Paypal is a very familiar service that most Web citizens know well. But is Paypal the way to go if you want to process credit cards on your website?

Short answer: yes.

… But it ain’t perfect.

A little background

I’ve been using Paypal to process payments since 2001 for both Paypal account holders and for standard credit card processing. Overall, I have to say that the service they offer is pretty good.

Here are the good things about using Paypal to process orders on the Web:

• Paypal is easy to set up.
• Paypal is a known brand, thus lending some confidence to your website. People will feel more comfortable buying from you since you are using Paypal to take their money.
• Paypal’s reports are reasonably good.

Though I recommend Paypal, it is not all peachs-&-cream … some things suck about Paypal:

• The Paypal web site can sometimes be painfully slow.
• When people click the ‘buy now’ buttons and are taken to the Paypal website, it is not clear that they can just use their credit card to buy your products. Paypal over emphasizes the option to become a Paypal member. I’ve been emailed many times by irritated clients who wanted to buy from me, but did not want to join Paypal. I think this is hurting sales.
• The Paypal reporting tools for merchants are really old-school. Basically, you have to deal with a 1990’s style website. Ach!

Paypal offers different levels of service, where the easier-to-set-up-functionality, is less seamless and the more transparent/advanced services requires programming skills.

My suggestion

If you are just starting out with a new website, then you should definitely use Paypal because it is so easy to get started, especially when compared to other merchant service providers.

In time, as your business progresses and the volume of sales warrants it, then I would look into the more sophisticated Paypal tools and perhaps other credit card processors. I actually have a PHP based shopping cart tutorial that basically provides you with simple but useful shopping cart that integrates with Paypal behind the scenes. With this shopping cart, you could be up in running in an hour or so.

Whatever you do, don’t start storing credit card information on your servers … that opens up a whole can of worms you don’t want to get into.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

In this session of the Business of Web Design, I go over what you need to have in a typical web design contract.

There are important elements that you must include to avoid problems down the road, things like:

- Payment terms.
- Delivery dates.
- Project specifics: how many pages, functionality etc.

… and a whole lot more.

Check it out: Writing Web Design Contracts.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

Side note: I have to tell you, as an old-school web nerd who likes code, it was really hard at first to let go and let others do the work. Fortunately, it’s getting easier with every project!

Anyway, I do have my assistants here at killersites.com, who by the way, are a tremendous help. Nonetheless, sometimes I get outside help for whatever reasons.

Crazy quotes from Java nerds

I decided recently that I wanted to contribute back to an open source project that I have used in the past … by throwing the people involved in that project, some work. I also agreed to release the additions/modifications back to the community.

Anyway …

The modifications I wanted were relatively simple – a couple of filters, some rearranging of the UI etc ..

So I get back the quote for this project. I want to mention that I could do it myself in say two days – and my Java skills are rusty! The point is, this was not a big project.

… And yet in the quote, we had a project manager budgeted in and crazy time devoted to testing. For example:

For a button that took the user to a screen/view that already existed … just a button: 8 hrs of testing!

??

Now we all know that Java guys love to over engineer, but this is crazy! When will Java nerds learn that you don’t need an aircraft carrier to move a rocking chair.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

Hi,

The following session answers a common question that has been put to me many times:

What hardware and software do you need to run a web design business? Do you need to upgrade to ‘industrial strength’ tools?

I also touch on a few other things that I know many of you will find interesting.

You can listen to the latest Business of Web Design podcast in the killersites.com magazine.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

Hi,

I just uploaded the very first session of the Business of Web Design course/audio-book.

The first session is the introduction to the course, where I go over some of the specifics of what I’m going to cover … along with a few other things.

Introduction to the Business of Web Design audio book.

Please post comments, questions, criticisms and even praise for what your hear.

-

I have many other session/chapters already recorded and they should be out very soon … I just have to do the final edits.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

The ‘Business of Web Design‘ is an audio book/podcast series that teaches you to start and build a home based web design business.

I am still currently in the process of fleshing out all the details, but I do have a lot down on paper.

That said, I am very close to being ready to record the first (of many) sessions and I expect to have something out this week.

You can learn more about in the killersites.com magazine

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

… The sad truth

Recently, I was challenged with some tech problem, and to be honest about it, I forgot the specific steps to solve it!!

This always bothers me – when you forget how to do something you once knew so well.

I am now resigned to the fact that I’ve probably forgotten more than I now remember. I guess there is only so much room in your brain ..?

You can’t know it all

This brings me to my larger point: as a professional nerd, it is not realistic to think you will learn everything that is out there. There is simply too much and you have to pick your battles.

That said, that doesn’t mean you should learn one or two things and then just rest on your laurels. No, you have to keep learning otherwise you will fall behind and you won’t stay competitive.

Focus on your specialty

It is wise to decide where you want to go in your nerd career, and then focus in that area.

For instance, if you want to be a web designer (I’m talking design centric stuff) you should learn all that you can about the front-end of web design:

• HTML
• CSS
• Basic design principles
• A touch of PHP … just a touch!
• Javascript
• Maybe some Flash

You probably shouldn’t be so concerned about learning how to set up Apache or how to configure a Linux server. These skills may come in handy once in a while, but these really are the skills that system administrators should worry about.

Play to your strengths

Just because you like something, or are attracted to it, it doesn’t mean you will be any good at it!

… Although sometimes, what you like is often what you will be good at.

What works out for me, is to forget about the things I suck at and instead, concentrate on my talents.

I (for example) am at best a moderate designer. Sure, I can build a professional looking website, but it ain’t going to win any awards! Instead, I rely on the skills of the truly talented web designers (using web templates or simply hire them) and then concentrate on those things that I can do pretty well.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

That said, I am compelled to comment on a couple things that the recent death of Tim Russert, has brought to the fore.

Issue number one: Where societies spend their money.

Mr. Russert apparently died of a heart attack … the way you are most likely to die. From the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute:

Each year, about 1.1 million people in the United States have heart attacks, and almost half of them die. CAD, which often results in a heart attack, is the leading killer of both men and women in the United States.

Given that so many people die from heart attacks, I was wondering how much money is spent on researching ALL disease.

With a little help from the almighty Google, I found on the Science Daily web site a disturbing piece of information:

A new study by two York University researchers estimates the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, contrary to the industry’s claim.

OK, that’s bad enough. But what is even worse (in my opinion) is the actual dollar amount the pharmaceutical industry spends on ALL medical research: only (about) US$30 billion a year!

So why does this disturb me? Isn’t $30 billion a lot of cash? Well, let’s compare this to the money spent in Iraq every month: US$10 billion. So that adds up to $120 billion a year!

… So the US is in Iraq because of the terrorist threat – so they said. I do not want to get into that debate, because what’s important, is to see how many have died because of terrorist attack in say, the last 20 years?

From what I can tell, it is in thousands (less than 15 000 in 20 years) for the entire world. Yes, my numbers are rough, but the differences (between heart attack related deaths vs. terrorist deaths) is so staggering, that I don’t need to be very accurate with the terrorist death count.

Deaths in the last twenty years:

From terrorist attack: 15 thousand (the entire world – that includes the US)
From heart attack: 10 million (US only)

Hmm …

Another interesting fact is that many more people die of drowning in their bathtubs, than they do because of terrorist activity! Yes, you are much more likely to be killed by your bathtub than you are to be killed by a terrorist!

… Perhaps there should be a ‘war on bathtubs’?

What the above numbers show, is that it makes no sense from a life-saving point of view, to be spending so much money on the ‘war on terror’.

It’s a shame people seem compelled to do so, since it seems to me, that so many more lives (a lot more!) could be saved if more money was spent on medical research instead.

Issue number two: Why is telling the truth hard?

In praise the Tim Russert, many a politician has said that he was a ‘tough’ but still a fair interviewer.

He was tough because he held politicians feet to the fire, he pressed them to tell the truth … to be honest about whatever it was they were speaking about.

Mr. Russert was also praised for being unbiased and fair … he sought the truth and did not play gotcha games. That’s why he was one of the best journalist ever.

That got me thinking, why is telling the truth hard? Shouldn’t telling the truth be easy. Shouldn’t being honest about anything be our top priority? Sadly, we all know that for some, (especially for many politicians) telling the truth about hard things is hard.

How does all this have to do with web design, programming or the business of web design?

As a small business owner and web programmer, you have (to learn) to be brutally honest with yourself, because if you aren’t, you will find yourself in the poor house and your software won’t work.

… Kind of like government!

I have to tell you, I’ve pissed of a lot of people over the years because I tend to tell the truth. Maybe I should work on my delivery?

R.I.P. Mr Russert.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

I just wanted to announce a new section on killersites.com: the Killersites.com Magazine.

Why another section?

I wanted a place where I could include other people articles and tutorials and I wanted a place where we could keep you up to date with the latest news on new products, technology … whatever on all things web design and web programming.

… I did this a little on my blog, but I felt a needed a more author neutral location.

Anyway, it sports a brand new layout, gravatars (Globally Recognized Avatars) and a way to subscribe to the magazine’s RSS feed through email.

We are just starting and so there is much to do … but I kicked it off with a great video on Actionscript 1, 2, and 3.

I hope you find it useful.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

There is one major problem though: Alexa is not accurate at all.

Alexa gets a lot of it’s traffic data from its’ Alexa toolbar and other nebulous source they don’t identify. So that leads me to think that they still get most of their data from the toolbar.

Sounds OK, except for one glaring problem – who uses the Alexa toolbar?

I’m a big Web nerd, and I have yet to meet or hear of anyone who uses it. I’m actually thinking that with the release of all kinds of other toolbars (like Google’s and Stumbleapon’s) that whatever market share Alexa once had, is diminishing as people upgrade their browsers and computers.

So I am guessing that a lot of Alexa’s data is derived from older computers.

… From people who have not upgraded in years. But that’s just a guess.

How about some facts

I have some hard numbers that show that Alexa is not even close to accurate.

First example: killersites.com’s Alexa rank has fallen far from it’s heights of being in Alexa 12 000 ranking, even though since that time, our traffic is actually much, much higher.

Second example: killerphp.com, the Alexa ranking is now starting to register with a higher daily Alexa rankings (higher than killersites.com) even though it only get about 20% of killersites.com’s traffic!

… Uh, that’s weird.

Another weird thing:

Check out Alexa’s own measure of it’s own website:

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/alexa.com

… no traffic data at all!

Common, I’m sure someone goes to their site. So it begs the question … why not list your own traffic?

Conclusion

I think that for most (websites) except for the really big web sites out there (Google’s, Facebooks etc …) I would not consider Alexa as a relevant measure of a website’s traffic. Not even close.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com