A minisite is just what the word suggests - a mini website. When set up correctly, it is a great way to direct targeted traffic to your main site or online store. For that to happen though, you need to have all the elements of a successful minisite in place. Once you do, you’ll reap extra traffic and profits.

Think of your minisite as a spotlight on a single product or service, which you need to choose from your product offerings. Just one, mind you. Minisites focus on a single theme. If you have more than one product or service, don’t worry. Build a minisite for each one. In the end, you’ll have a network of minisites all linking back to your main website.

Think of the increase in traffic from doing that alone! Let’s say that you want to promote the sale of vegan vitamins from your health care line. It could just as easily be an affiliate program, but for this illustration, vegan health (more specifically, the effects of vegan vitamins on your health) would be your theme. Remember, in order to have the elements of a successful minisite, you must remain laser focused on your theme. No rambling, branching off, or distracting potential customers to another topic, page or product.

Key elements of a successful minisite
- You need the following for your greatest chance of optimum success.
- Tightly written and persuasive copy. Make the writing good.
- Have good keywords scattered throughout your copy in a natural way. Don’t just stuff the writing with keywords, it has to flow and be focused and informative.
- Add testimonials if you have some. It helps build credibility.
- Offer bonuses if possible, and note any guarantees that you’re prepared to back your product up with.
List the features and benefits (FAB) of your product or service. What’s in it for the customer?
- Give your minisite an easy-on-the-eyes layout with attractive graphics and a large attention grabbing headline near the top.
- Add a PayPal “Buy Now” button. Recall the razor sharp focus that you’re going for? Get in quick, get the sale quick, then out again. Kind of like the crib notes of a sales site. In fact what happens is, when the site visitor clicks on the Buy Now Button, they are taken to your main site to complete the sale.

Creating an incredibly effective minisite is not so difficult. The only snag you may hit is when it comes time to install the PayPal “Buy Now” button. It’s the perfect application for handling your payment processing, and even your secure download delivery, but it has a complicated set up. If you’re proficient in computer programming you’ll be fine, otherwise you’ll want to get some help. Look for software that can help you get this set up.

Using all the elements of a successful minisite gives you a distinct marketplace advantage. Start promoting your new site, and watch your traffic climb.

Many people who sell digital products online are aware of the danger involved in doing so. Without using a proper payment processing and delivery service, they leave themselves open to theft of their downloads. It really is in an entrepreneur’s best interest to utilize a secure means of collecting purchase money and to deliver product. A few sites for this part of doing business are 1ShoppingCart, e-Junkie and PayPal IPN. They’re good examples of Secure Download Delivery services.

1ShoppingCart and e-Junkie

These two companies offer real time transactions and storage without having to download anything to your computer. Your server receives instant notification when a purchase of your product is made. Upon verification from your server back to the payment processing company, the customer receives the product. Both companies enable you to accept credit card payments. If you enroll in the right account, all of your back end activities, such as affiliate commissions, can be automatically taken care of as well.

The downside to these and other similar services is that there are recurring monthly fees to pay. Some can be pretty steep for a full, top-end service that takes care of Secure Download Delivery and the handling all of your back end tasks. Also, if your server is down, your sale won’t go through.

PayPal IPN

PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification is a good payment processing and secure digital delivery service that also offers all the features you’re likely to need or want, same as above. Since PayPal is known the world over, you have the added bonus of using a program that your customers are sure to know and trust. Unlike the first two payment processors mentioned, there are NO monthly fees. Also, if your server is down, PayPal IPN will try you again later - no missed sales.

The only real downside to using PayPal IPN is the installation. If you have a computer programming background, you’ll probably be fine. If not, you’d be well advised to purchase a user-friendly desktop application to implement the code for you. If you get the coding wrong, you are at high risk of not receiving payments. It’s crucial to get it right, so check out some secure software help. The program deals with the code and files, you just need to upload them to your web hosting site.

Secure Download Delivery doesn’t happen by itself. Business owners need to be proactive and vigilant to avoid incorrect set ups and unscrupulous people. It can’t be stressed enough that you must ensure that you get the coding set up and installed properly for optimum protection, and sales that go through without a hitch.

Let’s talk about your business for a minute and do a little dreaming. How would it be to have an easy, instant, fool-proof way to process your payments? What if you could respond to customer purchases in real-time? What would it be like to have total security against having your digital products stolen? Wouldn’t all those things be great? Well, good news! You don’t have to dream anymore. PayPal’s IPN does all those things for you. So, What is PayPal IPN? Read on.

IPN is PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification system, designed to help alleviate many of the concerns of dealing with customers during the check out process. When a payment is sent to your account, IPN sends you notification and confirmation immediately. Not only that, but you’ll receive a status report that lets you know of any pertinent information such as when a transaction fails, is cancelled or pending.

One really cool aspect of PayPal IPN is the customizing options. You can set up your site’s response to purchases in real-time, track customers and automate your fulfillment operations. The system can deliver the access keys to your product directly to the customer for pick up, and all the resulting purchase information is stored right in your own database.

Imagine how easy doing business is with these kinds of payment processing systems in place.
So to summarize, the PayPal IPN basically uses a 3 step process:
1.The customer makes a payment or requests a refund, triggering the IPN
2.A notification is sent from the IPN to your server for validation
3.Your server returns the validation (or invalidation) notice to the IPN

Your business transaction is done, and all without you having to do anything beyond the initial set up of the IPN on your site.

Something that should be mentioned here, is the fact that installing the IPN can be a bit tricky if you’re not familiar with how computer codes work. If that describes you, you are probably not going to want to frustrate yourself with trying. Besides, getting it wrong is a bad idea. The payments may not go into your account if you have improperly installed the IPN code.

It’s best to look for help with this. There is software that makes the installation a breeze, and you’ll have the peace of mind knowing that it is done correctly.

Regardless of how you install PayPal’s IPN, please consider doing so. It will save you a ton of work and worry. The added security against having your digital products stolen is reason alone to use this program.

What is PayPal’s IPN? Very possibly your payment system dreams come true.

Do you use PayPal to process your customer’s payments? If not, you are one of the few people left on the planet who aren’t taking advantage of this wonderful resource.

PayPal’s multi-million client base is growing at the extraordinary rate of 28,000 new accounts daily, and their payment processing system is sheer perfection. Still, you may wonder why you should use them to process your payments. What’s in it for you? It’s a fair question, and you deserve some good answers.

Versatility and Ease
PayPal is the most widely accepted payment system in the world. At the time of this writing, it is available in 38 countries, and the company has plans to continue expanding its services around the globe. That means you can do business on a global scale and get paid the same day.

The user-friendly interface makes it a breeze to sign up for a free consumer account, which allows the sending, receiving and requesting of payments. It’s free and easy for all those happy potential customers to buy from you and pay you immediately for your product or service.

Upgraded accounts can even accept credit card payments without having to sign up for merchant accounts with credit card companies. Being able to accept cash or credit card payments opens you up to a wider client base.

Speed and Security
Using PayPal is a dream for buyers and sellers alike. Their checkout system allows for a quick and seamless online transaction that simply processes a payment with the click of a button. Your customers can even pay you from their mobile phone rather than waiting until they get home to their computer. No more waiting for a cheque in the mail. That alone is a good reason why you should use PayPal to process your payments.

Although much of the world now has at least some idea of how to stay safe online, many people are still nervous about the security risk of making purchases. PayPal’s payment processing takes that worry away with their aggressive security measures. They use only secured servers and information is encrypted. No one ever sees the consumer’s financial data, not even the person or company receiving payment. Customers can relax and feel safe using PayPal to complete a transaction with you, as their details cannot be stolen.

If a consumer has dealt with a verified seller and feels there is an issue with that seller, PayPal will step in and investigate. Their account holders are offered buyer protection and Safeweb Insurance. This is another feature that helps you to establish trust with clients, especially if they have never dealt with you before.

There are so many incredible reasons why you should use PayPal to process your payments. The ease, versatility, speed and security all make for smooth transactions that will leave both you and your customer happy.

While it’s hardly new, you’ve probably noticed that more and more bloggers are adding donation buttons to their sites and posts. Some are straight forward using PayPal, while others ask you to buy them something. Even Joe Vitale of The Secret fame asks for Amazon gift certificate donations on his blog. Are you taking advantage of this method of earning some much needed money? If you would like to know how to monetize your blog with donations, read on.

Gift Buttons

The ever popular “Buy me a beer” buttons suggest $3 a pint, or $7.50 for a pitcher. What people who donate like about this option is that the amount is small, and they prefer the feeling of buying you something over just handing you money. It’s exactly the same result in both instances, but gives a feeling of gifting.
It doesn’t have to beer either. There are many options and graphics and text for cups of coffee, martinis, gift certificates, etc. Use your search engine and type in what you would most like to receive to find the appropriate payment button. Make sure you do a bit of research. Not all buttons work on all blogs. The “Buy me a beer” button, for instance, only works on Wordpress.

Your Best Criteria for Receiving Donations

If you have a blog that is all fluff and no stuff, you may have a hard time raising funds. There are some attributes that increase your chances of realizing some cash through your donation buttons.

Value.

If your blog offers something helpful to your readers, they are more likely to throw a little money in the pot. It’s a mutual back scratching thing - you give to them, they give to you. If you blog site typically offers free downloads and such, that only increases that feeling of giving back for them.

Little or no other commercial activity on the site. If you plaster ads all over your blog, you lessen your chances of people clicking your donation button. They think you’re already making money off of them, and that your need is not as great as it would appear without the ads.

Tons of readers. It just makes sense that the larger your readership, the more money you’ll make. Only a percentage will give, so the donations will rise in accordance to the higher number of visitors.

A Couple of Suggestions

There are some things that you can do to encourage people to give. If you engage in proactive fundraising, that is make a plea in your blog posting for readers to help you out financially, try enticing them and make sure you don’t bug them.

Offer incentives. You could do it on a ballot basis, giving all benefactors a chance at winning one of x number of prizes. If need be, approach local or online business and ask them to donate. It’s free publicity for them, and a premium for you to use to attract more cash gifts. This just may be give that little extra push to those readers who are sitting on the fence deciding whether or not to click the button.

Keep your fund-raising requests to a minimum. If you repeatedly ask for donations, you’ll pester people. They not only will stop giving, but they’ll start to avoid you and that means your readership will fall, as well.

Knowing how to monetize your blog with donations is not only good for you, but for the people doing the donating. It makes people feel good to help and give if they can. Do yourself and them this favour. Everyone gets rewarded.