internet shopping carts

I have had my own websites for over 5 years, and all of them until recently had absolutely nothing to do with any type of online sales at all, not one sale product link included anywhere on any of the websites. Every site I had, was constructed around the idea of purely providing information to website users, all about the different hobbies I had a real interest with. In fact I never even considered deriving an income online until around 12 months ago. (Note:In that 12 month period since I discovered and learned exactly what can be acheived in online selling, I have made over $40,000 online, not a lot of money in comparison to others online, but enough to support an independant lifestyle which was my initial goal). And without any real knowledge of online sales, and the methods and strategies involved. I decided to build another website in order to learn in the best way possible through a pure hands on experience. And so http://www.sitepromotionnow.org was born.

This whole experience was an absolute learning curve, and a learning curve which has never ended and will never end. Simply because the technology and systems available online, change and advance constantly. And so in this e-Book report I will share with you exactly what I have learned, by criticizing my own website, to show you what works and exactly what does not. This idea of ‘Self Website Criticism’ as a learning tool for others is a new ‘Original’ idea and is rule number 5 in my own set of rules in what I feel is needed in order to succeed online. What are the other rules? Well here they are!

1. Commitment – An absolute commitment to the project you have or are undertaking.

2. ‘Again’ Commitment – An absolute commitment to the project you have or are undertaking.

3. ‘Again, Again’ Commitment – An absolute commitment to the project you have or are undertaking.

4. Knowledge – An absolute knowledge of the product or service you are involved with.

5. Originality – Take the absolute knowledge from rule number 4 and use this knowledge to create original ideas.

And because of this gained experience and knowledge I now have, about all aspects of marketing online, I answer emails each and every day from other online users, seeking advice and answers. And the number one question I answer is, How do I actually make sales online? The answer has many parts and associated strategies, but I am going to tell the number one method to making consistent sales online. Without you having to experience any of the problems I encountered, when I first began this exact online selling quest myself.

So lets begin!

The Money Is In The List:

I am certain you have heard the online marketing Super Quote ‘The money is in the list’. I can guarantee you there is no greater method that will bring you greater success online than this method.

For those of you who have not heard of this quote before, I will give you the basic outline for what is involved in starting an autoresponder email service yourself.

1. You sign up to an autoresponder service. A large proportion of these services are free. But each service differs in the services that they provide. For example, the format that is available for sending your autoresponder messages in e.g., text or html format. The choice in providers of autoresponder services is up to you. I won’t give you any biased links here, but please do the research and make a decision, decided around the ideas and/or requirements you want to create in this exact task.

2. Set up your autoresponder messages in a sequence that you want your prospects to receive them. (A more detailed mention shortly about this important task.)

3. Cut and paste your html code etc, provided by your autoresponder service. So that your prospects can sign-up to your email list from your website.

This is a basic 3 step process which gives you an outline of just how simple this set-up process is.

The real skill, mentioned in step 2 above, although not difficult, is in writing the autoresponder messages you are going to send to your signed-up prospects. There is a need for a real structure and purpose in the way you attempt this task. And I will tell you how right now! So lets begin.

We all from an early age have been trained as consumers. From the first moment for example, we saw our first 30 seconds of television, we were instantly introduced to the wonderful world of both ‘Direct and Indirect Advertising’. Both these words direct and indirect are very important when it comes to online marketing. In my opinion direct advertising does not work online at first, and should not be attempted until later. This direct advertising may have worked online initially in the past, but thanks to such online issues as spam, this method is not effective at all in the beginning. Indirect advertising however is what should be used, and this provides a ‘Conditioning’ phase for your potential buyers who have newly signed-up to your autoresponder list.

When targeted potential customers visit your website for the first time, they arrive because they are searching for specific information. And secondly, they may choose to purchase an item or service from your website, as a pure result of the information you are providing, in order to complete or complement the provided information contained on your website.

The structure of the information you provide in your autoresponder messages should therefore follow this same ‘Cause & Effect’ structure. Simply put, you are providing information that will complete or complement a product or service you are promoting indirectly. In online marketing you will hear the word ‘Pre-selling’ mentioned a lot, and this is what pre-selling is, a simple providing for a cause and effect event.

I must mention the word ‘Trust’ at this point, because it is an absolute needed commodity on the internet, and leads into the whole concept and purpose of ‘Branding’. We have all heard of the bad things that can happen online with credit card fraud etc, its a long list. And it is absolutely 100% certain that your potential customers have also heard of these facts. So you should be aware that every person who visits your website for the first time is already on the back foot. So it is your job to build a potential customers trust in your website, so that when they may visit your website again, they have a feeling of complete ease. And let me assure you this trust does need to be earned on your behalf and you should be aware of this always. I will add at this point the statement, ‘If you are not serious about the product or service you are promoting then just don’t bother doing it in the first place’. Rules 1 through to 3 stated earlier mention the word commitment. If you are not committed, you as a result, have no set purpose for what you are trying to achieve. If your customers suffer your website will suffer. So how do we build ‘Trust’?

Stay Tuned For Part 2!

As ecommerce grows up and overcomes some of the concerns people still have about it, it will become more and more essential that you web development plan includes an interactive, easy and fast shopping experience for your customers. Whether you want to generate website sales, allow digital delivery, track your advertisements , enable credit card processing, set-up recurring billing, operate an affiliate program, simply take orders online, or any ecommerce activity, it is essential that your internet business is ecommerce enabled. Your internet shop can be a sideline to an existing business, or a new venture.

Simply put, ecommerce is here to stay, because it makes life generally easier for the majority of people using it. Ecommerce is still young. But it is continuously growing. More and more consumers go online every day, and most of them have more money to spend than the average consumer.

It is predicted that soon almost everyone will be doing it. But even today hundreds of millions are doing it worldwide. As ecommerce grows, more and more people are enjoying the convenience of shopping in their own time from home, at any time that suits them. For example, elderly persons or someone who is housebound; an executive with a busy lifestyle; or someone looking for a product that just can’t be found in the local shops.

The weekly shop is so much easier. Instead of getting into the car and battling through traffic, noise, queues at shops or supermarkets, more and more people log on to the Internet at home, order what they need and have it home delivered.

Today, information pages are not enough. When someone has searched and found a website which has the product they were looking for, they demand instant acquisition, ease of use, security of data and payment, and fast, if not instant delivery. In the same way as if they had found a physical shop, seen what they want, paid for it over the counter and taken it away with them.

A real Internet shop is interactive, allowing customers to easily navigate through your product information pages, to search for specific products and to preferably get more information than they would for example get from newspaper advertisement, magazine or catalogue.

Making the process of buying products from your website as simple as possible, preferably with one click, is essential. A virtual shopping cart allows customers to click on buttons to add products to their ‘basket’ which then remembers which products a customer wants to purchase, calculates total costs payable, including tax and delivery costs, and sends the shop owner the orders from his Internet customers. For the customers it makes the shopping experience interactive, easy and fast.

Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator support a special encryption method. It ensures nobody can read an order, while it is being placed on the Internet. This encryption method is called SSL. Because SSL is widely known and accepted, you should always use it when accepting orders online, to make customers more comfortable. Also tell them right on your home page that your shop is secure. The more you inform them about security, the better they will feel about buying in your shop.

Integrating the shopping cart with an automatic responder to send thank you emails from you, can be the start of effortlessly following up sales and leads, manage your mailing lists, and build repeat customers. Email marketing is the most beneficial and profitable method of building lifetime relationships with your customers, providing you with feedback, identifying trends amongst your target market, and many other benefits, if approached correctly and ethically.

Still to this day businesses are trying to launch themselves online and get their piece of the internet market, which has plenty to go around. The issue that still plagues small-medium sized businesses and anyone else who is trying to sell online is finding a solution that won’t put them in the red from the get go. This can be a tough decision and doesn’t get any easier when you have to consider all of the factors.

Now before I go any further I want to just state that this article isn’t an article for you to get down on yourself. By end of this article I will show you how you can start selling online with a scalable solution that is perfect for any sized business. Plus you can get your store online with a simple click of the mouse, sound easy enough? Best yet is that it will save you alot of money.

Now any business or person for that matter selling online has to understand and deal with some key issues of internet business. Some areas that you are going to have to focus on and pay some attention to are:

(1)Domain name registration:
The ability to register your domain name for your business so that it speaks to your customers exactly what you are about. Picking a great domain for your business includes choosing a name that:

(a) Says what your business does.

(b) Is easy to remember. and

(c) Is unique to your business.

Just think of all the domains you’ve tried to remember. Which ones stuck in your head and which ones were tough to remember. An example of this is ABC.com is alot easier to remember then AXBYCZ.com. Simple and precise will give you the best results when picking a domain name.

(2)Hosting:
This is one of the most important part of your online stores and should not be overlooked. If you do not have a good and experienced hosting provider backing you then your online store may fail from the get go. This usually has to do with up time which means how often your site stays online. Alot of sites promise 99% up time, which sounds good, but if they do not keep to their word then you may need to find a new host.

Keeping your online store up and running is the same as keeping a brick and motor store doors open. If the doors aren’t opened or your store is accessible to internet visitors then you will be missing out on sales and this will mean the failure of your business. Who ever you pick for hosting watch their website and see if it goes down, if so how many times a day and for how often. Then contact them with this information and ask what happened. If they can’t keep their own site online how can they keep yours online.

(3)Site security:
This is a big issue on the internet today and is a subject that shouldn’t be overlooked. No matter what form of payment or information you are collecting you should have your online store protected by SSL. This will protect any information transmitted over the site and also protect your customers credit card information.

SSL can be tricky if you do not 100% understand it and it is good to find a eCommerce provider that will help you with this. Alot of providers leave it up to you to purchase and install an ssl certificate. There are some affordable solutions that include your own SSL certificate in their price plus will install it and set it up with their eCommerce packages. Finding the right company can really streamline the process of getting your store online..

(4)Shopping cart software:
Your shopping cart software is also a very important piece of how well you will do selling online. The features and tools located in this software, plus how it allows you to control and edit the store will really determine how successful you can be. Plus it can also either eat up alot of your time or actually give you the ability to do things right, do things quickly and have an abundance of time to focus on other areas of your business.

Some tools or features that you should look for in a shopping cart solution are:
-Affiliate program. Very important for building your sales team, saving your time and resources on advertising.
-No transaction or listing fees which allows you to save money and keep more of your profit.
-Accept credit card orders as well as person to person payments(such as paypal.com).
-Shipping and tax setup.
-SSL security.
-Sales report statistics.
-Easy product management.

(5)Setting up and integrating this all together:
Now alot of people or businesses who are looking to set up their online store aren’t tech pros. Using a service such as the one located at the bottom of this article, it will allow you to get a full featured online store, setup and integrated with ssl, plus hosting and a domain name as well as alot more.

You can easily keep your business out of the red, and if you compare the service above to getting your store setup by a programmer you know that this is a huge savings. Trust me when I say I’ve seen people pay $1000+ for ecommerce projects that only include half of what you need to sell online.

Basically when you contract out for your ecommerce store you are getting inflated prices on a solution that may not include everything you need(especially reliable hosting).

(6)Additional fees that alot of ecommerce providers charge you:
The next thing you must watch when choosing an ecommerce provider is are there any additional fees. Two of the worse additional fees out there are:

(1) Listing fees and

(2) Transaction fees.

Some ecommerce provider actually charge both of these. Why should you pay to list products in your own store and why should you pay when you sell something, because chances are you are already paying fees when a payment is made to you(such as through your merchant account or paypal account).

Just think if you list 2,000 items in your store and are charged even 0.10 cents per item that is an extra $200 right there that you have to spend out. Then you may be charged a 1.5 % transaction fee. Say you do $5,000 in sales a month, this alone would cost you an extra $75 a month for every month you sell $5,000 in sales. Now it is starting to get alot more expensive. But why you should be charged these extra fees?

When you look at some of the other ecommerce providers out there you start to see that the actual cost to get your store online may be more then you first thought. You shouldn’t have to pay extra fees if you are paying a monthly fee because they are double dipping into your profits. There are ecommerce providers out there that don’t charge any extra fees so do some searching.

Take this knowledge you have now gained and move forward knowing that you can make an educated decision when choosing what path to go to get your store online. Remember that the solution you use shouldn’t break the bank.

Developing content for a website can seem a bit intimidating. However, one of the easiest ways to get started is to simply get started.

If you are developing your website through a template-based web host you can develop the bare bones of the site and finesse as you go.

What this may look like is a 2-4 paragraph home page with a few additional pages that may say “Under Development”. While I have always recommended research and planning ahead of time, sometimes a reasonably priced template-based web host can help you move forward in assembling your ideas either for new customers or as a means of defining who you are as a company and what you are attempting to convey to your potential customers.

You should work to clearly define what you either provide as a service or the product(s) you will be offering.

Since knowledge-based sites are some of the best marketed sites from a purely SEO standpoint it makes sense to acquire suitable material for your site.

A freelance writer can assist in developing a comprehensive knowledge-based resource for your visitors, but you actually have two options you may wish to consider first.

1) Supplied Content – It is entirely possible that any companies you work with have existing literature about the products you will be selling. In many cases these suppliers will grant permission to use their articles or descriptions on your website at no cost. They often make them available because they have an interest in your success and may be best acquainted with the product or service you will be making available.

2) Free Content – There are numerous online article supply stores that feature a significant stable of expert authors that can write from a variety of authoritative perspectives. It is likely you can find complimentary articles that can provide both SEO enhancements along with solid information. The best news is these articles are free.

It is conceivable that after finding the material you wish to use on your site and then working with a template-rich web host you may discover the site you were wanting was actually the one YOU developed.

The tools for site design have been maximized and yet distilled in such a way that even beginners are finding it possible to self design an ecommerce website. The end result is often a low-cost way to develop and maintain the website. It is also possible to use this same environment to effectively manage present and future growth in a low-cost, ecommerce-friendly environment.

Ecommerce is now a multi-billion pound industry. As more consumers move online, and as online media channels increase our dependency on the internet, ecommerce continues to rise with sales volume increasing quarter after quarter. The internet has created an opportunity for a paradigm shift – offline brand exposure filters through to the internet, however in a somewhat diluted — and third-party dependant — fashion.

Offline retailers that moved online close sales through online channels from customers they have acquired in the offline world, however their dependence on direct media channels should not be underrated. Harnessing ecommerce often means harnessing search engine algorithms to increase organic search engine results – through this channel and through paid search, advertisers are not merely looking for traffic from branded search phrases. The ability to drive sales through generic and brand indecisive search queries created an opportunity for easy scalability and few barriers to trade compared to the offline world. Offline brands have the advantage in terms of search engine algorithms favoring editorially given links – something which they garner much easier than others – as well as their larger budgets and economies of sales which they can leverage from the offline world.

Savvy marketers, who understand the internet and how to capitalize on the opportunities it provides, are not the CEOs of ecommerce outfits seeing double digital growth as they eat away at market share of large brands. Post bubble we have seen little consolidation in the ecommerce side of the online business world either. The simple reason for this is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing has provided opportunities for savvy marketers to partner with offline retailers and take commissions on sales they refer offline. Marketers then have the opportunity to take advantage of their partner’s economies of scale, brand awareness and lack of flexibility. Affiliate marketers opt for what they see as a more scalable business model, while they sacrifice the value of a customer throughout their lifecycle and fail to use their competitive advantage to rapidly build market share when they are on an even playing field with the larger brands.

That is why the time to truly harness ecommerce is now. Through using the internet it is easy to build a scalable business which is not restricted by geography or particularly capital intensive. Through commissioning an ecommerce website you can diversify your sales channels and provide a medium through which to leverage direct marketing channels such as paid and organic search. A highly usable website coupled with great customer service will lead to high rates of customer retention, positive brand exposure and continued growth.

The important element of successful ecommerce companies is their willingness to test new marketing mediums, which do not require large initial investments, and to scale up whenever an opportunity arises. Where an asset such as a shop may cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, an ecommerce website is much cheaper, many fixed costs become variable ones, and geographical restriction is replaced with only technophobia – ensure that you capitalize on the opportunity before consolidation happens and barriers to trade tighten.

The world, as we know it today, has become highly dependent on the internet for anything that you can think of.  As A Matter Of Fact, nowadays, the WWW is already a way of life to many. Commerce has grown from barter to trade to ecommerce.  Business appears to be flourishing in the internet that many companies, no matter how large or small, establish their own web presence. Since the internet is also a world wide competition for these business companies, it is therefore essential to develop cutting edge website ecommerce design to stand out.

Website ecommerce design is essential in increasing site traffic. Several studies have been produced and presented that prospective clients and visitors have the natural tendency to visit a website that has well-designed graphics and colors, has easy to the eye layout, and has professional look.

An ecommerce site that sells on the net should be aware that an important target of their website promotion is to pull more individuals to their web site.  Since people mostly flock to sites that are visually appealing and user-friendly, a logical move for any website ecommerce is to convert the design of their website into one.  It can always be deduced that web success depends on two factors:  how effective one’s website marketing strategies are and how professional the business web design is.

The value of having a professional business web design is as essential as the business itself.  A site that carries a design that makes it easy to sell the products or services is the key to ecommerce success.  The bottom line for any ecommerce company is to get their web site visitors to purchase or avail their products and services.

Here are some great tips on making the most out of the power of the website ecommerce design.

• Define the expected response that you would like to receive from your potential or existing site visitors.

• Limit the parts of your website according to your essential needs only.  Don’t overwhelm your visitors with too much content or cluttered design.

• Every component of your site should be well-planned.  There is no good substitute for a web site that is meticulously designed.

• Make your website user-friendly.  Visitors, computer savvy or otherwise, should be able to easily navigate through the pages.  It is very annoying for website visitors if they feel like idiots when browsing thru your site.

• Ensure that your website is easy to load.  Time is very important to visitors.  Don’t let them waste it.  Patience is usually short-lived when you make them wait.  Even if your website is very professional in its design, if it doesn’t load easily, then your visitor is gone in seconds.

• Optimize your site for the search engines. Any website ecommerce design that is not recognized by the search engines is as good as nothing.  One has to find your website to be of value.

Your website is a reflection of your company.  If you want to increase sales, then transform your site into a sale-generating site.  Whatsoever you do with your website, remember that what you sow is what you reap.