Accepting Payment Through Your Website

By Author: Shelley Lowery
Total Articles: 19
Comment this article

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 up to 400% simply by accepting credit
cards. With today's advanced technology, processing 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.

Don't let this process intimidate you, as it is much easier
than you may think. There are many professional companies on
the Internet that will assist you.

Merchant Accounts

...
... f you decide to get your own merchant account, you will
also need access to a secure server and a shopping cart
system. A secure server will protect your customers'
information. A shopping cart system will provide your
customer with a running total of what they've ordered and
the total cost.

The following website can provide you with a merchant
account:

Total Merchant Services (TMS)
http://www.marketingtips.com/creditcards/index.html

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.Netâ„¢ Virtual Terminal. This package
will enable you to authorize, process, and manage credit
card transactions from any computer with a Internet
connection and a Web browser. This package ordinarily runs
$995, but for a limited time is being offered for only $397.
The second package is the TotalPay powered by Authorize.Netâ„¢
Virtual Terminal that includes the Total Merchant Manager
Shopping Cart. This package includes everything the first
package includes, and more:

- 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.

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
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 cards for you:

iBill (Highly Recommended)
http://www.ibill.com

This outstanding company is a complete ecommerce solution
that will enable you to process transactions through your
website via credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express,
Discover, and JCB), online checks, or through their
telephone billing service (900 toll phone number). There are
no setup fees. 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.

PayPal (Highly Recommended)
https://www.paypal.com

Another outstanding company that enables any business or
consumer with an email address to securely, conveniently,
and cost-effectively send and receive payments online. You
can sell with PayPal through an online auction, on your own
website, or as part of an online marketplace. There are no
setup fees. They charge 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.

ClickBank (Highly Recommended)
http://www.clickbank.com

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. They 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 iBill to process your orders.

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. 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 everything is taken care
of for you.

In order to be successful on the Internet, you must accept
credit cards. In addition, you must make the ordering
process as simple as possible. 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 on it.
About the Author Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of
quality information to assist you in Web Design, Internet
Marketing & Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free
copy of the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet
Marketing Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1