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Article Writing and Blogs, Freelancing Opportunities

Starting Your Own Website-Business and Individual (Part 3 of 3)

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Merine Tulloch, FCCA

 What should it cost to start your own website?

The challenge is to find a cost effective Content Management System (CMS). This is a web-based application which has the facility for multiple users with different permission levels to manage the website project or internet application.

Web Software developers Joomla have made this process seem fairly easy with Artisteer, their template generator platform.  Joomla maintains that Artisteer is the first and only Web design automation product that instantly creates fantastic looking, unique Templates.  You can download the free version, or invest in the Standard version for $129.99 or the Premium Artisteer Projects version at a much higher cost.

Another popular CMS is WordPress.  It offers multiple services for your website including Domain Names, Hosting Services, Free Domain Names and 1-Click Installations, all for one low monthly fee.  Their promotions sometimes include all the above for one low monthly fee, say $3.95 per month and WordPress has Bluehost as its hosting platform.

These CMS programs have a number of things in common.

  • They provide themes or templates that are easy for the beginner to use and modify,
  • Live chat support where the user can interface on a group level and learn for other users as well receive technical help
  • Telephone support for local as well as international clients.
  • The option to upgrade to a more comprehensive package of features which include more themes, add-ons, varied hosting features and affiliate programs.
  • Tutorial support
  • They make available tools for one-to-one marketing. This is user specific advertising that your website can be tailored create based on Search Engine Optimisation protocols.

If you decide to create your website on your own the quickest and most effective way to do it is by using your web hosting service’s design tools of the CMS of your choice. Always bear in mind the complexity of your business, the cost, and your long-term goals.

Other considerations

Forum Scripts

The support area of your website is important and the instructions for how this is created and functions is a called a script.  There are many forum scripts on the market and they range in structure and capability. Some forum scripts include PhpBB found at http://www.phpbb.com/.This is considered to be the best BBS (Bulletin Board System). PhpBB is completely free and it’s open-source. It’s easy to use, upgrade, install, and customize.  Another is vBulletin found at http://www.vbulletin.com/. This is reputed to be good forum script, from the users’ perspective. It costs as much as $85 per year or a one-time fee of about $160.

Web Shop

When your website offers tangible products for sale online you will web shop software for E-commerce to happen through payment gateways.  They connect your customers’ credit and debit cards to your bank. Needed are a shopping cart solution and a merchant bank account that can process the payments. Free shopping carts and payment gateways solutions are usually available; however, low-cost transactional fees can range between 1 percent and 5 percent based on usage volume.

Hopefully, these three articles have given a better appreciation of what is involved in owning your own website.

© Merine Tulloch -2015
All Rights Reserved
No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials.
You may share this website by any of the following means:
1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page

  1. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate; and
    3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to www.merinetulloch.com.For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author at the email: merine.tulloch@yahoo.com

Commercial use and distribution of the contents of the website are not allowed without express and prior written consent of the author.

 

Article Writing and Blogs, Freelancing Opportunities

Starting Your Own Website-Business and Individual (Part 2 of 3)

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By: Merine Tulloch, FCCA

There is some basic expenditure that you incur to start your own website and these include:-

Domain Name: This is the right to use the name that you have chosen for your product or service.  Domain names cost approximately $13.99 per year.

Hosting Account: This account connects you to the World Wide Web and costs about $6.99 per month. You can always upgrade your hosting package at a later date and choose higher end packages with which you can create unlimited number of sites on one account.  You will see savings if you pay for both domains and hosting years or months in advance.

Auto Responder: This facility allows you to create a client list which will eventually be the source of your online income. The cost for this facility is approximately $19 per month.

Web Software: If you create your own HTML website then you need software. You could learn HTML and CSS and build your site from scratch with the help of templates.  Other options include purchasing web software such as Artisteer  which starts at $50 or Dreamweaver which can cost as much as $400. Artisteer is a designer tool most suitable for beginners while Dreamweaver is a well develop tool for someone who is into the complete mechanics of web design.   Buying domain and hosting as one package can usually get you free WordPress ebook/guide and tutorials and other extras.

Logo Design Cost: If you are thinking of getting a professional logo, you need to consider the value if investing in a logo design. This could be as low as $20 or as high as $500 depending on the expert that you hire and the quality of work that you need done.

If however you are launching an E-Commerce (business) website that offer tangible product consider the following:

Financial Transactions cost: E-commerce happens through payment gateways.  They connect your customers’ credit and debit cards to your bank. What is needed is a shopping cart solution and a merchant bank account that can process the payments. The up-front investment in shopping carts and payment gateways are usually low-cost but transactional fees can range between 1 percent and 5 percent based on usage volume.

Hosting and Security cost: The e-commerce site needs to protect privacy and personal information, as well as be online even when traffic levels fluctuate. You need to verify Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as well as prices before choosing a hosting company.
The Cost of Your User Interface and Architecture: Your site needs to be user-friendly- for your customers, manufacturers and designers,  administrators and customer service reps. A template-based e-commerce site can cost as low as $250 per month to service while the Enterprise edition (all-in-one solutions with customized programming) can be as high as $500,000 per year.

Your website is the face of your online business and the cost will depend on the nature of that business.

Please see part 3 for other considerations in starting your website.

© Merine Tulloch -2015
All Rights Reserved
No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials.

You may share this website by any of the following means:
1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page

Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate; and
3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to www.merinetulloch.com
For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author at the email: merine.tulloch@yahoo.com

Commercial use and distribution of the contents of the website is not allowed without express and prior written consent of the author.

© Merine Tulloch -2015
All Rights Reserved
No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials.
You may share this website by any of the following means:
1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page

Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate; and
3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to www.merinetulloch.com.
For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author at the email: merine.tulloch@yahoo.com

Commercial use and distribution of the contents of the website is not allowed without express and prior written consent of the author.

Article Writing and Blogs, Freelancing Opportunities

Starting Your Own Website-Business and Individual (Part 1 of 3)

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A website is a virtual storefront that facilitates you in marketing and selling your products or services to a wide of customers. There are numerous types of websites, including the reselling goods, carrying out a service or providing information. Consequently, there are many markets for websites and the competition is extreme.  While an internet business using your own website may be easier to start and requires less start-up capital than the than the brick and mortar business, they require an equal amount of investment in time and effort.  Here is some guidance on starting your own internet business and website

1. What you are interested in will determine the type of website you decide on.

  • Blogs and informational websites can evolve into a business by allow advertising and incorporating affiliate programs.
  • Marketing you own products and services is another option and depending on the complexity of your products and services may have a very low upfront-cost
  • Reselling or retailing the goods and services of another business. The cost associated with venture tends to be high since you are purchasing and selling products through your website.

Regardless of the type of website that you are interested in you need to develop a business plan that clearly defines what you are trying to do.  The business plan will include an executive summary (summary perspective of your business), market analysis (research on your competition and market), a company description, your organizational structure and plans for management. Also required would be your marketing and sales management, your funding plans and budget.

2. Defining your online presence

  • Choose your domain name very carefully. It could be related to your interest or whimsical but it should also be search engine friendly.  This will make it easy to promote your business.
  • Select the most effective web host for your website. Research web hosts that have self-design options and E-commerce solution packages, such as Yahoo Small Business. The E-Commerce package is necessary should you need to process payments online where you are selling a physical product. This feature in the E-commerce packages will help you quickly set up a shopping cart and online payment processing options.
  • Be sure that the web host that you choose meets your requirements in terms of budget and features.

3. Design your website.

  • You can choose to design your website yourself or hire a professional to do it for you. The decision really depends on how much you wish to invest in starting your own website business. Just ensure that you do not infringe any IP (Intellectual Propriety) laws.
  • For large scale projects it would be wise to contact a web designer. The designers will be able to recommend compatible e-commerce shopping cart software best suited for your type of business.
  • If you decide to create your own website on your own the web hosting service’s design tools are always available

4. Website Promotion

  • If people are going to know about your business, marketing must be given the right level of importance. Search Engine Optimisation is the best way to accomplish this for your website.  Before starting your business you could try sites such as Google AdWords to make your presence known.
  • You can also market your website online through pay-per-click advertising, blogging, emails, social media, newsletters and even commenting on other sites.
  • You can also advertise your website business through regular advertising methods such as regional and local magazine and newspaper ads.

Please see parts 2 and 3 for other considerations in starting your website.

© Merine Tulloch -2015
All Rights Reserved
No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials.

You may share this website by any of the following means:
1. using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page

  1. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate; and
  2. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to www.merinetulloch.com.For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author at the email: merine.tulloch@yahoo.com

Commercial use and distribution of the contents of the website is not allowed without express and prior written consent of the author.

Article Writing and Blogs, Freelancing Opportunities

Search Engine Optimisation-Training

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By Merine Tulloch,FCCA

Search Engine Optimization –SEO is a very important current skill to have.

The job market current has a lot of vacancies for the well qualified SEO expert.  This is despite the high level of unemployment that is being experienced in other fields.  The cause of this very simple, there are not that many SEO experts around and those that have the skills set to be called an expert prefer to be self-employed rather than work for a company despite the large amount money on offer.

The main factor behind the unavailability of SEO experts is that there are no training courses available on the subject.  There really is no day or evening institute offering training in SEO, it is not offered as college course and the opportunity to learn from another SEO Expert is limited.

The experienced, trained SEO consultant may be reluctant to train others for two main reasons.  Firstly, it would take away time from them that they would be earning by doing the SEO work.  Secondly, the SEO expert may well be training the competition or worse, his replacement.  In carrying out SEO functions for his client the SEO expert may find that the student is utilizing the strategy taught by him on behalf a client competing in the same market as the teachers’ client.

In reality, the majority of SEO consultants are self-taught.  They utilize resources such as online programs and online courses as well as ebooks, and video tutorials. Professional SEO experts have now evolved into being able to offer intensive training courses complete with one year support and help.

SEO training courses –Are they absolutely necessary?

SEO training courses are not absolutely necessary.  You may be able to engage the services of a SEO expert who has a mentorship or training program.  Having this training will make it that much easier to appreciate much quicker, what is involved in SEO.

What type of SEO training programme should I go for?

When trying to engage SEO training opportunities be sure that program is run by professionals who have years of experience and personal training.  It is imperative that they are still conducting SEO services for clients and remain current.

What should it cost?

The services of a professional SEO is in high demand, so the consultant who is willing to offer training will need to be compensated for the jobs that he would not be doing while training you.  Don’t forget that in training you they are creating competition for themselves, so the cost of training tends to be very high.  If you find training offers that are very cheap, be careful that you don’t actually waste your money when they can’t deliver the training that you need to be an effective SEO professional.

I will 400 words incredible articles and blog posts

Other considerations

One very important aspect of SEO training is what occurs after the curse has ended.  The real test of the training is the actual implementation of the skills learnt.  Support for at least one year should be part of the training provision.