Turnkey Business

An Open Letter to Online Ad Networks

by Jonah Stein and Jonathan Hochman

The FTC recently announced guidelines for bloggers that requires that they disclose financial interests, freebies and paid reviews.  This decision is seen as a shot across the bow of pay per post networks and bloggers who are monetizing through affiliate programs.    The FTC has decided that compensation is the reason bloggers choose to write about a particular topic and that readers deserve to be informed about the financial relationship.    The FTC logic is simple, “As much as those bloggers who receive these gifts would like to claim this isn’t the case, freebies like free laptops, trips, or gift cards are likely to influence a writer’s opinion of a product.”

On its face, the policy is defensible.   As crusaders against Virtual Blight, we applaud the intent of this decision.  Anything that raises the barrier to online scams, fraud and abuse even a little bit is a good thing. The FTC provides guidelines for responsible bloggers and theoretically eliminates a couple of the perks for bloggers, but it does virtually nothing to protect against fraud.

Going after bloggers’ compensation to fight online fraud is reminiscent of the RIAA attacks on individual file sharers and is just as likely to succeed. The absurdity of the power and inertia of a government bureaucracy combating individual bloggers is only matched by the ludicrous assumption the government could ever move fast enough to keep up with professional scammers who jump from domain to domain, host to host and country to country with a few mouse clicks.  Prosecution could only be effective against mainstream bloggers with an established brand that are stationary targets, but these bloggers are not the right target.

Getting a proverbial free lunch in exchange for a presumably positive review may create the appearance that some bloggers are shills who lend their prestige and celebrity to their sponsors.  That perception is not unreasonable, but the same charge could be made against almost every athlete, actor, musician or American Idol runner-up who profits from our celebrity culture.

Giving items to celebrities or other tastemakers in return for public exposure is a practice older than the printing press.   If the FTC really wants to send a message about compensated endorsements and freebies, the answer is not to go after the mommy bloggers who get a free 42-pack of diapers.  If the FTC were serious, they would begin arresting every actress wearing a designer gown to the Academy Awards and then round up the studio and network executives who rake in cash for product placements in movies and television shows.

Focus On Fraud

The statistics for online fraud are both staggering and predictable.  Instead of being distracted by the sizzling, sensational charges of payola that re-appear every generation, the industry needs to focus on the billions of dollars of online fraud committed each year.  According to the Center for American Progress, Internet-related consumer complaints are among the top ten in consumer complaints in 2008 and the number one complaint in four states.  These complaints run from auction fraud and non-delivery of ecommerce items to reverse billing scams.

By any definition, the perpetrators of online fraud are not bloggers.  If a review constitutes fraud because the reviewer was provided a free product or had some undisclosed relationship with the company who produced the product, then every journalist with a 401k full of mutual funds needs to hire a good lawyer.  Indeed, if bloggers are guilty of anything it is tabloid journalism — writing low quality content with sensational headlines designed to attract visitors to their site in order to collect advertising revenue.  This may not live up to the highest journalistic standards, but the only crimes are against facts and the English language.

Criminals are the people and companies who create pyramid schemes, networks of spam blogs to sell diet products like Hoodia and Acai Berry cleanse, Google money trees and the myriad so called “free” offers that create recurring charges on your cell phone or credit card.

Criminals are the people who target kids’ sites to distribute Trojans, spyware and adware that infects our computers and tricks people into buying phony anti-virus products.  Most of us have either experienced malware nightmares ourselves or heard a friend’s sad story.  When online fraud is so prevalent, predatory and destructive, why are government resources being committed to pursue advertorial content?

Ad Networks Are the Key

The biggest thing these criminals have in common is that they perpetrate their scams by buying advertising through ad networks. These networks have achieved the scale that makes it efficient for legitimate advertisers to reach millions of consumers and that makes them an ideal vector for scams, abuse and deception.

In an unregulated auction-based advertising market place, fraudulent offers can often pay the highest bids for keywords. In FTC Going After Bloggers – Epic Fail, Aaron observes that ad networks that syndicate ads based on “maximizing yield efficiency“ are well suited to syndicate fraud. Advertisers of scams can afford to pay top dollar for ads because their profit margins are nearly 100%.

Ad networks are morally responsible as collaborators in interstate and international frauds perpetrated upon hundreds of thousands of victims each year.  Google, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and many others are far more culpable in consumers being defrauded than any blogger or network of bloggers.

In False and Deceptive Pay-Per-Click Ads, Harvard’s Ben Edelman estimated that as much as 70% of the revenue generated by some online scams actually wind up in the hands of the search engines.   He estimated in 2006 that Google and Yahoo were making over $200,000 a month from advertisements for screensaver software which contained spyware.  As of July 15, 2009, the top paid search results on Google for “screensaver” contain “add-on features” which include spyware, change your default browser settings, ad toolbars and otherwise aim to monetize by deceiving users.  Adding insult to injury, Edelman observes that many of these adware tools monetize by sending traffic through AdSense and DoubleClick, making Google a silent partner for adware companies like WhenU and Smiley Central.

Fight the Problems that Be

Scams and fraud not only harm the consumer, they foster the perception that the internet is not a safe place, hindering the growth of online business and delaying the transfer of marketing dollars from old media.  Instead of waiting for government agencies to step in and create regulations aimed at yesterday’s scams, as an industry we need to become proactive and develop a cooperative framework for mutual self-defense, a neighborhood watch designed to keep consumers safer while helping law enforcement focus resources on the most serious trouble makers.

The war on online fraud is going to be a huge struggle and one we are unlikely to ever declare victory.  The issues are complex, but the industry could significantly reduce the problem by creating a transparent mechanism to collect user feedback about advertisers.  Search engines and ad networks are quick to endorse behavioral targeting and social recommendations to boost earning per exposure.   For some mysterious reason, they have not applied these innovations to getting user feedback about advertisers.

If the Internet is the cesspool that Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google says it is, one way to start cleaning it up would be to create a public reputation system for advertisers.  This would simultaneously reward honest companies while helping consumers protect themselves against the bad guys.   eBay created public reputations for buyers and sellers many years ago.  Why are advertisers free to operate without scrutiny?

It seems straightforward to build an advertiser rating system to share relevant statistics and user feedback.  Why not provide the tenure of the advertiser, normalized click volume, the percentage of users giving feedback and a ratio of clicks to complaints along with a link to detailed reviews that could surface fraud, misleading advertising and scams?  If comparison shopping engines can do it, why can’t ad networks?

We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we see the problem and its sources. Government agencies need to ask the ad networks why they accept money for promoting fraud.  Ad networks need to grow up and behave like responsible businesses.

Affordable Web Design and Optimization Services

In today’s business, companies large and small need a website and an online presence. Whether you are a large manufacturing company, distributor, a small business run from home, or perhaps considering setting up a small business, a website will bring new clients to your business and give you the opportunity to attract new clients and new business opportunities. Our Ecommerce business website designs have you in mind.

It is important that any small business website design gives prospective clients the right impression of your company and presents your company as a professional, competent business. To do this your website must convey such an image and Identity and will only do so if it is professionally designed itself.

Selecting the right website design company is an important factor when setting up a new site and ideally it will be the start of a long relationship, so you need to feel comfortable with your website designer and ensure they will always be available when you need them.

The majority of our clients are home based small businesses. We have helped many of them set up new sites, often from the smallest pieces of information, such as letterheads for example. It’s one thing knowing you need a website, but another matter trying to find the time to decide what it should look like and what it should contain. We can take most of the strain from you in that department and help to point you in the right direction. With our integrated SEO, SEM, Landing Page Optimization and Conversions Help we can bring you to the top by creating a quality website and help achieve a high ranking for your site in Google, Yahoo and other Search Engines through personal training.

Add value to your business. Your company website may be the first point of contact with your clients, it is a natural thing to search for products and services on the internet these days and your website could bring you new business and new clients.  However, you should consider how a professional looking website will stimulate sales further than a ‘home made’ web site and present that all important first impression to prospective clients.

Cost is obviously one of the main concerns with any new venture and as a small business we appreciate this. Our small business web design packages are very affordable and we will keep you on budget. We have a range of solutions available for the small business owner, so if you would like any advice or information please feel free to contact us for small business advice under no obligation.

Interested? Then in the first instance please contact us (rwcasandra@turnkeydropshipbusiness.com) and ask for a free quote for your project, under no obligation. We also offer free after sales support and free Limited alterations after completion. Our other services include ecommerce solutions, logo design,  Blogs, Forums, search engine optimization and marketing, Data conversion solutions and Pre-built Turnkey Dropship Business’s.

Thanks, R.W. Casandra

Amazing World Stats Video

Check out the video. Did You Know? 3.0 (Official Video) -2009 Edition United States, China, Japan, India Comparison and Stats plus much more….

If you are having a problem veiwing here is Direct Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHmwZ96_Gos

Amazon Payments Announces Integrations with Leading Shopping Cart and E-commerce Solution Providers

Twitter Reaches New Heights

More people are tweeting than ever before, research firm comScore reports—and this could benefit e-merchants.

Twitter saw significant growth in March, increasing by 131 percent to 9.3 million visitors in the U.S. alone—and 19 million worldwide. The actual numbers may be even higher, as comScore’s analysis only counts visitors to Twitter’s Web site, not those who interact with the service using desktop or mobile clients.

The microblogging site allows people to stay connected with others by answering one question: “What are you doing?” But e-merchants and other businesses are using the tool to promote their businesses and products. That’s because sellers can tweet to tell customers about special promotions and sales, says Auctiva marketing specialist Stephanie Seufert.

A tweet, or status update, can be about virtually any subject, as long as it’s expressed in 140 characters or less.

“Twitter is quickly becoming a go-to tool for businesses looking to capitalize on the community-building aspect of the Internet,” Seufert says. “It has a simple format; it’s easy to manage and it’s a medium that is being adapted across all industries. Users are finding innovative ways to utilize it.”

People ages 45 to 54 represent the largest group tweeting, according to comScore, accounting for 36 percent of users. Ages 25 to 34 make up 30 percent of users.

“The skew toward older visitors, although perhaps initially surprising for the social media site, actually makes more sense than you might think at first,” notes comScore blogger Sarah Radwanick. “With so many businesses using Twitter, along with the first generations of Internet users ‘growing up’ and comfortable with technology, this is a sign that the early-adopter model might need to be revisited.”

Older demographics have also begun frequenting other social-networking sites such as Facebook, another source for promoting sellers’ online businesses.

Seufert started Auctiva’s own Twitter account in February and posts updates several times a week, informing people about everything from how the company’s softball team performed the night before, to links to articles to help Auctiva users improve their e-commerce businesses. Click on the links to follow Auctiva and Auctiva Commerce on Twitter.

Some businesses have several different Twitter feeds, notes Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder. Dell has 80 and about 11,000 people who follow the feeds. Companies have also started following Twitter users to see what people are saying about them.

Since last February, the number of Twitter users has increased 700 percent, comScore reports. The mainstream media may be one of the reasons for the site’s massive growth, since celebrities and news organizations are giving Twitter a lot of publicity, reports say.

“It seems you can’t get through a typical newscast anymore without some mention of Twitter,” writes Andrew Lipsman, a blogger for comScore. “You might have heard that Newt Gingrich levied criticism of President Obama’s response to the Somali pirate standoff over Twitter.”

Thanks To Auctiva

Don’t Get Taken by a Fake Wholesale Supplier!

We grabbed this article Written by: Chris Malta
to keep you aware and to inform you of potential “fake” suppliers out there. I know a few people that got mixed up in these systems for large amounts  of money.

Written by: Chris Malta
If you want to start your Home-based Internet Business for very little money, you need Wholesale Suppliers who Drop Ship.
 
 Why? Because working with drop shippers eliminates the need for you to carry expensive inventories. You don’t have to rent a warehouse, hire employees, establish accounts with UPS and FedEx, etc. You can sell the best brand names on earth from your home computer, and make good money at it.

Wholesale Suppliers who drop ship send the products you sell directly from their warehouse to your customer, with your business name on it. All you do it take the order from your customer and pass it to the distributor. You keep the difference between the wholesale price the distributor charges you, and the retail price you sell to your customer for.

Of course, there are a lot of places out there that want you to THINK they are wholesale drop shippers. They’ll set up accounts with, say, 10 real drop ship suppliers. Then they’ll call themselves something like “GetYerStuffHere.com”, and claim that THEY are the wholesale drop ship supplier. Then it’ll go like this:

1. GetYerStuffHere.com will place advertising all over the Internet proclaiming to be the greatest source that ever existed for all kinds of great products, and they’ll drop ship all those products to your customer.

2. You’ll get all excited because YOU can actually place everything from Sony electronics to Coleman Camping gear on your web site and sell it.

3. GetYerStuffHere.com will charge you an account setup fee, to cover their “processing”. (Note: REAL Wholesale Suppliers almost NEVER charge you an account setup fee).

4. GetYerStuffHere.com will send you a nice, shiny list of products and show you where to get the product images and descriptions to place on your web site.

5. You’ll get all excited, and put all this great stuff on your site, set your prices so that you can make a profit over what GetYerStuffHere.com.

6. You’ll launch your site, and you hardly sell a thing.

Huh? What happened? Nobody’s buying! You can’t survive on just a few orders a month!

Disappointed and discouraged, you start to go out and check other web sites that carry the same products. Maybe they have better images. Maybe they have cooler descriptions. Maybe their pages look nicer. You find that it’s none of those things. So what DO you find?

The other sites’ PRICES are lower. A LOT lower.

You just got nailed by one of the most popular scams on the Internet.

GetYerStuffHere.com took you for a couple of hundred dollars in exchange for a CD full of product images. They may have even locked you into a contract where you have to pay them every month to be a “member” of their “distributorship”.

Oh, GetYerStuffHere.com DOES ship the products they claim to. Of course they do. It’s just that when they get an order from you, they turn around and place your order with the REAL Wholesale Supplier, and take a profit. By the time YOUR price is calculated, you’re paying not only wholesale, you’re paying GetYerStuffHere.com’s extra markup of anywhere from 10% to 30%.

In order for YOU to make a profit, you naturally have to mark up the prices you get from GetYerStuffHere.com. By the time you do that, you can’t compete on the ‘Net. Your prices are just too high.

At this point, you can do one of two things:

1. You can lower your prices to the point where you’re making mere pennies on your products in order to compete.

2. You can bypass these jokers and go to the REAL sources.

I’ve been in Systems Engineering for 19 years. I’ve been involved in ECommerce since it began. In that time, I’ve seen this scenario played out over and over with companies I’ve done work for.

The real sources can be hard to find. They don’t market themselves as Internet Wholesale Supplier. They are established wholesale companies who have been supplying big chains like Sears and Kmart for a very long time.

Many of them are now realizing that a good part of their future lies in Internet sales, and they are establishing drop ship and light bulk wholesale programs. There are even a few big name manufacturers who are beginning to supply Home-based Internet Businesses right from their factories. That’s where YOU need to be. In direct contact with the actual Wholesale Supplier or factory source.

When you’re looking for a drop shipper, here are a couple of things to be careful of:

1. Any company that tells you that they’ll set up your entire web site AND PROVIDE THE PRODUCTS FOR YOU will NOT make you rich. They’ll make THEMSELVES rich on your setup and hosting fees, and you’ll piddle along with thousands of other small sites all selling exactly the same things at the same prices.

(NOTE: Don’t confuse this with companies who just offer to set up your ECommerce web site. There are a lot of great places out there that will build and host sites for you. It’s when they tell you that you HAVE to sell the products that THEY provide that you should run for cover.)

2. Any distributor who wants you to pay a “membership” or “setup” fee is probably not a true Wholesale Supplier.

3. If it sounds too good to be true, it’s too good to be true.
Written by: Chris Malta

Stop Donating your Money to the IRS!

Why? Why Donate Your Money to IRS?

As a tax consultant for over 25 years I get surprised by the approach of many people towards tax planning.
In fact, for Americans, taxes are their number one expense – usually exceeding payments for food, lodging, clothing and transportation together. According to the IRS, Americans and Business owners generally overpay $320,000,000 a year in excess tax! So you may be paying more taxes than you are required to!
Still most of the people want to keep away from planning their tax strategies. They just leave it to their accountant. They are prepared to spend hours on phone for a $50 overcharge by credit card Company, but they are not prepared to spend even a few minutes to learn simple, yet valuable tips to save thousands of dollars from their taxes!
Its time to wake up and keep aside your misconceptions about tax planning.

Understand the little known tax secrets!
My approach is easy as pie. Everything is explained with the help of examples, pictures and no technical analysis involved.
 If you are doing a business from home, full time or part time, you can deduct, with proper documentation, your household expenses, your business vacations, your car expenses and food with colleagues if you can combine it with appropriate amount of business.
 
 How to deduct medical expenses of you and your spouse; how to deduct education and even wedding expenses of your children from your business!
 
 Your car is a tax deduction machine! You are usually qualified to claim a tax deduction for the use of your personal vehicle for business purposes.
 
 How to convert your cruise vacation into a deductible business expense? This is an excellent way of mixing business with pleasure.
 
 You can claim a big part of your home related expenses – insurance (homeowners and mortgage), repairs and maintenance, utilities and services, depreciation, security system, rent (if you don’t own your home) etc. towards business use. These expenses you are already paying as home expenses!
 
 Yes, you can deduct expenses on fun! Learn how to claim the cost of entertaining business contacts at nightclubs, restaurants, theaters, sporting events, hunting, fishing etc.
 
 How to shield yourself from the IRS weapon of classifying a business as a hobby?
 
 Your lunches and dinners with colleagues and associates can be considered ‘a deductible business expense’!
 
 Your personal travel expenses (even overseas) can be converted into business expense!
 
‘Stop Donating Your Money to IRS’ is so fat with resources, hundreds of tips and suggestions on all the above topics, that the only way to truly understand the power of it is to experience it.

Dropshipping or stocking and why is it important to you?

Along with good customer service, finding the right products to offer to the public is probably one of the most significant challenges for those wanting to sell on eBay, amazon or any other online business. The main goal is to buy at low prices and to sell high. Of course, the majority of people just starting out on eBay begin by selling their own personal goods, all of that generally surplus merchandise they have in the attic, garage or basement. This is a good route to take with eBay, as it will help you to become familiar with the basics of listing, shipping, pictures, description writing and general customer service but at some point you will have an empty home if you keep moving in this direction.

When the house is empty you will need to find more items to sell. Many sellers will spend Saturday and Sunday searching around garage sales and flea markets, looking for merchandise and it soon becomes apparent that this it taking up a lot of time and money although I have found a lot of great things that I decided to keep for myself. What you really need is to find a wholesaler where you can buy in bulk at inexpensive prices and make your mark up on eBay then box and ship yourself. Search the items you want to sell for sales numbers before purchasing for stock. You do not want to get stuck with this stuff. Buy wisely.

 When you have decided to start trading seriously on eBay, amazon or with any other online retailing business, there are some things to remember about the businesses where you are likely to be buying your stock.

·         Have a Business corporation, llc, partnership or sole proprietor set up.

·         Make sure your paperwork to purchase wholesale is in order, since this will be required by the supplier.

·         The wholesaler will provide you with all of the necessary information for you to buy from him with confidence.

·         Have your merchant account in place whether it is paypal or credit card processing center.

·         Search, Search and do more Searching, do as much research as possible. Be Confident in the items you choose.

After you have some of the basics covered you should have a great start on your online adventure. Good Luck!

eBay Wants Its Sellers Back. A bit late?

If you are new to EBAY then the past has not affected you. I was an EBAY seller for years and I was slowly getting discouraged by management with every day that past. Last year EBAY changed direction and new visions came aboard which had effected sellers they made there empire from. Do some searches and you can find the history. Now I use ebay as an advertising platform rather than sole income. I set out to lose “x” amount of $ – dollars – $ every month but the traffic to my site gains it three times back, not always but most months it does. Dont get me wrong I am not telling you EBAY is completely no good but it works for everyone different.

Thanks R.W. Casandra

See this article from webpronews.com

eBay Wants Its Sellers Back

By Chris Crum – Mon, 01/26/2009 – 3:49pm.

Makes Feedback and Payment Policy Changes

Early last year, eBay inflicted some damaging policy changes that sent many sellers running for the hills. Now, they apparently are changing the rules to remove negative comments left by customers towards the sellers.

A couple months ago I talked to a number of eBay sellers, and all but one of them told me that eBay’s feedback policy was their biggest frustration. It now seems that eBay has decided to hear the howls of disgust from its users that have been going on for the majority of the past year. Ecommerce Journal reports:

The move to change the Feedback policy was prompted by numerous requests made by the cross-border sellers who received negative comments from customers while there wasn’t actual fault with the merchants. Now eBay will be removing feedback if: the listing meets the Customs Requirements and/or the seller receives a negative or neutral Feedback comment, which references customs delays or customs fees. Merchants in turn are obliged to advise the buyers that import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer’s responsibility.

There was also a lot of frustration about eBay’s payment policy. Many were enraged by the favoritism showed to eBay-owned PayPal. eBay will reportedly now be adding Moneybookers and PayMate as acceptable methods of payment starting next month.

eBay users have been quite vocal in their displeasure with the famous auction site. It seems unlikely that many of them that have been so passionate will be willing to go back to eBay just because they finally acknowledged these issues. But the brand power that eBay carries does pull a lot of weight. Are you (or were you) an eBay seller? What do you think?

Welcome Entrepreneur!

Turnkeydropshipbusiness.com. Is a turnkey internet business worth your time? It really depends on the level of your personal web business skills. If you do not have any online web development skills such as web page creation, blog posting, setting up hosting accounts etc, a turnkey online business may be right for you. If you’ve been on the Internet for a while, you would have seen many of those turnkey Internet business opportunities all over the place. If you have been tired of all the get rich quick schemes in the market today then it is time you start reading the information here.

With so many online business opportunities on the web, how do you choose the best one for you? The best place to start is to evaluate the various types that are available. Are you looking for a way to make some extra income? Since the dawn of the Internet, entrepreneurs have found ways to use the World Wide Web to generate income from home. The Internet is a natural as a home based business. If you want to get involved in internet marketing but don’t know html, sql, or php or how to set up a website, then an internet turnkey business may be your answer for you. With a turnkey online business all of the “heavy lifting” has been done for you in most cases. So if you want to leave the technical aspects of setting up and maintaining a website to others, don’t want to worry about processing orders and dealing with customer service issues, then an internet turnkey business may be your answer.

Evaluate each opportunity and choose the one that works best for your personal business style. Most entrepreneurs purchase a turnkey business because of the ease of start-up. The learning curve is extremely long and difficult when starting a business from the ground up, and can be lessened a great deal with this type of assistance. Many people want to start a home business, but never do because of the hassles and start-up costs. As with any new business, a home based business can have unforeseen expenses and problems. We will be providing you with helpfull information, do’s and dont’s, what to watch out for, and overall make sure you are in the correct direction for your expertise for you to learn and use as a guide to a home based turnkey wholesale dropship business.