Google Search Is Helping One Small Business Make It
Sourcing his own stock and doing his own market research was one thing but the untimely death of his web developer meant he had to learn an awful lot about the internet, very quickly, by himself.
“I was looking for a business I could start up and run myself,” he explains. He took some time looking at what he could do and quickly settled on selling things through eBay to start himself off.
Deciding what to sell was, to an extent, decided by the limitations and opportunities of eBay. “It had to be small, it had to be something that could go through the Royal Mail quickly and safely,” he said. A keen dog owner, he soon decided that pet supplies suited his criteria.
He was initially cautious about setting up his own site. “I practised on things like eBay for about a year just to see how much work was involved. Selling on eBay involved fixed costs so there was no problem considering that.” Actually getting the items delivered in the face of a full-time job, and processing the orders was a different matter – he needed to be certain it would fit in with his life.
On deciding the logistics were manageable he contacted a web developer. “He taught me a few things about search engines and pointed me in the right direction about a lot of things, like what the engines look for and what they don’t.” Millward used ekmPowershop to build his own site (and still uses it).
The software supplier charges a monthly fee, for part of which it submits a site to search engines. Millward found, however, that a more powerful way to attract attention was to exchange links with other websites in related areas. “It took a lot of time. “I actively sought out the dog clubs and so on. Full story.
