Major corporations have used the idea of ‘free content‘ for decades to entice people to learn more about their brands.  The Internet makes it even easier to do the same – since it’s a near-perfect platform for content distribution.  When you combine content marketing with lead capture, you have a real chance to acquire targeted prospects who are a fit for your company’s products.

Today’s content marketing requires companies to follow a few rules in order to succeed.  Focusing on high-quality content, direct engagement with consumers, and remaining committed to continuously producing fresh content will ensure your company maximizes it’s foray into the content marketing arena.

Your Content Has To Be Good

Content Marketing Continues To Catch On With Savvy Business Owners

The Internet is literally awash with information. There’s no shortage of it.  There is a shortage of extremely well-constructed and high-quality content, though. If you can focus on offering unique content that explains concepts in a way that consumers can easily understand – you bridge the gap between you and your clients.

It’s a good idea to include charts, graphs, images, and videos in your content marketing plan all designed to help people understand your business and your message.  You’re dealing with a very fragmented audience so it’s important to target your campaigns as strictly as you can.  If this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is!  Content marketing is the opposite of ‘slapping something together‘ once and praying for results.  You’ll need to commit to an ongoing, relentless campaign that builds upon the work you’ve already done.  Content can go stale pretty quickly online, even if it’s great.

There’s no point in committing to anything less than the highest quality when it comes to content creation.  There’s no way for you to stand out unless you do.  You won’t command much of the attention span of the average person so you have to really dig deep to make the most of your one opportunity with them.

Your Content Should Make It Easy For Users To Engage With You

Forget the idea of ‘broadcasting‘ your content to the world.  Instead you’ll need to follow social media marketing best practices that include direct engagement.  Hopefully your content will be shared a lot.  When it is, numerous people may be influenced enough to contact your company. When you engage with them you can directly answer their objections and lead them into your sales funnel.  All your content marketing efforts should be well-integrated with a tightly-defined sales funnel.

These days, there are hundreds of potential platforms where you can distribute content.  There’s no limit to the different media you can use, either.  Videos, images, infographics, blog posts, and eBooks are all formats that can attract traffic. It’s always a good idea to create specific content for the platform you’re targeting.  YouTube users are different from Facebook users who are completely different from Twitter lovers.  There’s no way to craft a ‘one size fits all‘ message for the modern Internet.

If all of this sounds like a ton of work – it is!  There’s no getting around it.  Content marketing takes a lot of effort to do successfully.  The good news built into that statement is that it’s also very hard for your competition.  Chances are high they’ll give up before you do, if you’re truly committed to success.

Keep It Coming!

Stay Hooked On Social Media!

Once the basic elements of your sales and marketing funnel are set up – you move on to the ‘consistent effort phase.’ Online content goes stale quicker than a three day old loaf of bread!  Anyone who embarks on this journey needs to understand that one piece of content will rarely be enough to capture leads consistently.  Even if something is successful, it tends to die off quickly.  An efficient system of content creation is needed.  Studying your industry and niche in detail can help you identify the types of problems clients and prospects are having.  Structuring content around those issues is an easy way to maintain a steady stream of new marketing pieces into your many distribution channels.

By now you’ve probably accumulated quite a few ‘social accounts.’ All of us have.  Although it’s a pain to do so, updating these networks by hand is effective.  Crafting your update statuses in a way that speaks to the audience at that site is a must. These networks are designed for sharing so no one is surprised to learn there’s a new blog post available. If they’re interested – you have a decent chance of engaging with them.

Content marketing a long war of attrition.  Many will be called – but few will be chosen.  Most companies that set their minds to marketing this way will give up quickly when they realize how hard it is to gain attention from an online audience.  Others – who are open-minded and sensitive to the nuances of their target market – will stick with it, even when the results are minimal.  They always are at first.

A Note About Mobile And Content Marketing

Before I end, I’d like to mention the importance of creating content that is mobile friendly.  In the last few months I’ve noticed a large swing on multiple websites I managed towards a mobile audience.  Mobile marketing is no longer the future – it’s clearly part of the present.  Make sure you’re catering to this audience and the special needs of their mobile devices. Responsive design and a bit of planning go a long way towards ensuring you’re getting the most out of your mobile content marketing efforts.

Content marketing is here to stay. It’s a complex process of acquiring clients – but no organization can afford to ignore it.  Internet use continues to grow.  Businesses that hope to exploit this huge market will have to play by the ‘new rules’ of marketing – even if they borrow heavily from the past.

Thanks for stopping by and reading! Good luck with your efforts.

The post Content Marketing Continues To Catch On With Savvy Business Owners appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

Hoax US Airways Email

The message reads in it’s entirety:

You can check in from 24 hours and up to 60 minutes before your flight (2 hours if you’re flying internationally). Then, all you need to do is print your boarding pass and proceed to the gate.

Confirmation code: 328444

Check-in online: Online reservation details

 Flight: 9291

Departure city and time: Washington, DC (DCA) 10:00PM

Depart date: 9/13/2012
We are committed to protecting your privacy. Your information is kept private and confidential. For information about our privacy policy visit usairways.com.

US Airways, 111 W. Rio Salado Pkwy, Tempe, AZ 85281 , Copyright US Airways , All rights reserved.

It’s worth noting that there are variations of this message that provide a different Flight Number, so even if this doesn’t match exactly you should still be cautious.

If you hover over the “Online Reservation Detail” link you’ll notice that this link doesn’t actually resolve to a US Airways website, instead directing you to a website that isn’t related to them at all. While the “Privacy” link appears to resolve US Airways, it’s probably not a good idea to click on this link either.

To make a long story short, if you get this message immediately delete it from your inbox to avoid these link infiltrating your computer system and exposing security holes.

If you found this message helpful, I ask that you kindly share it with your friends and family so that they can keep their computer systems secure.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

The post ‘Confirm Your US Airways Online Reservation’ – Email Alert appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

In all, this message contains 5 links. Out of the 5 links, 3 of these links appear to look legitimate and 2 of the provided links resolve to untrusted websites that have nothing to do with Fedex.

The entire text of the message reads:

Fedex Scam Email

FedEx Billing Online – Ready for Payment

fedex.com

Hello *Email Address Removed*
You have a new not paid bill from FedEx that is ready for payment.

The following ivoice(s) are ready for your review :

Invoice Number
4840-50650

To pay or review these invoices, please sign in to your FedEx Billing Online account by clicking on this link: http://www.fedex.com/us/account/fbo

Note: Please do not use this email to submit payment. This email may not be used as a remittance notice. To pay your invoices, please visit FedEx Billing Online, http://www.fedex.com/us/account/fbo

Thank you,
Revenue Services
FedEx

This message has been sent by an auto responder system. Please do not reply to this message.

The content of this message is protected by copyright and trademark laws under U.S. and international law.
Review our privacy policy. All rights reserved.

Again, if you received this message, be sure to delete it to avoid any complications it could cause with your computer, including trojans, malware and other malware that could compromise your computer security.

I hope that you found this post helpful and if so, I kindly ask that you share it with your friends and family so they don’t have to spend their Friday night trying to restore their computer systems. Thanks for reading and have a great Friday evening!

The post ‘Please Pay Your Outstanding Fedex Invoice’ – Email Alert appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

Millions of website owners have selected WordPress as the platform they use to build their web presence. WordPress has a vast community of developers who make plugins that extend the functionality of the core CMS. This huge collective of developers has spawned numerous websites about every subject imaginable. With such huge success, though, some problems have also arisen.

Security Issues Plague WordPress

Visitors From Google Were Treated To This Replacement Site

Because WordPress is popular and open source, the platform is subject to numerous hacks. The range of attacks is stunning. Some hackers simply attempt to deface WordPress sites to show their superiority. Others are more ambitious. Some want to use hacked WordPress sites to install malware on remote machines. Some use the hack to replace the current WordPress with links to their own websites for search engine ranking purposes. There’s no limit to the damage that can be caused by weak security on a WordPress site.

If your WordPress is hacked, it can impact your visitors and end up with your website being ‘blacklisted’ by Google and other major third party websites. This hurts your search engine rankings, and your online reputation. Check out the picture attached to this article. This is a special page created by a pharmacy that displays only to people (or bots) who visit the compromised site via Google search! The site owner never even noticed this happened, and this particular exploit can be done on most standard server configurations.

Managed WordPress hosts keep a tight reign on security and make sure your WordPress doesn’t fall prey to these common exploits.

WordPress Can Become Bloated And Slow

Without proper optimization, your WordPress site can start running very slowly. Slow websites are poisonous to visitor satisfaction and to search rankings. When the user experience fades, less visitors are sent to your WordPress. Since fresh visitors are the lifeblood of any solid WordPress site, neglecting optimization can result in a big problem. Selecting managed WordPress hosting means you get an optimized WordPress experience every time. Your provider will keep up with all the best practices to ensure your website runs at top speed every time. If you select a cloud hosting provider with high uptime guarantees and managed WordPress plans, you have a distinct advantage over your competitors who are on their own.

Using a managed provider means you can stay focused on what matters. For a WordPress site, that means adding plenty of high-quality fresh content. Your job is to keep growing your website and promoting your content. When you select a managed WordPress host, they become your partner in your online venture. Your host works on the heavy lifting of running your WordPress website while you focus on making your site into a success! Together there’s no stopping your inevitable rise to the top of the online world. Remarkably enough, fully managed WordPress hosting is affordable, so there’s no good reason to scrimp on it when it makes such a difference to your eventual success.

If you’re in the market for fully managed WordPress hosting, check out our plans at MostHost.net.  If you have any questions at all about our service, click on Live Chat or give us a call at 1-877-270-7753.  We’re here from 9am to 9pm 7 days weekly and we love to help!  Thanks for stopping by and visiting our site.

The post Learn About The Advantages Of Using Managed WordPress Hosting appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

Professional Business Web Hosting Helps You Grow

Business Class Reliability Is A Key 

In order for your web presence to grow, you need reliable and fast hosting.  People simply won’t stick around for long to wait for your page to load.  You better serve your pages up quick, or you can say goodbye to visitor satisfaction.  Despite this fact being widely known, many businesses still opt for overcrowded and slow hosting.  They should not settle for pokey response times, when professional web hosting services for business can help ensure ultra-fast performance.  If you’re thinking of building your first business website, you really should make sure to select business class hosting.  Business class hosts understand the needs of business.

You’re In Control

Business class professional web hosting puts the power back into your hands.  With a robust toolset, you can accomplish everything you need to online.  An easy to use control panel can empower you to perform every function you ever dreamed of.  At MostHost, we provide Parallels Plesk to all of our clients because it offers a great user experience.  When you’re able to handle routine tasks like adding or changing an email address easily, your life as a webmaster is that much easier.  You’re in charge with business hosting, and you can always accomplish the tasks you set out to perform.

Room To Grow

If your web presence needs to grow, your professional web host will be there every step of the way to help.  If you run into issues, you can always scale up your web presence.  When choosing a host, you want to make sure to select one that can grow along with your needs.  Cloud hosting is well-suite for growth since the nature of the platform is scalable.  Performance, reliability, and scalability are the triumvirate of qualities you need when building a business website.  Anything less may end up hurting your chances for success online.

Plenty Of Support

Managed web hosting is a particularly good choice for a business.  When you use managed web hosting, you don’t have to worry about server maintenance.  Instead you can stay focused on building your web presence.  That means you continue to work on content and engagement, while the nuts and bolts of server maintenance are professionally administered. Delegating responsibility to the right parties is always an important part of business success, and web hosting is no different.  Server maintenance done by managed services providers takes care of many of the routine problems associated with running a website.

If you have any questions about business cloud hosting, please give us a call at 1-877-270-7753.  We’re here from 9am to 9pm EST 7 days weekly.  We love to help!  Thanks for stopping by.

The post Professional Business Web Hosting Helps You Grow Online appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

Fraudulent IRS Email Message

One such Email currently circulating on the Internet is entitled ‘Your Federal Tax Payment‘ and appears to be sent from alerts@irs.gov.

While the sender address may seem legitimate, you can be assured that the file attachment included in the Email message is not.

The full text of the Email reads:

Your Tax payment (ID: 792546314057), recently from your checking account was returned by the your Bank.

Canceled Tax transfer
Tax Transaction ID: 792546314057
Rejection Reason See details in the report below
Tax Transaction Report tax_report_792546314057.doc (Microsoft Word Document)

Internal Revenue Service, Metro Plex 1, 8401 Corporate Drive, Suite 300, Landover, MD 20785

If you happen to get this message in your Email inbox, be sure not to click on the attached “Microsoft Word Document” as it likely contains a virus or malware designed to cause you computer problems – like erasing your hard drive or stealing sensitive information from it. To make a long story short, delete this message from your inbox immediately and don’t give the spammers what they want.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you found this post helpful. If so, I kindly ask that you share it with your friends and family so that they can avoid any issues that might arise from it.

Have a great day!

The post ‘Your Federal Tax Payment’ – Email Alert appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

Fake Intuit Email Message

The full text of the message says:

Dear customer:

Thank you for ordering from Intuit Market. We are processing and will message you when your order ships. If you ordered multiple items, we may sned them in more than one delivery (at no extra cost to you) to ensure quicker delivery. If you have questions about your order please call 1-900-777-3273 ($1.19/min).

ORDER INFORMATION

Please download your complete order id #6120063 from the attachment.(Open with Internet Explorer)

©2012 Intuit, Inc. All rights reserved. Intuit, the Intuit Logo, Quickbooks, Quicken and TurboTax, among others, are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc.

As you can see, the sender directs recipients to “download” the attachment using Internet Explorer, in hopes that they’ll do what they’re told and thus cause a massive computer infection that gives them access to sensitive information stored on the machine. If you receive this message, be sure to delete it immediately, as it isn’t a legitimate Email being sent from Myspace or Intuit.

I hope that this post helped you avoid a computer infection and ask that you kindly share this with your friends and family so that they don’t fall for this  ploy.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

The post ‘Your Intuit.com Order’ – Email Alert appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

Start Blogging Today!

If you’re brand new to blogging, you may want to start with selecting a fully managed WordPress host.  That way you can rest assured that your WordPress installation is up to speed and safe from hackers.  WordPress is a robust blogging platform, but because it’s so popular it tends to be a target of many hack attempts. A web host that specializes in secure WordPress hosting can help you lock everything down.  Once you’re up and running, the rest becomes very easy to do.  You can choose a template, install whatever plugins you want, and go to work on the important task of creating content for your new blog.

Blogs Are Great For Expanding Your Business

Follow the keys to blogging success and you can expect to generate a decent amount of traffic to your website.  Running a professional blog takes dedication above all else.  You can’t expect overnight success with a blog, it just generally won’t happen.  If you have a strong social media presence, then perhaps you can generate traffic quickly, but if you’re just starting out with social media, you can’t expect too much traction at first.  For that reason consistency and managing your expectations is important early on.

WordPress is extremely flexible.  You can build whatever type of blog you want, you can even add eCommerce if you choose.  The choice is up to you.  The bottom line is, WordPress is a platform.  It’s up to you to use the tool in the manner you see fit.  Follow the strategy you outline and your blog can serve to help you achieve your business goals.  If you want to use your blog for lead generation, you can.  Add a newsletter sign-up form to your sidebar.  If you want people to call you, end every post with a phone number.  You need to think of the call to action you want to convey, and then implement it.  If you’re blogging about a certain theme, stay on-topic and write as many helpful posts as you can.

Jump Right Into Blogging

The best way to learn blogging is by jumping in and doing it.  You won’t need to do all that much learning to get your blog moving.  Don’t be all about text either.  People don’t love reading as much as they used to.  Make sure to be liberal with image files and videos.  Most importantly, take to the social networks to promote your blog.  Growth won’t happen on its own.  You have to engage with people and find out what they’re interested in.  Once you do, you can deliver it to them.  Blogging success only happens when your content is customized for your target audience.

Thanks for stopping by and reading and good luck with your blog!

The post Don’t Hesitate To Start Blogging Today appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

Web Presence Builder Makes Website Creation Easy Enough That Anyone Can Do It 

Business Web Design Is Easier With A Tool

You can’t expect beginners to be able to build a website, unless you make it really simple for them to do so.  That’s exactly what the Web Presence Builder team has done, enabling literally anyone to be able to build a full-featured website in no time flat.  In the past building websites was always the domain of the ‘chosen few.’  Only technically-oriented people were able to learn all of the intricacies involved with creating their own websites. That’s no longer the case as website building tools have leveled the playing field once and for all.

Web Builder Tools Are Intuitive

Web design can be fluid and flexible when you choose a website builder.  Well designed tools make the job of web design as easy as writing email.  If you can use your web browser to send and receive email, you have the skills needed to design a website using Web Presence Builder.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the video for an overview of the whole process.

A Better Web Builder Makes You A Better Web Designer

Tools are always necessary for people to really perfect their craft.  Imagine a great carpenter forced to use a lousy hammer.  It’s not a pretty sight is it?  If you only have poorly constructed tools at your disposal, the end result of your work might be poor as well. Selecting a great tool like Web Presence Builder means your final output will be outstanding. Use the right tools for the job and you can’t go wrong.

Web Presence Builder Is The Tool You Need For Business Website Design

Business web design has moved to the cloud with the introduction of Web Presence Builder. Fast cloud hosting and web builders go hand in hand to help you create an awesome web presence with all the features your visitors will expect.  Forget outdated designs and slow-running scripts.  Now you can push the envelope and capture your share of the online market with a modern and impressive web presence.  You’ll be glad you grabbed the bull by the proverbial horns and gained access to a web design tool that was specifically designed for business.

Thank you for reading!  Now it’s time for you try the Web Presence Builder demo.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  We can be reached at 1-877-270-7753 7 days weekly (9am to 9pm EST) and we’re happy to help!

The post A Web Builder And Hosting Plans Gets You Your Own Website appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.

Fake Flight Email

The full text of the brief message reads:

Dear Customer,

FLIGHT NUMBER 99713-506
DATE/TIME : SEPT 20, 2012, 15:13 PM
ARRIVING AIRPORT: SAN-DIEGO AIRPORT
PRICE : 920.73 USD

Your bought ticket is attached to the letter as a scan document .
To use your ticket you should print it.

Reece BENEDICT,

 As you can see, it doesn’t include any links, but rather urges recipients to click on the file attachment. Don’t do it! If you receive this Email message delete it from your inbox immediately to avoid installing a virus or other malware on your computer system.

I hope that you found this post helpful and it helped you avoid any complications that this could potentially cause you.

Thanks again for stopping by and have a great new week!

The post ‘Your Flight US 70-183612′ – Email Alert appeared first on MostHost Cloud Hosting Blog.