How to Start a Small Online Business Cheaply: Ecommerce; Part 1

1) Think of an idea.

2) Start looking for a domain name at GoDaddy.com – If you come up with something creative and unusual, great! (i.e. ScanCafe.com, Myspace.com)

a. If you are struggling for a name, open up a thesaurus and find names that are functional to what kind of industry you are pursuing. A good example is one of my first sites, ChatRelations.com. It was a Live Chat Software that would allow you to speak to customers that were shopping on your website. Chat described what they were doing and Relations was a word that related to communication. If you have a keyword like Window Cleaning, I would recommend finding something like SanDiegoWindowCleaner.com because that will help you in the long term with rankings on Google, Yahoo, and MSN.com. Also one can assume that with a company like window cleaning you have geo targeted area.

b. Caution: I don’t typically recommend making up a new word or using a word that is hard to remember (Foreign Languages, Long Names, etc). Generally, this will not help you in your efforts to brand your site so it is better to use something that is simple and easy to remember. The poor Italian restaurant in my neighborhood is failing because they have a name that no one wants to or can remember.

c. Costs: Domain names are cheap and can cost anywhere from $9.95-$19.95.

3) Create the site. Start on the cheap. My first site I spent $3,000.00 and it was fairly custom. To start on the cheap, I would recommend looking at a template from a site like MonsterTemplates.com! If it’s for an adult site, because I’m not going to act like that’s not making billions, check out Adultwebsitetemplates.com.

a. But Billy, I don’t know anything about designing a site!? Find a local college student who is great with design! They are starving and will work to build a portfolio. Craigslist.org should be helpful for this. I would recommend going to odesk.com or rentacoder.com and finding help from other countries when it comes to programming and small design work. A few tips. India can not design or program on time…I’m sorry I have heard every excuse from 5 or 10 different teams. It’s always a holiday in India or a family member is getting married or dying; China and the Philippines have great designers, but they need a TON of instruction. Russia is a great programming country, but not so great with design work. I built and designed my first site with the help of Russia.

b. Clean is important; here are lists of designs I like: WD-40, Chatrelations.com, Luxlube.com, Sugardvd.com, and Easylooky.com; all are strong with a good message. Designs I don’t like: http://www.bvs.com/bank/bank-training.asp, http://www.thecreationmuseum.org/, http://www.openbexi.com/. Thanks to http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ for giving me those examples.

c. E-Commerce – I recommend using Miva; it’s very easy to use and get on the top of the search engines for SEO, then I would use Zen Cart if not Miva. Miva is really cheap though and you can get it on most hosting company sites. MivaMerchant.com.

d. Hosting on GoDaddy.com is pretty cheap – I hate using them so a bit more expensive would be Rackspace.com who has a sister company that does hosting…I will find the name and update this sometime.

e. Caution: Deadlines are important – don’t pay someone unless they do the work. A good custom web design and or template changes should be done in 2 weeks at the most. Programming can take extra time. You should never use an agency, I would go freelance to start, with an agency you run the risk of them draining you out of money and providing you with little to nothing. I had that experience with clients – they would have someone take 50% of the total project cost and deliver little to nothing.