iMark Interactive

As the new year begins, so does the onslaught of online fraud.  Fraudsters are continually trying to find new ways to steal personal information and use it for their own good.  This is particularly an issue with Internet Retailers and their ecommerce stores.  Online Fraud is a billion dollar industry and it affects online retailers every day of the year.  There are quite a few ways out there to help retailers combat fraud such as IP geolocation,  address verification, verified by Visa/Mastercard, fraud scoring models, and much more.  One method that is fairly new to the online world is Device Fingerprinting.  This method works kind of like human fingerprints, where the machine you are on it identifiable by the online merchants servers.

There are a few ways to fingerprint a device, either by passive techniques or active.  A study was done with online purchasers asking them if they would tolerate an executable file given to them by retailers in order to identify their machine.  Most said that they would be willing to do so in order to make the ordering process and verification process much smoother.  There are a few groups out there that say this is a breach of privacy as the retailer will know certain aspects of your computer and if it has committed fraudulent acts in the past.  Most actual consumers do not think the same as they want their information secure and not have to risk fraud.

The best part of Device Fingerprinting is that there are a few companies out there that have a massive collection of identifiable computers and networks, so when a retailer signs up, they have all those computers identities to verify orders.  This could save a lot of order processing time along with money spent on combating fraud.  If the retailer knows that the machine you are one has committed fraud before, they are able to either block the order or review it more closely.  With the rampant use of proxies, IP geolocation and address verification has become useless in some cases.  Using fingerprinting will be able to get around that and identify the computer the fraudster is actually on.  This is a huge leap from how retailers used to fight fraud and we can only expect it to get better.  Keeping your customers safe should be a priority and making sure that your company takes the necessary steps to squash fraud should be at the top of any to do list.

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We have a list of 10 checklist items that every Small Business needs to think about.  While we did create a more detailed version of each, we are going to put them all in this post for easy access and readability.  This is for anyone looking to start a business in the new year or for anyone that has just started a business and wants more information on how to keep it going.  Below is our Small Business Checklist.  Click each item for the full article.

Small Business Checklist Item #1 – Business Name

Choose a business name that suits what you want to do and plan to do in the future.  Many entrepreneurs try to pick a name that they like, but sometimes it does not encompass what your company is going to do.  A word of advice that many people do not think about is that you should not have a company name that has your name in it.  The main reason for this is because if you ever have a chance to sell the business, there is less likelyhood that someone will purchase your business because of the name.  Business Investors and purchasers want a name that can keep people interested and is memorable.  Using your name is an easy way to create a company name, but not the most effective in the long run.

Small Business Checklist Item #2 – Research

We need to expand a little further on the Business name from yesterday. Please make sure that after you pick a business name, make sure you have the right to use it in your state. You can usually check this out with your Secretary of State website. Once you verify that you can get it, go to the register of deeds and fill out a DBA form to secure the name and then do it with the Secretary of State (depending on your business form, which we will discuss a little later)

Small Business Checklist Item #3 – Business Structure

Ok, so you have done your research and realize that your business idea is a viable one.  Now you need to look into how you want to structure your business.  There are 4 basic structures to choose from with variations within each structure.  The main thing that you need to think about are covered with the following points.

Small Business Checklist Item #4 – Business Plan

This is a step that many small businesses forget to do.  While a business plan is not really required to run your business, it is a very helpful tool.  If you do not know what a business plan is, it is simply a written format of how you want to run the business and what the business stands for, as well as the mission of the company.  These can take time to create, but they will help you in the future to keep your company on track with your original goals.

Small Business Checklist Item #5 – Proper Forms and IDs

We know that it can be exciting to start up a new company and get selling or have your ideas become reality.  The one thing that we ask is that you make sure that you have all the proper forms and certificates in order to sell properly.  Each state require a certain set of forms in order to be a legal business, most require business license and sales tax ID’s.

Small Business Checklist Item #6 – Take Inventory or Dropship

We are asked about this more times than we can count.  Please note that this tip is really only dealing with companies that sell online, not really traditional retailers with brick and mortar stores.  This is an important discussion because it lays the foundation to how success you can be either online.  We will go through some quick pros and cons of each, so you can make a little more informed decision.

Small Business Checklist Item #7 – Insurance

To insure or Not to Insure?  This is a good question, but the answer is simple……Get insurance!  There are many of you out there that have not taken the time to look into good business insurance for whatever company you run.  This is a very important part of business to protect your investment.  We will not go into detail about all the insurance types out there for businesses, but we will show you some points to think about.

Small Business Checklist Item #8 – Calculate Profit Margins

This is a simple task to accomplish, but we have spoken to many people that have started a business that never really looked into creating prices for their products or services that gave them a positive net margin.  We are sure that many of you have probably done this as your started your business, so this tip is really for those thinking about starting one or just starting one.  Please take the time to properly calculate your profit margins on your products or services.

Small Business Checklist Item #9 – Employees

If your company is at the stage where it needs to hire employees, you better take this stage very seriously.  You are going to be trusting people with the company that you build from the ground up, so you need to make sure that you take the proper steps in hiring the right individuals.

Small Business Checklist Item #10 – Social Media

As the internet ages and online marketing gets harder, companies need to now think about using social media as a marketing medium.  If your company is not using social media as a way to attract new customers, then you really need to think about starting.  Social Media outlets include blogs, twitter, facebook, you tube, and more.  These are great venues to build your brand online.

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SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is becoming a large part of many company marketing strategies.  This is the known practice of  tweaking your website to better rank on the search engines for given keywords.  The issue is that many companies do not know how to do it properly or in the correct manner that will not get them in trouble with the big 3 engines.  Many companies outsource their SEO to firms that handle small parts of the SEO plan or all depending on the needs.  With the large increase of SEO services on the internet, many people are trying to get their piece of the pie.  With this happening, we want to warn you of some potential issues that can arise.

There are many great companies out there that provide their service and get results for their clients, but they are usually masked by the bad companies that do not thing, but take your money.  These are the companies that you have to be careful of.  Here are a few tips that can keep your marketing budget safe and get you results at the same time.

• How long has the business been in business? This is an important factor because most reputable companies have been in business and have experience in the field of SEO.  Not everyone can do SEO, but many say that can.
• Does the company have a portfolio? – A portfolio is an important tool for any SEO company to have because it shows proof of what they have accomplished.  Most reputable companies will furnish their portfolio for you upon request.  These usually contain websites or keywords that they have worked on and what they have done to turn it around.
• Do they offer a Guarantee? This seems to be a trend in the SEO world, but seems only to be done by shady companies.  No One can offer you a guarantee for results.  This is not how SEO works.  If a company that your are looking at provides you a guarantee like you will be on page 1 within a month, just turn around and leave.  They cannot offer this guarantee without the knowledge that they are doing something shady.  Most people or companies that offer guarantees end up getting your website banned or in trouble somehow with the search engines.
• Do they have an office and contact information? With all the new start-up SEO companies out there, it is wise to look just for companies that have offices and contact information beyond an email address.  Most companies that have a real business address have invested the time and money into providing a real service to their customers.
• What are their time frames for results? If anyone is telling you that you should see results within a week, they are probably not doing the SEO in the right manner, more like Black Hat SEO.  This can be very bad for your website.  Most companies should tell you that it will take months to see good results depending on the project.  Go in with realistic goals and you should realistic results.

With these simple and easy to remember tips, you can make sure that your are not taken by a shady SEO company.  Not only will you lose money, but you can hurt your website’s current rankings.  Take the time to properly vet the companies that you are interested in.  Making a decision on the fly will never be good for you or your company.  SEO is a constant process that never stops, so don’t expect outlandish results within an unmanageable time frame.  Most reputable SEO companies should tell you that you can start to see good results within the first 12 months.  Good luck to everyone looking for a good SEO company to help them succeed online.

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These days online marketplaces are popping up everywhere from the new Walmart marketplace to Sears starting their own.  While these are good marketplaces, we have found one that looks promising because it only deals with DVD’s, CD’s, Books, and Video Games.  The marketplace was created by a previous ebay person, who wanted to simplify the processing of selling and buying online.  He created Glyde to simplify the marketplace world.

Glyde is simple to search for products that you are interested in and they accept Visa and Mastercard as payments.  The best part is selling on Glyde.  They do not have any upfront costs, but do charge 10% when the product sells.  The thing that we found kind of different is that Glyde will send you, the seller, a prepaid, pre-addressed envelope to ship the product that you sold.  This means that you do not need to worry about finding something to ship your product in.  Once your customer receives the item or items, you profit will be put into you Glyde account which can be pulled out by bank or wire transfer.  This makes it simple, secure, and easy.  This will be a great place for sellers to start their business or test the selling waters online.  Go ahead and Checkout Glyde.com for your next purchase.

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We all know that google is the top search engine on the web and it offers great services to everyone for free or for a small low fee.  They are great at what they do in regards to helping retailers succeed online.  Google has offered retailers a free way to list their products with their Google Product Search, but they are adding something else that retailers can use.  It is called Product Listing Ads Program.  This is enabling retailers to put images into the sponsored link section on google.  If a customer searches for a certain product, you will see listings with photos in them.  This will help with click-through rates along with hopefully conversions as the customer sees the image before they click instead of just text.  The best part of this is that retailers are not charged per click, but a cost-per-sale or cost-per-acquisition basis, so only when a customer actually checks out on your site after clicking on the ad.

We checked google today for a sony flat screen tv and the results are below.  You will see the new Product Listing Ads Program on the right along with the google product search results in its normal spot.

So what do you think about this new program that google will be pulling out?  Do you think that you will lose traffic from google product search with these new ad formats?  Would you be willing to pay a cost per sale for clicks coming from these ads?  We want to hear from you and what you think.

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