Internet only service business

[jlady]

We purchased an established engraving/awards business 5 years ago.

I want to have a separate internet only division/business for name badges primarily but also a just few other items.

(In our current business we do 1000 different things and want this part to be a much smaller selection!!)

I want to only market this new idea to nationwide and NOT the local market which is what we do now.

Ultimately I want this business to be a complete separate free standing on its own business (own name/phone number etc).

But to start we would process orders out of our existing business (we already do these items/have equipment/skills etc).

So I guess all we really need is a great website and goal is to be on first page on google/yahoo etc. And that is the bulk of starting this type of business right...considering we already produce this product and have the equipment.

Of course there are others doing this, but how do you study the internet competition part of this as far as acquiring market share, how much is the competition doing etc. If this is a good idea?? You can't tell from their website how they are doing?

So lets say this is a great idea. Then....

Where I really get boggled is there are tons of people/businesses who build websites/market websites as well as do it yourself stuff.

I don't want the do it yourself as I don't have the time/fortitude/inclination to do it myself.

Also I am assuming it costs a fortune to build a website with lots of selections and also a fortune to heavily market...does anyone know realistically how much it would cost for these...again...I really don't want a sales pitch from people doing this at this point, just some ideas of what I am looking at in costs. I realize there is would be a range on who you go with.

How do I choose out of all the "we are the greatest" builders/marketers out there. There is too much to wade through. I would like to call a successful service/product oriented internet business in another field and ask who designed their website and who markets it.

So what do you think of this idea in general or any tips of how to proceed??

[flnazrael]

We have successfully put multiple clients on page 1 of Google (as well as Yahoo & MSN) for generic phrases. Time/cost depends very heavily on the amount of competition, the keywords you are targeting, the amount of time you or an employee can invest to work with us, etc.

Your website doesn't have to cost a fortune - we did a complete, from scratch solution that a printing company in GA uses to do their order processing, invoicing, stock level management, customer database, label printing, etc. for less than 4k.

The best approach for a specialized ecommerce site is to use an open source shopping cart solution like Magento or Zen Cart and heavily customize it. That way the foundation is already laid, and the programming & design cost is cut considerably.

With that said, you will get a wide range of advice and price ranges. In most cases - especially with Internet marketing - you get what you pay for. People who work dirt cheap have to take on so many projects just to make ends meet that they can never really focus lon anything and excel at it. I feel our prices are about mid-range but our work is top quality.