Monthly Archives: February 2005

Setting up an Online Store for Free

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For the past year, I’ve cobbled together a custom PHP script for my sales sites. After all, my needs were simple – very few items, PayPal payments only, so why invest the time and effort in a complete store, right?

Wrong.

I finally took the plunge this week where developing a new site, and decided to go for a ‘standard’ store. And to set that store up, I used open-source software – specifically, osCommerce.

osCommerce is a free store script in PHP that you customize for different looks (or leave unchanged for a nice blue look). Ideally, you want a style uniquely your own, which is where osCommerce templates come in.

A template is just the design tips needed to create a look for the basic osCommerce layout. And looks matter, so even if osCommerce is free, think seriously about paying for an osCommerce template – the price is well worth it in terms of a professional look.

I’ll try to get noting my experiences with osCommerce, but so far it’s been quite positive. Well, maybe one negative – a lot of the code is split up over files, so tracking down what’s happening can be time-consuming. But I can heartily recommend osCommerce, and once you’re past the initial learning curve, it’s a slick way to open your store cheaply.

Should You Hire a Copywriter?

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You’ve got a great product – but you still need to sell it. So you need a copywriter – or do you?

Make no mistake – someone who can take a product and bring out the best of it is worth his (or her) weight in gold. Making a merely useful product into something highly desirable and coveted is a talent, and that talent that can make money for everyone.

But…

Having said that, budgets can be tight when starting out – so what can you do?

First, analyze the costs. If you can acquire the services of a good copywriter at a price that means you profit, consider doing so. If you’re really serious about it, consider alternate ways of paying (such in products, or commission).

But if you cannot afford it, then you’ll have to go it alone. This isn’t necessarily bad, just more work.
Read ads. Try to figure out what works for you. Then repeat it in your own words. Remember that benefits sell, not features. A microwave cooks faster than a stove (a feature), but relate it to life to get a benefit – it means YOU will spend less time in the kitchen.

The subject of copywriting is huge – but you can download this excellent guide that will help you along. It’s very good, and of course free – so read it and see if it helps you with your ads.

And of course, feel free to email me – I’m always ready to write at the drop of a hat!

So Why REALLY Have a Blog?

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I’ve talked in the past about blogging, and how it benefits your business (and I’ve also talked about personal blogging, and how it’s not good for your business).

But still I hear questions – why really is it good? What’s so special about it? And how does it benefit?

So to answer, here’s one really big reason blogs are good for business:

Content.

Look at any website, and ask yourself why you visit. Information. Content. A blog is just another form of it.

Checking out prices? Content. Wondering about that rash? Medical site – and more content. Reading a joke? Still more content. And a blog is just another type of it.

But a blog does benefit you in ways that other website content doesn’t:

  • A blog makes it easy to publish content – much easier than for the usual web pages.
  • A blog handles all the messy details – indexing your page, adding it to your site’s search engine, setting up your formatting, etc.
  • A blog helps get your message out – it automatically notifies everyone when an article is ready, and gets you search engine attention that would take longer otherwise.
  • A blog encourages you to write daily – after all, if you set a goal of seven pages of useful content (non-blog) to your site a week, how often would you reach it?
  • A blog, by its format, makes it easier to write smaller, more informal articles.
  • A blog puts you in control – when set up, you rarely have to fiddle with a blog (although you can tinker if you wish). Few parts of a website are that easy to manage.
  • A blog gets YOU known. Blog readers expect a personal tone, and if you’re in the business of selling ‘you’, it’s easier to do that in a blog format than with individual web pages.
  • A blog saves you money. Check out the cost of paying someone to upload a page a day to your site (format the html, link in with your other pages, etc.), or imagine paying yourself to do the same thing. Now compare that to pressing the ‘publish’ button.

For years, I’ve wanted to add content to my sites – and never quite got around to it. With blogs, I’m adding to them faster – and getting noticed faster – than ever before.

So call it something else, hide all references to the word ‘blog’ on your site, do whatever you feel necessary – but blogs are of tremendous importance, and I believe can be a ‘secret weapon’ to any business.

Review: Power Income System

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What is the Power Income System? It’s Richard Quek’s Top to Bottom training course to get you online and thinking about money-making ideas.

Of course, there’s a lot of programs out there that will teach you how to work effectively online. What Richard’s has done is start with the basics – from uploading files, handling zips, to (eventually) setting up a domain name and site, to even how to get traffic, and what to set up (and how) for managing your time.

If you’re running site after site, you’ll probably find this kind of training unneeded. But congratulations – you represent a small market. Richard’s website says that 95% of the people on the Internet need to know the basics – and I’m inclined to agree.

As dyed-in-the-wool geeks, ‘we’ have no problem with IP addresses, POP3, and other cryptic acronyms. Of course, our knowledge translates into income, since people who are busy with other things pay us to avoid the steep learning curve.

But Richard’s course helps with that. After going through it, I feel that a real beginner on the Internet has a fighting chance to get things done – and even if he or she doesn’t want to set up their own website, I think the knowledge gained will make it easier to figure out what they do want – always a key to saving money when shopping out work.

But enough from me – if you’re looking for an inexpensive and informative ‘top-to-bottom’ online business course, go over to Richard’s page and check it out.

The Power of No and Negativity

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‘No’ is truly a powerful word – far more than ‘Yes’.

‘Yes’ opens doors, begins grand plans, inspires and encourages; ‘Yes’ incites others to creativity, opportunity, and positivity; ‘No’ shuts the door to it all.

‘Yes’ has begun every grand project or endeavor that man has ever completed; ‘No’ has ended many long before they’d seen the light of day.

A single No is louder than the loudest shout; a lone No can close the door on the most logical and persuasive reasonings, and cause even an optimistic person despair.

No can start wars, turn friends into enemies, end businesses. ‘No’ can abort projects before they get started, and make the most careful plans fall apart utterly.

No can be like graffitti, a defacing of the positive, and a desecration of the good and upbuilding. Likewise, ‘No’ obscures and hides, and disfigures all that has been created.

The power of No is why some choose it over Yes. The ease of saying No allows those without ambition and talent to exert power over those with both.

No is a powerful word – but the power is ultimately with the word itself, not the one who utters it.

For those that use No are destined to never move forward, never gain, never excel, never succeed.

They close doors they are unable to open. While removing opportunities for others, they do so for themselves as well.

In the end, the power of No is in reducing the glories, and tearing them down to the mere mundane – for all.

Such is the power of No.