Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi all,

I`m new to the forum part of Startup Nation and have a million questions to ask (well, maybe not a million).  Today, I will only ask one. 

I have a member based website that should be up and running in mid January.  The members will be paying a small fee, sent a membership card and have full access to the website.  We offer discounts on products with retailers throughtout North America.  What type of program would I need that will take care of members when they sign up for membership and pay for the membership.  Would "Kick Start Cart" be perfect for my situation? PayPal? I will also be sending out a weekly newletter to over 30,000 members in 2007 (projected).

All advice welcomed...please!

Thanks in advance.

Do you have a programmer or it is a project you are doing on your own?

I would recommend OsCommerce. It`s friendly to use, can take Paypal payments and has a built-in newletter. Let me know if you need help.

Hi,

I recently your notice on startupnation.  I am curious to know "how did you get started with this business type".  I am looking in the same area and I go in circles.

Kittykat.

 

Thanks for your prompt replies and sorry for my delayed response.

My partner and I hired a company out of Utah name Orgin3.  They will be our web designer and hosting service. We have two member based websites which will released for business in January and March.  I will post the websites onces we are a go.  The way my partner and I started this type of business where people pay a small monthly or yearly membership fee was from an idea based on magazine subscriptions.  An average magazine today is $4.00 per magazine.  The problem is that we spend most of our time on the net.  So, we decided to build two online magazines.  Full of articles, news, videos, forums and much more.

We had the idea and the vision and we let Orgin 3 do the rest.

Tee

It`s a shame you didn`t say what you were doing back on the 12th. There`s a great package called Open Journal System (http://pkp.sfu.ca) written to produce open access academic journals. We`ve been using it to publish UTSePress journals for three years (my day job).

I`m pretty sure it will do 99.9% of what you need "as is". It`s open source so you can easily add any missing features. Each magazine can be customized individually.

Rich


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Blog - http://www.buggy.id.au/

Hey Starcoder,

We have another website idea that we would like to get started next month.  We want to use Orgin 3, but if you can give us better rates we might use you.

Can you send me some examples of your work?  Your rates and the time line it take to complete a job.  The people we are using now are taking a bit too long (almost two months.)  We would like our next project to be completed and running by the end of Febuary.  We are also planning to have two more website projects by the end of 2007.

InvestingInaDream@msn.com

Thanks!

Are you using a membership site?  If so, see what recommendations that company has that will interface with the membership program.

Also, have you seen what your hosting company already offers.  If they have fantasico, for example, you have a few ecommerce shopping cart options.

Something to consider or maybe you have considered.  Kickart has an affiliate program, newsletter program and shopping cart.  I beleive it`s less costly if you purchase it by the year?   Anyway, the shopping cart is different from a merchant account or 3rd party merchant account like paypal or 2checkout.

As far as merchant accounts or 3rd party merchants, since you`re having reoccuring fees, make sure that any system you purchase, can do that ... legally.  And some merchant accounts won`t let you use their services if you`re running an affiliate program.  Read the fine print.

My hosting service, well not mine, the one I use, has an shoping cart, affiliate program and newsletter program.   No merchant account but they interface with a bunch of them.  And I`m considering a company they don`t interface with now, but will set it up for me.  However, I`m not sure that I can do reoccuring fees.  I have to look into that.  Because that would be a good process for me to offer clients and good for you with a membership site.

If you post your specific requirements, I might be able to suggest something. To take money you need two systems - a) shopping cart   b) way to take money, through a merchant account or 3rd party merchant account.