All About Merchant Account Processing

In any credit card transaction or application, the merchant account should always be paid attention because it this will define how advantageous the future transactions for you would be.

As defined, merchant account is the account wherein a specific merchant deals with a certain bank to be able to make credit card payments possible. Without such account or contract, no transactions can be made because there will be no order in processing the payments made for purchase or orders.

Today, more and more banks as well as independent financial firms and companies are becoming merchant account providers because they have seen how much the credit card and its usage among consumers have grown. Many of them join the bandwagon because of its being lucrative. While others are getting into it to ensure that they will provide options for credit card users as well as the companies or business establishments will have smooth sailing business transactions in terms of payments and other financial processing.

How a merchant account is processed

With the advantaged of modern technology, there have been so many attempts to make merchant account processing easier. As many people would know, when one uses a credit card, he or she allows the funds to be transferred to his or her bank account in short span of time, usually not more than one week. This is to ensure that there will be smoother yet tighter cash flow. When something goes wrong along the way of transactions and payments being made, there will be a disruption in the cash flow which will cause everyone involved delay as well as loss of investment.

To ensure that there will be lesser hassles in this type of payment system, merchant account processing has been made easier by eliminating the invoice payment system, which is among the primary causes of delay. When there is an efficient merchant account processing, the credit card payment system will be in its proper place which will enable one to have easier purchases either online or on physical stores.

More and more companies today are coming up with their own ways to be able to develop a merchant account processing system that can offer the clients the best option they will have. Some of these companies go through outsource companies and ask them to handle the bulk of the workloads in terms of credit card processing so they can pay better attention to business details that will give the clientele much satisfaction.

When it comes to qualifying for a merchant account, the first thing that the merchant account providers question is the legitimacy of your business. This is because they would not want to encounter problems in terms of fraud and other related charges that might be filed against them. If you are applying for a merchant account, expect that merchant account providers will start with a basic background check including the assessment of your business's credit history and a review of the owners as well as the officers that are listed on the application.

During this background check before the merchant account processing, the most important aspect that should be paid attention to is the incidence of the business's "chargebacks" or the reversal of a certain sale which was credited to the owner's account.

Most of the time, chargebacks come up because of certain errors which are either made by the bank of the card holder or a certain misunderstanding made by the customer him or herself.

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Part 8 – Monetizing Your Blog

You have been working hard to produce good-quality, original content on your blog and you have attracted a decent amount of traffic by doing so. However, money is not going to appear out of thin air just because you have traffic. You have to turn your traffic into money.

There are several ways to generate profits from the visitors of your blog, and Google’s Adsense programme allows you to do so with ultimate ease. First, visit their website at http://adsense.google.com/. You’ll find out more about their advertising programme there, but here are some extra bits I’d like to tell you.

First, Google’s Adsense programme is a really useful way to monetize your blog because when users finish reading your newest post, chances are they want to leave your blog because they have nothing else to do on your blog. If your Adsense advertisement block is visible on your blog, they might see advertisements relevant to them and click on them to exit your blog. Ka-ching! You’ve just cashed in on your first virtual cents!

But yes, your profits will only be cents if you don’t “do it right”. This involves placing your Google ads in the right places and ensuring they blend in to your site so that they appear more like links rather than advertisements to your visitors. Consult the page https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html to see the “heat map” of your blog. The “hotter” a certain area, the greater the chances of someone looking at your blog.

Once you get a Google Adsense account, you can change the colour of your advertisement text and links. You will want them to match the colours on your blog. If your blog’s text is black and the links are red, do the same for the ad blocks too! It’s that simple.

Another way to earn profits from your blog is to recommend products to your readers. When your visitors buy from the merchants you recommend, you get to keep a little commission too. This is known as affiliate marketing and it is very easy to start because you don’t have to create your own products or services.

Anyway, let’s refer back to our technological gadgets blog example. Let’s say you discover this Gadget X on a merchant’s website, and they offer an affilliate programme. What you would do is to create a post in your blog and do a mini-review on this Gadget X. Rip it apart and point out its benefits and bad points, if any, and include a link (which is given by the merchant) for the visitor to purchase the Gadget X online.

If your visitor clicks and purchases the gadget, the merchant will track from the link that the purchase is referred by you, so they will send you your share of the profits. Imagine if 1 out of every 100 visitors you get purchases this product, and you earn $27.00 commission from each purchase! If you get 10,000 visitors in a month that would be a $2,700.00 paycheque for you just for writing about ONE product.

Now, affiliate programmes are very nice ways to generate profit, but how do you find affiliate programmes that are related to your blog’s theme? Easy, just go to Google and search for +”affiliate programmes”. Another slightly better way is to go to http://www.associateprograms.com/search to look for affiliate programmes in your niche.

The two ways mentioned above are basic ways to generate profits from your blog. We’ll be discussing other great, profitable ways, so keep your eyes peeled!

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ABC’s of ECommerce Merchant Account

What are Merchant Accounts?

The process of buying products through the internet has become so convenient that we become unaware that there is actually a complex system of commerce that goes with it. With the birth of the credit card, business owners have realized its potential on making their products more accessible to their target consumers. This is when merchant account providers come into the picture. Merchant account is way for business owners to accept payments through credit cards.

What are Payment Gateways?

Aside from the merchant account provider, there is also a middle party that oversees how the actual exchange of payment information takes place. It is the online version of a cash register. Upon payment, the consumer enters encrypted information into the merchant’s web browser. The payment gateway then sends another encrypted information from the merchant account provider then into its acquiring back and lastly into the issuing bank. The seemingly complicated process of exchanging encrypted information between the different parties takes only around 3 seconds.

What should business owners look for in an eCommerce merchant account provider?

Reputation, integrity and compliance are some of the important characteristics that a merchant account provider should have. Business owners may study the history of the company by looking through the company’s financial statements, tax accounts, credit returns and its Dunn and Bradstreet credit file. The merchant account provider should also be properly registered to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS) and is insured to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Business owners may also inquire with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to look for any complaints, if any, that have been filed against the merchant account provider.

The merchant account provider must also offer a reliable technical support. The technical support must be available for 24-hours through the net or the telephone. Most preferably, there is a qualified technician that would personally respond to any problems associated with either the software or hardware. A few seconds lost through a technical problem would also mean loss of profit.

Business owners should also look into the cost that the merchant account requires from them. There are additional costs to consider other than the typical costs that goes with merchant accounts like interchange fees, transaction fees and monthly fees. There are hosting fees, website maintenance and design costs and website start up fees. Most of the time, the less you pay for these additional costs, the less is the quality you get and the poorer service you give to your costumers.

What are the risks associated?

The risks associated with an eCommerce merchant account provider are basically the same as with the traditional merchant account provider. Fraud is the most common scam in online transactions. Hackers may enter into the system and transfer credits into their own accounts. They may also steal the customers’ personal information from the merchant account system and use it for other fraudulent transactions.

Other risks may also be accounted to the part of the costumers. They may falsely claim that the product was not properly shipped, that it was not accurately described as it was on the website or that they may not actually have received. The customer may also complain of unfair or incorrect billing.

What are some of the best eCommerce merchant account providers?

Charge.com easily tops most of the reviews of merchant account providers. Some other highly praised merchant account providers are Merchant Account Express, CyberBit and Electronic Transfer.

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Santa’s Sleigh

The legend of Santa Claus’s sleigh being pulled by a bunch of reindeer in a frigid arctic environment and ascending up to the sky with its extraordinary load of toys was born a little over 200 years ago. On the one hand, this legend goes through the trouble of providing details about the jolly old man Santa Claus and his delivery of toys to children who had been good all around the world. On the other hand, this legend fails to explain how he does it. What makes the sleigh soar through the air? What enables the reindeer to fly? And how can they get around to all corners of the earth in a single night with only Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to light up the way?

I am a pragmatist who needs realistic explanations and so I created my own. Santa Claus is able to navigate his sleigh around the world in a single night because he is well practiced at it, because he invest lots of hard work, because he is judicious about utilizing the various time zones and, most importantly, he has hi-tech equipment, state-of-the-art technology and years of science behind him.

I honestly do not mean to dethrone a beloved mythical figure such as Santa Claus but I owe it to all those who seek knowledge and the truth about him, his sleigh and his reindeer.

Truth No. 1: Santa Claus and his elves do not spend 364 days of the year making toys for good children which Santa delivers on Christmas Eve, day number 365. They spend just a day or so shopping for the toys in large outlets of toy manufacturers where they can get good price breaks and the rest of their time is spent on formulating futuristic technology.

Truth No. 2: Santa’s sleigh may look very out dated but, in fact, it is filled with features that are decades ahead of its time. It is an engineering wonder:

* Its navigational system maps out destinations of billions of children in every corner of the earth including areas where streets have not been paved yet.
* It has a niceometer which provides Santa with a minute-to-minute reports on every child’s behavior.
* Like every other vehicle that you and I are familiar with, Santa’s sleigh has a speedometer that lets Santa know when he has surpassed the speed of light.
* Santa’s sleigh is equipped with a state-of-the-art, hands-free, sleigh phone so that he could communication with Mrs. Claus whenever he pleases. This sleigh phone also enables Santa to wirelessly connect to the World Wide Web to get the latest weather reports and be caught up on the latest news of political unrest and national upheavals which are so very detrimental to his safe travel.
* Santa fuels his sleigh with high-energy liquid gases pumped directly from the celestial milky-way.
* Its highly evolved turbo engine is so advanced that it defies language as we know it today. To preserve valuable energy, it idles every so often and when it does, a herd of reindeer kick their hooves and take over.

Truth No. 3: Santa’s reindeer are highly trained physically as well as emotionally and each has to accrue many years of flight experience before being allowed on the Christmas Eve run.

* These reindeer are fuels with high octane oats and beans which give them the extra air they need for takeoff and plenty of helium enriched fluids for soaring. For landing purposes, the fuel that remains in their system gets ejected through two exit valves.
* Santa’s favorite reindeer, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Rudi for short, has been promoted to lead the pack and he serves as the headlight for the entire sleigh ensemble. And this single headlight is so technologically advanced that it can never be extinguished.
* The backlighting of this revolutionary vehicle is created by the friction of the sleigh’s runners and the reindeer’s hooves against snow clouds.

Yes, I know that Santa Claus was born a little over 200 years ago when such technology did not exist. But you have to remember that Santa Claus is magical and could, therefore, be ahead of his time and so he is.

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Twelve Days of Christmas

Why are there twelve days of Christmas? Even the holiest of births could not have taken twelve day. No. Of course not. The twelve days of Christmas is the stretch of time between December 25 and January 6. December 25 marks the birth of Jesus Christ while January 6 represents the feast of the Epiphany that memorializes the visit of the Magi to Baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

Before I continue, permit me to take a moment to define two very important words that are often associated with Christmas: epiphany and Magi.

Epiphany is defined in modern dictionaries as “an intuitive grasp of reality usually through something simple and striking, an illuminating discovery, a revealing scene of moment." In Christianity or the Christian church, epiphany is traditionally described as "the first manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles."

The Magi were the biblical three kings who came to see the newborn King or the first non-Jews that recognized that the child born in Bethlehem was in fact the Savior of the world.

The tradition of celebrating the twelve days of Christmas dates back to medieval times. It had originally started on the eve of Christmas on December 24 and ended on the eve of Epiphany on January 5. Yule logs were kept lit for the entire twelve days otherwise it was a sign of bad luck and misfortune. The twelve nights of Christmas were celebrated with masks and costumes in the 18th century or the reversal of roles between men and women. Such twelve days festivities included eating cake where a bean or a pea was planted. Whoever found the bean or pea in their portion was crowned as the king or queen of that day. This tradition somehow later evolved into a group game called “charades” which was played the entire night of the twelfth day of Christmas.

We are all familiar with the popular Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” but how many of us really understand its social and theological meanings? Sadly, no one celebrates the twelve days of Christmas anymore and not even the twelfth day. The religious implications of the twelve days of Christmas are to be found in the story of the three wise men that arrived from the east carrying gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to bestow upon the newborn Savior. The Magi were sent by King Herod to bring back information about the newborn child who may threaten his rule but instead of carrying back the information after their twelve day journey, they bowed to Him in recognition of His sovereignty.

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written in England in the 16th century as a catechism to teach children the basics of their Catholicism with many hidden meanings behinds its rhyming lyrics. With the original meanings having been lost, the modern day interpretations come in several versions and with a measure of controversy.

The following are the most commonly accepted interpretations:

* “On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me: a partridge in a pear tree.”
o “true love” refers to God Himself.
o “me” refers to every baptized person who accepts Jesus.
o “A partridge I a pear tree” is Jesus Christ on the cross.

* “On the second day …: two turtle doves, …”
o “two turtle doves” refers to the Old and New Testament.

* “On the third day …: three French hens, …”
o “three French hens” stands for faith, hope and love.

* “On the fourth day …: four calling birds, …”
o “four calling birds” commemorates the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

* “On the fifth day …: five golden rings, …”
o “five golden rings” represents the first five books of the Old Testament or the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

* “On the sixth day …: six geese a flying, …”
o “six geese a flying” speak about the six days of creation.

* “On the seventh day …: seven swans a swimming, …”
o “seven swans a swimming” represents the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.

* “On the eighth day …: eight maids a milking, …”
o “eight maids a milking” retell of the eight beatitudes listed in the Sermon on the Mount.

* “On the ninth day …: nine ladies dancing, …”
o “nine ladies dancing” are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

* “On the tenth day …: ten lords a leaping, …”
o “ten lords a leaping” stands for the Ten Commandments.

* “On the eleventh day …: eleven pipers piping, …”
o “eleven pipers piping” are the eleven faithful apostles.

* “On the twelfth day …: twelve drummers drumming, …”
o “twelve drummers drumming” represents the twelve points of belief as expressed in the Apostles’ Creed: believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, made man, crucified, died and arose on the third day, that he sits at the right hand of the Father and will come again, the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

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The Christmas Tree

Thinking about Christmas immediately brings Christmas trees to mind. As a matter of fact, Christmas trees are one of the most recognized images of the Christmas season and they are visible just about everywhere. Furthermore, many of the traditional Christmas activities revolve around Christmas trees. First there is the ritual of selecting a perfect tree, then setting it up in a prominent location in the home, then comes the decorating aspect, piling up the gifts under it, coming together around it to sing Christmas carols and drink eggnog. But how did it all begin?

The earliest story that was ever found that associates trees with Christmas dates back to the beginning of the 700s. This story talks about a British monk and missionary who was born in 680, was christened as Winfrid and was eventually canonized as St. Boniface. As the ancient story goes, St. Boniface delivered a sermon about the Nativity to a group of Germanic Druids on the outskirts of Geisma in Germany and attempted to convince them that the oak tree was not sacred or as inviolable as their pagan teachings have led them to believe. Often referred to as the Apostle of Germany, St. Boniface proved his point by chopping down an oak tree right then and there. As the mighty tree fell and crashed to the ground it left everything crushed in its wake — every shrub but a single little fir tree sapling. This surprising survival of the tender seedling was quickly interpreted by St. Boniface as a miracle and he concluded his sermon by calling it “the tree of the Christ Child.” From then on, planting of fir saplings was added to the ensuing Christmas celebrations in Germany.

Researchers, theologians and historians have found countless documents attesting to the fact that fir trees which remained outdoors as well as those which were brought inside homes were decorated with devotion and religious zeal by the sixteenth century in an attempt to commemorate the miraculous event with St. Boniface in Germany. In an insightful effort to save forests from complete destruction by religious Christian zealots, a decree was issued from Ammerschweier, Alsace in 1561 which proclaims that no one “shall have for Christmas more than one bush or more than eight shoes’ length.” The earliest accounts of decorations on Christmas trees describe “roses cut of many colored paper, apples, wafers, gilt and sugar.”

Many theologians and religious historians believe, and no evidence was ever found to contradict this belief, that it was Martin Luther, the sixteenth century Protestant reformer, who first added light to a Christmas tree by affixing lighted candles to its branches in order to emulate the twinkling of stars in a fir forest.

The Christbaum which means the “Christ tree” was a deeply rooted tradition that was permanently established and branched out to other parts of Western Europe by the 1700s. However, it failed to gain popularity in England until Prince Albert, the son of the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (a duchy in central Germany), married Queen Victoria of England in 1840, and brought the custom of decorating Christmas trees from his childhood in Germany into his married life in England.

The Christmas tree and its customary decorations were most likely brought into the New World by the Pennsylvania Germans. This fact is strongly affirmed in a diary that belonged to Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and its entry which was dated December 20, 1821 where he speaks of the Christmas tree and its many decorations. Thus far, this is the earliest written record associated with Christmas trees that was ever found in America.

F. W. Woolworths Company was the original chain of five and dime stores based in the United States and in 1880 was first to sell manufactured Christmas tree ornaments which were extremely successful. In 1882 the first electrically lighted Christmas tree appeared and in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge flamboyantly lit the first outdoor tree on the front lawn of the White House.

Having state all that I had thus far about Christmas trees, it would be remiss of me not to mention that decorating of trees dates back to the pre-Christian Era in Egypt where evergreen trees were felled, mounted and adorned with offerings of food and precious gifts to their pagan gods. Evergreen trees were selected for remaining fresh and green through the four seasons, therefore symbolizing immortality and fertility. Egyptian priests went even further by teaching that evergreen trees grew out of the grave of their god Osiris who was resurrected by the energy of an evergreen tree after having been killed by another god.

Even the Bible, Jeremiah 10:2-6, speaks out about the pagan custom of the tree: "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen . . . For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."

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Santa’s Little Helpers, The Elves

In spite of the fact that elves are such little folks or maybe because they are such little folks they have been incorporated into many different cultures through the ages. Folklore and fairytales would just not be the same without them. They may be set in different environments under different circumstances and they may answer to different names but they are still elves of one kind or another.

The list of elves or elf-like beings is endless but the following is a short sampling for your brief edification:

* Ireland had leprechauns who are miniature elf-like folks who use their craftiness and wit to mischievously hide their treasured pots of gold.
* Iceland had “hidden people” who are a bit taller but still elf-sized. Being very powerful, Icelanders will not build around areas which may be inhabited by these strong elves.
* The Dutch had Black Pete who is an elf helping Santa Claus keep track of boys and girls who are bad and he may even whip them when the opportunity presents itself.
* The Norse had the trolls who, for the most part, were depicted as having small statures with very large ear and noses living underground or in caves of Norway. Norse mythology also has big headed and bearded dwarves who live in the mythical land of Nidavellir.
* The Vikings had trows who were short but fiendish and, like the Norse trolls, lived underground as well.
* The Germans had the Dwarves’ Cavern in Hasel, in the Hohenstein region, as well as in the crevices of Harz Mountains in Germany.
* The Northumbians (who lived in what is now north east England and southern Scotland during the medieval times) had Duergar or Dwergar elves who killed hikers.
* In ancient Jewish scriptures dwarves are mentioned in the towers of fortresses in Tyre, Lebanon.
* The Pygmies come from Classical Greek mythology.
* The Hackers come from Sweden.
* The Menehune come from Polynesia.
* The Ebu Gogo come from Indonesia.
* The Basajaun come from Basque.
* The Bes come from ancient Egypt.
* There are many, many more, but some of the most popular fairy tales that feature dwarves are Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Cobbler and the Dwarfs, The Hazelnut Child, The Three Little Men in the Wood, and Tom Thumb who himself is no bigger than his father’s thumb.

Now, let us get back to Santa’s little helpers, the elves, and the question where they came from. Rumor has it that the modern Christmas elves as we know them today come from the house of gnomes of the Scandinavia pagan era. In those ancient times it was believed that gnomes guarded and protected homes against evil spirits. These gnomes were believed to be kind and helpful to good people but they could get very nasty to those who were not nice to them or to each other. For many centuries these Scandinavian gnomes were loved and appreciated as well as hated and feared. Scandinavian writers of the mid-1800s like Thile, Toplius and Rydberg altered the image of these gnomes to Christmas elves who were impish like mischievous children but kindhearted like good fairies.

Some people believe that Santa Claus has nine elves who are helping him while other people believe that he has thirteen elfish helpers. The great majority of people, however, believe that Santa Claus only has six helpers who are all children of Gryla and Leppaludi and their names, in alphabetical order, and their duties are as follows:

* Flying Snowball – He handles Santa’s correspondence and the lists of who is naughty and who is nice.
* Professor Tiny – He fixes and maintains all the machines that make the toys and Santa’s sleigh.
* Lookout Fellow – He guards and protects Santa’s home and the workshop from any intruders.
* Medic Al – He takes care of Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus as well as all the other elves and the reindeer.
* Helpin Hands – She helps Mrs. Claus in the kitchen and around the house.
* Ken Do-It-All – He is the handy elf who can do anything and everything that needs to be done.

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