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Posts tagged online sales
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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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.
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Bulletproof Business Blueprint: The Benefits of Entrepeneurship
Nov 5th
Do you dream about being your own boss? There are a lot of perks that go along with owning your own business and setting your own rules. Here are just a few of them:
- Set your own hours – Pay yourself first – Have more time with your family
It’s a great life if you can get it. One of the best ways to go into business for yourself is to develop and market you own products online. All over the world people are discovering how online marketing can replace their incomes and provide them with opportunities no conventional job ever could.
However, do not be tricked into thinking that you can simply start up an online marketing company and watch the dollars roll in! Turning a home-based online marketing company into a raving success story can be done, but not without much commitment and hard work.
Building a successful home-based internet marketing business requires the proper training! You absolutely must be well trained and well informed of all the tricks of the trade if you are going to succeed!
There are several internet marketing courses available on the internet today. Most of them offer information on how to conduct keyword research, how to find niche products to market, and how to market those products. But what most of them don’t tell you is that the REAL profit is in creating and marketing your own product to sell online!
One weakness of many of the internet marketing resource available online is that they are confusing and difficult to follow. That is mainly due to the fact that they are written by other online marketers who are primarily interested in earning money, and less interested in passing along quality knowledge to their fellow marketers.
In order to learn how to internet market, and even more importantly, how to create and market your own product online, you are well advised to follow the system of internet marketing guru, Todd Perkins.
Todd Perkins has built himself a highly successful online marketing business, and is now marketing one of his own products, Bulletproof Business Blueprint.
Bulletproof Business Blueprint is an online marketing training program designed to teach you not only how to successfully make money marketing other people’s products, but also how to create and market your own product to sell online.
Bulletproof Business Blueprint is a no-nonsense, truly simple and easy to follow training program. The lessons are delivered in modules, or units, and they teach you everything from how to conduct effective market research, to how to design your own marketable product.
Bulletproof Business Blueprint offers tricks of the trade that you will not find anywhere else, such as which words and colors to use in your websites and campaigns in order to achieve the maximum impact on your potential buyers.
If you are looking to produce daily revenue online, you need the proper training. Internet marketing master Todd Perkinsdesigned the ultimate training program called Bulletproof Business Blueprint will will teach you how to create and market a product online. Get started today!
What Should You Avoid As An Affiliate
Oct 27th
Would you choose to work from home and receive high profits rather than going to work, sitting all day long in an airless office and getting small part of desirable revenue? If yes, you should definitely try affiliate marketing. As any business, affiliate marketing has its difficulties a beginner-affiliate must be aware of. Starting by doing mistakes that may seem unessential will cause serious loss of revenue and failure of business as such. Hence, becoming a successful and provident affiliate marketer, bear in mind the most commonly encountered mistakes.
First and foremost, don’t promote too many affiliate programs at a time. Even though there are no restrictions determining the number of affiliate programs to run, experienced affiliates suggest to avoid marketing too many programs as it is quite difficult to manage all of them with the required quality and efficiency. Lack of concentration may result in financial losses for both parties. It is better to start from one affiliate program that you feel strong about. Do your best to advertize the chosen product or service to attain the best possible results. If you succeed with the chosen strategy and start getting profit, you may feel free to start looking for another program to raise your revenues.
Being committed to solely one promotional program presupposes considerable material losses due to customers’ inability to select one product among many others in some particular group. It reduces sales and profit. Therefore, better provide your customers with alternatives.
The second commonly occurring mistake is oversaturation. Many affiliates think that a big quantity of catchy ads and banners placed on the web is the best recipe for success and high conversion rate. The reverse of the coin is that visitors become embarrassed. In addition, not sufficiently informative ads don’t let customer to collect necessary information about the subject of purchase and make him leaving the site. So, pay attention to the content, as it is one of the most important tools to be noticed by potential buyers. Make good use of wisely composed product reviews introducing most favorable features linked directly to the sales page.
Lack of knowledge about the program is a kind of mistake affiliates do when they decide to go for quick and easy money with the help of affiliate marketing. The decision is usually taken in a hurry basing on most popular choice of other marketers but without personal interest on the product or service to promote. What is welcome – a profound research of basic internet marketing principles and potential market for the chosen affiliate product. Choosing a product that appeal to the merchant is the heart of marketing success. The right affiliate program has been and will always be the key decision an associate marketer have to take starting his online business.
All in all, affiliate marketing is a kind of online business where one can easily fail if there is not enough knowledge about the subject. It is a reliable source of income when a marketer does it in a right way following major rules and avoiding general mistakes. Keeping in mind the above mentioned pitfalls, you as a trader will be secured against failure, able to choose affiliate program you are interested in, promote it and generate good money. So, study the ground carefully and don’t waist your time to become successful affiliate marketer.
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