WELCOME to the E-COMMERCE WORKSHOP
Sunday, May 16, 2010
What if I get 100 emails?
What will you do if you get so many visitors who want to ask you questions that you start getting 100's of emails?
Firstly you will need to think again about planning your web presence wisely. Ensuring that your site is very easy to get around and that it gives clear and helpful information will remove one of the common reasons that people send emails from web sites - they can't find what they want in a short time so they just send and email to ask it.
Having a FAQ on your site that you constantly build up from emails that ask questions will help you to answer questions directly from the site in a way that most people find easy to use. Make sure the FAQ is highly visible from everywhere on the site so that people know it is there as they will often check that early in their visit.
Secondly you need to think about who will be checking for emails from your web site and how often it will be done.
The best practice is to use a dedicated email address for the site and set aside blocks of time for checking it, rather than allowing the flow of the work day to be constantly disrupted by emails trickling in.
A routine such as 10 minutes each morning and in the last half hour of the day could be considered, but it will depend on the individual existing routine.
Firstly you will need to think again about planning your web presence wisely. Ensuring that your site is very easy to get around and that it gives clear and helpful information will remove one of the common reasons that people send emails from web sites - they can't find what they want in a short time so they just send and email to ask it.
Having a FAQ on your site that you constantly build up from emails that ask questions will help you to answer questions directly from the site in a way that most people find easy to use. Make sure the FAQ is highly visible from everywhere on the site so that people know it is there as they will often check that early in their visit.
Secondly you need to think about who will be checking for emails from your web site and how often it will be done.
The best practice is to use a dedicated email address for the site and set aside blocks of time for checking it, rather than allowing the flow of the work day to be constantly disrupted by emails trickling in.
A routine such as 10 minutes each morning and in the last half hour of the day could be considered, but it will depend on the individual existing routine.
The Google Search Engine
Without search engines like Google it would be practically impossible to find the information you need on the web.
In truth the real technical specifics of how Google generates its results are a secret for 2 main reasons - this is what makes Google different (and many say better) than other search engines and secondly reducing the chance of people working out how to abuse the system.
However we do know a fair amount of less technical stuff about how Google works - enough to assist anyone making a web site to provide Google with the kind of data it needs to give you a high ranking.
Google uses automated programs called spiders or crawlers (as do most search engines) that roam about the web gathering information about each web page they come across.
Google keeps a huge index of keywords that it matches against web pages with a ranking system. This system uses a few key factors for the ranking - the frequency and location of the keywords within the web page, how long the page has existed and the number of other web pages that link to that page to determine its relevance and this is one of the most important of the ranking criteria.
In other words LINKS are considered a critical key factor by Google. The web got it's name from the phenomenon of hyperlinks giving people the ability to jump from strand to strand of information within a system that was completed linked up. Web pages are not designed to be a single bit of information sitting out in the middle of nowhere.
So what does this mean for you starting out in e-commerce?
PLANNING!
You are obviously already aware that just jumping in feet-first is not necessarily a very smart move and are hungry to learn before you leap.
This is fantastic as planning to succeed is the most important step to take towards real success.
You may be hoping to make your own company web site or you may be budgeting to pay someone professional to do this for you.
Either approach is fine, the most important point is that you plan well.
Don't forget to take yourself through the set of question in the Are you ready for e-commerce section as this will assist you with some of important parts of the planning.
However you also need to do some technical planning such as how you will make sure that you know what keywords are relevant to your product or service, how you will use them inside the text on your site, and how you will get people to link to you.
It is more important to ensure you choose a good handful of keywords and use them well through your site, than to choose a huge list of keywords that never get used more than once.
In truth the real technical specifics of how Google generates its results are a secret for 2 main reasons - this is what makes Google different (and many say better) than other search engines and secondly reducing the chance of people working out how to abuse the system.
However we do know a fair amount of less technical stuff about how Google works - enough to assist anyone making a web site to provide Google with the kind of data it needs to give you a high ranking.
Google uses automated programs called spiders or crawlers (as do most search engines) that roam about the web gathering information about each web page they come across.
Google keeps a huge index of keywords that it matches against web pages with a ranking system. This system uses a few key factors for the ranking - the frequency and location of the keywords within the web page, how long the page has existed and the number of other web pages that link to that page to determine its relevance and this is one of the most important of the ranking criteria.
In other words LINKS are considered a critical key factor by Google. The web got it's name from the phenomenon of hyperlinks giving people the ability to jump from strand to strand of information within a system that was completed linked up. Web pages are not designed to be a single bit of information sitting out in the middle of nowhere.
So what does this mean for you starting out in e-commerce?
PLANNING!
You are obviously already aware that just jumping in feet-first is not necessarily a very smart move and are hungry to learn before you leap.
This is fantastic as planning to succeed is the most important step to take towards real success.
You may be hoping to make your own company web site or you may be budgeting to pay someone professional to do this for you.
Either approach is fine, the most important point is that you plan well.
Don't forget to take yourself through the set of question in the Are you ready for e-commerce section as this will assist you with some of important parts of the planning.
However you also need to do some technical planning such as how you will make sure that you know what keywords are relevant to your product or service, how you will use them inside the text on your site, and how you will get people to link to you.
It is more important to ensure you choose a good handful of keywords and use them well through your site, than to choose a huge list of keywords that never get used more than once.
Are you ready for E-Commerce?
You may or may not already have a web presence, and you may even be conducting e-commerce in some small ways in your business.
However if you are thinking about beginning e-commerce in your business then you need to sit yourself down and ask yourself some serious business questions.
After this workshop, please return to this page and use the following questions as a guide to assist you to think through your business plan for expansion into e-commerce.
1. What is your niche market?
2. What domain name will you use? (eg abc.net.au, google.com)
3. What will the main purpose of your web site be?
4. Who is the target audience for your site?
5. What will your customers find most valuable about your web site?
6. Who will develop your site?
7. How much will your site cost at the setup stage?
8. How much will your site cost to maintain - staff, bank fees, web/graphic designers?
9. Who will keep your site updated?
10. How often will it be updated?
11. Who will answer email queries from your site?
12. How will you market your site?
If you can answer these questions in detail you are on your way to being ready to step into the world of e-commerce.
Use this checklist developed by the Treasury Department to help ensure you cover important legal issues when using e-commerce.
However if you are thinking about beginning e-commerce in your business then you need to sit yourself down and ask yourself some serious business questions.
After this workshop, please return to this page and use the following questions as a guide to assist you to think through your business plan for expansion into e-commerce.
1. What is your niche market?
2. What domain name will you use? (eg abc.net.au, google.com)
3. What will the main purpose of your web site be?
4. Who is the target audience for your site?
5. What will your customers find most valuable about your web site?
6. Who will develop your site?
7. How much will your site cost at the setup stage?
8. How much will your site cost to maintain - staff, bank fees, web/graphic designers?
9. Who will keep your site updated?
10. How often will it be updated?
11. Who will answer email queries from your site?
12. How will you market your site?
If you can answer these questions in detail you are on your way to being ready to step into the world of e-commerce.
Use this checklist developed by the Treasury Department to help ensure you cover important legal issues when using e-commerce.
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