You Are Your Customer....., so sell to yourself

Today I spoke with an employee at our office.   He wants to sell cufflinks (good idea by the way).  The product fits him; he is the clean cut, manicured dude in the office and he actually wears cufflinks often.  So this product is right up his alley.

He contacted a dropshipper, and he has gotten some custom jewelers to create designs for him too.  So he is on his way.  Unfortunately the website builder is really giving him trouble, not because the builder is limited but because he has been working on this for a couple of weeks and he is now cutting corners.  He is forgetting one of the common mistakes made by new online business owners, he is "cutting corners".  If you start to short change yourself it will be easier and easier to do this as tasks come up.

Eventually you will start to loose focus and then it will be over.  You will have a site that you think is up to par, but you would not purchase from.  Keep a business journal, make notes of  your changes along with likes and dislikes.  Don't get off track with the small stuff, but don't just pass over major elements either.

Remember your check list and plan out your tasks.  Remember your sales, your seo, your link building, your video marketing.....etc and don't give up.  Just a little work each day will add up for you.  The investment you make here will pay off and help you meet your goals.

How Video Can Help Your Website

How Video Can Help Your Websiite

The world of video marketing has really positioned itself to go hand and hand with Ecommerce.  For those of you who want to sell a products online, there is no better way to engage your customer than to provide product videos. These videos you can create or that you get from a dropshipper if they have then.  The videos in the end can serve multiple purposes.

Here are a few

1. The video can show true scale.
2. The video can be a testimonial
3. The video can be a product review
4. The video can generate leads
5. The video can build links
6. The video can be a press release
7. The video can become a vlog (video log)

I suggest using Youtube when you first start out, however remember the strengths and weaknesses of Youtube.  It is easy for Youtubers to get caught in this huge video watching cycle and that doesn't work for ecommerce.  

Make sure the videos are created to send traffic back to your site.  An example would be to create a product video that is 2 min. in length for your website.  Then create a second video that is only 30 seconds for youtube.  When searchers find your video of 30 seconds they should be directed to www.yourwebsite.com to view the rest of the video.  At that point you have the visitor and you can show the entire video and close a sale.  

There are many places to host your videos.  Youtube is the most popular and it is the most used.

Use your videos to engage your customer and to build credibility.  Good Luck with your work.  We will be posting more Video marketing tips soon.

Understanding Your Process

Are you lost?  Do you feel like you're spinning your wheels?  Don't feel alone, the fact is most new online business owners are in the same space.  The few entrepreneurs who can stay the course do so with a well documented plan of action.

The first step is to ask yourself "do I have a plan of action"?  If the answer is no, then you should fall back and get one going (quickly).  A good plan of attack will help you stay the course, please don't think you can keep it all in your head.  That simply doesn't work.  If you don't write it down then its just an idea, writing it down changes it from ideal to goal.

Let me give you an example.  Lets go through this process of contact and brainstorming questions for a drop shipper before finalization.

1. Call dropshippers
2. Ask questions to determine quality
3. Make decision
4. Set up dropshipping account
5. Meet contact at Dropship company
6. Gather information from Dropshipper to construct website
7. Set up service agreement
8. Set up billing

Questions (side note)

1. Questions for a Dropshipper
1. Do they offer blind dropshipping
2. What are cost to me
3. What are the cost to the customer
4. What content does the dropshipper give me for site construction
5. Do they have a service agreement, or contract
6. Who is my contact in their office
7. How do they bill
2. Do they offer a membership program
3. Do they offer an affiliate program
4. Do they do marketing on their existing products
5. What are the best selling products
6. Who takes returns from customers
7. What are the return policies for the customer
8. What is the profit margin

These are some general questions that you could think of and write down.  Remember that you can't just keep things in mind.  Any of these ideas can easily be forgotten.  Writing them down can keep them in mind, especially when you are speaking with product suppliers.  Writing down a plan of action, and not just keeping thoughts in your head will help you keep focus.  Don't become impatient and frustrated, remember your plan of action and stick to it.

Good Luck with your work!!

Article Writing - Things to remember.

Article Writing - The Things You Should Remember


I find that most of our clients don't really know what they are trying to accomplish when writing an article. It is possible that most new online business owners hear terms like "article writing", "blogging", "press releases" and "content rules so write" with no real understanding for them.  The excitement of a new project can cause some anxiety or impatient reactions.

There can be a number of reasons for the article's creation and submissions, however when you are beginning a new online business that can help give you focus.  Ideally you would like to create a very content heavy emphasis.  You also want to create link popularity from a number of different credible sources.  Correctly writing article can do both of these.

1. Remember not all article directories are the same.  Ex - Ezine.com may have different guidelines than articles.com
2. Your articles really shouldn't contain more than 1-2 links each.
3. Article should be engaging, the more they are viewed the better your site/blog will do.
4. Proof Read your articles - Please
5. Only submit one article to to one article directory (very important)
6. Remember the length of your article.  Be informative, but do not exceed the limit outlined in the guidelines.

Writing the article isn't hard and you getting feedback is a pretty quick process.  The guide lines at each article directory give really good details on how to structure the article for admission.

Good Luck with your writing.

What do you sell.........? Does your customer know what you sell?

There are many times during the course of a year that we help people focus their website.  For new Ecommerce site owners it's easy to take on the "go broad or go home" atitude.  If you are one of those "go broad or go home" site owners and you don't know it, lets review the qualifications and this will help you determine if your site is focused.

If your site contains multiple product lines
example:
sleeping bags
gps devices
food storage supplies
atvs
hunting rifles
Then you need focus

At first glance you may think these product lines should all be in the same site, because Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabellas does it.  However, that is not the case.  When you are first starting your own online business, you should plan on creating a separate site for each of these examples.  There are hundreds of different kinds of sleeping bags, gps devices, etc.

Creating one site with all these products when you first start your online business is a "no no".  Your goal should be "niche market", and not to offer every product available in your entire market.   If you keep your website specific and you plan/ execute for one "niche market", it will be easier to close sales.  It will also be easier to market.  SEO, SEM, Product Fulfillment and Customer Support will all be much less intense if your product/content revolves around one area.

The keywords you choose need to revolve around your products, in many cases your keywords are your products.  Making sure those keywords closely relate will help you with search engine placement.

After you establish yourself then branch out to the next product line.  Your existing customers will follow and you will have the experience to tackle a whole new world of products.

Good Luck

How big are the images in your site?

The size of your website images can have a bigger effect than what you might think.  Most people take pictures with their camera and then place them on their site by adjusting the size in the code (or through a wsywg editor).  This type of "editing" doesn't actually change the size of the image.  It simply tells the browser how to display the image.  Other may simply take the images they are given from a wholesaler, dropshipping company or joint venture partner.  These images may come in several shapes and sizes with minimal uniformity.  Neither of these types of images should be considered ready for your website. 

The images should be optimized for web browsing and they should be cropped to fit a size scheme.  Here are a few points to remember.

• The image should be 72 DPI, some may argue this point and tell you it can be higher, but really it doesn't help you as much as hurt you.  By increasing the DPI to 150 DPI you will increase the size in a big way and the image will really not look that much better.  Loading time will slow down with each image that you add to a page at 150 DPI.
• Now a days you have more images formats to choose from than ever before.  A friend made a comment to me the other day, he said the "PNG" is the new "GIF".  I kind of laughed, but it is true.  The most commonly used Image files used are JPG, GIF, PNG.
• Crop and space your images for each page, the layout should be appealing and balanced.  Create a clean browsing environment.  Images in multiple sizes and shapes creates a feeling of clutter and it causes distraction.

Images that are created and placed correctly will serve your site well on many different levels.  Don't under estimate the power of a balanced site that loads quickly.