Social Network + Article + PR = Long Term Online Business
Glen Barnhardt
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Posts by Glen Barnhardt
How Healthy Is Your Web Site
Jan 24th
Don’t wait for the holidays to keep track of your sales. When having an e-commerce Web site it is crucial to pay attention to the possible e-store problems. Most apply to the entire year but some need to be tweaked around the holidays because monster holiday sales makes them more likely to pop up. We will start with credit-card processing.
Tip No. 1: Knowing the limits of your credit processing. Getting more business than you anticipated with a limit on the volume of credit-card transactions that are too low relates to customers’ cards being refused. First be sure your system is prepared for the increase of business during the holidays. Make the changes you want during the season but they should emphasize the functional aspect of your site, But decorations should not be ignored; a festive look will encourage shoppers to purchase your products. When people open a page, they are downloading all the files that make up that page.
Next, don’t be dependent on automation as this can have problems. Computer programs do have their problems and you want to know as soon as you have a problem. You do not want to lose sales due to a glitch that you miss. You don’t want customers that are trying to check to receive a message “We’re sorry. We cannot process your card at this time.” or stating the customers’ cards are invalid or out of credit. So, double check often.
Tip No. 2: Watch the home front. Your credit-card and fulfillment contractors can get stressed during the holiday season. If you have increased business during this time it can stress your computer systems and network. You haven’t had any problems but don’t assume everything is OK. Computer problems appear at the worst times. That goes for both hardware and software. Having someone available who can fix problems quickly will help your online sales. If you can put them under contract or having programs to double check your systems will decrease the likely hood of lost sales. That ensures that failures are taken care of promptly.
When having a poor set-up it will indicate that you are not paying enough attention to your online INCOME. Which means you are not going to make the money you are capable of. The promotion of your web site and the systems that help you run your site is the key to your online work. So of course you need to keep track of everything you do with your site and how your site interacts with your potential customers. Also large files could significantly slow the download and because of this it may frustrate the customer.
Tip No. 3: Not monitoring your site. This goes without saying if your site doesn’t work your customers could conclude that you’re incompetent. A below par operating system will drive people away from your web site. What people are doing at your site and input from your potential clients may show you that your site is poorly designed. Some glitches have an easy fix. You can fix those on the fly during the season but hopefully you have them fixed before. More serious problems would require some site reconfiguration, obviously.
There are a few site reporting programs out there that can tell you about how your site is working internally. And also showing the traffic patterns of your visitors, this will give you an idea of what most interests your customers. And it will tell you where your traffic is originating. Also a link checker will only tell you that the links work. Recheck your site for dead links. If you don’t keep up with them frustrated customers may just go to a competitor and may lose you several hundred dollars over time. Things on your site will get moved around, and to forgetting a link that no longer works happens. Keep in mind that making sure everything is current and your descriptions of products and “Terms and Conditions” are not out of date is another key to keeping your site working properly.
So, I will just wish you all the best of luck with your online sales and I hope that these few tips will help you with your web site and your online income.
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Using Keywords For Your Affiliate Works
Dec 27th
Using ambiguous keywords for affiliate work on the internet is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though treat with common sense, and occasional exceptions will apply. When an article title refers to several things, it is necessary to provide links so that readers typing in that title can quickly navigate to the article that interests them. Resolving conflicts in article titles that occur when a single term can be associated with more than one topic, the term should be a natural title if more than one article or product is being promoted. In other words, distinct paths leading to different articles which could, in principle, have the same title. Example, the word “Mustang” can refer to several different things, including a horse, a plane, or an automobile. Since only one page can have the generic name “Mustang”. There must then be a way to direct the reader to the correct specific article when an ambiguous term is referenced by linking, browsing or searching; this is what is known as unambiguous keywords. In this case it is achieved using Mustang.
Two methods of using ambiguous keywords are:
* ambiguous links: links at the top of an article (hatnotes), that refer the reader to other articles with similar titles or concepts. * ambiguous pages: non-article pages that refer readers to other articles.
Disambiguation is required for a given word or phrase on which a reader might use the “Go button”, there is more than one article to which that word or phrase might be expected to lead. In this situation there must be a way for the reader to navigate quickly from the page that appears on hitting “Go” to any of the other possible desired articles.
There are three principal scenarios:
* The page at Mustang is a unambiguous page, leading to all the alternative uses of “Mustang”. * The page at Rice is about one usage, called the primary topic, and there is a hatnote guiding readers to Rice to find the other uses. * The page at Tiger Woods’ is about the primary topic, and there is only one other use. The other use is linked directly using a hat note.
When there is a well-known primary topic for an ambiguous term, name or phrase, much more used than any other topic covered to which the same word(s) may also refer, then that term or phrase should either be used for the title of the article on that topic or redirect to that article. If the primary topic for a term is titled something else by the naming conventions, then a redirect for the term is used. Any article which has primary usage for its title and has other uses should have a unambiguous link at the top, and the ambiguous page should link back to the primary topic. Similarly, any article which has primary usage for a name that redirects to it and has other uses should have a “such-and-such redirects here” link at the top, and the ambiguous page for that name should link back to the primary topic.
Now there is an extended discussion about which article is the primary topic, that may be a sign that there is in fact no main topic, and that the page should be located at the plain title with no “(disambiguation)”.
You will have some primary topics are redirected to a different article. An example, the primary topic for “Danzig” is the former German city of that name, but that city’s article is titled Gdansk. There also is Danzig a music group name that started in 1987 in Lori, New Jersey. As you see keyword specifics are very important in bringing the traffic to your page, product, or article. If there are three or more topics associated with the same term, then a page should normally be created for that term (in which case disambiguation links may or may not be desirable on the specific topic articles – see below). If only a primary topic and one other topic require disambiguation, then disambiguation links are sufficient, and a disambiguation page is unnecessary. However if there are two topics for a term but neither is considered the primary topic, then a disambiguation page is used.
For disambiguating specific topic pages by using an unambiguous article title, several options are available:
1. When there is another term (such as Billiards instead of Pool) or more complete name (such as Saturn cars instead of Saturn)that is equally clear and unambiguous, that should be used. 2. A unambiguous word or phrase can be added in parentheses. The word or phrase in parentheses should be: * the generic class (avoid proper nouns, as much as possible) that includes the topic, as in Mustang (Ford automotive), Seal (mammal); or * the subject or context to which the topic applies, as in Union (set theory), Inflation (economics). 3. Rarely, an adjective describing the topic can be used, but it is usually better to rephrase such a title to avoid parentheses. 4. With place-names, if the term is a higher-level administrative division, it is often separated using a comma instead of parentheses, as in Newark, New Jersey (geographic names).
When there are several possible choices for a class or context, use the same phrase already commonly used for other topics within the same class and context, if any. Otherwise, choose the simplest. For example, use “(mythology)” rather than “(mythological figure)”. If there is a choice between using a short phrase and word with context, such as Mathematical analysis and Analysis (mathematics), there is no hard rule about which is preferred. Both may be created, with one redirecting to the other. The phrase in parentheses should be treated just as any other word in a title: normally lowercase, unless it is a proper noun (like a book title) that would appear capitalized even in running text.
Searching for what turns out to be an ambiguous term may not reach the article they expected. Therefore any article with an ambiguous title should contain helpful links to alternative articles or pages, placed at the top of the article. A single ambiguous page may be used to disambiguate a number of similar terms. Editorial judgment should be used in deciding whether to combine terms in the ways described above. If a combined disambiguation page would be inconveniently long, it may be better to split the different spellings into separate pages.
When a combined page is used, redirects to it should be set up from all the terms involved. The title of a page is the ambiguous term itself, provided there is no primary topic for that term. When a page combines several similar terms, one of them must be selected as the title for the page with the tag added if a primary topic exists for that term; the choice should be made in line with the following principles:
* A word is preferred to an abbreviation, for example Arm (disambiguation) over ARM. * When no word can be formed all capitals is preferred. For example, the disambiguation page for “ddb” is DDB not “Ddb”. * English spelling is preferred to that of non-English languages. * Singulars are preferred to plurals. * The simplest form of the term is preferred to those containing punctuation, diacritics and articles; for example SA is preferred to S.A., and Shadow (disambiguation) is preferred to The Shadow (disambiguation). * The spelling that reflects the majority of items on the page is preferred to less common alternatives.
Each page comprises a list (or multiple lists, for multiple senses of the term in question) of similarly-titled links.
* Link to the primary topic (if there is one): * Try to start each entry in the list with a link to the target page. * Each bulleted entry should, in most every case, have exactly one navigable (blue) link; including more than one link can confuse the reader. * Do not pipe the name of the links to the articles being listed. * Only include related subject articles if the term in question is actually described on the target article.
Pages are not a list of dictionary definitions. A short description of the common general meaning of a word can be appropriate for helping the reader determine context. A page is not a search index. Do not add a link that merely contains part of the page title, or a link that includes the page title in a longer proper name, where there is no significant risk of confusion. The descriptions should not be created for subjects whose only articles are on pages of sister projects, even if the page already exists.Do not include references in the pages; pages are not articles. Incorporate references into the articles as needed. Before constructing a new page, determine a specific topic name for all existing pages, and the name for the disambiguation page. Move any page with a conflicting title (i.e., the same exact title) to its more specific name. Use the What links here list for the moved page to update pages that link to that page.
If an article has been moved to make way for the page, use the link list of the moved page to access the redirect page created by the move, and replace that redirect page with the new disambiguation page. Use the new unambiguous page to find and replace any old links in existing pages with a link to the new page. A set index article is a list article about a set of items of a specific type that share the same (or similar) name. A set index article is not a unambiguous page, and need not follow the formatting rules for those pages. A set index article is meant for information as well as navigation: just like a normal list article, it can have metadata and extra information about each entry.
There will be at times a page with a set index article for the same term. Another similar type of page is the multi-stub article. This is a page containing brief, stub-like information about a number of similarly-named topics, such as saints with the same name. Like set index articles, these pages are not subject to the disambiguation style guidelines. A double is a link to a disambiguation page from another disambiguation page. This kind of disambiguation is typically more specific than one with a simplified name. This kind of disambiguation is relatively rare on Wikipedia.
If a more specific title is still ambiguous, but not enough so to call for it should redirect back to the main disambiguation page (or a section of it). This aids navigation, and helps editors to avoid creating new articles under the ambiguous title by accident.Pure ambiguous pages should contain interlanguage links only where a similar problem of disambiguation exists in the target language; that is, they should not point to a single meaning from the list of meanings, but to another disambiguation page.Before moving an article to a qualified name (in order to create a disambiguation page at the base name), click on What links here to find all of the incoming links. Repair all of those incoming links to use the new article name.
Use pipe syntax when repairing a link, so that the link does not show the new qualifier. A shorter alternative is to use empty pipe syntax, also known as the pipe trick. This allows editors to leave out the piped alternative. Ambiguous links are periodically checked and repaired, but even if some ambiguous links remain, one of the primary reasons for making a unambiguous page is so that following such links will still be useful to the reader.
There is a tool to facilitate ambiguous link repair in the Python Wikipedia Robot. The bot offers to update links to choices listed on the page. Creating links to ambiguous pages is inaccurate. Links should instead point to a relevant article. The purpose of a disambiguation page is to give a user who has typed an ambiguous term into the search box a list of articles that are likely to be what he or she is looking for. To link to a unambiguous page link to the title that includes the text, even if a redirect – Example, link to the redirect North America (disambiguation) rather than the target page at “North America”. This helps distinguish accidental links to the unambiguous page from intentional ones.
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Becoming An Internet Marketer Is Not Difficult With The Right Tools
Dec 25th
In Internet Marketing, with search advertising you use a method of placing online advertisements on web pages that show result from a persons search. Through the same search-engine advertising service ads can also be placed on web pages with other published content. Search advertisements are targeted to match your key search terms entered on search engines. Targeting this ability has contributed to the allurement of search advertising for advertisers. Consumers use a search engine to identify and compare purchasing options immediately before making a purchasing decision. The opportunity to present consumers with advertisements tailored to their immediate buying interests encourages consumers to click on search ads instead of unpaid search results, which are often less relevant. Unpaid search results are also called organic results.
It’s Yahoo that is believed to be one of if not the first to have introduced a stand-alone search advertising. In 1996 InterZine Productions asked Yahoo’s sales, seeking a more effective targeted advertising within Yahoo’s search results. Yahoo! placed targeted ad banners when the keyword “Golf” was searched by Yahoo! users. Yahoo! later turned this opportunity into a formal marketing program for its entire customer base and promoted this in a July 1996 article in the ‘Internet World’ magazine. Internet search advertising is delivered on the basis of keywords. The user of a search engine enters keywords to make queries. A keyword may consist of more than one word and can be any type of product or item the person searching is looking for.
Search engines conduct running auctions to sell ads according to bids received for keywords and relevance of user keywords to ads in the inventory. The keyword “home mortgage refinancing” is more expensive than one that is in less demand, such as “used bicycle tires.” Profit potential of the keywords also plays into bids for ads that advertisers want displayed when the keywords are searched by the user. For example, “used book” may be a popular keyword but may have low profit potential and the advertiser bids will reflect that.
The search engines build indexes of Web pages and products using a web Crawler. When the publisher of a Web page or product arranges with a search engine firm to have ads served up on that page, the search engine applies indexing technology to associate the content of that page with keywords. They are then fed into the directory system that is used by advertisers to buy ads on both search engine results pages. Advertising based on keywords in the surrounding content or context is referred to as Contextual advertising. This is usually less profitable than search advertising which is based on user intent expressed through their keywords. Advertisers can choose whether to advertise on search result pages (search advertising), published content pages (contextual advertising), or both. Bidding on the same keywords is usually higher in search advertising than in contextual advertising.
Five ways Search advertising activities can be measured:
CPM: Cost per thousand viewers was the original method used for pricing online advertisements. CPM remains the most common method for pricing banner ads.
CTR: Click-through rates measure the number an ad is clicked on linking to the Web page on which the ad appears. Banner adshave CTRs that are generally 0.5 percent or less. In comparison, individual search engine ads can have CTRs of 10 percent, even though they appear alongside organic search results and competing paid search advertisements.
CPA: Cost per action evaluates costs for completing specified activities such as attracting a new customer or making a sale. Affiliate networks operate on a CPA basis. CPA systems function most effectively when the sales cycles is short and easily tracked. Longer sales cycles rely on exposure to multiple types of ads to create brand awareness and purchasing interest before a sale is made. Longer sales cycles and sales requiring multiple customer contacts can be difficult to track, leading to a reluctance by publishers to participate in CPA programs beyond initial lead generation.
CPC: Cost per contact tracks the cost of collaborating with a client or potential client. In traditional marketing, CPC is viewed as a one-way process of reaching target audiences through means such as direct mail, radio ads and television ads. Search advertising provides opportunities for two-way contacts through web-based chat, Internet-based calls, call-back requests or mailing list signups.
TM: Total minutes is a measurement used by Nielsen/NetRatings to measure total time spent on a Web page rather than the number of Web page views. Nielsen announced that they would be relying on TM as their primary metric for measuring Web page popularity, due to changes in the way Web pages provide content through audio and video streaming and by refreshing the same page without totally reloading it. Page refreshes are one aspect of Rich Internet Applications (RIA). RIA technologies include AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and Microsoft Silverlight. Questions about the use of total minutes for search advertising include how to account for Internet users that keep several browser windows open simultaneously, or who simply leave one window open unattended for long periods of time. Another question involves tracking total minutes on HTML pages that are stateless and do therefore do not generate server-side data on the length of time that they are viewed.
The search engines use algorithms to determine the position of ads according to click through rates. Ads with poor click through rates can be pushed down to the bottom of the first page of search results or onto subsequent pages. Even though advertisers are only paying for click throughs, the algorithms assigning ad positions based on ad popularity provide incentives for optimizing keyword selection and other cost control measures. Without it, it is possible for ad buyers to spend twenty five to fifty percent of their ad budget ineffectively.
Measuring Cost control includes:
1. Slowly a campaign will begin , so test the usefullness of keywords and ad texts. It can take up to three months of testing before it will scale up. Multiple campaigns can be run alongside each other.
2. Negative keywords can be used to exclude search queries that will not bring the correct traffic. Replacement windows for buildings can use the negative keywords ’software’ or ‘programs’ to avoid appearing in response to search queries for information about Microsoft Windows software.
3. Keyword combination’s with word orders within them can have an effect on click through rates. Word order in your ads according to keywords can be controlled through the use of quotation marks. Now a seller of replacement windows, the keyword “replacement window” may have a higher click through rate than “windows replacement” or for related keyword combination’s where syntax is not specified and that could be associated with Microsoft Windows software rather than windows for buildings.
4. Broad searches mean that an ad is served up in response to any search query that contains the keyword, regardless of any other words that are used in the search. Eliminating broad search is helpful in cases where a large number of keywords or the advertiser wants to keep cost to a minimum. A replacement window company located in Trenton, New Jersey can eliminate broad search in favor of location-specific keywords such as “replacement windows Trenton” and other locations within their market area. Each search engine has its own procedures for controlling broad search options for individual keywords.
5. It takes time to identify which keywords will work. Rather than bidding on a small number of popular keywords, you can expand the keyword lists to more than 200 and seek to include keywords that your competitors are not utilizing. Keywords that are less sought after cost less. To identify keyword options, enter ‘keyword tool’ into a search engine.
6. Search advertising campaigns need immediate attention. Poorly performing ads need to be pulled, keyword lists adjusted, and bid amounts modified to prevent over-spending. Search advertising campaigns that are set up and allowed to run on autopilot can produce less return on investment than campaigns that are monitored more than once a week.
7. Search analytic services are to identify market trends and opportunities. They often reveal what keywords are profitable for other websites in your target market. In addition, they show seasonal and emerging keywords allowing you to plan a more timely marketing campaign.
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A Good Review Of Salehoo
Dec 7th
Drop shipping and Wholesaling is the process of selling wholesale goods directly to consumers while the supplier takes care of the fulfillment, the shipping, the product quality, and often the customer service. With access to wholesale drop shippers, you can run an online business selling products in any niche market. Many eBay Powersellers achieve their success by drop shipping and having access to wholesale suppliers.
If you’re ready to take advantage of the opportunities in wholesale dropshipping, your first step is to make connections with suppliers. Unfortunately, the internet is laced with phony suppliers, scam artists, and companies that misrepresent themselves as wholesale providers. There ARE opportunities to use drop shipping as a business model when you know what to expect, and below are my reviews of some of the most popular wholesale dropshipping companies.
Worldwide Brands stands heads above its competition for two reasons: first, it’s top notch education will clear up all confusion that surround selling products on the internet. Their video training makes it the most professional and complete drop ship and wholesale education on the internet.
The most trusted list of wholesale suppliers available is Worldwide and by far the largest, most complete,. Each supplier is tested for legitimacy and ensured to be quality. There are no question marks surrounding the suppliers inside of Worldwide Brands. Worldwide has the best education, the biggest selection of drop shippers, the best support, and is the easiest to use, earning the title as being the only wholesale drop shipping company approved by eBay.
Even an absolute novice can quickly have a profitable business with the resources used in salehoo. Salehoo connects its members directly with wholesale and drop ship suppliers and serves as a great resource for both beginning and experienced drop shippers. They compile a wide list of wholesale drop shipping companies with an emphasis on instant imports. I would compare it to a smaller Worldwide Brands; for this reason, I recommend it for people who are looking to dabble in the wholesale arena and need a gateway into the industry.
One distinct advantage Salehoo has is in it’s customer support, going even as far as to compile man-made lists for its members. It also has a huge drop shipping forum and a very low price. While not as vast as Worldwide Brands, Salehoo continues to be one of the most popular wholesale directories available, even after several successful years in business.
Doba’s as simple as it gets and makes drop shipping as easy as possible. Doba is a different kind of program that cuts most of the hard work out of drop shipping. Doba allows you to sell wholesale items in single units and have them shipped directly to your buyer. This makes the process easier than any other drop shipping solution and syncs directly with eBay, but this does not guarantee huge profits.
The Doba is a legitimate, solid company that simplifies the drop shipping business model better than anyone. However, drop shipping single units often makes it difficult to compete on price; therefore, Doba’s prices cannot always compete with the prices on eBay or the price that you get get by buying in bulk through Worldwide Brands, but they guarantee the absolute best price among drop shippers.
After learning the benefits of drop shipping, the common reaction is to assume that online auctions are the best place to sell your wholesale goods. After all, many people use eBay in their drop ship wholesale businesses because it guarantees traffic tyour products. Online auctions do have their drawbacks: for example, most eBay buyers are bargain hunters, meaning lower prices for some goods.
Having your own website actually maximizes your potential for profit, it takes some creativity and a (very slight) learning curve for those who have never managed a web page. The benefits, however, are immense; with your own site, you can sell items as a bundle, determine your own prices, and be considered an authority within your market. There are more opportunities for traffic, and you control the marketplace and the pricing
Since you’re starting an Ecommerce business, the first thing that you should obtain is access to a good wholesale directory, and preferably Worldwide Brands. Your first success will come from drop shipping, and you’ll take the first profitable venture that you enjoy and dive deeper into the niche. To do this, you’ll want to have an Ecommerce website.
You’ll have access to an unlimited supply of wholesale products, I recommend running a website that sells your most profitable products. While there are many places that you can initiate this process, I recommend USellCorp, because it integrates directly as an Ecommerce website. While certainly not the cheapest option, USellCorp is the most qualified to work with drop shippers and wholesalers.
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A Look At Salehoo Internet Marketing System
Nov 24th
Online product sourcing directory SaleHoo conducted an e-commerce behavioral survey of its members. SaleHoo’s members are dedicated online sellers and retailers, and they are knowledgeable and savvy e-commerce users. The survey was comprised of eight questions — four demographic questions and four individual response questions — and it was a follow-up to a similar survey conducted three years earlier. The answers showed a shift in trend that is consistent with other e-commerce activity across the web. In particular, the answer to the question “What products are you interested in sourcing for your online business?” generated a vastly different response than it did a few years ago.
More than 50 percent of respondents said that their search for sources included locating niche markets. The survey conducted three years ago yielded considerably different results: Only 20 percent of respondents mentioned niche markets. At that time, the majority of sellers wanted access to hot items such as iPods, Xboxes, and designer brand clothing.
Second category that witnessed the greatest movement was “Where are you planning to sell your products?” In 2005, most respondents were selling on eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and had eBay storefronts. In 2008, this statistic has changed dramatically, and there has been a visible shift away from eBay with most now setting up their own stores and using Craigslist, eCrater and other online auction venues to sell their goods. High seller fees and the changes at eBay were only mentioned twice in the survey, making it hard to draw a correlation between the apparent mass dissatisfaction with eBay and the move to other venues.
Changes will indicate a move from popular markets and marketplaces to a more evenly spread distribution of sellers across niche markets and throughout what is called “The Long Tail.” Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson coined The Long Tail in 2004. In e-commerce, the term describes selling small amounts of scarce or hard-to-obtain products to many people. Due to traditionally low overheads and particularly low distribution costs, Internet businesses are able to realize The Long Tail. The shift illustrated in the survey shows a push towards The Long Tail and market fragmentation. This push has likely been caused by the following factors:
Marketing saturation which is the movement to niche markets has been precipitated by the over saturation of popular markets. There is no shortage of new sellers online, according to the survey. At the time of the survey, 47 percent of the respondents had only been involved in e-commerce for three months or less. The 2005 survey showed that the bulk of sellers headed straight into popular markets when there were still gaps to be filled. This group of sellers are now established and are forcing the new sellers to find new markets.
This has two consequences. First, due to high supply volumes of “hot” items, margins for these items are rapidly decreasing. Many sellers are now using these items as loss leaders for niche items. Secondly, new sellers are considering more specialized markets and are having to readjust their business plans. Unless sellers have access to extremely cheap suppliers, they quickly learn that there is very little profit to be made in iPods and the rest of the top 10 eBay searches (with the exception of iPhones, due to their scarcity). The move to mainstream. Although e-commerce is not mainstream yet, census results have shown that e-commerce is slowly becoming more used and accepted. In the first quarter of 2008, just under 4 percent of all retail Increase Customer Sales with Email Marketing — Free Trial from Vertical Response sales Download Free eBook – The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales in the United States were e-commerce sales; compare this with the first quarter of 2004, where e-commerce made up only 2 percent of all retail sales.
Next, online Sales are expected to increase 17 percent this year, according to Forrester Research. At the end of the day, this is about simple mathematics: More people buying online means more demand for a larger variety of goods. The Long Tail is about catering for everyone. And as the “everyone” numbers increase, so will The Long Tail. A classic case in point is blogging. Once only the pursuit of entrenched tech heads, there are now billions of blogs in the blogosphere encapsulating every topic imaginable.Improved education. Just as the numbers participating online are increasing, demand for new information to assist those interested in e-commerce is growing. As the proliferation of online business education continues, users become more informed in their choices. The end of the period of trial and error can also be attributed to the shift.
Jimmy Huber the Ebay PowerSeller stated he made a number of costly mistakes in his early days involved in e-commerce. Huber is now a community manager at SaleHoo, and though it sounds obvious, he recommends all online sellers research their target markets thoroughly first. Tools such as Auction Inspector, eBay’s own Marketplace research tool and ChannelAdvisor all have features that analyze supply and demand on eBay.Innovation. As users become more educated, new innovations are developed. Good examples of this are e-commerce merchants like Etsy, where hand-knitted clothes for soft toys and pets are among a million other things can be purchased, and social networks like Ning, where individuality is celebrated and the tightest niches can be found.
The New Focus Niche’s
Niche marketing is a move away from a one-size-fits-all mentality toward a more valuable customer experience. This is reflected in higher rates of online customer satisfaction in 2007. Netflix and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) polled the highest for customer satisfaction in an annual report released by ForeSee Results. Both companies have taken initiatives to make the customer experience more customized and more personalized, something that all retailers will have to do as the trend continues.
The personalization is about empowering customers and going further than lip service and the noise around crowdsourcing. Primarily, it’s about listening to customers and providing tailored customer service. Even though e-commerce is in a better position to adapt to this, larger corporations can struggle. eBay has proved it is still set in its ways time and time again with its canned responses to customer service queries.
Personalization occurs when a seller’s knowledge complements the buyer. Starting a business as a hobby or because of a real passion is the key to succeeding in niche marketing. Plus, a background in the given industry is invaluable when thinking about which problems need to be solved.
Next customization is best exemplified by make-on-demand site Ponoko, where designers upload blueprints and users then order the items to be made to their size and material specifications. Offline, Borders (NYSE: BGP) will be adding electronic kiosks in its stores that will enable customers to try self-publishing.
One thing’s certain: Now that market fragmentation has started, it will only continue, and the e-commerce landscape in three years time will be significantly different than it is today. Expect specialization to become the norm as e-commerce moves toward hyper-personalized business models.
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Making Niche Marketing Work For You
Nov 18th
New products through an advertising business or business itself is both challenging and risky. Once the money is gone, there’s seldom second chances. An alternative to advertising is a public relations strategy. Effective PR is a cost-effective way to gain exposure for your product, get leads, and generate more sales and build a great business.
Seen through advertising, So as a product that is mentioned in the news or feature you receive a passive advertisement and the credibility advertising just can’t buy.A news report is actually far more likely to move people to action than conventional advertising, and a good public relations strategy is the way to get the media to seek you out.
Making the PR process work for you? There are 10 tips you need to create an effective PR plan to give your product competitive advantages in your market:
1. Research your market. Be the most specific you can get about which community will use your product, that will make it easier to identify which method you need to work with. Narrow in your target to be specific and realize that no product ever commands 100 percent market share, nor does it need to in order to be successful.
2. What are the product benefits relevant to your market. what your product does for your potential clientele isn’t as important as the features. You are trying to sell your product so you will get traffic. What are the benefits of your product and now show them the numbers that prove that your product saves your clientele time and money–or makes money.
3. Individuality of your product. Prove your product is faster, better, cleaner or more economical than your competitors’ product or industry standard because of research you do and the knowledge of the product. Such specific and proven advantages will provide concrete evidence to feature your product over anyone else’s.
4. Use testimonials. Everything’s equal, and a testimonial may be one of the strongest ways to enhance the credibility of any promotional piece. This holds true for editorial piece work as well. The biggest difference is the way the testimonial will be presented. Some promotional pieces might get away with “Bob.K.” from Nebraska who says your widgets are “great.” But an editorial piece needs to be about a targeted benefit.
5. Target your market. Trying to sell a studded neck coller at “Hot Topics” would be better then trying it at lets say Sears. With research you’ll identify specific article sites or programs for the industry you are targeting. You will need to do some research to find out which are most seen or read by your target market. These types of publications that are available are newspapers, magazines, newsletters, radio and television broadcasts according to locality and special interest groups. Working on the internet the research is much easier.
6. Prepare your product release. Your release needs a great headline and make sure it has your keywords in it. Your first paragraph should be no more than 25 words and needs to both the headline and summary of the story. A publicist spends on average seven seconds “speed reading” the hundreds of releases they receive each day, so the first short paragraph is critical. And remember to keep your editorial to one page or less.
7. Sell your promotion. You have a product that may interest someone. Give them the headline and the first article. They’ll make a decision then and there whether they like it or not. Then, forward immediately marked clearly to their attention. Earn the right to follow up by asking if you can call back the next day or at some other specific time, depending on publication dates.
8. Follow up. Re-confirm whether or not they received the information you sent and offer to provide more information if necessary.
9. Keep in contact. But don’t be pushy. If the product is of value, it will sell itself. All you should do is provide your contact with more information. This is also a good way to make sure your press release gets a second look.
10. Pictures. A photograph can literally sell a thousand words. Daily media are more photo-conscious than ever, and are more interested in photos than the monthly special interest magazines or trade journals. Those publications are usually only interested in a photograph if it educates or informs the reader.
Are they a guarantee of success? No.
By following them, you’ll immediately increase your chances and you’ll also start to build the good media relationships you’ll need for the future. You’ll also give your product a strong competitive advantage in the media market, while any results you do achieve from “free press” will be more effective.
If you’re looking to start your own online business, these steps can help. Eventually, you can work to apply your “off-line” efforts to the online space–a strategy that can leverage your message in a number of ways conventional media simply can’t.
Before you buy anything online, make sure you check out this excellent free report on starting a business in niche marketingFree report
Learn How To Niche Market, Learn Niche Marketing, Niche Marketing Introduction,
Oct 26th
The two types of niche marketing the first is sourcing. The more time you spend in a market or product category the more you will learn about the supply for that market. The more you know the better you will be. After spending the time with your product you will developed a know-how and a keen sense for the product or market you are in. You will recognize makers, spot reproductions once you developed the profits will increase.
Money is made only when you work there is no easy way. You can become a very savvy niche marketer if you are able to choose the right product or niche. Also, as word spreads about your product and the fact that it is a legitimate product you will become more known through out the internet as a reputable person.
The first thing you want to do when you decide to specialize in a niche is become expert in that area. Learn and read everything you can about it. Study the history of the product. Get to know the companies that manufacturer the product and the distributor. The more you know the better you will be able to promote the particular product.
The second benefit of niche marketing is the sales. The fact that you are market selling in a narrow segment means you will have less competition and therefore you will produce a higher margins for the product. Also people prefer to purchase from someone who is knowledgeable with that product.. People will seek you out because of your knowledge and integrity. Everyone knows that you will stand behind everything you sell because you yourself use the products.
You may get a lot of questions from your client. If you are selling something and you get a question you should be able to answer the question with authority and detail that will give the consumer instant confidence and more than likely result in a sale.
The other influence of niche marketing is the ability to describe your products in your descriptions correctly. Having the added knowledge of your product information that someone else doesn’t will increase your potential and you will have more confidence and perhaps more ability than others that may be promoting the same products.
Now choosing your niche product is better after you research and brainstorm. You may already have chosen something that is of interest in your life or within your work experience that would make a good niche. This is where you should start. Work is always more fun and almost always more profitable if you are doing something you like. Example, you enjoy computers, this is a great area to start your search for a niche.
Large companies and many people, sell in sub-categories and there are many niches within these sub-categories. Computers are a large sub-category, but a Compaq could constitute a niche, even better Compaq ‘laptops’. It takes a lot less work to promote one part of a product then the multitudes that a company may have.Another area might be all the little accessories such as network hubs, cables and connectors, computer speaker systems and so on.
Any online category has sub-categories, some of which are small enough to qualify as a niche, and others you could find a niche. The key is that the niche you find be active enough to generate traffic and not be crowded by hundreds of other people promoting that product in the same way you are.
If you find a niche that is already dominated by large marketer, don’t let that stop you if you feel you have a better ability because of your background in that niche. A little competition is good for you, your competitor and the customer. Anyone can do better then the other one out there. By studying your competitor’s promotions you can find a way to compete that won’t make one of you fail for the other to succeed.
Now start your search in areas that interest you. When you have found several areas that interest you, research,research, research. First use the keywords and searching terms or keywords for the items you want to sell. Next use the search engine and find a good research tool to determine the viability of the market for that product.
Sometimes you are able to combine related niches. Going back to the computer example, you could promote usb products or video conferencing. As I said you can specify each product. Now get to work.
With this link you will be able to learn how to start your own online niche marketing business and make extra money from home without spending any moneyFree report
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