To Adwords or Not To Adwords

This is our seventh week of Fall semester 2014 and we are working on creating our Google Adwords Campaigns and Keywords.

Starting My Campaign

I started my campaign and quickly got to writing my ad copy. I made it straight forward and to the point, working it so I used ever available character on the two lines available. I think stating things in shorthand is always best. No need to get wordy with it. You just want to put out as much info as you can to draw in the most customers. The real work is done in the keywords and negative keywords.

There is also the consideration of the area the ad will run in (I picked the United States), the language (English), whether you want to set the price per click or have Adwords do it (I chose to have Adwords do it, with a max bid limit of $1.50 per day. Google chose $.66 per click for me) and you daily budget (I chose $3.00 a day– the price our assignment suggests we use).

We aren’t actually running the ads yet. You need time for Adwords to accept your ad and website before it runs. I was denied because I had a WordPress plug-in that was left on, but not filled in. I got rid of it and got approved. It took only half a day to get approved.

Keywords

Next we need to add our keywords. We can group things into small groups of 5-20 (or more) keyword groups. I chose to have one. I opened up the keyword add screen and Adwords had a long list of suggestions for me based on the two posts I have already made on my site! Cool. I chose a couple of them and added in the rest of the ones I had come up with on my own. I thought up some more later and when I reopened the add screen there were suggestions for all the keywords I had already added in! I found new ones to add from there, but be careful. Some of the keywords may be too broad, you need to make sure they relate to your site. If you don’t, you may end up paying for meaningless clicks.

Negative Keywords

Negative Keywords are used to prevent certain keywords from being grouped in with your keyword group. I have two genres of art I deal with that are frequently filled with naughty stuff. Not wanting to blog about those types of works, I added NAUGHTY, NUDE, NAKED, HOT, SEXY, etc. to my list. Now people who search for naughty steampunk art or naked superhero art will not get my blog in their search. Since Industrial Punk is almost always naughty artwork and often related to Steampunk by Google search, I added INDUSTRIAL PUNK ART to my list as well.

Conclusion

I am very excited about my adwords campaign. It will run for about 40 days or so and I will pay for 4 clicks a day. I will also use SEO to try and get my blog listed higher in the rankings if certain items I blog about are searched for. More on that in another blog.

No License Required

This week we dived into the legal aspect of starting a web business. We looked at which type of business to establish from a legal perspective and we investigated licensing and taxes.

Type of Legal Structure

We investigated Sole Proprietorships/Partnerships, Limited Liability Corporations (LLC), S-Corporations and C-Corporations. I am just starting out and may be lucky to even hit the minimum $400 earned in a year required before you have to report your income to the IRS, but I still need to do things legally. Since I am not worried about liability at this point, I am going with a Sole Proprietorship. In Arizona it is as simple. Since I am writing a blog that is affiliated with Amazon.com and gets extra revenue from Google AdSense, I am providing a service that is not selling anything. I have very little I need to protect myself from at this point. As long as I am careful.

If I actually sold stuff I might consider an LLC. This gives you the benefits of a corporation with the simplicity of a sole proprietorship/partnership. In Arizona, the registration fee is $10. A very inexpensive way to go. The S and C corporations are are something for when you want to get into venture capital funding.

Business License

I am a service that is not selling anything, so I do not need a business license here in my town or Arizona.

Sales Tax

Since I’m not selling anything, I do not need to collect sales tax.

Income Tax

As a sole proprietor I am responsible to pay my business taxes on my personal tax return. There is a form you record your profit or loss from your business (Schedule C). You get to take some deductions for business expense as well.

Self Employment Tax

All business owners must pay Self Employment tax of 15.3%. This is in lieu of the Medicare tax you and your employer pay each pay check. You have to pay both parts, that is why it is 15.3%. This is filed on a Schedule SE. If you expect to pay $1000 or over in Self Emploment Tax you have to pay quarterly payments. It is best to put this aside each month. Every penny you earn counts.

Payroll Taxes

I do not have employees, so I do not have to collect any state or federal taxes. However, I will have to pay my own taxes on income. I may want to put a little aside each month for this purpose.

Conclusion

I’m glad it is so easy to setup my web business. I know that things like taxes and licensing may be necessary for future business ventures I may delve into. So I’m glad to learn all about it.

PayPal and Other Mysteries

This week we looked at site design guidelines and investigated using Paypal to accept credit card payments on our sites.

Site Design

I feel I had a step ahead of the rest of the class on site design from the graphic arts, typography and web design classes I have taken while attending BYU-Idaho online. I was able to share some key insights I learned from these classes, as well as from many articles I have read through the years. It think it’s important to use a basic tri-color system. A darker frame with a splash of color in areas (perhaps a line or a flourish) to spice things up and white for a background. Text should be a basic sans-serif font 12-16pt. You can use serif fonts for headlines, but use fonts available on every machine. Times New Romans/Times, Arial/Helvetica, Georgia, etc. Yellows are harder on the eyes, so use with care.

Credit Card Processors

You can setup a way to use PayPal as the credit card processor of your eCommerce sites. They keep all your customers financial data safe relieving you of the risk. They charge a percentage plus a small fee per transaction with no minimum sales penalty, compared to other such services that charge a monthly gateway fee ($30) + a monthly statement fee ($10) + a penalty if you do not meet the minimum monthly sales figure for your program. There are other fees that were listed for the top 17 services as well.(1) I want to know what is to be expected per sale before I make it so I can add the cost in with my markup. As an entry level credit card processor, PayPal can’t be beat. They offer point-of-sale card sliders that plug into your cellphone and billing as well. No hidden fees. You pay per transaction. The one downside is that the other companies did offer some fraud protection services, where PayPal didn’t.

Note: There are some great way to prevent fraud youself found here: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24278768.

Conclusion

I posted a lot of good information this on my classes discussion boards this week and I learned a lot from the process. BYU-Idaho’s learning model is learn by teaching. I think I am seeing evidence at how effective that type of experience can be for the teaching-student. I see things so much more clearly than I would of otherwise.

Sources:
1) http://credit-card-processing-review.toptenreviews.com/

The Game is Afoot!

Project 1 ends and Project 2 begins. We decide on a site builder, domain name and host.

Choosing a Site Builder

I compared Webs, Webstarts, and Yola, to Dreamweaver C6 that I already owned. I found that Webstarts had the most functionality and so I did a foolish thing and signed up for it. The entry level Premium account had only a portion of the promised features included. Things like adding eCommerce cost $80 a year extra! The worst part is there blog plug in was a joke. So, based on our classes online discussions, I decided I needed to keep looking. I canceled the account this morning for a full refund. I would of done it last night, but their phones are online open during EDT business hours.

My Domain Name

I knew the name of my domain from the gitgo — coolartilike.com. This is the domain name I registered through Webstarts. When I moved on I decided to use coolartilike.net. The original domain name will be available again in a few weeks if I want to change back.

Choosing My Host

I took a serious look at GoDaddy. I was about to go with the site when I felt I needed to look at a host I used in a class last semester called Host Monster. I still have 2 1/2 years of service on the account. I had a live chat with an agent to confirm that I could add an unlimited number of domain names without paying any more hosting fees. I used the cPanel to install WordPress on my newly purchased domain name coolartilike.net via Mobi and I am already well into the desing process. WebStarts is a joke compared to the free tools available from WordPress. I am glad I changed.

Final Thoughts

I think in the future I will wait until after I read out class discussions before I buy anything. I took a 100% u-turn on my opinion of GoDaddy in 24 hours time and I am glad I was led to use Host Monster. It just goes to show that I need to trust the process.

Drop Ship My Affiliation Wholesale USPS

Our second full week of B250 Web Business had us looking in more depth at the Broker, Manufacturer, Wholesaler, Affiliate and Drop Ship Business models.

Brokers vs. Manufacturers vs. Wholesalers

I had a lot of fun this week comparing the different types of business models with each other. The first thing that stuck out to me was merchandising was something that I could actually do. I know my sister-in-law ran her own scrap booking business of years. She gave my sister ten crates of left overs when she quit. She apparently made enough to do it full time. I could even try selling some of that on behalf of my sister just to get my teeth wet. The problem with the merchandising is obtaining the product to sell. I like the idea of local wholesalers vs. the other two models. The Wholesaler assumes some of the risk and smaller order-sizes and free shipping for orders over $200 are available. I am on the fence about non-US merchandise sources. I think that dealing with a country like England where I would have some legal rights would be preferable over Mainland China, where my rights may not be enforceable. There is the further stress of arranging all stages of the FOB shipping process, the 31 day minimum shipping time and increased minimum buy-in due to the minimum shipping weights (about 1 Kilo). Plus will they be name brand products? I think that once you can establish a relationship with a reputable overseas manufacturer/wholesaler, it could lead to a larger profit margin earned on an exclusively owned right-to-distribute brand name. For now I like US Wholesalers the best.

Affiliation vs. Drop Shipping

I will admit I was all for the Affiliation business model before I did the comparison between it and drop shipping. Affiliation is where a blogger blogs about a certain product and then a link is provided to a site where that product can be purchased. Some affiliates pay-per-click and a percentage of the sold product (5-10%) to the publisher. Others only pay the percentage. I realize that this mixed with advertising could be a viable method of making money on the web. Drop shippers package and ship their products based on the orders you send them from customers who order through you catalog website. You never see or handle the merchandise (in theory). There is a downside to this business model. Returns, back charges and fraud can leave you, the original taker of the money, in the lurch. However, I found that there were outfits who helped you deal with these problems. Helping you deal with wholesalers and manufacturers. The products available to drop ship were often readily available to view, whereas only one of the eleven affiliates I looked at let you look at their products without joining. Including Google Adsense and Amazon. More spam anyone?

My Favorite So Far for My Web Business?

I think I am still going to stick with the Affiliation model for my class business mixed with some other advertising. However, I am very interested in talking to my big brother and other respected friends about getting into a real business. Drop shipping and working with wholesalers are both something I would like to explore at my leasure.

I’ll say it again. A fun class.