Accepting Payment Through Your Website

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 Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter. A complete

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