbook users with more visual real estate to play with.

With a display size of seven inches, the MIMO 720-S features 800×480 resolution and a contrast ration of 400:1 — offering sharp graphics and clear images with 90 degree pivoting capabilities. The monitor discretely folds into itself with a tiny footprint of just 7″ x 5 3/8″ x 1″. Supporting Windows XP and Vista as well as Mac OS X (with supplemental third-party driver), the 720-S is powered and connected by a single USB connection, providing a secondary screen ideal for holding email applications, download managers, social network clients such as TweetDeck, formatting palettes, stock tickers, instant messengers such as Google Talk and AIM, webcam feeds and much more. Additionally, with the rise in popularity of netbooks, the 720-S serves as a much-needed secondary screen for added display space and shared viewing.

It is interesting to note that this portable monitor will cost $229.99 including shipping, and we would only recommend this to those who travel plenty with a netbook. Otherwise, get a notebook with a larger screen size, and for folks using desktops, the same price point can net you more than a decent 18.5″ monitor.

Press Release


So last week I played five games of laser quest (hey- he asked for an unusual first date, and he got it!). I’m good at laser quest, even won a couple of games. The local laser zone is pitch black and full of tunnels, and it’s pretty easy to shoot and duck into a maze before they even see you. My only problem is that I have a rather daft tendency to think I’m going through a gap, but to actually run into walls…

So I could really have benefited from a pair of these Night Vision Goggles, even if it was just so I could see what I was rebounding off of. Once the reserve of night time soldiers, now they’re going to be available on IWOOT within the next week (pre orders are being taken currently). If only I had £100!

Using infra red, these goggles allow you to see up to fifteen meters in absolute darkness. Perfect for playing hide and seek in the garden, or watching owls and bats of an evening. And yes, you do get to pretend your stalking the bad guy (although I believe it is a prerequisite to hum the ‘Mission Impossible’ theme tune as you do).

The cool thing about these goggles is not only do they allow you to see in the dark, but even at full power they won’t be spotted by the animal/ child/ wall you’re following around, as even at full power the light emitted is barely visible to the naked eye. Which makes you wonder if the fifteen meters is really possible- my only experience with night vision goggles to date is of a very blurry looking creature which may or may not have been an antelope a couple of meters away (coolness points for Ruth: this occurred while working on a nature reserve in Kenya, so it really was an antelope not a confused goat).

The Night Vision Goggles take five AA batteries, and there’s no word how long they actually last, so if you’re spending £100 on goggles, then you may want to invest in rechargeable batteries- save the environment as you study it under the stars!

Source:gaj-it.com


reader-daily-edition


Looks like competition in the e-book reader market is heating up, with Sony making further inroads into this niche segment by enlarging its Reader family of e-book readers with the introduction of the Reader Daily Edition. This highly-anticipated wireless model will feature 3G connectivity, and will accompany its other two siblings, the Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition that were announced earlier this August. While the latter two models are already readily available at this moment, folks who are looking forward to the Reader Daily Edition to give Amazon’s Kindle and its successor will have to wait until December for it to be released during the holiday season.

The Reader Daily Edition will enable consumers to access AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network wirelessly, connecting to Sony’s eBook store as long as they are within a decent signal range, which would practically mean from just about anywhere in the US where AT&T are concerned. I’m sure that some readers who subscribe to AT&T’s 3G service will beg to differ, but let’s leave that in the comments, shall we? Users can browse, purchase and download books while selecting various newspapers and magazines to read on demand. You won’t have to worry about additional burdens on your finances since there are no monthly fees or transaction charges for the basic wireless connectivity option. Another feature includes the option to side load personal documents or content from other compatible sites through USB connectivity.

You will find a 7″ wide touchscreen display gracing the Reader Daily Edition which ought to be more than ample for folks who want an intuitive navigation experience. That amount of viewing space also ensures a comfortable layout of content, regardless of whether you’re reading newspapers or magazines. In portrait mode, one is able to view anywhere from 30 to 35 lines of text, making one feel as though he/she is reading a printed paperback book. Other features include a high contrast ratio with 16 levels of grayscale, sufficient internal memory to store up to 1,000 eBooks and a memory card slot. Come December, you can pick up the Sony Reader Daily Edition for approximately $399.

Press Release


General

HostMonster is a newer sister brand to the renowned BlueHost (since 1996). It is owned and operated by the same team out of their offices in Orem, Utah.

HostMonster is geared both towards professional and individual sites with a slightly lower price point than its direct competition.

User experience

Our Host Monster test site showed good response and uptimes.

Follow up:

We were able to perform 6 simultaneous FTP transfers, which makes upload very fast.

  • Control panel: cPanel 11 - Up to date
  • Application installers:
    • Simple Scripts - Excellent availability of recent apps!
    • Fantastico Deluxe - Up to date

HostMonster's skinning is light enough not to get in the way. A handful of promotional items at the top tend to be annoying at first but can be collapsed.

Their proprietary Simple Scripts application installer is currently the best in the industry.

Customer satisfaction

User feedback shows excellent satisfaction rates, especially for those clients balancing the level of support with the lower price point.

HostMonster is also known to have extremely good response times, both by email and by phone. There have been a few hickups at times of rapid growth in the past but it seems HostMonster now has the situation under control and support is back to its highest levels.

Technical specs

  • MySQL 5.0.45 - Up to date
  • PHP 5.2.45 - Up to date
  • UTF-8 and mbstring: supported

Overall, the platform is state of the art.

Section updated April 30th, 2008.

Security

HostMonster is running mod_suPHP and there is strong isolation between user accounts. (FastCGI is also available)

SFTP is not available.

Overall security is good.

Hosting Plans

HostMonster offers a single hosting plan:

Professional
Monthly fee (× 3 mo) $9.95 + $30 setup + $10 domain
Monthly fee (× 6 mo) $9.95 + $30 setup + $10 domain
Monthly fee (× 12 mo) $9.95 $4.95 promo
Monthly fee (× 24 mo) $6.95 $3.95 promo
Monthly fee (× 36 mo) $6.95 $3.95 promo
Disk space Unlimited
Transfer Unlimited
Included domain name free (on plans ≥ 1 year)
Domains per account Unlimited
MySQL databases 100
b2evo auto install yes


Source:b2evolution.net


General

JustHost is a relatively new web hosting company set out to become a major player in the industry.

In the US, JustHost is based in Gendale, CA. They also have offices in the UK and Australia.

By having started their operations once web hosting technologies were already mature, JustHost has a competitive advantage over older competitors since they can provide state of the art web hosting technology to all their clients. They do not have to deal with inefficient legacy systems.

User experience

Follow up:

We were able to perform 10 simultaneous FTP transfers, which makes upload very fast.

  • Control panel: cPanel 11 - Up to date
  • Application installer: Fantastico Deluxe - Up to date

JustHost's admin interface has a few promotional items that can be disturbing at first but they do not really get in the way once you get used to their control panel.

Support

JustHost offers toll-free phone support as well as 24/7 free e-mail and live chat support in order to get you answers in a matter of minutes. They also maintain a comprehensive knowledge base with quickly and easy access to common questions and answers.

Customer satisfaction

Excellent user experience, effective support and more give Just Host great marks in terms of user satisfaction.

Actually, JustHost are so sure that their customers will be satisfied that they offer an unique "Moneyback Anytime" guarantee. That means that, as a customer, you can get back your money if you are not satisfied, at any time! Not just in the first 30 to 90 days like other hosts do. This is pretty unique in the industry.

Technical specs

  • MySQL 5.0.67 - Up to date
  • PHP 5.2.9 - Up to date
  • UTF-8 and mbstring: supported

Overall, the platform is state of the art.

Section updated May 22nd, 2009.

Security

JustHost is running mod_suPHP and there is strong isolation between user accounts.

SFTP is also available for Secure FTP file transfers.

Overall security is excellent.

Hosting Plans

JustPlan JustPlan Premium
Monthly fee (× 1mo) $7.95 $11.95
Monthly fee (× 6mo) $6.95 $10.95
Monthly fee (× 12mo) $5.95 $9.95
Monthly fee (× 24mo) $4.95 $8.95
Monthly fee (× 36 mo) $6.95 $3.95 $8.95
Disk space Unlimited Unlimited
Transfer Unlimited Unlimited
Included domain name
(12 months or longer contracts)
1 free for life 3 free for life
Domains per account Unlimited Unlimited
MySQL databases Unlimited Unlimited
b2evo auto install yes yes

Source:b2evolution.net


If you are searching for a good multilevel marketing opportunity to be a part of and succeed in it, make sure that the next ten points are in order.

1. Are you happy with the product that you will have to sell with this mlm opportunity? If not, there is no reason you should get going with it.

2. Are you convinced of their business plan? Most importantly, have you understood it completely and will you be able to tell it to others in the same way your business representative does it for you? If the business plan is difficult or if you think you will not be able to explain it to others, you can give this one a miss.

3. Do they demand some unreasonable membership fee? Most network marketing businesses are low investment opportunities. If you have to spend more than $200 to be a part of the activity, drop it.


4. You need to get a whole kit when you join. It should contain a detailed iguide and a manual about the product you will beoffering. It should have several things that can aid you promote the product such as stickers, buttons and pins, etc.


5. How are your immediate upline members? Your mentor, the one who explains the business to you when you join, must be friendly and even charismatic. He or she must be able to help you at first in convincing people to join.

6. Does the business hold meeting to sign up more people frequently? Remember that without such contact programs, it will become problematic to bring more members to the network. The person to person approach is unbeatable. Also, leaders must be present at these seminars to speak to the people and convince them.

7. Does the business have an internet presence? Without that, you can give all hopes of earning good money. The optimum way to bring in more people is through the Internet. The business should use these opportunities to the maximum extent.

8. Do you have abundant people to back you and support you, at least initially? Are you a social person? Such things help in getting the newest members. It is a good idea to speak to some people in your closest circle to find out whether they will support you by joining the network themselves.

9. Do you have time for the activity? Remember that a business venture is not a get-lots-of-money scheme. You have to put in effort. If you cannot, no such activity will work for you.

10. What is the position of the company? This is important. The products will be sold quicker if the company has some reputation. It is not easy to join newbie companies that no one has heard of, unless they have some highly attractive products that people would love to interest themselves in.

Source:marketing.about.com

You can provide human interaction to potential Internet clients and customers so that you are able to move that client or customer through a successful sales process, but how?

You do this by following a five step process in your Internet marketing strategy that continually builds trust and confidence by meeting the psychological marketing needs of that visitor and potential customer while escorting that visitor through the selection and purchasing process.

Creating a successful online sales process can be accomplished by making sure that you represent and court your visitor through the five levels of the sales process on your site.

Anyone who has studied any marketing at all knows that there are psychological needs that must be met in order for a person to be persuaded to purchase a product or service.

If it’s a product you are selling are you representing that product to solve a specific problem or meet a specific need? If you are selling a service are you getting in touch with the pain of your potential client to draw their interest into what you are offering?

There are steps that you can take to effectively do that and in response witness the successful sales process over and over in the virtual world that is why an Internet marketing strategy is a necessity not an option.

The five levels of the sales process build on one another in many ways. An Internet Marketing Strategy that is done correctly will clearly define all five levels of the process and how they are represented through your site. The strategy will then assist you in setting realistic and attainable Internet marketing goals. It will also assist you in using each step to build and influence the others so that the process continually moves toward the successful close of the sale.

These five levels of the sales process are the core components that will move your website viewer from visitor to customer or client. By representing each level that is mentioned below and courting your potential client or customer through those levels you will have the power to move your site from failure to success.

  • Marketing/Prospecting to your Target Market and Audience
  • Build Credibility and Trust - (Your viewer needs this to move forward)
  • Escort and Court the Buyer through the Process - (Meet their Needs 7 out of 10 want to buy!)
  • Present the Product or Service that meets their needs
  • Successfully Close the Sale

Let’s explore each phase in depth, so that you have a greater understanding of how you can put these princples to work for your business.

Level 1: Marketing/Prospecting

Prospecting is the result of your marketing. It's the delivery of targeted qualified traffic to your virtual storefront. This can be achieved by search engine optimization, pay per clicks, or advertisements that draw people to your site. Once they are there it is your job and responsibility to deliver your Unique Selling Proposition. Not sure what your USP is? Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What is the obvious void in the marketplace that your product or service fills?
  • What makes your business stand out as distinct and appealing that sets your business apart from the rest?

Level 2: Build Credibility and Trust

In a brick and mortar business trust is built by human interaction. Greeting a person when they walk in the door or physically helping them find something that they are looking for, so how can you build that same trust and credibility virtually?

I think you will be surprised to find out that you build that same trust and credibility by the elements that surround the design and the development of your website. Your viewer is unconsciously judging your credibility by mentally asking themselves the following questions:

  • Does this feel and look professional like a legitimate company?
  • Is this site reliable?
  • How fast is it downloading and are there broken images or links?
  • Can I find my way through the site with the navigation that is provided, or are these virtual isles cluttered?
  • How is the copy on this site?
  • Is it powerful, does it draw me in or is obvious that there was no time taken to write it?
  • Are there spelling and grammatical errors?
  • Do the images draw me in or are they distracting and irrelevant?
  • Can I find the companies assurances and privacy policies easily?
  • What about customer support? Is it easily found?
  • Can I access support and information that I need easily or is it hidden?

Take a look at your site and ask yourself the questions above. Are you guiding your viewers or are you leaving them in the dark. Your site should work as a personal shopper, a live virtual assistant that knows the needs that your visitor has and makes the solutions for those needs easily accessible.

Level 3: Escort and Court the Buyer

A person who visits your site has been targeted if you followed the first steps in prospecting, so now it's time to qualify the visitor. How do you do this? It's actually very easy. A person happens on your site because they are looking for a solution to a problem. That solution can be a product or a service. Internet marketing studies show that 7 out of 10 visitors to a site are ready to buy. Take the time to escort and court them to what they need.

  • When you look at your current site are you helping your visitors to identify and find the best solution for that problem?
  • Are you guiding them to find what they need to solve the problem that they have?

Your navigation should be structured to help those that know exactly what it is that they are looking for, those who know what they want in general but aren't sure about the specifics, and those that are browsing and need you to give them some direction.

Level 4: Present the Product/Service

The presentation process is how you are presenting your products or services to your visitors as you guide them through the selection process after you have escorted them and found out what their needs are in the previous stage. It's important to remember that each level ofthe process overlaps. As you present your products or services to your visitor, be sure that you are continually keeping their attention and interest by motivating them to continue with the sale.

Level 5: Close the Sale

Does your site close the sale effectively? Take a look at each product that you offer, are you providing enough information about the product are you giving them assurance policies and/or guarantees regarding their purchase? Are your product descriptions enticing? Does your description answer common questions that visitors might have? Consider adding testimonials for each product or service to build added credibility. One thing that many e-commerce sites forget to do is provide payment information. Do you take credit cards, if so which ones? Can I pay you by electronic check? What if I want to mail my check to you, can I do that? Take the guess work out of the purchase. Another vital part of the close that is often missed is clearly communicating your guarantee and assurance that you will stand behind the product or service.

If you represent each level that is mentioned above and effectively court your potential client or customer through the five levels you will have the power to move your website from failure to success.

source:marketing.about.com


Let's think about thisquestion for a moment. Without marketing you would not have prospects orleads to follow up with, but yet without a good sales technique and strategy your closing rate may depress you.

Marketing is everything that you do to reach and persuade prospects. The sales process is everything that you do to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract. Both are necessities to the success of a business. You cannot do without either process. By strategically combining both efforts you will experience a successful amount of business growth. However, by the same token if the efforts are unbalanced it candetour your growth.

Your marketing will consists of the measures you use to reach and persuade your prospects that you are the company for them. It's the message that prepares the prospect for the sales. It consists of advertising, public relations, brand marketing, viral marketing, and direct mail.

The sales process consists of interpersonal interaction. It is often done by a one-on-one meeting, cold calls, and networking. It's anything that engages you with the prospect or customer on a personal level rather than at a distance.

Your marketing efforts begin the process of the eight contacts that studies show it takes to move a prospect or potential client to the close of the sale. If marketing is done effectively you can begin to move that prospect from a cold to a warm lead. When the prospect hitsthe"warm" level it's much easier for the sales professional to close the sale.

Do you see the cycle?

As you see in my explanation above it takes multiple contacts using both sales and marketing to move the prospect from one level to the next. That is why it is import that you develop a process that combines both sales and marketing. This will enable you to reach prospects at all three levels; cold, warm, and hot. It's all about balance.

Are you unsure of how to integrate your marketing and sales?

Try this. Take a few moments and divide your prospect lists and database into categories of cold, warm, and hot leads. Then sit down and identify a strategy on how to proceed with each individual group.

For example you could try the following methods of contact:

  • Cold Lead Strategy - Send out a direct mailing or offer them a special promotion
  • Warm Lead Strategy - Try a follow-up call, send out a sales letter, or schedule a special seminar or training session to get all of your warm leads together.

Once you've moved your prospect to the "warm" level it's time to proceed in closing the sale. This will be easier to do if you somehow engage the prospect. You can do this by conducting a one-on-one call, make a presentation, or present a proposal, estimate, or contract.

What if you are uncomfortable with the sales or marketing process?

An alternative that often proves successful is to partner with someone that possess the talents that you feel you lack in. You can do this by creating a partnership, subcontracting, or hiring in that talent.


SOURCE:articlealley

Hostgator Reviews

Hostgator is one of the top web host, in terms of support, features and uptime. It is no wonder that almost all web hosting reviews place hostgator as one of Hostgator is one of the top web host, in terms of support, features and uptime. It i the top hosts.

Hostgator Coupon

Hostgator offers up to $9.95 or the first month free with their coupon codes. If you want to get the first month of shared hosting free, use the hostgator coupon code hgc25 during sign up. At the moment, hostgator have a better promotion running till 1st April. 2008. For any hostgator purchase, you get 20% off the entire order. That is a great offer for reseller accounts and shared hosting prepaid for longer duration.

Bluehost Vs Hostgator Review

Both hostmonster and Bluehost are two of the best shared web hosts. But hostgator scores over bluehost in the following: 1. Hostgator allows monthly payment for a very small setup fee($5.00). Bluehost charges much bigger ($30.00)setup fee for a monthly contract. If you prefer monthly contract, hostgator is a better option. 2. Hostgator offers much better support, compared to bluehost. Bluehost support is just okay, where as hostgator is ready to go that extra mile for you.

Hostmonster Vs Hostgator Review

Hostmonster and Bluehost belongs to the same company, so most of what mentioned about bluehost is applicable for hostmonster as well. If you compare hostgator reviews and hostmonster reviews generally, you can see that both get good ratings with hostgator standing out on few points. Here is the reason why we recommend hostgator over hostmonster. 1. Support- Hostgator simply too good. 2. Flexible payment terms - Hostgator lets you choose a monthly billing, yearly or even you can prepay for two or three years. Unless you are expecting to get a discount, there is no need for commiting to anything more than a month.

Hostgator Vs IX Web Hosting

The best thing about IX web host is that they give unique IP address for each add-on domain unlike most shared web hosts. So if you have a large number of sites and would like to link them, IX is a good option considering the SEO advantage. Apart from that, Hostgator is a much better host. Hostgator offers better control panel(cpanel instead of H-sphere), much better support and overall better service. Also note that IX doesn't give mysql database for their basic offer, so cost wise there is not much differnce if you are looking to host a PHP/MySQL based site. No wonder, hostgator gets a much better review on any reliable review site.

Godaddy Vs Hostgator Review

There is no comparison here. Hostgator scores in all possible parameters. Any web hosting review on the net will put hostgator far ahead of godaddy. 1. Features: Godaddy gives you a limited custom control panel where as hostgator gives you the power of cPanel and fantastico. 2. Uptime: Even though both oversells, Hostgator doesnt load as many sites as godaddy into a single server. Result - better performance and uptime for hostgator, even though godaddy has an equally good network. 3. Support: Godaddy support might push you a URL or copy paste something if you ask a question, where as hostgator gives you personalized care.

Hostgator Vs Startlogic

Once again both overslls but hostgator has a much better reputation. If most Hostgator reviews rate them excellent, startlogic just gets and okay rating by reliable hosting reviews. 1. Controlpanel - Startlogic uses vDeck compared to cPanel used by hostgator 2. Support - A BIG differnce 3. Uptime - Startlogic customers reports too many down times. Slow server is not a news there. 4. Flexible payment options and plans compared to single plan by startlogic.

Source:hostgator-review


Hostgator is rated as one of the best web hosts by most web hosting forums and reviews sites. No, we haven't just decided to create a hostgator review site without a reason. After years of experince in the web host industry and running a few well known web hosting forum, we are convinced that hostgator is one of the very few hosts that we can suggest without getting our objectivity questioned.

Hostgator Features Review

Hostgator uses cPanel, which is probably the best control panel around. You get all the bells and whistles of a cPanel host: cron jobs, .htaccess, fantastico script installer etc. In addition, Hostgator supports Ruby on Rails and the lastest configuration of PHP and MySQL. Hatchling - the cheapest package comes with minimum features like 20 POP3 accounts, just one domain support etc. Bigger packages gives unlimited resources - add on domains, POP3 accounts etc. Nothing much to review here, they offer almost all you want from a PHP/Linux host.

Hostgator Uptime Review

Hostgator like other major hosts, offers 99.9% uptime guarantee. Their performance has been stable over the last many years. Very rarely one comes across a customer who is not happy with hostgator uptime. They host on top end Dual Xeon processors and connects to ten backbone providers directly. Also, they do not oversell much - you won't see them offering 2000 GB space for a $5.00 account and unlimited domains. They keep it reasonable, and deliver what has been promised.

Hostgator Price

Hostgator is reasonably priced. Their cheapest package - Hatchling comes at $6.95 per month if you decide to pay monthly which is the normal rate for a budget hosting. If you don't mind committing to an annual/bi-annual contract, the rate comes down significantly. They charge a nominal setup fee for a monthly contract, but anyone who want to try out hostgator can use a discount coupon to get it free for the first month. Overall hostmonster is very competitively priced and can allow flexible payment terms to suit all kind of users.

Hostgator Support Review

Hostgator offers all possible options for customer support: Support tickets, 24/7 toll free lines, online chat and also they provide a support forum. Their forum is not only an indication of the open nature of the company, it also helps to find answers to a number of typical issues. Hostgator also have extensive tutorials section where you can read the tutoral about the control panel etc. In hosting industry, hostgator has one of the fastest response time for support tickets. Over the last few years, we have seen very few customers who are unhappy about the hostgator support. This is not a mean achievement, considering the amount of negative reviews one come across regarding the other big hosts like godaddy, 1and1 etc.

Source:hostgator-review

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