If you want to accept credit cards on your web site -- and save yourself weeks of aggravation -- don't apply for any merchant account until you talk to us. We can lead you across the surprisingly complex sea of automation, credit card, and software problems... smoothly, safely, and quickly.

There are a number of options to choose from when accepting payments on your website.

1. Real Time Merchant Account

Real time merchant accounts are the most effective and most expensive method of accepting credit cards online. The steps involved in obtaining a merchant account are similar to that of any Bank loan:

- Apply to the bank with credit information, fill out forms etc.
- Wait 7 - 14 days for approval
- Fees from $50 - $100 for this process

Once you are approved for the merchant account with the Bank, you will need to choose a payment gateway. The gateway connects your merchant account with the Internet. We only support one type of gateway - Authorize.net. We have tested ALL the gateways available and Authorize.net is the only one we will support. Other gateways like CardService and Linkpoint have horrible service and support which will cost you money and downtime. Many providers will bundle the merchant account with the Gateway.

You should expect to pay $100 - $300 to setup the account and the gateway, with ongoing monthly fees of about $45.00. You will be charged from 2.5 - 3.0% + .50 cents for every transaction you post to the gateway. This is called the "discount" rate, don't be fooled it has nothing to do with a discount its the charges to the Bank.

Once you have this system ready, it can be implemented into a custom shopping cart system for no fee (very simple) or custom ORDER FORMS can be created.

2. Custom Order Forms

If you have an Authorize.net merchant account we can program custom order forms to interact with it. We typically use order forms when a client has a sales letter style site with a single product.

Custom order forms give us complete control over the order process from start to finish. The transactions between your site and the gateway are both seamless and invisible to your customers. The flexibility of custom forms allows us to add taxes, shipping, bonus items, or any other calculations desired.

Order forms go hand in hand with a "thank you" or "download" page. This is the page that receives the transaction data on your website and responds by showing a message or files for download. The thank you page can send customized emails with passwords or other information if necessary.

This process can be combined with any type of Affiliate program or Tracking system.

In order to use custom order forms you need:

1. ASP enabled webhost (windows sever) $5 - $10 a month
2. SSL Certificate - $40
3. Custom order programming - $150 - $300

3. PayPal

If you cannot afford a merchant account, you can use PayPal. Paypal is FREE and allows you to accept credit card payments almost immediately. Their discount rates and fees are about 2% higher then a real time merchant account, but with no monthly charges. Paypal comes with a free shopping cart. So what's the catch? Well unfortunately free is also associated with amateur.

The only drawback to PayPal is that the PayPal system is not seamless. When you buy from a site with PayPal you are actually buying from PayPal not the merchant, and you know it: the screen changes, you shoot over to PayPal for payment then back to your site when its all done. Some people claim they lose sales due to this process.

The cost savings of PayPal must be weighed against the potential loss in sales. Often it is a good idea to start with PayPal, and upgrade to a merchant account once you have some success.