If you are using Paypal for receiving store payments, or for paying your affiliates, you know the fees can be exorbitant. But did you know that Paypal offers different payment options, depending on the amount of the payment?
PayPal is a great option for many business owners that don’t want to go through the approval process for a merchant account, but the fees can really add up and squeeze margins that are already pretty tight in this rough economy. So here are some tips to put more cash in your pocket if you use PayPal.

If there is one aspect to online marketing that I have a weakness, it is eCommerce stores. The main reason is I have sold all of my stores over the years and have concentrated primarily on affiliate marketing. During my time as faculty of Stompernet, the one member of the faculty that impressed me with her knowledge and expertise with eCommerce stores was Audrey Kerwood.

If your store is struggling to meet your revenue projections, I’d recommend joining Audrey on Monday (that’s tomorrow) March 29th at 3pm for a free webinar where she will be doing live site reviews. I first started watching site reviews at Webmaster World back in 2005 and even if your site isn’t the one being reviewed, you learn something … and sometimes it is that one key ingredient you are missing.

One of the biggest issues I have online is the site that makes me register for an account before I buy. I hate it. It ranks right up there with going to the dentist … okay, maybe not that bad, but it is close. I will tell you that I have abandoned dozens if not hundreds of shopping carts over the years that have attempted to force me to register first.

So, that takes us to an important question: How easy is your checkout process?

First things first, my membership, the SEO Revolution, is closed and I highly doubt it will ever reopen. I like the people that are in there right now. So, please don’t email saying that you want to join and can’t. That’s on purpose.

Okay, let’s talk about effective ads. There is a reason why people who hate football watch the Super Bowl. The commercials. Why? Well, since the spots cost so damn much the companies actually put some thought into them … and since there is so much competition, each tries to outdo the other. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn’t.

So … what in the hell is an RSS feed and how can you use to to make an impact on your online business? Fair question…

“An RSS feed is an XML file that summaries content, including links to them and other metadata, that a user can subscribe to using an RSS aggregator.”

RSS stand for “Real Simple Syndication”, and it is really simple and easy to use. Simply put, you add some code to your site, people subscribe to your feed and using RSS you can send your message to those individuals quickly. When your website is updated, the modifications and updates are published and emailed to those subscribing to your RSS feed.

By submitting well-written and relevant articles in good and free article directories you can obtain more traffic and better ranking for your website. This is referred to as Article Marketing and is considered an effective way to increase website visibility. Write your article after researching the particular topic on internet, so that it covers all useful information. Do remember if your article is well written, it will provide good impression for your website.

Summary from SES Chicago …

Sin #1 – Unclear Call to Action
Obvious Standard: If the Call to Action is not clear or “missing” it is costing you a lot of money.
Suggestion: Use AttentionWizard.com as an Landing Page Predicting Tool.

Sin #2 – Too Many Choices
Suggestion: Don’t overload the visitor with a myriad of choices. Think “multiple choice test” in college. Anything more than five and your brain shuts down.
Example: NewYorkBarBells.com
Slam: Omniture’s Download Option is a perfect example of what not to do. For whatever reason, Omniture has been given a label as one of the best analytical companies. What most people don’t know is Omniture was built on the platform of MyComputer.com, a $30 a month web stats program. Don’t waste your money on expensive and unused analytics reports and instead hire quality people that will put into play those things which should be tested for your site.