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Making Calls Means Making Money
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
The multiple sales channels offered by various affiliate programs have been discussed before but there is more to talk about when it comes to Call Center sales.
Many VoIP companies are actively looking for inbound and outbound Call Center agents for their services. While inbound Call Centers basically only need extensive sales training, outbound Call Centers usually must go through a detailed verification process to join a rewarding program.
Call Centers that are interested in signing up have to provide crucial business information for background checking purposes. Although the process seems problematical it is in fact fast and easy - well, most of the times. Once a Call Center is approved the agency can expect training, scripts and leads upon request.
There's More To Sell
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
An attractive draw for soon-to-be voip customers is the availability of additional services by Voip.com. Unlike other voice-over IP (VoIP) companies, Voip.com now offers SoftPhone and Voicemail services - though not yet included in Voip.com’s affiliate program. That is strictly for the company’s residential services.
If you’re selling Voip.com’s services make sure you advertise these additional services as well. Consumers are more likely to select a VoIP provider that has a larger selection of additional services. Clearly, SoftPhone and Voicemail are strong selling points especially because there is no other Internet phone company that provides all these services in one place.
My broadband: glacially slow (from those guys that rhyme with Farter)
Ummm...yeah. So today? I got into a knock-down drag-out fight with my internet provider about the lousy Quality of Service (QoS) they've been shoving down the pipe out here. And let me be entirely clear...I know we are living in InstaWorld, when waiting for a bag of microwave popcorn to do its thing is legally defined as an eternity, but honestly, we're shelling out the big bucks for high-speed cable internet access. I don't expect to be connecting at top speeds or anything, but is it too much to ask that performance doesn't drop below prehistoric dialup benchmarks?
Things started out so well when we switched at the beginning of summer. Then my ISP decided to branch out by offering voip internet phone service. The moment their voip plan went live in our area, it's been nothing but a steady downward spiral--at least as far as quality is concerned.
Xbox 360 Live? Forget about it. You'll never make it out alive. Trust me; virtual guns don't kill virtual people--lag does. Want to upload a couple of text files? Hah! Only 30 kb, but it may as well be 30 Mb. No matter how many different ways I tried to upload, the !@#%*&! thing hung up or lost its connection or managed to self-destruct in some strange, unfathomable way that nonetheless completely sideswiped the whole process. And my voip phone? The dial tone just won't stay put. One minute it's there and the next...nothing but dead airspace. Maybe my broadband is being abducted by invisible, time-traveling alien bandwidth vampires. Yeah...that must be it.
Before I got on the phone to complain, I did a quick little broadband speedtest and discovered (among other things) that my connection had a QoS topping out at a whopping 2%. Yes, that's out of 100%. As in, 98% of other connections run circles around this cruddy performance. Miraculously, that figure increased to 69%. It only took an entire day, spent bitching and moaning to tech support. Perhaps we don't have to worry about ISPs blocking sites; we'll just wait for them to expand into voip. Why should they go to all the trouble of blocking specific websites when they can just block them all?
Multi-Tiers
Monday, November 27, 2006
A “real affiliate program” is either single level or two-tier. Additional sales levels make a program network marketing or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM). I just call them pyramids.
Multi-tier affiliate programs with down-line-building options are not necessary against the law but their reputation among professionals is not something to be very proud of.
Moreover, sub-affiliates usually don’t generate much commission unless one can get good selling affiliates in large numbers. To build that, however, is quite an effort and expense. So you better stick to “real affiliate programs”. A strong two-tier program is more likely to increase your profits than a stinky multi-tier one.
Give thanks to the troops
Thursday, November 23, 2006
It's hard to serve away from your loved ones, especially during the holidays or important family events, like graduations, anniversaries or the birth of a child. When I was in boot camp, the most important part of any day was mail call. That tenuous lifeline to everything you had before you were inducted. I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas doing pushups in subzero weather, all the while enjoying motivational "encouragement" from our Company Commander--usually delivered at a decibel level somewhere between a jet engine and the Krakatoa explosion .
Imagine how much harder it is when you're deployed half a world away, in the middle of a war zone. Family life carries on, regardless of distance and all too often parents find their children growing up without them, spouses go through crises alone, and isolation develops within the family unit. Freedom Calls is a nonprofit foundation that puts service men and women in touch with their families through a voip internet phone and video network that spans the globe. Military families aren't charged for their voip calls or virtual visits; the foundation is supported fully through corporate and private donations.
Voip helps families stay connected during stressful deployments. For instance, 5 year old Holly Schroeder's dad was able to attend her birthday party all the way from Iraq or National Guardsmen Roger Bradley who got the chance to say goodbye to his terminally ill sister. James Bodensteiner was able to watch his son's black belt test, while Greg and Franny Mascola celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary via FreedomCam. Most importantly, voip gives families the opportunity to regularly spend high-quality time together, even if it isn't a special occasion.
This holiday season, as you're sitting around the dinner table with your family, take a moment to remember the men and women who volunteered to protect and serve their country. Support the Freedom Calls effort. Go to their online donation page here or mail in a donation here.
Voiping in the virtual world
Thursday, November 16, 2006
If you've never been to a Second Life Town Hall Meeting, I highly recommend you check one out, if nothing else--you'll be blown away when you realize these meetings are simultaneously connecting hundreds of people in a two-way dialogue using voip internet phone technology. Today's meeting was wild.
After some opening statements and position clarification regarding the whole CopyBot crisis, Linden Labs opened up the floor for questions--a veritable deluge of them, pouring in from all over and not stopping until well after the whole event had wound down. Some members submitted questions via the Town Hall Meeting Questions group's IM box and as each one came in it seemed to spawn 10 others among those watching the proceedings. Text questions received a thorough response from Linden Labs, but lacked the give and take you see in true debate.
Other residents submitted their questions in the same manner but added their Skype name as well, since that's the voip program LL happened to be using. This is the part that just takes my breath away for its sheer audacity and elegance--when it was time to answer those residents' questions, they were simply added to the existing voip conference call. Everyone got to hear what was said and it just...worked. No wonder people become such rabid advocates of voip technology.
Virtual Town Meetings in Second Life
Voip never ceases to amaze me. Second Life's Linden Labs (LL) has regular Town Hall-type meetings, where the citizens get a chance to let LL know what's got them hot under the collar or shaking in their boots. With over 1 million residents, it's become difficult to find a place where everyone can fit, so LL created a virtual Town Hall meeting, inside of the Virtual Reality (VR) metaverse called Second Life. Who knew we'd need virtual stuff for our virtual lives?
Citizens have the option of simply listening in to the streaming audio broadcast of the latest Town Hall Meeting, by tuning their inworld radios or outworld media players to http://screlay-dtc0s-3.shoutcast.com:8080/. Those who want to participate more fully in the Q & A session can slip on a headset or use their webcam's integrated microphone to talk via voip internet phone technology directly to LL's representative...
The next meeting is November 16th, at 1:30pm and promises to be an exciting one--so pull up a chair, get comfy with your iPod, and discover what it's like to have your finger on the pulse of an entire virtual universe.
UAE: still on hold
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
It looks like voip internet phone users in the UAE will have to keep on waiting for voip to be legal again. Rumors spread last month that a reversal of the 2005 voip ban was imminent; however the UAE's Minister of Communications (Saeed Mansouri) now says they have no plans to allow third-party voip service in the United Arab Emirates. Citing concern about voip's potential to disrupt, Mansouri said that, "Both du and Etisalat will be badly affected by the introduction of this service here. This is a decision that has to be decided by them, the government and the users.” Etisalat and du are the local telecom corporations serving residents in the UAE.
The most consumers can hope for, at this point, is that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) approves authorized rollouts of du and Etisalat flavored voip--which is bound to be significantly more expensive than regular voip. How can the UAE work so hard to position itself as a business-friendly, modern region and then do things like block voip? Perhaps their next move will be to bring back those wonderful string and cup phones.
Insertion Orders
If you are an affiliate or connected to the online advertising word you must have come across many Insertion Orders (IO). By definition, an IO is an online or printed document that specifies the details of an advertising campaign.
Quite often IOs are not completed properly causing many problems later during or at the end of an advertising campaign.
If you are preparing Insertion Orders make sure they always include:
- Campaign name
- Type of ads to be run
- Starting and ending dates
- Rates, costs, total costs
- Ad location(s) [if applies]
- Payment Terms
Cleverly disguised
The handy charging base/speakerphone for Radian's SkyTone RST501 will help differentiate this cordless voip internet phone from that universal remote you keep losing in the couch cushions.
Wrapped in a sleek, two-tone, rubberized finish, this phone is practically guaranteed not to slip out of your hands the next time your computer starts hollering about incoming calls. It's cordless, with full duplex audio and did I mention the part where it's without cordage?
Want another reason to love the RST501 (besides the fact that it's plug & play?) How about compatibility? It supports Skype, Google Talk, Net2Phone, Vonage and, wait for it...more. Like MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Or---better yet, any voip phone service with a mandatory PC interface. You know, I think the whole remote control look is starting to grow on me :-P
Extending the virtual classroom
Friday, November 10, 2006
I'm always on the lookout for new and innovative learning opportunities, like these virtual classes you can find in Second Life. Topics range from strictly inworld issues, like changing your avatar's appearance, to courses targeted for real life applications--for instance, sales management and leadership strategies, getting familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint, or administration for Cisco's enterprise-class voip internet phone systems.
So what is it like inside Second Life (SL)? For starters, you can create an avatar alter-ego that looks like pretty much anything you like. My son happens to have achondroplastic dwarfism, so for fun I made my "avi" a little person, too. I also gave her wings, because you can fly in Second Life.
Using the Search function that's built into the SL user interface (UI), I found a whole bunch of places where classes were being held. The facility I chose to visit is called NETg, one of the leading corporate training companies, both inside SL and out here, in the real world. Classes start at a specified time and you can arrange to get a reminder note with a teleport link in it so you won't forget. Once you get there, you'll have to walk or fly from the main teleport area to your classroom, which is in a no-weapons zone, so there's no need to worry about getting sniped while you're checking out the local color. Here's what I saw:
In front of the building where the class room is located
Getting ready to go into the Cisco classroom
Bank of computers in the lobby
If you need a break, there's ample opportunity to relax on extra cushy chairs, couches or pillows; shoot a game of pool (1 or 2 player); or dance in the ground-floor Club.
And that's exactly why learning in SL is so intriguing...it's really meant to be an immersive, long term experience with all the amenities you'd hope for in real life.
Class formats run the gamut from those that are basically a series of notes, to video podcasts and a growing number of live classes, where the participants and the instructor can speak to each other in real-time, through one of SL's third-party voip solutions.
A Dash is all you need
Is it a Motorola Q-killer? Maybe, at any rate T-Mobile's Dash phone made CNET's Top 10 Must-Haves list and it has something the Q doesn't...Wifi support. Goodbye Moto, hello voip.
Boasting an impressive set of mobile features, the Dash is a little bit old school and a little futurerama. Direct push delivers messages in real time to the Windows Mobile Platform, where you can synchronize Outlook, view multimedia content using Windows Media Player, open Microsoft Office documents, send text or picture messages, and IM using popular chat clients like MSN, ICQ, AOL, or Yahoo. The full QWERTY keyboard and rubberized exterior make it easy to use and hang on to. You'll actually be able to use the darn thing without fumbling it into unauthorized territory, like the dog's water bowl, for instance.
I'd personally like to thank the engineers for that one; it's hard to make voip internet phone calls when your equipment is, erm...soggy. Side note: you may, with a little luck, be able to disassemble and dry out a phone that "theoretically" went through the wash. Pop the carcass into that food dehydrator you never use any more for 6-10 hours on the lowest setting.
Oogle the features:
- Bluetooth 2.0 (faster + less power needed = happy dance)
- Direct push
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Text & Picture messaging
- 1.3 megapixel camera
- Video capture and playback
- Windows Media Player
- GPRS/Edge capable
- WiFi enabled
- Plug in extra memory as needed
- Quad Band for worldwide connections
- Voice activated dialing
- myFaves compatible
- Isn't that enough already?
Port of call
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Well, 4 ports actually. Buffalo's AirStation wireless ethernet bridge (WLI-TX4-G54HP) allows you to grab a wireless broadband connection and securely distribute it to four devices. Think game consoles, voip internet phone adapters, IP printers, computers---stuff like that.
Users reported ridiculously easy setup for Windows XP configuration and were really wild about the part where you don't have to reconfigure the bridge everytime a new device gets plugged in. w00t! It's the perfect way to connect your voip adapter to a wireless network, especially when access to the broadband modem is limited or completely restricted.
- 802.11g
- Data transfer rate: 125Mbps
- Supports 64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP, and WPA-PSK
- 4 ports for devices to use
Can be found at Tiger Direct for just under $70.
Bridging the gap
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Not everyone has access to their broadband router and I don't mean the people who are sneaking onto their neighbor's unsecured wireless network ;-) College dorms are frequently provided with WiFi clouds, but students have no way to hook a voip internet phone adapter to the university's modem. Hotel rooms and internet coffee shops are other places where you might not be able to physically hook into a modem. So what can you do about it?
A wireless voip phone might be the easiest solution, however you shouldn't overlook the possibility that a WiFi bridge might solve your problem. Bridges receive the wireless internet signal that's being broadcast and allow you to physically plug in devices like voip adapters or a computer. Then you can connect your phone line to the adapter and bam! You have voip! Without all the geekery of speaking to your computer.
Unless your alter-ego is named Cyber Dork. If that's the case, you might be interested in finding out that you can use your computer as a wireless voip bridge if you use your Wireless and Ethernet cards at the same time. Just, plug your phone adapter into the Ethernet port and grab a signal using your wireless card. Enjoy your voip :-)
Virtual voice
If you haven't visited Second Life, it's a virtual world where you can take any shape, buy an island, make money, gain friends and influence the course of the newest cyber frontier. Residents, whether they've got paid accounts or free ones, actually create the world they see.
In Second Life, communication usually happens at the speed of chat. It's a great way to communicate; there's just enough lag to make sure you've replied correctly or allow a translator to work its magic. If you're lousy with non-verbal communication, smileys are a godsend. It's also great for those who have speech impediments.
But there's a new voice in the Second Life universe, literally. Even though voice isn't directly supported, there are a number of third-party voice programs, like Teamspeak or Vivox, that allow residents to talk to each other while inside the simulation (using voip internet phone technology). Vivox has even installed virtual voip phonebooths across the virtual world.
Inveneo innovates
Thursday, November 02, 2006
With cell phones, IM, broadband, and the rise of residential voip internet phone systems, it seems we're always available and there's a strong expectation that everyone else lives that way, too. If you look beyond our 24/7 cult of connectedness long enough, you'll see that there's an enormous world out there and quite a large chunk of the population doesn't have routine access to something as basic as a telephone.
We have family friends in Ghana and every year my in-laws scrape together books for the University's library. Sometimes they even make it across the oceans for a visit. It's different in Ghana. You can't necessarily pick up the phone and find out why that contractor hasn't shown up to the job site for the last week and a half. Instead, you walk or ride or drive over to where he stays and hope like the dickens he'll be there when you show up. If not, you wait. 10 minutes. An hour. 3 days. As long as it takes.
Imagine if every time you needed to know something you had to walk 25 miles to the nearest library. Or two villages over to find out if your sister's child made it through that last bout of croup all right. Inveneo imagined. And then they did something.
Robust, self-contained, low-power consumption WiFi communication networks that are solar powered or, in a pinch, get their electricity from a bicycle-driven generator. Costing about $1800 for a setup that can connect the entire village, Inveneo's voip and internet access points bring the world into the heart of rural areas. Telemedicine, eLearning, business opportunities, and let's not forget just plain-vanilla communication--these sturdy systems are the key to sustainable improvements in rural villagers' quality of life.
Banners
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
For a very long time, the very basic online advertising tools have been banners. Linked with the affiliate ID, banners provide the fundamental creative for sales support and tracking.
Banner sizes vary but if you want to keep track of the new standards regularly visit the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s website, where the newly introduced banner sizes are published.
If you are an affiliate or planning to become one, you know or will soon know that the effectiveness of banners can only be measured by the clicks they generate. However, in general, it has been proven that the most successful banners for affiliates are the 88x31 (a.k.a. Micro Bar) and 120x90 (a.k.a. Button 1).
Voip.com’s affiliate program offers the seven most popular banner sizes: 88x31, 120x60, 120x90, 120x600, 125x125, 234x60, 468x60.