Brenton Parker answers:

Craiglist or autotrader.com as long as your not a car dealer.

Brenton Parker answers:

Unfortuantly your business name is controlled by the availability of domain names – so you need to find available domain names. This you can do at justdropped.com Do not register with registerfly – they have major problems at the moment.

Brenton Parker answers:

Search the internet for the idea you have for the internet-based business. That will let you know if someone already has one.

There are lots of websites that will help you to create a web-based business. You should have a business plan – an idea of who would want to buy your product, etc. Money to make everything happen, etc. Check some of the earlier posts related to this subject. There’s a lot of good info out there.

You’ll need to get a company to host the site. You can try surpasshosting.com and get a very reasonable price.

Brenton Parker answers:

Hi Sarale
Ringtones are hot right now for me
If you now where to maket to
Hope this helped
Eddie
http://www.just-for-moms.com

Brenton Parker answers:

Well, Dad has some ideas, but I don’t see them as practical. I actually work in the industry, and I haven’t found anyone willing to give away the stuff in order to get a client. The fact is, it’s too important for POS providers to have to give it away. We close 4 out of 5 people we talk to about our systems. 1/2 of those that didn’t close originally come back to us later. So, if 90% of my prospects become clients, I don’t have to give my services out for free.

However, Dad’s right, you’re going to want to make sure you’ve got the feature set you’re after. I’ve heard good things from entrepreneurs with Quickbooks’ POS. It’s the least expensive, and it does pretty well.

I work with Microsoft’s RMS. For small companies (1 to 5 checkout stands and up to a few stores plus internet sales), this is a pretty good solution. It’s relatively easy to customize, it uses the strongest backend database, and it migrates quickly up to their more expensive products (Small Business Server, Business Dynamics, etc.)

As far as hardware goes, most POS providers will give you their recomendations that integrate with their software. I’d go with what they know. The hardware can be more finicky in this business than in general PCs. And, when you’ve got a customer checking out, you want to reduce the stress of that moment.

The parts you’re going to need:
– POS software ($300 – $2,000)
– PC to run the software ($300 – $1,000)
– receipt printer ($200 – $500)
– barcode scanner ($100 – $300)
– credit card reader ($100 – $300)
– merchant accounts (visa/mastercard, american express, and discover) (I’d suggest Pay by Touch, their fees and service seems to be the best for small retailers)
– merchant account gateway ($300 – $700)
– configuration time (applying business rules, etc.) ($600 to $1,000)

All told, you’re going to spend between $2,000 to $5,000 per workstation to get things running.

Things you’re going to want to ask yourself:
– How many stores do you reasonably expect to open in the next 12 months? Probably one, right?
– How many registers will you need. With a comic book store, probably one or two is all you’ll need.
– Will you be doing online sales?
– What accounting software are you using?
– What value add can you really create for past customers (sales, clubs, newsletters, etc.) How much time and money do you want to spend on CRM?
– If you are going to keep track of individual books and magazines, you may need the ability to use serial numbers. If so, make sure your POS supports that.
– Do you need to setup gift cards, loyalty programs, coupons, etc?

Finally, IBM and Microsoft have teamed up with a pre-bundled solution. You can buy this from one of them and have something working pretty quickly. Just remember, you’re going to spend between $60 and $150 per hour for a value added reseller to configure and maintain your system, so going with one out-of-the-box may actually save you some money upfront.

Good luck

Brenton Parker answers:

TITS TITS TITS

Brenton Parker answers:

Another point…you may do well to keep yourself well hidden from your taxing authorities; but one of your out of state customers may be purchasing your product through a business. They will be claiming the expense on their taxes. If they are audited, it will eventually lead to you.

Don’t risk it. Paying taxes means you are making money. I would rather make money and owe the taxes, than owe no taxes at all.

In Texas the form for a tax ID# is very simple & it is free. Paying the taxes is as simple as filling out a short form (not even 1/2 a page) or calling them in to an 800#. I can’t imagine other states are very different from that.

If you are using something like Quickbooks, keeping track of sales tax will be a BREEZE.

Do things right from the beginning and have a clear conscience. Think about your business plan and I hope you do great!

Brenton Parker answers:

Yeh especially a porn site… Do u know how many people visit porn sites at one single time?

I was actually on youporn.com ealier today

Brenton Parker answers:

Hi Gondishapur,

I’ve hosted with Yahoo before but they couldn’t meet my needs, so I switched to a more dedicated web hosting company. Yahoo runs several businesses and so they’re less dedicated in web hosting, and their tech supports are relatively less knowledgeable than dedicated web hosting companies like HostGator, InMotionHosting etc.

Price wise, Yahoo costs a few bucks more per month but with no superior service offered by them. They use their own control panel which at certain points may seem confusing. Control panel is vital to building your website. If it isn’t user-friendly, you’ll have a hard time maintaining your website, adding and removing items etc.

Another profit-affecting factor is your website uptime. Yahoo’s servers are not as stable and reliable as dedicated web hosting companies’ servers. And when you experience downtime with Yahoo, they only offer phone support 24/7, but if you’re having a hard time communicate with them due to your specific regional accent, your website is a goner.

If they offer a live chat support 24/7, you still can communicate your problems to them via keyboard typing and get your problems resolved on the spot real-time, unfortunately, they don’t provide that.

Ok, so you send them email, and they’ll probably respond within a day, but how many hours have your website gone down by then? I’m sure you wouldn’t want that.

Besides Yahoo, big companies like GoDaddy and NetWorkSolutions have similar server and customer support issues.

Before you get down to any web host, I suggest that you go take a read at the factors of choosing reliable web hosting at:

=> http://www.diehardwebhosting.com

This site is not a web hosting company but a web hosting buying guide for people like you. Hope you find it helpful.

Cheers.

Wisely L

Brenton Parker answers:

You are in for a hard time if you want to do it yourself as you have no idea on “how to”…
So, learning how to make an e-commerce will take you a loooong time.
Your best bet is to find a coder to do it for you.
Go to www.rentacoder.com, www.freelancers.com or google “web design freelancers”.
At rentacoder, you can place your request for free and have coders to bid for it. Since there are many “emerging economies” around, you can get a good e-commerce for a few hundred $.
I do these as well, but I charge 1500Euros for a basic site.
By the way: DON’T USE FRAMES! (it leads to the worst possible design and has been “abandonned” by 99% of coders)

Brenton Parker answers:

Who is his target audience? That would be a HUGE starting point. If he’s trying to reach a specific audience, you’ll need to direct your marketing efforts to reach that audience. For example, if most of his clients are business owners, advertise in publications and/or on websites aimed at business owners. If his audience is mostly local, placing an ad in the local paper and in community brochures/programs is the way to go. Also see if he can get listed in business directories, lots of newspapers and local communities publish at least one.

And don’t forget Google ad sense. Figure out the keywords people will use to search for his services in the search engines, and your ads can pop up in search results as a premium listing.

Twitter and other social networking sites are a good way to reach people as well.

The main thing is to figure out your target market and then reach out to them.

Brenton Parker answers:

Yes it is 5,000 and up the more you pay the more you get me i don’t have that kind of money to through away of that’s what you what than Do it it all depends on what your trying to sell i don’t think alot of people are buying they are holding on to there money this is recession

Brenton Parker answers:

Regarding the part of Internet selling, you should have your own website do be your Internet business office.

Ther is 3 steps to creat your own web site
1-you need a domain name.
2-you need a web hosting.
3-Design your site.

(step1)
Your Domain Name is your address on the Web. Just like people use your phone number to call you on the phone, your Domain Name allows people to access your site on the Web. Clever, simple, or easy to remember Domain Names are most desirable as they can play a large part in attracting visitors to your site. Most Domain Names end with “.com” (such as Hostgool.com), but other extensions such as “.net” and “.org” are also available. In addition Domains can be used with your e-mail accounts allowing you to send and receive e-mail with addresses such as “support@yourcompany.com”

To Register your domain name or to know if your domain name available, Simply use this link http://www.hostgool.com/domain.htm

(Step 2)
To have a Web site on the Internet you first need to have a Web server. Unfortunately, owning a Web server can be very costly and requires technical expertise that most businesses don’t have. This is where Web Hosts come in. Web hosting companies provide the equipment and other technical resources that you need without the headaches that come when you have to do it yourself.
Think of a Web Host as the landlord of building. A landlord rents out storefronts to various businesses. Each business decorates and runs their store differently, and doesn’t worry about the maintenance of the building. In a similar way a Web Host rents out space on a Web server, (or entire Web servers), to various businesses. Each business builds his or her own Web site and never has to worry about the maintenance of their Web server.
In other words, the Web Host provides the place on the Internet where your Web site lives. And you don’t have to hire the technical staff to take care of it, you can simply do this here http://www.hostgool.com/shared.htm

(Step3)
The easiest way for a novice to build a web site is to start with a web template. Web Templates can be customized and you can use the layout but swap the graphics etc…. This will get you comfortable with basic HTML design and an HTML editor (like Dreamweaver).

Here are some resources for free or inexpensive templates that are easy to edit and manage.

Webmaster Templates – http://www.webmaster-templates.net
Free Web Templates – http://www.freewebtemplates.com/
Web Design Elements – http://www.webdesign-elements.com
Free Website Templates – http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/
Free Layouts – http://www.freelayouts.com/
Free Templates Online – http://www.freetemplatesonline.com

HTML website templates can significantly ease the burden of designing and creating websites by providing webmasters with a ready-made web layout, structure, basic graphics, and color scheme.

The templates can generally be edited and customized with any HTML editor. The biggest advantage for webmasters using ready-made templates is the amount of time that can be saved

Brenton Parker answers:

What?

Brenton Parker answers:

You can look in newspaper classifieds or look on websites like craigslist.org. Or you can go directly to the type of business you are looking to acquire and ask if they would consider selling it.

Brenton Parker answers:

Nothing is free but stupidity

Brenton Parker answers:

If you mean the sales tax charged to you on the goods you purchased for use or sale in your business, yes you can include them in the expense amount.

Brenton Parker answers:

Your jewelery may be incredibly cheap, but places like Ebay and Craiglist are places for items priced less than their value that people want to simply get rid of, rather than things priced to make money. I market an online art brokerage, and have found Ebay to not be of any help to us.

I’m glad you’re taking the initiative to try online marketing, an initiative many aren’t attempting, but you’re pursuing the wrong angle.

The first step is optimizing your website for SEO. Do you have text links to every page on your website, either on a sitemap, or on the homepage?
Do you link only to businesses that relate to jewelry?
Do you have effective keywords and descriptions in your meta tags?
Do you emphasize those keywords throughout your website?
Do all of your pages have different titles?
Do all of your images have alternate text?
Does your website load fast?
Those are some basic steps to making your website more “google friendly”

SEO alone is perhaps the most important factor in improving an online business. But adding keywords isn’t the only way to improve SEO. “Link juice” is a term referring to the number of websites linking to you. If a website with millions of visitors per day, for example, linked to you on their website, your website would be considered higher in Google because of it.

There are quite a few vendors doing what you do. Make a links page, and ask some of your competition if you can set up a link exchange, in which you each link to each other’s website, improving both website’s SEO.

Below I’ve listed some other websites you can list on to help improve SEO.
Joeant.com (an online shopping directory $40 to list a website forever)
Aboutus.org (Essentially wikipedia only for websites, although it’s not made by the makers of Wikipedia. A “nofollow” tag is added to articles, preventing Google from seeing aboutus.org linking to bad websites. However, if you write a well done article, you can submit it to http://www.aboutus.org/ProFollow. You can also have a professional write it, get the ads removed on your article, and get the “nofollow” tags automatically removed for a one time fee of $200)
Delicious.com (a social bookmarking website for people to list and rate websites Free to list)

Also, another problem with many websites is people are unsure about whether or not the website is secure. Web of Trust or WOT is a website reputation service based upon user ratings. You can get a trust badge for a yearly fee of $300 to put on your website (mywot.com)

Brenton Parker answers:

There are many websites where you can advertise your website for free, improve your search engine rankings and get more traffic. Send an email with a writeup on your business to e@culx.net to get free advertising and one way links.

Brenton Parker answers:

There’s so many different things to sale on an online business. I actually have a really good friend who has her own home based business making soy candles that are just gorgeouse! Great income opportunity there. She sales them on line, in stores etc etc etc. If you’d like her information, feel free to email me and I’d be happy to pass her web site along for you to get some ideas. I’m sure she’d be happy to teach you how to make them. From what I’ve heard from her, they’re not that difficult to do at all. People love candles. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a few.

Another thing you should take a look at is selling cell phones, and offer promo codes and services from all the major cellular providers as well as land line services, Internet, digital, VOIP, video phones, Satalite TV etc. I can send you information on how to get involve with these companies. For every service you put on either by web site or in person, the companies give you a percentage of everyone’s monthly bills. You can market them online as well. The market in this industry is world wide. So if you think about how many people have candles, and how many people have some sort of tv service or telephone service rather it’s a land line or not, and with companies keeping up on the technology changes, I think between these two things, it would be a huge amount of income if you think about how many people and all the possibilities you can have.

I’m going to forward this question to a few different people who have their own businesses and maybe some collaborations between different companies might be an option for you there.
If you’d like more information on things, feel free to email me.

Tiffany

Brenton Parker answers:

Your home page should describe your business, personalize it by telling its history, and a bit about you. It should describe your products in general, shipping methods, and guarantees. The photography is not the best, with glare from lighting on some products. Descriptions of products are not detailed, including condition of used products. If you are selling products for others, the owner should fill out a form you create with lots of details before you accept them. Some of the printed descriptions have lines of type that are not readable.
Well, after all that, good luck to you, and thanks for being brave enough to ask for help.

Brenton Parker answers:

Go to http://www.score.org/ to find the nearest SCORE chapter. Contact them to arrange for a free one on one meeting with a SCORE counselor.

SCORE is a nonprofit organization. They provide a public service by offering small business advice and training. .

SCORE’s 10,500 volunteers have more than 600 business skills. Volunteers share their wisdom and lessons learned in business. The volunteers are working/retired business owners, executives and corporate leaders.

Brenton Parker answers:

First, you have no idea how much they are actually earning and unless you speak with the owner – you’re guessing.

Second, the short answer is – No. You will be competing with Dell, Apple, Asus and Amazon.

The reason your neighbor has “lots of customers” is he likely provides services for people who have purchased their computers. What you see are computers he can service…there’s nothing inside the cases.

Find something easier to do if you want to work online and make the same income as a store in your area.

Brenton Parker answers:

Http://www.freewebs.com/advertise–online

Brenton Parker answers:

Your not going to find the answer to your question in the Garden & Landscape catagory. I would suggest more research on the web to find the appropriate place to locate the answers you’re looking for Good Luck !