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Make Money Using PayPal

March 27, 2008 by Cathy Stucker

One of the easiest ways to take payments for sales at your web site is through PayPal. Although customers can use a balance in their PayPal accounts to pay for products and services at merchants that accept PayPal, customers can buy from you even without a PayPal account. Whether or not they have a PayPal account, customers can easily pay with credit cards or by transferring funds from a bank account.

Sign up for a free PayPal account here.

There are no set up fees, application fees, or monthly fees to accept PayPal at your web site. You only pay a small charge when you make a sale. Compare that to a typical merchant account, where you may pay an application fee of more than $100, then have monthly fees and minimums of $40 or more, even if you do not make a single sale in that month. If I were starting an online business today, I would start by accepting PayPal and only move to a merchant account when I had the volume to justify the expense. In fact, even though I have a merchant account I also accept PayPal, and I find that many of my customers prefer it.

Although PayPal integrates with most major shopping cart systems, you do not need a separate shopping cart to accept PayPal payments. PayPal gives you options with their shopping cart and buy now buttons that can be as simple as copying and pasting some code into your web site. Check resources like Drop Ship Lifestyle for more informaton.

 

Filed Under: Online Business

What Does Your Email Say About You?

October 3, 2007 by Cathy Stucker

emailMany of us spend hours every week (or maybe even every day!) dealing with email. Make sure yours makes a good impression.

Your email address may be the first thing some people learn about you. What image does yours present? If you are using the same account for business and personal email, make sure your address is professional. I don’t think I want “HotBabe@whatever.com” as my accountant, thank you.

When recipients download an email from you, does your name or business name appear as the sender? Or is it a meaningless string such as “hrt5478@something.com?” Check “Options” or “Set Up” to put your name or company name there.

Make your subject meaningful, too. I can’t tell you how many spam messages I get with subjects such as “Hello!” or “I’ve been trying to reach you.” If you want me to open your email and not delete it assuming it’s an ad, say what the message is about in the Subject line.

If you are sending the same message to multiple recipients, use the Bcc: field for the addresses instead of the To: field. I get email where I have to page through multiple screens of other people’s email addresses before I get to the message. Most of the time, I won’t bother. It also annoys me that my email address is being given to all of the other people who got the message.

Think before you send. Do you really need to forward that latest Osama bin Laden joke to everyone you know? Chances are, you’re not the only one sending it to them.

That goes double for any message you get telling you that you should immediately forward it to everyone you know. Chances are, it’s a hoax that has been floating around the Internet since Al Gore was a baby.

Don’t send attached files unless the recipient is expecting them. Most people won’t open an attachment because of virus fears. And, someone with a dial-up connection won’t appreciate spending 20 minutes downloading the cute animal video you just had to send.

Do you use an email address through the company you use to access the Internet? If you are “@aol.com,” “@earthlink.net,” or whatever, you may be tied to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) even if you want to dump them. To maintain continuity, no matter how you access the Internet in the future, get your own domain and use an email address through your domain. I like the fact that my email address will always be “cathy (at) idealady.com” because I own it.

Filed Under: Email, Internet Marketing, Online Business Tagged With: email, email address

Finding Out Who Links to You

September 20, 2007 by Cathy Stucker

Do you know how to find the sites that link to yours?

Go to your favorite search engine and search for link:example.com OR link:http://www.example.com (Of course, you should replace “example” with your Web URL.)

Google will return only a fraction of the links to your site, but MSN and Yahoo will provide more complete results. This will give you some idea of how many sites are linking to you and which sites they are.

Now, repeat this exercise with the URLs for your top competitors. When you see a site that links to them but not you, look for a way to get a link. Does the site run articles? Do they have a resource list?

Do not be concerned with sites that are nothing but lists of links. They have little or no value. However, if a respected site links to you it can help your standings in the search engines as well as sending more visitors your way. 

Filed Under: Internet Marketing, Online Business

Automatic Research

September 12, 2007 by Cathy Stucker

Want to know what is being said about you, your company, or the competition? Or just keep up with trends and developments in your industry? There is an easy and no-cost way to have news sent to your e-mail inbox.

Google provides a service called Google Alerts. You enter the terms you want to search for. When Google finds a news item web page containing your search term, it sends you an e-mail with a link to the page. Google will send the alerts daily, weekly, or as they happen.

I’ve entered my name, web site URL, and keywords and phrases that relate to my business, and receive daily alerts telling me when and where those terms appear. Entering the name of a competitor or their product can help you track what they are doing and what people are saying about them. Considering adding a new product? Set alerts for terms related to the product and its market as part of your market research.

To learn more and to sign up for your Google Alerts, go to http://google.com/alerts

Filed Under: Market Research, Marketing, Online Business

Online Safety

July 13, 2007 by Cathy Stucker

Learn how to avoid scams and keep yourself and your data safe online.

This article tells you how to spot a mystery shopping scam.

More on check scams from the Federal Trade Commission.

How to spot a phishing scam.

A twist on phishing scams using online surveys.

Your password is not private.

Learn about Roboform to create, manage and remember your passwords. Download a free trial.

Keep your data secure online. Includes resources for Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and more. Also see the links at the end of the article for more information on data security from Leo Notenboom of Ask-Leo.com.

Protect yourself from identity theft.

Filed Under: Mystery Shopping, Online Business

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