E-commerce is a very fast growing industry, overtaking many retail businesses.
More and more people have the desire to make money, the freedom of working from home or anywhere else they may want to go.
Most internet businesses just require a laptop and the discipline to use it.
Or, for others it may help bridge a demand such as raising a family or someone may live in a remote place or is restricted to travel.
This website is designed to teach you internet marketing systems that are best suited for your internet business.
Using all these systems will only give your internet business the best chance in succeeding.
What are the advantages having you business available on the internet? Trading Hours are 24/7- you won't have to worry about opening and closing times yet alone public holidays.
People can shop on your website without having to disturb you.
Low Staffing Costs- you can offer your business without hiring, compensating or insuring new employees while still maintain the same level of customer services.
Gain Broader Customer Prospects- your business will be available to everyone in the world through your website, while costing you the same amount of money.
Create the image you desire of your business- You choose the design of your website, content and your business will immediately be set up in the image it represents.
Save on postage and printing costs- by becoming electronic you can advertise sales on your website and invite customers to visit your store online via email.
Cheaper advertising costs- advertising in the paper or on television charges per second, per line, per colour per images, etc...
On the internet you can almost have unlimited advertisement for a lower cost.
Faster and Improved Communication- When communicating with customers or suppliers communication can take place as soon as you post it.
Everyone can view updated information without having to contact you directly.
Flawless customer service- your website will become your salesman.
Your website will answers all your customers questions all you have to do is create a "Frequently Asked Questions" page and include your business address on every receipt, so this way they will come to your website for answers, before coming to you.
Online presence- compete with your competitors.
More and more people go the internet for information, services and products.
If you're not there you can guarantee your competitors will be.
Much like a giant directory or yellow pages, unless you spend a lot of money on the advertising people will not know your business exists.
Same goes with the internet.
Less Annoyed Customers- Not many people enjoy shopping these days, noise malls, bumping shopping carts, long walks, sneezing customers, pressure from sales people.
Once they understand the convenience of online shopping, they rarely ever visit the shop unless necessary.
Showcase your work- simply refer customers to your website rather than scanning or mailing pictures or bring clients to an in person presentation.
Promotional Costs are Very Low- You can easily spend the same amount of money on 1 newspaper advertisement, then a months' worth of advertising on the internet.
Build Your Own Website Some people may find building and designing a website to be too technical and somewhat scary.
However it really is not that hard.
You can narrow down the process in 5 easy steps.
Below is an overview of these steps you need to get your online business on the way.
- Register a Domain Name
- Open a Web Hosting Account
- Design and Build Your Website
- Set Up Your Email
- Upload Your Site to your Host
Your domain name is your internet address.
It is a good idea to find a domain name that is closely related to your business or what you will be offering, as this will increase your search engine status.
There are many registers out there, but the one with the best value for money if you are going to master and manage your own website is Go-Daddy.
Here you will also find great value for a host account as well.
Open a Web Hosting Account Your domain name will require a hosting account.
The best way to explain hosting is like renting space on the internet for your domain name to be placed or commonly referred to as parked.
The banner below will show you the different hosting plans Go-Daddy has available, depending on your website and budget.
If you do intend on running more than 1 domain name I would recommend you get multiple domain name host plan which is the Deluxe plan.
Design and Build Your Website To build you website pages you will need an editor.
There are many ways to create a website perhaps too many ways, which can become a bit confusing for beginners.
To narrow down the categories there are two processes.
1.
Online web design program There are online web applications you can Google or look up in your web crawler.
They are fairly simple and easy to use, especially designed for beginners.
However with most online web design programs requires the user to host their site with the provider of that software program.
2.
Offline web design software and HTML editors Offline web design software and editors are a better choice for a professional web design.
To design a website that looks professional, you really a professional tool; this usually requires the initial cost of buying an HTML editor.
For starters these days you can design a fabulous professional site without having to type one character of code.
Since most web design programs are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface, you can usually drag and drop your way into the most professional and look.
Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage, Go-Live are some of the editors available.
There is also free web design software that is open source, visit the NVU website.
It may not have every bell and whistle but it will be sufficient enough to design a professional and functional website.
Set Up Your Email Your email is essential in the Internet Marketing Industry.
Your email account is as important to your business as a phone is to most businesses.
It's how you communicate with people and how they can contact and communicate with you.
It will probably be the easiest and least expensive tool you will use.
The good thing is if you're with Go-daddy you usually get a free email account directed to your hosting and domain name.
Your hosting provider with provide you is a POP (Post Office Protocol) address and a SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) address to place into your email application.
You can also access it via an online application which will also be provided to you, however usually it is limited to the amount of space you can use with storing and backdating your emails.
Upload Your Site to your Host So once you have your website pages built, your domain registered and pointing towards your hosting account.
Your email address ready to make you available to the rest of the worlds.
It's now a great time to begin to upload your files and folders to your hosting account to bring your site to life.
You can upload your files into your C-Panel's File Manager (a Control Panel in your hosting account that manages your files).
Some Hosts have a built in feature that is capable of uploading or downloading but some may not.
So you might have to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program to help you.
Filezilla, is a great program to use, because it can copy your files to your hosting account in mass amounts and in a speedy time frame.
If you find you may need some more reference to help you get your online business started, please download the eBooks available below.
There are many reference links and eBooks available throughout this site all related to internet marketing.
They also come with resell rights so you might even find it profitable after you have studied and implemented the concepts, so please make full use out of them, you'll be so glad you did.