BlogmyQuery – BMQ

Owning an iPhone is a dream for most people nowadays. And why not… it’s equipped with smart apps and softwares that leaves mouths wide open in astonishment. To continue this legacy of the iPhone, we’ve searched for even more applications to make your iPhone your best friend, navigator and adviser.

Gilt for iPad
You can shop for fashion and luxury brands at get up to 70% discounts. Its a member only community. You can check items oline and add to your basket. You will also be getting timely sales alerts.

WordPress
Now you can edit, Manage and moderate your WordPress blog and/or website from your iPhone through this wonderful application. Thus now ou can also move around freely without worrying about your work.

Simultravel GPS
With Simultravel you can locate hotels around your location while you travel. You also get to see their rate list so that you can compare and choose according to your budget and comfort.

Adobe Ideas
Its your digital sketch book which lets you capture ideas anywhere you go.

Hey Where Are You : Location Service (HeyWAY)
(HeyWAY) is a location service with which you can keep track of your family, friends or employees and you will get constant updates on their location and they can also request the details from you.

Mobile Mouse FREE (Remote/Trackpad)
Now you can transform your iPhone in to a mouse or a remote for your computer with this wonderful app.

PDF Reader – (File Scanner, File viewer, File Storage)
Now you don’t have to worry about checking your PDF files on iPhone. This app has multi pages PDF support.

UX Technique
UX Technique is a reference application of methods and techniques for UX practice.

Text’nDrive
Check your mails, reply the important one with your voice, all this while driving with Text’nDrive app which gives your freedom of handsfree.

FileApp (Documents & Files reader)
Now quickly copy your documents and files with this user friendly app.

TeamViewer
Now access your computers anywhere and fix the issues through your iPhone with this amazing app.

EasyWriter
Now write emails faster and better through EasyWriter. You can also use pinch and zoom features.

DOCUMENTS 2 FREE (Spreadsheet, Text Edit, Preview, Email, Wi-Fi)
Now increase your productivity with DOCUMENTS 2 FREE. It also has Integrated FTP Server, Google Sync and WiFi HD and works both online and offline.

iTranslate Plus ~ the universal translator
Now you can translate into 52 Languages and this app also works on speech basis.

Delivery Status touch, a package tracker
Keep track of your deliverables and packages and get the things ontime when they are actually required. This also helps you further in promising deadlines to your clients.

Taxi Magic
Booking a taxi could never be easier. You can book taxi nationwide (U.S.& Canada) through this app without even doing a phone call. Both the app as well booking are free that means you just have to pay for the ride.

CashTrails – Income and Expense Tracker Lite
Tired of making logbooks or excel sheets to know your income and expenditure details. Make a proper income & expense sheet and bring your money under control through CashTails, an Income and Expense Tracker.

Evernote
You just got an useful video you want to use in your coming project but don’t want to get it mixed with your already soaring to-do list. Well with Evernote you can create text, photo and audio notes and even mark favorites among existing notes for a quick access.

Messagey
Tired of paying huge bills because you can’t stop yourself to send SMS and MMS to your friends from your iPhone. Don’t worry, with Messagey you can send SMS, MMS for free. So now you can keep your status updated all the time but sending latest updates and pictures to your friends.

Chase Mobile
With Chase Mobile Mobile Banking App you can make payments, check account balance and transaction history and do wire transfers with your iphone.

Control4 My Home for iPad
Control your lights, thermostats, audio, video, web cameras, security system, and much more with easy taps and gestures Although you need a Control 4 system running 1.7.4 or above to runn this wonderful application.

Skype
With Skype on your iPhone,you can make and receive calls, and instant message anyone else on Skype, wherever they are in the world. So your national and international call expenses will cut down and its also very easy to use.

Yahoo! Finance
The Yahoo! Finance App for the iPhone brings you total coverage including quotes, real time data, comparison and analysis and much more from your favorite financial source. A very significant app for everyone.

RF
With this Push-to-talk service send your message and your friend can hear you on his or her iPhone. Same ways your friends can also send messages like this.

Close Call
God forbid but have you thought how will you get your precious iphone if its lost? Fill out your details and save it as a wallpaper beforehand to increase the chances of getting back this gem.

Amazon Mobile
The Amazon Mobile app allows Amazon iPhone users to quickly search, shop, compare prices, read reviews, and make purchases from the US Amazon store.

PennyTel Mobile
Access the international PennyTel network from your iPhone. The app automatically detects which call methods are available and shows them as handy buttons. In case of WiFi or 3G connection, you can even talk free with other PennyTel users.

Yowza!! Mobile Coupons
Yowza instantly goes about finding Yowza deals and coupons in your geographic area. You can choose offers as per your liking. You are relieved of the tension of keeping various discount coupons in your wallet which are difficult to segregate and hold.

Facebook
Well we really don’t need to explain about Facebook, as its running in our blood. Stay connected with your friends on Facebook, update your status, pics and comments through this app.

Text Me! – Free SMS & MMS like Messenger
With TEXTme you can send sms and mms without need to log in every time in the application. So just choose a nickname and start chatting with your friends and family. Its available in 9 different languages.

DRAW 4 FREE
Your creativity will get new place to develop. With this interesting app you can Draw on your screen by simple touch. You get variety of brushes and different shades of colors to choose from.

Kindle
Are you an avid reader but not finding enough time to catch up with your best pal (books). Now You can read Kindle books on this easy-to-use interface. Amazon Whisper sync automatically syncs your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across devices.

TextPics Free
They say one picture says thousand words. TextPics a set of TextPics, Emotes, and Symbols which you can send to your friends as per T&C of your service provider.

MobileLinked IM
MobileLinked IM is a lightweight multi-services instant messenger which doubles your message speed by letting you to talk to your IM Server directly. It has multiple account and multi-language support.

Urbanspoon
If you can’t settle on your eating joint Urbanspoon can help you. Just SHAKE your iPhone and it will pick a good restaurant for you to try. So try your luck and explore good places.

Nimbuzz: Free Calls & Messaging
Nimbuzz is free calls and messaging for the connected generation. Everything you need to communicate for free. Use it to meet, share, and connect with friends. Stay Connected.

Carticipate
Do you want to save your Environment as well as your money. Save money on gas while helping the environment by CARticipating with friends, family, groups, or co-workers.

CenceMe
This app is also to boost your social media interaction and increasing your web presence. It automatically discerns human activity in real-time based on the iPhone’s accelerometer sensor and microphone and shares it through the medium you want.

Pixelpipe – Post & Upload to the Social Web
You can share your life and work with your near and dear ones on different social media sites through this cool app. It has over 75 supported destinations all over the world.

Twitfire
You can use Twitfire for posting to Twitter. Check out latest tweets or post new one yourself and you can also add pictures and links.

SmugShot
Add your photos and videos to your SmugMug account as you shoot them. It gives you 14 day free trail option. This app add locations to photos using iPhone’s location detectors.

GPS Tracker
Its a real-time GPS tracking service where you can share your location with friends and family, and record tracks for later analysis.

Shakin’ Faces Morph123 Lite
Its a picture morphing software to create a face from belnding of two different faces. So check out how will you look morphed with your favorite celebrity’s features.

Joost – Videos at your Fingertips
You can get the latest videos downloaded from Joost under different categories like news, entertainment, sports etc. So get the page 3 news and spread it with some free texting app, which we have featured in this post.

AroundMe
If you want to check the information at your nearby locations like hospitals, banks, Hotels, Gas Stations and much more, AroundMe is one of the best app.

EasyTask Manager
Easytask Manager is a personal task manager which is easy to use, supports “Getting things Done” method and can be run on Mac or Windows.

Echofon for Twitter
As the name suggests its a super fast Twitter app for the iPhone. Get, set and go share with the World what you are doing now.

Pandora Radio
Its free personalized radio stream music on your iPhone.Enjoy all your existing stations and create new ones right from your iPhone

YouNote Lite
Now you can take note of whatever you like, when you like, wherever you like in YouNote Lite in so many formats and options. So now you will never forget anything important.

Google Earth
You can check any location of the world with one touch of your finger with this cool application. Get full details of the location and update the status on Twitter or Facebook.

The Weather Channel
Check out Weather forecasts, weather alerts and more with full screen maps on The Weather Channel. You get interactive radar maps, and Google maps along with seasonal weather. You can also set any location as your favorite one irrespective of your current location.

Bump
Can sharing with friends be such a fun. Just pick your phone and bump it gently with other bump user and hurray your data is trasmitted.

Mancala: FS5
This app has multi player support. An interesting game, so pack your bags and starting playing with friends and add your ratings.

LinkedIn
Now use your iPhone for making and increasing your professional contacts through Linkedin with this useful app.

IM+
Get connected to GTalk, Yahoo, MSN/Live Messenger, AIM/iChat, ICQ, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and Jabber through this app.

Free Foto Messenger: FFM
Do you want to send your Text and Photos to your clients all around the world without wasting a panny. Try this app.

White & Yellow Pages
Now search for your potential clients details like landline numbers and websites etc through this useful app.

Backgrounds HD
In addition of numerous options under various categories to choose as backgrounds, you can create your own.

Adobe Photoshop Express
Now quickly edit and share photos and new ideas with your friends and clients.

Color Splash
Now you can choose which area to be focused more by making the other area of a photo black and white.

Speller – Free Spell Checker
Don’t take the risk of people taking you lightly because of mis-spelled words. Use this app to check spelling before sending any message.

Opera Mini Web browser
Get better browsing experience with Opera Mini Web browser.

Use Your Handwriting
You can choose fom different writing styles and make your own stlye statement.

(ik)

Since posting HTML5 sectioning elements, headings, and document outlines I’ve received a fair amount of feedback about my reasoning.

None of the feedback I got has made me change my mind about how to use the sectioning elements in HTML5. So going forward, these are my conclusions.

Read full post

Posted in Accessibility, HTML 5.

Content, content, content. It’s an obvious part of any interactive experience. In fact, you’ve probably heard content is king, or queen, or some sort of royalty. Yet, content is elusive. Often, you don’t realize your content isn’t cutting it until it’s too late. Does any of this sound familiar?

• Delayed projects.
• Broken designs.
• Uneven voice.
• Low-performing landing pages.
• Dead social media channels.
• Customer confusion and service calls.

These problems and more are documented extensively,^[1] so I won’t dwell on them. What I will dwell on is the solution. But, first, let’s discuss the false ones.

Beware Of False Solutions

Just because someone articulates a problem well does not mean someone knows the solution. That’s when we’re susceptible to a false solution. In my many years of experience, I’ve found these two fake solutions to be very common, very distracting — and very disappointing.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Snake Oil

Oh, poor JC Penney. This major retailer fell victim to SEO snake oil, such as buying extensive link placements and other “black hat� techniques. And, JC Penney fell hard, with a detailed and brilliant expose of the situation making The New York Times, no less.

Now, besides avoiding embarrassment, I suggest that you avoid SEO snake oil because it will not bring you results. The spirit of a search engine is to find quality content. A search engine algorithm factors in signs of good content. When someone focuses on tips and tricks to game search engines instead of publishing quality content consistently over time, that person is missing the spirit of SEO. And, sooner or later, that person’s results will suffer for it. Google might punish the website or, more likely, the website will get the wrong kind of traffic, or visitors. If you drive lots of visitors to your content instead of attracting visitors who are interested in the content topics, you will be disappointed with the results.

And, now, a big caveat: I don’t think all SEO is bad. There are legitimate SEO concerns, techniques and advisors. Just remember that SEO tricks are not magic pills for your content ills. If you’re spending lots of time and money on SEO but not much on content, you’re on the way to disappointment.

Andy Budd recently discussed a closely related point of view in his recent article. He requests to “white hat� practitioners to distance themselves from the world of SEO, stop talking about search engine rankings and start helping clients deliver real value to their users. Therefore we should stop defining ourselves by the discovery medium and focus on the content itself, he rightfully argues.

Overpromised Technology

What else is not a magic pill? A technology product or feature alone. I see this false solution most often with larger companies, who put unrealistic expectations on products and tools such as a content management system (CMS), an analytics tool or a web application.  For example, a prospective client recently vented to me that his organization spent $100,000 on implementing a new CMS but absolutely nothing on planning and creating content worth managing. The result was a one-person Web team destined to fail with its brand new CMS. This short-staffed team was saddled with:

• managing every aspect of a very large website,
• responding to strange or political stakeholder requests for new content and
• dealing with the boss’s frustration with the lackluster content.

Sounds awful, right? Unfortunately, this situation is too common. And it needs to stop.

The Real Solution

No SEO trick and no technology product alone will solve the content problem for you. The real solution to the content problem is hard work that demands change in your (or your company’s) approach to planning, designing and developing interactive experiences. That’s what gets results. There’s no shortcut. And indeed, the path to content that counts is a hard road. But it cannot be the excuse for compromising the quality of experience we provide to our users.

Get Strategic

Content strategy is planning for every aspect of content to get results. That goes far beyond writing the copy. When getting strategic about content, focus on three key areas: analysis, editorial and architecture. While explaining content strategy in detail literally requires a book (or two or three), I’d like to share with you a concise introduction to each area in this article.

Figure 1: Content strategy usually involves analysis, editorial and architecture.

1. Analysis

Analysis is taking a magnifying glass to your content situation. The better you understand it, the better you can plan exactly what needs to change to reach the results you’d like to have. Two typical activities in the analysis phase are a content audit and a context analysis. Sometimes, these activities are lumped together into a content analysis. The exact term is not that important as long as you do the analysis thoroughly.

Content Audit
An audit is a close review of your existing content. If you have any content to start with, you need to know exactly what it is. The audit tells you what you’re working with. By the end of an audit, you’ll have answers to questions such as:

• What content types, formats and topics do you have?
• What is the quality of your content? (For help, consult this content quality checklist.)
• How is your content structured?
• Where do you have obvious content gaps and overlaps, or redundancies?

When you’re ready to try a complete content audit yourself, check out the guide Content Analysis: A Practical Approach.

Context Analysis
A context analysis looks at the elements that surround and affect your content. At a minimum, consider and answer these questions about your goal, your users, and your processes.

Goal

• What is your business or organizational goal? Why?
• How will content help you achieve that goal?

Users / Audience

• Who are your users, or the people you want to attract and influence? Why?
• Where (in what channels) are your users looking for content — on websites, on mobile, on social networks?
• If you have an existing website or interactive experience, how is it performing?

Processes / Ecosystem

• How do you create, maintain and govern content now?
• How do you plan to do so when you launch the website or interactive experience?
• What are your competitors doing in the realm of content?

As a simple example, let’s look at American Express’ OPEN Forum, a site for small business owners. Why did American Express want to attract and influence these users? Because reaching these users was a step toward their business goal. Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly, SVP of Partnerships & Business Development for American Express OPEN, notes, “…our biggest opportunity is with small business growth — if they grow, we grow.”  And, American Express decided to help them grow through a unique approach to content. Rather than create more content about their credit cards, American Express decided to create content about small business owner concerns. (More about this approach in the next section, 2. Editorial.)

We could discuss analysis for days, but I’d like to introduce other aspects of content strategy to you as well. For a more detailed explanation of this analysis, I highly recommend the analysis chapter of Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson. Also, I shared my step-by-step experience in the presentation Content Analysis: Know Thy Content.

The real benefit of analysis is ideas and insights for planning content editorial and architecture. So, let’s take a closer look at those sides of content, using the OPEN Forum as an example along the way.

2. Editorial

Editorial plans mostly for the people side of content, such as:

• What style or voice should your content have to attract and resonate with users?
• What topics and themes should your content cover and when?
• Who is responsible for what content?
• What are your standards or criteria for credible content?

Many businesses and organizations who are not media properties completely lack editorial oversight for their websites and other interactive experiences.  That can result in problems ranging from errors to missing a competitive advantage. Let’s turn back to our OPEN Forum example. In the world of finance, much content is a combination of dull explanations or legal mumbo jumbo. OPEN Forum takes a different approach.

Figure 2: In the stodgy world of finance, American Express OPEN Forum offers a fresh approach to content.

The design might not look dramatically different from other finance sites, but the content is much different. To help small businesses, OPEN Forum regularly offers credible content about topics that small business owners care about. American Express produces some content, invited expert columnists create some content, and small business users contribute some content. Even though different authors contribute content, the content is original to OPEN Forum. Can you notice how different it is from aggregating random content or simply optimizing pushy landing pages? Through its consistent voice and handy content on OPEN Forum, American Express has positioned itself as a trusted advisor to small businesses. Because the articles, videos, and podcasts are deeply useful to small business users, they’re far more valuable to American Express.

Of course, having so many content contributors poses some risk of creating content that feels disjointed. To reduce this risk, what’s going on behind the scenes? The right editorial staff and processes ensure the content from different authors is coordinated. For example, while most websites lack an editor, OPEN Forum has an editor-in-chief. And, for robust editorial review and production, American Express partners with Federated Media. As you plan your content processes, you will consider what roles to hire in-house and what roles to hire as freelancers.

Besides the right people and processes, editorial planning results in an important tool: the Editorial Style Guide. This guide documents important decisions about your content for everyone involved to reference. A style guide typically explains:

• Target audiences / users
• Key messages
• Voice and tone
• Criteria for topics
• Sample content
• Usage, punctuation, and grammar guidelines
• Trademark and legal considerations

For a helpful start, you might want to consider taking a look at The Yahoo! Style Guide.

So, all of this editorial work sounds interesting, but does it actually get any results? Yes, it does. Since 2007, OPEN Forum has built an audience comparable in size and engagement with other small business media properties. But that’s not the best result. In the lucrative small business market, American Express’s successful editorial approach is a differentiator. More than that, it’s a quiet coup. The results did not happen overnight. They took time. But, compared to its competitors, American Express now owns small business online.

I know what you’re thinking. “But American Express is a big company. Should a smaller one care about editorial?� Yes. A smaller company or an individual can do it on a smaller scale, with less content, fewer contributors, and probably fewer visitors. Editorial is about attracting the right visitors (or audience) and holding their interest through content. Size does not matter nearly as much as quality.

That’s a basic introduction to editorial. But, content concerns don’t stop here. Now, let’s turn to architecture.

3. Architecture

Architecture plans mostly for the machine side of content — while keeping the people side in mind. Architecture addresses how your content is organized, structured and repurposed. Architecture gets your content to the right place. This planning might start with a site map but won’t end there. You likely will need to define content models and taxonomies using metadata. In essence, you need to tell your content management system and other platforms what content you have, where to display it and how to display it.

Let’s look at a simple example, again from American Express OPEN Forum. The site has clearly defined templates for its articles, videos and other content types.  Those content types come together (or aggregate) as meaningful topic pages. Take a look at this one for innovation. That aggregation happens dynamically because of good architecture.

Figure 3: This topic page brings together all of OPEN Forum’s original content about a topic (in this case, the topic is innovation), thanks to good architecture.

When you plan architecture well, you gain other benefits. Both search engines and people will find your content more easily. Your content becomes more accessible and flexible, not to mention easier and more efficient to keep consistent.

That’s some basic architecture. Now, let’s kick it up a notch. Is OPEN Forum part of AmericanExpress.com, the core American Express website? No, it’s not. Now, that might bother some user experience designers and information architects out there. Shouldn’t this be one cohesive experience? Yes, it should. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean all of the content has to be in one website or in one place. AmericanExpress.com serves more visitors than small business owners. So, putting all that small business content on AmericanExpress.com could easily get in the way of other visitors. Instead, OPEN Forum and AmericanExpress.com link to each other at relevant points.

Figure 4: OPEN Forum is not part of the core American Express site.

Okay, now let’s kick it up several notches. Content strategy pioneer Rachel Lovinger has articulated convincingly that advanced architecture also makes your content more nimble to use across different interactive experiences, from your website to your mobile application. She notes,

“Publishing content that’s marked up with smart structure and metadata allows it to be delivered on a wider range of channels, while still retaining the context and relationships that make it meaningful and useful to both your audience [visitors or users] and your brand. Think of it like providing publishing instructions with the content, where each different platform uses only the instructions that are relevant.�^[2]

For example, if your content is structured well, you can offer mobile versions of your content more efficiently, as American Express has. You also will have a much easier time creating widgets or an API to distribute your content, as NPR did. (See image below.) Does this kind of planning get results? Within 12 months after releasing this API, NPR doubled its users (audience). ^[3]

Figure 5: NPR structured its content well enough to offer a useful API.

You or your organization might think such multichannel architecture issues are mostly technology issues. Now hear this: They’re content issues, too. Consider how your content’s architecture will help you reach the right users in the right channels.

How These Areas Work Together

My diagram presents the areas of content strategy as a cycle. Now that you understand each area better, let’s look further at this cycle.

Before Launch: Architecture Last
When you’re about to reimagine a website or launch a new one, focus on analysis, then editorial, and then architecture. Why architecture last? Because that way you don’t waste time and energy planning areas of a site that you don’t need. You avoid scrambling to fill unwanted screens and features with content. You’d never build a house by constructing every possible room, then deciding which rooms you actually need. It should be no different with websites and interactive experiences. Plan the content you need first, then architect it.

After Launch: Analyze and Adjust
After you launch, the cycle doesn’t stop. Analyze how your content performs. Learn how users behave with your content. Stay in touch with industry trends. Watch for problems and opportunities. Address them by adjusting your editorial and architecture. Successful media properties never publish content, then leave it. I like how Tracy V. Wilson, Site Director for HowStuffWorks, describes her approach to ongoing analysis,

â€�When we’re looking at metrics, we’re looking at them in light of how we already know our articles work, how we know that they’re structured, how we anticipate that an average reader would come in and go through the article from beginning to end. And we can do the same thing for different types of content. So, we have articles, we have top ten lists, top five lists, quizzes, image galleries … and we’ve developed a different sense of what “normal” is for each of those.

So, we’re able to look at when something is deviating from our idea of normal and try to figure out why that deviation would take place. We also use metrics a lot in day-to-day planning, like planning what to feature on our home page … deciding whether that day’s home page was successful; a lot of that is coming from numbers and whether people’s behavior on the site that day is matching up with … what we’re thinking of as the typical user behavior.” ^[6]

Get To Work

By now, I hope you appreciate more how analysis, editorial, and architecture work together to make content matter. The next step is to tackle your content. But, how? Every situation is a little different. For example, you might feel you have a good start on content analysis and architecture, but you have no idea how to approach editorial. These resources will help you get your specific plan together so you can move forward:

• Content Strategy Deliverables
  This blog post series by content strategy expert Rahel Bailie explains typical content strategy deliverables in handy detail.
• Content Strategy knol
  Started by editorial and content strategist Jeffrey MacIntyre, the knol indexes content strategy definitions, insights, blogs, publications, specialists and more.
• A Checklist for Content Work
  This excerpt from Erin Kissane’s new book on Content Strategy, The Elements of Content Strategy, notes some essentials.
• Content Strategy Meetups
  If you want help with content or just some camaraderie, look for a content strategy meetup near you. If not, consider starting one yourself. When I started the meetup in Atlanta, I was happily surprised by the interest from developers, designers and marketers.
• Content Strategy Forum, September 2011
  This conference in London will bring together an international mix of well-known and new voices in content strategy.  I’m as excited to see what others contribute as I am to offer a hands-on workshop.

Also, I recently wrote a book called Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content, which explains practical principles for planning content. Along the way, I included examples from startups, government, higher education, large business, and more to inspire useful ideas. I invite you to learn more about the book.

Really, there’s no reason not to take the next step toward better content today. The sooner you move forward, the sooner you’ll overcome those content challenges. And, the sooner you’ll get results.

References

[1]. Halvorson, Kristina. 2009. Content Strategy for the Web. New Riders.

[2]. Jones, Colleen. 2011. Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Content. New Riders.

[3]. The Future of Content: Mobile Strategies for Government (panel). Government Web Content and New Media Conference 2011.

Segal, David. February 2010. Search Optimization and Its Dirty Little Secrets. The New York Times.

Jones, Colleen. 2009. Toward Content Quality. UXmatters.

Neisser, Drew. July 2010. What American Express’s OPEN Can Teach Us About Social Media. Fast Company.

Lovinger, Rachel. 2010. Nimble. Razorfish.

© Colleen for Smashing Magazine, 2011. | Permalink | Post a comment | Smashing Shop | Smashing Network | About Us
Post tags: content, content strategy, copywriting, editorial

Today, the market consists of countless synthetic materials that showcase the talent and hard research of man. However, at the core of these products are four elements that have existed since time can remember: earth, air, fire and water. The elements have long been thought of as the essential materials to sustain the human race.

However, in the modern age, these elements are starting to be an aesthetic source for man-made projects, such as exterior architecture, interior design and packaging. Now they have made their footprint on design in the technological age, serving as the inspiration and subject for countless web designers. Here, we show you a good number of examples of some of the best element-incorporating Web designs that are sure to blow you away.

Earth

Organic Grid
Organic Grid uses the element in a more abstract way, using the tones we typically associate with it. Rustic oranges and reds, marigold yellows and olive greens used on this site exemplify the colors found on the Earth and in its plant life.

Watermelon Industries
Watermelons grow at the source: the dirt. Then they grow, ripen and feed communities. Thus, it makes sense that a site that aims to serve communities use the earth and its bounty as inspiration for their design.

InfinVision
InfinVision exhibits a completely modern take on earth, with vectors serving as the trunk, limbs, buds and blossoms of a tree. This tech tree sits atop a spherical shape that represents land. Scrolling own to the footer, we get a black area that invokes an earthen existence, as flowers, grass and pebbles rest upon its surface.

Rocket Club
Rocket Club’s rich tones highlight the textured sky that makes up most of the background image. These moss and turquoise tones float in and out of each other, and serve as an almost neutral background for the stark clouds. Around and on the background are simple text areas shaded in black, which keep the emphasis on the background while providing information.

Chuan Production Film Studio
Chuan Production’s site features the beauty of dilapidated architectural buildings set upon arid land. With its abysmal black background, Chuan’s subject feels as if it is the past parapet in a deep, foreboding world. Adding to this feeling is the slight lighting effect that highlights the building and the rotating nagivation.

Gladeye
Stars float atop a stationary mountain scape in this mostly gray scale design. Popping off the abysmal blacks and shadowy grays are stark whites and muted earthen tones from the mountain.

Tapada Nacional de Mafra
Tapada Nacional de Mafra’s design doesn’t feature a land or a building once forgotten, but it does consist of a snapshot of rural life in the midst of contemporary architecture. With this photo, Tapada shows that ancient rituals and habits are ever-present in the modern age. Tapada keeps with the earthen them by using paper textures and brown tones.

Prism Girl
In this majestic world, a large tree builds its roots in a modern cityscape. Users can flow up and down the tree, experiencing her floral abundance, leafy green moss and her existence among the clouds. With the tree’s roots firmly embedded in the cityscape’s land, Prism Girl reminds users of an unarguable truism: No matter what man-made architecture demands precious ground, the ground will always take it back.

Vitamin G Studios
Immediately settling on this site, our eyes set their sights on a fly. This fly sits perched on top of a twig, with the branch and its mossy green leaves out of focus on the background. Here, for the fly and the design, Earth serves an important, ever-present function of foundation.

Cure
Green, brown and beige tones give this site its earthy appeal. Driving this inspiration home are the paper textures used throughout the site’s design.

2LK Design
Large number and letter blocks are placed in a pastoral scene, giving us the combination of old and new, of man-made and natural, of tradition and new age. We see the modern white tones echoed in the logo along the left side.

Viola’
Voila’ uses a gorgeous flat landscape to serve as the basis for its focal point. However, the strength of melon-toned oranges, fuchsias and yellows, along with the deserted land, lend to a mix of fantasy and post-apocalyptic vibes.

Air

Reduce Tu Huella
Reduce Tu Huella emphasizes its air influence by blackening out the surrounding landscape. This allows us to  focus on the layered clouds, the only colored items beside the cloud logo, in the background.  Next, the black pieces along the horizon and in the sky stand out, giving us the subject of the site. We’ll then flow (pun intended) down to the content area. With such structure, Reduce Tu Huella tells us what is of utmost concern: using our air in an efficient, but respectful, way.

Yipori
At Yipori, no one can experience sadness. That’s because on this floating world in the sky, the dwellers are exuberant, the land is always clean and flourishing and the skies are always peaceful. Soaking you deeper into this world is are the floating semi-transparent clouds that stay crisp and ever-present.

Rafael Vergani
Rafarl Vergani’s site showcases all the typical- yet beautiful- evidence of an air-inspired site: clouded background, soft blues and whites, semi-transparent additions and some sort of air-related focus.

Who Is Leon
Who Is Leon gives a beautiful air-inspired design that appears hand-drawn. It lends to the idea of a sketch artist who captures optimism and limitless thought in nature. Adhering to this vibe is the statement, “me + you = amazing results.” Keeping this bubbliness and confidence at bay are the soft modern tones and a simple structure that speaks to subtle professionalism.

Firefox Tweet Machine
Firefox Tweet Machine is just that: A machine that delivers tweets. These tweet updates are delivered via bubbles that emerge out of the top of the machine. These bubbles then spring up to the top of the page, where they bounce and linger before floating out of sight.

Novembro
Novembro features a large sky-traversing apparatus floating across a sky that looks withered and tattered with rough treatment. While the scene seems to speak of foreboding danger, it serves to remind us that we’re only one piece of a very, very large design- evolutionary or created. No-nonsense sans-serif fonts and black tones lend to the seriousness already seen in the atmosphere.

Altimea
Altimea’s gorgeous design is without a doubt influenced by this element, with airy blue and gray tones, a wisp-thin font on the links and a beautiful winged creature. The rich black bar on the bottom and the silver box anchor this airiness, creating a grounded design that reaches to the sky. This grounding effect is also used in the logo’s thicker font and the black bar on top.

Stephen Caver
Stephen Caver’s design operates much like Rocket Club’s. Heavy black tone present in the text provides easy legibility while allowing the sky’s tones to bounce off its neutrality.

Studio Kerozen
Studio Kerozen doesn’t utilize typical air elements. Rather, we see deep grays and blacks in a modern, structured design. However, Studio Kerozen’s index features smoke flowing through the blackness, highlighted in rick fuchsias, electric oranges and tinges of white. The smoke continues to ebb, flow and fall upon itself. With this, we get the subject that we can see, the smoke, and a reminder of the element we cannot see here: air.

Shining Karma
Studio Karma’s site features a sleek palette, with liquid rotation of information for easy userability. The ever-growing blast of smoke on the left hand side serves as the invocation of ‘air.’ However, Shining Karma can also be thought of as invoking fire, as this smoke results from an unseen explosion.

Fire

Hind Site Inc.
Lava shoots and flows from the intimidating volcano on Hind Site Inc.’s site. The red-hued sky and billowy clouds of the image are. These elements are mirrored throughout the site in orange toned links, text areas and CSS.

Creative Fire
Creative Fire uses their own logo as a background for a fire reference. Mimicking the influence is the strong red bar along the bottom of the design and the strong red header in the right content area. Cooling off this heat is the soft, semi-transparent box and cool gray-toned content.

Solace Beeswax Candles
Candles are a strong, readily-available source of the element of fire; thus, why should the site of a candle-selling company be any different? Lit candles sit in the forefront of a rich landscape toned in rich auburns, maroons, pumpkins, red-violets and melons. This landscape serves as a source of comfort for the viewer, with a bumbling brook, blossomed flowers and a clear view of a sunset. It’s understandable why Solace chose such imagery, as candles serve the same purpose as this landscape: warm and comforting.

TuiSpace
Let’s take a step outside the Earth for a moment. There is no air or no earth (Well there is an Earth, but not the lower-case kind.) However, because stars and quasars perform the same light-emitting function, they can be considered the fire of space. Tui takes this association and runs with it, with a large galaxy and surrounding stars, quasars and pulsars serving as the backdrop to the site’s content. You can change the theme; other looks include landscapes, a giraffe and a cloudy sky- all examples of the other elements.

InWare Powered Artillery
At InWare Powered Artillery, we get electric blues, purples, oranges and reds that flash as lightening across the focal point. Repeating these tones are the three glistening content areas below the focus. Enhancing the vibrancy of this palette is the black backdrop.

DS Design
DS Design may not be completed yet, but their ‘coming soon’ page speaks volumes to the design standard the site holds. On a ravished, barren, fire-ridden landscape sits a crisp, sleek robot. However, this robot isn’t all too different from its surroundings, with electric pulsating from its core. It’s not known whether the landscape was caused by the large-scale robot, or whether the juggernaut was sent to save the land. What is known, however, is that the image showcases raw, fire-inspired talent.

BBQ War
The site invokes fire via the orange and charred gray tones and the lightening bolt in the main image. This invocation is perfect for a Bar-B-Q site and perfect for any site referencing stiff, ‘war-like’ competition.

Water

26000 Vodka
26000 Vodka invokes this element with enlarged water molecules. These molecules rotate around the links for a design that you can sink into.

Brad Colbow
It’s hard not to see the influence water has on Brad Colbow’s portfolio site. In fact, nearly all of the website is under water, with the exception of the logo, links and design details at the top of the page.

Gazelle Touch
Gazelle Touch soaks its site in varying blue hues for the ultimate water-inspired layout. Underneath the blue-toned city lies a calm body of water with slight reflection. Upon clicking one of the semi-transparent links floating at the top of the page, we softly sink to below the water surface to indulge in the content.

Groovy Web Design
Water isn’t just known for its ability to calm. It’s also known as a deep abyss housing the known and unknown, a foreboding world all its own that houses creatures both fascinating and dangerous. Groovy Web Design invokes these aspects of water, adding the vibe of an action-packed movie with fun tilted sub-headers, vibrant tones and animalistic drama in action.

Pusulaweb
Pusulaweb also provides us with the multiple angles of water, with underwater, surface and shore views. Adding to this is the play on light, as it comes down from the sky, dances along the trees and water surface, and shines down into the deep sea where the content appears. And once users automatically float down to read, they subtly ‘bob,’ just as one would do if floating in water.

Tim Bjorn
The simple palette of Tim Bjorn’s portfolio is counterbalanced by the strong graphical detail in the water scene. Here, a small whale swims in a sea of circles, with countless water-drop shapes spewing out of his top.

Waterlife
Waterlife is the ultimate water-inspired site, with the background consistently moving to show light shooting into the sea. Beautiful development adds to the professionalism and dark hues contrasted with bright blues and bold whites keeps with the theme.

Piipe
Piipe uses a variety of detail to add to its layered feel, such a drop-shadows, large pixels with countless hues and transparency. Also adding to the layers is the play on perspective, with multiple waves sitting at a variety of distances and a far-away sun peering over the horizon. The detail on the mischievous-yet-lovable-looking fish is nothing to scoff at either.

Combinations of the Elements

Oh Zan
Oh Zan features a vibrantly colored landscape, which you can float across to reach your desired link. Within this land, we get a combination of elements: the earth on which the enchanted land sits, implied water underneath a sheath of fog, the put-put of smoke flowing out of a distant building and a boiling sun in the background. Keeping these hues calm is the neutral gray-green background. (The background’s visibility depends on resolution.)

Toucouleur
Toucouleur stuffs all four elements in its top image, with lava flowing on the barren earth, around the snow-capped mountains, into the dark ocean and underneath a busy, cloudy sky. Toucouleur reminds us that witnessing all the elements at play with one another doesn’t require effort; you can see it in most landscapes or cityscapes, manipulated or not.

Lowe
Lowe doesn’t use a landscape or realism to provide a combination of elements. Rather, its whole design consists of shapes shifting around each other in a psychedelic kaleidescope effect. Then, these  strip away, unsheathing an underlying layer, which invokes a separate theme. These themes include water, as seen here with fish floating amongst the shapes, and air, which features windmills on a red-toned layer and hot-air balloons on a green-toned layer.

Logoterapia
Logoterapia features a tree that’s gradually losing its leaves. These leaves gracefully flow to the land on which the tree sits. Next to this tree sits a giant cloud, softly resting along the reflecting surface of the water. Logoterapia includes water elements as well, with a small fish systematically springing out of and returning to the water.

Concept 007
Concept 007 shows various scenes, which you can flip through, invoking the elements. The opening scene, for instance, combines a ship that touches both sea and sky. Its maiden of the ship makes her appearance only to be nibbled by the large fish. Another scene features a carnival, complete with roaming elephant and balloons that command attention as they float into the atmosphere. You can also view a giant boy who towers above the clouds as he tries to catch a helicopter. Concept 007 goes to show us that even in our most outrageous fantasies we cannot discard the essential elements of the world in which we exist.

Element
Element is a company that sells energy drinks. These are said to provide consumers with a taste and feel that characterizes each of the four elements. Thus, it stands to reason that it’s site would play upon these elements. Each bottle that sits in the middle of the design emerges upon hover to showcase one of the four elements. With this emergence is element-specific hue that colors the bottle and the surrounding floating shapes. Upon clicking, the surrounding images change to more element-specific imagery and we are given a run-through of the product. The black tone serves to anchor the heavy development.

Grzegorz Kozak
At Grzegorz Kozak’s site, we follow the whimsically contoured lighthouse down through space, where we reach the Earth’s atmosphere, ridden with white floating clouds and a turquoise sky. A little lower and we reach the base of the lighthouse, which rests on a land with sparse resources: a few bushes and a telephone booth. Right next to the land is the vast ocean and right underneath it are remnants of technology buried in the earth. The humor is in the details; buried are items such as an old Nintendo controller, cassette tape and floppy disk reminiscent of the early 90s.

Imagine Boris
Boris Savitsky’s portfolio may be vary minimal, but it doesn’t skimp on the elements. Included are butterflies roaming in the sky, in addition to grass, trees, flowers and a lizard perched on a rock. Some telephone lines  and old-world street lights linger in the distance. In the blackness reside more butterflies, flowers and some twig-like figures.

The Spot INFERNO
The Spot INFERNO’s site is one that belongs in an ancient atlas filled with mythological lands that are governed by an unknown figure. Here, we sift down through one of the worlds, gliding through the detailed clouds, to tiny villages perched around a large body of water and mountains and caves. From here, we go past an ancient city sitting in the mountains to woodlands, only to reach the earth. The Spot INFERNO doesn’t stop here, though. We drift farther and farther into the core, eventually reaching a Satan.

Immersive Garden
Immersive Garden invites you to take a seat, where harmony awaits in the form of elemental balance. In this design, earth, air, fire and water float together in a dance where no one is leader. Beautiful fish and the tree sway in the same underwater motion, with small flower petals falling through the air. Billowy clouds and a pale palette make this atmosphere add to the coziness. Though the design changes with every page, one thing remains consistent: the use of the elements in tandem.

Summary

With foreboding seascapes and towering, sky-high views, Web design is nodding to mother nature by combining current development trends with the basic elements. This nod to the elements is indicative of the growing appreciation and inclusion of all things natural in our technological lives. We can see this trend in interior design, architecture and countless products on the market. So we ask you: What’s your favorite non-Web example of a nature-tech infusion? Or do you have a smashing Web example that you didn’t see here?

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If you’re looking to integrate a credit card payment solution onto your website, the following steps are a guide to applying for, enabling and taking payments online. At first glance, the prospect of integrating a payment solution on a website can seem unwieldy, what with the vast array of payment options and technical acronyms. This article breaks down the entire process into bite-sized pieces, helping you understand the process much better.

Apply For An IMA

When taking any kind of credit card payments connected to a bank account, you must apply for a merchant account with a bank. If the payments will be taken online, you’ll specifically need an Internet Merchant Account (IMA). In addition to banks, in many locations there are dedicated merchant account providers you can use.

Even if you currently take “card-not-present” payments (such as for mail orders) or use in-store payment terminals (such as chip-and-pin), you still have to speak with your bank about taking payments via your website (ask your bank for an additional IMA ID).

As a broad overview, your bank acts as the “acquirer,â€� which confirms available funds, authorizes transactions and exchanges funds with the issuing bank of the credit card (e.g. Visa, MasterCard), i.e. the card holder’s bank. The funds are then transferred to your account (the merchant), minus the applicable fees. The issuing bank’s charges are called interchange fees, and your bank’s fees are the acquirer’s fees. As the merchant, you should be informed of any fees prior to signing the merchant services agreement with your bank and payment service provider (more about this further down).

Your acquiring bank will expect your website to operate within a strict set of rules in order for them to comply with their own security procedures and government legislation (more on that later, too). Some credit card providers have developed the technology to allow card holders to authenticate themselves online. MasterCard’s is called MasterCard SecureCode, and Visa’s is called Verified by Visa.

It’s worth noting that it is possible to process Internet payments manually, using your regular point of sale system. This isn’t recommended, though, partly due to security reasons, and partly because it can quickly become too much work to manually process payments taken through your website (do you really want to have to key in a thousand individual cards if you suddenly have a huge uptick in sales?). Also, some merchant agreements may specifically prohibit this type of payment processing. Even if you do decide to process payments manually, you’ll still need an Internet Merchant Account, because it’s where the transaction is initiated that counts, not where it’s eventually processed.

Select A PSP

In addition to an IMA, you will need to use the services of a payment service provider (PSP). Commonly, PSPs handle the pages on a website where customers submit their payment details. PSPs provide a “virtual� cashier, or point-of-sale terminal, that collects card details, screens for fraud and securely passes the details to your acquiring bank for processing. PSPs are sometimes referred to as payment gateways.

The PSPs offer various packages and rates to suit the requirements of different merchants. The main difference between packages comes down to whether you want to host the secure payment pages on the PSP’s servers or on your own server. Some PSPs also provide tailored solutions.

It’s worth noting that some PSPs also provide IMAs, and some acquiring banks provide PSP services.

Payment-Processing Companies

As is often the case, there are alternatives to the approach outlined above, especially if you want to avoid the challenge of technically implementing one of these solutions. One alternative is to use the services of a payment-processing company. This option eliminates the need to apply for an IMA and PSP separately. The application process of a payment processing service is usually a lot less stringent than that for an IMA, which results in a faster set-up, especially if you have little or no trading history.

The disadvantage is that your customers will be sent to the processing company’s website in order to make their payment. Also, settlement periods can take much longer (up to 60 days), and your overall cost may be slightly higher than if you had gone with an IMA and PSP.

Not all payment-processing companies operate like this, though. Some companies, including PayPal and Google Checkout, remit payment immediately in most cases, directly into your account. In other words, as soon as the payment is made by your customer, the money is deposited into your merchant account.

A Sample Checkout Process

Here’s a step-by-step example of a common credit card payment process for any website:

Step 1: The Basket

Your customer has added a product to their basket and is ready to proceed to checkout. The basket page on your website should be SSL encrypted to bolster the customer’s confidence (but that’s for another article).

Step 2: The Checkout

The customer proceeds to the next page of your website: the checkout page. You can have various options here: account log-in page, shipping options, etc. But for the purpose of this example, let’s assume the first stage of checkout is simply a page that requires the customer to submit some personal details, such as contact info and a billing and shipping address.

Once the required fields are submitted and validated, the details are first securely sent to your back-end database, then wrapped up and securely passed to your PSP’s website. The customer is also redirected to the PSP’s website.

Let’s pause for a second and look at what’s happening here. Your customer’s data should be encrypted when sent to the PSP, not stored in plain text. So, you make a function call to your PSP’s API, requesting the transfer of data. The API’s function will usually require a set of parameters that include the merchant’s ID, a unique order reference, the transaction’s total charge and currency, and all of the billing and shipping mentioned above.

The function will then either return an encrypted version of your data, ready to be posted to the PSP’s payment pages, or hold onto the data and return a secure key in receipt that verifies that particular set of data against the transaction. You would store this key along with the order details and then redirect the customer to the PSP’s payment pages.

Step 3: Payment

Your customer arrives on the PSP’s secure payment pages. Technically, keeping the customer on your website at this stage is possible (if the PSP has this option), but let’s keep this simple. If the PSP’s pages duplicate some of the fields on your own checkout page (like the billing and shipping address), then these fields can be pre-populated.

Once all of the card holder’s data has been submitted and payment has been made, your customer is seamlessly returned to your website.

OK, some stuff is also going on in the background here, too. First, the card holder’s details are authenticated by the PSP using a variety of security procedures. Next, the card holder’s total charge must be authorized and the funds allocated to the merchant. Technically, the merchant should not take payment directly, but rather take a deferred payment until the goods have actually shipped (see the regulations on distance selling below).

Your PSP would then send the status of the transaction’s outcome to your website, along with the unique order reference (to identify the order) and any other pertinent data, including security-related confirmations such as CV2 and postal code checks.

You should make sure that your e-commerce store follows the PCI complance guidelines for storing, accessing and managing sensitive credit card data. This Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

It applies to all organizations or merchants, regardless of size or number of transactions, that accepts, transmits or stores any cardholder data. So, if any customer of that organization ever pays the merchant directly using a credit card or debit card, then the PCI DSS requirements apply. This server security standard is required by almost all major credit card providers, or you risk the potential for steep daily fines. (Thanks to Brian and Rebecca in the comments for pointing it out!)

Step 4: Order Confirmation

On returning to your website, the customer is presented with a confirmation page indicating whether the payment has been authorized or declined.

The PSP passes variable data (such as an order reference) back to your website, which you use to look up the order data on your database and present the appropriate content.

PSP Checklist

Check that your PSP provides the following features:

• SSL encryption on all payment pages,
• Authentication procedures,
• API to securely post data from your website,
• Call-back API to indicate payment confirmation (which should contain multiple status descriptions),
• Option to pre-populate fields on payment pages,
• Feature to customize payment pages to match your layout and branding,
• Redirection back to your website upon payment completion.

Gateway Comparison

Below is a comparison of a small selection of gateways. The list is in no particular order and is in no way a recommendation of any particular one.

Sage Pay (UK and Ireland)

Here is a summary of Sage Pay Go with Server Integration:

• Separate test and live servers
  A simple yet convenient way to test your integration prior to going live. Once you are happy that everything is working as intended, all that’s required to go live is a change to the server’s URL in your code.
• iFrame support
  Gives the appearance that your payment pages are actually on your website (an SSL certificate is required if you opt for this). Keeping customers on your website rather than sending them to the gateway’s website in order to complete payment could increase your conversion rate.
• Extensive payment page customization
  If you do send users to Sage Pay’s website to complete their payment, you can customize the page so that it looks more like your website. However, the templates are created in XML, which makes them more complicated than the standard HTML templates of some other solutions.
• Manual approval process for template changes
  This part of the integration process is slightly inconvenient. Every time you amend your custom payment page, you have to manually submit it to Sage Pay and then wait (usually no more than 24 hours) for it to update the template.
• Initial post done by server, not the browser
  None of the order details are exposed in the HTML page. The customer’s order data is posted using cURL over SSL. A redirection URL is returned to direct the user to the payment pages. Arguably, this is more secure than posting data in the HTML page. I also like the way that payment page URLs are returned, which saves them from being stored and possibly having to be amended.
• Call-back
  When Sage Pay’s server responds to your server with details of the payment outcome, there’s a function to validate the data by matching secure keys.
• Account Parameter Configuration
  Numerous account parameters are stored in the admin control panel. One in particular is the “Valid IP address,� which specifies several IP entries from where the initial data registration must originate.

Barclaycard (UK)

It’s a common misconception that you need to bank with Barclays in order to use its ePDQ CPI payment solution. If you do not bank with Barclays, you can still apply for its IMA and PSP solution. Cleared funds will be transferred to your chosen bank.

• Testing
  As of this writing, no test server is available with the ePDQ solution. You can post test variables though the ePDQ, which flags a test transaction, but these details are not processed to simulate a successful end-to-end transaction. To get around this, we created a test page that emulates the call-back response, which is basically an HTML form containing an order reference and status field that’s posted to the call-back page.
• Data posted via browser
  There’s a big difference between how data is sent with ePDQ and how it is done with Sage Pay. For example, only a handful of data is initially sent to ePDQ for encryption (via a socket connection). Upon receipt, the encrypted string along with the remaining data is posted via the browser within the form, as opposed to the data being sent via the server.
• Call-back
  ePDQ’s server posts a call-back response that contains only the transaction status and your unique reference (order ID). While this is sufficient to update your database, there’s no way to check where the call-back is coming from. We can emulate this in our test phase (mentioned above), but ePDQ does require the call-back script to be stored in a password-protected directory.
• Account parameter configuration
  Quite a few account parameters are stored in the ePDQ configuration area, including an “allowed URL� (where the initial call must originate) and a “Post URL� (where the call-back script resides). There are also “POST� user names and passwords for the call-back directory.

WorldPay (Worldwide)

As with ePDQ, you don’t need an RBS bank account in order to use its WorldPay Business Gateway (formerly Select Junior).

• Separate test and live servers
  As with Sage Pay, WorldPay has separate URLs for the test and live servers.
• Data posted via browser
  Data is also sent via the browser, either as a POST or GET. I wanted to see if you could send the customer’s data to the gateway without a clunky JavaScript form post, but while it’s technically possible for the GET to be intercepted en route, WorldPay has the mandatory key signature field that counters this threat by matching the received values against those contained in the signature.
• Call-back
  Like ePDQ, WorldPay’s server posts a payment response containing the transaction’s status and your unique reference (order ID). While this is sufficient to update your database, there’s no way to check where the call-back is coming from.
• Payment page templates
  The payment page templates are fairly flexible because you can create a Y and C (success and failure) HTML page that closely matches your website. WorldPay has “smart tagsâ€� for data such as order ID and merchant name that must be included on your custom page. A slight difference here is that your website’s return URL must be included in the template.
• Account parameter configuration
  Quite a few account parameters are stored in the installation area: a payment response URL for the call-back script and a payment response password for the call-back script’s directory password. However, there doesn’t appear to be a setting for “allowed URLs” or IP addresses to validate the origin of the merchant’s data.

Authorize.Net (Worldwide)

Authorize.Net is one of the larger payment gateways, with more than 300,000 sites currently using it.

• Accept a Variety of Payments
  Authorize.Net lets you accept all major credit cards, eChecks, gift cards, and signature debit cards.
• Payments Within Days
  Payments are made quickly, generally within days of the original transaction.
• Fraud Prevention Tools
  Authorize.Net has tools in place to identify suspicious transactions, both through built-in tools and add-on products.
• Free Support
  They have live tech support and account support, plus online user guides and documentation.
• Developer Tools and Reseller Accounts
  Authorize.Net also offers developer tools for creating payment solutions, as well as reseller accounts to developers and service providers.

2Checkout (Worldwide)

2Checkout offers a number of payment gateway services, and has been handling e-commerce payments for more than 10 years.

• Hosted Payments
  2Checkout offers hosted payments, with simple plug-n-play code for integrating their payment gateway into your existing website and shopping cart software. They collect, store, and encrypt the credit card information your customers submit, all in accordance with industry standards.
• Recurring Billing
  They can handle recurring billing options for subscriptions or similar purchases.
• Co-Branded Payment Pages
  Co-branded payment pages are used “so that they customer recognizes the hand-off from your site to ours.” This could be viewed as a good or a bad thing depending on the image the e-commerce site is looking to convey. Some customers are reassured by being redirected to a larger payment processor, while others are sometimes put off by it.
• Variety of Payment Methods
  They accept 15 different payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diner’s Club, and even PayPal.

Google Checkout

Google Checkout removes much of the hassle of setting up online payments by removing much of the barrier to entry. If you have a Google account, you can have Google Checkout set up within a few minutes.

• Variety of Integration Options
  Google Checkout has some of the most versatile integration options out there. Sure, you can just set up a “Buy Now” button or two, but they also offer integration with custom shopping carts, pre-integration with existing shopping cart systems, a store gadget (that you can set up with a Google Spreadsheet), email invoices, and their own shopping cart solution.
• Google is a Recognized Brand
  Google is recognizable all over the world, and is a trusted brand for the most part. This can be especially valuable to smaller, unknown businesses who might not have their own good reputation to ride on.
• API Developer’s Guide
  Developer’s can have a field day with the developer API for Google Checkout. It means you can customize the Google Checkout experience to your heart’s content.
• Protection from Chargebacks
  Chargebacks can be a big problem for some businesses, especially those in higher-risk industries. Google Checkout offers a Payment Guarantee that protects an average of 98% of all Google Checkout transactions. If your transaction falls under their guarantee, and there’s a chargeback, you won’t lose money.

PayPal

PayPal started as a solution for eBay sellers to accept credit card payments but has turned into a major player in the online payment gateway industry.

• Recognizable Name
  PayPal has become almost as big a household name as Google. Some consumers have gone so far as refusing to do business with online retailers who don’t accept PayPal.
• Solutions for Every Kind of Business
  PayPal now provides a range of solutions for businesses, including fully-featured merchant accounts like those you’d find at a bank (Payflow Payment Gateway). Their Website Payments accounts provide most of what a gateway provides, including the ability to keep customers on your site through the entire transaction (with the Pro account). And of course PayPal also offers simple “Buy Now” buttons if that’s all you need.
• Immediate Payment
  PayPal pays immediately for most transactions, which means that your payments go directly into your PayPal account when they’re made. (This is not always the case for certain businesses, or for accounts with a history of high returns.) In some countries, PayPal offers signature debit cards that can be used like a credit card and give you immediate access to your PayPal funds from any ATM.
• Easy Integration
  PayPal offers a number of developer tools, both for facilitating payments and for accessing account information and reporting. Various PayPal payment processing products have different levels of difficulty when it comes to integration, but at the easiest end of the spectrum it involves just inserting a bit of code.

Summary

Taking credit card payments online is a fairly straightforward process, but you should understand what your options are and how each option suits your business objectives. The solutions available range from simple pieces of JavaScript for “Buy now” buttons (PayPal and Google Checkout do this) to self-hosted secure payment pages. Some solutions are attractive for their ease of integration, some for their price and others for their flexibility. Hopefully, this article has helped you choose a payment solution for your website.

Note: Thanks to Cameron Chapman for her much appreciated improvements and research for this article. You might want to take a look at the article Web apps, credit cards, merchant accounts and PayPal for a related case study for the issue covered in this article.

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