Issue 15.11
As a follow-up to my recent article on simple websites that you can create, this article is about commercial websites that have as their purpose getting people to know you and do business with you, either at your physical location or over the internet. There are whole books on this subject so my attempt here is to give you an overview.
These types of sites are very complex and can be quite expensive and time consuming. Large companies have whole departments dedicated to the upkeep, programming and advertising of their web presence. Simple versions of these can be created and maintained by a dedicated individual, but there is a steep learning curve and many costly additions if you want to do major selling on the internet. There are many companies that are willing to do this for you for a price, but you should do a lot of comparison shopping and get customer testimonials. There are a lot of shysters in this business that charge thousands of dollars and tell you they will get you on the first page of the search engines. They often do, but it is usually on an obscure word or phrase that very few of your customers will search for. No matter how beautiful or impressive your site is, if no one comes it won’t make money.
First off, like the simple sites, you need to purchase the rights to a domain name and procure a hosting agreement to make your site available across the internet. If you are doing business on the internet, you will need to find out what requirements you need to meet from the government (both state and federal) such as sales taxes, etc. You will also likely need a shopping cart program of some type so that people can pay you for goods or services. These should be secured by special programs that make it difficult to access your (or your customers) information. Some hosting companies will provide these for a monthly fee or you can buy them separately and add them to your site. Another option is to have your customers pay through paypal (www.paypal.com). It is reasonably easy to set up if you only have a few items you are selling and they take care of the security and credit card processing for a small fee per transaction plus a percentage of the sale.
To be successful, you will also need a multiple approaches to encourage people to visit your site. I have seen some incredibly stunning websites that cost tens of thousands of dollars and only get one or two visitors a week. There are a number of ways to advertise or make people aware of your site. Many of them are very expensive but some are relatively inexpensive and can be effective if you are creative. If you are venturing into this area, you definitely need guidance from someone who knows the territory, but again, I recommend talking to the customers of anyone asking you to trust them with this critical part of your web experience. I have spent years learning about this part of the business and I still rely on those who do it every day to help my clients that are moving into this way of doing business.
This can be an enjoyable and profitable experience, but remember, stay safe – and make sure you have a backup of anything important.
Shaun McCausland has been in the computer industry for 29 years (locally with Musicomp & Bits ‘N’ Bytes) and currently does in-home and on-site computer consultation, service, training and repair. If you have questions, you can reach him at 668-7118.