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Any Free Traffic Sites?
Looking for free traffic. Currently using some surfing sites but are there other
sites that you don't have to surf for credits?
How many monthly hits are considered good?
I have recently taken over as webmaster for a few sites they average 15,000-20,000
hits a month each. Is this a decent amount? There is currently no advertisments
on the site PPC or otherwise. Would this amount of hits generate any money or
is it a little low to care about?
Trying to move up in rankings
Hi all! I'm trying to move up in the major SE's with the following site:
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11.28.05
VoIP - A Layman’s Look - Should You Or Shouldn’t You?
 By Dennis Schooley
So what's all this VoIP hype anyway? I mean we all know that our voice can be
delivered to the four corners of the globe over telephone lines.
(Actually, I missed that part of second grade math where they taught us that a
ball has corners, but everybody says it, so I'll accept it). Alex G. Bell, the
second most famous resident of Brantford, Ontario, right after Wayne Gretzky of
course, led us down the voice transmission path.
We're also fully aware of the Internet. Otherwise where would we get our sports
scores, weather reports, horoscopes, and genealogy fixes. So why do we care about
the real-time transmission of our voice, in telephone quality, using Internet
protocol (VoIP)?
Presumably the whole concept was created to deliver some benefit to us techno-ignorant
dwellers of the house of the masses. As business people we manufacture shin pads,
or we distribute cat food, or we evangelize, but should we be considering VoIP?
Will it make us money, or save us time? Will it make us more efficient as a Manufacturer,
Distributor, or Evangelist? If the answer to those questions is no, then we shouldn't
even think about it. So let's explore those questions. After all, it's all about
results.
Geoffrey Moore introduced the concept that a product must cross the chasm of market
acceptance in the ‘Technology Adoption Life Cycle' in his book Crossing the Chasm.
In his next book, Inside the Tornado, Moore talks about the tornado of market
acceptance that lies like a siren beyond the chasm. It appears that VoIP is clawing
up the far wall of the chasm, but we don't know for sure whether it will find
that toe hold to crawl out, and catch the swirling tornado winds of fortune. All
indicators are that it's going to happen. Dorothy and the Tin Man are holding
their breath.
Perhaps the most significant indicator is that the ‘business-prevention specialists',
a title I usually reserve for lawyers, but in this case is applied affectionately
to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), have begun the task of investigating
what should be regulated in the world of VoIP. The FCC has already delivered a
ruling on a VoIP product offered by AT&T. That fact in itself should make us all
take notice that there must be something good coming, or they wouldn't be showing
up at the dance to make sure the band isn't too loud.
Larry Stocker, of Schooley Mitchell Telecom Consultants in Kansas City says, "if
my clients' interest in VoIP is any indicator, then I think there will be a big
increase in the provision of the service. We have quadrupled our number of assignments
in the last six months alone, for clients that wish to select the right VoIP service,
at the right price, from the right supplier. That seems to be a good indicator
of market acceptance."
Another good indicator would be the number of suppliers, including the tier-one
Telco's that have entered the fray to provide VoIP in their own particular flavor.
That fact should cause us pause. It should cause us to challenge the original
premise that ‘talking over the Internet will be free', and that there will be
no long distance cost any more. If that were the case, would all of these big
companies - the renowned leaders in the telecom world - be scrambling to get to
market to provide the service? Maybe it's just their way of giving back to society.
I'm more inclined to think there are huge profits at stake.
And now you say, ‘but I've already got the Internet, why isn't it free'. Well
first of all, you'll need some kind of device that delivers ‘telephone quality'
over the Internet. Remember, I said ‘real time'. Those $20 microphones just don't
do it. In addition, have you ever tried to put someone on hold on the Internet,
or call forward, or take a voice message - you know, the things that businesses
do everyday.
Presumably that's what all these suppliers are running the relay for - to sell
you that ‘stuff' at the end of the race. Whether they sell it to you outright,
or whether you rent it from them for a monthly service fee isn't the point. The
point is that there is a cost to get access, as well as proper business applications.
Included in the cost, which will be recovered through charges to you, are signaling,
routing, protocol, and interface technologies. Oops, that's not layman's talk.
In addition to the access ‘stuff' as a layman would say, there has to be access
to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), or I would never be able to call
my mother. VoIP calls have to terminate on everyday telephone sets because I'm
pretty sure my mom doesn't have a VoIP set up at her house. She doesn't have a
bankcard, won't stay in a hotel that doesn't have ‘real keys', and still loves
her dial phone (definitely in Moore's technology buying group called Skeptics
or Laggards). There is no way I'll be talking to her over her Internet connection
- she doesn't have one, and never will. So this VoIP thing will have to access
the normal phone system. That's where the FCC and CRTC step in. Their position
is that if the PSTN will be accessed, then access fees will have to be paid by
the providers. And up goes the cost.
Read
the Rest of the Article
About the Author:
Dennis Schooley is the Founder of Schooley Mitchell Telecom Consultants, a Professional
Services Franchise Company. He writes for publication, as well as for schooleymitchell.blogging,com
and franchises.blogging.com, in the
subject areas of Franchising, and Technology for the Layman. http://www.schooleymitchell.com,
888-311-6477, dschooley@schooleymitchell.com. |
