Amazon.com's Privacy Policy

Amazon.com's privacy policy can be found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468496

I like that they allow you to see how their policies have changed over the years. I'm also surprised at how much information is actually collected, such as cookies, when you open their emails, etc. Most surprising to me is the the info they get from unnamed "other sources," which upon further inspection includes your credit info!!!! They claim that it is to help with fraud, but I somehow am doubting that very much. They also pretty much state that the info you provide them and that they collect could end up anywhere due to their affiliates, independent stores, third-party service providers, etc. Of course they claim they follow the letter of the law when it comes to all of this sharing. To end on a high note, they do not allow children under 18 to purchase from them, they participate int eh Safe Harbor Program, and they encrypt all our collected info using SSL to help secure against unscrupulous hackers from obtaining and stealing from their customers.

All in all, I am a little more weary about the info that I want to share on Amazon and am a little unhappy with the amount I may have already shared. They are a stand up company I think, but I do think their may be too many hands in the cookie jar for them to be in complete control.

E-Commerce Site and Marketing Strategies

The E-commerce site that I chose to evaluate is actually the company that I work for. www.fanpagesforrealestate.com.

As a company we actually sell social media services to other companies as well as coaching to help them maximize their results. Social media is a huge part of our business and we have a Facebook fan page, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and a blog. On top of that, they are members of BNI networks, Active Rain, and several real estate groups that they regularly participate in. We have a graphic/web designer on board who works on our SEO presence. Currently, we also have partnerships with some mortgage companies and real estate education places to help facilitate word of mouth and to be included in their events. I am the one and only Social Media Consultant and therefore most of my job revolves around customer relationship management. The only things I see that we are not (yet anyway) participating in are the contextual advertising and affiliate marketing.

Basic ebusiness Outline

The ename of my business is called Jacquelynnz Photography.

The service I sell is (family, baby, pet) portraits, real estate photography, and event photography. In addition I sell artistic images, greeting cards, photo calendars, and digital imagery.

This business is very real to me.

I will use Merchant business model, which is to sell my goods (photo
cards, photography images, calendars, digital images) and services (portraits,
pets, real estate, commercial). This will cover both real goods that the
customer can purchase as I have made them or digital images to be used on their
website, logos, etc.
I would also incorporate the Advertising business model to places such as
Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. in order to drive the service end of my business.
When I do a portrait session, it is important to give my clients places to print
the images I have captured for them.

My project involves emarketing because the majority of my marketing is online via Facebook, Twitter, and my website. I only have my greeting cards in one store, so the remainder of how I sell the real goods portion of my business is through online avenues such as my Etsy shop.

My Chosen Business Model

We start with the Merchant business model, which is to sell my goods (photo cards, photography images, calendars, digital images) and services (portraits, pets, real estate, commercial). This will cover both real goods that the customer can purchase as I have made them or digital images to be used on their website, logos, etc.

I would also incorporate the Advertising business model to places such as Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. in order to drive the service end of my business. When I do a portrait session, it is important to give my clients places to print the images I have captured for them.

E-Commerce Payment Provider - Paypal

The scenario I am going with for what I would need as a functional e-commerce sight would be to sell my photography and the photo cards that I hand make; along with calendars and other such novelty. Therefore I don't think I would see huge traffic in the beginning (in my dreams I do though) and the purchases would be very specialized as opposed to the variety on Amazon or Overstock.

Paypal offers a standard package that has no monthly fee, no set-up fee, no monthly minimum requirements, and no cancellation fees. The highest fees that would be paid per transaction are 2.9% + 0.30. There is no credit application, which means I don't have to share my social security number with them. It's an easy set up and is compatible with most shopping cart options. People can 'Buy Now,' 'Subscribe,' 'Add to Cart,' make recurring payments, or 'Donate.' This leave multiple purchases, subscriptions, and charity open to me.

I can also download reports and logs, have a back up person with access, and do specific transaction searches. All important to stay on top of profits and losses. I can transfer the money from Paypal to my bank account, withdraw it from an ATM, and use it to purchase in other places, such as to replenish my supplies without having to wait or get my bank involved.

Paypal automatically takes care of taxes to charge. They also account for shipping and I can even print my shipping labels without ever having to go to the post office. They are a secure payment site and therefore, you have someone to lean on should their be a breech. They also offer various ways to support including email and phone.

All in all, the standard package would be great for any small business! In fact, that's all I accept when I sell through Ebay or my Etsy shop!

What does Comcast Offer businesses via Email?

I specifically chose Comcast because...well...I dislike the company immensley. I have them as a home servie and speaking with them on the phone drives me insane. So I chose to email them to see if they could redeem themselves in my eyes since they boast so highly at a business standpoint. (On a side note, I found it interesting that when you request to speak with them via email, it asks what category your "problem" falls under. I wouldn't look at giving them new business as a problem? Or would I?)

My original message:

" I am looking for a network internet package for my office of a dozen people. What are your packages/recommendations? Please communicate via email only. Thank you."

In a nut shell, I received an email back within 24 hours letting me know that they wanted to get this going for me as fast as possible; they must mean it, they said it four times in the first paragraph. Then she goes on to tell me that they treat business customers faster and more efficiently than their regular customers. That explains a lot. Then she goes on to tell me that she isn't trained to deal with business customers so I need to contact the right department. Now, if I was an actual business customer, I would be on the phone with Verizon by now, but for these purposes, I pop onto www.Comcast.com and click on business services. There I can shop by size of my business (less than 20 people) and there I see that I can have their business class Internet service that is faster than T1 and DSL. It also comes with some free goodies like Cloud Service, Norton protection, a starter web page, Outlook, and Sharepoint. Prices range from $59.95 - $369.95 depending on the extra services you wish to have. Maybe if I had just started on their website and not relied on their customer service, I would have gone with Comcast =).

Google Profits

Current financial information found at:

http://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html

So far for 2011, Google's revenue growth is up 27% in Quarter 1 and 32% in Quarter 2. In 2010, they were only up 24%, and in 2009, the revenue growth rate was only 9%. So in the past 3 years, Google profits have been on the rise.

Future predictions for Google were a little harder to come by suprisingly. According to the Huffington Post, Facebook is going to surpass Google and Yahoo in 2011 and 2012 with advertising profits, which is Google's main source of income. As second Quarter earnings were reported, Wall Street's predictions of a drop off were put to bed. Another Wall Street prediction since the acquisition of Motorola and Android in August, they now predict that what they will lose in advertising revenue, they will more than make up for in their new purchase. As for specific numbers, I couldn't come up with those. I am interested to see if anyone else found it and where!