Merchant Accounts - The Beginners Guide

Done right, the process of accepting credit cards requires virtually no technical knowledge at all, and only a very modest outlay of capital.

Firstly you create the individual pages of your site which list the products you have for sale. Then you create a thankyou page for your order page(s) to be shown after a successful purchase.

For "real world" products this would simply thank the customer for their order, inform them of when their order will be shipped, and provide contact details incase of a query.

For a digital product - one that can simply be downloaded over the Internet rather than being physically shipped - you can provide download instructions for the product too.

Then you sign up with one of the multitude of specialist online credit card processing companies. There are literally hundreds to choose from - and there's almost certain to be one that will fit your business perfectly.

Behind a password-protected area, in your own private section of the site provided by the credit card processing company when you chose them, you can then set up the descriptions and prices of your products, as simply as typing in values. Literally product 1 is called "X" and costs "Y". Job done.

Finally once you've typed these details in your password-protected site will generate an order form for you automatically and give you the address of it. That's right - no need to make your own - it's done for you.

Simply paste this website address into your webpages where you'd like to give your visitors the opportunity to "Buy Now", inform your password-protected website where your thankyou page is (where do you want visitors to go after completing a purchase at your site?) and you're off.

Most providers will allow you to place trial orders, with imaginary credit card numbers, just to test to your satisfaction that everything is running according to plan with your merchant account and ordering system.

Once live, you can log back into your password-protected site and check your orders, customer details, and of course, how much you've earned.

The processing company will take a small amount out of your profits for the service it has provided to you and payment is then sent either by check or deposited automatically into your account on a regular basis, depending on the provider you use.

It really is that simple that even a complete technophobe can be set up in less than 7 days so give it a try and prove to yourself how easy (and profitable) it is.