Start Online Store

Do you have problem to start your own online store? Did your last storefront software ended up losing you money? We had problems with building an internet web store when we first started. We have heard many horror stories too. Here is a story of our client that you probably can relate to and also can serve as a reminder to us all.

John (real name protected for a reason) had an idea to sell some t-shirts on the web. Yes, t-shirts because he thought everybody wear t-shirt so he should have a good market to sell to. Forget about this idea being profitable or not, but let us focus on the money he spent to start the business. Firstly he went to a web designer to design his website. He spent about $2000 for that.

After that, the web designer advised John to get a web hosting account so he can preview his storefront prototype live on the internet. John ended up at subscribing to a hosting plan for a year with Godaddy costing him about $120. Any other web host will cost about the same, be it Hostgator, Lunarpages, Bluehost, Hostmonster, iPowerWeb, or PowWeb because 1 year is the shortest period these companies promote and prefer people to pay. Next, John hired a programmer or web developer who installed an open-source shopping cart, did some customization to fit John's business needs and installed the shopping cart on John's web hosting service. That was another $3000. Added to that was the payment processor charges like RBS Worldpay setup and miscellaneous integration charges which is about another $700.

To cut the long story short, after all the money spent and time consumed, John's web store plan did not follow through because he failed to realize the marketing part of the business plan. He spent a total of about $5820. He lost them all. Luckily for him, business idea did not involve keeping any stocks.

After sitting down with many online store startup owners, we came out with these steps to avoid.

Did You Make One of These 13 Web Store Startup Mistakes?

These are 13 sure ways to lose money on your e-Commerce venture

1. Your store management panel cannot be accessed from ordinary browser.
2. You cannot quickly setup a store, but require help from web designers, PHP developers or may be more people.
3. Be ignorant on which providers the majority of top 500 Internet Retailers are using.
4. You do not check if your Shopping Cart Software is built on good server to ensure reliability.
5. Software installation on your desktop is required – hence can be maintained from only that PC/Mac.
6. The e-Commerce solution cost thousands for design, customization, search optimization etc. before your business can start.

Read more...

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The most popular and easily-remembered domain names are being reserved daily, at the rate of one domain name every 5 seconds. If you want to be a serious Internet player, you must have your domain already registered by now at one of the best domain registrars.

However, do not make these mistakes when registering your domain name.

Click here to download the full report on how to avoid domain registration mistakes.

Mistake #1: Not Registering a Domain Yourself

You know how a business owner hires someone to create a website for their company and then after a few years, the person (or company) who created the website disappears for whatever reason (out of business; moved out of the area; got a real job; etc.)?

Then unknowingly, the domain names registration expires and is automatically, electronically gobbled up by opportunistic domain squatters. These domain squatters then register the expired domain in hopes that the original owner will be highly motivated to purchase the domain name at a much higher asking price. Usually, squatters might ask for $200 to $2000. Unfortunately, it could even be much more.

What do you do if have not registered the domain yet? Just go to one of the best domain registration services below and register the domain yourself.

• Namecheap – one of the cheapest with free domain privacy for first year.
• Godaddy – the most popular and trusted domain registrar.

Did someone else register your domain name for you? A webdesigner or web host perhaps has done it for you. That’s fine, but you’ll want to check a few things. Find out what you should do next.

Mistake #2: Forgot to Renew Domain Name on Time

You are working real hard to beat your online competitors, search the entire internet for your targeted audience, calling all your suppliers bargaining for the lowest cost price so that you can have a much competitive pricing, but be sure you have not missed your domain renewal notice, you should always renew your domain on time to avoid loosing your business.

There are various ways to keep your domain name safe.

Mistake #3: Paying Too Much for a Domain

You only should pay extra for a premium domain name, i.e the domain has been registered by somebody else so they can sell at higher price. A domain name is a domain name. You pay to reserve the name on yearly basis. By paying $35/year instead of $12/year does not give you:

• a top placement in Google's search result. You still need to work on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• a website. You still need a website built!
• a hosting space. A reliable hosting like Hostgator is recommended and should cost only around $10/month. The Hostgator coupon codes 2012 could save you more for your first invoice.
• visitors to your website. You still need to do some marketing and promotion to get visitors.

Mistake #4: Not Aware of Registration Scams

Registering your domain name is usually safe, but as with anything, there are some folks who may try to scam you. Here are two things to watch out for:

• You might receive offers (email or snail mail) from other registrars who may lead you to believe that you need to renew your domain name with them. While you can do that (you can transfer registrars at any time), these offers usually are at high prices. Don't fall for it. Know who your registar is. If the notice isn't from your registrar, pitch it in the trash.
• "Lock" your domain name. Registrars offer a feature called "domain locking" at no extra cost. It prevents your domain name from being transferred to another registrar unless you authorize the transfer by first "unlocking" the domain. It's a good safeguard, and you can do it online in just a couple steps.

Do you want to learn more about domain registration? There are thousands of essential information about domain registration that we want to share, but we would not be able to fit them all here. Download the reports and guides; and to subscribe to the newsletter below.

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