Before you upgrade your Web site to sell products, practice asking this: "What other fees are involved?"

Unless you make changes, fees from your Web designer stop when the design’s completed. But fees from your Web host, shopping cart provider, merchant credit card account, financial gateway provider, and bank online processing center keep going and going and going…

The good news is life in e-commerce land is getting increasingly easier. Today, nearly all Web hosts support common shopping cart applications, and banks better understand e-commerce merchants and have stopped lumping them in with porn merchants. 

Assuming you have a Web host, you need to add three components to be able to accept a customer credit card number, verify the credit, and have the money transferred in your bank account before the customer gets the product: A shopping cart application, a merchant account at your bank for credit card processing, and the gateway application linking the first two.

Since you really want your money, let's start with a merchant account. Work with your bank first, because they know you and want to keep your business. If you prefer another option, Yahoo Directory offers seven pages of credit card merchant account providers. When you find three you like, check their list of approved gateways (and shopping carts approved by the gateway), because each must be configured to work with the others to make your money appear.

Big hosting companies can streamline the process, but the fees still keep ticking up and up. But if you have hundreds of products and sell dozens per day or hour, you’re going to have to pay for some serious automation processes.

For examples, look at Yahoo Stores, Storefront.Net and new player, Volusion SuperStore.

Check out their feature pages, paying particular attention to marketing details. The more marketing these vendors help you do - such as e-mail auto-responders thanking customers for buying - the better. Other features include an affiliate program; multiple currency options and language support; and tight integration with all the shipping services, including e-mails to customers containing a tracking number. Since most cost extra, only add what you really need. 

Those of you just dipping into e-commerce have cheaper ways to sell. eBay, PayPal and Amazon MarketPlace all provide ways to sell with credit cards without getting a merchant account. Also check Yahoo Directory under Transaction Clearing.