Bynapse Technologies - Blog

Checkout solutions for your E-commerce

Charge that credit card, get paid and have your e-commerce web site up and running at a decent cost so it can support itself and bring some green. The idea behind an e-shop is to have the conversion from visitor to buyer done fast and in the most secure way so that it happens over and over again.

There are literally thousands of solutions out there for building or hosting your e-commerce. Many of those solutions are free or come with your hosting subscription. If you are a programmer or can get a hold of such an individual you can download and customize code and have your own solution in very little time. It all ends up in the checkout process and here is where all the lines in the water lie.

Having a simple low-cost solution that provides state-of-the-art security and service is not impossible by any stretch of the imagination and many of the most respectable companies out there offer easy to set-up solutions for decent fees.

The things that make me think twice when I look for a service, though, is the nickel-and-dimes type of deal. And when you're dealing with credit cards and other type of payments, reading the fine-print is a prerequisite. And in that fine-print (that often stretches over several pages) you may find that the service provider can change the contract at any time, for any reason.

Do not build your e-commerce around a checkout solution before you make sure you can use it. I've heard a few disappointed voices in Canada that enthusiastically built their web sites to use Google Checkout or certain versions of PayPal just to find that they're not available in Canada .. yet. It's not obvious information since the focus on those sites (as it should be on yours) is conversion.

What payments would you need to Accept or Manage, and don't be afraid to think ahead:

• Credit Cards, Debit, Email Invoices, PayPal (when selling single or multiple items)
• Recurring payments (like a monthly fee.. subscription)
• Promotions (eg. 15 $ first 3 months and 99.99 $ after)
• Shipping and handling
• Bonus points and point partnerships (eg. Travel miles, Bank percentage rebates...)
• TAXES
• Contributions (donations)
• Gift certificates and Coupons

Major sites like Amazon have their own secure systems to store credit card numbers and shipping addresses, but this article is for the rest of us who need security and fraud protection while selling to buyers who are shy of leaving the credit card number all over the place. EBags' Peter Cobb said that “retail is about overcoming objections” as the point here is to enable that transaction and get the money. Big players spend big to lure customers their way. Google offered a fee waiver through the end of the year in their move to take some market off PayPal' hands. But we are not talking from the customer's perspective here, as much as it is a crucial factor in completing the sale and it should not be overlooked, are we?

In the end, if we need to spend hundreds of dollars to integrate some system and pay ridiculous fees on each sale, it's going to kill your infant business before it can build you the income you're doing it for.

So here is a list of the most interesting and capable players I stumbled upon (I urge you to comment on it and add to this list)

• Google Checkout - offers a decent platform for decent fees and comes backed by Google's name. It's not available everywhere though.
• PayPal - much more widely spread and used but I feel the fees are a bit to the upper side of the ladder. I simply don't like paying "one-time installation fees" I guess. Still, a solid and reputable name in the business.
• Amazon FPS - Flexible Payments Service is "designed from the ground up specifically for developers"... Or you can simply create a PayNow Widget and ... Amazon takes care of the rest.

There are others like Payjunction, Card Payment Solutions, Wells Fargo, VersaPlay, CollectivePos, Charge.com, DriveIt and all have a twist that make them attractive for a certain market or the other. Personally I look at the reliability of the company and I simply hate two-hundred pages contracts you can't keep track of.

From my point of view, those services should empower my business not suck it dry when the "exceptional case you find on page two of the fine-print" happens.

AJAX makes business sense

I recently had to answer to the: “Should we go with AJAX” question and, for a developer, the answer to this question is not obvious. There are many benefits in using AJAX, both from the user or programmer’s perspective but this particular question is not technical. AJAX is not a programming language but a technique and this calls to a cost management conversation as well as the determination of ROI.

Monetizing unused domains

Park your domains and make a buck while you think about it? Unless you are in this business, domain monetizing is not going to put a meal on the table, but monetizing is possible and makes enough to make owning the parked domain worth while.

I wrote previously about domain parking and domain tasting and it’s paying for my unused domains, but can you really make a buck out of your existing domain names that just display the “Under construction” text and maybe a cute animated icon of a guy building … and building ?

The revenue generated by having unused domain parked with a domain parking provider may be disappointing as there is virtually no traffic coming in unless your domain name is really good and... If it is, you may get an offer for it quite soon. Again, if you’re not in this business, that offer story might be a once in a lifetime event. Do not forget that parking the domain with a provider has its rules:

· You cannot advertise or link to it.
· The content is predefined; you may only edit keywords that may bring up ads from your competition on your domain. Sometimes you may choose color palette or a display template.

There are trustworthy services out there that monetize your domain, like Sedo, Google AdSense for Domains and even some more costlier but more customizable services like WhyPark.
No matter how you look at it, a parked domain is not an active website so paying for it and putting too much time into it is not my cup of tea. But park my existing domain for free, and let it pay the expenses on its own, while I figure it all out, is.

Act on buying the domain though, since it might not be available by the time you have your website ready so parking is a good tool if you have a domain name that you would like to reserve, but do not intend to use immediately.

Let them go

First of all I have to apologise for not writing here for awhile, I was and still am very busy writing code, something else I love to do besides writing my blog. I will be back in here shortly and let you know where my roads take me.

LinX BoX

This Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:

1. Infinity Anger Management
2. Tip Top Website
3. Fire Site Flash

This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.

And don't forget my web templates shop at Bynapse.com - the easy web.

Reciprocal link of the week : TimeBooking

LinX BoX

This Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:

1. Mingle Too
2. IMBEE
3. Consumating

This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.

And don't forget my web templates shop at Bynapse.com - the easy web.

Reciprocal link of the week : Aloe Living

LinX BoX

This Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:

1. Peer Trainer
2. MedStory
3. Med Story

This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.

And don't forget my web templates shop at Bynapse.com - the easy web.

Reciprocal link of the week : TimeBooking

LinX BoX

This Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:

1. Startup Business School
2. Alternative Energy Store
3. Tony Yoo's Protolize

This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.

And don't forget my web templates shop at Bynapse.com - the easy web.

Reciprocal link of the week : Aloe Living

Buying the right stock photo

Your site is ready for a face-lift and you’re looking for the right images to use. You’re also looking to print something consistent with your web site so your image looks solid and established. Here is where a stock-photography site comes in handy. But there are thousands out there …

There are differences in the quality of the pictures, prices, photo licensing between those sites and you can buy photos for web-only use, print, multimedia, personal .. Read the license agreements carefully before buying, especially if it’s a model picture (a human face is visible). You save if you get a subscription for the time required to build your site (if you are buying a large number of pictures) otherwise, sites like Fotolia are perfect for one-picture downloads.

The best way to look at photos is if they’re royalty free as you may usually use them in prints, web sites, multimedia presentations, for business communication, decoration and even personal use (you may print your photo wallpaper). Most sites provide this type of licence with subtle flavours to it so make sure you read the license agreement before you put up that huge banner on Champs-Elysées.

Determine how many pictures you need before you buy to decide between a bundle and a unit price.

Are you ready to use them? You can only use one image for a certain number of prints (a fair number provided in the license agreement) and you can not resell photos or templates using those photos. You may play with photoshop and alter an image, without gaining the copyright to it though but this is what I call wasted money, meaning that if you buy something, it should be what you need and should not require further alteration (that is not true for dresses, they always require alteration, believe me, I learn from watching … ).

What does royalty-free mean for the buyer? Most stock sites provide that type of license. It’s important to determine the right license you need and royalty-free gives you unlimited use of a photo in any media, you pay for the image only once and use it as many times as you need. This is the most permissive license ad you should look for that as your business may grow and you should save printing more copies of your materials. Right-managed photos need a special setup and environment to live in as well as a more refined targeting of the audience and are usually more expensive and may include brand names (models, companies, trademarks) .

No matter what license you acquired, you can not resell the photo you bought. If you buy a template from Bynapse (my web templates shop) you may use it, you even get stock photos and logos or clipart for free, but it’s the same story... You cannot claim copyright to the images and you can not resell them. Nor you can resell the template containing the images.

Now there is such a case where you buy the rights for an image (for the right price, of course) but you can become the owner and the photographer loses the right to use or sell the photo ever again. Fotolia is an example of a stock agency that sells image rights. It’s all about finding the right image for your needs and buying the setup, the environment and the colors that put you up in front and keeps you there.
Apple is an example of a company that does everything beautiful and stylish and look at it grow. Vista looks sleek and design gets better all the time.

Web 2.0 is all about using the right colors, images and message and if you have designs you want to discuss or you just want people to see, post them here and let’s talk.

LinX BoX

This Friday’s Top 3 interesting sites I visited this week:

1. Mufon.com
2. Bionic Woman
3. Sci Fi Universe

This list is published every Friday and values originality. Submit your suggestions for next week as comments.

And don't forget my web templates shop at Bynapse.com - the easy web.

Reciprocal link of the week : Pogo Cheats