How to Start an Online Business A Quick-start Guide to
E-Commerce
Feb 2006 - By Abdulhayy Johnson
Many small business owners are good at what they do without
knowing anything about the Internet, unfortunately they are
not taking advantage of this vast and borderless resource.
Without exploring the potential of doing business online they
are incurring a loss of huge potential profits they could
otherwise be realizing. Almost any small business - regardless
of location - could be operating online, to a certain extent,
depending on the type of product/service offered. There are
always a number of different creative ways to package and
market your product to the online world community in a more
professional and cost effective manner than the traditional
methods. The medium we use online offers us better tools and
techniques to reach the people in the comfort of their won
home, with multimedia, pictures, colors and sound! This is
not an opportunity you can afford to miss. If you wish to
start an online business or if you currently own a small business
and want to enable it as an online business, we can get you
started here with useful resources and some free pointers,
however we ultimately hope to win you over as a subscriber
to our managed
website services which will be a critical component in
your business plan.
First
of all we need to get a few things set up, which will be essential
later on for dealing with customers online. Your company will
need an email address, you can get a free
email with POP3 and forwarding from Gmail (Gmail is from
Google). If you know someone who uses Gmail simply ask them
for an invitation. If you don't know anyone ask us using the
Web Form,
we'll send you a free invitation to open a Gmail account.
Later on when you get your own domain name (E.g. yourcompany.com)
you can always forward your Gmail to your new company email.
We do not charge our customers extra for domain name registration
or for configuring DNS or company email.
To
provide a better level of customer service your company will
need voice/chat software that is widely used and accessible
by your target customer base. The most common one out there
with the most subscribers is Skype, it's free
and you can call anywhere in the world. You can use their
voice and chat software to deal with customers free of charge
- they also offer paid services such as Internet to Phone
features.
You can also lease a company phone number (most area codes
in the world are available). If your company does lots of
business in the US you may also want to use an
international mail forwarding service such as USABox,
that way you can retain a local US postal address and have
all your mail forwarded to your place of residence, even if
you live in the Bahamas!
Now
that you have your communications infrastructure in place
it's time to setup your basic tools of the trade. You'll need
two indispensable tools that are helpful for selling online,
but can also be used for non-auction transactions. Ebay and
Paypal are free to sign up for; they only charge a fee when
you actually start selling stuff. An
Ebay
seller account is great for selling products or services
online in an auction style or even just straight up old fashion
sticker price sales. To collect payment from customers your
company will need
a Paypal business account, since most Ebay users have
Paypal. This will allow you to conduct swift and painless
transactions online without the headache of a credit-card
processing mechanism.
Ok,
so we're setup for online transactions and we have reliable
means of communicating with customers. If you're starting
a new business you'll need a company logo and some business
cards to get the word out. We
can design your logo for a small fee or you can get a
top notch logo designed by the experts at The
Logo Company, depending on your budget. Once
you have your own company logo in hand go to Vista Print to
make your own company business cards online, you can
get free business cards there or you can order customized
business cards with your company logo for a fee. Make sure
your domain name is available before printing it on your cards.
Before
going any further, you might want to consider which Managed
Company Website plan best fits your budget, we have something
for everyone - remember our managed website packages cover
all aspects of website ownership including web design and
updates, web hosting, company logo, domain name, email setup,
search engine optimization and much more. It's all one simple
monthly fee, no extra charges or hidden costs. Start
with our New Website Questionnaire to tell us more about
your company; alternatively you can call us for expedited
service.
Our team of qualified web designers has the necessary expertise
and the latest tools combined with a keen sense of craftsmanship
and good taste. We will mold your company's website into a
professional, highly attractive and informative website as
seen in our
portfolio. As with all our websites we employ superior
standards and techniques for all site design, layout, color
theme, navigation, accessibility and aesthetics. We
frequently use our own copyrighted material in graphic design
and collages, in addition to the highest quality stock photography
which we also sell online. Our stock photos can be viewed
or purchased
through Dreamstime, you can choose from our selection
yourself or even email us your own photos.
Naturally
we would like to earn your business, and we guarantee 100%
customer satisfaction with the highest grade of customer support
and service with low competitive rates. However, if you decide
our website services are just not for you or maybe you wish
to compare, there are alternatives out there of course. Please
note that most other Website Companies specialize in just
web design or web hosting without all the other added benefits
and services which we combine for free in all our packages,
that's why we call ours Managed Website Services. For example,
1&1 Web Hosting is arguably
the best Web Hosting provider in the market with the lowest
hosting rates, most experienced users would find their service
and support fairly good, however you should be prepared to
perform all the administrative and technical tasks by yourself.
Now that your company is officially online you are ready to
do business, but you still need to consider your strategy
for attracting visitors to your new company website. Two key
ingredients in that strategy will be statistics and exchanging
links. Sign up for a
free invisible web statistics counter that shows you detailed
advanced reporting and traffic analysis, then use that data
to determine which incoming links work best. To exchange incoming
links with other webmasters do an online search for reciprocal
link exchange programs like the one we have, and also
sign up for link exchange programs such as Monster Link Swap,
make sure it's a reputable one with relevant content.
When
your website eventually has enough traffic, you may want to
consider placing text ads on pages with the highest activity,
this will help you realize an extra source of revenue which
will more than likely pay for the cost of web hosting. The
most widely used text based advertising that currently has
the largest customer base is AdSense from Google. AdSense
is not only the most reputable but is also reported to be
quite lucrative for large busy website owners. Make sure you
place the text ads strategically on the busiest pages.
Finally,
if you decide your company needs a more robust and flexible
mechanism for accepting credit cards online consider 2CheckOut,
this is a great service for online business owners who need
more payment options but want to avoid the hassle and expense
of setting up a merchant account. Don't forget to bookmark
this page just in case, reprinting or republishing this article
or any part therein is permitted on the condition that you
make reference to the original source URL which is this page.
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