I have heard a lot of comments like the above.  Basically, if the budget is limited, I would recommend the client to use open source carts like Zen Cart or OS Commerce to start the project.  Use a good web host with these ready to install.  Get a university student to help you customize it and your site would be ready to go in a week.

However, I would also focus on 2 more things.  These are crucial to your site’s success.

1. Usability – how easy is it to locate a product and make a purchase?  Is the site hard to use?
2. Conversions – I must emphasize this.  The site is built to attract people to buy.  Keep the conversion path short and precise.  Remember – 1 extra step means giving the user the chance of ‘should I really buy this?’. 

After all, it is about user experience.  Make sure your site is easy to use, easy to checkout, and you are on your way to success.

Disclosure: We are compensated for our reviews. Click here for details.

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eBay, being the most popular auction site in the world, has announced that from the end of October 2008, they will only accept PayPal, credit or debit card payment to seller, ProPay or payment upon pickup.  No more cheques or money orders.

They are doing so to provide the users with better ‘secure checkout experience’.

I think they will have to grant exception when it comes to large items like cars, real estate, etc.  Who would use a credit card to buy a car?

Apart from this, I guess this is widely welcomed by sellers.  It would be much faster to receive payment.  I remember the painful experience of waiting for a cheque from the buyer, I have to find time to bank it, wait for 3 days, make sure the money goes through, and then I sent the item.  It took me a whole 2 weeks to just sort this one single sale out.

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The Wanted movie & comics shop has all the Wanted comics and Wanted Posters for sale! If you can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere else!

Visit The Wanted Shop now!

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Hubpages is where you can easily publish information on a topic you love to write about.

In the world of HubPages, a hub is like a webpage, containing an article that you can write whatever you like on your favourite topic.

To start writing is pretty simple.  After signing up, you just need to create a hub and start writing on it.  With their easy-to-use interface, you can load content, photos, video and links onto your hub.

Thousands of people interested in your topic would be able to read your hub.

Best of all, for those who are interested in some extra cash, you can join their loyalty program.  They have a traffic referral program AND you can also earn affiliate commission of Adsense, Kontera, eBay & Amazon.  You can also setup an Analytics account to track traffic information.

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Batman Toys, Action Figures, Batmobile, DVD or Movies – you can find them all in Batman The Dark Knight Shop.

Batman, also known as The Dark Knight, is one of the most popular superhero of DC Comics. Batman has been made into several Batman movies over the years.

Batman The Dark Knight Shop has a large variety of Batman toys, Batman action figures, Batman posters, Batmobile, Batman DVD or movies, Batman collectables, Batman model kits, Batman trading cards, Batman video games, Batman comics and Batman novels.

Please visit our “Batman The Dark Knight Shop” now. I am sure you will find something of interest!

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In this shop, all the information are generated from RSS feeds from the eBay Partner program. The reason why I am using RSS on the website is that I can get updated information display on the website, freshly generated from eBay, whenever people visit the site.

And because Google loves new content, Google should love my site.

I am using CaRP to generate the content of the site. I am only using the free version but CaRP Evolution is also available at a reasonable cost. It gives you more freedom of customization.

All I had to do was to properly install CaRP on the server, get the RSS URL from eBay (with my campaign ID! This is important) and paste it onto the page. Fresh content in the form of simple HTML would then be displayed.

To build this site, I used 3 weeks. But that was 1 hour per night and about 4 nights a week. Too much distraction.

The next similar site, since I have already got the layout done, should only take me maximum 2 hours. It is so easy to guess what is my next site, isn’t it?

If you haven’t, then please visit my site: The Incredible Hulk Shop.

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The reasons I am choosing Zen Cart are:

• It runs on a Linux server with PHP & MySQL support
• It is easy to install – either you upload by yourself, or use Fantastico
• You pretty much don’t have to write any code, but to install already written modules by the community
• There are a wide range of modules around, categorized nicely on the Zen Cart website
• There are a wide range of themes around

As a first time user, it took me a bit of time to figure out how to turn several things off.  But I must say the whole installation was smooth.  I spent the most time figuring out how to import old database into the current one, but it is actually quite an easy task if you know what you are doing, and if you have no distraction around.

The only down side is that the user manual costs US$29 (the PDF version).  But I found a way out – our mighty Google.  If you are stuck, just Google it.  You would be able to find answers, mostly on the Zen Cart support forum, pretty much instantly.

I think I am already in love with Zen Cart.

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I have come across a list of fun facts about eBay (99 of them) and I would like to highlight some of the best fun facts here:

• The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. (See, broken item sells – no wonder people sell things on eBay)
• eBay went public in 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became billionaires in just overnight. (Go on – if you want to setup your online business, better do than think!)
• JayAndMarie is the first eBay member to reach 100,000 feedback, which happen in 2002.
• eBay engineers have to add about 10 terabytes of new storage every week to cover new transactions.eBay has such high margins partly because it has no factories or inventory, but also because its customers do the work.
• If eBay employed the people who earn all or most of their income selling on its site, it would be the second-largest employer on the FORTUNE 500, after Wal-Mart.
• In June 2005, the wife of Tim Shaw, a British radio DJ on Kerrang! 105.2 sold Tim’s Lotus sports car with a Buy It Now price of 50p. This was after Tim’s wife heard him flirting with model Jodie Marsh on air. The car was sold within 5 minutes.
• A toy is sold every 24 seconds on eBay Australia.
• Every minute a mobile phone sells on eBay UK.
• A piece of jewellery sells every 6 minutes on eBay India.
• Insertion fees were added in May. The first attempt was a flat $1.00 insertion fee, which due to “extreme member displeasure”, lasted about 10 days.
• The Feedback Forum began in February, 1996. Originally, Omidyar handled disputes between buyers and sellers via email.
• eBay has already expanded to almost two dozen countries including China and India. The only places where expansion failed were Taiwan and Japan, where Yahoo! had a head start.
• On an average, eBay.com runs into issues for about 50 seconds per day.
• There was at one point an auction for the first ride on Kingda Ka, the tallest roller coaster on Earth. The winning bid was $1691.66, and the winner rode in the front seat.
• One of the weirdest item sold is a chewing gum spat out by Britney Spears which went for £270.

PS. Talking about that, I am going to launch a ebook regarding earning money from eBay effectively.

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To effectively convert on the spot, a landing page should:

1. Contain only the relevant information, presented in bulleted list.
2. Have the conversion form on a prominent spot, usually on the right hand column, above the fold.
3. The conversion form should have less items other than the essential information.
4. Create urgency (buy now and you will get another sample / 20% off etc.). Put in a deadline.
5. Put in testimonies (but not too many).
6. Eliminate the number of links to the minimum.

Remember to test the performance of the landing page. You may need to tweak the design and do another test, to make sure that you get the best result for the money spent.

For testing, I also recommend form tracking. Form tracking allows you to see where the visitor drop out when filling in the form. Heatmap tracking probably won’t do much good as you should have only a limited number of items that are “clickable”.

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House Plans And More offers house plans that you can buy online. If you are not sure about your Home Plans, then have a look at their site and you would certainly gain some inspiration. If you are into log homes, they offer Log home plans as well.

The site is very comprehensive. This is good because it certainly gives you a lot of information regarding house plan purchase. The search function is on the most prominent spot above the fold. It is quite obvious what they encourage the users to do when they arrive at the site.

On the left hand side they have listed all the architectural styles that they have. New to this? Have a look at their project plans and you would be delighted.

The only things that I don’t like about this website are the buttons on the right hand column. They are images instead of text links, and hence would hinder SEO effect. We all know that spiders likes text but not images. “Alt” tags might help but text is even better.

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