I think every blogger at some point has the dream of getting paid for blogging. Most bloggers run across sites where the blog owner is doing just that. Let’s face it we are envious of that lifestyle. I mean wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to work from the local coffee shop via a wireless connection and your laptop? No boss, no designated work schedule. The freedom to set your own hours. Your salary only limited by how much you want to do.

Working for oneself is rewarding and working from the comfort of your own home is even better. But how exactly do you go about doing that? I am sure you have all seen the ads on the internet claiming to make you a millionaire or something crazy like that with no work and in a short period of time. Well you know the rule, if it sounds to go to be true it generally is.

Most of us bloggers sign up for a Google Adsense account and wait for that glorious Google money to start pouring in. But after weeks upon weeks of only receiving pennies from Adsense many people get discouraged. In fact I know many a person who has never even received their first payment from Google. Getting to that $100.00 mark can take a very long time. I have been fortunate, I generally receive around $120 US ever three months. But let’s face it that is not going to pay the mortgage.

At this point many people give up on the whole idea of being able to make money online. But what if I told you that in only three days you could be making some quick cash for Christmas from the internet? That’s right in three days you could actually be seeing some cash from the internet. I have caught your interest now I bet. If you are serious about doing three days worth of work to make some quick cash on the internet I guarantee you will succeed. Click here to find out how.

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So you have decided it is about time you jump into this whole internet fad and make your millions online by selling your widgets to the world. Well my friend you will need a online shopping cart system. I am not going to describe the pit falls and advantages here of taking your business online. But I am going to start off by bringing up a point you should consider before you even do your first Google search for an online store system or online shopping cart.

No matter how great of a product you have, or how awesome your website and online store / shopping cart is. If you cannot get people to look through it, or even at it for that matter you are not going to make any sales. Okay with the dismal news aside lets’ talk about what you actually need to process a transaction online.

For the purpose of this post we will assume you have a website which is acting as your store front. Now you need a way of tracking the items your customer selects, adding the total and allowing them to pay for it. Well an online shopping cart does some of that work but not all of it. This is where a lot of my clients who do not have brick and mortar stores get confused. You see the online shopping cart collects the items your customers select, sometimes suggests related items, and sometimes calculates shipping. I say sometimes because this will depend on the shopping cart software you select and how you configured it. The shopping cart should also securely collect the customers information. But the shopping cart DOES NOT process the transaction.

So to relate this to a brick and mortar store. Your customer has the items they have selected in their cart and they are now at the register waiting to pay for them. Now this is where things get tricky. When you pay at a store and use your credit or debit card, which the cashier or yourself swipe. That information is carried through secure (we hope) wires to a financial institution where the money is removed from your account and deposited into the merchants account (minus the credit card or banks fees).

With an online store we need to transmit that information securely to someone or some company that will process this information taking the money from the customer and paying us minus their service fees. Now it is a little more complicated sometimes when you involve a payment gateway. A payment gateway would be the same as those secure wires. Fortunately most companies that will process the credit card (merchant accounts) also provide gateways as part of their services.

Now you might be saying “Hey I have bought stuff online before ad never seen any of this taking place.” . My answer to that is good, that means everything was set up correctly. If you have bought something using a Pay Pal account then all this might seem to register in your head.

Okay so where is the meat of the post? How do you select a shopping cart? What features should you look for? Well my friends those questions will both be answered in a future post. But before we get to that good stuff we should discuss the topic of taking your business online…… to be continued……

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