Personalize Your Site Using a Favicon

In a world where competition is fierce, the need to make your site stand out is imperative. Here is something creative that you can do now.

With the ever increasing number of web sites on the internet, why not take advantage of this simple method of being able to personalize and distinguish your web site from others?

If you bookmark a page with Microsoft IE you will notice some sites have a special icon associated with their respective bookmark thus differentiating or branding site A from site B. Think of it as internet marketing.

It dawned on me recently how easy it was for me to locate web sites that I had bookmarked and appeared in My Favorites menu with a little icon displayed next to the web site name, so I decided to find out if I could put one on my own web site to make it stand out in the My Favorites menu and easier for whoever bookmarked my site to locate.

I started my search on Google and discovered that the little icon that replaces the IE logo (in IE) is called a Favicon (pronounced fav-eye-con) and is short for Favorites Icon or it is sometimes called a bookmark icon. The Favicon also shows in the address bar as well. Notice the red Y! symbol that appears in the left-most area of the address bar in Internet Explorer when you open Yahoo!, or the butterfly in MSN . What a great way to personalise your site.

You will require IE 5.0 or higher and a favicon.ico can show up in at least three different places in Windows:

1) In the Favorites list selectable on the Start menu;

2) In the location bar of the browser when you are visiting the web site;

3) On your desktop if you first bookmark the site, click Start, Favorites, hold down the control key and click on the bookmark to drag it to the desktop (it copies the icon as a shortcut).

The favicon.ico can also show up in the following two places:

4) On the taskbar if you bookmark the site, hold down the control key, then right click on the bookmark and drag it to the task bar, it copies the icon there;

5) On the links bar if you bookmark the site, hold down the control key, then right click on the bookmark and drag it to the Links tool bar, it copies the icon there.

If you search in the engines for favicon you will find that many sites come up offering favicon tutorials, online tools to create favicon icons, free favicon icons and installation instructions too.

A favicon should be 16 X 16 pixels with 16 colors and the file name must be favicon.ico and ideally you should search for a program that allows you to create favicons online. Remember, if you do not save it as favicon.ico it will not work. Do not make the mistake of just shrinking an image to icon size and renaming it with a .ico file extension. That will not work either because it is not a real icon file. Do not be surprised if your own favicon does not show up in your own browser when you open your site, as sometimes this can take up to a few days and even disappear again only to reappear.

I had fun creating my own personal 16 x 16 pixel image in MyImager and then found a site on Google that created a favicon.ico file and I uploaded my image and clicked on generate favicon and that is how easy it was. I then uploaded the favicon.ico file to the root web directory, in the same location as the index.html page of my hosted website and bingo, I now have a Favicon and have personalized and distinguished my web site from others. Creating such an icon adds to the professionalism of your site, marking you as a web designer who attends to detail.

So now when someone bookmarks my site with a browser that supports favicons, my favicon will appear, as opposed to a default image (a logo for Internet Explorer), which is used instead if no favicon.ico had been provided. I am sure if you look through your own Favorites Menu you will notice that the bulk of the images are the IE logo.

The favicon allows the webmaster to further promote their site, and to create a more customized appearance within a visitor's browser. Often, the favicon reflects the look and feel of the web site or the organization's logo. Have fun creating your Favicon.

About the Author:


Cynthia Minnaar works from home online and invites you to visit http://www.cyns-home-biz.com for web income generating ideas and opportunities, articles and marketing tools.

Article Source: iSnare

Make Money On The Internet - Without A Product

Another good article on affiliate marketing and sales.

Think you need your own product to make money on the Internet? Well, you don't. There are several ways around it. Here I will discuss one of them, called "affiliate marketing".

Many entities offer an affiliate program, which you may join to promote their product or service. The provider of said product rewards their affiliates based on performance.

In order to track performance, most affiliate programs supply you with a URL, specially coded with your unique affiliate ID. Your ID may be a name or number that you choose, or it might be assigned by the merchant.

Your new URL is the address you will send potential customers (prospects) to. When your prospects reach the vendors website via your coded URL, their purchases are credited to you, the referrer. Then, the vendor can pay you the appropriate commission, based on either a percentage of the sale, or a set bounty.

Commissions may also be paid for referring leads. This is when you earn a commission by referring a prospect to sign up for a service, or fill out a form. Commissions for generating leads are usually a fixed amount.

For example, you are promoting a real estate company that pays $10 per lead. The prospect clicks on your link to visit that companies website. Once there, they fill out a form to receive more information about buying a house. According to the terms of the affiliate agreement, this is a qualified lead. The company knows to pay you $10 for the lead, thanks to your ID code embedded in the URL.

Most vendors will use cookies to track referrers. Cookies are little bits of information placed on the user's computer when they visit a site. If a customer leaves the vendor's website without purchasing, they can return later and the vendor's computer will recognize the cookie. These cookies tell them that you are the referrer, so you will be awarded the commissions due for a sale.

The specific details and structure of affiliate programs can vary, but are usually built around the above basic processes. Other systems include MLM or Multi-Level Marketing (aka Pyramid schemes), Network Marketing, Two-tier programs, and Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Thousand impressions advertising (i.e. Google Adsense).

The best way to choose your program(s) is to pick something you are passionate about, such as a favorite hobby. This way you will have plenty of information to offer customers, and increase your chances of making sales.

There are other factors to look at and work into the equation:

* Find out if there is a demand for what you will be promoting.

* See how much competition there is in that niche.

* Make sure the vendor has an effective sales letter or sales page, to convert prospects into paying customers.

* Look for products which are not overpriced, but pay high commissions.

* The best vendors to use will be well established, with a low return rate.

While the popular choice is to have your own website for advertising affiliate links and banners, it is not always necessary. A lot of people have made money simply advertising their affiliate URL with Google Adwords, Yahoo! Sponsored Search, etc.

With the right affiliate marketing programs and your own creative promotion techniques, you can earn a good living on the Internet without personally selling or shipping a product.

About the author:

Looking for top affiliate opportunities? Jason Rudolchick of http://www.KeystoneEdge.com works to provide a valuable resource for internet marketing and online business information.

Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Eight Steps to Writing an Outstanding Podcast

Thinking of using podcasts to expand your business? Read on for some practical tips on how you can do it.

Podcasts are on the cutting edge of business communication, allowing you to speak with your own voice directly to your audience. They add variety to your blog or website and prove that you know how to stay ahead of the pack.

But hitting "record" without putting some thought into what you're going to say and how you're going to say it is a fatal mistake. Here are eight steps to follow for creating a podcast that makes your listener want to come back for more.

1. Choose a theme. Pick an issue about which you feel confident speaking. Try to narrow it down to a particular angle or perspective-think news clip, not university lecture. The best podcasts touch on a specific subject and cover it in depth, rather than attempting to discuss the history of Western Europe in three minutes or less.

2. Consider your audience. How much does your audience know about your subject? What style of reporting will connect with them? The more you put yourself in your listeners' shoes, the better you will be able to speak directly to them. Be sure to include a response to any previous questions or suggestions-your audience doesn't want to feel ignored.

3. Prepare an outline. Expand on your theme by coming up with four or five main elements or topics to discuss. Put the most important and engaging information first; this will hook your listener and entice them to hear out the rest of it. Even if you don't write your script word for word, an outline will help you organize your thoughts into a tidy framework.

4. Think ahead for interviews. If you want to include an interview in your podcast, it's a good idea to plan ahead. Make a list of questions you want to ask for sure, but remember that sometimes the best sound bites happen off-the-cuff. Feel comfortable enough with your interviewee to ask follow-up questions and allow the conversation to travel somewhere more interesting if the opportunity arises.

5. Use simple sentences and language. Keep the tone natural and conversational, as if you are speaking with a listener face-to-face-just as you would for any business writing. Toss any words that would send someone reaching for the dictionary; likewise, avoid long sub-clauses and complex syntax (these things only bury the point). Just because your sentences are short and clear does not mean your language has to be dry. Do not be afraid to use sensory descriptions to put your listener right in the heart of the action.

6. Keep it succinct. The length of your podcast depends on your subject and audience-but no matter how much information you feel is absolutely crucial to your point, listeners will lose interest if it drags. No footnotes or unnecessary diversions here; just the facts, ma'am.

7. Do a practice run. This is especially important if you're working from a basic outline. Read the script for a friend or family member for their (honest!) feedback, or record yourself once and listen to it. Be on the lookout for awkward pauses, confusing sections, and stumbling points. Make notes and do another few run-throughs with the changes incorporated.

8. Print it out. It's much easier to read from a piece of paper than from a computer screen, so print out your script before you record. Enlarging the font helps too. If you're worried about losing your place during recording, highlight a few key words or mark the beginning of different sections to keep you on track.

The more thoroughly you prepare your script, the more confident you will be when it comes down to recording it-and the more effective your podcast will be because of it.

About the Author:

Courtland L. Bovee, one of America's leading instructors in clear and effective communication, co-authors several leading college-level texts with John V. Thill, a prominent communications consultant and current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Global Communication Strategies. Their website, Business Communication Headline News, the #1 business communication site on the web, is at http://www.businesscommunicationheadlinenews.com

Plug Your Business! Marketing on MySpace, YouTube, blogs and podcasts and other Web 2.0 social networks

Plug Your Business! Marketing on MySpace, YouTube, blogs and podcasts and other Web 2.0 social networksis an excellent book detailing how you can use the power of communication and internet social networking to expand your business. From the author:

• Get massive exposure for your business, no special computer skills needed.

• Quit wasting money on traditional advertising and marketing campaigns.

• Blog to connect with customers and generate word of mouth.

• Boost your visibility with Google, use MySpace for viral marketing.

• Ignite word of mouth with Web social networks

No matter what kind of business you have, its success depends on two things: It must serve a need, and you must find customers. Most new businesses fail simply because the right people never heard about them. And this is the paradox for entrepreneurs: People aren’t paying attention to traditional marketing and advertising anymore. But free advertising is alive and well.

Whatever you want to call it—buzz, word of mouth, peer-to-peer or viral marketing—you can’t just manufacture it. You must earn it—by engaging your target market.

Fortunately, there is a very straightforward, ethical way of gaining this free exposure: by participating on social networks. These social media sites, such as MySpace and other Web 2.0 networks, allow members to create profiles of themselves (or their business) with the objective of meeting like-minded friends and partners who share the same passions and goals.

The individuals participating on these networks might be searching for anything—a mentor, a ride to work, a date for Saturday night, recommendations for a movie, a new job, or perhaps they want to meet someone who’s an expert in their hobby. For business owners who learn to use them, social networks can provide valuable free exposure to a worldwide pool of new customers and fans.

These social networks have turned traditional marketing on its head. No longer must a business owner scrape together a huge pile of cash for a marketing campaign, then pray that it works. Hundreds of thousands of businesses large and small are leveraging social networks to lure new customers, often at virtually no cost. And unlike most traditional advertising, social networking can pay dividends for years to come because it forges a strong link between you and consumers, enabling your biggest fans to become evangelists for your business.

Internet social networks allow entrepreneurs to build their businesses one customer at a time. It’s the same as having a “street team” pounding the pavement for you. Just as your street team might pass out fliers about a show or new product, your MySpace friends can forward the same type of information using electronic messages to a much larger audience.

When you’re successful, your loyal customers begin spreading the word for you, generating true word of mouth.Entrepreneurs can no longer depend on interruption-based ads, such as commercials and junk mail, which force consumers to stop what they’re doing and pay attention. But with social networking, you can influence these consumers precisely at the point where they’re engaged.

In the old days, with postal direct mail or telephone cold-calling, your chance of getting a response from someone who didn’t know you was about 2 percent—and that’s if you had a big marketing budget and were doing everything right. But today, the social-networking skills described in this book can result in response rates of 80 percent or more.