p.s. I voted for you, very sweet story of how you met.

Thanks Kenny. Question for you and your capabilities. I am building a lead generation site for local service providers (similar to SitterCity, Angies List etc.) so I have been told that the backend to manage communication, payment etc. is complex can your company handle that type of build vs. a product.com site? I don’t see samples on the Web site so I’m guessing it’s not one of your main services?

I will just kick-in here that I run my own internet-based business. I sell Project Management Software I’ve written at www.minuteman-systems.com

I’ve always run a fairly low-budget operation and do much myself (web design, poromotion, etc.)

If you haven’t done so already, learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to get your site popping up on Google (ignore the other search engines). Be very careful if you decide to hire someone to do SEO for you – there are a lot of quacks around and even with the good ones its too easy to spend tons of money and have little to show for it.

You should also investigate using Google Adwords to promote your site – that’s those little green ads that show up on the right hand side when you do a search. They have a nice feature to localize your advertising. Again, this is an area you have to be careful and make sure you don’t spend more on advertising than you gain in sales/profit.

There are a lot of good books out on all the above – visit the bookstore and invest in a couple.

Regarding order transaction, I signed up with a company that “does it all” for me. I create (very easy) an order page on their site for each product, and then links from my site’s order pages to the ones on their site. Visit my website above if you want to see it in action – you can see it without actually having to buy. They take a commission that runs about 10%. They accept all credit cards as well as take phone and fax orders – very convenient!

Your webhosting services can probably setup turnkey credit card processing for you but you have to reach a certain volume level before the minimum fees in that work out to less than the 10% I’m getting now.

I don’t claim to be an expert but I’ve been doing this for about 10 years now and have built up a nice little secondary income.

I’d be glad to answer any questions you (or anyone else) may have – send me email.

Kenny in my opinion many of your post skirt the forums rules and it seems that you are looking to drum up business here as much as offer advice.

The topic of mentioning one’s business has been brought up before and the rules were made to keep the forum free of spammers. Many attempts have been made by other invention service companies and agents to take those members that EN has brought together here.

While it may be perfectly fine to mention web assistance your website has to do with invention services which are in fact clearly in conflict with EN forum rules and to mention your website at all goes against them.

I would hate to see this forum filled with all ads and no substance like countless other forums have turned into.

I am currently in the process of having a ecommerce site designed and I can relate to the what if I do and what if I don’t, I find myself asking is it enough or do I add more. I found that doing a lot of research on other sites relating to my business in regard to the belles and whistles and what they offer as far as being customer friendly was very helpful.As far as how much to invest up front, what worked for me was doing some thorough research on the site designer and look at their portfolio and what they have done for others in relation to your type of business, I went as far as contacting some of my designers clients to get a feel for how pleased they were with the work and the overall package they received before I signed any contract.
Sorry I got a little off track there. Realistically you do not need a lot of belles and whistles to get your intentions across to your customers, to busy , so Ive learned could potentially throw your customers off track of your actual statement that your trying to present. I have focused on strong content, minimal and direct text and easy navigation and I offer our customers over 2000 products, but yet made it very customer friendly with minimal belles and whistles for a little over $ 3000.00, but there are other cost to consider, monthly hosting, marketing, which is very important, merchant acct. fees if your accepting credit cards, etc. I hope at least some of what I said was helpful and not boring. Best of luck and I wish you lots of success.

Thanks for the thoughts. Wow $3000 I’m being quoted about 10X that but it’s more complex than just selling products. I’m building a destination type site to connect buyers and service providers…I guess either way it will be a learning experience and I did search around before selecting these guys and all the prices seemed to fall into the same range. And Bob in terms of yoru SEO commentary (I’m actually a consultant in the marketing services industry so I’m well aware of best practices in search and social optimization) but I was also told that you need to add a blog to get your search rankings high in google (i.e. have lots of pages tagged to your site) have you added this as well? I’m beginning to feel blogs are somewhat pointless because nobody reads 90% of what’s out there but perhaps its all a game for search rankings?

No blog. Not much to say. I had a ‘discussion board’ but got rid of it when I found people were hacing it.

I think the thing is to have lots of links to your site, maybe regardless of source. Blogs may just be one relatively easy wayy to get a lot of inbound links.

Listen to me…my website isn’t that great or professional but I got it for FREE. The President of my inventors group did it. I did pay him back in trade sort of but he is my friend.

EVERYONE does websites these days. In this economy you can get a great website for $500 even with flash. These sharp college kids will do it for less. YOU DON’T have to be all professional starting out as an independent inventor.

A HS kid did my photography and graphics. These young kids are wizzes at Photoshop. I got 10,000 double sides color, glossy business cards for $140 on a big sale at Vista Print. 5000 post cards, same quality for about $330

From my not perfect website, photography, printing I have sold to all divisions of military, federal and state gov’t many times, Fortune 100 companies, FDNY, Seattle FD to name just two FDs, Boston EMS, to people completely around the world and got BIG TIME coverage that Fortine 100 companies wish for in magazines…all with my grass roots looking website and literature.

You DON’T need to be perfect like a big company as you start out as an inventor. A simple page or two or three for a website is fine to start…and a handful of postcards. Get a person who knows Photoshop a bit and make your post card. Vista Print will even give you 500 business cards free and 100 post cards FREE. Pay $5 load up graphics fee or use their graphics to build even and shipping. They want you to try.

You start doing $250,000 gross in sales…then spend $5000 on a nice website…but as websites continue to get dirt cheap…I would think you would get some website for that but if you have a shopping cart then you can add about $2000

Until then…..save your money for patents and prototypes. That is what you have to concentrate on as an independent inventor…and beware anyone from here contacting you with expensive services. I actually got contacted through LinkedIn and they mentioned how they saw me at Edison Nation…but they never posted once here.

I totally understand that if you are trying to sell a product but I am talking about building a web site that essentially is the product (a match making service for local businesses like a sittercity.com) that requires much more than some pictures but actually needs frontend and backend functionality, content management etc.. My agency just came back with a quote of 60K for what i’m looking for which is outrageous and over the budget I originally provided. It gets quite confusing when you don’t understand the “language.” Perhaps partnerships with developers is the way to go in exchange for equity? Anyway, all good food for thought on here. Thanks!

Hey Ron I had wanted to build you a Handy site for a Handy product for a while now and when I have time in the next month or so will get in touch if you about it… I’ll even show you how to edit the thing yourself as it is so easy… Let me know ;)

All free of course…

Thank you for the offer Ed…but I am very loyal. My website guy has much to learn and is not the best at all, but back when I started this invention he blurted out at my inventor’s group meeting that he would build me a website for free just to help me. He got paid back…but as I get bigger he may be able to make some good money…and he deserves for helping me from the start.

Thanks Ed…I do need another website though I think…or certainly will with my other inventions. The economy is holding back those launches…and they will be good ones.