Business OnRamp » HTML Tools http://www.businessonramp.com Start your business! Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:17:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 How to Build Websites with Easy Website Builder Tools http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-build-websites-with-easy-website-builder-tools/ http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-build-websites-with-easy-website-builder-tools/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:16:29 +0000 jashall http://www.businessonramp.com/?p=87 If you’re starting your web business on a limited budget and want to ensure a professional, clean navigation structure then easy website builder tools might be an ideal solution. While paying a professional designer thousands of dollars might be in your future plans, saving money in the early stages of a startup might be a smart move. Before putting up a simple, basic site, however, consider that appearance mattes when it comes to early stage companies. You’ll want to feature ...]]> If you’re starting your web business on a limited budget and want to ensure a professional, clean navigation structure then easy website builder tools might be an ideal solution. While paying a professional designer thousands of dollars might be in your future plans, saving money in the early stages of a startup might be a smart move. Before putting up a simple, basic site, however, consider that appearance mattes when it comes to early stage companies. You’ll want to feature your site prominently on business cards, emails and advertising, so a professional presentation is essential for your website. Even if you don’t have a degree in graphic design, you can translate your brand ideas into a compelling visual presentation with quality site builder tools. In this guide, we’ll walk through the process of deciding how to build a new startup site with website builders on the market today.

Choosing Website Builder Tools

Many web hosting companies and software development companies offer visual site builder tools for beginners. For either a low flat fee or monthly hosting rate, you can build a site with a visual WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Understanding how to design a quality site in house requires programming and design experience that many startups do not have. You don’t even have to know basic HTML with these programs, since they rely upon drag and drop visual editors, as well as automated scripting so you can add forms, functions, images and media. Website creation software is designed to bridge that gap by offering tools so you can create an ideal site to match your brand vision.

Most programs on the market today cost less than $50 with advanced programs running slightly more. Popular options such as Intuit Website Creator also give you a web-based interface for just $5 a month, which also gives you the flexibility of hosting the site with them for a nominal fee. Most professional designers create sites starting with visual images and proceed to code – with website builder tools you complete the process in one step, using an integrated interface to customize the design accordingly. Many programs, such as Web Easy Professional come with templates that you can customize, making it easier to start with a professional template.

Designing with Site Builder Tools

Today’s website builders have advanced features such as media editors, automatic uploads to your hosting, search engine friendly features (such as automated keyword tags), as well as automatic backup tools.  You can easily hire a professional writer to produce sales copy, as well as a designer to make a professional logo and integrate those with a website builder. Most software programs make it easy to add images, contact forms and tables to your site.

By loading up a basic template that meets your application or industry type – corporate, entertainment, etc – you can start customizing a variety of pages (About Us, Products, etc.) with your own content and images.  After building a quality site, you can go back and update the content as your startup evolves and can even learn basic design programming by viewing the dual visual and HTML editors included in many programs.

]]> http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-build-websites-with-easy-website-builder-tools/feed/ 0 How to Choose Reliable Shopping Cart Software for your Business http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-choose-reliable-shopping-cart-software-for-your-business/ http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-choose-reliable-shopping-cart-software-for-your-business/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:15:45 +0000 jashall http://www.businessonramp.com/?p=85 Whether you are just beginning to formulate your startup business model or are ready to implement transactions on your site, the right shopping cart can help you meet conversion goals. Even if e-Commerce is only a portion of your overall business plan, reliable shopping cart software can improve the presentation and process for purchases on your site. Many web-based startups implement a cart only to realize it doesn’t fully meet their needs, and this guide helps walk you through the ...]]> Whether you are just beginning to formulate your startup business model or are ready to implement transactions on your site, the right shopping cart can help you meet conversion goals. Even if e-Commerce is only a portion of your overall business plan, reliable shopping cart software can improve the presentation and process for purchases on your site. Many web-based startups implement a cart only to realize it doesn’t fully meet their needs, and this guide helps walk you through the most important factors which should contribute to your decision.

Suppose you are starting an apparel business online. In this case, the shopping cart will be a core part of your development process to facilitate online sales. Even if you’re a reseller you can use the site to take advanced orders, making the sales process much easier from beginning to end. Having multiple revenue sources for your business is a core way of limiting risks and opening up new business opportunities. When planning out the strategy for your business, you’ll want to make sure the execution of the idea follows through. Having a reliable shopping cart on your site can encourage transactions, improve data security and save you money.

There is a variety of shopping cart options on the market today ranging from open source solutions to fully hosted options. Let’s suppose you want to launch your apparel business through an e-Commerce cart. Here is an analysis of the features you want to look for in a hosted versus an installed shopping cart:

Hosted Shopping Carts

There are popular options, such as Volusion, which offer a fully integrated, hosted approach to shopping carts. With these solutions you can build out your apparel store on their servers, including customizable templates, integrated SSL certificates (for secure checkout), a merchant account to manage credit transactions, your own domain name as well as hosted software which allows you to manage your inventory and content. This solution is ideal for those who want their IT infrastructure taken care of so you can focus on building your business. There are a variety of hosted end-to-end solutions on the market, although there are often fixed monthly plus data transfer fees associated with these carts. You can get your apparel store up and running in a matter of days with an integrated approach, but expect to pay a couple hundred dollars a month for the complete services.

Self-Installed Shopping Carts

If you’re looking for more customization options, then a self installed shopping cart can provide an ideal solution. Popular open carts such as Magento feature an open structure where you can modify templates, modules (add-on features) as well as integrating add-on merchant, SSL and other services with a structured process. You’ll have to host your apparel store on an external server and compare vendors for your SSL, merchant account and design, so this may require a bit more research on your part. By spending extra time and resources, however, you’ll be able to broadly customize the cart to meet your ecommerce store needs.

]]> http://www.businessonramp.com/how-to-choose-reliable-shopping-cart-software-for-your-business/feed/ 0 Shopping Cart Software http://www.businessonramp.com/67/ http://www.businessonramp.com/67/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:40:00 +0000 jashall http://www.businessonramp.com/67/ What is a shopping cart?

An online shopping cart is simply software that allows your customer to browse and shop on your website.  It allows your customers to add and remove items and facilitate the payment process.  You have many options when choose shopping cart software including CMS E-commerce platforms and online shopping cart providers (paypal.com).

CMS E-commerce Platforms

CMS stands for content management system.  This software will allow users with minimum web developing skills to create robust sites with little effort.   The ...]]> What is a shopping cart?

An online shopping cart is simply software that allows your customer to browse and shop on your website.  It allows your customers to add and remove items and facilitate the payment process.  You have many options when choose shopping cart software including CMS E-commerce platforms and online shopping cart providers (paypal.com).

CMS E-commerce Platforms

CMS stands for content management system.  This software will allow users with minimum web developing skills to create robust sites with little effort.   The e-commerce CMS platforms have backdoor options with allow the administrator of the site to add and edit merchandise with ease.  You will need to also have a merchant center to process the payments with a CMS site.  This software will act as a storefront for your website but not a purchase center that process will need to be handled through a third party.

Online Shopping Cart Providers

These providers will allow you to have a storefront through their site.  It will function as a procession center as well.  The most used and one of the best providers of these services is PayPal.  One of the easiest ways to start an online store is to set up a PayPal account and link it to your website.

How to set up a paypal.com account

PayPal profits from your store by applying a small service charge on the purchase price of your products.  It is automatically deducted from the payment.  If your monthly sales through PayPal are more than $3,000, you have to set up a merchant account, which will allow the rates you pay to drop the more you sell.  

Step 1: Set up an account with PayPal.  This requires you to have an email mail account.  It is suggested to use one that is associated with your custom URL but not a requirement. 

Step 2: Get your products organized.  Start a spreadsheet with the items name, price, number of items.

Step 3: Input your merchandise into PayPal by using the information on your spreadsheet.

Step 4: Create a shopping cart button in PayPal will be added to your site.  If you don’t want to take a few minutes to create this button, you can use the standard buy now button.  The buy now button is not as secure as the custom made one.  PayPal will provide you with the html code that you will need to add to your website.

 Step 5: Now, you will need to add the html code into your site.  You will need to purchase a website creation program to complete this step, if you are not familiar with html coding.  However, if you are experience in coding, you can use note pad to edit the code.

What to consider

There are many solutions available for your shopping cart needs including CMS e-commerce platforms and PayPal.  It would be a good idea to use a CMS site if you have a little experience with the web.  However, the most used and respected solutions is PayPal.  PayPal is set up for beginners to e-commerce.  With a PayPal account, you will be able to start selling through your web store in no time at all.

]]> http://www.businessonramp.com/67/feed/ 1 HTML Tools and Site Builders http://www.businessonramp.com/html-tools-and-site-builders/ http://www.businessonramp.com/html-tools-and-site-builders/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:34:34 +0000 jashall http://www.businessonramp.com/?p=63 What is a site builder?

Site builders are standard tools used by web professionals to design professional looking sites.  All web farms use this type of software to cut down on the amount of time it takes to design a site.  They are perfect for small business because the person that is responsible for designing the site does not have to be a professional web designer to create and edit pages.  The best website creators allow beginners as well as intermediate ...]]> What is a site builder?

Site builders are standard tools used by web professionals to design professional looking sites.  All web farms use this type of software to cut down on the amount of time it takes to design a site.  They are perfect for small business because the person that is responsible for designing the site does not have to be a professional web designer to create and edit pages.  The best website creators allow beginners as well as intermediate developers to design quality site with little effort.

How to choose the best website creator for you?

There are many factors to consider when choosing the best website creator for you.  They include the platform you are using as well as the costs of the software.  Use websites like cnet.com to find the right one for your machine and budget.  Do software review searches and read the user as well as professional reviews.  From the professional reviews, you will learn how the professionals view the product.  From a pros point of view, you will learn the true value of the software.  However, the user review will let you know how easy the software is to use for a beginner and intermediate point of view.  If the pros feel that it is a great product, it may not be that easy to use for a beginner.  Find a website creating software that meets the standards of the pros but also the usability standards of the beginners.

Why use the free trail?

By using the free trail, you will be able to evaluate the software to make sure you have the skills need to handle that program.  Many site builders offer a 30-day free trail that will allow you to have full functionality but none of the costs of the software.  Do not choose a site builder just because it fits into you budget.  Take in to consideration the functionality of the html tools.  One of the best site builders is Adobe’s Dreamweaver.  Dreamweaver has many html tools that will allow you to edit the code without having an expert level of knowledge of the html and CSS code.  They offer a free 30-day trail for this software.  It is one of the most expensive site builders but it gives you the ability to create sites with little knowledge of coding.  In addition, once you have gain a greater understanding of coding it will be a great tool because it integrates with the other Adobe web developer software including Fireworks, Photoshop and Flash.  With the entire Adobe creative suite at your fingertips, you will be able to create dynamic websites with ease.  

After you have found a few site builders to try, play around with the templates they come with to see if you have, the skills needed to create your site with the software.  It will be very useful to try any tutorials that come with the software.  Abode has many tutorials online for Dreamweaver and many of the other major website builders have support for those looking to understand their software.

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