How to Start an Online Thrift Store (5 Steps)

Apply for a business license and open a business bank account. Even though this is a small business, you will still want to separate your business and personal income to make tax filing easier. It also presents you more professionally and allows you to separate your business and personal life.
Set up an online storefront. Most thrift store owners prefer to have an eBay store, since payment processing and shipping are so convenient, and they do not have to compete with eBay. You can also set up an Amazon store or your own website. Many web hosting services, such as Yahoo or GoDaddy, provide you with a professional, quality online store for a monthly fee.
Determine what types of goods to sell, and convey that to your customers. It is easier to get loyal customers if they can categorize you in their minds. Get your customers to always think of you when they look for a particular type of product they would like to buy. Specialize in Depression-era glassware, used books, children's clothes, boots and accessories, textiles, or everything under $5. This is the essence of branding.
Purchase your inventory. Search for goods that have a high likelihood of selling and that you can mark up double or triple the price. Also, consider how to build the costs of shipping and handling into your prices. It's possible that many of your goods will not sell, or that you will have to mark them down to advertise a 'sale' item, so start with a slightly higher price than you might find at Goodwill. Ensure that the goods are clean and defect-free, and be very specific about the condition of the item in your description.
Follow up with your customers. Your online reputation is even more important than your offline reputation, since customers cannot see you or the goods before they buy them. Always focus on customer service, and ensure that your customers are satisfied. If they are, ask them for testimonials or quotes that you can use in your marketing materials.
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How to Start an E Business

Create a name for the business. This involves coming up with a name that is easy to remember, and also catchy enough to stay right on the tip of consumers' tongues. Search the names of your competition to give you ideas, and then write a list of possible names for your business. Use a process of elimination to decide which name suits your business best.
Build a website by finding a hosting company that specializes in eBusiness websites. The top three eBusiness Web hosting companies are JustHost, HostMonster, and BlueHost (as listed on the 'Top 10 Web Hosting' website, a site that compares Web hosting companies). Consider a hosting company that will register your domain name for you. You can also register the domain name on your own using Network Solutions or Dotster.
Launch the website by submitting the URL to Yahoo, MSN, or Google, for example. Each search engine will ask for a list of keywords to describe your business. This is done to allow the search engine to rank your website among other similar websites. The process of coming up with really good keywords is known as search engine optimization (SEO). Put thought into the keywords you choose. Try to put yourself in the position as the consumer, and ask what terms you would type in to find your product. Search engines put a lot of weight into keywords when determining how a website is ranked. Don't leave this step to chance. Give it some real thought.
Market the website. This can be done through a number of ways. Article marketing allows you to post articles about your product niche in free article directories such as Ezine Articles or Article Street. In turn, people who read your articles on these sites have a chance to come visit the website, and hopefully buy a product or two. Post a press release online in which you can announce the start of your eBusiness, telling potential customers what you are selling and how the product can be beneficial. Hand out business cards every chance you get (think of friends, family, and people who would benefit from your product). Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth as a source for marketing. Show pride in your business to make people want to find out more about your product. Advertise in newspapers as well. Remember that an eBusiness has the potential to reach customers around the globe, so advertising on websites that complement your product may be a good idea as well.
Keep the website updated and maintained. Do something to the site at least once a week. No one wants to buy products from a stale online store. Customers want to know that you are an expert in your product line, so offer free How-To guides and blogs, as well as other content that requires continuous updates. Visitors like interaction as well. Place a poll or survey link that is centered around your product line. Anything that keeps potential customers coming back is good.
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How to set up a webcam (hosted and using FTP)

PURCHASE A WEB CAM:I described that you could use a PnP (Plug and Play) webcam in my first article, but for this operation, you will probably want to consider a little better web cam. You can still use a PnP camera at first, but you will want to upgrade as time goes on. I would recommend the use of the $50 - $70 Logitech webcams for this operation.
INSTALL THE WEBCAM SOFTWARE:Once you have your camera, install the software that comes with it. READ the instructions for installing your webcam onto your local computer. Troubleshoot as needed for setup.
FTP DELIVERY SYSTEM OVERVIEW: In my basic webcam set up article, I discussed the use of a free hosting provider or the use of Yahoo, AOL, MSN, or SKYPE. However if you have your own webserver, there are two main ways to deliver your webcam content to your website and server:1) FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to your website and your webserver that you host with. We will discuss this option in this article. 2) Set up an in-house server that uses webcam software to stream your images. I am not going to discuss this option in this article.
DOWNLOAD WEBCAM FTP SOFTWARE:This method assumes that you know how to use an FTP program to publish your website already. There is a lot of free software out there that you can use to set up an FTP link to your hosting provider for your webcam. A few webcams come with free webcam software that you can also use. I recommened that you look into using Webcam32, (trial version, then purchase) TinCam (trial version and purchase) or ConquerCam (trial version and purchase). You can also do a Google search for other software programs available and free software available.Which ever one you decide to use, download it and install it on your computer. Set up your webcam as instructed in the directions of the software.
SET UP YOUR WEBCAM FTP ACCOUNT:Alright, so now we will set up the FTP information so that your images and video can get online! Depending on the software you downloaded, you may have a built-in web page builder or you will have to create a video wrapper on your web page. I will not explain that here, so you can look this up on Google. You will need to have a basic knowledge of html to understand how to do this. Build a test web page for this purpose on your site.
TEST THE CAMERA:Once you have set up your FTP account, you can now test the WebCam and see if it is saving data out to your FTP account and your test webpage. Congratulations if it is working correctly, if not, check your code on your HTML page, and also check the FTP information you provided to the software.
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How to Start a Movie Music Download Website

Plan a model for your website by asking yourself important questions about its design and purpose. Do you want your site to cater to particular demographic and community, or will it be more general like Youtube? Do you want to host user-made videos and copyright-free music at your website, or do you plan to distribute copyrighted material in exchange for a fee? If you choose the latter, you'll need to acquire the appropriate licenses and strike deals with content copyright holders.
Choose a web hosting company. This will allow your web site to have an online presence, complete with its own URL. Yahoo! Small Business offers web hosting packages for as little as $10 per month. This includes unlimited data transfer, disk space, audio and video galleries, and web design tools, all of which will be necessary for a movie and music download site.
Consider choosing an alternative, purpose-specific web hosting site, such as Fliggo. Fliggo is a free web hosting agency that will allow you to create a video hosting site without any technical knowledge of web design. At this time, Fliggo is free. Unfortunately, the level of customization involved with a method like this is rather limited, and you won't be able to run a for-pay site. This will, however, allow you to test the Internet waters and find a market before taking the plunge with a custom site.
Hire a team of skilled individuals to help with the development and day-to-day operations of your website. You'll need web designers, content creators, marketing experts, moderators and probably a legal specialist. Unless your consider yourself to be a 'jack of all trades' with an unlimited amount of free time, starting a movie and music download site by yourself will be overwhelming.
Build an online community around your website. One of the biggest problems facing Internet startups is a lack of traffic. The Internet is flooded with music and movie download websites, and your site will need unique features, excellent design and interesting content in order to stand out. Find other websites catering to your chosen market and demographic, and purchase advertising.
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