Dave, I have a few different books and audio CDs I’d like to sell and am wondering if you can recommend a quick and fast way for me to add some sort of an online store on my Web site so it’s “commerce enabled”, even a rudimentary one?

I’ve been exploring different online options since my friend James Armstrong and I created our own hosted ecommerce system almost a decade ago while running The Internet Mall. At this point, my recommendation would be for you to sign up for Paypal and use their shopping cart tool.

Paypal isn’t ideal because of both the transaction fee percentage, which is higher than what you might get from your local business bank and because if your customers have a Paypal account but want to pay for your particular items with a credit card, they can’t do so.

Nonetheless, using their tools, you could have your store online within an hour or two at most, and there’d be no monthly minimum, no maintenance fees, nothing. Just a slice of the transaction pie.

The very first step to get started is to Sign Up for a Paypal Merchant Account. (disclosure: I make a tiny commission if you click on that link and sign up rather than just going to the site directly. Thanks!)

Once you’re signed up, go to…