If you're selling any kind of product or service online you'll need to be able to accept online payments. If you have a merchant account great, if not there are other options available to you that you really should know about. Two of the most popular are Clickbank and Paypal. They both make it easy for anyone with an online business to accept cc payments online. You'll want to offer as many alternate payment methods as possible, like phone in orders, fax, cc. By offering more then one payment method you'll increase your sales tremendously.

If you sell multiple products you'll need to outfit your site with some kind of "shopping cart" software. Shopping cart software makes it easy for people to purchase multiple items from your site and add them to your cart. You'll want to make sure you include good product descriptions, photos and specifications to make it clear to the buyer what you are selling.

Make sure to post a guarantee such as "full refund within 30 days" or whatever yours happens to be. Customers need to know what their options are if they are unhappy after making a purchase from you. You'll also want to make sure you include a privacy policy if you collect email addresses or any other type of personal information from your visitors. Your privacy policy tells them how you will use the information collected and how it is stored.

Below are many valuable links that will help you become more familiar with the world of e-commerce and help your site to accept payments online for your products and or services.

17 Paypal Alternatives for Easier E-Commerce: Paypals not the only game in town. If you've been searching for an alternative, this list is for you.

All About Shopping Carts: Dr. Ralph F. Wilson explains the basic functions of a shopping cart.

1FreeCart: Provides the hosting and a robust free shopping cart system with a full range of powerful features, ABSOLUTELY FREE.

WamCart- Need an ecommerce system that includes everything all in one place? Shopping Cart, Affiliate Management System, Unlimited Autoresponders, Digital Product Delivery and Tracking System? Work Smarter not Harder with WAHMCart!

1 Shopping Cart: A complete Shopping Cart Software System that
instantly connects to both your website and Merchant Account to start taking orders within minutes of signing up! Multiple Autoresponders
allow you to effortlessly follow up sales and leads, manage your mailing lists, and build repeat customers.

Paypal Firesale Motivator: Discover the 2 most important tricks that make people click the BUY button. Learn 3 simple methods to create cash sucking Info Products the easy way - even if you can't write a single intelligent word. Comes complete with script to create your own "fire sales".

Ecommerce Guide: The source for e-commerce news, trends, product reviews, and how-tos for businesses running online or e-commerce sites and selling and marketing products and services.

How E-Commerce Works: A fascinating article that describes how e-commerce works and how to start your own E-commerce site!

Google's Froogle: Froogle is an extension of the Google search engine that millions of people around the globe use daily to research products before they purchase. Listing your product in Froogle is a free way to extend the reach of your marketing efforts to millions of new customers.

Ikobo: Sign up free and send money easily from anywhere anytime.

Free Shopping Cart Software: If you're going to sell multiple items you'll need something called a "shopping cart". This site offers a free one, and it's very nice.

2CheckOut: Start accepting credit cards on your website without a merchant account and for a setup fee under 50.00