Water and Fireproof Data Storage

Every now and then a new product arrives that really gets our attention. This week we came upon IoSafe’s water and fireproof data storage products. There are three different drive sizes, 500MD, 1TB and 1,5TB. These drives can be submerged in 10ft of water for at least 3 days and can withstand well over 1500 degrees for at least 30 minutes. It’s like storing all your important data in a safe.
Besides the fact that its fire and waterproof the drives are very competitively priced, between $150 and $300, each drive comes with a 1 year data recovery warranty. If, for some reason you are unable to get the hard drive to work after a fire or a flood, IoSafe will spend up to $1,000 to try to recover your data. For an additional fee you can extend that warranty to 2, 3 or 5 years.
To us this seems like a no-brainer for small businesses and consumers who want to keep their important business data or family pictures safe from disaster.
You can find the IoSafe products by searching for “IoSafe”  on your storefront.

Unfortunately we do not have product information on the product on our product detail pages but we have some files you can use for your customers here : http://groups.google.com/group/resellersonly/files?hl=en

Dell is Here

We’re happy to announce that, as of today, we’re carrying the Dell Vostro Desktop and Notebook line of products. The Vostro products are specifically built for small businesses and are a much better package than the products available for consumers.

This arrangement will allow our network of more than 10,000 Technology Resellers and Solution Providers to add another great brand to their arsenal of tools and services and enjoy collaboration in place of competition with one of the best known technology companies in the world.

Dell product experts are available at NextDayPC.com to answer your questions and help you find the most suitable solutions for your needs.

Windows Home Server - Revisited

A few months ago I wrote about Windows Home Server and how wonderful it was, at least from the demo and other information I received. In the past 2 weeks I have been able to actually take one home and I don't think it will be leaving any time soon.

If you run a small business, have a family with numerous computers, or both, or have a large collection of documents, pictures, music or other files, Windows Home Server is a very solid solution, for you or your customers. With daily backups of all the 6 computers on our home network I don't have to worry about anyone losing homework or family memories. If someone accidentally deletes a document, it is retrieved in seconds.

The other important feature is that all the users on the server can get to their documents remotely from any internet connected computer with a browser. You can even access running PC's on the network via remote desktop in case you need to find something on a particular machine. So your son can create a word document on his computer, save it on a shared folder, and continue working on it in the school library without having to carry a copy of it with him.

If you want, Microsoft also gives away a free domain name like http://myserver.homeserver.com/ which you can use to either log in and access your documents or computers but, more importantly, if you have family and friends all over the world, like we do, within 30 seconds you can have pictures or music online by creating a web site for it. Updating is a breeze, you just drop and drag your pictures or any other documents into shared folders on the server and you're web site is updated.

The system has a lot more features and with add-ins you can give the server even more functionality. The other nice feature is that, once it has been installed, it can run "head-less", without monitor, keyboard or mouse, so it can be put somewhere in a corner or closet.
Don't think for a moment that you need a high powered machine either. It runs fine on a P4 machine with 2GB of memory as long as you have plenty of storage space, either internal or external via USB.

I would like to suggest trying this yourself to see if this something for you or your customers. Microsoft has made it very easy; they'll even send you the 120-day evaluation software for free by filling out a form here.

Your storefront carries a few servers, from HP and Systemax and the software itself but we'll probably see some more manufacturers coming out with these servers as the interest seems to grow. Just search for Windows Home Server in the storefront to bring up a list of available products.

Fulfillment Fee

Just in case you have not heard, as of January 1st 2009 we will be charging a Reseller Fulfillment Fee of $2 or 2% on the order total, whichever is higher. We will only be taking this out of order where you have added a markup.  So, if you're only purchasing products for yourself or for resale and your purchasing this @MyCost, this does not apply to you.  

This will allow us to keep product prices competitive and continue offering our services to you free of any membership or usage fees, despite the increase in shipping costs, distributor minimum order fees, and credit card processing fees.

We want everyone to know that, despite the current economic situation, our company remains committed to the thousands of resellers that have signed up since we founded our company and would like to thank you for your support. We wish you and your family Happy Holidays and a prosperous 2009!

Are You Ready for a Change?

We now have a new President. The country has voted for change. The beginning of a new year is right around the corner. Are your ready for 2009?

If you're having problems in your computer consulting business because of the current economic conditions, constantly having price issue battles with your customers or you would just like to increase your income in your business.....then it's time for a change in your business. A change for the good.

One definition of insanity is continuing to do the same things over and over and over again, but expecting different results. There has to be a better way....and there is.

It can all start with a Free Report, created by one of our resellers, Steve Hurst, "The 7 Biggest Mistakes Computer Consultants Make With Their Business And How To Avoid Them!"

Once you read his Free Report, you'll discover the answers to mistakes you may be making in your computer consulting business. Mistakes that could be costing you hundreds and thousands of dollars. This report will help you “fix” those mistakes and increase the income of your business.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by getting this Free Report. For your copy, go to:

http://www.HelpMyComputerBusinessGrow.com

XP here to stay - at least for a little longer

Microsoft has been talking about phasing out XP for a long time now but June 30th was the real beginning of the end. Microsoft is sticking to its plan to cease providing PC makers with XP to preload on new PCs after June 30, as Microsoft is now letting customers know. Free Microsoft XP support through the Microsoft web site until April of next year and paid support is available until 2014.

If you or your customers don't want, or can't upgrade to Vista, we have a solution, at least until January of 2009. There are two different options available:

1) On most models, when you pick the OS, you can see an option that specifies you can downgrade to XP Pro. The system will come installed with Windows Vista Business but you can download and install XP.
2) In a few weeks you will see an added option called "Imaging Service". If you select the option "Custom Image Downgrade to Microsoft Windows XP Pro" you will receive the system with XP Pro installed and restore CD's for both Vista and XP.

If you have any questions in regards to this, do not hesitate to contact me.

Gas prices too high? Support remotely!

With gas prices being as high as they are (we're paying over $4 a gallon now here in California), you have at least thought about charging your customers a little more for on-site service to make up for the increased cost.

Even though this might seem the logical thing to do, you might want to reconsider. In today's economy your customer is certainly not going to be happy with a price increase and might look for alternatives or putting of certain service issues altogether. You'll probably make more friends if you can tell them that, with new technology, you can actually save them time and money.
Enter Remote Assistance.

The Solution
I'm using the term "remote assistance" loosely but it basically means that, with the right software, and a fast Internet connection between you and your customer, you can access your customers' computer from anywhere you have an Internet connection. This allows you to install software, set up peripherals , perform maintenance, troubleshoot and even teach customers.

Before I list some of the different options, I want you to realize that each option comes with its own peculiarities and usually means installation of some type of software on the users machine. Because of the large number of different options I will only discuss a few below. Make sure you find the solution that fits your needs by testing it.

Before your install any software on your customers' computer, make sure your customer understands the implications of installing this type of software on his system. For some customers it can be very frightening to know someone can access their PC, and potentially their information remotely.

Here's a small list of companies that offer either SaaS (software as a service) or downloadable software:

http://www.rapidassist.com/
http://www.gotoassist.com/
http://www.radmin.com/
http://www.teamviewer.com/
http://www.remote-desktop-control.com/
http://www.realvnc.com/
https://secure.logmeinrescue.com/HelpDesk/Home.aspx

How to land that order

We understand how difficult it can be to have the competitive edge when it comes to hardware and software sales, especially during an economic downturn which seems to be on everyone's mind. We've been there and done that.

How we can help
Just by having your customers source through us you've made the right decision. The combined buying power of all our reseller allows pricing to be very competitive, even with your commission. Besides carrying over 450,000 products at competitive prices, we can also help you compete against the likes of CDW and others.
How? Well, if you feel you need an extra edge with a "large deal", just give us a call or send us an email. We'd be happy to negotiate better pricing or discounts from manufacturers and we'll pass those savings right on to you. It's up to you to pass the discounts on to your customer or to increase your margin.

What is a "Large Deal" ?
We consider a large deal anything over $3,000 or if the your customer wants to order 3 or more of the same item. This is a guideline and we leave it up to you to interpret this. You can always call us Toll Free at 800 270 0700 if you feel you need a little extra "wiggle room".

Excuse our Dust while we Upgrade

If you haven't visited your storefront lately we strongly recommend you take a look at the layout of some of the main pages on the site. We have added more information and made it more accessible for you and your customers.

The RSS feeds seem to draw in large crowds too and some of our resellers have incorporated them into their own web site. If you're not sure how to add this to your own web site, just Google it.

There's a lot more going on in the background.
We have recently renewed our contract with one of the most reliable hosting companies in the country, Rackspace. We're getting brand new servers with more processing power and the latest technology so we're ready for the growth we're experiencing.

What does it mean for you? Well, over the next two weeks, until March 10, you might see some unresponsiveness of the web sites every now and then and maybe the web sites cannot be reached at all. Most of the migration process takes place at night but sometimes we need to make changes during the day. Please rest assured that the interruptions will be limited to a few minutes and most likely you will not even notice at all.

Our apologies for the inconvenience, we hope you like the improvements we're making on both the front- and back end.

Faster, Better Product Pages

We are proud to announce a partnership with Sellpoint, Inc.

Sellpoint provides animated product tours for a large number of products on our site. Flash animation, product manuals, detailed images are all part of the package. Look for the "View Product Tour" button below the product images. If you want to check it out, take a look at our part numbers 3333688, 3163924, 0414820. It is almost as if you can touch the product and it's a very powerful sales tool. We hope you and your customers will benefit from this great addition.

The partnership has also prompted us to take another look at the way we display the products information on the product detail page. We have re-designed the page and made significant improvements, not just in the way the information is displayed but there's more of it and it is displayed much faster than before.

Major Changes
Here are some of the most significant changes we have made:


1) A special block on the page which includes additional functionality like setting price and stock alerts.
2) We added a "buy together" section which displays the most popular accessory for the product. Both products can be added to the cart with one click of a button.
3) All accessories are conveniently located on the right hand side of the page
4) On the bottom of the page is a list of the 5 most popular products in the past hour. Popularity is calculated using product views and purchases.


We have already seen a dramatic increase in pageviews and an increase time spent on the site since Friday. We're working on adding social bookmarking and other great improvements of the site as a whole. I'll keep you posted.

Windows Home Server

It has been a year since Microsoft launched the Windows Home Server at the 2007 CES but it is now really taking off. HP currently has a 1TB and a 500GB version available of their HP MediaSmart server.

This is the perfect server for a busy family with multiple PCs or notebooks on the network and digital media they want to share, and not just on the local network.

It is a very simple system and it only needs power and a hookup to the Internet. Access to the server is done via the built-in web server.

Take a look at the specs here, or take a look at the demo here.

Use part numbers 3689337 and 3689336 to find both products on NextDayPC.com

'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.