Build An Online Store Like A Pro

 It is a quite common misconception that if you build an online store on your own, it will end up looking homemade and unprofessional. That might have been the case a handful of years ago. But these days, there are web-store building tools at your disposal that are extremely powerful and fairly easy to use. A person who is not a programmer can in fact build a professional-looking online store. All you have to do is follow a few tips and

guidelines:

  

Tip #1 When preparing to build your online store, consider that most modern, high-end websites are relatively wide in size format. A lot of this has to do with site owners and programmers taking advantage of increased screen real estate as the prices of wide monitors have dropped. I've found that 960 pixels is just about the perfect width. It's a very balanced size and you'll find that many of the huge sites out there, such as Yahoo and MSN, hover right around the 960 pixel mark. Yahoo is actually a little narrower and MSN is a little wider. So, if you build your online store with a 960 pixel page width, you'll be in a range that your customers are likely both familiar and comfortable with. Interestingly, most of the store building tools that are intended for non-programmers come with a default page width setting of around 720 pixels. So, be sure to change that before you start any of your design and layout work.

Tip #2 To help you choose the colors of your online store, utilize one of the many free color scheme guides and utilities available online. There are professionals out there who have thoroughly studied color usage and combinations. So, there really is no need to make any guesses at what colors work well and are visually appealing on a computer screen. People have already figured that out for you... Just search online with a phrase like "web color scheme" and you will soon find some great palettes to use as is, or to modify a bit with your own personal touch.

   The other thing to keep in mind about color choice is that you want the palette to appeal to the majority of your targeted customer base, and not just to yourself. So, it's important to enlist the help of a friend or two to review potential color palettes with you. Also, note that research has shown that women and men literally perceive colors differently. Therefore, if the online store you want to build is geared more towards one sex or another, definitely obtain color opinions from people of the most pertinent gender.

   Tip #3 For many people, one of the most daunting aspects of building an online store is the challenge of designing artwork or graphical page elements. But luckily, there are many "stock photo" sites on the web where you can purchase professional artwork and photography for as little as $5.00 per image. Try to stay with "royalty free" artwork and photos so that you don't have any recurring fees or copyright licensing complications. Also, it helps tremendously if you stick with a series of art elements or photos from either one artist or one photographer respectively. This will make your store look more pulled together and coordinated.

  Many of the stock photo companies sell their artwork and photos in varying sizes and resolutions. For online stores and websites, you only need 72 dpi images. So, you can usually get away with buying the less expensive, smaller images. But, if you have access to software such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, and can therefore re-size artwork and photos as needed, you might want to invest in the more expensive, higher resolution images. This gives you more flexibility with respect to potentially re-using the artwork or photos in future projects.

  Tip #4 If at all possible, try to obtain professional photographs of whatever products you are selling. Oftentimes, you can build your store using product images provided by either your products' manufacturers or distributors. This will save you a considerable amount of time because it can take quite awhile to properly stage items for photography. But more importantly, the product images supplied by manufacturers or distributors will help give your store a professional look and feel. Of course, if you are a talented photographer, or have a friend who is one, take advantage of that and produce your own custom set of product images.

  Tip #5 If you have some dollars budgeted towards helping you get your store kick-started, you can certainly find some very affordable online graphic services. There are several companies online that will professionally design a logo graphic for you that you can then easily paste into your website. I've spent from $65 up to about $300 with a few different online logo design companies and I was happy with the end result each time. I think it's very important to have some type of logo in your store header, even if it's just a simple graphic. It makes a site look so much more polished than if you were to just type HTML text in your header with your store's name.

  Summary If you build your online store while following the above tips and guidelines, you will very likely be proud of the end result. You will have basically benefitted from the support of professional graphic artists, photographers, and color specialists. But, you'll still have bragging rights because you will have built your own online store.