I probably get at least one call each day from someone who just wants to “put up a Web site” and start making money. They’ve seen those commercials with folks standing in front of mansions and expensive cars.

Many even asking me if I have any ideas for an online business. To which I respond, “so many I don’t have enough time to implement them all!”

We then naturally start getting into a conversation about their ideas and what their plan is. Nine out of ten callers don’t even have a plan. They just know they want to have a Web site and make money. As though having a “Web site” is all that is required to start raking in the coin.

It simply doesn’t work that way. Online business is business; basically the same as off-line with the same considerations and issues that need to be addressed — before you even think of getting a Web site.

So many disregard the concepts necessary to running a serious, healthy business as though they don’t matter. Accounting, tax and legal issues still have to be addressed as well as inventory, sales and marketing activities to be planned for.

You have to determine shipping and handling fees, how you will track inventory and what your policies for ordering, customer service, returns and data collection. How will you accept payments? PayPal and/or a Merchant account? How will you market your business? PayPer Clicks, eZines, forums and what off-line advertising can you benefit from?

Online is not a build it and they will come. In today’s environment you will not get found by virtue of simply putting a Web site online. You have to have a plan.

From investigating your market to ensure you have a product that is needed/desired and not already being offered by millions of other Web sites in the first place, to making sure you have an viable business plan that covers all these issues in detail.

Make sure you get your new business idea off to the best start possible in this rabidly competitive environment. Do your due diligence and cover all the bases, then and only then start working on a Web site.

At your service,
Judith

You need to have your physical address available on your site.  Some sites don’t necessitate that information be on every page (non-eCom sites), so at the very least a physical or mailing address should be on your contact page. By not doing so you give the impression of possibly being a fly-by-night.

Would you give out payment information to a site that had no indication of where there were located? Most onliners will not.

The analogy goes that with no address one can easily disappear without leaving any traceable contact information that a customer could have noted when they decided to do business with you. No address? Folks will probably find one of your competitors who will give them that warm fuzzy.

If you are a home based business and don’t want to expose that address to everyone, you can simply get a P.O. Box to use for your mailing address. Then, at the very least folks know where you are and know where to contact you if needed. When I went completely virtual and left the rat race a couple years ago and moved to the country, I signed up for a P.O. Box for those very reasons.

Yes, having a physical address is more credible and convincing to some than a P.O. Box. In my case being I have been established for over a decade, I am not too concerned about that. Each business needs to make these decisions based on what is best for their business and what perception they want to give.

It’s really a no-brainer and worth the small P.O. Box fees to add that extra level of credibility that is so hard to build online in the first place. When it comes to your Web site, a physical address is required to give your visitors confidence. For eCom sites, you’ll loose business without one.

Why give potential customers an excuse to look elsewhere?

At your service,
Judith