Not only has the internet revolutionized how people learn and seek information, but, the world wide web has transformed how people and businesses conduct commerce. With the use of websites and merchant accounts, anyone is able to market to anyone. Yet, given the cost to get a merchant account and the cost to maintain a merchant account, is it possible to sell products and services on the web without one?

Fortunately, the answer to the previous question is “Yes!” There are several options that allow businesses to make sales without the need for a merchant account. These options are:

1) Selling on a website that has its own currency

2) Accepting a private currency as payment

3) Using a third party to provide merchant account services

There are websites that have an internal and unique “currency” that allow business owners to make sales. These sites allow consumers to become members, offering them the ability to transfer traditional funds into their own accounts. With these accounts, members can then pay for purchases. The “currency” for these purchases go from the purchaser to the seller. The seller is then able to request a payout of collected funds into traditional banking systems.

Another consideration is that other websites offer a unique “currency” without the intent to “sell.” These websites allow consumers to “exchange” traditional funds for this alternative currency. Business owners may now decide to accept this alternative currency on their websites. This option allows the website to accept orders without the need for a merchant account.

A third option is to use a website that allows a business to accept its services as a merchant account provider. This is an ideal option. If a provider of financial services is able to accept payment on an owner’s behalf, this precludes the requirement to have a merchant account.

Given the brief overview, let’s consider some examples:

Some websites have an internal “currency” and members decide to load funds into their accounts. As such, business owners may elect to become merchants and sell their products and services to members. As members make purchases, businesses receive the funds within business accounts and may elect to receive these funds into the traditional banking system.

An example of an alternative currency for use by a business is e-gold.com. This website is focused on allowing members to exchange traditional funds into gold. As new funds are deposited into the e-gold system, e-gold.com purchase an equal amount of gold into its reserves. There is always an equal amount of gold to the deposits or exchanges made. Business owners may elect to use the e-gold payment option to make sales on websites. When a business owner wants to transfer his “e-gold” into traditional funds, he makes this transaction.

The third example illustrates how a third party provides merchant services for a website. ClickandBuy.com is a company that accepts payments for websites. Typically, consumers become members of ClickandBuy, providing their personal banking and credit card information. As members of ClickandBuy, members may elect to make purchases from businesses that are also associated with ClickandBuy. As a qualified ClickandBuy merchant, business owners may now “sell” on the web without a traditional merchant account.

Each of the above scenarios allows a company to sell on the web without a merchant account. Each option provides a website with greater flexibility when used. In fact, even if a website has a merchant account, these options increase marketing flexibility . There are alternatives to traditional payment methods on the web. Make the most of them.

Sell Online Without a Merchant Account is a post from: Internet Business

Balancing your checking account against statements from your financial institution is a monthly task that I highly recommend. Not only can you make mistakes, but the people who process your checking account transactions are subject to human error as well.

Mistakes in your checking account and/or checkbook register can be small or large, and in your favor or in the bank’s favor. To keep everyone honest, and to prevent potentially nasty financial surprises, do yourself a favor and balance your checking account every month.

Step-by-step Instructions

Balancing your checking account with the aid of your computer does not mean that you first have to enter all of your checking account transactions into a program. Here’s the step-by-step procedure for doing your balancing, without entering any transactions, using myOwn10-Key.

1. Start one copy of the program. Press Ctrl+O to display the Open dialog box. Browse to the Sample Tapes folder that is located below the folder where the program is installed. Double click on the “Balance Checkbook.ptc” filename.

This will load the balancing etape into the program. Press F11 to place the program in collapsed mode and then, if needed, drag the window borders to expand the window size so that you can see the entire etape including all of the Notes. Move the program window as far as possible to the left on your monitor screen.

2. To avoid over-writing the master “Balance Checkbook” etape file, click on the File menu and then the Save As command. Select a folder and enter a filename of your choosing for the new copy of the balancing etape. Click the Save button.

3. Start a second copy of the program. If needed, press F11 to also place this second copy of the program in collapsed mode. Place the second program window to the right of the first. Resize both windows as needed to give yourself as much etape viewing area without overlapping the two windows.

You can gain monitor viewing space in the second copy of the program by turning off the etape line numbers as well as removing the subtotal column. While the second copy of the program is in Expanded mode (pressing F11 toggles between Expanded and Collapsed modes), click on the Tape menu and then either the Line Numbers or Subtotal Column commands. For the Line Numbers command, you will also have to click on the None option.

4. On the balancing etape in the first, or left hand window, change the “Ending balance on statement” value on line 2 to agree with the ending balance shown on your account statement.

To make this, or any of the following etape value changes, right click anywhere on the etape row being changed. This will open the Change Tape Entry window in which you change the Tape value and then click on the OK button.

5. In your checkbook register, check off all of the cleared transactions that are listed on the account statement. This includes deposits, checks, and other withdrawals.

If there are any fees, such as for monthly account maintenance or for new checks, ensure that those fees are recorded in your checkbook register. Check these fee transactions as cleared since they appear on the current statement. If needed, bring your register balance up to date to reflect the new entries.

As an aid to help keep track of, and find the oldest, uncleared transaction in your checkbook register, draw a line down the column in which you check off cleared items. Start the line at the beginning of the check register and stop the line just above the oldest, uncleared transaction. As you check off newly cleared transactions, continue the line so that it always stops just above the oldest, uncleared transaction.

6. Using the second, or right hand copy of the 10-key program, add up all of the deposits in your checkbook register that have not yet appeared on a statement. Change the “Deposits not on statement” value on line 3 of the balancing etape to this total.

To start a new etape section while preserving all preceeding etape sections, either press F3 or the left arrow key. Either of these keys will, if needed, add a final subtotal to the bottom section of the tape and then start a new etape section.

7. Using the second, or right hand copy of the 10-key program, add up all of the checks and other withdrawals in your checkbook register that have not yet appeared on a statement. Change the “Checks/Withdrawals not on statement” value on line 4 of the balancing etape to this total.

8. On the balancing etape, change the “Ending balance in register” value on line 5 to agree with the last balance in your checkbook register.

9. The “Total recorded in other than register” value on the balance etape is for amounts in your checking account that you keep track of separate from your checkbook register. If you keep track of any of the funds in your checking account separate from your checkbook register, change the “Total recorded in other than register” value on line 6 to the total of these separate funds.

Balancing

When your checking account is in balance with the account statement, the end subtotal on the balancing etape, line 7, will now be zero (0.00). If this end subtotal is not zero, here are a few suggestions for trying to find the error.

* Verify that the ending balances from both the account statement and your checkbook register have been entered correctly on the balance etape.

* Verify that all subtotals from the second, right hand etape have been copied correctly to the balancing etape.

* Review the account statement to see if there are any charges, such as new checks or monthly fees, which have not been entered in your checkbook register.

* Compare the deposit, check and other withdrawal amounts listed on the account statement with the amounts recorded in your checkbook register to see if there are any disagreements.

* Re-add all of the uncleared deposits in your checkbook register that have not yet appeared on an account statement to ensure that this total on the balancing etape is correct.

* Re-add all of the uncleared checks and other withdrawals in your checkbook register that have not yet appeared on an account statement to ensure that this total on the balancing etape is correct.

* Re-do the arithmetic in your checkbook register since the last time you balanced. (Finding the last place you balanced is easy if you draw a line under the last balance in your checkbook register each time you finish balancing your account.)

If you find no obvious errors, you have the option of visiting your financial institution to get help. Or you can force your checkbook register into balance with your account by adjusting the ending balance in your checkbook register. The notes at the bottom of the balance etape have instructions for the two options for forcing your account into balance by either adding or subtracting the out-of-balance amount from your check register balance.

Whether or not you decide to force your account to balance depends on the impact making such an adjustment will have on your account balance. Only you can decide whether forcing your account to balance is something you want to do.

When You Are Done

When you are done balancing your checking account:

1. Close both copies of the program. Whether or not you save either the balancing or calculation etapes is entirely up to you.

2. In your checkbook register, draw a line under the last balance to indicate where you last balanced your account. You know that all transactions above this line are in balance. If there is a problem with balancing the next statement, you will only have to concern yourself with checking for errors in entries following the last underlined balance.

Myown10-key – How to Balance your Checking Account Without First Entering All of your Transactions is a post from: Internet Business

A forum is a place where people can go, who share an interest or a passion for the same topic, and share there ideas, tips, strategies, experiences and more with other members of the forum. Forums are made by there owners because forums are a good way of creating massive amounts of content for a site with no actual writing work by the owner of the site. Articles and other content will all come from the visitors of the forum.

Forums are a great place to advertise your site. You think that I am talking about going to a forum that is based around your niche and telling people to visit your site but I am not. About using them to advertise your site. A lot of people spam forums because of the fact that forums are open to the public and you can’t control what they post, you can only erase the post after it is made. What you want to do is completely different from this.

The first thing you have to do is join a forum. Then before you even start posting look through the FAQ or the forum rules. This is where they will tell you the rules about certain things called the signature file which is the most important part of the strategy. Many forums get rid of this feature to prevent spam. A Signature is what you see on the bottom of all your posts. In the control panel, you can create a signature file that will be included under every post you make. This is a greater way of gaining traffic and links to your site that will be seen by search engines if the forum is popular and busy.

Please don’t advertise your site. Make sure that you contribute to discussions. Your signature file is there and it is working as long as you keep posting. People will see your link just sitting there all by itself and they will take interest in it only if they respect what you are saying. In some forums there are people will tens of thousands of posts with sites in there signature and they probably get massive amounts of traffic from that forum, not to mention the links counting towards raising the sites ranking and so forth.

Try not to advertise your site and keep to the idea of talking about your niche. Leave your link and advertising in your signature, passively creating traffic for you. As the days go by, you will see the traffic coming to your site and you will notice that it is coming in more and more and the days go by and you keep posting. I want to leave you with the most important part of this strategy which is that you have to post every day, at least 5 times a day to make a real impression and to gain those posts fast. These will add up and in a month you will have 150 links to your site.

Forum Posting Advertising Without Spamming is a post from: Internet Business

People have always been on the lookout for easier ways and means to communicate with each other. The Internet proved to be just the answer to our problem of communication. Online chat rooms acted as the platform to combat our problem of conversation and the rest is history.

Chats rooms were developed by expert programmers in such a manner that it would be most convenient for usage and would also prove to be user-friendly in the long run. The best part of it all was the fact that with time online chat became so popular that many programs, which offer free online chat, came into existence.

This by no means was any less than a revolution in terms of communication. With the phenomena of globalization, more it became a necessity to find a cheaper means of keeping in touch with family, relatives, friends, acquaintances and the lot overseas. Online chat was definitely the answer we were all looking for.

This medium comes with an extensive array of benefits. Users who avail of online chat rooms can confer in the most unambiguous manner. Long and extensive discussion can be easily done at absolutely no expense at all. Conversations regarding classified material can also be carried out without any worries whatsoever.

Online chat rooms have also become the favorite haunt for dating. Teenagers especially are making full use of this medium as it allows them to converse freely without being bothered or overheard by their parents. Also they get to spend time even when they are not meeting in person. Free online chat with the special feature of video conferencing is yet another milestone achieved.

It further shortens the distance between users and helps to connect with each other in a better manner. This is so because one can be sure that the other person was not lying about his/her appearance and instantly judge their character.

Live discussion through the medium of video also acts as a great benefit for those indulging in overseas business. It eases the Herculean task of connecting with an army of subordinates and giving them a vast assortment of instructions to carry out their work.

Conversations over the phone can be sloppy with misunderstandings that might lead to loss of precious time and money, which are the two key ingredients to run a successful business. The cost effective medium of conversing through online chat rooms is also helpful in saving money.

Free online chat rooms offer emotions in the form of icons to be typed in which popularly called emotions. Online chat is accessible live through video, which is even better than talking over the phone. Still sitting around in front of your computer reading this article? Hurry and sign-up for free online chat and don’t let this wonderful opportunity with its extensive benefits pass you by.

Chat Online Without Spending a Dime is a post from: Internet Business