Now will you need a website, which now-a-day is quite easy with the advent of content management systems (CMS). Word Press is a free (open source) but very powerful CMS. This is the granddaddy of the CMS bunch, at least according to internet marketers. This is what I like to call websites made easy. From Shopping Cart plug-ins to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) word press is a force to be reckoned with. There are a few others that are worth mentioning such as: Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, etc... We are not covering web design today, so I've provided a brief overview of 5 of the top open source CMS platforms. To find out more click here

Wordpress: has a templating system, which includes widgets that can be rearranged without editing PHP or HTML code, as well as themes that can be installed and switched between. The PHP and HTML code in themes can also be edited for more advanced customizations.

Joomla: The Joomla! Package consists of many different parts, which allow modular extensions and integrations to be made easily. An example of such is extensions called "Plug-ins". (Previously known as "Mambots".) Plug-ins are background extensions that extends Joomla's functionalities. The WikiBot, for example, allows the author of Joomla! Content to use "Wikitags" in Joomla! Articles which will auto-create dynamic hyperlinks to Wikipedia articles when displayed. There are over 4,000 extensions for Joomla! available via the Extensions Directory.

Drupal: Drupal core is designed to be modular with a system of "hooks" and "callbacks", which are accessed internally via an API. This design allows third-party contributed (often abbreviated to "contrib") modules and themes to extend or override Drupal's default behaviors without changing Drupal core's code.

Mambo: Mambo includes advanced features such as page caching to improve performance on busy sites, advanced templating techniques, and a fairly robust API. It can provide RSS feeds and automate many tasks, including web indexing of static pages.

Advanced interface features include printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, forums, polls, calendars, website searching, language internationalization, and many others.

PHP Nuke: the main aim of PHP-Nuke is to allow a webmaster to create a community-based portal, with an automated web site allowing users and editors to post news items (user-submitted news items are selected by editors). Users can comment on these articles using the comments system.

Modules may be added to the PHP-Nuke system, allowing the webmaster to add more features (such as an Internet forum or calendar) to their PHP-Nuke installation in addition to the core modules such as News, FAQ and Private Messaging. The whole system is maintained by administrators using the web-based administration section.

Writing A Sale Letter

Your sales letter should convince visitors that your service is either unique or superior to that of your competitors in terms of quality or is competitively priced. It should show your potential clients that you can provide the solution that they are seeking. Your product or service will solve their problems, answer a dream, enrich their lives, and/or improve their businesses. You are the dependable expert that they want and need! Your website copy plays a major role in establishing and growing your customer base.

This can be handle one of two ways you can learn to write one yourself or you can outsource the project.

Writing a sales letter: buy no stretch am I a sales copy writer and I would not be giving you any advice about writing one. I can tell you one thing this by far is the most important part of you sales process. You screw this one up you can count on your sale forecast as being bleak our dim. So instead of leading you down the highway grim I would rather point you to source that can help you get the job done.

Outsourcing a sales letter: Depending on the level of expertise, you can pay upwards of $5,000. Thankfully there are services like gofreelance.com where you can find freelance writers that are skilled in write sales copies.

Payment Gateways: Getting Paid

Click Bank: is a good option, fast, Reliable, lots of features built in affiliate program, but you may not want to go the click bank route; you may not want to share upwards of 50% to 75% of you profits (which I think is a good deal considering the amount of traffic and sales these guys will bring you. with your affiliate and Click Bank. You may want to use you own payment option. Fore more on click bank see the automation process on page 4 of this article.

PayPal: is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders.

A PayPal account can be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card. The recipient of a PayPal transfer can request a check from PayPal, establish their own PayPal deposit account or request a transfer to their bank account. PayPal is an example of a payment intermediary service that facilitates worldwide e-commerce.

Google Checkout: Similar in many ways to Pay Pal, Google Checkout is a faster, more secure way to buy from stores across the web using a single username and password. Use it once and stop creating new accounts every time you buy.

Online retailers such as Toys R Us, Zale, Buy.com and many more are already implementing the Google shopping cart as a payment method. The Google checkout shopping cart is quickly becoming a mainstay internet shopper's world wide.

These are all great options, but in most cases these are seen as supplementary or secondary options. In some cases the option to pay using Pay Pal or Checkout as your primary option is seen as unprofessional of cheap. You may want to invest in payment option that integrates seamlessly into your website and presents you buyers with other payment options that make them feel confident in purchasing from you.

Premium Button Payment Gateways: (Digital Product Friendly)

In life someone perception of you is quite important, if you give the perception of being professional people take you more seriously. The same hold true to the internet. Having a site specific payment gateway is viewed as a professional and more permanent business. With all the scam that are present on the web you want to make you prospective buy feel safe in making a purchase from you. Payment Gateways can be expensive and equally expensive to implement. Below are 2 payment gateways that are not only affordable but with basic knowledge of HTML you can implement them yourself in no time at all.

1Shopping Cart: You may be looking for a low cost solution with high quality features. 1Shopping cart is the shopping cart of choice for many digital publishers. 1Shopping cart offers an awesome tools set that are match by few. From auto responders to reoccurring payments this gateway cover's it all.

One of the best features about 1ShoppingCart is their affiliate capabilities. The affiliate tracking management system can calculate commission by product, affiliate, sales, clicks, or leads. The Ad Tracking system can calculate clicks, sales, and leads. Another great feature is that you can create custom contact opt-in forms or pop-ups. The sales reports are also great. The merchant can configure them and look at several different reports to best understand the overall sales.

You need to host and create your own website. 1ShoppingCart does a great job at handling your transactions and gathering reports. There are some tools to help you promote your website and bring in more sales.

Take the risk 30 day test drive: Affordable and Powerful. Click Here to try the World's Smartest Shopping Cart system.

GoEmerchant I-Store: GoEmerchant is the fastest and easiest way to get your E-commerce site up and running. With GoEmerchant, you won't need to go through the hassle of setting up a separate credit card processing solution.

One of the best features about GoEmerchant is product management. It is extremely easy to add and modify each product. I-Store offers helpful suggestions and walkthroughs on how each part of the setup is done. Another bonus is that there are several design backgrounds to choose from when creating your website.

They host your site for you, give you the tools to make your website, and then give you the merchant tools to manage your website. They also offer the ability for credit card processing and offer support for flexible shipping options. In addition, they set up your merchant account. Continued...

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