Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
- What's the difference between the weekly trade
newsletter and the on-line trade center service?
- How much does it cost to use each of your services?
- May I try your service free of charge before I subscribe?
- Why should I pay the Can$15/month user fee? May I use your service for free?
- How long does it take to have my account activated once I send the registration application?
- Why should I pay the Can$15/month user fee to use your service while there are so much free trade information available on the net?
- How do you compare other similar services with yours?
Could you explain why your service is better, more efficient and more cost-effective than any other similar services?
- What benefits can I get from GBTC by becoming a member?
- Can I search/view/download new buy/sell offers
separately once I become a member?
If you have any further questions, please contact us by
Email.
What's the difference between the weekly trade
newsletter and the on-line trade center service?
Our weekly trade newsletter is for people who prefer to read the trade
leads in a better format in their mailbox. Most trade leads, if not
all, published in the newsletter are also available in our searchable
trade center. Plus, you may also search old offers (1,000,000+) and all
the major trade/business newsgroups and mailing lists by using the search
engines. There is a Can$15/month separate charge for each of the two
services.
How much does it cost to use each of your services?
1. Newsletter Subscription: The current monthly subscription fee is
Can$15 (about US$10). The minimum subscription is one month (4-5 weekly
issues, though annual or six-month subscription is recommended).
2. Registration fee for accessing the on-line trade center (with user
login ID and password): Can$15/month (with unlimited access).
3. Ad fee: Can$5.00 for each buy/sell offer posted by subscribers
(Can$10.00/each for non-members).
May I try your service free of charge before I
subscribe?
Due to the nature of our business, we normally do not offer free
trials. The current subscription fee is just Can$15 a month (with
unlimited access). Our suggestion is that you register for one month
first as a trial. Before you register, you may wish to read a long
list of comments made by many other satisfied users by click
Guestbook.
Why should I pay the Can$15/month user fee? May I use your service
for free?
We charge the Can$15/month user fee because we believe people are using our
service to make profit. If anyone could convince us that he/she is
using our service for non-profit purposes, we would be glad to grant
him/her free membership.
How long does it take to have my account activated once I send the
registration application?
If you pay by credit cards, it will take 1-2 hours to activate your
account during our regular office hours (9:00am - 5:00pm EST). If you
prefer to pay by check, money order or bank draft, your account will
be activated once we receive your registration fee by mail. Due to the
volume we receive and time difference, it takes some time for us to
activate new accounts and answer all inquiries individually. We thank
you for your patience and understanding.
Why should I pay the Can$15/month user fee to use your service
while there are so much free trade information available on the
Internet?
Good question. The beauty of our searchable trade center is that it can
save you a lot of time for searching all the newsgroups and web sites.
Our search engines will do all the search for you. Though many
newsgroups and web sites can provide you with free trade information,
you may find it's getting harder and harder to search all of them
manually with your eyes, and each day there are more and more new
messages being posted, 100, 1,000, 10,000..., together with "get
rich quick" schemes and many other irrelevant postings. If you spend 10
hours a month (20 minutes a day, which is underestimated for most
people) doing the search manually with your eyes, you may just need
1-2 minutes to get a much more comprehensive search result by using
our search engines. This might be especially important for people who
have to pay for the time they spent on the net.
How do you compare other similar services with yours?
Could you explain why your service is better, more efficient and more
cost-effective than any other similar services?
There are basically three kinds of similar services that are currently
available on the Internet:
1. Some companies charge substantial fees for submitting their
clients' URL/business to major search engines or placing ads in
their web sites, trade/business newsgroups or mailing lists.
We believe, however, any on-line service charge should be nominal, if
any. That's why we're offering free URL submission service for our
valued customers and only charge Can$5.00 for each buy/sell offer posted
in our trade center. We encourage our users to post their ads to the public
trade/business newsgroups and mailing lists by their own. The way we
see it, it is really unnecessary to pay too much to have your ads
posted on the net. As soon as you know how to do it yourself, you
would find it's pretty easy and you would certainly get the same
response rates as what you paid for in the past.
2. A few other web sites just list ads headlines in their bulletin
boards. The problem is that most people do not post their requirements
first and many would place their companies' names and addresses at the
front. So when people visit the websites, they would see a string of
companies' names/addreses first and have no ideas what the ads are all
about. To see the ads in details, people would have to open the ads
one by one (the numbers may be anywhere from 20 to 100+).
3. Other web sites offer a better ads format for people to view all the
buy/sell offers directly without going into further pages. The
problems are, however, that "offer to buy/import" and "offer to sell/export"
are always mixed together and there are too many repeated messages
listed on board at the same time. For people who wish to download new offers,
they may have to download 100-200K every time. Plus, these web sites
may not have search engines.
In our on-line trade center, however, people may search/view new and
old buy/sell offers separately. First, you may type the name of your
product in the search engines and get a long list of new buy/sell
offers that contain the keyword(s) instantly (takes just a few
seconds). Then, if you decide to view new buy/sell offers manually one
by one, you may simply click the link, or download it to your own
computer hard drive if you don't want to spend too much time on the net.
Offers are updated regularly in our trade center. Any invalid offers
will be deleted from the trade centre immediately after being verified.
We're trying to update our trade centre and deleting invalid offers
everyday and use a "bonus" method to encourage our members to inform
us of any invalid offers that they might find.
According to our on-line records, 1,000,000+ buy/sell offers have
been posted in our trade center since November 1, 1996 (as of December 31,
1999), much more than any other similar services. Plus, you will also
be able to search offers posted in all the major trade/business
mailing lists and newsgroups in just a few seconds. If you prefer to
search all these newsgroups and mailing lists manually by yourself, it
may take 20 hours to go over a weekly listing, 100+ hours for a monthly
listing.
That's why we believe our service is better, more efficient and more
cost-effective than any other similar services. That's why many of our
users have renewed their subscription after trials.
What benefits can I get from GBTC by becoming a
member?
* Comprehensive database
GBTC is the largest database of trade leads on the Internet. According
to our on-line record, 1,172,525 buy/sell offers have been posted in our
trade centre since November 1, 1996 (as of December 31, 1999), much more
than any other similar services.
* High-speed searches
Our powerful search engine allows subscribers to quickly browse
thousands of trade leads. If you are looking for buyers/sellers for a
particular product, you don't need to view all the offers (1,000,000+)
one by one. By simply typing the name of your product in the search
engines, you will get a long list of importers/exporters who're
currently trying to buy/sell the product in a few seconds.
* Fast communication at lower cost
With e-mail, you can use our system to communicate instantly with
potential trading partners listed in our database at dramatic savings.
Can I search/view/download new buy/sell offers separately once I
become a member?
Yes, you can. Here is a list of buy offers posted in members section
(as of March 31, 1997):
Mar 31/97: 599 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Mar 28/97: 415 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Mar 24/97: 467 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Mar 21/97: 484 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Mar 17/97: 385 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Mar 14/97: 348 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Mar 10/97: 479 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Mar 07/97: 288 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Mar 03/97: 268 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Feb 28/97: 280 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Feb 24/97: 252 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Feb 21/97: 316 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Feb 17/97: 185 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Feb 14/97: 250 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Feb 10/97: 143 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Feb 07/97: 98 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Feb 03/97: 95 buy offers were posted. Click Here to see these offers.
Jan 31/97: 209 buy offers were posted.
Jan 27/97: 177 buy offers were posted.
Jan 24/97: 220 buy offers were posted.
Jan 20/97: 321 buy offers were posted.
Jan 17/97: 342 buy offers were posted.
Jan 13/97: 117 buy offers were posted.
Jan 10/97: 138 buy offers were posted.
Jan 06/97: 221 buy offers were posted.
Jan 03/97: 46 buy offers were posted.
Dec 31/96: 87 buy offers were posted.
Dec 27/96: 84 buy offers were posted.
Dec 23/96: 92 buy offers were posted.
Dec 19/96: 85 buy offers were posted.
Dec 16/96: 82 buy offers were posted.
Dec 13/96: 68 buy offers were posted.
Dec 09/96: 78 buy offers were posted.
Dec 06/96: 67 buy offers were posted.
Dec 02/96: 44 buy offers were posted.
Nov 29/96: 98 buy offers were posted.
Nov 25/96: 120 buy offers were posted.
Nov 22/96: 97 buy offers were posted.
Nov 18/96: 94 buy offers were posted.
Nov 15/96: 89 buy offers were posted.
Nov 11/96: 82 buy offers were posted.
Nov 08/96: 89 buy offers were posted.
Nov 04/96: 52 buy offers were posted.
Nov 01/96: 125 buy offers were posted.
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