Starting a Yahoo! ® Business FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Rob Snell 01_588737 ffirs.qxp 2/27/06 11:16 PM Page iii Starting a Yahoo! ® Business For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2005935167 ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-8873-0 ISBN-10: 0-7645-8873-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1O/RW/QT/QW/IN 01_588737 ffirs.qxp 2/27/06 11:16 PM Page iv About the Author Rob Snell loves e-commerce and all things Yahoo! Store. He is totally obsessed with search marketing and increasing his stores’ conversion rates. He is a small-business owner, online retailer, search marketing/e-commerce consultant, Yahoo! Store developer, sometime bass player, and Steve Snell’s brother and business partner. This is his first book! Rob has been in retail literally longer than he can remember. Growing up in the family mail-order catalog and retail business meant summers and week- ends of unloading truckloads of 50-lb. bags of dog food, waiting on customers, designing catalogs and magazine ads, and even programming the point-of-sale systems. He was shocked when his sister-in-law informed him that most other families didn’t talk about search marketing or conversion rates over Thanksgiving dinner. Rob has been into computers since 1981 when his mom bought him a Timex Sinclair ZX81. He’s been online since 1990 and opened his first online store in 1997 when his brother stumbled across Viaweb (now Yahoo! Store). Since then, Rob has designed, developed, owned, and/or marketed hundreds and hundreds of Yahoo! Stores that have sold millions and millions of dollars worth of stuff. Rob has sold Superman comics, art supplies, Pokémon cards, refurbished Sun workstations, pewter dragons, dog supplies, car-top carriers, softball equipment, and even janitorial supplies. Rob has a lot of experience as a small-business owner in many different fields. He started freelancing as a graphic design student and was booking and playing bass in several bands in college when he and his brother started a small chain of five comic book stores (which they sold in 2001). Rob spends his workdays helping his clients sell more stuff on the Internet and working with his family. Rob now consults with retailers on improving their e-commerce sites and maximizing their search-marketing campaigns and is a guest speaker and lec- turer on search marketing and e-commerce for small businesses. He posts somewhat regularly in his Yahoo! Store blog at www.ystore.blogs.com and can be contacted via e-mail at book@ystore.com. For more information, visit www.Ystore.com or www.robsnell.com. 01_588737 ffirs.qxp 2/27/06 11:16 PM Page v Dedication This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, W.C. Snell, who always believed in me even though he almost never agreed with me. Author’s Acknowledgments Thanks to all the people who kept things going so I could write this book. Thanks to my family for your endless support, especially Mom and Steve. To Kathy for taking care of all her boys (and stocking the fridge). To my six nephews: Drew, Corey, Sam, Luke, Austin, and Cooper who always make me smile! Always do your best! Thanks to Uncle Paul for the good MSU tickets (and that 1979 boat ride). Thanks to Aunt Margaret and Uncle Mick for 1999 and for still holding my reservations. To Rachel and Katie for your patience and understanding. To Nikki “I really think you need some more coffee” Ballard for all your help with the book and for keeping me sane. To Deb “WTFB” Wells. To Alesha “You really should write that book now” Calvert. (Hey, Innes!) Thanks to all my friends for getting me out of the office, especially Devon, John and Kay, Todd and Melissa, Brian, Andy, and Victor. To Copy Cow and Gun Dog staff, especially Allen Giglio, Mike Yeager, and Selena for typing all my notes. Special thanks to Annie Dancer. Meals provided by Jay & Co. at the Veranda and Shipley Do-Nuts. Special thanks to all my wonderful clients who kept paying me and who put up with me being out of pocket for almost a year, especially Roy, Scott, Greg, John and Joe, Kevin, Leigh, John, Bobby, Larry and Jerry, Joey T., Mark, and Doug. Thanks to Craig Paddock, Joe Morin, Troy Matthews, and Mr. David Burke for keeping me in the loop and out of trouble. Or is it out of the loop and in trouble? See y’all this search conference season! A very special thanks to Michael Whitaker, my good friend and this book’s technical reviewer, for taking it easy on my redneck prose and making me look good by catching my mistakes. Thanks to Yahoo!’s Paul Boisvert for reviewing chapters and providing valuable input. This book is much better thanks to their comments, criticisms, and suggestions. I take complete responsibility for any and all errors and omissions. See Ystorebooks.com for errata. Thanks to the folks at Yahoo! Small Business who keep things running smoothly and make it almost too easy to sell stuff online (especially Jimmy 01_588737 ffirs.qxp 2/27/06 11:16 PM Page vi D, Rich, Mike, Maria, Vince, and Randy). Thanks to Paul Graham and the Viaweb folks for creating Yahoo! Store, but especially for getting me into this way back in 1997. “How y’all doing?” to all my search conference folks, especially fellow author Andrew Goodman, Jill Whelan, Scottie Claiborn, Debra Mastaler, Bruce Clay, Mike Grehan, Tor Crockatt, Christine Churchill, Dan Boberg, Misty Locke, John Marshall, Tim Mayer, David (baaa!) Warmuz, Leslie Drechsler, Mike Reedy, and Danny Sullivan. Thanks to Brett Tabke and all of WebmasterWorld. Howdy to Champagne Jimmy, Shak, Oilman, Stuntdubl, DigitalGhost, WebGuerrilla, Mr. Bindl, Neuron, Calum, BakedJake, and SEOMike. Howdy to Istvan “RTML 101” Siposs, HarvestSEO, Chris Sims, David “FindStuff.com” Karandish, Steph and Ryan, and the MonsterCommerce volleyball team, Matt “Inigo Montoya” Cutts, Dr. Ralph Wilson, Sara Hicks, Roebuck, Carl, Kelly, Leigh Ann, Megan, and Jennifer Knight. Thanks to Lamkin, Mrs. Edon, Mrs. Werkheiser, David Allen, Harry Friedman, Jakob Nielsen, Seth Godin, Joe Field, Roy Wilson, and all the other folks who have taught me along the way! Apologies to the other 17 people I know I’ve forgotten. Tonight’s show is brought to you by the fine folks at Wiley Press. Extra spe- cial thanks to my infinitely patient project editor, Kelly Ewing. To acquisitions editor (and fellow bassist) Steve Hayes: Thanks for the gig! (to the Waffle House . . .) 01_588737 ffirs.qxp 2/27/06 11:16 PM Page vii Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Kelly Ewing Acquisitions Editor: Steve Hayes Technical Editor: Michael Whitaker (www.monitus.com) Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen Media Development Specialists: Angela Denny, Kate Jenkins, Steven Kudirka, Kit Malone, Travis Silvers Media Development Coordinator: Laura Atkinson Media Project Supervisor: Laura Moss Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle Media Development Associate Producer: Richard Graves Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Jennifer Theriot Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Joyce Haughey, Lynsey Osborn, Erin Zeltner Proofreaders: Laura Albert, John Edwards, Jessica Kramer Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Services Special Help: Paul Boisvert Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 01_588737 ffirs.qxp 2/27/06 11:16 PM Page viii Contents at a Glance Introduction 1 Part I: Finding Out about Yahoo! Store 7 Chapter 1: The Nickel Tour of Yahoo! Store 9 Chapter 2: Planning Your Online Small Business 17 Chapter 3: Jump-Starting Your Store 35 Chapter 4: Anatomy of a Yahoo! Store Order 63 Part II: Planning What’s in Store 75 Chapter 5: Preparing to Build Your Yahoo! Store 77 Chapter 6: Designing Your Store to Turn Shoppers into Buyers 89 Chapter 7: Exploring Store Navigation 97 Chapter 8: Selling with Pictures 109 Part III: Building and Managing Your Store 121 Chapter 9: Store Building with the Store Editor 123 Chapter 10: Pushing All the Right Buttons 143 Chapter 11: Designing All Kinds of Pages 161 Chapter 12: Creating Product Pages with the Store Editor 177 Chapter 13: Merchandising to Sell More 197 Chapter 14: Checking Out the New Shopping Cart 215 Chapter 15: Mastering the Store Manager 227 Part IV: Profiting from Internet Marketing 251 Chapter 16: Searching for the Right Words 253 Chapter 17: Driving Traffic That Converts 271 Chapter 18: Buying Your Way to the Top 285 Chapter 19: Discovering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 301 Part V: Making More Money with Your Yahoo! Store 317 Chapter 20: Running Your Business by the Numbers 319 Chapter 21: Converting Browsers into Buyers 331 Chapter 22: E-Mailing Your Customers for Fun and Profit 347 Chapter 23: Getting Down with Product Uploads 359 Chapter 24: Mastering Domains 371 02_588737 ftoc.qxp 2/27/06 11:15 PM Page ix Part VI: The Part of Tens 379 Chapter 25: Ten or So Tools of the Trade 381 Chapter 26: Ten or So RTML Resources and Recommendations 385 Index 389 02_588737 ftoc.qxp 2/27/06 11:15 PM Page x Table of Contents Introduction 1 About This Book 2 What You’re Not to Read 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book Is Organized 3 Part I: Finding Out about Yahoo! Store 3 Part II: Planning What’s in Store 3 Part III: Building and Managing Your Store 4 Part IV: Profiting from Internet Marketing 4 Part V: Making More Money with Your Yahoo! Store 4 Part VI: The Part of Tens 4 Icons Used in This book 5 Where to Go from Here 5 “Talk to Me, Johnny . . .” 6 Part I: Finding Out about Yahoo! Store 7 Chapter 1: The Nickel Tour of Yahoo! Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Exploring Small Business 9 Introducing Yahoo! Small Business 10 Figuring Out Who Uses Yahoo! Store 12 Deciphering All the Parts 13 Examining Merchant Solutions 14 Chapter 2: Planning Your Online Small Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Choosing a Business Model That Works on the Web 17 Picking Products That Sell on the Web 19 Finding popular and profitable niches 19 Promoting products with limited distribution 22 Retailing quality products and adding value 24 Selling products that encourage repeat orders 25 Maximizing your margins and price points 25 Leveraging your knowledge and passion 26 Building a New Business from Scratch 27 Planning your business model on a napkin 27 Using drop-shippers for fun, profit, and market research 28 Looking before you leap 30 02_588737 ftoc.qxp 2/27/06 11:15 PM Page xi Taking an Existing Business Online 30 Creaming your most profitable products 31 Leveraging existing inventory to the Web 31 Maximizing supplier relationships 31 Selling locally while shipping globally 32 Migrating to Yahoo! Store from Another Storefront System 33 Making the transition 33 Copying your old site’s look and feel 34 Chapter 3: Jump-Starting Your Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Registering with Yahoo! 35 Creating your Yahoo! ID 36 Creating a Yahoo! security key 37 Opening Your Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Account 38 Jumping into Store Building 41 1. Sign in with your Yahoo! ID and log in to Store Editor 41 2. Configure the Store Editor for store building 44 3. Create sample pages 45 4. Publish your site, and you’re live on the Web 53 Configuring Your Store Manager 54 Accessing the Store Manager 54 Setting your sales tax rate 55 Configuring shipping methods and rates 55 Setting up your shipping methods 55 Setting your shipping rates 56 Setting your payment methods 57 Working with order confirmations and merchant notifications 58 Publishing store settings changes and placing a test order 60 Opening for Business 60 Chapter 4: Anatomy of a Yahoo! Store Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Examining the Timeline of a Real Yahoo! Store Order 63 Finding the store in a search engine 64 Landing on a section page 65 Selling with a product page 65 Pushing the Shopping Cart 67 Checking out the Secure Order form 69 Confirming orders and shipping ’em out 70 Taking care of details 73 Part II: Planning What’s in Store 75 Chapter 5: Preparing to Build Your Yahoo! Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Choosing a Store-Building Tool 77 Store Editor 78 Store Tags 79 Starting a Yahoo! Business For Dummies xii 02_588737 ftoc.qxp 2/27/06 11:15 PM Page xii [...]... Deciphering All the Parts Your credit-card statement lists Yahoo! Small Business (YSB) as your online landlord Y!SB is the division at Yahoo! that you deal with the most 13 14 Part I: Finding Out about Yahoo! Store Here are the other parts of Yahoo! you need to know about: ߜ Yahoo! Search (www .yahoo. com) is a separate part of Yahoo! Just because you have a Yahoo! Store doesn’t mean that your store will automatically... Internet is a perfect way to start You don’t need mountains of capital, just a strong desire and a little bit of sweat equity, and you’re in business Introducing Yahoo! Small Business When you open a Merchant Solutions account at Yahoo! Small Business, you have a Yahoo! Store (which is what I call it, no matter what anyone else says) Simply put, a Yahoo! Store is an online store hosted at Yahoo! — a Web... e-mail you as often as I have something worth writing about Visit my company’s Yahoo! Store Marketing and Development Web site at www.ystore.com I also have 100-plus posts about Yahoo! Store and search marketing at my blog at www.ystore.blogs.com Part I Finding Out about Yahoo! Store Y In this part ahoo! Small Business, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Yahoo! Web Hosting, and Yahoo! ... swamped with millions more shoppers than usual If you have a very seasonal business where you go from a 100 people a day in the off season to 4,000 people a day in the peak season and 150 to 200 orders a day, Yahoo! Store may be for you Yahoo! is pretty serious about its Web-hosting business It’s not a sideline or an afterthought Nowadays, anyone with a T1 line and a server can set up a box and be a. .. fast or cheap? You can have it good and cheap, but it’ll take forever You can have it good and fast, but you’ll pay a lot more And you can have it fast and cheap, but it’s not gonna be any good.” Your business model can be to lose money on the first sale just to acquire a customer and then make a profit on subsequent sales Another model is to sell expensive items as cheap as you can and then make all... Yahoo! Merchant Solutions accounts do get 20 percent off list prices, though See http://productsubmit adcentral .yahoo. com/sspi/us/pricing to read about Yahoo! Shopping and other ways to market your store in Chapter 17 ߜ Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM) is the paid-search advertising part of Yahoo! You know what I’m talking about — those sponsored ads that appear at the top and to the right on Yahoo! and... Sometimes starting a business on Yahoo! can be confusing, but don’t panic I do this for a living! This part of the book gets you started building your online business with Yahoo! and fast! (I have a short attention span.) First, I explain all things Yahoo! , like how all these different parts work together I also fess up and finally come clean about why I still use Yahoo! Store after all these years (Because... not saying I know more about Yahoo! Store than anyone else, but I do have as broad an experience with the platform as anyone I’ve ever met Around these parts, our Yahoo! Stores make the mortgage payments and then some, so we pay pretty close attention to what increases sales Working with 300-plus retailers has opened my eyes to the myriad ways we all sell online using the same exact platform I learn... with a Yahoo! Store You certainly won’t make a killing overnight, but it’s a great way to make a comfortable living You get to be your own boss and have a certain flexibility of schedule Being able to work from anywhere (even at home in your PJs) is a big, big plus Small -business retailing is more of a lifestyle business than a ticket for the IPO lottery Retailing is an easy way to start a business, and... online, retailers migrating to Yahoo! Store from another platform, and existing Yahoo! Store owners opening multiple stores Choosing a Business Model That Works on the Web Retailers on the Web have to have a different business model than traditional, real-world merchants A business model is just a fancy name for the way a company actually makes money What strategy works offline is probably not going to . 388 Add RTML Navigational Elements 388 Index 389 Starting a Yahoo! Business For Dummies xx 02_588737 ftoc.qxp 2/27/06 11:15 PM Page xx Introduction T hanks for taking a look at Starting a Yahoo! . NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FUR- THER INFORMATION. Malone, Travis Silvers Media Development Coordinator: Laura Atkinson Media Project Supervisor: Laura Moss Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle Media Development Associate Producer: Richard