Feb 24, 2010 0

The Trouble with PayPal

Categories:  Internet Marketing, News
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I feel so agitated.  For a very long while now, I just can’t get my PayPal business account verified.  My fault, I should have just upgraded my verified personal account.  But I did not, thinking I would not like to merge my personal funds with business.  So I created another one.  So silly of me to use my maiden name that is no longer attached to any other bank account except for my Philippine USD account that PayPal will not accept. And I can’t move out now because funds are already coming in.  Arrrrgh!  I can’t send any money to the verified account and the money is stuck in there until I send an electronic copy of my marriage contract to PayPal.  How inconvenient.   This is not the only problem I had with this account.  I tried adding by BDO account that was using my maiden name for years but I had changed it just a couple of months ago.  And because of the inconsistency, Paypal deducted around P200++ 7 times from my account!  I had to contact their customer service rep to reverse the charge because none of my attempts worked out anyway.  They did return the charges.. after 2 months! Paypal is just soooo quick in accepting funds but are sooo slow on everything else.  I do have Moneybookers as an alternate for 4 years now but  i never got to use it.  If only the web is not sooo into Paypal.

Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.

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Feb 21, 2010 0

Keeping Your Niche Alive

Categories:  Internet Marketing

My Hubby decided we go out for a swim with the kids. It was close to dinner time when we heard there is going to be a power interruption for 3 straight hours. What are we going to do at home without electricity? Good question. A very straight answer is: Nothing.   So off we went to our favorite spot -The Marco hotel hot pool. I thought it was a very relaxing way to end the week. Indeed it was. While at in the pool, I met a New Zealand native professor who is residing in Thailand (and came over to visit his 18-yr old gf). When he heard what I do as a profession, he went on to share how he started with his Internet Marketing ventures, and how it died. He was doing it on top of his day job.  He spent two years building his sites, hired web designers from India who offered really cheap services but with challenging support system.  Although he was making money (around $300 per month), he found himself hating to stay in front of the computer more and more.  Unlike most web-venturers do, he chose to keep his day job after realizing it’s just not making much sense anymore.  He lost his interest and eventually decided to let his Economics/Forex websites die a natural death.   Another sad story of a niche placed in a tomb.

I know there are so many Internet marketers who are struggling to make it to the top of the web.  But just like any business, venturing in an online business is a high risk high return game.  The return is directly proportional to the work you put in it.  It takes a lot of work and a lot of learning.  Some lessons are learned before hand.  But most are learned after falling and hitting hard with face flat on the floor.  But always and always, it’s never too late to get back up and move on.  Enjoy blogging!

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Feb 13, 2010 0

PayPal India: Finding Resolution

Categories:  Business, Internet Marketing, News
Tags: , , , ,

It was February 6, 2010 when Paypal decided to halt all payments to and from India. Not only was the transactions on hold but all balances were reversed. The mass reversals caused so much trouble for both parties involved in each transaction, in and out of India.

While PayPal responds a template mail to every query about this issue saying the payment be re-sent as gift and that they are working to get the issue resolved within 2 to 3 days, no solution is really workable at the moment. PayPal also stated that it may take a few months to resolve the specific issue on Personal Payments being sent to and from India. How few is few? Good luck!

Initially the main problem was only about the restrictions on personal payments but we all know all transaction types were reversed, including gift and services. This caused much worry and dilemma for all Indians across the Internet who were using PayPal for personal and business transactions. Merchants outside India, who had already shipped the goods found that the payment for them was returned to the buyer. Link builders, writers and other services rendered for off shore clients cannot receive any payment for their hard work.

Speculations arise as to who is the real culprit. Each of these transactions does not cover taxes for the Indian government. The country is receiving so much money in foreign currencies. A citizen who is clearly affected by the issue commented, “A lot of business must be transacted in India via PayPal—business done with personal transactions. So a money-hungry Indian government is aggravated at some perceived revenue loss (taxes, customs, etc.) and (has) put pressure on PayPal to stop the payments either directly or indirectly”.

This is something we are all currently at a loss about. So for payees and merchants outside India who wish to track the reversals, here’s what you can do to keep yourselves busy while waiting for the resolution: Check if the money was in fact returned to your account. We all know PayPal slurps money like an addict so you better make sure of this. This amount should be shown as your current PayPal balance. If you can’t see that, try this:

1. Log in to your PayPal. Go to Reports

2. Click on Download History by setting the correct dates (30 days max, ideally)

3. Open the .csv in MS Excel or Open Office document to view all the transactions.

4. Transaction ID could be used if you are looking for a specific transaction. But if you are not sure about any of those, using the email address would be your best bet. Use the Find (Ctrl+F) option to do this.

5. The report shows one transaction per row. In this situation, where you sent the payment, fund was returned, you tried to reprocess it successfully but it was returned a few days later, you can expect four (4) unique transactions having different IDs and remarks. By using the email address to search through, check if there were any remarks saying Hold, Completed, Reversed, etc.

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Feb 07, 2010 0

Small Business’ Connectivity to the World

Categories:  Business, Internet Marketing
Tags: , ,

My sisters and I are operating a pretty small printing business called sPrintXt – Quick Prints and Xtras.  This venture has been running for more than a year but has not been actively pushing for profits at all until recently.  Setting up a business that involves inventory, warehousing, manpower requirements and off-shore communication can be very complex, not to mention tricky.  Challenging, yes.  This is why our long overdue project has been sitting and waiting for a long time already.  But now my sissies and I are rolling up sleeves and are determined to move forward.  No amount of excuses can stop us.  Our market stretches to different countries.  And our varying physical location may pose a hindrance. The solution? Finding the best discount small business VOIP phones to keep all communication lines running.

All businesses, no matter how big or how small, whether online or offline, thrive in the quality of communication it makes within the system.  Between employees to other employees, to clients, to customers, to program partners and all other departments that are working together.  With the advancement of technology, voice calls can be done computer to computer, phone to phone and computer to phone.  To be clear though, these ways of using VoIP connections have different set of requirements and unit specification for the two communicating sides.  Area or location may matter too.  So long as the business has the budget, this should be on the start up priority list.

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Feb 04, 2010 2

Why Blogs Die

Categories:  Blogging, Internet Marketing

Over the years of working with blogs that are not mine, I realized I haven’t really spent much time and attention on my own blogs.  I started with free blogs and when I learned there is not much money in limited/free blogs, I started buying domains.  I had made an ample amount but over the years, I found myself moving away and letting those blogs rot in silence.  My blogs were running, got stuck, rot, died and reborn but only to be subjected to the same cycle.  I’m sure some site owners had the same experience.  Why do blogs die?  The reason is simple.  There is just not enough reason to blog.  It may sound silly but it’s reality.

When you run out of reason and motivation to do something, that something will eventually fall to nothing.  So before you plunge into the waters of blogging and site development, think.  Why are you doing it at all?  Is it for money?  Is it for visibility?  Is it to connect you with friends and family?  Is it to cure boredom?   Answer these questions and commit to it.  If along the road, you find yourself slipping away from blogging to make room for more important things like pregnancy, family, offline career, etc… then go on a blogging hiatus by all means.   Blogs don’t hold grudges and are easily resurrected.

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