John L. Dilbeck's Ramblings
JohnDilbeck.com
Last update: 12/6/01; 13:26:47.
Thoughts and ideas as they occur to me.
Archives: 2000 2001
Thursday, December 6, 2001
Surefire Commerce and Sitesell announce new service
1:07:39 PM
For months, I've been raving about how much I've learned from Ken Evoy and the products he sells at Sitesell.com. I've taken several of his free email courses and I've purchased several of his books. Just recently, he updated his bestselling Make Your Site Sell! book for the year 2002 and it has lots of new, valuable information. I highly recommend all of his products, and this book, especially.
If you've been selling anything, you know it is a lot of work to market your products. The Internet doesn't make it much easier, but it does open your access to a larger market. At some point, preferably early, you learn that you want to accept major credit cards on your web site, and in your physical location, as well. There are lots of ways for small businesses to do this, and I have heard good things about PayPal.com, Propay.com, and Costco.com for very small businesses or for people selling at auctions such as eBay. I've used PayPal for some time now, and I'm very satisfied with their service.
When your business grows, you need to move to a faster and more secure service and there are many to choose from.
Once you start to really grow, where you are processing $50,000 or more per month, you want a premium transaction processing service that provides top-level security, backups, secure data centers, fraud detection and prevention, and professional customer service. If your business is processing over a million dollars per year through credit cards, you need a service you can rely upon.
Several months ago, Surefire Commerce acquired Sitesell and they've teamed to offer premium online transaction processing to larger businesses. If you are a fast growing company, or you're already processing over a million dollars per year (in US dollars), you should contact Surefire's representatives and see if they can provide services that suit you and your company. Perhaps you'd like to learn more about them and fill out a form to have one of their representatives contact you. If you're experienced in online commerce, or you're considering stepping into this ever-expanding market, you want to have your merchant account processed by someone who can protect you against fraud and unreasonable chargebacks, as well as process your transactions quickly and accurately. Do yourself a favor and contact Surefire Commerce.
Online Shopping Looks Merry and Bright
Jupiter Media Metrix weighs in with its numbers for post-Thanksgiving online shopping by finding 43 percent more visitors to shopping sites during Thanksgiving week in 2001 than in the previous year.
Online Sales Down in October
U.S. online sales decreased from $4.0 billion in September to $3.6 billion in October, according to the NRF/Forrester Online Retail Index. This raises the question: Are good offline deals taking shoppers off the Internet?Is Microsoft trying another disguised market grab?
12:59:14 PM
Microsoft was found guilty of using its monopolistic position to unfair advantage when it engaged in unlawful anticompetitive tactics over the last few years. Now they've proposed a settlement offer. On the surface, it has some benefits, especially to poorer schools. But, are they using this as a way to grab one of the few remaining market segments that they don't dominate?
Apple has filed a brief opposing this proposed settlement and Steve Jobs has criticized it. Many of us would naturally dismiss such criticism as a natural part of competing between two businesses, but I think it's worth a look at the proposal and the possible ramifications of such a settlement.
Charles Haddad, in his article, Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts published by BusinessWeek Online, has compared Bill Gates to John D. Rockefeller and offers some observations of why the settlement may not be the right thing to do.
From my personal point of view, I see this settlement offer as just another way of trying to extend their monopolistic market dominance into a new market, and, at the same time, trying to buy good press and good will for Bill Gates as he distributes his ill-gotten gains to the poor and disadvantaged among us. In this way, he is walking along a path that has been blazed by many before him, including John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, who used their fantastic wealth to purchase philanthropic reputations and goodwill from those who choose not to look below the surface of their actions.
© Copyright 2001 John L. Dilbeck, jd@johndilbeck.com.
