help with magazine subscription payment

[Crippler]

Hello, I am new to this board and ecommerce. I have searched this board and the internet and I am completely lost. Can any one help?

Here is my problem, I have a client that wants to be able to accept payment on the website. They are a magazine company that produces a magazine 3 times a year and what they are wanting is a way for customers to be able to order a year subscription to the magazine online and may also want a way to be able for customers to pay for a resticted area of the website.

What I was wanting to do is for customers to be able to click on different buttons wheather they want a year subscription sent to them or to be able to sign up to receive the content on line. That would then take them to a secure payment page where they can enter their credit card and personal information to be processed online and send the information via email to my client.

My background is mostly design and not development and have never been involved in ecommerce. I do most of my work in dreamweaver, if that helps.

What do I need to do?
What is the best option?

Thanks
GREAT SITE

[hakre]

to keep it easy, maybe paypal is a solution for this. you can define different 'products' the customer can choose from (even your website) and paypal does the billing. they also accept credit cards.

[lorax]

Hello Crippler and welcome to WebmasterWorld!

Hope the nic isn't a portent of things to come. ;)

There are several options but first - I posted a primer to shopping carts a while back that would be worth a read - [webmasterworld.com...]

And for a discussion on print out order forms - [webmasterworld.com...]

Your options are that you could go the PayPal route. The pros are that they handle all of the transaction stuff. All you need to do is to get your customer there. The con is that the customer needs an account.

Another option is to not do live transaction processing but rather save the transaction information into a secure database. The cart would need to email your client that a sale has occurred and then they would need to log into a web admin area (secured), get the transaction information, and then run the transaction manually from their office.

The third option is to do the full transaction processing but it does take someone who knows what they're doing.

If you're going to put up a cart, even if it is only one item, I suggest you hire someone to build/implement it - preferably someone with experience. Watch and learn this time around and then you'll be better prepared for the next one.

[paragon]

Hi Crippler,

"What do I need to do?
What is the best option?"

The good news is there's not one best option. The bad news is there's not one best option. :-) It all depends on what elements of the puzzle you have already in place.

"...a way for customers to be able to order a year subscription ... online ...customers to pay for a resticted area of the website...subscription sent to them or ...content on line. ...secure payment page ... information to be processed online and send the information via email to my client."

Would you have your merchant accounts setup yet?
Would you have your shopping cart vendor in place?
Would you have your payment gateway vendor in place?

Because your customer's product is digital, and not a physical product, there are a few solutions. It will take too long to list out their full offerings or strengths etc. So compare them to meet your needs.

a. Paypal (3rd party): hakre's recommendation to use paypal. The unfortunate thing is some of the general public does not want the added steps of registering for a paypal account. I wish that they had an option.

b. 2Check out (3rd party): www.2checkout.com: is another provider that can help process your payments easily. Kinda like a paypal without the need for a customer to register for an account.

c. Clickbank.com (3rd party): very good for digital product sales, processing and distribution. Many reputable internet marketers use them.

d. 1shoppingcart.com: also a popular all in one solution.

e. makebuyingeasy.com: a product co-created by terry dean (internet marketer) has a lot of the necessary elements all in one solution.

f. ccnow.com: ralph wilson in his payment gateway guide also makes mention of these guys. Thought i'd pass it on.

There are 6 suggestions listed above. This should start you on some good research and comparisons.

p.s. as you aren't a back-end kinda person, either outsource or "elbow-grease" it. I recommend "elbow greasing" it if its one of the solutions above. If its integrating pieces from different vendors, then it might get hairy :-(

Hope it helps.

[Crippler]

Thank you for the information,

That was a huge help

Thanks so much

[hakre]

hey paragon,

quite an impressive listing. need to flag this thread ;).