e-commerce

So you've come up with a new concept for a website or your trying to marketing your existing business online, and you need to come up with a domain name. Should I be a .com, .net, .biz? What should I name site? You think of the perfect domain, only to find out it's taken. You get the idea. It's the foundation of your e-business model, so you need to get it right, (or at least close). Here's some tips to get you started in the right direction:

Domain Tips For New Website

Dot Com, Dot Net, Dot Biz -- What Suffix should I get?

The correct use for each domain suffix has been blurred by the lack of available domains. The "dot com" is still a preferable suffix if you're involved any aspect of e-commerce. Outside of e-commerce, the other domains are acceptable and work well. You're on a "dot net" right now. The "dot net" suffix was initially set up for internet service providers, but many are now using the "dot net" for social networks. For the most part, the root of the domain is more important than the suffix. If you can get a "dot com" with the preferred root, then go with that. The "dot biz" and "dot net" with the preferred root are excellent fall backs.

The name of your site/product and your domain don't have to match -- Get a domain with keywords that are being search for.

It has been a few months since this blog has been updated. So, where are we now? The short answer is that we have a good draft of our latest website up and functioning. National Outdoors is a site we have developed that is focused on Outdoors Recreation Gear, Outdoor Equipment Reviews, Outdoor Pursuits, and Outdoor Destinations. The site also has a National Outdoor Recreation Directory that we are integrating for the first time into one of our projects. The end result is that we are excited about the potential for the new site and looking forward to seeing what our visitors think about it.

I wrote a post a few months ago about our experience dropshipping www.digitalmediastream.net/disallusioned-dropshipper. We did have moderate success with it and have since moved on. But this evening I came across an article http://www.income.com/blog/2007/07/17/what-the-heck-do-i-sell/ that is promoting the same "dropshipping is the answer" mentality that I find irritating.

We found that we had to put in much more time to make the business run smoothly than we anticipated and sold the business on to someone who hired a whole staff to make his portfolio of dropship sites run well.

Yes, dropshipping does work. Yes, it is easy to set up and get running. But, it is not entirely hands off. If you want to provide even mediocre customer service, then you will have to be available during business hours to answer peoples questions, track down orders, and coordinate returns. This is all manageable, but it isn't really the part time gig that most people are looking for. Just my ongoing opinion

Recently, we entered into a contract to sell two of the niche e-commerce sites that we have developed over the past year. It looks as though they have found a good home with an entrepreneur that wants to assemble a large portfolio of sites similar to what Netshops has done. In fact, Netshops looked over our sites and decided to pass.

We're happy to have found a win win situation, with a buyer that is dedicated to making the sites a priority while we can now focus our energies on other projects that we are excited to get started.

By all accounts, we had a very successful Holiday Season selling digital frames, some drop shipped and some inventoried to accommodate popularity. We didn't have great SEO, especially on Google, so we used adwords to generate more traffic. It worked well enough that we were quite busy. The reality though was that drop shipping wasn't as simple and hands-off as its promoters would have you believe.

You see, what isn't discussed as often with drop shipping are the hassles that it creates. Selling digital photo frames, a newer technology, in particular created issues for us that we did not expect. The most noticeable was the customer service we had to undertake to help clients get their frames working, or to diagnose when the frames might actually be broken and then facilitate a return. Then there were the stock outs and model changes which caused us to sell products that we couldn't actually get. And we also ran into trouble making sure that our shipping prices were right.

Now, none of this was back breaking or company destroying. However, it wasn't part time work either as is always claimed when drop shipping websites are put up for sale. If you have the patience and time to run a drop shipping company then it's really amazing what can be done. But, if you think it's just going to be a little side hobby to make some extra money, then maybe this will help you think it through a little more. Take it for what it's worth, though we plan to move away from the drop shipping model ourselves.