Do You Know How to Sell Online?

I can build some basic web pages, usually starting with a template I like and then tweaking the HTML to make it do what I want and look the way I want.  I was really thrilled when I discovered CSS because I could do so many more things.  Did I ever tell you that part of the reason I started blogging was that I wanted to play with the blog design?  It wasn't that I actually had something I wanted to say!  Of course, I end up saying a lot more than I play with the design...

Anyway, mostly I've done personal web pages and web pages for our church, and I've done a few pages for some organizations.  Mostly it's all volunteer because I enjoy doing it, but that also means it isn't always at the top of my priority list.  I get to it when I get to it.  It's always fun to learn something new, though - like the time somebody wanted me to include a form on our webpage so people could register online.  I'd never done anything with a form before, but I pulled out my HTML book, and I figured out how to create a form.  Now, of course, Google makes it simple enough that anybody can do it.

One thing I've never learned anything about or had an opportunity to mess with (and there are lots, really) is shopping cart software.  Not having any kind of business where I'm trying to sell something, I've never had to learn how to sell online. I've never even sold anything on eBay - which is a different thing altogether, I know.  I really should do some research, because I've had a couple people ask me if I knew anything about it, and I've had to tell them no.  I can make their web pages look pretty, but I don't know how to make sure they can get the products to the customers.  Which is kind of the reason they want a web page in the first place...

Any suggestions for what works best?  From what little research I've done, it looks like there are several options out there.  The trick is in finding the right plan and then being able to try it.  I don't know if they all do it, but this one at 1ShoppingCart lets you try it free for 4 weeks with no risk.  Of course I'm not going to try it unless I have something to sell, or somebody who wants to be able to sell online, but it's good to know the option is there should somebody ask again.

Are We Ready for Ecommerce?

Wednesday night we had a Band Boosters organizational meeting to try and figure out what is happening with band this year and how the Band Boosters can help. I am trying to get a blog together for communication between the band director and parents and also between the Band Boosters and parents. Hopefully we can get more parents involved. Wouldn't that be nice?

One of the big things the Band Boosters do, besides help with uniforms and field trips, is to run fund raisers during the year. One of our moms mentioned the possibility of selling some of our t-shirts and other band products online - through our blog. So I started looking for some kind of shopping cart software, otherwise I have no idea how we could do that. AShop Commerce would be one possibility. It looks like it is supposed to be really easy for anyone to set up. You can put together an online store, provide customers with an online shopping cart, and accept credit card and PayPal payments all in one place. They have different package levels, based on the number of products you want to sell, your bandwidth needs, and web space needed.

For a business, I think their prices are quite reasonable - though I haven't actually looked into anything like this before. However, I don't think our Band Booster Association will sell enough items to justify doing this. I guess we'll have to stick with good old-fashioned selling face-to-face. We're just not ready for ecommerce software.