With a Content Management System, you simply load the software onto your server or use a hosting service that provides the software for you. You can then quickly generate a website with little technical knowledge. Don't get me wrong, any software has a learning curve, but if you are comfortable working on the internet you can get a website driven by a CMS up and running much faster than you could with an HTML editor. In fact, I find that my development time is decreased by an average of 60% over typical HTML development when using a CMS.

You will be able to login to your CMS and then add pages using an editor which has functionality similar to a text editor. You can easily add text, tables, images, etc by clicking on the appropriate tool.

Content Management Systems can be broken down into two types — Standard and Blog Format. Obviously the more you are willing to pay the more features you will get, and several of the free Content Management Systems are loaded with features that will allow you to display your content in virtually limitless fashion. A list of the different Content Management Systems can be found on WikiPedia.

One CMS that is not on the above mentioned WikiPedia list is WordPress. WordPress is free blog software but it is also a CMS. You can create a complete website with WordPress and there are even plug-ins available to create an online store with WordPress. I recommend WordPress when a website owner wants to frequently update a website with new content. For example, this website, InternetBusinessAnswers.com is built with WordPress.

If you don't want to use the blogging features WordPress has available, another great free CMS is Joomla. Joomla is easy to install and manage. It is also very reliable.

If you are not comfortable with installing CMS software you can simply find a hosting provider that makes it easy to install Joomla or Wordpress. Simply visit Google and type in searches such as "Joomla Hosting", "Wordpress Hosting", or "Fantastico Hosting". Fantastico is a tool that automates the installation process of many popular Content Management Systems.

A CMS is a great way to get a website online quickly and it also makes maintaining the website much easier. Since many good Content Management Systems are free, consider a CMS to bring your timely content to the waiting world.

There are many very good solutions out there for somebody getting started selling online. Since you don't have a lot of technical knowledge you are going to want to choose a shopping cart that offers ease of use but also offers the feature set your store will require. The first thing you need to do is write down a list of features that your store must have. Perhaps you need to be able to import a large product line from a file that your vendor gives you. You might want to run an affiliate program or maybe offer discounts with coupon codes. Before you choose a shopping cart you must be very clear on your requirements.

I usually recommend that people new to selling online get started with what I refer to as a Store-In-A-Box solution. These services make it easy to get up and running quickly with little technical knowledge. Here are some examples:

• Yahoo! Merchant Solutions – http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/
• ProStores – http://www.prostores.com/
• Monster Commerce – http://www.monstercommerce.com
• Volusion – http://www.volusion.com/
• 1 Automation Wiz – http://1automationwiz.com
• Finest Shops – http://www.finestshops.com

You should visit each of the above mentioned sites and see which one meets your needs and budget. I can tell you that my first site was a Yahoo Store and I still send clients, friends, and relatives new to the internet to Yahoo for their first website. They offer 24 hour support and there are different levels of service to meet your needs.

The other reason I send people to Yahoo is that there is a great step by step guide to selling products on Yahoo called Online Store Profits. This program basically shows you the ropes and eliminates the pitfalls you may run into with your Yahoo Store. Of course, before you spend any money on tutorials or information packages first sign up for a shopping cart service and test drive it. If you do decide Yahoo meets your needs then Online Store Profits will get you to your goal of making a profit much quicker and will pay for itself many times over.

You have several different options…

• Free hosting
• Shared Hosting
• Virtual Server
• Dedicated Hosting
• Co-Location

Free Hosting – If you just want to put up a website for the family to view your personal photos and you don't mind having ads pop up at your visitors, then this may be an option for you. If you have any intention of producing revenue from your website, you can scratch this option from your list.

Shared Hosting – Shared hosting means that you have your website on a machine with many other websites. You get to share the resources of that machine with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of other website owners. Most new websites begin their life on a shared server. When the website grows beyond the limits of this service it can be moved to a hosting plan that offers more room for growth.

Virtual Servers – Virtual servers allow each user to feel as though they are running on a dedicated server but they are in fact sharing a server with many others. There are usually fewer virtual servers on a machine than with a shared hosting package and virtual servers may offer more features and give the user more control.

Dedicated Servers – This service allows the user to rent a machine for their own personal use. They do not have to share the resources with any other website. Unless you are experienced with managing a web server you should opt for what is called a Managed Dedicated Server so that the hosting company can update your machine and provide other necessary maintenance services for you.

Co-location – This service allows for you to own your own machine and the hosting company will provide you with space in their computer room. In most cases, the co-location provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server.

Most likely you will get started with either a Shared Server or a Virtual Server. You would only need a dedicated server if you know your website is going to require large amounts of disk space, bandwidth, and other system resources.

When choosing a web hosting company here are some questions to consider:

1. Do you expect to be using heavy amounts of bandwidth, such as by hosting a lot of audio and video files? If so, consider a dedicated server when choosing a Web host, or at least a Web host offering plenty of bandwidth.

2. Do you need to be able to host more than one website on the same Web hosting account? If so, look for Web hosts offering unlimited add-on domains. If you also need subdomains, look for Web hosts offering the ability to set up unlimited subdomains as well.

3. Do you need to be able to set up multiple email accounts? If running multiple sites, or with staff members, you will likely also need multiple email addresses. When choosing a Web host, look for one that doesn’t charge extra for you to set up email addresses, and make sure the host allows for enough email addresses.

4. Do you need to run a variety of scripts, either within a website, or as the backend of a website (such as a content management system, e-commerce system, or blogging platform)? If so, when choosing a Web host for an online business, be certain the host supports the various scripts that the website will need.

5. How much downtime are you willing to tolerate? When choosing a Web host, look for guarantees on server uptime.

6. Do you want to have to commit to a long-term Web hosting contract?  If a long-term commitment isn’t a problem, then saving money by going with a pre-paid yearly plan with a Web host may be an option. If the freedom to change hosts more quickly without the risk of losing as much money is important, go with a month-to-month Web hosting plan. Either way, find out ahead of time if the hosting company offers a money back guarantee during the initial phase of the Web hosting contract.

7. How many databases will you likely use? When choosing a Web host for an online business, especially if it involves running multiple websites, look for hosting companies that allow unlimited (or at least enough) MySQL databases to be set up on each Web hosting account.

8. How often do you expect a technical support representative to be available from your Web hosting company? Some offer support only via email or only during business hours, whereas others offer 24/7 technical support via phone, email, and even online chats.

By answering the above questions, you’re essentially creating a mental checklist to use when comparing and choosing a Web host for your online business needs. Evaluating needs before choosing a Web host will make the decision, and business relationship, much easier.

One of my favorite hosting companies is Superb.net. As of the writing of this post they offer hosting plans starting a $2.50/month and that plan comes with a dedicated IP address. Make sure that the hosting company you choose offers a dedicated IP address for reasons mentioned in the post titled, "Do I need a Dedicated IP address?"

Merchant Account with a Gateway – When a customer submits their credit card information on your website their details must pass through a gateway. Your shopping cart will send this encrypted information to the gateway and the gateway company passes that information to the merchant account bank. The merchant account bank then requests authorization from the bank that issued the customer’s credit card. The response to that request is sent back to the bank, to the gateway, and then your website.

3^rd Party Processors – These processors are a gateway and merchant account rolled into one. An order is submitted on your website, a request is sent to the processor, and then the response is returned to your website. For this simplicity you will pay a little more but this is often a good place to start. You can always apply for a merchant account when you discover your transaction volume has increased enough to realize a significant cost savings by going with a separate merchant account and gateway. Some examples of 3^rd party processors are PayPal and Google Checkout.

 There are several things to consider when searching for a payment solution. They are:

• Fees and Payments
• Per Transaction Fees
• Monthly Minimums
• Monthly Maximums (Some companies will shut your account off if you exceed a certain sales volume)
• Shopping Cart Compatibility
• Fraud Prevention and Security Measures (If you are going to process transactions online then you will eventually be the victim of fraud)
• Reporting
• Account Management
• Chargeback and Refund Costs

Carefully read any contract you sign and make sure you understand the policies of the company you choose. This decision deserves extra attention because a lack of research on your part could result in some costly surprises just when things are starting to take off for your website.

A while back I purchased an economy hosting account from GoDaddy. All I needed was some space to host a blog. It was a small blog and I didn't need much space so I picked a $3.50/month account without a dedicated IP address. Well, all was fine for a while and then I noticed that when I posted to my blog the updates were not showing up in Google. After a little research I discovered that Google was blocking all posts from my site because of abuse. I hadn't done anything wrong but somebody else that I was sharing the IP address with decided to use an automated script to spam the search engines. Everybody sharing that IP address was blocked from Google including my site.

So, the simple solution was to just call GoDaddy and add a dedicated IP address to the account. Well, it turned out that adding a dedicated IP address added $3/month to the $3.50/month deal I thought I was getting. Now my cheap hosting account wasn't so cheap anymore.

Now I do all of my hosting with Superb.net. As of today, they have a $2.50/month account that includes a dedicated IP address. I'm sure that there are many other hosting companies out there that offer similar programs and I encourage you to do your homework before making a purchase. You can research hosting companies at http://www.findmyhost.com. Just make sure the price you are paying includes a dedicated IP address.

One of the most common causes of failure of any businesses is entering that business without a clear understanding of the money required to get that business to produce a profit. Some of the upfront costs required with an internet business are:

1. Domain purchasing
2. Web hosting
3. SSL  certificates (securing your website)
4. Website design
5. Tools needed to maintain the site
6. Promotion of the site

The item that most people leave out of their planning is item 6, promoting your site. If you opened a new pizza place in the middle of you closest forest and did not advertise or consider who your customers would be, then you wouldn't get many sales. In fact, nobody would visit your pizza place. Well, if you create a beautiful website and put it online among the millions of other sites on the internet but don't advertise that site, nobody will come. The theory "If you build it they will come" definitely does not apply to your online business.

For example, to get a listing in the Yahoo directory will cost you $299 per year. You can join Google Adwords and use Pay Per Click campaigns to drive people to your website but you could be paying anywhere from .10 to $50 per click depending on your market.

I can't give you an exact number that is required to start your online business because that will depend on what type of business you are going to start. I can tell you that it may be a bit unrealistic for you to think you can start a website next week and have it generating enough income for you to leave your job by next month. I can also tell you that it is almost impossible to start a profitable online business with no money.

I'm not trying to discourage you. I just want to make sure that you have realistic expectations. With the right research, planning, and investments of time and money you can launch an online business that will produce a consistent income you can depend on.

Now let's assume you have plenty of time, you consider yourself to be technical (or ready to learn), and you want to have full control over your store and have plenty of room for growth. Well, there are several steps you will need to take to get your store online:

1. You will need a domain name. You can read one of our previous articles on Choosing a Good Domain Name.

2. You will need to find a company to host your website. Basically there needs to be a computer that you put your files on that allows people to access your files from the internet. There are many different plans available ranging from a shared hosting solution to a dedicated hosting solution. A shared hosting solution is where one computer has many different websites on it. You just get to use a small piece of the computer and share resources with everyone else. A dedicated server is where you have the entire machine for you own use and you do not share machine resources. You will need to decide what level of service you want and then find a reliable company that provides that service at a reasonable price. A wonderful resource for finding a good hosting company is http://www.findmyhost.com/. I currently have several websites as well as a dedicated server hosted with Superb.net. I have had good luck with this company but I urge you to do your homework and find a company that will work best for you.

3. You will need a shopping cart. Many hosting companies provide a shopping cart for you for an additional monthly charge. This is usually a good way to go but it requires you to do extra homework in the previous step. You will not only have to find a host that provides you with the functionality you need but that host will have to offer a shopping cart that meets your needs. Zen Cart, OsCommerce, and X-Cart are all excellent carts that will meet the requirements for most of you. I am not a big fan of Miva Merchant but that is just based on my personal experience. You must do your homework.

4. You will have to decide how you are going to collect payments on your cart. Many new store owners get started with Paypal and this is an acceptable starting place. The good news is that it is pretty easy to move from Paypal to another solution so you can feel comfortable starting there to keep things as simple as possible initially. Do keep in mind that if your sales volume starts significantly increasing you could trigger some paypal flags and they can disable your account without notice. Yes, any merchant account can do this to you. Business is suddenly exploding and the next thing you know your merchant account has shut you off. Now what? Panic sets in. How do I know this? Because it happened to me. My second Christmas online one of my retail sites had sales explode and my merchant account company informed me that I had suspicious activity on my account because sales had drastically increased. I explained it was Christmas and this was a retail site but they didn't care. I had to quickly find a new provider and the previous provider held my funds for 90 days before releasing them. The point of telling you this is to understand what the rules are for the company you choose. Do you have a maximum amount you can process monthly? Can the company just turn you off without notice? Ask lots of questions before choosing your merchant account company.

5. Now that you have a domain name, hosting, a shopping cart, and a merchant account your next step is to design and create your store. At a minimum you will have to have a logo that you can upload to your site. If you are good with graphics and you are a bit technical you can tweak the template of your shopping cart to your liking. You can also go with the default template that comes with your shopping cart to get started and when the revenue starts rolling in you can hire someone to create you a customer look for your shopping cart.

6. Lastly you will need to add products to your store. If you have a small number of products then you can use your shopping cart administration area to manually add products. If you intend to load products from a flat file make sure that you choose a shopping cart that allows you to import products.

7. Your store should now look like it's ready for business. Go through the process of searching for products on your website and placing test orders. When you are satisfied with how the website works ask some friends or relatives to give it a try. Get some feedback on the usability of the store and make changes as necessary to make the user experience a pleasant one.

8. Most people think that once the store is online and ready for business that the money will start rolling in. Unfortunately a website is nothing like the baseball field in "The Field Of Dreams". In the movie you kept hearing the phrase, "If you build it, they will come". On the internet, if you don't promote it, nobody will come.  You will need to create a plan to promote your website and drive buyers to your products. This can be done via Pay Per Click advertising, affiliate programs, search engine placement, and other methods of online promotion. You will need to research the methods that will work best for your business.

9. You now have a website, traffic, and sales. What is left to do? Well, you are going to want to monitor, test, improve, and then test again, and again, and again. Once people are coming to your site you will want to have some type of tracking installed so you can see what people are doing on your site and where your sales are coming from. You will need to analyze the data and see what can be done to improve sales and increase your profits. If one out of 100 people who visit your site are making a purchase, you can double your sales by making changes to your site that will result in 2 out of 100 buying. Once you have traffic you can quickly increase profits and sales by testing changes to your website.

Believe it or not this is just a brief summary of all the steps. Step 8 alone would require volumes of information just to provide an introduction to promoting your online business. The best thing you can do at this point is get started and ask more questions as you progress.

Ok, so maybe you don't have the money to hire someone to design your website. Then What? Well, I have worked with many clients who couldn't afford a custom website. My recommendation is to purchase a template. You can purchase a template at a site such as http://www.templatemonster.com. The gotcha here is that you will need a few tools to edit these templates to work with your site. You are going to have to change the text and graphics to work for your website. The tool I use is Macromedia (now Adobe) Dreamweaver and Fireworks. If you don't have these tools and are not interested in putting some time into learning how to use them then I suggest you go back to option 1 — hire someone.

If you don't want to hire someone and you don't want to learn how to do it yourself then there is one more option and that is to go with what I like to call a Store-In-A-Box option. There are several excellent tools out there that will allow you to get an eCommerce store up and running VERY quickly. The one I started with was a Yahoo Store (now Yahoo Merchant Solutions). You may want to take a look at the answer to a previous question about creating an online store. The previously answered question was,  "How do I create an online store?"

If you think in terms of creating a business then the first step is creating a business plan.

Writing an Internet business plan is very similar to how to write a business plan for a traditional small business. An Internet business plan should include all basic business plan elements, and the primary differences between an Internet business plan and a traditional business plan will be in the details. Here are the primary components of an Internet business plan:

1. Executive Summary – Just like with traditional business plans, Internet business plans need an executive summary. The executive summary is usually the first section of an Internet business plan, although it should be the last section written. An executive summary simply serves as an overview or summary of everything else in the Internet business plan, and would include a very general company description, the company / site mission, and a summary of projected financials.

2. Website / Business Summary – The business summary or website summary of an Internet business plan will offer the reader a glimpse of who company is and what they do. It should describe the website or online business in detail, as well as some general information about the market or niche (for example, if running a niche social networking website, it should explain social networking). Answer the basic questions here of who?, what?, when?, where?, and why? – mention who owns or manages the website or online business, what the site is about or trying to offer, when the site was launched, where the site is located, and why the site or online business was launched in the first place. When updating an Internet business plan beyond the startup phase, this is also the section of the business plan which should contain past results and developments of the website or online business.

3. Management / Ownership – This section of an Internet business plan should go into greater detail regarding the managers or owners of the website or online business. If creating an Internet business plan simply for personal use, it isn’t required, although it can be beneficial in helping to realize strengths and weaknesses in the niche or industry. If planning to seek outside financing from a bank or investor, include all of the relevant business and industry experience, as well as educational credentials, of each member of the online business’ management team. This information can even be included in full resume form.

4. Marketing Plan – A marketing plan is one of the larger, and most important, sections of any Internet business plan. In it, include a SWOT analysis (your strengths and weaknesses as opposed to your competition, and opportunities and threats that you face in your market), as well as information on primary competitors, based on your market research efforts. Also outline the demographics of your target market (specifics of who you intend to visit the site or buy products or services online, such as age groups, ethnic and gender groups, marital status, income levels, etc.). Finally, the marketing plan will include a list or calendar detailing planned marketing tactics. The marketing tactic choices will likely be the biggest difference between an Internet business plan and the business plan of a brick and mortar business, as you’ll be more focused on search engine optimization (SEO), link-building, and other Internet marketing tactics.

5. Budget / Financial Projections – No Internet business plan would be complete without at least a basic budget detailing startup capital and anticipated business expenses. If you plan to pursue financing options, also include financial / profit projections for one to three years, with any supporting information to justify those financial projections to potential investors.
 

If you are trying to find a domain name for a new business then first think about what your business name is going to be. This is the name that is going to be on your business cards, checks, and other printed material. The business name is also going to be the name you register with your state and local officials. Again, you want to create a business that lasts and generates profits for years. Spend some time to create a high quality business name. A high quality business name will be:

1. Marketable and able to adapt to various branding efforts easily.

2. Easy to remember, at least with your target market.

3. Representative of the image your online business is trying to portray.

4. Not infringing on the trademark of any other company or website.

Once you have decided on a full business name, begin choosing a domain name for your online business or website. Here are a few basic considerations when choosing a domain name for your website:

1. What domain name extension do you prefer when choosing a domain name? (.com?, .net?, your country code?) I have had many debates about whether or not to choose a .com or another extension and I still lean toward the .com. In my opinion, a .com can be compared to an 800 number. Yes, there are 877, 866, 888, etc. but when we talk about toll free we think of 800. When we think about the internet we think of .com so if you own mygreatwebsite.net there are going to be people who try to find you at mygreatwebsite.com. Don't send visitors to your competitors. Instead try to find a .com that will work for you.

2. How long should your domain name to be? Shorter domain names tend to be easier to remember, but that might not be an issue if you plan to exclusively market your business online, rather than needing people to always remember, and type in, the domain name (such as using radio advertising to promote the website).

3. Do you prefer the domain name to be the company name, or something heavily related to the company name, or do you prefer a domain name that is keyword-rich for search engine optimization, even if that means using a less memorable or more unattractive domain name? Again, this depends a lot on how you intend to market your website. If you are going to only be doing online marketing then having keywords in your domain name can't hurt. If you will be doing offline marketing and want to brand your company's name then you would probably want to go with your company name as the domain name.

4. When choosing a domain name, do you want to avoid using hyphens in the domain, or is that not an issue for your particular online business? Once again, if you plan on just getting people to your site through online advertising you can get away with hyphens. If you have A-B-C-Company.com and you have printed advertising or radio advertising the hyphens will surely cause you to lose potential customers.

5. Do you want to buy a previously-registered domain name that has a history (especially if its previous use was related to the new online business), or would a domain name that’s entirely new and that has never been used before be better? If the previously used domain name fits your business then there is no reason not to buy a previously registered domain.

6. Do you mind having numbers in the domain name, or would you prefer that everything be spelled out? If numbers are important to the domain name, will they be confusing to site visitors? Try to put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer. A name that sounds catchy like GreatStuff4You.com can send lots of customers to GreatStuffForYou.com. If you have to provide an explanation with the domain name then it is probably not a good choice.

Once you’ve answered those questions about choosing a domain name, and have a basic business name (or keywords) in mind, you can often find some great tools at registrars that will help you find a great domain. A registrar is where you go to purchase the domain name. When visiting the site of a domain name registrar, conduct a search for your domain name idea(s) to see if the domain names are available. Many registrars have a built-in tool that will suggest similar domain names, if your first choice isn’t available. When targeting a general keyword, and not worried about prefix and suffix options, run a search for keyword.com, even if you know it’s not available. The registrar’s tools may suggest a substitute domain name that will meet your needs. An example of a registrar is www.GoDaddy.com. GoDaddy offers a number of domain services that are worth checking out.