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If you've ever wanted to sell a digital product online you've quite possibly been overwhelmed at the required steps necessary to do so. That's where Payloadz comes in. If you've only got one or two digital items to sell and a mainstream shopping cart system would be overkill, Payloadz is the perfect alternative.
Payloadz offers a free account you can use while starting up that is totally free up to $50 in sales per month. Once you've capped out with the $50 you can move up to an unlimited account for $14.99 (at the time of this writing).
If you're brand new to eCommerce the idea of setting up a Paypal account might be a little scary. Have no fear, you can do it with ease. Paypal really does succeed in making the "setup" process safe and secure. 
Your reader has arrived and you're wondering, OK, how do I use this thing? There are several tips & tricks I will show you about about the application, your reader, and what to expect if say your first transaction seems to be "processing" for about a millennium while say your first customer stares at you with skeptical eyes. Don't worry. These things don't necessarily happen often but it's comforting to know that Square still has your peace of mind at the top of its core values.
If you've placed an order for your complimentary Square card reader within the past several months, then you should expect to receive the latest operating model of the hardware. You've by now already installed the app on your mobile device and setup your personal account, linked a bank account to the backend as well, and are ready to swipe.
Setting up your Square account is smooth, easy, and simple.
Setting up entails adding your Twitter handle, email and phone number for tech support, and of course, your top secret bank account.
Yes, to use Square you must add a bank account in order for your funds to be deposited on behalf of the card payments you accept. Square reserves the right to debit this account to process a refund or hold funds when a payment is disputed.
Why not take card payments with your mobile device?
You may have PayPal, virtual terminal or another transaction software but what about on your shiny new iPhone or Android? Meet Square. What is Square? Smooth. Even. Steady. Square is a credit card reader and merchant account all-in-one service directly in the palm of your hand. You know – that little white thing, which plugs into your phone's stereo headphone port, littering the New York Times and countless Tech feeds. Oh and didn't that Twitter guy start it?
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A strong domain name powerfully impacts online marketing efforts. Using a keyword-rich domain name, for example, has been proven time and again to positively impact search engine optimization efforts.
And now, a recent study indicates that a keyword-rich domain name may also lower the cost per click that advertisers pay in online advertising platforms like Google AdWords.
Strong, memorable domain names also heavily influence direct or type-in traffic as the easier a domain is to remember, the greater chance a customer will be able to recall it to type in the browser to find you.
So what goes into a good domain name?
There are five key elements to consider when selecting a domain name to best suit your ecommerce endeavor. They are:
- Memorability: As mentioned above, a domain name that is short and specific is likely to be remembered by potential customers who hear it in passing or see it briefly in a print or tv ad. This is also why choosing a .com and avoiding the use of hyphens in domain names is critical.
You did it! The store is up and running. How is your store doing? How many people are visiting? Where are those visitors coming from and which pages are they viewing? Are people just visiting once or are they returning?
It ends up there is quite a bit to consider beyond sales and profit in an ecommerce store. We all have to start somewhere when it comes to website analytics so today we will touch on how to get started. There are a number of companies that offer analytics each with their pros and cons. Today will be discussing Google analytics since it is free and widely used. The fact that a product is popular is beneficial since you can often find answers with a bit of searching.
Step 1: Create or login into your Google Account
If you have an Google account then go to: http://www.google.com/analytics/ and you will be able to log in. If not sign up and complete the registration information. You will receive a confirmation email, which may end up in your spam box so keep an eye for that.
After signing in you will need to enter your website that you would like tracked, create an account name (usually people use the website as the name so it is easy to keep track of) and location. This is followed by entering your name, phone number and location followed by agreeing to terms of service. This is followed by creating an account afterwhich you will be shown a snippet of javascript code.
Is Your Domain Name Free to Use?
Failure to give consideration to legalities could end up costing you thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of work. The good news, due diligence with regard to website (and small business) legalities does not cost more than a few minutes of your time. The most important website legality is checking your domain name against trademark and branding use.
What’s In A Trade Marked Name?
Consider a true story. A small new company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA picked a name for their business that reflected their business ideals. Their company originally was small and only served a small market.
Then their market grew and their business grew. They grew so much that they created a catalog and started a national marketing campaign. Of course, since they started to get noticed, it was only a matter of time that someone else noticed. That someone was the company that owned the trademark for the same name that they choose for their business.
They had just spent several thousands of dollars on the catalog, marketing and even a website. All of this had to be changed because of a letter that came in the mail. It was called a Cease and Desist letter. It was from a lawyer and it said that they had to stop using the business name that rightfully and legally belonged to someone else.
With the plethora of publicly licensed, Open Source software available these days, it's a waste of your time and money to build a website from scratch. With the right information and a little research you can usually knock weeks off the launch date, and save thousands of dollars and the construction steps below can help you do it.
Step 1
Know your business functions – Just as you would with a physical space, you need to think about how staff and customers will interact with the virtual space you're about to build. Your focus, in these early stages of construction should be on managing content, catalog and check-out process.
Because no matter how beautiful your site is, or how well the content is written, you don't want a poorly functioning shopping cart as a first impression.
If your business model is unique, you may have special requirements for customer interactions or on the admin side of things. Ask yourself if you need certain staff members to have access to some functions but not others? Do customers get paid for referrals? What about coupons, time sensitive deals, digital downloads, or the ability to print shipping labels?
This is also a good time to determine what the primary role of your site will be. Is it a shopping cart and you'd like to blog sometimes? Or is it a blog and you'd like to sell a few things or something else entirely.
Read more: Save Time and Money on Your Website––Beginning With the finishing touches.
With tons of eCommerce Platforms out there to choose from, we wanted to bring you an inside look and 'how-to-set-up' behind the scenes view of some of the more popular platforms to choose from. The first in this series is provided to us by our friends over at WePay. Before we hit the instructions for setting up a store with them, they have provided some information about their platform. Enjoy everyone — JP
WePay is dedicated to providing simple and painless ways for anyone to collect money online. Whether you’re sending bills, selling tickets, collecting donations or building a store, WePay makes it simple, quick and is here to help. Now, with WePay Stores, merchants can be up and running with an online storefront in less than a minute. No merchant account is necessary. Also, it’s free to set up a store, WePay charges no set-up, insertion or monthly fees – only 3.5% per sale.
Here are some other features of WePay stores:
- Online Store: No need to have your own website; Set up a simple online store on WePay.
- "Buy Now" Button and Widgets: Sell items from your own blog or website with a button or embeddable widget.
- Spread the word: Tell customers about your store via Facebook, Twitter or email.
- Customization: Set price, available quantity, details, and custom selections for your items.
- Debit card: order a debit card linked to your account for instant access to your funds
Read more: Build an Online Store in Under a Minute and Start Making Money Today with WePay
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