Humphrey's Hints

[humphrey]

Here is a small piece of advise for those looking to venture in online business. As it is with every newbie, the problem they tend to face is related to:

1. Building a list,
2. Having a good product that sells
3. Communicating and selling to their list.

Now by using the term communicating, I am not in any way implying that newbies are daft as in they can’t write or speak, but you do agree with me that in marketing you don’t only need a product that sells but you also need a good selling weapon. There are many weapons that you can use but what am talking about here is the one that most newbies luck. The best of all selling weapons is – A good quality sales letter. Jerome Chapman, CEO of Net Make Money once said; these days Newbies want two things out of online business but are not sure how to get those two things for themselves.

1. They want a successful ezine list with a good product to promote
2. They want this list to create recurring income that keeps coming even while playing golf.

Now all these are all but good things and am sure one or two of you have tried going that lane. But the truth is no matter how hard you try and whichever way you do it, if you have no organization (i.e. business plan) and no innovation (creativity), then success to you is surely a long way.

So today I just want to give you a few good tips on how to get yourself started on the right foot with whatever business venture you in. If you are a newbie and whether you belong to an affiliate program or not or you feel you’ve tried too many times and nothing seems to make sense, then I urge you to join me right now and lets explore a few secrets on how to build and run a successful online business by constantly reconnecting to your vision. So lets start with a question;

How do you get started?

Truthfully speaking, unless you can sit down and create not just a vision but an extra-ordinary vibrant vision for your life (which includes your business, relationship, marriage, etc), you will all of a sudden be stagnant, unfruitful, unsuccessful in every thing you do. Remember if you keep on doing the same thing over and over again then you become like still water. When water is not moving it becomes stagnant and stagnant water is unproductive, unhealthy, etc. In the same way, the moment you feel your business is not moving, not healthy and is non-productive then know that your business is like stagnant and unless you are able buckle down and rejuvenate yourself you will like many others give up and soon your business will be no more.

So how then do you start?

Here are three simple formulas you can follow:

1. First start by creating a vibrant vision (plan) for your business.
2. Secondly, explore the possibilities of that vision (i.e.prudent, viable, etc)
3. Thirdly, connect your vision (plan) to possibilities (reality) by closing the
gap.

A Vibrant Vision + positive possibilities = Success in everything you do

Once you begin to incorporate this principle into your online business then you leave no room for failure. So how do you incorporate this principle?

There are so many ways you can do that and in due course I shall try to expand on this principle but for now here are a few good tips on how to get charged up for success.

1. Know what you want
2. Be a good Student,
3.Communicate with your sponsor/mentor
4. Build a personal organizer/filling cabinet.
5. Have adequate communication tools.
6. Gain knowledge & the know how.

1.) Know what you want

You will be more assured of reaching your destiny if you knew the root before hand than the one who embarks on “trial & error” saying “I will we find the right way on my way there”. An attitude like this could cripple your business. Don’t just surf aimlessly looking for something interesting. Have a clear idea of what business you want to venture in, what type of product or service you want to provide and the type of audience you want to target. It’s like having an A to Z roadmap for your business in a foreseeable future. Be precise and be prudent and stay focussed because when you online the so called “quick & exciting money making concepts/adverts/offers” usually pop-up. Not that they are all-bad but just be very cautious and don’t let them detour your focus.

2.) Be a Good student.

- No matter how much you want to get right in and get your feet wet, do not get ahead of yourself. Once you are in take the time to learn the skills that you will need to run a successful business. And while at it, do not attempt to receive your training half way believing you’ve grasped the whole idea behind. You will do yourself a big favour and will save yourself a lot of time and money if you simply buckle down and study the training materials available from your affiliate provider if with an affiliate program or from your mentor. If non- is available from such a program or your mentor leave that program or that mentor without a thought. A genuine affiliate program should have a Training section with led out instruction and guidance detailing and pin-pointing the crucial elements and material resources required in running a successful business. Access to these materials should be free for members. But don’t limit yourself buy the necessary materials if need be the case.

3. Communicate with your Upline/Sponsor and Mentor

- If you want to be successful, look and follow the steps of those who went before you and found success. Your sponsors, up-line leaders, mentors and the like. These guys been trained and are better qualified to assist you in learning and exposing the secrets behind the system. Be in constant contact with your SPONSOR or MENTOR from day one and don’t hold back. Bombard them with as many questions as possible and make sure you find out what methods they use to sign-up new affiliates, Sell products and what product sells best for them. Find out what books they read and marketing tools they use. Buy these if that be the case. Don’t be locked in a freebies world. Although www.freesticky.com/stickyweb , http://thefreesite.com/webmaster_freebies/ and www.EZineArticles.com offers quality contents for your site, be prepared to break your wallet even if it means you end up buying a wrong thing. Believe me there is a great lesson to be learned from that. But if you not sure don’t be too proud to ask your mentor. In turn they will lead you through the processes that will help you achieve your goals just like they did. Also ask them about their achievements or their success story with the same program or the same product so you can set a benchmark at which you want to work or work over. Contact addresses and Names of your Sponsor and Up-line/team leaders should be readily provided in your welcome letter as well as in your members area through your affiliate admin Centre. If your sponsors or leaders are not responding ask the company’s admin to reallocate you to another mentor explaining the reasons why. If they can’t assist you then probably the program is just a scum and is out to drain your wallet.

4.) Build your Personal Planner and filling cabinet

- Writing things down as a reminder is definitely beneficial and should be part of your every day life cycle as a management guide of your personal life. The same technique or writing down things should be applied when managing your online Business. As a foundation you should set Goals and device plans to accomplish those goals, and prioritise a list of tasks you need - to complete your plans.Generally as part of setting up your business, you should run a business management guide which should comprise of things that you should do on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis and you will have a complete a personal planning guide to ensure that you work by priority, doing the things that are most important to accomplish the goals you have set out for your self. Your business management guide should include at least all or more of the following tasks:

a.) Set your Month's Goals and Projects. (Sales and prospects expected etc)
b.) Scheduled Tasks - tasks that you should perform on a regular and scheduled basis. (E.g. follow up on your prospects, submitting to your list).
c.) A to Do List – PRIORITIZE a list of things "to do" in order to complete your goals.
d.) Maintain Budgets – Estimate how much you will spend per month on advertising and promoting your products.

5.) Communication Tools (email)

- Communication is a vital life element of any businesses survival. For your business to grow you will need to set up a communication program that you can use to track your business activates. Websites are also a form of a communication tool that every online business needs (although most new affiliates by pass this). The other tool that is very common is an email feature. Communicating effectively and efficiently by email to prospects, Affiliates and members of your e-zine list is very important to your success in developing a network of business entrepreneurs both inside and outside your affiliate program. So basically you will need both these communication tools (WEBSITE & EMAIL TOOLS) as part of your requirements for setting up your Affiliate/online Business. Here are a few email programs and features that you may consider to have. Choose one that will be appropriate for you.

to be Continued....

[humphrey]

Continued from the thread - Creating a Vibrant Vision is the Key. Please read the starting thread first to get a clear understanding.

5.) Communication Tools (email)

- Communication is a vital life element of any businesses survival. For your business to grow you will need to set up a communication program that you can use to track your business activates. Websites are also a form of a communication tool that every online business needs (although most new affiliates by pass this). The other tool that is very common is an email feature. Communicating effectively and efficiently by email to prospects, Affiliates and members of your e-zine list is very important to your success in developing a network of business entrepreneurs both inside and outside your affiliate program. So basically you will need both these communication tools (WEBSITE & EMAIL TOOLS) as part of your requirements for setting up your Affiliate/online Business. Here are a few email programs and features that you may consider to have. Choose one that will be appropriate for you.

1.) EUDURA – ( http://www.eudora.com/email/index.html)

With Powerful new features to combat spam, search the web, import data, and more...

2.) OUTLOOK – (http://office.microsoft.com/home/of...etid=FX01085793 )

Small businesses can use Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager to track business relationships and sales opportunities.

3.) MAILLOOP – ( http://www.marketingtips.com/mailloop/mailloop.html ) (fee paying)

Will automatically filter your email, run your newsletters, import your leads or orders into a database, automatically email your personalized customer database, take care of an unlimited amount of autoresponses & more.

4.) MSGTAG (Free email program)

Knowing whether or not your emails are opened by the recipient is very important and it will impact on how you will follow up with them. MSGTAG will let you know which emails have been opened. After you start to use and become familiar with MSGTAG FREE and your emailing increases, you may consider upgrading to MSGTAG STATUS. Download from http://www.msgtag.com

5.) Infacta Group Mail (Free email program).

An outstanding software that will enable you to send highly professional formatted messages that are personalized for each of your recipients. You can manage an unlimited number of lists with an unlimited number of recipients.If you're using a software program like Group Mail, you'll also need a good form processing script to enable your visitors to subscribe like master form. To download group mail go to http://www.infacta.com

6.) Educate yourself in the area concerned/

Read & Learn to gain KNOWLEDGE and KNOW HOW.Read books written by people who have been successful in the same field of business. Books on how these guys actually tell you how they made it to the top. There are a lot of places that you can find free top quality e-books and articles on the Internet. But as I said don’t be seduced to any free things that you come across.

In effect I would like to recommend a book written by Gary Shawkey and his Best student Brian Garvin. (Shawkey’s Secrets Revealed). For those who don’t know, Brian Garvin is commonly known as the Supper affiliate who made close to $200,000 with affiliate programs alone. If you are new to affiliate programs then this is a book to read, I have a copy myself and I keep reading it over and over again as though it was my first time. You can get a free copy for yourself from my free4allpage. Otherwise just do a search on Gary Shawkey’s secrets on your favourite search engine for it.

7.) Subscribe to listings that discuss ideas relating to your Business

Same as above, try to join some ezine list and forums that gives tips and ideas on how to successfully run affiliate programs. If I were you, I would ask my Sponsor or Team leader for addresses to ezine lists run by Top earners and experts in the same affiliate program. It’s worth Gold finding out how these guys work and think especially the ones in the same field as you. Find out what influences them, books they read and what motivates them. Get to know the little bits that make them tick, read their free publications - believe me these things are there on the Internet just do your search. Join their lists or visit their websites occasionally. Join other lists if you can but don’t overload yourself with too much information.

Additional help points

1 You need to sacrifice a lot of time in the initial stage.
2 Do not waste your time with programs that highlight such term "Make thousands without any work and no investment required".
3 Read & Learn to gain KNOWLEDGE and KNOW HOW.
4 Stay on course with one standard method before spreading your wings.
5 Nothing is FREE; you need to provide a small amount of investment.
6 The internet is ever changing, especially if you are into affiliate programs, you need to follow up with the changes.
7 Stay on course and do not be distracted by the thousands of offers from the so call "gurus" some of them are out to make money for themselves.

Tip – Always know what you want and plan your journey before hand. Most lists have a tendency of driving you away from your business.

Summary points

We earlier the most common barrier that newbies tend to face these days is among other things closely related to;

1.List building
2.Finding a good product that sells
3.Marketing that product or how to sell that product.

With these points in mind I would like to spend a few more moments with you just looking at these three important aspects. So next time around we shall look at list building and the techniques and tools you can use and so forth. So keep track of this thread. See you next time, take care And God Bless.

Humphrey

[humphrey]

Opening thought

Greetings once again, in our previous study we talked a little about how to jumpstart your business by creating a vibrant vision for your business, then exploring the possibilities of that vision and eventually connecting to those possibilities by closing that gap between your vision and possibilities. Now I know most of you are wondering how then do you connect.

Well I would love to go through this principle with you but since am actually writing a book on this same principle and how to constantly apply it to your business, relationship, marriage and so on, I would kindly suggest that you wait. And don’t worry it will be free. Having said that I think I can manage to give you a very brief insight.

Brief insight:

In whatever we do, our life-styles, business ventures, relationships, marriages, etc, mans greatest secret to becoming successful has not been hidden in those who are successful as most people think, but in his own challenges of knowing what to do but not doing what he knows. A vast majority of people in our communities have un foretold dreams, great ideas, intentions, inventions and so forth. They know exactly what they want to be and what to do but they constantly fail to challenge themselves to execute what it takes to achieve what they know or want. But why? The simple reason is they are constantly being seduced to competition-zones; comfort-zones, crowded-zones and fear-zones just to mention a few. Solution is to be consistently innovative, pro-active and contributory by simultaneously applying the two fundamental laws of success. All these things shall be revealed in this Innovative book I am about to release. So stay within site and while you wait just remember that;

There is a big difference between knowing what to do and doing what you know as is making a living very far from living a life you make

. However, today I want us to concentrate on one of the three problems we raised in our previous study that most newbies (not only newbies by the way) face when embarking on an internet business career. We mentioned earlier that the three problems are:
1.List Building
2.Good saleable product.
3.Selling the product.

Keep to the guideline above as we will be studying the three aspects as listed. So first up is list building.

What is List Building?

List building as the name implies (building a list) is a process by which you build or allocate people’s email addresses to your list. If you notice, when someone says listbuilding it would appear as though that person is actually talking about one-word or one-thing when in actual sense he’s talking about doing two things. These are;

1.Having/setting up your list. (Usually called an ezine list).
2.Building the list. (Process of adding subscribers to your e-zine list)

I know some of you are saying we already know that, but for the benefit of those who don’t know I will continue with this approach.

1.Having or setting up your list

. Before we talk about setting up or having a list, its also worth mentioning at this moment that having an ezine list is the Life-blood of any business especially online businesses. And that is why Internet millionaires believe the most successful way of running your online business is by creating/building and running your own ezine list. An ezine list is basically a mailing list or as I call it an electronic mailing file full of people’s names & addresses that have requested to receive promotions and campaigns from you.

So in order for you to be able to build your list, you first need to set up or have the list file/storage. There are two ways you can do this. Either you use a mailing software (auto-responder software) usually stored on your computer or you can use one provided by auto-responder service providers. Choose which ever is convenient for your business. So before we can talk about techniques to use when building a list ensure that you already have a list set-up first. If you haven’t then try these listed below.

Mailing Software

a.MSGTAG.(refer to previous thread)
b.Infacta Group Mail.(refer to previous thread)
c.MAILLOOP (refer to previous thread)

List provider companies

a.SENDFRE/E -www.sendfree.com (30 days free trial)
b. 1AUTOMATIONWIZ - 30 days free trial (http://www.1automationwiz.com)
b.Getresponse,- www.getresponse.com
c. Aweber - www.aweber.com
d. Freeautobot - www.freeautobot.com

I will end her for a while nest time we will briefly talk about the actual building of a list.

[humphrey]

2.Building your list –

When your list is set-up and you have the responder series in place i.e welcome letter, follow up letters and so forth

(P.S. if you are having trouble writing autoresponder series letters just write to me),

you next step is to start building your list. You can build your list by collecting and capturing email addresses from traffic/visitors coming to your BBSL Site (Buy, bookmark, Subscriber or leave –Site).

Now when I say collecting email addresses I don’t mean you go to FFA or Free Classified pages and use some extracting software to collect email addresses. This is wrong and it’s illegal as regards the rules and policies on spamming. Every email that you collect has to be permission based. 3. If anything there are many ways that you can collect permission based email addresses other than through your website.

Bryan winters runs a program called Pushbuttonleads.com (http://www.pushbuttonleads.com), which I have used and has proved to bring me some quality leads. Although there are some free yahoo and hotmail addresses, the percentage of free email addresses in comparison to real email addresses (i.e. xxxx@humphrey.com) is 40 to 60%. From the time I joined the PBL, within 7 days of the free trial I had received over 40-targeted leads. And over a period of 4 weeks I managed to pluck a good $356.97 from his leads selling e-books with resell rights. Bryan has been so kind to offer anyone a free 15 days trial. And what’s more you keep all the leads you receive even when you decided to cancel. You can give it a try just go to http://www.pushbuttonleads.com. You need to have a paypal account for a free trial - http://www.paypal.com.

Capturing Email Addresses from Your Site

However, I have always preferred the idea of capturing email addresses from my site rather than having to share leads. So other than using other sources like PBL, it is vital that you also capture email addresses from your website. And I want you to concentrate on the aspect of building your list from your website rather than having to share leads.

There are many ways to capture email addresses from traffic generated from your site. Most auto-responder service providers will offer options to place a sign-up form on your sites so that when a visitor fills in their details they are fed directly to your auto-responder's list (ezine list). A service likehttp://www.sendfree.com and http://www.freeautoboot.com also have pre-made form codes that you can just copy & paste on your webpage. There is also an option were visitors’ send a blank email to your xxxxbiz@sendfree.com or xxxxbiz@freeautobot.com and instantly adds them to your list.

However, with the internet growing faster each day, more and more advanced and yet simple to use tools and business utilities are gradually being implemented thus replacing some old Daddy’s techniques. But don’t get me wrong these same old daddy’s techniques are proven techniques that have been in existence for over a decade and still prove to bring success to some people when it comes to Internet business. But then what’s the point of Putting in So much Effort for less, when you can put in less effort for more. Sounds ordinary does it? Well it may but it’s possible when you talk about software like Magic Subscriber(u can get a free copy from my free4allpage or search for magicsubscriber on the net) and Optinlightning which was developed by Brian garvin. As you will soon come to realize, these are effortless and yet Powerful software that uses a pop-up feature to capture your visitors email addresses and name without them having to fill in a form like Daddy's traditional way.

Remember anytime you want access to my free4allpage don't hesitate to write to me. Due to rules of this forum I cannot post my personall links here. But don't let that hold you back. If there is a software have mention copy it and place it in your favourite search engine and search for it.

Next we shall look at how how these two powerful software work and how you can set them up on your bbsl site. A BBSL Site is a Buy, bookmark, subscriber or leave Site. I will show you how to build such a site at a later thread.

Good day

Humphrey

[peterjhale]

woah !!

what company do you work for ?

[humphrey]

Peter

Hope everything is well with you. I am not sure I do thoroughly understand you question. Do you mean offline or online? Anyway I work as an accountant for Ascham-Homes in walthamstow.

Take care

Humphrey

[humphrey]

Is you life charged up for happiness?

Taking charge of your life 2005 If you were asked to look into your life today, how do you feel about it now? Is it uncomfortable, dissatisfactory, boring or restless? If the answer is yes, then are you sure you are optimizing your potential in your life and relationships? Have you thought of wanting to recharge your energy, boost your confidence, rejuvenate your relationships, and shape up your finances so you could feel inspired to enjoy a better and multi-facetted, fulfilling life? If you have then its time you made the theme of transforming your life as a 2005 new years resolution.

A vast majority if not all of us naturally have dreams we would like to realize and things we would like to do differently in our lives and yet we are so busy concentrating on urgent things that are less important that even our dreams and good intentions appear to be huge and overwhelming, that we never get to do anything about them. We don’t seem to realize that just because something is urgent it doesn’t mean it’s important. If you are in that situation then I have good news for you. Believe or not, the truth is you have the power in you to transform your life and to change things within and around you so you can start taking full control of the inevitable challenges that show up in your life and relationships.

Be Proactive

Being proactive by taking that giant step to transforming your life and relationships begins by first accepting who you are and secondly, by knowing where you are right now and where you want to be and thirdly by closing that gap between where you are now and where you want to be. The trouble is, a vast majority of us are trapped in the habit of convincing ourselves that life changes are practically un-attainable because we think we don’t have enough time, support, resources and money (finances).

Here are few keynotes that can challenge you jump-start your life today. It is worth knowing at this point that every presumed living thing (human beings, animals, fish, plants and trees) are all governed by two fundamental laws of life. These are:

1. Everything in life must Grow
2. Everything in life must contribute

A) Everything in life must grow

It is true that every living thing must grow or it dies. If a plant stops growing it dies. This rule applies to your life as well as your relationships, your body, your mind and spirit. Its either you grow or you die. So if you are going to take that step of transforming and maximizing your life potentials, then your first task will be to ensure that every step you take won’t just be a one big giant step but one that’s broken into small chunks of steps that you can nurture and increase. This is growth.

If you like working out then you know that for changes to start showing in your body as a result of exercising, your body needs to be exposed to regular and constant training. And the frequency of your training determines the rate and progress of your growth in muscles, mind and body. This is also true with your life, your relationships, your business and every other aspect of your life.

So if you want to see any significant movement and changes to your life, then know that your life has a constant challenge to constantly grow so it can improve and strengthen and become more fulfilling, powerful and passionate so you can live life at its highest level and have that extra-ordinary quality sense of life. Life is not a fixed thing and its not something that can just be handled by itself, it must grow and it is a process that takes time.

The secret is in enjoying and appreciating every process as an achievement. So how do you start applying these changes today? First Start by closing the gap. How do you close that Gap? You need to ask yourself a new question which is: where is my life right now and where do I need my life to be? To answer this question: First, you need to be honest with yourself by opening your eyes, not your physical eyes but your spiritual eyes (inner eyes) so you can begin to see your life in a clear context. This will in turn help you to gradually close that gap between where you are and where you want to be as you constantly connect with your inner-self, dreams, achievements and intentions thus challenging you to develop invaluable qualities to help you overcome inevitable obstacles from your past and present so you can use them to shape up your future life.

Remember this will not be an overnight reality but a continuous growth with visible changes. Abraham Lincoln says -:Quote:the best thing about your future is that it only comes one day at a time

Secondly, you need to have a foresighted and vibrant vision with realistic dreams or goals. People living an extra-ordinary life (fulfilling life) are people who are great masters at picturing, exploring and specifying their goals. So in an attempt to answer the new question in your life, you need to adopt these invaluable qualities by starting to “think huge”. Learn to consistently visualize your future and then connect and explore with your future dreams then specify your indented outcomes. This is why it is important that you define genuine dreams and not dreams like "I would want my sex organs changed", or having a "face-lift". Be specific and be a master of clarity when it comes to visualizing your goals and dreams.

Thirdly, you need to learn how to constantly deal with the inevitable challenges that constantly pop up in the span of your life. Believe it or not, as long as you are part of this ship called life, its most inevitable challenges will show up sooner or later. The reason is life is a ship which consists of people with different beliefs, values, rules and laws and as long as our personal life is in constant communion with the people around us, expect there to be conflicts.

Remember your happiness in life is not determined by what you posses but by your invaluable qualities to develop ongoing relationships with yourself and the people around you as well as how well you relate and handle or face up to the challenges of life. No matter which way you choose, the path of life is narrow and soon or later someone will point a finger. But the secret to true happiness is to learn to appreciate and enjoy life through its narrowness by using your past and present challenges to shape up your future. As you constantly apply these factors in to the structure of your life and by making absolute the growth factor by nurturing and expanding every aspect of your life, then you will begin to know your strengths and see things in perspective. And as you grow you will also begin to focus on your strengths and understand how others perceive you. Pretty soon you will begin to close that gap as you get even more inspired to do the things you enjoy and you will be constantly challenged to connect with your own special essence.

B) Everything in life must contribute

The second law that applies is that every living thing must contribute. Lets us a plant again as an example - Unless a plant can contribute by giving that colorful and graceful view to your garden, your garden will look dead until that plant is eliminated or removed. The same applies to your life, until you can find a way to contribute in meaningful ways you will not feel that fulfillment and you will never enjoy the pleasure of living. So until that element of non- contribution is permanently eliminated, your life is as good as stagnant water. When water in a river is not flowing or moving then it is not contributing. And if its not contributing (moving) it becomes stagnant. Stagnant water is unhealthy, its dead and its not good for anything. So if your life is not contributing then it is stagnant.

Stagnant lives are unhealthy, dead and should be eliminated. It is just a fact of life that if something fails to contribute, eventually it gets eliminates from the face of earth either by evolution or something else. To summarize, let me say that if you need to feel some kind of fulfillment and excellence in your life, you need to consistently apply the two laws of life that we have briefly discussed. And that is by:

1. Making absolute the growth factor in all areas of your life and
, 2. Making absolute the contributing factor in all areas of life.

And to achieve this you need to learn to ask yourself a new question. Where is my life today and where do I want it to be? As soon as you ask yourself this question you will begin to focus on your position as far as where you are now and where you want to be is concerned. After that you will be challenged to close that gap by way of connecting with your real desires, dreams and goals.

Let me tell you something, no matter how much you feel someone loves you, or no matter how much money you’ve got, if you don’t grow and contribute then you won’t be happy with yourself in your life, relationships and work. Look at it in this way – If your life can’t grow and contribute then its most likely that you are doing the same thing over and over again. Albert Einstein says – : Quote:Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

. Hope this advice can add a little change to your life.

Humphrey

[humphrey]

Offering your customers convenient and easy ways to pay can dramatically increase your sales figure. I know that the whole idea of setting up your website to accept online payments seems to be a big burden especially for newbies. But if you are really serious about maximising business’s earning capability, then you should think about offering not just credit card & paypal payment methods but others too. I know for a fact that almost 85% of most orders made online are made by credit cards. But let me ask you this, what happens to the 15%? If you already offer credit card payment options and you think you are sorted then I have got news for you. You are loosing at least 15% worth of sales. 15% can be a small figure to you but when applied to the online community, we can be talking billions of people who

1. Have no credit cards
2. Or those who are nervous to use them online.

Believe me, there are always enough people out there who belong to your market and are prospective buyers and yet a vast majority of online businesses have chosen to shut them out indirectly by only offering one or two payment options. Note that I am using the word indirect implying that sometimes we just don’t realize that’s what we are doing. But in doing so, the truth still remains that, for every $1 sale you make, you loose $0.15 all because you’ve chosen to only offer credit card & paypal payment options.

A research by CyberSource Corp., states that web sites providing at least four or more payment methods other than credit cards have a sales conversion rate that is 12% higher than those offering just one payment option in addition to credit cards. So if you want to maximise your sales figures then you better start offering your customer other choices to credit cards. Below I have listed some payment options that you can choose from. Have a read through, do your own research and be your own judge.

· Credit cards - Provides you with a fully-automated payment and tracking system with an increased degree of credibility
· Paypal, which has recently improved its service -- making it even easier for your
· Debit cards, at the moment its only available in Canada, but soon to be available internationally.
· Aceglobal – gives you a $150 when you sign up for a free account with them.
· Orderforms – Forms that can be printed as well as the traditional (0800 – UK) or (1-800 – US) telephone orders.

So here is a challenge for you. I have given you 6 options to choose from. Please do your research well, all these things can be found on the net today. However here are few tips to help you with your search for these payment options.

1.Secure Servers - If you are poised to start accepting online payments then the first thing you should be looking for is a secure server. A secure server is one that is able to store data through encryption. So if you are going to be accepting any form of online orders you need a server that can accept and transmit your customer’s confidential information such as credit & debit card numbers without the risk of someone else intercepting it or "stealing" the information.

2.Merchant Accounts- Merchant Account providers will actually give you more information on secure servers should you need to learn more. So just search for merchant account providers and browse through their sites for information relating to secure servers. Having said that, in order to accept credit cards and the like, the next thing you will need is a merchant account. There are a few ways in which you can set-up a merchant account.

A.Your Local bank – If you have a good history with your local bank then it is an option for you. However be reminded that banks normally have a high discount rate and they require a large security deposit.
B.Online Brokers – Online brokers are basically web-agents specialized at negotiating credit card accounts for online businesses. I can personally recommend these guys to you because their discount rate is lower than banks and the rate of approval is also higher than banks. Just ensure you do you research well as choosing the wrong partner can kill your business too. So don’t forget to check on their track records as you do your research. They are usually affordable as well.
C.Fulfilment House – Fulfilment houses are companies that will let you use their merchant credit card accounts to process your orders for a fee. Their discount rate is actually 3% higher than you would pay for your own merchant account. Just do your research well and decide what’s profitable for your business. Fulfilment houses can also take your orders through (1-800 numbers) with live operators, process your credit cards, ship your orders and maintain your customer data base. You can find a lot of fulfilment houses at Yahoo’s Fulfilment Services Directory.
D.3rd party Merchants - Like fulfilment houses, these companies actually let you use their merchant accounts. Although their discount rate is around 10% to 11% applied on your orders and depending on the volume of your business, they can get you up and running in minutes. And unlike all the others above you do not require set-up fees, software and security deposits which makes then a more simple and convenient option for some of us. They also set up your order forms, and process all your orders. (http://www.Clickbank.com, http://www.Ibill.com, http://about.ccbill.com, http://www.authorize.net and http://www.cybersource.com are some of the third party merchant providers you can check.

ACCEPTING DEBIT CARDS

You may not realize this but the truth is using debit cards is becoming hugely popular. I mean lets face facts here, its not everyone that posses a credit but not everyone has a good credit history or scoring. But almost anyone with a bank current account has a debit card, which makes it a more frequently used form of payment worldwide especially in superstores. In addition, according to http://www.allbusiness.com, credit card purchases have been expanding by about 15% for the last five years, but debit card purchases have been growing even faster at more than 50% per year. Now if you do your maths very well, you notice that for every one credit card purchase made, 16 debit card purchases are being made at the same time. Now am not talking about Signature-based debit cards which can accepted anywhere a visa or MasterCard is accepted including online. No, I am talking about that very card that you sometimes too ashamed to flip around especially in places where you see visa or MasterCard logos. Yes, I am talking about the so called PIN based (personal identification number) debit cards where for every purchase you make offline you are required to punch in your pin.
There is a company called UseMyBank that has developed a software that allows purchasers to access their own bank accounts and pay for goods and services in real time. The process is nearly identical to paying bills online with through your bank, and the money is immediately taken from your account. Well that’s the general idea behind.
To find out more visit their website but here is a little on how it works. If your customer decides to use this service to purchase a product, they will be asked to select their bank, as well as which account they want to pay from. You are then immediately notified of their payment and can start your delivery process. One of the best features of this service is that your customers don’t have to give up any of their credit or banking information to you, making this one of the most secure options available. UseMyBank is currently only available in Canada but will be launched internationally soon. So this is your chance to get ahead of your competitors. Visit the http://www.usemybank.com for more information and to sign up.

$150 credited to your account for joining

I stumbled upon this company last year Dec 2004. They offer you a payment option like paypal and they will give you $150 or something like 120 –euros for opening an account with them. Joining like paypal is free. From the time I found this site I have never actually taken the time to sign-up for this offer. But am passing this information to you to see for yourself and be your own judge.

Offline payment Methods

Don’t forget to include offline payment methods like order forms that can be printed out and faxed and telephone order options. This might not seem to be a very viable option for you but I will tell you this. When I was living in Africa (Zambia) and I heard about Internet business it was hard for me to get resources and information I needed because almost 90% of online businesses that had the materials I needed only accepted credit cards. And by then we didn’t have credit card companies in Zambia and even now. So it wasn’t until I stumbled on Anthony Robin’s (success couch) Site. Its no wonder he is so successful because he capitalized on every moneymaking loopholes available including translating his material in different languages. Besides so many African countries with no credit card companies there are also people like me in Africa who are able and are willing to change their lives through Internet business. So don’t shut them out by offering credit cards only. However, debit cards are all over Africa so there is your market visit UseMyBank to find out how you can target African regions like I am planning.

To your Success
Humphrey

[BIZAL]

Humphrey

Do you mind me asking what you are looking to achieve by these v long posts?