Week 7 B250

This week has bee incredibly frustrating. I feel like I don’t really understand what it is I’m doing, but I’m trying really hard to learn. I read all of the things, but so many things are just assumed knowledge and I don’t have it. Therefore, this post is going to be a compilation of the things I need to remember.

Adwords is a type of advertising on the internet. People can still find your site without it but will most likely need to know the address for it. This doesn’t makes sense though, because I’ve have over 100 people visit my site and it’s not on Adwords.

Keywords help to match potential clients up with your site to find what they are looking for.  This reminds me of an online dating site, but instead of matching people they are matching words. I don’t understand how or at what point you are charged for advertising (if  you get charged for having your site on the screen or only if your site is actually clicked on), which is really irritating since I can’t find it in any of the reading material. This seems a bit fishy to me.  Here are a few websites that others used and I think worth having for future reference; https://youtu.be/pJ-DhVxit-4

http://www.inc.com/guide/2010/06/picking-effective-seo-keywords.html

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7102460

Hopefully I gain a better understanding of it by the end of the semester.

So much information.

WC233

week 6

This week was interesting mainly because we got to see how many people were trying to cut legal corners to get a business started. It was also interesting because there were so many things that I already knew from my husband and his business and from growing up with business owners, that I had assumed everyone knew about a license and the legal structure of businesses.

This week was also very frustrating because I was trying to get my website to have links to products and I can’t get it to do what I want. Mostly, I just want to add links to things, but I can’t figure it out. Links aren’t covered in this class until week 13 so it appears that I just have to wait. Everyone talked about how easy it was on this site, but I’m realizing that I am just not a computer person. Maybe once this class is over I will know what I’m doing. Maybe then I will start a site for my husband and be able to do a good job for his business.

I was surprised that so many states have business licenses and fees that go along with them. In order to set up a business in Arizona, I would simply need to register the business for tax purposes. There is no license needed in this state for an online business and I don’t handle any products (tobacco, liquor) that require one. There is a business fee in my town, however, as long as no signs are places on the exterior of the home then that can be avoided as well.  With all of the legal aspects of a business, I am beginning to lean more towards just working for someone else. It would sure be less of a hassle. With my husband running his own business, I don’t know if I can handle doing one of my own. Too much stress, but we’ll see when that time comes.

WC330

week 5

This week was full of information that I needed to learn. There was a lot of great information and suggestions for creating a website and the best ways to model it and arrange it. This site http://shortiedesigns.com/2014/03/10-top-principles-effective-web-design/  has great information about how people look/scan a website. The F pattern design is incredibly logical, but I would never have realized it except that this pointed it out. I really do scan things from left to right and top to bottom. If I want my website to be successful then I need to make it easy to read and scan and not try to force people to read it against their natural ways. I am thinking that I will make my text area small and brief (nobody really reads it anyway) and really focus on the product and accessibility.

The other part of the week was learning about the payment buttons. I definitely think that I will stick to an affiliate for a while and avoid the headache that would surely come with trying to figure all of that out. I am glad that I learned it though. For future use, I want to remember this: “You do not need to have a paypal acct or login to an existing acct to create a button for this assignment. Complete the first section and then click the CREATE BUTTON button on the bottom of the form.” This is for using the paypal button. I was very glad that someone posted this in the discussion board, because I had no idea how I was supposed to be doing what the assignment was asking me to do.

Lesson 4

During this week we decided on which web builder and which host we would like to use. I didn’t even realize before this that the two were separate things or that a host was even needed. The Internet is so much more complicated that I had realized. But I did decide to use Weebly for both host and site builder. I think that if I keep them together then it will be less confusing for me. Weebly seems like a good site for beginners too. It is mostly drag and drop, which is good since I don’t know how to do any programing or really much of anything else.  Although I would have liked to have a few more template options, I think the limits might be good to keep me out of trouble. It’s a bit intimidating that I will be starting a web site. It’s probably a good thing since I wouldn’t ever really do it on my own, but still kind of scary.

Along with being scary it’s quite exciting. I’m interested to see how well I can do with an online business and I want to see if I can be successful at it. It would be a great help if I could find a way to help with the family finances without actually needing to be outside of the house. If I could get this going and be successful with it, that would be huge for me. I have always had lots of business ideas but was concerned with how much time it would demand that I be out.  If this works then I wouldn’t have to give up my family time for it, just a little time after kids go to bed. That would be awesome! Yep it’s a hard class, but I think I like it.