Easy Work From Home Ideas That Will Skyrocket Your Sales 12% Higher Than Your Competitor

The process of creating a dynamic website, i.e. making
your web site able to handle online payments, can seem like a
hike off Mount Everest for new netrepreneurs. But the fact is,
if for your internet based home business to be successful, you
MUST offer convenient and easy ways for your customers to pay.

Credit cards (especially Visacard, Mastercard and AMEX) are
presently the King Kong of the online payment world. The fact is,
you could capture 85% MORE sales by taking credit cards online.

CyberSource Corp.( a company that provides businesses with services and
software designed to automate the commerce transaction process in
multi-sales channel environments) reports, based on recent study, that web
sites providing four or more payment methods other than credit cards have
a sales conversion rate that is 12% higher than those offering just one payment
option in addition to credit cards.

According to Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR which is an independent technology
and market research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice about technology's impact on business and consumers.), 2005 saw more than a billion people
doing more than 250 billion online searches, spending over $170 billion! Now that's stunning.

In addition, they also predict that the percentage of U.S. households shopping online is
expected to grow from 39 percent in 2005 to 48 percent in 2010, and Forrester predicts that revenues will continue to grow because online shoppers tend to have more money.

And, driven by the convenience of being able to research and buy online at the same time,
buyers are expanding their online shopping activities.

So as you can see, more people are looking for something, finding it on the Internet,
and buying it than ever before, and it's still growing...

In fact, predictions are that 2006 should see 200 million more potential customers
online (2 billion by 2010!) and total Internet sales will increase another 20% or more
(FTI Consulting, a group whose principal activities are to provide turnaround, restructuring , bankruptcy and related consulting services)

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In order to build a successful online empire then, you must accept credit cards on your web site . It's a known fact that you will lose
some 15% of your potential sales if you fail to accept credit cards on
your site and up to 400% in lost revenue.

Online shoppers can be the most impatient customers to handle,
especially with so many millions of options on the World Wide Web
It is imperative then that you make it easy for visitors to your web site
to buy your products.

Internet users expect immediate access to information, goods, or services
and do not have the time to be fumbling around on a website that does not
match their speed.

Setting up your own online credit card portal will also...

* Give your business a sense of credibility,

* Allow impulse buying spinoffs

* Give your customers a sense of convenience
security doing business with you.

* Online orders increase ROI (return on investment) because they nullify
the cost of using toll free numbers and live operators, and plastic
buyers are less concerned about price than cash buyers -- which means
you can raise your prices and lose almost no business!

* The hands-free advantage of credit card acceptance gives you
the opportunity to work ON your business instead of IN your
business.

* Provide you with a fully-automated payment and
tracking system.

But before you can start taking credit cards at your web
site, there are two important things you'll have to do:

1. Establish a secure server to process credit card
transactions, and

2. Set up a merchant account.

But now you scream, "How on earth do i do this?"

Don't panic, keep reading.

1) HOW ONLINE ORDERING VIA A SECURE SERVER WORKS

Online shoppers need to feel that sense of security when giving
out their personal, confidential details over the internet.

It becomes important then that your payment portal runs through a secure server that
protects your customers' confidential information and gives them the confidence to buy
from you over the Internet.

A secure server is simply a computer server that can transmits
confidential information such as credit card numbers without
the risk of someone intercepting the transmission and
"stealing" the information.

This then, allows your customers to buy from you without worrying about fraud.

N.B. Without a secure server, few people will buy from you.

The data is kept secure through encryption, which only the
oldest web browsers don't support. Encryption is a process that converts
plaintext into ciphertext (secret code) in order to prevent anyone except the
intended recipient from reading that data.

There are many types of data encryption, and they are the basis of network security.
Common types include Data Encryption Standard and public-key encryption.

You should ensure that you get a fully automated package. Example,
CardServiceInt'l, which will not only allow you to accept credit cards on
your web site, but makes it possible for you to sell more than one products.

Next you need a shopping cart software which allows your customers to pick
and place the items of choice in their virtual "shopping carts", just as they
would at their favourite supermarket.

Before checking out, they can confirm what's in their shopping carts, make
changes if necessary, and pay for their merchandise.

Note though that if you only have one or two items on your website, you may not
need a shopping cart as there would be a direct order page.

The shopping cart software, however, would still be running in the background,
as its funtion is to tally the order and communicate with the Gateway, which is the
software that processes your customers' credit cards instantly when they complete
the order form.

It gets their cards approved, transfers the money into your bank account,
and sends email confirmations to both you and your customers.

PayPal is another well established trans-border payment option, supporting
payments in US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Pounds Sterling, and
Japanese Yen, making international sales easier than ever.

There are trailer loads of other benefits for you in addition to reaching an already
established network of over 64 million accounts in 45 countries.

The set-up process is fast, and you can get started in a jiffy and their charges
range between 1.9% to 2.9% of the transaction plus 30 cents per order, depending
on your company's sales volume.

N.B. Multiple Currency Transactions Exchange rate includes a 2.5% fee.

There is a word of caution though when thinking of using Paypal. According to
PayPal accepting their ToS (Terms of Service) in effect means you waive your rights
to credit card consumer protection laws if you want to use their service, and that you
may not issue a chargeback for unauthorized use of your credit card and PayPal account,
or if you do, then they have the right to limit your account.

They can be somewhat controlling as it relates to seller/vendor issues, such as randomly
freezing your account indefinately.

So, be careful when using Paypal's services. Having said that though, they still remain an increasingly popular way to take payments online.

So, if you have not yet gotten your online payment system set-up, there you
have it.

Pretty cool stuff, ain't it?

Well, please let me know if you have been benefited in anyway.
--
Committed to your success