Use CAPTCHAs against spam on your website

Web forms in online shops, forums and guestbooks are often targets of Spam. You can protect yourself from unsolicited comments by using CAPTCHAs on your website. Along with commercial solutions, you will find many free CAPTCHA services on the Internet, such as  captchas.net. Another free and easy to use service is reCAPTCHA.

On http://recaptcha.net you get a free key for using the service on your website. In order to use reCAPTCHA, you need a public/private API key pair. This key pair helps to prevent an attack where somebody hosts a reCAPTCHA on their website, collects answers from their visitors and submits the answers to your site.

To use reCAPTCHA, you only have to add a few lines of code to your website. For detailed instructions on using reCAPTCHA please visit reCAPTCHA’s website.

Tags: captcha, spam, tools

This entry was posted on Thursday July 16th, 2009 at 09:53 AM and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Working with a Virtual Assistant – How to Get Started

By now you have probably heard about Virtual Assistance and have a pretty good idea of what Virtual Assistants do.  You understand and like the concept.  You probably believe that this is something that would well for you and your business.  But how do you start working with a Virtual Assistant?  Finding one is relatively easy, but how do you actually begin handing off work to a V.A., especially since you are accustomed to doing everything yourself?  How do you determine which tasks you can turn over to a V.A. immediately?

Here?s a very simple technique that has worked for several of my clients. Start with a clean 8.5 x 11 notepad.  You?ll want to use one that?s devoted exclusively to this task so label it clearly, ?Virtual Assistant Tasks?.  Don?t use it to write phone numbers on or driving directions and keep it on your desk or your primary workspace.  Use it only for this project.  Divide your notepad into two sections.  The first section should be ?Requires No Training? and the second section should be ?Requires Training?.

Start a numbered list and each time you perform a task that you believe your Virtual Assistant could perform immediately without any training, write it down in the ?Requires No Training? section of your notepad.  It may look something like this:

Requires No Training

1.      Schedule appointments

2.      Update contact list (data entry)

3.      Make reservations for monthly meeting

4.      Conduct email campaigns

5.      Order supplies

7.   Email meeting agenda to attendees

Get the idea?  This list can be as long as necessary. The point is to identify all those time consuming administrative tasks that take up so much of your time and keep you from performing real business building activities.

Now the ?Requires Training? list will take a little more time and effort to develop because as you identify the tasks that will require training, you should also start to document the steps involved in performing those tasks.  This may involve gathering sample documents or materials, writing step by step notes, and/or creating a file containing everything involved in the performance of that task.  These become actual training materials and can be given to your V.A. after you?ve conducted a training session with her using these materials.  You can also keep a copy in your files for use by other employees or another Virtual Assistant should the need arise.

The ?Requires Training? section of your notepad may have entries that look something like this:

Requires Training

1)   Submit 2 articles to online publications

a)      Complete research for article 1 content

b)      Proof and edit articles

c)      Format articles based on website criteria

d)     Copy articles to cd and send to Review Committee for approval

e)      Complete article submission process for www.articlesubmissionsite1.com and www.articlesubmissionsite2.com

2)      Prepare Monthly Report for Executive Board

a)      Collect statistical reports from Mary Smith and John Jones

-   mary.smith@company.com    555-777-8888

-   john.jones@company.com      555-777-9999

b)      Transcribe notes from last months meeting for overview section

c)      Schedule meeting with Joe Brown regarding status of ?Project A?

-   joebrown@contractor.com   555-888-3333
     Joe Brown, Contractor Company, 9999 Development Way, New City, MD  33345

d)     Collect reports from three department heads

-   Accounting department ? Ann Anders ? ann.anders@company.com  555-777-3322

-   Promotions department ? Paul Palmer ? paul.palmer@company.com  555-777-0033

-   Customer Service department ? Carol Cook ? carol.cook@company.com  555-777-6678

Of course these are all fictional examples of processes that may require training for your V.A. Remember to include important details like relevant website addresses and the telephone numbers, email addresses and mailing addresses of individuals that need to be contacted.  Provide examples of what was done in the past.  All of these things will assist you in providing effective training for your Virtual Assistant.  Once this training is completed your V.A. will (1) have detailed instructions for how to complete the task and (2) will be able to perform the task independently with a minimum of guidance from you.  You benefit by having even more time consuming administrative work taken ?off your plate?. 

As stated earlier some items that fall into the ?Requires Training? category may require gathering materials, documents and work samples.  But once this is done, you have training material that can be used again and again and can also be changed or updated as situations change. 

Implementing this technique for 2 to 4 weeks should help you to identify and develop a clear and detailed list of tasks that you can hand off to your Virtual Assistant.  You will then find that

working with a professional Virtual Assistant can be as effective as having an assistant sitting outside of your office. Because Virtual Assistants utilize the latest time saving technical tools available, your work can flow seamlessly and efficiently and the savings in time and money can be seen immediately.

Now that you know how ? let?s get started!

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New on webstats: Exclude your own visits

With the new webstats feature “Exclude my own visits”, you can get more accurate visitor statistics by choosing the data that’s relevant for you. Up to now, your webstats counter registered all visits. The result: Your visits as webmaster were also registered amongst all the other visits. With our new feature you can now exclude your own visits and get more relevant statistics.

You’re wondering how does it work? It’s simple: It works by setting a cookie in your browser. However, if you delete your cookies or use a new browser or computer, you must log in and go to “My counters” to enable the function again.

How to exclude your own visits:

1. Login to motigo

2. Click on “Webstats”

3. Click on “Exclude my own visits”

This feature will only work for the most recent version of the counter code. It will not work for outdated or damaged counter codes.

Still have an old version of the code? You can get an updated code for your counter on your motigo account anytime:

This is how you get your counter code:

1. Login to motigo

2. Click on “Webstats”

3. Click on “show html code” under the counter’s name

4. Select the counter type (small icon or live counter)

5. Copy the code and paste it in your website

Tags: counter, statistics, visits, webstats

This entry was posted on Thursday October 1st, 2009 at 09:25 AM and is filed under Motigo news, New features, tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Customers First, Internet Marketing Second

Before developing an internet marketing strategy, an entrepreneur must ask himself, “Who are my customers?” Knowing who your customers are will help you develop appropriate campaigns down the road. When I refer to your customers I mean all of them: the customers you have, the customers you’ve had in the past and the future customers you are targeting.

If you are reading this before starting your business you are in luck because I think it is a lot better to identify your target audience and then find a product or service that meets their needs than to have already developed a product and later find out how difficult it is to find buyers for it. Think of a group of people you are affiliated with and what kinds of needs or wants they have that you are passionate about providing whether it is a product or a service. Consider surveying a sample of folks to validate your prediction of their level of interest in your ideas.

If you already have an established business and a customer base to draw from, that’s a great starting point. Reach out to your customers and find out how else you can be of service to them or what other products they would like you to provide.

Over time, you might see some common trends your customers exhibit that help you know whether you are doing a good job meeting their needs. For example, leads, sales, information requests and membership signups. If customers are not buying a product, consider discontinuing it. If a product is selling like hotcakes, you are meeting a lot of needs.

You may notice a few different, distinct types of customers doing business with you. It is perfectly normal to have a few customer groups. For example, the buyers of computers might be broken into the following categories: home users, businesses and government. Consider marketing to them differently because they are likely to have different needs of you. You probably don’t need a fancy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) package to track your customers. Consider starting with a simple spreadsheet and expand to something more expensive if and when it is really justified for your business.

Knowing who your customers are is crucial for being able to give them what they want and need. Maybe they just need information initially. Perhaps they need a product or service that you can supply to them. The key is to give your customers what they want and make sure they have the best experience ever when interacting with you whether online or offline, beginning of the sale or after the fact. You will feel great, your customers will feel great and you just might be entrusted to help them with other needs in the future. In addition, your customer may reward you with referrals.

After you have confidently identified your customers, their needs and how you can fill them, you will be ready to develop a successful internet marketing strategy.

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