How Creating an Online Business Works

What does it take to put together a nice and effective e-commerce Web site? Is it a lot of money? Sometimes. Is it a lot of skill? Many times. Is it a lot common sense and lot of patience? Always! Creating your online business can be a long and arduous process, or it can be done relatively easily. Just read all of the Web-hosting ads and it sounds like your site will be up and taking order before you can say "huh?"

There are many ways you can get your site developed and selling. In this article, we're going to focus on making it happen. We'll cover some of your options as far as the simplified tools you can use, the more complicated programs that can be used, as well as farming it out to the pros, and some of the other issues that you have to settle like your Web host and making your customers feel secure giving you their credit card numbers.
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Tools of the (e)Trade

Depending on your site's purpose in life, you may need few or many tools in order to make your online business venture work. First, ask yourself these questions:
Are you going to design your site yourself? If so, you'll need:

experience and /or training in Web design (unless you go with the template or wizard-based tools that many all-inclusive services offer)
a good computer with plenty of RAM (128 Mb and up) and hard drive space (6 GB minimum)
web design software -- either WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) or a text editor (if you know html)
a scanner or digital camera -- for product or service photos
image editing software
illustration software to create graphics
FTP software for uploading files to your Web site

Are you going to sell products from your site? If so, you'll need:

a merchant account -- or some way to accept payments
shopping cart software -- or some other way for shoppers to enter and keep up with their orders
secure servers if you're accepting credit card payment or other personal payment information online
software (or other process) to keep track of inventory and orders

Do you have a large number of products or services that need listing on your Web site? If so, you'll need:

a database of product names, descriptions, pricing, and photos
a system for establishing product numbers
a system for inventory management
technical know-how in incorporating the database into your Web site

Does your product or service require sound, video or animations? If so, you'll need:

equipment to capture video and/or audio
software for editing your video and/or audio clips
software (and training) to create animations
a broad-band Internet connection (helpful, but not absolutely necessary)
or, a resource to whom you can farm these out

Regardless of how you answered the above questions, you'll need a computer with a good Internet connection for e-mailing and maintaining your site.

E-Commerce Tools: Merchant Accounts

Since e-commerce is usually at the heart of an online business, let's go into some more detail about the tools required to make it happen. Basically, if you want to sell products and collect payment electronically, you're going to have to have:

a merchant account -- an account that lets you collect payment via credit card
software to collect information -- shopping cart programs
software to process the transaction and send information to all of the involved parties (your bank, their bank, etc.)
a secure server -- SSL (secure socket layer) will encrypt the data and send it to a secure server where it can't be intercepted by a third party.

Merchant Accounts

A Merchant Account allows you to accept and process credit card payments either manually by "swiping" or "keying in" a card number, or through your Web site. There are many charges associated with accepting credit cards including:

a "discount rate" -- usually a 1-4 percent charge based on the sale amount (although online rates can be much higher)
a transaction charge -- a $.20-$.40 charge per transaction
a monthly minimum charge -- a flat rate that is charged if the minimum is not met
a "statement fee" -- a monthly fee charged regardless of the amount of charges in a month
setup fees
application fees
batch header fees -- fees that are charged for a batch of transactions, usually every time a terminal is closed out. Some systems automatically "batch out" at the end of the day and you may be charged whether you had any transactions or not!
and... there are also a few fees for special circumstances.

If you don't plan on accepting credit cards then you don't have to worry about a merchant account. On one hand, with the increase in credit card fraud you may be saving yourself a lot of headaches by not accepting credit cards. On the other hand, some statistics say that you will be turning away 80 percent of your sales by not accepting credit cards. It really comes down to what you're selling and how you're delivering it. If it is a service that must be delivered then you may do just as well (and save money) by invoicing and requesting payment by check, wire transfer, or money order. If you're selling products directly on-line then you probably need to go the merchant account route.
If you have had problems getting a merchant account, you can also try going through an Independent Sales Organization (ISO) for electronic funds processing. These firms usually provide many options for transactions both electronically and in-person. Concord EFS is one vendor, but many others exist.

E-Commerce Tools: Manually Processing Cards

If you already have a brick and mortar business that accepts credit cards then you can simply take the credit card information and process the card manually using your existing merchant account. No special account is necessary for Web transactions.
Processing cards manually gives you the added advantage of being able to hold the card information and charge the customer when their purchase actually ships. Remember that if a product is not able to be shipped within 30 days of the order you must notify the customer of the delay. Most people don't like to be charged for something they haven't received yet and automated card processing on your Web site will do just that. The card is processed and funds are transferred within hours or a few days rather than when the order ships.

E-Commerce Tools: Electronic Payment Options

There are also other alternatives like Paypal and Propay that let you set up accounts to accept payment from customers without having to have a merchant account. There are still charges and limitations, but these may also fit your needs and are worth investigating.
One thing to keep in mind too is that in order to accept American Express or Discover you have to go directly through them.
Electronic checks can also be accepted with the right printing software and validation programs. Your customers would input their checking account and other identification information and you would print the check on blank check stock and deposit it as you would a written check Yes, this is legal. According to Uniform Commercial Code, Title 3, a customer can authorize you to endorse a check on their behalf. You'll also need to authorize the check using national databases that look for bad payment histories, bad checks, stolen checks, etc. Vendors usually offer features that will help you collect for non-sufficient fund (NSF) checks as well. PayByCheck offers these features, as well as several other vendors.

E-Commerce Tools: Shopping Cart Software

Let's assume you now have your merchant account -- or alternative method of processing payments. Now you have to have a way to let your Web shoppers select the products they want, preview the sale amounts, delete items they change their minds about, enter in their payment and shipping information, and then cancel the order completely. (OK, hopefully they won't do that last part.) Having a good shopping cart interface is very important for a good e-commerce-enabled Web site. The easier and more intuitive you make it for your shoppers the more sales and the more repeat business you can have.
So how do you get that cute little shopping cart icon and "order me" button on your site? Well, you could pull out the Cold Fusion books and set aside a few months to code it yourself, or you could leave that fantasy world and get an off-the-shelf shopping cart program. I highly recommend the second option for several reasons. First of all, unless you're a programmer (or have good friends who are) it's going to cost quite a bit more, in terms of your time being money and all, to put together the code to do the job. Second, there are so many good programs out there now that have been proven and debugged over time that it just makes more sense. And third, you can get a lot of features for not a lot of money. Now don't get the idea that we're affiliated with any of these off-the-shelf companies-- we're not. I just recognize a time saver that's worth the money when I see it!
So what features do they have and what do you look for? Ready-to-go shopping cart programs usually offer simple template- or wizard-based tools to set up the ordering functions the way you want them. Most will also give you enough creative license to make the ordering pages have the same "look" and "feel" as the rest of your site, and then all it takes is cutting and pasting the generated code into your own html pages. Also look for:

SSL (secure socket layer) capabilities
interactivity with online authorization services
shipping calculators -- some also offer real-time shipping links
business administration tools for managing the sales cycle
management tools to manage your store
merchandising features that let you cross-sell more products
inventory tracking functions
product maintenance and categorizing tools
order reviewing and confirmation tools
sales tax calculators
capabilities for selecting various product options
e-mail order notifications
help functions
search functions
discount functions
frequent-shopper-point functions
price variation capabilities based on product option choices
database importers for the programs you are using to set up your product databases (e.g.. Microsoft Excel, Access, or even ASCII formats)

You may also find products that offer:

web-based administration tools that will allow you to administer changes from anywhere
tools to set up shopper groups to allow you to run specials for select customers
vendor maintenance tools if you distribute products from different vendors
editing capabilities for their pre-set templates

Here are some things to remember:

Watch for products or services that take the shopper away from your site.
Check out the support services and user documentation.
Visit some sites that are currently using the product and test them out. (Talk to the store owners if possible.)
If you are designing and building your own Web site, also check on development components for programs like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver, or whatever program you are using to build your site. (Having these specific components makes integrating the shopping cart code with your site much easier.)
Check on system requirements and platform compatibility -- if your site is being designed on a Macintosh system then it might help to have the shopping cart software compatible.
Check out the payment services the program is compatible with such as Authorize.net, Cybercash, SurePay, etc.

So as you can see, there are many features to look at and compare so know your needs before you tackle it. Some programs out there to look at include: BugMall, PDG Software, and SoftCart by Mercantec (actually more of a full-site development tool).

E-Commerce Tools: Using Third-Party Vendors

Another is option is to use a vendor who includes everything you need to get your online business started. This is certainly a more painless way to go than designing and developing everything yourself and then hoping all of the elements will work together happily.
There are some reputable companies that offer these types of services, and many will include not only the Web site design, shopping cart software and merchant account, but also they will register your domain name(s) and host your site for you. Others provide templates and wizards that let you build your site yourself without having to know HTML coding. They include integrated shopping cart software that ties in with an included merchant account.
If you decide to go this route, keep these things in mind:

watch out for hidden fees
make sure you've read and understand all of the terms
make sure you don't have limitations to how you design your site.
check on importable file formats (like Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for product databases)
compare different vendors!

Some vendors include:

When comparing vendors, go to some of their clients' sites and see how the shopping cart interface works. Go through the ordering process and see if you like the way it looks and feels. Be sure to visit several stores from each vendor to make sure you're getting a good representation of the features.
Look at the variations of site layout and decide if the ideas you have for your site will work. You typically don't have the flexibility in design with templates and wizards that you have when you design your site the old fashioned way! There may also be limitations in size, database capabilities, etc. Take your list of site functions to the proposed vendor and see if they can acc ommodate your needs.

Security Issues

Making your visitors feel comfortable enough at your site to give you their credit card number may take some work and planning on your part, but will be infinitely worth the effort. Not only will the appearance and professional design of your site have an impact, but also the security features you build into it. More Web shoppers are wise to the ways of the Internet and know the things they should look for in a site before they enter their financial and personal information.
For instance, they know to look for the lock symbol at the bottom of the screen to signify that their information is being transmitted to a secure server. They also know that the more recognizable trusted names they see on your site the better. Look at one of the larger well-known and trusted retailers such as L.L. Bean or Land's End and see how their site security is put together and displayed. Let's look at some of the things you can do to create that trust in your site visitors.

Digital Security Certificates

Shoppers often look for a trusted third party (TTP) to approve your site and your methods. Companies like VeriSign can provide your site with a digital security certificate that authorizes that you are who you say you are. This helps visitors to your site have the confidence to become buyers and will often make a big difference in your perceived credibility. VeriSign also offers a program called WebTrust that was developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICP) and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA). This program also provides you with a seal to display on your site if you meet the criteria which includes an evaluation of business, accounting, and transaction practices, as well as protection of consumer information. The VeriSign site states that, "more than 75% of online users have had a favorable impression of the WebTrust seal and that almost half of them report that seeing the seal would make them more likely to conduct an online transaction."
Another security watchdog organization is Trust-e. Trust-e sets policies for the use of personal information, as well as the protection of consumers. There are four Trust-e seal programs:

Privacy Seal Program -- Companies who display the general Trust-e logo have agreed to abide by special rules concerning the use of personal information.
Trust-e's E-Health Seal Program -- If your site is health-related you should also investigate this program. It certifies that the site displaying the seal complies with specific principles concerning privacy, quality and best practices.
EU Safe Harbor Program -- This is a program designed for companies who do business in Europe and wish to comply with the Safe Harbor Privacy Framework put together by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Children's Privacy Seal Program -- This program is compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and has been approved by the FTC as an authorized COPPA safe harbor.

These TTPs control the use of their logos through various embedded links. For instance, the Trust-e site has a notice for people who landed on the site as a result of clicking on the trust-e logo while on a shopping site. The notice says that if they have arrived there through that method then they may have visited a fraudulent site and to click another link to report it.

Encryption and Secure Servers

Using SSL (Secure Socket Layer), an encryption protocol, along with a digital certificate, provides protection for sensitive data during its transmission to your secure server. This encryption requires two keys. One is a public key which is used to encrypt the data through your customer's browser, and the other is a private key which decrypts the data and is held only by you (or those you authorize). By using a digital certificate provider (like VeriSign), the holder of the decryption key is validated as the correct owner and can then use the data as they need.
In this system, each player has access only to the information they need. The TTP (in this case, VeriSign) assures the shopper, through use of the digital certificate, that the Web site is indeed who they say they are, and the shopper can buy with the knowledge and comfort that they aren't being scammed.
For more information on encryption, see How Encryption Works.

BBB Online Seals

Once you have been in business for one year, you can apply for the Better Business Bureau Online's Reliability seal program. To get into the program and display the seal you must:

join your local BBB
agree to abide by their standards including those for truth in advertising
provide the BBB with information about your company
have a satisfactory complaint record with the BBB
respond promptly to all consumer complaints
and agree to any consumer-requested dispute resolution.

Keep in mind that the BBB doesn't endorse companies, so don't add any text to your site saying you're BBB endorsed. They simply require that their participants have satisfactory complaint records.

Privacy Policies

You must have a privacy policy and a usage policy for your site. These policies will state how you intend to use the personal information from product orders and other information you collect about your site visitors. This is a very important step to take and should not be taken lightly. When you write the policy make sure you follow it to the letter. Not doing so may put you in violation of the FTC Act. You can read the transcripts of a public workshop put on by the the FTC about the use of consumer data at the FTC Web site. There is also a lot of other good information there. You might also visit some well-known commerce sites and see how they've done their privacy statements. If you get a seal from one of the TTP groups listed in the previous section then you'll have to also follow their specifications.
Display the link to your Privacy Policy in a conspicuous spot on your home page and your ordering pages. Make the language easy to understand and clearly state how the information will be used. It is generally recommended to give the consumer the option of not sharing their personal information (assuming you're planning on sharing the data with others). If you are sharing the information, state with whom you will be sharing it.
Include a statement about how you use cookies. Many people are still not clear about how cookies work and are not comfortable with idea. (You may also want to set up your system to not rely on cookies since many people have them disabled in their browsers.)

Merchant Security

Okay, so we've talked about how to make your customers feel more secure, but what about you? What about your liability? What about your losses!? Statistics from credit card companies say that 75 percent of online retailers are liable for the full amount of any credit card fraud they encounter, while 90 percent of consumers are reimbursed for fraud. When you don't have a face-to-face transaction where all three parties (the actual card being the third party) are present then you have the potential for problems. And to make matters even worse, there are now software programs (illegal ones) that can generate an unlimited number of mathematically valid credit card numbers. But haven't mail order retailers been facing this problem all along? How do they protect themselves? There are some ways you can keep your credit card fraud to minimum. Here are a few of the best ones:

Work under the assumption that you will at some point face credit card fraud -- that keeps your defenses up
Use Address Verification Service -- This at least works for products that must be shipped within the U.S. It provides no protection for downloadable products such as software or books. (Authorizer and NetVerify are examples.)
Consider not allowing different "ship to" addresses -- Thieves can always provide you with the correct billing address and then request a different shipping address. By not allowing a different shipping address you could cut back some of your fraudulent charges. Or, you can always perform additional checks on these addresses. (Make sure you get a phone number for the ship-to address.)
Get a faxed copy of the credit card and signature when in doubt.
Watch out for large orders of high priced items that are asked to be shipped quickly. If it doesn't match your typical order, call the customer and verify the order and payment information.
Don't process any order you can't verify by phone.
Watch out for customers who give you an e-mail address from a free e-mail service like Yahoo or Hotmail. Those are an often used by thieves to help hide identities because any identification information can be submitted in order to get the e-mail address. Require a true ISP-based e-mail address.
If the customer is - or appears to be - a business, check the Web address (Often the last part of the e-mail address is the Web address. Just add a www. to check it out.) If the Web site doesn't match up with the information you were given then don't fill the order until you can verify further.
Code your form handler to collect the IP address of the computer sending the order. You can trace it back to the ISP and let them know about the fraudulent activity.
Watch out for orders that originate, or are to be shipped out of the country. There has been particular fraudulent activity in the Eastern European countries.

Visit the AntiFraud Web site for more ways to protect yourself, as well as a list of free e-mail address providers. You should probably also set aside a sum of money for credit card fraud. Talk to your accountant about what a reasonable amount might be.

Build Your Own Web Site: Easy Way

Building and designing your Web site can be fairly simple, or very complicated. It all depends on the tools you use and the functions you need on your site. If your site doesn't require a lot of interactive features or complicated graphics, you may be just as well-off using one of the template- or wizard-based design tools that are available for sale, or offered free by many Web hosts. You can find more information about this type of software at these sites:

Other links to storefront software are listed in our Links section under Shopping Cart Software.
If you go this route, make sure you get software specifically for designing a storefront so you'll have shopping cart and commerce tools available. It may also make sense for you to set up your site initially using this type of software, and then as your business grows, redesign the site with a program that has more features and gives you more flexibility (or have your site redesigned professionally). That way you are taking a little less of a gamble with your time and money.

Build Your Own Web Site: Harder Way

If you're up to the challenge, designing your site using a traditional Web authoring software program can give you a lot more control over the look and feel and even the functionality. You can add a lot of things like rollovers and simple animations using these programs. But -- and this is a pretty big but -- it takes time, skill, and a little creative talent. If you've never worked with HTML or Web pages and don't really understand how they work then it's going to take you quite a bit of time to get a good site up and running. If time isn't an issue then you may be fine.
It will definitely be worth the effort to get some training in either HTML or a specific WYSIWYG Web editor program. You should at the very least get a how-to book like Sams-Net "Teach Yourself HTML in a Week" by Laura Lemay, or one of Peach Pit Press's "Real World" books that get down to the nitty-gritty of how to use a specific program.

Build Your Own Web Site: Digital Images and Graphics

Don't forget about graphics. Because specific graphics are something you're going to need regardless of the type of program you use to set up your site, I'll go into a little bit more detail here than in the rest of the site design sections.
There is a lot of canned clip art out there, but many times it looks the part -- like canned clip art. Visitors that see the same graphic on several sites don't go away with the best of impressions about any of the sites! If you can, create some of your own graphic icons and images using a good illustration program like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. (Go to ZDNet or computer-oriented Web site for current reviews and prices of web-graphics software packages.) With an illustration program you can create vector images. These, as opposed to bitmap images are editable, scalable and usually small in file size.
A raster or bitmap image, like those you would get when you scan art or a photo, can be edited, but you need an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop. With this type of program you can change individual pixels or add filters or special effects to layers of the image to get the effect you want. The size, however, cannot be increased very much without loss of image quality and a big increase in file size.
Another option is to purchase some higher quality clip art. Sites like PhotoDisc and Artville have high quality photo images and artwork that aren't always that expensive, particularly for the low resolution (72 dpi) images you would need for your Web site. There are also several sites on the Web that offer free art and images. Our Links page can take you to some of those sites.

Build Your Own Web Site: Creating Your Own Images and Illustrations

If you're selling products on your Web site you're probably going to need photos of them. Most people don't like to buy something sight unseen. If you're distributing products for a manufacturer, the manufacturer may be able to send you prints, electronic files, or they may just direct you to their Web site to download the files yourself. If you are selling your own home-made Widgets and Widget accessories, however, you're going to need to get photos of those items in a format you can put on your Web site.

[INSIDER TIP 1: Use .JPG format for photos and .GIF format for illustrations or line art.]

You have three of options for getting digital images of your products, you, your cat, or whatever you want on the site. You can either buy a good digital camera (no, don't try to use the digital web-cam that you got free from your ISP to use for video chats on the web), or you can take photos with your regular camera and scan the prints using a flatbed scanner. You can get a decent scanner for less than $200 and most come with some kind of image editing software. Good digital cameras are still pretty expensive -- more like $400 and up. They do save time, however, and the image quality has improved substantially. Your third option is to use your traditional film camera and send them to a processor who will also give you digital copies on either diskette or CD. (If there is a chance that you will also want to use the photos in print for your brochures then ask for higher resolution images on CD. The files you get on a diskette or download from a photo Web site probably won't be high enough resolution for print.)

[INSIDER TIP 2: Scan images for the Web at 72 dots per inch (dpi). That is the resolution of most monitors, and higher resolution scans will make no difference in the appearance of the image on screen. If you plan on using the image in print, however, scan at 200-300 dpi or higher depending on the printer or output device.]

Remember, graphics files are usually pretty big files. In order to have them on your site without making your site a big bloated elephant, you'll need to make sure you optimize your graphics before you load them. (Some canned clip art may already be optimized.) Optimizing removes some of the unnecessary pixels and colors and makes the graphic file smaller. You may give up a little bit of the quality but there is usually a good middle ground where the graphic still looks good but its file size is significantly smaller. Some programs will show you a few variations and let you choose the version that you like. Many programs also show you the estimated download time at different connection speeds. NetMechanic offers GifBot a free service/tool that will optimize your graphics for use on your Web site.
Another thing to remember is to size and crop your images or clip art in your illustration program before you put them on your Web page. A lot of WYSIWYG Web authoring software will let you resize or crop images within the program, but the image size as far as kilobytes remains the same. In other words, all of the image data is still there you just can't see it. This means the graphic file is larger than it needs to be. Crop out any unnecessary information before you place the image on the Web page.

[INSIDER TIP 3: You don't want your total page size to be larger than about 50k. That's not very big, but your visitors will thank you for it.]

Build Your Own Site: Making Pre-Set Templates Your Own

This part of your site design gets a little trickier. Most of the WYSIWYG Web authoring programs come with templates that you can edit to suit your needs. It's a good way to introduce yourself to Web design -- by using someone else's! It can also produce some professional-looking results.
One way to personalize your site while still using a template is to create your own top and side navigation banners. By using the same dimensions of the template's navigation graphics, you can make sure yours still fit and don't throw off the rest of the page.
You can also change the color palette of the site. Matching the color of your logo and creating new graphics in the same style as your logo will help pull the site together and give it a more consistent look and feel. But what is look and feel? It's the overall impression you get when you look at something. Does it make you think of old money? Something trendy? The flower-power generation? That sort of thing. The feelings and images you think of when you visit the site. The impressions you have of the type of company.

Some Design Tips

White space is your friend. Just like in printed brochures, your Web site will look much better with a good balance of graphics, text and white space. Use the white space to better define and draw attention to your site's navigation system. Not only will your site look better, it will also load faster. One of your goals in designing your site is to make the experience a good one for your visitors. If you site is slower to load than molasses in Alaska then your potential customers will become someone else's potential customers! Not everyone has broad band Internet access -- in fact a pretty small percentage do (currently about 30% for 2001 according to Media Metrix) -- so keep your pages fast and lean.
Who you are and what you do. It should be immediately obvious on your home page what your company does, and what the visitors can find on your site. Your navigation structure is critical. Don't make your visitors have to think about how they might find something -- make it blatantly obvious. In fact, some say you should never have anyone more than one click away from being able to purchase something (assuming, of course, you're selling products on your site).
Give them what they need. Don't make your site too text-heavy. Keep it short, bulleted and to the point. People visiting your site won't read long passages of text ("pot, meet the kettle" -- I know, but our site has a different purpose!). It's true, but -- and this is another pretty big but -- you have to provide enough information for them to make a decision right then, or else you chance losing the sale to a site that does. For instance, if you're selling relatively complicated products that have a lot of specifications to compare, make it easy on your shoppers. Include links to all of the relative information they might need. The "Links" to more information are very important. Browsers (and I mean the shoppers not their Web software) don't want to wait on slow loading pages that are full of every scrap of information you have about a product. They want to see the general product description and be able to click a link to go to the meat of the subject. The same goes for product photos. Keep thumbnail size photos on the primary product description page, but have them linked to a larger image so if the shopper wants to see the fine crafted detail of the piece then they can click and see it in all its glory. Another helpful addition that may keep shoppers on your site as opposed to your competitor's, can be tables that compare specs from your products with those of competing products so you can show how your products are better and have more features. Or, if you have a lot of similar products that vary in certain areas, create a table comparing your own products. You can also include interactive tools that compare products the shopper has selected from your own product line by clicking a check box next to the item, and then clicking on a "compare" button. A table then comes up that compares those items side by side.
The good, the bad, and the ugly. A good site can look great, a bad site can look great, and an ugly site can still be great. No matter how nice your site looks, if it's difficult to navigate, or if you don't know exactly what the site is about when you go there then you're still missing the boat -- and tossing a lot of money off the pier while your watching it sail away! The first thing you have to think about is the site's purpose and function -- not the cool graphics, or the colors, or the flash animations. In fact, those sites who start with a fancy animation that makes dial-up visitors bang their heads on their monitors while they wait for it to load really stomp on my last good nerve. (Yes, I still "dial-up.") Always -- let me stress this -- ALWAYS have a very obvious "SKIP THIS INTRO" button that people can click to get past your animation. Another unnecessary step many sites force their visitors to take is having a lead-in to their home page. There will be a page with the company logo on it and an "ENTER SITE HERE" button. Why? I don't know, but they get on my nerves too. Don't do it. Take your visitors directly to what they want to see -- your content. (Remember, many of them are surfing on company time and they have to speedy about it if they don't want to get caught!) The layout of your pages, which you hopefully have already drawn out and labeled, will help you (or your designer) determine the best design for your site. It's hard to come up with a design if you don't already have an idea of the number of category pages, types of site functions, etc. So, as I've mentioned in other sessions of this workshop, plan it out FIRST so your site has a better chance of being both good AND aesthetically pleasing.
Real live people, or at least an address. Make sure visitors to your site can find you in the real world when they need to. Even if your business is only a 'cyber' business you should still have a physical address or PO box, and a phone number where someone can contact you if they have a question. Not only will it give those who are leery of online purchasing a way to still place an order, it will also give them a higher comfort level that your business is legitimate.
Finally, if you want people to visit your site, jump ahead to our "Promotion" workshop and read about optimizing your pages for search engines. It's much easier to incorporate the information search engines look for into your pages as you design them rather than having to go back after the fact and add the information in.

Web Design Firms

So maybe after reading all of this you've decided your best bet is to hire a professional Web design firm to do it for you. One word of warning -- it's not cheap! If you know your business site is going to HAVE to HAVE some heavy hitting database-driven interactive functions then you are probably making a wise choice -- just don't say I didn't warn you.
So, get your quotes, pick yourself up off the floor, brush yourself off, and get to work. Yes, hiring someone else to do it still requires a lot of work and planning from YOU. You're going to have to provide them with words, images of your products, the purpose and outline of what you need, and a lot of direction. Many design firms do offer assistance in planning and pointers in what works and doesn't, but you still have to be very involved -- at least if you want to get what you want.

Web Hosting: What Does a Host Do?

When you think of a host you may think of a smiling man or woman greeting you at the door and handing you a cool beverage. Or, you may think of a body that supports another parasitic one. Your relationship with your Web site host is kind of a symbiotic combination of the two. You depend on them and they depend on you -- and it can be good, or it can be bad. The thing to remember as you plan and build your online business, is that your Web host is a very important part of it. Bad customer service and support when problems arise (which they probably will at some point) can cost you a lot of money in lost sales and bad first impressions for the visitors arriving at your site while the problem persists. So make sure you get all of the facts about the host you choose for your business.
A Web host leases space for your Web files on their server, which has a direct connection to the Internet. You can either choose a Virtual Web Host who will allow you to use your own domain name, or a Non-Virtual Web Host who will give you a subdomain name that uses their primary domain name. For example, with a non-virtual Web host, your Web address might be http://www.earthlink.com/~yourname/yourwebfiles.html. There are some non-virtual Web hosts, however, that will let you use your own primary domain name, so be sure to ask.
The good thing about non-virtual Web hosting is that it is usually free. Many times the ISP who provides you with your Internet connection and e-mail address will also give you 5-10 MB of free space for a Web site along with a handful of simple tools for creating a Web site and uploading your files. While this might be great for your family or personal Web site, you probably don't want to use it for a business.
Some of the downside issues with non-virtual Web hosts are that the tools and capabilities are usually limited. Many of these hosts limit the types of CGI scripts you can use to their own pre-installed scripts for things like guest books, processing e-mail forms, etc. In other words, you may not be able to have an e-commerce site on a non-virtual site. You may also have to have advertisements on your site that you may not want. And finally, your Web address will not be easy for your customers to remember, and won't make your business appear to be very stable or legitimate.
Virtual Web hosting will typically provide a faster and more reliable connection, better management tools, support for higher level functions, and will range in price from about $10-$50 and on up for more complicated sites.
It is also possible to host your own site although, unless you know how to do it and have a good dedicated connection to the Internet, I don't recommend it for a new online business venture.

Web Hosting: What to Look for in a Host

Remember all of the site planning I mentioned in Planning the Party? Well, pull it back out when you start trying to decide on a host. Make a list of all the things your site will do and then list new functions you want to add in the future. (Plan as far out as five years even!) When you start talking to hosts you'll need to tell them the features your site will need.
Start by going to some of the Web host review sites listed on our Links page and see which ones look like likely candidates. Many of these sites will allow you to enter your requirements and compare host packages or even automatically request quotes from several vendors.
Compare the various features included in their packages. Most should provide account holders with:

site statistics about how many visitors came to their site and which pages they visited, as well as how long they stayed on the site
FTP software for uploading your Web files to their server
e-mail accounts and possibly auto-responders that can simplify response needs like a "thank you -- your order is being processed" e-mail when someone orders a product from your site
e-commerce tools like easily customized product order forms
regular site backups
secure socket layer (SSL) capabilities and other security measures for e-commerce
an account control panel that lets you do administration functions for your site from your browser (this is relatively new)

There are other features hosts offer so it is important to investigate your options. You might also talk to other online business owners and see what their host experiences have been like. See what tools they use and what tools their hosts have provided. Ask them how many problems they've had with their host and anything else you can think of to help you put a list of prospective host candidates together. Get as many recommendations as you can.

Web Hosting: Screening Potential Hosts

Once you have list of potential candidates for hosting your new business venture, ask for a quote for hosting your site. Provide them with the list of your site's needs that you prepared above, give them a reasonable amount of time to respond, and then see what you get back.
If they don't respond to your request by the deadline you've given them then take them off the list. Use that as an indicator of what future dealings with them might be like and move on to the other candidates.
Ask the host these specific questions regarding their service:

Are there any setup fees?
Do they offer design or programming services if you should need them and what are the costs?
How much free support can you get?
When is there a fee for support?
How do you go about canceling your account, and is there a fee involved?
What tools and software do they offer?
What is their uptime guarantee and how do they compensate you for lost time? (You can have your site uptime monitored by Alertsite, or NetMechanic.)
How much data transfer (or bandwidth) do they offer?
What is their backup method and schedule?
How much space can your site use?
What are their upgrade policies if your site grows? Beware of hosts offering unlimited data transfers and unlimited site storage. Those things cost them money and they're gambling that your site (and others) won't use as much as you think, but when your usage increases you may be stuck with additional charges.
Ask them for a list of clients for you to contact as references. Then CONTACT them. The host's simple good-will act of providing you with a reference list doesn't always mean the clients will have all favorable comments about them. (Although many probably will or they would have been screened out by the host in the first place!)
When you call the references ask them about the downtime they've experienced and how closely it matches what the host has said is average; about how well they've been reimbursed for this downtime.; about how well the host has been about customer support and service and anything else you can think of!
Test out their customer support by dropping them an e-mail and seeing how long it takes them to respond. Or, call them at random times and see how helpful and accessible they are.

So, the main thing here is to do your homework. Do a test drive if you can. Then just make the best decision you can based on what you know about your hosting candidates. If you do get into a bad host relationship all it can cost you is time, money, and a little bit of aggravation.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

How Creating an Online Business Works