More Online Resources

Dear Authors,

In this issue of BOOK BUZZ! I will share some additional tools to help you sell your books online with your own website.

ACCEPT ONLINE PAYMENTS WITH PAYPAL

One of our authors asked about the pros and cons of getting a merchant account and credit card terminal to be able to process book orders via credit cards. Here's my answer:

1. A serious author should be able to take credit card payments. Whether you're at a conference or just taking orders over the phone, credit card acceptance is essential. You can take checks at a conference, but not when you're taking orders over the phone.

2. We have found that leasing equipment costs more than buying outright. Avoid it if you can.

3. You can accept credit card payments through PayPal without a terminal. You do need a computer since the process is online. It is free to sign up and there is no monthly fee! They charge 2.9% + .30 per transaction. A regular merchant account will charge you that anyway, PLUS monthly fees and you'd have to buy/lease a terminal. There are 65+ million PayPal members worldwide and it's easy and free to sign up to make credit card payments via PayPal.

If you are at a conference, you'd need a phone connection either way (credit card terminal vs. modem connection for online access). If you have a laptop, it's even easier to set up at a conference.

We use Paypal ourselves. You can send or receive funds with PayPal. There is no charge for sending funds. Use the link below to signup for a PayPal business account (free and without any obligation):

https://www.paypal.com/us/mrb/pal=3B6L2MMHLH2NW

BUILD YOUR E-COMMERCE SITE WITH GODADDY

GoDaddy has three services I'd like to recommend (among their many). We have used GoDaddy for a long time and their technical support is superior.

1. GoDaddy offers domain name registration for $8.95 per year for .com names. I really recommend that you get a .com domain even though other extensions are available. When people try to remember your online address, the first thing they will try is "yourname".com. It is the easiest to remember. If you are a non-profit, .org is acceptable. If you are paying more than $8.95 per year for your domain, you can transfer it to GoDaddy and save.

2. GoDaddy also offers inexpensive website hosting starting at $3.95 per month (we use GoDaddy to host our Evergreen site). They have very inexpensive software you can use to build a website if you are PC based (not Mac). It's called Website Complete and it's $14.95 (download or CD) plus a one-time licensing fee.

Their Website Tonight program lets you build simple websites online (it says PC only). A one-page site is $2.49 per month on up to a 20-page site that costs $12.95 per month. I can't test this myself because we are Mac based, but I think it is OK to use because GoDaddy has great support.

3. The third service GoDaddy offers is their NEW Quick Shopping Cart program that starts at $9.95 per month for up to 20 items in your catalog. (They have larger shopping carts for more money.) This is cheaper than other shopping cart services I have found on the web. You can use Quick Shopping Cart even if you already have a website that is hosted somewhere else. By using Quick Shopping Cart and PayPal you can turn your site into an e-commerce enable site and sell books online.

To check out any of these services at GoDaddy go to:
http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp?e=com

FREE VOICE MESSAGING SERVICE

Would you like to have a phone number that customers could call and leave a voice message for you without tying up your existing lines or having your phone ring at odd hours? You can with eVoice. It's free and they give you your own private number (your callers have no codes to punch in). To retrieve your messages, you download them from email attachments that are sent to you by eVoice, then play them with Windows Media Player or iTunes. If you'd like to leave me a message to try it out call: 1-901-339-5434 (I'll forward your message recording to you if you do one). If you'd like to sign up or get more information go to:

http://www.evoice.com/evoice/twa/page/homePage

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and thanks for your feedback.

Warmest Regards,
Brian Banashak, Publisher
© 2004, Brian Banashak