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SWeCS NEWSLETTER - 24 January 2005
In this issue... - New Credit Card System For All!
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Paypal (www.paypal.com) have been in business for many years and have over 56 million accounts in 45 countries. It is a long established, reputable business that provides a secure way to send and receive money over the Internet, including credit card payments. Up until now, however, Paypal has only let you invoice people in US dollars, Canadian dollars, Euros, or Pounds. But they now allow payments in Aussie dollars. Why is Paypal so good, and affordable for all businesses? Normally when you want to accept credit card payments online, you need to have both an Internet Merchant Account and a Secure Payment Gateway. Both of these can cost several hundred dollars per year, plus transaction costs. Combine this with the cost of setting them up (due to complexity), and a business can easily pay thousands to get an online credit card system, plus hundreds of dollars per year thereafter. Where the Paypal system is different is that you don't need your own Internet Merchant Account or Payment Gateway System - you use theirs. And there is no upfront fee to do so! Where's the cost? Paypal charge a percentage of each transaction, which is currently up to 2.4%, plus $0.40. This is a small fee when you consider some of the ongoing costs of having your own credit card system set up. Paypal can easily be incorporated into your own website, meaning that people can buy through your site, pay online securely, and the money is deposited into your Paypal account immediately. Paypal offer a number of automated tools to create "Buy Now" buttons and Shopping Carts for your site, so it's easy to set up. What this means is that every small business is able to now offer credit card payments online if they want, with no up-front or ongoing fees - you only pay when you actually have a transaction. Opening up an Australian Paypal Merchant Account is free. Click here to apply.
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This fortnight's question comes from Sue: "We have a website that uses Frames. We've been told this is a bad thing, but have been quoted lots of money to change it. Are frames really that bad?" It's possible for framed sites to be perfectly OK, provided you code them properly. People often say that framed sites won't work with search engines. This is simply not true. First of all, most search engines can easily read framed sites now. For the very small minority that don't, this can be overcome by placing links inside your "No Frames" section for the search engines to follow (ask your webmaster what this means). A definite problem with search engines and framed sites, however, is that if someone does a search and finds one of your sub-pages instead of your home page, when they click on it they will be taken to your sub-page, which will appear out of it's framed context. But this can be easily solved. By placing a small piece of javascript in each page, your site will load properly each time, no matter how your visitors arrive. It's true that if you were to begin a new site from scratch, you probably wouldn't want frames, because of these extra difficulties. But if you already have a framed website, and it's going to cost too much to change, then you can make it work fine with search engines by following the above suggestions. If your webmaster doesn't know how to do it, contact us for a free quote.
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This is not because we have any problems getting websites ranking on the first page of the major search engines, but because we have had a few problems with the offer, such as businesses "disappearing" after we've done the free work for them. Our service now has an upfront fee of AUD$220, and then it's $99 a month, for a minimum of three months (but we're sure you'll want to continue after that). To find out more about our search engine ranking service visit www.southwestecommerce.com/ranking.htm.
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To view the range of items available, visit www.southwestecommerce.com/av.htm.
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Browse through the SWeCS Ecommerce Library, full of FREE information about getting more out of the Internet. Sections include Web Site Development, Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing, Online Commerce, Computer & Technical Issues, and Miscellaneous.
The SWeCS Newsletter archives provides a wealth of FREE information on small business and the Internet. Browse through the main topics or search for your particular query.
Start up another income stream, by earning commissions for each referral who signs up for one of our services.
Browse through a list of reviewed Affiliate programs. Let us do the work of testing it out for you!
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www.dunsboroughbayvillageresort.com/news/newsindex.htm www.west-oz.com/newsletter/newsletter.asp
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