You’re looking for a work at home job and you come across a webpage that tells you it is going to steer you away from the hundreds of scams straight toward the scant few legitimate sites out there. Sounds great, right?

Wrong! It’s the latest in work from home scams and simple to create: all you need is a website and a affiliate ID with ClickBank. I have looked at over a dozen of these sites. They were all designed with one basic principle in mind: steering you toward the three to five sites they wanted you to purchase through their ClickBank affiliate links.

One note about ClickBank. ClickBank is not a bank as its name implies. According to them, they are a “”digital marketplace”" that sells “”digitally delivered products.”" While many of the questionable products I have found are sold via ClickBank and Google Ads, and you might wonder about a company who is willing to profit off such schemes, you shouldn’t necessarily blame them. After all, would you blame Amazon or BooksaMillion for selling you a bad book? It’s a moral quandary, sure, but it is simpler to teach consumers to protect themselves, then to try to battle against consumerism.

When looking at these sites, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does the person give himself or herself a title without proving it? I’ve seen sites where the author was claiming to be an “”online fraud investigator,”" although he never stated for what company. Other sites claim they are “”protection”" agencies, but in reality, they just people trying to part you with your money.

2. Does the site claim to have been seen on well-known sites, newspapers, magazines, or TV shows but fail to give the dates, times and links to this information? As far as you know, they could have been profiled on those programs as being scams. Don’t assume that those sites lend creditability to what you are looking at until you see it for yourself.

3. Does it use strong words in its title that are designed to produce a strong response? They might claim to be “”scam free”" or the “”top site.”" They’ll claim to be a “”review”" site or a “”consumer protection”" site.

4. Does the site provide affiliate links and only link to sites you have to pay for? A ClickBank affiliate link is easy to spot. Right click on the link and select “”properties.”" If you read something that has “”hop.clickbank.net”" in it or if you click on the link and you wind up at a site that has “”hop=XXXX”" (XXXX= the person’s unique affiliate ID) in it, it’s an affiliate link. You may have to click on more one of the links as the sites are learning to cloak the links to try to seem more legitimate. You might also want to see who owns the site and any sites they are promoting. Sometimes, these sites end up being the same.

5. Read the small print on the site. What is it saying that the big, bold print doesn’t? With many of sites, it seems the smaller the print, the closer to the truth. You’ll find statements such as “”this site is not to be regarded as advice”" and “”it is our opinion that these programs have been featured on the programs.”"

Once you’ve finished evaluating the so-called expert’s site, start looking at the companies it’s recommending. I’d start with the Better Business Bureau. Then, I would contact the company directly and ask what their guarantee is and what their refund policy is. If you don’t get a response from them, do you really want to give them your money? Finally, I would put in the company’s name in Google or Yahoo along with the word “”fraud”" or “”scam”" and see what happens. You might find other people have already fallen victim to this scheme.

Remember, these are sites offering you a job, how many legitimate jobs do you have to pay for in order to obtain?

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Tags: ethics, IT, Information, training, corporate

It’s trendy to be green. Green sells, green makes a good story to the client. Green shows you care. But really, how do you know if your printer is really green? Having been in the backrooms of many an offset printer for about 15 years, I can tell you that there is a HUGE difference in waste between printers. Some printers know more about saving the environment than Greenpeace. And others shouldn’t be let within five kilometres of a city’s drinking water. No joke, I know of one company (since gone out of business, thankfully) that used to dump pure ammonia down the public drains. On the sidewalk outside the company, if you walk near a sewers, the fumes from the ammonia were enough to knock you out.

Anyhow, if you want to ensure your printer is really green and not putting you on, ask to go on a plant tour and look for the following:

1. How old is the prepress equipment?

What does the printer use to make plates? Do they use an up-to-date thermal computer-to-plate device or are they still stuck using an imagesetter (which makes film and then plates are exposed from the film). Imagesetter went out of style sometime in the mid-nineteen nineties. As well as giving the pressmen more headaches when trying to register on the press (leading to more paper wastage), imagesetters need developers and fixers to process the film. Think of your Dad’s old 35mm camera, only in humongous size. That’s an imagesetter. Now think of the chemicals needs to develop all that film. There’s no excuse for a printer to NOT have a CTP device today, unless the printer doesn’t want to put any money in the business, in which case that means the company is polluting like its 1979.

2. Latest and greatest software?

There is a large niche of prepress software out there that is designed to cut down wastage (helping printers save more money and incidentally, helping the environment). Ever heard of CIPS3? Every pressman worth his or her salt has. It’s an little software program that helps the press “run up to color” at the beginning of the press by automatic calibration of the ink keys on a press. In a large printing plant, it can save dumpsters of paper per day. Even at your local 4 color commercial printer, it’s a big paper saver. Ask your vendor what new and groovy software has been purchased in the last five years. The printer will either be a) Very excited that you are geek (fake it) and will tell the latest and greatest color management tools that have been implemented on the back end or b) Lie. And not lie very convincingly.

3. What’s Going Down the Drain?

Some commercial printers have what is called processorless plates, or plates that do not need developing before being hung on the press. Other short-run specialists use inkjet presses, which don’t use plates at all. In any case, the problem of waste fluids is yet another discussion you should have with your printer. But just remember, if they have nasty stuff in the shop, that doesn’t exactly mean environmental apocalypse is imminent. Lots of developers chemicals can be chemically neutralized before being dumped down the drain. Of course that cost money, so it’s worth enquiring about it.

4. A Decent-Looking Website

Too timid to request a site visit? Hey, just check out the printer’s website. If a printer has made a massive investment in the latest and greatest hardware and software that minimizes the company’s ecological printer, it’s a good bet that they have overhauled the web site to include online ordering, proofing, and other little tricks that make life easier for the customer (and money for the printer). Really check out the online proofing capabilities of the website. If you can’t view PDF proofs online, that’s a red flag.

5. Where is the Printer Getting the Paper?

Three words: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). A printer may not be FCS certified (I hear the certification process is a bit of a bear and costly) but a printer can still order FSC certified paper. The term recycled paper is almost meaningless, you would have go back in time to find business card stock and envelopes made of prime old-growth trees grown in a rainforest untouched by man since the beginning of time. But at the very least a printer should be able to quote you on FSC paper.

Last not lot least, keep asking questions and don’t be intimidated. If a printer has a lousy web site designed by his 15 year old cousin in 2001, that’s a bad sign. If they don’t want to give you a plant tour because of “safety” reasons, that’s a bad sign. If they brush you off when you ask questions about their equipment, that’s a very bad sign. The print business is very competitive, and there ARE printers who invested a lot of money in “greening” their plant. Make them happy by discovering them.

Prepress Pilgrim is a blog dedicated to the prepress industry, which means writing about everything from printing to computer system administration to whatever else the author feels like writing about. Visit this web

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Tags: ethics, IT, corporate, business, green

In order to examine ethical issues, it is first necessary to define ethics. Today, we regard ethics as a “”rational process founded on certain principles.”" However, I believe a definition that is more applicable to this project is the ethical theory that existed in ancient Greece. There, ethics was the study of what was good for both the individual and society. We will look at some online issues and how they may be good and/or bad for society. Cyberethics is quite simply the study of ethics on the Internet.

“Ethics begins when elements within a moral system conflict.”
Cyberethics is often called as Information System Ethics. Information System ethics can be defined as “The study of moral, legal, ethical issues involving the use of information and communication technologies“
There are many unique challenges we face in this age of information. They stem from the nature of information itself. Information is the means through which the mind expands and increases its capacity to achieve its goals, often as the result of an input from another mind. Thus, information forms the intellectual capital from which human beings craft their lives and secure dignity.

However, the building of intellectual capital is vulnerable in many ways. For example, people’s intellectual capital is impaired whenever they lose their personal information without being compensated for it, when they are precluded access to information which is of value to them, when they have revealed information they hold intimate, or when they find out that the information upon which their living depends is in error. The social contract among people in the information age must deal with these threats to human dignity. The ethical issues involved are many and varied in Information System Ethics.

Ethics is required in information Systems to overcome the following ethical issues.

Privacy: What information about one’s self or one’s associations must a person reveal to others, under what conditions and with what safeguards? What things can people keep to themselves and not be forced to reveal to others?

Accuracy: Who is responsible for the authenticity, fidelity and accuracy of information? Similarly, who is to be held accountable for errors in information and how is the injured party to be made whole?

Property: Who owns information? What are the just and fair prices for its exchange? Who owns the channels, especially the airways, through which information is transmitted? How should access to this scarce resource be allocated?

Accessibility: What information does a person or an organization have a right or a privilege to obtain, under what conditions and with what safeguards?

Information System ethics explores and evaluates:

• the development of moral values in the information field,

• the creation of new power structures in the information field, information myths,

• hidden contradictions and intentionality’s in information theories and practices,

• the development of ethical conflicts in the information field. etc

Now let us take a look at privacy by the following examples. A few years ago, Florida lawmakers gave the go ahead to have monitors stationed in bathrooms at Tallahassee Community College to determine if the facilities were being underutilized. Students and faculty vehemently protested that the monitors violated their privacy. State officials said that the value of the information gained through the study was more important than the threat to privacy. Other issues like collection of private data of the users using internet by monitoring the traffic is strongly related to one’s policy as that information can be further used for illegal purposes. These types of privacy issues are needed to be addressed properly so that they should not exploit one’s freedom. One issue that I kept thinking about when I was constructing my Web page was whether it was ethical to lift an image from someone’s home page and use it on my Web page without crediting the source. Such ethical issues come under property.

One reason that topics such as online gambling and pornography have become such firestorms of controversy in cyberspace is the simple fact that so many people have access to the Web sites. Simply put, if no one had access to online pornography no one would care. With this another issue “Censorship” comes which should be deal in efficient way as it is not easy to implement. Ethical issues can also be religious, moral or any other.These type of issues are not easy to deal with.

Similarly, let us take China into consideration on the issue of “Censorship”. China has implemented the methods of censoring the internet that are somewhat harder to bypass for people generally unfamiliar with the way internet works. There is ,for example internet censorship as implemented in China—using a list of banned words that are censored on the fly. As users in china request a webpage , the incoming page is first inspected by government servers n blocked if a banned term such as “Democracy” is present. Human censors are also actively looking at what people browse on the internet, and block websites as they see fit.

Crimes on internet are also increasing in a continuous manner.Computer crime is a general term that embraces such crimes as phishing, credit card frauds, bank robbery, Industrial espionage, child porn, kidnapping children via chat rooms, scams, cyber terrorism, viruses, spam and so on. All such crimes are computer related and facilitated crimes. Many recent cases seen like Microsoft’s website was brought down for a little time resulting in a huge loss to Microsoft. Similarly, NUST, one of the best considered university in Pakistan got Hacked and redirected to another domain. Credit card fraud have grown in an increasingly manner. Leakage of Military information from internet is another internet crime. Software known as google earth, which shows information about different places including military land or can lead to robbery planning, is becoming an ethical issue around the world. Many people protest against this leakage of information but still one can’t deny that it is one of the major enhancements in Information Technology.

The question about how to police these crimes has already been constructed, but this task is turning out to be an uphill battle. Since the first computer crime law, the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984, the governments have been trying to track down and stop online criminals. The FBI of different countries have tried many programs and investigations in order to deter Internet crime, like creating an online crime registry for employers .The reality is that Internet criminals are rarely caught. One reason is that hackers will use one computer in one country to hack another computer in another country. And that criminal isn’t working alone. Loosely organized groups–which security experts call “”Web gangs”"–conduct much of the illegal activity online. The structure of Web gangs may be patterned on that of traditional organized crime, in which the members of the group may never come into contact with one another and may never be aware of who they are working for.

Conclusion:

We live in an exciting time in history. The widespread availability of computers and Internet connections provides unprecedented opportunities to communicate and learn. Unfortunately, although most people use the Internet as a powerful and beneficial tool for communication and education, some individuals exploit the power of the Internet for criminal or terrorist purposes.

We can minimize the harm that such individuals do by learning ourselves, and teaching young people, how to use the Internet safely and responsibly. The term “cyberethics” refers to a code of safe and responsible behavior for the Internet community. Practicing good cyberethics involves understanding the risks of harmful and illegal behavior online and learning how to protect ourselves, and other Internet users, from such behavior. It also involves teaching young people, who may not realize the potential for harm to themselves and others, how to use the Internet safely and responsibly.

Muhammad Bilal Azmat,
Operations Manager.

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Tags: it, ethic, morality, code, handbook

One good thing is that media outlets are scramming for news stories to capture and keep their audiences. What this means is that right now is an excellent opportunity to receive some free publicity and almost everyone could use a freebie in this economy.

So just how do you impress the media today? Well, one thing for sure you better not be wasting their time. Virtually, every media outlet from television, radio, magazines, even blogs etc. are operating with fewer staff. They still have the same deadlines and massive work to do, but without as much help.

Your pitch has to be of relevance and importance. If not you will surely find yourself on a blackball list and believe me these days it will take even more than a phone call from President Obama to get you off.

There are some reasonable measurements to take to remain newsworthy. Following these steps will help to stay on the media’s good side and off the blackball list.

1. Reality Check – Are you aware of what is going on in the news? Seriously, have you done a self reality check to make sure that you are up to date on the latest news happenings? You can’t make the news if you don’t understand what is going on surrounding the news. Trust me most reporters and producers know when you are out of check with reality.

2. Win-Win Match – In order to receive free publicity from a media outlet you need to offer win-win match solutions to cover news about you. Pitching a storyline that does not match a media outlet’s target audience is the fastest way to land on a blackball list. Also make sure that you are pitching reporters who cover news related to your pitch. Reporters don’t pass on news to other reporters because it fits their category better; they simply toss your bad pitch.

3. Create News – There are so many social media resources to create news buzz. Try starting a company blog, put some videos on YouTube, or connect with others on Stumbleupon or Twitter.

4. Promote News – Most story ideas in the media are created from a press release. Make sure that you actively promote news to attract the media to cover stories on you.

5. Monitor News – Staying on the pulse of rising news stories is an entry to pitch and promote news to receive coverage. When it comes to breaking news stories the media always seek topics on related subjects to add to the story.

Remember the media runs on news and you have to stay newsworthy to be of benefit. Keep pitching!

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“CR” Cataunya Ransom is the Co-founder of Mosnar Communications, INC. She developed a niche for Luxury PR & Global Marketing. Guiding clients on how to brand, market, and promote luxury products, events, and services. Feel free to visit this site

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For a long time I have wanted to share my idea of a present-day IT-journalist. Here are three generalized images of today’s typical characters from Germany, the USA and Russia. Please read between the lines, and you will see that the images are quite typical.

Let’s begin with Germany. It is really pleasant to deal with German editors: the employees are polite and professional. If the person you need is absent at the moment, you will be asked to call again at a given time (e.g. Friday, 11 o’clock) or they can even call back themselves no matter where you live. Well then, here is the first image.

Friedrich Hoffmann[*]
Munich, Germany
33 y.o.
Ziff Davis Online Publishing, Internet Professionell, PC Professionell, PC Welt
“I am a wiper by profession!”

Friedrich Hoffmann avoids talking about himself without reference to his work by all available means. In his opinion, what is private should remain private. But he shared his tales about his professional activity and his thoughts about IT-journalism of today with pleasure.

What kind of education do you have?

I graduated from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. My major was “Journalism”, and my minor was “Political Science, Sociology and History of Arts”. But I did not start working at once, as I had to take two years’ break in order to do non-military service in a Hamburg orphan asylum.

And what happened afterwards? Weren’t you disappointed with your profession after a long break and a change of occupation?

Of course, there were a lot of various thoughts in my young head, but I have always felt that it is my vocation to work with the word. I was 23 when I began to look for a job consciously and, as a result, started my career. I was employed as a PR specialist by a company, which dealt with developing b2c and b2b program solutions for financial management. That experience was really valuable. I got a lot of new knowledge about software market, the current state of the World Wide Web and its business potential. I became more and more concerned by the problems of IT branch. I promoted the products of that company till 2005, and I naturally made some contacts with targeted magazines and main news portals.

Therefore, you were invited to join editorial staff?

Not exactly. I am not officially employed. Along with my main job, I became a freelance writer: I wrote articles that were bought by some magazines quite willingly. Soon I began to get orders from magazines, and I decided to quit my job and to commit myself to journalism.

What are your articles about?

About various things – networks, network security, web-design, Internet-marketing, freeware. But the core of my interest is still the social aspects of the Internet: social services, web 2.0 etc. By the way, in 1996, when still going to college, I had written the first German articles dedicated to flirtation, acquaintance and love online long before they became a part of our life.

I know that you also write books. How do you manage to find time for that?

I guess it cannot be helped. Every journalist writes books, as everybody gathers unique experience in the course of his life, not excepting you or me. And everybody needs to share this experience, but a journalist feels this need stronger than anybody else. I satisfy this need with writing books. One of my books on marketing has already been translated to four languages and is successfully sold in Europe. It means that my experience is instructive for somebody!

What can you say about the present-day IT journalism? You must reflect on your profession a lot.

I am a wiper by profession! Everybody is surprised to hear it, but I am going to explain myself. It is commonly considered, that only a “pro”, which has worked in a technical department of an IT company for several years, can work as an IT journalist. So, if you read any IT article, it will be either boring or difficult to understand unless the subject is directly connected to your work. There is too much dust in IT journalism, and somebody needs to wipe it away. That is what I deal with. And, judging by my readers’ comments, I seem to be quite a good contemporary wiper, which wipes the dust properly.

The US. American journalists differ a lot from their German colleagues. First, magazines’ sites contain a great amount of information, which is often irrelevant and difficult to sort out. When you make a call to editorial office, most likely you will hear a cushioned female voice of the answering system, which will make you play a quest game named “If you would like to… then push…” When you eventually manage to talk to somebody, you will be asked to write to the editor’s e-mail, which has been inactive for a long time (as you will tell them later). Though, it must be an “entrance threshold”… and, due to this, overcoming this mental barrier will seem even more rewarding. And here is the second portrait.

Kevin Gordon
California, the US
45 y.o.
Computer Shopper, Computer Power User, The Washington Post, New York’s Computer Click
“I am most likely to be a musician.”

Kevin, please tell us about your job. How did you become an IT journalist?

With pleasure! I live in California, in a small town named Humboldt City, together with my daughter and my wife. Besides, we have plenty of companions: a parakeet, two lizards, a cat and a dog. Our house is not big, but we have managed to transform the basement into a studio: you know that I am keen on music! I adore drums and all percussion instruments. I am a member of a music band and compose music for computer games.

Amazing! And, in addition, as a journalist, you have one of the most hectic professions! How do you cope with everything?

I have excellent leadership qualities and some work experience in a computer company. I got employed as a technical support service manager while still studying at college, proved to be a good employee and became the head of copyrighting department after graduation. In that software company I got deep technical knowledge, and now I possess qualifications, which are virtually exceptional for an IT journalist.

And what kind of education do you have? What college did you graduate from?

My work is not actually connected with my education. As I have already said, I got my technical knowledge in an IT company, not at college. I took bachelor’s degree in a college of journalism, and later I became Master of Psychology in another university.

Where can we find the examples of your articles? I could not find them on your web site.

What for should they be there? It would merely provoke copyright violation. I give examples only in private correspondence. The site contains only the most important information: the topics (databases, office technologies and flow of documents, various solutions for business and networks) and the types of my articles. And if you are too lazy to write, use Google then.

Where do you find yourself? What is your vocation – a journalist, an IT person or a musician?

I am most likely to be a musician. I try to spend every free minute in my studio. But journalism is music, too, so to say – it is the music of words, and you should play it in such a way that those you write for would hear it and listen it up to the end.

But why do you write about software and high technologies? Why not about music or psychology?

Because I find it very interesting. >B> <=5 MB> >G5=L 8=B5@5A=>. In general, all my knowledge, experience and hobbies help me in writing about IT. I have already mentioned music; and psychology helps me understand my readers. I am good at writing for a common user. Look, what Rob Winfried, the former technical editor of a major publishing house, wrote about me: “Kevin’s main advantage lies not in his technical knowledge, but in his ability to understand the level of his readers’ technical knowledge and to write his articles according to this level. There are too many technical writers around us, and very few of them can transform the IT world into several paragraphs, which will take the reader away to an amazing journey…”

Russia.

It should be noted, that today’s Russian IT journalists are quite adequate, civilized and intelligent. They are analysts, who literately express their expert opinion on market problems. They are vivid personalities, who actually create public opinion and influence it greatly but skillfully, aware of the scope of responsibility.

As for editors, the situation is not so ideal, as in Germany. When talking to a secretary, who is willing to share her frustration, you feel like you are talking at least to the God. But it refers not so much to journalism, as to the service standards in Russia.

Now, meet our third character.

Gennady Abuzov
35 y.o.
Moscow, Russia
“For many people “freelancer” means the same as “unemployed”, but for me it is the new level of a man’s professional actualization.”

How did you engage in journalism? Why was it IT journalism?

I deal with analytics, because I consider it an intellectual and rewarding work. That is why I have something to say, and that is why I am a journalist. Analytics is a field where one can approve oneself, apply the stored knowledge and, in addition to this, develop further.

What would you like to come to?

To my own business. I am a manager by education and deep in my heart. IT market is greatly dynamic and bears a powerful business-charge, so it attracts me by all means.

Do you work as a freelancer?

I do, but in the sense of being able to control my working hours as I see proper. I am an independent artist, so to say. I do not take orders. In general, our society has a strange attitude to this word, as for many people “freelancer” means the same as “unemployed”, but for me it is the new level of a man’s professional actualization, no matter what is his profession – a manager, a writer, a translator or a toast-master. When somebody can organize himself and his time in such a way, when he chooses himself what to do and bears full responsibility for his choice, such a person would manage with any duties in any staff, even if he does not appear at the office.

As a conclusion, I would say that it is difficult to overestimate the role of a journalist in the present-day consumer society. Without those who can speak, those who should hear would never hear anything. The communication with them is getting harder, as more and more people try to use mass media for the purpose of their business. Journalists are humans above all, no matter what country or field they work in. Never forget about it. Take into account and respect your interlocutor’s peculiarities, and you will be treated likewise.

[*] All the names are fictitious, any coincidences are accidental.

Eugenia Kolobukhova, Director at SoftPressRelease

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Eugenia Kolobukhova – EzineArticles Expert Author

Tags: it, journalism, pr, public relations, press

There will, for every business, come a point when it faces a crisis or an incident that needs managing. Understanding the early warning signs and when action needs to be taken can often mean the difference between saving reputation and accelerating downfall. It’s true that you can’t plan for every eventuality but taking time to put processes and procedures in place can provide useful thinking time so you can focus on the issue at hand and think about the PR implications.

If you are not experienced in managing crises then seeking professional PR help will save you time and money as well as help protect your reputation. You really don’t want to get your fingers burned, as a result of lack of experience, at such a crucial time. Whether you seek professional help, or want to manage your own PR during a crisis, you need to be clear on what constitutes an incident or crisis and how you can assess whether the situation is escalating or not.

What is crisis?

Generally a crisis or problem will involve, or at least potentially involve, a number of the following factors:

* it may be unexpected or unpredictable
* it has the potential to escalate into something bigger – it is not unusual for the scale of a potential issue only to be known after some investigation
* information may be uncertain or unreliable – the story may emerge with conflicting accounts
* it may give managers little time in which to react – thinking on your feet is vital
* it may involve a break in service
* it will have the potential to affect reputation and could attract negative publicity – remember that how you handle the incident is just as important as what caused the incident itself
* it could require legal advice and handling
* handled correctly, it could enhance reputation.

It’s wise to keep a watching brief on any incidents that could fall into the above categories. Over reporting is better than under reporting to ensure that management are informed. Issues or problems can easily escalate because they have not been dealt with early on. For example, if you have computer equipment that records data, or is used for automated paying of staff, then a problem that affects one or two people may not seem significant. Monitoring such a situation is important to ensure that any underlying cause is not impacting on others. It’s much better to check than to find out the next day that the problem is really much bigger – you are then on the back foot and being forced to play ‘catch up’.

Hoping that any problem will just resolve itself is unwise. Remember, once a crisis becomes public then the press and media will only be interested in who is to blame. On no account lie or try and deceive them about what has happened. If something has gone wrong then it is much better to hold up your hands and then demonstrate what you are doing to put the situation right and to ensure it does not happen again. The health and safety of your customers, staff and anyone else affected by what has happened must be your number one priority – keep that in mind at all times.

Using PR to build your profile and protect your reputation can help you influence the audiences that are important to you – I invite you to access more free articles, tips and information on this, and other subjects related to public relations, by visiting: here

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Tag: IT, crisis, PR, Public Relations, business