SME Corp Partners With eBay

SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp. Malaysia) has just signed up a partnership deal with eBay to give Malaysian small and medium businesses a boost in the global market. An alliance that looks to benefit many local small businesses. SMEs will be getting training from certified eBay Education Specialists.

Should SMEs now jump at the opportunity? Why not? I bet many are eagerly waiting to find out how to jump in.

However, I would like to put a caution to them. Don’t crash in blindly. I’m very sure training sessions will be provided. Get on the training program. Have an open mind. Take actions.

The best way to start is by becoming a buyer first. Buy? But we’re in here to sell, not buy! If that’s how you want to do it, go ahead.

The reason to go in as a buyer first is to study the system and environment from the view of a buyer. Your actions, feelings and experience as a buyer is exactly what your future customer will go through. When you understand your customers, you will be able to provide them with better service.

Besides, going in as a buyer, you get to study and analyze the auction system. Go ahead, bid and buy some items. Build a good reputation at the same time. Learn where to go to find hottest items. What other buyers are looking for. These, especially, will come in handy for you as a seller – knowing what buyers want.

Once you’ve got the hang of things as a buyer, time to move on and put on your seller hat.

eBay provides free online lessons for sellers. Read them. There are also many third party eBay Insiders Secrets type of materials. Take them. As you learn, act on the knowledge you’ve gained. Don’t wait until you complete the lessons before starting. Many just wait and wait and wait.

The best way to learn is by doing. So, as you learn from your readings, go start an auction of your own. Go and auction out something you no longer need – a pair of jeans, shoes, tennis rackets, golf clubs, whatever.

The idea here is to learn the ropes of being a seller. What are the steps required to put an item up for auction. How do the bids go from a sellers point of view. How to deal with different types of customers.

Don’t worry about profit or losses. The objective here is to learn how to work the system. Besides, you are selling off items you don’t really need anymore. So it’s basically all profit.

Enjoy the feeling of making your first sale on eBay. Treasure and live the moment for a bit. Move on to your next auction item. Keep doing this until you truly get the hang of how it all works. Take note of all the mistakes and successes you’ve experienced.

Gradually start selling items related to your SME business. Doing so will allow you to maintain your rapport with existing customers while you start building new ones. A good reputation really counts in the online world.

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The most important thing to do while learning the ropes is to have fun. Don’t worry, it will take a while before you really become a successful eBay Entrepreneur. Success is not built overnight.

The best way to start a successful eBay business is by modelling other successful eBay Entrepreneur. There is an eBay Entrepreneur Training Video package that will help you accelerate your learning process. An eBay Entrepreneur of the Year winner has created a set of training videos that shows you how he does his business on eBay. The video provides you with a step by step tutorial on eBay.

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Kuala Lumpur opened the scoring brilliantly with a 6th minute header by Y.K.Yong off a set piece taken by Azwan Abd. Malek.  Selangor found themselves one goal behind for the second consecutive matches.

Fairly similar to the Charity Shield match, Selangor could not pull themselves together in the first half. They could do nothing right. The first 30 minutes, the Red Giants were in total disarray.

However, in the 36th minute, Selangor drew level. Safi Sali timed his jump perfectly to nod home the equalizer as Kuala Lumpur’s keeper rushed forward to challenge for the aerial ball. The equalizer brought life back into the Red and Yellow shirts.

The Red Giants began to take control of the game. Many more chances were created and missed. The half ended with the score tied at 1 – 1.

Selangor's Amri Yahya Scores Cheeky Goal Against KL

Selangor came out from the dressing room with their guns blazing. Skipper Amri Yahyah produced a wonderfully cheeky go ahead goal in the 59th minute. Beating his markers in the KL penalty box, A.Yahyah cheekily chipped the boal over the City Boys’ onrushing goalie.

The Red Giant’s Charity Shield hero, R.Surendran, then finishes off KL’s hope with two quick strikes in the 78th and 89th minutes.

The win puts Selangor on top of the Super League table with 6 points after two matches. Scoring 6 goals and allowing only 2 goals so far.

After two games, Selangor seems to have problems getting started. In both matches, the team have shown that they could not get the game together during the early period. Opponents have yet been able to cash in on this so far. Bouncing back from a one goal deficit is certainly not impossible. However, if the opposing team somehow manages to get two goals before Selangor pulls their act together, it will be an ever tougher job.

I hope K.Devan will do something about this tiny problem Selangor is facing at the moment. Perhaps it’s just an early season thing. After all, the season is just barely two matches old.

Go Selangor!

Configure Settings For Optin Pop

List building is certainly a must for internet businesses. If you have yet to start building a list for your business, it’s high time you start. If your internet business website is built on WordPress, here is an excellent plugin you can use to start building that list of yours. It’s called the OptinPop Plugin.

I’ve been testing out this plugin for a couple of weeks now. Setting it up is fairly easy. It installs like any other plugins. There’s not that many options to configure too. Just set the optin page and how you want the pop up to appear. That’s it.

Of course, you will need an autoresponder account to manage your opt-ins. You will also need to create the optin page yourself. A good autoresponder will have the necessary codes ready for you.

I’ve faced a problem while testing out the FREE version of OptInPop. It will always show the pop up box even if I set it to show only once in 1 day.

I checked the Cookie set by the plugin – iOptinPopBox and saw that the path is set to “wpfolder” which is where my wordpress is installed. However my blog site is not where my wordpress is installed.

mysite is at http://domain.com
my wp is installed at http://domain.com/wpfolder

Removing the SITECOOKIEPATH code in Optin Pop

That seems to be the cause of my problems. So I went to the Plugin Editor and modified the code portion where the cookie path is set.

I basically removed the portion containing SITECOOKIEPATH and saved the code.

Upon testing, the plugin now works as it should on my Internet Marketing Expose site.

Maybe it’s not really a problem with the Plugin. Maybe it’s a Wordpress setting somewhere that sets the SITECOOKIEPATH value to the installed wordpress url.

What’s the correct SITECOOKIEPATH value anyway? Should it be the wordpress installation url or the blog url?

Am I the only one seeing this problem?

Actually, I don’t recommend the fix I’ve used here. This fix will be overwritten when the plugin is updated. As such, you will have to edit the code every time you update the plugin.

Hopefully the next update will have this issue solved.

Selangor Red Giants Bags Charity Shield 2010

Selangor FC captured their first trophy for 2010. They defended their Charity Shield trophy coming back from a one goal deficit to score two late goals to win 2 – 1 against Negeri Sembilan in Paroi.

Live Match Telecast

The match was aired live on national tv (TV1). Are we going to see more Super League matches being covered live? I sure hope so. We should have at least one game covered live while the rest are covered as highlights. Is that too much to ask from our media? That’s one way to bring back interest towards the local league.

I didn’t get to watch the first half of the match. Only got home at half time. Managed to see the replay of Negeri’s goal. From the commentator’s review of the first half, it seemed that Negeri had better control of the ball in the first half.

N. Sembilan’s first goal came off a free kick in the 27th minute. Idris Karim timed his jumped perfectly to nod home Rezal Zamberi’s freekick. Both teams was not able to get any more goals in the first half and the score remained at 1 – 0 for the Deers.

Both Selangor Red Giants and Negeri Sembilan FC did not make any substitution during the break. Negeri started the second period with a blast as they tried to kill of Selangor early in the second half.

Missed Scoring Opportunities

S.Kunalan probably had the best chance at extending the home side’s lead. Receiving the ball in the Selangor box from striker Aidil Zafuan, he had only Selangor’s Hamsani Ahmad to beat. Kuna, however, blasted the ball sky high.

As if replying to Negeri’s early attempts at goal, Selangor skipper nearly pulled the visitors level in the 49th minute. Safee Sali sent in a wonderfully weighted ball into the Negeri box. The nippy Amri, although sandwiched between two Negeri defenders, timed his run perfectly to meet the ball with a flying header. Selangor fans rose to celebrate but Amri’s super attempt was denied by the left post.

The Midfield Battle

Negeri clearly overplayed Selangor at midfield. It was as if Selangor was playing without any midfielders. Selangor’s attack, mainly came in the form of long balls from defense.

In the 70th minute, Selangor coach sent in R. Surendran for Hardi Jaafar to partner Safee Sali upfront. Amri Yahyah went back to roam the midfield.

With Amri manning the midfield, Selangor began to take control of the game. The twin striking partners of S.Sali and R.Surendran began to create problems for the Negeri defense. The game was turning around. Selangor was seeing more chances coming their way.

Selangor’s Potent Two Pronged Attack

In the 77th minute, the potent Selangor strike partnership drew their first blood for the new season. R.Surendran received the ball at the left corner of the box. He had two defenders on him. Being fresh and all, he turned both defenders and raced towards goal from the byline. As Negeri’s keeper rushed forward to close his shooting angle, R.Surendran toed the ball towards a waiting S.Sali for an easy tap in.

Celebrations were brief as Selangor knew the tide was on their side now. They are creating more chances at goal. They believe they can put another goal in. True to their belief, the second goal came soon after.

This time around, the provider became the scorer while the scorer became the provider. Yes, S.Sali and R.Surendran hooked together once again. In a move that started from midfield, D.Surendran sent in a defense splitting pass towards R.Surendran. Seeing that his forward movement will be hampered by so many Negeri defenders, he slid the ball to the right where S.Sali was waiting unmarked.

S.Sali then brought the ball into the box and squared to the onrushing R.Surendran. The ball squeezed thru the legs of Negeri defenders and met R.Surendran’s exquisitely timed run. He squeezed the ball through the legs of Negeri’s goal tender for Selangor’s winner.

Players’ Fitness – Mentally and Physically

Then, the Selangor players began to lose it once again. They started to easily lose their possessions. They allowed Negeri to come back and put them under pressure. Silly mistakes were made. S.Sali received an unnecessary yellow card for blocking Negeri keeper when he made a goal kick. Totally uncalled for.

Had the Negeri players been fitter, they might have been able to conjure themselves a goal in the last few minutes of the match. Fitness is probably among the major factor which saw Negeri failed to at least get a point from the match. Except for maybe a few players like Aidil Zafuan and Zaquan who are national players, the rest of the Negeri players were clearly not 100% match fit yet. They probably need another match or two before they reach 100% match fitness.

Player Of The Match

Selangor's Amri Yahya Player Of The Match

Selangor skipper, Amri Yahyah was named as the player of the match. Although he failed to score a goal, you can’t deny his work rate. He brought life back into the Selangor midfield when he assumed his central attacking midfielder role. I’d say his winning the MVP for the match is totally warranted. Congrats to Amri.

Supporters Come In Numbers

I didn’t get to notice the number of fans at the stadium on tv. However, my younger brother went down to Paroi to watch the game. Yes, he is still a true fan. Me, while I still do support Selangor and the local scene, my travelling days are over for now.

According to my brother, the tickets were sold out when he arrived in Paroi. Excellent, I say! It was a full house event, then. How he managed to get a ticket, I didn’t ask further.

Are the fans coming back to the local scene? Did the SEA Games gold medal bring back the crowd?

A New Hope. Old Attitude

A new decade. A new Super League season. A new hope for the Malaysian soccer scene. From what I saw in last night’s match, the players are up to it. The fans are up to it. The question is, are the officials up to it?

It is now 2010. How many years of Super League have we had? Yet, the FAM and MalaysianSuperLeague web sites are still living in the dark ages of internet. Why do I think as such? Well, in the dark ages of the internet, websites are generally left not updated and people didn’t care about it. Today, websites, especially official sites like FAM and MalaysianSuperLeague must always be updated with the latest news.

I’m not even going to link to their site in here today. As of this writing, none of last night’s matches have been posted on any of the two sites.

This lackadaisic attitude towards the internet needs to change. In this age of technology, information is highly regarded. Its one of the many ways to gather fan support for the local football scene. Are we going to see an improved website?

I’m even thinking of getting together bloggers from all over the nation to post match reviews and photos into an unofficial Malaysian Super League Fan Site of sort. Any one wants to volunteer to provide articles and match reviews? I can work on creating the site.

WordPress 2.9.1 Released

I’m sure many have opted to wait for this 2.9.1 release before updating to 2.9. Well, now should be the best time for you to update your WordPress site. My experience with WordPress has been great so far. I’ve always updated my sites to the latest version as they become public. Yes, I upgrade immediately, always. Alhamdulillah, thankfully, I have never faced any problems on any of my sites.

Related to the 2.9.1 update, WordPress MU 2.9.1 is also in the pipeline. It’s been a while since the MU has been updated. I think it’s at 2.8.1 right now. Anyway, I am now patiently waiting for the release of WordPress MU 2.9.1. Have a number of sites running on MU at the moment.

Not familiar with WordPress MU? MU allows you to run multiple WordPress sites on a single WordPress installation. Makes your life as administrator slightly easier especially in terms of plugins and themes updates. Do it once and all your sites are updated.

If  you are not familiar with MU, now would be a good time to try it out. The next major release  (WordPress 3.0) will merge  WordPress and WordPress MU, together into a single core version. Will the merge make WordPress more complex?

At the moment, many shared hosting sites do not support WordPress MU. How will the merge affect them in the future? Will they stop supporting WordPress? I sure hope not. I they do, it’ll cost them quite a bit. I’d say many sites today are built on WordPress even if it’s not a blog. WordPress is almost everywhere now. It’s not only running blogs either. You can run a company Intranet on WordPress (see video at the end of this post).

You might want to check with your hosting provider about this. You can probably ask them now. See if they allow you to run WordPress MU in your account. If they don’t, ask if they plan to allow it in the future.

Should you not be allowed to run MU, you might want to start looking around at new hosting providers. I use Bluehost. I’ve got some  WordPress MU installations running on them too. You can check them out here.

Have you updated your WordPress? How did the update go?

1. Tottenham’s 9 – 1 mauling of Wigan Athletics

This is probably one of the best highlights of the year from my favorite Premier League team. An incredible Tottenham Hotspurs performance especially from both Aaron Lennon and Jermaine Defoe saw Spurs blasting 9 goals past Wigan Athletics. 8 of them were scored in the second half.  Defoe himself scored a personal best of 5 goals.

2. USA’s entry into the Confederation’s Cup Final

Nobody even thought that USA will feature in the Final. They lost their first two group matches to Italy and Brazil. However, as it turns out their final match 3-0 win over Egypt was good enough to see them through into the semi finals of the tournament.

They even surprised Europe’s champion Spain with a 2 – 0 victory in the semis. In the final against Brazil, they were 2 – 0 at half time. Brazil came back after the interval to score 3 goals and denied USA soccer an ultimate dream of winning the Confederation’s Cup.

3. Amri Yahya’s two goals against Manchester United

Manchester United came to Malaysia in their pre-season Asia Tour. On paper, Malaysia were truly a no match for United, even in pre-season form. However, the Malaysian spirit proved to be a surprise for the visiting team. We gave United a run for their money indeed. Selangor skipper Amri Yahya scored a memorable brace in the match.

The first, a truly mesmerizing looping ball that went over an off positioned Van der Saar straight into goal from 30 yards out. His second came in the second half when he pounced on a Ben Foster  error in front of the United goal.

4. Malaysia’s Gold medal in the SEA Games

Malaysia U23 Celebrates Gold in Sea Games 2009

After 20 years of waiting, the Malaysia soccer team finally made a historical gold medal win in the SEA Games. Malaysia went into the SEA Games final as an under dog facing a more fancied Vietnam. In their first encounter in the group matches, Malaysia went down 3 – 1 to Vietnam.

Malaysia, however won all their other group matches to secure the second spot in Group A. We even defeated our next door neighbor Thailand 2 – 1.  In the semis, Malaysia went up against the home team Laos and weathered the Laotian home crowd support to come out victorious with a 3 – 1 win.

In the final, Malaysia devised a solid backline to prevent Vietnam from creating chances at goal and relied on quick counter attacks. The tactic works like a charm and delivered Malaysia’s first gold medal in soccer after 20 years.

5. Selangor’s Treble

Selangor is known as a soccer power house in Malaysia. The Red Giants just have not been up to mark in recent years. However, in the last couple of years, Selangor have risen up from the shadows. The once mighty Giants are now once again a force to be reckoned with in the Malaysian Super League.

Selangor achieved another history in Malaysian soccer. They won a treble in the 2009 season. Winning the Charity Shield, FA Cup and also the Super League title. Too bad, they did not make the Malaysia Cup final. That would really have made it a superb season for Selangor fans.

6. Malaysia Cup Final Mayhem

The 2009 Malaysia Cup saw two teams who have long dream of reaching the Malaysia Cup Final. It’s been many moons since both Negri Sembilan and Kelantan saw action in a Malaysia Cup Final. It was Kelantan’s second final appearance in 2009 after their loss against Selangor in the FA Cup final.

Kelantan fans arrived in large numbers. They took almost 75% of the seats hoping to see their team create Malaysia Cup history. However, it was the fans that created history. As the Kelantan players wilted on the field, their fans anger rose to a high fever pitch level.

The Kelantan fans chose to vent out their frustration by burning the stadium seats and throwing water bottles on to the field. Fires broke out  at  a number of places as the Kelantan fans dispersed.

A Malaysia Cup final to be remembered indeed, but for the wrong reasons.

7. Thiery Henry’s hand in France’s ticket to World Cup 2010

Maradona did it once in a World Cup match between Argentina and England. Thiery Henry did this time in a match between France and Ireland. Henry admitted using his hands to control the ball before passing it to Gallas for the score.

The resulting goal allowed France to qualify for World Cup 2010. Ireland on the other hand had to rue their missed chances. The incident also added fuel to the issue of using video replays in soccer matches. Do you think that video replays should be used in soccer matches? To what extent? Leave me  your comments.

8. New Zealand’s entry into the World Cup 2010

In New Zealand, soccer is probably not in many people’s minds. People relate more to the All Blacks – their national rugby team.  However, the New Zealand soccer team – All Whites, have risen to the fore as they have qualified into World Cup 2010.

Only their second appearance at the World Cup. They qualified after beating Bahrain 1 – 0 at home.

Can the All Whites be as dominating as their All Blacks brethren?

9. Premier League’s Battle For Top Four

For years now, the top four premier league positions are locked between Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. This season, however, the race for top four sees new faces. Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa are among the other teams staking their claim at the top four spots.

At the moment, today, any of the following teams have very realistic shot at landing the top four spots – Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Liverpool, and Birmingham.

The battle at the bottom is also still wide open. The three teams at the bottom – Portsmouth, Hull City, and Bolton can find some comfort in the sense that there are 6 teams on top of them which are separated only by 3 points.  None of the 6 on top of these three should remain comfortable. All it takes is just one loss and they could very well be one of the bottom three.

An interesting Premier League season, don’t you think?

10. Christiano Ronaldo’s Transfer to Real Madrid

He made headlines as he weaved his magic on the field with Manchester United. He made headlines as he made his way from Manchester United to Real Madrid. A record transfer it was indeed.

The recent Real Madrid purchases raised another old issue about the transfer market. With Ronaldo and Kaka’s transfer prices, many have raised the question once again. Should player’s transfer fees and salaries be capped?

Are teams paying too much for certain players? What do you think?

11. Barcelona’s Treble

Barcelona created history in 2009. They are the first Spanish side to win league, cup and UEFA Champions League in the same season. They also did it with a brand new coach – Josep Guardiola.

For Josep Guardiola, it certainly is an amazing feat. He also consequently became the sixth person to win the European Cup as a coach and a player.

What made it even more memorable? They denied Manchester United a back to back Champions League win. Sorry MU fans.

12.  Manchester United vs Manchester City

I have this match in mind because I think it was simply one of the best matches I’ve ever witnessed in the Premier League. Of course, that Tottenham 9 -1 win was better..

The game ended with a 4 – 3 win for United. However, City fought back to draw level three times before that final Owen strike. Every time United scored, City would draw level to make it 3 – 3. United needed a super effort from Michael Owen in a strangely very long extra time added on to win the match.

I especially like City’s third goal. Bellamy left Rio Ferdinand in a trail of smokes to round up Ben Foster and score.

What’s your best Premier League game for 2009?

Here’s wishing all a brighter Soccer future in 2010.

Introducing Wordpress 2.9 Carmen

Yes, you read that right. Wordpress 2.9.1 update is coming out soon. Barely one week after the release of Wordpress 2.9. Apparently the new version has some problems with PHP’s curl extension on certain hosts.

Last week, or should I say 6 days ago, Wordpress 2.9 was made available for public download. A slew of new features are made available on the new version apart from some bug fixes. Overall, the 2.9 could be considered as a feature enhancement version for many. Among the most notable additional features include:

Undo / Trash: Users can now select to put items into a trash can. Posts, pages, categories and whatnots will now be sent to a trash can instead of being deleted. Just like the recycle bin in your Windows computer (if you use Windows), you can restore items in your trashcan if you’ve deleted them by mistake.

Image Editor: You can now perform some level of image editing within Wordpress itself. Simple actions like cropping, editing, rotating, flipping, and scaling your images can be done outright from Wordpress. No longer will you need an external photo editing software to do simple photo formatting. Of course, don’t expect it to replace Adobe Photoshop or even MS Paint for that matter.

Bulk Plugin Updates: I’m sure many of you are annoyed with having to click so many times when multiple plugins are upgraded at the same time. Well, for those of you who are running like tonnes and tonnes of plugins, this allows you to update all plugins with new updates with a single click.

Smart and easy video embeds: How many video related plugins have you got running on your website or blog? Wordpress 2.9 is now smart enough to embed videos properly on your site. Just post the url link to the video and WP2.9 will automagically transform that link into its proper embeded code. View the following video about this new feature.

Have you upgraded to you Wordpress to 2.9? I have, on all my two stand alone Wordpress sites. Both of them upgraded smoothly. No problems what so ever. Even the plugins are working just fine. The rest of my other sites are on WPMu. Don’t really know when they will release a 2.9 for WPMu yet.

Buy Tottenham Hotspur 1963 European Cup Winners Cup Final Retro Shirt

Tottenham Players Celebrate Dawson's Goal At Everton

What do you Spurs fans think about last nights game? I am a tad disappointed with the way Tottenham played. They started the match, in both halves, positively. Somehow the positive football seemed to wane away each half.

In the first 15 minutes or so of both halves, Spurs had Everton pinned down in their backyard. However, they would then slowly allow Everton to get back into the match. Not only that, they would allow Everton to dictate the pace of the match. You can clearly see Spurs players playing catch up to Everton.

Seriously, for the past two matches, Spurs are not playing their usual game. Passes are rushed and went everywhere but to Spurs players. The central midfielders are just not winning enough balls. Yes, they do great tackles once in a while. That’s just not good enough. For Tottenham to uphold their stand in the top four, the midfielders need to buckle up. They must make the effort to win all the balls that come their way.

I think they lack the desire to win tackles. Here’s what I’m getting at. Ever seen how Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes or any other MU players play at midfield? They chase every single ball that comes their way. If they miss a tackle, they would be up an chasing the ball in an instant. That’s the attitude which is lacking in the Spurs players.

Through out the Everton match, I see players either walking or just looking at the ball if they missed a tackle. It’s just so frustrating.

Buy Tottenham Hotspur Home Shirt 2009/10 – Long Sleeve

Jermaine Defoe Tries To Chip The Ball Past Tim Howard

Michael Dawson once again showed he has a head for goals. Twice now,in consecutive matches, he scored from headers. Last night he also showed his flare as he presented Spurs with the second goal with a brilliant diving header.

Defensive midfield is not Tottenham’s only problem. The defense is another problematic area. Gareth Bale is simply not up to it last night. Everton’s Seamus Coleman practically ran circles around him which even resulted in Everton’s first goal. I’d have to say that Spurs will need to get at least another strong defender come the next transfer window.

Harry need to realize that the current squad is still far from good enough to make a challenge for the top four. I am also beginning to doubt Harry’s tactical decisions. Why didn’t he make any changes to the first team at all? Yes, it’s the team that went on a rampage against Wigan. However, it’s also the same team that drew with Aston Villa a week back. A little bit of change would surely have been good. A couple of fresh legs, at the very least, don’t you think?

Anyway, the two points dropped means Tottenham is now fourth in the league with 27 points. One point behind third placed Arsenal (28pts). Hot on our tail are Aston Villa (26pts), Man City (25pts) and Liverpool (24pts). Man City and Arsenal both have one game in hand. A pretty tight race for the third and fourth place indeed.

What are the areas where Harry needs to work on? Share your thoughts with me in here.

Come On You Spurs!

It’s the holidays. Still time to get your Spurs Gifts For The Holidays!

Grab Them Now!

How To Get Checks From Amazon

So, to those of you who requested, this is how you can get Amazon to send you a check.

Register As An Amazon Associate

First and foremost, you need to register as an Amazon Associate. Head on over to the Amazon Associates website and register yourself as an associate by clicking on the “Join Now for FREE” button. Don’t worry. It’s F.R.E.E.

The only way to get Amazon to send you a check is by referring their products to others. When someone buys an Amazon product by clicking on your affiliate link (a link containing your Amazon Associate-ID), you get a commission from that Amazon sale. You get a check when your commission accumulates to a minimum of USD100.

Link To Amazon Products Manually

To effectively accumulate Amazon commissions, you will need a proper website of your own. Do you have a blog? If you do, you can create links to Amazon products in your blog posts. If you noticed, I’ve got quite a number of links to Amazon products on various posts in this blog.

Here is an example, the following link will take you to a book on Amazon titled “Make a Fortune Promoting Other People’s Stuff Online: How Affiliate Marketing Can Make You Rich (Paperback)“.

To create a link as above, you first need to have the url as follows:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071478132/kodeexiinet-20

The link above contains two important entities:

1. ASIN Number – The ASIN Number of the product you are refering to. In the above sample, it is the number after the /ASIN/ part of the url – 0071478132 in above example.
2. Your Associate-ID – This is your Amazon Associate ID. kodeexiinet-20 in the above example. This tells Amazon to credit your account with commission if a sale is made from visitors that click on your link.

Amazon has created a tool to verify that your link is valid. If you are ever in doubt about your links, you can use Amazon Link Checker to verify.

Where can you find the ASIN Number?

The ASIN Number is displayed for every product on Amazon at the product details section. If you are promoting books on Amazon, then the ASIN Number is the ISBN-10 number for the book. The following two images shows you where you can find the ASIN Number from the Product Details section.

ASIN Number At Product Details

ASIN Number At Product Details - ISBN-10

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Amazon’s Link To This Page Utility

Amazon’s “Link to this page” is a utility provided by Amazon to help you create links to any Amazon web page automatically. It’s an excellent utility for you if you want to quickly generate a referral link to a page in Amazon.

Just click on the “Link to this page” button at the top of any Amazon web page. Follow the steps provided in the shown screen and you will have a html script that you can then copy and paste into your blog or web site.

Using the Link to this page tool, you can create referrals like the one you see over on the right side of this post. That’s Ewen Chia’s book on how he made his first million on the Internet. It’s a good reference if you are just starting up in Internet Marketing. I use it as a reference in my marketing journey too.

Choosing An Amazon Product To Promote

One of the most important factor to succeed as an Amazon Associate is the product you choose to promote on your blog or website. Seriously, you can’t just go and promote any product from the millions available in Amazon. If you want to be successful, you need to choose your product wisely.

The best products to promote are the ones related to the topic you are posting about in your blog or website. As you can see, in this particular blog post, I am promoting products related to Internet Marketing – specifically Affiliate Marketing.

Relevancy is the keyword here. You stand a better chance of making a sale if the product is relevant to the content on the page. Don’t be promoting toys for toddlers if your page is about Internet Marketing (like what I just did here). This will not get you much, if any, sale.

Go Do It Now!

Alright now. That’s the first few steps you need to do in order to get a check from Amazon. Indeed, there are a plethora of other ways to make commissions from Amazon. However, I recommend that you go and do the steps I’ve covered above first, before dwelling into other advance methods.

I’ll cover the other advance methods in another post in here.

Let’s recap the steps you should do right after reading this.

• Create a blog if you don’t have one
• Register as an Amazon Associate
• Find Amazon products relevant to your blog topics
• Generate the Amazon product link
• Put the links into your blog posts.

Once again, if you really are interested to be successful in online business, here are some good reference books on the subject that I recommend.

Note: Making money from Amazon is a long term project. Do not expect to get your first check in the first few months or perhaps first year.

I made my first check after one year of promoting Amazon products. The second check took me 3 months. The third, I don’t know yet. It depends on a lot of factors which I will cover in future posts.

Don’t let the above statement discourage you from doing it though. Start building your links in your posts now. You will start to accumulate more Amazon commissions as your blog or website start gaining traffic and visitors. Work hard now, reap the rewards in the future on autopilot.

If you want fast rewards.. Try the local Sports Toto or Lottery.

The Best Computers For Small Business

Best Desktops For Small Business

Some may think that it’s more cost effective to purchase second hand computers for this purpose. I think otherwise. Second hand PCs may cost little at first, however, their cost adds up from wear and tear as they are mostly no longer under warranty.

The best desktops for small businesses, in my opinion, are Nettops. Nettop computers, like the ASUS Eee Box and Compulab FIT PC2, cost a fragment of regular desktops. They are also small, thus you can just put them anywhere on your working desk.

The best feature of a nettop computer is its power consumption. Nettops consume very little power. Some consume as much power as a power saving light bulb. You can basically have them running 24 by 7 without affecting your electricity bills.

Best Laptops For Small Business

If you are always on the go, then a laptop will suit you better. Not just any laptop. A regular laptop will, over time, be a burden on your shoulders. You need a small, lightweight notebook.

HP Mini 311-1000NR 11.6-Inch Black Netbook – Up to 6.25 Hours of Battery Life
Price: USD 399.99

22 used & new available from USD 389.99

In the past, small notebooks carries a pretty hefty price tag. This is no longer the case today. Netbooks have entered the market. They are relatively low priced. They are lightweight. They consume very little power.

Netbooks such as the HP Mini 311 and ASUS Eee PC 1101HA is what I would recommend as the Best Laptops for Small Businesses. The 10 inch models may be the best selling netbooks at the moment. However, I would go for 11 inches or more as they give you better graphics and screen resolution.

Planning on buying computers to run your small business? I highly recommend that you take a look at nettops and netbooks. They will certainly save you a lot in the long run.