One of the most common questions new product sellers have is how to optimize their newly minted ecommerce website. Lynn Terry, in her ClickNewz! blog, talks about seven methods to properly optimize your ecommerce site.

A Page For Each Product
Lynn’s first recommendation is to create a page for each individual product in your store. This is very easy to do in my ecommerce software, the Shop Kit Plus. You simply add your products and the script creates the optimized pages for you.

High Quality Backlinks
Obtaining high-quality inbound links is the second method to optimizing your ecommerce site that Lynn recommends. Basically, you need to get other people to link to each page of your site.

Unique Product Descriptions
Start by making sure your product descriptions are unique. If you’re a product manufacturer, uniqueness won’t be such as issue. However, writing a description that will increase your link worthiness may be a bit tricky. So I recommend my friend Melissa Ingold’s Product Descriptions Pack to help you learn how to write those descriptions. Basically, include as much information as possible.

And if you’re a wholesaler or affiliate and you’re using the manufacturer’s descriptions, rewrite them so that they won’t be identical to the original.

Related Items
Lynn also suggests posting related items on your product pages. This is very easy to do in the Shop Kit Plus during the process of adding your products.

Customer Reviews
Have you considered asking for reviews? Lynn notes several sites that you can go to in order to request user experiences and feedback. Reprint these on your site. With the SKP, you can reprint them in your product page’s description area, and on your home page.

Social Networks
If you haven’t created a profile on sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, now’s the time! Some of my clients who have done this include Earth Friendly Goods, who can be found at StumbleUpon and The Cloth Diaper Shop, who has embraced Facebook.

Useful Content
Finally, Lynn recommends adding content to your store that will enrich your visitor’s experience. I see some clients using video tutorials, how-to articles, checklists and more.

As I’ve suggested before, adding a blog to your site can help you leverage an RSS feed and open your business up to the comments of your customers. This can be an invaluable tool for letting your customers get to know, like and trust you — but also so you can learn what your customers want, so you can provide it to them.

Has this given you some ideas? Are you already using these techniques? Tell me what you think…

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Q. A member of a Work At Home Mom forum that I frequent asked how she should go about setting up an online store. Specifically, she wanted to know how to setup credit card payments and if she should set everything up herself or hire someone else.

A. One of the first things you need to do, from a strictly online perspective (this is assuming you’ve done things like file with the state, figured out your business name, etc), is purchase a domain name. Then you need to find hosting and a shopping cart. I mention those together, because you want to make sure your shopping cart software is compatible with your host’s server setup.

You will also need to figure out how you want to accept payment from your customers. And you’ll need to make sure that the system you choose works with your shopping cart. In some cases, there will be additional expenses, like SSL certificates. You can ask your host, cart developer or web designer about this. The two payment processors I recommend are Paypal and Authorize.net (included with an e-onlinedata merchant account).

Once you have those items, you will need to create, find or buy a website design. I recommend the following web designers. I’ve checked them out, and admire their skill and business ethics. They are all work at home moms.

You also need to get or take pictures of your products. And you’ll need to figure out how you want to package and ship the products.

Some things you may want to consider when determining how you want to setup your store: How are you going to control inventory? Is your cart search engine friendly? Are you going to use a mailing list to keep in touch with your customers? Would you like a content management system to enable you to easily update your site without HTML knowledge? (For the record, my Shop Kit Plus fits includes inventory control, content management and is search engine friendly!)

You can find everything I mentioned above in varying price ranges — from free to $10,000 or more. I recommend you look at your budget, your goals and the products and services available that meet your needs. And ask for recommendations from other WAHMs if you’re not sure.

So, this is setting up an online store in a nutshell. Hope it helps.

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Believe it or not, there are still many product sellers who do not have websites. The Internet has dramatically changed the way people communicate, send and receive information — and shop. If you do not have a website, you are hurting your business.

A website makes you look like a solid professional. If you wanted to do business with someone, especially if it was business done long distance, you would expect them to have some type of website that gave you information about the type of services they provide. The costs for registering a domain and building and hosting the website are very inexpensive. Without a website, your business can look second rate.

Another reason why you need a website is so people can find you. If someone is sitting at home trying to find a the perfect baby sling for their stature, they will more than likely turn on the Internet and perform a search. If you are a baby sling seller and you don’t have a website, they cannot find you. And if they cannot find you, they cannot buy your products.

Even if you decide to build your business locally, it helps to have a website. You can distribute pamphlets, business cards, and flyers with your phone number, and you may receive some phone calls. However, if you have a website where people can get a glimpse of what you sell, you will earn more business. Plus, some people would rather pop onto your website and email you versus picking up a phone and calling you.

Your website will also let people know exactly what type of products you offer and how much you charge. People do not want to wait for that information. They want to know things now. You can also include an online portfolio where prospective clients can view your customers using or wearing your products and read past customers’ testimonials. This can help them decide if your product is the right one for them.

Having a website will also allow for automated ordering. If you sell cosmetics and one of your clients is having a bout of insomnia and decides to surf the web at 2:00 in the morning, they can happily shop for your products at home. They do not need to wait until the next day to call an order in to you.

Websites also allow you to do business globally. Instead of focusing on your local area, people from all over the world can view your site and do business with you. This opens up a whole new base of clients and opportunities.

Having a website, even a simple one, will only help your business. Without one, you are going to be losing out on many prospective customers and sales.

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Acronyms for business-to-business or business-to-consumer activities. Many websites focus on business-to-business relationships and services (like wholesale suppliers), while others focus on providing services and products to consumers.

If you are selling baby slings to individuals, than you are a B2C business. If you are selling wholesale baby slings in bulk to retailers, than you are a B2B business.

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Question: My online store can’t make money unless I get traffic, but I can’t afford to keep buying advertising. What can I do? I feel so discouraged.
Signed, Lonely in my Store
Dear Lonely in my Store,
First of all, you are NOT doing anything wrong. Online businesses take time and can get frustrating, especially in the first year.

If your online store is lonely, and you’re watching the dust balls collect, waiting for traffic to come and buy, it’s easy to get discouraged. As soon as the advertising ends, so does your traffic – if you’re even getting any results from your advertising at all.

What if you could get visitors to your website – free? And, not only that, but the visitors keep coming for years? One of the best methods of generating traffic to your website is by writing and sharing articles. This is not ‘get rich quick’ and it’s not a scam. It’s just plain old fashioned marketing with a twist.

Now, even if you aren’t a writer, you can use this method of getting traffic. It doesn’t take a degree in Literature to succeed in article marketing. All it takes is a little time and energy. If you have that – you can get traffic to your website.

So, how does it work? Well, it’s working right now. Look at the bottom of this article and you’ll see … me. I didn’t pay for this advertising, but you’ll see a link to my website right there, plain as day, just for writing and sharing this article with website publishers.

It’s actually quite simple, and it is underused, especially in work at home mom businesses.

All you need to do is write a short, simple, helpful article about something related to your online store. If you sell makeup, then write an article about how to choose a foundation color, or how to care for your skin during the winter. Then, after you’ve written your article, you submit it to the article directories.

Article directories are libraries of free articles. They are collections of articles that website and blog owners can use on their sites for free. The only stipulation is that everyone who publishes your article must include your author bio at the end which is where you include your website URL and some fascinating information about your wonderful online store.

So, now that you see how simple this free method of generating traffic is, I hope you give it a try. You’ve got nothing to lose and much to gain.

Michelle’s Note: My friend Nicole Dean doesn’t pay for advertising – ever. She uses Article Marketing to get free advertising on websites and in newsletters worldwide. You can use articles to get free traffic, too. Visit Easy Article Marketing to find out how.

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As a product seller, you’ve probably been planning your Valentine’s Day Specials for months now. Unfortunately, I’m not that far ahead in my planning, since I don’t typically run seasonal specials.

So, lay it on me. What are some of the great Valentine’s Day deals I can find? If you’re a WAHM and you have a great special running, I’d like to hear about it.

Thank you!

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If you have ever experienced this, you probably remember the angry customer on the other end of the phone. And if you haven’t, pay attention, because you’ll want to know what to tell your customers in case it ever does.

So, here’s my story.

I decided to order a downloadable product today. I placed the item in my virtual shopping cart, entered my name and address and hit the button to complete my checking. The next screen told me there had been an AVS mismatch and my order could not be completed.

Now, as a merchant myself, I knew that meant that the payment gateway had queried my bank to see if funds were available and if the address matched. Apparently, the address I entered did not match, according to my bank.

At this point, I decided to login to my bank’s website to see what address I had setup, because I knew I’d entered the right one. That’s when I discovered that $115 had been placed on hold at my bank account by the company that I’d just attempted to make a purchase from.

What?!

For a moment, I found myself in the shoes of the frustrated customer who is trying to buy my stuff, but can’t — and has just discovered that the money is gone anyway.

Luckly for this merchant, my brain kicked back in and I remembered this:

After the payment gateway queries the bank to see if the address is correct and funds are available, the bank places a hold on the funds. If the purchase is not completed, then the hold is removed from the funds within a few days.

Not sure about your bank, but at mine, those funds remain in a pending status on my account page until they are removed, or fully processed.

So, if you ever have a customer who experiences this situation, explain to them how the process works — and then suggest they call their bank to find out why the hold has been placed and what their policy is on how many days it will take for the hold to be lifted.

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