Marie-Claire Smith asked:




Starting a business is pretty easy – almost anybody think of an idea and try to make it work. However, staying in business and actually turning a profit after 3 months, 1 year, 5 years or longer requires a serious set of entrepreneurial and all-around business skills.

Most small business owners, especially online entrepreneurs, get started by putting together a website to showcase their goods or services. Only then do they start to tackle each of the important details that are required in order to start turning a profit successfully. One of those details is how to accept payments from customers.

For Web-based businesses, being able to accept payments usually entails the ability to process clients’ credit cards. And, that usually means being set up to accept payments via the online shopping cart connected to the website. Note that even Web businesses who only accept orders by phone will still want a way to process credit cards, given that cards remain such a popular payment option on the part of most individual and business customers alike.

The fact is that when you open yourself up to accepting credit cards as a valid form of payment on your website, you are giving your customers a lot more ways to pay you. That will almost certainly translate to increased profits for your business.

If you want to accept credit cards online to increase your profits, here are 5 steps to doing so:

1. Think about how you will be accepting cards from clients:

There are four main ways to accept cards from clients: in person, over the phone, via mail, or online. For in-person card acceptance, you will need a terminal that allows you to actually swipe clients’ cards. For the others, a virtual terminal – operated via your phone or personal computer – will work fine. The virtual terminal is software-based, so there is no need to invest in any equipment.

2. Find a merchant account provider that offers a low discount rate:

One of the main differentiators between the various merchant account providers out there is the discount rate each one charges for their services. This is simply a percentage of each transaction that they charge against your account, deducting it from the total amount you would normally receive. It goes without saying that you would rather pay as low a discount rate as possible.

3. Ask about the other fees you would pay in working with them:

Merchant account providers will also charge you other fees, such as an application fee, a monthly service fee, and even a minimum monthly transaction fee. Be sure to meticulously ask – and then record – each fee from each provider you speak with so that you can easily compare them later.

4. Make sure that their payment gateway works with your e-commerce shopping cart:

If you will be primarily processing your cards online, check with the merchant provider to ensure that the payment gateway they offer is compatible with the e-commerce shopping cart you use with your site.

5. Compare at least 3-5 merchant account providers:

Now that you know what to look for, it is time to compare at least 3-5 merchant account providers. Keep track about what each one says about their discount rates, other fees, and types of terminals offered. Then, make your decision.

Take these 5 steps to setting up your business to accept credit cards online.

Joshua

Bridget Huston asked:


What is a debit card? A debit card is issued from the cardholder’s bank, and the amount is deducted directly from the cardholder’s bank account. There are three types of debit cards:

1-Debit ATM card. These are issued to customers who open a checking or savings account at a financial institution to allow them to access their acounts 24/7 using the ATM. A true ATM card has no MasterCard/Visa logo on it, just the logo of the issuer. These cards can be used at the ATM or at retail outlets displaying the same regional, national or point-os-sale network logo(s) that are on the ATM card.

2-On-line Debit Card. An on-line debit card deducts funds from the bank account immediately, as soon as the card is used. These debit cards can either have the MasterCard or Visa logo, or they can only have the issuer’s logo, like an ATM card. To use an on-line debit card, the card-holder must provide a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to complete the transaction.

3-Off-Line Debit Card. An Off-line Debit card does not deduct funds from the checking account immediately. Transactions are processed like a regular credit card and the funds are not deducted for 24-72 hours. They have the MasterCard/Visa logo on them and can be issued either instead of or in addition to an ATM card when a customer opens a checking or savings account at a financial institution. Most issuers of debit cards are moving to this type of card rather than on-line debit cards.

Please visit http://blog.nabancard.com or http://www.nabancard.com for more information



Willie

hardeep asked:


 

Articles vs. Blog and Ping

 

I think it’s time for many Affiliate Marketers (AM) to reconsider their methods for building their web sites Search Engine position. I have been using Blog and Ping techniques for about a year now, but blog and ping is slowing loosing its effectiveness because so many AM’s are using the method. 

 

If you’ve been living on the dark side of the moon, then you may not know what Blog and Ping is all about. Well, in a nutshell, blog and ping is a technique for increasing your websites position by creating blogs and using software that automatically posts to those blogs along with links back to your main website. The blogs then ping Blog services to notify them that some new content is available. The ping services then attract Search Engine spiders and before to long, you’re website is spidered.

 

This solution worked like wonders about a year ago (2005), but is loosing its effectiveness because all the blog and ping tools create mediocre content that is all based on Search Engine scrapes or RSS feeds. You end up getting a blog site full of useless information with links back to your web page. The Search Engines have caught on and they are able to filter out the bad content. In fact, it may actually be hurting your website. There’s no proof yet, but I would expect that all the SE’s will soon start penalizing websites that are trying to boost their position through blog and ping techniques.

 

That brings me to articles. About four months ago, I wrote an article and posted it to ArticleCity. After I submitted it, I forgot about it. Just yesterday, during a moment of boredom, I thought about that article and decided to do some research. Had anyone picked it up? A quick search on Google showed that the article has been published on 802 different websites! I also noticed that after Google’s last update, the Page Rank (PR) of my affiliate marketing website went up nicely from 3 to 5.

 



Jo

Robyn Tippins asked:


Financial institutions complain of the difficulty in not only introducing new cards to their offer centers, but updating those offer centers when important details change about the card offer.

Making sure each place that advertises the card has the correct information, at all times, is vitally important. The credit card industry spends millions of dollars each year keeping this infrastructure in place and working smoothly.

However, this complicated process was made easier with a custom-designed database that allows for automated updating from the financial institution. The Blogsite, running on the MyST Technology Platform, offers financial institutions a dynamic way to offer current information on credit card offers.

The full integration with the weblog means instead of posting a picture of the card, a link to the offer, and a link to the fine print EACH posting, the blog editor can simply enter the field and the item number, separated by a colon in the keywords section of the post editor.

When the post is submitted, the weblog is configured so that all that relevant information is dynamically pulled from the database to appear with the news story written within the weblog.

Everytime an offer changes, whether it is something substantial like an APR change or something inconsequential like an increase in frequent flyer benefits, the information is seamlessly updated, providing the consumer and the bank with up-to-date, perfectly accurate information.

RSS technology is set to change the way financial institutions offer credit cards. Take a look at the Blogsite at consolidatedcredit.info.



Paula