As in most of the world, Australia is switching over to allow people to register the shorter .au domain for their website. This will replace the existing websites from .com.au or .net.au to .au.

In most people's view, people are looking for speed of use, so the AU will become the dominant domain as it has overseas. If you have an Australian website for your business, you must reserve your website with the shorter domain AU. If not, it soon becomes available to the general public. The consequences of not registering your existing business name by the deadline could be catastrophic for your online business. A rival could take your online site name. From personal experience, I can tell you that unscrupulous people with little morals will steal your business name if they can. What we are doing for our clients is telling them to register the shortened AU name. Then set up an automatic redirect so people going to the short website .au will direct to the current longer one. This is no long-term solution. It will hurt your SEO doing this. Your site needs to be converted to AU.

I know it's a short deadline, but what can we do? I have asked, and NO extension would be available to give us time.

Act now. It is happening in September.

This study of small businesses (1 to 20 people) in Australia, I recommend you look through. What it states is today about 41% of small businesses in Australia have a website which is a significant increase on a few years ago.

Of those that do have a website

- 65% say a website would make their business look more credible and professional

People looking to buy today, expect you to have your own websites. Not having one raises questions in customers' eye. 

I would say that the vast majority of businesses that I go to both large and small, I have for one reason or another researched it on the net first. I doubt that I am unusual here. If I cannot find it, I move onto to another business.

According to the 2018 Telstra Small Business Intelligence Report, 62% of customers will stop considering a small business if they can’t find information about it online.

- 56% know that having a website means that their business can be found on Google

Today almost everyone uses the net to get information on even local businesses that they know. For example, I used it just yesterday to get opening hours of a pizza parlour, I like.

Many use it for directions.  Consider this over half the people in Australia use a trip computer in the car to go to work every day. This is a spot, I am sure they know intimately well how to get there yet they use google.

- 59% say a website can provide a good way of receiving customer enquiries

Cheaper than a telephone call and easier for many to use. The Telstra Small business report states 28% of Australians do this.

Once you have the email address, you have another way to reach your potential customer.

- 58% say it opens up new business opportunities.

A website is like a billboard that introduces people to your products and services. I know that even shops, I know well, I find on their website points I did not know.

For example, the pizza parlour I looked up above, I saw that it runs birthday parties for kids. I am a parent and am looking for a venue for my daughters 9th birthday and I am thinking maybe have it in this pizza parlour? This is a supervised party which gives the kids a quick class on making pizzas, then lets the kids make their own pizza, they bake the kids pizza, they make a contest of it and then the kids eat their own pizzas.

- 61% believe that it has contributed as much as 25% growth to their business.

Add up the above and 25% sounds reasonable but actually I think its too low, in our market space those with websites are doing about 4% (which is the industry benchmark) of their trade online. For many that would be much higher than 25% of their growth.  

How much does it cost, how much to budget?

I would say if you are thinking of going online.

FREE: If you are looking to test the waters, I would say go on Facebook and set up your company there. It costs you nothing. It will not get you on google but it is something. I think every one of my clients now should have this. 

Some cheap website offers are available but in my experience, they look cheap and they often come with limitations and advertising. You have say a pizza parlour, do you want ads for Dominos pizzas to appear on your site to your customers while they are putting in orders? 

Basic website: For something reasonable to start your company off, if you know what you want and are well organised I would say $2,000 to $3,000 could get you something reasonable. A good idea here is to look at what others have, find something you like and ask for something like that. What you do not want to do, is request change after change because that is where the charges really take off.

Online shop: To get you a full online shop about $5,000 would be a reasonable starting point. Again much depends on how well organised you are. 

A year ago here I spoke of the growing market of the "Buy now, pay later" market of which the two big players are Afterpay and Zip.  Well a year later, it is clear that the growth of these payment methods has increased.

Afterpay has replaced in google trend Paypal.

Afterpay tripled last year, while zip doubled which is pretty impressive. Now about 10% of Australia has used their services. Part of the appeal is that many that cannot get a credit card can get these cards.

Those of my clients that are using it report that a zip customer is a good customer, on an average they spend about $150 a transaction.

If you want to know more let me know.

Rather than discount the old worthless products completely just to get rid of it, try to sell it on eBay. We do it too, for example, with aged scanners and computers that are brand new but no longer sellable also for products that we do not want to handle any more. So I am pretty experienced with eBay.

If you are thinking of doing it, here are some tips to get your selling price.

You have to know your costs exactly, shipping, packaging, transaction fees, etc. once you have done that you can set a floor price.

eBay I have noticed is not always about the lowest price. Some other points like having days for them to get the products, local pickup, freight charges, free extras and just in general how you look to the client plays a part.

Currently, check who are the main sellers for the product. You should just by looking at eBay see how hot the product is and see what price most people are selling the product. Furthermore, check what is the lowest price, I would say try to set your price at what most people look like they are selling it for now. However, if you cannot match it all is not lost as in my experience, and you have about 20% prices range on eBay. So if say the price is about $10, you can still be in the market at $12, if however, your floor price was $13, I would say you are not competitive now and you either need to drop your price, wait another two weeks and check again because prices change all the time on eBay or forget eBay for that product.

One strategy that works well, is to try to make your product unique, which makes it harder for a person looking to compare pricing. The disadvantage is that people are very wary of products without looking at them, and if you are unique, it makes it hard for them to check whether it works for them, so they move on.

Moreover, eBay is not just about price; a few bad reviews will kill you as a seller. If you get too many bad reviews, close your account and make a new account. Try not to close too many accounts as big sellers get more business because they have trust. The more you sell the more people trust you.

We do offer a complete eBay integration in our point of sale software.

I hope this all helps and let me know how it goes for you.

The very first step in going online is making a name and the problem is that with more and more Australian businesses going online, it can be hard to find a suitable name. When setting up a website for a client, I have noticed that getting the right name takes a lot of time.

If you want some ideas, then write down your company name and your main products, then look up a thesaurus and try to get a few more ideas.

Now if you see yourself as a local business, I would suggest that you consider adding the main suburbs near you because that is what people will search on, e.g. if I am looking for a chemist in Blackland, I might search "Blackland chemist". Try to avoid street names if you can they do not help online. If there is a prominent site nearby you may be able to connect to that item. While if you see yourself as a national business, then you will be looking to connect your domain name to your major product and/or service.

The idea is that you are trying to make a name that people will find in a search. So it is worth doing some research as a good name will increase your credibility and improve your rankings in Google.

Then here is a website that can help you look for ideas.

https://hostingfacts.com/15-best-domain-name-generators/

Put your ideas in and try to find a name you like. Now write down say the top ten ideas and talk it over with a few people.

If you see yourself as a local business, I would suggest that you consider adding the suburb to your name because that is what people will search on, e.g. if I am looking for a chemist in Blackland, I might search "Blackland chemist". Try to avoid street names if you can they do not help online. If there is a prominent site nearby you may be able to connect to that item.

While if you see yourself as a national business, then you will be looking to connect your domain name to your major product and/or service.

The idea is that you are trying to make a name that people will find in a search. So it is worth doing some research as a good name will increase your credibility and improve your rankings in Google.

Now get a list of possibilities and now see whether you can get it. The site I use to get it is

https://ventraip.com.au/domain-names/register/