This is my experience with what worked for me. This is
not the only way you can become a successful internet
business but this is the steps I took to get where I am.
I am very blessed with the ability to do something I love
and actually make a living off of it. This is my way
of giving back. You are welcomed to use the
information below and , "Take what you like and leave the
rest", which is one of my favorite quotes
So you created a website and you were hoping you would
immediately start making sales. The reality is, regardless
of how professional your website design is and how useful your
product, you can't sell anything without traffic.
If you are looking for a quick easy way to start making money
online without breaking your bank, let me know when you find one. The only
affordable way I know
is with hard work and dedication, not to mention, a lot of
patience.
If you have been on the web a while you may have already
discovered the trick of link exchanging already, but that
it self can take up hours of your time to find only a handful of
sites compatible with your website. Even if you submit your
site to the search engines, it can take weeks even months before
your site is listed. Then once you are finally listed you
discover your website is so deep into the search you doubt
anyone will ever find you anyway.
I am a single mom and I am runnning my own business, and my goal is to continue doing what I
love, making jewelry, and selling it online. Part of the reason I decide to write this self help tutorial is
because I hired a web designer to create a website for me, he
stole my money and never designed a website for me. I did
take him to court and surprisingly enough I received a full
refund two and a half years after the incident. Although
in a round about sort of way I am glad he did that, now I do
everything myself and I do not need anyone for anything.
Html Editor
If you are trying
to keep your site cost effective, don't fall for paying to get
listed, or paying to get your site submitted to the search
engines. If you aren't already managing all the works
of your website you may want to consider that for the
future. There are many useful HTML editing programs that
can get you started. I use Microsoft Front Page to edit my
website. They even have a separate tutorial you can
purchase that will walk you through every step.
Hosting
If you are listed on a free server, here are some thoughts you
may want to consider. Some free servers have a great deal
of pop up windows and advertisements, customers do not like pop
windows. I don't like pop up windows, so I know if they
annoy me, they will annoy customers. Some of these
advertisements can slow the load time of your page. Long
term, people might feel more comfortable ordering from an actual
domain address which feels more stable. Often you are
quite limited with your possibilities on a free server, shopping
carts, cgi scripts, ftp access, etc...
You can get your own domain for less than $10/year at
http://godaddy.com.
I
also highly recommend hosting with Ernie Secrest from
Seacrestcrafts.com.
Another thought
to consider is if you build your website with that hosting
company is it portable. Years ago I built my website
with Microsoft BCentral, which is a great program, however
when it was time to move I had to completely start over.
The same thing happened when I built my shopping cart in
Miva.
E-Commerce
CartManager
is a wonderful cart for anyone, and especially for people who
sell One of a Kind items. This realtime shopping cart can
track your order history, has inventory control, coupon codes,
and gift certificates. Customers can get an account to
make ordering easier.
CartManager is compatible with most gateway companies, even
if you are only using www.propay.com and plan to enter your orders manually. With
CartManager you can accept payments by Cash, Check, Money
Order, Visa, MasterCard, and Paypal.
Link Exchanging
Zeus
If you want to see guaranteed increase in traffic in a short
period of time, I recommend
Zeus by Cyber
Robotics. The
best thing about this program is it not only will find link
partners for you to exchange links with, it will actually create
your directory for you too.
|
You must
have... |
| Basic HTML
knowledge. |
| FTP access. |
|
Time to set
it up. |
If you
would like to give Zeus a try you can download a limited free
version.
Download
Now! They have a detailed help tutorial with the
program, and their support system is excellent. I can not
begin to tell you how much Zeus has helped bring me traffic and
increased my ratings in the search engines. For a 10%
discount on pro you can use the Coupon Code: White
You can
use the free version of the program to get familiar with how
the program works. I would not recommend staying with
the free version and I will tell you why. Every
webmaster online has the ability to download the free
version just like you. So you have who knows how many
other websites with the exact same links pages as you.
When you upgrade to the Pro version you have full access and
you can change the entire look of the directory. I
would also recommend changing the theme_index.html page to
any other name but that.
To keep
your directory free of Dead Links I highly recommend
Link Checker Pro. This is a wonderful little
program that works quickly to locate dead links and images
in your website. It is a good idea to keep your
directory free of dead links. Websites go offline
every month so you will have to be diligent.
eGroup
I have
also created a Link Exchanging newsgroup where you can find
other websites who are interested in exchanging links.
Click
here to join the eGroup. No adult sites are permitted,
this is a family friend link exchange group. We are
working on enhancing this newsletter and several other
webmasters have offered their services for free to help
improve it.
Graphics
I use
to hire someone to design my graphics for me, and although I
really did like the graphics it never felt like 'me'. So
finally I decided I would teach myself how to create my own
graphics. I use the affordable
Paint
Shop Pro 7 to create all my graphics. I also purchased
the plugin SuperBladePro
by Flaming Pear, and
Eye
Candy by Alien Skin Software. With the help of a
tutorial book, Sams Teach Yourself Paint Shop Pro 7, I finally
felt satisfied with my graphics because I made them.
If you
are interested in a feminine floral look I have some
Floral Graphic templates available for a small commercial
license
fee. You can also choose from over 100 psp tubes of
real flowers and have a custom graphic set created. I also
recommend
Biz
Plates and
Marvel Creations for website graphics.
If you
decide you do not want to make graphics for yourself, I highly
recommend Andrea from
B8Graphics
Design. She can design elegant and professional website
graphics.
Newsletter
I
use to use the Yahoo Egroups for my Ezine newsletter and I
was happy that the services were free. Although I did
not care for the advertisements that were included in my
newsletter for them. I also noticed a lot of customers
were not receiving my newsletter because their spam programs
were deleting it is spam.
So I
switch to
Constant Contact and although it is a paid service I
have several reasons why I like them. First of all
they have great support and you can actually get a person on
the phone. I also noticed my newsletters were getting
to my customers. They have features like spam check,
statistics that shows you how many people open your
newsletter, how many people clicked in your newsletter, and
even which links they clicked. It gives your customer
the Safe Unsubscribe option that will make your subscribers
feel more secure. Another reason I like using their
services is my email is not used to send the newsletter
which should keep my own email off the black list.
Also it is one less program for me to worry about backing up
and if any maintenance issues should arise they will take
care of it.
