3) ClickBank: This is e-commerce choice for thousands of business websites. ClickBank can also be used to set up your own Associate program, where you allow others to resell your services or products for a small commision. While this service is not available to process payments for tangible goods, it is perfect solution for real-time sales of your services or digital products. ClickBank allows you to accept Visa, MC, Amex, and Discover. They charge a one time activation fee of 49.95 and $1.00 plus 7.5% fee on each sale. http://www.clickbank.com/

4) DigiBuy: This one is ideal for those selling software or information. DigiBuy allows you to accept Visa, MC, Amex, and Discover. Set-up is quick and easy. You have complete control of pricing, order forms, and delivery options. Their fee is 13.9% of each sale. http://www.digibuy.com

5)Online Billing Solutions (OBS): Allows you to take all major credit cards. After review of their site I could not find if you can sell tangible or intangibles, so I'm assuming you can do both. There are no set-up or monthly fees, but they do take a 15% cut of your sales. It is simple to set up; you place a line of HTML code on your site, linking into their secured server. Transactions can range in price from $3.00 to $100.00 and money is paid to you twice a month. http://www.online-billing.com

6) CC Now: Used for selling tangible merchandise, CC Now is a full service electronic commerce solution. Their integrated shopping cart software encourages customers to purchase multiple items at once. It is free to sign up, and they charge no monthly fees, however they do collect a 9% commision on each sale. Pay-outs are twice a month. CC Now allows you to take all major credit cards and notifies you by e-mail of any sales, so you can ship product. http://www.ccnow.com/

If you're looking for an easy way to start selling online without putting up a lot of cash, this really is best way to get your feet wet and see if web selling will work for you. If it does, you can always apply for a merchant account down road and save on transaction fees.

The ability to sell your products/services online is not difficult or expensive, you just need to know where to look for help.

......the transaction stops RIGHT THERE. Go no further. (this is not a totally untrue story...happened to us in a similar situation)

John Smith gets statement from his Merchant Account provider about a month later. He has sold about 1,000 books this month. His books are a real hot item! Two days later, John Smith gets another letter from his merchant provider. John's merchant provider, like many, automatically deposits or deducts credit card transactions from his checking account. After John got first statement, he gave most of profits to his wife so that she could go down to A&P superstore and buy some food. She also decides they need a new living room couch. The money's spent. The 300 books that someone ordered, well - they were ordered on a stolen credit card number. Did John or his automated online store merchant know this? How could they? The owner of credit card did not know their number and expiration date had been lifted from a store somewhere on Net. John is out 300 books and $4,485.00 in revenue. He also receives a threatening notice that if this happens again, he'll lose his merchant account.

------------------------------------------ Did you notice anything strange about merchant account provider taking money away from John? Mastercard did not eat any of loss, and neither did John's merchant account provider..notice that? The merchant eats ALL OF IT. John is now in debt to merchant account provider, and some nimrod is off selling his books in some far away corner of Internet.