These days, most computer users realize they need to be using antivirus software. The trouble is, there is a lot of equipment providing services to these users on the internet. What is being done to protect them from virus infections?

Computer viruses attack servers - web, file, ftp and e-mail, along with routers and other network gear - along with individual PC’s.

Servers are usually substantially the same as PC’s only with more memory, disk space and processors. Web servers house web pages and programs for Internet users, e-mail servers store, send and receive e-mail, and file and ftp servers make possible storage and distribution of all manner of files for other systems. Routers are simply specialized computers, with proprietary operating systems, for routing network traffic.

Most operate much like an individual’s system and are subject to the same kinds of attacks. They can therefore be protected by many of the same means - regular use of reliable antivirus software and being firewall guarded to shut down vulnerable entry points on the Internet.

What else can be done?

Because these servers provide internet services to many users (sometimes thousands at a time) they are a popular target for the people who create viruses. As an end user, you can help to keep these systems virus-free by ensuring that your computer stays that way. And the system administrators on those systems can help by limiting the type of software that gets installed on them.

Users can help administrators and themselves by being more careful in browser selection and configuration. Most could profit from better self-education in how to minimize the ‘target area’ for hackers by changing browser settings. Users and computer professionals have made strides in voicing concern over security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Adopting other browsers in greater numbers will help to get the message across.

You should also avoid booting from CD’s, DVD’s or USB memory sticks that haven’t been scanned for viruses. If one of the files that was saved on the disk was infected, booting with the disk can cause the virus to spread even faster.

If you use FTP, you should look into switching to a more secure system for file transfers. FTP passwords are sent “in the clear” - there is no encryption on them at all. So when you log into an FTP server, if someone is monitoring your internet traffic, they can easily get your password.

It’s up to all of us to make sure these systems remain secure - not just the system administrators. They have a lot of work on their plate and aren’t always as quick to respond to security issues as they would like.

Strategic planning has nothing to do with sales if you enjoy working hard, and struggling day in and day out to hit your sales targets. If you’d rather make more and work less then strategic planning has everything to do with sales. There are two distinct approaches to sales, and the choice is yours to make. Most sales people follow an approach that focuses on high levels of activity hoping that all that activity will result in sales. Both you and I know people who tried that approach, worked nearly night and day yet they still failed. That contradicts what you’re constantly being told by sales managers, broker dealers, underwriters, and others.

Why does that approach fail, or at best provide not much more than a very meager living? It fails because just being highly active is never enough. You have to be focused on the right activities.

Right activities position you with the right people so when you meet you’re meeting: for the right reasons, people who are highly likely to do business with you, and people who’ve preselected themselves as being ideal customers for you. That’s very different from the approach that focuses on activity because with that approach you’re meeting: anyone who can fog a mirror, people who aren’t likely to do business with you, and people you have to try and talk into doing business with you. When you see it spelled out like that it’s pretty clear the activity based approach just isn’t a good business model for you, or anyone.

The better approach is to focus and limit your activities to those that are highly productive for you. As you focus on doing the right things it’s much easier to put money in the bank for you. You’ll find you’ll have a whole lot more time and money because you aren’t running around like a chicken scratching everywhere trying to find the worms.

Ok, you get there is definitely a difference and that one approach produces better results than the other, but you may not get how strategic planning fits in. You probably think strategic planning is something that only large corporations and international conglomerates do, but it’s something you need to do too on a much smaller and much more focused scale. The strategic planning process helps you to develop the clarity about your business that you need to effectively attract customers.

You know you have more potential than you’re achieving now and the strategic planning process helps you to get the clarity you need to develop a plan for how you’ll reach that potential. You end up with a dash board that helps you to know exactly what you need to do when. From your dashboard you can track, measure, and adapt so you hit your sales targets.

Instead of starting each day wondering what you’re going to do and what you should do, you know exactly what you need to do to get the results you want. You know who you want to do it with, and you have a clear plan for how to attract those people. Instead of constantly hunting for appointments you develop plans and systems that filter out the people who aren’t right for you and gather in the people who are.

Before I start I would like to let you know that I am glad that you have somehow got to view this page to learn the truth on MLM businesses, you may or may not know me, but I will be happy if I can help you from losing years of failure, frustration and money from MLM even though you are a complete stranger. There may be some parts of this article you may find boring, but please take the time to read, because it is all to your own benefit. If you know me, you would know that I am quite a lazy person but I also believe that you will be rewarded in direct proportion to the amount of value you give to others, that is why I am writing this article.

Lets not waste anymore time and get started. If you have been wanting to work from home though a MLM or Network Marketing opportunity, you have to first be aware of what no sponsor, upline, or company will ever tell you. You have to learn the Real Truth on MLM. You have probably been told to make a list of your family, friends and every single one you know on planet earth. They will do anything and everything to make you believe that their Proven System is so easy to duplicate. If it was really that easy to duplicate, everyone in that company should be making at least a 4-figure income, right? Wrong! The Truth About MLM is that most people in MLM do not make money, The Truth About MLM is that it is NOT a number game. People are people -not numbers. They have goals, dreams and desires. They are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandmothers, and grandfathers to someone that loves them. They are not a number, but real people.

5 Characteristics a Good MLM Company MUST Have

Before you decide which MLM company you’re going to join, you need to know The Real Truth About MLM to differentiate a company that you will do better in from one that you will do worse in.

The very first thing you need to do before you join a company is to determine how experienced and how much integrity the management of the company has. One of the best ways to do that is to read through the policies and procedures of that company. Some of these companies have policies and procedures that is so long that you will get a headache from reading it, but these are the companies that you have to really watch out for because they are the ones that might steal your bonus and checks. There are companies out there that require you to sponsor people every single month, or they will terminate you!

I believe there is a basic matter which puts any company without at least two or three years of commercial operation and one year of operating profit in a completely different category from an established company, even one that is so small that it may not have more than a million dollars on annual sales. In the established company, all the major functions of the business are currently operating. About 90% of new companies would fail within 2 - 3 years and big $ is usually made after that for those that survived. That does not mean that you should join the company too late, because if you join too late the growth of the company will not be as fast as it was before.

Another jewel for spotting a good MLM company is in its products. There are a few MLM companies out there that have products that are way overpriced. Your goal is to find a company that was outstanding products which is not overpriced and creates an emotional attachment. You want products that people will buy even without the fancy compensation plans.

Compensation plans is the biggest topic discussed about MLM today. It is important that you compare the compensation plans of different companies and find out what does that business model drive in the field. If it drives the behavior of endless recruiting, than you should be running!

Finally, we look at if the company has a proven system for success. You can read at forums by people who have joined the company and decide if they have valid comments about it. It is most important that this system is duplicable by the average person.

About Marketing

In every business, there has to be marketing going on. The key is target marketing. Talk to people who want your products and services. Lead with benefits so REAL prospects see the value you offer and ask you for more information. You have to market yourself, not your products. Your sponsor might have told you that if you are going to create success, its all up to you. No skyscraper or successful network marketing organization has ever been built by one person. It takes TEAMWORK, people from every walk of life & experience level coming together, working together. It takes hundreds, often thousands of levels coming together, working together. It takes hundreds, often thousands of people working for one common goal, to build the skyscraper or the network marketing organization. Every single network marketing business that was NOT people & relationship driven, no matter how good its products or services, no matter how well-managed, has either gone broke or struggles to keep its head above water.

Network Marketing is the most effective and exciting form of lead generation. Network Marketing companies are like others in that many of them fail in the first few years, but it is one of the best places where you can find the opportunity to develop a winning mindset. Network marketing accounts for nearly $100 billion in sales world wide and it gives the average Joe the best chance to create a long term residual income that cannot be found in any other industry on earth. Network marketing is really a team effort. Network marketing is not about taking advantage of your friends and relatives. Network marketing could be the answer to your prayers -If you know the Truth About MLM.

It’s said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or that it’s only skin deep. When it comes to your web site, beauty is expensive not just in designing the site, but in what it may do to your traffic. The internet is laden with gorgeous works of art for web sites. They have flashy graphics, subtle cues, beautiful work in cascading style sheets, and more. And they’re losing money. The internet is about commerce, and your web site should be about commerce, not about art.

Design does not motivate a person to buy a product or service. A beautiful site may cause someone to admire how creative your site looks, but turning your visitors into customers requires much more attention to the marketing and advertising process. Proven techniques of converting targeted visitors into customers have little to do with beautiful or creative design.

Avoid excessive clutter, make sure the text is readable (both for color and contrast and for size) and do what you can to make it load fast. Beyond that, focus on what the web site is supposed to do for you, and for your visitor, most especially, for your visitor.

Far better than spending your money on experts on web design (or a web designer trying to build a portfolio site), build a functional, if somewhat basic web site, using cascading style sheets so you can update the look without massive trauma, and focus on what your web site is supposed to do: Convert browsers into buyers.

Now, it’s possible to do this yourself have pay-per-click ads lead to different landing pages, and pick the keywords to find the people who are comparing, buying now, or just browsing (using the same adword phrase with “info”, “buy” and “compare” is one way to do this, albeit a basic one.) However, it’s worth it to hire someone who does this for a living, as there are a lot of tricks out there for conversion, and web design, to make this all combine to raise your profits and sales conversions.

People who hit your web site will be on one of three phases of the customer cycle: They’ll either be looking for information only, looking to do price and deal comparing, or looking to buy right now. Make sure that your advertising leads them to the right place depending on where in that cycle they are.

The other thing to keep in mind is that your time is valuable. It is absolutely worth your time to hire someone to do this for you. Pay Per Click advertising, and landing page building, have a lot of subtleties as much or more so than an eye-grabbing web site does. It’s worth it to find someone who’s trained and certified on the ins and outs of the Search ad products that both Google and Yahoo! give. Google calls these folks Google Certified Professionals, and Yahoo calls them Search Advertising Ambassodors, but they both have the same job: They recommend ad words, look over landing pages, and help you find ways to tune up your ad presence to get the job done, while building a relationship with visitors to your web site.

These experts can help you turn your ad budget from a black hole into something with measurable results, not just on your tracking log, but on your sales log as well. They understand the importance of building relationships with visitors and understand that it’s the relationships that have to be beautiful, not your web site.