By: Terry Detty
The most common misconception people have for internet audio and video applications are with their usage. More often, video with audio, or one of these alone, are viewed as materials for entertainment or leisure in the internet. This misconception is beginning to fade fast.
The most obvious reason is the way audio and video are used as teasers to wet the appetites of prospective customers. The best examples of all websites that use this method are the shopping websites. These websites that sell hot selling products will design their web pages in such a way that highlights of a whole movie are embedded within the web page. In this manner, they hope to persuade the browsing public, who view the partial material, to purchase the product. In simpler terms, a viewable movie trailer is added to the site.
For commercial vendor websites that primarily sell movies and music, video and audio utilities are an integral part of their marketing strategy. They understand that most people want to see and/or hear what they are buying. They know that using video and audio to show their merchandise to customers wins half the battle for them to get the customers to buy.
For websites that are focused on selling published materials like books and audio books, a few narrated passages or several sample chapters of the material encoded in audio files is a good way to encourage a customer to buy their product. Furthermore, testimonials of previous customers have a better chance of being noticed than those that are just encoded in text. Most people usually go to a website for a specific reason. For example, one person wants to buy an independent video but he/she does not know which independent video vendor website to go to. This person will use a search engine to find what he/she needs. Once found, that person will go directly to the part of the website where the video he/she is looking for exists.
In cases like these, the home or welcome page is bypassed where, most likely, all of the testimonials are situated. With audio and/or video applications installed in the web site, the testimonials can be streamed to the customer automatically to whichever part of the website he/she is in. Of course, using audio/video streaming now to project your testimonials is a bit extreme at the moment. However, future technology will make audio/video streaming a material of lesser bulk in terms of data transfer. There will come a time when the whole internet can be browsed by vocal commands.
To get back to the subject at hand, the ability of being able to project your merchandise, testimonials, and other points you want your customers to be aware of, by using audio/video technology is limitless and powerful. A single video clip lasting around 10 seconds is no longer considered a huge burden as far as electronic data storage is concerned.
What can you, as an entrepreneur, place into a 10 seconds long video so that you can gain your customers’ trust or make them aware of your other merchandise? Now, 10 seconds is a relatively short time, but it is plenty enough time for people to convey several points of view. If a 10 second video is worth more that a lot of text writings, what more a video that is 20 or 30 seconds long?
Internet audio and video streaming technology is getting more and more sophisticated. All you have to do is look around you and you will see people watching videos and listening to music with their I-pods, MP3 and MP4 players. Incidentally, the best sources for their audio and video needs can be found on the internet. So, imagine all the audio/video data streaming, downloading and uploading around in the internet, and you will have a good idea of just how measly a 10 second video is in terms of today’s technology.
As I said, the use of audio/video streaming on the internet is a powerful marketing tool. However, the technology for it has matured enough in that audio and video files use more space from storage devices such as hard drives and I-pods. Already, hard drives of computers have transcended the megabyte barrier and are now storing gigabytes of data (one gigabyte = 1,000 megabytes).
Minggu, 20 Januari 2008
3 MORE Ways to Turn a Profit Online
By: Danny Austin
4. Recommend affiliate products. Recommending affiliate products creates a "no-risk" partnership that allows you to promote another company's products or services on your site to earn a percentage of their sales. As one of the company's "affiliates" or promotion partners, you earn a commission each time someone you've referred to their site makes a purchase. To advertise their wares, you might post a banner on your site that links to the affiliate program's site, or you might publish an article about the company and their products in your newsletter.
5. Sell ad space. Once your site has lots of highly targeted traffic, or a large, targeted opt-in list, you may be able to sell advertising. Advertisers are willing to buy ads when they're being directed at large numbers of their target market. Nowadays, though, advertising revenues are a lot less than they used to be, so I don't recommend you plan on making this your sole source of income. Selling ad space can be a great additional profit stream, but it's unlikely to keep your business afloat on its own.
6. Create a joint venture with like-minded businesses. Joint ventures are all about related businesses teaming up and combining skills, products, services and resources to create new streams of income and profit. One great way to profit through joint ventures is to seek out products or services that would benefit your visitors, and then approach the companies that provide those products or services. Ask them if you can recommend their product or service on your site for a portion of the profits. Most companies will gladly agree to this arrangement--after all, there's no risk for them since they only pay you when you refer a paying customer.
4. Recommend affiliate products. Recommending affiliate products creates a "no-risk" partnership that allows you to promote another company's products or services on your site to earn a percentage of their sales. As one of the company's "affiliates" or promotion partners, you earn a commission each time someone you've referred to their site makes a purchase. To advertise their wares, you might post a banner on your site that links to the affiliate program's site, or you might publish an article about the company and their products in your newsletter.
5. Sell ad space. Once your site has lots of highly targeted traffic, or a large, targeted opt-in list, you may be able to sell advertising. Advertisers are willing to buy ads when they're being directed at large numbers of their target market. Nowadays, though, advertising revenues are a lot less than they used to be, so I don't recommend you plan on making this your sole source of income. Selling ad space can be a great additional profit stream, but it's unlikely to keep your business afloat on its own.
6. Create a joint venture with like-minded businesses. Joint ventures are all about related businesses teaming up and combining skills, products, services and resources to create new streams of income and profit. One great way to profit through joint ventures is to seek out products or services that would benefit your visitors, and then approach the companies that provide those products or services. Ask them if you can recommend their product or service on your site for a portion of the profits. Most companies will gladly agree to this arrangement--after all, there's no risk for them since they only pay you when you refer a paying customer.
3 Ways to Turn a Profit Online
By: Danny Austin
1. Sell your own products. The main advantage to selling your own products is that you ultimately control how much profit you make on every sale and you therefore have the potential for the biggest profit margin. You know exactly what each product costs, and you can try out different price points to see what works the best. People appreciate good value, and removing the middleman is a great way to provide your customers with competitive prices that keep them coming back for more.
2. Sell your own services. Whether you're a small-town dentist, a high-priced online legal consultant, a real estate agent, a tutor, a landscaper, a bed and breakfast owner, an auto-mechanic, a caterer, a fitness trainer or anything in between, you can profit from selling your service online. It's easy to get started selling a service online, but your revenue potential, in most cases, is limited. That's because, unlike someone selling a physical product that can be stored and shipped on demand, you can only provide as many services as your time allows.
When you sell a service, you're essentially selling a relationship with yourself. And this requires that you spend more time and effort establishing your credibility and developing rapport with your visitors than is typically required on a site selling a physical product. You not only need to establish the benefits of the service you're offering, you also need to establish the value of you providing this service.
3. Drop ship products. If you want to sell products without the hassles of tracking your inventory, setting up warehouse space and maintaining a confusing shipping/receiving infrastructure, drop-shipping may be the choice for you. Drop shipping lets you sell quality, brand-name products on your site for a hefty profit, while the drop shipper takes care of fulfilling the order. They warehouse the stock, pack the orders and ship them out to your customers.
1. Sell your own products. The main advantage to selling your own products is that you ultimately control how much profit you make on every sale and you therefore have the potential for the biggest profit margin. You know exactly what each product costs, and you can try out different price points to see what works the best. People appreciate good value, and removing the middleman is a great way to provide your customers with competitive prices that keep them coming back for more.
2. Sell your own services. Whether you're a small-town dentist, a high-priced online legal consultant, a real estate agent, a tutor, a landscaper, a bed and breakfast owner, an auto-mechanic, a caterer, a fitness trainer or anything in between, you can profit from selling your service online. It's easy to get started selling a service online, but your revenue potential, in most cases, is limited. That's because, unlike someone selling a physical product that can be stored and shipped on demand, you can only provide as many services as your time allows.
When you sell a service, you're essentially selling a relationship with yourself. And this requires that you spend more time and effort establishing your credibility and developing rapport with your visitors than is typically required on a site selling a physical product. You not only need to establish the benefits of the service you're offering, you also need to establish the value of you providing this service.
3. Drop ship products. If you want to sell products without the hassles of tracking your inventory, setting up warehouse space and maintaining a confusing shipping/receiving infrastructure, drop-shipping may be the choice for you. Drop shipping lets you sell quality, brand-name products on your site for a hefty profit, while the drop shipper takes care of fulfilling the order. They warehouse the stock, pack the orders and ship them out to your customers.
MySpace - The Ultimate Way For Internet Marketing and MLM
By: Aldian Prakoso
MySpace is most probably now the largest of all social networking website today. There are more than 300 million MySpace users and their membership is growing very fast each day by many thousands. There are also many third party software developers who have created some very great specialized tools to make your MySpace experience wonderful, and also these tools can save your precious time. Here are listed some tools which you should preferably use.
One of the basic important features on MySpace is a tool named ‘Friend Adder'. This is a very easy tool which will allow you to add your friends. Also some third party developers have added friend adder tools which should help you to accelerate your process of adding friends.
If you are a member of a music band group and you just want to add friends to your one profile only which like your music, then you must make use of a Bot that has this feature of friend adder. But if you are in marketing and suppose you have ten profiles on MySpace with 1,000 friends each then do you recognize how simple it will be to send message to all those 10,000 friends as compared to sending out newsletters to 10,000? It would be a lot easier if you can find something that was all in one tool, rather than buy one Bot for each different tool.
MySpace also allows you to have each member their own blog, and now with the introduction of Web 2.0, blogs have become one of the quickest growing trends. I have used Drupal, Blogger from Google and also Wordpress to create blogs. But to stay with newest trends you have to find MySpace Bot which has ‘blog post' utility.
Suppose that if you hold a membership of your local dance group in your area & each group member has their own MySpace profile with many friends. You were going to hold an event of your dance group and you wanted to invite each friend on MySpace. If you had this MySpace Bot that has function of account chaining then you can save a lot of your time.
If you need to use MySpace for your business marketing then you must create a profile to capture your visitor's attention. Now if you create a profile of a young girl sitting beside a pool, you can get a lot of attention than your own profile which is of a 41 year Man. An also to draw notice a good picture is worth more than a thousand words. One of the Bots out there has an account creation feature.
Preferably, MySpace does not like marketers now. They have implemented this rule that if they find many MySpace accounts which are posting similar messages then they will remove and cancel those accounts. So, smart third party software developers have message randomizer in their accounts. This way you can be confident that each of your MySpace profile will post different messages. A message randomizer utility is necessary to solve this MySpace problem.
MySpace is most probably now the largest of all social networking website today. There are more than 300 million MySpace users and their membership is growing very fast each day by many thousands. There are also many third party software developers who have created some very great specialized tools to make your MySpace experience wonderful, and also these tools can save your precious time. Here are listed some tools which you should preferably use.
One of the basic important features on MySpace is a tool named ‘Friend Adder'. This is a very easy tool which will allow you to add your friends. Also some third party developers have added friend adder tools which should help you to accelerate your process of adding friends.
If you are a member of a music band group and you just want to add friends to your one profile only which like your music, then you must make use of a Bot that has this feature of friend adder. But if you are in marketing and suppose you have ten profiles on MySpace with 1,000 friends each then do you recognize how simple it will be to send message to all those 10,000 friends as compared to sending out newsletters to 10,000? It would be a lot easier if you can find something that was all in one tool, rather than buy one Bot for each different tool.
MySpace also allows you to have each member their own blog, and now with the introduction of Web 2.0, blogs have become one of the quickest growing trends. I have used Drupal, Blogger from Google and also Wordpress to create blogs. But to stay with newest trends you have to find MySpace Bot which has ‘blog post' utility.
Suppose that if you hold a membership of your local dance group in your area & each group member has their own MySpace profile with many friends. You were going to hold an event of your dance group and you wanted to invite each friend on MySpace. If you had this MySpace Bot that has function of account chaining then you can save a lot of your time.
If you need to use MySpace for your business marketing then you must create a profile to capture your visitor's attention. Now if you create a profile of a young girl sitting beside a pool, you can get a lot of attention than your own profile which is of a 41 year Man. An also to draw notice a good picture is worth more than a thousand words. One of the Bots out there has an account creation feature.
Preferably, MySpace does not like marketers now. They have implemented this rule that if they find many MySpace accounts which are posting similar messages then they will remove and cancel those accounts. So, smart third party software developers have message randomizer in their accounts. This way you can be confident that each of your MySpace profile will post different messages. A message randomizer utility is necessary to solve this MySpace problem.
The Perfect Internet Product
By: Chris Haycock
Well, this is something we are all looking for aren't we? OK, I suppose we need to know just what attributes the perfect product would have. I reckon they can be summed up as follows:
1) It should be precisely what the the customer wants, and is actively looking for.
2) It should be unique to you. That is that it cannot be purchased from anyone or anywhere else. This does not mean that it has to be a totally original product, as we all know there is very little left that is actually unique. It just should not be available in the exact format/style that you are offering.
3) The perceived value of the product should be a lot higher than the actual production cost. For example a manual or a course can have a mark up of anything between 500% and 1000%, even more in some cases. This way we make a nice profit. What are we in business for?
4) The product should be a quality product, and should look and feel it. Thus ensuring that your customer is happy, and confident of it's value. A quality product also has the additional benefit of reducing refunds. We don't want too many of those.
5) It should be easily deliverable, that is, not requiring special delivery, and not easily breakable or damaged in the post. Of course, downloadable products avoid all these pitfalls.
This brings us to products that should be avoided. I'm sure I don't need to say it but please stay away from anything that could be regarded as illegal or unethical. If you are selling items that you have not personally created or produced for example, you have to acquire the resale rights. These do not have to be expensive, but you are in for a heap of trouble if you don't have them. Also you should stay away from anything that could be considered in bad taste, there's loads of excellent stuff out there without straying into those realms, and you really don't want to be tarred with that brush. The comeback you are likely to get is just not worth it. Business can be tough enough without that sort of hassle. As mentioned before, avoid poor quality products. Customers can, and do, demand refunds, and your refund rate will be much higher with a rubbish product. Don't cheat people, refunds are time consuming and costly, and it will make it difficult, if not impossible for you to sell your expensive back end product at a later date. Fragile, bulky, and difficult to pack items should be stayed away from. Broken and damaged goods will also generate complaints. Heavy items will be expensive to post/deliver. Your product should be as inexpensive as possible to deliver.
A successful product is probably not going to be unique. There aren't many of those left. However, your product can stand out from the crowd as having better presentation, higher quality, and better value. It should stress the benefits to your customer. Benefits count, not features. They should be obvious to your customer, over and above anything similar offered by your competitors.
When you weigh it all up, what do you think is the perfect Internet product? Pretty obvious when you look at it isn't it? I'm sure you all know the answer. Of course. It's Information Products! They satisfy all the above criteria, and they are easily sourced or created. I'll show you how in future articles.
Well, this is something we are all looking for aren't we? OK, I suppose we need to know just what attributes the perfect product would have. I reckon they can be summed up as follows:
1) It should be precisely what the the customer wants, and is actively looking for.
2) It should be unique to you. That is that it cannot be purchased from anyone or anywhere else. This does not mean that it has to be a totally original product, as we all know there is very little left that is actually unique. It just should not be available in the exact format/style that you are offering.
3) The perceived value of the product should be a lot higher than the actual production cost. For example a manual or a course can have a mark up of anything between 500% and 1000%, even more in some cases. This way we make a nice profit. What are we in business for?
4) The product should be a quality product, and should look and feel it. Thus ensuring that your customer is happy, and confident of it's value. A quality product also has the additional benefit of reducing refunds. We don't want too many of those.
5) It should be easily deliverable, that is, not requiring special delivery, and not easily breakable or damaged in the post. Of course, downloadable products avoid all these pitfalls.
This brings us to products that should be avoided. I'm sure I don't need to say it but please stay away from anything that could be regarded as illegal or unethical. If you are selling items that you have not personally created or produced for example, you have to acquire the resale rights. These do not have to be expensive, but you are in for a heap of trouble if you don't have them. Also you should stay away from anything that could be considered in bad taste, there's loads of excellent stuff out there without straying into those realms, and you really don't want to be tarred with that brush. The comeback you are likely to get is just not worth it. Business can be tough enough without that sort of hassle. As mentioned before, avoid poor quality products. Customers can, and do, demand refunds, and your refund rate will be much higher with a rubbish product. Don't cheat people, refunds are time consuming and costly, and it will make it difficult, if not impossible for you to sell your expensive back end product at a later date. Fragile, bulky, and difficult to pack items should be stayed away from. Broken and damaged goods will also generate complaints. Heavy items will be expensive to post/deliver. Your product should be as inexpensive as possible to deliver.
A successful product is probably not going to be unique. There aren't many of those left. However, your product can stand out from the crowd as having better presentation, higher quality, and better value. It should stress the benefits to your customer. Benefits count, not features. They should be obvious to your customer, over and above anything similar offered by your competitors.
When you weigh it all up, what do you think is the perfect Internet product? Pretty obvious when you look at it isn't it? I'm sure you all know the answer. Of course. It's Information Products! They satisfy all the above criteria, and they are easily sourced or created. I'll show you how in future articles.
Behind every successful eBay seller, there’s a blog!!
By: John Thornhill
If you are a serious eBay seller who wants to boost his eBay sales figures, let me tell you, the only way to do it is to increase the traffic to your auction listings.
Registered users and frequent visitors of eBay must be aware of the recent addition on their website popularly known as eBay blogs. But, how many of you have actually tired it to enhance your web traffic and subsequently your sale on the most visited eBay website. If you have been one of those who underestimate the potential of blogging on eBay, I think it's about time you wake up and take a hard look at what it is and the incredible ways in which it can help you. If you are an active member of eBay, you can sign up for your own free blog and open the doors for more traffic, more business, and naturally, more profits.
How to start blogging on eBay?
Blogging on eBay is easy, and providing great content to worldwide eBay users will keep them coming back for more. Through a platform as influential as eBay blogs, you can communicate with you loyal patrons and inform them about the latest developments pertaining to your forte. When you visit the following URL http://blogs.ebay.com/, you will see an option that says "Start Blogging" and all you need to do is click on it to begin your blogging expedition.
What are blogs?
For those who do not know what a blog is, let me explain… A blog is nothing but an online journal and through your blogs, you convey news and views about yourself and of course, your auction sales on a regular basis. Many people these days are taking up blogging to publish their opinions on the Internet and get closer to the outside world.
What should my blog contain?
Now that you have understood what blogging is all about, let me quickly tell you what you should include in your blogs to make it an absorbing reading material. Blogging can be very addictive and as you start blogging, it won't take you long to figure out what appeals to your customers. Enlighten your customers about the kind of products you sell, a bit about your auctions and some stuff that can throw light on the nature of your business. For instance, if you sell computers and that's your specialization, you can provide lot of info regarding computer maintenance, upgrading computers, price comparison, best deals, and so on. What's important here is that your customers must be satisfied with your information and guidance and should be eager to read your next blog.
Although its okay once in a while to write a blog to introduce a new item you have included in your auction, more emphasis should be laid on providing lots and lots of authentic information about your area of expertise. Commenting on other people's blogs and using blog tags (these are keywords to enable people find you easily) can also help you increase your web traffic.
If you are a serious eBay seller who wants to boost his eBay sales figures, let me tell you, the only way to do it is to increase the traffic to your auction listings.
Registered users and frequent visitors of eBay must be aware of the recent addition on their website popularly known as eBay blogs. But, how many of you have actually tired it to enhance your web traffic and subsequently your sale on the most visited eBay website. If you have been one of those who underestimate the potential of blogging on eBay, I think it's about time you wake up and take a hard look at what it is and the incredible ways in which it can help you. If you are an active member of eBay, you can sign up for your own free blog and open the doors for more traffic, more business, and naturally, more profits.
How to start blogging on eBay?
Blogging on eBay is easy, and providing great content to worldwide eBay users will keep them coming back for more. Through a platform as influential as eBay blogs, you can communicate with you loyal patrons and inform them about the latest developments pertaining to your forte. When you visit the following URL http://blogs.ebay.com/, you will see an option that says "Start Blogging" and all you need to do is click on it to begin your blogging expedition.
What are blogs?
For those who do not know what a blog is, let me explain… A blog is nothing but an online journal and through your blogs, you convey news and views about yourself and of course, your auction sales on a regular basis. Many people these days are taking up blogging to publish their opinions on the Internet and get closer to the outside world.
What should my blog contain?
Now that you have understood what blogging is all about, let me quickly tell you what you should include in your blogs to make it an absorbing reading material. Blogging can be very addictive and as you start blogging, it won't take you long to figure out what appeals to your customers. Enlighten your customers about the kind of products you sell, a bit about your auctions and some stuff that can throw light on the nature of your business. For instance, if you sell computers and that's your specialization, you can provide lot of info regarding computer maintenance, upgrading computers, price comparison, best deals, and so on. What's important here is that your customers must be satisfied with your information and guidance and should be eager to read your next blog.
Although its okay once in a while to write a blog to introduce a new item you have included in your auction, more emphasis should be laid on providing lots and lots of authentic information about your area of expertise. Commenting on other people's blogs and using blog tags (these are keywords to enable people find you easily) can also help you increase your web traffic.
Behind every successful eBay seller, there’s a blog!!
By: John Thornhill
If you are a serious eBay seller who wants to boost his eBay sales figures, let me tell you, the only way to do it is to increase the traffic to your auction listings.
Registered users and frequent visitors of eBay must be aware of the recent addition on their website popularly known as eBay blogs. But, how many of you have actually tired it to enhance your web traffic and subsequently your sale on the most visited eBay website. If you have been one of those who underestimate the potential of blogging on eBay, I think it's about time you wake up and take a hard look at what it is and the incredible ways in which it can help you. If you are an active member of eBay, you can sign up for your own free blog and open the doors for more traffic, more business, and naturally, more profits.
How to start blogging on eBay?
Blogging on eBay is easy, and providing great content to worldwide eBay users will keep them coming back for more. Through a platform as influential as eBay blogs, you can communicate with you loyal patrons and inform them about the latest developments pertaining to your forte. When you visit the following URL http://blogs.ebay.com/, you will see an option that says "Start Blogging" and all you need to do is click on it to begin your blogging expedition.
What are blogs?
For those who do not know what a blog is, let me explain… A blog is nothing but an online journal and through your blogs, you convey news and views about yourself and of course, your auction sales on a regular basis. Many people these days are taking up blogging to publish their opinions on the Internet and get closer to the outside world.
What should my blog contain?
Now that you have understood what blogging is all about, let me quickly tell you what you should include in your blogs to make it an absorbing reading material. Blogging can be very addictive and as you start blogging, it won't take you long to figure out what appeals to your customers. Enlighten your customers about the kind of products you sell, a bit about your auctions and some stuff that can throw light on the nature of your business. For instance, if you sell computers and that's your specialization, you can provide lot of info regarding computer maintenance, upgrading computers, price comparison, best deals, and so on. What's important here is that your customers must be satisfied with your information and guidance and should be eager to read your next blog.
Although its okay once in a while to write a blog to introduce a new item you have included in your auction, more emphasis should be laid on providing lots and lots of authentic information about your area of expertise. Commenting on other people's blogs and using blog tags (these are keywords to enable people find you easily) can also help you increase your web traffic.
If you are a serious eBay seller who wants to boost his eBay sales figures, let me tell you, the only way to do it is to increase the traffic to your auction listings.
Registered users and frequent visitors of eBay must be aware of the recent addition on their website popularly known as eBay blogs. But, how many of you have actually tired it to enhance your web traffic and subsequently your sale on the most visited eBay website. If you have been one of those who underestimate the potential of blogging on eBay, I think it's about time you wake up and take a hard look at what it is and the incredible ways in which it can help you. If you are an active member of eBay, you can sign up for your own free blog and open the doors for more traffic, more business, and naturally, more profits.
How to start blogging on eBay?
Blogging on eBay is easy, and providing great content to worldwide eBay users will keep them coming back for more. Through a platform as influential as eBay blogs, you can communicate with you loyal patrons and inform them about the latest developments pertaining to your forte. When you visit the following URL http://blogs.ebay.com/, you will see an option that says "Start Blogging" and all you need to do is click on it to begin your blogging expedition.
What are blogs?
For those who do not know what a blog is, let me explain… A blog is nothing but an online journal and through your blogs, you convey news and views about yourself and of course, your auction sales on a regular basis. Many people these days are taking up blogging to publish their opinions on the Internet and get closer to the outside world.
What should my blog contain?
Now that you have understood what blogging is all about, let me quickly tell you what you should include in your blogs to make it an absorbing reading material. Blogging can be very addictive and as you start blogging, it won't take you long to figure out what appeals to your customers. Enlighten your customers about the kind of products you sell, a bit about your auctions and some stuff that can throw light on the nature of your business. For instance, if you sell computers and that's your specialization, you can provide lot of info regarding computer maintenance, upgrading computers, price comparison, best deals, and so on. What's important here is that your customers must be satisfied with your information and guidance and should be eager to read your next blog.
Although its okay once in a while to write a blog to introduce a new item you have included in your auction, more emphasis should be laid on providing lots and lots of authentic information about your area of expertise. Commenting on other people's blogs and using blog tags (these are keywords to enable people find you easily) can also help you increase your web traffic.
Kamis, 10 Januari 2008
5 Factors of an Effective eCommerce Web Site Design
By: Abel Quitoriano
An eCommerce Web Site provides a secure Internet-based facility for transactions between a business and a customer. It can use rich media presentations to help customers in their buying decisions, provide live support for customer inquiries, take and fulfill orders, and even provide real-time tracking of deliveries for physical products. Whatever feature these eCommerce web sites may have, they have one primary purpose and that is to bring in sales for the company 24 hours a day.
Although setting up an eCommerce web site has never been easier, the bigger challenge for most businesses is to set-up an effective website that tirelessly pulls in sales for the company day in and day out. The crucial element is in the design and structure of your eCommerce web site. This will make or break your online venture. It’s like having a 200 horsepower engine but without the proper chassis, it will end up nowhere.
So, in order to ensure a good return on the time, money and skill to be invested, make sure you take these factors into account.
1. Answer the #1 Question in Your Customer’s Mind
All successful eCommerce web sites know how to answer one critical question of customers – “What’s in it for me?” Let’s face it, all customers are “me-oriented.” You, yourself, are a customer and you can attest that before you give any bit of attention to a product or service, it must first answer, “what’s in it for you?”
So if you don’t give site visitors a reason to care about your product or services, no amount of sophistication to your eCommerce site can deliver the sale.
2. Organized content
Ever been into a market place where every vendor yells at you about what they have to offer? Not only is it confusing, it’s irritating. This would also be the case if you’re trying to present all your products benefits, features, prices and promos on a single page.
So structure your content wisely. Categorize your products or services based on functionality, benefit, feature, color, or size. However it may be, always put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Organize your products/services on how you think your customer can best find and decide on what he or she is looking for.
3. Use color and images to your advantage
Colors and images inspire feelings. It’s no accident why coffee shops like Starbucks and Coffee Bean are using almost the same color tones and images. Upon entering them, you instantly feel soothed by the ambiance and the cozy chairs invite you to sit, unwind, forget the world while enjoying the warmth, aroma and taste of coffee.
In almost the same way, proper use of color and images in your eCommerce web site will set the mood for your clients to stay awhile, read, listen or watch about what your product can do for them.
4. Don’t over sell or over promise
Nothing will make a customer hold-on to his wallet and ran away faster that an infomercial sounding sales pitch. No matter how other marketers would vouch that it’s effective, don’t degrade your web site by sounding like a used car salesman.
Your website should convey a lot of credibility and prestige to gain your customers trust.
And lastly…
5. High touch vs high tech
It’s no doubt that an eCommerce web site has a lot of intricacies wired into it in order to quickly process multiple online transactions at any given time. It’s a whole lot more efficient compared to hiring a lot of sales people to handle every customer on a one-on-one basis. However, you should never use the ‘high-techness’ of your web site to impress your customers. Gone are the days when people are awestruck by technology. As a matter of fact, some are already nauseated by it.
Instead the your eCommerce web site should interact to customers the way a real person would. It should be User-intuitive where only information and functions relevant to the customer are presented to him or her.
Since people want information and they want it now, your eCommerce web site should create an impression that you can cater to their wants.
An eCommerce Web Site provides a secure Internet-based facility for transactions between a business and a customer. It can use rich media presentations to help customers in their buying decisions, provide live support for customer inquiries, take and fulfill orders, and even provide real-time tracking of deliveries for physical products. Whatever feature these eCommerce web sites may have, they have one primary purpose and that is to bring in sales for the company 24 hours a day.
Although setting up an eCommerce web site has never been easier, the bigger challenge for most businesses is to set-up an effective website that tirelessly pulls in sales for the company day in and day out. The crucial element is in the design and structure of your eCommerce web site. This will make or break your online venture. It’s like having a 200 horsepower engine but without the proper chassis, it will end up nowhere.
So, in order to ensure a good return on the time, money and skill to be invested, make sure you take these factors into account.
1. Answer the #1 Question in Your Customer’s Mind
All successful eCommerce web sites know how to answer one critical question of customers – “What’s in it for me?” Let’s face it, all customers are “me-oriented.” You, yourself, are a customer and you can attest that before you give any bit of attention to a product or service, it must first answer, “what’s in it for you?”
So if you don’t give site visitors a reason to care about your product or services, no amount of sophistication to your eCommerce site can deliver the sale.
2. Organized content
Ever been into a market place where every vendor yells at you about what they have to offer? Not only is it confusing, it’s irritating. This would also be the case if you’re trying to present all your products benefits, features, prices and promos on a single page.
So structure your content wisely. Categorize your products or services based on functionality, benefit, feature, color, or size. However it may be, always put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Organize your products/services on how you think your customer can best find and decide on what he or she is looking for.
3. Use color and images to your advantage
Colors and images inspire feelings. It’s no accident why coffee shops like Starbucks and Coffee Bean are using almost the same color tones and images. Upon entering them, you instantly feel soothed by the ambiance and the cozy chairs invite you to sit, unwind, forget the world while enjoying the warmth, aroma and taste of coffee.
In almost the same way, proper use of color and images in your eCommerce web site will set the mood for your clients to stay awhile, read, listen or watch about what your product can do for them.
4. Don’t over sell or over promise
Nothing will make a customer hold-on to his wallet and ran away faster that an infomercial sounding sales pitch. No matter how other marketers would vouch that it’s effective, don’t degrade your web site by sounding like a used car salesman.
Your website should convey a lot of credibility and prestige to gain your customers trust.
And lastly…
5. High touch vs high tech
It’s no doubt that an eCommerce web site has a lot of intricacies wired into it in order to quickly process multiple online transactions at any given time. It’s a whole lot more efficient compared to hiring a lot of sales people to handle every customer on a one-on-one basis. However, you should never use the ‘high-techness’ of your web site to impress your customers. Gone are the days when people are awestruck by technology. As a matter of fact, some are already nauseated by it.
Instead the your eCommerce web site should interact to customers the way a real person would. It should be User-intuitive where only information and functions relevant to the customer are presented to him or her.
Since people want information and they want it now, your eCommerce web site should create an impression that you can cater to their wants.
Sell Those Products with Yahoo Store Designer
By: Matthew Bredel
Around the Internet, up and coming business people are turning towards ecommerce websites to promote their products and services. One genuine way to do this is by building a Yahoo store. For those looking to start an internet business for the first time, starting out with a Yahoo store is an ideal solution. Taking advantage of the Yahoo store designer program can present users with their own ecommerce web design along with search engine optimizing tools, training tutorials, AND MORE. With your own design store on the Web, Yahoo has the reputation to back it up with more than 17,000 business owners and billions of dollars going through the Yahoo platform.
Yahoo store builders have plenty of services, making it the ideal solution for an ecommerce website startup by anyone. Along with 17,000 merchants, it is one of the most popular portal shopping sites on the Web with more than 18 million visitors alone in 2001. From RTML template help to basic startup, Yahoo store services have proven themselves time and time again. Yahoo store builder solutions include web hosting, ecommerce, domain, and marketing services. In order to achieve those Yahoo store profits, web hosting through Yahoo is the first step. It comes equipped with web site building tools, an unlimited number of web pages, and 24 hour customer support.
If you don't know Andy Jenkins, you can still take advantage of the Yahoo stores ecommerce solutions. It is possible to manage up to 50,000 products and develop a professional looking website using Yahoos own tools. Third party tools are also supported, so if you want to use FTP programs to perform your work, it can be done. Also, Yahoo site builder supports a multi page checkout system along with site statistic pages where you automatically calculate tax and shipping along with your products. If RTML challenges leave you confused, there is customer service and getting started guides as well.
One of the best things about the Internet is that there are plenty of experts willing to guide you through the marketing process. Although most of these experts are average Joes posing as experts, some have received critical acclaim in the industries they represent. One of these experts who has worked the Yahoo store builder to his advantage is Andy Jenkins. One of the leaders in the ecommerce website industry is a man known as Andy Jenkins who has revolutionized the Yahoo store world by storm with his Online Store Profits, A Step-by-Step System e-book. As an expert with millions in sales, one of the tips he stresses is to use store building software that comes with templates that reflect the nature of your business. His techniques can be applied by virtually everyone from the newbie to the skilled enthusiast. If you want to make those steady yahoo-store-profits there are plenty of resources on the Internet to get started. Remember, the Internet should be the first place you turn to for complete advice and guidance on ecommerce building.
Around the Internet, up and coming business people are turning towards ecommerce websites to promote their products and services. One genuine way to do this is by building a Yahoo store. For those looking to start an internet business for the first time, starting out with a Yahoo store is an ideal solution. Taking advantage of the Yahoo store designer program can present users with their own ecommerce web design along with search engine optimizing tools, training tutorials, AND MORE. With your own design store on the Web, Yahoo has the reputation to back it up with more than 17,000 business owners and billions of dollars going through the Yahoo platform.
Yahoo store builders have plenty of services, making it the ideal solution for an ecommerce website startup by anyone. Along with 17,000 merchants, it is one of the most popular portal shopping sites on the Web with more than 18 million visitors alone in 2001. From RTML template help to basic startup, Yahoo store services have proven themselves time and time again. Yahoo store builder solutions include web hosting, ecommerce, domain, and marketing services. In order to achieve those Yahoo store profits, web hosting through Yahoo is the first step. It comes equipped with web site building tools, an unlimited number of web pages, and 24 hour customer support.
If you don't know Andy Jenkins, you can still take advantage of the Yahoo stores ecommerce solutions. It is possible to manage up to 50,000 products and develop a professional looking website using Yahoos own tools. Third party tools are also supported, so if you want to use FTP programs to perform your work, it can be done. Also, Yahoo site builder supports a multi page checkout system along with site statistic pages where you automatically calculate tax and shipping along with your products. If RTML challenges leave you confused, there is customer service and getting started guides as well.
One of the best things about the Internet is that there are plenty of experts willing to guide you through the marketing process. Although most of these experts are average Joes posing as experts, some have received critical acclaim in the industries they represent. One of these experts who has worked the Yahoo store builder to his advantage is Andy Jenkins. One of the leaders in the ecommerce website industry is a man known as Andy Jenkins who has revolutionized the Yahoo store world by storm with his Online Store Profits, A Step-by-Step System e-book. As an expert with millions in sales, one of the tips he stresses is to use store building software that comes with templates that reflect the nature of your business. His techniques can be applied by virtually everyone from the newbie to the skilled enthusiast. If you want to make those steady yahoo-store-profits there are plenty of resources on the Internet to get started. Remember, the Internet should be the first place you turn to for complete advice and guidance on ecommerce building.
Use Of Web 2.0 Online Video to Drive Traffic & Sales
Internet has made the transition from Web 1.0 which is html and static links to interactive, dynamic and user driven sites called Web 2.0. Web 2.0 sites are now the highly traffic spots that had been used by a lot of online marketers to boost their sales or services. Online video distribution & sharing is one of the key web 2.0 tools to expose your business to the world.
The use of video is an effective and simple way building a solid relationship with your clients. Video has truly arrived in the online marketing world. Basically, what we will see is every website on the internet becoming its own broadcasting system on the subject matter covered by the niche.
The 3 basic formulas of using video to drive traffic to your website involve:
* How to make an effective internet friendly video
* Must clear deliver your marketing message
* Where you should submit your video for maximum exposure
Internet Friendly Video
Although stats shows that 70% of net surfer are now using broadband to connect to internet, but if you video file is too big and take long time to load even with the broadband speed, you are out. Psychologically, most internet surfer's patient only stand for 6 - 8 seconds, they will "click away" if they need to wait too long for the file to load because they have other better options from many other website with the same topics. Hence, to make your video marketing work, the first thing you should look into is your video file format, Flash SWF is a better format then AVI format as the SWF file size tend to be smaller than AVI file size. There are many online video making and conversion tools available online where you can use to convert your file to a format that can load almost real time on internet and keep your potential customers at your side.
Clearly Deliver Your Marketing Message
No body wants to spend 30 minutes to watch your company history before the video go into the key topic. Hence, make sure your video is short and targeted to key marketing message.
Video Submission & Distribution
If you want market with video online, you video must get seen. So you need to submit your video to Web 2.0 Video sharing sites. You probably heard about YouTube & MySpace or you even watched the videos shared from these sites before. You are probably one of the millions users who are searching and looking for short video clips daily. There are online marketers who spend about 20 minutes to make a short video clip and upload to these sites and netted with the traffic and thousands in sales as an affiliate. This is the powerful of video marketing. Other then YouTube and MySpace, the recommended Web 2.0 sites to submit your video are:
* Google Video - You'll need to download a small piece of software in order to upload your video, but the extra 10 minutes makes it well worth your while for months to come!
* Yahoo Video - Smaller than Google Video and YouTube but still a lucrative place to upload your promo to.
* SoapBox dot com - An MSN video site.
* MetaCafe - Like google video they offer desktop software to make uploading easier on their users.
* PhotoBucket - has a Web 2.0 enabled video space.
* Webshots owned by CNET also offering website traffic opportunities through online video sharing.
* Netscape's video sharing is at Ning dot com.
In Summary,
Web 2.0 sites are current and futures hot spots for highly traffic sites. You can drive traffic from these sites using online video clips. Making an internet friendly video clips and submit to Web 2.0 video sharing sites will drive significant internet traffic to your websites and let you make more sales.
The use of video is an effective and simple way building a solid relationship with your clients. Video has truly arrived in the online marketing world. Basically, what we will see is every website on the internet becoming its own broadcasting system on the subject matter covered by the niche.
The 3 basic formulas of using video to drive traffic to your website involve:
* How to make an effective internet friendly video
* Must clear deliver your marketing message
* Where you should submit your video for maximum exposure
Internet Friendly Video
Although stats shows that 70% of net surfer are now using broadband to connect to internet, but if you video file is too big and take long time to load even with the broadband speed, you are out. Psychologically, most internet surfer's patient only stand for 6 - 8 seconds, they will "click away" if they need to wait too long for the file to load because they have other better options from many other website with the same topics. Hence, to make your video marketing work, the first thing you should look into is your video file format, Flash SWF is a better format then AVI format as the SWF file size tend to be smaller than AVI file size. There are many online video making and conversion tools available online where you can use to convert your file to a format that can load almost real time on internet and keep your potential customers at your side.
Clearly Deliver Your Marketing Message
No body wants to spend 30 minutes to watch your company history before the video go into the key topic. Hence, make sure your video is short and targeted to key marketing message.
Video Submission & Distribution
If you want market with video online, you video must get seen. So you need to submit your video to Web 2.0 Video sharing sites. You probably heard about YouTube & MySpace or you even watched the videos shared from these sites before. You are probably one of the millions users who are searching and looking for short video clips daily. There are online marketers who spend about 20 minutes to make a short video clip and upload to these sites and netted with the traffic and thousands in sales as an affiliate. This is the powerful of video marketing. Other then YouTube and MySpace, the recommended Web 2.0 sites to submit your video are:
* Google Video - You'll need to download a small piece of software in order to upload your video, but the extra 10 minutes makes it well worth your while for months to come!
* Yahoo Video - Smaller than Google Video and YouTube but still a lucrative place to upload your promo to.
* SoapBox dot com - An MSN video site.
* MetaCafe - Like google video they offer desktop software to make uploading easier on their users.
* PhotoBucket - has a Web 2.0 enabled video space.
* Webshots owned by CNET also offering website traffic opportunities through online video sharing.
* Netscape's video sharing is at Ning dot com.
In Summary,
Web 2.0 sites are current and futures hot spots for highly traffic sites. You can drive traffic from these sites using online video clips. Making an internet friendly video clips and submit to Web 2.0 video sharing sites will drive significant internet traffic to your websites and let you make more sales.
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