Owner: Internet, E-Marketing and E-Commerce Guides URL:http://ecommerce-guides.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:32:45 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Internet, E-Marketing and E-Commerce Guides Site statistics:Click here
Paypal Primer 2007-07-01 20:42:00 To conduct business on the Internet, whether informal, one-time only transactions between two friends, or a full-fledged business selling products or services, payment arrangements have to be made. Before 1998, this often meant either checks sent through snail-mail, or very expensive, and often hard-to-obtain, merchant accounts for online credit card processing. In 1998, PayPal was introduced to fill the payment processing gap. PayPal now has about 50 million members, but was originally introduced to provide a payment processing service for online auction buyers and sellers, in particular, eBay. Since then, PayPal has grown into the premier third-party payment processing service. In fact, PayPal was so successful that eBay bought the company in 2002, replacing their own Billpoint service with the far superior PayPal service.PayPal is free to join, although buyers are no longer required to join in order to pay for goods and services from seller members. Many people are still afraid to
Choosing an Ecommerce Shopping Cart 2007-07-01 20:41:00 Choosing an online shopping cart is a big decision. Unlike a traditional brick and mortar business, your website is your only chance to impress potential customers. It needs to project a professional image to capture the trust of your visitors. The shopping cart is a particularly important part of your website because it deals with people's personal information and credit card numbers. People are nervous about online purchases and need to be assured that they are giving their credit card numbers to a reputable company.There are several types of ecommerce shopping carts available. They range from merchant services, which require no programming skills, to fully integrated shopping carts that require custom programming. The three main categories of shopping carts are:Merchant services such as eBay and 2CheckoutHosted shopping cart servicesFully integrated shopping cartsMerchant ServicesMost shopping carts require you to have your own merchant account and gateway. A merchant account is a Read more:Shopping
Your Affiliate Web Site Is Built - Now What? 2007-07-01 20:40:00 When I first got my web site built, I thought I finally hada presence on-line. Wrong! I soon found out that I needed someone to host my site, and I needed a domain name.This, I found, was my moment of utter confusion. And myfirst thought was - "What have I gotten myself into!?"I realized I needed the following questions answered before Icould even begin my on-line journey. What do I need in a web host,what is a web host, what is a domain name and - you mean, I have to pay for a domain name as well?What is a Domain?A domain name is a unique name that identifies an Internet site.Thus, if you want to do any on-line marketing you need a uniquename to identify your business - and definitely a name thatidentifies or relates to that of your on-line presence.Do I really need a domain name? Yes. Why? There areseveral good reasons:1. It projects a professional image2. It's mobile - you can change web hosts and your domain name goes with you.3. It takes time and hard work to build your affi Read more:Affiliate
, Built
, Web Site
How to Write a Landing Page 2007-07-01 20:38:00 Is there a difference between writing a landing page and any other web site page? Yes and no. But mainly, yes.You still have to work within the fundamentals of good writing and copywriting. And you still have to recognize the differences between writing for paper and writing for a monitor.However, there are some important differences to consider when it comes to writing a landing page.>> You KNOW what you want your visitors to doOn many web pages we are writing text to help people find what THEY want, either on that page or a different one. This may involve writing careful descriptions, using images and providing descriptive links to help our visitor move forward to the right page.In other words, a lot of the time the pages we are writing are not the final destination pages for many of our visitors. So we deliberately help them leave the page, pointing them in the right direction.With a landing page, everything changes. With a landing page, you know what you want them to do and you DON Read more:Write
How To Find the Best Merchant Account For Your Business 2007-06-18 01:07:00 What a great idea! Start accepting credit cards and watch your profits soar. Nothing could be simpler. Or so you thought until you began researching merchant accounts. It can all get extremely confusing. There is an easy way to find the best deal that suits your business. You'll be able to compare apples to apples and have a clear picture of what the merchant account will cost you.Let's take a look at some of the phrases you'll encounter (in layman's terms) when you begin to search for a merchant account.--- Merchant Account
Provider - The company who arranges for your payment hardware or software and your ability to accept credit cards.--- Nova - The company who processes the credit card transactions and forwards them to the appropriate credit card company for payment (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, etc.)--- Set Up Fee - The one-time amount the merchant account provider charges to set up your company in their system. For this example, we'll use a set up fee of $65.00.--- Dis Read more:Business
How Merchant Accounts Can Save You Money 2007-06-18 01:04:00 We all know that accepting credit cards is the key to online sales. Unfortunately, most merchants are unaware that acquiring a merchant account can actually save them money. And in many cases, big money!For this experiment, we will use a fictional character named Bill. Bill owns and operates a great online resources for marketing tools and resources. Bills website is a membership based website, and therefore could potentially be approved for both third party processing and an internet merchant account. Bill starts off processing his business with a popular third party processor who offers him the following plan:Start Up Fee - NoneMonthly Fee - NoneTransaction Fees - 13.5% (Initial or One Time), 15.0% (Recurring)Bills sets up his business with this popular third party processor and charges $30 per month. He has built an extensive reciprocal link exchange directory, has purchased some PPC advertising on a few of the best search engines, and has reached a excellent spot in the content bas Read more:Accounts
, Money
Online Payments Make It Easy For Your Customers To Buy 2007-06-15 19:33:00 In the last column we discussed the process of credit card enabling your brick-and-mortar business. I pointed out that research has shown that accepting credit cards can help increase revenue and speed up cash flow. This week we will look at setting up an online payment system for your business website. If you think hooking up a brick-and-mortar location with a credit card system stymies most bankers, try asking them how to do it on your website.The fact is most banks can provide you with the merchant account needed to accept credit card payments online, but beyond that, they have little to do with the process. Even larger banks may only have a single person on staff that is tasked as the "credit card processing expert" and if that person ever goes on vacation, you're pretty much out of luck (voice of experience talking here, folks).I have helped many clients set up online credit card processing systems and more than once I've had to sit down with the bank issuing the merchant ac
10 Tips To Build, Manage And Profit From An E-Commerce Website 2007-06-15 19:32:00 Just because you've built your e-commerce website doesn't mean the customers will begin to come. You need to bring in the visitors, showcase your products, convince them to buy, and bring them back yet again to make any significant gains.The customers need to be wooed by the unique customer experience that will bring them back, and have them sing your praise to their friends, spreading your name. This may seem like a tall order, but isn't. Listed here are the top ten tips to build, manage and profit from your e-commerce website. Follow them and see the benefits for yourself.1. Organize your Catalog around Product CategoriesMany sites either provide a long list of products or lump them behind a search button, making it difficult to find them. Arrange your products into logical categories and subcategories, but do not overdo it. Research says it that most people get overwhelmed with more than 7 categories. The customer must be able to easily search any product without help.Your prod Read more:Build
, Manage
Eleven Things You Must Know About A Drop Shipping Directory And Its Company 2007-06-15 19:31:00 1. Balance - You want to find a directory rich in many different categories of products rather than the quantity of products available. Many of the directories try to advertise how many products are available in their directory (i.e. 500,000 products). Why is the number of categories important? A directory will not serve you well if it has hundreds of thousands of products, and none of them are in your product interest category. A directory with a good balance has focused on their categories of drop shipper products rather than the quantity. This gives you a better chance of finding something for your line of business.2. Uniqueness - You will want a directory with uniqueness amongst it's drop shippers. The drop shippers should offer a wide array of unique products that are not necessarily mass marketed. Why? Web sites offering unique and unusual products often do well on the Web versus sites trying to sell big brand name products that you can find with a mega retailer such as Wal-Mart Read more:Eleven
, Shipping
, Directory
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Free Competition Analysis for E-Commerce Startup 2007-06-15 19:30:00 For anyone who has completed research regarding e-commerce, there are some common catch phrases that we all come across. 'Competition Analysis
' is one of those catch phrases. Competition Analysis is part of the business plan. And it is an important part.However, completing some of the tasks that are required for Competition Analysis can be overwhelming and expensive. This is a disadvantage for e-commerce startups with limited budgets.The following is a suggestion that has worked for us at Rothline Entertainment, an e-commerce site located at http://www.rothline.com. After reviewing information on completing Competition Analysis, we immediately knew we could not afford to have an outside source complete these tasks. We were also overwhelmed with the idea of attempting to complete the tasks ourselves.We brainstormed regarding who our competition is and how well they are doing. One of the free tools that helped us the most with Competition Analysis was http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_5 Read more:Startup
Top 5 Dot Com Myths Debunked 2007-06-15 13:48:00 Most people who get into business know what's involved. They have completed hours of research before getting into it. That's great! Even so, we may still have some myths that need to be debunked. Now and forever. We all may have some lingering ideas; after all many have these myths are quite tempting. However, it's important for serious business owners to quickly get them out of the way so some really forward moves can be made. In the world of the Internet businesses, the industry is rife with myths that ultimately can be as harmless as a distraction or as worse as a serious loss in capital, which could ultimately lead to business failure. There are many persistent myths out there but we'll go over the most popular ones. You don't need money to start! This type of claim coupled with you can make thousands in a few weeks or similar statements have misled many. Although there are some solid marketing techniques that may not cost you anything, it's unlikely you can start a pr Read more:Myths
Intranet Portals - Collaboration through Team Rooms 2007-06-15 13:47:00 Knowledge Management for beginnersKnowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply as the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Knowledge assets are often grouped into two categories:(1) Explicit KnowledgeGenerally, everything and anything that can be documented, archived and codified. Examples include patents, trademarks, business plans, marketing research and customer lists.(2) Tacit KnowledgeThe rest. Tacit knowledge is the know-how contained in people's heads. The challenge inherent with tacit knowledge is figuring out how to recognize, generate, share and manage it.Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to reach - or go beyond - best practice.Where Collaboration
technologies can help? and hinderFor explicit knowledge, the focus can usefully be described as "connecting people to things", whilst for tacit knowledge, t Read more:Intranet
, Portals
, Rooms
Intranet Portals - Search and Taxonomies 2007-06-15 13:45:00 Knowledge Management for beginnersKnowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply as the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Knowledge assets are often grouped into two categories:(1) Explicit KnowledgeGenerally, everything and anything that can be documented, archived and codified. Examples include patents, trademarks, business plans, marketing research and customer lists.(2) Tacit KnowledgeThe rest. Tacit knowledge is the know-how contained in people's heads. The challenge inherent with tacit knowledge is figuring out how to recognize, generate, share and manage it.Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to reach - or go beyond - best practice. For explicit knowledge, the focus can usefully be described as "connecting people to things", whilst for tacit knowledge, the focus is "connecting people to people".Search
te Read more:Intranet
, Portals
Selling Globally Through a B2B Exchange 2007-06-15 13:44:00 Participation in B2B Exchange
s is increasingly becoming one ofthe fastest growing marketing methods for businesses looking foraugmenting their client base beyond their local markets. Anygood B2B Exchange offers direct contact with thousands ofprospective buyers in a single location. For some newparticipants of a B2B Exchange, it appears to be a goldmine asthey discover unexpected quantity of readymade clients withoutmuch effort from their side. Of course, there are many othergreat benefits companies can reap from getting involved in aB2B Exchange.What is a B2B Exchange?In a broader sense, Business to Business Exchange is an onlineplatform where buyers and sellers come to communicate,collaborate and make business transactions. B2B Exchange catersa large number of participant companies as a community. The mainobjective of a B2B Exchange is to create a venue, filled withfeatures that allow members to efficiently conduct businessprocesses through the Internet. B2B Exchanges are also knowna
E-Gold 2007-06-11 01:06:00 E-gold is a digital currency, used extensively on the Internet for making payments in exchange for goods and services.It is one of the first digital e-currency providers, having started in 1996. E-gold accounts are backed by actual physical gold, dollar for dollar. You can take delivery of the physical gold if you wish, although there is an additional handling charge.The E-gold e-currency is tied directly to the value of gold, so it's not possible to use outside influences to affect the value of it... unless one has the ability to affect the spot price of gold. Being tied to the price of gold, e-gold accounts fluctuate up and down with the value of national currencies as they move with the spot price of gold.While gold is the most popular precious metal digital currency in use, E-gold also offers the platinum, palladium and silver precious metals as digital currency.Funding an e-currency account is the job of a third party called a Market Maker. A market maker is a merchant who exchan
Accept Credit Cards Online Without a Merchant Account 2007-06-11 01:05:00 There are two major ways to accept credit cards on your website. The first and most expensive is to have your own merchant account. Not only is this option expensive, it also requires extensive credit checks, lots of paperwork, and usually takes days or weeks before you get approved. Fortunately, there is an alternative.Third party payment processors who will accept credit card payments on your behalf exist in growing numbers. These third party processors will take a percentage of your sale for their troubles, then pass on the rest to you. Rates vary greatly from one payment provider to another so doing your homework is important in order to get the right fit for you. Some payment providers will accept all kinds of goods and services while others specialize in only digital products, or hard goods, or services.General Purpose Payment Providers include:Paypal - Owned by Ebay, Paypal offers one of the lowest rates of any third party payment processor. At the time of this writing, t Read more:Account
, Accept
, Cards
, Accept Credit
, Accept Credit Cards
What is SSL (the little padlock)? 2007-06-11 00:56:00 SSL ("Secured Socket Layer") is a protocol used to encrypt the communication between the user's browser and the web server. When SSL is active, a "little
padlock" appears on the user's browser, usually in the status line at the bottom (at the top for Mac/Safari users.)This assures the user that sensitive data (such as credit card numbers) can't be viewed by anyone "sniffing" the network connection (which is an increasing risk as more people use wireless networking).Common web site owner questions about SSL:How do I get the little padlock on my site?To get the little padlock, your site must have an SSL Certificate from a Certificate Authority. Once an SSL Certificate has been purchased and installed, it provides three things:The ability to show a page in "Secure Mode", which encrypts the traffic between the browser and the server, as indicated by the "little padlock" on the user's browser. A guarantee by the issuing Certificate Authority that the domain name the certificate was is
VoIP CONCLUDING REMARKS 2007-06-06 12:13:00 Implementation of VoIP is growing rapidly. There will also be further convergence of media, data, voice and video. In order to achieve these further levels of convergence, interoperability and continued work on standards will be critical. SIP is emerging as the major protocol to underpin IP-based advanced services. Another key driver will be the development of wireless VoIP, which will provide students and staff with different ways to access learning environments while integrated services will open up the possibilities of ubiquitous computing. In future, learning may take place in a shared virtual world of social computing, similar to an online, multiplayer game, and VoIP will be one of the components of such an environment. VoIP gateways have become the world's de facto standard in building voice and video over IP products and services. These gateways provide real-time voice and video IP communications. Many large SMEs are already looking to VoIP service providers for their n
VoIP in Thailand and South East Asia 2007-06-06 12:12:00 There are two Telecom Providers in Thailand
. TOT Corporation (formerly, the Telephone Organization of Thailand) to serve a Domestic voice communications and CAT Corporation (formerly, the Communication Authority of Thailand) serves an International voice communications and Data communications. TOT and CAT are both operators and regulators. They give concessions based on the BTO scheme to winning bidders on selected services. The concessions could be of the same kind due to overlapping roles and authority. QoS of VoIP in Thailand. No QoS enforced both in terms of latency and accessibility. TOT VoIP domestic service claims to have delay comparable to that of mobile phones. CAT VoIP international service still faces problems about accessibility and latency. Future Directions (Thailand) The establishment of the National Telecommunications Committee (NTC) as an independent regulatory body. The Telecommunications Act is in the approval process from the Parliament. Long-ter Read more:South
, Asia
, South East
The Benefits of VoIP 2007-06-06 12:11:00 In basic terms, it can lower the phone bills, deliver a wider range of unique services and improve employee productivity. But while cost savings are keys, enhanced functionality and mobility are also huge factors in VoIP’s growing appeal. VoIP simply does things that are extremely expensive, or even impossible, with traditional phone networks. For example, many users enjoy the convenience of having their voicemail system notify them by text-message or e-mail whenever a new message arrives. Best of all, most VoIP providers offer flat-priced bundles for both high-speed data and voice. One fixed monthly cost provides a fast, reliable Internet connection, as well as unlimited local and long-distance calling. While the initial investment in specialized VoIP equipment could involve significant up-front cost, that equipment generally pays for itself by reducing voice and data service costs and eliminating long-distance calling costs, within the first 12-18 months or even sooner. Co Read more:Benefits
Peer-to-peer networking (e.g. Napster, Kazaa, Skype) 2007-06-01 09:48:00 The type of VoIP implementation most well known to consumers and students uses client-based, peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies such as Napster
and Skype
(Jones, 2005). P2P systems are far more decentralized than other networking
or computer systems, with little or no reliance on the idea of clients being served by a central server. Clients (individual computers or telephony end points) act as nodes and are as likely to be ‘providing’ resources to other nodes (its peers) as to be consuming them from other nodes. It is fairly well known within higher and further education that such client-based P2P applications can cause problems on IP networks because they make it much harder to manage the use of bandwidth and to exercise some level of control over the use of the network. There are particular problems with applications such as Kazaa
and Napster, which are used to download music, films and games and the challenge is growing with the further development of P2P applications such as B
Technology, standards and challenges 2007-06-01 09:47:00 As already mentioned, the traditional PSTN telephone infrastructure has been built up over the last one hundred years or so and has developed into a highly reliable voice communications system. In contrast, VoIP is a relatively new technology with a fledgling architecture that is built on inherently less reliable data networks. This means that there are therefore justifiable concerns around the extent to which it is deployed. The purpose of this section is to examine the underlying protocols and technologies used in VoIP and to discuss the potential challenges inherent in their deployment. Read more:Technology
How VoIP is used, its background and history 2007-06-01 09:44:00 Most people are aware of VoIP through the Skype consumer telephone service which has gained large-scale public recognition recently, particularly since its purchase by Ebay. However, VoIP has not suddenly appeared in the last few years as an opportunity afforded by the World Wide Web. Skype is only one particular implementation of VoIP and its related technologies and it is important to understand that VoIP has an important technological history, intertwined with the telecommunications industry in general, in order to appreciate the complexities of VoIP technologies and applications. The idea of voice over IP has been discussed since the 1970s but it was the mid-1990s before commercial products became available with the introduction, in 1995, by Israeli company Vocaltec, of the first commercial system (Varshney et al., 2002). These early VoIP systems were designed to connect one PC to another and required each PC to have a sound card, speakers, microphone, modem a Read more:background
What you need to make a VoIP cal 2007-06-01 09:40:00 To make a VoIP call, the consumer user requires VoIP software and a broadband connection to the Internet. The software will handle the call routing to make sure the call reaches the intended destination as well as providing the codec. The software can be installed on a variety of hardware devices including traditional telephone handsets (using an adaptor that plugs into the telephone) or a PC or wireless device such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). This use of software-enhanced end-user devices is one of the key distinguishing features of VoIP. Whereas the traditional telephone system contains its 'intelligence' within the network, VoIP makes use of the Internet model of intelligence at the edge of the network. This is often known as the end-to-end principle. In order to make a call, an account with a VoIP service provider is also required. Different types of VoIP service are available, including services from traditional telephone carriers such as BT, and from specialized
How VoIP works 2007-06-01 09:29:00 The Basics The basic process involved in a VoIP call is as follows: 1. Conversion of the caller’s analogue voice signal into a digital format 2. Compression and translation of the digital signal into discrete Internet Protocol packets 3. Transmission of the packets over the Internet or other IP-based network 4. Reverse translation of packets into an analogue voice signal for the call recipient. The digitization and transmission of the analogue voice as a stream of packets is carried out over a digital data network that can carry data packets using IP and other, related Internet related protocols (see section 2.1). This network may be an organization’s internal LAN, a leased network, the PSTN or the open Internet (Gradwell, 2006). The compression process is carried out by a codec, a voice-encoding algorithm, which allows the call to be transmitted over the IP network within the network's available bandwidth.
Content Ever be Profitable? 2007-07-08 18:36:00 THE CURRENT WORRIES1. Content
SuppliersThe Ethos of Free ContentContent 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 criticize Read more:Profitable
Dont Get Ripped Off Getting A Merchant Account 2007-07-08 18:35:00 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 Read more:Account
Guide To Safe Online Shopping 2007-07-08 18:34:00 Online shopping can be a little frightening to people who are new to the internet,but as long as you follow a few easy rules you should have no problem shopping online.What are the rules ?First before buying from an online store find out what that online stores return policy is. If you wait till after the purchase of a product you make find out returning it is almost impossible.Second ,now days it's good to know what the privacy policy of any website you fill out forms on is.If you don't want your information spread all over the internet.Third,Now for the purchase itself,When filling out a form to order something make sure all your information is correct,email adress must be right it's important,your postal address must be right and your credit card info must be correct.If any of the above is wrong your order may not go through.Fourth,Most online stores will send you an order confirmation email to confirm your order was received,this is very important file it away if you ever have a Read more:Guide
, Shopping
Gooooooooooogle It! 2007-07-08 18:32:00 ....there's much more to Google than you thought:With the wealth of information currently available on the Internet, for many web-users, Google has long been the search-engine of choice. But Google is so much more than just a search-engine. For example, did you know that Google runs a shopping site called Froogle? Or that for a small fee, you can have Google experts answer even the most obscure of questions? No? Well read on!For the Group-FocusedGoogle groups is a free service that helps groups of people communicate effectively using email and the Web. Not dissimilar to the well-known Yahoo Groups, each group is provided with its own home page hosted by Google. This is a space where members can start new discussions or reply to older topics. Not only does Google Groups offer the most comprehensive archive of postings, including more than 1 billion postings from the Usenet bulletin board service, but it also organizes messages in a much clearer fashion than most of their main rivals, a
Google Catalogs - Old Gashioned Mail Order Meets High Tech Search 2007-07-06 11:52:00 In addition to Google
's Froogle shopping service (still in beta), which features a searchable database of online merchants, Google is also beta-testing their Google Catalog service. Google Catalogs
provides a searchable central repository of hundreds of mail-order catalogs.The service includes the full scanned contents of the catalogs, not just a photo and subscription information. And these aren't database entries, but real high-quality images of the catalog images themselves. When you are browsing Google Catalog search results, you will see user interface controls at the top and bottom of each page. These are reminiscent of Acrobat and many other browser plug-in controls or common Windows print preview controls, and you can page through each catalog, zoom in/out, switch between one, two, and thumbnail views, jump to a specific page, and search within the current catalog. As with other Google searches, an advanced search feature is also available.Available catalogs cover a full rang Read more:Order
, Search
, Mail Order
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