A couple of years ago I decided to build shopping cart website. At first, I thought I might hire a professional to build them for me. Faced with a cost of $5,000 to $6,000, I decided to tackle the job myself. Besides a need to control my costs, I wanted to challenge the idea that "anyone who can fog a mirror can develop a website." So, with no time to spare, no perceptible technical skills, and a wisp of a budget - I set out to do it myself.
Today, after a wild and costly learning adventure, I am proud owner of a fully functional website and shopping cart.
Along the way, I've learned about an amazing array of topics, including content management systems, e-blasts, blogs, article marketing, affiliate marketing, shopping carts, search engine optimization, copywriting, publishing, media enhancements and web trends.
I thought I was embarking on a simple website development project; in reality I was drawn into a much larger journey, that of learning how to market my goods and services online.
Here are five lessons learned on the trail to building my website and shopping cart.
1. Three currencies will buy you a website - money, time and energy. If you scrimp on one, you will pay more of the other two. It's that simple.
2. Effective marketing is the secret to making a website profitable. The cost of building an online store is small potatoes when compared to the ongoing cost of attracting customers to your site.
3. The vast majority of the websites and shopping carts on the internet are simply not profitable. The success of an online business is determined by the owner's ability to build a qualified list of opt-in subscribers.
4. The key to building your own opt-in list lies with your ability to drive traffic to your website, using both online and offline methods. Location is just as critical to the success of a website as it is to a bricks-and-mortar business. Traffic is the oxygen, and conversions or sales are the lifeblood of an online business.
5. Much of an entrepreneur's success hinges on knowing which tasks to outsource. This often comes down to knowing what you love to do, and being able to determine how good others really are at what they say they can do. Fact is, you can invest a lot of money to build an online store, and still not make any sales.
Although I've not saved much by doing more of my own website development, I've gained a wealth of knowledge and experience. I couldn't have done it without the help of a few skilled and very patient techies.
The internet is here to stay. Increasingly, businesses need to have websites. If your customers are browsing the Web, and particularly if they are using search engines to find your products and services, you need to be there and open for business.
1. Autoresponders: Not only can you broadcast e-mails to your customers, prospects, and affiliates, but you can also have unlimited, sequential, autoresponders. Run multiple mailing lists for your websites. Using a third-party autoresponder service can improve e-mail deliverability rates and can automate this vital marketing activity.
2. Ad Tracking: Track your marketing results with unlimited ad trackers. Measure unique clicks and conversions (such as product sales and subscription signups). Perform split tests (such as whether headline A performs better than headline B).
3. Affiliate Programs: Administer unlimited affiliate programs. If you wish, you can personally approve only the applicants you want. Alternatively, you can allow all affiliate applicants to be preapproved so as to more fully automate the affiliate application process. Choose between one-tier or two-tier affiliate programs. Cut special deals with joint venture partners. Use PayPal or accounting software to automate your commission payments to affiliates.
4. Credit Card Processing: Accept credit card transactions through your shopping cart using either your merchant account or other credit card processing service. You may also optionally accept PayPal.
5. Product Management: Collect sales taxes, create upsell and other offers, give discounts, perform real-time and other shipping calculations, and much more.
6. Digital Downloads: Create secure download areas for your digital products using the security and disk space of the shopping cart subscription service.
7. Customer Support: When you have a problem or don't know how to do something, you need help. As well as providing online help and tutorials, excellent customer support helps you run your online business efficiently.
These top seven shopping cart advantages are just a few of the many reasons you should subscribe to a reliable shopping cart service. Increase your sales and automate your online business by outsourcing to a cost-effective shopping cart service.
Both Dan Boudreau & Stephen Pope are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Dan Boudreau has sinced written about articles on various topics from Business Plan, Franchise and Partnerships. Dan Boudreau makes business planning achievable, fast and fun. Want to learn more about how to do your own business plan? Subscribe to the RiskBuster Newsletter and instan. Dan Boudreau's top article generates over 2900 views. Bookmark Dan Boudreau to your Favourites.
Stephen Pope has sinced written about articles on various topics from Credit Cards, Work From Home and Site Promotion. J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.To learn more about how a shopping cart service can help you automate your online business, visit. Stephen Pope's top article generates over 14800 views. Bookmark Stephen Pope to your Favourites.