Blogs aren’t the only way to make money online and many people have opted for the e-commerce path instead. Even if you are selling virtual goods like e-books, it’s important you have a good understanding of how to accept money from your customers. The best way to learn is by networking with other like-minded individuals.

The Payment Processing forums were erected for this purpose, providing a venue where merchants and other dot com entrepreneurs could discuss all the various aspects of processing payments, processing Credit Cards, and all those other fun ways to get money from your customers. The main reason why they ordered this review was probably to increase the number of users. After all, a forum is only as valuable as its members.

What’s To Know About Payment Processing

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling online, because you still need to find a reliable way to accept funds from your customers. There are naturally countless issues that you may want to investigate, above and beyond the payment options. How do you handle chargebacks? What’s involved in setting up a merchant account? These are the kinds of questions that should make up the meat and potatoes of the payment processing forums.

The first batch of forums revolve around Internet payment service providers like E-Gold and Paypal. Beyond this, there are also forums for electronic payment gateways and e-currencies, fraud and chargeback prevention, business, and site-related issues. The forum that would probably be of the most interest to readers of John Chow dot Com is the one that focuses on making money online.

Unfortunately, I found that most of the topics within this forum weren’t all that useful. People would start threads asking vague questions like how to make $500+ a day. The member just says that they “need it fast” and they want to know what is the “fastest and best way to make this amount of money.” And the forum is filled with questions like this.

Moreover, within the first couple of hours of signing up for an account, I was hit with my first spam private message, offering me a loan of up to $417,000,000.00 (I’m not kidding) at a 2.25% interest rate. Really? And all I have to do is send a certain sum of money to an unregistered account in Nigeria? Sadly, forums like this will inevitably attract the shady types.

Registration and User Interface

Going through the registration process is just like signing up for an account with any other vBulletin-powered forum. You’ll be asked to provide an email address — which then must be verified — as well as your birthdate, username, and password. It’s all pretty straightforward. Make sure you check your junk mail folder, because that’s where the verification message showed up for me.

Unlike most other forums that I frequent, however, the Payment Processing forums do not allow their members to have custom avatars. In fact, they don’t allow avatars at all. Some people may say that this is a good thing, but others may disagree. I’m with the latter group. This strips the forum of any kind of personality. It also doesn’t help that the forum doesn’t really have a distinctive name.

Layout and Monetization

The layout is fairly generic with a standard blue color scheme. There is no homepage to speak of, because the main screen just lists all the forums available through the site. I don’t think that there is too much of an issue with having a generic-looking forum, but it might have been a good idea to have a more distinctive banner at the top.

In terms of monetization, the Payment Processing forum has a single Google Adsense placement — a 468 x 60 banner — in the top-right corner. This appears on every page. I’d imagine that more aggressive monetization could be achieved, but it might be more important to grow the user base first. As it stands, there are 161 active members and 699 total members.

Just Another Forum Full of Newbies

While I appreciate the idea behind the Payment Processing forum, the existing member base is certainly lacking. The questions are either quite basic or juvenile, so intermediate to expert users will likely find little value in this forum. This might change as the site grows.

Beyond the forums, the site also offers a few extras for its members. There is a blog, PayPal fee calculator, and online password generator.

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“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.” ~Doug Larson

You and I share a very important quality. We both want to make lots of money online. The trouble is that sometimes when we’re striving for more money we’re neglecting our health.

The truth of the matter is that our health is way more important than money. Put any multi-billionaire on their death bed and they’ll give up their entire fortune in the blink of an eye in order to extend their life.

You can bet that with more money you can afford better health insurance and world class doctors. However, you aren’t necessarily rich, and before you get there you want to not only preserve your body, but have it functioning at 120%.

If you’re ever felt a bit sluggish during the day and thought that a bit more energy and focus would make working so much easier than I have some answers for you.

9 Fundamentals of Healthy Money Earning Bodies

1. Drink A Tub Full of Water. The recommended daily water intake is 64 ounces on average. However, the majority of people walk around dehydrated for most of their lives. Water gives you energy, focus, and motivation. Drink more.
2. Sit Up Straight You Slouch. Did you know that sitting up straight allows you to breath in more oxygen? This keeps you focused, alert, and energized as well. Common sense? I bet you’re slouching as you read this. Sit up.
3. Daily Cardio Works The Discipline Muscle. Making money online requires pushing yourself and having discipline. How can you get discipline if you have none? I don’t care how long you work out, the general rule is that you’re clothes have to be soaking wet when you’re done.
4. You Are What You Eat. So stop eating shit. Seriously, if you’re not eating a diet that mainly consists of fruits and vegetables you’re doing things wrong. Take inventory of what you’re snacking on and consider how it’s affecting your mind and body.
5. Create Daily Habits For The Win. Our lives are made up of a series of good and bad habits. By creating and sticking to productive daily regimes, we can drastically improve our health, productivity and positive cash flow!
6. Take A Mental Dump. Relieve your mind of extraneous information by getting everything out on paper instead of letting it distract you from your work flow. This will serve to calm your mind, increase focus and relieve stress.
7. Love What You Do. By really enjoying everything that you do throughout your life and being fully present to it, you can effectively create a mental and spiritual balance. This will have you resonating with thoughts, and more importantly, successful actions.
8. Set Your Targets. Find out what the healthy body weight and body fat percentage is for you and make that your goal. Measure yourself weekly to see where you stand, and work hard towards reaching this goal.
9. Daily Schedule. Eliminate the need to think about when you will exercise and when you will eat. Let your body get used to a schedule. Your body operates on something called a circadian (24 hours) rhythm. By letting your body get used to this schedule you let it function optimally.

I’m leaving this list at 9 because I want to hear what you do on a daily basis that improves your health and keeps you on track to your road of success.

“The greatest wealth is health.” ~Virgil

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