Tips Membuka Toko Online

Sekarang ini, untuk berjualan tidak perlu punya toko. Lewat dunia maya pun, Anda bisa menjajakan produk. Bahkan, toko online punya banyak kelebihan. Sudah murah, calon pembeli pun bisa datang dari mana saja. Inilah tips membuat toko online agar memikat pelanggan.

1. MEMILIH TEMPAT

A. Gratisan
Ada beberapa tempat yang menyediakan fasilitas gratisan seperti blogger.com (blogspot), multiply.com, wordpress.com. Pada awalnya, fasilitas gratis ini adalah tempat kegiatan blogging pada umumnya seperti berbagi cerita dan foto. Namun, dalam perjalanannya, dimanfaatkan untuk kegiatan jualan. Memakai fasilitas ini cenderung mudah, bahkan sudah tersedia template tampilan yang lumayan banyak dan menarik.

B. Berbayar
Kini sudah banyak penyedia layanan toko online dengan sewa mulai Rp 750.000 per tahun dan bisa diperpanjang lagi. Harga tersebut sudah termasuk pembelian nama domain serta hosting selama setahun serta pelatihan maintenance. Dengan memakai layanan ini, toko online kita lebih serius dengan memakai alamat dan tampilan sesuai yang kita inginkan.

2. MEMILIH NAMA
Pilihlah nama domain dengan kata kunci yang gampang diingat dari jualan toko online Anda. Dengan memakai kata kunci ini, toko online kita gampang ditemui oleh pengunjung melalui mesin pencari (search engine). Misalnya saja, Anda menawarkan produk tas sekolah, pilih saja nama www.tassekolah.com.

3. BUATLAH ATURAN
Buatlah aturan dan tata cara belanja secara jelas dan mudah dipahami oleh calon pembeli seperti aturan pemesanan, pembayaran, dan pengiriman.

4. PASANG ALAMAT
Pasanglah alamat Anda, email, dan nomor telepon yang bisa dihubungi dengan jelas. Bila perlu, pasang foto Anda untuk lebih meyakinkan.

5. DAFTAR INTERNET BANKING
Pilihlah rekening bank yang memiliki jaringan nasional dan daftarkan rekening pembayaran toko Anda dengan fasilitas internet banking untuk memudahkan kontrol pembayaran dari pembeli produk Anda.

6. PENGIRIMAN
Kemas barang pesanan dengan memperhatikan segi keamananan. Pastikan barang tidak rusak sampai tujuan. Pilihlah jasa pengiriman yang terpercaya dan murah. Simpan nota/resi pengiriman untuk kontrol pengiriman.

CARA MENINGKATKAN PENGUNJUNG & PEMBELI
1. Lakukan promosi online melalui media-media iklan baris baik yang gratis maupun berbayar.
2. Bertukar link banner dengan sesama toko online.
3. Bergabunglah dengan komunitas-komunitas online.
4. Lakukan promosi offline dengan memanfaatkan kendaraan Anda atau teman, seragam kerja karyawan, kop surat, amplop, nota, kartu nama, hadiah/souvenir, dll. dengan memasang nama toko online Anda.
5. Berikan pengetahuan produk serta deskripsi produk dengan detail, jelas dan meyakinkan pengunjung untuk membeli. Tampilkan foto-foto produk semenarik mungkin.
6. Berikan penawaran-penawaran yang fantastik seperti potongan harga, hadiah, dll.

Google Adsense Money Making Schemes

Google Adsense is a successful business model for publishers. It enables genuine content owners to monetize their content through ads served by the Adsense servers.

However, it appears that there is a proliferation of “Get Rich” schemes that are coming up across the globe which are becoming a source of concern.

Some of the schemes provide genuine services such as providing website templates or designing assistance for maximizing ad publications. Such services have a role to play and need to continue.

However, along with the genuine services there are many service offerings where the public are being lured into a membership of a scheme with a promise of “Monthly payments from Google” as if the servies are being used by Google. Such offerors collect some upfront money and use it for developing a website in the name of the member and placing adsense ads in these websites.

Most of these sites display content related to online casinos, pornographic stuff and other material which would attract a matching set of ads.

Though it is possible that these sites attract visitors and provide “Ad Views” and also provide occasional “Click Throughs” etc resulting in revenues flowing to the members in the form of cheques from Google, there is a need to spread a word of caution to those who subscribe to such memberships.

Firstly the member is providing authority express or implied to the service provider to create a website and place certain content there in for the purpose of generating some income for which he does not pt in any effort other than paying the membership fee. These are dummy sites with no real content and Google has every right to treat this as a “Fraud” on the Adsense scheme. It may stop payment and hence the member may lose the promised revenue.

Second and more dangerous aspect is that if the websites display content which are of pornographic type or promotion of legally banned online lotteries or say terrorist related information or distribute virus, then the responsibility for the illegal activity falls on the owner of the website.

I have therefore requested Google Adsense team to clarify on whether they recognize such schemes as “Frauds” and waiting for their reply.

In the meantime, I request Google to strengthen their system of clearing content owners for the purpose of ad sense eligibility and also take action against the service providers who are misusing the Google brand to collect money from the public under the above types of get-rich schemes.

Google needs to accredit genuine service providers who project their service fairly as “Template Creators” and” Advertising Agents”. But those who provide ready made website packages with content meant to take the adsense ads need to be dis accredited. For this purpose Google Adsense should display on the web a list of accredited and banned service providers so that public can use the services of the genuine service providers while avoiding others.

This caution posting has been placed in this forum for the special information of public in India where these schemes seem to be spreading like wild fire.

We have avoided providing the names of the specific service providers but those members of the public who have been lured for such memberships and not getting their payments may report to the undersigned through e-mail naavi@vsnl.com so that it may be brought to the notice of the larger sections of the public.