The other night, I watched a rerun of the original Superman film from 1978. In it I noticed a considerable amount of time was spent showing how Superman ended up on planet earth. We saw his parents on Krypton, the escalating doom affecting that planet, and why his parents took the decision to place him in a pod and send him to earth. We saw his father Jor-El rationalise this to his wife, explaining how the differing gravities, and less advanced life forms of Earth would give their boy a positive advantage.
What did all this serve to do?
It rationalised Superman's superhero powers. He would be able to fly because he was from a planet with a different gravity, he would be superfast & superstrong because his molecular structure was different, etc.
Basically it gave a reason why.
However far fetched the reasons were, undoubtedly they serve to make the film more believable. They explain why Superman has superhuman powers. And so do many other Superhero films - The Hulk, Spiderman etc, all explain away the superhero's powers, adding an increased degree of believability that would otherwise be absent.
All this shows that if you can incorporate Reasons Why into your marketing, you will undoubtedly increase your sales.
So how can you make this work for you?
Special offers
Instead of just blindly putting special offers on products, explain why they are on offer. Perhaps the manufacturer had a cancelled order, and offered you an amazing deal which you can pass on to your customers. Maybe as a result of your annual stocktake, you need to reduce your inventory, and so are selling off your widgets at a ridiculous low price.
Limited availability
Tell a story as to why there is limited availability on a product. Perhaps it was the last stock of a production overrun, or "forgotten" stock that was in one of your storerooms that got "lost" behind other stuff. If the type of product you sell is not of a limited availability nature, you can tweak this to justify why a particular special price is for a limited time only.
Why you are the best choice
Perhaps you have over 20 years experience in your field which enables you to know your industry inside out. Or you have particular inside knowledge which allows you to get the best deals and pass these on to your customers. Think about it - you can always find an "angle" to justify why you are the best person to buy from.
Customer Testimonial
In a way these are "reasons why" someone should buy from you. Although they are well used in information product marketing, they are under used when selling physical products. Make an effort to collect testimonials from your customers that emphasise your quality of service, speedy service, helpfulness or cheap prices.
Give people a reason why. Make a story out of it. We all see shops with "Sales" banners up all the time, but when they say the sale is due to relocation or closing down, we take an extra special look, don't we? The "Reason Why" is a powerful technique that can add that little extra bit of credibility to give your sales a boost.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
The Secrets to Niche Marketing
There are two different ways of ideas about niches. One takes the target audience into consideration first, which is the product centric model, while the other takes the product into consideration first, the audience centric model.
Actually, both of these ideas are identical but one of them will allow you to have more advantage. So which one is that? The product centric based idea.
The product centric model carries a time-tested rule of marketing: if you want to get into profit quickly, sell what people are already buying! There is plenty of information about things that sells well. Niche marketing is just a job to identify the gaps in the market which haven’t got dug yet, and build a business around it.
If you realize, books account for a huge portion of online revenue. Nevertheless, how do you grab a slice for yourself without competing against the huge companies like Amazon.com?
The answer is simple, you specialize. No matter how huge Amazon is, sometimes you still wouldn’t be able to find books that you want. What types of books are people searching for that they can’t find through the mainstream booksellers?
Could you become the authority and number one resource for books on a particular hobby? How about underground' titles like “The Anarchist’s Cookbook”? That’s what the owners of http://www.loompanics.com have, controversial and “hard to find” title books.
Another way you can build a niche around hot-selling products is to add some spice by customizing or personalizing them. In summary, the product-centric model is based on giving a twist to existing markets and trends.
On the other side, an audience centric model takes a subject matter, special interests or information more importantly first. Basically, you start off with no idea on what to sell. You don’t have a product in mind. You only know your target-audience.
The great thing about the audience-centric approach is that you can create whole new markets out of thin air. This is the model preferred by most e-book authors and information marketers.
So where do we start? You need to assess your own interests and strengths before you begin, especially if this is your first time starting a business. What are you already interested in? Do you have any background or expertise on a particular subject? Start with what you know, you’ll have more advantage because your prior knowledge will allow you to narrow down your niche quickly. In other words, you already have a good idea of how the topic breaks down.
If your passion is music, for example, you know there is an almost endless supply of potential products and potential buyers in areas as diverse as:
• Instruments/instrument sales/instrument repair/vintage instruments
• Techniques and lessons on how to play a certain instrument
• Memorabilia – shirts, hats, tickets, stickers, posters, autographs
• Audio production, recording, CD labeling, booking, promotion etc
You also know that any or all of those can be tailored towards: solo artists, bands, fans, managers, engineers, agents and the list go on.
Now that’s a great thing for you, but what if that’s not you’re interested? What if you are just not into creating a business out of your hobby, or you don’t feel any passion for your current expertise?
The good news is: It’s Fine! You don't need to give up hope or bang your head against the wall for ideas. You will however need to do some extra work. This brings us to the second reason I suggest taking stock of your strengths.
Here’s a secret about most internet marketers. Ready to know? Here it is: Most of the famous niche marketers you've heard of create products for niches they know absolutely nothing about.
How do they do that? Easy, they either hire the research and writing to someone else, or hunt down an expert for an interview, just a combination of outsourcing and “branding”. Also, this type of marketer has his or her own set of “reasons why” for motivation.
They include:
• Money
• Pride of ownership
• Love of the creative process
• Need for variety and breadth, rather than depth
It doesn’t matter as much to this type whether the market personally interests them. His or her goal and passion is to hunt down as many overlooked niches as possible, dive into them quickly and start profiting.
So, if this sounds like you, you’re in good company! Once you learn the basics of niche research, you’ll have your pick of dozens of potential business ideas.
To Your Success,
Actually, both of these ideas are identical but one of them will allow you to have more advantage. So which one is that? The product centric based idea.
The product centric model carries a time-tested rule of marketing: if you want to get into profit quickly, sell what people are already buying! There is plenty of information about things that sells well. Niche marketing is just a job to identify the gaps in the market which haven’t got dug yet, and build a business around it.
If you realize, books account for a huge portion of online revenue. Nevertheless, how do you grab a slice for yourself without competing against the huge companies like Amazon.com?
The answer is simple, you specialize. No matter how huge Amazon is, sometimes you still wouldn’t be able to find books that you want. What types of books are people searching for that they can’t find through the mainstream booksellers?
Could you become the authority and number one resource for books on a particular hobby? How about underground' titles like “The Anarchist’s Cookbook”? That’s what the owners of http://www.loompanics.com have, controversial and “hard to find” title books.
Another way you can build a niche around hot-selling products is to add some spice by customizing or personalizing them. In summary, the product-centric model is based on giving a twist to existing markets and trends.
On the other side, an audience centric model takes a subject matter, special interests or information more importantly first. Basically, you start off with no idea on what to sell. You don’t have a product in mind. You only know your target-audience.
The great thing about the audience-centric approach is that you can create whole new markets out of thin air. This is the model preferred by most e-book authors and information marketers.
So where do we start? You need to assess your own interests and strengths before you begin, especially if this is your first time starting a business. What are you already interested in? Do you have any background or expertise on a particular subject? Start with what you know, you’ll have more advantage because your prior knowledge will allow you to narrow down your niche quickly. In other words, you already have a good idea of how the topic breaks down.
If your passion is music, for example, you know there is an almost endless supply of potential products and potential buyers in areas as diverse as:
• Instruments/instrument sales/instrument repair/vintage instruments
• Techniques and lessons on how to play a certain instrument
• Memorabilia – shirts, hats, tickets, stickers, posters, autographs
• Audio production, recording, CD labeling, booking, promotion etc
You also know that any or all of those can be tailored towards: solo artists, bands, fans, managers, engineers, agents and the list go on.
Now that’s a great thing for you, but what if that’s not you’re interested? What if you are just not into creating a business out of your hobby, or you don’t feel any passion for your current expertise?
The good news is: It’s Fine! You don't need to give up hope or bang your head against the wall for ideas. You will however need to do some extra work. This brings us to the second reason I suggest taking stock of your strengths.
Here’s a secret about most internet marketers. Ready to know? Here it is: Most of the famous niche marketers you've heard of create products for niches they know absolutely nothing about.
How do they do that? Easy, they either hire the research and writing to someone else, or hunt down an expert for an interview, just a combination of outsourcing and “branding”. Also, this type of marketer has his or her own set of “reasons why” for motivation.
They include:
• Money
• Pride of ownership
• Love of the creative process
• Need for variety and breadth, rather than depth
It doesn’t matter as much to this type whether the market personally interests them. His or her goal and passion is to hunt down as many overlooked niches as possible, dive into them quickly and start profiting.
So, if this sounds like you, you’re in good company! Once you learn the basics of niche research, you’ll have your pick of dozens of potential business ideas.
To Your Success,
Designing Your Ecommerce Website
With an increase in consumers using the internet to shop and perform business transactions, ecommerce has become the future of the online community. It is estimated that shoppers are spending billions of dollars online each year, with a few stores even outselling their offline parallels. Benefitting completely from the ecommerce boom can be achievable. To keep consumers coming back, you need to create a unique ecommerce site, one that reaches beyond all levels of excellence.
When designing your ecommerce website, you should have a welcome or introduction on your home page. This statement should establish the advantages of your site, and assure those visiting that they should be comfortable doing business with you. State your purpose, express your beliefs, and let the consumer know why business done at your ecommmerce outlet is always secure.
A quality website has smooth navigation. Categories to scan through and obvious search boxes on the site are a must. Design a simple site with large, easy to read fonts and images that will load quickly. Be sure to have a page with specific questions regarding some of your common business policies such as shipping and returns. You may also want to have a link on your home page that leads visitors to a privacy policy. This policy will ensure customers that you will never supply a third party with information they have entrusted with you. It is nearly essential for all ecommerce shops to display this declaration somewhere on their site.
Just as when shopping offline, customers want checkout to be as fast and easy as possible when visiting your online store. If your online store is equipped with a secure server, make your customers aware. This will put them at ease and keep them coming back. Your checkout or Òshopping cartÓ needs to be just one click away so the customer can be in and out in a minimal amount of steps. In this day and age, it is advisable to offer a variety of payment selections such as PayPal and other online payment sources, credit and debit cards, online checks, and money orders. Include a contact telephone number for customer support so the customer has assurance that they will have assistance if there is a problem with the order.
Organize a special section of your ecommerce website dedicated completely to special discounts and current sales. If you have an extraordinary amount of sales items, create a separate webpage devoted to the ones that are most preferred, and have another page with a complete listing of all discounts. During the holiday season, have a certain portion of our website set aside for customers to purchase gift certificates.
Producing a profitable, reputable ecommerce website can be a simple task with a well constructed site plan, some time and patience. Taking full advantage of the ecommerce phenomenon, you can succeed in your business marketing dream.
When designing your ecommerce website, you should have a welcome or introduction on your home page. This statement should establish the advantages of your site, and assure those visiting that they should be comfortable doing business with you. State your purpose, express your beliefs, and let the consumer know why business done at your ecommmerce outlet is always secure.
A quality website has smooth navigation. Categories to scan through and obvious search boxes on the site are a must. Design a simple site with large, easy to read fonts and images that will load quickly. Be sure to have a page with specific questions regarding some of your common business policies such as shipping and returns. You may also want to have a link on your home page that leads visitors to a privacy policy. This policy will ensure customers that you will never supply a third party with information they have entrusted with you. It is nearly essential for all ecommerce shops to display this declaration somewhere on their site.
Just as when shopping offline, customers want checkout to be as fast and easy as possible when visiting your online store. If your online store is equipped with a secure server, make your customers aware. This will put them at ease and keep them coming back. Your checkout or Òshopping cartÓ needs to be just one click away so the customer can be in and out in a minimal amount of steps. In this day and age, it is advisable to offer a variety of payment selections such as PayPal and other online payment sources, credit and debit cards, online checks, and money orders. Include a contact telephone number for customer support so the customer has assurance that they will have assistance if there is a problem with the order.
Organize a special section of your ecommerce website dedicated completely to special discounts and current sales. If you have an extraordinary amount of sales items, create a separate webpage devoted to the ones that are most preferred, and have another page with a complete listing of all discounts. During the holiday season, have a certain portion of our website set aside for customers to purchase gift certificates.
Producing a profitable, reputable ecommerce website can be a simple task with a well constructed site plan, some time and patience. Taking full advantage of the ecommerce phenomenon, you can succeed in your business marketing dream.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
10 Cons Of An International Credit Card
Credit card fraud is a fast increasing crime in the world. International Credit Card holders are mostly the victims of this unauthorized access to their accounts. Let’s take a closer look of the problems faced by international credit cards.
1. Repetitive use of credit card numbers. After a credit card number has been used and disregarded, say cancelled, credit card companies would reissue the same number to other cardholders. The personal identification numbers (PIN) is changed as well as the credit cardholder’s personal information. But it still bears the same credit card number.
2. Low standards when it comes to the use of cards by the participating merchants. This is a common problem encountered by international credit cardholders. Employees of the participating merchants have the full access to the account number as well as the security number of the card.
3. Account Statements given out by credit card companies contains less information about the participating merchant. It does not include relevant information about the vendor that charged any transaction on the credit card.
4. Unreliable blocking functions. Once a card loss is reported, it will still take months for the credit card companies to block the transactions being made through the stolen or lost credit card.
5. Lack of validation software. Participating vendors should have better validation software installed on their computer system.
6. Consumer unfriendly policies on fraud management. The policies on the present fraud management take the blame on the cardholders though not directly stipulated. This means that the policies on the fraud management of international credit card companies protect not the consumers but the company.
7. Lax standards on investigation about fraudulent transactions. This is the sad part for the victims of fraud through their credit cards. Getting the suspects charged though proven guilty of fraud seems to take on slowly.
8. Credit card fraud is usually committed through online transactions. This means that credit cardholders are not protected with the authorized or unauthorized use of their cards on purchases or services paid online.
9. Most of the companies that typically appear on charges are those associated with pornography industry. These companies are the ones that accept transactions even without verifying the cardholder’s information.
10. Most of the banks’ system is not compatible with other international credit card companies for the e-commerce. This is a potential weakness that would mean loss of clients so they would prefer to keep quiet about it.
How To Buy Nickelback Concert Tickets Securely...
Nickelback concert tickets
Want Nickelback concert tickets for their summer 2006 tour? You are definitely not alone. Their intensive summer tour will cover many cities, not ending until September 16 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Nickelback's popularity has surged to the mainstream level nationwide. This is evidenced by the group's popular songs (i.e. "photograph") played endlessly on local radio stations. They are so popular, in fact, that not just "alternative-grunge style" music stations play their music, but also "top 40 pop music" stations. Nickelback has responded generously this summer, by offering many show dates accross the country.
However, just because Nickelback is treating it's fans to many concert dates doesn't mean the tickets are easy to come by. In fact, just during the past 2 months alone, over 70,000 searches for the keyword Nickelback concert tickets were made on Yahoo alone. What does this mean? That people are buying Nickelback concert tickets like crazy. If people weren't interested in buying tickets to a Nickelback concert, chances are, most wouldn't be searching for it.
These people using the Yahoo search engine to find Nickelback concert tickets are aware of the power of e-commerce. As a matter of fact, if you were to try to find Nickelback tickets from the box office, chances are you will end up empty handed.
So, who sells these tickets on the world wide web? Online ticket brokers. There are literally hundreds of them. Some with good reputations. Some with not so good reputations. So how do you know if a ticket broker site is legit?
-Are they a Ticket Network Direct certified merchant?
-Do they offer overnight shipping through a major US shipping company?(UPS or FedEx)
-Are there ticket listings easy to read and browse through to find the tickets you want?
These are some major factors to assess when purchasing Nickelback concert tickets online. Now go find some great tickets to the show!
Professional Web Site Designers
Most companies today realize the importance of marketing on the net. As a result, many companies are hiring professional Web designers to maintain their Web sites and remain competitive in the marketplace. The scope for Web site designing as a profession is positive all over the world. This is because on a regular basis, thousands of companies either launch new Web sites or redesign outdated ones.
Companies hire professional Web designers with a specific business objective. The purpose of designing a site is to introduce or promote the company’s products and to reach out to a larger global customer base. Web designers are hired in accordance with this objective. A professional Web site designer typically has a bachelor’s degree in computer science, graphic design or digital media. A marketing or advertising degree combined with advanced computer training is a good blend of qualifications for a web designer as it helps them apply their designing skills with a business focus.
Professional web designers offer their services to a wide range of establishments. Industries, universities, retailers, design firms, media and advertising agencies are all in need of a good corporate Web sites. Attractive Web sites with updated information are very useful in acquiring new customers and in retaining existing ones. Designers can be hired as employees or as freelancers on contract.
The first step, after hiring a professional Web designer is to give them an outline of requirements. Professional Web designers work closely with customers to gain an understanding of the project expectations. They may also act as advisors, guiding clients through each step of the website design process. Experienced Web designers generally charge several thousand dollars as fees for their services.
Small business establishments also require a good website to boost their image. They typically design online brochures to give visitors information about their products and services, location and contact details. To cater to such organizations, many medium-sized Web design companies have emerged in the marketplace.
The range of services offered by professional web designers include web design and development, Web application design, professional e-commerce shopping systems, Web site hosting, search engine optimization, Internet search engine promotion and submission, e-learning, 3D solutions.
Monday, July 03, 2006
eBay Auctions
WHAT IS EBAY? For those of you who don’t know, EBay is one of the largest online auctions websites in the world with over 3 Million listings per day. If you wish to buy or sell on eBay you can. You can also do both if you wanted to.
WHAT IS THE SITE LAYOUT LIKE? The website layout is one of the best features. It’s easy to use for new users. Like any other website just click on the hyperlinks to take you to the location of that website. It offers great colour schemes and it also has brilliant auction listing features, which are easy to use.
WHAT IS THE SITE NAVIGATION LIKE? The website navigation is really easy to use as I have said above. You can get the odd technical glitch, which you click, on the link and it will take you to the international part of the company, other than that it’s brilliant and easy to use.
WHAT IS THE SITE STABILITY LIKE? The site stability has a couple of glitches especially with their log in scripts. If you click on the hyperlink for the Sign In tab at the top of the page you may get re-directed to the German login page. You cannot use this, as you might not understand it. According to ebay.co.uk they are trying to sort out all glitches within the next 12 months.
HOW DOES THE BIDDING WORK AND HOW DO I BID ON AN ITEM? This is really easy to do. You must have a registered account with them. Its FREE if you are just buying but if you are selling this takes longer see below for more information on this. If you wish to bid or buy an item you must follow the following procedures:
1) Click on the item title from the featured or search listing.
2) This will take you into the auction page for that specific item.
3) Read the item description and make sure you understand it before bidding or buying.
4) If you need to ask the seller a question do so by clicking on the link at the top of the page where the sellers id and feedback number is.
4a) If you don’t need to ask the seller a question or questions regarding the item just scroll to the bottom of the page to check the posting and payment terms and conditions (Most ebayers use this feature so keep your eyes peeled) After reading that make sure you are happy about the payment and postage terms and conditions.
4b) If you are happy with all of the above just enter the maximum amount of money you are willing to bid on that item and click on the bid button. After you have done that it will take you into the confirmation page and make sure you adhere to placing a bid. It should then re-direct you saying one of the following:
5) "YOU ARE THE HIGEST BIDDER"
5a) "YOU HAVE BEEN OUTBID BY ANOTHER USER"
It is really that easy.
HOW DO I SELL AN ITEM? In order to sell an item you must be registered and have a valid credit or debit card on file. Selling an item is easy just follow these methods:
1) Click on the "SELL" tab at the top of the page. If you are not a member it will ask you to register again as a seller and ask you for your credit or debit card details or it will take you straight in to the selling area where you can select your category.
2) Search for the relevant directory where your item should be listed. (If you don't do this eBay have the rights to remove the auction if it is in the incorrect directory.
3) Enter you eBay item title and description on the next page.
4) When you have done that you must enter the payment methods you accept. Whether it is PayPal (Most used), Cheque, Bankers Draft or Postal Order. You can select other payment services if you use things like E-GOLD, NOCHEX, STORMPAY, FASTPAY (Natwest Online Payments), Etc.
5) When you have done that you get the opportunity to add extra features to your listing such as pictures, and other listing boosts (The boosts cost allot though).
SELLING BOOST COSTS:
HIGHLIGHTED: £1.50
BOLD: £0.75
GALLERY: £0.15
FEATURED PLUS: £9.95 HOME PAGE FEATURED: £49.95
FEATURED GALLERY: £15.95
BUY IT NOW: £0.06
SCHEDULED LISTINGS: £0.12
LIST IN 2 CATEGORIES X 2 OF THE FINAL TOTAL.
Here are the basic insertion fees:
START / RESERVE PRICE --- LISTING FEE
£0.01 - £0.99 ---£0.15
£1.00 - £4.99 --- £0.20
£5.00 - £14.99 --- £0.35
£15.00 - £29.99 --- £0.75
£30.00 - £99.99 --- £1.50
£100.00+ --- £2.00
Starting a reserve item can cost a lot of money on eBay. I once listed my first laptop on there for a reserve of £800.00. It hit the reserve and the reserve amount got refunded to my seller account.
HOW DOES THE FEEDBACK RATING SYSTEM WORK? This is the main bit you want to be focusing on. If you have brought or sold an item you are eligible for item feedback.
There are 3 types of feedback available at the present time. They are stated as the following:
POSITIVE: You are meant to see more of these than of the ones below. This shows that the buyer or seller was really happy with the transaction. This type of feedback adds to your reputation number.
NEUTRAL: This means the buyer or seller was not dissatisfied or pleased with the transaction This leaves your feedback at the same number as before.
NEGATIVE: I hate these. Most people hate them. This means the seller or buyer was really dissatisfied with the purchase and transaction. The not minuses 1 positive feedback from you feedback status.
THERE IS A BLUE AND RED ABOUT ME LOGO NEXT TO THE BUYERS NAME, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
You have your "ABOUT ME" page, which gives the opportunity to other eBay sellers and buyers to really get to know you. The more good stuff you write the better your chances of either selling an item or getting pre-approved for an item. You can even add pictures to this page.
WHAT IS AN EBAY SHOP AND HOW DO I GET ONE?
Having an eBay shop is recommended if you are listing lots of items instead of just the couple of items. You will see that most of the shops belong to power sellers. More is explained about Power sellers below. To get an eBay shop you must have a feedback rating of 10 or more. This must now be 100% positive feedback. No Neutral or Negative. If you choose to have an eBay shop eBay will charge you reasonable and unreasonable amounts of money to get one. The charges are as follows:
Basic - £6 - This means that you will get no advertising done by eBay. It will not appear in search results.
Featured - £30: This not only is featured in search results it’s easier to use. The only thing is that the £30.00GBP is per month. They a lot of money in the long run.
Anchored - £300: Yes you have to this. If someone clicks on eBay shops from the homepage you shop will be there in at the top of the page in an anchor. Not many people choose this item at the moment. This is because you have to pay £300.00GBP per MONTH. That’s what I call daylight robbery. The only good thing about the shops is that you have longer durations like 30 day "BUY IT NOWS" 60 day "BUY IT NOWS" 90 Day listings. You also have the opportunity to have a GTC (Good till Cancelled listing) at 30 days. The prices are cheaper for listing in EBay shops at only 5p per Listing. Extra if you use the other features above like BOLD and HIGHLIGHTED.
THERE IS A MY EBAY TAB AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, WHY IS IT THERE? The answer to that is that its you own private area of eBay. No other member can see what items you are selling and watching. This is brilliant I use mine a lot.
WHAT IS THE CUSTOMER SUPPORT LIKE? IN relation to that question the online fellow ebayers are willing to help at all times in the community forums. Whether you are a new member or stuck on finding things to buy and sell. You can also get recommendations there. As for the EBay staff, they are completely useless. They haven’t got a phone number to contact on the website all that is there is automated e-mails which you cannot reply to.
WHAT IS THE COMPETITION LIKE? The competition is really good. You see other people selling the same item but then you see the other person not selling the same item. Competition is great on eBay and the better the feedback total the more chance you have of selling. I sold information on how to get Sony laptops for £20.00GBP the other week for £0.30P. I sold about 3000 e-mails to buyers who want to know. Many of them have praised me for this. Other people when I was selling the item were charging about £9.99. I saw one auction ended at £369.54p for just the information.
WHAT ARE POWERSELLERS? Power sellers are people you can trust as it goes with buying an item. You cannot apply to become a Power seller, as eBay must select you. There are different types of Power sellers. See below for a diagram: Members have five tiers to aspire to - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium - each enjoying the Power Seller Benefits reserved just for them. From fast track customer service and exclusive Power Seller Programmes to 'best practice' discussion boards, our Power Seller Programme is designed to help you grow your e-commerce business and increase profits on eBay.
WHAT IS MY VIEW OF EBAY? My view of EBay is really good. The only downsides are that you get the occasional stupid buyer that tries to tarnish your reputation. The fees are TOO high as well. My view is that eBay is great for buying not so much as selling due to the charges. EBay is the best for online advertising as they have over 100 Million members worldwide. Follow the methods above and get an account.
How to Jumpstart Your Site's Exposure: Pay-per-clicking
So you’ve published your e-commerce site and you’re waiting on Google to give you some free ranking. What can you do in the meantime to get some traffic to your store? The answer lies in the world of pay-per-clicking. A pay-per-click is when a site pays Google (or any search engine) for every click into their site from a chosen search term. On Google and Yahoo, the results in the grey box at the top and along the side of the page are all pay-per-click results. The secrets to success in pay-per-clicking are budgeting, good ad copy, and an attractive site.
To make pay-per-clicking worth your while, you must budget how much you’re going to spend. Google makes this process much easier by automating your budget. When you sign up, you choose how much money you want to spend on advertising in a day, and Google stops showing your site in search results after you reach that limit. Another important part of budgeting is to make sure that your sales are making up for what you spend. Pay-per-clicks should not eat into your profits; otherwise it’s better to simply wait on the free ranking.
Good ad copy is essential to any sales success, and pay-per-clicking is no different. Google actually uses the description you write in deciding how high to rank you among the pay-per-clicks. It’s true that the highest bidder gets the top ranking, but your ad copy is still an important factor. Also, your ad copy is the only thing that potential customers will use to decide if they want to enter your site. It must be able to grab people’s attention.
Having an attractive site is imperative to converting clicks into sales. It doesn’t matter how many people come into your site if they’re all leaving. This means you need an attractive color design and an easy site layout to make people want to buy. Consider hiring a consultant or even a web designer to make sure you have the best looking store possible. You could also do the extra work of educating yourself in a web design program like Dreamweaver or Frontpage to build everything yourself. If you do all these steps, your site will be on the quick path to sales!
To make pay-per-clicking worth your while, you must budget how much you’re going to spend. Google makes this process much easier by automating your budget. When you sign up, you choose how much money you want to spend on advertising in a day, and Google stops showing your site in search results after you reach that limit. Another important part of budgeting is to make sure that your sales are making up for what you spend. Pay-per-clicks should not eat into your profits; otherwise it’s better to simply wait on the free ranking.
Good ad copy is essential to any sales success, and pay-per-clicking is no different. Google actually uses the description you write in deciding how high to rank you among the pay-per-clicks. It’s true that the highest bidder gets the top ranking, but your ad copy is still an important factor. Also, your ad copy is the only thing that potential customers will use to decide if they want to enter your site. It must be able to grab people’s attention.
Having an attractive site is imperative to converting clicks into sales. It doesn’t matter how many people come into your site if they’re all leaving. This means you need an attractive color design and an easy site layout to make people want to buy. Consider hiring a consultant or even a web designer to make sure you have the best looking store possible. You could also do the extra work of educating yourself in a web design program like Dreamweaver or Frontpage to build everything yourself. If you do all these steps, your site will be on the quick path to sales!
Turn Your Small Business Website into a Marketing Machine!
It is surprising to see how many Websites are just informational in nature or seem to exist solely for company status. Some companies still view their Website as nothing more than an online brochure. If your company is one of these, you are foregoing an extraordinary marketing opportunity.
Big corporations especially are prone to positioning themselves on the Internet with Websites that are more about “flag waving” than generating new business. Unfortunately, many small and medium-sized companies have mimicked this approach as well.
Your Website is your company’s window to a worldwide market. It is more than just a vehicle to distribute information or automate administrative tasks. Correctly exploited, a company Website can become its primary marketing tool, generating new business around the clock.
Here is a simple checklist of activities you should be conducting on your company Website:
When all is said and done, your Website is a marketing machine. Visitors must be able to quickly find what they are seeking and should be guided to the results or actions you wish them to take. If you embrace this perspective and diligently apply the marketing techniques outlined above, your company will be blessed with increasing sales and steady growth.
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