A couple of days ago I wrote a post talking about some British parents who published a 57-second video of their children on YouTube and ended up making over $150,000 from that video alone.

Most people who left a comment wanted to get more information on how to make money on YouTube, so I decided to write a follow-up post about it.

In a nutshell you make money on YouTube by becoming a YouTube partner, which allows you to display ads on your videos, and then you earn a percentage of the revenues generated by clicks on those ads, much like with AdSense. As for how much money you can actually make, I heard numbers anywhere from $3 up to $10 per 1,000 video views.

However, the process of becoming a YouTube partner is not as trivial as becoming an AdSense publisher. Below you’ll find the basic steps you need to go through:

1. Make Sure You Have an AdSense Account

While the process to be able to display ads on your YouTube videos is a separate one, your earnings and stats will go together with your AdSense account, so you need to have one.

In theory you could apply to become a YouTube partner before having an AdSense account, and in case you get accepted you would then follow up with an AdSense application. I believe the other way around is much simpler, though.

2. Grow Your Audience on YouTube

One of the most important criteria the YouTube guys will use to evaluate your application is the audience you reach on YouTube. They don’t reveal what are the requirements, but I’ve seen many people say these are the ballpark numbers you need to have before getting accepted:

• at least 1,000 subscribers
• at least 1,000 views on all your videos
• at least 10,000 channel views

These are the very minimum though, if you want to make sure you’ll get accepted I would aim for 5,000 subscribers, 50,000 channel views and over 1,000,000 upload views total.

3. Get Videos Out There Regularly

If you only have one or two videos uploaded your chances of getting accepted are low, even if those videos went viral. That’s because YouTube is looking for people who are planning to work with them over the long term.

The more regularly and frequently you upload new videos, the better. For instance, someone who uploads a new video every day will have a better chance of getting accepted than someone who uploads one every couple of weeks.

You also want to make sure you have at least 100 uploaded videos before applying to become a partner (though some people say 50 will be enough).

4. Develop A Brand Around Your Videos

This step is not essential, but I think it helps a lot on getting approve. You need to remember that, once you meet the technical guidelines, it will be a person on the other site deciding on whether you are a good fit for becoming a YouTube Partner or not. In other words, the more professional you look the higher your chances.

Practical tips include:

• Create a website to host your videos and give your audience more wayts to interact
• Create a nice logo and use it everywhere
• Use a watermark on your videos with your logo
• Consider getting a professional intro made for your videos
• Customize your YouTube channel to make it look professional

5. Make Sure Your Content Has Zero Copyrighted Material

If there’s one thing that will get your application rejected on the spot is copyright infringement, so make sure you have zero copyrighted material on your videos.

This includes images, graphics, logos, video clips and audio. For instance, even just using a music on the background which you don’t have permission to could get your application rejected.

6. Apply to Become a YouTube Partner

After you followed all the previous steps you are ready to apply. You can do that via the official YouTube Partner Program page. It might take a while to get your application considered due to the load of people applying, but once you get accepted you’ll be able to start displaying ads on your videos right away.

Good luck!

Well, thanks to some very useful and user friendly applications, today almost anyone who has a Facebook page, can make money in a variety of ways. With one simple installation, you can be on your way to make money on Facebook. Of course like any other methods of making money, specifically making money online, it takes hard work and persistence to be able to make a decent amount of money on Facebook. Although these applications make it very easy to get on the path of making money with face book, its the strategy and a well thought out plan, combined with persistence and hard work, that ultimately factors in your success or failure in making money with Facebook. Here are some applications you can use to make money on Facebook:

1. Radical Buy This is almost like a Facebook made eBay. You can sell anything on your Facebook page using this unique app. List an item and have it visible to all Facebook users instantly. Now, the cool think is that you can offer commission to others who will sell your items on their Facebook page, allowing you to reach more potential buyers. Of course that means, even if you don’t have any item for sale, you can show other peoples item on your Facebook page and make money with the commission you get for selling there stuff.
Update:
Sadly RadicalBuy has discontinued its widgets and apps and doesn’t work any more. I will try to find another good app that can be help you make money with your Facebook account, as soon as I can.

2. My Merch Store If you have red my 9 Website To Make Money With By Designing & Selling … article, then you know about Zazzle. Well, now Zazzel allows you to create and design any product on their site(which is free) and sell them on your face book. Think about the potential buyer base for customized t-shirts and hats and etc, specially if you have a lot of Facebook friends. You can also sell product created by other artists and earn a commission on those. So, even if you don’t want to deal with designing, you have a way to make money on face book using Zazzle.

3. Cafe Press It’s the same idea as Zazzle, but with a much bigger and well known online store. Cafepress lets you easily sell any product from anti Obama Shirts to pro Obama Shirts, on your Facebook and make money, whether it was created by you or someone else.

4. Ether Ether is a website that you can make money on by giving advice to people over the phone or by chatting. But now, you can use their new application on Facebook to make money while giving advice to people over the phone. If you’re good at giving advice, this may be the way for you to make some extra money on Facebook. Also if you know a second language, this app makes it easy to teach others and make money. You set the rates and Ether provides a number that individuals can call. The call will then be forwarded to your personal telephone number.

5. Music Blaster With MusicBlaster you can put a simple little music store on your Facebook, and sell music from BlastMyMusic.com. You earn 5% for each song sold. The cool think about this app is the fact that you can help your favorite band or singer to sell their music while you make money, as well as helping them to gain more exposure.

6. Garage Sale The name says it all, its the good old Garage Sale, but a “Facebooky” Garage Sale. Simply add Garage Sale to your profile page and list every thing you want to sell. When someone buys something, Garage Sale automatically bills the buyer’s credit card and lets you when to ship the item. Your money is deposited directly into your Pay Pal account, or you can request payment by check. However they charge a 5% commission on the total sales price, but that’s all. No other fee for setup or anything like that.

7. Shopit Shopit is a free Social Commerce Network that gives users the ability to buy, sell or trade any product or service. Simply add a free store to your Facebook and sell anything you like. Another easy way to make money on Facebook.

8. FlameTunes FT was founded in 2007 by an Iranian-American named Nima Khakpour. This app is more for the artists to sell their music. So, if you are an artist, FlameTunes enables you to sell your music on your Facebook. You can also use it to sell music on MySpace.

9. Lemonade Remember when you setup your first lemonade stand in your community? Well, this app allows you to use the same concept, combining commerce and community, and have a lemonade stand in a digital (Facebook) neighborhood. Basically you add what you want to sell to a lemonade stand, and put it on your Facebook. It’s free and easy.

10. eBay Who knew that was coming? Yep, you guessed it. Now you can have your eBay on Facebook. This application allows you to add eBay auction listings to your Profile. Sell things to your Facebook friends from crafts, jewelry to diary pages, undies and dinner dates or just whatever you’re selling on eBay! You also have the option to add a charity auction that you support, on your Facebook profile. I think it’s a very smart way to combine eBay and Facebook, and you don’t even need an eBay Account!

11. Lending Club It’s almost like prosper, where you land money to others and make money with the interest you make from the loan. Not to worry though, lending club has all the detail covered. So, it’s completely safe, and the whole legal and trust issues are taking cared by lending club. If you can use it safley, it can be a good way to make money with your Facebook.

12. e3buy Auction Buy, sell or trade anything. Auction your used or new stuff. With e3buy you can open a customizes store, upload your logo and start selling things. unlike eBay, there is no commission or fee to be paid. it’s completely free to use. It is also fully integrated with PayPal, so you can get paid fast.

Believe it or not, tens of thousand of people are using Facebook every day to chat with their friends and have fun… while others are making money at the same time.

Would you like to know how to cash-it on this social phenomenon?

Would $5… $50… or $150 in additional income make you happier? What would you do with the “new found” money?

Let’s make it happen, here are three quick steps:

Step #1

Once you have signed up to Facebook your first step should be to think about how you want to present yourself. You don’t want to fake it, just be yourself and showcase your skill, your hobby or knowledge – that is what makes money from Facebook.

Don’t forget that you want to attract the attention of a specific group of people here, so that you become known as someone who is something of an expert on one particular subject. So choose wisely!

Step #2

Go for a popular niche that you personally like and have an interest in. Develop your persona in that area. If you already have something of a web presence in a particular area then you’ll use that in your advantage because — it will help you as more and more people become aware of who you, your skill/knowledge and how this can help them.

Step #3

Your first port of call, if you have anything second hand to sell which is related to your niche, is the Marketplace. It’s free to place ads in the Marketplace and there is no limit on how many you can place.

EXAMPLE: you come across a bargain lot of books on your subject on eBay or at a yard sale you can list them all individually on Facebook and sell them on for a profit.

If you have a budget to spend on advertising and you have some external websites you want to promote, you can try out the Social Ads to see what benefits you get from them. It is well worth reading through the relevant help section to see what is involved though, as it is quite in depth.

FACEBOOK BEST ADVANTAGE:

The main benefit of becoming a Facebook member is that you can build and use any number of applications to perform certain tasks on your profile page.

The GREAT NEWS is that Facebook doesn’t frown at users making money from their Facebook page, and indeed many people link in to other websites outside of Facebook itself.

People are constantly building new applications and often they are used by many other users to create pages that appeal to their own particular needs.

This is partly why you will succeed in making more money from Facebook if you brand yourself carefully before you get started on the site.

BRANDING YOURSELF?

Figure out what it is you want to do and what you want to achieve. If you already have a website up and running then you will be able to link into that, so keep the look and feel of your Facebook page in the same vein as your site.

But while you can link to other sites outside of Facebook, some people also sprinkle some affiliate links on their actual Facebook page itself. For example, some quick research revealed one person who links into a range of ClickBank products on their page and does well from doing so.

So long as you start from a strong position with a particular focus and brand in mind, you can do well by experimenting with all the benefits that Facebook offers (and they’re growing).

Take time to build up a network of friends and make sure you become known for being an expert in your particular sphere of interest/niche.

Exposure is what you should aim for. The more people you make friends with and add to your network, the more money you should be generating. However, don’t make the mistake to go after “friends” for money.

Put people first, money will follow. It’s like in the real life, just a different medium, the same communication skills and principles apply though.

You should always sound, look and act real, don’t pretend to be someone else. People feel it nowadays more than ever.

For anyone wanting to make money online, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to get started. Affiliate marketing is the act of referring online shoppers to various products and gaining a percentage of the sale in return. As an affiliate marketer, you are given your own links to a product so the seller knows when a customer you referred buys their product.

So what exactly are the benefits of affiliate marketing? There are dozens. Many sellers offer great incentives to affiliate marketers, with some offering as much as 50% commissions on products you refer customers to. This means you can make money on the side (or even replace your entire income if you become successful at it). This is one of the legitimate ways to bring in a passive income, as people from all around the world are buying products online at every minute of the day. You don’t have to develop any products yourself, either. It’s very easy to find outlets in which to plug in your links (oftentimes for free!). And make great money.

Special Alert: If you are serious about making some extra cash, or replacing your income with your own business,  click here to check out income.com

Writing articles related to the products you’re trying to market can be very beneficial in many ways. One, this builds your online presence, and thus, your credibility. Writing articles on one subject but with many angles will help you understand exactly what the product you’re affiliate marketing is all about, and help you to identify your target audience. Also the more articles you write, the more people will know about you, which will be great later down the road when you’re ready for your own website.

Writing blog articles for free in exchange for being allowed to include links to your products can be helpful in that you will have full access to each blogger’s followers. This way, you won’t have to go out and find your own customers, you just market to people who are already interested in the subject and are web-savvy (a must for anyone who would consider buying products online).

There are also article sites that will allow you to include links to your products at the bottom of the article, and better still: some sites might even pay you small fees for your articles. The key to attracting as many customers as possible is writing a fantastic article that isn’t too sales-pitchy and showing them how their lives can be even more enriched if they check out the products you have listed.

One day, you’re ultimately going to want to take the leap and get your own website. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something simple enough for customers to navigate easily. Here, you can have your own store with links to the various products you’re marketing, as well as build a customer base through blogging. This opens multiple channels of communication with millions of potential consumers. Combined with social media marketing in order to get even more people connected, you can eventually have great success with affiliate marketing, as long as you choose quality products to market and sell them effectively.

Special Alert: If you are serious about making some extra cash, or replacing your income with your own business,  click here to check out income.com

Graphic courtesy of 148apps.biz

In its missives to the press, Apple (AAPL) is usually content to repeat its favorite buzz words — “incredible,” “amazing,” “exciting,” “revolutionary” etc. — to drive home how amazing and incredible the company is, especially compared with its humdrum competitors.

But the announcement issued Thursday takes Apple’s penchant for banging and banging and banging its own drum to new heights.

It’s amazing enough that 15 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store — more than two for every man, woman and child on the planet — in less than three years.

But how many times do we have to be told?

The answer, apparently, is four. Once in the headline. Once in the first paragraph. Once in a quote from vice president Phil Schiller. And one more time in the penultimate paragraph.

The other nice round numbers in today’s press release:

• More 200 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users worldwide
• More 425,000 apps available
• More than 100,000 native iPad apps
• More than $2.5 billion paid to developers

The full text is copied below so you can count for yourself how many times these exciting stats are repeated.

That feature disappeared Saturday, when a nearly two-year agreement between Google and Twitter to include tweets in search results through a special feed expired.

The deal dated back to late 2009, when the companies struck a pact that would display real-time Twitter results in Google searches.

“We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months,” Marissa Mayer, then the company’s vice president search products, wrote on Google’s blog at the time.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Twitter are saying little about why the deal ended.

“Twitter has been a valuable partner for nearly two years, and we remain open to exploring other collaborations in the future,” Google said in a written statement.

“We work with Google in many other ways,” Twitter said in an official statement about the deal expiration. The company noted that it continues to provide real-time stream access to Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), NTT Docomo and “dozens of other smaller developers.”

One potential catalyst for the Google/Twitter schism: Google’s recent launch of Google+, which adds a social-networking powered real-time layer to Google’s product network.

Google also took down the standalone Google Realtime search page at http://www.google.com/realtime that it launched last year. That page now returns a 404 error. (A landing page describing the service was still accessible Tuesday afternoon.)

“We’ve temporarily disabled google.com/realtime. We’re exploring how to incorporate our recently launched Google+ project into this functionality going forward,” Google said. “Our vision is to have google.com/realtime include Google+ information along with other realtime data from a variety of sources.”

Meanwhile, Twitter has been working to improve its own search results. In June, the company launched a new version of Twitter search that delivers more relevant content as well as related photos and images. 

From http://money.cnn.com

This is the second in a series of articles leading up to the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, which will be held from July 19-21 in Aspen, Colorado. Fortune Brainstorm Tech will round up many of the best and brightest thinkers in technology. Our coverage in this series will examine the progress of companies that presented last year and give an idea of what to expect this year.

FORTUNE — As companies like Google (GOOG), Square, Intuit (INTU) and, reportedly, Apple (AAPL) place their bets on some form of mobile payments, the technology’s long-term potential becomes clear. What’s harder to envision is exactly how this nascent industry will evolve.

Each company’s service manages to transform mobile devices into a credit-transaction device, although their approaches vary. Google Wallet lets Android smartphones make payments simply by swiping or tapping them in front of compatible readers. Meanwhile, Square and Intuit’s GoPayment services rely on credit-card readers that plug into audio jacks. Square in particular is thriving: Jack Dorsey’s two-and-a-half-year-old startup made headlines again this week when it raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation.

At this point, it’s easier to glean the broader, more immediate benefits of such services. With Square and GoPayment, any merchant can handle digital payments without having to shell out hundreds of dollars for a traditional credit card transaction machine. And services like Google Wallet may mean you never have to carry around plastic again. Beyond that, however, there are longer-term possibilities for mobile payments that are especially tantalizing:

1.) Real-time feedback.

It can take up to two weeks for merchants to receive feedback as to how well a plain-old paper coupon performed with customers. With Near Field Communications (NFC), feedback from smartphones could be instantaneous, richer and more detailed. Lars Skari, who heads Infosys’ banking and capital markets group, said merchants and marketers can parse through available data on coupon purchases hour-by-hour, examining overall coupon adoption rates over time. That information would allow them to adjust coupon discounts on the fly.

2.) Tapping the GPS

Assuming consumers can opt in and tweak privacy settings to their hearts’ desire, the smartphone’s GPS could add a new level of location-sensitive features.

Earlier this year, Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s VP of Commerce, suggested that NFC could make every day life easier: If you find some jeans in a Gap (GAP) store but they’re out of your size, a scan of your smartphone can make sure a pair will be sent to you.

Skari offers a more detailed example. When a shopper walks into the supermarket, his smartphone could receive a customized shopping list based on his shopping history there. As he walks down an aisle looking for say, frozen pizza, he’ll receive coupons for them. Other supermarkets could try to entice him through their doors by modifying their coupons and offering deeper discounts. If users plug in their social accounts, they get even more information, such as what their friends recently purchased or which brands they recommend.

3.) An easier banking experience

Services like Google Wallet likely won’t upend the business models of commercial banks, but could alter the way customers interact with them.

Already, Google Wallet promises to make plastic obsolete. Skari suggests the next logical step would be for such services to handle billing payments as well, acting as an intermediary between banks and customers and providing a simple, clean user interface that lets them intereact seamlessly.

Sound far fetched? Maybe, but given that these companies all excel in providing painless user experiences, it’s a possibility. “Companies like your Google, Mint, Square and others are coming from more of a true retail environment,” says Skari. “They’re starting to make inroads into that very important customer segment” of consumers under 30.

Square COO Keith Rabois supports that assertion — as least with regards to his company — claiming that the startup has a 95% chance of one day becoming more valuable than eBay’s (EBAY) PayPal and a 50% chance of becoming more culturally relevant.

“We are not limited to just e-commerce,” he said. “We enable real world payments, which is a much bigger market and is more valuable.”

To learn more how consumers, finance and tech companies will win big, look for our conference coverage when Tilenius, Rabois, Visa President John Patridge and others participate in the “Mobile Payments Smackdown” panel with Executive Editor Stephanie Mehta on July 19.

From http://tech.fortune.cnn.com

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) filed a lawsuit against Amazon in March, saying that it has used the term “App Store” since 2008 and applied for a trademark at that time. Apple argued that Amazon’s “Appstore,” an Android marketplace that launched in March, infringes on the trademark and is confusing to customers.

Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) fired back, saying the mark is generic and therefore not protectable — and even if it weren’t generic, Apple “cannot demonstrate any likelihood of confusion.”

Judge Phyllis Hamilton mostly sided with Amazon in her ruling on Wednesday in California district court, in which she denied Apple the injunction it sought.

Hamilton wrote that she “does not agree with Amazon that the mark is purely generic,” but also said that “there appears to be no need for a leap of imagination to understand what the term means.”

Apple failed to prove its main points, she said, including: that Amazon’s “Appstore” name will confuse customers, that it infringes on Apple and that it dilutes Apple’s brand.

In a twist of the knife, Hamilton seemed to imply that Apple could have won the case if it had better protected the phrase in question.

“Apple did have substantially exclusive use of ‘App Store’ when it launched its service a little over three years ago, but the term appears to have been used more widely by other companies as time has passed,” she wrote.

Apple spokewoman Kristin Huguet pointed back to an earlier company statement on the case: “We asked Amazon not to copy the ‘App Store’ name because it will confuse and mislead customers,” she said.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple announced Wednesday that more than 15 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store. 

From http://money.cnn.com

Another shocker from Nokia this week. Shares in the world’s biggest handset maker by volume plunged 18 per cent on Tuesday, after the company stunned the market by issuing a monster of a profit warning.

Nokia stock tumbled again on Wednesday morning, by almost 10 per cent, after analysts slashed their valuations for the company and raised questions that it would ever recapture its lost market-share.

Nokia said that because of lower-than-expected volumes and prices, its second-quarter sales and operating margins would be “substantially below” its previous guidance.

It’s the latest piece of bad news to hit the Finnish giant, which is losing out in the smartphone war to Apple’s iPhone and phones that use Google’s Android operating system. It’s already lost its position as the biggest mobile maker by revenue to Apple, an incredible success by the Californian tech giant given its late entry to the market.

At the cheaper end of the market, Nokia is also getting squeezed by cheaper models put out by some of its Asian rivals.

Chief executive Stephen Elop (pictured) pointed to weakness in both Europe and China as the driving forces behind the warning.

Android was making “significant” progress in China and forcing Nokia to drop prices, he said. It’s only six weeks since Nokia issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the rest of the year.

Now it has further lowered its second-quarter operating margin target from six-to-nine per cent to “around break-even”, and – perhaps most worryingly of all – said that the outlook was too uncertain to provide new full-year estimates.

Little surprise the shares are trading at their lowest level for 13 years, having fallen by a third in the last six months.

Avoid the stock
Elop, who is very new to the job, is already under significant pressure because of widespread scepticism over his controversial decision to move to Microsoft Windows Phone software from its own Symbian platform, as part of his overhaul of the handset business.

But it is worth remembering that he inherited most of the problems Nokia is facing right now. It has simply been out-manoeuvred in the smartphone market.

Analysts now say their main worry is that Nokia might not be able to recapture much share, even after it starts flogging new phones based on Microsoft software and stops selling phones based on its own Symbian software.

“We would continue to avoid the stock, as Symbian smartphone sales are falling off faster than expected and we are sceptical that new Windows Phone models will be able to replace lost profits,” Gleacher analyst Stephen Patel told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Nomura’s global technology specialist Richard Windsor wrote in a chilling note for investors: “We are concerned that the erosion the company has suffered in Q2 is just the beginning, and that there could be worse to follow.

“Nokia’s potential release of a Windows Phone in Q4 is irrelevant, in our view,” he added, noting that it would be a highend device unlikely to shift high volumes. Unsurprisingly, given that bleak view, Nomura is telling its clients to sell the shares.

JP Morgan also cut its price target on the shares to €4.25 from €5, but was marginally more hopeful: “We see the earliest possible timing for the beginnings of a turnaround as the launch of new Windows products, which we expect at the end of this year,” JP Morgan analyst Rod Hall said in a note.

Some analysts think Nokia now faces the same fate that affected Motorola, which once dominated the industry but saw its own share of the market plunge after it lost its way to the competition.

They note that Nokia is no safer in emerging markets than it is in mature ones, because of the rise of cheap Chinese handset suppliers that can undercut it due to their lower manufacturing costs.

Scary times.

TalkTalk’s best growth behind it?
It’s the question investors might feel entitled to ask, after Charles Dunstone’s broadband provider lost 25,000 users in the fourth quarter.

TalkTalk, spun out of Carphone Warehouse in March 2010 shed a similar number of punters in the previous three months, as it suffered a slew of customer complaints.

The main problem has been the difficult integration of both the Tiscali and AOL UK customer bases.

There has been a high level of unhappiness among Tiscali UK customers who have suffered problems with their bills during the integration.

As a result TalkTalk also had to shell out £2.5 million in payments to the customers.

As a further result, TalkTalk shed 50,000 punters in the first half, whereas its original guidance had forecast flat net adds for the first half and net adds of between 140,000 and 180,000 for the full year.

Despite this, the company said it had delivered an overall strong performance in a period of major change.

“We are confident that we are now making major progress in improving the experience for our customers, which will lead to lower churn,” said chief executive Dido Harding.

Analysts at stockbroker Jeffries said the company’s three per cent miss against fourth-quarter revenue forecasts highlighted the competitive challenges TalkTalk faces in what is a slowing, mature broadband market.

But on the plus-side they were pleased TalkTalk has promised its investors higher dividends and still managed to lift its underlying profits by 25 per cent to £276 million as it moves more customers onto its own network from that of BT.

As were analysts at RBS, who said the company is “currently the master of its own destiny” because it achieved profit growth due to efficiency savings, despite falling customer numbers.

T-Mobile USA takeover could be blocked
Finally, a bitter regulatory battle has started in earnest in the US, after Sprint Nextel formally asked regulators to block AT&T’s proposed £24 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA.

Sprint says the deal “has no public interest benefit” and would harm competition even if it comes with conditions.

Sprint has the most to lose from the deal, which would put it a distant third behind numbertwo player Verizon Wireless, part-owned by Vodafone.

Vodafone investors will be watching closely.

Momentum is growing for services that enable consumers to purchase low value items by tapping their mobile phone or a pre-paid card against a reader at the checkout. Indeed, Juniper Research recently predicted that global NFC mobile contactless payment transactions will reach nearly $50 billion worldwide by 2014. However, as more employees start buying goods and services in this way, enterprises are faced with significant challenges as they attempt to incorporate digital cash into the overall picture of corporate spend.

“NFC is hugely topical at the moment, and our new eMoney module allows these transactions to be dealt with in exactly the same way as any other business expense that may traditionally have been made with credit card or cash,” said Shane Bruhns, COO of Spendvision. “Employees can simply manage transactions from their pre-paid card or device alongside other expenses on a single platform that can be accessed anywhere and anytime. This eliminates the need to manually enter details of the transaction, improving accuracy and making the process much quicker and easier for employees and finance teams.”

Spendvision’s new module is available worldwide, with the company expecting initial uptake to be most significant in Japan, where the use of NFC is more advanced.

“In Japan, eWallets and digital cash have been around for years and take up is high as a result of the integration with the travel network,” continued Bruhns. “The convenience of simply tapping a device against a reader to make a payment is ideal, which is why a third of the population use emoney and transactions account for more than 1.25 trillion yen. Payments made with digital cash are commonly expensed by employees, and we believe this will soon be the case in other areas of the world. As the only global provider of a solution capable of managing eMoney expenses across any currency, language and territory, we are well positioned to capitalise on our knowledge in managing these kinds of transactions and apply it elsewhere.”

The new eMoney module will also help businesses to manage the split between private and business spending. With the line between work and personal spend blurring, having a single mobile device or eMoney card is becoming the norm and it is vital that businesses are able to easily identify who needs to pay for what. Spendvision facilitates this by enabling employees to select which transactions are business-related on their card or device.

“As employees increasingly begin to use ‘wave and pay’ technology to pay for anything from transport fares to newspapers, from refreshments to stationary supplies, businesses will need to find a way of incorporating these payments into the expenses mix,” continued Bruhns. “With so many low value transactions to be accounted for, the key to integrating them with other types of expense is to provide employees with a simple, quick way to log and manage all their payments, including eMoney. That’s exactly what our new module does.”

The eMoney module is available as an ‘opt-in’ upgrade to the Spendvision platform, a secure Software as a Service (SaaS) application, meaning that companies do not have to invest in, install or maintain any hardware or software. The module can be configured to work with any processor of eMoney.