How your business CAN win online

Written by Peter Simmons


There are lots of websites out there that do little to encourage their customers to stick around or buy their products from them. In this article i'm going to show you a typical example of where a small company has gone wrong with its website.

Company X is a small family run roofing company. They repair, install and insulate roofs. They spend a lot of time and money advertising inrepparttar press and exhibiting at consumer shows and events to attract new customers. They are visibly committed to their customers and their needs. They do it well and reaprepparttar 108981 rewards. They are succeeding offline.

A potential customer sees them at a show they are exhibiting at. She has a brief but informative conversation about her roof with a company representative and takes away some literature to read. She leaves with a highly positive impression ofrepparttar 108982 company and its employees. When she readsrepparttar 108983 literature she notices thatrepparttar 108984 company has a web site and visits it. Their site looks professional. She looks deeper intorepparttar 108985 site by clicking a few links.

It only takes a few clicks for her to realise thatrepparttar 108986 website is very thin on content. There's little text andrepparttar 108987 text that is present is incredibly dull and uninformative. The site looks exactly likerepparttar 108988 brochure she took away. In fact, thats exactly whatrepparttar 108989 web site is -repparttar 108990 brochure online.

The site has a few basic features: you can contactrepparttar 108991 company, request a quote visit or get their phone number. There's little else of any interest for potential customers. So would she stay and buy fromrepparttar 108992 company? Probably not. At this point she either has to contactrepparttar 108993 company by phone to get more information or go somewhere else. She's been abandoned by a company that has clearly made little provision for her visit. At best its a dull visit. She doesnt think very highly ofrepparttar 108994 company now.

What went wrong? Why didrepparttar 108995 company, which made such a positive impression offline, make such a poor impression online?

Hasrepparttar 108996 company put much effort intorepparttar 108997 site? No. Isrepparttar 108998 web site poorly thought out? Yes. Is there anything onrepparttar 108999 site to keeprepparttar 109000 customer there/interested? No. Didrepparttar 109001 web site meetrepparttar 109002 customers needs? No. Didrepparttar 109003 customer have an overall positive impression ofrepparttar 109004 company? No. Did they loserepparttar 109005 customers business? Very likely, yes.

Accepting Payment Through Your Website

Written by Shelley Lowery


If you're doing business onrepparttar Internet, accepting payment through your website is an absolute must. If you're not processing orders online, you're losing a great deal of money in lost sales. Studies have shown, you can increase your online sales up to 400% simply by accepting credit cards. With today's advanced technology, processing orders online can be as simple as pasting a code within your web page HTML.

Preparing your website to process orders online isn't as difficult as you may think. There are basically two options. The first option is to set up a merchant account. This entails either making arrangements with your bank or using an online company. The second option is to use a third party credit card processor. This option requires no merchant account and usually entails setting up a form or placing a link on your order page.

Don't let this process intimidate you, as it is much easier than you may think. There are many professional companies onrepparttar 108980 Internet that will assist you.

Merchant Accounts

If you decide to get your own merchant account, you will also need access to a secure server and a shopping cart system. A secure server will protect your customers' information. A shopping cart system will provide your customer with a running total of what they've ordered andrepparttar 108981 total cost.

The following website can provide you with a merchant account:

Total Merchant Services (TMS) http://www.marketingtips.com/creditcards/index.html

This outstanding company comes highly recommended by Corey Rudl -- author ofrepparttar 108982 #1 selling online marketing course, "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business onrepparttar 108983 Internet."

The TMS Merchant account, for Internet transactions, will enable you to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. They offer two merchant processing software packages to choose from. The first package isrepparttar 108984 TotalPay powered by Authorize.Net™ Virtual Terminal. This package will enable you to authorize, process, and manage credit card transactions from any computer with a Internet connection and a Web browser. This package ordinarily runs $995, but for a limited time is being offered for only $397. The second package isrepparttar 108985 TotalPay powered by Authorize.Net™ Virtual Terminal that includesrepparttar 108986 Total Merchant Manager Shopping Cart. This package includes everythingrepparttar 108987 first package includes, and more:

- Customizable Shopping Cart System - UPS Shipping Module - Links to Virtual Terminal - Free Initial Installation

Their discount rate is 2.4% and $0.35 per transaction fee. Monthly fees include a $10 monthly statement fee and a $10 gateway fee that includes secure, online, real-time credit card and e-cheque processing and only applies to merchants processing transactions through their Internet payment gateway.

Third Party Credit Card Processors

If you'd rather not have your own merchant account, third party credit card processors will process your credit card orders for you. There are usually no monthly fees. They charge a "per transaction" fee and send you payment for all your orders processed, minus their fee and a reserve fee.

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