Now You Can Get A Website
Of Your Own

If I had known it would take this long, I might not have started down that road at all. There have been several long periods when I was just so fed up with the whole thing that I turned my back on the entire project and walked away from it. But I had so much time, effort and MONEY sunk into it that it wasn't feasible to walk away permanently.

So eventually I'd come back and work on it some more.

The hardest part of the whole process has been getting the website and ecommerce worked out. At the time (1999) I thought this would be a slam dunk. It was, after all, at the height of the dot-com boom and of all things Internet. I thought that getting a site together would be a no brainer.

How wrong I was. I asked people I thought would know. I asked people I thought would know people who would know. I looked for answers on the Internet. I took some ecommerce classes. I started down a couple of roads that turned into dead ends. I got nowhere, slow.

I did, however, end up with a couple impressions:

• Ecommerce is a very convoluted process. There's the customer, hizzer* credit card company, the issuing institution and the lines that they use to communicate. There's also the website, the ecommerce shopping cart program (which might be separate), the seller's financial institution, the company that processes the credit card (merchant account service provider) and the lines that they use to communicate (payment gateway). Also the Internet. And probably a bunch of other things. There are a lot of pieces and a lot of sources for each piece. [It's a fine example of the "Paradox of the Dancing Bear." 'Tis no wonder the bear dances poorly. 'Tis a wonder the bear dances at all.]
• There are a lot of people recreating the wheel. Some number of them don't really know what they are doing and are getting advice online about what to do from other people who may or may not really know what they are talking about.
• There are a lot of people offering advice--usually for a price--about how to perform certain aspects of setting up websites and ecommerce. (Writing copy or search engine optimization, for instance.) I bought some of their programs, too.

All of which left me very uncomfortable. And frustrated. After all, all I wanted to do was sell a board game. What's so hard about that?

It aggravated me so much that that I decided that when I did get it all sorted out, I wanted a page on my website--this page--to help anyone else looking to set up hizzer* own website.

Since you probably don't want to wait six years like I did, I'll make a long story short. I ended up at SiteSell and using their Site Build It! tools. (SBI!--the exclamation point is part of the name.) Features, completeness of instructions, support, ease of use, everything: I'm very pleased with what they have. If you are looking to get a website of your own, I highly recommend that you give them a look. I think you'll be pleased, too.

SBI! is a complete package for getting a website up; you won't have to piece anything together or accumulate a bunch of books, tapes and CDs to get going. Once you have your site up, you can always get outside information to tweak your site--if you think you really need to.

I had a webpage about 85 percent done before I found Site Build It!. I could have uploaded it and used it for my site, but I didn't. I wanted you to be able to see what's possible without any special skills (OK, that's not ENTIRELY true. Learn more. ), so I scrapped it and used Site Build It! to created a new page. It ended up very similar to what I had before.

The SiteSell ecommerce shopping cart, Store Build It!, is a separate add-on that integrates directly into their website. (It's powered by ShopSite; one of the premiere shopping carts for small- to medium-sized businesses.) To see the Store Build It! choices for ecommerce, go to their site and follow these links:

• Click the "Do a complete feature-by-feature comparison" link towards the bottom.
• Pick the "Store Build It!" link about in the middle of the table in the righthand column.
• Follow the "Click here to review Store Build It!'s feature set" link.

The only thing more you'll need if you are doing ecommerce is a way to handle payments--an intermediary payment service (PayPal, 2Checkout, StormPay, etc.) or a merchant account with a payment gateway that is compatible with the site. There are lots to choose from.

Just remember, there is still no such thing as a free lunch. Go into this with your eyes wide open.

Frankly I know next to nothing about the intermediary payment services. Search the Internet and you'll see that some people like them and some...well, don't. If you are just starting out and have a low dollar volume, or perhaps if you want to handle international sales, then they might make sense for you to use.

My primary interest at this point is credit card sales in the United States handled through a merchant account. (I've set up PayPal because it's well known and the instructions are included in Store Build It!) So:

Every merchant account company has expenses to pay to Visa, MasterCard and the like, and for a gateway. Each company has different fixed and variable fees, and tries to paint itself in the best possible light to attract your business.

Despite what websites proclaim, you might not know the WHOLE deal until you get a copy of the merchant account application to sign. Make sure you know what each term means and what each fee is and that you are comparing "apples to apples." Then compare the different plans with what you expect your business situation to be and go from there.

Here are three merchant accounts I looked at seriously:

• Direct Payment Solutions (This is the one I decided to use.)
• Advanced Merchant Services
• Merchant Accounts Express

Still not enough? http://www.authorizenet.com/reseller/directory.php

* "Hizzer" means "his-or-her." If you had a Doin' D. C. (TM) game, you would know that.

• If you just go into business as a single proprietor (or in a partnership), you place your personal wealth at risk for business liabilities. I suggest that before you go very far, you get a legal firewall between your business and the rest of your assets. Form an LLC (Limited Liability Company) or something else appropriate. (You might be able to form an LLC online in your state. Check your state government's website.) If you don't know what any of this means, talk with a lawyer. Don't wait too long.
• If you decide to go into business as a single proprietor anyway, you may have to register your "dba" (doing business as) with a local or state branch of government.
• Assuming you have the good sense to form an LLC or the like, you will need a (Federal) Employer Identification Number ("FEIN" or "EIN"). It's almost like a Social Security Number for your business; it's how the governments (federal/state/local) and others track you for tax and other purposes. You get one by filling out form SS-4 from the IRS (www.irs.gov).
• Once you get the EIN, the next three people at your door are going to be the federal, state and local tax collectors sniffing around for any money they might get. Personally, it irritated me that they were looking to "squeeze blood from the turnip" before the turnip even sprouted. (I can understand why it is that way, but it irritated me nonetheless.) Regardless, at least you can be prepared for that mentally.
• Get a separate checking account for your business. Shop around; some banks are very friendly towards new businesses while others see you as a lovely source of new revenues through plenteous, high fees. Use this account to pay business expenses. Personal money you put in is "capitalize" on the memo line. If you use a credit card for personal and business expenses, identify them on the statement (P or B) and pay as appropriate with separate personal and business checks.
• Start keeping track of your business-related mileage. (Who you met; date; where you went; why you went/what you did; how far you traveled.)
• Beyond that, find an accountant if you don't know what you should be doing for records.
• QuickBooks is pretty much the de facto standard in accounting records software for small business. It also interfaces with the SBI! ecommerce packages. A technical college by me has an introductory course for it; yours might, too.
• Remember to get any state and/or local permits you will need. A Seller's Permit for collecting and paying sales tax, for instance.
• If you are going to have a product that you have to physically ship, consider early on how you are going to ship it, AND IN WHAT CARTON. Can it be made to fit a stock USPS Priority Mail carton, for instance? I didn't think about this until the end, but got lucky and found a stock carton locally that works. Luck is fine when you get lucky, but it's better to rely on skill and planning.
• Consider insurance you'll need: Liability, property, etc. Concerning health insurance in particular, here are a couple things I'd keep an eye out for:
  • Are you put into a large group whose rates only rise as a group, or can your rates be increased individually based on claims you make?
  • If you are self-employed, are you covered for injuries incurred while working, or does the policy assume you are covered by Workers' Comp (and so not cover you) even if you aren't paying for Workers' Comp and don't have it? (If you are self-employed--especially from home--how can you tell exactly when you are and aren't "at work"?)
  • Some policies pay "reasonable and customary" charges; some cover "usual, reasonable and customary" charges. I'm not even sure that these mean the same things to all companies, but at the heart of it is this: Once you get past any deductible, is the insurance company going to be paying against everything beyond that, or is there an upper limit beyond which you are responsible?

    As a "for instance," suppose you are in a hospital room, past the deductible and the insurance picks up 80%. Will the insurance pay that 80% regardless of the room rate, or is there an upper limit to what they will pay? What is that upper limit? If the room is $600/day, but their cap is $500, then they will be paying only (0.80 * $500) = $400/day. You'll be on the hook for the ENTIRE extra $100/day. And depending on the policy, that extra cost might not even count against your maximum yearly out-of-pocket expenses. Ouch and double ouch!

  • Is the insurance company registered/licensed to sell insurance in your state?
  • Be wary of a company whose premiums are way lower than other companies' for comparable coverage.
  • Also be wary of a company with a willingness to accept previously existing serious conditions.
• You can get low cost business cards online. Here are four online sources:
  • IPrint
  • PrintsMadeEasy
  • Professor Print
  • VistaPrint