Selling any product or service online can be very lucrative if you know how to drive traffic. Of course some items are easier to sell than others, and digital products are by far the easiest items to sell online. The reason why digital products sell so well is because they are easy to transfer online, there are no shipping costs, and they are generally cheaper than tangible goods. However there are also a lot of problems associated with selling digital items.

Security and Sharing

One of the main problems with selling any kind of digital items online is that they are often shared, which can lower profits significantly as the item begins to circulate online. One of the ways digital products are shared is by sharing the download link that is given to the customer upon purchasing the item. One that link is shared the item can be downloaded hundreds of times over night for free. Using eJunkie’s secure download links is a great way to prevent this from occurring. With eJunkie you’ll be able to automatically direct the customer to a download link that is set to expire after a certain amount of time. When another customer purchases the product the link will expire.

Convenience and Compatibility

Another attractive aspect of eJunkie’s payment processing service is it’s compatibility with other payment processors such as PayPal. eJunkie lets you connect your PayPal account to your eJunkie account to collect funds quickly and easily. You can even accept credit card payments as well without a merchant account. This added compatibility makes it convenient for you and your customers to complete the sale.

Tracking and Affiliates

eJunkie also lets you track the amount of sales you’ve made, providing detailed analysis of your sales statistics on a daily basis. This makes it easy to see your success in real time, which can aid in the revision of sales tactics and marketing promotions. When you know what methods are working you can invest in them further and maximize your success. You can even recruit affiliates and eJunkie will automatically create affiliate links for them. You have full control over the commissions that your affiliates receive, as eJunkie lets you pick the percentage of each sale they will receive. You can even set up a tiered affiliate program in which your affiliates receive commissions of every affiliate they recruit!

Conclusion

With eJunkie you have full control over your  digital campaigns, and every aspect of selling digital products online is made convenient within the slick comprehensive user interface. Best of all eJunkie is extremely affordable, and practically anyone can afford the monthly plans starting at about $10.

Selling something online is relatively easy, considering you have access to the entire population of the internet at your fingertips. Once you know how to get traffic, the money is going to come eventually, as it becomes a numbers game eventually. Although getting traffic is not extremely easy, once this is accomplished, you then have to find a way to convert that traffic into money.

If you’re trying to sell physical products then you’ll definitely need an eCommerce hosting account. If you want to sell digital products, an eCommerce account would help but is not absolutely necessary.

Do I Need eCommerce Hosting to Sell my Product?

The answer to this question depends upon what you’re selling, and how much you plan on selling. If you are selling actual products that need to be shipped to an address, then having a eCommerce hosting account linked to a merchant account would be optimally. If you are selling a small amount of physical products and you do not have a large product catalog, then you could settle for a regular hosting account, and accept payments via a payment processor such as PayPal or AlertPay. On the other hand, if you’re selling digital products such as eBooks or down-loadable software then the choice is entirely up to you. Once again, the more products you are trying to sell, the more beneficial it would be for you to have an eCommerce hosting account.

How Can an eCommerce Hosting Account Help You?

Ecommerce hosting accounts do several things that contribute to the overall success and organization of your online business. Perhaps the most important feature offered by an eCommerce hosting account would be the amount of server resources you’re given, and the per-installed software that helps you build product catalogs and accept orders easily. One such software that no serious internet merchant should go without is a shopping cart. If you have ever shopped online then you have probably used a shopping cart, maybe without even realizing it. The shopping cart is simply the application that lets users buy several products at once and conduct a variety of other interactive activities within your web site.

Safely Selling Digital Files

If you’re selling digital files then you need to be concerned about people sharing your digital files online. One of the ways people share digital files easily is by linking people to the download page that you supply upon payment. To protect yourself from such an occurrence you need to find a way to lock the file so that only one person can download it. You can do this by signing up for eJunkie, which will let you host your digital products online without having to worry about more than one person downloading the file. When a person submits payment to your eJunkie account they are automatically taken to a secured page that only works for one user.

If you want to be successful in selling goods or services online then you will wan to purchase a merchant account. Merchant accounts link your customer’s funds to your bank account safely, allowing you to accept payments from all kinds of credit card and payment services such as PayPal. Without a merchant account, many customer’s will not trust your site enough to even pull out their credit card! Applying for a merchant account is a relatively simple process, and it can be done from the comfort of your own home in a matter of minutes.

You have two options concerning merchant accounts; paid or free. Obviously a paid merchant account would be optimal. However if you are unable to meet the requirements of a paid merchant account, then you may need to apply for a free merchant account instead. Before you settle for a free merchant account. There are some factors that should be considered.

Are Free Merchant Accounts Free?

Although there is no setup or approval fee associated with free merchant accounts, it is important to note that there are transaction fees, and these fees are generally higher than those associated with paid merchant accounts. Therefore, while these services are convenient for people who are unable to get a paid merchant account, in the long run they are anything but free. It should also be noted that most free merchant account providers will only offer their services to be people that sell products. Meaning you cannot sell services using a free merchant account. You may also need to adhere to certain stipulations and regulations. For example, you may be required sell a certain amount within a certain time period to keep your merchant account active.

Free Merchant Account Policies

Free merchant account providers are used to dealing with people that may have bad credit or may be considered untrustworthy by paid merchant services. Therefore it is deemed necessary to impose stricter policies to protect themselves an customers from fraudulent activity. These policies are very important because they provide basis to keep your funds in reserve for a certain period of time to prevent fraud on your behalf.

This means you will have to wait longer for your funds, and in some cases the merchant account provider may issue refunds to unsatisfied customers without your consent. This has been a problem for many honest merchants, because scam artists know that free merchant account providers are quick to issue refunds no question asked. In many cases the scam artist will receive the products and then receive the refund after they have already received the order items! This is why it is crucial to be sure you are familiar with the policies of your merchant account before hand, so you can take the necessary precautions to protect yourself from fraud.

When Should You Use a Free Merchant Account?

There are many reasons why one would consider using a free merchant account. The most obvious reason being inability to get accepted for a paid merchant account. After all, a free merchant account is better than no merchant account! Even free merchant accounts give you the ability to calculate taxes, shipping charges, and to accept credit card payments.

Trying to setup one’s business with merchant payment gateways can be a hassle and often more than a bit confusing.  Many businesses opt to use PayPal but the transaction fees charged by this company can be a bit prohibitive – especially for those businesses that are brand new and not conducting a lot of payment transactions.  SquareUp, a new start-up company currently in its beta stage, wants to change all that for both small businesses and individuals with a swiping device that can be easily connected to one’s mobile media device.

Twitter and Angels

Headed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and backed by several angels including Khosla Ventures, the SquareUp service provides a swiping dongle device that connects to the audio outlet of a cell phone.  Currently the only device supported is the iPhone but plans are in place to integrate the dongle with the Android and Blackberry devices.  Ultimately, SquareUp intends on having the device work with just about every major mobile media device available.

How-to

To complete a financial transaction, the SquareUp user simply connects the dongle to their iPhone, swipes the customer’s credit card, requests a signature from the customer via the touchscreen, and the payment is made instantaneously.  Customers may also request receipts at their e-mail address.

As the service is being beta tested for the moment, very few details have been released.  It has been speculated that there are no long-term contracts to have to contend with and no ongoing monthly fees.  As such, it would be safe to assume there are transaction fees and, in order to compete with such services as PayPal, these fees would need to be standard or lower.

Internet Feedback

The feedback on this new service has been rather mixed.  As SquareUp has played close to the chest in as far as information being released, curious Internet users have only been able to guess on what the service will provide and what the overall cost will be.  Some have expressed concern over the security of the service.  Skimming programs are plentiful when it comes to lifting banking information off of cell phones and with the banking industry being hit hard enough lately as it is, yet another avenue for fraud may not be welcomed with open arms.

Another concern expressed by Jon Paisner, Yankee Group senior analyst, is that many potential users may not quickly adopt the service due to yet another device one needs to carry around.  Additionally, there is the concern that the audio jack in most mobile media devices is not designed for repetitive use in this manner and may be damaged with long-term use.

Overall

The overall feedback on the SquareUp service is that it may be a useful product for niche businesses – single style transactions (traveling sales), freelance work, and other means where mobile payment may be required.  Most businesses that conduct many daily transactions would not benefit from using SquareUp.  However, as stated, not a lot of information has been released by the company and the planned public release date does not occur until sometime in 2010.  The best stance to take at the moment is to keep a watchful eye on SquareUp and see what unfolds.

When it comes to ecommerce solutions, the choices are either a software program you install into your web site or an online resource.  Installing your own software choice can lead to incompatibility issues, incorrect installation and much more.  If you choose to go with an online ecommerce solution, a great product to check out is 3dCart.  3DCart allows businesses to sell just about anything online, supports over 80 payment gateways and exceeds PCI (Payment Card Industry) standards.

Plans

3dCart gives its customers five different account plan to choose from.  At $19.99 per month, the Mini allows for 50 products, 1 gigabyte of bandwidth and gives customers a $25 credit to use for advertising on Google.  Stepping up one package will give you the Starter which allows for 100 products, 2 gigabytes of bandwidth and comes with a $50 Google ad credit, all for $35.99 per month.  At the top end of the scale is the Standard Plus package.  For $99.99 each month you are allowed an unlimited number of products, 15 gigabytes of bandwidth, a $75 Google ad credit and the account includes all available plug-ins that are offered by 3dCart.  All accounts are subject to a $99 setup fee.

Regardless of which plan you choose, all accounts come with UPS, FedEx, USPS and CA Post integration, built-in SEO tools, Google Checkout, Paypal and Amazon Payments and are all installed with an easy-to-use control panel.

A bonus is the available plug-ins that 3dCart offers.  You can choose from a live chat option, enhanced statistics and ROI (Return On Investment) tracking.

Store Administration

Upon initially logging into the store administration area, you are presented with a “Sales by Day” graph, an activity profile/sales history chart and information with regard to the amount of space used, database usage and bandwidth usage.

Menuing to the left side of the panel includes extensive order, product and customer information.  Access to marketing tools, reports, available plug-ins and even a menu section for your own personal shortcuts are all included in this left-hand menu as well.  Across the top of the admin area you’ll find a link to view your store, a file manager, customer relationship management (CRM), a statistics link and more.

Store Front

Each account includes a professionally designed web site including a home page, product pages and unlimited content pages.  Adding your own company logo and customizing the colors of the design are a breeze and you can opt to switch out the design of your store by simply browsing the free templates that 3dCart offers.  Optionally the company offers professional design help and offers its customers several design packages to meet your business’ budget.

Conclusion

3dCart offers a great online ecommerce deal and a nice range of solutions to choose from in both plans and design.  Want to try it out with no obligation?  No problem.  3DCart is currently offering a trail option for 30 days – no credit card needed and you are given instant access.  If after 30 days you are not convinced it’s the right product for you and your business, simply cancel and walk away.  Not a bad deal for a really easy to use and fantastic online product.