10 Tips For Doing Online Business Safely

Doing business online is indeed a cost-effective way to promote and expand one's business. At the same time, doing business through the Internet is not one of the safest ways if you are not careful enough. Occasionally newspapers flash stories of people getting duped while doing business on the internet. Recently a well-known website was accused of alleged fraudulent practices to promote companies which otherwise were not worthy of doing business.
Hence, there are both advantages and disadvantages of operating in a virtual world. Without doubt, the internet has turned the world into a virtual global marketplace which can be accessed with just a click of the mouse. It not only saves time, and money, but also one's efforts that generally go into promoting and selling one's products traditionally. Having said that, you are also faced with risks of getting duped, doing business with non-existent companies, getting sub-standard products after making payment, etc.
So what should one do before taking one's business online or rather what steps one should follow while dealing with companies online? Below are some tips that can help you in doing business online, safely:
1. Always check the credibility and financial status of the company before doing any business or making any transaction.
2. Check the company's infrastructure before placing orders and make sure whether they are capable of fulfilling your requirements or not.
3. Search the company name in search engines. You never know you may find some negative or positive review posted about the company, which may be of help to you.
4. Look for any certification that the company has. Certified companies signify that they are verified by third party agencies and have good infrastructure.
5. Do not make any kind of payment online using escrow, W- Union, et al. Always work in payment mode like irrevocable LC, LC at sight.
6. Ask for product samples and take reference from buyers with whom they have done business.
7. Correspond with the company representatives on phone and email before giving any order and making payment. You should verify the company's official email address, phone numbers and all contact details.
8. Cross check with other sources even in case of verified companies listed on any B2B portal or any other website.
9. If you have doubts, do not shy away from approaching the embassy of the country from where the supplier/ buyer belongs. Most embassies have a trade wing and can help you out.
10. Ask for their past business partners and contact them and know their experience of working with the company in question. Be alert, careful and always do some research beforehand.
While many people take their business online thinking it will be an easy way to bring in revenue, in actuality like any other business, it requires hard work and know-how. Taking one's business online has numerous advantages. Having said that, bringing down the risks involved in online business to the minimal level should be the foremost area which one should look into to remain successful.

The author works with India's largest B2B portal and often writes on Internet marketing, Indian SME's and several other topics related to online business.

How to Find Business Partners to Increase Your Online Business Success

If you are a solopreneur - there's just you in your business - you will need help from other businesses of some kind. You'll need advertising materials, a website, a delivery system (depending on your niche) and so on.
Few people have the knowledge to perform all those services for themselves. The solution is to find providers for each specific niche that you need within the online B2B Marketplace.
You may need additional money for your business. There again, locating business partners through business networks is the solution.
Let us say you want to create an E-commerce store selling your hand-painted pottery. You could hire someone to build a custom-coded website for you (using a provider from such B2B Marketplace sites as Fiverr or Upwork (which has absorbed ODesk and Elance) and Guru.com.
Or you could partner with companies that offer "associate" programs in your niche. For example, you can create an e-commerce store on eBay, to sell anything you like from your own books to used books, tools, jewelry, sporting equipment and so on. You could also partner with Amazon.com, or BarnesandNoble.com.
Other global companies offer affiliate opportunities. Basically, they will pay you to create a business presence online in order to help them market their goods and services. How can you find these affiliate opportunities? Join a business networking site, and learn from those who already participate in such programs.
Using freelance marketplace portals to find talented individuals is one form of business partnering, but it is in an on-demand basis. You use these individuals only as you need them, and the portal that provides their services. Since freelancers work for a variety of people, they may not be available the next time you need them, so you have to find a new provider.
Finding business partners outside of these marketplace portals, that you can partner with officially, solves this difficulty.
For example, shipping costs from one country to another country can be prohibitive unless you "drop-ship", meaning you send your product to a partner in another country, and that company stores the product and sends it out as needed to people in-country who order the product.
People, or companies, who offer such services can be found on B2B Marketplace sites.
To find these B2B Marketplace sites, simply do a web search on that term. Then, simply search through the results to find a site that offers business services in your particular niche. A B2B Marketplace site is in essence a business network, and networking is the key to expanding your business into the global market.
Business partners located in different areas around the world can also help you advertise your business, in particular your e-commerce business and make it known throughout the world.

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Take Your Service Business to the Next Level

Consumers want to know you are paying attention to their needs when they turn to you for a service. They don't want to worry they will slip through the cracks. Instead, they want confirmation they are on the books and scheduled. It is one less thing for them to think about when they are planning any type of event.
Being able to stay well organised though isn't always easy. You want to make it look very easy though! You can take your service business to the next level with an online booking system. This can be your tool to stay on top of all of it.
One Stop Settings
Your customers want to have access to information and assistance that works for their needs. They don't want features they don't plan to use. Don't make the mistake of lumping them all together and hoping for the best. With a quality online booking system, you can allow them to customise what they wish to get from you.
This will convey a professional message about your business. At the same time, it shows overall value so they are more inclined to book with you. Getting them as a first time customer will likely be the start of a long term relationship if it all falls into place like it should.
Easy to Navigate
Don't settle for just any online booking system though. Look at demos to make sure it will be easy to navigate. You want a system designed to allow them to try different options, compare prices for dates and time slots, and to get additional offers you have in place at that point in time. If the platform is difficult to get around in, no one is going to use it. They will leave frustrated.
Evaluate your Priorities
From your point of view, the use of an online booking system means you can always see where you are with scheduling. You can block out times or dates that you aren't available. This will prevent you from overextending yourself. As customers book dates and times, it will block out the time slots so you are on top of it every step of the way.
This allows you to evaluate your priorities. It enables you to see what you have on the agenda for tomorrow, the week, and even the month at a glance. This is a wonderful way to save time, to operate efficiently, and to avoid common scheduling mistakes.
Promotions and Special Offers
You can increase your sales volume by adding promotions and special offers to the online booking system. You can change what is available when you decide you would like to offer something new and exciting. Such offers are usually time sensitive to consumers will jump on them rather than missing out. Adding such elements to what you normally offer is a great boost.
Support
Even with the best online booking system in place, there will be customers that have questions. Look for a program that has built in support. This can include a Q&A section. It can also help them to generate a support ticket. Then you can reply quickly and have a record of who you helped and when.
Overall Management
Don't let managing your events for your customers take up hours each day. That is precious time you could be using to promote your business and accomplish tasks. Look for such a program that offers you tools for overall management. You should be able to customise them so you get results that work well for your type of business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9555976

Trust: A Huge Burden For Some Online Business Owners

Confidence, reliance and fairness are some of the keywords at the back of trust.
In an estimated world population of 7 billion people, some 40% of the people have access to the internet. This is good for humanity. It is also good for business.
With this impressive statistics, more and more people and businesses are expected to be interacting online every minute of the day.
Recently, I read an interview where an online shopping outfit owner complained that 95% of people still prefer to buy from the open market. This means only 5% buy online.
But, I have not had time to check whether this was a global percentage or not. However, it coming despite the revolution in information technology, which has reduced our world to a global family.
Trust is a huge burden here, especially for online business owners, who are just starting out and possibly established online business persons or outfits as well.
Trusting someone or business ought to be a slow, gradual process. We take risk everyday and must interact with people, one way or the others.
The social media is filled with people, groups, businesses, etc, who promise heaven on earth, as far as selling their products or services are concerned.
I have had course to interact with some of these social media entrepreneurs. Some are genuine, some are fake.
It is a situation we have the good, the bad and the ugly interacting in this complex world and trust are either built or destroyed over time.
For an online business owner like me just starting out, I need to be careful with people and groups that make fantastic claims. It is also my advice to other people out there.
No man is an island is a popular saying. Therefore, we must interact everyday with one another physically or on the net.
But, our motive at the point of interaction with others could make or mar our trust for each other, credibility and integrity.
In this modern age, security like other areas of life has also gone online. Therefore, people, groups or firms with criminal, fraudulent motives who are on the social media may pretend that they are safe.
This is not true for sooner than later, these criminally motivated people, groups or firms could be unmasked by undercover security agents, who are also on the social media, doing their jobs.
But, let me confess there that I have also benefited from my dealings will some genuine people, groups and firms online in recent times.
To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the mantra of scientists and it is true. So, our motives while online doing business or interacting one way of the other with people could be revealed with time.

The Secret Sauce of Recurring Revenue

Now I'm going to give you one single, solitary tip that is probably worth more than all the other advice I've given here about how to make recurring revenue.
And this applies whether you're selling affiliate products or building your own subscription business.
It's so simple and yet so profound, most people will miss it entirely.
They might think it's silly. Or great. But in 5 minutes they'll forget it and never use it.
And for that they will be poorer. Literally.
You - I'm hoping - will recognize the genius is this simple, innocent looking giant of an idea.
Ready?
First, a clue...
When Mark Zuckerberg was building Facebook, he focused on one ultimate mission.
Why?
Because having one ultimate mission is the key to success.
It's the power of focus.
If you think about how many priorities you have... family, friends, faith, fitness, financial, home, work, etc., you have a lot of priorities.
And each of these comes at the expense of the others.
Having a lone, singular mission isn't a luxury, it's the absolute pre-requisite to success.
Everything needs to align to that single mission, even those things that don't at first seem to be a part of it.
You can make your friends and family co-conspirators in your mission. You can use your mission to get rid of the job you hate and repair the house you love, and so forth.
It's all tied together.
Now then, here comes the diabolically simple, yet crucial piece of the puzzle...
... if you're thinking your mission is to, "Deliver tremendous value to this particular group of terrific people known as your customers by delivering them benefits x, y and z" then you haven't narrowed your mission down nearly enough.
Mind you, that's a very nice start and you definitely want to keep that to guide your business decisions.
But we've got to ratchet it down even further, down to its bare-boned absolute cannot fail essence.
When it comes to recurring income, it could not be simpler.
That single mission that Mark Zuckerberg focused his entire team on to build Facebook into the giant it is today?
Was a number.
Just a number.
That's it.
It was the number of users they wanted to get.
So simple. So elegant. And so effective.
You can carry this number with you everywhere.
You can share it with everyone.
You can make co-conspirators of everyone you know by simply sharing this number.
Whether you're selling affiliate products or building your own residual program, decide on the number of subscribers you want.
You can do this by deciding how much you want to earn each month, and how many subscribers it will take to get that income.
Write that number down in 12 inch letters.
Post it in front of your desk, on the fridge and on your television set.
Heck, write it backwards on your forehead if you want, so you can see it in the mirror.
And. Then. Go. Get. That. Number.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9570643

Can You Earn Income Online Without Identity Verification?

One aspect that intrigues internet users is its anonymity. Being able to interact in a world where you can be anyone you want is exciting. Not having to prove yourself to anyone feels liberating. And with more and more occurrences of identity theft, people want to protect their name by offering as little personal details as they have to. Can that obscurity transfer into the online working world? Is it possible to earn income online without having to go through identity verification?
What Is Identity Verification?
Identity verification is an online service used to confirm the "online you" with the "real you" by requiring you to provide personal information about yourself. That information is checked against public and private records, which results in questions that you have to answer. Those answers are used to calculate an identity score. Your identity becomes verified if you have a passing score. If your goal is to create a social media account, post in a forum, apply for a loan or earn income online, you may have to go through this process. This verification works in your favor too. Those asking for the verification can trust that you are really you and even better, no one else can say they are you.
Do Online Employers Use Identity Verification Services?
There is a growing community of work from home professionals that make their living online. You can find a considerable amount of ways to earn income online but there is a likely chance you will have to go through some type of process that proves your real life identity. Each employer will have a different set of standards of authenticating your identity and not all will use an Identity Verification service to achieve this goal. One employer may offer a way to earn income online only asking your name and location while others may ask for more details like your location, tax ID number or personal references.
Can You Maintain Privacy When Working Online?
It's not definite that you will be asked to go through identity verification, but it is unreasonable to expect that you will be able to maintain complete privacy. You can expect to have to share as many personal details with an online employer as you would with a real world employer. If your goal is to earn income online while keeping your identity a secret, you might find it difficult to make a substantial amount of cash. Nearly all online job opportunities will require proof of identity. If the employment website you belong to only asks for your name, the employer might ask for your name and address. In order to get paid you might have to provide your name, address, social security number and bank information. As technology offers us more ways to do things online, there will be a greater need for identity verification.

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Make Money Online - Surprising Ways To Make Money Online

Have you ever thought as to how you can make money online?
Your answer to the question above could be in the affirmative or in the negative. But believe me, in neither case would you like to challenge me when I say that for sure, you would like to know someone who knows how to make money online. In fact, most of us would like to know many people around us are making money, big or small, through online sources.
Is it easy to make money online? What are the ways? How much money can I make? Can I become a millionaire overnight? Is it possible to be a successful home business owner? These are some of the questions which instantaneously come to mind when we think about this subject. We will try to look at the probable answers to some of the questions mentioned above.
At the outset, I would like to say that there is no easy money that can be made anywhere in this world. But I will add that there are endless financial possibilities that can be enjoyed by a home business owner through the endless ways to make money online. If I want to list all the ways to make money online here in this article, I run the following risks:
• I will either run out of words or
• I will run out of time or
• My patience will give way or
• By the time I finish writing, some new ways of building wealth online would have been found out.
So, I will just mention some of the popular and tried out ways in which you can build true income. These are:
1. Trade online in stocks and currencies.
2. Write and publish a Kindle eBook.
3. Sell your articles, stories and videos.
4. Review music, products or websites for money.
5. Start your own website and earn money through Affiliate marketing and Google AdSense.
6. Become an e-Tutor.
7. Sell your notes if you are a student.
8. Freelance in the field of your core competence or hobby.
9. Join the YouTube Partner Program by uploading videos.
10. Buy and sell domain names online.
I want to mention that there is no way known to me by which you can become a millionaire overnight. The amount of money you make will depend on the way chosen by you and the amount of time and effort put in to make it a successful venture.

For more ways to make money online and multiply your income, check out Revealed Here

Where the REAL Money Is Made

I can't stress the importance of what I'm about to tell you enough.
If you look at entrepreneurs who have made fortunes - I mean SERIOUS wealth - in almost every case the money came not from inside the business, but from SELLING the business.
You've heard numerous news stories of internet companies selling just 1-3 years after their initial start-up.
And the businesses you hear about sell for 7, 8 and even 9 figures.
If this sounds out of reach right now, picture this scenario: You start a business today, and in 6 months to 2 years you sell it for 6 figures.
Would that make a great payday for you?
Now you might be thinking that selling your business is something you don't need to worry about until long after you start it.
Not so.
If you are starting a business right now, you should also be considering your exit strategy.
After all, you could get bored with what you're doing and want out. Or maybe you need quick cash. Or you decide to go in an entirely different direction.
So you decide to sell your business.
If you've laid the groundwork, you should be able to sell quite quickly and for a very good price.
Here's what you need to know:

1. Don't think of it as flipping a website. Think of it as selling a BUSINESS. That's because buyers don't want website. They can build their own website cheap enough.

What they do want is a ready to go, money-generating cash-cow business, so make your plans accordingly.

2. Make your business transferable from Day 1. Every product should be its own entity - after all, a single product can actually be an entire business.

Give it a website of its own, its own list, its own customer base, its own affiliate program and affiliate list, etc.

3. Don't brand it exclusively with your name. It's fine to attach your name to your XYZ product, but don't call it "yournameproduct."

In other words, "Bob Smith's Traffic Cockroach Mania Course" is fine. "Bob Smith's traffic course" is not. In the first case, the product is Traffic Cockroach Mania, a name that anyone can sell. In the second case, the product is Bob Smith's Traffic, a product forever branded as belonging to Bob Smith.
Imagine you're Bob Smith, and you sell your traffic course business to someone else. That person then sells the course. Who do people ask for help? You. After all, your name is on the course.
Then let's say the buyer alters the course and now it stinks. Who will people blame? You.
Now you see why your name needs to be completely separate from the product name.
Yes, it's a bit strange to think about your exit strategy when you're just starting a business.
But when it comes time to sell, you'll be glad you did.
One more thing - what if you have a partner?
Write into your agreement what will happen if you sell. Just look at the possibilities and agree on how it will play out if one of you wants to sell to the other, or if you both want to sell to a third party.
You can make a good amount of money by making each of your businesses as stand-alone as possible, and then selling them when the time is right.
In fact, selling your business can potentially earn you more than you made running the business.
Not a bad payday by any means.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9566137

5 Real Ways to Actually Make Money Online

Have you been wondering how you can make money online fast and easy? Well, here you will get all you need to kick-start your journey to success online. There are so many opportunities for making money online that present themselves to you. However, be keen to go for legitimate ones that pay and not scams and fraudulent activities.
Write with passion for cash
Did you know that you can monetize your skills and expertise online? Writing is one of the ways that you can make money online. There are online platforms where writers are employed to write articles and informational contents such as blogs and even news articles. All you need here is to bring your skills in grammar and fast typing. Some of the recommended websites to look for writing gigs are Upwork, iWriter, and Listverse.
Get rid of the old and unwanted stuff online
Is your garage filled with old stuff that you're not using anymore? Well, newsflash! This is your green card to making money online. Craigslist and eBay are the most popular online platforms where buyers and sellers converge. Here, you can post something that you no longer want and hopefully get an interested buyer and make some cash.
Get paid to conduct online surveys
If you like giving answers to questions and helping people out, then this is your chance to make money online. Sites such as MindFieldOnline.com InboxDollars.com pay people to conduct online surveys and fill out given questionnaires. The job may not pay much, but it's worth your time since it's easy to do. Here, you give opinions and your views on given topics or even products.
Work for outsourcing companies
This is perhaps the most flexible way to make money online from any location; it can be at the comfort of your house or in a public park. There are companies such as CrowdSource, Liveops, and SpeakWrite that outsource the jobs given to them by clients. Once you sign up with them, you will be required to create a schedule for working with them and get paid per hour's jobs. Some of the jobs here include writing, transcription, and online support services.
Get paid to market products online
Are you good at convincing people to either use product or buy it? If yes than internet marketing is your next big thing to making money online. You will be required to purchase a product and do a review on it, possibly showing potential buyers how to use it and the benefits that come from it. You can choose from a variety of products that suit you, which of course, also depends on the company you are working for. Alternatively, you can market a product in your blog page, a YouTube channel or even a referral program and get some quick cash.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9537574

Why Online Niche Affiliate Marketing Is So Profitable

For the purposes of this article, let me begin by defining exactly what I mean by the terms "marketing niche" and "affiliate marketing." A marketing niche is nothing more than an opportunity to advertise a product or service to a group of clients who need it or want it and who may be having difficulty locating it. In other words, it's the law of supply and demand working out to the advantage of the marketer.
What would a canteen of water be worth to a man dragging himself across the Sahara desert at high noon and what would that same canteen of water be worth to a drowning sailor? In the first instance, we have a potent marketing niche for the water salesman and in the second, we surely do not. What we are looking for is high demand for our item with low competition. What we are attempting to avoid is the opposite.
Let's examine this in terms of actual products. We could market to the "pet products" niche (high demand, high competition), the "dog collar" niche (moderate demand, moderate competition) or the "studded dog collar" niche (low demand, low competition). None of these markets meet our criteria (high demand, low competition). What if, however, purple, studded, poodle collars quickly became "all the rage" because a famous celebrity was seen strolling with her famous poodle with one of these around her dog's neck and a matching one around her own neck? Say you just happen to own a warehouse full of purple, studded. poodle collars and you are the only factory that does. With successful marketing, you could sell your entire stock in an hour and put your kids through college with the sales receipts.
Now, let's look at the term "affiliate marketing." An affiliate marketer promotes other people's items for them for money. An affiliate marketer does not work directly for the company that has the right to retail the service or product but, instead, as an independent contractor who only gets paid for making a completed sale. The affiliate marketer can elect to promote just one type of item (as a specialty) or a large assortment of various types of products or services. In either situation, the ideal of any thriving affiliate marketer would have to be to vend to a niche or niches that had high demand and low competition. "High" and "low" are relative terms and so, in the real world, the marketer may never discover the "perfect" niche but always hopes to be as near to that goal as possible.
The primary thing an affiliate marketer has to do is to discover a supply of affiliate products to promote and then detect which of those items are aimed at the best niches. "Best", in this sense, means those niches most nearly approaching an ideal niche as outlined above. To do this, the marketer must initially get rid of all products that aren't selling very well and concentrate, rather, on services or products that display enough, proven sales volume so as to be deserving of the time, work and funds that it will take the affiliate marketer to promote them profitably. From this listing, the smart affiliate marketer then gets rid of all items that show a lot of competition. If 100,000 purple studded poodle collars are present on the globe and there are one million marketers trying to sell them, this would no longer be a money-making niche because of high competition.
Our example of the thirsty man stumbling across the desert may not represent an excellent niche either, as it turns out, for the reason that there is only one customer and he is located very far from civilization. Putting it another way, the niche is too small to be profitable considering that the expenses to furnish the desired item to that niche are too lofty. If this is sounding like niche affiliate marketing is a bit more complex than you thought at first, you are correct. There's more:
The conundrum with fad products like purple, studded, poodle collars is that they will 1) all at once go out of fashion and 2) that when the news gets out that they are "all the rage," every supplier from here to Timbuktu will soon be manufacturing them in sufficient quantities to inundate this single, unique, money-making market, thus drowning it with competition. The affiliate marketer must, therefore, search for items that would seem to possess a long lifetime. Toilet paper and dog food would qualify as products with a potentially long lifetime but they would be eliminated from the list because of high competition. All of these difficulties will rapidly reduce the affiliate marketer's list to a small number of items, perhaps no more than a hundred to pick from. The good news is that all of these 100 items are, at least, potentially, profitable.
As an Internet affiliate marketer, there are really two, broad merchandise categories to consider: 1) physical products that must be boxed and delivered to the consumer and 2) informational products such as e-books and computer programs that can be distributed immediately over the web at affordable prices with no freight or storage costs. For the purposes of this article, I'd like to concentrate on the second type because of the benefits just stated. The Internet, at its commencement, was called the "Information Super-Highway." It was not labeled the "Physical Products Superhighway" because, to this day, no one has determined how to push a big carton through a matrix of wires, satellites and fiber-optic cables. So, even though you can promote physical products over the Internet, they lack the price-effectiveness and immediate deliverability offered by informational and software products.
While there are a number of places to unearth informational and software products to sell as an affiliate marketer, I'd prefer to zoom in on only one of them, as an example. That place is ClickBank.com and I'll talk about it for the reason that it has several distinctive benefits to an Internet affiliate marketer. The most valuable benefit of these is the capability to show which of the thousands of offerings listed there are the best sellers. The best tool for this is a number provided by ClickBank for every item called "gravity" which is a quantifiable, ever-changing number showing the quantity of recent sales. The larger the figure, the greater the sales. The clear knee-jerk reaction is that an affiliate marketer should only promote those items with the highest gravity but that strategy fails to consider the truth that everyone and his brother (or sister) is going to be out there attempting to sell those clear winners. It is also frequently true that items at the very summit of the gravity list may just be enjoying their "moment in the sun" of popularity: Here today, gone tomorrow.
Gravity can run from a low of zero to a high of about a thousand. To dodge the competition, I like to sell products that exhibit a gravity figure no less than 10 and no greater than two hundred. These are approximate figures, so if I find a perfect product with a gravity of two hundred fifteen, I am definitely not going to pass it by. Using this system, I have picked out a list of possible affiliate products to retail that are selling quite well and may not have as much competition as those products at the top of the list. My process of elimination is not over yet, though: I still need to find the perfect keywords for those items to use in promoting each of these products. It turns out that each keyword is, by itself, representative of a niche. For example, the keyword phrase "pet supplies" would represent a huge niche with a lot of competition while "purple, studded, poodle collars" (a so-called "long-tail" keyword) would undoubtedly represent a small niche with much less competition.
So, your last chore, then, in the discovery procedure is to find keywords that represent niches with low competition and high demand. Using a keyword research tool you can spot which keywords have the greatest number of recent searches (highest demand) and, by using a standard Google search utilizing each of these keywords, one by one, you can ascertain the number of competing pages that exist for each particular keyword. You'll find that figure right under the Google search box. As an arbitrary figure, I like to see less than 5 million competing pages across the Internet for any keyword. Best wishes on your prospecting for the perfect affiliate product to market to the perfect niche!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6216396