It is essential that you accept
credit cards through a secure server on your site. Around 90% of website
sales are made through credit cards. If you don't accept them, you are
missing out on 90% of your customers.
There are a few ways you can do
it. The easiest method is to go through third party payment processors.
3rd Party Payment Processors
With a third party processor, you
do not need to handle any of the payments. It is all done by a 3rd party
company. You pay only when you make sales. The advantage of this is that
it very quick to set up and has very low set-up costs. Also some
businesses might find it difficult to set up a merchant account, so this
give everyone a chance to accept payments even if they are not able to
set up their own account.
Clickbank - this is a good option for software
and information products. (They do not handle payments for physical
goods). The advantage of using clickbank is th
at they have an army of affiliates
that can sell you information product for you. Clickbank can handle your
affiliate program for you. So although you are paying higher fees for
the merchant processing, you need to recognize that they are also
helping to sell your product, recruit affiliates etc.
PayPal
- This is brobably the option with the least
expense for you, the merchant. To accept payments with PayPal costs only
2.2% plus 30cents per sale.
Setting up your own merchant
account
This is more difficult than using
a 3rd Party Processor, but it probably a better option if you are
accepting a large number of payments. For more information on this go
to:
www.nomerchantacct.com