Writing articles is one of most powerful, if not most powerful methods of building your reputation and your online business. Not only do you get unlimited exposure, but it is fre^e as well!

If your article is well-written, you will probably get listed on numerous websites as well as in several ezines. This will establish you as someone who knows what they are talking about and will more than likely bring you many visitors and subscribers.

People will start to come to you when they need information or products or advice. This is a great way of establishing your online presence.

Writing articles is not as hard as you may think. You do not have to be a professional writer to produce an effective article. Below are some tips to help you get started.

1. Don't worry about big fancy words.

People are looking for easy to understand, down-to- earth articles to help them learn. They are not interested in being impressed with encyclopedia language skills.

2. Advertise in your resource box, not article.

To increase sales on your website, you must accept credit cards. To process credit cards, you could apply for a merchant account through your bank or other financial institution.

Sometimes, though, you would be further ahead to use services of a credit card processor. This is especially true when you are first starting out and have more limited resources. In this way, you may process credit card transactions without high front-end costs and requirements of a merchant account.

Here, then, are just a few ways of accepting credit cards without a merchant account. I personally use all of these vendors and can recommend them wholeheartedly.

1. Clickbank

If your product is downloadable (such as electronic books or software), you might consider ClickBank.com . For a $49.95 initial fee, you can process credit cards and on-line cheques for $1.00 per transaction plus 7.5% of sales.

You receive additional exposure through free listing on their website and through search facilities of other websites, such as CBMall.com .

As an added bonus, you have your own built-in affiliate program. You decide what commission (from 1% to 75%) you would like to pay your affiliates.

2. PayPal