A-Z Of An Online Business - Professional Methods That Worked For Professionals

Ever wondered why some sites make it without using the caveman techniques that are taught so widely on the internet. Its because they know the tried and tested methods of advertising and marketing that can create a hype about your site in its own world -- offline and online. I started using the internet before Google was even a recognized search engine. eBay was just a little site not much different then one I can put together in a couple of days, and I watched the internet go from what it was then to what it is today. There have been ups, and there have been downs, but there have been general trends and key things to remember that made the whole experience more profitable and enjoyable, and without further rambling, I’m going to get started.

PERCEPTION

When trying to do business on the internet, the ways people perceive your site and you as a business are key. It can mean the difference between a customer that thinks twice before ordering from you and a customer who impulsively buys, without thinking. Go ask any sales team in the world, and they’ll tell you that a sale today is better then the promise of 10 tomorrow.

Building an online business that people look at in a favorable way is infinitely easier than opening up say a store, or franchise. All you need to do is have a nice looking website, and one person can run the entire operation, as opposed to having to put a huge amount of money into the looks and employment before even making a single sale. The customers don’t need to know that, and if you do what you promise, they won’t care. So because of this you have to understand that if you put an amount of work into your website, which will be your main salesfield, expect that amount of work to be directly reflected in your sales. What I mean is if you put together a website in 2 hours and when its all together you go around telling people to visit yoursite.freesites.biz.com then not many people are going to take you seriously. But if you take some time, maybe map out your website first using the old pen and paper method, and take time in setting up your graphics and content, people will actually come to your website and be impressed, both consciously and non-consciously.

So how much of that didn’t you know already? You probably knew most of it, and if not, this is the first eBook you’ve read! But the fact still remains that even though you’ve heard it over and over, most websites out there are shabbily put together because people are looking to make money quickly, and that doesn’t work.

SET ASIDE TIME, AND DO YOUR WORK SET ASIDE 30 MINUTE BLOCKS OF WORK THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY

Don’t stop during the 30 minutes, I mean, come on, 30 minutes isn’t a long time. But at the same time, even if you feel like you are up to it, don’t spend MORE than 30 minutes at a time on your site.

YOUR WEBSITE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR ONLINE PRESENSE. IF YOU DON’T HAVE A WEBSITE (www.yourdomain.com) THAT YOU HAVE PUT AT LEAST 6 HOURS OF WORK INTO THEN YOU NEED TO DO THAT ASAP.

Go to godaddy.com and register a domain. Use the coupon code ‘saveten’ to get a 10% discount on your order. Now go to dreamhost.com and use the coupon code ‘moesdeals’ to get up to 65$ off your order. Order hosting and get your domain setup, if you don’t have the money to do this, then MAKE THE MONEY. Without your own domain you will have a definite disadvantage in making money.

SEARCH ENGINES After you have your domain and your hosting, you can start thinking about content, and search engine optimization. Now, a lot of people rush into this stage of things thinking they’ll just fill up their site with so much stuff that people coming to the site won’t be able to leave because they’ll never be able to finish reading everything. This is the WRONG way to look at things, at least in 2006. In earlier years, this kind of info stuffing would have got you a high ranking on search engines, and you wouldn’t have had any problems with getting people to your site. But now with all the annoyances of pop-ups and banners and flashing ads, people like to go to a site and see what they want to see – the site. Your logo should stand out and be done in a light soft shade. Except for some exceptions, use soft colors like a dull yellow, a light grey and dull orange. Colors like these will make people associate your website with feelings of happiness, success and bliss in their head and they will find it easier on their eyes to spend more time browsing your site. Notice the popularity of Google as a search engine came just as all the search engines on the internet started filling their pages up with advertising? Google came out with a site that was and still is as simple as ever. A logo at the top with the search bar in the middle, and although it wasn’t a very pretty site, it gave people the most functionality from the site because they came to search and it was easy to do so. So they came back. If Google started off their site as a small search bar among a sea of ads like the other search engines were doing, then it would be in no better of a position then HotBot.com, askjeeves.com and Altavista.com are. Sure these are good websites, but they aren’t the ones who had a stock quadruple in its first year. So the point here is that use colors that do not jump from the page, and make sure that the intent of your site is clear and centered. Use pictures as much as you can, and use small slogans and small sentences more on your homepage then long paragraphs and the like. There are other pages on your site for that kind of mumbo jumbo, this isn’t it.