Starting An E-Commerce Business
The development and expansion of the Internet has made business opportunities, once only available to the wealthy, available to nearly everyone. In the past, opening a business was a huge commitment in terms of finances and risk. Traditional business owners had to quit the their current jobs, obtain bank financing, and sign leases before they even made a penny. Its easy to see why 95% of them failed within five years. Today, business opportunities are available to anyone willing to put in the time and effort to learn about the world of e-commerce. Best of all, you can start an e-commerce business with minimal funds and very little risk. This guide will take you though the steps necessary to start your own e-commerce business.
Find Your Niche
The first step to creating your own e-commerce business is to find you niche. Examine your hobbies and interests for potential business ideas. If you love soccer, consider selling soccer supplies or team uniforms online. You may also consider opening a business that is similar to your current job. For example, as a nurse you may know a lot about medical supplies and how hospitals obtain them. You could start a medical supply business. Your contacts and industry knowledge could give you an advantage over a competitor who does not know the inner-workings of hospitals the way you do.
Research The Demand
Now that you have a few business ideas, its time to research the demand for your products or services. If you plan to sell to the general public, youll want to find out how many people are looking for your products or services. As a small business owner, you will not have the marketing funds to create a demand for a product. The products you sell, must already be in demand. A great way to determine product demand is to see how many people are searching for a specific product. Overture has a wonderful keyword tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/) that displays the number of searches for specific keywords. It will give you a good idea of which products are popular and the specific keywords you should target when building your website.
Scope Out Your Soon-To-Be Competitors
Before settling on a business idea, scope out your would-be competitors. Visit their websites and compare the following:
Professional Look & Feel
Products and Services
Search Engine Ranking
Page Rank (Available on the Google Tool Bar)
Keywords
Back Links (how many sites link to them).
Youll need to know your competitors websites inside and out. Spend some time exploring each one. This will give you an idea of what youre up against. Keep in mind, that your website will need to be equally as professional or better than theirs. Dont worry if you dont think you have the technical skills necessary to create a professional website. The use of professional website templates will be explained later.
While youre researching your competitors, check to see if the products you intend to sell are sold at large department stores such as Wal-Mart, target, and Amazon.com. It is very difficult for a small business to compete with these large companies because the profit margins are extremely low. Youll need to sell products that are in demand, but arent sold by corporate giants.
Establish A Business Entity
In order to conduct business, you need to establish a business entity. Fortunately this can be as easy as filing a Doing Business As or Fictitious Name form with your local County Clerks office to become a sole proprietor. When you arrive at the County Clerks office, they will check their records to make sure your intended business name is not already in use. If its available, you will need to complete the appropriate forms and pay your filing fee. Each state has different requirements. Check with your state for requirements on becoming a sole proprietor.
You will also need a sales tax id. You will need to charge sales taxes in the state where your business resides. Contact your county office for details about sales tax IDs and any other requirements they may have.
Open A Business Bank Account
Now that you are a legitimate business owner, its time to open a business bank account. Take your court documents to the bank and open a business checking account. Most banks offer a variety of business accounts. Choose the one the best meets your needs. Its usually best to start with their least expensive account because it could be a while before you start earning revenue. You can always upgrade in the future.
Some banks require a business owner to wait specified amount of time, usually 90 days, after the court documents are filed before opening a business bank account. These rules are in place to help prevent fraud. Check with your bank to obtain waiting period information.
Choose A Domain Name
While you wait to open a bank account, you can start building your website. First, register a domain name. Names that end in .com are best. If possible your, domain name should include one or more of your target keywords. For example, if you are creating a yoga supply business, youll want to choose a name with the word yoga, such as yogacenter.com, yoga-supply.com, or yogastuff.com.
Create Your website
One of the keys to successful e-commerce businesses is a professional website. Your website is the first and often the only impression your visitors will have of your business. A professional website can be the difference between your visitors viewing you as a home-based business operating out of your garage and a multi-million dollar business with hundreds of employees. Fortunately, you dont need to be a web programmer to create a professional website. There are companies that sell professional website templates. You can get website templates for free, but its much better to pay for a highly professional template. To find these templates, simply search for website templates. You should expect to pay $50 $150 for a good template with multiple pages and professional images.
Most website templates can be customized with common HTML editors and a simple graphics program. Templates can be edited without having to invest a lot of time and energy into learning how to code web pages.
Youll want your website content to target specific keywords. This can be achieved by creating articles, product reviews, product comparisons and detailed description of your products. Avoid repeating the keywords so often that the text becomes difficult to read. There is a fine line between good copy text and spam text. Spam text is designed to increase your sites listing in the search engines, but often backfires when penalties are issued and your website is dropped from the listing.
Host Your website
Now that your website has been created, its time to find a company to host your website on their servers. You should be able to find a good hosting company for around $10 per month. This fee should include technical support and email accounts with your domain name. Domain name-specific email accounts are important for a professional image.
Your website files can be uploaded with a simple FTP program. The hosting companys technical support personnel can walk you through the steps to upload your files and launch your website.
Implement A Shopping Cart
No e-commerce website is complete without a secure shopping cart. There are many shopping cart options. Many e-commerce business owners make the mistake of using Pay Pal to accept payments, which immediately tells visitors that their company is very small and not professional.
A good alternative to Pay Pal is a remotely hosted shopping cart. Remote shopping carts take the burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder and places the responsibility on another company. Remote shopping carts can usually be configured to look similar to your website. In fact, your customers may not realize that they have left your website to place an order. The remote shopping cart provider will give you the HTML to add to your website. When your potential customer clicks on the Buy Now button, he or she is taken to the remote shopping cart to enter the personal information and payment details.
Depending on your choice of a shopping cart, you may or may not need a merchant account to process transactions. Some shopping cart services allow you to use their merchant accounts for a slightly higher fee.
Stock Your Inventory
Now that your website has been created, its time to stock your inventory. The first step is to find the manufacturers of the products you wish to sell. You can find this information by reviewing your competitors websites. Some of them may list the manufacturer with the product name or description. Once you have the name, you can search for the manufacturer online.
Contact the manufacturer and tell them that you are interested in becoming a distributor. Ask for a wholesale price list and an application. The price list will help you determine if the profit margins are high enough to justify selling their product.
Youll want to ask the manufacturer the following questions:
What is the MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) for the item?
Am I required to sell the item at MSRP?
What is your minimum order quantity/amount?
Some manufacturers will not sell to e-commerce businesses that do not have a brick and mortar retail location. If this is the case, youll simply have to find a company that manufactures a similar product and is willing to sell to an e-commerce business.
Promote Your Business
Now that your website is live and youre open for business, its time to promote your website. If no one knows that it exists, you will not receive any sales. Most website visitors originate from search engines. Before search engines can list your website, they have to know that it exists. Youll need to submit your website to search engines and directories such as Yahoo!, DMOZ, Excite, and others. Search engine submission programs and services are available, but they not effective. Most good search engines require websites to be manually submitted. They enforce this by displaying an image with a series of letters or numbers that automated programs cannot read. The code embedded in the image is required to submit your website.
Search engine algorithms are extremely complex. The ranking of a website in their search results depends on a number of factors, including keywords, density, back links, page rank, and other factors. After submitting your website to the major directories and search engines, the next step is to establish back links. When search engines crawl the web and find a link to your site, they count the link as a vote for your site. The more votes you have, the higher your site will rank (assuming other criteria has also been met). You can acquire back links by sending emails to other website owners and offering to exchange links. Its very difficult for new websites to acquire back links. Most people prefer to exchange links with established websites. In a way, its a catch-22, but it can be done and the results are worth it.
Starting your own e-commerce business is a lot of work. making it successful is even more work, but the pay-offs can be rewarding. Thanks to the explosion of the Internet age, e-commerce business opportunities are now available to anyone with a computer, a few hundred dollars for start-up costs, some spare time and the desire to create a business.
Copyright 2004 ZIP Baby. All Rights Reserved.
About The Author
Danna Henderson started ZIP Baby in order to provide parents with comprehensive potty training information as well as a large selection of potty training products. For more information about potty training, or to browse the potty training store, visit the Toilet Time Targets for Potty Training.
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Cheap Golf Clubs That Can Improve Your Game
It is general knowledge that the really excellent golf clubs that many professionals use are very expensive ones that not many can afford to buy. This may be true, but it does not necessarily mean that all cheap golf clubs are not capable of bringing you glory at the green. There are many cheap golf clubs out there that are really quite outstanding and are even comparable to the more expensive models.
If you know where to look, there are many cheap golf clubs you can buy that can help improve your performance far better than some of the more costly clubs. I am talking about second hand but high-quality golf clubs. The question is - where do you start looking for these great cheap golf clubs?
If you want to buy some of these excellent but cheap golf clubs, you will have to constantly scan the ads in golf magazines or even in your local newspaper to know where cheap golf clubs are being sold. Many golfers who are quite serious about their game regularly dispose of their old branded clubs in exchange for the newer models that come out in the market. These old clubs usually end up for sale at golf supplies shops at a much lower price.
You might even get firsthand information from serious golfers who might be interested in selling their old golf clubs, and you can even buy these straight from them at an even lower cost. Even if you do not personally know any golfers looking to sell, these kinds of information are quite accessible in the golf community and all you have to do is ask around. You might even be able to get a better deal when buying through friends than if you purchase cheap golf clubs from a store.
The Internet is also a great place to look if you want to buy some cheap golf clubs. You can even compare the prices and quality of several cheap golf clubs before you actually make your purchase.
Another great advantage of buying cheap golf clubs from avid golfers is that there is a great chance that the secondhand cheap golf clubs have been very well maintained by their previous owner. Serious golfers are very particular about their equipment, and you can be almost certain that their golf clubs receive good care while in use.
Moreover, if you are buying cheap golf clubs from the sporting goods store, it is very likely that these cheap golf clubs have been carefully restored to almost brand new condition. No store owner would like to be accused of selling low quality goods, so the cheap golf clubs you are buying have probably been fixed up quite well. Because of this, you might actually be getting better quality from cheap golf clubs than from other new clubs that are being sold.
You can also find more info on Bag Boy Golf Carts and Golf Carts Parts. Golfclubscarts.com is a comprehensive resource to know about golf Carts.
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Halo 3 Eclipses Video Game Sales Record With 170 Million On First Day
The entertainment division of microsoft is riding high as their much anticipated and publicized video game Halo 3 set a record for first day sales with a take of 170 million dollars. The previous record was set by Halo 2 in 2004 at 125 million dollars in the first 24 hours. microsoft was expecting Halo 3 to make 150 million dollars on September 25, 2007 the day it was released. But this ambitious figure was met and surpassed much to the delight of the people at microsoft and Bungie Studios, their company owned animation studio.
When the first Halo video game Combat Evolved was released on November 9, 2001 it immediately captured the attention of the people who play video games. It then went on to much greater success. Several more video games like Halo 2 and a list of merchandising products like action figures and comic books were created. They were immediately embraced by a legion of loyal fans known as the Halo Nation. A cultural Icon and a very large following were created with this futuristic video game, much like the star Trek and star Wars franchises. Xbox 360 was the king of video game consoles and the Halo video game franchise was number one for the longest time.
But things have changed for microsoft since Playstation 3, PSP and nintendo Wii came out on the market. They offer a variety of great games like call of duty, madden nfl 07, Twilight Princess and Tony Hawks project 8 to name only a few. The latest video game consoles by Sony and nintendo also offer great technological advances, and this has caught the attention of the video game customers who love innovation with their video games and electronics. Especially the kind of innovations that make it seem like you are actually in the game.
When nintendo Wii was released about a year ago it offered an exiting new technology with the Wii remote. It is called the motion sensitive feature and it allows one to be right there in the game interacting with 3D characters and special effects. It revolutionized the way people play video games.
The Wii console also sells for less than the Xbox 360 console at about 250 dollars compared to 500. This fact has made nintendo Wii video game consoles more attractive than the Xbox 360 to the middle class parents whose Christmas funds for presents this year may be a little low.
nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 by Sony have both been on top of the video game market for the past year. Suddenly Xbox 360 was no longer number 1 in sales of video game consoles and the Halo video game franchise was no longer the best in the world of video games. Prior to September 25, 2007 things were not so merry at the entertainment division of microsoft.
A few years back microsoft and Bungie Studios hired a group of talented computer programmers and 3D animation artists that was large enough to fill a high school auditorium. These people were the cream of the crop in the business of making video games. They worked very hard for over 3 years on the production of Halo 3 at an overall cost of about 50 million dollars. The result is a first person shooter video game with sound and graphics that are a feast to the eyes and ears and a storyline that is quite engaging with several twists and turns.
The Halo Nation has shown up in full force at the retail stores to buy Halo 3. There is also a very large following for the online video game version of the Halo franchise. microsoft has reported that over 1 million online players battled it out in the first 24 hours on Xbox Live playing Halo 3. This version of the game pits online members against each in a fight to the death.
Now they are dancing in their corporate offices back at microsoft and Bungie studios. Their video game Halo 3 made 170 million dollars in the first day on the market and they are projecting that it will make over 560 million dollars overall. If this turns out to be true for Halo 3, which is well on its way to making it so, it will give microsoft a 90 percent profit for this project. In an industry where most video games lose money this is quite an astounding statistic.
The recent release of Halo 3 has put Xbox 360 games and Xbox 360 video game consoles back in the spotlight and primed to be back on top of the video game industry. It is a testament to the creativity and marketing skills of microsoft and its employees who have been known to do a few things right in their remarkable history.
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Pranayama : Ujjayi Breathing
Pranayama Yogic Breathing Ujjayi
Ujjayi breathing is one of the main varieties of pranayama and is sometimes referred to as the Victorious breath. It can be used at any time, being particularly powerful during asanas to enhance your stretch and concentration and increase your energy levels. Ujjayi breathing is easy to learn and can benefit the body by increasing the flow of prana (life force); oxygenating and purifying the blood; clearing phlegm; increasing the flexibility and strength of the thoracic area; improving digestion; toning the nervous system; and as the thoracic area strengthens, building self-confidence.
Bear in mind that you will be partly closing the epiglottis. This will allow the air to enter the windpipe more slowly and you will notice a particular feeling and a distinctive sound which accompany this. Making this sound will focus your awareness on your breath and allow you to dwell in the moment.
Start is by sitting in a comfortable position, checking that the spine is vertical. Allow the hands to rest comfortably in the lap. Relax.
Exhale fully through the nose. Inhale, and as you exhale, partially open your mouth and allow a gentle ha sounds to escape. It sounds much like the breathing Darth Vada favours. You will notice the sensation of the air vibrating in the back of your throat. Allow the inhalation to come comfortably into the lungs, but not overfilling them. Once you have understand the principle, close your mouth so that the air is moving in and out through your nostrils, with the sound and vibration continuing on both the inhalation and exhalation. Allow the breath to be long, deep and relaxing.
Avoid trying too hard. By letting go, relaxing the shoulders, softening the mouth and allowing the ujjayi breath to happen with minimum effort, you will succeed. With practice you will be able to enjoy the rhythm of the ujjayi breath and your lungs and diaphragm will strengthen as they work with the narrowing of the throat. Your energy levels will increase whilst still retaining a sense of centredness and emotional balance.
Beryl Whiting is an experienced and qualified Yoga instructor offering hatha Yoga classes in the South Beds and Milton Keynes area of the UK. Beryl's teaching style encourages her students to enhance the awakening of an awareness of what is happening in their mind and body. She is particularly noted for her soothing voice and relaxation sessions. A relaxation CD is available from her webblog at http://www.yoga4healthyliving.com. This webblog is full of ideas of practical ways to develop and maintain a sense of emotional and physical well being.
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Tips For Preserving Your Home's Exterior And Preventing Costly Repairs
It's what inside that counts is a good mantra for dealing with people, but when it comes to houses, the outside is just as important. Routine exterior maintenance makes a world of difference to a home's look and quality, not to mention the homeowner's wallet. severe weather, sun exposure and moisture buildup wreaks havoc on a home's exterior. Pinpointing and repairing damaged areas before they escalate into major problems preserves the homes value and saves the homeowners from much more costly repairs down the road.
Annual spring or summer checkups, are a great way to preserve the beauty and value of your home. These are ideal times to identify weather damage and complete any needed repairs before cooler weather sets in. Some professional painting contractors provide this service to their customers free of charge, such as Hester Painting & Decoratings Exterior Maintenance Program.
You can also follow these simple steps to assess the health of your home:
1) Walk around your homes exterior and look for any paint or caulk that has cracked, peeled or blistered. Properly painted areas not only look better, they also protect the home as exposed wood is especially prone to weather damage. Any break in the exterior finish of the house is an opening for moisture to enter, eventually leading to mildew and rot.
2) Examine your gutters and clear out any debris. Roof damage occurs when water gets backed up and leaks in, so clearing out any leaves and dirt will help prevent internal wall and ceiling damage.
3) Check all flat surfaces, such as window sills, thresholds, steps and decks for wear. Identify vulnerable areas and watch for water pooling up on the surface.
4) Pay particular attention to areas of intense sun or shade. Harsh sun can fade sections of paint finish, while portions of a home that are in deep shade may be subject to mildew and mold.
5) Be sure to protect all painted or stained outside furniture by covering or storing it before winter hits. The minimal effort involved in covering patio furniture will reward you many times over.
Routine, preventative maintenance keeps your home looking its best while dramatically reducing the cost of repairs. Whether you do it yourself or schedule an inspection with your local painting contractor, give your homes exterior an annual checkup and identify any minor issues before they develop into major problems. Youll preserve the value and beauty of your home one of your largest assets, and youll save money by avoiding extensive repairs that could have been easily resolved by early detection.
This article is provided courtesy of www.hesterdecorating.com and may be reprinted provided this courtesy notice with the author name and URL remain intact.
Jeff Hester, a.k.a. Professor Paint, is an expert on high-end painting, faux finishing and wall covering. He has 28 years experience in the field and is vice president of Hester Painting & Decorating. Visit http://www.hesterdecorating.com
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Plumbers - Where Are You?
If your looking for a plumber it may have come to your attention that they are becoming increasingly difficult to find. This is especially true in our particular area - Pontefract, Wakefield, Barnsley and Rotherham. This article focuses on the reasons for the shortage of good local plumbers in the Yorkshire area and the problems that our young plumbing apprentices face on the road to becoming qualified and highly skilled plumbers.
First of all, if your looking for a plumber to fit a bathroom suite or even carry out small plumbing repairs in and around your home, you might think it's just a case of picking up the telephone directory and choosing a company from the list. Not so! Given the recent property development trends and because there is so much demand for local plumbers in general, it is much harder to contract a local plumber than you may think.
We are part of the plumbing industry in the Yorkshire area and are enjoying a great abundance of very profitable local business partly due to our dedication to providing quality plumbing services, but more realistically due to the small numbers of quality plumbing companies that are currently servicing the areas surrounding Pontefract, Wakefield, Barnsley and Rotherham.
So why is this the case? Why are there so few plumbing companies in the Yorkshire areas that there are not enough local plumbers to meet local customer needs? In our opinion, the root cause is that very few young people are training to become plumbers. Even fewer of these plumbing students are entering the plumbing trade once they have received there formal qualifications. Plumbing is, and has always been a difficult trade to master. A plumber must master multiple disciplines in order to be able to meet the needs of their customer and must also have the business sense to turn a decent profit. A multi-skilled plumber may have skills which border on such trades as building, electrical, plastering and tiling.
We have talked to a number of local plumbing apprentices in the Yorkshire area and, whilst we knew the route to becoming a qualified plumber was not easy, we were astounded by some of the things that we heard from the people that we believe to be the future of the industry. First of all in order to get essential plumbing qualifications from a reputable college a work placement was needed first so that apprentices could provide photographic evidence of plumbing techniques that they have learned 'on the job'. We think this is a very good way to teach young plumbers, i.e. by combining classroom theory with on the job practical skills.
The problems are evident however, when you stop to consider the fact that there are very few local plumbing companies out there and even fewer that are willing to take on an apprentice who once trained would be able to compete with them for local business. Consider also the fact that these young people are expected to work for very little money. In many cases plumbing apprentices are expected to work for free! When you understand the dedication and effort that goes into training to be a plumber you can see what a thankless task it is for our young people to complete their training. This especially true when you consider the increasing number of lesser skilled job opportunites that are present in our area at the moment that offer decent wages for young people but which offer little in the way of career development or opportunities to develop other skills.
The solution to this problem in our opinion is for local plumbing companies in Pontefract, Wakefield, Barnsley and Rotherham to get behind our young people and provide support to make sure that there is a new wave of local plumbers who will be there to provide ongoing plumbing services for years to come.
This article was written Stuart Mortimer on behalf of MEM Plumbing and Bathrooms Ltd - a quality plumbing company in wakefield. MEM plumbing and Bathrooms provide fully qualified and highly skilled plumbers in the wakefield area. MEM also provide quality plumbing services in Pontefract, Barnsley and Rotherham.
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