Candle & Soap Making Techniques

This is the first installment of a multi-installment article that will take us through the ins and outs of setting up your own website. There is already a bunch of information on the net about how to do this. But we’ll focus on the crafter or artisan, and we’ll focus on enabling anyone to create a web store or e-commerce site. By the time we’re done with these installments, you’ll see all the steps involved in creating a website, and you’ll see first hand how easy it can be. We’ll actually build one with screen shots to illustrate the entire process, and we’ll end up with a real-live web store front ready to sell products. We’ll set up a maximum budget for this of $50 to get started, and $15/month to keep it going.

In this installment we’ll keep it simple and talk a little about the potential benefits of building your own site.

• #10. Having a website lets customers shop your site at all hours of the day, every day of the week. They can learn about your products or services and decide what works for them, even if you happen to be “unavailable.” Your store is open 24 hours per day, at less than 50 cents per day. Compare that to a brick-and-mortar storefront.
• #9. You can sell whatever you want. If you want to sell used tractors and your secret recipe pet food on the same site, hey it’s up to you.
• #8. It’s cheaper than paying a web developer to do it. A good web developer can cost between $30-150 per hour. Doing it yourself keeps your costs down.
• #7. You can modify the contents any time you like without waiting for a web designer. If you see a typo, you can fix it right away.
• #6. It becomes your own expression. It’s often easier to just jump right in and create what is in your mind, rather than trying to convey it to a designer. You’re more likely to get exactly what you want.
• #5. More and more people are shopping online. The number of shoppers online continues to grow, and so does the amount that they spend online. For example, cnet reports that online spending was up 26 percent in 2006.
• #4. Be your own boss. Whether it is a supplemental income or a primary income, working for yourself can beat the heck out of working for someone else. You reap the rewards of your own hard work.
• #3. Be able to continue doing what you enjoy doing. At some point, I think everyone finds that they can do the things they enjoy, such as creating candles or soap, faster than they need to for their own purposes. Before you know it, you have a stockpile going. Sure you can give it away to friends or family, but they’ll keep asking for more. Unless you have really deep pockets, at some point it only makes sense that they help support your work. With a website, they can see the value and price.
• #2. It’s fun, and is one more skill you can have. When someone asks who made your web site, you can reply that you did it. After building a site for yourself, you might even be able to lend a helping hand to someone you know to get their own site up and running.
• #1. Because you can. You can do it. If you get the urge to try something just to see if you can challenge yourself, then stay tuned.

In upcoming installments, we’ll talk about:

1. Domain name selection
2. Hosting
3. Graphics, product photos – you can always hire help here, if it fits in your budget.
4. Merchant credit card accounts/paypal – getting paid
5. Marketing -getting your site out there