Archive for September, 2010
Why the Success of Your Online Business Could Depend on Your Health
One of the problems of being self-employed is that you will need to be fit, alert and able to deal with large amounts of stress. It is one of those paradoxes of life that just when you need to take care of yourself the most, you are probably neglecting yourself the most. Setting up any kind of e-commercial enterprise, can be an enormous strain on both your mind and body.
To ensure that in the future just when your business begins to build and you need all the energy you can muster you will need to look after your main business asset now. That asset is of course you and the one thing you will have to guard most carefully is your back –if you can’t sit at a computer you in effect will have no online enterprise. Read the rest of this entry »
Why the Internet is a Powerful Business Medium
Business today has ultimately more chance of success than it ever has before. So why is that? Not that long ago anyone who wanted to start a business had no choice but to open up a ‘bricks and mortar’ shop, office or spare parts operation which meant that they were tied to a lease, local tax on the premises, were commited to being on site during normal office hours and often needed to employ staff.
Nowadays with the aid of the internet no one needs to have actual business premises or employ someone to man the shop. These factors alone means that the internet a very good medium for a business to grow. For one thing the start up costs of internet marketing is low. You can set up a website and register a domain name for less money than decent weekend away and if you use ‘drop ship’ merchants for products you propose to sell you won’t need expensive leases, employees, transportation fees and shipping expenses. Read the rest of this entry »
Using Google Analytics to Improve Your Traffic
Anyone who has an online company and doesn’t bother to religiously check their Google Analytics stats is not just missing a trick they are in fact missing out on the life support system of their business. Web site stats can be compared to the human body in not so much that ‘your heel bone is connected to your knee bone’ as that your visitors are connected to your keywords and your bounce rate is connected to your income.
Get the picture? If you don’t know if visitors are leaving your site in droves how can you put it right? Correctly used Google Analytics is one of the most useful tools on the web. It may not be one hundred percent accurate but it is as near as damn it to feeding you vital information about your site visitors.
For instance, by having an idea what terms and phrases are commonly used by your customers you would have an idea what key phrases and terms you should concentrate on. It is rather like knowing what would be the most effective bait to get more customers to come to your website. Popular keywords or keyword phrases that people are searching for will tell you a heck of a lot about them.
If you can build up an intimate picture of how your target audience operates, what motivates them emotionally, what they need and how their problem impacts on their life in real, external and tangible ways, the easier it is to succeed in that market. All aspects of your business are derived from your understanding of your customer, and if you are working off of assumptions, you’re making mistakes and not likely to be enjoying the level of success you could.
Google Analytics is your best friend since each day it tells you what countries your visitors came from, how long they stayed on each page and which were the most popular pages they visited on your site. If visitors, for example, seem to land on your site and then quickly leave, it might be time to add some compelling content to your site. If your site becomes an authority on a specialised subject it could pull in more traffic – but you won’t know if your ploy is working unless you check your analytics and hopefully see an upward trend in visitors.
Also by knowing which of your products are commonly searched for, you would be able to add a new set of relevant terms and phrases to increase your visibility on the web. These key terms and phrases would be very target specific since they are directly sought after by customers, you are then assured that your site will be visited.
Search terms that are used and translate into sales are what you need which once again illustrates the point of using Google Analytics since this is the only way you can ‘watch’ what visitors are doing on your site. Which page are they arriving by? Which page are they leaving by? Do they move round your site and if not why not? Are you failing to keep visitors long enough to make a sale?
Google Analytics will tell you which countries are giving you most of your visitors, which is your top content, how many page views you get each day, your top landing pages, your most common exit pages and probably most important of all what the bounce rate is for your site. A high bounce rate equates to a low income rate!
Another great is the traffic sources data which keeps you informed of your traffic breakdown. In other words what is the source of your traffic? Is it direct repeat traffic or is it mainly made up from new visitors that come from search engine searches? Or does it come from referring sites and if so which are the most reliable referring sites or links? Armed with all of this ammunition means that you are much more likely to be able to get out on the web, attract visitors to your site and keep them there until you make substantial sales. Read the rest of this entry »
Keep Your Online Store Customers Coming Back For More
If you want to keep your online store customers coming back for more you need to give your site the once over with a very objective and critical eye. Remember that 95% of the people who come to your online store are unlikely to buy anything the first time. They have to become comfortable with your site, used to how you do your business and feel secure before they commit their hard earned cash. If you have a reliable site with useful content that also makes them feel safe they will return as loyal customers again and again.
It is important to understand that when it comes to making purchases online, web users are looking for a safe, quick, and easy experience. If the whole experience becomes difficult, or time consuming for people to purchase what they need, they will not hesitate to go elsewhere. The following e-commerce tips should help you create an online store that will lead to contented repeat customers. Read the rest of this entry »
How to Guide on writing a Profit Pulling Copy
Copywriting is an art form used to keep the read attentive and attracted to the write. It is a skill which takes time to master but is an effective skill which can add to your artillery in the internet marketing business. In order to create a copy that gets real results, you have to focus on many different factors. Below are some tips designed to improve your copywriting skills and boost your sales conversions.
The first important copywriting tip that you can receive is that when you are writing a sales copy you have to make sure that it’s easy to read. If your copy is hard to follow, you’re going to lose readers left and right. You need to write copy that works and that has all the required information, but you should include bullets and subheadings so that it’s easy to digest. Your copy will be much easier to read if you can include all the pertinent information in bullet points. Read the rest of this entry »