I had this experience the other day when going through my credit card statements. It made me think about how easy it is for customers to make a chargeback on a credit card purchase. And this made me think about what could be done by a merchant to prevent this from happening.

So if you want to know how to avoid penalty fees from unnecessary chargebacks then watch the video.

Hope you found that useful? Let me know.

So until next time.

Be successful.

Technorati Tags: accepting credit cards, credit card charges, credit card fees, internet marketing, marketing tips, merchant charges

One thing you probably don’t know about me is that I’m a human ideas machine. I often find it very difficult to switch my brain off at times and that often keeps me awake. If I get an idea in the middle of the night I can’t sleep until I get up and write it down.

Now last week I attended a lunch in London, which is a regular event organised by a very fine chap called Martin Avis for Internet marketers. You may not be surprised to hear that it is called the “London Lunch” and is held approximately every 2 months.

Well now, because it was the last lunch of 2008 there were over 40 people who’d said they would attend. That’s when my mind started working overtime. How could I make an impact and try to recruit some potential JV partners from this happy throng? And then it came to me…

I decided that I would present them with a Christmas gift. The gift would be a valuable ebook provided free, with the opportunity to also give it away free to their lists (via my optin form of course) with the potential for them to make commissions on the backend.

My method of delivery would be the humble christmas card with a short note from me stuck inside.

So I bought 40 Christmas cards printed and cut out my notes and printed a few sheets of labels for the envelopes. Here’s a picture of my desk while I was imitating Santa’s elves.

Now unless you’ve got very good eyes you probably can’t read what’s written on the little note inside the card. So here’s what it said…

Fellow London Luncher,

I wanted to take the opportunity to wish you the compliments of the season and offer you an early Christmas gift with my good wishes for a happy and prosperous 2009.

This truly is a gift that carries on giving.

When you give it away to the people on your list, not only will you receive their love and gratitude you may also receive a healthy commission for any sales you generate as a result.

Fancy a little extra cash for Christmas?

If you’re curious or if you’d just like to experience the joy of giving this Christmas then please email me for further details at:

jv at estreetuk dot com (email changed to avoid the spam harvesters)

Merry Christmas!

Jeff McCall

 What d’ya think? I thought it was quite good myself and it certainly went down well at the lunch.

However, I may well have shot myself in the foot. The discussion seemed to be more about how good my idea was rather than the content of the message. I think one or two also resented the fact they hadn’t thought of it.

So did I make any new contacts? Only time will tell!

Be successful.

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, marketing ideas, marketing tactics, Martin Avis

Well my coaching by Alex Jeffreys has begun. It started with a webinar titled “Forward to Basics”. Now little old me was being unusually cynical about whether I’d learn anything new.

Perhaps it was because the 2 hour webinar started at 11pm and I had to be up for work at 5:30am? Or perhaps I was foolish enough to believe that just because I’ve been online since 2001 there was little left about the basics for me to learn?

Well egg on face time for me, because I did learn some new stuff that I hadn’t heard anywhere before about planning my business. It also inspired me to put into practice some things I’d heard about but had never actually put into action.

So what will I be doing differently?

1. Using a kitchen timer to work in highly productive periods of 60 minutes with no distractions. That way I won’t be wasting time reading emails and surfing.
2. Actually planning my day, week, month, and year ahead by working backwards from my goals.
3. Continuing to keep my journal where I currently record what I’ve learnt and any cool sites I’ve found. Only now I’ll be adding a record of what I’m doing to succeed.
4. Keeping a ‘did list’ of how I’m spending my time whenever I’m in front of the PC working on my business. That way I can analyse where I’m wasting my time and improve my productivity.

Now I don’t know about you, but 2 hours into my coaching and already I can see tremendous benefits. Bring it on!!!

Be successful.

Technorati Tags: Alex Jeffreys, business basics, internet marketing, planning, productivity, time management