Posts tagged Build

With the advent of the Internet, including early scripting and html coding, came the desire to bring products and services to the Internet. Early on the Internet seemed limitless for such a goal but throughout the years it has become increasingly difficult to bring a product to the online market. As more and more technologies have been developed with more and more people involved in the creation of online store fronts, the question has become: what is the best method to bring my products online?

Through years of trial and error I have come to realize that although there are hundreds of options out there for creating an ecommerce site, the best route to take is the one that you have the most control over and upgrade-ability. A popular choice for years, and still to some extent today, has been the Yahoo Business (Yahoo Store) route where you can build a site with little coding experience or have someone build it to your specifications (although this could be costly). There are two problems with such proprietary software: 1. They charge a monthly rental fee – usually $50-$100 plus a certain percentage of each sale price and 2. The site is rigid and uses unpopular coding languages which makes it hard to change and adjust to your needs.

The best option for opening an online store is to use open-source technologies. Open-source refers to any software that has been developed with out a licence and can be modified as long as it is not sold. One of the best choices for online software is Os-commerce. The Os-commerce store front gives the business owner the ability to design a site to their own specifications and link it to a powerful database and inventory management application that is free to use. Os-commerce gives you the ability to easily post new products, descriptions, price levels, sales, stock levels and many more with just a few clicks. The application is built with popular PHP/MySQL software and can easily be implemented.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, I’d recommend getting a professional logo made. Your logo is the face of your online business and gives your organization recognition. A professional and easily identifiable log, to your liking, can be made for less than $250. A professional artist/logo design company can be found easily through a simple google search. The logo designer will ask you a few questions about the look, color, and shapes that you prefer to get them started. They will then give you several different rough sketches, out of which you will pick a few. A good design company should allow you to make at least three revisions to the final logo choice (many now do unlimited revisions). They will then email you the final logo in multiple formats.

After the logo is done, you should search as many ecommerce template sites to find a website template you feel best suits your needs. If you decide to implement Oscommerce, be advised that the best and most affordable route to take is that of an oscommerce template. By choosing an Oscommerce template you save a lot of time and money because the site has been designed around the Oscommerce framework. A website template is the best route to go because, often, the most expensive part of a web design project is the many hours it takes to come up with a look, color scheme, and layout. By choosing a template from a list of hundreds or even thousdands of templates, you are essentially by-passing this initial road block. A great looking template should cost less than $150-$200.

The next step is to choose a domain name and hosting plan. The most popular choice is to go through Godaddy.com. They offer very reasonable prices (if not the lowest) on domain names and hosting packages. You will need to sign up for a hosting plan that includes PHP and MySQL setup. Don’t go overboard with the amount of storage because you can always upgrade later if you need. You will need the PHP/MySQL option because you will be installing Oscommerce which requires it. This should cost you $60-$100 for a year. I would also recommend buying a hidden domain and a security seal. Many merchant account providers (for accepting credit cards) will require your site to have a security seal and have SSL implemented so that the information your customers enter are hidden and encrypted from third parties or potential hackers.

Now comes the fun part: putting together you site. The best option for this step is to find a freelance, but highly qualified web designer with PHP/MysQL/Oscommerce experience. A great site to find such a web provider is Odesk.com. This is a site that brings companies and freelance providers together where they post their credentials, resumes, and portfolios for potential jobs. One can easily post a job, requirements, and pay range and sit back and wait for the candidates to quickly begin applying for your posted job. The best part about Odesk.com is that there are designers from all across the world so you have the potential to get your site put together and programmed by highly educated, talented, and qualified individuals for less than $12-$14 per hour…or a few hundred dollars for a complex site. I have had the best luck with developers from India as they are highly qualified and hard working. Be sure to thoroughly interview the applicants and look carefully through their credentials, reviews from past clients, and their portfolio. The great thing about Odesk is that there is little chance of dissatisfaction as long as you are clear about your requirements. The Odesk software carefully monitors the work of the individual working on your site and requires them to take pictures and post it in a diary so that you know you are paying only for actual time spent working on your site. Also, the work is backed by Odesk and you can dispute any billed hours you don’t agree with, making the Odesk team judge fairly to see if you are right or not and adjusting the bill.

In my next article I will discuss the best options for accepting credit cards for your store.

Alan Neville has been an online entrepreneur for over 10 years and has had many successful ventures. He is a web designer, artist, entrepreneur and an avid writer. His newest design is for boutique glass site http://www.basinpipes.com You can communicate with him easily via twitter @Alan_Neville.