Basel Labs

When looking for a merchant account provider, it is important to do a lot of research. You do not want to pay too much or sign up with a disreputable company. However, you do need to keep in mind that once you do sign up it could take up to a week for your application to be approved once it has been submitted.

There are three main factors that you should consider when selecting a merchant account provider.

1. Price
2. Integrity
3. Customer Service

Price (Merchant Account Rates and Fees)

When shopping for a merchant account, it is important to understand all of the rates and fees that the merchant account provider charges.

You will typically be charged the following fees:

Monthly Fee - Normally around $25 US and could vary depending on whether you meet your minimum monthly transactions.

Discount Rate- Percentage taken from a sale that the merchant pays to cover the costs of the transactions and the risk involved. Usually 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent.

Transaction Fee - A flat fee charged for each transaction. Typically between $0.20 and $1.00 US per transaction.

Application Fee - The initial fee you are charged to open the merchant account. Many merchant account providers do not charge application fees.

Equipment and Installation - Software can range from $0 to $1200 US or more depending on whether you have batch or real-time processing. Costs for hardware (POS terminals) can range from $500 to $1,500+ depending on the model you purchase.

If you have current or projected sales data, you can forecast what your fees will be for different merchant account providers. Searchmerchants.com has done this for you with the top internet merchant account providers in their database. If you visit Searchmerchants.com, you may enter your monthly sales data to compare fees for their recommended providers.

Integrity of the Merchant Account Provider

It is extremely important to consider the integrity of the merchant account provider that you select. There are a number of providers in the merchant account industry that cannot be trusted.

Here is a list of some red flags to look for while shopping for a merchant account.

1. The website of the company has misleading ads such as “Free Merchant Account” or “Lowest Prices Guaranteed”. Research these ads carefully to find out exactly what they mean.

2. You repeatedly get an answering machine every time you call.

3. They are using a free domain name or a free web hosting service. (If they cannot afford a domain name, then they probably should not be in the merchant account business.)

4. They do not answer your questions precisely.

5. They have rates and fees that are not posted on their website.

Make sure you search the internet for reviews of the company and for any unsatisfactory remarks.

Customer Service

Customer Service is key for smooth transaction processing. Try calling their customer service number to ask them some questions. Pay attention to the amount of time that you are on hold. Make sure that have friendly representatives that are knowledgeable and answer your questions precisely. They should be genuinely interested in helping you.

Superior customer service should also have a toll free number and provide 24/7 availability.

Although the integrity and the customer service are extremely important when choosing a merchant account provider, don’t be fooled into thinking that you should pay more for these services. If you do your research and shop around, you should be able to find a quality provider that does not charge high fees.

About the Author

Mary Hedden is the owner of http://www.searchmerchants.com - Searchmerchants.com is dedicated to helping you find a merchant account provider so that your retail or internet business can start accepting credit cards for less. Permission is granted to reprint this article as long as no changes are made and the resource box is included with a link to http://www.searchmerchants.com

Bag Covers and Online Business
by Holly Bentz
©2003 All rights reserved by fruitionMedia

Tell me, would you ever consider placing a bag over your head to close a new business deal? Don’t laugh. But I’ve noticed a new trend/epidemic on the Internet, lately.

It happened a little over a week ago. I was rewriting the web content for a new client, Ashley Russell of Worcheshire, England. (She sells Xbox consoles.) And one of her sentences read: “Unlike my competitors, I’ve included my contact information.” I admit that she went a bit far by including her home address; but you could tell that her business ethic was loyal, honest and sincere.

And then last week I was doing my daily 20 minute routine of surfing for hits. Yes,
I confess that I’m one of those people. I surf for hits at sites, like Ahitz.com and Linkwars.com. (But they really work.)

Anyway back to my story, so I’m reviewing sites, when I notice this one site that
has TONS of typos. Now, as a professional writer, it is my God-given duty to let another
webmaster know that they have well over 12 misspelled words on their HOMEPAGE.
This means 2 things, they’re missing the opportunity for their site to be accessed during a search. And secondly, they’re losing the credibility of a “legitimate” business.
So here I am, side-tracked from my daily routine, to help this site owner correct the
errors on his web page. I looked, searched, and scoured every single page of this particular site.

Obsessed with this web site that did not have one bit of contact information,
I noticed that only email addresses and payments were accepted on the site. Absolutely, incredulous!! Fascinated with the fact that people actually do business with this site, I was on the precipice of noticing a pattern.

But before I continue, let me first report a very refreshing online experience. Yesterday, I was sending out queries to webmasters who I would like to provide free content, I stumbled across Robert Smiths site, http://www.smithfam.com. On his site, he has a CGI script for his visitor’s questions & concerns. I emailed him a very healthy email. Within, 1 hour, I received a non-automated response but a personal email, answering every single question detailed in my email. Although he rejected my offer in a very polite way, he is someone that I would refer my clients who are looking for an ezine.

Flash forward to this morning: I’m reading all the junk mail that I received in my free email box at excite.com. I decide to take a different approach to 439 messages. Instead of being annoyed that one emailer sent me 3 of the same messages in 3 hours, I decide that it’s high time that I reply to all of my lovely spammers. I realize that emailing a scathing message, could only set me up for some evil person responding to me with an irreparable virus. So I respond to my anonymous emarketing friends with a pleasant thank you for your opportunity and please feel free to stop by my site.

During my gruesome/laborious feat of personal response emailing, I noticed that over 100 of the people who sent me their offers had the audacity to conceal their email addresses and identities. So here we are: some mystery person wants me to do business with them and they’re virtually wearing a bag over their head.

The moral of the story: Good business starts with being accessible to your prospects and visitors. There’s a point when we need to turn off our autoresponders and email a personal message. Sales 101 stipulates that 65 percent of all sells are based on trust. If you’re concealing contact information, your identity and sending robot replies, you are probably never really going to grow your business the way you want to because your audience does not trust you. However, if you’re in it for the long haul, establishing trust on the front end will lessen your sales efforts down the road. Take Robert and Ashley as an example, they will continue to be successful for as long as they chose because their customers will trust and make referrals for them. If quick money is all that your interested in, continue wearing your bag when you conduct business.

Holly Bentz, is one of the premier copywriters of Internet marketing. With over 8 years of film and media production, her expertise in providing truthful marketing copy. Visit her at http://www.fruitionmedia.net to check on her latest specials and E-books.

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I know you’ve worked hard on your website. I know it looks pretty good - in fact, it’s fantastic. However, you are facing one huge problem - getting people to come back.

Look at it this way: if you are serious, you should be updating your web site on a regular basis. While not everyone can update their site several times a day like I do, you should at least add something relatively significant on a weekly basis. If you have any doubts about that time frame, remember, the web is huge and people who surf the web need (require) constant changes. Nothing will die faster than a stale site!

Okay, so you are updating your site every single day (or weekly or whatever). So how do people know this? You can (and should) do a number of things, including specifying a "what’s new" section on your index page, referencing the changes in editorial columns and so on.

However, the most important task you can do is create a regular newsletter which let’s people know what’s changed.

Do NOT send this newsletter out to everyone on the planet - that’s called SPAM. What you want to do is sprinkle sign-up buttons and links throughout your site. Put at least one link on every single page of your site. Use buttons, blink it if you have to, but get your visitor’s attention to your sign-up links. Some sites even offer a free give away (an ebook, report, shareware program or something) if you simply sign up for the newsletter.

Why is this important? Because no matter what your site is about, commercial or home page, if you can get someone to sign up for your newsletter you’ve found someone who is interested in what you’ve got to say. They gave you a way to contact them, willingly and without being forced, and they gave you permission (by virtue of signing up) to send them information.

These people are the most valuable people you can get as visitors. They liked what you had to say. They actually want you to tell them when something new happens so they can come back. Take advantage of that - send them a content filled newsletter. Include something special in each issue, something more than just some links or a few useless words. I like to include an article, a list of new or changed information on my site and a few useful links. ALWAYS include a way to opt-out - at the bottom of the newsletter is the traditional place (do not make your readers search for this).

An ad or two in the newsletter is fine, but be careful - do not include more unless you specify that in the signup page. You do not even want to have any appearance of spam.

Remember your goal - get them to your web site. If you’ve got something to sell, do it on your web site. People do not generally like to receive ads (even willingly) in their emails, but they love articles and useful tips and even jokes. But more than a couple of ads are tacky. And please, avoid advertising your affiliate or pay-to- surf programs in your ezine. Many spam filters will delete any messages containing that junk right away (mine deletes them sight- unseen).

So get your visitors to sign up for a regular newsletter, and send it out as often as you can. You will be rewarded with a steady stream of return visits.

About the author:

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net

Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm

Claudia Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com

1. Trade links with other web sites. Go to a search engine
and type in words from your keyword list. This way you
can find other sites in your target area. Go to each site
and find out if the site would complement your site.
Send the owner of the web site a request to exchange links.

2. Write a Free eBook and give it away. Or find other Free
eBooks and write to the publisher and see if they would be
willing to put your ad in their eBook in exchange for
promoting it in your eZine. You can put your ad in my eBook
free for promoting it in your eZine. Fill out the form here.
http://ipromoteit.com/ebookideasbrandedcover.html

3. Submit your site to Intomi. Inktomi Search/Submit is the
easy way to make your Web content searchable through over
50 Inktomi Search/Web partners, including AOL, MSN, HotBot
iWon, Looksmart, About.com, Anzwers, CNET, Overture, NBCi
and Corporate Yahoo!.

You can submit your site for just $39.00 instead of paying
$199.00 for each one. This is very effective.
http://www.positiontech.com/inktomi/

4. Pay per click guarantees you hits to your site at a pay
for each site view you receive. You can control how much you
want to pay for each hit to your site. For more information
on how to effectively promote with Pay Per Click search
engines, read this article. Send a blank email to:
pay-per-click@1001beautytips.com and it will be delivered
by autoresponder within a couple of minutes.

5. Get involved in forums. This is a very effective way to
get hits to your site and become known as an expert in your
field. Be sure to read the other posts and the rules before
you post. For a complete list of forums to post to get eBook
Ideas listed below.

6. Start your own eZine or Newsletter and promote it on
every page of your site and at eZine Directories. You can
get a complete list of eZine directories and more in my
free eBook - eBook Ideas here: http://www.ipromoteit.com

7. Start your own affiliate program and get other people
to sell for you. Clickbank offers a simple way to start-up.
Go here for more information. http://hop.clickbank.net/penny

8. Place ads in Yahoo! Get this Free eBook with tips
on how to get 200-400 hits a week using Yahoo! Ads.
http://www.1001beautytips.com/superebooks/YSR.exe

9. Give a gift for filling out your survey and announce it
everywhere. This will also help you to find out what customers
want and where they are coming from.

10. Start Joint Ventures with other web site owners.

i.e., Offer to trade a free ad in your eZine for your ad in
theirs.

Trade links from your eBook to theirs.

Give them a testimonial about their product for a testimonial
about yours. The possibilities are endless.

©2002 Tracie Johansen

About the Author

Tracie Johansen
Free eBook - 900 Free to Use Articles
Free content for your web site, eZine, newsletter or just for
your reading enjoyment. A complete list of articles in 45
categories. Choose from over 900 free articles. Every one is
available by autoresponder for immediate delivery.
http://www.ipromoteit.com

All the good ones are taken. The really good ones, that is. But
they don’t always stay taken.

Domain names often come back onto the market. Even before they
do, domain name prospectors are sifting through them to find the
gold domains among them.

Why domain names become available again

Thousands of domain names expire every day. Other domains are
offered for sale. The reasons are varied:

Carelessness

The webmaster forgets to renew the domain by the expiry date.

The email address that the domain is registered with becomes
invalid, and the domain name registrant doesn’t receive the
renewal notices.

- Lack of need or funds

- The company that had registered the domain goes out of
business.

- The website owner loses interest in or doesn’t have time for
the website.

- The website owner doesn’t have funding to continue the website
venture.

- The domain name registrant registered numerous domains on
speculation and couldn’t afford to continue renewing unused
domains.

Profit

- The domain name registrant may realize how much a domain is
worth and decide to sell it.

- The domain name registrant may have registered the domain
because of its potential worth, with the aim of selling it later.

What makes a previously registered domain name valuable?

In July 2005, the domain name website.com sold for $750,000, the
highest-valued domain name sale this year. Why would anyone pay
so much for a domain when they could register a new domain for
under $10?

- Instant traffic

If the domain name previously pointed to a website, search
engines have already indexed that domain name. Other websites
probably still have links to that domain. If the domain is
listed in directories, these links bring in even more traffic.
You register the domain, and the work getting incoming links has
already been done for you.

- Surf value

Sometimes web surfers search by typing generic words followed by
dot com (or other extensions) into their browsers, for example,
dogs.com. This particular domain name redirects to the website
for a company that sells pet products and services. A domain
name like this constantly brings visitors to the website without
the cost and effort of advertising and marketing.

- Easy to remember

Your company name may not be memorable, but domains such as
dogs.com and website.com are. People are more likely to return
to a site or pass on the name to their friends when they can
easily remember it.

How to find domains pending expiration

You decide to join the gold rush for valuable pre-registered
domains. Finding expiring domains is the first step, but you
also need to research domains that are about to come back on the
market.

Lists of domains pending expiration

At these websites, among others, you can search for domains
containing keywords you enter. At expireddomains.com, the
results contain domains that are currently available, soon to
expire, on hold, in the Redemption Grace Period (RGP), or for
sale by their registrants. Extensions searched: .com, .net, and
.org.

The domainsbot.com database searches .com, .net, .org, .info,
and .biz extensions for domains that are available, for sale, or
expiring.

Domain research

You can find some (but not all) incoming links to a domain by
entering “link:siteURL” (replace “siteURL” with the domain name)
into Google or Yahoo. When you find the links, follow them to
see what types of sites link to the domain. How would you feel
about having these particular sites linking to your site?

Also look into any possible problems associated with the domain.
Search engines may have banned the domain if the previous site
had controversial search engine optimization techniques
employed, such as the use of hidden text or links. Check the
history of the site at a domain name via the WayBack Machine. If
the domain previously pointed to a site with gambling or adult
content or a lot of affiliate links, or if it employed
questionable search engine optimization techniques, search
engines may have banned the domain. Aside from the possibility
of a domain being banned, you may not want incoming links from
sites associated with these types of content.

How to register domains pending deletion

You’ve decided on a domain that you want. How do you maximize
your chances on getting it?

At eNom.com’s Club Drop, you can bid on expiring .com and .net
domains the day before they’re available to the public. You can
also be notified when domains matching your search criteria
become available.

The NameWinner system places bids on .com, .net, .org, and .info
domains for you. It bids only as high as is necessary to
maintain your high bid position up to your maximum bid.

How to profit from your domains

- Selling domains

If you have a domain that may be valuable and that you aren’t
using, consider selling it at a domain auction. If you already
have a buyer for a domain, you can transfer it securely through
Escrow.com.

- Paid parking for domains

With paid domain parking programs, also called “domain
monetization” or “monetize domains,” you can earn pay-per-click
revenue via targeted advertisements. These sites offer domain
monetization services:

- DomainSponsor

- Park Quick

- Domain Spa

- Google Adsense for domains

With the right knowledge, timing, and a bit of luck, you have a
chance as a domain name prospector to hit pay dirt.