Wordtracker - a terrific tool, the free trial will let you search for related keywords to a search term and let you know the amount of searches for these keywords. Really helpful in putting together list of important keywords
Adwords Keyword Tool - gives you the amount of searches for keywords last month in Adwords ( I use after I get a list together at Wordtracker, to double check I'm not missing any keywords and get a feel for traffic for these keywords.
AdWords - Google's pay per click advertising Program. It is vital that you learn how to run an effective AdWords campaign since it will likely be the cornerstone of your online marketing campaign.
General AdWords Information - Google's index to its general information on AdWords. Given the complexity of AdWords, I suggest reading everything.
Perry Marshall's Definitive Guide To Adwords. I read this religiously at first, and later took all of Perry's advanced courses because it was the best information I could find (and worth it if you are spending a few thousand a month on Adwords). Start with this fairly inexpensive guide, though, and if you end up spending a fair amount on Adwords you may want to consider Perry's Bobsled ride.
Dreamweaver - the current choice of most serious web design professionals for a WSIWYG (what you see is what you get) authoring tool. Is a complex program to learn.
HTML/CSS Editor -- I still use HomeSite, although it was discontinued in 2009. If I find a new one, I will let you know.
Learning about Web Design, HTML and Usability. I never wanted this site to get into the nuts and bolts of web design or html - others have already done it and better than I could. There are a lot of good books on this, but here are some online resources:
Useit - Jakob Nielsen's site on Usability and Web Design - Nielsen is the big guru on usability. I think usability is one of the keys to successful web design, and Nielsen's books do give a good grounding on usability. The basic book is "Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity", and while a bit of a dense read for a newcomer, I really recommend it for anyone doing a web business.
I finally bit the bullet and decided to really learn about CSS. And I'm glad I did -- knowing how to use Style sheets is very important in creating usable sites today. The book I got and really like is CSS: The Missing Manual
Picking a Domain Name
GoDaddy - the domain name registrar I use. Domain names with .com ending start at $8.95 a year. Has a search tool to let you see whether a domain name is still available.
A Better Whois - this site lets you find out who has registered a domain name. This tool has come in handy at figuring out who some of my competitors really are.
Website Hosting
The Diamond Lane - the web host I now use (for the last few years). Most people will be fine with their Lite hosting at $9.95/month. TDL will work fine if you end up using Mal's Ecommerce since this shopping cart is independently hosted. But if you decide on a different shopping cart, then you may want to host with a company that specializes in hosting that specific cart. If you do decide to use TDL, I would appreciate your letting them know I referred you. In the spirit of full disclosure, I don't get any kickback, but they do offer a month of free hosting on any referral.
Order Pro - its the order management software I use, and for the most part I like it. I did need to have it customized a bit so that it would track inventory for me even though I drop ship. Tell them I referred you - I get no kickback, but if they get enough interest they have said they would offer my people a discount.
Mail Order Manager - the best known order management software for small business, but pricey. One nice feature is that it can integrate directly with its shopping cart software - so it makes it easy to import orders from your web store, etc. I'm not thrilled with this cart, SiteLINK, though, although I've never spent the time to really play with it and see if I could customize it to be more what I like. Also is a really expensive for hosting ($195 a month), so I much prefer my solution - using OP with TDL for hosting and figuring out how to import the orders into OP myself.
Another choice that I'm considering moving to is Quickbooks.
It offers invoicing as part of its basic package and most shopping carts are set up to export to Quickbooks -- so it is easy to get your orders from your cart to your accounting software. I'm considering doing this myself, but it would be heavy lifting to switch over so I keep putting it on the back burner.
Merchant Account - a real underbelly of the business world. It is easy to get taken and end up with an expensive, long term contract for processing with a pricey terminal or software contract. Again, I use the credit processing program built into OP, so I just shop for a merchant account (no terminal or software contracts).
Still, some merchant account providers will try to charge you a large up front application fee, require substantial reserves, and processing fees can vary greatly. In addition, if you decide you will need to have real-time processing of your online orders, you will need to get a payment gateway as well.
One good place to try is the Costco merchant account service -- about as low cost as you can get and doesn't have an application fee (which really kills me I paid $800+ for applying for a merchant account when I started in 1998 -- and I was just happy to find someone who would take an internet retailer)
Setting Up an 800 Number and Long Distance, Online Fax Service
Accessline - can get an 800# into voice mail, or instead be able to direct the 800# to ring to any number you choose or go into voice mail. I really like that the voice mail allows you to have multiple messages that you can direct calls to (a regular one, one for when you are on vacation, etc).
Onesuite - a prepaid long distance plan, which charges 2.9 cents a minute with no access fees. It works well for the most part and is much less expensive than the calling cards I had been using.
Maxemail - this is the best service I've found for receiving and sending faxes online. All received faxes are converted into a picture file that is emailed to you. And allows you to send faxes through browser interface or by email. I use it everyday.
Shopping Cart. There are literally hundreds of shopping cart/store options, and it is very difficult to figure out which one to go with. If you are interested in reading about shopping cart usability, you may want to read Jakob Nielsen's report on E-commerce - Shopping carts, checkout & registration (click on Individual Reports and look for this report - #4).
Mal's Ecommerce - the basic free cart is pretty good and should work well for businesses just starting out. You may want to opt up to the paid version, at $6 a month, which allows more flexibility such as being able to add some code to the header and footer of the page. This is important so you can add the code needed to track your pay per click orders.
1ShoppingCart -- Add Just Order Buttons To Your Site - the cart I use, albeit with a lot of customization in terms of the cart pages (it allows you to customize the cart pages in general, or by product, and by doing so you can make the cart look just like your site -- which does increase conversion).
I use their version that allows you to just put the cart or order buttons on your page. I like this since I can design the page, and then just put the buttons where I want. And I don't pay them a percentage of each sale I make -- just the $39 fee (for the basic package). And they have more expensive packages that have autoresponders built in as well in addition to ones that have upsell features.
They also offer all in one cart software -- where you design your whole site in their shopping cart software. This is like Yahoo stores, and they do take a % of sales. But if you are starting from scratch and want to put together a store fairly easily, this may be an option -- for their 1ShoppingCart -- Full Shopping Cart Packages That Take A Percentage Of Each Sale
Usability Testing
Book - Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability - available at Amazon and many local bookstores. Easy to understand introduction to usability. It has a good primer on usability testing that should give you the basics you need to be able to do usability tests for your own site.
Search Engine and Directory Submissions - right now, Google and Yahoo are just about all that matters in terms of search.
Google - although it is no longer used to provide results for Yahoo search, still the 800 pound Gorilla of search. Google offers no paid inclusion, and it should find your site if it is linked to site's already in its search database. But you can also submit it directly to Google - but just submit your home page, Google will then crawl through the rest of your site. If you try to submit each individual page you may end up ticking Google off, and believe me, you don't want to do this.
Yahoo submission - Yahoo offers a variety of submission choices since they now own Bing Ads and Inktomi. They introduced Site Match in March 2004, and it is pretty controversial. This program is for getting inclusion into the new Yahoo search database. You pay to be included ($49 a URL for example) and then .15 to .30 cents a time anyone would click on your site's search results. But Yahoo maintains just because you pay to be included in its search database doesn't mean that your site receives any preferential treatment in how it will come up on their search results. You can still submit your site to be added to their database for free, but Yahoo says it may be months before a site is crawled and updates will be slow. If you pay for Site Match, your site will be included within a short time and updated regularly. Is it worth it? Yahoo does have a good amount of searching, so I'm thinking about it. But right now I'm going to see if I can get good results for free, and if not then I may try Site Match. As for the other services Yahoo offers, I would never recommend paying to be in Yahoo directory. And I will talk about their pay for performance, Bing Ads, below in the pay per click section.
Search Engine Information
Search Engine Watch - there are a thousand and one articles on the web about search engine optimization. But Search Engine Watch is the place I go for information, and its editor Danny Sullivan is the acknowledged maven in the area. The free part of the site provides a great deal of information on search engines (from search engine submission tips to search engine resource lists), and if you are really into it you may want to become a member for even more in-depth content.
Pay Per Click Advertising - really only two major players, AdWords and Bing Ads.
AdWords - Google's ad program, and the main one I use for driving paid traffic to my sites. Provides ads for Google, AOL, and other search partners.
Bing Ads - provides ads for Yahoo, MSN, and other search partners. Because Bing Ads is a straight auction (highest bidder gets the top slot), I've found that keywords become bid way beyond where most people could get a good ROI.
Webmaster Newsletters I Enjoy
Search Engine Watch Daily and Monthly Newsletters - free newsletters. I really like getting these - they keep me up to date on anything going on with search engines. Kind of hard to find the sign-up box on their newly redesigned site. Look for the signup near the bottom of the page on the right.
Netmechanic Newsletter - free newsletter. Has some great tips on design and search issues. Sign up is near the bottom of the page.
Marketing experiments - another paid subscriber service. This group does actual marketing experiments with clients then reports the results. I've found some of the information really interesting, but it is kind of hit and miss. I do wonder if it is worth the monthly $25, but there is enough good information that I keep subscribing.
Website Analytics and ROI/Conversion Tracking Some of these products allow you to only track a website's statistics (number of visitors, pages visited, where visitors come from, etc), some track ROI/Cconversion (information on where buyers come from) and some track both.
Google Analytics - Just put it on your site. Its free, and it gives you tons of info. If you are doing an ecommerce site, it is great if you can also do the ecommerce integration so you can see conversion data. But you may need some help doing this.
ClickTracks - is a very different type of tracking service. It prepares reports that show your users actions right on your web page, and you can have it analyze your users and compare behaviors of different groups (those that purchase vs users in general, etc). This looks like it might offer some real insight as to where people go on your site, but I've never used it. It comes in a version that analyzes your logs or in hosted version that requires just adding a bit of javascript to each page.
Bing Ads and Google ROI trackers - each of these pay per click services has its own tracker that you can use to track the effectiveness of your campaigns. I use both and like them a lot - they not only track the amount of conversions, but track them per keyword and also Google can track it by advertising campaign. Each service has information on installing the tracker once you sign up. Both require just adding a bit of javascript to each page.
Hypertracker - I use this for tracking ads and doing simple split tests.
Certifications, and Logo Programs These certification and logo programs can go a long way toward helping your customers feel more comfortable buying from your company.
BBB Online Reliability Program - I think this is the most compelling certification program on the web. These logo programs are all about perception, and the public has a very positive perception about the BBB.
It is expensive though - you have to first join your local BBB and then pay an additional amount to join the BBB Online Reliability Program. But I think it is worth it. I've had a number of customers tell me that they bought from my company because of my being a BBB member.
Shopping.com -- Now Becoming Ebay Commerce Network - Epinions was bought by Shopping.com (which is now part of Ebay and being rebranded as Ebay Commerce Netword), and if you join up for Shopping.com you also get an Epinions rating listing as well. I find that customers really like having a place to see unbiased reviews on a third party site rather than just the testimonials that you might post on your site. This takes a bit of work to get going, and you can't control how your customers will review you, but if you get good reviews it can really give you an edge over your competition.
Bazaar Voice/Power Reviews Express - I use this for putting product reviews on the page. And customers really love it. It provides a top section where it gives a comprehensive overview of all the ratings and commments, and then shows the individual reviews. This finally allowed me to put up Amazon type reviews on my page -- it is pretty inexpensive, and really worth it since people really do like to read reviews before buying (#1 thing they look for).
And good, unbiased reviews add a huge amount of credibility for the site. Before I generally start selling a new product, I first do a test where I offer a discount on the product in exchange for peoople promising to do a review. I shoot for getting at least 30 reviews (need to sell 2 x 3 times that amount), write folks a month or two afterwards with a link to do their reviews, and then I only sell it if the product gets high reviews (I like at least 4 star, but would prefer 4 1/2 or up).
So a great way to prescreen a product to make sure it is something that people will really like and worth selling. And also insures that you have sufficient reviews so that when you do offer it for general sale, people will feel comfortable buying it.
Shopping Portals This is the latest big trend on the web - sites that allow you to quickly compare pricing among different internet dealers. I haven't found that they send a lot of traffic, but definitely something to keep an eye on and try.
Shopping.com - the largest of these portals, and also integrates with Epinions as well. I would suggest trying this first, and if you see some traffic considering a few others like Bizrate, PriceGrabber, etc. These are pay per click programs with a set price per click.
Google Products - Google's Shopping search engine. It shows results on the first page of the Google's search results, so worth considering. Used to be free, but know you have to pay for listings.
Website Tools
Netmechanic's Browser Photo - it is every webmaster's nightmare to design a site and later find out it shows up strangely in some different browser/operating system configuration. Browser photo allows you too see how your page looks in 16 actual browser/operating system configurations. This isn't a simulation - these are actual screen shots from computers with these different configurations. One downside is that it only shows you the above the fold screen shot, but still it is really useful for making sure your site is showing correctly on different users systems.
Alexa - a tool that allows you to see both information about a company as well as get an idea of how much traffic any company gets. A lot of people use this as a plug in to their browser, and it tracks their viewing habits to get its traffic estimates. Really a neat tool.
