Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. Nowadays, there are many corporate leading the way in blogging activities. Corporate blogs are giving established companies and obscure brands alike the ability to connect with their audiences on a more personal level, build trust, collect valuable feedback and foster strengthened business relationships. More importantly, these companies are enjoying tangible returns in their blogging investment in the form of increased sales, partnerships, business opportunities, press coverage and lead generation.

There have 3 types of corporate blogs. 1st is internal blogs, generally accessed through the corporation’s intranet which is used in lieu of meeting and e-mail discussion. 2nd is external blogs, is a publicly available weblog where company employees teams or spokespersons share their views and it often used to announce new products and services. 3rd is CEO blogs, although there are debated on whether CEOs should blog or not, blogging among CEOs is becoming popular.

In addition, companies that harness their customers’ knowledge and ideas find better ways to satisfy their needs and wants, thus facilitating goodwill in the community. For example, it is a common practice in blogging to provide a link back to a thought originator, which is valuable because backlinks are a way that search engines distinguish the order of the editorial rankings. Higher search engine rankings translate into significantly higher web site traffic and more sales leads. Thus, successful blogging breeds success in other marketing and sales initiatives.

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

Auction is a market mechanism by which sellers place items for buyers to make bids online. E-auction is auction conducted online and it has been in existence for several years.

However, there may be some fraud conducted by sellers, buyers, or others. This fraud such as bid shielding, shilling, fake photo and misleading descriptions, improper grading techniques, bid siphoning, selling reproductions as originals, failure to pay, failure to pay the Auction House, high shipping costs and handling fees, failure to ship merchandise, loss and damage claims, fake escrow services, switch and return and other frauds.

To prevent e-auction fraud, there are some services provided in internet. For example, Escrow.com protects online buyers and sellers from fraud by providing Escrow service. For buyers, receive merchandise before the seller is paid; for sellers, protect from credit card and payment fraud. For buyers to be protected, Escrow.com tracks the shipped merchandise and verifies it was delivered. Besides, the seller isn’t paid until the buyer accepts the merchandise, or the inspection period expires. For sellers to be protected, Escrow.com confirms when the buyer receives merchandise. Further, the seller is authorized to ship only after Escrow.com verifies good funds.Escrow.com reduces the potential risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third party that collects, holds and disburses funds according to Buyer and Seller instructions. Escrow services are provided by a licensed and regulated escrow company.

Other protecting against e-auction fraud are user identity verification, authentication service, grading services, feedback forum, insurance policy, nonpayment punishment, appraisal services, physical inspection, item verification and other security services.

E-Government in Malaysia: e-filing

e-Filing is an application on filling and filing income tax returns electronically via the internet, which is an alternative to the usual manual from submission. It was first introduced in 2003 by Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN). This e-Filing application can be used by all taxpayers who have access to the internet.

There are some basic requirements for e-Filing, such as digital certificate, income tax reference number, internet connection, internet explorer 5.0 software, Adobe Reader 7.05 software and so on. Before commencing e-Filing, taxpayer should prepare his/her IC number, tax reference number which available on the tax form. The e-filing PIN No, LHDN will send the PIN number through the taxpayer’s designated mailing address.

It is easy for taxpayers submit their return form via internet at any time and any place. The data and tax computation also are verified automatically which are more accurate compared to the manual procedure. Furthermore, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) ensures safety of data. When the tax returns are filed manually, refunds are slow and time consumed. Through the e-Filing, the forms can be processed in a short time and this enables refunds to be processed fast.

Taxpayers can now submit their tax details to Inland Revenue Board via e-filing without worrying about making mistakes by making use of TaxSaya, a tax tool (http://www.taxsaya.com/). It is developed by EA-Link System Sdn Bhd, the software comes in three languages, Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin to help taxpayers in understanding the e-filing procedures. After the users fill up sections of the form, it will automatically calculate the amount of tax payable, including offering e-Filing template without having to go through the problems of calculating the tax.

For further information, visit http://e.hasil.org.my/ or call the customer service centre: 1300-88-3010

Review A Local E-Commerce Site ---- CocoBobo.com

CocoBobo.Com Fashion Gallery is a sophisticated and stylish online boutique that offers mainly Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan clothing at affordable price. CocoBobo.com established in 2007, it allows shoppers to enjoy their shopping at anytime, anywhere without the hassle of traffic jam, constraint of parking lot.

CocoBobo.com provides clear image, brief description and measurement to guide shoppers step by step in order to make their shopping experience easy and fun. They also offer FREE Delivery within Malaysia territory with no minimum quantity purchases required. So that shoppers can feel free to drop their order at anytime.

CocoBobo.com does not include sophisticated or large files that may lead to slow down the download speed so that it could be useful in leaving on the shoppers who is the first time on the page. Web of CocoBobo.com contain a lot of pictures that seen to be attractive. They also provide many call to actions such as "Contact us", "How to order", "Add to cart" and so on. By using such call to actions allow shoppers to actively and effectively do something.

CocoBobo.com does not provide any search engine BUT the shoppers can browse by category such as "bottoms", "top" and "dresses" to search for products. By clicking the "Shopping cart" and "Checkout" it make it easy for buyers to check items buy, add or remove items, change quantities, or select different models and styles of a product. It also includes a link to a page detailing customer service policies, such as warranties, delivery guarantees, return policy, and accuracy of information.

Payment method use by CocoBobo.com for Malaysia shoppers is to direct deposit or fund transfer to their Maybank or RHB bank account. Once payment is made the delivery will be processed and the shoppers may expect to receive their goods within 3 to 5 working days.

To enjoy online shopping with CocoBobo.com Fashion Gallery, click here!

A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog.

Recently I have review on a post on e-Tailing from My E-Commerce blog, http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing. Now I would like to share my opinion with you.

In my mind, the online sales goods consumers purchased should be something related to computer like hardware and software. I think most of the people will think so too. However, from the blog, I found that, there is a change in 2006 showing that consumers spent more on clothes rather than computers.

It is surprisingly for me to know that, the spending for apparel, accessories and footwear sales hit US$18.3 (RM64) billion as compare to US$17.2 (RM60) billion for computers. This result is reported by Shop.org. There is a different of US$1.1(RM4) billion. In my opinion, this is because after sales service is more important for computer compare to clothes. Consumers will prefer purchases computer in physical market rather than by online transaction. Besides, the quality of online product is suspicion. Computer is much more expensive compare to clothes. If there is default in online product and cannot be exchange, consumers would not like to buy things which are expensive.

The online travel expenses is US$73.4 billion of the online transactions, topping the e-tailing market. This shows that, many people spend on online traveling. In my opinion, this is because online traveling may have discount compare to physical market. Traveling company try to avoid agent fees which need in physical market to reduce cost. This will bring more profit for the traveling company. For consumers, they also benefit from discount given online.

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Bankruptcy is a very real possibility for many people these days. Credit card debt is the one of the factor that cause most of the people suffered. It is because credit card is convenience to them buying without carry cash around. Many people lack the knowledge of how to handle credit and have attitudes that suggest that debt is acceptable. Other than that, Poor planning, overspending, lack of savings, high-interest loans also will lead to owing too much of credit card debt.

Following are 4 steps to prevent credit card debt.

Step 1: create a budget. A clear budget that includes all the monthly bill entertainment, food will prevent from over spending.

Step 2: maintain clear financial records and a regular payment schedule. When you pay your bills on time and you able to determine hoe much you have to spend for the month ahead.

Step 3: only use credit when you can pay it off within a few months. The longer it takes you to pay off the debt, the more interest that debt will incur and the more you will end up paying.

Step 4: Shred or tear up credit card applications that come to you in the mail. Just because you get the application doesn't mean you need or want the card. Destroying the application will prevent you from using it and protect you from potential identity thieves

Electronic Currency – e-gold

e-gold, operational since 1996, is an electronic currency issued by e-gold Ltd, a Nevis corporation. It is 100% backed by gold bullion, other e-metals also had issued, e-silver, e-platinum, and e-palladium is 100% backed by silver, platinum and palladium respectively.

e-gold is integrated into an account based payment system that empowers people to use gold as money. It is accounted by weight of metal, not any national currency unit. As weight units have a precise, invariable, internationally recognized definition, and have a long history of monetary use around the world. Thus, e-gold is ideally suited for international transactions. Nowadays, e-gold is used in e-commerce, business-to-business payments, person-to-person payments, payroll, bill payments, charitable donations and other aspects.

There are some benefits for using e-gold. It is low cost of transaction fee on all transactions between e-gold customers, which the maximum fee for receiving payment is 50 cents. It costs nothing to open an e-gold account and there is no minimum balance requirement.
e-gold is borderless and it may be Spent to any other e-gold account anywhere in the world via the e-gold shopping cart interface, the e-gold Account Manager, or web enabled mobile phone.
e-gold payments clear instantaneously with no chargeback risk, no matter how large the payment or how far apart the Spender and Recipient. In addition, e-gold is 100% backed by gold bullion, it minimizes exchange risk and make the payments more safety and convenient.

There also has extraordinary governance and security. All transactions are on-line with access requiring account number, passphrase, Turing number, and IP address confirmation. Transactions also settled immediately, records are maintained on dedicted servers, data integrity is highly controlled, and all hardware and software has a strong backup and continuity program.

For more detailed information about e-gold, please visit http://www.e-gold.com/