New Online Business

bankbalance

Hi. I'm thinking about starting up a small online business using the Mr. Site software. I've done some research by selling a few things on eBay and they've sold steadily. I also know others who are selling the same kind of thing on eBay as abusiness are doing well.

My question is - how should I expect things to go in the days, weeks, months after I've lauched the site? I've looked at all the publicity stuff on the Mr Site website and there seem to be some genuine success stories. I'm not looking to become a millionaire, just earn some extra money.

Any advice and tips would be great!

Thanks.

bankbalance

Any advice at all would be great!

helen_vasey

I am in exactly the same position as you, my dh and I are setting up a site selling extreme sports equipment (his hobby), as for projecting sales/turnover, how long is a piece of string? I am just going on the assumption of 2 or 3 sales per week , fingers crossed, which is all we need for me to be able to give up my p/t job. we have tried to do everything to minimise start-up costs, getting all the free advice we possibly could, we have registered with the hmrc, got a 2nd phone line installed, opened accounts with wholesalers, opened a free business a/c with abbey and next week I shall be meeting printing firms to price up leaflets etc. to put up anywhere and everywhere that I can think of, i.e. colleges, sports shops, outdoor type shops etc. we are really excited at the prospect of hopefully doing well enough to eventually open our own retail unit. if you are experienced with ebay, your own site is only an extension of this. out of curiosity, what are you intending to sell? we might be able to swap ideas. it was so nice today to get our 1st piece of post with the business name on it, for the 1st time it feels "real".:T

observer_2

If you're thinking about setting up an online business then i would say a few things.

products range - How many products are you thinking of listing on the site for the first 4 weeks? Take the figure, and double it, then double it again. At least. If you want to trade online then get as many products as you can online.

Marketing - Search engines are your friend. Google is the biggest so aim for them and make sure your pages are friendly (HTML, mod rewrite (google it)).

Customer service - Online this is huge for repeat business and recommendations.

Don't try and select what you think will sell, just offer everything. Get the selection, get the traffic, then the real problems start....

save-a-lot

Hi

Make your page Search Engine friendly, look up SEO on google... I can offer tips aswell... (one min)... right found a post I made before
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=2957787#post2957787 - look at post 4 on that page - it explains some basics of SEO.

Combine those tips with mod_rewrite to make the pages appear as if they are static html pages and you will be better placed to get the site up the SERPS (search engine results pages). It does take time though.

When in the early phases get the site going by trying adwords by Google...
https://adwords.google.com/select/Login