A breakdown of the steps to online registration:

Research (10 mins)

If you're new to online event registration you'll want to spend a few minutes checking out the different options available. A quick read of our Event Planner's Guide to Online Event Registration will help you decide on your best approach (see below for download the file).

If you want to make it easy on yourself, we recommend going with a full service online registration company. They will:

• Do all of the set up for you, thoroughly test it and have it ready on time.
• Make recommendations for laying out your form in a way that will get more people to register.
• Produce a form that looks more professional and is easier to use than those created by templates or self service systems.
• Help you get familiar with the back end systems so you can access and manage your registration data.
• Advise on the best practises to help you get more registrations for your event and therefore add to the success of your event.
• Free up your time (along with your staff's) and alleviate frustration for those organising and attending the event.
• Consult with you on the best way to handle credit card transactions.

• If you have a registration form from a previous event (as an example) the sales person can likely answer most of these questions by looking at it.

• Online credit card processing requires an online merchant account. If you don't have one set up most online registration suppliers can offer you the use of theirs. If you decide to open your own merchant account allow additional time - in the US a couple of days and in Canada a week or more.

• If the company is professional your sales person should have answered all of your questions and provided good recommendations for your situation.

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  Credit Card Fraud Prevention - Err on the Side of Caution
  There is a small, yet palpable inherent risk in accepting credit cards. Aside from chargebacks, there always exists a possibility that a given credit card is stolen or presented without any authorization to use from the card holder. Even veteran merchants, processing for decades, can recount incidents where they have sent out product, subsequently learning that they have been victimized by credit card fraud.One day, I received a phone call from one of our retail merchants who sells furniture. She explained that she received a credit card from a so-called customer that was declined. This customer then presented a different cre
  ptions available. A quick read of our Event Planner's Guide to Online Event Registration will help you decide on your best approach (see below for download the file).

  If you want to make it easy on yourself, we recommend going with a full service online registration company. They will:

  • Do all of the set up for you, thoroughly test it and have it ready on time.
  • Make recommendations for laying out your form in a way that will get more people to register.
  • Produce a form that looks more professional and is easier to use than those created by templates or self service systems.
  • Help you get familiar with the back end systems so you can access and manage your registration data.
  • Advise on the best practises to help you get more registrations for your event and therefore add to the success of your event.
  • Free up your time (along with your staff's) and alleviate frustration for those organising and attending the event.
  • Consult with you on the best way to handle credit card transactions.
  Get a quote (10 mins) Call in and speak with a salesperson: To get an accurate estimate you'll need to know the specifics, i.e., what information you want to collect from participants, the options they have to chose from, how many registrations you expect and the fee for attending your event, etc.
  • If you have a registration form from a previous event (as an example) the sales person can likely answer most of these questions by looking at it.
  Address credit card processing - if applicable (5 - 10 mins)
  • Online credit card processing requires an online merchant account. If you don't have one set up most online registration suppliers can offer you the use of theirs. If you decide to open your own merchant account allow additional time - in the US a couple of days and in Canada a week or more.
  Evaluate quote (10 mins)
  • If the company is professional your sales person should have answered all of your questions and provided good recommendations for your situation.
  Sign contract (10 mins)
  • How To Choose The Right Product To Begin Internet Home Business
    Every company needs a product to sell. It is also the same with internet home business. You need a product to start up a home based business and start to work from home. I categorized three different type of product.1. Digital Product. It is very easy to build and very popular among the Internet. We don’t have to keep product stock. We only have to create or pay someone else to create our product. Some product that we can describe in computer related product are e-book, software, picture, movie, song, audio, and web related product (web hosting, script, domain name, etc).2. Hard product. Hard product means that we can
    to use than those created by templates or self service systems.
  • Help you get familiar with the back end systems so you can access and manage your registration data.
  • Advise on the best practises to help you get more registrations for your event and therefore add to the success of your event.
  • Free up your time (along with your staff's) and alleviate frustration for those organising and attending the event.
  • Consult with you on the best way to handle credit card transactions.
  Get a quote (10 mins) Call in and speak with a salesperson: To get an accurate estimate you'll need to know the specifics, i.e., what information you want to collect from participants, the options they have to chose from, how many registrations you expect and the fee for attending your event, etc.
  • If you have a registration form from a previous event (as an example) the sales person can likely answer most of these questions by looking at it.
  Address credit card processing - if applicable (5 - 10 mins)
  • Online credit card processing requires an online merchant account. If you don't have one set up most online registration suppliers can offer you the use of theirs. If you decide to open your own merchant account allow additional time - in the US a couple of days and in Canada a week or more.
  Evaluate quote (10 mins)
  • If the company is professional your sales person should have answered all of your questions and provided good recommendations for your situation.
  Sign contract (10 mins)
  • Top 5 'New Business' Mistakes To Avoid When Opening A New Restaurant
    “Businesses with fewer than 20 employees have only a 37%chance of surviving four years (of business) and only a 9% chance of surviving 10 years. Restaurants only have a 20% chance of surviving 2 years. Of these failed business, only 10% of them close involuntarily due to bankruptcy and the remaining 90% close because the business was not successful, did not provide the level of income desired, or was too much work for their efforts.”–excerpt taken from an article written by Rob Holland, ‘Planning Against a Business Failure’As a new restaurant owner (or soon to be), that quote must have sent chills up your spine. Everyd
    ) Call in and speak with a salesperson: To get an accurate estimate you'll need to know the specifics, i.e., what information you want to collect from participants, the options they have to chose from, how many registrations you expect and the fee for attending your event, etc.
    • If you have a registration form from a previous event (as an example) the sales person can likely answer most of these questions by looking at it.
    Address credit card processing - if applicable (5 - 10 mins)
    • Online credit card processing requires an online merchant account. If you don't have one set up most online registration suppliers can offer you the use of theirs. If you decide to open your own merchant account allow additional time - in the US a couple of days and in Canada a week or more.
    Evaluate quote (10 mins)
    • If the company is professional your sales person should have answered all of your questions and provided good recommendations for your situation.
    Sign contract (10 mins)
    • Online Business Copyrights and Disciplines
      Online businesses do best with online marketing. Online opportunity and online work is, at the moment, at its zenith. Online communities help me connect Defining Collaboration Communities and Collaboration Web 2. Perhaps a better way of stating the issue is: What should you do to make online work successful in your work area. Most people manage by deadlines, and making decisions based on the online input keeps it real. People need to know what they are expected to do when they come to the online work area.Creative Commons licenses attach to the work and authorize everyone who comes in contact with the work to use it cons
      credit card processing requires an online merchant account. If you don't have one set up most online registration suppliers can offer you the use of theirs. If you decide to open your own merchant account allow additional time - in the US a couple of days and in Canada a week or more.
    Evaluate quote (10 mins)
    • If the company is professional your sales person should have answered all of your questions and provided good recommendations for your situation.
    Sign contract (10 mins)
    • Reputable companies will ask you to sign a contract - or at the very least agree to their terms and conditions.
    • This is a good thing, because a contract will help protect you and the supplier. Take a bit of time to read it through and make sure you understand all of the terms and conditions. Pay particular attention to any extra fees or charges.
    Submit event details (5 - 20 mins)
    • Once the formalities are complete, the online registration company will need to collect your details. The time it takes will depend on whether or not you have all of your event details prepared in advance.
    Review (5 - 30 mins)
    • This is your chance to suggest changes and give approval.
    Add a link to your website (5 mins) ... and that's it

    Going live...

    You should allow a couple of days for your provider to get a basic registration form online as they'll need to build your form, get your feedback, make changes and approve the use of merchant accounts, etc. For more complex forms allow extra time.

    The future...

    Once set up, it can be a simple matter of emailing or phoning to communicate new event details for future events.

    Awareness...

    There are a couple of factors that could slow this process down, such as:

    • If you're working with a committee in making decisions.
    • If you have to chase up sales people to get information - and you might want to ask yourself why you're having to do this, even before you've handed over your money?
    • If you don't have all of your event details together before starting the set up.
    • If you are opening an online merchant and gateway account for credit card processing for the first time (see above).
    Closing notes... The approximations above are based on using a full service online registration provider. If you opt for self serve systems, the time it will take you to get set up depends on how quickly you can learn their system (to build and test the form), how complex your requirements are and how quickly you will adjust your ideas to work within the system's limitations.

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