Wednesday I took Ben back to the chiropractor. He was doing much better as far as his neck was concerned, but he was still limping and still had hip pain and weakness.

She treated his neck again, his cervicals and upper thoracics, and his sacrum (base of the spine.) This time he slept the entire trip home, and when he got home, he went outside and then came back in and slept some more. He finally woke up when my wife came home for lunch. We watched him stand and move around, and we were guardedly optimistic. His limp was not as pronounced, he was getting up and moving better, and more often, and he was smiling and WAGGING - which he hadn’t done much of since he got hurt. Ben has always been a smiler and a wagger (he even wags at the vet’s with a thermometer in his butt!).

Since Wednesday, he has continued to improve - his muscles aren’t spasming now, he’s walking with a better gait, he has much less trouble getting up and down, and, of course, he’s smiling and wagging again. My wife said she would believe he was getting better when he greeted her at the door when she comes home for lunch. Well, Thursday and Friday he did just that! When he got hurt, I had just bought him a new toy, which he hasn’t paid much attention to - until today. Today he started playing with it and carrying it around. Yay, Ben!

Ben seems to be on the mend now. Hopefully, he’ll just keep getting better. And, yes, we’re going to continue his chiropractic treatments…

(BTW - if you are in Northeastern Oklahoma and want to take your dog or cat to a chiropractor, Ben’s chiropractor is Jody Barkley, DC and she’s located in Skiatook, OKlahoma.)

Payment processors.

Who are they, and what do they do????

In it’s simplest terms, payment processors are services you can use to process the payments you receive on your website. They may handle credit cards, debit cards, e-checks, etc. They save you from having to have a merchant account to process credit cards. Some will direct deposit into your bank account, some will send you checks. Some are instant (PayPal), some take a few weeks (ClickBank), some take longer. Be sure to check on all the variables from each processor…

There are lots of different processors, and fees are variable so it’s important to go to their websites and read about them. Find your best fit…

http://www.paypal.com/
http://www.propay.com/
http://www.clickbank.com/
http://www.stormpay.com/
http://www.authorizenet.com/
http://www.2checkout.com/
http://www.moneybookers.com/
http://www.ccnow.com/
http://www.verisign.com/
http://www.firepay.com/
http://www.ibill.com/
http://innovativegateway.com/
http://www.iongate.com/
http://www.linkpoint.com/
http://www.plugnpay.com/
http://www.skipjack.com/
http://www.worldpay.com/
http://www.auctionpay.com/
http://www.moneyzap.com/
http://www.nochex.com/
http://www.certapay.com/en/homepage.cfm
http://www.premierauthorize.com/mer…ccounts.html
http://www.paysystems.com/
http://www.regsoft.com/
http://www.kagi.com/
http://www.digibuy.com/cgi-bin/features.html
http://www.goemerchant.com/
http://www.regnow.com/client.html
http://www.swreg.org/
http://www.e-gold.com/
http://www.paystone.com/
http://www.ikobo.com/
http://www.multicards.com/
http://www.verotel.com/index-en.html
http://www.netbilling.com/
https://www.onlinedatacorp.com/
http://www.qenta.at/en/payment/index.html
http://www.earthport.com/earthport/index.jsp
http://www.egold.com/
http://www.intgold.com/
http://www.shareit.com
http://www.payzip.com
http://www.payzipmerchant.com
http://www.cachecard.net
http://www.process54.com
http://www.ccbill.com

The less work the better! I’m going to do several of these articles highlighting products and services that will minimize your work and help you get automated. And, I’m only going to show you products and services that I really use (usually on a daily basis)…

One of the most common things people email me about is what to do about their downloads. They don’t know whether to get a script, use a download program, or even how PayPal and ClickBank work. They search all over the net and get even more confused.

OK - deep breath and RELAX!

Let’s do a quick review of the sales process.

1. The buyer comes to your website and reads about your product.

2. They decide to buy it, and click the buy button.

3. They are sent to a payment page (PayPal, Clickbank, or other) where they make their payment.
(Note: PayPal, ClickBank, 2CheckOut, etc - are payment processors. They will handle getting the money for you. They will NOT, except as an minimal adjunct to their processing service, handle your downloads or the delivery of your product! They will, though, let you specify where the download is located - but, don’t do that!!!!!)

and here’s where all the questions start…

4. They are then sent to a download page where they can download their purchase.

or
they are sent to an autoresponder where they enter their email address and are sent the download instructions
or
they are sent to an autoresponder where they enter their email address and are sent to a download page
or
they are sent an email telling them how to get their purchase
or
they are sent an email telling them where to download
or
they are sent through a script to a limited download page
or…
or…
or…

You can see why people are getting confused - there are literally hundreds of ways to handle downloads.

I’ve tried a lot of them. I’ve tried scripts that hide your download in a secret place, I’ve tried the PayPal encryption buttons, I’ve tried programs that handle your downloads, and on and on… Every one of them required some kind of intervention along the way.

I finally stumbled on a solution, and now all my downloads are handled by it - I use E-Junkie.

Here’s what I said to someone who emailed me about her download confusion -

“You are making this much more difficult than it really is. E-Junkie is much, much more than just “timed-out links with x number of downloads.” First of all, it’s completely customizable, and each download link is unique to each purchaser (they don’t all get the same download link.) They check the buyer before sending the link - ie: the payment must have been completed. It will also add your buyer to a mailing list, send additional emails to them, and completely automate the buying process. Your ebook is on their server, so there’s no question about people finding it, and no question about bandwidth - if you get a lot of downloads, your bandwidth costs can be huge. E-Junkie takes care of all that. It also keeps sales records for you, and they have an affiliate program so other people can sell your ebook for you. And, your buyer’s payments can be processed through any processor you like - PayPal, Clickbank, etc. You get your money posted to your account immediately. People buying with an e-check don’t receive their ebook until the check has cleared. They can do a shopping cart, or an individual buy button. And, they so it all for $5 a month! No charges for each download - just a once a month fee. Good grief - it automates the *entire* buying process - why would you want to have to do all that yourself, or just get a part of it using somebody’s script????”

You really need to go to E-Junkie and wander around - read the FAQS, go to the forum, see what all they can do for you…

So, forget the scripts, forget the programs, and just sign up with E-Junkie - you’ll simplify your life…

===============================
OK - I just re-read this and I can see that I’m going to have to break things down a little more simply… next post will be on payment processors

I’m going to go off on a little tangent here…

First, sorry for the delay in posting - if you’ve read the “about me” page, you know I have a Golden Retriever named Ben, and you know I’m also a chiropractor. (And, a lot of people email me and comment about Ben and Andy.)

Well, Ben got hurt earlier this month. We think he might have slipped on the concrete floors (we’re in continual remodeling mode here!)

He hurt his neck and is limping on his left front leg. He’s been in a lot of pain and our vet couldn’t do much for him. The vet thought he had a cervical (neck) disc problem, and we tried giving him a couple of different NSAID pain drugs, but Ben had reactions to them. We tried massage, heat and cold, but nothing was having much effect. After what felt like an endless week of listening to Ben whimper at night, and not be able to lift his head or even get up and walk without stumbling, I searched out one of the guys I had gone to chiropractic school with. In school, his sole goal was to do animal chiropractic. Since he was from our area, I looked him up. He gave me the names of several animal chiropractors around Tulsa.

One of them specialized in dogs, so I made an appointment for her to see Ben. She treated his neck problem, and the results started showing up on the way home from her office. It was about a 40 minute drive. Ben slept about 20 minutes, and then sat up to look out the window! His neck was moving much more easily. Over the next couple of days, it improved even more. He was able to raise his head, twist and turn it, and reach those parts of his body he had been unable to get to before treatment. He sleeps well and no longer whimpers in his sleep. He’s more active, but his front leg is still a problem. Needless to say, I’m taking him back to see the chiropractor tomorrow and she’ll treat his leg and hips.

I have no doubts that Ben will be keep improving. We’ll keep working with him and his chiropractor…

Ok - end of tangent…

I’m going to post again a little later today on “Make it easy on yourself…” - ways to keep from doing everything the hard way and how to automate as much as possible…

OK, so here’s the thing -

In their rush to get the newest and greatest thing for marketing, most internet marketers have a tendency to forget one very tiny, but very critical, element.

You reach the most people using the lowest common denominator.

So, what does that mean? Well, basically it means what is the one thing that the most people have in common? For example - at one time, the lowest common denominator for screen resolution was 600 by 480 pixels. Now it’s rapidly rising from 800 by 600 to about 1280 by 1024.

The latest problem is the big disparity in connection speed. I’m very, very conscious of this. I cannot get DSL where I’m located, and cable is not an option with the cable company here being what it is. That means my only choice is a very expensive satellite connection - and I consider that to be just too expensive to even be an option. I’m stuck with dialup. Yep - dialup! It does not make me happy, but that’s all I’ve got, so that’s what I use. (Maybe someday I’ll get over my disgust with the local cable company, and give in, but not right now…)

It has made me very aware of what mistakes some marketers are making. They are totally ignoring that segment of the Net that does not have a high speed connection.

Let’s look at it from the arrival at their website…

1. First thing - they have a video that automatically starts loading when you get to the page. You have no choice - you are going to see that video! Most of the time, there is no way to stop it, so if you’re on dialup, you either wait (and some of them take a looonnnngggg time to load!), shut down that page, shut down your browser, or turn off videos in the options of the browser (if available). Because it’s dialup, the rest of the page often won’t load until the video is completely loaded, or it loads very slowly. Great way to greet a customer!

2. Perhaps they have a product you want to buy. For example, there was a WordPress script that I bought. The script itself was a text file, but the instructions were in a video. A 17.6 MB video - that translates to at least an hour and a half download time. I sat and waited for it to load - a 3.5 minute video. The relevant instructions took about 15 seconds to describe (it was just a matter of which option to set.) Had this marketer thought about it for 1 minute, he could have come up with (a) a transcript of the video, or (b) a simple step 1, 2, 3 text file for those who either didn’t want to watch a video, or who didn’t have a high speed connection. But he didn’t care about that.

3. Too many marketers are like a kid with a new toy, or like a guy with only a hammer (and everything looks like a nail!) Now everything they do has to have a video attached to it - even if the video is a complete waste of time (like above!). There are tons of membership sites that are nothing but videos. That sure shuts out all the dialup users! (I’d like to join some of them, but I can’t.)

4. Another thing is file download size. I wanted another product this morning, but it was a 45MB file. On high-speed, a few minutes to download. On dialup, I can get about 10MB an hour - so i’m looking at about 4.5 hours to download it. Lost sale for them.

Don’t get me wrong - I am NOT against videos (I actually love them!), nor am I against large downloads. I am just against marketers who don’t consider what customers they are shutting out.

So, how can they regain that lost market of dialup users, or others without the latest and greatest speed demon connection? It’s really very simple… I’ve purchased several programs from Laughingbird. (They have graphic creation programs.) All of their programs are over 100 MB, but they do something very smart - along with their downloads, they also offer a CD of the program. It costs a few bucks more, but it’s worth it.

Membership sites, large download sites, video sites - offer your products on CD and charge me a few extra bucks. Or, break up your large download sizes to manageable bites - let me choose what to download. Hey, I won’t be the only new customer you’ll get!

Look for the lowest common denominator - it’s a bigger group of people than you think!

Last weekend my wife went grocery shopping. She bought all the usual things - all the brands that we always buy. We’ve been doing dishes by hand for a while since our dishwasher thinks it should take 4-6 hours to wash a normal load of dishes. We don’t agree with the dishwasher’s opinion (and didn’t want to buy another dishwasher right now), so it was back to washing dishes by hand.

Anyway, the brand of dishwashing detergent that we like had changed it’s packaging. Instead of the easy to hold hourglass type shape, now it was a pudgy bottle - like the Pillsbury dough boy. And wide - my wife can’t hold it comfortably. Not only that, they had added a little plastic cover over the pour spout that you had to flip back to get the liquid out. Both of these were major changes in the shape and use of the product, and became major issues. You could not easily grasp the new bottle shape, and when you did, the little plastic cap (attached on one side) was perfectly positioned to catch most of the liquid in it instead of squirting it into the sink! Just using it made a “liquid mess.” We hated using it.

This was not produced by a guy named Joe in his garage. Why didn’t the company see what was happening? From the size and awkwardness of the bottle, it’s obvious they didn’t test it with anyone - somebody just made a decision to go ahead and change it.

Who the heck thought this was better??? And has he been fired yet???

(BTW - Our solution to the “dishwashing dilemma” was to spend a day trying all the variables on our dishwasher to find a setting we could live with. We did - we found a “water miser” setting that works well and only takes an hour for the cycle. No more hand washing! Yay! Why didn’t we do this to begin with? Well, to be perfectly honest, it never occurred to me…maybe my MS was kicking up that day…)

So, how does this tie-in to ebooks? It doesn’t - directly. It does, though, in the sense of “usability.” For example - let’s say that you have forms in your ebook for the reader to fill out. You’d better think about how to handle them! If it’s a PDF file, once the “locks” are put on to prevent people from doing a “copy and paste” of your ebook’s guts, no one can fill out anything. Maybe the solution is to include a separate, small pdf of the forms that are set up for printing. Maybe you could allow annotating. There are a number of solutions. the point is - handle it, otherwise it limits your reader’s ability to use your ebook effectively.

Ask yourself - how is this going to work for my reader? Then get creative and find a way to solve the problem…

Now, there is one additional aspect of usability that I want to talk about, but I want it to have it’s own emphasis, so that will be the next post…

Well, as you can see, my last post was in 2005. That is NOT good!

Part of the problem was that I was using Nucleus. And, I didn’t like it. It was hard to work with and it just didn’t have the flexibility that WordPress has. Then my mind got hung up on the fact that Nucleus was using index.php in the root directory, and how was I going to change that over when Wordpress was in another directory. (Actually, I just didn’t want to have to rewrite all my website pages!) There was a very simple solution - and you’d think I would have thought of it since I’ve been online since the early nineties, but all I had to do was a re-direct to the correct page. Like many of my clients, I tend to make things more difficult than they actually are. (sigh)

Another problem with the old blog was that it was too specific. I had the idea of writing an ebook via the blog, but that did not work. So, I’m changing the game plan here. I’m just going to “chat” - for lack of a better word! Sometimes it will be about design and ebooks, sometimes about Golden Retrievers, sometimes I’ll rant, and sometimes I might actually have something important to say.

I’ve posted all the previous stuff below - some of it’s actually worth reading - even if it is old. I’ve got a couple of things that I really want to rave (and rant!) about so I’m going to post those a little later tonight.