Friday, July 27, 2007

Accept Credit Cards Online Without A Merchant Account

It is often assumed if you want to accept credit
cards on your website that you must have a merchant
account. This is not the case. You can accept credit
cards with a Third Party credit card processor.


1) What is a Third Party Credit Card Processor?


A Third Party credit card processor is a company that
will accept credit card payments on behalf of you
or your company. The payments your customers make are
processed through the Third Party's own merchant
account, and you the retailer is paid (minus a commission
fee) by the Third Party processor.


No need to pay for expensive processing software, monthly
fees or minimum transaction fees. As you only pay a
percentage fee on a sale, you cannot lose money.


2) Should I have a Merchant Account or Third Party
Processor?


For most businesses this decision will be made according
to the size of the company. Most small businesses do not
need their own merchant account.


Small businesses are better off with a Third Party
processor. The advantage is that when you sell your
products, the Third Party processor takes care of the
payment by checking the card, processing it, and sending
you a monthly check.


Larger businesses with a bigger turnover are likely to
need a full merchant account. You will pay a bigger
set-up fee for an online merchant account but pay less
per transaction than with a Third Party processor.
So recouping your initial outlay.


So there it is, unless you have a large business it is
possible to accept credit cards online with a Third
Party processor.


(c) John Lynch

For a Free report on how to get an online merchant account or a third party processor with tips for the best accounts visit: http://www.merchant-account-service.com/merchant_account.html

Database: The Secret of Success

BENEFITS OF A DATABASE


By maintaining your list as a database, you can segment in many ways for
targeting. Targeting improves the productivity of your offers. You can use a database to
isolate the segment of your list most likely to respond to a particular offer. With a good
database, you're not "mass-mailing" your offer to parts of your list that may have no
interest in it (based on their characteristics). Because the number you're mailing is smaller,
your response rate (number responding/number mailed) - one measure of productivity -
should be higher. (And, of course, you'll save on printing and postage costs.)


Here are two simple examples of targeting using database information:


1. You're the owner of a neighborhood beauty salon. For each customer, you
keep a record (with dates) of all the services you've provided to that customer. You're
planning a special pre-summer promotion on permanent waves for the month of May.


Instead of mailing an announcement of the sale to your entire customer list (many
of whom don't have their hair permed), you select only those customers who had a
permanent at least three months ago. In this way, you're targeting those customers who
are most likely to take advantage of your upcoming sale.


2. You're the dinner chairperson of a local fund-raising organization. Your
mailing list is made up of a wide range of contributors, from those who've donated only a
few dollars to those who give annual gifts of thousands of dollars. For each contributor,
you maintain a record of all past donations and functions he/she has attended, in addition
to basic mailing information.


This year, you're asking for donations of $100 a plate for the annual dinner dance.
To get the best response to your invitation, you first target those contributors who were at
last year's dinner dance. Then you target those who weren't at the dance, but who
donated more than $100 in the past year. Depending on the response you expect from
these first two groups, you may next want to target those names on your list that didn't
attend the last dance, but contributed $50 in the last year. You may even want to have a
phone follow-up to the first two groups but use the mailing only for the third group.


A properly set up database can provide many benefits for your business or
organization. But the usefulness of a database depends entirely on what elements you
include in it.


WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE DATABASE


Depending on your type of business or organization, you will want to include
different fields in your database. Later in this report you will see some examples of the
fields that are appropriate in specific instances. For all businesses or organizations,
though, certain basic information is always necessary.


By including basic information in your database, you ensure that the people or
companies on your list are deliverable. That is, the mailings you produce using your list
will get where you want them to go - into the hands of the individual who is most likely to
respond to your offer.


1. Basic information for Business Audiences
If your audience is made up of businesses, you will need to include the
following fields for each name on your list:


a. A unique account number.

This number should not be tied into any other information about the
customer, for example, phone number or address, since this sort of information may
change over time. The account number should never change throughout the life of the
customer. A sequential numbering system is simple and effective.

b. Company name.

c. Street Address.

d. Suite number, is necessary

e. P.O. Box, if necessary.

f. City

g. State

h. Zip Code, five or nine digit.

i. Phone number (with area code).

j. Job title or name of contact.


Some business mailers maintain the name of the individual within
the customer's business or organization. Others simply use the appropriate job title. The
alternative you choose will depend on the nature of your business and the amount of
turnover associated with the position that is your contact.


2. Basic Information for Individual (Non-Business) Audiences
If your audience is made up of individuals, you will need to include the
following data for each name on the list:


a. A unique account number.

b. Individual's name.

c. Street address or P.O. Box.

d. Apartment number, is necessary.

e. City.

f. State.

g. Zip Code, five or nine digit.

h. Phone number (with area code).


The basic information listed above is necessary to make sure that the names
on your mailing list are mailable. But how do you decide which names are more
productive?


3. Data Elements to Evaluate - Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value


Regardless of whether you're mailing to businesses or individuals, there are
three factors - recency, frequency and monetary value - that are commonly used to
measure the value of a name.


a. Recency: Recency refers to the last time that the customer ordered
or responded to an offer.

b. Frequency: Frequency is the number of orders or responses that
the customer has made since becoming a customer (or during the last year or other
specified time period).

c. Monetary Value: The monetary value is the amount of money the
customer has spent since becoming a customer (or during the last year or other specified
time period).


How do these three factors determine the value of a customer (the
likelihood he/she will order again)?


* The more recently a customer has ordered from you, the more
likely he/she will be to respond to your next offer.


* The more often a customer orders from you, the more likely he/she
will be to respond to your next offer.


* The more money a customer spends with you, the more likely
he/she will be to respond to your next offer.


All three factors - recency, frequency, and monetary value - are considered
to be good indicators of whether or not a customer is likely to respond to a future offer.


But they are not equal. Recency is thought to be the best indicator, followed by frequency
and then monetary value.


In order to use these valuable pieces of information, here are the specific
fields you need to maintain on your database:


* For recency: The date of the last transaction with the customer - the date of the customer's last order, purchase or donation.
* For frequency: The dates of all previous transactions with the
customer over a certain period of time.

* For monetary value: The size (in dollars) of all of the customer's
previous purchases or other transactions. (It is also common to maintain the dollar
amount of the customer's most recent order as the monetary value indicator.)

In addition to evaluating the recency, frequency, and monetary worth of
your audience, you will probably find that there are many other important ways to analyze
the names on your database.


4. Additional Information for Business Audiences


If your audience is made up of businesses, there is additional descriptive
information, some specific to your product or offer, that could be valuable to have.


You might want to consider storing some of the following data elements
for each of the names on your database:


a. Number of employees in the business/organization.

b. Type of business/organization.

c. Annual sales volume.

d. Credit status code

The credit status code could be developed by you, based on the
customer's payment history or perhaps obtained from a commercial credit report.

e. Items ordered from you.

With data in this field, you can select customer for programs
designed to get them to reorder an item, or to order complimentary or supply items.

f. Location.

Is it a headquarters, subsidiary, branch, division, etc.? If you are
making an offer that requires a decision by someone at the headquarters of a company,
you may not want to send it to the branch office (unless there are employees involved in
the decision too).

g. Source of the name.

This field is usually a code representing where you got the name.
Assign a unique code for each referral program, publication advertisement, list, etc., you
use to get a new name. Assigning a source code to each new customer allows you to
evaluate the effectiveness of each technique you use to get customers or to collect
prospect names.


5. Additional Information for Individual Audiences


If your audience is made up of individuals, you may want to collect
information on the household unit, often the most relevant purchasing unit. Here are some
suggestions for demographic information that could be useful to you in analyzing the
names on your mailing list.


a. Household income.

b. Occupations of household members.

c. Number of people in the household.

d. Ages of the members of the household.
e. Genders of members of the household.

f. Marital status of members of the household.

g. Information on property belonging to the household:

* Type of living quarters.

* Owned or rented living quarters.

* Number, make, model, etc. of each automobile.

* Number, make, model, etc. of each major appliance.h. Political
affiliation.

i. Hobbies and leisure time activities.


Now you know the secrets of how a database can turn your mailing list into a valuable asset for your business or organization. You understand what basic fields to
include. And you have had an overview of what additional fields might be added to the
basic ones that make a list mailable. Be sure to carefully analyze your own needs and to
include information that would be of help to you in mailing.


Syed Akram, Certified E-Business Consultant. We offer you e-business tools including hosting, interactive site design, webcast video conferencing, listservers, mailing list options, video recording, advertising, site traffic, and database development. http://www.onlineprofitsite.com

Online Business- What Makes It a Success!

Only a few manage to sell everything under the sun over the internet. There are billions of web sites running online business, trying to outdo each other by various means.


But only a few succeed in building, promoting and sustaining a profitable, professional, successful online business. Only a few web sites are able to deliver what they preach and make sale.


How do they do it? Some magic formula....??? Nope ;-)


What they do is -Plan, Develop and Strategize- their efforts in building a successful online business. They paln their moves or strategies wisely and invest intelligently on services and products that help them build, promote and grow their online business.


What kind of products or services do they use?
Good question....:-)


There are many services and products that helps in developing an online business, but none comes across Site Build It!


Site Build It! (SBI!) is the only all-in-one site-building, site-hosting, and site-marketing product that makes it easy for you to build a professional, popular, and profitable Online Business.


Whats so significant about Site Build It?


Its significance lies in its simplicity, effectiveness. It is user-friendly. It does all the work for you. All you have to do is to feed in the necessary ingredients like, planning the designs and outlets of a website, creatively writing high-info value-keyword-focused preselling contents that ranks well with the search engines and turns visitors into customers. Just follow the instructions, and you are up and running with a web site that sales and builds you an online business.


Site Build It! (SBI!) is the single most powerful driving force behind a website's success.


It doesn't only builds web sites but builds business. It's a complete R.O.I, Return On Investment service.

Getting Started in ECommerce - Part One

In 2004, Enquiro.com conducted a study of the search behaviors of men vs. women. They found that women spend more time in their searches and at specific sites. The study also revealed that women tend to be more deliberate in reading search results, linger longer at sites and have a greater satisfaction in the overall shopping experience. Another study conducted by iProspect.com revealed that women are more apt to click the paid search advertising because they find it more relevant to their searches than do men (WebProNews - July 14, 2004).


What does this mean? It means that if we understand the searching and shopping patterns of our target audience we are better able to create marketing strategies to effectively drive traffic to our sites. Don't yet have a website?


Electronic commerce or ecommerce is used to describe doing business over the Internet. Selling products and services to customers over the Internet can be accomplished a number of ways and various levels of sophistication.


The first thing you need is a professional Web site with its own domain name. You need to design and promote a Web site. You'll need access to expertise that can regularly design and maintain this Web site for you. A good website which gets visitors to return is constantly evolving and therefore, require ongoing attention. There are thousands of resources available for you to take advantage of, many of which are free. You can surf the Internet for what you need or you can simply visit www.WECAI.org to see the many resources we have listed. We have resources for guests and if you are a member we have even more resources to help you get started. In fact, you can search our domain registry and purchase your own unique domain name at www.wecaidomains.com.


Developing a business over the Internet requires many of the same major activities as starting any other business. You need a business plan, something to sell such as a product or service; you need customers and you may even need financial backing to get started. In addition, you need to market products to your customers, exceptional customer service practices and many other resources just as you do with traditional bricks and mortar enterprises. They may include inventory, fulfillment, shipping banking relationships and more.


Your store will need a "merchant" account, or the ability to process your customers' credit card transactions over the Internet. This includes needing a "secure server," (security certificate such as Versign or Geotrust) so that thieves cannot gain access to your customers credit information. Your merchant processing can be as simple as accepting payments through PayPal or as complex as a custom designed shopping cart system you pay for.


Getting a Merchant Account - If you have a good relationship with your bank and they don't require a security deposit this may be your best option for setting up a merchant account. Alternatives to getting a merchant account through your bank are to go through a broker, a fulfillment house, or using third-party billing.


For more information on establishing an ecommerce presence check out the e-book entitled: Show Her the Money - The Woman's ECommerce Handbook for Online Transactions (www.showherthemoney.com). If you are, or become a member of WECAI - www.wecai.org, this resource is yours with your membership.


Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business ฉ 2005 - Heidi Richards


Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets and the Founder & CEO of the Women's ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) - an Internet organization that "Helps Women Do Business on the WEB." BASIC Membership is Free. She can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org. You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Getting Started in ECommerce - Part Two

In Part One we talked a little bit about what Ecommerce is, getting a domain name and setting up a merchant account. Ecommerce is more than that, much more. To have a really good online presence that gets people to stop and shop you need a strategy for success. Your strategy must include your USP or Unique Selling Position in the marketplace. What makes you stand out from all the other online entrepreneurs looking for the same type of customers as you? Can you stand out from the competition based on quality, price or benefits? Once you know your USP, you can begin the monumental task of telling the world about your site. A really unique selling position will give you an advantage over all the competition - well that and a lot of planning and investing of your time and money.


FOCUS


Emphasize the benefits and the results the customer will get from purchasing from you and using your product or service. You can discover the benefits by listing all the features and then converting them to benefits. List everything your product or service offers. For each feature list a relative advantage from the customer's perspective. You can discover the customer's perspectives when they buy. Simply ask them, " Why did you place an order today or use our service?" BE very specific when creating your benefit statements. An example of this is, "You will save $100.00 sells better than "you will save money." "You will loose 20 pounds in 10 days" sounds better than "you will loose weight." Rank your benefits in order of importance to the customer. If you have enough of them, use bullet points for emphasis.


Emotion sells. People make most buying decisions with their heart and not their head. Paint a picture of the results the customer will get when they purchase from you. " You will look 20 years younger." "You will be $100 richer."


Make sure you include a call to action. Want them to make a buying decision today? Give them a reason to do so. Offer a bribe (discount, bonus, something for nothing).


Your website must load quickly and function easily. If your site loads slowly people will get impatient and go elsewhere. Do all your links work? Have you tested your order page by running sample orders? Have you tested load time using different connection speeds? You can get a fr*ee analysis by visiting Submitplus.com.


Make your website easy to look at and read. I find dark background tend to be more difficult to read than do pale backgrounds. The overall look of your site should be clean and professional. When we were first creating the Women's ECommerce Association, International we did everything in-house. Not being truly adept at HTML coding we thought we could just use a simple program to create a professional site. It was okay, but the one we now have is so much better. Why? Because we hired a professional. You can create a website with a good template program. We are using ECommerce Templates to create our new look for WUN Publications. It is simple to use and relatively inexpensive.


When it comes to graphics, be conservative. Sites that are laden with graphics and flash tend to take longer to load. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to do so, you will loose many visitors and potential buyers. If you must use graphics, make sure the files sizes used have been reduced as much as your image editing/compression software will allow.


View your site using as many different browsers as possible. In addition to Internet Explorer and Netscape, there is Opera, Mozilla, Lynx and those are just the ones that run on Microsoft Windows. WebMonkey has a chart of those supported by Macintosh, Unix/Linux and others. Also, many people will surf with their browser's graphics switched off. Make sure you know what your site looks like without the graphics and that it is still easy for visitors to surf.


One last thought Make sure all your important information is above the fold. If you know that visitors are looking for something specific and you make them scroll down to find it, chances are they won't.


Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business ฉ 2005 - Heidi Richards


Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets and the Founder & CEO of the Women's ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) - an Internet organization that "Helps Women Do Business on the WEB." BASIC Membership is Free. She can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org. You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Home Sweet Home Page

"Your home page is the world's introduction to you and your company. Make it COUNT!" - Heidi Richards


Think of your home page as the cover of your brochure. It features exciting information about your company, but like a brochure it must be opened to reveal the rest of the message. It is connected to other pages in a way that allows other visitors to your site to move from one page to another by clicking on the highlighted text or images.


Getting your home page up and running on the Internet requires design, operations, and the update of your information. Many Internet Service Providers offer home page construction for free, often with a standard format in their "host" package. This is an inexpensive way to get up and running more quickly on the Internet. In the beginning, it might be an option for your site.


The options of design, operations, and update depend entirely on how much maintenance your site would require and how much information you want the surfer/customer to have. It could be as simple as listing your location, hours of operation, and the types of products and services you provide. Or as elaborate as picture graphics, movement, and even sound.


Design It yourself. This no-frills approach is inexpensive. The many new and easy-to-use software applications available make it affordable to get started. Provided you feel comfortable with this do-it-yourself approach, and feel comfortable learning a new program you can create your own home page. There are, however, some disadvantages. There is no guarantee of quality for the finished product, and it requires a lot of time and energy.


Microsoft offers a free package that allows Word users to build a Web site from their word processing software package. Check out their web site for Internet Assistant for Word (http://www.mircrosoft.com). Adobe has a package called PageMill 2.0, using click-and-drag commands that create web pages. Less than $100, it has the basics needed to create a site. Just call 800-833-6687. Corel offers a Web Graphic Suite of products. More expensive, but you can get more features. Corel's number is 800-772-6735.


New packages become available frequently. Check out the computer software catalogs and local stores for what's out there.


Hiring a Designer. Companies specializing in Web site design are abundant. And new companies are springing up all the time. Of course, it can cost up to $500.00 to develop a modest site. And about $30.00 per hour for updating the site. You will still need the Internet Service Provider to host your site.


Updating your site. The more often your site is updated, the more successful it will tend to be. Active sites are updated weekly, maybe even more frequently. If you want your Web site to be more than a billboard, it could require several hours per week to keep the site current. It all depends on the types of products and services you provide.


Make sure your Web Site is "linked" to other similar industry sites, and professional associations.


Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business ฉ 2005 - Heidi Richards


Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets - http://www.edenflorist.com and the Founder & CEO of the Women's ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) - an Internet organization that "Helps Women Do Business on the WEB." Basic Membership is FREE. Ms. Richards can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org




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Monday, July 23, 2007

Why should I register more than one domain name?

If you're thinking about registering more than one domain name, you've got the right idea. Registering and using multiple domains names is great for building your business and can help you create a dynamic online identity.

When you register multiple domain names, you can:


  • Keep your competition from registering a domain name that draws customers to them instead of you.
  • Promote the different products and services you offer.
  • Drive more traffic to your Web site.
  • Enjoy more opportunities to market to — and be listed in — search engines.
  • Create distinct advertising strategies that reach different target markets.
  • Provide customers more ways to find you when searching the Internet.
  • Capture common misspellings of your domain name, instead of sending visitors to an error page.
  • Protect your brand and online identity from those who may have unsavory purposes.

The Secret Science Of Online Shopping

In theory you could create a retail web site with a limitless selection; an online store where every kind of merchandise known to man could be sold. Would people be interested in buying from such a huge enterprise?


Why do people buy online?


Location: You can shop online from almost anywhere as long as you have access to a power supply and a telephone connection. You can shop in the comfort of your own home or you can shop in your office. You can even shop while on the move, if you have a laptop connected to a mobile telephone.


Convenience: You can visit a web site almost whenever you want, you can browse through it at your own pace and you can make a purchase at any time of day or night. The internet makes it possible to shop 24 hours a day, seven days a week.


Information: The internet makes limitless amounts of product information available to the online shopper. You can access product specifications, brochures, product comparisons and all manner of other information with just a few clicks. You no longer have to wait for a brochure or a catalogue to come to you.


How do people shop online?


What are the factors that determine the buying decision?


Just like in the real world where shops are built of bricks and mortar, the online store needs to welcome the shopper and make them feel comfortable and safe.


Once a shopper arrives at your web site they need a little time and space to familiarise themselves before being bombarded with information or choices. If you put too much information on your home page then the average shopper will miss a large proportion of your content. Likewise, if you present too many choices you will overwhelm the shopper and it is very likely that they will leave straight away.


The purpose of your home page should be to simply tell the shopper where they are and to ensure that the general layout of your online store is easy to understand. Your customers need to know if they are in a vast warehouse or a small boutique! They need to know where the entrances to each department or section are located; their question is often quite simple how do I find what I'm looking for?


Your web site should be attractively designed, with enough white space to make your content readable. You should choose a web friendly font in a size that is large enough to be read on an average monitor.


Navigation is critical. Your web site's navigation should be obvious; it should be laid out in a simple and logical way. Your customer should be able to navigate within your web site by using the navigation buttons and links that you provide without having to use the browser back button. Shoppers should be able to navigate inside your web site without leaving.


Consider how you could make the online shopping experience fun and interesting. The technology is now available to provide live customer support; you can now guide and advice shoppers as they browse your online store. You can add sound to welcome people to your store or to add an audio description to your products. You can demonstrate your products in action using video technology.


It never ceases to amaze me just how many web sites simply don't work. Broken links, missing images, badly installed scripts. Payment processing that is incorrectly configured; too many clicks to get from the product to the checkout; forms that require too much mandatory information. The list of problems is endless.


Here is a simple checklist for a successful web site:


  • Make it easy for your customer to find what they are looking for with a minimum number of clicks.
  • Website Marketing: 10 Resourceful Things You Can Do With A Product That Doesnt Sell

    Do you have any product that has not been moving well?


    Would you like to learn what to do with it?


    Here are website marketing secrets to help you:


    1. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to the product.
    You could make money selling other people the rights
    to reproduce and sell the product. People are always
    looking for new products to sell.


    2. Giveaway the product for free from your web site.
    Just because it won't sell doesn't mean people won't
    visit your web site to get it for free. They may see
    another product you sell and buy that one.


    3. Try auctioning off the product at an online auction.
    You may make part of your investment back. If you're
    lucky, you may even make a profit because people
    sometimes get into bidding wars and will bid a higher
    price than the product is worth.


    4. Use the product as a free bonus for another product
    you sell. This will increase the perceived value of the
    product you're selling. People will feel they're receiving
    more for less.


    5. Contact businesses with the same target market and
    see if they would be interested in using your product as
    a free bonus for their product. You could place your ad
    on the product and get free advertising.


    6. Sell your product to businesses at wholesale cost as
    a promotional product. Businesses are always looking
    for products they can giveaway to their customers with
    their advertising on the product. You could make part
    of your investment back.


    7. Barter your product to other businesses for things
    you need for your own business. You could trade for
    their products or services. This will save you money
    and help make up for your profit loss.


    8. You could create an online contest so people could
    win your product. This will attract traffic to your web
    site. You also could get free advertising by listing it on
    online contest directories.


    9. If you decide to giveaway the product for free, allow
    other people to giveaway the product for free. Place
    your web site ad on the product. This will spread your
    advertising and attract even more people to your site.


    10. Ask businesses with the same target audience if
    they would be interested in combining your product
    with their product. You could then sell them together
    as a package deal and split the profits. You may have
    better results selling your product this way.


    May these website marketing secrets help you to make
    a lot of money and succeed.

    Wednesday, July 18, 2007

    What Are The Barriers of Implementing E-Commerce Solutions

    What is electronic commerce?

    "Electronic commerce is about doing business electronically. It is based on the electronic processing and transmission of data, including text, sound and video. It encompasses many diverse activities including electronic trading of goods and services, online delivery of digital content, electronic fund transfers, electronic share trading, electronic bills of lading, commercial auctions, collaborative design and engineering, on-line sourcing, public procurement, direct consumer marketing, and after-sales service. It involves both products (e.g. consumer goods, specialized medical equipment) and services (e.g. information services, financial and legal services); traditional activities (e.g. healthcare, education) and new activities (e.g. virtual malls)." (European Commission, 1997).


    Web commerce transactions are often unprofitable because companies fail to change their back-end fulfillment process. Below are some fallacies, in order of importance:


    - Our logistics operation can handle web commerce fulfillment

    - We can now sell effectively around the globe

    - Our existing supplier relationship will support e-commerce applications

    - We are selling over the web so we must be making money over the web

    - We can always integrate e-commerce solutions with our existing activities


    Critical success factors:

    -Target the right customers

    -Own the customer's total experience

    -Streamline business processes that impact the customer

    -Provide a 360-degree view of customer relationship

    -Let customers help themselves

    -Help customers do their job

    -Deliver personalized service

    -Foster community


    Conclusions

    Identifying the barriers in implementing e-commerce:

    1. Resistance to new technology

    2. Difficulty of implementation

    3. Security is an over hyped problem

    4. Lack of skills

    5. Lack of potential customer connected

    6. Cost


    Electronic commerce is shaping the way in which business of the future will be transacted. Although e-commerce is relatively recent phenomenon, those companies that are seizing the opportunities it offers will reinforce their market position.

    How To Eliminate Credit Card Refunds From Digital Thieves

    Can you encounter the number of times where a Credit Card Sale was generated, only to receive a "Refund Notification" from your contracted e-commerce processor on behalf the "customer"?


    Welcome to the electronic world of "cyber-shoplifting".


    Unscrupulous surfers, disguised as potential "customers", systematically opt to ordering goods (using credit cards) in electronic form of delivery, only to request a refund minutes or days later after receiving the product.


    The "cyber thieves" consent the well-known "loophole" of specific e-commerce processors who deploy a "no questions asked" refund policy.


    Some... might concur to the predicament that a "liberal refund policy" boosts sales, but it is statistically verified that these claims are unthinkingly based gross sales figures, where refunds are *not* accumulated to extract the "net profit" (minus refunds).


    In numerous cases, the cyber thieves (or else called freebie hunters) automate their thievery, by using pre-made templates to ask for a refund, in order to save time and reap as many digital products as possible, for gratis.


    A portion of cyber thieves, download a digital product, whether ebook or software, only to illegally sell it online at eBay or sell it in "warez sites".


    Optimistically, these unprincipled pinches are either prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law, for infringement of copyrights, or face imprisonment along with heavy fines.


    So if you want to avoid getting targeted by cyber thieves (and losing thousands), the wisest approach is to conduct business with an e-commerce processor who will protect you against dodgy "freebie hunters" (see http://traffic-engine.net/stormpay for a genuine payment processor).


    After all, it is *your duty* to forming your own "refunds policy", not your processor's.

    The Lowdown On ECommerce: Making All The Pieces Fit Together

    The Lowdown on Ecommerce

    Ecommerce is truly the most confusing aspect of purchasing web design services. This is unfortunate since most (if not all) businesses online would like to provide their customers and potential customers with easy access their products or services. In order to help make sure you get what you need to to set up an ecommerce web site, let's look at the necessary elements of selling online.


    A Web Hosting Provider

    The most important things to look for in a web hosting provider with respect to ecommerce are Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) support, shopping cart software, payment gateway services and merchant account services. They are the pieces to the puzzle and you will not be able to sell online without all four of them. If you are working with a web developer who is not providing you with hosting, have them check out the features of the hosting plans you are looking at as well to make sure they will meet your needs.


    Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Support

    SSL is the internet protocol used to send information between a site visitor and a web server securely. If there is no SSL support, there is a risk that a user's credit card information will be intercepted during the transaction. This process involves purchasing an SSL certificate. Many hosting companies offer use of what is called a "shared SSL certificate." This simply means that instead of having your own, you will use one belonging to the hosting company and will store any secure pages on a directory of their server instead of your own web space. For people just starting out, this can be a very good solution and is often relatively inexpensive.


    Another option is to buy your own SSL certificate. This is more costly, but also more professional. The visible difference to visitors of your site is that the checkout process will show your web site URL in the browser instead of that of your hosting provider.


    For the lowest startup costs, check out PayPal's merchant services. If you have a PayPal account, you can setup a basic shopping cart that will allow credit card transactions through PayPal. The downside is that your buyer will be taken to the PayPal site to enter in their credit card information, as opposed to the other two methods which can be integrated into your own site very easily. The major upside is that it is free with your PayPal account, excluding the fee per transaction.


    Shopping Cart Software

    If you are not going to go with the PayPal solution, you need to ensure that your hosting provider includes shopping cart software. As the name implies, shopping cart software allows a web site visitor to browse around your virtual store and place items in their cart. It also handles the final checkout process in conjunction with a payment gateway, which will be discussed below. There are many great shopping cart packages available, but they can be difficult to install and maintain on your own. Make sure your hosting provider offers good technical support before signing on, as their help will be invaluable when it comes to customizing the shopping cart software and integrating it with the rest of your web site. Some examples of good shopping cart software are Miva Merchant and OSCommerce.


    Payment Gateway

    When a customer enters their information into your shopping cart, it connects to a payment gateway or payment processor to verify that the credit card is valid and has the funds necessary to make the purchase. If this does not come with your hosting package, the most important thing to verify is that your shopping cart software supports the payment gateway provider you choose. Your web host should be able to provide you with the information you need to choose. If you already have a merchant account, you need to also ensure that your payment gateway and your merchant account can properly interact with each other. Many payment gateways provide merchant accounts as part of their service, but if you already have one you need to make sure they will be compatible.


    Merchant Account

    A merchant account is a type of bank account that must be setup with a payment processor in order to accept credit cards. Many web hosting providers have partnerships with merchant account providers and provide discounts on acquiring merchant accounts. This is an important factor to look for, since many merchant account providers have high application fees and start up costs. If you currently run a business that already accepts credit cards over the phone or in person through a card swipe terminal, then you already have a merchant account and your cheapest option might be to consult with the current provider of your account to see what they have to offer in terms of processing transactions over the internet. These are known as "card not present merchant accounts" since the buyer is not present with their physical card when making the transaction. Keep in mind that although a merchant account is a type of bank account, you will need to provide information about your regular checking account so that your merchant account provider can deposit into it when a sale is made.


    Conclusion

    The process in any ecommerce transaction involves a few steps. The customer browses and selects the products they want, typically utilizing shopping cart software. When they checkout, they enter their credit card number which is sent over the internet using the SSL protocol. When the hosting server receives this information, it connects to a payment gateway to approve the sale. The payment gateway verifies the credit card and deducts the funds for the sale. The payment gateway then communicates with your merchant account provider, transferring the funds. Lastly, the merchant account provider deposits the funds in a place that is accessible to you, such as a regular checking or savings account.

    When selecting a web hosting provider and a web developer, make sure that all of these elements will work together. Request support from any third parties involved in the project to ensure that compatibility will not become an issue. If possible, find a package deal where all of this comes together, as it could save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

    Saturday, July 14, 2007

    Leading eCommerce Consultant Admits You Should Only Listen to One Real Expert! (And its not him!)

    Let me share with you a secret that most marketing experts and consultants don't want you to know? (many of them don't even understand this secret themselves.)


    The secret is? There is only one true expert who can show you how to drastically improve the effectiveness of your website and your marketing. With dozens of so-called guru's, consultants and experts ready and willing to give you (or charge you for) their advice, there is actually only one person you should listen to on a regular basis. Only one! And his name is Eric Graham? No, no? just kidding?


    The only "experts" that you should listen to and trust are your visitors. The visitors that come to your website or view your ads are the only true experts. They will share their expert opinions with you by the actions they take while on your website.


    Not sure what headline to use at the top of your page? You have a couple of options:


    Pay an "expert" consultant like me to look it over for you and give you copywriting recommendations, for a few hundred dollars an hour.


    Or?


    "Ask" your visitors which one is best, by split testing each element of your headlines and letting your visitors vote with their credit cards? The one that converts to sales best wins!


    Trying to figure out how much to charge for you new ebook? You can hire an expert? I can talk to you all day about advanced pricing theory and explain to you how prices with a "7" in them (such as $17, $97, $777) usually convert better. I can walk you through an analysis of the price points of competing/similar products?


    Or?


    Simply test 3 or 4 different prices to see which one is most profitable. Often the greater perceived value of a higher price actually converts better than a lower price. But you won't know if that's true for your product and your visitors until you test it. Again your visitors will teach you more about pricing than any consultant ever could. You just need to "ask" these experts by testing.


    If done properly, the questions you can get your "visitor experts" to answer about your website by simply testing, is endless.


    Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you should never hire a consultant or expert -- after all my clients happily pay me a lot of money to help them improve their conversion rates. And I am worth every penny! ;-)


    But what you need to understand here is that the best experts, became experts by studying and testing, testing and testing different elements over and over until they developed a set of "best practices". So, by hiring someone who has been in the trenches you can save time and money in the long run.


    However, every website, business, product and visitor demographic is different. Just because something works at one website, doesn't automatically mean it will work at yours. The best consultants will tell you that you still need to test everything. So in the end it's still your visitor who's the true expert.


    Just imagine the results you could achieve over the next year, if you took the time to test only one new element every week. Even if half of the tests were failures and didn't produce improvements in your conversion rates, you would still discover 26 ways to improve your sales. Even if each improvement only boosts your conversion rate by 1/10th of 1%, you would have improved your conversion rate by over 2.6% (and probably much more!)


    Look over your current sales statistics, and ask yourself, "How much more profit would I be making if my conversion rate jumped by 2.6%?"


    With most sites currently converting at an appalling 1% to 2%, a 2.6% improvement could triple your sales?


    Let me ask you a question: Imagine you have a website selling information on how to learn to play the guitar, getting 1,000 visitors per day. And I came to you and showed you how I can change a few things about your page, improve your search engine positioning and triple your traffic? Would you be excited? Sure.


    Then, why not get equally excited about optimizing your website for maximum conversion rates?


    Many online businesses will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars optimizing their sites for the search engines. But then they waste 99 out of every 100 visitors that they spent so much time and effort getting, simply because they failed to invest in "asking the experts" (their visitors) first. Had they taken the time to optimize their site for conversion rate, before driving the traffic their results would be 10x more profitable.

    Leading eCommerce Consultant Admits You Should Only Listen to One Real Expert! (And its not him!)

    Let me share with you a secret that most marketing experts and consultants don't want you to know? (many of them don't even understand this secret themselves.)


    The secret is? There is only one true expert who can show you how to drastically improve the effectiveness of your website and your marketing. With dozens of so-called guru's, consultants and experts ready and willing to give you (or charge you for) their advice, there is actually only one person you should listen to on a regular basis. Only one! And his name is Eric Graham? No, no? just kidding?


    The only "experts" that you should listen to and trust are your visitors. The visitors that come to your website or view your ads are the only true experts. They will share their expert opinions with you by the actions they take while on your website.


    Not sure what headline to use at the top of your page? You have a couple of options:


    Pay an "expert" consultant like me to look it over for you and give you copywriting recommendations, for a few hundred dollars an hour.


    Or?


    "Ask" your visitors which one is best, by split testing each element of your headlines and letting your visitors vote with their credit cards? The one that converts to sales best wins!


    Trying to figure out how much to charge for you new ebook? You can hire an expert? I can talk to you all day about advanced pricing theory and explain to you how prices with a "7" in them (such as $17, $97, $777) usually convert better. I can walk you through an analysis of the price points of competing/similar products?


    Or?


    Simply test 3 or 4 different prices to see which one is most profitable. Often the greater perceived value of a higher price actually converts better than a lower price. But you won't know if that's true for your product and your visitors until you test it. Again your visitors will teach you more about pricing than any consultant ever could. You just need to "ask" these experts by testing.


    If done properly, the questions you can get your "visitor experts" to answer about your website by simply testing, is endless.


    Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you should never hire a consultant or expert -- after all my clients happily pay me a lot of money to help them improve their conversion rates. And I am worth every penny! ;-)


    But what you need to understand here is that the best experts, became experts by studying and testing, testing and testing different elements over and over until they developed a set of "best practices". So, by hiring someone who has been in the trenches you can save time and money in the long run.


    However, every website, business, product and visitor demographic is different. Just because something works at one website, doesn't automatically mean it will work at yours. The best consultants will tell you that you still need to test everything. So in the end it's still your visitor who's the true expert.


    Just imagine the results you could achieve over the next year, if you took the time to test only one new element every week. Even if half of the tests were failures and didn't produce improvements in your conversion rates, you would still discover 26 ways to improve your sales. Even if each improvement only boosts your conversion rate by 1/10th of 1%, you would have improved your conversion rate by over 2.6% (and probably much more!)


    Look over your current sales statistics, and ask yourself, "How much more profit would I be making if my conversion rate jumped by 2.6%?"


    With most sites currently converting at an appalling 1% to 2%, a 2.6% improvement could triple your sales?


    Let me ask you a question: Imagine you have a website selling information on how to learn to play the guitar, getting 1,000 visitors per day. And I came to you and showed you how I can change a few things about your page, improve your search engine positioning and triple your traffic? Would you be excited? Sure.


    Then, why not get equally excited about optimizing your website for maximum conversion rates?


    Many online businesses will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars optimizing their sites for the search engines. But then they waste 99 out of every 100 visitors that they spent so much time and effort getting, simply because they failed to invest in "asking the experts" (their visitors) first. Had they taken the time to optimize their site for conversion rate, before driving the traffic their results would be 10x more profitable.

    Thursday, July 12, 2007

    IT salary benchmarks in Asia

    Are IT professionals in Asia paid their worth?


    ZDNet Asia conducted a survey on the Internet between Aug. 25 and Nov. 6, 2006, to gain insights into Asia's IT workforce and salary trends. The survey drew 5,090 respondents from industry sectors such as government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance, across seven Asian countries: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.


    Among the findings: IT management skills are much-sought-after and command the highest renumeration, while the best-paying IT jobs are in Hong Kong, followed by Singapore.



    SingaporeMalaysiaIndonesiaPhilippinesHongKongThailandIndia

    Average Annual Salary by Industry (U.S. Dollar)


    Country Industry
    IT, Web & Telecom (ITWT) Government, Education and Health (GEH) Legal and Finance (LF) Media, Marketing & Sales (non-IT) (MMS) Mfg, Services and Others (non-IT) (MSO)
    Hong Kong
    42,422 58,368 66,352 51,841 42,871
    India
    15,259 9,003 11,647 14,681 10,245
    Indonesia
    10,959 9,479 11,581 11,440 12,008
    Malaysia 16,099 21,299 16,002 19,156 16,324
    Philippines
    10,899 9,125 13,455 8,062 10,300
    Singapore 39,782 43,206 49,782 38,999 41,264
    Thailand
    29,724 28,816 36,124 15,637 18,853


    Average Annual Salary by Years of Experience (U.S. Dollar)


    Country Years of Experience
    Less than 5 Years 5-10 Years More than 10 Years
    Hong Kong
    26,499 40,830 80,005
    India
    7,910 16,822 32,310
    Indonesia
    5,619 11,109 20,030
    Malaysia 9,983 17,261 25,615
    Philippines
    6,500 9,836 19,879
    Singapore 25,282 40,465 64,289
    Thailand
    9,553 21,702 42,745


    Average Annual Salary by Job Function (U.S. Dollar)


    Country Job Function
    IT Management Project Development Systems Development Other IT Professionals
    Hong Kong
    96,754 47,357 40,971 38,680
    India
    28,557 18,808 11,953 9,629
    Indonesia
    16,060 13,768 6,897 8,482
    Malaysia 25,162 18,286 13,967 13,676
    Philippines
    19,524 12,165 8,448 8,761
    Singapore 61,167 48,056 32,902 33,330
    Thailand
    38,721 34,516 15,450 19,906


    Source : http://tungblog.atikomtrirat.com/2007/07/it-salary-benchmarks-in-asia.html

    Monday, July 09, 2007

    Content Ever be Profitable?

    THE CURRENT WORRIES


    1. Content Suppliers


    The Ethos of Free Content


    Content Suppliers is the underprivileged sector of the Internet. They all lose money (even sites which offer basic, standardized goods - books, CDs), with the exception of sites profering sex or tourism. No user seems to be grateful for the effort and resources invested in creating and distributing content. The recent breakdown of traditional roles (between publisher and author, record company and singer, etc.) and the direct access the creative artist is gaining to its paying public may change this attitude of ingratitude but hitherto there are scarce signs of that. Moreover, it is either quality of presentation (which only a publisher can afford) or ownership and (often shoddy) dissemination of content by the author. A really qualitative, fully commerce enabled site costs up to 5,000,000 USD, excluding site maintenance and customer and visitor services. Despite these heavy outlays, site designers are constantly criticized for lack of creativity or for too much creativity. More and more is asked of content purveyors and creators. They are exploited by intermediaries, hitch hiker sand other parasites. This is all an off-shoot of the ethos of the Internet as a free content area.


    Most of the users like to surf (browse, visit sites) the net without reason or goal in mind. This makes it difficult to apply to the web traditional marketing techniques.


    What is the meaning of "targeted audiences" or "market shares" in this context? If a surfer visits sites which deal with aberrant sex and nuclear physics in the same session - what to make of it?


    Moreover, the public and legislative backlash against the gathering of surfer's data by Internet ad agencies and other web sites - has led to growing ignorance regarding the profile of Internet users, their demography, habits, preferences and dislikes.


    "Free" is a key word on the Internet: it used to belong to the US Government and to a bunch of universities. Users like information, with emphasis on news and data about new products. But they do not like to shop on the net - yet. Only 38% of all surfers made a purchase during 1998.


    It would seem that users will not pay for content unless it is unavailable elsewhere or qualitatively rare or made rare. One way to "rarefy" content is to review and rate it.


    2. Quality-Rated Content


    There is a long term trend of clutter-breaking website-rating and critique. It may have a limited influence on the consumption decisions of some users and on their willingness to pay for content. Browsers already sport "What's New" and "What's Hot" buttons. Most Search Engines and directories recommend specific sites. But users are still cautious. Studies discovered that nouser, no matter how heavy, has consistently re-visited more than 200 sites, a minuscule number. Some recommendation services often produce random - at times, wrong - selections for their users. There are also concerns regarding privacy issues. The backlash against Amazon's "readers circles" is an example. Web Critics, who work today mainly for the printed press, publish their wares on the net and collaborate with intelligent software which hyperlinks to web sites, recommends them and refers users to them. Some web critics (guides) became identified with specific applications - really, expert systems -which incorporate their knowledge and experience. Most volunteer-based directories (such as the "Open Directory" and the late "Go" directory) work this way.


    The flip side of the coin of content consumption is investment in content creation, marketing, distribution and maintenance.


    3. The Money


    Where is the capital needed to finance content likely to come from?


    Again, there are two schools:


    According to the first, sites will be financed through advertising - and so will search engines and other applications accessed by users.


    Certain ASPs (Application Service Providers which rent out access to application software which resides on their servers) are considering this model.


    The recent collapse in online advertising rates and click-through rates raised serious doubts regarding the validity and viability of this model. Marketing gurus, such as Seth Godin went as far as declaring "interruption marketing" (=ads and banners) dead.


    The second approach is simpler and allows for the existence of non-commercial content.


    It proposes to collect negligible sums (cents or fractions of cents) from every user for every visit ("micro-payments"). These accumulated cents will enable the site-owners to update and to maintain them and encourage entrepreneurs to develop new content and invest in it. Certain content aggregators (especially of digital textbooks) have adopted this model (Questia, Fathom).


    The adherents of the first school point to the 5 million USD invested in advertising during 1995 and to the 60 million or so invested during 1996.


    Its opponents point exactly at the same numbers: ridiculously small when contrasted with more conventional advertising modes. The potential of advertising on the net is limited to 1.5 billion USD annually in 1998, thundered the pessimists. The actual figure was double the prediction but still woefully small and inadequate to support the internet's content development. Compare these figures to the sale of Internet software (4 billion), Internet hardware (3 billion), Internet access provision (4.2 billion in 1995 alone!).


    Even if online advertising were to be restored to its erstwhile glory days, other bottlenecks remain. Advertising encourages the consumer to interact and to initiate the delivery of a product to him. This - the delivery phase - is a slow and enervating epilogue to the exciting affair of ordering online. Too many consumers still complain of late delivery of the wrong or defective products.


    The solution may lie in the integration of advertising and content. The late Pointcast, for instance, integrated advertising into its news broadcasts, continuously streamed to the user's screen, even when inactive (it had an active screen saver and ticker in a "push technology"). Downloading of digital music, video and text (e-books) leads to the immediate gratification of consumers and increases the efficacy of advertising.


    Whatever the case may be, a uniform, agreed upon system of rating as a basis for charging advertisers, is sorely needed. There is also the question of what does the advertiser pay for? The rates of many advertisers (Procter and Gamble, for instance) are based not on the number of hits or impressions (=entries, visits to a site). - but on the number of the times that their advertisement was hit (page views), or clicked through.


    Finally, there is the paid subscription model - a flop to judge by the experience of the meagre number of sites of venerable and leading newspapers that are on a subscription basis. Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal) and The Economist. Only two.


    All this is not very promising. But one should never forget that the Internet is probably the closest thing we have to an efficient market. As consumers refuse to pay for content, investment will dry up and content will become scarce (through closures of web sites). As scarcity sets in, consumer may reconsider.


    Your article deals with the future of the Internet as a medium. Will it be able to support its content creation and distribution operations economically?


    If the Internet is a budding medium - then we should derive great benefit from a study of the history of its predecessors.


    The Future History of the Internet as a Medium


    The internet is simply the latest in a series of networks which revolutionized our lives. A century before the internet, the telegraph, the railways, the radio and the telephone have been similarly heralded as "global" and transforming. Every medium of communications goes through the same evolutionary cycle:


    Anarchy


    The Public Phase


    At this stage, the medium and the resources attached to it are very cheap, accessible, under no regulatory constraints. The public sector steps in : higher education institutions, religious institutions, government, not for profit organizations, non governmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions, etc. Be deviled by limited financial resources, they regard the new medium as a cost effective way of disseminating their messages.


    The Internet was not exempt from this phase which ended only a few years ago. It started with a complete computer anarchy manifested in ad hoc networks, local networks, networks of organizations (mainly universities and organs of the government such as DARPA, a part of the defence establishment, in the USA). Non commercial entities jumped on the bandwagon and started sewing these networks together (an activity fully subsidized by government funds). The result was a globe encompassing network of academic institutions. The American Pentagon established the network of all networks, the ARPANET. Other government departments joined the fray, headed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) which withdrew only lately from the Internet.


    The Internet (with a different name) became semi-public property - with access granted to the chosen few.


    Radio took precisely this course. Radio transmissions started in the USA in 1920. Those were anarchic broadcasts with no discernible regularity. Non commercial organizations and not for profit organizations began their own broadcasts and even created radio broadcasting infrastructure (albeit of the cheap and local kind) dedicated to their audiences. Trade unions, certain educational institution sand religious groups commenced "public radio" broadcasts.


    The Commercial Phase


    When the users (e.g., listeners in the case of the radio, or owners of PCs and modems in the case of the Internet) reach a critical mass - the business sector is alerted. In the name of capitalist ideology (another religion, really) it demands "privatization" of the medium. This harps on very sensitive strings in every Western soul: the efficient allocation of resources which is the result of competition. Corruption and inefficiency are intuitively associated with the public sector ("Other People's Money" - OPM). This, together with the ulterior motives of members of the ruling political echelons (the infamous American Paranoia), a lack of variety and of catering to the tastes and interests of certain audiences and the automatic equation of private enterprise with democracy lead to a privatization of the young medium.


    The end result is the same: the private sector takes over the medium from "below" (makes offers to the owners or operators of the medium that they cannot possibly refuse) - or from "above" (successful lobbying in the corridors of power leads to the appropriate legislation and the medium is "privatized"). Every privatization - especially that of a medium - provokes public opposition. There are (usually founded) suspicions that the interests of the public are compromised and sacrificed on the altar of commercialization and rating. Fears of monopolization and cartelization of the medium are evoked - and proven correct in due course. Otherwise, there is fear of the concentration of control of the medium in a few hands. All these things do happen - but the pace is so slow that the initial fears are forgotten and public attention reverts to fresher issues.


    A new Communications Act was enacted in the USA in 1934. It was meant to transform radio frequencies into a national resource to be sold to the private sector which was supposed to use it to transmit radio signals to receivers. In other words: the radio was passed on to private and commercial hands. Public radio was doomed to be marginalized.


    The American administration withdrew from its last major involvement in the Internet in April 1995, when the NSF ceased to finance some of the networks and, thus, privatized its hitherto heavy involvement in the net.


    A new Communications Act was legislated in 1996. It permitted "organized anarchy". It allowed media operators to invade each other's territories. Phone companies were allowed to transmit video and cable companies were allowed to transmit telephony, for instance. This was all phased over a long period of time - still, it was a revolution whose magnitude is difficult to gauge and whose consequences defy imagination. It carries an equally momentous price tag - official censorship. "Voluntary censorship", to be sure, somewhat toothless standardization and enforcement authorities, to be sure - still, a censorship with its own institutions to boot. The private sector reacted by threatening litigation - but, beneath the surface it is caving in to pressure and temptation, constructing its own censorship codes both in the cable and in the internet media.


    Institutionalization


    This phase is the next in the Internet's history, though, it seems, few realize it.


    It is characterized by enhanced activities of legislation. Legislators, on all levels, discover the medium and lurch at it passionately. Resources which were considered "free", suddenly are transformed to "national treasures not to be dispensed with cheaply, casually and with frivolity".


    It is conceivable that certain parts of the Internet will be "nationalized" (for instance, in the form of a licensing requirement) and tendered to the private sector. Legislation will be enacted which will deal with permitted and disallowed content (obscenity ? incitement ? racial or gender bias ?) No medium in the USA (not to mention the wide world) has eschewed such legislation. There are sure to be demands to allocate time (or space, or software, or content, or hardware) to "minorities", to "public affairs", to "community business". This is a tax that the business sector will have to pay to fend off the eager legislator and his nuisance value.


    All this is bound to lead to a monopolization of hosts and servers. The important broadcast channels will diminish in number and be subjected to severe content restrictions. Sites which will refuse to succumb to these requirements - will be deleted or neutralized. Content guidelines (euphemism for censorship) exist, even as we write, in all major content providers (CompuServe, AOL, Yahoo!-Geocities, Tripod, Prodigy).


    The Bloodbath


    This is the phase of consolidation. The number of players is severely reduced. The number of browser types will settle on 2-3 (Netscape, Microsoft and Opera?). Networks will merge to form privately owned mega-networks. Servers will merge to form hyper-servers run on supercomputers in "server farms". The number of ISPs will be considerably cut. 50 companies ruled the greater part of the media markets in the USA in 1983. The number in 1995 was 18. At the end of the century they will number 6.


    This is the stage when companies - fighting for financial survival - strive to acquire as many users/listeners/viewers as possible. The programming is shall owed to the lowest (and widest) common denominator. Shallow programming dominates as long as the bloodbath proceeds.


    From Rags to Riches


    Tough competition produces four processes:


    1. A Major Drop in Hardware Prices


    This happens in every medium but it doubly applies to a computer-dependent medium, such as the Internet.


    Computer technology seems to abide by "Moore's Law" which says that the number of transistors which can be put on a chip doubles every 18 months. As a result of this miniaturization, computing power quadruples every 18 months and an exponential series ensues. Organic-biological-DNA computers, quantum computers, chaos computers - prompted by vast profits and spawned by inventive genius will ensure the continued applicability of Moore's Law.


    The Internet is also subject to "Metcalf's Law".


    It says that when we connect N computers to a network - we get an increase of N to the second power in its computing processing power. And these N computers are more powerful every year, according to Moore's Law. The growth of computing powers in networks is a multiple of the effects of the two laws. More and more computers with ever increasing computing power get connected and create an exponential 16 times growth in the network's computing power every 18 months.


    2. Content Related Fees


    This was prevalent in the Net until recently. Even potentially commercial software can still be downloaded for free. In many countries television viewers still pay for television broadcasts - but in the USA and many other countries in the West, the basic package of television channels comes free of charge.


    As users / consumers form a habit of using (or consuming) the software - it is commercialized and begins to carry a price tag. This is what happened with the advent of cable television: contents are sold for subscription or per usage (Pay Per View - PPV) fees.


    Gradually, this is what will happen to most of the sites and software on the Net. Those which survive will begin to collect usage fees, access fees, subscription fees, downloading fees and other, appropriately named, fees. These fees are bound to be low - but it is the principle that counts. Even a few cents per transaction may accumulate to hefty sums with the traffic which characterizes some web sites on the Net (or, at least its more popular locales).


    3. Increased User Friendliness


    As long as the computer is less user friendly and less reliable (predictable) than television - less of a black box - its potential (and its future) is limited. Television attracts 3.5 billion users daily. The Internet stands to attract - under the most exuberant scenario - less than one tenth of this number of people. The only reasons for this disparity are (the lack of) user friendliness and reliability. Even browsers, among the most user friendly applications ever -are not sufficiently so. The user still needs to know how to use a keyboard and must possess some basic acquaintance with the operating system. The more mature the medium, the more friendly it becomes. Finally, it will be operated using speech or common language. There will be room left for user "hunches" and built in flexible responses.


    4. Social Taxes


    Sooner or later, the business sector has to mollify the God of public opinion with offerings of political and social nature. The Internet is an affluent, educated, yuppie medium. It requires literacy and numeracy, live interest in information and its various uses (scientific, commercial, other), a lot of resources (free time, money to invest in hardware, software and connect time). It empowers - and thus deepens the divide between the haves and have-nots, the developed and the developing world, the knowing and the ignorant, the computer illiterate.


    In short: the Internet is an elitist medium. Publicly, this is an unhealthy posture. "Internetophobia" is already discernible. People (and politicians) talk about how unsafe the Internet is and about its possible uses for racial, sexist and pornographic purposes. The wider public is in a state of awe.


    So, site builders and owners will do well to begin to improve their image: provide free access to schools and community centres, bankroll internet literacy classes, freely distribute contents and software to educational institutions, collaborate with researchers and social scientists and engineers. In short: encourage the view that the Internet is a medium catering to the needs of the community and the underprivileged, a mostly altruist endeavour. This also happens to make good business sense by educating and conditioning a future generation of users. He who visited a site when a student, free of charge - will pay to do so when made an executive. Such a user will also pass on the information within and without his organization. This is called media exposure. The future will, no doubt, will be witness to public Internet terminals, subsidized ISP accounts, free Internet classes and an alternative "non-commercial, public" approach to the Net. This may prove to be one more source of revenue to content creator sand distributors.

    Dont Get Ripped Off Getting A Merchant Account

    Far too many people get ripped off when setting up a merchant account for their online business. The biggest reason is that they don't understand their options and are intimidated by the whole process. Now, armed with the proper knowledge, you don't need to become a victim of this process.


    You may be like me when I first decided my online business had grown big enough to justify a merchant account. Maybe you have enough sales where getting your own account makes a lot more sense than using a third party processor who charges outlandish rates. Maybe you should use both third party processors and your own merchant account... giving your customers more choices.


    When I set up my first merchant account, I filled out the long, complicated application and submitted it with a several hundred dollar application fee. I had to fax a bunch of supporting documents to prove I was worthy of being considered for an account. Then I held my breath and waited for several weeks.


    Finally, I got the news that I was approved and could now sign a long-term contract to allow them to charge me more high monthly fees that I didn't fully understand. The one that was the most mystical to me was the virtual terminal rental fee. This company also REQUIRED me to pay a steep fee to have my order form hosted on their secure server.


    When I got my last merchant account, I filled out a simple online form, paid less than $100, and had the account activated within 24 hours. The money I paid covered setting up the merchant account, gateway, and virtual terminal. I could now process transactions from anywhere in the world and it was great!


    If you've never used a virtual terminal before, let me explain. You can be on an airplane 40,000 feet above the earth. The person sitting next to you can ask what you do. You explain, and he's interested in getting your product. You can take his credit card information, connect to your virtual terminal using your laptop and the in-flight phone, and process the transaction while eating your in-flight meal.


    It's great, and I've always enjoyed having access to all of the features of my merchant accounts. I just didn't appreciate the fact that they seemed to try to deliberately confuse you during the application process. They all used different terms making it nearly impossible to compare features and rates. It seemed that they didn't want you to fully understand the process or product.


    Guess what... they probably didn't want you to understand because that allowed them to rip you off for more.


    Here are the facts:


    If you pay more than $100 to get set up with a merchant account, gateway, and virtual terminal you're paying too much.


    The industry is very competitive so you should compare rates. If you're don't get a clear explanation of the features you're getting, go somewhere else.


    When you pay those large application fees, most of that money is commission for the agent or reseller. So don't fall for that ploy!


    They need you as much as you need their services. Many of the parties involved in the system make their money from the transaction and monthly fees you pay. These fees differ from company to company so you should compare. I suggest not paying more that 2.35% per transaction.


    After getting ripped off, and feeling victimized by the industry for years, I decided to not take it any more. I cornered an industry insider and picked his brain. He's set up merchant accounts for both online and offline businesses for years. I got him on a conference call and had people call in and ask any question they wanted. He spilled the beans.


    Even better, we recorded the entire conference call AND I want to give you a copy of the recording from that call. It's simple, you can grab the MP3 recording with my compliments at: http://therealsecrets.com/free-merchant-account-teleseminar.html


    Armed with this powerful information, you'll be able to compare. You'll be able to make an intelligent decision instead of an expensive mistake. It will be impossible for you to get ripped off when getting a merchant account.


    Knowledge is a very powerful business building weapon. Arm yourself today!