Maintaining a buy and sell website gives you the flexibility to operate anywhere in the world. Consumers are going online to find deals they may not find by physically driving to their local stores. Properly setting up an attractive website that targets many customers willing to buy and sell their goods can create a lucrative stream of income.
Step 1
Choose a domain name. A domain name is similar to an address to a local business. For example, yourbusinessname.com. Domain names can cost as low as one dollar and up for a yearly fee. Visit sites like Godaddy.com or Dynanames.com to purchase your domain.
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Step 2
Research and select a web host for your website. A web host maintains servers with large amounts of memory to handle your traffic, images and other packets of information that is stored on your website. Prices vary per web host, but expect to pay as little as three dollars and up. Ehostpros.com is an example of a web host.
Step 3
Design your website or hire a freelance web designer to do the work for you. If you lack web-designing experience, you can hire a freelance web designer from sites like getafreelancer.com or Eance.com. Or you can purchase software like Site–Build–It or Xsitespro, which assist in building a website.
Step 4
Include a "shopping cart" on your website. Shopping cart software allows customers to either click on a single or multiple items to buy and/or sell, and then navigates them to a payment gateway to buyy for their items. Check with your web host to determine if they have shopping carts available. Otherwise you can use free shopping carts like Zen Cart.
Step 5
Determine what method of payment you will be accepting for buyers and sellers. You can integrate PayPal into your website or Google Checkout. Neither site requires any upfront payments, but a percentage of each transaction will be charged. Check with your local bank to determine if they offer merchant accounts. A merchant account will allow you to accept major credit cards, which will directly deposit the funds into your account within one or two business days.
Step 6
Establish effective advertising for your buy/sell website. Utilize forums, Google Adwords and banner ads to generate traffic to your website. Your web host may also have search engine optimization tools to allow your site to be among the top 10 sites that come up in a search engine when your customers input various keywords.
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