Monday, November 19, 2007

Internet Marketing At Its Best

With the continued growth of the computer age, there is a whole new way of marketing a business. Especially for businesses who perform most of their transactions online. When reaching for online customers, internet marketing becomes the main target for your marketing efforts as it will attract the customers in your demographic – online users.

There are two distinct styles for online marketing, one is business marketing, the other is website marketing. With web site marketing the goal is to have people searching for particular services or products find your web site while conducting an online search through the major search engines. There are many facets involved in web site marketing and once a business is able to get them all clicking together, there is a good chance they will experience a major influx of new visitors to their web site.

One the other side are businesses that heavily promote their availability aimed at the internet users more so than the search engines. Buying internet advertisements, sending out emails and other promotional marketing materials that are designed to bring visitors to their online web sites, are just a few of the online marketing strategies being used today.

One of the things to remember with online marketing is to consider your home page as a billboard along the side of the road. If there is little traffic along the road, there will be few people who will see your billboard so your efforts should be focused on getting people on the right road. Looking at it from another perspective, there may be over a thousand people selling a certain brand of personal care items and they all have a web site, many provided free when they signed up and they all look alike and have the same enhancements.

If a person searches for the brand by name, there is no telling whose web site is going to pop up in the search results. If you own one of these thousands of sites, specific marketing will need to be done to guide that potential traffic to the site you own. To do this you can use pay-per-click advertising that you pay for based on the number of visitors who click through to your site.

Affiliate marketing is also a popular method of bringing visitors to your site. As a business, you agree to pay a certain percentage or dollar amount of a sale to another site, an affiliate, who drives the traffic to you. Essentially, you are gaining free advertising and only pay for it if your site makes a sale. While some link exchange programs have been successful in the past, having thousands of unrelated links to your site may turn search engines against you and lose your information from their engines and as a result from their results pages.

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

How To Survive In An Online Business

If your company does not offer its services/products online, then you're definitely living in the Stone Age. Businesses today realize that in order to stay competitive, they have to communicate with today's audience who do business primarily online
Running an online business means that you have a global audience. And having a global audience means that your store is up and running twenty four hours every day and seven days of the week. While your customers from New York might be sleeping, those from Tokyo would surely be awake. Therefore an online business is one that never sleeps. It is one that is always on call by customers. As such, an online business must be manned at all times, keeping a close watch on potential business.

In managing an online business, communication is important. Using email and instant messaging as a form of communication between you and your staff will surely be beneficial. There are also different technologies such as the VoIP that enables you to talk with your business partners and your staff from all over the world quite easily. But since you and your associates live in different time zones it is important to set up a specific time of the day when you can communicate with them about the updates and different issues that your business face today and what they need to do about it. You should make sure that they follow your instruction and schedule strictly.
  
Meetings are also a must for online businesses. Meetings are where you'll know the issues hounding your employees and problems that the business is facing. To be able to save on time and effort, online businesses today can meet in an online conference room. This will eradicate the need for physical space and manual preparations.

Another way to survive online is to build up your brand! Yes, brand is important even though you're on the Internet. Building your brand means providing good products, fast services, and pleasant experiences to your customers. Yes, you'll definitely want your customers to have pleasant experiences. Remember, word spreads fast on the Internet. If you have one customer who had a not-so-good time in dealing with your online business and spreads the rumor, then chances are your name will be ruined. 

Don't forget that your website is the face of your online business. Surviving in the online world means that your online business must be able to keep up with the latest technology. And in designing your storefront always keep navigation in mind. A potential customer would not want to visit twenty different web pages just to buy a certain product.

Surviving your online business is tough. Everyday, there are thousands of companies going online and millions of individuals setting up an online business. Ultimately, the key is to success in this endeavor is to love what you do. After all, not everyone gets to touch lives in a global scale.


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Sunday, November 04, 2007

Five Things Women Should Know Before Starting A Business

It is becoming more and more popular to start your own business and women are going into business just as much as men. There is much to know about starting a business, and here there are five important things women should know before starting their business.

First you are going to want to speak with some business professionals.
Here is a list of persons you will want to speak with to get your business on the right foot:

A good accountant can show you how to set up proper book keeping as well as record keeping for taxes.

A lawyer who specializes in small business can legalize your business name and counsel you on how to protect yourself from possible business related lawsuits.

A casualty or licensed property agent can help you to evaluate your insurance needs. They can better narrow down specific areas that you may need additional insurance coverage.

Lastly you will want to speak to a business coach who can help you find start up money, as well as help in areas of bookkeeping and possible future business expansion.

There are some places you can find more helpful information.
Your local chamber of commerce is a great location to start.
Also local women’s business clubs can steer you in the right direction.
Be sure to check you library for county business directories.

Second be sure to know exactly what type of business insurance you need. It’s best to first check your homeowner’s policy to look for possible personal business coverage. If this is included you can have your policy extended for this coverage. If your policy does not allow this you may find better luck speaking to an independent insurance agent.

Third piece of knowledge is to know ahead of time if you will go into business on your own or with a partner. You will want to decide on either a sole proprietership or a partnership.

If you go solo you are the owner and take on full responsibility for the business. If you choose to take on a co-owner be sure to discuss this with your attorney to discuss any preventive maintenance when it comes to your financial set up.

Fourth, be sure to have a solid idea of the cost of your business. Create a thorough
business plan. This will allow you to know if you will need financial assistance such as a bank loan or if you will want to look for other outside investors. You can also search for government grants that are specifically created for women in business.

Fifth and final choose if your business will be run in home or out of home. This choice also includes insurance coverage and grant information.

All of the above go hand in hand to create a solid base for your business. Be sure to speak to business personnel, and do some research.
Knowledge is power when it comes to creating your own business. Arm yourself with all the business knowledge you can. Take some business courses or seminars.
Once you have a good understanding of how your business is to be set up and run you will be well on your way to a successful business.


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