Wednesday, May 9, 2007

IKANO Communications Secures $16.5 Million in Funding

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – IKANO Communications, the nation’s largest provider of private-label Internet services, announced that it has secured a $16.5 million credit facility from Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc.

IKANO has entered into the agreement with Hercules to establish a senior secured loan facility in the total amount of $16.5 million. On April 19, 2005, the initial closing, IKANO immediately drew down $5.0 million of the line. IKANO will utilize the net proceeds to fund acquisitions, including the recent purchase of the subscriber base of Amerion, a Washington state-based Internet Service Provider. IKANO will seek additional opportunities for the remaining amounts under the line.

"We are thrilled to have Hercules Technology on board as a capital provider,” said Henry Smith, IKANO president and CEO. “This funding will enable us to complete a number of key acquisitions including Internet Service Providers and related companies.”

During the past year, IKANO has purchased the subscribers and some related assets of approximately 15 Internet Service Providers.
IKANO partners with Internet Service Providers to help reduce operating costs, increase revenue and expand geographic reach/product offering. IKANO’s private-label platform supports turnkey dial-up, DSL, VoIP, wireless access solutions, email/webmail, IM, hosting, billing, branded customer service/technical support, and automated accounting.

IKANO is an Inc. 500 company, with more than 500 business clients and 300 employees. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, IKANO has additional offices in Logan, Ohio; Toronto, ON; and Pasco, Washington.

About IKANO
Stemming from the classical Greek word meaning, “to enable,” IKANO is the market-leading enabler of private-label Internet services. IKANO partners with Internet Service Providers to help reduce operating costs, increase revenue and expand geographic reach/product offering. IKANO is the parent company of SISNA, one of the nation’s original Internet Service Providers; Interhop/auracom, offering ISP franchises and consumer Internet services throughout Canada; and HOTSPOTZZ, one of the largest private providers of Wi-Fi hot spots. IKANO served as the official network provider for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. For more information visit http://www.ikano.com.

About Hercules Technology Growth Capital
Hercules Technology Growth Capital is a leading specialty finance company focused on providing growth capital to technology and life sciences companies at all stages of development. Hercules Technology investment professionals have 145 collective years of experience in venture capital, operating, specialized technology lending, acquisition finance and leveraged leasing experience. Hercules Technology has offices located in Palo Alto, CA.; Boston, MA.; and ChicagoArticle Submission, IL. Additional information can be found at: http://www.herculestech.com.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Debbie LaBelle
IKANO Communications
Marketing & PR Director
(801) 415-8076
dlabelle@ikano.com

Merchant Accounts: Points to Consider

Okay so you want to accept credit cards from your customers, and are interested in establishing a merchant account. Whether you own a brick-and-mortar retail store, mail order outlet, or internet shopping operation, there are a few things to consider when choosing a credit card processing provider.

First of all, you should make a list of several providers that offer the features you want, then compare the variable fees that may differ depending on the company you deal with. These fees include things like set-up, cancellation, and monthly minimum, and may be negotiable based on your unique circumstances.

Once you have determined the what your business will be charged for its merchant account, it’s often a good idea to do a few sample calculations to work out your total credit card processing costs during a good, bad, and average month.

Finally, you should read and double-check the contract, including small print and detailed terms. Don’t sign anything until you are confident that you understand all the fees, minimums, termination clauses, and other details. It’s important to keep in mind that merchant account providers won’t go over every single point with every single customerScience Articles, and that it is ultimately your responsibility to read and understand the terms.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeremy Maddock is a successful webmaster who manages a number of informative websites, including one about corporate financial services.

Effective Online Logo Designs

For those individuals seeking inexpensive logo designs, look no further, online logo designs fit the bill very nicely, thank you. The Internet truly can be your best friend, especially when you're starting up a small business. I run my own business and was looking for an online logo design service provider. I managed to get in touch with several people through a simple Internet search. The artistry and service levels vary greatly as did the fees, but that is to be expected. I actually decided to seek out free online logo designs to see what I could come up with. Yes, that's right to free.

I actually found a great deal of services. Surprisingly, there were what if you services provided free online logo designs. I was actually quite surprised. One of the best I have found is cool text. This is an online logo design provider that can issue a simple yet elegant logo designs. The process is pretty cut and dry actually. The style, color and design of the logo are all modifiable so that you may customize them as you see fit. Your simple and effective online logo design is ready for download and subsequent use. It sure beats the heck out of messing around with an expensive software applications to try and create your online logo designs.

Of course there are some drawbacks with such online logo designs. For starters, you must choose which template that suits your needs and the choices can be quite limited. Also, you cant create a really elaborate, professional looking logo, as the online logo design process is built to be very basic. So forget about online logo designs incorporating two or three lines of text and your favorite photograph. They are really created to get up as an online logo design fast and clean with no muss and fuss.

There are thousands of such sites where you can get free online logo designs. It is hard to fathom why someone would take the time to create and distribute these for no charge. But in actuality, the purpose of free online logo designs is to give you a little tedious of what can be done and then sell you a product. There's nothing new or unsavory about that practice. Frankly, some of the logos that these free online logo design sites offer are too basic to be used for any practical business.

The truth isPsychology Articles, that many people actually decide to get their online logo designs done professionally when they see what they can have? It really is wonderful to have a choice of free online logo designs or professionally crafted logos.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Morgan Hamilton offers his findings and insights regarding the world of online shopping. You can get interesting information here at Online Logo Design

All About Direct TV Test Cards

The Direct TV test card, a small electronic chip, inserts into the TV receiver and serves the main purpose of identifying and match the customer to the service provider. Each of the test cards has a unique code allocated to them which identifies the customer to the service provider.

This credit card size access card works as an auxiliary processor to the receiver for billing, security, encryption, decryption, and other purposes. You may be familiar with the test cards, as it enables you to make use of the Pay Per View programming.

The Direct TV test card is linked to the service provider’s computer through their land-based telephone line. This access card contains all the necessary information about the type of subscription and is essential for activating the program. With this connection, subscribers’ additional billing information, like Pay Per View for sports, movie, etc programming is mirrored to the company’s receiver and to the computer network. Now and then, some advertisements are found touting Direct TV test cards at tempting low prices. They usually promise that their cards can provide their customers access to almost all channels available on the system. It is done so by reprogramming or removing the blocks of copy-written software, software which is used for decrypting all the channels available on the system.

All these advertisers actually sell is pirated test cards which cost them practically nothing. Because these cards access the programs through some other genuine service providers systems, you are actually stealing programming when you use these pirated test cards. This unavoidable problem of these cards of linking TV set through some unsubscribed service providers system to access to the satellite transmissions provides the service providers the opportunity to command the control over the services of those unsubscribed service consumers.

The service providers can easily get to know through their system that people are using their systems without their permission. The piracy was rampant until a few years ago but the Direct TV has now been able to improve the security of these cards and is cracking down on pirators through the law. The service providers continuously hassle these users in order to force them to subscribe to their service. They hassle these pirated card users so much that they almost make these cards useless. Therefore these users are ultimately forced to subscribe to their service. These illegal test cards; in some cases; may even be incompatible with the system with which it is used or sometimes may work only for a short period. Hence, the hassle of buying and selling an illegal Direct TV test card is much like gamblingPsychology Articles, and probably isn’t worth your time in the first place.

Direct TV has introduced the following cards so far:a) P1 Cards: Was used until 1997. It featured the picture of a satellite on it.b) P2 Cards: Was introduced in 1996 and was in existence until 2002.c) P3 Cards (Hu cards): Introduced in 1999 and featured the picture of a football player on it in the front so it is also known as football card.d) P4 Cards: These current generation P4 cards were introduced in 2002 in the market. It has been highly successful over the P3 cards in controlling the piracy. It is also known as access card #4.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Written by David Johnson. Find more information on the how to Get Direct TV Deals

Monday, May 7, 2007

Traffic Building Look out for the potholes

Traffic Building Look out for the potholes
You finally have your website published and you are as proud as any parent would be of a new addition to the family. Well, nearly as excited. You cannot wait for visitors to flock to your site and to gulp up everything you have to offer them. You expect to hear the cash register ringing all the time. You expect to sit back and watch the money roll in. After a while you cannot help but acknowledge that nothing is happening and that you are probably the only visitor to your website. Sounds familiar?

The above scenario is all too common on the internet and most successful webmasters started their first website anticipating huge results that never happened. They only started to become successful once they realized that the internet is not a get-rich-quick scheme but that building a successful website takes time, dedication and hard work, like any other business.

As soon as you realize your website is not getting traffic you reach a crossroad – You can take the straight and narrow road that requires more work, but that will take you to your destination, or, the broad road that seems easier to travel on but is actually only a mirage.

Many internet marketers make the mistake of taking the broad road, the easy road. It looks easy at first glance but turns out to be a road leading to nowhere. A typical case of good from far but far from good. Taking this road often involves doing business with dubious sites promising you huge amounts of traffic in exchange for cash. Money that you can often not afford to spend but feel obliged to spend thinking it is the only thing you can do to get people to visit your site. It is the same as a musician giving free tickets away to his concert in the hope that people will buy his album once they have heard him. Actually it is worse. It is more like a musician paying someone to get people to visit his concert. He does not really know where these people come from and are not sure at all whether he will sell any albums to them. If he does sell some albums then he normally does not even make enough money to reimburse himself for his initial investment in getting people to his concern.

This may sound a bit dramatic but is happens every day when internet marketers start getting desperate for traffic. There certainly are sites out there that will deliver the traffic at the right price. Problem is that it is not the type of traffic you need. You may end up getting many “hits” but don’t be surprised if you get no sales as the people clicking on your site are often poor people in third world countries that get paid cents to click on sites but will never buy anything on the sites they visit. Sad but true. By the way, never subscribe to sites that offer to click on your Google™ Adsense™ adverts in your website. Such clicks are fraudulent. Google™ will find out about it and you may be banned from ever using their tools again.

There are many schemes out there designed to trap desperate webmasters. As a rule, do not spend any money to obtain traffic when you just start out. There is an enormous amount of valuable and free information on the internet that will help you to grow your business. Read up as much as possible on the internet and if you feel a need to invest money at a later stage in legitimate programs like Google™ Adwords™ you will be able to make an informed decision.

Remember that if something sounds too good to be true that it normally is too good to be true. Stay on the straight and narrow road to become a money maker and build a successful home based business.

http://www.articleworld.com/articles/6/1/Traffic-Building--Look-out-for-the-potholes/Traffic-Building--Look-out-for-the-potholes.html

Make Money Online - Helpful advice on how to start

Make Money Online - Helpful advice on how to start
You are probably reading this article for only a couple of reasons:

1. You do not currently make enough money and need to make more money on a part-time basis without compromising your full-time job. You do not have a lot of time available to make more money.

2. You are not happy in your job or do not like working for a boss. You are looking for an alternative way of earning money, preferably full-time but with something that you can start on a part-time basis. 3. You are already trying to make more money and have tried many different business opportunities but with no or very little success. You realize you need help.

If you can associate with one or more of the above-mentioned reasons for reading this article then please continue reading.

There are millions of people all over the world that do not like what they are doing for a living. Maybe it is the job itself, a rude boss, or not earning enough money to have a decent standard of living. Whatever the reason(s), most people find it very difficult to make a new start.

We are all creatures of habit that dislike change and value safety and security. Starting a business often takes us outside our comfort-zone. We need to build our confidence, not only in ourselves but also in any new opportunity that we are considering.

This can be achieved by:
- Learning as much as possible about any new opportunity.
- Having the possibility of doing it on a part-time basis as a trial to see whether it is any good.
- Spending as little money as possible on any new business opportunity. You don't want to add more stress to your life by spending lots of money (that you can't afford to spend) on things that may not work at all.

Many people consider the Internet as the ideal way of making more money. I agree with them. Problem is that most people actually lose more money on the Internet than make money. There are millions and millions of ecommerce websites on the Internet and it is estimated that at least 95% of these websites are losing money every month!

Why do I like to do business on the Internet?
a. It allows me to have an international business, potentially reaching many millions of people all over the world.
b. Like most people I do not enjoy face-to-face selling. With the Internet there is no need for face-to-face selling. No fear of being rejected by customers or insulted by people having a bad-hair-day.
c. I can make money 24 hours a day. Even while sleeping someone can be buying a product or service on my website.
d. I can run my business from anywhere in the world, as long as I have a computer and access to the Internet.
e. Once my business is setup it basically runs on autopilot. That does not mean I do not need to work on it. It means I do not have to spend eight hours every day working on it. One or two hours should be sufficient.
f. It allows me to have my own business with unlimited earning potential. Whatever I put in I can get out. The sky is the limit and I am not working to make my boss or company rich.

Fact of the matter is that it is becoming more and more difficult to ignore the massive ecommerce potential of the Internet. Whether you are selling products or services online or have any other type of business, you need the Internet to promote your business as more and more consumers are doing online searches to find what they are looking for. Does not matter if you are a plumber or an electrician, you will need the Internet more and more in the future to promote your business.

O.K. We have established that the Internet offers us a huge potential to make more money, part-time or full-time. We have also established that most people are not actually making any money from the Internet.

Where do we start?
We start by learning as much as possible at our own pace without forcing anything. Remember that knowledge is power!

I recommend that before you do anything on the Internet that you join a suitable company as an affiliate or join a network marketing company. The point is not whether you want to pursue a

long-term career as an affiliate. The important point is that you can join most affiliate programs for free and receive very valuable information and training for free. In addition, you can actually make a lot of money while learning! This, in my opinion, is the best, safest and easiest way to start.

Many companies that offer affiliate programs do their best to offer their affiliates as much training and support as possible. Why? It is in their best interest. The better advice, training and support they give you the more money you will make for them.

Remember that as an affiliate you do not need to buy or sell anything. You only need to get people to promote the company you are an affiliate of. All sales resulting in your referral will earn you a very nice commission, normally anything between 20% and 50% of the sales price. That is not bad at all! Many companies will even give you a free affiliate website that you can promote.

What is the catch?
The catch is that it is not always easy to promote a certain product or service. People do not automatically visit your affiliate website. This is where the training comes in. If you can succeed as an affiliate for a company you can succeed with your own Internet business in the future. There will be no need to pay expensive school fees. As with many other things in life, it takes time to become a money maker and build a successful home based business but it is certainly worth it.
To your success !

http://www.articleworld.com/articles/5/1/Make-Money-Online---Helpful-advice-on-how-to-start/Make-Money-Online---Helpful-advice-on-how-to-start.html

Affiliate Programs The advantages of being an affiliate

Affiliate Programs The advantages of being an affiliate
I am a strong believer in the value of affiliate programs and believe that the best way to start an internet business is to become an affiliate of another program or to join a network marketing company. Why? To learn as much as possible from your sponsor(s) and make use of all the free advice and tips you will receive from them.

When you are eventually ready to start your own business you will already have a lot of experience and knowledge (that you obtained for free!) that will give you a huge advantage and save you a lot of money and time.

By the way, there are many very successful internet marketers that earn all of their money through affiliate programs and network marketing programs.

If you find a great affiliate program where you can make a lot of money and you decide to stay with the company instead of starting your own new business then good for you! If on the other hand you want to start a new business of your own then you would have at least learned a lot from the affiliate program, and hopefully made some money as well in the process.

The biggest mistake people make is to jump all the time from the one affiliate program to the other without taking the time to learn and understand the program and system. There are many programs on the internet. If you are going to leave what you are busy with every time you think you have discovered a better program then you will never learn anything.

Take your time to learn and be patient. I can assure you that you will not become an overnight millionaire following any affiliate program. Like any other business it takes time to build a successful affiliate business, even with the support and training you may receive.

I tend to look at things very logically. If something does not make sense to me I rather avoid it.

Consider the following:
You develop a great product that you want to sell for 10 on your website. It might have costed you thousands of dollars to develop and many many months of hard work with no income while you were developing your product. You are finally ready to launch your product. Since you are only one person with one website you realize the need to establish an affiliate program where you can have hundreds of affiliates promote your company and get thousands of people to buy from you. In order to get affiliates interested you must pay them between 20% and 50% of your sales price or gross profit.

I don't know about you but the above scenario looks like a lot of very hard work without any guarantee of success. The thought of it certainly does not get me excited.

Now consider the following - You join the above company as an affiliate and earn say 50% commission on all sales. You do not need to buy the product and have no investment in the company. You can start to sell the product from the 1st day you become an affiliate and make a lot of money. In fact, the company will make 50% and you will make 50%. You have no risk and can walk away from the program anytime you wish. What a pleasure! This is what I like the most from affiliate programs.

Remember that not all affiliate programs are good. Many of them only offer products that you would not want to give away for free to your mother-in-law. Furthermore, the support program and training offered is not always top quality.

I do not know about you but I cannot promote any product or service that I do not understand or do not believe in. You should always be able to sell the product to yourself. If you would not buy the product because you do not believe in it then please do not promote it to other people as the best product out there. You will sleep a lot better at night!

Remember, if you want to become a money maker with your own home based business, ultimately it is up to you to make a success of the program.

http://www.articleworld.com/articles/2/1/Affiliate-Programs--The-advantages-of-being-an-affiliate/Affiliate-Programs--The-advantages-of-being-an-affiliate.html