Accepting Payment Through Your Website Teacher: Shelley Lowery If you're doing business on the Internet, accepting payment through your website is an absolute must. If you're not processing orders online, you're losing a great deal of money in lost sales. Studies have shown, you can increase your online sales by up to 400% simply by accepting credit cards. With today's technology, processing your customer orders online can be as simple as pasting a code within your web page HTML. Preparing your website to process orders online isn't as difficult as you may think. There are basically two options. The first option is to set up a merchant account. This entails either making arrangements with your bank or using an online company. The second option is to use a third party credit card processor. This option requires no merchant account and usually entails setting up a form or placing a link on your order page. Merchant Accounts If you'd like to set up a merchant account, keep in mind, you will also need a shopping cart system and access to a secure server. Many web hosts will provide you with both. If yours doesn't, this professional web host does: http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=805 The following websites can provide you with a merchant account: Total Merchant Services (TMS) http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=2332 This outstanding company comes highly recommended by Corey Rudl -- author of the #1 selling online marketing course, "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet." The TMS Merchant account, for Internet transactions, will enable you to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. They offer two merchant processing software packages to choose from. The first package is the TotalPay powered by Authorize.Net™ Virtual Terminal. This package will enable you to authorize, process, and manage credit card transactions from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser. This package ordinarily runs $995, but for a limited time is being offered for only $287. The second package is the TotalPay powered by Authorize.Net™ Virtual Terminal that includes the Total Merchant Manager Shopping Cart. This package includes everything the first package includes, plus all of the following: - Customizable Shopping Cart System - UPS Shipping Module - Links to Virtual Terminal - Free Initial Installation Their discount rate is 2.4% and $0.35 per transaction fee. Monthly fees include a $10 monthly statement fee and a $10 gateway fee that includes secure, online, real-time credit card and e-cheque processing and only applies to merchants processing transactions through their Internet payment gateway. NRWW Commerce http://nrww.com/merchant_account.shtml This powerful Internet-based software provides secure, real-time transaction credit card processing. The Virtual Terminal feature enables merchants to authorize, process, and manage credit card transactions from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser. This software package runs $179.95. Their discount rate is 2.25% and $0.30 per transaction fee. Monthly fees include a $5 monthly statement fee and a $15 secure gateway fee. Third Party Credit Card Processors If you'd rather not have your own merchant account, third party credit card processors will process your credit card orders for you. There are usually no monthly fees. They charge a "per transaction" fee and send you payment for all of your orders processed, minus their fee and a reserve fee. A reserve fee is withheld to cover and charge backs you may have. If you have no charge backs within a period of time, your reserve will be refunded to you. Each company has their own guidelines in regard to reserves. The following websites will process credit card orders for you: CCNow http://www.ccnow.com This outstanding company will enable you to accept all major credit cards online without a merchant account. There are no set up or monthly fees of any kind. They charge a 9% per transaction fee. In addition, their services are available for non-US merchants. CCNow is intended to be used for tangible merchandise only. This means that you must have a physical product that is shipped to the customer's physical address. If your product is electronic, you may want to consider using one of the following companies to process your orders. ClickBank http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=196 ClickBank is another outstanding company that will enable you to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Eurocard, Visa-Debit, MasterCard-Debit and Novus cards. No merchant account is required. They charge a one-time $49.95 activation fee, and a $1 + 7.5% fee per sale. There are no monthly fees. The great thing about this company is that over 60,000 affiliates can choose to sell your products for you. ClickBank enables any web seller to automatically pay sales commissions to affiliates. Clickbank will bill your customers, pay you, and pay your affiliates a commission. In other words, they'll run your entire affiliate program for you. In addition, their services are available for non-US merchants. ClickBank is intended to be used for electronic merchandise only. If you ship a physical product, you may want to consider using CCNow to process your orders. iBill http://www.ibill.com iBill will enable you to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, online checks or telephone billing (900 number). There are no setup fees. However, you must maintain a minimum sales volume of $25 per month or the difference will be charged to your credit card. They charge 12% - 15% per transaction fee for credit card and check purchases and 20% - 30% per transaction fee for phone purchases. Non-US merchants are welcome. If you're just starting out, you may want to use one of the third party credit card processors, as this is the easiest route for new Internet businesses. Each company provides you with step by step instructions to assist you in getting your website set up to accept credit cards. The great thing about third party credit card processors is that they handle everything for you. You don't have to hassle with processing your credit card payments or charge backs, as all of this is taken care of for you. If you're serious about your online success, you must have the ability to process your orders online. With today's technology, even the smallest homebased business can now accept credit credits almost instantly. Visit one of the websites mentioned above and get your website set up today. Your success depends upon it. About the teacher: Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter. A complete ebook design kit including over fifty predesigned ebook templates and ebook covers. http://www.web-source.net/ebookstarter.htm Shelley invites you to partner with her in her Ebook Starter affiliate program. Visit: http://www.web-source.net