Building eCommerce

By Tony Colon

The first step towards creating an online business is building a website. Now, that is not as complicated as it sounds. When I built my first website, I thought Java was a type of coffee and HTML the name of a robot in Star Wars. That is why I did not do it. I paid someone else to do it for me. It cost me just a few hundred bucks, but I earned it back soon enough. This article discusses how to begin the process of creating your first website.

Having the right tool and the right product alone will not ensure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered while designing a site. Unfortunately, Internet business owners often ignore most of these.

Build It for Speed - It is a fact of modern life - people are in a hurry. This means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer’s attention. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (JavaScript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.

Target your Market - Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed mostly a teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.

Focus the Site - Make certain your website is focused on a primary goal: selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page.

Credibility Is Crucial - The most professionally designed website will not sell if your customers do not believe in you. A clear privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information online.

Navigation Should Be Simple
Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Visitors usually do not have the patience to navigate through the whole website to find what they are looking for.

Consistency Is The Key - Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout your website.

Make your website interactive and personalized by adding feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product. Personalization of your website is another key element that can build your visitor trust and increase your sales.

Personalization technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example, when a person buys a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be offered.

Content is King - Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

To succeed at your online business (whether you are selling your own product/service or are selling for other merchants as an affiliate), you need a website created just for that - a simple, focused site. Your website should be easy to build, maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and customer-converter.

About The Author

Anthony “The Biz Opp Mentor” is a Best Home Based Business Ideas and Opportunities Specialist. www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-18365

By Craig Bradburn

On the visual appeal scale, the craigslist website is mediocre at best. But in terms of sheer mass usability it’s off the scale. craigslist is an extremely powerful classified advertising tool used by millions of visitors each year. Like the wayward traveler tuning into a cities radio stations for news, It tunes in to the classified happenings of cities around the globe.

Craigslist was founded in San Francisco by Craig Newmark inthe mid 1990’s. A small and personal organization, craiigslist operates with a relatively tiny staff reminiscent of a small town newspaper. From this small cadre of dedicated individuals, it provides a classified service for people around the globe. Since its beginnings, it has dedicated it’s self to being a gate way of community information serving a grass roots following.

Craigslist has a simple approach to advertising, bridge the gap between the haves and the have not’s. The no nonsense approach has endeared craigslist to users of all walks of life. Its classified reach is huge, stretching around the globe touching people in countries from Argentina to Vietnam. Wherever you are, chances are you can find a catergory that will help you find a job, a car, a place to live and maybe even someone to live there with you.

At first, the site seems cluttered and unfriendly to use, but the standard interface is quick to learn. In seconds its users find them selves surfing for local community information effortlessly. The standardized interface is the key to the usability. A list of links always directs users to the same categories of classified advertising.

Between geographic locations, the only perceptible difference you see in craigslist is the location banner showing what city the site is “tuned” to. Simply select a city of interest and it provides connections to people looking to sell, rent or buy or what other activities the user may be interested in for that specific area.

Because of It’s content rich approach to supplying information to the masses, it enjoys one of the most visited sites around the globe for classified advertising. It has become a de-facto standard in communications between users and consumers of community style goods. A visit to craigslist is like opening up the Sunday papers classified advertisement section in any part of the world. For any community you have a need in, there is a craigslist to bridge the gap between what you need and who has it.

Additionally, online marketers have utilized the forum-based website to generate large incomes for themselves. This occurs by taking advantage of the high traffic volumes on the website as well as taking advantage of the great customer resource tools for guaranteed success. This free to use website has helped many individuals make a fortune off of studying and using a website created to bring people together.

About The Author

Craig Bradburn specializes in teaching Real people how to start a
Profitable Work at
Home Internet businesses.
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