Dealing With Scammers

Dealing With Scammers

Sooner or later in your online adventure you will come across one of the lowest life forms that trawl the internet; the scammer. Not unique to the internet, the scammer exists in all walks of life and has done for as long as there has been trade. The characteristics of the scammer is an unethical person who seeks to rob and steal from others. Natural liars and shameless thievies they have no consideration for the people they rob.

Most businesses at some time or other will be attacked by these creatures, they’re an occupational hazard of trading. The question is what can we do about them? As sellers, whether through our websites or an online auction house we are somewhat vunarable to these preditors.

One of the biggest problems with trading online is trying to establish whether we have been scammed or not. Did the goods I sent to a customer really not arrive or did the customer receive them and is just claiming they didn’t for e refund? Thereby getting the item for free. Was that plastic palette I sent through the post really broke in two when it arrived?

I can’t be a 100% sure, (there’s always an element of doubt) but I’m pretty certain I have been scammed recently by a customer who claimed they had not received a package. So what can we do to protect ourselves? Over the time I have been trading online I’ve developed a stratergy to help minimise the risk of being scammed.

The obvious thing you can do to avoid getting ripped off is only send expensive item via recorded delivery. Add the cost of this to your postage price and don’t allow yourself to be persuaded to send it any other way. The loss of an expensive item can be a big hit for an online trader. Don’t take the risk. As well as sending it recorded make sure you get it insured. There’s no way the recipient can claim they did not receive the item if they have to sign for it. What you call expensive is up to you but personally if it costs around £30.00 I send it recorded.

I rather not have to go through the hassle of sending it recordd because it means queueing in the post office for longer than I like but ensuring the safety of the package is worth it. If you are sending a number of small items split them into two packages. If there’s an attempt to scam you it’s unlikely that two packages have not been received. By splitting them up you may only lose the contents of one package.

Now don’t get paronoid and think everyone is out to scam you, they’re not. most people are decent and honest, if they wasn’t trading would come to a standstill. If someone claimes they have not received an item they ordered from you they might not have. the postal system is not perfect and items do go astray. My stratergy is to always give the customer the benefit of the doubt and take the hit. I will either refund or replace the item.

I deal in good faith with everyone. As I always post expensive items via recorded the items that get lost are of small value so it’s a hit I put down to the natural nature of trading online. I do however make a note in my database of the address that has not received a package. If another order comes from the same address and another claim of an undelivered package I become suspicious. from this point on I will only send items to this address via recorded delivery>

If someone claims they have received a broken item I just replace or refund it. I could tell them to send it back before I refund the cost or replace it but this is pointless. If the item has been broken then it’s not fair on the customer to expect them to go through the trouble of reposting it. And if you are been scammed the scammer will just break it before returning it anyway.

Take basic measures to protect yourself when you are trading. The obvious thing is not to send expensive items any other way but by recorded delivery. If someone is going to scam you then they will get away once with stealing a small value item. There’s little you can do about this. Personally i just leave it to their karma. Everything we do comes back to us in the end, so I’m happy to let them have their small victory. It doesn’t put me off my long term objective of building my retirement fund.

Secure Your Own Pension

What do government ministers, mps, bankers, public sector workers and company directors have in common? Answer:they’ve all guarnteed themselves a big pension pot for when they retire. Unlike the rest of us who have laboured all our lives in the

private sector. Paying a percentage of our wages into a pension fund that only a few years ago looked good but now have been

destroyed by bankers and government tax grabs. Those of us in the private sector who have reached middleage are now looking

at a huge pension hole. We have no guarnteed pension. We don’t have expense accounts like lottery wins that we can fiddle

like out Mps, we are out in the cold.

The question is what can we do about it? We have three choices, we can just passively accept the situation and roll into a retirement of poverty after a lifetime of paying taxes that others have been banking. We can form a political party and start a revolution that will bring down all the corruption that has led us to this situation or we can take action to build our own pension.

Option one of rolling passively into a retirement of poverty doesn’t sound good. Why should we after working all our lives? Option two would take more time than we have, even though it is very appealing. The image of our corrupt leaders and bankers hanging by their feet from lamposts has merits and would please many of us. Realistically though, our only option is option three. We must take control and build our own pension fund. There’s still time to do this, in fact there’s ample time to do this. we can’t do it by doing what we’ve always done though. It requires a complete break from our normal thinking.

We can build our own pension fund by starting a part-time or full-time business. reinvesting the profits and watch them grow year on year. We need to plan long term for this. I’ve started building my pension by starting my own part-time business. I see this pure and simply as my pension fund and keep it separate from other financial committments of my life.

Each time I invest £100.00 and see a minimum return of at least 30% I know I am on the right track. Where else can you get the returns possible by investing in yourself? In a bank? Yeah right. Would you really trust your money to a load of thieves. We’ve done that for years and they’ve robbed us. Don’t give them a second chance, you can’t afford too.

We have been forced into this situation by the corruption of our leaders and business CEOs. It’s not an ideal

situation, I’d rather be sitting on a thirty year inflation proofed public pension but I’m not. Like everyone else in the

private sector I will have to fend for myself. I have chosen to take up the challenge and set about building my own

retirement fund. You should think about it too.

10 Ways To promote Your Website

10 Ways To Promote Your Website

Article Marketing

This is without a doubt one of the best ways to get targeted links back to your website. I use it all the time and can

confirm it works. The beauty of it is that it keeps on working month after month if not for years. Unlike paid advertisement

which stops as soon as the money runs out. Article marketing is viral and continues to promote your site long after you have

submitted the article. It also guarntees targeted traffic because the people who are reading your article are obviously

intersted in what you are promoting so it’s only a short step for them to click to your website.

Forum Posting

This will guarntee some links back to your site though it’s not going to bring a lot of traffic, it can also be time

consuming. The stratergy is simply to find a number of forums in the area you are promoting and join them. Make some postings

and put your web address in your signature. You will have to participate fully in the forum discusions for this to work. Just

posting a few poor quality posts will soon expose you as someone who is only interested in promoting their website. You will

need to post quality articles and answer questions to be accepted. i don’t use this method simply because I don’t have the

time to spend on forums.

Social Networking Sites

Similar to forums though jot as targeted. the theory is simple. You join some social etworking sites, build up a group

of friends and while you are doing so promote your site. I’ve never used it so I can’t say whether it works or not. Lots of

peole do use social networking as a way to promote their sites. Indeed many so called gurus sell courses on doing it. The

problem with it is it’s time consuming. Like posting in forums you will have to be on the sites for a number of hours every

day. It’s a valid stratergy but not one I would use simply because I don’t have the time to spend talking to virtual friends

about what i had for breakfast.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Get this right and its guarnteed to bring floods of visitors to your site. Get it wrong and it’ll suck your money away

like an industrial vacuum cleaner sucking fluff from a corner. I’ve dipped my toe into this and had moderate success. I

withdrew and decided to study all I can about PPC before moving back in again. This is where I am at the moment. Studying. I

will definetly be using this method in the future. i see it as a good stratergy. If you invest £50.00 in PPC and make £80.00

it’s a winner. Spend time studying it well though. I’ve heard lots of horror stories of people who have lost their shirt

trying to advertise on PPC because they went in unprepared.

Links From Another Website

You can pay to be placed on another website that is related in some way to your own niche or you could agree a link

exchange that may be mutually beneficial. You know, you show my link on your site and I’ll show yours on mine. If you deploy

this stratergy then you must stay within your niche to be credible and keep things focused. For example I sell art products.

It would be pointless me linking with someone who sells fishing products. I need to stay around my own area because that’s

where the people I’m targeting will be. So it would be a good idea to swop links with an artist for example.

Submit To Search Engines.

This is crucial and should be one of the first things you do because it is so simple. All you have to do is set aside

a few hours and manually submit your site to all the search engines. Note I say “manually” There are software programs out

there that claim to submit your site to every search engine automatically with one click. I’d avoid them. They can over

submit and lead to some search engines classyfying your submissions as spam. This will lead to your site being banned from

the search engines. Meaning you are invisible. To avoid this manually submit to each search engine.

Start A Blog

Start a blog in your niche. This is a good way to get backlinks to your site which is what the google spiders are

looking for when they trawl the net. The more good links going to your site the higher google will rank it. Blogging is a

good way to get those links. With each post you can backlink to your main site.

Don’t Forget Offline Methods

I know it might seem like old hat but off line methods of marketing are still valid and can be effective at promoting

your website. Simple things like flyers with your website on can generate traffic for your site. Include youe site address on

each piece of correspondance you send, on invoices, thankyou letters, business cards or on your van or car.

Keywords

How your site is designed will play a role on how easy it is picked up by the search engines. This is down to your

webdesigner who, if he knows his stuff, will know all about using keywords in the titles of your pages. Key words are

essential to flagging your site to the search engines. Thus is another reason why you should not jump in and buy the cheapest

website because it looks good. There has to be depth to a website design. It must include SEO enhancements or you are

throwing your money away.

You Are More Than You Think You Are

If the worse has happened. You’ve reached middleage and you’re about to get laid off. After years of loyalty to an employer you have been thrown out like a piece of old office furniture. If you’ve worked for the same company for a number of years you might have become institutionalised. You were brought up to believe that loyalty mattered. That loyalty was a good honourable trait. Suddenly it’s not. What happened? What happened is that the world has changed. We’ve moved away from honesty, loyalty, selflessness, helping others and a general morality. To selfishness, greed, profit at any cost and me me me culture. A corrupt and bankrupt culture that has led us into the economic abyss and if we don’t see it for the shallow fake it is, then we will never climb out of this hole.

Our leaders are corrupt, selfish and grasping. They have expensive makeovers, wear designer clothes but underneath there is nothing there. they are empty drums whos motivation is self enrichment regardless of the cost to others. So where does this leave the middleaged man or woman who has become a victim of this sad empty shallow age.

If you’ve been discarded after years of loyal service don’t panic. you are not worthless, on the contrary it’s the system that has laid you off that is worthless. You will probaly be feeling down, depressed and maybe desperate. Well stop right now. You have the values and morality that will save us. We’re not going to be saved by this bunch of shallow worthless leaders. We’re going to be saved by the values held by the middleaged. By people like you.

People with a strong work ethic. People with character. People with depth. If you’ve been laid off or about to be don’t beat yourself up. You are a strong honest person who has become a casualty of a false value system. A casualty of a corrupt shallow system that is unsustainable. First thing to do if you are been laid off is take stock. Remind yourself of all the skills you have aquired over your life. Both personal and work skills.

You will have plenty. You have valuable skills that you can utilize to your advantage. The internet can help you to do this. It doesn’t matter what your skills are in. whether you were a web developer, a mechanic or a cleaner, you have marketable skills that you can pass on to other people. People are more than willing to pay for information, from how to install an arial to how to fix their car or keep their books. What I’m saying is the internet has provided you with a market to sell your knowledge.

Before you stop reading wait. it’s not as hard as you think, in fact it’s so easy to write an ebook and sell it from your own website. Whatever skills you have, you can capitalise on them. Ebooks are big business and it’s never been easier to write and market them. Not too long ago the publishing world was controlled by a few people who decided what could get published and what couldn’t. no more. The internet has made it possible for anyone to publish their own books for little cost.

I’ve seen ebooks on how to setup a dvd player. I saw an excellent book written by an ex employee from the tax office explaining the techniques they use to flag up who they will investigate. I’ve seen books written about fixing your washer, setting up a website, cleaning your carpet. You will have skills that other people will pay to learn. Not too long ago I was looking for information on how to set-up a sky dish. A quick search of the net soon brought up an ex sky employee who had written an Ebook on setting up sky dishes. It was just the information I needed and I was happy to pay for it. New technology has made it so simple to create information products and you could take advantage of it.

If you find yourself a victim of the corrupt shallow system don’t roll over and die. Don’t except the role you have had forced on you of being unemployed and worthless. You have skills and talent that have taken a lifetime to aquire. You can use them. You’ve got resources, a deep well of experience to draw from. If the worse has happened, regroup, take stock, dust yourself off and get back into the fight. You’re stronger than you think, more intelligent than you think and more resouceful then you think. The internet has given you the opportunity to start your own business. Investigate the opportuneties and move in another direction. Your life isn’t over, it’s just starting.

Moving Your Business To The Next Level

Many people make a decent income by just trading on Ebay and they are happy to keep their business strictly on Ebay. This is a business model that suits many and provides them with the extra income they are seeking. In my opinion this business model is flawed and fraught with danger.The biggest problem with relying on Ebay for your entire business is Ebay itself.

Over the last 12 months the current Ebay management team have implemented a number of policy changes. many of which have been detromental to sellers and I’m not just talking about the ever increasing fees, which have led Ebay to be come known as “Feebay”. The rising fees have forced many sellers to shut up shop and leave and many are still on the edge. One more fee rise will push them over.

Ebay has been very high handed and arrogant with its treatment of sellers. bahaving with all the arrogance of a monopoly, it has treated sellers with disdain. believing they will always have to stay with Ebay if they wish to sell online.
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The reason why I don’t advise relying solely on Ebay for your business is because you are at the mercy of decisions made by Ebay’s management. if the management is incompetent and make bad business calls then they will have a detrimental affect on your business. You could spend years building up your business and a few bad decisions by incompetent managers can ruin it.

The ideal online business model in my opinion is to have your own website running alongside of your Ebay shop.This should be your long term goal. Ebay can then become a marketing tool for your website. By putting most of your energies in your website you will have an escape capsul if Ebay’s management decides to increase fees again. This is the model most Ebay sellers are using. Every time I make a sale I send a confirmation email with my website address on. With the order I send a personal letter with my web address on. My objective is to get the buyer to become a regular customer to my website. why? Because it doeasn’t cost me anything to sell from my website. No Ebay fees, no big chunk off the profits to feed Ebay. The only cost is the cost of paypal and this doesn’t always apply because many people prefer to pay by cheque, in which case there are no fees.

By getting a website and devoting time to building traffic to it you will have an independant business from Ebay. This is not easy. it takes time to build a website up, to get customers and establish a trusting relationship with them. It is however, time well spent and will give you an extra dimension to your business not to mention extra profits. When you get your website your relationship with Ebay changes. You are not totally dependant on Ebay for your income. you are using Ebay as part of a wider stratergy. You will still need Ebay in the early days, and even when your website is established, Ebay will still be a source of new customers for your site. You will not however, be totally dependant on the auction house.

Buying a website is not cheap and should only be done once you have gained some experience trading on Ebay. After you’ve built some profits you should consider investing some in your own website and moving your business to the next level. With good promotion and marketing you will soon recoup the investment and move into profit.

Cut your online trading teeth on Ebay. Build up your customer base and when you’ve gained enough experience and accummulated enough profit, give serious consideration to moving up a level and investing in a website. You will then become an independant online trader.

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