Q: I have been working at my own business dealing with electronics. My biggest problem is that I do not know how to go about getting my website on the Internet, setting up payment acceptance methods, and so forth. I really hope you can help me.
— Jerrod
A: Even though we are living in a 24/7, global, interconnected, digital world, it is perhaps not so surprising that many small businesses either do not have a Web presence, or have a limited one, or have one but do not capitalize on the financial possibilities available online.
Why is that? I suggest that small business owners, like people generally, are creatures of habit. We figure out what works and do that same thing again and again and again. If an online component has not been part of that routine, that's the way it goes. "We'll get to it next year" seems to be the refrain.
The good news though is that increasing your online capabilities need not be expensive or difficult. There are simply so many tools available today to make the job easy that it would be shortsighted to not take advantage of the incredible opportunity that is e-commerce.
Here are the seven steps to take:
Decide. Begin by figuring out what it is you want to do online. Do you need your website to simply be an informational marketing vehicle or do you want to sell goods or services? The answer to that question will determine what you do afterwards.
Research. Once you know what you want your website to do, you need to get a grasp on what similar websites do and how they look. For example, I was recently involved in a nascent online business. Before we did anything, the group spent considerable time knocking around the Net, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing similar sites, and figuring out what we would do similarly and differently.
Choose. Next, you will need a domain name. This is a huge decision as it will identify your site and business to the world. I spent a lot of time before coming up with, and choosing, MrAllBiz.com. You too will need something memorable while not being too complicated. And, while a ".com" address does have some cachet, know too that today there are many different suffixes to choose from: .net, .biz, .tv, .bz, .us, and others.
Create. Now you are ready to drill down a bit. Once you know what your site should look like and do, you have two choices:
First, if you have decided that all you need is something simple to let people know who you are and that you are out there, then you can get started by simply registering your Web address and getting an email account and basic webpage. You can do that by going here. You can always upgrade to something more robust later (and you probably should).
However, if you want more than just a little splash page, then you need a Web hosting solution. A host is the place that will actually house your site. A basic hosting package should be affordable (less than $50 a month), and offer the following benefits:
At least 100mb of disk space for your site
At least 10 custom email addresses
Plenty of data transfer capabilities
Easy setup with a site creation tool
Virus filtering
Phone and online support
Stock. Another great thing about having an online store is that it is so easy to stock the virtual shelves. In fact, you need not actually "stock" any of your products, instead, it is all done virtually and handled by a third-party shipper.
A good e-commerce solution will give you a catalogue with which to stock the e-store, a shopping cart solution, secure online ordering, a credit-card processing system, and the ability to track what is going on online.
Optimize. To get people to come to your site, first they need to know of it. In other words, you need to show up in search-engine results—and the higher in the list, the better. Getting placement in search results is variously known by the terms search engine submission, search engine optimization, keyword search, and so on. While you can try to submit your site to all the search engines out there, it is far wiser to pay a small fee and have a service like Submit It do it for you.
Doing so will get you listed on search engines, help you know what words people use to look for you, and help you track your rankings.
Advertise. Submitting your site to search engines is only one of many online marketing methods. There are many other things you can do, among them: Create reciprocal links, offer an e-newsletter, buy banner ads, or buy search engine ads.
Hopefully, you see that getting and growing online is not all that hard. It simply is a matter of replacing some old habits with some new, (virtual) ones!
Steve Strauss is one of the country's leading small business experts, a columnist for USATODAY.com, and the author of the "Small Business Bible." If you would like to have Steve speak to your group, or to sign up for his free e-newsletter Small Business Success Secrets!, visit his Web site. Have a question for Steve? Send him an e-mail.
