building a website
- Thread starter saltyreefguy
- Start date
You can do it yourself if you have any programming skills. Remember you need to keep search engine optimization in mind.
You didn't mention you goals. Assumining you are attempting to market a service or product, buiding the web pages is easy. Gettting traffic is the hard part. I've built several sites and "build it and they will come" does not work. You have to be dedicated and don't expect overnight results.
Use cascading style sheets will allow you to put your content in the top of the html. You need good content. Once you have content, you need links. Lots of them from good quality sites. It requires a huge amount of work that you probably can't farm out unless you have a big budget.
That being said, you can do it. Google SEO (search engine optimization) and you'll have a place to start.
It's taken me years to get top placement for automotive related sites.
Good luck.
You didn't mention you goals. Assumining you are attempting to market a service or product, buiding the web pages is easy. Gettting traffic is the hard part. I've built several sites and "build it and they will come" does not work. You have to be dedicated and don't expect overnight results.
Use cascading style sheets will allow you to put your content in the top of the html. You need good content. Once you have content, you need links. Lots of them from good quality sites. It requires a huge amount of work that you probably can't farm out unless you have a big budget.
That being said, you can do it. Google SEO (search engine optimization) and you'll have a place to start.
It's taken me years to get top placement for automotive related sites.
Good luck.
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this site may be helpful:
http://www.webmonkey.com/
http://www.webmonkey.com/
Tony,
For selling stuff I would go with a site without shopping cart for right now like we talked about the other day. Normally you get charged by how many listing you have. Anything you sell they take a small % of it. This was a few years ago but it should still hold true still.
There is a series of how to like books that give you the code and the visual result of the code. It makes it a lot more simple to create your own if you know what code does what and how it looks.
Get someone really good with graphics. With a simple site with great graphic looks great compared to a highly complex detail w/ ok graphic, even if both are userfriendly.
For selling stuff I would go with a site without shopping cart for right now like we talked about the other day. Normally you get charged by how many listing you have. Anything you sell they take a small % of it. This was a few years ago but it should still hold true still.
There is a series of how to like books that give you the code and the visual result of the code. It makes it a lot more simple to create your own if you know what code does what and how it looks.
Get someone really good with graphics. With a simple site with great graphic looks great compared to a highly complex detail w/ ok graphic, even if both are userfriendly.
If you are considering selling live goods and corals online I recommend doing some serious research first. A couple years back I was propagating corals myself and looked into online sales. The cost alone of insulated boxes and shipping while trying to guarantee "arrive alive" was more of a headache than I could deal with. Dry good sales is an option but you have to compete with volume discounters like MD, who could be considered the Walmart of aquarium supplies.
On the other hand I highly encourage anyone with the drive and determination to take the plunge into online sales. Even if its just supplemental income it can be rewarding. Plus you never know who is going to be the next success story.
I run my own online store/business (not reef related) and can tell you first hand it takes alot more work than most people think. Setting up the site and tech stuff is actually the easy part. Its getting people to visit your site and trust you thats harder. I'm a firm believer that people don't search the internet to buy stuff as much as they search for information. For my business I took a subject which I had some expertise in and decided to share that with others. Sharing knowledge in a subject someone is seeking information in gains trust. Then converting that person into a customer just comes naturally and you don't have to rely heavily on advertising, gimmicks, or pricing that undercuts your competition.
Am I still typing? Sorry, I get carried away :boring:
Good luck and let me know if you need any tips on setting up a site. I'm more that willing to share my own experiences with you, what works, what to avoid, etc.
On the other hand I highly encourage anyone with the drive and determination to take the plunge into online sales. Even if its just supplemental income it can be rewarding. Plus you never know who is going to be the next success story.
I run my own online store/business (not reef related) and can tell you first hand it takes alot more work than most people think. Setting up the site and tech stuff is actually the easy part. Its getting people to visit your site and trust you thats harder. I'm a firm believer that people don't search the internet to buy stuff as much as they search for information. For my business I took a subject which I had some expertise in and decided to share that with others. Sharing knowledge in a subject someone is seeking information in gains trust. Then converting that person into a customer just comes naturally and you don't have to rely heavily on advertising, gimmicks, or pricing that undercuts your competition.
Am I still typing? Sorry, I get carried away :boring:
Good luck and let me know if you need any tips on setting up a site. I'm more that willing to share my own experiences with you, what works, what to avoid, etc.
