Graphic software can cost anywhere from $200 upgrades to almost $2000 for a complete professional suite with all the bells and whistles.
And if you are just starting out with your first estore, that is not the kind of money you would be willing to spend.
That said, a professionally designed store can really stand out, but if you cannot afford it, do not stress your wallet.
There are other options.
Signing up with a feature packed and reliable shopping cart is a good start to getting your online store going.
But all those features like free live chat software, would not do you any good if customers do not find your page 'sticky' enough.
What do I mean by 'sticky'? Sticky is just another way of saying attractive.
Many elements on a page contribute to making a page sticky - template design, captivating title, interesting content and product offers.
These elements help convince visitors to stay on the page long enough to perhaps continue with an action such as signing up for a newsletter, clicking a category link or making a purchase.
Where To Get Free Ecommerce Templates Whether you are using the services of a paid shopping cart service or a open source version, there are free ecommerce templates available for both options.
Remember to remain objective when choosing these templates.
Make sure you have an idea of what you want your page to look like before making your selection.
Ask yourself if the free ecommerce template design will go with your logo, your products and the relative feel of the store.
A number of paid carts already offer free ecommerce templates as part of their sign up package.
For open source carts, there are a few sites on the internet that provide free template designs for them.
these sites include freewebtemplates.
com, templatemonster.
com and Smashing Magazine.
Free Graphic Design Tools A picture paints a thousand words so I recommend using images to help make a page stickier.
You do not have to be an expert at graphic designing to put up effective imagery on your site, you just need a good eye.
If you have a bike store, an effective image could just be a photo of a rider putting a bike through its paces with product details at the bottom with an image an text link to the product page.
Remember, every single element on a website, especially for an online store, must contribute towards the ultimate purpose of the site itself.
For an online store, that purpose is sales.
Nothing on the site should be there for aesthetics only.
There are a few free tools to help you manipulate images that are easily available online.
Gimp is a popular free graphic design application that I use to arrange images I use for content sliders.
I use Pixlr for photo editing.
If you are familiar working with Photoshop, then you would be comfortable working with Pixlr.
They are very similar.
Alternatives include Picnik, Fotoflexer and Aviary.
For quick image resizing, I would recommend using Irfanview.
For screen capture, MWsnap is a superb tool.
Free Video Editing Tools Videos are great to help you indirectly promote products or services.
If you have a shoe store, you can put up a video teaching people different methods of tying shoe laces.
These videos need not be of high quality.
Some of them need not even contain audio.
But they must be informative and therefore useful.
Make sure to keep videos as short as possible, preferably less than 3 minutes.
You can have longer videos but ensure that its under 10 minutes or you would not be able to upload it to YouTube.
Always state the duration of the video and topics the video will touch on at the beginning of the video so that viewers know what to expect if the video is going to take a bit of their time.
You do not have to look far to find free video editing software.
Both Macs and PCs come preloaded with such software in the form of Apple iMovie and Microsoft Movie Maker respectively.
They are very easy to use and I learned to use them after just 10 minutes of fooling around.
If you are looking to make tutorials or presentations, try Wink.
You can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons and titles.
Wink is also easy to use and I find myself using it a lot to create tutorials.
And if you are just starting out with your first estore, that is not the kind of money you would be willing to spend.
That said, a professionally designed store can really stand out, but if you cannot afford it, do not stress your wallet.
There are other options.
Signing up with a feature packed and reliable shopping cart is a good start to getting your online store going.
But all those features like free live chat software, would not do you any good if customers do not find your page 'sticky' enough.
What do I mean by 'sticky'? Sticky is just another way of saying attractive.
Many elements on a page contribute to making a page sticky - template design, captivating title, interesting content and product offers.
These elements help convince visitors to stay on the page long enough to perhaps continue with an action such as signing up for a newsletter, clicking a category link or making a purchase.
Where To Get Free Ecommerce Templates Whether you are using the services of a paid shopping cart service or a open source version, there are free ecommerce templates available for both options.
Remember to remain objective when choosing these templates.
Make sure you have an idea of what you want your page to look like before making your selection.
Ask yourself if the free ecommerce template design will go with your logo, your products and the relative feel of the store.
A number of paid carts already offer free ecommerce templates as part of their sign up package.
For open source carts, there are a few sites on the internet that provide free template designs for them.
these sites include freewebtemplates.
com, templatemonster.
com and Smashing Magazine.
Free Graphic Design Tools A picture paints a thousand words so I recommend using images to help make a page stickier.
You do not have to be an expert at graphic designing to put up effective imagery on your site, you just need a good eye.
If you have a bike store, an effective image could just be a photo of a rider putting a bike through its paces with product details at the bottom with an image an text link to the product page.
Remember, every single element on a website, especially for an online store, must contribute towards the ultimate purpose of the site itself.
For an online store, that purpose is sales.
Nothing on the site should be there for aesthetics only.
There are a few free tools to help you manipulate images that are easily available online.
Gimp is a popular free graphic design application that I use to arrange images I use for content sliders.
I use Pixlr for photo editing.
If you are familiar working with Photoshop, then you would be comfortable working with Pixlr.
They are very similar.
Alternatives include Picnik, Fotoflexer and Aviary.
For quick image resizing, I would recommend using Irfanview.
For screen capture, MWsnap is a superb tool.
Free Video Editing Tools Videos are great to help you indirectly promote products or services.
If you have a shoe store, you can put up a video teaching people different methods of tying shoe laces.
These videos need not be of high quality.
Some of them need not even contain audio.
But they must be informative and therefore useful.
Make sure to keep videos as short as possible, preferably less than 3 minutes.
You can have longer videos but ensure that its under 10 minutes or you would not be able to upload it to YouTube.
Always state the duration of the video and topics the video will touch on at the beginning of the video so that viewers know what to expect if the video is going to take a bit of their time.
You do not have to look far to find free video editing software.
Both Macs and PCs come preloaded with such software in the form of Apple iMovie and Microsoft Movie Maker respectively.
They are very easy to use and I learned to use them after just 10 minutes of fooling around.
If you are looking to make tutorials or presentations, try Wink.
You can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons and titles.
Wink is also easy to use and I find myself using it a lot to create tutorials.
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