In today’s blog, I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to let you know about some resources to help you create a stellar Website for your online business. Your Website is your ticket to a sizzling brand and dazzling future. These days a Website is absolutely essential, no matter what kind of business you have. But it’s especially important if you have an online business.
What I am going to share is my experience of hard knocks. My background is in print design, so translating that to Web design has been a learning curve.
So here are three of my favorite resources. I will share more resources as the weeks go on.
1) Design shack website
Last week I stumbled upon a really helpful blog on the subject. It inspired me so much that now I have finally begun the process of re-designing my Websites.
This article described exactly how to design a Website. I don’t mean step by step, I mean the guiding principles behind how a design should look. This was extremely helpful to me and I learned a lot. This tip will vastly improve your online business.
You can read this article by clicking here. http://designshack.net/articles/layouts/10-rock-solid-website-layout-examples/
2) Hosting companies
My favorite hosting companies are Rage Software, GoDaddy, and Hostgator. I use Hostgator and Rage to host my websites. I get my domains from GoDaddy. While I have heard that Hostgator has been down a few times recently, I have never had a problem with Rage. I like using a couple of hosting companies so that if there is a problem, not all of my sites will be unavailable.
The one critique that I have heard about GoDaddy is that it is likely to be labeled as a source for spam. I would not recommend using one of their build-a-websites. I started out this way with my first website and let me tell you, it was atrocious!
You get what you pay for. When you use a template, it is extremely difficult to customize your site. If your site looks unprofessional, it will not get the attention that it needs to succeed. From my experience, a template from GoDaddy made my Website look “cookie cutter.” There was nothing to differentiate it from other sites. This is especially important if you have an online business.
3) Autoresponders and shopping carts
Now the big three are InfusionSoft, AWeber, and AutoWebBusiness.com.
I have been using AutoWebBusiness.com for several years now. I like it because I can sell digital and physical products, track sales, make recurring orders, send newsletters, and set up long series of automatic emails. I can also track ads, have a shopping cart, and maintain several mailing lists. All these are crucial for an online business.
You can integrate a merchant account with Autoweb, including PayPal. You can maintain an image and document library on their servers. It’s fairly easy to understand and doesn’t require much coding knowledge.
It is, however, fairly pricey. But not compared to InfusionSoft and AWeber. For what it delivers, the price is very reasonable.
As far as other services, I have used Constant Contact in the past. While it was a pretty good service and I liked their templates, I found it extremely frustrating to maintain two separate lists on two separate services. I decided to sreamline and just have the listing service with Autoweb.
If you want to check out AutoWebBusiness.com, click on this link. http://www.autowebbusiness.com/app/?pr=71&id=202375
Full disclosure: the above link is my affiliate link. Whether or not I was an affiliate, I would be sharing this resource with you.