This works with itunes 7.7 and the new iphone3G

1.       Locate a song on your computer.

2.       Download Audacity Free Audio Editing Program

3.       Download the LAME mp3 converter  and save it to a folder you can remember.

4.       Open the song in  Audacity by clicking file>open.

5.       Highlight 20-30secs that you want to be the ring tone. Can’t be more than 30 secs.

6.       Click the ‘TRIM outside selection’ icon and you should be left with the clip you want.

7.       Save this file before proceeding to export, just in case.

8.       Then  click file>export as MP3.

9.       Audacity will ask you for the LAME MP3 dll, find it where you saved it.

10.   Then you will be able to save your new ringtone clip to a folder your remember.

11.   Then go to itunes, click EDIT>PREFERENCES>ADVANCED>IMPORTING

12.   Make sure the ‘import using’ is set to ACC encoding.

13.   Then drag your mp3 ringtone clip into the MUSIC file in itunes.

14.   Then right click on it and click ‘Convert selection to ACC’

15.   A second file should appear with .m4a extension.

16.   To check the file type right click>get info >under summary tab it will say Apple Lossless audio file.

17.   Then go back to itunes  > right click on the file and ‘open in windows explorer’, not the mp3 file.

18.   Now you need to change the file name extension from .m4a to .m4r

19.   If you can’t see the file extension eg is just says ‘newringtone’ instead of ‘newringtone.m4a’ do the following.

20.   In explorer click on Tools>Folder Options>File Types>Advanced . Make sure the box is ticked ‘Always show extensions’. Click OK.

21.   Then click the View Tab and make sure the box is UNticked – ‘Hide Extensions for known file types’

22.   Then Click OK and return to the folder with your  .m4a file – you should be able to see the file extension now.

23.   Right click on the file name and choose rename. Change the extension to .m4r

24.   It will ask you if you are sure you want to change it. Say YES/OK.

25.   Then drag the file back into itunes and drop into the RINGTONE  folder.

26.   If you can’t see the ringtone folder do the following.

27.   In itunes click edit>preferences in the general  tab  make sure ringtones is TICKED.

28.   The ringtone folder should now appear under library. Drop the .m4r file in there.

29.   Plug /dock your iphone into your computer  as normal, click on the iphone name under ‘devices’ in itunes.

30.   Go to the ‘Ringtones’ tab and choose ‘sync ringtones’ and select the ringtone which should now appear in the box.

31.   Click apply or sync and your ringtone should appear in your iphone ringtones in settings.

Enjoy your iphone!

For Free iPhone Ringtones - Mac Instructions watch video

If this all seems a bit hard.

You can download some good ringtones from macmost.com
Download Good Free iPhone Ringtones

If you are thinking of starting a developing a website or ecommerce shopping cart, it is a good idea to know your rights and responsibilities as a trader.

Have a look at OzNetLaw They have facts sheets on everything from

Advertising and Marketing

Keeping Electronic Records

Anti-Competitive Trade Practices

Misleading and Deceptive Conduct

Confidential Information

Copyright

Database Protection

Privacy

Secure Electronic Transactions

Domain Names

And much more………

An increase in traffic usually means an increase in business. We have come up with a few ways to increase traffic to your website or ecommerce-shopping cart.

Content – It is important to write quality content for you site. It is also important to update this content regularly as Google likes to see change and so do your customers. When developing you content it is important to use keywords that your customers may type into Google to get to your site. If you are stuck for keyword ideas try this great Keyword Suggestion Tool . Another good way to add relevant and quality content to your site is install a blog. Contact you web designer if you need help installing a blog

Send a Newsletter – Newsletters are a good way to remind your customers that your website still exists, and if the information in the newsletter is worth passing onto their friends they probably will, thus stimulating traffic to you site. It is a good idea to use email marketing software like constant contact or A webber

Get Involved – Find forums or groups relevant to your industry or website. Answer and post questions and be involved. Forum administrators do not like blatant advertising so answer and post questions and be involved. You can usually leave a link back to your site in you user profile. You can also subscribe to mailing lists and post comments and articles on websites like email universe

Run a Contest – Contests generate interest in your site especially if a good prize is on offer. Be sure to clearly define the rules, terms & conditions

Profile people or have a guest speaker on your website – You can interview key people and post the information on your site, alternately you can film the guest speaker and embed the video in your website. There is also software out there that you can conduct a live webcast or webinar on the website have a look at Web-Ex

On & Offline Advertising – We can’t speak highly enough of Google Ad Words, you can tailor a campaign to suit your target audience, however you can also advertise off line as well. Sky Writing, magazine and radio ads are all great way to get your website name out there however if you budget doesn’t allow for it think creatively. If you are selling education toys considering running an ad in the PTA newsletter, or delivering organic fruit and veggies maybe post an add at your local gym. You can also offer free products like stress balls or fridge magnets with you domain name emblazoned on it

Copying is not cheating – Don’t be afraid to check out your competition and see what they are doing. You can view the source code of a competitors website from most website browsers by clicking view>page source or source code. Have a look what they have written in the meta tags and descriptions how different are they to yours? Also study their offline marketing habits.

Check your Stats….Stat!!!! – Your website or ecommerce shopping cart should have inbuilt tracking software. Check with your web designer if you do not have this feature as it is imperative to staying informed. You should be able to see what customers are typing into your Google to get to your site. You may have to tweak your meta tags accordingly.

Here are a few tips below to help get you started

We would suggest using a qualified graphic designer and they have the skills required to create a professional image for your business

Be sure to brief you designer on :

• What your business does, or what you business is going to do
  
• Target audience – who your customers are and some demographics about them
  
• Other logos you like the look and feel of
  

Once you receive some concepts back from you graphic designer ask you self a few questions

• Is the logo design simple yet powerful? Keep the number of colors to a minimum. You want to create instant recognition of you logo e.g. Commonwealth Bank
  
• Make sure there are no thin lines that can be lost in photocopying or on a computer screen
  
• Test the logo out, publish it on the internet, photocopy it fax it
  
• How would the logo look in a newspaper add
  

Once you have made these changes to you business logo and you are happy with the amendments ask the graphic designer to send you the logo on a cd in a couple of formats. It is advisable if you are going to take your logo to a printer you need it in an EPS format

Some friendly legal advice

Check with IP Australia and make sure your logo design has not been used by anyone else

Check that you have copyright of the logo not the designer

Imagine the frustration. You spend 2 hours trawling the internet to find the perfect (fill in blank)

It comes to entering you credit card details and “ibejiggered” the thieving merchants want 2 million dollars just to ship your products to Sydney! Sydney Australia goddammit, don’t you know where we are?

So my point it is a good idea to develop shipping and handling strategy before starting your e-commerce shopping cart so you do not lose customers.

*before choosing a carrier to deliver your products have a look at their fees, for this year and the last 3 years. Are they continually increasing their prices as seen with UPS and Fed-ex in the US

*consider the 3 elements to and to shipping and handling Marketing, Customer Service and Sales. If you do not have a team of staff, have a look at your strategy from each perspective

*Research you industry – have a look at your competitors shipping and handling policies and charges. How do they ship their products? Are they gift wrapped?

*When do the customers require their products, what are their expectations. Is a 7 day delivery guarantee possible?

Remember Australia Post is not the only option for your online shop, research other carriers so the maximum saving is made by both you and your customers

The old saying of “how long is a piece of string” is a good answer however I will attempt to break down you needs.

Ask Yourself:

What is the sole purpose of my website?
Is it just to have a website presence or do you want to sell online?

Try and envision the end result and work backwards from there

• Navigation – Do you need to have capabilities on your website for the customer to search or can they simply find out the information they need by visiting the FAQ page?
• These days for websites to improve their natural rankings in Google they need to be updated and maintained regularly. Gone are the days where you get a website developed and just let it sit there. It is imperative that you can make these changes yourself, as this will save you time and money. So therefore I would suggest getting a website built with a content management system (cms) and again depending on how the cms has been created will depend on the price. Some people are still charging outrageous prices to build a cms from scratch, this is not necessary these days either.
• However a database driven content management system, that provides the customer with secure login details, search etc can be moe expensive than an information based website built for a plumber. Don’t be afraid to communicate with you web designer your needs
• Payment Facilities – do you need a full ecommerce shopping cart solution when the customer adds products to their shopping cart, and it will calculate the weight and shipping details or will the free PayPal buttons with fixed shipping suffice?
• Feedback and Contact forms – do you need a simple contact form or do you require that form to do some thinking for you? If you require a more complex form there are many free programs out there to create them for you, once they have been created you should be easily be able to embed or get you web designer to embed it into your website.
• Site Stats – I believe that you should be able to access statistics for all websites. Google analytics is the free program but considering asking your web designer about a more advanced application like awstats.

There are two things you cannot scrimp on:

1. High quality design, be sure to look at your designers portfolio. Your website is often your first point of call to the customer, if it looks dodgy what does it say about your business?
2. Functionality and the way the customer can move around your website or add products to their shopping cart

For a quote please call 1300 309 379 and we will be glad to help.

I wrote a while ago about where to source products for you ecommerce
shopping cart. Well there is a new website in the US that takes out all the guess work. Product Blazer is the easiest way to find wholesale products and suppliers with really unique, not made in China products, check it out and be different from the rest!!!!

When you shop online using an SSL secured gateway (the website pages with the LOCK), your credit card number and address is encrypted using the most up to date technology. Shopping carts with an SSL certificates installed use 128-bit encryption. This ensures that your transactions are secure. Your order is processed by a secure server which is similarly encrypted and is programmed with fraud protection and password security to ensure the safety of your information.

The credit card information which you provide via encrypted computer communications is the same credit card information you hand over to the waiter or waitress at a cafe who walks off with your credit card. It is the same credit card information that you give verbally over the telephone to some person who hoefully wont write it down and visit ebay that night. Once that information is in the hands of person, you are depending on their honesty and integrity to insure the safety of that information.The bottom line is that though the media used to make a big deal about online credit card fraud, they have recently be changing their tune. Accirding to NETT magazine online credit card charge back rates are lower than offline rates. Web based transactions are, in most cases safer than those that take place over the phone or with a retailer.

You need to educate yourself and make sure you know where you information is going so it does not end up in the wrong hands.

According to Australian research company, www.consult, the security of credit card transactions remains the number one concern both for Internet users who have yet to make an online purchase, and for those who have performed an
online transaction.

The US National Consumer’s League Internet Fraud Watch (NCL) has reported that American consumers lost over $3.2 million to online scams in 1999, a 38 per cent increase over the previous year. Importantly, the vast majority of cases reported to the NCL involved payments by cheque or money order, with credit card transactions accounting for only three per cent of cases.

The NCL’s figures were corroborated by a recent survey by Internet research firm BizRate.com of 13,500 online consumers. The study found that, although more than 50 per cent of those surveyed expressed concern that their credit card details would be stolen during an online transaction, less than two per cent had actually experienced credit card number theft.

Hally Wolhandler, VP of Research at USbased ActivMedia Research, said:

‘Fear of placing electronic transactions has kept some would be buyers off the Web, just as fear of fraud keeps some businesses from diving in with both feet. But the reality is that Web-based transactions are, in many cases, safer than those that take place over the phone or even with bricks-and-mortar retailers.’

For more info:

National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) http://www.noie.gov.au/
The Australian Computer Society http://www.acs.org.au

When you accept money online, people trust you with their personal information. You want to make sure that the shopping cart you have chosen is secure so hackers cannot get credit card information. Some things you need to be sure of:

• Make sure your shopping cart provider frequently updates the software
  
• If you print orders with customer information make sure you keep them in a safe place
  
• When the customer enters their credit card information into your shopping cart they need to able to see a padlock. The padlock indicates that an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate has been installed and the credit card information will be transmitted securely and cannot be hacked. It builds trust and creditability with your customers. Web pages using a SSL certificate start with https:// rather than http://
  

• Make sure your ecommerce shopping cart content is optimised for you keywords. If you are selling jewellery online be sure to reference those keywords such as, ‘online jewellery stores’, ‘buy jewellery online’. If you need suggestions check out googles’ keyword suggestion tool. You can also optimise each product when you add it to your ecommerce shopping cart, by filling out the meta description and keywords for each product page.

Add a credible touch to your ecommerce website – You do not have to add personal photos of yourself, however you need to ensure that the customers know you are a real person and not a giant ecommerce conglomerate that will not return you phone calls.

There are gadgets on the internet that you can download for free where you can add on live chat, or you may want to consider adding some customer testimonials.

Other important information you will need to include in  your ecommerce shopping cart website:

• Giving the name and contact information for the owner of the site
  
• Telling a personal history of the business
  
• Showing pictures of your factory, office, semi-truck or anything else that makes your business real. If possible, give an online office or factory tour.
  
• Getting a secure security certificate and posting it on your site, and
  
• Posting a privacy policy, warranty information, and product testimonials
  
• Include an FAQ’s page
  

Make Your Ecommerce Shopping Cart Easy to Use - Be sure to organise your products and categories in a way that they can easily be found by your customers. Be sure to test it yourself.
Offer free shipping or a special offer. Don’t be afraid to offer gifts with purchases or free shipping, you can even set up ecommerce promo codes to allow customers to enter the code for a discount.