So you want to start an online business…
December 30th, 2005 Edit
Because of the nature of my work, I am often approached by the budding entrepreneur who wants to start an online business “in his spare time.” Usually, he wants to know how much it will cost to get a site designed, hosted and submitted to the search engines.
Yes, the Internet offers an abundance of opportunity for the online entrepreneur but, like any business, it requires that the business owner be involved in the business. If the site is offering e-commerce, the site owner will need to be able to add items, re-price items, post specials as well as retrieve and ship orders. Unless he has a big bank roll and can afford to hire a web designer, clerical assistant, shipper, etc., he will need to do it all himself in the beginning.
Fortunately, there are programs available for this type of budding entreprenaur that does not require a lot of cash. I usually send these budding business owners to Yahoo! Small Business. They offer a complete hosting and design solution for very little money. The design is a template - one can select from several and it can be created and maintained with no HTML programming at all. Yahoo also offers built-in eCommerce solutions ready-to-go, which should work well for the new business owner.
In addition to pointing him to this valuable resource, I also point out that he will need to get a good graphics program so that he can upload photos of his wares. He will also need to learn about sizing photos in pixels and that the maximum screen resolution for an online photo does not exceed 100 dpi (dots-per-inch). Larger photos will take too long to download and he will lose potential buyers as a result.
Of course, that only covers getting a working web site. Step two is to get traffic to the site. Search engine submissions are easy and free, for the most part, but they don’t guarantee that anyone will ever see the site. Here’s where the site owner needs to educate himself about Search Engine Optimization. It’s really not that complicated - PUT THE KEYWORDS THAT YOU WANT TO BE FOUND UNDER INSIDE THE BODY OF YOUR PAGES AND IN THE TITLE TAGS. No, I don’t mean to “trick” the search engines by repeating the keywords all over the place - I mean actually use the keyword phrases when describing your product or services. That will increase your chances of a good ranking for some of the keyword phrases.
The next step is to submit the site to online directories of quality. That means that he wants to submit it to a directory that is respected by others. If he sells shoes, he’ll want to be listed in directories that specialize in apparrell or footwear. If he sells a variety of items, he’ll want to get listed at shopping sites like Froogle.com, BizRate, etc. Some of these directories are not free, so he’ll need an advertising budget.
In addition to the directories, one needs to get the word out to the press. Cheapest, fastest method I know of to reach the press is prweb.com. The pricing is extremely modest for the coverage. Before he does that, however, he must educate himself about how to write an effective press release. The prweb.com site offers some assistance - check out their help menu section. They even offer a template to follow.
In the beginning, the new site owner will spend most of his time trying to drive traffic to his site. If he does a good job of it, he will soon be collecting orders and shipping goods. If not, he is most likely going to quit after the first year because his cost will have exceeded his income.
I highly advise anyone that is considering an online business to research, research, research before he begins. It is imperative that he understand what the competition is on the Internet and has a clearly defined business plan and goals.
Entry Filed under: Website Design