Hello again.
Today we want to talk about how you sell from your website: how your customers place their orders, you collect their money and you know where to deliver the products they have ordered.
Selling from your website
Lets assume youve written a cracker of a sales letter this is your index page: the page readers see when they first visit your site. So they have read down through your letter and they are ready to buy they are ready to hit the Click HERE to reserve yours NOW! button. What happens now?
This will depend on what you are selling (these are roughly in the order of increasing complexity):
- A Members Only section of your website
- A newsletter subscription
- Downloadable products such as software or ebooks
- Hard product that you ship to your customers
Specific details vary for each one, but for all four, at minimum you need a system to accept your customers credit card details, debit their accounts and credit your account, and provide information back to you that their purchases have been approved. This can all be done on-line, and the only things you need are a bank account and a debit or credit card, unless you want to accept payments by posted cheque and by credit card details received by telephone, FAX or post (we shall discuss this option below).
You have two options:
- You can sign up with an agency that will offer you a complete system they do it all on their server linked to your website, Order page and Thank You page. This is a far easier option but there are a few limitations
- You can open your own merchant account and contract with a credit card processor. This gives you maximum flexibility but its a more complicated option and setting it up can be fraught.
Do an Internet search for credit card processors. Here you will find a large number of options, each offering you a range of benefits at a range of prices. In particular, check out www.clickbank.com and www.paypal.com. These two have been around for a while and both have excellent reputations.
You can sign up with them at low cost; their income derives from fees levied on transactions. Their instructions are easy to follow and straightforward. You dont need a shopping cart or merchant account. They collect money from your customers and credit your account with them, or send you a regular cheque.
You link to their order page through the Order button on your sales letter. They see to all the details of processing your customers credit card details. When the purchase is approved, they link back to your Thank You page. Here you arrange to either ship customers their product, give them a password to enter the Members Only section of your website, set up to begin sending them their newsletter or give them instructions to download their software or ebook.
ClickBank has one limitation: they only deal with electronic purchases, no hard products. If you are not dealing with hard products, theirs is probably the easiest to set up.
Another good one to check out is www.worldpay.com. They require substantial upfront fees and their set up is a bit more complicated, but in return you will be able to deal with both hard products and those delivered electronically. They also require that you have a shopping cart, but you probably will have this included with your hosting package.
With WorldPay you can also accept payments other than online, such as by posted cheque, and by credit card details received by telephone, FAX or post. Here in the UK many customers prefer this option, and in my judgement, its worth the effort to set it up (PayPal offers this service, too, but at present only in the US).
Finally, you can arrange your own merchant account with your business bank, and contract with a credit card processor. This option requires that you have a card processor approved by your bank, and a shopping cart that is acceptable to your host and card processor. You have to do all the work of linking and testing. There are set-up fees for these accounts.
When the orders start to roll in this will cost you less than an account with WorldPay, but unless you are pretty good technically or have access to a good techie this will keep you up for a few nights until it is up and running. You might want to leave this one for now.
There is another option: If you have bought a turnkey package from your guru, it may include all you need. You may not have to worry about any of this stuff because its all done for you: all you need do is select from a range of templates and fill in the blanks. Enjoy!
Thats probably enough about this messy subject for now. See you soon.
Next time we shall talk about what happens after your customers have paid you and are waiting to receive some product.
Thanks for listening
Copyright 2006 Mary Rice-Johnston & Golden Goose Direct. All rights reserved. |
