In today’s economy, it is impossible to ignore the importance of placing your business online. For companies that are already established as traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, the transition to having an online presence can be difficult. Among the challenges business owners face are choosing a web hosting company, designing a website and developing an effective internet marketing plan.

Web Hosting Companies

Although it can be tempting to simply go with the first web hosting company you look at, it is important to do some research about the many different web hosting companies and have an understanding of what services they offer before making a commitment to a host. There are several considerations you should factor into your decision.

Domain Name Registration Services – Not all web hosting providers offer you the ability to choose and register a domain name. Choosing a domain name can be extremely important because it is how your potential customers will identify you. Consider choosing a name that integrates primary keywords related to your products or services.

Shopping Cart Options – If you are branching out your services to include selling your products online via a website, then you will need to integrate an e-commerce shopping cart into your website. You may find that you want to utilize a shopping cart other than what the hosting company offers. Make sure the hosting company is able to support your chosen shopping cart program, a href=”http://www.shopping-cart-reviews.com/”>shopping-cart-reviews.com</a> can help you finding an appropriate shopping cart.

Bandwidth – Bandwidth can become important if you have a high number of visitors or a large developed website that integrates many pages. Lower cost website services often have a small amount of bandwidth that is shared on a server with hundreds of other sites. Dedicated servers are usually more expensive, but give you more flexibility in terms of number of pages for your site and number of visitors it is able to accommodate.

Website Design

Designing your website is also extremely important. Landing pages should be easy to read, not overly cluttered with flash images and integrate your primary and long string keywords in the text and content. While it is possible to choose a template for your overall website design, you will still need to set up elements such as page titles, meta descriptions, images and text content. Many small business owners choose to turn these tasks over to a website designer, rather than learn how to design a website on their own.

Internet Marketing Plan

In order to be successful with your internet venture, you need an internet marketing plan. The primary method of driving traffic to your website will be through search engine results. Using techniques such as social media marketing, building backlinks, integrating primary and long string keywords into content and article marketing can be extremely effective methods of improving your website’s search engine ranking.

Studies have repeatedly indicated that consumers conduct searches and click on results that appear on the first page of results. As a result, it is important to make a continued effort to make internet marketing a major part of your marketing strategy in order to improve your profits and make your transition to becoming an online business worthwhile.

About the author:

Sarah is a keen blogger and represents a number of businesses, today she writes for Aon Hewitt – the global leader in human capital consulting and outsourcing solutions. Their specialist fiduciary management unit meet trustees’ need for additional investment expertise to deliver improved fund performance. Download the 2011 Delegated Investment Survey Today.

Categories: Marketing | Date: Oct 14th, 2011 | Author: Mark | 1 Comment

The boom in e-Commerce hasn’t yet slowed but with new web stores opening up all the time, and the demand for more and more web designers to build stores, we are seeing a lot of stores pop up that leave a lot to be desired.

Here is my quick-fire list of 4 ways to ensure your e-Commerce store sucks:

1. Believing the goal of a web store is to “create an online presence” for your brand

Far too many brick and mortar retailers make the decision to get their products online to “get more of an online presence”. An e-Commerce site that provides you with “online presence” is about as much use as a car without petrol if it doesn’t convert sales.

 Think of a good e-Commerce store as a sales tool that funnels your site visitors to exactly where you want them to go – the checkout – and along the way, intuitively shows them your products you have for sale and encourages them to purchase.

2. Making your website all about you

When buyers come to your website, they really aren’t interested in learning about you (well, at least they aren’t in the first instance). Instead, they want a good deal on the products that you sell… and they want it fast!

Above all, your website should be about identifying your buyer’s pains and solving their problems through selling them products or information. Build your site around this principle and watch for an increase in sales.

3.  Insisting that buyers create an account before they can purchase an item

On a more practical note, another way to ensure your e-Commerce site sucks is by forcing customers to register an account before they can make a purchase.

While there are some benefits to collecting information from customer account registration, such as tracking spending habits and communicating with the buyer post-sale, you should know that account registration is a big turn-off for online customers.

4. You make it easy for shoppers to abandon your shopping cart

Shopping cart abandonment is a significant issue that all web store owners need to address. If regular stores like Wal-Mart had to deal with abandonment of physical, in-store shopping cart abandonment, they would need to hire new employees who would do nothing but unpack those carts.

Luckily the virtual world protects you from this laborious task, but still, cart abandonment is something you need to address in order to maximize sales from each site visitor.

The top reasons for cart abandonment are:

• Your shopping cart requires too much personal information or account creation is required (see point 3 above)
• The shipping costs are too high and not shown until the last step of the checkout
• The total cost of the items is too high (e.g. when a customer adds a number of items to the cart, but only realizes the total cost when they go to the checkout)
• There are too many steps in the checkout process or the checkout is complicated
• The buyer is saving the purchases for another time (they intend to return to complete purchase)

Which of these online retail sins does your e-Commerce store commit?

About the Author: Alice Delore is an education specialist for SaleHoo.com, an online community of over 95,000 online sellers and retailers. Their product range consists of an online selling course, ecommerce software  and their flagship product, a wholesale directory. 

Categories: Marketing | Date: Sep 18th, 2011 | Author: Mark | No Comments

If you run your own eCommerce site then hopefully by now you will have already learnt about the importance of professional copywriting, the use of keyword rich titles and unique product descriptions and the importance of a clean and efficient checkout process to increase sales.

One are often overlooked by many small eCommerce sites is how the products are displayed. A well written product page may help visitors to find your website through the search engines and snappy calls to action may boost conversions, but an unexciting photo of the product can put many people off.

Sometimes using supplier photographs may not be an option, so in these cases it really can pay dividends to produce your own photographs. You may not wish to personally photograph all your stock but choosing the top 10% of products and then showcasing them further on your site can boost sales.

However, producing professional looking shots of products is not an easy task for an amateur and you really do need to invest in some photographic equipment. To start with you will need a digital SLR camera with a high quality macro lens for taking close up shots of items. You will also need a tripod and maybe a remote switch too. Lighting is important so you will need to some basic photo studio lighting, reflectors and back drops. These can all be purchased at a reasonable rate and many items can be picked up second hand on eBay.com.

To process the images you can purchase professional photo editing software such as Photoshop, however there are some free and open source applications available which do an excellent job. GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an open source piece of software which provides almost the same functionality as Photoshop. IrfanView is another free software package which provides some more basic photo editing options and is very easy to use, plus it loads quickly on older computers.

Once you have your equipment then you just need to learn the basics of still life photography. You can learn by reading a book on the subject or better still by enrolling on a photography course which is dedicated to still life or studio photo techniques.

The key elements to perfect for still life photography are composition, working with backgrounds and lighting. Once you have these mastered you will soon by creating visually stunning photos of your products for your website. Hopefully the small investment in time and equipment will result in a rise in revenue that will easily cover your costs. With photography it really is a case of practice makes perfect, so the more photographs you take and appraise the better your skills and photographs will become.

To improve your skills further you should consider a photography course  where you will learn all the basics of photography from composition and lighting through to image manipulation using digital editing software.

Stephen James runs photography training courses through CoursesPlus and specialises in product and lifestyle photography.

Categories: Marketing | Date: Jul 29th, 2011 | Author: Mark | No Comments

Frustrated by your Facebook page’s performance? Ready to establish your brand’s identity on Facebook but don’t know how to start? Whether you already
have a page but aren’t happy with its results or you’re finally ready to see what Facebook can do for you business, you want a page to grab visitors’
attention and continue to hold it.

This is how you create that kind of page:

Optimize Your Facebook Page’s Appearance to Make It Pop

Your profile picture is the first thing visitors will see. Make sure you choose one that makes an impact and creates a memorable association with your
brand. It’s also important for this picture to properly scale as a thumbnail.

You can reinforce your brand and profile picture with the row of five pictures at the top of your page. Choose pictures that will look good in any
order since Facebook will display them randomly.

It’s important to include relevant information visitors want to know about your business. Don’t use this as an excuse to clutter your page with
rambling. Conveying your important information in a succinct manner is the best way to overcome the short attention span of Internet users.

How to Acquire Page Likes from People Who are Actually Potential Customers

Did you know you can buy 1,000 Facebook Likes for $57? The problem is offers like this aren’t even worth their cheap rate. These Likes range from
overseas traffic to fake profiles. What they aren’t are visitors in your target demographic who are truly interested in your business.

You want the majority of your page Likes to come from your target demographic. The first way to attract these visitors is by promoting your page on
your existing web properties. WordPress and other popular platforms offer plugins and extensions that make it simple to link your website or blog to
your Facebook page.

Adding your Facebook page’s URL to your email signature is another simple but effective way to promote it. You can also consider adding the URL to your
business cards or other marketing materials.

Contests can yield excellent results. The key to getting the highest quality Likes from a contest is to offer prizes that appeal to your target
demographic.

Engage Your Page’s Audience by Talking About Something Other than Yourself

Acquiring Likes is just the beginning. A Like is similar to someone agreeing to go on a first date with you. You’ve piqued their interest, but that
doesn’t mean they’re committed to you. The ball is now in your court to show them you live up to their initial impression of you.

Updating your Facebook page follows many of the same principles as blogging. The difference is you want to keep the information you share shorter than
a standard blog post.

Always remember the focus should be on your audience and not on yourself. Your Facebook page is already promoting your brand, so your updates don’t
need to be a never ending stream of promotion. You’ll achieve much better audience engagement by sharing non-promotional information that is
interesting to your audience.

You also want to make your audience feel special. Sharing exclusive deals is a great way to make them excited about your page. Deals are also great
because you can promote yourself by giving something of value to your audience.

Sell Products Directly on Facebook

Once you have created a loyal following of users on Facebook, why not make it easier for them to purchase products from you? Rather than clicking from
Facebook to your website, which could be a disorientating experience, offer products for sale within your Facebook page. There are many apps that can
help you do this and the range is huge. Some companies charge thousands to set up a store while others are free. One free Facebook store app from Vendio is unique in
that it lets you sync the products that you sell in your online store with your Facebook page. That means less work for you and more exposure for your
products.

Helen Fang is an ecommerce and social media expert who is responsible for educating Vendio ecommerce software
customers on the best ways to sell online through channels like eBay, Amazon, Facebook and through their own online stores.

Categories: Marketing | Date: Jul 13th, 2011 | Author: Mark | 1 Comment

Here is a great post on SEOMoz about some of the common SEO challenges in shopping cart software. I’d say this is pretty spot on, I’ve encountered all these issues at some point.

This post is probably not ideal for those just starting in SEO, contains a few more advanced concepts.

Categories: Marketing, Shopping Carts | Date: Feb 28th, 2011 | Author: Mark | 2 Comments

Thousands of wannabe entrepreneurs dream about being their own boss and the rewards from starting their own company. Unfortunately, they completely overlook the qualities and hard work it takes to succeed. Around 80% of businesses fail in the first two years, mainly due to inadequate skill and knowledge. Below, we’ll highlight and debunk myths about starting your own business.

Economy is bad – This is a popular myth about starting a business. Most entrepreneurs wait for the “right time”. The truth is there is no right or wrong time. There are many entrepreneurs who have started in a bad economy, or when in debt, but are now successful.

We have a perfect business plan- No plan is perfect. Markets change every day and you need to adapt. Don’t spend lots of your time writing business plans and doing growth predictions – you never know how your consumers will react to your products. Instead of writing a detailed plan focus on the key points and revise often.

Innovation means success – It’s good you are innovative and trying something new, but not every innovative product succeeds. You need to confirm whether the market is ready for the concept. A recent example is Google Buzz which hasn’t made a huge impact (yet). Make sure the market has enough space for your product to grow.

Perfection is important – Don’t wait for a perfect product to make your first sale.  Start selling once you’ve got a workable product and improve it based on customer feedback. A good example of this is Microsoft and improvements to Windows 1.0 in 1985 till now on the basis of customer’s feedback.

Turning a hobby into a business –Many business consultants suggest turning your hobby into a business. You still need to understand the huge difference between a hobby for fun and for your client’s money – the stakes and the demands are a lot higher when it’s someone else’s money.

You can set your own schedule – Many aspiring entrepreneurs think they can set their own schedules. The reality is different. As a boss you need to be everywhere, with your employees, your clients and more. As boss you set the work culture in your company – if you want your employees to work extra hours then you have to. As a boss you will often be the first to enter and last to leave.

Products sell themselves – You might have the greatest product in the world but it won’t sell itself without marketing. In many markets thousands of other people might be selling the same products, so you need to take the initiative to go to your audience instead of waiting for them.

These are seven myths about starting a business. Do you know of any others? Feel free to share them in the comments below.

This guest post is by Gagandeep Singh who works for Fortepromo Promotional Products.

Categories: Marketing | Date: Mar 30th, 2010 | Author: Mark | No Comments

Most ecommerce sites are using Adwords. I manage AdWords account on behalf of several clients. Frankly, I’ve never really liked the AdWords interface. I always dreaded going in there and, like it or not, as humans, we are less inclined to do things we hate.

I recently downloaded the Google Adwords Editor. This is a program you download to manage your adwords account(s) in (yes, it works with master accounts for those who have them, a godsend for me). You import your account in, make the changes offline, then when you are happy you sync it back up.

What’s it like? It’s amazing. Every now and then you bump into a piece of software that just works exactly how you think it should. This is one of them. No, it’s not perfect, there are a few things I’d like to change, but overall it’s wonderful. I’ve spent the last few hours over hauling the largest account I manage, and it’s been so easy to do. I’m absolutely convinced that when I go back in a few weeks time to check out the results of these changes, the client’s sales will have gone up at least 10%. I suspect if I were doing it via the web interface I wouldn’t have made quite so many tweaks, and probably not gotten as good a result.

I love it! Well done Google Adwords Editor team!

Categories: Marketing | Date: Jul 2nd, 2008 | Author: Mark | 1 Comment

One of the frustrating things about being a new site is that new sites rank poorly in Google. This is doubly frustrating for ecommerce sites who often rely on Google organic traffic for a lot of their sales.

In the SEO community, it’s widely accepted that new domains are penalized in search engines (e.g. receive poor rankings) for approximately 6 – 8 months. There’s little that can be done about this. In fact, sometimes doing aggressive SEO work in that period can make it longer. This  is called the aging delay.

If you want to minimise this damage, the best steps are:

• Register the domain as soon as you can
• Put up a one page site, with a brief explanation as to what it is/will be. It doesn’t need a pretty design, just something basic, as long as it contains a few good keywords so Google understands what the page/domain is about.
• Get the site one or two links – beg your friend, your brother’s blog, etc. The links are so Google can discover the site and start the clock running to age your domain.

Given most sites take a few months to build, it’s a good way to minimize the painful waiting period.

Categories: Marketing | Date: Jul 2nd, 2008 | Author: Mark | No Comments

Great news from the Inside AdWords blog: Google Conversion Optimizer is launched. For those of you not clear on this, let’s take a brief look at history. Early ads were all CPM based – pay per 1,000 impressions. This is still popular, and Google supports it. Overture and then Google revolutionized the industry with CPC – cost per click ads, which virtually all ecommerce sites use today.

Most people are also familiar with affiliates, where you pay someone for referring a customer to you if that results in a sale.

Google Adwords now supports CPA – cost per acquistion, which is a hybrid of the above. What happens is you bid how much you are prepared to pay for acquiring a customer (which in my opinion is the single most important metric for marketing). You say “I am prepared to pay up to $5 for every sale my advertising generates”. Google tracks your sales, and runs your campaigns at a frequency, and using targetting that results in you paying no more than $5 sale.

The downside for small shops is you need a minimum of 200 sales/month via AdWords in order to join in the program,  but that’s reasonable (if not slightly annoying for many).

Categories: Marketing | Date: Jul 1st, 2008 | Author: Mark | No Comments

An interesting article from Scientific American discussing the psychology of pricing. If you are running a shop, it should give you some thoughts on your pricing strategy.

Categories: Marketing | Date: Apr 27th, 2008 | Author: Mark | No Comments