Web Business Resource

by Tom Oki

Today, there are numerous resources to build an online store that did not exist just a few short years ago. The resources have made it possible for just about anyone to build an online store, even if they do not have technical skills. But before I reveal what tools I consider the best, let’s review what exactly you need in order to build an online store.

1. A Domain – You need a name for your store, which should be the same as your domain name. Good domains are becoming hard to find, so you may need to be creative to come up with a good name for the online store you wish to build. You can buy domains from websites called “domain registars,” or directly from the web hosting company you work with.

2. Web Hosting – Web hosting is simply website space that you rent on “servers” that are connected to the Internet. You typically pay a monthly fee to have your site hosted by a web host. Depending on which ecommerce solution you use to build an online store, you will need to make sure your web host supports the technology used. Some web hosts offer turnkey ecommerce solutions to help you build an online store, but be aware that some of these solutions require much work to set up successfully.

3. Secure Server Certificate (SSL) – Any sensitive information the customer sends you, such as credit card numbers and billing addresses, MUST be transmitted over a secure server. This means you need to buy a security certificate from a place like Verisign or Geotrust. This certificate then needs to be installed on your server. The cost of certificates has come down in recent years, but they still typically cost hundreds of dollars per year.

4. Shopping cart/payment system – Finally, when you build an online store, you will need software to handle your shopping cart system. This can either be a solution that you buy from a software vendor, or you can use shopping carts of services such as Paypal or Yahoo. Traditionally, you also needed a merchant account, but if you build an online store using Paypal or an existing online store solution, you may not need one.

Setting up each step can take some time if you do them individually. A few years ago, I had to build an online store and the whole process took weeks. Fortunately, there are now complete, turnkey online store solutions that give you everything you need for a monthly fee. Using these services, it is conceivable to build an online store that is fully functional in a day or less. These services range from the very basic, to highly sophisticated systems that can support 50,000 products or more. Most are very easy to use, even if you do not have technical skills.

Unless you are absolutely determined to select specific solutions for every element of your store, I would highly recommend that you utilize turnkey shopping solutions because it saves you money and time, without sacrificing quality. If you build an online store using such a service, you still will look professional and be easy to manage as well.

About the Author: Tom Oki is editor of http://business-reviews.com/, a business opportunity and marketing review site.

To find out more about which services are available for building an online store, be sure to ready my full article on starting an online store.

by Bryan Doyle

Many people each day are searching the Internet for Internet marketing information, and even more are looking for business opportunities and how to make money online. I would say that anyone that wants to run any type of business online, should first invest some time and money into their Internet marketing training. Learning how to market on the web through courses or coaching will help develop your business much faster than you would with out it.

Making an investment in your own Internet marketing training is an excellent way to build a solid foundation for a successful business online. When I say investment, I not only mean by buying a course but by taking the time to learn marketing principles and how to promote your business effectively.

When buying an Internet marketing training course, make sure you choose one that teaches you step by step what you need to learn. If you are just starting to build your online business it would probably make more sense to invest in a course that teaches the ins and outs of internet marketing. Choose one that would give you a general understanding of how to start, operate, and promote your business on the internet.

Do not put the cart before the horse and buy a course on generating traffic, if you haven’t set up your website yet. Learn only what it is necessary for you to move forward. Focus on advancing in your business and ignore offers on the “latest and greatest” way to make money online. If you are signed up to newsletters where all they do is pitch the flavor of the week money making product, unsubscribe!

Avoid Information overload, and unproductive activities. You do not want to spend too much time on consuming information about online marketing before you get started. Get the training you need, then put it into action. You don’t want to try and see the big picture before you take your first step. You will be caught up in an endless cycle of buying products if you do that.

Internet marketing training courses and membership sites are good sources for increasing your knowledge but remember that the purpose is to build your business as you learn otherwise you will forget a lot of what you learned if you do not apply it right away.

I believe that many people realize that the Internet is a very powerful medium for running a business, which can also reduce the start up and operational costs significantly when compared to off line businesses. However, those who think the secret to success in online business is to simply find a good business opportunity are greatly deceived.

I would encourage you to increase your online marketing knowledge instead of believing the hype online that you can make thousands online in a short period of time by joining some “business opportunity”. It is possible that a person can start making money fairly fast online, but the truth of the matter is it probably won’t happen overnight.

Try to always think in the long term when building your online business. There are many people that have put their energy into making a lot of money through fleeting opportunities and web traffic strategies, only to later find themselves waking up one day with them shut down or no longer working.

Remember you want to build your business for the long term which can take some time to do successfully and you will want to create a good image. If you always work on giving good value whether through information, products or a service, you will find your business will grow steadily in time.

To ensure that your business continually grows, you will want to continue to promote your website through methods that prove effective by testing and tracking.

Finally, one of the most important things you could keep in mind is that you should apply what you learn in your business because the best way to learn is by doing.

About the Author: Bryan Doyle is a full time Internet marketer and newsletter publisher. Want to receive valuable marketing information every month? If so make sure you subscribe to his Online Marketing Newsletter. Learn how you can break through to success online with FREE Internet Marketing Training Course.

by Steve Nash

It’s all very well promoting your website, but how many people that do actually visit your site *ever* return?

Not as many as you would like, I bet.

The thing is, it’s a lot easier and less time-consuming to promote your site (and your business) to people who have *already* visited.

So how do you do that?

Well, there are several ways to encourage people to return to your site. Some of these ways include asking people to bookmark your site, or asking people to make your site their homepage, or by providing a service that they can’t do without (like free email, or free blogging, or free sms).

One of the best ways to encourage return visitors to your site, though, is to publish an ezine or newsletter. Writing a newsletter is also one of the best ways to stay in touch with site visitors and existing customers.

The very least you can do with a regularly published newsletter is to remind your subscribers about your website. Much more importantly, though, you get a chance to develop trust between your site visitors and your business; i.e. you get a chance to develop a business relationship with them.

How To Publish A Newsletter

There are many considerations to publishing a newsletter out of the scope of this article. For example, do you publish in text or HTML? What about RSS feeds? Do you use third party email software or do buy and install your own? Which software is best? How do you avoid the spam filters? Etc.

To learn much more about publishing a newsletter (or ezine, as it sometimes called) I highly recommend you visit Christopher Knight’s Email Universe website. It is full of tips and articles written by newsletter publishers for newsletter publishers.

In the words of EmailUniverse:

“The E-mail List-Owner Resource Network is an excellent source for today’s Email List Owners, Managers, and Editors. Features include educational announcement lists, discussion lists, and resources that will benefit all related to List Ownership.”

(Note: A list is just another name for an email mailing list, or collection of email subscribers.)

You get the idea. EMail Universe will help you learn how to publish a newsletter, and a lot more besides. You can find Email Universe here - http://emailuniverse.com

How To Promote Your Newsletter

As with your website, you need to promote your newsletter or ezine and get people to sign-up (subscribe). By all means mention your newsletter to your friends and family and then try these legitimate methods:

- You MUST promote your newsletter on your own site

Put the newsletter sign-up form at the top left or top right of as many of your web pages as possible. Offer an incentive to sign-up and sell the benefits of your newsletter (e.g. a first notice of the next sale, for instance, or a chance to win something)

Use a pop-up window to encourage sign-ups. This is a little bit controversial, admittedly, but pop-ups *do* increase subscriber sign-up rates!

- Announce your newsletter to the web via the many newsletter announcement mailing lists and newsletter directories

- Make your newsletter a good and informative read

This is probably the most important aspect of publishing a newsletter. There are several considerations to help you make your newsletter a worthwhile read:

* Add your personality
* Publish regularly
* Stick to a similar format
* Proof your newsletter and remove mistakes
* Encourage feedback and act on that feedback
* Have clear publishing objectives and meet them, and
* Enjoy yourself.

If nothing else, keep it short.

Note: a good newsletter gets shared around; whilst a bad one gets unsubscribed from or, worse, just ignored.

Again, if you subscribe to Ezine Tips (the newsletter for Ezine Universe) you will learn more about promoting your newsletter or ezine. In the words of the site:

“Ezine-Tips strives to be the number-one source of free information for email newsletter publishers. It covers:
- Content Creation
- Ezine Format Issues
- List Management
- Ezine Promotion
- Ezine Advertising and other forms of Revenue Generation
- Strategies to achieve success with your email publication.”

Or, in other words, it covers almost everything you need to know to about building, growing and using your mailing list.

–

Writing a newsletter on a regular basis is a great way to keep people returning to your website. There are many tools and resources that show you how, like Ezine Universe. Publishing a newsletter is not difficult to do, but it’s a great way for you to get to know your site visitors and for them to get to know you. And, remember, building trust online helps boost sales.

About the Author: Steve M Nash is owner of several sites including http://www.textmefree.com - a directory of free sms text messaging sites, and guide to bulk sms marketing. He promotes all of them using the basic principles and tips detailed in his free website promotion guide, http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com