Making your Ethernet credit card terminal wireless (WiFi)!

I just got my hands on a Verifone Omni 3750 WiFi module. The module replaces the dial, or Ethernet module on an Omni 3750, and it has a small Compact-Flash wireless card in it that allows it to connect to a wireless network. The module is a little hard to get a hold of. We had to check out suppliers and special order one, which took about a week extra to get. The other drawback with the WiFi module is that it is a bit expensive (about $200), and while many businesses could benefit from using one, it may not be worth the extra $200.

So I devised another way to connect an IP capable Omni 3740 or 3750 or other Ethernet compatible terminal to a wireless network.

Here's what you need:

1. An Ethernet compatible terminal that is currently able to process transactions over an IP connection.
2. An encrypted wireless network. (WPA not WEP!)
3. A wireless (WiFi) gaming adapter or wireless access point. (Must support WPA encryption!)
4. One small length of CAT 5 / 5E / 6 Ethernet cable.
5. A PC or laptop (Used only to configure the wireless adapter)

Introduction:

The idea behind this is that once your terminal has the ability to process over an IP connection, it really doesn't matter how the terminal is actually connected to the internet. A WiFi connection through an adapter is no different to a credit card terminal than connecting directly to a switch or router.

Who this guide applies to:

This guide will be most useful for businesses that have an existing wireless network, and have an IP capable terminal, and they can benefit in some way from connecting their terminal to the wireless network instead of the wired network.

Typical Network Setup Diagram

It it important to be able to already process over an IP connection before you start setting this up. This will eliminate the terminal setup being the problem if something doesn't work correctly.

Step 1 - Setup the wireless network:

Here's a great guide from Microsoft on how to setup a wireless network. Make sure you enable WPA encryption when you setup your connection. The recent TJ Max security breach was thought to originate from an unsecured wireless network. Additionally, WEP encryption is not a sufficient form of protecting a wireless network so WPA or WPA2 encryption should be used instead of WEP. If you are interested, here's a detailed summary of why WEP encryption is not sufficient.Personally I recommend D-Link brand components for home and small business networking. From my experiences, their reliability, price and ease of use is far better than other manufacturers (Linksys, Netgear, 3com, Cisco, etc.) for non-enterprise level wireless networking.

Step 2 - Setup the wireless adapter:

The D-Link DWL-G820 is the wireless adapter that I recommend for this guide. It's small, cheap (~$60), and it supports WPA encryption. You will need connect the adapter to a PC or laptop and follow the installation instructions to properly setup the adapter. This should take about five minutes to complete and essentially consists of the following.

Basic steps to setup wireless adapter:

1. Plug Ethernet cable from wireless adapter to computer.
2. Connect AC adapter from electrical outlet to wireless adapter.
3. Point web browser to 192.168.0.35
4. Configure wireless adapter to connect to wireless network.
5. Enable WPA encryption, enter the network pass-phrase, and restart the wireless adapter.
6. Once the adapter restarts, verify the internet connection with the computer that is still attached.
7. Done…

Once you verify that the computer is able to connect to the internet with the wireless adapter, and that the adapter is connecting using WPA encryption, the adapter is configured.

Step 3 - Connect terminal to wireless adapter.

Connect the terminal with CAT 5 / 5E / 6 Ethernet cable from the Ethernet port on the terminal to the Ethernet port on the wireless adapter. Depending on how close the terminal is to the adapter, you may only need a few inches of Ethernet cable to connect the two together.

Step 4 - Run a test transaction.

In theory, everything should work properly now. You should however run a test transaction to verify this. Run a $1 transaction (Don't use the merchant account owner's credit card). As long as the transaction processes the way it should have, everything is setup and ready to go. You can now move the terminal and wireless adapter anywhere that is within range of the wireless network.

You now have a secure WiFi processing terminal

Otherwise, If the transaction did not process correctly you need to find where the problem is happening at, and correct it. Re-check the internet connection, and that the adapter is still properly connecting to the wireless network. If necessary, run a test transaction with the terminal plugged into the Ethernet connection to rule out any terminal problems.

Related Posts:

Verifone Omni Ethernet and IP Network Setup
Convert an Omni 3740 or 3750 for Ethernet Processing

2 comments May 15th, 2007

Online Customer Service - 5 Rules to Live By

Providing good customer support is absolutely key to running a successful online business. It is also one of the most time consuming aspects of running an ecommerce website. And, it is one of the most overlooked aspects of online businesses. Taking a step away from the traditional brick and mortar business, business owners often get the idea that support is not an issue in ecommerce.

Unfortunately, no matter how well you run your business, you will eventually end up with some dissatisfied customers. Shipments get lost, things get back-ordered, people simply make mistakes, and some customers will not be happy no matter what level of service you give them. What is important is that you adequately correct situations where customers are upset, and that you attempt to prevent area of poor service before they become a problem for your customers.

These are five simple rules of customer service that I think are essential to providing good support for online businesses.

#1 - Maintain contact
This is the most important and often most ignored idea behind customer service. If you receive an email from your customer stating that they are upset with something, or something went wrong with their order, acknowledge them immediately. Nothing is worse than being ignored by a business that you purchased something from. By immediately, I mean immediately. One or two hours tops. Not two or three days, or never. Even if you don't have a good answer for them, let them know that you got their message and that you will get back to them in a reasonable amount of time. If you don't acknowledge them fast enough, you can expect a phone call within a few hours. Ignoring problems will never make them go away…

#2 - Learn how to apologize
Something that is almost as bad as getting no response is getting something that tries to place the blame of the situation on the customer. This is a sure-fire way to lose you customer forever, and you can be sure that they will tell their story to others. Seth Godin wrote a great article about how to apologize. The old saying 'the customer is always right' still applies to online business. If your business is any way was responsible for the error, apologize.

#3 - Respond quickly
This doesn't have to be strictly related to complaints or problems. If a customer fills out a contact form, get back to them within the hour. If they email you, get back within an hour. Unless you have so many requests that you cannot possibly respond quickly, or it is the middle of the night and your business is closed, there is no reason it should take any longer. The internet is all about convenience, speed and efficiency. Don't let the only area requiring human interaction ruin your customer's experience.

#4 - Let visitors actually contact you
So I ordered that part for overnight delivery and you sent the wrong one, I need the correct one now! It gets really frustrating not being able to get a person on the phone, when something is really urgent. If I email you, it will probably be a day before you get back to me, and that's simply unacceptable, so i need to get you on the phone. Just because your business is online, doesn't mean that you shouldn't answer the phone. If nobody is really available and I leave a message, refer to #1 and #3. Also, make sure that you have a customer support number (preferably toll free) and that it is plastered all over your website.

#5 - Prevent bad experiences
This one seems obvious, but I can't count how many times I have ordered something to later find it was back-ordered. If you don't have something in-stock, don't list it as available. If something is discontinued, make a recommendation for a similar item. Most importantly, don't ever make promises that you cannot deliver on. This is one of the quickest ways to sour your customer's opinions of your business. Try to over-deliver on everything no matter how insignificant it seems. If you tell your customers that a shipment should take six days, try to get it to them in four. Every time you impress your customer by exceeding their expectations, you increase the chance that they will do business with you again, or that they will refer their friend to you.

1 comment March 21st, 2007

A simple PC Charge based wireless processing solution

We have had some renewed interest recently in wireless processing on a PC. After some research and a few experimental merchants, we found it is extremely easy to setup a laptop with some PC Processing software, a card reader, and a wireless or cellular PC card. In the end, the business can have a completely wireless credit card terminal, that has far more advanced abilities than any off the shelf wireless terminal.

Here's what you need:

1. Laptop - In this case the smaller the better, and it is important that it has a good battery life (> 3 Hours Preferably). Or get lots of extra batteries.
2. PC Processing Software - I recommend PC Charge Pro for this purpose.
3. PC Compatible Card Reader - A USB card reader is going to be the easiest to setup in this situation, but PS2 and Serial card readers are also available. There are also keyboards with attached card readers, if an external keyboard is something that could be feasible.
4. Wireless LAN PC card or cellular PC card - The LAN card will let you process over a WiFi connection, while the cellular card allows your computer to use cellular phone networks. The cellular card would also require cellular service, but most cell phone carriers can add this to your existing cellular account.
5. Merchant account - It is important to ensure that your merchant account provider can setup PC Charge for processing over the internet.

Why this system is great:

First off, PC charge is a very good program. It is in my opinion the best PC based processing program on the market. It is relatively cheap <$300, very easy to use, and it is compatible with just about every processing platform out there. A business can manually enter transactions on their computer, or they can add the card reader and swipe their customer's cards into the program. The support is good and one year is now included with each license. The reporting with PC Charge is more advanced than with most terminal. PC Charge is also PCI / CISP compliant, so you wont need to worry about that at a later time.

Second, there are a lot of businesses that already have one or more existing laptops. It doesn't take a super fast, top of the line computer to process credit cards. You could probably buy a sub $200 laptop on ebay and get more than satisfactory results with it.

Third, WiFi is almost everywhere. I see WiFi access points all over the place. A wireless PC card is really cheap, and some businesses can get away without ever needing a cellular setup. Note: Make sure that you process only on a WiFi connection that is secure. Do not connect to, or trust non-secure wireless connections. When you connect to them, anyone on that network has direct access to your computer.

The cellular problem:
Here is the only major concern that I find with this setup. When using a cellular PC card, you must also have a service with a cellular provider. Unfortunately, Verizon and Cingular charge a lot for using their wireless internet networks that allow your computer to connect to the internet. If you already have a cellular service, you may be able to add this service at an more-affordable price, but from what I have seen it isn't really cheap. Both Verizon and Cingular offer wireless PC Internet services, and you will need to check with them to see what the monthly cost would be.

Getting it setup:
Assuming that you already have the laptop, the first thing to do is to get the wireless internet going on your computer. Whether you are using a WiFi card or a cellular card, you will need configure your system to connect to the internet using the method that you chose. Here's an excellent guide on setting up a WiFi card on your computer. Setting up a cellular PC card, will be almost the same process, except there will some required software and some additional user info and passwords to enter. These will be provided by your cellular service provider.

Once you have your laptop connected to the internet, and your merchant account is setup, you will need to install the PC Charge software. This is a simple process, consisting of inserting the CD and installing the program like you would any other. PC Charge comes with one year of support, so if you run into problems, you can call to get help from PC Charge. There are also some business specific information about the processing network your business is using, so normally you will setup some of the specifics in PC charge with the assistance of your merchant account provider, or PC Charge support.

If you are planning on using a card scanner you should now attach it to your USB port. If you're using Windows XP or better, it should automatically be detected. Otherwise go to your control panel, and use the add-remove program application. PC Charge normally will automatically use the card reader that you plug into it. If it doesn't work, call their support and they should be able to get you going. Make sure you use a card reader that is compatible with PC Charge. There are also PS2 (Keyboard connection) versions of card readers, but I recommend the USB versions.

Finally:
Now you're ready to go. Anywhere that you have an internet connection and enough battery to keep your computer going, you should be able to electronically process credit cards. You can get a car charger for your computer, and can add portable printers if you want to be able to print receipts. This setup may not be as compact as a wireless terminal, but it doesn't lack anything in speed and usability.

Everyone that I have seen use this setup was extremely satisfied with it. We recently has a customer recommend it to over two hundred associates in their industry, and not one of them using it has had anything but praise for it. The setup can occasionally lead to some snags, but once everything is running properly you have a excellent processing method.

Useful References:
Card Readers Compatible with PC Charge

5 comments February 27th, 2007

How to accept credit cards on your website

I absolutely hate writing this post, because it is so generic, broad and over-done. But, I was searching on Google today to see what was out there, and as usual there are very few objective sources that are worth reading on the topic. Apart from that, I don't have a guide on this site, and seeing as how this is a merchant account blog, it sort of fits the genre. Without any further rambling…

Accepting credit cards on a website is absolutely necessary for the success of any online sales efforts. While there are several other available payment methods for websites, credit cards surpass every other one because of their wide use and convenience.

There are two types of companies that can enable a website to accept credit cards. The first is a 3rd party processor, and the second is a merchant service provider (called an MSP, or ISO). The primary differences between 3rd party processors and MSPs are the way a website integrates with their service, the liability that the website owner has over the transactions that they process, and the price that a they will pay for the ability to accept credit cards. 3rd party processors include companies like Paypal, Google Checkout, 2checkout.com, CCnow, Clickbank, and many more.

The difference between MSP's and 3rd party processors:

MSP's

• The business apply's for a merchant account directly with a MSP.
• Business is personally liable for everything that they process.
• Customer's credit card statements have the business name on them.
• Use with a Payment Gateway (Seamless integration available).
• Some fixed monthly fees in addition to processing costs.
• Possible setup fee.
• Possible long term contract requirement.

3rd Party Processors

• Business processes under the name of the 3rd party processor.
• Customer's credit card statement has 3rd party processors name on it.
• Any dispute is made through the 3rd party processor and not the processing bank.
• Business and customer have limited protection from being ripped off.
• Must use 3rd party processors checkout system (Paypal has one exception).
• No fixed monthly fees.
• Some have setup fees.
• Most have high processing costs (Paypal and Google Checkout don't).
• No contracts.
• Business is partially liable for the transactions that they process.

Which should a business use?

Assuming that you are based in the US, this depends mainly on how much business you do, the type of products you sell, how you want to integrate payments into your website, and whether you sell on eBay or not.

For businesses in the US, Paypal is pretty much going to be the lowest cost method of accepting payments that you will find. As much as I personally hate to admit it, it will be very hard to find a company that can beat the cost of paypal. However, paypal has many negative attributes which often make it a poor solution for serious ecommerce websites.

Personally, I think paypal makes an excellent supplementary payment method, as there is a fair number of online shoppers that prefer to use it.

• How much you business you do:Merchant accounts have fixed monthly fees associated with them. If you are only processing a few dollars a day, it is simply a waste of money to use a merchant account. 3rd party processors don't have fixed monthly fees, and will be a more cost-effective solution for low volume businesses or an individual. If you do a lot of business, then a merchant account will give you better control over the funds that you process, and how your payment method integrates into your website. Many people consider the threshold of switching from a 3rd party processor to a MSP at about $1000 per month in processing. Personally, I would switch to a merchant account at about $500 per month, so that I could provider a cleaner experience for my customers. But either way, these aren't huge volumes of processing before a merchant account may be warranted.
• The type of products you sell:Many product types are considered high risk. High risk refers to products or services that carry an increased risk of being charged back, or being obtained by or sold to fraudulent buyers. A few examples of high risk businesses include anything adult related, travel related, online pharmacy, and download-able products. Online in general is much higher risk than retail. On a personal note, I think that most online businesses will experience some sort of fraud in their online ventures. Neither 3rd party processors or MSP's like providing services to high risk businesses. In these cases a business will have to contact everyone to find a company that can provide service to them. In some cases they may have to process through an offshore merchant account provider.
• How you want to integrate payments into your website: If you want a completely seamless system where your customer never leaves your website, then you are going to need a merchant account and a payment gateway. Payment gateways generally have two integration methods, but I only recommend using an API method of integration. 3rd party processors require your customers to fill out their information on a website owned by the 3rd party processor. A seamless integration method is considered by many to be fundamental in providing a smooth and efficient shopping experience. Paypal does provide a system called payments pro, which is a step in the seamless direction, but it is difficult to integrate into a website, and still creates some usability barriers. If you look on any major ecommerce website, you will find that they are all using a seamless integration with their payment processing method. 3rd party processors may be an alternative payment method, but they are rarely the primary method for a serious company.
• Do you sell on eBay? If you sell on eBay, you should accept Paypal. Paypal integrates seamlessly with the eBay checkout system, and the majority of eBay users expect to be able to use Paypal to complete their purchase. Merchant accounts are difficult to integrate with eBay and must always rely on multiple independent systems for them to work smoothly and automatically. Businesses that sell a lot on eBay will probably look into one of these checkout management systems at some point, but Paypal is the perfect solution for the majority of smaller eBay businesses.

Now that you have your processing method:

I am making the assumption that you already have a shopping cart in place on your website. This can either be a custom designed system, or can be a pre-made cart system like oscommerce, zen cart, and many of the other popular carts.

If you went the merchant account direction, you will also need a payment gateway. It is easiest to get a payment gateway from the same company you are getting a merchant account through. If you already know what payment gateway you want, make sure that the merchant account provider can set this up for you. If you don't know what payment gateway you want, Authorize.net is always a safe bet. There are many payment gateways available, with the most common being Authorize.net, and Verisign. You will want to use a payment gateway that has an API (Application Programming Interface) method of integration. The API is what allows your website to transparently integrate with the payment gateway.

Requirements to process on your website:

1. A SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificate (needed if you use a payment gateway API).
2. A shopping cart system (This can be custom made or you can use ready made shopping cart software).
3. Integration of your payment gateway or 3rd party checkout system.
4. Merchant account providers also have a list of requirements to setup an ecommerce merchant account. I recommend making sure that as many as possible are met before applying for a merchant account.

Depending on whether you have a custom designed or a generic shopping cart system, it can be as easy as pressing a button, or as hard as writing a complex integration script, to integrate your website with the payment gateway. Most shopping carts that are widely used will have a module or plug-in to integrate with most of the popular payment gateways. Custom carts will need a custom payment module, which should be coded by the person who designed the cart or another competent programmer. Here is a guide on how to integrate Authorize.net with a website using php5. Also, if you are interested in purchasing a Authorize.net integration script, authnetscripts.com has scripts for PHP, ASP, PERL, and Cold Fusion. I have used their scripts myself and highly recommend them. The price of one of these scripts is far less than hiring a programmer to write one for you. Integration tutorials for most payment gateways are available in just about every programming language, but again these should be programmed by a professional. If you need to hire someone to do the integration for you, I recommend services like getafreelancer.com and rentacoder.com. Make sure to pick a service provider with positive feedback, and make price a secondary factor. Here is a brief guide on how to use freelance marketplaces.

If you do use a payment gateway, make sure you are not storing credit card numbers or other sensitive information unless you know exactly what you are doing, how to properly encrypt the data that is being stored, your server is PCI compliant, and your website does not have security vulnerabilities.

Once you're integrated:

Once your website is integrated with your payment gateway or 3rd party processor, you are ready to start accepting payments. This whole process is not really as complicated as it seems, and should be takes in steps to prevent problems.

Quick Overview:

Merchant Account / Payment Gateway Flow -is the order of setting things up that I recommend for the least amount of potential problems.

1. Setup Website
2. Setup Merchant Account and Payment Gateway
3. Purchase and Install SSL Certificate
4. Integrate Website with Payment Gateway
5. Test Integration, and Run A Real Transaction
6. Go Live!

3rd Party Processor Integration - requires less structured planning, but some ordering will make a difference.

1. Setup 3rd Party Processor Account
2. Setup Website
3. Integrate Website with 3rd Party Processor
4. Test and Run A Real Transaction
5. Go Live!

For a better comparison of merchant account and 3rd party processors checkout the Merchant Account Comparison.

Hopefully this whole process goes smoothly for you. Once everything is complete, you can focus on the marketing and promotion of your ecommerce business. As always, feel free to contact me if you have a question, or you need some direction on what to do.

Best of luck to you…

1 comment February 7th, 2007

Magazines for small business owners

I like reading small business magazines. I have a few favorites that I always read, and there are others that are good, but are just not as interesting to me.

Small business magazines can provide some good ideas for business owners, and usually give some good insight to upcoming products, services, and anything of interest to business owners, and entrepreneurs. They can be a good place to advertise, but you can also lose a lot of money buying big ads in these publications.

My Favorites:
Entrepreneur Magazine
Fast Company
Ecommerce Times

General Business Related:
Entrepreneur Magazine
Fast Company
Business 2.0
Fortune
Fortune Small Business
Business Week
Inc Magazine
Red Herring

Ecommerce and Online Related:
Practical Ecommerce (Online and Print)
Internet Week
Cio.com
Ecommerce Times (Online)
eWeek.com
Line56
.NET Magazine (UK Based)

Payment Processing Related:
The Green Sheet
Transaction World

Most of these magazines offer a lot of great content on their websites and you don't need a subscription for it.

Let me know if I'm missing any good ones.

2 comments September 7th, 2006

How to spot a fake credit card

I recently stumbled upon a great pdf guide on the features of each type of credit card from the four major credit card companies. Each cart type has a very clear diagram outlining the card identification features of that particular card.

Screenshot of the Visa diagram.

(Mastercard, Amex and Discover are available in the guide)

From what I have been reading, card counterfeiters are getting so good at reproducing cards that it is virtually impossible to distinguish the difference between a well made fake, and a real credit card. Most businesses wont check each card to ensure that it is real. It would take too much time, and it simply isn't that big of a problem. But, if you ever do have a question, this guide should give you what you need to verify a card is real.

The file is rather large (~1Mb), so you may want to download it instead of opening it in your browser window. Right Click and select "Save Target As" to download the guide.

Credit Card Identifying Features ^.pdf

This guide is also available in the download area.

4 comments August 23rd, 2006

Other Ecommerce and Merchant Account Blogs

I've compiled a list of merchant account and ecommerce related blogs that offer good information from knowledgeable, professional people. I'm leaving SEO and online marketing specific blogs off because my list would be far to large for a reasonable post.

It is hard to find merchant account related blogs that offer objective information because most of the blogs out there are run by companies. Although my blog is also company sponsored, I try very hard not to bias my information on anything but my personal opinion and observations.

Merchant-account-services.org run by John Conde is a good merchant account blog. John offers some great articles and information relating to merchant accounts, and his information remains as objective as any out there. John is also responsible for creating the foundation for the merchant account wikipedia article.

An Ecommerce blog that I find interesting is about.com's Online Business Blog run by Ana Rincon.

The ecommerce times offers a great ecommerce news and articles. While this isn't a blog by definition, it is updated with great articles daily and the quality of the content at Ecommerce Times is far above most if the internet.

The most comprehensive blog covering payment processing and ecommerce related news is Payments News, operated by Glenbrook Partners LLC. I have had several articles syndicated by Payments News. They are updated many times a day with highly relevant, interesting news covering everything related to payment processing.

The shopping cart Volusion, offers an interesting ecommerce related blog. The blog topics are focused more on the analytics, usability, and SEO sides of online business.

Lastly, practical ecommerce is a ecommerce magazine offering free and paid ecommerce articles and three ecommerce blogs. Practical ecommerce is fairly new, but I think they have a lot of potential in the world of ecommerce.

That's it for this list. Email me if you own or know of an ecommerce or merchant account related blog that deserves to be on my list.

3 comments August 21st, 2006

Requirements for Securing Cardholder Information

A joint news release was issued just a few days ago from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, JCB and Discover outlining what businesses need to do to secure cardholder data. This brief article is applicable for all businesses and is a very easy to follow, guide to protecting cardholder information.

What makes this short guide very good, is that any one can understand it.

The actual PDF is available on the download page.

2 comments August 4th, 2006

Outsourcing web related projects to freelance designers

Online marketing and website production are two very common things that I deal with. Often I come across situations where the dificulty of a task at hand exceeds anyone's ability or time that works for my company. So, where do you go when you need to get work done, and you dont want to do it yourself. You can hire a freelancer to do it.

Why freelancers are great:
Hiring a freelance programmer / designer / marketer to do work for you can be a great method of getting things done. Most programmers, business owners, and project managers don't have the time or resources to get everything that they need to get done. By using a freelancer to outsource some work to, you can get a highly professional product, and often at a lower cost than doing it yourself. Freelancers are professionals, sometimes with degrees, that can get just about anything done, and always at a good price. You can alway's have your local web deisnger, or design firm do something for you, but it normally comes at a higher price than a freelancer.

Where to hire freelancers:
There are a variety of freelance marketplaces on the internet where you can posts your specific project, and receive bids from the thousands of freelancers that watch those website's. Freelance marketplaces work much like ebay. You post your project with specific details, a price range, and a deadline for completion of the project. A freelancer will see your project and bid on it if they have the skills to complete it, and the price is in their range for the specific work that needs to be done. When their work is complete, you pay them the agreed upon fee, and they deliver to you the finished product. After the entire transaction is complete, you rate your experience with the freelancer and they rate you as a buyer.

Just about any project imanigable can be outsourced at a freelance marketplace. Anything from search engine optimization, a basic or complex complete website, ecommerce design, graphic design, traditional marketing and advertising, advanced programming, if you can think of something, it can proably be outsourced.

About the prices:
Since you are receiving bids on your project from multiple providers, the price on your project is very fair. There is feirce competition for projects between freelancers which helps drive down the price. Prices on freelance marketplaces tend to be very reasonable. But, quality work always demands a fair price. You should be wary of providers with low or no feedback, or if their price is substancially lower than everyone else's.

Keep in mind that while prices are low, nothing comes free. Highly complex projects are very expensive no matter who does them. Also keep in mind that if you are trying to integrate your website, or ecommerce system across to another platform, it will be expensive. Same thing goes for any type of 'web services' or advanced XML / SOAP / AJAX / CUSTOM DATABASE / API integration and managerment etc.

Freelance Marketplaces:
http://www.getafreelancer.com (recommended)
http://www.rentacoder.com (recommended)
http://www.elance.com
http://www.scriptlance.com
http://www.codelance.com
http://www.freelancersdirect.com
http://www.thecentralmall.com/index.html
http://www.scriptjobs.com
http://www.radlance.com
http://www.smartbids.co.uk
http://www.nasnap.com
http://www.looksurf.com
http://www.ecknowledge.com
http://www.contractedwork.com

Add comment July 18th, 2006

Review - MindValley's 40 Ecommerce Tactics

When I hear the word ebook, I normally cringe with the thought of thousands of worthless, poorly written, scams that don’t deserve the bandwidth that it takes to download them. I was asked to review an e-publication created by a company called MindValley. The publication called “40 Ecommerce Tactics” is essentially a guide to successfully operating, and marketing a website. MindValley authors are made up of professionals with different ecommerce related backgrounds, and include an Ebay senior executive, Microsoft web developer, and numerous other web professionals. 40 Ecommerce Tactics is written by professionals that have been directly involved in every aspect of running an online business. That direct involvement is apparent in each writer's knowledge and expertise throughout the guide.

40 Ecommerce Tactics is a very thorough guide to operating and marketing an ecommerce website. The guide is organized in a way that the reader can skip to whichever chapter they are interested in, if they don’t want to read the entire guide start to finish. The guide itself is over three hundred pages long, but these three hundred pages are completely void of filler content. The guide is clearly written and edited, and the only thing that stopped me from reading it all the way through was my own lack of time.

Topics Covered:

• Product creation
• Setting up a website
• Email marketing
• Pay per click (PPC) advertising
• Increasing customer conversion
• Closing a sale on a website
• Untapped marketing channels
• and the Overall growing of a business

Each topic contains a series of sub-chapters which cover the detailed areas within each topic. Everything from usability, search engine optimization, alternative marketing strategies, writing copy that sells, web analytics programs and anything else that is necessary for a website to be successful is covered in detail in the guide. Specific examples and recommendations are also linked throughout the guide, which can help to give real uses of the ideas covered in the guide. The guide is complete enough, that I would be comfortable saying that it is the only resource someone would need to jump, successfully, into ecommerce.

Unlike many other guides out there, 40 Ecommerce Tactics actually guides the reader. One thing that I really like about it is that it tells the reader exactly what works, what doesn't, what to do, and how to do it. This is especially important as many less-savvy website owners struggle with actually figuring out how to implement much of the advice that is out there.

This guide is very successful in its purpose of providing the reader with the foundations for a successful ecommerce website. In this age, just about any information needed can be found on the internet. What the guide does that sets it apart from any other resource like it, is that is puts everything needed together in a easy to read, and very accurate guide. The guide completely avoids filler content, and although long, doesn't contain any unnecessary information. The reason that the guide is long, is that it is thorough, and there is simply that much important information. The only improvement that I can think of, would be the ability to download the entire guide as a single file. The information in this guide would take the average website owner years to find on their own.

The Most Benefit:
I highly recommend this guide to website owners and entrepreneurs that are just getting into ecommerce. This guide although not free, will easily save you the money it costs, in time you would otherwise spend over the years figuring all of this out on your own. It will unquestionably give a new website a huge jump-start.

What you get when you purchase the guide:

• 40 Ecommerce Tactics Guide
• Lifetime access to the guide, including future updates
• 90 Day risk free, money back guarantee
• A best ecommerce guide book, money back guarantee
• A 1 hour consulting for your website with a MindValley professional

Conclusion:
This is a great guide for anyone in the ecommerce field. I'm not being paid to write this. I have no affiliation with Mind Valley in any way. I highly recommend this guide as a jump-start to making a well planned, successful website. In truth, this guide probably could have saved me a solid year of research time, if I had it when I entered into ecommerce.

Download the 7 free tactics and see for yourself.

Add comment July 11th, 2006