Archive for Guest Posts
Hackers Use Vancouver Olympic Tragedy to Spread Malware
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Shannon Suetos (learn more about Shannon at the end of this post)
The 2010 Olympics is underway and it started off with a tragedy. A men’s luger representing the country of Georgia died just hours before the opening ceremony during one of his training runs. After reports of his death leaked out to the press, there were many stories and videos floating around on the Internet. Cybercriminals saw this opportunity to spread their malware into one such video.
To get their video ranking high organically in the search engines, these hackers used Twitter and SEO tactics. These criminals were already planning on using the Olympics as a way to spread their malware, but when this tragedy happened, they jumped at the opportunity to really get their malware out to the masses.
Roger Thompson, the chief research officer at AVG technologies told SC Magazine that, “These guys organize a campaign and they treat it like a business.” It seems their SEO efforts started to wind down by Tuesday, but this can be an important lesson for business owners.
Keeping your employees aware of safe browsing tactics can keep your business computer systems safe and malware free. If your company uses an IP phone system, you should be aware that you could infect your VoIP lines as well because they transmit their packets of information over the Internet. Staying one step ahead of these cyber criminals can be tricky, but a must these days.
Twitter and other social networking sites have fallen victim to Trojans and malware previous to this attack, so it is wise to make sure your employees keep an eye out for these harmful links. When something like the Olympics takes place where a lot of media will be covering an event, stick to mainstream news sties to get your information. Thompson goes on to say in his interview, “The attackers follow current events pretty closely…as soon as a story emerges on the news wire, you can guarantee there will be social engineering attacks taking advantage of it.”
If you take proper precautions such as anti-virus and anti-malware software and stick to credible websites, you should be ok. Educating your staff on safe web tactics can also help when it comes to preserving your business computer systems. Sending an email when news breaks of a cyber attack could save your company from falling victim to a cyber attack.
About the Author
Shannon Suetos is a writer based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing decisions and a comparison service for everything from phone systems to debt management.
Texting, Tweeting and More – How Your POS System Can Handle New Technology
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Shannon Suetos (learn more about Shannon at the end of this post)
With technology growing everyday, business owners need to stay on top of industry news and trends to get the most for their company. Businesses in the food industry are seeing popularity in how they can process orders, pass out coupons, and even how they process their credit cards. How are they doing this? Two words cell phones.
It seems like these days everyone has a cell phone. Because of this, you can now purchase software for your POS system that has the capability to support “call in” orders from text messages. These orders can really streamline a business’ call in orders, and free up employees to do other things like making the customers food items. Some Subway stores are already taking advantage of a software application called Zingle, which allows them to receive call in orders via text.
Other companies like Pizza Hut are utilizing social networking to promote contests. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Pizza Hut is inviting their customers to share their best pick-up lines. Customers will tweet their best pick-up line to “@pizzahut for the chance to win a single order of Hershey’s Chocolate Dunkers, Pizza Hut’s chocolate-topped dessert sticks.” With Twitter having mobile applications, this means their customers can tweet on the go, and one lucky winner can with the chocolate pizza.
Another system that is gaining popularity is ONOSYS, which is a software program that allows retailers to provide online and mobile ordering technologies for restaurants. They have recently partnered with Boston Pizza International to develop a new online ordering platform.
If your restaurant is lacking credit card processing, looking into non-traditional credit card processing may be beneficial. There are now companies popping up that allow you to turn your smartphone or computer into a credit card processing terminal. Square and MerchanWARE Mobile are just two options to consider.
No matter how you look at it, whether it is through texting, social networking or how you process your credit cards, the fact is times are changing. There are many more channels for how people can gain communication, and business owners need to be utilizing as many channels as possible to get the most exposure.
About the Author
Shannon Suetos is a writer based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Don’t Get Ripped Off – Tips for Saving Money on Credit Card Processing
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Stella Fayman (learn more about Stella at the end of this post)
When merchants begin accepting credit cards, usually they sign up for Paypal (if an online merchant). However, as business booms and revenue from credit cards grows, it may be more cost effective to switch to a credit card processor (merchant account provider). Be wary, processors are known to be tricky and take advantage of business owners who know little about their trade. Here are some tips to make sure you don’t get ripped off:
1. No cancellation fees allowed
Make sure to read the fine print from your credit card processing contract. You may be surprised to find a cancellation fee from at least $250 to several thousand dollars. This fee is a way of guaranteeing your loyalty to the processor, regardless of your satisfaction with their service. The good news is that getting rid of this fee should not be a problem: most salespeople have the authority to waive it. To avoid this problem, talk to the salesperson and make sure the fee is waived in writing either in the contract or as an amendment.
2. Only interchange plus pricing
The bulk of the processing fee goes to Visa and Mastercard—this fee is called “interchange” and is set in stone. Interchange-plus pricing is the fairest form of pricing structure for your business, meaning that you pay the interchange fee plus a constant markup which goes to the processor as a service charge. Having this structure ensures there are no tricky fees or hidden costs, unlike tiered pricing structures.
3. Comparison shop
Research shows that the best deal can be found by comparison shopping between at least 5 processors. However, make sure to compare on an apples-to-apples basis, and be sure each processor knows that you are actively shopping. You can easily make your bids more competitive by leveraging the power of comparison.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about processing, I blog about processing at the TransFS blog www.transfs.com/blog or email me at stella@transfs.com.
About the Author
Stella Fayman is a recent graduate of Northwestern University. She decided to join TransFS, a comparison shopping site for credit card processors, in order to help small business. Just like getting multiple plane tickets from airlines using Expedia, TransFS lets business owners compare top quality processors on an apples-to-apples basis and makes sure they get the best deal by not having any cancellation or hidden fees, and only interchange plus pricing. TransFS also recently launched the Credit Card Processor Directory, where business owners can rate and read reviews about processors.
FTC and Other Organizations Aim to Help Business Owners Get Loans
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Shannon Suetos (learn more about Shannon at the end of this post)
Being able to budget your money is key for a new business owner—doing so can be the difference between being successful or not. Budgeting is even more important these days with the state of the economy. The U.S. Labor of Statistics has reported that the unemployment rate (as of December 2009 ) is 10% and 8.2% of the unemployed are women. Because more people are losing their jobs it is crucial to make sure you stay on top of your personal credit, as banks are making it harder to get business loans.
These high unemployment numbers makes it more difficult for business owners to stay in business, or even start a business as a result of people being thriftier with their money. Banks are no exception. It is harder today to get a loan than in many years, and banks are looking closer at your personal credit when deciding if you will get a business loan or not.
There is some hope against the banks and other business cash advance companies–at least in the near future. According to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in 2011 lenders will, “require a creditor to provide a risk-based pricing notice to a consumer when the creditor uses a consumer report to grant or extend credit to the consumer.” This will allow anyone to get a free report of their credit score and be able to review it before sending it to their lending company of choice. If you see you need some work on getting your credit score up, you can look to a debt management service to aid you in getting that loan you will need.
In mid-December Obama met with top bankers to discus the problem small business owners are facing when it comes to getting a loan. He pointed out America bailed out banks, so now its time for them to help small businesses, “I urged these institutions here today to go back and take a third and fourth look about how they are operating when it comes to small business and medium-sized business lending.” Read More→
Top 10 Email Marketing Takeaways from 2009
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Janine Popick, CEO of Vertical Response (see disclosure below)
1. Get Social
The web’s most successful companies have discovered the power of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media to connect with their customers.
2. Host then Post
Web 2.0 marketers have found a great way to expand their readership beyond their opted-in subscribers. Create a hosted version of your message and post to social media sites, or keep an archive of your past issues on your own website.
See how others are using their hosted messages.
3. Clean House
The end of the year can be a good time to review your lists and understand how active your list members have been. What to do with unresponsive members of your list? Don’t throw them away – send a special offer via email, or try an offline method like a postcard or direct call to invite them back. Also, be sure to sync unsubscribed and bounced users occasionally with your main customer database. Although we filter those out for you, it’s good practice to keep your original data up-to-date.
See successful tips on reactivating your non-responders.
4. Segment Your Lists
Smart marketers are customizing their content to targeted groups to create a high-touch customer experience. Use the data you have to create highly-personalized messages and offers to see the greatest response rates and avoid burning your entire list with irrelevant offers.
Get more information here.
5. Send & Deliver Read More→
Create Your Own Prosperity
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Allison Maslan (learn more about Allison at the end of this post)
Money alone will not make you happy. It’s what the money can do for you that can bring joy. It can give you leverage to capture a life-long dream. It can go to a family in need. It has given me the ability to buy this computer, my writing tool in sharing my coaching, teaching concepts and to write my book, Blast Off! Money is often given a negative connotation. You’ve heard the idea that having wealth will make you greedy or give you an attitude of being “better than.” How can this be true? Money is actually an avenue for freedom of choice. Just as a state of balanced health gives us freedom to move and be in the world, money gives us the freedom to do, or not to do, what we choose. When money is limited, your choices are limited. If you’re struggling to come up with cash, your choices of housing and food decrease. The more money you have access to, the less you worry about survival, which frees up your mind from unwanted thoughts. Therefore, money is an avenue of liberty because it gives you independence to express your creative and individual voice.
What you want to spend your money on may not be what I want to spend my money on. Money is used to express your desires, whether you save it, invest it, or spend it. You may enjoy spending your cash on mystery novels and I enjoy spending mine on a vacation to Mexico. You may donate funds to the homeless and I choose to support a literacy campaign. Money gives us the freedom to express our passions. If you have money, you have more choices.
Do you struggle with issues of fear around money? Have you ever thought that the fear and the action of holding onto your money or your safe job could actually be the very things that may be causing you to struggle in survival mode? This fear of losing or not making money will actually hold you back from creating more money. Read More→
