Selling Your Stuff

To sell your own things, you can: * Sell them exclusively on your own site * Sell your things to vendors at a discount, so they can sell them on their site for normal price * Create your own affiliate program

You will need a shopping cart program to allows others to pay for your items, tell you who has ordered what and where to send it. There are many companies to choose from, what you need to do is see if they offer services you need, and what they charge. Some places also have restrictions on what you can sell.

The companies I've use with a lot of success are: * PayPal.com - Very inexpensive and easy to use. * CCNow.com - Easy to use, they do charge a higher fee and you can only sell products, not services. * Ibill.com - They have some linitations on what you can charge a client.

Some other companies include: * Yahoo - www.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant - They offer 3 differnet packages, charge a monthly fee and take a percentage of each sale. * 1Shopping Cart.com - They charge a monthly fee.

You can also open a merchant account for your business, but there are a lot of fees you have to pay for this, including: * Monthly fees * Fees per transaction * Rental fee if you want a credit card machine * Other fees may apply too

One of most important things you need to do is find is a website designer that you get along with and who listens to you. They should also offer a contract so that both of you have a clear understanding of what will be done and what everything will cost.

Talk with designer. If they are in your area, meet them face-to-face. However, it's not necessary that designer be in your city. I have clients all over world. Even though I live in Arizona, in past month I've had clients from New Jersey, Chino Valley (a hour and a half drive from me), and I have some potential clients in Arkansas and New Zealand. You need to feel at ease with designer since you will be dealing with them for weeks or months while your site is created, and maybe longer if they are going to maintain site for you.

Ask what program they use to create their websites. The most popular are GoLive and Dreamweaver. I would suggest avoiding anyone using FrontPage. A lot of people use it and like it, especially since it costs less than $100. However, it writes HTML a little differently than other programs, which may lead to problems. These problems include HTML errors as well as adding extra code, which causes pages to load slower. Some web hosts can't even put up sites made with FrontPage. Website designers who use FrontPage often use templates that come with it, thus limiting creativity that could be used on your site. It's not uncommon for me to look at a website and instantly know that it's been created with FrontPage. If you're wondering, I use Adobe GoLive.

You want to be sure that website designer asks a lot of questions about what you want and need, instead of trying to talk you into using what they offer. Your website should meet your needs and expectations, not only in function but also in design. I've seen websites designed using flash animation, ASP databases and all kinds of bells and whistles when this wasn't appropriate for that particular site. These also kept many people with older browsers and slow Internet connections from being able to see website. These bells and whistles also cost more than a simpler HTML site. The designer used these things because that's what they liked to use, not because it's what should have been used. Simple is always better when it comes to website design. Content is king, not animation, graphics or anything else.