How International (Non-US) Amazon Associates Can Get Paid By Direct Deposit

If you are reading this post chances are you are a Non-US amazon associate trying to figure out how to get paid for your referrals. It is unfortunate Amazon doesn't do direct deposits outside the US, but there is good news for you. With Payoneer this can be achieved, through their US Payment Service. Payoneer provides account holders with a US collection account allowing you to receive US direct deposit transfers from select companies (including Amazon). All payments received to the collection account are loaded to the associated Payoneer debit card(MasterCard), which can be used worldwide at any ATM's that accept MasterCard, used for store payments and online payments. The debit card is mailed to you once you sign-up for Payoneer's service. In addition you are able to transfer your money from your Payoneer account into your Local bank account thus you don't always have to withdraw from an ATM which is the more reason why you need to get a Payoneer account, plus you get $25 free after receiving your first payment of $100.

Go to Payoneer.

How To Figure Out Chinese Captcha

A while back I had to submit a website of mine to Baidu (Chinese Search engine), since I didn't know any Chinese, let's say it was a bit of work trying to figure out how to beat Chinese Captcha. Ok so if you are in kinda of in this situation, this article will just show you what to do.

First of all you are going to need the Google Chrome browser (download from link if you don't have Chrome) since it has a translation feature that can translate any language that you want. You should find an image in your chrome search bar like this

 Click on that image and it will translate whatever language it is into English for you. Mind you this does not affect the Chinese Captcha, so you are going to have to manually input the Chinese characters. Linedict.com allows you to draw Chinese characters and gives you possible character suggestions.

To be able to clearly see the Chinese characters on the Captcha image I would suggest you zoom in with your browser. After getting your characters from Linedict, copy and paste it into the Captcha verification form and submit. There you have it if you need more resources on Chinese characters you can check out commonchinesecharacters.com.

How To Start A Simple Ecommerce Store?

  So you want to enter the ecommerce space, but seem to lack the technical know how, don't worry there are several online companies out there that can help bring your dreams to reality. In this post I'll outline companies offering services in the online commerce space.

• Shopify:

Shopify is a personal favourite of mine and one of the best platforms out there for anyone who wants to set up shop. Perks include a free 14-day trial, integration with so many alternative payment gateways,tiered pricing packages, customised themes to play around with and added customer support. These are some of the reasons over 100,000+ stores have sailed the ship with Shopify.

• Bigcommerce:

Bigcommerce is also another great site that can put your ecommerce store into motion. Over 55,000+ online stores have been created using the platform. Just like Shopify they also have tiered pricing packages, integrated with a lot of payment gateways, customer support and offer a 15-day free trial.

• Bigcartel:

Bigcartel is a platform that caters to the needs of artists by providing them with a customizable online store.

Aside from these online platforms showcased, there are also website builders who have also ventured into the provision of ecommerce stores these include:

• Yola which I did have an experience with in building my first website ever back in 2009 when they were known as SynthaSite.
• Weebly: This is also another great platform for website building, with it's drag and drop themes in addition to adding an ecommerce solution to your website.
• Wix
• Jimdo

Would love to hear from you, send me your thoughts by commenting below.

ROCKET INTERNET THE NEXT BIG THING?

Some of you may have never heard of Rocket Internet, but I am sure you may have come across or encountered one of their numerous start-ups without even knowing it.  The Berlin based firm is behind a host of internet based startups such as Zalora, Lamudi,  Easy taxi, Hellofood, Foodpanda, Carmudi, Jumia, Kaymu and Zalando just to name a few. 

 Founded by the Samwer brothers in 2007, who are noted for a string of successful investments in start-ups.The firm aims to become the World’s largest internet platform outside the United States and China.

The firm touts itself of being able to replicate successful internet businesses in unexplored markets such as that of developing countries and thus has been its strategy. 

Rocket's start-ups are all across the globe from Asia, South America, Europe and Africa. Perhaps whats most impressive is the potential most of it's start-ups posses. For instance in Africa where mobile subscriptions is expected to top one billion subscriptions in 2015, which was a little different a decade ago. Behind this growth is also a huge surge in internet use on phones by Africans which is expected to increase by 20 fold in the next five years, that is double the rate of growth the rest of the world. As more and more Africans get online they are beginning to get comfortable with shopping online. That's where Rocket Internet's incubators such as Jumia (Amazon clone), Kaymu (eBay clone) and Jovago are capitalising on with respect to e-commerce. 

Jumia operates in Ghana, Nigeria (Africa's most populous country), Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Cameroon and United Kingdom with plans of expanding into other nations.

If the success of the telecommunication companies in Africa and the meteoric rise of Alibaba is anything to go by Rocket Internet may have just struck gold.

Send me your comments, what do you think?