The Importance and Benefits of Using Internet Marketing in Business - Essay Example

? INTRODUCTION Starting a business nowadays requires being involved in internet marketing. Different companies and different people will require different strategies. Therefore, it’s crucial for new business owners to be aware of how the internet works, and how technical aspects are being managed. In other words, it’s important to have a system for doing internet marketing right. This includes strategy, and establishing and developing the newest types of selling, trading and shipping processes. Over the years, Internet marketing has spread widely, and being noticed requires a huge effort in order to make your business idea appear irresistible. Creativity is one of the key parts to internet visibility. For that reason, people have come up with many interesting ideas for carrying out business activities on the Internet. However, a good idea has to be supported by a friendly, well-organized and secure exchange of information, products and services. This research-based report conducts a detailed analysis of effective communication between customer and seller, by analyzing the Internet security issues facing users and network managers. In this research, I will also present deeper insights into the characteristics of specific application layer protocols involved in the Internet marketing process (Shelley, Cashman & Vermaat, 2005), (Leonard, 2006). DYNAMIC VS. STATIC WEBSITES Static websites There are many static websites on the Internet. If the website is for a smaller company, and simply delivers information without any further services, chances are that it is a static website. Static websites are usually being updated by someone with knowledge of website development. Many smaller companies still use static websites in order to get a web presence (Nixon, 2009). ADVANTAGES OF STATIC WEBSITES Quick to develop Cheap to develop Cheap to host DISADVANTAGES OF STATIC WEBSITES Requires web development knowledge to update the site Site is not as useful to the user Content can get stagnant (Jones, Scott, 2002) DYNAMIC WEBSITES Dynamic websites give the E-business owner the ability to edit, update, add or erase content from the site easily. For example, news, events, products, documents or services could be posted to the site through the internet browser. However, to run your site as a dynamic website still requires a good knowledge of the characteristics of specific application layer protocols. These protocols are found in the Internet marketing process and software, and help to make the website a dynamic one (Nixon, 2009). ADVANTAGES OF DYNAMIC WEBSITES More functional Easier to update New content brings people back to the site and helps in the search engines System allows staff or users to collaborate DISADVANTAGES OF DYNAMIC WEBSITES Slower/ more expensive to develop Hosting costs a little more (Jones, Scott, 2002, 2010). THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A DYNAMIC WEBSITE FOR RIPPEMOFF ENETERPRISES After the comparison of static vs. dynamic websites, the suggestion for Rippemoff Enterprises in terms of effective functionality would be to run their online store as a dynamic website. From the customer’s point of view, the main reasons why the RE website should be structured as a dynamic website, especially considering the listing of the e-catalogue for the hydrataas drinks, are: The listing of the product is up-to-date, depending on the stock availability The descriptions are regularly updated or removed, depending on the variety of the product Images are being published to support the description of the product Categories and pages are being added, removed or updated, again, depending on the variety of the product From the RE point of view, this means that their e-catalogue of hydrataas drinks, which offers a wide variety o f product, will be much easier to maintain and update. Rather than editing HTML pages on a local computer and uploading them back to the server via FTP, it will be done by server side-scripts, updating right on the server. The files themselves will not change, as they only will contain the scripts. Instead, the information will be stored in an SQL or flat-file database. The advantages of running the hydratas e-catalogue as a server-scripted link are: Server-side links are browser-independent Global variables are available with server-side scripting Server-side links are secured Server-side scripts provide live data through interfacing with server database ActiveX controls can be used on the server without being sent to the client HTTP server variables are available for server-side scripts, for more functionality The above-mentioned points will be noticed not only by new, but also by returning customers. These features are available only with the dynamic types of website. Therefore, to ensure the website’s quality and attractiveness, it is better for RE to choose a dynamic website instead of a static website. (Jones, Scott, 2002, 2010). CLIENT-SIDE, SERVER-SIDE SCRIPTS, DATABASE CONNECTIVITY AND INTERACTION FOR RIPPEMOFF ENTERPRISES When we talk in terms of clients and server connectivity, we are talking about the common structure for linking computers together. The main purpose is to split the tasks between the server and a client to retrieve information from the database. The Scripts can run on the Web server, on server-side scripting, or on the user’s computer client-side scripting (Lutz, 2011). CLIENT-SIDE SCRIPTING Client-side scripting is designed to manipulate and display the content returned from the server. The client, or user, will send the request to a server asking for specific information, retrieval of data, or for action to be performed on the data itself. This is initiated by the user. In order to view the display of the table showing all versions of hydraata drinks with their prices, the client will go to the RE website, which will be the server. Depending on the product the user chooses, he will retrieve data back to his computer. When he logs off, that particular session will be closed. Below are the three main steps, illustrated in Figure 1 (Lutz, 2011). a) Getting the data from the client to the server RE website b) RE website processes the data on the server c) Re website sends the results from the server to the client (Insert Figure 1-client-side cycle here) SERVER-SIDE SCRIPTNG At some point, people on the World Wide Web realized that HTML was too limited to do many of the things they wanted to accomplish. Web developers who wanted to collect information about clients accessing their websites came up with servers. The web servers are not only responsible for processing HTML tags, but also for processing scripts like ASP. Net or PHP. The scripting language engine, installed on the web server, is responsible for processing the scripts. Because the browser can only display HTML-compatible text, it is the responsibility of the scripting language engine to process the scripts and send the results back as HTML text to the client. In other words, the Web server sends HTML text, part of which may be the result of the scripts. Implementing this type of technique for the RE website’s e-catalogue can be done by using the Common Gateway Interface. CGI are programs which are written with many languages (i.e.: C,C++, Java, Perl, Visual Basic) to work with different types of systems (i.e.: Mac, Windows). In terms of processing, the request to view the hydraata drinks CGI will translate between the language the client is using (e.g. HTML) and the languages spoken by RE servers, in this case as a SQL for relational database. Below are the main steps in the process which is illustrated in Figure 2(Lutz,2011): a) Client contacts the server, RE website, via internet browser by using the HTTP connection. b) Within the server, hardware CGI scripts are executed and are subdivided with the use of other Server hardware resources if needed. In our case, RE website loads the e-catalogue. c) CGI scripts create HTML page with dynamically obtained info and the updated RE website e-catalogue. d) Web server software sends a HTML page back to the client via Internet browser. RE website e-catalogue loads up on a client’s web browser with a succeeded and updated request. (insert fig. 2 here) EMAIL COMMUNICATION SECURITY Making an online order requesting a specified item can also be done per E-mail. This is the case of a customer ordering some hoodies he has seen advertised on the RE website. This is not the most secure way of ordering products, but many potential buyers don’t have e-commerce, business-based websites allowing payments and money transfers to be make through the Internet using different types of “checkouts” (e.g. Pay Pal). However, if the customer decides to follow this path, it is crucial to do this securely so that communications will not be intercepted and messages with sensitive information will not be read by a third party. There are some specific rules to be followed to ensure that the data will travel from sender to receiver without being intercepted, forged, or altered. This is especially important if the customer includes his credit card details in the E-mail message. The E-mail message would have to be digitally signed and encrypted. Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, this type of handling of business is not recommended. It is inadvisable not only because it isn’t the most secure method, but also because of data protection act conditions. One of these conditions states that: if your business includes the processing of personal information, then you are required to adapt the DPA rules. For RE, this means that if they are encouraging customers to pay in this way, they would have to make sure that their organization takes reasonable precautions to protect personal information for loss, misuse, unauthorized access, unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized alteration and unauthorized destruction (Jenkins, 2009). E-COMMERCE SECURITY There are three communication lines along which secure documents travel: a) Browser to server b) Server to server c) E-mail. Each has a different set of security options. Examples of security options include encryption, access controls, and physical security of the data. This can be implemented by public key cryptography. This form of cryptography uses two keys, one to encode and another to decode. This process is known as asymmetric encryption and is based on mathematics using prime numbers. For instance, someone wishing to send an encoded message uses the recipient’s public key to encode the data. This ensures that no matter who intercepts the message, only the person who possesses the private key can decode it. Another curtail component used by e-commerce businesses is digital certification. Digital certification is an electronic document issued by a certificate authority. It contains the owner’s public key, the owner’s identity, the issuer’s identity, a serial number, the issuing and expiration dates and lastly the issuer’s digital signature. The bottom line on a digital certificate is that it is used to prove that a public key belongs to the owner and is genuine (Khosrowpour, 2004). CONCLUSION In this report, I have presented a detailed analysis of communication between customer and seller, Internet security issues facing users and network managers, and e-mail security. The main topics covered in this report are: the advantages of server-scripting, the problems of a static website, and the advantages of a dynamic website for RE, a description of the processes involved in using server-scripting to access a database, and a description of how PKI can be used for security and authentication. BIBLIOGRAPHY Eisenberg, B., (2006) Four steps to m ore effective website testing, ClickZ.com, Available at: ,http://www.clickz.com/3624130> [Accessed 8 Nov. 2009] Jenkins, S. (2009) The truth about e-mail marketing Jones, D. Scott, M., (2003) Special Edition Using Microsoft Commerce Server, Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 Six-in-One Khosrowpour, M. (2004) E-Commerce Security: Advice From Experts. Idea Group, Inc, PA. Leonard, S. (2006) E-business and is advantages, E-ZineArticles.com, Available At: [Accessed 8 Nov. 2009] Lutz, M. (2011) Programming Python Nixon, R., (2009) Learning PHP, MySQL and JavaScript, O’Reilly. Shelly, et al (2005) Discovering Computers, Thomson Course Technology, Boston. Read More