Your Questions About Business Online

Jere answers:

If you have had a savings account, you can take your money out and put it into a debit card. After you have a debit card, you can have a PayPal account. People pay through PayPal on Etsy. I’m 14, and am making things before I open my Etsy store. You get all the money, put it also costs for you to ship things.

Jere answers:

Since you’ve never been in business before, I would strongly recommend that you talk to a business counselor before you do anything especially spend money. You have to determine whether you’ll start a web based business or one with a store front. I’d call the local office of SCORE (go to http://www.score.org and input your zip code to find the chapter nearest you), the advice is FREE.

The counselor at SCORE will most likely advise you to write a business plan which is very good advice because it will force you to dig out all of the start up details and the costs of starting a small online catalog business and force you to also understand all of the aspects of this business including the customers you’ll concentrate on (your market ) and how you’ll go after them.

You’ll need to register the business with your state controller’s office and make sure that you have any city and county licenses if any are needed where you live. All of this will come out in a business plan.
Try this link :
http://www.ychange.com/small-business-consulting-articles.html and read some of the articles especially the ones about a business plan and starting a business.
Good Luck

Jere answers:

To do that you have to sign up with a Merchant Credit Card System. Google Merchant Credit and will get a lot of links.

Jere answers:

As an online store, you need to focus on two things:

– get TARGETED traffic interested in what you sell (avoid traffic exchanges, traffic swarm and those poor quality traffic)
– CONVERT those visitors into buyers

You can use pay per click advertising in the search engines to reach audiences looking for your products. You can use Google Adwords http://www.google.com/adwords or Yahoo http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com

Here are some shoestring marketing ideas that can help you get the visitors you need at the least cost possible:

1. Create the best content you can with the best products you can possibly offer. Your content is your best advertisement – if visitors love your content, then they will go back and spread the word to others.

2. Make it easy for users to recommend your site. Viral marketing is very important — and easy to tap on the Web. But give your users the tools. Get a Recommend this Site script from websites such as cgiscripts.com and similar directories of scripts. Some even go as far as giving incentives to those who recommend the site to their friends. If only 10 people go to your site, but these 10 people invite 10 more – that’s additional traffic that you get for FREE!

Recommend Site Scripts (various) http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/
Big Nose Bird Recommend this Site http://bignosebird.com/carchive/birdcast.shtml
CGI Resource Index http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/
Hostscripts http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Site_Recommendation/index.html

3. Rank well in the search engines (organic search results, not the pay per click). SEs can be a big source of traffic. The key is to create the best content in your niche. If you have good content, other websites will gladly link to you and offer your site as a resource to their audience. Check the on-page factors and be sure to get linked from authority sites in your topic area.

If you are going to read only one piece on search engine optimization, I suggest you read Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com’s “Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: 26 steps to 15k a day.” http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm

4. Send out press releases. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News.

Http://www.prleap.com/sign_up.html
http://i-newswire.com/
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.pr.com/press-releases
http://www.prfree.com/
http://www.clickpress.com/releases/index.shtml
http://www.theopenpress.com/
http://www.przoom.com/
http://www.prweb.com
http://www.newswiretoday.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/

5. Submit articles. Write articles and submit them to websites accepting author submissions. You get exposure for your business; establishes you as an authority in your field, and allows you to get backlinks for your website. If 50 websites publish your article and it contains a link back to your website, then you easily get 50 links from a single article. The more links you have, the greater your chances for increasing your search engine rankings.

Here is a comprehensive list of where to submit your articles http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AhzreGmnCUicOoyedqypscUjzKIX?qid=1006022407481

6. Improve your conversion. Getting visitors is one thing; getting them to buy your products is a whole different story. Read the article ” How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site ” http://www.powerhomebiz.com/092006/ecommerce.htm for tips on how to improve your conversion rates.

7. Post a link to your site for free where it is allowed (always read the Terms of Use). Examples are:

Craigslist http://www.craigslist.com
Google Base http://base.google.com
Classifieds for Free http://www.classifiedsforfree.com/…
Text Link Exchange http://www.txtswap.com/
Recycler.com http://www.recycler.com/
Yahoo Classifieds http://classifieds.yahoo.com/
US Free Ads http://www.usfreeads.com/

Jere answers:

Have you thought about pay per click programs? The two biggest, I think, are Yahoo! And Google

A few free resources – check out the sources box for links:

1) Create a blog pertaining to your field

2) Use Yahoo! Local & Yahoo! Groups – Be sure to read the TOS for each one!

3) Write articles pertaining to your field and/or expertise.

Also, consider signing up for an affiliate program. These programs enable you to advertise on other’s sites (your affiliates) and once a sale is made to you, your affiliates & the program are paid a commission.

I listed a few handy sites & articles relating to marketing, promotion & advertising. Here’s some book titles that are relevant:

* The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Marketing Basics by Sarah White
* The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries, Jack Trout
* Creative Advertising: Ideas and Techniques from the World’s Best Campaigns by Mario Pricken
* Entrepreneur Magazine’s Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide: Over 1500 Great Marketing Tricks That Will Drive Your Business Through the Roof by James Stephenson
* 301 Do-It-Yourself Marketing Ideas: From America’s Most Innovative Small Companies by Sam Decker

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!