CQout Sets Sights On eBay Crown

CQout, the international online market place and auction community, has announced that it is setting its sights on disaffected eBay sellers as part of its US expansion plans.

CQout managing director, Siamak Bashi said, “We have recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary of providing auction services to UK where our reputation for trust and security is second to none which has helped us to grow to become one of the largest auction service providers. Our plans are now to continue our growth by providing tailored services to our US customers. We believe auction users in the US deserve a better service than they are currently getting f r o m  eBay.”

The decision to move into the US market and to take on eBay was made following customer demands for an auction service which responds to its customer needs rather than impose rule changes every few months, like the recent imposition of certain enforced ‘Post Free’ product offerings which have alienated many previously loyal users.

The general ethos at CQout has always been to be flexible and respond to what customers ask for. Siamak highlighted, “We recently had the owner of US movie poster website who wanted to run their own auction site. But rather than go through the expense of buying software and hassle of running an auction site they asked us if we would tailor our services for their site. Within days we had an auction service running on their site”.

Siamak believes CQout is ideally positioned to take the fight to eBay as its pricing structure is lower than eBay and has proven particularly attractive to medium to large sellers with its no listing fee policy. This means a seller can list thousands or even tens of thousands of items on CQout at zero cost, which means additional exposure and marketing for their products for free.

While based in the UK, CQout has taken several important steps to ensure a safe, secure and seamless service is provided for all US customers.

CQout online auctions services for US customers will be provided on the CQout.com top level domain, but it will use exactly the same secure technologies which have been tried and test over the last 10 years in the UK market, and lead to it being the only auction site to be certified hacker proof to standards set by the FBI and audited independently by McAfee Secure, one of the biggest names in internet security.

The US auction service is also fully integrated with the rest of CQout auction operations, so when a seller lists their items on the US site, it can automatically be shown and made available to International buyers f r o m any country the seller chooses via a simple tick box selection on the selling form. The sellers products are seamlessly displayed and sold in the seller’s chosen currency, but prices are also displayed automatically in the buyers’ home currency. This makes the buying decision much easier for customers and is therefore less prone to mistakes and abandoned sales. This is a big contrast to eBay where sellers who want to sell internationally have to list separately on other eBay sites and pay additional listings fees. The CQout in-house payment systems SecurePay and EasyPay are also available to all CQout buyers and sellers f r o m any countries where Visa & MasterCards are available, which covers virtually the whole world.

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

Online Dating Heavyweights In U.S Take Aim At Lucrative Australian Market

American online dating corporations have hit the Australian online dating market with full force. The emergence has sparked wide spread interest amongst consumers and singles with massive media coverage in a move that has set the scene for all out war amongst the opposing local and international dating companies.

Online Dating Heavyweights In U.S Take Aim At Lucrative Australian Market

Australia has gone against international economic trends in recent years fairing better than virtually any other country during the recession. Annalists are questioning if Australia was in fact ever in a recession. The strong Aussie dollar, an impressive inflation rate of around 2% combined with increasing retail sales at the check outs has forced the hand of the U.S dating giants to set up shop down under.

The online dating scene in Australia is dominated by only a handful of dating companies. While the search engines are seemingly saturated with online personals the majority are dating reviews that are affiliated to the dominant sites.

eHarmony have opened their doors to the Australian singles market and is making steady ground according to the latest hit analysis. The eHarmony brand is one of the biggest in America and combined with their financial muscle they are likely to gain a strong hold in Australia too.

With an active database of 17 million users, eHarmony looks well placed to derail the Fairfax-owned rsvp site stronghold which currently enjoys no major competitors. The eHarmony concept is based on a subscription model with an annual turnover of $200 million dollars. eHarmony is using prime time TV commercials for exposure and is in partnership with the neverblueads affiliate network.

Match.com, probably the world’s most recognized online dating brand has also commenced its marketing blitz on Australian television. New local competitors such as www.hookmeup.com.au are also continuing to challenge for market share.

Social media including Tweets and rss (real simple information) feeds are a huge leverage tool to get the word out for the dating sites who can create the biggest buzz. American run www.todaysdating.com is attracting plenty of interest and looks poised to make its mark in 2010.

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

Report: Half Of Web Designers Work With Unlicensed Software

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading web hosting provider, has released new research which reveals that a large number of web professionals are using unlicensed or pirated software to create websites.

Report: Half Of Web Designers Work With Unlicensed Software

The poll of 500 web designers conducted with .NET magazine found that more than half of web designers and developers admit to having worked in an environment where they used unlicensed web design software. As licences for web design software can often cost small agencies thousands of pounds, recent economic pressures are a likely factor in the problem.

Fasthosts recently announced its work with Microsoft to promote the WebsiteSpark program – an initiative that provides eligible users with free licenses for Microsoft Expression and Visual Studio software. The initiative is a good example of how web professionals can access software through legitimate schemes and so avoid the risks of using unlicensed software.

According to Fasthosts’ survey of 546 .NET magazine readers, the use of unlicensed software by web professionals is rife in the UK. 59% of those surveyed have placed themselves, their colleagues and their work at risk by using unlicensed software to create websites. If a worker uses software without a license number, or if the license only entitles its use for an individual machine and it is copied and installed on multiple computers, the company is likely to be breaking the law – often punishable with a substantial fine. There is also strong evidence that the use of unlicensed software can be a false economy – users often face bugs and do not benefit from access to support services which can result in downtime and delays.

Steve Holford, CMO Fasthosts Internet Ltd., said, “Great web projects can often rely on the latest software and at times businesses may be tempted to cut corners with their software licenses. Web designers should not struggle with sub-standard software or more importantly jeopardise their future by using illegal software”.

FAST (Federation Against Software Theft) has an ’employee whistle-blowing’ campaign to tackle employers who pressurise staff into installing illegal software. John Lovelock, Chief Executive of FAST, commented, “The software industry is a vital part of the economy and deserves the same protection as counterfeit consumer goods. We want workers to know there is support and the means to combat any illegal behaviour by contacting us via the Fasthosts, and have protection in law under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (Whistleblower Act). We hope that by raising awareness of the laws protecting employees, the number willing to blow the whistle will increase and reduce the illegal use of software,” added Lovelock.

Nowadays there are industry schemes that can provide eligible web pros with free access to fully licensed professional software. For example, Microsoft’s WebsiteSpark program offers support for web design and development agencies with up to 10 employees. Eligible Fasthosts customers gain an immediate financial benefit – saving £240 per year with a free Windows Server license and saving even more with a free MSSQL license. Upon enrolment, members gain access to free Windows Expression Studio 2 (1 user license), Expression Web 2 (2 user licenses), Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition (3 user licenses) and DotNetPanel control panel

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

Skype Becomes The Largest Provider Of Cross-Border Communications In The World

Skype’s international phone-calling traffic has accelerated at a time when international telephone traffic has slowed, according to a new report by TeleGeography.

Skype traffic has been soaring despite the background of slowing growth by conventional phone companies, according to the report. Where international calling volumes from telephones was growing at a compounded annual rate of 15% for the past 25 years, over the past two years it has slowed down to only 8%. Skype however has seen its international cheap calls volume sky rocket.

In a press statement from TeleGeography, analyst Stephan Beckert commented, “Demand for international voice has been remarkably robust, but it’s clearly not recession-proof”. However the statement went on to highlight that Skype was managing to very successfully buck the trend, with on-net international Skype-to-Skype traffic growing by 51% in 2008, and a projected growth of 63% in 2009, to a massive 54 billion minutes. “The volume of traffic routed via Skype is tremendous,” said Beckert.

This increase in international calling minutes experienced by Skype has brought its market share up to 12% in 2009, and made Skype the “largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far”, according to Beckert.

The success experienced by Skype can be further demonstrated by a recent company journal report which showed that on the 19th January 2010 the service experienced an all-time record number of concurrent logged on users with over 22 and a quarter million clients signed in to Skype at the same time. This record comes only shortly after the previous record of 21.5 million concurrent users was logged the previous Monday.

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

Rackspace Puts Microsoft SharePoint in the Cloud

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE:RAX), the world’s leader in hosting, has announced the launch of hosted Microsoft SharePoint, the popular collaboration and file sharing platform, uniquely backed by Rackspace’s 24x7x365 Fanatical Support. With the addition of hosted

Microsoft SharePoint, Rackspace’s suite of cloud applications now includes business-class collaboration, email and storage solutions.

Rackspace Puts Microsoft SharePoint in the Cloud

“With SharePoint, Rackspace is offering businesses the most powerful file sharing and collaboration software on the market today,” said Pat Matthews, General Manager of Rackspace Email & Apps. “With our cloud delivery model, businesses can take advantage of all the power Microsoft SharePoint has to offer without the hassle of having to manage the software in-house. Microsoft SharePoint backed by Fanatical Support is the recipe our customers have been asking for.”

The Rackspace offering includes an intuitive control panel that allows administrators to quickly initiate SharePoint, add/remove users, and create SharePoint sites with only a few steps. The control panel also gives administrators the ability to manage Rackspace Email & Apps’ full suite of applications, including hosted Microsoft Exchange, Rackspace Email, Email Archiving, and Rackspace Cloud Drive and Server Backup, in one dashboard.

With SharePoint from Rackspace, employees can become better equipped to collaborate on projects and share ideas across the organisation, with a centralized place to store, organise, and access documents.

About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the world’s leader in hosting and cloud computing and has been ranked in the Financial Times Top 50 Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom for the past five years. Rackspace provides its customers with Fanatical Support by delivering a portfolio of hosted IT services, including Managed Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Virtualisation,Dedicated Servers and Email and Apps.

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

Bizwiki.com Goes Live, Delivering Wiki-power To Small Business

The wiki-powered business website Bizwiki.com announced its American version went fully live today. Bizwiki was launched as an Alpha in the USA in December 2008, promising to change the way local search works by enabling its users to build up the most detailed and up-to-date index of business in the United States.

Bizwiki.com Goes Live, Delivering Wiki-power To Small Business

The new fully live version features over 5,000 categories of business, and in contrast to traditional Yellow Pages websites invites business owners and representatives to add and improve their companies’ records with everything from contact details to prices and opening hours, completely free of charge.

“We are also launching new functionality today that allows the site’s users to‘Watch’ any business, receiving an email notifying them of any additions and edits,” said Bizwiki co-founder Matt Aird. “This is useful for anyone who is interested in following changes, but is primarily designed to empower people to get involved in claiming their own businesses and ensuring the information the public sees stays as accurate and relevant as possible.”

Creating a ‘Watchlist’ of businesses on Bizwiki is free. Representatives are invited to sign up with Bizwiki.com and look up the companies they are interested in, then simply click ‘Watch this business’ to receive notification of any changes to the record. They are also able to add more information and details to records while doing so.

“We’ve tried to take ideas and concepts from some of the most successful user-created websites in the world, such as Wikipedia and the Open Directory Project, and improve them to where the ‘anyone can edit’ principles of a wiki can be used in a business-environment,” continued Matt Aird. “The biggest single difference is probably that our site is built in a consistently structured format, allowing us to rapidly scale-up the amount of information and also give our users an easy way to search the site.”

The Bizwiki difference:

• It’s free – Unlike many established publishers that charge for inclusion, Bizwiki is free to search, free to edit and free for companies to list on.
• It’s editable – The ‘anyone-can-edit’ approach is a challenge to the frequently out-of-date records in conventional printed Business Directories.
• It’s a wiki – The wiki approach allows far more depth of information about each business to be compiled than anything conventionally available.
• It’s structured – Bizwiki is built using structured data, allowing reusability of information, bulk updates from chambers of commerce or webspiders, and an easy search experience for users.

Bizwiki was built by industry-veterans with years of business directory and meta-search experience behind them, including Keith Hinde, Matt Aird, Craig Sefton and Arthur Jenkins who between them have helped develop directory and search products for Infospace, local directory publisher Thomson Directories, TradePage and Webcrawler.

Visit www.bizwiki.com to add or edit your company or create a Watchlist of businesses.

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

Lovetropolis.com Welcomes Cyber Dating Expert Julie Spira to its Team

Lovetropolis.com today announced a new addition to its pool of dating and relationship advisors that will bring one of the world’s leading authorities in online dating to its team of experts. Under the terms of the cooperation, Julie Spira will be contributing to Lovetropolis.com’s featured expert series.

Lovetropolis.com Welcomes Cyber Dating Expert Julie Spira to its Team

Julie Spira, known as The Cyber Dating Expert, is a popular online dating observer and commentator. She is also the bestselling author of The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online . Julie is known for entertaining and insightful guidance for plotting a course to find love online. Her keen perspective helps men and women establish some basic rules to safely and successfully find someone using online dating.

Julie Spira’s signature advice will be available to Lovetropolis.com members in featured and archived articles on her expert page. Lovetropolis.com users around the world will be able to access Julie’s advice for tips on creating an irresistible online dating profile, improving their online dating experience and attracting quality dates online. Members will also be able to preview and purchase Julie’s popular book and dating products like private coaching and Irresistible Profiles to make the most of their online dating experiences.

Michael Lombard, CEO of Lovetropolis.com, said, “We are so thrilled to be able to collaborate with Julie Spira. She is a well-respected pioneer in the online dating arena, so her expertise will support our mission of placing Lovetropolis.com members in lasting, romantic relationships.”

Julie Spira understands the secrets of attracting the person of your dreams, creating an irresistible online dating profile and getting more quality dates. With her help and coaching, Lovetropolis.com members will be the best-prepared daters online.

Regarding her collaboration with Lovetropolis.com, Julie said, “It’s an honor to be asked to contribute dating advice on Lovetropolis.com on their one-year anniversary.” She continued, “Lovetropolis brings a new dimension to online dating by providing the latest technologies that will surely put fire in your love life .”

For more information, visit www.Lovetropolis.com, email Shandale Tucker, Executive Vice President of Operations, at s.tucker@lovetropolis.com, or call The Lombard Company, Inc. at 800-760-6011.

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

New York City Businesses bank on America’s Love Affair with Pets and Social Networking

What do Midwest Airlines, Loews Regency Hotel, Paws Pet Resort, Pet Express Pet Taxi, Wagwear, and Gavroche French Restaurant all have in common?

New York City Businesses bank on America's Love Affair with Pets and Social Networking

Well they are all New York City Pet Friendly Businesses that are banking on America’s love affair with pets and social networking to promote their services to the 71.4 millions homes that own pets throughout the US. And, YapStar has given them a creative way to get their message in front of the people that will listen through the YapStar Pet Holiday Contest at http://www.yapstar.com.

Red Magic won the YapStar Contest with 17012 Votes received from social networking activity and public voting from pet lovers in almost every state in the USA and from England, Germany, Australia, Canada, Norway, Portugal, and Mexico. With Magic’s sweet face and beautiful red coat it’s no wonder why he had fans cheering him on to be crowned “The YapStar”.

As sponsors of the Pet Holiday in New York City, these pet friendly businesses have put together a magical weekend of pampering for the YapStar Winner, Red Magic and Diana Dunigan.

Red Magic and his owner Diana Dunigan from Brunswick, GA, will be flying into NYC on Midwest Airlines through their Premier Pet Program which offers special pampering for “Red Magic”. To make sure they fly in style, Red Magic will be toting along his new “Bag on Wheels” from Sherpa Pet Products. Waiting at the curb on their arrival, Pet Express Taxi will whisk them away in their very own pet specialty cab to Loews Regency Hotel in Midtown Manhattan where they will be waited on hand and paw in first-class comfort.

Then off to the Happy Paws Pet Resort; where Magic will enjoy a “spa session” in order to look his best when they go out on the town for a shopping spree at Wagwear, a favorite among preppy pups and their fashion-minded owners. And what better way to end the day then at Pet Friendly Gavroche Restaurant, enjoying Camelia Cassin’s traditional specialties of the French country side under the stars in a garden out back where “Red Magic” is welcome. And, that’s not all! Red Magic will come home from his pampered holiday to a stunning pet portrait painted by Suzanne Berry.

About YapStar.com
YapStar.com at yapstar.com is a local search and review, social shopping and social networking community designed by pet lovers, for pet lovers and the pet businesses that serve them.

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

Bigmouthmedia Launches New Range Of Services Following Google GAAC Analytics Accreditation

Bigmouthmedia has become one of the few European digital marketing agencies to gain the coveted Google Analytics Authorised Consultants accreditation (GAAC).

Bigmouthmedia Launches New Range Of Services Following Google GAAC Analytics Accreditation

The company-wide accreditation – held by only a handful of agencies worldwide – recognises bigmouthmedia’s proven expertise in the analytics field. With a large pool of qualified staff working across its offices, the news means the company is now authorised to offer clients a raft of new Google Analytics services.

“This is a major breakthrough for bigmouthmedia. Gaining accreditation has been a lengthy and painstaking process, but it means that in addition to the wealth of digital marketing expertise the agency already has, we are now in the position to offer a string of Google Analytics services on a standalone basis,” said Susana Inarejos, Head of Technical and Analytics Services.

As one of few European full digital marketing agencies to earn GAAC accreditation, thebigmouthmedia in-house team is now recognised by Google for its industry expertise, with the search giant recommending the agency as one of its few authorised partners. Qualification means that in addition to gaining elevated technical support from Google on any analytics issues the firm will also be able to trial and review the software’s latest enhancements before they become available on the open market.

Bigmouthmedia’s clients will have access to the wealth of potential information unleashed by web analytics, with the agency providing in depth analysis of their Google Analytics account, ensuring that business goals are tracked properly to improve ROI. The services offered include Google Analytics Audit, Advanced Cross-subdomain configuration, Advanced Filters and Goals setup, tracking of Flash or AJAX based websites, E-commerce tracking, In-house Google Analytics training and advanced troubleshooting.

“We are delighted to add yet another highly experienced Google Analytics expert to our consultancy network and look forward to strengthening our partnership with bigmouthmedia,” said Alan Wrafter, Google Program Manager.

Lyndsay Menzies, bigmouthmedia’s Group Chief Operations Officer, added: “We’re delighted to become one of the very few agencies promoted by Google as a recommended analytics partner. This qualification underlines our commitment to maintaining and expanding the company’s in-house expertise while providing clients with an expanding range of industry leading digital marketing services.”

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases

Unmemorable Web Addresses Holding Back Small Firms

Streamline.net research reveals many small firms may be held back due to poor web address choices.

The study of 1300 consumers* by Streamline.net, a leading provider of value web hosting found that 1 in 5 Britons who use small business websites regularly struggle with domain registrations that are convoluted or difficult to recall. Younger age groups are far more critical, with around 1 in 3 judging the SME domains which they use to be unattractive. A further poll of 189 UK firms** showed that whilst 34% were not satisfied with their web sales, only 3% are considering making any change to their primary domain name. With 70% of Britons now willing to conduct business with SMEs via the Web, the ability for a consumer to easily recall a web address has never been so important.

Streamline.net’s study of 1300 shoppers during the Christmas shopping period, found that the web addresses of small firms are a bugbear for 25% of men and 20% of women. Younger age groups were far more critical than older ones with around 1 in 3 Britons aged 16 to 35 reporting unattractive or unmemorable business domains, as compared with only 13% of those aged over 55 years. In terms of region, London is by far the most critical with 32% of all consumers affected as opposed to only 11% in Northern Ireland and 14% in Wales.

In fact, making modifications or additions to a company’s web identity is one of the quickest and cheapest ways for businesses to optimise their use of the web. It appears that many firms could benefit from reviewing the pros and cons of available domain options and using feedback from external audiences, such as potential customers.

Steve Holford, Marketing Director at Streamline.net, said “The data suggests that many small businesses undervalue the effect their web address can have on their consumers’ behaviour. There is a real danger their work and investment on the web can be undermined by the simple fact that consumers cannot remember their URL. Domains have reached a level of affordability whereby every business owner can now afford to experiment with alternative domain choices”.

Streamline.net recommends that companies explore opportunities within less obvious TLDs including .biz, .net and .eu. For example, Streamline.net offers the .LTD.UK domain registration for only £4.25/year+VAT. Additionally, web hosting packages are supplied with free inclusive .UK domains.

Via EPR Network
More Internet & Online press releases