Archive for February, 2008:
The Requirements to Setting Up a PayPal Account
If you want to do business online, having a PayPal account is pretty much essential. Yes, there are other systems you can use, but the name of PayPal is well known and trusted by online customers. All you really need to open up a PayPal account are your standard name and address details, plus telephone and either a bank or credit card information. The first choice to make is which kind of PayPal account you would like. Even this is not critical, as it is very easy to change from one type of account to another. A personal account is the simplest to understand, but it is very restrictive. You cannot accept credit cards from anyone who does not have a PayPal account.
For business purposes, a personal account is really not good enough, so you have to decide between a premier and a business account. You can, in fact, have one of each, as PayPal allows you to have a personal or premier account, and a business account as well. That is it, though. Even if you are a serial entrepreneur running several businesses, you will still be limited to one PayPal account, and need to route all of your funds through it. A business account allows you to pick a name other than your own for the account, which can be useful if you are going to be selling as a company using something other than your own name.
The forms to fill in are simple enough. You will need to fill in your first and last name, your full address including zip code, your home telephone number, and then your email address and password. This is one of the most important pieces of advice you will ever be given. Make your PayPal password as tough as possible, and make it unique. Anyone discovering your password will not only have access to your PayPal funds, they will also have access to your entire bank account once you have set one up. Make sure your security is as tight as it can be.
Tags: setting up paypal account, paypal, making money onling
How to use Facebook to Generate Traffic
Facebook is a relatively new social networking site, but the number of members is growing rapidly. It is another site that is worth using to try and increase your contacts, and even to try and drive some traffic to your commercial websites. As with many other sites, you need to be careful what you are doing. Facebook is not a marketer’s site, and it is so easy to get caught up in activities which will bring counter productive results, and even result in you being banned from the site.
The first essential is to get your profile set up properly. Make sure it looks professional and business like, and not like the profile of someone just looking for dates. Include a full description of what it is you can offer to your potential customers, and make sure there are links back to any of your own commercial sites. Once your profile is set up, it will act as your sales page. Don’t make the tragic mistake of using your business name as your profile name, as this is against Facebook’s terms of service. It would honestly not be worth doing anyway, as you will only gain traffic and customers from your written description.
With social networking sites, it is all about doing just that, networking. Make sure you respond to any friend requests, and send out your own. Growing your network is your long term ticket to building steady traffic to your commercial sites. Use the My Questions application to find out what people are looking for related to your business, but never spam. You can relate experiences about other people you have done work for, or sold products to, and then if they are interested they will ask you. At the very least, they are sure to visit your profile, and then it is only one further link to have them on your commercial site.
Tags: use facebook to generate traffic, facebook traffic, facebook, web 2.0, generate traffic
