Conversion of Prospects

Oftentimes we hear or read about the advantages of a work at home online business over the traditional business, this is true. There are a lot of advantages an online entrepreneur can receive. But before we go into that let us look at one hurdle most online businesses encounter. One hurdle that an online entrepreneur might experience is the conversion of prospects.

Unlike the traditional business wherein there is personal contact which gives sales people a chance to recommend items to people and if these people buy then the business was able to successfully achieve the conversion of prospects. On the other hand conversion of prospects with an online business is not as easy because personal touch or contact is not present. Although your sales letter might cover some points, there is more to it when it comes to conversion of prospects.

Here are some tips you can follow for successful conversion of prospects:

1. As oppose to a physical shop, where the customers can both physically check out the product before buying and obtain answers to their questions from the sales person, your website must offset this disadvantage by including a strong guarantee. Conversion of prospects can be easily achieved if your customers are confident in their purchase. By providing a strong and clear guarantee you are able to eliminate any doubts your customers might feel. Once doubts are eliminated then conversion of prospects should come easily.

2. Provide bonus or bonuses when a customer purchases a product from your site. This is a simple demonstration that you value and appreciate their purchase also this is a visible way of saying thank you. This is a proven technique businesses use for their conversion of prospects. Why? Because these people who have purchased from you will tell other people of their good experience with your website and how you have treated them. It also shows customers that you are willing to deliver more than what you have promised to them. Just a note when it comes to bonuses, make sure that it is directly related to the product they have purchased and make sure that you clearly state that you are giving this bonus as a token of appreciation.

3. Most prospects do not buy the first time they see or hear about your business. It would be advisable if you do follow-ups on them. Your follow up can be as simple as contacting them occasionally with new offers that you might have for them. Or it can be more complex such as publishing a weekly newsletter with useful information and articles. If you do not already have a way to collect their address, you can get it by offering a valuable gift that you deliver only by email or postal mail. Conversion of prospects can be achieved if you are diligent in doing your follow ups. In the conversion of prospects you can offer a special report, a list of sources or some other essential information they cannot get anywhere else. These are valuable to customers and prospects alike and the good thing about this is that it will not cost a lot on your part if you provide this.

Online Success

I came across a poster of a well known webmaster recently wherein it states that he is on-track to reach seven figures in revenues this year. That means a million dollar in revenues from a website that is not even a year old. According to the poster the revenues that he receives are mostly from a combination of contextual advertising, affiliate programs and banner advertising. He is receiving online success without even selling anything.

Regardless if this poster is true or not the web has changed a lot in the recent years and online success became possible. The internet’s growth is probably the most dramatic phenomenon to happen in years and because of this it opened doors for entrepreneurs who are looking for online success. By creating websites, many have realized their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. Online success is what every entrepreneur dreams of because the rewards are very attractive.

The internet has brought online success to some however; there are many more people who cannot seem to make the internet work for them hence failure for online success. They sign-up with various programs, buy every possible business opportunities they can find all of which promises online success. All they earn is a couple of hundred a month, if at all.

So what does it take to achieve online success? Here are some tips for you guys to achieve online success we all want:

1. Value your customers. Despite the fact that the internet is the “new economy” this rule still applies: the most successful businesses are those able to create value for their customers. Meaning online success is still dependent on your customers. The reason why you put up a website is because you want to fulfill your customers needs be it information, product or service. Online success is possible if your give your customers what they are looking for.

The value you give your customers is important to your online success. The more your site is able to make your consumers lives easier or help them save money, the more your company will be valuable to them. It means not just creating an online brochure but guiding visitors, how using your website can actually assist them.

One major hindrance to online success is by creating a website that is primarily designed to pull off the fast money. Instead of creating a site where users could actually get value, they construct useless spam pages in the hope of tricking users and search engines alike. I assure you that you are so far off online success if you do this.

2. Focus on consumer service. One challenge that you might face on your road to online success is how to keep customer service alive and well in a medium where personal interaction is inherently limited.

One way of assuring online success is by keeping your website functional but at the same time personal. The design and content of your website should be based upon your prospects; you need to have a deep understanding of what your customers are, what they expect and why they need your product.

3. Go beyond what you have promised. We all know that customers love it when they get more value for their money. One way of assuring online success is to go beyond what you have promised, basically exceed customer expectations. There is a lot of hype on the internet, particularly among small online businesses (ever seen one of those websites with ridiculously lengthy sales letters that are full of promises?) These sites may yes attract customers the thing is many customers are left unsatisfied. However, if you under-promise to customers but over-deliver customers will be pleasantly surprised and love your site all the more for it!

4. Design the website for your consumers. Although a well-written, well-designed site which includes great content can make a positive impression on your prospects, the design should focus mainly around getting the visitor to take the action you want them to make.

Online success is gained if you focus more on what your customers want, and in designing your website these people are your best source of information. Seek the feedback of your customers and verify if your site works for them. If they think it’s not that great, what are the things that should be changed in order for them to be satisfied with your website? Listen carefully to their suggestions, and adjust your site accordingly. See what works, and what stuff does not.

5. Team up with the right people. In as much as you want to, you cannot provide everything your customers want and need. You want your site to be the destination of all web users when it comes to your topic, however achieving online success might be tough if your resources are limited. You won't be able to achieve what you want if you have limited manpower, technical capabilities, etc. Because of this you may want to team up with complementary websites to boost your content, provide more resources, and offer more tools for your prospects. Teaming up with the right groups or people can help increase the exposure of your website; build its reputation in your industry, and hence gain online success for you.

6. Center your efforts on creating a brand. The most accomplished businesses have established strong brands for their merchandise, some of these companies are Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Disney, McDonald’s, Mercedes, and others. On the internet we have Google, eBay and Amazon who have also built strong businesses based in part on great branding. These big businesses understand that an essential part of success is building strong brands – yet many small or home-based online business owners feel that creating a good brand is way out of their reach. Effective online branding does not require big budgets, just an understanding of what brand attributes you are trying to build which will eventually lead to online success. By making every transaction brand-relevant and providing your customers with brand-based value, you will increase the depth and stickiness of your customer relationships and assure online success for your business.

Bad Websites

Whenever you come across a bad website what do you usually do? I mean even if that website contains or offers the stuff that you are looking for you still end up closing it and your look for alternatives. This is a normal case most especially if you are having a hard time navigating.

You would think that over the past 10 years of internet, that websites would be of higher and better quality as compared before. But sadly this is not the case; there are just as many bad websites out there than ever before.

Since we are already discussing stuff about bad websites, I think that it is just fitting that we discuss some tips to help avoid building a bad website.

1. Before you publish a website make sure that you are 100% ready. One of the reasons why some entrepreneurs end up with a bad website is because they failed to plan for it. You should only invest on a website when you are ready to spend time and money in developing your website.

2. Entrusting your website to the pros. You may be one of many entrepreneurs out there who knows basic HTML and basic graphic design, however to avoid a bad website you have got to hire professionals to complete the job for you. It would be great if you can provide your own personal style to the site. An amateurish site is synonymous to a bad website. Your customers might think that you are not serious and you are not credible enough to handle their demands.

A bad website is just one reason why your prospects think twice about doing business with you, so do not give them a reason to leave you. Right now you might feel that you cannot afford the services of a professional website developer or website designer it would be advisable for you to wait until you are able to afford one or wait until you can work out a payment plan.

3. Have a clear objective in mind. A bad website is one which does not have a clear purpose. What is the main purpose if this website you have developed? Your website should support your business goal and should be in lieu with your marketing strategy. Avoid being one of those entrepreneurs, who plunged right into website developments without a clear purpose, hence the result was a bad website.

Ways to Profit Online

Like what I have said time and again the internet is one huge market place. There are various means and ways to profit online. There are literally hundreds of ways to profit online and it would be great if we can go over them one by one but sadly we cannot. So what I am going to do is cite the most effective and proven ways to profit online.

The following is a list of some of the more usual ways to profit online:

1. Start to write your blog and share valuable information.
One way to profit online is by writing and sharing information to random people. One of the great advantages of blogs is that it is very easy to get search engine traffic since the robots love freshly updated site. An effective way to profit from your blogs is through Adsense and selling space, products and services. This system is an interesting way to profit online because it has a lot of potential. You can meet new people through blogs, your posts can help some people, and you can make money from it. Blogging is not just a past time for some people; it's also their source of income. If you are good enough with writing this can be a full time job for you.

2. Selling other people’s products and services.
A fast way to profit online is my marketing and selling other people’s products or services. This money making scheme is one of the easiest way to profit online because all you have to do is find affiliate products which are readily available online. Check out affiliate products in large site such as Clickbank, Commission Junction and Amazon. As an affiliate you can earn up to a whopping 75% commission per sale.

3. Join and be counted in get paid to websites.
There are people who easily make extra money with get paid to (GPT) money making programs online. Joining GPT sites is another way to profit online it involves clicking on ads, get paid to place banners, get paid to surf, get paid to read email, and many more of this type. The best way to profit online through GPT is by referring other people to the program you have joined.

4. Online retail industry.
Since we are talking about ways to profit online, it is imperative that I mention eBay. eBay is one of the easiest ways to profit online. Each day more and more people sign up on eBay to either buy or sell goods / services. To start selling at eBay you have to open an account then after that you can start posting the goods / services that you want to sell. Do not be concerned about listing your items because it is going to be a systematic process. eBay will provide you with the necessary guidelines to make posting easier.

Develop a Successful Business Online

Each and every day we hear about people develop a successful business online. We cannot help but think, “How were they able to develop a successful business online?” The ever expanding market of the internet provides great opportunities for entrepreneurs; success can be enhanced if you know what you are doing. To be able to develop a successful business online you have to be equipped with the right knowledge.

The internet is continuously changing, and because of this change you have to think of creative ways to develop a successful business online. Technological improvements crop up every month, and impact the online business setting.

Here are some useful tips you can use to develop a successful business online:

1. The secret to develop a successful business online is the entrepreneur which YOU. You are where you are right now because of the choices you have made, and if you have decided to develop a successful business online then go for it. You as the entrepreneur have the power to make decisions and commitments to will eventually lead to a successful business. The internet offers a lot of opportunities and making most out of it is up to you.

2. If you want to develop a successful business online you have got to find the right system that will work for you. You would be able to reach your goal to develop a successful business online if you choose the right system. Your success and the speed at which you achieve it depend on the vehicle you choose to sign on with and how it relates to you. Critical elements include available training and support network, forums and support through sponsors and trainers in the business. Build up a network and you would be able to increase your business’s net worth.

3. To develop a successful business online you also have to commit yourself to continuous learning. Life in general is a continuous learning process; same thing goes for your business. Find resources to improve your knowledge, skills and abilities. As an entrepreneur you bring certain skills and abilities to the business if you continue to build and harness those skills and for sure you would be able to develop a successful business online.

4. Of course learning is not enough, to develop a successful business online you have to apply whatever it is that you have learned. Until you apply what you have learned no benefit can be gained from it. Do not wait to learn and master everything before you take action. When you start taking action, you begin building assets that will develop a successful business online.

Successful online business opportunities are open to anyone that has a great desire to move forward in their life. The opportunity is right before you, so develop a successful business online and I assure you that the rewards can be greater than you have ever imagined.

Making Money Online

The internet sure is big and it can serve various purposes for different people. The times are changing and many people have devised different ways of making money, one of this is making money online. There are many people out there saying and promising that making money online is easy. True that making money online can be easy of you know what you are doing. That is why many people produced making money online schemes. However, what is the necessary information you need in making money online?

Here are three easy ways of making money online:

1. Affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing has become one of the most popular ways to generate a pretty nice income; In short, this is the easiest making money online scheme. For those who are new in the online industry affiliate marketing is wherein you market some other company’s product and whenever someone purchases it, you gain a commission from the sale. There are a lot of companies that promote affiliate marketing. All you need to do is find a company that has products that you feel you could market, visit their website and look for a link that says, “Affiliate,” click on that and everything should be explained to you in detail.

Making money online is like any other business, it takes time and patience to make it work. If you decide to go with affiliate marketing, it would take time to get started. Do not make the same mistake other people did, they thought that signing-up for the product is all they have to do. Sadly, that is not the case. Millions of people may purchase the product but if they did not purchase it from your site or your link then of course no commission will be earned. You are in charge if putting your link in front of your prospects. One of the tricks to making online is being creative. Always remember that you are not the online affiliate who is trying to make online, for all you know there are millions of people marketing the same product as you. You have to be creative and think outside the box when you market the product.

2. Using auction sites. One good way of making money online is through auction sites. The beauty about making money with auction sites is that this method caters to any financial goal that is trying to be obtained. All you have to do is sign-up with websites such as eBay and Amazon. After doing so find stuff that you want to sell, make sure that your products are in good shape and auction it off to the websites I have mentioned earlier. Auctioning your used items is a good way of making money online.

3. Using your writing skills. Writing articles is another good way of making money online. It is not strictly writing alone, you can also edit articles and some other stuff that basically involves text. Thousands of people out there are willing to pay others to get certain stuff done. And the person they are looking for can be you!

Starting A Home Business

Many people have dreamed of owning their own business. In this difficult times where many people have been laid-off, plenty of individuals are looking into starting a home business. The sad part is not many people know how to go about starting a home business. Nothing comes the easy way most especially if know nothing about it. The same thing goes in starting a home business. There are some essential things that you have to know in order for it to work out.

1. In starting a home based business always keep in mind that you must treat your business as a business. If you are serious about starting a home based business then you must know that it is not just a hobby, it is something more than that especially if you do not have a full time job. You have the luxury of setting your own hours and work when you want, but that does not mean you should work whenever you feel like it. Set your working hours and make sure that you abide by them and for sure starting a home business will be a breeze for you.

2. When starting a home business you should be aware that you would have to invest a lot of time and in some cases money to make your home business work. You are going to have to treat your business like a business and spend money to promote it before it will succeed. The main difference between a typical business and starting a home business is that you reap all the reward for yourself.

3. In starting a home business learning is going to be constant. You are going to have to constantly learn and improve what you know and what you are doing. The best way to do this is to be in touch with those who have already started their own home based business and are already a success in their chosen field. These people more often than not are willing to help you because someone helped them when they were starting a home business of their own.

4. You also have to stay focused when starting a home business. In order for it to be successful you have to choose a business and stay with it, do not hop around with various opportunities. You are not going to come across a business that became successful immediately, so give an opportunity time. You will waste a lot of time and money trying to look for quick success, so stay with an opportunity that you think is good and give it time to grow.

We all have our own reasons for starting a home business, what the reasons are does not matter. What matters is that you are committed to it and that you are continuously working to make it happen.


Here are more tips to help you in starting a home business.

Social Media

Just this year Twitter grew by 3,000 per cent. Facebook hosted 61.2 million visitors and LinkedIn garnered 20 million users worldwide. The Social Media scene has a truly big potential, and because of this online entrepreneurs are looking to unlock the secrets of social media. They see social media as another channel wherein they can get the word out about their business. Free access to a lot of social media accounts just adds to the attraction.

But before you take that plunge into social media, do you think it will work for your business? Could social media be a free substitute for traditional advertising? How much time should be spent in the care and feeding of all those profiles? The answers might overwhelm you.

“Traditional advertising and marketing is not dead,” according to Oliver Blanchard, a business strategist. Blanchard promotes the integration of social media into a more traditional marketing and advertising plan. According to him “So you can have a healthy mix, much like a diversified investment portfolio.”

Even if the platforms vary according to the type of business, small businesses are encouraged to have a solid website, email list and a contact base even before they venture into social media.

Blogs: Compose and write your way to success
Customer loyalty can start by providing informative blogs to your audience. Social media is considered as an important tool when it comes to online advertising; however you need to learn how to write informative blogs before anything else. I know some aspiring entrepreneurs are not savvy when it comes to blogging platforms, for a newbie using Tumblr is highly recommended. This platform can be easily customized, extremely easy to use and has an additional factor that allows you to follow people and also re-blog their content with ease.

Blogging is an effective way of spreading information about your company. This is a step beyond any official press releases, publicity ads, and marketing leaflets. The magic of social media happens right there and then in your blog. A well-maintained and managed blog invites peoples’ perspectives and also provides an opening for a real relationship to be formed which is a significant facet of great customer service.

To Tweet or not to Tweet.
Twitter a social media tool and at the same time a micro-blogging instrument. It allows you to key-in up to 140 characters and update people who are following you. Connecting with a business owner via Twitter provides a personal touch which is preferred by most customers. Through this social media tool a company can announce new product or promotion and you can easily link back the details on the company’s blog or website.

Youtube
Another social media tool that an entrepreneur can capitalize on is Youtube. With a little creativity and relatively low overhead uploading a short video clip can be a rapid way to test the market. You can release freebies to people which will enable you to capture a niche.

Keep in mind that no matter what platform you use the true value of social media is found in the conversation. Truly social media has changed the communication between entrepreneurs and customers.

Here are some more tips on Social Media that can help you grow your business.

Start-up Business

It is natural for an entrepreneur to dream of success for their start-up business. This is a typical behavior that can be seen in most start-up entrepreneurs. They have probably invested most of their savings on this venture. So of course if that is the case then succeeding in your start-up business is what you are aiming for right?

Here are some tips you can follow to succeed in your start-up business:

1. Getting a job instead of owning a business. Remember that you have to be involved in the daily operation of your start up business. Your ultimate goal is to grow this start-up business into much more than just a job where you work hands-on every day. Work on the business, not just in the business.

2. Taking on a business partner. Most start-up businesses begin with two people managing the business. Eventually the other one gets tired of running the start-up business so the other one buys him out. This is a tiresome process. Unless you are absolutely sure about your partnership, hire people to help you out instead for your start-up business.

3. Thinking the start-up business scheme will make the company. It is the business owner who makes a business successful, not the product, not the service and not the new invention. Focus on building a successful start-up business as much as you do a great product.

4. Competing on price and price alone. This is by far the fastest way to send yourself into bankruptcy. The reason you established your start-up business is for the profit you will get, and having a smaller revenue with a larger profit margin will always beat out winning tons of business but earning almost no profit. Train yourself in marketing and sales so you can get out of the price wars.

5. Trying to cost-cut your way to success. Most start-up businesses would like to cut-down costs by saving a wage and doing the work themselves, but they forget that nobody’s out there drumming up new business for them. Focus on bringing in the business, not saving a few pennies.

6. Paying attention to only one area of your business. A start-up business’s success involves three main areas: sales and marketing, finance and administration, and operations. You have got to make these three factors work harmoniously with each other and growing in unison. Do not focus your attention on the area you know you are good at.