Ten Steps Guide for Newbies
Step Two: Why an Ebook?
If you are just entering the Internet business kingdom, one of the first things you realize is that you need to create your own product if you want to be successful.
One of the first options coming up here is an info product which is appearing in the form of an ebook. Why and ebook is considered as a good starting point here? Let’s see some of the considerations here:
• It is a digital product and that means no paper expenses
• It is very easy to reproduce at almost zero cost
• It is delivered automatically online without human efforts
• It contains active links to your websites or affiliates
The above advantages are very important when you compare with hardcopy products and especially when you compare the profits you generate. The profits from paper books are hardly reaching 10% for the author, while the profits from the e-books are starting from 25% and may go up to 100%.
Ebooks are very flexible in their sizes and contents. You can create a 15 pages report or 3 pages practical Guide and send it as a gift or even sell it, if the information is in great demand. Later on, you can include those ebooks in your bonus section of the next products you are going to create.
One of the biggest advantages of the e-books is their huge role in the so called Viral Marketing strategy. Viral Marketing strategy is about delivering quality information to the customers for free. And here is the main advantage of the ebooks. They can be easily and instantly delivered to the customer at no cost.
The viral effect comes from the links inside the ebook. If the customers likes the information, delivered for free than there is very high probability that the links will be used and the subsequent sails will be completed.
There is endless opportunity lying in front of the ebooks. Let’s use them.
Friday, April 13, 2007
How to be a Well Informed Online Shopper
Online shopping in the United States equaled $65B in 2004, and predictions for 2008 expect that figure to rise to $117B. The internet can be a shopper's dream; however, you need to know how to shop safely and securely. Below are some considerations you should take into account before you make an online purchase.
Is the web site reputable?
If you are shopping on a site that you are not familiar with, take the time to do a little homework before you share any sensitive personal information. Check the site to see if there is a third-party seal of approval posted from a trusted source like the Better Business Bureau Online, or Trust-E. The stamp of approval from these organizations means the web site has agreed to be held to strict standards in how they handle personal information, as well as customer complaints.
Sites such as BizRate.com or Epinions.com may have information about various sites along with customer reviews. You can also enter the name of the web site or business into your favorite search engine to see what comes up. If someone has had a bad experience with the site, it may be mentioned in a user forum or consumer information site.
Is the web site using secure technology?
When information is transferred between your computer and the shopping site's server, it should be encrypted. If a shopping site's server uses encryption technology, your data will be scrambled and then unscrambled when it reaches the shopping site's server. Encryption prevents unscrupulous hackers from capturing the information during transmission.
There are two things to look for to ensure that your personal data will be encrypted.
· An icon of a small locked padlock will appear in the bottom right of your monitor's screen.
· The URL of the web page should begin with https, which also indicates that it is a secure web page.
Before you click on the checkout button, know your shipping costs.
A reputable site will make their shipping costs easy to find before you check out. To avoid any unpleasant surprises take the time to look for shipping rates. Data collected from surveys of online shopping experiences consistently show that the one thing online shoppers dislike above all is shipping charges. While it is unavoidable that you have to absorb the cost of shipping one way or another, smart retailers will try to keep these costs to a minimum. Sometimes they will do this creatively by offering you incentives to purchase more, to help offset their costs for discounted shipping charges.
Moreover, while reputable sites will have a liberal return policy in the event you are not happy with your merchandise, be aware that in most cases you will not be reimbursed for the shipping charges to return the item.
Understand the return policy.
Never purchase anything from a web site without reading the fine print - particularly the fine print about its return policy. Good retail sites will allow you to return items you are not completely happy with, but sometimes there are stipulations that you should be aware of before you order.
Is there a restocking fee? This charge can be anywhere from 5%-20% of an item's purchase price, and is meant to discourage customers from returning merchandise. In addition, make sure you know how much time you have to return an item in order to receive a refund. Some companies seem to allow an almost unlimited return window, but in some cases, it can be as little as one week after you receive your order. You may still be able to return an item after this period, but will only receive a store credit instead of a full refund.
Is the web site reputable?
If you are shopping on a site that you are not familiar with, take the time to do a little homework before you share any sensitive personal information. Check the site to see if there is a third-party seal of approval posted from a trusted source like the Better Business Bureau Online, or Trust-E. The stamp of approval from these organizations means the web site has agreed to be held to strict standards in how they handle personal information, as well as customer complaints.
Sites such as BizRate.com or Epinions.com may have information about various sites along with customer reviews. You can also enter the name of the web site or business into your favorite search engine to see what comes up. If someone has had a bad experience with the site, it may be mentioned in a user forum or consumer information site.
Is the web site using secure technology?
When information is transferred between your computer and the shopping site's server, it should be encrypted. If a shopping site's server uses encryption technology, your data will be scrambled and then unscrambled when it reaches the shopping site's server. Encryption prevents unscrupulous hackers from capturing the information during transmission.
There are two things to look for to ensure that your personal data will be encrypted.
· An icon of a small locked padlock will appear in the bottom right of your monitor's screen.
· The URL of the web page should begin with https, which also indicates that it is a secure web page.
Before you click on the checkout button, know your shipping costs.
A reputable site will make their shipping costs easy to find before you check out. To avoid any unpleasant surprises take the time to look for shipping rates. Data collected from surveys of online shopping experiences consistently show that the one thing online shoppers dislike above all is shipping charges. While it is unavoidable that you have to absorb the cost of shipping one way or another, smart retailers will try to keep these costs to a minimum. Sometimes they will do this creatively by offering you incentives to purchase more, to help offset their costs for discounted shipping charges.
Moreover, while reputable sites will have a liberal return policy in the event you are not happy with your merchandise, be aware that in most cases you will not be reimbursed for the shipping charges to return the item.
Understand the return policy.
Never purchase anything from a web site without reading the fine print - particularly the fine print about its return policy. Good retail sites will allow you to return items you are not completely happy with, but sometimes there are stipulations that you should be aware of before you order.
Is there a restocking fee? This charge can be anywhere from 5%-20% of an item's purchase price, and is meant to discourage customers from returning merchandise. In addition, make sure you know how much time you have to return an item in order to receive a refund. Some companies seem to allow an almost unlimited return window, but in some cases, it can be as little as one week after you receive your order. You may still be able to return an item after this period, but will only receive a store credit instead of a full refund.
The Proper Care And Feeding Of Your Merchant Account
Anyone who has every done a Google search for Merchant Accounts or something similar has discovered a plethora of websites with every available processing solution, coupled with promises of quick or instant approval, no upfront costs and “the lowest fees in the industry”. To the prospective merchant, it must seem that the industry is bowing down and begging for their business and will do anything to keep it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The problem that prospective merchants face today is not obtaining a merchant account, it is KEEPING IT! As a bank card professional who has set up hundreds of merchants with accounts over the past 9 years I have seen many merchants lose their accounts simply because they did not pay attention to the requirements of their merchant agreement or didn’t think they meant what they said.
THE one biggest problem that I could point to, that causes merchant’s to lose their account or have their funds held, is processing outside the parameters of the account. In order to mitigate their risks, merchant service providers, specify a monthly processing limit, similar to the charge limit that is put on a credit card. There is also an average ticket size specified and sometimes a high ticket size. These parameters are designed to prevent the merchant from abusing his or her account, as well protecting both the merchant and the processor from losses due to chargebacks. Our company, Total Merchant Services, routinely reminds the merchant upon approval of the account of what the agreement specifies for their processing limitations and instructs them to contact the customer service department if they need to change the parameters. Sounds reasonable enough doesn’t it? Unfortunately some merchants either don’t pay attention or don’t think the words mean what they say.
It has been my experience that some merchant’s incorrectly think that if they put through a charge and it gets approved, that they are “good to go”. In fact a charge approval has no human interaction. The charge approval goes directly through a processing network, like Global Payments or Vital and is approved by the customer’s card issuing bank. If a customer has a $10,000 credit line and you put through a $7,000 charge you might well get an approval message back and settlement may likely occur, but if your merchant agreement was only approved for a high ticket of $1500 you can bet dollars to donuts that a red flag has gone off in the service provider’s Risk department and chances are your funding will be held. Do this on more than one occasion and you may find yourself without merchant services. Even worse you may be put on the Terminated Merchants File (TMF). If this occurs you will not be able to obtain a new merchant account elsewhere from any other provider.
If you are a merchant or prospective merchant do yourself a big favor, understand what your processing limitations are and stick within them. If you have a need to go behold your limits contact your merchant provider’s customer service or risk management department and let them know what you need. If you account is in good shape and shows few or no chargebacks or NSFs you will probably get approved for what you need. Remember that while merchant service providers make money off of you and other merchants, the industry as a whole looses hundreds of millions of dollars a year due to chargebacks, NSFs and other abuses. You merchant provider needs to protect itself from these losses as much as possible. Play it straight and prosper. Good selling to all!
The problem that prospective merchants face today is not obtaining a merchant account, it is KEEPING IT! As a bank card professional who has set up hundreds of merchants with accounts over the past 9 years I have seen many merchants lose their accounts simply because they did not pay attention to the requirements of their merchant agreement or didn’t think they meant what they said.
THE one biggest problem that I could point to, that causes merchant’s to lose their account or have their funds held, is processing outside the parameters of the account. In order to mitigate their risks, merchant service providers, specify a monthly processing limit, similar to the charge limit that is put on a credit card. There is also an average ticket size specified and sometimes a high ticket size. These parameters are designed to prevent the merchant from abusing his or her account, as well protecting both the merchant and the processor from losses due to chargebacks. Our company, Total Merchant Services, routinely reminds the merchant upon approval of the account of what the agreement specifies for their processing limitations and instructs them to contact the customer service department if they need to change the parameters. Sounds reasonable enough doesn’t it? Unfortunately some merchants either don’t pay attention or don’t think the words mean what they say.
It has been my experience that some merchant’s incorrectly think that if they put through a charge and it gets approved, that they are “good to go”. In fact a charge approval has no human interaction. The charge approval goes directly through a processing network, like Global Payments or Vital and is approved by the customer’s card issuing bank. If a customer has a $10,000 credit line and you put through a $7,000 charge you might well get an approval message back and settlement may likely occur, but if your merchant agreement was only approved for a high ticket of $1500 you can bet dollars to donuts that a red flag has gone off in the service provider’s Risk department and chances are your funding will be held. Do this on more than one occasion and you may find yourself without merchant services. Even worse you may be put on the Terminated Merchants File (TMF). If this occurs you will not be able to obtain a new merchant account elsewhere from any other provider.
If you are a merchant or prospective merchant do yourself a big favor, understand what your processing limitations are and stick within them. If you have a need to go behold your limits contact your merchant provider’s customer service or risk management department and let them know what you need. If you account is in good shape and shows few or no chargebacks or NSFs you will probably get approved for what you need. Remember that while merchant service providers make money off of you and other merchants, the industry as a whole looses hundreds of millions of dollars a year due to chargebacks, NSFs and other abuses. You merchant provider needs to protect itself from these losses as much as possible. Play it straight and prosper. Good selling to all!
6 Tips For Choosing The Perfect Shopping Cart
OK - Just What Is A Shopping Cart Supposed to Do?
Shopping carts are more commonly used as a way to display physical products, products like televisions, groceries, electronic equipment, clothes, and memorabilia, etc, NOT digital products. Shopping carts make it easy to cross-sell and up-sell your customers once they arrive at your store. Shopping carts typically handle the shipping and handling calculation, taxes and credit card processing. A good shopping cart handles all of these efficiently and securely.
Dynamic Operation
A good shopping cart program also creates dynamic order forms on the fly as the order takes place. The shopping cart should be totally dynamic; meaning it only executes code and retrieves products, images, and product descriptions from your database when your customers request it. During the checkout process it should also calculate shipping/handling and taxes for you.
Real-Time Credit Card Processing
Powerful CGI, PHP, CFM, ASP, etc, scripting, processes commands for you on secure servers when your customers place their orders. Don't get this confused with credit card processing. What I'm speaking of here is the passing of your customers' order information from a secure form, to your merchant or payment processor, using one of the scripting languages above. Your payment processor or merchant, like PayPal, 2CheckOut, or Authorize.Net will then process the credit card. If you don't currently have a merchant or payment processor, and you are going to be selling online, then you NEED one.
Usability
You can choose what options you want your customer to see. For instance, you can choose to display a search form on your shopping cart. A search form allows your customers to search your store for items by keyword or product name, etc. You can choose to display options like color, size and quantity, and even adjust the price based on the customer's selection. These are called options. Your shopping cart should also allow you to upload images of your products as well.
Stand-Alone -vs- Hosted Shopping Carts
However, you CAN purchase standalone shopping cart software or services. The stand alone software, of course, requires skill and expertise to install it on your web host or on your own server. Some of the shopping cart services, although it may not seem like it at first, limit you as to what you can and cannot do. These services are most commonly offered by web hosts as a way to entice you to host your site with them. When using these types of services, remember, you're locked into using that web host when you opt to use their shopping cart service. Your business is not portable and becomes a part of that web host. Make sure there is a simple export process that allows you to easily download your website and shopping cart if you no longer wish to use their services. In my opinion, the best option is to use a shopping cart that runs from your own website, independent of your web host. Both Prowebware and stand-alone shopping cart applications run from YOUR website, giving you both control and flexibility.
So, Which Is The Right System For You?
Choosing a shopping cart boils down to 4 things:
1 Your Budget - Is FREE your only option or are you serious about your business?
2 Your Skill-level - Do you have the expertise to edit & install scripts on your server?
3 Desired Functionality - Want a professional results oriented system or a display case?
4 Time - Have time to take away from your business to shape and mold a new program?
Whatever you decide, your cart should also permit you to follow-up with your customers automatically and even instantly auto-subscribe them to your mailing list.
To implement most out-of-the-box applications, you will need to know how to edit PHP, HTML, or ASP code and how to set up a MySQL database on your server for dynamic operation. Then, with some, all you need to know is how to copy/paste some simple code to your existing web pages or the template you're using. The system should also include some type of easy help or instructions, like an HTML file or contextual help menus that walk you through setting up your new cart.
Shopping carts are more commonly used as a way to display physical products, products like televisions, groceries, electronic equipment, clothes, and memorabilia, etc, NOT digital products. Shopping carts make it easy to cross-sell and up-sell your customers once they arrive at your store. Shopping carts typically handle the shipping and handling calculation, taxes and credit card processing. A good shopping cart handles all of these efficiently and securely.
Dynamic Operation
A good shopping cart program also creates dynamic order forms on the fly as the order takes place. The shopping cart should be totally dynamic; meaning it only executes code and retrieves products, images, and product descriptions from your database when your customers request it. During the checkout process it should also calculate shipping/handling and taxes for you.
Real-Time Credit Card Processing
Powerful CGI, PHP, CFM, ASP, etc, scripting, processes commands for you on secure servers when your customers place their orders. Don't get this confused with credit card processing. What I'm speaking of here is the passing of your customers' order information from a secure form, to your merchant or payment processor, using one of the scripting languages above. Your payment processor or merchant, like PayPal, 2CheckOut, or Authorize.Net will then process the credit card. If you don't currently have a merchant or payment processor, and you are going to be selling online, then you NEED one.
Usability
You can choose what options you want your customer to see. For instance, you can choose to display a search form on your shopping cart. A search form allows your customers to search your store for items by keyword or product name, etc. You can choose to display options like color, size and quantity, and even adjust the price based on the customer's selection. These are called options. Your shopping cart should also allow you to upload images of your products as well.
Stand-Alone -vs- Hosted Shopping Carts
However, you CAN purchase standalone shopping cart software or services. The stand alone software, of course, requires skill and expertise to install it on your web host or on your own server. Some of the shopping cart services, although it may not seem like it at first, limit you as to what you can and cannot do. These services are most commonly offered by web hosts as a way to entice you to host your site with them. When using these types of services, remember, you're locked into using that web host when you opt to use their shopping cart service. Your business is not portable and becomes a part of that web host. Make sure there is a simple export process that allows you to easily download your website and shopping cart if you no longer wish to use their services. In my opinion, the best option is to use a shopping cart that runs from your own website, independent of your web host. Both Prowebware and stand-alone shopping cart applications run from YOUR website, giving you both control and flexibility.
So, Which Is The Right System For You?
Choosing a shopping cart boils down to 4 things:
1 Your Budget - Is FREE your only option or are you serious about your business?
2 Your Skill-level - Do you have the expertise to edit & install scripts on your server?
3 Desired Functionality - Want a professional results oriented system or a display case?
4 Time - Have time to take away from your business to shape and mold a new program?
Whatever you decide, your cart should also permit you to follow-up with your customers automatically and even instantly auto-subscribe them to your mailing list.
To implement most out-of-the-box applications, you will need to know how to edit PHP, HTML, or ASP code and how to set up a MySQL database on your server for dynamic operation. Then, with some, all you need to know is how to copy/paste some simple code to your existing web pages or the template you're using. The system should also include some type of easy help or instructions, like an HTML file or contextual help menus that walk you through setting up your new cart.
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