Accepting Online Payments When Selling Online Training Programs
Selling online training programs requires online payment processing through merchant accounts. So how can you start accepting online payments?
Hi Trish Davies, here to talk about money which is a huge driving force to me as I am very economically minded. Now I specifically want to talk about how you as an online coach can start accepting online payments.
When you look at it the transformation of accepting payments in business has been startling over the last 30+ years. Before the digital revolution cash was king in many business sectors. People physically exchanged cash when transactions took place.
Also writing a cheque as common place as long as it was backed up with some payment guaranteed card. The process of accepting a credit card saw business owners swiping the card through a machine with no carbon required paper. It was like magic when you saw your personal details appear on your credit card receipt.
Now many people may still refer to those times as “the good old days” and they were. Business was done, transactions were made, vendors made their profits and customers received what they paid for.
Times Have Changed
The thing is that time has moved on and technology has advanced at breakneck speed. Everything is now streamlined and paying for things is now pretty much “hands off”. If you go to a store you can just place your card in front of a machine and the transaction goes through.
No more entering pin numbers, the process is much quicker. People need that experience as like you and I live very busy lives. Online shopping has obviously exploded over the last 20 years and many vendors off “click and buy” services as they have your credit card details on file. Amazon is a great example of how that process works.
Technology also enables you as a small business owner, solo entrepreneur, to compete with the likes of Amazon. There are facilities that you can leverage to accept online payments for your digital business. So what options are there?
Accepting Online Payments As An Online Coach
This topic arose during my latest Build Your AU weekly mastermind. One of my members was unsure what payment processor, or merchant, to use. As a digital business owner, you must have a merchant account facility available to process online payments.
They obviously must be secure for both parties, you the vendor and your customer. These services are offered by third party financial institutions and I will give you some examples in just a few moments.
Now there are many factors to consider when looking for merchant account services. They are not all equal when it comes to the type of business you operate and where you live in the world.
Therefore, you must do some research into what service will best suit you but here are some options. Specifically, if you want to become an online coach.
- PayPal
- Stripe
I mention these two specifically because I use PayPal for my Build Your AU training programs. I know that some of my members also use Stripe specifically for selling online courses.
What you must understand is that these services are not free as they charge fees for handling transactions. Th good thing is that the fees occur as the transaction goes through. Therefore, there is no up front cost to you, after all cash flow is very important for any business. Also, you must bear in mind currency conversion rates which differ from company to company.
PayPal is renown worldwide, but they do have certain criteria that you must meet to get a merchant account.
Stripe is just as secure as PayPal, but you may not have come across them. I use Stripe in other aspects of my business and have good experience with them.
Integrating These Merchant Options And Selling Online Training Programs
If you are selling online courses then I know that these services work very well. When you sell online courses, you will invariably use a platform that hosts your online content.
I use a service called Kajabi and host all of my online training programs through them. Learn more about Kajabi here. The reason I like Kajabi is that they integrate with both PayPal & Stripe.
Once you have opened up your merchant accounts directly you can then link them to Kajabi. When a customer buys one of your courses the process is streamlined from start to finish.
Payment is collected and then the training material is delivered automatically. This gives a great user experience for your customers.
Types Of Payments For Online Coaches
As an online coach you will be using three payment models in your business. The first is a one time payment where the customer pays a set price for a specific course. Secondly you will use a subscription payment model which means your customer pays a monthly fee. This usually revolves around some kind of membership option.
Finally, you will offer one to one coaching and mentoring at a higher price level. You can set up all these payment models through the platform and merchant integrations I have mentioned.
It really is like keeping your coaching business under one umbrella so to speak. It makes it easier to manage if product payment and deliver is conducted in one place. This enables you to give more time to your customers knowing that all the administration is going on in the background.
So, there are some options for accepting online payments. They work very well if you want to become an online coach but equally as well for other business models. Take some time to do your own due diligence as your payment processing is extremely important.
Make sure it suits your business model and is available where you live in the world. Linking the systems is relatively easy but once set up you will have an automated payment processing and product delivery machine.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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