Friday, April 27, 2007

Ecommerce Beginnings - XVI

Welcome to this weeks' Ecommerce Beginnings article.

As I mentioned last week the wholesale products database is still under construction, but I have been promised that it will be completed within a few days. That should allow me to input all of the information that I need to into it. The next step will be to go live with the revamped sites. I can't wait to do this!

In the meantime I focused on the creation of my ebook this past week. I am proud to say that it is complete and ready to be published. It ended up being what I would call more of a guide than a book. It is 32 pages in length and provides information on the following:
  • A Real Business with Real Business Requirements
  • Finding Products to Sell for Your Niche Business
  • New England Wholesale Product Shows
  • New England Fairs
  • Creative Product Sourcing
  • Appendix of Helpful Business Links

Once I completed this my next step was to convert this to PDF format so that it could not be altered. An additional requirement was to make sure that all of the hyperlinks contained in the book would be clickable. This is where I ran into some problems. Long story short, if you don't own Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.0, ($499) which is more than adequate for this task, there are much less expensive alternatives available.

After doing some research I found out that Adobe has an online service that they charge for, $9.99/month or $99/year that will allow you to convert your word documents into PDF format, and will make it so that your hyperlinks are clickable in your new PDF formatted document. It is a personal decision, based on cost and need. If you think you will need this service full time on a continuous basis then maybe you should buy the full Adobe program. If you only need to use this service occasionally then I think the online option is much more economical. This is the route I chose and it works like a charm. You upload your file, it is converted and a link is sent to your email notifying you that it is complete. Next you click on the link to open the file. If it is ok then you can save it to your desktop, folder, etc. The link to access this is: http://createpdf.adobe.com/

PS You will at least need to have Adobe Reader if you use the online method. Adobe Reader is a free download. Click on this link to access the free download: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

That's all for this week!

As always, I wish you the best in your success!We hope you found this weeks' article helpful. Make sure you stop back each week for our latest installment. Take care and have a great week!Mark@original-new-england-enterprises.com

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