eBay is popularly known as the largest online supermarket in the world. It is like a one stop market place where you can buy and sell anything. eBay is the only place online where both large corporations and individual businesses have equal opportunity to do business and what matters is not the size of your business but your reputation especially in the way you have dealt with your previous customers. Any body can buy or sell from EBay no matter what you are interested in. What matters is your feedback –positive or negative.

ClickBank is another big market place for buyers, sellers and affiliates. There are immense opportunities for affiliates and sellers to make an enormous amount of money doing business with ClickBank. Unlike eBay, ClickBank only deals on digital products like, software, eBooks, audio files, or video files. Most eBay purchases will be sent to you in form of download links and you only need to click on the link to download it.

Unfortunately, Nigerians are not allowed to do business on either of these websites. The reason for this is not something I will like to talk about anymore. This has caused a lot of teeth gnashing for Nigerian online entrepreneurs.

Luckily many Nigerians who need to buy from these websites are now having home grown alternatives. Today there are websites where you can give them your order and they buy and deliver to you here in Nigeria.

Online2menow.com

This website specializes in helping Nigerians buy and ships any product from any website outside of Nigeria especially those based in the UK and US

Ecasharena.com

helps you buy from any website across the world as long as they accept PayPal. It is arguably Nigeria’s number one website that helps people buy with PayPal account. They also help open, fund and withdraw from a PayPal account.

www.shopfromamerica.com

specializes in buying goods and shipping to Nigeria to you as long as the website is us based.

The problem is online payment is a serious one especially with web hosting firms who have had to rely on liberty reserve and interswitch despite the high cost of acquiring the interswitch license. These websites have at least provided temporary succor.

Blogging for money has probably become common knowledge to you if you have been around the ‘make money online subject’ for a while now. However, I have done extensive research on the subject and I know now that there are many ways you can get started on your money making career just as I did. I believe that this year will see many more bloggers making more money from blogging.
Here is a piece of advice for what it’s worth: Spread your revenue generating points across many options, as it is not wise to put all your eggs in one basket. This is even getting easier to do with the new and better opportunities that this year has brought. These are some of the opportunities:
a. One of the latest and newest trends in the world of blogging has been the addition of newer and more effective advert programs; the most popular is still Google ad-sense. However some other vibrant advertising schemes are now springing forth. Some of these are Chikita’s eMiniMalls and widgetBucks, TextLink Ads, Azoogle ads, Intelli Txt, DoubleClick, Tribal fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, Pheedo, TextAds, Bidvertiser, FastClick and ValueClick. The good news is they come with a variety of options to choose from. There are still some future advantages to benefit from with MSN Adcenter and YPN, both with beta testing and with other advert systems currently in developmental stages. Note: YPN exists only for US publishers. You might also want to sample BlogAds – which is one of the first blog specific ad networks. Another resource you might want to explore will be the use of RSS adverts. Although I am yet to come across any blogger who has made money through this avenue, I believe that with the form of awareness that blogs are currently getting, it will only be a matter of time before bloggers begin to get some profit through this medium.
b. Sponsorship: Now, like I said earlier on, the new improvements in the whole bloggers’ planet have heralded some new improvements. Now, bloggers can receive sponsorship from advert agencies that wish to advertise directly on your blog. Another option will be when you are paid to write on specific topics. You could either be paid to write sporadically or regularly, depending on what the company in question is looking out for.
c. Make use of Affiliate Programs: there are affiliate programs that you would like to promote on your blogs. You might want to subscribe to the large affiliate programs like Amazon, Commission Junction and LinkShare. However, you should be aware that there are a lot of smaller affiliate programs that thousands of bloggers are subscribed to.
d. Digital Money Making Terminals: This year has also seen a lot of bloggers making money from digital resources like e-books, tele-seminars and courses. These have shown great promises as additional sources of income to bloggers. I once ran an online course on my blog and it fetched me quite a lot of side bucks.
e. Network Opportunities for bloggers: A blogger can now join a bloggers network. This has the advantage of increasing the blogger’s reach while still earning money in the process. Here, bloggers can make money in two ways: writing for himself or writing for others. It is quite good to write for yourself but writing for others comes with some advantages. For instance, when writing for others (companies, for example) you don’t have to bother about the setup, administration, SEO optimization, promotion and other technical stuff.
f. Blogging for Businesses: With the increase in fame of blogging, many businesses are beginning to turn to the blogging side. While some may convert some of their internal staff into bloggers, some of them will employ freelance bloggers to write for them. If you are interested in this form of income generation, you might want to check out bloggers for hire.
g. Writing, But not blogging: now, bloggers can branch off the blogging field and milk other opportunities. Now a blogger who knows his stuff can write for magazines, non-blogging websites as well as for good old newspapers. You could even write and publish books. In fact, recently I met two of my friend bloggers and they were lamenting that they were the only bloggers they knew who didn’t have publishing contracts.
h. Donations from Appreciative Audience: I know that once upon a time, Tip Jars and donation buttons did little nothing for the blogger’s pocket, but these days, bloggers are now making money from donations and tips from appreciative readers. A real-life example is Jason Kottke of www.kottke.org . He was able to quit his job and become a full-time blogger from donations he received.
i. Blog flipping: This is simply “Selling Blogs”. You could design a blog, write on it, and sell it. It works, believe me. You could either sell it as an individual, or via a network.
j. Merchandising: I mean from this that you could sell branded products like T-shirts through programs like Cafepress. While my merchandising was not an earth-shaking success, I can tell you that it is quite a good avenue of revenue generation. It works especially well on blogs with fanatic followers.
Consultation fees: Some bloggers can now make money online via consultation fees. Once you have established yourself as an expert in a certain niche, you might just as well earn money speaking on your related field and being a consultant there. I have a friend who charges $200 an hour on a subject that he knew nothing of barely 18 months ago.

It is quite an important thing of note to make good financial decisions and deductions in the process of accepting payment. It is essential for you to have a working understanding of the merits and demerits of credit card services.

PROCEDURE 1:
The FIRST DATA MERCHANT SERVICE option:
First Data Merchant Services offer resources and tools for selling online and collecting money, whether it is for large retailers or small businesses.

PROCEDURE 2:
Analyze and compare the fees of several online payment processing companies, and make a selection based on the fees that suit your business. The only problem, unfortunately, is that there are usually some hidden fees that suddenly materialize after the initial grace period is expired.

PROCEDURE 3:
Try to do away with Merchant credit card processing lenders who accept only a limited form of payment. It would greatly benefit your retail venture if you are using a lender that accepts a wide range of payment. A good example is First Data Merchant Services.

PROCEDURE 4:
Another way to get a good credit card processor would be by word of mouth advice – from a merchant who has benefited from a credit card processing method. It shouldn’t be hard to detect that he is in love with his credit card processor if indeed it has been of benefit to his business.

Some advantages that come with having an online retail store are the cheap overhead and ease of management. In fact, the rates of profits accrued from online retail stores have doubled over the past years. Customers say that the low prices, the convenience and multiple choices and options are the main catches that make this venture as blooming as it has become. If you are interested in opening your own retail store, here are the basics:

What you Should have:
Digital Photos of domain name hosting account payment processor e.g. PayPal or merchant accounts.

Now, the basics:

PROCEDURE 1:
Make your business become a business. In other words, acquire the basic documents that make your business accredited. These include: state licensing and tax identification numbers. Some of them may be important for you to get wholesale pricing. If you are not sure of what you might need, you might want to contact you area’s Small Business Association.

PROCEDURE 2:
Draw out and strategize your business goals. This will help you have an idea of the developmental aims you hope to achieve, as well as to monitor growth. It will also be useful to bankers and to your financial supporters, if any, if they are considering venture capital.

PROCEDURE 3:
Apply for business savings and checking accounts. You should also get a payment processor for online payments like Google checkout or PayPal. Although some banks offer merchant accounts for credit card processing, it could cost a lot of money by way of sign-up cost and monthly fees. It is best to research thoroughly before embarking on any of these options. One of the good things about online retail stores is the variety that comes with the payment options – you could provide various means of payment. Check the fees first, though.

PROCEDURE 5:
Buy out a domain name for your business. The best domain name to buy will be a “dot com” website. However, some problems may arise when the domain name of your choice may already have been taken. Here, you would have to allow for a little flexibility and settle to a name closest in form to your original domain name. For example, www.justinbooksonline.com may be your preferred domain, but it may already have been taken. Then you could settle with a domain like www.justinbooks.com. The key is selecting a domain name easy for customers to remember and access.

PROCEDURE 6:
Define whether you want to host your store or whether you want a hosted store. Hosting sites like Yahoo! Stores offer excellent hosting services which are favorable for first-timers. However, they charge a hosting fee of $39.99 plus a percentage of sales. This might put the merchant in deficit even before he has embarked on business.
Another alternative is the free shopping cart option. It may not be ideal for those with limited programming knowledge, but for those who have the knack for it, it will go a long way. The top shopping carts are OS commerce and Zen cart. To use this option, a hosting account is required.

PROCEDURE 6:
Select a host for your store. In selecting a host, ensure that it is one that works with Linux hosting. Most top shopping carts run on Linux programming. For a new merchant, it may not be too necessary to get a lot of bandwidth. Websites like www.GoDaddy.com offer services to first-time retail stores, and even offer automatic uploading of their shopping carts.
When getting hosting, ensure that you buy a secure socket layer (SSL) certificate that will run credit cards through a secure and encrypted server to verify the trustworthiness of the online merchants. A lot of clients will not like to do business with a merchant who collects their data without encrypting it first. So the $20 cost of getting the certificate may well be worth it.

PROCEDURE 7:
Now you are through, it is time to start uploading your products online. Take your own photos and upload the digital photos online. It might also be convenient to have descriptions of your product in a spreadsheet, but this will not improve your search engine ranking. Write your own copy, or pay someone to do the deed.

PROCEDURE 8:
Next, you affix prices to your products competitively, knowing that there are others online that are selling the same products as you. You might want to compare the prices of other merchants, as well as other incentives and discounts. In pricing your products, make sure you include gateway charges, processor fees as well as other overheads in calculating how much you’ll charge.

PROCEDURE 9:
Have a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page showing answers to troubling questions, showing shipping details as well as contact information. This makes you seem more ready to serve, and puts customers at ease. Most customers tend to fear the risk of fraud where shipping matters are concerned. It is therefore important for you to clarify matters for your clients.

PROCEDURE 10:
Increase your information worth by buying guides, reading reviews and blogs. This will help make your business more humane, as well as optimize your search engine visibility, which is what will actually get you those customers in the first place.

Whatever the use of your credit card, it calls for sleepless nights to think that you have much personal information lurking vaguely in cyber space. It just seems like more companies these days are requesting for your account information, putting you on edge, especially with the popular stories of scams stripping people of all their cash online. Here’s the key to a hypertension-free account: simply use a different service and don’t put your main bank account at risk. You’ll require an internet connection.

PROCEDURE 1:
Sign up with www.mynetspendcard.com. This will give you a prepaid VISA card, which works like any other credit card or debit card, and in addition to that a bank account number that works just like a checking account. The checking account will work on sites like Amazon.com and commission junction that make use of checking accounts. You can also rig up the checking account to initiate automatic bill payments and receive direct deposits. You can transfer funds between PayPal and NetSpend easily and conveniently, and it that way, you might not even have to give PayPal your main checking account number.

DEFINE THE KIND OF ACCOUNT YOU WANT:
You could either choose to use an account that charges a fee per card use at an ATM or terminal, or you might prefer to pay monthly charges, which would allow you unlimited card use.

DEPOSIT OF TRANSFER FUNDS INTO YOUR NEW ACCOUNT:
After creating your account, you can then transfer funds to the newly created account. If you use referral code 1840599934, NetSpend will fund your account with $5 to get you started.

Ensure that the amount in your account is keep as low as possible, in anticipation of the worst. This will prove to be a good idea if the worst happens, so the effect will not be quite crushing. This will help to protect your main account also.

It is advisable not to give either NetSpend nor PayPal your main account number, as sin the case of PayPal, in a dispute (even if it is with a scammer), PayPal will withdraw funds from your account to cover the dispute costs. It could drain your main account if it is linked to PayPal. It is safer not to link your main account to your credit card account.

PROCEDURE 1:
Don’t make the mistake of showing a credit card processor your processing statement without them first showing you their rates, which include the mid-Qual and non-Qual rates. These rates are some of the things your merchant credit card processor might want to keep away from you…..

PROCEDURE 2:
Most times, when representatives are sent from the bank to the merchant, they are not usually employees of the bank, but independent contractors. The use of these representatives is the most expensive way to process credit cards, as you would be paying the salaries and overhead of the financial institution.

** You might be wondering why our credit card processing rates are relatively low compared to other companies. The answer is not far-fetched – we do not only process credit cards. JRN Associates in conjunction with the bank of America is the world’s number 2 Merchant service, providing services that help small business owners. Our services include: e-commerce, ATM Machines, SBA business loans as well as web design and affordable hosting. While doing business with, you can rest assured that you will never have cause to complain because of your host company (us). We will always provide outstanding credit card solution and alternative for you to take your business to that desired level.