Weekly Reflection MKT 250

I think this week was the most enjoyable because I managed to understand the topics covered and the complemental material was great. One of the things learned this week was the importance of design, layout, and colors. I had to research some websites that offer the same or similar service I´m planning to provide. It was a good exercise to look at those websites because I got an idea about what I should include in my website and what I should I do not do. I found some websites with grammatical errors or bad design that did not attract me to stay on it. I will be creating my website this week, and I have a better idea of what it should look like. In addition, I learned about the Paypal button. I created one, but I do not know if this will work on my site until I add it. I´m enjoying this class and hope to apply what I learned this week while creating my site.

During this week I had to research to understand more about web builder and host. During the first days, I was learning about site builders, so I decided to watch some videos and read reviews to find the best one.  I came up with three possible options and the criteria to be ranked. I considered using Weebly, Wix, and WordPress. This last option was eliminated by me because though it was difficult to understand the concepts in comparison with using software that could make almost everything for the website. That perception changed when watched the video listed in the course material about WordPress. The process will be a little bit longer, but I found there are many advantages like a cheaper price and personalized design.  I will have to rethink my decision about choosing Wix after making this new analysis. I know the website builder and host are vital to have a solid website, so in the following days, I will start paying for these services to get experience.

I used to buy necklaces, bracelets, nails products and decorative papers on AliExpress. It never came to my mind to sell those items and did not know this practice was called drop shipping. I´m really interested in this business method and found very helpful the method of quantifying and comparing the alternatives to know what would be the best option based on the criteria chosen. This comparison will help me in the process of choosing the business method to use this semester and in future decisions regarding my business or even personal decisions. I also learned about affiliate marketing and drop shipping. I am more interested in the second method because I have some experience buying online products. I may start a jewelry business since I love those items and choose AliExpress as my manufacture. To advertise the business, I may use the website and some other resources. I will apply those concepts and insights in the following weeks.

This week was the first case discussion and was really helpful because I understood the real meaning of an online business. Before this week, I thought that it was only needed to decide what product or service to offer and design a web page to offer it. During these days, I learned that there are specific business models to be applied on the web. I always see ads on websites but never thought that would be also a part of a business model. Another learning was how to use a tool of Google Adword. The Keyword Planner helps us to know the online competition of an industry and the number of clicks and search over a period. That information is useful to decide the product to sell and the business model we will apply. In the upcoming weeks I will apply these learning to decide which business I will start this semester .