Monday, February 27, 2012
'Ties the Season Not To Be Jolly
'Ties the Season Not To Be Jolly
Summary:
Climate changes seem to affect many people and they just can't understand why they tend to feel gloomy and miserable. This mood disorder is called winter depression, or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which occurs during the months of November to February.
Keywords:
Depression, treatment, therapy, well-being, mental health
During the months of November to February, the days start getting shorter and colder, and the nights longer and darker. Climate changes seem to affect many people and they just can't understand why they tend to feel gloomy and miserable. This mood disorder is called winter depression, or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
According to Norman E. Rosenthal, the doctor who coined the term SAD in 1984, winter depression has a sound medical basis that involves changes in the body's mood centers brought on by shorter daylight hours and a lack of sunlight. Most depressive illness sufferers experience a sense of utter isolation and loneliness. But the fact that many people go through the same grumpiness during this time of the year provides a sense of comfort and assurance that they are not alone. As the cliché goes “misery loves company.”
Based on statistics of SAD Association, 500,000 people in the United Kingdom experience some form of winter depression, while doctors have estimated that 20% of the population, or almost 2 million people, are affected in Sweden by this condition.
One of the most effective and clinically proven treatments for SAD is “light therapy”, which has been shown to benefit some 80-85 percent of SAD cases. Simple as it may sound, the treatment actually involves more than just turning on a light and sitting beside it while twiddling your thumbs as you wait for that renewed energy to “power up” your whole well-being.
The average domestic or office light emits a paltry 200-500 lox (a lox is a unit of luminance,) whereas a minimum of 2,500 lox is required to alleviate the symptoms of SAD. In comparison, a clear summer's day can reach an intensity of 100,000 lox.
Based on these specs, a number of specially designed light boxes have been invented that emit precisely the right amount of illumination. Symptoms of SAD gradually subside by sitting in front of one for about 30 minutes to several hours, depending on the severity of the condition.
Light therapy may be the best treatment for SAD as far as symptoms are concerned. However, addressing the root causes of the condition may involve both anti-depressant drugs and psychotherapy treatments especially for those with severe symptoms.
Studies have shown that the incidence of SAD increases dramatically as you go 30 degrees of latitude further north or south, as the condition is virtually unheard of in the tropical countries. A movement or vacation trip to these countries in the equator may sound impractical but can definitely improve ones mood and well-being.
Watching movies that feature warm, sunny, summery climates show demonstrable improvements in mood. Research shows that any film with clear blue cloudless skies, palm trees and an absence of snow should qualify for a movie therapy.
The same mood-enhancing effect may result by simply watching outdoor sports like cricket or golf. However, over-exposure to snooker, darts, and indoor bowling has been found to bring on a state of depressive, trance-like catatonia that, in severe cases, culminates in complete mental health breakdown.
More sunshine
Chauncey Penfold
The Elder Guru
337-856-9461
1019 Fortune Rd
Youngsville,La 70592
skype chauncey.penfold
chauncey201@gmail.com
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
"DNA Diets" : Junk Scien?
Summery
Dieting and weight loss products and programs are such a big budget, big profit business today. We've all heard dozens of sales pitches for diet and weight loss products, plans, books, and other items that will supposedly help us miraculously lose that extra weight we've gained with the least amount of effort possible.
Keywords:
dna, diet, diets, genetic, fad, weight, loss, plan, scam, fraud
Copyright 2006 Danna Schneider
Dieting and weight loss products and programs are such a big budget, big profit business today. We've all heard dozens of sales pitches for diet and weight loss products, plans, books, and other items that will supposedly help us miraculously lose that extra weight we've gained with the least amount of effort possible.
Each of these programs, books and products also usually tout themselves as being based "unique" and strongly backed science and technology.
These hyped diet aids range anywhere from diet supplements that claim to burn fat and/or blast calories away, help to suppress the appetite, or even help to block carbs and fat from even entering the blood stream and being stored as fat or extra weight. But how do we as consumers really know that any of this will actually work?
One of these so called scientifically based diet fads, which cost a fairly lofty sum of money, called the DNA Diet, has recently been in the news for allegedly preying on customers for astronomical sums of money. The company which sells this idea is currently under government investigation for misleading consumers.
The DNA "kits" the company sells online are for swabbing the inside of your mouth and sending it in for "DNA analysis", along with an accompanying recommendation for your personally tailored diet.
The cost may be anywhere from $499 to $1,000, and a full year of this diet advice and accompanying diet supplements can cost you upwards of $1,800.
Investigators say there is not even any scientific proof that this method of diet advice and supplementation or anyalysis works, further casting doubt on the companies that offer this service.
This particular company also offers expensive diet supplements which are mostly made of concentrated vitamins, some of which analysts claim may actually cause more harm than good due to their high dosages.
Not only that, analysis done on the supplements showed there was no difference in the formula even when different DNA was sent in, so the idea that the supplements themselves are "custom tailored" genetically is assumed to be false.
The investigators created fourteen fake customers and purchased the DNA analysis kits from four different websites. They filled out the accompanying questionnaires with varied client information, such as different lifestyles, age brackets, etc,. All questionnaires were paired with the DNA sample of an infant girl and a grown male.
The advice varied greatly, the first sign this was an unreliable or simply fake analysis, and many of the pieces of advice received contained generalities such as smoking leads to heart disease and other already well known facts.
The investigation is ongoing, and there has been no announcement whether the company will be forced to close or change their methods and practices.
This is a perfect example of why a consumer must be vigilant when purchasing or researching any claims of diet products, or any other self improvement products for that matter. You never know when the next phony product might come along.
Be sure before you buy
Chauncey Penfold
The Elder Guru
337-856-9461
1019 Fortune Rd
Youngsville,La 70592
skype chauncey.penfold
chauncey201@gmail.com
Friday, February 17, 2012
3 Keys to Living Well
Summary:
In your mind, what does Living Well mean to you? As they say, if you can dream it you can achieve it. However, a vivid imagination in and of itself does not lead to getting what you want. You also have to take supportive, concrete actions.
In your mind, what does Living Well mean to you? Does it mean you have plenty of money to do whatever you want? Does it mean you get to spend your time as you wish? Does living well conjure up the image of beautiful cars and homes and luxurious vacations?
As they say, if you can dream it you can achieve it. However, a vivid imagination in and of itself does not lead to getting what you want. You also have to take supportive, concrete actions. In order to live well, it may be necessary for you to do some things differently then you're doing today. Below is a list of three key points to keep in mind if you have the desire to live well but have no idea how to actually start doing so.
1. Learn How to Live Well
If you've never actually lived well, it may seem like a big leap to do so. But what if you could learn how to live well? You can!
There are dozens, if not hundreds of books, CD's and other helpful sources of information which will teach how to get what you want. In fact, the entire personal growth/self-help industry is founded on the intention of helping people live better than they are today.
For example: If you dream of making a lot of money, but today you're barely scraping by, there are several excellent books, CD's and seminars that will help you learn how to make a lot of money.
Another example: If you dream of traveling the world, there are hundreds of books and publications that will show you how to travel the world, either on a budget or luxuriously.
The point here is if you want something, there is a way to get it. You just have to learn how to get it. Invest in yourself and your dreams. You and they are worth the time and money you'll spend doing so.
2. Create Rich Life Experiences
Life is really just a series of experiences. Some experiences we learn and grow from and others set us back. Other experiences make us feel fantastic and some leave us feeling stressed out.
Instead of waiting for great experiences to fall in your lap, create your own rich life experiences.
Rich Life Experiences are experiences you create for yourself from a state of purpose. In other words, you decide what kind of experience you wish to have and then you make it happen!
For instance, if you're someone who loves fine wines, create opportunities for yourself to learn more about different kinds of wines. Visit local wine tasting events and when you out grow that experience plan a trip to California's wine country or take a class from a world renowned wine expert!
Rich life experiences occur when you take something you're passionate about and find ways in which you can fully immerse yourself in your passion.
Creating rich life experiences for yourself will allow you to live life fully.
3. Keep Life Simple
LIVING WELL does not equal DOING MORE. On the contrary, living well may require you to cut way back and focus your time and attention on just a few select parts of your life.
Two great questions that will help you keep it simple are:
What do I really want? And,
If I could do anything, be anything or have anything I wanted, what would I do, be or have?
Now, brainstorm a list of at least 25 things. Then see if there are groups of themes in your list. For example, if you write down you want to travel to Paris, Africa and China; you can group all of these together under TRAVEL!
The themes you see on your list will give you a place to start focusing your attention.
Focusing your attention will give you more energy to do the things you really want to do because you won't be pulled in too many directions doing things you don't really want to do.
For maximum efficiency, pick only two or three things from your list to focus your attention on at any given time and then give those few things your all!
You can live well. Decide what living well means to you, learn how to get what you want, create rich life experiences for yourself and keep life simple.
TO YOUR SUCCESS
Chauncey Penfold
The Elder Guru
337-856-9461
1019 Fortune Rd
Youngsville,La 70592
skype chauncey.penfold
chauncey201@gmail.com
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
A Closer Look at Micropayments
During the early days of the Internet, most of the contents found online are provided for free, either by different institutions or universities. As the years go by, the Internet has experienced various innovations. One major factor in the evolution of the Internet is the consumers’ ability to purchase, sell and advertise products and services, a concept that is more commonly referred to as “e-Commerce”.
As the popularity of the Internet continuously grows, it is only natural for the content providers to start looking for different ways of making money from the content that they publish online. Basically, there are three ways for users to earn money from content; one is through advertising. Here, the content is available for free; however it comes with certain ads or links to their sponsor sites.
Another way for content providers to make money is by charging subscriptions, wherein consumers are required to pay a certain amount in exchange for access to the content for a certain period of time. The downside to the subscription model is that it only offers one choice to the consumer – either they do not pay the subscription and thus get no content or pay a substantial fee to get all the content. Oftentimes, this kind of choice led the consumers to move on to sites that offer content for free. Meanwhile, the third form of revenue is through donations that are solicited by the content providers themselves.
However, in 1998 a fourth form of revenue was proposed – the micropayment system. The concept of micropayments would not die down completely, nor would it fully come to life. What are micropayments, exactly? Micropayment is generally defined as the means of transferring small amounts of money (usually in pennies, nickel or dimes), usually in purchasing digital contents like music, movies, games and others.
Since charging such small amounts through the customary payment system like credit cards is impractical, the micropayment system is a viable option for those websites that wish to go "micro". The main objective of micropayments is to target a high volume of consumers by offering content at a relatively low price. It is also usual for micropayment systems to accumulate several payments and then charge it in one regular payment.
Most micropayments advocates firmly believe that the micropayment system is the solution to the free rider problem for those sites that are solely dependent on advertising. As for websites that are charging subscription fees, micropayments will be a viable alternative in order to increase the number of their consumers.
However, regardless of all the benefits that micropayment systems seem to offer, its popularity among the consumers did not quite catch on for quite a time. This is mainly due to the pressing disadvantages that micropayment detractors are quick to point out. Most micropayment system detractors insist that micropayments would cause inconvenience rather than convenience to consumers. How so? The most popular argument used is the "mental transaction cost".
What does mental transaction cost mean? Well, this is where a consumer stops and thinks twice whether the content is actually worth the price, regardless of how small the price is. This could cut down the number of your customer, since more people are likely to opt for free content.
The people pushing micropayments believe that the dollar cost of goods is the thing most responsible for deflecting readers from buying content, and that a reduction in price to micropayment levels will allow creators to begin charging for their work without deflecting readers.
Another possible drawback to using micropayment systems is that it requires the consumer to use major credit cards. Remember that Internet consumers are quite diverse in age; therefore, you cannot assume that all of them would have credit cards. Since teenagers are under the legal age, they do not have credit cards. Moreover, even among those consumers living in highly developed countries, not everyone has a credit card, and borrowing someone else’s credit card just to read a certain article in the Internet would prove to be a big inconvenience. Simply put, micropayment systems could very well alienate those consumers who do not have credit cards.
So with all these disadvantages, why do we need micropayments? With the growing demand for ethereal products (like information) in global economies and their immediate delivery at a low cost, the customary payment methods seemed to be impractical. Since most information found online (Web pages, Web links, etc.) cost barely a penny, the cost of charging in the usual payment method would turn out to be more expensive than the actual product. Thus, micropayment is a viable alternative.
A lot of content providers agreed that micropayments offer them the opportunity to regain the cost of online publishing, even possibly make money, that is, if they are popular enough. At present, content providers see their online popularity as a disadvantage since their popularity requires them to pay for large amounts of bandwidth. Another benefit that micropayment systems offer content providers is the opportunity to be completely free from sponsorship and advertising, which offers them more independence. Without advertising the provider could concentrate on publishing materials that interests their consumers instead of what interests their advertisers.
Micropayment systems are showing signs of recovery recently, what with the launching of Apple’s iTunes $0.99 a-song, the model is finally showing some signs of life. Furthermore, reports on the state of the paid content market shows that, content purchases below $5 increased 707% in 2002. A veritable accomplishment, since it made a seven-fold leap from virtually nothing.
Although, millions of people find the notion of purchasing $.99 songs at iTunes attractive, Apple’s administrators themselves admitted that most consumers still prefer purchasing larger album packages instead of the per song purchases. After all, Internet users do not purchase content as if they were a piece of candy. Some micropayment solutions even admit that their customers are loading less money into their accounts than what they initially expect which means that a considerable barrier still remains. Now, whether the micropayment system will eventually find success this time around or not will still depend on the consumers’ behavior, a hurdle that is yet to be crossed.
To Your success
The Elder Guru
Chauncey Penfold
337-856-9461
skype chauncey.penfold
.vacation-4-free
As the popularity of the Internet continuously grows, it is only natural for the content providers to start looking for different ways of making money from the content that they publish online. Basically, there are three ways for users to earn money from content; one is through advertising. Here, the content is available for free; however it comes with certain ads or links to their sponsor sites.
Another way for content providers to make money is by charging subscriptions, wherein consumers are required to pay a certain amount in exchange for access to the content for a certain period of time. The downside to the subscription model is that it only offers one choice to the consumer – either they do not pay the subscription and thus get no content or pay a substantial fee to get all the content. Oftentimes, this kind of choice led the consumers to move on to sites that offer content for free. Meanwhile, the third form of revenue is through donations that are solicited by the content providers themselves.
However, in 1998 a fourth form of revenue was proposed – the micropayment system. The concept of micropayments would not die down completely, nor would it fully come to life. What are micropayments, exactly? Micropayment is generally defined as the means of transferring small amounts of money (usually in pennies, nickel or dimes), usually in purchasing digital contents like music, movies, games and others.
Since charging such small amounts through the customary payment system like credit cards is impractical, the micropayment system is a viable option for those websites that wish to go "micro". The main objective of micropayments is to target a high volume of consumers by offering content at a relatively low price. It is also usual for micropayment systems to accumulate several payments and then charge it in one regular payment.
Most micropayments advocates firmly believe that the micropayment system is the solution to the free rider problem for those sites that are solely dependent on advertising. As for websites that are charging subscription fees, micropayments will be a viable alternative in order to increase the number of their consumers.
However, regardless of all the benefits that micropayment systems seem to offer, its popularity among the consumers did not quite catch on for quite a time. This is mainly due to the pressing disadvantages that micropayment detractors are quick to point out. Most micropayment system detractors insist that micropayments would cause inconvenience rather than convenience to consumers. How so? The most popular argument used is the "mental transaction cost".
What does mental transaction cost mean? Well, this is where a consumer stops and thinks twice whether the content is actually worth the price, regardless of how small the price is. This could cut down the number of your customer, since more people are likely to opt for free content.
The people pushing micropayments believe that the dollar cost of goods is the thing most responsible for deflecting readers from buying content, and that a reduction in price to micropayment levels will allow creators to begin charging for their work without deflecting readers.
Another possible drawback to using micropayment systems is that it requires the consumer to use major credit cards. Remember that Internet consumers are quite diverse in age; therefore, you cannot assume that all of them would have credit cards. Since teenagers are under the legal age, they do not have credit cards. Moreover, even among those consumers living in highly developed countries, not everyone has a credit card, and borrowing someone else’s credit card just to read a certain article in the Internet would prove to be a big inconvenience. Simply put, micropayment systems could very well alienate those consumers who do not have credit cards.
So with all these disadvantages, why do we need micropayments? With the growing demand for ethereal products (like information) in global economies and their immediate delivery at a low cost, the customary payment methods seemed to be impractical. Since most information found online (Web pages, Web links, etc.) cost barely a penny, the cost of charging in the usual payment method would turn out to be more expensive than the actual product. Thus, micropayment is a viable alternative.
A lot of content providers agreed that micropayments offer them the opportunity to regain the cost of online publishing, even possibly make money, that is, if they are popular enough. At present, content providers see their online popularity as a disadvantage since their popularity requires them to pay for large amounts of bandwidth. Another benefit that micropayment systems offer content providers is the opportunity to be completely free from sponsorship and advertising, which offers them more independence. Without advertising the provider could concentrate on publishing materials that interests their consumers instead of what interests their advertisers.
Micropayment systems are showing signs of recovery recently, what with the launching of Apple’s iTunes $0.99 a-song, the model is finally showing some signs of life. Furthermore, reports on the state of the paid content market shows that, content purchases below $5 increased 707% in 2002. A veritable accomplishment, since it made a seven-fold leap from virtually nothing.
Although, millions of people find the notion of purchasing $.99 songs at iTunes attractive, Apple’s administrators themselves admitted that most consumers still prefer purchasing larger album packages instead of the per song purchases. After all, Internet users do not purchase content as if they were a piece of candy. Some micropayment solutions even admit that their customers are loading less money into their accounts than what they initially expect which means that a considerable barrier still remains. Now, whether the micropayment system will eventually find success this time around or not will still depend on the consumers’ behavior, a hurdle that is yet to be crossed.
To Your success
The Elder Guru
Chauncey Penfold
337-856-9461
skype chauncey.penfold
.vacation-4-free
Friday, February 10, 2012
A Guide to Online Payment Processors
Summary:
‘Free’ Accounts or Merchant Accounts?
Anyone who does business online (and actually takes money from other people) must, at some point, bite the bullet and choose a credit card processing company – this can be quite an expensive decision.
There are effectively two different ways of going about this; you can either go for the free accounts or the specific merchant accounts.
But what is there to distinguish the two? After all they both allow you to accept a payment...
Keywords:
Credit card processing, storm pay, PayPal
‘Free’ Accounts or Merchant Accounts?
Anyone who does business online (and actually takes money from other people) must, at some point, bite the bullet and choose a credit card processing company – this can be quite an expensive decision.
There are two different ways of going about this; you can either go for the free accounts or the specific merchant accounts.
But what is there to distinguish the two? After all they both allow you to accept a payment from a credit card holder right?
Well yes, they both allow you to accept payments from people with credit cards – but there are some underlying and fundamental differences that you should be aware of.
Lets have a look at merchants accounts (ICann, WorldPay or 2Checkout – just as examples), when you register with one of these guys you will have to provide information relating to your business and prove that you are actually a registered business.
You will also have to pay a setup fee, from personal experience I know that this can be in the order of several hundred dollars, you will also pay a yearly subscription or support fee – again this is typically a couple of hundred dollars a year.
You might think that this is OK – but don’t forget you are also paying a percentage of the transaction value; this can be anything up 4.75%.
From this information alone we can see that for the little guy this is quite a high cost – especially if you’re just starting out and you don’t even know if your product/service is going to take off.
There are also other things that you need to be aware of when looking at professional merchant accounts, for instance 2Checkout will, from time to time try and actually call your customers (a selection of) and verify that the goods have arrived – if they can not do this then they will potentially refund ALL currently held sales.
I mention this as I was made aware of 2CO’s operating policy (this morning) by one of my fellow online marketers – this guy lost $5,000 because 2CO phoned the wrong person and lets face it, once you’Ave delivered the products and given a refund how many people are going to say ‘Yes, here are my credit card details again’ – not very likely – and then cancelled the merchants account without so much as saying sorry.
So in other words make sure you read the fine print – there is typically stuff in there which is not really in your interest.
Anyway, that’s enough about merchant accounts, now lets consider the free accounts – and the first thing to be aware of is that there is no such thing as ‘free’. With the free accounts you typically don’t pay a setup charge or even a yearly charge – you do however pay a percentage of the transaction value, this can be anything from 1.5% up to 4%.
The two main suppliers of free accounts are PayPal and StormPay. It should be noted that although they both provide pretty identical services there are advantages and disadvantages associated with each of them.
For example, StormPay typically charge slightly more per transaction then PayPal – however PayPal charge more to get your money out then StormPay. PayPal is also VERY quick to respond to allegations of foul play (whether it exists or not) and typically very slow to do anything about it (besides locking your account).
PayPal also has some bizarre habits when it comes to money laundering rules, for instance my younger brother plays on Ebay and makes a few dollars here and there – nothing suspicious about that right (especially seeing as Ebay owns PayPal) but for some reason when his balance went past $50 they locked his account for a couple of weeks and sent him mails requesting proof of ID and wanting an explanation of where the money had come from.
No such problems with Storm pay, they validate you when you sign up by effectively linking you to your credit card to your address – any suspicious transactions are followed on a more gentlemanly basis. As of the time of writing I have not heard of anyone using Storm Pay having their account locked for questionable reasons.
In terms of signing up for the service StormPay is by far the quickest and in terms of market saturation is also on the up and up (PayPal is the established norm but StormPay is catching up quickly).
One thing to remember no matter which type of payment processor you use is that if a customer demands a refund 9 times out of 10 they’re going to get it – unless you can satisfy your processor that you have done everything that they require (so for PayPal if you’re sending tangible goods you need proof of postage that identifies what you’ve sent and in the case of allegations of ‘no delivery’ proof that it has been received – and then there’s still no guarantee that they’ll rule in your favor).
One important distinction between payment processors will relate to geography, i.e. where in the world they accept payments from. Most of the free services do not accept payments from central Africa or south East Asia; this is purely to do with level of fraud (Just think Nigeria).
To summarize, for the brand new business who has little or no client base and has no idea if their offering is going to be picked up by the market it is better to start with a free account, my personal recommendation being Storm Pay. If your business later grows and requires specific merchant account functionality then you can always upgrade or pick one from the market.
If you would like a StormPay account use the following link: http://www.stormpay.com/?2430996
To your success
The Elder Guru
Chauncey Penfold
337-856-9461
skype chauncey.penfold
Computer-giveaway
‘Free’ Accounts or Merchant Accounts?
Anyone who does business online (and actually takes money from other people) must, at some point, bite the bullet and choose a credit card processing company – this can be quite an expensive decision.
There are effectively two different ways of going about this; you can either go for the free accounts or the specific merchant accounts.
But what is there to distinguish the two? After all they both allow you to accept a payment...
Keywords:
Credit card processing, storm pay, PayPal
‘Free’ Accounts or Merchant Accounts?
Anyone who does business online (and actually takes money from other people) must, at some point, bite the bullet and choose a credit card processing company – this can be quite an expensive decision.
There are two different ways of going about this; you can either go for the free accounts or the specific merchant accounts.
But what is there to distinguish the two? After all they both allow you to accept a payment from a credit card holder right?
Well yes, they both allow you to accept payments from people with credit cards – but there are some underlying and fundamental differences that you should be aware of.
Lets have a look at merchants accounts (ICann, WorldPay or 2Checkout – just as examples), when you register with one of these guys you will have to provide information relating to your business and prove that you are actually a registered business.
You will also have to pay a setup fee, from personal experience I know that this can be in the order of several hundred dollars, you will also pay a yearly subscription or support fee – again this is typically a couple of hundred dollars a year.
You might think that this is OK – but don’t forget you are also paying a percentage of the transaction value; this can be anything up 4.75%.
From this information alone we can see that for the little guy this is quite a high cost – especially if you’re just starting out and you don’t even know if your product/service is going to take off.
There are also other things that you need to be aware of when looking at professional merchant accounts, for instance 2Checkout will, from time to time try and actually call your customers (a selection of) and verify that the goods have arrived – if they can not do this then they will potentially refund ALL currently held sales.
I mention this as I was made aware of 2CO’s operating policy (this morning) by one of my fellow online marketers – this guy lost $5,000 because 2CO phoned the wrong person and lets face it, once you’Ave delivered the products and given a refund how many people are going to say ‘Yes, here are my credit card details again’ – not very likely – and then cancelled the merchants account without so much as saying sorry.
So in other words make sure you read the fine print – there is typically stuff in there which is not really in your interest.
Anyway, that’s enough about merchant accounts, now lets consider the free accounts – and the first thing to be aware of is that there is no such thing as ‘free’. With the free accounts you typically don’t pay a setup charge or even a yearly charge – you do however pay a percentage of the transaction value, this can be anything from 1.5% up to 4%.
The two main suppliers of free accounts are PayPal and StormPay. It should be noted that although they both provide pretty identical services there are advantages and disadvantages associated with each of them.
For example, StormPay typically charge slightly more per transaction then PayPal – however PayPal charge more to get your money out then StormPay. PayPal is also VERY quick to respond to allegations of foul play (whether it exists or not) and typically very slow to do anything about it (besides locking your account).
PayPal also has some bizarre habits when it comes to money laundering rules, for instance my younger brother plays on Ebay and makes a few dollars here and there – nothing suspicious about that right (especially seeing as Ebay owns PayPal) but for some reason when his balance went past $50 they locked his account for a couple of weeks and sent him mails requesting proof of ID and wanting an explanation of where the money had come from.
No such problems with Storm pay, they validate you when you sign up by effectively linking you to your credit card to your address – any suspicious transactions are followed on a more gentlemanly basis. As of the time of writing I have not heard of anyone using Storm Pay having their account locked for questionable reasons.
In terms of signing up for the service StormPay is by far the quickest and in terms of market saturation is also on the up and up (PayPal is the established norm but StormPay is catching up quickly).
One thing to remember no matter which type of payment processor you use is that if a customer demands a refund 9 times out of 10 they’re going to get it – unless you can satisfy your processor that you have done everything that they require (so for PayPal if you’re sending tangible goods you need proof of postage that identifies what you’ve sent and in the case of allegations of ‘no delivery’ proof that it has been received – and then there’s still no guarantee that they’ll rule in your favor).
One important distinction between payment processors will relate to geography, i.e. where in the world they accept payments from. Most of the free services do not accept payments from central Africa or south East Asia; this is purely to do with level of fraud (Just think Nigeria).
To summarize, for the brand new business who has little or no client base and has no idea if their offering is going to be picked up by the market it is better to start with a free account, my personal recommendation being Storm Pay. If your business later grows and requires specific merchant account functionality then you can always upgrade or pick one from the market.
If you would like a StormPay account use the following link: http://www.stormpay.com/?2430996
To your success
The Elder Guru
Chauncey Penfold
337-856-9461
skype chauncey.penfold
Computer-giveaway
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
A Good Web Site Is a Web Site That Works!
Summary:
Questions that will let you know if your site is a good one
Keywords:
web site, good web site, marketing, internet marketing, home business
How can you know if your web site is a good website, or what is a good website?
A good website is a website that works, if you have created your website to sell some products, you can say that your website is a good website if it does sell products.
* But are you selling as many products as a good website sells, or you are only selling a few products now and then?
* Are your sales pages good enough to consider your website a good website?
* Do you have enough visitors to your website to consider it a good website?
* Do you have enough return traffic or all your visitors are first time visitors?
* Do your visitors stay enough time to consider your website a good website?
* How can you know for sure if your website is a good website?
* What kind of questions should you be making to yourself to know if your webite is a good website
ASK YOURSELF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS TO KNOW IF YOUR WEBSITE IS A GOOD WEBSITE
* Who cares?
* What are you looking for?
* What kind of visitors do you have?
* Which is your priority?
* How should you measure your success?
WHO CARES?
If the website belongs to a company, then the web pages do not belong to a single person, there’s not only one person that can say if you have a good website, so you will have to round up the people that are vitally interested
You will find the techno-geeks, the sales people, the public relations people, etc. etc. and every one of them will have their own idea of what is a good website.
But once again as the website belongs to ALL the company, the people on your company who care enough to judge the website should be asked to join the team and take some responsibility about the design of the website.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
Every one of the people who cares about the website will have their own idea of what they want out of a good website. Many of them will just be talking on behalf of their own departments, but you must force them to think on behalf of the company.
Every department can have their own objectives, goals and aspirations, every one has his own idea about what is a good website, but they need to think as a company, and the conclusion must satisfy most of them, and if you can, your must create a good webpage for all of them.
WHAT KIND OF VISITORS DO YOU HAVE?
Every website has first time visitors, returning visitors, curious, buyers, people that arrived by mistake, people that spend a short time at the website, people that spend a long time at the website, etc.
What kind of visitors do you want, the ones that show more often, the ones that read the most pages, buys more stuff, buys more frequently or spend the most money?
Which are the most important visitors for your company, to think that you have a good website?
Once you get them you can be satisfied that your site is a good website
WHICH IS YOUR PRIORITY?
Once you know what everybody wants, you will have to prioritize everybody’s goals.
Will you go after increasing visits, selling more products per visit, provide more information about the company and its products, improving customer satisfaction?
After a discussion that will depend on how many people is giving their own opinion about what cares most, you’ll end up with your own list of priorities, and the ones that will not be satisfied with their request, at leas will know why.
HOW SHOULD YOU MESURE YOUR SUCCESS?
How can you be sure that the numbers that you are getting are telling you that your site is a good website, It depends...
* If your main priority is to get visitors, then www.Alexa.com and its ranking can help you on that, but you can also use some JavaScript and or cookies.
* If your main goal is revenue then the sales will have the leading voice.
* If you are going after customer satisfaction then you must agree with the other members of your company how will you gather satisfaction data and how will you weigh it.
All the information that you gather must help you take business decisions. It is not a matter of getting as much information as you can, because too much information can be as bad as not enough information.
Make sure that you keep on measuring your success, make it part of a constant improvement process, because the web changes month after month.
Then you’ll really be able to tell if your website is a good website
To your success
The Elder Guru
Chauncey Penfold
337-856-9461
vacation-4-free
Questions that will let you know if your site is a good one
Keywords:
web site, good web site, marketing, internet marketing, home business
How can you know if your web site is a good website, or what is a good website?
A good website is a website that works, if you have created your website to sell some products, you can say that your website is a good website if it does sell products.
* But are you selling as many products as a good website sells, or you are only selling a few products now and then?
* Are your sales pages good enough to consider your website a good website?
* Do you have enough visitors to your website to consider it a good website?
* Do you have enough return traffic or all your visitors are first time visitors?
* Do your visitors stay enough time to consider your website a good website?
* How can you know for sure if your website is a good website?
* What kind of questions should you be making to yourself to know if your webite is a good website
ASK YOURSELF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS TO KNOW IF YOUR WEBSITE IS A GOOD WEBSITE
* Who cares?
* What are you looking for?
* What kind of visitors do you have?
* Which is your priority?
* How should you measure your success?
WHO CARES?
If the website belongs to a company, then the web pages do not belong to a single person, there’s not only one person that can say if you have a good website, so you will have to round up the people that are vitally interested
You will find the techno-geeks, the sales people, the public relations people, etc. etc. and every one of them will have their own idea of what is a good website.
But once again as the website belongs to ALL the company, the people on your company who care enough to judge the website should be asked to join the team and take some responsibility about the design of the website.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
Every one of the people who cares about the website will have their own idea of what they want out of a good website. Many of them will just be talking on behalf of their own departments, but you must force them to think on behalf of the company.
Every department can have their own objectives, goals and aspirations, every one has his own idea about what is a good website, but they need to think as a company, and the conclusion must satisfy most of them, and if you can, your must create a good webpage for all of them.
WHAT KIND OF VISITORS DO YOU HAVE?
Every website has first time visitors, returning visitors, curious, buyers, people that arrived by mistake, people that spend a short time at the website, people that spend a long time at the website, etc.
What kind of visitors do you want, the ones that show more often, the ones that read the most pages, buys more stuff, buys more frequently or spend the most money?
Which are the most important visitors for your company, to think that you have a good website?
Once you get them you can be satisfied that your site is a good website
WHICH IS YOUR PRIORITY?
Once you know what everybody wants, you will have to prioritize everybody’s goals.
Will you go after increasing visits, selling more products per visit, provide more information about the company and its products, improving customer satisfaction?
After a discussion that will depend on how many people is giving their own opinion about what cares most, you’ll end up with your own list of priorities, and the ones that will not be satisfied with their request, at leas will know why.
HOW SHOULD YOU MESURE YOUR SUCCESS?
How can you be sure that the numbers that you are getting are telling you that your site is a good website, It depends...
* If your main priority is to get visitors, then www.Alexa.com and its ranking can help you on that, but you can also use some JavaScript and or cookies.
* If your main goal is revenue then the sales will have the leading voice.
* If you are going after customer satisfaction then you must agree with the other members of your company how will you gather satisfaction data and how will you weigh it.
All the information that you gather must help you take business decisions. It is not a matter of getting as much information as you can, because too much information can be as bad as not enough information.
Make sure that you keep on measuring your success, make it part of a constant improvement process, because the web changes month after month.
Then you’ll really be able to tell if your website is a good website
To your success
The Elder Guru
Chauncey Penfold
337-856-9461
vacation-4-free
Thursday, February 2, 2012
A Beginner’s Toolbox: 8 Things Every Home Should Have
lations! You’re living out on your own. If you’re renting an apartment or bought a home of your own, there are going to be little things you need tools for. Whether it’s removing part of a light fixture to replace the light bulb, or hanging your favorite pictures on the wall, a basic toolbox can come in handy. Here are the top eight tools that will be the most helpful.
1. A flashlight. This is crucial, even if you don’t buy anything else on the list. If the power goes out, or you can’t find the exact lid for your Tupperware container in the back of the cabinet, shedding some light makes life a lot easier.
2. A screwdriver. For maximum efficiency, and especially if you are going to be doing just little jobs, there are screwdrivers available now that have removable tips so you can buy just one tool for all screws and swap out the tips depending on what you need.
3. A tape measure. Ask anyone who has ever rented an apartment and then couldn’t fit the couch in any of the rooms, having a tape measure is a good thing to have. It will help you place furniture, decide how big an area rug to buy, or know how long a cable you will need for your TV.
4. Adjustable pliers. Maybe two pair, one large and one small. Maybe the previous owner or tenant left a nail in the wall that just won’t come out, or they used a stapler in the windowsill to hang their Christmas lights. Pliers will give you the grip you need to pull things out.
5. An adjustable wrench. This will help you tighten (or loosen) nuts and bolts. You can change your shower head, or loosen your dryer vent tubing to check for lint.
6. A hammer. Hang things on the wall, close up a paint can securely, or pound in stakes so your kids can camp out in the backyard.
7. An electric drill. You can keep it pretty basic, but a drill can save lots of time. Buy one that has a screw tip adapter also, and you can drive in screws much faster than with a manual screwdriver (and with less stress on your wrist).
8. A first aid kit. Don’t own a home without one. If you’re a first timer with any of the rest of the tools, you can put this to good use when you pinch yourself with pliers, or cut yourself on a fast retracting tape measure.
To your success
The Elder Guru
Chauncey Prnfold
337-856-9461
Computer-giveaway
1. A flashlight. This is crucial, even if you don’t buy anything else on the list. If the power goes out, or you can’t find the exact lid for your Tupperware container in the back of the cabinet, shedding some light makes life a lot easier.
2. A screwdriver. For maximum efficiency, and especially if you are going to be doing just little jobs, there are screwdrivers available now that have removable tips so you can buy just one tool for all screws and swap out the tips depending on what you need.
3. A tape measure. Ask anyone who has ever rented an apartment and then couldn’t fit the couch in any of the rooms, having a tape measure is a good thing to have. It will help you place furniture, decide how big an area rug to buy, or know how long a cable you will need for your TV.
4. Adjustable pliers. Maybe two pair, one large and one small. Maybe the previous owner or tenant left a nail in the wall that just won’t come out, or they used a stapler in the windowsill to hang their Christmas lights. Pliers will give you the grip you need to pull things out.
5. An adjustable wrench. This will help you tighten (or loosen) nuts and bolts. You can change your shower head, or loosen your dryer vent tubing to check for lint.
6. A hammer. Hang things on the wall, close up a paint can securely, or pound in stakes so your kids can camp out in the backyard.
7. An electric drill. You can keep it pretty basic, but a drill can save lots of time. Buy one that has a screw tip adapter also, and you can drive in screws much faster than with a manual screwdriver (and with less stress on your wrist).
8. A first aid kit. Don’t own a home without one. If you’re a first timer with any of the rest of the tools, you can put this to good use when you pinch yourself with pliers, or cut yourself on a fast retracting tape measure.
To your success
The Elder Guru
Chauncey Prnfold
337-856-9461
Computer-giveaway
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