Advice on all aspects of E-commerce & Operating a Web-site

I started out wanting to promote Aboriginal art on the web. At the time I was a user of the web; but knew nothing about starting, operating or promoting a web site. Here are some sites & programs I have learnt about which have helped me along the way. A few are affliate programs I get a small commission for promoting; most are useful free sites or programs I use myself & wish I had learnt about much earlier. Much is friendly advise I learnt the hard way.

Starting Up. Consider why you want a site, what your goals are, who are your potential customers. If you are selling a product get your shipping & packaging sorted out before you think of starting a site. It may make your idea unworkable & your shipping needs may determine which cart you need for your site, & even what over-all web hosting package suits you best. Unless you are experienced be wary of affliate sites, (these are different to affliate programs which we will discuss at length later) particular ones that are mirrors of the main parent site. The search engines hate them - some services won't even let you list them. Also be careful of drop-shippers that offer to build sites for you, or let you choose a site from their plan. Again there is nothing unique for the search-engines to seek you out & the only way you often have of getting traffice to such sites is by paid advertising, Get your server & web-site name. How do you this without spending a fortune? I spent a fortune the first time around. The second time I was much more knowledgeable. This site is with Blue Voda. Their prices are extremely difficult to beat, they provide lots of extras like free email addresses & autoresponders, they have software programs to build your store with plus a forum with knowledgeable users who can help you with any problems you may encounter. As a bonus you get a free domain name when you signup! (You can download all their programs etc before you even sign up - follow this link or for a guided tour of the site follow this. For a domain name try for a name that is easy to type correctly & has some connection with what the site is about. (I got it half right the first time AboriginalArtTreasures. Two key words, an excellent start - but I didn't think. I end up with "tt" in the spelling, not good!) Do you need a shopping cart for your store? Are you looking for a product to sell, or need a drop-shipper? You may like to read this free download on drop shipping Also you may enjoy checking out this site on finding wholesales & drop shippers which also has a self-help forum. If you are selling a product get your shipping & packaging sorted out before you think of starting a site. The cost of both might make your idea unworkable. .

Doing Your Site When preparing your site think continuously about visitors to your site & how the site appears from their point of view. Even colour schemes should be chosen on who you wish to appeal to. eg. if you wish to have male customers buy presents of jewellery, perfume etc for their lady friends don't have the site so feminine that no mancho bloke would be seen dead looking at it. If your site is a blog what do you wish visitors to your site to do? If it is a commercial site how easy do you make it for potential customers to navigate, to find out exactly what their shipping costs will be & how secure is your site if you want credit card details. Also remember the web is international. Visitors to your site can be living in every country of the world. If you ship internationally advertise that on your homepage. If you do business in only one or a handful of countries, also make that clear quickly. Have photos that load quickly & that don't break copyright. If you are promoting a new idea or a new invention of yours make it easy for visitors to understand how it works (in non-technical terms) & why everyone including them, need one right now. Remember the very first sentance on your site is the most important thing on your site; that is sometimes all ones will read before deciding whether to look any further.

Your Links Page If you wish to have any sort of ratings in the search engines linking to other sites is essential. Google in particular only likes sites that have lots of links. One way links are especially prized & if your site contains useful (or unique information) you should eventually get some. Most links are two ways; & should be to sites that complement yours. Incorrect linking can lower the rating of your site. Linking can take an enormous amount of time. I have found Link Assistant to be indispensable to me. Not only does it prepare your link pages for you, but it finds partners for you, has automatic email you send of, checks all your incoming links are still in place & much more. Click box to discover all its features & download a free trial.

Promoting Your Site Once your site is up, how do you get anyone to find it? Obviously you have to submit to search engines. Again this can be very time consuming. There are several free sites to help with this. I have found one of the best to be selfpromotion.com because rather than submitting your site just once like most other do, it will automatically do so every few months & email you to let you know whether is has been successful or not. It also provides useful information on what search engines suit what subjects & what search engines accept blog sites. This is a free site; though voluntary donations are accepted & do get you extra help if you ever need it. Free advertising is available at TheFreeAdForum. Here is another cheap idea for generating traffic - Don't miss it! Another useful tip is to do do a different ad for your site to each search engine, rather than repeat yourself again & again. Most people have heard of Pay per Click. (PCC) The most well-known are run by Yahoo & Google. Number 1 rule - do not use either service until you read the information below.

Optomizing Your Site Before you spend a cent promoting your site, make sure it is optimized other wise you are throwing your money away. Make certain your site is user friendly. Check spelling & make sure all links work. Get the opinion of other people & welcome criticism. Make sure your email address is easy to find on your site. Do H1 tags. Do your meta. Do the tags on all your photos. Do full product descriptions of every product. eg. http://www.thegemlovers.com/site/1445943/product/RA-AK627PT - note the full description as well as the 'click to enlarge'. You can easily end up No 1 or 2 on Google or Yahoo (totally free! plus you can brag to your friends!) when individuals do a specific search for a product that fits your description. Find & use your key words in both your text, product description & meta. Find the most successful sites in the same category as yours & learn from them. SEO SypGlass is extremely useful for finding out how your competitors got to the top & how you can imitate their success & the basic version is totally free - check out all the details for yourself. To find all the keywords you should be using try RankTracker It will also let you know where your site is on 74 international listings. Again you can get your trial version free. Only after you have done all these things should you consider doing P.P.C. Be very careful how much you budget for, & check your statistics carefully. The main mistake most of us make with PPC is using keywords which will bring visitors but not buyers. I was so naive when I started I was paying for words (on my aboriginal art site) that I was getting free traffic on anyway! Though some swear by it; many successful merchants have never used PCC in their life, or only use it at very specific times of the year like just before holiday season. Also use common sense. eg. If you sell camping equipment why waste your money advertising in mid-winter & remember your profit margin - this will determine how much you can afford to spend.

Help With Marketing On our e-books page you will find some cheap (& even free) books on many aspects of building & operating a web site. Here are a few web sites to visit with right-up-the-minute information. Before spending anything on PCC, first read the 'must-read book' of 2007 that always being updated Get Your Google Ads for Free. Has good information about how pcc actually works. Some free information on Search Engine Optomization can be obtained here. Right up to date list of suppliers willing to drop ship for your store or ebay can be found here. Alternative marketing tactics to PCC can be checked out on this site. As mentioned before we have some very cheap information for you at other pages on this site. Downloads are being regularly added.. For excellent marketing help, tutoring & forum follow the link below.

Tips for Starting & Running a Web-site