When the labor market is tough — and we all know it’s tough right now — it’s easy to get discouraged. But in the face of adversity, Americans more than any others find opportunity. We see that especially in the number of people leaving the workforce to start their own online businesses.
You set your own schedule. You make your own rules. And your earnings are a direct result of your labor. What’s not to like?
But how exactly do you get started in the world of ecommerce? Really, it’s a lot more affordable and a lot simpler than you might think.
Choosing Hosting
In order to start an online business, you’re going to need a website. If you are planning on selling a product, you should look for an ecommerce hosting platform. Look for a hosting company that offers an affordable price and has good reviews. Besides getting a hosting package, you’ll also need to choose a domain for your site.
Design the Site
If you are going to conduct business online, you need a site that looks like it was professionally designed. You could choose from a number of different templates or try to design it yourself. Another option is to hire a web designer to do the job for you. Make sure that the design evokes the perception that you want for your business. You may want to have the designer create a logo for you as well. This helps create a professional image for your online business.
Set Up Ecommerce
When you plan on selling a product or multiple products, you’ll need an ecommerce platform for your site. There are a number of different ecommerce platforms out there to choose from, and all of them have different features to offer. For example, you could choose between well-known solutions like BigCommerce, Volusion and 3DCart ecommerce hosting platforms to name a few. Make sure that the ecommerce platform you choose is easy to setup and offers the payment methods and shopping cart options that you want for your site.
Marketing
Once you have your site up and running, it’s time to get the word out. There are a number of strategies that you could use to market your site, and some of them are more effective than others. For instance, you may want to use pay per click ads, e-mail marketing, social networking, and banner advertising to get people to your site. Once you have some traffic and see how your sales go, you may want to tweak the layout of the site or other variables to optimize your sales.
At that point, you’ll be running an online business. How successful it is will depend on how hard you are willing to work to get it right.
Bryan is the online marketing dude for the ecommerce hosting site 3DCart.com.