To increase sales on your website, you must accept credit cards.
To process credit cards, you could apply for a merchant account
through your bank or other financial institution.
Sometimes, though, you would be further ahead to use the
services of a credit card processor. This is especially true
when you are first starting out and have more limited resources.
In this way, you may process credit card transactions without
the high front-end costs and requirements of a merchant account.
Here, then, are just a few ways of accepting credit cards
without a merchant account. I personally use all of these
vendors and can recommend them wholeheartedly.
1. Clickbank
If your product is downloadable (such as electronic books or
software), you might consider ClickBank.com . For a $49.95
initial fee, you can process credit cards and on-line cheques
for $1.00 per transaction plus 7.5% of sales.
You receive additional exposure through free listing on their
website and through the search facilities of other websites,
such as CBMall.com.
As an added bonus, you have your own built-in affiliate program.
You decide what commission (from 1% to 75%) you would like to
pay your affiliates.
2. PayPal
PayPal.com has no initial fees. For just 2.9% of sales and $ .30
per transaction (and sometimes less), you can receive money from
anyone.
Also, you can pay others by credit card or chequing account
without supplying your personal credit information to the payee.
PayPal can be used to collect money from your auctions, website
sales, or even from friends or clients.
3. PaySystems
In the original edition of this article, I recommended
PaySystems.com (also known as MyPaySystems.com). This is what I
wrote about them:
"PaySystems.com can handle either intangible (downloadable) or
tangible (shippable) products. For an initial fee of $49.00, you
can accept all major credit cards as well as online checks. Fees
are just 3.95% of sales and $1.00 per transaction.
Alternatively, you may pay 5.5% of sales and $ .35 per
transaction."
"For this, you receive shopping cart, integration with
third-party affiliate programs (such as ClixGalore.com), fraud
screening, multi-currency transactions, toll-free support,
marketing tools, and more."
Unfortunately, PaySystems.com has discontinued their "Internet
Billing Account" for those outside the United States.
4. 2CheckOut
2CheckOut.com can handle both intangible and tangible products.
For an initial fee of $49.00, you can accept all major credit
cards as well as online checks. Fees are just 5.5% of sales and
$0.45 per transaction.
For this, you receive shopping cart, fraud detection,
integration with third-party affiliate programs, multi-currency
transactions, free on-line support, and more.
Incidentally, 2CheckOut.com has the same policy as ClickBank.com
does with regard to sales taxes. Both companies take the
position that you are selling your product to them and that they
resell it to the final consumer. Thus, they claim that you are
not subject to sales taxes on those sales.
About the author:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been
helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over
twenty-five years. To learn more about accepting credit cards
and other profitable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/creditcards.html
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