Take some time to educate yourself about Internet marketing BEFORE getting started!
Domain Names - Make sure the domain name for your main business site is easy for the average person to spell, does not use hyphens, is a .com, and is as short as possible. GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain registrar, and they charge $8.95 per year. There is no need to spend more.
Hosting – Your new website will need a host. GoDaddy offers one of the best and lowest cost plans for just $3.95 per month. Generally there is no need to spend more for the small startup site. With your own site, you will need to publish the pages yourself with FTP. Here is an article on how to FTP.
Shopping Carts and Credit Cards – Do not “Put the Cart Before the Horse!" PayPal offers a free shopping cart which will accept credit cards. This is how I got started, and the free cart is very simple to use. Consider a more robust cart once your site is making 2 or 3 sales per day. Do not invest money in a “pre-stocked” online store with a “built-in” shopping cart. These are a complete waste of money. Back Porch Income includes tutorials for how to create a site's first shopping cart.
design a site People Will Trust – Do you want people to send money over the Internet to your site? Then they MUST trust you and the product or service you are selling! People do not care if the site looks very professional. But they do need to trust it. For example, my Cactus Canyon site has pictures of my wife, our dogs, and myself on it. People will email me like they know me. We even get holiday cards from our customers! I have more information in my online blog about this and other marketing issues.
Your Site Must Be Listed Well in Google and Yahoo – There are just a few things which must be done for this to happen. First, read the guides for webmasters in Google and Yahoo. Secondly, DO NOT BUY ANYTHING IN ORDER TO GET GOOD RANKINGS IN SEARCH ENGINES! There are so many scammers out there ready to take your money. They prey upon people who simply do not understand the process. Plenty of good content, choosing the right keywords, naming your pages correctly, the correct navigation system, and getting the RIGHT links represent 90% of what is required to rank well in the search engines. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not a free lunch either. Back Porch Income, explains this process in detail.
Customer Service – There is a saying in the online world: 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers. This is so true! You MUST have returning customers for your business! The number one way to achieve this is by offering outstanding customer service. Simply ship your products the same or next day, provide RAPID replies to emails, and offer quality products for great prices! People will keep coming back for more! |
