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Online vs. Offline Debit Transactions

1.Online Debit

PIN-based debit transactions are fast, convenient and secure. In brick-and-mortar environments, shoppers initiate online debit payments by swiping their debit cards through magnetic card readers. The customers then key their secret codes into encryption devices called PIN pads. The transactions are authorized in real time, funds in the customers' accounts are captured immediately, and money is transferred into storeowners' accounts in two to three business days. Merchants pay a nominal transaction fee. And because the customers authorize their purchases with PINs, the risk to merchants of chargebacks is virtually nonexistent.

To accept online debit payments, you must have a merchant account, a debit processing service, a payment terminal, a receipt printer and a PIN pad. Many payment processing companies offer both credit and debit card services, but you must be approved for them separately. You can obtain a terminal and printer with an integrated PIN pad or purchase a discrete, free-standing PIN-entry device and connect it to your payment system. Just remember that your customers must be able access the device and enter their codes in private.

Practically speaking, this type of debit transaction is currently available in the physical world only, not the Internet. A number of financial institutions have introduced technology that may advance the development of PIN-based debit processing on the Web, such as digital certificates, smartcard solutions and compact disc-based systems. But no widely-accepted operating standards have yet to be established.

2.Offline Debit

Unlike online debit transactions, offline debit payments do not involve PINs. Offline debit cards (or check cards) are typically issued by credit card companies through their participating banks. The cards may be used everywhere credit cards are accepted, including over the Internet.

In the physical world, customers who choose to make offline debit purchases must hand over their check cards. Merchants swipe the cards through their payment terminals and complete the debit sales the same way they process credit card transactions. The customers then sign sales drafts that authorize the merchants to charge their accounts.

On the Web, customers enter check card information into browser-based forms, just as they would for credit card purchases. The data is encrypted, captured by transaction processors and sent to the credit card processing networks for authorization. Transactions normally settle in two to three business days.

Because check card transactions are processed through the same networks as credit cards, they often incur the same discount rates and transaction fees. If your business is already equipped to process credit card transactions (for instance, you have a merchant account, a credit card processing service and either a terminal and printer or payment-processing software), you should also be able to process offline debit payments.

Making the Choice
Both forms of debit acceptance let merchants offer payment flexibility to their customers, which in turn can capture impulse buying, generate higher-ticket purchases and improve customer loyalty. But PIN-based debit transactions offer added advantages, such as:

* The option to provide cash back to customers, which increases store traffic.
* A fast way to move shoppers through the checkout line.
* Virtual elimination of chargebacks and fraud.
* Higher transaction approval rates.
* Potential for additional revenues from surcharges.

The benefits are clear. With minimal investment, brick-and-mortar merchants can use PIN-based debit transactions to help increase their sales and profits.

But what does the distinction between signature-based and PIN-based debit mean to your business? If you're an Internet merchant, check card acceptance can give you access to buyers who may not qualify for credit cards, such as teenagers. Plus, you receive funds from approved transactions quickly and securely. Perhaps most important, you can accept signature-based debit payments with relative ease because they're processed much like credit card sales.

If you own a business in the physical world, you enjoy the flexibility to process signature-based debit payments as well as PIN-based transactions, which provide increased security and opportunities to generate additional revenues.

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I.Taking the Offline Business Online

By Carrie Hill, Search Engine Watch, Oct 2, 2007
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For a lot of business owners, the decision to expand online is an easy one. On occasion, though, just analyzing the pros and cons can keep you up all night. The process doesn’t have to be that hard. Because I live in a virtual world (I would grocery shop online if I didn’t live in the middle of nowhere), I think it's important for every business to have an online presence.

The reasons for building a Web site can range from generating sales to providing simple information. Let's look at a few questions you should ask yourself as you decide what direction you should go with your Web site.

Optimization? Yes. Yellow Landing Pages? No.

Can you handle an increase in sales? Do you have the staff necessary to fill orders and ensure your customer service is up to par? If you're living in a hyper, fast-paced world, then maybe selling online shouldn’t be your goal. Instead, strive to provide information to your existing customer base: store hours, maps, specials and an e-newsletter subscription form. If you make this information available online, you can even save some time answering phone calls from people asking the questions your Web site answers. You need an easily updatable and small Web site to accomplish this.

Don’t forget the search engine optimization tasks necessary to ensure your clients can find you online. If you're just working to provide information to existing customers, you should be able to be found for queries for your brand or business name. So what's the best way to be found? You've probably been approached by your Yellow Pages provider to build some sort of landing page through them. I generally advise against this -- you can do much better with a simply built site done by someone who understands usability and search engine optimization and rankings.

Some people, including Bill Gates, predict Yellow Pages searches will die off in five years or so. I don’t know if it will be that extreme; what I do know is the ideal domain you should have will probably not be available, or will be very expensive in five years. Do it now -- save some headaches down the road and get in the game early rather than late.

Search Engine Friendly Merchandising

If you want sales from your Web site, make sure your products can be listed in a search engine in user-friendly manner. Navigation should be simple, each product should have its own page, and the checkout process should be smooth and require as little input from you as possible. Ideally, you'll get an email or notice that says, "Mail X to Y and you're done." This type of site will require a bit more of an investment, but in the long run, adding and removing products will be easier, and it will therefore be simpler to keep your product offerings up to date.

Not every Web site is going to convert right from the go-live date. It can happen, but it takes careful preparation and some really good marketing plans to achieve those results. If you plan to use your Web site casually with the purpose of offering phone numbers, product overviews, and a map to your location -- then the return will be realized much more slowly.

Invest Time, Not Just Money

If you need the Web site to convert from the beginning, then you must consider more time investment. Prepare a budget and run some regionally targeted pay-per-click ads or an aggressive email marketing campaign to let everyone know your Web site is live. If you're a dry cleaner in downtown Denver, you want your site structured, optimized, and marketed in a way to ensure you're going to come up in multiple search platforms for "Lodo dry cleaner" or "downtown Denver dry cleaner." Neighborhoods have colloquial names that you must consider. Red Hook in Brooklyn or Union Square in San Francisco would be examples.

Some ideas I really like for local businesses using Web sites would be to promote "Online order & delivery" or "online order & pickup." Supermarkets in bigger cities have a great program wherein you order your groceries online, the staff assembles and packages the product, and it's delivered or you pick it up. Providing convenience to your customers should be your utmost goal, whether you're looking for sales or just looking to answer some questions.
Don't Spoil Your Site. Content Has An Expiration Date.

Honestly -- and I've told hundreds of people this -- if you can't commit the resources and time required to keep your Web site updated and looking fresh, it's not worth the money to get one in the first place. I can drive a million visitors to your site, but if your specials are outdated by six months and you no longer sell 50 percent of the products listed, it's not going to convert into sales, and you're going to spend a lot of time answering phone calls and smoothing ruffled feathers. Your ultimate goal should be a site that you can use, and not pay someone to update it every month.

There can be immense benefits to brining your business online -- there can also be pitfalls. Being prepared for your step into the virtual marketplace can make the transition less painful and more profitable. Ask yourself these questions before you begin the process and have fun with it. If it's a chore, it won't provide the results you're looking for.

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I.Online Marketing: Marketing Offline Business Online

Most of the people I come in contact with are online business owners looking to build their online business. Small, online business is big business and I find it very rewarding. But when I turn off my computer for the day and head outside, I'm reminded that there is an entire world that functions offline. For a long time (practically forever) the offline world has done just fine without the Internet: restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, etc., have all done well without a dot-com behind their name.

But periodically, one or two of these offline businesses approach me and tell me that they want to build their business (what business owner doesn't?) and they'd like to see if there's a way to do it online. I say there is! Here are 6 ways that offline business can promote their businesses online.

1. Website. Some businesses already have websites and do brisk business both online and offline. The first one that comes to mind is a book store that's not too far away from where I live. They have a great venue for book browsers who are spending a sunny afternoon walking around town. And, I've discovered recently, they also have a dot-com behind their name and do well online, sending books all over the world. I believe any business can take advantage of the online opportunities of a website, even if they can't actually transact business online. Take a restaurant, for example. Why not have a site with the restaurant's hours, menu, daily or weekly features, and a little about the head chef? Have a place for people to reserve a table online or even pre-pay for a meal. Include your website in your advertising and offer an online-only special for people who visit your site (that way, you can track your web visitors).

2. Develop a group of sites. Stop thinking like a business owner for a moment and think like a consumer. Let's use the restaurant idea again, since it illustrates a business that can have an online presence even without doing online business. If you are a consumer and want to eat at a restaurant, do you live and breathe for one restaurant? Of course not. You and your friends talk about what restaurants to eat at and narrow it down. If you are an entrepreneurial restaurant owner, why not start a site like RestaurantsInDenver.com (for example) and collect URLs to websites of restaurants in and around Denver. Categorize them in different ways ("family" or "romantic" or "Italian" or "fast food") so that people can decide on a restaurant from one site.

3. Coupons. I've mentioned this idea in a past article for online businesses, but offline businesses have been using coupons since the dawn of time. If your business could do better with coupons, but you don't want to spend a lot on a coupon campaign, consider using the services of an online coupon company like www.myvoucher.com so that you don't have to spend any money on coupons or mailing; you just include the coupon URL into your current print advertising.

4. Yellow pages. There are offline yellow pages that people use fairly frequently but more and more people are online. Make sure that you are in the online Super Pages www.superpages.com and can also be found on sites like www.411.com or other similar online telephone book sites.

5. Google Local. The world's biggest search engine is coming to your neighborhood! If you have not had a chance yet, check out Google Local at http://local.google.com where you'll find maps, satellite images, and directions. You can drill down practically to street level and if you type in your city and search for something (like restaurants, for example, or hardware stores) it will tell you where some of them are. But Google also sells sponsored links for Google Local, so you'll be sure to hit locally targeted clientele who are looking for your business in your city or town.

6. Podcasting or Vidcasting. This is like a free, online subscription to a niche audio or video broadcast. It's like a specialized magazine you can listen to or watch and it comes to your computer regularly. You can easily become a podcaster and take part in this new and growing online phenomenon. Use it to talk about your business. If you're fresh and funny and relevant enough, you may generate local interest and they'll hear or see you every time you make a new show. It's a great cheap (or free) way to talk about your business to a captive audience.

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I.Let me share some of the ways you can save money

With the economy in a recession and the real estate market tanking, real estate agents are having a tough time making ends meet. It's getting harder and harder for us to justify spending money on marketing materials when we don't know when we'll see our next commission check.

The problem, of course, is that if we don't market ourselves, then we'll never generate the new business we so desperately need.

In the past, agents have had great success with standard real estate postcards. Agents typically mail out postcards to neighborhoods and their past clients to generate new listings and new buyers. The downside to these mass mailings is that agents can easily spend thousands of dollars on their mailings with printing and postage costs. That money is gone forever and may never bring in any new leads.

As a high volume real estate agent for the past decade, let me share some of the ways you can save money on real estate postcards here:

Target You Mailings

In the past, my real estate team has sent thousands of postcards out each month to every home in many neighborhoods. To reduce expenses, for more details visit to www.greateducationonline.com we now only target homes that have recently been on the market and couldn't sell (expired/withdrawn) or homes that have not sold in the past 5 years.

While it takes a bit more research time, the savings have been substantial. Spending a few hours researching a neighborhood can save us over ten thousand dollars a year. All we have to do is pull neighborhood data from our title company and recent listing activity from our MLS. This highly targeted marketing has helped us keep our revenue steady and save money on real estate postcards.

Hand Deliver You Postcards

Uncle Sam keeps raising the cost of a postcard. A large 8 x 6 postcard can cost almost a dollar with first class postage. Another way to save money on real estate postcards is to hand deliver them or have your postcards hand delivered by someone else. You can usually find services that hand deliver fliers for about $0.10 a home. Saving over thirty cents a home can add up very quickly.

If you have the time, hand delivering your postcards yourself allows you to meet your potential clients and can help you build relationships in your community. Shaking their hand and giving them a marketing piece can be extremely effective.

Real Estate Postcards Coupons

With all of the agents trying to save money on their real estate postcards, the printing suppliers are feeling the heat. Because of this, for more details visit to www.greateducationonline.com many printers are offering real estate postcard coupons and other deals. Spending an extra 10 minutes using these coupons can save you 10% - 20% on your printing costs!

Besides coupons and ads you may see for your local printers, most of the online printers offer real estate postcard coupons. These deals and discounts can be significant and can help you reach many more clients and spend less of your money.

There are creative ways you can save money on real estate postcards. Don't get frustrated and never give up!

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I.SEO Copyright Service: Helps to achieve higher SE rankings

Copyright protection service is provided to original authors. It is the law to protect their original works of original authors. SEO copyright service is highly essential from search engines point of view. It is considered as one of the most important components of search engine optimization. Search engines always give more priority to unique contents. Hence, webmasters are looking for SEO copyright service to get better search engine ranking.

As a web owner, if you desire to promote your website, then you need to write quality contents to achieve better search engine ranking. As the algorithm changes and search gets more spam free, at that time the actual copyrighted elements of the SEO no longer hold true. But you need to be careful about certain points which can help you to make your SEO Copyright Service successful. Some of the important points are discussed below.

• Always give importance to optimal copy length, because it is considered as one of the important factor to achieve better search engine rankings. Search engines give more importance on overall layout and length of the page. By focusing on this factor you can achieve optimum result.
• While writing content for your website, try to make it theme relevant. Because theme relevant content enhances the overall customer experience for the visitors on your website.
• Keyword density is one of the prime factors in achieving good search engine visibility. It is highly essential for SEO Copyright Service. After selecting the list of targeted keywords, it is important to place them at proper place within your copy.
• Try to adjust your keywords within the content to ensure that your site pages are always up-to-date with the latest versions. During writing copy for search engines you can put your keywords or key phrases in your title tag, headings, descriptions, within the copy, in hyperlinks etc.

After all, there are certain places where we can’t apply this SEO Copyright Service. They are as-

1. You can’t optimize all sites using SEO copy right service. The websites that contains many photos and images can not be optimized using SEO copy-right service.
2. SEO copyright service is a time consuming process. If you don’t have time and capability to do it by yourself, then you would have to hire a professional which can get expensive.
3. If you have selected very competitive keywords for your website, then it could take many pages to get top search results in Google.
4. It is applied to the website that specially contains text.

Finally, it can be suggested that if you really desire to get success in your SEO copyright services, then you should concentrate on the above points.

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I. Internet Marketing & Affiliate Marketing !

Affiliate marketing is an important strategy for successful Internet marketing. Many successful Internet marketers like to work on affiliate products because the marketing networks can be multiplied infinitely. The probability of success is high, and therefore the return is huge. Capital investment needed in affiliate products is minimal, and it saves time to put the products on the Internet compared to producing your own products. This makes it a super Internet marketing strategy.

If you are a newbie and do not have a product ready to promote, then affiliate marketing is where you should start. Affiliate products usually come complete with professionally written sale pages. For more details go to www.impacts-popup.com All you need to do is to sign up as an affiliate and use the link provided to promote the products. It's just that simple. An important step in affiliate marketing is to capture the names and email addresses of your potential customers with an opt-in page before sending them to the affiliate sale page. This way, you build your own list as you promote the products. This wise move kills two birds with one stone.

There are many good affiliate products that offer high commission, between 30% and 50%, available in the Internet market. These are the products you should focus on. Commissions are paid when a sale is done through your affiliate link.

Selling an affiliate product is no different from selling your own product. You need to work on attracting traffic to your site, encourage opt-ins, and increase conversion rates. Offering complimentary e-books, reports, etc., to the visitors in exchange for their email addresses and names is a commonly used marketing strategy that works all the time. As the visitors have no idea who you are, it is vital that you built trust among your members. Therefore, the free materials you offer must be quality materials with value. Do not give people junk, or you will lose the trust you earned.

After you are successful in marketing an affiliate product, it is wise for you to produce similar products of your own and then offer affiliate agreements to others. Now you will have many affiliates working for you without your need to work. All you need to do is split the profit with your affiliate.I need to stress that trust is the basic ingredient to successful affiliate Internet marketing. Therefore, you need to build a good reputation by paying commissions on time and not cheating your affiliates out of what they are entitled to. For more information logon to www.freeearningtips.com .As the owner of the affiliate products, you must have a clear stand that you have zero spam tolerance. Make your antispam policy known when people sign up for your affiliate program, and be strict with your spam policies. Spam can hurt you. It will cost you a fortune should your web site be hit by spam. If the spam problem gets serious and out of hand, it is better that you shut down your site temporarily and clean up immediately. Delete your list and start fresh. Abandoning your list totally is a painful option, but it may be your only choice when you are hit by spam. I suggest that you be vigilant with spam.