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Archive for November, 2008

Press release4 October 2006

Avangate accepts PayPal - providing more Payment Options to software buyers Avangate, shareware registration service and e-commerce provider for online software sales, now accepts PayPal in order to extend the number of payment related choices and increase convenience and simplicity for software buyers worldwide.
Avangate offers vendors the possibility to accept quick and secure online payments with multiple options: all major debit and credit cards, wire transfer, and now PayPal, in 15 different currencies including US Dollars and Euros. The new service was added due to popular demand from software vendors and shoppers alike.
“By adding PayPal we ensure our clients are able to offer their customers a wide range of payment options when purchasing from their website. We expect that this extra facility will be popular amongst software buyers.” said Carmen Sebe, CEO.
Adopting PayPal as an additional payment method is very simple: all current Avangate clients need to do is contact Avangate and the option is enabled within hours. Software vendors will receive PayPal payments into their own PayPal account.
***

About Avangate
Avangate provides eCommerce solutions for electronic software distribution, incorporating an easy to use and secure online payment system plus additional marketing and sales tools such as an affiliate management system, automated cross selling options, software promotion management, software marketing services as well as consultancy on how to increase online software sales.

Your biggest obstacle to selling at the outset is going to be that you have no transaction history on eBay. Buyers have no reason to trust you. And the best indicator of whether or not they should trust you to deliver what you promise is your feedback rating.

This is how eBay describes feedback ratings:

“Feedback ratings are used to determine each member’s feedback score. A positive rating adds 1 to the score, a negative rating decreases it by 1, and a neutral rating has no impact. The higher the feedback score, the more positive ratings they’ve received from members. However, a member can increase or decrease another member’s score by only 1 no matter how many transactions they share.”

There are two ways to quickly build feedback while you are establishing your new eBay business. One is to make purchases, and the other is to sell inexpensive things that bidders are willing to risk a couple of dollars on. You should achieve a feedback rating of no less than 25 before listing items in your specialty (unless you can sell some cheap items in that niche). Doing so will bring more bids and higher selling prices when you list those items.

When exploring eBay for bargains to build your feedback, you might think about picking up some business or success books. These are tax deductible for you as a business owner. One book that every business owner should read at least once a year is “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. You should be able to pick it up for five or six dollars, including shipping. Be wary of shipping costs while bidding, by the way.

Always decide the most you are willing to pay for an item prior to bidding, subtract the shipping cost, and bid no higher than the difference between those two figures. You might also look for some books about selling on eBay, or a recent edition of “Taxes for Dummies.” If you haven’t received feedback by the time you receive your item in the mail, first leave feedback for the seller, then send them an email informing them that you received the item, posted feedback for them, and ask them to post feedback for you as well.

Another quick way to build feedback is by bidding on penny auctions that have no shipping fees associated with them. These are usually placed by sellers trying to recruit bidders into a business opportunity. Listing these types of auctions is against eBay’s policies, and many will be closed before the auction ends. However you should be able to gain at least a couple of feedbacks a week by bidding on them. Use the advance search feature to ferret them out. Search for the terms “no shipping”,”free shipping”, “free auction” or something similar in the auction description, and only search auctions that are between one and three cents.

Sort the results to display the auctions ending soonest, and bid on the ones ending in the next couple of days. Make sure you don’t win more than one from the same seller, as only the first feedback from each member will count in your rating.

We also mentioned selling some cheap items that bidders will be willing to risk a couple of bucks on. Small paperback books or other items around your house that are inexpensive to ship work well for this. Mark the shipping up by about a dollar more than it will actually cost to ship your item, and start the bidding at a penny. Even if the item only sells for a penny, you will probably break even on the auction after you pay your eBay and PayPal fees. Remember, this is about building feedback, and not about making money (yet).

With so much of today’s business being transacted online, computer security is a major issue affecting businesses and consumers. For online businesses, there can be problems in the form of stolen credit card information, mailing or personal information. If you are selling information, your content may be hacked into and copied. This affects the business and customer adversely, since the customer is likely to blame the online business. This erodes the image of your business and discourages other customers from trusting you with their information. No one likes their email inbox to be bombarded with viruses and spam. If they feel that your site has something to do with it, your business and reputation will suffer long term damage. To avoid problems with your business’s computer security, follow the guidelines listed below.

Never allow external storage devices:–

Do not permit anyone to take data out of your system in any form of external storage device, such as floppy disks, CDs etc. for any reason. Obviously, this compromises your safety and that of your customers.

Limit employee access:–

Restrict employee access to files, folders and areas within the system that they require in their day to day work. Do not allow anyone to gain access to any information that they do not require. Make sure that you install systems that lock out employees who do not have authorization.

Third party outsourcing:–

Outsource your payment system to a third party such as PayPal, so that your liability is reduced in case of any computer security problems. This third party will have the necessary technological support to ensure that the customer and your business are safe. But to be sure of this, you will need to do a thorough check on your selected provider or choose a reputable one.

Check on your technology vendor:–

It is important to ensure that your technology vendor has taken steps to protect the server and the software in your system appropriately with firewalls etc. If it is possible and affordable, look into getting a third party security audit of the system from both ends – the server provider & the software at your end since leaks may be from either end. Pages that contain sensitive data should be appropriately protected with software security locks.

Newsletter email lists:–

If you have a newsletter, make sure that your online business keeps its mailing list secure and that no recipient can tamper with it or gain access to the list. This is essential in protecting the privacy of your customer information.

Affiliations with reputable associations:–

Form affiliations with trusted business and computer security organizations, such as BBBOnline, to ensure that customers feel safe coming to your site. The additional benefit of this is the identification of any flaws in the security through a check up.

Educate customers:–

It is imperative to educate your customers about computer safety. Ensure that they know your online business will not send them emails soliciting information and that if they receive any such mail, they should report it to you at once.

Content:–

Protect your content by ensuring that it is safe behind firewalls and other applications that prohibit unauthorized entry. As for public content, simply provide your visitors with updated and informative content regularly since good quality cannot be copied.

While many fantastic wholesale sources can be found online, there are also a huge number of sites developed specifically to scam sellers looking for a good deal.

So how do you tell whether you are dealing with a real wholesale supplier?

First of all:

• A supplier may be selling fakes of big name brands but this doesn’t necessarily mean he is out to scam you. There are many suppliers in China and other countries selling fakes, but as long as you realize what you are buying, that is not a problem in itself.

• The supplier may say they can only accept Western union and wire transfers as payment. These are insecure payment methods, but for Chinese suppliers, these are often the only two options available as credit cards (and therefore Paypal) are almost impossible to get. You should always take the precaution of ordering only a small amount when dealing with a supplier who only takes Western Union and wire transfer for the first time, but many legitimate manufacturers and wholesalers use these methods out of necessity rather than because they are illegitimate.

The Warning Signs

Warning bells should start ringing if you come across any of the following:

• Fake address - either it doesn’t exist or it exists in a poor or residential area.

• No contact details listed on the website

• When you call, the telephone is answered by an individual who does not identify himself on picking up the phone.

• You are not asked for a business or tax number

• The company suddenly stop replying to your emails

• Parts of the text or images on their site are copies from other websites.

• When you place an order, the company claims they do not have any stock, but want to receive the money before ordering any in.

•Your contact becomes shifty when you ask for a product sample

Steps to Protecting Yourself

To find out whether you are dealing with a scammer, try these tips:

• Copy and paste some text into Google. If it is copied from another site, you’ll soon discover it in the search results.

• Check that the website gives a full business name and a registration number.

• Ring them to verify the phone number given is good, but don’t accept a mobile phone number as enough, all companies should have a land line number.

• As for a photograph of the stock with the company logo in the background.

• Go to http://www.coolwhois.com and search for the name of the website. A legitimate company will have been operating for over a year (at least!) and their expiration date will be for several years time. Most legitimate companies reserve their domain names for 3-5 years or more at a time.

• Use secure payment methods such as Escrow, Cod and Paypal Verified whenever possible.

• Ask other sellers what their experiences have been with the company on forums.

To many web users, PayPal is not the kind of pal they had
envisioned when starting their online business. Long on track
history but overwhelmingly unpopular among merchants and buyers
one is left to wonder why PayPal has continued to grow.

Ignorance and lack of knowledge has a lot to do with PayPal’s
growth. Many merchants are not aware of the potential problems
they can encounter depending solely on PayPal for their online
payment processing. That is, until they encounter potential
customers that won’t use PayPal to purchase their products or
services. Or worse, they have their PayPal merchant account
suspended and funds frozen without notice, effectively shutting
down their business.

If you really want to get some idea as to the depth of PayPal’s
unpopularity, you need only to do a search on Google. Type in
“PayPal Complaints” and click enter and see what happens. Over
335,000 results and still counting. No other online merchant
processor comes close to having this many dissatisfied customers.

‘Phishing’ is another reason many customers and potential
customers are steering clear of PayPal. Not that PayPal is doing
the ‘Phishing’, but they are certainly not making a big enough
effort to stop it. And why should they? They are not ‘Phishing’
and they are not losing money. Only the customer is. Virtually
100% of online ‘Phishing’ associated with merchant accounts is
done using the PayPal name. And even seasoned web users are
being scammed by this technique.

Customers can eliminate most, if not all, of the ‘Phishing’
associated with online purchasing by simply using a different
service. It is that simple! And there are plenty of good
alternatives to PayPal out there that are hungry for your
business. None are as big as PayPal and few have been around as
long as PayPal. But they are reputable and offer a wide variety
of services. And you most likely will never receive any
‘Phishing’ messages using their names.

So make the change now, before it is too late. Our advice is to
avoid PayPal if at all possible. And we also would advise you to
offer two different online payment options, with at least one
providing you with the ability to accept payments by check.

Following, you will find the most complete listing relating to
online payment options. Brief outlines are meant only to give
you an idea of what they have to offer. We would suggest taking
the time to visit each site. Your customers will thank you. And
you will most likely eliminate a lot of headaches in the process.

2CheckOut 2CheckOut has been offering its services since 1999.
2CheckOut charges $49.00 to open an account with transaction
fees of 5.5% plus 45 cents. It does not charge an application
fee nor does it impose any monthly or statement fees.
http://www.2CheckOut.com

BidPay BidPay has been in business since 1999 and offers
services intended for those that buy and sell at online
auctions. Sellers receive payments directly to their bank or via
Western Union® branded money orders. http://www.BidPay.com

BitPass No set-up or maintenance fees for self-installed
product. Fees for BitPass Professional range from 15% for items
priced $0.01-$5.00 up to 5% + $0.50 for items priced $5.00 and
higher. BitPass provides a platform for digital content commerce
that bundles authentication, payment, and access control.
BitPass enables a la carte and subscription-based purchases at
any price point, starting at just one cent. Digital content can
be Downloads - Music files, stock photography, games, software,
movies, mobile content, crafts; Website Access - Premium website
content, Interactive games, subscription sites, online comics,
blogs, interactive panoramic photography; Streaming Media -
internet radio, concerts, webisodes, movies; and Services -
premium database searches, web hosting services, webinars,
premium customer support, interactive learning and testing.
https://www.bitpass.com

CCNow CCNow is the perfect low cost solution to selling your
products online. With CCNow, you’ll avoid the up-front expense
and time required to set up e-commerce software, merchant
accounts, customer service and more. CCNow is a shopping cart
system that will allow you to take all major credit cards
without the need of a merchant account. http://www.CCNow.com

ClickBank If you have a unique product or service to sell, and
it is deliverable over the Internet itself (via web pages,
files, or email) then ClickBank is for you. They have 100,000
affiliates ready to promote your product. There is a one-time
set-up fee of $50.00. Transactions are $1.00 plus 7.5%.
http://www.ClickBank.com

DigiBuy Using DigiBuy’s ecommerce service, you can quickly and
inexpensively build a secure shopping cart to merchandise your
products, take orders online, process payments, and distribute
digital products over the Internet. Transaction fee is 13.9%
with a $3.00 minimum. http://www.DigiBuy.com

Ibill In business since 2002, Ibill is perfect for merchants
that sell services and subscriptions. Merchants can accept
payments online by credit card, check, and phone. Has numerous
fee schedules but the most common is for businesses that sell up
to $9,999.00 in a billing cycle. That charge is 15.19%.
http://www.ibill.com

Ikobo This is a money transfer service that has been providing
services since 2001. No application fee or set-up fees and
transaction fees range from $1.99 - $2.99 plus 29 cents.
Payments that are received are deposited to your Ikobo Visa
Debit Card or your bank account. http://www.IKobo.com

Moneybookers Ltd. Moneybookers enables any business or consumer
with an email address to securely and cost-effectively send and
receive payments online - in real-time! Moneybookers delivers a
product ideally suited for small businesses, online merchants,
individuals and others currently underserved by traditional
payment mechanisms. Does not charge for set-up or applying and
has no monthly fee. Transaction fees range from 2% - 8%,
depending on how payments are made. http://moneybookers.com

MonPay Monpay has been doing business since 2003. With it, you
can sell products and services on web sites, auctions, and even
by email. It does not charge for set-up or applying and has no
monthly or hidden fees. Transaction fees for checks or credit
cards are 2.95% plus 55 cents. http://www.monpay.com/

PayMate Claims it is the fastest and safest global trading
service on the Internet. It has no set-up fees, gateway fees,
etc. Has a very high User Satisfaction and continues to add new
improvements on a regular basis. Transaction fees for credit
card payments are charged at 2.4%. Please visit their web site
for more information on transaction fees.
http://www.paymate.com.au

PaySat With PaySat you can sell your products/services Online
and enjoy such features as: International Merchants Accepted;
Instant Application Approval; Product and Recurring Billing;
Easy To Use Plug-N-Play Code; Flat Low Rates; No Set-up Fee;
Multi domain/brand support; and Intelligent Fraud Detection
System. PaySat is only in its 2nd year of operation but has a
pretty good reputation. Transaction fees are 5.3% plus 39 cents.
http://www.paysat.com

Paystone Great service that started in 2002. Free to open an
account with instant approval. Fees to receive payments range
from 2.8% + $0.10 for micropayments to 2.8% + $0.30 for
transactions over $5.00. There are no set-up or monthly fees.
http://www.paystone.com

PaySystems PaySystems Internet Merchant Account Solution is
designed to meet the specific needs of Internet and
mail/telephone order merchants. Available for U.S. and
European-based businesses, the PaySystems Internet Merchant
Account Solution allows merchants to expand their payment
options, increase sales and focus their management efforts on
growing their business. PaySystems has no application fees and
no merchant account set-up fees. Offers highly competitive rates
on transaction fees but you must contact them using their online
form at http://eforms.paysystems.com/ps/info/ for more
information. http://www.paysystems.com

ProPay USA With ProPay, merchants can accept payments by credit
card on the Internet and by phone. There is no expensive
equipment, no statement / gateway fees and no long term
contracts to use their service. Annual fees range from $34.95 -
$299.95 with transaction fees ranging from 3.50% plus $0.35 to
2.69% plus $0.25, depending on the type of account you desire.
http://www.ProPay.com

RegNow RegNow is the software industry’s premier registration
commerce provider. RegNow makes running a successful online
shareware or software publisher business easy by putting a
highly advanced platform, customizable technology and powerful
resources right at your fingertips. No charge to apply but there
is a one-time account activation fee of$9.95 and transaction fee
is 16% with a $2.00 minimum charge. http://www.regnow.com/

RegSoft.com In business since 1998, RegSoft.com provides an easy
system for users to pay for software and data licensing fees by
providing a variety of payment methods. There is a one-time
set-up fee of $50.00 and transactions are processed at 8.9% with
a $3 minimum. http://www.regsoft.com

share-it! share-it! is used by over 30,000 Software Publishers
for their e-Commerce Solution. share-it! works on a commission
basis. In other words, after licensing your program, they retain
a service charge of either USD/EUR* 2.95 + 5% (Pricing Model A)
or 14.9% but no less than USD/EUR* 2.50 (Pricing Model B) and )
and forward the remaining amount to you. http://www.shareit.com

StormPay A very good service which has been around since 2002.
Free to open an account with instant approval. Fees to receive
payments are 6.9% plus 69 cents. There are no set-up or monthly
fees. https://www.stormpay.com

SWREG SWREG, the oldest online software store in the world, has
been in existence since 1987. All their prices include credit
card processing on their merchant account. Technically, you sell
to SWREG on consignment and they sell on to the end user. SWREG
accepts Micro Payments for 69 cents for items to $7 in value.
Default discount is $1 + 6% with a minimum fee of $1.50 (2%
surcharge for American Express). This account will be charged a
$20 monthly fee with the first payment to you each month made
with no transmission costs (free wire for instance). Visit
http://www.swreg.org/pages/pricing.htm for complete pricing
information. http://www.swreg.org

YowCow YowCow is a new company that offers online processing and
a 5-level deep affiliate program. No merchant account is needed
and you can begin selling today with no monthly fees and a free
shopping cart. Has numerous account plans available. Please
visit http://www.yowcow.com/yowcow.php?module=pricing for
in-depth information. http://www.yowcow.com

Other Options Worth A Look:

Cardservice International at http://www.charge-it-now.com
Charge.Com at http://www.charge.com/index.shtml Credit Card
Processing Services at http://www.mcvisa.com Free-Merchant.com
at http://www.free-merchant.com Free Merchant Source at
http://www.freemerchantsource.com e-gold at
http://www.e-gold.com GreenZap at
http://www.greenzap.com/default.asp IntGold at
http://intgold.com Merchant Warehouse at
http://www.merchantwarehouse.com Peppercoin at
http://corp.peppercoin.com Total Payment Solutions at
http://www.totalpaymentsolutions.com VirtualBank at
http://www.virtualbank.com

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When you first look into the numerous eBay business opportunities websites, you may feel that it’s too big, complicated and confusing. You might even believe that only Internet professionals or Internet veterans can figure out its complexities and find an eBay business opportunity. Fortunately, this assumption isn’t true.

If you take advantage of an eBay business opportunity, you may come to realize that even Internet novices can easily learn and succeed. In fact, most eBay business opportunities are conceived out of resourcefulness and not out of Internet intricacy. People with just about any Internet skill level can earn substantial profits just by taking the time to find the right eBay business opportunity.

EBay is constantly expanding and improving. Continuous changes are implemented. For every improvement on an existing eBay business opportunity or newly introduced scheme, the basics are always outlined. You are sure to find that it’s fairly effortless and relatively simple. Even more, you don’t have to take tremendous risks when you try out an eBay business opportunity, whether as seller or buyer.

It is understandable why people around the world look into eBay business opportunities. There are chances of succeeding and earning impressive profits on eBay with less risk and cost involved.

Regularly, there is an ingenious eBay business opportunity that’s waiting to be discovered. One method can even translate to a large sum of money in a matter of three days.

This eBay business opportunity springs up when you buy an item on eBay that had resale rights. Then, negotiate an agreement with an eBay power seller.

Here’s the scenario: there is a popular product up for sale at $10 and then, suddenly reduced to $5. While this sudden reduction could be reason for caution, if this offer is given to you by someone you’ve already bought similar items from before, you can be confident that the offer can be trusted.

This half-price offer may be available for only 48 hours, though. This limited time is because the person offering the half-priced item has an agreement with the seller. The condition for the sale is to offer half price for a period of 2 days only.

So, the outcome is that the half price offer is an opportunity too lucrative to ignore. In the scenario, 3 out of 10 people offered this eBay business opportunity decide to buy. This percentage of involvement is consistent, every time such eBay business opportunity is offered!

For example, let’s assume that 200 people are offered this eBay business opportunity. Add it up: multiply a third of 200 by $5, then expect to find that amount in your bank account in a matter of 3 days!

That’s not even all of it. Imagine the item has a higher price. Even if it is slashed by half, it would still get you generous profits once you see the lump sum on the bank.

Are you excited yet? This eBay business opportunity, like most others, works fairly simply. You could apply this idea to products that are especially on demand and highly desirable. Also, find out if someone else offers the same item for a lower price.

The next step is to send an email to an eBay power seller or someone you know with a credible eBay shop. Be sure to stipulate that if they will offer your item to their past buyers at half price, you’ll go for 50-50 profit sharing. But be certain they are selling similar products you are offering. Doing so will help them take an interest and find that the eBay business opportunity you’re offering them is hard to pass up.

Settle issues with payments by creating a free web site and following its instructions. You can also set up a PayPal link in it. Once someone agrees to add your item to their listed items, send them a link to your temporary website. The power sellers will then send emails that include your temporary half-price offer and your website link to all of their past buyers. In order to inspire some urgency to buy, the email focuses on the fact that the eBay business opportunity being offered to them is limited and gives the offer’s expiration date.

Consequently, after the 2-day period, you close down the temporary website, evaluate your sales and show it to the power seller you worked with. As promised, pay the 50% of the earnings to the power seller’s Paypal account. The other half of the earnings is yours to keep.

There you have it, another eBay business opportunity that’s sure to provide positive results and a tidy profit. The key to your success is to take advantage of the opportunity and never be intimidated.

- Résumé Lies and Half Truths -

According to the résumés that are distributed to large
corporations and small businesses, only good guys look for jobs.
This seems to be especially true in the Information Technology
field. You will never see a résumé that shows that a project was
cancelled, or that the programmer was removed from a project due
to his inability to meet the needs of the company or a client.
Instead, the résumé’s all show that only the best of the best
are looking for work.

If they are the best of the best - then why are they seeking
work? Why have they had so many different jobs? Why aren’t these
companies treating these IT professionals better? Well, the fact
is that the majority of résumés submitted are full of lies and
half truths. Unfortunately, when a company checks a potential
employee or contractors work history, they are very limited in
the questions that they are allowed to ask - and past employers
are often reluctant to give information, sticking with
employment dates and starting and ending salary information.

Work history and performance aren’t the only lies and half
truths that you will find on a résumés. People also tend to lie
about their education and accomplishments. They know that even
though their education can easily be checked, most employers
won’t take the time or use the resources to do this. They also
know that accomplishments are rarely checked - so they can
easily get away with stretching the truth, or telling a straight
out lie.

Personal references are also useless when it comes to finding
out about someone. Do you really think that they would list
someone that would say negative things about them? Of course
they won’t. They are only going to give you the names,
addresses, and telephone numbers of people who will make them
look good - and then they are going to coach those people about
what to say and what not to say before you call.

With all of these résumé lies and half truths, it is almost
impossible to find IT professionals that can handle the job that
you are trying to fill. Many employers have even started
contacting IT schools to hire students and recent graduates -
who are vastly inexperienced - just to avoid the possibility of
hiring someone who has lied on their résumé. When they do hire
someone who has lied, they often find out - too late - that the
person did not have the necessary skills to handle their IT
project. This costs the employers hundreds and even thousands of
dollars in lost time, lost clients, and salaries that are paid
out to these unskilled people.

This problem exists for corporate employers who are trying to
fill permanent or long term IT positions, as well as for small
business owners who need to hire IT professionals on a
project-by-project basis. Until a few years ago, these employers
had to take their chances and hope for the best. Today, however,
there is a better way.

Back in January of 2001, a gentleman named Ian Ippolito had an
idea. Ippolito is a programmer with a bachelor’s degree in
Computer Science from the University of Central Florida. His
idea came about when he was getting more requests for
programming work than he could possibly handle. By the middle of
2001, Ippolito had a way to meet the needs of clients that he
was being forced to turn away due to time constraints. ‘Rent a
Coder’ was born, and by the following year, over 1400 software
projects were being completed every month. Today, close to 9000
projects are completed monthly, and that number continues to
rise.

Rent a Coder is described as an international
marketplace, where people and companies that need custom
software developed can find programmers - or coders - without
worrying about losing their money. The coders are equally
protected as well, meaning that they don’t have to worry about
completing jobs and not getting paid for them. People from all
over the world are able to do business together in a safe, web
based environment. Good coders don’t lack for work, and good
buyers don’t lack for coders who are willing and able to do the
work.

While Rent a Coder was originally intended for software buyers
and programmers, today many different types of projects go
through the site, such as content writing, linking projects, and
other short term virtual assistant projects. There are currently
over 42,000 buyers registered with Rent a Coder, and over
110,000 coders are available.

Rent a Coder has an excellent system that works well for both
coders and buyers. First, when a buyer has a software need, or
other need that can be filled by a freelancer, they can sign up
for a free account at Rent a Coder. Buyers are never charged a
fee for using the site’s services, and they are not charged a
fee on projects either. The only way buyers are charged fees is
when a project is cancelled after a bidder has been chosen- and
even then, the cancellation fee may be the responsibility of the
coder, or split between the coder and the buyer, depending on
the circumstances.

It literally takes less than ten minutes to set up a buyers
account on Rent a Coder. To protect the coders, the buyer must
go through a short verification process. This is done by
telephone and it is automated. The buyer can choose to pay for
projects through paypal ( http://www.paypal.com ) or with his or
her credit card. This information is entered in when setting up
the buyers account, and is part of the verification process.
This phase of the verification process can take up to
twenty-four hours, because it is handled by humans. No charges
are made to the buyer’s credit card or paypal account until he
sets up a bid request and chooses a winning bidder.

When setting up a bid request, the buyer has many options. He
can set the maximum amount that he is willing to pay for
completion of the project, describe the project and requirements
that must be met, set a deadline for bidding, and a deadline for
project completion, and choose certain skills that bidders
should have, such as web design, c++ programming, or writing
skills. Setting up a bid request often takes less than ten
minutes, and the Rent a Coder staff approves bid requests for
publication to the site within hours, and sometimes even within
minutes.

Then, the bidding starts. No matter how big or how small your
project is, there will be plenty of bidders to choose from. As
bids come in, the buyer can look at the bidder’s profiles. Here,
they will find information that they would never find on a
résumé. They can see where the coder is located, how they are
rated, how long they have been a member of Rent a Coder, the
last date and time that they were logged into the site, how many
jobs they have completed through the site, and how many jobs
that they have in progress.

Then, they can see even more interesting information, such as
how many arbitrations a buyer has had. Arbitrations occur when
there is a conflict between a buyer and a coder. The results of
arbitrations are listed near the bottom of the page with the
coder’s reviews. Many buyers require coders to submit status
reports every Friday. This is common for long term projects and
required for projects over a certain amount of money. On the
coder’s profile, the buyer can see how many status reports the
coder missed, if any.

Education, which is commonly lied about on résumés, doesn’t
matter quite as much on Rent a Coder. The coder can submit their
résumé, which becomes part of their profile, and they usually
list any education they have had, but Rent a coder has a better
plan. Rent a Coder is partnered with ‘Expert Rating’ at
http://www.expertrating.com . Coders who are serious about their
work and their reputations can take certification tests through
Expert Rating, and their certifications appear on their Rent a
Coder profiles. This takes away the need to check a coder’s
education to determine whether or not they have the skills that
your project requires. Coder’s are not required to take the
certification tests however - but the one’s that are serious
about their work often do get certified.

After the Expert Rating certifications listing on the profile,
the buyer can view the résumé that the coder has posted. Most
buyer’s only give this a cursory glance, because they are much
more interested in what is below that résumé. The Rent a Coder
All Coder Competition Scores comes after the résumé and this
tells a buyer how a coder ranks overall on the Rent a Coder
site. This score is calculated using a formula consisting of the
number of jobs a coder has completed, the amount of money they
were paid, their ratings for each job, and whether status report
deadlines and project deadlines were met.

Coders take this rating and competition quite seriously. It
often means the difference between winning and losing bids. I
have completed over 500 jobs through RentACoder successfully.
When someone wants to hire me, they simply look at my profile,
where they can see how past buyers have rated me, and read the
reviews of my work I have been rated by hundreds buyers that I
have performed services for, and I have an average rating of
9.92. I am certified professional, I have missed no status
reports, and I have never lost an arbitration. I have a Top
Coder rating, and is quickly on my way to becoming one of the
Top 10 Coders at Rent a Coder. When a potential buyer considers
hiring me, they are usually quite impressed with the reviews
that past buyers left behind on my profile.

The rating system is one of the better features of the Rent a
Coder site. When a coder completes a job, the buyer can rate
them, on a scale of 1 to 10, and they can write a review on the
work that was done. These reviews and ratings are better than
any polished résumé that you could receive. There are no lies
here - the information left behind by past buyers who have
worked with the coders is absolutely honest - and the coder
can’t do anything to hide that information from you - other than
to close that coder account and open a new one, which is seldom
done. New coders find that it is difficult to get their foot in
the door - with no jobs completed and no ratings or reviews.
Furthermore, if a coder gets caught doing this, they get banned
from the site permanently.

Of course, all of this works well in reverse too. The coders
also get to rate the buyers. After a job is completed, they
coder rates the buyer on a scale of 1 to 10, and can write a
review on their experience with the buyer. This alerts other
coders to buyers who are difficult to work with, or who are slow
to respond, or slow to release escrowed funds after work is
completed. Before bidding on jobs, coders usually take a look at
the buyer’s profile, which is set up almost just like the coders
profile, with only a few differences.

When a buyer accepts a bid, the money for the bid amount is
moved into an escrow account by Rent a Coder, where it remains
until the coder reports the work as complete, and the buyer
accepts the work as 100% complete. When the buyer accepts the
work, the funds are released to the coder’s account, and coder’s
are paid through paypal, western union, or check either once or
twice a month, depending on the options that the coder chooses.

This process of escrowing funds protects both the coder and the
buyer. The coder knows that they will get paid, and the buyer
knows that is the coder does not complete the work as agreed,
they can put the project into arbitration, and a Rent a Coder
arbitrator will listen to both sides and make a determination
about releasing the funds. The arbitrator facilitators are
completely neutral, and award the funds based on the facts that
they have. That is why both the coder and buyer are encouraged
to keep all communications going through the Rent a Coder
website, so that there is proof as to what was asked, what was
said, and what was done.

With sites like Rent a Coder, the days of lying on résumés are
quickly coming to an end. By hiring coders through Rent a Coder,
buyers save money because the competition between the coders
keeps prices down. The buyer doesn’t have to worry about losing
their money, or paying large salaries or benefits for a full
time or temporary employee, and they can avoid hiring IT
professionals who turn out to be anything but professional!

Copyright 2005 - Sergey I.Grachyov

I created my website on freewebs but it has a domain name

Yes you can, you just put a link on.

I found one that might be trust worthy. It's http://www.authorizenet.com/ Anybody heard about it? Know if its any good?

Pay Pal can't be trusted.

I would like to know before I get this account. The account is for students 18+

yes!!!