If you set up an e-commerce site, don’t think that you can set everything up and suddenly money just starts rolling in! It’s not that easy. There are a number of things you have to do to bring traffic in, make people buy, and make sure that the sale is legitimate. If you get one of these things wrong, the whole exercise could be quite costly for you, so it’s good to use caution, and make sure you do things right. You know what, even when you do everything correctly, it doesn’t mean that you’ll make money!
So, what should you do? Let’s have a look and see.
- Purchase a domain name that is relevant to the business you want to set up. If the domain name has nothing to do with what you are selling, you might have a harder time making sales on the site.
- Set up the site in a professional manner. Make sure that your shopping cart software works properly. Make sure the site is attractive and themed to tie in with your product line. Choose colors that fit in with your product line too!
- Make sure that you have a payment processor that is reliable, honest, and will work for your target market.
- Be vigilant in protecting yourself from fraud.
OK, so let’s spend the rest of this week looking at each of the above points more closely, and see how they can affect your online operations. Watch this site for the rest of the week to read my specific recommendations for each point!
See you tomorrow, when we will look at purchasing the right domain name!
Hi Bob,
Do you set up your websites yourself or do you have people who do that for you?
Hi Tom – I do both. For simple jobs, I can set up something like a WordPress blog and find a nice public theme for it, which is quite easy. For more complicated jobs, I either hire an outside contractor, or I usually have an in-house Web Designer working for me. Right now, though, I am in the market for that kind of person.
Is it hard to find people willing and qualified to do such work? I wouldn’t think so in the Philippines, but one never knows.
Hi Tom – Finding such talent is not too hard, but keeping them is quite difficult. In my experience, they work for a short time and then quit.
Why do you think that is?
Hi Tom – It’s hard to say exactly why that is the case, but when it comes to highly trained people like programmers, they are hard to keep. Maybe because they are in demand and get other job offers.