Building a Web Store on Shoestring Budget in less than Four HoursWritten by Nowshade Kabir
Starting a business online is no longer as difficult as it used to be! Now, there are plenty of interesting business ideas that anybody can pick up from various Internet resources. Startup related cost, which used to deter many in taking action, has become negligible. Many people already started to notice this! According to a recent report GoDaddy has gained 294,368 new sites in just first 5 months of 2005 while top four domain registrars combined, including GoDaddy, have gained more than half a million. Mind it! This is not quantity of domains registered, this is quantity of websites hosting with them! This recent explosive growth means one thing. Online business is on rise!So, if you have one or several products to sell to a large geographical area and you would like to start an online business fairly quick but you don’t have much money to spend on it, there are still ways to do so. Using integrated features of many portals you can start your dream e-commerce site on a shoe-string budget within several hours. I am going to show you how to do this on Rusbiz.com. Sign up Preparation needed: Write an informative, precise but easy-to-read profile of your company in less than 600 words. If your company’s name is less than 12-letter long you are fine. If not, choose a nice name, preferably, by shortening company name. This you will require for login name. Create a logo for your company. You can do it later if you don’t have a logo as yet. Steps: Register your company by filling up membership form. Choose a membership other than basic. You need an option with ability to build a web store. Copy and paste your prepared profile. Once you submit form you will be taken to a page called My Business. Time required: Maximum one hour including preparation. Add products to e-catalog This step will help you create electronic catalog of your products that you will use on your website as well. Preparation: Take digital pictures of your products. Each picture should not be more than 100 KB. Make thumbnail versions of your pictures. Thumbnails should be less than 10 KB. Both pictures and thumbnails should be of JPG or GIF formats. If your product requires special instructions, schemas, etc., make an electronic copy of them as well. This should be of doc, txt, or PDF format and less than 50 KB in size. Steps: Now from your My Business page click on “Add Product” button. You will be prompted to "Add Product" page. Next step is to select correct subcategory, where your product should be listed. First, choose main category and than keep on selecting right subcategory until you end up on final subcategory. This E-catalog is based on USPSC, electronic classification standard, which offers a ten-digit, five-level logical hierarchy for organizing products and services. Once you successfully selected fifth level subcategory you will be prompted to a detail form. Add all necessary information about your product. Insert pictures in designated places. Once you finished, submit form. Continue doing same for all products. You have just created your first electronic catalog!
| | Rebates: Savings or Scam?Written by Gary Gray
We’ve all had our issues with rebates. Remember time you purchased that “free” product from Comp USA or Circuit City who then promised you would get your money back? What an easy purchase! But, did you know that majority of folks never redeem their rebates? If you really ever did get that check in mail, you’re one of few savvy consumers out there. If not, I want to let everyone in on how to ensure they’re going to be getting savings they signed up for. Get out a pen and pencil; this may require a little work.I’ll be honest; I’ve always had a problem with rebates. I’m a consumer aware of price I’m paying, constantly wondering if my purchase is legitimate or there’s some hidden agenda motivating seller. Rebates seem to fit bill of a scam. After all, who wants to give something away for free, and how can you make money on that? While rebates can seem promising on surface, they rarely pan out. According to Peter Kastner, executive vice president of Aberdeen Group, only 40% of consumers submit rebates they are entitled to, 40% submit rebate and successfully get a check, and 20% have problems. You think they want you to redeem that rebate? Think again. But despite difficulties of rebates and burden to redeem, they do offer an opportunity at great savings impossible to find elsewhere. A couple items of due diligence are required when using these cheap discounts. But first let’s explain some of deception involved. At outset, merchants hope you won’t bother. It takes a lot of work to redeem a rebate, so be prepared. In addition, redemption process is made to be complicated. Who owes you your rebate, retailer or manufacturer? And tediousness in process will make you so fed up you’ll forget about your savings or give up in process, taking loss as a learning experience. OK, so we know rebates are difficult at best. But what if everyone turned them in and was willing to follow up on all problems that can be involved? I’ll give you a hint, these retailers would lose money, and rebates would end. But that’s not case: rebates grew from 1 billion to 4 billion dollars from 1999 to 2003, and they continue on today with a presence in online discount shopping arena. Learn how to take advantage of these savings and you’ll be adding to your online shopping smarts.
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