(c) 2005 by Andrew J. Morris

I have a bad habit of designing great websites, then letting them flounder for lack of promotion. It's not that I don't know how to promote a site, I just don't like doing it. I'd rather work on my next site than take time to promote an existing one.

I don't think I'm alone in this. There are lots of sites that promise to do promotion for you, so they must be targeting people like me. But most of those sites take a big fee to do one type of promotion, and we all know diversity is key to reaching a wide audience.

But I also suspect there are folks out there just opposite. People who love to promote, but hate day to day grind of content creation. Obviously, a partnership is called for -- but matching up builders with promoters seems a daunting task.

In any partnership there are issues of trust, compensation, accountability, and expectations. Working such a relationship over Internet makes it even harder. I'll be first to admit there is no perfect solution, but I think I have found a very good approach, which overcomes most of problems inherent in partner relationships.

I plan on using Google Adsense to reward my promoting-partner -- let's see how it works:

Google Adsense Program

Google lets webmasters earn money by placing ads on their websites. Google charges advertisers, matches ads to content of page ad appears on, and pays webmaster for each click ad receives. Naturally, they charge advertisers more than they pay webmasters, so Google makes a profit, webmaster earns money and advertisers get targeted traffic - a win-win-win situation.

The Partner Agreement

To accept credit cards your business needs a credit card processing system. Creating a merchant account gives you that ability. Merchant accounts are accounts especially crafted to fit needs of businesses to accept money.

If you own a store, you will need a card swipe terminal to accept credit card payments. Your merchant account provider may be able to provide you with this equipment. There will be a purchase fee or rent fee associated with equipment. You can also shop elsewhere for point of sale equipment. POS terminal software can ease processing of credit cards and can ease job of a cashier at grocery stores, merchandise stores, bookshops, or any other type of store you own.

Once equipment is in place you are ready to go. When a customer asks ‘do you accept credit cards?’ your answer will be a definite yes. At Point of Sale terminal, customers can check out their items and pay by credit. You slide credit card into machine and it will automatically make payment.

To accept credit cards is even more crucial for Internet merchants. If you only use checks to accept payments, it can be troublesome for customers to write and mail check. Online payment methods such as Paypal and StormPay also have drawbacks since many people do not have accounts with them. These can be your secondary payment methods but it is important to be able to accept credit cards.