How to Buy Private Stock

I became interested in this when I saw it on the Internet. I am always looking for ways to make my money work for me. Bingo here was what I found to fill the bill. Making money and helping the small business grow. I believe I’ve found it and now you can too join in fun and excitement. You’ll Learn too and as you grow your nest will grow too.

Here’s your real opportunity to start small. You’ll be getting in on the ground floor where little things can become bigger than you might suspect or imagine. Private digital stocks of small companies is where they all start. Imagine all the big companies that started on a shoe string like computer software, computers or even a book store that started out of a garage. Chances are you maybe looking at something that’s unbelievable, but that all can change. Remember ideas become real with just a dream that materializes.

Good question comes up what effects the price of the stock? Good question and it depends on the why. Companies come and go and things maybe slowing due to new technology or a change in services rendered etc.. Leadership or manpower can effect it’s stock price too. Plus a lot of it has to do with rules and regulations on the stock due city, state or government rulings. Anything can make the stock price rise or fall. Also, it could be the time of the year or the economy in general.

Now, when should I buy more stocks or maybe sell some of my stocks? Well, that’s a question a lot of people ask. If you are selling because the stock is down and you want to save some gain fine. If you are selling to cut your loss again that maybe smart. The story goes then the next day the stock could soars… I should held on. The market is really hard to predict.

Buying is another thing. Stocks go up and down and the company may look promising so you jump in with both feet. You may add to you stock weekly or monthly which they call dollar cost averaging. I guess it all depends what your goal is with this stock. Spending on more shares is all up to you.

Bottom line now is why I like this https://moneyonlineinvestment.com/r/329284

Money Online Investment is free to join, low cost and exciting. You can get started for as low as three dollars per share. Shares you choose vary in price so it’s all up to you. I wish you great success in your stock investing.

Why You Should Never Buy A Business That Is For Sale

If you are thinking about buying an already existing business, then the information in this article can save you a lot of time, money and frustration.

Listen to this:

A little while back I was talking to a guy who knows how to analyze and value businesses.

And he started telling me why it is such a mistake to buy any business that is advertised or listed with a business broker.

“Why is that?” I asked. I had never heard this before. In fact, I had always been told you MUST buy businesses through a broker. And that doing so was the easiest and safest way to go.

“Because, unless the owner is simply retiring and wants to cash out, there is usually a more sinister reason why they are selling,” he replied.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, would you sell your business right now?”

I thought about that a moment and it became clear what he was getting at.

People don’t usually sell good businesses.

I know I wouldn’t sell mine right now…unless it started causing me undo stress or it was going so well I could “cash out” for tens of millions of dollars.

Unfortunately, with most businesses for sale, it’s usually not a retirement issue…it’s a stress or some other problem issue.

And if you simply analyze the numbers, the financial statements and the sales…it will usually be clear as a bell what the “real” reason the owner is selling is — whether good or bad.

And that was my friend’s point.

If you are going to buy a business you must do two things:

1.) Learn how to analyze a business or find someone who does.

2.) Be very skeptical of anything that is for sale or listed by a broker.

In fact, the best businesses to buy are the ones not for sale.

The ones where the owner hasn’t thought about selling…because everything is going well. But who, at the same time, would still be very interested if someone approached him with a letter or phone call making a lucrative offer.

Keep these simple facts in mind when you are looking to buy a business and you will save yourself a lot of money, time and hassle.

Buy a Business Plan Template to Jump Start Your Writing

A business plan template is a product which can give your writing a significant jump start, shaving hours and maybe days off of your business plan development time. Rather than working on a plan from scratch, pulling together directions and guidance from multiple websites or sources, using a business plan template offers you direct and practical guidance on how to create a full business plan all in one package.

Guidance

The template should include directions to show how to customize it to reflect your specific business. This may come within the template itself or in a separate set of instructions. Regardless, the effect is like having a business plan consultant with you, nudging you in the right direction throughout your writing process.

Format

A business plan template comes pre-formatted, with appropriate fonts, colors, and sections. The cover sheet, table of contents, headings, and page layouts will be preset. All of this work allows you to sidestep concerns about your format and presentation style, and move on to focus on the ideas behind the plan’s major sections.

Graphics and Charts

A template may present many potential spots for graphics and charts to replace text. This will make your plan much more attractive and save you the time of developing these graphics yourself.

Financials

A financial model in Excel or a similar program will give you a significant short cut when it comes to the financial section. After entering your financial assumptions (such as average price, units you expect to sell, revenue growth rates, startup costs, and operating costs), the model should automatically generate valid pro forma financial statements in the format required by funders (generally, greater detail for the first one to three years, with annual numbers for the first five years of operation. Not only do you not need to be an accounting whiz to use such a template, but you can quickly and easily try out different financial assumptions and see how they change your statements and return over the years.

How to Buy a Good Domain Name

If you looking to buy a good domain name for you website you will want to take a few things into consideration.

1. Is your website domain going to be for SEO or Branding Purposes?

2. What are the best domain extension(s) for your website URL?

3. Finding a good domain register with excellent support.

4. What is the cost of the domain name?

5. Are there any bonuses with the domain purchase?

1. Is your website domain going to be for SEO or Branding Purposes?

Now that you are ready to start you website you will need a great domain name that you will use to promote and brand your website. If you are building your website for the search engines primarily you will want to put your primary keyword phrase in the domain so Google and other search engines will more easily be able to identify and index your website for your keyword. If your primary keyword phrase has more than one word in it, separate each word in the URL with a dash. (Ex. www.keyword-phrase.com)

When branding your website you will want to choose a URL that is easily remembered by people and isn’t very long so it’s simple to type into the browser and spell correctly or tell their friends and others interested in your website with ease.

2. What are the best domain extension(s) to choose for your website URL?

When searching for your new domain you want to take into consideration the extension you wish to choose for your website URL. The best extensions are .com, .net, .org, and if they are not available look for your country level domain, like .ca for Canada, .us for USA, .it for Italy, .in for India etc.. If you are building a video website try .tv or if you are creating a mobile website specifically for cell phones and smart phones you will want to get a .mobi domain extension.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It’s a smart idea to grab all the domain extensions available so your competition doesn’t grab them instead and try to sell them back to your for much higher cost or setup a site on them that can hurt your brand name.

3. Finding a good domain register with excellent support!

When looking for a domain register to purchase your domain from, choose one that provides FAQ’s, a help centre and 24/7 email and phone support so you can get your questions or concerns answered at anytime night or day.

4. What is the cost of the domain name?

Depending on the domain register and URL extension you choose will determine the cost of the domain. Typically a .com domain can average about $9.99 and up but some domain registration sites give special prices for .com with a non-domain purchase which is good to look for too. A .mobi can be about $14.99, .asia is about $19.99, but the cheapest domains to buy are normally .info and run about $1.99 for the first year, which is good, but .info are not the best extensions to choose from especially if you are want to brand your website.

5. Are there any bonuses with the domain purchase?

Make sure to look for any bonuses you will receive with your purchase of your domain, some domain registration site are quite generous and will give a lot of valuable bonuses such as a free Photo Album, Quick Blogcast, Hosting with Site Builder, Personalized Email, Forwarding / Masking, 100-Pack Email Forwarding, Starter Web Page, “For Sale” Parked Page, Parked Page w/ Domain, Total DNS Control, Change of Registration, Status Alerts, Domain Name Locking. With all the mentioned bonuses it’s over $141 USD with a purchase of a domain which is great! So keep an eye out for those.

So to recap, remember to choose a good branded or SEO domain, with the type of URL extension that suits your website and find a registration site with great 24/7 support, a competitive price and valuable bonuses with your purchase. Good luck with buying your perfect domain name and having great success with your new website venture.

How to Buy and Sell Domain Names Profitably

I have been asked time and time again by my readers of how best to buy and sell domain names profitably and without stress. In my no-holds-barred research approach and attitude, I earnestly went to work on that assignment. My findings have been serialized in this article for the benefit of all.

What is a Domain Name?

Domain name is an online unique identity that distinguishes one web site from another. It could be your personal name, your offline business name or any other name that has not been registered by somebody else online with domain registrars.

Buying and selling domain name is a serious and big business. The good tiding is that you can start with as little as $8.00 and rake in profit of say, $1,992.00 within a month. That is the naked truth! All you need to excel in this domain name business is a bit of your creativity and ingenuity. Your creativity can out perform any known robot or software so far developed. This is because as you check for domain name availability on the Internet, other names naturally come up as you are told the one you want to register has been taken up. In my experience, I have found out that premium and generic names sell fastest and highest on the internet. This is so because business people are desirous of either protecting their brand names or want a name that will easily ring a bell to any internet user. Therefore, they can go to any length to ensure that they repurchase their names if it has been registered before they do. This is where the money juice lies! It becomes a matter of bidding. As the saying goes: “The highest bidder wins the deal.”

If you are low in capital to jump-start your dream business, the cheapest and easiest place to start and earn a reasonable seed capital is in Domain Name Business. Also if you ask me for an excellent resource/e-book that succinctly outlined the basics of domain name selling in easy steps please email me for recommendation for your financial freedom.

Heard of Domain Parking?

Do you know you can register a domain name and be earning money without hosting it? To this end, you won’t be tied to any monthly fee whatsoever. You earn revenue from one-time investment of buying a domain name throughout the year. It is as sweet as that! The simple thing to do is just to park that registered domain name with a parking company and voila, you start earning cool bucks.

Domain parking means registering a domain name and pointing it to a “parking company” (at no cost of course) so that your site will show a page with adverts when any internet user searches key words or key phrases that relate to your site adverts. When someone clicks on those adverts you earn money. That is domain parking, pure and simple! It is akin to putting Google AdSense adverts on your site. However, parking is simpler since you do not need to worry about designing a website nor pay monthly web site hosting fees. Truly, online business ideas are limitless. Domain parking is really domain “monetization” business.

Marketing and Profiting from Domain Name

If you are in the camp of “buying and selling domain names”, what you should do is buy popular, premium, generic or key words or key phrases that will be easy to remember and market. People are always enthralled with unique names. There are whole gamuts of a combination of key words that have not been registered. Market them and profit from it. It is your business! But beware: You cannot run this business and excel with naivety. That is why I am recommending a great resource that I can cross my heart for to you when you reach me on email as a quick start.

Take action, become a domainer and add it to one of your income streams. It is a win-win deal!

You will excel!

How to Buy a Domain Name – Tips For the Newbie

If you are planning to make a income on the internet through your own internet marketing website or you just want to put up a website or blog about your favorite subject, there are certain steps that you have to complete first before you will be able to view your website online. One of the first and most important of these steps is buying a domain name. When you are new to this process it may all seem to be a little challenging, knowing just how to get started or what you have to do. If you find yourself in this position this article will definitely aid you when you are ready to buy your first domain name.

What is a domain name?

Simply explained a domain name is your one of a kind address on the internet. It allows Internet browsers (individuals searching the internet) to locate your particular website. Your domain name may be made up of your name, your business name, or variation of a set of relevant words associated with your website, company product, theme or subject. A good domain name will pretty much let people know what your website is about before they actually see or visit it.

Things to do before buying your domain name?

Because people and businesses have been buying up domain names for years now, it has been said that all of the good domain names have been taken already. Maybe this is true to some extent, however with a little research and imagination there should be no reason that you cannot create or find a domain name that you will be suited to you and or your website subject or niche. A good idea is to try to think of names or combinations of words and names that not only will tell the web surfer what your website is about but also be a name that is easy to remember, easy to spell, hard to forget. A domain name can be up to 67 characters in length, so it can also include names made up of a small phrase. such as “BestInTownPhoto.com” or “TheBarkingDogsKennels.com”. These kind of domain names not only focus directly on what your website is about they are easier to remember than abstract or random characters or letters thrown together. You must also be aware that there are different types of domains which all have their certain type of extensions or ending:

-.com – Stands for company/commercial, but it can pretty much be used for any web site.

-.net – Stands for network and is usually used for a network of sites.

.org – Stands for organization and is supposed to be for non-profit entities.

.us, .nu, .co.uk, – Are country specific domain extensions that may require the register to be a citizen of the given country.

.biz, .info – These and other like them are domain types that have been added because there are barely any short and intelligible domain addresses left to register.

When you are determining the type of domain name that is right for you simply stick to these guidelines: In the United States try to get a.com or.net. In other countries, if you cannot get the.com, then using your country’s domain extension is a workable remedy

Write down the different names you come up with that appeal to you, make sure to put down as many as you can think of so that when you begin your search for available names to buy, if your first choice is already taken, as it very well may be, you will have a number of alternate or backup names that you can try. Many times finding the exact domain name you want can be “HIT or MISS” it is good to be prepared. You may also be able to keep the domain name of your choice by simply changing one letter, character or hyphenation within the name.

If you are determined to have a particular domain name and find out that is already in use by someone else there may be the option of purchasing that name directly from the owner by using the “Whois System” to help you identify the current owner of that particular domain name so that you may contact and make a offer to purchase that particular domain name. However because this is your first time buying a domain name and that method can involve much more, I will save the how to about that issue for a later time or article.

Register Your Domain Name

Once you have your list of preferred domain names you can now locate a service online that will not only show you the availability of the names but also register your chosen domain name as well. There are many of these companies and services to choose from. some of the better known and reliable services are:

“GoDaddy.com”,”Domain Name Registry.com” and “Register.com”, you can also do a Google Search for “Domain name registries” to find other places to register your domain name.

Be prepared to pay between $8-$15 for your right to own your name for a one year period. This payment must be made annually to keep your ownership of your Domain name active. That is a good reason to choose a name that you will want to keep for a long time period. so that people will know exactly what your name is and where to find it over the years.

The last thing you will need to do is to take the IP address information provided to you from your webhost and in put input it at your domain name register before your domain name will function properly. It will allow the “DNS” (Domain Name System) to locate your domain name and website when your domain name is typed into a internet browser, this is called pointing you r domain name to your web host servers. A majority of domain registrars will probably require your IP and DNS server names in the course of registration, although some will call for you to go in and enter the information manually enter after your domain name registry fees have been paid.

Once you begin to follow the steps mentioned here in this article to buy your domain name you will see for yourself that they are not complicated at all, in fact buying a domain name is quite a simple process, so don’t let the idea of doing this very important task yourself stop you from getting your first domain name online.

If you would like to find out more about Online Business Incomes or get help with starting one, I will be glad to help. Please visit his main site at: http://www.sasonlinebusinesssuccess.com

This is a “Shareware” Article (what’s that? read on…)

This article is shareware. Give this article away for free on your site, or include it as part of any paid package as long as the entire article is left intact including this notice.

Copyright © 2009 SAS Online Business Success.Com.

How to Buy Bitcoin – Step One

The best way to learn about bitcoin, is to jump in and get a few in your “pocket” to get a feel for how they work.

Despite the hype about how difficult and dangerous it can be, getting bitcoins is a lot easier and safer than you might think. In a lot of ways, it is probably easier than opening an account at a traditional bank. And, given what has been happening in the banking system, it is probably safer too.

There are a few things to learn: getting and using a software wallet, learning how to send and receive money, learning how to buy bitcoin from a person or an exchange.

Preparation

Before getting started, you will need to get yourself a wallet. You can do this easily enough by registering with one of the exchanges which will host wallet for you. And, although I think you are going to want to have one or more exchange wallets eventually, you should start with one on your own computer both to get a better feel for bitcoin and because the exchanges are still experimental themselves. When we get to that stage of the discussion, I will be advising that you get in the habit of moving your money and coins off the exchanges or diversifying across exchanges to keep your money safe.

What is a wallet?

It is a way to store your bitcoins. Specifically, it is software that has been designed to store bitcoin. It can be run on your desktop computer, laptop, mobile device (except, as yet, Apple) and can also be made to store bitcoins on things like thumb drives. If you are concerned about being hacked, then that is a good option. Even the Winklevoss* twins, who have millions invested in bitcoin, put their investment on hard drives which they then put into a safety deposit box.

*The Winklevoss twins are the ones who originally had the idea for a social networking site that became Facebook. They hired Mark Zuckerberg who took their idea as his own and became immensely rich.

What do you need to know about having a bitcoin wallet on your computer?

Below you can download the original bitcoin wallet, or client, in Windows or Mac format. These are not just wallets, but are in fact part of the bitcoin network. They will receive, store, and send your bitcoins. You can create one or more addresses with a click (an address is a number that looks like this: 1LyFcQatbg4BvT9gGTz6VdqqHKpPn5QBuk). You will see a field where you can copy and paste a number like this from a person you want to send money to and off it will go directly into that person’s wallet. You can even create a QR code which will let someone take a picture with an app on their phone and send you some bitcoin. It is perfectly safe to give these out – the address and QR code are both for my donations page. Feel free to donate!

NOTE: This type of wallet acts both as a wallet for you and as part of the bitcoin system. The reason bitcoin works is that every transaction is broadcast and recorded as a number across the entire system (meaning that every transaction is confirmed and made irreversible by the network itself). Any computer with the right software can be part of that system, checking and supporting the network. This wallet serves as your personal wallet and also as a support for that system. Therefore, be aware that it will take up 8-9 gigabytes of your computer’s memory. After you install the wallet, it will take as much as a day for the wallet to sync with the network. This is normal, does not harm your computer, and makes the system as a whole more secure, so it’s a good idea.

Bitcoin Qt

  • The original wallet.
  • This is a full-featured wallet: create multiple addresses to receive bitcoins, send bitcoins easily, track transactions, and back up your wallet.
  • Outside of the time it takes to sync, this is a very easy to use option.
  • Search for Bitcoin Qt wallet download to find their site.

Armory

  • Runs on top of Bitcoi Qt, so it has all of the same syncing requirements.
  • Armory allows you to back up, encrypt, and the ability to store your bitcoins off line.
  • Search for Bitcoin Armory Wallet to find their site.

If you don’t want to have that much memory used or don’t want to wait for your wallet to sync, there are good wallets that do not make you sync the entire history of bitcocin:

Multibit

  • A lightweight wallet that syncs quickly. This is very good for new users.
  • Search for Bitcoin Multibit Wallet to find their site.

Electum

  • In addition to being quick and light, this wallet allows you to recover lost data using a passcode.
  • Search for Bitcoin Electum Wallet to find their site.

After you get the wallet set up, take a few minutes clicking around. Things to look for:

o There will be a page that shows you how many bitcoins are currently in your wallet. Keep in mind that bitcoins can be broken up into smaller pieces, so you may see a decimal with a lot of zeros after it. (Interesting note, 0.00000001 is one Satoshi, named after the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin).

o There will be an area showing what your recent transactions are.

o There will be an area where you can create an address and a QR code (like the one I have above). You don’t need the QR code if you don’t want it, but if you run a business and you want to accept bitcoin, then all you’ll need to do to accept payment is to show someone the QR code, let them take a picture of it, and they will be able to send you some money. You will also be able to create as many addresses as you like, so if you want to track where the money is coming from, you could have a separately labeled address from each one of your payees.

o There will be an area with a box for you to paste a code when you want to send money to someone or to yourself on an exchange or different wallet.

There will be other options and features, but to start out with, these are the items that you should know about.

Getting Your First Bitcoins

Now that you have a wallet, you will, of course, want to test them out.

The very first place to go is http://faucet.bitcoin.st/.

This is a website that gives out small amounts of bitcoin for the purpose of getting people used to using them. The original version of this was run by the lead developer of bitcoin, Gavin Andreson. That site has since closed and this site operates by sending out one or two advertisements a month. You agree to receive those messages by requesting the bitcoins. Copy and paste your new bitcoin address and enter a phone number to which you can receive an SMS. They send out an SMS to be sure that people are not continuously coming back for more since it costs nothing to create a bitcoin address. They will also send out once or twice a month advertisement to support their operation. The amount they send it trivial: 0.0015 BTC (or 1.5 mBTC). However, they process almost immediately and you can check to see that your address and wallet are working. It is also quite a feeling to get that portion of a bitcoin. (Non-disclaimer: I have no connection with this site and receive nothing if you use them. I simply think they are a good way to get your feet wet).

Congratulations! You have just entered the bitcoin economy.

To get your feet a little wetter, you can go panning for gold. There are a number of services and websites out there that will pay you in bitcoin to do things like go to certain websites, fill out online surveys, or watch sponsored videos. These are harmless, and you can earn a few extra bitcoins this way, but it is important to remember that these are businesses that get paid when people click on the links on their sites. They are essentially kicking back a portion of what they get paid to you. There is nothing illegal, or even immoral about this (you might like what you see and make a purchase!), but they are frequently flashy and may not be completely straightforward. All the ones that I have tried (particularly bitvisitor.com) have paid out as advertised. It is interesting to experiment with these, but even with the likely rise in the value of bitcoin, you won’t become a millionaire doing this. So, unless you are an advertisement junkie, I would recommend you move on. If you would like to try, simply Google “free bitcoins” or something along those lines and you will find numerous sites.

Buying Bitcoin Hand-to-Hand

Finally, this is going to be the real test of bitcoin. Can people easily trade them back and forth? If this can’t happen, then there can’t really be a bitcoin economy because retailers won’t be able to use it. If retailers can’t use it, what earthly good is it? Fortunately, this is not really a problem. iPhone is a bit of a hold out, but many smartphones have apps (mobile wallets) that will read QR codes and allow you to send bitcoin to whomever you want. You can also display a QR code of your address, or even carry a card in your wallet with your QR code to let people send bitcoin to you. Depending on what kind of wallet you have, you can then check to see if the bitcoins have been received.

A couple of things to note:

  • When you set up your wallet, if you click around a bit, you will see an option to pay a fee to speed transactions. This money becomes available to a bitcoin miner as he/she/they process bitcoin information. The miners doing the work of creating blocks of information keeps the system up to date and secure. The fee is an incentive to the miner to be sure to include your information in the next information block and therefore “verify” it. In the short term, miners are making most of their money by mining new coins (check the section on What Are Bitcoins for more information about this). In the long term, as it gets harder to find new coins, and as the economy increases, the fees will be an incentive for miners to keep creating more blocks and keep the economy going. Your wallet should be set to pay 0 fees as a default, but if you want, you can add a fee to prioritize your transactions. You are under no obligation to pay a fee, and many organizations that process many small transactions (like the ones that pan for gold described above) produce enough fees to keep the miners happy.
  • In clicking around your wallet, on the transactions page or linked to specific transactions, you will see a note about confirmations. When you make a transaction, that information is sent out into the network and the network will send back a confirmation that there is no double entry for that bitcoin. It is smart to wait until you get several confirmations before walking away from someone who has paid you. It is actually not very easy to scam someone hand-to-hand like this, and it is not very cost-effective for the criminal, but it can be done.

Where can you buy bitcoin like this?

  • You may have a bitcoin Meetup in your area.
  • You can check out localbitcoins.com to find people near you who are interested in buying or selling.
  • Some are trying to start up local street exchanges across the world. These are called Buttonwoods after the first street exchange established on Wall Street in 1792 under a buttonwood tree. See if there is one, or start one, in your area.
  • See if you have any friends who would like to try bitcoins out. Actually, the more people who start using bitcoin, the larger and more successful it will be come. So please tell two friends!

Some people ask if it is possible to buy physical bitcoins. The answer to this is both a yes and a no. Bitcoin, by its very nature, is a digital currency and has no physical form. However, there are a couple of ways that you can practically hold a bitcoin in your hands:

  • Cascascius Coins: These are the brainchild of Mike Caldwell. He mints physical coins and then embeds the private keys for the bitcoins inside them. You can get the private key by peeling a hologram from the coin which will then clearly show that the coin has been tampered with. Mike has gone out of his way to ensure that he can be trusted. These are a good investment strategy as in the years to come it may be that these coins are huge collector’s items.
  • Paper Wallets: A paper wallet just means that rather than keeping the information for your bitcoin stored in a digital wallet, you print the key information off along with a private key and keep it safe in a safe, in a drawer, or in your mattress (if you like). This is highly recommended and cost effective system for keeping your bitcoin safe. Keep in mind, though, that someone could steal them or if your house burns, they will go with the house and there will be no way to get them back. Really, no different than cash. Also, as with Casascius Coins, they will not really be good for spending until you put them back into the computer.

* There is software to make printing your paper wallets easier. bitcoinpaperwallet.com is one of the best and includes a good tutorial about how to use them.

* The bitcoins are not actually in the wallet, they are still on the web. In fact, the outside of the wallet will have a QR code that will allow you ship coins to the wallet any time you like.

* The sealed part of the wallet will have the private key without which you cannot access the coins. Therefore, only put as many coins on the wallet as you want to be inaccessible. You will not be able to whip this thing out and take out a few coins to buy a cup of coffee. Rather, think of it as a piggy bank. To get the money, you have to smash it. It is possible to take out smaller amounts, but at this point the security of the wallet is compromised and it would be easier for someone to steal the coins. Better to have them all in or out.

* People who use paper wallets are usually security conscious, and there are a number of ways for the nefarious in the world to hack your computer. Bitcoinpaperwallet.com gives a lot of good advice about how to print your wallets securely.

Some people have also asked about buying bitcoins on eBay. Yes, it is possible, but they will be far overpriced. So, selling on eBay might seem to be a better option given the extreme markup over market value you might see. But, as with anything that is too good to be true, this is too good to be true. As I will explain in the next section, selling bitcoin this way is just way too risky.

How Not to Buy Bitcoin

In the next section, I am going to explain a couple of key points about buying from Bitcoin Exchanges. Before I do, let me give you a warning.

A short history lesson: When people first started setting up actual business based on bitcoin, they used all of the tools available to any merchant. They sold by credit card and PayPal. The problem with this business model was quickly spotted: bitcoin transactions are not reversible by anyone except the recipient of the money. Credit cards and PayPal have strong buyer protection policies that make it relatively easy for people to request a chargeback. So, nefarious individuals realized this and began making purchases of bitcoin and then sooner or later requesting a chargeback. And, since bitcoin is a non-physical product, sent by new and poorly understood technological means, the sellers were not able to contest this. Because of this, sellers stopped accepting credit cards and PayPal.

This was a big problem for the currency: How to move money between buyers and seller? Some business emerged that would credit you with bitcoin if you wired them money. Very often these businesses would give addresses in Albania, Poland, or Russia. The fact is that many of these did work and there are a lot of stories on the forums of people who bought bitcoins this way. But it took a lot of time and in the meantime the buyer just had to bite his or her fingernails wondering if they would get their bitcoins or kiss their investment goodbye.

I expect that as bitcoin becomes more acceptable and valuable, we are going to see a version of the Nigerian Prince scam. So the warning is this: we now have exchanges and other businesses that allow for moving money easily onto and off of exchanges. Never wire money for bitcoin. It was a short-lived, and well-forgotten, moment in the history of bitcoin.

Next, I will be talking about how to buy from a bitcoin exchange and give a review of the some of the best known exchanges.

Exit mobile version