Best Way to Sell Online Without A Merchant's Account

Using a third party processor, also known as free merchant account, is the best and the easiest way to sell online without a merchant account for the following reasons: minimal set-up fees, low upfront costs, credit check not required, fast way to accept online payment.

A third party processor, or the so called “free” merchant account processor, is the quickest and the best option that allows online transactions when using credit cards. Here are several reasons why the best way to sell online is through a third party processor, namely:

Minimal set-up fees

Unlike setting up a merchant account, a third party processor, charges a lesser fee. Others even offer free set up when you acquire a credit card processing service from them.

Low upfront costs

Another feature that most of the “free” merchant account providers offer is the low upfront fees; although, the transaction fees are a bit higher than the merchant account.

Credit check not required

Third party processors do not conduct a credit check. In fact, they are widely known for their acceptance of clients with bad credit history and with high risk business profile.

Fast way to accept online payment

As soon as you are done with your application, you can immediately start conducting online transactions and accept credit card payments. It all takes a few minutes, and then you’re on the board.

Internationally accepted

No matter where you are located, third party processors accept clients from all parts of the world. They also offer a multi-currency feature where one may opt to accept payments in their own currency.

merchant account

Goodbye eHow, hello Hubpages

I think I have officially decided to step away from ehow. I will leave the articles I have there, but writing for them through Demand? Ehhh, no. Most of my money making right now is through Demand and like I said in my last post, I wrote for ehow when I needed a break from Demand and some of their condescending editors. Not all of them are that way, but a few of them are. I had to deal with one just yesterday. He tore my article apart and talked to me with a very condescending attitude, as if I were just a little pee-on. I changed every single thing that he asked me to change, but I had a feeling he or she was still going to reject it just because of their attitude the first time around. Well, I was right. A few hours later, I got a notice of rejection. His reason for rejection was because of another reason that was not EVER mentioned in the re-write request. Soo, I lost the money for it, however I'm now using my rejected Demand articles on another platform that I will talk about on another day!

Since ehow is pretty much dead in the water now, I'm turning a lot of my attention to hubpages. Hubpages is like ehow, except that the articles do not have to be how to articles; they can be about anything you feel like writing about, and no editors to deal with. You can use affiliate links for adsense, amazon, ebay, and a few others and you receive 100% of the revenue. Like the other revenue sharing websites, it doesn't happen automatically, but with time and effort there is some money to be made.

I wrote a post quite awhile ago regarding my previous experience with adsense. My account was terminated due to fraudulent clicks, or something. They would not give me specific details when I asked, however I'm assuming it was because I used traffic exchanges on my blog. I decided to give adsense another go specifically for the revenue sharing websites that I'm using, and not on my blogs, so that there is (hopefully) no chance of fraudulent accusations.

For more information on hubpages, check out one of my articles:

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HubPages

Ehow switching to Demand Studios?

An email just went out a few days ago stating that ehow is switching over to Demand Studios. Kind of ironic that these two companies are the ones I have recently been posting about!

I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work with ehow, but from what I have read and heard, some of you who have an ehow account have been automatically accepted to demand studios, while others haven't? Ehow articles will now be written and posted via the Demand Studios platform. The bad thing is, those of you who have not been accepted to Demand will not be able to write for ehow any longer.

This change could be a good thing, or a bad thing. From what I have read, Demand Studios will be able to generate more traffic, and additional revenue than what the ehow website had. The bad thing is the dreaded Demand Studios' editors. I have conflicting opinions on the Demand editors. None of them follow the same guidelines, and they all have their opinion on what is right and what is wrong. One editor may tell you to do something one way, then another editor will tell you to do something completely different, so you have no way of knowing whether you will make the editor happy, or not, since there are thousands of editors throughout Demand. Plus, you only get one chance to fix the problems in the article. Some editors will be very vague in their suggestions and there is no way to communicate with the editor. If you misunderstand something, or simply don't know what they are wanting, you only have one chance to guess and if you did not read their mind correctly, the article will be rejected. Once it is rejected you are out that time, work, and money. Even if you appeal it, and win the appeal, you still wont get that money, or work back. Doesn't really sound fair, does it? The only good thing is that you can use that rejected article somewhere else such as suite101, ehow, constant content..etc.. That is my only complaint with demand; there should be a way to communicate with the editor to verify what they are wanting.

Another thing with Demand is that they require references and citations for everything, even something that may be common knowledge. Ehow has not required that in the past, so I don't know if demand will require it for all ehow articles from now on. To be honest, I wrote for ehow when I wanted to get a break from Demand. I will be trying out the new ehow publishing in the next few days to find out exactly how it is going to work.

On other note, if you currently have articles on ehow, you will not lose them, and you will continue receiving the same revenue sharing as before. I think the deadline is April 13 for having the ability to publish new articles through the ehow website, after that it will be strictly through Demand. I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this change, or if you have any extra advice or insight, feel free to leave a comment and tell us!

And now, my MARCH 2010 earnings:

Demand Studios: $307.50
Text Broker: $188.26

For a monthly total of: $495.75

Residual Income: Ehow

Ehow is one of the sites I use in my new writing adventure. Ehow and other residual income websites are different than pay per article sites because you do not get paid a set amount per article. Instead, you get paid based on different things like page views and ad clicks from your article. On eHow, you can write an article on any subject as long as it is explaining to someone HOW to do something. The platform is very simple to use, and the only complaint I have is that there seems to be a lot of glitches with the system. There have been quite a few times that I've started an article only to be told that it is under maintenance once I hit the "next" button. So, a word of advice on eHow is to make sure you save your article before putting it on their website. With the websites that focus on page views and ad clicks, you really want to focus on keyword optimization. Keywords are key! You want to come up with any and all words and phrases that you think someone may use to search for the subject you are writing about. Then you want to use those words within your article. I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert on keywords, or seo, this is just what I have learned so far.

The bad thing about these kind of websites is that you don't see any money for awhile. It could take months before you reach the payout minimum, but the good thing is that once your articles start earning money they normally earn that amount, or better every month. I've done some research and have heard of some people making $200 - $300 a month from any individual site, and I've even heard of people making around $1000 from it per month. Of course, these writers have been doing it for quite awhile and have written a lot of different articles, not just one, or two.

If you are not sure about what to write about, just give it time and make a list. Sometimes ideas will pop in my head at random times and I have made a list on my laptop so that I don't forget what they are. Whenever I get ready to write I just pull the list up and choose a topic from it to write about.

Just remember not to give up if you don't earn much the first few months, it takes time and patience. Use your key words, and promote each and every article on places like twitter, digg, stumbleupon, myspace, facebook, any kind of networking website. Promote them on your blogs, tell your friends about them, promote, promote, promote.

There are two other websites that I write for as well. I stick mainly with the pay per article sites during the week, but try to write at least one article per week for the residuals. I will be writing about the other two soon.

Here are some of the articles I have written on Ehow so that you can get an idea as to what your articles will look like and what ehow is about.

How to Videos & Articles: eHow.com

*If you already write for ehow, feel free to add me as a friend!*