Here’s my story. I tell it because if it helps others, I will feel that it was all worth it.
I live in an area of the country where cellular phone coverage is marginal. There can be periods of a month or so, where I can hardly get one bar indicating on my iPhone. Sometimes, rarely,I can get three bars. I think the service depends on the weather, the density of the leaves on the trees, or perhaps the color of shirt I am wearing. Who knows.
From time to time, I talked with AT&T to see if the tower was down, or if they had any reasons why my service was degrading. They always said that there were no issues with their towers in my area. I had heard about the MicroCell product, and asked if they would be able to supply me with such a device - they provided it to me for free because they want to keep my cellphone business.
The Microcell is a device that puts a virtual tower inside your house. Then, it uses voip (voice over Internet protocol) to communicate with AT&T.
I followed the installation instructions to the letter, but I was unsuccessful at getting it to work. AT&T initiated a call to me asking if they could help. That call was unexpected and I give AT&T props for that.
However, when the first level of support personnel could not help me, they kicked me up to the “expert” level of support. I talked with a snippy young support woman who advised me that the MicroCell wouldn’t work with my internet service. (I am using a service that uses a local internet radio that communicates with a radio located on a mountain peak 10 miles away.)
I was crushed. I talked with my ISP, SkyRunner, to see if they would have any reason to think why this device wouldn’t work with their system. They advised me that they already had one customer using a MicroCell. Well, that was all I needed to refuel me.
He advised me to use a router rather than letting their radio do the routing. They bridged me to the internet so that I had control through my router. I changed from using a switch to distribute to my computers and purchased a router.
First, I purchased a Belkin n300 router only to find that it didn’t have the required configuration parameters available. Since I purchased it from Staples, I had two weeks free return. I switched it for an n300 NetGear router that was the same price, but gave me more control. After configuring it, I found that it didn’t work either.
When I called AT&T again to see if they would help, they told me that I had used my free “expert” level support. If I wanted to talk with them again, I would have to pay over $40. I argued and complained. I was able to get to talk with someone at the higher level again. They were unable to get this MicroCell to work for me.
My son, who is an IT professional, was visiting me. He and I started installing from scratch. We deleted the registration of the MicroCell on the AT&T site and started to reinitialize it. He suggested that I try to set up the Microcell on my neighbor’s physical address.
Why would he think that I should try setting it up at my neighbor’s physical address? There is a GPS (Global Position System) portion built into the MicroCell. It is designed to allow emergency personnel to know where I am located. When I typed in the neighbor’s physical address, the MicroCell finally worked.
I live in a subdivision that is eleven years old. It has never been set up properly on the GPS system - as far as they are concerned, my subdivision doesn’t exist.
When people try to find my house using their GPS system installed in their automobile, or using a TomTom or Garmin device, we always give them my neighbor’s address. That gets them close enough.
Bottom line, the MicroCell couldn’t find my physical address and failed to initialize. (It seems to me that AT&T might put a few lines of code in their software that points out something like, “invalid GPS address - cannot initialize”.
By the way, now that the Microcell is working, it is fantastic. I get five bars anywhere in my house, and a few feet outside my house.
Does anyone know how I can get my physical address on the GPS network?
Here is a reprint of the configuration parameters published by AT&T:
Configure the network to allow the following:
4500/UDP: After NAT detection, 4500/UDP is used
Tags: Software
In the world of affiliate marketing - Facebook is a powerhouse of marketing. Affiliate marketing is a type of business - and by now you will be well aware that every business should really have a presence on Facebook as it provides so much in the way of opportunity. It’s a good place to build a community and it can also be a good source of traffic to your products. Let’s look at how to set up a powerful Facebook business page that will enable you to engage with your connections.
Plan your page - the first step will be to create your page online. This needs to be planned so that it is preferably right the first time around. You’ll need to think about using a keyword as part of your page title. For example, if you sell health products then make this part of your business page title. This will then be something that can be useful with the search engines both inside Facebook and outside of it in Google.
Use the fields - there are plenty of areas to add words on the page, be sure to use them. Add your website link, description and what your company/business/page is all about. Add your website to the ‘About’ section so that people can find it easy to click through to you. Remember with all sales including affiliate marketing - you mustn’t spam - use your writing to build desire.
Add photos - add your products in a variety of photo albums for easy viewing. Part of what people love about Facebook is being able to look at photos. Five of the photos will be shown randomly across the top of your Facebook business page. Ideally you would create a profile picture that would communicate something about your business - ie what it does, it’s brand image and your website if you have one. It should tie in with the brand image on your website or your blog ideally.
Finding people to ‘Like’ your page - suggest your page to your friends on Facebook to get started. Add an icon through to your Facebook page from your website. Also post your Facebook page up on any other social sites that you use such as Twitter. If you use any marketing material such as business cards or email signatures, then add your page to those too. Even with affiliate marketing - operating under a business can have it’s benefits as you grow - you may decide to present yourself with a particular brand image. Once you have 25 people connected to your page - you will be able to sign up for a vanity URL on Facebook so that you will be able to select what url your Facebook page has.
Use your page - post your blogs, post other information that people may find interesting and relevant to your niche. Don’t do the sales spiel or you’ll lose some of your connections as it’s a version of spamming. Affiliate marketing should be the same as other marketing - ie all about building desire for a product. You should mention the benefits of your products.
Monitor your progress - the main goals of your Facebook page should be to grow your connections and to develop your interactions. You can measure how well you are doing by checking on the ‘insights’ link of your page. You will be show several graphs that will detail how well you are doing on these two fronts.
By following the above suggestions, you will be growing your affiliate marketing business in a way that will bring you more sales.
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Copyright © 2011 Andrew Holtom
Andrew Holtom is an experienced and accomplished online marketer. Andrew enjoys introducing newcomers on how to successfully make money online. If you are looking for an easy way to get started with affiliate marketing, internet marketing or having an online business, then check http://www.webmarketinformation.com where you can download a free 94 page guide to starting your own online business.
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Tags: Marketing
In this article we want to go over residual affiliate income. This is money you earn over and over for doing your work one time. In my mind this is just about as good as it gets.
When most of us start out as an affiliate marketer were happy to make one sale. It’s a great feeling to get an email from the affiliate merchant telling you that you have just earned a commission.
The excitement quickly wears off and it’s time to make another sale. However, how great would it be if you got paid next month for the sales you are making right now? That is the powerful feeling residual affiliate income can give you!
Generally the commission rate for an affiliate program that pays a recurring income is not as high as other affiliate commissions. For example, you might only earn 10 to 20% of the original sale. Of course the difference is next month you will make your 10 to 20% again and then the month after that and so on.
Would you rather earn 50 to 75% one time or 10 to 20% in the form of residual income? You can do the math on any affiliate program you are in to see which way we pays you the most long term. I would venture to say that residual income will win out almost every time.
Website hosting is a perfect example of residual affiliate income. It’s great to sign a new customer up with website hosting when you are the affiliate.
It’s even better to get paid every month, every quarter, or even every year that your new customer keeps their website hosting account. This happens to be one product where there is a very high renewal rate.
Membership sites are another good source of residual affiliate income. For example the Affiliate Power Group provides affiliate coaching for people who want personal attention.
You make money on a continual basis when you refer members to join this program. You get paid via PayPal which is a very convenient way to get paid.
Anything that Internet based can be a good residual program. However, there are also opportunities to sell physical affiliate products and make money on a continual basis.
This used to be reserved mostly for network marketing products. For example, you would make a retail sale for a nutritional product that needed to be reordered next month. The customer would go on autoship and you would automatically earn your commission over and over as long as that order was in place.
Same thing with some affiliate products. You can go to ResidualIncomeFinder.com to research available products online. You can also Google search the words “Residual Affiliate Income” to find the individual programs to join.
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Tags: Affiliate Marketing
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Tags: Marketing
