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When it comes to starting
your online store, there are several options to
choose from and you can choose whichever option
works best for you. For example, you can:
A. Build and open your online store with a
simple web design program such as Microsoft
Expression Web, Adobe Dreamweaver, Go Live etc.
B. Build and open your online store using a
professional, pre-built website template from TemplateMonster.com.
When using a website template, you would
have to edit the template with an
editing program such as Microsoft
Expression Web, Dreamweaver or other
programs as well. Then insert images and
product text. Link the “Buy button” to
your shopping cart and you’re done. |
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C. Open your own online store with any ecommerce
package provided by your web host provider. Or
purchase a complete ecommerce solution for just
$15 per month from an ecommerce provider such as
Volusion,
Shopify
and others as well. Then all you’ll have to do is
insert image and insert product text.
D. Hire a professional. If you don’t have the
time to build your online store then you can
always hire a professional web design company to
build it for you. |
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Building your own
online store
Anyone can build an online store. And if you
decide to build your own website, then you can
do so using a simple web development program
such as Microsoft Expression Web, Adobe
Dreamweaver or others as well.
And if you’re simply not familiar with basic web
designs and layout schemes, then you can always
look at other website designs to get some good
web design ideas.
For example, you can visit template website
providers such as
TemplateMonster.com to view
their templates in order to obtain creative
design ideas. Then you can use ideas from those
templates to design your own online store.
And to create graphics such as headers and logos
and buttons as well, you may need an image
creation and editor program such as Adobe
Fireworks, Inkscape or others. (Many computers
have an image editing program already installed)
There are free image editing programs which
can be used as well such as Gimp which is a
free, open source program to help you create and
edit images with ease. And with Gimp for
example, you can make headers, logos and buttons
as well.
Furthermore, learning and using such programs is
not that difficult to do. It’s just a matter of
reading the software tutorials and doing what
they tell you to do. And in doing so, you can
easily create professional graphic images and
webpage templates from scratch.
And building your own template is as simple as
adding your logo to the top of the page,
followed by a top menu navigation and then a
side navigation menu on the left side of the
webpage.
The center of the page, also known as the body
of the page, is where your product images and
product information will be.
And once you’re able to build one page, your
main page, then this becomes your main template
design. Then you can proceed to use that same
template for the rest of your website as well.
>Simply insert the new product image, copy and
paste product text onto the center of the
webpage.
>Then insert your buy button at the bottom of
the webpage and link that buy button to that
product in your shopping cart data base.
>Save that page as the name of the new product
and you’re done.
Then when you’re ready to make the next page,
you can use that same template page and simply
remove the old image and product text from that
page, and replace it with the new product image
and the new product text. Link the buy button to
that new product in your shopping cart and then
save and name the new page as the new product
name.
After creating and completing the first few
webpage’s, you’ll see how easy it is to keep
building pages in the same manner over and over
again. Then all you have to do is keep building
product pages until your Internet storefront is
completed. |
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Building your
online store with a pre-built, website template
If you simply don’t have
the time or the know how to build your own
website from scratch then you can build your
online store using a pre-built, storefront
template design from
TemplateMonster.com.
You’ll find hundreds of
professional website templates to choose from at
www.TemplateMonster.com. And you can edit these
templates with a simple editing program such as
Microsoft Expression Web or Adobe Dreamweaver
and others as well.
Webpage templates are
pre-built webpage’s with graphics and layouts
already in place. And with pre-built templates
the design is already done. You don’t have to
design anything. All you’ll have to do is
insert image, copy and paste product text, edit
links and save that page as the product name for
that page.
Templates are great for
people who simply don’t have the time to build
websites from scratch yet want to have a
professional look and feel. It’s also interesting to
note that most web design firms today don’t
create their own designs any more. Instead, they
purchase, download and edit pre-built templates
from TemplateMonster.com and then charge their
customers for the templates and for editing
those templates. And as a result, this practice
helps to save the customer time and money while
allowing them to have a professional website
design at a very affordable price.
Template packages also
include buttons, logos, headers and graphic
icons to give you a complete and professional
webpage design.
There are also many
template providers which offer free web
templates as well. And you can find them by
performing a search on Google.com for the search
words “free website templates”. But if you’re looking for
high quality and professional website templates
then TemplateMonster.com can provide the
template you need. |
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Building your online
store with a complete ecommerce package
If you’re not up to building your own website
from scratch or with a pre-built template, then
you may want to consider building your internet
storefront with a complete ecommerce package
from online store providers such as
Volusion, Shopify and
others as well.
Volusion.com for example
provides a complete and professional ecommerce
packages, yet every web host provider offers
ecommerce packages as well.
Yahoo Small Business for example will also host
your site and provide a Yahoo Store for you
which is a complete, ecommerce, internet
storefront with domain name, shopping cart and
payment solution included.
Many web host providers offer complete ecommerce
solutions which include the storefront, shopping
cart, payment processing solutions, site
statistics, reliable hosting, tech support and
multiple designs and layouts to choose from as
well.
And with an ecommerce package, all you have to
do is insert image and insert product text in
their respective fields. Everything is placed
right where it belongs and every page is
perfect. You won’t have to move, edit or stretch
tables as well. And building your website in
this manner takes minutes to create each page. |
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Having a web design company build your
online store for you
If you don’t have the time
nor desire to build your website with any of the
methods mentioned above, then you can always
hire a web design company to build your online
store for you.
You can explain to the
designer exactly what you want and they will
build it for you. They can create your logo and
add the products to your website as well. And it’s very possible
that the web design company will use a
pre-built, website template to build your
website. This is common practice. But they will
most likely edit the template to give it a
unique design which no other website will have. And when searching for the
right web design company to build your online
store, it’s important to view their portfolio of
other online stores which they have built for
other clients.
Check to see if their
online stores are optimized for search engines
as well, as search engine optimization (SEO)
becomes your main key to internet marketing
success.
It’s important not to just
hire the first web design company that shows up
on the first page of the Google search results.
Ask for price quotes and check out portfolios
from other web design companies as well.
Basically, you’ll want to
make sure that the web design company you choose
to build your website will offer every option
that a complete ecommerce provider will offer as
well. And most importantly, make
sure that the website, content and domain name
will belong to you and not the design firm.
These are the easiest and
fastest ways to get your store online. And you
can choose whichever method works best for you.
But whatever method you choose, make sure that
you are in complete control and that the entire
website belongs to you and no one else. |
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Main Page -
Next-> |
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How to Build Your Own Online Store |
| >
How to Build Effective Product WebPages |
| >
Building Your eStore with Website Templates |
| >
Designing, Planning and Organizing Your eStore |
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