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Contact
Tammy today and start seeing results from your
website!
Virtualtech
provides Website design, Website re-design, Website hosting,
Internet Marketing, CD Catalogs, CD Duplication,
and Email Campaign Management
Back to Newsletter Directory
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474-7001 |
tammy@virtualtech.com |
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Can I Make Money Selling Online?
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It seems that almost every day we are approached by potential clients who want to set up an online store so
that they can sell their products online. While it is true that there are literally thousands of success stories involving online businesses, it is also true that for each success story, there are probably 5000 failures. If you are contemplating taking your business online, you should consider the following before "taking the plunge".
Is your product or service priced to make money? There is a definite "sweet spot" when it comes to pricing on the Web. Items that are too expensive reduce the chances of an "impulse buy" (customers definitely will think twice before spending hundreds of dollars on an online purchase). On the other hand, if your product sells for $3.99, much of your revenue is going to be eaten up by credit card transaction costs
and packaging. Items that sell in the $20.00 to $50.00 range seem to have the best ratio of quick sales to profit. Of course, your actual profit depends on your other costs.
Is your product or service unique? If your product is basically identical to a product which can be found at thousands of other online locations, you will be fighting an uphill battle. As an example, the "collectible" market is extremely saturated on the Web. A search for "Precious Moments" figurines on Google yielded over 533,000
websites that sell the figurines online. To convince the customer to buy from you, as opposed to the 532,999 other sites selling the same merchandise, is going to take a considerable amount of time and expense. On the other hand, if you sell something that is not readily available elsewhere, you will have a much higher chance of success.
Is there a demand for your product or service? This may sound like a funny question, but the reality is that you can't sell something if nobody is interested in buying it. Make sure that there is a market for what you sell. Conversely, just because everyone else sells the same product does not mean that you will be successful.
Can your product be shipped quickly and inexpensively? This is a sore point for many online buyers. The quickest way to lose a buyer is to price an item at $35.00, only to let him/her know at the end of the checkout process that the shipping for the item is another $20.00. Also, people shopping the Web are doing so for convenience and fast response. If the item can't be shipped quickly, there is no reason to buy it from you.
Do you have a "real-world" presence? Your online store will be much more successful if customers can relate it to an actual location. There is a "security blanket" factor in knowing that they could drive to your store and see the product, even if it is a thousand miles away. While "online-only" businesses can be successful, they face a much harder and more expensive battle to succeed.
Are you prepared to invest in your business? Just because your online business exists in a "virtual world" does not mean that you don't have the same expenses that you would in a "brick and mortar" store. You will have to spend as much, if not more, to develop and market your business. There is a lot of competition out there. Instead of competing with the store down the street, you are competing with
businesses around the world. Amazon.com, an example of an online business that is considered successful,
spends an estimated $1,500,000.00 per year on maintaining and marketing
their site. In addition, you will have the usual expenses associated
with running a business, such as inventory, hiring an accountant and
attorney, retail sales permit, etc.
Are you willing to make the buying process as easy as possible?
Again, people shop the Web for convenience. Accepting credit cards is a must. If a customer has to mail a payment to you and wait for you to receive it, the incentive to not buy the product at the local retailer is lost. If you have a "brick and mortar" presence, you probably already have a merchant account. While services such as PayPal allow you to accept credit cards without a merchant account, the buying process becomes more complicated and the customer may become frustrated,
and may find another site to buy from. To be truly successful in Web retailing, the customer must be able to find the product he/she is looking for, and with a few clicks and keystrokes be able to complete the order and wait for their purchase to arrive.
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Should I accept free
article for my newsletter? |
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When Virtualtech started to produce a monthly newsletter,
I asked myself this same question. It sounded like a great idea...
content for my newsletter without me having to come up with the idea and
then write about it. Talk about a time saver! But as I thought more
about it, I came up with a few reasons why I may not want to.
Quality of Writing -
Weather you wrote the article or not, people may assume it was written
by your company. So poorly written articles can have a negative
effect. Don't blinding use every article you receive. Read
them and then pick and choose the best ones.
Articles Too General -
People who write articles to be submitted to a number of sources
will usually keep the article simple and general. This way it is
more likely to be picked up by more newsletters. We wanted
Virtualtech News to provide in-depth information that our readers
could use right away.
Repeating Articles - Most writers will submit their articles to a number of
sources, and in most cases they will be within the same industry.
Your readers may subscribe to several different newsletters, so they
may see the same article twice. If they read your newsletter
second, they may feel it is not worth their time and will
unsubscribe from it.
Becoming An Expert -
Producing a newsletter will help to position you and your company as
an expert in your field. By accepting articles from other sources,
you are positioning them as the expert, not yourself.
Advertising Your Business - Let's face it, the main purpose of a newsletter is to advertise
your services. In most cases, when someone submits an article and
you use it, you must provide information about the writer, including
a link to their website. In my opinion this falls in the same book
as selling ads on your website. Why would you go to all the time
and expense (if printing the newsletter) to promote someone else's
business? |
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We will get results from your website! |
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New
Service Offered at Virtualtech!
Email Campaign Management
Stay in touch with your clients and potential clients with
an Email Marketing Campaign!
Learn
More! |
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Green
Bay Botanical Garden, located in Green Bay Wisconsin, offers over 47 acres of beautiful gardens and natural areas.
Open all year, GBBG's display gardens capture the beauty of Northeastern Wisconsin’s four distinct and wonderful seasons. Outstanding garden architecture sets the stage for an all-star performance
by perennials, roses, trees, shrubs, annuals.
In addition to the
gardens and walking trails, GBBG also offers gardening classes, tours, and
special events.
Visit their site at
http://www.gbbg.org
"Hello Tammy...like usual you are quick
as lightening! Thanks, we're lucky to have
you!"
Connie Pirner
Green Bay Botanical Gardens |
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Determining
Effective Search Terms |
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How difficult can that be? Well, it does seem
like an easy thing to come up with... just use the words that describe what
your product or service is. Right? Well, no. Determining
the right search terms for your website may be the difference between
having a successful site and one that is just an expensive
brochure.
The main reason why
this is so difficult to do is that most of the time the IT department
(who is generally the one that gets "stuck" creating the website) is determining what
search terms are chosen. They will use the terms that they would use.
Often times these are not the same as what a potential client
would use.
When determining what
search terms you should incorporate into your Web pages, there
are four basic guidelines. Let's take a look at each
of these individually.
What Are Your Clients
Looking For? What you would search for is not necessarily what
your client would look for. For example, let's look at a client of
ours, Bodacious
Basketry. They make custom made reed baskets. So, when we
started to market their site, we used search terms like "reed
baskets", "handmade reed baskets", "storage reed
baskets". The problem that we soon discovered is that the
general population, whom we were targeting, used "wicker" when
they were searching for baskets. Most people do not know the
difference between reed and wicker. Once we made this change,
traffic to the site increased.
Be As Specific As
Possible: Determine exactly who you want to target with your
website
and what search terms are they using. If you are not sure what your
clients or potential clients are searching for, ask them -
"If you were looking for our type of product or service, what would
you search for?" The results may be very surprising.
The Location You
Do Business In: The Web is world wide and you need to keep this
in mind when determining your search terms. Your website may be
accessed by people several states away or even countries away. In
some cases you can service them all, however, in a lot of cases you
can't. For example Kustom
Kitchens remodels kitchens and bathrooms. Though the website is seen throughout the United
States, they can only service people within a a 60 mile radius of
Appleton, Wisconsin. So how can they use the Web effectively? By adding "Wisconsin"
to the search terms. Instead of just saying "kitchen remodeling" we
used "kitchen remodeling Wisconsin".
Unless people are within their service area, they do not want to talk to
them. (Add-on: As of 1/10/05 34% of all Internet searchers add a
local area to their search).
What Search Terms Are
Your Competitors Using? Visit
websites of your competition and review their search terms and META tags. (To view META
tags click on "view" in your browser opening a drop down menu. Then click on "source" or "page
source". This will open another window. You are looking for
"title" and "description"
between <head> and </head>). There are two reasons to do
this: (1) to see if they thought of any search terms that you may have
missed and should be using and (2) to see if they forgot any search terms
you feel are important and can capitalize on.
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1707 N.
Ballard Road
Appleton, WI 54911
(920) 954-1923
(800) 474-7001
tammy@virtualtech.com
http://www.virtualtech.com
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