Anthony Fasano

Guest post by Anthony Fasano, Professional Coach, Speaker & Author

As business owners, the one thing we always need more of is time.  In this article I’m going to discuss four tools, given to us by modern technology, that you can use to build your business and leverage your time.  Technology is a beautiful thing, when we know how to use it!  It’s very important to know how and when to use technology in a way that will maximize your ROI.

So the following are 4 tools that when used properly can really build your business while allowing you to leverage your time:

Website

We are all in business to sell something, whether it’s our services or products.  Whatever you might be selling you are most likely going to be selling it through your website which makes your website a critical component to building your business.  When choosing your website platform, choose one that is user-friendly, not only for your customers, but for you as well.  Choose a website platform that can be easily updated by you, so that you can make changes to it whenever you want from wherever you are.

Based on my experience and research, WordPress is one of the best website platforms because not only does it allow you the flexibility of updating on your own but it also allows you to implant your blog into the website which will help you greatly with search engine optimization (we’ll discuss more on this later).  When designing your website, make sure that it is very easy for your customers to find the products or services you are selling.  You can’t buy something if you can’t find it QUICKLY!   When it comes to your website, think WordPress and think simple and creative.  From a time leveraging standpoint, a simple website will allow you to automate the sales process cutting down on the time you have to spend on sales!

Blog

Your website is important, however a blog can be much more important because it is a tool that you can use to drive people to your website. For those of you still wondering what a blog is, Wikipedia defines a blog as a type of website <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website> , usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Sounds fairly innocent right?  Why are blogs so important?  All of the words that you put into your blog posts get picked up when people perform Google searches, therefore by blogging regularly you are putting more “pathways” out there for people to follow to your website. You want to talk about leveraging time?  By posting one blog post to your site you can send anywhere from a dozen people to thousands of people to your website.  How much time and money would it take by using traditional marketing methods?

If you decide to start a blog, or if you already have one, remember to always do two things: 1) Provide HIGH VALUE content in your blog posts and 2) Post at least once a week and remember it doesn’t always have to be you, this article is a perfect example!

Social Media

OK social media….everyone’s doing it, right?  Social media is an important tool in growing your business and leveraging your time, because it allows you to send information to thousands, even millions of people with the click of a button.  The biggest challenge with social media is not getting sucked into a black hole and spending 4 hours a day responding to posts on Facebook or another 4 hours tweeting to everyone and their mother.

Here are some tips on how to use and not abuse social media for your business:

• Have a Plan – Talk to a social media consultant or do research online to come up with a plan of attack.  What social media outlets are right for you?  How active do you need to be?  Can you use one site (i.e. Tweetdeck) to manage all of your social media?

• Know Your Target Market – You must have a very focused target market and focus your social media efforts towards them, or else you’ll end up posting information to millions of people that don’t care about, wasting their time and your time!

• Let Go of Your Fear – Many people are afraid of social media.  They think it is going to swallow them whole. Social media is the wave of the future; you can embrace it or lose out big-time, that’s up to you.  Take it slow, learn a little each day and know your social media experience will be a journey and eventually you’ll be a superstar!

E-Newsletters

Similar to social media, an e-newsletter also provides you with a simple way to contact your customers and prospective customers whenever you want, at little cost.  Of course that doesn’t mean that you can just send out e-mails everyday, you  should do it in a respectful manner.  The following are some e-newsletter Do’s and Don’ts:

• DO provide high value content in your newsletter that your readers will benefit from

• DO take the time to match the newsletter colors to your logo & website (or just go plain white)

• DO provide links in the newsletter back to your website & blog

• DO provide links to relevant articles, applicable photos and coupons in your newsletter

• DON’T add people to your mailing list without their permission

• DON’T overwhelm your list with to many e-mails in a short period of time

• DON’T change the template (colors, etc.) every time you e-mail, stay consistent

• DON’T send out your e-mails without checking them for grammar and spelling, this can make you look very un-professional

The technology is there, embrace it and use it to start leveraging your time and spending your time on other areas of your business or even some recreation (yes you heard, start working a little less)!

Anthony Fasano is a professional coach, speaker and author who helps people take their careers wherever they want to take them! He is the author of A Daily Boost From Your Professional PartnerTM which is a popular daily e-mail that goes out to professionals worldwide Monday through Friday.  This is a free service that is available to all professionals with the intent of helping professionals stay focused and inspired in their career and leadership endeavors. He is very much enjoying his new website designed by Kathleen at http://www.powerfulpurpose.com

One of the most important keys to success in your internet business is getting traffic to your WordPress site. Although the ideal is to get very targeted traffic, it remains that the more visitors you have, the more likely you are to make sales (and profits).

Highly targeted traffic is usually the result of having a clearly defined niche and clearly defined keywords that would attract your target market.  Take the time to do your keyword research — it will be worth it after you see your traffic start to increase.  Here is an excellent post about keywords and keyword research: Click here to read about keyword research

WordPress Traffic Tip #1  Make sure you’re using your keywords.

Spend some time optimizing your content by adding your keywords as close to the beginning of each post as possible.  Use bolding and italics on especially important words and make sure you use your categories and tags features as well.

Use one of the excellent WordPress SEO plugins (Headspace2 and All in One SEO are the best as of this date) and either set it up yourself if you are comfortable doing this, or hire an SEO specialist to set it up for you.

FREE 6 part Simple SEO for WordPress course

with some great little hints on optimizing your WordPress posts and pages here:

WordPress Traffic Tip #2 Add lots of fresh content to your site .

Three times per week is ideal as it is essential for attracting traffic and getting a good search engine ranking.  Each time you post fresh content, the search engine spiders come to crawl your site to look for the new information. Give visitors and search engines a reason to visit and index your site.

Make a commitment to yourself and your visitors to provide plenty of optimized content and your traffic will soar (and remember that you can post date your content)  See my Youtube video on how to post date content.    Click here to see the video

WordPress Traffic Tip #3 Be Social!

Internet marketing is about building a community.  Gone are the days when you could create those cheesy, in-your-face sales letters and sell your products. People have become much more descriminating and will click away from impersonal and heavy handed marketing.

Sites like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter are powerful tools for generating links and traffic to your site – create profiles on them and post comments, add links to your site, and thoughts to generate conversation.

Get involved – have fun. Be fun, but professional. Look for forums that cater to your industry and begin participating.  Speak to and connect with your highly targeted audience.

#1  Make your website interactive.

It’s very important to create a community (niche) around your business. Engaging your visitors and customers is the best way to create a community that comes to your site repeatedly.  To accomplish this, you can use any or all of these methods:

• Provide a forum where viewers can discuss topics related to your business
• Post surveys or polls so you can learn more about who your market is and what they are looking for
• Allow visitors and customers to review or rank items.  Have a scale of 1 to 5 stars or something similar
• Have a blog on your site and encourage comments and feedback
• Hold contests and sweepstakes and offer prizes that would be of interest to your market
• Publish video and/or audio as well as written content as this gives visitors another way to get to know you and your personality

#2  Ensure that your site provides value

Since people go online to research a possible purchase, to find solutions or answers to problems they’re having, and to be entertained, your site has to provide these. If you are offering products, information, and entertainment, then you are in good shape.  If your content is well written as well,  then it will inspire purchases of whatever you are selling on your site.  Here are some examples of content that provides value to your customers and prospects:

• How to articles, videos, and audio
• Tips articles, videos, and audio
• Case studies
• Workbooks and reports
• Interviews with experts
• Product reviews

#3  Make sure your site is easy to navigate

You have approximately 10 seconds for get a visitor’s attention and make a decision about whether they’re going to stay on your site. If your site is logical, intuitive, and laid out nicely, people are more likely to hang out.  If you offer Products and Services, Information, Prices, FAQs, and the content is easy to find, they are likely to move around your site, checking out the content on your pages.  The longer they stay on your site, the more likely they are to make a purchase or to return again. Consider:

• Keeping your site as simple as possible
• Keep your pages uniform with the same options and appearance (WordPress is awesome at this!)
• If you have a lot of content, use drop down menus and organize your content by topic
• Offer a search field so users can search for products, services, or topics quickly and easily
• Provide a way for visitors to go back and forth between pages
• Test your site’s appearance on several browsers to make sure it has a consistent look and feel for everyone

#4  Make your site easy on the eyes

You’ve probably been to sites where the colors were so incompatible that you couldn’t read the content. Or maybe the font was so small you could barely read it.  Or the content was in one solid block with no space for your eyes to rest.

Readability is critical to a selling website.  Make sure that:

• Your chosen colors are easy on the eyes
• Your graphics aren’t distracting
• You keep any formatting such as underlines, bolding, and italics are kept to a minimum
• Spacing between sentences and paragraphs is adequate
• Font size is large enough for people to read
• Your font is legible on a computer

For tips on optimizing your posts for the search engines, sign up here for my Free Simple SEO for WordPress 6-part Tutorial

We’ll never sell, rent, or lend your email.

#5  Give them a soft sell.

People on the internet are wary of being sold to. No one likes to be sold to. Instead of hitting your site visitors with a hard sell provide information, solve their problems, and show them the benefits of your products or services.  They’ll be much more receptive and appreciative.

Creating a website that sells requires a structured approach and a desire to create the best experience possible for your visitors.

If you are looking to have a site-that-sells built, you are new to online business, or you want to move your existing site to WordPress, contact me. I’d love to help you get your business rolling. Call me today toll free at 800.921.4812

I am known for:

1. overdelivering on my promise to you
2. for being able to take complex ideas and making them easy to understand
3. I can put together a pretty snappy looking site too

What is a Niche Blog (or site)?

A niche blog is a chronological ordered series of posts with information and/or products for your niche or target market. It’s purpose is to get traffic so you can eventually make money either as an affiliate, with Google Adsense, writing and selling e-books and/or selling advertising.

How to Attract Traffic to your Site

• Have updated and fresh content for those who visit your blog
• Market your site to attract traffic
• Use any and all of the tools on the net that are at your disposal

(For a more indepth article about specific tools to attract traffic, click here to read this article )
For tips on optimizing your posts for the search engines, sign up here for my Free Simple SEO for WordPress 6-part Tutorial

We’ll never sell, rent, or lend your email.

How to Start

Before you start posting, decide who your audience, theme, and niche will be.  It is said that if you sell to everyone, you sell to no one. You need to narrow your niche to the slimmest possible group.  A jack-of-all-trades blog doesn’t do well — you need to be focused toward a particular niche (group of people).

(For a more indepth article about niche markets, click here to read this article)

If you are interested in crafts, let this be your niche. You could create posts that discuss how to craft, what to craft, how to make crafting profitable, and so on. After deciding on a subject and who the people are that would be interested in your content, you can begin to write (great content) about it.

How Can You Make Money?

To make money with your blog, you need to have a lot of traffic. To get traffic, you will have to market your site and get it known out there on the internet.  There are many ways of doing this, and it takes time and patience.

Money comes only after you have built a strong readership by offering interesting posts to people who are interested in reading them. You’ve probably heard it before, but this cannot be said enough: Content is king!  Give lots of free information.  Give hints and tips to help others when they are stuck. Offer free tutorials.  Do whatever you need to do to get people to come to your site and then return over and over for your latest content.

Although Google Ads aren’t recommended for a personal business site,  if you intend to run your blog as a niche site, then you can add some or all of the following programs and/or products:

• Google AdSense
• Selling Advertising
• Affiliate Marketing
• EBook Marketing

The simplest to set up and use is Google AdSense. These are targeted advertisements (targeted based on keywords that your niche would be using) to create revenue for your blog. You are paid if someone clicks on the complimentary ad that Google has placed on your site.

You can also become an affiliate for products and/or services sold by others. Most businesses on the internet have some sort of affiliate program that you can join. You are paid if someone clicks on your affiliate link (on your site) and they purchase the package, program or service you are an affiliate for.

The best possible case for being an affiliate is when you have tried the product or service yourself and would recommend it to your niche. You can lose credibility quickly by recommending shoddy products or services, so be careful in your affiliations.

E-books are downloadable electronic books that you can create yourself and sell on your website. You can turn your expertise into written work that your niche is willing to pay for.  E-books should contain your best possible content, as there are millions of people writing ebooks, often substandard. Don’t be tempted into thinking that you can ask money for badly written or uninteresting content. It must be information that is new and helpful to your customers.

So that is a summary of several ways you can make money with a niche blog.

Do you have any tips on attracting traffic to your niche site?

If you are looking to have a niche site built, are new to online business, or you want to move your existing site to WordPress, contact me. I’d love to help you get your business rolling. Call me today toll free at 800.921.4812

I am known for:

1. overdelivering on my promise to you
2. for being able to take complex ideas and making them easy to understand
3. I can put together a pretty snappy looking site too

Everywhere you look online; there is a new Tweet, article, YouTube video or blog post about marketing your business using video. You’ve probably seen or heard about it somewhere if you spend any amount of time networking online. The fact is that using video to market your business can bring incredible results.

As some of you may know, I’ve created a series of (mainly) WordPress video tips and posted them on Youtube. You can see them by clicking here

Many of my videos have been viewed way more times than I ever expected them to be. This has lead to more exposure on the net, but not only that, I’ve gotten clients directly from YouTube–clients who had never been to my WordPress site!

People are being overloaded and overwhelmed with information on the internet, so you  need to be really creative to get attention. What better way to show your talent and creativity than on a video?

Free Video Marketing Course

Learn some tips and tricks about marketing with video, sign up for my 5 part “Marketing with Video” course I am offering for FREE.   It’s clear, concise, and loaded with information that you can use immediately to begin using video to market your biz.

Sign up here for instant access to my FREE 5 part Marketing your Business with Video course

How can you prevent your blog from failing? The management of your blog has to be taken as seriously as the rest of your business site — you will have to put in time and lots of effort to write content that is interesting and that people will want to come back to.

Often people new to blogging aren’t prepared for the effort that goes into creating a successful blog. With the millions of blogs out there, it is actually very difficult to get found online.  There has to be something that makes people want to read your content.  Building a blog does not guarantee an audience — you have to give them a reason to come and see what you have to say.

Here are 9 simple ways to bring in the traffic to your blog:

• Blog Content – a sure way to lose your readers is to not update with new content. No one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same stuff.  Whenever possible, update your blog at least twice a week.

WordPress Tip: Whenever you find yourself in the midst of a very creative spell, write as many blog posts as you can.  You can then post date them to go out every 2 or 3 days until you run out of posts.  Click here to see my Youtube video that shows you how to do this.

• Use Articles to Market Your Site and Business – You’ve (hopefully) chosen a niche for your business/blog because it is something that interests you, and you probably know a lot about the topic. When you write blog posts, think of ways to repurpose your content so they can be submitted to article directories such as http://ezinearticles.com .  Be sure to use the resource box to talk about your site and add a link so people can find it.

• Social Networking – There are many sites you can join to network with others.  There are the Big 3, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. But there are others such as Squidoo, where you can create your own “lens” and even NING where you can create your own membership site. Look around and do lots of searching on the net to find the groups where likeminded people hang out.

• Word of Mouth  Marketing – Spread the word about your blog and/or site. Tell everyone including friends, family and strangers alike.  Put your blog address on your business cards and hand them out at networking events.

• RSS Feeds – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it is exactly that. You set up an account with Feedburner so that people can subscribe to your blog posts and updates.  They can receive them through their RSS reader or they can get them by email.  The best part is that you don’t have to do a thing — it is all professionally managed by Feedburner.

WordPress Tip: There is a plugin you can easiily install on your WordPress site that connects to Feedburner where everything is managed for you.

• Forums – as a budding entrepreneur, you want to start by marketing yourself to first find traffic, and then profit.  Join business forums, work-at-home forums, and any others that might be interested in you and what you have to say, to meet new people and share ideas. You are allowed a “signature” that contains pertinent information about you. Be sure to add your link to your blog in your signature line so others can find you.

• Visit other’s blogs – Read posts on others’ blogs and comment on their posts. Doing this shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone, but that you are trying to become part of a community.  You can add a link to your blog in your comments.

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Marketing – Be sure to use relevant keywords and good placement of them in your content. Learn about keywords and keyword density, as well as other (very simple) things you can do to optimize your posts for not only good ranking in the search engines, but so that your audience/clients can find you
  For more information on SEO, sign up for my “Simple SEO for WordPress” tutorial:

  Name
  Email

  We’ll never sell, rent, or lend your email.

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WordPress Tip: WordPress self-hosted sites are naturally optimized for the search engines. All other steps you take are bonuses.

• Social Bookmarking – submit posts to some social bookmarking sites.  Members of these sites will be able to track you back to your blog. They really are wonderful for exposure.

WordPress Tip: There are plugins for WordPress that are so simple to install, that allow visitors to your site to submit your posts to the bookmarking sites as well.

Each point has a common theme, and that is that you have to get the word out about your blog by first creating attractive content and secondly, using all means available to get it into the hands of (or on the monitor of) your ideal market.  Using any (but preferably all) of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction.

It takes a bit of time and tweaking, but you can get a loyal following and a great readership.

I don’t think there is a better product available for helping business to get found online, and my clients agree (as you will see in the testimonial below).

#FF @thesavvyva WHY? because she has saved me an immense amount of time & I highly recommend her! Plus she is a whole lot of #awesome!  (Written by Anastasia Valentine aka @AVV)

If you are new to online business, or you want to move your existing site to WordPress, contact me. I’d love to help you get your business rolling. Call me today toll free at 800.921.4812

I am known for:

1. overdelivering on my promise to you
2. for being able to take complex ideas and making them easy to understand
3. creating pretty snappy looking sites too

What tips and tricks have you used to build the loyal following you have to your blog posts?

Not quite a year ago, I crashed my WordPress site and lost all of my content.  I was creating a course and using one of my parked domains to show the steps to building a WordPress site. Unbeknownst to me, a parked domain points directly to your main domain, so whatever you do on a parked, you are also doing to your main domain.

Long story short, I called my hosting company to see if they could recover my site for me, but was told that my site had long ago become too large for the automatic backup service (up to 2 gig) and there was no backup available.

So what have I learned about hosting that could help you in the future?

1. That once your account (not just your site) gets bigger than 2 gig, it will no longer be automatically backed up.
2. That you do not get any warning that lets you know you are close or have exceeded the 2 gig limit.  But you can go into your C-Panel (the back end of your hosting) and check the file space and usage anytime to see how close you are to the 2 gig point.
3. You can backup your site yourself and I highly recommend that you do this.
4. Bluehost has wonderful tutorials that will walk you through this process.  Go to tutorials.bluehost.com for the best info available.
5. That PARKED domains are redirected to your main domain.  What you do to a parked domain, you will be doing to your main domain.  (Remember I installed WordPress on a domain I wasn’t using? It was a parked domain.)
6. I highly recommend that you learn all you can about your hosting package.  Bluehost offers C-Panel which is a user friendly, highly intuitive program allowing end users (you) to manage your hosting/sites/account yourself. Read up on all that you can get your hands on from your Hosting company.
7. Wherever possible, use other sites to upload content to. For example, did you know that you can create the coolest sales page in Twitwall (thank you Lauren McMullen for this tip)?  And you can host your videos on YouTube and so on.  Get really creative and monitor the size of your account frequently.
8. If you don’t use a file anymore, take it out of your directory.

You can read the complete story by clicking this link, but in the meantime, schedule a weekly manual backup of your WordPress site. Go to your hosting company and find the information you need to do this yourself.  It’s not difficult to do, but playing around in the back end of your hosting can be intimidating. Good hosting companies will have videos or some way of instucting you on how to do this.

Contact me today to get yourself online with a WordPress site. Click here to check out my WordPress packages

Here is the article:

#1: Use Your Blog to Set the Stage

A blog is your foundation and starting point for strategically getting your message out to the world. If you don’t have a blog yet, the place to start your planning and preparation is this article: Top 10 Easy Steps to Starting a Business Blog.

Using your blog as your hub, or home base, not only provides a presence on the web where you can go deep and intimate with your prospects and customers, it’s also a money-saving tool. A blog is far less expensive to build, design and maintain than a traditional static website that may cost thousands of dollars.

Your blog is where you have the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise, expose your personality and give your audience the chance to get to know, like and finally trust you as you share valuable, useful content that makes their lives better.

Keep in mind that a blog is a search engine magnet. When you post consistently and constantly, the search engines tend to index your content more frequently. Using keywords relevant to what your target audience is looking for gives your content a good chance of being in the top results in searches. You become visible and findable on the web.

To target your message and/or campaign, publish a series of posts directly related to the topic you’re promoting. Whether it’s your new book, a service or a product, post content for several weeks prior to the launch date of your promotion.

If you don’t have a specific promotion, create an editorial calendar and frequently post on the prime topic and/or keywords for which you want to be found. For example, if you have a book being published, start seeding your blog with excerpts and snippets about the launch date, book signings and other events and news.

To read the complete article:  Click here!

By Christine OKelly | May 3, 2010

I run a press release distribution site that is designed for SEO — we offer people the ability to add anchor text links within their press releases because building backlinks in keyword rich anchor text links (within relevant content on quality sites) is an important component of SEO.

Day after day, I am continuously blown away by the keywords I see people choosing — keywords that will not help their SEO campaign at all.

The biggest mistake most people make when choosing keywords — and it is a critical one — is that they choose keywords that are far to broad or that do not directly relate to either the services they offer or the problems their customers are looking to solve.

In this post, I’m going to show you a process for not only identifying profitable keywords, but also discovering ones that you actually have a shot at ranking for.

I’m also going to show you a few pictures of my Scottish Terrier Molly modeling Kai’s new marketing product.

Tara and I do our best to educate every customer, providing personal one-on-one SEO counseling to every person who submits a press release using one of the upgraded packages that includes editing. It is one of my personal missions to show as many people as possible how to choose effective keywords that will increase their search engine visibility for their target audience.

And that leads us to this week’s Mission: Laser Targeting Profitable Keyword Opportunities For You To Dominate

This is Mission #2 in “Mission Possible SEO Challenge.” If you’re just finding this post for the first time, you may want to start with Mission #1: Analyze Your Site Through the “Eyes” of a Search Engine.

Step One
Est. time to complete: 5-7 minutes

When choosing keywords, there are several layers of consideration:

• The conversion potential of the keyword
• The search volume of the keyword
• The estimated time required to dominate the search engine results page for a keyword (more competition for a keyword means its going to take more time and effort to rank for it)

Choosing profitable keywords is a process that requires a combination of common sense, gut instinct, keyword research tools, and some smart analysis.

ACTION ITEM:

1. 

   Open a Word doc and list 5-10 keyword terms that relate to the services you provide and the solutions you provide for people. Use your gut instincts and common sense when compiling this list. Do yourself a favor — don’t just think about these keywords and not commit them to paper. Not only does it help solidify your thoughts — but you’ll be using this doc in the next step.

When Choosing Keywords to Jot Down:

Think from a customer’s perspective

Before you open any keyword research tool, think about the SOLUTIONS you provide for people. What are people really trying to accomplish when they are searching for what you provide?

If you’re a graphic designer, your first instinct may be to target the word “graphic design.” Not only is that term so broad that it will likely be an arduous battle to the top of the search engine rankings, but it may not be what your customers are looking for. Specific terms like “flash animation designer” or “freelance website graphic designer” often prove to more lucrative and to be easier to rank for.

Be Conscious Of The Type of Customer You Want to Attract

In just about any industry, there are terms and phrases that only those ‘in the know’ use. For example, in the CD manufacturing industry, industry terms are “CD duplication” or “CD replication.” Someone who has at least some level of familiarity with the process might search for these keywords. On the other hand, someone who is not in the industry might search for a term like “how to make a CD.”

If your business sells products and solutions applicable only to a more sophisticated industry buyer, it’s best to target industry specific terms. Using too general of keywords can bring you unqualified leads. However, if your business provides solutions for people newer to the industry, it might be more lucrative to avoid industry jargon.

Step 2: Expanding The List
Estimated Time to Completion: 30-45 Minutes

Next you are going to use a keyword research tool to expand on or narrow down the list of terms you’ve created based on your common sense and gut instinct.

To read the rest of this excellent article and get her downloadable resources,  click this link    Click here

Scenario 1.

1. You have USD funds in your PayPal account, but you want to pay someone in CAD.
2. Paypal will not convert the USD to CAD and pay the person.
3. Instead they will send that person an echeck.
4. You only find out that this is what they’ve done when you get an email saying that your transaction will be pending until March 9th 2010 (it is Feb 24th today).
5. An echeck can take 7-10 business days to clear your personal/business bank account.
6. You call them (see scenario 3 below) to ask them to stop the transaction, and you promise to convert the USD to CAD
7. They cannot stop anything.  Sorry.
8. So now my client waits (and waits and waits).
9. Finally your client gets notification that the echeck has cleared.
10. They can then click to deposit the money into their bank account.
11. They find that they need to set up a PayPal account to access their money.
12. Once they’ve set up an account, they can then click to deposit their money into their bank account.
13. They now get to wait an additional 7 – 10 business days before the money is deposited.

Scenario 2.

1. You pay someone with PayPal (using the correct currency and ensuring that you have more than  enough money to cover the payment)
2. They get notification of an instant payment
3. They click to deposit into their bank account
4. They find that they have to set up a PayPal account to get their money
5. They have to wait 7-10 business days to finally receive their instant payment.

Scenario 3

(and I thought it was just me being frustrated by PayPal)

1. I call Paypal from Canada.
2. The recorded prompting message wants to verify my account and asks me for my Social Security number
3. Canadians don’t have Social Security numbers
4. I don’t know how to answer and find myself saying (to the recording), “I don’t have a Social Security number.”
5. I am stuck in this loop with this recording of a person asking me over and over for my Social Security number
6. Then I hear the magic words, “OK we STILL can’t verify your account–let’s try something else.”
7. FINALLY they ask for the last 4 numbers of my bank account.  I have that handy.
8. I tell them the number, but they cannot verify my account with the numbers I’ve given
9. Strange, but they can only recognize my bank account number when they are sending someone an echeck
10. The recording asks me for the last 4 numbers of my bank account several more times
11. I fail the test each time
12. (10 minutes have gone by)
13. “OK we STILL can’t verify your account–let’s try something else.  Enter or say the last 4 numbers of you Social Security number… “
14. …
15. Exactly 17 minutes from start to finally being able to speak to a living, breathing human being.

Scenario 4

1. I’ve made a purchase with my PayPal balance.
2. They charge my credit card instead.
3. I call them (see scenario 3) to find out how and why this has happened
4. I am told that there are a lot of fraudulent purchases for that exact amount of money
5. So they use the credit card that is on file to make the payment.
6. I ask what would happen if I didn’t have a credit card on file
7. They answer that they would use the money in my account.
8. Enough said–I’ve removed my credit card.

All I can say to any of my clients who have been caught in this long waiting game to be paid or to receive a refund, I am very sorry. If I had known, I would have been looking for an alternate payment method/system a lot sooner.

Have you checked out your systems lately?  Are they customer friendly?