accept credit card payments It is essential that you accept credit cards on your site. Without this you won't make any money with your on-line business. Over 90% of website sales are made by credit cards. If you don't accept them, you are missing out on 90% of  all web business. There are a number of  ways you can do this. The easiest method for a small business is to go through third party payment processors. A third party processor handles the payment transaction for you and deducts a small charge for the service. You only pay when you make a sale. The advantage of this is that it very quick to set up and has very low costs. Also as  some businesses might find it difficult to set up a merchant account (particularly non U.S.) so this gives almost everyone a chance to accept payments even if they are not able to set up their own account. 3rd Party Payment Processors clickbank.com - this is a good option for software and information products. (They do not handle payments for physical goods). The advantage of using clickbank is that they have an army of affiliates that can sell your information product for you. Clickbank also handles your affiliate program for you sending out checks every two weeks. paypal.com -  one of the least expense 3rd party processors. To accept payments with PayPal costs around 2.2% plus 30cents per sale. 2checkout.com - A good well established processor with the advantage that they accept accounts from outside the United States too and they can handle recurring sales.