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Informative Articles

How I Write Articles For Profit
Copyright © 2005 Steve Shaw Most Internet marketers worth their salt know how effective articles can be to generate promotion for their web sites. The major problem for many is simply writing the article. This article shows you the exact steps I...

Is This Why Your Business Is Failing?
How detailed is your marketing plan? Are you using the best resources? How achievable are your goals? Do you have the patience to see your efforts pay off? Research shows that 73% of entrepreneurs do not recognize what’s involved to be...

Top 3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions Overnight
The ideal world of affiliate marketing does not require having your own website, dealing with customers, refunds, product development and maintenance. This is one of the easiest ways of launching into an online business and earning more...

Top Three Reasons For 'Why Your Product Is Not Selling'
Huh? You are selling a product? I didn't know that! Why didn't you say so... So Top *ONE* Reason: You don't advertise. Oh...this product? They are giving it away free. Why should I pay for it if I am getting it for free... So Top *TWO*...

YOU'VE GOT TO PAY TO PLAY
You design a killer site, submit to all the major search engines and directories, and you wait...and wait...and wait... Submitting to search engines/directories is a smart idea, but it seems like an eternity before you see the results of your...

 
Online Marketing: A Busy Person’s Guide

Managing your online business is a full-time job. Unfortunately, most people have other responsibilities that prevent them from devoting all their attention to e-commerce.

If your time is limited, here are five things you must do to keep your revenue flowing:

1. Keep content updated

Nothing signals a neglected business like old content. If you walked into a retail store that had dusty signs and old merchandise you’d turn around and walk out. You would instantly know that the service would be poor and the merchandise unacceptable. A neglected website signals the same things. The only thing your online customer can judge is what they see on the screen. They have no idea you work late into the night improving your product. Make sure to do simple things like updating your copyrights to the current year and removing references to holidays that have passed. Which leads us to our next topic—promotions.

2. Develop frequent promotions

Excite your customers whenever possible. People respond to novelty. Create new promotions as often as you can. Even slight changes make a difference. A discount, a bundle, anything that says “ALL NEW” will catch their eye. If you get into the habit of constantly revising the way your products are merchandised, you will have a much stronger sense of what works. Which leads us to our next topic—testing.

3. Test and revise

In my marketing business, I have seen companies spend hours in meetings deciding what words to use and how to position a product. Often it is based on nothing more than a strongly held position by an aggressive staff member. The arguing continues until the loudest staffer gets his way. This is not the way to make decisions about your website. The only true way to know if something works is to test and revise it. If you are not tracking promotions you are simply devoting time to a hobby. This


is not to say that intuition should be ignored. It should be tried and tested to determine whether your customer sees things the way you think they do. Which leads us to our next topic—feedback.

4. Get feedback from your customers

If you want to know what your customers think you have to ask them. It’s not complicated. I guarantee that sometime in your career you will be shocked by how customers perceive something differently from you. I use the word ‘shocked’ advisedly. Sometimes you will be so close to a product that the obvious benefit or flaw escapes you completely. This is not a good experience, but it will encourage you to see how your customers view your offers. Which leads us to our next topic—buying.

5. Make buying easy

Your main goal for your website is to get people to buy something. You have a service or a product that needs to be purchased. Is it easy to buy? Do you require lots of extraneous information that you don’t use? Think long and hard about what your buying process should look like. Check out how the largest companies sell their products online. They streamline the process so that people don’t get frustrated and give up along the way. This should be your goal. Don’t feel you need to make the purchase seem ‘important’ by requiring lots of unnecessary steps. Amazon has reaped the benefits of "1-Click" ordering.

If you pay attention to these five areas, you should not feel guilty when you devote your time to other parts of the business. Which leads us to the final conclusion—make it fun! Busy people need fun too.

About the author:
Digital Media Works, Inc.(http://www.DigMediaWorks.com ) is an Internet marketing and design firm. A seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional, founder Stephanie Diamond, former AOL Marketing Director, is experienced in building profits.