Small businesses face so many challenges in moving their sales and marketing efforts into the digital age. Watching the big dogs incorporate the latest techonology and software into their online sites, distribution networks, marketing or production can be as inspiring as it is intimidating. You want to take advantage of the latest advances, but how do you find the time and money to learn which is right for you? For a small business with limited capital and time to explore these options, it is great to find a simple, low cost solution to a problem. PayPal has a great one: a way to accept credit card payments on your website with no setup charge and no hidden fees. You can truly be up and running with a fully functional “BUY NOW” or “DONATE” button in fifteen minutes.
This blog has no connection to PayPal – we simply want to pass along a great idea for the small business owner. We know that to create a large e-commerce website for your business is expensive. Until you are ready to invest in that sort of structure and have the time and manpower to administrate it, PayPal has created a secure and easy to install way to turn your basic website into an ecommerce portal right now. It’s called Website Payments Standard. You of course need a PayPal account into which payments from credit card customers will be deposited. PayPal gives you a choice of buttons that allow customers to select products from a drop down menu and pay by credit card. They do not need to have a PayPal account themselves. PayPal assesses a fee (see fee schedule by clicking here) and the payment is credited to your account. It really could not be simpler. You create the button you want, copy and paste the code to your website, and you are ready to go. New to html coding? No problem – they have a short demo video on the website to help. 
If you want a more advanced system of payment, Website Payments Pro is available for a monthly $30 fee. It allows credit applications, monthly payments and other advanced features that will probably require the assitance of a web developer to fully integrate into your site. It is a step up from managing your own content fully. If you are new to managing your own website, read about DotNetNuke as a content management system. In fifteen minutes your web page just became an online storefront.
