[mrx]

Originally Posted by mullerrwd

I am sorry if I sounded angry but was more of a joke.

No need to apologize. I'd take a job as critique if I could find one.

I assume this question is for me?

No, it was for the JefferyNYA.

I offer my web, graphic and pomotion designs skills.
And you are right, concept is not unique. But there are not much of these ecommerce host and devellop agencies who do good or have a good concept. I must say that the TS does have a good idea of concept. But putting the team together would be difficult.

I agree that the competition is weak but.. GoodBarry.com is a new company offering a complete service for all types of small businesses including e-commerce with conversion tracking etc.. They are not free but are letting customers extend their free trails.

The top packages are $39, $59 & $79/month with reasonable limits. A good start for a small company that doesn't want to focus on the mechanics of building a website, conversion tracking etc.

Slightly different business model but I was impressed by the range of services offered.

[JeffreyNYA]

Originally Posted by mullerrwd

I am sorry if I sounded angry but was more of a joke.

I assume this question is for me?
As I said and do not do financing, I offer my web, graphic and pomotion designs skills.
And you are right, concept is not unique. But there are not much of these ecommerce host and devellop agencies who do good or have a good concept. I must say that the TS does have a good idea of concept. But putting the team together would be difficult.

It is true, the concept is not unique. There are a few out there who do a few of the things that I am talking about. But I have not found any that are a one stop shop. Not really anyway. What this offers is a 95 % complete hands off approch for micro/small business to have a ecommerce site as part of there business. This leave them free to get sales in whatever way they need to. It also frees up some money for them as well to keep things going.

This concept is more of a partnership with these small business. One way that we make money is when they make money. So if they are not making anything then neither are we, at least in part of the income. So its in our vest interest do what we can to help them.

[JeffreyNYA]

Originally Posted by mrx

No need to apologize. I'd take a job as critique if I could find one.

No, it was for the JefferyNYA.



I agree that the competition is weak but.. GoodBarry.com is a new company offering a complete service for all types of small businesses including e-commerce with conversion tracking etc.. They are not free but are letting customers extend their free trails.

The top packages are $39, $59 & $79/month with reasonable limits. A good start for a small company that doesn't want to focus on the mechanics of building a website, conversion tracking etc.

Slightly different business model but I was impressed by the range of services offered.

Just looking at what they offer it is not bad at all. But they only go so far. The client will still need to setup a merchant account which will cost unless the just do the paypal type of thing. Even though they have a free time, the customer will still be required to pay a monthly fee and have restrictions. I want to offer a system that takes the risk away.

Plus I will hav an online directoy of business and products that can be searched and researched in the online mall(for a lack of a better word). It will kind of be like an Amazon.

Plus GoodBarry.com is trying to make money like every other host out there. Same model, just doing it a little different. This project is more interested in customer sales and advertising. Quite simply, I want to load the system up with as many clients as possible and use them for advertising. I have a clear picture in my head how this would work and it would take a long time to get it all out in on post.

[mrx]

Originally Posted by JeffreyNYA

I want to offer a system that takes the risk away.

Your not eliminating the risk, your taking the risk for the client hoping they will be smart enough to make money. You'll have to scale pretty well to make money that way. There will be other, creative ways to monetize the service but it does not have a clear plan for success at the moment.

It will kind of be like an Amazon.

Not likely, Amazon is a market leader with billions in capital and patents to protect their process.

More like Echo-inc.com or Yahoo Stores. ( If you search for "yahoo merchant" on google and click their paid advertisement and have a cookie from a yahoo email account, they require you login BEFORE you can see the page. Dumb asses. No wonder Google is kicking their arses all over )

Plus GoodBarry.com is trying to make money like every other host out there. Same model, just doing it a little different.

They are a lot different and still struggling to convert customers.

This project is more interested in customer sales and advertising. Quite simply, I want to load the system up with as many clients as possible and use them for advertising. I have a clear picture in my head how this would work and it would take a long time to get it all out in on post.

You'll have to because the conversion rate will be dismal. Does it make sense to allow another company to advertise on my website... why wouldn't I just pay $40 a month for a complete package? If I'm going to give up a percentage of a sale, why not use Ebay or Amazon where they have a lot of traffic and I can *hopefully* recoup the fees with volume sales?

I'm not trying to be negative.. just trying to realize what makes this idea worth pursuing.

[JeffreyNYA]

Originally Posted by mrx

Your not eliminating the risk, your taking the risk for the client hoping they will be smart enough to make money. You'll have to scale pretty well to make money that way. There will be other, creative ways to monetize the service but it does not have a clear plan for success at the moment.

Not likely, Amazon is a market leader with billions in capital and patents to protect their process.

Yes, the risk is more on my end, but its the selling point to the customer that they would not have that risk. Also I did not mean that it would be amazon, only that it would have the same feel to it.

More like Echo-inc.com or Yahoo Stores. ( If you search for "yahoo merchant" on google and click their paid advertisement and have a cookie from a yahoo email account, they require you login BEFORE you can see the page. Dumb asses. No wonder Google is kicking their arses all over )

They are a lot different and still struggling to convert customers.



You'll have to because the conversion rate will be dismal. Does it make sense to allow another company to advertise on my website... why wouldn't I just pay $40 a month for a complete package? If I'm going to give up a percentage of a sale, why not use Ebay or Amazon where they have a lot of traffic and I can *hopefully* recoup the fees with volume sales?

I'm not trying to be negative.. just trying to realize what makes this idea worth pursuing.

I understand that that going to yahoo, ebay or amazon is an option. And there are good reason to go there like the traffic for example. One of the issue though is that you have 100 others selling the same thing as you and when you search on amazon you get them all. And if you are new, and have no real feedback yet, how will you compete?

How do most micro/small business get online if not with the three mentioned above? They first get a developer to make the site for them. They get a hosting solution to host from. They get tha merchant account and payment gateway. They need to advertise, even if they are just on the 3 you mentioned they need to be able to look better and be seen more. What is the cost for all of this if they are say selling 5 products?

As a developer tell me what a simple e-commerce website costs to build? Hell I was just quoted 2500 bucks for a simple 5 to 7 page site thats pretty much just info.

I understand it not an easy thing to get people to come on to something like this, but I want to make it look to an prospective client that what they are getting is the same thing that they would get if they went to a developer down the street or found them online. Just they they are taking less risk.

As for advertising on the site, well I have not worked that out totally. But if people did not want to have that then there could be a hosting fee of some sort. There are alot of details to work out and thats why I am here. So thank you for the help.

[mrx]

Originally Posted by JeffreyNYA

As for advertising on the site, well I have not worked that out totally. But if people did not want to have that then there could be a hosting fee of some sort. There are alot of details to work out and thats why I am here. So thank you for the help.

First, I think you have a good idea but I don't think you will make any money offering free e-commerce packages. You can make a commission as an affiliate of the gateway company (echo-inc, paypal, etc) but *being* a gateway is complex and expensive.

So your different because you provide a one stop solution. The solution has be easy to use because your client aren't going to have strong technical abilities. What your really providing is a turnkey website service. You can provide a certain level of support via community forums and email but that is still time consuming.

I'm I off the mark?

[mrx]

I can think of four ways to make money from this off the top of my head,

1) Turnkey website hosting with a selection of features or modules a customer can select from

2) A custom design or select of templates

3) Domain names ( very thin margin )

4) Enhanced support

[JeffreyNYA]

Originally Posted by mrx

First, I think you have a good idea but I don't think you will make any money offering free e-commerce packages. You can make a commission as an affiliate of the gateway company (echo-inc, paypal, etc) but *being* a gateway is complex and expensive.

So your different because you provide a one stop solution. The solution has be easy to use because your client aren't going to have strong technical abilities. What your really providing is a turnkey website service. You can provide a certain level of support via community forums and email but that is still time consuming.

I'm I off the mark?

The other way that I would make money is to take a percentage of each sale made. say its 10%.

There would be enhanced support and things such as marketing and advertising services. Some things that I was thinking could be free that I could charge for would be PR type writting, Advanced SEO. Things like that.

kind of like the model of CCnow.com

[mrx]

I think you should make sure you want to do this. Then make a list of everything you want to offer. Write down how you think it should be done. Reduce your list to the absolute minimum and use that as your project outline. Get some quotes form experienced software development firms. I can tell you from experience a project like this will take more then one person / programmer.

Calculate how many customers you'll need to make a version 2 profitable based on your revenue, cost, etc.. Then if you don't see the project living up to it's potential you can change course or scrap the project.

[mrx]

If you want it, you can do it. Just don't let your emotions cloud your judgment.. be prepared.