eCommerce and eBusiness

Have you ever had someone who owed your business money say, "the check is in the mail." Well now there is an answer to that old tired way of brushing you off and not seeing that check come in the mail week after week after week. Qchex.com has an awesome service that can cut waiting weeks to get paid via check to only minutes. I have used this service many times and I don't know what I would do without it. Many of my clients would rather pay me by check and are use to just letting the old post office take their time in delivering it. Qchex.com will cut that time to almost nothing.

After a few short minutes of setup and downloading of the printing software, I was printing a company check I had received via email from my client who used to mail the check via snail mail. Now all I have to do is email them an invoice that is provided electronically by Qchex.com and all they have to do is fill in the blanks and click on some links to send me a check. I then print it out on my deskjet printer and then take it to the bank and deposit it into my business account.

I have a client that lives in Winder, GA witch is about 70 miles outside of Atlanta. They don't like using credit cards so they usually send me a check in the mail and it sometimes takes days on end to receive it. Because all my work is done from my home office and I don't have to go to a client's site to complete the work let alone pick up a check. It would be very difficult to keep this client if I am delayed in getting paid for my work.

The solutions to the problem was Qchex.com. I sent my client an email that had a link to an invoice with all the line items of my services. Once they clicked on the invoice they were directed to the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connected Qchex.com website where a picture of a check was waiting for them to fill out with all their information regarding this transaction ready to go.

After checking all the information out to make sure it was correct they clicked another button to send the check to me. I then got an email notification that I had received a check and it was waiting to be printed. I then logged in using my username and password to the Qchex.com site and viewed and then proceeded to print my check using either regular paper or VersaCheck blank business checks which you can purchase at any office max or office depot. I suggest that you print a test copy first because you want to make sure you have enough ink and that the paper lines up correctly.

Please use this option first because If you don't you only get one chance to print a live printout. If you don't print it out right you then have to request another check from your client asking permission to print it again. This feature protects the sender from multiple printouts of checks. After successfully printing the check your next step is easy, go to your bank and deposit it. If you would like to see a demo of Qchex.com in action please go to http://www.qchex.com/qc_quickdemo.asp.

Never again will you have to wait for the payment of your product or service via check.

Jeffrey Alexander Brathwaite, aka "JB" is a Internet Technology Coach, Speaker and Trainer. JB prides himself on helping small to medium size businesses who are frustrated with dealing with the Internet. If you are having problems trying to deal with Email marketing, Search Engine marketing or just getting your own website off the ground. Please go to our website http://www.2thenextlevel.com

Yahoo has announced recently that they will be joining Google in introducing an advertising program where advertisers can pay per click. Using this method advertisers can set a budget by selecting how much they are willing to pay per visitor, and how many visitors they can afford per day.

In response to this opportunity sites like www.googlehomebusiness.com have released eBooks, tutorials, and short courses, that offer guidance to website owners looking to advertise their sites by using pay per click search engine programs from Google and Yahoo.

These courses illustrate the process of setting up online campaigns, writing effective ads, focusing on the right market, and strategies for measuring the results of your online campaigns.

?Just like print advertisers hire advertising agencies to design and run their campaigns, online advertisers need to be able to access seasoned advice for advertising online,? said Donny Lowy, who is the author of Selling Online: Beyond eBay.

According to Donny, there are specialized techniques and methods that are needed to properly advertise online. Since the barrier to entry is very low, there are many site owners who are simply throwing away their advertising budgets on ineffective campaigns.

?Low entry barriers mean that anyone can start advertising online because it requires less than $100 to start. People also see this is an easy way to capture leads and increase sales.?

In reality it seems that the majority of online sites are still struggling. While there are more opportunities to advertise online, and at a lower rate than previously, the challenge of capturing sales online seems to be level with past ratios.

?Online entrepreneurs can beat the odds and capture more leads and increase their online sales, but they need to study the steps that proven online businesses have taken.?

The search engine field was equally shared by 8 large search engines during the last five years. But as the many of these Internet upstarts failed, the remaining players were left with a larger slice of the search market. This situation has presented opportunities for small budget advertisers.

At the acme of the Internet fever there were many search engines serving the search market. There were companies like Infoseek, Open Text, Snap, and Direct Hit. Most search engines that sill operate receive their results from established search engines like Yahoo, Google, and Overture.

Since search engine users have grown in sophistication they have come to realize that these results are being fed by the larger search engines. These users have gone direct to the source and now the majority of them rely exclusively on Google and Yahoo.

Studies have shown that Google and Yahoo control 90% of the search engine market, with Google leading Yahoo by 10 market points.

Yahoo has responded by updating their search engine with more advanced features and faster indexing.

Gone are the days when it took months for Yahoo and Google to index a new website. Now website owners can see their sites appearing in the search engines in a couple of weeks if not days.

The competition by Google and Yahoo has allowed website owners with small internet marketing budgets to enter the marketplace faster, and without having to spend an excessive amount on advertising.

One reason being that the search engines themselves realize that the more sites they have indexed, the more users will use their service instead of the competition?s engines.

The new services introduced by these search engines also allows small internet businesses to prosper by taking advantage of the advertising opportunities offered.

Credit Card Payment Processing

If you operate a website but do not provide your customers the choice of paying by credit card changes are you are losing vast amounts of revenue and business every month. While at first glance it may seem expensive to set up a merchant account, ultimately you will save yourself and make yourself a lot of money providing customers this option.

If you do accept credit cards you want to be sure that you select the best merchant account for your business. Most companies, particularly those based in the United States and Canada, have a ton of different choices when it comes to accepting credit card payments online.

Methods For Accepting Online Payments

For international businesses wanting to accept credit card payments, finding a merchant account may be a bit more challenging, however it can be done and should be done to help boost a slow business. There are basically three different ways you can set up online payments for any business:

- You can set up your own merchant account, usually from your private or business bank.

- You can use an intermediary or a merchant account broker to establish a merchant account.

- You can use a third party service to process online payments for you.

The method you choose will depend on a number of factors including your revenues the size of your business and the number of years you have been in business. Many opt for third party services to provide online payment for clients and customers.