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www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/3736936
By Kerry Watson March 27, 2008 Technical Support ($0 to $100/hr or more) In addition to the sometimes raucous, occasionally peevish online bulletin boards or forums, there are also e-mail support groups that can be found on Yahoo Groups or other mailing lists. Each e-mail group will have a different audience and a different charter, but in nearly all cases they are free. Members of the e-mail group can post their questions to the group, and those members who respond also post their replies to everyone. In this way, everyone learns at once, and for free. When you absolutely, positively cannot wait for free e-mail support from your group, a sympathetic techie is good to have lined up. You may want to just surf the bulletin boards or e-mail groups until you find someone whose posted responses you trust, and contact them off-list. If necessary, and if the bulletin board or e-mail group allows it, post a message asking for a recommendation to a technical support person. Your Web host may also provide technical support on an hourly basis, or be willing to recommend someone who does. Credit Card Processor (About $20/month plus per-transaction fees) Once you have decided on which online store program you want to use, find out what credit card processors they support and select one from that list. Note that many credit card processors will waive some or all of the upfront fees, and the only way to know for sure is to ask them to do it. If all these fees have your head spinning, you may want to start with a simple, third-party off-site processor like PayPal. With no up-front or monthly fees, their per-transaction fee is a bit heftier, but you have no monthly overhead. Once your sales volume starts getting above say $1,000 a month or more, you will want to research other vendors to see if you can save a little. A bonus of using the third-party off-site processor is that they provide all the security you need to complete the transaction, as no financial information is gathered on your Web site. This means you can skip the next annual expense, the Secure SSL Certificate. Security - SSL Secure Certificate ($75-$300/year if needed) Your Web host probably sells and installs secure certificates that are compatible with your store, so contact them about it for the smoothest install. If they don't, ask them for a recommendation. You will need to renew this each year. Supporting Computer Programs and Upgrades ($0 to $1,000 a year) If you will create and/or edit graphics or photos, you will also need a photo editing program. While there are also a number of free graphics editor programs, as well as many low-cost graphics editing programs, most moderately technically-oriented store owners will choose to learn the standard Adobe PhotoShop, which also runs into the hundreds of dollars and likewise has so many useful and time-saving features. Note that Corel's Paint Shop Pro is priced proportionately less and has nearly the same features as PhotoShop. There are also many smaller programs you can use, ranging from free file transfer programs such as FileZilla, to code comparison programs such as Beyond Compare ($30), to password management programs for the many passwords you will have. Most have a free trial period which can reduce the risk of trying them out. Your Education ($0 to $1,000 a year) However, for most folks, you will need to calculate in the cost of purchasing user manuals (full disclosure: I write many of these manuals), tutorials or training manuals if available, and occasional technical manuals such as books on HTML, PHP, e-commerce and/or the Internet to help give you background information. You may also need books on online advertising and/or marketing, search engines, security, and books to help you understand the computer programs you use, the digital camera you use to take photos of your product, photo or graphics editing software, and books on subjects such as video or audio editing if that is part of your store. Your Own Labor (Priceless) The Bottom Line
Kerry Watson is a consultant and author of 10 books in the OSC industry. Her Web sites are osCommerce-Resources.com and osCommerceManuals.com.
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