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Webmaster Tips Weekly * ISSN: 1526-2235
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=====================================================
IN THIS ISSUE
=====================================================

1. "Automated Secure Online Transactions"
by Internet Marketing Challenge
2. Webmaster Tips Weekly Award - First Issue Each Month
3. Special(s) - Register Your Domain for $25 + Bonus
4. Tip - The Low Cost of Offering Free Web Sites
5. Webmaster Selections - FreeMerchant.com
6. Featured Ezines - you'll have to see these
7. Subscriber Link - Gigi
8. Discreet Classifieds
9. Who We Are - Contact Information


=====================================================
Editor's Notes:
=====================================================

Hello Subscribers!

Welcome to another issue of Webmaster Tips Weekly.

Today we are looking at e-commerce options. Internet
Marketing Challenge has provided us with a very helpful
article on the automated system of order-taking. See
our Webmaster Selections Column to view a free option
for a shopping cart.

Thinking of another method of advertising - inexpensively
but with HUGE traffic potential? See the Tip column for
an idea that may work for you.

Have any questions? Send them to me at
questions@....

Til l8ter,

Deborah mailto:editor@...



=====================================================
1. "Automated Secure Online Transactions"
by Internet Marketing Challenge
=====================================================

For the small business owner, it just doesn't get any
better than the Internet. Do you realize that with the
right product - information or software for example -
the time and money required to both process and fulfill
your orders can literally approach zero?

We're not talking about a 100% profit margin, we're
talking about a product that costs you absolutely nothing
at all to produce and deliver to your customers once
you're all setup. And imagine being able to sell these
products, which cost you nothing, all day long without
having to do any paperwork, without having to talk to
anyone, and without having to haul a bunch of packages
to the post office. Wouldn't that be nice?

Consider the following, which is how it works here at IMC:

1. Customer fills out secure online order form at our site.
2. Customer's credit card info is verified and processed.
3. Customer's money is deposited into our bank account.
4. Customer's order info is stored in our online databases.
5. Customer's membership account is created immediately.
6. A receipt and welcome message is emailed to the customer.
7. A confirmation of the order is emailed to the IMC office.

All of that is done automatically, normally within thirty
seconds, at a total cost of just a few dollars for the
credit card processing fees. If we sell an IMC membership
for $200, that's a profit margin of approximately 10,000%.
And it takes us exactly zero seconds to process all of the
day's orders, whether we make one or one hundred sales.
Over 95% of our orders are processed this way, eliminating
hours of work daily.

Our close friends and relatives still don't believe it,
but we really do make money 24 hours a day, every day,
whether we're working, sleeping, at the beach, or whatever.
We don't say this to brag, but rather to give you an idea
of what's possible. If you're still searching for that
"perfect" product to sell, seriously consider one that
fits the above model - one that can be delivered
electronically at low or even no cost.

Even if your product or service can't be fulfilled
electronically at zero cost like ours are, you'll still
benefit tremendously from accepting orders directly from
your web site. For one thing, it's guaranteed to increase
your sales if implemented correctly - unless you sell a
really high-ticket item or something that just isn't
purchased "sight unseen."

Sure there are still some people who have reservations
about buying things online, and security is still an
issue, but it's not nearly as bad as some would have you
believe - and as each day passes the reluctance to
purchase online is slowly disappearing.

If your product has to be mailed to a customer, there's
a good chance that you can use a fulfillment center to
automate most of the process. In fact, unless you're
selling hundreds or thousands of items, we strongly
suggest that you look into it. Generally speaking, a
fulfillment center will simply keep a supply of your
product or products on hand at their location - and
send them out to your customers at your request.

Rather than you hauling a carload of packages to the
post office every day, you would setup your web site
to email the fulfillment center a copy of each order
as it's placed. They'll ship all of your orders, and
email or fax you a report at the end of each day.

If you're selling any type of product or service from
your web site, you absolutely must automate the entire
process from start to finish. Sure it might cost a
few extra bucks to set it all up, but it's well worth
it. Remember, there are only 24 hours in a day and you
need to spend as many of them as you can on marketing
your business - not processing orders, filling out
paperwork, or going to the post office.


The Secure Socket Layer Protocol
---------------------------------
Before you can sell anything from your web site, you'll
need to reassure your visitors that it's safe for them
to purchase from you online - and you do this by
implementing what's known as a "secure" order form or
shopping cart at your web site.

The industry standard is SSL, which stands for Secure
Socket Layer. In English, it's just a secure protocol
that uses encryption technology to ensure your customer's
financial information is safe from prying eyes as it
travels through cyberspace.

Don't worry about the technical details because you
don't really need to understand how it works. You just
need to make use of it, either by enabling SSL on your
web server or by using someone else's secure server to
process your orders. By far it's much better to make
your own server secure, it just costs a little more
upfront.

There are many web hosting companies which will host
your secure order form or shopping cart for a low
monthly fee, but we don't recommend it. If you go this
route you'll be giving up control of a very important
part of your business - for no reason. Aside from the
other minor inconveniences, if their system goes down
you can't process any orders. It just opens the door
to potential problems that you don't need.

For about the same amount of money, normally between
an extra $0-20 per month, you can enable SSL on your
own web server and have total control over everything.
If you selected a quality web host, they can provide
you with this service. The only thing you'll need to do
is get yourself a "digital certificate" and you get one
of those from either VeriSign (http://www.verisign.com)
or Thawte (http://www.thawte.com).

They are about the same, but Thawte is about half the
price - and we've had no problems with them at all.
Another reason to consider using Thawte is that their
current certificates are "Y2K" ready, whereas VeriSign
certificates expire in 2000 and users will need to
update their browser to access these pages.

Once a signing authority such as VeriSign or Thawte
issues your digital certificate, you simply give it to
your web host and they will install it for you - and
you're ready to go. You'll then be able to make any of
your web pages secure simply by using https instead
of http in the URL. Visit our order form for an example.

Of course, for your secure online ordering system to
do any good you'll need the ability to accept credit
cards. The overwhelming majority of online purchases are
made with a major credit card, and to be perfectly honest
with you, you won't sell squat if you don't accept them
- Visa and MasterCard at the very least.

If your credit isn't perfect and your bank won't give
you a merchant account, there are many firms which
specialize in establishing them for Internet-only
businesses or those with so-so or even bad credit.
We are researching them now and will post an update
just as soon as we can. In the meantime, be sure to
perform your due diligence when selecting one because
there are a lot of shady deals out there.

One last thing. Don't even waste your time adding an
order form or shopping cart to your site if it isn't
secure. 95% of your visitors won't use it. And you'll be
doing a real disservice to the 5% who do. Besides,
silently telling a potential customer that you really
don't care if their credit card information gets stolen
is not a very good idea.


Order Processing
-----------------
Once you've implemented a secure environment for online
ordering, you need a way to actually process the orders -
and the more you can automate the process the better.
This is one of those times when CGI scripts prove to be
real handy.

As far as processing the credit cards, you have a
decision to make. You can either collect the customer's
information and process their credit card manually, or
you can get setup with a real-time processing company
and it can be done automatically.

We use and recommend Anacom (http://www.anacom.com). At
$25 per month and 25 cents per transaction, it's well
worth it considering that it'll take you at least five
minutes per order to do by hand. 12 orders a day and you
just saved yourself another 30 hours of work per month.

There are many companies that'll do this for you. I-Bill
(http://ibill.com), CCNow (http://www.ccnow.com) and
Cybercash (http://cybercash.com) are also quite popular.
Just be sure to read the fine print.

Once payment information is collected and processed, all
that's left to do is ... well that's really up to you.
Using CGI scripts you can simply store the customer's
order information on your server so you can retrieve it
all at the end of the day. Or maybe you'd like everything
emailed to you. Or better yet, you can design a fully
automated system like ours. Or anything in between. It
really depends on you, your business, your products and
services, and your chosen method of fulfillment.

============================================
Originally published in IMC's Internet Marketing Chronicles.
Subscribe for FREE and we'll send you Internet marketing
tips, tricks, and strategies every Wednesday. Just send a
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or visit http://www.marketingchallenge.com/ezine.html
Over 100,000 opt-in subscribers and counting!
============================================


=====================================================
2. Webmaster Tips Weekly Award
=====================================================

Look forward to the announcement of the Webmaster Tips
Weekly award in the first issue of each month.

Have you submitted your site to Webmaster Tips Weekly
yet?

The criteria used to determine award winners is grouped
into two categories:
° Content (including relevance, usefulness, etc.)
° Design (including ease of navigation, user-friendly,
etc.)

§§*** §§*** Keep those submissions coming... §§*** §§***
http://Webmaster-Tips-Weekly.com/awards


=====================================================
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=====================================================

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Your hosting is free for one month.

Check to see if your domain name is available
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=====================================================
4. Tip - The Low Cost of Offering Free Web Sites
=====================================================

Do you have affordable web space? Can you spare
some space for free web sites for your visitors in
exchange for banner advertising on their pages?

To determine if this is a good option for you,
figure the following.

1. Divide the amount of server space (megs)
that you have at your domain by the amount of
money you pay each month. If you pay $96 for
150 meg you would divide $96 by 150 meg for a
total of 64 cents per meg.

2. Decide on the amount of space you think you may
offer your free client ("client"). Let's say
that you offer 3 meg.

3. Determine the cost of hosting the 3 meg site. At
64 cents per meg, the cost would be .64 x 3 or
$1.92 per month (if the client actually used all
that space).

4. Let's say you only get 100 visitors per month per
free 3 meg web site. That would be 100 visitors
for 1.92 per month which would be less than 2 cents
per impression of your banner.

Is that worth it? May be a good option for you.


This Web Tip may be reprinted as long as it
contains the following bio:
========================================
Deborah Anderson, of AndersonCreations.com,
teaches web design and internet marketing in
addition to publishing Webmaster Tips Weekly.
Subscribe free by sending a blank email to
mailto:subscribe@...
http://webmaster-tips-weekly.com/webtips
========================================
Copyright 2000 by Anderson Creations..


=====================================================
5. Webmaster Selections - FreeMerchant.com
=====================================================

FreeMerchant.com
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Ready to set up a great-looking free shopping cart
system? One that uses YOUR name? Try FreeMerchant.com.

FreeMerchant.com provides the tools necessary to design
your own shopping cart, add your products and other
features like FAQs, ebay items, etc.

The catch? In order to accept credit cards at your
store you need to be set up with one of the companies
that they are affiliated with.


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=====================================================
9. Who We Are
=====================================================

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Anderson Creations * Ezine Publishing
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ISSN: 1526-2235 - Library Of Congress, Washington D.C., USA
© Copyright 1999 by Anderson Creations * All Rights Reserved
http://www.andersoncreations.com

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