Starting an eCommerce Business From Scratch - Commerce 21

Starting an eCommerce Business From Scratch

With the constant growth of the Internet, it has allowed trade opportunities to be more accessible to everyone. Earlier, starting a new business was an enormous job, especially in sourcing the funds for the business. Business owners quit their existing jobs, obtained a loan from the bank before they began to make any money. It is no wonder that more that 50% of them did not succeed. Presently trade opportunities are easily accessible to anyone prepared to invest their time and try to learn all they can about ecommerce. You can establish an ecommerce business with nominal funds and almost no risk at all.

Studies show that about 70% of shoppers perform some sort of research on products online before purchasing them. Savvy shoppers would rather prefer online shopping than actually going out and searching for what they need one store after another.

When they shop online they can easily research and compare products, read reviews and select a trustworthy and best rated online retailer with best pricing.

Whether you aspire to become one of those successful and well-known online retailers or just have a profitable ecommerce site that supplements your income, you need to educate yourself about all of the necessary steps you need to take to start an online business.

Below are a few steps that will help you get your ecommerce business started.

Find Your Niche
The most important step in starting your personal ecommerce business is finding your place. Take a look at what interests you and you will find achievable business projects. You can also think about starting a business that is related to your existing occupation. For instance, as an automobile mechanic you may be familiar with automotive spare parts and how to get hold of them. You may possibly start an automotive spare part business. Your acquaintances and knowledge in the industry will help you in your business venture.

Research the Demand
Once you have some possible business projects running in your mind, it is your responsibility to study the demand in that field. If you are planning to open your business and start selling products, you need to get an idea of the market situation, of how much of the products or services you are making are already available. As you start a new business, you may not be able to generate the demand that is required for the product you are marketing to make a huge profit; therefore the articles that you are marketing should already be in the area of demand.

Scope out Your Soon-To-Be Competitors
Before you finally decide on the business project, research your potential competitors. You must visit and know your competitor?s websites thoroughly. Spend some quality time researching all that they deal in, by doing this you will have a plan of the kind of competition you have. You need to understand clearly, that the website you create for your business must be just as professional or superior than their website. The following are some of the things you need to look for:

? Professional Look & Feel
? Products and Services
? Search Engine Ranking
? Page Rank (Available on the Google Tool Bar)
? Keywords
? Back Links (how many sites link to them)

Establish a Business Entity
Next, in order for you to start conducting your business, you need to create a unique business unit and acquire a sales tax ID. At the register office they will check if the name you have selected is already in use or not. If it is in use you will have to use another name. Having one or two options before you start is a good idea.

Open a Business Bank Account
Once you have been registered as the owner of a genuine business, you need to open a bank account specifically for your business with one of the banks in your city. Take your documents to the bank and open a business account. Most banks offer a variety of business accounts. Choose one carefully, the one the best meets your needs. It?s usually best to start with the least expensive account because it could be a while before you start getting an income. Some banks require you to wait a specified amount of time after the court documents are filed before opening a business bank account. These rules are in order to help prevent fraud. Check with your bank to obtain waiting period information.

Choose a Domain Name
As you are waiting for your bank account to be active, you can start creating the website for your business. Firstly you need to register the domain name, search for domain names that end with ?.com? as these are the best option. Try to incorporate one or more target keywords, for example, if you are starting an automotive spare part business, choose a name with the word automotive or automobile, such as automotivepoint.com or vehicleparts.com.

Create Your Website
One of the main ingredients to a successful ecommerce business is having a specifically designed website. The business website will probably be the only idea your visitors will ever have in connection with your business. Providentially today, it is not necessary for you to be a high tech programmer in order to create a good website. There are web designing companies that design and sell custom made website templates, or you can have a custom made website. It is advisable to invest a bit of money for a custom made professional website. After all it is your business that you are projecting through the website, so it should speak of quality. You must get a good website template with many pages and custom images. Most templates can be customized with simple HTML editors and an easy graphics program. Templates can be edited without having to invest a lot of time and energy into learning how to write code for web pages.

Open Source Solution
If you are interested in Open Source software then you can go in for Oscommerce, the open source e-commerce solution provider. It is released under the GNU General Public License. They offer everything that you will require for launching and running a successful ecommerce based website. It handles the customer order, product catalog etc., by using administration tools that are easy to install and configure according to your business requirements. Your domain hosting should support PHP & SQL. That is the only requirement you will have to meet.

Paid ecommerce Solutions
You can alternatively opt for paid e-commerce solutions; Yahoo Store is one solution provider. You need to pay a reasonable amount of money to start with Yahoo store but the quality of service offered by Yahoo is great and it is worth the investment. They have ready-to-setup ecommerce solutions from designing the store, adding the products and setting up payment methods

Host Your Website
Once that is settled, you will need to ensure that your website content targets specific keywords. You can do this by writing articles, reviews about products, comparison of different products and a thorough description of the products. Do not repeat the same keywords too often. This makes the text hard to read. After your website has been designed, you must find a web hosting service to host the website on to their server. The web hosting company should also provide custom email accounts along with the domain name. Specific email addresses based on the domain name are very essential for a professional business website. Your website files can be easily uploaded with a simple FTP program. Normally the hosting company?s technical support personnel can help you to upload your files and launch your website.

Implement a Shopping Cart
Every ecommerce website must have a shopping cart. There are many options when looking for a shopping cart to choose from:

Merchant Services
For your online ecommerce business website you need to have a merchant account. This is a bank account will allow your business to accept credit card transactions; this of course will be conducted via a secure encrypted connection. In the event you do not have a merchant account, it is still possible to use the merchant service shopping cart account but this will cost you a bit more.

Hosted Shopping Cart
If your business has just a small turnover and does not have the funds to install your own ?fully integrated shopping cart?, then you can opt for the hosted shopping cart as this is an equally good option. The hosted shopping cart is comparable to the merchant services as they also offer you an administrative interface so that you can enter your own customized products, pricing and shipping options that you offer from your business.

Fully Integrated Shopping Carts
If you have a business that is ?booming? then you will be able to opt for the fully integrated shopping cart. The fully integrated shopping cart is a better option if your business is generating a considerable amount of income. The fully integrated shopping cart as the name states can be integrated to have the same style and look as your website. The fully integrated shopping cart will also include features that are not available in the other shopping carts; you will be able to offer discounts and a variety of other features. You will also be able to notify customers about availability of stock and the various shipping methods that are available for the customer to choose from. Furthermore the customer will be able to check all these without creating an account.

Many ecommerce businesses make the error of using PayPal to accept payments; this immediately shows customers that the business is small and un-professional. An acceptable substitute to PayPal is the ?remotely hosted shopping cart?. This type of shopping cart will take the trouble of maintaining the credit card numbers and transfer the task to another company. These shopping carts can be designed to integrate with your website. In reality, your customers will not notice they have left your website to complete an order. As your prospective customer clicks on the ?Buy Now? button, they are transferred to the ?remote shopping cart? to enter their personal details and complete the transaction.

Stock Your Inventory
As your website is now finally created, you need to check your catalog. The first job is finding the manufacturers; you can source this information by checking the websites of your competitor. Sometimes they may provide the name of the manufacturer with the product he provides. Alternatively you can look online or in the ?Yellow Pages? of your telephone directory. Once you have the name, you can search for the manufacturer online.

Get in touch with the manufacturer informing them that you are looking forward to being a distributor. Request them for a detailed price list, this price list should help you establish if the profits are sufficient for you to start selling these product.

You might want to ask the manufacturer the following questions:

? What is the MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) for the item?
? Am I required to sell the item at MSRP?
? What is your minimum order quantity/amount?

Promote Your Business

Now that you have your own personalized website up and running and you can start doing business. You can start promoting your business website. If people are unaware that you are open for business, it will not be possible for you to make any sales. Almost all website visits begin from a search engine. Before your website appears in a search engine you must list your website, they have to know that you are out there, ready for business. You will have to submit your ecommerce business website to search engines to be listed in their directories such as Google, Ask, Yahoo, AltaVista and other search engines.

Commencing your very own ecommerce business involves a lot of hard work. Causing it to be a thriving business is even harder work, but the rewards will be greatly satisfying. Due to the increase in technology and the expansion of the Internet, starting an ecommerce business is now accessible to everyone with a computer, a working capital to get started, spare time and simply the aspiration to construct a good ecommerce business.

Karl Walker
Freelance Web Content Writer
Mauritius

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Japan - Its A Wonderful Rife: Being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Or ...

The world is becoming more open, people and cultures are interacting and transforming at an amazing pace due to globalization. While it has become much easier to transfer money abroad? and to move around globally, still Japanese culture largely rejects any sort of diversity.?

Although Japan's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) youth do not have to deal with name-calling and physical violence for the most part, the do face ijime, (Japanese for bullying).

Targets of?ijime?usually deal with silent treatments, badmouthing and alienation because they are considered to be deviants or too different from the established norm.

Due to the communal nature of Japanese culture, most LGBT people in Japan end up leading double lives in which they marry members of the opposite sex to form so-called "normal" relationships while concealing their sexual orientation to avoid discrimination.

A lot of LGBT people tend to be isolated, and often do not meet like-minded individuals until well into their twenties. In most cases, they cannot be open about their sexual orientations in the work place as they risk being fired.

At the same time, there are no Japanese laws against homosexuality.

While Japan does not recognize same-sex partnerships, it does provide some protection for gay and transgender people. Transgendered people are legally allowed to change their sex, and transgendered people in prison can take separate baths.

Still, despite the negative stereotypes and lack of political acceptance, Japan has a blossoming gay scene that is thriving at the edges of mainstream Japanese society.

The Japanese LGBT scene is very visible in cities such as Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo, with the largest gay district in country situated in the Shinjuku Ni-chome district in Tokyo having the highest concentration of gay and lesbian bars in Japan.

Activism and gay pride parades in Tokyo

On April 29, 2012 around 2,500 people marched in Tokyo waving rainbow-colored flags and banners to draw attention to Tokyo Rainbow Pride's campaign for the rights of sexual minorities in Japan.

Amongst the gathered crowd and part of the movement, were people from the Japanese LGBT community, their supporters, sex workers and non-Japanese campaigners.

While this was Tokyo Rainbow Pride's first parade, the very first gay pride parade in Japan?the Tokyo Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade?was in 1994, and was organized by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) Japan. The Tokyo Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade, now known as the Tokyo Pride Parade, will host another gay pride march later this year.

Last month's Tokyo Rainbow Pride was actually split from the Tokyo Pride Parade in order to pursue a greater representation of the LGBT "rainbow" through a horizontal working space where everyone contributes equally.

Tokyo Pride is very involved in activism and is supported by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Labour, as well as Tokyo's government on issues regarding sexual health. The Tokyo Pride Parade is an extension to the work of Tokyo Pride activists and takes a more strict, top-to-bottom approach to work than the Tokyo Rainbow Pride.

Stuck in the closet

Although these parades aim to raise awareness of the issues that affect the LGBT community and draw large crowds of people, a lot of sexual minorities in Japan prefer to stay away from such open events. A large number of the Japanese LGBT people are in the closet and fear being exposed in public.

According to a recent survey of Japan's gay people aged between 18 and 31 years, 61% of them had revealed their sexual identities to someone else, usually friends as opposed to parents?but even then, mothers before fathers.

Most respondents claimed their relationships with friends and family suffered as a result of the revelation.

A large majority of those surveyed, said they received negative information about being gay with 56% blaming the media for negative propaganda.

Sadly, 36% of the respondents had, at one time or another, considered suicide because of their sexual orientation.

The media's continuous misrepresentation

There is a mass misunderstanding of LGBT people and most of this is blamed on the media which does not accurately represent LGBT people.

The Japanese media largely tends to mock sexual minorities, portraying them as abnormal and making them the targets of ignorant and offensive comments. The Japanese media mirrors the exclusion of LGBT people in the mainstream Japanese society.

On Japanese television, the gay television personalities, also known as?tarento, are regularly ridiculed. It is the same for transgendered people or cross-dressers. Japanese television tends to lump?tarento?that are not heterosexual or heteronormative (a set of lifestyle norms that hold that people fall into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with natural roles in life) under the same umbrella.

According to a recent television programme, gay men who act in a manner that is stereotypically female, male-to-female cross-dressers and transwomen are lumped under the "gay" category.

This fails to distinguish between the different experiences of LGBT people.

They are portrayed as men who are trying to be women, this ignores that there are cross-dressers who are heterosexual, and transwomen who are in relationships with other women.

LGBT in the public eye

?There are and have been Japanese politicians who are openly LGBT people.

Ishizaka Wataru and Ishikawa Taiga are both openly gay politicians from Japan's Social Democratic Party (SDP) where the leader of the party is a known campaigner for LGBT rights.

Ishizaka even participated in the Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade last month.

Other well-known politicians include Otsuji Kanako, a lesbian and former politician, and Kamikawa Aya who made history as the first transgendered person to be elected into public office in Japan. In 2003 she won a seat in the Setagaya local assembly in Tokyo and she was reelected in 2008.

Outside the sphere of politics, there are visible members of the LGBT community in a variety of fields. For example:

• Kitahara Minoro, the owner of the first sex shop that specifically targets women is queer business woman;
• Takeuchi Sachikoa is a lesbian comic book author, whose popular manga?(comic book) Honey x Honey?explores a lesbian relationship;
• Maeda Ken, a well-known comedian and?tarento;
• IKKO and Haruna Ai are both?tarento?and transgendered women.

Footnote:
All Japanese names are written surname first.
Blog owner Andrew Joseph's wife has a cousin - a gaijin - who is gay and living in Tokyo with his male Japanese partner. He has lived there for over 20 years, and is apparently estranged from his family here in Canada. He need not be.?

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Blind Chinese activist makes dramatic escape from house arrest

Chen Guangcheng is now sheltering in the US embassy.

Chen Guangcheng's blindness was a help and a hindrance as he made his way past the security cordon ringing his farmhouse.

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He knew the terrain ? he had explored his village in rural China as a blind child and moved as easily in darkness as in daylight. He was alert for the sounds of people, cars and the river he would have to cross.

But he stumbled scores of times, arriving bloody at a meeting point with a fellow dissident ? the first of an underground railroad of supporters who eventually escorted him to safety with U.S. diplomats.

RECOMMENDED: Six famous Chinese dissidents

A self-taught lawyer who angered authorities by exposing forced abortions, Chen is now presumed to be under U.S. protection, most likely in the fortress-like American Embassy in Beijing. Details of his improbable escape ? making his way last week through fields and forest, then being chased by security agents in Beijing ? are emerging in accounts from the activists who helped him.

Chen and his family had been harassed and kept under house arrest since the summer of 2005, except for a four-year period when Chen was jailed on charges of disrupting traffic and restrictions were eased on his wife and daughter. The couple's young son lives with his mother's sister.

After Chen's release in September 2010, the family was again placed under house arrest, their movements severely restricted, with even 6-year-old daughter Kesi subjected to searches when she came home from school. Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were beaten several times.

The 41-year-old activist hatched his escape plan months ago with a simple idea ? he would just lie still, said Bob Fu, founder of the Texas-based rights group ChinaAid and one of a handful of people to speak to Chen since he fled his village.

For weeks on end, Chen stayed in bed, saying he was too feeble to rise.

In fact, Chen wasn't well; his stomach was bothering him as it had for years. But he exaggerated his condition to lull the guards into a sense of complacency.

The ruse worked. The guards didn't look in on him constantly, assuming he was still bedridden, and when he escaped under cover of darkness, it took three days for them to notice.

"He did a darn good job. ... He prepared for months, at least two months," Fu said. "He didn't really move much, just laying in bed and making the impression that he couldn't move."

The night was cool with just a sliver of crescent moon in the sky on April 22 when Chen slipped out of his farmhouse in eastern China's Shandong province. Blinded by fever as a child, Chen grew up exploring the nearby cornfields and dirt paths sightless, so he had his bearings.

It wasn't the first time he had run away from Dongshigu village and his bitter, nearly decade-long feud with local officials.

In 2005, Chen, his wife and a friend made a dash out of the village, running through a cornfield to evade guards. He and his friend got all the way to Beijing, where they met with diplomats and journalists, but his wife was captured. Days later, Chen was seized by security guards on the streets of the capital and returned to house arrest.

On that brief escape he had been helped by his sighted friend; this time Chen was alone.

He followed a path to a field and from there took a road he knew would lead him to a narrow river. After crossing it, he entered a wooded area that gave way to less familiar territory, ground that continually tripped him up. He fell at least 200 times, he would tell his supporters.

He walked for hours, trying to put as much distance between himself and his heavily guarded home as possible before daring to slip a battery into his mobile phone and call He Peirong, a Nanjing-based English teacher-turned-activist who had promised to help. She was waiting with a car.

When she finally found him, Chen was wet, covered in mud and blood, and had numerous cuts and bruises.

"He was in very unbelievable shape when he was picked up," said Fu, citing a conversation with He. Chen "was trembling, was physically weak. ... But he was determined to escape from that miserable condition."

Fu said Chen took a few days to recuperate before making a video appeal.

Uploaded to YouTube and Boxun.com five days after Chen's escape, it showed the blind activist wearing a Nike windbreaker and his trademark black sunglasses, looking relaxed and sounding strong. In it, he pleaded with Premier Wen Jiabao to punish the local authorities who had subjected Chen and his family to 20 months of house arrest, repeatedly beating them.

It was apparently taped in Beijing after He drove Chen north and handed him off to another activist, who brought him to the capital.

He herself was detained Friday by police. Hours before, she told The Associated Press she had been in contact with Chen's relatives, who told her that when the local village chief discovered Chen was gone, "he was furious."

They beat Chen's wife, his brother and his adult nephew, she said.

In Beijing, Chen was mainly aided by Guo Yushan, founder of a think tank set up in 2007 in the capital's university district.

He also met with prominent activists Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, posing for smiling snapshots with the couple ? pictures they later posted to Twitter. They discussed Chen's plan, saying he wanted "justice and freedom," and insisted he had no intention of leaving China.

Zeng said he seemed thinner and his hair was grayer than she remembered it, but that he was full of conviction.

"He was very certain and very clear," Zeng said. "He wants justice for his case and his family and he doesn't want to go abroad, doesn't want exile."

Despite his desire to stay in China, Fu now says China and the U.S. are close to a deal that would see Chen and his family given asylum in the United States. It could be announced within days, he said Monday.

Several others besides Guo helped Chen in Beijing, but Zeng and Fu declined to name them for fear they would be rounded up by security agents.

He, the former schoolteacher, has not been heard from since her detention Friday; Guo was detained and released but did not respond to a request for an interview. Colleagues said it wasn't "convenient" for him to talk, suggesting he is under pressure from authorities to stay silent.

Zeng and her husband also were questioned, with Hu spending 24 hours in custody.

The only tidbit Fu dared to offer about Chen's experience in Beijing was that he was involved in a car chase by security officials while being driven by a fellow dissident. But the agents were after the driver and didn't even know Chen was in the car.

"If they had known Chen was there, they probably would have shut down all of Beijing's traffic," Fu said.

RECOMMENDED: Six famous Chinese dissidents

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Campus Rec brings home the title | CisternYard.com

The women's intramural basketball team champions. Top row left: Megan Federline, Sattin Young, Bronwen Phillips, Jessica Raymond, Abby Frye. Second row left: Lauren Arnott, Carly Good(Freddie Lipata/Campus Rec)

At roughly 9pm at night, when George St seems desolate and quite, the Johnson Center is just gearing up. Many College of Charleston students gather together to formulate teams to participate in their choice sport(s). Campus Recreation Services, also known as Campus Rec, offers a plethora of different sports for people to join in such as basketball, volleyball, soccer, kickball, etc.

Recently the College of Charleston intramural basketball teams competed in the Charleston Cup Basketball Tournament which consisted of numerous top intramural basketball teams from Charleston Southern University, The Citadel, and the College of Charleston. The victors of the basketball tournament were both from the CofC.

The members of the women?s championship team were: Abby Frye, Lauren Arnott, Carly Good, Megan Federline, Jessica Raymond, Sattin Young, Bronwen Phillips, Sonny McFarland. The men?s championship roster consisted of: Dylan Nadeau, Taylor Locklear, Zack Mills, Thai Phi, Wes Spears and Chris White.

The playoffs and the championship games were played in the Brewer Center at Charleston Southern University, but the build up to these championship games all this took place in the Johnson Center, where CofC students were competing with one another during the winter season.

The men gather around their trophy after winning the championship. Left: Taylor Locklear, Chris White, Dylan Nadeau, Wes Spears, Zach Mills.(Freddie Lipata/Campus Rec)

The hustle behind the intramural basketball league is obvious once entering the gym. The vitality to play basketball among friends and new acquaintances is palpable with the squeaking sound of gym shoes tracking the floor and the ring of voices calling to each other during the games. Spectators can even be heard cheering their friends on from the second deck of the gym as they watch the basketball games. With two basketball games in operation at once, it is quite obvious that CofC is nestled in a town of basketball enthusiasts.

During the Charleston Cup Basketball Tournament two CofC men?s teams ended up facing each other in the semi finals. However, with great sportsmanship in the program, there were no signs of hard feelings between the teams after having to compete against each other for the title.

Note these games are not prepared with playbooks and intense practices. Instead they are a gathering of people who like the game and are looking for a place to shoot hoops, be active, and take a reprieve from the school grind. Even members from the teams who played in the championships noted that they just gather with other students to shoot hoops without much prep behind any given game.

Campus Rec continues to be an outlet for anyone with a desire to hit the gym and meet some new faces in the process. With its welcoming atmosphere there is no doubt that Campus Rec will again hold great memories, such as bringing home winners from the Charleston Cup Basketball Tournament, for 2012-2013.

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Samsung Galaxy S III HSPA+ arriving in May, 4G version hitting North America this summer

Okay, okay, it's here -- but when can you actually get your hands on Samsung's Galaxy S III? Well, if you're in Europe, you're looking at a May 29th release for the HSPA+ version. Those of us in North America, Japan and Korea will have to wait a bit longer for speed -- the LTE version of the handset will be hitting those areas in the summer. Specifically, it'll be arriving in the US in June. In all, the phone will be hitting some 296 mobile operators in 145 countries, according to the company.

Samsung Galaxy S III HSPA+ arriving in May, 4G version hitting North America this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 May 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spotify for iPad launches: impressions and a visual tour of the new app

It's here. After all the rumors, leaks and false alarms, Sweden's top music streaming service is finally ready for the big(ger) screen. Spotify has landed on the iPad, and not surprisingly, the new app is a no-brainer of a download for anyone currently in possession of a premium account and an Apple tablet, -- that much we can say right off the bat. But how well did the company harness the capabilities of the magical device, and is the whole thing worth the wait? We got some fingers-on with the app -- follow along after the break.

Continue reading Spotify for iPad launches: impressions and a visual tour of the new app

Spotify for iPad launches: impressions and a visual tour of the new app originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Space Shuttle Enterprise flyover wows New Yorkers (+video)

Perched atop a modified 747 jumbo jet, the Space Shuttle Enterprise greeted the Big Apple by zooming past the Statue of Liberty and flying along the Hudson River.

Hundreds of space shuttle fans braved the chilly temperatures and biting wind Friday morning (April 27) along the Hudson River here to catch a glimpse of NASA's prototype orbiter as it flew past the museum it will soon call home.

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Enterprise, the agency's original test shuttle,?flew to New York today?from Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., atop a modified Boeing 747 jet. Before landing at New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, the piggybacking duo flew over the Statue of Liberty, then followed the Hudson River past the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, where it will soon be placed on public display.

The shuttle flyover attracted fans of all ages, who gathered around the Intrepid museum and Pier 86 on Manhattan's west side to witness the historic event.

"How often do you get to see something like this ? a shuttle on piggyback coming down the Hudson River?" said Kenneth Irvin, who came with his wife, Ceil, from Long Island. [Photos: Final Voyage of Space Shuttle Enterprise]

As?Enterprise?and its chaperone flew overhead, the crowd, which was made up of men, women and children of all ages, erupted into cheers and applause.

"It was absolutely amazing to see it like that," Adam Schechter said shortly after Enterprise's first pass. Schechter carried his young son, Harry, and spoke energetically about his experiences with the space shuttles, including seeing the STS-97 launch of the shuttle Endeavour in November 2000.

"It was amazing, and the loudest thing I ever heard in my life," Schechter told SPACE.com.

He also recounted a visit he and his son took to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., where Enterprise had previously been on display since 2003.

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Kourtney Kardashian: (Not) Marrying in Mexico!

On the same day that Khloe Kardashian dismissed rumors that she may get divorced, and chatter spread that Kim Kardashian might wed Kanye West, a new tabloid story says Kourtney Kardashian is about to tie the knot with Scott Disick,

In Mexico. At friend Joe Francis' estate.

“They signed a $1 million deal with E! to get married on TV,” an insider tells In Touch Weekly, adding that Kourtney and Scott will soon get engaged “in an orchestrated, well-publicized manner."

The only problem with this report? Kourtney's rep says it isn't true.

Then again, isn't that exactly what Kourtney's rep would say if the engagement were meant to be a surprise?!?

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