eBay Auctions

WHAT IS EBAY? For those of you who don’t know, EBay is one of the largest online auctions websites in the world with over 3 Million listings per day. If you wish to buy or sell on eBay you can. You can also do both if you wanted to.

WHAT IS THE SITE LAYOUT LIKE? The website layout is one of the best features. It’s easy to use for new users. Like any other website just click on the hyperlinks to take you to the location of that website. It offers great colour schemes and it also has brilliant auction listing features, which are easy to use.

WHAT IS THE SITE NAVIGATION LIKE? The website navigation is really easy to use as I have said above. You can get the odd technical glitch, which you click, on the link and it will take you to the international part of the company, other than that it’s brilliant and easy to use.

WHAT IS THE SITE STABILITY LIKE? The site stability has a couple of glitches especially with their log in scripts. If you click on the hyperlink for the Sign In tab at the top of the page you may get re-directed to the German login page. You cannot use this, as you might not understand it. According to ebay.co.uk they are trying to sort out all glitches within the next 12 months.

HOW DOES THE BIDDING WORK AND HOW DO I BID ON AN ITEM? This is really easy to do. You must have a registered account with them. Its FREE if you are just buying but if you are selling this takes longer see below for more information on this. If you wish to bid or buy an item you must follow the following procedures:

1) Click on the item title from the featured or search listing.

2) This will take you into the auction page for that specific item.

3) Read the item description and make sure you understand it before bidding or buying.

4) If you need to ask the seller a question do so by clicking on the link at the top of the page where the sellers id and feedback number is.

4a) If you don’t need to ask the seller a question or questions regarding the item just scroll to the bottom of the page to check the posting and payment terms and conditions (Most ebayers use this feature so keep your eyes peeled) After reading that make sure you are happy about the payment and postage terms and conditions.

4b) If you are happy with all of the above just enter the maximum amount of money you are willing to bid on that item and click on the bid button. After you have done that it will take you into the confirmation page and make sure you adhere to placing a bid. It should then re-direct you saying one of the following:

5) "YOU ARE THE HIGEST BIDDER"

5a) "YOU HAVE BEEN OUTBID BY ANOTHER USER"

It is really that easy.

HOW DO I SELL AN ITEM? In order to sell an item you must be registered and have a valid credit or debit card on file. Selling an item is easy just follow these methods:

1) Click on the "SELL" tab at the top of the page. If you are not a member it will ask you to register again as a seller and ask you for your credit or debit card details or it will take you straight in to the selling area where you can select your category.

2) Search for the relevant directory where your item should be listed. (If you don't do this eBay have the rights to remove the auction if it is in the incorrect directory.

3) Enter you eBay item title and description on the next page.

4) When you have done that you must enter the payment methods you accept. Whether it is PayPal (Most used), Cheque, Bankers Draft or Postal Order. You can select other payment services if you use things like E-GOLD, NOCHEX, STORMPAY, FASTPAY (Natwest Online Payments), Etc.

5) When you have done that you get the opportunity to add extra features to your listing such as pictures, and other listing boosts (The boosts cost allot though).

SELLING BOOST COSTS:

HIGHLIGHTED: £1.50
BOLD: £0.75
GALLERY: £0.15

FEATURED PLUS: £9.95 HOME PAGE FEATURED: £49.95
FEATURED GALLERY: £15.95
BUY IT NOW: £0.06
SCHEDULED LISTINGS: £0.12
LIST IN 2 CATEGORIES X 2 OF THE FINAL TOTAL.

Here are the basic insertion fees:

START / RESERVE PRICE --- LISTING FEE

£0.01 - £0.99 ---£0.15
£1.00 - £4.99 --- £0.20
£5.00 - £14.99 --- £0.35
£15.00 - £29.99 --- £0.75
£30.00 - £99.99 --- £1.50
£100.00+ --- £2.00

Starting a reserve item can cost a lot of money on eBay. I once listed my first laptop on there for a reserve of £800.00. It hit the reserve and the reserve amount got refunded to my seller account.

HOW DOES THE FEEDBACK RATING SYSTEM WORK? This is the main bit you want to be focusing on. If you have brought or sold an item you are eligible for item feedback.

There are 3 types of feedback available at the present time. They are stated as the following:

POSITIVE: You are meant to see more of these than of the ones below. This shows that the buyer or seller was really happy with the transaction. This type of feedback adds to your reputation number.

NEUTRAL: This means the buyer or seller was not dissatisfied or pleased with the transaction This leaves your feedback at the same number as before.

NEGATIVE: I hate these. Most people hate them. This means the seller or buyer was really dissatisfied with the purchase and transaction. The not minuses 1 positive feedback from you feedback status.

THERE IS A BLUE AND RED ABOUT ME LOGO NEXT TO THE BUYERS NAME, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

You have your "ABOUT ME" page, which gives the opportunity to other eBay sellers and buyers to really get to know you. The more good stuff you write the better your chances of either selling an item or getting pre-approved for an item. You can even add pictures to this page.

WHAT IS AN EBAY SHOP AND HOW DO I GET ONE?

Having an eBay shop is recommended if you are listing lots of items instead of just the couple of items. You will see that most of the shops belong to power sellers. More is explained about Power sellers below. To get an eBay shop you must have a feedback rating of 10 or more. This must now be 100% positive feedback. No Neutral or Negative. If you choose to have an eBay shop eBay will charge you reasonable and unreasonable amounts of money to get one. The charges are as follows:

Basic - £6 - This means that you will get no advertising done by eBay. It will not appear in search results.

Featured - £30: This not only is featured in search results it’s easier to use. The only thing is that the £30.00GBP is per month. They a lot of money in the long run.

Anchored - £300: Yes you have to this. If someone clicks on eBay shops from the homepage you shop will be there in at the top of the page in an anchor. Not many people choose this item at the moment. This is because you have to pay £300.00GBP per MONTH. That’s what I call daylight robbery. The only good thing about the shops is that you have longer durations like 30 day "BUY IT NOWS" 60 day "BUY IT NOWS" 90 Day listings. You also have the opportunity to have a GTC (Good till Cancelled listing) at 30 days. The prices are cheaper for listing in EBay shops at only 5p per Listing. Extra if you use the other features above like BOLD and HIGHLIGHTED.

THERE IS A MY EBAY TAB AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, WHY IS IT THERE? The answer to that is that its you own private area of eBay. No other member can see what items you are selling and watching. This is brilliant I use mine a lot.

WHAT IS THE CUSTOMER SUPPORT LIKE? IN relation to that question the online fellow ebayers are willing to help at all times in the community forums. Whether you are a new member or stuck on finding things to buy and sell. You can also get recommendations there. As for the EBay staff, they are completely useless. They haven’t got a phone number to contact on the website all that is there is automated e-mails which you cannot reply to.

WHAT IS THE COMPETITION LIKE? The competition is really good. You see other people selling the same item but then you see the other person not selling the same item. Competition is great on eBay and the better the feedback total the more chance you have of selling. I sold information on how to get Sony laptops for £20.00GBP the other week for £0.30P. I sold about 3000 e-mails to buyers who want to know. Many of them have praised me for this. Other people when I was selling the item were charging about £9.99. I saw one auction ended at £369.54p for just the information.

WHAT ARE POWERSELLERS? Power sellers are people you can trust as it goes with buying an item. You cannot apply to become a Power seller, as eBay must select you. There are different types of Power sellers. See below for a diagram: Members have five tiers to aspire to - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium - each enjoying the Power Seller Benefits reserved just for them. From fast track customer service and exclusive Power Seller Programmes to 'best practice' discussion boards, our Power Seller Programme is designed to help you grow your e-commerce business and increase profits on eBay.

WHAT IS MY VIEW OF EBAY? My view of EBay is really good. The only downsides are that you get the occasional stupid buyer that tries to tarnish your reputation. The fees are TOO high as well. My view is that eBay is great for buying not so much as selling due to the charges. EBay is the best for online advertising as they have over 100 Million members worldwide. Follow the methods above and get an account.

How to Jumpstart Your Site's Exposure: Pay-per-clicking

So you’ve published your e-commerce site and you’re waiting on Google to give you some free ranking. What can you do in the meantime to get some traffic to your store? The answer lies in the world of pay-per-clicking. A pay-per-click is when a site pays Google (or any search engine) for every click into their site from a chosen search term. On Google and Yahoo, the results in the grey box at the top and along the side of the page are all pay-per-click results. The secrets to success in pay-per-clicking are budgeting, good ad copy, and an attractive site.

To make pay-per-clicking worth your while, you must budget how much you’re going to spend. Google makes this process much easier by automating your budget. When you sign up, you choose how much money you want to spend on advertising in a day, and Google stops showing your site in search results after you reach that limit. Another important part of budgeting is to make sure that your sales are making up for what you spend. Pay-per-clicks should not eat into your profits; otherwise it’s better to simply wait on the free ranking.

Good ad copy is essential to any sales success, and pay-per-clicking is no different. Google actually uses the description you write in deciding how high to rank you among the pay-per-clicks. It’s true that the highest bidder gets the top ranking, but your ad copy is still an important factor. Also, your ad copy is the only thing that potential customers will use to decide if they want to enter your site. It must be able to grab people’s attention.

Having an attractive site is imperative to converting clicks into sales. It doesn’t matter how many people come into your site if they’re all leaving. This means you need an attractive color design and an easy site layout to make people want to buy. Consider hiring a consultant or even a web designer to make sure you have the best looking store possible. You could also do the extra work of educating yourself in a web design program like Dreamweaver or Frontpage to build everything yourself. If you do all these steps, your site will be on the quick path to sales!

Turn Your Small Business Website into a Marketing Machine!

It is surprising to see how many Websites are just informational in nature or seem to exist solely for company status. Some companies still view their Website as nothing more than an online brochure. If your company is one of these, you are foregoing an extraordinary marketing opportunity.

Big corporations especially are prone to positioning themselves on the Internet with Websites that are more about “flag waving” than generating new business. Unfortunately, many small and medium-sized companies have mimicked this approach as well.

Your Website is your company’s window to a worldwide market. It is more than just a vehicle to distribute information or automate administrative tasks. Correctly exploited, a company Website can become its primary marketing tool, generating new business around the clock.

Here is a simple checklist of activities you should be conducting on your company Website:

Marketing your products or services online, offering incentives and e-commerce for transacting sales.

Building an opt-in email list by offering a free newsletter subscription, free trials, whitepapers, ebook or other meaningful incentives. Email marketing costs only fraction of traditional marketing methods and opens a direct marketing channel to qualified buyers.

Adding downloadable marketing materials that prospects can print out.

Posting press releases, testimonials, awards, management team overviews and other materials that enhance company credibility in the eyes of your target markets.

Recruiting dealers and affiliates to broaden your marketing channels.

Establishing strategic partnerships with complementary (but not competitive) vendors that drive more qualified traffic to your site

Optimizing your site for search engines so that it bubbles up on the first page or so when someone enters germane keywords. This is much cheaper than pay-per-click advertising and has more credibility within the online community.

Investing in online press releases that include a link back to your site. These marketing vehicles receive widespread distribution and live forever.

Creating a business blog with links back to your site. Be sure to submit it to the growing number of blog directories.

Writing articles (like this one) that gain widespread distribution through free online submission sites. Of course, include a link back to your site. You can even set up your own RSS feed that is submitted to hundreds of directories, driving interested readers to your site.

When all is said and done, your Website is a marketing machine. Visitors must be able to quickly find what they are seeking and should be guided to the results or actions you wish them to take. If you embrace this perspective and diligently apply the marketing techniques outlined above, your company will be blessed with increasing sales and steady growth.

Is Your Job Becoming Extinct? Here's What To Do

Job growth--or lack of it--and the levels of unemployment continue to confuse obtuse government analysts and the Wall Street crowd.

Why? They are ignoring the dramatic effect of rapidly-increasing self-employment.

Recently, the weekly number of unemployed declined, but the number of newly-created jobs was very small. How could that happen when there were not enough new jobs created that week?

Simple. More and more people are becoming self-employed, no longer wanting, needing and even seeking jobs.

One reason: many kinds of American jobs are an endangered species. They're simply not needed any more by corporate America.

These jobs include office administrators, production/factory work, farmers and ranchers, stock clerks, sewing machine operators, mail clerks, mail machine operators, computer operators, secretaries, telemarketers, meter readers and part-time sales people.

The reasons: office technology, changes in business practices, escalating plant and factory automation, declining numbers of small farms due to acquisition, RFID technology for inventory management, offshore outsourcing, employees doing their own word processing and data entry, heavy use of email, optical scanning and voice recognition systems, and growing e-commerce and automated reordering systems.

Don't hold your breath, waiting to return to the good old days of being paid $15 to $20 per hour--plus benefits--for low tech, old fashioned office and factory work. These Happy Days will not be here again.

You have to learn more to earn more--continuously, and you must also become self-employed and attain Internet proficiency to succeed in the 21st Century.

Brain experts say we only use 5 to 10% of our brain's memory, so we all have lots of room to store new information.

What some powerful proof that globalism and the decline of jobs are permanent? The IBM worldwide Chief Procurement Officer does not work at IBM Corporate Headquarters in Armonk, NY. His office is now in China.

A recent study says that 72% of households are thinking about starting a home based business. And 73% of Americans use the Internet regularly. Most likely, there's considerable--perhaps perfect--overlap of these two groups.

Don't be left out or left behind. You, too, should be starting or expanding your home based business and becoming a proficient and prolific Internet user to build your businesses.

There's an old saying, "he who hesitates is lost." Comedian Mel Brooks changed that to "he who hesitates is poor." Mel's right!

Poverty is a deliberate choice caused by a mindset focused on lack and coasting--at your family's expense--by passively living in the past, rather than seeking today's 21st Century opportunities.

Wait no longer. Don't become an endangered species. Eagles can die off as an endangered species or soar majestically to search for more desirable places for them to flourish.

This applies to you, too. What kind of eagle do you want to be--one becoming extinct or one soaring boldly to incredible success?

Do We "Need" Hosting Features or Service?

There is an ongoing “features” war among hosting websites, hosting companies and individuals who resell hosting space to persons interested in setting up websites, blogs, e-commerce or just your plain simple website.

The war began when someone or some hosting provider decided to lower their prices to lure potential customers; but, have we noticed where this has taken the consumer? Don’t bother with the idea that the cost of hard drive storage has gotten cheap. Let me break it to you my readers, infrastructure cost money. Hard drive might be cheap, but servers, server space, establishing lavish data centers, electricity etc. are all very expensive

A few techies have decided they know about features and website needs and have probably contributed to the fact that hosting companies have gotten into the practice of beefing up their packages to undoubtedly some of the most unrealistic and unreachable hosting plans I’ve ever seen; unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and unlimited basically everything. But, before you get too excited, please, look at the end of most of these “unlimited” you will see a seemingly insignificant “*”. Do not ignore it.

Lots of people or should I say, the majority of seekers for online presence do not and probably never will notice the “*”, nor do they understand the true meaning of this notation and how it changes the plan. Frankly, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or bandwidth. If someone was cheeky enough they would put this to the test and what would the host get from that? ….a lawsuit. Thankfully, what would save the day for them is that “*” you did not see.

The big question in my mind is “Are we asking hosting providers for what we never use?” Another question is “Are we leading the hosting sites/companies to give us more and more of what we really don’t need?”

As someone who has a bit of knowledge in the field of technology (mark you, I am not God’s gift to the techie world), my opinion and that of several others, is that these features we so hog are features we really never use. I visited a website a few days ago and examined the hosting plan the owner had purchased. I questioned him as to why he thought he needed such an elaborate package for such a small site. His answer was “The package looked good with all the features”.

Might I add, this website does not have a database running on it, it doesn’t have any server sides loaded or running, it doesn’t have any background applications or anything fancy. In fact, the site is simply a twelve page site. However, the hosting package purchased was 5000MB, 1000 POP Email accounts, dream weaver, ASP, unlimited transfer, unlimited bandwidth, PHP, unlimited sub-domain names, you name it, this plan has it only for the price of $9.95 per month.

Now my readers, what would you do with a plan like this knowing the content and projected size of your website? Are customers being misled, or is it that hosting companies are forced or driven by a fake demand for these elaborate packages? Or, is this “out-doing” the competition? Are customers forced to take features they probably will never ever use?

I long to see a plan that really makes sense, a plan tailored for small owners who really don’t need the bells and whistles. What sense does it make to have a bulldozer when all you “need” is a wheel barrow to do the job right? Is this a waste of money or resources? Frankly, it’s a waste of precious resources; resources that should be put to better use.

Please, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying hosting companies/sites should water-down their products; what I am asking is, “Aren’t the companies/sites the ones who should tailor products to meet the market’s needs?” If this is the case please don’t say the market is demanding it, because in the real world not all website owners are gurus and want a top notch website.

Secondly, do not fool yourselves with the notion that you might need it at a later time; this is not a disaster we are preparing for. If that is the case, why not encourage everyone with a computer or a company to buy Filer Server(s) and Rack Enclosures just in case they buy another five (5) or six (6) Servers, then they can use the space.

What I think we should focus on is service; customer service and account service. Over the years the number one demand from customers has been for better service. Complaints range from “I can’t get any service from this host” to “I have a problem with that host; my website has been down for a while now and I can’t find anyone at the host to talk to”.

In most cases these problems are self inflicted, simply because features are what catch buyers and not the fine print. I have always noticed that shoppers in most cases simply pickup goods without so much as a clue as to what the value added is. However, when we get home we realize we have a “half box” of what we really don’t “need” and what is really not necessary. By that time we are already stuck with the goods or end up saying we had a bad online shopping experience because money back takes a bit of time to come through.

Getting Down To Basics With A Web Site

What is a web site? A web site is a associated collection of web pages on the world wide web, consisting of files that are organised into a hierarchy. Each file/document can consist of a combination of graphics, text, audio video and other dynamic or static material. A website is most commonly used as a communication medium between a business and client or business and business. They can usually be accessed by using a search engine or typing in the web site address or domain name into an internet browser.

56% of businesses surveyed identified that they had already recovered their investment in e-business, with 22% of businesses that have recovered their investment achieving a greater than 50 percent return on that investment.

In July 2003 some 49% of all small to medium enterprises indicated a potential to use e-commerce to sell their products.

What are the benefits? A website is a dynamic and cost effective way to reach new and existing customers, on a local, national or global scale.

A carefully constructed website, like those developed by Able Net Design, can attract the right users and may thus establish the following benefits.

• Visual Display - Showcase of products services to likely customers
• Sales - Bring forth additional recenue and greater awareness
• Information - Supply further information to new and existing customers
• Ehanced service - By providing a further contact method for customers

Other great facts 68% of all small to medium enterprises surveyed indicated that their expectations for all e-commerce have been met.

32% of all small businesses and 63% of medium businesses surveyed, use the internet for receiving payment.

45% of small and 64% of medium businesses surveyed use the internet to make purchases.

44% of small and 84% of medium businesses surveyed have a web site.

82% of small to medium enterprises surveyed who are connected to the internet search for information regularly.

93% of internet-connected small to medium enterprises surveyed use email as a form of communication.

81% of small and 98% of medium businesses surveyed are connected to the internet.

What Makes The Best Website Hosting Company

When choosing the best website hosting company, it is important to consider several things before making your choice. As they say " You never get a second chance at a first impression." This is true when we are talking about your website!

Web hosting is a service that allows users to post Web pages to the Internet. A Web host, or hosting service provider (HSP), is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for Web sites to be viewed on the Web.

When you choose hosting for your website consider the following things.

Price: Don’t simply look for the lowest price. Your website is your lively hood and you need reliablity that you may not get with cheap hosting.

Technical Support: Is it available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? If you have a question you need an answer.

Features: Various internet hosting companies offer a variety of services. Make a list of what you know you want your website to do. Here are a few services you will want to consider. Set up fees, transfer fees, email aliases, site stats, contol panel, site creation tool, front page extensions, submit to search engines, sub domains, multiple domain discounts.

Disk Space: The amount of disk space that will be allotted to your web site is another of the key elements in a good web host package. While it might seem that 30 megabytes is plenty of room, the potential for growth of your company means that you could easily need more space later. If you choose a web hosting provider that simply can't offer more space, you might find that your growth will be severely limited.

E-mail accounts How many e-mail accounts do you need? You'll probably need one for each employee and one for each department (sales, accounts, support). Make sure you purchase a hosting plan that has enough e-mail accounts. Also, do you want full POPS access, Web-based e- mail, or both?

E-commerce Will you be selling goods or services through your site? If not, there's no need to sign up for an e-commerce web hosting service. If you are, e-commerce web hosting services such as shopping cart software, SSL support and a merchant account will be vital.

Speed: You need to know how fast your internet hosting provider can provide access to your visitors.

Uptime: This may be the most important thing when choosing the best web hosting company. You can not make money if your web site is down.

It is reasonsable to expect to spend $20-$30 a month for a good hosting company. I personally use Host4Profit for my hosting needs. I have found them to be reliable, fast, offer top customer service, and reasonably priced. They have a web hosting affiliate program that allows you to make $10 a month for every person you refer to them. Refer 3 and yours is free.

A Quick Guide To Google Analytics

Google, the best search engine ever built, has been famous for everything that it provides – free of course. It has even increased the size of the Email (G-mail) storage to 2.6 GB. Since then, it has started launching a huge variety of products & services, which contains 50 online services. It was in May 2005 that Google acquired a company named Urchin Software Corporation which provided a web service called ‘Urchin on Demand’. Henceforth, the service was renamed to Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is an excellent solution for all the website related needs, starting from the source which brought the visitors to your site to how they interacted with your website. Hence, it provides good results as to how the site should be designed/ modified so as to attract more visitors or how to do better marketing for your product online. Some of the features of Google Analytics are given below.

Firstly, it is much easier to use. With the special AdWords feature, Google provides more flexibility with the keywords and also provides you immediate ROI results. It also provides good suggestions as to which keywords can make the site or product more attractive. Nextly, it focuses on only those modifications (in your website) which will gain you profits. As the service is available in many languages (English, German, Spanish, Korean, etc.) there is a wider scope for improvement of the site along with the marketing campaign.

As Analytics is powered by the same server which runs Google, it can be reliably used for even top corporate projects. Also, it is very much easy to use. For e.g. instead of purchasing or downloading some software or script, just pasting the tracking code in the web pages directly begins the tracking. Google Analytics also provides Executive summaries of the conversions, traffic directly to you so that you don’t have to hunt for the reports. You can then comfortably compare keywords, revenue & basically, the performance of the website. It also provides you the comparative reports of the performance, for e.g. if you need to compare this weeks performance with last week’s you can very well get the entire tabular data. This service extends so much that you can tally this winter’s reports with last summer’s reports. Google Analytics can also be used for e-commerce websites, as you can compare revenues, arrange & modify campaigns & get a whole view of the metrics.

Another special feature of Google Analytics is the Funnel visualization. Sometimes it so happens that a visitor starts exploring your site but quits in the middle. Mostly, it is due to puzzling or maze-like data or irrelevant information on the site that confuses the visitor. Google tracks the positions of the quitting & hence provides you the opportunity of modifying that particular area of the site. Google also provides you the segmented visitor report, which includes sorting of visitor information by location, by action, by new versus returning visitor, making it easier to compare the keywords and the traffic. Geotargeting helps in tracking the location of the visitor and also gives your information about markets in various areas & their potentials. Hence, it provides you a better option of the market analysis & gives you more options of setting up or modifying your campaign in order to increase the market value of your website.

Does Your Small Business Need A Web Site? (Part 1)

You are a small business owner. You use the internet both in your business and personally. Obviously you know there are many, many web sites out there. More then likely, you've even made purchases through someone else's web site. Perhaps it is apparent that you could be doing the same thing with your own business. Certainly, extra e-commerce sales could only help your bottom line. But does your business really need a web site?

In deciding that, consider what a web site really is to a business. A well designed site can give your business exposure to a much larger group of potential customers. That makes it a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.

In today's hyper-competitive business environment, marketing experts tell us that having a successful marketing strategy is essential to the growth of your business. Effective use of a web site can draw in new leads and turn leads into conversions. Now these new customers (your best market) can be further wooed through follow up online newsletters, automatic appreciation e-mails (auto-responders), special offers or any number of tactics. All the while building a mailing list which is like gold to anyone's marketing efforts. With this almost limitless and relatively inexpensive marketing tool in the form of your web site, your profits have an even greater ability to soar.

A web site does need to be well designed. Also, in addition to targeted, effective content, your site needs to be regularly maintained and updated. Using its full potential requires someone in your company continually coming up with new online marketing strategies. But these efforts, if thought of as marketing investments, can mean big rewards in the form of increased profits for your business.

In this information age, the internet is key to making innovative marketing decisions that build a successful business. Your competition knows this and he/she probably has a web site. If they are savvy enough to realize its marketing potential, then they have a competitive edge. But you can make up ground and pass them up with a well designed web site of your own.

Get A Web Hosting Merchant Account

When you started your business, perhaps you thought it was enough to make your goods available to a few neighbors in the community, with no thought of ever applying for a Web hosting merchant account. Then you might have expanded the company’s range by advertising in the newspaper or on the radio to get the word out to those who did not drive by your company in a typical day’s time. But now you’re poised to enter the electronic age as your company moves into the e-commerce era. It’s time to put up a company Website for all the world to see.

But you may lack the skills and perhaps even the funds to design, set up, and maintain a professional Website via a Web hosting merchant account. Perhaps you don’t even know where to begin to find someone who can consult with you about what the site should look like and how it should operate. You can’t begin to understand how to process credit card payments or manage other electronic functions to better serve your customers. But rather than admit any of this, it may be you are sitting back, resting on the old ways of doing business, and watching your colleagues’ profits climb while yours hold even or occasionally droop.

If this scenario describes your operation, maybe it’s time to inquire about a Web hosting merchant account. A bank or another financial services provider can explain the terms and conditions of operating a merchant account. Once you find out if your company is eligible to apply, you can look for the lowest rates and best service before making application, taking care to avoid various setup and maintenance fees that can be calculated in addition to your monthly transaction costs. When your application for a merchant card is accepted, you can get help in locating a Website designer, one who will work with you to represent your company the way you want it to be. Then you can equip it with software that will let you accept customers’ credit card payments when they shop online so they can pay for their purchases immediately rather than mail a check. Your merchant services underwriter will arrange a gateway coordinator to funnel customers’ credit payments directly into your preferred checking account. All you will need to do is pay a monthly rate for each credit card transaction or a low overall percentage rate.

You can design a Website that will stand apart from the competitors’ sites. It could feature product descriptions, price lists, sale dates, FAQs, testimonials, and links to related sites if that will support your company goals. The site should be error-free, contain easy-to-read chunks of information, and not be littered with so much information that the customer will feel overwhelmed. You can arrange to add an email site in case visitors have questions or problems, and you can let them pay by credit card online, which is perhaps the most essential feature of all. Ask your banker for details about a Web hosting merchant account.

What is Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce)?

Overview : Internet now can be browsed by PDA and Mobile devices. Mobile Screens are increasing day by day. Mobile users love to check e-mails and many other applications on their mobile devices. e-business or e-commerce turning into mobile commerce.

What is Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)?

E-commerce will coming soon become Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) because mobile devices are more user friendly than computer. Peoples checking movies details and many other useful information on their mobile devices. Many companies accepting payment by SMS payment system. In future Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) will be sales and marketing showcase, educational application for companies.

Why Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)?

Companies can use Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) to increase sales of their products and services. Mobile commerce can bring huge buyers for companies.

Benefits of Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)

• Buyers can access products catalog on their mobile devices.
• Companies can do promotions
• Companies can show products.
• Customers can price details from any palce.

How Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) can help Companies?

Companies can make websites for mobile devices, which is popularly known as WAP or Wireless Application Protocol. Companies can make online catalogs of products and services so that mobile users can access that catalog from their mobile devices. Companies can offer their services for mobile users bigest community.

Case Study: Successful Implementation of CRM

Recently, a company spent $25 million in CRM system's execution.

The company has been one of the leading forest-products companies in the world but for the past several years , office products - pens, computers, desks etc., have comprised the largest segment of its annual sales.

One-third of the company's revenue is generated from its online business and because office product customers rely on flawless e-commerce site performance to help reduce their administrative overhead, competition within this sector is strong.

What Prompted The Company To Go For CRM? Of late, the company's application server was failing to meet volume and performance expectations.

The web site was not integrated with customer account information, so clients with questions about order position or account balances flooded the call centers. The customers were demanding and each customer had different needs.

As the company was in B2B business, managers of the contracted company were primarily treated as customers. After a lot of discussion, the management decided to go for CRM to:

Implement electronic report delivery - to eliminate report production costs

Scalability - to manage the growth of users and reports

Ease of use - to respond in a timely and precise manner to all users, both inside and outside of the organisation.

The initiative was started to invest in CRM to strengthen the company's internal processes and also to provide customers with a greater economic value.

Roadmap To Implement CRM

The implementation was planned in a phased manner. During the design phase of the implementation, a cross-functional team was chalked out of business and IT managers.

This was done to ensure that the IT department had a comprehensive understanding of the business strategies and customer's needs. Different sets of requirements were made for different customer profiles.

How each individual client interacted with the organisation was given chief importance. It was concluded that there were primarily three areas where client interaction was most - customer service center, dispatch department and online portal.

This process helped the company to focus on specific technologies that would improve customer service and discard those that weren't right for the company's goals.

Consequently, the company bought individual software applications (instead of a complete end-to-end CRM system) for customer interaction and operation management and integrated them with the existing order-processing technologies.

Putting CRM Into Operation

Once all the building blocks were placed in order, it wasn't a difficult task for the IT department to implement the CRM system.

It was decided to apply the new technology to the two largest customer channels, phone and web and so it was paramount that both remain fully functional.

As the company had a huge client base, most of the production deployment was done over the weekend when there were less number of client calls and when there were less number of people accessing the company's web site.

The data migration was another step which was carved out with utmost importance because it required cleansing of the 2.2 million customer records from multiple disparate databases into a single customer profile database.

Mantra For Successful Implementation of CRM The company was able to successfully implement CRM because much of its focus was on customer convenience.

It always maintained the sync between the business and IT departments, so as to ensure everyone was on the same page.

Vigilant and correct choice of CRM software was another major step that helped the company to move ahead with a smooth and successful implementation.

In the end, the company was rewarded with increased revenue, customer retention and positive feedback from all sectors - both in-house and out-house.

Ebay Prostores Review

Thinking about buying a new content management system for your E-commerce site? Is a customized solution too much or too complicated for you? Don't even know what a content management system is? Well, look no further because I'm going to tell you all you need to know.

Content Management Systems Content Management Systems are web based software that allows web developers to publish and sell goods and services on the internet. There are literally thousands of websites that profit from selling goods and services online, they range in size from small mom and pop hobby stores looking to make extra cash on auction sites like Ebay to the well known titans of E-commerce like Amazon. As a result, a whole new industry has sprung up to cater to their wants and needs.

Review There are 4 different levels to choose from, "ProStores Express", "ProStores Business", "ProStores Advanced", and "ProStores Enterprise". At time of publishing this article they cost $6.95, $29.95, $74.95, and $249.95 respectively.

The best thing about a ProStore is the instant boost your profit margins will receive if you're using a 3rd party payment gateway because it only charges a .5% transaction fee. Chances are, your merchant account is taking anywhere from 5% - 10% of the purchase price on every sale you make! If you're doing a $1000 a month in sales or more, the money you save in transaction charages alone would more than pay for the cost of a Pro Store. Better yet, all transactions are SSL encrypted and billed in real time which means customer information is safe, secure and charged instantly.

ProStores is also an Ebay Company, which means your E-business will be backed by one of the top internet companies in the world, with offices worldwide from Japan to Germany. You'll have many resources at your disposal, including access to its extremely popular Ebay auction site. ProStores also provides a consulting service that pairs you with an E-commerce veteran who will review your goals and needs and set up a customized E-commerce solution that fits your business model and budget.

Domain name comes standard with every ProStore subscription (Except ProStores Express) allowing you to create a domain that includes your business name. They also have professional design services that have created numerous successful site designs including the popular ZStore.

Disadvantages Unfortunately, ProStores isn't the easiest content management system to work with. While the ability to upload mass product feeds gives gives the user a huge advantage over other competitors, it lacks a simple and intuitive interface to add a manage products.

Advantages ProStores's order processing really stands out. Real time credit card processing, inventory management, and customer processing still make it a great choice for any current or potential E-merchant

Use your own domain name Quickbooks integration Different subscription levels to suit your needs and budget

Final Analysis Would I buy a ProStores system? Yes! Despite its drawbacks ProStores is a great choice because of its price. A custom system that includes all the features of the ProStores Express would cost at at least $1500 dollars! ProStores are also backed by Ebay, one of the most powerful companies on the internet today. It's a great solution for everyone from E-Commerce veterans to somebody who just started competing in the E-marketplace.

Web Design That Works

As the manager of a web design studio that handles three new projects every week and has to deal with 30 queries a day I can tell you first hand that web design…huh-huh, it’s like brain surgery. You can go at it with a good quality hacksaw and a pair of later gloves but we wouldn’t really advise you to do it.

It’s a good analogy, except it’s totally untrue. Web design, as the proliferation of people who call themselves web designers attests to, is neither like brain surgery nor rocket science. At its most basic it’s like building something using Lego blocks. A child can do it.

Ok. I know, this is where I pause for the stunned silence. You will ask me (and quite rightly so) if it’s that easy to design a website why does it cost so much? Why do major companies spend $40,000 on web design and why should you come to us?

Well, this is where I use analogies thick and fast. I said web design is like building with Lego bricks and I meant it. For about $100 you can pick up a template-driven WYSIWYG web design programme that will let you put a credible web site together without needing to know an ounce of coding, programming or anything else.

This the Lego principle at work which has made engineers and master builders out of kids for well over 50 years. If all you want is a personal site or a hobby site well this will do the job and wasting any more than $100 will be…a waste.

But just like Lego allows kids to play at putting buildings together so do the ready-made, engine-hidden-under-the-hood web site software programmes only play at building robust websites.

If your career or your earnings or your reputation depend on the website you need then a $100 web site building piece of software ain’t gonna do it for you. And here’s why:

1. Because beyond the basic programming a robust website also has to have:
1. Good design principles
2. Easy navigability
3. Built-in search-engine friendliness as standard
4. Kick-ass content
5. Text, pictures, graphics and meta tags optimized
6. Code streamlined for easy indexing

1. Because in order to have your website stand out from the four billion websites on the net it needs to have the kind of attention to detail that only a real studio that has separated the artistic, aesthetic design look from the coding can bring to bear.
2. Because if you’re thinking of integrating a database and some e-Commerce capability you need to have the kind of coding that will not be hacked the next day by the six year olds surfing the net from their infant school PC.
3. If you’re serious about your site you need a design that has at least a year’s lifespan (which in net time equals seven years) before it needs updating and re-freshing.
4. Because sites sometimes go wrong for no reason. Maybe your e-Commerce provider beefed-up the security measures of their servers, or maybe your hosting provider upgraded their servers, or even the gentle east wind blowing out of Madagascar suddenly turned southerly. The truth is websites do go wrong, they do go down and they need fixing fast!

The difference between a website you built using your spare time, your own experience and a $100 programme and a website built by a studio is akin to an all-weather tent and a house.

Pretty much anybody can put up an all-weather tent these days, but a house still needs an architect and a professional construction firm to make it happen.

Having said all this if I then went ahead and said that for your website you’d need to start thinking around five-six figure sums I’d be lying again. Web design studios bring the expertise of innovative, original design, robust programming and content optimization under one roof. They’re specialists, and like any specialist you’d expect to see cost optimizations take place.

So, a decent website with original design and good coding should start at around the $500 - $600 mark. From then on the figure starts to increase on the sheer man-hours needed to do the programming. Ask for something that’ll be database driven, easy to update via a back end, secure suite, with full database integration, e-Commerce capability and a few extra customizable applications and you begin to enter the $10K - $20K simply because you’re looking at a team of programmers who will write about 50,000 lines of code, test them and find that one line doesn’t work. They’ll then spend 48 hours straight testing each line until they find the right one and fix it!

So, now, knowing where the money goes you can decide how to spend it. That way at least you will feel in total control of your website design project and if you want web design that works will be able to decide exactly how much to spend. The web design world may be digital, but just like in the real world you get exactly what you pay for.

Dedicated Web Hosting - Who Needs It?

At some point in the web hosting selection process, prospective web site owners will be confronted with the question of whether to go with shared web hosting or invest in the more expensive dedicated hosting. In general, you'll only need dedicated web hosting if you are running an extremely large e-commerce web site.

If you are just starting out, or growing your small business, you can certainly stick with shared web hosting until you reach the point that your business requires the kind of performance that can only be provided by a dedicated web server.

Let's say you are just starting out. You've chosen your domain name, registered it and selected a web host.

What's next? Your web host has to give you certain information needed to get your website up and running.

This information includes passwords to get into your account, paths to the server directories where your files should be uploaded and, most importantly, what your domain name servers are called.

Connecting The Dots

Domain name servers (DNS) provide the link between your domain name (mysite.com) and its Internet Protocol (IP) address. The IP address is a series of numbers like this: 123.456.78.9. and every web server has its own IP address.

For a dedicated server hosting a single domain, the IP address is equivalent to the domain name. A site hosted on a dedicated server can be found on the Web as either 123.456.78.9 or as mysite.com.

Shared Servers

Conversely, a server providing shared web hosting contains multiple websites on the same computer but they all have the same IP address.

If you were to type in an IP address associated with a shared server, you'd get an error message or possibly would be redirected to the hosting company's main web site.

So domain names are mandatory for websites hosted on shared servers as they are the only way to access those web sites - they cannot be accessed by an IP address alone as they can be with dedicated web hosting.

Choosing a Web Host- Frequently Asked Questions

In this article my aim is to provide you with the information required to choose a web host. There are several things that you need to take into account when choosing a web hosting provider, below you will be provided with answers to frequently asked questions which will help you choose your next web hosting provider.

Q. How reliable is my chosen web hosting provider?

A. It is common for web hosting providers in this day and age to offer some form of uptime guarantee, if you are running a business website and the uptime of this site is a priority, choose a web host that offers an uptime guarantee. The reason for this is the host will do everything in their power to avoid an outage on your site as it will cost them money, usually in the form of extra months credited to your hosting account depending on the length of the outage. For a business related site, you should choose a host that offers an uptime guarantee of 99% or better.

Q. What kind of performance can I expect from my chosen web hosting provider?

A. A good hosting company will have multiple high speed connections to the internet, and will also be providing their own network infrastructure rather than on-selling another company's service. Also the servers should be fast, in the shared hosting space generally good providers will be using Pentium 4 machines with dual processors or better.

Q. Does your chosen host offer good phone support?

A. When choosing your host, look for one that offer 24/7 phone support that's always available with a live operator. To test this aspect, try calling your chosen hosts support line at differing times of the day and night and on weekends to get an understanding of their support lines reliability.

Q. How much should my chosen hosting cost me?

A. Entry level hosting in this day and age is very good value when you take into account what features are on offer. For $4 to $8 per month you can expect a host to offer a good amount of storage space and a good amount of bandwidth.

Q. How much bandwidth will I need for data transfer from my host?

A. Using this as a rough guide you can choose a plan based on the following figures. A typical personal website should get by with less than 2GB of bandwidth per month. A small to medium business website serving text and small images should allow around 5GB of transfer. A larger website serving files, videos, or audio files should allow 10GB or more per month depending on the amount of visitors the website receives.

Q. How does my chosen host handle security?

A. Usernames and passwords should be required to control the host and manage your website. Your host should also backup your files on a daily basis at a minimum and offer mechanisms to retrieve these backups in the event of a server failure.

Q. What about my hosts control panel?

A. Almost all hosting packages come with some form of a control panel. This control panel allows you to configure all aspects of your hosting though your web browser without learning how to use the server's operating system for configuration. Popular control panels include cPanel, Plesk, Ensim and Hsphere, with cPanel the most commonly used control panel. If you are a beginner to hosting, choose a provider that offers cPanel as this control panel is very easy to use.

Q. What about my hosts email support?

A. Almost all hosts offer POP3 mail accounts, be sure to choose a hosting plan that offers you enough accounts that you need to create for your users. Almost all hosting providers also offer spam and anti-virus options for email accounts which can be a great security feature if you are concerned about this.

Q. I want to run my own online store, what do I need?

A. If you have plans of running an online store, look for a hosting provider that offers E-commerce features. To run an E-commerce site firstly your site will need a security certificate, this is required to process credit card transactions, ideally you should use a 3rd party service to provide the certificate and handle the processing of credit card transactions eliminating the need for your server to have extra security features. Using a 3rd party for credit card transactions will generally cost a small percentage of each transactions value.

Q. I need help to make the final choice of hosting provider?

A. If your plans include having a website that you will be relying on for income or storing important data, you will need to make sure you choose a host with the best technical support possible. A lot of hosts these days offer forums for technical support as well, while these forums are a great help when solving small problems related to your hosting, they shouldn't be used for mission critical issues.

Final Words

Take your time and check what each host has to offer, there are many web hosting providers with many different plans on offer, you will find which service fits your needs after careful examination of each web hosting provider, take the time to compare each plan, its cost, the level of technical support offered and feature set and you should not have any problems choosing a web hosting provider.

Ecommerce Web Hosting Packages

E-commerce websites have different requirements than a personal website or standard product or business information site. On e-commerce sites you need the capability to display your products for online sales, as well as a few customized features. That is why companies offer separate e-commerce web hosting packages.

Let’s say you have a selection of products you would like to sell over the Internet. Your website will need to display the product and a description. Users will need to be able to select the product to add to their shopping cart. Your site will need a way to store customer information and accept credit cards. Specialized e-commerce web hosting packages will make all these tasks simpler and easier to manage.

Prices between the different e-commerce hosting companies can vary, as can their services and features. Take a while to shop around and research the different options. Try to locate current customers who are willing to answer your questions. You can probably find them on business forums or web development forums. Most people are generally willing to help out and answer some questions.

You may also need to find an e-commerce web hosting package that will also include the design. Getting the two tasks finished at once can save you a lot of time and money. You may also want a company to manage your new web site. That is where research is essential. It may be more cost effective to have one web hosting company perform all these tasks, but you may not be paying for the best quality.

So, in order to get the most out of your online presence, you may need to consider different e-commerce web hosting packages to find one that best fits your needs and budget. Prices, fees and services vary from one company to the other but the research will be well worth it.

Custom Web Site Designers

Business owners do not need to know and understand Web languages. It is possible to hire custom Web designers to transform trade ideas into useful Web sites. With the advent of the Internet, the demand for web designers grew. However, in modern times, development in technology and business needs have created huge growth options for custom Web designers.

Web designing is important for all businesses. These include informative, architectural, e-commerce, telecommunication and even small businesses. A company website provides a window for the world to know what a particular business is focused towards. Businesses may be competitive, but are never similar. Understanding this allows custom Web designers to create personal and customized Web site designs, which are tailor made for each client.

Businesses may hire freelance custom website designers or attain the services of a company specializing in this field. Initially, a design quote is agreed upon. Based on this, the specialized designer or team of designers study and understand company goals and purposes. In most cases, custom Web designers sketch a business outline and upload it on a personal Web hosting service. These include concept sketches, markups for desired effects and user-friendly navigation techniques. Upon approval, custom website designers continue to create graphics, HTML codes, and flash animations.

Custom Web designers almost always work together with business owners. This allows them to incorporate all business thoughts and concepts during website designing. A custom designed Web site helps providing an edge over the competitors, which is the key factor in attracting potential customers. Hiring these services allow businesses to make a good first impression.

In most cases, the original Web designer provides maintenance and updating services. This paves the way for better results, fewer problems and consequently lowers business-operating costs. While selecting, it is imperative to find an affordable and effective custom website designer who is able to provide adequate Web solutions. The purpose of employing a custom web designer is create an engaging Web site that is easy to navigate, quick loading, search engine friendly and up to date.

Business Webhosting - Important Aspects To Consider To Get The Right Service

There are a number of business webhosting services over the internet. It is important to choose a business webhosting service that caters to your needs. Do you require a business webhosting that is a dedicated server, a managed server or a shared server? A business website could be very simple or complicated depending on the entity. The business could sell one product and may only require a simple e-commerce site or a very complex pay per click engine complete with statistics and payment features.

There are a number (around thousands) of business webhosting services you can find online. These business hosting sites offer a number of features some even unfamiliar to you such as Miva Scripting, co-location services, virtual private servers, redundant backbone connection and many others. You must define your aim. And ask why you need a business webhosting company? This way you will only look for the services that you truly need for your business webhosting. And you will not end up paying for the services that you do not actually need.

A business webhosting site can fetch as low as $40 - $50 a month to thousands of dollars. The price range will usually depend on the dedicated servers and bandwidth capacity. Choosing a business webhosting service is a major consideration. This is because a down site or down time usually mean your business is down too.

You must consider a number of factors before committing to a business webhosting service. One factor is a business webhosting service must offer a money back, no questions guarantee. Another is an uptime guarantee. You should also consider the types of backups they offer. A business webhosting service should have redundant backbone connections to the internet or connected to the internet by more than one major backbone providers. A business webhosting service must offer 24-7 technical, phone and email support. You should also check the background of the business webhosting service, how long they have been in business and do they have business references of sites that they host. Also, a webhosting vendor should also make it easy for you to upgrade/down services. And finally, know if the webhosting service requires monthly or annual payments.

Choosing the right business webhosting service is essential for your business to grow. Your webhosting service could spell the difference between success and failure in your business. That is why great care should be exercised in choosing it.

Business Credit Cards - Smart Choice For Your Small Business?

In an age of on-line payments and multinational business ventures, many small business owners are finding business credit cards to be a smart choice for simplifying payments, organizing expenses, and expanding the capability and autonomy of employees both locally and abroad. Before diving right in and applying for a small business credit card, however, every responsible business owner should ask himself or herself: is a small business credit card the right choice for my business?

There are several factors that can help determine this, but one of the simplest is how long the company has been in existence. Until a company has been around for at least two years, many banks and credit card companies may be reluctant to draw enough conclusions about the company's financial responsibility to approve a large line of credit. In cases such as these, whether a business credit card is approved or not will depend on the personal financial and credit history of whatever individual--from business partner to simple employee--actually puts in the application for the card. This may not be a problem in the case of a rock-solid personal finance history, but if there's any doubt, acquiring a good business credit card may be a trickier proposition.

Another thing to watch out for in the case of a startup small business is the question of personal financial liability. Since Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad in 1886, corporations have had the legal status of individuals, except insofar as business credit cards for startup companies are concerned. The first years of any business are the hardest, and in the case of company bankruptcy, any outstanding financial obligations based on a business credit card will be the original applicant's responsibility to meet. In the case of a large financial obligation, this can be a disaster for personal finance. Of course this is no argument against small business credit cards in all cases--far from it. However, any company interested in setting up a small business credit card would be wise to double-check its business plan and make sure that, in the rare event that the worst occurs, a "Plan B" for paying off the credit balance is firmly in place.

Even established small businesses would do well to examine their financial needs before taking the plunge with a business credit card. In the case of a business which involves a great deal of travel on the part of its employees, a large on-line business component, or a wide variety of expenses that require the business to deal with a number of different suppliers, a small business credit card is virtually essential. However, some small businesses are largely local, largely service-based, or have only a handful of employees authorized to make purchases. In cases like this, the reluctance of a few business credit card providers to allow disputes over billing errors or payments may actually complicate expense reporting and year-end inventories--sometimes a very real problem in the case of small businesses that have expanded far beyond their original business plan or intentions, resulting in a draconian system of purchaser agreements and expense accounts. So the decision to apply for a small business credit card should be made carefully, with defined uses for the card well in place, and a possible light restructuring of the business might even be warranted in order to ensure that payment responsibilities and individual employee purchasing requirements are well-defined in order to avoid possible later problems.

With all of these caveats, are business credit cards ever a good idea? Absolutely: these caveats represent only a few problems, nothing compared to the wealth of tools a good small business credit card can provide for a burgeoning small business. A good business credit card can--and usually does--simplify inventory management and tax reporting, allow employees a greater degree of autonomy on travel, make e-commerce easy, and, depending on "rewards" or travel mileage options, can even directly offset a large share of the expenses for some businesses. So yes, a small business credit card is, in the majority of cases, the smart choice for a small business. But as with all financial matters, care should be taken to determine when that smart choice should be made, or whether the business is structured to take full advantage of it.

Shared Webhosting - An Affordable Solution For Your Business

Shared webhosting is housing and serving files for a web site. For individuals or small to medium scale businesses that cannot afford to gain an extreme robust connection to the internet for their web site on their own. This is where the virtual or shared webhosting businesses come in. They provide the customers a way to outsource their Internet requirements in a more affordable way.

The shared webhosting service allows individuals and companies to share the cost of a fast Internet connection for serving files. This is the basic, entry-level fee-based hosting service available to the customer. Shared webhosting allows clients to host their website on a powerful server at a minimal monthly cost. Shared webhosting provides individual sites with connectivity and guaranteed uptime. Shared webhosting is designed to host small-scale e-commerce sites web pages. Shared webhosting is used by first-time webmasters because you can have a reliable Web presence without having advanced technical know-how. Shared webhosting is good for small-scale consumer because they are assured of transparent services, domain name for its website and set of email addresses.

Shared webhosting’s low cost makes it very attractive to the consumers. A minimal monthly fee for a shared webhosting service is preferable than a dial-up service. Most small-scale business and individuals choose shared webhosting because of its low price and it provides basic services. Another reason for shared webhosting popularity is its convenience. Site activation and set-up time in shared webhosting usually takes a few minutes after purchasing the services.

Shared webhosting services are usually bundled. With a minimal monthly fee, it offers multi-platform website solutions. Bundled services include: minimum amount of disk storage space for web pages, minimum amount of data transfer, email forwarding services with physical email boxes that allows you email aliases at your domain name, unlimited file transfer protocol (FTP) services. Shared webhosting alos provide access to Web statistics for you to gage the number of internet clients visiting your web site. This service usually includes raw statistical logs. Also, shared webhosting will include free 24X7 technical supports.

Other services in a shared webhosting are daily tape backup of web site, anonymous FTP server for you to provide public access via file transfer protocol format and CGI-BIN access to upload scripts that will add features to your website.

Shared webhosting is truly a great way to avail of fast internet connection for your website at a very minimal monthly cost.

UK e-commerce sites: Top 10 flaws

UK customer credit card details and sensitive data is at risk because of simple e-commerce flaws, according to a study published this week.

Web server flaws, poor authentication mechanisms and faulty log-out facilities are the most widespread problems, with most flaws caused by relatively basic mistakes, according to security testing outfit NTA Monitor.
The top ten most common e-commerce flaws discovered by NTA Monitor, listed in order of frequency, are:

* Lack of security behind the 'front door' exposes 'root' access Web server flaws
* Logout facility not working: although the web site tells users they have logged out, they are actually still logged in, so anyone using the PC directly afterwards can continue the session with full access to their account
* Predictable authentication tokens: this makes it possible to guess valid authentication tokens to access other accounts on the system
* Web server allows unencrypted access to secure areas: this allows information to be sent in the clear across the Internet - and sniffed in transit
* Authentication token cookie is cached on disk: anyone using the PC directly afterwards can log back into the session with full access to their account
* Authentication fields are not obscured during entry: so people looking over a victim's shoulder can see access details
* Account lockout mechanism does not work: leaving data unprotected from malicious 'brute force' attacks
* No protection against keystroke loggers: this allows an attacker to log confidential information entered by the user
* Weak password mechanisms: system allows users to choose insecure passwords, or there is no facility to change password
* Account enumeration possible: this enables an attacker to repeat attempts until valid user accounts are confirmed

Roy Hills, technical director, NTA Monitor, said, "Our experience shows that simple faults are worryingly common - and on a level that can be exploited even by the most unsophisticated hackers. Given that security issues are the biggest inhibitor for online buyers, we were surprised to find that companies are not sealing their defences more thoroughly."

Customer Registration on E-Commerce Sites

Customer registration on your e-commerce site can offer some big advantages to you as a merchant.

MarketingSherpa's Ecommerce Benchmark Guide 2006 notes that most larger retail sites (79%) have some kind of customer registration and profile system, though many (39%) don't do a good job of selling customers on why they should register. The majority (54%), however, explain that registration provides faster check-out blended with some sort of a discount plan as a carrot.

This information peaked my interest in customer registration and profile systems. Some of the better small business e-commerce software programs allow for customer profiles including: Yahoo! Merchant Solutions (formerly Yahoo Store), Storefront, ShopSite Pro, Monster Commerce, Miva Merchant, osCommerce, X-Cart, and others.

Shopping cart abandonment is the enemy of sales. When you have customer registration, you can you contact those who have abandoned carts (so long as they register before they abandon). One of the slickest ways to improve your conversion rate is to send (automatic or manual) e-mails to registered customers who have recently abandoned their shopping carts. Give them a URL where they can complete their transaction, tell them you'll answer any questions on the phone, and perhaps offer a 5% off coupon if they complete the transaction within 48 hours.

The other advantages of customer accounts, of course, are loyalty and marketing. Order history and wish lists are popular with customers. Plus, you'll have an easy way to contact your best prospects -- those who have purchased from you -- via e-mail.

If you do set up a customer registration system, don't make it mandatory or you'll drive away customers. Instead, induce customers to register by offering an incentive of some kind.

More AdSense revenue boosting strategies

AdSense - "Advertise on this site"

If you're already running AdSense, here's a few extra strategies that may help you increase your revenue.

Have you noticed the "Advertise on this site" link under your ad units? Check the link in the Adsense block on the right hand side of this page and you'll see what I mean.

This is a feature of Google's site targeting that allows advertisers to bid for advertising specifically for your site.

The link will open up a page to guide prospective advertisers through the Adwords advertising process. The big benefit for Adsense publishers is that the more advertisers who wish to promote their products and services via your site, the higher the bid prices will be, in turn increasing your revenue.
Customizing your Google AdWords page

Most AdSense publishers I've come across haven't latched on to this tip as yet - you can actually customize the "advertise on this site" landing page - and it's really easy to do!

Items that can be customized are your site logo, color scheme and description.

Here's how to do it:

1. Log into your Adsense account
2. Click on the My Account tab
3. Scroll down to "Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up"
4. Click "edit"
5. Ensure you tick the "Include me in Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up" box
6. Customize!

It doesn't end there; here's some other strategies you can use to boost your Adsense related revenue.
Maximize AdSense revenue - highly recommended
AdSense filters

If you're concerned about particular advertisers promoting on your site, you can filter out specific domains from ad displays
Default ads

If Google has no suitable inventory to display on your site, public service ads such as promotions for charities etc. are displayed; but you can configure your account to display an ad of your own choosing or for the public service ads not to appear at all.
AdSense for Search

AdSense for search allows you to provide a site/web search for your visitors with customized results pages. Aside from displaying results from your site, AdWords advertising units will be displayed at the top of the search page. If a visitor should click on one of those ads, you will receive a share of the revenue.

AdSense for search can be easily configured from your Adsense account interface. Once you have customized your search results page, it's just a matter of copying and pasting a few lines of code into your pages to create the search box.
Adsense referrals

By referring others to AdSense, you can earn some serious cash. Currently, Google pays you US $100 for each Adsense publisher that your refer who reaches US$100 in Adsense revenue. Google offers a wide range of referral buttons such as the one below.
Google also pays you for each user you refer who downloads Firefox and installs it for the first time.

Good luck with your forays into AdSense and don't forget to check out my previous article on boosting AdSense revenue and you can check my blog for other AdSense tips.

Marketing - recruiting and managing affiliates

Return to web marketing and ecommerce articles index
Marketing - recruiting and managing affiliates

In affiliate marketing, there's an abundance of myths on both sides of the fence. Many affiliates believe that it's simple to make a killing from promoting other peoples services and likewise, many merchants think they'll generate massive sales via an affiliate program.

Like any aspect of marketing, this can be the case, but not without some blood, sweat and tears. Even if you have a network of thousands of affiliates, chances are that just a few percent of those marketing your products will be responsible for over 90 percent of affiliate generated sales.

Before we move onto recruiting and managing affiliates, you'll need to have your affiliate software in place - manual recording of referrals just doesn't cut it these days and most good affiliates will not be interested in your program if you don't have an automated system with good reporting mechanisms.

If you haven't already selected an application; my affiliate software/services reviews may be of value to you.

Once your software is set up, you then need to start recruitment! This shouldn't just be left to having a "join our affiliate program" link on your site; you'll need to put in a bit more effort than that :).
Affiliate content pages

On-site content is very important, not only to explain your program to potential affiliates, but to give search engines some fodder to chew on. Many affiliates will use a search engine to search for new programs, so ideally, you'll optimize your affiliate pages for terms such as:

(product) affiliate program
best (product) affiliate program

... and similar.

Ensure you have plenty of content spread over a few pages; I suggest the following pages at the least

- Program overview
- Rates
- Terms
- Signup

The "rates" page shouldn't just have "earn x%", but also examples of earnings based on referral levels. Stay realistic with projected earnings.

By the way, on your "Terms" page, make it ultra-clear that you have zero tolerance for spamming and the use of malware for promoting your program; and make sure you enforce those policies. I'll explain why later in this article.

As with any sales process, it's important to have calls to action scattered throughout your content - after all, you're trying to sell your program to other marketers. Have plenty of signup links throughout, and ensure the signup process is simple.
Marketing your program

Once you've taken care of your marketing materials, go beyond your site and start spreading the good word. Treat this exercise much the same as you would in convincing a client to purchase your products. Slapped together spiels with little thought put into them will not attract the kinds of affiliates you want.
Affiliate program directories

There's many affiliate directories around, and these are an excellent place to begin advertising your program. Simply run a search on the term:

affiliate directory

.. and you'll be on your way. Many directories will list you in exchange for a link back to them, but some may charge you for a listing or want a cut of any earnings that affiliates they refer generate. This is where it's important to have selected appropriate affiliate software; 2nd tier payment functions are very handy in these situations.

When submitting to an affiliate directory, be sure to read the instructions very carefully. Incomplete or incorrect submissions are usually discarded Bear in mind that you'll be competing with many other program listings, so pay special attention to crafting attention grabbing descriptions.

Submitting to affiliate directories is a rather time intensive task; it can take days to complete. If you can spare the cash, I strongly recommend using an affiliate submission service such as AffiliateFirst. AffiliateFirst will submit your program to around 50 directories for $59. This is one of the cheapest services around, but by no means does the price reflect the quality. I've submitted a few programs via AffiliateFirst and have been very happy with their service.

Once your program is listed in affiliate directories, visit them all and see if there's a way to get a "premium" listing at a reasonable rate. With so many thousands of programs listed in most good directories, if you can raise the profile of your listing somehow you'll do better with recruitment.
Personal approaches

If you're looking for "power" or "super" affiliates; it's important to remember that they don't spend a lot of time looking for affiliate programs - merchants come to them :). Seek out the authority sites in your genre and approach them with a personalized note.

The more popular a site is, the more likely that they would already be aware of affiliate partnerships, so you don't really need to spell out what an affiliate program is :). It's been my experience that power affiliates are concerned with a number of issues:

a) Revenue share levels
b) Tracking accuracy
c) Payment reliability
d) Quality of product/service
e) Money back guarantees for people they refer
f) Good lines of communication
g) Extensive promotion resources
h) Merchant reputation

Address each of these points briefly in your recruitment note. It's fine to be excited about your program, but don't overdo it or exaggerate potential earnings - all the information you provide should be realistic. An experienced affiliate can see straight through any BS you may try to fling at them :).

You can also automate the recruitment side of things to a degree using applications such as the Super Affiliate Generator.
Screening affiliates

Once affiliates start signing up, even if you automatically approve them, it's wise to audit your network on a regular basis . The FTC is now making marketers responsible for the actions of their affiliates. If your affiliates run amok, it could literally cost you thousands in fines.

You'll have all sorts of affiliates signing up for your program; from those hobbyists with sites that look like banner shooting galleries, to spammers, to legit career webmasters and marketers. It's important that you review every single affiliate on a regular basis to ensure that the way they are promoting you is acceptable to your company, and more importantly - legal.

The following is a brief list of screening tips:

- Affiliates must have an active site. If they don't, chances are that they may be a spammer.

- Affiliate site content must be relevant to your product.

- Site should have appreciable levels of content. Web sites that primarily contain ads should be avoided, unless it's a popular destination.

- Watch for gambling and adult related advertising on the affiliate's site. If you're not geared towards an adult goods and services oriented market; then you probably don't want to be associated with an affiliate who is.

- Content misuse. Be very clear with your affiliates what content they can use from your site. I've seen cases where affiliates have basically copied all the content from a merchant's site. This can not only cause confusion for potential clients, but can impact on your search engine rankings. By supplying quality content and promotional materials to your affiliates, the incidence of this will be minimized.


Return to web marketing and ecommerce articles index
Marketing - recruiting and managing affiliates

In affiliate marketing, there's an abundance of myths on both sides of the fence. Many affiliates believe that it's simple to make a killing from promoting other peoples services and likewise, many merchants think they'll generate massive sales via an affiliate program.

Like any aspect of marketing, this can be the case, but not without some blood, sweat and tears. Even if you have a network of thousands of affiliates, chances are that just a few percent of those marketing your products will be responsible for over 90 percent of affiliate generated sales.

Before we move onto recruiting and managing affiliates, you'll need to have your affiliate software in place - manual recording of referrals just doesn't cut it these days and most good affiliates will not be interested in your program if you don't have an automated system with good reporting mechanisms.

If you haven't already selected an application; my affiliate software/services reviews may be of value to you.

Once your software is set up, you then need to start recruitment! This shouldn't just be left to having a "join our affiliate program" link on your site; you'll need to put in a bit more effort than that :).
Affiliate content pages

On-site content is very important, not only to explain your program to potential affiliates, but to give search engines some fodder to chew on. Many affiliates will use a search engine to search for new programs, so ideally, you'll optimize your affiliate pages for terms such as:

(product) affiliate program
best (product) affiliate program

... and similar.

Ensure you have plenty of content spread over a few pages; I suggest the following pages at the least

- Program overview
- Rates
- Terms
- Signup

The "rates" page shouldn't just have "earn x%", but also examples of earnings based on referral levels. Stay realistic with projected earnings.

By the way, on your "Terms" page, make it ultra-clear that you have zero tolerance for spamming and the use of malware for promoting your program; and make sure you enforce those policies. I'll explain why later in this article.

As with any sales process, it's important to have calls to action scattered throughout your content - after all, you're trying to sell your program to other marketers. Have plenty of signup links throughout, and ensure the signup process is simple.
Marketing your program

Once you've taken care of your marketing materials, go beyond your site and start spreading the good word. Treat this exercise much the same as you would in convincing a client to purchase your products. Slapped together spiels with little thought put into them will not attract the kinds of affiliates you want.
Affiliate program directories

There's many affiliate directories around, and these are an excellent place to begin advertising your program. Simply run a search on the term:

affiliate directory

.. and you'll be on your way. Many directories will list you in exchange for a link back to them, but some may charge you for a listing or want a cut of any earnings that affiliates they refer generate. This is where it's important to have selected appropriate affiliate software; 2nd tier payment functions are very handy in these situations.

When submitting to an affiliate directory, be sure to read the instructions very carefully. Incomplete or incorrect submissions are usually discarded Bear in mind that you'll be competing with many other program listings, so pay special attention to crafting attention grabbing descriptions.

Submitting to affiliate directories is a rather time intensive task; it can take days to complete. If you can spare the cash, I strongly recommend using an affiliate submission service such as AffiliateFirst. AffiliateFirst will submit your program to around 50 directories for $59. This is one of the cheapest services around, but by no means does the price reflect the quality. I've submitted a few programs via AffiliateFirst and have been very happy with their service.

Once your program is listed in affiliate directories, visit them all and see if there's a way to get a "premium" listing at a reasonable rate. With so many thousands of programs listed in most good directories, if you can raise the profile of your listing somehow you'll do better with recruitment.
Personal approaches

If you're looking for "power" or "super" affiliates; it's important to remember that they don't spend a lot of time looking for affiliate programs - merchants come to them :). Seek out the authority sites in your genre and approach them with a personalized note.

The more popular a site is, the more likely that they would already be aware of affiliate partnerships, so you don't really need to spell out what an affiliate program is :). It's been my experience that power affiliates are concerned with a number of issues:

a) Revenue share levels
b) Tracking accuracy
c) Payment reliability
d) Quality of product/service
e) Money back guarantees for people they refer
f) Good lines of communication
g) Extensive promotion resources
h) Merchant reputation

Address each of these points briefly in your recruitment note. It's fine to be excited about your program, but don't overdo it or exaggerate potential earnings - all the information you provide should be realistic. An experienced affiliate can see straight through any BS you may try to fling at them :).

You can also automate the recruitment side of things to a degree using applications such as the Super Affiliate Generator.
Screening affiliates

Once affiliates start signing up, even if you automatically approve them, it's wise to audit your network on a regular basis . The FTC is now making marketers responsible for the actions of their affiliates. If your affiliates run amok, it could literally cost you thousands in fines.

You'll have all sorts of affiliates signing up for your program; from those hobbyists with sites that look like banner shooting galleries, to spammers, to legit career webmasters and marketers. It's important that you review every single affiliate on a regular basis to ensure that the way they are promoting you is acceptable to your company, and more importantly - legal.

The following is a brief list of screening tips:

- Affiliates must have an active site. If they don't, chances are that they may be a spammer.

- Affiliate site content must be relevant to your product.

- Site should have appreciable levels of content. Web sites that primarily contain ads should be avoided, unless it's a popular destination.

- Watch for gambling and adult related advertising on the affiliate's site. If you're not geared towards an adult goods and services oriented market; then you probably don't want to be associated with an affiliate who is.

- Content misuse. Be very clear with your affiliates what content they can use from your site. I've seen cases where affiliates have basically copied all the content from a merchant's site. This can not only cause confusion for potential clients, but can impact on your search engine rankings. By supplying quality content and promotional materials to your affiliates, the incidence of this will be minimized.

- Misrepresentation of your products and services. If an affiliate has really hyped up your products and made outlandish claims, there's a possibility that the people they refer won't even bother to read the content on your own site - they'll just go ahead and purchase. That being the case, you may find yourself in a nasty position when the client finds that the product or service didn't perform "as advertised".


Return to web marketing and ecommerce articles index
Marketing - recruiting and managing affiliates

In affiliate marketing, there's an abundance of myths on both sides of the fence. Many affiliates believe that it's simple to make a killing from promoting other peoples services and likewise, many merchants think they'll generate massive sales via an affiliate program.

Like any aspect of marketing, this can be the case, but not without some blood, sweat and tears. Even if you have a network of thousands of affiliates, chances are that just a few percent of those marketing your products will be responsible for over 90 percent of affiliate generated sales.

Before we move onto recruiting and managing affiliates, you'll need to have your affiliate software in place - manual recording of referrals just doesn't cut it these days and most good affiliates will not be interested in your program if you don't have an automated system with good reporting mechanisms.

If you haven't already selected an application; my affiliate software/services reviews may be of value to you.

Once your software is set up, you then need to start recruitment! This shouldn't just be left to having a "join our affiliate program" link on your site; you'll need to put in a bit more effort than that :).
Affiliate content pages

On-site content is very important, not only to explain your program to potential affiliates, but to give search engines some fodder to chew on. Many affiliates will use a search engine to search for new programs, so ideally, you'll optimize your affiliate pages for terms such as:

(product) affiliate program
best (product) affiliate program

... and similar.

Ensure you have plenty of content spread over a few pages; I suggest the following pages at the least

- Program overview
- Rates
- Terms
- Signup

The "rates" page shouldn't just have "earn x%", but also examples of earnings based on referral levels. Stay realistic with projected earnings.

By the way, on your "Terms" page, make it ultra-clear that you have zero tolerance for spamming and the use of malware for promoting your program; and make sure you enforce those policies. I'll explain why later in this article.

As with any sales process, it's important to have calls to action scattered throughout your content - after all, you're trying to sell your program to other marketers. Have plenty of signup links throughout, and ensure the signup process is simple.
Marketing your program

Once you've taken care of your marketing materials, go beyond your site and start spreading the good word. Treat this exercise much the same as you would in convincing a client to purchase your products. Slapped together spiels with little thought put into them will not attract the kinds of affiliates you want.
Affiliate program directories

There's many affiliate directories around, and these are an excellent place to begin advertising your program. Simply run a search on the term:

affiliate directory

.. and you'll be on your way. Many directories will list you in exchange for a link back to them, but some may charge you for a listing or want a cut of any earnings that affiliates they refer generate. This is where it's important to have selected appropriate affiliate software; 2nd tier payment functions are very handy in these situations.

When submitting to an affiliate directory, be sure to read the instructions very carefully. Incomplete or incorrect submissions are usually discarded Bear in mind that you'll be competing with many other program listings, so pay special attention to crafting attention grabbing descriptions.

Submitting to affiliate directories is a rather time intensive task; it can take days to complete. If you can spare the cash, I strongly recommend using an affiliate submission service such as AffiliateFirst. AffiliateFirst will submit your program to around 50 directories for $59. This is one of the cheapest services around, but by no means does the price reflect the quality. I've submitted a few programs via AffiliateFirst and have been very happy with their service.

Once your program is listed in affiliate directories, visit them all and see if there's a way to get a "premium" listing at a reasonable rate. With so many thousands of programs listed in most good directories, if you can raise the profile of your listing somehow you'll do better with recruitment.
Personal approaches

If you're looking for "power" or "super" affiliates; it's important to remember that they don't spend a lot of time looking for affiliate programs - merchants come to them :). Seek out the authority sites in your genre and approach them with a personalized note.

The more popular a site is, the more likely that they would already be aware of affiliate partnerships, so you don't really need to spell out what an affiliate program is :). It's been my experience that power affiliates are concerned with a number of issues:

a) Revenue share levels
b) Tracking accuracy
c) Payment reliability
d) Quality of product/service
e) Money back guarantees for people they refer
f) Good lines of communication
g) Extensive promotion resources
h) Merchant reputation

Address each of these points briefly in your recruitment note. It's fine to be excited about your program, but don't overdo it or exaggerate potential earnings - all the information you provide should be realistic. An experienced affiliate can see straight through any BS you may try to fling at them :).

You can also automate the recruitment side of things to a degree using applications such as the Super Affiliate Generator.
Screening affiliates

Once affiliates start signing up, even if you automatically approve them, it's wise to audit your network on a regular basis . The FTC is now making marketers responsible for the actions of their affiliates. If your affiliates run amok, it could literally cost you thousands in fines.

You'll have all sorts of affiliates signing up for your program; from those hobbyists with sites that look like banner shooting galleries, to spammers, to legit career webmasters and marketers. It's important that you review every single affiliate on a regular basis to ensure that the way they are promoting you is acceptable to your company, and more importantly - legal.

The following is a brief list of screening tips:

- Affiliates must have an active site. If they don't, chances are that they may be a spammer.

- Affiliate site content must be relevant to your product.

- Site should have appreciable levels of content. Web sites that primarily contain ads should be avoided, unless it's a popular destination.

- Watch for gambling and adult related advertising on the affiliate's site. If you're not geared towards an adult goods and services oriented market; then you probably don't want to be associated with an affiliate who is.

- Content misuse. Be very clear with your affiliates what content they can use from your site. I've seen cases where affiliates have basically copied all the content from a merchant's site. This can not only cause confusion for potential clients, but can impact on your search engine rankings. By supplying quality content and promotional materials to your affiliates, the incidence of this will be minimized.

- Misrepresentation of your products and services. If an affiliate has really hyped up your products and made outlandish claims, there's a possibility that the people they refer won't even bother to read the content on your own site - they'll just go ahead and purchase. That being the case, you may find yourself in a nasty position when the client finds that the product or service didn't perform "as advertised".

Affiliate marketing - software

Looking for software or services to manage your affiliate program and commission tracking? Read our guide and review
Combating affiliate fraud

Affiliate fraud has been on the increase over the last couple of years unfortunately; another good reason to regularly screen your affiliate base.

The main types of fraud:

Malware: Some affiliates have developed software that is installed on a users machine, usually as part of a freebie download. When a person clicks on an affiliate link, the true affiliate's id is replaced with the fraudster's. If the malware application is widely used, this can result in genuine affiliates losing interest in your program.

If you see a particular affiliate generating a large number of sales from various sites that aren't listed in their profile, this may be the result of malware.

Fake purchases: If you have a high value product that returns large commissions to affiliates, you may find some unscrupulous parties signing up for your program, then using stolen credit card information to purchase products via their affiliate links.

To combat this, ensure that payment of commissions occurs well after the sale, but not so long that other affiliates are discouraged from signing up - 30 days (aka NET 30) after the end of the month in which a sale is made is sufficient and pretty much industry standard.
Communicating with your affiliates

Good affiliates are usually busy people - they can easily forget about your products and services. Over time, your offers can wind up in less visited areas of sites or accidentally deleted.

It's really important to stay in contact with your affiliates, especially the high performers. Don't wait for them to contact you, because if you do, it usually means they are reporting a problem. By taking the time to regularly make contact with your affiliate marketing sales force, you are demonstrating that you recognize their efforts and you are interested in the partnership.

You don't have to have a new product as an excuse to contact your power affiliates. Even just a brief note to say "hi" and to ask if they need anything can go a long way. Also use the opportunity for feedback on your program.

Managing an affiliate program is definitely not a task you can fully automate, the human element is vitally important in order to protect the integrity of your brand and also to ensure your affiliate marketers are happy. After all, happy affiliates are more productive, and the more money they are making, the more money that your company is making also :).