Which service should secure my Website's payments?
By Eric Maziade, Tuesday 5 June 2007 on 00:12 :: eBook Marketing :: #12 :: rss
Nowadays, there are many payment processing services available for eCommerce Websites.
Which one is right for your eBooks?
Let's review four of the most popular services that will allow you to charge your client's credit cards.
PayPal
PayPal is one of the most well-known and popular payment processor service on the Internet. As with all popular things, it is the most loved and the most hated.
Anyone can open a PayPal account and is allowed to pay and receive money through PayPal.
Historically, PayPal has always required the paying customer (eg: your clients) to open a PayPal account before paying. Depending on where you live, this is no longer the case.
For some countries (including United States and Canada), PayPal now allows your customers to pay with their credit card directly.
This is a very nice addition. However, the "pay by credit card" option is not that easy to notice. PayPal wants to get people to open accounts. Most people don't mind opening an account with PayPal - in fact, a lot of people already do have their account.
PayPal can accept transactions in the most popular currencies.
Here are a few statistics:
- PayPal Web Page: www.PayPal.com
- Subscription fees: 0 $USD
- Monthly fees: 0 $USD
- Per-transaction fees: 0.30 $USD + 2.9% of transaction amount
- Accepted currencies:
- Canadian Dollars
- Euros
- Pounds Sterling
- U.S. Dollars
- Yen
- Australian Dollars
- New Zealand Dollars
- Swiss Francs
- Hong Kong Dollars
- Singapore Dollars
- Swedish Kronor
- Danish Kroner
- Polish Zloty
- Norwegian Kroner
- Hungarian Forint
- Czech Koruna
NB: If you make enough monthly sales, the percentage rate will go down (all the way down to 1.9% for 1,000,000$USD worth of transaction in a month).
2Checkout
2Checkout is a very popular alternative to PayPal.
People who prefer 2Checkout usually prefer it because it does not require their clients to have a "2Checkout account".
The only real drawback when using 2Checkout is that you need to configure your products in your 2Checkout account before you can use it with any automated system (such as a shopping cart or Secure-eBook).
Here are a few statistics:
- 2CheckOut Web page: www.2Checkout.com
- Subscription fees: 49.95 $USD
- Monthly fees: 0 $USD
- Per-transaction fees: 0.45 $USD + 5.5% of transaction amount
- Accepted currencies:
- Australian Dollar (AUD)
- Canadian Dollar (CAD)
- Swiss Franc (CHF)
- Danish Krone (DKK)
- Euro (EUR)
- British Pound (GBP)
- Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)
- Japanese Yen (JPY)
- Norwegian Krone (NOK)
- New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
- Swedish Krona (SEK)
- U.S. Dollar (USD)
WorldPay
WorldPay operates in ways that are much more similar to a bank.
It will differentiate itself by being able to accept almost any kind of currency available. Most services do allow transactions in many different currencies. WorldPay's got just about any currency you could want.
Here are a few statistics:
- WorldPay Web page: www.WorldPay.com
- Subscription fees: Not disclosed (expect about 500 $USD)
- Monthly fees: Not disclosed (expect about 50 $USD per month)
- Per-transaction fees: Not disclosed (expect about 3.5%)
- Safety deposit: Could be required, based on your expected transactions
- Accepted currencies:
- Too numerous to list here.
WorldPay is a good, trustworthy service. However, if you do not require to be able to charge your clients in their favorite currency, there are simpler and less expensive alternatives available.
ClickBank
By using ClickBank, you are providing your clients with two methods of payment: credit card and PayPal.
But ClickBank has an ace up its sleeve: It is not only a simple payment processor - it is also an affiliate program.
This means that by offering your product through ClickBank, you are also offering it to a veritable army of affiliates (over 100,000 people!) - people who just might be interested in promoting your product, for a cut in the profit.
You can open a ClickBank account for free... and start promoting other people's product right away. A good opportunity to look for related products to offer alongside (or through) your eBook.
Here are a few statistics:
- ClickBank Web page: www.ClickBank.com
- Subscription fees: 49.95 $USD per product listed
- Monthly fees: 0$
- Per-transaction fees: 1$ per transaction + 7.5% commission fee
- Affiliate commission: You determine what percentage your affiliates will get when they sell your product.
- Accepted currencies:
- US Dollars only

Comments
1. On Wednesday 4 July 2007 at 21:57, by Paul :: site
Thanks for a very concise summary
2. On Wednesday 16 January 2008 at 10:47, by Indo Legend :: site
One thing to be careful of with Clickbank is they have some strange rules on making payment to you. While PayPal has its drawbacks (no affiliate program and their desire to push PayPal), they are owned by eBay and hence much more credible. Their customer service is very good as well. Clickbank's customer service is miserable to non-existent in my experience. But their affiliate network is powerful so if you are low maintenance, they may work for you.
3. On Monday 28 January 2008 at 16:15, by Emily Wilson :: site
You may want to look into www.dclickz.com/refer/ebo... as another low-cost alternative way to accept Credit Card payments, PayPal payments, and Google Checkout payments.
4. On Friday 14 March 2008 at 12:26, by Alan :: site
Hi, just to say thanks for your help. I guess I'll start with Pay Pal.
Regards,
Alan
5. On Tuesday 3 June 2008 at 14:34, by ITIL Foundation :: site
Thanks for this very useful article. Didnt know about worldpay until now so thanks.
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