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Archive for May 30, 2011

bikram | May 30, 2011
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What Makes An Advertisement Go Wrong?

Advertising is a business to push a product or service, inform its buyers about it, spread its benefits and eventually raise sales. But, at times some advertisements go horribly wrong, turn off its audience and become fatal for the brand, with backfiring impact. Such advertisements not only face controversies, sarcasm, and mockery alone; but even tarnish image of the brand. Here are some common mistakes such advertisements commit.

Too big claim

Undoubtedly, advertising is all about persuasion and exaggeration, but an overdose of the same can be extremely harmful. At times advertisers make too tall claims, irrespective of any logical proof in order to combat the competition. As for example, some cosmetic brand claims 99% women of the country have shown their loyalty towards the brand. Nothing can be absurd than that, such illogical big figure without any supporting fact make people doubt credibility of the brand. Such tall claims are exceptional cases, which demand rock solid scientific proof.

Irrelevance

For the sake of creativity at times, advertisements take a complete irrelevant path. As for example, a PC brand may unnecessarily show a semi-nude women seducing audience. Such irrelevance may appeal to some audience who seek cheap entertainment, but fail in a larger sense. Such irrelevance is illogical, superimposed, and ridiculous. People often fail to relate to that brand or recall it after some time.

Celebrity endorser heavy

At times, advertisers are too tempted to utilize celebrity endorsers for their brands irrespective of the fact whether the brand needs them or not. At times advertisers rope in big celebrity endorsers, whose larger than life image and screen presence overshadow the brand. In such cases advertisement is not effective, just mesmerizing because of its star value. If endorser’s image and personality does not match with the brand salience, it is an utter waste.

Too flat, too straight on face

Who wants to be preached? Who wants to be told ‘drink milk, it will strengthen your bones’. None of us. Advertisements, which are flat, straight on face and talk in a preaching tone, are highly uninteresting and mundane. If advertisements lack story and a twist in it, they are not appreciated. When a message is conveyed through a story it’s well perceived, appreciated and remembered for long.

Avoid these mistakes while making advertisements.

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | May 26, 2011
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How to Promote Your eBook on the Web?

Do you already have an e-book and wondering how to promote it on the web? When you have an e-book, it definitely makes more sense to be promoted on the web. Both medium are co-related. Nowadays, it is more impactful and lucrative effort to promote on web than promoting books conventionally. Here are some guidelines for your help.

Write Press release

Write press release about your e-book and start circulating the same to all news portals, news blogs. Make sure your press release contains points regarding content of your e-book, its target audience, research behind it, its inspiration, and the like.

Article marketing

It’s very important to get heard, known and generate good word of mouth. Write an article about content of your book. It may work as a teaser, where you can hike interest to know further. Just give the introduction. You may submit this in various article sites or in social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace. Make sure it has a link below which leads interested audience to the order page, for online purchase.

A blog or website identity

Once you start marketing your e-book your name will soon become popular among the audience. People may start searching by yours or book’s title in search engines. To get heard and seen, read and talked about at this stage you need a web presence through your own blog or a website, dedicated to the book. It should include enough of persuasive language, inspiring buyers to get their copy of eBook. It should highlight significance of the book and how it’s something new. Find out unique selling proposition (USP) of the book and communicate it. Also, let people know where they can find your eBook or provide link for e-purchase.

Web banner ads

It’s advertisement which spreads information about a product. Make an eye-catching banner advertisement of your e-book and buy ad space in popular sites. It may be little expensive, but totally worth. You may also buy side-banner advertisement space in social networking sites. They are highly target audience customized.

SEO sells

If you want your target audience to find you easily on the web, start search engine optimization of your website and blog where you intend to inform and sell your e-book. Your website and blog should contain SEO friendly keywords, so that they draw traffic.

Lucrative offer

For hiking initial sale, you may also offer 10% or 15% on first 300 copies of your e-book. Advertise the same everywhere and witness rapid sales.

Now, get started with it.

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | May 20, 2011
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How to Host Your GoDaddy Domain on Gossimer Hosting?

Introduction

GoDaddy may not be the chosen webhost for many, but it certainly holds a solid ground in the domain name registration industry. Many people have domain names with the company, which they, in the absence of proper knowledge, host them to slow and unreliable servers of GoDaddy itself. Many of new webmasters also get frustrated by the slow speed of the webhost’s customer support. They just wish if they can shift hosting to some other place.

Gossimer offers a viable web hosting solution to all those who feel stuck with GoDaddy, and do not know how to get out of it. This article will help you host your domains with Gossimer without transferring domain from GoDaddy. For that, all you need to do is follow the simple steps.

Step 1: Login to GoDaddy.com

The first step in the process is to go to GoDaddy and login to your account.

Step 2: Go to My Account

Once you are logged in, click on the My Account link.

 

Step 3: Choose the domain you want to host on Gossimer hosting

A list of domain names will appear.

 

Click on the domain you want to host with Gossimer’s multiple award-winning webhosting (Domain names in the example image had been blurred).

It will open a domain management page.

Step 4: Change NameServers

Click on the NameServers button and then Click Set NameServers link from the dropdown menu.

 

A new “dialogue box” will appear which will look like the following:

It will have four options, from which you need to choose the last one that says: “I have specific nameservers for my domains”. Once it is selected, a box will appear which may or may not contain existing nameservers of Goddady.com. You need to feed in the following details in each of the corresponding boxes, as given below:

Nameserver 1:
ns1.gossimer.com
Nameserver 2:
ns2.gossimer.com
Nameserver 3:
ns3.gossimer.com
Nameserver 4:
ns4.gossimer.com

Once everything is done, click ok. A dialogue box will appear that will say it may take up to 48 hours for the nameservers to change. Do not worry about that, it will not take that much time. Usually, it happens in maximum an hour or two. In some cases, I have noticed that it has happed in 10 or so minutes.

How to change webhosting of multiple domains?

The above way is good enough if you just have to move hosting of one domain from GoDaddy to Gossimer, but what if you have many domains? Following the process described above, you will take days before all your domains are hosted with Gossimer. So, I am going to give you another way to do bulk hosting transfer.

If you have more than one domain names to host with Gossimer then click on the “View all in domain manager” link on the top-right, as shown in the image shown below.


 

It will take you to the domain manager, where all the domain names will be visible, like the blurred ones in the image below.

 

Click on the checkmark besides “Domain Name” and then click on the select all domains link.

 

This will bring to life the top menu bar, which was inactive earlier (fade out).

Click on nameservers button which will bring a dropdown. Select Set nameservers from the list.

 

A new-pop dialogue box will appear. Enter the name servers after checking the radio button beside: “I have specific nameservers for my domains”. Afterward follow the steps given in Step 4 of the tutorial.

Conclusion

Wait for the nameservers change to take effect. Meanwhile, you can create different folders in your Gossimer hosting account for each domain, using the domain names as folder names.

This is all you need to do to point your GoDaddy Domain to Gossimer hosting, one of the most affordable webhosting accounts.

Category: How-To Guides | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | May 18, 2011
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Why Should You Have A Website?

Internet has changed a lot many things around us, but Are you still in the dark, wondering why people are hooked on to website. Well there are many convincing reasons which narrate why you should put up a website of your own. Here are some reasons.

It’s your virtual home

A website is like your home, your virtual presence in front of the world. It makes easier for the world to find you online, to know about you. People may look for you; type your name in web search engines to know about you. In this age of fierce competition, it’s important to get seen, heard, and known. If you don’t have a website you may let down the people who are looking for you. You actually reach the world, and don’t depend on local customers and all happens at free of cost. Through website you can exchange ideas, suggestions too. You can target international market and establish yourself as a global company.

Promote your products

Let the world see your portfolio of offering. You can s product explain your product features, benefits, compare with others’ and also display testimonials of happy customers.

Websites are awake 24 hours

Even when you are not working, or you are unavailable you are present before the world, since websites are always awake. In the mid of night people may look for you on web, buy goods from your site, drop messages, enquire, ask for franchise or job. Just imagine this virtual employee of yours – your website is working 365 days for 24 hours.

Brand image and customer relations

If you have a website people will show more confidence in you. You will draw maximum attention and good customer relations. People will also believe in you. Websites help in building strong corporate image. A good website also spreads fast word of mouth.

It saves time

Communication through brochures, mails, letters, phones take time and at times may not include everything. Websites save time, as you have put up all information regarding you on the website. If any of your prospects want to know about you, you can simply give your web URL to the person. It will talk about you, your offering, mission, vision, and clients – whatever you wish to communicate. People refer back to website again and again.

Category: Web Hosting | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | May 14, 2011
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How to Promote a Tennis Club?

Most of us have this perception that tennis is meant for few people only – athletes, professionals, and tennis aspirants. On the contrary, tennis can be a game for all, with growing awareness about tennis and active marketing efforts you can see more and more people joining your tennis club. If you are thinking of opening a tennis club, here are few marketing tips for your help.

Start spreading benefits of tennis

Most of the people think tennis is a game for few, only those who wish to evolve as a professional tennis player. But, it can be a game for all, who are interested in sports or who wish to remain fit. It’s a rigorous exercise which involves lot of running, exercise of hands. It strengthens muscles, tones thighs and hands and helps to lose overall weight. So, start talking about the goodness of tennis. You may distribute some pamphlets or handouts, put on a board outside your tennis club, talk about the same in your advertisements and advertorials, spread newsletters through emails. Try to find out what all illness can be helped with this rigorous exercise. This way people will also look up to tennis as a ‘therapeutic’ and alternative ‘fitness regime’, besides entrainment.

Tie up with the corporate offices

Address the corporate professionals. They can make a big target group of yours. It can be not only a fitness regime for them, but also a hobby and stress releasing activity. To distress the employees and keep them entertained and motivated corporate offices will be happy to welcome your club within their premises. You may share the revenue with the company on a pre-decided mutual agreement basis.

Post videos on internet

You may develop an internet entity for your club, to reach out the net-savvy individuals. Let people know about your club and the quality of training you provide. Post some interesting and beneficial video tutorials for beginners, intermediates and experts on different popular video directories like YouTube, Video Jug, and Metacafe etc. Make sure you advertise your club everywhere, in the backdrop of the tennis court, towards end of the video, in sub titles. It will soon popularize your club.

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | May 12, 2011
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E-mail Marketing – Should You or Shouldn’t You Use It

Midst success and failure of various online marketing tools, E-mail marketing has retained its ground, although with a slightly changed nature. In the initial days, any e-mail ID was a good ID. It leads to buying and selling of e-mail databases, most of which were useless. Then came a bald guy who goes by the name of Seth Godin, and his idea of permission marketing that changed the entire e-mail marketing landscape.

Now asking for users’ permission became important. Despite knowing the many benefits of permission-based marketing, companies kept on buying and selling e-mail databases. This continued until SPAM identification technology didn’t become robust and government didn’t pass a regulation to stop spam.

Spam mails, instead of boosting the ROI, reduced the return, each time a new database (of fake mail IDs) was bought. This led the marketers to wrongly believe that e-mail marketing does not work, and thus they pulled out all e-mail marketing activities.

Benefits of e-mail marketing

It is easy to set-up and run

E-mail marketing is quite easy to setup. These days one does not need much technical knowledge to put together an e-mail campaign. All you need to do is follow the guidelines of your e-mail marketing software and you are done.

Cost effective

Nothing can help you reach a group of buyers efficiently as can an e-mail campaign, provided you have a qualified list. The conversion rate of e-mail marketing campaign is high, if you have build your list ground up, and not bought it from an external source.

Cross selling, and up selling is easy

It is easy to cross-sell or up-sell you products to a list that contains e-mail IDs of your past buyers, or subscribers who showed interest in your product.

A captive audience to talk to

Once in your list, people tend to be more receptive to what you say. It means you can tell them whatever you want to, within the scope of things. But do not go overboard with promoting yourself or your product in every mail that you send out. This will quickly make you witness an exodus from your list. Promoting your product to your list is good, but not too much.

Despite all the hoopla, e-mail marketing has seen the light of day, every time. It is a very effective tool, and now as you know some of the benefits of e-mail marketing, I can hope that you will start promoting your web hosting services to your customers using this tool as well.

Try it once. It will work.

Category: Marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Gossimer | May 9, 2011
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Upgrade/Downgrade Feature for Web Services – Now Available

Dear Reseller,

We’re very happy to announce the launch of the Upgrade/Downgrade feature for our Web Services i.e. Web Hosting, Email Hosting, Website Builder and Website Design.

From the 9th of May, 2011 your Customers will be able to switch between the Custom Plans that you have created.

In this post, you’ll find:

  • How the Upgrade/Downgrade Feature Works
  • SuperSite Impact
  • API Impact

How the Upgrade/Downgrade Feature Works:

  • Your Customers will be able to view the option of Upgrading/Downgrading in the Order Management View. For Instance, under ‘Manage Web Hosting’ the blurb shown below will be visible to the Customer. 
  • On clicking the See Plan and Pricing button, your Customer will be taken to your SuperSite where he’ll be able to switch plans

Your Customer will also be shown the number of Credits he currently has. Credits are nothing but the Monthly Cost of the Web Services Plan multiplied by the remaining duration of the package

  • If he/she chooses to Upgrade, the number of credits will be adjusted into the price of the Web Services package and an invoice for the remaining amount will be raised
  • If your Customer chooses to Downgrade, he will be given the option of increasing the duration of his Web Services package. An actual refund to his account will not be possible

 Please Note:

Your Customers can switch not only between the plans of the same product but also between plans of different Products within Web Services. 

For example, A Customer can upgrade from an Email Hosting Plan to a Web Hosting Plan.

SuperSite Impact:

We have modified certain files of the SuperSite to incorporate this launch.

Do keep in mind:

  • If no modifications have been made to the below mentioned pages, our changes will be automatically reflected on your SuperSite
  • However, if you have made any modifications to these pages, you will need to manually update them and incorporate our changes
  • Making these changes is essential to ensure the smooth functioning of your SuperSite

New Files – To be Added: (Though not live, these pages are currently available in the SuperSite Admin Area for translation)

Diy_plans.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Upgrade_process » Diy_plans.html 

  • Windows_hosting_plans.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Upgrade_process » Windows_hosting_plans.html
  • Email_plans.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Upgrade_process » Email_plans.html 
  • Linux_hosting_plans.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Upgrade_process » Linux_hosting_plans.html
  • Upgrade_options.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Upgrade_process » Upgrade_options.html 
  • Bifm_plans.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Upgrade_process » Bifm_plans.html 
  • Plan_change_summary.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Upgrade_process » Plan_change_summary.html

Existing Files – To be Modified: (If you have made modifications to any of these files, you will need to manually check for the changes we’ve pushed through and implement them on your side.)

  • Error_messages_list.txt: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Common » Errors » Error_messages_list.txt
  • Common.css: Dashboard » Manage Theme » CSS » Common » Common.css
  • Web_email_hosting.css: Dashboard » Manage Theme » CSS » Hosting » Web_email_hosting.css
  • Website-builder.css: Dashboard » Manage Theme » CSS » Sitebuilder » Website-builder.css
  • Root.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Root.html
  • Sitebuilder_lite.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step1 » Includes » Sitebuilder_lite.html
  • Linux_hosting.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step1 » Includes » Linux_hosting.html
  • Website_design.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step1 » Includes » Website_design.html
  • Window_hosting.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step1 » Includes » Window_hosting.html
  • Mail_hosting.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step1 » Includes » Mail_hosting.html
  • Form2.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step1 » Includes » Form2.html
  • Sitebuilder_lite.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step2 » Includes » Sitebuilder_lite.html
  • Linux_hosting.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step2 » Includes » Linux_hosting.html
  • Website_design.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step2 » Includes » Website_design.html
  • Window_hosting.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step2 » Includes » Window_hosting.html
  • Mail_hosting.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step2 » Includes » Mail_hosting.html
  • Payments_options.html: Dashboard » Manage Site » Edit/Translate Content Pages » Shopping_process » Checkout_step2 » Includes » Payments_options.html

API Impact:

There will be no API Impact with the launch of the Upgrade/Downgrade feature. The Modify/Upgrade call will need to be used for this purpose.

To obtain the applicable price for a particular order, the Get Modify/Upgrade Price call needs to be used.

Category: Announcements, Resellers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | May 9, 2011
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What to Look For In a Web Host?

A lot depends upon the quality of web hosting company that you choose to host your website. If you have a host with a network of sluggish server then no matter how hard you try, your website will not perform well. And sluggish server is not the only issue that plagues your website; downtime, speed and effectiveness of support are other things.

This brings us to the question posed in the title: what to look for in a web host before you give it the responsibility of hosting your website. The answer to that question lies in the following paragraphs.

Check various quality indicators

Quality of a webhost is the first thing that you need to notice when thinking of buying any hosting plan. There are some essential indicators of quality of a webhost which you should look for:

  1. Does it offer money-back guarantee? A webhosting company that does not allow return is not worth considering.
  2. What is the learning curve? The host is good enough if it offers cPanel for Linux hosting and Parallels Plesk for Windows hosting.
  3. Down time
  4. How quickly can service resume when server gets offline?
  5. Price
  6. Does it offer free e-mails with hosting? This will save you some money.
  7. What free tools are available for web installation?
  8. Quality and availability of support.

How swift is support

This is another thing that you need to keep in mind when buying a web hosting plan. No matter how hard a web host tries, there are times when things go wrong, and those are the times when you need someone to come to you and fix it up for you.

If support person takes 24 hours to answer then how effective will it be? Support will equally be ineffective when a support person comes on board quickly, but fail to answer your concern. Support needs to be agile and knowledgeable.

Do you get personal touch

The biggest problem with going with a very big web hosting company is this: they have too many customers because of which they cannot pay attention to problems faced by each customer. And they do not care to do so, as they have a lot of customers.

A web hosting company that cannot give you personal care is not good for your website or business. You need someone who can understand you and who can walk an extra mile to help you sort your problem. This could only be done, if the support team has fewer customers to handle.

When contacting support we often tend to forget that support people are mere human and they can do only so many things in a day, which unfortunately for them also comprise of 24 hours. And like all of us they too break down under the pressure of a lot of work, which bound to happen in a giant web hosting company. Simply put: too many customers means too many problems, which essentially means too much workload on support staff. How will you get personal care in such situation?

Go with a webhost who has support staff comparably less workload.

Do not go with a new web host

I will also warn you against going with a very small web hosting or a new one because you never know when they go out of business. They do not have critical mass to sustain.

These are essential things that you need to keep in mind when buying a web hosting account. Do not go with too big or too small web host.

Category: Web Hosting | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | May 6, 2011
One comment

Tips for the First-time Web Hosting Buyers

If you are a web hosting aspirant and you are confused about where to start from, here are some effective tips for your help.

Check multiple options

Before settling for web hosting, always check multiple options, check forums for suggestions, take advices of experts. There will be people who will be paid to recommend specific ones. Beware of them. Look for genuine information. Do your independent research to find out the best deal. You will find both good and bad reviews of all, but make sure numbers of good reviews are more than the bad ones. Check out numbers of actual users of each hosting site.

Billing is important criteria

Don’t settle for a web host which fails to automate and smoothly run the process of billing and payment.

Avoid outages inclined web hosts

Don’t settle for a web host which faces constant outages. They may have plenty of excuses for it, but frequent and lengthy outages can’t be justified in any way. Good web hosts have back up plans to prevent extended outages. Your website can’t afford to be unavailable much often. It not only affects your reputation, and income; but also affects your search engine ranking. If your web remains unavailable for more than 24 hours, it’s indeed serious matter; particularly when you have not been notified prior to it.

Act fast

If your website has remained unavailable for more than 24 hours and the host hasn’t taken any measure for the same, start looking for a new host. Extended outages need to be checked immediately. An unprofessional web hosting company is to be avoided.

Keep backup

Apart from maintaining backup with host’s server keep back-up of your website in your own computer or another server. Your web host may not regularly keep back-up of your site, so don’t count on the same. At times host goes down or bankrupt, so your back-up may go away forever. Generally web hosts clarify this in their list of terms of conditions.

Domain name

Don’t register the domain name through web host, as there is a big risk of losing your site to the host in case tomorrow it goes bankrupt, cheats, vanishes or gets into conflict. You will lose the chance of shifting your website to another host.

Don’t pay in advance

Don’t get seduced by huge discounts from web hosts and end up paying in advance. After payment you may find it a fraud or it may simply go down forever, and also refuse to pay you back. Rather than ending up in mess, pay for your hosting by month.

 

Category: Web Hosting | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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