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.

Popularity: 34% [?]

A couple of weeks ago, one of my long-time clients closed her business. She’d been with me since since 2005.

Her reason for closing? She wasn’t selling enough to justify keeping the site open.

This is not an uncommon story. For many years, I resigned myself to the fact that often small businesses are just not meant to be. The statistics even supported this view: As many as 1/3 of business startups fail within the first 2 years.

My experience has been that there may be an even greater number in the Work At Home Mom world.

I really felt bad about this, though. Setting up a Shop Kit Plus website for a new WAHM and then turning her loose in the world was not my intention.

So, I’ve started offering coaching and web design services. I’ll help you build a site that sells using the Shop Kit Plus — and teach you how to reach your customers and encourage them to purchase from you. In return, I just ask for you to implement the marketing methods I recommend, and evaluate your progress on a regular basis.

Sounds like fun, right?

Those people who I have been able to work closely with have succeeded. It’s excited. I want to pass that success on to you.

For a short time, and for a handful of people, I am offering a very special deal. I’m limiting this offering so that I can devote my energy and creativity to you and just a handful of other people.

Head over to Michelle Waters Online and start growing your business today!

Popularity: 41% [?]

Watersweb Solutions LLC, distributor of Shop Kit Plus shopping cart software at http://www.shopkitplus.com, announced today that it has significantly lowered prices for the license of its shopping cart software. In some cases, the license is even free!
The popular SKPlus1000 package, now costs $58 for the license fee and $10 per month for hosting. Clients can increase their savings on the license fee by purchasing three-, six- or twelve-month packages. The annual hosting package features a free license and $120 hosting fee, providing the most savings for the package.

“Our costs for the license have gone down, so we decided to pass that savings along to our clients,” said Michelle Waters, owner of Watersweb Solutions, a five-year-old web development and hosting company. “We understand that many of our work at home mom clients are new to home business and don’t have a lot of money to spend on software. We feel that this cost reduction will help more WAHMs realize their dream of making a living while caring for their children.”

The current pricing structure can be seen at:

http://www.shopkitplus.com/index.php/skp_sales_letter/new-pricing

The Shop Kit Plus is a hosted online catalog software that features inventory management, wholesale capabilities, order tracking and affiliate integration. The catalog works with Mals Ecommerce, http://www.mals-e.com, as a backend, featuring multiple payment and shipping options.

Popularity: 34% [?]

WANTED Web Design and Watersweb Solutions LLC joined forces to provide affordable and professional ecommerce services to work at home moms who sell physical products.

Andrea, owner of Wanted Web Design, started her company in May 2006 to help other WAHMs fulfill their desire for a functional and professional looking website at a cost that was easily affordable.

Andrea’s philosophy is: “Never let anything get in the way of the sale,” the ultimate goal of designing websites. Her designs are simple and elegant: Perfect for showcasing your products.

Stop by and take a look at Andrea’s work!

[tags]Wanted Web Design, Watersweb Shops, Shop Kit Plus, ecommerce services, work at home moms, sell physical products online[/tags]

Popularity: 38% [?]

Changing dynamic pages to appear static is not necessary anymore in most cases.

Do a google search for adjustable baby slings and you’ll see plenty of sites with dynamically generated URLs.

If you’re wanting to optimize your site, you’re better off focusing on your keyword phrases, content and backlinks. Once you’ve done that, you can help the search engines spider more of your site by adding a sitemap.

Considering Google, Yahoo and MSN together have a corner on more than 80% of US searches, I wouldn’t waste my time worrying about anyone else.

And those three SEs are perfectly capable of indexing a dynamically generated site.

There are a couple of caveats. If your URL (website address) contains more than one or two non-alphanumeric characters, like an ampersand or a question mark, there is a very good chance that the search engine bots won’t index the site beyond the home page.

Also, it is important that you include the main keyword phrase for each page in your filename. If you are generating dynamic URLs that don’t contain the keyword phrase, you could be missing out on better search engine rankings.

My advice: Find a shopping cart that either creates URLs with only one non-alphanumeric character — or a cart that will create static pages on the fly. In either case, make sure that your file names contain the keyword phrase for each page.

UPDATE: Version 2.6 of Shop Kit Plus now contains the ability to create static pages with the keyword phrase using mod_rewrite. (This means you don’t have two sets of pages. The server is programmed to rename the pages for you.)

Popularity: 32% [?]