How To Take Payments On Your Website

After my two-part article about selling things on your website,I had several people ask for more details on billing companies andshopping carts. So here goes.

If you were to Google for billingcard companies, you'd find out that there are thousands of places outthere. Most of these companies have set up a merchant account for theirown companies, but added the right to accept payments for othercompanies. So any person with a merchant account, who pays the extrafees to accept other company's payments, can sell their servicesonline.

As with anything else, online or offline, be sure youknow who you are doing business with. Be advised that I have only dealtwith CCNow and PayPal. The other companies I talk about I have not usedmyself, but they are popular on the Internet. Still check them out wellto be sure they offer the services you need.

Of course, youcould always set up your own merchant account, but unless you are doinga lot of sales, I wouldn't suggest going this route. When you set up amerchant account you have to pay a set-up fee, annual fee and a fee pertransaction. They will also charge a fee if you want a credit cardmachine. You have to sell a lot of items that are making you a lot ofmoney, to make this profitable. A company may also require you to signup with Verisign to ensure your site's security. If you live in an areawith a Sam's Club, I would suggest checking them out. They have thelowest fees of any merchant account company that I have been able tofind. Costco also has good prices.

When you are looking for a billing company, you need to check out several things.
·Do they take credit cards?
·Which credit cards do they take?
·Do they take checks?
·Will they accept payments from people in other countries?
·Do they charge a set-up fee?
·What do they charge per transaction?
·Do they charge a monthly or annual fee?
·Do they require that you sell a minimum amount each month?
·If you don't sell the minimum amount they require, what fee will they charge you?

Once you know what a billing company needs to do for you, check out these companies.
·CCBillCcbill.com - Among other things, they offer E-tickets. Thislets members subscribe to your pay site by issuing usernames andpasswords after subscribers pay their fee.
·CCNow.comCcnow.com - Easy to use, they do charge a fee of 9% on thetransaction, but you can only sell products, not services. They alsohave a shopping cart you can use.
·DebitPayment.comDebitpayments.com - This company specializesin helping you with international purchases.
·Ibill.com Ibill.com - They have some limitations on what you can charge a client.
·Itransact,Inc. http://www.itransact.com/ - They offer check processing for yoursite. If you have a merchant account, you can use it through them too.
·Instabill Instabill.com - To use their service you have to pay a set-up fee and pay an annual fee.
·Merchant workz.com Merchantworkz.com - They offer merchant accounts and credit card processing.
Pay Pal

·PayPal.com PayPal.com - Very inexpensive and easy to use.
·StormPay Stormpay.com - They let people make payments via e-mail.

Besidesa billing company you may also need to consider getting a shopping cartfor your site. If you are selling only one item on your site, you won'tneed a shopping cart. But if you're like me, and selling several items,then you will want a shopping cart. Without a shopping cart, a personcan only buy one item at a time. They would have to complete the entiretransaction for one item. Then go back to your site and start all overagain for the next item. It makes it very difficult, which means thatyou will lose a lot of sales. With a shopping cart, people can selectas many items as they want and the shopping cart will keep track ofeverything. Then when they're ready to pay for all the items, it's justone simple transaction. Keeping things as simple as possible for theclient is one of the keys to success on the Internet.

Here are some companies offering shopping carts.
·1Shopping Cart.com Lshoppingcart.com - They charge a monthly fee.
·CCNow - See their listing under Billing Companies.
·Miva Miva.com - This is a very powerful shopping cart.
·PayPal - See their listing under Billing Companies.
·Yahoowww.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant - They offer 3 different packages,charge a monthly fee and take a percentage of each sale. They will alsodrop ship your orders, so you never have to ship anything, Yahoo doesit all.

The above companies have the cart on their site and yousend people to them during the buying process. You can also downloadshopping cart software onto your server for your visitors to use. Besure to check with your hosting company to be sure the software youwant to download will work on their server. The following link listsfree shopping cart software. However, know that you often get what youpay for, and that technical support may be poor or nonexistent withthis free software. So check out Online OrdersOnlineorders.net . They have a section on theirsite that, as of this writing, lists thirty-nine free shopping carts.

Manybilling companies also offer a shopping cart, usually for free. Forexample, I use PayPal on my site and they have a free shopping cartthat works in conjunction with their billing service. The purchaseprocess is easy and I can even change the look of their shopping cartto be similar to my site.

Some website hosting companies alsooffer billing services and shopping carts. You may want to go thisroute so that everything for your website is done through one company.However, if your hosting company doesn't do a very good job hostingyour site, I don't think you'd want to trust them with your billing andshopping cart service.

Here are a couple of website hosting companies that offer shopping carts and more.
West Host

·ValueWeb Valueweb.com - They offer shopping cart and credit card processing.
·WesthostWesthost.com - They have the Miva Merchant storefront andshopping cart software and Payquake for payment processing.

Aswith most things on the Internet, you have a lot of choices. To make achoice that's right for you, know what you want and consider the pointsI've mentioned above. When you have a billing and shopping cart companythat meets your needs, and your client's needs, it will make everyone'slife easier and make you more money.

How To Take Payments On Your Website
After my two-part article about selling things on your website, I had several people ask for more details on billing companies and shopping carts. So here goes.
10 Amazing Product Selling Formulas
1. Sell your products at a wholesale price to retail web sites. You could sell them individually or in bulk.
2. Set up joint ventures with other businesses to sell your product to new customers. They can introduce it to their custo......
What To Ask Your Web Designer
If you need a web designer, but have no clue about the typical web design process, I am quite certain that you must be feeling a bit overwhelmed about what to expect. As web designers, we oftentimes have a myriad of roles to fill when working with their clients...
Six Ways to Combat Online Fraud
Credit card fraud. Its one of the biggest problems that eBusinesses face. The most effective means of deterring online credit card fraud are:
Amazon Secret Weapon No. 1376: the race for recognition
Amazon.com drives high-quality reviews by rewarding reviewers - not with cash but with recognition, respect and goodwill. Yet again, the online book powerhouse leads the industry. By David Walker Some days it s...
Ten Reasons Why People Don't Buy From You
Heres ten simple yet POWERFUL ideas for you to reflect on. This will help you adjust your marketing strategies... which will have a GREAT effect on everything you sell!
Web Hosting: How to Make the Right Choice
There are several important steps to consider when choosing a web hosting company. It is important to carefully choose a company that is able to offer all the features required by a Webmaster.
5 Keys On Hosting Your Website
Anybody who wants to put a website on the internet must decide where and how the site will be hosted.The key to deciding what you need in a hosting provider is to understand the nature of the website you are planning to put on the internet.
5 Tips on Hosting Your Website
Anybody who wants to put a website on the Internet must decide where and how the site will be hosted. The key to deciding what you need in a hosting provider is to understand the nature of the website you are planning to put on the Internet.
5 Ways to Automate your Site
Your site is taking too much of your time? Automate it! This tutorial will be your ?how to?.