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An Ecommerce Internet Merchant Account
Small business owners and home based entrepreneurs sometimes
reach the point where they realize their company is ready to
grow, and then they begin to consider the advantages of an
ecommerce Internet merchant account. Those who accept...
eCommerce - A Plan
Planning an ecommerce website is like building a house -
architecture and budget need to be agreed before the decoration.
AN AGREED REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION MUST BE DRAWN UP AS THE
FIRST STAGE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE IS DONE - ANY OTHER...
Ecommerce website overview accepting payments online
According to searchmerchants.com, there are an infinite number
of choices for accepting payments online. You can accept online
payments from an ECommerce Web site in two general ways.
1) Through your own online merchant account 2) Through a...
Why Ecommerce is Not Ready for My Daughter or Me
As the mother of a teenage clothing fanatic I'm often at my local mall. It occurred to me that the shopping experience for my daughter is attractive to her not because she wants to spend my money, but because the experience of buying itself is so...
Why VPS is Perfect for eCommerce Hosting
I want to preface this little article with this fact: The
optimal environment for an ecommerce website is a dedicated
server. Nothing else offers you the level of control, security,
and customizability as a dedicated web appliance for the...
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Ecommerce: A New Artform
What creative project do you have in the back of your mind? Writing that
novel? Putting together a bluegrass band? Painting the sunsets over the Rio
Grande? How about starting a business?
When you think of the term creative endeavor, does launching or running a
business come to mind? To most creative people, business is the antithesis of
creativity. Yet slowly, ever so slowly, the nature of business is changing.
The need for innovation in business is gradually overtaking the need for
control as the resource that makes the difference between success and failure.
Really? But isn't business essentially about control? Controlling resources
and controlling people? Yes, but business is also about innovation and
communication, both of which live at the heart of creativity.
There are two reasons why I believe creativity will become increasingly
valued in business. Control is certainly critical in business, both resources
and people need to be managed carefully. But control is easier to teach than
innovation. Given an equal need for both innovation and control, control is
the easier skill or talent to find and implement. Thus innovation rises in
value because it's more difficult to find and utilize effectively.
Are innovation and control equal needs? They certainly haven't been in the
past. Control has been the leading force in business since the beginning of
the industrial age. That age has ended however, and we now live in an
service-based information world of commerce. This means the resource that
needs to be controlled is more likely to be information rather than, say,
coal. Information can be managed easily across electronic wiring and storage
media. That means important work of business will be creating and
disseminating information, and that requires a creative mind.
The other reason I believe creativity will rise in importance in business is
that in our information-based economy, the resources required for business
are fewer and less costly. If you can run a storefront on the Internet that
can reach millions across the globe, you don't need capital to build a store
that sits in a city and reaches thousands. The
juice it takes to make the
Internet company successful is not capital so much as the creative ability to
reach and build a customer base over an infrastructure that's effectively
free.
Napster was a wonderful example of this. A teenager was able to create a
service that was quickly utilized by millions upon millions of users. Of
course Napster had a glaring flaw: the company was trading in products
created by others, and trading without the consent of those who produced the
products. But the heart of the matter is that someone without substantial
resources could build a highly-used, well-recognized brand out of little more
than a creative idea. Using the same infrastructure, surely someone will come
up with another intriguing idea that will capture our imagination and a big
audience, and it will probably happen soon. And the next wave of creative
Internet entrepreneurs will have learned from the Internet crash and its
aftermath.
The Internet isn't dead. It's just stumbling a bit while taking its toddler
steps. Internet start-up ideas will continue to attract creative people,
simply because the free infrastructure invites innovation and resists
control. Control is the deathword to creativity. Creative people have shunned
business for that reason alone. Yet in a world where creativity and
innovation become the critical elements for success, you bet creative people
will begin to see commerce as an avenue of expression.
During the high days of Internet exuberance, I used this column to make the
claim that business will be the creative medium of the early 21st century. I
still believe it's true, simply because the basic elements still exist a
encourage a creative approach to business. The resources to support a new
company do not require control so much as creative manipulation. Given this
free and open canvas, creative people will rush in, despite the lingering
notion that business is somehow anti-creative.
About the Author
Rob Spiegel is the author of Net Strategy (Dearborn) and the upcoming
Shoestring Entrepreneur's Guide to Internet Start-ups (St. Martin's Press).
You can reach Rob at spiegelrob@aol.com
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| E-Commerce Times: Because E-Business Means Business |
| Everything you need to know about doing business on the Internet. Information for C-Level executives and small-to-mid-sized business managers. |
| www.ecommercetimes.com |
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| ECommerce-Guide to News, Reviews and Technology Solutions |
| ECommerce-Guide provides ecommerce business owners with e-commerce news, hardware and software reviews and tutorials, technology solutions and information ... |
| www.ecommerce-guide.com |
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| Electronic commerce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Electronic commerce (also referred to as EC, e-commerce or ecommerce) ... Even in product categories suitable for e-commerce, electronic shopping has ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| E-Commerce News for IT Managers |
| Daily e-commerce news for managers of business covering marketing, transaction processing, security, retailing and service delivered over the Web. |
| www.internetnews.com |
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| New Zealand Government E-Commerce |
| Resource containing information on electronic commerce, including law, trade, tax, privacy, consumer protection, and help for businesses. |
| www.ecommerce.govt.nz |
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| eCommerce Guidebook for web hosting |
| The eCommerce Guidebook provides many resources, including a directory of online transaction providers, a tutorial, and many other resources. |
| www.online-commerce.com |
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| ClickZ Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers |
| Includes columns with commentary and analysis on a wide variety of internet marketing subjects ranging from B2B marketing to search engine marketing. |
| www.clickz.com |
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| Shopping cart software integrated into Frontpage, Dreamweaver, CSS and Golive ecommerce software templates. |
| www.ecommercetemplates.com |
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| E-Commerce & the Internet |
| Information from the FTC on E-commerce and the Internet. Includes anti-fraud tips. |
| www.ftc.gov |
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| Economy & Work: eBusiness | Europa - Information Society |
| The e-business concept goes well beyond e-commerce (buying and selling ... A pilot study on E-commerce and the Internet in European businesses (2002) was ... |
| ec.europa.eu |
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| Online Business |
| If your e-commerce site currently accepts online payments, and is really, really, ... They are looking for entries from ugly e-commerce sites to win a new ... |
| onlinebusiness.about.com |
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| eCommerce Info Center- ONE-STOP for eCommerce info, services ... |
| eCommerce Info Center, created and maintained by Slim Baltagi, will make it easier and faster for you to find out relevant eCommerce information, ... |
| www.ecominfocenter.com |
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| eCommerce Innovation Centre |
| Practical resources for small business involved in or considering eCommerce implemetations. Expert Advice and Assistance. |
| www.ecommerce.ac.uk |
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| Web Marketing Today -- E-Commerce, E-Mail, Internet Marketing, and ... |
| Articles, tips and advice on e-commerce and effective Internet marketing strategies. |
| www.wilsonweb.com |
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| Web Marketing Today Research Room for E-Commerce |
| The largest collection of annotated links to web marketing and ecommerce articles and resources to be found at any single place on the planet. |
| www.wilsonweb.com |
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| The 2005 E-commerce Awards - Welcome |
| The UK national E-commerce awards organised by the DTI and Interforum. |
| www.ecommerce-awards.co.uk |
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| Mal's e-commerce |
| Mal's e-commerce ... Customize the look and feel of your store; No scripts or applications to install; Build as large an e-commerce site as you want ... |
| www.mals-e.com |
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| Howstuffworks "How E-commerce Works" |
| E-commerce has exploded in the last 10 years. Find out how e-commerce works and how you can harness the potential of e-commerce, from affiliate programs to ... |
| www.howstuffworks.com |
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| Ecommerce Guide - Terms You Need to Know to Do Business on the ... |
| An online computer dictionary and internet search engine for internet terms and techincal support. |
| e-comm.webopedia.com |
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| Shopping Cart Software Ecommerce Solutions |
| Ecommerce solutions by Volusion will take your business to new heights. Volusion offers the best prices in the industry for a complete ecommerce web ... |
| www.volusion.com |
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