Starting and Managing an Online Store

An online store is a popular way to make money on the Net. Starting and managing an online store is unlike the typical offline store. Once properly set up, an online business is mostly automated and geared for 24/7.

It is obvious that the overheads of an online business are lower than one that is offline. The Return On Investment (ROI) can be lucrative if you carefully strategize, plan and execute your online business.

There is no such thing as get rich quick unless you win the lottery, however, making a good living on the Net is not out of reach.

Tips to Starting and Managing a Profitable Online Store

1. Decide on the products to sell. The idea is niche products. It is no point selling products that compete with the big boys. Imagine selling computers. Could you ever compete with Gateway and Dell? Find a segment of the market that the big boys have no interest in and introduce your niche products. It would also be beneficial to run business forecasting to get a better idea of the size of your market.

2. Design a professional looking website that sells. You could design a website from scratch or hire a web designer or buy ready made templates.

3. Hosting your online store. There are some major factors you need to take into consideration when it comes to choosing your web host:

Secure servers (SSL), Mysql . SSL is crucial for online transactions where your customers have to key in their confidential information like credit card numbers. Be sure your potential web host offers SSL encryption.
MySQL is a powerful database that runs on Linux operating system. It has the capability to process million of entries all at once. It is ideal for database intensive or e-commerce websites
Private CGI-Bin. This is a directory located on your web host server. It is the place where you upload your binary scripts or interactive programs for processing payments and managing shopping carts.
Server uptime. You cannot afford a web host that is down most of the time. Opt for nothing less than 99.8 percent downtime. Granted that web servers need to be serviced from time to time, but you should be informed in advance.
Customer support. How fast is the response time? Within 24 hours is super. 24 - 48 hours is acceptable. If you are still waiting after 48 hours, skip it. How’s the quality of the customer service? Do they provide the right solution to your problem? Does the web host have a large database for immediate answers without seeking direct assistance of customer service staff?
Stability of the web host business. Hear what others are saying about the prospective web host. Look at its clients. Are big companies among its clients? If big companies use it, chances are it is a stable business. There’s no doubt you have to pay more to enjoy premium service.

4. Shopping cart. A shopping cart allows your customers to purchase multiple products with a consolidated payment. Some web hosts provide shopping carts. If this is not a feature with your web hosting account, you could buy a shopping cart software program or do the programming yourself. Or you could sign up for a merchant account like Paypal that provides shopping cart as a standard feature. No CGI scripting is necessary.

5. Payment methods Credit cards are still the preferred mode of payment online. Paypal merchant account in my opinion is perhaps still the best. For a standard business account there are no signing up and upfront setup fees. They allow you to accept payments from all over the world and charge a low service fee per transaction. Your customers do not need to have a Paypal account to make payments. Paypal accepts major credit cards.

Credit cards are still the preferred mode of payment online. Paypal merchant account in my opinion is perhaps still the best. For a standard business account there are no signing up and upfront setup fees. They allow you to accept payments from all over the world and charge a low service fee per transaction. Your customers do not need to have a Paypal account to make payments. Paypal accepts major credit cards. Apart from Paypal, there are other good payment gateways like ‘2checkout’ and ‘clickbank’.

Earn a steady stream of income by starting and managing an online store.

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