Marketing software is sometimes viewed as a luxury, not a
necessity. While you can certainly accomplish marketing without
marketing software, marketing software lessens the time and
effort required for marketing and your marketing efforts will
generally be much more effective. There are various types of
marketing software, and numerous producers of marketing software.
Finding the right combination of marketing software for you is
the challenge.

The first step in preparing an effective marketing campaign is to
devise a solid marketing plan. When writing a marketing plan,
there are several things to consider. The main points are
defining your target market and identifying the characteristics
of that market, analyzing your competition, formulating your
unique selling proposition using a competitive advantage,
reviewing options for marketing mediums, preparing your marketing
budget, and setting milestones for your marketing campaign.
Marketing software, such as Marketing Plan Pro by Palo Alto, will
help you work through the details of these steps to create a
useful and powerful marketing plan.

If you intend to engage in email marketing via newsletters,
autoresponders, announcements, or mass email campaigns, you will
find that email marketing software is crucial. Of course, there
are online email marketing services such as gotcorp.com that
provide self-serve email marketing tools like Campaigner. Using
such tools for email marketing is an option, but there are
ongoing costs involved. If you choose to use email marketing
software instead, programs like Email Marketing Director and
Campaign Enterprise 9 by Arial are very good.

Good email marketing software enables you to personalize messages
and to manage your mailing lists through a database. A time
saving feature to look for in email marketing software is the
ability of the software to automatically process unsubscribe
requests. Most email marketing software packages have built-in
templates you can use to produce email newsletters, announcements
and marketing messages. Support for embedded images and
compatibility with web editing software programs may be of some
importance.

If you are really serious about email marketing, it is best to
get started with advanced email marketing software from the
beginning. Advanced email marketing software has features that
will enable you to personalize and track your email messages.
With tracking capabilities and built-in reporting functions, you
can determine the effectiveness of your email messages as well as
who is and who is not opening and responding to the messages.

These advanced email marketing software programs generally use
SQL, Oracle, or Access database technology. High quality email
marketing software also has automated features for managing email
lists. These automated, time-saving features usually include
handling unsubscribe requests and removing bounced or rejected
email addresses from the email lists.

Customized marketing software suites may be something to consider as well. With customized marketing software, you can often
integrate marketing into your sales and customer relationship
management (CRM) systems. Some features that are common to
customized marketing software include the ability to capture
leads, to forecast sales, to manage contacts, and to analyze data
that is collected through the integrated system. Project
management capabilities can even be merged with customized
marketing software.

So, the big question is, “Do I really need marketing software?”
Like I said before, many people view marketing software as a
luxury. However, marketing software makes the job of internet
marketing much easier, especially if it has automated features.
There are options to using marketing software. Online marketing
services are one of those options; however, unlike using
marketing software, marketing services generally have ongoing
fees that are charged monthly or per campaign. Using marketing
software you can devise and manage your own internet marketing
campaign which is a cost-effective solution to marketing online.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope,
fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing
advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing,
or a website owner who wants to make more money from your
website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your
internet business at BiznessTips.com BiznessTips.com

As a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, a Certified Computer Forensics Specialist, Network
and Security Consultant, Software Developer, and Data Recovery Expert, my passion for technology
is undeniable. I also enjoy helping people, especially when it comes to my passion. This white paper
is centered on 10 important points to keep your computer systems secure.

1. Make sure that your password is secure.
This means any passwords in use should have some degree of complexity. A common standard for
secure passwords is to have a minimum of 8 characters, and be a mixture of letters, numbers and
symbols. For example, the user Jane Smith could use a password similar to Ja$mith1, providing a
good amount of complexity and very easy to remember. The symbol: $ can be used instead of s or S,
@ can be used instead of a or A, even 0 can be used instead of o or O.

2. As the Business Owner or as a Partner you should not hand your password to anyone, nor should you
write it down and leave it in your work environment or office.

3. Confidential information located on your network should be restricted and only allow access to the
appropriate individuals. Make sure you test the access rights or delegate this to a trusted individual.

4. Your personal computer should be password protected and automatically enable password protection
if the computer system has not been utilized for several minutes, this will prevent anyone from
snooping around on your computer while you are in the restroom or on a lunch break.

5. All Computers in your office should have Anti-virus software installed. Commercial products such as
Symantec Antivirus symantec.com or free software such as provided from Grisoft
grisoft.com.

6. All Computers in your office should also have Anti-spyware software installed.
This will help to keep your computer clean from other malicious programs on the internet that could
generate pop ups, capture confidential information, and slow down your computer system tremendously.
Commercial Anti-spyware programs such as Spyware Doctor from PC Tools can be found at
pctools.com. Free Anti Spyware programs such as Microsoft Windows Defender can be found
at microsoft.com and Adaware at lavasoft.com.

7. Keep your systems updated.
Microsoft provides an update feature that can be accessed from within Windows. It is used to update the
computer system with new improvements and security fixes. It is generally located under “All Programs”,
then click on the “start menu” to find “Windows Update”. If you are unable to locate the “Windows
Updates”, then updates can also be accessed directly from the Microsoft webpage.
microsoft.com. The same principle applies to other computer operating systems such as Apple
and Linux.

8. It is a very good idea to implement a Firewall.
There are two types of Firewalls: Hardware-based and Software-based. Your Firewall of choice depends
on the size of your organization. If you have less than 10 computer systems, I would recommend using a
Software-based Firewall on all of the computer systems. A commercial Firewall such as Zone Alarm Pro
can be found at zonelabs.com. Windows XP also has a built-in Firewall that can be utilized.
Hardware-based Firewalls vary depending on the size of your organization and the level of sophistication
desired. A good Firewall for Small Businesses is the TZ 170 from Sonic Wall sonicwall.com.
This Firewall is optimal for organization of 10 – 40 users.

9. Storing company information on USB Sticks to work on information at home, is the biggest most recent
trend. Make sure your company has a policy that specifies if such devices can be used and more
importantly to what degree.

10. Remote access tools such as Remote Desktop or PC Anywhere should be used with caution, given
they
open doors to your computer system and to your network.
Cyber criminals are attacking more and more Small Businesses assuming they are easy to bait.

Use these
tips to improve the security of your computers, your data and to counter cyber crime.

Andrew Mapp, President

Three Square Business Solutions

threesquaresolutions.com threesquaresolutions.com

MCSA, Security , CEH, CCFS

Overview of Indie Games

For those individuals who love to play various games in their free time and are also avid computer users, the two concepts can easily be combined to produce a wonderful result. Playing games via a computer is a common occurrence these days. Although there are a number of popular games one can play on the computer, one genre of game that is gaining in popularity is that of Indie games.

Defining Indie Games

Indie games can be defined as those games that are created independently of any large financially backed company. Indie games are ones which often come from a relatively low budget base and many of these games are ones that are only available online. These types of games can be video games, strategy games or puzzles, for example. The wide range of categories which various Indie games fall into is quite impressive.

How Indie Games Were First Developed

Indie games developed in reaction to an already established type of gaming industry. Those who create Indie games develop games which fall into a certain category yet do not have a large financially sound company which develops them. In order for Indie games to exist, there must already be a similar genre of game in existence. For example, Indie games which fall into the category of video games were developed in the 1970s shortly after the larger companies developed the mainstream video games. The Indie games which resulted from that category came into existence after games such as Pong and Asteroids hit the market.

Reasons for Online Popularity

Indie games are mainly available via online means. There are a few different reasons for this. First, those who develop various Indie games do so at minimal costs. Since it is much less expensive to provide online accessibility to these games as opposed to marketing them and selling these games in stores, one who develops Indie games makes them largely available online. Secondly, individuals who create various Indie games make them available online since it is an easy way to get the games out to the general public and enable individuals to start playing them as quickly as possible.

Size of the Indie Game Industry

The Indie game industry is one which is growing in size. As more and more individuals begin using the Internet, there are more people who gain access to Indie games. Online accessibility to games of this type is a primary reason for the growing popularity of Indie games. Indie games are developed all over the world and it is hard to pinpoint exactly how many Indie games are currently in existence at this time.

Future of the Indie Game Industry

The Indie game industry is one which will continue to grow in the future. Due to the fact that the number of Internet users continues to grow, so will the number of people who like to play Indie games online. Therefore, the future of the Indie game industry looks quite bright.

Summary

Indie games are the result of creative and innovative minds. For those who may not have the financial backing to get their games on the consumer market, developing Indie games and making them accessible via the World Wide Web is a great way for the developer to let others see and utilize their vision.

Steve is a writer for the GrandMatrix website. GrandMatrix provides hundreds of grandmatrix.com free game downloads and online games. Play and rate the latest PC games and play thousands of puzzles, word games and online arcade games with other members.