Recently, Google has implemented the local search for Google Hong Kong (or at least I just noticed), and we are on the top 10 list. The result has been awesome. We are getting a lot more conversions since.
In April, we are not getting much traffic from search engine (most are referred from Yahoo), and the number of conversions are not too spectacular.
In June, we can find our own website on Google’s local search, and the result is awesome. We are getting more new inquiries than ever.
Optimizing for local search is extremely important, and it gives a newer site like ours a chance to be on top of Google.
Many people do not understand the differences between Yahoo! Store and a self-hosted e-commerce solution such as Prestashop. Both solution has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some customers ask us whether they need a self-hosted e-commerce solution or not. I always tell them that it really depends on what their needs are. In general, if our customers are unsure of their sales target and just want to open a store, I would recommend them to first use a simplier solution such as Yahoo! Store to test the market. Otherwise, I believe a self-hosted e-commerce solution will save more money in the long run. Here is a simple comparison of the two solutions.
| Feature |
Yahoo! Store |
Self-hosted e-commerce solution |
| Cost |
Yahoo! Store costs around $400 HKD for the initial setup fee. In addition, for its starter package, it has a monthly fee of around $320 HKD and a 1.5% transaction fee (does not include credit card payment or Paypal payment fees). For its professional package, it costs around $2400 HKD monthly and a 0.75% transaction fee. |
A self-hosted e-commerce solution has a one time setup fee (which includes web site design and programming fee) which is significantly higher than the Yahoo! store (depending on the functionality). In addition, there is a server cost to host the solution. There are no hidden fees. |
| Design |
Somewhat customizable, but it requires a programmer and graphics designer to do it (cost depends on the rate of the design team). |
Fully customizable, and the cost is already included in the solution package. |
| Reliability |
Depends on Yahoo!’s server uptime |
Depends on the hosted server uptime (you must ask yoru server provider what is its guarantee uptime) |
| Functionality |
Limited to what Yahoo! offers to its customers (cannot add new functionalities) |
Fully customizable (for example, you can integrate the shop’s user account system to an existing user database) |
| Ownership |
The shop is hosted on Yahoo and it belongs to Yahoo. You cannot easily move your shop to another provider. |
The shop belongs to you, you can open the shop on several different web sites without paying anything extra (except for server fee). |
| Performance |
Depends on the performance of Yahoo! |
Depends on the hosted server (you can choose the location of the server. For example, if your shop is opened in HK, then you can get a server in Hong Kong to get optimum speed) |
We received some emails concerning having an internship position at Beamstyle Web Design HK. Regretfully, we do not have any have any plans of taking any internship positions. Please do check back regularly for any news related to Beamstyle and Web Design. Thanks!
This weekend, I went to my friend’s birthday party and I met someone who made me quite angry. Being boring person myself, I usually ask people I just met what are their occupations (I know it is not an interesting topic starter) after I asked them for their names. So I approached this guy (let’s call him guy A) and asked him what his occupation was. Well, he didn’t tell me. So I talked to the guy beside him (let’s call him guy B), and eventually I found out he is a programmer. We had a nice talk about our jobs and we both have genuine interest in programming.
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We will continue to discuss about the business plan for this update. The next section of the business plan will be the marketing analysis. This section is another important section as we will use this to clear think what products we should offer and at what price. The main ideas we must sort out in this section include:
- Customer Analysis
- Company Analysis
- Competitor Analysis
- Marketing Program
- Future Plans
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