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Accounting, Management & Legal

Insuring Against Fraud, Data Breaches

A few insurance companies provide policies for credit card fraud and data breaches, covering both a merchant's hard cost of fraudulent sales and any liability for data breaches. AIG, the...

Merchants Liable For Data Breaches

What do online merchants Art.com, Geeks.com and Bananas.com have in common? They're three in a small, but growing, list of ecommerce sites hacked for their customer's credit card data. Not only...

Legal: Security Regulation Is Coming

Let's consider the problem first. It wasn't until 1997 that credit cards could be "securely" used online. Obviously the definition of "securely" was rather subjective, but the consuming public was...

Interview: ICANN Official On The Domain Name Infrastructure

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers, or ICANN, coordinates the domain name system globally. ICANN was created in 1998 to perform various Internet administrative tasks previously...

ADA And State Disability Laws

We are often asked about compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is a reasonably strong argument, supported by court decisions, that a stand-alone business operating as a website...

Email Blacklists “Kind Of A Crazy Thing”

What is an email blacklist? Email blacklists are compiled by industry watchers who track down the originating servers for emails that have the earmarks of spam. The resulting lists of web hosts,...

Managing Risk When Enforcing Online Rights

It never ceases to amaze me how much theft is going on right under the eyes of major companies and they don't appear to understand how to spot and deal with it. Of course it takes many forms, often...

Legal: The Future Of The Law Of The Web

One of the compelling aspects of Web 2.0 is the leveraging of user generated content (UGC) on a much more integrated and wide-scale basis. The laws dealing with UGC are nothing particularly new. A...

Credit Card Chargebacks

It seems like only yesterday we were gearing up for a new holiday shopping season. Alas, a plethora of shoppers seeking competitive pricing, free shipping and prime customer service is here. We’ve...

Caveat Vendor: PCI Is Here

Questions Regarding PCI Compliance? Have a PCI/DSS question for SecurityMetrics’ Brad Caldwell? Email them to Pat Callahan at pcallahan@practicalecommerce.com, and we’ll run the answers in...

The Law Of Data And Information Security

I don’t need to recite the many security breaches that have led to major financial losses for companies over the past twelve months. Every business should already know the risks of leaving credit...

The Law Of PPC Advertising

Many of the legal issues existing today have little, or no, clear legal authority to guide us. This is because many of the abuses are: • Not discovered. • When they are discovered by the...

Click Fraud Not Top PPC Concern

Click fraud has been a popular topic of discussion for a number of years, and it doesn’t appear the issue will fade away anytime soon. The industry is full of various numbers thrown around putting...

Click Fraud: What To Do When You’ve Been Cheated

So you think you’re a victim of click fraud, and the question is now what? Well, it’s time to play “cyber detective” and get refunds from pay-per-click (PPC) engines for the wasted dollars....

Critique Part One: General Internet Presence

The Problem: Daddiesboardshop.com isn't taking advantage of branding opportunities on video and social networking sites. The Fix: Aside from the videos I found on YouTube and Google Video (which...

Daddiesboardshop.com Wins Site Review

Melanie Loveland and her son Dan built a business together around a mutual passion — snowboarding. What started as a small, brick-and-mortar store in Portland, Ore., has evolved into a full-fledged...

The Entrepreneur, The Optimist

Patrick Coughlin is experiencing firsthand the same challenges many online entrepreneurs face: It's hard to build a successful online business. Coughlin has owned a successful brick-and-mortar...

When Is It Time To Hire A Call Center?

More business is a good thing, but it creates challenges: A backlog of tasks, costly space and equipment demands and, frequently, a phone that won’t stop ringing. Many ecommerce business owners...

Legal: Your Domain Is At Risk

The lawyers at my firm represent registrars. We also represent domain name owners. And we sometimes represent domain name thieves (yes, everyone is entitled to an attorney). Here is an insider's...

Basic Definitions: Web 1.0, Web. 2.0, Web 3.0

"What do people mean when they talk about the Web 2.0?" is a query we receive repeatedly, and probably has as many answers as the number of people out there using the term. However, since talk about...

Can Product Recommendations Help You?

Most people prefer to get an opinion before purchasing a product — and if that opinion is from a current user, all the better. This desire to make informed buying decisions has given rise to...

Crash Course on Pay-Per-Click Arbitrage

If you've spent any time on pay-per-click (PPC) forums or in the blogosphere, you've probably heard about PPC arbitrage — the ill-reputed practice that drives bid prices up and makes life more...

Yahoo! Panama: So Far, So Good

Yahoo!'s new paid-search advertising platform is performing well for advertisers. That's according to executives with three companies that have used the new system, known informally as Panama, since...

Self-service Shouldn't Replace Customer Service

Customers are satisfied with their ecommerce experiences and in many cases seem to prefer online buying to brick-and-mortar shopping trips. That's what recent studies show — but it doesn't mean...

Selling Your Ecommerce Business

To web entrepreneurs who contemplate selling their online businesses, experts issue a single warning: Get your financial house in order. Online endeavors are frequently launched by people who have...

Protecting Your Trademark From Web Thieves

How valuable is your business or product name? Most small and mid-size businesses aren’t aware of the value of protecting trademarks. When the focus is on making payroll, monitoring sales,...

Diagnosing Site Performance Delays

When your site begins to experience performance drains, which usually show up as slow-loading web pages, the problem's diagnosis can be more challenging than its solution. The first thing...

Seven Insurance Issues For Merchants

When an ecommerce business begins to grow, new risks mount and site owners should examine insurance options. Finding an insurance agent who understands the challenges of online business has been...

Quick Query: Selling Digital Content Via Major Retailers

Karl Hirsch is the CEO of Protexis (Protexis.com), a company that links retail outlets with companies wanting to sell digital content such as software, music, video, e-books and other digital...

Setting A Value For An Ecommerce Business

How much is my business worth? It’s a question most entrepreneurs eventually ask, and online merchants are no different. They want to know the enterprise they’ve invested in and continually...

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