Outsource Your Credit Card Processing

There is no reason to re-invent the wheel when you need to handle credit card payments online. Credit card processing services are easily plugged into your site, and typically cost nothing to set up.  You only pay a small percentage of your sale to the service provider.  Factor this cost into your pricing model, and you are ready to go.  Set up is typically quick and easy, sometimes only taking a few minutes to add to your site.

Accept Payments using PayPal - Paypal is a great partner to have for your online business.  There are no setup charges, monthly charges, or gateway fees. With PayPal, you pay as you go—with rates as low as 1.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction. In fact, payment processing, fraud protection, and tools to accept payments on your website are all included in PayPal’s costs.

Sell eProducts with ClickBank - ClickBank is the online distribution center for over 10,000 digital products and services that are delivered entirely over the Internet. Setting up an accout with ClickBank gives you access to a sales force of their 100,000 affiliates to promote your product. Customers can pay by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Eurocard, Bravo, Visa Debit, Mastercard Debit, or Novus. Customers in the US can also pay by online check. You set the suggested retail price for your product. Each time your product sells, you are paid the retail price less $1 + 7.5%. ClickBank has a one-time $49.95 activation fee, and no monthly fees.

Use Merchant Accounts for Heavy Volume

Don't make the mistake of jumping straight into a merchant account.  Merchant accounts make sense once you have a high volume of payment processing.  Typically their fees are a smaller percentage than the others outlined here, but you have contractual commitments, and setup charges as well.  I recommend investigating merchant accounts after you've got your sales volume to a fairly high level.