Merchant Accounts and Shopping Systems
Congratulations! You created an impulse in a customer to buy your product, but there's one small catch--without some way to process their credit card information, your sale is gone.
One of the best ways to capture and use customer credit card information is with a merchant account (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) that is tied to your electronic shopping system. It used to be hard to get such a merchant account but no longer. It seems like every company out there is ready to give (well, not give but sell) you a merchant account, but beware.
You will run into all kinds of deals from people trying to lease you credit card swiping equipment, too. But unless you do a ton of face-to-face business, you will never see a real credit card and that credit card swiping machine will serve you better as a doorstop. I can safely say that nearly all of my sales are done via the Internet or telephone. Every once in a while, I'll get the odd fax order, but far and wide I have no use for a physical swiping machine. Even when I do sell products at the back of the room during my speaking engagements, I just fill out a form by hand to used later, and when possible, I bring my portable computer and capture customer information electronically to be used online later. And these days it seems I am finding more and more places have wireless networks to use so I can enter all the customer, account, and order information on the spot and submit the whole transaction online instantly. It's as if the customer was logging into my shopping cart system from somewhere else.
When shopping for a merchant account, it is important to get firm numbers on up-front fees, monthly fees, credit card percentages, and costs per transaction, so be sure to get the merchant's definition for a "transaction," such as whether obtaining authorization only constitutes a transaction or whether processing a return does. All of these fees can add up, but still will seem like mere pennies when the orders start flowing in.
Another piece of advice to heed--don't try to save a few bucks by signing up for a merchant account, even if it is free, before you choose a shopping system. The shopping system is much more important. Make sure that any merchant account you consider works well with you shopping system.
One final bit of information is that you must sign up directly with American Express to take their credit cards. You can do this online at http://www.americanexpress.com/homepage/mechant.shtml.
For more information on shopping systems and merchant accounts, go to ECommerce with Shopping Carts
About The Author:
Tom Antion is a success story in Internet marketing. He can show you how he makes a fortune promoting products and services online. For more information and a list of great resources, go to Internet Marketing Solutions.
A Compelling And No-Brainer Way To Start Your Sales Letter
Listen to this.
"John Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman, a resident
of Hawaii. Chapman purchased the gun he used to kill
Lennon on Young Street in Honolulu, exactly six weeks before
he shot Lennon in cold blood, right in front of Lennon's
apartment building, The Dakota, on New York City's Central
Park West."
"Americans have been shattering sports records because
athletes are bigger, stronger, faster, and in much better
physical condition than ever before."
"Did you know that chocolate contains phenyl-ethyl-amine
(PEA), a natural substance that stimulates the same
physiological reactions in the body that falling in love
does?"
Interesting, no?
Sometimes, the best way to open up your sales letter is with
a curiosity-provoking eye-opening statement or fact that's
going to intrigue and engage your prospects.
Then, you continue taking them down that greased slide with
more compelling (but emotional) facts until they're so engaged
with what you're saying... that by the time they've finished
reading, they're like putty in your hands.
And then...
The sale is yours!
Now go sell something,
Craig Garber
http://www.KingOfCopy.com
P.S. Check out all the prior archives you've been
missing, right here at:
http://www.kingofcopy.com/tips/tiparchives.html
About The Author:
Craig Garber is America's Top Direct-Response Copywriter. Uncover hundreds of FREE direct-response copywriting and marketing tips that dramatically boost your sales and lift the response of your marketing, on his website: http://www.kingofcopy.com
The deadliest killer of an internet business and how to tackle it
Copyright 2005 Robert Evans
There's a killer on the loose and it might just be heading to YOUR internet business.
Believe me, this is not a hoax. It's real, and extremely deadly.
Even as I write this, it may already be moving in your direction. Already it has destroyed thousands of internet businesses, many of them even before they have had a chance to get going.
It's a dream shatterer.
I have been targeted many times myself, but somehow I have always managed to thwart it, otherwise you would not be reading this now and none of my web sites would exist. I would not have created any products and would not have been able to help the hundreds of people who have asked my advice over the years. In short, I would be out of business.
To my knowledge there is only ONE thing that can stop this killer dead in it's tracks.
Do you know what this deadly assassin is?
It's INERTIA. Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus?book=Thesaurus&va=inertia) definition: an inclination not to do work or engage in activities
Could also be described as laziness.
Yes, this is the biggest threat to your internet business.
And the one thing that can cure it is ACTION.
If you do nothing, day after day, to get your business off the ground, or to move it forward to the next level, then you might as well not bother.
We all have setbacks. We all come across new material, new ways of doing things almost on a daily basis. The key is to not give up at the first hurdle.
I've even come across people who think they can achieve nothing simply because they can't copy and paste. For every piece of advice, or instruction that you give many of these people, the reply almost always begins with: "But I can't..."
No wonder they don't get anywhere and just chase their tails all over the internet looking for "get-rich-quick-without-doing-anything" schemes.
And if you don't know how to do something but you know it can be done, and you want to be able to do it yourself, then simply learn how to do it and then get on and do it.
Being successful is all down to the application of knowledge. Sure, other factors do play a role, such as timing and luck, but mostly your success will be down to getting something done.
When I bought my first computer I had absolutely no idea how it worked. I could switch it on and that was about it.
When I first got on the internet I had no idea what I was doing. I could search for something on Google and that was about it.
I can now fix many computer problems
I can now build web sites, work with CGI and PHP scripts, do copy writing, create ebooks and many other things
I can do these things because I experimented, I did research and I studied how others were doing them. Why? Because I wanted my internet business to evolve and be successful.
The deadliest threat to the achievement of your personal dreams stems from you. It manifests itself as inertia.
The solution to this threat also stems from you. It manifests itself as action.
Take action immediately to help eradicate this threat. Make sure you do something every day to move your business forward. And you will find yourself taking great leaps toward your ultimate goal.
------
Bob Evans has been doing business online since 2000. He strongly believes that if you don't apply yourself and get things done then you will never be successful. His marketing action plan is very easy to apply, develop and adapt to almost any internet business. http://www.market4profit.net/marketing-action-plan.php
