Any lessons learned??

[TJDesigns]

Hi-
I'm in the process of gettting a business & website together, and realizing there's a lot more to think about than I thought!! So, I was wondering if any of you with websites could share any essential tips and lessons learned? This feels like a huge undertaking with a 3yr. old and 1.5 yr old by my side!

Thanks is advance for any helpful tips!
Tiffany

[woodkath]

I am trying to figure that out too!!! Good luck to you!!

[cynthia]

Minus the business issues, I'm still doing the *sitting-on-the-fence* on the website --->sorry not much help from me Good luck and all the best...

I'm sure members with Websites will chime in shortly...

[geboraco@sbcglobal.net]

Extending on this topic,I would like some lessons learned about the accounting side....what program do you use, how do you account for everything....Is there a free software program that is sufficient or do I need to buy Quickbooks, etc.?

[hipgirl]

About PayPal shipping, I saw Heather posted a tip and would like to repeat it.

Some customers provide shipping address on my website that different from their PayPal address. So when you print shipping lable, make sure to double check if the PayPal address=shipping address. I sent a couple of packages to PayPal address which is not the current address and had to send the replacement.

After the website up and running, the most important thing is to promote your website. Here are what I did:

1. selling on eBay and promote my website in 'about me' page. ( I don't have an etsy store and not familiar with the rules but I think you can promote your website in etsy too)

2. Join a lot of forums and groups and promote my website in the posts. Each group's rules is different. (Some group does not tolerate any SPAM).

3. I was considering about paid advertise like good AdWord but didn't start my campain. I heard that this will bring a lot of traffic.

4. Post useful information on your website to bring more traffic and improve search engine rank.

5. I know I should've done this one long time ago but it's still in to-do list: Optimise keywords on every page of my website. For example, if you have an item, the title of the product is 'bows'. It should be changed to 'hairbows/hair bows'.

Michelle

Michelle