Email marketing is based on lead generation. Leads are people who have done some activity on your website or on an affiliate website – such as downloading an eBook or adding themselves to an opt-in list or subscribing to a newsletter, etc. – and have given their email id in the process. The email id is called as the lead. The collection of all these people is known as the list.

The actual process of email marketing involves sending informative content through email to these people on your list. The emails have to be content rich, providing them something of value and very subtly nudging them to perform some further action, such as visit your website for an offer or a free gift. Though the eventual intention is selling the product, it is not done blatantly in email marketing.

Email marketing brings in a lesser flow of traffic than other methods generate. Despite that, marketers use this method prominently. The main reason for that lies in the fact that the low traffic brought by this method is all targeted traffic. The people who have opted in to become part of your list are people who are interested in your list.  It is very easy to get them to convert. This is the method they refer to when they say – “Get the customers to come to you; don’t go to them yourself.”

But, the success of this method lies in your email. You have to take care that you provide something of immense value that these people can use. These can be:-

→ Some latest news about the industry

→ An easier way to do ordinary things related to the niche

→ A set of tips, pointers or guidelines

→ A short but effective how-to guide

→ Directions for getting freebies and discounted offers within the niche

→ Success stories of other people

→ Motivational material

… and so on. People are looking for such information on the Internet anyway. When you send this directly to them in their inbox, your credibility increases. Not only do you get traffic, but you also get repeated traffic and conversions.

Today, more and more people are using their computers for everything from communication to online banking and investing to shopping.

As we do these things on a more regular basis, we open ourselves up to potential hackers, attackers and crackers. While some may be looking to phish your personal information and identity for resale, others simply just want to use your computer as a platform from which to attack other unknowing targets.

Below are a few easy, cost-effective steps you can take to make your computer more secure to begin with:

1. Always make backups of important information and store in a safe place separate from your computer.

2. Install a firewall. Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet.Consideration should be given to the benefits and differences between hardware and software based firewall programs.

3. Review your browser and email settings for optimum security. Why should you do this? Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computers. While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they do still track your movements on the Internet to build a profile of you. At a minimum set your security setting for the “Internet zone” to High, and your “trusted sites zone” to Medium Low.

4. Install anti-virus software and set for automatic updates so that you receive the most current versions.

5. Do not open unknown email attachments. It is simply not enough that you may recognize the address from which it originates because many viruses can spread from a familiar address.

6. Do not run programs from unknown origins. Also, do not send these types of programs to friends and coworkers because they contain funny or amusing stories or jokes. They may contain a Trojans horse waiting to infect
a computer.

7. Disable hidden filename extensions. By default, the Windows operating system is set to “hide file extensions for known file types”. Disable this option so that file extensions display in Windows. Some file extensions will, by default, continue to remain hidden, but you are more likely to see any unusual file extensions that do not belong.

8. Turn off your computer and disconnect from the network when not using the computer. A hacker cannot attack your computer when you are disconnected from the network or the computer is off.

9. Consider making a boot disk on a floppy disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised by a malicious program. Obviously, you need to take this step before you experience a hostile breach of your system.