Re: Venture into Online Business Website

hey there! have you tried blue snap? you can accept global payments, 60 currencies and about 100 payment types. pretty much, you can't go wrong. You should try going on this site called better than paypal, they list different paypal alternatives since most likely you wouldn't want to go with paypal for an online merchant source.

Best of luck!
Btw, 1&1 is a great web host also.

Hey,
Where are you based out of specifically? This will help narrow down the options you have.

2Checkout. Braintree Payments, or Stripe are really popular and would be a few to start researching. But again there are tons of international processing options, just really depends where you are located.

Hope I could be of some help.

A few things to consider. What it looks like you want to do, is an affiliate type business where you make money off of adds or by directing people to sites and taking a commission.

Godaddy, great for domain names and SSL certificates, don't use them for anything else.

Bluehost, a lot of people like them, I have two clients on them, not a big fan. That being said people do like them. Are they are doing a webdesign for you? or just web hosting?

I would never suggest having the webhost do your "design" since it about 99% probably you will not be able to transfer the website to a new host if you end up not liking them. Most on here will tell you to use a Content Management System such as wordpress that will allow you to make your changes quickly and easily.

If you truly want to open an online store, then look at a dedicated shopping cart application. BlueHost will have scripts to install programs like Opencart or Prestashop.

Finally, as an affiliate, you will just have to see if the ad company will make payments in your country. If you do, most likely they will just do either a check or direct deposit right to your bank account, you will not need a merchant account.

If you want to actually sell something (where you accept payment) then you can think about merchant services but based on what you are talking about, I am unsure if you need it.

What to sell? Well if it was that easy, we would all be millionaires. 70% of your time needs to be spend figuring out what sells. Look at what sells on Amazon, eBay, at your local stores or a need that is not being adequately addressed in the market. Then find out if you can get a large enough discount on those products to cover your expenses.

Hey all. thanks for your input. There are a lot of options to consider! At first I was going with 1and1 but found godaddy a bit cheaper. However, some content are restricted and I don't want to end up with a "stiff" site.

Its a lot of money to get a webdesigner too and Im not sure how profitable the site will be in the long run.

I noticed there are many websites for sale on flippa but one questions, if there are any nefarious reasons for their selling. In any case i havent found one i like so I would try and build one up.

I think its more like 80% in my case figuring out what sells.

I did join word press a few weeks ago, havent used it yet really since I havent gotten into the blogging thing yet.

How does affiliate programs works? I assume you first have to have lots of traffic to your site.

I am actually based in the Caribbean. So anything i come up with in using the net and my site for money would be so much easier to have like a direct deposit or even a basic paypal function.
A buddy of mine has a fitness website he paid a company called pixelwerk to create- he sells memberships to his training videos, personal training logs and online personal coaching.
Maybe i could do something like that, except offer something else people would pay a little bit of cash for- not fitness, but the whole principle business model of membership .

thanks for reading!