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E-Business Secrets
Brian Livingston
E-commerce sites gradually making sense of micropayments

Many Web sites have long desired a way to book revenue by selling small, intangible offerings for as little as a dollar, a half dollar, or a quarter. E-businesses that offer specialized articles, real-time information, simple shareware programs, and other products could benefit from such small transactions, which are called micropayments. But the easy availability of such a system up to now has been elusive.

Although credit cards might seem attractive for handling all kinds of payments, credit card processors typically charge merchants a fee of 30 cents per transaction plus 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent of the amount involved. Large corporations can negotiate more favorable rates, which aren't available to smaller businesses. But even with special rates, credit card processing has never been ideal for purchases less than a few dollars.

Micropayments may finally be ready to take their place as a source of revenue for e-business sites. Clickshare is one payment system that is starting to look successful. After an initial sign-up fee, Clickshare charges merchants just 1.5 cents per transaction plus a sliding scale of as much as 5 percent of the payment amount. Payments as low as 10 cents, therefore, become theoretically feasible.

One Clickshare customer is Andrews McMeel Universal, the syndicate that distributes Doonesbury and Garfield comics, Dear Abby and William Buckley columns, and many others. Andrews' online service, Uclick.com, is using Clickshare to offer comics, columns, crossword puzzles, and the like to readers of opt-in e-mail. Other Clickshare customers are Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News and Hometips.com.

Clickshare.com: http://www.clickshare.com@836.as/?4e44

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E-BUSINESS TECH REVIEW: TIME-SHIFT YOUR RADIO PROGRAMS

Here's a why-hasn't-someone-thought-of-this product: Now a compact package of devices records your favorite radio shows and plays them back for you later through your car audio system or any FM receiver.

For as little as $15, one of these kits can rest comfortably in your car (perhaps concealed in the glove compartment), recording those programs you never had time to catch during the workday.

RADIO PROGRAM RECORDER (RPR) KIT:

http://portables.about.com@54.vg/?61cc

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LIVINGSTON'S TOP 10 NEWS PICKS O' THE WEEK

1. E-tailers report dramatic Thanksgiving-Friday sales

http://www.washingtonpost.com@a2.tc/?40c

2. "Day-after" figures are 22 percent above normal days

http://www.corporate-ir.net@th.gs/?7f4

3. Holiday buying surges at Amazon, Bluelight, others

http://dailynews.yahoo.com@5a0.tc/?bdc

4. Yahoo, MSN Shopping, and brick-and-mortars up, too

http://www.marketwatch.com@31.dk/?fc4

5. United States halts Internet access in Somalia; who's next?

http://news.bbc.co.uk@e.la/?13ac

6. Treaty signed to criminalize offenses on the Net

http://www.guardian.co.uk@836.as/?1794

7. How new security threats to Web sites may emerge

http://www.nytimes.com@a6r.ms/?1b7c

8. Even Playboy.com is hacked, exposing card numbers

http://news.cnet.com@3n.be/?1f64

9. HTML tips: Browser-customize your site using PHP

http://www.webmasterbase.com@1c.to/?234c

10. Now everyone has it: The Pope sends his first e-mail

http://cbsnews.cbs.com@54.vg/?2734

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THIS WEEK'S "THEY CAN'T DO THAT ON THE WEB!" PAGE

In an interesting example of low-budget Flash animation, the mini-movie "All Your Tourist Are Belong To Us" spoofs pop culture by inserting scans of the ubiquitous Tourist Guy into familiar mass media and news images.

With a cast of a dozen or so contributors, none of whom seem to have English as their mother tongue, the Flash animation has some hilarious scenes. (Caution: some will find a few airplane situations offensive in light of the Sept. 11 tragedy.)

"ALL YOUR TOURIST ARE BELONG TO US" FLASH ANIMATION

http://www.iconsofindustry.org@n6.be/?9c64

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E-BUSINESS SECRETS: Our mission is to bring you such useful and thought-provoking information about the Web that you actually look forward to reading your e-mail.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: E-Business Secrets is written by InfoWorld contributing editor Brian Livingston. Research director is Ben Livingston (no relation). Brian has published 10 books, including:

Windows Me Secrets:

http://www.amazon.com@isbn.at/?0764534939

Windows 2000 Secrets:

http://www.amazon.com@isbn.at/?0764534130

Win a book free if you're the first to send a tip Brian prints: mailto:tips@SecretsPro.com


Brian Livingston , an InfoWorld contributing editor, has published 10 books, including Windows Me Secrets and Windows 2000 Secrets. Win a book free if you're the first to send a tip Brian prints. Send in your tips today, at tips@secretspro.com.



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