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.