Creating an Online Business

Let’s start the year off right. Let’s talk about creating an online business.

There are many different online businesses that you can create and in this article today we are going to look at a couple of different types.  This article focused on creating online businesses and the different types that you can create.

The first kind of businesses that you can create when looking to create an online business would be a website which serves a particular niche in the market.  Many people have done on this and this is often done by trying to find an underserved niche, building a website, and then profiting off of this small but profitable match.  A great place to find more information on this particular topic would be www.findhotniches.com. Here the author has created a website which finds underserved niches which you could potentially build a website around.  When you’re building a website, you’re going to want to find cheap keywords that you can use to help build your business as well as create good content.  By creating the content and then creating back links between yourself and other websites, you’ll be setting yourself up to have a high page rank with Google.  By using AdWords to bring traffic to your website and then also developing your natural search engine traffic through building up a website, you will have built yourself a very solid business.  This is just one way of creating online business.

Another way to you can build and create an online business is through eBay.  This is an area which was particularly hot several years ago and still remains a solid business proposition.  Many people are able to make a full-time income on eBay.  You will need to find a wholesaler where you can get products at a discount to sell on eBay.  The general idea when working on selling on eBay is to find a drop shipper.  A definition of a drop shipper is a wholesaler sells you a product and will ship the product to a customer.  You will buy the product at the wholesale price and then make money on the difference between what you buy the product for and sell the product for on eBay. Using the wholesaler allows you to focus on selling the product without worrying about stocking the product.  You do not need to worry about any sort of shipping or backend but you will want to make sure that everything gets sent out.  If there are problems with shipments, the customer will be coming back to you and not to the wholesaler to.  If you go to worldwidebrands.com, you will find the best wholesale shipping directory on the Internet.

These are two of the different ideas in creating an online business. There are many ways to make money on the Internet but these are two proven methods. You will not have to use a lot of money up front to create these particular online businesses and these businesses can be something that you will have great deal of success with.

Dr. Ande
Host of, KIVA Biz Talk Radio & the Business Talk with Dr. Ande broadcast
Dr. Ande Online
Dr. Ande Radio

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Building Your Business: The Beauty of Upselling to Maximize Your Profits!

The key to understanding upselling is to analyze your product or service line and order sales to see which are commonly sold on the same order. With this valuable information you will see patterns for complementary products and you can use that to put together a custom shopping cart. Cross Selling is an upselling tool that will maximize your attachment rates…and your profit! In the business you will also hear this referred to as “Attachment Rate”. Attachment rate is the measure of how often you sell one product in tandem with another product.

Here’s how Upselling works
When your customers or clients are shown one of the products from your ordered list based on the purchase(s) they already have in their cart, they are then offered complimentary products that many may not have thought about. It’s the same principle of having the “single candies and trashy rag mags” by the checkout counter. People tend to impulse shop.

This is where your research comes in
Many custom shopping carts add the “Cross Selling Tool” features. Some allow you to choose the top 4 products that you would like to feature. Let’s say that you are a website reseller and your research shows that a customer who purchases a domain name also purchases hosting 35% of the time; purchases WebSite Tonight® 25% of the time; and occasionally adds on a SSL Certificate or Private Registration. When you set up your shopping cart Cross Selling Tool you might want to offer hosting to be the number one product offered with a domain purchase; WebSite Tonight® as the number two product, and so on.

This tool will encourage customers to purchase the complementary items that go along with the products they already have in their cart.

You have to do your due diligence and test this tool over time to see what combinations work best for your customers and their needs. If you operate an online store, or offer digital downloads it’s a good idea to see if you shopping cart offers this tool. Then select your check-out special products, based upon your research and start seeing your sales increase today!

See you next year!!!

Dr. Ande
Step Up 2 Success

How to Make Online Business Profits

You have heard the saying “work smarter not harder” this is true for your online business as well.  Your goal is to increase profits not increase your work load.

Offer an up-sell for your product or services.  A good example of an up-sell is a popular game console sells a basic edition for $295.95 now they also offer a premium edition for $395.95.  The difference is two components that are required for specific game play.  To upgrade at a later date those two components would cost approximately $150.00 dollars more.  Most people will purchase the premium edition as they see this as a good deal and getting more for their money.

You will want to test various methods of providing an up-sell for your particular service or product.  You can offer this premium edition or enhanced service prior to customer purchasing or after they have purchased and before final purchase settlement.

Subscriptions are an excellent way to increase your profits.  If customers like your service they will be happy and renew each year.  It requires little time, effort, and cost to keep them as customers and happy.  It is much easier to keep someone happy than to build a new relationship from scratch. A subscription service is easily done.  By using your imagination you will find one that fits your target audience.  Here are a couple suggestions to help start.

Have a popular site category on your website.  Charge a yearly fee for inclusion in your links or directory.  This will pay for your time and effort to review each link request and also allows discourages the casual link requester which also improves the quality of your links.

Offer a printed copy of your newsletter.  Include expanded details on information and also coupons or discounts that readers of the regular newsletter would not receive.

Create a subscriber only service and offers information or services that are not immediately available to someone visiting your site.  An example would be.  If you have a housing referral site that gives housing information.  For a fee they can also get contact information for any of the rentals or for sale homes on your site.

Continually follow up with customers and potential customers.  Let them know you are available for any questions or concerns they may have.  If you have any new products or services just in and not announced on your site as of yet.  Be sure to inform the customer who has purchased a companion service or product of these new offerings first.  An auto responder can make this task much easier than manually doing each one.

Work on building relationships.  You want your online business to be considered friendly, reliable, and trustworthy.  Offer to go above and beyond expectations if possible.  You will set yourself apart by gong from the online world to the outside world even if it is just a simple thank you card sent in the regular mail.  People do remember such acts and will reward you with future purchases, and a word of mouth recommendation to others.

If necessary get rid of the high maintenance customer.  You will never be able to make everyone happy.  Some customers are so constantly demand extra’s but not willing to pay for them; others are just rude to you on a regular basis.  Be polite but explain that you will no longer be able to supply them with goods or services for them.  You can direct them to a competitor’s website if you wish.  But it is your online store and you have the choice as to if you want to serve them or not.  The goal is to make money and increase profits not increase your work load and headaches.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Dr. Ande
Host of, KIVA Biz Talk Radio & the Business Talk with Dr. Ande broadcast
Dr. Ande Online
Dr. Ande Radio

Season’s Greetings

Just a quick note from me wishing all a Merry Christmas and for those who are ahead of us in the states a Happy Boxing Day and Kwanza.

Peace & Prosperity to you all

Dr. Ande

Here’s Why Paying for Your Traffic Is a Smart Move

There are so many success stories you will hear about businesses making it good in the internet. The troubling thing is, there are maybe a tenfold or even a hundredfold of stories contradictory to theirs. Many have unsuccessfully launched a business enterprise that is internet based but only a handful shall succeed.

Is this through luck? That is even more remote. It takes good business sense and a lot of help and team effort. Most importantly, it is the eagerness to succeed and the determination to learn and the willingness to invest in a lot of hard work and some money.

The Very Basic

Like Neo, traffic is “The One”. Without traffic, all your effort would just go to waste. Every business needs customers, without them you wouldn’t have anyone to sell your products to. In the internet world traffic is the walk in customer. The more traffic you have the more people would be able to sell your products to.

But like any business that’s in every corner building or in the mall, not everyone that goes in will buy, but the greater of number that do come in to browse your merchandise, the greater number of people that will buy your products. It is a simple and known fact.

But, how do you get traffic, traffic large enough that could make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good profit. Many big companies generate traffic of tens of thousands a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buys, but that small percentage is enough to provide them with good business.

Many of these success stories get their traffic from paying others. Yes that’s right; you have to spend money to make money. Advertising is the key. The more people that knows that your site exists; the more people would of course go to your site, that’s common sense.

While there are many ways that can get you advertising for free, this do not generate the same high volume as those methods that are getting paid. These paid advertisements include advertising schemes by Google and Yahoo.

The Value of Searches

The search and will be the easiest and fastest medium in finding what a person needs in the internet. Search engines have been very popular because they provide a vital service to many people. They are free and easy to use. With this popularity, they get many visitors and clicks that they are the most common sites that people go to. It is easy to understand why so many companies would pay to advertise with these search engines.

Search engines provide information to the millions of users that they have each day. They provide links to many sites that a user may be looking for. If your sites link pop up in the high ranks of the search results page, you get a great chance that they will go to your site. While search engine optimization is a cheaper and low cost way to get your site a high rank, paying for advertisements will ensure that you will be on the top ranks.

When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your traffic. This may sound like not such a good idea, but the payoffs would tell a different story. When you pay for your traffic, you are guaranteed of a consistent traffic flow to your site. You will never go with an empty sales day.

Paying for your Traffic

Usually, you will be charged with the number of hits a link gets when your ads is clicked, this is called pay per click. For some search engines, you will be charged with the number of times your ad shows up when a certain keyword or keyword phrase is searched. It is imperative that you have good keyword content in your ad. There are many tools that aid you in using the right keyword for the right moment.

All the money you spend in paying for your traffic will not be for naught. You will get an impressive boost in traffic which will also result to a great boost in your sales figures. Paying for your traffic would be a really good idea and you will get all the benefits it has to offer.

Happy Holidays,
Dr. Ande
Host of, KIVA Biz Talk Radio & the Business Talk with Dr. Ande broadcast
Dr. Ande Online
Dr. Ande Radio

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Building Your Business: Keyword Density for SEO

Keyword Density is the percentage of keywords compared to the rest of the text in your Web page. This metric is important because it gives you a tool to compare a Web page or site to that of similar pages with higher rankings. You can see how your use of keywords compares to theirs.

If you see a comparable keyword density between sites, chances are their higher ranking is due to inbound links and/or inherited page rank. If their keyword density is higher than yours, there’s a good chance you can increase your ranking with some careful keyword placement for organic search optimization.

Use one of the following free keyword cloud tools to check your site’s actual keyword density:

Visual Results
Use font size and bold-face to get a quick visual of what words have the highest density on the pages you search (without the actual statistics).

Keyword Cloud from webconfs
http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php

Keyword Density Checker from iwebtool
http://www.iwebtool.com/keyword_density

Statistical results
These tools give you actual number of occurrences, percentages of density and other key metrics by keyword.
 
Keyword Density Tool from SEO Tools™
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density/

Keyword Density from Link Vendor
http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/keyword-density.html

Compare two sites
Use this tool to see how your site compares to another.

Keyword Density Analyzer from KeywordDensity.com
http://www.keyworddensity.com/

What do you do with the information once you have it?

Once you get a good understanding of what keywords are strongest on your site. You might be surprised that your organic content is pointing search engines in a direction you didn’t expect.

1. Evaluate that and decide if you need to modify your copy and tags/titles, or if it’s something you should use to your advantage and build upon.
2. Take a new look for competition. Try searches on the top keywords in the major search engines and see who shows up.Take a look at their sites and see if they truly are competition. Review their offers to see how they compare to yours. Also be sure to read the search engine results set for their site compared to yours…whose is more compelling? How can you change your copy to better grab the potential customer’s attention if your results were to come up side-by-side
3. Compare keyword density with your known top competitors. This might give you an idea who’s more likely to come out on top in the major search engines (of course, keyword density is only one factor in the mix – don’t forget that incoming links, overall relevancy, etc., also determine page rank).Use the results to help prioritize the copy you need to tweak in the future, or maybe set your goals to build some new content pages that will make you a stronger competitor in those areas.
4. Target online directories where you can submit your site and increase incoming links. To ensure you get approved for inclusion, have a blurb that clearly ties your site to that directory.

Until Next Time

Good Luck & Good Business
Dr. Ande
Step Up 2 Success
Happy Holidays

5 Truths to Building an Opt-in List

After clearing the fog regarding email marketing myths, here is how one can benefit from employing the power of email marketing campaigns – building an opt-in list.

However, building an opt-in list is not a piece of cake particularly for the uninitiated. Here is a rundown of tips on how to succeed in this kind of marketing endeavor.

1. Strategic Collection of Data

Know which information from your audiences will help you in lowering expenses and/or make sales flourish. Devise a tactic to make people voluntarily provide you with the information necessary to create higher conversion.

Overload of data is not good. Ask only for opt-in, with their full name and email addresses. Make sure that the profiles that you gather are updated to aid in improving the relevance, timeliness and satisfaction from each deal you make.

2. Good Implementation

Old adage says it all – ‘action speaks louder than words’. This easily translates to the difficulty one has to undergo during the execution of his or her email marketing efforts. It’s a good thing that various methods, often low-cost, abound to hasten and facilitate the building up of one’s opt-in database.

Tracking your email marketing results can pose great hardship, too. Technology and relevant sources should be employed in making this aspect of your marketing a lot manageable. Your high traffic groups of opt-ins with the greatest result should be taken noted of.

The following are the most widely used methods to leverage channels without overspending:

1. Make use of websites.

It is an excellent tool for data collation and providing you with relevant info regarding your email offers. Use forms that solicit your visitor’s email address and consent.

2. Make use of print ads, brochures, TV, radio and direct mail.

These are the more popular ways of marketing aiming to lead traffic to one’s site. You may want to ask for signups for email services. Make your website more visible through these media. Offering free electronic newsletters and or rewards program can do well in making it easy to win the nod of your audiences, too.

3. Maximize your sales force.

Customer service associates can help a lot in making you benefit more from your email correspondence. Sales people with proper education on how to aid you in this endeavor can very well contribute to higher ROI. Techniques like offering account updates and special programs through email can easily land you those lists of valuable visitors.

4. Don’t make your point of sale pointless.

Forms for signup located at cash registers and other high-traffic and highly visible spots can be very excellent venues for your business to collect email addresses. Notification of upcoming sales through their email addresses and names can coax them to supply you with the information you need.

5. Conferences or trade shows can work, too.

Giveaway offers or entries on sweepstakes are great for opt-in to volunteer their contact details.

These tactics should be applied with adequate caution and should focus on earning the trust of your opt-in list instead of simply collating data for your sole own benefit. Always make sure that the forms that you will use and other methods that you will employ will not necessitate too much fuss to subscribe. This is for people to not be annoyed during the process of data supplication.

With that bunch of information, who can ever go wrong with the feat of building an opt-in list?

Keep building your online business. Happy Holidays!

Dr. Ande
Host of, KIVA Biz Talk Radio & the Business Talk with Dr. Ande broadcast
Dr. Ande Online
Dr. Ande Radio

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3 Myths to Building Your Business with an Opt-in List Dispelled

Before revealing the secrets of the trades, here are myths and fallacies that need to be cleared before one indulges into building an opt-in list. These marketing misconceptions could pose an obstacle towards your profiting from your business.

1. Not a lot of people use email
   Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods nowadays simply because virtually almost all people use email. Check on those email fields or blanks required to be filled up on various forms needed in processing different transactions. A person without an email address is tantamount to a person without an online home, which is one big shameful truth for this generation.
   
2. Email marketing campaigns can offend a lot of people
   The not-so secret way to surmount this dilemma is through permission-based advertising. There’s no harm in trying after asking for permission.
   
3. It’s stupid to send email to all the people
   The key to this predicament is to have a very discerning eye on who to email and who to not email. Better look for some metrics on how to know which group of people would give you high ROI or return on investment.

Next post will go into the 5 Truths to Building an Opt in List

Until then, keep building your online business. Happy Holidays!

Dr. Ande
Host of, KIVA Biz Talk Radio & the Business Talk with Dr. Ande broadcast
Dr. Ande Online
Dr. Ande Radio

Step Up 2 Success: Building a Custom Landing Page

You know how important it is to have custom landing pages for your pay-per-click campaigns, email campaigns, and any other marketing efforts that drive potential customers to your website.  But if the thought of creating a custom page scares you, don’t worry. The trick isn’t to write it from scratch, but to recycle the content you already have.

Let’s get started.

Step 1.    Determine the messaging for your marketing piece and landing page.

For this example, let’s say we’re sending an email to your current customers telling them about a week-long sale. 

For the content of the email, we’re going to include the following elements:

• Introduction appealing to customer’s desire to draw more visitors to their site, thereby increasing sales
• Product description cut and pasted from the page in your turnkey storefront
• Sale price $XX.XX versus the regular price of $XX.XX
• Sale Dates – “You must hurry, because this offer expires on [DATE].”
• Call-to-action – “Act now and SAVE 20%.”

For the landing page we’ll incorporate the elements from the email, plus add more details to show the user how this product will benefit them:

• Insert the plan features from the product page with a “Buy Now” link
• Call out sale price and dates of sale (make this easy to change out with standard price after the sale is over)
• Emphasize how easy it is to get started, pull the ‘4 Steps to Success’ from the overview tab on the product page with a “Buy Now” link.
• Call-to-action – “Act now and SAVE 20% on Traffic Blazer, the surefire way to increase visitors to your site.”

Now that you know where to find all the elements, the writing doesn’t seem so bad, does it?  That’s all there is to it! You have the building blocks for custom landing pages within each of the product pages of your storefront. Just take a moment to read through the content and decide which pieces work with the message you want to share with your customers. Then craft your call-to-action and use it to tie your marketing email and landing page together.

Things to Remember: Be sure to include more details on the landing page to close the sale.

See You Next Time

Dr. Ande
Step Up 2 Success

Step Up 2 Success : Use Your Social Skills!

The term “Social Networking” covers a variety of Web-based tools, some of which you might already be using. Most of these tools are free to sign up for, but may take some time to set up or maintain:

• Blogging – Writing, reading and commenting on trends and articles relevant to your readers.
• RSS feeds – Use them to push information out to users and bring content in to your blog.
• Bookmarking – Use it to gather and publish content to your blog.
• Facebook^®/LinkedIn^®/MySpace^® – Establish a following on these popular social networks.
• Personalized networks – Build your own network with tools like Ning^® and share information.
• Forums – Create a discussion space where you interact with people looking for solutions.
• Twitter^® – Tell followers what’s new at your business in 140 characters or less.
• Online classified directories – Post your business information on CraigsList^®, BackPage^® or Insider Pages^®

Blogging is the gateway to other forms of social marketing, so start here. Read other people’s blogs, make comments, and participate in any communities that attract people who might buy your products. Once you have an idea of what the community is talking about, start your own blog with an eye toward providing information of value to these readers.

A few tips on successful socializing:

Keep it relevant. Nobody likes a pushy salesperson butting into their conversations, so make sure your comments fit the topic being discussed. Freely offer your expertise whenever a topic on which you’re an expert comes up; mention your product or service only when it might solve someone’s problem – not every time you comment.

Be timely. Old news is no news in social networking, so you’ll have to make an effort to stay ahead of trends. If  you see an article in USA TODAY about Mexico’s growing interest in retail imports. If you are in a reseller you might post this “tweet” to Twitter: “Get a .COM.MX and sell your products online in Mexico, one of the fastest-growing retail markets. Now just $X.XX! MyStoreURL.” or something like that.

THINGS TO REMEMBER”

A network is not built in a day.

You aren’t going to attract a huge readership, friend list or Twitter following overnight. Networking takes time. Continue to connect through linking, friends and following other people until they start to reciprocate.

Good Luck & Good Marketing

Dr. Ande
Step Up 2 Success