SHOPPING ONLINE

Shopping!The most exhilarating word! Well, at least for many like me:) ! I am a staunch confirmed shopoholic! When I am not able to go out of the house to shop, what do I do? Shop On-line! It is the most convenient and easy way to shop and the creamy layer is..you can browse and buy from any on line store in the world and further more it is open 24 hours a day! Buying online saves time and money.

How do you shop online? It’s actually very simple! Almost everything, right from branded stuff like clothes, jewelry, shoes, bags and electronics to hand made products are available online. Even flowers, food stuff and pet food can be ordered over the net. Many retailers have websites where you can purchase their products online. The advantage of online shopping is that you can compare shops for the best price, then order and have it shipped - all this transaction takes just about a few minutes and you do not pay sales tax. Most of all you save a trip to the store!

How to Buy Online

• Though each site is a little different fro m the other, the basic transaction procedure is the same for every site.These sites have electronic catalogs which you can browse and s ubsequently add the product y ou choose to your electronic shopping cart .When you're done with the choosing, you can review the contents of your cart and delete the items you do not want.

• Your amount is then totalled .

• N ext you have to fill the form supplied by the site asking f or c ertain details like your name, e-mail address, shipping information, and credit card number .

• You can buy online using you
  r credit card or by an alternative payment option which is, setting up an account with PayPal. You transfer money electronically from your ban k account into your PayPal account, and then use it to pay the seller.

• Finally, you will be sent an e-mail with the order confirmation along with a tracking number. As a rule, you will be informed about the delivery duration time as well.

That’s it! You have purchased your item online!

Online shopping has become personalised as well , since

many sites allow you to customise your products which you want to buy. For instance, you can have your logo or personal patterns printed on your t- shirts, mugs, plates etc, you c

an order computers to your specifications, while at certain apparel sites, by using a virtual model you can "try on" clothes. This is fun! Now, many sites do have

customer service representatives with whom you can contact by e-mail or chat with in real time in case you need help. Thus online shopping has

become a friendly experience. Likewise, you can locate exactly what sort of product or store you are looking for by using the search engine. Finally, in the

event of problems with online merchants, contact concerned authorities.

Before hitting the virtual store

s, pursue certain precautions for a smooth, safe and sound shopping experience.

Ten Tips for a safe and secure shopping

1. Use only a secure Internet connection – Use an encrypted website. You can identify such a site by a lock icon in your web browser window. You can also recognize a secure server by the address beginning with https, rather than http. The “s” means the information going between your computer and the website will be securely encrypted.

2. Shop only - with well known and trusted websites or businesses. Check whether the seller is credible, by referring to a site like ResellerRatings.com, Moreover, since many retailers now offer online shopping, you will be allowed you return the products to their stores, instead of shipping it back.

3. Sites should list a physical address - not just a post office box. Check to see if it displays seals from consumer protection organizations . Another option is doing a search with Google. Enter the name of the trader along with the keyword "scam". You may get some information.

4. Be sceptical. A telephone number should be listed on the site. If it not, then opt to take your business elsewhere.

5. Protect private information- Some sites sell your private data to third parties but all trustworthy sites post a Privacy Policy. So, shop only at these sites. Don't provide unnecessary information by filling out the optional fields in the order form. It is optional, so why volunteer?

6. Never - send your credit card number by e-mail.

7. Check the shipping costs. Sometimes with the shipping cost your total purchase price can add up to more what you would pay in a retail store. So check it carefully! Some sites offer free or discounted shipping for select items and purchases over a certain amount.

8. Print - a copy of your order form for your records.

9. Review the return and refund policies. You should be aware about how to return the unwanted merchandise and whether you will receive a full refund. You should also know who would be paying for the return shipping.

10. Coupons and other discounts- Many online sites offer rebates . To obtain the discount, you enter the coupon code in the order form. It's then deducted from the total purchase price. You can save substantial amount of money!

THAT’S IT! HAPPY SHOPPING! :)

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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E-commerce

Internet and E-commerce has become a vital part and parcel of everyday modern life. By the way, what is e-commerce? E-commerce or electronic commerce is the buying and selling of products and services on the Internet and in other words, it means online transaction!

Just like the real world commerce, e-commerce consists of retail shopping, banking, auctions, real estate transactions, airline and hotel booking, movie rentals etc and in a nutshell, nearly everything and anything ! All this with just a click of your mouse and sitting in the comfort of your home!

E-commerce has many other advantages too. Like for instance,the yearly fee for an e-commerce website is insignificant compared to the exorbitant property rental for a store in a mall. Moreover, the transactions are handled by software process, and does not require sales and other managing staff – at least not till the item is ready to be packed and shipped. As a consequence, real world businesses just cannot compete with their e-commerce counterparts!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Sending Money Online!

Is it easy to send money fast? Of course it is! Sending money order online is safe, quick, convenient, cheap, and it can be sent to anywhere in the world. There are two methods to send online money order- by Bank and by Internet.

Online money transfer by Bank is the electronic transfer of money from one bank account to another. The recipient should also have a bank account and the money is transferred electronically within minutes direct into a bank account of the recipient. By this bank-to-bank account transfer, no actual cash is exchanged, but the electronic balances are adjusted accordingly in their respective accounts.

In the case of one not having a bank account, a cash wire transfer is possible. The money is paid at the bank and the recipient produces identification at the time of disbursement of funds. Cash wire transfers are costly and has certain limitations. During a purchase transaction a seller can provide false information to the sender of the cash wire transfer, collect the cash at the receiving end under the false ID, and vanish without delivering the merchandise.

Now,lets see what is money transfer by Internet! There are popular reliable financial providers like Western Union, PayPal, E-gold, Ikobo, Moneygram and Xoom which does not require you to have an account with them to transfer money online.

Western Union(www.westernunion.com) - has outlets worldwide and money is transferred electronically between these outlets. A person can pay the transfer fee and money at a Western Union and the recipient can collect the fund from the nearest Western Union branch within minutes. The advantage of this method is that there is no need for Internet access or bank.

Pay pal(www.paypal.com) is the world's largest online payment service which allows people from all around the world to buy and sell off the internet. All one needs is an email address. The fees for such transactions may be a percentage of the money being transferred or a fixed fee, irrespective of the amount being transferred.

Ikobo(www.iKobo.com)- is a service that allows you to send money to anyone with a Visa debit card. All you have to do is to fill up the necessary information via its online form. When Ikobo receives the necessary information, the recipient and prepaid re-loadable Visa debit card are sent and your money can be collected.

Moneygram (www.emoneygram.com) - includes Same-day service and Economy service. The Same-day service is for urgent money transfer and the economy service takes about three to five working days.

Payko (www.payko.com) - sells money order online. You can send money order via Payko with your Master or Visa credit card. The money order can be sent via regular mail, first class mail, priority mail, or express mail.

Finally, there are the nationalised Bank's International Credit and Debit cards like Visa and Mastercard ,as well as ATM cards which enable online money transfer within minutes. Whenever these cards are swiped at a retailer, wire transfer is authorised from the bank account of that card to the retailer's bank account.

Online money transfers are quick paperless transactions and furthermore, as precaution, during money transfers, details like the name of the country, bank, regional location and customer account number are facilitated by use of the IBAN that is, International Bank Account Number.

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Online Music: Turn on & Tune In

For the music lovers and music fans the Internet is a one stop source for music!! A high-speed broadband connection and a good set of speakers can turn your PC into a digital jukebox. The internet allows you to listen to music from commercial-free channels or download and burn songs to a CD or load them on a portable player for listening on the go!!

How do music services work?

Music services are available in two basic categories - subscription and non-subscription.

• With non-subscription services, you pay to download individual songs or an entire album. Apple's iTunes Music Store has sold over a billion songs for US $.99 per song.
• With subscription services you pay a monthly fee to access libraries of a million or more songs.. Once the subscription ends, you can no longer listen to your music, unless you have purchased individual songs. Most subscription services also charge an additional fee for their "To-Go" service, which let's you load songs on a portable device.

Sometimes the music service might not have the music you want in spite of them having thousands of songs. So, you can take advantage of the free trials they offer to check out their music vault.

If you don't like the service ,do cancel before the trial period is up or you'll will be billed for at least a month. Alternately,you can use the option of mixing the services like downloading songs from MSN Music and subscribing to Napster for everyday listening. Since most services only require a month-to-month commitment and in case you are not satisfied with the service you can cancel it at any time .

Digital Rights

Since the industry makes its money by selling CDs, there will be a revenue loss if people can generously exchange digital copies of songs. Hence, many digital file formats have built technical safeguards that does not allow duplication and sharing of music. This is called Digital Rights Management or DRM. Both AAC and WMA files utilize DRM technology while MP3 files don't.

With this technology you may not be able to burn songs to a CD or even if you are able to, it will be for a restricted amount of times!

Have fun with Online Music!!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Internet Radio

Computer can be used to listen to the radio. But then, to listen to radio online, your computer must be equipped with a sound card and speakers or headphones. You'll also need a media player or an audio plug-in for your web browser There are thousands of radio stations around the world and by putting their programming online, these stations can now reach a global audience.The best part is that the internet radio puts you in control. You can listen to what you want, when you want. The technology that makes this all possible is called streaming audio.

What is streaming audio?
Streaming audio is a process where you hear the music as it arrives at your computer over the internet, and therefore you do not have to wait for a complete download. Once a small amount of the file is buffered, the audio begins. Therefore, this is different from the usual method of receiving Internet audio – which is downloading a .wav or a .au or other type of file completely before being able to listen to it. As the data arrives it is buffered for a few seconds and then playback begins. As the audio is playing, more data is constantly arriving (or streaming), and as long as you are receiving a constant stream of data, you should hear constant

Tune It Up

Depending on the station, it will probably use one of the 2 major formats currently available: RealAudio or Windows Media Player. These two media players

are are not cross-compatible; you can't play a RealMedia file with Windows Media Player file and visa versa. However, some types of files, like .mp3, will play on both. A growing number of stations are using streaming MP3 format and Winamp also can be used to play these. Another popular and versatile program is Apple's iTunes for both the Mac and PC.

In general, speech sounds better than music. But the faster your connection, the better will be your audio experience .However, software audio players have control panels, so you can play, pause, fast-forward and rewind at will. Also, a few online radio programs are indexed, hence,you can directly access the content you want, like skipping the weather report to take in the local sports scores.

Turn it on

There are radio station search engines on the internet and the Radio-Locator is the most popular one.They have links to thousands of radio stations worldwide . The other popular radio websites are the National Public Radio and BBC Radio, which offers talk, sports world news and music.

Enjoy the Web Radio!!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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All about MP3

Do you throw parties often? Go on long picnics? Listen to music all the way to and fro driving to work? Well, there’s good news for you! You don’t have to carry loads of music CDs .Compressing and converting the music to MP3 format, all you have to do is to carry a couple of CDs! For example, a regular audio CD holds between 12 and 16 songs whereas a Mp3 CD has about 120- 150 songs in a single CD.

What is MP3?

MP3 files are actually MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) files. MP3 is a compressed audio format that is much smaller in file size and has similar sound quality to WAV format, the format found on normal music CDs that you buy in a store.MP3 shrinks the size of audio data while preserving sound quality, so music files can be easily distributed over the Internet. Sounds stored in the MP3 format have the extension .mp3.

Why is MP3 is Popular?
1. A song in MP3 format can be up to 10 times smaller than the same song on a regular audio CD.

2. MP3 is still very close to CD quality. Smaller does not mean smaller in playback time, but smaller in needed storage space.

3. Mp3 enables you to download songs quickly, with a broadband connection, it only takes minutes.

4. Since an MP3 is a lot smaller, sending or receiving MP3 takes lesser time and is faster too.

5. The format is popular for turning your PC into a jukebox of hundreds or thousands of songs.

6. You can load thousands of songs into a portable mp3 player and carry your music collection wherever you go.

7. MP3 has become the standard for exchanging music on the Internet.

Free downloadable MP3 music are available on the Internet from file sharing tools like Limewire, KaZaa, Bearshare, eDonkey and many more. These tools allow you to download entire CD's in MP3 format.
If you would like to download and listen to MP3 files on your computer, then you need *

A sound card and speakers for the computer.An Internet connection.An MP3 player (a software application you can download from the Web in 10 minutes)

How to play MP3?

To play MP3 files you need a MP3 player! These players are available in two types * portable players and software players. The portable players are hardware devices like Apple's iPod, MP3 portable players, Walkmans etc. Software players are programs you install on your computer like iTunes, Winamp, RealPlayer etc. PC users will already have Windows Media Player installed and if not, it can be downloaded from Microsoft. Once you have the player installed, you can download music from many sites on the net .You can either listen to the downloaded music on your computer or transfer the songs from the computer to the hardware device or mail it as an attachment in your messages to anyone!

Converting music to MP3?

Music can be converted from CDs which are in wav format to mp3.To convert songs from your CDs into MP3 files, you have to use a ripper and an encoder software to do that. A ripper
copies
the song's file from the CD onto your hard disk. The encoder compresses the song into the MP3 format. By encoding the songs, you can play them on your computer or on your MP3 player. The CD burning software Nero is the most popular advanced tool to convert music to MP3.It has a built in encoder for easy conversion. Windows Media Player also has provision to rip songs from CDs to MP3 format. There are many free soft wares available on the net to rip music!

Is this not cool? :)

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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