How Much Money would it cost you to regain the use of your computer after a serious virus infection?

Written by Richard Rossbauer


Continued from page 1

Also true for Firewall program updates.

Today’s major scourge, however, seems to berepparttar rampant spread of spyware (keyloggers, adware, malicious software known as ‘malware’, all designed to be invisible, often self propagating).

Spyware seeks information about you and your computer-use habits that are private and personal. It is a threat that can often lead to loss of a person’s identity, bank accounts, reputation and employment.

There are major efforts on an international basis to stoprepparttar 105873 spread of SPAM (unwanted email), that has been responsible for much ofrepparttar 105874 virus epidemic.

Viruses are spread in other ways, too. Downloaded music files, downloaded programs and information gained from Chat Room visits, hidden worms that activate just by clicking on links in some unsolicited emails and pop-ups, are just a few.

There are other protective tools available at no cost (FREE) from many ofrepparttar 105875 software manufacturers of Firewalls, anti-virus and spyware searching programs. Many are included withrepparttar 105876 email services provided by AOL, Earthlink, MSN, etc.

These are primarily Pop-up blockers and virus scanners. The ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) also scan for and filter out email messages that look suspicious before being passed on to you.

Pop-up blockers, spam filters, message blockers, and other protective defenses can be installed on everyone’s personal computer. They are often free, or relatively inexpensive.

Our friends now know a lot more about protecting themselves from all ofrepparttar 105877 dangers lurking inrepparttar 105878 Cyber-Jungle.

To clean out their infected computer, which required a clean wipe of their hard drive, re-installation of their Operating System, and an updated anti-virus program, they were charged $180.00!

Needless to say, they have increased their defenses with updated virus-scanning software, Firewall, and spyware scanners and cleaners.

They learned a lessonrepparttar 105879 hard way, and they’ll help their friends avoidrepparttar 105880 problems they experienced by sharing their story and encouraging them to get their computers up to date and prepared forrepparttar 105881 ever increasing threats byrepparttar 105882 spammers, hackers and virus writers.

If you userepparttar 105883 internet regularly, a subscription to one ofrepparttar 105884 security oriented newsletters can alert you torepparttar 105885 latest threats and provide helpful information for maintaining a secure, virus free computer and avoiding potential identity theft.

The “Security Alert News Reporter” published throughrepparttar 105886 Firewalls and Virus Protection website is free, it’s distributed about once each month and is written in an easy to understand, non-technical style.

A few minutes browsing there now might save you many hours of agony and grief later.

(You can take part inrepparttar 105887 Computer Security Awareness Campaign by Sharing this with a friend.)

Richard started his "Firewalls and Virus Protection" website and "Security Alert News Reporter" to help everyday internet users safely navigate through the cyber space that has become a ‘Cyber Jungle’, loaded with ambushes and booby-traps. He promotes his "Computer Security Awareness Campaign" thru his website at http://www.firewalls-and-virus-protection.com


Protecting Yourself From Affiliate Link Thieves

Written by Stephani Richardson


Continued from page 1

Link hijacking comes in various forms... not just from downloads. Let's say your affiliate link looks like this: www.url.com/?123456 , where 123456 is your affiliate ID. A link hijacker is interested inrepparttar product and wants to purchase it. He also wantsrepparttar 105872 affiliate commission fromrepparttar 105873 product. He takes your ID 123456 and replaces it with his ID 999999 to look like this: www.url.com/?999999 . The result? He getsrepparttar 105874 commission fromrepparttar 105875 product purchase. He modifiedrepparttar 105876 link to benefit himself. You lose.

Here is another example of link hijacking: A customer comes to your website and sees a link torepparttar 105877 product that he wants to buy. When he movesrepparttar 105878 mouse over your link information, he sees your affiliate url inrepparttar 105879 status bar of his computer. Instead of clicking your affiliate link, he decides to manually type it into his address bar, leaving offrepparttar 105880 affiliate referral code: www.url.com. This results in no affiliate tracking information and no commissions for you. You lose again!

So how much money could you be losing? I have read that an estimated 10-30% of commissions are lost due to affiliate link hijacking. Can you imaginerepparttar 105881 kind of potential revenue that you might be losing right now?

Take Action by Protecting Yourself From Revenue Loss

Inrepparttar 105882 constant search for new scripts and software to improve my websites, I have run into several affiliate cloaking devices. Most of them cost around $50 or more. However, I did run into one cloaking script that is free. It is called Affiliate Link Cloaker (ALC). The site owner simply asks that you subscribe to their newsletter. By golly, I love free stuff, don't you! If you are interested in learning about this script and how it works, you can visit their site at webmasterinabox.net/affiliate_link_cloaker.html . They have other scripts that you might find useful as well. Now, get out there and protect those links!

Stephani Richardson is a work at home mother of 4 who has been actively involved with affiliate marketing and home business opportunities since December 1999. She owns and operates several business related websites including 1 Work At Home Dot Com and Business-Oppurtunities.


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