PROTECTING YOUR GOLD

Basic security measures
One important issue much on our minds these days is security of our assets. Particularly online.
With the advent of the internet came scammers, fraudsters and other morally deficient persons. It
is important therefore that you take steps to protect your hard earned gold!
Protecting your accounts can be summed up in the following basic measures.
1. Ensure you have at least one anti-virus software on your machine. There is a link
at the end of this book you can use to get free anti-virus software.
2. Ensure you have at least one firewall on your machine. There is a link at the end
of this book you can use to get a free firewall for the computer.
3. Do not give out your passphase’s to anyone. Including your family unless you trust
them totally.
4. Do not access your accounts from any other computer than the one to normally
use.It is absolute insanity to go to an internet shop and use the machines there.
They are invariably riddled with software that can capture your Passphase and
other information about you. Software such as viruses, Trojan, Key loggers and
the like (definitions of these are given under definitions after this section)
are designed to capture your account details..
5. Some people access their accounts from work and from university machines. Again
this is foolhardy when you consider that systems people and those that work for
them which may be contractors from other companies also can access your machine
account at Uni and work and possible capture the information you enter.
6. Never type in your Passphase or passwords. Use either the system given on the web
site, such as SRK with e-gold for example, or copy and paste from somewhere else.
Preferably NOT from your machine.
7. Do not keep your passwords or passphase’s on the same machine you log in from.
Some people keep their passwords on a floppy disc and copy and paste from that.
Using the MS password container is not particularly safe either. Best option is to
remember it. If you can’t, keep it in a safe place and separate from your login in
process. Much as you would with your pin number and credit or debit card.
8. Never Never Never access your account from an email. Even if it apparently comes
from the company which holds your account. In practice e-gold, GoldMoney and the
others will NOT send you an email in which they ask you to go to your account
from a link in that email. The same, incidentally, applies to banks and other
services in which you may have an account containing stored value. IF you get an
email and you are unsure and wish to check. Close the email down and access your
account from the usual link that you use in the browser. Usually in your
Bookmarks or Favorites or the browser equivalent.
9. When you have finished with your account always log off in the correct manner. Do
not just shut down the browser.
10.Lastly, apply common sense to the handling of your accounts. How do you treat the
security of your credit cards, cash you carry, your bank account? Your gold
account should be at least, if not more, secure. Your security depends utterly on
you. If you don’t take the above precautions then you cannot winge to someone
else about how

“All my gold has been stolen from my account”. Fully apply the above and you are
more likely to keep your golden nest egg!

OPEN ACCOUNT EGOLD

How to Write a Powerful Marketing Plan

How to Write a Powerful Marketing Plan [Marketing] — Administrator @ 6:42 pm
By Michael Fleischner | Marketing Expert, Internet Marketing Secrets*

If you’re thinking about developing a marketing program, you need to begin with a marketing plan. Having been in marketing for more than a decade, I have seen my share of marketing plans. Some are short and to the point, others are hundreds of pages thick and cost thousands of dollars to produce.

The irony is that many of the expensive marketing plans end up on a shelf and rarely get implemented. The simple plans, if researched and implemented effectively, have the greatest impact.

Regardless of the scope of your marketing plan, you must keep in mind that it is a fluid document. Every business needs to begin with a well structured plan that is based in thorough research, competitive positioning and attainable outcomes. Your plan should be the basis for your activities over the coming months. However, you should always be willing to enhance or redirect your plan based on what proves successful.

Marketing Plan Basics

1. Market Research Collect, organize, and write down data about the market that is currently buying the product(s) or service(s) you will sell. Some areas to consider:

Market dynamics, patterns including seasonality < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />
Customers - demographics, market segment, target markets, needs, buying decisions
Product - what’s out there now, what’s the competition offering
Current sales in the industry
Benchmarks in the industry
Suppliers - vendors that you will need to rely on
2. Target Market Find niche or target markets for your product and describe them.

3. Product Describe your product. How does your product relate to the market? What does your market need, what do they currently use, what do they need above and beyond current use?

4. Competition Describe your competition. Develop your “unique selling proposition.” What makes you stand apart from your competition? What is your competition doing about branding?

5. < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Mission Statement Write a few sentences that state:

Key market - who you’re selling to
Contribution - what you’re selling
Distinction - your unique selling proposition
6. Market Strategies Write down the marketing and promotion strategies that you want to use or at least consider using. Strategies to consider:

Networking - go where your market is
Direct marketing - sales letters, brochures, flyers
Advertising - print media, directories
Training programs - to increase awareness
Write articles, give advice, become known as an expert
Direct/personal selling
Publicity/press releases
Trade shows
Web site
7. Pricing, Positioning and Branding From the information you’ve collected, establish strategies for determining the price of your product, where your product will be positioned in the market and how you will achieve brand awareness.

8. Budget Budget your dollars. What strategies can you afford? What can you do in house, what do you need to outsource.

9. Marketing Goals Establish quantifiable marketing goals. This means goals that you can turn into numbers. For instance, your goals might be to gain at least 30 new clients or to sell 10 products per week, or to increase your income by 30% this year. Your goals might include sales, profits, or customer’s satisfaction.

10. Monitor Your Results Test and analyze. Identify the strategies that are working.

Survey customers
Track sales, leads, visitors to your web site, percent of sales to impressions
By researching your markets, your competition, and determining your unique positioning, you are in a much better position to promote and sell your product or service. By establishing goals for your marketing campaign, you can better understand whether or not your efforts are generating results through ongoing review and evaluation of results.

As mentioned earlier in this article, be sure to use your plan as a living document.Successful marketers continually review the status of their campaigns against their set objectives.This ensures ongoing improvements to your marketing initiatives and helps with future planning.

* Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert and the president of MarketingScoop.com, the Internet’s biggest source of marketing information and free marketing resources. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit MarketingScoop.com for further details, marketing secrets, Marketing Blog Directory, and more FREE reprint articles.

http://www.marketingscoop.com/powerful-marketing-plan.htm