Hi all,

I run two sites that cover their costs based on donations by visitors/community members. I currently use PayPal to accept donations. For most people, this is fine, however, I do have a percentage of users who will not touch PayPal. They have asked me to provide an alternative means to allow them to donate. Long ago, I used PaySystems, as my alternative for these people. Now, I use Ikobo. Actually, I've only had two people go through the process of donating to me via Ikobo. I'm not sure if others found them to be a hassle, or what.

I'm a US citizen living in Japan, but in the fall, I will move back to the states. Anyways, I've read about a dozen posts of 3pp here. I considered 2CO, but I'm not so sure if they are right for me. (Yes, I read about their "donations" issue.)

I should also add that at some point, my site plans to offer sales of CD-ROMs. I'm not very sure how much these sales would bring in so I think a merchant account would be "too much" for us at this point.

Well, I've read various posts and most of them are dealing with getting funds for hosting, design services, etc. So I would appreciate any insight on the topic of accepting donations and the various options available.

Thanks,

Carlos Camacho

If you want to keep it cheap, 2checkout seems the way to go for accepting donations. Otherwise get yourself a merchant account but that can be expensive.

2CO is NOT the "way to go" for accepting donationa
http://www.2checkout.com/products.htm

Tom, hi. As I said, I know of "donations" listed on that page. I seem to recall a thread where it sounded like you mentioned that to use 2CO for donations -- the way was to refer to them as "services." Sorry I can't recall the thread here. I think perhaps you were saying that if my site "sold" memberships, at a specific cost, then it would be viewed as a service (ie. like a service of web design and so forth), thus, everything would be cool. Or did I misunderstand you?

ezCore, as I mentioned, I think my site doesn't get enough donations in order to make a merchant account feasible. That is unless you know of one that doesn't have annual or monthly fees. (ie. If 20% of my donations are using my non-PayPal alternative... it may be that I will be spending 20% of my donations to maintain it. Errr... that is an example, but you get what I mean?)

Cheers,

Carlos

Well. then I think 2checkout is the way to go, you can try other 3rd party processor like ikobo, paysat or others because there are no real merchant accounts without monthly fees, you have to pay for the gateway fees and merchant accounts always (As far as I know). So go with paypal+other 3rd party processor like 2chechkout.

Seems the smartest choice.

TomD says otherwise so you can try other 3rd party processors.

Some 3rd Party Processor Choices (Haven't used any)

2CheckOut
MultiCards
I-Bill
InternetSecure
CCNow
Verotel
ClickBank
iKobo
PaySat
ShareIt
V-Share

If TomD says that 2CO is not the way to go, I'd be inclined to pay heed to that as he works at 2Checkout. ;)

One suggestion, Carlos, is that depending on your anticipated volume - especially if you will later add in CDROM sales to the mix -you may want to think about getting a direct U.S. merchant account given that you are a U.S. citizen.

I've looked at a few M.A. in the threads here. Any that come to mind that will have low-fees considering my use (donations rather than ecommerce)

Thanks,