| Many site owners make the mistake of building a | | | | processing fees every time a customer purchases |
| website without laying out a clear plan for their online | | | | something from your website. |
| business. This is a sure set-up for failure. There are | | | | A less expensive option for accepting payments |
| 1000s of abandoned sites on the web due to lack of | | | | online is the Paypal shopping cart. You don't need to |
| careful planning. Before designing your website you | | | | purchase a separate merchant account, shopping |
| should ask yourself some questions to avoid making | | | | cart, payment gateway and secure certificate. For a |
| mistakes down the road. | | | | small processing fee it takes care of all this in one |
| 10 frequently asked questions (FAQ) about designing | | | | place. |
| a website | | | | 7. Do you have a web hosting plan? |
| 1. What are your business goals? | | | | Your website needs to be hosted on a server for it |
| It's easy to say " I want to make money," however | | | | to be available online. Select a hosting plan that has |
| this is not a great motivator. Think of a deeper | | | | sufficient space for all your files and bandwidth to |
| motivation that you feel passionate about e.g. "I | | | | receive 1000s of visitors each month. Make sure you |
| want to have the financial freedom to spend more | | | | have the flexibility to upgrade your plan should you |
| time with my kids as they are growing up." | | | | need more space and bandwidth. |
| 2. What's the purpose of your website? | | | | 8. Will you need to maintain the website yourself? |
| This is the question most visitors will ask when | | | | Asking this question before the design will determine |
| accessing your website. Your home page must clearly | | | | what software your designer will use to build your |
| explain the purpose and benefits of the products and | | | | website. If it only consists of a few web pages |
| or services you are offering. | | | | which don' need regular updating, then use software |
| 3. What type of products or services will you sell? | | | | such as Dreamweaver to build it. It creates clean |
| Research the marketability of your products or | | | | code and you will have only a few files. |
| services by doing keyword research. Use the free | | | | If your website has 100s of pages consider a |
| Google Keyword Tool to find out how many | | | | content management system such as WordPress, |
| searches your main keywords receive every month. | | | | Joomla or Zen Cart. They all enable 100s of items to |
| If there are no searches it means there is not much | | | | be stored in a database. The website can be |
| demand and therefore not worth marketing. | | | | managed (add, edit or delete items or pages) by |
| If it is a very competitive market (millions of | | | | logging into an administration area. |
| searches per month) it may be difficult to stand out | | | | 9. Do you have a marketing plan? |
| from your competitors and create a profitable online | | | | To create a profitable online business you must |
| business. | | | | create a plan to promote it. Some methods may |
| 4. How many products will you sell from your | | | | include, search engine marketing, pay per click, article |
| website? | | | | marketing, press releases, social media, video |
| This will determine how many pages your website will | | | | marketing, etc. Website promotion needs to be done |
| have. If you're only selling one product or service you | | | | frequently and consistently to be effective. |
| may only need 4 web pages e.g. Home, Product (or | | | | 10. How will you monitor your website statistics? |
| Services), About, Contact. If you're selling 100s of | | | | Check if your web hosting plan includes site statistics |
| items you will need a database driven site to store | | | | (e.g. AW Stats). If not create a Google Analytics |
| and manage all of them. | | | | account and insert the code on your web pages. It |
| 5. How many variables does your product have? | | | | will track how many daily, weekly, monthly, yearly |
| Variables may include size, color, type, sku#, shipping, | | | | visitors you receive, where they are coming from |
| tax? Make sure your shopping cart allows you to | | | | and what keywords are being used to find your site |
| include these variables. | | | | in the search engines. |
| 6. How will you accept online payments? | | | | If you answer these 10 questions first you'll avoid |
| To accept credit card payments online, you will need | | | | the pitfalls of designing and building a website and |
| a shopping cart, merchant account, payment | | | | increase your potential of creating a profitable online |
| gateway and SSL certificate for secure transactions. | | | | business. |
| This means you will have monthly fees and | | | | |