Wow, has it really been 3 months since my last post? I really don’t have much of an excuse except that we have been extremely busy to say the last. With what you might ask? Well….

MerchACT our full service merchant account management solution has taken off like crazy. This is defintely a service that has been missing from the online marketing industry. Advertisers are good at what they do, which is marketing their offers.  They don’t want to have to deal with the headaches, relationship building and paperwork that is involved in setting up new merchant accounts. This is where we come in, we take over the entire process for them. We get them new MIDS and we help them manage the MIDS they have. We are basically their in house merchant processing experts. MIDS don’t have to come from us, they can come from any relationship the merchant already has, we will just manage the entire process for them. This allows them to focus on their business and not have to worry about processing.

We are currently working with some very large and established dating companies to expand their processing, introduce new payment options (local payments, anonymous payments) and enter new geographic markets. Dating is an industry we are know very well, so our clients are able to leverage this expertise.

On top of that we have been very busy getting some new interesting solutions ready for the marketplace, both domestic as well as offshore.  We have new relationships is places like Asia, Latvia, and Bulgaria with more on the way soon. In terms of domestic we are able to place most internet offers at one or more places and we have a proven strategy of growing the volume.

I am comitting myself to writing a new post by the end of this week on my thoughts of the state of the industry ( as it relates to merchant processing), what products are doing well, what is easy to place and what isn’t.

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I usually don’t post about solutions on the blog, but recently we have been getting guys live with a domestic solution for Skin Rebils. They like to see at least 3 months of history but we have been getting guys live without it. If you are interested, please contact me for details and I can send over an application.

Tags: rebills, skin, trial offers
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I have been asked by quite a few clients about my opinion on the new FTC rules for biz opps. If you are not familiar with what they are, here is a video that can help explain.

In my opinion the hardest obligation to fulfill is the 1 page discolsure document. According to the rule:

If you sell business opportunities, the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule requires that you give potential buyers a one-page disclosure document.  You have to provide this document at least seven days before the prospective buyer signs a contract or pays any money for the business opportunity. If you promote your business opportunity in Spanish or another language, the one-page disclosure document must be in that language.

Here is a link to an example of this document

So, what do I think…probably the same as every other online marketer out there….you cannot possibly sell this online. Conversions would be killed. I understand that the goverment wants to protect consumers, but this is extremely unrealistic and I strongly believe that with the tools available today, any individual can do their own research. Will this kill the online business opportunity market, absolutely not. Marketers are smart, they know how to adapt, and like other typs of business….they can easily expand outside of the US just like many other have already begun to do with great success.

I believe that you need to teach people to do things for themselves, if something appears to be shady, learn how to do research and how to make informed purchasing decisions. I don’t believe in deceptive marketing, but if everything is spelled out for someone they should be able to make a decision if they want to purcahse something with their own funds instead of relying on an organization like the FTC to make these decisions for them. If people become too reliant on organizations like this they they are much more likely to succumb to scams in other industries. Teach people to think, don’t think for them.

Those are just my two cents… but what I think you might want to hear is how does this effect getting merchant accounts for biz opps. Well, we have a few strategies that we like to employ and I would be more then happy to discuss those with you. Just contact me for more details.

Some points:

1. Consider expanding to new markets outside of the US

2. 1 time sales is much better then recurring rebills

3. Think about shipping something (CD, etc)

4. Don’t mention how much money people can make, position as a learning tool/course.

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I haven’t confirmed this direct but as I am sure you already have heard, CCBILL has given notice to their merchants that they will no longer process trial offers. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me, if you read some of my previous posts, for a few reasons…

Also, its important to note that we have seen this before. Banks get into this business, then they get out, then they get in, then they get out, etc etc. So, who knows, maybe CCBILL will get back into it again, Or maybe they will find another bank that will take this business?

They are using a domestic acquirer and in my opinion a domestic aquirer with a third party solution is not ideal for this type of billing. I am a big fan of Direct MIDS and Offshore, you have more flexibily and as long as you run clean ship with your chargebacks in check you can stay live forever. The only real reason for an account will  be closed in this scenario is if the bank gets in trouble, whichh as happened before, but its the nature of the business. Trials with recurring billing, no matter how good the product or customer service is, will be considered high risk so you need to work with banks that are setup for that.

Large advertisers have already gone offshore, and with so few domestic banks taking this business now I am sure more are going to try. We have a few very strong solutions for merchants who are in need of processing and can show good statements. Keep in mind that “good” statements vary between domestic and offshore – if you don’t know what that means, contact me and I can explain. Offshore for the most part will not take startups. Also, settlment timing is longer, but the merchants that are currently offshore and are ok with the cashflow, love these solutions.

Sure, there will be agg solutions available, and other potentially sketchy offers made to merchants who have had their accounts shut down, but if you have good statements – you don’t need those. You can get a direct MID offshore at very good rates. We are currently working with the major CRM’s and some smaller ones to get new gateways integrated so they can allow their clients access to these new banking options.

If you are interested in learning more about the offshore options we have available, please do not hestitate to contact me.

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Anyone running an online offer knows that its important to know your customer, so when marketing an offer globally you need to be very aware of what form and how many currencies you accept as this will play an important role in your success.  If you are just marketing an offer in the US, then its easy – just accept USD. What if you are marketing in US and Canada? Or, what if (like a lot of marketers are doing these days) marketing completely outside of the US?

I know a lot of merchants who have found great success in places like South America, Europe and Australia. Right now, traffic is cheaper in those areas for certain verticals and these guys are taking advantage of that. But lets say the marketer is in the US, and their offer is based in Australia. Will accepting USD hurt conversions? You can look at getting an AUD account, but getting that from a bank in Australia is very tough. There are some decent offshore options, but they really only like guys with History. So, one option is to get a Domestic account, but show the price in AUD and tell your customer that they will be charged in USD. The key here is to make sure that you never charge MORE because of the currency exchange. Also, you want to let the customer know as much as possible that the charge will be in USD and to expect that on their credit card. You may or may not be familiar with Dynamic Currency Conversion, this is something that might be used to help but is currently frowned on by the associations or so I am told.  I will speak to this exact topic in another post.

Europe is a much easier to work with because securing a merchant account in either EURO of GBP is pretty easy. Its also pretty quick and easy to setup a EU corp which will be a requirement of working with the EU acquirer (direct MIDS not agg solutions).  Although some marketers price and charge in USD, even in Europe, I think a much better strategy is to charge in the local currency. I think the behaviour of the consumer in those areas is different then lets say in Canada (where customers are used to buying in USD on website)  and your conversions will be better if you have the local currency. One other very important thing to note about Europe is the importance of Alternative and Local Payments options. This is extremely popular there and by not considering this you are missing out on a huge opportunity.

The one area of the world that I am getting the most requests from is South America. Marketers are running straight sale offers down there and doing very well, but they need the local currencies as they will not purchase in USD. This is something we are currently working on and I hope to have a solution very soon.

If you are interested in setting up a multi currency account OR just have questions about processing for global offers, please do not hesitate to contact me.

JR

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Most people think of Facebook as a place to look at your friends pictures, and maybe get reacquainted with old friends, but not to do business. Up until recently I was one of those people. Then I was introduced to the “Super Affiliates” group on Facebook and that completely changed.

Anyone who is involved or is looking to be involved in the Internet Marketing industry must join this group. I have learned the most about the space from this group – just reading posts, conversations and getting involved myself.

On top of everything I have learned, I have also made some unbelievable connections through this group. Just by posting and being a part of the community I started networking and have I gotten some great clients directly or indirectly from this group.  I find myself checking this group way more then any other and its become one of my primary daily activities.

So, if you are looking to learn about Internet Marketing or network, join this group – you will not be disappointed.

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I wanted to let everyone know a little bit about our merchant account management and how we help clients not only secure, but manage their merchant accounts

So, of course every clients needs are different, some clients hate filling out paperwork so we do it for them. Others actually enjoy it so pricing varies per clients depending on much work is needed. Also, if less work becomes we needed we have no problem adjusting once everything is running smoothly or if the account becomes more labor intensive in terms of volume, strategy, closures and so forth. Typically a review is done after three months.

To start, we setup a meeting to discuss goals, projected volume (where you want to be in 3, 6, 12 months) as well as your current processing situations and corporate setup. Once we get that info, we agree on a plan and jump right in.

Some of what we do includes:

• Initial organization of all current merchant accounts, agents, and current corporations using Dropbox. You will have a very organized system to sign docs, and send documents to us.
• Submit paperwork to new merchant providers.
• Complete all merchant applications for you regardless of which agents you are working both domestic and offshore.  This is part of the service if needed.
• Handle all documentation including incorporations required by the banks, structure responses to all inquiries made by underwriters at each bank.
• Mid set up and all correspondence to the gateway provider to make sure you go live.
• As new banks open up, we will automatically submit your paperwork to the processor(first rights). More so, since we don’t have layers of agents to pay, our goal is to make sure you are getting the most reasonable pricing possible. The processors and banks have to make enough money that should you run into an issue, they will look at profitability on the account.

We will manage the banking relationships outside of the accounts we work which including dealing direct with your agents to see if they have new banks, acting as your merchant advocate if issues arise, work on cap increases, add additional mids and improve upon current processes.

The biggest value here is working in a very systematic approach to grow your volume. We are giving processors the right information and your personal details and business model isn’t being passed around to sub-agents, etc.

We still work with a lot of merchants who do you use MerchACT and just need our help setting up new accounts and we have no problem doing that. We just find that things run very smoothly if merchants focus on growing their business and let us handle the merchant accounts.

One way to think about this that it will cost you A LOT more to hire an employee to take care of this, plus you get the benefit or our experience and relationships which will be impossible to find.

If anyone is interested in our services, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Feel free to address any additional needs you might want us to handle as part of the service. If you elect to not use MerchACT, we will still continue to add additional mids to help grow your business

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Just got back last night from ASW, and I have to say it was one of the best shows I have been to. To be relelvant in my business I think its very important to go to these shows and meet with not only new clients/prospects but get together with the people you have been working with already. Even if I speak to someone every single day on Skype or the phone, its still not the same as a face to face interaction.

Here are the services that we offer that got the most interest at ASW.

#1

Alot of people in the Internet Marketing space already use us to help them secure their merchant accounts, however its out Merchant Account management that has really been getting alot of traction. I am going to dedicate an entire post to this as this is really what seperates us from everyone else.  We let companies focus on growing their business, not on securing merchant accounts.

#2

Credit card is of course the #1 method of payment online, however as companies expand into new markets they are begining to realize that credit card cannot be their only method of acceptance. We are now offering companies, even those in the free trial/continuity space, the ability to offer alternative ways of accepting payment online. I will also dedicate another post to just this, but its important to understand that in alot of places in the world alternative payments are the preferred method. On top of the demographics aspect of this, there are alot of other ways that alternative payments can help an online merchant do things like salvage declines AND reduce chargeback ratios. Up until recently this was not available to this space, but we are currently working with some of the larger CRMS to have these options integrated and available.

If you are interested in either of the two services above, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you had a safe but fun New Years Eve. As you can see, its been a while since I published my last blog post, but one of my New Years resolutions it to update this blog more often. Since I switched over to this new design, I have gotten incredible feedback from people. Internet Marketers are reading the posts and are using the advice I have given. This is what the goal of this blog is to do, help marketers secure and maintain the merchant processing. Of course, I would like them to use me to do this, but I think by providing honest and useful information that will not be a problem.

First a couple of things:

1. I had been meaning to write a post about my trip last year to Ad Tech. Although I only spent a couple of hours at the show, it was an unbelieveable trip to both meet with new clients, as well as catch up with old friends. I am a big fan of the ad tech shows and I will continue to attend.

2. Affiliate Summit West 2012 – both Patricia and I will be at this show. If you, or anyone you know is looking for merchant processing, lets book a time to meet. We have solutions for almost any industry.

In speaking with some of the largest players in the Internet Marketing industry I am learning more and more that its the merchant accounts that are one of, if not the most important part of any sucessful campaign. CRM, Fullfillment, that stuff is easy (although you need to make sure you work with the best, and I can help make with that). Its the merchant account that you 10000% need to make it work. I know alot of guys that I work with are looking to make big pushes this year, and myself and Patricia Weber Consulting are putting together all the tools to help them with that. We are working on some very interesting new banking solutions Offshore and Domestic (offshore – Latvia, Bulgaria, and others), as well as some technology that will help merchant manage their accounts.

I am going to be putting together two posts in the next day or so that I hope you will find helpful. One is going to be my predictions for 2012 based on the feedback I have received from banks and merchants. The second is going to be an overview of our consulting services. Its something that a few large merchants have been using as for because they do not want to deal with the headache of securing merchant accounts – thats what we do best.

So Happy New Years everyone and talk soon!

JR

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