Whether you are in a business or a non-profit, taking payments online can dramatically increase efficiency, sales, and security. When it comes to registering for events, most people prefer to register online. Taking payments online makes a lot of sense.

However, I sometimes get questions from organizations that are apprehensive about online payments because it's unfamiliar territory. Like most things, however, e-commerce is not as scary when you understand how it all works so I'd like to help dispel some of the mystery about e-commerce so that it's more easily understood.

Taking payments online requires a few things:

• Secure website and payment system
• Payment gateway
• Merchant account

Your website need to have a payment system in order to accept payments online. If you are selling products, this could be a shopping cart. If you are taking event registrations, it could be an online registration form. A payment gateway is an a service provider that authorizes payments for an organization (the "seller"). A payment gateway is the online equivalent of the card swipe machines that you see in stores when you are checking out. A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by debit or credit cards.

When someone makes a payment online (such as registering for an event or buying a product), the process from start to finish looks like this:

1. The customer enters credit card information and clicks the "Submit" button
2. The website encrypts the information and sends the credit card information to the payment gateway
3. The payment gateways checks to see if the credit card number is valid, does some fraud screening, and checks to see if the charge is approved (this takes a few seconds)
4. If the charge is approved, the payment gateway sends an approval notice back to the website so that a confirmation message can be displayed to the user
5. The website completes the purchase however it is designed to do so
6. The payment gateway captures the fund and makes a deposit into the seller's bank account (it takes a few days for the money to appear)
7. The seller ships the product, allows the customer into the event, or does whatever needs to be done to fulfill the purchase

All of this happens behind the scenes while the customer is waiting for the confirmation.

At SpinWeb, we provide the secure website and payment system for online product sales, registrations, and donations. However, the payment gateway is handled by a third-party provider. We prefer to use Authorize.Net, since this gateway is a proven provider with a good track record. We connect our clients with Derek Bogard from Immediate Payment Solutions, who does a great job of walking our clients through the paperwork. If a merchant account is needed, that can also be set up at this time.

The monthly fees from the gateway and merchant account are usually somewhere between $10 and $30 per month with a percentage fee of about 1% - 2.5% per transaction.

Once the paperwork is filled out, the Authorize.Net is activated and we plug it into the organization's website. At this point, the seller is now ready to accept payments online and the process should be automated from start to finish.

Whether it's selling products, taking donations, or allowing online event registration, online payments make your organization easier to do business with. This means happier customers and more revenue. What's the cost of not taking payments online?

Kyle Lacy is founder and CEO of Brandswag, a social media training and strategy company. He recently authored two books, Twitter Marketing for Dummies (Nov 2009) and Branding Yourself (Dec 2010) and is a highly sought after speaker. He writes regularly at his blog on KyleLacy.com and you can find him chatting daily on Facebook / Twitter.

Twitter is the talk of the town from marketing firms to small business owners. The site recently hit 100 million users and is fast approaching being the top search engine in the world. ... The question for everyone is how do we use this tool to increase leads and drive growth? This seems to be the question most people are asking across the business landscape. If you are skeptical and a little confused... believe me... you are not alone. I am immersed in social media on a daily basis and I am still testing strategies when using Twitter. We are all trying to figure out this new world of online communication.. so where do you start when diving into Twitter? It is just another tool in your (business) arsenal to drive brand awareness across a specific group of people. So what do you do when first starting out? Limit your use. It is extremely important to build out a usage plan for Twitter when first starting out on the tool. An example: Phase 1

• Use Twitter for 30 minutes a day
• Add 10 strategic relationships to follow every two days (between 30-45 followers a week)
• Tweet (send a message) three times a day
• Write down all strategic relationships or new business leads formed when using Twitter

Phase 2

• Move up to an hour of usage a day. Example: designate 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes after the work day. You could also break the usage out over the day
• Sign up for a HootSuite account to help with Tweeting and follower management throughout the day.
• Move up to 10 tweets a day. If need be... use HootSuite for random posting through-out the day.

This is just small example of how you can build out a Twitter usage plan for yourself or your employees. There are a couple of important things to remember:

• Use the tool on a daily basis. It is important to build up a habit of using the tool.
• Measure. Measure. Measure. Measure. If you do not see some type of success after 3-5 months.. re-evaluate your usage.
• Remember that Twitter is just another medium to reach potential consumers... don't give up your other marketing strategies... integrate your approach

I recently sent out a survey asking for preferred methods of event registration. I like to back up our recommendations with actual data so I plan to do surveys like this on a regular basis and this seemed like a good place to start. Many of our clients, especially associations, hold events throughout the year and are always looking for ways to increase attendance and make it easier to get people to register. Many of them are either accepting registrations with an online registration system or are considering it.

The survey was sent to a variety of people via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and word of mouth. We got over 100 responses and here are the results:

Obviously, the results speak for themselves. Over 90% of people who responded prefer online registration. This is important to note for organizations that have events and are not yet taking registrations online. With such a landslide preference toward registration online, one might wonder how many prospective attendees are lost due to lack of easy way to register. Would those on the fence register if they could easily do it online?

What is also interesting to note is that the largest age group that responded was 46-55 with almost 1/5 of the responders over 55, yet the results were heavily weighted in favor of online registration. The notion that older people prefer traditional methods is apparently a misconception!

If you are currently not taking event registrations online, you might want to look at the data. Giving prospective attendees an easy way to register may just increase attendance.

Need help with online registration? Click here to let us know.