To figure out what is the  best possible credit card processing solution for you and your business it is important to identify some key information that will help to guide you in the process of setting your business up with a new merchant account.

1. What types of business are you?

Not all businesses are the same. Many businesses are considered “high risk” by banks and therefore are required to setup special merchant services accounts. You might be a retail store, Online ecommerce website store, Phone sales or Snail Mail sales type of business.

Determining what type of business you operate will determine what type of merchant account you need and what costs are associated. And don’t try to conceal what type of business you are. Many processors will not take adult sites or certain types of  ”entertainment”  private clubs.

2. How do I determine the best option and credit card processing rates for merchant services?

One of the most confusing things for business owners is trying to determine if they are getting a fair rate for credit card processing and merchant services.

Many companies hide fees and flash a lot of great offers in your face but then pack fees and mark-ups into the inner workings of the interchange rates or fees section of your contract.  Do your homework and compare prices.

3. How much money does it take to get setup with a merchant account to accept credit card payments from customers?

Some companies say that it’s “FREE” if you sign up today!. Again, do your homework.  If you don’t pay now, you’ll pay later. Be careful when it comes to cancellation fees, PCI fees or other things you don’t understand. Get with a friend or neighbor who has experience dealing with such matters. Take your time and plan ahead.

Enrollment in an equipment leasing program can fund your needs and eliminate any up front costs . The reality is that in today’s business environment, it is folly not to accept credit cards. ……

What to do with twitter, Facebook and Social Media.

As the chart above lucidly shows, this is utterly confusing. Does the small business owner or brand builder use twitter, join Facebook, Google Buzz, Linkedin, U Tube?

The answer is: Start out with one or two, get familiar with it and then move on. Sir Edmund Hillary did not scale Mt. Everest in one day. He trained, he strategized, he conditioned himself physically, emotionally and financially. Then he conquered the mountain that is Everest. In other words, take it slow, don’t rush, don’t get overwhelmed. Start with Facebook and then move on with care. Hiring  a seasoned sherpa guide is not a bad idea, either. ………in fact, it’s mandatory for your survival.

The Merchant Maven.

The Social Web Flattens B2B Product Distribution

by Fred Cavazza.net

Depending on your industry, you are likely all too familiar with product distribution processes that involves multiple distributors, sales reps, independent sales reps, etc. All of these people used to be very important steps in a distribution process to get the product from a manufacturer to the end-user. A large and powerful world of spiffs and agreements have been created to buttress these channels of distribution.

While these powerful supply chains still exist, many are on their way to extinction. the distribution networks were created when it took a major commitment of money and man hours to have an infrastructure to sell B2B products. the Internet has greatly reduced the cost and commitment to bring a product from development to market for distribution. B2B companies are now in the process of understanding what many major retailers have known for years now. that direct sales and fulfillment through the Internet means better margins and increased efficiencies.

First Movers will Determine Industry Changes

Something I have frequently said, is that the web rewards individuals and companies who take action first. This will be no different for this issue. If companies sit back and allow distributors and independent sales reps to build the preferred online customer acquisition methods for a given industry, then companies will again lose the leverage they gained when e-commerce began on the web and will exist in an online version of the current product distribution pipeline.

Ideas For Evolving B2B Distribution

One thing that I love so much about the Internet is that it provides opportunities and solutions that haven’t been possible before. It is an easy jump to say that some manufacturers will likely sell products directly especially to certain markets like small business owners.

What is next? If that is the easy jump, then what is the hard one that likely only some elite business owners will achieve?

1. Add service-based revenue streams – Service-based businesses are hard to run, because they are completely dependent on talent and they often operate on low margins. In the future, it is likely that as B2B companies begin to rely less on distributors and current distribution models that a side benefit will be the discovery of new revenue streams. Some of the most successful web companies and open source software companies have already discovered that it can be lucrative to charge for support and additional features for free or low cost products. B2B companies will likely find that the Internet is a strong catalyst for launching these new types of revenue streams cost effectively.

2. Data will Become Even More Important – I read many conversations on the web each day about marketing and growing businesses. It is often scary to me how many of those discussions fail to mention the importance of data. When it comes to product development and distribution for B2B companies, the future is about data. the internet and the social web have turned on a firehouse of data that has the potential to empower business decisions like never before. Data will help discover emerging markets and provide direct feedback from customers on the best methods of product distribution.

3. Efficiencies Offer New Customer Acquisition Opportunities – the Internet has lowered the cost dramatically in many cases when it comes to cost of distribution. these reduced costs provide B2B companies with new decisions. This lower barrier of entry may entice some B2B business owners to diversify target markets in an effort to reach a new customer base. This will mean more competition in some industries.

Posted by Marianne Rocco on February 4th, 2010

During its review of the current PCI compliance regulations, the PCI Security Standards Council will begin considering new card data security technologies that help merchants protect sensitive cardholder information. Although no revisions to PCI DSS are expected in 2010, Mark Lobel, principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers, suggests there will be a strong push for end-to-end data encryption, tokenization, magnetic-stripe imaging and virtual terminals (payment gateways).

Fortunately, Merchant Warehouse combines all of these features in its MerchantWARE® SECR™ (Secure Encrypted Card Reader) solution to help its merchants achieve PCI compliance and better protect consumer card data. If MerchantWARE SECR’s features are deemed adequate for securing payment data, wouldn’t it be worth it for every business to use this solution in their store?

The Merchant Maven is #1 in the ENTIRE GOOGLE WORLD for the image keywords  “credit card machine.”

Go to Google and go to ‘Google Image search on top left”

Type in “credit card machine” The Merchant Maven is #1! Not bad out of 7,900,000 results, huh?

I’ve told a few people in my office and no one seems overly impressed. Why are they not impressed?

However, New York Based SEO expert Leon Altman said simply:” You don’t think being #1 out of almost 8,000,000  images helps your SEO? Absolutely it does!”

Below is the url to copy and paste or click on it.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=credit+card+machine&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1

“

From merchantwarehouse.com

Bringing small merchants into compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, is no easy task, according to independent sales organization executives that have started PCI programs for so-called Level 4 merchants.

“You call up Billy’s Pizza and ask him about his firewall, and he’s not going to know what you’re talking about,” says Henry Helgeson, president of Merchant Warehouse, a Boston-based ISO.

Helgeson was one of several ISO executives on a “PCI Fundamentals for the Small Merchant” panel at the ETA Compliance Day conference held Nov. 12 in Chicago. The Electronic Transactions Association, the merchant-acquiring trade group, sponsored the event.

Level 4 merchants submit up to 1 million Visa card transactions annually. Numbering more than 5 million, they account for more than 99% of all Visa merchants but collectively generate only 32% of the network’s volume. There are no hard statistics about how many of the Level 4 merchants meet the PCI standards. Experts have estimated the number at below 10%. The latest numbers from Visa Inc., as of Sept. 30, say Level 4 compliance is “moderate,” though Visa doesn’t quantify the term. Compliance is lower among merchants using integrated payment applications. Small merchants still using dial-up terminals face fewer PCI issues than those whose systems connect to the Internet.

Virtually all ISO and acquirer PCI programs for Level 4 merchants involve education through statement inserts, newsletters, e-mail reminders, Webinars, and the like. But each processor also employs its own carrots and sometimes sticks, usually in the form of fees and fines. (After a data breach, fines typically originate with the network and are assessed to the acquirer, which passes them on to the ISO servicing the offending merchant, which ultimately gets the bill.)

Mike Cottrell, vice president of business development for TriSource Solutions LLC, a Bettendorf, Iowa-based ISO with 20,000 merchants, says his company once thought PCI was an issue only for e-commerce merchants. But TriSource got serious about Level 4 compliance after three or four of its retailers suffered data breaches. The breaches resulted in more than $500,000 in fines, not all of which TriSource could pass on. “A couple [of merchants] went out of business,” Cottrell said.

TriSource made PCI compliance mandatory last year. The ISO uses Atlanta-based security services firm ControlScan Inc. as its PCI vendor. Besides merchant education, a big part of the program involves getting the third-party agents TriSource uses on board by giving them a financial incentive through a cut of the fees merchants pay to access ControlScan’s services, according to Cottrell. TriSource’s so-called buy rate for agents is about $12, and the typical merchant PCI fee is $13.99, though agents can charge more. After 18 months, TriSource’s PCI compliance rate is 27% for the e-commerce and physical merchants initially targeted. Another 12% are on their way to compliance.

At Merchant Warehouse, Level 4 compliance efforts started about a year ago with “a soft approach” that included statement messages and other materials aimed at the riskiest of the ISO’s 80,000 merchants, according to Helgeson. Merchant Warehouse had “some nasty surprises” with merchants storing card data prohibited by the PCI rules, especially by franchised businesses. “We saw this on the horizon for quite a while,” Helgeson says.

Merchant Warehouse e-mailed its target merchants a link to a ControlScan site where they could log in and take a PCI self-assessment questionnaire, or SAQ. Merchant Warehouse would waive the $59 annual fee for ControlScan’s scans throughout the year and SAQ processing after merchants called to confirm they had set up the compliance process with ControlScan. But only 40% of the targeted merchants responded. “Unfortunately, I don’t think the carrot really worked this year,” Helgeson told the audience.

Helgeson tells Digital Transactions News that he’s working on other ideas to motivate merchants, though he won’t give specifics yet. “We think it’s going to happen over time,” he says. “I think it’s going to be an educational process. We’re not giving up on them.”

Visa’s Sept. 30 report says 97% of the estimated 352 U.S. Level 1 merchants are PCI compliant, and 99% do not store data prohibited by the PCI standards. Level 1 merchants submit more than 6 million Visa transactions annually and account for 50% of Visa transactions. Some 94% of the 895 Level 2 merchants, those submitting 1 million to 6 million Visa transactions and accounting for 13% of volume, are PCI compliant, and 99% don’t store prohibited data. They account for 13% of Visa transactions. The 2,482 Level 3 merchants, e-commerce merchants that generate 20,000 to 1 million annual Visa transactions, generate less than 5% of Visa volume, and like Level 4 merchants, have a “moderate” level of PCI compliance. Figures about the Level 3 merchants’ storage of prohibited data were unavailable.

Some 97% of the 78 processors with direct access to Visa’s VisaNet network are PCI compliant, and a “high” number, again undefined, are confirmed that they do not store prohibited data. The 906 agent, or downstream, processors have an 82% PCI compliance rate, with a high number not storing prohibited data.

As a Marketing Director in charge of special events for many years, I know all about guest lists, name tags,  table settings and even party crashers.

In fact, a former colleague of mine, Heide van Nellen of Frank Howard Allen Realtors (FHA)  fame and I  – used to work together in planning the FHA Annual Top Producers Dinners!  (All right, Heide did  all the work. I worked hard on sampling the free Pinot Grigio and shrimp and took credit if the party was a success.)

The FHA top producer dinner event was and still is quite fabulous. Despite my absence. Approximately 100 top earning Realtors from Marin County’s oldest and most respectable Real Estate Firm are invited to bring a guest and enjoy a lavish meal, complimentary California wine and dancing at Marin Country Club in Novato, California.

If you are really a top, top, top producer you get to sit next to or near the President of the company.

As I recall, we didn’t really require a security check at these dinners, but since all the tables had elegant, hand made name tags and the seating arrangements were carefully planned, there is just no way there could have been a security breach of ANY kind. Heide would have ejected anyone who would dare to do so.

Heide van Nellen

So how the heck does this happen at the White House? Maybe they need name tags? Maybe they need Heide van Nellen.? No human alive has ever crashed one of her parties.

I predict some major top level  White House “heads will roll!”

The Merchant Maven

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Full Story Below with Video:

As the White House’s blood boiled, the Virginia couple that crashed last week’s state dinner told their tale Tuesday morning on the TODAY Show.

Serial fame seekers Tareq and Michaele Salahi told Matt Lauer that they are cooperating with the Secret Service’s internal review, but Tareq Salahi also added, “I can tell you we did not party-crash the White House.”

The couple said they were invited to the state dinner, but would not say who offered the invite. They said they will offer up more information to the TODAY Show after the Secret Service review.

“Our lives have been destroyed,” Michaele Salahi said. “Everything we’ve worked for. For me, 44 years, just destroyed.”

They said they have e-mails that prove their innocence in the matter. But once again, they refused to share any details of said e-mails.

The e-mails they’re referring to could be the ones The Washington Post said the couple exchanged with a member of the Defense Department before the state dinner. The Post reported that the couple sent e-mails to Michele S. Jones, special assistant to the secretary of defense, asking her help to get them into the event. Jones, however, denies that she gave them the OK.

“I did not state at any time, or imply that I had tickets for ANY portion of the evening’s events,” Jones said in a statement. “I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening’s activities. Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come.”

The whole incident has the president fuming. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said both President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were angry that two uninvited people were able to get into a state dinner. Interviewed Tuesday on MSNBC, Gibbs said “it’s safe to say he was angry. Michelle was angry.”

Gibbs told the TODAY Show that despite the couple’s claims that they didn’t crash the state dinner, there was no way the incident could be called a misunderstanding.

“This wasn’t a misunderstanding,” Gibbs said. “You don’t show up at the White House as a misunderstanding.”

Asked by Lauer if they had been mischaracterized through the media, Tareq Salahi said, “No question … It’s been devastating what’s happened to Michaele and I … Our lives have really been destroyed.”

“We were invited, not crashers, and there isn’t anyone who would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that,” Michaele Salahi said. “No one would do that, and certainly not us.”

Tareq Salahi said that the couple has been “very candid” with the Secret Service and said “we have turned over documentation to

them.”

While the Salahis chatted on national TV, it’s Homeland Security who wants to hear from them again Thursday morning.

The House Committee on Homeland Security will invite testimony from the Salahis, as well as U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, at a 10 a.m. hearing Thursday, according to the committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-MS.

The keyword, Mr. and Mrs. Salahi, is “invite.”

“My confidence in the management of the Secret Service hangs in the balance,” Thompson said.

Yikes.

“The intent of this Administration may be openness and transparency, but a security breakdown that allowed anyone who looked the part to walk off the street into a State Dinner is a slap in the face to the Secret Service employees who put their lives on the line to protect our form of government and its leaders,” he added.

So the Salahis have identified a security problem and prompted Homeland Security to fix it. Shouldn’t we be thanking them?

The Secret Service declined to comment on whether the director would testify on Thursday.

Meanwhile, it appears last week’s White House state dinner wasn’t the first time the couple and President Obama attended the same function.

Muriel Cooper of the Congressional Black Caucus confirmed a report that the Salahis were escorted out of the CBC Annual Fundraising Dinner Sept. 26 at the Washington Convention Center — an event where Obama gave a speech. But before the president addressed the crowd, a CBC staff member noticed that the couple were seated at a table they were not registered to be sitting at during a VIP reception.

Unlike the Secret Service, the CBC’s security detail escorted the couple out of the event without incident. They were there for about 45 minutes before getting the boot.

The Salahis denied that they were kicked out of that dinner, saying they attended on behalf of a law group.

ENJOY the UTUBE VIDEO BELOW:

I’m not a fan of Dancing with the Stars

As a marketing person, however, I am fascinated by television ratings, analytics, viewership and what keeps nearly 20 million Americans glued to their tv sets. Around 19.2 million people tuned in to ABC to see Donny Osmond take home the mirror ball trophy, the smallest audience for the show’s finale since its inaugural season .

I could retire now if I had that audience!

Dancing with the Star’s performance episodes this season averaged around 17.1 million viewers, 10 percent lower than last season and 15 percent than the one before that. The results show fared even more miserably.

According to industry experts, this finale wasn’t a bad show at all. After all, comeback-ing diva Whitney Houston performed back to back tracks, including “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”              ( I absolutely loathe that song! ) while five couples took the dance floor, including fan favorites Mark Ballas, Lacey Schwimmer, Cheryl Burke, and Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Sixteen couples started off the battle on Dancing with the Stars, until the field was narrowed down to the final three, and eventually one – showbiz legend Donny Osmond. The ratings this season, however, had not been promising.

The trend is noteworthy, considering that throughout Dancing with the Stars’ eight seasons, no other show had been capable of usurping its hold on the ratings leader board, except juggernaut American Idol on Fox.

How to Improve Dancing With the Stars:

Barack , Sarah and Simon Cowell

I am a fan of American Idol – because American Idol started it all. Simon Cowell was the very first, smug, condescending, blatantly blunt, black t- shirt wearing, Englishman to impudently pass judgement on America’s aspiring vocal talent. he’s kindof a weenie sometimes, but he’s a likeable weenie.

Actually, I think he is just fabulous. Simon could change the show by just showing up. And imagine if Barack Obama and Sarah Palin teamed up to showcase their dancing abilities? How cool would that be?

This would be the highest rated show in the history of the world.

Peace Out

The Merchant Maven

Hier versucht er Deutsch zu sprechen. Er is sehr wuetend weil die Bayern schlecht gespielt haben und weil mehrere Spieler immer meckern. Er beschwert sich ueber Thomas Strunz, Mehmet Scholl und Mario Basler.

Es ist sehr lustig und ein Hammer!

Here’s what happened in a nutshell:

French striker Henry handled the ball illegally with his arm and his hand which resulted in a goal advancing France to the World Cup in South Africa next year. Ireland will not be making the trip because they needed one point. The Irish National Team will have to watch the single most important summer of soccer ( which only comes around every 4 years) from their living rooms and pubs instead of being on the pitch and competing.

Even long after the game was over, FIFA officials should have the power to at least “nullify” a game and have it replayed if there is such a complete breach of honesty as there was in this game.

This is completely scandalous! Just as bad as Maradonna’s “Hand of God” some years ago.

Giovanni Trapattoni refused to label Thierry Henry a cheat despite the France captain admitting to the Republic of Ireland’s players that he had handled the ball in the build-up to the goal that won the World Cup play-off for his team. The manager, however, admitted that Fifa’s fair play campaign had been damaged on a night when conspiracy theory and controversy raged.

“It was ridiculous really and unfortunately it’s what we thought was going to happen,” said the Ireland defender Richard Dunne. “The World Cup is run by people who want to decide who gets there. Big teams get big decisions. The referee says he was 100% certain that Henry didn’t handball it but Henry said [to me] that he did.

“He said that he handballed it but he didn’t mean it and we deserved to win. It is there for all to see but that’s not going to change anything. It’s not a difficult one to see. The linesman was in line with it. We deserved to win. We could have got a couple of goals but theirs knocked the stuffing out of us.”

Fifa had sparked uproar in Ireland by announcing in late September that the play-off draw would be seeded. “With the draw Fifa wanted France and Portugal to go through and that’s what happened,” Liam Brady, the assistant manager, said. “You saw the goal and that’s enough said. It’s a bad day for football. When it comes to the crunch, the big teams always seem to go through.”

Henry handled twice after appearing to be in an offside position at the free-kick that led to the incident from which he squared for William Gallas to score France’s extra-time goal, which gave them a 2-1 aggregate win and safe passage to the finals in South Africa next summer. Trapattoni was asked whether he felt cheated. “I don’t wish to speak these words,” he said. “You saw the game. All of Europe saw the situation. For sure, in these two games, we deserved to go to South Africa but the result is different. I want to make it clear that it’s not Henry’s fault.

“I prefer that we’d have gone out on penalties and I am sad because the referee had time to ask the linesman and also to ask Henry. He should have done that and I am sure Henry would have confirmed that he had handled. It wouldn’t be the first time that a referee asks a player whether it was or it wasn’t. It wouldn’t have been out of place to ask. This is not good for fair play. I have been to schools many times to talk about fair play. I tell the young children that it’s so important in life. This is a bitter evening for us.”

Trapattoni confronted the Swedish referee, Martin Hansson, on the pitch at full-time. “I said to him that I know many Swedish people but it’s possible to make a great mistake.”

Henry was hardly contrite afterwards. “I am not the ref,” he said. “The ball hit my hand and, I will be honest, the ball hit my hand. It was a handball.

“What did I say to Richard Dunne? I told him. And he told me the same, you are not the ref. That’s why the Irish players didn’t run to me, they ran to the ref. You can clearly see the opportunity. [Sébastien] Squillaci went to jump with two Irish players and then the next thing I know, the ball hit my arm, I played it, and the ref allowed it. It could have been better to do it in another way but like I said, I am not the ref.”

Talk of cheating dominated the post-match talk within the Ireland dressing room. “We got robbed, you can tell by the boys’ reaction that it hit his hand blatantly,” said the defender Sean St Ledger. “We feel cheated – we were the better team over the two legs, every football fan in the stadium will say we were the better team tonight. It’s cost a lot of us our dreams – as a boy I used to dream of playing in the World Cup, and now I’m not.

“He’s said it hit his hand accidentally but, if you look at it, you can see it hits his hand twice. I’m not sure Henry’s reputation has been tarnished. It doesn’t look great but he’s got his team to the World Cup finals. If it had been one of our team, we’d have probably done the same.”

The striker Kevin Doyle added: “I don’t know about the ref not seeing it but the linesman had as good a view as anyone and him not seeing it is embarrassing. It’s instinctive and, if you can get away with it … I’m sure he was expecting the free-kick to be given and I can’t believe it’s not been caught.”

SEE for YOURSELF: Click on Video Below

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