How do spammers harvest email addresses

How do spammers harvest email addresses ?

There are many ways in which spammers can get your email address. The ones I know of are :
From posts to UseNet with your email address.
Spammers regularily scan UseNet for email address, using ready made programs designed to do so. Some programs just look at articles headers which contain email address (From:, Reply-To:, etc), while other programs check the articles' bodies, starting with programs that look at signatures, through programs that take everything that contain a '@' character and attempt to demunge munged email addresses.
There have been reports of spammers demunging email addresses on occasions, ranging from demunging a single address for purposes of revenge spamming to automatic methods that try to unmunge email addresses that were munged in some common ways, e.g. remove such strings as 'nospam' from email addresses.
As people who where spammed frequently report that spam frequency to their mailbox dropped sharply after a period in which they did not post to UseNet, as well as evidence to spammers' chase after 'fresh' and 'live' addresses, this technique seems to be the primary source of email addresses for spammers.
From mailing lists.
Spammers regularily attempt to get the lists of subscribers to mailing lists [some mail servers will give those upon request],knowing that the email addresses are unmunged and that only a few of the addresses are invalid.
When mail servers are configured to refuse such requests, another trick might be used - spammers might send an email to the mailing list with the headers Return-Receipt-To: <email address> or X-Confirm-Reading-To: <email address>. Those headers would cause some mail transfer agents and reading programs to send email back to the <email address> saying that the email was delivered to / read at a given email address, divulging it to spammers.
A different technique used by spammers is to request a mailing lists server to give him the list of all mailing lists it carries (an option implemented by some mailing list servers for the convenience of legitimate users), and then send the spam to the mailing list's address, leaving the server to do the hard work of forwarding a copy to each subscribed email address.

[I know spammers use this trick from bad experience - some spammer used this trick on the list server of the company for which I work, easily covering most of the employees, including employees working well under a month and whose email addresses would be hard to findin other ways.]

From web pages.
Spammers have programs which spider through web pages, looking for email addresses, e.g. email addresses contained in mailto: HTML tags [those you can click on and get a mail window opened]
Some spammers even target their mail based on web pages. I've discovered a web page of mine appeared in Yahoo as some spammer harvested email addresses from each new page appearing in Yahoo and sent me a spam regarding that web page.
A widely used technique to fight this technique is the 'poison' CGI script. The script creates a page with several bogus email addresses and a link to itself. Spammers' software visiting the page would harvest the bogus email addresses and follow up the link, entering an infinite loop polluting their lists with bogus email addresses.
For more information about the poision script, see http://www.monkeys.com/wpoison/
From various web and paper forms.
Some sites request various details via forms, e.g. guest books & registrations forms. Spammers can get email addresses from those either because the form becomes available on the world wide web, or because the site sells / gives the emails list to others.
Some companies would sell / give email lists filled in on paper forms, e.g. organizers of conventions would make a list of participants' email addresses, and sell it when it's no longer needed.
Some spammers would actually type E-mail addresses from printed material, e.g. professional directories & conference proceedings.
Domain name registration forms are a favourite as well - addresses are most usually correct and updated, and people read the emails sent to them expecting important messages.
Via an Ident daemon.
Many unix computers run a daemon (a program which runs in the background, initiated by the system administrator), intended to allow other computers to identify people who connect to them.
When a person surfs from such a computer connects to a web site or news server, the site or server can connect the person's computer back and ask that daemon's for the person's email address.
Some chat clients on PCs behave similarily, so using IRC can cause an email address to be given out to spammers.
From a web browser.
Some sites use various tricks to extract a surfer's email address from the web browser, sometimes without the surfer noticing it. Those techniques include :
Making the browser fetch one of the page's images through an anonymous FTP connection to the site.
Some browsers would give the email address the user has configured into the browser as the password for the anonymous FTP account. A surfer not aware of this technique will not notice that the email address has leaked.
Using JavaScript to make the browser send an email to a chosen email address with the email address configured into the browser.
Some browsers would allow email to be sent when the mouse passes over some part of a page. Unless the browser is properly configured, no warning will be issued.
Using the HTTP_FROM header that browsers send to the server.
Some browsers pass a header with your email address to every web server you visit. To check if your browser simply gives your email address to everybody this way, visit http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/ferguson/BrowserCheck.cgi
It's worth noting here that when one reads E-mail with a browser (or any mail reader that understands HTML), the reader should be aware of active content (Java applets, Javascript, VB, etc) as well as web bugs.
An E-mail containing HTML may contain a script that upon being read (or even the subject being highlighted) automatically sends E-mail to any E-mail addresses. A good example of this case is the Melissa virus. Such a script could send the spammer not only the reader's E-mail address but all the addresses on the reader's address book.
http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-99-04-Melissa-Macro-Virus.html
A web bugs FAQ by Richard M. Smith can be read at http://www.tiac.net/users/smiths/privacy/wbfaq.htm
From IRC and chat rooms.
Some IRC clients will give a user's email address to anyone who cares to ask it. Many spammers harvest email addresses from IRC, knowing that those are 'live' addresses and send spam to those email addresses.
This method is used beside the annoying IRCbots that send messages interactively to IRC and chat rooms without attempting to recognize who is participating in the first place.
This is another major source of email addresses for spammers, especially as this is one of the first public activities newbies join, making it easy for spammers to harvest 'fresh' addresses of people who might have very little experience dealing with spam.
AOL chat rooms are the most popular of those - according to reports there's a utility that can get the screen names of participants in AOL chat rooms. The utility is reported to be specialized for AOL due to two main reasons - AOL makes the list of the actively participating users' screen names available and AOL users are considered prime targets by spammers due to the reputation of AOL as being the ISP of choice by newbies.
From finger daemons.
Some finger daemons are set to be very friendly - a finger query asking for john@host will produce list info including login names for all people named John on that host. A query for @host will produce a list of all currently logged-on users.
Spammers use this information to get extensive users list from hosts, and of active accounts - ones which are 'live' and will read their mail soon enough to be really attractive spam targets.
AOL profiles.
Spammers harvest AOL names from user profiles lists, as it allows them to 'target' their mailing lists. Also, AOL has a name being the choice ISP of newbies, who might not know how to recognize scams or know how to handle spam.
From domain contact points.
Every domain has one to three contact points - administration, technical, and billing. The contact point includes the email address of the contact person.
As the contact points are freely available, e.g. using the 'whois' command, spammers harvest the email addresses from the contact points for lists of domains (the list of domain is usually made available to the public by the domain registries). This is a tempting methods for spammers, as those email addresses are most usually valid and mail sent to it is being read regularily.
By guessing & cleaning.
Some spammers guess email addresses, send a test message (or a real spam) to a list which includes the guessed addresses. Then they wait for either an error message to return by email, indicating that the email address is correct, or for a confirmation. A confirmation could be solicited by inserting non-standard but commonly used mail headers requesting that the delivery system and/or mail client send a confirmation of delivery or reading. No news are, of coures, good news for the spammer.
Specifically, the headers are -
Return-Receipt-To: <email-address> which causes a delivery confirmation to be sent, and
X-Confirm-Reading-To: <email-address> which causes a reading confirmation to be sent.
Another method of confirming valid email addresses is sending HTML in the email's body (that is sending a web page as the email's content), and embedding in the HTML an image. Mail clients that decode HTML, e.g. as Outlook and Eudora do in the preview pane, will attempt fetching the image - and some spammers put the recipient's email address in the image's URL, and check the web server's log for the email addresses of recipients who viewed the spam.
So it's good advice to set the mail client to *not* preview rich media emails, which would protect the recipient from both accidently confirming their email addresses to spammers and viruses.
Guessing could be done based on the fact that email addresses are based on people's names, usually in commonly used ways (first.last@domain or an initial of one name followed / preceded by the other @domain)
Also, some email addresses are standard - postmaster is mandated by the RFCs for internet mail. Other common email addresses are postmaster, hostmaster, root [for unix hosts], etc.
From white & yellow pages.
There are various sites that serve as white pages, sometimes named people finders web sites. Yellow pages now have an email directory on the web.
Those white/yellow pages contain addresses from various sources, e.g. from UseNet, but sometimes your E-mail address will be registered for you. Example - HotMail will add E-mail addresses to BigFoot by default, making new addresses available to the public.
Spammers go through those directories in order to get email addresses. Most directories prohibit email address harvesting by spammers, but as those databases have a large databases of email addresses + names, it's a tempting target for spammers.
By having access to the same computer.
If a spammer has an access to a computer, he can usually get a list of valid usernames (and therefore email addresses) on that computer.
On unix computers the users file (/etc/passwd) is commonly world readable, and the list of currently logged-in users is listed via the 'who' command.
From a previous owner of the email address.
An email address might have been owned by someone else, who disposed of it. This might happen with dialup usernames at ISPs - somebody signs up for an ISP, has his/her email address harvested by spammers, and cancel the account. When somebody else signs up with the same ISP with the same username, spammers already know of it.
Similar things can happen with AOL screen names - somebody uses a screen name, gets tired of it, releases it. Later on somebody else might take the same screen name.
Using social engineering.
This method means the spammer uses a hoax to convince peopleinto giving him valid E-mail addresses.
A good example is Richard Douche's "Free CD's" chain letter. The letter promises a free CD for every person to whom the letter is forwarded to as long as it is CC'ed to Richard.
Richard claimed to be associated with Amazon and Music blvd, among other companies, who authorized him to make this offer. Yet hesupplied no references to web pages and used a free E-mail address.
All Richard wanted was to get people to send him valid E-mail addresses in order to build a list of addresses to spam and/or sell.
From the address book and emails on other people's computers.
Some viruses & worms spread by emailing themselves to all the email addresses they can find in the email address book. As some people forward jokes and other material by email to their friends, putting their friends' email addresses on either the To: or Cc: fields, rather than the BCc: field, some viruses and warms scan the mail folders for email addresses that are not in the address book, in hope to hit addresses the computer owner's friends' friends, friends' friends' friends, etc.
If it wasn't already done, it's just a matter of time before such malware will not only spam copies of itself, but also send the extracted list of email addresses to it's creator.
As invisible email addresses can't be harvested, it's good advice to have the email addresesses of recipients of jokes & the like on BCc:, and if forwarded from somebody else remove from the email's body all the email addresses inserted by the previous sender.
Buying lists from others.
This one covers two types of trades. The first type consists of buying a list of email addresses (often on CD) that were harvested via other methods, e.g. someone harvesting email addresses from UseNet and sells the list either to a company that wishes to advertise via email (sometimes passing off the list as that of people who opted-in for emailed advertisements) or to others who resell the list.
The second type consists of a company who got the email addresses legitimately (e.g. a magazine that asks subscribers for their email in order to keep in touch over the Internet) and sells the list for the extra income. This extends to selling of email addresses acompany got via other means, e.g. people who just emailed the companywith inquiries in any context.

The third type consist of technical staff selling the email address for money to spammers. There was a news story about an AOL employee who sold AOL email addresses to a spammer.

By hacking into sites.
I've heard rumours that sites that supply free email addresses were hacked in order to get the list of email addresses, somewhatlike e-commerce sites being hacked to get a list of credit cards.
If your address was harvested and you get spammed, the following pages could assist you in tracking the spammer down :
MindSpring's page explaining how to get an email's headers
http://help.mindspring.com/features/emailheaders/extended.htm
The spam FAQ, maintained by Ken Hollis.
http://gandalf.home.digital.net/spamfaq.html
The Reporting Spam page, an excellent resource.
http://www.ao.net/waytosuccess/
Reading Mail headers.
http://www.stopspam.org/email/headers/headers.html
Julian Haight's Spam Cop page.
http://spamcop.net/
Chris Hibbert's Junk Mail FAQ.
http://www.fortnet.org/WidowNet/faqs/junkmail.htm
Sam Spade, Spam hunter.
http://samspade.org/
WD Baseley's Address Munging FAQ
http://members.aol.com/emailfaq/mungfaq.html
Fight Spam on the Internet site
http://spam.abuse.net/
The Spam Recycling Center
http://www.spamrecycle.com/
The Junk Busters Site
http://www.junkbusters.com/
The Junk Email site
http://www.junkemail.org/
BCP 30: Anti-Spam Recommendations for SMTP MTAs
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/bcp/bcp30.html
FYI 28: Netiquette Guidelines
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/fyi/fyi28.html

FYI 35: DON'T SPEW
A Set of Guidelines for Mass Unsolicited Mailings and Postings
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/fyi/fyi35.html
Several sites on the web will help in tracing spam :
Pete Bowden's list of traceroute gateways
http://www.missing.com/traceroute.html
To find traceroute gateways in any country, visit here.
http://www.traceroute.org/
Allwhois.com gates to whois on any domain world-wide
http://www.allwhois.org/
Alldomains.com site - links to NICs worldwide.
http://www.alldomains.com/
A similar page can be found at
http://www.forumnett.no/domreg.html
The Coalition Against Usolicited Commerical E-mail.
http://www.cauce.org/
The European CAUCE.
http://www.euro.cauce.org/en/index.html
The Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk Email, Australia.
http://www.caube.org.au/
The Russian Anti-Spam organization.
http://www.antispam.ru/
No More Spam - ISP Spam-Blocking Interferes With Business
http://www.byte.com/columns/digitalbiz/1999/04/0405coombs.html
Removing the Spam, By Geoff Mulligan, Published by Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-37957-0
A good book about handling spam.
Legal resources :
FTC Consumer Alert - FTC Names Its Dirty Dozen: 12 Scams Most Likely to Arrive Via Bulk email
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/doznalrt.htm
Report to the Federal Trade Commision of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Unsolicited Commercial Mail. http://www.cdt.org/paper/report-federal-trade-commission-ad-hoc-working-group-unsolicited-commercial-email?quicktabs_4=1
Pyramid Schemes, Ponzi Schemes, and Related Frauds
http://www.impulse.net/~thebob/Pyramid.html
The AOL vs. Cyberpromo case
http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dljunk/cyber.html

Nine New Lawsuits Press Release.
http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dljunk/ninepress.html
"Intel scores in email suit", by Jim Hu, CNET News.com.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,29574,00.html?st.ne.ni.lh
The John Marshall Law School spam page
http://www.jmls.edu/cyber/index/spam.html
First amendment issues related to UBE, by Paul L. Schmehl.
http://www.utdallas.edu/~pauls/spam_law.html
U.S. Anti-Spam Laws
http://www.the-dma.org/antispam/statespamlaws.shtml
The UK Data Protection Law
http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/
The Italian Anti-Spam Law
http://www.parlamento.it/parlam/leggi/deleghe/99185dl.htm
The Austrian Telecm Law
http://www.parlament.gv.at/pd/pm/XX/I/texte/020/I02064_.html
The Norwegian Marketing Control Act
http://www.forbrukerombudet.no/id/11039810.0
Back to my home page.

80 SEO tools

I’m going to share a list of 79 SEO Tools I keep just above my desk. There are so many different ways to find different types of information about different types of SEO elements, for so many different types of sites… you get the point. I don’t know about you, but there’s no way in hell I can remember them all on a good day, never mind when I need them most.

So here’s the list I keep pinned to the board over my desk. Note that some of the super obvious ones, like Google Analytics or Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) are not listed. I can remember those ones, and I trust you can too.

Keyword Research: Get inside the heads of you prospects to deliver what they need when they need it.

Term Explore: http://termexplorer.com/Public/
Trellian’s Keyword Discovery – http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
Market Samurai – http://www.marketsamurai.com/
Long Tail Pro – http://www.longtailpro.com/
nTopic – http://www.ntopic.org/
Live Keyword Analysis – http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/
Google Adwords – http://www.google.com/adwords/
Google Keyword  Planner – https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner
Google Correlate – http://www.google.com/trends/correlate
Google Trends  – http://www.google.com/trends/
Bing Keyword Research – http://www.bing.com/toolbox/keywords
Hit Tail – http://www.hittail.com/KeywordSpy – http://www.keywordspy.com/
Ubersuggest – http://ubersuggest.org/WordTracker – http://wordtracker.com/Search Latte- http://searchlatte.com/Youtube Keyword tool – https://www.youtube.com/keyword_tool
Colibri IO- https://colibri.io/
Kgen – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/kgen/
Soovle – http://www.soovle.com/Wordstream – http://www.wordstream.com/free-keyword-tools
Keyword Eye – http://www.keywordeye.com/

Keyword Ranking: Google rankings aren’t the end all be all, but still good to know.

RavenTools (Pro): http://raventools.com/STAT Search Analytics  – http://getstat.com/
Clicky – http://clicky.com/207602
Free Keyword Rank Checker – https://serps.com/tools/rank_checker
SEscout – http://sescout.com/
Serpfox – http://serpfox.com/
Keyword Density Tool – http://www.zippy.co.uk/keyworddensity
SpyFu – http://www.spyfu.com/
Rage Software’s SERank – http://www.ragesw.com/products/search-engine-rank.html
WebPosition Reporter – http://www.webposition.com/products/reporter/default.htm
Piwik – http://piwik.org/
Authority  Labs – http://authoritylabs.com/
Bright Edge – http://www.brightedge.com/
Upcity – http://upcity.com/
Panguin Tool 2.0 – http://www.barracuda-digital.co.uk/panguin-tool/
Youtube Analytics – https://www.youtube.com/analytics
Microsites Masters – http://www.micrositemasters.com/
SEO Rank Monitor – http://www.seorankmonitor.com/

Competitive Analysis: Knowledge is power. Keep your friends close and your competitors closer. And another cliche I can’t think of right now.

Analytics SEO  – http://www.analyticsseo.com
Twitter Counter – http://twittercounter.com
Rival IQ  – https://www.rivaliq.com
SEMRush – http://www.semrush.com/Social Crawlytics – https://socialcrawlytics.com/
Traffic Travis – http://www.traffictravis.com/
SERPmetrics – http://serpmetrics.com/flux
Axandra SEO Tools – http://www.axandra.com/seo/free-seo-tool
Positionly – https://positionly.com/Builtwith – http://builtwith.com/
Alexa – http://alexa.com/
Similarweb – http://www.similarweb.com/

Link Building: Although I don’t believe in link building as an SEO strategy, these are still useful to some.

DropMyLink – http://dropmylink.com/Domain Hunter Plus – http://domainhunterplus.com/
Link Prospector – http://linkprospector.citationlabs.com/
Advance Link Manager – http://www.advancedlinkmanager.com/Advance Web Ranking – http://www.advancedwebranking.com/
Rank Tracker – http://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/
Buzzstream – http://www.buzzstream.com/
Ontolo – http://ontolo.com/
Link Nabber – http://www.linknabber.com/
Triberr – http://triberr.com/
Blekko – https://blekko.com/
Shared Count – http://www.sharedcount.com/

Link Research: Find out who’s linking to your pages. Keep your site Penguin proofed.

Linktrackr – http://ww3.linktrackr.com/Outreach  – http://outreachr.com/Link Detective – http://linkdetective.com/Fresh Link Finder – http://freshlinkfinder.com/
Netcomber – http://netcomber.com/Inspyder – http://www.inspyder.com/SEnukeXCr – http://www.senuke.com/xcr/
Remove’em – http://www.removeem.com/ratios.php
SimilarSites – http://www.similarsites.com/
Monitor Backlinks – https://monitorbacklinks.com/seo-tools/free-backlink-checker
Cognitive SEO – http://cognitiveseo.com/Scraper –https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/scraper/mbigbapnjcgaffohmbkdlecaccepngjd?hl=en

And some other good stuff:

Bruce Clay’s SEO Cloaking Checker: http://www.seotools.com/seo-cloaking-checker/ScreamingFrog: www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
XML Sitemap Generator & Validator: https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/validate-xml-sitemap.html

Now tell me, which ones do you use most? I try to keep things updated as regularly as I can, but if you see any you think I should add to the list, or that should be updated or removed, please let me (and everyone here) know! Thanks

81 Ways to Advertise Your Computer (Or Any Other) Business

One thing that remains constant for computer consulting business owners, or any business owners for that matter, is advertising. In order to keep a steady flow of customers calling and emailing you need toconstantly be getting your business out in front of people.

I’ve been struggling with this lately myself, soI decided to take some time to brain storm as many advertising ideas as possible that could realistically be implemented by a computer business. You should always be looking for new ways to reach your customers and I’m sure there are some things on this list that you haven’t tried yet.

The items on this list can apply to almost any kind of business too.

Free Traditional Advertising

Customer Referrals – Probably the best free advertising around for your business.  Few things are more powerful that a recommendation from someone you trust.

Cold Calling – Not my favorite technique, but if you can get over the uncomfortable feeling, you may just find some local businesses in need of technical assistance that didn’t know where to turn.  I recommend doing this with other businesses only, as calling private homes unsolicited is normally seen as intrusive and can have the opposite effect as intended.

Door-to-door – Similar to cold calling, but may be more your speed if you prefer being face-to-face with prospective customers.

Happy Hour – I’ve made a handful of business deals over a cold one.  When you get together with a group of friends after work on a weekday you’ll normally be introduced to new people all in a friendly festive environment.  Have some business cards handy, talk a bit about your business, and have fun!

Attend Business Mixers – Similar to a happy hour, but designed for the purpose of meeting other business owners, these are usually coordinated by your local chamber of commerce or other business organization.

Contribute Articles to Local Paper –Contact your local paper to see if they’d be interested in featuring a weekly tech column penned by you.  Normally they’ll allow you to include a small blurb at the end of the article with info about your business.

Teach a Class – Many organizations such as churches, senior homes, and community clubs hold workshops and classes on various topics for their members.  Reach out to these places to see if you can teach a class on a basic computer skill or software.  At the end of the class you can pass out business cards or write your business phone number and email on the board for folks to contact you with further questions.

Volunteer – Similar to teaching a class, you can volunteer your time for other things such as free tech support for under-privileged households or help setting up an organization’s computer system.  This will not only get your name out as a friendly resource for computer help, but it will allow you to meet community organizers who can become major allies for referrals in the future.

Partnerships – Partner up with another local business to offer discounts to their customers or some other kind of cross promotion.  You can partner with other businesses that do tech work that you don’t, like data recovery or web hosting, or you can partner with other service businesses like accountants and lawyers who can then recommend your business to their clients while you do the same for them.

Press Release – Any time something changes in your business, whether it be a new service offering, a new location opening up, or a new partnership, be sure to send out a press release to your local papers and magazines.  Sometimes they’ll go unpublished, but every now and then you’ll get something put in that will potentially get your business out in front of the eyeballs of thousands for free.

Community Bulletin – If you live in an organized subdivision or community that has a Home Owners Association or some other organized group that servers local residents, send them a note about your business by offering to give them a discount.  This form ofhyper local marketing has worked really well for me in the past.

Write a Book – I know this is easier said than done, but writing a book is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field.  You don’t need necessarily need to get published by a major publisher either.   A self-published book can still be sold on Amazon or online via your website with publishing provided by an on-demand publisher.  Just put a unique spin on a computer repair topic or cover a tech topic in-depth.  Who knows, you may release the next New York Times bestseller!

Have a Catchy/Unique Business Name – A unique and catchy business name can go a long way in brand recognition and can be a way to create buzz about your business.  Getting people to talk about your business is a great form of free advertising.  Clever puns or cute techie names seem to go over really well.  Be careful here though, as this can backfire if the name is too outrageous.

SMS(text) Campaign – Texting is as popular now as ever, thanks to the rise in mobile phone use among members of all age groups and demographics.  You can leverage this trend by first engaging your existing customer base.  Include a check box on your invoices asking if your customers would accept exclusive offers via text message, and then ask them to leave their cell number.  Then, a few times throughout the year, you can send an offer or special via text only.  This post has some great info to get you started.

Hold a Contest – Engage your existing customers and attract new ones by running regular contests.  It can be as simple as asking folks to sign up for your mailing list or ‘Like’ your Facebook page.  Then you can randomly draw one of those people to receive a small prize.  Even better, make the prize branded with your logo or business name!

Paid Traditional Advertising

Fliers – The old stand-by, fliers have been around for ages and are effective for both lemonade stands and full-fledged computer businesses.  This is a numbers game, so get out as many as you can in as many places as you can.  The cost is minimal if you can design your own.

Tear-offs – The flier’s big sister, this is simply a flier with little tabs at the bottom with your contact info.  People can “tear off” these tabs and take them so they don’t forget your info.

Business Cards – This is probably the first advertising tool you should purchase for your business.  Easy, portable, informative, and functional, the business card is essential.  Check out my post on how to create an effective business card for your computer business.

Magnets – Made popular by pizza places, refrigerator magnets are a great way to get your business in front of people’s faces daily.  Give them out any way you can: in the mail, on the street.  Give a handful to your customers to pass out for you.

Pens – People use pens all the time.  Why not remind them that your business exists in the process?  It’s easy to get a bunch with your logo on it.

Stickers – A fun and inexpensive way to leave a little promotional item with your customer, or their kids, that feels like it’s a prize or reward.  Then, depending on where they put the sticker, it can serve as a mini advertisement.

Mouse pads – Remind your clients that help is only a mouse click away.  Mouse pads sit right next to a user’s computer, the perfect place for such a reminder.

Shirts – A little bit more expensive than pens, magnets, stickers, and mouse pads, branded shirts are a great promotional item to give away and wear yourself.

Door Hangers – Like fliers, door hangers are a great way to get your message out to the masses without being too intrusive.  Walk around your neighborhood, get some sun and exercise, and hang these on your community’s door knobs.  I’ve had some success with this method, and the cost of making the hangers is negligible.

Phone Book – One of the most traditional forms of old-school advertising, the phone book used to be the premium place to get your business listed.  People would look to the phone book for service listings in their area.  While this is still certainly the case today, it’s getting less and less popular as online searches get more and more popular.  Still, you should not overlook this form of advertising if you can afford it,  it is still an effective way to get noticed.

Direct Mail – Direct mail is an old form of advertising that is a great way to get your advertising directly to a large number of local prospects.  It’s really a numbers game because most folks largely ignore the advertisements they get in the mail.  However, there are a few people who read them and of those people there may be a few that need your services.  So the more mailings you send out the better.  However, it can start getting expensive, so use this method only if you have some spare money to spend on advertising.  Make sure you include an enticing offer or discount on these mailings to get people’s attention.

Road Signs – I’ve written about road signs in the past.  I have yet to try them out, but I really want to, I think they’d be an easy way to get your business out in front of a bunch of eyeballs everyday.

Sandwich Boards – An old-fashioned technique that still gets used today.  This works best for those of you with a store-front business.  Though I guess you could market your home business this way also, just send your sandwich board-wearer to a public park or someplace with high traffic.

Human Sign Holders – Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or out in the country, you’ve probably seen these guys on a street corner at one time or another.  These days, sign flippers help point drivers toward your store front in a flashy, attention-grabbing way.  The best sign-holders have even beentrained in the art of flipping, dancing, and putting on a show!  It’s hard to ignore these guys….though I’m not quite sure how anyone has time to read the sign when it’s being tossed around so much!

Billboards – This is a fairly expensive advertising method with rental costs ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month for one sign in well trafficked areas.  However, it can be worth it as most billboards will be seen by hundreds if not thousands of people every day.

Bench/Bus Stop Advertising – An often overlooked advertising space, these are often less expensive than billboards, but still help get your brand in front of countless eyes.

Sponsorships – Many local sports teams and other organizations seek small business sponsors to help fund their team and in return, they’ll promote your business.  Reach out to them and see if they’d be interested insponsorship.  They usually require very little monetary help, but the reward you get from helping them is not only advertising, but also respect and recognition in your community.

Vehicle Advertising – This is a popular method for many computer repair shops, from big chains like Geek Squad, franchises, and local businesses owners. If you do a lot of on-site computer work, it only makes sense to slap a car door magnet on your vehicle to get some advertising out of those miles you drive every day.  You can even get your whole car painted if you’re feeling adventurous.
TV Commercials – Producing your own TV commercial can no doubt be an effective way to advertise your business.  However the costs associated with this can be quite high.  Not only do you need to spend money to record, edit, and produce a decent looking commercial, but you also need to buy the air time on the TV station.  The more potential viewers you have, the higher the price.  However the rewards can be great, especially if you put together a memorable commercial.

Radio Commercials – Along the same lines as a TV commercial, but cheaper.  Radio ads may be more effective, for the money spent, than television because the majority of the time your audience is captive.

Ads in Local Paper – This is a tougher sell in my book, as not only is readership in papers going down, but I’m not sure people notice the ads there too often.  However you may be able to get a good deal with local papers.

Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce – Most every county or area has a local Chamber of Commerce, which is a group of business owners that helps further the interest of business owners.  They usually hold networking events, meetings, and various functions that are exclusive to members which are great opportunities to network with fellow business owners and seek B2B opportunities.

Coupon Mailers – Many areas get books or envelopes of coupons for local businesses in the mail.  Valpak is a big player in this market.  I’m not sure of the effectiveness of using this for computer services, it seems more geared toward food and doctors/dentists, but I’d be curious to see how effective it could be for our industry.

Sell Products – This is best done from a storefront, but you can also sell products from your website if you’re a remote-only tech.  By selling products such as computer, accessories, etc, you become more than just a place to go for consulting services, you’re also the place to go to buy technology stuff.  It’s hard to compete with the big dogs on price, so instead include free consulting hours or free set-up with your product sales.

Trade Shows – Many communities hold computer trade shows allowing vendors to congregate all in one place to sell their tech.  See if you can rent a booth at one of these to offer free virus removal or free software install to get your name and business out there.

Free Online Advertising

Website – Your first line of advertisement on the web is your website.  You want to make sure you sell your services clearly enough to convert first time visitors into customers and show existing customers what else you can do for them.

Craigslist – I’ve had some success with Craigslist, but it takes some work to filter out the noise of people looking for free work.

Other Free Online Classifieds – There are other free online classifieds out there other than Craigslist, though they don’t get nearly as much traffic.  But it doesn’t hurt to throw up an ad and see if you get any bites.

Basic SEO – Simple Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is something you should understand as a business owner with a website.  Here’s Google’sSEO Starter Guide to get you moving in the right direction.  Proper SEO ensures that you have formatted your website to be as search-engine friendly as possible, so you’re more likely to get ranked high in the results when people search for your business services.  Another aspect of SEO includes getting links back to your website from other reputable websites like Social Media, comments on relevant blogs and forums, business directories, and guest posting…

Guest Posting – …which leads me to guest posting as an advertising technique on its own.  If you like to write, there are countless numbers of blogs and websites that feature regular technology-related articles.  For example: Derrick Wlodarz and Chuck Romano are regular contributors toTechnibble.com. My buddy Tim Lenahan writes for multiple publications including AndroidTipGuys.  The website owner usually lets you link back to your website at the end of your article.  This is good for SEO, and also a good way to establish yourself as an expert.

Link Exchange – Reach out to other local businesses that offer different and complimentary services to your own.  Ask them if they’d be interested in exchanging links.  You can list their business on a “recommended links” page on your website if they do the same on theirs.  This has minimal SEO benefits, but their existing customers may then find out about your business this way and check out your website.

Free Web Directories – There are many ways to list your business in directories online besides Yelp. Some examples include: ShowMeLocal, Spot-a-Business, FreeAdLists, Get Free Listing.  The more of these directories you’re listed in, the better chance you’ll have of getting found online.

Local Directories – Along with the above mentioned free directories, you can search Google for “yourtown or yourcounty or yourstate business directory” to find local business directories to list your business in.  There are usually at least a few of these that you can find that will be willing to list your business.

Google Places – Of the major search engines, Google is by far the most used, and therefore it’s the one you want to get your business listed on.  For many local based searches, Google will present Google Places results, which can often appear at the top of the search results.  This will also place a “marker” for your business on Google maps.  You can go here to set up your profile.

Google+ – Google’s social network has had mixed reviews among the general population, but as of this writing, Google is planning on merging Google+ and Google Places, so you probably want to claim your Google+ Business page so you’ll be set for the change.  You can go here to get more info on this.

Yelp – Along with the Yellow Pages online, Yelp profiles frequently show up at the top of Google search results.  For that reason alone your business should be on Yelp.  Along with that, Yelp has a large active community of   visitors and reviewers who can help shine a light on your business.

LinkedIn – Best for solo consultants who do mostly B2B (business to business) work, LinkedIn is a great place to show off your qualifications and network with people who may need your services.  You can join one of many LinkedIn groups for your local area and establish yourself as the local tech expert.

Twitter – It’s been around for a while and it’s still useful.  I’ve written aboutTwitter as a way to get your daily dose of tech news, but it is also still a great tool to communicate directly with your customers.  Try collecting the Twitter handles of your customers on your invoices or when they first contact you for service.  Then you can inform them of specials, new services, and provide value with regular computing tips and tricks.  There’s always the potential that they will retweet what you say to their friends which are all potential new customers.

Facebook –  This is still the social media site where most folks hang out. If you don’t have a Facebook page for your computer business yet, you need to get one!

Pintrest – This is the hottest new craze in social networking now.  Though I’m not quite sure how best to utilize it for computer consulting, you should still get a profile on there.  You can share images of your shop, images that represent the different services you provide, and then link them all back to your business.  Here’s a great article ongetting started with Pintrest for your business.

QR Codes – QR codes are a hot new marketing strategy these days.  These are the bar-code looking symbols that you may see on posters and packages (see below).  When a person scans these with their smart phone, the phone will take them to the website that’s embedded in the code.  Find out how best to use them for your businesshere.

Via idea.org

YouTube – YouTube is a surprisingly effective marketing tool that I’ve used for some of my SEO customers.  Simply create a quick video about your business, upload it to Youtube, and make sure to include a detailed description and link back to your site under the video.  Youtube videos often show up in Google search results and many people search for things directly within Youtube.  Check out Animoto.com to quickly and easily put together a slick presentation about your business, like this one I did for one of my SEO customers, a computer business in Claremont, CA.  The video is now showing up on the first page for “Claremont Computer Repair”.

Mobile-ready Website – People are increasingly searching the internet on their phones.  If your website is flash-heavy, or has a lot of parts to it, it may be tough to see on a smart phone and therefore potential customers may move on.  Have someone develop amobile version of your website so people can easily see it and interact with it on their phone.

ePress Release – You know that press release I mentioned earlier?  You can also send an electronic copy of it to virtual press release distributors.  These services will send it all over the net to spread the word about your business.  Some of these services include: PR-Inside, Online PR, Big News, and PR USA  just to name a few.

Email Newsletter – A monthly or quarterly email newsletter is a great way to advertise to your existing customers.  Of course you must provide valuable information first and foremost, but be sure to mention your services as well.

Infographic – A popular viral trend these days are infographics.  These are illustrations or diagrams that creatively convey a certain message.  I did one for the blog here recently, but there are much better ones out there, like thisinfographic about infographics.

Article Marketing – If you like to write, a great way to get your business name and link out there is to write helpful articles for different article websites.  Most of these websites allow you to include a brief author description at the end of your article in which you can include the contact info for your business.  Some popular article directories include: Ezine Articles,InfoBarrel,  Amazines, ArticleAlley, Go Articles, and Idea Marketers.  A great strategy to take here is to write articles about your town or service area, this will ensure that your articles show up in search engines results for people in your area.

Blogging – Blogging is another double-edged sword in your publicity arsenal.  Not only does it provide fresh content for your customers and establishes you as an authority to prospective visitors, but it also helps with SEO, as Google continually states that they favor fresh, updated content when they rank websites in search results.

HARO – Another great place to go for those of you who like to write is HARO (Help A Reporter Out).  This is basically a website where you sign up as an expert in something (computer, tech, etc.) and you get the chance to be a source for a reporter looking for an experts take on whatever they’re writing about.  If you get featured as a source, often your name and business name will be featured as well.  There are some journalists that write for some big name publications that frequently use this service, so this is a great chance for you to get your name published in a legitimate nationally known news outlet.

Hold a Webinar – A great way to engage the small business community in your area is to offer to host a webinar.  A webinar is basically like a seminar, but it’s done completely online.  You’ll need to find a way to contact business owners (LinkedIn and Facebook are good avenues) and get them to sign up, but you only need a handful of participants to make a big impact.  Then, simply give an hour or so training class on some sort of technology pain point that SMB’s face, and at the end include a little plug for your services.  Lewis Howes is a great resource for information on how to set up and market your webinars.

Write an eBook – I’ve taken this approach with this blog, offering a free eBook in exchange for your email address. You can also take this approach with your computer business.  Offer a free eBook in exchange for contact info so you can add them to your newsletter mailing list.  Also, it’s easy to port your eBook to Amazon’s Kindle market for maximum distribution.

Start a Podcast – I’ve highlighted some great tech podcasts here in the past.  Not only is a podcast a great way to offer advice to other aspiring technicians, but it’s also a great way to get consulting work.  I know for a fact that Mike Smith of the Mike Tech Show has gotten work as a direct result from his Podcast.  You may have noticed the theme of “establishing yourself as an expert in your field” as a great way to increase your authority and get more clients.

Join ACRBO  – There are no licensing regulations around computer repair businesses in the US, or any other country as far as I know.  That’s whereACRBO (Association of Computer Repair Business Owners) comes in.  It serves as an organized way to bring legitimate computer businesses together under a common ethos and code of conduct.  The association also provides its members with a listing in its directory (SEO!) as well as discounts on tools and training.  By including the ACRBO branding on your website and advertisements, you show your potential customers that you’re serious about your business and that you’re part of a group of other professionals.  This is specific to computer repair professionals only, but many other fields probably have similar associations.

Paid Online Advertising

PPC – Pay-per-click (PPC) is the most popular form of online advertising.  This includes all of the ads you see on the side and top of the Google search results, as well as many of the ads you see on other websites.   You basically bid on keywords that your ad will be targeted to, and then pay for each time someone click on your ad.  It can be a little confusing at first, but here’s a good video to get you started with Google’s PPC tool, Adwords:

Web Directories – We covered some free directories earlier, but there are also many directories that require some form of payment to be listed.  These directories are normally of higher quality, and offer better visibility to your links.  They are also generally trusted more by search engines.  Some good computer-repair specific ones to look into are: Computer Repair Expert, Top Computer Shops, PC Repair Directory, as well as some general directories like: Information Outpost, Abilogic, Big All, and Business Seek.

Advanced SEO – If you happen to be in a very competitive market, say a big city like New York or San Fransisco, then it’s going to be pretty hard to get your business noticed in the search engines.  That’s when you may want to seek the help of a professional SEO firm.  These guys are experts at getting websites ranked well in tough markets, but the price can be pretty steep.  Make sure to shop around and ask other business owners you trust for recommendations.

Facebook Ads – Facebook is still the most popular kid in social media school.  They also allow any business to create and run ads on their network.  The best thing about these ads is that you can use Facebook’s vast amount of user data to laser-target your ads to a specific group of people.  I wrote a whole post about how you can useFacebook ads for your computer business, so you can check that out for more info.

LinkedIn Ads – LinkedIn recently opened up its own ad network, which I assume works similarly to Facebook’s, but is best for targeting business customers.  I haven’t tried it myself, but there are some great tutorials available to get you started.

Mobile Ads – Similar to PPC ads, mobile ads appear on mobile phones, either via mobile-enabled websites, or within free apps on iPhone and Android.  Some of these ad networks include Other. 

Ad Networks – Besides the above listed online advertising networks, there are countless others out there.  Some of the most well-known are: Yahoo! Advertising Network, Microsoft Ad Network, AdBrite, TribalFusion, andmany more.

Out-of-the-box Advertising

Town Crier – This old school method of standing on a street corner and yelling at the top of your lungs is still a novel method if your storefront is located in a high foot-traffic area.  Yell at cars or in an office building and be prepared for a hoarse throat or a lawsuit!

Create a Mascot – Like the Michelin Man or the Geiko Gecko, a great mascot can serve as a fun and friendly ambassador for your business.  They can show up at community events and commercials, giving your brand a fun and recognizable face.

Desktop Wallpaper – If you can get away with it, especially on computers that are used by the public, install a custom wallpaper image with your business logo and contact info on it.  Sell the idea to your customer by telling them it’s a way convenient way to remind them to call you when they have computer problems!

Dancing Inflatable Guy– You know what I’m talking about, like this guy…

Suitable for storefront locations only.

The next three ideas come to us courtesy of an Entrepreneur.com article called 10 Unusual Ways to Advertise.  These are my favorite three.

Hand Stamps – Sponsor an event that requires attendees to get a hand stamp and then volunteer to supply them with a free customized stamp with your logo on it.

Nighttime Silhouette – This was definitely a new one for me.  The idea is to basically find a large wall on a busy road in town and project an image of your logo onto it at night.  It’s like make-shift billboard that will surely get attention.

Publicity Stunt – Do something noteworthy, crazy, but not destructive or mean-spirited, and you just might be able to pull this off.  I think a viral video would fit in this category as well.  However, it’s really hard to predict what kind of “stunt” will produce publicity, so tread carefully here.

Well, there you have it, a HUGE list of advertising methods for you to try out.  As always, a list is only as good as the action taken from it, so get out there and make a name for your business!

Did I miss any advertising methods?!  Have your tried any of these?  How did it work out for you? Let me know in the comments below!

let me implement a marketing strategy that will get your local business noticed and increase your revenue contact me

 Spencer Beazer

Spencerbeazer@gmail.com

239-258-6127

Keywords for successful SEO

The Internet is crowded with many different companies offering a wide variety of goods and services. What differentiates each business is the how they use keywords for SEO, or search engine optimization. If you’re not familiar with the term, not to worry, we’ll take a look at what keywords mean, as well as how you can increase their value in relation to your business success.

What exactly are keywords?

A keyword is a word or phrase that you enter into a search engine in order to find pages, or websites that contain relevant content. When you enter these keywords into a search you are typing a Search Query which tells the search engine what you are looking for.

The engine then searches websites, pages, and even video titles that contain these keywords, and displays what it finds in search results. In order to be found by search engines, businesses often incorporate keywords into their content that they think users will search for. The question is, how do you know which keywords to include in your content? The best way to figure this out is through keyword research.

By conducting keyword research, you can predict shifts in demand as well as attract the best visitors to your website. Below are four tips you can use to not only find the best keywords, but also judge their effectiveness and overall value.

4 steps for increasing keyword value:

1. Think and ask

Take a look at your existing content and ask yourself whether or not your keywords are relevant to your website and what you essentially do as a business. Can your customers easily find what they’re looking for? If you’re not sure then the best way to find out is to ask your customers and potential customers. One way is to take a look at common customer requests and questions.

Be sure to also ask yourself whether or not customers would be happy with what they find once they search too; because if not a bumpy road lies ahead. From there, develop a list of what you believe to be the best, or most useful keywords. Be sure to look at this from the customers’ viewpoints, not from your own perspective.

2. Make use of major search engines

Knowing search engines that have already ranked your chosen keywords, like Google and Bing, can give you insight into your competitors and what keywords they use, as well as some idea of how challenging it’s going to be for these keywords to be ranked highly.

Simply visit the major search engines and search for the keywords you identified above. Take a look at the results, specifically the top results. In Google, for example, you may see that the first 3-4 results are actually ads. As a rule of thumb, the more ads you see the more difficult it is to rank in results for those keywords. Experts call this a high value keyword, which usually indicates that conversions are high. This means you will likely need to invest more into your content and overall marketing if you want to rank higher in search results.

3. Invest in Google Adwords

It’s not the end of the world if your website doesn’t rank for specific keywords. It may help to invest in Google Adwords. For example, you can purchase test traffic in Google Adwords to see how well specific keywords convert. Select “exact match” and point the traffic to the relevant page on your website. This add-on tracks impressions and conversion rates over the course of at least 2-300 clicks. The perk: you only pay if people click on your ad.

4. Calculate the exact value of a keyword

Let’s say you ran a search ad for 24 hours on google which generated 6,000 impressions – out of the number of people who saw the add 100 visitors came to your website and four converted, creating a total profit of USD $400. This means that a single visitor is worth USD $4 to your website. In other words, if searches hold steady, you could see a profit boost of up to USD $146,000!

Of course, keyword research takes time, and effort. You will likely not see mbuttive gains by simply researching, but by knowing what works and what doesn’t, and by working to find the best keywords for your business. Looking to learn more about the importance of keywords for SEO? Contact us today.

Internet marketing guru
Spencer Beazer
239-258-6127

Smart Affiliate Marketing Strategies That Drive More Sales

smart affiliate marketing strategies Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your blog. You don’t create any product or services and don’t spend any money for this . Only find some quality products that match your niche . I am making a nice monthly income from affiliate marketing . So I want to share some of the smart strategies that drive more sales and income. The main attraction of affiliate marketing are: You can make money from each sale . This will really make you happy. The company is happy because they got a new sale. Your customer is happy because they got a good product or service. For getting all these results you need to promote quality products. Otherwise, you and the company will be happy but not the customers . The unhappy customers never come back, and you won’t get any future sales from them. The most and important winning formulas of affiliate marketing are quality and trust. If you are promoting a quality product , your readers will trust you. If they found the first product helpful , they definitely come back and make another purchase . I do affiliate marketing here on SiteSprint, and I promote products that I purchased or used. So I can assure the quality of the product or services that I am promoting. This strategy really helps me to improve my affiliate income. Product selection & value Promote products that match your niche. If you are running a beauty blog and promoting web hosting products, that never give any value to your users. That is actually waste of time and space. So product selection has an important role in affiliate marketing success. Trust Promote products that you personally purchased or used. If you are talking about something that you have personally used , people trust you. Once you have gained this trust from your visitors by promoting a high-quality product , they will definitely come back and make another purchase if you promote another. Product description From my experience ‘ banners never make sales’ . You can use banners to make a first impression . However, you need to give a good description about that product to make any sale . Let me explain – You saw a banner on my site . You click the link , finally reached the product site . The product’s landing page really makes a good impression, and you decided to purchase that product . However, before that you want to hear from the real people who use that product . Right ? Here comes the importance of the product description . So if you read a review on my site about that product and then reached the product site and no doubt you will purchase. So don’t clutter your site with product banners . Write a review or include a product link in your articles . This will make more sales rather than displaying a banner. Promotion You can use different methods to promote your affiliate products . The most important and effective method is writing product reviews. You can create YouTube videos for more detailed product review. Email marketing is another way to promote your affiliate products. You can use AWeber for the same. This is the best email marketing software that helps you to build an opt in list and make more sales. Create a resource or tool page and include all important links to your website, product and services . This will really help you and your readers . Try these affiliate marketing tips and strategies on your website / blog and drive more sales !

4 Serious mistakes business owners make with their Credit Card Processor

4 Serious Mistakes Business Owners Make With Their Credit Card Processor

When ecommerce was first introduced as a new concept there was a common belief that it was expensive and difficult to implement.  In truth, when ecommerce first came into existence it was often expensive and complicated to setup.  This was true from both the Visa / MasterCard card acceptance perspective, and also from the technology / shopping cart perspective.

If we fast forward to today ecommerce is common place.  Technologies like Shopify exist to make ecommerce affordable and accessible to even the smallest of new and startup businesses.  Similarly, most banks and credit card processors no longer see ecommerce as high risk.  It is much easier to get a merchant account for credit card acceptance today than it was at the advent of ecommerce. 

Unfortunately, (and perhaps as a side effect of making ecommerce so accessible) some business owners tend to enter into a merchant processing agreement without understanding what they are getting into.  This is a significant mistake.  A business owner must research and do proper due diligence before selecting their processor. 

Your credit card processor will provide you with a merchant account.  This merchant account will be used to capture funds collected from credit card sales.  You will pay fees to your credit card processor for this service, and you need to make sure you will get what you expected.  This article will help you to avoid some of the most common and damaging mistakes that business owners make when choosing their credit card processor.

Before You Read Further

In this article I will shed light upon some of the deceptive practices employed by a small number of processors in the payments business. 

I want to strongly point out that this is in no way reflective of the industry as a whole.  There are a great number of honest and hard working professionals in the merchant services industry.  Most established processors have achieved their success by being able to go the extra mile and support their clients.  In short, there are many good options to choose from.

The purpose of this article is to arm you with knowledge so you can proceed with confidence when choosing your processor.  In fact, much of what is discussed is as much common sense as it is inside information.  Regardless, it’s advice that every business owner should keep in mind.

On that note I will ask the single most important question…

Did You Actually Read the T&C of the Merchant Agreement?

While researching to find your credit card processor you will speak to many different sales people and receive numerous quotes.  However, you can’t simply make your decision and start processing immediately.  In order to get a merchant account you must apply and be approved to use the service. 

Part of the application paperwork will include the terms and conditions of the merchant agreement.  The T&C will govern the usage of the service and the relationship between your business and the processor.  It is a very important document. 

It should be obvious that you should read the T&C of the merchant agreement before signing the contract and submitting your application.  Why would anyone sign a contract without reading it?  The reason is actually quite simple, and anyone who has seen a merchant agreement will know the answer:  they are long legal documents filled with complicated legalese and confusing language. 

Upon glancing at the paperwork, many people don’t bother reading.  We’ve all been on websites or installed software that included long terms of usage that must be agreed to before proceeding.  Few people (if any) actually read these documents.  Your merchant account agreement should not fall under this category.  It will have a major impact on your business and requires proper attention.  Despite the fact that it may not be a thrilling read, as a business owner you must take the time to at the very least do a solid skim through the contract.  The purpose of this is not to examine the language or try to review it like a lawyer would.  What you are looking for is red flags.  If anything comes up that causes questions or concerns you must raise them with your potential processor before proceeding.  If you don’t do this you could be setting yourself up for frustration down the road. 

The most common cause of that frustration has to do with fluctuating pricing that some processors do not properly explain during the sales process…

Watch Out For Interchange Downgrades and Rate Fluctuations (AKA Hidden Fees)

Most merchants are understandably very concerned when it comes to establishing pricing for their payment processing.  Cost is always one of the main decision making factors when it comes to choosing a processor. 

The single most common frustration that merchants experience after signing the merchant agreement is that they do not end up receiving the pricing that they were promised by the sales person.  This happens for two reasons:

The merchant does not have an adequate understanding of merchant industry pricing.More importantly, the sales person may have been deceptive.  The business owner accepted a verbal or email based quotation but did not read the contract to make sure they would receive what was promised.

The merchant industry is rife with confusing terms.  In fact, merchant industry pricing is a topic worthy of an entire article on it’s own but here we will discuss it only enough to understand the basics of the issue.  The most important thing to understand is that the rate that you pay fluctuates depending on the type of card used.  This is because the “interchange” cost (the cost from Visa or MasterCard) varies depending on the type of card used.  Cards that carry a benefit to the cardholder (like an airmiles card) and corporate cards are slightly more expensive to process.  Some processors may offer flat pricing where the type of card does not influence the rate being charged, but in 2011 this is very uncommon.  Fluctuating pricing is far more common because Visa and MasterCard have built interchange to vary depending on the type of card used.

With the understanding that the cost to the processor fluctuates depending on the card type, we can now understand why the cost to the merchant often fluctuates.  Armed with this knowledge we can now discuss the worst pricing trick in the industry.  The worst trick occurs when a sales person quotes an extremely low rate (often below interchange cost to the processor), but does not explain to the merchant that the pricing can fluctuate. 

I will give an example.  A shady salesperson quotes a discount rate of 1.49% (which for the record is far below cost on an ecommerce transaction).  However, they don’t point out that this rate is only applied to swiped credit card transactions.  How often do you swipe a credit card in an ecommerce transaction?  Never.  You will never pay the quoted rate. 

How can you avoid this problem?  With a bit of common sense and a basic understanding of the interchange table.  This is a classic case where if you receive a pricing quote that sounds too good to be true then follow your common sense.  (Consider it a huge warning bell if the rate sounds low and the sales person hasn’t at all discussed premium, corporate and foreign issued cards) 

It is worth noting that when the interchange rate fluctuates the processor should pass that cost increase onto the merchant.  Visa and MasterCard have modeled the pricing this way, and there is nothing wrong it – so long as it’s always clearly explained by the salesperson.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case. 

We now understand how misleading pricing tactics can be employed, but not the extent of the damage that it can cause.  The damage happens when a processor adds an unexpected surcharge on top of the cost increase from Visa or MasterCard when a premium or corporate card is used.  (When this is done it is most often referred to as a “non-qualified” transaction).  If a Visa infinite card is used the cost to the processor increases by 0.2% in Canada.  However, what if the processor added an additional surcharge of 1% whenever a Visa infinite card is used?  For the sake of mentioning it, there is nothing wrong with a processor adding a surcharge for different card types.  The processor has to generate some income for the service they are providing.  The practice of surcharging for premium cards is fine - so long as it was explained to the merchant upfront.  Unfortunately, some of the less scrupulous processors don’t do this, and this is why many business owners end up with pricing that is far higher than they had expected.

We can now create a simple example.  A merchant receives a quote a rate of 1.5%.  (Side note – this is a typical “too good to be true” rate, and is well below interchange cost for ecommerce transactions).  The processor has a 2% surcharge buried in the pricing table of the merchant agreement to be applied whenever premium cards are used.  Merchant processes a premium card and their 1.5% turns into 3.5% (or more). 

If the merchant had taken the time to read through the agreement and had carefully examined the pricing table they would have seen some language related to downgrades and premium cards.  They would have known to ask the sales person about it and could have avoided the problem. 

As far as recommended best practices go, if discussing pricing and the sales person hasn’t mentioned premium cards or interchange it is a major warning sign.  However, even if you ask about rates for different card types it isn’t good enough.  This is because there two types of processors in the industry.  Some processors operate a consultancy model with highly trained staff.  These staff work on a managed account basis with a smaller number of merchants managed per consultant.  This processor will (generally speaking) always be able to properly explain a quote that they are providing.

The other model is for a processor to run a volume driven business that utilizes call center staff to cold call thousands of businesses in an attempt to generate leads and interest.  Call center staff work from a script and cannot deviate far from it.  They are instructed with a clear goal of getting a merchant to submit an application.  These staff are poorly trained and most often don’t even understand what interchange is.  This type of sales person is not capable of properly educating the business owner on the pricing (even if asked about it) and is why you should always get to the bottom line by reading the merchant agreement.  As a side note, processors that operate a call center model are always easy to spot by Googling for complaints. 

If you want to put it to the test, your salesperson should be knowledgeable and transparent with all of the details of the quotation.  They should be able to tell you how much margin is built into your processing rate.  They should understand interchange.  If you understand interchange better than the person trying to sell the account to you it should be a major warning sign!

Read the agreement and focus on clauses that deal with rates, assessments and downgrades from the card associations (Visa and MasterCard).  Look for anything that might be a surcharge and make sure you understand the pricing before you sign the contract. 

Be Aware of the Contact Term and Early Cancellation Penalties

Many business owners don’t seem to realize that the processing agreement forms a contract between a merchant and their processor.  This contract has a duration called the contract term.  Every major processor in Canada and the US has a contract term.  (Paypal is the exception because they don’t actually supply a merchant account, but instead aggregate transactions through their own merchant account.)

There are many reasons why a contract must exist between the processor and the merchant.  Without going beyond the intended scope of this article, one of those reasons is cost. 

Opening a merchant account for a business involves a significant amount of work and expense to the processor.  To oversimplify a somewhat complex process, the processor must complete a KYC check (know your customer) and other due diligence to make certain that the business does not have a history of fraud and will operate a stable and honest business.  This involves costs at several points throughout the process including credit reporting, technology costs, and fees owed to the card associations and upstream providers involved in the transaction flow.  The end result is there is significant cost and effort to the processor, but with today’s competitive environment many processors will operate at a loss when boarding the merchant even if a nominal setup fee is being charged.  The merchant will have to stick around and process for a while before the processor generate positive revenue from the account.  This is one of the reasons why merchant agreements have a set contract term.  The term with almost every major processor in Canada is almost always the same: 3 years.  In the USA it’s often 3 years or 5 years.  In Europe it seems to commonly be set to 1 year.

With the understanding that every processing agreement has a contract term, there is almost always an early cancellation penalty.  Most processors have an early cancellation fee based upon the monthly fee.  For example, if you are on a standard 3 year (36 month) contract and cancel after the first year it means you have 24 months remaining on your agreement.  If your monthly fee was $50 you would multiply the monthly fee by the number of unfulfilled months remaining on the contract term.  ($50 x 24 months) = $1,200.  Keep in mind that this is just an example.

The early cancellation fee should be of particular importance to a startup business.  Despite a business owners best efforts and intentions, not every startup business becomes a runaway success.  In some cases a business owner may have to shutter the doors if the business isn’t working out.  There are few times when a person is as financially vulnerable as when an entrepreneur must shutter a business.  That is why cancellation fees should be addressed before entering the agreement.  Some processors are very good at working with startups and can be flexible with merchants who are in this situation.  If operating a startup and considering a particular processor, you should ask them about the cancellation penalty.  A good processor will understand your concerns and work with you to address them.  Different processors will provide different remedies to this situation.  It’s about finding the most workable solution to the problem.  If you operate a startup and this problem isn’t adequately addressed move on to the next processor who will better understand and listen to your concerns.

Are You Making Volume Commitments?

Some processing agreements have volume commitments that a merchant must satisfy.  In other words, a merchant must process X amount of dollars per month.  If the merchant doesn’t satisfy this volume commitment then the discount rate can be increased or other financial penalties can be applied.  This practice is almost non-existent in Canada and Europe.  It’s far more prevalent with US based credit card processors.  A clause like this is unfair for most small and mid-sized businesses, and is absolutely outrageous for a startup.  Be aware and make sure that there are no volume commitments in your processing agreement. 

As a side note to the volume commitments discussion, in some cases it is a fair fee.  For example, an established business that processes 10 million dollars in sales per month would be able to negotiate a very low rate.  The processor may roll out the red carpet and give them a fantastic deal.  But if the merchant doesn’t end up driving that high transaction volume the processor could end up taking a loss (or at least make no revenue) in which case there was no sense in boarding the account.  Again, this is something that doesn’t apply to small and mid-sized businesses.  The reason I’m mentioning it is because many of the “pricing tricks” that exist in the industry originated for very meaningful reasons.  It’s when and how a rule is applied that matters.  What you don’t want to happen is to find yourself in a situation where you signed into a merchant agreement with some type of clause that you weren’t aware of that will have an adverse impact on your business. 

Also note that the volume commitments discussed in this section are not to be confused with a monthly minimum fee, which is a standard fee to help a processor cover costs on dormant or inactive accounts.  A monthly minimum is standard and fair, so long as it’s reasonable and clearly disclosed.

Use the Competition to your Advantage

If you are shopping to negotiate an account and have an offer that sounds too good to be true you may be able to discuss what is being offered with your second-in-line choice provider.  It has often been the case that clients have come to me with quotes that were below interchange.  They had thought that it appeared to be too good to be true, and in some cases it was.  With expertise in the industry it’s far easier to spot shady pricing techniques than it is for someone without an understanding of interchange.  I have to be careful of my advice in this regard because some processors consider their application documents sensitive and you don’t want to be sharing them with other folks.  However, nothing would stop you from discussing a rate you may have been quoted verbally.  Try to leverage the expertise around you to get to the bottom line and walk away with the best arrangement and value possible.

Conclusion

This article is by no means meant to paint any particular processor in a negative light.  As I’ve mentioned above, most processors are hard working and honest.  The good guys by far and away outnumber the bad guys.  So do not be scared or intimidated when choosing your processor. 

Remember that your credit card processor will make a little bit of money every time you process a sale.  They should want you to succeed and do everything possible to support you.  Good processors do this very well.   If you follow the advice in the article it will help you to setup your account with a good and honest processor.  Watch out for the major red flags. 

If you have questions or concerns about anything related to your agreement you must discuss them.  The merchant payment business is a business in which where there are no silly questions.  Every time you raise a concern you should receive a direct and knowledgeable response.  Above all, trust your internal radar.  If you have an offer, and warning bells are going off in your mind then trust your intuition and move on until you find the solution that is right for you. 

If you are educated and informed, if you read your agreement, and if you discuss the issues herein with your chosen provider you will end up with a stable solution that can help you to build your business online for years to come.