S3 Blog

Internet security is the name given to the various steps individuals and businesses can take to ensure that they are protected when they are using the internet. For individuals this takes the form of having an anti-virus installed on their PC – this will the protect the PC against any attacks from virus’s, Trojan horses, malware, adware and spyware – although these can still sometimes get in to a PC and do damage and steal information from your PC. In fact if you have anti-virus software installed it is a good idea to regularly scan your PC as this should quarantine any suspect files and applications and wipe them from your computer.

Internet security can also be part of your online email as many providers have an anti-virus scan inbuilt when you download attachments from emails. To be totally safe however it is wise never to open any attachments that are not sent from a trusted sender. By opening an attachment from an unknown sender you can unwittingly and unknowingly install programs on your PC which can gather information about you or cause damage.

For businesses internet security is just an important if not more so, particularly if you are taking payments via the internet. You must ensure that you use a system that protects all payments made by your customers as you need to be seen as a trusted trader, one which uses encryption services to receive payments from debit and credit cards. There are many payment options that are available to businesses, so take the time to check through some of them and see which one you would like to go for then sign up. This will then give your customers the peace of mind of knowing that any payments they make to you are safe and secure. Without this kind of security many customers will feel insecure about paying for goods online, and it is quite easy to see why as there are so many people out there trying to obtain personal details of bank accounts, credit cards and so on.

Businesses should also be aware that every time one of the computers in the business connects to the Internet there will be an Internet security risk. Due to this it is vitally important that each computer within a business has the appropriate Internet security installed on it. Even if just one computer becomes infected with a virus, adware, spyware or any other malicious threat it poses a huge security risk to the rest of the computers within the business network. Internet security may seem like quite an expense to purchase and run, but it will more than pay for itself to ensure that the business’s data and customer information is kept safe and secure and whenever employees are online. Now that you know the importance of Internet security you will know why it is crucial that anyone who goes online (not just businesses) should protect themselves with the appropriate Internet security package.

Any business who trades will usually have some form of advertising to make people aware of their existence and hopefully convert them into customers. Advertising is an excellent way to get a brand name or product in the public domain and over the years this advertising has evolved a long way from the paper, television or radio based advertising that everyone is familiar with. If a business trades online they will no doubt want to exploit as many different online advertising methods as possible as these can bring about an increase in profits in quite a short space of time, if successful.

Advertising campaign services is the broad name that is given to the various methods of online advertising that can be utilised and there are many different advertising services who will organise and run these campaigns for you and your behalf. Here are some of the forms of advertising campaign and how they can be of use to you.

Pay per click (PPC) advertising – where the advertiser places a click through advert on a different website – then when a visitor clicks through the owner of the site gets paid. This form of advertising can be very useful, but it can also be very expensive if there is a high click through rate but low conversion, so use this method with care. These are best used if you have a product or service that tends to have a high conversion rate as this will bring the best return.

Email advertising campaigns – these are email campaigns that are sent out as a form of advertising in the hope that recipients will follow a link in the email to the advertisers site. This form of advertising is relatively cheap and can even be done by the advertiser if they have a software application that will allow the creation of advertising campaigns. This however, then does away with need for using advertising campaign services as this can be done in-house.

Affiliate advertising – this is a method of advertising where the advertiser places their advert on someone’s blog or website and each time that advertisement creates a sale the owner of the website gets paid. This is different to PPC advertising as it is only when there is a sale that the website owner will get paid, so this is a more affordable method of advertising. However it can be quite time consuming finding suitable websites to place adverts on, however this can pay off as affiliates can and do often put work into driving traffic towards their sites in the hope of an affiliate sale.

Banner ads can also be placed on websites and these are the type of ads that anyone viewing a website will see. Often banner ads use Flash, Java, Shockwave or Silverlight to create an image that moves or changes to attract the attention of a viewer. Advertising campaign services can generate a lot of traffic for a website and when used correctly and for the right type of advertising they can be highly profitable.

Any business today that wants to maintain an online presence needs to be proactive and take certain steps to maximise this presence. Whilst it is easy to be online during office hours or at home on a PC it is difficult to keep this up when you do not have access to a PC and internet connection. This leads to gaps in availability and could result in vital business being lost due to not having the facility to check emails, update a blog, respond to customer queries, check orders and so on.

Mobile technology providers have recognised this need to be connected to the office, albeit virtually, and have designed something to enable business owners and individuals to be able to access the internet and make phone calls all from one device – the Smartphone. Smartphones are mobile phones which offer advanced features which are likened to that of a PC. For example certain Smartphones enable the user to add additional applications that will allow them to perform certain functions such as data processing. In addition to this there is full internet access, email capabilities, PDF readers, media software and even the ability to access secure networks such as company emails. Smartphones are also designed in such a way that they also incorporate a mini QWERTY keyboard so that writing emails is made easier and they sometimes have a touch screen or D-Pad.

When you are choosing a Smartphone you must first decide what features you would like it to have, for example if you only need one to be able to access and reply to business emails you should opt for one with these features as standard. If you are looking for something that is a little more advanced and that is able to support more features choose one that allows third party applications to be added to it such the Blackberry. All Smartphones run on their own operating system so check which applications they allow before deciding on one. Microsoft Smartphones for instance will allow all Microsoft applications to run on them but will not support all third party applications which can cause problems if you work on a particular application in the office and need access to this regularly.

Another advantage of using a Smartphone is that unlike a traditional mobile phone which limits the number of contacts that can be stored in it, the only limit with a Smartphone is its memory, so you can add contacts on the move and then transfer details to your PC when you are back in the office. If you are in a business where contacts are important choose a Smartphone with a large memory so that your contact list is not limited.

So to ensure that you get a Smartphone that is right to maximise your presence online do your homework and find out what features you need. Then you can check the market and see which Smartphone best suits your needs and go ahead and get connected.

Happy New Year!
We thought we would kick start the New Year with some tips on starting a blog.

Blogging is one of the most popular ways that many businesses use to reach a wide audience and get them to find out about what that business does and keep their readers up to date with anything new. So what are the top 10 things to remember when starting a blog for your business?

1.What is your blog about – this may seem a little obvious as you would think “My business” but you need to decide what you want your blog to tell people about your business.

2.What is your aim – if you want your blog to bring you more customers then add special offers for blog readers, make people want to read it by giving them a little something back for doing so.

3.Who is your audience – once you have decided on your audience you can then write the content. If it is aimed at your customers you don’t want to bog it down with too much industry jargon and things that only someone in the same business would be interested in so keep it relevant to your readers.

4.Keep it relevant – all blogs tend to be on a certain topic and this is why people read them as they have an interest in that particular topic. Going off on a tangent on your blog will make people wonder what you are talking about – so keep all your blog posts relevant and suited to your audience and they will come back for more.

5.Keep posts short – blog posts should aim to be around one page long at the most, the majority of people do not like to read endless paragraphs when they sit down to read a blog so make sure that you do not ramble on in your posts.

6.Have reciprocal links – these are links to and from other blogs and websites that can help to drive more traffic to yours. To many people this seems like a way of giving custom away but it is not – you don’t have to link with other sites that do exactly the same thing as yours, just have something in common. Have reciprocal links and see your traffic soar.

7.Post regularly – this will keep people coming back for more. Irregular postings will lead to disinterest and a fall in traffic to your blog.

8.Allow comments – these can help you refine your blog and improve on it. It also helps to build a mini community around your blog which generates even more interest.

9.Link to your own website – some people do not have blogs on their own website and if this is the case make sure that there are plenty of links back to your website on it. Otherwise all your hard work will be for nothing!

10.Enjoy yourself – writing a blog should not be a chore, it should be something that you enjoy doing and if you do this will show in your posts – and once again this will lead to more readers.

Happy blogging!

Blogs and blogging explained in the commoncraft animation format.

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Regards

Dean

RSS explained in the commoncraft animation format.

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Regards

Dean

Twitter explained in plain english with a commoncraft animation.

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Regards

Dean

Reason No. 3

“Features – The majority of the features on a CRM application should be relevant to your business so take your pick from the wide range of features available on S3 CRM from quoting and invoicing to last customer contact info and outstanding invoices features.”

In a world where petrol prices seem to rise each week , Route Optimisation is not only a handy feature, but its also cost effective. A 10% decrease in your monthly mileage can soon add up over the year.

What about having a single interface for all of your customer records - never us post it notes again.

Its also iPhone friendly - so you can get access to all of your information on the move

Regards

Dean

Social Media explained in that user friendly commoncraft way

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Regards
Dean

Reason No. 1

“It will seamlessly fit in to your business - S3 CRM is so versatile and easy to use that you will find implementing it a dream. Too many CRM solutions have to be changed to fit the needs of individual businesses, but with S3 CRM you can use as many of its features as you like.”

Implementation requires nothing more than signing up (with a 30 day free trial) and logging in. EVERY page wiithin the solution has a “Need a Hand” section where you can get help on the page that you are current viewing. The dashboard is configurable - so you can build it up to look as you wish it to and therefore make sure it is working for you as opposed to you having to “work it”.

In summary - its a doddle to set up and use.

Give it a go

Dean