Sunday, March 16, 2008

Google Checkout

For the first time, I found a warning, before I had the problem. I found this text which came from a Google Checkout representative. It is about how and where the Google Logo should be in order to be in compliance. Once again, I think they are another company throwing their weight around. I am posting it here because, if you are going to do Google Checkout, it is good information:

During our recent review of your website http://www.DOMAIN.com, we found that your website doesn't appear to display Google Checkout buttons or logos in accordance with the following policies:

- To inform prospective buyers that you accept Google Checkout, you may only display a Google Checkout acceptance logo on your website as specified here:
https://checkout.google.com/seller/acceptance_logos.html.

You may not alter the size, shape, color, or any other aspect of the acceptance logos provided by Google. Any use of the Google Checkout product name, logo, buttons, or associated imagery not explicitly authorized is strictly prohibited.

- Ensure 1:1 and adjacent button placement You must place a Google checkout button or Buy Now button immediately beside, above, or below every existing checkout button or link on your website. (Because users tend to read horizontally, we recommend placing the Google button beside your existing buttons and links.)

You must separate the Google checkout process from your existing checkout process.

If a buyer initiates your existing checkout process, they must not see a Google Checkout button.

If you're using Buy Now buttons, you must display a Buy Now button in a visible and appropriate location for each item you'd like to sell using Google Checkout.

- Place Google Checkout buttons before your login pages Buyers should only have to provide their purchasing information once. If you require users to register or sign in to your site, you must ensure Google Checkout and Buy Now buttons are available before the login process so buyers are able to check out with Google Checkout without having to log in. (You may still track visits and personalize pages using cookies.)

- Direct buyers quickly to Google
If you're using Google Checkout buttons, you must ensure that buyers who click the Google Checkout button on your site see the Google Checkout confirmation page within one second, and without seeing any intermediate pages. This will help you avoid shopping cart abandonment. We recommend you consider pre-computing shopping carts, leveraging server to server posting, and other tips in our Developer's Guide.

- Do not disable the browser's 'Back' button Buyers who click their browser's 'Back' button should be brought from the Google confirmation page directly back to your site without seeing any intermediate pages. (Learn about server-to-server posting and other best practices in our Developer's Guide.)

- Identify unsupported purchases
If you're using Google Checkout buttons, you must display the Google-hosted 'not available' button for orders not adhering to our content policies (https://checkout.google.com/seller/content_policies.html).

- Google Checkout must be available as a checkout option at least 95% of the time Google Checkout may be unsupported no more than 5% of the time, in which case you are required to display the 'not available' button. At least 95% of the time, Google Checkout must be offered as a checkout option, with the standard Google Checkout button prominently displayed.

- Direct your 'checkout' links and buttons to the checkout process Buttons or links containing the word 'checkout' should initiate a checkout process, not a 'view cart' page. The latter may confuse buyers and disrupt the purchase flow.

Because it appears your website doesn't meet one or more policy requirements, your AdWords ads aren't eligible to display Google Checkout badges at this time. (Your account is still active, however, and you may continue to process transactions.)

If you'd like to display badges again, please make the appropriate changes to your website, then respond to this message so we can confirm the changes.

For more information about Google Checkout button and Buy Now button requirements, please visit https://checkout.google.com/seller/policies.html.

For information about Google Checkout badges, please visit http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bi...py?answer=37897.

SSL Secure Seal

The more I get into this website integration with other sites like Google Checkout, LinkPoint and Paypal, i find that an SSL Seal is very important to be compliant across the board. I got mine for $15.00 at GoDaddy.com and I have not found any browser issues yet (If you read about it, people will say a cheap one may give problems, but I haven't had any).

Yahoo Product Search

In Search Ads, Google won't allow the word Casino, but Yahoo Search would. I've mentioned this kind of nonsense before.

Now, I've got Yahoo Products bitching about Privacy and Return Policies not being posed on my site, meanwhile Google didn't give a shit.

Setting up a SIMPLE home made website has turned into the most complex project I have ever encountered. And I've done tons of overly complicated stuff... like buying, fixing, and selling a house within 3 months. Building a Web Server and other tencho garbage. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. It's crazy hard... and time consuming. I don't feel like I've spent much time with my family because of all this. It's just too much sometimes.

Google Checkout

I am adding Google Checkout now to my website. I already added PayPal and regular Credit Cards. Hopefully, this will attract people with various paying habits.

Yahoo Product Search

This is another Pay Per Click system, cost $50 to start (worth of clicks). Since these cost $.25 each click and up, that $50 can go damn fast. Unlike other systems though, it isn't a random ad being placed, it is for a specific product (uploaded via a datafeed just like google base and bidhopper). The hope is that they already did the looking, they see the price, and only go to you once they have decided... in theory. I'll try it out, and get back to you.

ShopMania

The people suck, avoid them. They want your usual full information, including a credit card (because they are pay per click). Then, they balls it up with wanting a link back to them on every single page of yours (For Google Search Boosting). Then they top it off with NO SSL support. This means your credit card and other info is not protected. Additionally, if you DO link back to them, and you have SSL yourself, it will error for your customers, making it look bad for you.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

After several months of testing on Yahoo I have come to a single conclusion: Pay-Per-Click Advertising Does NOT Work for anyone but the search engine. I have tried all kinds of ways to make it work, paying alot per click, paying very little, serious ads, humorous ads, different keywords... anything I could think of.

The simple truth seems to be, that it drives traffic, not sales. People are just wandering around aimlessly. Don't blame my website, It has thousands of products, it's easy to navigate, and has a simple checkout system.

I have begun trying various other systems like Google Base (Froogle), ShopMania, and Bidhopper. Sadly, others like Shopping.com and Bizrate.com have been eaten up by the eBay juggernaut. And we all know how I feel about them.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Free Faxes

You can Fax a Word or PDF Document for Free at www.faxzero.com with no signup, hassles or issues.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

I Like Cheating

I have posted a bunch of GPS, camera and printers on Amazon, but I can't seem to compete with these guys. There is like $5 profit margin and not even worth it. If it wasn;t free to have them listed, I would have just pulled them down by now.

However, I have a secret little trick up my sleeve. With all this Wholesaling I was getting into I came across a toy company. What makes this company so special to me is that they are about 15 minutes away from my house! While they are a regular Drop Ship company, I can just swing by and pick up whatever I need off the shelf.

This means that all the sellers on Amazon (not even many of them, either) have to include that $5 drop ship price on top of the profit and shipping. Me? I logged on and low-balled everybody. I didn't even compare prices, just knocked a buck or two off the lowest seller. It was glorious. No one can even touch my prices, and most haven't even tried.

While I need to build some momentum, I expect that worst case, this will be awesome starting on Black Friday.

Amazon Sales

Wow.. after 3 WEEKS of no Amazon sales, I finally got two sales today. I have added several GPS, Priner, and Camera items, but also my MP3 players and about 150 toys. I hope to get some feedback so I can loose this "Just Launched" garbage from my name.

Credit Card Gateways

There are many, many and more many Credit Card Gateways out there that let retailers accept credit cards. They are all terribly expensive. Signup fees, closing fees, monthly fees, per sale fees... it's brutal. A popular one is 2checkout.com because they have a $50 setup, then 5.5% per sale there-after. This means that once you fork over the $50, your good to go for years to come. However, that 5,5% is a real killer.

Personally, I signed with LinkPoint.com because they had no extraneous fees. While It has a $25/mo fee, the 2.3% per sale is quite nice compared to what else I saw out there. Customer Service was smart and knew their stuff, but were foreign, and didn't want to be bothered with me, it seemed. Two calls, both pointed me to the help docs.

The break between these two seems to be, that if you plan to sell 1-5 things a month, go with 2checkout.com. But if you expect to do 2+ sales a week, go with LinkPoint.com and if you missed everything else I have been complaining about for the past month, don't EVER use PayPal.

More People That Suck

I wanted to mention that I had started buying from a vendor named PSOEXPIMP that I had found on eBay. I was doing business with him for all of three weeks during the Chinese new year because he was in Pennsylvania. He was wicked expensive, but again, he was local so it was quick and convenient. So I gave him $6000 in business and he was all over my orders. I ask him for ONE invoice because of this PayPal mess, and he is nowhere to be found for days. People fucking suck. That with a few other issues and now he gets no more business from me..... meanwhile I ordered another $2000 worth of MP3 players from China...

Avoid Fraud

In an attempt to get away from all the petty complaining I have been doing lately (with good reason!) I wanted to post about www.customers2avoid.com who have a blacklist of suspected fraud perpetrators. It is only for merchants, and needs to be manually verified. Not that big of a deal though.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Lazy Americans

When we started this country, settlers were crazy, and ambitious. They didn't like the tax, so they got up off their collective asses and threw tea in the harbor and rebelled against England.

During the Vietnam war, people young and old got up off their lazy asses and protested against the war. They didn't fix the problem, but they at least tried.

Ebay, Paypal, Bank fees, Credit Card fees, high interest rates, mortgages, house taxes, income taxes, cigarette taxes, Sprint, Microsoft, gasoline ... the list goes FUCKING ON! Why doesn't ANYBODY do ANYTHING anymore to stop this insanity?!?!?!? Are we all just sheep programed to do what we are told? Is there something in the water we ACTUALLY FUCKING PAY FOR?

Me? Naw, I'm not going to fight the system anymore. I'm too old and too tired. I'm just a voice in the crowd. We need some of those young kids to make a change.

Ebay wants $450 from me in services NOT rendered.
Paypal Stole $450 from me because I was "High Risk"
Fucking Assholes.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

ebay and PayPal SUCK

I won't bore you with the details, but both these ass-suck companies shut me down THREE times this month. I thought I left my job to become my own boss, but these asshole companies are evil, and have made it damn near impossible for me to run my own business the way I want.

What i found is this: They are a membership, and they can do whatever the hell they want to it's members, and no one can stop them.

The first time I was shut down for using the word "Ipod" in my listings. Despite the fact that MANY shady people mislead the listings, mine was quite clear. Regardless, i get the point, and I wont do it again. Will they let me back in? yeah, in 12 MONTHS. So, basically, I gained all this momentum, and they shut me down.

I then used another account I had to startup again, but they easily made the connection and shut down that account too.

Then, i start a new one with another persons name, at a diferent address, and a diferent PayPal account and start at 0 feedback. That sucked, but I did it. Within 2 weeks, I built up my feedback a bit, and made $2000.... so ExtortionPal locked my accounts because they felt that i was "High Risk" and now they want invoices to prove I actually own the merchandise. Luckily, I didn't trust these fuckers anymore, and pulled my money out everyday and sent it to my bank account, which I setup only to Launder the money through, which i then pulled out of the ATM every day. if I didnt do these steps, PayPal would have held onto that $2000 just because they can.

I have moved into Amazon, but I read about how bad they are to deal with too, and they hold your money for 2 weeks, plus 1 week to deliver a check. I dont like it, but I need to diversify so that if one gets closed down, I have other avenues of capital.

If you are looking to see what i am up to, you can go to http://www.portable-fun.com and also http://www.the-game-store.com
Web Statistics Online Marketing