Hi all... some newbie questions...

[kaustic]

Hello everyone....

Well, I got the investors lined up. I got the ladies lined up.... I got the photoguy ready to go.... all I need now is to get all the back-end setup and get this show on the road...

Couple questions.


Merchant Accounts - What is a good one? and, will they be able to wire to offshore accounts?
Security - I'm going with a dedicated server rental, running *nix. I got PHPSecure Pages thats going to handle the login process, and PHPAuth behind it all.. Any suggestions would be great, I dont want to outsource this one to another company.. I love security ;-)
Getting hits - The design layout consists of one designated area for a banner, just one spot, with however many on rotation as needed.... But how else can I get people to see the site besides those banner exchange programs?
Legality Issues - Is video agreement w/ audio plenty? Or will I need waivers to go around like I'm MTV?


Thats about it... I'm glad to be a part of the board now.... and I gotta start workin on my signature image huh....

Thanks in advance,
-kaustic

[-=HUNGRYMAN=-]

Unless you are known in the industry, and unless you have experience with merchant accounts (in which case you would not be asking this question to begin with ...), I would suggest going with a reliable 3rd party processor such as CCBill or Epoch.

Would-be affiliates will feel much better knowing that their payouts are being handled by a known entity ... and the few points you might save by processing yourself, is certainly not worth the hassles of cutting cheques and everything else involved with processing your own site.

Merchant accounts do not really make sense unless you have a whole network of sites and you are making obscene amounts of $$$ to justify the extra accounting salaries.

:cool:

[kaustic]

Much appreciated hungryman. So whos the best for processing then? If it ever gets that large I'll deal with the merchant later, at that time.

Any links, or reviews on different ones I can use... and a basic survey of what everyones using on here.

I wanna have most of these questions taken care of before the next meeting. So I can say, "alright... CCBill is gunna cost us ____" and "This host will cost this much for a dedicated server...." and so on. These guys are ready to start shooting content, and are roaring to go so its up to me to get all the technical stuff taken care of.

Thanks again hungryman

[-=HUNGRYMAN=-]

CCBill is not going to cost you anything to install.

Once your site is basically fucntional, you get in touch with them, and they will "review your site", making sure you have no rape, beastie or underage stuff that is going to raise eyebrows with the lawmakers.
(CCBill as your processor is equally liable along with you for selling illegal contentto your site visitors).

Once they are satisfied that your site meets the requirements, their technical team will install their software on your server.

CCBill takes around 10% of the total sale in exchange for handling all credit card/e-check/phone billing, and will cut the cheques for you (and your affiliates)

[kaustic]

Hungryman

Thanks again for more information. I'm going to give CCBill a look.... 10% Isn't bad I guess.... I mean, if they are doing all of that for me and cutting the checks etc, doesnt sound bad at alll...

I'm see how they handle offshores.... and definitely no kiddie/beastie/ any of that sick shit on my server.... that shit is gross!

Thanks again... any other services you may suggest?

-kaustic