Power Sellers Unite

japangamesnow · Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 20

First lesson in life..."THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE"
Free is more costly than cheaper with lower quality. Free webhosts tend to advertise right on prime realestate on your page. That advertising makes your page look amaturish and is a real turnoff to your customers. FREE also comes with no warranties or guarantees. This means you can have your best month ever, but 3 days of server downtime killing any potential sales you may have. Now that FREE costed you 3 valuable days of revenue.

Build your website first. While your website is being built you can get your SSL Certificates, credit card processor, paypal modules and other things of that nature. Basically your website is the frame of your business much like a house frame. Without that frame you cant build anything. So build the frame first and incorporate everything else into the structure later. By far the frame is the hardest to work on.

Building a website:
First know your product. If you dont have a product you will not have a basic idea of what your site will look like. Your product basically dictates what design format and visual look your site should use. Take 2-4 weeks to think about your site and how you want it to look. This will deffinately help with some of your ideas. Also look at your competitions websites. They always have ideas for you to borrow (its not illegal and as long as you dont borrow everything 1-1 you will be in the clear). Back to the 2-4 weeks thing, I know all of you are eager to get stuff started, but why make many mistakes? Take your time and start it slow. Starting fast opens you up to mistakes and holes in the code your site uses.

Finding a good designer:
This is a difficult one. If you use the designer for Microsoft, Amazon or Yahoo you will be spending a lot of money. Do you know anyone that knows web design? If not then do you know someone that knows someone else that designs? Ask around...You may find a someone that can do the work in your local area. Remember to ask for references such as the sites they built and the names/addresses (or e-mail) for the people they have built for. This will give you a good solid impression on if you want them to build your site.

Page Layout:
Deffinately have a banner designed. They should cost from $20-100. Most of them are not that costly. Remember to give the designers ideas of what you want. If the look isnt right be sure to have them re-adjust the design to your liking. Like Burgerking always says...."HAVE IT YOUR WAY". It is afterall your money. Do not pay the designer first or else you may never get the design you are looking for. Pay only after your are satisfied. Do not settle for a 1/2 done design.
The rest of the pages should look like the ebay format. They seem to be the most successful. Dell, Amazon, Yahoo, Ebay and other companies use it. Obviously they have paid millions in researching the best design of a page. Now you can take advantage of their research. DO NOT COPY STUFF 1-1. We all remember the student that plagerized chapters of Shakespear....Not a lovely sight...
Use buttons, tabs and pictures to illustrate your page. Do not use the design of your page to distract the customer from your product. Your product page should be flashy and eye-catching. The design of your page should only used to navigate through your page and not for visual effects. Your goal is to sell your product and not the look of your page. Buttons, tabs and pictures help make navigation easy to use. The easier your page is to use and look at the more customers you will have browsing.
Also remember to write ABOUT ME, STORE POLICIES, CONTACT INFORMATION, FAQ, ORDER INSTRUCTIONS and other needed pages. This is how the customer will find out more about your store.
By now your SSL certificates should be processed and complete. Its time to start putting in your SSL certificates on the site. Your Credit Card Processor and Paypal should be finished by now also. Just have your site designer put the pages on.
Now let your creativity take over. The site is only as limited as you want it to be and it will be as advanced as your budget will allow.

Dont be discouraged by an amaturish first design. The first design is only for you to understand how your page works. When you start to fully understand your page. You can start to have your page upgraded to a look and feel thats more comfortable later.

This takes time, money and a lot of support. This is not a conventional job where the supervisor tells you what to do and you do it. Dont be discouraged because its hard. Everything gets easier with time. The first 6-12 months is the hardest. You planted a lot of money into this website. The customer database is low and your sales are lagging. After that stuff tends to pick up somewhat...18 months later you will be glad you did all of this.

IMPORTANT NOTE: DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST. Most of the problems arrise from lack of research. Its OK to jump head on to the problem, but if you dont have a basic understanding of the problem it will really cause headaches. Look, Read, Understand, and act....Recommended reads for you bookworms out there.
Internet for Dummies
HTML for Dummies
Digital Photography for Dummies
Start Your Own Business published by The Entrepreneurs Magazine

This will not be easy. Most of us pull out our hair when we are forced upon this road. Keep working at it, do all your reading and everything will be much easier in the future.

DISCLAIMER: This is general advice for people that want to start a website. I take no responsibility for any misfortunes you may encounter on your road to success.

LB · Joined: 21 Feb 2005 Posts: 34

A few more web design tips.

(1) We used www.godaddy.com for our domain name registration ($7.95).

(2) We are using www.shoppingcartsplus.com for our web site design. You do NOT have to hire a web designer if you use this site. Everything is built in (same with www.homestead.com). You simply click buttons to get what you want, from placement of navigation bars (top or bottom) to the layout of your photos/products. All the HTML coding for the sign design is done FOR you. They have more than 1,000 templates suitable to every conceivable type of business/product. They include a shopping cart and PayPal set up at NO extra charge Their templates are incredibly easy to use, and the service includes a photo gallery for web hosting, inventory control, etc. Once you choose a background (you can choose your own colors for menus, including mouse-over buttons, etc., you can change your design at any time with the touch of a button). If you want to customize your backgrounds with colors other than those provided, search Google for a good HEX color chart (there are many, and some are better than others). Study up on HTML. Google has thousands of hits for this, and you can learn a lot simply by reading.

(3) We use www.grsites.com and www.coolarchive.com for FREE logos, banners, buttons, backgrounds, bars, lines, etc. No catch. ALL FREE. We have been using them for 6 months and every time we need a button or banner, this is where we go. You can select oval, rectangle, rounded, metal rims, etc., and you can set your own font and background from their choices, or your own. Once you create your buttons, you can even modify it, and they email it to you for FREE. No catch.

(4) We use www.cardserviceinternational.com for our merchant account (Visa, MasterCard, eChecks). We were approved quickly. Their transaction rates are lower than PayPal. An SSL certificate is included (FREE!), whereas, the cost is $99-180 elsewhere, such as godaddy's. Every web hosting company wants to make money off SSL certificates, but do NOT purchase one if your merchant account provider will give you one for FREE!

LB · Joined: 21 Feb 2005 Posts: 34

P.S. An error. I said we are using www.shoppingcartsplus.com for our "web site design". I meant "web hosting". They have awesome customer service -- by phone 'til 5:00 PM eastern time and by email after hours.

japangamesnow · Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 20

Helpful links

http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_frame_cols
Everyone can use this site to view their work. The side by side window really helps for visuals and mistakes.

http://entrepreneur.com/
Helpful business tips for small - midsized home offices.

http://www.cnet.com/
Find a good and cheap webhost. They provide customer reviews for your benefit.

Here is just a quick checklist of what you will need
Webhost
Bandwidth (how much information you can transfer)
E-mail accounts
Performance (depends on what you want)

Domain name (that www.blahblah.com thing)

Web designer (we design most of our own with HTML)

Shopping Cart

Payment Methods (PP, CC Processing, Check, MO and others)

The rest of the information is up to the needs of the seller

Aunt B's Attic · Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 80 Location: South Carolina

WOW! Thanks for all the info!! I'm in the process of building my website and all this info will help out. Bet