So get ebook -- and don't expect it to answer your questions, solve your problem or provide an answer to your shopping cart questions. It won't do that, especially with good Doctors' aged articles, one of them dated 1990! Yes I said 1990!

Dr. Ralph Wilson became an internet guru by being there before almost anyone else cared about web, then tirelessly staying up-to-date and in-the-know since beginning of internet time. He knows what he is talking about. He is also known as Dr. Ebiz and I say trust good Doctor, he's a specialist and a well regarded master of web marketing.

But I must say that I have an awful time getting over fact that nearly half ebook is made up of his collected articles on (or even peripherally near) shopping cart software. The majority of those articles are more than a year old. The balance of book is made up of one paragraph summaries with web links to articles online by others that are three and four years old and he acknowledges in his forward introduction that some of links may not work . . . and that simply doesn't work for me.

Wilsons' articles are informative, if a bit scattered due to fact that they weren't written specifically as a book, but as separate articles over time with no focus or theme other than topic of shopping carts to tie them together. Not enough. Why would I recommend book? Because after you read Wilsons' articles, you'll go to list of article summaries with web links and you'll click through to those articles and read them.

By time you've read all those articles, you'll understand complexities involved in shopping cart software and you may get a few things about merchant accounts and secure servers and online payment gateways along way. If not, you could always buy A Merchant's Guide to E-Commerce Payment Gateways by Dr. Ralph Wilson. http://www.wilsonweb.com/ebooks/gateway.htm

What it comes down to for this reporter is that you've got to do research and you may as well start here. What I found out (to delight of my own client) was that there is a hosted cart that cost just $6 monthly that will link up with payment gateway and securely transmit necessary information to them and back with a cart that suits his needs, saves him hundreds of dollars in process and makes me look great.

I found that resource somewhere in list of article links provided by Wilson in second half of ebook. Essentially it came down to clear fact that my client is currently able to securely sell products online with real-time approval of credit cards and move his business online for far less investment than would have been required with recommendation I would have made before reading The Shopping Cart Report.

Now we can both sit back and enjoy our French Roast coffee and chocolate dipped biscotti. And he doesn't need to buy that really expensive shopping cart, just rent one very inexpensively until his business grows enough to justify buying that shiny new cart.

Wilson offers aged cheese and a fine aged wine but I was after French Roast and Biscotti. If you are seeking Folgers and Doritos you STILL have to go to research store so read ebook, put it in Wilsons' ecart and read The Shopping Cart Report.

While you're in store you can compare Apples and Oranges.

Uncle Sam will also help you nail down details of selling overseas. Trade missions, for instance, will help new exporters establish sales and set up representation abroad at a low cost. The DOC's Export Contact List Service generates a mailing list of potential importers for your product from agency's automated global network of overseas firms.

Once you have found a distributor, how do you find out if it's reputable. First, secure an in-depth profile on your potential partner through World Trade Data Reports. You can obtain one of these reports through ITA. Next, use Dun & Bradstreet's Business Identification Service (http://www.dnb.com/), which will provide you with a credit report and other financial information on distributor. Finally, contact U.S. Embassy (http://www.travel.state.gov/links.html) in country in which you hope to do business and run your prospective customer's name by them, just in case they know anything. You'd be surprised at how willing they are to help.

Once you've qualified several prospective distributors, I recommend that you meet with each one and decide who comes closest to sharing your views on market penetration. Then you'll be ready to talk business.