Web Tips

Turnkey E-Commerce Website

Most people looking to do business online have heard of turnkey websites. They seem to be a one stop solution to getting an online business going without all the usual hassles associated with an online startup. Take a look through the business & industry section of eBay and you'll see thousands of turnkey sites, sometimes going for hundreds or of dollars.

Turnkey sites are ideal way to start or grow your eCommerce activity. However, be wise as what seems "turnkey" to you may not be what you are getting:

1. Design

Ever tried to design a site yourself. Did it go well? Or were the results not as expected. Designing and building a site from scratch can be difficult work if not impossible to finalise your desired look. Turnkey sites already have been designed by full time graphic designers to look professional and more importantly to achieve maximum sales conversions from your end users visitors. Why spend hours trying to get that look right when you can buy an existing proven design ready to go?

Some look to WordPress as a way around a great looking site. With the many themes available it just seems easy, right? Wrong. WordPress, while powerful, can be overwhelming as if you don't do it right, your site can really have issues and inadvertently, get penalized by Google to boot.

2. Functionality

The worst thing you can do is launch a site that hasn't been tested, and not just on different browsers, but tablets and mobile phones too. Your site MUST have a responsive design (one that expands and shrinks depending on the device). Other things to test on your site include scripts, databases & different screen modes. There are many sites out there that will show you what your site will look like across different browsers and versions.

3. Easy to modify

The majority of turnkey sites are very easily to modify, especially if it is WordPress. This is necessary, as you should personalise your site with your welcoming text and sales message to make the site yours. You don't want your site to be exactly the same as someone else's does you. With all the hard work done by someone else, just personalise your site to complete it and make it stand out from the crowd.

4. Trusted Partners

Affiliate Marketing is made easy by turnkey websites. If you want an affiliate relationship with another online organisation you need to be careful whom you choose. But by purchasing a turnkey site already affiliated with another party, all the research has already been done for you. Everything will have been examined about the affiliate program in detail, to make sure they are reliable, secure, pay out on time, offer excellent support to affiliates, and offer flexible linking methods. And if your site is not affiliated to another party but a stand-alone site it will be setup with the other payment links to a trusted payment processor such as Paypal.

5. Cost

Turnkey websites are very cheap. For roughly $200 you can get one setup including one years hosting or pay monthly hosting and get one setup for about $100. Try getting a new site developed for this cost and you won't get very far. Most web developers charge from $85 per hour, so you'll be lucky if you get one page done for the same cost.

6. Quick Setup

Sellers who setup turnkey websites normally do it for a living on a full time basis. They've done it many times before so they know exactly what they're doing. Usually your site will be setup and live within 24 - 48 hours. You shouldn't have any problems after your sites setup, after all they livelihood depends on it and if a sellers making mistakes during the setup can be very costly if not financially, then defiantly towards their reputation and feedback.

7. Support

Want promotional advice, or to change the style of your site. Who better to ask than the people who created or installed your site? After sales support is normally included by email or a support ticket system and is a valuable source of information. Just one of the benefits of purchasing a turnkey website.