Casual Articles - Internet and Businesses Online

What To Do When A Co-Worker Turns Nasty
A friend of mine laments that work would be great if only there were no other people there! No matter where we work, we will work with others. Often, those relationships are cordial if not friendly, but there can be challenges. You will not love all of your co-workers, and some will be downright nasty.Bullying doesn't just happen in schools. More frequent incidents of co-workers who bully others are being reported. When co-workers turn nasty it can make for an uncomfortable, if not dangerous, working environment; but there are ways to handle the situation so that it doesn't get out of hand.Set clear boundaries. If you don't set limits and let the co-worker know that their behavior is unacceptable, you can bet it will continue. Let the offender know that you will not accept their behavior by saying things such as, "It is not okay for you to talk to me like that," or "I don't appreciate being treated this way. I will not tolerate it." This lets the bully know that you will not tolerate such behavior. If it continues, report the bully to your supervisor and company security.Don't fight back. The

When It Comes to Your Clients, Your Marketing, and Your Business – are You Just Guessing?
Conjecture: When it comes to your clients, your marketing and your business – are you just guessing?If you DON’T want to be successful in business, here are four strategies that can’t fail: Make sure you ask everyone but your actual clients for feedback on your marketing efforts, be sure to include people that don’t understand your business or your clients.Instead of testing, testing and testing again, just guess what your clients will respond to in your advertising and promotions. Conjecture is the best way to launch a new idea. Instead of querying a good cross section of your clients, save time and only ask one client what she/he thinks about your marketing efforts and go with what they say. Take the “measure once and cut five times approach”. If you’re not sure an advertisement or new brochure will work, and you haven’t tested it first, don’t worry about it – just hire an artist to quickly put it together and just see if it works.

As the founder and CEO of a provider of shopping carts for small businesses, I am in a privileged position to witness and analyze cases of success and failure in the implementation of e-commerce sites on a regular basis.
Based on my experience, I have been able to identify five challenges applicable to most cases. Store owners can usually arrive at the same conclusions through trial and error, but in e-commerce the long way is always the expensive way. The best option is then to learn from the success of other on-line stores.
1. Your potential customers DO NOT trust your site
The Internet allows mom-and-pop websites to look just as good -maybe even better- than the websites of large corporations. All potential customers are well aware of this and they will be unimpressed by a sophisticated layout and a professional logo. Potential customers DO NOT trust the site they have just arrived at, and it must be your conscious decision to do what it takes to make them change their minds. Start by displaying a physical address, a telephone number, and a list of people behind the site. Consider joining forces with other websites that will create legitimacy for your own. If you can get your suppliers and distributors to mention you on their websites, this will surely make your business appear more trustworthy. Join a best practices organization such as the Better Business Bureau, or a privacy certification program such as Truste. Encourage and provide the means for your customers to review your products or services under their name and company. Publish success stories, always making sure the author is clearly identified. And most importantly: answer all pre-sales questions fully and in a timely manner. Many potential customers will contact you with very basic questions, or for information already provided in your FAQ section, just to test your company's responsiveness. Allocate the necessary resources to assure quick, personalized and courteous responses to all pre-sales inquiries.
2. Your products or services WILL NOT sell themselves
An alarming number of e-commerce store owners believe in the following equation blindly:
Traffic + Good Prices = Sales
Unfortunately, the reality is much more complex than that. Your products or services WILL NOT sell themselves. Even if you have a significant number of visitors and the lowest price, potential customers may choose to purchase elsewhere on the web. Why is that? Maybe other sites have invested more resources to showcase the same product. Make sure your shopping cart allows you to present products and services like you want them to be seen. If you need five images per item, a long description including HTML formatting, multiple categories, external links and reviews, adapt the application to suit your needs rather than adapting your business to the limitations of the shopping cart. Also, add your own unique text to the standard product descriptions provided by the manufacturer or supplier. If you feel you don't have the skills to create attractive descriptions for your products, hire a writer you can afford at Guru. Make an effort to get the lowest possible shipping rates or offer free shipping, and publish rates along with shipping delays before the customer checks out. Displaying your products and services fully and thoroughly, investing time and efforts, will help the products on your website outshine the same products offered elsewhere on the web, boost your reliability, and rank your website in search engines.
3. The urge to purchase DOES NOT last long
Even if a potential customer finds your site, comes to trust your business, and feels compelled to purchase your products or hire your services, that urge DOES NOT last long. Therefore, your website must be designed to let it flow and enjoy it while it lasts. The information required at each step, and the number of steps proper, must be as little and as few as possible. If you sell downloadable software, prompting for a shipping address is definitely a waste of precious time. The shopping cart you have purchased may boast thousands of features, but one of the few features which will truly make a difference in terms of sales is a short and simple checkout. Even if you have already invested in a design or in a shopping cart program with an inconvenient checkout, weigh in the revenue you are missing out on due to a bad decision when you set up your business. Don't hesitate to switch providers. When you do, remember that the ideal checkout that will make the most of customers' urge to buy is one where the process is complete with three screens: product view, input of customer and payment information, and confirmation. The simpler, the better. If you have no choice but to present a more complex process, make sure it is not too removed from the ideal three-step model.
4. Customers DO NOT favor stores which are too standard
Many small stores don't have a budget to hire a consultant that will devise a custom strategy, so they settle for standard tools. Instead of hiring a web designer, they purchase a template. Instead of purchasing an exclusive template, they purchase a shared template that can be seen everywhere on the web. Instead of developing a custom e-commerce application, or customizing an existing one, they use a standard e-commerce service provided by the hosting company. A direct consequence is that potential customers perceive a lack of commitment by the company to adapt standard tools and create a unique purchasing experience. Therefore, the relationship of trust is not created and the urge to buy is hampered. This means it is crucial to adapt standard tools: the look of the shopping cart should match the overall look of the site, and the functionality must be in line with store requirements (going back to the example above, stores selling digital goods must not prompt for shipping information or quote shipping rates). If you lack the necessary resources, hire a programmer or designer at Rentacoder. There you can post your job and available budget, and receive bids by programmers willing to take up your project.
5. Your small e-commerce site WILL NOT go unnoticed by hackers
Even if you have overcome the difficulties of setting up your site and you are happy with your sales, there may still be trouble ahead: e-commerce sites are one of the favorite targets of hackers. If you

Poker Affiliate Program
If you are a member of a good poker affiliate program you already know that it is the easiest way to make money on the Internet. If you’re not yet a member of a poker affiliate program then now is the time to join. The explosion of poker rooms on the Internet has occurred in recent years partially because of the rise in popularity of poker tournaments being broadcast on television. More people want to play poker so more poker websites have been started to accommodate the players.This has created a lot of competition among websites and the answer has been for many of them to create a poker affiliate program. Affiliates can sign up for free and are provided with eye catching banner ads for their websites and text ads to include in their e-mails. These ads all contain a link to the poker room and when someone uses one to enter the site, the affiliate is given an immediate credit for a referral. When the referral starts playing poker on the website the poker affiliate program pays a commission to the affiliate who made the referral.A top rated poker affiliate program pays a generous commission and contin

y make your business appear more trustworthy. Join a best practices organization such as the Better Business Bureau, or a privacy certification program such as Truste. Encourage and provide the means for your customers to review your products or services under their name and company. Publish success stories, always making sure the author is clearly identified. And most importantly: answer all pre-sales questions fully and in a timely manner. Many potential customers will contact you with very basic questions, or for information already provided in your FAQ section, just to test your company's responsiveness. Allocate the necessary resources to assure quick, personalized and courteous responses to all pre-sales inquiries.
2. Your products or services WILL NOT sell themselves
An alarming number of e-commerce store owners believe in the following equation blindly:
Traffic + Good Prices = Sales
Unfortunately, the reality is much more complex than that. Your products or services WILL NOT sell themselves. Even if you have a significant number of visitors and the lowest price, potential customers may choose to purchase elsewhere on the web. Why is that? Maybe other sites have invested more resources to showcase the same product. Make sure your shopping cart allows you to present products and services like you want them to be seen. If you need five images per item, a long description including HTML formatting, multiple categories, external links and reviews, adapt the application to suit your needs rather than adapting your business to the limitations of the shopping cart. Also, add your own unique text to the standard product descriptions provided by the manufacturer or supplier. If you feel you don't have the skills to create attractive descriptions for your products, hire a writer you can afford at Guru. Make an effort to get the lowest possible shipping rates or offer free shipping, and publish rates along with shipping delays before the customer checks out. Displaying your products and services fully and thoroughly, investing time and efforts, will help the products on your website outshine the same products offered elsewhere on the web, boost your reliability, and rank your website in search engines.
3. The urge to purchase DOES NOT last long
Even if a potential customer finds your site, comes to trust your business, and feels compelled to purchase your products or hire your services, that urge DOES NOT last long. Therefore, your website must be designed to let it flow and enjoy it while it lasts. The information required at each step, and the number of steps proper, must be as little and as few as possible. If you sell downloadable software, prompting for a shipping address is definitely a waste of precious time. The shopping cart you have purchased may boast thousands of features, but one of the few features which will truly make a difference in terms of sales is a short and simple checkout. Even if you have already invested in a design or in a shopping cart program with an inconvenient checkout, weigh in the revenue you are missing out on due to a bad decision when you set up your business. Don't hesitate to switch providers. When you do, remember that the ideal checkout that will make the most of customers' urge to buy is one where the process is complete with three screens: product view, input of customer and payment information, and confirmation. The simpler, the better. If you have no choice but to present a more complex process, make sure it is not too removed from the ideal three-step model.
4. Customers DO NOT favor stores which are too standard
Many small stores don't have a budget to hire a consultant that will devise a custom strategy, so they settle for standard tools. Instead of hiring a web designer, they purchase a template. Instead of purchasing an exclusive template, they purchase a shared template that can be seen everywhere on the web. Instead of developing a custom e-commerce application, or customizing an existing one, they use a standard e-commerce service provided by the hosting company. A direct consequence is that potential customers perceive a lack of commitment by the company to adapt standard tools and create a unique purchasing experience. Therefore, the relationship of trust is not created and the urge to buy is hampered. This means it is crucial to adapt standard tools: the look of the shopping cart should match the overall look of the site, and the functionality must be in line with store requirements (going back to the example above, stores selling digital goods must not prompt for shipping information or quote shipping rates). If you lack the necessary resources, hire a programmer or designer at Rentacoder. There you can post your job and available budget, and receive bids by programmers willing to take up your project.
5. Your small e-commerce site WILL NOT go unnoticed by hackers
Even if you have overcome the difficulties of setting up your site and you are happy with your sales, there may still be trouble ahead: e-commerce sites are one of the favorite targets of hackers. If you

The Importance of a Marketing Plan
There aren’t many things in life that you would get into with out a plan. Marketing is no different. Your overall marketing plan should cover about a six month period, and should be made up of weekly and monthly marketing schedules.This is how you do it:1. Figure out how much money is in your budget.As we all know, marketing of any kind costs money. How much money you are willing to commit to the cause is going to determine some key factors about how that money can be best spent. Remember, you want to be economical but you also need to be realistic on what it will take to pull in the leads you need to close new and repeat business.2. Determine your target market.Who is most likely to buy your product? Are they married? Are they business owners? What is their income level? These are the people that you want to target. One of the most common mistakes in marketing is answering "Everyone" to the question "Who is your target market?" It may be that you have more than one target market, but there is no product in the world that appeals to each and every person. Even Coca-Cola targets

art allows you to present products and services like you want them to be seen. If you need five images per item, a long description including HTML formatting, multiple categories, external links and reviews, adapt the application to suit your needs rather than adapting your business to the limitations of the shopping cart. Also, add your own unique text to the standard product descriptions provided by the manufacturer or supplier. If you feel you don't have the skills to create attractive descriptions for your products, hire a writer you can afford at Guru. Make an effort to get the lowest possible shipping rates or offer free shipping, and publish rates along with shipping delays before the customer checks out. Displaying your products and services fully and thoroughly, investing time and efforts, will help the products on your website outshine the same products offered elsewhere on the web, boost your reliability, and rank your website in search engines.
3. The urge to purchase DOES NOT last long
Even if a potential customer finds your site, comes to trust your business, and feels compelled to purchase your products or hire your services, that urge DOES NOT last long. Therefore, your website must be designed to let it flow and enjoy it while it lasts. The information required at each step, and the number of steps proper, must be as little and as few as possible. If you sell downloadable software, prompting for a shipping address is definitely a waste of precious time. The shopping cart you have purchased may boast thousands of features, but one of the few features which will truly make a difference in terms of sales is a short and simple checkout. Even if you have already invested in a design or in a shopping cart program with an inconvenient checkout, weigh in the revenue you are missing out on due to a bad decision when you set up your business. Don't hesitate to switch providers. When you do, remember that the ideal checkout that will make the most of customers' urge to buy is one where the process is complete with three screens: product view, input of customer and payment information, and confirmation. The simpler, the better. If you have no choice but to present a more complex process, make sure it is not too removed from the ideal three-step model.
4. Customers DO NOT favor stores which are too standard
Many small stores don't have a budget to hire a consultant that will devise a custom strategy, so they settle for standard tools. Instead of hiring a web designer, they purchase a template. Instead of purchasing an exclusive template, they purchase a shared template that can be seen everywhere on the web. Instead of developing a custom e-commerce application, or customizing an existing one, they use a standard e-commerce service provided by the hosting company. A direct consequence is that potential customers perceive a lack of commitment by the company to adapt standard tools and create a unique purchasing experience. Therefore, the relationship of trust is not created and the urge to buy is hampered. This means it is crucial to adapt standard tools: the look of the shopping cart should match the overall look of the site, and the functionality must be in line with store requirements (going back to the example above, stores selling digital goods must not prompt for shipping information or quote shipping rates). If you lack the necessary resources, hire a programmer or designer at Rentacoder. There you can post your job and available budget, and receive bids by programmers willing to take up your project.
5. Your small e-commerce site WILL NOT go unnoticed by hackers
Even if you have overcome the difficulties of setting up your site and you are happy with your sales, there may still be trouble ahead: e-commerce sites are one of the favorite targets of hackers. If you

Customer Driven Companies - Have a Definite Advantage
Business in recent years has taken on many new and complex dimensions; Competition is stiffer and margins are smaller. Success will no longer be related to technology, size or product superiority alone.In the quest to maintain market position, business leaders are realizing that one of the areas where they can improve profits, as well as market position is by creating a customer-driven organization.A customer driven organization is one that has recognized that the autocratic top-down structure of the past, (where management, owners were the most important people in the company) must be inverted to place the focus on the customer, who is now the driving force of the organization.All of the organizations strategies, business processes, strategic plan and employees must focus on the most important person, the customer. Todays focus is no longer on customer satisfaction its on exceeding customer expectations; customer service is expected, todays customers expect quality and service and they want it fast.Being customer driven means being able to respond and fulfill those needs better and

rmation required at each step, and the number of steps proper, must be as little and as few as possible. If you sell downloadable software, prompting for a shipping address is definitely a waste of precious time. The shopping cart you have purchased may boast thousands of features, but one of the few features which will truly make a difference in terms of sales is a short and simple checkout. Even if you have already invested in a design or in a shopping cart program with an inconvenient checkout, weigh in the revenue you are missing out on due to a bad decision when you set up your business. Don't hesitate to switch providers. When you do, remember that the ideal checkout that will make the most of customers' urge to buy is one where the process is complete with three screens: product view, input of customer and payment information, and confirmation. The simpler, the better. If you have no choice but to present a more complex process, make sure it is not too removed from the ideal three-step model.
4. Customers DO NOT favor stores which are too standard
Many small stores don't have a budget to hire a consultant that will devise a custom strategy, so they settle for standard tools. Instead of hiring a web designer, they purchase a template. Instead of purchasing an exclusive template, they purchase a shared template that can be seen everywhere on the web. Instead of developing a custom e-commerce application, or customizing an existing one, they use a standard e-commerce service provided by the hosting company. A direct consequence is that potential customers perceive a lack of commitment by the company to adapt standard tools and create a unique purchasing experience. Therefore, the relationship of trust is not created and the urge to buy is hampered. This means it is crucial to adapt standard tools: the look of the shopping cart should match the overall look of the site, and the functionality must be in line with store requirements (going back to the example above, stores selling digital goods must not prompt for shipping information or quote shipping rates). If you lack the necessary resources, hire a programmer or designer at Rentacoder. There you can post your job and available budget, and receive bids by programmers willing to take up your project.
5. Your small e-commerce site WILL NOT go unnoticed by hackers
Even if you have overcome the difficulties of setting up your site and you are happy with your sales, there may still be trouble ahead: e-commerce sites are one of the favorite targets of hackers. If you

Tradition and Past Business Assumptions May Be the Root Causes of the Disease
For a troubled company, it is prudent to challenge all “sacred cows” – those old and sacrosanct business assumptions. It is probable that some of these old “sacred cows” which were based on prior erroneous perceptions and assumptions that got the company into trouble.In times of rapid change, a strategic failure is often caused by an incorrect or false assumption. We console ourselves by telling ourselves that we have gone through the present problem before and hence are able to tide through it again. Often, we also falsely assume that this change is temporary, or that the impact would be limited and hence can be ignored. Success has got into the management’s heads and become their greatest root cause of the disease. The prevailing mindset is that “we have been successful and everything worked in the past and failures will not happen here.” Then the company’s profit erodes and their stock plummets.In a similar vein, we may dismiss the pain in our body such as a headache or stomach ache and just treat it with simple over-the-counter medication without noting its severity. Somet

g an exclusive template, they purchase a shared template that can be seen everywhere on the web. Instead of developing a custom e-commerce application, or customizing an existing one, they use a standard e-commerce service provided by the hosting company. A direct consequence is that potential customers perceive a lack of commitment by the company to adapt standard tools and create a unique purchasing experience. Therefore, the relationship of trust is not created and the urge to buy is hampered. This means it is crucial to adapt standard tools: the look of the shopping cart should match the overall look of the site, and the functionality must be in line with store requirements (going back to the example above, stores selling digital goods must not prompt for shipping information or quote shipping rates). If you lack the necessary resources, hire a programmer or designer at Rentacoder. There you can post your job and available budget, and receive bids by programmers willing to take up your project.
5. Your small e-commerce site WILL NOT go unnoticed by hackers
Even if you have overcome the difficulties of setting up your site and you are happy with your sales, there may still be trouble ahead: e-commerce sites are one of the favorite targets of hackers. If you think your site is not relevant enough to catch their attention, you are wrong, and this way of thinking will not help you prepare to face related risks. All e-commerce sites, even those which sell one product a week, are the target of multiple attacks. Some attacks are not successful at all, others have some level of success, and others are so successful that the consequences for the owner of the store can be devastating. The main purpose of hackers is to get customer information and credit card data, redirect payments, and obtain products free of charge or at a lower price. If a hacker steals your customer database and sells it to spammers, the reputation of your site will be ruined. Not to mention what will happen if the hacker commits fraud with the credit card data. Hackers who attack e-commerce sites randomly usually don't take the time to devise specific ways to intrude. They simply determine which shopping cart and payment method are used, they try to access with default passwords, they look for databases in their standard locations, and they try to intrude the database by means of a common attack known as SQL Injection. If their attempts are not fruitful, they just move on to the next potential victim. So, in terms of security it is not absolutely necessary to have a big budget and hire an expert, either. The key lies in your attitude: define complex passwords, customize your shopping cart installation (change the location of the control panel, change passwords, change the location of the database), and check that the versions of the software you use for your web server, FTP server, database and shopping cart don't have any known and patched vulnerabilities. Last but not least: keep informed; stay in touch with software vendors and visit websites where security issues are reported, such as NewOrder. This will minimize the chances that security in your site is compromised, and you will be able to focus on your real target: selling more and selling better.
That is all. I hope you find The 5 Challenges of E-Commerce for Small Businesses beneficial for your business.
Good luck and happy selling,
Roni Alhadeff, Founder of Comersus Shopping Cart http://www.comersus.com Author of Succeeding in E-Commerce http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=1411646894&itm=3

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