My Travels on the Net
Showing you how to use the Internet to your advantange.Thursday, March 27, 2008
Social Networking Resources
I was asked to write an article on tips for creating a social networking profile and came across the following resources about social networking I thought were particularly helpful.
Social Networking Resources:
A short video with an overview of social networking. (CommonCraft who produced this video also has other helpful overview videos on blogging, wikis and RSS.):
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking
(Or see it on YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc
An in depth history of online social networking that includes links to the major players:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/08/digging_deeperyour_guide_to_so_1.html
Social Networking Blog where you can learn about latest developments and new tools.
http://www.socialnetworking-weblog.com/
Search engines specifically for finding social networks:
http://www.digfoot.com/
http://www.findasocialnetwork.com/search.php
List of Social Networking Sites organized by category (i.e. books, business, family)
http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/
A good list of Social Networking Aggregators. (Yeah. There are so many of them you need to worry about putting them all in one place.):
http://mashable.com/2007/07/17/social-network-aggregators/
Social Networking Resources:
A short video with an overview of social networking. (CommonCraft who produced this video also has other helpful overview videos on blogging, wikis and RSS.):
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking
(Or see it on YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc
An in depth history of online social networking that includes links to the major players:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/08/digging_deeperyour_guide_to_so_1.html
Social Networking Blog where you can learn about latest developments and new tools.
http://www.socialnetworking-weblog.com/
Search engines specifically for finding social networks:
http://www.digfoot.com/
http://www.findasocialnetwork.com/search.php
List of Social Networking Sites organized by category (i.e. books, business, family)
http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/
A good list of Social Networking Aggregators. (Yeah. There are so many of them you need to worry about putting them all in one place.):
http://mashable.com/2007/07/17/social-network-aggregators/
Labels: social networking, social networking lists, social networking resources
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Alternatives to Paypal
I am not a fan of Paypal but for many of my clients Paypal is a necessary evil. Paypal is pretty good if you’re an individual or small business selling stuff on eBay but if you’re selling an eBook, Payapl is an in-elegant solution.
The problem is that once someone has purchased your eBook (or other informational product), it’s really tough to tell them how to download their purchase. You can’t customize the landing page to tell them “Click here to download your purchase.” All you can do is hope that they figure out that they need to click on the tiny “Return to Merchant” URL in the lower left hand corner of the page. The best work-around I’ve found is to put in big, red, bold text on the order page “Click on the ‘Return to Merchant’ link to download your purchase.” Yeah, right. Like that’s gonna happen. In-elegant is an understatement.
So when I was noodling around the internet today and cam across an article on CNN.com about 5 alternatives to Paypal, it got my attention. I haven’t tested out any of the companies they mention but I will be testing out http://www.e-junkie.com/. They’re not really on par with Paypal but have the potential to be better because they work with multiple payment systems including PayPal Standard, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, 2CheckOut and ClickBank. This means you can accept payment for multiple systems that don’t require you to set up a merchant account.
The thing I really like about e-Junkie.com is that you can customize both the landing page and the email people get when they purchase your eBook. That way you can send them to a page that says “Download your purchase here.” Seems pretty simple but apparently it’s beyond Paypal’s capabilities.
The problem is that once someone has purchased your eBook (or other informational product), it’s really tough to tell them how to download their purchase. You can’t customize the landing page to tell them “Click here to download your purchase.” All you can do is hope that they figure out that they need to click on the tiny “Return to Merchant” URL in the lower left hand corner of the page. The best work-around I’ve found is to put in big, red, bold text on the order page “Click on the ‘Return to Merchant’ link to download your purchase.” Yeah, right. Like that’s gonna happen. In-elegant is an understatement.
So when I was noodling around the internet today and cam across an article on CNN.com about 5 alternatives to Paypal, it got my attention. I haven’t tested out any of the companies they mention but I will be testing out http://www.e-junkie.com/. They’re not really on par with Paypal but have the potential to be better because they work with multiple payment systems including PayPal Standard, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, 2CheckOut and ClickBank. This means you can accept payment for multiple systems that don’t require you to set up a merchant account.
The thing I really like about e-Junkie.com is that you can customize both the landing page and the email people get when they purchase your eBook. That way you can send them to a page that says “Download your purchase here.” Seems pretty simple but apparently it’s beyond Paypal’s capabilities.
Labels: alternatives to Paypal, e-junkie.com, selling ebooks
Archives
January 2007 February 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 September 2009
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]