I'm a graphic designer, so i do have some insightful things to tell you.
First off, a great way for beginners to start up and internet store or business is Yahoo! small business. Go to the site, you can probably find the link to sign up, they'll send you an install cd and manual. A lot of online business actually use yahoo site builder, and many are quite successful. The downside is like a $50 monthly fee (depending on the traffick limit you set).
Anyway i work for bottle-less water cooler company. before the summer my boss asked me to use the Yahoo small business system to set up an online store. Took me almost a week, (and requires no html/script knowledge. But using their provided template and some of my own techniques, the store was up. You input the prices, weight, shipping,adddress, details, checkout all through a secure yahoo site that's organized. And you create the site separately either with their program or dreamweaver, etc. And you link the site to interact with the secure yahoo site and pulls information from there. The store sold water filters, sink filters, water coolers, showerheads, showerfilters.
The online store was a separate division from his usual business that usually sells through advertising and phone calls. But i did my best, and shortly after 6 months, the site was taken down. Since no one really made orders. A shame really, the checkout and everything worked perfectly.
Why was it taken down? well im sure people visited the site based on what i saw. but people are rarely willing to buy from a company that's unheard of. The products on our site is practically available anywhere else. In addition, it could have been advertised extensively more, but he chose not to. at best i put it on search engines, even that didnt help much. Since i used a template to make the site, it wasnt exactly 100% appealing, but it did look good.
So anyway good luck. I'd probably say starting a regular business is easier than an online one.
The only recent one where i've seen has risen from teh ashes as a nobody to a somebody is
www.overstock.com. Im sure you've seen their commercials on tv recently. When they were a nobody, their site looked pretty ****ty...but now it's nice as ever.
Aside from teh site, the actual business does much better. Because we use real forms of marketing like advertising and telemarketers and sales executives. Im not saying it's impossible to succeed with an online business, but im saying your chances of success is probably higher with a real business. In the end, it's all about getting the word out that your business exists.
