EnTrends

It makes sense really. Have you ever
walked out of a store because there
was only one register open and the
line was too long? Well that's what
you are doing to your web surfers if
you can't give them a speedy
checkout process, or express line!

And I learned one more lesson from
all this...

Lesson #3: Think twice before you
hire any third party company to
provide a service that you may be
able to perform without them. This
applies especially to something as
crucial as processing your orders.

There are many things that
webmasters hire third party
companies for. But things like
website maintenance, product
shipping, credit card transactions
and the like, may be very simple to
do in-house. In most cases you'll find
software that can automate or at least
simplify most tasks so that they can
be handled without a third party
provider. Not only will you save
money doing this, you will also have
the peace of mind that comes along
with depending less on other
companies.

If you are just setting up shop online
this lesson will really help you save
money and aggravation in the long
run. If you already have a web
presence, make a commitment to sit
down and evaluate it. Can you pull
things in-house that are being
handled by other companies right
now? Even if it means shelling out
cash for your own merchant account
or SSL server space, you may be
very glad you made the move some
day.

That's not to say you should never
hire other companies online.
Undoubtedly you will need to hire
SOME web services that are just too
costly to do in-house, such as web
hosting or real-time processing
providers. But the fewer third party
services you employ, the less likely
you are to be left in a compromising
situation that is beyond your control.
And that's not good if it

handicaps your ability to do
business online.

So take some time and learn from my
mistakes. I promise to keep making
them as long as you get something
from them!

Article by Jim Daniels of JDD
Publishing. Jim's site has helped
1000's of regular folks profit online.
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