Stop Identity Theft With Five Tips

Securely dispose of mailed account and personal information.

People regularly receive articles of mail filled with identity sensitive documents. Documents such as bank statements, merchant or credit card bills, and invoices etc. Often they are randomly discarded with the other common refuse set out for collection i.e. public domain. People tend to have this sense of security that articles in the garbage are inaccessible and safe from intrusion. All an identity thief needs to do is pluck a few envelopes from the trash and get to work. The most effective method to eliminate this from happening is to invest in a cross-cut shredder that has at least a 10 sheet feed capacity, can handle a CD or credit card, and has at least a cross-cut shred size of 0.156" x 1.562". These are general specifications that may vary according to manufacturer and personal needs. Keep in mind the smaller the shred cut the higher the security. Shredders of this type can be found ranging from $100 to $200. Compared to the average cost to recover from identity theft at approximately $6000, it is a pretty good little investment.

Establish a personal identity verification PIN for any account information or modification.

Typically the same accounts that come via the mail are accessible by phone to resolve issues, make payment or perform account modifications. Sometimes the only verification of the account holder's identity is established with some basic information being provided, which any savvy criminal is quite capable of accomplishing. However, place a call to each of the account customer service lines and request a security PIN be kept on file for that account, which can be a word or number. Each time the account is accessed by phone, the pin must be provided otherwise no access is granted.

Use the ATM card as a credit card only.

Keep in mind that an ATM card will debit the funds immediately from the bank account rather than extending a small loan interest free for 30 days which is basically what a credit card does. When using an ATM the transaction will pause and wait for the PIN to be entered. Shocking as it may seem, criminals actually pose as shoppers and observe consumers in an attempt to capture the PIN. There are also some interesting technical ways this is done as well. To prevent this from happening is to simply not use the ATM as such but rather as a credit card. Then no PIN is required although sometimes a zip code is requested which does not pose a problem. Should the clerk ask if the transaction is debit or credit reply the card is used as a credit card. The only time the PIN should ever be used is while inside the bank at the teller window or at an authorized ATM machine.

A strong password is the first line of defense.

Again, try to weigh the extra steps involved against the worst case scenario. The favorite password of choice is pet names or backward birthdays which are all about as useful as just not bothering to use a password. To be clear, any password can be cracked. There are free password-hacking programs available that can crack just about any password in minutes. However, ease and speed are the desired cracks and passwords that are strong or have a good Bit Strength do not accommodate. Passwords with at least 14 characters and using what I like to refer to as U.L.N.S. (combining upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters) will provide a robust password not easily or quickly broken. If only 6 or 8 characters are available maintain the use of U.L.N.S. Every single account that requires a password should have a different unique password. Using the same password for all accounts means if one is hacked all your eggs are cracked. There are a variety of free and paid password utilities designed specifically for managing many passwords.

Avoid online bill paying through merchant websites.

Many banks and credit unions offer an online bill payment system from within their secured banking system. If they offer such a service, use it. Nearly all municipalities, private businesses, and credit card companies offer Web Payment options through their systems, sometimes adding the tempting offer of discounts for signing up for automated payments debited directly from the consumer's bank accounts. When a consumer uses the vendor website to pay online the vendor has been given a free pass into the private banking account of the consumer, albeit temporarily for that transaction. Even worse is if the consumer agrees to have automatic payments taken, which is an ongoing permission of unrestricted access to personal accounts of consumers. Because this is agreed upon by the consumer there is no protection to resolve disputes or outright theft. There is no protection of account information. When using the financial institutions internal systems, there is encryption and security and best of all, liability and responsibility protection.

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Creating an E-Mail Marketing Campaign That Masses Will Notice

Online streams accord too many ways to make money; all it asks from your end is sincerity and an eye for grasping the salient points. You have to be at the right place at the right time. Email-marketing campaign is a unique, economic and probing manner to showcase your product and services. Many starters use this weapon to bask in success. Here is how to create such a campaign with impact:

• Your newsletters have to be impactful and clear. Be steadfast in publishing your list of newsletters, displaying the specific pattern that you have followed. This strengthens your credibility. Work on your content; it should have the power to spread your intentions clearly and dynamically.

• If possible, use surveying agencies to zero in on a strong mailing list beset with potential customers. Ensure that they realize that there is something special for them just at the crossing. Your subscription form anyway should have strong visibility; short but crisp. This 'call to action' strategy gives a feeling of nobility and performance to visitors. Maintain opt-in lists to let the eager visitors be expectant about your future updates.

• Freebies are quite result-oriented, no matter where they are tried. You may encourage visitors to be profuse participating agencies into your blogs or other trends. Keep a horde of eBooks on topics related to your niche. This gains better word to mouth publicity than most strategies.

• Of course, you cannot ignore or sideline the worth of Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Connect your efforts through these sites and rest assured that the visibility wears an exponential growth. Lace your profiles with potent and thought-provoking newsletters.

• Choose your options assessing as to how you would react to it. Never burden uninterested people with spam mails. Never send customers robust and over-pitched content. Your mail frequency should be rhythmic but not over the top and the servings should be light and delightful.

• Always give the visitors a clear vision that they have a stated exit whenever they need to. The system to unsubscribe should be layman-easy. Your privacy policy should be highly accessible; information should be secured and you just have to stand upright on this premise.

• Try and be innovative in whatever way you can. For instance, the content should be entirely original, and even the graphics and images should come out of an utterly new school of thought. The generally retained images have a mode of similarity; dare to be different. Work on strong and yet soothing templates. The visitors always have a soft corner for novelty.

• Update yourself with the rate of visibility that your campaign undergoes. If there is no methodical gradation instantly or in a short period of time, don't lose heart. Soft music takes time to strike the audience but then it haunts! Patience is a key here, especially if you wish to be an astounding success online.

These methods and strategies should invariably seal the success of your email marketing campaigns. Feel free to insert some of your own prodigal and penetrating ideas.

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What Is The Future of Email?

The average business person gets about 50 emails per day. When they open their email and see all that "junk", all they do is glance through the titles and/or who is sending the email, and delete what they don't want immediately without even opening the email. Otherwise, they wouldn't get any work done.

So what is an internet marketer suppose to do to get their messages out to the masses? One important step for the marketer is to get back to the basics of network marketing. By that I mean direct networking with people. Get to know them. Have a personal relationship so they recognize your name and they will expect an email from you.

Everywhere you go, even grocery shopping, you run into people and you can strike-up a conversation. Of coarse, you don't immediately pitch your product, you first get to know if the person is open to chit-chat. Friendly people are open to friendly conversation. The conversation can work its way around to the business you are offering. If they seem interested, ask if they would like you to send them more information and get their email address. Getting a phone number usually makes people uncomfortable and you want to develop trust, so I would suggest handing them your business card instead. You will leave a professional opinion of yourself if your conversation is short and sweet.

So after meeting your potential prospect, you can send him/her a text message. But, do you really think that even after you went through meeting your prospect, that a long and boring email is going to inspire them to purchase your product? That prospect still has the option to decide they do not want to waste their time reading your email and delete it.

May I suggest a new approach. Consider sending a video email that is specifically customized to their business or interest. Video emails are today's best marketing tool. You can excite anyone in a 2-minute video. A busy person who would usually delete a 2-minute to read text document, would take the time to watch a 2-minute video. People are "visual". People like to see and hear a message. Video is here to stay and video emails are the future. That is why YouTube is so popular. Video excites and entertains people. The young entrepreneur would much rather watch a video about a product or service than read about it.

So where can you get or how do you create video emails?

Well, you can get someone to create for you a program, but that costs a lot of money. It's important to also compare what's available on the internet.

Internet Marketers if you want to get with the 21st century, start using video in your marketing online. You will see your business responses increase in opt-in replies and sales. After all, isn't that what it's all about?

Getting the message to the consumer is what it's all about. If they don't READ what your message is, then they need to SEE and HEAR what your message is. You can only do that with video products.

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How Effective Is Email Software for Email Marketing?

Email marketing can be overwhelming, especially if you are new to it. You might even be wondering about the efficacy of email marketing. There are many people who do not believe that this is an effective way of attracting and keeping business on your site. The truth is, however, that with a good email software program, email marketing can become a beneficial aspect of your business model.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Remember that the hottest trend right now in marketing has to do with social media. Pages like Facebook and Twitter are getting a lot of traffic, and thus have attracted the attention of many marketing campaigns. Email marketing is something different than this, but there are still elements that should remain the same. For one, you don't want to bore your potential customers. Give them information that they can use and let them build up an interest in you and your products. The hard sell shouldn't come right off the bat; let them make sure that your information is useful first. A good email software program should take this into account. A newsletter function is important to incorporate for this reason.

2. Your email software should combine the traditional elements of email with the new trends of social media. Let your customers interact with you and other users on your site. The email should give them direct access through a hyperlink to your social media sites. Combining these elements is essential to your success. The easier it is for users to transition to your sites, the more likely they are to do business with you.

3. Your software is important. There are many rather expensive email software programs out there. Spend too little and you will have a limited and shoddy experience for your potential customers. Spend too much and you are just wasting potential profits away.

4. Email marketing is still very relevant in today's world of social media-Amazon does a very good job of emailing their customers-the trick is to find a method that works. Amazon's method is so successful because of their ability to specifically target different products to different individuals based upon their browsing history. Maybe your site isn't as tech savvy as Amazon's but there are important lessons to learn here: the biggest being that information that is more relevant to them is going to have better results when it comes to sales. Even if you are not comparable to the giant Amazon, you can use a more tailored approach to presenting information to your specific demographics that they will find to be the most useful. Your email software should make this very easy for you to accomplish.

5. One easy way to accomplish this is to segment your emails. Break up your information so that certain people get certain emails sent to them. This will help you pinpoint which products will be advertised to which people. It might not be as effective as Amazon, but it will certainly help you to improve your business and increase sales.

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How To Ensure Every Website Visitor Becomes A Subscriber

As internet marketers, we all spend a lot of time planning, creating and producing our websites. Choosing themes, pictures and writing copy is a time-consuming job, but all extremely important when your aim is to have a high quality website. After all this is what the customer sees first and it therefore has to capture their attention and sustain their interest. People tend to make judgements regarding the quality of websites very quickly - probably because they know there are thousands more they can visit. It is so easy nowadays to access websites even whilst on the move, as people go about their daily business with mobile phone in hand! The internet can be reached at the click of a button and information accessed in seconds.

If a visitor discovers your website, then leaves fairly quickly, it is highly unlikely they will make a return visit. This means that if let's say 100 people visit, leave, never to return, you have lost a high number of potential customers. Fewer customers mean less money made from sales so it makes good business sense not to let customers slip away!

Many people suggest that one great method of ensuring visitors return to your site is to always be providing fresh and unique content. Although this is always something to be working on and can be very worthwhile, there is another more long-term method for you to consider.

A valuable exercise is to actually convert your website visitors into subscribers of your mailing list. This is easily done by having an opt- in form on your website, where the visitor leaves their name and e-mail address. After they sign up to be part of your mailing list, it then allows you to contact them again, perhaps with a chance to consider what you had to offer, or maybe a follow-up or different offers that they may be interested in. They become your customer! Having your own mailing list allows you the opportunity to build up trust with your customers. Someone who buys from you once is likely to buy from you again so a good mailing list is definitely worth having.

You intend your business to become viable and successful, making you the money you want, so converting all website visitors into potential customers is a fairly easy way to do this. Those with large mailing lists are the ones making the money!

I hope this article has been of interest to you and has given you some food for thought!

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Bridging the Content Gap in Your E-Newsletter

When compiling an e-newsletter, it's important to make it rich in content. Although it might seem like a huge undertaking, gathering fresh content is the easiest part of putting a newsletter together, especially when the subject is close to your heart because it means you know the distinct needs of your readers. With that one important aspect firmly in hand, you can go ahead and follow the steps below to create a great newsletter;

Always Write a Personal Introduction

A brief greeting to your community is always a great way to get the ball rolling in each email. It could be your chance to update your readers on the most recent changes in your organization and link them to your other social media like Facebook and Twitter using connect buttons.

Prioritize the Table of Contents

Your busiest readers will appreciate it if you highlight your articles at the top of the email because, not only will it allow them to quickly find the stories that interest them as soon as they open the email, but it will also give them a clear picture of the general direction of each newsletter.

Offer Expert Industry Best Practice Tips

Many readers gravitate to columns that offer guidance on how to escape and overcome certain industry challenges, therefore if you include such posts in your newsletter, it will become highly regarded as relevant and helpful. This platform will also promote you as an expert in your field.

Bring the Content Home With Community News

In case most of your readers live in the area, a section in the newsletter should include local industry news. Such stories, which the reader can closely relate to, generally create a buzz and could potentially start interesting conversations that could direct traffic to your pages.

Open the Boundary Lines With International News

Your readers will appreciate knowledge of international developments in regard to their industry. Such a column will promote your newsletter as an important resource for professionals whose businesses depend on fluctuations in the worldwide market.

Steer the Readers

Finally, a good conclusion with a sincere and direct call to action will be the best way to show the readers what exactly you would like them to do with the knowledge they have acquired. Remember to add your physical address and phone number at this point to streamline the connection process.

Therefore, making your e-newsletter personal as well as richly informative will earn you the trust and commitment of your current clients, and also win over many more in the process.

How To Formulate Online Marketing Plan With First 4 Steps (Part I)   Email Marketing Etiquette   Email Marketing Is The Future   How to Use Email Marketing to Increase Event Registrations?   How to Maintain a Clean Email List