Resources

Connections Vol. 2 Issue 7 July 2007

Adding Bang to your Web Site

By: James R. Dragoo, Jr.

1-877-525-2463

Have you ever been to a web site that just captured your attention? One that just made you say to yourself "there is something unique about this site and I like it." This attraction can be visual but it can also be a special feature that helps the user experience. At Blaine's Business Services, Inc. we like to refer to these special features as "Bang" for your web site.

News Section
We spoke about news sections in more detail in the March 2007 edition of Connections. The advantages of a news section include: easy updating to your web site, shows that you are proactive, and keeps visitors intrigued and coming back.

E-Commerce
If you sell products and have/want a web site, E-Commerce is denitely for you. If you only advertise your products online and customers must phone or mail in their orders you could be limiting your customer base. The fact is most people searching for products online also want to purchase them online. If they cannot purchase your products online, they may just go elsewhere. Later in this newsletter, we will discuss two of the most popular E-Commerce solutions.

Professional Picture Gallery
Many web sites have picture galleries but are they just your average, out dated, annoying "click the image and it pops up in another window" galllery? Many current internet users are annoyed by popup windows, even if they are not popup advertisements. Some users have popup blockers that can prevent the larger image from even showing. There are ways that you can integrate an image gallery into the design of your web site enabling it to look very professional and not making your visitors flinch. Having a gallery that does not make use of pop up windows makes your web site look very professional.

Interactive Helpers
Interactive helpers such as calculators are great features for financial institutions like banks and credit unions or anyone that sells products that may be financed. Someone looking for financing can go to the web site and plug in different numbers to get estimates. The calculators could estimate how long it would take them to pay for the product or service, the amount of interest they would pay, etc.

Videos or Other Presentations
If you have alot of information about a particular topic that you would like to present on your web site, then videos or othe presentations would be the ideal solution for you. If someone is browsing your web site and they come across information that is pages upon pages of text, they are not likely to read it all. You can use a video or flash presentation to give the information. People would much rather watch and listen to information than to read lots of text. You can go to www.blainehilton.com/videos to view some of our own flash presentations.

These are just a few popular features but on the World Wide Web almost anything is possible. Even if you have an idea for a feature that was not mentioned in this article it can be planned out and made into reality.

PayPal Vs. Shopping Cart

By: James R. Dragoo, Jr.

1-877-525-2463

One of the features that we mentioned in the previous article was E-Commerce. Many people come to Blaine’s Business Services, Inc. and ask, "What is the difference between PayPal and a shopping cart?" The short answer would be as follows:

Shopping Cart
A shopping cart is actually integrated into your web site, which allows people to purchase items from your web site. Walmart.com, BestBuy.com, and Amazon.com would all be examples of web sites that have shopping carts. Although these are examples of huge companies, most small businesses utilize smaller scale and less expensive shopping cart systems.

PayPal
PayPal is a third party service that processes credit card information for you. If someone chooses to purchase an item from you, they are sent to PayPal.com and PayPal processes their credit card information, transfers the money to you, and notifies you of the order.

Advantages
There are advantages associated with both solutions and we are going to break down the most important advantages for you. We will be using the Zen Cart system as an example for a shopping cart. It is also interesting to note that Google recently released a service similar to PayPal known as Google Checkout. If you have a Google AdWords account you can get FREE credit card processing for your Google Checkout orders. How's that for improving your bottom line?

PayPal
PayPal is very cost effective especially for new or smaller companies. All you have to do is sign up for a PayPal business account then insert the necessary buttons into your web site. Another advantage is that over 100 million people around the world use PayPal as a means to purchase products online. PayPal also acts as an online bank account. Someone who has never purchased from your web site but has purchased through PayPal before can checkout very quickly and efficiently since PayPal already has their information.

Zen Cart
Possibly the biggest advantage of a Zen Cart, a shopping cart system, is that you can give your customers multiple payment options to choose from. With PayPal customers can only pay with a credit card. With Zen Cart you can install payment modules that allow for multiple checkout options. Zen Cart even allows for options such as paying with a check or purchasing gift certificates customers can use at a later date. A customer can pay with a check and Zen Cart will notify you of the order but let you know to hold the order until the check clears. You can even use PayPal as a checkout option.

Zen Cart is the higher quality solution due to the many features it gives you. As mentioned earlier, you can have multiple payment options. Zen Cart also has an administration area that allows you to keep records of customers, send emails, set promotions, and even track your inventory.

Zen Cart tends to be a more expensive solution as compared to PayPal. The Zen Cart system itself is free but you need knowledge of programming languages such as HTML, PHP, and CSS to integrate it into your web site. For this reason, most business owners turn to a professional to set up their Zen Cart, which can be more costly as it takes more time to set up and integrate. Many smaller businesses start off with just Paypal and eventually upgrade to a Zen Cart or some other shopping cart system and decide to keep PayPal as one of their payment options.