The payment gateway will then send the requests, which have been processed thus far along with various other transfers throughout the financial networks as necessary. This includes the Internet merchant account that your bank has with the online store. When this is completed, the gateway will then send confirmation or denial to the shopping cart software. How do you know which shopping cart package is appropriate for your business? There are literally hundreds of packages to choose from, searching through them all can be time consuming as well as confusing, and then it may become more difficult to determine what is best for your online business.

Free or Premium Shopping Carts:
Before you begin to look at what is available make sure you have a clear idea of what it is you want the shopping cart to accomplish. Look at your online business and the products you are offering. If you are just beginning, you may not need all the fancy extras that come with a high-end shopping cart package. If that is the stage you are at in your business, you may want to consider a lower end package. However, remember, nothing is ever truly free is it? Always read the fine print and acknowledgments before you decide on anything.

Free e-Commerce Solutions:
Paypal is a great e-commerce solution. The services that Paypal offer have become quite popular among the Internet businesses. Paypal integrates the necessary shopping cart functions with the payment gateways and includes the merchant account. This is very convenient. The drawback is that your consumers are required to use Paypal and become Paypal account holders, this is not difficult because when they purchase your product they will automatically be taken to a page that will have them set up their Paypal account. The only cost to you is a small percentage that is taken out of each transaction and you pay no monthly fees for this service.

Will these technologies impact you? To be honest, it’s too early to tell – but awareness drives innovation and maybe your team will develop an idea/application that truly changes a portion of your eCommerce business.

Here’s the rundown:

Blogs

What it is:

Probably the most well known of the three, blogs allow everyday people to quickly develop a website and distribute any type of content that they desire. Many web entrepreneurs use this functionality to develop online stores within niche markets, while using search popularity to beat out larger retailers on the specific terms within the market.

Where Blogs make make sense is within targeted online communities. Certain blog authors develop a large base of specific visitors, hence the site becomes a target market for viral marketing. By integrating your brand image within the site experience at that SPECIFIC blog, you as an online marketer are able to truly segment your marketing PRIOR to converting someone as a customer.

Should you care:

If you have a very unique value proposition, or sell to a very specific or high-value customer segment, blogs can be a great way to increase overall brand awareness. You can better connect with your customers and provide detail into the current sales/promotions that you are providing.

Podcasting

What it is:

Pocasting should be just called mobile video broadcasting – Apple’s marketing/development team did a great job with branding their device to a type of emerging media! Similar to traditional radio and television, mobile video broadcasting delivers branded content in either a paid/free environment, on someone’s mobile MP3 player (Apple only does video currently, but that will change shortly). Retailers can use this communication channel to further connect to their customers with promotional events, while transmitting specialty programming to meet an interest need.

Should you care:

Not really. Until video podcasting penetration increases, it’s still a limited channel for advertising. The best application available right now would be an online content segment that is digitally delivered to an opt-in list. As technology advances, you can potentially do this from your current opt-in page from your website and not from Apple’s iTunes platform.

RSS

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and is a method for electronic content distribution. RSS is transmitted via the internet, but what makes it unique is that no downloading efforts are needed by the end receiver of the content. It streams instateneously. Consumers can have news readers on their computers, either integrated into an emal client, or an aggregated web application such as News Gator, and are able to get information relating to their interests.

Already gaining steam in the travel industry and within comparison shopping engines, RSS seems to be a valuable way to push news, offers, and infomrmation to customers. Travel companies are able to provide a streaming supply of last minute airfare offers to their customer segments, without that customer having to open an email or visit a webpage.

Should you care:

Depends on the nature of your business. Do you consistently offer new prices? Do you get new pieces to your assortment consistently? Do you have a customer base that is extremely loyal that you want to reach out to with messaging? If so, RSS may another channel to help build your brand.

Most people are familiar with the senior discounts at many diner and casual dining chains, but there are many other discounts available for seniors as well, and some places define seniors as young as 50. Anyone over 50 is eligible to join AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons. For $12.50 a year, you and your spouse or partner can enjoy discounts on everything from hotels to computers, and many things in between. Find out more at http://aarp.org. Don’t wait for a merchant to offer you the discount, ask everywhere you go if they have one.

Military members have enjoyed many special discounts over the years, but since September 11, 2001, many companies have gone out of their way to offer specials to military members and their families in recognition of the sacrifices they make. Same applies here, always ask if there is a discount, there probably is. Similarly, some merchants and restaurants have similar savings available for law enforcement officers, fire fighters, and rescue personnel. In the Washington, DC, area, http://pinkycoupons.com publicizes these offers. Usually, there isn’t any coupon clipping necessary, just make sure you have your ID card with you.

Going to school gets more and more costly all the time, and student discount prices are available at movie theaters, museums and more. Make sure you have your current ID card with you and prepare to save. Ask your employer about possible discounts for employees of your company or workers in your profession.

Membership in the AAA can save you money on travel, online shopping, and more. Membership costs, but provides valuable services in addition to the savings you can get, and if you use it, it can often pay for itself quickly. More details are available at http://aaa.com.

Not a part of a group? With a little searching, you might be able to find one. At http://themouseforless.com, you can join for free and get discounts on Disney vacations and other California and Florida attractions. Some airlines frequent flier programs have expanded so that miles can be used for discounts on other items, and some credit cards let you earn points toward discounted travel and merchandise.

Clipping coupons from newspapers, magazines, and advertisements can be a time-consuming venture. Most coupon clippers can attest to the fact that you have to search through a lot of paper coupons to be able to find the few that you can use. Although all paper coupons will save you money on all kinds of merchandise, many of them are for merchandise that you would not normally buy. Real savings are realized when you can continually use coupons for the things that you buy on a regular basis. This may not always be possible when you are relying on coupons that are being sent to you in the mail or those that are available in the publications you receive each day, week, or month. Using coupons in this way is most times a hit-and-miss proposition. It is for this reason that using online coupons can give shoppers a distinct advantage.

Online coupons are available every day of the week. Besides being able to find online coupons for the things that you need by using a search engine, there are also web sites specifically devoted to online coupons. These web sites update their coupon listings every day. Putting these web sites in the “favorites” folder of your Internet browser allows you to look each day to see what the latest coupon listings are for the things that you normally buy – and you’re consistently going to find more offers than you do in the newspaper or magazines. Many online coupon web sites even let you have a “favorites” folder right on the site, so that when you go to the site you can look at a list of coupons that are geared especially toward your buying habits.

Another advantage of using online coupon web sites is that you will inevitably discover online stores that may be selling products that you buy frequently at a much lower price than the regular stores you are using. Even with shipping costs, online outlet stores have been proving that they can show consumers consistent savings – and there are coupons for the online stores also! Using coupons for online outlet stores is much simpler than using “cut-out” paper coupons. The coupons used for online outlet stores are usually in the form of “coupon codes”. Through an online coupon web site or through your search engine, you find a coupon code for an online outlet store, and you simply enter the coupon code into a box when you are ordering your merchandise. The savings are shown to you immediately, before you finalize your purchase.

For example: Mary usually buys at least one new outfit every month. She discovers that there is an online outlet store that sells the type of clothing she likes at discount prices. Mary checks a couple of online coupon web sites each day to look for coupon codes for this outlet store. When she finds one, she goes to the online outlet store web site and selects the clothes that she would like to purchase. At the “checkout” part of her purchase, she enters the coupon code (sometimes referred to as a “promotional code”) into the appropriate box. Before she clicks on the “submit” button to complete her purchase, she sees exactly how much she has saved and exactly how much her purchase costs after the coupon code amount is deducted. It is as easy as that!

There are, of course, also online coupons that you can use for “brick and mortar” stores. Once you find them online, you simply print them out and use them at the checkout counter. Before going to your favorite restaurant, it’s always a good idea to go to the restaurant’s web site (most of them have one), and see if they are offering any meal coupons that you can print out and bring with you. That is a much better way of looking for coupons than frantically searching through your newspaper or all of the advertisements that you receive in the mail each day!

Online coupons and online coupon web sites are the wave of the future, and their popularity is well warranted. The convenience is obvious, and the advantages are many. Once you get into the habit of using online coupons and online coupon web sites, you’ll realize almost right away why it is such a good idea.

Online coupons have given a whole new meaning to saving money, and many people are beginning to realize just how easy it is to find them and use them. One way to find online coupons is to simply use an Internet search engine and search for online coupons for the merchandise that you are considering buying. Another way is to use some or all of the many online coupon web sites that are available. Online coupon web sites focus almost exclusively on giving consumers information on what online coupons are available at any given time, and how and where consumers can use them to save money. One of the best ways that online coupon web sites help consumers is by listing “coupon codes” for various online stores. Coupon codes are coupons that are basically all electronic – you simply enter these codes into a special box when you are purchasing something from on online store and the savings are deducted from the price before you finalize your purchase. Online coupon web sites will list the codes that are still valid, and let you know where they can be used. These web sites will almost always update their findings daily, so you can always be aware of what savings are offered at what stores every day. Though you may be able to get these coupon codes through the actual store’s web site or through advertisements, it can save you a lot of time to be able to view all the codes at once on one web site.

Finding coupon deals is no problem once you put just a little bit of initial time and research into it. One of the first things that you want to do is go to your favorite search engine and enter such terms as “online coupons”, “coupon codes”, or perhaps “Internet coupons”. The search engine will most likely bring up a large list of web sites that offer online coupons and online coupon codes. Check through a number of the sites and decide which ones have what you are looking for. Once you’ve narrowed it down to your favorite online coupon web sites, the next step is to put these on your browser’s “favorites” list. If any of the online coupon web sites require registration, then do that also. Although there may be online coupon web sites that charge a fee to use them, there are plenty of good online coupon web sites that don’t – and the latter are the ones that you want to use. Each day (or every other day if you like), take a little time to log on to the Internet and check your list of online coupon web sites. Look for the latest online coupons codes for the online stores that you frequent regularly, and also look for the latest printable coupons that you can use at the local stores that you go to.

For the online coupon codes, you can either write down the codes, how long they are good for and which stores you are going to use them at, or you could possibly keep a list in your own database or spreadsheet. It all depends on how Internet savvy you are or want to be! When it is time to do your online shopping, check your coupon codes, find the ones that you are going to use, and start saving money!

Once you get into the habit of you using online coupons and online coupon codes, especially through online coupon web sites, you’ll see the savings that you are realizing almost immediately. In this day and age when the price of just about everything is at an all-time high, using online coupons and online coupon codes makes a great deal of sense. They can help you maintain the lifestyle you are accustomed to without having to stretch your already strained budget even further. Using online coupons to help save money on your regular purchases is a win-win situation all around.

With online coupons and online coupon codes, you can save money on basically any type of purchase. Groceries, appliances, pet products, automobile accessories, hotels, travel fares, restaurant meals – savings can be realized with all of these by using online coupons or online coupon codes. For most of the things that you purchase, there is simply no reason not to use online coupons.

Without question 2005 was the year of MySpace. Before Rupert Murdoch’s $580 million social networking venture took the interactive world by storm, it’s difficult to believe that even the most optimistic of the billionaire’s lackeys would have predicted that new acquisition would more than quadruple its reach within a matter of months. With 23.5 billion page views by February, MySpace became the second most trafficked site on the Internet.

Murdoch’s success naturally generated buying interest in anything deemed online social networking. One proposed deal in March 2006, was Viacom’s unsuccessful $750 million bid for Facebook.com, the phenomenon started by wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg. After Facebook.com declined the offer, its founders pegged Facebook.com’s worth at two billion dollars. Perhaps the brilliant sparks from MySpace’s success has blinded Facebook.com to the flipside reality of Friendster’s paradise lost. There’s a real chance Facebook won’t see an offer this generous again.

Facebook.com is essentially an online medium of communication for college students and high schoolers. For its valued reach Zuckerberg and his crew of Harvard dropouts (taking their cue from Bill Gates, no doubt) must be looking for Google-sized compensation, but the two billion dollar figure is arbitrary and difficult to justify. Perhaps Facebook is emboldened by their own wise decision in not selling to Yahoo for $15 million in 2004.

Zuckerberg was likely trying to establish a market value for his creation, not an unwise move on the face of things. However, Viacom’s offer was not by any stretch of the imagination pocket change and the number of entities that can and will double the bid Facebook already got is finite.

Facebook’s traffic numbers, as referenced on Alexa.com, during the last three months are not encouraging; that is, if the goal is to fish for more and greater buyout bids. The numbers actually have trended downward since March, anathema for enticing hyper bidding growth. These diminishing statistics can be at least partially attributed to the cyclical nature of the school year since Facebook, after all, is geared towards the college student. It doesn’t matter how great the product is, it won’t keep students from doing their own thing during summer vacation and this yearly dip is potentially damaging.

Seeing as how fast online fads can expand and contract in social networking as we’ve seen in its short time span, what if the numbers don’t come back? What if something new pops up in two months that steals Facebook’s thunder? (And, again, MySpace’s success serves as good reason why this thunder is worth stealing.)

Facebook.com’s success has also been marred with some controversy that could taint its popularity with students. At Syracuse University a flap over freedom of expression ensued when a Facebook.com group went overboard in critiquing a student teacher and ended up with expulsions from the class and social suspension before three students transferred. After Penn State’s football team beat Ohio State this year students rushed the field and made a ruckus. Overwhelmed police made only two arrests that day, but later in the week they logged onto Facebook.com and, like Canadian Mounties who always get their man, got plenty of names and faces and photos from the info posted by students about their on-field shenanigans. Kids talk and these stories spread like wildfire, which may affect Facebook.com negatively – they can’t control misuse of their product and the negative repercussions that come from it.

The future is promising for the social networking business space and I don’t believe Facebook.com is doomed. Still, given the nature of short-lived and over-hyped dotcoms, Facebook may have reached their growth climax this school year, with possibility for expansion and success only contingent on acquisition. Time may not be on their side because as the pages of the calendar turn there will doubtlessly be new fads and trends that will threaten to make something else the “Next Big Thing” at Facebook.com’s expense. The clock is ticking.