Who Is IN Control Of Your Business

So the Skype Groups are buzzing and emails are flying as we discuss the apparent vulnerability we all face at the hands of PayPal.

Only yesterday I commented on how people's accounts had been locked out for months because of reported (yet unproven) irregularities primarily due to allowing people to collect ebay items from your door rather than using postal services.

Whilst this recording snippet from the BBCs MoneyBox ( http://crucialviews.com/av/MoneyBoxOnPaypal.mp3 ) seemed incredible, it fades into insignificance when we read about the recent lockdown by paypal on one of our very own Warriors.

Now I am not posting this to defend either side as everyone has a story and often the truth is obscurred by confusion but I did just want to raise some thoughts around the delicate balance we place on our businesses by our reliance upon paypal over and above every other payment method.

Maybe as we read the thoughts and comments of those affected by such lock downs, it might be a good time to review our own practices.

For example, is your adsense revenue paid to a paypal account or is it paid by cheque. Same goes for Clickbank and so many other providers. We don't actually need to rely upon paypal quite as much as some of us do, even though it makes so much sense in most instances, possibly due to the immediacy of having those funds available in the currency that we deal in.

I quite often notice that when buying WSOs, the paypal account is not so obviously linked to the vendor as being in their name or company name. In fact, I have noticed that I have bought subsequent products from the same vendor but used a different paypal address and even paid to different accounts for a front end offer and then the OTO. This does prove in some ways that some marketers are hedging their bets and keeping options open but I am also aware that this is not a standard practice and many of us might remain vulnerable.

So maybe now is a great time for people to drop in some suggestions aboutalternatives to protect our businesses rather than pointing fingers in any one direction.

Listening to the recent interview, ( http://anthonyaires.com/PayPalcall.mp3 ) it is clear that we have little apparent recourse to their decisions, with or without reason and so let's just try to avoid similar disaster and keep our options going.

It would be great if people would reply with options and strategies to offset the doom of such an occurrence in our businesses and it would be good if we could also learn the pros and cons of any suggested idea, i.e. cost of the service, customer perception, complexity of use etc.

I am sure that the recent issues will not be resolved by our shouting but lets at least try to make sure we limit our liabilities wherever practicable.

Thanks for listening.

Tony Grant