A while ago I did an article about the different ways you could take people’s money when you’re selling crafts online. You can see that post here.

Then just the other day a friend pointed out to me that I wasn’t really giving the subject complete coverage. I was confused. I’m not the world’s greatest writer maybe, but I thought I’d done quite a good job

Ah, she said, but what about all those people who sell crafts online but also offline at craft fairs and such. What are they supposed to do?

She’s right, of course. I tend to recommend Paypal because I’ve used them for so long, but it’s not like having one of those credit card machines that you can use just about anywhere, is it.

Well the good news is, for many people it now can be because of Paypal’s Virtual Terminal service.

What’s a virtual terminal? Well in a way it’s like one of those credit card machines on your computer. People can fax you their details, phone you, hand you their credit card like in a store, and all you do is key in to the Paypal terminal that you’ll have in front of you.

Benefit one: You can do it from home for those customers who would rather not put their details into their pc (there are still some who don’t like this).

Benefit two: If you have a laptop you can take someone’s money pretty much anywhere!

Benefit three: All your craft business transactions are being handled by the same people and go straight into the same account.

There’s no really complex technical set-up or overly stringent requirements like you get from a bank. There’s no extra hardware to rent. There are no set-up costs, the fees are very competitive, and everyone trusts Paypal. What more could you ask for?

Sign up for your free account here and then look under Merchant Services for full details.

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