What's New and How to Build a Website to Sell Jewelry
To go to the MrBead store click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk
What's New and How to Build a Website to Sell Jewelry
To go to the MrBead store
click MrBead.com or
MrBead.co.uk
Click a picture below to see one of this month's new beads. Follow Nigel at his new site at NigelHayMckay.com
For Free Shipping enter "website"
(without the commas) in the box at checkout, and click "Redeem Coupon".
Use NOW - as expires Wednesday 15th August 2012. No minimum order, but can only
for used at MrBead.com or
MrBead.co.uk and cannot be used
with any other discount or eBay.
Tweet a link to this newsletter to all your followers - just click
here.
How to
Build a Website with an Online Store to Sell Jewelry
If you really
want to make money, what you need is an e-store with a nice front page, a Paypal
checkout, and marketing to bring traffic.
This is much easier than you think, especially the first
part.
How a site works
HTML editor One such program I use is from
ewisoft (click link for details).
I joined their 30-day free trial and then signed-up for a hosting
contract with
Domain Sale! $7.49 .com at GoDaddy.
These companies make things easy and inexpensive.
Follow us on Twitter at MrBead@UKMrBead and follow Nigel at
Nigel@NigelMckay
When you view a website, you’re accessing the hard
drive of another computer, sometimes in a different country.
This host machine stores the website for the creator.
The site itself has hidden code called HTML (for short).
When your browser views this code it translates it into the image you see
on the screen. For instance the
code <b> make the word appear bold.
Rather than spending ages writing this code
yourself, all you need is a program to generate it for you.
Some word processing programs can do this, or better still you could
invest in Front Page or Expressions.
However, it’s a lot easier and cheaper to use website building software
with an HTML editor built-in, these also make it simple to publish to your host.
Custom store software
For high-volume
sellers, Miva
offers a good online store software – get the store for free by signing a
hosting contract with someone like NetNation at
http://www.netnation.com.
Because of less competition you should also sell at a higher price in your
store. The MrBead store uses Miva.
Register a Domain with a Host
Before you begin working on a new website, you must
register a domain. This needs to be
as simple, as short, as memorable as possible, and available.
Start by writing a list of names that
are related to you or your business – these are more likely to be available.
For example, if you live along Bure
Lane and sell designer jewelry, write Bure Jewelry (at the time of writing
burejewelry.com was actually available for just $10.69 a year).
Or you could use your own name or the type of pieces you design.
Suffix
Go for a dot com if possible, especially if you’re in the
US, as it’s easier for potential customers to remember.
However, a .co.uk for Britain, or .eu for Europe may be more available
and appear “local”.
Availability
When you’ve scribbled all possibilities, go to Domain
Sale! $7.49 .com at GoDaddy to see whether it’s taken.
If someone else has your preferred
domain, consider a different suffix, or change some of the wording.
It’s better to string words together, than use hyphens or dots, as it’s
easier to remember.
Example: If annspearls.com is taken, then annspearlnecklaces.com is better than anns.pearls.com. This can then be expressed as AnnsPearlNecklaces.com
Web storage
At the same time choose a contract for storage
space under the name from a web host, like GoDaddy – the minimum priced will be
sufficient. I think I paid about US$100 for the registration of two domains and one year
hosting. Or you can pay monthly,
which works out a little more.
Be sure to print out and keep all letters and settings mailed
from your host, you will need these later.
After you’ve done all that, you’re almost on the road!
Template
Choose a template for your site, this will ensure
each page is linked professionally.
With a template, every page in your site keeps the same design, logo, and other
sections. It saves you a lot of
time. Free templates are available
from most web hosts or within the program Expression.
How to Structure Content
within the Site
Uniformity
Be sure to add a clear link to “Add to Basket”,
“Basket Content”, AND “Buy Now”, on all
sales pages. Missing these will
lead to lost sales.
Ensure type face, color, and font sizes are consistent
throughout your site, especially if you don’t use a template.
Apply the same font, writing style and spelling everywhere, except for
headings. Only use two or three
different colors.
Typeface
The best font for web-reading is Arial (as this
book), although headings also look good in Tahoma.
Times New Roman looks dated.
Don’t use fancy styles as they may look different to the viewer on another web
browser. This book is in 12 point,
but 14 point is also common. Don’t
go smaller, and never under 10
point.
Checkout
Use a Paypal checkout if you don’t have a merchant
account to accept credit cards.
These checkouts are simple to set up, free, and can be used by anyone with a
credit card. If you haven’t already
joined Paypal, do so immediately at
Paypal.com.
Going live
When you’ve finished designing the site with your
HTML editor, it’s time to upload to your host, just click
Publish on the program.
For the first time, you’ll have to
enter the ftp address (this will be ftp.yourdomain or
ftp://yourdomain).
Plus user name & password you choose for ftp to your host, and maybe your
website URL (address). If you can’t find any of this information, just ask your
host.
Your site should now be up and running, but don’t expect any
sales without promotion and marketing.
Check & double check
After
you’ve finished your site, go through every single page to check links go to the
right places, it’s very easy for these to be wrong.
Check spelling with your spell checker and use
English for the country you are
marketing too (US spelling in the US and British English for the UK).
Keep it simple
Edit copy and shorten paragraphs for easy online reading.
Leave lots of space on the page, so it looks refreshing and pleasant to
the eye. Black type on a white
background looks the best.
Buy something from your own website to see
everything is working correctly, and also to get the feel a customer
experiences. There’s nothing like
testing the system yourself all the way through.
Problems a visitor will suffer, like where to click next, will show right away. You can then make adjustments. Such as adding automatically‐generated emails, or change other aspects of the process that might not be working as intended.
It’s very worthwhile to do these tests often, even after your site is up and running. Things can strangely change on their own, either from bugs in the software or adjustments from your host, so never become complacent. Test, test, test.NigelHayMckay.com
Read about the man behind MrBead and watch him make a fool
of himself. Read about his new site at
Plus, soon it will be interactive so you can add
your own content. However, the blog is now fully functional - so please join in
& comment!
From our
new book How to Make a Killing Selling Bead
Jewelry - to buy at a 33% discount to listed
price click:
US Version or
UK Version
To view all are old newsletters click
here To go to our MrBead
store click MrBead.com or
MrBead.co.uk
