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PayPal Restrictions in India Already in Effect?

The other day, I wrote about the impending restrictions that PayPal will impose on its users in India. These restrictions are actually put in place to comply with the requirements from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank.

Earlier tonight, I tried to send payment via PayPal mass pay to an Indian webmaster, but I kept getting the following error message.

There are error(s) that occur on the following lines and fields of your payment file.

* Line 1 : Currency type, Payment amount
* Line 2 : Email address

Click How to upload for more information on formatting payment files.

I tried several times, but it wouldn’t go through. The mass pay CSV file that I was using was perfect, no errors. In the end, I had to use regular PayPal payment to complete the transaction.

paypal sucks PayPal Restrictions in India Already in Effect?PayPal announced on its website that the restrictions will be in effect starting March 1, 2011. It’s not even March yet, but it’s already tough for Indian webmasters and merchants to receive PayPal payments. It’s going to be even tougher when the restrictions are actually in effect.

With PayPal virtually unusable in India, I am wondering how Indian webmasters will be able to stay in business online. There are, of course, PayPal alternatives out there. But can they actually replace PayPal? Will business be the same to Indian webmasters and online merchants without PayPal? Probably not.

Posted by Jay 4 Comments
Filed Under: Making Money Online, Online Payments

Cease and Desist Letter from Google

When I was just starting with domaining, an anonymous wise man on NamePros (a domain name forum) said to me, “Don’t let a possible trademark violation stop you from registering a good domain name.”

I didn’t really think seriously about what he said. For one, I usually steered away from trademarked domain names. I didn’t think it was worth the risk. And I did that for years.

Until one day last week when I saw one domain name that I couldn’t resist registering. It had Google in it. It was a great keyword domain that was getting a lot of searches.

Realizing the possibility that I had stumbled onto a potential goldmine, I furtively looked around me to make sure no one was looking, and then I proceeded to stake my claim on the domain name — by registering it.

After I received an email confirmation from the registar that the domain was now under my name, I started planning the type of website I would create using the domain name. What kind of content, what keywords to focus on, how to promote the site, et cetera. I spent hours doing this until late night, and then I thought I’d continue the next day. So I went to bed.

When I woke up the next morning, I had my usual breakfast, and then I went back to my computer to check my email and continue my website planning. I saw a message from a company called Fenwick. Thinking it was another invitation for partnership or joint venture, I opened the message and saw the following attachment:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Google Inc. (“Google”) is the owner of the well-known trademark and trade name GOOGLE, as well as the domain name GOOGLE.COM.  As you are no doubt aware, GOOGLE is the trademark used to identify Google’s award-winning search engine, located at http://www.google.com.  Since its inception in 1997, the GOOGLE search engine has become one of the most highly recognized and widely used Internet search engines in the world.  Google owns numerous trademark registrations and applications for its GOOGLE mark in countries around the world.

Google has used and actively promoted its GOOGLE mark for a number of years, and has invested considerable time and money establishing exclusive proprietary rights in the GOOGLE mark for a wide range of goods and services.  As a result of its efforts, the GOOGLE mark has become a famous mark and a property right of incalculable value.

You have registered, without Google’s permission or authorization, the domain name googlexxxxxxxx.com (the ‘Domain Name’).  The Domain Name incorporates the famous GOOGLE mark in its entirety, and, by its very composition, suggests Google’s sponsorship or endorsement of your website and correspondingly, your activities.  Further, your registration and any use of the Domain Name misleads consumers into believing that some association exists between Google and you, which tarnishes the goodwill and reputation of Google’s services and trademarks.

Your registration and use of the Domain Name is actionable under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (‘UDRP’).  Under similar circumstances, Google has prevailed in numerous UDRP actions.  These decisions are located online at http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrpdec.htm.

In view of the above, we must demand that you provide written assurances within 7 days that you will:

  1. Immediately discontinue any and all use of the Domain Name;
  2. Take immediate steps to transfer the Domain Name to Google;
  3. Identify and agree to transfer to Google any other domain names registered by you that contain GOOGLE or are confusingly similar to the GOOGLE mark; and
  4. Immediately and permanently refrain from any use of the term GOOGLE, the GOOGLE logo or any variation thereof that is likely to cause confusion or dilution.

Sincerely,
FENWICK & WEST LLP

I’d never received a Cease and Desist (C&D) letter before so I wasn’t really sure if the letter that I was reading was actually one. It wasn’t until I read it again that I became convinced it actually was a Cease and Desist letter.

So I started thinking. It does have the word ‘Google’ in it, and that’s their trademark. What was I to do? There was only one wise thing to do — give ‘em what they want.

So I emailed them back, and asked for their Go Daddy details so I could push the domain name to their account. They replied, and then I pushed the domain name. With that went the hours that I spent registering the domain and planning the website.

So what’s the moral of the story? Be good. Don’t take what is not yours. And, most importantly, don’t listen to just anybody online, no matter how wise they seem to be. Especially if they are anonymous, like the wise man that I met at the NamePros forum.

My grandmother used to tell me, “A good man does the right thing, even when no one is looking.”

I guess I was bad. But it was just for one day.

Posted by Jay Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Domain Names Tagged With: , , ,

Four Killer Keyword Research Tips from Google Sniper 2.0

I just got a copy of Google Sniper 2.0 by George Brown. If you’ve never heard of him, he came up with a system to create niche websites, drive massive traffic to these sites, and, as a result, make money from affiliate commissions and ads. That system was the original Google Sniper, which he launched a year or two ago.

On February 14th, he released Google Sniper 2.0 (super cheesy release date, I know), which contains updates and modifications to the previous system. Why does it need updates and modifications? Because just like everything in life, things change — and on the Internet, things change a helluva lot faster than in the real world.

So I started reading Google Sniper 2.0 earlier today. I just finished the first two chapters and here are four excellent keyword research tips from Chapter 1 that I think we all could use. Use them well.

Tip 1: Find a Niche You Can Monetize

Let’s start by defining what a niche or niche market is. A niche market is a subset of a general market, meaning a specific product or service within a general market. Examples of niche markets include “forex trading robots“, “making money with AdSense“, and “getting back with an ex”. On the other hand, examples of general markets include “forex trading”, “making money”, and “relationships.

How do you know if a niche can be monetized? George Brown recommends running a Google search on the term and checking if there are Google AdWords ads that appear in the search results. For example, if you run a Google search for forex trading robots, you will see that there is a bunch of Google AdWords ads that appear on the right side of the search results. That’s an indicator that people are willing to pay for advertising, which also means that it’s most likely profitable.

Click here to see the search results for forex trading robots.

Tip 2: Find a Keyword You Can Monetize

Once you find a niche that you can monetize, the next step in your keyword research is to find a root keyword that you can monetize. Now how do you know if a keyword can monetized? George says that it is usually one that is related to buying or solving a problem.

Another point to remember when finding a keyword is that it has to be long tail. In SEO speak, a long tail keyword consists of three or more words that people use frequently to search for information. The idea is that by focusing on long tail keywords, you will have fewer competitors in the search results.

Make money online is probably one of the most searched keywords or keyphrases in the entire world (and it probably was a long tail keyword before). But because people found that it was a monetizable, everybody tried to monetize it. With so many people trying to rank high for “make money online”, it’s now close to impossible to rank for it.

So if you’re targeting the make money online market, you will need to find an even longer keyword. Here a some examples of longer tail keywords with probably fewer competitors:

When finding a keyword to monetize, don’t just come up with a single keyword. Come up with a bunch of them. Brainstorm, and then list them down. When you have a nice list of, maybe, 10 or so keywords, run them through the next two tips — search volume and competition.

Tip 3: Find a Keyword That Gets At Least 3000 Searches Per Month

The next step in keyword research is to find out which keywords in your list get a decent amount of searches per month. It’s simple math. The more people searching for the keyword, the most visitors you will likely get. The more visitors you get, the higher your ad earnings or commissions will be.

George suggests that you make sure your keywords get at least 3000 searches per month. You can use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to check how many searches your list of keywords get every month.

This step will probably kill off some more keywords off your list.

Tip 4: Find a Keyword with Low Competition

The last step is to find keywords with the fewest competitors possible. Why? Fewer competitors means that it will be easier for your website to rank high in the search results.

How do you know how many competitors a keyword has? Simple. Run a Google search for the keyword in phrase marks. For example, run a Google search for “make money online with adsense“. Do you see the number below the search bar in the results? That’s your competition for this keyword.

I just ran the search and I see “About 728,000 results (0.25 seconds)” under the search bar. This means that there are 728,000 competing pages for “make money online with adsense”. That’s a big number. And it’s going to be tough to rank high with that number of competitors.

George recommends targeting keywords with at most 13,000 competing websites. In his experience, you have a good chance of ranking high if your competitors are this few.

There you go. Four golden nuggets of keyword research that you can use to focus on keywords that can take your websites to the top of search engine rankings.

George has a lot more of these golden nuggets in Google Sniper 2.0. It’s a great book that I’d recommend, especially to those who are just starting in the field of Internet marketing. I believe advanced marketers will also find new knowledge in it.

Click the banner below to check out George Brown‘s free introductory video on the Google Sniper 2.0 website.

1 Four Killer Keyword Research Tips from Google Sniper 2.0

Posted by Jay 4 Comments
Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

PayPal Restrictions for India Users from RBI

An Indian webmaster who buys domain names and other services from me just informed me via chat that starting March 1st, 2011, he won’t be able to use PayPal anymore to pay me. He’s one of probably hundreds of Indian webmasters that I do business with. That means that if they take a hit, so will I, because I will be losing a certain percentage of my buyers.

paypal icon PayPal Restrictions for India Users from RBIApparently, the Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank, has imposed some restrictions on how PayPal users in India can use the money in their PayPal accounts. These new regulations will be in effect starting March 1st, 2011.

PayPal made an announcement on its website and listed the following restrictions:

  • Any balance in and all future payments into your PayPal account may not be used to buy goods or services and must be transferred to your bank account in India within 7 days from the receipt of confirmation from the buyer in respect of the goods or services; and
  • Export-related payments for goods and services into your PayPal account may not exceed US$500 per transaction.

Simply put, whatever money our Indian webmaster friends make online, they must withdraw. They are not allowed to use their PayPal money to purchase products or services online. This kind of defeats the primary purpose of having a PayPal account, doesn’t it?

If you are an Indian merchant and you’re selling export related goods (for example, jewelry, bags, anything that may be considered for export), you can accept payments via PayPal only if the sale price is US$500 or less. I guess that rules out the possibility of buying a Ferrari from India online.

PayPal Alternatives for Indian Webmasters

With PayPal almost impossible to use in India, what PayPal alternatives do Indian webmasters have? Here’s what I can think of that I have already tried:

  • Moneybookers
  • AlertPay
  • Western Union (a bit inconvenient because the recipient needs to actually go to a Western Union branch to claim the money)

Any other suggestions for PayPal alternatives?

Posted by Jay 4 Comments
Filed Under: Making Money Online, Online Payments

Go Daddy Geniuses

I sold a domain name for US$1,750 via Go Daddy’s Premium Listing in December 2010. I was told it takes them about 45 days to issue the cheque. Go Daddy doesn’t send domain sale proceeds via PayPal. Why not? That I still have not figured out.

Anyway, so come February 2011, I was already eagerly anticipating the arrival of my Go Daddy cheque for US$1,750. For me, a domain sale isn’t complete until I have the money (or in this case, a cheque) in my hands.

Last week, I received a mail from Go Daddy. Based solely on the thickness of the envelope, I could tell that it was the Go Daddy cheque that I had been waiting for. I excitedly ripped the side of the white envelope open, and then pulled out the cheque.

There it was. A check for One Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars and 00 Cents. That’s what it said. And here’s what it looks like.

go daddy cheque Go Daddy Geniuses

Sweet eh? Yes, definitely.

Except for the fact that they missed one minor detail.

My name. Instead of my name, they wrote the cheque out to:
Domain Manager DOMAIN MAY BE FOR SALE.

That’s the name that I use in the WHOIS records of the domain names that I want to sell.

Apparently, some genius or geniuses at Go Daddy decided that that’s the name that appears in the WHOIS record of the domain that I sold, so that must be my name. Grrrreat!

I don’t live in the US. And because of that, it takes my bank one month to encash cheques from US banks. Probably because they have to send the cheque back to the US (or something like that) to verify its authenticity (Thanks, Frank Abagnale, Jr.!). Which means that I may have to wait another two months to actually get the money — one month (I hope less) for Go Daddy to send me a new cheque with the correct name and another month for my bank to process and encash the cheque.

Two months. All because someone wasn’t really paying attention when he or she was typing the name of the recipient on the cheque. Genius!

February 19th 2011 update: I contacted my Go Daddy account manager about this issue a couple of days ago. He wrote back yesterday and informed me that their Account Department will write and send a new cheque for with my correct details in two weeks. Thank God, at least it’s not a month.

Posted by Jay 3 Comments
Filed Under: Domain Names
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