International Trade Questions And Answers

Question 1:

In your import course do you offer a CD so we can modify forms like letters, invoices, etc with our own company name?

Answer 1:

The import course materials do not.

We, Coble International and ImportExportHelp.com, do provide an unadvertised Bonus that will be sent to you via email after you advise us that you have received your course - these bonus resources include Word formatted, easily modifiable agreements, letterhead and some recommendations on business resources that can save you up to $500-$600 a year (actual resources we use in our business).

Microsoft Word contains Invoice formats, it is of little use taking up valuable CD Rom data space putting something on it that your computer most likely already has available within programs like Word or other word processing program.

If you do not have Microsoft Word on your PC, I strongly urge you to get it - best word processing program around.

Question 2:

Do you offer any money back gurantee in case we are not 100% satisfied with your products?

Answer 2:

I could go into a "long" dissertation about why we do not offer refunds but I will try to keep it short.

1. We outline "exactly" what you are getting with our materials, when you make a purchase from our web site, you have already made a conscious decision that you are happy with what is listed there.

2. We have experienced well over $350,000 in fraudulent orders in the last 7 years - I got tired of keeping inventory on hand and dealing with the credit card companies and about 3-4 years ago decided to take "less" money and let our publishers deal with the credit card company issues. Our publishers do not offer refunds, therefore, we cannot, and do not offer refunds.

3. Last, I will close out my reply by providing you with the comments from one of the oldest marketing experts that I have known now for nearly 20 years and his response to the question of a money back guarantee or option - his name is Jim Straw and with over 40 years of business experience under his belt, I firmly believe and agree with his stated case against offering refunds:

Here is Jim Straw's Comments on refunds:

Since I sell "information" ... not "opportunities" ... nowhere in any of our sales material do we offer any kind of Money-Back option.

Why? ? -- Because...

(1) We are not a lending library. -- If you want to borrow a book, we recommend a visit to your local public library. We do not lend our publications.

(2) We cannot erase your memory. -- Once you have read and made mental note of the information provided in our publications, there is no way you can return it to us. Even if you return the printed material; or delete the PDF file from your hard drive, you still have the information in your memory for your ultimate use.

By not including a Money-Back option; of any kind, in our sales material, we intentionally discourage people who are seeking a ‘guaranteed’ existence from buying our publications.

Over the past 40 years, I have literally made millions, upon millions, of dollars "doing" the things I have written about - and - other people have made millions, upon millions, of dollars doing what I teach in my materials.

May I suggest that you "use" the information in the materials you purchased to achieve the success you have been seeking ... and ... I am always here to assist you in your efforts anytime you run into a situation you don't understand. -- REMEMBER, I have done it ... not just written about it ... so I can steer you in the right direction.

If I were to give you a refund, I would only allow you an excuse to quit ... delaying your success, again.

*** end of Jim Straw's comments on refunds ***

In closing, you now know why we do not offer a money back option and if that keeps you from ordering, well, so be it. Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best.

Internet Marketing Tip For E-tailers or Online Retailers That To Boost There Campaigns

By Luis Galarza - Internet Marketing to Make Money Online.

This Internet Marketing Tip Is For All Entrepreneurs That Own Or Looking To Make Money As E-tailers or Online Retailers, Where Boosting Profits Per Advertising Campaigns Is Really Important!

Why is so important, well before I answer that question, you need to know that improving conversions per marketing campaign is important to any online marketer that is looking to really monetize a web site or blog... But, in the online retail business world (e-tail) most of the time you have a bigger overhead than a blogger, specially if that blogger is using free marketing and blogging tools. And as you know that when you launch a new online store you are going to compete against some of the biggest e-tailers available on the Internet like: Amazon, Buy.com, Overstock, and others.

So, after doing the right brand marketing and provide high quality products you need to do everything you can to increase your sales and profit, plus you need to keep your eye in your ROI(Return On Investment) and response conversions. One thing you need to know about online retail conversions is that the average rate was no more than 2% till 2006, but in 2007 this rates to a new level never seen in the e-tail industry. The percentage level increased from 12.3% to 31.7%, but before making any conclusions you need to know that these rates very by industry. Maybe you can get similar results with your internet marketing campaigns, remember is all on your strategy and landing page sales optimization, here is an article that shows some of the best rates from 2007 title "Top Online Retail Conversion Rates As High As 31% - See The List".

Note: When searching for "Online Retail Conversions" on Google, don't go to a site call Online Conversions because it have nothing to do with retail sales or anything like it.


Boost E-tail Conversions With These Top 2 Internet Marketing Tips:

1.- First online retailers or e-tailers need to have an integrated merchandise searching system or "searchandising" that can help your visitors find what they need easy and fast.

2.- Another thing that you need is the implementation of the right analytics strategy that can give you the power to become more responsive to your customer demands.


Recommended Resources.

- Coordinating Online Marketing To Maximize ROI.
- Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business Online.
- Why You Must Use Adword Conversion Tracking.
- Conversion Rate: The Key Factor Of Distribution Online.


In Conclusion: You need to have the right mix of searchandising and analytics strategies which will help you e-tail or online retail store increase response conversions from your traffic and give you the opportunity to generate larger web orders.

To your success,

Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Consultant Massachusetts.

About Author: Luis Galarza is a respectable Internet Marketing and Small Business Consultant in the area of Leominster and Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Also, he had teach 100's of entrepreneurs how to make money online and offline without their own product.

A proud member of
- The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.

Technorati tags: Luis Galarza, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing Tips For Retailers, Etailers,

Process Imple-Mentor

I've long been a True Believer in Process Driven Design (PDD)... and that's why I chose to work in the BPM arena. I truly believe that "The Process" should "Drive" most of the Application Development Efforts that are carried out on behalf of Businesses and Government Agencies.

My strong belief that PDD is "the way to go" stemmed largely from what I experienced while acting as a Technical Architect for a business that facilitates Loan Oriented interactions between Individuals, Private Companies and Federal Agencies... What transpires at that company was not unique, so rather than singling out the company by name I will refer to it as "QGC" (Quasi-Governmental Corporation).

QGC was (and is) doing a great job in accomplishing its mission, but developing and maintaining the software to support the mission was an ongoing herculean effort. The company had been in business for several years, and over time they had acquired a diverse mix of Mainframe applications, Java EE applications, and Packaged Applications to support the business. The business revolved around the Life-Cycle of Loans... Apply for Loan, Disburse Funds, Collect Payments, Arbitrate Disputes, etc.

All of QGC's "core" software in one way or another supported Loan Oriented Business Processes. Some applications directly supported the Borrowers, some applications supported Lenders, some applications supported Government Agencies. An underlying "System of Record" maintained the integrity of the Data common to all parties. Lots and lots of details spread over multiple systems... working together to implement the Processes of Applying for Loans, Disbursing Funds, Collecting Payments, etc.

QGC's "core" software assets functioned together as a finely-tuned machine... But that machine was incredibly hard to tune and it required a large team of highly skilled mechanics and technicians to keep the machine tuned and running well. Their business is not simple... but the complexity of the software was not proportionate to the complexity of the business.

I came to believe that there was one root problem with QGC's Software Architecture... The Business was centered on Process, but the Process Definitions were not central to the Software Architecture. The Software Architecture focused on specific audiences... Borrower, Lender, Agency. The code to implement the Processes of moving information between these Participants was scattered across Stored Procedures, cron jobs, daemons, etc.

The Process Definitions were not centrally managed... so any time we needed to change a Process (perhaps in response to a regulatory change), we'd have to comb through numerous systems to figure out "What Has To Change Where". Change is a very hard thing to accomplish when you have to track down a dozen programmers to figure out where a specific detail of a Process is implemented.

The Architectural approach towards Processes at QCG was one that I would now call "Process Implementation Through Discrete Integration". Build all of the Activities that are needed to perform a Process, and then use the most expedient technologies to Integrate each individual Activity with it's "neighboring" Activities. End result... the company has a Managed Business Process, but there are many "managers" and they are scattered all over the place and hard to coordinate (when the inevitable change is necessary).

My reaction to having to deal with the perils of this Integration focused Software Architecture was to loudly proclaim "There Must Be a Better Way!"

My search for a "Better Way" was timed perfectly: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) was gaining mind-share, and the "Open" software technologies that had been spawned by "The Web" had ripened to the point where it was no longer necessary to build everything from scratch. The ability to build "Composite Service Oriented Applications" was finally at hand.

For me, the first key to PDD enlightenment was to start talking about "Services" instead of "Objects". In Business, you care about getting something done (getting a Service performed) more than you care about "Who" does it (the Service Provider). Objects are Service Providers, and should ideally be interchangeable... The Design Focus should be on the Services themselves.

The second key to PDD enlightenment was to surrender my creative freedom to the constraints of a Process Engine. To heck with preserving creativity and flexibility... As the saying goes: "Mussolini made the trains run on time in Italy", and process software absolutely positively must "run on time".

(Those of you who follow the above link will learn that Mussolini's claim was false, so I really shouldn't use it because it implies that claims by Process Engines are also false... but it's just such a great analogy (even though flawed) that I can't resist)

Those two keys, "Services" and "Process Engine", unlocked my awareness of "The Better Way" to architect process Software (and to implement Managed Business Processes). I'd arrived at the architectural approach for what's now commonly known as BPM (Business Process Management).

My belief in the value of BPM led me to quit my job and go to work for a BPM company, Lombardi Software. Lombardi's slogan is "Process Driven"... so the attraction was obvious (and they let me keep blogging).

Lombardi's BPM tools are great, and I'd hate to be without them... but from working with many clients on many BPM projects I've learned that tools, even great tools, are not enough. The Development Process is as important as the Tools, and the two must complement each other or the projects won't succeed.

The Process of Implementing a Process is equally as important as the Tools that you use to Implement a Processs.

Object-Oriented Design and Programming was as much about Philosphy and Mind Set as it was about OO Languages like SmallTalk, C++ and Java. Learning C++ and Java didn't make you an Object Oriented programmer, learning to "think in Objects" did. Process-Driven-Design is the same.

Those of us who develop Managed Processes will still build many of the same things that we've always built, but we are changing the way that we think about those things, and the way that we build them.

So that's why I keep sharing my thoughts about how to implement BPM solutions with developers... I want to help you start "thinking in Processes".

Will Travel 2.0 work in Asia? Yes - just as soon as the ad dollars flow faster

I was asked in an email this week about whether or not social networking sites will work in Asia. The question referred to a range of players such as Tript, triptouch, tripwiser and WAYN.

I have spoken before on the criteria for what makes a successful content (read Web 2.0) company in online travel. You can see that post here. I also did a post that discussed a lot of different approaches to content called "Content, content everywhere but who is getting the traffic". However this question asked me to think about this from the basis of the consumer market from a regional perspective rather than from a product and traffic perspective.

Content/Web 2.0 companies need two market based environmental factors to succeed. They need lots of containers and lots of advertisers.

Containers - this is a phrase I have adopted from Adam Healey. He used it to describe social networks, news readers and other web based products that capture a lot of user time and interaction. Critically these are the places that users build integrated online experiences with widgets, applications, social interactions and user generated content. This is needed because it shows that consumers are moving to the next level of interaction online and are open to product based web companies.

Advertisers - because they have the money. They are the business plan.

In Asia we have the containers. Friendster all but died in the West but is alive and kicking in Asia. MySpace and Facebook are fighting back against Friendster's early lead. Finally we cannot discount Asia's home growth social networks such as Cyworld in South Korea, Mixi in Japan and QQ.com in China (Richard MacManus has some interesting analysis here). Naturally to hit these local players then local language is critical.

However in Asia the online advertising lags the West. This is just a matter of time but it means that the market for Web 2.0 is a few years behind. The US online advertising market for 2007 in the US was $21.1bb according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (via TechCrunch). In Australia 2007 was US$1.2bilion. The UK reached GBP2.8bb in online advertising spend in 2007. Japan is clearly a global power-house in online advertising (one estimate put 2007 online advertising market at $5.5bb). But other parts of Asia are a little bit behind.

So in the case of Containers the pieces are all there but in the case of online advertising the pieces are almost there but not yet.

thanks to JayMoney in flick for the photo

BOOT in USA Today thanks to VibeAgent

Thanks to a competition run by VibeAgent the BOOT has made it into the USA Today in the Sky blog. The VibeAgent Facebook application - JetSetter - is about (promoting VibeAgent and) letting people compete with friends on how many miles have been flown and destinations visited. I managed to win the Blogger Edition of the competition with 144,142 miles, winning out over big travellers such as Jens Thraenhart of Tourism Internet Marketing (113,828 miles) and Ben Mutzabaugh of the USA Today’s “Today in the Sky” (56,202 miles). Full results here. However as I'm based in Australia and work for a company with offices in Chicago and London this gives me a big advantage over North American competitors. As I said to VibeAgent's PR guy when they told me I had topped the poll "Thanks. But not sure my family thinks it is something worth celebrating." So public apologies to Madame BOOT for the travel.