Most people use a collective term to describe them. Either a virus or spyware. Strictly speaking they are designed differently to perform certain functions.
Spyware.
Spyware does what it says. It spies on you. It can monitor your activities, surfing habits, credit card information, passwords etc. and send this data back to a central location so some unscrupulous people can use this data.
Unlike adware, spyware usually runs silently in the background without making you aware it's there. Obviously the longer it goes undetected the more information it can retrieve from its victims.
Spyware is a very serious risk and should not be taken lightly. Once an attacker has got your personal details such as credit card information, passwords for online banking etc. you stand a very real chance of identity theft and financial loss.
Adware
Adware is generally used to force adverts in front of you. It will monitor your surfing habits and when you visit a site it recognises it will force a relative advert or pop-up.
Let's say you visit a site that is selling second-hand motor cars. If the spyware recognises the site you are visiting it may well force adverts in front of you that are relative to that site. For example car insurance, vehicle recovery services etc.
Other types of adware just force advertising in front of you whether it is relative or not. P*rn sites are of common use and can pop-up at the most inconvenient of times (usually when the wife is stood behind you)!
Some adware will change your home page, add links to your favourites, add shortcuts to your desktop.
Not such a major security risk like spyware. But it can become extremely annoying to have adverts popping up when you least expect it and having to constantly change you home page.
Malware
Malware is short for ?malicious software?. It is designed to destroy data on your PC or cause havoc on a network. Trojans, viruses, worms etc usually fall into this category.
Obviously a major security risk and the results can be catastrophic. Unless immediate action is taken to remove you will more than likely lose some, if not all, data on your PC. It's not uncommon to have to completely reformat a hard drive to remove them.
How Did I Get Infected?
There are umpteen ways it could have happened. But here are a few of the most common:
?Attachments sent in e-mails.
?Downloading free music.
?Downloading free utilities.
?Installing untrustworthy software.
?Visiting certain types of websites (p*rn, warez etc.)
?Installed when using instant messaging services.
What is Residual income? Residual income is what I basically live for. It's the reason that I no longer work 9 to 5 in the forty-year plan that we all stuck in and it's the reason why I have just come back from my third family vacation in six months. It's also the reason that I have no more mortgage and no car payments and that I can afford to have a new bowling ball made and have the cat fixed. The dictionary defines residual income as ?Earnings that are accrued on a frequent basis - usually monthly. These earnings are generated from members in a down line. Repeat Business: The situation when a customer returns to purchase a product or service. This is seen as a key endorsement of a business.?
Have you heard of this term before? Basically, it's when you are earning money day after day, week after week, and month after month without doing any extra work. It's also when you make a sale once, most likely from a program with a monthly fee, and you get commissions for every month that your customer stays in the program.
Residual income is great income. I have never heard anyone say anything bad about it. So it must be good. The other proof that it's great income is that everyone of us that have residual income try to make more and more of it as we can never seem to have enough of it. Work once then sell once and keep earning?God I love this business. If you promote several programs that can earn you residual income, guess what? You are going to be rich.
Imagine when you have a few people joining a few of the programs that you promote. And imagine that this happens every month. This really starts to add up! Well folks! That's the Power of Residual Income
Let me give you an example let's say you are promoting a merchant who is selling an e-book on how to make money in your PJ's. This books sell for 97$ and you earn 50% commissions. Also, with the book comes a membership site for another 10$ a month which you get 50% commission on. Let's say that every month for a year 5 people buy the e-book and all register for the membership site. Well my friend you've just made (let me calculate this here)?.A lot of money?Seriously that about $3000.00 and that's just one product and five sales a year'No wonder all those Internet Guru's are driving Ferraris.
Both Iain Williams & David Mclauchlan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Iain Williams has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. Iain Williams is the owner of which gives free advice and reviews of