We have implemented a new feature into the Member Assembler in recent weeks -- we call it "status emails". This is an email your customers can request at any time to get details about their membership from pick-up locations, contacts in the membership, member types, balance, and payments.

This is an example of what the status emails look like in your customer's inbox.

This type of email will help your members keep tabs on their membership throughout the season without you having to touch the mouse. This will be especially useful for your members to get information about their pick-up location and payment balance.

This is just another way we are constantly working to improve all of our services, so keep the feedback coming!

Create a link to the "status email" request page by logging to your control panel and navigating to:
Member Assembler / Members / Status Emails

If you have not signed up for a Member Assembler account yet, go to the Member Assembler section of the site to sign up. It is completely free until you go beyond 25 members, so you have plenty of chances to try the service to make sure it will work for your farm before you commit.

So you've created a Member Assembler account (free for your first 25 member sign-ups) and you are working through getting your sign-up form created. Now you get to end of the process, and you are thinking about how customers reserve their space in your CSA. You have the option to accept credit cards, or not.

Just because you can accept payment does not mean you should.

The main thing -- it's going to cost you to accept payments online. With the Member Assembler, you can accept payments with Google Checkout or Paypal. Each charges 2.5%+ of your sale. Click the links below for more detail on the fee schedule of each:
Paypal Fee Schedule
Google Checkout Fee Schedule

So, to process a $500 CSA share with Paypal, it is going to cost you $14.80. That will add up quickly in a 100 or 500 member CSA.

It is convenient because the payment is added to the Member Assembler, the member's balance is automatically adjusted, and the money flows into your bank account without a single mouse click.

The alternative here is our "invoice-only" option which means that no money is transacted online and you will need to accept a check later for share payment. A confirmation is simply sent to the farmer and the member after they click "Check out".

From having worked with many farmers that use this "invoice-only" option, it seems that almost all members make good on their sign-up pledge when using the invoice-only option.

I am not discouraging the use of payment processors for your CSA shares because it certainly is convenient and you are assured that the money will come in after a membership purchase has been made. You will certainly need to weigh the convenience factor of less paperwork for you and the customer versus the cost of taking payment online.

The slap chop guy.

Many of our farmers give their customers the choice to process the payment online for customer's convenience or use "invoice-only".

A good balance between convenience and cost is to require a small down-payment of perhaps $50 at the time the member signs up for your CSA and then take the rest of the membership payment by check later.

Credit card payments are required for online sales that are split-second decisions like buying the Slap Chop, but your CSA customers have made a conscious decision to join your CSA, so you shouldn't feel like using a payment processor is a requirement for your Member Assembler.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue, so please post in comments.

I have gotten the question, "why can't I use whacky font x on my farm website?" many times. I think it is time to answer that question!

You can technically use any font on your website, but the hang-up comes that the font must be installed on your visitor's computer for them to see the font correctly. This may change in the future of the web, but for now, we are limited to the number of fonts we can use.

In our control panel's rich text editor, the following fonts are available:

• Andale Mono
• Arial
• Arial Black
• Book Antigua
• Comic Sans MS
• Courier New
• Georgia
• Helvetica
• Impact
• Tahoma
• Terminal
• Times New Roman
• Verdana
• Webdings

This list of fonts covers the generally available fonts across browsers and operating systems, so you can have some assurance that your website is displaying the same on your computer and your customer's computer.

So, this is the reason that we keep it simple in the control panel text editor and don't let you write your whole web site in a font that looks like it is wearing bell-bottoms.

Small farmers are becoming better marketers because of necessity -- it takes a great deal of effort and communication to market the crops that you grow to your best customers.

However, we need to get better at passing production knowledge directly between small-scale farmers. Each farm has a different micro-climate, uses different equipment, and has a different growing philosophy, but we have more in common than not.

There are some great resources out there like Growing for Market and email list-servs. Both of these resources helped me a great deal when I was farming full-time.

The tools of the web like WordPress, Blogspot, Google Groups, Twitter, and others can be easily used to share information between farmers who are motivated to share this information. Inexpensive digital still cameras and movie cameras can be used to tell the story of methods you use on your farm to small-scale farmers nationwide.

The beginnings of this trend are already here. I was just looking at a blog that details production techniques for small scale grain and pulse production. One of our farmers has set up a new website called Grass-Class.com that brings experts in grass-based livestock production to computer screens across the country by way of online seminars.

What other resources haven't I seen yet? What resources will you and your farmer friends create to share all of the knowledge and techniques you develop each day?

Some characteristics of small-scale farming such as geographic isolation and small size make it difficult to share information like large companies are able to do. The internet gives us the technology to facilitate these interactions, but it does not do the work of creating these resources for us.

We're all on the same team, so I look forward to seeing much more farmer-to-farmer into the future.

When you start your Small Farm Central website, there is a one-time new subscription fee to cover the costs of getting your site started. There is a $100 option and a $350 option.

We have posted a lot more information about our consultation level new subscription option. This level allows you to access our knowledge of best practices and the specific tools available through a one-on-one consultation process. This process will give you confidence in your farm's web marketing and develop concrete steps you can take to make your site a success.

Read more on the consultation-level new subscription page where we detail the steps and outcomes of this option!