The Front End...

Ready to get your new online store up and running for the upcoming season? Are you considering hiring a professional web designer to create your databases, bulk up loader and content? Before you write the check, you might want to consider doing it yourself and save thousands of dollars in the process. There are those in the jewelry industry who have spent in excess of $50,000 (and upwards to $100,000) creating their online presence. What did they receive? They got a front-end, which is what the customer sees online and a back-end, which consists of a database in which to store uploaded product, descriptions and titles plus, some nifty tools such as an accounting program, inventory control database and a few other bells and whistles.

The Back End...

The back-end of any website can be impressive and the front-end can just blow you away. However, is the site customer friendly? Does it have a “hook” which grabs the customer attention? Let’s start with the front-end, as that’s the most important part of any web site. This is what the online customer sees when they land on your homepage. They look for your identity (who are you), they scan the page for pictures of product and their eyes go directly to price points. If your identity is front and center (and your price points are in the range of the general masses), the customer will click through to the next few pages. However, if your identity is “in check” but, your price points start at $1,000.00 and up (on your homepage), you have just defined your audience.

The Professionals...

The creation of  an entire website can be had for a few hundred dollars. The “professionals” charging thousands of dollars for the “look” are more than likely showing you “canned” templates. A template includes the homepage, your company profile, privacy policy and contact pages. Once this portion of the site is completed, the meat of the pages are then directed the database, which in turn, plugs the product into the empty white space. Once the database is turned on, the site comes to life and you’re now in business. However, there are more than few unscrupulous web designers out there promising a “unique” look and offering custom graphics, buttons and all the bells and whistles you can imagine. This all comes at a high price and that price will either turn you “on or off” in your decision to move forward and get yourself on the net.

Alternatives...

More than a few jewelers (I know) gave up altogether in putting up a website due to cost alone. I directed them to a few places on the net, which offer the shortcuts needed to achieve a smashing website and a phenomenal database, without spending their hard earned brick and mortar dollars. Your online presence should be viewed as an adjunct to your brick and mortar operation, not the other way around. Okay, so let’s go visit where most web designers visit (online) to get some ideas of what we want our new online store to look like. Our first visit is www.TemplateMonster.com this is a great website with “canned” templates, which can be easily customized with your logo and company information. First, you want to select your category (which would be “jewelry”) then you simply click the search button and a wide selection of template options will appear. Mouse over the templates and they will enlarge to show you all the details of that specific template.

Template Costs and Options...

These are the very same templates, which are used by web designers to sell their clients on style, color and look. Now, you have two options, option one is to buy the unique design for $1500.00 (or less) and option two is to pay $65.00 or $50.00 bucks for the “universal” template rights. We’ll go with option two, as the site is going to be customized so you really don’t need spend $1500.00 for the unique rights to the template. Once you pay for the template, you can simply download the template and start typing.

The best program for designing a website is Dreamweaver, it’s easy to use and costs a few hundred dollars however, this is a program, which you’ll use for years to come, as you’ll be updating your site and will continue to add content and additional pages. Now for the database portion of your web site. Go to www.MonsterCommerce.com and test-drive their shopping cart. The tens of thousands which are sometimes charged by designers and programmers can be had for as little as $49.95 per month (complete). Monster Commerce is owned by Network Solutions and the support you receive is A-rated. The program never falters or crashes and you can even direct the shopping cart to your own domain name.

In other words, customers log on to the web, visit your store and it is your store they’re visiting, they’re not being re-directed to different web addresses, which make some buyers uncomfortable. You'll need to add a security certificate for your site to make it secure and you’ll want to get your site listed in the search engines (monthly) and there’s no doubt that you need traffic. Monster Commerce (in hand with Network Solutions) offers the entire package.

Need help designing the website? You can pay a one time fee to Network  Solutions for a five page gallery web site and it will be just as good as what you’ll get for thousands with a “so-called” professional web designer. With the advent of the Internet came the creation of a new industry, which feeds off those seeking to attain an online presence. The easiest web business to operate is that of a web designer/programmer. They re-package “canned” templates, host business sites on their own dedicated server and then hook up the “tried and true” database programs to your back-end. They then “mask” the entire project as a “one-off” to their customer. They will charge $2,000 (and up) for the wed site design, $5,000 for the database and double the cost of what they’re charged to host your site on a monthly basis.

Essentially, you become the gift that keeps on giving. Learning how to use the back-end database provided by Monster Commerce is simple and easy. They give you the support you need and will walk you though how to upload your product. Use a professional web designer and they’re not going to tell you anything more than what you’ll hear directly from the designer of the program.