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One of the most requested types of sites I get these days is an E-Commerce site. With commerce shifting slowly but surely to the web, it's no wonder that everyone would like to have a store online where they can sell their wares. However, most e-business owners are grossly unprepared for what it takes to make an online store successful.

Planning

Usually the folks I talk to contact me needing a way to sell a few of their products. However, their train of thought stops there. They have no plan of how to go up against the competition, market their products, or provide excellent customer support. They just expect that as soon as they have a website online that people will find their store and purchase products from them. This rarely happens.

Managing

Another misconception I see all the time is that people expect their stores to run themselves once they're setup. After a few months of no sales, many of them realize that they have to actually put work into their e-commerce store, just like a brick-and-mortar store owner does. Unfortunately, I've seen far too many beautiful e-commerce stores become vacant once their owners find out the realities of the time commitment needed.

Selling

Unless an idea or product is truly unique or one-of-a-kind, chances are that competition is fierce out there for the very product that most people are trying to sell. This isn't meant to be a discouragement, but rather an honest look at the way online commerce works. Most people would have a hard time answering if they were asked about the ways by which their e-commerce store stood out from the competition. 

Some Advice

Here are a few things to think about before jumping into the wide world of e-commerce:

• Do you have a way to process credit cards?
• How do you plan to stand out from the crowd?
• How often do you plan to update your website?
• Will you be available daily to handle customer support?
• Do you have a dedicated address (P.O. box) and phone number for customer support?
• Do you have a business plan, including a solid plan for growth?

There are lots of other things to consider before having an e-commerce website built for your e-business. But if you plan and work hard at making your business a success, e-commerce websites can be great sources of addidional income or a way to escape your 9-5.

Contact me if you have more questions about starting an e-commerce website and I'd love to chat with you and help you through the process. In the mean time, here's a website with a ton of resources for e-commerce owners.

I worked for years at a web company that built sites for organizations that wouldn't be considered the most technically-savvy. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but we'd usually have to spend a bit more time up front explaining the benefits of a good domain name that was less than 30 characters long. Just because "SouthsideHosannahChurchofGodMissionaryWorshipCenter.com" was very specific, (and, not surprisingly, not yet taken) didn't mean that it was a good choice for a domain name.

If you're still in the process of choosing a domain name, Christopher Johnson wrote a fantastic article over at Smashing Magazine about coming up with a domain name.

Here's a quick excerpt:

Forget the cliche of the crazy adverstising or marketing genius who’s struck by the perfect idea as if by lightning. Approach the naming process in a strategic, rational way, and look for elegant solutions to your particular naming challenge. Even as domain names become scarcer and scarcer, with the right strategy and enough attention to linguistic design principles, building a great name is still possible.

Read the rest of the article here.