| LED Digest 1979: Merchant Account Rates |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. June 8, 2005 Issue #1979 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ======= NEW ===================== --== Credit Card Processing ==-- ~ Richard Takaba ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Cancelled Orders ==-- ~ Steven Rothberg ~ Tom Aman ~ Tom Anson ~ Reg Charie ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Dropped off Google ==-- ~ Thomas Yoon ~ Howard Brereton ======== NEW ==================================== From: Rich Takaba Subject: Question on Credit Card Processing Hello all, I've been selling online for 8 years and currently accept credit cards with Nova processing from Costco's Executive membership. They're charging me 2.02% + .27 cents per transaction, but I have to process myself with their Windows-based program. Thankfully, there's no monthly statement fee or other charges like CardService International who I used for the first 4 years. Rrrr I've looked at Yahoo small business package, and they seem to be even better considering they can also do hosting and shopping cart. I'm currently spending $34 /month for hosting and secure shopping cart. Do any LEDrs know of better online processing rates, even real-time, or who use Yahoo's small business? Any help appreciated. thanks Richard Takaba http://mrbigxl.com ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Steven Rothberg Subject: Cancelled orders Martha Retallick proposed the ebook sellers begin to use software-like license agreements that would require readers to either agree or disagree with the terms of the license before reading the book. While that may reduce the number of charge-backs, it will likely reduce to an even greater extent the number of sales. CollegeRecruiter.com is a career site used by college students and recent graduates to find jobs. While the majority of our revenues are generated from the sale of job postings, resume searching, and other such services to employers, we do also generate revenues from selling ebooks and other such items to the job seekers. When we first started selling ebooks, we offered to guarantee and no refunds for dissatisfied readers. Sales were lackluster. We then went to a no questions asked refund policy for 90 days. Sales skyrocketed. Did we have refund requests? Sure, and we refunded every penny quickly and without hassle. But the bottom line, as they say, is the bottom line. Our increased revenues far exceeded our increase in refunds and insignificant increased expenses related to delivering the ebooks. Like most commercial sites, we're in business to earn a profit. I look upon allowing readers to request refunds for ebooks much like I look upon the corner cheese shop offering free samples. We and they know that a certain number of takers will enjoy the product and will have no intention of ever becoming a paid customer, but enough who sample will be convinced to buy that giving away a bit of the product will end up being a wise investment. Steven Rothberg http://www.collegerecruiter.com -------- new post - same topic ------- From: Tom Aman Subject: Cancelled orders > Simple works well and has a more personal feel... > Almost everyone that visits my site already knows > what they are looking for and why they are there. - David Spahr, LED 1977 Nice to see someone who believes in the KISS principle. It has been a real education to watch my wife struggle with navigating some sites when she uses the Internet as she is essentially a newbie. Aside from checking out some of the news and entertainment sites, she only uses the Internet for her home business - email and to check out and order her beading supplies. Her biggests complaints are sites for beading supplies, a lot of which are run by individuals, that have a lot of bells and whistles and/or are difficult to navigate and/or fail to make information on the product and about shipping methods and costs clearly and easily available. Except in the rare case where a particular item is only available from one sites, she tries to avoid going back to them. She falls into the class of customer that knows what she is looking for, wants to be able to get to it quickly and easily, wants really clear pictures of the product, wants to easily find other sections of the site and, in the end, wants ordering to be a really simple process. If any of this gets difficult or complicated, she just leaves and shops elsewhere. Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com -------- new post - same topic ------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Cancelled orders Hi all you LED-ers. I'm probably the last person who should be offering advice for anyone, but George Oliver's problem with people who order his CDs by mistake (LED Digest 1974) should have a solution. It seems to me that listing terms of sale and refund policy on the site would go a long way toward solving this problem. Simply state that opened CD packaging cannot be returned. (You should know that you ordered it by mistake before you break the seal.) Another possibility (maybe) would be to set up a confirmation e-mail on an autoresponder. Explain the reason for doing this, the terms of the sale, and have a link to a page or something to confirm the sale. After this, no returns would be accepted. Credit card transactions could then be processed in a batch of confirmed orders. I don't know if this would be realistic or not. I think this could be an interesting topic of debate, so let it fly. Tom Anson Anson Digital Concerns http://www.ansondigitalconcerns.com/ -------- new post - same topic ------- From: Reg Charie Subject: Cancelled orders We must be the exception to the rule then. In 4 years of online sales of our $40 digital product we have had only one chargeback, other than refunds for double purchases. We offer a crippled demo with no time limit and as Thomas Yoon said, Once they are sure that the hidden information is worth getting, they will pay willingly and they will not claim a chargeback. Thank You, Reg Charie www.fantasticmachines.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Thomas Yoon Subject: Google Dropped I have seen the experience of being dropped from google by having too many mirror webpages. My question is when will it be considered a mirror page? Let's say I am trying to increase the number of pages in my website, so I decide to use the articles that I can obtain from some articles directory. I may have many other websites that I want to use the same articles. Sometimes for ease of setting up the webpages, I will use the same template for pages of different websites that belong to me. Will that be considered a mirror page? Naturally the colour, or images in those websites will not be the same, but the articles will be the same. Best Wishes Thomas Yoon http://www.free-marine.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Howard Brereton Subject: Google dropped Following on Jonathan's comments about being dropped in Google - it's a major problem - hundreds of sites have been affected some of them, like by own on the net for years. My site has been hit hard and only kept good SERPS for a few keywords. It's amazing that one change in single website can result in a 80% fall in traffic. Don't ever think it won't ever happen to you - my advice is check your listings in all the main search engines - not just Google. If the quality of their results starts to suffer as they index more pages, as appears to have happened this time round, then the public will soon start searching elsewhere. I was such a Google fan, but not any more. kind regards to all in the same sandbox howard brereton www.typicallyspanish.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "One should never criticize his own work except in a fresh and hopeful mood. The self-criticism of a tired mind is suicide." - Charles Horton Cooley |
