Internet Business USA » IBUSA

How you can start an eBusiness

IBUSA — Sat, 22 May 2010 04:32:34 +0000

With the online retail sales steadily growing, Forrester Research predicts that e-commerce sales in the US will continue to grow at a 10% compound annual growth rate through 2014. For those of you interested in another statistical tidbit : Forrester is also forecasting that online retail sales will hit $250 billion this year, that’s up from $155 billion in 2009. As a budding online entrepreneur, even capturing a small piece of that pie, would be a huge success.

So how do you break into this market? What steps should you take to build an eBusiness and start selling online? And most importantly, how do you do so in a manner that sets you up for success.

1. Plan your dream
Before you start thinking about all the tactical stuff you’re going to need to accomplish over the next little while (getting a website, finding products, getting your name out there etc.). Slow down and think strategy for a moment or two. What do you want to sell – you literally have millions of options, and you can’t sell all of them, so narrow your field and look for your own little niche. A good starting point: think about your interests and brainstorm if there’s a target market that can spin out of that.

2. Create a Business Plan
Next, sit down a write a serious business plan for yourself. Set a few realistic goals and take a good hard look at what you’re trying to accomplish. Is it feasible and is it a viable money-making opportunity? Consider your target market – is it too much for a small start up to tackle? If so, focus your efforts on a smaller and more manageable niche and then work on growing it out once you’ve reached profitability. Is it too small to reach and sustain adequate levels of profitability over time? If the answer is yes, look to expand your product offering so it meets the needs of a larger market. Or look to sell something else. Then create a road map of all the tasks you need to accomplish and the due dates and milestones you’re going to attach to each one.

3. Find Suppliers
Most online sellers, don’t create their own products from scratch, they locate a wholesale dropshipper and resell those products for a profit. A significant advantage to selling on line? You can locate a wholesale supplier who rather than shipping inventory to you, will ship straight to your end customer once an order is placed. This is called a dropshipper or dropship supplier.

The right dropship supplier is a huge asset to your business, so do your research and make sure you build a business relationship with a reputable company.

4. Look for an online storefront provider
As an entrepreneur, you have many skills, you’re resourceful, you’re creative, you’ve got a good business sense, and a whole lot of other strengths and abilities that will help you succeed. Website design however, might not make this list, and frankly, it doesn’t need to. There are a number of reputable online storebuilder solutions out there. Depending on your particular needs, you can use do anything from using their simple tools to set up your own website to hiring one of their professional designers to build a custom site for you. A good professionally designed premium template can cost as little as $1000.

Often these services also offer integrated shopping carts and order management systems so you’re not just getting a website, you’re getting a full business solution, which is a huge time and money saver (especially if you don’t have a lot of spare start-up capital). A select number of online storefronts will have even built relationships with a host of dropshippers so you can use them to source products too.

5. Market your New Store
Once you’ve got your inventory built out and have your eCommerce website up and running, you’ll need to spread the word, and get your name out there. This can include submitting your site to search engines, sending out press releases, pay-per-click advertising campaigns, and a number of other options.

Whatever strategies you tackle ensure you can track the performance of each one. This allows you to assess which strategies resonate with your target market and which are a drain on your precious capital.

6. Provide Amazing Customer Service
I acknowledge that this step isn’t technically a part of getting your eBusiness set up, however, its still mission critical if you want your fledgling business to survive, so it’s worth mentioning. Providing great customer support will set you apart from the competition and encourage repeat business, which in turn will make you money and keep you in business. Enough Said.

7. Keep it Fresh
Last but not least, you’ve gone to all this trouble to create a plan, find dropshippers, build an online storefront, market your new ecommerce store, provide fantastic customer service, so what’s next? Don’t let all your hard work fall down the wayside by walking away from your business and letting it manage itself. Keep updating your product lines, your website, stay in contact with your customer base so they keep coming back and you keep making sales.

References:
Melissa Campanelli , Entrepreneur, How to Set Up an E-Commerce Site

Erick Schonfeld, Tech Crunch, Forrester Forecast: Online Retail Sales Will Grow To $250 Billion By 2014

My Own Business, Internet Business & Search Engine Marketing

Armando Roggio, Practical ECommerce, Ecommerce Know-How: Seven Steps to Starting Your eBusiness in a Recession

Essential Pages in your website

IBUSA — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:42:15 +0000

24 Essential Pages to include on your website

Here is a list of pages and important information that should be included on your website. The most common pages on successful websites include:

1. Home Page (First Page)

This is your “sales” page and should provide information about what you can do for your customers. It should also give your visitors a brief overview of what they can find on your site.

2. Products / Services

It is useful to have a separate page for each product/service and write as much detail as possible. Start each page with a brief summary of the product/service, then provide whatever information you can. When people are searching for information on the internet, they want to know it NOW.

3. Contact Us

Place contact details in as many places as possible. Make it easy for your customers to contact you. Create a special “Contact Us” page and include your details in the “About Us” page and also at the bottom of each page. Information to include: business name, physical address, mailing address, telephone, fax, email, emergency number, website address.

4. Pricing

Whenever possible include the price of your products/services. Even if you can’t be specific. It is helpful to put at least a range of prices, eg. Carpet cleaning ranges between $40 – $60 per room.

5. Testimonials / Product Reviews / Before & After

Include testimonials from your current customers to show your potential clients that you are trustworthy, reliable and that you provide great service and/or products. If you don’t have any, get them! Just email your customers and ask for their feedback on your business and service.

6. Frequently Asked Questions

Instead of having to answer the same questions over and over again, place them on your website and keep adding to them. The more information you have on your website, the less time you will spend answering questions by email or phone.

7. Response form such as “Subscribe” or “Enquiry” form

Most people don’t like giving out too much information, so ask only the basics, such as Name and Email Address. Then keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis by sending out information that may be of interest to them.

8. On-line Magazine or Newsletter

This is a great marketing tool. Not only does it help you keep in touch with your customers, but provides your website with fresh content. You can set up your Ezine in 2 different ways:

(a) Email subscribers on a regular basis, or
(b) Publish it on your website.

9. Resources/Articles

Add value to your business. Provide information that is complementary to what you do. For example, if you sell wedding dresses include information about reception venues, wedding planners, wedding cakes, etc.

10. About Us

This page tells your customer about who you are and why they should buy your products, services and/or trust your organization. It can also feature your business hours (if you have a bricks and mortar store) or when they can speak to someone on the phone. Many companies also include their mission, details of their staff (photos, biographies, qualifications), recently completed projects and logo. It is also useful to include details of trade associations you belong to, trade certificates and any awards you may have won.

11. Guarantee

Provide a money back policy. It could be 30 days, 60 days, 1 year or lifetime.

12. Survey

Find out what customers think about your website, business or product.

13. Events Calendar

This can relate to your business or industry. If you are an artist, you can feature dates where and when your art will be displayed or if you are a singer, where you will be performing.

14. Search My Website Feature

Some visitors to your site may not know exactly what they want, but if you include a search function on your site, they can look for it very easily. Like search engines, this feature will allow your visitors to type in a word or phrase and then search for it on your site.

15. Return/Refund Policy

To make your customers feel more comfortable when making a transaction at your website, you should provide them with your return/refund policy.

16. Privacy Policy

Concerns about how information is going to be used is a major barrier when making a sale. Internet shopping experience is built on trust and privacy is the number one ingredient in trust.

17. Site Map

A site map shows visitors how the site is laid out and which sections are where.

18. Copyright Information

19. Links

Place links to the manufacturers of your products, trade associations or complementary services. When you place links to other businesses, you should request they do the same for you. This will not only bring you more visitors, but may improve your search engine ranking.

20. Media Information

Include any information, articles, photos of your products, staff etc that have appeared in the media – print, TV, radio or internet.

21. News

This can include news about your products/services or about your industry.

22. On-line store

An on-line store allows you sell products directly on the internet 24 hours a day/7 days a week. When building an online store it is important to take in a number of key concepts.

Make sure that when visitors arrive at your store the navigational mechanisms are simple and effective.
The actual process of placing the order must be simple.
Make sure you accept common and convenient methods of payment.
Continually test your store so you understand your customer’s shopping experience.

23. Blog

Blogs are typically updated daily or weekly using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Blogs are a great tool because they help with:

(a) Communicating with your customers. Blogs provide a way for you to communicate with your customers directly. And it is a two-way communication.

(b) Search Engine Marketing Blogs give you an increased presence on search engines, like Yahoo! and Google.

(c) Stay Ahead of Your Competition Blogs are relatively new and chances are your competition does not yet use them. So you will be seen as an expert in your industry when you post your knowledge and expertise.

(d) Media & Public Relations Blogs are excellent PR tools. You can post your Media Releases and articles and have them picked up by the media.

(e) Free or Low Cost

24. Photo Gallery

You may wish to showcase your goods or services in a special photo gallery – show how your products or services are being used by your customers.

Don’t give your customers a reason to visit your competitor’s website and provide them with all the information they may possibly need or want.

About The Author
Ivana Katz of Websites 4 Small Business makes it easy for you to get your busíness on the internet. If you’re looking for a professional and affordable website designer, visit www.web4business.com.au and download a website plan for free.

Designing Websites

IBUSA — Tue, 04 May 2010 04:33:08 +0000

Designing Web Sites For Search Visibility

By Rob Garner in Web Design

Designing enterprise Web sites for search engine visibility has been a major thread of this column since I started writing for MediaPost several years ago. URL structures, redirection plans, dealing with process obstacles, and putting research up front have all been topics I’ve previously covered. Today I am going to build on a column that I wrote almost a year ago, entitled “How Search Fits Into The Redesign Process.” To start, a list of major considerations for designing an enterprise Web site for greater search visibility is provided below. (Please read that column for more info on each of the following points):

I was recently going through a discovery process with a Fortune 500 executive who was guiding his company’s Web site redesign, and I inquired directly about the search aspects of the project. His response: “Search is not relevant to this process.” Contrary to what he was saying, search was in fact critical to the overall process; he was just clearly unaware of his company’s campaign history and investment in the search channel. In light of this response, seemingly old and worn advice is worth another spin or two around the block, especially if it will help convey the natural search value of a legacy Web presence.

In enterprise marketing, it is not a question of whether your company’s site is going to be redesigned or not, it is simply a question of when. Most companies do some kind of major redesign or tweak every two years, and if they haven’t just relaunched, they are planning for the next one. So the “when” is most often “now,” no matter where you are in the process. The important thing to remember here is that search should be a key consideration at every stage of the process, whether it is selecting a provider, setting requirements, producing comps, coding or site deployment.

So how do you fit natural search into the process? Here are a few ideas to start:

Use site language and messaging that is consistent with the user’s perception of your product or service.
For the most part, search engines are still very literal, and truly effective semantic intelligence still lies far ahead. Position content and language that reflects the way users search, in order to rank for those terms. The path to understanding this language is through linguistic and keyword research, and also by studying and knowing your target. Language and keywords impact and guide information architecture and content strategies, among other aspects.

Read your log files (and/or review analytics reports).

If you want to know what you stand to lose in a site redesign, take a look at what you are currently gaining in terms of traffic, visibility, revenue, and conversions. Are there any particular Holy Grail terms like “travel,” “shopping,” or “banking” that may be giving

you a lot of traffic? See a section of a site that is referring a ton of long-tail terms? You wil

l likely find some areas that are worth preserving.

Ensure that RIAs are both crawlable and indexable by search engines.
Rich Internet technologies that are implemented without search engines in mind can instantly render a once-thriving natural search program into total obscurity. Flash and Ajax are key tools in the design and development toolbox, but considerations must be made for search upfront.

Avoid the creation of URL canonicalization issues.
When you change phone numbers, the phone company will leave a recorded message telling the new number to the person who called your old number. This is the effect a 301 permanent redirect has on a search engine — it applies the old URL and backlinks to the new URL; the search engine is happy, and your site is happy. A canonicalization problem occurs when 302 redirects are pointed to permanently moved pages. I have seen instances where clients have gone through four or five redesigns using 302s, and a string of six-to-eight redirects points to a single page, each with its own set of inbound links. This basically makes it difficult for engines to determine the “real URL” to show in results and apply backlinks to.

Set up a redirection plan.
In just about every redesign project, at least some content is removed, and URLs go away. Help the engines and your users by using a 301 redirect to point them to the most similar page on your site, or the site map, home page, or custom 404 page. Spend the time to map out which URLs are going away, and where they should be pointed. And don’t sit on the plan —do it on the day or evening that a site is pushed out of production.

Don’t remove content that supports coveted rankings without assessing risks first.
One mistake I see frequently is when content is removed from a site, with no replacement content to support the valuable rankings and visibility it has previously created. Before axing existing site content, determine how difficult it would be to re-attain the ranking, the ranking’s importance in terms of traffic and revenue, or if it is your CEO’s favorite pet ranking. Then create a plan for bridging new content, or leaving it alone.

Include search as both a business and technical requirement before planning has even started.
If search is not a consideration and priority early on, then it will be 10 times harder and more expensive to try to re-engineer at the end of or after the project.

Ensure that there is a voice for search within the Web site team structure.
Having a search specialist as part of the Web design team (and implementing their recommendations) will do a lot to ensure a healthy transition in the redesign and relaunch process, in addition to the potential for growth. The list above is useless without some subjective strategy behind it. Get experienced search optimization help that is fit to your company’s unique situation, needs and goals, and make it an integral part of the redesign process.

These are just a few considerations to get you started. Feel free to add your own thoughts and considerations for redesign at the Search Insider blog.

Rob Garner is strategy director for digital marketing company iCrossing and writes for Great Finds, the iCrossing blog. Contact him via email at rob.garner@icrossing.com,and follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robgarner.