Most people looking to do business online have heard of turnkey websites. They seem to be a one stop solution to getting an online business going without all the usual hassles associated with an online startup. Take a look thought the business & industry section of eBay and you'll see thousands of turnkey sites, sometimes going for hundreds of dollars.
Turnkey sites are ideal way to start or grow your ecommerce activity, below are just a handful of reasons explaining why.
1. Design
Ever tried to design a site yourself. Did it go well? Or were the results not as expected. Designing and building a site from scratch can be difficult work if not impossible to finalise your desired look. Turnkey sites already have been designed by full time graphic designers to look professional and more importantly to achieve maximum sales conversions from your end users visitors. Why spend hours trying to get that look right when you can buy an existing proven design ready to go.
2. Functionality
All our sites at Trading-Web-Solutions are tested constantly for days before they are released. Each site needs to be tested in every browser, not just Internet Explorer but Netscape and browsers growing in popularity such as Opera or Firefox. Other things to test on your site include scripts, databases & different screen modes. Will the script work with UNIX and windows servers? Does the javascript function in both Netscape and Opera? Even a small fault that occurs when using another system could cost you many visitors and more importantly orders. Testing a site is the most time consuming process of getting any online businesses running.
3. Easy to modify
The majority of turnkey sites are very easily to modify, just by opening your control panel or by loading the site into Frontpage. This is necessary, as you should personalise your site with your welcoming text and sales message to make the site yours. You don't want your site to be exactly the same as someone else's does you. With all the hard work done by someone else, just personalise your site to complete it and make it stand out from the crowd.
4. Trusted Partners
Affiliate Marketing is made easy by turnkey websites. If you want an affiliate relationship with another online organisation you need to be careful whom you choose. But by purchasing a turnkey site already affiliated with another party, all the research has already been done for you. Everything will have been examined about the affiliate program in detail, to make sure they are reliable, secure, pay out on time, offer excellent support to affiliates, and offer flexible linking methods. And if your site is not affiliated to another party but a stand-alone site it will be setup with the other payment links to a trusted payment processor such as Paypal or Nochex.
5. Cost
Turnkey websites are very cheap. For roughly $200 you can get one setup including one years hosting or pay monthly hosting and get one setup for about $100. Try getting a new site developed for this cost and you won't get very far. Most web developers charge from $85 per hour, so you'll be lucky if you get one page done for the same cost.
6. Quick Setup
Sellers who setup turnkey websites normally do it for a living on a full time basis. They've done it many times before so they know exactly what they're doing. Usually your site will be setup and live within 24 - 48 hours. You shouldn't have any problems after your sites been setup, after all they livelihood depends on it and if a seller makes any mistakes during the setup it can be very costly if not financially, then certainly towards their reputation and feedback.
7. Support
Want promotional advice, or to change the style of your site. Who better to ask than the people who created or installed your site? After sales support is normally included by email or a support ticket system and is a valuable source of information. Just one of the benefits of purchasing a turnkey website.
Mark Kenny is an online entrepreneur who specialises in developing turnkey websites in niche and profitable markets. You can see a selection of the work he is involved in at: http://www.trading-web-solutions.com and http://www.concept-casinos.com