How to Take Your Customer's Money

How to Take Your Customer's Money
The best and most profitable specialist content websites
are like a traditional trade magazine. They generate
multiple revenue streams from advertising, affiliate deals,
sales of products and merchandise, subscriptions and
organizing events.

For a publisher to be able to achieve the goal of multiple
revenue streams, it will have to integrate payment
processing into its site. This will enable the site to sell
products and services (such as downloadable reports and
software, branded merchandise, software, etc), charge
subscription fees for access to premium content and promote
and sell events (seminars, webinars, courses, etc.). This
can be a torturous process unless you know what you are
doing.

This is a quick guide to getting started, based on my
experience of launching sites all over the world, including
the U.S. and the U.K.

Ways of Taking Money

The first task you will need to undertake is setting up the
means to process the payments. There are essentially three
ways to do this:

• An online payment provider such as PayPal or Google
Checkout

• A payment service provider (PSP) such as WorldPay,
Patrasys or NetBanx

• A combination of a payment gateway and a merchant service
account

I will quickly go through the pros and cons of all three.

Online Payment Provider

PayPal is the world's biggest online payment provider. Most
people on the Internet have either used PayPal or are
familiar with the service it offers. PayPal enables an
individual to receive a payment from a customer by credit
card. PayPal manages the transaction from the time a credit
card number is entered into a website to the time the money
is deposited in your bank account.

Pros

• Simple and cheap to set up

• High acceptance rate of new clients

• Global

• Improving all the time; customers without a PayPal
account can still pay you through PayPal

Cons

• A nasty habit of freezing clients' accounts, and it can
be tricky to get them reactivated

• Very poor customer service

• Perception that PayPal is a service associated with
'cheap' websites; this is changing as PayPal launches new
services and has started to appear on bigger e-commerce
websites

Google Checkout is an alternative, but it is years behind
PayPal. It is worth keeping an eye on.

Payment Service Providers

PSPs are similar to PayPal. They manage the whole
transaction from the credit card being inputted into a site
to the funds being deposited in your bank account. The
biggest PSP is WorldPay (www.worldpay.com). Others include
SecPay (www.secpay.com), Netbanx (www.netbanx.com) and
Patrasys (www.patrasys.com).

Pros

• Single provider takes care of the end-to-end transaction
process

• High acceptance rate of new clients

• Generally good customer service

Cons

• Very expensive set-up and transaction fees

• Difficult set-up and integration

• Often hold funds for up to 60 days, which can kill cash
flow for a small business

Payment Gateway with Merchant Service Account

All major banks have a merchant service division which is
responsible for enabling clients to process credit cards.
These are called merchant service providers. If you go to
your bank and say that you want to start accepting credit
cards on your website, they will point you in the right
direction. Once you have a merchant service account, you
need to have a payment gateway. This is a service that
enables the transaction to take place on your site. It
checks that the credit card is valid, checks for fraud and
verifies all the personal details. Most banks try to sell
website owners both their merchant service account and
their gateway product. In my experience, bank-provided
gateways are clunky, hard to integrate and very expensive.
There are far better services in the market. In the U.K., I
use Protx (www.protx.com) and in the U.S., Authorize.net
(www.authorize.net).

Pros

• Cheapest transaction rates

• Rapid transfer of funds into your account

• Good customer support from most banks

Cons

• It can be very hard for new businesses with no trading
record to get a merchant account.

• There can be problems getting a gateway and merchant
service account to work together.

• Banks can be reluctant to allow annual subscriptions.

My Recommendation

If you are starting a new business with no trading record,
my recommendation is to use PayPal to get started. Once you
have a trading record, go to your bank and apply for a
merchant services account. If you get one, then switch to
processing payments through this account and a cheap
gateway service.

----------------------------------------------------
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SEO makes more sense with Geographic Targeting

SEO makes more sense with Geographic Targeting
Increasingly the Internet is being used as a tool for
finding local resources. Not just for finding information
or buying products online, but you can use it to find homes
for sale in your neighborhood, local independent insurance
agents, local retail stores and local law and accounting
firms for example. It is becoming increasingly important to
keep geo-targeting in mind when optimizing for search
engines. It makes sense to not only target by a searchers
keyword but also by the searchers geographic location.

Hypothetically, let's say I own a business located in
Philadelphia, PA. I am looking for a public relations
firm in order to help market my business to consumers
living in the Philadelphia area. As you would expect, one
of the first ways I look for a public relations firm is to
search online using a major search engine such as Google.
Because I am a small or medium sized business located in
Philadelphia, it makes sense for me to do business with a
public relation firm located in the Philadelphia area.

So the question is, how do I find a public relations firm
located in the Philadelphia area? I can search on Google
and type in "public relations firm" and I will get a list
of thousands of public relation firms from all over the
world. Since I want to hire a Philadelphia area public
relations firm, the search does not give me what I am
specifically looking for. Chances are, local companies are
not found easily in this type of search. Internet users are
becoming more savvy on how online searches are conducted
and more and more users search using geographic locations.
For our discussion, I would search using the keyword phrase
"Philadelphia public relations firm," which gives me a
better listing of local public relation firms for which I
am looking to conduct business.

The concept is fairly simple and makes sense; however, many
websites do not include this concept as part of their
Internet strategy. As a company or organization conducting
the majority of business with local companies, how do you
take advantage of the concept spelled out above? The idea
is to develop your search engine optimization strategy
around the concept of geo-targeting in order to increase
your search engine rankings when a potential client or
customer is searching for your product or service locally.

There are two ways to get your website listed on search
engines such as Google. The most popular is organic search
optimization, also known as natural search optimization; it
is a continuing process allowing a web site to gain free
listings within the major search engines without incurring
ongoing marketing costs. If you are targeting clients
within your local area, you may want to consider the
following geo-targeted strategy.

Include the following:

1) Full address on all your WebPages, the higher on the
page the better results.
2) Areas where you do business throughout your website copy.
3) Geographic location in your title tags and Meta tags.
4) Your city in the link text when linking from other sites
to your Website.
5) Register for local search with the major search engines.

The second way to get listed on search engines such as
Google is through "pay per click" (PPC) campaigns. If you
use PPC advertising, you pay each time one of your ads is
clicked on a search engine. Google PPC marketing is called
Google AdWords, which is located on the right side of a
search page

How PPC (pay per click) works:
1) Register with a PPC system, provide credit card number
and load your account.
2) Create one or more ads with title, body text and link to
your appropriate WebPage.
3) Associate your important keywords with each ad.
4) Bid on each keyword, the more you bid the higher the
listing.

The key for a local businesses using PPC is to take
advantage of Geographic Targeting. Google allows marketers,
using AdWords, to specify the geographic locations in which
their ad will appear. For example a business in Boston that
targets local companies can set up their campaign so that
only people in their market area will see the ad. This
makes a lot of sense because the Boston based company does
not want to be charged because a person from Florida
clicked on their ad. By taking advantage of geo-targeting
the searcher from Florida will not see the ad.

----------------------------------------------------
Article written by Jason Lomberg, founder of The
Philadelphia Marketing Directory
(http://www.philadelphia-marketing-directory.com), Internet
Marketing Expert and Internet Strategist with 12 years of
experience from the Philadelphia area. Jason holds a
Marketing Degree and a MBA from Rutgers University. He can
be contacted at jason@philadelphia-marketing-directory.com

Keyword Research: Make Them Optimized for Search Engine Indexing

Keyword Research: Make Them Optimized for Search Engine Indexing
Keywords play a crucial role in Search Engine Optimization.
Keywords or Key word phrases are those words or phrases
that define and highlight the crux of your content. The
choice of keywords is essential to the indexing of your
blog or site to the reputed and most used search engines.

A successful blog is conditional to proper and scientific
research of relevant keywords that qualifies a specific
niche audience search. Therefore, key word research has to
be performed carefully and properly to launch a blog that
gets a good rank. It should also be catalogued to match the
most vital and relevant search generated in the same field.

Tools can only help you to get or access the inventory of
keywords listed for a specific business niche. However, you
need to choose the right keyword that narrows down the
search to your blog appropriately. If you are veteran
business professional and in net business for a long time
you might be able to locate the right set of keywords that
makes your site or blog rank the top in the search engines.

Keyword research could be disconcerting task if one does
not put in effort and time to analyze the need, know the
audience, and then design the blog. Tools are available in
for free keyword research and implementation. This is not
just a mere selection of words that you like but those
words that people generally search for when they visit the
net.

If you are new in internet business, it is always better to
consult SEO experts or firms to help and generate a set of
keywords just optimized to match search engine results.
Employing an SEO expert will be a positive investment in
launching business that has success potential from day one.

The most important factors that should cover your keyword
research are: Each page of your blog or site should be
optimized for a single keyword, Use of Latent Semantic
Indexing or LSI i.e. using key phrases rather than single
words, Use of geo-specific keywords or using keywords that
are optimized to specific demographics.

Each page of your site should be linked to a specific
keyword or keyword phrase. Overuse of relevant keywords in
the same content or same page could sometimes be confusing.
Using up to five different keywords in the description and
Meta title are permissible and accepted for indexing by the
search engines.

The Other factor that is elemental in SEO is clustering of
words to express one relevant keyword that defines your
text. This positioning of the words in a particular right
sequence in which the popular search is generated makes a
keyword most sought after. Latent Semantic Indexing in
keyword research and analysis actually focuses the
variations or iterations of the keywords. It is a strictly
mathematical or scientific approach to relate semantically
close keywords and generate fruitful search.

Use of country specific keywords in also an important part
to ensure the targeted traffic to your blog or site. The
same word could be spelt differently in USA, Australia, and
UK. Therefore, your research should be able to exclude or
include these variations according to your specific target
audience. Referencing the keyword phrases in the commonly
used search engines is also significant in this context.

Keyword Analysis follows your research task. Your keywords
should be checked for competition with other sites. Read
relevant blogs related to the same business and study
carefully the keywords used and their density. Monitor
your keywords for contemporary modifications and new search
results. These might require re-positioning and fine-tuning
for better matches or best rankings.

----------------------------------------------------
Allen Thomason is an accomplished and established internet
marketer. To find out how to expand your online knowledge
and learn more about Internet Marketing, Advertising, and
Proven Marketing Tactics visit
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4 Good Reasons To Hire An Article Writer

4 Good Reasons To Hire An Article Writer
Several years ago article directories took off as a great
way to get traffic to your website. Today that is still
true with blogging adding another aspect to article
marketing. Many people want to take advantage of building
content on their sites, but do not know how to write
articles, or do not have the time to write their own.

In this article we will look at 4 reasons you might want to
hire an article writer.

1. Articles give you credibility from your reader. As they
are picked up by various directories or ezines you get a
viral effect that spreads your name all over the internet.
The more articles you have online the more exposure you can
get and the more you become known as an expert on the
topics you are writing about.

Hiring an article writer allows you to build up this
credibility and all you do is pay for the article. As long
as it is 100% exclusively yours you can copyright it as
your own and use it however you want.

2. Hiring an article writer is a good idea if you are
unsure about how to write a quality article. A good article
writer can structure your article with proper keyword
relevancy for both the reader and for search engines. There
is a trick to getting a article put together and you may
not know how to do it.

3. Not all article writers are created equal so be careful
about who you hire. Many times you get what you pay for. If
you have ever paid for sub par articles you know what I am
talking about. Fresh content, exclusive articles are what
you want. Getting articles that are rewritten can be a
problem for you in terms of duplicate content.

4. The best way to use articles you pay for is to put
together a long term campaign for them. This means several
things.

- You need a keyword list of several hundred keywords that
the articles will be written around. This means you will be
having hundreds of potential articles written and will
allow you to dominate your market in the long run by using
articles you have written to help you do that.

- You should use your articles several times a week in your
blog and to build web pages.

- To get your articles online use a quality article
submission service such as Submit Your Article. They are
good because they offer a free program called Article
Leverage which allows you to take one article and quickly
turn it into hundreds of unique versions.

- You want to hyperlink the primary keyword of your website
in your bio box on every article. If you do not have a bio
box have your article writer write one for you. After you
begin to build up backlinks for your primary keyword then
hyperlink the keyword for each article back to inner pages
or blog posts to deep link those pages.

If you find a good article writer hang on to them. You can
use them for blog articles or website articles on an
ongoing basis. To compete online today you need fresh
content on a regular basis. Hiring an article writer is an
inexpensive way to do that and you get all of the credit
for writing them!

----------------------------------------------------
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Are Blogs Worth Your Time?

Are Blogs Worth Your Time?
Everywhere you turn these days, business websites seem to
be adding blogs to their promotional fare. Whether these
blogs are quirky notes from people on the staff or written
by a professional copywriter, there is a debate in the
market as to whether or not these blogs are even worth your
time. When done well, blogs can offer a new insight into a
business' dealings, but if not done correctly, they can
often harm the image the business is striving to create.

What Kind of Business are You?

Simply throwing a blog up on your business website or as a
link on your website and waiting to see how popular it is
isn't the best first step in having a business site blog.
You need to begin by determining the audience you are
addressing with your business. Are they even blog readers?
Most people are fairly aware of blogs and their place on
the internet, but in relation to your business, do they
even make sense? If your typical customers and site
visitors are coming for new products or to make return
purchases, chances are pretty good that a blog isn't going
to matter to them. When your site is setup to give your
visitors new information, blogs might be a good way to
package this information in a pleasing way.

Try to think about other websites that are in the same
market as you. Do they have blogs? Do these blogs get a
lot of comments? If so, that can mean that people are
reading them enough to comment on the content - and that
kind of interaction may be worth your time.

Are You Making the Right Impression?

The trick with blogs is that they can go from classy to
classless in a matter of sentences. You need to create a
blog that is focused in its subject matter and written by a
person who understands what your business is about and who
your customers are. Again, looking at other blogs will
give you a better idea of how to do this. If you're
looking to draw in the serious customer, you might want to
keep your blog content as factual information about the
products you sell as well as the related issues that go
along with those products. For example, if you sell
refrigerators, you might want to create a blog about
refrigerator repairs or about dealing with food spoilage.

Always, always, always try to remember what your reader is
thinking when they read your blog. While you might enjoy
the content, in the end, it's about what your reader thinks.

How to Start a Successful Blog

If you've determined that a blog is the right choice for
you, you might want to start by making a list of the topics
that you want to cover in this blog as well as decide on
the frequency of the blog itself. Is it going to be a
daily thing or perhaps just a weekly installment? You will
also want to find a writer for this blog and watch the
responses and visits that you get to this blog each day.
This will give you a sense of whether or not you're on the
right track.

Here's a great tip: Try to include links within your blog
entries to further increase the popularity of your website
itself. You can always ask the sites if you can link to
them, but most sites will be happy that you did.

When you want to create a blog, you need to keep three
things in mind: focus, tone, and interaction. Take time
each day to read the comments in the blog so that you can
address any visitors' concerns. This will make your site
all the more popular and visited.

----------------------------------------------------
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Success From Affiliate Marketing

Success From Affiliate Marketing
Just a couple of years ago I was a senior psychology major
studying to get my degree. I worked part time, and like a
lot of students, opted to take out the max amount of loans
I was able to receive. I was renting a very inefficient
house with a friend and paying off a loan for a car. The
bills were adding up fast and I soon found myself in debt
up to my eyeballs. I had to do something, and fast. I
dropped out of school, moved into an apartment with my
girlfriend, and went to work for a friend as a kitchen
manager making a measly nine dollars an hour. I tried this
for a while and the debt wasn't going away so I got another
full time job doing surveys for a multi-national research
company. It paid twice as much but I was working seventy
hours a week and was getting burnt out. This is not what I
had in mind to get out of debt, but at the time I did not
have much of a choice. I remained positive and my mind was
consumed with ideas on how I was going to make a living for
myself.

As I walked between jobs I often noticed all the nice cars,
buildings, bill boards, and people in suits. I knew that
there was a lot of money out there and there had to be an
easier way to get to it. How to get that money without
having money was a large task but I was determined to
figure it out.

I didn't have specific ideas for what I was looking for. I
wanted to consider as many avenues as possible to find the
perfect fit for me so I searched the internet. I quickly
found that there were many possible ways to make money
online. There were so many money making opportunities and
information and I was initially overwhelmed. Where would I
start? Who would I trust? I had research to do so I had
to prioritize and make time to do it. I decided to quit
my kitchen job and stick with my survey job because it
allowed me more freedom. I had ten hour days where it
seemed like all I did was stare at the walls of my cubicle.
Plenty of time to research online money making
opportunities. Within the first week of my new schedule
I bought a used laptop for $100 and had my internet set up
that same night. This was the beginning of my internet
marketing career. Everything was all set up for success.
All that was necessary was a computer and an internet
connection.

Staying positive and finding new avenues for profit and
success has led me out of debt and able to purchase some
things I only thought possible with a degree and a 9-5
J.O.B. My girlfriend and I are proud new home owners and I
now dedicate my 9-5 to my home business and helping others
find the same success as I did.

Money Making Opportunities

In my extensive research (which is non-stop) I found very
cheap ways to get started. Three specifically...My Power
Mall, Leisure Audio Books, and Plug-In Profit Site. And I
would recommend them to anyone looking to get started.

My Power Mall is an online mall where you get paid to shop!
There are over 1000 stores to shop at and you get rebates
back for purchases you make. The more people you refer to
them, the more money you get back. It is a nice little
operation. Most of the products I found are the same price
if not cheaper online. You can even purchase a Mastercard
and use it anywhere to earn the same rebates. It is
totally free, there is nothing to sell, and there is no
qualifying to receive income.

Leisure Audio Books is a similar type of program that
allows you to earn commissions off of any products you sell
for them or for any referrals you give them.

Both of these are great money making opportunities and they
both provide all the tools and training you need to succeed
with each. They are also 100% free. It will cost you
nothing to start up and the only cost is through LAB when
and if you decide to upgrade.

The Plug-In Profit Site is an outstanding profit pulling
opportunity. In less than 24 hours you can have your own
web site and six automated streams of revenue setup for
you. The major advantage of this is having your own
website to bring traffic to. It makes marketing a heck of
a lot easier and you can earn income from these programs
for as long as your website is running. It also provides
top notch training and I credit everything I know from that
program. Nothing is left out. Even if you don't make one
sale through PIPS, the knowledge in and of itself makes it
well worth your time. The only costs associated through
PIPS is the domain ($15) and hosting ($24.95).

Whatever it is you choose to do, take action!

"Do or do not. There is no try." -Yoda

----------------------------------------------------
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Vital Shipping Tips For ebay Sellers

Vital Shipping Tips For ebay Sellers
For most ebay sellers, getting the sale proceeds
transferred into their bank account is usually the end of
the deal, but if you have an acute business sense, you will
realize that seller responsibilities do not end at this
stage. As a seller, you need to realize that your
responsibilities are not over until and unless the ordered
product is shipped and is received by its rightful owner in
the same condition as described in your online ebay store.
Your bank account may have been credited, but you still
need to get your shipping right because if the customer is
not satisfied, he can easily give you a negative feedback
ranking, which in turn can seriously jeopardize your
business plans. Getting your shipping right is necessary
also because only fully satisfied customers generate
referrals, something that is vital for the long-term
prospects of any business venture.

While cutting costs is necessary for the success of your
online ebay store, you should look at other available
options rather than using sub-standard products for
packaging and shipment. Shipped products travel great
distances and are most likely to be mishandled during
transit. If you do not use the prescribed materials, the
parcel and its contents may become susceptible to tampering
or damage, which in turn could easily dent your store's
brand image and reputation. In your efforts to save a few
bucks, you can easily end up losing much more in terms of
lost sales due to negative customer feedbacks.

The best way of reducing shipping related costs is to
solicit trade enquiries from as many courier companies as
possible in order to find the best available deals. While
doing so, concentrate on the underdogs, i.e. the second or
third ranked courier company because they are the ones who
are often more than willing to generate new business. You
can also bargain for shipping rate reductions, but for that
you will be required to have large enough business volumes
as required by the courier company.

Now do not lose heart if you are a small time player
because there are many other options available. For
example, instead of offering a single shipment plan, you
can offer multiple shipment plans and ask the buyer to take
his pick. Buyers feel more comfortable when they have
access to multiple choices and as such they are most likely
to ignore your quoted shipping rates, even if your rates
are higher than that offered by other sellers. This will
not result in real time cost reductions, but since you will
no longer be required to compete in terms of shipping
rates, it will still prove quite beneficial. You can then
concentrate more on your main business and work towards
achieving your set goals and objectives.

----------------------------------------------------
John Thornhill is an eBay PowerSeller and trades on eBay
under the username planetsms. He earns $1000s every week
selling info products on eBay. If you want John to mentor
you and show you how he is so successful visit
http://www.mentorshipmonthly.com/