Selling Out

I hate to admit it, but I'm finally giving in. I've seen so many sites cave in and start offering ads to their visitors. In my most holier-than-thou voice I have said "We'll never do that!" But now we are. If you visit the Byte Slaves Website, you'll find ads on every page. Shoot, we even have a whole Cyber Mall filled with various ads.

The thing that I hope sets us apart is that we don't get paid for running the ads. We only get paid if you click on the ads and actually buy something. That's called affiliate sales. We won't put up ads for anything we wouldn't buy ourselves. We are affiliates for online retailers like the NationalGeographic store, Top Selling Software at the Apple Store and even Uncover special offers and exclusive savings at Sony Style.

Yes, I did embed links to these various stores, but these are store I have personally purchased products from. Our employee's families and friends buy from these stores. These links offer discounts not available to you if you went to the site yourself.

Now for the ironic part: while I'd love for you to search through our Cyber Mall for deals (and I encourage you to do so), what I'm really trying to do is open your eyes to a whole new revenue stream. Yes, you to can sell products for national businesses with no out-of-pocket costs. Sign up at Websites such as Commission Junction and you can be offering your Website visitors discounts on products and services they want and need. And you get paid when they purchase!

Do you think this is a legitimate way to boost your income. Let me know your thoughts for and against this type of marketing. I'll even include one last link to another product I fully believe in...

Protect Your ID and Your Credit

I was surfing the news while eating some leftover spaghetti and saw this article on MSNBC. It really got my attention. It wasn't long ago that I switched my business account because my bank decided to implement "improved security." This security required that I provide mt debit card number, my PIN, and the validation code from my card. All on an unsecured connection. These are all the things I (and so many others) say NEVER to give out online.

This also brought to mind the article I read about credit card skimming. Seems ne'er-do-wells can use a palm-sized scanner to steal the coded information from your debit or credit card. They then use this information to create a copy of your card that they can use as if they were you. There are even scanners that can be put over the faces of legitimate ATMs or point-of-sale terminals (here's one exasmple).

My thinking? Use a credit card (NOT debit) whenever you know your card will be out of sight or suspect a terminal has been tampered with. You can contest a credit card charge. A debit card takes the money out of your account immediately and it can be a major challenge to get it back.