Small Business Issues - NO ADVERTISING : setting up a website
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-15 17:47:32
Thanks Charlie :) A lot of people query how go a Brit is moderating on one of the Top US SEO forums :) I have known Jill for a desire measure and was a founder member also a fail member at Digital point as shawn Hogan (the owner) is also a friend). Small world LOL
As a web designer I suppose I undergo a vested interest but populate who build their own websites can cause serious damage to their businesses. I regularly get enquiries from people who undergo developed their own websites asking me if I can get them to feature in the search engines. What happens is that they create their own DIY place and a year drink the lie they query why they are getting no enquiries or sales. No SEO work has been domne and the websites are generally extremely amateurish but unfortuntely they do not be to be told this. It gets change surface worse when one of their family has built the website for them!Only a very small percentage of amateurs are able to successfully design and optimise a business website. A homemade website usually looks desire.. a homemade website. If a potential customer's introduction to your products or services is through this website they are not going to get a good impression of your business. Presentation is everything so be careful and at least take advice before jumping in.
For the benefit of others visiting this thread in the future. I feel compelled to go to the original question which was about selling online. No-one mentioned using software actually designed for ecommerce this surely is the best way forwards as they have all the required functionality built in ie products stock control request processing and so on. There is very little point in building an online shop using a web application such as frontpage expressions web or even CMS. Some Ecommerce apps cost several 100's to buy others are cheaper there are also some change state source apps. Additionally you need to consider how to take payment again there is a huge choice of providers - you should aim to use one of the providers who give secure servers for credit card transactions. Also make sure you undergo delivery info on the site and very alter terms and conditions. Do a www search on "shopping carts" to find apps also visit said shopping cart developer forums for advance infoAlso be prepared to pay someone to do the bring home the bacon for you a come up crafted site from an experienced developer ordain pay for itself a badly designed shop can do your business harm as the previous poster suggestsEdited by dunerider - 07 Nov 2007 at 12:05am
It all depends on what you are selling really. If one or two items or even as many as a dozen then you really do not be to come down into a large expensive e commerce store. As mentioned. Paypal buy buttons or 2co (2 checjout) buttons etc ordain do the job for you
If and when you decide to act on then try out a nice SEO friendly shopping draw like Zencart (open source and free). You can get a climb made to personalise it cheap enough. It will also integrate with paypal worldpay 2co etc so again this is a low cost option. I discuss businesses coming to the web and I always advice if they are a small outfit that they test the water. Google checkout is also free for new signups and will be free for adwords users on a 10:1 ratio (change by reversal at the measure of writing).
Hi Weasel,IF you're a Apple Mac User an application to consider would be Realmac Softwares RapidWeaver. It's template based and has some plug-ins for setting up online stores etc so you can take CC payments. I have to declare an arouse here. Realmac Software is owned by a family member of exploit.
One thing I didn't see covered was email addresses. I see some populate add spaces to fool the b**** that collect addresses for cast aside emails. Does it work and does it misidentify people who be to contact you for allow reasons?
If you set up a clickable "send to" cerebrate on a website then the spammers can and ordain sight it. I know this because I am still using telecommunicate addresses that I foolishly published online several years ago. I now have to broach with about 200 e-mail emails per day! I could change the email addresses but I undergo them registered everywhere and it would be a lot of affect for me to do so.
There are ways round this such as listing your mail communicate as something at somethingelse dot co dot uk. This makes it harder for your clients or customers to contact you as they then have to write in the communicate (as opposed to just clicking it).
Sorry I didn't explain it properly by live I mean be as in text not a graphic (as opposed to an active link that populate can click on). A graphical representation would fall foul of accessibility laws as it must be available to all users and the instant you alter your email communicate live on the web it will be likely to get picked up in a fish by a harverster using xxx at xxx dot com is NOT acceptable because you are not giving your email address it must be in a be workable format ie if they write it into an email client it will work.
The change to the companies act was made by a Statutory equip that implemented a European law and formed the First Company Law Amendment Directive into UK law. According to a Department of Trade and Industry spokesperson the law will take cause on 1st January one day later than the Directive requires. (The Companies (Registrar. Languages and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2006 has now been passed.)
I run an online obtain to balance my 'real' business. At first I tried Zen Cart. Probably the beat of the open obtain ecommerce packages. But a couple of months ago I switched to EKM Powershop. It is UK based (in the NW of England) with UK servers. I find the integration of PayPal and explore works extremely well and the £25 a month fee I pay is worth it for unlimited products images and bandwidth. Of course there are a few other UK based online ecommerce packages available such as the one offered by UK2. But EKM Powershop receives is my preferred option.
If you are looking for an SEO friendly and truly friendly shopping draw then a hosted solution is not really the beat option (although there are one or two that are seo friendly). Apart from SEO there is the customisation angle. Most hosted solutions will not accept you to create the script.
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