Creating an online store can be a very fun and exciting project for almost anyone if and I stress if they begin the project properly prepared. Below I have created a rough guide of where to begin all the way to starting your SEO. In the coming weeks, I will create specific post to address each step in more depth.
Step One- What do you want to sell?
For most, this is a "no brainer" but I was surprised to find quite a few people asking me what I think would sell great in today's market for a website that they already have up and running with zero items! So, for step one, I insist that the first thing people consider is what they want to sell. Not just the products you have in mind now, but related products that your store may expand to. Your website will be, or at least should be, created with your products in mind. From choosing a domain name to a website template, each decision should be based on your products. It is also important to research what products you are wanting to sell. Things such as electronics have become a very competitive market. Ensure that you will be able to competitively price the products you want to sell. Just because you have a business license/reseller permit does not mean that you are going to get great prices from distributors/manufacturers. Dropshipping is a valid option, but, the internet is loaded with scammers who try to take advantage of people looking to do this. I will make another post soon based on the pros vs cons of dropshipping.
Step Two- Your websites name
As with step one, your domain name should be based off of your products, be catchy and easy to remember. Nobody is going to remember www.mega-long-name-with-numbers-and-hyphens-for-some-reason.com. Even if a customer stumbles upon your website and is very interested in coming back to purchase at a later date, it is unlikely they will do so because your website name is long and hard to remember and it will be even less likely that they come back if the domain name does not relate to the products you sell.
Step Three- Determine how your site will be hosted
Choosing a website host provider is critical. Any host provider will most likely work at the beginning and most people just choose the cheapest option. This is a mistake with disastrous consequences. Once you start loading your site with products and you start to see a good amount of traffic to your website your basic hosting plan chosen at your basic host provider will inevitably fail you. These plans are designed to run informational websites with low amounts of traffic, not E-commerce sites with resource intensive dynamic product and customer databases coupled with heavy traffic. You will eventually, usually quicker than you think, have to upgrade your hosting and pay stiff monthly charges that are far more expensive than you would have been able to get at other places if your research had any forethought and involved more than just the lowest available price. If you want to move providers, then most likely you are going to incur transfer charges and your site will probably "break" and leave you with a two week long headache while trying to fix it and get it to work with the new hosting service. Two weeks of down time will result in a lot of missed revenue, and lost customer loyalty. Nobody will trust a website that goes down for extended periods of time. I run all of my sites, other than blogs, on Liquid web's StormOnDemand servers. This services has allowed my website to run incredibly fast and the pricing is very respectable, even considering the resources that my websites require.
Step Four- Shopping cart software
I have tried many shopping carts in my day, but I only recommend one and that is Magento. I will post again with in-depth decriptions of Magento in the near future but here I will just give my recommendation based on its ease of use, ability to use add-ons and its versatility.
Step Five- Making your site unique
The truth is, most people already have their favorite websites that they are getting their products from. Your traffic in the beginning is going to come mostly from people researching prices, to make sure their favorite website is giving it to them at a fair price, and people looking for customer reviews, product opinions and product comparisons.
Step Six- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Most likely you have already stumbled upon SEO techniques and services if you have found this post. I am not going to go into full detail of every SEO trick in the book in this post, maybe a future one if enough people request it, but I will tell you that it is as important as any previously mentioned step in this post. You do not need to pay a fortune to SEO services, but you do need to give a very large portion of your time to it. If you cannot give the time SEO deserves, then you may want to consider hiring a service to do it for you. But again, you do not need to spend a fortune on this, but you do need to do your homework on the company you choose to do it. Improper SEO can actually hurt your websites performance in search engines and there are many companies that will charge outrageous amounts of money to unwary customers.
Step One- What do you want to sell?
For most, this is a "no brainer" but I was surprised to find quite a few people asking me what I think would sell great in today's market for a website that they already have up and running with zero items! So, for step one, I insist that the first thing people consider is what they want to sell. Not just the products you have in mind now, but related products that your store may expand to. Your website will be, or at least should be, created with your products in mind. From choosing a domain name to a website template, each decision should be based on your products. It is also important to research what products you are wanting to sell. Things such as electronics have become a very competitive market. Ensure that you will be able to competitively price the products you want to sell. Just because you have a business license/reseller permit does not mean that you are going to get great prices from distributors/manufacturers. Dropshipping is a valid option, but, the internet is loaded with scammers who try to take advantage of people looking to do this. I will make another post soon based on the pros vs cons of dropshipping.
Step Two- Your websites name
As with step one, your domain name should be based off of your products, be catchy and easy to remember. Nobody is going to remember www.mega-long-name-with-numbers-and-hyphens-for-some-reason.com. Even if a customer stumbles upon your website and is very interested in coming back to purchase at a later date, it is unlikely they will do so because your website name is long and hard to remember and it will be even less likely that they come back if the domain name does not relate to the products you sell.
Step Three- Determine how your site will be hosted
Choosing a website host provider is critical. Any host provider will most likely work at the beginning and most people just choose the cheapest option. This is a mistake with disastrous consequences. Once you start loading your site with products and you start to see a good amount of traffic to your website your basic hosting plan chosen at your basic host provider will inevitably fail you. These plans are designed to run informational websites with low amounts of traffic, not E-commerce sites with resource intensive dynamic product and customer databases coupled with heavy traffic. You will eventually, usually quicker than you think, have to upgrade your hosting and pay stiff monthly charges that are far more expensive than you would have been able to get at other places if your research had any forethought and involved more than just the lowest available price. If you want to move providers, then most likely you are going to incur transfer charges and your site will probably "break" and leave you with a two week long headache while trying to fix it and get it to work with the new hosting service. Two weeks of down time will result in a lot of missed revenue, and lost customer loyalty. Nobody will trust a website that goes down for extended periods of time. I run all of my sites, other than blogs, on Liquid web's StormOnDemand servers. This services has allowed my website to run incredibly fast and the pricing is very respectable, even considering the resources that my websites require.
Step Four- Shopping cart software
I have tried many shopping carts in my day, but I only recommend one and that is Magento. I will post again with in-depth decriptions of Magento in the near future but here I will just give my recommendation based on its ease of use, ability to use add-ons and its versatility.
Step Five- Making your site unique
The truth is, most people already have their favorite websites that they are getting their products from. Your traffic in the beginning is going to come mostly from people researching prices, to make sure their favorite website is giving it to them at a fair price, and people looking for customer reviews, product opinions and product comparisons.
Step Six- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Most likely you have already stumbled upon SEO techniques and services if you have found this post. I am not going to go into full detail of every SEO trick in the book in this post, maybe a future one if enough people request it, but I will tell you that it is as important as any previously mentioned step in this post. You do not need to pay a fortune to SEO services, but you do need to give a very large portion of your time to it. If you cannot give the time SEO deserves, then you may want to consider hiring a service to do it for you. But again, you do not need to spend a fortune on this, but you do need to do your homework on the company you choose to do it. Improper SEO can actually hurt your websites performance in search engines and there are many companies that will charge outrageous amounts of money to unwary customers.
