Things
to consider when setting up your merchant account
and payment processing:
Merchant services of one kind or another are a must for every
web-based business that intends to process credit card payments
over the internet.
A merchant account is the most popular solution for payment
processing services. A merchant account is an account that
the online business owner applies for and sets up in conjunction
with his site's shopping cart and enables him to procure payments
from his customers for his products or services in real time.
The web site is able to accept payments (credit card processing)
online at any time in an automated fashion. Since your web-based
business is going to be digital, your payment processing will
need to be too. A merchant account will allow your site to
process credit card payments from your customers on your site
automatically while you sleep.
Merchant accounts are the most common types of merchant services
available, but there are other options for payment processing
as well. Paypal is another popular choice.
ClickBank -
The best option for selling Digital Goods!
Another option if you are selling a digital product is Clickbank.
Now, if you have decided to take my advice about not selling
traditional wares online and have chosen to go the digital
route that I recommended, then there is a tremendous resource
for you called ClickBank.
Selling online has the potential to be so much easier than
most people make it. If you are a small, home-based business,
all the hassle with merchant accounts and secure Web servers
can be enough to intimidate you and put you off ecommerce
altogether. Now, if you are the stubborn type and insisting
on selling conventional goods on the internet (t-shirts, golf
clubs, beanie-babies… whatever), then a merchant account
or third party processor are your only options. Now, if you
are one of my better students and have grasped the advantage
of the digital product, then this next paragraph is for you.
Why Digital Products?
ClickBank is designed for selling only digital goods such
as software and eBooks. Selling digital goods online is becoming
more and more popular every day as people slowly become more
aware of the huge advantages. Music downloads, video downloads,
eBooks, software, are all examples of digital products. You
see, the beauty of such a product is once you've created your
product, there is almost no cost for you to provide it to
your customer. There are no production costs. No need for
storing your product. No time or money involved in packaging
or shipping to worry about. The main problem, of course, is
finding a product that will sell, but assuming you have taken
my advice and have produced an eBook or shareware program
that you think is worth selling, then ClickBank may be just
what you need.
Selling Digital Products
ClickBank works in two ways. It provides merchants with an
easy and secure method of selling their products, and it enables
affiliates to market the digital products and thereby earn
commission on any products sold. Selling a digital product
on ClickBank is easy. It requires 2 Web pages; a sales page
with the link to the ClickBank Payment system, and a post-sales
page with instructions on how to access the digital product.
The post-sales page is only displayed once the sale has been
made and approved. Clear technical support instructions must
also be provided. (ClickBank obviously doesn't want to handle
that side of things!) That's about all there is to it. There
are some restrictions on the type of product that can be sold
and the normal maximum price for each transaction is $50,
although this may be raised to $250 on request.
Clickbank Affiliate Program
The affiliate program is fairly conventional in that it simply
requires a banner to be placed on the affiliate site, linking
to the sales page. The affiliate earns commission, at a rate
determined by the merchant, on all sales via that link. It
really does only take 2 minutes to sign up (I tried it) and
after that you have a choice of 10,000 products to link to,
at commission rates ranging from 1% to 75%. The merchant can
recruit affiliates, but it is likely that promising products
on attractive commission rates will attract affiliates directly
from the ClickBank site.
Pricing and Payments
ClickBank handles payments to both the affiliate and merchant,
with checks being sent out twice a month. Charges aren't too
bad at 7.5% + $1 for each transaction. Any affiliate
commission is deducted from the net amount. There is a $2.50
charge for each check issued, although the minimum amount
for each check can be set from $10 to $10,000. There is also
a retention of 10% for around 90 days to guard against chargebacks.
Overall, ClickBank is a fairly painless way to start to start
a small eBusiness, whether as a merchant or as an affiliate,
if you have chosen the digital product path.
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