'Tis the season to close a deal

Just in case you forgot, it's the end of the year and, although Christmas is over, now is the best time to make some great sales.

Now is the time to pick up the phone and call customers, get out and visit clients, take time to send emails. That's because December is a time when many customers are exceptionally eager to buy — and I'm talking about business customers, not consumers. There are sales you can only land right now.

If your customers are large corporations, government agencies, educational institutions or non-profit organizations, many have budgets they need to use before the end of the year. Moreover, if they don't spend all their allocated dollars this year, their budget next year may actually be cut.

Here are some ways to get those year-end budget dollars spent with you:

Make a list. Identify which of your past customers are most likely to have budgets or co-op dollars they must use by the end of the year. Focus your efforts on those customers.
Visit customers in person. Personal relationships build business relationships, and the holidays give you a perfect excuse to see important customers face-to-face. You want to stop by to bring them a present. It doesn't have to be an expensive gift — a box of candy or basket of fruit will do — but this gives you the opportunity to make or reinforce a personal connection. Oh, and while you're there, ask whether they have any budget dollars they need to spend before year's end; you can help them out

Telephone. You've also got a reason to pick up the phone and call clients: to wish them a happy New Year. After chatting with them about what they did or what they will be doing next week, bring the conversation around to what they need to buy before December 31.

Send emails. The easiest way to reach a large number of customers is to send emails. As an added incentive, offer special end-of-year discounts. In my company, we have institutional customers who have told us they look forward to our end-of-year discount so they can use up their budget.

Offer to get an invoice to them before the end of the year. You may not be able to actually deliver the product or service to your customer before the end of the year. That usually doesn't matter, just as long as they receive a bill in December.

Picking the right MS Office

It has always been a challenge to figure out exactly which version of Microsoft Office works best for your customer. To make it even more confusing Microsoft has just launched to additional versions of the most successful office suite.

To make it a little bit easier for you we have created a "cheat sheet" for you which has all the versions of Microsoft office and all the different components they contain. We have also included a table that has the most important NextDayPC part numbers listed for easy reference.

Licensing
If you're not familiar with licensing, as a rule of thumb you should start thinking about licensing if you or your customer need more than five copies of a product. That goes for all Microsoft products by the way. It's easy to get confused with all these licensing options so the best thing to do is to give us a call, describe your customer's needs, and we'll contact Microsoft to get the best solution possible.

Cheat Sheet
Click here to download a PDF version of the Microsoft office suites and the corresponding NextDayPC part numbers.

Full Retail	N/A	2923521	2923534	2923532	2923526	2923537	N/A	N/A
Upgrade Retail	N/A	N/A	2923535	2923533	2923528	2923538	N/A	N/A
OEM	N/A	3704544	N/A	N/A	3066104	N/A	N/A	N/A
License	3066108	3086623	N/A	3244408	N/A	N/A	3024284	3024270
Media Kit for Licenses	N/A	N/A	3201003	3024233	N/A	N/A	3305587	3024242

Back by popular demand

As of this afternoon you can once again add customers to your customer list without having to go into your storefront. We have added a "add Customer" button to your customer list which takes you to a page where, with just a few pieces of information, you can create a new account. When your customer decides to place that order he'll be asked for the additional details needed to process the order.

Proposal Tool
For those of you who were displeased with the new proposal tool, we have good news! The option to pick a customer from your exciting list is back and, if you have this enabled, your logo appears on the email once again. If you have never used the proposal too, give it a try. Simply go to proposals page and click on the "New Proposal" button. This will take you to the storefront where you can add items to the cart. In the cart you will see a "add to proposal" button which takes you back to ResellersOnly.com and allows you to change and email the proposal information to yourself, your customers or anybody for that matter.

Resources
We're currently working on a learning center with instructional videos and more information to help you generate more sales. Besides our learning center we have three more resources for useful information: Ask Art, this Reseller Blog and the Reseller Discussion Group.
Take a look at the new Resources Page to link to these three resources.

Get Ready for the Season

Whether you like it or not, Christmas is just around the corner and Internet sales usually spike during this time. To make sure you can capture as many sales as possible we have created a Holiday Gift Guide with nicely categorized products. Your customer can search by category and by price and we've made sure there is something for everyone. We've put a link on every page of the storefront so they can't miss it.

Banners
If you have your own web site (click here if you don't) you can put some great new banners on it and capture those sales directly from you site. Go to the promotional tools after logging into you reseller account and get the HTML code for these banners.
Good luck and feel free to shop around yourself.

Systemax Built-to-Order Systems, updated and perfected

If you have been selling Systemax Built-to-Order machines in the past and found that the systems were a bit outdated, we don't blame you. Today however, marks a special day in the history of our company. We have implemented new software that gives us the ability to update product information from Systemax and others, almost on the fly.

What does this mean for you?
First of all we now have a much larger product offering, including servers and even data storage products. It also means that we will always have the best pricing available which means you can make more money and still be competitive. But most of all, the system is error-free. Where we used to have price discrepancies in the past, we now have a very robust system that has proved to be flawless. We will be adding other manufacturers to this system soon, including MPC and Gateway.

How do you get there?
Just go to your storefront (under sales), and click on "custom pc's" in the top menu bar.

Microsoft Action Pack Subscription changes

If you are one the many resellers with a Microsoft Action Pack subscription you have probably received a phone call or email explaining the upcoming requirements for receiving the quarterly Action Pack.

For those of you not familiar with the Action Pack Subscription, this is Microsoft's explanation:

The Microsoft Action Pack is available exclusively through the Microsoft Partner Program. It can be the start of an ongoing relationship with Microsoft that becomes even more valuable over time.
The Action Pack subscription includes a Welcome Kit and four quarterly updates. You get new Microsoft software for your business use, access to special partner training materials, and sales and marketing tools to grow your business.

To put it simply, for a mere $300 you will get sales and marketing material but more importantly, the latest operating systems for both server and desktop, Office applications and much more. This is all for demo and internal purposes and not for resale but it can save you thousands of dollars every year for your company. Since there were no requirements for receiving all this, Microsoft has been sending out these Action Packs to anyone willing to pay $300.

As of November 30th this will change. The official reason is that Microsoft resellers increasingly found action packs with customers, preventing them from selling real licenses.

Whatever the reason, a new online-training and assessment requirement will go into effect November 30, 2007. New and renewing subscribers will be required to take any Microsoft E-Learning course and then pass its associated assessment with a minimum score of 70 percent. To continue receiving your Microsoft Action Pack Subscription, you will be required to pass an assessment every two years. You can take these free classes here.

Classes range from sales to technical and cover most of Microsoft's products. By the end of the year there should be more than 1,000 classes available. And you don't have to take them all.
I was assured on the phone by Microsoft that anyone with more than average computer knowledge should be able to reach the required 70%.

I'd love to hear from you how this goes so we can pass that on to other resellers. In case you need help, you can always call the Microsoft Partner desk at (800) 993 7764.

Making old work with new

As more and more manufacturers eliminate legacy ports from their motherboards, customers sometimes end up having to make a choice between sticking to an old PC that has the ability to connect to their older peripherals, or having to buy new peripherals because they decided to upgrade to a new PC.

Although there is nothing wrong with having your customer buy additional peripherals like printers or scanners, some of them might have proprietary equipment like bar-code scanners, cash registers or other products that cost a lot more to upgrade.

With the three devices below they can connect thier old equipment, including keyboards and mice to thier new PC. One advice: check with the peripheral manufacturer to make sure they support this.

From	Product	NDPC sku
PS2 to USB	Trendnet USB to PS2 adapter	2132748
Serial (9 pin) to USB	Sabrent 6 foot USB 2.0 to serial adapter cable	3251473
Parallel to USB	Cable to Go 6 Ft USB to Parallel adapter	6844511

Beta version is ready for testing

We have just uploaded our second version of our ResellersOnly.com Beta site, version 1.1. We have added robust error trapping and worked out some bugs we found after the first release.

Please feel free to test it but please read the notes below before you do (the URL is at the bottom)

1) If you want to give us feedback, please include a URL and describe what you were doing if you experienced an error. Please send any feedback to betafeedback@nextdaypc.com . We do encourage feedback and we certainly use it, but we do not reply to these emails

2) Some areas on the web site appear to have links but do not function as such. This is intentional, these areas are not finished and will appear in a future version.

3) You can use your current reseller ID and password to log in.

4) The old site will be available until we launch the production version of the site here: http://www.resellersonly.com/login.asp

Ok, here we go: http://www.resellersonly.com/member

Have fun and please let us know what you like, dislike and if you experience any issues.

Protect your business and your time

Each week we receive requests from resellers for quotes for high-ticket items destined for Nigeria, Ivory Coast or Ghana in Africa or Indonesia in Asia. Here at NextDay Network we receive emails from those countries on a daily basis. Price is usually not an issue. Most of the time the products will be paid for by credit card, sometimes even by check. Because we are able to block most of the IP-addresses from those countries, these “shoppers” are increasingly targeting resellers.

In the history of our company we have never had a legitimate order from those countries. There have even been attempts to pay for transactions with fraudulent cashier’s checks. Furthermore, the individuals trying to place these orders are finding new ways to try and get you and us to ship the products.

What can you do to protect your business?
Well, the easiest solution would be to just not respond to requests from those countries. However, it is not that easy, you have to know what to look for first. Here are the most common things to look for in a potentially fraudulent transaction:

1. The shopper uses a free email address, like hotmail or yahoo. If you are not sure if it is a free email account just try looking for the web site of the domain that is used. For example, if someone sends you an email from the following email address customer@domainname.com, just open a web browser and type in the following http://www.domainname.com/. If this is a free email account the web site usually has some sort of login screen and a way to set up a free account. If a real domain name is used, it is quite easy to find out where the domain name comes from: just go to http://www.geektools.com/whois.php and type in the domain name. You can quickly find out where the company is located that issued the email address.
   


2. If you know how to extract the IP-address from the email or order you have received, you can use a very nice tool to find out the geographical location of the shopper. Just type in the IP-address and in most cases it will tell you exactly where the shopper is from. Give it a try here. http://www.networldmap.com/TryIt.htm .
   


3. Shopper is unconcerned with shipping costs. Most legitimate shoppers are very sensitive to shipping costs. A "please expedite and add the extra onto my card" with no maximum or qualifying comment or question may be a tip-off: Use Caution.
   


4. Very large dollar amount order or large quantity. Thieves need to score quickly and move on since fraudulent delivery addresses have a short lifespan, at least in the USA. They will try to hit a perfect spot where the order is big enough to profit them, but small enough NOT to make merchants suspicious. Sometimes they will aim for $500+ orders, other times try to stay in the $199 range.
   


5. Ship-to address is not the same as the billing address. There are many legitimate reasons for a shopper wanting to do this, but it is a "cheat" of the AVS (Address Verification System) system if the thief has the billing address of the real cardholder. This is also one of the reasons why we always ask the customer to have the shipping address added as an alternate address.
   


6. Tell them you have their product in stock, and ask if they want an accessory to go with that, for only $200 more. Phrase this appropriately to avoid annoying legitimate shoppers. A crook, if monitoring their bogus email box at all, will say "sure!" without even a question. This should raise red flags.
   


7. Call the phone number given in the order. It may be entirely bogus, and sometimes it is even the actual number of the person whose card was stolen. If you don't get a phone number with the order, write and ask for one.
   


8. We have heard of some cases where the shopper emails you the credit card information. Unless you know the customer very well, don’t expect this to be a legitimate order. Normal shoppers would never send their Credit Card information via email.
   


9. Sophisticated thieves now also use very legitimate looking cashier’s checks. Please make sure to clear those checks with your bank and hold on to your products for at least two weeks after you have deposited the check. We have heard of several cases where the reseller had shipped products after depositing the check only to find out two weeks later that the originating bank had refused the check because it was fraudulent.
   


10. Always use common sense when you are dealing with pure Internet orders and if a deal looks too good to be true, be very careful.

Refurbished products - You get what you pay for

For at least a few months now we have been offering refurbished products on the storefront. From cell phones to servers, from TVs to networking equipment, there are usually a few hundred different types for products available. I picked up a Gateway TabletPC a few months ago for less than $800 and apart from a few scratches on the bottom, it has served me very well. To easily find refurbished products on the nextdaypc.com, just type in "refurb notebook" or "refurb phone" or similar wording, depending on what you are looking for.

I'm sure every now and then you run into a customer with a limited budget and refurbished products are a great resource to retain this customer.

But you have to make sure you explain the limitations of refurbished products before you make the sale. The majority of products does not come with the standard warranty a new product has and sometimes the documentation or software is missing. Usually the latter is not an issue if your customer knows where and how to find this. The technical support or warranty is usually handled by a third-party company that handles a variety of products and brands so you cannot expect the support you would expect from the manufacturers themselves. Check on the storefront or just call us for detailed warranty information.

So, if your customer is willing to dig for support online or ask you for paid support when needed, refurbished products are certainly an option.

Protecting your Reseller Account

When I opened my mailbox this morning I found the following question from a reseller: Why do my customers have to sign up before they can see anything on the storefront?

Every once in awhile this question seems to return along with another question I get asked: What do you do to make sure my customer places an order through my reseller account?

In general, the most important thing for us is to make sure that you feel you can rely on our services. Without you as a reseller we would not be able to sell any product so it is in our own best interest to make sure that you and your customers keep coming back.

To answer both questions, and maybe more, let me describe the paths your customer might take to get to the storefront. It all has to do with cookies and linking.

1. If your customer has never visited NextDayPC.com before and types in http://www.nextdaypc.com/ he will see a secure sign in page, where he will be asked to set up an account and to include a discount code. To try this just delete your NextDayPC.com cookie, close all browser windows, and visit http://www.nextdaypc.com. If you think that this is just what your customer might do, make sure you give them your discount code.
   


2. The most common path for your customer is probably from clicking a link on your website or in an e-mail. To get detailed instructions on how to do this, click here. As soon as that customer goes to the storefront, a cookie with your discount code is placed on the customer's machine and from then on and determines the look and feel of the site and the product pricing. This takes us to the next possible path.
   


3. Once your customer has a cookie and returns to the storefront, even if they just type in http://www.nextdaypc.com, the discount code information will be read and the pricing and layout will change on the fly. Your customer will never see this secure sign in page.

If your customer decides to delete the cookie, he returns to the first option described above, leaving him with the option to sign in or to create a new account. If he signs in because he had created an account previously , the storefront will recognize the customer, associates him with the appropriate reseller and will put another cookie on your customer's machine.

I hope this clears up the some of these questions. Feel free to comment on this post or ask me a question by clicking here.

Drive away distraction

If you’re like me and you get between 50-150 emails every single day, both personal and business, have high speed Internet access so you can watch TV and videos around the clock on your desktop, notebook and smart phone, I’m sure you’re not as productive as you used to be. I realized this after getting an e-mail alert about this article on menshealth.com.

I found it fascinating to read and it certainly changed my perspective on e-mail, instant messaging and live RSS feeds. If you recognize yourself in this the situation, I urge you to read at least the seven ways to stop distraction below.

1) Think by the week.
Most planning tools--calendars, daily planners, and to-do lists--help you be more efficient. But you're only prioritizing your crises each day. Covey's cure-all: a weekly worksheet. Organize your life on a weekly basis; this allows you to schedule time for your top priorities and the actions that prevent crises.

2) Tell people to leave you alone.
"It takes the average person 2 to 15 minutes to recover from each interruption," says time-management coach Joy Baldridge of Baldridge Seminars International. "Interruptions are the biggest time robbers and focus busters." To minimize an interruption, she recommends her "plus, plus, dash" trick. Say two nice things (the plus, plus, or ++), then dash (--) off. Example: "Hey, great to see you. I wish I could talk now. Right now isn't good, though; let's talk at 3."

3) Clear off your desk.
Is your desk a mess? I hope so. Psychologists have discovered that messy desks are a necessity in a wide variety of careers. They're also distracting. Although we're barely conscious of it, we all have the same method to our madness.
We keep a "hot" pile of papers, probably next to the phone; a "warm" pile or two toward the edges of the desk; and various "cold" piles atop the filing cabinet and every other square inch of horizontal space. These last are mostly completed projects or "just in case" materials. Their presence may ratchet up your sense of being overwhelmed. "As emotional arousal increases, focus becomes more difficult," says Nideffer. So take a rainy Saturday to stash or trash that stuff.

4) Straighten out your life.
If your output is down but your workload is the same, maybe something is bugging you. "One of the hardest things to realize is when your own emotions are slowing you down," says Jeffrey P. Kahn, M.D., a psychiatrist in New York City and president of the consulting firm WorkPsych Associates.
"Listen to what people tell you. If they ask, 'Are you okay?' it's appropriate to say, 'I'm fine,' but then ask yourself, 'Am I okay?' " If, on the other hand, you feel frazzled, but everyone admires your ability to juggle a zillion tasks, then give yourself some credit: You're multifocal. "I see that a lot, particularly among very successful people," says Dr. Kahn.

5) Respond right away.
"In high-pressure situations, people tend to rush," says Nideffer. You've done this, I'm sure--you get an e-mail or memo, and because it requires a moment of thought or the retrieval of more information, you set it aside. Later on, you come back to it (when you're even more rushed) and spend time trying to figure out where you left off.
Try not to pick up the same piece of work twice. "Read it and respond," says Dr. Kahn, "rather than put it aside and think you'll respond later."

6) Carve out time.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, break it down. Ask yourself, "What is it, exactly, that I'm not getting to, and how can I get to it?" Doctors need to return phone calls, contractors need to take care of paperwork, salesmen need to sit down and make long-term plans. They all need to carve out an hour or two for these tasks. "Protect that time," advises Dr. Kahn. "Then you don't have to worry about it while you go about your day."

7) Pick the low-hanging fruit.
In the end, your workday will inevitably be a hodgepodge--a crazy salad of big projects, short deadlines, interruptions, distractions, and surprises. Roll with it all, but make sure to do what Dr. Kahn calls "picking the low-hanging fruit--tackling the easy tasks that you can get done quickly. That helps you feel like you're on track."

Free domain name and web site from Microsoft

I was recently asked If NextDay Network uses mailing lists and if we would be able to provide assistance acquiring new customers. The same reseller asked me If I knew of a good and cost effective way to promote his services and our products.

Let's start with the acquisition of new customers.
NextDay Network does not use any mailing lists apart from the mailing list that we have built up over the past eight years that we've been in business. However, we're aware of companies that can provide you with specific customer e-mail addresses. Doing a Google search for "email mailing list" results in plenty of results on the right hand side. There are numerous companies that can help you. I do advise you to bargain as hard as you can with one of these companies. If you can, try to get a sample list of a couple of hundred e-mail addresses so you can see what the response rate is before you commit to a larger number.

That said, most successful resellers are not the resellers that are sending as much traffic as possible to us. Our most successful resellers are out in the field providing IT services to small to medium size businesses and consumers. The trusted relationship that they have makes it so that their customers don't shop around on the Internet. Although we feel our pricing is very competitive we're certainly not the cheapest source of products out there. So if you're dealing with very price sensitive customers you will probably not make that sale.

I get almost daily marketing emails from Microsoft and most of them go unused. However, they sometimes contain a little gem like this one. Microsoft gives away free web sites, including domain names for small businesses. I've not tried this myself but I'm sure they have very comprehensive tools to create a nice website. As many of our resellers have done, once you have created your site, you can link to your NextDayPC storefront and submit your domain name to search engines so it can be listed. Please use the link below to go to Microsoft's web site and sign up for the free domain name and website.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/FX101465131033.aspx

If you want additional information in regards to this subject, don't hesitate to ask here.

Give your customers $100K credit, on us

We take Purchase Order Financing to the next level. NextDay Network has an end-user financing program that allows you to offer credit terms of up to $100,000 to your customers. Together with our Financial Partner IFSC we take care of shipping, billing and collecting on your behalf. Our program offers 45 days of interest-free financing for Fortune 1000 companies, educational institutions and government agencies. Credit approval is based on the financial strength of the end user. The program is specifically designed for businesses with more than $250,000 in sales and they must be in business for more than 2 years. Individuals cannot apply for this program.

Here's how it works:

1. You send your customer to this page and make sure you add your discount code to the URL as explained here.


2. Once this form has been filled out, your customer will receive an email with two forms attached. Both forms need to be signed and faxed back to the fax number on the form.


3. After it has been faxed back, the credit verification process starts. For Government and Educational institutions the process is usually finished within 24 hours. For private companies it can take a little longer, depending on the response time of the credit references.


4. If the customer is approved we will send an email with instructions on the ordering process.


5. From then on, your customer can start placing orders using only a Purchase order number, and a full shopping cart of course.

If your company purchases products on a regular basis and you think it fits the criteria described above, don't hesitate to fill out the application yourself.

Can Skype save you money?

The sort answer to this question is a simple YES. I will explain a little more about all the great gadgets out there now to help you get the most out of Skype but first I will elaborate on the cost aspect. Since we are not using Skype here at NextDay Network I will be using my home situation as an example. If you don't know what Skype is, take it for a spin by downloading the software here. If you want to know why this is a good alternative to MSN, Google, Yahoo or AOL messenger and the good old telephone company, just click here.

Do the math
Up until January of this year I used AT&T as my long distance carrier, paying about $30.00 a month for unlimited long distance, which included all those fees, only a few of us know what they are for. In December of last year I received en email from Skype offering me a deal I had never seen before, $29,95 for a year of unlimited long distance for the US and Canada. Yes, that is per year, not per month.

My total savings: 11 x $30 = $330 / year. That's a big enough saving to me to put some effort into it.


The drawbacks
Although we have been using Skype for a good part of the year now and are very pleased with it, there are a few issues I feel you should know about before making the switch.

1. The Skype Unlimited I'm talking about is just for outgoing calls. You can get one or more SkypeIn numbers with your local, or any area code, for $30 a year. So you can link your Skype account to a number in Nevada and a number in New York, making it easy and cheaper for family or customers, without a Skype account, to reach you.



2. You need a decent amount of bandwidth to make it work. Although voip doesn't need tremendous amounts of bandwidth, you need at least a DSL or Cable Internet connection to prevent echo or lag.



3. If you have a DSL connection you will not be able to get rid of your phone line because without a phone line there is no connection. So you will still be paying the $15 a month you were paying anyway unless you had some sort of package deal. The added advantage is that you can still use your old phone number for incoming calls, and if you don't want the added functionality, you don't need to purchase a SkypeIn number.



4. Because I wanted everyone to use our new phone number I thought I could just forward my old phone number to my new SkypeIn phone number. Unfortunately the numbers Skype had available for me in this area code were not local numbers. If I had wanted to forward that number I would have had to get a long distance service which of course defeats the purpose of getting Skype Unlimited. If you decide to get a SkypeIn number and you want to forward your old number to your SkypeIn number like me, check with your phone company if the numbers Skype has available for you, are in fact local numbers.


5. If you want to be available 24/7 you need to have some sort of Skype device connected to the Internet at all times. This means that you will need to have a computer running at all times, to save energy I recommend a old notebook or a System with a VIA processor. If you have a wireless router, like me, you can use a wireless Skype phone like the Netgear SPH200D Wireless IP Phone, which also doubles as a cordless phone for your "normal" phone line NextDayPC sku # 3134256.

Skype Gadgets
Now that you are saving $300 a year, you need a few ideas on how to spend that money on some great gadgets made to work with Skype .

Use it just on your PC
If you only want to be available when you are using your PC or Notebook I suggest getting a decent headset. Expect to pay a little more for a good headset like the Plantronics USB 3-in-1 VOIP headset, our sku # 2963874. A simple $10 headset will work but the quality is poor. If you're dealing with customers you want to make sure you can hear them and they can hear you so it's well worth the extra money.

Use it with your existing cordless phone and a PC
Most of us have a cordless phone and if you don't you can usually pick one up for less than $50. What you need to use this set-up is a so-called Voip adapter. This is a small box with three connections: a USB connection to your PC, one connection to the cordless phone base end the third connection connects to your phone line. Now you can receive and make Skype calls from your cordless phone as long as your PC is on. Look at NextdayPC sku's # 2582097 , 2593590 or 3220655 .

Use it with a wireless router
If you have a wireless network set up at home, at the office, or if you are on the road and have access to wireless Internet, you can use one of these great products :

• Netgear SPH200D Wireless IP Phone, which also doubles as a cordless phone for your "normal" phone line NextDayPC sku # 3134256
• Belkin Wi-fi phone, only works with a wireless network - our sku # 2967774.
• If you have a smartphone with Windows Mobile and equipped with 802.11 connectivity you can also download the PDA version of Skype and use your phone as a Skype phone.

More than a Phone service
Besides making almost free phone calls, you can use Skype to share files, video conferencing (if you have a web cam), play games, share applications and even send money through PayPal.
If you have not tried Skype it is definitely the time to do so. Over the past few months we have noticed a change in the market towards VOIP so if you want to be able to advise your customers, there's no better time to familiarize yourself than now. If anything, you'll save some money in the process. Also check out the software that's available out there. A lot of tools are free (I like free) and are particularly wel-suited for home office or small business use.


The bottom line
Skype has defeinately saved us money and has made communication with friends and family here and overseas a lot easier and cheaper. The hardware and software available makes it a tremendous powerful tool for home and small businesses alike. As mobile internet is becoming more affordable you will soon be able to use Skype wherever you can use a cell phone, making it an even more powerful tool than it is today.


Try it
If you want talk to me about Skype, just click here. If you don't have a question for me now but want to add me to your contact list, just click here. If you want to send me a chat message now, click here.
As soon as Skype has figured out a way to put money in my bank account I will put up that link too :-)

Storefront Linking de-mystified

We have been getting a lot of emails lately requesting a little help linking to certain areas or pages on NextDayPC.com. With the holiday season right around the corner it will probably pay off re-visiting your links and making sure everything works the way it should.


What NOT to do...
Make sure you never link to the storefront without including your Discount Code. Your Discount Code is the 9-digit Code starting with ND0. You can find this code on the home page after logging in to your account at http://www.resellersonly.com/. For the examples below we will use ND0123456 and the links have been disabled.

Linking to the Home page
Only for the home page there are 2 ways to send your customers there. Let's start with the most difficult one;

1. Because of engineering issues we advise you to use this one on your web site, it is more reliable and will modify any old or incorrect cookies. Use the following format
   http://www.nextdaypc.com/main/default.aspx?&rsmainid=ND0123456 and replace the Discount Code with your own.


2. We also have the option for a "simplified" URL. You can change that in your storefront settings on www.resellersonly.com . When you're visiting customers, for printed material or in your email signature you can use something like this www.nextdaypc.com/art . Of course this is much easier to remember than the first option.

Linking to ANY page
The formula for linking to any page on nextdaypc.com is quite simple.
Once you have located the correct page on the site just copy the URL (see image below) and add the following string:
&rsmainid=ND0123456 where you replace ND0123456 with your own Discount Code. The result would look something like this:
http://www.nextdaypc.com/main/products/details.aspx?PID=2735863&rsmainid=ND0123456



Again, you can do this with any page on the storefront.

MPC back in your store?

If you have been following the news about Gateway or MPC (formerly known as MicronPC) you may have noticed this announcement. Some of you may still remember we used to offer MPC BTO products on the storefront . We decided to take MPC off-line over a year ago due to delivery times of up to 3 months.

Since then they seem to have made some dramatic changes to their operations in Nampa. One of us went to visit them a few weeks back to make sure we can stand behind MPC as we once did and they sure impressed us.

Since then we have been working with their engineers to get their Built-to-Order Desktops, Notebooks, Servers and Data Storage on your storefront. Within the next few weeks you will be able to offer your customers a second, US built and supported BTO manufacturer.

Click here if you want to check out their products.

New office location

We have moved back to beautiful Carmel, here in California. We had left this town 6 years ago for Monterey, just up the road but the office we occupied there had become too small.

Even though Google thinks we're camping in the field next door (see below), we are now occupying a very nice office building that should last us at least a few years.
If you are in the neighbourhood, please feel free to stop by.

Our new adddress is:
3771 Rio Road, Building 102
Carmel, CA 93923



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New site almost ready

We know it has been a very very long time since we have updated http://www.resellersonly.com/ but there is light at the end of the tunnel. In the next 2-3 weeks we will do a "silent" launch. The site will be up for a day or 2 to see how it will work when "real" resellers use the site. Once we have tested the site we will take it down again and will analyze the results and fix any problems we have found. Hopefully not too long after that we will do the official launch.

Take a look at the screenshots below.

Home page after login.
Your storefront conveniently on one page.