I am probably going to answer my own question here, but I would like some feedback from the "pros". I am starting a business, my target audience is just about everyone. From young teens, tto teens, to adults, to seniors. I am going to be selling custom made artwork. Would it be OK to run a business that only accepts paypal as payment? To me, no, just because of my audience. I believe everyone should be able to pay anyway they want. If I do paypal only, I skip the SSL fee, and the autho.net fees.
Honestly, if you can avoid having Paypal as your sole payment processor, then you should do so at all costs. You don't want to risk the livelihood of your business by putting all your eggs in one basket, and with Paypal, there is always a risk of account limitation. So, I'd say, if possible, have an alternative processor or maybe a merchant account that allows you to accept Paypal as well. Try FastSpring...they are a decent alternative, and you can accept Paypal through them. At least you'd lessen your risk of not being able to accept customers' payments.
If you are a high level business then you use an actual credit card processor. The most accessible vendor online is likely authorize.net If you are doing what you need to do, then paypal is fine. To suggest otherwise, is asinine. I don't have the metrics in front of me but there are plenty of people making loads of cash using paypal. You stop using quick and easy processing eg: paypal.... when you can afford to do so. hope that helps, Nigel
Work from bottom up. Once you have decent sales then you can add SSL and CC to your site. Accepting Paypal is a must for every online store.
Authorize.net is just a payment gateway. You'd still need a merchant account, pay fees seperately etc. PayPal has never been perfect, neither close to it but the risk of account limitations, reviews, withholding of funds temporarily is there with merchant accounts as well.
Paypal is really secure system. But sometimes they are too much care about security. In the context of your question I need to say that one day Paypal can freeze your account for a period of time and you'll face the opportunity cost as nobody will buy anything from you for a period of time. IMHO, it's better to have more that one payment system integrated.