Keeping Costs Low For an Internet Business

Chris Bliss amazing juggling routine.

Question: I will soon be setting up an e-commerce Web site for my healthful cookie business. What information can you give me about keeping costs low for a site, both start-up costs and continuing costs?

-- Carolyn Crow, Kirkland, Wash.

Answer: Hiring a Web developer to build an e-commerce site from scratch can cost at least $5,000, and often far more. But there are cheap alternatives for those willing to do much of the setup themselves -- many of which don't require much time or technical savvy.

For an e-commerce novice, an all-inclusive service may be most sensible. Yahoo Inc.'s Merchant Solutions, for instance, lets users get a domain name and choose one of 12 predesigned Web-site templates. The service then walks you through the setup, including posting product details and picking a payment processor or merchant account and a shipper. It also includes features to help the sites rank better in search results, a spokeswoman says.

There's a $50 setup fee, currently waived in an introductory offer. The service's starter plan costs $39.95 a month plus a 1.5% transaction fee on sales. That price includes Web hosting, a customer "shopping cart" and check-out functionality and technical help by phone. Payment processing costs extra.

You could save money by picking an all-inclusive service without sales-transaction fees. GoDaddy.com, owned by the Go Daddy Group, offers an e-commerce site-building and hosting service called Quick Shopping Cart, which has plans starting at $9.99 a month for sites with up to 20 product listings. The firm charges no setup or transaction fees, though payment processing is extra.

The main drawback with these services in that you don't get the design originality as you would starting from scratch, says Brian Cleveland, an Internet expert at StartupNation.com, which provides tools and advice for entrepreneurs. But many start-up sites just need to be simple and easily found through online search, with attractive photos of the product, he says.

Small businesses desiring more flexibility have other options. Sites like TemplateMonster.com sell hundreds of different Web-site templates. But you then must find a Web-hosting service, which usually costs $6 to $20 a month depending on your storage needs. You also will have to get a shopping cart and checkout system, a payment-processing system and a certificate that verifies the site's security.

You may end up spending less than you would through an all-inclusive service, but it will require more work and technical know-how.

[via startupjournal.com]

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