1. Build Targeted Email Lists

You must build your own targeted lists of subscribers. This is easily done using autoresponders that let you sequentially send a series of messages to your subscribers. Entice these subscribers to join your list by giving them a valuable product/service in return. Last and certainly not least, set this process up to run without you ever having to touch it again - automate it.

2. Track your advertising campaigns.

You MUST do this to keep track of your expenses and profits. Tracking can tell you where your visitors are coming from and what they are buying. It can also tell you which of your affiliates are performing really well, and which ones need your help. Tracking your ads can also point out how well your JV-deals are performing. It can let you know where and where NOT to place your ads.

3. Setup a Newsletter.

Setup a newsletter or niche ezine to capture emails. You can even set this up on your own domain. Set up what’s called an” auto-niche ezine”. This could be a X-day training course, or an ezine that you publish quite frequently. The trick to this is to create about 8 or 9 messages before you begin accepting subscribers. This way if you use your autoresponder to send weekly messages, you’ll always be several messages ahead of the game. I suggest sending weekly, with mailings no less than 3 days apart - unless you’re offering a training course where the information can be assimilated and applied quickly. Even here, you should give your readers a chance to digest the information.

4. Setup an affiliate program.

There are several people out there who would rather market other peoples’ HOT products, rather than create their own. This is great for you, if you’re running your own quality affiliate program. Select a program that allows you to not only offer your affiliates an affiliate link to promote, but one where you can train your affiliates to sell your product. Guess what? You can use autoresponders for that too.
Simply create a series of messages that teach your affiliates how to promote. You should also allow your affiliates to use your text and images (banners, etc.) to promote for you. Also, it would be really bottom-line affecting if you and your affiliates could track your ad campaigns. That is the icing on the cake and some pretty good icing too. You and your affiliates get to zero in on the most effective and least effective advertising methods and adjust your campaigns accordingly.

5. Use proper product management

Some people don’t understand this one. You should use shopping carts for physical products, not digital ones. Your credit card processing and product delivery should be secure and efficient. If you’re selling digital products (ebooks, software, etc.), make sure your customer downloads are secure so people cannot steal from you. Yep - people steal on the Internet. The ideal download link is one that is encrypted and that expires after a certain time period - say 24 hours. This gives your customer plenty of time to download their new product.
For physical products, your shopping cart should be responsive and searchable. The layout should be simple and intuitive. If you offer your customer options such as colors and/or sizes, make sure this is easy for them to follow and integrates seamlessly with your cart.

6. Follow-up promptly and professionally

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can make you or it could break you. You must always practice prompt and courteous communication with your prospects and customers. A good practice is to use an autoresponder and/or help-desk system to follow-up with your customers and to offer them support. An auto-responder with a simple message stating, “Thank You for your inquiry. Someone will contact you shortly….” could work wonders for your image. It could also be that extra something that makes a customer remain loyal and/or refer you to their friends and family.

A Support/Ticketing system with pre-formatted answers to commonly asked questions can cut your response time dramatically. This is especially powerful if mail-merge functionality is included as well. Mail-merge is a way of automatically including things like the customer’s name and email address, etc in your message. In your auto-responder it would look like this: “Hello $firstname, thank you for buying our widgets! We love you!”

7. Use a single all-in-one ecommerce solution to mange your business

An Internet business is probably the easiest and most profitable business in the world to setup. However, careful planning and execution can ensure your e-business does not become a burden on you and your loved ones. E-Business Automation is the answer to this problem. it allows you to put your e-business on FULL auto-pilot and streamline your efforts. You can automate your entire e-business from the customer’s first click to the sale, to the follow-up after the sale, and beyond. You can even train affiliates, plus manage multiple auto-ezines. The power that e-business automation gives you to focus your attention on other things is unbelievable. Try it out, you’ll never go back to manually managing everything in your e-business again!

I whole-heartedly recommend e-business (website) automation for the amount of time & money it will save you in your e-business!

An integrated all-in-one ecommerce solution that offers all of the most popular, and most desired ecommerce features and tools is the only way to go. You want to work smarter, not harder!

Learn more about website and

http://www.ProWebWare.com

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Think about this. You are planning to engage in “eCommerce”, to take your business online. So, you need to learn a new set of business rules, a new way of doing things, because online business is “different”, right?
Well, actually, no, not really. You still have a product or service to sell. You still have a store with a shop “window” (your website) and you still need the customers to visit your store, in order to buy whatever it is that you are selling.

The only major difference is that (continuing the analogy) your local store window can only be seen by a small group of people, whereas your online business can be seen by the whole world. By engaging in eCommerce, you can take your business “global”.
For many businesses, this is truly an advantage, representing a wonderful opportunity.

But that is not the case for everyone, particularly for companies who sell a physical, tangible product. When planning to go online, therefore, you should spend some time thinking about your product and exactly who your target market is, because this will be a crucial factor in determining whether your venture is a success or a failure.
What it is that you plan to market on your eCommerce enabled website, and who will want to buy it? Some products will, by their very nature, not be totally suited to a world wide market. Pork based food products for example, will not be popular in Muslim countries, nor will wine, whisky or beer. Sales of open toed sandals may be disappointing in Iceland, Greenland and the frozen polar North.

Secondly, give very careful thought about how you will get your product to the customer. For example, if you were to make laser toner cartridges in Asia (as one of my client companies does) there is absolutely no sense in trying to sell one or two cartridges at a time to a customer in the USA, because of the cost of delivery.
So, if your product is bulky or heavy, selling outside your locale may not be practical.

Furthermore, you need to consider that, whilst most countries use the same Standard International Trade Classification (S.I.T.C) codes for deciding on how much import duty to levy on a particular product, the actual duty to be paid varies from country to country, and such variations can (and will) lead to disputes. Again, using my client as an example, they sold a consignment of toner cartridges to a customer in Finland, which got held up in Customs for several weeks on arrival in Helsinki, because of a dispute over the Import Duties to be paid.

Whilst this was not the fault of my client or his customer, nevertheless, the result was an unhappy customer, who obviously did not become a regular customer.
Likewise, if you plan on selling a service online, can that service be provided outside your local area in such a way that you still make money? Do you need to have one of your own staff actually work with the customer (in which case, you need to stay local) or can the work be easily subcontracted on a global basis? Would it be easy to find such a local subcontractor capable of supplying your advertised service in such a way that both you and the customer are happy? How much would such a subcontractor cost?

Unless you can get positive answers to all of these questions, then, again, it may pay you to keep your services local, rather than overreaching, in order to become a global player.
The simple truth is that, whilst the global nature of the internet allows you so sell to the whole world, it is the nature of your product or service that will ultimately decide whether this is practical for your potential customers, and profitable for you, or not.

http://webbiz99.com/ecommerce

Steve Cowan is an enterpeneur, businessman & writer. He is also an international racing driver & full time father. Find more, visit his site at http://webbizz99.com/ecommerce

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Starting your first online store?

Starting an online store can be extremely daunting for someone new to the world
of online businesses, but, for a good reason. There are so many aspects which
create success for a shopping cart in a world of powerful search engines,
directories, affiliates and word of mouth, the chance of making it big can rely
purely on a big budget or a brand new idea.

If you’re thinking of building your online extension of a current business or
even starting a purely online business then hopefully the following will outline
some of the most important aspects of getting started.

Market research
Ask yourself, is there any point in setting up any kind of online business at
all, if there is no demand or so much competition you will be lost in the crowd?

There have been a few exceptions in the past where small businesses are so well
structured and marketed that they grow quickly and succeed, however this can be
very difficult without the right support.

So how are you going to set yourself apart? What will be your image? And what
are your goals?
These are questions you need to think about when you are researching. Find out
if there is truly an opportunity for your company to succeed. The worst thing
you can do is simply jump in and hope for the best, did the most successful
companies in the world do that?

Setting Targets and Goals
Figuring out where you will be in 5… 10… 15… 20 years from now plays an
integral part in the way your shopping cart is structured, managed and performs
now. Target and goal setting makes an incredible difference to the level of
success or success at all a company can enjoy.

Start thinking about the steps your online store will make at each stage of it’s
life.

When it starts to grow needing new staff
When it needs financial assistance
When changes to tax structure is important
What new markets you wish to tap into
Your staff rewards when targets are met
Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly sales targets

and the list goes on. Think big! If you aim higher than the rest, the chance of
your shopping cart being successful is also higher.

Setting up Your Store - general rules
- Business Contact information

The following information should be posted to the website in an easy to see
location:

A corporate address
Product return address
An e-mail address
A contact number
Big detailed pictures pay off

Just like in a physical retail shop, your customers want to really know what
they are buying and need to see it close up. Make sure you are uploading images
larger than just the detailed product view. Upload at least 400 X 400 pixels and
up to 700 X 700 pixels for every product image so your customer can get a clear
detailed view of what they plan to buy from you, otherwise, they will simply
click away.

Testimonials

Do testimonials work? Can testimonials be rigged and seem unauthentic? Sure. It
seems like most testimonials are generic. If you include the first and last name
as well as possibly an email address of the testimonial, you will earn trust and
credibility.

- Graphics

While a flashy site with neat graphics may catch someone’s eye, well written,
descriptive, persuasive text is the ticket to sales conversions… it’s the
difference between the prospective buyer exiting your site and opening their
pocketbook. Avoid any annoying music and long loading flash movies on your main
pages.

- Only knowledgeable people to take phone calls

Consumers shopping online are no different than regular retail customers, they
have questions about your product, your business and your delivery methods. It
is important to greet any phone calls or emails with well trained staff who are
knowledgeable about your company and products. The more your company can assist
consumers, the better the conversion rates and repeat buying. Don’t forget to
cross sell and up-sell at this point!

- Return policies should be easy and fair

A good return policy can promote trust in the buyer and multiple orders. It is
important to include return labels with the packaging and provide refunds when
requested. Repeat business is your best business. Provide them with your best
customer service and they will reward you for it by ordering from your shopping
cart- not someone else’s.

- Navigation

Make sure you maintain a simple navigation throughout your shopping cart. There
should be no reason to steer customers more than two to three clicks deep within
your site, the home page should always be only a click away. The clearer your
site is presented, the more time customers can spend looking at all your
products and info without getting frustrated. It is important that your build
your shopping cart using a quality programmer and designer or well
designed/built shopping cart software.

-Be sure of your postal methods

Ever not received an item you ordered online and paid for upfront, only to find
out no-one knows where it is? Ever received an item in the post only to open and
see it damaged? This is one of the most frustrating things about buying online.
Make sure you back yourself up with tracking codes and trustworthy shipping
companies.

Content
Make It Count!

A method to inducing the first click is providing a strong call to action or
incentive. By featuring discounts and free shipping offers, the offer may
intrigue the user to commit another click.

Don’t let them go

Once you have the prospective buyer “on the hook” don’t kill the sale with
poorly written product descriptions. Nothing kills a sale quicker than a product
that is as enthralling as reading the ingredients of a bag of frozen peas. You
have invested the time and effort to build your shopping cart; don’t miss out on
sales due to poorly worded product descriptions.

Being personable is also important. Instead of having the most exciting part of
a television product description be it’s “titanium silver color” talk about how
the consumer’s home will be the place to come and watch the big game (on a
screen so big you can see the sweat coming out of the players’ pores). Speak
about how the “picture in picture” capability means there will be no more
flipping back and forth- saving the fingers precious energy for snatching up
potato chips.

Do all you can to involve the person’s emotions and senses into the product
description. Sure, the technical stuff should be included, but put it at the
bottom of the description.

Provide a strong reason for why they should buy

Ever see the phrase “buy from us” in an online store? This has to be one of the
biggest turn off’s to visitors. Consumers are fragile, you need to provide
strong evidence to why anyone should buy from your store, this needs to be your
POINT OF DIFFERENCE.
Make your point of difference obvious, something which truly give someone a
reason to look further into your products and proceed to the shopping cart
checkout. Simply telling them to buy for no particular reason apart from you
wanting the sale is not good enough…. and they know it.

Now that your site is built.
It’s one thing to have a fantastic site with great content, products and
designbut. What good is it if no one can find it?

Stay tuned for part two, “how to market your online store”

James O’Brien
http://www.ashop.com.au

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