In this surreal world of the internet, anyone, even you, can
put your point across to a staggering number of people in
every country on the planet.

From political activists to artists and writers, can now find
an audience to take notice of them where they could not get
much attention in their local community. Their horizons have
been dramatically extended, so their work will travel on
indefinately with no end in sight as in entering a collosal
black hole.

Where does their online work go? Where does it come to a stop?
The answer is, it will go on as long as the internet is there.
Even after they have no longer maintained a web site, their
work can be handed on to other sites, to add content.

There are too, website archive sites who keep copies of websites
for people to look at now and in the future. Twenty years from
now people will be able to look through archived websites to see
what was new then, what were the prices, what the stock market
was doing, what writers and artists were putting out, and the
list goes on and on. Ideal for a writer in the future.
Not only will people be able to see what was going on, but in
some cases will be able to hear what peple had to say, for
websites now are using music, video, and sound.
For those aspiring authors, and everyone it has often been said,
has a book within them, can write their great work of literature,
compile it to an e-book, and pass it around the internet, where
it could go the rounds for ever more, long after the author has
died. Conventional authors could hardly say that about their
hardback or paperback books.

At this moment in time, maybe only 40% to 60% of people in any
country log on to the internet every day, but the numbers keep
growing every year, and for those wanting to make a living out
of the internet, the future potential is enormous.
Consider the Asian market where the internet is fairly new, with
China as the next real big explosive market with unlimited
potential. Credit cards in China are unheard of, except for an
elite minority. To receive payment for anything over the
internet you would either, have to wait another 50 years if you
want to be paid by credit card, or persuade your Chinese clients
to open an internet payment account online with the likes of
Stormpay, which is an innovative new company, who will take any
form of payment to credit your new account, even cash, or bank
check. Stormpay even have ‘WalkUp’ offices around the world in
major cities and more are being established where a client can
deposit cash to credit their account for use on the internet.

Then the client can pay for anything on your site,
e-books, software, music etc., if you also open a Stormpay
account for receipt of the credits, all you need to open an
account initially, is an email address. Could not be simpler.
Credit cards over the internet could be a thing of the past,
many people still will not use credit cards over the internet
because of hackers, so what better way of secure transactions
do you need than a Stormpay account? It gives confidence to
your clients who need not hesitate to make a payment, there and
then, for whatever type of goods and services you provide.

Consider another aspect of selling to Asia and China in
particular. Most of the internet to-day is based on the English
language, but that is not the language they understand in Asia
and China. So, to sell to them you would have to make your site
multi-lingual. This could be just a few captions in Asian or
Chinese languages together with a button they can click on for
web pages in their own language. Or failing that, clicking on
a picture of an item on the screen can bring up a voice in
their language to explain what it is and how much it costs, and
to pay for it, they don’t need a credit card, just click on a
link to to Stormpay’s site and sign up for an account and
subsequently they can pay for anything on your site instantly.
The voice in their own language can be reassuring to the client.
Consider once again, if you intend selling to the vast Chinese
population, the enormous potential of this untapped market, if
you could only make a single dollar from each one living there,
you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams, for the population
totals ONE POINT TWO BILLION and still counting.

_____________________________________________________________

The author Tony Dean runs a web site where he has free ebooks

for instant download as well as sells ebooks and software.

“The Best Ebook and Software Site On The Net!”

http://www.ebook-sales.com

_____________________________________________________________

Publishing has always been a difficult business to promote
successfully, which titles by which authors to promote,
which genre, will it be fiction or non-fiction? Will they
sell? Will they make money, both for the publisher and for
the author? So many questions which there is no definitive
answer and so the publisher takes a chance with his money
and his time and resources and decides on which books to
publish, promote and distribute to the bookshops. He may
only distribute to bookshops in his own country and if they
don’t sell well enough, will not be seen by anyone else in
the world.

What a loss to humankind and their quest for more knowledge
to enhance their work, their lives.

The fount of civilisations knowledge were always universities,
libraries, and bookshops, and if publishers don’t find it
profitable to publish certain titles at all, to distribute to
university libraries, and bookshops, then civilisation is
the poorer.

When I was young going through school the public library was
a must to enhance my knowledge of the world around me, it
filled the gaps in my science, geography and literature
lessons, and gave me new insight. I often gazed in awe at
the rows of shelving containing all the worlds knowledge
which had been written up by scientists, explorers, academics,
and others, and oftentimes, you would have seen me taking
an armful of books home to read at bedtime, anything from
how atoms work, to famous authors tales of pirate treasure or
tales of Victorian London.

The young people of today have all this technology at hand,
not only at school, but in the home as well, they are only
a mouse click away to the fount of knowledge, but in digital
form on the internet. Many students believe that if a book is
not on the internet it does not exist, and they would not
waste time going around to the local bookshop on their High
Street to enquire about it.

It behoves, therefore, all authors, publishers and booksellers,
to at least put a synopsis of their books on the internet so at
least letting peple know they exist, and where to obtain it
in print or where to download it from. Many books are now
downloadable, but they are published only by technology
enlightened individuals, not the large publishers.

Even prints can be obtained from such e-books, the technology
has advanced that far. It needs the willingness of publishers
and authors to add value to this new fount of knowledge.
The first great library was established in Alexandria, in
ancient Egypt by Ptolemy, but it was burnt down later by
invaders, and all manuscripts were lost. What lost knowledge
we could have gained we do not know, for there was often only
one copy made on papyrus scrolls and no other copies ever
made. With the internet and the enormous computing capacity
we have, there would be countless copies of e-books online
for instant download, and therefore new knowledge, and works
of great literature, need never be lost, for they are so
easily replicable and distributable to a potential audience
of three billion people on this planet.

Modern man, and woman, now looks for information on the
internet, they no longer go to bookshops looking for it,
with the enormous capacity available, all information
should be on the internet including all government
information.

The fact that retail sales of printed books have been
falling off over the last few years means that publishers,
and authors, have got to get with the new technology -
we no longer use papyrus scrolls.

_____________________________________________________________

The author Tony Dean runs a web site where he has free ebooks

for instant download as well as sells ebooks and software.

“The Best Ebook and Software Site On The Net!”

http://www.ebook-sales.com

_____________________________________________________________

ClickBank.com can offer you multiple solutions for
your e-commerce business. Here are some of the
advantages of using ClickBank.

1. Accept Credit Cards Without a Merchant Account

If your product is downloadable (such as electronic
books or software), ClickBank may be an excellent
solution for you. For a $49.95 initial fee, you can
process credit cards and on-line cheques for $1.00
per transaction plus 7.5% of sales.

2. Start Your Own Affiliate Program

With ClickBank, you have your own built-in affiliate
program. You decide what commission (from 1% to 75%)
you would like to pay your affiliates.

To learn more about ClickBank.com, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/clickbank.html

3. Receive Free Advertising

You receive additional exposure through free listing
on the ClickBank website and through the search
facilities of other websites, such as CBMall.com.

To learn more about CBMall.com, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/cbmall.html

4. Obtain Referral Commissions

Even without applying for ClickBank credit card
processing, you can earn referral commissions on
thousands of ClickBank Marketplace products.

To learn more about ClickBank Marketplace, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/clickbank-marketplace.html

5. Eliminate Sales Tax Problems

Are you registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) for
online transactions for European Union (EU)
countries since July 1, 2003?

Are you collecting the appropriate state or
provincial sales taxes?

If you are a Canadian, are you aware of your
obligation to collect Goods and Services Tax (G.S.T.)
and Harmonized Sales Tax (H.S.T.) on Internet
transactions?

Again, ClickBank may be your solution. ClickBank
is registered for EU purposes and adds the
appropriate VAT to each transaction.

As well, to deal with ClickBank, you must agree to
sell your product to them. ClickBank then resells
your product to their customers. Thus, ClickBank
becomes the retailer responsible for collecting
sales taxes — not you. Obviously, ClickBank will
not be subject to sales taxes in most jurisdictions.

Since ClickBank is located in the United States and
can only sell or use the products it sells from
there, it would appear that Canadian G.S.T. and
H.S.T. would not be applicable to them.

Of course, this is not legal advice. To determine
your liability for sales and similar taxes, consult
your lawyer and accountant.

To read more about sales taxes on Internet
transactions, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/e-commerce-tax.html

Considering its many advantages, ClickBank may well
be your e-commerce solution!

Resource Box:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc.,
http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/ has been helping clients
to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.

For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

To increase sales on your website, you must accept credit
cards. To process credit cards, you could apply for a
merchant account through your bank or other financial
institution.

Sometimes, though, you would be further ahead to use the
services of a credit card processor. This is especially
true when you are first starting out and have more
limited resources. In this way, you may process credit
card transactions without the high front-end costs and
requirements of a merchant account.

Here, then, are just a few ways of accepting credit cards
without a merchant account. I personally use all of these
vendors and can recommend them wholeheartedly.

1. Clickbank

If your product is downloadable (such as electronic books
or software), you might consider ClickBank.com . For a
$49.95 initial fee, you can process credit cards and
on-line cheques for $1.00 per transaction plus 7.5% of
sales.

You receive additional exposure through free listing on
their website and through the search facilities of other
websites, such as CBMall.com .

As an added bonus, you have your own built-in affiliate
program. You decide what commission (from 1% to 75%) you
would like to pay your affiliates.

2. PayPal

PayPal.com has no initial fees. For just 2.9% of sales
and $ .30 per transaction (and sometimes less), you can
receive money from anyone.

Also, you can pay others by credit card or chequing account
without supplying your personal credit information to the
payee. PayPal can be used to collect money from your
auctions, website sales, or even from friends or clients.

3. PaySystems

PaySystems.com can handle either intangible (downloadable)
or tangible (shippable) products. For an initial fee of
$49.00, you can accept all major credit cards as well as
online checks. Fees are just 3.95% of sales and $1.00 per
transaction. Alternatively, you may pay 5.5% of sales and
$ .35 per transaction.

For this, you receive shopping cart, integration with
third-party affiliate programs (such as ClixGalore.com ),
fraud screening, multi-currency transactions, toll-free
support, marketing tools, and more.

For more information on how to accept credit cards without
a merchant account, visit:
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/creditcards.html

RESOURCE BOX:

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc.,
http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/ has been helping clients
to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.

For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

You have probably heard many times how you should offer
free reports. Like many of us, the idea of putting in work
to give something away may have gone through you
transparent. (Right in your mind’s ear and out the other :>)

So, if you passed over this idea before, you are not alone.
However, I am here to tell you to reconsider it and for
good reason. Why? Because this is one idea that is doable
from any level. And, it still works and always will.

It can get your marketing off the ground without much if
any costs. It can literally be your marketing vehicle to
gain exposure, build a email list and even crank in
affiliate commissions along the way.

This is not just another gorilla marketing tactic for folks
who can’t afford to advertise. Not at all. It’s way more
than that. Top marketers still use free reports as a
legitimate marketing tool.

Why? Because they can penetrate a valuable message
almost instantly with the least amount of marketing friction.

In this article you will discover why Free, Branding and
Viral are 3 powerful concepts that hold a strong place in
online marketing. You can get in on it now and climb some
marketing mountains – here’s how.

“Free” speaks for itself. It can cheapify or gratify
depending on how you present it. There are many ways to add
value to make people want what you will give them. Offer
useful information to a targeted group and they’ll eat it
out of your hands.

“Viral Marketing” is a coined term in Internet marketing
which indicates a passing from one to another – like a
virus.

“Branding” is the key to viral marketing. This is a form of
personalization that can be passed along from marketer to
recipient. Then the recipient can also pass it along as a
marketer to his recipients, and so on.

This forms an ongoing cycle that carries with it an
incentive to keep the distribution in motion. Your
personalization can travel along by literally hundreds,
even thousands carrying links leading back to
you and the products you represent.

Sound complicated? – It’s not!

So, how does this viral marketing information get into so
many hands? Again, it’s the incentive that everyone
involved can achieve something. This propels the
viral distribution. And it’s all possible because of
branding!

Hot Tip: Think of it this way.

How many thousands of people do you think are interested in
buying a popular ebook or piece of software that you
already own?

What you should do then is create a free special report
teaching something useful about the product. Show them a few
of it’s many benefits before they buy it and they may just
decide to buy it through your affiliate link.

That’s the power of the 3 concepts and it works like a charm
everyday on the Internet. Please don’t over look this very
important point.

So, what’s in branding reports for you?

Great question – let’s go over it.

For example:

* In return for joining your email list, you can use free
branded reports offering them to your signups.

* You can let others a give them away adding useful
content to their websites or even as an added bonus with
products that you sell.

* You make affiliate commissions when someone buys from
your branded links inside the report(s).

And, even if you are branding someone else’s report,
there’s about zero work involved and you can still benefit
as if it’s your own.

By giving away free reports, you can dramatically build
your email list and boost affiliate commissions. The more
viral reports you use in your marketing, the more it
will increase your opportunities.

So, remember to offer several Free Branded Viral Reports
and let the multiplicity of the Internet work for you!

(c) Michael Nicholas -All Rights Reserved

************************************************************

Michael Nicholas’ 1st special report received an explosive

692 signups in just 48 hours adding 1600 new subscribers in

just 1 week! To find out how he did it, get his Free How To

Brand Report! http://www.OrderButtonTriggers.com/pdf-report

************************************************************

According to Internet.com, by the year 2008 nearly 30% of offline purchases will be influenced by online research. If your site is a well-implemented ecommerce site, the web can significantly lower both order-taking costs and customer support costs after the sale has been made. You could also experience larger purchases per transaction. Through automation, you can sell the ‘back-end” on the front end by suggesting additional items at the time the purchase is made. You can offer your customer more information, such as order tracking. A customer can shop from the comfort of her or his home, in her bunny slippers or his boxer shorts. You can give the customer a larger variety of offerings. No need to send a great big catalog through the mail anymore. When you run out of an item, you simply remove it from the website. Makes shopping so much easier.

But first you have to get them there! No matter what function your site performs, whether it be to display your online brochure or ecommerce site, to get people to visit, you still need to market your site. It’s easy to create a new ecommerce site, getting people to visit yours is not so easy.

Getting traffic to return to your web site a second time is equally challenging. Provide a product or service the customer needs, and they may be back and they may even refer others.

What makes you different from the competition? Check them out. See if they are online and see what they are doing. Look for strengths and weaknesses in the site’s message, design and links. Find out who else is online. How do others fit into your target market?

Surfing is one thing, visiting another, but selling something online is the ultimate challenge of ecommerce today.

When creating or making improvements to your site, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Design a user-friendly site. Make it informative and easy in which to move around, so they will want to come back. Use light backgrounds with dark text for easy reading. It is also better to have less information on a page than pages full of text that will lose the reader’s interest. Have an eye-catching site that entertains and informs.

Keep graphics simple. Over-use of graphics and flash graphics take longer to download. Today, you have 5-10 seconds to grab your visitor’s attention. If loading your site takes longer than that, chances are good that they will quickly exit.

Keep your URL (uniform resource locator) – aka web site address/domain name – simple. It is the main way people locate you on the Web. While many of the good dot.com’s are taken, dot.net’s are a viable alternative. Soon, they too will be gone. If you have not already done so, get your domain name immediately. Make it memorable, something people might type in the subject line in a search engine looking for what you have to offer. Hard to spell words make it more difficult for visitors to find you.

Let’s assume you have built a great Web site. It is filled with great content, well organized, easy to navigate, and encourages customer interaction. But you need visitors. The following online marketing ideas will help you sell your products or services, offer better customer service, help you build your company identity and establish brand awareness in the marketplace. In fact, if you are relentless in your pursuit of marketing on the web, you’ll be hard to beat.

Here are just three ideas to “bring the world to your door.”

Number One: Lead with your benefits. As with any copyrighting, headlines can make or break your success. Clearly state the benefits your site has to offer in your headline. Use power words, words that appeal to your visitors’ emotions. It should describe how you will solve a problem, relieve pain, improve your visitors lives, educate them, give them something for FREE, save them time, and so on.

Number Two: Capture visitors. Add a form to your site so visitors can “register” – leave their name and email address. Tell them you want to use the information to send them periodic email message announcing special offers, and new products and services. It is important that you also make it easy for people to remove themselves (unsubscribe) from your list. Never send anything to this group unless you have something valuable to offer or say. Keep the emails short and succinct. Add links to your message that direct people back to your site for more information. Save time by automating this process with autoresponders.

Number Three: Start an Ezine This is an instant customer database builder especially if you offer it for FREE and it has a perceived value to your visitors. Ezines allow you to build a relationship with your customers and prospects. It should be short, interesting and filled with valuable information. I currently write five ezines. They are Self-Marketing News, Creating A Legacy, Ramblin’ Rose, Petals N Cents, and WECommerce News. Between the five ezines, we have a total subscriber base of nearly 30,000 opt-in prospects and customers from all over the world. In addition to the great marketing potential ezines offer, they help you develop a positive reputation.

As the World Wide Web continues to grow and evolve, more and more companies and individuals are turning to the Internet to serve their needs. Make sure the world knows to turn to you.

Excerpted from The PMS Principles – Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business by Heidi Richards

ฉ 2004 – Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association, International www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) – an Internet organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” She can be reached at www.HeidiRichards.com.

Have you ever asked to have your money refunded after buying

something online? Do you do this often? What are the reasons
you’ve asked for refunds? Savvy marketers will try to find out
why without making you feel you should not have asked. This
would be valuable information to them. Anyone selling on the
internet should be willing to have a fair and prompt refund
policy. To back up their products and claims without hesitation.
It is especially important to do with online sales since the
transaction is done without being able to “read” the salesperson
and operation face to face.

Fairness and ethical behavior goes both ways. Due to the fact
that online info products and downloadable software are easy to
copy and “keep” while also obtaining a refund, the buyer kind of
has a special “burden of honor” too. I have asked for refunds
when a product was totally misrepresented and poorly done. In
one instance the video and audio courses were sold as being
“convenient and viewable anytime and anyplace”. Turns out it was
a convenience for the marketer since you had to view them from
his site, and you guessed it, the site was very, very S-L-O-W.
If I buy something costly and you sell me like that, I want to
download and OWN it.

Another time I went through an ebook that had not been cheap to
buy and it just didn’t contain too much I didn’t already know. I
was just about to ask for a refund (and no,I don’t do that often, only a few times EVER) when I decided to look again at the ads that made me bite on the offer. The seller had not misrepresented anything. And his offer and presentation were not “junky”. I simply had learned more about the subject than I thought and hadn’t realized it. Good for me! The additional value for methen became studying what was very good ad copy. I didn’t ask for that refund.

A common situation you may find yourself in is not being ready
for the level of material you are reading. A little more study
at the basic level and perhaps simply putting the material away
until you are ready may be the answer. Some advanced topics
will not make sense without base knowledge. Due to the vast
scope of some subjects it might be hard to cover it in one
product or course series.

Don’t hesitate to ask for a refund if you truly feel the product was misrepresented. Educate that marketer about what you feel was wrong. If they don’t improve, they deserve to give all their money back. Just don’t be one of those awful people who buys an expensive product KNOWING they are going to ask for a refund. That’s the same as stealing and is unethical. If we want the convenience and gratification of being able to immediately download what we have purchased to continue, we can’t bleed
the online merchants dry.

This article may be distributed freely on your website, as long
as this entire article, including links and this resource box
are unchanged. Copyright 2004 Kim D Regan All Rights Reserved
FortuneExpo www.fortuneexpo.com

Many people are saying that the internet is dead. So is there

still money to be made on the Internet?

The answer is a definite YES.

Research shows, time and again, that consumers want to spend
more online, and that the internet is fast becoming an integral
part of their lifestyle and it’ll continue to be so. Internet
consumers are cautious and they want sites that are credible and
worth shopping before they part with their money.

The traditional brick-and-mortar rules of business still apply
to internet business. It’s prudent to remember that the internet
is not your business goal; it’s a medium in helping you achieve
your business goals.

Adhere to my following Rules and you’ll be on your way to
building a viable, sustainable and successful internet business.

—————————

1. Develop a viable business plan

—————————

The biggest reason why so many dotcoms failed is an inadequate
business plan of how and when they will achieve profitability.
To have a successful and sustainable internet business,
developing a viable business plan from the outset is crucial.

Your plan must have a clear and sincere vision that has meaning
to you and your business. Your main focus should be to ‘plan to
profit within a set period of time and this would require you to
allow time for thoughtful researching, planning, execution and
testing. You’ll need to test out your business model first and
ensure that it’s viable and sustainable.

Don’t make the same mistakes that many dotcoms made – trying to
build a global brand before their business model even worked as
it’ll lead you into receivership faster.

Regardless of how fanciful and good your website is, if your aim
is not to make profit, you’ll go out of business.

—————————

2. Model someone successful

—————————

It’s always wise to learn from the mistakes of other people
rather than to learn from your own mistakes as this can sometimes
be very costly and painful.

Track and learn from benchmarked success stories, be they your
competitors or otherwise. Why would you want to spend time
re-inventing the wheel when you can learn from those who have
already been there and done it successfully. Learn how they
design their website, create products, write salescopy, their
sales process, etc.

————————–

3. Focus on a niche market

————————–

Don’t be everything to everybody by trying to dominate a huge
and general market because you just simply can’t do it
effectively.

Focus your internet business on a targetable portion of the
market or a narrowly defined group of potential customers.
Address the need for a product or service that’s not being
addressed by mainstream providers. The advantage of this is that
it’s less competitive in such a market as large businesses won’t
want to be in it.

For this to be effective, the market niche that you’re targeting
must be fast moving, its customers accessible and there must’nt
already be a dominant player in that particular market niche.

The key here is to find a niche market, assess the needs of the
market and then offer them your products and/or services that
meet their needs.

——————————

4. Differentiate your business

——————————

To capture a larger market share and be viable, sustainable and
profitable, you need to differentiate or distinguish your
business from your competitors; make your business special in
the eyes of your customers and/or prospects.

You can do this by creating what’s called a Unique Selling
Propostion or USP and then effectively convey that USP to your
target market via your marketing efforts and business performance.

This’s particularly crucial if you’re operating in a highly
competitive market.

A USP is the one thing or idea that sets your business favourably
apart from your competitors. Think about these questions:
“What’s the one thing that makes your business unique and
distinct? Why should people buy from you and not from your
competitors? Do you promise great value, benefit or service?”

Your USP is the focal point around which the success and
profitability of your business is built and so you must be able
to state it and fulfill it honourably and effectively.

—————————

5. Spent your funds wisely

—————————

Costs is one of the major determinant of your internet business’s
survivability. You’ll need to carefully track and control your
costs from the outset and make sure you can start to show a
profit soon, as unmindful spending with no thought given to
incoming resources will bleed you to death.

Credible websites not only require money to set up but also to
maintain; advertisement costs money. Driving traffic to your
website where you lose money on sales made is suicidal. Do your
sums; consistently refer back to your vision to ascertain whether
an expense is warranted or meaningful.

—————————-

6. Superior customer service

—————————-

In addition to a viable business plan, a superior customer
service will be key to your success.

Superior customer service must be a high priority in your action
plan. Build a trusting and long lasting relationship with your
customers and prospects, send your staff for customer service
training, fulfill your orders promptly, and constantly remind
yourself the reason of your very existence.

This is crucial as it costs five times more to win a new customer
than it costs to keep an existing customer. Moreover, a
dissatisfied customer will tell, on average, five or six people
about your bad service. The point I’m driving at here is that
looking after your customers saves money and boosts profits.

Learn and apply what I teach you, do it right, and you’ll rise
above your competition and blow them out of the water in no time.

About the Author

Copyright 2004 by Larry Lim, MarketingSphere.com

Larry Lim is a practising marketing strategist and tactician who dishes out highly effective marketing strategies and tactics that will enable you to successfully start and grow your business on the Internet.

His Internet Marketing Strategy website is jam-packed with internet marketing secrets and softwares that will skyrocket your sales, and shoot your profits through the roof.

The Internet brought a great deal of benefits to our life. Access to a lot of free and useful information is, probably, one of the most important out of them. However, this abandon of free information has also become a problem to some extent. You started to spend a little too much time on the Internet. For you emails, chat rooms, messenger services along with aimless web browsing dominate substantial portion of your workdays. As a result you feel that you are loosing control of your working hours, your productivity is decreasing and you are accomplishing far less in a day than you are capable of. This makes you frustrated, miserable and negative. What to do? How to get out of this mess?

According to Brian Tracey, a renowned self-help guru, Principle of control is one of the most important factors of life. This principle ascertains that you feel positive about yourself to the degree to which you feel you are in control of your life. The same way, you feel negative about yourself to the degree to which you feel that you are controlled by external forces.

The thing is if you don’t feel positive about yourself, it would be impossible for you to become successful. This means to become happy and successful you need to regain control of your life. The following suggestions will help you achieve this:

Set Goals

Goals are like road maps. If you are planning to visit a new place and don’t grab a road map of the place with you, most certainly, you will have difficulties in finding the place. A written goal will give you a clear idea of what exactly you would like to achieve. Goals also give you a sense of control over your directions.

Goal should be Specific: I would like to become a better online businessman is not a goal. It’s a mere statement! Goals should have clear, substantiated and detailed target!

Goal should be measurable: I would like to get 100 thousand new visitors to my site within six months is a specific and measurable goal.

Goal should be realistic: I want my site to become like Yahoo! within one year is probably a unrealistic and impossible goal. If your goal is too easy to achieve or an impossible one to reach, you will soon loose interest in it. Make sure that your goal is high but attainable.

Set a deadline: Each of your goals should have specific deadlines for their achievement.

Create a detail plan of action: List every action you have to take in order to achieve a certain goal.

List obstacles: Write down all the obstacles that you might encounter on your way to reach this goal. Each time you overcome an obstacle from your list, you will feel good about yourself. This will work as a motivation for you to continue.

Make Lists

While developing your plan of actions for your goals, make two basic lists, a comprehensive master list and a more specific daily to do list.

The master list is a single ongoing list of all things that you plan to do in order to achieve your goals. It does not matter whether it is a major goal achieving work with a year long continuation or a small urgent task you need to finish today. Whenever you have come up with a task that you have to do, you add it to your master list.

Each evening create a specific daily to do list for the next work day. Make sure that this list is not too long; and all tasks of this list can be finished within the next working day. If some of the tasks, however, remain untouched at the end of the day, just roll them over to the next day’s list.

To use this list effectively you have to distribute your tasks according to their priorities.

Remember Priorities

Since it is impossible to predict whether you will be able to finish all the tasks from your list in one day, and since some of the tasks are more important than others; you should prioritized the tasks according to their importance in achieving your goals.

To develop a priority-based to do list, write all the tasks you are planning to carry out the next day. Go through the list carefully and mark each of them according to their priority: A to be the most important and D to be the least important tasks of the list. Reconstruct the list according to the assigned priorities.

Start working form the task number one from you list and go down accordingly. This priority-based to do list will be able to guarantee the followings:

You will know which tasks should be carried out first. You will always have a comprehensive to do list, allowing you to focus on the things that you need to. However, make sure that you don’t have more than three tasks with highest priority. As too many high priority tasks will keep you under stress and will constantly distract you from the job at hand.

Focus on One Thing

To be successful in any field you need to have many qualities. The ability to focus on the tasks of highest priority and continue working on them until you bring them to their logical end is one of the vital skills of success. Many people of mediocre abilities achieved great success thanks to just this one single quality.

Once you made your to do list and prioritized it, concentrate on one task at a time. No matter what we do, our mind can concentrate in one thing at a time only. If you try to do >several things simultaneously, this will only distract you and slower your pace in accomplishing the task with highest priority.

These simple and well-known rules can really do miracles to your life! Try them, you won’t be disappointed!

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business.

You can contact him at nowshade@rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com.

Online selling is by no means a simple task. To sell products online not only requires making use of high end marketing strategies but also involves lots of planning. This article is meant for those of you who intent to start an online store. It is intended to give you a fair idea of what you would need to do and what you need to avoid while planning an online selling business.

The following are the various steps that you would need to take in order to open a successful online store

1.) Designing a website that sells

The first most important aspect of online selling is to have a professional looking website that is designed to sell. You can go about creating the website from code up using web designers or simply go for readymade website templates. If you are purchasing website templates, be sure to go for templates that are professionally designed and have the option of shopping carts. Buying templates from providers who offer allied services like template customization, web hosting; SEO etc would be even better. Some template providers like ‘buytemplates.net’ offer allied services irrespective of where you actually purchased the template from. To get a rough idea of how your site should be designed you can take hints from successful discount online stores like http://www.ishopage.com, ‘gap.com’ and ‘bestbuy.com’.

2.) Hosting your store online

There are many factors that you need to take into consideration before selecting your web host when it comes to online selling. Some of the major factors are discussed as follows.

a.) Secure servers

Firstly you got to make sure if your web host offers you with SSL encryption which is very important for secure money transactions online. Most web hosting companies would offer you with SSL secure server facilities along with a regular package whereas a few would charge you an extra amount for the service.

b.) Up time guarantees

Your business is only as good as it remains online. Make sure to go for web hosting service providers who promise you an uptime guarantee of 99 %. Also check to see as to how they back up their data and what kind of back up systems they have in place in case of emergencies.

c.) Private CGI-BIN

A CGI-BIN directory is a location on your web server where you can upload your binary scripts or interactive programs. This is very important for payment processing and shopping cart management. So be sure that the hosing company gives you a private CGI BIN directory.

d.) Web logs and web statistics

Web logs and statistics are vital for your online business. Studying the web logs can give you much needed information about your customers and your sales records. Understanding your customer behavior can help you retain customers and attract new customers.

e.) Customer support

Get as much information about the hosting company’s support policies and the type of support they offer. Go for web hosting companies that offer 24/7 customer support.

f.) References

Most web hosts promise you lots of goodies but may not live up to it. Make sure to test the web host’s credibility by asking them for references. The existing customers of the hosting company can give your first hand information on the service that you can expect to get.

In addition to this you should also look for services that offer you Mysql database and PHP scripting, unlimited emails and a minimum space of 10GB.

3.) Deciding on shopping carts

If you are selling more than a handful of products then having a shopping cart on your site is a good idea. You have three major options of getting yourself an online shopping cart. First one is buying a shopping cart software program; the second is using services of an ASP and the third is programming it yourself.

Your best option as a beginner would be to go for ASP services. These services are cheap and come with flexible options. As time passes and you online business develops, you can hire programmers to design yourself a customized shopping cart or buy shopping cart software programs that can be set up in your server. Some good ASP’s that offer shopping cart services are ‘SecureNetShop’ (SecureNetShop.com) and ‘GoEmerchant’ (GoEmerchant.com).

Shopping cart software programs are a costly option for beginners and can cost you anything between $ 150 – $ 800. Some good shopping cart software programs are ‘shopfactory 6′ (shopfactory.com) and ‘storefront’ (strorefront.net)

One more option as already discussed above is making use of ecommerce website templates. These ecommerce templates have pre installed shopping cart systems and can help you set up a store in minutes. Some of these template providers also offer template customization services that would allow you to get your ordinary templates in selling modules.

4.) Deciding on how to accept payments

No matter what the speculation, credit cards are still the best way to accept payments. So make sure that your online business has facilities to accept credit cards. There was a time when you had to have a merchant account from a bank or financial institution to process credit card payments. But today there are enough options available that allow you to accept credit card payments even without a merchant account.

Paypal (paypal.com) is perhaps the best payment gateway and has no initial joining fees. Their service fees, per-transaction is very low and they allow you to accept payments from all over the world. In addition to Paypal some other good payment gateways are ’2checkout’ (2checkout.com), ‘clickbank’ (clickbank.com) and ‘paysystems’ (paysystems.com).

Payment options other than credit cards

It is by no means necessary that all your customers will have credit cards. As a matter of fact many of your customers don’t have credit cards, many don’t like to use credit cards, many have credit card phobias and the remaining may not wish to share their credit card information online. Under such a situation it would be best for you to provide alternate payment options.

Internet checks

Internet checks are as popular as credit cards when it comes to paying online. Internet checks are comparatively safer and are best if your customers are from international destinations. This technique would involve your customer’s to make payments by an online blank check provided by an internet check service provider. This information is sent to the service provider for authorization. The merchant can also print the check on his printer immediately afterwards. Some good service providers who can offer you internet check services are paybycheck (paybycheck.com) and cross-check (cross-check.com).

In addition to internet checks there are some other options of accepting online payments like money orders and electronic checks. But these methods are suitable only if your customers are from nearby locations.

The best way to decide your payment options is analyzing your customer behaviors. You can also have online check boxes or feedback forms on your website to collect information about your customer’s payment preferences and act accordingly.

5.) Promoting your online store

No promotion equals to no sales. You can promote your store using online marketing strategies like search engine optimization, email marketing, banner advertisements and affiliate marketing among others. While promoting your business you got to make sure to stay clear of any kind of illegal methods like spamming, cloaking etc. Your promotion activities should create a positive awareness about your online store that leads to trust building.

6.) Assuring your Customers

The customer is the king and just as in any other type of business here again you need to give your customer what he wants. To do this you got to be sure of your customer’s preferences. Basically you need to address the following doubts that your customers are likely to have in their mind while buying online

a.) Is my credit information safe?
b.) How will the products be delivered to me and how long will it take?
c.) Are their any additional costs associated with the item?
d.) What kind of guarantees come with the product?
e.) Are there any discounts if I purchase multiple goods?
f.) What kind of customer service does the online shop have?
g.) What happens in case the goods are damaged or of low quality?

These questions in particular and many more questions in general can arise in the minds of your customers depending on the type of your products and your online store reputation. You can address these issues by providing valuable information in your FAQ section. Providing an online live chat on your website would be a great way to deal with your customer queries. There are many services that offer free online chat software programs; for instance ‘boldchat’ (boldchat.com).

Even after all this is over there is no word like ‘remaining stagnant’ in online marketing. You got to keep on moving and adapting yourself to newer technologies and better marketing techniques to stay ahead and abreast of all those pesky competitors.

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