The ezPalm Blog

Ron Bongo is an open source pioneer and an supporter of the Open Solutions Alliance, a non-profit, vendor-neutral consortium ordained to campaigning vendor interoperability and acceptance of comprehensive open solutions. The Open Solutions Alliance is a productive organization, which recently announced additional members uniting with their Alliance. In addressing the Open Solutions Alliance, Ron Bongo tells “In our work with more than 70 global companies, we have seen first hand the expanding need for interoperability between applications in order for the genuine benefits of open source to be realized.”

Ron Bongo has pushed hard to create easy to use software for companies interested in the gains of open source software. Because of his sizeable IT expertise, Ron Bongo recognizes that open source software package implementations are tough. With over 140,000 projects on SourceForge.net alone, and thousands of distributed developers around the world formulating new applications each month, discerning the particular nuances of open source software in any given space can be frustrating.

Corra Technologys open source CRM solutions presented by Ron Bongo interrupted the marketplace. He did so by inserting unparalleled flexibility, giving organizations the freedom to pull crucial value at the lowest total-price-of-ownership.

Ron Bongo knows that a key component of the right ERP system is its ability to integrate quickly and completely with other systems which not only reduces the ownership costs over time, but also, provides one central repository of enterprise know how on which businesses can confidently base key performance indicators. This important functionality allows executives to efficiently and effectively steer their businesses to success.

Ron Bongo expects demand for open source software solutions to keep growing. “Open-source vendors are adding significant resources, helping the channel produce more results,” Ron Bongo pronounced. “A lot of [open-source] vendors have formal partner programs and are even completely dedicated to the partner strategy. The current acceptance of open source and the commitment by vendors to work side by side with us and avoid the channel conflict that can occur with proprietary vendors is a clear sign that our industry is in a development phase. “

The debt management community today is very big. Its targeted at assisting people who are fighting with their finance.There’s 2 approaches through which it operates. The first is debt consolidation.In this approach people who find themselves in debt commit to an additional loan that will cover his or her present debts. That allows folks to consolidate their debt installments into just one. From there things become very much more straightforward to cope with and also the interest rate are lessened. The problem is that the debts aren’t in reality lowered and individuals will have to give collateral in order to meet the requirements for the loan.A lot of people with debt cannot actually show this collateral. That is why the 2nd alternative is normally better suited to individuals. This process is debt settlement. In this case people work together with a management firm which negotiates with their creditors in order to set up discounts on the amounts they owe.Occasionally the savings can be quite big and therefore folks can settle their debts considerably more swiftly than they dreamed possible. Although, this method ought to only be thought about as a Bankruptcy Alternative.There are many companies around in the industry which can provide individuals with debt relief plans. Though, folks should make sure to solely sign up with the most reliable firms. Try looking out for terms like curadebt reviews in the major search engines.

Tom Gores founded a private equity firm called Platinum Equity in 1995. His company’s goal was to acquire other businesses that could profit from operational help. Tom Gores started his career as an operator, not as a financier. Gores slowly built the company into an M&A&O® infrastructure of professionals committed to the company’s principles in leadership as guided by Gores himself.

Tom Gores helped establish a particular kind of excitement and interest in companies in operating his portfolios while providing the right resources to build and make these companies grow. As proof of Gore’s effective leadership, Platinum Equity has earned an annual revenue of around $27.5 billion. As a result of this, an estimation of over 100 companies in various industries find themselves dedicated to working each day to build ownership and promote long-term value.

Currently the CEO and head of Platinum Equity LLC, Tom Gores has brought a background of acquisition experience and expertise in both operational and technological aspects to the fast-growing and strategically focused mergers, acquisitions and operation, or M&A&O®, organizations. As the Chairman and CEO of Platinum Equity, Tom Gores oversees the direction and strategic development of each and every company included in the Platinum portfolio.

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The Internet began as a male dominated medium, but those days are long gone and merchants are advised to make sure their websites are female friendly to faciliate the rising surge of busy i-Moms shopping online for their family and friends.

Women now account for 51.7% of Internet usage according to a 2005 Lucid marketing study but that’s only the tip of iceberg. When it comes to online purchasing, women are clearly leading the way. According to a Bizrate survey, women accounted for 62% of online purchases in the fourth quarter of 2004!

The above statistic shouldn’t be that surprising when we consider that women are busy household managers and make many financial decisions across the United States. According to Small Business Administration, “women currently make up 80 percent of consumer spending. They currently purchase more than half the automobiles that are sold in this country. They consistently purchase more groceries, apparel and durable goods than men and they have become the primary ones to make healthcare decisions in 75 percent of American households.”

Other research shows that women are less likely than men to use the Internet for entertainment purposes, but rather they are looking for information, household tips, low prices, and, especially, ease of use in purchasing online.

Merchant Strategy

The following seven recommendations will make your website a friendly home for busy moms online.

1. Make your website easy to navigate. A specific product should be easily found and only be a few clicks away from anywhere in the website.

2. Provide in-depth product information. The more product comparisons, reports and reviews you can add, the less likely they’ll leave your website to round out their research.

3. Provide quality graphics. Seeing and feeling is of course the best way to examine and test a product, but the shortage of time has trumped that luxury. A quality fast loading image is extremely desirable.

4. Offer a maximum selection. Whether in your store or on your website, this always makes sense.

5. Maintain competitive pricing. The Internet facilitates easy price comparisons, if your prices are too high, it won’t be a secret. Check the prices of your competitors.

6. Offer a variety of shipping options including gift wrapping. Women buy the great majority of family gifts. Merchants who gift wrap will get a lot of free advertising by word of mouth.

7. Offer excellent customer service. If there’s a problem, a return or a question, there’s nothing like a friendly voice by telephone.

Personal Story

During last Christmas, I noticed a tremendous scene. At my in-laws about 8 of us were sitting in the family room together. Some of the men were watching sports on television, others were chatting, while my wife, mother-in-law and daughter were online at three computer terminals on a long table in the same family room, all shopping for the holidays. They were comparing, giving each other advice, had their credit cards out, and were getting it done. Presents were being picked, wrapped and shipped all over the country. My mother-in-law gets the credit for realizing that she could keep the whole family together by moving the computers into one living area. Everyone was having a great time. Make your online store female friendly and you’ll receive a loyal clientele for years to come.

Rick David writes a feature column for
Merchant America a nationwide provider of credit card, debit card and check
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‘Self-replication’ sounds like science fiction but it’s not. It has nothing to do with cloning, in a biological sense. What I’m writing about here is a third and very important step of affiliate or multi-level marketing.

If you sell products retail or by commission, your sales are one time but, of course, you hope that you will have repeat customers. This involves good product quality and good customer support.

Anything that involves recruiting or sign-ups requires this third step of duplicating what you have done. What have you done?
Step one, you have started. You have selected the affiliate programs you want to make money with. Step two, you have advertised and gotten some sign-ups under you.

Great, but really you are still in the starting stage. The real work is just beginning. If you fail to contact your new sign-ups, chances are you will lose a good percentage of them in a few short weeks or months.

The internet is full of ‘tire kickers’ and ‘lookers’ who will move right on to the next thing, if something doesn’t automatically happen overnight with whatever they’ve just signed-up for.

You must seize your window of opportunity to contact them and try to make converts out of them. First, welcome them as part of your team. Congratulate them on the smart decision they have made in signing-up.

You must try to ‘light a fire’ under them and get them excited about the benefits they will get and the profits they will make by working your program. Relate to them whatever successes you have had. If you are new to the program yourself and have not made a lot of sales yet, don’t be intimidated! Don’t make a bunch of stuff up, though.

Do a little research with your own program. Somewhere they will tell you what the sales potentials are and you can use this information in your pitch.

Most importantly, offer to help them out and give them whatever sales tips or information has worked for you. Your success depends on their success. Lastly, stress to them the importance of sharing this information with their own sign-ups.

Remember; your success depends on this relationship that you build with others!

Brian Beshore has been involved with Internet Marketing for several years. He publishes his own Home Business Guide.
http://www.surfinsafari.net

ACTIVE AFFILIATES are those who sign up under you for free, then upgrade to being a paid affiliate. Those who sign up but don’t upgrade within the first 72 hours are called inactive affiliates and who are unlikely to ever upgrade.

These are people you DON’T invest a lot of time on. You can send them out your monthly ezine but that’s as far as invested time should go.

Those who have paid to upgrade from free or just looking stage are the ones you should have regular contact in.

When I mention contact, I don’t mean contact to sell more things to them, but to offer support, advise, training etc. because these are the ones that will follow you to the ends of the earth if you ask them to, if you treat them right.

Over the past 12 months I have been testing various options and theories of Affiliates who sign up for free and then become paid upgrade affiliates.

My findings although not scientific by any means has shown me that in order for ACTIVE AFFILIATES to create direct sales, they must have the right affiliate program to promote.

I’ve explained previously that a great affiliate program is one that is an absolute necessity, a program that will force the buyer to have to start over again if they left your services i.e. web hosting, autoresponders.

According to the search engines there are over 2 million Affiliate Programs for web hosting and over 1 Million for autoresponder affiliate programs. What about domain name affiliate programs, can you think of any others…I’m sure you can! Think necessity.

My findings also identified that a great affiliate program MUST be free to join. This gives the prospective buyer the opportunity to test-drive the product before they buy.

OK, now down to the nitty gritty - where and how do you get ACTIVE AFFILIATES?

There are essentially two ways, they are:

1. Promote, promote, promote - anywhere, everywhere that affiliates hang out looking for a bargain.

2. Get a professional to do it for you

Options one is the most commonly used way to find and ascertain ACTIVE AFFILIATES but my findings have shown me that this is not cost effective and is all time consuming. If you are new to the Internet, which most people are, trying to find a niche market, can be very difficult. Then you have to factor the cost of the promotions, set-up costs and time involved.

In testing this method over a period of 6 months a total of 17 people sign up as affiliate’s and two out of the 17 people then upgraded to paid members.

Option two and not the most common or conventional way was to hire someone who could guarantee upgrades. This you might think is the more expensive option, when in actual fact for the purpose of my testing actually worked out to be a lot cheaper. The provider handled all the work and the affiliate had to qualified twice before actually joining the program all I had to do was wait.

I brought a package that guaranteed 100 signup in 60 days. I got 174 sign ups in less than 60 days. 81 of these signups upgraded to paid affiliates that equates to just over 40% conversion rate.

I try to stay neutral in all my endeavours but I believe that for those who want to Generate More Income in ANY affiliate program, option two is definitely the way to go. I was so impressed by this type of service I decided to buy one for myself.

To your online Success!

About the Author: Gillian Tarawhiti, is Founder and CEO of Community Training Centre, an Internet Marketing firm providing Online Training and Support to the new and not so new netpreneurs. Gillian is also the author of eBay Billion Dollar Goldmine and the creator of the Multiple Ripple Effect System, © 2004 Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your web site so long as the paragraph above is included and contact information is provided to http://www.millionairerippleeffect.com

(Common Mistakes Most New Affiliate Marketers Make)
Copyright © Joseph Townsend
http://www.BestDealsMadeEasy.net

An Internet business that makes profit on auto-pilot can be an
excellent opportunity. Making money as an affiliate marketer is
easy, but making a lot of money is where the real challenge
comes in.

You can avoid some common mistakes made by most new affiliate
marketers and learn how to select programs that make residual
income for many months by simply following the advice in this
article.

Through affiliate marketing, you are able to sign up as an
affiliate by advertising for certain vendors and earn a
percentage of each sale you refer. This creates a win-win
situation for both the affiliate and the vendor. The affiliate
only refers people to certain websites without the worry of
fulfillment and delivery, and the vendor only pays when a sale
is made without the extra advertising expenses and upkeep.

Here are some common mistakes most new affiliate marketers make,
and reasons why you should avoid them:

1. Sending people directly to a vendor’s website.

You spend too much time, effort, and money advertising to send
people directly to your vendor’s website for a one sale
opportunity. If they don’t buy you lost the sale and future
potential sales. To prevent you from losing your future earning
potential send people to an opting page, where you exchange
something of value for their email address. By doing this you
create a way to follow up with all your potential customers for
future offers and sales.

2. Creating a website with too many affiliate links, tons of
flashy banners, and all the colors of the rainbow.

Make sure your website is easy on the eyes. You don’t want to
give a million affiliate options just give honest reviews of
your products and services pre-selling your visitors on its
benefits to them.

3. Falling victim of affiliate commission theft.

This could be a very big problem if you are not cautious.
Although you can’t eliminate it completely you can take some
steps to minimize it dramatically. You can cloak and redirect.
Don’t allow your affiliate ids to show in your urls.

It takes the same effort to refer a one-time purchase sale as it
takes to refer a residual type sale. With that said, it makes
excellent business sense to market as many affiliate programs
with recurring commissions as possible.

When selecting affiliate programs with recurring commissions you
should consider the stickiness of the services you are promoting.

For example, you refer a sale for a membership website which
only offers resale rights to products and nothing else to keep
the customer from canceling. People might join, download all the
products, and cancel within the same month.

On the other hand, if you refer a sale for an essential service
such as web hosting or an auto responder for your customer’s
business, then you are more likely to retain there business on a
monthly recurring basis.

In conclusion, try to avoid common mistakes made by new
affiliate marketers by sending your visitors to an opt-in list
first, pre-sell them on the product’s benefits to them, and
avoid affiliate commission theft. Don’t forget to look for
affiliate programs that have recurring commission potential and
research the stickiness of the product or service you recommend.
You can try each product and service yourself first to help in
your evaluation of each affiliate program.

There is plenty written on Internet businesses. Topics covered range from how to write ad copy, formulating pay per click ads, and writing emails. But there has been little written on the topic of setting prices online.

Setting the right price online can mean the difference between a 1% and 5% sales conversion ratio. In other words, by having the right pricing you can sell to as many as five times the amount of customers that you could otherwise.

The reason pricing is so important is because people respond differently to different numbers. For instance, by pricing an item at .99 instead of $1, the illusion is given that the item is cheaper. This approach is used by high priced item sellers when they sell a car for $19,999 instead of $20,000.

Price your items similarly and you will see less hesitancy on your customer’s part when you sell high priced items.

You should also price your items so the last digits are the same. Look at the difference between the following two prices:

$199.99
$199.93

Most people will focus more on the second price, and even though it is lower, they will hesitate since the number has caught their attention.

When setting prices you might be tempted to simply offer a low price and hope for the best. This strategy is far from effective. If your products are priced too low people will assume that your products are of inferior quality.

You need to charge a decent price, and sometimes even a high price, in order to increase your sales. Support your pricing by explaining to your customers why they are paying more for your merchandise.

I sell brand name clothing to retailers for as much as $25 a unit. My price might seem high, but once retailers see that they are purchasing a $300 jacket for less than 10% of retail they are glad to pay for it.

My wholesale business, www.closeoutexplosion.com needs to supply resellers who in turn need to make a profit on the merchandise they are selling. I have shown my customers that they can succeed by focusing on higher priced merchandise, and expensive products, as long as they communicate the value of the products to their customers.

All of these strategies work on eBay too.

When you list an auction on eBay use a starting price that will call attention to your auction. A price too low and eBay shoppers will assume that your item is inferior.

I have seen the other extreme take place on eBay.

When an eBay auction has a very high starting price the auction attracts allot of attention.

eBay shoppers assume that the item being auctioned is of very high value, otherwise why would the starting price be so high?

Remember that pricing is only one ingredient in the success of your online business. Your actual long term online success is dependent on the quality of the products and services that you offer.

Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business.