Minister of State for Labour Oscar Fernandes said India will loose its outsourcing share to China and others if it does not continue with low costs.

“If outsourcing is favouring India today, it does not mean it will always be in favour of India,” he said, adding “the time any country provides labour even for a rupee cheaper than us, outsourcing will move to them”.

When asked about who these countries could be, he said that presently “China is the biggest threat”.

He also stated that China is ahead in the technology sector.

“India has a reservoir of highly technically qualified professionals,” he said at a workshop on ‘the role of trade unions in globalized economy’.

As a company that relies heavily on outsourcing, I’d have to disagree with Mr. Fernandes. I almost NEVER work with Chinese companies because Indian outsourcers have much better English than Chinese, the time it takes us to educate our vendors is 3-5 times less than when we teach the Chinese vendors. While the rate of China maybe cheaper, the language of India will allow it to maintain an edge in the outsourcing market.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, outsource destination, Outsourcing consultant, PPC consultant

One of my favourite activities when I’m on a long flight is browsing the SkyMall catalog. Their selection of products is very unique and as a retailer, I read it for purchasing inspirations.

It is not until this time around that I get to scrutinize the catalog, its marketing message, as well as comparing some of their products’ pricing to ours. And I came to the conclustion that:

SkyMall is a Big Fat Liar

When you flip through the first couple pages, you will soon see the sign “SkyMall’s price is the best price, gauranteed!” on the very top. So I decided to take a look and compare the prices of some products that both SkyMall and we sell. I know for a fact that we both sell products from the Helman Group, so I flipped to that page.

O, they didn’t…

Yes they did sell the Margarator, an awesome Margarita Machine, for $99.99. At which they’re selling on Walmart for $78 and on our website MyPopcornMachine.com at this price.

Um… lowest price guarantee? I don’t think so.

Technorati Tags: retail, ecommerce, skymall, margarator, outsourcing

Change in Google Analytics

Google Analytics has just changed its outlook last week. I haven’t had much time to play around with the new version but it seems like the layout is much better and contain more information than before. The new version is still in Beta so you can still login to your old version. More on that later when I get around to checking what the difference are between the old and new version.

Change in eBay’s affiliate policy

Another big change on internet marketing last week has to do with the recent changes in the eBay.com affiliate program - at which you can now send traffic to YOUR OWN auctions and store listings.

The old rules prevented this, but now eBay has has wised up! In an announcement released today they’ve made the rules friendlier and the payouts higher.

Under the old rules (which were insane) you could send traffic to any destination on eBay EXCEPT your auction listings or store. That made no sense so I won’t try to explain why they had that rule.

It now makes more sense than ever to send pay per click ppc traffic (such as Google Adwords, or Yahoo Search Marketing) to your own eBay listings.

Once you sign up for the eBay affiliate program you can send traffic to ANY ebay destination and…

- 40% to 65% commission on eBay Revenue generated from ALL purchases
- up to $35 in commission per new active user referral

I love the “flexible destination” feature of the eBay affiliate program. Even if a customer you send to eBay buys from a competitor of yours and you still get paid!

This just opens up a whole new door of making easy money online. Are you kidding? You can just go on eBay, find a product that has a high ASP (average selling price) and high sell through - because the eBay commission is more - source that product, sell it on eBay, and drive traffic to your listing using pay per click ppc while making extra commission off them! Can this get any easier?

Technorati Tags: PPC, ebay affiliate program, google analytics, Outsourcing consultant, PPC consultant

India has long been the number one outsourcing destination employed by many western companies. But now many developing countries are desiring to take over India’s place and be the number one outsourcing destination.

Among the many contendors including Philippines, various Eastern European and Latin American counttries - Russia has recently expressed their intents of coveting the said spot and has mentioned several reasons on why they could be the “ideal” destination in outsourcing. Some of these reasons mentioned were:

-stronger technical skills
-low attrition rates
-less cultural difference

Though Russia has indeed these advantages, they should also take note that many countries (particularly those in Eastern Europe) also possess the same characteristics. Putting an “edge” on their campaign for more outsourcing opportunities should be done in order to stand out from other countries with the same goal in mind.

My take on this is that India is going to remain as the number one outsourcing destination for some years, that is because of the extensive infrastructure already in this country invested by US companies and trust me - moving outsourcing vendors is a painful and costly process.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, outsource destination, Outsourcing consultant, PPC consultant

Last Saturday was my college class’s graduation (I graduated early last year) and I had lunch with some of the co-years that I entered the college with. In the middle of conversation, a sister of my friend asked me this question:

“Dominic, most people work for a corporation for a couple years after they graduate before they start a business, why do you start a business so early?”

That’s a great question and she’s perhaps the first person that has asked specifically about it. I gave her a true but partial answer because my full answer would bore any human being and drive them insane.

Thinking about it, it is a FUNDAMENTAL question and will dictate:

1) Should you even start a business?
2) What kind of business should you start?

It is a question each and every entreprenuers need to address to themselves, so I invite you to visit my thought process as to why I start a business, why I start the type of business I had, and in particularly why I chose to start one so early (while I was at college).

Reason #1 - Opportunity

You can want to be an entrepreneur all you want, however strong your desire is, if you have not yet seen an opportunity, you would not start a business. My opportunity (and my 1st business idea) came when a “guy” literally called Guy, approached me with a business plan to buy and sell used books on campus during my freshman year of college.

One thing leads to another, we recruited another partner into the venture and started this thing called Owlbooks at our school and that kind of get my feet wet in selling college textbooks (yea I’m still selling college textbooks now) as well as entrepreneurship. I went on through several other opportunites shortly after including real estate investing (inspired by Robert Allen) and Senior Care (saw some business plan online), both failed miserably, and now finally successfully settled in E-commerce and internet marketing.

Reason #2 - Take my fate in my own hand

This is the partial reason I shared during the lunch conversation - 2 of the schools I really wanted to get into for college rejected me when I was at high school. Being the same confident Dominic, I thought to myself, “I’m the greatest person you can ever admit, why am I rejected?”

So I came to the conclusion - institutional admission system is subjective and flawed!

So, ok, if I were to try to get a job, wouldn’t I fall back into this flawed system? Having a couple people decide whether I’m good enough for their company? Having a couple other people decide how much I’m worth?

No thank you.

That’s why when I started my online business, I’m determined to make it B2C. In my consumer retail business, whether or not my customer buy from me have absolutely NOTHING to do with what they think about the owner of the site (me), which school I went to, how brilliant I am, or what I have achieved in the past. ALL they care is the product quality, the price, and the customer service. All of which I have 100% control over and my success is a direct consequence of my every single decisions and actions.

I love it: if I succeed, I’m not just lucky; if I fail, I have no one to blame.

Reason #3 - We can all be winners

Being brought up in a competitive environment, I was taught at a young age that (not just through teachers and parents, but through the environment) there’re winners, and there’re losers. If you win, it’s kind of cool; if you lose, it kind of sucks.

Success, in that world, is measured in terms of scarcity. It’s always true that if you’re successful, you’re doing it at the expense of others - directly or indirectly, more or less, sooner or later. I.e. If you get an A, that means someone else will be pushed out of the curve and get a B. If you get into Harvard, that means someone else didn’t get into Harvard.

Since I get into starting my own business, man is this a different world. In this world, you are NOT trying to win by making someone else lose (contrary to popular believe)! Here, you want to create value in your industry so that you, your vendors, and your customers all benefit from your venture and the relationship.

I urge you, all entrepreneurs or aspiring business owner, to think hard about why YOU start(ed) a business and if its the right thing for you. Share your story with me!

Technorati Tags: entrepreneurship, start business, Outsource internet marketing, Internet marketing consultant

News.com reports that Yahoo! is retiring Yahoo! Auctions effective June 16th. Launched in September 1998, Yahoo! Auctions quickly expanded into other countries but soon stalled in the U.S. when it started charging fees (and eBay was gaining significant momentum). Even the “Look! No Fees!” hail mary did not halt its decline into no-auctions-land.

With demand and sales declining we ceased support for Yahoo! Auctions last summer. But until recently Yahoo! Auctions consistently maintained its number two spot behind eBay for product listings (particularly popular for collectibles).

The end of Yahoo auction has marked an important landmark in the marketplace industry because now the only 2 auction sites left of significance is eBay and Bidville. This is a dark day for eBay sellers (or other marketplace sellers) who look for other venues for multi-marketplace selling strategy. Does this mean eBay now have more monopoly power in the industry and can continue to increase its fee? Yes, it does. It is therefore more important than ever for you as ecommerce seller to have your website, promote it aggressively, and gain a repeat customer base. We’ll see how this pans out in the next several months.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Yahoo auction, eBay, Outsource internet marketing, Internet marketing consultant

Since Cost Per Action advertising model has been introduced by Google, there have been many questions about it in the industry. Today, Google cleared up some of them in its blog post:

Do pay-per-action ads show on Google.com or on sites in the search network?
No. Pay-per-action ads are not eligible to show on Google.com or in the Google search network. They’re only eligible to display in the Google content network.

Although I am not a US advertiser, my campaigns do target US customers. Can I participate in the beta?
At this time, we’re only accepting advertisers who have a billing address located in the United States.

Have you start advertising on Google’s new program yet? If not, what is holding you back? Let us know!

Technorati Tags: Google, Pay per action, PPC, Outsource internet marketing

EBay have announced 2 days ago that they will be implemented Feedback 2.0 to their system. This is to no surprise to anyone because they’ve been testing it on eBay UK for a while now., here’s eBay’s message and kind of tell you what its all about:

“As you know, eBay’s Feedback system is a big part of what makes eBay fun and rewarding for buyers and sellers. We’re writing to let you know about some exciting new features coming during the week of April 30–features designed to make Feedback more valuable for buyers and a stronger showcase for your great service record.

Also, the item title and price will appear next to each Feedback comment. This will add helpful information for shoppers and encouragement to those in the market for what you sell.”

As a powerseller, my reaction is 2 folded. While it is great to have a vehicle to further differentiate my business from amateur sellers, it also places more pressure on sellers to enhance our service and be really cautious about what we do and say to customers. Btw, one unique thing about this feedback system is that you won’t know which buyer gave you the points - thus eliminating the possibility of feedback retaliation (very popular in the old system).

What do you think about this change and how would it impact your business? Let us know in the comment section!

Technorati Tags: eBay, , feedback 2.0, Outsource internet marketing

Google introduced a new bidding option today called preferred cost bidding — a feature designed to help you save time while achieving your advertising cost goals more consistently. Instead of setting a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) bid, you can set a preferred CPC or CPM bid that represents the average price you want to pay.

For example, suppose you want to pay an average CPC of $0.50. Currently, you need to regularly monitor and adjust your maximum CPC bids to keep your costs at or around $0.50 per click. Using preferred cost bidding, you can simply tell us that you want your average CPC to be $0.50, and we’ll manage your bids to reach that goal.

This feature will be released to all advertisers over the next few days. You’ll find it on the Edit Campaign Settings page in your account.

I’m kind of neutral towards this new feature, simply put it - I won’t use it much.

For me, CPC is not the first thing I look at, I look at my keywords position AND my conversion first - and then I figure out whether the ROI is positive at that amount of CPC. I then adjust my CPC to obtain the keyword position and conversion I like. By controlling the CPC amount first, you are NOT controlling your keyword position and conversion as it should be - its simply a backward approach to doing PPC.

Technorati Tags: Google Adwords, PPC, Pay per click, Outsource internet marketing

From what I hear, seems like a lot of people are having trouble with PPC and not getting the results they wanted or even losing a ton of money on it.

The fact is PPC works - if you know how to do it.

I’ll share my PPC experience with you as a Google certified adwords professional and PPC consultant. It had worked very well with my stores and my other online sites.

Here’re my REALLY SIMPLE SYSTEM to make it work for you.

Find out 5 products in your store which 1)have a high selling rate 2)have decent profit margin

Lets say one of this product is Golfpro(brandname) Golfer Max(model name) Golf Club (what it is)

Now set up a CAMPAIGN called “Brand + Product”, setup an adgroup called “Golferpro Golfer Max Golf Club”

Then make a list of those keywords CLOSELY related to the product, i.e. Golferpro Golfer Max, Golferpro GolferMax Golf Club….

And then use this program called Adwords Wrapper (its free) to wrap that list of keywords to include exact match, broad match, and phrase match.

Bid on these keywords in your adgroup AND stop the content network display of your ad. (there can be exception to this IF your profit margin and sell through is super high)

Bid the amount which allows your ad to show up as postion 3-5 (again exception if your profit margin and sell through is super high - in that case you will want to be in position 1-2)

Ok, at this point, your PPC campaign should do very well.

BUT to gain an extra edge, here’s what you do!

Find out the ONE keyword that has a decent conversion and HIGH search volume. Lets say in this case is Golferpro Golfer Max. Ok now REGISTER this domain and do a 301 redirect of this domain to your website’s page of that product. And use this domain instead for your URL! This will boost your CTR and conversion to you’ve never seen before.

Once this worked for you and making the kind of margin you like, now do it again and extend it to more products!

Hope this helps.

Google Adwords, PPC, Pay per click