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E-Commerce - Easy Money Or Commitment And SacrificeWhen my wife and I got into the WWW. E-commerce world, we had visions of easy money and an auto pilot type of business. You know the kind that runs itself and the money just rolls in. Oh yeah, low start-up cost, little time, and low commitment. Just read the commercials and Internet ads. The Internet can be your friend or it can bite you like a scared dog. Try researching, starting an Internet business. You will find every easy money method in the world. Here is a list of things to consider and these things are just the surface. This is not meant to scare you but to inform you of the reality, before you fall into the money pit. Just remember you have to give before you receive and sometimes we learn from the pain. Websites necessities or basics: Host/Server â€" to store all your files and images. E-mail and other perks. $8 to $12 month Purchase your domain â€" www.mysite.com $8 to $??? Merchant/Credit Card service â€"Credit Card processing. This is a low price. $25Month, $15 service charge, and 30 cents per transaction and 2.5% of sales. (OUCH!) Paypal â€" You can use Paypal for your payment option. It's free. I don't use it. Nothing is free. Rent a ready-made store - Now you can go with a company who will host your site and provide a storefront for you. They will even give you products to sell. These are usually database type and provide no SEO. In other words, the only people who purchase from your site are your friends and family. No one can find your site in the Internet desert. You're on page 200 (if lucky). They run from $40 to $200 month. Find a wholesaler? No problem, everyone is a wholesaler. What do you want to sell? Leather, Home Décor, Knives and Swords, Collectibles or maybe Kitchen cookware? Where are the real wholesalers? The ones they buy from. There are many scams and scam tools for sale out there. Now try ordering from them. Late? Back Ordered? Packing? Drop ship costs? Shipping & Handling Costs? Drop ship or Inventory? Taxes??? Build your site - There are many templates out there that look good but if you don't know how to program HTML forget it. You will probably buy a book or software that shows us dummies that we can create HTML websites without having to know HTML. On the outside it looks good, but on the inside they stink. How are you going to find the time and keep up with the latest in this "part time business"? Search Engine robots don't like bad programming among other things. Gather Information - Now that you have a wholesaler, download all the prices and images. Create your spreadsheets to upload all the product information (change them to CSV or some delimited format. Or you may have to do this one at a time... Ahhh! Fix the images - Adjust the resolution, size, etc. to fit your WebPages. Get the right software to do this...It will save you days of work and cost. I hope you get this done before the prices change or the item is discontinued. Remember that if you have more than one wholesaler, you have more than one tax and drop ship charge. You also have different information and images. They could be in other formats. My wife and I thought an Internet Shopping Mall would be so cool. We could have different stores, oh boy...That's where the name MallAboutTown.com came from. Oh yeah. Now you have to have a logo and a theme and all the right colors and, and, and. It's kinda like building a house. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - You should have been thinking about this from the start. Buy links, buy PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, buy search engine submissions, buy content, submit articles and link to directories and other Websites, read, read, read and determine who is telling the truth. After all the smoke clears, you will be in the hole a few bucks. When that first sale comes in you will feel like that golfer getting a hole in one. Then you're back at it, harder than ever. It's an addiction. I guess it could be described as the spouse that won't leave an abused relationship. Like any business, Internet business is not for the short-term commitment. There is so much I had to leave out because many things depend on what direction you take on this journey. Good Luck, remember if it's too good to be true..... Our advice is to personally talk to someone that is successfully operating E-commerce site, (not on E-bay) and get the facts. This is what made E-bay so popular. But even E-bay can be tough. Good Luck, Marc and Kemella Allyn Other articles by this author »
About Marc Allyn
Marc and Kem own http://www.mallabouttown.com and http://www.allaboutthecross.com bring their personal experience for your use. These articles along with others were written to bring the basic knowlege to your aid. Operating a internet Shopping Mall requires knowlege of many different product and aspects of applying them for success. Thank You for supporting our ministry www.allaboutthe cross Related
And here is another random article you might be interested in... How To Clean Up Your Personal Finances...Are you one of those people who doesn't open their bank or credit card statements? Do you take out store cards on the spur of the moment? Have you been with the same bank simply because it is less hassle than changing? If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, fear not confused consumer, help is at hand, with some assistance from a few internet tools. * Internet tool number one: ** The consumer champion site for personal finance information Websites such as Fool.com, Fool.co.uk and Moneysavingexpert.com have proved extremely popular with consumers. Fool.com is more geared towards the US market, whilst Fool.co.uk focuses on the UK market. Both have an extremely diverse selection of information from investment and high risk options to personal finance and low risk options. There are extensive discussion boards, newsletter subscriptions, finance calculators and competitions. These sites not only answer your questions, they make you want to ask more. Fool.com, Fool.co.uk and Moneysavingexpert.com are community based sites and function on consumers exchanging information between themselves, whether that's about passing on recommendations or expressing concerns. The article "Ten Reasons To Fear The Future" by Cliff D'Arcy" on Fool.co.uk is a particularly good introduction to the financial aspects of modern life. Martin Lewis has almost become a household name in the UK through his website Moneysavingexpert. The outspoken journalist and presenter offers a comprehensive resource on a range of personal finance topics. If you can put up with the cheesey photos of Mr Lewis and his catalogue poses, you will undoubtedly find this site extremely helpful. * Internet tool number two: ** The price comparison site for personal finance information Kelkoo, moneynet.co.uk and Lowermybills.com (US) are now commonly exploited by consumers to ensure they are getting the best deal on their purchases. However, it is probably fair to say that more people shop around for clothes and music, than they do for their personal finance products, which is worrying as these cost significantly more. * Internet tool number three: ** Online banking and account aggregation tools The internet can be a scary thing and there is still much scaremongering about online security. However your details are often as secure online, as they are offline and providing you choose and hide your password effectively â€" there should not be a problem with people accessing your confidential information. Choose a password of eight characters or more, preferably replacing some letters with numbers, such "1nternet" or "passw0rd". Set yourself up with online accounts and you can proactively manage your finances yourself, without waiting for statements through the post or call centre agents to take your query. You can also save yourself bank charges by transferring funds yourself over the internet. Some banks charge large amounts for transferring funds when you can do it for no additional cost at all. Personal finance doesn't have to be about debt and the efficient co-ordination of funds may save you hundreds of pounds in the long-term. Resources: Other articles by this author »
About Rachel Lane
Rachel Lane would be really interested to get feedback on whether anyone actually reads this section. Rachel has written about living in straw huts, having the 'Best Hits of 1987' in her music collection, eating Green and Blacks chocolate and the fact that on her left foot - her second toe is bigger than her big toe. If someone feels like rescuing Rachel from obscurity, she would be grateful for an e-mail out of here. Rachel also writes for the personal finance blog Cashzilla http://www.cashzilla.co.uk Don't spam it though or she'll eat you. Contact details Related
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