My name is Matthew Bredel and as of March, 2007, I am a full-time, work-at-home internet marketer.
For close to 10 years, I worked for a defense company which was an OK job, but I was so uninspired in life and frankly, I needed some more money. That is when I first discovered internet marketing! Now I admit that I didn't start making thousands in my first couple of months (in fact, I lost my shirt!), but I finally saw the "internet light"...
Question: What is your opinion about Stores Online and eCommerce website building companies in general?
Response: I have come across Stores Online in the past (briefly) but I have not formally checked them out. (I assume this is the company at http://www.storesonlinepro.com). I really do not exactly know the price of this product, [...]
Question: What is your opinion about Stores Online and eCommerce website building companies in general?
Response: I have come across Stores Online in the past (briefly) but I have not formally checked them out. (I assume this is the company at http://www.storesonlinepro.com). I really do not exactly know the price of this product, merchant account fees, or hosting fees, but the business models of these types of programs are generally the same. They usually do hold your hand through a lot of the steps (such as buying the domain, hosting, creating a website…usually template based or they charge more, a lot more, for a custom website). Then they direct you to some product sourcing companies and provide “some” product and market research material and they stamp on the word SEO all over the place.
All of the services are great, but realize that they are not going to create a successful eCommerce store…YOU DO. The research tools are usually interesting but sometimes mis-focused. The product sourcing is usually fairly minimal or even “middlemen”. (Supplementing a program like this with a Worldwide Brands may be worth it!). As for SEO, they usually do a respectable job on the on-page SEO practices (though, I have seen some dreadful ones as well!), but their off-page SEO is usually a joke: Automated directory or search engine (a joke) submissions have minimal impact. It is your article writing, link building and internet participation that creates off-page SEO.
Again, I am not totally against these full service eCommerce website builders, though. If you are looking for someone to help walk you through this stuff and get the initial “set-up” complete, they are not bad. My issue revolves around the usually the high cost of hosting, pre-negotiated merchant account fees and sometimes a percent interest. (This is very similar to the Yahoo Stores method, which I personally think is a great eCommerce store solution!).
A couple of other options of programs that I have reviewed and played around with include:
Shop Factory: I like this product because it belongs to you! You buy the installable software and upload onto your or their partner host. Here you have more management flexibility and are not tied down to that company forever (and it is relatively inexpensive).
USellCorp: This company sets up a website onto their server and the entire management of the website can be done on a web browser. The templates are pretty cool, but custom designs are quite affordable as well.
But still, it comes down to what you feel comfortable with: building a website and how dirty do you want to get with the management of the website. None of these solutions will do everything for you, though. SEO is still YOUR job as well as product sourcing and research. For those starting out in the eCommerce world, a program like these may be the ticket!
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Please do not touch StoresOnline with a bargepole unless you have more money than sense! I was invited to one of these presentations 2 years ago in the UK. It was all very glitzy and glamorous, they certainly know how to put on a show. A lot of information and statistics were pushed your way in a very short space of time, a lot of audience participation as well just to lull you in to a false sense of security then just as they announce you have 30 minutes for some lunch they hit you with the sales pitch, so if you are interested in buying you get rushed through the sales process leaving your head spinning so you can then run off and get some lunch before the afternoon session. I was convinced into buying 6 of these websites which cost me just over £4,000. When I got home and looked at what I had, I basically had 6 website templates and nothing else. They had not done their homework about the merchant sales side of the websites in the UK as they promised me at least 3 companies that would manage my credit card sales and all 3 turned me down as I was a UK resident and they only dealt with US residents. Paypal was the only merchant available to use on my websites and I could use that free of charge. I found a storesonline complaint forum and managed to get a hold of a template that someone had previously successfully used to get a partial refund for being mis-sold the merchant services and I too used it successfully to get a £700 refund but that was it. I managed to set up 2 of the 6 websites but it was a lot of hard work and time and effort on my part. Then you have to advertise your site to get visitors just like everyone else which costs money. Storesonline have no magic formula to get the visitors like they promised, I was just a little fish in a huge pond. Eventually I reluctantly gave up and let the websites close down before the first annual renewal (more money) so a very expensive lesson to be learned that cost me about £3,500. Just google storesonline and you will find more complaint websites than praise websites - please do not be fooled by these people. They take your money and then run for the hills and leave you out in the cold when you realise you’ve had the wool pulled over your eyes, they must be laughing all the way to the bank!
August 7th, 2007 at 12:48 am
Hi Mathew,
Thanks for what I find a very informative web review site.
How would you compare, Yahoo Stores and Ebay.
I am currently selling products on eBay one at a time and though I’d giv the stores a go and was wondering whether it would be prudent to have listings on Yahoo as well, spreading risk and exposure.
However, in the past I have found that sometimes it is best to stick to one
system you have learned rather than learning an entirely new way.
Your point of view would be appreciated.
Regards, Michael
August 8th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Hey Michael,
Actually, I am a big fan of both Yahoo Stores and eBay Stores! The thing that I like about both of them is the structure they provide at a very affordable cost. Yes, you do have to share a few percentages of points, but you do get a rather complicated framework to your website without having to pay a fortune to have one created.
Since you are already an eBay user, building an eBay store may be the way to go! The other great thing about eBay is that it has so much “built-in” traffic. Of course, you have competition with other, direct eBay stores as well (but don’t be afraid of competition! Most people don’t have a clue what they are doing anyway!).
If you do decide to do an eBay store and need further instruction on how to set it up properly, check out http://www.janelleelms.com. She is the queen of eBay Stores. (If you are interested in her products, let me know and I can send you a $10 coupon…)
Cheers…matt
August 9th, 2007 at 6:21 am