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1. Being a do-it-yourselfer. Let's be honest: you are great at what you do. However, a great business owner knows his strengths as well as his weaknesses. The number one mistake business owners make when starting a website is trying to create their website themselves. Realize that professional web designers spend years and years learning how to design websites. Most of them have some form of computer programming schooling under their belts and can whip up an amazing website for a customer in under a month. Trying to create a professional website that will measure up to your competition is something better left to a professional web designer. Don't be fooled by the template packages out there that promise you can do-it-yourself. With a few weeks of headaches, lots of time you probably don't have, and a lot of trial and error, you might be able to pump out something that sort of is what you want and hopefully works properly. Spend your time making money for your business and less time trying to be a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.
(For more reading see article: The Clueless Business Owner's Guide to Going Online)
2. Penney pinching where it hurts. As a business owner, you know that quality work and quality time are not cheap. Before you begin purchasing web products or hiring designers, sit down and create a list of all that you will need and the average cost for each part of your website. Prepare yourself and your business budget for the up front cost of a fabulous website. To get you started, here is an example list:
These price estimates are for a small start up business with a cart system integrated into the site design and minimal hosting needs. Being prepared for these expenses will make you less likely to try to cut corners when starting up a website. Your website is your business's presence online. You don't want it to look sloppy, poorly designed or old fashioned. Be a coffee shop, not a lemonade stand. Your web presence has to look established and professional. To achieve excellence, you must be willing to pay some up front costs.
3. Choosing a web designer who cuts corners. You may run across horror stories of fellow business owners who hire someone who is 'really cheap' or says they will make your site for free. We all know that you get what you pay for. Hiring a design company based in India or someplace on the other side of the planet is probably not the best idea. Language, cultural and time barriers are just a few problems that overseas outsourcing causes. Don't waste your time or money on something that is bound to give you a major headache in the near future. When hiring your designer, make sure they have a website where you can view previous sites they have designed. This is their resume. Each site should be as unique as each customer they have designed for. A designer with a 'signature look' is not someone who will listen to your specific needs. Also, you should be able to communicate with your designer both by phone and email.
(For further reading, see article: Working With Your Web Designer)
4. Lack of business planning for the website. A website for your company is an investment. In today's fast paced, informational world, your website is your advertisement to all those who will be looking for your company online. It is in your best interest to create a business plan for your website. Take time to write down why you want a website, what kind of business you hope to generate from your website and how much you are able to spend to get things started. You will also need to sketch up some ideas to bring to your web designer. How many pages will you need? Will you need a cart system online? What feeling do you want to convey through your website? These are just a few of the things you need to consider.
5. Making an offer too complicated. Trying to compete in any market requires creativity. Offering deals to customers is an easy way to grab a potential customer. The mistake many small businesses make when offering deals is not making the deal attractive enough. If you offer a deal but require a customer to jump through a bunch of hoops, they are less likely to buy. Likewise, if you offer a deal, make sure it has real value. Offering $5 off a $150 product is not worth your customer's time. Offer quality values, easy incentives and attractive value-added bonuses. Anything less will be overlooked.
6. Build a website and they will come! Or not... There is a misconception among new website owners that once they hit the world wide web, everyone will be knocking down their door. Just like when a store opens, it takes awhile for the word to spread and people to realize the store is even open for business. With websites, there is also what is called a page rank. For example: say you own a bread shop in Maine. Someone might search for "maine bread shops" and 1000+ listings show up. If you just put your site on the web, you are likely at the bottom of that search list. Google has a system that "crawls" your website and ranks it based on site relevancy and content quality. Sites with quality content make it to the top faster because of this. The bottom line is that it may take at least a year for your website to climb up towards the top for page rankings. That should not stop you from referring people to your site with a business card, email signature, link-backs, word of mouth, advertising, etc. Be creative and be proud that you have a presence online!
7. Online payment: don't make it difficult to buy from your website! Sadly, many thrifty business owners run to google checkouts, paypal, yahoo and the like to solve their online cart system needs. At first, these easy solutions appear to save them money and time. What they do not realize is that with these systems, the customer is routed to another site to complete a payment or purchase a product. Consumers loose trust in a website's credibility and easily question the security of the online transaction when this happens. It is not uncommon for a customer to make it to this part of the purchase and abandon it because they feel insecure about giving personal information. Instead of loosing sales to try to save a few peanuts/month, do it right the first time and have your web designer integrate a cart system into your site. OScommerce is a program that is very secure and easy to use. Along with your cart, you should set up a merchant account, which allows you to directly charge all major credit cards on your site. The application process for this can be a real nightmare if you have never done it before. And not all hosting companies can actually apply for the merchant account on your behalf. With the HostRail ecommerce/hosting package, we walk you through this entire process free of charge. You owe it to your customers to have a secure and easy method of payment. Asking them to sign up with paypal or sending them to another site to buy your stuff is unprofessional and ends up costing you more in middle man fees anyway. Do it right the first time and you won't have to redo it later.
8. Placing ads on your website. Especially when a business website is getting started, it is almost a guaranteed killer if there are a lot of ads on any of your pages. Users are very sensitive to being barraged with advertising. Banner ads, google ads, yahoo ads, all of them will give the impression that your site is cheap and possibly a scam. A website that needs ads on it is either cheap or does not bring in enough business revenue to cover basic costs like web hosting. Don't demote yourself to this category as soon as you hit the stage.
9. KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid - Overcomplicated website navigation. The point of your website is to inform your viewers of your services, prices, company mission, products, etc. Do not make them WORK to find their way around your site. If there is a page that does not serve a significant purpose on your site, take it off. Make it your mission when working with your designer to keep the design clean and simple. This will keep your viewers interested and not frustrated with the site design. Approach the site design from the viewer's perspective. Also, make sure that your homepage has something that propels the viewer on to another page. This can be a 'call to action' on the homepage: "click here, sign up here, view product list", whatever is appropriate and tasteful. Stay away from music on your site and flash intros. Those gimmicky annoyances just cheapen your site and usually make potential viewers leave your site prematurely because they either have to wait for the flash intro to be over or they don't care for the music they are being forced to listen to on your website.
10. Bla bla bla. When you visit a website to find information do you want to sit and read a novel, sifting through miles of text to try to find what you are looking for? Of course not, and neither do your customers. Be succinct, brief, informative and grammatically correct. Sites that contain exorbitant amounts of background information on the home page are rarely successful. |
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