Easy to remember domain names

One of the easiest ways to attract visitors to your website is to provide a web address that is short and easy to remember. A domain name is one of the first decisions a company make because the domain name chosen must blend with the service or product that particular company is offering. Top level domain names are dot com domains. Dot com names stand for commercial sites. Other types are .org, .net and .gov. for government.

You will have to come up with several domain names and check their availability before starting your online business. Online investors buy lists of good domain names and resell them at a big profit. These investors buy domain names from Companies who no longer need a web page.

Cyber squatting has become a headache these days. This means registering a company name and then trying to resell it to its lawful owner. Some kind of a presence in the Internet from the beginning is needed to prevent this.

There are other options to make it easy for people to set up a domain name as a cc domain name. Some companies are now purchasing domain names like au-for Australia, ca-for Canada and so on relating to the country of origin.

What ever domain name you purchase, the main thing is, it should be related to what you are doing online and your business. It should represent your business. For example I have a blog named Curry Kitchen. Its URL is ‘kurrykitchen’. If you get a domain name like http://www.kurrykitchen.com , what will you do with it? Will people be able to find you by typing your domain name? They will probably type currykitchen instead of kurrykitchen.

Things to consider before e-tailing

E-commerce transactions mainly involve the use of credit cards, smart cards and other methods such as digital cash or coupons.

If you are selling low value items in large quantities online, it is better to use one of the large commercial gateways such as provided by the big banks to minimise your risk and maximise your security.

If you are selling high volume items, think twice before you start doing online transactions. Online presence and online transactions are not the same. Use your website to show the customers what you have to offer, and use it to get more customers and business contacts.

Many people waste their money trying to sell goods and services online simply because they have not done their preliminary preparation and research well enough.

Before planning to sell online, as I have stated in many articles just answer these questions and you will then see whether it is worth selling online.

• Do you sell a product or service that people will want to buy online?
• What is the benefit to your customer by purchasing that item or service online?
• Who are most likely to buy your products and where are thy located?
• How are you going to pack and ship the items?
• What will be your return policy?
• Can you manage refunds?
• Is your product a common one that is available always on retail stores?
• If so why do you think your customer will want to buy them online?
• How are you going to minimise errors happening. E.g.: a customer orders a blue one and you dispatch a pink one?
• What are the costs likely to occur for all above and are you able to price the item covering all the above costs and still make it cheaper than the same item in the brick and mortar store? (especially if you are selling a common item like clothing)
• If you have a shop, there might be customers who come to your shop in search of one item and get interested in other items that are in the store and this might bring you a big profit. Are you likely to get this type of sales online?
• If you supply your products to retail stores run by other companies, what percentage of your products get sold simply because they were in this main stores?

After finding answers to these questions you will be able to decide doing sales online is for you or not. You should still not back away. Your online presence is very likely to promote your business or brand and generate lot more sales offline.

Plan ordering methods for your website

Everyone is not an experienced web surfer. Provide your customer with simple instructions on how to order products. Provide step by stem instructions on how to use a shopping cart.

Instructions on using a shopping cart

1. Click Brows Catalogue to view the product categories
2. Click on the category you want
3. You will be taken to the Product List page
4. Find the product(s) you want and change the quantity if ordering more than one
5. If you want to order other products, then click “Add to Basket” button
6. Click the “Browse Catalogue” link again
7. When you have finished adding items to your shopping basket, click the “basket contents” to check your order and make any changes.
8. When you are ready to process your order, click the “checkout” and type in your address information
9. Click the “Submit Order” button.
10. Next page will add the shipping charge to your order and will show your total charge.
11. Type in your credit card information on this page
12. Click the “Submit Order” button again to complete your transaction.
13. To clear your order, click the “Clear Order” button.

I have composed a short article and will be back with more options for shopping in my next article. Until then please answer my three questions and I will include a link to your blogs with the answer to my three questions.

Are you going to open the store and wait for the customer to walk in?

Taking a business online does not guarantee success more than opening a store and waiting for your customers to walk right through the door. You must identify your customers. There should be a marketing effort. You have to determine customer needs and then develop methods of producing appropriate services and products.

Ask these questions and find answers to them first.
Who are my possible customers?
What do my customers need?
Where are my customers located?
What motivates my customers to buy?
When do my customers buy?

You need to identify marketing trends. You have to change with the changing environment and be prepared to change accordingly.

Branding your product or service is very important. People trust branded product or service than a product or service without proper branding.

Improve your customer awareness of your business by the appearance of your website and its association with desirable traits such as great prices and neat content.

Offer free stuff like e-books, software and offer something free if the customer purchases an item for a certain value. You can also offer gift certificates, prizes and free samples. For items like software, free trial versions will be very effective. But keep in mind that software must not effect other applications in the customer’s computer. Your customer will not return to you if that happens.

Provide how to information, and easy to use help

Ask customer feedback and suggestions about how to improve your service.

Create products designed to customer specification.

Offer an e-newsletter.

Provide each customer with an individual shopping experience.

Maintain a good and friendly relationship with your customers.

Customers will start to walk in through your door if you make the right effort. I wish you the best with your website.

Storefront services

Storefront services provide you with a number of services including software to build an online store instantly in your browser using onscreen instructions, Website building software, e-mail, transaction processing and Web hosting. Some of these services are so simple that you do not need special technical knowledge. Storefront services provide you with online tools such as selecting a suitable template for your website and also you can enter information about your products and services and select the products you want to sell. You can select payment and shipping options as well. These services may charge you with a set up fee and a monthly fee for hosting your storefront. Notice the storefront services provided by smallbusiness.miva.com. and merchandizer.com

To host and create a store using a storefront hosting service, you will have to complete a series of forms. You can create a serviceable online store in few hours if you have products to sell and can supply all the information about your company that the storefront service requires.

Once you have set up the store, you can do website maintenance such as editing and adding new content and pictures to your store using your browser. Your activities may depend on the plan you purchase. You can select plans which will suite you the most.

As payment options, you might not need to obtain a merchant account depending on the service you select. Some services provide you payment options as well as their services. These storefront services are ideal for small business people. You do not have to be a computer geek to perform changes in your store front.

The main disadvantage of using some storefront hosting services is the lack of design flexibility. In addition, not all services can be easily customized to meet the specific needs of every business.

MIVA Merchant, with Store Morph Technology™, provides you with Powerful Store Design Tools, Catalogue Management, Inventory Tracking and Product Merchandising, Order Processing and Customer Management, Shipping Calculation and Payment Processing, Data Access and Storage, Affiliate Programs and Marketing Services, Easy-to-Use Administration Tools, Modular Architecture and also Documentation and Support. This again depends on the plan you purchase.

Merchandizer.com also provides you with rang of services for a monthly fee that varies on the plan you select. They provide you with Setup Features, Customer Support Functionality, Store Room & Inventory Controls, Store Interface Features, Promotions, Order Management, Customer Management and Product Management. They provide you with different shopping cart solutions, and their Digital goods support enables merchants to sell non-physical items such as software, documents, graphics, or any product or service that does not require shipping.

These are two services I have noticed as good service providers. But you can select the service provider according to your requirements.

Preparing to go online

Always we talk about marketing and planning sticky websites. But before you set up an online store of any kind, you need to access internet and obtain a web host. If you are doing serious business you cannot depend on public computers. You have to have your own computer system. There are Internet Service Providers, (ISP) to connect your computer via a cable or telephone line to Internet. Secondly, you need to find a web hosting provider to store the pages of your website for users to access. Your website services depend on the web hosting provider you select. It is very important to do primary research before you choose one.

An Internet Service Provider (ISP) connects your computer to the Internet. ISP provides you with an e-mail address and limited or full features of the Internet depending on the plan you purchase. Some plans are for limited downloads and limited services. Other plans include unlimited access. If you are doing serious business, unlimited access is the best plan you should choose.

Web hosting company that hosts a web site is a ‘web hosting provider’. You can select your ISP to host your website or select a different company to be your web host. Most Internet Service Providers give you limited amount of storage for your files that make up a website. But they do not provide you with necessary e-commerce facilities. You can set up a free website with a free web hosting service such as Free Server. But again you will not be allowed to conduct business on these free websites. They are limited in space and you might be allowed to have only two pages. It is advisable to select a web host carefully. It may depend upon what you really want to do with your website and the facilities your web host allows you according to their different plans. For example, Network Solutions describes the different plans that are available with them. You can select the plan according to your need.

Using web hosting services, you can create you web pages and upload them to your website using your computer. Your website is stored on the server, (web hosts computer) and connected to the internet. FTP is the commonly used protocol for exchanging files over internet. There must be two computers involved, your server (Web host), and your computer (Client). Once connected, you can do a number of operations such as uploading files to the server and downloading from the server including renaming and deleting files using your secure code. A full web hosting service will allow you to use CGI scripts. CGI script is a custom written common gateway Interface used in connection with other computers such as ordering information. Many web hosting services also provide multiple e-mail accounts, Shopping carts and a secure server to handle credit card processing. They also provide you with web page templates so that you can quickly create your own site. Other advantage of having a web hosting service is that you can have access to technical support when you need it.

Some companies with technical and financial resources, host their own website because they need high volume transactions. They also have sufficient staff to maintain their entire system.

E-Commerce Challenges

Although most companies are anxious to develop an e-commerce strategy, they also have to be informed about possible pitfalls. There are both advantages and disadvantages in e-commerce.

Challenges faced by most web developers are creating a website that would keep the customers on the site until they make a purchase. If the Website is difficult to navigate, products are not described well, and Forms are not easy to fill out. Links are broken, pictures take too long to load or have disappeared; harder it would be to keep the customer. A website that keeps the potential customer entertained is called a sticky website.

Although starting involves some expenses, a brick and mortar store will benefit from a user friendly website and the website will gain recognition to the business not only locally, but round the world. It will be open 24 hours a day and every day. Online presence is an advantage for any business to be recognised.

Traditionally many businesses operate as middle men between a business and the consumer. Agents, brokers, and sales representatives are all examples of middlemen. Authority of these middlemen are fast being made obsolete because consumers can go directly to a company’s web site and purchase products and services without help from an agent or other intermediary (disintermediation).

Intermediation is not going to finish yet. While traditional intermediaries are made obsolete, a new kind of cyber intermediaries that could not have existed before the internet has immerged. Cyber intermediaries include auction sites, payment – processing sites, and web site store front services.

When a website displays a Buy it! Button and a customer clicks on the button, credit card information is processed by an online processor company and the vendor pays the processing company a transaction fee. This is a Cyber intermediary

For E-Commerce, There is no world wide standard established yet. From a vendor’s point of view, a website is an advantage to advertise worldwide. A website can reach narrow market segments regardless of location. E-transactions can reduce costs related to processing orders. Internet presence can streamline business operations by incorporating business to business transactions and form virtual communities.

High start up cost is a disadvantage. Difficulty of keeping data current and upgraded can be another disadvantage; this becomes more when there are few available trained employees. E-Commerce transactions are sometimes difficult to combine with current systems. Language barriers might cause difficulty in doing transactions. Government tax regulations are different from country to country, and it always is confusing. Identifying a world wide standard is the main solution to these problems.

Here we go for an ISP

A web site offers more advantages over other modes of marketing. You can change contents very easily and quickly without spending much money. Printing catalogues are more expensive. You can easily provide your customer with more information of your product or service through a website. You will be targeting your market all over the world and at the same time tracking your competitors. Through a website you can easily track results of your marketing efforts and decide what method is appropriate for your business the most. Your business can be open 24hours a day and 7 days a week. You can build and enhance your customer loyalty through a website more than you do otherwise.

Before setting up a web site think about your business and consider the types of customers you get. Do you really need a website? Do not go for a website because everybody tends to. Just think and sometimes you will be well off as a simple villager than a townsman. Some businesses do not really need a website.

There are number of ways to do business online as I have stated in my previous articles. You can use low cost methods of advertising such as e-mails, forums, free article submissions, setting up an auto responding service and so on. You can use an affiliate marketing program and register as a vendor. This is a very effective method of marketing your business via an army of affiliates and you are not given the facility to track your visitors. Best thing is you can use this free web space as yet another way of advertising your business.

Best way to successfully sell online, is to sign up with a web hosting service that provides site storage, shopping cart and various other services you can benefit from. You can find such web hosts from $9 and onwards according to services and space they provide.

Search for web hosting services to find the most suitable service for you. Investigate and inquire about rates, years in business the different modem rates they support, security features and all other services they perform. If you are going to sell products, see if the service provider offers features like electronic ordering. Do they provide daily reports and also customer feed backs.

This is the preliminary set up for your online selling. Design your website in a way that your visitors can easily navigate. Online selling will start afterwards. Here we go again.

Testing new methods

Success with an eCommerce website needs lot of thinking and hard work. No doubt advertising is expensive, and you can minimize this cost by link building, Writing articles and submitting them to websites with a link to your website. Affiliate programs and free services can generate huge amount of traffic to your website. Succeeding in this competitive environment is very difficult if your website is not well organized and intentional business creation. Your site should be organized exactly what you want it to be, what kind of visitors you want and what you want them to do. Every thing should be tested to attain maximum efficiency.

Consider how you can provide personal attention to each visitor. Let the visitor develop a unique experience in your website. You can provide free interactive forums in your eCommerce website, free e-books, questions and answers sections which will make the website more interesting to your visitors. Offer these services in return for registering. For e.g. name and confirmation email. This way you provide a service that can impress your visitors. The more value service you offer, the more willing people are to provide their information. Careful structuring can collect information about your registered users which would allow well targeted marketing campaigns. This is a reportedly good way of making friendly relationships with your visitors. Remember, more the visitor stays in your website, more chance of you being able to do a sale.

Always maintain a database of your customers with the purchases they make. This way you can know their personal interests and you can allow personalized purchase suggestions and special offers. It is always better to keep good contact with your existing customers than forcing new customers. Trust and faith of the existing customer is one of your very powerful assets.

It is very important to make it easy for your customers to find the product they desire. Provide a good search facility. Make sure that you have chosen good keys and descriptions. Check that the links from search results to pages work properly and easily.

Always test new methods to improve your chance of doing sales. With careful planning and attention to detail you will be able to make changes that will vastly improve the productivity of your website.

Do something different

We always talk about how to design a good website. Refer my article on Planning a website for your business.

What I am going to say today is the power of good writing will attract visitors better than many pictures and soapy sales articles. There are lots of business with websites that do not except payments online. They do it via cheque or credit. They even trade internationally. So if you are a new comer and cannot handle all the electronic web payment stuff, just market your website and if people are interested, they will contact you.

A good article in a website and correct key words can make wonders. You have to describe the specific item or service you are offering. You can do it in a very interesting manner. A reader must feel curious about what you are saying and keep reading on. And if it is really interesting, he might then try searching for your specific product or service and you might be able to do a sale. Many websites lack this ability. Almost all websites look the same to many customers. A different website will attract a customer during their search, and that will influence buying.

It should not always be a website. I have seen people doing business with blogs. If you describe your product in a very influential manner interesting to the readers. For example, if you are selling clothing or fashion jewelry, you just have to write some articles very interesting about them. Tell in your article why this fashion is important. Some people like to imitate celebrities, why not tell that a certain celebrity model wore this to that particular party and so on. Check Laling's blog of Fashion.You have to do some research on your potential customers and write your article according to that. If you are selling uniforms or professional clothing this will not work, they will reject your article immediately.

If you are selling ladies make up kits, little articles on herbal treatments, natural facials, beauty tips and tricks will interest the potential customer. They might not buy at that point. But there is good chances of them keep returning to get new tips from you. Already you are offering free advice to your customers. Keep them encouraged in all the little articles you write by saying I will be back with more tips in my next article. Your frequent customer will tend to buy from you. At this point good customer service is really important. Only a satisfied customer will return to buy from you or refer others to you. Angry and frustrated customers will give negative feed backs about your service. All the time and effort you spent in preparing your website or blog will be of no use if your customers are frustrated. So be prepared at any time for a sales order. Assure your customer how long it will take to process the order and deliver the item. Display your terms and delivery time in your website. If you have a currency calculator it will help your offshore customers to verify their payments.

I have found that daily tarot readings on the web do not influence people very much. They are all the same and people get fed up. Most of the time they lure you into it and then you have to pay for the rest. But if some one tells you what Astrology is and what aryurvedic and holistic medicine has to do with it, will you not be interested in knowing more? You dig further to know what Astrology really means just click here to reed how Dr Teja explains Astrology.

For a beginner a blog will be a wonderful place to promote your service. Just leave your contact details and start doing business. Submit your blog to search engines and blogging communities. And I must say never limit yourself to internet. Just advertise locally and you can get more results. Usually at the beginning a website might not give you the results you expected, but with time it will grow. Satisfied customer recommendations and an up to date website will make your chances in the web grow.

Be successful with your Website

For a Small business to succeed in their e-venture, there website is very important. It should be attractive to the surfers, must be able to keep the surfer there for a while and make the surfer do a purchase. Companies that do successful business have developed a stronger brand image with community feel: Visitors feel at home and wanted. The site is constantly changed with up to date news, comments and offers. These are mostly niche products and services. They work best on the Internet. No matter how the technology has developed, research has proven that still business to business transactions are likely to be more remunerative than business to consumer.

If you do decide to go online, resources must be found to make your site interesting and up to date to keep people coming back. Your website should be lively, provide information and encourage interactivity.

Objectives of a website for a small firm

• Should provide information (technical support)
• Sell produce (e-commerce)
• Ask for new names (e-mail enquiry form).
• Solve problems (“frequently asked questions” – FAQ).
• Provide a forum for debate (user groups).
• Encourage requests for catalogues and quotations.
• Show what’s in stock.
• Reach new customers around the world and communicate better with a firm’s existing customer base.
• Send direct e-mail offers out to a mailing list

For a website to be effective, good software skills and marketing skills of a designer must be combined. Remember that the site visitors are only a click away from losing you. The more you concentrate on niches; you are isolated and can benefit and increase the chance of you getting a good search engine ranking.

A basic website has a clear home page and contains all the relevant contact information with the banner headline at the top of the page emphasizing the main benefits of using your company. Visitor should not be left in doubt for about what to do. Your design contents must reflect what is different about your firm.

Traffic will be slow at first. But as most web business say, it will be likely to increase in three or four month’s time. You must give a feel of community, a closer relationship than is possible with cold off-the-page advertising. Because the Web is instant and available, customers expect swift response. If e-mails or deliveries are not made within a day or two the whole benefit of online trading will be lost.

• Avoid great slabs of text. Leave plenty of white space around text and pictures. Use a white or pale background to aid legibility. Text should not fill more than twice the width of the screen
• Home page is the first impression. So ‘click here to enter’ is best avoided. Design throughout should be simple and look easy to navigate. You should place full address and telephone numbers on the home page so that the visitor may not waste time clicking through to find them.
• Make obvious what to do next. Add a ‘go’, or ‘log-on’ or ‘submit’ button. ‘Search the site’ is also very useful when the website gets bigger.
• Avoid long questionnaires asking for detail that will only irritate. Ask only the basic contact information so that you can e-mail later with special offers. Think of simple forms that will encourage response.
• People find banner adds irritating and you will probably get no response for these.
• Avoid large graphic files that will take ages to download. Customers do not have time to wait hours for your site to download. A menu index in each page will be useful so that the user can navigate easily through your site.
• Build an interactive forum where visitors can comment on their problems and ask for advice.
• Include easy order and inquiry forms. Do not forget to say ‘your information will not be given to any third parties’ this will help overcome resistance.
• Links are important both from and to your site. Look for compatible but non competitive sites and e-mail them a request. Best sites will be your local trade associations, councils, buying groups clubs or special interest lobby.
• Your brand image must be carried throughout your website. Visitors are prepared to pay for if you have a well developed brand image.
• Install a visitor counter, so you can not only measure how many hits you get, but which pages are most popular. It will also show where the hits came from. A hidden counter is better in my opinion so your visitors will not be given unnecessary information.

Try these tips and see how they work. My best wishes.

Also Read Garry’s announcement about (An Update On My New Site launch)

Planning a Web Site for your business

You should have a good business plan before designing a website. Business plans typically detail the short and long-term goals of your business. If you want a great relationship with your customers, try to find answers to these questions.
The Intention of your site
Audience for your site
Your ultimate goals with the site

Develop a good mission statement for your website, so that your customers will be attracted to your website through your mission statement. Mission statement should include ex: The intent of my site is to promote my ex: specific product or service. The site provides a description of my services, qualifications and background, interests, and complete contact information.

When you have strong understanding and plan for your website in place, you’re ready to step through the creation of a small business site for promotions.


For ex: You may be conducting cooking classes. Your web site should include the following pages.
Home page
About yourself
Services
Getting in touch

You will need a text editor to create your website. There are free editors that come with your operating system (Note Pad for windows and Simple Text for Macintosh). You can buy a software package that will help you easily build your website. Ex: Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver. Adobe Photoshop is an image editor which will help you do lot of graphic work. Thirdly you need an FTP client. FTP client is the software that allows you to move your documents to your web server.

Just a small knowledge of HTML will be enough for you to add and modify content of your website. Create a site template by saving a new page. You’ll open this template, change the files as need. To add a header and paragraph text, simply highlight any existing text that you do not want and type the new content. You can add any images you have by manually entering the code for the image. It is that simple.

It is very important to keep in mind that your customers will judge your business from the presentation of your website.