Those very "brick and mortar" stores, which had once declared online shopping a fad, an endeavor doomed to go the way of pogo sticks and drive-in theatres, have had to bow down and acknowledge the success of industry giants like: Amazon.com and ebay. These same naysayers, which now credit their online enterprises with providing the lion's share of their revenues, will do whatever's necessary to encourage customers to shop online, advertising their largest discounts through their website; with these discounts often considerably greater than the ones offered by their mail order catalogues and landlocked sites.

Not Your Mom and Pop's Online Rug Shop

Today's online shopping isn't limited to exotic Persian rugs anymore. It's comprised of stores selling everything from: hardware, clothing, magazines and carpeting to gourmet food, cigars and tires. Then you also have your Bombaycompany.com, Kmart.com, EthanAllen.com, Snan.com—all, heavy hitters when it comes to supplying decor for the home or office. Any viable enterprise once found only on Main Street U.S.A., is now sure to be represented by hundreds, and sometimes thousands of comparable cyber space online storefronts.

Everyone: college students, grandmothers, teachers, dancers -- even rug rats as young as seven -- can be found navigating and shopping Internet sites with ease and confidence. But as with all new technologies, knowing what to do, along with those things that shouldn't be attempted, will help insure all your online shopping experiences are great ones.

A Few Cyber Highway Rules to Keep You on Course

Be a Savvy Consumer

• Make yourself familiar with any site your plan to shop from. If you've never heard of the store, then find someone who has. Call the number listed under: Contact Us. Look the company up on the Better Business Bureau's site to see if anyone's registered a recent complaint against the site.
• Guard your privacy. Don't give out personal information to just anyone who emails you. So often, when we visit sites, we are asked to register with our email address, it only days later (sometimes even soon), when you begin receiving bogus emails asking for additional information, such as your credit card account number. It's a ruse. Often, they've gotten enough information from your initial registration at their site to make your think that you've done business with them in the past.
• Place your online orders only on secured web servers. These web addresses always begin with https while unsecured web pages begin with http. Get into the habit of looking for sites whose addresses begin with this when shopping online. Depending on your web browser, these sites may also be denoted by a small lock seen in the lower corner of your computer screen. This lock should always be in the closed position, never the open position.
• Don't use obvious passwords. Try not to use the same password for different sites. One of the keys to keeping your online information out of the hands of others, is to always keep them guessing. If your nickname is Tigger, although easy for you to rememb
  Christmas And New Year - Gifts For The Fraudsters Pension Plan
  As we all hit the shops in the run up to Christmas then once again for the New Year sales, it is essential that you keep you eyes open and hand on your money and cards. Christmas and New Year are the most prosperous time for the credit card fraudster, as they take advantage of the goodwill on offer - don’t not make it easy for them!It was forecast by Barclays Bank that the UK consumer withdrew some ?490 million out of cash machines, between 10 am and 3 pm on 23 December. Total spending including credit cards, savings etc was expected to hit some ?2.5 billion for yesterday alone - with ?1.5 billion piled onto credit cards. This extensive use of credit cads around this period of the year has resulted in major opportunities for fraud, which the fraudsters have been taking with both hands.It is estimated that a credit card fraud will
  >Those very "brick and mortar" stores, which had once declared online shopping a fad, an endeavor doomed to go the way of pogo sticks and drive-in theatres, have had to bow down and acknowledge the success of industry giants like: Amazon.com and ebay. These same naysayers, which now credit their online enterprises with providing the lion's share of their revenues, will do whatever's necessary to encourage customers to shop online, advertising their largest discounts through their website; with these discounts often considerably greater than the ones offered by their mail order catalogues and landlocked sites.

  Not Your Mom and Pop's Online Rug Shop

  Today's online shopping isn't limited to exotic Persian rugs anymore. It's comprised of stores selling everything from: hardware, clothing, magazines and carpeting to gourmet food, cigars and tires. Then you also have your Bombaycompany.com, Kmart.com, EthanAllen.com, Snan.com—all, heavy hitters when it comes to supplying decor for the home or office. Any viable enterprise once found only on Main Street U.S.A., is now sure to be represented by hundreds, and sometimes thousands of comparable cyber space online storefronts.

  Everyone: college students, grandmothers, teachers, dancers -- even rug rats as young as seven -- can be found navigating and shopping Internet sites with ease and confidence. But as with all new technologies, knowing what to do, along with those things that shouldn't be attempted, will help insure all your online shopping experiences are great ones.

  A Few Cyber Highway Rules to Keep You on Course

  Be a Savvy Consumer

  • Make yourself familiar with any site your plan to shop from. If you've never heard of the store, then find someone who has. Call the number listed under: Contact Us. Look the company up on the Better Business Bureau's site to see if anyone's registered a recent complaint against the site.
  • Guard your privacy. Don't give out personal information to just anyone who emails you. So often, when we visit sites, we are asked to register with our email address, it only days later (sometimes even soon), when you begin receiving bogus emails asking for additional information, such as your credit card account number. It's a ruse. Often, they've gotten enough information from your initial registration at their site to make your think that you've done business with them in the past.
  • Place your online orders only on secured web servers. These web addresses always begin with https while unsecured web pages begin with http. Get into the habit of looking for sites whose addresses begin with this when shopping online. Depending on your web browser, these sites may also be denoted by a small lock seen in the lower corner of your computer screen. This lock should always be in the closed position, never the open position.
  • Don't use obvious passwords. Try not to use the same password for different sites. One of the keys to keeping your online information out of the hands of others, is to always keep them guessing. If your nickname is Tigger, although easy for you to remem
    A WhoLovesMoney Review - The Internet Marketing Revolt
    I'm wary of high-priced products many online marketers are peddling nowadays, especially when I receive a ton of email from other marketers begging, cajoling, deceiving me to buy these products.For one, my built-in cynicism tells me that a high-priced item will almost always be over-priced. Secondly, a high-priced item suggests that the vendor of the item wants to get rich as quick as possible and at my expense. Thirdly, I'd rather regret not purchasing a high-priced product that would prove to be good than regret purchasing a high-priced item that turned out to be a dud. My credit card will thank me for it.So I'm always on the look-out for inexpensive or free products that prove to be priceless (as opposed to pricey). Notice that I say "inexpensive," not "cheap." I know well enough the concept that you need to spend to earn. So I spen
    > anymore. It's comprised of stores selling everything from: hardware, clothing, magazines and carpeting to gourmet food, cigars and tires. Then you also have your Bombaycompany.com, Kmart.com, EthanAllen.com, Snan.com—all, heavy hitters when it comes to supplying decor for the home or office. Any viable enterprise once found only on Main Street U.S.A., is now sure to be represented by hundreds, and sometimes thousands of comparable cyber space online storefronts.

    Everyone: college students, grandmothers, teachers, dancers -- even rug rats as young as seven -- can be found navigating and shopping Internet sites with ease and confidence. But as with all new technologies, knowing what to do, along with those things that shouldn't be attempted, will help insure all your online shopping experiences are great ones.

    A Few Cyber Highway Rules to Keep You on Course

    Be a Savvy Consumer

    • Make yourself familiar with any site your plan to shop from. If you've never heard of the store, then find someone who has. Call the number listed under: Contact Us. Look the company up on the Better Business Bureau's site to see if anyone's registered a recent complaint against the site.
    • Guard your privacy. Don't give out personal information to just anyone who emails you. So often, when we visit sites, we are asked to register with our email address, it only days later (sometimes even soon), when you begin receiving bogus emails asking for additional information, such as your credit card account number. It's a ruse. Often, they've gotten enough information from your initial registration at their site to make your think that you've done business with them in the past.
    • Place your online orders only on secured web servers. These web addresses always begin with https while unsecured web pages begin with http. Get into the habit of looking for sites whose addresses begin with this when shopping online. Depending on your web browser, these sites may also be denoted by a small lock seen in the lower corner of your computer screen. This lock should always be in the closed position, never the open position.
    • Don't use obvious passwords. Try not to use the same password for different sites. One of the keys to keeping your online information out of the hands of others, is to always keep them guessing. If your nickname is Tigger, although easy for you to remem
      Help Your Web Site Pass the Profit Test, p1
      It's a proven fact simple and user friendly web sites generate more sales. To improve your sales, look for ways to simplify and make it easier for your visitors. Test your ordering process. Remove the clutter, broken links and anything that distracts or confuses. Here's a quick checklist to help your site pass inspection with your visitors and convert more of them to customers:1. Sizzle Your Headlines. Headlines are the most important marketing element of your website and your web marketing in general. Think about it a minute. What makes someone click your email out of the scores of emails in their ebox? Why do people choose your article out of a list of 20 or so on the page. They click because of your headline.Invest time into crafting a sizzling headline. Seek to capture the interest of your visitor when they first arri
      great ones.

      A Few Cyber Highway Rules to Keep You on Course

      Be a Savvy Consumer

      • Make yourself familiar with any site your plan to shop from. If you've never heard of the store, then find someone who has. Call the number listed under: Contact Us. Look the company up on the Better Business Bureau's site to see if anyone's registered a recent complaint against the site.
      • Guard your privacy. Don't give out personal information to just anyone who emails you. So often, when we visit sites, we are asked to register with our email address, it only days later (sometimes even soon), when you begin receiving bogus emails asking for additional information, such as your credit card account number. It's a ruse. Often, they've gotten enough information from your initial registration at their site to make your think that you've done business with them in the past.
      • Place your online orders only on secured web servers. These web addresses always begin with https while unsecured web pages begin with http. Get into the habit of looking for sites whose addresses begin with this when shopping online. Depending on your web browser, these sites may also be denoted by a small lock seen in the lower corner of your computer screen. This lock should always be in the closed position, never the open position.
      • Don't use obvious passwords. Try not to use the same password for different sites. One of the keys to keeping your online information out of the hands of others, is to always keep them guessing. If your nickname is Tigger, although easy for you to remem
        Targeted Email Marketing - Steps to Targeted Email Marketing
        Publicity via email is easy and fast. Hence email marketing has become an important aspect of publicity of one’s products. Through direct email marketing, one can publicize one’s products among existing and potential consumers. But for most of the people these emails are no more than junk. But if you send your emails to people who are seriously interested in knowing about your products or are in need of your services then you will call it as targeted email marketing. Here are five easy steps through which you can do targeted email marketing.The first step for targeted email marketing to build up your lists. Make sure the email lists you have are of people who may be interested in your products and services. Research the lists. See if the email holders have purchased a similar product in the past or are they among the purchasing power.T
        tial registration at their site to make your think that you've done business with them in the past.
      • Place your online orders only on secured web servers. These web addresses always begin with https while unsecured web pages begin with http. Get into the habit of looking for sites whose addresses begin with this when shopping online. Depending on your web browser, these sites may also be denoted by a small lock seen in the lower corner of your computer screen. This lock should always be in the closed position, never the open position.
      • Don't use obvious passwords. Try not to use the same password for different sites. One of the keys to keeping your online information out of the hands of others, is to always keep them guessing. If your nickname is Tigger, although easy for you to remember, it's also fairly easy for someone else to figure out too.

      Their Your Rights, Know Them

      • If you possible, use the same method of payment for all your online transactions. This will make it easy on you when the statement comes in. This allows you to easily distinguish authorized payments from nonauthorized payments.
      • Understand the return and refund policies of the company. You may not want to do a lot of business with an online store providing only a store credit on returns, especially if you thought you were purchasing an Oriental rug for the living room, but it turns out to be a rug better suited to a child's room.
      • Take a minute or two to carefully read the fine print before you hit the "I read and I agree" button. The company puts these caveats in fine print for a reason.
      • Don't assume a 3-5 day delivery date is standard business practice. Most sites offer express shipping at a higher charge than regular UPS. Read the shipping policy before placing an order.
      • Know what warranties you are being offered on the products you purchase from the site. Most online stores selling appliances and electronics are more than happy to sell you their extended warranty. But do you need it? Find out what's covered under the manufacturer's warranty, then decided whether or not that's enough coverage.

      Let's Make a Deal

      • There's no reason not to compare prices, especially when it only a matter of mouse clicks. If you know what the competition is offering, then you're in a much better position to get the best price. Many sites will be meet or better the competition's best price, if asked to.
      • Lookout for hidden fees. These costs account for the majority of shipping and handling fees accessed by online shopping sites. Check to see if these fees seem reasonable for item you are thinking of purchasing.
      • Order early for special occasions like Mother's Day, Christmas, and birthdays. It's a special day, and receiving the item on time helps insure it remains this way.

      Know Where You've Been

      • Keep good track of dates, amounts spent, and description of the items purchased from the sites you've visited.
      • Keep all your online receipts and website page printouts. This will make it that much easier to check what's delivered against what you actually ordered online.

      But most importantly, if an online shopping site looks as if it might not be on the up and up, don't chance it. Whether their selling bamboo rugs or Waterford crystal, it's certainly not worth risking your good name and credit to find out for sure.