Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think – A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
and
Seth Godin’s Big Red Fez

Both books focus on what customers already know but we as website owners usually forget…Keep It Simple!  There is value in collecting a customers data and having them register an account and sign up for your newsletter but forcing it, especially as a small business owner, is never a good idea.  Customers that have good experiences are always willing to sign up for an account or newsletter.  Forcing only has the potential to drop conversions.

Another great point in both books and along the lines of Keeping It Simple! is the need many new business owners have to load their site with anything and everything.  Just because you can put it on your homepage doesn’t mean you should.  Just because you can add a few steps to your checkout process doesn’t mean you should.  Just because you think it’s cool doesn’t mean it is.  The fact is that simple still works!  Focus on relevance and ask your mom to perform the action you hope every visitor will.  Then take notes and fix it.  Relevance is important for search engines, relevance is important for industry recognition and relevance is important for customers.

The same common sense approach is important for pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization.  Paying attention to best practices offered by Google Webmaster Central can only help your site rank higher in search engines.  Bidding on keywords that are obviously relevant to your business, product and industry will of course help your quality score.  If I search for “Patio Furniture” and you sell backyard everything please don’t send me to your homepage when I’ve just searched for Patio Furniture.  Send me to your Patio Furniture section.  It’s simple common sense for a sales person to sell me Patio Furniture when I walk into a store and tell him I want Patio Furniture so following the same proven pattern with your web site marketing is a common sense strategy that is sure to help.

If you haven’t read both books, I’d like to take this time to say “Please go read them….both!”

DOMAIN NAME: What is a domain name?  It’s what everyone else knows as your online business.  Catchy, easy to remember and contains words that customers would actually use to find your products are the key points to any good domain name.  I always buy from Moniker or GoDaddy because of price, features and trust.  I also always do a google search for “Moniker Discount Code” or “GoDaddy Discount Code” before purchasing any new domain to save myself a few bucks.  You should do the same!

COMPETITIVE RESEARCH: Grab a piece of paper and then go to Google.com and search for the product you plan on selling.  Write down who shows up and what they are offering.  Does everyone offer free shipping?  If so, your idea of making money on the shipping fee just got trumped by the competition.  Are they offering the product for less than you are paying to get it at “wholesale”?  If you answered yes you’ll want to find a new product.  What terms are they using to sell the product?  A great tool to figure this out is SpyFu.  Enjoy!

WEBSITE: Now one of my favorite things about the internet is the fact that you can easily find almost everything for free (it feels like everything sometimes).  Building a website is no different.  One big thing to remember for getting started selling on the internet is you always get what you pay for.  Now how can I say you can get it for free but you get what you pay for?  Simple, there are always strings attached to free.  It’s usually worth it to cut those strings IF you like what was free.

Here’s my example.  Weebly.com is a great site builder program.  It is easy to use, fun looking and you can create a site without even thinking.  The free version shows you everything and let’s you create a site BUT the footer (bottom of every page in your site) tells everyone you made a site for free.  If you pay, one of the features is you can customize the footer.   See what I mean?

Building a website, especially your first site, can be fun and can be frustrating.  Doing it is the first step and improving it is the rest of your internet life.  Some key things to remember about a successful website are:

Keep It Simple! Don’t make it so cutting edge that no one knows how to use it.
Set a Goal for EVERY Page! You want to sell right?  Make sure every page has a clear purpose.
Take Good Pictures! It’s worth it to take a nice picture and answer all the question you had about the product.  It makes the sale that much better.

So there you have it.  The first steps to getting started selling on the Internet aren’t super crazy but you’d be surprised how much you learn and few people have actually taken even the first step.  Go ahead and take a step.  The most you are out is $9.95/yr for a domain.