December 27, 2005
Archive | December, 2005
December 26, 2005
DVD Support on Ubuntu Breezy
The other evening I wanted to watch a DVD on my new laptop.
When I originally setup my desktop PC I installed all the required libraries and codecs for DVDs etc., without keeping any record of where I got them from.
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December 24, 2005
The Famine Mentality
Why is it that anytime there is a bank holiday the shops go crazy?
I can understand that people need to buy their “last minute” Christmas presents etc., but do they really need to buy that much food??? You’d think the shops were closing for a week or two.
On my way out of Carlow the other afternoon we tried to get into the local Tesco, but there was a tailback. Today I ventured over to the new shopping complex in Midleton… Not the best idea I’ve had this week, admittedly, but unfortunately it was necessary.
The place was packed with people hording for the “break”… Considering that most shops will actually be reopening on the 26th or 27th….
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December 23, 2005
Google Customer Disservice – eWeek
I’ve posted a couple of times in the last few months about my mixed feeling towards Google.
Yesterday I was contacted by an American journalist who was doing a story on Google’s customer service – or rather the lack thereof.
Yesterday evening was also the evening that I was heading out to meet some of the guys for a pre-Christmas drink, so I replied to the journalist’s email very quickly without doing any further digging.
This morning when I fell out of bed I got several news alerts for both my name and that of the company. It transpires that the journalist was writing for eWeek and my comments are in one of the articles there:
Googleites Gripe About Sloppy Service
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December 22, 2005
Adsense Christmas Adverts
I’d heard that adsense were rolling out the “seasonal” ads to publishers, but I hadn’t seen any until this morning when I was checking search.ie
It’s quite cute
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December 21, 2005
Irish Blogs – New Button
Frank has provided a new ranking button for any member sites ofIrish Blogs. I put it live about 10 minutes ago.
I hope you all like it.. If you don’t … well .. em … I like it and so does Frank, so .. em .. well .. I’m not going to change it 
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December 20, 2005
Wanderly Wagon Returns – Ebay.ie
December 19, 2005
E-commerce Cheat Sheet (part 1)
One of the more commonly asked questions on both mailing lists and fora is related to e-commerce, or more specifically accepting payments on your website.
I’ve put together this brief guide in order to help webmasters, or at least point them in the right direction.
If anybody has any additions or corrections please let me know.
First off you need to ask yourself a very obvious question:
Is your product or service suitable for sale online?
This may seem like a really silly question, but if you look back at some of the disasters during the dotcom boom it is still a valid one.
The next question is a natural followon from the first…
How are you going to deliver the goods or services?
If you are delivering a service or digital download this shouldn’t be a big issue, but if you are selling a tangible product you will need to sort out the logistics side of things.
What is your target market?
Although some goods and services may have a “universal” appeal most are aimed at a particular segment and possibly a particular geographical area.
The answers to the above questions may help with your overall business plan, but more importantly, they will also help determine the most suitable method of payment collection.
So what are your options?
If you are an established business you probably already have a business account with your bank. If that is the case you may be in a position to enquire about getting an online merchant account. Bear in mind that an online merchant account is not the same as a standard merchant account.
Depending on the bank that you are dealing with you will be asked a variety of questions related to the type of transactions you will be conducting and the processes you will have in place to ensure security.
The simplest way to deal with the processes is to use a 3rd party gateway solution, such as that provided by Realex.
Depending on your technical abilities you can choose how much of the process you wish to outsource to them.
Other options that you will come across include companies such as Worldpay.
Worldpay is not a gateway – it’s owned by Bank of Scotland and can actually organise a form of merchant account for you. Although it is popular in some circles it comes with quite a few restrictions and hidden charges which render it highly unattractive in many instances.
If your volume (or predicted volume) of online sales is low it may be hard to justify the expense of setting up a merchant account. However there are other ways to handle transactions.
2Checkout.com is a very mature system which you can setup for a very low fee. It offers several options including multiple currencies and a shopping cart system that you can use.
While the cost of setting up with them is not particularly high you do pay higher rates. It’s very good until your sales volumes grow to a high enough figure to allow you to consider a full merchant account
Paypal is now fully functional in the Irish market, so you can send and receive money easily and withdraw to your Irish bank account without any issues.
Paypal fully integrates with hundreds of shopping cart systems and is a globally recognised brand. In terms of usage it is probably the easiest method of taking money online, while it also offers some of the most advanced functions via its API and developer network.
The costs per transaction are ideal for low to medium value items, although for higher ticket sales the commission / rates can be crippling.
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December 19, 2005
IE Domain Pricing Slashed
December 17, 2005
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