Online Stores - I make them - but....

scotty501

Hi All,

Looking for some good advice. I have started to make online stores for people - mainly friends and family as a hobby really. Some of the friends and family I have made stores for have gone on to make a very nice profit - some of which have come off benefits entirely now, and are self employed working from home. The store is tailored to the product they want to sell - ie - pottery, jewellery, mobile phones etc - you get the drift. I make it and leave them to it.

This has got me thinking, that there are a ton of people out there who would want a store - but dont have the £1000's web developers charge for them - where I do it as a hobby for "pinny money". This pinny money however has helped me fight my debts over the last two years

The questions is - How would I go about making this service known to people? I dont have an advertising budget - and the target people is wide.

Any tips on how I can take this forward? I would post examples of the stores I have made - but I know posting links here is frowned upon

I would welcome comments - good or bad.

mizzbiz

You could develop a 'basic site' (like an off-the-shelf) then charge extra for modifications etc and sell it on ebay, Gumtree etc. You could buy a big patch of hosting and charge a hosting price for continuous income, as well as a fee for every transaction. You could make a 'Metrocentre' or 'Blue Water' of the web world and 'lease' web shops and do them out for each customer.

scotty501

Thanks for the response. I do have a website (would be crazy not to with my knowledge) I have hosting too - thats how I have been doing it - domain name, webspace, and the store all in one package.

But its more the cottage industries I am aiming to target.

I like the market place idea - would need some thought. Gumtree maybe a good place too I guess it's more local people rather than scatter gun advertising.

Ideally its people with not a lot of money - but have the desire to start an online store - its that part of my niche I am struggling to find the right avenue for.

loopylau

Have you tried social networking sites, and get a few friends to join your group or something? Thats how things generally start anyway...

scotty501

hi loopylau

Yeah - I have created a facebook page - added a few hundred friends, friends of friends etc - but has been for hosting and web design only - not the stores part of it.

This is where I really see a good thing - people can make money, I make the store (and money) and everyone wins - it is a simple idea - but I am a believer of the best ideas are the most simple ones

The problem is making it clear what I can do - I want the message to be "Start your online business" but bloomin cheap - but that is not the best tag line I have ever heard

Gazing_On_Sunsets

I am starting a similar thing to you, targeting the smaller business who simply don't want to fork out hundreds to a design agency but who don't want a cheap looking template done by a teenager in a back bedroom. For me, I'm focussing on local so it's local advertising, and finding out who doesn't have a website, and then turning up and persuading them that they *do*. A laptop and a charming smile goes a long way!

Something else I do, which you might consider, is I manage an online shop for someone - a US business as it happens, but of course it doesn't have to be local. They sell ebooks and I keep the database running and the new releases uploaded at the right time. I get a flat monthly fee for that, which is nice. Again though, that was word of mouth, and I am not sure how I'd go about getting more work like that!

pamstretched

It would be interesting to know how much such a support would cost.
We tried ebay etc using home made web pages - not a single customer and charges from the ebay advertiser

Tried to sell celebration cakes

Thanks

Gazing_On_Sunsets

Pamstretched - are you referring to the managing of the online shop that I do, or different support? Really I am techie/back end stuff. The authors of the ebooks do their own promo, so it's a different situation to celebration cakes.

There is a woman near me who does cakes. The key seems to be local - if you're on a webpage, it doesn't automatically mean that people will flood to you - we still tend to buy from familiar people/places. She goes to local wedding fairs and so on, advertises locally. I think if you're a company doing something that 1000 of others do, how do you stand out from the crowd? If someone goes to google and searches on cakes, they'll either choose a top-listed company with lots of options, or if they do some specific searching then they're looking for details on a company they've already heard about.

However if you're niche, then the web is a good place if you get the website done right. But you do have to be pretty different, I'd have thought.

Just having a website doesn't mean anyone will ever look at it, unfortunately!

Kiramanic

Ok first of all OP, if you already have your own website advertising various services make sure this "store" service is included. Perhaps give it it's own dedicated landing page optimised for conversions and you can then link straight to that landing page in any future store-specific marketing. You can also do a bit of SEO so hopefully people looking for a relevant keyphrase ("how to start an online store" or similar) will start to find you on their own.

Don't be tempted to do a ton of work for peanuts, the rest of us who need to charge proper rates already have it hard competing against Indians etc, don't add to the downfall of the industry

That said, a good way to charge low rates, as has been mentioned, is to come up with a package deal that is just customized a bit for each buyer.

I'd think carefully about whether you want to add hosting into the deal though, it's an easy way to make regular income from people but it does mean you're the one who gets the complaints if sites go down...and if it's not your own server there's probably nothing you can do in that situation other than grovel.

Gazing_On_Sunsets

Kiramanic wrote: »

Don't be tempted to do a ton of work for peanuts, the rest of us who need to charge proper rates already have it hard competing against Indians etc, don't add to the downfall of the industry

Yeah I agree with you there, any time someone comes to me with a big job I send them to a bigger agency. I specialise and target; I don't want to do shoddy cheap work and get a bad rep. Half of my recent work has been sorting out clients who had websites done by people who called themselves web designers but were using templates they couldn't then adapt. I should stop calling myself "cheap" and call myself "economical".

scotty501

Thanks for the feedback. Its much appreciated.

As for the hosting I have done that for a while now, and it works itself, I have very little to do on this side as they servers I use are exceptional and have never posed me problems or my "customers". I have partnered myself with a very good host.

and you can then link straight to that landing page in any future store-specific marketing. You can also do a bit of SEO so hopefully people looking for a relevant keyphrase ("how to start an online store" or similar) will start to find you on their own.

You are correct I need to dedicate more effort on my current site for the store idea. Create a package which clearly defines the detail - with some SEO it should be easy to choose the traffic I want funnelled. I get a ton of hits with Google adwords for the keywords you mention - yet I dont dedicate enough to the end result on my site - sounds simple - but your input opened my eyes on this,

I agree - dont do a ton of work for peanuts, but as far as I see, it's sharing knowledge more than work - it's a hobby I enjoy hugely.

I am not too concerned what others charge or what the "market" does - price is not everything.

[FONT=geneva,arial,helvetica,swiss]There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person's lawful prey. [/FONT]

If I can offer a service to people that helps them, and I can eat along the way - I am a happy - but always customer is king.