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Hub You - Ecommerce: Merchant Account and Credit Card Processing
Creating a Work Environment That Works
Whether you are working at home, in the office, or in your car -- your ability to produce results with the least amount of stress, is directly affected by your physical environment. A functional desk that is ugly can be as much of a deterrent to productivity as a beautiful desk that is not functional. I have spent over twenty years with people working in their homes, offices and cars. One thing has become vehemently clear. Your desk can be your greatest enemy or your best friend.Take a good look at your desk. How does it make you feel? Are you comfortable there? Can you do what you need to do there easily? How does it look to other people? Does it reflect the message you want to give to the world about your work and your values?Analyze the kinds of activities you need or want to do at your desk. If you use a computer, an L-shape desk is usually the best option. Use the short end of the “L” for your computer, and the long end for desk accessories, your telephone, and spreading out papers while you are w
chant account provider you use. For instance, let’s say you have a transaction rate of $0.25 and a discount rate of 2.5%. If you have a product that you sell for $10 from your website, each time the product is purchased you will receive $10 deposited into your account. You will also be charged $0.25 for the transaction, and $0.25 discount rate (computed at the end of the month). That’s a total of $0.50 in fees for the $10 sale of your product.
Whether you are working at home, in the office, or in your car -- your ability to produce results with the least amount of stress, is directly affected by your physical environment. A functional desk that is ugly can be as much of a deterrent to productivity as a beautiful desk that is not functional. I have spent over twenty years with people working in their homes, offices and cars. One thing has become vehemently clear. Your desk can be your greatest enemy or your best friend.Take a good look at your desk. How does it make you feel? Are you comfortable there? Can you do what you need to do there easily? How does it look to other people? Does it reflect the message you want to give to the world about your work and your values?Analyze the kinds of activities you need or want to do at your desk. If you use a computer, an L-shape desk is usually the best option. Use the short end of the “L” for your computer, and the long end for desk accessories, your telephone, and spreading out papers while you are w
Most merchant account providers will impose a monthly base (minimum) fee for the account. Let’s say the base fee is $15. This base rate is an either/or charge, meaning you are charged that amount unless your discount rate and per transaction fee amount to more than the base amount.
For example, through the course of business, you sell your $10 product to 20 buyers. At the discount rate and per transaction rate used above ($0.25 transaction and 2.5% discount), your fees amount to $10 on $300 ($10 x 30) in sales. Since this amount is less than the base rate ($15
Affiliate Marketing: Electronic Word of Mouth
Does that sound too good to be true? Welcome to the world of affiliate marketing.Affiliate marketing holds interesting possibilities for entrepreneurs like you who want to try a new business option. Almost anyone who sells online has an affiliate marketing program to help expand their business. This article will give you a few tips on how to improve your chances of success as an affiliate.What is affiliate marketing? In simple words it’s what you get paid (also called “referral fee”) for directing visitors to your website to other merchants’ sites. Compensation is based on the value of each visit, and could take the form of a pay per click or a commission for each sale.This might shake you up, but according to a study by research firm Forrester, affiliate marketing earnings were worth over US$ 50 billion in 2005. We see we’ve got your attention. Read on to find out how you can get a share of those billions.1. Test the waters: You must know a program and its underlying products inside out before s
Having an online business that takes in money over the internet requires the ability to accept credit cards directly from your website. This is commonly known as “ecommerce”, or electronic commerce. This tutorial will help explain all there is to know about processing credit cards over the internet.
Does that sound too good to be true? Welcome to the world of affiliate marketing.Affiliate marketing holds interesting possibilities for entrepreneurs like you who want to try a new business option. Almost anyone who sells online has an affiliate marketing program to help expand their business. This article will give you a few tips on how to improve your chances of success as an affiliate.What is affiliate marketing? In simple words it’s what you get paid (also called “referral fee”) for directing visitors to your website to other merchants’ sites. Compensation is based on the value of each visit, and could take the form of a pay per click or a commission for each sale.This might shake you up, but according to a study by research firm Forrester, affiliate marketing earnings were worth over US$ 50 billion in 2005. We see we’ve got your attention. Read on to find out how you can get a share of those billions.1. Test the waters: You must know a program and its underlying products inside out before s
The Basics
Terms to Know:
• Shopping Cart: An online application that collects all your products and gets them ready for checkout, passing the information about the transaction to the payment gateway.
• Merchant Account: The bank or financial institution that actually processes and handles the transaction of debiting one account and crediting another.
• Payment Gateway: The program or application that communicates between the website and merchant account, verifying the credit card information and executing the transaction.
• Web Hosting: Serving your website or web page from a web server to any requesting client browser.
• Secured Socket Layer (SSL): The process by which information is securely exchanged between the web server and the client browser. 128-bit encryption is the most secure.
• Secure Certificate: A certificate of authentication that assures website visitors that the website being used is safe, secure and tested and up-to-date.
• IP Address (internet protocol address): The physical, numerical address that is associated with the domain name. There are two types of IP addresses:
1. Static IP: There is one IP address that is associated with a domain name, and it never changes.
2. Dynamic IP: The IP address can change at any time, depending on the need and whenever necessary, as determined by the hosting company.
There are 3 things required for credit card processing:
1. A web hosting account with a static IP address
2. A merchant account with a reputable company
3. A current, secure SSL certificate
Web Hosting
There are many web hosting companies that operate online, and choosing one is not too difficult. However, there are a couple requirements that you need to look for when choosing your company. The hosting account must have a static IP address because a secure SSL certificate is required when transferring confidential information over the internet through the payment gateway.
Merchant Account
A merchant account is required for credit card processing because this is how the payment will be processed; money must be taken out the buyer’s account and deposited into the seller’s account. The merchant account is the generic name for the process by which all transactions are handled. This is explained in detail:
1. The website visitor selects the product or service to purchase and initiates the sale.
2. The website takes the visitor to secure area of website (with gold lock on bottom of browser) and requests payment information (credit card info).
3. The visitor completes the required information and clicks ‘submit’.
4. The information is sent securely through the payment gateway for the information to be verified as valid or invalid.
5. After verifying the accuracy of the credit card information, the transaction amount is debited from the buyers account (bank or credit card) and deposited into the seller’s bank account.
6. The buyer receives a payment confirmation via the website.
Account Fees & Charges:
There are two basic charges associated with a merchant account. These are:
• Administrative Fee: This is usually a monthly fee that is assessed for all administrative fees.
• Discount Rate: This is a fee (percentage based) that is imposed based on the total amount of the sale.
• Per Transaction: This is a payment gateway fee that is charged with each transaction that comes from your website.
The way this fee system works is the same, no matter what merchant account provider you use. For instance, let’s say you have a transaction rate of $0.25 and a discount rate of 2.5%. If you have a product that you sell for $10 from your website, each time the product is purchased you will receive $10 deposited into your account. You will also be charged $0.25 for the transaction, and $0.25 discount rate (computed at the end of the month). That’s a total of $0.50 in fees for the $10 sale of your product.
Most merchant account providers will impose a monthly base (minimum) fee for the account. Let’s say the base fee is $15. This base rate is an either/or charge, meaning you are charged that amount unless your discount rate and per transaction fee amount to more than the base amount.
For example, through the course of business, you sell your $10 product to 20 buyers. At the discount rate and per transaction rate used above ($0.25 transaction and 2.5% discount), your fees amount to $10 on $300 ($10 x 30) in sales. Since this amount is less than the base rate ($15)
Why Thinking Is Too Important To Be Left Only To Management
In creating "flow manufacturing" or just in time manufacturing the idea at Toyota was to make sure the flow was hardly ever broken or interrupted. After all the idea was to maximize on production and the way to do this was to keep an assembly line moving.For this reason a worker's main responsibility appears to be to work and not to think when they are supposed to be keeping production moving.However a worker on the plant floor has another much more significant role to play other than just “do the work”. They are also expected to be problem solvers and performance improvers.What this means is that when there is a problem on the assembly line, rather than just keep on working for the sake of keeping the assembly line moving, a worker has the power to stop the line. They are then supposed to think of a solution, implement it and then get the line moving again. This greatly limits waste from units being rejected by quality control later and eliminates the need to keep extra material on site to use for the ma
• Secured Socket Layer (SSL): The process by which information is securely exchanged between the web server and the client browser. 128-bit encryption is the most secure.In creating "flow manufacturing" or just in time manufacturing the idea at Toyota was to make sure the flow was hardly ever broken or interrupted. After all the idea was to maximize on production and the way to do this was to keep an assembly line moving.For this reason a worker's main responsibility appears to be to work and not to think when they are supposed to be keeping production moving.However a worker on the plant floor has another much more significant role to play other than just “do the work”. They are also expected to be problem solvers and performance improvers.What this means is that when there is a problem on the assembly line, rather than just keep on working for the sake of keeping the assembly line moving, a worker has the power to stop the line. They are then supposed to think of a solution, implement it and then get the line moving again. This greatly limits waste from units being rejected by quality control later and eliminates the need to keep extra material on site to use for the ma
• Secure Certificate: A certificate of authentication that assures website visitors that the website being used is safe, secure and tested and up-to-date.
• IP Address (internet protocol address): The physical, numerical address that is associated with the domain name. There are two types of IP addresses:
1. Static IP: There is one IP address that is associated with a domain name, and it never changes.
2. Dynamic IP: The IP address can change at any time, depending on the need and whenever necessary, as determined by the hosting company.
There are 3 things required for credit card processing:
1. A web hosting account with a static IP address
2. A merchant account with a reputable company
3. A current, secure SSL certificate
Web Hosting
There are many web hosting companies that operate online, and choosing one is not too difficult. However, there are a couple requirements that you need to look for when choosing your company. The hosting account must have a static IP address because a secure SSL certificate is required when transferring confidential information over the internet through the payment gateway.
Merchant Account
A merchant account is required for credit card processing because this is how the payment will be processed; money must be taken out the buyer’s account and deposited into the seller’s account. The merchant account is the generic name for the process by which all transactions are handled. This is explained in detail:
1. The website visitor selects the product or service to purchase and initiates the sale.
2. The website takes the visitor to secure area of website (with gold lock on bottom of browser) and requests payment information (credit card info).
3. The visitor completes the required information and clicks ‘submit’.
4. The information is sent securely through the payment gateway for the information to be verified as valid or invalid.
5. After verifying the accuracy of the credit card information, the transaction amount is debited from the buyers account (bank or credit card) and deposited into the seller’s bank account.
6. The buyer receives a payment confirmation via the website.
Account Fees & Charges:
There are two basic charges associated with a merchant account. These are:
• Administrative Fee: This is usually a monthly fee that is assessed for all administrative fees.
• Discount Rate: This is a fee (percentage based) that is imposed based on the total amount of the sale.
• Per Transaction: This is a payment gateway fee that is charged with each transaction that comes from your website.
The way this fee system works is the same, no matter what merchant account provider you use. For instance, let’s say you have a transaction rate of $0.25 and a discount rate of 2.5%. If you have a product that you sell for $10 from your website, each time the product is purchased you will receive $10 deposited into your account. You will also be charged $0.25 for the transaction, and $0.25 discount rate (computed at the end of the month). That’s a total of $0.50 in fees for the $10 sale of your product.
Most merchant account providers will impose a monthly base (minimum) fee for the account. Let’s say the base fee is $15. This base rate is an either/or charge, meaning you are charged that amount unless your discount rate and per transaction fee amount to more than the base amount.
For example, through the course of business, you sell your $10 product to 20 buyers. At the discount rate and per transaction rate used above ($0.25 transaction and 2.5% discount), your fees amount to $10 on $300 ($10 x 30) in sales. Since this amount is less than the base rate ($15
Looking for a Real Internet Business? Read On!
Everyone dreams of working from home. Nowadays, with the booming popularity of the Internet and computers, it's become a little easier to realize that dream. Opportunities abound to make real money without leaving the shelter of your own house. What's more, many work-from-home jobs require a minimum of effort on your part. But the situation is definitely "Worker Beware." The truth is, many Internet businesses don't deliver what they promise. While they're not exactly scams, what they don't tell you is the multiple steps involved in actually making income. Often, the money has to travel through several levels of a pyramid before it reaches you- and if it gets there at all, it's certainly not the thousands that you were promised. At other times, you may be able to make a lot of money working from home-but the position requires lots of exhausting phone calls and self-promotion. You may have to sell a certain amount of product or information before you can even begin turning a profit. And in the meantime,
ting
Everyone dreams of working from home. Nowadays, with the booming popularity of the Internet and computers, it's become a little easier to realize that dream. Opportunities abound to make real money without leaving the shelter of your own house. What's more, many work-from-home jobs require a minimum of effort on your part. But the situation is definitely "Worker Beware." The truth is, many Internet businesses don't deliver what they promise. While they're not exactly scams, what they don't tell you is the multiple steps involved in actually making income. Often, the money has to travel through several levels of a pyramid before it reaches you- and if it gets there at all, it's certainly not the thousands that you were promised. At other times, you may be able to make a lot of money working from home-but the position requires lots of exhausting phone calls and self-promotion. You may have to sell a certain amount of product or information before you can even begin turning a profit. And in the meantime,
There are many web hosting companies that operate online, and choosing one is not too difficult. However, there are a couple requirements that you need to look for when choosing your company. The hosting account must have a static IP address because a secure SSL certificate is required when transferring confidential information over the internet through the payment gateway.
Merchant Account
A merchant account is required for credit card processing because this is how the payment will be processed; money must be taken out the buyer’s account and deposited into the seller’s account. The merchant account is the generic name for the process by which all transactions are handled. This is explained in detail:
1. The website visitor selects the product or service to purchase and initiates the sale.
2. The website takes the visitor to secure area of website (with gold lock on bottom of browser) and requests payment information (credit card info).
3. The visitor completes the required information and clicks ‘submit’.
4. The information is sent securely through the payment gateway for the information to be verified as valid or invalid.
5. After verifying the accuracy of the credit card information, the transaction amount is debited from the buyers account (bank or credit card) and deposited into the seller’s bank account.
6. The buyer receives a payment confirmation via the website.
Account Fees & Charges:
There are two basic charges associated with a merchant account. These are:
• Administrative Fee: This is usually a monthly fee that is assessed for all administrative fees.
• Discount Rate: This is a fee (percentage based) that is imposed based on the total amount of the sale.
• Per Transaction: This is a payment gateway fee that is charged with each transaction that comes from your website.
The way this fee system works is the same, no matter what merchant account provider you use. For instance, let’s say you have a transaction rate of $0.25 and a discount rate of 2.5%. If you have a product that you sell for $10 from your website, each time the product is purchased you will receive $10 deposited into your account. You will also be charged $0.25 for the transaction, and $0.25 discount rate (computed at the end of the month). That’s a total of $0.50 in fees for the $10 sale of your product.
Most merchant account providers will impose a monthly base (minimum) fee for the account. Let’s say the base fee is $15. This base rate is an either/or charge, meaning you are charged that amount unless your discount rate and per transaction fee amount to more than the base amount.
For example, through the course of business, you sell your $10 product to 20 buyers. At the discount rate and per transaction rate used above ($0.25 transaction and 2.5% discount), your fees amount to $10 on $300 ($10 x 30) in sales. Since this amount is less than the base rate ($15
Have You Met Seymour Yet?
Sooner or later every salesperson meets Seymour. Actually he spells his name Seemore. He needs to see more and more and more. He never buys, but he needs to see more.Are you spending too much time with a Seemore? Do you have a lot of Seemores in your territory?How can you identify a Seemore quickly and easily? What can you do with him once you have identified him? And, how can you avoid him in the future?Seemores come in all shades, ages, sexes, colors and sizes. They do have one thing in common, however – they never buy. They waste a lot of your time and corporate resources, but they never give you an order. And be thankful they don’t. If they did, they would still want to see more throughout the relationship. One way to quickly identify a Seemore is his interest in brochures, demonstrations, references – just lots of stuff. In some cases, a genuine prospect will want to see some of this, but a Seemore wants everything.One way to treat a Seemore, when you begin to feel you are dealing with one,
3. The visitor completes the required information and clicks ‘submit’.Sooner or later every salesperson meets Seymour. Actually he spells his name Seemore. He needs to see more and more and more. He never buys, but he needs to see more.Are you spending too much time with a Seemore? Do you have a lot of Seemores in your territory?How can you identify a Seemore quickly and easily? What can you do with him once you have identified him? And, how can you avoid him in the future?Seemores come in all shades, ages, sexes, colors and sizes. They do have one thing in common, however – they never buy. They waste a lot of your time and corporate resources, but they never give you an order. And be thankful they don’t. If they did, they would still want to see more throughout the relationship. One way to quickly identify a Seemore is his interest in brochures, demonstrations, references – just lots of stuff. In some cases, a genuine prospect will want to see some of this, but a Seemore wants everything.One way to treat a Seemore, when you begin to feel you are dealing with one,
4. The information is sent securely through the payment gateway for the information to be verified as valid or invalid.
5. After verifying the accuracy of the credit card information, the transaction amount is debited from the buyers account (bank or credit card) and deposited into the seller’s bank account.
6. The buyer receives a payment confirmation via the website.
Account Fees & Charges:
There are two basic charges associated with a merchant account. These are:
• Administrative Fee: This is usually a monthly fee that is assessed for all administrative fees.
• Discount Rate: This is a fee (percentage based) that is imposed based on the total amount of the sale.
• Per Transaction: This is a payment gateway fee that is charged with each transaction that comes from your website.
The way this fee system works is the same, no matter what merchant account provider you use. For instance, let’s say you have a transaction rate of $0.25 and a discount rate of 2.5%. If you have a product that you sell for $10 from your website, each time the product is purchased you will receive $10 deposited into your account. You will also be charged $0.25 for the transaction, and $0.25 discount rate (computed at the end of the month). That’s a total of $0.50 in fees for the $10 sale of your product.
Most merchant account providers will impose a monthly base (minimum) fee for the account. Let’s say the base fee is $15. This base rate is an either/or charge, meaning you are charged that amount unless your discount rate and per transaction fee amount to more than the base amount.
For example, through the course of business, you sell your $10 product to 20 buyers. At the discount rate and per transaction rate used above ($0.25 transaction and 2.5% discount), your fees amount to $10 on $300 ($10 x 30) in sales. Since this amount is less than the base rate ($15
Try to Keep Politics Out of the Decision Process
There are many factors that influence the decision process when managing (change). The amount of participation around an issue is one. The choice in favour a gradual or radical pace of the process is another. This topic is about whether you can control the problem with a technical and or economical solution or that the solution is very much influenced by a social and political environment.To define the quality of a solution is a normative practice. Yet any thorough technical or economical solution for a problem would normally qualify to obtain a quality norm. But what if the solution is the result of a social or political outcome?Remember the issue with the disposal of the Brent Spar ten years ago. This was an oil platform which economic life had ended. The initial approach to solve the storage of this platform (the problem) was to let it sink in the see. Technically and economically the best solution. Yet, this became a public issue and the Oil Company needed to search for another solution (the dismantling of t
chant account provider you use. For instance, let’s say you have a transaction rate of $0.25 and a discount rate of 2.5%. If you have a product that you sell for $10 from your website, each time the product is purchased you will receive $10 deposited into your account. You will also be charged $0.25 for the transaction, and $0.25 discount rate (computed at the end of the month). That’s a total of $0.50 in fees for the $10 sale of your product.
There are many factors that influence the decision process when managing (change). The amount of participation around an issue is one. The choice in favour a gradual or radical pace of the process is another. This topic is about whether you can control the problem with a technical and or economical solution or that the solution is very much influenced by a social and political environment.To define the quality of a solution is a normative practice. Yet any thorough technical or economical solution for a problem would normally qualify to obtain a quality norm. But what if the solution is the result of a social or political outcome?Remember the issue with the disposal of the Brent Spar ten years ago. This was an oil platform which economic life had ended. The initial approach to solve the storage of this platform (the problem) was to let it sink in the see. Technically and economically the best solution. Yet, this became a public issue and the Oil Company needed to search for another solution (the dismantling of t
Most merchant account providers will impose a monthly base (minimum) fee for the account. Let’s say the base fee is $15. This base rate is an either/or charge, meaning you are charged that amount unless your discount rate and per transaction fee amount to more than the base amount.
For example, through the course of business, you sell your $10 product to 20 buyers. At the discount rate and per transaction rate used above ($0.25 transaction and 2.5% discount), your fees amount to $10 on $300 ($10 x 30) in sales. Since this amount is less than the base rate ($15), you will be charged the base rate for the month. However, if you sell your $10 product to 90 buyers, your fees amount to $45 dollars for the month. Since your fees amount to more than the base rate ($45 vs. $15), you will be charged $45 on $900 in sales.
Types of Transactions
There are two basic types of transactions when purchasing goods or services online:
1. One-time Purchase
2. Recurring Subscription
Most online stores and catalogs deal with ‘one-time’ purchases, meaning you find a product online and purchase it. After confirmation of sale, this ends the relationship between buyer and seller.
The other type, ‘recurring subscription’, is based on interval billing. This type of purchase can be for membership fees, or for any other type of fee that is billed on intervals.
Payment Gateway
The payment gateway is an application that you integrate into your website. Most payment gateways have an API that allows for easy, seamless integration into your website, meaning the user’s experience on your website remains consistent, even through the credit card processing phase. The payment gateway is responsible for validating the credit card information provided, such as address verification and security code matching. There are many payment gateways available on the market, but to ensure compatibility, it’s recommended that you use the one provided at the time of your merchant account setup.
SSL Certificate
The secure digital certificate validates the site as being secure, letting the buyer know that the information exchanged over the internet will be sent using the best possible encryption. In other words, the personal, confidential information sent will be scrambled to avoid interception by a 3rd party and used fraudulently. An SSL certificate requires a static IP address, but does not have to be associated with your website. You can link the transaction to another website (sharing a certificate) to handle the transaction. However, it is recommended that your website have its own static IP and secure certificate to maintain site continuity. Think of it this way; you're at the supermarket, and when you go to checkout, you are either taken across the street to handle the transaction, or the transaction can be handled at the store you're currently at. Basically, it looks more professional to process the transaction immediately, rather than take the buyer somewhere else.
In Conclusion
That is what merchant accounts are all about. All merchant accounts operate on the same guidelines, and determining which merchant account you want to conduct business with is up to you. The main things to consider are the per transaction fee, discount rate and base monthly rate. Make certain that the merchant account provider you are going to use is a top-tier provider, meaning the company is the actual processor, and not a reseller of another provider. This is important when it comes to the fees and customer service for your account.
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