But as it turns out, 99% of all MLM sales representatives lose money, making “even gambling look like a safe bet in comparison.” And that’s coming straight from the Federal Trade Commission: not a random website, not someone’s opinion, but an actual government agency with access to a ton of honest-to-goodness data. (Crazy, right?)

It doesn’t matter whether it’s Young Living, doTERRA, Rodan and Fields, Avon, Plexus, Melaleuca, Amway, Herbalife, Scentsy, Beachbody, Advocare, Mary Kay, Primerica, Younique, Arbonne, Monat, Petra, Stella and Dot, Lularoe, It Works!, or any of the similar companies out there, the odds of success with an MLM company are virtually zero.

Call them network marketing, direct sales, or MLMs. Companies like these should be considered pyramid schemes, plain and simple. These jobs set people up to fail.

That said — there are real ways to make some extra money online. Here are a few.

1. If you were considering selling beauty products like Avon, Mary Kay, Younique, Rodan and Fields, and Monat…

Photo credit.

How about teaching beauty on social media?

Choose a unique angle– like beauty for fair skin, or eco-conscious beauty, or beauty tricks for “lazy people.” Then create makeup tutorials and product reviews targeted specifically for this group.

First, you’ll make videos and post them YouTube. Then you can share clips and stills from the video on Instagram. Over time, with research and trial and error, you can develop a following on both channels.

In regards to income, you can make money through things like:

• Ads on your YouTube channel
• Paid posts on Instagram
• Affiliate relationships with beauty brands
• One-on-one video chat consulting for women who have makeup conundrums, want looks tailored just for them, need advice for an upcoming event, etc.
• Info products like e-books and video courses on beauty topics

2. If you were considering selling fashion like Stella and Dot and Lularoe…

Photo credit.

You have an eye. Maybe you could sell design or photography?

The Fiverr online marketplaces makes it very easy to sell services like graphic design, writing, translation, and more. You can sell an easy gig for $5 or set your price as high as you like.

Another option is to sell photography to stock photo sites such as Twenty20. Just be mindful of photographing beloved family members for your stock images, as photos can end up being used for all kinds of commercial purposes that you or they might not like (think: ads for adult diapers, images accompanying unsavory news stories, etc.)

3. If you were considering selling scented products like Young Living, doTERRA, Arbonne, and Scentsy…

Photo credit.

Why not sell an e-course or book about aromatherapy (or anything else that interests you)?

First, imagine a unique niche like “aromatherapy for women with high-stress jobs.” This will help you stand out from everything else out there.

There’s a ton of how-to videos online for making your own online course, but it all typically starts with setting up a basic website.

You can get one cheaply by signing up with Bluehost (the no-bells-and-whistles plan), then taking advantage of their 1-click WordPress install. Finally, here’s a video that will you teach you how to use your new website!

You may also consider publishing a book on Amazon; it’s easier than you think!

4. If you were considering selling wellness supplements like Plexus, Melaleuca, Herbalife, Beachbody, and Advocare…

Photo credit.

Why not review wellness products on a money-making affiliate blog?

Consider writing blogs such as “My Review of the 10 Most Popular Protein Powders on Amazon.”

If there’s anything people like better than a good wellness success story, it’s a good success story in-the-making. And it’s easier than ever to tell yours while helping others, linking to good products, and making some money in the process.

To create a blog, just sign up with Bluehost (the no-bells-and-whistles plan), then take advantage of their 1-click WordPress install. Finally, here’s a video that will you teach you how to use your new website!

There’s tons of information online about how to use a WordPress blog and drive traffic from search engines.

In regards to monetizing, you can earn through things like:

• Becoming an Amazon affiliate (such that you get a cut from any sales you send their way)
• Info products like e-books, diet plans, etc.
• Google Adsense advertising on your site

5. More rapid-fire ideas!

Photo credit.

• Complete odd jobs online via Mechanical Turk
• Don’t need to be at home all day? Try dog walking through smartphone apps like Rover or Wag
• Drive for Uber or Lyft
• Deliver food via Uber Eats or Postmates
• Grocery shop for others through Instacart
• Clean houses through Handy

In Conclusion

If you want to make some money on the side, it will take work and time. And most people don’t replace their full-time income. But I can tell you that making extra money online is possible.

If you were previously considering joining an MLM network marketing or direct sales company, I hope this article has inspired you to seek alternatives.

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

The post 5 Real ‘Work From Home’ Alternatives to Scammy MLMS like Avon, Young Living, Rodan and Fields appeared first on Fairground Media.

When it comes to making your own two-letter logo, you have tons of options. You can connect the letters’ crossbars, combine strokes, use negative space… Not sure what some of those terms mean? The logo designers at Company Folders break it down for you in this handy image.

Read more about designing two-letter logos on their website.

The post 4+ Best Tips For Creating a Letter-Based Logo appeared first on Fairground Media.

This new infographic from Company Folders provides tips that any business– big or small– can use to reimagine their logo successfully.

Read more about redesigning a logo at their website.

The post 7 Great Tips for Redesigning a Logo [Infographic] appeared first on Fairground Media.

If you want your ecommerce store’s branding to emotionally connect with your customer, you first have to understand the psychology of fonts.

For an example, check out this graphic by Company Folders:

Read more about the psychology of fonts at their website.

The post Font Psychology: How Typefaces Hack Our Brains appeared first on Fairground Media.

This new infographic from Company Folders provides tips and ideas related to each of the qualities that a successful logo design must have.

How to Design a Logo

The post How to Design the Perfect Business Logo [Infographic] appeared first on Fairground Media.

• Copy-and-Pastable Buttons – Buttons to add ecommerce functionality to any pre-existing website
• Embedded Shopping Carts – A shopping cart for any pre-existing website which gives the illusion of being on your website when it’s actually hosted by someone else
• Hosted Shopping Carts – A standalone ecommerce website
• WordPress Plugins – Shopping cart plugins to add ecommerce functionality to pre-existing WordPress blogs

Copy-and-Pastable Buttons

Do you have a pre-existing website you would like to start selling from?

If you only have a few products to sell or your stock does not change often, “Buy” or “Add to Cart” buttons might be the quickest and easiest solution for you. Using them is about as simple as copy-and-pasting some code wherever you would like a button displayed.

All the technical aspects– creating the payment form, and ensuring that it is secure– are handled for you, as your customer is taken to the button provider’s site for checkout (this is called “hosted checkout”).

Just keep in mind that product pages are not automatically created for you through this method. You are required to set up the page that sells your product, that you’ll then copy-and-paste the button into.

The table below compares popular services of this kind but does not account for the costs or requirements of your pre-existing domain name, web hosting, and/or website software– just those of the e-commerce functionality you’d be adding.

The PayPal website (paypal.com) says: Finally, a payment gateway and merchant account in one easy solution. It’s all you need for all the ways you do business. Start selling on your website with our secure payment buttons. You can set up your button in about 15 minutes. It involves little more than copying and pasting a few lines of HTML onto your site. Live Example Sites: Nice Ops: Freshly Implemented, Aspire & Grow, Laura C George
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction (Though I always end up paying a few cents more in fees to PayPal than I do with other services claiming the same numbers. Haven’t found anything concrete on this)	Nothing	PayPal’s default button graphic can be replaced with your own custom images However, customers are transferred to the PayPal website for checkout	PayPal is a widely recognized company A lot of people prefer to pay with PayPal (/perceive it as more trust-worthy than other forms of payment)	Again: takes your customer away from your site to checkout Though most businesses have no trouble with PayPal there are a good many horror stories online— mostly in regards to having funds frozen unexpectedly	No	Invoicing Credit card swiping device for in-person sales Subscription functionality (recurring payments) Donation functionality for verified non-profits
The WePay website (wepay.com) says: If you can embed a Youtube video, you can accept payments with WePay. It’s as easy as copy-and-paste. “Add to cart” buttons let you sell multiple items, “donate” buttons help you raise money, and “register” buttons make registration simple. Payments are made on your site. Your customers never have to leave. Just embed the button, and we’ll take care of the rest. Live Example Sites: WePay’s own demo (Best I could find. If you know of one, please let me know so I can feature it.)
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction 1% + 30¢ per bank account transaction	(US residence)	Because checkout takes place in a lightbox overlay on your website (like a popup but not its own window), it doesn’t give your customer the impression that they’ve left your site at all	Checkout is slick and modern Does everything PayPal does, thus making it a viable replacement (for the many people who dislike working with PayPal)	Not all that popular yet, which I suppose is why I couldn’t find any live examples showing the buttons!	No	Invoicing Can take credit card numbers over the phone or in person Subscription functionality (recurring payments) Donation functionality – With a widget to publicly display progress towards a goal Event registration
The E-junkie website (e-junkie.com) says: E-junkie provides shopping cart and buy now buttons to let you sell downloads and tangible goods on your website, eBay, MySpace, Google Base, CraigsList and other websites. For merchants selling downloads, we automate and secure the digital delivery of files and codes. If you are selling tangible goods, we automate the shipping calculation and inventory management. Our shopping cart has a built in sales tax, VAT, packaging and shipping cost calculator. Live Example Sites: Abby Kerr & The Voice Bureau, Hamptons Honey, Virtual Staff Finder
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
$5/month and up (This price is for 10 products and 50MB storage space) PayPal fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	PayPal account	Typically pops up as a lightbox overlay on top of your site when an item is added to cart Using the standard settings, however, it will take your customer to PayPal.com to go through the actual checkout process	Is known for its automated digital goods delivery, though it will work for a mix of digital and physical products	The seller’s admin space is dated-looking Does not connect to many payment gateways other than PayPal	Yes	Built-in affiliate tracking program so that others can promote your products and earn a commission on sales they send your way
The Gumroad website (gumroad.com) says: Creating is hard, selling shouldn’t be. Upload your work and pick a price — and start selling in seconds. Share your product directly with fans and followers. They’ll be two clicks away from buying your work. Sit back and let Gumroad take care of everything else. From the secure payment all the way to the delivery. Live Example Sites: ThinkTraffic (example button in post), Brandiing, CameraSim
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
5% + 25¢ per credit card transaction	Nothing	The whole checkout process takes place in a lightbox overlay on your site, so your customer never has to leave	Delivers digital products expertly Really smooth, professional checkout experience that looks great even without customization	Not for physical products The percentage cut may seem steep depending on how many sales you typically make	Yes	“Pay what you want” functionality Choice between having your link open as an overlay over your site or a separate product page hosted by Gumroad Sales analytics
The Send Owl website (sendowl.com) says: We know what it’s like to be a creative. You want to create products and leave the details of selling online to someone else. And that’s why we created SendOwl – to leave you free to do what you do best. SendOwl securely stores and distributes your files. Files are only released to buyers via a timed or download limited link, the exact details for which you can configure precisely to your needs. There’s no limits on where you can sell your products from, whether that be on your sales website, Facebook or anywhere else. And with the SendOwl checkout buyers are automatically shown pages in their native language. SendOwl is universal and local. Live Example Sites: Etsy Pro, DEG Consulting, Sidestone Press
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
$9/month and up (This price is for 10 products and 1GB storage space) PayPal or Stripe fees: typically 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A PayPal and/or Stripe account	You can enable more than one payment gateway at a time. If you enable checkout with PayPal, your customer may leave to check out at PayPal.com If you enable checkout with Stripe, your customer is taken to a SendOwl page for checkout that you can customize with CSS to match your own site	Advanced features for digital product delivery No added transaction fees on top of PayPal and Stripe’s cut	Not ideal for physical products. Because SendOwl was built for digital delivery, they never worked out some of the kinks with shipping options	Yes	Automatic license key generator for software sellers Product bundles/packages Add email addresses to MailChimp or aWeber lists Subscriptions, PDF protection, and affiliate program included with $15/month accounts and up
The ShopLocket website (shoplocket.com) says: ShopLocket easily drops into any website platform, and can support multiple products. Not to mention it’s fully customizable to suit your design needs. ShopLocket will grow with you from pre-orders to a full shopping cart and is packed with powerful features to support your business. Live Example Sites: Learn to Code Day, Nomiku, Dash Wallets
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
2.5% per credit card transaction PayPal or Stripe fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction OR $99/month PayPal or Stripe fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	PayPal or Stripe account	The entire checkout process takes place in a lightbox overlay on your site, so your customer never leaves your site	Really slick, modern checkout Good for someone selling a mix of physical and digital products	On the expensive side, though if you regularly sell more than $1800/month, you’ll save by switching to the monthly option	Yes	Pre-order functionality Product variants (like sizes and colors) Choice between selling from an overlay on top of your site or a separate page hosted by ShopLocket
The Amazon Payments website (amazonpayments.com) says: Activate a complete checkout flow on your site with a simple HTML button. If you’re selling and shipping goods online and want an easy checkout solution that helps you manage your orders, you can add a button on your site to start accepting Amazon Payments. To get started, register and follow the online instructions that explain how to add our HTML to your site. Live Example Sites: I couldn’t find any! If you know of one, please let me know so I can feature it here.
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
2.9% + 30¢ per transaction over $10 5.0% + 5¢ per transaction under $10	US residence Legal business name	I believe it is a lightbox overlay but am not sure since there is no demo on their website or anywhere I have looked (can someone confirm?)	Fee structure is designed to save you money on small payments (under $10) Customers can choose to check out with their Amazon.com billing and shipping info	Buttons can be used for purchasing one item at a time– no “add to cart” functionality Requires a registered business name Also they hold a small reserve in case of chargebacks	No	Customers can checkout using existing Amazon.com shipping and billing information
The 2checkout website (2checkout.com) says: Online businesses around the world sell more every day with 2Checkout payment processing. We’re here to help you truly “go global” and offer a local buying experience to your customers. Our checkout experience maximizes conversions by adapting to local languages, currencies and payment methods. It also reflects your brand, which buyers trust. Live Example Sites: A screenshot on 2Checkout (Best I could find. If you know of one, please let me know so I can feature it.)
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction in the US 5.5% + 45¢ per transaction for sellers in other countries	Nothing	You can choose between checkout that pops up as an overlay on your own site or a separate checkout page with colors of your choosing	There are a lot of features especially for international sellers, such as a wide variety of language and currency options	Unfortunately,as much as 2Checkout likes to say they have no hidden fees, I don’t find them particular trustworthy International sources online have said it can cost up to 8.5% in fees, and that sometimes another 5% goes into a special reserve that 2Checkout holds onto for a while	No	Invoicing Subscription functionality (recurring payments)

Embedded Shopping Carts (Currently Just One)

Do you have a pre-existing website you would like to start selling from?

If you have a a variety of products to sell (or a stock that changes frequently), an embedded shopping cart might be the quickest and easiest solution for you.

You simply copy-and-paste some code wherever you would like your store displayed on your pre-existing website. Once this code is on your site, an iframe (you may think of it like a window) appears, with your store inside.

This makes it look as though the store is on your website, though technically speaking, the store you see is hosted on someone else’s website. The illusion makes for a completely cohesive design, whereas the hosted checkout means you don’t have to deal with creating a payment form or securing it yourself.

The table below does not account for the costs or requirements of your pre-existing domain name, web hosting, and/or website software– just those of the e-commerce functionality you’d be adding.

The Ecwid website (ecwid.com) says: Free plan is always available. Can be easily integrated to any existing site in minutes. Can be mirrored on many sites at the same time. Add your store to many sites, manage from one place. Run your own store on Facebook, mySpace and many others. Simple to use and maintain both for store owner and for customer. Lightning fast. New-gen technologies make Ecwid much faster than usual shopping carts despite which hosting service you use. Seamless upgrades. Live Example Sites: Hello Magpie, Embe Shop, K&K Broadway
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
FREE for under 10 products or $12.50/month for 100 products, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth payment gateway fees: typically 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	Payment gateway account, such as PayPal	Because the whole shopping experience is embedded right into your own site, your customer never leaves your website	Can simultaneously display store on multiple websites Inexpensive Very fast page load time	Because the store is generated by AJAX code, it is hard to get products indexed in search engines (Instructions here) Also I’m not a huge fan of the way categories are displayed before products– see examples	No	Product variations Stock control Realtime shipping quotes Tracking code on “Thank you for your order” page (Full list here)

Hosted Shopping Carts

A hosted shopping cart is its own standalone website, therefore you’re not required to have a pre-existing one already online.

(However, if you do have a pre-existing site, you can easily make your shop and blog design look reasonably similar and just link them to each other in your navigation bar, so it seems like one cohesive site. For example: Megan Auman – using WordPress and Big Cartel)

How you use your hosted shopping cart account will be similar to how you use your Facebook account– when you sign up, you’ll get a login username and password, and a default website will be there for you to fill in and customize. You never have to see web code if you don’t want to.

With hosted shopping carts, a recurring monthly hosting fee is to be expected.

The Shopify website (shopify.com) says: Shopify is perfect for beginners and experts alike. You don’t need to have any technical or design experience to easily create a beautiful online store. Simply choose a stylish ecommerce website design, easily customize your online store, add products, and you’re pretty much ready to accept payments. Whether you already have products, are looking to sell digital goods or are interested in drop shipping — Shopify has a complete solution for you. Live Example Sites: Magical Game Time, So Worth Loving, CXXVI, Hard Graft, Tattly
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
Domain name $29/month and up (This price is for 100 products, 1GB storage, unlimited bandwidth) 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction	Nothing if you use Shopify’s own payment gateway	Your design is 100% brandable	A reputation for having the most gorgeous e-commerce themes anywhere Slick, modern admin area I see a lot of sellers switch to Shopify after trying other platforms	Doesn’t come with some of the advanced features built-in that others have Add-on apps can become pricey	Yes, with a paid app	Built-in blog functionality Credit card swiping device for in-person sales Analytics (Full list here)
The Big Cartel website (bigcartel.com) says: Big Cartel is a simple shopping cart for artists. It’s easy to use, customizable, and awesome. Who uses Big Cartel? Over 400,000 clothing designers, bands, record labels, jewelry makers, crafters, and other artists. We offer affordable (or free!) pricing plans to fit your needs and budget. We don’t take a cut of your sales. Live Example Sites: Megan Auman Studios, Bandito Design Co, Jessica Hische, Creepy Cute
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
Domain name FREE for under 5 products, with 1 image each, and bigcartel.com URL or $9.99/month and up (This price is for 25 products, 3 images each, your own URL) PayPal fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A PayPal account	Your design is 100% brandable	Very simple and straight-forward Good-looking minimalist free themes that can be customized with HTML/CSS if you like	Limits on number of product images Bare bones store functionality	Yes, beginning at an extra $6/month	Inventory tracking
The Bigcommerce website (bigcommerce.com) says: We have more built-in marketing tools than anyone else, including promotional campaigns, coupons and newsletters. Our clients reign supreme on Google, Yahoo and Bing because their stores are built to rank higher from the start. The second you sign up, you’ll have access to features like SEO, analytics and product reviews. And it’s all included – there are no hidden costs. Live Example Sites: Thirty Seven West, Torie & Howard, Revolution
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
Domain name $24.95/month and up (This price is for 100 products, 1GB storage) Payment gateway fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction	Nothing if you use Bigcommerce’s own payment gateway and shared SSL certificate	Your design is 100% brandable	Most advanced store functionality built-in Beautiful store designs that rival Shopify’s and can be customized with HTML/CSS	Your own SSL certificate costs extra The admin space can be a bit overwhelming I have heard that Bigcommerce was caught employing false advertising / endorsement, which has tainted my opinion of them since :/	Yes	Product image zoom Product reviews Advanced product options Advanced rules to control pricing, weight and availability of products (Full list here)
The IndieMade website (indiemade.com) says: IndieMade offers the simplest, most affordable way for indie entrepreneurs to build an online presence. For a low monthly fee, IndieMade helps crafters, artists, photographers, DIYers, and artisans of all types easily produce creative websites. If you have an email address, you can get your own website, right now, risk free for 30 days. No credit cards. No contracts. Live Example Sites: Jesika Jack, Ear Jeans, Vintage Renewal
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
Domain name $4.95/month for 10 products, 2 images each, indiemade.com URL or $12.95/month for 100 products, 4 images each, your own URL PayPal fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A PayPal account	Your design is 100% brandable	Simple and straightforward Features meant especially for crafters	Template designs are one of the least polished out of the platforms I’ve profiled Limits on number of product images Bare bones store functionality	Yes	Simple blog Image galleries Event calendar
The Storenvy website (storenvy.com) says: Storenvy Stores are a new kind of e-commerce platform. Set up a store in 5 minutes. The Storenvy Store admin panel was designed to be simple and fun to use. We believe you should be able to focus on running a great business, not learning how to use complicated online store software. The Storenvy marketplace is what makes Storenvy Stores truly different. When you list something in your store, it is automatically added to the marketplace where shoppers can discover, share, and buy it without ever visiting your store. Some Storenvy stores have seen more than 50% of their total sales come through the marketplace — over twice as many sales as they would have made on their own. Live Example Sites: Noirlu, Dolly Dynamite, Mucho
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
Domain name FREE if you use a storenvy.com URL or $5/month to use your own URL, unlimited products with 5 images each either way PayPal fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A PayPal account	Your customer is taken to a Storenvy page for checkout— modern and neat, but nonetheless Storenvy-branded	Very inexpensive Free default theme looks great since the last update, plus it can be customized with HTML/CSS Can have your products seen through the attached Storenvy marketplace in addition to having your own branded store website	Not everyone wants their products to show up in a marketplace like Storenvy’s Storenvy-branded checkout Discount codes are an extra $5/month	Yes, with a paid app	“Envy” and “Watch Store” buttons for marketplace shoppers Inventory tracking Facebook store
The Squarespace website (squarespace.com) says: Whether you need simple pages, striking galleries, a professional blog, or an online store, it’s all included with your Squarespace website. Best of all, everything is mobile-ready right from the start. Squarespace powers millions of websites across hundreds of industries for people just like you. Everyone on our Customer Care team is an experienced Squarespace user and works in our office. Nothing is ever outsourced. Live Example Sites: Luke’s Lobster
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
$24/month when purchased for the year, $30/month month-to-month (This price is for unlimited products, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth) Stripe fees: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	US or Canada residence, Stripe account	Your design is 100% brandable	Built for the design-minded with beautiful themes, store templates, free Typekit fonts, in-browser image editor, etc.	Squarespace Commerce is bare bones when it comes to actual store functionality In my research I came across several Squarespace sites linking up a Shopify store instead of using Squarespace Commerce to get more shipping options, etc.	Yes	Full-featured blog Slick gallery displays Portfolio functionality Calendars Free Typekit fonts (Full list here)
The Volusion website (volusion.com) says: Make your site shine in less than sixty seconds by choosing from any of our high-quality ecommerce templates. With a wide variety of free templates to choose from, you’ll have a stylishly professional site that’s sure to impress. Give customers a crystal clear view of your products with our innovative vZoom tool. Highlight all of the colors and textures of your products with our built-in Color Swatch feature. Live Example Sites: Swoon Jewelry Studios, Nalgene, Walls 360, Rosenthal
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
Domain name $15/month and up (This price is for 100 products, 1GB storage) Payment gateway fee: 2.17% per credit card transaction SSL certificate: $79/year	A payment gateway like PayPal unless your application allows you to use Volusion’s An SSL certificate if you don’t want to use Volusion’s shared one	Your design is 100% brandable	Most advanced store functionality built-in The company was one of the original hosted shopping carts	Free templates are not as polished as some other platforms’ The overuse of tables in their web code is out of date and can potentially slow your site down Your own SSL certificate costs extra and it’s a pricey one, there’s a large $99 one-time fee for applying an SSL you bought somewhere else You could potentially rack up extra bandwidth fees if you got a huge surge of traffic, though they are secretive regarding the details of these fees on their public-facing website	No	Product image zoom Advanced product options Daily deals Customer wish lists (Full list here)
The Magento Go website (magentogo.com) says: Build a better online store with the eCommerce platform trusted by more than 150,000 merchants. We know that every business needs to compete effectively online. That’s why we created Magento Go, our hosted eCommerce solution for small businesses with big ambitions. Magento Go offers the power and flexibility of Magento – the platform chosen by many of the world’s most respected brands – at a price that every business can afford. Live Example Sites: Oth, The Grain Mill, Vizi Di Gola
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
Domain name $15/month and up (This price is for 100 products, 200MB storage, 4GB bandwidth) Payment gateway fee: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A payment gateway account like PayPal An SSL certificate if you don’t want to use Magento Go’s shared one	Your design is 100% brandable	Magento is a respected name in e-commerce Lots of advanced features	You’re own SSL certificate costs extra– and the ones they offer are very pricey, $99 fee for buying it somewhere else Magento Go appears at times to possibly be resting on its laurels, because its name comes from one of the world’s most popular enterprise-level shopping carts One of the six real-life example sites on the front page has now switched over to Shopify	No	Product image zoom Advanced discount rules Recently viewed Gift cards (Full list here)

WordPress Plugins

Do you have a pre-existing WordPress website you would like to start selling from?

While copy-and-pastable buttons or an embedded shopping cart might work for you, another option is a shopping cart plugin made specifically for WordPress.

This route works best for those who have a variety of items to sell or a stock that changes frequently, and who don’t mind their ecommerce operation using the same internal WordPress notification and login systems as their blog.

The table below compares popular services of this kind but does not account for the costs or requirements of your pre-existing domain name and web hosting– just those of the e-commerce functionality you’d be adding.

From the Etsy Pro page: Etsy Pro looks + functions with all the professionalism of complicated shopping cart software, but it takes just minutes to install. And it updates as your Etsy shop updates, so there’s no need for upkeep. As an Etsy seller, perhaps you’ve heard all the reasons why you should have your own website independent of Etsy.com, but you just can’t bring yourself to create one since all your products are already displayed on Etsy. The Etsy Pro WordPress plugin can help by streaming your entire Etsy shop onto your WordPress website– even single product pages. Live Example Sites: Pincurl Girls, Betty Octopus, Bundle & Stow
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
$39 one-time flat fee	A live Etsy shop	Streams your Etsy shop items onto your WordPress site, giving them the appearance of being for sale through your own website When a product thumbnail is clicked, a single product page is auto-generated, complete with description text, shipping table, and “Add to Cart” button When the “Add to Cart” button is clicked, the customer is directed to Etsy.com to pay	Copy-and-paste, ready-in-seconds easy A helpful jumpstart for your WordPress site content-wise, so you direct people there instead of to your Etsy.com URL Bridges the gap between needing your own site but not being ready for your own shopping cart yet Updates as your Etsy shop updates Customizable with CSS	Dependent on your Etsy shop to display products	No
The WooCommerce website (woocommerce.com) says: A WordPress eCommerce toolkit that helps you sell anything. Beautifully. Transform your WordPress website into a thorough-bred eCommerce store for free. Delivering enterprise-level quality & features whilst backed by a name you can trust. Say hello to WooCommerce. Live Example Sites: Cozilee, Wise Blue Lotus, Laura C George
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
FREE Payment gateway fees: typically 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A PayPal account	Your design is 100% brandable	Free!? Actively updated by the WooThemes team Gorgeous compatible WordPress themes are available (free and paid) Comes with some pretty thoughtful, detailed features	Getting it to look good can be very easy or very difficult depending on the theme you’re using– must give it a whirl to find out Might be more complex than a lot of sellers need Requires a paid extension and SSL certificate to use a payment gateway other than PayPal A lot of advanced functionality requires paid extensions $50+	Yes	Customer can sort by price, rating, recency, or popularity Stock management Automated thumbnail size options Product ratings Site-wide store notice text Can ensure there’s no way around the secure “https” checkout
The Jigoshop website (jigoshop.com) says: Elegant, lightweight code built upon core WordPress functionality. Detailed order and stock reporting via graphs and dashboard widgets. Add functionality your Jigoshop with our premium themes and extensions. Create a unique store using built in widgets and shortcodes. Attentive Community member forums & Blisteringly quick premium technical support. One-step-checkout, filterable products, bundles of short codes & widgets. Oooh yeah! Live Example Sites: Loot + Law, Mimal’s, Slavna
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
FREE Payment gateway fees: typically 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A payment gateway account like PayPal	Your design is 100% brandable	Can purchase priority support at $39.99/month if you need it They provide a live demo on their site, complete with admin login, so you can kick the tires before you commit	Not compatible with the Disqus comment system or the NIVO slider A lot of advanced functionality requires paid extensions $50+ Isn’t known to well with every WordPress theme out-of-the-box	Yes	Sale scheduling Related products Reviews
The Cart 66 plugin website (cart66.com) says: Cart66 Cloud is more than just a plugin for WordPress. You get a bunch of extra services that make your life so much easier including all the security you need for a safe and PCI compliant WordPress store. You host your own WordPress site on any server you want. Cart66 Cloud will host and secure your customer and e-commerce data. When you use Cart66 Cloud all your sensitive data are safe in your own slice of the ultra secure cloud. So, if your site ever gets hacked, your customer and e-commerce data are never exposed to the hacker. Just restore your WordPress site, reconnect to Cart66 Cloud and you’re back in business! Live Example Sites: Artios, Pure Nintendo, Identity Web Host
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
$25/month or $199/year Payment gateway fees: typically 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A payment gateway account like PayPal	Your design is 100% brandable	Cart66 embeds the checkout pages into your site (so they look like part of your site, even though they are hosted by Cart66)– so you don’t need to worry about an SSL certificate or security of any kind	Not very much information on Cart66’s website about how to customize the cart’s buttons and design elements with HTML/CSS, though it appears possible	Yes	Invoicing Customer follow-up messages Membership Recurring billing
The MarketPress eCommerce plugin website says: MarketPress is the easiest to use, best designed and most powerful ecommerce / shopping cart plugin available for WordPress today. Developed from the ground up to make it simple to set up a stylish online shop, MarketPress has all the features you need, including: Multiple payment gateways, works great with any WordPress theme and looks great with AJAXy goodness, fully internationalized by the WPML crew, sell real objects, or digital downloads (with limits and tracking!), with ease, shipping, coupons, Google Analytics eCommerce, sales pricing, unlimited product variations, and so so much more! Live Example Sites: I couldn’t find any! If you know of one, please let me know so I can feature it here.
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
$19 one-time flat fee Payment gateway fees: Typically 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	Payment gateway account like PayPal	I believe that checkout is a popup overlay over your site	Has a dedicated team of WordPress experts working on the plugin Integrates with the BuddyPress and Multisite plugins– which means you could theoretically build your own marketplace à la Etsy or Ebay if you put all of this software together and had the help of a web developer	I had this plugin a while ago, and it would NOT stop flashing a big red notification in my WordPress admin area telling me to upgrade to an ongoing membership with WPMU Dev. I don’t know if it’s a good service or not, but I found this very misleading since buying the single plugin for a flat fee was the option presented You only get upgrades of the plugin (including bug fixes) for a short period of time when you’re not an ongoing member	Yes	Stock management Customizable URLS Lots of shortcodes, widgets, and customization options that require no coding
The WP e-Commerce website (getshopped.org) says: WP e-Commerce remains the most popular, most robust e-commerce plugin for WordPress and is the ideal way to sell products, downloads or services online. Whether you are setting up a WordPress store for yourself or are a WordPress developer setting up a store for a client, WP e-Commerce offers the most features and capabilities of any store plugin. Start by downloading our plugin for free- fully functional with no limitations. Upgrade if you’d like additional capabilities, display options or premium support. Live Example Sites: Dawn Jackson Blatner, Journeys of the Spirit, lightspeed
Total Cost	Also Requires	Brandability / Professionalism	Main Pros	Main Cons	Automated Digital Product Delivery	Extra Features
FREE to display 1 image per product, $47 for Gold Cart upgrade that allows multiple product images Payment gateway fees: typically 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction	A payment gateway account like PayPal	Your design is 100% brandable	One of the oldest and most well-known e-commerce plugins for WordPress Has a large library of documentation and tutorials	Has a reputation for being a little clunky and a huge hassle to customize, as just HTML/CSS won’t do it– you’ll need some PHP knowledge as well You’ll need an SSL certificate to secure the payment form as it will be on your own site, not theirs	No	Flexible coupon/discount pricing rules Multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts Search Engine Friendly URLs Cross-sells on product pages (Full list here)

Disclaimer

Unfortunately, I can’t guarantee that all of my information is accurate or complete. The last update was made on 9/5/13, though services like these will always be evolving.

I have used affiliate links in this post, so if you sign up for any of these services I will get a commission. Nonetheless, my reviews are always my 100% honest feelings.

Now how about heading home?

The post The Ultimate Ecommerce Platforms Comparison appeared first on Fairground Media.

From the sellers’ perspective, sites like Etsy can be a great place to start– and test– a business with minimal commitment. See if your business concept is one that attracts people. Try out different pricing. Gather information about what does or doesn’t sell.

Further, sites like Etsy can be incredible marketing channels. Driving traffic is a major hardship for most new businesses, but Etsy already gets tons of it.

That’s not to say you get the benefit of Etsy’s traffic without any work at all. You need to be selling something that stands out in the crowd, you need to know how to use keywords, and be able to jump on seasonal trends– since catering to the time of year or pop culture trends will help snag e-mail and front page features.

At least all of the conventional advice says that if you manage to do the above you’ll see success through the site.

1. Why Using Etsy Exclusively is A Mistake

But here’s the thing.

I did some research on the featured sellers from the Etsy blog’s “Quit Your Day Job” posts— the ones that highlight all of Etsy’s most successful sellers.

One by one, I started checking them out, asking lots of questions like: How much $$$ is their average sale? How many sales did they make in the last year? How much money does that add up to? (And what kind of profit might be left after basic costs?) What is this seller doing that most others are not?

Sure, this wasn’t anything close to an exact science. But after putting some time into it, I felt confident enough to draw these conclusions about these Etsy superstars and their respective shops:

• Though the amount of money was usually significant, many of these Etsy sellers (who are described as having quit their day job) were not making anything close to a living wage from their Etsy sales alone.
• Every featured seller had some form of social media presence helping to drive sales.
• Every successful seller profiled owned their own website in addition to their Etsy storefront.

So… in a nutshell, the biggest secret of Etsy’s elite seemed to be that they went beyond the Etsy “walls.”

2. The Non-Negotiable, Controlled-By-You Website

The most important takeaway from this is that every serious Etsy seller has their own website.

Turns out, whether it’s made of up of just a few “about us” pages, a blog, or a full-featured e-commerce store of its own, having your own website in addition to your Etsy shop is key to escaping amateur-ville and becoming a real player.

There are many huge reasons for this beyond the now-obvious “All the cool kids are doing it!” And most of them have to do with simply taking your business seriously enough to think about its future:

• many entirely well-intentioned sellers have had their Etsy shops shut down, without warning or explanation. Having your own website is insurance that your best customers will be able to find you again, even in the chance that your Etsy shop goes MIA.
• Having your own website allows you to build up your SEO (search engine optimization) cred now, so that it will pay off later if/when you decide to move your store away from Etsy or expand into your own e-commerce store. Printing your “your-company-name.com” web address onto all of your marketing materials and generally training potential customers to find you there first is key to this.
• Journalists and their publications take businesses more seriously when they have their own site. Therefore, you’re open to more opportunities for exposure. Not to mention, with your own website at your command, you can carefully craft a “Media” or “Press” page full of all the juicy deets about you, your product, as well as some gorgeous high-res images, to make your business all the more press-ready.
• See a shop with a fiercely loyal following, and I’ll show you an e-mail list. Unfortunately, Etsy doesn’t accommodate the sort of opt-in box you need to collect e-mail addresses from customers in a straight-forward, legal way, so you can’t easily continue contact with them in the future and win their repeat business. Having your own website means you can use opt-in forms wherever and whenever you like.
• Finally, by having your own site, you’re showing contacts you meet in-person and on social media that you are your own brand– not just a minuscule drop in the bucket of Etsy. And from a psychological perspective, that means they’re more likely to remember you and view your goods as high-value.

3. A Fast and Easy “Cheat”

It used to be impossibly difficult to have “the best of both worlds.” That is, an Etsy seller could easily get a simple “about the company” website that links to their Etsy shop. But there wasn’t a way for them to have both an Etsy store and their own website store without putting in a ton of work.

Today, there is one very easy option that I know of.

First, get yourself a pretty blog website by signing up with Bluehost (the no-bells-and-whistles plan), then taking advantage of their 1-click WordPress install.

Second, get the Etsy 360 WordPress plugin. This will quickly stream your entire Etsy shop onto your site, automatically creating individual product pages and everything.

Here’s a quick graphic to better explain what this plugin does:

It’s extremely easy to set up, maintain, and it’s very inexpensive as well. You can learn more about it here.

4. Conclusion

If an Etsy business is the right fit for you, follow the pros’ lead and get yourself hooked up with your own “your-company-name.com” website in addition to your shop. Even if it’s just something simple for the time being.

To explore other ecommerce options beyond Etsy, I suggest you simply head on over to The Ultimate Ecommerce Platform Comparison.

Photo credit: Helga Weber / Flickr

This post contains affiliate links. Rest assured, though, that I don’t recommend any companies that I haven’t used and experienced for myself.

The post Should I Sell On Etsy or My Own Site? appeared first on Fairground Media.

If you’ve dabbled in blogging, you’ve likely heard of it. (It’s widely considered “the standard” for blog sites today.)

I often come across people who started a WordPress blog– crafters, fashion enthusiasts, photographers, etc.– with no intention of selling anything on it, then sometime later they decide to turn their blog into a business.

And often these people feel very confused and conflicted.

Their site has already been built, after all, and they’re comfortable using it, so the thought of learning to use a brand new system like Shopify or BigCommerce totally bites.

The good news, though, is that you can leave your WordPress website alone. There are plenty of options that will let you sell straight from your existing WordPress site, no overhaul required!

Let me lay out some of these options for you below, along with my recommendations for who each one might best serve.

“Buy” Buttons

Do you have only a few items to sell? If so, “Buy” buttons might be for you.

And since using them is as easy as copy-and-pasting some code into your site’s posts or pages, I’d highly recommend this route for anyone who has lost a fight with a shopping cart before.

Going with the “Buy” buttons method means you can add or delete products on-the-fly, without the continued help of your web designer.

Some companies that offer “Buy” buttons are:

• PayPal
• E-Junkie
• WePay

The Shopping Cart with Hosted Checkout

On the other hand, maybe you have more than a few items to sell– such that keeping up with “Buy” buttons would become a real hassle?

Still, you’re not very technical, or the responsibility of website security really terrifies you.

The answer then, I’d say, is to use a shopping cart with hosted checkout.

What this means is you can have the shopping cart appear to be on your website, but the complicated and secure part of the transaction is actually handled on somebody else’s site, so you simply don’t have to worry about it.

Some great companies that offer shopping cart software complete with hosted checkouts:

• e-Junkie
• Ecwid

The Completely Self-Hosted Shopping Cart

The only problem with the above (hosted checkout) method is that you don’t have 100% control over your site’s whole shopping experience. If this bums you out, then the most ideal solution is going to be a fully self-hosted shopping cart.

Given this shopping cart will be hosted completely on your own site, you and/or your web designer can truly customize every pixel as you choose.

The price you pay for total control is that this route is more technical than the others. As long as the credit card payment form is on your own website, you’re going to need to have an SSL certificate installed for security. Also, if your checkout process ever becomes error-prone, it will be on you to take care of it.

That said, I truly believe that anyone can tackle maintenance of a self-hosted shopping cart with practice. It all depends on what you’re open and willing to take on.

The very best company I recommend for your full-featured shopping cart on WordPress is WooCommerce. You can check them out here:

• WooCommerce

Finally, I’d like to leave you with just a few more tailored recommendations, should they apply to your specific business!

For the Etsy Seller

For the Etsy seller who needs help getting their own website off the ground– or who currently owns a WordPress website that they never use since all their stuff is on Etsy– there is an incredible WordPress plugin called Etsy 360.

Etsy 360 displays all of your Etsy products exactly as a shopping cart would, but without any of the technical hassle of setting one up.

Also it updates just as your Etsy store updates, so it’s extremely low maintenance.

By auto-generating single product pages, Etsy 360 keeps the whole shopping experience on your website, up until a visitor clicks “Buy.” That means your visitors only leave to pay, and also, you don’t have to worry about security at all on your own site. For more details:

• Etsy 360 plugin

And that concludes my best e-commerce recommendations for selling straight from your WordPress blog!

As I hope I’ve convinced you by now, there’s truly some great options available.

As for which option you should go with, I suggest taking on what’s comfortable for you and working from there. After all, a shopping cart you don’t get around to installing is certainly no better than a simple “Buy” button that you do.

Photo credit: Randy Stewart / Flickr

This post contains affiliate links. Rest assured, though, that I don’t recommend any companies that I haven’t used and experienced for myself.

The post Best E-Commerce Platforms for WordPress Websites appeared first on Fairground Media.

You’re not alone.

PayPal has gathered a lot of hate from the small business community in the last several years.

Of course, the majority of PayPal users don’t run into serious problems. (With the exception of one very irritating phone call, I’ve never been affected myself.)

But the things PayPal has been accused of by other loyal customers is disconcerting enough– randomly freezing accounts, holding money hostage, providing extremely difficult customer service, even advising one merchant’s buyer to destroy a $2,500 antique violin…

One thing that might help you breathe at least a little bit easier despite all this controversy is that PayPal has claimed to be fixing these issues as of late.

Sure, that does provide me with some solace because, fact is, a lot of customers prefer to pay with PayPal. And I feel I’ll always need to use them in some regard. (They’re simply too much of a giant to avoid. Which is, ironically, also what makes them so dangerous.)

But all in all, I’ve been taking great care not to keep all of my eggs in the PayPal basket.

And if you feel the same way as I do, I hope you’ll find my recommendations for alternatives to be a helpful guide in your search.

What Makes a PayPal Alternative

So what is it precisely that we need in a PayPal replacement?

The gist of what PayPal offers small online businesses is a combination of a payment gateway (“payment processor”) and merchant bank account.

A payment gateway reads your customer’s credit card information, electronically communicates with this account, and charges it the appropriate amount of money.

A merchant bank account is a special type of bank account that is permitted to collect funds from a payment gateway. So this is where your payment gateway deposits the money once it’s collected. Then, depending on the the time your merchant bank allows, you can have it transferred out into your regular checking or savings account.

So, when I talk of replacing PayPal, I mean replacing these two major functions with an equally low maintenance and easy-to-use service. (One that doesn’t require a difficult application process or have a monthly sales quota to meet, like the ones typically used by larger companies.)

With that, let’s get down to it!

1. Stripe

Screenshot from Stripe.com.

Available for: Businesses based in the US and Canada (can accept payments from anywhere)

Cost: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction

What makes it great: Using Stripe as your payment processor and merchant bank account, you can sell your products through a simple “buy” button on your site or through a full-fledged shopping cart.

While Stripe doesn’t have their own shopping cart out-of-the-box, they are well-integrated with most of the great ones. These integrations include Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more, and hooking up is usually just a matter of copy-and-pasting some information into your shopping cart’s Settings page.

Stripe’s payment forms are self-hosted, which means that the checkout process takes place on your own site (rather than sending your customer off to Stripe.com to pay). PayPal typically charges an extra monthly fee to do this, which is one reason why Stripe is the better value.

I also find I pay less in fees for Stripe transactions, despite it having the same “per transaction” price as PayPal. (Likely due to a hidden list of special rules and exceptions.)

Finally, I think Stripe is great because it deposits your money into an outside bank account automatically, so you don’t have to manually initiate transfers all the time.

Downsides: Stripe was built with web developers in mind.

While this is great for developers (think: total control and customization), I know a less technical person is likely to look at the site and think, “So… what do I do with this?”

So here’s the deal. To use Stripe, you’re probably going to want to check out third-party help of some kind, such as The WP-Stripe WordPress Plugin (if you’re willing to install an SSL certificate) or Super Stripe App for WordPress (if you don’t want to handle an SSL but are willing to pay more in transaction fees). Or the shopping cart services I already mentioned above.

As long as you’re using one of these other services, you’ll never be required to touch anything too complicated.

Lastly, one final downside for Stripe is that– unlike PayPal and some of the other options I’m going to present– you have to wait seven days after purchase before you can take out your money. I should mention, though I use Stripe myself, I actually didn’t notice this until someone else pointed it out to me.

2. WePay

Screenshot from WePay.com.

Available for: Businesses based in the US (can accept payments from anywhere)

Cost: 2.9% + 30¢ per credit card transaction, 1% + 30¢ per bank account transaction

What makes it great: Using WePay as your payment processor and merchant bank account, you can sell your products through simple “buy” buttons on your site (there’s also “pay now” and “subscribe”) or through WePay’s own full-fledged shopping cart.

WePay’s payment forms are self-hosted, which means that the checkout process takes place on your own site (rather than sending your customer off to WePay.com to pay). And as I said earlier– PayPal typically charges an extra monthly fee to do this.

Another bonus: WePay will alternatively let you enter credit cards manually, so you can take credit card information in person or over the phone whenever the situation calls for it.

For a higher price of 4.9% + 30¢ per transaction, WePay will even host your site for you. To quote their sales page:

“Design a simple web store with WePay’s page builder. No technical expertise necessary. It’s easy to customize – with built-in support for shipping, taxes, and inventory. Also optimized for mobile devices!”

Finally, WePay will deposit your earnings directly to your bank account, so you don’t have to login and manually initiate it all the time as with PayPal. The typical one-time money transfer lands in your bank account within 1-5 business days, whereas setting up autowithdraw means you get your money each day as it comes in.

Downsides: WePay is very self-contained.

Offering every feature their customer could ever need definitely maximizes their ease of use. For someone who isn’t tech-savvy or simply hates having tons of different accounts, it can be comforting to have all these options under one roof. However, since WePay wants to “do it all,” it’s difficult to find integrations with other services (should you prefer them).

Because WePay has a public API, I assume that it’s conceptually possible to use it in conjunction with outside shopping carts like Shopify or WooCommerce, but the necessary integrations don’t appear to be available just yet.

3. Amazon Payments

Screenshot from Payments.Amazon.com.

Available for: Businesses based in the US (can accept payments from anywhere)

Cost: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction over $10, 5.0% + 5¢ per transaction under $10

What makes it great: Using Amazon Payments as your payment processor and merchant bank account, you can sell your products through a simple “buy” button on your site or through a full-fledged shopping cart.

While Amazon Payments doesn’t have its own out-of-the-box shopping cart, it integrates with a few self-hosted ones such as CoreCommerce, 3dcart, and ShopSite.

Amazon Payments payment forms are technically hosted by Amazon, but it doesn’t give your customer the impression that they’re leaving the site to go to Amazon.com. This is kind of the best of both worlds, since you have the professional look of a self-hosted checkout but the world-class security of a hosted one.

Another cool thing with Amazon Payments is that, the way fees are structured, business owners can save money on micropayments under $10. There are also discounts for volume and registered non-profits.

Also, when you integrate the API into your site (From what I understand, a copy-and-pastable widget of some kind), customers will be able to pay on your site using their already-stored Amazon card and shipping information.

Finally, Amazon Payments conveniently deposits your funds into an outside bank account automatically. The typical time frame from payment to bank account deposit is 3-5 days.

Downsides: As is my critique of all Amazon web services, I find it a little overwhelming.

While I believe I got the gist of how it works, it took me several reads on the site to understand how all the moving pieces work together.

Another thing that might be a hindrance is that, in order to sign up for the service, you need to have a legal business name. So anyone who is currently in business as a sole proprietorship should be aware of that.

After some digging in their support pages, I also discovered that Amazon holds back a certain reserve of your earnings at all times as padding in case of customer chargebacks.

Finally, Amazon Payments doesn’t appear to be readily integrated into the popular shopping carts yet, so just be weary of that before you commit.

4. Braintree

(Added Note: Since this article was written, Braintree was actually purchased by PayPal. So please take the following review with a grain of salt.)

Screenshot from BraintreePayments.com.

Available for: Businesses based in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe (can accept payments from anywhere)

Cost: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction

What makes it great: Using Braintree as your payment processor and merchant bank account, you can sell your products through its integrations with third-party shopping carts like Shopify, WooCommerce, LemonStand, Easy Digital Downloads, and more.

Braintree’s payment forms are self-hosted, which means that the checkout process takes place on your own site (rather than sending your customer off to BraintreePayments.com to pay).

And Braintree is nothing if not competitive in its market. For one, it offers service to sellers outside of the US.

It even boasts the ability to get money to you super-fast: two business days for most transactions.

Downsides: However… Braintree is kind of mysterious.

Like Stripe, it was built with developers in mind. So to a less technical person, it’s not immediately obvious how to implement it on your website.

What I’ve gathered, though, is Braintree isn’t trying to be a standalone solution at all– with “buy” buttons and other out-of-the-box selling tools– but rather a hook-in with other carts (and developers’ custom projects). Which isn’t a problem as long as you needed a full-fledged shopping cart anyway.

5. 2Checkout

Screenshot from 2Checkout.com.

Available for: Businesses everywhere

Cost: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction in the US, 5.5% + 45¢ per transaction for sellers in other countries

What makes it great: Using 2Checkout as your payment processor and merchant bank account, you can sell your products through simple “buy” buttons on your site or through 2Checkout’s own full-fledged shopping cart.

2Checkout’s payment forms are technically hosted by 2Checkout, but it doesn’t give your customer the jarring feeling that they’re leaving the site to go to 2Checkout.com– rather, it appears to be happening on your own site. This is kind of the best of both worlds, since you have the professional look of a self-hosted checkout but the security of a hosted one.

Importantly, 2Checkout works for businesses outside of the US.

It’s unclear whether or not 2Checkout allows automating the money transfer process, but funds are released to sellers every Thursday via EFT, wire transfer, or check for US currency, by EFT in seven currencies, and by wire transfer in other 19 currencies.

Downsides: I’m not 100% sure if I trust 2Checkout.

Some statements I found on the website skeeved me a little bit. For instance, they say:

“Payments must meet the selected release level and pass the verifications process [to be released to the seller].”

While there are links to explain what they mean by this– and their explanations sound pretty innocent– I can’t help but find language like this ambiguous and a little scary.

Note on Services That Didn’t Make the List

A few other services (of many) that I researched for this article include Dwolla, which I chose not to profile because buying from a Dwolla seller requires creating a Dwolla account. (And I find that to be too big of an obstacle for customers.)

Also Square is a good one, though I didn’t profile it here since it’s geared for in-person sales rather than online ones.

For international sellers, ProPay looks like it has potential but just didn’t make my top 5.

Anyway, I hope you found my roundup helpful! Please let me know in the comments if you have experience with any of the above, or if there’s a great one out there that I missed!

Photo credit: Andrey / Flickr

The post 5 PayPal Alternatives for Small Online Businesses appeared first on Fairground Media.

As business owners, our work-lives call for us to be resourceful and self-sufficient well beyond most conventional jobs, so naturally you might be worried that lacking these skills could handicap your business, or worse, send you falling behind the times.

But truth be told, the way I see this playing out is much less dramatic.

Not everyone has the personality to enjoy or excel at coding– just like not everyone is cut out to be a biologist or creative writer, despite these subjects being required learning in schools. So if you’re a busy entrepreneur with no genuine interest in computer languages, you have my permission to cut yourself some slack!

Only those with a real passion for code will completely master it, whereas beginner-to-intermediate level web and app development can be easily and inexpensively hired out (if not purchased in the form of existing software, apps, themes, and plugins), freeing you up to focus on the work that’s truly most valuable for you to be doing.

Rather than invest a major amount of time into learning how to code, my personal suggestion would be to opt for basic familiarity instead. Because just a few well-chosen nuggets of technological wisdom can go a long, long way when you have a website or blog to tend to.

To show you exactly what I mean and get you started, I compiled this short list of 5 basic actions that every online business owner should know how to do with code. They’re as simple as it gets, but I guarantee that if you’re not already familiar with these 5 quick gems, they will prove extremely handy!

HTML Code To Know

HTML code can be found in files that end with .htm, .html, and .php.

HTML is the foundational skeleton of a website, which can be visually styled later by another type of code called CSS.

The gist of HTML is that it uses little instructions called tags to give commands to the web browser. Tags are always surrounded by the angle brackets “<” and “>”.

Usually there is an opening and closing tag like this:

These tags affect the content between them in some way.

Other times there is a single self-closing tag like this:

These are used for standalone elements like images or line breaks that don’t need to contain content within them.

1. Links

In HTML code, a basic link uses the “anchor” tag, abbreviated as “a”. It looks like this:

The text between these tags is what will appear on the page (typically as blue and underlined, unless otherwise specified in your CSS code).

Notice the href=”” inside of the “a” tag. Depending on the kind of tag you’re writing, there will be a few options like this (that look like option=””) available to you. This one in particular, href=””, is where you enter the URL of the website you want to link to.

To force the link to open in a new window or tab, you can simply add another specification, target=”_blank”, as illustrated below.

2. Images

In HTML code, you can insert images using an “img” tag, that looks like this:

The URL of the image you want to display should go between the quotes of src=””.

(Tip for WordPress users: If you’re not sure where your image is, open up your Media Library and click “Edit” on the existing image you’d like to use. The edit page includes a File URL you can then copy-and-paste.)

The alt=”” specification is where you can write a quick description of your image. This description will show to search engines and to your users when the image is moused over.

If you would like to use the alt=”” portion to tell the search engines what your image is about, but it’s not the same text you’d like to show when the image is moused over, you can add title=”The description that will show when the image is moused over”.

You can also add an exact width or height in pixels (width=”0″ and height=”0″) if you don’t want the image to display in its original size.

3. Headings

Also in HTML code, it’s good practice to use “h” tags to specify your most important titles, headings, and subheadings because Google looks to these in order to rank your site properly.

They’re just as simple as this:

<h1>Most important title or heading.</h1>

<h2>Second most important title or heading.</h2>

<h3>Third most important title or heading.</h3>

<h4>Fourth most important title or heading.</h4>

To give you an idea of how to use these “h” tags, take Fairground Media, for example.

Here, I use “h1” tags for the title of my site and the title of the blog post you’re looking at– because these are the most important things on the page. Headings within my blog posts are all “h2” tags. Finally, the blog post titles in the right sidebar are all “h3” tags. I don’t use “h4” tags at all.

Notice I don’t use subheadings very often within my blog posts. Other people do, so they’ll likely distribute their “h” tags a bit differently.

4. Common Text Formatting

Basic text formatting works similarly to the “h” tags above.

Here are some of the various styling tags available to you:

CSS Code To Know

Finally, let’s touch on CSS code, which resides in files that end with .css.

CSS is a styling language. You can’t insert anything onto your website with CSS alone, but it allows you to manipulate the visual style of any HTML element on your website.

5. Basic Style Tweaks

If you take a peek into a .css file, you will see many blocks of code that look like this:

body {
font-family: Verdana;
font-size: 15px;
color: #000000;
}

In this example, the “body” portion is called the selector. It identifies which HTML tag on the website you want to style.

The “font-family,” “font-size,” and “color” are called properties.

You can select pretty much anything on a website and style its properties using CSS.

Most importantly for our purposes, you can simply tweak the CSS that your theme’s creator already wrote to make elements on your website look the way you want them to!

To illustrate, let me walk you through how you might find and change your website’s font in your CSS code.

• First thing’s first, you need to find your main .css file. (Hint: In WordPress, it is called “style.css,” and you’ll find it by going to your Dashboard > Appearance > Editor.)
• Once there, if you know the font that’s currently showing up on your site, you might try pressing Ctrl + F and searching the page for its name. If you don’t know the name of the font, you might search instead for “font-family,” which is the property that controls this.
• Once you find the font, replace it with the name of the font you want to use instead, like Arial, Trebuchet, or Georgia. Then, do another search using Ctrl + F using the name of the font you just replaced, to be sure you find and replace every instance where it appears in the file.
• Then save your changes, and voila! New font!

A limitation every new CSS-manipulator runs into is not knowing all the possible selectors and properties.

No worries; you can always consult this list or this other one in order to find exactly what you need.

You can also try Googling the problem or posting to an online forum for live feedback when you really need it. A lot of people write CSS code, so there’s an endless well of wisdom and guidance available.

So, whaddya say?

Anyways, I hope this list of basic coding tips makes your life easier!

Bookmark it if you need to. Copy-and-paste my code examples if that helps. And share it with your friends if they could use the info too!

In conclusion, I’d like to pass the mic to you. Do you think everyone should learn to code fluently? Are you committed to learn a bit of code for yourself? Has this article been helpful?

Be sure to sound off in the comments below!

Photo credit.

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