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Home::ECommerce
Making Money Online: What are you doing?
Author : David Lumsden
Copyright 2006 David Lumsden
If you are doing something that is a lot better than most!!! Let
me put it to you plainly, it is/has been your intention to make
money online, by means of a business venture, an affiliate
program, by an online retail outlet or possibly by selling some
information of which you are an expert(?).
Let us say you started doing this last week, you have good
excuses for not having put the fatted calf on the table. Last
month, you are still ok in my book, a year ago? Oh dear,
something must be up.
Let me guess. You haven't quite got round to doing anything yet,
too many commitments, a full time job, don't understand the
business at all, what is a URL again, my brother's wife got the
summer 'flu, I looked after her, we fell in love and we had to
move to Chicago and my aren't the prices high.
There are also many ways of doing nothing to promote your
business. Obviously you can do nothing, your computer has been
turned to stone and the only thing that shows on the monitor
reflects your personal taste in the movies. Fine, if that's the
way you want it, so be it. I will leave you alone. Next.
Now some of you may be trying to promote your business but are
failing not through a lack of effort, but by what is commonly
called 'Barking up the wrong tree'. Don't worry, I am not going
to shout at you, we have all done it.
I assure you, the lecture is over, I am on your side, why would
I pick holes when you have given it a shot. My task is to help.
Let us say that your product is a good thing, for example you
sell information on how to make wine. (I admit freely I haven't
a clue how to do that, so this is fanciful writing). What do you
need to sell your 'ebook' product?
Interested customers. I repeat Interested customers. You have no
use of someone who wants to knit a jumper, someone trying to
book a holiday online, the worldly Joe who wants to see what
Jennifer Anniston looks like with no clothes on. None of these
are 'Interested' in your product.
I must point out it is not enough to have the best website in
the Internet universe if nobody visits it. And nobody of any
meaning will visit it if it is hidden in the depths. How do you
get your site noticed by the right people, the customers you
need to make a living?
The most basic step is to pretend you are your own customer. Try
finding your site, any site that sells what you are trying to
sell. Do not get led astray, it is the easiest road to failure
in the online world. Find out who is selling your type of
product, look at prices, what exactly is on offer, how can you
compete best and how do you make yours come to the surface.
Sounds difficult? It isn't, you have an interest in your
product, you need to sell it. See what works for others.
Examples: Domain name, erm homemadewines.com
vintryforbeginners.com cheapwine.com You get the idea. Ensure
your domain name is in line with your product.
When you write the copy for your web sales page, make sure you
have all the relevant keywords in there, everything known to
making wine at home should be there. Is it expensive to find all
this out? No, sign up for Google Adword and Google Adsense and
they will teach you how to do it for free. If you need more
help, there are many ebooks on how to achieve success this way.
(I do not pretend to be an expert in this field). But if you
want to sell a product, your website must always be on the
surface. This art must be learnt.
Traffic is traffic is traffic. For those not selling a product
but an affiliate program, your website has been done for you,
you have to learn how to promote it. Oh gosh more learning, true
but it is all laid out for you. A good affiliate program will
teach you how best to promote your business. It is no big deal,
some of it costs others don't, but in reality all you have to do
is follow what has been tried and tested, really I mean it, what
has worked for others who have trod the path in front of you,
will work for you too. That is part of the beauty of a good
affiliate program.
For the present I will leave you to it. I will however remind
you that if you do nothing, that is exactly what you will
achieve.
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