PayPal Powered
Three years ago I was doing some work for a local university helping to redesign an internal website they wanted updated and made more user friendly. When the job was done the person I was doing the job for wanted to use his school issued credit card to pay for my services. At that time I could not take credit cards because I didn't have a merchant account that is needed in order to accept credit cards. So I had to wait for a check to be issued by their finance department. This process took almost 3 weeks to get approved and then another 2 months to finally get mailed out to me. While I was waiting I searched the Internet like I always do for an answer to my problem, and happened to find the answer to my prayers. It was PayPal.com, a company out of San Francisco, California that allows you to accept credit cards even if you don't have a merchant account. It does this by sending an email to the person that wants to pay you for your goods or services and lets them complete the transaction by using their bank account or credit card. The money is then electronically transferred to your PayPal.com account, where you can either use your PayPal.com debit card to withdraw the money or just deposit it into your own bank account. Unfortunately it was too late for me to use this wonderful service for the university job but I soon used it religiously for every credit card payment made to my business. It became such a great tool for me to use that I became a premium member, which gave me a higher security status and allowed me to accept and transfer higher amounts of money as opposed to the $500.00 minimum. So what are some PayPal.com's drawbacks you may ask? Well for one there is no fee to become a member of PayPal.com but in order for you to activate your account you have to give PayPal.com the ability to access either your credit card or your bank account. This is done more for verification purposes but can be an inconvenience if you are in a hurry to accept credit cards right away. There are also transaction fees that are incurred every time you use their service to accept credit cards. The fees range from 2.9% + $0.30
per transaction for an account that receives up to $3000.00 per month to 1.9% + $0.30 for accounts that receives up to $100,000.01+ per month. Once your account is verified via your email, credit card and/or bank account you are ready to go. This is far less than the steps involved in obtaining and maintaining a credit card merchant account where you have to pay for a setup fee and transaction fees. You also have monthly maintenance and gateway fees. To obtain a merchant account it can sometimes take days and even weeks to get up and running. With Paypal.com you can literally be receiving money in minutes. PayPal.com became so popular among the auction sites it is by far the preferred form of payment accepted. This caught the attention of the largest auction site on the Internet and on July 8, 2002, Ebay.com decided if you can't beat them with your own money payment service, you might as well join them by buying them out. Since then PayPal.com has expanded into e-shops and customized shopping carts for its over 70 million members. I am very excited about the many customers who have come to prefer paying me with their credit card. Now I don't have to wait almost 2 months for a paper check to arrive. I can get paid today and have the money in my account in an instant using the power of PayPal.com Jeffrey Alexander Brathwaite, aka "JB" is a Internet Technology Coach, Speaker and Trainer. JB prides himself on helping small to medium size businesses who are frustrated with dealing with the Internet. If you are having problems trying to deal with Email marketing, Search Engine marketing or just getting your own website off the ground. Please go to our website http://www.2thenextlevel.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Effective Management Of Your Customer Services
With a third party merchant account you will have a dedicated 24/7 support team to handle your credit card payment on your behalf as part of your package.
You will also need to provide your own support for issues relating directly to your product.
Intranet Portals ? Personalisation and Customisation
The key difference between an (old-fashioned) Intranet and a Portal
Your Site is all Direct Marketing
This may not be a popular view, but I think writing a web site is very similar to writing a piece of direct mail. I'm not talking about smash-and-grab fliers. I'm talking about those large mailings with brochures, a four or eight-page letter and a reply card.
Outsourcing Your Ecommerce Order Fulfillment
When your eCommerce business grows to the point where you can no longer package and ship the orders yourself, it's time to begin outsourcing your order fulfillment. Although all order fulfillment centers offer the same basic services, their individual methods and costs will help you choose one over the other. When selecting an order fulfillment service, keep the following in mind:
Stakeholder Analysis and Stakeholder Management
What is a Stakeholder?
How To Accept Credit Cards Online
Anyone with an online business, whether for auctions,
services, or virtually any type of product, has asked the
same question at some time during their quest to create
the ultimate online business - "How do I accept credit
cards?"
Online Shopping: Legal Challenges for Taxing Authorities
E-commerce offers customers the chance to eliminate many stages in the sales/distribution chain. The mark-ups that occur between manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers and consumers can add the cost of goods purchased by consumers. In contrast, when consumers deal directly with manufacturers on the internet, the process whereby intermediaries between the manufacturer and the final consumer are eliminated from the supply chain is known as "disintermediation".
Selling Globally Through a B2B Exchange
Participation in B2B Exchanges is increasingly becoming one of
the fastest growing marketing methods for businesses looking for
augmenting their client base beyond their local markets. Any
good B2B Exchange offers direct contact with thousands of
prospective buyers in a single location. For some new
participants of a B2B Exchange, it appears to be a goldmine as
they discover unexpected quantity of readymade clients without
much effort from their side. Of course, there are many other
great benefits companies can reap from getting involved in a
B2B Exchange.
Dont give up on your business!
Summer must be when many work at home Mom start to think that their business is a flop and begin to look for a new opportunity. This is fine if your business is truly a flop - but chances are, you just need to take a look at it from a fresh perspective.
Evaluating Vendors of Ecommerce Fulfillment Services
Once your website has secured an order, you have to fulfill it. While the fulfillment of digital goods is usually handled online, the delivery of physical goods is handled in a "brick-and-mortar" world.
Choosing An Internet Merchant Account
Surf to Google and perform a search on "Internet Merchant Account". The results are staggering (472,000 results!) If you have created a web based business and need to accept credit card payments, your choices are limitless. Before you partner with a provider, take time to understand the different components of internet credit card processing, and know what to look for in a merchant provider.
Products for a Successful Web Business
There are F words in business. We have seen many small businesses on the internet flourish and fulfil their dream, but sadly we have seen some flounder and fail because they had the wrong product.
12 Powerful Ways To Use Autoresponders That Will Take YOU To The Top
If only I had known that autoresponders are a necessity
to your online business when I first ventured online, I
would have saved a lot of time and money. You have to
automate in as many areas as possible and if used
responsibly, autoresponders can be your best friend.
The Five Steps of E-Commerce
You set up a retail business, you advertise in your local newspaper, you get customers coming into your store, and you receive payment at the cash register. Create an online store, and...how do you get customers? How do you receive payment?
Make That 3 Billion
My previous article I wrote called "One Point Two Billion"
attracted quite some attention, the downloads through all
the article syndication services has been astronomical
compared to any other articles I wrote which are still with
them.
It seems the numbers game is popular not only with the
accountancy profession, but with just about anyone running
a website who is interested in more sales from anywhere in
the world.
The internet has proved to be the great leveller, even a
grandmother I know has made hundreds of thousands of dollars
just from publishing a couple of e-books, business of that
magnitude is not now confined to those people with large
sums of investment capital, teams of accountants, planners,
secretaries, swanky offices etc. Anyone, even you, can make
money regularly on the internet, just aim for a goal and
'go for it!'
The costs of setting up have never been lower, the ease of
making web pages has never been easier, ( I make my web
pages in Notepad, which is on every Windows computer), and
the potential audience for your web pages has never been
larger. So what are you waiting for?
The sheer mountain of information available through e-books
on any subject and especially on setting up a business on
the internet would take you a lifetime to read through, so
just be selective and read only what you need to know about
and get started in that business. Businesspeople who have
'been there-done that', have written up an enormous amount
of e-books to pass on their knowledge and experience,
pitfalls to avoid, how to spend your advertising dollars,
and just about everything else you need to know about to
ensure success. So profit from their experience, avoid the
pitfalls, do what they say you should do, and you should be
in a profitable business in no time, just the way they did it.
No large sums of investment are needed, just time and
dedication.
If you provide an excellent service that benefits all your
clients, they will recommend you to their friends,if on the
other hand you want to be a 'scammer' and a 'fly by night'
operator determined to 'rip-off' as many people as possible,
you will come to grief. You will find your web hosting
account rapidly terminated, your e-mail account likewise, and
your name plastered all over the forums and newsgroups.
You get out of life exactly what you put in.
There are still mysteries about life we still don't understand
and this is the reason we come to grief, but on the other hand,
if you work for the benefit of others, this 'mystery of life',
for want of a better name,cuts in and helps us along, we go
with the flow and good things start to happen.
I could tell you of many experiences I have had, both good and
bad, which I have learnt a great deal from, but space precludes
that, maybe one day.
All right, you win, I will tell you of one particular incident
more recently and then move on with this article.
I carried a St.Christopher medallion on a gold chain in my wallet
for six years, given to me by the wife of a good friend overseas,
'it will keep you safe' she said. I received a new wallet for a
Christmas present and changed everything in the old wallet into the
new one, except the St. Christopher medallion, it was looking a
bit 'worse for wear' and I decided to put it in the cupboard.
That day I lost my mobile phone!
For two whole days I felt a loss which can only be described as
a 'bereavement'. I had lost touch with the network I was attached
to night and day, seven days a week, I felt bereft. I did not know
if someone was trying to ring me, whether something was urgent I
had to know about, my sense of loss was total.
Was this to do with the St. Christopher medallion? I thought surely not.
That was on the Tuesday, by Thursday morning I had decided to put
that 'good luck' St. Christopher medallion into my new wallet.
My mobile phone turned up via a 'good samaritan' who would take no
money as a reward whatsoever.I was never more pleased to see my mobile phone.
So what happened here?Was it something to do with the St. Christopher medallion? Was it because I had 'bad thoughts' that it was the 'worse for wear'so discard it as inconsequential? I don't know the answer.
There have been too many such incidents in my life it would take
volumes to relate the details.
We don't know these 'mysteries of life' but one thing is important
-keep a positive outlook to everything and everyone and good things will happen for you.
It's difficult to visualize how many people that are out there who can
log on to your website. It's also difficult to understand what kinds
of people they are, what background and education they have had. Why
they are logging on to your new site. What do they expect to see, or
learn, or buy?
How will they benefit from visiting your site?.
Will they buy a good product, or learn something, or get some amusement
or entertainment from it?.
Ecommerce - Boost Your Business ROI
Did you know that over 90% of all online orders are processed by credit cards and that web sites that offer customers the ability to pay with credit cards can achieve up to 300% more sales than those that do not?
Grow your Business with Emarketplace - Part III
Increase Company Productivity
Alternative E-Commerce Solutions
Over the past several years, the Internet has emerged as a breakthrough technology that has and will continue to transform the way we live and communicate, and especially the way we do business.
Looking For Free Advertising, Here It Is!
There are lots of ways to advertise for free but they are time consuming so I guess technically, they are not free because your time is worth something! But if you have the time and not the money this is for you.
How To Implement E-Business Solutions Successfully
Pitfalls of E-business solutions installation process
|
