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For this application, I have chosen to employ the Publication Manual of writing style presented by the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA’s Publication Manual presents explicit style requirements while acknowledging that alternatives are sometimes necessary. Indeed, authors should balance the rules of the Publication manual with good judgment. Because the written language of psychology changes more slowly than psychology itself, the Publication Manual does not offer solutions for all stylistic problems. In that sense, it is a transitional document: Its style requirements are based on the existing scientific literature rather than imposed on the literature.

Every edition of the Publication Manual has been intended to aid authors in the preparation of manuscripts. The 1929 guide could gently advise authors on style, because there were then only about 200 authors who published in the 4 existing APA journals (American Psychological Association, 2001). Today, the editors of APA’s 27 primary journals consider close to 6,000 manuscript submissions per year (of which approximately 1,400 reach print) (American Psychological Association, 2001). Without APA style conventions, the time and effort required to review and edit manuscripts would prohibit timely and cost-effective publication and would make clear communication harder to achieve. This standardization has greatly facilitated the communication of new ideas and research and simplified the tasks of publishers, editors, authors, and readers as well as enabled linkages of electronic files across articles and across publishers. For that reason, I have chosen to use it for this application.

Baila que baila! Viva la salsa! Don Juan Productions is proud to present a fictional company in the Latin video rental and salsa music retail industry. Although DJP is a fictional company, its size, strategies, and business problems (and opportunities) are comparable to those of real businesses in this fast-growing industry. Throughout this paper, I will use DJP to provide me with the necessary foundation upon which I will describe how to create an e-commerce website. More specifically, I will describe how DJP would benefit from the advent of advertising and selling online, and how the small company could go about achieving that objective.

DJP is currently one of the most successful Latin dance and video promoters in Los Angeles, California. The owner, Don Juan, has an eye for detail and a business savvy that would rival any successful corporate competitor. Over a ten-year period, Mr. Juan has established himself as one of the most recognized and decorated instructors in the industry. His reputation precedes him; with the showcasing some of the most successful Latin dance shows, street, and club parties in Los Angeles history.

Establishing a name for himself, Mr. Juan began by selling many things to include T-shirts, music, videos, and even promoting a line of dance shoes! With the advent of his eye-catching Internet site, Mr. Juan has been able to increase sales tremendously. Each day, his Internet site receives thousands of hits! His customers love attending the events and the convenience of purchasing DJP’s low priced great Latin dance videos and music. His customers do, however, have one rather large request. They would like to have the ability to purchase all of his items from the comfort of their homes. Mr. Juan’s customers have insisted that he could increase sales if he advertises and sets up an interactive website that would allow customers to purchase goods through the Internet. After doing some research and reviewing his budget for the next fiscal year, Mr. Juan decided that DJP could, and should, invest in a website that would do just that! The website will sell his videos, music, T-shirts, etc., and would also promote all of his upcoming events.

Research has concluded that it takes less than one second to make a first impression. Why not make that first impression one that DJP customers cannot forget? When the customers do not have the luxury or time to enter Mr. Juan’s store, the only interface they will have between themselves and the products is the Webpage! What the customers see on their computer monitors forms the basis on how they will judge DJP’s professionalism, integrity, quality, and service.

There are two primary factors to consider in WWW page design: how the page will look, and how the user will interact with it. As such, WWW pages consist of elements defined in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) that is used to create Web pages. These elements include (Hofstetter, 2003):

· Headings	· Bookmarks
· Paragraphs	· Links
· Horizontal Rules	· Special Characters
· Lists	· Tables
· Images	· Frames
· Backgrounds

As you can see, Web pages consist of several design elements. The relationship between these elements on the customer’s monitor is called layout. When Mr. Juan creates his Web page, he should consider its layout so the movies and music are presented with good balance. Dividing the two genres into screen regions is an effective and easy way to communicate his products to the customer. Furthermore, elements such as font, text size, foreground versus background color, and navigation icons should be considered. Ease of use and consistency will draw customers deeper into the Web page and encourage them to continue shopping. A Web page that is difficult to navigate or read with a clear understanding will disappoint customers resulting in low sales and a negative reputation. It is important for Mr. Juan to consider that the Web site is an extension of his already productive DJP venture. How he presents himself on the WWW is how customers that never have a chance to visit his store or events will view him. It is crucial that Mr. Juan design a Web page that is aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand.

Publishing files on the World Wide Web (WWW) is the catalyst Mr. Juan needs to shift sales of his products into high gear. If you are reading this paper online, then you are undoubtedly familiar with the power of the Internet and the vast audience it reaches. Advertising and selling online has presented many businesses with an endless stream of customer interfaces. Think about it, if a business advertises on the WWW everyone in the world with Internet access can view and purchase those advertised goods! In our next section, site hosting, I will explain how Mr. Juan could go about gaining server space to achieve that very end.

To publish a file on the WWW means to transfer the file into a folder on a Web server so that other people around the world can access the file with a Web browser. Unless Mr. Juan decides that he wants his computer to be a Web server, he will need a way to transfer his files to the Web. As such, there are two places where Mr. Juan can get file space on the Web. First, his ISP account probably includes a certain allotment of Web space. When Mr. Juan logs into his ISP, he should inquire into how much space is allotted and what the cost would be if he wanted to purchase more. Second, there are sites on the Web where he can get free Web space in return for registering his name at the sites, or pay an independent company who maintains servers for the purpose of having customers purchase space on them. The free Web space sites give customers free Web space to keep them coming back to their sites. On the sites, however, there is commercial advertising that pays for the free space so it is analogous to a space sharing relationship – the customer and the advertisement companies.

Popular Web hosting services include Yahoo! GeoCities, Angelfire, and Tripod (Hofstetter, 2003). Each of these Web hosting services offers their own upload utility for customers to use in publishing files into their Web space. However, I suggest that Mr. Juan employ the use of a more robust publishing tool such as Microsoft FrontPage or Netscape Composer. These more sophisticated publishing tools will allow Mr. Juan the freedom of creating a Webpage in his image. Typically, free Web upload utilities are very limited in scope and offer only a few “bells and whistles” causing the customers site to appear cryptic and unanimated.

After Mr. Juan publishes his new Web site, he is going to have to let other people know about it! The most effective way for Mr. Juan to advertise DJP’s new Web site is to hang banners during his Latin dance events and performances with DSP’s logo and Web site. Additionally, Mr. Juan could request radio spots for interviews and ensure that he mentions his store, future events, and of course, his Web site. Adding DSP’s home page URL to the signature file of his e-mail software is a quick way for Mr. Juan to let everyone whom he sends email to of his new Web site as well.

To advertise on the WWW, Mr. Juan should submit his Web site to search engines so Web crawlers will index it. Popular search engines Mr. Juan should consider include Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Lycos, and bCentral Traffic Builder.

Selling products online requires personnel to track, bill, and ship each sale. This is considered the flow of products from the business to the consumer. How is all of this done? What initiates the sale so the flow of products may begin? All to often, we realize that emotion drives sales. For example, how many times have you purchased something because it made you feel good about yourself or thought it would make others like you? Or how hard is it for you to walk past a pet store and not take home a puppy or kitten because they are so cute? Emotions cause all of us to purchase many things. Emotions are hardwired into many facets of our conscious and subconscious mind that help us make decisions about everything we do. What Mr. Juan needs here is to advertise to a hungry market. Including things such as free music downloads, free movie clips, chat rooms, sweepstakes, etc. can entice his customers to begin shopping and continue shopping because they are emotionally charged about his products and events!

Once this is accomplished, Mr. Juan’s employees can begin to pack and ship all of the goods customers are purchasing. This aspect of Mr. Juan’s business can take two paths. Either Mr. Juan can have the customers’ purchase the products direct from the manufacture or Mr. Juan can choose to ship direct from his warehouse. Mr. Juan can also choose to levy both to hold sales and increase revenue. Purchasing direct from the manufacture is a buyers dream. The products are brand new and the prices are typically cheaper. Customers are not forced to pay for the middleman when they purchase from the manufacturer. With this in mind, Mr. Juan can hold sales where he is allowing the customers to have information that would enable them to purchase from the manufacture. In this way, Mr. Juan is fostering the relationship he has with his customer and the manufacturer of his products. It is similar to getting free advertising and great sales all in one!

Processing the customer’s payments is an important part of any e-commerce Web site. Fortunately, e-commerce has become much easier in recent years, as Web site operators have gained ready access to online check and credit card payment processing services. Sites that can accept credit cards online attract much higher levels of business. Credit cards must be processed through a merchant who has a “merchant account.” While these are fairly easy to obtain in the United States, they are usually offered for a fee or by companies that charge a monthly fee to process transactions, on top of a per transaction fee.

For online payment processing, I would like to highlight PayPal as one of the pioneers of Internet credit card processing without a merchant account. There are no setup fees and the basic transaction costs are very low. PayPal represents a very easy way to facilitate payment and it has a wide international program. You can even set up individual buttons and sell specific items from your Web site. I think PayPal is effective because international merchants are welcome and multiple currencies are supported.

When starting out, DJP should consider the use of an online payment-processing program. Then, as sales increase and the Web site becomes more popular, Mr. Juan should apply for a merchant account so that he can cut out the middle man (PayPal) and mitigate the fees he would be paying for each transaction. By no means does Mr. Juan have to use PayPal to begin. There are numerous other online-payment processing agencies and ways to apply for merchant accounts than is outlined in the above paragraphs. What I have simply done here is to explain how he would go about setting one up and which types he should consider when doing so.

It costs five times more to acquire a customer than to keep one. Although Mr. Juan is also in the business of promoting Latin events, he must still entice customers to attend. Similarly, he must entice customers to visit his Web site and store. Then, once he has the customers, how does he keep them? The best way to ensure customers return is by providing phenomenal customer service! Taking a proactive approach to online customer support through live and automated contact, Mr. Juan will lock in his international customers and keep the national consumer base continually visiting and purchasing goods.

Since Mr. Juan’s business does not have the employee base to support a 24x7 operation, I suggest that he employ an e-commerce online support company to provide his customer service needs for him. After conducting research, I have concluded that DM Support Inc. would provide Mr. Juan exactly what he needs. To begin, Mr. Juan would apply for support and then DM would send out a representative to learn about Mr. Juan’s company. Once this has been established, Mr. Juan would trust that his online customer service needs have been met and would pay a monthly or yearly fee for this service.

An aspect DJP should not take lightly is Web site security. To protect networks against unauthorized access by users seeking information to which they are not entitled, several steps can be taken. Security measures Mr. Juan can use include passwords and encryption.

Passwords are the simplest form of protection. A password is an alphanumeric string of characters the user must type in order to gain access (Hofstetter, 2003). Unless the user knows the password, access to the data is denied. When applied to DJP, Mr. Juan should ensure that he has created the Web site with password protected administrator rights. If Mr. Juan doesn’t password protect his administrator rights, a hacker could easily intercept his site, change/gather proprietary information, and republish his site. Even worse, a hacker could simply delete his site. This action would hit Mr. Juan’s revenues hard.

As we know, anywhere along the way from one PC to the server, it is possible that a cracker can hack into the transmission and read valuable data. To protect against this, you can encrypt your messages. This is especially helpful when online transactions are made on Mr. Juan’s Web site. Both Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer contain built-in encryption capability. Unless the hacker’s sniffer knows the encryption key, customers can rest assured that their transmitted purchasing data remains private.

The best way to have your site evaluated is to solicit the opinions of a third party. Companies may be hired to perform site evaluations, however, I feel that in Mr. Juan’s position, he is affiliated with enough people that he can gain constructive criticism without having to employ an agency to do it for him. In addition, if Mr. Juan hires an agency to develop his Web site, they will either employ someone to evaluate it for them or have their own team evaluate it. Either way, Mr. Juan should rest assured that his Web site will catch plenty of criticism. Everyone has an opinion!

There are many rules and regulations that govern the use of the Internet. With the advent of home servers, routers, etc., it is becoming increasingly difficult to enforce those rules and regulations. Probably the largest infringement of these rules and regulations comes from copyright laws. Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries” (Hofstetter, 2003, p. 334.). Although Web pages, like any other form of writing, are considered to be copyrighted by default, in order to be fully protected, Mr. Juan should register a copyright for his Web pages. In addition, since Mr. Juan is selling music artist’s CDs and cassettes, he should first ask permission to use artist’s photographs and music sound files on his site. In this manner, he mitigates the risk of being taken to court for copyright infringement. Mr. Juan’s DJP has a lot to loose! DJP has a catchy banner and logo. As soon as he places it on the Internet, anyone can copy and paste it into numerous documents for their financial gain. For this reason, Mr. Juan should register all DJP material he posts on the WWW.

American Psychiatric Association (2001). Publication manual of the american psychological association (5^th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Hofstetter, Fred T., (2003). Internet Literacy (3^rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.