After posting an 'ad' on Facebook about my website designing services, I received two requests from my very good friends who would like to promote their small businesses.
Senton from SENTONArt, who sells his beautiful inspiring paintings and artwork in Port Moresby. Senton is very talented and his work is full of magic. I've known Senton from Brandi Secondary School back in Wewak, East Sepik Province and I've seen him grow from scribbling in our books in class into this amazing artist that inspires me to keep my artistic spirit alive.
He has a product and I have a method that can boost sales. Why not collaborate? Well, he has done this before on Facebook and a few art selling websites. Facebook has a marketing feature but I am not convinced many users are familiar with navigating around it. I know that a website would give a clean platform for his business locally and internationally.
I wanted a website where both of us could manage. I can do the technical bits, and he can do the sale and marketing. The challenge to sell things online locally when we don't have a clear path to make and receive payments online or ship products from one township to another.
I've heard from friends who tried to ship products locally who found out the hard way that not all their products get delivered to their customers on time or in one piece. A friend's box of products was opened and some complimentary items got stolen before they reached the customer. This gives a bad vibe to shipping items locally.
My plan is to help advertise online but try to sell within the township. But for an art business, most of the customers are from overseas and tourists. If we can tap into that market, his business could flourish in no time. It's just a matter of dedication and not giving up soon. My next article will talk about the options we can look at for local businesses.
After brief research, I've settled for today is Weebly, a free website builder that allows users to create online stores within minutes. It can connect you to payment gateways and shipping services. But for us in PNG, there are some roadblocks.
Payment Services - Stripe is available for free but not available in Papua New Guinea. To use PayPal, you will have to upgrade to a paid plan to use its services.
Shipping Services - Enter your address and allow customers to purchase in person or upgrade to a paid plan to use shipping services.d
Although it has its setbacks, you can add products on the go. It does not take more than two minutes to upload a picture, add a description and save and refresh the page! Unlike other similar sites, it takes longer when you have to specify where to save the image file, rename and takes ages to upload.
It has a very user-friendly interface and a simple navigation pane on the left that allows you to edit sections on your website. It also has SEO settings that help you to customize what your website will show on Search Engines and on Social Media platforms.
I would recommend Weebly to anyone new who is thinking of trying out online marketing!
Please visit Home | SENTONArt (weeblysite.com) and let me know if you want a similar site.
I also did a promotional video of his latest work using MSO PowerPoint to add to the site. If you have read a few of my blogs, you'll learn that I use PowerPoint a lot!
Thanks for stopping by :)
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