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What You Need To Know About Marketing Actions & Performance

Mittwoch, 17. Dezember 2008

By Yasmine Tan

Any communication, regardless of the medium, initiated for the purpose of advertising availability or quality of any property, goods, or services, but such term does not include a communication (A) to any person with that person's prior express invitation or permission, (B) to any person with whom the party has an established business relationship.

The benchmark is a standard or point of reference and in terms of measuring marketing performance, benchmarks are crucial. Benchmarking is the better marketing measurement campaign that aims to use measurement to prove the link between marketing and profit. In the case of education, measurement techniques can be used to prove the link between marketing and student recruitment, external income generation, or whatever the marketing activity has set out to achieve.

However, the task of measuring marketing performance is not an easy one marketing activities take place at a number of different levels, operational, tactical and strategic. In the case of the latter the effects are longer term and less easy to monitor. Proving the link between marketing and profit is not the only reason for measuring marketing performance. If you do not know how effective different activities or initiatives have been then it is not possible to make improvements and ultimately increase value for money with regard to marketing expenditure and deployment of resources.

The task for marketers is to consider how can we measure the effectiveness of what we are doing? The starting point of any measurement has to be establishing a benchmark. From my experience of working within education marketing, increasing numbers of marketers are investigating marketing performance at a tactical level by measuring the effectiveness of specific and discrete campaigns using response mechanisms built into the promotion or admissions procedures. It is important to establish the baseline at the start what would have been achieved without the activity? In the case of introducing new techniques for an annual campaign, the benchmark will be the level of enquiries and/or numbers of students enrolled in the previous year(s).

However, in evaluating effectiveness, other aspects which may impact upon changes in response must also be noted and taken into account. Other marketers are starting to look more broadly at the range of activities that impact on success in terms of student recruitment. A strategic approach to portfolio management, enquiry management systems, improved relationship marketing and better targeting of marketing activities can result in reductions in the numbers of course failures, increasing share of applications, improved conversion, reduced spend in Clearing, achievement of target numbers and reductions in drop-outs.

The difficulty comes in proving the links. Crucial to this is the auditing of current activities and performance levels. The institution needs to be clear on how it is currently performing, and this needs to be built up from school/department level as activities and performance will probably differ. This will determine the current position from which to evaluate future performance.

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Marketing Through Bumper Stickers

By Buck Thompson

Marketers are always looking for innovative ways to market their products and to make them known to the public. Due to limited budgets and avenues of marketing, local businesses have a tough time getting noticed. Gaining exposure is a challenge that local businesses face on a daily basis. Creating effective campaigns that accomplish this is a goal common to all markets.

Local newspaper and television advertising have limitations when striving for an effective viral campaign for your business. These mediums require continuous advertising to create the desired exposure and produce results. They demand good investment on your part for both creating the advertisement and for proper execution of the campaign.

There are less expensive yet successful avenues of advertising available. Printed T-shirt campaigns for example have proven to be very successful in the past. Perhaps an even more successful means of advertising however is that of bumper stickers. They are inexpensive, innovative and easy to put together. All of this leads to bumper stickers being considered one of the best advertising campaigns giving bang for your buck. Due to their success they are used commonly by a range of companies world wide. Bumper stickers are an affordable, practical means of advertising a business or product.

Bumper Stickers can be made as per your requirements. Though there are no set rules you should keep a few things in mind. Stickers that are too big won't be successful as people will refuse to put them on their cars and if they are too small, they will hardly get noticed. A sticker with just your logo or a lot of text, or a sticker trying to oversell your product will not appeal to the crowd. It should be funny, catchy, and helpful to them in some way. Ideally the reader should be able to connect with your sticker.

The more creative and innovative you are the better. Asking a customer to display your bumper stickers is a good way to gain exposure, beyond that which can be achieved normally. And by making the bumper sticker yourself you determine the catchy phase that best fits with the ethos of your business. If you support a local sports team you can use that as the theme for your bumper stickers. Ask customers if they want one when they make a purchase. You'd be surprised how many will say yes. You're marketing will reach many more people than other more costly marketing strategies.

To make your bumper sticker more viral, don't make is so available....only supply them with certain products. People will want them even more because they are "scarce." The old adage of supply and demand is so true. People will want one just to say they were able to finally get one. Remember to be responsible with all your advertising including bumper stickers. Your patience will be rewarded. Customers will return and even refer others to you.

Bumper stickers don't just send any message to the public. Every day they take the message of your business to the public. Parking lots, highways and busy streets, every where a car goes it will take your business or product with it. A well designed bumper sticker can reach a huge and diverse audience. In this way bumper stickers can prove to be an invaluable marketing tool for any business.

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Money with Articles Marketing - How Much Can I Make

By Arcol Mertin

Fourth, if you opt for a large website that you will focus most of your internet marketing career on, you will also need to know how to market your website to your intended audience through paid banner ads and text links. If you prefer very small 2-5 page niche sites, then promoting all of them this way will not be cost effective and will eat up more profits than it is worth.

If you can capture some of these skills and attack them aggressively during your first few small websites or the first few months of a larger website, then you will eventually become an expert. Since you can learn the ropes first hand on your own, the only thing that you will need to do before you begin your new career is to read up on how to get started (maybe purchase an internet marketing e-book or two) and make sure that you have the funds available to start a small site.

Since you can learn the ropes first hand on your own, the only thing that you will need to do before you begin your new career is to read up on how to get started (maybe purchase an internet marketing e-book or two) and make sure that you have the funds available to start a small site. If you can capture some of these skills and attack them aggressively during your first few small websites or the first few months of a larger website, then you will eventually become an expert.

First, you will need to know how to pick out the correct articles to make your sites successful. There are many types of content, from free content to high dollar content, and each comes with its own advantages and disadvantages (although high dollar content is more likely to give you a successful site in the end).

First, you will need to know how to pick out the correct articles to make your sites successful. There are many types of content, from free content to high dollar content, and each comes with its own advantages and disadvantages (although high dollar content is more likely to give you a successful site in the end).

When you are trying to make money with articles, the beauty of it is that you don't really need previous career related experience and that you can learn the ropes as you go. That being said, there are some skills that you will need to teach yourself or pick up along the way to make your sites successful. You can't go in not knowing anything, not learning anything, and still expect to make a good income (or any income at all).

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Niche marketing - marketing strategy

By Marc Frieden

A single industry of any type is far to large for any individual business to tackle all on its own. Even the largest corporations cannot cover a whole market by themselves. This is where niche marketing becomes a businessperson's best friend for making potential much more manageable. If you develop your own niche marketing strategy, then your business will offer specialized goods and services, and you will be able to target specific niche groups of prospective clients.

You'll need to make sure that it is a niche marketing strategy that is indeed achievable. Once you've chosen how you will be niche marketing, you will need to ask yourself certain questions about how you will develop this into a niche marketing strategy. Think about your business niche carefully before deciding upon it, as you will dedicate yourself to it rather exclusively from that point on.

A single industry of any type is far to large for any individual business to tackle all on its own. Even the largest corporations cannot cover a whole market by themselves. This is where niche marketing becomes a businessperson's best friend for making potential much more manageable. If you develop your own niche marketing strategy, then your business will offer specialized goods and services, and you will be able to target specific niche groups of prospective clients.

How is my business most effective? What are my special skills and strengths? When answering this question, go over both your own abilities, and the abilities of your company as a whole. List your strengths and skills. You may find this process to be quite enlightening. It includes things that you've always known, but may not have actually recognized for their full potential.

What do you and your other team members enjoy doing? The more you like what you're doing, the more you'll naturally be able to dedicate to its success. If you don't like your business niche, there may not even be profit available, because you'll be held back on a subconscious level. To begin answering this question, one of the best places to look is at your hobbies and the things that you already do for enjoyment. Instead of only working with your dreams - which may or not be what they expect them to be in reality - look at what you've already tried and already liked. These are the tried, tested, and true activities for you, and are those to which you're most likely to motivate you the most. This passion can only translate to added profit. Not only will this make your company a more enjoyable venture, but it will give you endurance and focus that you may never have known you had. This level of stamina and motivation is vital to starting up a fresh company, or changing a business that already exists.

The last step is to make certain that it doesn't interfere or conflict with any business plan that you already have in place. The niche marketing strategy is only valuable if it can be made to function within your own company's potential. Niche marketing is among the best things you can do to maximize your success potential in a staggeringly large marketplace. Begin today and reap the rewards that are so close to being yours. Now you're ready to come up with your niche marketing plan.

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Three Focal Points To Sell Cars

By Mak Nawab

To be a good car salesperson you have to use a combination of techniques that include auto dealer training and selling tips and tricks. You will find that you will occasionally be faced with issues that make selling a car difficult and being able to keep your composure during the time will be a testament to your selling ability. You will be shot down by customers but you will need to keep on going. No matter how you do it, you can be successful selling cars and making a good living at it if you can handle the pressure of how to sell cars.

Dealing with economic issues

Right now being successful at selling cars is probably becoming a very frustrating prospect with the global economy being so bad. This is one of the tests of being a good salesperson. You need to not only sell yourself, but sell your products and with lenders being more than wary about who they are giving loans to, you as an automotive sales person are going to have to work twice as hard to find viable reasons for the lenders to give your customers their money. If you do not have any sales, they you do not get paid which means you have to have all of your automotive sales tools in your tool belt and your 'A' game on.

Focal points

In order to make sure you can close the sale every time you need to focus on three things during your sales pitch: attitude and action; the customer; and your environment.

Focal point 1: Attitude and action
If you have a good attitude during your sales pitch and your presentation is spot one and interesting, then you are going to get the sale. Your actions during the whole exchange will make a big difference in helping your customers get the vehicle that will be right for them. If they see that you are doing something that is going to benefit them in the long run, then they in turn will feel comfortable purchasing the car from you.

Focal point 2: The customer must always be number one. Without customer's your product is a bunch of metal and rubber sitting in a concrete lot collecting environmental debris. That's it. You have to be focused on your customer and not on the sale. Customers who have no intention of buying in the first will walk away not matter how good you are to them and how well you take of them while they are in your showroom. But the ones who will buy from you will enjoy being made to feel special by you.

Focal point 3: You environment makes a world of difference when it comes to sales. Some auto dealerships are feeling the strain of the economy and they are so discouraged that they simply stop trying. If you continue to try and make your environment a welcoming one, customers are going to come to you and not your competition because they see you as being the welcoming and caring company that you are.

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Are You Worried That Your Spouse Is Cheating?

By Tammie Hanna

The internet is full of information about information of how to catch a cheating spouse. Many people who tend to have a gut feeling that their spouse is being unfaithful turn to the internet in hopes of being able to get some physical evidence on whether they are cheating or not. If you have a feeling that your spouse is cheating; then you should never avoid your feelings.

First of all I would like to say that I apologize for your problems; here are some tips that will teach you how to catch a cheating spouse:

1. Phone Calls: Most likely if your spouse is talking to someone that you do not know or someone that they do not want you to know about; chances are they are calling them from their cell phones. It is time to find out who they are talking to.

Regardless of what type of phone number you are dealing with; if you have the complete 10 digit number then you can use the internet to get all the personal information about the phone numbers in question.

2. Moody: If your spouse is cheating then most likely they are going to feel guilty about the situation. People who cheat will find themselves prone to more mood swings and will tend to pick fights with you for any little reason.

The cheater in the relationship is known to try to start fights with their partner because it makes them feel better. Regardless of what we like to believe; we all have a consciousness that makes us feel guilty about the affair.

3. Fragrance: The person who is cheating will smell like the other person. You will notice that when they get home from work; they will want to jump into the shower so that you can not smell the fragrance of the other person.

4. People: If your spouse is having an affair you are going to notice that they will begin talking about new people at work. They may even begin to mention the same coworker over and over and this could be a red flag that they are cheating on you.

If you want to learn how to catch a cheating spouse; then visit our site below. It is filled with valuable information that will help you get your marriage or relationship back on track. It is important that you find out the truth; we all deserve to know the truth about our significant others.

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Resources - The easiest Way to Create Articles

By Marc Foster

There are many webmasters who wrote articles to find their site is very tedious. Many people who need to write articles procrastinate as much as they can to delay the amount of writing they need to do. Many people dread writing articles, as they are researching the topic and write original materials will be too taxing on them. You must have your creative juices flowing and just downloading an article would be tantamount to plagiarism or steal, not exactly. Have you ever heard the public domain? These articles are written by many authors who have declared their works to be in the public domain, which means that anyone can use it for whatever purpose they want.

While most writers prefer to work at their copyright for their rights, there are also a number that does not share the spirit of their work. Public domain, the articles are not owned by anyone and can be used by anyone and abused. The authors have waived their rights over their works, and it is there for the public to make use of. You can use the public domain articles to help you write your articles. With the public domain, the articles that you can simply edit your own style and rewrite them as you please to make it suits your needs. All ideas are already there and it's just a matter of research to write the article on the subject or object you need.

This is probably the easiest way to write articles. You don't need to scour around the library or the internet for hours for information and start an article from scratch. For webmasters who are looking for articles to fill their site and to generate a high ranking for their website in search engine results, they can just modify the article by infusing keywords and keyword phrases related to their site. A webmaster or website operator does not risk any chance of getting sued for copyright infringement because they are public domain, once again meaning that anybody can use it. Writing articles by using public domain won't require as much work as writing one from scratch would. You save a lot of time also.

One good factor in using public domain articles for your site or for any project is that you save a lot of money. You dismiss the need to hire experienced and seasoned writers that some website operators use to write their articles. While a single five hundred worded article would only set you down 10 to 15 dollars, this cost will drastically increase when you need hundreds of articles to fill the needs of your site.

For items that need to generate news bulletins or an electronic magazine, articles in the public domain will be very beneficial. There is a need for payment of taxpayers or writers to write articles for its electronic newsletter or magazine. You can fill all the pages without any cost or the concerns of being sued and sought by the writers. You can simply copy the items and place them on your newsletter and e-zine.

Public domain, the articles are a virtual untapped resource that many people do not realize the true value. The power articles, keywords and phrases were considered valuable in recent years, many businesses on the Internet and sites that want to rank high in search engine results.

The item number and content writers have increased substantially due to increased demand for items. As newer and newer themes and topics have been raised, there are many demands of the new articles that are written. An industry has been formed and it is a demand throughout the world. Articles in the public domain have been a great choice for those who are short of cash, and do not have the time or the skills to make their articles for themselves.

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Are Chiropractic Consulting Groups Legit?

By Matthew Loop, DC

I've conversed with countless chiropractors at growth symposiums where I've been a key-note speaker. This has been happening for years now and I always hear the same sad tale; people are getting scammed by bad practice management consultants. These so-called gurus are pulling the wool over everyone's eyes and making a ton of money in the process. I have no respect for these companies that presume to help chiropractors fresh out of school, or even seasoned professionals, and only take their money and waste it. Times are too tough for people to have this happen to them. Why should the scammers be making all the money?

Now, I don't have a problem with paying for an expensive service as long as the use value of the system far outweighs the actual cash value that I shelled-out. This is how a good business owner should dictate price anyway. It should all be about providing massive amounts of practical use-value for your client or customer. Practice management groups and consultants who do this should be commended, but they are very rare. Most of what you will come across in chiropractic school when chiropractic consultants speak is BS filler and fear mongering. They have to scare you in order to get your business. This is a warning to stay away from sharks who use those methods.

There are several things that you should look for when choosing a solid chiropractic consultant or practice management group. First, make sure that they have a specialty. Too many times I see these guys that have the "best" solutions for everything. What I mean is this. You would never go to a gynecologist to have a brain tumor removed, right? Similarly, you would never go to a practice management group that is primarily known for in-office patient retention for help with internet marketing. You know what they say. If they're usually the jack of all trades, they're typically the master of none. Seek out specialists in different areas of your practice that you need to kick into high gear.

Secondly, you want to look for someone that has many satisfied clients, testimonials, and has established social proof. Beware of scripted testimonials and videos that don't look like they're from average chiropractors like you. A few chiropractic consultants have been busted for false and misleading testimonials, trying to trick vulnerable and desperate DC's into buying their programs.

I recommend doing an in-depth Google search to find accurate information. For instance, if you were looking for a consultant that just specialized in strategic and proven Web 2.0 and Social Media marketing for chiropractors, you would put the keywords "social media chiropractic marketing" or "internet chiropractic marketing" in quotation marks. This will bring you back highly-targeted information you are looking for, making your life much easier.

Finally, it's a good idea to look for a chiropractic consulting coach that stays abreast of the newest trends and technologies in whatever area they specialize in. New patients are your practice life-blood, so they should be always seeking new, cutting-edge ways to improve their marketing. If you encounter a practice management group that claims to know it all, run immediately! Times are changing very rapidly and while certain report of findings and consultation scrips may not change, marketing in the struggling economy and Web 2.0 technology has changed substantially. Remember what was said previously. You need a specialist in whatever field your practice is lagging.

If you are looking to stop being a victim and for your chiropractic practice to become recession-proof, you need to think outside of the conventional box that 95% of chiropractors reside in. I strongly recommend learning the newest social media / Web 2.0 marketing tactics. This is virtually an untapped new patient goldmine if harnessed correctly.

Even if you're the best chiropractor the world has ever seen, no one will actually experience it unless they know you exist. There is only one consultant teaching the vastly important marketing strategies involving Web 2.0 and social media. If you want to be one of the successes in this difficult time, you need to step up.

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Creating Multiple Streams of Affiliate Marketing Income

By Martha Morris

Have you ever heard or read the phrase "multiple streams of income" before? Do you know what this phrase means? For many businessmen, creating multiple streams of income online or offline is one way of securing themselves as well as their businesses in the future. They also believe that it can also save them from the so-called famine effect in the business industry. Once you are engaged in affiliate marketing business, it is advisable if you have multiple streams of affiliate marketing income so that if one of those income streams vanished, it will not upset you the way losing your sole stream would. If you depend on just one source of income and this single stream has been downsized or has lain off, you'll surely find yourself bankrupted and hopeless. Try to ask the most successful online entrepreneurs, and you'll discover that they have established multiple streams of online income.

There is a businessman that said and attested that the very first step you must take in creating multiple streams of income is to assess or evaluate your resources. Start by assessing yourself first. Jot down your answers to the following questions: What are the talents, abilities, strength and gears that you possess? Are you gifted with excellent and creative writing skills? Can you do well at sales? Are you good in communicating with people? Are you born with an artistic skill or unique ability that other people don't have? Through this, you can determine the kind of business where can possibly excel.

Next, look around and write down you assets and physical resources such as computer, color printer, scanner, digital camera, cell phone, CD or DVD burner. Write these all down because it can be used as a resource. Consider also your friends and family. Find out what do they possess that you have access to. Remember that no man is an island. You can use the talents, abilities, knowledge and resources of everyone you know.

That's basically the initial step if you want to create multiple income streams. But if you're already a webmaster or a site owner, you definitely have an edge. Why don't you join affiliate marketing business to help you gain extra income out of your own website?

Being involved in affiliate marketing is one of the most desirable ways to make multiple sources of income. It is because affiliate marketing programs come in various shapes and forms. There are a large number of affiliate marketing programs that you can sign on with and start gaining bucks right away. In affiliate marketing, you can make money by promoting and reselling your affiliate products and by recruiting new affiliates. What's good about this is that you can find widest array of training materials that can enhance your marketing abilities. In affiliate marketing, you can be sure that there are genuine products to promote and sell and there is real income to make.

Either part time or full time, being an affiliate marketer is an excellent way to create multiple income streams by means of promoting products and services from web merchants. Here, you can get affiliate commission without investing big bucks in making your own product and without worrying about book keeping, customer support and ecommerce. All you have to do is to promote and resell the products and services in your site and pass on potential customer's the merchant's site.

In affiliate marketing, it is advisable to promote more merchants in your site so that your visitors will have variety of destinations to choose from. Using multiple merchants in the same site or niche means only one thing ? you have multiple streams of affiliate income. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this business strategy because this is one of the best ways to protect your business and expanding your horizons. Through this, you can be assured that you won't experience crisis if ever one of your web merchants closed his/her program.

However, you should choose only those affiliate programs that interest you so that you can effectively advertise and promote them. Don't ever be tempted into signing up for numerous affiliate programs in the hope that one of them will bring income. Select wisely and don't be engaged in selling products you know nothing about. Go with the stuff that jives with your enthusiasm; your passion can capture your client by the nose and guide him/her to your affiliate link.

You should also work hard to make your multiple streams of income more stable. You can do this by embracing some strategies and tactics and by developing within yourself, some traits that can help you become successful in any kind of business such as patience, persistence and thirst for knowledge.

Lastly, just remember the adage that says "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." So that if one of them is lost, you can still have some to make omelets. And what do these eggs have to do with multiple streams of affiliate income? Well, it goes without saying that the more streams of income you possess, the bigger and better your money lake becomes.

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Ecommerce Merchant Account Guidelines

By Brian Armstrong

Getting setup to accept credit cards with a credit card merchant account is a relatively easy process and can be done without much hassle. I've put together this brief guide to introduce you to a few components of internet merchant account pricing and a couple of comparisons to Paypal which has a good service as well.

Pricing merchant accounts starts with the discount rate. Everybody always asks for this rate when comparing merchant accounts. For internet based transactions, the discount rate will typically be about 2.1 to 2.5%. Paypal is a merchant account provider that charges a flat rate of about 3%. Even though this may seem to be easier to reconcile, it will ultimately cost most merchants more money simply because 80% or more of your transactions should go through at that lower qualified rate.

Traditional merchant accounts have other pricing categories for their discount rates. These are the mid qualified and non-qualified rates. Although the majority of all transactions go through at the qualified rate, the mid and non still have their place when pricing accounts. The mid-qualified rates are typically the rewards cards or other credit cards with some cash back or other incentive associated with them. The non-qualified cards are government or corporate credit cards or in some other way are deemed "risky" such as when the funds aren't captured until 48 hours or later after the funds were first authorized.

Each transaction also has a cost, no matter how much the volume of the transaction. Makes me laugh sometimes when I buy a $.49 refill at the local convenience store on my credit card because I know that they're paying at least $.15 to $.18 per transaction if not a bit more which on a $.49 gross volume transaction, they're probably losing money. No wonder they sometimes just smile and tell me it's on them. Most internet based transactions run about $.20 to $.30 which is competitive when you compare to Paypal at about $.30 per transaction. Watch for AVS or the gateway transactions as they can easily get their advertised per transaction cost up there.

Your more traditional merchant account has what are called "batch header fees" which is a daily processing fees. Transactions are batched together, usually daily. Each of these batches is assessed a $.25 batch header fee. So if you process batches every day for 30 days, you'd have about $8 or so worth of "batches" that you'd be paying for. This is one small advantage of Paypal merchant services is that they don't have this batch header fee. This is a fee that you should be able to negotiate with your service provider.

Monthly fees include an account maintenance fee or statement fee. Often called something like a customer service fee, etc. These fees are usually only one monthly fee of $5 to $10 or so. If at all possible, work with your merchant service provider to waive the monthly minimum. This monthly minimum fee is usually about $25 or so and if you're not processing transactions, will be very expensive. Even though not processing usually means you'll be going out of business soon anyway, paying an extra $25 worth of minimum every month is often more hassle and pain than it's worth, especially when you can get this fee waived most of the time.

If you're processing over the internet with a traditional account, you'll need a gateway. Authorize.Net is one of the more popular gateways and although some providers give this away for free, they have costs associated with this and will usually hit you with an annual fee or some other fees along the way to make up for this. Try to negotiate your monthly rates so that they are lower even if you end up paying a little more for the setup. Authorize.Net shouldn't cost more than about $100 to setup. I'd recommend against leasing as you'd end up paying 5 times as much for the setup over the 48 month lease you'd be stuck with.

There are some advantages to Paypal over your more traditional merchant accounts. One such advantage is ease of use. Paypal is very user friendly and Authorize.Net as a gateway would be a close second. Most shopping carts are compatible with both and include modules to be able to install both or either. Accepting credit cards is a necessary evil in today's internet world, but can be done with very little hassle or headache.

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