SHOULD EVERYONE BECOME PCI COMPLIANT?

In PCI Compliance, there is a lot more to your business than your website. If your business is dealing with credit card numbers over phone, or carries out face-to-face transactions, or holds up records of credit card number; then all of this has nothing to do with your website and it is really necessary for your business to meet up with PCI requirements. Well, now a question might come in your mind that does every business needs to be PCI Compliant; the answer to it has already been given above. In this article you will find answers to the question that trouble you with PCI requirements.

Should I Be Worried About PCI Compliance?

A business receiving payments through credit cards from customers needs to be PCI compliant, even if that business gets paid via credit card once in a year. The number of transactions doesn't matter at all, even if your website is accepting third party services like PayPal or Google Checkout you are required to be PCI Compliant because it is your business that is accepting payments via credit cards and not your website.

What Will Happen If I Am Not PCI Compliant?

If your business is not according to the PCI Compliance requirements and your site's security happens to get breached; then huge penalties will be imposed on your business ranging from $5,000 to $500,000. The fines are the first thing you will face due to being non compliant and there will be numerous other damages to your business that you will start seeing.

Terminated Merchant File

If your business is not PCI compliant; then you might lose your merchant account, which means that you won't be able to carry out any credit card payments. Not only this, but you will also be place in the Terminated Merchant File (TMF) of MasterCard/ Visa, which will make ineligible to get another merchant for at least a couple of years. The TMF is actually a BLACKLIST for the merchants from which getting your name removed is nearly impossible.

The Terminated Merchant File is sometimes also known as The Match File, once a merchant gets his added in this file; his name, name of the business, address of home and business all are written in a record. So it is no use to apply again on the name of another family member or business partner because according to documentation, it will be taken as the same business and location (which is already blacklisted).

Card holder Data Environment

Does setting up Firewall Configuration will limit direct public access between internet and any system included in the card holder data environment? Well it depends; the cardholder data includes everything of your website as well as the database. A database server must have its own physical server that should be connected to a VPN.

Even if the data isn't being stored by your database, it is however giving content to your site which transmits and collects the card holder information that is why it is included in the card holder data environment.

Buyer Shield ® ASV PCI Compliance brings peace of mind and security to your business and utilizes robust security analysis for thousands of know vulnerabilities, and more are added every day.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9454251

INTRODUCTION TO CLOUD TECHNOLOGY

The cloud is here to stay. We're at a point where organizations are moving from dabbling in cloud provisioning to making it the backbone of the IT infrastructure. According to "The New IT Normal: Cloudy and Getting Cloudier," by Arthur Cole:

Already, the cloud accounts for more than half of all data center traffic, according to Cisco, and that is expected to climb to 76 percent by 2018. Much of the activity so far has focused on the development of private clouds, but now that familiarity with the technology is at a critical point, expect to see broader adoption of public resources, which will ultimately evolve into hybrid cloud platforms providing highly scalable, federated data infrastructure.

Given the effect the cloud is having on companies both large and small, it's no surprise that job postings for cloud positions are one of the fastest-growing skill sets on Dice. An analysis of searches by hiring managers shows that the future of tech pros working in the cloud is anything but gloomy.

Java

Not surprisingly, Java is all too important to firms hiring cloud candidates. The programming language and platform is the foundation for so many technologies today that it remains one of the top skills on Dice year after year. While other languages are gaining speed, Java is still king of the hill.

SaaS, Virtualization, vCloud, Salesforce

Cloud-specific skills like SaaS, virtualization, vCloud and Salesforce all rank on hiring managers' wish lists for candidates. Salesforce hit 1,000 job postings in April this year and continues to grow in popularity, with job postings up 26 percent year-over-year on Dice.

Open Source

Open source technologies like Linux, Python and Hadoop create value for companies looking for cloud professionals. Tech professionals with Hadoop experience doubly benefit as other movements like Big Data continue..

Cloud Sales

What's the future of a technology without professionals to sell it? Companies are frequently looking for cloud professionals with sales experience who can drive the product forward and hit goals while doing it.

Cloud Security

And you can't have a conversation about cloud without the mention of security. Companies are looking for security professionals who can communicate best practices to colleagues, define vulnerabilities, and act quickly in the unfortunate event of a breach.

Cloud Vendors

One thing that hasn't changed since Dice last reported on cloud via Open Web, its Big Data sourcing tool, is that Amazon/AWS is still the preferred vendor, but unlike last year, there's another kid on the block. VMware also popped up frequently in hiring managers' searches, proving that as the cloud proliferates, so will companies looking to capitalize on and further enhance the technology.

The top six technical skills are given above. Hope this will help aspiring software professionals to achieve their goal. If you wish to board a train for cloud discovers your pie on the sky. Best of luck my future cloudiance.

Dr. Prajakta C. Dhote

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9434320

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT TRAFFIC SOURCE

If you knew that articles were where you were going to be able to get all of your traction... Or guest blogging was where you were going to get all your traction... Or Google+, or Facebook was where you were going to get all of your traction... Then you could take what I just shared with you and you could say, "Okay, I'll just go out and I will become an expert at that one source of traffic."

However, there's a preliminary stage that has to happen. You've got to figure out which one of these is going to work better for you. In the process of figuring out which one is better for you, you might try multiple sources of traffic.

You'll notice I talked about this second, not first. That's because I wanted you to hear what I just said about specialization first, before I talked about trying out the different traffic sources. Because, if you're not careful you'll come away from what I'm getting ready to say, and say "Okay, well they said go out and try 10 different traffic sources."

Then they don't hear the part where I say "for a limited time period."

They try 10 different traffic sources, 10 years later they're still wallowing in 10 different traffic sources, and they've never become an expert. So they're not generating very much traffic.

What I recommend that you do is: choose any, some, or all of these traffic sources that you wish. And you set up a tracking page for every one of these.

For example, if you write an article that goes to EzineArticles, you send them to a unique squeeze page, that has a unique webform code on it, so you know exactly how many subscribers are being generated every single month from those articles.

You know exactly how many subscribers are generated every month from guest blogging.

You know exactly how many subscribers are generated from LinkedIn, from Facebook, from your affiliate program, from anywhere else.

Then you'll combine that with a time sheet. Call it a traffic time sheet. Every time you sit down to work on traffic, you log into your traffic time sheet. You can do this in an Excel spreadsheet. You can do this with pencil and paper.

Here's how to use it:

If you work on articles for 15 minutes you write down "Articles - 15 minutes."

Let's say, for example, that it's April, so you have an April spreadsheet. And it says, "Articles - 15 minutes. LinkedIn - 30 minutes." Then you spend another 20 minutes in Articles, so you need to update Articles to 35 minutes.

At the end of the month you'll be able to see at a glance that you spent 200 minutes on articles. You spent 100 minutes on guest blogging. You spent 75 minutes in LinkedIn. You spent 95 minutes in Facebook. So on, and so on.

Next you're going to look at how many subscribers you generated from each one of those traffic sources. Do the math! For example:

You spent 75 minutes on Facebook and you got 4 subscribers. That's 1 subscriber every 18.5 minutes or so. For articles you get 10 subscribers for 200 minutes of work, that's 1 subscriber per 20 minutes of work. And at the end of the month, you'll be able to say "Okay, from one traffic source I get a subscriber for every 10 minutes of work. From one traffic source I get a subscriber from 20 minutes of work. From another traffic source it takes me 30 minutes of work."

What does this mean?

It means if you're going to continue to do the work in the future, you probably want to get subscribers that are coming in from sources that don't take you as long to get. Or, what it means is, if you hire somebody to do your work for you, you know what to have them do to be the most cost-effective. Let's say you hire somebody for 10 hours a week to do work for you. If you're going to pay them for 10 hours of work a week, you want them on the traffic source that will allow them to generate the most number of subscribers for you as fast as possible.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9457882

WANT TO START A WORK AT HOME BUSINESS?

People generally want to work from home for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you've just had a child and want more work-life balance, or maybe you just like being home and want the freedom to work your own way.

Running a work at home business does involve hard work. It's much more than putting a website online with a few products for sale and waiting for the money to come rolling in. Before you start a work at home business, answer these 5 questions first.

1. Are You Self-Motivated?

You need to be very self-motivated to manage your own work at home business. Your day will call for all elements of business, from bringing in new prospects, managing existing customers, coordinating your products and services, keeping track of your competition and marketing. You'll be totally responsible for getting the work in and achieving your objectives.

2. Do You Already Have An Idea For A Business?

If you have already have an idea for a work a home business what steps do you need to take to make it a reality? Are you ready to take the steps needed to get your business off the ground? Can you find and afford help if you're not sure what to do to get the business going?

3. Do You Have Funds Available?

An online business is the most cost effective work at home business to start. But despite the fact that it does cost less to start than a conventional offline business, it still requires some financial commitment. Do you have funds available? If you don't, do you have a way to get it?

4. Do You Need Any Training?

Starting a work at home business can sometimes require skills that you don't have yet. Are you willing to take the time to learn and invest in training yourself to get your business off the ground?

5. Do You Know Who Your Customers Are?

This is probably the most important question to answer. You may have the funds available to start a work at home business and be willing to learn new skills to get it off the ground but do you know who you are going to sell to? Just because you think that your new business is a great idea does not mean that other people will. Do your research and make sure that there is a target audience out there that is willing to pay money for what you plan to offer.

Regardless of your age, education, technical skills or qualifications there are no specific requirements for being a successful home business entrepreneur. However you will be more successful with a solid business model to work from, clear direction, training and support. If you don't know where to start or you're not achieving the success that you want, check out the FREE Online Business Video Series at http://www.jonallo.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9447471

16 TIPS TO BRIGHTEN UP A DARK DAY

There are a great deal of things that can darken your day. Maybe storm clouds are covering up the sun or you simply learned that your son needs braces that will cost more than your last automobile. If you need fast relief, have a look at these fast and easy treats for your body and mind.

Quick Ways to Brighten up Your Mind

1. Count your blessings. Cultivating appreciation makes you happier. Draw up a long list of things that you're grateful for and post it someplace where you can see it throughout the day. Tell somebody how much they mean to you.

2. Hang out with good friends. Connect with others. Invite a bunch of friends over to view a movie and eat popcorn.

3. Volunteer in your neighborhood. Support a deserving cause while you take your mind off your problems. Pull weeds for elderly neighbors or do fundraising work for a local charity.

4. Invest in others. Studies show that money can purchase joy when you invest it in others. Surprise your mom with a heated mattress pad to help her sleep. Or, go to your local fast food restaurant and buy some meals for any of the homeless in your area. Trust me, that alone will brighten your day fast!

5. Head outside. Experiencing nature raises our spirits. Have a nice picnic lunch in the park.

6. Learn a new skill. Adding to your achievements offers lasting fulfillment. Sign up for an online course or ask your next-door neighbor to show you how they keep their yard so green.

7. Laugh aloud. Smile wide and think of something that makes you want to chuckle. Watch funny cat videos on YouTube or think about the funny thing that took place at your kid's school play.

8. Listen to some positive music. Positive music is contagious. Put together a playlist of songs that make you want to dance and be joyful. Sing along with the band and notice how happy you begin to feel.

9. Pet your dog if you have one. Your dog is an excellent role model for teaching you how to put aside your cares and just live in the moment. Let him or her cheer you up when you're feeling blue.

Quick Ways to Brighten up Your Body.

1. Breathe deeply. Breathing has an effect on how you feel. Focus on the flow of oxygen going into and leaving one nostril. Follow your breath down through your throat and chest. Feel your stomach rise and fall.

2. Lower your shoulders. Scan yourself from head to toe. Open up any areas of tightness and tension. Draw your shoulders back and down.

3. Massage your feet. You may be cranky because your shoes have actually been pinching your feet. Kick them off and dip your toes into a tub of warm water. Dry off and roll a tennis ball around under your arches.

4. Try aromatherapy. Choose an invigorating fragrance like grapefruit or peppermint. If you're agitated, select relaxing lavender or sandalwood.

5. Move around. Exercise is a natural and advantageous stimulant. Accelerate your heart beat with some laps around the track or ten minutes on an inclined treadmill. You might even play a game of catch with your children.

6. Stretch out. Want a yoga pose that will perk you up? Sun salutations will do the job. To calm down, rest on your back and extend your legs straight up against a wall.

7. Rest. On the other hand, maybe you're dragging because you need more rest. Take a short nap and go to bed early so you'll be bright-eyed and fresh tomorrow.

Some days are gloomier than others, but you can be prepared for conflicts and difficulties. Utilize these pick-me-ups or develop your very own techniques that keep you smiling and content no matter what's going on around you.

Kurt Tasche is a martial artist, Internet entrepreneur and motivational coach who writes articles and produces videos on the subjects of marketing and personal development.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9449313