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Leverage On The Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing

Posted on by DESMOND K

We covered affiliate marketing from a publisher’s (resource sites, blogs) perspective in a previous article. Loads of people around the world earn additional income with the help of affiliate marketing while a number of others earn a hefty amount by doing it full time, making it one of the top ways to earn extra income.

Affiliate marketing is also one of the top ways to earn extra income for merchants as well. In this article we will look at how merchants can make full use of affiliate marketing to improve sales. This method is especially beneficial for new web stores which need to get out there and into the action fast. Marketing your products properly by making use of an existing web of affiliate marketing sites will result in higher targeted traffic and thus better conversion rates.

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Affiliate Marketing – Myths, Mistakes And Money Making

Posted on by DESMOND K

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make extra money online by promoting someone else’s products or services. It is definitely a home based online business opportunity that’s been around for a while now which can be potentially very lucrative.

Now making money from affiliate marketing may sound like easy pickings, but it’s not. Don’t get us wrong – we don’t intend to ruin anyone’s dreams of making money via affiliate marketing – but what we do want to do with this article is give our readers a clearer picture about what affiliate marketing is all about and how to go about doing it properly (via marketing tips for websites, for instance).

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Merchant Account – Getting Started

Posted on by DESMOND K

There are many things that go on behind the scenes of ecommerce shopping cart software storefronts so that everything runs smoothly. We have already mentioned quite a few of these goings-on in our articles on starting your own business, specially tailored towards home business start up newbies.

If you intend to operate a web store or a few ecommerce shopping cart software storefronts, the main mode of payment for your customers would likely be credit cards. One way to go about receiving funds via credit cards is through a merchant account. As mentioned in an earlier article, you can apply for a merchant account through merchant service providers (MSPs) such as banks or via independent service organizations (ISOs), third party organizations that enable registered merchants to accept charge or credit cards.

However, the application process can be cumbersome at times. In this article, we will examine the requirements necessary for a merchant account application to be given the green light.

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A Brief Insight Into Payment Gateways

Posted on by DESMOND K

If your store is doing really well and getting orders day and night, there’s no way that you’re going to able to stay awake perpetually to process orders even if you’re an insomniac. Thankfully, there is a solution that enables payment to be processed 24/7 while allowing e-store owners around the world to get a good night’s rest. Needless to say, our solution has this good free shopping cart software feature.

Enter Payment Gateways. A payment gateway is like a point-of-sale terminal at conventional retail outlets. It processes credit card orders and authorizes payments in real-time while keeping all transaction information safe and secure. Payment gateway integration is one of the first shopping cart features merchants usually look for and, as mentioned before, this good free shopping cart software feature is available (for major gateways) at InstanteStore. There are actually two main types of payment gateway, as we’ve mentioned in a previous article. In this article we will go a bit deeper and explore the differences between the two, and how particular aspects of each might affect merchants.

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What Should You Look For In A Payment Gateway?

Posted on by DESMOND K

The InstanteStore ecommerce solution, which comes complete with online shopping cart checkout website design, supports many payment gateways. There is the popular shopping cart Authorize Net, 2Checkout, PayPal Website Payments Pro and LinkPoint International, to name a few. Many ecommerce software packages are now integrated with echeck ecommerce shopping cart solutions as well.

When looking for a payment gateway, many merchants simply search for the most popular ones and select the one at the top of the list. Some will do a bit of homework to check out the features of particular gateways and compare rates but many do not even know what to look out for. Always select a payment gateway or payment gateways that can best serve your needs before making a decision.

In this article we hope to share a few insights on the characteristics of payment gateways that budding online entrepreneurs should look out for. Mind you, if you are looking for a perfect solution, you will not find it. That said, quite a few gateways out there have served many merchants well over the years.

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Should You Market Your Store Globally, Locally Or Both?

Posted on by DESMOND K

Should you market your store globally, locally or both?

The usual response to this question would naturally be to market globally since the main reason why most people set up online stores is to get a piece of the global pie.

But there are situations that might require a merchant to only concentrate on certain countries, demographics or niches, thus curtailing their plans for world domination.

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Don’t Want Socks For Christmas again? Try Sending A Wish List

Posted on by DESMOND K

Christmas is just around the corner. Both merchants and shoppers alike are already excited. Merchants look forward to an increase in sales and shoppers looks forward to their yearly “therapy” sessions. Although I doubt the pandemonium last minute shoppers and bargain hunters create at offline stores can be deemed therapeutic … This could explain why more and more people shop online.

We’ve already put up articles on store preparation and marketing ideas for the holiday season. But there are still one or two ideas we would like you to try to help you boost sales. Different merchants experience different degrees of success with different ideas because of varying store and customer dynamics. Our suggestions should help as they’re all geared to help merchants improve sales.

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Reasons Visitors Abandon Shopping Carts And The Solution

Posted on by DESMOND K

Current sales figures may seem fine to many merchants out there but these can always be improved. You just have to know where to look for obstacles that have been preventing your store from registering even better sales. And when you find these obstacles, do not panic. A solution is always close at hand.

Here’s an example. For those of you who do not check your aborted order list, it might come as a shock to you that as many as 7 out of 10 orders are aborted. That means for every 10 visitors that begin the checkout process, only 3 actually go ahead and complete their orders with a purchase. It’s a “so close yet so far” scenario. This is a frustrating situation but fortunately there are steps merchants can take to remedy this problem.

Read on for quick shopping cart abandonment remedies …

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What Makes An Ecommerce Site Secure?

Posted on by DESMOND K

The success of online stores owes as much to using a secure online shopping cart solution as it does to marketing and SEO efforts. There are many unscrupulous characters out there who are bent on making money through illegal means, more specifically through identity theft via the Internet.

Therefore, it is imperative that when looking for an online shopping cart software solution, you choose one that places paramount importance on security. Online shopping cart software packages from top online shopping cart software solution providers like InstanteStore come packed with the latest security features to give merchants as well as their customers peace of mind.

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Improve Sales Fast By Tapping This Resource

Posted on by DESMOND K

Cyber Monday – the Internet’s version of Black Friday – marks the start of the holiday online shopping season that runs from right after US Thanksgiving till Christmas. Many merchant shopping cart owners report that they record their highest sales figures between December 5th and December 15th every year. By now many of you, especially those who have read our article on store preparations for the holidays, will have your stores ready for the biggest shopping period of the year.

To help you get the most out of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the rest of the holiday shopping season, we have prepared yet another tip that could help you increase your sales without much effort. The best thing is that you can also make use of this tip year-round.

So what exactly do we recommend? Read on to find out…

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