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Monday, October 13, 2008

Set Up a Website For Your Scrapbook Business

No matter what kind of scrapbooking business you are planning, it is a good idea to set up a website. This will allow you to reach a larger audience. It also makes it possible to use text, images, audio and video in your marketing, all in one medium. Using the web to promote your business provides a great deal of exposure for a relatively small investment.

Even if you want to run your business strictly on a local level, a website can still be a great asset. It will allow your target market to see your work at their convenience, without having to even leave home. It can also make it easy for them to contact you when they are ready.

Now that we've discussed the whys, here is how to set up your website:

1. Purchase a domain name. Try to find one that is as relevant as possible to your business. Think of words that people would search for online when trying to find what you offer. Including keywords in your domain name will help you get better positioning in the search engines for those words. If you're planning to do business locally, consider using your city, county, or state in the domain name.

2. Get web hosting. There are lots of different hosting companies out there, all with different prices and features. It's important to get hosting that's within your budget, but it is also crucial that your hosting company provides good support and maintains its servers well. It's more important that the company offers good customer service and features that you need than it is to have huge amounts of bandwidth and server space. You probably won't need that much of either to start with, and you can always upgrade later.

3. Build your site. If you already know HTML and can build a site from scratch, that's great. But if not, it is still possible to build a site on your own. Some hosting packages offer website building software that you can use to make a great looking website. Or you can purchase your own website building software.

If you choose to use a web designer, it's important to shop around. Taking the time to find a designer who listens to your ideas and implements them well will pay off. It's also important that your designer takes search engine optimization (SEO) into account. We'll discuss why that's important shortly.

If you're selling anything, you will need shopping cart software. Some hosting plans come with integrated shopping carts. If yours doesn't, you'll need to purchase software or find a third-party shopping cart online. If you're using PayPal to accept payments, they offer a free shopping cart that you can use.

Vera Raposo & Tsoniki Crazy Bull teach scrapbookers how to turn the hobby they love into a business. Now they are teaching you how to start your very own Custom Scrapbook Business over at Scrap Venture Pro http://www.scrapventurepro.com

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