Selling your software on your website is quite simple and you certainly do not need a fancy proprietary system to do it. There are some tools on the market today that are made for the everyman and will help you turn your website into a selling machine.
Available E-commerce ToolsPayPal
Many people have told me that PayPal is the easiest e-commerce solution to set up and use on a website. PayPal offers the ability to accept secure payments, including credit card payments, from your website quickly and easily. Further, PayPal offers free tools to use with Microsoft FrontPage which let you create “Buy Now” buttons as well as a shopping cart. Another nice thing about PayPal is that if you don’t sell anything, you don’t pay them! They don’t have a monthly subscription or contract fee - you just pay a fee per sale. According to their website, Paypal.com, it’s about 1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30. So, for example, on a $100 transaction, you’d have to pay PayPal $3.20.
More information about their payments schedule is available on their website: https:// www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-pricing-outside. Also, PayPal comes with some reporting tools so you can view your transaction history, buyer information, etc.
Here’s how PayPal works: Customers who shop on your site can click on a payment button, which takes them to the PayPal site to complete their payment. The customer will then return to your site after the payment is completed.
Google Checkout
Google Checkout shares a lot of similarities with PayPal - customers will shop and read about your product on your website, but they will actually checkout via Google. The transaction fee is also 1.9% + $0.30 per transaction, on par with PayPal’s rates.
Signing up for Google Checkout is quick and easy and comes with integration tools to help you get set up to sell. Like the capabilities on Google Adwords and Analytics, Google Checkout comes with some tracking features to help you improve sales and measure your success.
How to Avoid Economic Ruin: A Survival GuideYahoo Merchant Solutions
Yahoo Merchant Solutions comes with design tools, a shopping cart and free marketing services. It also comes with a monthly fee of $39.95 per month, a 1.5% transaction fee and a $50 setup charge. Yahoo provides a wizard to help you design and customize your online store. It integrates with your existing design tool and also offers the option to let you hire a professional designer/developer within their network (for an additional fee).