Website Design

Website Design

You want your website to project your companies’ vision. Font, color scheme, layout should all be consistent throughout the website. Clarity on a website is key. It takes 50 milliseconds for someone to make a judgment about your website, so your homepage will want to be captivating and pull visitors in. The design of your website should help the visitor find answers, take action, or complete a task. Visitors should be able to navigate through your website with ease. Less is more and an organized site will keep visitors coming back again and again.

Credit Card Payments

            E-Commerce Software will allow you to manage your website. You can change inventory and pricing as often as needed with minimal to no coding knowledge. E-commerce sites give you options to add shopping carts, payment options, discount codes, and shipping costs. 

           You will need a payment gateway to process transactions. There are many payment gateways you can choose from. PayPal is used in many websites. Be sure to check the fees for service and per transaction before you decide which payment options you want to include. Again, the easier it is for customers, the easier it will be to sell your product. 

Website Builders

Need a website? Not sure where to go? Well, let me tell you what I have learned about website builders.

• Fully customizable
• Feature-rich platform
• No tech skills required

• Hundreds of templates
• Customizable website elements
• 55% off promo code

• Savings code
• Award-winning design
• Best-in-class support

• Free images library
• Buil-in SEO tools
• Website chat support

• Tech Support
• 200+ templates
• Royalty-free images

• Thousands of plugins
• Array of permed templates
• 75 million sites

• Designer-made templates
• AI-powered content generator
• Free image library

• Easy online store builder
• Built-in marketing tools
• Perfect for first time entrepreneurs

No matter which one you pick you will come out with an awesome website. To me the decision on which one to use largely depends on it's ability to be user friendly. Sites like Weebly and Wix promote no tech experience necessary and perfect for first-time entrepreneurs. Wordpress and Squarespace tend to be more popular and major corporations use these sites for their websites. HostGator has the ability to input Wordpress and other customizable options. There are pros and cons for each website, so it all comes down to taking the time to look at all your options and see which one feels right for you and your website needs.

Drop Shipping vs. Affiliate Marketing

There are pros and cons for both drop shipping and affiliate marketing. After researching them this week I have come to the following conclusions.

Drop shipping is a very simple and easy way to offer multiple products to customers without having to have any inventory. The shipping companies can buy items in large amounts and then turn around and sell them at wholesale prices. There is no danger of having unsold items in your inventory, because with drop shipping you have no inventory.

There are some challenges with drop shipping. While a lot of companies will be happy to team up with you, there are a few things that you should find out about beforehand. These include fees and charges, shipping, accounts, customer support, returns, refunds, and chargebacks.

Affiliate Marketing also has minimal costs to set up. It is easy to start and there is great flexibility on what products you would like to promote. Affiliate marketing has high income potential if you are willing to put in some hard work. 

There is a lot of competition and there is a good chance that the product you chose is also being promoted by many other sites. There is no guarantee that you will make a certain amount of money. Affiliates usually pay a commission on items that are actually sold. Some will also pay you a smaller amount each time someone clicks from your site onto their link, or will pay you by leads.

Starting an online business is getting easier, but with that more and more people starting their online businesses, competition is getting fierce. Before getting started in drop shipping or affiliate marketing, make sure you do your due diligence in finding the right company to work with, the best product and the model that fits you and your desired product the best.

Reflection: Choosing A Business

I was asked the question, Which do you choose first, a Business Model or a Product? Well, I guess that depends. Is there something you're passionate about or something you want to sell? Do you have a budget or know of a particular marketing strategy? Answer these questions and you'll find the answer to the first.

Business Model

There are different types of business models, each one works best for different products and services. Multiple business models can also be combined to expand the businesses reach. Different types of business models are:

Brokerage - Bringing buyers and sellers together to facilitate transactions

Advertising - Website provides content with banner ads

Infomediary - Assisting buyers and sellers to understand a given market

Merchant - Wholesalers and retailers of goods and service

Manufacturer - Selling the product directly

Affiliate - Businesses offer financial incentives when people click on a websites link

Community - Revenue based on sales and services or voluntary contributions

Subscriptions - Users pay a fee for a reoccurring service.

Utility - Customers pay each time they use the service.

Demand & Competition

How popular is your product or service? Is it in high demand? What would be the setup costs? These are all questions to ask yourself with each product you have.

Google Ad Words

Using Google AD Words can help you see how popular your idea is. Google Ad Words can tell you how many people search for that topic, how much it would cost to advertise and if the search gets low, medium or high traffic.

There are many tools and resources available to help assist you in finding the right product and the best business model for your product.

Family

 This week of Thanksgiving has been all about family. My parents put on a fantastic day, full of excellent food and lots of family. This year has seen sadness, blessings, and miracles.

 

Earlier this year my Aunt Debbie lost her husband, David, to cancer. He was a good man and he will be missed.  My aunt Debbie is amazing. Though she's lost her love, she's still smiling and moving forward. 

 This year I was able to go through the temple. It was an amazing experience to be there with my family and friends. To feel the love and support from all those who came and to make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father is a tremendous blessing.

 

 My Uncle Pat has mesothelioma in his lungs making it very hard to breath. He also has congestive heart failure, and has had many operations. This October he contracted a virus that made it all but impossible for him to breath. He was in the hospital and family was called in to say their goodbyes. He was intubated and not expected to be taken off. Uncle Pat was sedated for several days, but he was hanging in there. They finally took him off the sedation and he was conscious enough to tell the doctors to take him off intubation. The doctors made it clear that if they did that he would die, as there was no way he would be able to get enough oxygen into his body to survive. Fast forward to Thanksgiving day, when my Uncle Pat is eating Thanksgiving dinner with us, without using an oxygen tank. What a miracle.

 

Through all the sadness, blessings, and miracles we are family and we are always here to love and support our family. That is what life is about. Family, friends, and making memories with those we love.

#bebrave4baylee

This week a brave girl went back home to Heavenly Father. I didn’t know her personally, but I know her Aunt Amy Hoaldridge Parker, and followed her battle on Facebook for the last four months. It’s a tragic story of a day of fun turning to terror and the unrelenting battle for life that followed. 

I’ve thought a lot about Baylee Brooke Hoaldridge this week. I’ve thought of the horrific struggle that she had to endure, but in every post about her condition Baylee was always positive and in good spirits. What an amazing example of faith, love, hope, kindness, benevolence, and compassion strangers around the world have for this wonderful girl.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave a talk in October of 2000 entitled, “The Challenge to Become”. In this talk Elder Oaks talks about the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. While reading through this tonight I found myself thinking of Baylee and her family. This put into perspective for me why some of us are only here for a short time. He says, “…an important meaning of the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, which the Savior gave to explain what the kingdom of heaven, is like. As you remember, the owner of the vineyard hired laborers at different times of the day. Some he sent into the vineyard early in the morning, others about the third hour, and others in the sixth and ninth hours. Finally, in the eleventh hour he sent others into the vineyard, promising that he would also pay them “whatsoever is right”.

At the end of the day the owner of the vineyard gave the same wage to every worker, even to those who had come in the eleventh hour. When those who had worked the entire day saw this, “they murmured against the good man of the house”. The owner did not yield but merely pointed out that he had done no one any wrong, since he had paid each man the agreed amount.

Like other parables, this one can teach several different and valuable principles. For present purposes its lesson is that the Master’s reward in the Final Judgment will not be based on how long we have labored in the vineyard. We do not obtain our heavenly reward by punching a time clock. What is essential is that our labors in the workplace of the Lord have caused us to become something. For some of us, this requires a longer time than for others. What is important in the end is what we have become by our labors. Many who come in the eleventh hour have been refined and prepared by the Lord in ways other than formal employment in the vineyard. These workers are like the prepared dry mix to which it is only necessary to “add water”—the perfecting ordinance of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. With that addition—even in the eleventh hour—these workers are in the same state of development and qualified to receive the same reward as those who have labored long in the vineyard.”

Baylee was sent in the eleventh hour. She was a choice daughter of God, having been refined and prepared by the Lord prior to her earthly experience. She needed only to come to earth to take part in perfecting ordinances and to bring her light to her family, friends, and those who will never meet her here on earth. Baylee truly became something. She became what the Father wanted her to be: brave, valiant, strong, beautiful, and full of the light and love of God. My thoughts and prayers are with her family, and I appreciate them allowing us to follow her journey. While it’s not the ending we were all praying and hoping for, it is the most beautiful ending you could imagine. Baylee is once again healthy and encircled in the arms of her Savior.

 #bebrave4baylee

Building Trust

This week I watched a short video entitled "Aspects of Building Trust". In this video Guy Kawasaki gave three points on how to build that trust. First he said, "trust people and they will trust you." That's the order, trust first and then others will trust you.

 Second, there's two types of people: Bakers and Eaters.


Eaters need to get as much of the pie as possible. Their mentality is the more pie they get the less pie you have. Eaters are all about what they can gain, whats in it for them and getting more then everyone else.


 

 

Bakers, on the other hand, see opportunities to make more pies, bigger pies, better pies! Bakers don't see what's in it for them, but what they can do for others.







Lastly, Default to YES! Guy Kawasaki says, "when you meet people you're always thinking, 'how can I help that person'?" Instead of thinking how each person can help you, turn it around and ask yourself how you can help others. That is what a successful entreprenur does.