Create Your Own Web Store

Create Your Own Web Store An Organized Approach for Selling on the World Wide Web Creating Your Own Web Store Create Your Own Web Store Table of Contents STEP ONE: Determine Functionality of the Store ........................................................................ 2 STEP TWO: Establish a Domain ................................................................................................... 2 STEP THREE: OBTAIN A HOSTING SITE ............................................................................... 3 STEP FOUR: DESIGN YOUR STORE ........................................................................................ 5 STEP FIVE: USING HTML.......................................................................................................... 5 STEP SIX: LEARNING ABOUT SERVERS AND CLIENTS .................................................... 6 STEP SEVEN: LEARNING ABOUT FLASH ............................................................................. 7 STEP EIGHT: HIRING A WEB DESIGNER............................................................................... 7 STEP NINE: ADDING A BACK-END DATABASE AND SHOPPING CART ....................... 8 STEP TEN: OBTAIN ADVERTISING REVENUE ..................................................................... 8 STEP ELEVEN: ESTABLISH A WAY TO RECEIVE PAYMENT ........................................... 9 STEP TWELVE: DEVELOP AN INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ........................... 9 STEP THIRTEEN: DETERMINE BEST SHIPPING METHODS ............................................ 10 STEP FOURTEEN: MARKET YOUR STORE ......................................................................... 10 STEP FIFTEEN: KEEP PROPER RECORDS............................................................................ 11 APPENDIX A: WORKSHEET FOR DETERMINING FUNCTIONALITY OF YOUR WEB STORE .......................................................................................................................................... 12 APPENDIX B: HTML RESOURCES......................................................................................... 13 APPENDIX C: CHECKLIST FOR WEB STORE DESIGN SOFTWARE COMPARISON .... 14 Creating, Maintaining, and Selling from your own Web Store 1 Create Your Own Web Store This checklist will walk you through the steps in first getting a web store up and running, and will help you to monitor inventory and keep proper records for your sales. STEP ONE: Determine Functionality of the Store Before you can begin the process of designing your store, you will need to figure out what you need your store to do for you and for your customers. Please see the worksheet at Appendix A that provides several common features of a web store that you will need to consider. This worksheet will help you to determine all of the functionality that will be needed to make your store effective for its intended purpose. STEP TWO: Establish a Domain Definition of Domain: A domain is an identifier of an Internet site, made up of characters (usually words and dashes), and separated by periods. An example is “www.example.com”. The most difficult part of establishing a domain name will probably be coming up with what you want it to be called and finding one that isn‟t already taken. Domain names are available for no cost, or you can pay a fee to have a little more convenience (and choice) in setting one up. These fees can range from $10.00 to $35.00 or more. Think, first, however, about what type of domain you want. The most widely recognized are the „dot com‟ sites, as well as .net, and .org. These days, however, domains can have a variety of different extensions. There is a non-profit organization commissioned by the government, and known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), that oversees top-level domain name system management. ICANN recently allowed for new top-level domains that include the following extension types: .aero; .biz; .coop; .info; .museum; .name; and .pro. On line stores will generally opt for the .com version. You will first need to check to see if the domain name you would like to have is available. A domain name registrar can assist you with this. The registrars are entities that have been given Creating, Maintaining, and Selling from your own Web Store 2 authority by ICANN to register domain names and will usually offer a selection of web hosting services as well. You can find a partial list of these registrars on the internet by typing the search term, “list of domain name registrars,” into your web browser. When you select the registrar you wish to use, there will be two basic steps; (1) search for availability of the name you want; and (2) finish the process if yours is available. You will need to be somewhat flexible here, as the name you have selected as being ideal for you might have already been taken, and you will need to keep trying until you find one that is not. Although there are millions of domain names already in use, don‟t be discouraged, as there are millions more that no one has thought of yet. Cautionary Tip: Be careful during this process that you are not agreeing to other services that you do not wish to purchase. STEP THREE: OBTAIN A HOSTING SITE Definition of Hosting Site: Companies that provide space on a server for websites. These companies may own or lease the servers on which the web site will reside. There are several things that you must consider during this step in the process. Cost: If choosing a “free” site, you must consider whether or not it is really without cost. Sure, there may not be a fee to pay up front, but you could end up paying in the form of allowing advertisers (not of your choosing) to post ads on your store – sometimes even ads that are for products or services that are in direct competition with those you are offering. Another way free sites make money is to sell your information to companies that will inundate you with e-mailed advertisements otherwise known as “spam.” Know that on some free sites you could be required to refer other people to the hosting entity, people that must pay for the service, in order for you to get your service without being charged. Finally, if there are no forced advertisements, spam inducers, or referral requirements, you should be wary of that site as it is more likely to shut down on you if it is not making money. Sites that charge up front number in the hundreds and it can be confusing trying to pick the one that will work for you. You will need to select from Shared Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, or Colocation. Shared Hosting is where you will share the site with other customers, and the easiest way to understand this is to think of it in terms of a house where several bedrooms are rented out to different people, and where you each must share in the cost of food and the Creating, Maintaining, and Selling from your own Web Store 3 utilities. You may be stuck paying more than your share as the result of folks who refuse to turn off their lights, thereby increasing your electric bill, or you may never get a chance to eat any of the snack food because another tenant has hogged it all. While Shared Hosting can work nicely for some small businesses, you just never know if one of your “neighbors” will hog all your bandwidth and slow your store down. Consider, also, that you could be severely limited in the amount of space you are allocated, and this type of hosting can be more susceptible to hacking. The costs for S