Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Breaking Down the Fees

With Yahoo! Small Business, you incur fees the moment you sign up and decide to use the system. Whereas some companies charge a one-time fee for creating an e-commerce site or provide free tools in exchange for ad placements or ownership, Yahoo! Small Business works on a subscription model. You pay every month that you use its solution. Your payment to Yahoo! consists of a few types of fees:

• Setup: At the time of this writing, Yahoo! charges a $50 setup fee regardless of the plan you select. Look for promotions when this fee is waived; check partner sites, such as PayPal.com or JoelElad.com, for special deals to have the setup fee waived and 25 percent deducted from the regular price of your first three months of service.
• Monthly: Yahoo! Small Business charges a fixed monthly subscription fee for using its solution. The price varies by plans:
  • Starter: $25.97 for the first three months and $39.95 per month after that (with a partner promotion as just described)
  • Standard: $129.95 per month
  • Professional: $299.95 per month
• Transaction: In exchange for using its rich features (such as the shopping cart and order checkout system), Yahoo! also takes a transaction fee for every sale you make in your store. Yahoo! takes a percentage of your sales, depending on the package that you select. As your sales go up, the percentage goes down:
  • Starter: 1.5 percent
  • Standard: 1.0 percent
  • Professional: 0.75 percent

  This fee alone can determine your package level. For ...