You Sell Online. Do You Need Your Own Website?

August 11, 2008 · Filed Under Internet Marketing, eBay, ecommerce · Comment 

Only If You Are Selling Online

You are selling on ebay, or Onlineauction, or Amazon. Great.

You are having some success selling in these or other online venues. If you are successful selling online, should you have your own website?

Maybe but Be Careful

Having your own website to market from is a double edged sword. To provide you with a viable marketing venue, the website must be attractive, well put together and functional. A lot of work will go into creating your own website. Concept, design and development and finally implementation takes time, and unless you are experienced, the task is daunting.

Hire A PROFESSIONAL!

The first step in deciding to create your own ecommerce site should always begin by hiring a professional to evaluate your needs. Knowing what you want your website to accomplish for your business is an extremely important first step. Do you want it to sell items for you, provide information or both? When searching for a website designer, talk with friends, coworkers, business associates, and colleges. Why colleges? Many times you can contact your local college computer professor and tell them what you are looking for, and what you wish to accomplish. Many times you can find an experienced computer grad student who can do the work for you. Before deciding on this direction, make sure you ask to see some of the students previous work, and speak with their instructor to obtain references. Sit down with whoever your choose and discuss your perceived needs to ensure they understand them. If you feel your site requires a shopping cart, checkout capabilities, photos, forms, etc, the site builder needs to know before the agreement is made so they know what the project might entail.

Then settle on a cost, payment terms and length of time the project will take.

Understand that things like logo design and creation are usually extra. You should have the input of your website builder when coming up with your logo to ensure that it will fit into the website.

Put It In Writing

One thing I have learned since deciding I needed a website was that unless you and the website developer put down in writing all the particulars including such things as cost, alloted timeframe, content, design, ownership, passwords, etc, this can become very messy.  

Make sure you understand who will do the maintenance on the site. Will it be you or someone else?

Make sure the person you hire has the time to devote to your project. If you have a deadline make sure that is spelled out in the contract. Avoid having friends do the work. This project can strain friendships, and even ruin them. Hire the work out. It will be better all around.

 

 

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