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Courtesy of Lorian: From a technical standpoint, becoming an online entrepreneur is pretty easy these days. Low-cost and user-friendly tools such as Store Manager make it easy to list your products on the Web, provide customers with a shopping cart, handle sales transactions, and manage other details.

But I think online store owners understand that running an e-commerce operation takes more than friendly and affordable technology. Setting up your store is just the start. Succeeding in an online business requires doing a number of other things well. Or conversely, avoiding some common mistakes.

In that spirit, I offer my top 10 blunders every online entrepreneur should avoid (in no particular order).

1. Selling too many products. If you sell funny hats online, don’t add MP3 players to your product lineup just because you purchased a wholesale lot. It will muddle your business focus and confuse your customers.

2. Doing no marketing. The “If-I-build-it-they-will-come” thinking just doesn’t work. You need to promote your online store. For starters, investigate online marketing tools such adManager keyword advertising and E-Mail Marketing.

3. Poor product display. Try not to bunch too much information or too many products on your pages. Messy, cluttered pages look unprofessional. Simple goes a long way.

4. Using fuzzy photos. No photos are better than bad photos. Make sure your product shots are sharp and clear. Get creative with your digital camera or hire a professional photographer. If you just need photos for illustrative purposes, you can get them pretty cheap from online stock photography services for as little as a buck a piece.

5. Failing to refresh your site periodically. Shoppers will lose interest in your site if you don’t add new items or at least change around the ones you feature. Also, mix it up by featuring special promotions. Give them reasons to come back.

6. Showing out-of-stock items. If one of your products is no longer available, even temporarily, remove it from your site or note it on your site that it is currently not available. You don’t want to tease customers or look like you can’t manage your inventory.

7. Making it hard to ask questions. You probably have a Contact Us page. But don’t make people search through your site to ask product questions. Have a customer service phone number or e-mail address conveniently displayed on product pages.

8. Hiding shipping fees and return policies. Online shoppers want to know delivery charges and return policies before they commit to a purchase. If you make these fees and policies hard to find, they’ll head off to another store.

9. Downplaying security and privacy. Not only is it important that you use a secure payment service, it’s important that you draw attention to it on your site. Likewise, you should provide a prominent link to your privacy policy to assure customers that their personal information isn’t shared. Learn more about how to do this.

10. Selling the wrong product. Not everything sells well on the Web. Inexpensive items that you can easily snag in most local stores are particularly a bad idea — especially when you add on the shipping costs.

If you’re eager for more tips, check out the article “5 holiday marketing mistakes to avoid.” With the big shopping season nearly upon us, it offers some timely advice for folks selling online.