Best Electronic Payment Services: Top 5

By Dora, at September 26th, 2008

Feel free to republish this article with a link back to this page. Thanks!

If you have a blog, and are thinking of making a living from it, then online banking systems has been on your mind.

Here are the Top 5 Service providers:

1. PayPal

This old household name is still top of my charts.

It’s the one service provider that is continually evolving dramatically. (PayPal recently opened physical bank addresses, the latest in Rome.)

Their fees are very reasonable, and it is possible to transfer money between your accounts (as long as you live in one of the accepted countries - check your country is accepted). And anyone with an email can make payment.

Many people are familiar with PayPal and feel comfortable making payments through it.

(Note: to avoid fraud - PayPal will never ask you to click on a link to enter your secret details. Check an email’s properties by right-clicking it. If the it’s not from @paypal.com, then it’s not from @paypal.com)

2. MoneyBookers

Moneybookers has a good reputation for fighting fraud and money laundering.

But this means registering is long winded. In addition to verifying your bank account, they verify your physical address by sending a verification letter. This means a long wait till you’re fully active.

People are less familiar with MoneyBookers (compared to PayPal).

On the upside, almost every country can withdraw and upload funds from MoneyBooker (unlike PayPal). You can find MoneyBooker fees here.

There website is attractive and user-friendly.

3. 2Checkout

A good option for people in the US. They offer a pretty comprehensive financial service including: financial reporting, tracking, fraud prevention, affiliate tracking, customer service and sales tracking.

While 2Checkout is fairly well known, there have been negative reviews in recent times (see here and here). So perhaps take a very careful look at their agreement policy before signing up.

There are also substantial fees included.

4. ProPay

Much smaller and lesser known, ProPay is a very reliable and relatively spam free option. ProPay’s options also eliminated the need for expensive gateways.

The negatives?

It has annual fees, which you can find here. Also their transaction fees are slightly higher than both MoneyBookers and PayPal.

To access the money you make you need a US banking account, or you will need to take a premium account and spend the money via their credit card. You can find more info on how it works here.

They have a $250 per transaction, $1000 per month processing limit.

5. WorldPay

If none of the above options appeal to you, might consider WorldPay. Possibly the least well known, it seems to have fairly positive reviews and offers services to merchants for all the major currencies.

Very conveniently, they cover you in the case of fraudulent charges and don’t make ‘charge back’ fees. They also offer good shopping cart options

However, there are monthly fees.

Have you used any of these options, or are you using another service provider that you love or loath?

To bloganistas = may we rule the world!

Blog Review: Dance Outlook

By Lilly Mouse, at September 25th, 2008

Feel free to republish this article with a link back to this page. Thanks!

Blog Review: Dance Outlook

A long time ago I promised to review Selly’s blog, Dance Outlook. Finally I’m getting round to it! And the blog is interesting, it has some very strong points.

Dedicated to all things dance related, and the blog has a wonderfully large header image depicting a ballerina’s pointed feet from her perspective communicates the blog’s topic well.

I LOVE this blog’s header image.

It’s large and chunky, which some might criticize.

- It’s eye grabbing, and a beautiful photo

- It forces you to scroll down to find content. Encouraging user interaction with your blog can be tough, and this is a clever tactic. Once a user is interacting with you blog by scrolling and clicking, etc, they’re more likely to continue reading more content, and more likely return.

- Apart from emphasizing the main topic of the blog (dance), the image communicates well with the blog’s catch-phrase: “Everything Dance from My Point of View”

- It’s unique. These are in fact the feet belonging to Selly, and so gives you a perspective on her too!

The blog ticks many of the right boxes:

The blog has a 3 page ranking, regular visitors who comment on this bloganista’s posts, she has a great signature at the end of each post : “Stay on your toes, Selly”, she includes mulitmedia, etc, etc, etc.

So, hard-pressed, what is this bloganista doing wrong?

I could spot two possible areas for improvement.

1stly: Blogger.com top toolbars. These always detract from blogs by making them seem unprofessional and templatey.

However, the Dance Outlook domain name indicates that it’s hosted privately. There’s no need for this toolbar? It’s possible Selly left it for Blogger.com user navigation? Does she achieve traffic through it? Or it might simply be a case of not know Xhtml? (Selly, why?! Tell us. )

2ndly: The blog’s navigation is hidden on the left, appearing like a link or part of a blogroll.

It’s not impossible to find, but might be better positioned horizontally, below the wonderful header image. This would improve the user’s experience considerably.

Apart from that, Selly really doesn’t put a foot wrong. Great blog! Thanks.

Strength to the bloganistas!

Ciaos,

Lilly