[peppie]

This is part of a long journey (still and always in progress) to find out for myself how this all works. I subscribe to the idea that even if you get someone else to do it for you, you need to be able to fully understand yourself how it is done. If you don't know, how are you going to know what to ask for???

Yes being found online is important, but do your research and don't just trust to someone's sales speal. For example, anyone will tell you that you need your site name out there. But most search sites (like google) will only look at quality links, that is, a link from a site that is relevant to your business. Paying someone to just get your site name in 1000 sites of all sorts could actually damage your chances.

The other main search issue is keywords within your site that a search engine can pick up on. Just by choosing keywords and their placement carefully I managed to get my site fairly high and I can fine tune it from there.

For small scale online sales, the best option I have found so far is Paypal. Your can set up a business account that allows people to pay you with a credit card if they have a Paypal account. But even better, you can use Paypal's own shopping cart from your site. Your clients click a Paypal provided button to take them through a Paypal cart and they don't need to have a Paypal account.

Even better, you can use a 3rd party shopping cart from within your site that uses the Paypal transaction system and its all within your site. Best of all, you don't have to set up a merchant account with a bank.