Internet Marketing Consultant, Ecommerce Web Design.

Ecommerce web design can be tricky. Ideally, you want to automate the whole site.

Third-party companies can handle the credit card processing and order-fulfillment, upon receipt of automatic emails generated by your server.

An affiliate program can attract a set of sophisticated webmasters promoting your product on their sites twenty-four hours a day.

By the latter I mean that 25% of $14.99, as at my other site, isn't going to set any potential affiliate's soul aflame with greed. My ebook is an obscure, low-ticket product.

If I had less scruples, I'd find some way to sell it for $200, give my affiliates 50%, then help them to pitch it for me. That's the way to make money on the 'net!

If you're selling something like well-known books or CDs, affiliates can still make money. These items are already being promoted by their manufacturers. They are bought by substantial numbers of internet users.

The best thing is downloadable software. It's like a riddle; what can you sell and sell, and still have? Software!

This is why people selling internet marketing courses chuckle to themselves at night. They're getting others to sell software, over and over, about how to sell on the internet! What a wheeze!

What is noteworthy about my other site is that the sales process is entirely automated; even the software registration.

Other software sellers have to generate 'keys' manually and email them. I don't. I developed some of the registration software myself.

I don't recommend this kind of ecommerce web design for everybody (it's a bit extreme for a small e-business), but we can go a long way to taking the tedium out of selling on your site, allowing you to get on with promoting it, making sales, and beating your competition!

NOTE: In the case of those programs which are not free, you will purchase them and forward them to me for installation.

This establishes your ownership of the software immediately, saves time, and my billing you later.

Shopping Carts.

Dansie Cart. This cart is written in Perl. It's ideal for a site on a budget, selling under fifty products. It can hook up with large number of credit card processors.

The Commission Cart, a shopping cart which also functions as an affiliate program.

Agoracgi.com. Free, full-featured shopping cart, which integrates with Authorize.net and iTransact cc processors.

The following carts are PC 'wizard'-based. Initial set-up is easy. I will only help you debug these, I will not set them up from scratch.

I will not refund any portion of my fees if you're not happy with them either.

So why mention them at all?

Well, they are wizard-based. Initial set-up occurs on your PC. You, the client, can alter them easily, whenever you want, and automatically upload them to your web-server.

You can import your products from flat-file databases, or set them up by hand. You can have a very large web shop set-up very quickly.

The down side is that setting them up on your web server may be awkward.

Uploading your shop is automated, but if you've input the server details incorrectly, it won't work. The shop will look fine on your PC, but...

They are also more expensive than script-based carts.

If you buy these, I'll help you debug them, and integrate an affiliate program, and credit-card processing. Once they're up and running, you can customise them yourself, at will.

Of the following, Actinic is probably the safest, long term bet. WebGenie is good for simple shops. ShopFactory costs a lot less than the others, but looks awful, and relies too much on JavaScript.

WebGenie Shopping Cart. Simple to install (on your PC, at least), simple setup (ditto), simple cart. Download the demo version and see if you can get to grips with it. Only supports three payment processors; Versign, WorldPay and ITransact.

It's good in that it's simple, and the files it generates can be 'got at' and customised outside the program easily.

Shopfactory. This cart uses Perl and JavaScript, and can be set up on your PC, and uploaded automatically to your server. Don't overlook the much cheaper 'Lite' version they offer. It can also hook up with a large number of credit card processors.

It's drawback is it looks quite ugly. I got a trial version recently, and some of the buttons came out funny-looking, too. Get the demo version, and see what you think.

Actinic. This cart has a great many features, and would be used on a site selling a large number of items. It can be set up on your PC, and uploaded automatically to your server, and can hook up with a large number of credit card processors also. Get the demo version, and see what you think.

In some ways, there's too much in it. The best thing is, if you purchase it, is to set up the default shop as-is. Don't bother customising it. See how it works, first, then start tinkering.

The most important thing about any cart is that it gives you lots of options with regard to the choice of credit-card processor. There are hundreds of carts to choose from, but most tie you to one or two processors, or require you to adapt the cart yourself.

Affiliate Program Software.

The Commission Cart, a shopping cart which also functions as an affiliate program.

Clickbank.com. An affiliate program with it's own credit-card processing service.

All Affiliate Pro. This is a combination pay-per-click *and* affiliate program set of scripts.

Credit Card Processing Services.

2checkout.com. A flexible service at a very low price. Easily integrated with most shopping carts. Offer their own free Perl cart. I have used them on this site.

iBill.com. Not as flexible, don't answer emails, but an industry standard, and inexpensive.

ClickBank.com. For sites selling software under $50.00 USD. Cheap, clever, very easy to install, and comes with an instant affiliate network.

Take Payments Easily.

Successfuly Ecommerce Simplified.

Shopping Carts.

Affiliate Program Software.

Credit Card Processing Services.