Here's a simple question for many Pitt County area women-owned businesses. Why aren't you selling your products or services via the internet?

Chances are your competitors already have a web site that pulls in new business right from under you as you sleep. More than likely they are opening up new markets, selling beyond Pitt County and into adjacent markets like Raleigh or Wilmington, or even racking up out-of-state sales.

There's really no excuse for not having a "web store," regardless if you sell cosmetics, jewelry, clothing, massage therapy, real estate, consulting, food, toys...you name it. The days of relying on the "yellow pages" for new business are over as the world turns to Google for its business listings.

Ready to open up that online store? Let's get started.

First, purchase a domain name. That's your website name and you can buy it from places like GoDaddy who will sell it to you for as little as $10 a year. (That's right, you only own your name for the time period you pay for. You have to renew it.) Make sure the domain name registration information is in your name.

Next, you'll need shopping cart software. This is the program that lets you list your products, take orders, process credit cards, ship and manage your customers. Some even work with accounting programs like Quickbooks.  You can set up a store through Yahoo! or Amazon. You can take the time to evaluate shopping cart programs (go online and search on the term : shopping cart software).

Set up your payment methods. If you are just getting started, you can avoid heavy credit card processing fees by selecting PayPal as your payment method. PayPal is secure (meaning credit card information won't be stolen) and has flexible fee plans for small businesses.

If you have hundreds of products, it's best to bring in a consultant like Digital Business Services, who can analyze your needs and make a recommendation for you, including all the technical mumbo-jumbo. Make sure you have nice professional pictures of your products as image is everything. Avoid the "tabletop shot" with bad lighting.

OK, so now you have your name and a shopping cart program. Next, it's time to choose which hosting service is best suited for you. Web hosting is not as expensive as it was ten years ago, but you need to match the web server (computer) with your shopping cart program so it works well together.

Two more steps to go.

Find a good web developer. Not a graphic artist with no experience with business ecommerce sites, but a true webmaster who understands web programming, shopping carts, databases, web design, web hosting technology and search engine marketing. Digital Business Services is the local leader in internet marketing, having more than 20 years experience in this field.

Lastly, meet with your webmaster and put together an internet marketing plan that includes incorporating sound search engine principles into your site so that you get high rankings and many visitors. Search engine marketing takes a focused effort. You can use a "pay per click" approach, meaning you pay for your rankings or you can go "organic," which means you use search engine optimization techniques for your site to draw visitors without paying advertising fees.

Digital Business Services has clients in all business areas ranging from real estate to health care. Call us today at 252-367-7673 if you'd like to get your business on the web and grow your markets.