http://www.readourpapers.com/index.php Free School Papers - Posting and sharing en ReadOurpapers.com http://www.readourpapers.com/internet/starting-online-business-q-a-set-2.html The power of business on the internet cannot be underestimated. Businesses need that extra step to get above their competition, using the internet to do so is an efficient way of getting their company name out to the world. Nowadays, people search the web for everything, whether it be for finding a restaurant, or looking up a business report on a company, the internet helps businesses grow.

2. Share with the class your idea for an online business and what you've found in the way of competition by searching the web.
People love to laugh, wasting time on the internet, just watching funny videos, or reading jokes. The business idea that I’m going talk about is an entertainment website.
The website would be Safe for work (SFW), startup costs are low, and the plan as a whole is pretty solid. The only thing that divides the successful entertainment websites and the less successful websites is determined by your experience in the industry, and your ability to find the latest and greatest content.
There are a few ways to go about marketing the site, you own a large site already, which you can push traffic to the smaller website; this technique is rather common in the mainstream website industry. You can also purchase traffic from already established sites, in the same genre.
Competition – I see a few of these entertainment websites getting started every day, people searching around for traffic to purchase, or link exchanges to get their website started. The main thing that’ll separate you is the brand you can build, the domain name, the amount of content you add a day, and how easy it is to navigate the site.
The model – Find the latest and videos on the web, you can either host them on your own server, with a shared web hosting account starting at around $120/yr, or you can get your own server for around $100-$150/mo. If you plan hosting your own content, then you’ll end up needing your own server. Embedding videos is one the better ways to go, just because you save a lot of money, using this technique would mean you’d let another company host your videos such as YouTube, Google Video, Live Video, etc. Some of these companies will even pay you money to embed into your website, which can be another revenue source. Because the site is safe for work, you can promote programs like Yahoo publisher, or Google AdSense, which should bring in at least a few hundred dollars a day with -minimal- traffic (few hundred visitors).
If you get the funniest content out there, you’ll eventually get visitors, and it’ll grow, but only with time. Purchasing traffic to get it started is one of the better ways to get it started.
With a solid content management system, website design, good link partners, and the best content, you’re bound to make the site into something worthwhile.

3. Which one of the resources from the book would you use to help you write a business plan and if you would use another source, what is it? How will you go about finding a good local attorney or accountant to help start a new business?
A good way to get things started is to contact a local Small business Association. They can help you set it up, give you free consultations with Lawyers and accountants among other things. Another way to setup a business would be to use an online service, its similar to getting a lawyer to do everything for you, but the online way is a bit quicker. The SBA can help you setup a business plan, but you can also buy a business plan builder, I once used one to develop a marketing plan, but I’ve forgotten the name.

4. What types of payment process do you feel would be the best for your business?
On current businesses I run, I use Paypal. I’ve also used other companies such as epassport, as well as Litepay. Paypal is easy and well known. Paypal does have some issues with it, holding large amounts of money, and not giving a care with fraud related purchases. Paypal will accept all sorts of payment, however they do charge a nice % for overseas purchases.]]> Internet]]> Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:02:27 -0400 http://www.readourpapers.com/internet/starting-online-business-q-a-set-1.html Webhostingtalk.com is the place to go on finding deals on web hosts, do some research and I promise you it’ll help in the long run. You can find sweet deals, and you’ll also find who is overselling, and who goes ‘above and beyond’. When I’m looking for servers I contact a few associates and ask them how their servers are, they’ll let me know, and give me their rep’s phone number and contact info. You know you’ve got a good company when you have your own rep, whom has given you his AIM s/n, ICQ, Email, and phone number. I usually check what kind of mbit line I’ll be on, it’s the bandwidth I can use per second. There are 10mbit lines, which is great for a growing business, there are also 100mbit lines as well as 1gb lines, you could even combine lines, but that gets a bit more crazy. Most websites won’t need more than a 10mbit line. If you max out a 10mbit line for a month, you’ll be using around 1500-2000 gb a month. You can usually get a 10mbit line for around 150-250. It gets a bit more complicated, which I won’t get into, but you can also get different types of bandwidth, for example, tier 1 bandwidth costs at least $50 per mbit.
I check what types of deals the rep can work out for me, server specs, etc. It’s a long process in most cases. I haven’t had to switch in a while, and I’m not looking forward to doing so. I know I got a little too much into it, but I feel like I missed a lot, but that should explain the basic idea of what I do for research.


2. How would you get a domain name for your site?
I’d go with Godaddy, however the last month or so they stole a domain, photoalbum.com from a man/company. They are suppose to email the person before a domain expires, and basically, no email was sent, or something of that sort, and the domain was purchased from another person. I usually stay away from GoDaddy’s whole package deal, I just use them to purchase domains with domain privacy. I’d then get a web host to handle template systems, etc.

3. What is the most important thing you learned from Mr. Brendemer?
A lot of the tips were good. If you’re looking to get web hosting, always do research on good deals, but never go for the cheapest thing out there, it’ll only cause more headaches. I have a few cheap accounts, as well as managed servers. My cheap accounts are accounts with tons of space and bandwidth, but little cpu power. I use those for storing data. When you’re going to design your site, always get it on paper, if you’re barely starting out, write a list of things you NEED and a list of things you’d like. Sketch it out on paper, it helps. I have two large dry erase boards hanging on walls, as well as sketch pads I use to write on. I’ll start a project on the dry erase board, first with features, then start a basic layout of where content will be, advertisements will be placed, and then I’ll eventually get to the backend coding, which the first part (features listing) helps me do that.
I think it would have been nice if the article went more into Backordering domains, or even the domain industry, which is a huge industry in itself. I’d suggest reading on domain real estate. I can’t say I learned anything from reading this article, but it was reassuring that most of the tips were very informative for someone new to the industry. I wish I would have found all that info when I was barely starting out.


4. What types of providers highlighted this week do you feel best fits your business? Why?
In my case, earthlink business web hosting is junk, as is ATT’s packages, among many other shared hosting packages. As a starting out company, I’d say to find a company with a good rep, and excellent support. If you’re going for dedicated servers, look into managed hosting, so you can yell at them when things aren’t working and they’ll handle it. A couple good companies that I like are rackspace.com and choopa.com. Both have excellent support. As for shared hosting, do some research on webhostingtalk.com. I have around 10 dreamhost.com accounts, mainly because they’re cheap and I can spread out the load among the accounts. Dreamhost doesn’t have good support, well, not the best, but they do give you tons of bandwidth and space. I’d day to stay away from ATT and Earthlink services, I do tech work on the side, and I’ve had two clients in the past week with issues with their business web hosting/email packages through them.]]> Internet]]> Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:01:26 -0400 http://www.readourpapers.com/internet/about-internet-spam.html There is email spam, probably the most common type of spam. Spam in your email box will probably be from some pharmacy site, pyramid schemes, or even stock spam. There is also search engine spam, which actually goes into even more sub categories.
Search engine spam can be found when you search for something in Google or any search engine, and when you click the result, it only shows a bunch of keywords, or content that doesn’t make sense.
Text messaging spam is another way to get people to subscribe to services and get people to send out more information.
I don’t control spam really, I use some basic email filters, with a large blacklist. I still gets probably a few hundred junk emails a day. I usually spend about an 30 minutes going through my junk email folder. I also use a filter provided by my ISP which basically finds keywords in the email body and gives each email a score, if the score is higher than a certain amount, it’ll be considered junk.
Spam in general is a high profit industry; there are a ton of private forums out there which specialize in selling emails, algorithms, domains, opt-in email lists, among tons of other services.]]> Internet]]> Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:00:21 -0400 http://www.readourpapers.com/internet/political-advertising-on-the-internet.html Campaigning on the internet can have much better results per dollar spent. Based on the statistics collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project released in early October, This election campaigns have washed-out more than $100 on TV ads for every dollar they spent on Internet ads. $330 million to $2.6 million between January and August proves Internet advertising has yet to truly develop in this current presidential election. Kerry’s campaign has spent $1.3 million compared to President Bush’s campaign only spending $419,000 on internet ads over the eight month period. Using the internet as the primary mass medium compared to television may prove to triumph. The vast targeting capabilities with web advertising should be utilized by the candidates.
It is surprising that the campaigns have not yet consumed online advertising, but have focused on online fund-raising and communication. They have yet to exploit the full capabilities of online advertising. Online advertising can target specific groups using cookies and information gathered by internet marketing companies. People seem to graciously fill out forms which are then sent to research companies, or even sent to marketing companies who then provide your information to their clients. If a campaign wants to target male 18 year old Democrats, then they might advertise on websites that are known to have discussions on Democrats with an average age group of 18 years old. Those websites will be given by marketing companies, the company might “sell” people with those specific specifications to the client.
In a survey by the Online Publishers Association in union with the University of Connecticut’s Center for Survey and Research Analysis, presents data that more than two out of three voters are likely to make use of the internet for their pursuit to find information on a candidate. In the Online Publishers Association poll, 642 people questioned, found 68% of republicans said they would use the candidates’ website to do research; 58% of Democrats responded the same. This truly illustrates the online world can be used for more reasons than merely online fund-raising. Websites like Meetup.com have helped gather millions for political campaigns. Fund-raising is an essential part of the election process. But, candidates need the vote more than anything. Online advertising is less expensive than TV advertising, and is can be viewed by targeted audience. 60% of the respondents of 659 questioned, said they are likely to notice a political ad for a candidate online. Four of every ten from 613 questioned, said they are likely to actually click the candidate’s ad. Four of every ten people are good numbers. The candidate could easily establish a banner ad that contains streaming video of a Television commercial aired. The banner ad could even tell the campaign management how many impressions it took, down to data on when the visitor decided to click out of the video.
The Federal Election Campaign (FEC) has not yet established any spending limit on internet advertising. Television advertising has become very hard-hitting, yet the price and ultimately the spending limit gives online advertising the advantage. The Communication Act of 1934, stated that broadcasters could refuse all deceptive advertising except for political commercials. Groups trying to give viewpoints sometimes don’t make it to air. As in the case with MoveOn.org, to get their “Childs Pay” commercial on Bush’s campaign aired on the previous Super Bowl on CBS. CBS wouldn’t permit the commercial to be aired. CBS did agree to ads by White House’s anti-drug office. A survey by Eisner Communications found that 14 percent of 1,000 people questioned, said they watch the Super Bowl merely for the commercials. There aren’t many limits on the internet. Filtering information on the internet is something no one wants to do. The task is simply too great.
Marketing companies have been taking advantage of the election this year with advertisements to attract the viewer. Some advertisements like “Should bush be re-elected. Answer now and earn a free 50 shopping card”, don’t care who you want to be elected, they just want an email address from you. I have found several ads that ask who you will be voting for, then require you to enter in an email, home, phone and other personal information to “see the results”. This strategy must be effective. During my research, I have come across hundreds of similar ads. They were found on various types of websites, from national news websites, to sports oriented websites.
This presidential election campaigning has not yet used the internet to its full potential. The next election I believe we will notice the difference in campaigning methods. Based on the Online Publishers Association poll, 31% of all internet users acknowledging they have used the web to research facts about candidates, half of those in fact use it for that reason several times a month. Cell phones are proving to have a very large influence on teenagers, seeing that most teenagers carry a cell phone where ever they go. The internet can handle cell phone protocols, cell phones are now using the internet to carry messages and hold statistics. In four years from now, the internet will have a larger influence on the average voter. Television does not meet or even come close to having the same capabilities as the Internet. We will see less money spent on television advertisements and more on internet advertisements in future campaigning.



Bibliography

1.) Associated press. " More Internet Ads In Presidential Race." 2004. http://www.infotrac.com (15 Oct. 2004)

2.) Michael Cornfield. " Presidential Campaign Advertising on the internet." 2004. http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/134/report_display.asp (03 Oct. 2004)

3.) Brian Morrissey "Study: Internet Ripe for Political Advertising" 2003. http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3073151 (15 Oct. 2004)

4.) OPA Political Study "Voters Actively Engage with Politics Online" 2004. http://www.online-publishers.org/pdf/opa_political_research_sep03.pdf (18 Oct. 2004)

5.) SHARON THEIMER "Voters FEC May Regulate Web Political Activity" 2004. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041013/D85MHF6G0.html (20 Oct. 2004)

6.) David Espo and Donna Cassata " Nothing will hold us back,' Bush says" 2004. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041013/D85MHF6G0.html (19 Sept. 2004)

7.) Won Ho Chang, Jae-Jin Park, and Sung Wook Shim "Effectiveness of Negative Political Advertising" 1998. http://www.scripps.ohiou.edu/wjmcr/vol02/2-1a.HTM (20 Sept. 2004)

8.) Timothy Karr "CBS Cuts MoveOn, Allows White House Ads During Super Bowl" 2004. http://progressivetrail.org/articles/040117Karr.shtml (23 Oct. 2004)]]> Internet]]> Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:00:48 -0400 http://www.readourpapers.com/internet/power-to-the-people.html

Should you download illegal music files from the internet? In today’s world, the majority would tell you that it’s wrong or unethical. What I believe is wrong and unethical is the 10,037 people that have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA Watcher)And of course some would argue all of those 10,037 people deserved it because they knew better. But what about little 12 year old Brianna that was living in public housing, when all she was doing was listening to music she loved; did she know better? The music industry is selling more albums than ever before, the sales aren’t dropping. The RIAA, a trade group with which works for large music companies, has been trying to crack down on music piracy. The RIAA is believed to support the common interest of the artist. I don’t see how they could do that when artists don’t even own the copyrights to their music, the music label does. The RIAA and other entertainment companies simply do not care about their artists’ interests or ours; they care about how to make the next buck. With that type mentality, the RIAA and entertainment companies are suing the consumers that listen to the music, which is not the only alternative they have. If the RIAA and Entertainment companies get their way with the laws they want enforced, much technological innovation will be lost. Within this essay I hope to persuade you into not falling into the feelings that downloading music over the internet is bad or harmful to the artists. Not everyone and especially not the recording industry would agree with me on my views.

On the other hand many believe that illegal music downloading is piracy and harmful to the artists. They may also believe that the consumer is more harmful to the artists than the RIAA or recording companies are. This group may also believe internet piracy is the cause to all the problems in music. The RIAA may say that suing the consumers will get a message out and slow down the internet piracy. This group might try to persuade us to download from legal music stores such as Apple’s iTunes or Napster’s new subscription service. I however, would not fall into this group of business people.

However, a growing number of people, including myself, believe the RIAA and recording companies are the real threat to recording artists. The RIAA and its members only care about how much money they are receiving not how many people are getting to listen to the music. Recording artists never own their copyrights to the music they write and perform, the record company does. In a speech by Courtney Love, the singer of a rock band named Hole, Courtney states, “Today I want to talk about piracy and music. What is piracy? Piracy is the act of stealing an artist's work without any intention of paying for it. I'm not talking about Napster-type software. I'm talking about major label recording contracts” (Courtney). The average band gets paid around 20 cents per album sold. After costs of video production, mixing and the rest of the process, “the band may as well be working at a 7-Eleven” (Courtney). The speech Courtney makes goes on to state, “It's piracy when the RIAA lobbies to change the bankruptcy law to make it more difficult for musicians to declare bankruptcy. Some musicians have declared bankruptcy to free themselves from truly evil contracts. In 1995 TLC declared bankruptcy after they received less than 2 percent of the $175 million earned by their CD sales. That was about 40 times less than the profit that was divided among their management, production and record companies” (Courtney). Courtney’s states significant information when she says “The 273,000 working musicians in America make about $30,000 a year. Only 15 percent of American Federation of Musicians members work steadily in music“(Courtney).

The Recording companies harm the artists more than the consumer could. The recording companies own the artist’s work by contract. Receiving less than 30 cents per album you sell is nothing compared to the amount of money you owe the record company after all the promotion costs (Courtney). In a letter that Courtney wrote to the RIAA, she states, “Corrupt recording agreements forced the heirs of Jimi Hendrix ("Purple Haze," "All Along the Watchtower" and "Stone Free") to work menial jobs while his catalog generated millions of dollars each year for Universal Music“ (ARTIST RIGHTS AND RECORD COMPANIES). The RIAA is not looking for the interest of the artists; they are only for the interest of making the record labels money. The RIAA isn’t only a threat to the artists; they are also becoming a large threat to technological innovation.

In a March of 2005 court hearing, MGM Studios v. Grokster, MGM is set to attack innovation of new technologies. They are asking the Supreme Court to rewrite the Betamax (Induce act), which may help the cases against peer to peer (p2p) companies. If the company can prove the p2p application is "capable of substantial non-infringing uses”, the court could use the ruling from the Betamax case from 1985 (File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). Many large entertainment companies have rallied behind MGM for the desires of their company. Wired Magazine, a tech magazine writes, “Justice Stephen Breyer said that devices like the Xerox copy machine, VCR and iPod could have a ‘vast number of infringing uses,’ leading him to wonder how inventors could develop new products without being sued. Justice Antonin Scalia asked how much time an inventor should be given to increase the number of lawful uses” (File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). Wired continues to state, “How do you "give inventor the confidence" to make a new product, Justice David Souter said, when the item could be used for infringement? The iPod can be stocked with music from legitimate CDs or from other means, like illegal content from downloaded from a P2P service” (File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). Scott Rafer the CEO of Feedster states, “If we have to look (at) every piece of inbound stuff that comes in for copyright materials, then most of the internet tools that we use every day would be illegal”( File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation; which represents StreamCast Networks states, “all these internet technologies share this common mass-copying capability: e-mail, web servers, web browsers, basic hard drives," then Schultz continues by stating, "There's no principal distinction between (P2P) and other internet technologies in the way it's designed”( File Sharing Has Supreme Moment).

If the RIAA and entertainment companies get their way, much innovation with technology could be lost. As Francis Crick, the grandson of Francis Crick the discoverer of the double helix, states, “if the entertainment companies succeed in shutting down peer-to-peer networks, the case will impair the development of new technologies in the United States”(Camping Out for the Grokster Case). The RIAA and entertainment companies are going after our innovations, why would they if they make so much money from suing its consumers.

With all of the funding the RIAA receives, they still continue to look for more ways to make money. The RIAA has sued approximately 10,037 people since September 2003. The RIAA knows it cannot stop people from downloading illegal music online, as the president of the RIAA Cary Sherman states, “Our aim is not to completely eliminate music piracy or illegal peer-to-peer services altogether” (Illegal music sites 'here to stay'). Okay, so the RIAA knows they cannot stop it, why must they continue to sue its customers? Well, the average settlement from the 10,037 people sued is around $3,000 (RIAA Watch). By doing simple calculations the RIAA has received at least $30,111,000 from settlements alone. Do any of the artists that wrote and performed the music see any of this $30+ million? Since the artists do not own the copyrights to their music, they won’t see a penny.

Courtney speech implies music downloads are not a harm to the recording industry, by stating “There were a billion music downloads last year, but music sales are up. Where's the evidence that downloads hurt business? Downloads are creating more demand.” (Courtney). In a research article in June 2004 by Harvard’s business school states, “Our research shows that people do not download entire CDs. They download a few songs, typically the hits that one would also hear on a Top 40 station. This suggests that P2P is much like the radio, a great tool to promote new music. The music industry has of course long recognized that giving away samples of music for free over the airwaves can stimulate sales”(Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?). Some Artists believe the “technology [of p2p applications] is an important tool they can use to reach new audiences. About 20 artists, including Heart, Chuck D, DJ Spooky and Brian Eno, filed a separate friend-of-the-court brief in support of the P2P services” (Supreme Showdown for P2P's Future). Chuck D, a recording artist helps put it in perspective by stating, "Technology giveth and it taketh away, and the industry knows this," Chuck D said. "The horseshoe makers probably got upset at the train manufacturers because (the new industry) took away their transport dominance, just as the train manufacturers probably got mad at the airline industry." (Rappers in Disharmony on P2P). The recording industry urges its consumers to buy from legal downloading services.

What about legal download services? A small list of legal download services include, Napster v2, Apple’s iTunes, Musicmatch, and the list goes on. The main issue with downloading through these services is that you can’t even transfer them to a mp3 player. It isn’t considered fair use. Apple’s iTunes sells music that can be placed onto their mp3 player, the iPod. Apple alone has sold more than eight million iPods, and exceeded its 200 million song downloads mark in December 2004 (iTunes hits 200 million download mark) The problem with iTunes is that you cannot transfer the music to other mp3 players. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs didn’t license out Apple’s FairPlay technology which is protects the songs from being transferred to other computers and devices (Slay the iPod). Why would I want to buy something that only can be used by a device that ranges from $250 and up? http://www.mp3tunes.com/ is a service that allows you to download music, and actually keep it. After purchasing you’ll actually own the song, not the type of ownership like some subscription services use where you may only play the music as long as your subscription is renewed.

So, is it right to download illegal music files from the internet? The music files are copyrighted by huge record companies which don’t make decisions for the artist; they make decisions for the company. Their business model isn’t what I would call right, suing their consumers; it’s just wrong. If the record companies would try a little harder to make friends and fewer enemies, they could be more successful. Should we as consumers make decisions that suit us? Or should we make a decision that would help some CEO buy his 16 year old daughter a new Mercedes Benz? In the past year the sales for albums have gone up (Nielsen SoundScan), but I thought the record companies are losing money due to illegal downloading? The RIAA lies to us by and invades our privacy. They believe they can invade someone’s privacy to enforce a copyright. Is that ethical? You must ask yourself these questions to recognize who is the bad guy in these situations. In a Wired Magazine article, Chuck D puts everything in perspective for me by stating, "The record industry is hypocritical and the domination has to be shared. P2P to me means 'power to the people,'" Chuck D said. "And let's get this to a balance, and that's what we're talking about"(Rappers in Disharmony on P2P).



Works cited

ARTIST RIGHTS AND RECORD COMPANIES. 12 May. 2005
< http://www.gerryhemingway.com/piracy2.html>.



Dean, Katie . "Rappers in Disharmony on P2P." Wired Magazine. 01 Oct 2003. May. 2005 < http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,60650,00.html >.



Dean, Katie. "File Supreme Showdown for P2P's Future." Wired Magazine. 28 March 2005. May 2005 < http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67010,00.htmlhtml >.



Dean, Katie. "File Sharing Has Supreme Moment." Wired Magazine. 29 March 2005. May 2005 < http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67060,00.html >.





Dean, Katie. "Camping Out for the Grokster Case." Wired Magazine. 29 March 2005. May 2005 < http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67061,00.html>.



Fried, Ina. "iTunes hits 200 million download mark." CNET Tech News.16 December 2004. May 2005 < http://news.com.com/iTunes+hits+200+million+download+mark/2100-1027_3-5494390.html>.



Love, Courtney. Speech 16 May 2004. May 2005 < http://www.rapcoalition.org/Courtney's%20Math.htm>.



Murphy, Gary. "Slay the iPod." Blog. 01 Oct 2003. May. 2005

< http://blog.teledyn.com/node/2291>.



Nielsen SoundScan. 2004. 12 May. 2005
< http://www.answers.com/topic/nielsen-soundscan>.



RIAA Watcher. "RIAA WATCH." Blog. 09 April 2005. May. 2005

< http://sharenomore.blogspot.com/>.



Silverthorne, Sean. " Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?. 21 June 2004. May 2005 < http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4206&t=innovation>.



Waters, Darren. "Illegal music sites 'here to stay'." BBC News. 08 January 2003. May 2005 < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2636235.stm>.





Useful links



http://www.downhillbattle.org/defense/ - Help defend

http://www.easynews.com/ - Download anything

http://www.boycott-riaa.com – Boycott the RIAA

http://www.eff.org/share/petition/ - Sign the petition

http://www.purevolume.com – listen to indie music artists]]> Internet]]> Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:21:07 -0400