I want to start an online business site selling items I hand make. What do I need to do?

I make earrings, key chains, and figurines and would love to have my own website so that I can sell them. I've looked all over at host sites, and I'm just not sure how much freedom they would offer to edit and change my site at any time. Also, I'm not sure how to go about making my items available to order. Do I need some type of software? How do I manage it?



Thanks!I want to start an online business site selling items I hand make. What do I need to do?
Rather than make your own, or design your own, the best way to start is by using a company with a ready made system of setup. I've heard good things about

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On it sites are good top links for decisions of your problem http://topfin2.notlong.com/2AArlKMI want to start an online business site selling items I hand make. What do I need to do?
Hi. You have a couple of issues to deal with here.

1. You do not mention if you have experience in web design at all. If not, your best bet would be to use a site like ProStores, or similar. Unless you have knowledge of php scripting, it may be your best route. There would still be a learning curve in using Prostores, but nowhere near learning how to do scripting.

2. Aside from that issue though, is the marketing side of it all. Marketing is all about getting your name out there and your items in front of the customer. Not to dampen your spirit any, but keep in mind how many other websites are out there doing the same exact thing. Just as an example I did searches on Bing for the following terms and the results that came up are next to the terms:



buy earrings: 28,500,000

buy key chains: 30,800,000

buy figurines: 46,700,000



If your website does not appear within the first 2 pages of results (20 results), your website will never be found by the average searcher.



Best wishesI want to start an online business site selling items I hand make. What do I need to do?
I would look into webs.com they might have the flexibility to do the website your looking into. If that don't work I would look into a website and selling my stuff thru ebay stores. That way you still have the flexibility while making a profit.I want to start an online business site selling items I hand make. What do I need to do?
Kearstin,



You need your own website. A real one, not a free site. A free site will not get the traffic you need to sell your goods.

I suggest avoiding ecommerce at first because it can be very complicated. You could start with just four or five items and use paypal buttons on your site.



I help people get started with this and I dont charge to help. Feel free to contact me.I want to start an online business site selling items I hand make. What do I need to do?
One of the first things you need to do is come up with a website name and by that domain name for a hosting company such as www.Godaddy.com or www.1and1.com ect. After you get a domain name picked out you should have a website built. I would suggest you get a decent one built and not a free one. Something simple unless you want to spend the money and go with a flash sight but I wouldn't recommend doing that just starting out. After doing that then you will need a way to accept payment online through a merchant account. There is the most popular such as paypal but I wouldn't recommend them because of the high rates and poor customer care. I would go with someone like http://www.merchantisland.com for someone with high approval and low rates. And of course then you would have to have a way to market your items. You can use something like google adwords and other SEO types. But be sure to keep cost down especially in the beginning cause that's were where most companies fail is at the beginning. Hope this helps. Good luck!I want to start an online business site selling items I hand make. What do I need to do?
You can start with a hosting from this list at http://bestecommercehosting.org and learn from http://startonlinestore.org



Have fun.