Everyone has different things that are important to them when it comes to their website. Some people care only about how the site looks. Others are really only concerned about what information is on the site. For others, it may be about search engine ranking, how fast it loads, etc. But having built a ton of sites, and seen the factors that make sites successful, I’m here to tell you: It all matters!
A typical site consists of 4 things:
1.) The Design
2.) The Content
3.) The underlying code(affects how well it loads, and how well it indexes)
4.) The Features(like forums, chat, member areas, etc)
If you drop the ball on any of these areas, your site will never reach it’s full potential! I’ve seen plenty of sites fail because once the site was completed, it was ‘junked up’ with unorganized text, and poor quality images. At that point, the design looks horrible, because it’s wrapped around ugly, unusable content! Your content should never, ever be an afterthought! Hiring a professional photographer to photograph your products or projects, and your staff, is worth every penny. Pay attention to the details, and everything else will fall into place.
In other sites, I’ve seen people get sites that look horrible, and then spend a massive amount of effort updating content, and marketing it, only to be frustrated by a general lack of interest. If a site looks like it was designed by a high school kid, then people will assume(often wrongly) that the quality of the content is also at a high school level.
You want to drive a ton of traffic to your website? Great! But what will they find when they get there? Will they want to stay? Will they want to come back?
So what’s the weakest link on your website? Let’s fix it!
SEO is a constantly changing field, and there’s a lot of bad information online about it. Some of the information is simply outdated, and some is designed to get quick rankings, at the cost of getting black-listed long-term. Believe it or not, SEO is not voodoo, or even horribly complicated. Let’s look at a couple of popular misconceptions about SEO, and along the way learn how to approach it successfully.
1.) Ignore SEO concepts when creating your content.
Search engine’s are designed to find great websites, and these companies have hundreds of engineers who are constantly tweaking their algorithms to try to accomplish that goal. They’re not looking for perfectly-coded sites with some secret sauce of keywords, and code-to-text ratio. They try to return sites that people love! As an example, one of the many ways that Google determines that is by looking at how many legitimate sites are linking to your site. If people like your site enough to link to it, then it’s more likely to be popular! This is just one of the many, many clues Google uses to determine “popularity”(and none of them can be effectively faked). The best way to rank on Google is to create the site that your visitors want to come back to. It seems to simple, but trust me, it works! When you create that kind of site, and give it a little time, your site will begin to rank well!
(Note: If you’re worried about keywords, remember this: If you’re writing about your business, the keywords will be there! If you’re writing a sales pitch, it probably won’t have the keywords you need. Keep it focused, and leave out the sales mumbo-jumbo!)
2.) You can have a site that ranks well that’s not successful
Let’s say that you have a specialty business in a small town. There’s very little competition, and your site is ranking at the top of most searches for your service. Why aren’t you getting a ton of hits? If only ten people today searched for “locksmith in timbuktu”, then no matter how well you rank, don’t expect a hundred hits a day to your website from search engines! This is a very common oversight. Search engines are not magical traffic generators! This doesn’t mean that your site can’t be successful though, which ties into my next point!
3.) You can have a site that doesn’t rank well, and is still successful
Alright, no one is coming to your site via search engines, either because your site doesn’t rank well yet, or because no one is searching for you. What then? Just as with a typical storefront business, if you want to get people in the door, you have to create demand(or at least curiosity!) Make sure your website address is on everything that you produce. It should be on your letterheads, business cards, receipts, billboards, print ads, flyers, banners, etc. The next thing, which most people miss, is to give people a reason to come to your site! This could be for exclusive coupons, helpful articles about things in your industry(it works, you’re reading one!), product manuals, video demonstrations, online forms, etc. Be creative! If you want people to show up, give ‘em a reason!
4.) Sometimes, your site isn’t the best site for that query
This is one that no one really wants to hear! Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you want to show up for a broad competitive term like “Real estate agents Nashville”. Now if you were a customer searching for this term, you’d want Google to only show you the best results for this query. You’d probably hope that they returned some of the best rated, most-professional real estate agents, and preferably the ones that have been around the longest. But if you’re a real estate agent in Nashville, your only concern is that your web developer “do something” to get you listed on the top! The hard truth is that maybe, at the moment, your business isn’t the most relevant result. Maybe you’re the new kid on the block, and/or no one knows about you yet. Search engines are not designed to help people discover new places. They only care about showing the best places! The better option is to work towards being the best real estate agent in Nashville, and watch your ranking soar with your reputation. It’s sort of a snowball effect!
What can you do online to help people discover you initially? I always recommend Adwords! It’s the most cost-effective way to get your name out online with measurable results, and should be a part of nearly every business’ marketing plan.
Don’t treat SEO like a marketing campaign. If a typical marketing campaign is done well, you’ll see results right away! Search ranking however, is really more like your online reputation. It takes time to build it, and trying to rush it never ends well. Just like your “real-life” reputation, if it grows legitimately, it will benefit your business for years to come!
People are increasingly using their smart phones, and other small-screen devices to browse your website. Knowing how to optimize your site for these guests can be an important way to please your customers and provide an edge over your competition. Someone using a small-screen device with a slow internet connection needs a small, clean, fast-loading site. Good mobile sites have fewer graphics, and larger buttons to cater to the limitations of the small screen.
There are several different ways to provide a mobile-optimized experience for your site.
Mobile Stylesheets
Modern websites are designed via CSS stylesheets, and with a properly structured site that’s not very complex(your typical content/advertising sites, blogs, etc.) can have an additional stylesheet attached that optimizes your site’s layout and design for small screen devices.
Mobile “Mirrored” Site
More complex sites, have advanced features like live chat, polls, or forums that may not be needed or advisable to have on a mobile site. In cases like this it’s better to have a separate mobile website that has the same information(pulling from the same database typically). These sub-sites can selectively show the content that is relevant to mobile users.
3.) Separate Mobile Site
Occasionally a mobile site has it’s own purpose and function unique from the main site. This could be a competition, an event registration, or a location based site. In these cases, of course it’s simpler to just create a separate site.
Whichever option fits your needs, let’s keep your website in the hands of your customers!
From time to time, I’m approached by people who suggest that I contact someone with a particularly horrible site, and offer my web design services. So, as a public service, I’ve come up with a resource to help you confront your friends, and family, about their eye-peeling sites. Whatever your personality, you’ll find one tailored to fit you! Presented in no particular order:
The Anonymous Friend Approach
“I had a friend who thought your web design was horrible. Me personally? Oh, I didn’t think it was that bad, just needs a little oil on the hinges if ya know what I mean.”
The Apologetic Approach
“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, I mean I don’t want to hurt your feelings. Not that you’re overly sensitive or anything! I just thought you might want to consider making some minor changes, not that you have to, if they’re not to difficult…”
The Brutal Approach
“Your site looks so bad a kitten dies somewhere in the world every time it’s pulled up!”
The Clumsy Approach
“I thought your grandmother did a fantastic job with your site!”
The Oblique Approach
“Have you considered revamping your site to adopt more of a 21st century look?”
The Optimist’s Approach
“This site has huge potential! With some new colors, images, layout, and content, it could go citywide!”
The Friend Approach
“I wouldn’t tell just anyone this, but your site is really horrible. I just wanted you to know before everyone starts laughing at you behind your back!”
The Intervention Approach
“We’re all here today to tell you that we love you, but we can’t bear to see you ruining your public image with such an awful site! It’s not fair to you, it’s not fair to the people who have to look at it, and it just has to stop!”
The Exaggerated Approach
“Dude, I’m sitting here at the emergency room, and it’s all your fault! I pulled up your website, and felt strangely compelled to stick a fork in my eye, repeatedly! You’ve got to do something about that site, PLEASE!!!”
The Technical Approach
“After extended analysis, it has been determined that your site is less than optimum in several key areas, thus imperilling the conversion efficacy within the combination of social, financial, and age-based demographics that define your potential market. Of considerable interest is the lack of initial positive feedback regarding the overall aesthetics of the site. This is further exacerbated with the lack of current information, and generally confusing arrangement of said information. This general confusion combined with the poor aesthetics is theorized to generate a considerable amount of mental and emotional stress for visitors, who promptly vacate the site, resulting in the less than stellar results from the site in question.”
Whatever your approach, be sure to use it soon(at your own risk!), and feel free to append the following statement to the end:
“If you want a professional, affordable website, you should contact Andrew Trivette Design!”
(Tailor it to sound natural of course :)
Together we can make the Internet a better place! ;)
Your typical business website serves 4 different functions: Virtual Office, Expanded Services, Enhanced Marketing, and Efficient Services. Let’s take a look at each of these in greater depth.
Virtual Office
Your website provides your potential customers with a first impression of your business, similar to them actually coming to your place of business for the first time. It offers 24/7/365 availability, and customer support. A website for many people is a low pressure, time-efficient way of gathering pertinent information about your business, such as business hours, directions, contact method, and general product/service information.
Expanded Services
With a professional site, you have the ability to offer your customers a whole range of additional services for their convenience, and ultimately your profit. Whether they be basic features like directions, and contact forms or more custom features such as application forms, progress reports, order tracking, weekly ads/coupons, client discounts, or weekly newsletters, these features provide for many small companies a whole new level of professionalism for a relatively low cost.
Enhanced Marketing
Promotional websites offer a unique opportunity in marketing. A product or service can be fully expounded upon on a website much more than practically any other form of marketing. It is for this reason that websites are increasingly the intermediate goal for many other marketing campaigns. Many tv, newspaper, mail, and radio ads are referring their customers to their websites for more information. This tends to work better long term for sales, due to the inherently low pressure, information rich nature of the web.
Efficient Services
Web based services can bring a critical element of efficiency to many small businesses. Communications can be simplified, and everyone is kept in the loop so much easier than with traditional memos, and time consuming conference meetings. You and your employees are then free to do what you’re there for – to make money. Online applications and forms for clients and prospective employees can reduce the time from request to implementation, further making your company look good.
Many people have heard the term Search Engine Optmization(SEO), but few understand exactly what it means for their site. A site which has been search engine optimized is not guaranteed to rank highly in search results. Let’s look at what you can expect from an SEO’ed site.
Indexing
When Google or any other search engine looks at your site, they’re going to see alot of code, and essentially a bunch of words strung together. From this soup of code and words, they have to try and figure out what your site’s purpose is, what the focus of that page is, and then rank it compared to other pages with similar content. This is the main purpose of the indexing process.
SEO is all about making sure that search engines understand your site. It is not about getting your site to rank highly in the search results(although it often helps). This is a huge misunderstanding that many people have. Google can index your site, fully understand all of your keywords and content, and still not rank it highly!
Ranking
Your site’s content is only one small part of what determines the “quality” of your site(according to search engines). Other small factors that play a part in your site’s ranking include: how long your domain is registered for, how long your site has been around, how recently it’s been updated, how many other site’s have linked to you, how relevant your content is to what people are actually searching for, and whether your page url’s contain keywords relevant to the content on that page. Also keep in mind that search engines technically don’t rank websites, but rather they rank the individual pages within your site.
The fact is this: there is no single factor that will determine your site’s rankings. Quality search engines like Google hire the best and brightest programmers in the world to ensure that no one can guarantee that their site is ranked first! The total number of factors which determine a site’s ranking is around 200 factors(most of which are not publicly known!)
Conclusion
All this may sound a little depressing, but bear in mind that focusing on delivering relevant information, in an organized manner, to the people who actually visit your site(with good HTML optimization) is the approach that all the search engines recommend for best results. After all, when you boil down all the quality factors, their goal is simply to provide the most relevant sites based on what someone is searching for. If your site is current, and relevant, it will rank!
My recommendation for new sites, or newly SEO’ed sites is to run a Google Adwords campaign for at least a year or so. This drives visitors to your site initially, and if it’s a good site, with good information, you will begin getting traffic, referrals, and links to your site, which will slowly begin improving your ranking for relevant searches!
Disclaimer: I am not a marketing expert. I have however studied, implemented, and consulted on many online marketing campaigns, and I’ve seen a lot of good and bad along the way. That’s what I want to talk about today.
“Personally, I’ve seen the web work for almost any business demographic”
More often than not, I see people trying to apply the techniques that they learned in "traditional” advertising to their websites. The next thing I know they’re complaining about the web, and how it doesn’t work for their demographics, or even that it is just generally worthless. Personally, I’ve seen the web work for almost any business demographic. However, online marketing is fundamentally different from almost any other type of marketing method because of one simple reason: Control.
The internet is controlled by its users. If I don’t like what I see on a site I can immediately jump to another site that is more accomodating. For many people the web is one of the few places, if not the only place, in their life where they are in complete control. This control combined with practically no commitment, or consequences is very empowering, even if it is only on a subconscious level. This means that high-pressure tactics don’t work online! Trying to force people into becoming customers by forcing them through a sales “funnel”, or by limiting they’re ability to navigate through your site just doesn’t work. You may get some sales from this approach, but your results will never be as good as when you give your visitors the ability to look around as much as they wish, while making it easy for them to purchase as soon as they’re ready.
Purchasing Patterns
It’s helpful to remember that customers tend to fall into different groups based on purchasing habits. The two primary groups to consider are what market researchers call "emotional" and "logical". Some people are considered emotional shoppers because their decision is based on the presentation, the images, and perhaps the general hype surrounding the product or service. Purchasers like this are less likely to care about the details, technical specifications, or testimonials for their purchase. Your website’s aesthetics, the quality of your product images, and the brevity of your descriptions make a huge difference for this demographic.
Others are considered logical shoppers, and tend to do their research before making a purchase. These potential customers will want to comparison shop, learn as much as possible about the product, look at reviews, learn about your company, etc. These will be the first visitors to leave your site if they experience any pressure throughout the sales process. Pressure could be popups, restricted navigation, etc. Additional factors that will lose sales to this group is lack of information, an unprofessional, or inconsistent design(doesn’t establish trust), lack of business policies, and hidden costs(like shipping) before or during checkout. On the positive side, if you turn these visitors into customers and follow through with a quality service/product, you will have loyal, repeat customers whose referrals will make them your best marketing team!
“Communicating your idea, and building trust online become extremely important, and significantly more difficult(but not impossible!)”
Online marketing is further complicated by the fact that you have lost the personal/emotional touch that many one-on-one marketers rely on to make a sale. Communicating your idea, and building trust online become extremely important, and significantly more difficult(but not impossible!).
Now that i’ve got the depressing part out of the way, let’s talk about what you can do to turn your online marketing into an advantage for you.
Tips for Online Success
Let your customers go
Trying to hold onto your customers is futile, and a huge waste of effort. Someone who leaves your site without a purchase is not necessarily a lost sale since they may simply be doing their research for a future purchase.
Give your customers control.
Give your visitors the ability to write reviews, and leave feedback on your service. Let them know that their opinion matters and will be taken seriously. Instead of adopting an us vs them approach, turn your business into a team effort with your customers. If you’re really brave, let them leave public feedback on your site!
Focus on the customers experience than on the conversion
If your only concern is getting customers out the “door” with a big sale your customers will sense that very quickly and leave. This goes back to what I mentioned earlier about building trust. Give your customers everything they need to understand your product/ service and make sure they know you’ll be around after the sale to ensure they have the best results possible. Provide training videos, written tutorials, and phone support once the purchase has been made. Throughout your site be creative in finding ways to give your visitors everything they need to make their purchasing decision while making sure that as soon as they are ready, they’re able to purchase.
Be transparent until it hurts
When you lack the personal aspect of a physical store, you have to go the extra mile to ensure that customers feel like they’re more than an invoice number. Write some articles about how your company operates, and perhaps even create some videos about your company. If you’re a small company, don’t act like a mega-corporation. When you make a mistake or have some unexpected rush on a particular product, be sure to let your customers know right away. If it affects more than a couple of customers, I usually recommend posting a short apology on the site. This not only helps those affected, but also builds trust with future customers by showing them that you’re honest and you care. Everyone knows companies aren’t perfect, so if you act like you are, they know you’re lying!
Create a conversation
When your customers know that they’re important to you, and that you listen to them when they complain, you’ll be amazed at how much better your customers you’ll have(and how much better a breed of customers you’ll attract). Think of your website not as a static facade for your business, but rather as an interactive conversation with your customers and potential customers. Don’t just make it possible for people to leave constructive feedback, actively ask for it.
Much of this advice requires a different approach to business online, and a different approach to websites in general. It’s not just about marketing, it’s about putting your customers first. As trite as it sounds, it’s very true that if you take care of your customers, your customers will take care of you!
There’s two approaches to marketing. Conventional vs Common-Sense.
A conventional marketing plan probably sounds alot like this:
“In an effort to promote brand-awareness within a cross-section of your target demographic, and increase your monetization potential, it is recommended that you leverage your self-contained locomotive capabilities to establish your physical presence within the center of the highest density collection of core potential consumers(also known in lay terms as a group of people), and capitalize on your vocal assets, and your facial contortions(aka “smile”) to begin the process of introducing your cold market to the services that form the core of your monetization potential. Enhancing this venerable approach by presenting free tangible wood or cotton based sheets of information that your potential clients can retain for future reference purposes can only further improve the efficacy of the potential returns per unit of time and effort expended, thus allowing capable marketers to work “smart” and not hard.”
As opposed to the common-sense version:
“Go tell people about your business!”
Don’t let all the marketing technical jargon confuse you. It’s just what marketing experts use to make their advice seem important. But is it really so hard to find a couple of ways to get the word out about your product/service?
I’ve been getting ALOT of questions recently about Google Adwords, how it works, and how to optimize results. This video from Google helps to demystify why ads show up, and what some of the factors are for getting good ranking.(hint: there’s more to it than paying enough money!) Enjoy!
I often get asked for estimates on how much a website costs. Although a fair and innocent question, the number of variables that determine the cost of a site can make it a somewhat complex question.
It is important when looking at the value of a website, to not equate the size of the site with it’s value. The intended audience, number of features, and degree of maintainability are just a few of the variables that affect a site’s value. Let’s look more in depth at a few of the most important site attributes.
No two websites are the same.
Much like a house or a car, a websites quality can be measured on several different levels. A house with a nice looking design, interior and exterior, tells you nothing about the foundation, plumbing, wiring, and overall integrity of the house. You could impress your friends and family with such a house, and end up spending a fortune repairing it’s most important, yet hidden, functions. In the same way, a website that looks cool, or trendy, or exciting, tells you very little about the overall stability and quality of that site. You will enjoy it until it starts crashing under moderate loads. Or you might be forced to redo whole sections(or even the whole site), in order to add new features in the future as your business grows. The ability to expand your site in the future, is an oft overlooked consideration in building a professional site.
Good impression from start to finish.
“…your guests aren’t coming to see your site’s incredible design, they’re coming to find information…”
So what does a good site look like? A good site not only provides a good visual first impression to your (potential) clients, but leaves them informed and pleased when they leave as well. Good first impressions count for little if one can’t follow through to the end. What does this mean for a site? 1. Clean, easy to use site layout. 2. Fast loading site. 3. Simple navigation. 4. Consistent layout throughout the site. Factors such as these play an overwhelming part of your guests overall experience. It is important to remember that your guests aren’t coming to see your site’s incredible design, they’re coming to find information, or to contact you to begin a business relationship.
Building a strong foundation.
With a professionally produced site, you are getting a site with an excellent foundation on which you can expand. One of the measurements of a good site is whether or not it follows the code standards set up by an organization called the W3C. Essentially a site that meets these standards is most likely to display correctly across different browsers, operating systems, and most importantly, future browsers and operating systems, and other internet enabled devices such as mobile phones.
Investing in a long-term solution.
When a website can be built by an amateur with a minimal investment in time, a professionally built site might not seem like a good investment. But considering the amount of time that can be saved in maintaining an enterprise level website, not to mention the potential increase in business inquiries/transactions, your investment in a good site can pay off tenfold.
Quality content for website, print, and advertising is a scarce resource. Content is often created as an afterthought, with little regard for quality. Many avoid it, even fear it, because they don’t consider themselves good at grammar. But what if I were to tell you that good content could be created without a dictionary, and without being able to identify a past participle? (Actually, a past participle is defined as job security for English teachers!).
Writing is as simple as putting a complete thought down on paper. People informally communicate all day long, verbally and in writing(email, notes, etc). But when it comes to writing a “formal” tutorial, or product description, or a proposal, we tend to get writer’s block. The fact to remember is that we are still trying to accomplish the exact same thing as always: communicate a complete thought.
I would propose that formal writing is percieved as more difficult, not because it actually is more difficult, but rather because we are more worried about what others will think.
Addressing Writer’s Block
In my experience, you will never have writer’s block, if you have something to say. Now, before you roll your eyes at such a seemingly obvious statement, hear me out! When we have something to say, something that we know and need to communicate, you don’t have a problem getting it out. But when you’re trying to write an articles/paper to fill a space requirement, or fill a commitment, writing’s as fun as a heart attack, right? For some, beginning a paper is the most difficult part. Simple solution: Make a list of points you want to cover, write about those points, and save the introduction for later. Many times your intro will sound better that way.
Writing’s greatest advantage is also it’s greatest disadvantage. You get/have to plan what you’re going to say. For many, taking the time to plan their communication is a foreign concept, and thus makes writing seem slow and tedious. But if you embrace the discipline of planning your content, you will find the reward of accomplishment in the resulting quality paper.
Defining Quality Writing
So if an English degree isn’t the key to good writing, then what is? Quality writing exhibits 3 unique characteristics: Concise, Clear, Comprehensive. Let’s look at these individually.
Concise
Most English classes from grade school on up to collegiate classes make a significant mistake when teaching good writing skills. Teachers typically give writing assignments that are length based, rather than content based. The result is that many writers considered good, are actually just writers who know how to fill space. What a waste! The whole point of writing is to communicate an idea or process, and if you can fully explain that idea in one sentence, then why write a whole book about it? All you accomplish by adding “fluff” to your writing is to hide, or water down, the idea you’re trying to convey. Don’t make your readers wade through a tome to get that tidbit of info.
Does your content seem a little confusing, or a little dry? Find a way to cut back on the number of words. It’s amazing how much clearer it will become.
Clear
Very much related to concise content is clear content. Do I need a Phd to understand your paper? If you’re writing to Phd’s then you’ve succeeded, but if you’re trying to write a general product description, then you have failed miserably. Know who you’re writing to, and take great care to make sure they can understand what you’re saying. Note: talking down to your audience is just as bad as intimidating them with foreign lingo.
Comprehensive
Alright, you’ve made great efforts to keep your writing clear and concise. Congratulations! Now the last thing to consider is this: Have you left anything important out? Sometimes you can leave out information simply because you forget that your audience may not be familiar with your profession’s terms and lingo. This is something that I see happen all the time. Read your content with the perspective of your audience, continually asking yourself if anything is missing in that section.
As you can see these three characteristics overlap quite a bit. Making sure that you strike a good balance between the three will create far better content than you can imagine.
“The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit; and everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5 (WEB)
Planning is the key to any successful venture, and e-commerce is no exception. This article will look at some of the key areas to plan for when getting into e-commerce. These areas include marketing, maintenance, shipping, and payment gateways. Naturally, this is not a comprehensive planning guide; just some ideas, and questions to get you started towards a good digital business plan.
Marketing
Products and services don’t sell themselves. Keep in mind that when you go online, you are then competing with every online retailer in the world! Welcome to the global economy. Sound depressing? Don’t worry, it’s not all that bad. Advertising on search engines are a good place to start. This gives you immediate visibility to people looking for your category of products.
Setting aside a certain amount every month for paid search advertising should be the first stage of any online marketing budget. As sales start to come in, it is advisable to start putting a percentage back into marketing. This contributes to the desired upward spiral in sales.
Putting links to your new site in your email signature, on your business cards, letterheads, and any print advertising you may do are all great ways to get the word out about your site. Never underestimate the value of local advertsing or word of mouth in driving business to your site.
Maintenance
Just like a local business, online businesses can take a lot of maintenance. Someone has to answer the phone, process and ship orders, add new products, remove discontinued products, deal with vendors, handle customer complaints, update sales, and manage advertising campaigns. Consider whether you have the time to do this yourself, or the funds to hire someone to handle it. Taking into account the time needed for even a small site, can prevent burning out or providing poor service to your customers when the workload becomes too heavy.
As most entreprenurs will anticipate, during the start-up stage, you will have a disproportionate amount of work compared to the level of sales. Many business experts recommend that you have the funds to maintain the business for one year, before you begin. Obviously, this is not always possible, but it is a good rule of thumb when it is possible. Many small businesses are lucky to break even the first year, and show a small profit the following year.
Shipping
“Many find it simpler to just offer free shipping on all, or most, of their products.”
How will you calculate your shipping costs? Your choices depend on your product lines, and your e-commerce software. Should shipping be calculated based on weight, dimensions, or price? What carriers should you offer, UPS, USPS, FEDex? What options for each carrier should be offered, Ground, Next Day? Do you ship orders internationally?
Many find it simpler to just offer free shipping on all, or most, of their products. This provides an added marketing bonus, since studies show that free shipping is extremely popular with customers. The key is to calculate what your average shipping cost will be for each product, and then increasing the cost accordingly.
Regardless of your choices, no one shipping choice will be perfect in every situation. Shipping calculators don’t always calculate correctly, and adding a little to compensate for free shipping doesn’t always quite cover the true cost. The trick is to find the solution in which the cost averages out correctly over time.
Payment Gateways
How will you accept payment? Will you process credit cards manually? Will you accept C.O.D. or money orders. Will you use popular payment gateways like Paypal, or Google Checkout for your customers convenience? Choosing your your payment gateway and understanding the charges with each is important when you’re trying to maximize your profits.
So you want to build an E-store? Congratulations! Getting into online sales can be a rewarding and profitable experience. This article will look at the pro’s and con’s of starting and maintaining your own online store. First, we’ll look at some popular misconceptions about online stores. Then in Part 2, we’ll look at the planning stages, and budget considerations for an online store. We’ll also see some of the day to day maintenance that an online store typically incurs.
Debunking the Myths of Online Stores
Myth #1: “It’s easy”
Starting an online business is no different than starting a typical brick and mortar business. It takes planning, investment, time, and a viable product line. This is true even if you already have a brick and mortar business. In fact, if you do already have a local business or franchise, you should consider an online store to be exactly the same as opening another business location.
Myth #2: “It’s cheaper than opening a local store”
Nope. Unless you are prepared to build your own site, and do all the maintenance on it, you will have the expenses of hiring a competent developer to do all the work on it. If you will be doing all the work on it yourself, you have to consider the value of your time, as well as your opportunity cost. Either way, there can be significant cost involved in going online.
Myth #3: “You can just build it and leave it”
Perhaps this one needs some explanation. Many people think that if they can just get a good site built for them, then it will keep making them money without any more maintenance, updates, or expenses. This doesn’t work any better online than it does at brick and mortar store. Any good businessperson knows that any store that’s not improving what it’s offering, updating product information, keeping their store clean, fixed up, and fresh, offering sales, and adding new product lines, will eventually die off. A business that’s not growing and improving is bound to fail.
Myth #4: “If my site ranks high on major search engines, it will be successful”
If only this were true! The reality is that search engines are a very small part of a successful site. Even if someone finds you via search engines, it doesn’t mean they will buy from you. Factors such as poor site design, difficulty finding a specific product, bad splleing, and lack of good information/pictures, all make your site look like that run-down gas station down the road (the one you would never go into!).
“…and never discount the power of word of mouth, and small beginnings.”
You should also take into consideration that just because you have a good site, doesn’t mean it will rank high on the search engines. Every major search engines goes to great lengths to make sure that sites(even good sites) can’t manipulate their way into first place. Therefore, you must realize that your site will be competing against every other site in the world that is selling similar products. Your best marketing tactic, just like a local business, is to advertise in as many different ways as possible, and never discount the power of word of mouth, and small beginnings.
The point that I’m trying to drive home is that a website business is functionally identical to a brick and mortar store. The website itself is much like the building, and obviously a building does not a business make. A website is just the “container” for your business, and creating it without a solid business plan, or perhaps with unrealistic expectations, is a recipe for disaster. Good planning with some common sense is the best road to having a successful online business.
"Andrew Trivette has made it easy for us. We did not know a lot about web design but with our thoughts and ideas and Andrew's know-how we have an awesome website that is very easy to use. I would recommend Andrew to any company no matter how big or small. Andrew is affordable, easy to work with and delivers on time!"
- Tim McLauchlin - Director, Teen Challenge of the Upper Cumberland
