Interactive Web Resources

By Dennis Schooley, BBA, CA

We have now entered the world of blogs! Sounds kind of Harry Potterish, doesn't it?

If you're over 20 years old, you probably think this is some crazy sci-fi phenomenon, or I've simply lost my mind. Don't fret, the vast majority of people don't know what a blog is all about - and more importantly, why it matters to them.

If you're under 20 you can stop reading because you probably know all about blogs, and the value they have in sharing information. You've been trading game-breaking codes, South Park clips, and jokes through blogs for months now - or maybe even years.

In a recent article, Johnson Ong quips "I have a blog. Doesn't everyone? You mean you don't? How uncool are you? According to Merriam-Webster, 'blog' was the word of the year last year. Not having your own blog is like not having your own Gmail account. What? You don't have Gmail either? My God, what are you? A caveman!"

Over or under, cool or uncool, I want to address blogs from a business standpoint, and the tremendous value they can deliver to business. There are several reasons that developing a blog is a tremendous strategy for any business.

1) It will increase your web presence significantly - the search engines love blogs! 2) It will allow your business to educate customers and prospects about certain subjects, and appear as experts 3) It will raise your business profile with your vendors and other strategic partners, if they are invited to contribute to your blog 4) Other blogs can, and will, take information from your blog, and you will increase your exposure to anyone that participates in the 'taking' blog 5) Blogs accept subscribers, and everyone that subscribes to your blog will be constantly updated (pinged) by you with current information

So What is It?

The full name for a blog is a weblog. It's a repository for articles, newsletters, information, and discussion boards. It's like a 'what's new' page on the internet in whatever subject you choose. When people research any topics that you have on your blog, they may very well end up on your blog through their search. If you've done it right, your blog is of course, fully branded to your company, and linked to your main website.

If you keep current articles, and information on your blog, you will receive hits from people looking for information about those subjects. You will also receive hits from other blogs, and they will then distribute your information to their own audiences.

You will receive hits from contributors of articles or news items, as well as people looking for those particular contributors through a search engine.

Hopefully, you get the picture. Your web traffic should increase exponentially through the proper use of a blog.

Business Blogs

Business blogs have yet to sweep the business community, which presents a significant opportunity to adapt the technology to any business. It will allow you to share expertise and knowledge with a much larger audience, which should create a significant benefit.

There is specific blogging software, and you will have to learn how to create an effective and valuable blog. You will also have to learn how to acquire and produce current industry information to populate your blog with articles that will maintain interest and value. Yes, there is an element of work to it - you didn't think it was free, with no effort required, like the mumps did you?

As you add current information to your subject area, or to secondary subject areas that you may include in your blog, your chances of more hits are higher. If you continually contribute self-generated articles and news items to the appropriate subject areas, your chances also increase. In addition, there are sources that allow you to publish their materials, which can be used to increase the value of the blog, and therefore the likelihood of being found on the good old inter-web.

So How Does It Work?

If you still push the Pause/Break button in the upper right-hand corner of your keyboard to request permission from your boss for a visit to the bathroom, you can skip this part. Otherwise, it's really not too hard to follow.

Without getting too technical, there are many web robots (bots), crawlers, and spiders, and similar technologies that have RSS Reader capability. That's the stuff that is specific to blogs. They are basically looking for news, and blogs have that news.

If you do it right, these bots, crawlers, and spiders find your blog, and send information elsewhere, which is just what you want. Your blog is basically yelling at these web 'beasts' to "come on in and take this great stuff I've got."

For example, these web 'animals' include yahooslurp, googlebot, feedstercrawler, pubsub, syndic8, msnbot, newsgator, CP30, & R2D2.

O.K., the last two were Luke Skywalker's buddies, but the rest are real.

It will take 4 to 6 weeks for the search engines to adjust rankings but the ultimate result will be that you will progress up the ladder in the engines in the various topic areas that you feature. When people are searching for technologies or subjects that are being discussed in your blog, they will find you on the search engines.

That should be a hint that you should have content on your blog about the subjects that are most often searched.

When a subject is searched that is covered by one of your branded, self-generated articles, your fully branded information may be pulled to another blog, or to a specific person doing a search in that topic area. You can post that same article on your website, and it won't go anywhere. However, on your blog it gets a shot of super juice, and may just get pushed through any number of doors.

Linking - The Benefits - Increase Your Brand

When website owners and bloggers (yeah, I'm now a blogger!) think of linking, they are usually referring to inbound links from external websites and blogs. For example, if you had a link to your website on the website of another business.

While adding more inbound links on external sites is important, there is also a sort of 'reverse' link strategy associated with blogs.

Your blog's incoming links will provide another benefit when someone is referred to an article in your blog from another website. For example, through GooglePageRank, the receiving page (you) gets a boost up the search engine when that happens, which helps the blog overall by boosting the popularity of the blog, which in turn is what increases the search results, which in turn drives up the search engine rankings.

What!? I wrote it and I have to read it six times to really follow what I'm saying.

Basically, the more people that visit your blog when they come from other sources, the more likely it is for people to find you when searching for a whole myriad of topics. That type of benefit does not exist with normal website traffic, because those visits don't effect web site rankings on the search engines. But blog traffic that is through a link from another site will drive you up the search engines. There - that's much more clear!? As clear as fog in a low-lying bog. Ouch!

Web designer Sue Studios says; "Blogs are highly strategic, here-to-stay desktop tools that can strengthen relationships, share knowledge, increase collaboration, and improve branding. Think of the potential for your e-newsletter strategies:

1) Articles within newsletters can be linked to a blog, extending life and creating a massive conversation 2) You can offer a bi-directional forum to customers to get true, personal opinion on your products and services 3) Company experts can start a blog and become industry experts, helping your company edge out competition and, through this interactive forum, draw customers into another exchange of information and thoughts."

Well, it's snowing out so I think I'll go blogging! Wait, is that something you do in the snow, or is it something you do to stay out of the snow?!

Or is it a Celtic dance? Or should the Steelers have blogged that kick to win? I'm confused.

About the Author
Dennis Schooley is the Founder of Schooley Mitchell Telecom Consultants, a Professional Services Franchise Company. He writes for publication, as well as for schooleymitchell.blogging.com and franchises.blogging.com, in the subject areas of Franchising, and Technology for the Layman. http://www.schooleymitchell.com, 888-311-6477, dschooley@schooleymitchell.com.

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By PrimeVector

1. You Don't Need Money For Everything
When you have just finished your brand new website i can imagine you would want the whole world to visit it, and preferably keep on coming back for more. If you have money to do some investing in advertisement in any way you have it considerably easier in those first steps then the web master without that cold hard cash backup. But don't fear if you are not in that money group yet, you don't need money for everything. It can of course make life a bit easier, but what isn't there isn't there and the site still needs to be made popular.

2. A Good First Step
A good first step to undertake would be visiting a big search engine and enter a keyword you feel is extremely related to your website. Then write down the first 10 websites you feel are very related to your content and that have a list of partner links displayed on their website. If a website doesn't have list with partner links you have no real chance of getting your link to be displayed, so you can ignore them. So after you found some websites your next step should be contacting the web masters of each one of those websites. Before you contact a web master you make sure you have setup a link on your website pointing to their website, then you contact them in a very friendly manner (not too overly business like) and ask them if they would be interested in displaying a text link or perhaps even a banner to your website. Because you already have a link pointing to them they can see you are serious and perhaps they will place your link too. You have a good chance of being accepted as long as you stay friendly. If you repeat these steps and contact a lot more websites your website will be know much better, and the best thing is that its free. Of course it needs time, but you will definitely feel the impact in the number of visitors. This is especially true if you have a very popular topic and are offering useful content, they will be coming back for more and more.

3. Find Those Quality Directories
The next thing you should do is find free link-directories related to your website and submit your site to be included. Just use a search engine and start to search for link directories. Be very sure that you don't use all the FFA (free for all) directories you find because a lot of them are just junk and rather then being good for your site they will hurt it. Look out for the quality directories amongst them, especially serving categories related to the topics of your website. Submitting your website to those quality directories will drive lots of traffic to your site, again all free and even reasonably targeted. The traffic is targeted because if somebody was searching a category in a link-directory, and found your site, it meant he/she was already searching for topics related to your site and thus perhaps is an important customer for your website in the future. Like i said be a bit careful with this step and select only quality directories. Also resubmit your site from time to time if you think you aren't included anymore.

4. Bring On That Signature
Another great free method that is guaranteed to work is register at a lot of forums all over the Internet. Of course again make sure you only join forums that are related to the content on your site as much as possible. When you find a forum, you should join it and firstly post an introduction message describing who you are, what you do and what kind of website you own. Every forum will have a special part for introduction's and you will be amazed by the nice reactions people will give you and how many of them will actually visit your site immediately to know more about you. The next important and most useful step is finding the that forum's control panel where you can set your signature. A signature is a small piece of text usually about 2-5 lines, which you can fill and which is attached to every post you make or have made in the past. If you place a link to your site in this signature, it means that with every post you make you make sure that:

1)People that read that thread will read your post and perhaps visit your site.
2)Your link is added to that website and search engines notice it for sure.

It is not at all weird to see loads of visitors coming in though all the forums you register and actively post at. Even if you registered at a forum years ago, go back and setup that signature, you can't miss out on all those links pointing to your site. This type of promotion is fun because you can actively join a community with a topic you love, discuss it, meet people and all the time you are promoting your site, on the other hand it also takes time and dedication. The best thing again its all free and thus if you are serious about promoting your site but don't have the cash to back that up, this is a great way to start generating some good traffic.

4. Write That Article
The next thing you might do, but this is not for everybody, is writing articles and submit them to free article directories. This again requires time and some skill, but is worth every minute of it. In every article you write you can place links back to your site in the "about the author" part. If you are good at writing articles, the web master that searches for free articles will add your articles to their websites and thus you have more and more links pointing directly to your website. Because you are not pointing a link back to their site (like in the first step) it even means that the link is seen by search engines as a even more important link.(A site wouldn't link to you for any reason, you must be doing something good.) By submitting your articles to the many directories out there you will increase the chance of getting more targeted traffic a lot, and all for free again.

5. Setup RSS Feeds
One last thing i would like to notice is that you could have a look at ways to create RSS feeds for your content. If you aren't a developer yourself i would let this option go for now and return back when you have the money to let somebody develop feeds for you. No need to break your head over just another thing. RSS is a way to deliver you content from your website to the desktop of a user. If a user downloads you feed he can enter it in his feed reading application and every time you add new content to your site he/she will be notified immediately on their desktop. On top of this you can also submit all your RSS feeds to RSS feed directories, just like you would submit your site to quality link directories.

6. Conclusion
Well i hope i could show you some free website promotion tricks in this article, just remember its very important to give it all time. Don't expect overnight delivery because you will be disappointed for sure. But if you do give it time and you also take time to apply some of the described tricks over and over again ( like posting in the forums) i can guarantee you will see an increase in visitors which can mean an increase in profit.

If you want to display this article you have to include the information about the author and a clear link to http://www.free-webmaster-resource.com and http://www.familyguyfreak.com must be visible. You can not re-write the article without permission.

About the Author
Visit PrimeVector's great Web Page Design & Web Master Resource for more tutorials & reviews! Or have some fun at his fan site about Family Guy!

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By Cory Threlfall

Content as we know it is the Life-Blood or FUEL, if you will, of the Internet.

That was and still is the Internets sole purpose, except only now it's commercialized, giving the online entrepreneur the world at their fingers tips.

And the facts are that usually when people first come online it's not to go purchase something, it's to look for Information that will answer a question they might have about a particular product they're interested in and/or to a problem they are dealing with and are searching for a solution.

Ask yourself this, "Why do I go online?"

Does it resemble anything like what I just stated?

Only you can answer that.

These are simply the facts with out a doubt... Period!

Now that you have an idea of WHY people come online, I'm now going to explain to you how you can...

"Explode Your Google Adsense and Affiliate Commissions Through Niche Blog Content Sites"

Did you notice the last two words within the quotations?

That's right, Content Sites.

What are Content Sites?

I think it's pretty self explanatory but the basic definition of a Content Site is this - it's a site that contains targeted content that targets a particular niche or many niches. (niche examples: cars, fitness, hobbies, etc.)

Not quite up to speed on what a blog is, here's a quick definition of a blog - a blog(A.K.A. Web-Log) is simply a place to go and post your personal thoughts that you can share with your subscribers and/or readership and receive feedback.

Now that you know the basic definitions of a Content Site and a Blog lets continue.

Content Sites can contain Hundreds-to-Thousands of pages of keyword rich content, which by the way is exactly what the Search Engines love and will come back for if New content is added on a frequent basis giving the owner of that site lots of opportunity to benefit from the Free traffic inwhich the content pages, or what I like to call Feeder Pages, generate.

So, now that you have an idea of what a Content Site and a Blog is it's now time to tell you how you can build your own Niche Blog Content Site Empire, no matter what your niche is, using Blogs, Google Adsense and ClickBank affiliate products.

Bare in mind that the steps outlined below are only going to be a summarization of the actual process involved.

So, with that said, here it is.

Step #1. Set up a Blog.

The first step is quite simple. All you have to do is set up a Blog either through...

Blogger.com - http://www.blogger.com

or...

Wordpress.org - http://www.wordpress.org

This blog your setting up is going to be the foundation of your Niche Blog Content Site and is where the rest of the pieces of the puzzle are going to be added to once you've set it up.

(Quick Tip: Make sure you use your Target Keywords within your URL of your niche blog and in the Title and Description. VERY Important!)

Once you have your niche blog set up move on to Step # 2.

Step #2. Adding your Google Adsense code.

Depending on your experience with scripting and html, it's now time to add your Google Adsense code to your new niche blog in 3 strategic places.

Google allows you to add 3 Google Adsense blocks only to one page, no more than that, so I recommend one at the Top, one in the Right or Left sidebar depending on the template you choose and one at the Bottom of your blog.

By doing this your almost forcing your reader to click on a link within the Google Adsense block, which is of course, is exactly what you want and where your going to make the money.

The other great thing about Google Adsense is the ads are targeted to the content that you post, giving the reader even more reason to click through.

Here's a few resources for you that will show you how to add the Google Adsense code to your blog using the services I mentioned above if your not sure how to yourself.

Blogger.com: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py? answer=964

Wordpress.org: http://www.acmetech.com/blog/adsense-deluxe/

Simply follow the instructions and you'll have Google Adsense installed on your niche blog in no time.

Step #3. Find a related ClickBank product.

Now it's time to go shopping at ClickBank.com - http://www.clickbank.com - for a related information product that targets your niche.

Once there click on the link Earn Commissions at the bottom.

This will bring to to their directory where you'll find many products to choose from that will target any niche your blog is about.

(Quick Tip: The first 10 listed under each category are the TOP converting programs, meaning... their the ones making the most money.)

If you don't have a ClickBank.com nickname you'll have to sign up for one. It'll only take you a few minutes.

From there, once you've chosen a program to join your going to want to collect all the affiliate materials available, like Articles, Banners, Text Links, etc., because your going to place these on your NEW niche blog site with your affiliate link linked to them so when your reader clicks on them and decides to buy the related information, you get the commission.

Well... there you have it, 3 steps to "Explode Your Google Adsense and Affiliate Commissions Through Niche Blog Content Sites".

Now the only thing left for you to do is to start building an audience by promoting your Blog.

Here's a few resources for you to get started with.

Ping-O-Matic - http://pingomatic.com

RSS Top 55 - http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55

Remember this is just a summarized version and is only going to give you the basic steps, so good luck to you and your Niche Blog Content Site Empire.

About the Author
Cory Threlfall is the Editor and Publisher of a online webmaster publication called... The Internet Wonders eZine, where you'll receive 'Daily' via the Web or RSS syndication Expert Articles, Product Reviews, HOT Tips, and More on how to Promote and Build your business online. Go NOW to ==> http://www.internetwondersezine.com

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Off-shoring / Outsourcing Benefits: Difficult to Ignore by John Parker

Unable to ignore the many benefits of the IT off-shoring / outsourcing trend, market researchers are predicting a substantial jump from 20% to 50% in the number of companies that outsource work, mainly to India.

According to the study, cost savings from outsourcing are much too persuasive to ignore. Many, highly aggressive outsourcing campaigns have helped companies to dramatically cut costs and show a significant growth in company profits.

Money saving, large profits, a result of off-shoring / outsourcing are responsible for the enticingly sweet lure it holds out. As well, advanced technological i.e. secure networks, line / storage leasing all contribute to make it painlessly possible for IT managers on a tight budget, to transition work to an overseas service provider.

As technology becomes cheaper and more reliable, not only multinationals are off-shoring / outsourcing, even small start-ups with under-sized budgets are jumping at the opportunity to make money by joining the off-shoring / outsourcing trend.

According to a lead researcher, sob stories circulating about off-shoring / outsourcing are often due to bad processes followed at home rather than the result of off-shoring / outsourcing work. The trend of off-shoring / outsourcing payroll, HR and benefits work has proved to be extremely successful, a clear indication that the process works, and can only get better.

Kana Software Inc., a California-based company is a successful example of IT off-shoring / outsourcing. Getting their research and development done in India, they are receiving top quality work at a fraction of what it cost to have it done at home.

IT managers across the country continue to find they can cut their budgets by as much as 40%, simply by sending work to an IT service provider in India. High savings for top quality work, what further incentive would an IT manager need to off-shore / outsource IT-related work to a service provider

About the Author
For further information on offshore outsourcing and offshore software development, please visit http://www.a1technology.com

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Outsourcing - Long Term Benefits by John Parker

Outsourcing -- the practice of using outside firms to handle work normally performed within a company -- is a familiar concept to many entrepreneurs. Small companies routinely outsource their payroll processing, accounting, distribution and many other important functions -- often because they have no other choice. Many large companies turn to outsourcing to cut costs. In response, entire industries have evolved to serve companies´ outsourcing needs.

Outsourcing can provide a number of long-term benefits:-

Control capital costs: Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releases capital for investment elsewhere in your business, and allows you to avoid large expenditures in the early stages of your business.

Increase efficiency: Companies that do everything themselves have much higher research, development, marketing and distribution expenses, all of which must be passed on to customers. An outside provider's cost structure and economy of scale can give your firm an important competitive advantage.

Reduce labor costs: Hiring and training staff for short-term or peripheral projects can be very expensive, and temporary employees don't always live up to your expectations. Outsourcing lets you focus your human resources where you need them most.

Start new projects quickly: A good outsourcing firm has the resources to start a project right away. Handling the same project in house might involve taking weeks or months to hire the right people, train them and provide the support they need. And if a project requires major capital investments (such as building a series of distribution centers), the startup process can be even more difficult. Focus on your core business: Every business has limited resources, and every manager has limited time and attention. Outsourcing can help your business to shift its focus from peripheral activities toward work that serves the customer, and it can help managers set their priorities more clearly. Level the playing field: Most small firms simply can't afford to match the in-house support services that larger companies maintain. Outsourcing can help small firms act "big" by giving them access to the same economies of scale, efficiency and expertise that large companies enjoy. Reduce risk: Every business investment carries a certain amount of risk. Markets, competition, government regulations, financial conditions and technologies all change very quickly. Outsourcing providers assume and manage this risk for you, and they generally are much better at deciding how to avoid risk in their areas of expertise.

About the Author
For further information on offshore outsourcing and offshore software development, please visit http://www.a1technology.com.

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Choosing The Right Strategy For Your Online Business: Pay for Inclusion versus Pay per Click

By Richard Zwicky

Back in the old days of the Internet - in 1993, - there were 284 locations on the entire World Wide Web. According to Bill Clinton, only 8 of them ended in .com or .net when he was sworn into office. As of January 1, 2003, there were 171,000,000 domain hosts in use. In 1995, the largest search engine database was Altavista, and it had most of the Internet categorized. Today Google and FASTsearch own the largest databases. Yet neither one of them has even 10% of the Internet covered. It's estimated that more than 8,000,000 web pages are added to the Internet every day. None of the search engines are able to keep up to that pace. So how will your website stand out? How will it acquire the traffic it needs to succeed? There are many ways to approach the issue of marketing an online business, but for the sake of this article, we'll concern ourselves solely with online tools, and ways to expedite success. In that vein, we'll concern ourselves with Pay for Inclusion and Pay for Placement (or Pay per Click) advertising.

Some engines, such as AltaVista, Inktomi, Looksmart and FAST, use a pay for inclusion model. What this means is that to be guaranteed to be found within that specific search engine index, the website operator must pay a fee to be listed. It's similar to the fee a business pays for a Yellow Pages listing. These fees vary from monthly to annual. Looksmart charges a listing fee, plus a fee of $0.15 per clickthrough.

Engaging a Pay-for-Inclusion service does not come with any placement guarantees. If your website is not properly optimized, but you paid an inclusion fee, it is guaranteed to be indexed and listed somewhere within that search engine. If you want to ensure success with a Pay-for-Inclusion search engine, then your website must still be optimized. Without proper optimization, which includes an analysis from the perspective of all the factors that the search engines look for, a pay for inclusion service will not deliver the desired benefits to the website operator.

When properly matched with a comprehensive Search Engine Optimization regimen, a Pay for Inclusion program will result in powerful results: Qualified Traffic, Customers, and Relevant Traffic.

Pay per Click advertising is the process by which a web site operator can arrange for a website to be placed in a pre-defined position within certain search engines, such as Overture.

Search Engine Placement is always a Pay-Per-Click solution. While advertising websites are only permitted to buy advertising in search queries that are relevant to their content, they are not sorted by relevance but rather purely based on bid value.

Pay per click services allow advertisers to bid for each visitor directed through to their web site, based upon the number of clicks the ad receives. Pay per Click search engine placement should be realistically viewed for what it is - an online auction. Advertisers bid against each other for a fixed position within a list of search results. The advertiser who bids the most is given the top spot in the list. Each advertiser bids according to their budget, and has to know his or her Return On Investment (ROI) to determine how much money should be spent on acquiring new customers.

How Do I Know Which Strategy Is Right For My Website? For those advertisers where the ROI is sensible or worthwhile, pay per click search engines are valuable customer acquisition tools. But is it right for you? While it can be expensive, here's a way for you to easily determine the ROI for your online business, and determine if it is the right choice for you. Take out a sheet of paper, and at the top of the sheet mark down the average price of the goods you sell - we'll use $100.00 for the purpose of the example. From that number, make some simple and basic calculations, outlined here:

$100.00 Sale Amount -$ 50.00 Cost of Goods -$ 5.00 Transaction Cost (bank charges, credit card) -$ 8.50 Shipping Fees (This assumes you're delivering a product, it needs a box, label, and has a delivery cost. -$ 10.00 Customer support costs - time on phone, email, etc... supporting and processing the transaction. What's 1 hour of your time worth? $ 26.50 = Margin Assuming this margin is correct for your website, is a Pay per Click campaign right for you? You'll need to look at your stats to judge this properly. You need to determine how many of your visitors are converting into buyers. IF your website has a 4% conversion rate, and your category is moderately competitive, you will probably need to budget at least $1.00 per click to get spot #3. Spot #3 is important because more often than not it's the top 3 spots per page of search engine results that are reserved for Pay per Click advertisers.

Assuming your website gets into the top three spots, here's how the math works if you get 100 clicks in a month. Since it's all percentage based, the same holds true if you get 25 clicks or 10,000 clicks.

100 clicks @ $1.00 per click = $100.00 cost 4% conversion = 4 sales = 4x $26.50 (margin on sale) = $106.00 Profit = $ 6.00

So, if the above were true, and IF the pay per click advertisement sent you 100 visitors per month, you would make only $6.00. Would you make much less having spot #4 instead of spot #3 ? If it meant one less sale a month, that would be worth it. You would make $70.00 more by selling less! Does spot #3 get much more traffic than relevant results in spots 4 through 10? Not at all for spot # 4, 5, 6, and only a little bit more for spot #'s 7-10. Remember, people usually look at the title or site description to see if it is relevant. Pay per Click is worth the money if your website is not found under any relevant queries in the top 20, but its value drops quickly if a website is found easily in the free listings within the search engines.

Is Pay for Inclusion Less Expensive? If we use the same calculation as above, and your website had 4 sales from a pay for inclusion engine where you paid $39.00 per year, or $3.25 / month, your profit would have been $103.25.

What About The Cost Of Search Engine Optimization? Search engine optimization does not have to be expensive. You can do the work yourself, but you need to ensure that it makes sense to do so. By this I mean, is doing it yourself a cost efficient, business proposition? Any time that you as an individual put into search engine optimization is time that you take away from business fundamentals and essentials. It's time away from customer support, content creation, service, administration, product research, other marketing, etc... What is that time worth? It's got to be part of the ROI calculation too. More and more people are choosing to outsource this work. It's estimated that 70% of online businesses will outsource non-core operations this year. It only makes sense. It's smart business to focus on what you know and do well and to hire others to support you in the other areas. Not many smart businessmen write their own contracts - they get their lawyer to do it. They want to ensure it's done right. Doing it right in the first place saves money in the long run. Outsourcing means getting someone else to do the work for you, properly. It does not mean getting someone to tell you what to do, or how to do things.

What's Right For Your Website? In the long run, a website operator that has a well optimized website will beat out a non-optimized website that concentrates on Pay per Click advertising for customer acquisition every day of the year. He may make fewer sales in a year, but he will make more profit from each sale. If the website is properly optimized, it will enjoy better placement in more search engines. This means it will survive, and prosper in the long run.

About the Author
Richard Zwicky is a founder and the CEO of Metamend Software, a Victoria B.C. based firm whose cutting edge Search Engine Optimization software has been recognized around the world as a leader in its field. Employing a staff of 10, the firm's business comes from around the world, with clients from every continent. Most recently the company was recognized for their geo-locational, or GIS technology, which correlates online businesses with their physical locations.

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By Melissa Brewer

When It All Began: The First Web Writings

While there weren't many online writers in the formative years of the web, if you were around then, you know what it was like. What I remember most about the web back then (the Al Gore days?) was the plain text, 10-point courier font that was consistent with 90% of the websites I encountered. Searching the web was a pain, but reading the web on-screen was impossible. By the end of the day I was completely nuts and half-blind. I would print out what looked to be a thousand pages of text and take it home to read and highlight. Even on paper, the font caused my eyes to be squinty and my head to ache. I probably drank two liters of coffee a day to keep my eyes moving across the page. The next day I would return to the school computer and begin again. The web was a pain, but it was still a fascinating source of information that was free and at my fingertips.

A year or two later, web design evolved into flashing text and moving GIF's that danced across the page. Words were scarce, and oftentimes, filled with unbelievable claims and brazen, nothing's-too-wild hype. There are still a few of these sites up on the web today, but consumers shy far away from them when it comes to online shopping. Thank you, Jakob Neilson! While Jakob didn't change the writing itself, really, he DID change the way it was displayed and warned that blatant commercialism sent customers running for cover. Because of his research (available at useit.com) millions of websites changed the way they did business, and learned about relationship building and credibility building. Web designers and writers began to learn and understand the nature of the web and the process of converting website visitors into loyal readers. Web text became readable, scannable, and interesting. By 1998, I was using the web on a regular basis again. While I still encountered many ugly, unreadable websites, I discovered a few gems and I was hooked on the "free information" movement again.

Web Writing Markets Today

Between web designers and web writers, the web has evolved into a medium that is not only scannable, but also readable. Thousands of websites hire content writers to create interesting, compelling, emotional content for their customers. While it is true that online business has lulled, the truth is that online content is here to stay. As you may know from a statistics class, there is really no way that 100% of online businesses will crash and burn. For every website that is on the web today, there will be two online tomorrow. Web business moves at a quick pace; but as one dot-com crashes and burns, another is submitting their press release to online venues around the world.

Understanding the web writing markets is crucial to success for online writers. Many writers get frustrated because they can't find work or don't know where to start. An understanding of the term "content" is a good start to understanding the companies that need content.

Online content today consists of: *Web sales copy *Filler *Articles *Online tutorials *Online user manuals *Newsletter writing *Online press releases *Online journalism *Flash movie scripts *Online game scripts *Online ads

Because the web is evolving so quickly, the type of content a website needs depends on their purpose or goal. Web sales copy, of course, is meant to produce sales. But if a website has sales copy alone, their users may get turned off. How do they level out the hype? They hire writers to write objective content such as articles and filler. Websites also understand the importance of interactivity; interactive elements allow readers and customers to get involved. Surveys and "talk back" features help establish a relationship with website visitors. In addition to these elements, website also have the goal of establishing an ongoing relationship with their users. Newsletters and discussion lists provide a quick reminder and a steady outreach to a website's target audience. Freelance writers create email content to fulfill this goal.

So, how big is the online content market?

"Huge!" says Rachel McAlpine, founder of the Quality Web Content Club, (http://www.webpagecontent.com) "Creating and maintaining web sites is a team job that requires many areas of expertise." "My most successful work so far is a horoscope column, believe it or not," says Brandi Jasmine, a freelance writer and digital photographer. (http://www.brandijasmine.com) Does she think there is enough work to go around? "I do, definitely. Actually I think that the `dot.bomb' has helped freelancers. I have had no trouble getting freelance work, it's the `full time jobs' that seem thin, few and far between. Portals and online publications are looking more to outsourcing and syndicated material as things get tight."

Looking Ahead - The Future of Web Writing Markets

Can you image the web without decent writers? When I think of a web without professional writers, I often think of my well-meaning friends and neighbors who have often showed me their love poems and essays, eagerly asking me, "How much money can I get when I publish this?"

I try to imagine my old boss writing an online newsletter or my father writing sales copy. (Which could happen; Dad's an engineer and the old boss a CEO --but I doubt you would want to read it ;-) I think back to the days where term papers and transcripts were the "free information" on the web.

Whatever the future of content is, I know that the "free information" of the olden days was free for a reason. The content writing of today pays well, and the content of tomorrow is promising. As the web matures, the duties of writers expand and solidify. There is a reason that a website's writing doesn't work or a newsletter can't get any subscribers. This is where the online content writer comes in. We're the ones who will make it work.

"Web content writers need to know where we fit in, and make sure we have expertise in our own field. In the end, all you need is three or four big clients," Rachel McAlpine says.

So, are you ready to go out and seek them?

*This article originally appeared in Web Writing Buzz Newsletter in April of 2000.

About the Author
Melissa Brewer is a full-time freelance writer and author of The Writer's Online Survival Guide, available at http://www.webwritingbuzz.com. She hosts a website for professional freelance writers and she publishes a free weekly newsletter, The Web Writing Buzz, featuring articles on freelancing, writing jobs and publishing news from around the web.

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Someone can say, 'Why do you oppose this?' So I'd like to prevent such attacks and tell that this article is dedicated mainly to the issue if it's worth to look for the cheapest solution.

Software and web development market is overwhelmed nowadays. Hence, as soon as there is a possibility to get something for nothing the usual approach in search for developers is a choice of the lowest price. The logic is understandable enough, 'Why should I pay $1000 for this bit of software if I can find somebody that will develop the same for as much as $200?' Is it true? I bet it is.

Anyhow, think once again about the phrase 'something for nothing'. Do you really believe it's possible? If you really think so, I'd suggest you should consider several issues while picking up a developer.

1. You are paying for what you are getting.
Normally, any developer will charge you on a basis of the total man-hour they need to complete the project. Talking about offshore development will let us take the price of $8-$15 per man-hour as a base. So any project's price consists roughly of these two elements. Should you want to get a lower cost, you should either negotiate the lower hourly rate, or find people who need less time to develop the application. However, as soon as you won't fall lower than $8 at any Indian company (not prestigious enough to charge extra money for quality insurance etc.), let's look for somebody who needs just less time.

2. People can do as much work per hour as they can.
It's obvious, different people have different efficiency. So if it will take just 2 weeks to develop a simple application for some programmer, it can take several months to do the same for another one. It's logical, professionals charge more for their services. In return they can develop things other programmers can't make for you even for the less money. But keep you brain cool. Even the best programmer is not a speedy typist. Typing of code, in addition to its design and development, also takes some time. So don't demand programmers to develop something in a day just because you believe the task is simple.

3. Someone's told you he can develop it two times sooner? Ask him what exactly he'll do?
As I've already told, definitely, there is a great lag in programmer's capacities. However, the speedier the programmer is, the more expensive his services are. Surely, there are some ways to shorten the development time. They are:

So consider all advantages and disadvantages once more. You have a choice of paying e.g. $1000 to a reliable company that can't afford to provide you with a poor quality product; hence, it does everything to make it properly. Or you can spare about $800 and get running, however unstable software without comments and under-optimized enough for its best performance. Surely, it's up to you what you should choose.

And again, there is no equivalence between "cheap" and "bad quality", as well as between "expensive" and "good quality". However, if somebody offers you just unreasonably low price, make sure that at the end you will get not just an imitation but the product you actually need.

About the Author
Alex Polonski is a Senior Sales Manager at XITEX Software Company, Ukraine. The company works in offshore software development market since 1999 and has a fair expertise in J2EE and .NET technologies. Among company's own-developed and marketed solutions, one can see a J2EE content management system, Xitex WebContent M1.

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Offshore This! by Rick David

So I call my telephone company and someone picks up 15,000 miles away. I asked the rep where she's from. She said, "I am from Mary-Land sir. How may I give you excellent service today?" The accent was… American... in a high society 19th century ultra-polite sort of way.

"Mary Land?" My brain's editing booth could not screen the snickers in time.

"Yes sir… this is correct sir." She pushed to the next level. "Yes, Mary Land, sir, on thee eastern seaboard. How may I give you excellent service?"

"The eastern seaboard?" Now laughing out loud.

"Yes sir, on thee eastern seaboard of thee United States. May I give you excellent service today?"

The 'broken record' assertiveness technique broke my resolve and she proceeded to give me excellent service, in a deceptive kind of way, though the experience left me queasy thinking about the whole new class of jobs being shipped overseas.

When manufacturing left the United States, the tech sector was supposed to be the new frontier. Americans rushed out to be retrained. Students set their sites on computer engineering. Our tech sector was so good, it created the very systems that made it possible to replace itself. Corporations discovered that an Indian college graduate will work at a call center for 10,000 rupees a month, or just under $60.00 a week. I have no malice for our Indian friends, they only want to work. But our kids are going to have to become proficient at more than playing video games and watching movies to compete with this highly educated and driven mass of hungry labor! Math anyone?

I remember hearing that the receptionist was the "face and voice" of the company and the public would get their first and most lasting impression based on her attitude. (With that much on her shoulders, they should have raised her pay.) Now the whole customer interface has been tossed to foreign nationals. Perhaps there will be a backlash in advertising. "Our tech support is Made in the USA! If the anecdotal evidence on Internet posting boards is any measure, many customers would rather be pierced with punji sticks rather than be taught one foreign language, (the computer) by someone with another foreign language! Written scripts are repeated ad nauseum with no ability to converse off-road and actually make the customer feel understood. Below is a sample, your results may vary.

Reactions to Foreign Customer Service

"I called HP Cares. They didn't. I spoke with three or four representatives. They all had limited English and spoke with an accent. They all asked me the same set of questions. Many asked the same questions over and over and over again. They all refused to believe that the sticker was not there. They all treated me like I was simply too stupid to find it or maybe I was just blind. And, they all put me on hold…"

"We could not understand each other. Even the simplest English terms were incomprehensible to her. I said goodbye and went through the tedious re-calling process, waiting another 20 minutes or so on hold. The second technician could also not understand English, and the connection broke after a few minutes, so I called a third time, going through the whole waiting drill…"

"I will never purchase another Dell product, ever again. And everyone I know will not purchase their products either…"

It appears that companies may also be outsourcing the trust they've built in their brand, along with customer loyalty and retention. I think I'm on to something here. Let's go American business! Advertise your "Onshore" Calling Center!!!

The call centers are not only in India, they are coming online anywhere a building can put up some computers, chairs and get broadband. A Costa Rican tech support rep working for Toshiba complained in a posting that his job was outsourced to Turkey. Kencall of Kenya, provides its own generators and satellite uplink. I bet they don't have an employee snack room though.

Foreign Outsourcing vs. Offshoring

"Foreign Outsourcing" is the hiring of a foreign company to do some of your work, while "Offshoring" is the creation of a wholly owned foreign subsidiary which gives the company greater control. According to the financial consulting firm Deloitte and Touche, there was a 38% increase in the number of financial institutions with offshore operations in 2003, with an estimated 500% increase in offshore jobs.

Call center work is only the tip of the iceberg. There is an ever expanding list of higher level technical positions being exported from a variety of industries. Engineering positions, architectural design work, computer programmers, computer-generated animation, financial and legal research, insurance claim processing, software coding, AutoCAD, technical drawings and billions of dollars worth of back office services are now being moved from the first world to the third world by mostly the larger companies. This is making it difficult for medium sized businesses to compete.

India is well positioned to receive much of this work because it has a large English speaking population from its colonial history with Great Britain, and a growing pool of Internet-wise graduates ready to work at low Indian wages.

Concerns over data privacy and data theft loom large. Three employees of Msource in India allegedly siphoned off $350,000 from Citibank customers recently, using information obtained over the phone, according to Callcentres.net. The plaintiffs who will go through a living hell trying to gain back their financial identities will not be outsourced, nor will the local judges and jury who will hear the case. A couple other factors that come to mind when considering foreign outsourcing or off-shoring, are Islamic terrorists hostile to western interests, civil unrest, security costs, infrastructure concerns and the global war on terrorism...just off the top of my head.

Growing up we were told to eat all of our food because people were starving in other countries. I remember being chastised for suggesting that we should ship out my left over peas and carrots. Today we should tell our kids to study hard and think outside the box because people in other countries are hungry for their jobs!

Let's Laugh and Have Faith

On a lighter note, my wife called our credit card company and was transferred to "Mumbai". (Bombay) In one minute she was squaring off with the mores of a patriarchal society. She was told that she would have to "consult with her husband and obtain his permission and consent, and gain his approval."

The policy was no doubt born in America, but something in the tone and wording communicated female inferiority and wifely subservience. The idea of being "granted approval" was not going down easy. There may have been some gagging.

"BUT...IF, my husband doesn't pay his bill, THEN you'll want to talk to me! Will I need his "approval" and "consent" and "permission" for MY credit to be hammered?"

I was handed the phone at a certain mid-point in the intercontinental shoving match. Something about "your husband will have to make that decision".

I got on the phone and had a lovely conversation. We marveled at how all of this can be taking place over thousands of miles. Actually I rather enjoyed the experience. Perhaps I can outsource our marriage counselor.

About the Author
Rick David writes for a Merchant Newsletter @ Merchant America. He also writes a humor column called, "Don't Laugh It Could Happen To You" for http://sandiego.merchantamerica.com.

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Adsense is beginning to make a huge impact on the affiliate marketing industry today. Because of this, weak affiliate merchants have the tendency to die faster than ever and ad networks will be losing their customers quickly.

If you are in a losing rather than winning in the affiliate program you are currently promoting, maybe it is about time to consider going into the Adsense marketing and start earning some real cash.

Google is readily providing well written and highly relevant ads that are closely chosen to match the content on your pages. You do not have to look for them yourselves as the search engine will be the doing the searching for you from other people's source.

You also don't have to spend time in choosing different kind of ads for different pages. Google makes it very easy for you, with no codes to mess around for different affiliate programs.

You will be able to concentrate on providing good and quality content, as the search engines will be the ones finding the best ads in which to put your pages on.

You are still allowed to add Adsense ads even if you already have affiliate links on your site. It is prohibited, however, to imitate the look and feel of the Google ads for your affiliate links. One of the things you can do, however, is to utilize Google's custom palette to customize your Google ads, making them to appear a part of the web page itself. The idea here is to match background and links to match the theme of your site. People on the internet today are trained to click on a link that is blue, and if your Google ads have the same theme as your web page, it makes the Google ads appear to be a portion of your "content."

You can also filter up to 200 URLs. This gives you a chance to block ads for the sites that do not meet your guidelines, and also block competitors. Remember that it is unavoidable that Adsense may be competing for some space on web sites that all other revenues are sharing.

Owners of small sites are allowed to plug a bit of a code into their sites and instantly have relevant text ads that appeal to your visitors appear instantly on your pages. If you own many sites, you only need to apply once. Then ,you are issued a unique "publisher ID", which can be used on any site you currently own. A small snippet of Javascript is placed on your site in the location you wish the ads to appear in, and generally speaking, the ads from Goggle will appear in minutes. This ends the hassle of having to apply to many affiliate programs, and keeping track of many different URL's and user ID's and passwords.

As Google ads are very easy to customize, and can be placed anywhere on your site you wish, you can experiment with placement, colors, and themes. Many tricks are available to the resourceful webmaster, including adding images in conjunction with your Google ads to make them more noticeable.

The payment rates can vary extremely. The payment you will be receiving per click depends on how much advertisers are paying per click to advertise with the use of the AdWords. Advertisers can pay as little as 5 cents and as high as $10-12, sometimes even more than that too. Some savvy lawyers are currently paying as high as $75 for advertising the keyword mesothelioma! And you, as the ad publisher, are earning a share of that money generated.

If your results remain stagnant, it can help if you try and build simple and uncluttered pages so that the ads can catch the visitor's eyes more. It sometimes pay to differ from the usual things that people are doing already. Google has many tutorials, including a "heat chart" which shows you where the best placement for ads are. You will need an account to access these tutorials. Sign up for an Adsense account at https://www.google.com/adsense/?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-et-awhome&hl=en_US. It is also a refreshing sight for your visitor once they see something different for a change.

It is still wise to look at other people's information and format your Adsense in a like manner. A wise old business axiom is to "find a good business model, then copy it." Let others do the hard work for you, and learn from a successful site. Just think about it as doing yourself a favor by not having to work too hard to know what content to have. Look to sites that have high page rank, and carefully observe their layouts, their content, and placement of their ads. A little time spent doing research can put dollars in your pocket down the road.

Publishers have the option of choosing to have their ads displayed only on a certain site or sites. You can also have them displayed on a large network of sites if you so desire. Google now has the option to allow other people to advertise on your site. This only makes good sense. If you are marketing to a tightly defined niche, you can place your own ads, written by you, on site that allow this option. The choice is yours, depending on what you think will work best to your advantage. It is important to note that you cannot choose certain topics only. If you do this, search engines will not place Adsense ads on your site and you will be missing out a great opportunity in making hundreds and even thousands of dollars cash.

Topics to be avoided includes gambling, firearms, ammunition, tobacco or drugs. If you are being offered more cash in exchange of doing Adsense with these kinds, it is just like signing your own termination paper.

With all the information that people need in your hands already, all you have to do is turn Google Adsense into your own cash cow. It all boils down to a win-win situation both for the content site owners and the webmasters or publishers.

Our website, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is a good source of information for the beginning marketer. We present a lot of content for those needing more information on a variety of subjects.

About the Author
Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His site, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is loaded with articles and information for the beginning blogger and internet marketer.

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Offshore Outsourcing -- Future by John Parker

Offshore Outsourcing provides the ability to hold skilled overseas staff at a small part of the labor cost which is exhilarating to several entrepreneurs. The vistas in which Offshoring can be utilized especially in: accounting, advertising, animation, Human Resource Management and Development, health care-related jobs, IT projects, financial investment and consultancy, legal services, and network security. The concept of Offshore Outsourcing is couple of centuries old when the colonial powers started taking raw materials from their respective colonies and then selling them after processing them into manufactured commodities. In 19th century the Britishers (and other imperialist/colonial powers), because of industrial revolution, rampaged the small-scale and cottage scale industries in India (and other respective colonies) by selling processed goods to the natives having a better quality. Now in 21st century the tables seem to have turned on the colonizers (or neo-colonizers). Taking advantage of the cheap labour in developing countries, many MNCs have set up subsidiaries in India and in other places (like China, Canada, South America, Africa, Israel, Ireland, Russia). In the past decade, US companies alone have invested $7 billion in their subsidiaries in India, picking a net saving of more than $26 billion. Telstra, an Australian telecom company, for instance, saved more than $75 million a year by outsourcing many jobs to Indian enterprises. Latest modifications in the way U.S. companies are using Offshore Outsourcing Industry have generated heated controversy, which is comprehensible considering that jobs are at hazard in an already tense economy. But whereas it may be human temperament to adhere to the status quo, the software industry will be better off in acclimatizing to these changes and allowing innovation to thrive. Detractors have fated offshore development as everything from shortsighted to un-American--but it may well conclude salvaging the U.S. software industry. For staying competitive in the global market, U.S. software companies must persist in driving innovation. Nevertheless, innovation today is being choked through deficient R&D budgets on the company side and an overspending menace on the customer side. Offshore development can help on both sides. In fact, as pointed out in a recent report by the US Chamber of Commerce, the main cause of increased unemployment in the US, Britain and other developed countries is the enhancement in productivity due to continuing advancements leading to massive unemployment; and, two, that it has not contributed to unemployment, as is sought to be made out.

Here are the reasons: For a mature software company, expending on proper product innovation is much less than what you might think. It by and large accounts for less than 30 percent of the R&D budget. This small piece of the pie is being further clutched from two directions. First, overall R&D spending by public U.S. software companies is lessening. In fact, in 2002 it fell by 2 percent, after having consistently grown at 15 percent annually since 1998. Most of these cuts are captivating a bite out of new product development. Second, R&D budgets are being consumed by ever-increasing maintenance-related activities, such as bug-fixing, upgrades and minor enrichments. Maintenance agreements with a huge customer base mount up over the years mandate this support. With such restricted resources accessible, software companies can't successfully produce real advance. Instead, many of finest and brightest are jammed down in what amounts to software maintenance tasks. The irony is that many of these developers would be happier with--and better suited for--truly pioneering work. But companies have painted themselves into a corner. This is where offshore development can facilitate. In most cases, a well-executed offshore development program can help release an added 20 percent of the R&D budget for new innovation while continuing to meet the maintenance obligations of mature companies.

About the Author
For further information on offshore outsourcing and offshore software development, please visit http://www.a1technology.com .

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Offshore outsourcing: A great boon for Overseas Business by John Parker

Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some or all business functions in a country other than the one where the product or service will be sold or consumed. It can be contrasted with offshoring, in which the functions are performed in a foreign country, whether by the foreign subsidiary of the same company or a third-party. Opponents point out that this sends work overseas, thereby reducing domestic employment and domestic investment. Many jobs in the infotech sectors - such as data entry, and customer support - have been or are potentially affected. The general criteria for a job to be offshore-able are:

* The job does not require direct customer interaction; * The job can be telework; * The work has a high information content; * The work can be transmitted over the internet; * The work is easy to set up; * There is a high wage difference between the original and offshore countries; * The work is repeatable.

The driving factor behind this development has been the need to cut costs during the recession that began before the events of September 11, 2001 and deepened since then, while the enabling factor has been the global electronic network that allows digital data to be accessed and shipped instantly, from and to anywhere in the world.

Some of the major countries that provide such services are India (Programming and IT), Russia (Programming and R&D), Ukraine (Programming and Design), Romania (Programming and IT), the Philippines (Data Entry and Customer Support), China (Programming), and many others.

The Trusted Pipe architecture is a preferred approach to offshore outsourcing. It relates to the field of management of a business and economical enterprise operation that is directed toward creating a communications system of infrastructure and communications networks that will enable management and engineering personnel ("intelligent middlemen") located in offshore areas to facilitate the exchange of economic type assets and information among themselves. Such economic assets should include: cultural, technical and legal rights and remedies, software engineering and various other business skills, from buyer to seller.

Primarily, the Trusted Pipe will manage a network of global enterprises seeking to outsource software development and operations offshore. There are two major types of control points, at least one GECP that operates in the U.S. and manages the network of global enterprises seeking to outsource software development and operations offshore and at least one OVCP that operates in the target country and manages the network of outsource vendors.

The advent of the Internet has enabled individuals and small businesses to contract freelancers from all over the world to get projects done at a minimum cost. This trend runs in parallel with the tendency towards big corporations' outsourcing, and may in the future serve to strengthen small business' capacity to compete with their bigger competitors capable of setting up offshore locations or of arriving at major contracts with offshore companies. See Freelancing on the Internet.

There are different views on the impact on society, which reflects the attitude of Protectionism versus Free Trade. Some see it as a potential threat to the domestic job market and ask for government protective measures, while others (and not just corporations) see it as an opportunity.

About the Author
For further information on offshore outsourcing and offshore software development, please visit http://www.a1technology.com.

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Outsourcing to India: Coding - Out, R&D - In by manjot kamal

When the trend of off-shoring / outsourcing started, Indian IT professionals were given low-end computational work such as web designing, web development , coding, and programming for global majors. That has become passé, as they have proven they are not only talented and skilled, but immensely capable of delivering top quality higher-end work for a fraction of what IT professionals in home countries charge.

This has led to a new breed of service providing manpower being spawned in India, one with complex degrees and sophisticated skill-sets ready to take on high-end product development, Research & Development (R&D), IT services, both for overseas and domestic companies. Likewise, job profiles in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector are undergoing considerable changes. New recruits to the industry continue to be fresh graduate, but professionals with degrees like M.Tech, CA, MBA, ICWA, etc. are showing a keenness to work in domain-specific back-office fields like advisory, analytical and consulting areas.

According to Kiran Karnik, President NASSCOM: "While India's IT prowess is unquestionable, the success was based on a strategy focused on the country's competitive advantage. First and foremost, because of the English language skills of its population, India has a competitive advantage over other foreign suppliers providing IT services on an outsourcing basis to the US market and other major English speaking markets."

Today, the excellent language skills of the Indian workforce are complemented by high levels of education, as it is 55% or half of all Indians working in California's high-tech IT industry have a MS or Ph.D. degree to their name. On the home turf, 81% of software professionals have a graduate or post-graduate degree, 17% with M.Techs, MBAs, ICWAs, CAs, 69% with B.Techs, BEs, MCAs, and 14% are graduates or diploma holders.

With access to a talented labour pool with necessary IT skills for software development and to provide IT services for overseas markets, Indian IT companies have worked at broadening skill sets to perform complex work. Their hardwork and training has accomplished brilliant results as the complexity of work being off-shored / outsourced increases with each passing day. NASSCOM reports a tech-ready, tech-trainable work force in excess of 750,000. From 2000 to 2004, employment in the IT and ITeS industries grew 30.1%, tripling and touching the 1-million mark by end-2005.

India, annually graduates 250,000 students with engineering degrees and 500,000 with non-engineering, all geared to take up employment in the IT and IT-related sectors. But, the number of students graduating with engineering / technical degrees has increased due to higher income levels in jobs in the field and an increasing number of technical institutions starting up to take up the challenge of providing enough educated, talented and skilled workforce for India's every increasing slice of the off-shoring / outsourcing pie.

NASSCOM statistics confirm that despite China's entry into the off-shoring / outsource service providing market, India has an advantage over China and other competing countries. Much to its disadvantage, China does not graduate enough qualified, technical engineers, only 50,000 engineers graduate with the necessary skills for global employment, whereas Indian schools churn out 290,000 per year.

While, India employed 284,000 IT / ITes / BPO professionals in 1999-2000, that number has grown to 1-million in 2004-2005, and growing by 150,000 in the last year alone. While ITeS / BPO employees saw the highest growth levels over the last few years due to the tremendous demand for Indian service providers by multinationals off-shoring / outsourcing, 94,000 professionals will take up employment in the ITeS / BPO sector, but in the same period, 109,000 IT professionals will be taken on board by IT services and software companies.

Already, India ranks as the world's leading off-shoring / outsourcing destination for IT and BPO, and will sustain its leading position. With IT / ITeS / BPO providing services from off-shore destinations projected to grow by 24% to $94-billion by 2008, India is set to grow by 31% to $48-billion, 51% of the global total by 2008. Last year alone, the ITeS / BPO sector in India hired an estimated 400-employees for each working day of the year.

The demand for Indian skilled domain specialists, software analysts, integration specialists, information security, database administrators, communication engineers, network specialists, data warehousing and semi-conductor design continues to grow apace, as Indian professionals make their mark in the IT and IT service related field.

To conclude, a quote by NASSCOM President, Mr Karnik: "While the offshore phenomenon may have started on cost, Indian IT service vendors have proved that cost competitiveness is not the only advantage they have to offer. Today, Indian companies are recognised as much for their high degree of quality orientation."

Quality and cost are the reasons that India has become and will continue to remain the favourite off-shoring / outsourcing destination of the world. And, from low-end work, it has graduated to research and development for IT majors such as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems and many others. It is not going to be easy to dislodge India from its coveted position of the Number One off-shore/ outsourcing service provider!

About the Author
manjot kamal workins in a1 technology as SEO analyst

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Offshore Outsourcing : An All Win Premise by manjot kamal

The advent of internet, globalization, free marketing, and liberalization has turned the world into a small global village consequently destroying all trade barriers. The awareness that outsourcing can boost productivity sans forfeit of class has impelled MNC's, in all segments, to endorse this loom. A good number of major IT companies do most of their business overseas and obviously want to have some of their employees in those markets. Lower wages in some countries are also a huge incentive to move operations, especially since high-speed communication removes many of the barriers to dealing with U.S.-based colleagues and customers. Therefore, numerous MNCs in USA, Europe, Australia, and Japan have initiated IPOs (International Procurement Organizations) in developing third world countries particlulary India, China, Mexico and Brazil.

Offshore Outsourcing ensues largely in the IT sector, followed by medical transcription and other health care-related jobs, automotive spares/components, engineering segment, and business processing, accounting, advertising, , Human Resource Management and Development, , financial investment and consultancy, legal services, and network security.

The Statistics

But Offshore Outsourcing nonetheless has also truncated millions of job opportunities in the respective home countries. Over 2.2 million people in the US alone lost their jobs in the preceding four years.

US Senate is contemplating to ban Offshore Outsourcing of government contracts. This posits an ironic premise US, in theory, stalwartly campaigns for global acceptance of free trade practices, but in practice it mulls over legal restraints to offshore outsourcing from foreign lands. But the recoil may be puffed up. One of the hottest studies designates that the trend may actually be creating more jobs.

In the past decade, US companies single-handedly have devoted $7 billion in their ancillary operations in India, garnering a profit in excess of $26 billion. Telstra, an Australian telecom company, for instance, accumulated more than $75 million a year by outsourcing several assignments to Indian ventures proving an apparent clue that, notwithstanding separated outlooks in the US, Britain, France, Germany, and other first world countries, corporate administrations will persist favoring offshore outsourcing. On the employment side, there are two standpoints: first, deeming that outsourcing creates massive joblessness; and, second, contrariwise. Indeed, as pointed out in a report by the US Chamber of Commerce, the main reason of increased unemployment in the US, Britain and other developed countries is the augmentation in yield due to continuing advancements in technology. Quoting the instance of GM (General Motors) in USA three decades ago the report says that it used to engage larger than 4,50,000 workers to produce five million automobiles / year, and now it utilizes under 1,18,000 hands to manufacture the same number of vehicles. This reduction is attributable to the advancement of designing, mechanization, assembling and testing gizmology together with robotics.

An All Winning Premise

The theory of outsourcing is also technology- motivated anchored in the principle that one must outsource low-tech data entry jobs requiring more of manual labour and focus on central activities, exploration and advance of innovative gizmologies. While the proceeds generated from Offshoring be utilized for further expansion and technology innovation and specialization thus engendering fresh and superior employment openings.

An account primed by McKinsey Global Institute for the US Chamber of Commerce has avowed that: "A US company earns on an average a net profit of $1.12 to $1.14 by outsourcing work for which it pays $1.0 abroad." It additionally acknowledged that by offshoring low paid jobs abroad, US capital, fiscal or intellectual, can be exploiedt to spawn more lucrative and superior revenue generating jobs. The report also affirmed that by outsourcing assignments to India and other developing countries, many US / European companies are also establishing new markets in such countries. Call centers so grounded in India or other developing countries are being fundamentally outfitted with US or European gizmos like Compaq / HP Computers, Microsoft software, Lucent phones and Carrier air conditioners.

A Stalemate Position

But if the US senate puts a ban on Offshore Outsourcing or impedes it in any way then the US will then have to depend on costlier personnel even for low-tech data entry jobs jobs. Consequently, wares made in US factories will become dearer as compared to the global market and therefore in competitive, which shall yet again pressurize US corporations enormously of closure or diminution in output; resulting still in job loss for many.

About the Author
manjot kamal working in a1 technology as SEO

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Ten Reasons to Invest in Your Career by Ian Christie

Not investing in yourself is like floating down a fast river without a paddle, map or knowledge of what's around the next bend. Things may go fine for a while, but at some point, you're going to realize you made a giant mistake.

To avoid such unforeseen disaster in your career, you need to invest in it to proactively and thoughtfully create a plan for achieving your career and life goals.

And if that doesn't convince you, here are 10 reasons why investing in your career is a must.

1. The Greatest Return on Investment, Anywhere The return on investing and improving yourself is astronomically higher than any financial investment you could make. From increased lifetime earning power and unimagined opportunities, to protecting yourself from unemployment and the satisfaction that comes from personal growth and success -- the returns are enormous.

2. You're the Boss of You If you're the president and CEO of You Inc., then it's your job to ensure you don't go out of business. It's your job to nurture growth and prosperity. You do this by carefully planning, performing consistently, operating true to your mission and investing in You Inc.

3. Become More Valuable Draw up two balance sheets for yourself. The first one should be a list of your financial assets and liabilities. The second should be a list of your skills, ideas, knowledge, marketability, personal networks, passion and ability to make things happen. Increase your personal net worth by investing in your second list ? that's how you'll increase the assets on your first list.

4. Become Great You are capable of greatness. Most of us settle for just getting by, using a fraction of our capabilities. This is tragic. Realize your greatness by identifying your talents and investing in your potential.

5. Achieve Your Goals Your career and life goals are far too important to be just wishes. A mismanaged career can derail your life goals. Investing in yourself dramatically increases the probability of achieving your goals and is a real demonstration of your commitment to achieving them.

6. Create Your Own Future Your career is yours to mold. Investing in yourself gives you the clarity, power and tools to create your own future and take the path less traveled. Sometimes, investing means taking a risk, but that's the price of entry for success and happiness.

7. Because the World Is a Complex Place You cannot know everything you need to know or do everything you need to do alone. You can't be your best without help. Find and invest in those who can teach you, show you the way and help you achieve your goals.

8. Life Is Too Short for Mediocrity You don't have the luxury of being mediocre -- period. Whether you opt for self-improvement or outsourcing your weak areas to someone who can do them better, determine where you are mediocre and get help.

9. It's a Cliche, But on Your Deathbed? The reason we hear this often is that it is so true. The passage of time will provide a perspective we don't have now. One day, you'll look back at your problems and successes and see them as bumps in the road. Your focus will be on the big picture: the life you led, opportunities pursued or abandoned, how happy you were and the legacy you left behind. Investing in yourself will give you the courage and determination to be happy and do your own thing.

10. Who Else Can You Count On? Let's face it: You're alone on this. No one has as much to gain or lose as you do. No one else is going to make those consistent investments in your development to maximize your career and life.

How to Invest in Your Career Invest in understanding yourself better and developing your goals, plans, professional skills, knowledge, career management skills, networks, and your personal brand and profile. Do it yourself, or work with experts like career coaches.

Try thinking, planning, self-assessment tools, goal development, reading, consulting experts, getting coached, taking courses, upgrading or acquiring skills and proactively marketing yourself. Recognize that investing in you often requires that you don't play it safe.

About the Author
Ian Christie is a career coach, entrepreneur, former Monster.com Sr. Director & former executive recruiter. Ian is a career expert with many published articles and media interviews. Visit BoldCareer.com for free career resources & personalized career services.

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Organizing Your Small Business by Mark Meshulam

A fundamental challenge of small business can be summarized as "too many tasks, too few people."

Unlike large enterprises which can have whole teams devoted to limited tasks - think "Task force for the unification of stapler specifications and procedures" - small businesses can have one person covering anything and everything.

The time to address "who does what" in an organization is the time when the organization contemplates adding its very first employee. If you are a "one man (or woman) show" and you want to grow, now is the time to start.

Organizing small business starts with an organizational chart. This chart is a thinking tool which evolves over time, so it is a good idea to use a medium which allows change, such as a spreadsheet or "paint" -type program.

To start, think about the main function areas in your company. I will make this easy for you because, guess what? Companies all need basically the same things: infrastructure, selling and performing.

Some companies may have additional main function areas such as R&D, marketing, legal, purchasing, etc. however in smaller businesses, these would probably be tasks or subsets of main areas such as selling or infrastructure.

When building your chart, list the main function areas. Under each, list the tasks which need to be performed.

Example: Infrastructure tasks might incude: manage office space, manage budget, pay bills, invoicing, collections, insurance, payroll, office supplies, computer equipment, network administration, etc.

The first time you start listing tasks, be prepared to feel overwhelmed. You may be shocked at the sheer number of tasks which need to be done in order to keep a business afloat. Fear not, your chart will be your friend. As you continue to look at your organization and its tasks, you will begin to germinate ideas about how to do them better.

Organize and group tasks in ways which make sense to you. You might, for instance, order tasks chronologically, or by similarity, or by shared resources. This brings me to the next step: listing resources.

A resource helps get the task done. Your outside accountant might be a resource for a list of tasks. Someone within the company might be a resource for certain tasks. If you like thinking this way, you might even list non-people resources such as links to websites, paths to files, phone and account numbers of vendors, etc.

If you go this far, you are moving in the direction of creating a resource guide, which is but a stepping stone away from a procedure manual. These tools also promote orderly growth, but are topics in their own right.

The last step in creating your organizational chart is to assign responsible parties to each main area and each task.

Now stand back and look. Does it make sense? Is it orderly? Are people positioned for efficiency and for the best use of their skills? Would outsourcing certain tasks be beneficial?

Use the chart to explore such questions, both with your employees as well as your outside resources. Every six months update your chart and reissue it to your team. This will raise good questions, clarify others, and convey to all the correct impression that your company is positioned to grow.

About the Author
Mark Meshulam offers information, rumination and illumination about people, processes and productivity at work, in his blog http://www.poingology.com

See his software productivity tools at http://www.poingo.com

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