Hello

I last left off after briefly explaining fees associated with merchant accounts and accepting credit cards on your website. I gave a brief explanation so please make sure that you ask as many questions as you can so that you don’t have any unexpected charges after locking into a contract with a credit card processor.

In this post I’m going to explain the most popular payment provider out there, Pay Pal, and the pros & cons of accepting credit cards via Pay Pal. For those who aren’t familiar with PayPal.com, PayPal lets you send or receive money from anyone with an email address. They are sort of the middleman to ensure secure transactions for both the buyer and the seller. PayPal makes their money by charging a minimal fee on completed transactions. The fee is generally paid by the seller.

I’m sure you’ve heard and probably used them but Pay Pal is probably the most trusted provider of merchant services on the internet. Most shopping carts out there are integrated with Pay Pal because of the popularity of the payment processor. They offer a few different options but if you don’t have any intention of setting up a true credit card processor right now they are without a doubt the way to go.

Be sure to sign up for their Business or Premier plan because this will allow you to accept credit cards without your customer having to have a Pay Pal account.

PROS:

• No Setup Fees – It’s free to send money, and PayPal is affordable for businesses of all sizes.
• No Monthly Fees – You pay only when you sell items.
• It’s Private – PayPal does not reveal your financial information to sellers.
• It’s Fast – Payments are made immediately and you generally can withdraw the funds immediately. Visit PayPal.com for withdrawal options.
• Trusted Name – Industry-leading fraud prevention keeps you safe and secure. (Assists with conversions)

CONS:

• Processing Fees – A Bit Higher Than A True Merchant Provider. (Visit PayPal.com For Exact Fees)
• Professional Image – Since all you really need is an email address to setup a PayPal account some people would prefer to go through a merchant that has had to be approved to accept credit cards via a true application process.
• Chargebacks – If someone disputes a charge with PayPal it’s very difficult to get them to side with you and will often times refund the customer plus a $10 processing fee on top of it. I know this first hand and I went well out of my way to prove that my customer received their order.
• Support – Although it’s gotten much better, it’s been difficult to receive a timely response. As I mentioned though, it’s gotten much better.

Here are some other basics related to Pay Pal. They offer some great ways to get your money fast, going so far as offering a Pay Pal debit card so that you can start using your funds the same day. You will need to go through some verification steps to be an ‘verified’ PayPal merchant which is a must because it proves to your customers that you’ve gone through the steps to prove you are who you say you are. This is going to help when it comes to conversions.

Also, if you plan on selling on eBay you’ll definitely want to accept Pay Pal because they won’t accept any other payment providers such as Google Checkout. Pretty much anyone that uses eBay will use Pay Pal as their payment method. This is obviously my opinion but it’s an opinion drawn from experience.

In closing, even if you accept credit cards through a true merchant provider you’ll want to also give the option of Pay Pal. Many people don’t have a credit card and this gives them a reason & the capability of still purchasing through your website.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

Let me start by saying that this list of 5 “mistakes” is simply my opinion. I’ve been dealing with websites for nearly 10 years now and have come to recognize certain things on a website that screams “amateur” like the list of 5 popular website design mistakes below

Visitor / Hit Counters

This has to be one of the most obvious mistakes. Hit counters are the little graphics generally stuck at the bottom of a web page that goes up numerically by 1 each time the website has a visitor. I realize that if the number is large that it makes your website look popular but if the number is small it can have the opposite effect. Let your website tell your visitors about the popularity of your website.

I understand wanting to track your stats but Google offers a free analytics program that will give you pretty much any information you could ever want about your visitors. It’s completely free to use so visit Google Analytics to setup an account.

Too Many Ads

I understand the purpose of most websites is to make money but placing Google Adsense in every available location is annoying and is my first clue that the website isn’t a “quality” website.

As you may have read in the past, I run www.websitetoad.com and have added ads in only 2 positions. I have Google Adsense on the right hand margin and two small banner ads on the left navigation. If I added Adsense in many more positions on the page it would look like a giant advertisement rather than a website filled with valuable information on making a website.

Too Much Distracting Animation

You will have been to pages that flash, spin, throb and change color. How long do you usually stay? A few seconds? That’s longer than me. Those animations may be “cute” but if you’re interested in keeping visitors at your website and want to portray a professional look do EVER use them. Take a look at GameQuarium.com.

Writing For Search Engines

Don’t get me wrong, writing for search engines is important but not like in the sense that a visitor to your website is unable to make out the content or easily navigate. Take look at LanyardSupply.com, I’m sure that they are a great website that offers great products, great service and great prices but their website was written for search engines. I’m sure that I don’t need to explain this one much more.

Not Planning For Older Technology

I could break this up into a few categories but I said that this was 5 popular mistakes, not 10. The thing about this mistake is that people think that everyone has kept up with the latest technologies. There is a huge population of users that still have dial-up and very small monitors.

You need to take this into consideration when you’re developing your site in regards to the amount and size of graphics on your website as people with dial-up service could leave your site before even seeing what you have to offer because your site takes too long to load.

In regards to small monitors, if you don’t plan the size of your website those with smaller monitors will have the horizontal scroll on the bottom of their monitor which is a big no-no.

In Conclusion

I could go on and on about web design mistakes to avoid but this is a nice place to start. As you build more websites you’ll find that there are certain things that you should avoid and learn from those mistakes.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

In today’s internet market it’s extremely difficult to start a new website in a market that’s competitive. With the larger companies able to spend so much money on marketing it’s important to find a market that they overlook or simply aren’t interested in

Niche marketing is the method of focusing on a specific portion of an industry or service. The idea is to focus on a product or service that the main street companies aren’t actively pursuing. The demand may not be as big but it’s a market that’ll allow you to compete without the large marketing budget.

What Is An Example Of A Niche Market

Finding a niche market is easier than you may think. The example that I’m going to give you is a very seasonal niche market but it’s a niche market just the same.

I was searching for a Christmas related domain and found that the domain name ChristmasToiletPaper.com had just been released. I did a bit of research on WordTracker and found that during the Christmas season it was actually something that many people searched for so I registered the domain name.

I think use The Drop Ship Directory and found a wholesale provider and I was instantly in the Christmas Toilet Paper business. I know it sounds funny if not extremely odd but it’s a market that had demand during a certain season and there was virtually no-one offering a decent website offering the product.

Benefits Of Niche Marketing

The obvious benefit is that the ‘big guys’ aren’t spending their large advertising dollars on niche markets. They focus on the mainstreet products. Think of it this way although Apple sells accessories for their iPods & Macs the lion’s share of their advertising goes to marketing the actual iPods & Macs, not the smaller accessories.

Another benefit is the lack of competition, like I mentioned above, there is a seasonal demand for Christmas Toilet Paper but not enough to get a lot of websites interested in it. This makes optimizing for search engines much easier along with making any Pay Per Click advertising much more affordable.

Hopefully this helps in your search for product or services to offer online.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com