Thanks for the suggestions, Mary Anne. I'm exploring PayPal for a quick and easy start. If I get some traction, perhaps I'll look into the other options you suggest. I do my website via iWeb on my Mac. It's easy to use, and I like the results so far. If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it (www.DaleLowery.com).
As a give-back, so that this isn't _totally_ one way, let me say that my experience with Square has been generally positive. Their fees are not the lowest, but they're lower than ProPay, whom I was using previously. And, where ProPay still charges almost $100 (which I paid 18 months ago) for their more sophisticated reader, Square provides one for free. And where the simplest ProPay plan results in reading the card on-site then uploading card information later to your computer, Square does the transaction at the time of purchase using your smartphone etc. So you're not exposed to refused transactions hours after folks have walked off with your art.
Another nice thing about Square vrs. ProPay is that Square automatically sends your funds to your selected account. With ProPay you have to specifically log on a day or 2 later and initiate a transfer. Which they charge you $0.30 for. Not a huge fee, but not nothing. And the convenience with Square is better.
DRAWBACKS: Using the Square takes a bit of practice, but it seems to work OK once you get the hang of it. Another thing I DO NOT like about Square is that they hide the email address you have sent a receipt to*. Meaning that if you wish to build up your contact list of customers, you have to write it down separately at time of sale. The only other drawback so far (assuming you regard the fee as reasonable, and there is no monthly or set-up fee) is Square's requirement that you give your customer a paper receipt. I don't know how they can police this if you choose not to honor this part of the agreement, but if you're like me, you'll do it anyway since you agreed to. And it's a pain.
*You can also send a receipt via SMS with Square, but I have no experience with this path.
Thanks again for your feedback. Hope my FB on Square is helpful.DaleLwww.DaleLowery.com
--- On Thu, 2/24/11, Mary Anne <marybaker22@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Mary Anne <marybaker22@gmail.com>
Subject: [artshow_photo] Re: Updated website
To: artshow_photo@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 8:26 AM
Dale,
I think you're wise to use any kind of shopping cart system. "send me an
email" just sends visitors to another web search. They want fast easy
check-outs or they simply move on.
I use SmugMug <http://www.smugmug.com> for my website, and I think it
costs me about $140/year, but they do all the work, including printing,
shipping, plus other features for the buyer to enhance the photos.
(crop, etc.). You set the pricing/mark-up and they take it from there.
There are cheaper alternatives on SmugMug, but I chose the "PRO" version
for its versatility. I agree with Doug that PayPal is a low cost
alternative shopping cart system - with some simple HTML code you can be
live in less than an hour.
If you want a low cost way to start over with a website, I also
recommend the homestead <http://www.homestead.com> website creators.
They offer several templates, a free trial, and very low monthly cost -
I think around $5/month. They have a tool to incorporate a PayPal
shopping cart also. I use Homestead to create and manage websites for
some of my clients (I also do social media management and internet
marketing). Here is an example of a simple intuit website, however I
have not incorporated a shopping cart: Cabin Specials
<http://www.cabinspecials.com> .
And to stray off topic for a minute, I just ordered the Intuit GoPayment
<http://intuit-gopayment.com/gp&cid=ppc_google_adURLgopay> mobile card
reader to accept credit cards on my mobile phone (in my case I use an
iPad). (Go Payment is by Intuit, as is the Homestead website creator). I
will be using it for the first time in a show in NC in April, so I have
no feedback as of yet. i also ordered the "Square" card reader to use
with my iPad, which hasn't had the best of reviews (nor have I used it
yet), but I did read yesterday that Square dropped its .15/transaction
fee and now charges only the 2.75% fee. Just throwing this out there as
a potential simple way to take credit cards.
Mary Anne Baker
Mountain Photo Gallery <http://mountainphotogallery.com>
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