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Virtual Marketing – Plan, Execute, Make Money! :)
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Michael S. DeVries
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Apr 23, 2005 08:56 PDT
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The Virtual Consulting Discussion List [VCDL]
http://www.TheVCF.com/vcdl.phtml
Saturday, April 23, 2005 Digest #22
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ...
---> [NEW] <---
#1 Yes, You Really Do Need A Marketing Plan
- Leslie Guria
#2 E-commerce The Bop Approach
- Arvind Kumar
#3 Keys To Internet Marketing: Visibility
- Bruce Woodward
#4 Article Writing For Fame And Fortune
- Randy Justason
#5 How To Get Targeted Search Engine Traffic Quickly
- Matt Bacak
#6 Seo Tips For Google®
- Joe Balestrino
#7 How To Accept Credit Cards
- Matthew Coers
---> [CONTINUED] <---
---> [RESOURCES] <---
---> [NEWS] <---
---> [INTRO] <---
---> [HELP WANTED] <---
---> [ADMIN] <---
************* [NEW] ***************
#1 Yes, You Really Do Need A Marketing Plan
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 00:29:49 -0500
From: Leslie Guria <distri-@isnare.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com
So you’ve gotten your business going. You have a customer or
two. The phone is ringing…a little. For any business to grow
and prosper long-term, it needs a solid foundation that
includes a marketing plan.
A marketing plan is a road map detailing the “route” you’ll
take to get your business noticed by potential clients. By
following a properly crafted plan, you’ll know what to do and
why you’re doing it, while avoiding some of the mistakes that
can cost you money and future growth.
“If You Build It, They Won’t Necessarily Come”
The first part of any marketing plan is a basic understanding
of your market, competition and whether or not an opportunity
exists for your product or service.
My first business venture was to make very expensive looking
floral wreathes. All my friends and neighbors had them on
their front doors and I knew I paid $100 for mine, so why not
make and sell them myself! What I didn’t consider is that I
have expensive taste and in order to make a profit, my wreaths
were priced significantly higher than the local craft store.
If I were in a more affluent area, it may have worked, but not
here.
I started the business on a hunch and didn’t truly know my
market or competition. Had I done my research, I may have
used lower cost materials, made less elaborate products, sold
them in a different area or skipped the venture all together.
What I learned is that my opinion combined with my friend’s
opinions is not a strong enough basis to launch a business.
“No, I’m Not Going to Stop for Directions.”
When starting a business you generally know where you want to
end up and you might have a vague idea of how to get there, but
what if you get lost? A marketing plan is like a road map or
corner gas station used as a reference tool to keep your
marketing on track. If you run into “construction traffic”, a
properly developed plan will offer options to keep you
motivated, organized and headed in the right direction.
“I Want to Rule the World… Or Do I?”
Do you want a home based business with one or maybe two
employees or a large firm with several hundred? How do you
feel about travel, making cold calls, the Internet, can you
type? How fast do you want to grow and do you have the
resources to keep up with the growth? Your goals as a business
entity will dictate how and to whom you market.
My second business venture was a used toy business. I hit
every garage sale within 10 miles of my home and bought all of
the solid plastic toys I could find. I also put up signs at
day care centers offering to buy used toys directly from
parents. My goal was to have my own garage sales business and
earn a profit on the toys I had bought.
This time, I didn’t consider my personal goals before embarking
on my business. I didn’t like going inside strangers homes to
pick up their toys. I had nowhere to put the enormous
stockpile I had amassed and wasn’t willing to hire employees to
gather enough toys to generate the revenue to cover a storage
unit or store front. I wanted a little “mom” business, not a
full blown corporation.
Had I considered my true goals, I would have marketed myself as
a service provider to day care centers – found out what they
wanted and would be willing to pay, and then gone out to find
it - no storage issues, no going into people’s homes, no
employees required.
“It’s Report Card Day!”
Even the best marketing plan needs to be constantly evaluated
and adjusted to keep business growth on track. The results of
your efforts may not be bringing in attention or revenue you
require. The economy, business environment, competition or
technology may have changed necessitating a shift in your plan.
Making adjustments to a marketing plan is healthy. Even if you
paid a mint for a professionally developed plan, you’ll want to
review your status and results at least every six months to
monitor effectiveness. When buying a plan, it’s important to
ask that follow up support to be part of the package.
“I’ll Just Put It On My Credit Card.”
Before developing a marketing plan, you’ll want to have a ball
park budget in mind. Once your plan is complete, set a budget
and stick to it!
It’s easy to spend more than your annual revenue on marketing
activities and supplies when you first start out. Make sure
your budget is realistic before committing. Every dollar spent
should have a trackable outcome – even if it takes several
months or years to realize.
“Plan Your Day and Work Your Plan’
By following a properly developed marketing plan, you’ll
minimize the growing pains that often accompany a business
start up. Revenue growth will be reasonably predictable and
you’ll be laying a foundation for long term stability. Your
business will run more efficiently because next marketing steps
will have been laid out in advance.
About The Author: Leslie Guria, Marketing Consultant with Foot
in the Door Marketing, (http://www.footinthedoormarketing.com)
and author of “Opening’s” a monthly newsletter geared toward
small business owners. As a consultant, Leslie supports the
marketing needs of small business owners nationwide. She has
an MBA and over 16 years of successful sales, marketing and
project management experience.
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#2 E-commerce The Bop Approach
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 00:08:19 -0500
From: Arvind Kumar <distri-@isnare.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com
For centuries and most of the decades in the 20th century (i.e
when computer was invented) access and communication was the
tool of rich and ultra rich people, prohibitively expansive to
‘not so rich’ and ‘not at all rich’ people. All marketing
research and development was focused on the 20% of the market
based on the management principle 80:20, ignoring the vast 4
billion people who are at the bottom of the pyramid( read
Fortune at the Bottom of Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad, Wharton
Publishing).
In 1990s, Internet came along and change the paradigm of whole
global market. Because here we have a great tool “Internet” a
very efficient, very potent to penetrate the earlier thought
impregnable market sec. For most if the time it is the exposure
to the outer world and information is necessary to make any
decision and growth of any section of society or part of world.
Internet is playing that role very efficiently.
Internet is a Mass product. Here power lies in the hand of
individuals, rich or not so rich(This terminology is taken from
Fortune at the Bottom of Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad, Wharton
Publishing).
General theory of market states
(i) Top end market is value driven.
(ii) Bottom end market is volume driven.
Through these two anomaly, we can clearly recognize that
Internet companies are focusing on the second approach and that
is what CK Prahalad call Bottom of Pyramid(BOP) approach in his
path breaking book Fortune at the Bottom of Pyramid.
I can give a big list of such companies, but for instance take
some shining stars of today Internet economy.
(i) ebay.com
(ii) aol.com
(iii) clickbank.com
(iv) Google.com
We will study the Mother of all search engine Google and its
approach to BOP.
Lets compare the Google strategy and its behemoth competitors(
well not today, but in formative days of Google when it matter
most.) Google is a search engine based on Pay per click(PPC)
approach to the internet economy. In formative days, Google
done exactly what others thought and well recognized by the
Gurus that the model is not viable and Google will be doomed to
graveyard.
Most of Dot Coms or brick and mortar companies on internet were
making money for advertising. They charge for the advertising
space they provide to the advertiser and charge them for a
fixed duration and also all these prepaid only. This approach
was already imminently followed in TV advertising and to some
extent very successful. Advertisers did not had any options.
For them it was dark space to jump into. They did not had any
control even after paying handsome sum for space on Net.
See the other side of the coin. The consumer( technically
visitor) were not part of revolution. Even if they were, they
were used to be only exploited for generating huge profit for
firms operating on the Net.
Google came to foray with a refreshing style and a very
uncommon approach to the market.
1. No Images on its main page. ( there is option available in
other pages but not very popular.)
2. Tool and services for the common people.
3. Free for all( even sometime for advertisers also)
See where is the money? I guess 90% would not see any or many.
Google spread its wings on net through word-of-mouth marketing
and keeping a intense focus on the common people using
internet. In the process Google developed it owns marketing and
revenue generation model with empowering the common people, who
worship Google( I can be counted one of them).Google invented
many new model which was never thought before.
(i) Google adsense
(ii) Google Adwords
(iii) Froogle ( similar to ebay.com but free for all.)
(iv) Google Search
Seeing deep into Google strategy and approach to net economy we
can define two things.
(1) Focus on common people in big volume in terms of purchasing
power
(2) In the process give more control in their hands, empower
them to generate more purchasing power and habit to help
yourself as well as the industry.
See two very bottom level examples.
(1) Jon Gales, the owner of the www.mobiletracker.net makes
close to $5000 per month just by using Google adsense. Take
notice, he is merely a happy go lucky child of 19 years.
(2) For small time people who want more sales to be generated
for their small time business uses Google adwords and Froogle.
Even if they do not any business product, they can sale someone
else product and have a handsome money in exchange for working
for someone else at their own home.
Does it make a company commercially viable? Do not ask me.
Watch it.
Seth Gobin a well known online advertising consultant and
former Yahoo employee, used to be dubious about Google’s
prospect. Not anymore “ They have created the first new and
effective Ad medium in last 50 years. It’s brilliant” He says.
Napolean hill, author of Law of success state in his book,” No
man can rise to fame and fortune without carrying others along
with him. It is simply can not be done.”
It takes continuous hard work with great series of innovation
in product designe, process innovation and marketing and a long
period to reach ( in mature economy or market) where Google is
today.
Google 6 year $321mn
EBay 9 year $322mn
Yahoo 10 year $260mn
Amazon 9 year $114mn
In his book “ The fortune at the Bottom of Pyramid” C.K.
Prahalad state,”…..what is needed is a better approach to help
poor, an approach that involves partnering with them to
innovate and achieve sustainable win-win scenarios where the
poor are actively engaged and at the same time, the companies
providing product and services to them are profitable.”
I accept common people on net are not poor. But see into deep
meaning of C.K. Prahalad statement,”- ……where the poor are
actively engaged and at the same time………..”. That’s what
e-commerce model I am talking all about. They are not poor but
they are active ready to change their buying behavior. Buying
behavior change is the most awesome milestone still to reach in
the e-commerce to really blast off the internet economy.
According to Napolean Hill, you need to help the common
internet folk to see what internet can do for them.
Gil Penchina, vice-president, eBay International state,” It’s
all about getting more people on the system(eBay). People on
net follow very simple system. They get online almost always
because they want email, then they start reading news, then
they shop. Once they value in shopping, they shop repeatedly.
That’s when they realize they can sell too.”
By actively involving common folk they will get more trust into
e-commerce. To achieve this amazing rate of growth, e-commerce
community has to accept the “inclusive Capitalism” approach.
Common Internet people need to be given a big opportunity to
tap into the awesome big time opportunity on internet.
According to CK Prahalad, to tap into BOP segment “ Trust is
prerequisite”. Big corporate or small one need to build this
bridge of trust to tap into this big volume market segment.
In case of Google, it is famous for it unconventional approach
and infamously trusted for unorthodox management approach of
its founders Lary Page and Sergey Brin. Google just do not
comprise on integrity for profit in its search results. Its
user can always trust Google for its integrity to receive full
support from Google for their small or big business.
Am I seem too madly in love with Google? Believe m, I am not
alone.
This research work for this report is done by Mr. Arvind
Kumar, founder, www.Nuttymarketer.com You may reach him at
arv-@nuttymarketer.com.
You can access the same article at Nuttymarketer.com website at:
http://www.nuttymarketer.com/green/gorilla_marketing_ecommerce1.htm
About The Author: Arvind Kumar is an Electrical Engineer from a
premier Institute , Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi,
India. He has 3 years experince in marketing business
consulting services and marketing services. He is founder and
CEO of nuttymarketer.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
#3 Keys To Internet Marketing: Visibility
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 23:03:31 -0500
From: Bruce Woodward <distri-@isnare.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com
The keys to being profitable on the internet is simply
visibility. Do you think that Wal-Mart became the business that
they are by remaining unseen? What about Microsoft? Dell? I
think that you get my point.
Visibility takes time, and perseverance, but it can be
achieved. Once you “get the hang of it” it is also relatively
painless. However, if you are going to get into an internet
based business, be prepared because you are going to be
spending 90% (of your actual working time) marketing.
This is not necessarily a bad thing … after all, if you are
able to cut the time you spend on your business to two hours
per day then that is an hour and forty-eight minutes a day you
spend marketing. That still beats eight hours in an office.
Marketing can be fun to some of those that participate in it.
After all, you get to sell yourself. You challenge yourself to
come up with selling techniques, something that will make that
person buy your product over the gazillion others that are out
there.
There are other benefits as well. For instance, with
experience, you can sell your expertise to companies (large and
small, online and offline) to increase profitability. You can
hold seminars and teach other entrepreneurs how to prosper
online. Basically you can sell your skills.
Or you can simply use the information to profit. At any rate,
visibility is the key to success, in any business.
Word-of-mouth is a great advertiser, so tell your friends,
family, co-workers, whomever you can about your products. Just
get out there. Free services are also good, and email marketing
is still close to number one. Use all the resources that you can
find. And never give up, it takes time.
About The Author: Bruce has worked with such companies as The
Walt Disney World Company in marketing campaigns. He has years
of experience in Internet Marketing. You can find out more
secrets to success by logging on to
http://www.bruceworksltd.com/ebooks/TheKeysToSuccess.html and
downloading his e-book. And keep your eye out for my upcoming
course due out soon, where he detailed all of the aspects of
visibility, and how to get seen, and how to sell yourself!
Check it all out at Lightning Marketing,
http://www.bruceworksltd.com/LightningMarketing/index.html.
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#4 Article Writing For Fame And Fortune
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:28:32 -0500
From: Randy Justason <distri-@isnare.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com
How would you like to have your name and web address spread all
over the internet?
How would you like to have your web site move up to the first
few pages on the major search engines?
Actually, it's not as difficult as you may think. It requires
some time and effort on your part, however, the rewards can far
outweigh the effort that you put in.
Not only can you receive thousands of dollars worth of free
advertising and promotion, but you can also develop a
reputation as a smart person, one who many people would like to
be affiliated with.
So, just what is this all-powerful genie of self promotion?
Believe it or not, it's Article Writing.
That's right, the absolute best method that I have found to get
free advertising is to write articles and submit them to ezine
publishers and article directories. Website owners and ezine
publishers are always looking for content for their sites and
newsletters. Why not let them publish yours.
Let me give you an example of the power of writing. I had
written just 1 home business article and submitted it to about
a dozen online article submission sites. Prior to this, when I
checked Google to see how many links I had coming in to my site,
MLM Wonders, it showed only 37 links. About 2 weeks after
submitting my article I checked again and had well over 300
links incoming.
If you're not sure what that means, let me explain.
By submitting my article to those few sites, I was giving
anyone the permission to download it and use it as content on
their sites. By checking just one of the sites I submitted to
I found that my article was downloaded over 150 times. So, if
150 people put my article on their web site, just think of the
exposure (and links) I am getting.
If you consider the fact that those 150 web sites may get
thousands of views each month, my little article could be seen
by hundreds of thousands of people. All at no cost to me!
You may also be thinking that people do not want to read
articles that are just advertisements with a lot of links in
them so how does that let you promote your site.
You're right about that, and also remember that most article
submission sites will not let you submit articles that are just
advertisements for your site or products. In fact I don't put
any links into the body of my articles.
So how are all those links coming to my site?
Simple. With each article you write, you have the opportunity
to put a resource box at the end. This short 'Signature File'
is usually around 5 lines and is where you introduce yourself
and tell the readers about what you are selling and how they
can get more information. It can contain a link to your web
site and an email address. This is your advertisement, and
it's free.
What's the matter, don't think you can write about anything
interesting?
I didn't think I could either. Then I got to thinking about
what I have been doing online for the past few years. I
thought about some of the problems I had and how I fixed them
and how I used the internet to make money (i.e. this article).
I also decided that other people may want to know about these
things and presto, a writer was born!
Thousands of people are joining the internet every day and are
looking for information on particular topics. Some may be
looking for ways to make money, others may be looking for
recipes, or articles on pets, or just about anything. The
possibilities are endless. If you have a favorite hobby, share
it with others by writing articles about it.
If you're not sure about a topic, do a little research on the
internet. Read other articles, check websites and then
condense what you learn into an article.
You don't need to be an experienced writer, just write like you
would talk to someone about your topic. Try to be grammatically
correct and check your spelling, or have someone check it for
you.
Don't try to write it all at once either. If you're not sure
what you are going to say, simply jot down whatever comes to
mind then go back and fill in the paragraphs. Stop for awhile
and then come back to it. You'll be surprised at how much you
can remember about your topic when you are just walking around,
then you can come back and type it out.
Try to keep your articles between 500 and 1000 words. Keep
your paragraphs short as this makes for easier reading. If you
don't like writing paragraphs, you could make it a 'Tips'
article, for instance, "7 Tips For ***", or "10 Good Reasons To
***".
Writing articles can give you free promotion and at the same
time develop a favourable reputation for you on the Internet.
So what are you waiting for?
About The Author: Randy Justason is the Owner/Webmaster of MLM
Wonders - http://www.mlmwonders.com - A website dedicated to
opportunities, ideas and resources for starting a home based
business on the internet. You can subscribe to the MLM Wonders
free monthly Newsletter at: mailto:subsc-@mlmwonders.com
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#5 How To Get Targeted Search Engine Traffic Quickly
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:19:44 -0500
From: Matt Bacak <distri-@isnare.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com'
Here’s the “How-To-Do-It Guide” for driving search engine
traffic right to your website.
I only speak about methods I have used and that worked well for
my business. There are a lot of people out there who will steer
you in the wrong direction because they are just regurgitating
old information that might have worked years ago. I’ll help
you discover what’s happening right here, right now. Let’s get
started with the plan.
Your first step is to define your target market. The better you
are able to define your niche, the better your future clients
will be able to find you and your products or services.
Next, you want to get very specific about what you’re going to
market on your webpage and make sure that it’s congruent with
our next step. When a person finds you on a search engine, you
have a window of only 3 to 5 seconds to convince them that you
are exactly what they were looking for. Make it crystal clear
what you offer. If your meaning is unclear, the prospect will
jump to the next site and you’ll lose that business.
The following step is to brainstorm your keywords - keeping in
mind your target audience. How would they search for me? What
would they look for? Don’t focus on how you identify yourself.
The closer you are to your target audience, the more hits you
will get, which equates to more customer traffic. The more
specifically you target, the better off you are. You’re not
going to have success if you list yourself too generically,
there is too much competition and you’ll be lost in the crowd.
Once you have established your target market, define what
specific categories you should be linking to and add them as
part of your navigation page. A linking strategy is very
important for building your link reputation. Links to your
page will count towards link reputation and link popularity.
There are a lot of different search engines - six in particular
that give you about 90% of all web-traffic. Of those Google has
the most web traffic so we’ll focus on it. Google has a link
page rank feature which rates the importance of your page.
You’ll want to download their toolbar
http://toolbar.google.com. This will allow you to view the
ranking of every site you visit and how important it is in the
almighty eye of Google. This is a key ingredient in
determining linking strategy. Google ranks itself as a 10 on
their scale of 0 to 10 (the higher the ranking, the more
important a page). This is determined essentially by who is
endorsing and linking to you.
You must map out how you’re going to get Google give to you a
high page rank. For Google, the most important attribute is the
title tag. You want to make sure you use your most targeted key
word in the beginning of your title tag. Google will typically
list the first 83 characters so the title is where you put your
most valued key word(s) so it can be easily accessed.
The next maneuver is to focus on your link relevancy. Link
relevancy is how well the text on your pages relates to your
title tag, also taking in consideration the content of
neighboring web pages. The analysis of all of this data
enables Google to return results that are relevant to user
queries. You want to be sure you are listed in user queries so
make your content match your title, match your links, and match
your products and or services. Remaining consistent and
obvious is your key to directing traffic to your site.
About The Author: Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in
just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz
radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into
Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash The
Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up for Matt Bacak's Promoting
Tips Ezine ($100 value) just visit his website at
http://www.powerfulpromoter.com
[Fellow Virtual Consultants,
Please find additional information regarding these and other Search
Engine resources, including resources regarding Keywords / Search Terms,
Pay-Per-Click Search Engines and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in the
appropriate sections of The Virtual Consultants’ Resource Center at:
http://www.thevcf.com/vccenter.phtml#SEARCH
Hope this also helps,
- Your Virtual Moderator ]
-----------------------------------------------------------
#6 Seo Tips For Google®
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 06:10:43 -0500
From: Joe Balestrino <distri-@isnare.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com'
Getting a high ranking on Google is a big achievement. There
are many factors that go into pulling a high page rank. I have
put together a small list of things that should not be
overlooked when optimizing your site. Let’s start from the top:
META Tags- Sorry, but Google doesn’t read META tags. That
includes the KEYWORD tag. Some search engines, however, still
use them.
URL- Having a keyword or words in URL will help you somewhat.
Having a key word in your URL is not by any means a guarantee,
but it never hurts.
TITLE Tag- This is an important step, use this tag wisely.
Place your top keywords here. Remember, your page is indexed
starting from the top of the page. Make this one count.
Site content- The first paragraph of your site is a crucial
part of your optimization. This will also be used as your
site’s description. Be careful not to overdo it on the
keywords. Make sure your content makes sense. Your keywords
should make up a total of 6% to 8% of your page content. An
average of three hundred words is a good rule of thumb.
Header Tags- Header tag should be considered important. Make
headers uniform on your site. I like using them on the top of
my page just before the first paragraph.
ALT Tags- These tags are great for adding keywords to images,
so take advantage of them. I also use mouse over text with
linked text.
Links- Any links you have on your site should have key terms
in them. Never use “Click Here” or other unrelated words when
creating links.
Bonus tip: When exchanging text links, use key phrases as the
actual links. This will certainly help you out.
For Example:
Affordable Search Engine Optimization & Web Site Marketing
Mr. SEO is the leader in SEO. We handle targeted traffic,
marketing and more. We also offer Web Site Marketing Articles
to help you get more traffic to your site.
Links exchange- This will help boost your overall ranking.
It’s actually better to be linked from another site (one way)
than reciprocal (both sites linking to each other). Being
linked one way is a huge bonus. However, the following should
be kept in mind.
A: The site you are linking to needs to be related to your
site.
B: Google’s page rank of the site should be higher than yours;
the higher the better.
C: Avoid linking to sites that have too many links. A site that
has forty or more links will only hurt you.
Bonus Tip: See where you rank on Google by using this free
tool. http://www.googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php
This Google ranking tool will show you under what keywords you
are found on. Use this to help adjust the keywords you want to
be found under. Be sure to check your ranking before you start
any optimization. Then do it again 3 – 4 weeks after you have
made your adjustments. See if your ranking has gone up.
About The Author: Joe Balestrino is a published author and owns
http://www.mr-seo.com and http://www.jnb-design.com . For more
info on SEO or his services, visit his websites or email him at
jo-@jnb-design.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
#7 How To Accept Credit Cards
-----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 23:25:32 -0500
From: Matthew Coers <distri-@isnare.com>
Reply To: Virtual-C-@topica.com'
If you plan to do business online, then your website will need
to accept credit cards. For many, the idea of applying for a
merchant account sounds like a daunting task, but the truth is
that building an online store is incredibly easy these days.
The major credit card processing companies have improved and
streamlined the process of setting up accounts, and software
companies have had several years to improve their software to
the point that it is easy for non-technical business owners to
create and operate an online store effectively.
3rd Party Processors – The inexpensive way to start
For the beginning web entrepreneur, the most important issue in
credit card processing is how much product you think you can
realistically sell in a month. If you are selling less than
$1000 per month, then you will want to go with a “third-party
processor”. PayPal is the most widely known and reputable third
party processor, and you can easily set up an account with them.
Unlike traditional merchant accounts, PayPal accounts are free
to set up and cost nothing on a monthly basis. You will pay
more per transaction with PayPal than you would with a
traditional merchant account, but for low-volume start-up
businesses making less than $1000 per month, you will gladly
choose higher transaction costs over account set-up fees,
monthly account fees, minimum charges, interchange fees,
gateway fees, and perhaps worst of all, account cancellation
fees (just to name a few).
Steps You Need To Take To Set Up A PayPal Account
Bank Account – you will need a bank account for PayPal to
deposit your funds into.
Apply for a PayPal Account
Traditional Merchant Accounts
If your processing volume will be higher than $1000 per month,
then you will probably want to go with a traditional merchant
account. Credit card processing companies generally charge a
minimum monthly fee that is approximately equal to the amount
of money you would pay to process $1000 per month. Generally
speaking you can expect to pay around $50 per month in minimum
charges for a merchant account. As you process more, your costs
will go up, but the percentage of your gross sales that you pay
for processing should go down.
Steps You Need To Take To Set Up A Traditional Merchant Account
It is not difficult to set up a traditional merchant account,
but you will need to follow several steps in order to pull it
off.
Get a business license
Get a business bank account at your bank
Make sure your web host supports your shopping cart system (you
might even be able to get your shopping cart system bundled in
with your credit card processing services for free).
Try to determine the amount of business you will generate. Your
credit card processing company will want to know how large each
transaction will be, and how many transactions you expect to
have per month.
Negotiate with merchant account providers and establish your
merchant credit card account (see list of merchant account
providers).
Following are several merchant account providers you may be
interested in contacting:
www.paypal.com
PayPal allows you to accept payments instantly without the need
to set up special accounts or sign long-term contracts. You will
want to strongly consider using this one if you are processing
less than $1000 per month.
www.totalmerchantservices.com
Total Merchant Services is one of the largest resellers of
merchant accounts both on and offline, and are trusted by
literally tens of thousands of businesses of all sizes. They
use First Data as their back-end processor.
www.merchantexpress.com
This is a well-respected processor that services both on and
offline businesses.
www.expandyourbusiness.com
CardService International provides a very helpful eBook that
you can download for free
Some Issues You Want To Consider
Generally speaking you will be more concerned with up-front and
recurring fees rather than the discount rate that processing
companies will quote most prominently. The hidden fees
generally eclipse the discount rates – especially for low
volume start-up businesses.
Try to accurately estimate your business volume when you fill
out your applications. The risk department at your processing
company can put a freeze on your account if your volumes move
significantly outside the estimates you have provided them.
If you do experience a sudden spike in orders, you should
contact the risk department of your processing company to make
them aware of the spike BEFORE it hits their system. They may
want to have you send them details about the orders and provide
proof that the orders are legitimate. As inconvenient as this
is, it is far better than getting your account frozen.
Make sure you understand what fees you will be responsible for
if you need to cancel your account before the end of your
contract. You may find that you need to shut down your account
for a variety of reasons, and you don’t want to find out about
exit fees after you get the bill!
In conclusion, you should start off your search for credit card
processing by making a realistic estimate of your processing
needs. If you believe you will be processing less than $1000
per month, then you will probably want to work with a
third-party processor like PayPal. If you will be processing
more than $1000 per month then you will want to work with a
traditional credit card processing company (see list of
processors above). You should be more concerned with upfront
and recurring fees than with the discount rate. Once you have
selected a processing company, you will want to make sure you
have your business license and business bank account. Finally,
you will need to make sure that your shopping cart system
supports your processing company.
About The Author: Mr. Coers specializes in helping
entrepreneurs build effective web businesses. His website,
http://www.profitchoice.com contains useful articles and
"how-to" guides to help organizations build their brands and
sell more effectively.
[Fellow Virtual Consultants,
Please find additional information regarding these and other Merchant
Accounts at:
http://www.thevcf.com/vccenter.phtml#ACCT
Hope this also helps,
- Your Virtual Moderator ]
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