Running a business in the current digital era is no longer viable without a website. Even brick-and-mortar startups need some online presence to survive as modern customers search for everything, right from products, business location, to operating hours, from the internet. Therefore, building a simple website for your business can give you an edge in your niche. Besides, if you have products or services to offer, a website can help you reach new markets easily and cheaply.PT

Fortunately, web design software has evolved and can be used by anyone. You don’t need to master programming languages to build a functional website. Below are some guiding tips on how you can build a better site with ease.

1. Choose Your Site Building Platform

You should choose a user-friendly website-building platform that doesn’t require extensive coding knowledge to build your website. Below are some recommendations for your small business website;

• WordPress – WordPress.org is a good option as it comes with several features that allow users to build their sites with ease. However, you will have to find a third-party hosting provider.
• Hosted website builder – if you want an all-in-one website building platform, hosted builders, such as Wix or Squarespace, are good options. Unlike WordPress, you don’t need to find third-party hosting. However, you will have restricted design flexibility.

You should consider several factors before deciding on your preferred platform. For instance, while WordPress is an open-source platform that is free to use, hosted website builders have subscription fees, which vary depending on your chosen plan.

2. Choose a Domain Name

The domain name is an important feature of any website, as it is the URL you will share with your customers or prospects and on social platforms. Therefore, you should choose a descriptive and easily memorable domain name. Keep it short and avoid using abbreviations, numbers, or acronyms to prevent confusing your customers.

You should also choose a top-level domain, which is the suffix of your domain name. Choose between .net, .com, or .biz. There are non-traditional TLDs also, which were based on location, like .nyc or business type, such as .marketing, .law, or .agency. Once you have chosen an appropriate domain name, you should confirm its availability and buy it from a domain registrar. Popular domain registrars include GoDaddy, Wix, Domain.com, and Squarespace.

3. Find a Hosting Provider

Your website can’t be complete without being hosted. Basically, hosting is a server that stores all the data that customers find on your website. For a small business, hosting your website might be expensive, making it prudent to use external hosts. You can choose from two main options, the first being shared hosting, which is a less expensive option, or dedicated hosts, which costs more.

Shared hosting means you will have to share the server with other websites. On the other hand, dedicated hosting gives you access to a private server. As mentioned, hosted website builders provide hosting for their clients. Consider several factors, including costs and reliability, when choosing a host for your website.

4. Add Content Pages

With a good domain name and hosting, it is time to start adding content to your website. Consider the following standard pages for your small business website;

• Homepage – this is the first thing that visitors see when they open your website. Your homepage should have a brief description of your business and navigation buttons to other pages.
• Products and services page – used to describe products and services offered.
• About us page – use it to share your story and details of your team.
• Blog – an important page for your content marketing strategy.
• Contact page – include a contact form for customers who want to reach out.

5. Test and Publish Your Website

Before referring people to your website, you should test to ensure that it works in most browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. Click through every page on all browsers to ensure that links, images, and content formats are displayed correctly. While this might be tedious, it will save you from future complaints that customers can’t access some features.

Part of testing involves optimizing your site for search engines. This includes optimizing the website for speed, using the right keywords, using a responsive design that works on all devices, and appropriate use of internal and external links. Once you’ve ensured that everything is right, you can market your website to your customers through social media and other channels.

The Bottom Line

Having an online presence is important if you want to reach a new audience and survive the current digital era. Fortunately, building your business website isn’t as challenging as before, thanks to various technological tools. If outsourcing your web development for your small business isn’t an option, you can do it yourself with some basic coding skills. Veterans can leverage the GI Bill Benefits to finance their web development courses.

-Angela is a data science enthusiast who graduated from Penn State with a B.S in Computer Science. She currently works with coding schools and small businesses to help build better websites.

Helping your kids get into business is beneficial for various reasons. It not only helps them become productive but also instills important life lessons, a source of income, and encourages creativity. Kids also learn how to manage time and money at a young age. While most business-oriented lessons have been incorporated into childhood education, it requires your kid’s input to put the lessons into practice. That said, consider the following steps to help your kid make their first steps in eCommerce.

Choosing the Right Business Idea

Like physical businesses, explore your kids’ hobbies and interest to help them venture into the right eCommerce business. Therefore, thoroughly brainstorm based on your kids’ interests and passion to ensure that you settle on a fun business idea for your kid. Some of the best possible eCommerce business ideas for your kid include;

• Selling artwork and crafts.
• Building wooden birdhouses, flower planters, and bird feeders
• Designing and assembling jewelry
• Self-publish novels, poems, and storybooks
• Teach others crafts by creating online courses
• Making cookies, cupcakes, and recipe books

Choosing a Platform for the Ecommerce Store

Ecommerce stores require that you find the best platform to host your business. Therefore, when building an online store with your kid, ensure that you choose an affordable, easy-to-use, and safe platform. Some of the key pointers of a good eCommerce platform include;

• Free to use and expand – you should find ways of cutting on cost when starting the business. Choosing a free platform is a good option, as you will only spend on the domain name and hosting services. The platform should also be scalable if the business picks up quickly.
• Not limited – ensure that there are no restrictions on what can be sold from the platform.
• Customizable – the platform should have endless customizing options where you can choose from a large library of extensions. This improves the store’s functionality, design, and marketing.
• Minimal editing – even if you or your child can design a website, ensure that the platform requires minimal edits. Some of the basic edits required include adding text, photos, videos, and buttons. Similarly, kids with coding interests canlearn to code if they want to advance the functionality and appearance of the eCommerce store. Practicing simple web design languages, such as HTML, PHP, and CSS, can help them edit every store aspect.
• Complete control – running a website with minimal control is painstaking. Some platforms can easily erode your kids’ hard work and limit their control over several aspects. Therefore, ensure that you can edit and own everything on the website.
• Good customer support – starting in the eCommerce realm can be challenging. It requires extensive support from various disciplines. Ensure that your platform provider is readily available to answer any concerns.

Setting Up the Business

With a good eCommerce platform, the next step is identifying a potential target market for your kids’ products and services. You can meet prospective customers and share the business idea or sample products. You can also test this using online crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter, to gauge other people’s interest and source for capital for the project.

If the prospective business appeals to a good number, identify the essentials required to make the products or offer the services. For instance, if your kid is into art, he/she will need paint, brushes, and canvas. On the other hand, an enthusiastic baker will need ingredients, a stand mixer, and pans. Note down the costs of the items to determine the full cost of starting the business.

You should also choose a favorable product structure, depending on the nature of the business and your kids’ other engagements. The options include;

1. Print-on-demand – with this structure, the kid engages a third-party supplier to customize their demands. It suits kids who want to sell their designs but don’t want to be bogged down by the hassle of manufacturing and shipping. Good businesses for this structure include customizing phone cases, puzzles, notebooks, shirts, bags, and more.
2. Handcrafting – unlike print on demand, kids create the products themselves in this structure. It is a great choice for kids venturing into bath bombs, candles, jewelry, and accessories business. With this structure, your kid should have enough time to fulfill the orders.
3. Dropshipping – with dropshipping, kids get to sell products on their eCommerce store without being involved with manufacturing, inventory, or shipping.

With a chosen product structure, proceed to build your online store. This involves purchasing a domain name, hosting plan, choosing a payment gateway, designing product pages, and shipping strategy.

Bottom Line

Supporting your kid in their eCommerce journey is a good way of exploring their interests and building lifelong skills while they earn money. With a digital camera, strong internet connection, product materials, and some hours to spare, your kid can earn good money.

-Angela Stone is a writer for The Coder School and graduate of Georgia State University. When she isn’t writing content for us, she’s in the garden with her cats Oreo and Tiger.

The eCommerce industry is currently profitable, with financial experts estimating to surpass $4.5 trillion in sales in 2021. This is attributed to the convenience and other benefits of online shopping. However, despite these benefits, eCommerce companies are face several hurdles on their way to success. One of the major challenges is cyber-security threats, which are currently on the rise.

The success of online shops has brought unwanted attention, with cybercriminals launching sophisticated targeting methods to exploit vulnerabilities within online stores. That said, owners of eCommerce stores should watch out for the following security threats:

1. Direct Website Attacks

Cybercriminals often use Spear-phishing to hack websites and steal valuable information. However, websites can also face direct attacks, such as Dedicated Denial of Service Attacks, which flood the store with multiple requests from undetectable and malicious IP addresses. Such sophisticated attacks can force your store offline, leaving it vulnerable to vicious attacks, including malware.

DDOS attacks essentially overwhelm your eCommerce store hosting services, blocking the store from providing services to regular visitors. Flooding the store with thousands of requests keeps the site busy to handle requests of your visitors. Experiencing a downtime in your online store is harmful as it exposes it to more vulnerabilities, prevents clients from shopping, and can damage your reputation.

Like viruses and other ransomware, cybercriminals launching DDOS attacks often demand some amount to relinquish their impact and restore your online store’s normal operations. While these attacks can cost your business significant revenue, losing your client’s trust, confidence and reputation is probably the costliest damage from DDOS attacks.

To avoid this, take proactive defensive measures, such as monitoring incoming traffic requests on your servers. Declining illegitimate traffic can help avoid such an overwhelming influx.

1. Financial Frauds

Most online shoppers trust the use of online transactions when paying for their products or services. However, the increase in the use of online payment methods has attracted financial fraudsters looking to exploit vulnerabilities in these systems. Financial fraud can occur in two main ways:

1. Credit card theft – this occurs when cybercriminals use stolen credit card information to pay for goods and services from your store.
2. Fake return and refund fraud – with this, cybercriminals complete fake and unauthorized transactions. Some initiate fake requests for returns.

While it is difficult to trace financial frauds, especially credit card theft, detecting the fraudulent transaction is overly important. Fortunately, owners of eCommerce stores can take note of the following tell-tale signs to stop the fraudulent transaction:

• A request to ship the product to a different address from the one on the billing address.
• Successful order followed by several unsuccessful orders.
• The customers IP address does not match the location on the billing address.

Verifying these transactions before receiving payments and shipping your products can save your store from losses. If you don’t, you will not only pay back the legit owner of the credit card but also lose your inventory. As such, investing in an Address Verification System is prudent.

1. Malware

Cybercriminals can also design several malicious malwares to damage your systems. Just to mention, malware is a general term for several program hackers use to gain access or damage your computer network. Common malware include:

• Viruses – these are programs that spread, infect, and damage or corrupt several files and programs.
• Ransomware – they are programs that alter computer systems’ normal functioning until an action is taken, in most cases, payment of some amounts.
• Backdoors – hackers use these programs to bypass regular authentication systems to complete fraudulent processes and data theft.

Installing a strong and reliable firewall is the best way of mitigating these threats. You should also work withcybersecurity experts to ensure that your systems are safe.

1. Bots

Bots are automated programs that perform specific tasks on the internet. Unfortunately, there are both good and bad bots that can promote or bring down your eCommerce store. The majority of these bots aid in installing malware on your computer and abet targeted spear-phishing campaigns. That said, nefarious bots are the most common and harmful automated programs that affect eCommerce businesses.

With bad bots accounting for more than a fifth of eCommerce traffic in 2018, they are a threat to your eCommerce store in the following ways;

• Promote credit card fraud – some bad bots have been programmed to steal credit card information from sites. Once hackers gather this information, they can make repeated purchases.
• Account acquisition – there is a big market for login information on the dark web. Hackers can use bots to steal login information and sell them to the biggest bidder.
• Price scraping – some bots are launched by competitor sites to monitor your product prices, marketing plans, and inventory levels.

Fortunately, avoiding the disastrous effects of bots comes down to simply recognizing them. For this, it is important to secure your eCommerce store with CAPTCHA codes.

Bottom Line

Other significant security threats, such as E-skimming, brute force, SQL injections, and spamming, negatively affect the success of eCommerce stores. As such, online entrepreneurs should implement serious security measures to prevent these threats. Data encryption, using secure payment gateways, and securing websites with SSL certificates are just but a few measures to mention.