We are working on a new feature for the Member Assembler which we think will radically change how you think about getting paid by your CSA members.

Automated Scheduled Billing will simplify the billing process for your CSA by allowing your customers to pay for shares by choosing one of several farmer-defined payment plans and authorizing future payments that will be taken automatically against the credit card on file for that member.

For example, say your CSA costs $500. On February 3rd a customer signs up and pays the required $100 down payment, which leaves a balance of $400. With Automated Scheduled Billing, the customer will authorize their card to be billed (for example) on a monthly basis for 4 months:
March 1st: $100
April 1st: $100
May 1st: $100
June 1st: $100

On those dates, our system will automatically attempt to bill the credit card on file for the amounts shown and, if all goes well, you will simply receive a receipt and the funds will trickle into your bank account. If there are problems with a declined or expired card, the customer will be asked to provide new credit card details without farmer intervention.

The payment plan shown above is just a sample use-case and these payment plans will be completely customizable to each farm's needs.

We think this will be a vast improvement over any other CSA payment mechanism and a really powerful addition to the Member Assembler service. Finally, this is a compelling reason to accept credit cards for your CSA.

Another positive benefit about using a system like this is that we can get you lower credit card rates. Your rates will likely be about 2.1% instead of the 3% that Google Checkout or Paypal charges and it can be tied to your swipe-based credit card system if you have one. However, there are monthly fees associated with running this type of 'payment gateway' that is a requirement for safely storing credit card information like this.

I'll be back in touch with more details when this feature is ready for your Member Assembler, but we'd love hear from you. Does this sound like something you would use for your CSA? Leave comments in the comments section.

Another premium template is available for your harvest season consumption. We are calling this one FarmShow due to the front page slideshow that dominates the front page of this design.

Here is a preview of the design:

We are trying something different for a tour of this template by putting together a video screencast tour. Take a look at the tour below and let us know what you think about using video like this in our blog in comments.

Visiting North Mountain Pastures.

I took a quick tour of eastern Pennsylvania and northern Maryland this week to visit 6 Small Farm Central farms: Village Acres Farm, North Mountain Pastures, Norman's Farm Market, Three Springs Fruit Farm, One Straw Farm, and Whitmore Farm.

The main impetus of the trip was to gather video footage for a website redesign of smallfarmcentral.com that we are putting together for release this fall. However, talking to farmers that are extremely successful with their web marketing yielded all sorts of great footage that I will be releasing via the blog, in presentations, and in any other ways I can think to use it!

In the spirit of that, here is Ben Wenk from Three Springs Fruit Farm talking about the great peach debate of 2010 that occurred over Twitter. Beware, there are some Twitter terms thrown about in this video, so if you are not a Twitter user, ignore those and watch this as an example of how conversations can happen online.

I got an email a few weeks ago from an interested farmer that really encapsulates what we do here at Small Farm Central:

''We are a start up fiber farm in Ohio. We have a website & blog we designed ourselves, but they aren't ''wow'', they are just o.k. We designed & put things in as best we could, but I would like a more professional look. Something that says, "Yeah, we may be new, but we're going places." The catch is, as always and in everything, money. What would a beautiful, professionally designed website cost and, if it's in our budget, what's the next step?''

(Firstly, the answer to cost is the reason Small Farm Central exists: we're in your budget.)

You are a small farmer with limited resources, but you produce a quality product with integrity that customers will love once they buy it and have a relationship with your farm. Professional and attractive marketing materials create conditions favorable to making that initial sale and give the customer an expectation of excellence before they taste your products.

I think this much is apparent, but the investment of getting to 'professional' can be extremely expensive so many farms delay that big investment.

That's the void that Small Farm Central fills -- before spending many thousands on a custom web design, use one of our great premium templates (although we do custom design for farmers too). Before you invest in a full time web programmer to create your website ordering system or CSA management software, use the Member Assembler or our ecommerce options.

We know that you are 'going places'. Use us as a stepping stone to get there.

I am excited to announce the release of a new premium template modeled on the success of the photogenic premium template which is already sold out!

This template celebrates your farm through the use of photo areas that you can easily select and change at any time. Our designers have added lots of details that make the design fun and extremely sharp.

As always, switching between Small Farm Central templates is as easy as the click of a mouse -- all your content and photos will automatically transfer over to the new template.

Snapshot will look a bit like this, but with your own photos:

See the template in action: http://premium8.smallfarmcentral.com/

Just send us an email and we'll get you going with this template. We expect they will go fast!