Hi all-
I wanted to give some advice to all those out there to those who might want to take their business endeavor a step more by creating an ecommerce site for their business. As someone who worked in the technology field for almost 15 years, I had a little head start in getting on ecommerce solution going, but its a simple matter that sometimes discourages those that might feel a super huge investment is needed. Not so! and you can do it quite easily-Here's how-
****NOTE-I'M NOT ENDORSING ANY COMPANY, BUT SUGGESTING A METHOD THAT I FEEL IS THE EASIST FOR THE AVERAGE USER. ANY ADMENDMENTS TO THIS ARE PERFECTLY SUITABLE AND FINE*****

1.) I suggest buying a used Macintosh (I'll explain why in section 4). I know, I know-You've used a PC forever and don't want to take the time to learn the MAc OS. Guess what, you will learn how to use a MAc in a day its so easy, AND you will marvel at how it DOESN'T slow down after time, and how it doesn't get viruses etc. Today, most any software you use is available on the Mac. You can even run Windows applications on a Mac that has the new Intel processor. "But Josh, I don't have a grand to spend on a new computer". OK, well do what I did for my business. I wanted a Mac that would be dedicated completely to my business, but I didn't have enough for a new one. So I popped over to Craigslist, went to the computer section, typed in "Apple" in the search frame. No matter what city you are in, someone is selling their Mac for cheap. Macs that are at 1 GHZ or more are completely fine for today's use. I'm typing this on a Dual 1 GHZ Powermac that was made in 2002. Yep-2002, and it runs FLAWLESSLY. BTW-I bought this Mac for 90$.

2.) Get your company name going (Make it personal and relevant to you and your business) and go straight to godaddy.com. Register your company name for 10 bucks a year. Since you are a web based business, you don't neccessarily need to go to the court house and register a sole-proprietorship, but it will help you in the long run. If you don't want to take that step, fine for the moment-Just let your bank account know that you will be linking your personal checking account to a web based business. Don't forget-you have to declare this income at tax time!

2-a.) Problems with bank accounts. Some of you may not have a bank account for various reasons. You REALLY need to investigate banks that will work with you (I'll explain why having a bank account is absolutely necessary in a bit). For those that have been put into "Checks", or have declared bankruptsy there are many options. US Bank will open an account for you and work with you if you have these kind of problems. They are not the only ones, so do some research and get that account open!!

3.)Online merchant-Paypal, Google Checkout, Alertpay, Paypay, Paymate. These are all online payment solutions that enable users to access your webstore and pay you for merchandise with their credit card safely and securely. Once those funds are in your account, you can then punt them over to your personal bank account. Most "Big" web sites use a Merchant account paired with a shopping cart service. If you are doing less than 2,000$ a month in sales, this option is not for you and you'll need to go with one of the merchant services above.

3-a) The good, bad, and the ugly. OK-since most of you will not be utilizing big league shopping carts and merchant services, you'll have to go with the above all-in-one merchant services (Paypal, google checkout, etc.). The good thing about these services is that there are no monthly fees for services. They all take about 3% from items sold and thats it. Thats really great for small ecommerce sites. THE BAD AND THE UGLY-While these services are great for small businesses, THEY ARE NOT BANKS!! When you sign up and "Agree" to all their requirements, take some time to read what you're agreeing to. These companies can turn into cruel monsters at the drop of a dime. What I mean is, these companies can lock your accounts, hold any funds in there and not release them to you-EVER! Paypal is probably the worst only because so many people use them, thus complaint numbers will be far more than the others. Most merchants have no issue, however, so don't read too much into the horror stories.

**Why is a bank account important**--As you start relationships with the mills, you will want to set up accounts. Some are easy going, but others will require some account info as such-bank account being one of them.



4.)OK-You've done all the financial and biz account stuff. You've got a domain registered (example - www.I make sporrans.com). Now to build a web site. AH-HA-This is where people fizzle out. "I've got to spend 3k to have someone build a website". Nope. You've got that mac now, and macs come with an application called "iLife". In iLife, there is a program called "iWeb". This is a program that comes with premade templates that you arrange yourself and personalize. That means you open a template page, drag and drop pics and arrange, type in your own text and position it any way you want to. You can make customized store banners, links...Everything. Its meant for web design challenged people. Man-If my Mom can do it, so can you. You will not believe how easy and how good your work will look!!!! So build that site!!!!


5.) Getting the web site published. 2 ways. Apple offers a service called "Mobile Me". It is a myriad of services that are fantastic, and way to big to explain in this posting, but one of the benefits is your own hosted domain. So when you make that website in "iWeb", there is a button at the bottom of the window that says "Publish to Site". Just click that , and your web site is created and placed in your hosted address. Easy as that-you're online ready to make money!! The service is 99$ a year, and again, you get SOOOO much services (the hosted domain is just a fragment of the service), but as you use your mac more and start to fall in love with it, these other services will make that 99$ a year seem more than worth it. If you don't want to go that route, you can also by hosting space from godaddy.com for about 6 bucks a month. Doing it this way, you do your web site in iWeb, and instead of clicking the "Publish to Site" button, you just select "Publish to Desktop". Your completed web site will be published to a folder on your desktop that you just then upload to your godaddy hosting area and BAM-your online this way!!!! This step includes a couple of more steps, but its basically as easy as clicking a few more buttons.

5-a) Going the mobile me way requires an extra step. If you buy the mobile me, your hosted domain will be different then your registered domain that you made with godaddy. Here a better explanation. You registered your business www.imakesporrans.com and bought the mobile me subscription. When you by the subscription, you have to make a username which will become your mobileme username. Assuming you keep the same name imakesporrans, your mobile me domain address will be this www.web.me.com/imakesporrans How you remedy this (So customers go to your domain directly) is go to your godaddy account and click the "Web Forwarding" button. You type in your mobile me address and anytime someone types in "www.imakesporrans.com" it automatically redirects to your mobile me www.web.me.com/imakesporrans address.

If you decide to go the godaddy route for hosting, it will automatically pair your domain name to your hosted area-Both are a fine way to go.


6)Accepting Credit Cards is a must for ecommerce. Paypal is the industry leader in merchant services, so you'll probably want to go that route because everyone and their mother uses paypal, so paypments can be quick. The other options are fine also. No matter which service you use, they all have a "MerchantTools", or "Merchant Services" area. Log in and click on this option. You will see options how to make "Buy it Now" buttons. Super easy templates where you type in the item name, description, price and shipping. Once done, you click "Create code". A jumble of html will be presented to you to copy by highlighting all the text and then clicking copy from your menu bar or such. Open iweb and there is an option in the menu bar to "Create HTML snippet". Click that and paste the text into the box and hit apply. you will now see a nice "Buy it Now" button. Manually place this button under the pic of the item you want to sell. Price all your items and then publish to your mobile me or godaddy account. Guess what-You are now a merchant selling your own stuff from a site you created. All for about 250$.....Have fun!