Securing your customers dataYou have to make a choice how you want to ensure that your customers private information such as address, telephone and credit card number are kept confidential.Secure your own siteFor professional results you'll need to get an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate from GeoTrust. You can then secure your own form using SSL by simply using a https:// URL, and your customers data will be safe. To read more about SSL security, read these excellent FAQ's and white papers. Keeping the customer on your site while they pay has huge advantages - speed is one issue. Every survey says that the majority of people who abandon a purchase online do so because the process takes too long, or is too complicated. Use your provider's secure formFor speed and simplicity, you can take advantage of your Merchant Services provider. Charge.com uses Authorize.net to actually process the credit cards, so they offer a secure form for your use. I use this myself on my home page until I get my SSL certificate.To be honest, I may not get an SSL certificate for a while. Although it is a lot less professional to redirect to Authorize.net's page, process the credit card and return to my site, I'm not selling to the general public - just allowing advertisers a more convenient way to pay. Now if I was asking you for money, it would be different! ;-) Part 3: The Form... | 
