There are significant advantages to having an E-Commerce section on your website which may include greater sales, customer retention and the ability to sell beyond your geographic limitations.

I want to dispel a myth and let you know that an E-Commerce store is not just for companies that sell products but they can and should also be used to promote services and other intangibles. This article will give you a brief outline of the benefits of trading on-line as well as how to avoid some potential trouble spots you may encounter. The goal is to provide you with some basic information that you can use to take your business and your services on-line. I will cover some of the options for creating a store next time, this article will be focused on the benefits and some considerations before you start.

• Most of my clients already have a physical presence and have been doing business for a while so the lure of an online store is great, the fear of the unknown is even greater.
• One great reason to take E-Commerce yourself is the ability to extend the reach of businesses that you can interact with. You are no longer confided to a geographic location. The whole world is a possibility. I have a client who runs a Photobadge.com business that has clients as far away as the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Another client has started providing his Biotech services and some products online at Active Sight
• The ability to accept orders 24/7 can create a competitive advantage.
• By using on-line transactions, payments tend to clear faster and you may be able to eliminate the need for Net Terms. People are used to paying at the time of order.
• Stock control will be easier since you can set up your database to automatically trigger stock re-orders.
• You will be able to monitor sales and can use the data obtained to improve the selection of goods you offer for sale.
• You can use your website as a catalog for new and existing customers. No more dead trees and lots of money saved in postage.

Setting up an E-Commerce site is ideally suited for businesses that have:

• Clearly defined goods or services that do not need human involvement in the sales process
• Standard prices for every sort of customer or software that can handle multiple tiers of client pricing
• Products or services which are deliverable in a specific time

Before you start an on-line shop, you have to make sure that you have the resources and procedures in place to deal with orders. Among other things, you’ll need to decide

• How to get your goods or services to the customers – logistics of shipping and tracking
• How you are going to accept payments
• Tracking customer information including credit card details secure and prove this to the customer
• Publish your contact information clearly
• Are there any regulations on shipping your product or providing your services in another state? How about to another country?

It is important to make sure that your on-line shop is able to deliver what the customer expects. If it doesn’t you risk damaging your reputation and could actually lose sales.
Even from this brief overview, you can see that setting up an on-line shop is not something that you should undertake lightly. You’re probably best to seek professional advice.

By typing a residential phone number into a Google Search window performs a reverse number lookup can list your name, address and even a map of your address. The ease of access to this type of information is a huge privacy concern as well as just plain scary. Google has a mechanism to remove your residential listing within 48 hours.

Google Phone Book Removal

A few days ago I checked my Gmail with the Blackberry browser, it was easy to log in and navigate it was just a little slow accessing the site over http. Then in the top of the page I noticed a little link that said “Want Faster Gmail?” I clicked the link and it took me to http://www.gmail.com/apps and prompted me to download the Gmail Application for the Blackberry 8800. I clicked the link and after a few seconds it returned a 404 page not found error. I tried everything, even some alternate links that google search returned but they all failed.

I did a little more searching and found http://mobile.google.com which recognized the Blackberry 8800 and presented me with a download for Google Search, Google News, Google Maps, Gmail and Google Talk. Each one of these as a native application. Sweet.

Even though the 8800 is GPS enabled, Goolge Maps for Mobile is really a GPS application. It pulls the details from their server but it does not utilize LBS or location based services to determine your current information. But it is handy to get directions or maps – I was really hoping that the application would use the built in GPS.

The next application that I tried was Google Talk, I have actually been using this since I first got my BB and it is one of the must have Blackberry applications. You would not believe how often I send a quick message over Gtalk.

The whole reason for the download if you remember was actually the Gmail application I wanted to see if it would work as my personal mail alternative because my Blackberry mail account is tied to my Blackberry Enterprise server at the office. I want to make sure that I can keep personal and business mail separate. I think that it is just respectful to keep a split between personal and business.

Overall the application does make Gmail a breeze to use but there is no new message notification. I have read that I can do this with software from handango called Blackberry Alerts and I will update as soon as I know more.

At this point I am just jazzed to have ready access to the google services over the phone, it is just a ton easier than constantly opening a browser to search or check mail.

Reason #10 – Most Of Your Accomplishments Are Invisible

The computer guy never hears anyone tell him, “I just want to let you know … everything is working fine!???

The reality is that people call the computer guy when something is wrong.

As a computer guy, if you work really hard to make everything work the way that it should, and things work fine, then people believe you don’t do anything. Everything you manage to get working correctly or do perfectly will forever remain unnoticed by computer users. They’ll only ever notice that you do anything when something isn’t working correctly, and you are called upon to fix it.

Reason #9 – Every Conversation You Have Is Roughly The Same

When the computer guy dares to mention what he does for a living, the typical response is, “I have a question about my home computer…???

Or when the computer guy first hears about a widespread problem within the computer network he’s responsible for, he can barely begin to assess the problem before a dozen other people call to report the same problem.

Or when the computer guy explains a certain process on a computer to a user who is incapable of retaining the process, he will inevitably need to reinstruct the user of this same process — indefinitely.

Reason #8 – You’re An Expert Of Bleeding-Edge Technology Products, Aren’t You?

The computer guy often finds himself in situations where someone is asking him for advice on a pending investment of the technological variety.

“I heard about (some hardware or software product) that can do (something desirable) for me. I brought you these (advertisements/reviews/printouts) because I wanted your recommendation. Which would you buy????

Although the inquiring person sincerely trusts the computer guy’s judgment over their own, in almost every instance the real objective of these meetings is to ensure their own immunity from making a risky purchase.

If it turns out to be a bad investment, and they cannot get (the hardware or software product) to do (anything desirable), then you will be their personal scapegoat — “But honey, the computer guy said I should buy it!???

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