Using paypal as an International user is highly ineffective. Paypal is an ebay company and it has a reputation as a very effective method of paying and receiving money online! It has received amazing reviesw from people who has been using paypal for a long time. However, this is an honest review from an International user (particularly, Malaysia and some of the SEA region) using paypal for projects and receiving money online.

First off, if you’re a user from the United States or some of the other approved countries that paypal has approved of, using paypal is probably going to be a breeze. I have not had the privilege of using paypal as a US resident (quite obviously) so, I cannot give you a review on using paypal as one! But as an International merchant using paypal, this is what I have to say – YOU MAY NEVER GET TO SEE YOUR MONEY AT ALL!

I am a genuine merchant/freelancer who was using paypal to receive money from my International clients. They have all asked me if I had problems using paypal for payment, and obviously, keen on trying to tie the project in, I said I did NOT have a problem using paypal. I figured that if I DID eventually have a problem, I was pretty sure paypal would help me get my money from the account. After all, it’s MY money in THEIR account and they cannot possibly keep the money that I have earned.

In the beginning stages of using paypal, it’s easy peasy – nothing to it. All a user has to do in order to start using paypal is to register. The registration process is easy enough. They automatically approve your account to make it easy for you to use paypal. Using paypal to get money into your paypal account is simple. Just provide the payer with your paypal ID: your email address. The payer using paypal as a payment gateway will only have to log into the paypal account and then using paypal’s tools to send the money to your account. Simple enough.

Using paypal : here’s where it gets a little tough
Using paypal to receive money posed some problems to me, as an International user.

1. Verification
In order to withdraw money from your paypal account, you need to first verify your paypal account. The point in using paypal as a payment gateway is lost here because in order to verify the account, you need to have a US bank account or a credit card.

If you’re like me, an International user who does not have a means of getting a US bank account, then using paypal can get pretty rocky…ok, well, tricky. I have explored the possibility of opening a US bank account from where I live, it’s possible. But the setup fee was huge. You need to pay USD299 as a setup fee. Yes, SETUP fee, not deposit. I would understand it if they told me that I would need to pay USD100 or USD50 as a setup fee (which translates to about Ringgit Malaysia 380 or Ringgit Malaysia 190) with a certain limitations to a deposit, but having to pay a setup fee of USD299 was too much for me.

You can always get a credit card to verify your account in order to start using paypal to send money and receive money online. Sure thing. Except.I don’t have a credit card. But I got myself a debit card cause I was sure using paypal was the only way to accepting payments from my International clients. But even if you verified your account in order to start using paypal, you cannot withdraw your money from your paypal account STILL. You STILL need to have a US bank account.

2. Sending Limit
If you have not been using paypal for a long time, like me, then you’re not always aware of the small tiny little word ‘unverified – Malaysia’ that sits comfortably right next to your paypal balance. The sending limit is there if you’re not a verified paypal user. For starters, paypal has capped off the sending limit at USD100. USD100 limit on the amount you can ever send through your paypal account until you get yourself verified.

I found myself in a tussle using paypal when I send USD80 to someone and then they told me that I can only send USD20 more to someone before I have to get verified. So, there was a problem using paypal to send money to someone too? And using paypal a payment gateway was also shot because I can’t seem to get the money out.

You see, what I was trying to do was to send whatever money I had in there to someone else in the US and get them to send the money back to me through iKobo. And although I had found the right person for this task, I was still having problems using paypal because I can’t even get my money out of there to someone else so that they can send me the money – so that I can buy milk and diapers for my kids! Sheesh!

In summary: what was my experience in using paypal?

It was the pits! This is a user who is still hoping that paypal will brush up on their system to make it more user-friendly for International users. But unless they finetune their system to make it more user-friendly, I’d rather be shot in the foot before I’d use it again.

First off, the withdrawal process is lousy because I cannot withdraw the money out from the paypal account therefore, using paypal as a payment option means that I will never smell the money that I have earned. I couldn’t even close the account until I got verified, can you believe that? The person I spent talking (long distance) over the phone with for 2 hours couldn’t find me a solution. Secondly, the sending limit. What happens that those people who wishes to send money to someone but don’t have a credit card? What happens to the money in there?

The only way out for International people using paypal is to either get a US bank account or spend the money on ebay.

Which makes perfect sense – paypal is part of ebay, didn’t I say?

I’ll just stick to what works for now – my iKobo account.

Marsha Maung is a writer and graphic designer who has been freelancing for the past 6 years and have spent a lot of time – between feeding her kids and bathing them, researching on ways to work effectively and totally online. She hopes to give aspiring work at home moms the advice, tips and resources they may need to get their business going. Marsha is a mom to 2 wonderful boys, Joshua and Jared, the love of her life.
http://www.marshamaung.com

When doing an interview there need to be at least three people involved. The person being interviewed, you, the interviewer and someone to work the camcorder. It could be argued – I would so argue – that an extra person to handle the sound is a great benefit but this is a policy of perfection.

Interviewing for video is a skill that can be acquired with practice. The key to successful interviewing is research, research and yet more research.

Before you interview a subject you need to know as much as possible about the person you are interviewing.

And you need to read everything that anyone has ever written about the subject.

This is what the Internet is for. Typically it contains everything written in recent times.

The more information you can get, the more research you do, the smoother the interview will go.

Having said that it is vital that you, the interviewer, both asks questions and knows when to shut up.

The problem is that often you will find yourself knowing more about a subject than the person you are interviewing, and the temptation then is to show off your knowledge.

This is fatal.

The viewer is not interested in your views. It is the person being interviewed – the interviewee – who should be the center of attention. And before you ask, yes, this is a major problem for me. I cannot keep my big mouth shut.

Be prepared for interviews that go smoothly and those that get a bit ragged. Three examples.

I had an hour interview with Bill Gates in Sydney for Australian television. My questions were well prepared. He would listen to the question, stay quiet for a moment and then give a cogent, grammatical answer. Amazing. As an interview it went like a dream.
On the other hand, I got one very wrong. The interview with the late Tony Hancock, perhaps the greatest British comedian of his day, took place in the Sebel Town House in Sydney. It started as a shambles for I had not done enough homework. It evened out after a while and in the end worked reasonably well. As it happens it was the last interview given by Tony Hancock.

Then I did a series of interviews with members of my family. I stayed out of shot and just let them ramble on what they thought about their siblings. It was electrifying stuff. If you were a member of that family.

Write all of your questions down and create supplementary questions in case an answer, a good answer, is not forthcoming.
Avoid questions that invite the single word answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

If you ask ‘Are you in favor of premarital sex?’ you will probably get a single word reply, which is not the idea at all.

Phrase your questions so that they lead the person being interviewed into expanding their views. ‘Your book suggests that you are against premarital intercourse. What are your views on this?’ is much more likely to elicit a full and frank comment than the first question.

To avoid a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer use the tried and true journalist technique of asking who, what, why, how and when questions.
None of these can be answered with a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Before the interview starts, you, the interviewer, must meet the subject and establish some sort of rapport. There are interviewers, a few, who can go in cold and get a good result. But they are few and far between.

The preliminary chat is, as it were, part of your research.
With it you will establish the ability of the person being interviewed to talk, to express themselves, to answer questions. It is possible that this preliminary talk will end in you modifying some of your questions.

In your preliminary chat avoid asking the specific questions you will be asking in the interview.

Instead, indicate general areas of interest. If you ask the specific questions the filmed interview will give an impression that it has been rehearsed.

Before you start your interview have your key questions laid out and ready. You need a certain amount of flexibility but most of the time you will find that your first and logical thoughts or question order is much better than one you compile while winging it.

There are two main way of handling an interview.

The first is where the question is not heard and the questioner not seen. Instead, you get answers that are obviously directed at someone who is out of shot.

A series of answers like this can be edited together from either one person or several, to provide the effect of a continuous interview.

In this sort of interview you ask the question and then you keep your big mouth shut. If some sort of reaction is needed nod or shake your head vigorously or smile encouragement. If you speak you will have to be edited out afterwards. Which is not always easy.

This technique can be seen being used to magnificent effect in the movie ‘When Harry Met Sally’ which contains a series of such interviews with married couples describing their lives together. Magic.

The other type of interview is where you are both on screen in the manner of a normal conversation. This sort of interview can easily be covered with one camera.

Shoot the interviewee’s answers first and then shoot the interviewer from where the interviewee has been sitting, asking exactly the same questions. At the end you do a series of ‘noddies’ that can be used for cutaways.

The key to making such an interview work is to get the person relaxed. Try to film them in a familiar surrounding so that they do not feel threatened. Keep the camera work and the lighting as unobtrusive as possible.

The first question should be a sound level check and should be totally innocuous.

Start the interview very gently in a chat mode and always move from soft to hard questions imperceptibly.
Do not start like gangbusters or the interviewee will clam up or, in the worst case, walk off. It happens.

At the end of the interview I always ask ‘Is there some question you would like me to have asked that I have missed out on?’

This allows the subject to expand on a point or deal with an area they feel has been skipped. It is quite remarkable how often you will get an excellent and usable response after that last question.

Start off with a long shot of the person being interviewed facing the interviewer. The interviewer’s back appears, which gives a three-dimensional aspect to the shot and gets the scene in context for the viewer. Change the shot sizes in rhythm with the questions. New question, new framing.

Another form of interviewing on video is vox pop – from vox populi, Latin for the voice of the people – are quick interviews with people in the street to demonstrate public opinion on a subject.

What you want to end up with is a series of statements that can be cut rapidly together and, in the end, give a clear indication of the current attitude on a subject.

To make the interview more interesting change the shot size as a new question is asked. That is, switch off, zoom in from, say, mid shot to close-up, and then resume filming again.

Use different backgrounds and different eyelines.

Work out how many interviews you want and then shoot to that number with perhaps a 50 per cent safety margin. Do not go on shooting after that point. You could be getting useful footage for another scene rather than wasting your time. In vox pop moderation is the key.

Note carefully that subjects can move backwards and forwards when making a point and may even wave arms around in the air and you need to be prepared for this so they are always in shot. That the camera does not cut off parts of their bodies. Armless interviewees may be harmless interviewees but that is not the point of the excercise.

Gareth Powell has done many interviews for newspapers, magazines and television. He writes about making videos on his site, Digital images, http://www.pixelates.com

Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design. You find out your designer sold them the same design. They must be breaking the law, right? It all depends on whether you own the copyright to your web site design. Many site owners are shocked to find out they do not.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a method of protection for authors of original works such as literature, computer programs, music, artistic pieces and photographic images. The protection provided by copyright arises under Title 17 of the United States Code. A copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to do or authorize others to: reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, publicly display and generally use the material that carries the copyright in exchange for something, typically a royalty or fee. The copyright owner often grants this use through a license agreement, but can sell it outright.

Who Can Claim Copyright?

Copyright protection is created IMMEDIATELY upon the creation of a fixed form of the material in question and granted to the person that created the material. For instance, I automatically own the copyright to this article upon completing it. I am not required to file for an official copyright with the US Copyright Office to prove that I am the owner of the content. However, if I want to sue a person for using my article without permission, I must first register it.

What If I Hire Someone To Create A Web Site For Me?

If you hire a person or company to handle the design of your site, the complexities of copyright become a major issue for you. Specifically, the issue of “work for hire” is critical in determining whether you own the design.

“Work for hire” refers to the relationship between your business and the person creating your web site. If this person is an employee of your business and creates the material within their scope of employment, then your business owns the copyright. However, what happens when the designer is not an employee? In such a situation, the following must occur for the copyright to automatically transfer to you. The work must be specially ordered or commissioned for use as:

1. A contribution to a collective work,

2. A part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work,

3. A translation,

4. A supplementary work,

5. A compilation,

6. An instructional text,

7. A test,

8. Answer material for a test, or

9. An atlas.

It is my opinion that the design of a web site does not fall into any of the above categories. As a result, you do not own the copyright to the design and can do nothing about the fact that one of your competitors is using the design. Obviously, this is not the answer that most site owners want to hear. So, what can you do to protect your business?

When you hire an outside party to design, alter, amend or improve your site, you must have them sign a written contract. The contract must include a clause clearly establishing that the copyright to the material produced is vested with you, not the designer. You should then file the contract with your important documents as some designers “forget” that assigned the copyright to you. Presenting a copy of the contract and noting that it allows for the recovery of attorney’s fees usually solves the problem.

The issue of copyright ownership of a web site or aspect of a site pops up often. Finding your design being used on another domain is bad enough, but it can get worse. If you sell your business, the attorney for the party purchasing your business will always ask about the copyright of the site as part of the due diligence process. More than a few business deals have fallen apart when the lack of copyright ownership is discovered. Obtaining copyright at the outset of your business effort will avoid serious problems in the future.

About The Author

Richard Chapo, Esq., is with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com offering business law advice to California businesses. This article is for general education purposes and does not address every facet of the subject matter. Nothing in this article creates an attorney-client relationship.

There is some speculation about how much money you can earn online without your own product. Although marketing your own digital product on the Internet can be very lucrative, there is no reason why you and I can’t profit mightily using creative methods that offer real value to Internet surfers. Here are five simple ways you can start exploding your online income through affiliate programs starting today.

1. Write marketing articles filled with valuable, practical
advice and back-end them with free viral special reports promoted through article resource boxes. You can also capture
e-mail addresses via an autoresponder address in your resource
box as well.

What creative incentive can you give people to pass on your viral ebook? What methods aren’t other people using? Catch their eye with powerful, information-rich article content and then blow their minds with a killer incentive that gets them sharing your ebooks with everyone! Simply tie multi-tier affiliate links into your ebook content and start earning more and more commission every time it is given away.

2. Create a “super-affiliate” blog or website. If you’re strapped for cash, you can start out with your own blog. Forget what doesn’t work and add valuable marketing information to your website or blog on a regular basis, and make sure you allow people to use your articles (and other viral marketing materials) as long as they don’t change any of the article content.

If there are affiliate links within the text, allow them to change your links to theirs, thereby giving them an incentive to carry your articles in their ezines or on their websites or blogs. Try to come up with unusual ways to keep people coming back, and never promote products that you wouldn’t buy yourself.

3. Become a special report specialist. Write informative special reports that are five to twenty pages in length, and develop creative methods to get people giving them away for free. Tie in multi-tier affiliate links, as well as links to recurring and residual income opportunities.

A powerful viral special report is like a floating website that goes from person to person, earning you more and more money as it is spread all over the Internet. A great way to profit from this method is by creating special reports that are preludes to related informational products that others are selling.

4. Create your own affiliate directory. Only add affiliate programs that you would join, and put a creative spin on your
directory as well. What makes your directory different from
everyone else’s? How can you monetize this directory using methods 1, 2, and 3? How can you monetize this directory with
your own autoresponder and ezine?

5. Start your own Internet marketing forum. Give marketers a good reason to go there. Again, tie this concept into the above methods, and see how you can expand on these ideas as well! The secret is to create something of value that people can’t do without!

These are five simple ways you can begin profiting in no time,
even without your own product! Combine them in whatever manner you so choose and have fun as you grow more and more profitable online!

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners**
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed below.
Feel free to substitute your referral link in place of ours in the resource box. Thanks!

Wanna learn how to generate thousands of highly targeted visitors, absolutely free? => http://www.iwantchoices.com

eBay is the world’s online marketplace, that enables a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses to trade on a local, national and international basis. Founded in September 1995, eBay provides a platform for the sale of goods and services to more than 135 million registered members from all around the world.

Globally, eBay has more than 44 million items listed for sale at any one time, and an additional 4 million items are added daily. There are more than 50,000 categories including collectibles, antiques, sports memorabilia, computers, IT and office, art, antiques, toys, dolls, stamps, comics, magazines, music, pottery, glass, photography, electronics, jewelry and e-books.

Electronic books or e-Books are texts designed to be read solely on a computer screen using proprietary hardware devices, or multipurpose fixed or portable PCs, or palmtops. They provide texts that take up no space beyond that on the hard-drive you store them on, and can be transmitted through a network. The greatest advantage of e-Books is that you can access the relevant information at the press of a button.

Buying e-Books on eBay is easy. However, you need to know some basic things about shopping on eBay. You can get help from e-Books like eBay Bargain Shopping for Dummies by Marsha Collier that offer help to those who want to cash in on the amazing bargains that eBay veterans have found for years. She shares the secrets on outwitting and outbidding the competition, allowing you to find mega-discounts on everyday items.

You can order e-Books online and they will be delivered electronically to your computer. So you save money with no shipping, no taxes, and the lowest prices. You could visit
e-BookMall that has the world’s largest selection of quality e-Books. Or go to Gemstar e-Books that give a new meaning to the term light reading. They have powerful electronic features such as a built-in dictionary, word search, and touch screen for notes, highlighting and bookmarks.

Instant e-Books install instantly and are ready to use with no additional software or eReaders needed. Plus, you can find many free articles and the most useful e-books written by the best eBay gurus. You can also learn the best tips, source your products and learn how to receive payments with PayPal.

Buying e-Books on eBay is a different ballgame altogether. You can order e-Books from the convenience of your home and have them delivered to you instantly. What could be happier news for book lovers anywhere in the world!

Joseph Then operates an ebookstore on eBay and has more than 300+ ebooks priced from $0.23 and above. You can visit us eBay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/NKTHEN-eBooks-Enterprises

In order to design a website that performs well with the search engines, it is very important to give the search engines what they want. You’ll want to find out what search engines index and what they do not in order to have your pages returned as a result. Consider the following strategies to get your web page noticed as frequently as possible.

Strategy #1 – Keywords

To most search engines, keywords are vitally important. Because of this you will want to pay special attention to keywords and how they play a role in your website and ultimately search engine results. Do some research to find the keywords that are most important to your products, services, and what your website is all about. Then, construct copy using the keywords, being sure to include the keywords in the title and near the top of the article. By doing this, you will be sure to gain a high ranking with the search engines that give more consideration to keywords.

Strategy #2 – Don’t Spam

Be sure to know the rules and regulations of search engines in order to get a high ranking, increased traffic, and ultimate success. One major rule most search engines big and small adhere to is no spamming. If you do spam you will more than likely be blacklisted from the search engines indexes which means your URL will not be returned as a result for people’s searches regarding your website, and in turn you will receive little traffic if any at all. Be sure you do not engage in spamming and be clear about what the search engines consider spamming so you do not risk being blacklisted.

Strategy #3 – No Frames

Frames cause problems for a lot of search engines and as a result most search engines do not include web pages with frames in their indexes. To avoid this make sure you develop a website that has a unique URL for each page within your website. The money you might save from building a web page with frames will backfire because you will not get traffic. Do whatever you must do to exclude frames from your website and then watch the traffic increase on a daily basis.

There are plenty of things you can do to increase your success of your website, however these three particular strategies are guaranteed to help you, increase your traffic, and ultimately sales. Don’t let another day pass by without employing these strategies and increasing your website traffic.

Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can increase search engine traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/