Selling from your own web site... What do I need to know?

[*Brum6y*]

Here's an open question to discover the things about setting up and running your own web site - that one should not find out the hard way.

Perhaps some subjects could warrant their own threads for in-depth discussion, but this is to find out the initial questions.

Like domain names, site models (eg Cube Cart), payment facilities - even to what's a good size for pictures?

I'm poised to jump right into the chomping jaws of this beast with my seller - and others' experience and advice is invaluable........ and anxiously sought!

[gr8-expectations]

enom.com now renamed but link works, are a very cheap source of services and registration of domain names of most types other than .au (i.e. .com names are cheap from enom and well run)

[low-enghooi]

Domain name: 2 or 3 keywords. Get a .com domain.
Web hosting: www.hostgator.com
Shopping cart: www.oscommerce.com (open source)

Website: Product specific (selling only 1 main product per website)? OR general all included?

Web traffic source: organic traffic from google.com (backlinking), Google adwords pay per click or pay per impression (both cost money and difficult to get it right), blog, online press release, youtube video, etc etc.

[*CountessA*]

Get SSL on your site. If you don't have this, you can't accept credit card payment because the information will not be secure, and people will not trust your site. (You'll probably also need a merchant account with a payment gateway and a business bank account. This will NOT cost you a huge amount, and you'll be in control of your funds. Alternatively, think about other third party payment options - but remember, a merchant account is definitely the method that gives you the most control and freedom, and if a transaction seems dodgy to you, you can - if you set it up carefully - refuse to accept that payment.)

Don't design your site yourself. You'll be saving yourself some money, but your site will probably look unprofessional. If you want to use an open source cart, you may not be interested in design but rather just use the default layout of the code.

Do include a physical address. I cannot tell you how often I've backed away from a sale because I can't see a physical address and I start to feel dubious about the site.

Do also include a business phone number.

Do definitely DEFINITELY include your ABN.

State your refund policy and your privacy policy. Don't rely on the default privacy policy because it's usually American and does not properly address Australian issues.

Plan your site very carefully. It might be a good idea to have your logo professionally designed by a graphics designer. Remember - if you're opening up a b&m shop, you're not going to do the sign-writing yourself, and you're not going to install the electrics yourself, or build the shelves yourself... You'd get a professional to do it. Ditto with web design. You won't give an impression of professionalism with the idea that you can knock up a website yourself - unless you've got some sort of background in coding and design.

Remember that people DO look at the code of a website. Remember that different computers and resolutions and monitors will all give different results of a design... and if you don't know what you're doing, you could end up with something that looks fine on YOUR computer using YOUR internet browser, but doesn't even work properly on another browser and doesn't fill the page properly on a computer with a different resolution and a larger/smaller monitor.

Be business-like... the usual sort of thing. (Package adequately, address clearly, send quickly, communicate politely.)

If you use people's email addresses to advertise to them, don't overdo it. This is a big issue - I become very sick of websites from whom I've purchased one thing then hammering at me with infinite advertising emails. One a month is enough, and perhaps too much.

Respect people's privacy; don't give out ANY information about your buyers to a third party.

[*CountessA*]

Some other aspects that I think anyone planning to set up their own website might like to think about...

Get a consistent look. Not only that, but have a look that will set you apart from other websites. If you use oscommerce, I invite you to check through various ecommerce sites using it and see how very similar a lot of them seem to appear. This, for me, is a problem.

I would encourage people very strongly to think about a UNIQUE look.

I also encourage people to bear in mind that a slow-loading site is a site that will put off a lot of people.

There are people on this forum who have expert knowledge in the field of graphics. What do you say about graphics used on websites? What sort of resolution and file size have you found good?

[low-enghooi]

Graphics or not, depends on what you sell, how strong your competition are, the technology knowledge and demand of the buyer.

If you use oscommerce, I invite you to check through various ecommerce sites using it and see how very similar a lot of them seem to appear. This, for me, is a problem.


That to me, is an advantage. Just look at how all the Windows application software has the very Microsoft look. It is easy and people seems to like it this way.

To me, the only problem with oscommerce is, it is ugly. But it is written by programmer, not a designer. So that is acceptable.

[*CountessA*]

It doesn't help with branding, though.

People these days search through Google, doing price comparisons or quality comparisons, and often they're so busy looking that they don't bookmark sites where they found a good bargain.

If the site is not somehow memorable and they've done a huge amount of searching, they will never be able to find their way back to the site which offered a good bargain.

That's one reason why it's a good idea to have a strong individual look. Some sellers have hired designers to come up with a personalised theme for their site, even using something like oscommerce (which requires a little php knowledge if you're going to include any add-ons or personalise it in any way), and at least that way, the site will reflect the seller's business and "look" rather than being too generic.

[*Brum6y*]

I see two separate issues here....

One is about navigation ... and a familiar navigation mechanism allows freedom of buyers to focus on the products - not figuring out how they can get to them.  You could have the most brilliant product range on offer, but if it's too awkward to look around, the 'back' button will relieve the buyer of any headache.

The other is about recognition - to be memorable and (remember-able), in being easily identifiable, to be noticed in a sea of logos, names and products.  Something bold, tasteful, unique and appropriate.  Graphic designers can help here.


I would welcome input on both of these - but primarily on the navigation aspect - and that comes down to the choice of the software.

On that score, I would like to throw up a question as to what alternatives are there out in the marketplace?

I know of Cube Cart and now osCommerce - but what else is there?

[low-enghooi]

On that score, I would like to throw up a question as to what alternatives are there out in the marketplace?

Big question here: Do you want ASP or PHP? Or other less popular, eg ColdFusion or Java?

I only have worked on ASP many years ago.

ASP
http://www.cactushop.com Quite good, but seems dead now.
http://www.vpasp.com

PHP
http://www.interspire.com/shoppingcart/

*****************

I like to draw your attention to oztion. I am shocked to learn that many Australian doesn't know about this site. Many times they are on page one of Google for my search phrase.

Now, do you think by improving the site layout and design, will it helps people to finally realize the existence of oztion? If yes, ecommerce is too easy for everyone. If not, what are the more important task you have to tackle now?

If the site is not somehow memorable and they've done a huge amount of searching, they will never be able to find their way back to the site which offered a good bargain.

Ebay is 4 characters domain. Amazon is 6 characters domain. Now if we want something memorable, that is nearly impossible. Some people choose odd domain name like GoDaddy.com (domain registrar)

In choosing the domain name, now the question is, whether you want a "brand" domain name, or a "product" based domain name, or both? Example: www.trendmicro.com (brand), www.antivirus.com (product based domain, owned by Trend Micro)

The better way is to use newsletter to follow up with their prospect or customers. To do that, you have to capture their email address the very first time they come to your website.

[*Brum6y*]

For my seller....

The domain name question has been resolved.  There are 4 combinations of names (2 each in .com and .com.au) that have been secured. Initially they will all point to the same place.

At the moment, I have set up a glorified 'parking page' for the .com.au domains and a basic one for the .com domains. Each has links to eBay and OZtion and the ability to direct email inquiries. The .com.au page has some pictures and extra links, but I have thrown in some basic metatags and also a wide spectrum of searchable words in that page - so even Google finds the site, even with very little on it.

The core name is a word generated from a quaint acronym.  It is 8 letters long and is a pronouncable word - and had been used as the store name and member ID on eBay and OZtion for a couple of years now.  EBay was used as a proving ground for the viability of their product range in an online sales environment and they are succeeding.  Backed with quality products and top service, the name is becoming known among their clientele - and some of them just plug it into Google to find them.

... And that's another thing - if you put the name into Google, when you type the 6th character, Google comes up with only 1 suggestion ... my seller's store name.  Then, whether you click on this suggestion or just complete typing the 8 characters, EVERY result the Google search returns relates to this seller.  That is just magic.

The name is a 'brand' in your terminology - and it has a commercial value already.  

The naming has been finalised.

[*CountessA*]

Navigation is relatively easy when it comes to open-source ecommerce software. (For instance, Brumby, take a look at www.soundssublimeshop.com. You can see that the various categories are easy to search through, by selecting from the drop-down menu.)

There's also a database-based search function to help with finding the specific product if the buyer doesn't want to browse.

The individual look comes from editing the CSS and of course altering various of the php pages to change the layout.

Quite a bit of editing comes into play if you're thinking of using oscommerce for a bookshop, for instance - because by default there is no field for author, format, ISBN, etc. You would have no problems, I'm sure, in dealing with the editing involved, and if you need to increase the maximum width for some of the fields, you'd be able to edit the database in MySQL without having a breakdown (as some newcomers do! "What's MySQL? Which file is it? Help!").

Interspire is outrageously expensive - if you plan to have more than 100 products, it's $995 for the licence (and one year's maintenance).

As you know, anything open-source is free.

I very strongly believe in a consistent LOOK for a website - something that matches the business cards, the letterhead, any signage or posters, any publicity material, etc. This is part of what makes a site memorable - the colour scheme, the logo, the fonts used, the arrangement.

It is beyond question of prime importance to load the main page quickly, and also to have good meta data. It helps a great deal if the main page includes keyword-rich text, so as to reinforce the value of the keywords and descriptions in the meta data. There are other helpful ideas to get strong page ranking, such as using clean code (Google will actually rank pages with cleaner and better code HIGHER than pages with junk-filled poorly-written code), including alt-text for all images, having no dead links, being xhtml-compliant and using valid css, using keywords as links to keyword-rich other text, etc.