Antoinette Badenhorst on thu 12 feb 04
Dear Clayarters, till now my website was just a showroom, but I do
consider to start internet sales. My husband does my website for me. His
time and knowledge is limited (his profession is mainframe software
programming) and mine is none. I have a few questions which I hope some
of you will be able to answer.
How difficult/easy is it to learn to secure your website to be able to
do internet sales?
Is it worthwhile to hire someone professional and what benefits will
there be in hiring such a person?
Does anyone tried to work through Pay pal or something similar?
Any tips on improving the visits to your website?
Are there any other things that I should know about before putting my
foot into this business?
I would appreciate any advice that will take me in the right direction.
Thanks.
Antoinette Badenhorst
105 Westwood Circle
Saltillo MS
38866
662 869 1651
www.clayandcanvas.com
Jeff Brown on thu 12 feb 04
On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 09:10:33 -0600, Antoinette Badenhorst
wrote:
>How difficult/easy is it to learn to secure your website to be able to
>do internet sales?
>Is it worthwhile to hire someone professional and what benefits will
>there be in hiring such a person?
Antoinette,
Your website host should have a simple wizard to help you with the secure
site...it should be obviously easy from their control panel.
setting up the shopping cart can be done by your programmer husband. I use
Perlshop http://www.perlshop.org/ to set up the one I am using (which needs
updating)
Jeff Brown
950 1st NH Turnpike
Northwood, NH 03261
(603) 942-8829
http://www.jeffbrownpottery.com
daniel on thu 12 feb 04
Hi Antoinette,
Some people swear by PayPal or Ebay. I have a friend who is a web developer
and she will only buy online via PayPal. I have just checked with my own web
hosting provider and they offer an Ecommerce option which purports to be
secure so you might want to check with your provider. Doing it all yourself
and making secure will be real work. I don't know the details though.
Thanx
D
Cary Chleborad on fri 13 feb 04
The cool thing about Paypal is that there is no monthly charge, the =
sales
mechanism is very simple or if you wish, you may use the IPN option to
create an automated sales interface (you need to have more experience =
for
this). NO COST to get started either way - this is the cool part. =
Finally,
did I mention that there are no monthly costs or startup fees? Paypal =
only
charges as a percentage of the transaction. They also offer a =
MasterCard
debit card with which to spend the received funds with. When you =
expense
through the debit card, you get 1.5% (or something close) cash back into =
the
account. This effectively reduces the fees to almost nothing.
Oh yes - did I mention the part about NO SETUP CHARGES OR MONTHLY FEES?
-Cary
P.S. Get the point about the monthly fees and setup charges???
>=20
> Dear Clayarters, till now my website was just a showroom, but I do
> consider to start internet sales. My husband does my website ...
> How difficult/easy is it to learn to secure your website to be able to
> do internet sales?
> Is it worthwhile to hire someone professional and what benefits will
> there be in hiring such a person?
> Does anyone tried to work through Pay pal or something similar?
> Any tips on improving the visits to your website?
> Are there any other things that I should know about before putting my
> foot into this business?
> I would appreciate any advice that will take me in the right =
direction.
> Thanks.
BJ Clark on sat 14 feb 04
To answer this question, you need to ask how much you want to put into
internet sales? What percentage of your sales do you want to do over
the net? If you just want to sell a few coffee cups via your website,
I'd go with the do it yourself (or your husband) and pay pal. However,
if you want your wholesale customers to buy from your site and you want
to do a major (50%+) percentage of your sales via the internet, then
you need to put capital into it and hire someone to do it for you and
get your own merchant account. If you do it that way, whoever you go
to will have a shopping cart solution they use (don't go with someone
that doesn't).
The thing you need to realize is that a good website isn't cheap, and a
cheap website probably won't make you as much a well made one. It's
just like pottery really, if you think about it.
Bottom line: If it's a small part of your business, treat it so. If
it's a large part, treat it so.
BJ Clark
(who does websites for a living and pots to relieve the stress)
On Feb 13, 2004, at 11:55 PM, Cary Chleborad wrote:
> The cool thing about Paypal is that there is no monthly charge, the
> sales
> mechanism is very simple or if you wish, you may use the IPN option to
> create an automated sales interface (you need to have more experience
> for
> this). NO COST to get started either way - this is the cool part.
> Finally,
> did I mention that there are no monthly costs or startup fees? Paypal
> only
> charges as a percentage of the transaction. They also offer a
> MasterCard
> debit card with which to spend the received funds with. When you
> expense
> through the debit card, you get 1.5% (or something close) cash back
> into the
> account. This effectively reduces the fees to almost nothing.
>
> Oh yes - did I mention the part about NO SETUP CHARGES OR MONTHLY FEES?
>
> -Cary
>
> P.S. Get the point about the monthly fees and setup charges???
>
>>
>> Dear Clayarters, till now my website was just a showroom, but I do
>> consider to start internet sales. My husband does my website ...
>> How difficult/easy is it to learn to secure your website to be able to
>> do internet sales?
>> Is it worthwhile to hire someone professional and what benefits will
>> there be in hiring such a person?
>> Does anyone tried to work through Pay pal or something similar?
>> Any tips on improving the visits to your website?
>> Are there any other things that I should know about before putting my
>> foot into this business?
>> I would appreciate any advice that will take me in the right
>> direction.
>> Thanks.
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> _______
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
-----
BJ Clark
Blazing Media
bjclark@blazing-media.com
www.blazing-media.com
Lee Love on sun 15 feb 04
Cary Chleborad wrote:
>
>P.S. Get the point about the monthly fees and setup charges???
>
>
And people can trust PayPal because the seller does not see the
credit card information. If you go to just any old web site and do
the transaction through an individual, you never know where your
information is going to go. PayPal adds additional security.
See Jean's Munakata catalog for sale!:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3587074353
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
Antoinette Badenhorst on sun 15 feb 04
Thank you everyone for the answers this far. BJ Clark, you made some
remarks that raised more questions.
If I want to make major sales over the internet, how do I make sure
that:
- I have the right professional to help me create those sales? (There
are many persons out there that offer "professional services")
- Is there a way that one can measure if you reached the top of your
internet exposure and how long should it take to start seeing results?
- How much should one advertise a website in other places, but the
internet?
- How do one draw visitors to your website?
I guess what I am trying to get is a balance between a good product,
good pricing, demand to what I have to offer plus the right exposure.
Are there some tips that you can give to me to be able to choose a good
web designer?
Is there a way that I can make sure that I get the best out of his/her
services?
Thanks.
Antoinette Badenhorst
105 Westwood Circle
Saltillo MS
38866
662 869 1651
www.clayandcanvas.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of BJ Clark
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 3:53 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: Website/internet sales.
To answer this question, you need to ask how much you want to put into
internet sales? What percentage of your sales do you want to do over
the net? If you just want to sell a few coffee cups via your website,
I'd go with the do it yourself (or your husband) and pay pal. However,
if you want your wholesale customers to buy from your site and you want
to do a major (50%+) percentage of your sales via the internet, then
you need to put capital into it and hire someone to do it for you and
get your own merchant account. If you do it that way, whoever you go
to will have a shopping cart solution they use (don't go with someone
that doesn't).
The thing you need to realize is that a good website isn't cheap, and a
cheap website probably won't make you as much a well made one. It's
just like pottery really, if you think about it.
Bottom line: If it's a small part of your business, treat it so. If
it's a large part, treat it so.
BJ Clark
(who does websites for a living and pots to relieve the stress)
On Feb 13, 2004, at 11:55 PM, Cary Chleborad wrote:
> The cool thing about Paypal is that there is no monthly charge, the
> sales
> mechanism is very simple or if you wish, you may use the IPN option to
> create an automated sales interface (you need to have more experience
> for
> this). NO COST to get started either way - this is the cool part.
> Finally,
> did I mention that there are no monthly costs or startup fees? Paypal
> only
> charges as a percentage of the transaction. They also offer a
> MasterCard
> debit card with which to spend the received funds with. When you
> expense
> through the debit card, you get 1.5% (or something close) cash back
> into the
> account. This effectively reduces the fees to almost nothing.
>
> Oh yes - did I mention the part about NO SETUP CHARGES OR MONTHLY
FEES?
>
> -Cary
>
> P.S. Get the point about the monthly fees and setup charges???
>
>>
>> Dear Clayarters, till now my website was just a showroom, but I do
>> consider to start internet sales. My husband does my website ...
>> How difficult/easy is it to learn to secure your website to be able
to
>> do internet sales?
>> Is it worthwhile to hire someone professional and what benefits will
>> there be in hiring such a person?
>> Does anyone tried to work through Pay pal or something similar?
>> Any tips on improving the visits to your website?
>> Are there any other things that I should know about before putting my
>> foot into this business?
>> I would appreciate any advice that will take me in the right
>> direction.
>> Thanks.
>
>
_______________________________________________________________________
> _______
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
-----
BJ Clark
Blazing Media
bjclark@blazing-media.com
www.blazing-media.com
________________________________________________________________________
______
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
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