Internet & Affiliate Marketing Tips, Reviews, and How-To's

Facebook Toolbar - Social Mini

2010-01-03T14:56:00.000-05:00

If you've been looking for a Facebook toolbar to help you multi task, then I have the answer. I have been messing around with the Social Mini toolbar developed by Ask.com and it really has made things easier. I can easily update my status from my browser. I don't even have to be on Facebook to get status updates, messages, and friend request.

The Social Mini Toolbar is the ultimate way to be discrete at work. If the company you work for blocks social networking sites. This toolbar may be your answer to being on Facebook without being on Facebook. :)

The best part is the toolbar is free. Just download it now and see for yourself. Click the banner below

Facebook Toolbar - Social Mini

Flimsee Games

2009-08-21T21:09:00.001-04:00

Check out this video. This is show casing the new game of this summer. It's awesome. Make sure you get a set of your own.

Search Engines Give You Related Keywords, Use them!

2009-04-27T11:20:00.000-04:00

If you’re building a landing page or writing articles for SEO, this is a potential goldmine!

Google has added a helpful feature to its search results pages. After you enter your keyword into Google, scroll down to the bottom of the results to find a table of links labeled “Searches related to:“. Each of those links is a whole new Google search.

These search suggestions weren’t generated by any genius Google code. They are based on real searches that actual people perform. The suggestions are the most common ways people refine their searches when they’re looking for your keyword.

Here’s an example. Say you search “train parrot.” At the bottom of the listing, you should see something along these lines:

Searches related to: train parrot

pet parrots parrot indian ringneck feather plucking parrots
train quaker parrot train african grey parrot
clicker training parrots potty training parrots parrot species

In the related searches, you can see that new keyword ideas are bolded. This gives you a great idea of what searchers — and therefore Google – are looking for when it comes to relevance.

So if you wanted to make your parrot training page shine, you might consider adding:

* keywords that describe the species your techniques have worked on (Indian Ringneck, African Grey, Quaker)
* your methods (clicker training)
* behavior you can fix (feather plucking, potty training)

ANY of these will increase how relevant Google believes your page to be for the keywords “train parrot.” So try incorporating some “Searches related to” in your copy and see what happens.

Also test other search engines to find related keywords as well. Ask.com, MSN.com, & Yahoo.com are also excellent sources to find related keywords.

All you need is $1

2009-03-21T11:54:00.001-04:00

A wise business person once told me that a dollar is most valuable when you need it the most.

If you think of it that statement couldn’t be more true. When you are facing foreclosure, cutoff notices, facing a job cut, not being able to put food on the table, etc.; any kind of money can seem like the biggest windfall in the world! If that money helps ease your pain for a short time, then it was pretty valuable.

Since I know many of us are struggling out there, and an extra few hundred dollars each week can help us all I am excited to introduce to you a powerful program called Rapid Cash Marketing.

http://d-marketingstore.com/recommends/rapidcash

This system takes you by the hand and shows you several proven methods for generating money in a few days rather than a few months. The creators of this program Jeff Wellman, Dixie Brown, and Paul Counts have perfected this system just for you because they know how important getting money fast is for you.

They have taken several students through this course material and have had great success from students who are reporting $300 made in one day, students finally making their very first dollar online, students making $572.81 in their spare time, and even students paying their utility bills!

These students have figured out the keys to making rapid cash, so what about you? How important is that dollar to you?

http://d-marketingstore.com/recommends/rapidcash

Make it a successful day!

Jonathan Scott

Warning: This opportunity won’t be around forever! You can make the money you need, just take action now!

http://d-marketingstore.com/recommends/rapidcash

LinkedWorking: Generating Success on Linkedin

2009-03-04T11:07:00.003-05:00

Are you looking to parlay the whole online social networking thing into greater success? LinkedIn Works ... It actually works incredibly well. For those who know how to harness the power of this Internet phenomenon, it opens the door to amazing opportunities, a world of new contacts and a plethora of potential success.If you want to take advantage of LinkedIn there are no secrets ... no tricks ... no magic. The key is to simply approach this online experience in the same manner as you network in the real world. In LinkedWorking, a networking expert and a LinkedIn guru join forces to show you how you can ... Position yourself on LinkedIn to capitalize on extraordinary opportunities ... Identify connections in LinkedIn that will generate remarkable additional contacts for you ... Undertake certain actions on LinkedIn that creates unparalleled success for you ... and Gain so much more from your LinkedIn experience ... all by simply practicing the same networking habits you use in your everyday life. LinkedWorking ... it will revolutionize how you network online.
LinkedWorking: Generating Success on the World's Largest Professional Networking Website

New Marketing Website Launching Tuesday

2009-03-01T16:57:00.000-05:00

If you knew that at the end of this week, you had an extra $300 waiting for you, would that make your life any easier? Did you know that at will you can easily produce an extra $300 and more from your computer each week? I am sure that would give you the comfort you need to pay your bills, enjoy the simple things in life, travel, and even get your online business started off with some money to invest.

I will tell you the biggest thing that holds people back from really seriously making money online is a worry about money. People worry that they don’t have enough money to get started on serious projects, and so they never move forward, or they are so worried about bills piling up that they are too stressed to run a business.

Luckily, there is a solution to those money problems, and that solution is Rapid Cash Marketing put together by Jeff Wellman, Dixie Brown, and Paul Counts. This marketing trio has figured it out, and is ready to help you make the money you need fast!

http://d-marketingstore.com/recommends/rapidcash

If you are like most people you need the money today and not 30 days from now, but right now. That is what this system actually teaches. It takes you through several special and proven systems that are designed to help you realize a fast payday. One of the students of this program has even started turning these techniques into an entire business!

http://d-marketingstore.com/recommends/rapidcash

TO your Rapid Cash Success

Jonathan Scott

PS: It is time that you quit stressing about money and take action today to make a change. Remember, what would an extra $300 mean to you?

http://d-marketingstore.com/recommends/rapidcash

All You Need is $1. What would an extra $300 this week mean to you?

2009-03-01T01:15:00.003-05:00

D-Marketingstore.com recommends Rapid Cash Training Course

Rapid Cash

If you knew that at the end of this week, you had an extra $300 waiting for you, would that make your life any easier? Did you know that at will you can easily produce an extra $300 and more from your computer each week? I am sure that would give you the comfort you need to pay your bills, enjoy the simple things in life, travel, and even get your online business started off with some money to invest.

I will tell you the biggest thing that holds people back from really seriously making money online is a worry about money. People worry that they don’t have enough money to get started on serious projects, and so they never move forward, or they are so worried about bills piling up that they are too stressed to run a business.

Luckily, there is a solution to those money problems, and that solution is Rapid Cash Marketing put together by Jeff Wellman, Dixie Brown, and Paul Counts. This marketing trio has figured it out, and is ready to help you make the money you need fast!

Get Rapid Cash Now

If you are like most people you need the money today and not 30 days from now, but right now. That is what this system actually teaches. It takes you through several special and proven systems that are designed to help you realize a fast payday. One of the students of this program has even started turning these techniques into an entire business!

Get Rapid Cash

TO your Rapid Cash Success

Jonathan Scott

PS: It is time that you quit stressing about money and take action today to make a change. Remember, what would an extra $300 mean to you?

Get Rapid Cash

Build a 100,000 member opt-in list in only 30 days

2009-02-23T15:05:00.005-05:00

ListDotCom

Build a 100,000 member opt-in list in only 30 days.

Hi Fellow Marketer,

It has always been said that the money is in the list. And
like in real estate, where the 3 most important things are
"Location, Location, Location." In marketing it's:

The List
The List
The List

It has been said that you can make $1 each and every
month for every member you have to your opt-in list.

So if you have 1000 member, you can make $1000 per month with all different affiliate programs.

If you have you have 15,000 members you can make up to
$15,000 per month. What if you had 100,000 members.

Well there is a new site that helps you get 100,000
members to your opt-in list in under 30 days. The reviews
have been outstanding and it seems that finally every
marketer both big and small have joined this fr.e.e service.

You can find out more about it here:
ListDotCom

Now you can finally have a huge opt-in list for yourself.

Good luck with your marketing!!

ListDotCom

AdWords Ads Now Free?

2009-02-23T14:19:00.001-05:00

A new breakthrough secret is all you now need in order to get your Google AdWords pay-per-clicks FREE!

A gentleman from New York discovered what he calls an “oversight” on the part of 99.9% of all marketers that allows him to get otherwise paid-for advertising at Google as well as all other search engines that allow sponsored ads.

And no, nothing about his “secret” is illegal – nor does it require that you know someone on the “inside” at Google, Yahoo, MSN, Overture and others.

Instead, the New Yorker boasts proudly “…this is something that I caught onto just before 2000 when there was so much search engine craze running around, and started doing small just to test things at first … but which I later expanded on after getting the hang of it.”

This same fellow went on to start and operate sixteen separate online companies selling everything from pet food, DVDs, children’s toys & games, books, software, and sold not only his own manufactured products but became an affiliate for other web businesses – all the while applying his mastermind secret.

Over the course of nearly eight years the New Englander confesses “I’ve actually gotten over $87 million in advertising that using my secret I never had to pay for … and the largest share of which was more recently in Google pay-per-clicks as well as other forms of pad advertising at search engines … all of which I got for free …”

So powerful is his secret that he’s able to monopolize any niche online, and can always secure the top premium spots just above the usual organic results featured at most search engines.

He still has to set up an account with the search engines – but after applying his secret he is removed from having to pay for all the costs otherwise involved.
Again, nothing about his secret is either illegal or robs from the search engines.

One spokesperson from one of the most popular search engines said chuckling after being made privy to this amazing secret “Wow! Ha! This is really unique … and in my expert opinion it would only serve to enhance and bring more business to us at [name of search engine withheld for legal & confidentiality reasons] and not cause us to lose business in the slightest. Amazing!”

The northerner revealed that in this nearly eight years’ period of time since applying his secret he’s done well over $300 million in sales revenue with a most diverse line of products, and most recently in the last two years netted nearly $166 million after really “buckling down and pressing my secret to its fullest potential.”

Now to everyone else’s fortune, the city slicker is releasing his secret for getting an unlimited amount of pay-per-click ads to the general public. But he’s not promising any of us for how long.

A bit of an eccentric, the gentleman says “We’ll see just how long I can make it available before it saturates things.”

One famous public web guru pointed out that although this man may gain economically more so as a result of the publication of his secret “he’s already so amazingly rich that whether he continues or discontinues its sale will neither make nor break the man, but not grabbing it for yourself while it’s still available could prove disastrous for you as you may only have one chance, and a very limited one at that, to get this.”

It is currently available at:

FREE Google Adwords

…so you may want to head on over there now and get it.

It’s in a very easily readable format and is quickly and readily understood and mastered by anyone with even a 4th grade reading level.

While you’re there, why not scroll down and review for yourself the huge successes others are now having with this incredible breakthrough in targeted advertising now made freely available to the rest of us?

To your success,

-Jonathan

Twitter: Get 19,530 new twitter followers in 30 days?

2009-02-19T13:27:00.002-05:00

Hey check this out...

I just found this site that shows you a
way of getting 1000's of new followers
on twitter, I just started using it
myself and its starting to work
already.

http://tweetergetter.com

Thought it might interest you.

Twitter News:

2009-02-19T13:21:00.002-05:00

Get 19,530 new twitter followers in 30 days?

http://tweetergetter.com

How to Write Killer Email Promos That Get Results!

2009-02-17T12:45:00.004-05:00

Michael Rasmussen's "Email Promos Exposed" Video Series: How to Write Killer Email Promos That Get Results!

Have you ever been faced with the task of having to write an email promotion to your list, and then realized that you didn't know what to say or how to say it?

Michael Rasmussen's new video course "Email Promos Exposed" promises to solve that problem for you by walking you through the actual process of creating killer email promos step-by-step.

*************************************************
If you're in a hurry, go ahead and sign-up to my newsletter to get instant free access to these videos:

http://www.d-marketingspot.com
*************************************************

I decided to see if Michael's videos live up to their promise by trying them out myself. Here's what I found:

*************************************************
Overall Quality
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The first thing I noticed when I opened up the first video was the stunning production quality. He used Camtasia Studio for the production, which is now the industry standard for creating high-quality screen capture video products. The audio is near studio quality, and the graphics are very professional. These videos were made by someone who KNOWS what he's doing. Well done!

I also liked how Michael divided the videos up by section, and then again by sub-section. For example, one video is all about the subject line, and then there are different parts of that video that each cover a certain area of crafting a
killer subject line.

Now let's move onto...

*************************************************
THE ACTUAL VIDEOS
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Here's a brief summary of each video. Obviously it's impossible to list every single thing here, but I want you to get a feel for what each one
covered, and how well it covered it.

*************************************************
If you're in a hurry, go ahead and sign-up to my newsletter to get instant free access to these videos:

http://www.d-marketingspot.com
*************************************************

VIDEO 1 - INTRODUCTION

This video served as an introduction to the whole course. You get to see a picture of Michael in his every day life, and he establishes his
credibility right up front by talking about some of his massive successes online. He even provides proof of credibility by displaying two checks in the amount of $50,000 and $25,000 which prove that, when it comes to the subject of making money with email promos, he knows his stuff.

This is a good lesson for anyone to get. Whenever you're teaching people how to do something, it's good to establish your credibility up front, so that there's no doubt about whether or not you're qualified to talk about the subject. Most product
developers either skip or minimize this step.

VIDEO 2 - BEFORE YOU WRITE THE PROMO

This video talks about some things that no other marketer has bothered to mention. You'll learn things like:

* The mindset you need in order to write a killer
promo

* The different tools you need before you get
started

* How to keep your emails laser-focused

* How to create an outline that practically
writes the email for you.

This was a fantastic video, and did a good job of kicking things off.

VIDEO 3 - THE SUBJECT LINE

I liked this video, because it talked about one of MY biggest weaknesses when it comes to writing email promos... the subject line. The subject
line is a confusing topic, because nobody's 100% sure what the best tactics are.

Michael breaks it down, and reveals:

* The biggest secret for writing a subject line
that makes people insanely curious.

* Techniques for personalizing the subject line.

* Mistakes to avoid when using personalization.

I was surprised to find that I was making some of the mistakes that Michael mentioned in this video, but now I know better.

VIDEO 4 - THE OPENING

This is where a lot of people slack off when writing their emails. Michael talks about how important it is to create an opening that is conversational, and then reveals techniques and examples on how to do that.

He also reveals:

* How to get people to keep reading your email
once they've opened it.

* How to make your opening interesting.

* Mistakes to avoid when creating your first few
paragraphs.

VIDEO 5 - THE BODY COPY

This is one of the "meatiest" portions of the course, because it reveals techniques that are not widely discussed on the forums, blogs, and in most eBooks. He talks about the importance of keeping your body copy tight and relevant, and then reveals how you can do that. You'll also learn:

* How to write powerful bullets that make people
curious and want to find out more.

* Simple formatting tricks for making your body
copy easy to read.

* The secret of "bucket brigade copy" and how to
use it in your email promos to force people to
keep reading.

VIDEO 6 - THE CALL TO ACTION

This is where a lot of people wimp out in their email promos. They start out strong, but when it comes time to ask the reader to click the link and take action, they don't know what to say. Michael talks about some of his favorite techniques for making that happen, and also reveals:

* The "magic question" to ask yourself that will
make your close much more powerful.

* The secret of the "unanswered question" and why
handling this is a surefire way to get people to
act right away.

* The structure of a powerful close.

* Mistakes people make when creating their close.

VIDEO 7 - CREATING AN EFFECTIVE P.S.

Some people say that the P.S. is one of the most important parts of the email, because it is often the one thing that gets people to click the link at the end. In this video, Michael talks about:

* Why you should including a P.S. at the end of
your email.

* The 4 different kinds of P.S.'s you can use
(this section was a real eye-opener for me).

VIDEO 8 - COMMON MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE

I loved this video, because it showed me some mistakes that I was making that I wasn't even aware of. Unless you're a seasoned pro, you're probably guilty of some of the things that Michael talks about in this video as well, and that's why it's so valuable. I've shaved years off my learning curve, because now I can avoid
some of the costly mistakes that I was bound to make in the learning process.

VIDEO 9 - HOW TO CREATE FOLLOW-UP EMAIL PROMOTIONS

This video alone is going to make me a lot of money. Why? Because I used to only send out one email promo for each affiliate promotion I was doing. Michael showed me in this video how important it is to send a follow-up promotion, and he showed me exactly how to do it. He covered things like:

* The psychology of follow-up email promo's.

* The 2 main types of follow-up promos that make
the most money.

* How to overcome readers' objections in your
follow up emails.

* The 2 most common mistakes people make when
writing follow-ups and how to avoid them.

VIDEO 10 - HOW TO WRITE BACK END EMAIL PROMOTIONS

Every marketing guru out there says that the REAL money is on the back end. I'd have to agree with them, but the problem is... most people have no idea how to set up a back end system that makes money. This video will teach you how to set up an automated back end that's loaded with killer promos that make you lots of cash on autopilot. He reveals things like:

* The big difference between regular and back end
email promos.

* How to prepare a back end promotion sequence.

* Common mistakes people make when creating back
end email promos.

VIDEO 11 - CREATING AFFILIATE EMAIL PROMOTIONS

This could be the most important video of the entire package for a lot of people, because most people email their list to promote other people's products as an affiliate. Let's face it, if you only have 3 products, can you really afford to
only email your list 3 times a year? They'll get bored hearing about the same old products over and over again. This video sheds some light on how to create killer affiliate promos. Michael reveals things like:

* The two main types of affiliate promos.

* What makes affiliate promos different than
regular promos (and why ignoring this huge secret
could cost you big money).

* Michael's favorite tactics for creating
affiliate promos that no one else is doing.

* 3 different ways to add scarcity to your
affiliate promos (this is the most important
section of the video, so make sure you watch it
over and over again).

*************************************************
CONCLUSION
*************************************************

As you can see, Email Promos Exposed really packs a lot of punch! Most of the courses out there offer only watered down, weak content. Not this
one! These videos are going on my "A-list" for a long time.

I've already watched them twice, and plan on reviewing them every couple months to make sure that I have the principals, techniques and tactics burned into my mind.

If email marketing is an important part of your business (and in my opinion, it's the most important part of ANY online business), then you owe it to yourself to check out Michael's exciting new videos, Email Promos Exposed.

Here's the URL where you can get instant free access to the videos right now. Just sign up for my newsletter, then download.

http://www.d-marketingspot.com

How to Make Money Blogging

2009-02-17T08:52:00.003-05:00

There are two major types of business models that entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first and most common way to turn a blog into a profit making machine is to sell advertising to different companies and brands who want to reach that blog’s readers. The second kind of money making blog is one that helps a single brand improve its image by creating positive associations between the blog and the product in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen mind for marketing.

If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising, there are two basic ways that you can go about recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site; you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue. Within the first group, many people make money blogging by selling space through Google’s AdSense program. The advantages of this program are numerous, as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger or webmaster to begin raking in profits. However, most people discover that they make less money through this method than they had hoped that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising directly to companies who want to put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route. People who have a strong background in sales and are experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit of money by renting blog space to interested companies. The most serious problem with this model is that you often have to build quite a sizable readership before you can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to do several months of work before you start to make money blogging.

As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative business, a lot of established companies are considering how they can get into the action. One way that companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for their corporation. Often, a company will employ an
established blogger to create a weblog designed specifically to appeal to that company’s customers and to create positive associations with the brand in
consumers’ minds. More than one writer who never even dreamed that he or she could make money blogging has been approached by a company and offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig.

Stay tuned, I am working on a new FREE internet and affiliate marketing website. Subscribe to my newsletter and get updates about the site as well as a FREE gift. Click Here

Re: Ask Shawn Collins: Advice For Newbie Affiliate Marketers?

2009-02-15T23:46:00.001-05:00

This is a really simple explanation on how to get started in affiliate marketing.

Cool Adwords Spy Tool is actually FREE!

2009-02-02T16:54:00.000-05:00

Hey, I just downloaded a really cool tool that I'm using to spy on my Adwords competition, and come up with more keywords I can use for my campaigns.

It's really slick. It installs right into your web browser and I can't even tell it's running when my browser's open.

I can see what anyone's Adwords keywords are with this addon. Anyway, I thought you'd be interested in downloading since it's free.

You can get it here:
Click Here!

Jonathan Scott

Does business need to be so serious?

2009-01-29T12:39:00.007-05:00

When it comes to business connecting, whether online or off, who says it has to be so serious. It's 2009 people. We've already gotten rid of the power tie. It's time to get rid of that power hold on professionalism. Yes you want to present yourself as competent in what your doing or about to do. But have some fun with it. Especially if you're online. If you've joined a social networking website and they don't allow you to change your background color or image. Then I would recommend finding one that does. You should still stay with the site that is more professional just to broaden your network. But visit the site that allows you to make changes and have fun with your profile more frequently. The people you meet on these sites will most likely be the most fun when you meet in person. These websites tend to have groups that are more original and fun to participate in. You want to interact with people who don't take themselves to seriously. That way when you mess up, they are more likely to forgive you. :)

Times are hard enough. Don't stress about every little thing you say or do. If you are looking for clients rather than customers then you have to make sure you get along with the person. There's nothing worse then having a client who is hard to be around or difficult to deal with. Make sure you understand the person from the beginning. As long as you accept people for who they are you know what to expect when meeting with them.

I don't want to get all deep and philosophical on you. Just thought I'd put that out there for discussion. So make sure you join some really fun social sites like Bebo, Myspace, and if you're in Ohio check out a growing website at http://ohiobusiness.ning.com. Visit other Ning websites as well as they are growing as well and you are sure to find a fun one to suite your needs.

Goodbye 2008!

2009-01-06T13:57:00.001-05:00

Wow, what a rollercoaster ride 2008 was; in so many ways. The world faced the biggest financial crisis most of us have ever seen in our lives, the balance of power in the world shifted significantly and fuel prices both had an all time high and a 5 year low in the same year. Crazy times. And I think we haven't seen the end of it yet.

It's hard to analyse what the exact effect of all of this is on our own industry. If you look at TechCrunch's layoff tracker, it is clear that IT was not left unaffected. Several companies that are close to the PHP community have seen layoffs: SUN, current owner of MySQL, laid off about 5000 jobs; Yahoo, the biggest PHP user on the planet, laid off 1500 and even Zend was troubled by layoffs this year.

Yet, talking to the community and looking at our own customers leads me to believe that so far, the PHP ecosystem is less affected than other industries. Many PHP shops are still searching for PHP developers (yeah, so are we), and many companies I talk to tell me that, while some of their customers have become more cautious in their spending, there is still enough demand for PHP projects.

One reason for this might be that PHP is still in a place where demand outnumbers supply. Even if demand is reduced significantly based on the current economic climate, there still aren't enough PHP developers to meet that demand.

Another reason is that in times of economic downturn, companies start looking at cost effectiveness and become more aware of what they spend their money on. After the internet bubble, in the first years of this century, we had a similar situation and we noticed that back then that people started turning to open source solutions. PHP can benefit from a trend like that. Not only is PHP very cost efficient (no license cost, and quick time to market), the web in general can help companies streamline their business processes and become more efficient. Finally, within the PHP community there's a focus on efficiency as well: with a rise in the use of frameworks (I'll talk about the 'cms to framework' shift I see happening some other time), a focus on code quality, PHP's 'getting things done' mentality and the end-of-life of PHP4, PHP is strengthening its position as the right choice for web development.

For us at Ibuildings, our commitment to stick to PHP for web development has helped us grow about 40% this year, despite the economic situation; which strengthens my belief that we're in the right business and have chosen the right language. So I owe a big thank you to every member of the PHP community! (And with the Center of Expertise we'll be launching early next year, we'll try to give something back.)

It is still early to say how 2009 will affect us all, but let's hope that we've seen the worst of the economic crisis and that in 2009, things will start to look better for everyone.

I wanted to end this post with a number of PHP highlights in 2008; but keep an eye on my favourite source for PHP news, phpdeveloper.org, I'm sure people more qualified than me will write excellent 2008 lookbacks. :-)

Posted by Ivo Jansch
CTO
Ivo is the CTO of Ibuildings. He implements company strategy regarding tools, technology and development processes. Ivo is the contact for several key customers and partners, and a regular speaker at conferences.

How Small Businesses Can Win With E-Commerce

2009-01-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

"Organizations will become both smaller and bigger at the same time; they will be flatter, more flexible, and more dispersed…Life will be unreasonable in the sense that we shall have to make things happen for us rather than wait for them to happen." Charles Handy, British academic, business consultant and author.

For businesses there are many advantages to using e-commerce; one of the greatest advantages is that online commerce is a great equalizer, allowing small businesses to compete on an even playing field with larger businesses. However, do not take on the big players; you need to differentiate yourself from them. For small businesses it is essential that a site is created and then registered properly, so that it shows up on premier search engines and other sites that attract your target market. It is equally important that, if you are on a premier search engine, you show up on the first or second page of search results, because most people are unlikely to look any further. Either you need to learn the necessary skills to achieve this, or pay someone with sufficient IT capability.

Having a website up and running is not the end of the matter, the site and business still needs to stand out from the crowd; that is, it needs to communicate your competitive advantage. With more flexibility than larger counterparts, small businesses can usually successfully compete in a niche product area, in a niche location, or in a niche service . D-Mediastore is a good example of a company providing a niche service in a niche location. Being located in Columbus Ohio and offering CD Duplication and DVD Duplication Services gives D-Mediastore an advantage over larger companies who may not focus on a smaller city like Columbus Ohio. Another example is D & D Media Group, also located in Columbus Ohio. D & D Media Group offers Columbus Ohio website design, E-Commerce website design, and Ohio Internet Marketing. D & D Media Group follows the sample lead as D-Mediastore offering web services in a niche location.

The point is to make sure you have focused on a particular market, and that you can serve it better than the bigger players. Specialised sites, focusing on a particular good or service or with a good understanding of their market are most likely to benefit from word-of-mouth promotion and have better chances of being found by search engines. Real Groovy is a great example of combining niche products and an understanding of the local market. Real Groovy, the record store has some of the largest physical music stores in the country, but also has a website that covers 18,000 titles, both new and used; but their greatest success was their ability to make money from their site after one month!

It is important that small businesses market their websites offline through traditional media, as well as online. Your business' URL (website address) should appear in all communication produced by your business; it should be in your print and broadcast advertisements, on your letterheads, emails and business cards. Your URL should be included in all white and yellow page listings. If your product has packaging - put it on your package. If you print brochures, put it on those. Put your web address on everything!

In addition to more invasive offline advertising, you will need some internet marketing, which (thankfully) is just as cost-effective and efficient for little businesses as for the big players. E-Commerce Times reports that opt-in e-mail programs have been found to be effective in helping small businesses attract targeted and interested customers to their sites. Note though that we are not talking about email spam, or unsolicited commercial email, which often backfires and repels potential customers. Once the visitors arrive at your site, appropriate website technology can offer personalized service, track orders, handle returns and perform other essential tasks. If you provide good personalized customer service, particularly following-up to ensure customers got what they wanted; you will build a loyal customer base and will begin to see repeat purchasing!