ask the expert.
Take IT on - home IT explained. ask the expert.Please submit general IT questions to our IT Expert. The takeITon campaign does not operate a technical helpdesk. For technical queries, businesses should consult a specialist IT Consultancy.
Q. What online adverts are available and how do they generate revenue?
- Pop ups and pop unders are adverts that do just that.
- A banner ad is a graphic or animation that will sit on your site, often at the top hence the word banner.
- A trick banner can be designed to look like an error message or Windows dialog box, to encourage users to click onto it.
- An interstitial ad is an advert that will appear on your screen before any content does.
- An expanding advert will alter size on the screen and may change some of the background content as well.
- A floating ad will move across the screen or “float” in front of content.
A variety of creative methods have been dreamt up to charge for advertising on the web and hence pay you some money for hosting them. The most common way of being paid is to agree a cost per thousand which basically means that you will get paid for each thousand people that view certain pages on your site. This does not mean these people need to click onto or otherwise acknowledge the advert in front of them.
Cost per click advertising uses a system whereby each time a user clicks onto an advert you receive an agreed sum of money. The amount you receive will vary, but it will only be pennies, if that, per click. Cost per conversion is the other end of the spectrum where you will receive payment based on someone coming from your site and actually buying a final product or service. . It’s important to bear in mind that for this type of advertising to work you need to create a site that is very popular and preferably targeted on a set market place or industry.
Q. How can I prevent staff from abusing their business email?
A. It is important that you give all staff with access to email guidelines on what is acceptable use of company email. Although this may seem excessive, everything that is released from your company email account can be held to represent you and your values, and without guidance employees could damage your image.- A declaration that e-mail is provided as a privilege that you are allowed to withdraw or restrict at any time.
- A declaration that use of e-mail is subject to allowing your business to review the content of any sent or received email at any time.
- Personal use
- Authorisation needed before sending emails
- Responsibility for filing copies of sent and received emails
- Responsibility for backing up email databases.
Q. How can I protect my computer from viruses and spyware?
A. There are a large number of providers of antivirus software. Most of these products can be obtained on a subscription basis and may cost around £100 per year. Others may be available free of charge. Look for a supplier that has good widespread use as they will generally be up to date with the latest malware threats. To install the software you will normally visit the vendor’s website and then follow the instructions to set up on your PC. Some computer hardware suppliers may sell you a new PC with a free trial subscription for some antivirus software. This is a useful service and worth taking advantage of, even if it only lasts for 60 days before you need to register.
Antivirus/malware suppliers include:
F-PROT
SOPHOS
SYMANTEC
LAVASOFT
MICROSOFT
MCAFEE
Businesses in the East of England can access free guides on a broad range of IT topics. Click here to view a takeITon Guide to computer viruses and malware:
http://takeiton.businessitguide.com/guides/view-guide/25/
Q. What can I do to increase traffic to my business website?
A. One of the most powerful aspects of the internet is the ability for websites to link to each other. By having links to and from other websites, businesses will drive more traffic to their site. Inward links from other sites to yours are the most valuable, but they must be relevant to your site's content.
It is possible to buy website links from marketing companies which aggregate websites and will interlink them in an effort to drive up traffic. However, the focus should still be on quality and not quantity. Businesses should also be wary of this method as many of the better known web search engines will filter out data from such aggregated sites; some will even place sites that are seen to be falsifying links in this way onto a black list to be ignored in all future searches.
Using Pay-per-Click marketing can give very quick results in getting a placement at the top of search results. Google Adwords dominates this form of website marketing and provides detailed instructions on setting up well targeted campaigns. You specify the maximum amount you are prepared to spend per day and also the duration of each campaign, so costs are totally controllable.
Businesses in the East of England can access free guides on a broad range of IT topics. Click here to view a takeITon Guide to search engine optimisation:
http://takeiton.businessitguide.com/guides/view-guide/69/
Q. Is it safe to take payments online?
A. There are many benefits to setting up an online payments system. Once setup, online transactions are generally simple to manage and enable you to focus on sales and marketing rather than the logistics of order payment. However, taking payments online is possibly the most risky activity many small businesses will undertake. As a small business owner you will be aware that there is a lot of credit card fraud going on, and online transactions are one place where it is prevalent.
Unfortunately the onus will very much fall onto the small business merchant if anything goes wrong with the transaction, and payments can be retrieved if there is a dispute with the customer. If you decide to build a shopping website you MUST ensure that it is secure and will be free from abuse. You must take professional security advice and have your site audited by an objective, independent expert.
Businesses in the East of England can access free guides on a broad range of IT topics. Click here to view a takeITon Guide to Online Transactions:
http://takeiton.businessitguide.com/guides/view-guide/71/
There are many types of adverts that can sit on your web site:
• Pop ups and pop unders are adverts that do just that.
• A banner ad is a graphic or animation that will sit on your site, often at the top hence the word banner.
• A trick banner can be designed to look like an error message or Windows dialog box, to encourage users to click onto it.
• An interstitial ad is an advert that will appear on your screen before any content does.
• An expanding advert will alter size on the screen and may change some of the background content as well.
• A floating ad will move across the screen or “float” in front of content.
A variety of creative methods have been dreamt up to charge for advertising on the web and hence pay you some money for hosting them.
The most common way of being paid is to agree a cost per thousand which basically means that you will get paid for each thousand people that view certain pages on your site. This does not mean these people need to click onto or otherwise acknowledge the advert in front of them.
Cost per click advertising uses a system whereby each time a user clicks onto an advert you receive an agreed sum of money. The amount you receive will vary, but it will only be pennies, if that, per click.
Cost per conversion is the other end of the spectrum where you will receive payment based on someone coming from your site and actually buying a final product or service.
. It’s important to bear in mind that for this type of advertising to work you need to create a site that is very popular and preferably targeted on a set market place or industry.
