Monthly Archives: July 2010

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Blogging for Fun

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Blogging for Fun
Although blogging can be used for a variety of other purposes such as generating income, promoting a cause and providing information there are many bloggers who enjoy blogging simply because it is fun. These bloggers enjoy blogging for reasons such as staying in touch with friends, expressing themselves or keeping a record of important events. This article will explain how blogs can be used for these purposes.

Blogging to Stay in Touch with Friends

Staying in touch with friends and family members is just one of the many reasons a person may wish to start a blog. This is especially useful for those who move far away from their friends and family members. Staying in touch by phone, regular visits and even email is not always easy. This is because it can be difficult to keep up long distance interactions with several different people at once. However, by maintaining a blog, a person can greatly simplify the process of staying in touch with friends and family members because they do not have to repeat information in individual phone calls or emails or make time to visit several different people Microsoft MCTS Training.

When maintaining a blog, the individual can choose to post a variety of information and photos. Through this information and photos the blog owner can keep others informed about current events in his life. Friends and family members can view the blog at their convenience to catch up on important events in the blog owner’s life and in most cases can post comments to the blog owner. They can also read comments from others. This is beneficial if those viewing the blog know each other because they can not only stay in touch with the blog owner but also have a chance to communicate with other friends and family members through the comments section of the blog.

Blogging as a Form of Expression

Some bloggers begin blogging as a form of expression. They may right poetry, songs, short stories or even use the blog to vent about personal events or politics. These bloggers may wish to keep their blog private or can make the blog available to the public. Keeping the blog private is sort of like keeping a diary or a journal. It gives the blogger a multi-media form of expressing himself without the risk of others discovering his true feelings, innermost dreams or frustrations. Other bloggers opt to make these blogs public. This may be for a number of different reasons. Sharing these feelings with others allows the blogger to reach others who may have the same interest as the blogger.

Bloggers who use their blog as a form of personal expression may want to be cautious and consider the decision to make a blog public. This is important because the blog owner may initially not see problems with allowing others to view his personal thoughts. However, over time he may realize his blog could either be offensive to others or could result in problems if friends or family members view the blog Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Blogging to Keep a Record of Events

Another common reason for blogging is to keep a record of important events. Examples of some types of events which a blogger may wish to document include a pregnancy, weddings, vacations, sporting events or completion of school events. Using blogs to keep a record of these events gives the blogger an opportunity to record daily events in one simple location where they can easily look back on the blog or share the postings with others who might be interested in the events. In these cases the blog can serve as a form of scrapbook documenting the events as they occur. The blog owner can post as often as he desires and may choose to include elements such as photos, music, audio files and video files into the blog. The blog can also be designed to suit the events being documented. For example a journal depicting a vacation may have backgrounds, fonts and colors representing the vacation location while a pregnancy blog may feature elements which represent pregnancy, babies and being parents.

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10 Easy Ways to Boost Your Business Sales

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10 Easy Ways to Boost Your Business Sales
If you have a business, any business be it online, a retail shop, a wholesaler, a service business. This article can help you boost your business sales. The internet has made the world closer and marketing cheaper. Gone are the days of just marketing in your local area. There are options out there that can turn your business into a national or international business Microsoft MCTS Training.

Still these tips are equally important and relevant regardless of the marketing type you choose. It is about capturing, holding the readers attention and getting them to follow through and purchase.

1. Spend money on targeted advertising instead of mass media advertising. You don’t want to waste your ad dollars on people who aren’t interested.

2. Increase your profits by concentrating on small details. Improving small things like text size, color, or graphics can really make a positive difference.

3. Keep your offers flexible. If you offer a set price for your product, you could offer the people that can’t afford it an optional payment plan.

4. Offer your knowledge or consulting as a bonus product. You could offer a free 15 or 30 minute consultation. This will add value to your product.

5. Personalize all your e-mail messages so they get read. Include the recipient’s name in the subject line. This will grab peoples attention quickly.

6. Keep your web site consistent. You don’t want to keep things on your web site that are unrelated to the theme of your web site.

7. Attract more subscribers to your free e-zine by giving them free bonuses like e-books, software, online services and other incentives.

8. Sell advertising space in your e-zine and on your web site. This will create an extra income stream for your business.

9. Make your web site ready for the public. Have an “About Us” page and clear descriptions of what actions you want your visitors to take.

10. Don’t just start advertising everywhere, plan out your marketing. Locate places and publications that your target audience would congregate around.

We strongly recommend you read your local papers classified section to get a feel for what type of advertising catches your eye. It will help you get a feel for the words and phrases that work.

There are also terrific classified sites all over the internet that you can look at Microsoft MCITP Certification.

If you are subscribing to newsletters or emails consider the headlines that make you want to click further. Jot them down and use them.

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Earning Money From Internet Marketing

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Earning Money From Internet Marketing
There are so many ways that you can earn money from internet marketing. Sell your service as an internet marketing coach, second hand clothes parlor or just a merchant for collectables.

But the most important thing you need to do is to have the right system to it.

There are a lot of successful internet marketers offering free tips and guides in their newsletter. You just need to enroll to their list and you will learn how to grow your internet marketing business. You can enroll to as many list as you like but the bottom line is you need to apply what you learn from the internet marketers Microsoft MCTS Training.

Then you need to decide on your business model. Do you want to sell your own product or do you want to be an affiliate for other merchants? You might need to build your marketing materials if you want to sell your own product and if you want to be an affiliate marketer, the merchants might supply all the marketing materials you need.

After you decide on your business model, the next thing is to start building your own website. There are free software and templates that you can use to create your website. You don’t need to create any fancy website if you are just starting out on the business. Starts with a basic landing page to collect your visitors’ details and promote your product to them later.

After that you need to get traffic to your product for you to earn money from internet marketing. There are a lot of ways you can do that and referring your list members to your product is one of the easy and direct ways. Your members are more receptive to do as you ask because they trust you.

The following thing you should consider to earn money from internet marketing business is to craft your sales message. Now, your visitors can only see the picture of your product online. So, you need to write in a convincing way for your visitors to believe that the product is indeed what they need.

Then, you need to determine your product price. You won’t be earning any money from the business if you price your product wrongly. If you price it too low, you will be having a hard time supporting your business but if you price it too high, there will not be any buyer Microsoft MCITP Certification.

So, it is best that you look at other merchants with similar product of yours. How do they price their product? Do they offer anything else as a bonus? You can also email your list members and ask them about the best price for your product. Process your findings and propose a price that is worth your customers’ investment.

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3 Strategies to Promote Your Internet Marketing Business

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3 Strategies to Promote Your Internet Marketing Business
Maybe you have been promised easy money in the shortest time possible when you first started internet marketing. But the problem is you were not thoroughly shown how to make that easy money in that short time possible.

Let’s be realistic, you obviously can’t grow your internet marketing business if no one looks at your offer. Then what are you going to do to expose your product?

1. Write articles

Readers like quality and informational articles. They would like to find out more about you and your offer once they enjoyed your articles. So, it is important that you share what you know in your articles and have a link to your website.

The next thing you need is to submit your articles to article directories. Find out about the page rank of the article directories you are submitting. You will have a hard time getting traffic if you submit to a low page rank article directories Microsoft MCTS Training.

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) ad

This is another favorable way to promote your internet marketing business. You just need to create a free account on the search engines and they will have tutorials to guide you through the setups of your PPC ad.

You are only required to pay for the service if someone clicks on your ad. So, you can maximize the exposure of your advertisement to the desire market.

But take note that PPC is a big topic to master and the tutorials from the search engines are just for basic setup. You need to look for other sources to learn more about the topic and do your research before you determine your investment for each keywords. Or else, you will be burnt mercilessly.

3. Other people list

You know that the money is in the list but what if you don’t have your own list?

Then, you can try to advertise on other reputable internet marketers’ list to promote your internet marketing business. Your offer will be more receptive as it is recommended by the list owner.

Let’s say that you advertise in a list of 10,000 people. Can you imagine the traffic you will receive if 20% of them visit you daily? What if 1% of them bought your $67 product this month? You just cashed in $6700 this month and that is just one of your products.

You might earn even more if you have more product.

Of course the main issue you need to take into consideration is your budget. Generally, you need to pay more if you are advertising to a bigger list. Contact the list owner and ask for a discount or partial distribution to his members Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Who knows, maybe the list owner is kind enough to help you get started in internet marketing.

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Frequently Used Control Panels For Windows And Linux

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Frequently Used Control Panels For Windows And Linux
Today, a myriad of players, counting from individual to big corporation are challenging each other in the field of web hosting. It is definitely a highly competitive field and an important requirement for webmaster to make his website available to the entire world. In fact, the raging competition has now reached to an advanced stage, where all the web hosting companies are taking up sincere efforts to excel each other. Also, they are providing very efficient technical support. However, the additional features such as free domain name and site builder and total expense keep varying from company to company. Here, the control panel points out a difference and you have to select the appropriate service that meets your demands the best.

Provided by a web hosting company, control panel is a software to direct and manage your website hosting. It lets you manage all your vital activities such as email creation, opening of your FTP accounts, statistics report and many more Microsoft MCTS Training.

Windows Only platform

For windows, helm is a Windows only web hosting control panel. It comes with numerous customer friendly features along with the very conspicuous aspect of the billing information. Excluding the H-sphere, almost none of the commonly used control panel provides billing information inside the control panel. Moreover, Helm control panel has been taken as one of the most easy to operate panel with good standard interface.
Another windows only web hosting panel is Hosting Accelerator. Presently, in the market, it appears to mark a better impression by screening more stuff. However, on the contrary, it has also stated the unplanned interface and largely lacks in offering various additional features. Hence, it best suits the players with intermittent need.

Linux Only Platform

cPanel is doubtlessly, the most preferred choice among all the other control panels. It comes with several productive features with easy operation at affordable expense. In fact, to get more precise over the economic issue, it would be interesting to know that it costs only $20 per month/server.

Second in this queue stands Interworx. It is tremendously sophisticated yet uncomplicated enough to manage for even the beginner. Of course, the ease of use starts with the simple interface where all of the crucial controls are in basic view with wide-ranging tools to direct you through the configuration course. Moreover, the learning curve is totally unswerving, enabling you to develop into a more advanced one after surpassing each task.

Third in a row comes the DirectAdmin control panel serving Linux platform. It is considered as an economic solution and provides as low hosting cost as $10 per month. Moreover, it is also known for its easy and uncomplicated usability. However, irrespective of its various claims to have many fruitful features, it still needs to add a lot of improvements to beat in competition, the other Linux only control panels.

Both Linux and Windows

Plesk is an amazing control panel that works for both Linux and Windows. It is quite a standard pick up for people working on both the mentioned operating systems. Plesk interface appears like Windows XP and it is obviously little expensive because of its ability of suiting both the platforms. Moreover, the website builder tool and other features amalgamate easily with Plesk as well.

Also, H-Sphere is one commonly used control panel for both Linux and Windows. The panel is extensively used by the web hosting sites and lacks many good features when compared to Plesk and cPanel. However, on the contrary, it does provide several features from key functionalities to complete automation Microsoft MCITP Certification.

However, it goes without saying that you must choose your preferred control panel as per your requirements and suitability. However, as far as the factual details are concerned, so far, the ratings suggest that cPanel is preferred for Linux platform and Helm control panel is quite more than suitable for Windows platform. To know more about these control panels, you may log on to gigaweb.co.uk.

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US Prohibition Serving Online Gambling’s Best Interests

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US Prohibition Serving Online Gambling’s Best Interests
In case you’re wondering just how fair online casinos are, consider for a moment how much web-based gaming operators invest in keeping their games legit. While independent auditing firms are one way of determining the level of an operation’s “fair-gaming practices” such as random number generators, another telltale is an online casino’s customer support department. Simply put; the larger and more efficient a customer service department is, the more an organization has invested in keeping their players satisfied and coming back for more. Player retention in the online casino game is key Microsoft MCTS Training.

Dr. Dice’s advice? Self-regulate

In the absence of any national or international regulations policing online gaming, it is in the vital interest of online gaming operators to regulate themselves, and universally. Indeed this is currently being done as more and more sites purport to act as independent watchdogs, albeit often misleadingly. Though in fact most are just casino affiliates posing as policemen, this trend will ultimately result in more independent and reliable regulatory websites.

Number ones and total zeros

Our new and fantastic age of digital technology presents infinite possibilities never before imagined, and in all spheres of life including gambling over the Internet. And while it’s perfectly natural that online gambling websites are, for the most part, modeled after their predecessors – brick and mortar casinos – with such high stakes up for grabs and unyielding growth in competition, good old mommy of invention will naturally find her way into the laptops of those more original-thinking online gaming developers out there. What’s missing at this juncture, however, is initiative and innovative thinking. At some point in time online casinos will have to brand themselves not as virtual Vegas’ or Monte Carlos, but by sporting themes similar to those in perhaps online video games, which is already starting to take root. The sky, virtual or real, Microsoft MCITP Certification has no limits

UIGEA is good for business

What the US anti-online gambling law is doing in effect is forcing greater global competition among those gaming companies vying for new and larger market shares. In order to prevail in these new markets, casino site operators are scrambling for alternate means of winning the public’s confidence, and in this digital age, there’s no doubt democratic methods can be laid down and enforced far better than any government, especially those staffed by professional politicians. Those ubiquitous gambling blogs and forums are already forcing online casino operators to either get their houses in order or make way for the new kids on the cyber gaming block. Public opinion, in more than just the gambling biz, is fast shaping our future ways of life.

The bottom line is…

Instilling and maintaining higher-than-average player confidence remains a paramount concern for any online gambling venue betting on becoming a leader, let alone merely succeeding. Aside from absolute greed and shortsighted business sense, there’s absolutely no excuse for gaming firms to fail to play by the rules already accepted as industry standards. For instance, plenty of online casino sites provide visitors with access to their payout rates, that is, how much the establishment pays out in winnings. These rates typically range, depending on the games of course, between 93% and upwards. It’s no secret that online casinos promise better payout rates than land-casinos. After all, web-based companies enjoy significantly lower operating expenses.

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What New With Operating Systems

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What New With Operating Systems
In the light of fast-paced changes on the browser front, are users finding that innovation at the desktop has stagnated? Has it? Or is there a lot brewing ‘under the hood’ that we’re just not aware of, yet take for granted as our user experience improves incrementally Microsoft MCTS Training?

For most computer users, an operating system is somewhat like the engine under a car’s hood. They know how to start and stop the engine, how to drive around, probably how to check oil levels, but beyond that, the knowledge is limited. With a car, that is okay, since we do not really need to know more unless we are hard-core enthusiasts, or working in the automotive industry.

Getting back to operating systems, the beauty of these ‘engines’ is that they allow users to run their computers and use their favourite applications, while they take care of allocating system resources, handling processes, and so on. Operating systems are far from perfect, but they are remarkable pieces of software for the sheer complexity of tasks that they handle.

We open up the engine and take a look at some of the recent innovations in operating systems.

Splashtop: A fast-booting OS

What do PC users do after they press their PC’s power button?

* Go get a cup of coffee
* Stare at the screen and practice meditation
* Chat with colleagues
* Any of the above

Jokes aside, most of us usually spend minutes waiting for the operating system (OS) to boot up. This is especially frustrating when we need to look up something on the Internet quickly, or just have a few minutes to check personal e-mail.

{quotes}A new operating system called Splashtop allows you to connect to the Internet without booting your main operating system{/quotes}. Splashtop has two components: a core engine that runs out of the BIOS, and an optimised Linux stack that boots rapidly. Splashtop boots out of the BIOS (basic input-output system) on the motherboard of the PC, generally in five seconds or less, according to the website, and provides quick access to certain applications, like the Splashtop Web browser (based on Firefox) and Skype– or offers you the choice of booting your main operating system.

Splashtop is currently available only on ASUS motherboards. When we enquired about how the company plans to make Splashtop available to customers, Andrew Kippen, press and blogger relations manager at DeviceVM (the company that provides Splashtop) revealed, “We spoke about many different ways to release Splashtop, but in the end decided that launching with a partner like ASUS, the world’s largest motherboard manufacturer, was the best way to reach consumers. Splashtop-enabled laptops and desktops will be released later this year.”

Splashtop uses flash memory on the motherboard to store its applications. Could that be a bottleneck? Kippen says, “This is not an issue, since we tailor each version of Splashtop to the manufacturer’s specifications. If there is a size issue, manufacturers can include a larger flash memory chip, or run Splashtop from a partition on the hard drive Microsoft MCITP Certification.”

On issues like vulnerability to attacks and whether it is possible to save attachments or documents, Kippen says, “Like I mentioned earlier, we tailor each version of Splashtop to a manufacturer’s specifications, so [the answer to] your question depends on the manufacturer. On current ASUS products, we allow persistent data (like bookmarks and cookies) to be written to memory. However, users cannot save files, for security reasons.”

Since Splashtop is Linux-based, it is immune to most of the attacks that plague traditional operating systems. Restricting access to memory, whether flash memory or the hard drive, further ensures that Splashtop always works properly.

Speaking on the reasons for the OS’s popularity, Kippen adds, “A major reason for Splashtop’s success is that more and more applications are moving to the Web. Users (excluding business users) spend more time with Web-based e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and other websites than on any desktop program. Online applications like Google and Zoho are quickly becoming viable options for most Office-like applications.

“We are targeting mass-market consumers, i.e., normal people who just want their computer to work without any wait or fuss. We see ourselves as a good complement to the traditional OS, great for lightweight applications like Web browsing and media playback, but not the right fit if you want to do video editing.”

Splashtop is not the only company in this space. Phoenix Technologies, a company that makes BIOS software, is developing software called Hyperspace that will launch along with the PC’s regular OS. Hyperspace, which is billed as a “compact and secure application environment”, will be able to run applications as well as perform systems maintenance (repair, back-up, recovery, etc) and security. Phoenix expects manufacturers to start offering Hyperspace in the latter half of 2008.

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The Silent Science

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The Silent Science
The non-stop progress of materials science is, and continues to be, the foundation of almost any development in information and communication technology (ICT). This is a relatively unknown yet seminal field; read on to learn more about it Microsoft MCTS Training.

When you think of technology, what comes to mind? Typically, it would be sleek mobile phones, sophisticated computer systems, portable storage devices, stylish music players and gaming consoles, flat screens, high-end software, Internet and Web applications, faster processors, etc. All these, of course, are the gifts of technology.

Now, imagine a world without metals, alloys, gases, liquids and colloids, magnets, lights, lasers, plastics, polymers, ceramics, etc. More so, imagine a world without silicon and other semiconductors. Imagine a world without carbon and its derivatives, a world without DNA… “WAIT A MINUTE!” you say, “WHAT’S GOING ON?”. Welcome to the world of materials science– a science that is least talked about, in spite of its substantial role in the development of technology as a whole. While it might not strike a chord at the first instance, materials and their manipulation, the creation of new materials and their usage– all encompass materials science. And developments in this field have lead to new technologies (or significant improvements in existing technologies), and in turn into highly successful commercial products and even industries. It would not be wrong to say, at least, at the most basic level, that it is the non-stop progress and input of materials science that is– and continues to be– the foundation of almost any development in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). Perhaps it’s time to give due recognition to a science that has long been ‘silent’.

Silicon– everyone’s darling!

Without delving too much into the history of the materials sciences, one may begin with silicon, a semiconductor– the ‘darling’ of the industry. Without it, information processing would be virtually non-existent, considering that silicon, along with its variations, is among the most prominent components in various devices like chips, processors, insulators, transistors, etc. It is here that Dr Praveen Chaudhary, currently director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, points out the importance of materials science in the development of silicon technology. He says, “Silicon technology would not have been possible without continuous advances in materials sciences. This assertion holds for all aspects of IT hardware.” Speaking about current research in conventional silicon technology, Dr Chaudhary says,{quotes} “Research is on in designing thin insulators with large dielectric constants for use as gate insulators, and low-dielectric-constant materials to form substrates for higher-speed transmission of signals.” says Dr Praveen Chaudhary, currently director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory{/quotes}

However, since the introduction of integrated circuits way back in the late 50s, semiconductor science and technology has developed with unmatched speed. Future advances are expected to bridge diverse fields, such as semiconductor physics, magnetic materials, organic chemistry, polymer science, and biology. In addition, the physical contact between different materials on one chip will revolutionise transistor, sensor, memory, and communication technologies Microsoft MCITP Certification.

So, is there ever going to be an alternative for silicon in the future? Well, though there doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer to this question, there is a lot of research and study going on. In fact, two groups had reported superconductivity at high pressure in lithium, which was once thought of as the simplest of metals. In other developments, Intel and IBM have announced replacing silicon with hafnium, in a key part of semiconductors where transistors leaked. Interest is also focused on diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS), in which silicon is made magnetic by doping it with manganese. DMS devices consume less power than conventional devices and have the capability to operate at considerably higher speeds.

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Call Centres Of The Future

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Call Centres Of The Future
Having established itself as the call centre capital of the world, salaries are now increasing in India, attrition rates are very high, and infrastructure costs are rising. So how does the industry stay competitive? Call centres are now embracing technology to stay ahead.

Hi, this is Ruchi. I am calling from Moneymoney bank, we have a pre-approved personal loan of Rs. 40,000 for you, madam…” Does that sound familiar? How many times have you received such a call? Do you immediately hang up; do you humour the agent and carry on conversing; abuse the poor agent… or end up buying the product that she is selling?

A ‘call centre’ is a generic term for help desks, information lines and customer service centres. Call centres have become the central focus of many companies, as these centres stay in direct contact with the firm’s customers. Call centres are of two basic types: those that handle inbound calls, where customers call in for service, and outbound call centres, where agents from contact centres call customers to offer services. Call centres not only offer phone-based support, but also support through online chat, SMS and e-mail Microsoft MCTS Training.

Call centre to the world

India, today, is the call centre to the world. Companies outsource their call centre operations because that way they can get access to skilled and expert staff without having to worry about recruiting them, training them and retaining them. India has both the skilled manpower and the lower costs that make it the preferred destination.

But running call centres is a highly competitive business. The same reasons that make India attractive could, in turn, make some other location attractive in the not so distant future. In India, salaries are increasing, attrition rates are very high, and infrastructure costs are rising. So how does the industry stay competitive? Call centres are embracing technology to stay ahead.

Computers as interviewers

The call centre industry in India is growing at the rate of 40 per cent per annum. However, attrition rates are as high as 30 per cent. This means that lots of people need to be hired. For every one person that you hire, you need to interview ten people. So the cost of hiring one person can be as high as Rs 20,000 if the screening cost is included. The cost of interviewing and hiring a thousand agents is itself a couple of crores. Large call centres hire a few thousand new employees every year, so the cost of interviewing is a major expense for them. As the call centres move to second-tier cities, it is expected that the ratio of hires-to-rejects will be even higher, making the hiring process even more expensive.

Call centres hope to reduce this cost by automating the first level of screening. Software to test human language skills now exists. The basic language skills needed by an agent include fluency, good vocabulary, good grammar, proper pronunciation and good comprehension. An interviewer marks each candidate based on these skills. Today, speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) technologies are maturing, and can be used to evaluate candidates on each of these parameters. For example, to test pronunciation, the system checks whether the person is laying stress on the correct syllables in a word. Many Indians pronounce available as ‘avlabel’, and a speech recognition system is able to detect the stress on the wrong syllables. Comparisons between automated systems and human interviewers show that they are usually in agreement about a candidate’s worth, thus paving the way for automated screening processes to be put in place. Now it is only a matter of time before such systems are widely adopted. Very soon, your interviewer may be a computer. Kiosks can be set up in remote corners, and candidates can go there and get interviewed at their convenience Microsoft MCITP Certification.

Good agent, bad agent

Once candidates are hired, they are moved to the floor to take live calls from customers. Agents on the floor are typically evaluated based on their call handling time and the call outcome. The average handling time for a call varies from process to process, and can range from a few minutes to an hour. For example, if you have a banking-related query, you would talk with the agent for about five minutes. On the other hand, if the problem is regarding a hardware or software issue on your computer, the call to troubleshoot it could go on for an hour. The call outcome is measured in terms of specific goals or targets being met. For example, banking loan agents would be assessed on how many customers they were able to convince to take personal loans. Thus, agents are evaluated based on how many calls they took and how many of those calls resulted in successful outcomes. To be viable, a call centre must have its agents perform well on both these parameters.

The message, “Please note that this call may be recorded for training and evaluation purposes,” should sound familiar to you? Most calls to a call centre are recorded and stored. Quality analysts review them to prepare agent-wise and general reports. They randomly select a few calls of individual agents, and then prepare reports on their strengths and shortcomings.

Natural language processing systems are capable of going through a large collection of calls and analysing the reasons for success and failure. Many agents, who were obviously fans of Amitabh Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepati, started using his famous phrase on foreign customers “Can I lock this for you?” The foreigners were not familiar with this phrase. A natural language system found that agents who simply asked, “Shall I make the booking for you?” made more bookings. Now, finding this kind of correlation between phrases and call outcomes is something that a human reviewing a few calls is unlikely to make out. But an NLP system analysing thousands of calls ‘sees’ this very easily. Such systems can be used to analyse the language and behaviour of ‘good’ agents, and compare them with the ‘bad’ agents to point out good practices that result in satisfied customers. Call centres are adopting natural language systems a lot more to analyse conversations, and to identify good and positive practices.

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The Science Of Advertising

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The Science Of Advertising
You may have thought of advertising your product online, but found it difficult to identify your exact audience, or to come up with a compelling reason to do so. Knowing how online advertising really works could help you plan your ad spend wisely–or even start your own advertising service!

Do you think you are affected by advertisements? Do you recognise the companies with the slogans, ‘Information technology, today, tomorrow’, ‘Just do’ , ‘Connecting people’, ‘Fly the good times’, ‘Wherever you go our network follows’, ‘Connecting India’, ‘The nation banks on us’, and ‘Taste the thunder’? If you recall even some of these, then you have to agree that advertisements do have some impact on you.

Companies spend crores of rupees on advertising because they know consumers are affected by advertising Microsoft MCTS Training. The goal of advertising is to influence the purchasing behaviour of as large a population of consumers as possible. So how do companies plan their advertising expenditure?

Ad pricing

On traditional advertising media like TV, radio, print and billboards, the pricing is based on how many eyeballs or ears the advertisement captures. This is the cost-per-view model. For TV or radio, ad rates go up during a cricket match, because there will be a larger audience. Print ad rates are also based on the total readership of the edition.

In the world of online advertising, pricing is more complicated. Not only do you have cost per view options, but could also have cost per click (based on the number of times the ad is clicked on); or, if it is an online merchandising site, then it is based on ‘cost per action’–the number of times a product is purchased. The pricing model can be fixed or dynamic. The most popular dynamic model is the search-term-based advertising that has been popularised by Google. An advertiser has to bid for a keyword in an online auction. Popular keywords like ‘job’ go for many thousands of rupees; less popular keywords like, let’s say, ‘lalu’ go very cheap. Have you noticed the sponsored links to the right of your Google search results? The advertiser showing up at the number one spot bid the highest for the keyword you used in your search; those who bid less are ranked below this. Every time you click a sponsored link, the advertiser has to pay the amount that they bid to Google, Microsoft MCITP Certification.

We are watching you: We know what you need

Advertisers today try to collect as much information about you as they can–they can cash in on this knowledge by serving you ads tailored to your preferences or positioned to take advantage of your plans, as determined by your online activities. For example, when you search for a tandoori restaurant, the search engine dishes out related sponsored ads based on your search ‘interest’–your apparent plans to eat out. Similarly, when you read an e-mail about summer vacation plans in Goa, your friendly e-mail provider serves you hotel and airline booking ads, hoping to capture a booking or sale for their advertisers. This is true of SMS messages too; every SMS you send is automatically analysed to learn your interests, and to serve you relevant advertisements.