6 Things Every ECommerce Website Should Have In Place

Running an E-Commerce site doesn’t have to be difficult when you know what your site needs to work at the best level possible. Ultimately, you want sales, but in order to achieve these you need to have a few essentials in place, so you can build up a great website and encourage both existing and new customers to choose you for the product or service they require.

Logo

Your logo is the key visual of your entire brand and you should put a lot of effort into what it implies and the message it sends to customers. Your logo should be memorable and completely unique, so that your business is easily recognizable to people choosing you. If you go for a generic logo, you may have to rely on the size of your business to see you through, this may not work for a smaller business relying on new customers, so make it enticing and interesting. 

Call To Action 

As we mentioned, your site is there ultimately to achieve sales, so this needs to be reflected in your calls to action on your site. You should concentrate on optimising these for the best possible results in terms of conversions. By learning the basics of conversion optimisation you can ensure that you make the most of your banners and linking elements of your pages.

Shopping Basket 

It is crucial that your customers have a smooth service when they go to purchase products, so you should make sure that you have a good and reputable shopping cart set up. If there is any sign that your shopping cart looks iffy, or falters as your customers are browsing the site, then it’s likely that  they won’t trust that your shopping systems are secure. If you’re running your site via a Content Management System (CMS), then try installing a trusted plugin such as WooCommerce or WP E-Commerce.

Strike A Balance With Paid and Organic 

Although it is possible to attract a lot of traffic through good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) practices, which you should be doing anyway, it is sometimes a good idea to invest a little budget into paid advertising. Although this doesn’t have to be your sole source of traffic generation, it does often pave the way to solid and targeted leads. If budget doesn’t permit, then maybe set in place a plan to progress onto paid search as business increases. 

Trust Signals 

Showing your potential customers that you are a reputable company can include a number of things. From gaining great reviews on sites such as TrustPilot, if applicable, or simply getting on-page testimonials from clients can really improve the likelihood of people choosing your business over your competition. The main thing you need to show the world is that you are a great place to buy from and that you will deliver on what you say you will. Other trust generating factors can include offering bonuses that others don’t, such as guaranteed delivery or loyalty rewards.

Linkable Assets 

The Internet is a social place, so offer content that people want to see and in turn share. This will make sure that your website gains attention from Social Media sites and not just through search engines. Connect with your customers and you will be sure to reap the rewards.

No matter what you choose to do with your site, always make sure that you focus on what your customers specifically want. This will be different for every business depending on what products and services you are offering, so make sure you tailor an individual approach.

About the Author: Katie Belliveau is an Internet marketing nut and likes helping businesses make money. She suggests you take a look at Davpack if you’re looking for reputable packaging supplies for your E-Commerce business.

What You Should Know About Web Developers?

Web developers are a unique breed. The industry in which they work literally changes by the day. The technology they use today can be outdated tomorrow. The pace at which the industry moves can sometimes be frightening. A web developer has to make research and self-training a way of life.

  

Every day they will be researching on new technologies and better ways of building the products they need to deliver. Everyday new versions of software languages and software components are released. 

Developers by definition are creative problem solvers. They need to have the freedom to create without restrictions. Giving them a certain amount of time every month in which they can build whatever they want allows for better creativity. Somewhere between 15% and 20% of their time is a good amount to allocate to this. It should be time in which the management will not have any say in what they do.

Why Is This Necessary?

This allows for creativity and exploration into new and better ways of producing the products for your business. At the end of the day your company will benefit from their innovation, they will have greater satisfaction and you will retain good developers to work for you.

Working with the Latest Technologies

Being a developer means that you are constantly retraining yourself. Part of being able to make an impact on people's lives is to be able to use the latest technologies that allow you to do that. It is critical that a developer keeps up with the latest technologies in order to remain employable and relevant to the industry.

 

Technologies and software generally have a lifespan of 5 years but that can be more or less depending on your business focus and the complexity of your system. For example, a social-media website would probably have a shorter code lifespan than a corporate financial management system. A social-media website would need to keep up with the latest and greatest where as a financial management system would be more focused on long term stability.

You Get What You Pay For

A good developer can often output better products with better quality in less time. Why? Because in web development there are many ways of solving a problem and the capability of knowing the optimum and best possible way only comes with experience. Many companies have tried to outsource their development to countries where they can have a product developed for less money. The same principle applies though. If you pay less then expect to have more problems.

Quality of the Code

The quality of a program's code is the responsibility of the developer. It is not the responsibility of the project manager, product owner or management. Quality isn't just about whether or not a system has bugs in it. It has a lot more to do with how the code is structured.

Quality of the code depends on the following factors:

How neatly is the code written?

Are there spacing's carriage returns and comments that allow for easy readability and understanding of the code?

What names have been used for different parts of the code? 

Names like Button1 and Button2 are useless to someone trying to understand the code.

Has the code been partitioned and broken down into small parts that make it easier to understand and test?

The quality of the system will depend largely on the above factors. If you take pride in what is below the bonnet, not just what is seen, then you will probably be more careful in making sure that the system works the way it is intended to.

About the Author: Jack Jenkins is a web developer from Los Angeles. If you need a web developer in Los Angeles, visit Los Angeles Web Developers.

 

Which WordPress Theme Gives You The Best Bang for Your Buck?

If you do a little research, you’ll find that there are numerous wordpress themes available throughout the web. But not all of them will give you the best bang for your buck. Most of them cost more than the average person is willing to spend to start a website or blog and many of the themes available online either come equipped with poor graphics or an unstable code. So let`s take a look at a great wordpress theme that stands head and shoulders above the competition.

The theme is called Elegant Themes. These themes are coded to perfection, have a beautiful look and give you a better bang for your buck compared to other wordpress themes you`ll find available online. With a generous price of only $39, and a 30-day money back guarantee, you`ll get unlimited access to a huge variety of themes, 83 different professionally designed wordpress themes to choose from for building an unlimited number of personal or business websites. Other sites that provide wordpress themes usually only offer one theme alone for that price.

The price and huge theme selection are not the only great things about Elegant Themes. Each of their themes also include a theme options panel that allow you to easily customize and control the graphics of a website without ever touching a line of code. You can switch on and off features, adjust the layout of your site, manage advertisements, control colors, optimize your site for search engines and more. Each theme also comes with short codes that allow you to easily insert different interface elements on your pages without the headache of having to code them in.

Finding the perfect theme is the most important step to building a successful wordpress website for you or your business. Not having to build a site with your bare hands and mess with all the different codes enables you to get your site up and running in no time flat, giving you more time to focus on the all important stuff like like adding the content and information you want to showcase on your newly designed website. All Elegant themes come with a built-in content management system, great plugin features and outstanding support that will make managing your website a much easier task. 

Do yourself a favor and take advantage of what Elegant Themes have to offer and build that website you`ve been wanting without all the hassle.

How to Buy Profitable Websites Online and Which Sites to Avoid

Knowing how to find profitable websites for sale and how to buy them is important, but more importantly is knowing which sites to avoid. Buying websites from online auction sites such as Flippa, Websitebroker and Ebay can be a profitable choice if the buyer knows what to look for.

Here Are Five Types of Listings You Should Always Avoid...

Shady Niches
These types of niches are going to be problematic right from the start. Pornography, internet gambling, pyramid schemes, Promotions, and foreign exchange sites. I mean if it is something that would arrive in your inbox and you would hit the spam button right away it’s not worth bidding on.

Short-term Promotion Sites
Sites that have a temporary value in nature for example, 2013 Severe Weather Predictions, or sites that offer a special sale for limited-time. Website sellers may put these types of sites to auction because they have reached their “peak profit”.

Sites that have been banned by google or are on Google’s hit list
Believe what you want but Google has a great influence on search engine rankings and traffic and is not likely to lessen in the near future. Sites that don`t focus on delivering high quality content and information to their readers most likely won’t make the grade. Take autoblogs for example, Google has always had a long history of penalizing sites with scraped content, especially now with all the recent Panda and Penguin updates going on. Sites of this nature will lose their value real fast.

Unintelligible business model
One of the most important things that should be completely clear in your mind when you are thinking about buying or bidding on a website is "How does the site generate money?" If the site is not currently generating any form of revenue, then ask yourself, "how can I make it generate revenue?" If the website is in fact generating revenue, from what sources and how are they being distributed? Always make sure you fully understand how the site is making money, or at least how it could make money.

Unclear claims from the seller

Any trustworthy seller should always be able to give you an exact figure of the revenue that the site is producing and the source where the revenue is being generated from. Also the seller should be able to provide you with proof of that revenue. If the seller just gives you a proximate or an imprecise number then that should be a red flag to you.

These are just a few tips on buying and starting a website business online, I`m sure there are plenty more where these came from and I will be posting more information in due time. Hopefully this will help you when deciding to take that first step to starting a successful website and generating an online income. If you have any tips you would like to share with us or our readers please do so by leaving your comment below. 

Ebay Website Selling Scams and How to Avoid Them?

Buying A Website Business can be a very lucrative way to starting a home based business, but one should always take certain steps and precautions before buying a website online. Website Sellers seem to choose eBay as a their #1 choice to market their websites. Lets take a look at some of the promotional material and selling tactics website sellers use to sell their websites. 

5 Tips to Avoid Being Scammed by ebay Website Sellers...

 

1. Established Website 

An established website is one that has been online and promoted for at least 6 months with the same domain name. It is a site that generates traffic and produces at least some kind of income. a lot of website sellers or resellers will purchase a domain name and implement a site on it then list it on a auction or market the very next day as an established website... charging more for this. 

A domain name costs an average of $10 per year and does not increase the value of web design and programming by itself. find out if a site is "established" by first determining the age of the domain name. You can go online to look up a domain name, find out when it was created, and view how many times it's changed servers and possession.

2. Valuable Domain Name 

This is the most commonly used and the most pathetic tactical maneuver out there. There's sellers that will provide an exaggerated assessment of a domain name based on its length, words, and extension. This in no way dictates the value of a domain name. A domain name is valued by its existence, traffic, and profitability. 

In case you are truly interested in a site with a domain name in which the sellers shows a domain name appraisal it would be recommended to contact the seller and ask for a certified appraisal. This is not a copy created certificate with a number in it. It is a certified assessment from a authorized appraisal company that charges for their services. They research the name and all the content and traffic that goes with it

3. Website for less then $1.00 with no reserve 

Now that sounds like a great deal! Who could pass up an offer to start a website business for under a dollar?... I should not have to verbalize any more but... the catch here is either a simple designed affiliate website that is being sold or a website that can be resold and the person selling the site wants to make you a hosting customer. 

Most of the time these are people that have signed up as hosting resellers and they will do anything to build up their clientele. The hazard to you is resellers come and go like day and night. Some cannot keep paying their $50-$100 a month reseller account so all of their accounts get suspended (including your website) or in some cases these guys will build up 500-1000 clients as quickly as they can and then sell the hosting company as established with customers. You seldom know who your server administrators are and seldom know if your site will stay online and for what period of time.

4. Buy our websites and we`ll submit your site to the major search engines 

Now that would be a real bonus not to have to pay a fee for this because the search engines are in fact the major factor in getting indexed right?...but...what they don`t tell you is that your site will get indexed automatically by Google, Yahoo, and Bing within days of it being online without manual submissions. Also you can obtain free submission software online that will submit your site to all the major search engines available. This is information usually unknown to an inexperienced webmaster.

5. Seller is making ten times more than everyone else & sells everything they list 
He must be furnishing excellent support. Well perhaps...however since ebay changed their policies so people could not sell 1cent ebooks in order to influence feedback & power seller status some have found other ways. To be a power seller you must sell 100 items a month for three months straight or accomplish $1000 in sales each of three months.

 In other words if someone getting in to this business is consenting to pay the fees it would make sense that they would bid their own auctions high in order to accomplish that status. Do not trust everything you see in these sales. In the event you need to know the reputation of a seller & if his/her product is top-quality then email him for a phone number. Call & Speak to the seller about any and all information you would like to know.

How to Buy the Right Website Business Online?

According to industry statistics, over 95% of individuals who begin the search to buy a website business never do! The only way that you'll avoid being in that 95% is by acquiring the right knowledge. Likewise, the only way to ensure that you will become successful in any online business is to be absolutely certain that you purchase the right one. Don't be dismayed, most people do not have a clue what website business is right for them. The amount of websites for sale online can be daunting; the choices are rather enormous. There are many proven tips and techniques that can help you decide what is the right online business for you.

As an example, here are my five rules for any online business I consider buying... 

1. It must be a sales and marketing driven business

That's what I do best. I avoid ones where I have to always have leading-edge technology because I'm not an expert at that aspect. 

2. It must have some element of exclusivity either in the product or service or within a territory 
If not, I have no point of difference to offer prospective customers and maintaining current customers will always be a risk.

3. The product or service must be a high margin item 
This way, it's simply a matter of time, persistence, and sales and marketing savvy (my strengths) for me to build the business. Plus, the margins will allow me to try new, creative ways of building the business.

4. There must be a built in demand for the product service 
I've learned the hard way that trying to create demand is far too expensive.

5. I do not want to sell anything that competes solely on price 
There's no long-term viability in that business model.

These are my rules. Unbreakable, Non-negotiable - No matter what! and Guess What? They are bulletproof. When I find a website business with these in place, and there are plenty, I am always going to be successful. You can certainly follow mine, but I will also show you how to modify them to find the Internet business that makes perfect sense for you.

Develop your Guidelines and Rules 
Put together a list of five rules of what any business you plan to purchase must have. Think about this and be very specific. Don't say: "I have to enjoy what I do"...sure that's important, very important in fact. However, if you're in a business that you initially think you're going to like, but you find yourself losing money, I can assure you that you'll learn to hate that business line very quickly!

Helpful hint
you probably won't come up with five today. Your list may even change a bit during your search. As you speak to and visit different website owners, search online and conduct your research, you may discover certain things that are added or deleted from your list. That's OK. However, getting this list down pat as soon as possible is fundamental to your success! 

Whatever It Is That You Do Best 
Next, get a true grip on your skills. Don't pretend to be something that you're not. The rule here is that whatever it is that you do best (sales, marketing, operations, etc.), must be the single most important driving factor of the revenue and profits of any online business you consider purchasing. Repeat the last sentence once again; it holds the key to your success! 

With Internet business ownership, one of the main goals is for you to control your own destiny. Don't put yourself in a position where if one employee leaves, you're in big trouble. Your skills must be the fuel that drives the engine. 

The right online business for you is one that will thrive from your strengths and not suffer from your weaknesses. Take a long, hard look at yourself. Picture yourself in the business. Of paramount importance is that you must perceive yourself as enjoying the business. If you can't, then there's just no way that you can be successful. The website that you choose has to be one that you'll be proud to own. 

Fall In Love With The Profit NOT The Product 
Another key factor is to avoid falling in love with the website or product it offers; rather, you must fall in love with the profit and the lifestyle that it can deliver to you. Many buyers begin to dream about all of the exciting things about owning an Internet business and they become delusional about what can realistically be achieved. If the business does not produce the income you need, or provide you with a satisfactory return on your investment, then rest assured, you will learn to detest the business quickly. 

Stay Focused - Don't Get Discouraged 
During the search phase, it's easy to become discouraged by the vast amount of available websites for sale. Don't get overwhelmed. Approach this methodically. If necessary, rule out the ones that you don't want. Search through listings paying attention to the profits not just the asking price. Understand that listings do not always portray the whole picture. 

Send inquiries to the listed contact. Arrange calls and meetings with sellers. Prepare the questions you need to ask. You cannot buy any business from a listing. Navigate through the company's website and meet with the owners whenever possible (either in person or by phone). With each meeting you'll get closer to knowing what is and isn't right for you.

10 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Website Online?

Before buying a website online, it is important to contact the seller and learn as much about the websites past and present traffic history, income reports, pagerank and all the features the website offers before you invest any of your hard earned money. Below are some of the most important questions to ask the website seller before purchasing a website online.

10 Questions You Should Ask Before Buying A Website Online.

1. Was the website designed by you or your organization or are you just licensed to resell it?

 

2.  Can you construct and build the site to my specifications?

 

3.  What is the legitimate name of your business or company?

 

4.  Where is your business or company located? 


5.  When was the domain registered that you are promoting and selling? 


6.  Can you furnish traffic & income details to back up your promotion as established? 


7.  Where is the site currently hosted?

8.  Is this you or your company`s primary business or do you do this in your spare time and have another occupation?

 
9.  What hours of the day or days of the week will I be able to reach you to address and discuss my site.? 

10. If the site comes with a domain name, will the domain name be transferred to the new owner?

Buying a website online and operating the site can be an adventurous & profitable business venture. The essential ingredient to it`s success is you...the webmaster. Your efforts and determination to drive traffic to your site. The website ought to have something you have knowledge in of or something you can relate to..."something that interests you". In any event if you are into health but buy an online site about music then you will find the task of promotion exhausting & ultimately uninteresting.

It is hard to dedicate time to something if you don’t have interest in it. Do yourself a favor and check out the marketplace. Execute searches on Google, Yahoo and Bing for keywords relating to the site you are interested in buying. And most importantly ASK QUESTIONS. Remember you are the one spending your hard earned money and have the right to know what you are buying.

5 Reasons Why Buying an Established Website Makes Sense!

My favorite reason for buying an established website is that by purchasing a website that is already online, you have the unique opportunity to build off the work of the previous owner. They’ve already spent the time testing what works and what does not, and they are always happy to give advice on what they would do differently if they started it all over again. This is invaluable information, and it saves a lot of the time you would normally spend testing different revenue models. From day one you can focus on the money because there is already money there!

Here Are Some Other Ways You Can Benefit From Buying an Established or Existing Website... 

1. Allows You To Hit The Ground Running

Whenever you consider buying websites, it’s important to consider what you are actually getting for your investment. If you’ve ever started a website from scratch, then you know how challenging the process can be. From picking the domain to selecting a host to writing the content to getting traffic and optimizing for conversions, the checklist for developing a new site can be daunting.

When you have the opportunity to buy a web business that has already worked through many of these beginner challenges, you are left with a business where you can focus more of your time on doing the things that matter: increasing traffic, increasing sales, and focusing on actually making money.

2. The Site is Already Making Money 
I wish I could find a concrete statistic on this, but since we all know that 95% of small business fail within 5 years (sba.gov), I would venture a guess that 99% of websites fail within the first 5 days (maybe not quite that fast, but you get the idea). Why? Because most people start websites without any concrete plans for monetization.

When you have the opportunity to purchase a website that has made it past the challenging stage of getting off the ground and it has revenue to boot, that is a business worth looking into.

3. Built In Traffic
Second to monetizing your website, getting traffic is a real challenge. Some might argue traffic is even more important than monetization. After all, how can you monetize a site with no visitors. Either way you look at it, traffic is important, and when you buy an existing website, the existing traffic source you buy can be worth its weight in gold.

Not only will you continue to have visitors to your new business, with free tools like Google Analytics you can quickly see what visitors are doing on your site, where they are going, who is buying your products, and what you need to do to improve.

It’s important to verify where the traffic is coming from. Is it primarily affiliate driven? Is it from SEO or PPC? It is cyclical, or is it focused on one or two pages only? These are all things you want to verify during the due diligence stage, but purchasing a website with built-in traffic sources is always a good thing!

4. Content Already in Place 
Have you ever sat down to write a paper or better yet an article for your website? It’s hard. Writing is not always easy especially for those of us not gifted that way. Since content is the food for search engines, purchasing a website with content already in place can really help you leverage what you can do with the site under your ownership.

Perhaps the owner didn’t organize the site in the most optimal way from an SEO standpoint. Maybe they are passing page rank onto pages that they shouldn’t. There are any number of things you can do with the content of a website once you own it, but the benefit again is that it’s already there.

5. Initial Search Engine Rankings 
Finally, there are the search engine rankings. It is no secret that age matters for domains (at least from Google’s perspective), and any time you can buy a site vs. starting one from scratch it may be a good idea for this reason alone. There are certain markets where it will be next to impossible to break the competitive barrier sites already ranking for those desired keywords possess.

If you have the opportunity to buy a website that is ranking well, or even remotely well for a set of keywords in which you are hoping to rank for then you should consider buying that site, buying websites for search engine rankings is something you can’t ignore. Often times it can take months for a new site to make any measurable progress for certain keywords and phrases.