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E-Commerce or Quicksand
Every day I come to work and sit at my desk and with a heavy heart listen to the same tale of woe, over and over:
“I have developed the world’s greatest widget, but I can’t get it to market. I tried distributors and the ones that would talk to me wanted 40-60% of retail and then wanted me to stock them on consignment plus contribute to their advertising plans, there was not anything left for me.
Then a friend told me about the Internet, that it was free and all I needed was a .com address, a server, a web page, and that I would have an instant world wide market. All I had to do was fill orders and count my money. My friend even had a friend that would do a web page for me for next to nothing. I had heard the news reports about Joe Blow who sold 500,000 Buffalo Chips in a day on the Internet, and how great the Internet was for businesses everywhere. So I said O.K. Needless to say, nothing happened. So, I figured I needed a better web page. I found a good web designer and my site was beautiful. I got on a couple of search engines, and got some hits, but no sales. So I tried mailing lists, banners, Associate Plans and still nada.
I am almost broke. My credit is stretched. My wife questions my sanity and I still have a garage full of widgets. “Can you help me”????”
This sad but true story did not need to happen. What he and many new start-up
.coms need from the beginning is a full service web development company.
Here are some questions you should ask before you ever begin your e-commerce adventure:
| 1. |
How long have you been in business?
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| 2. |
How many active clients do you have?
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3.
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Do you submit to search engines? How many?
Do you
automatically resubmit? How often? |
4.
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Do you do web sites and set up links and
analyze the site? |
5.
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Where do most of your sites rank on the key
search
engines? |
| 6. |
Can you set up credit card transactions? |
7.
|
Do you check site stats and make
suggestions?
How often? |
| 8. |
Can you maintain the site for me? |
9.
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What is the percentage of your clients
actually
doing
business? |
10.
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Can I deal with a real person or is everything
e-mail? |
11.
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Be sure to ask for a partial list of client .com
addresses so
you can see what their sites look
like. |
12.
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Do you treat me with the same care and
respect as I do my
widgets? |
These services are not free, but you will have a real chance of your bottom line being in the black.
Douglas Gaines, Editor
Doug@rnp-inc.com
Raven Crone, CEO
www.rnp-inc.com
877-786-4563
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