Sites That Sell - Buy this eBook!

We all learn at our own pace. Some of us were fortune to learn in a family or company certain skills from a very young age, so we developed them like a 2nd skin. Others have to learn those skills later or risk falling behind. Sometimes those skill-deficiencies stop us from achieving what we want. In effect they act as barriers holding us back. What we need are tools to help us jump over such hurdles. If you are considering setting up your own business, then in all likelihood you will be seeking to establish a website to sell your products & services. If you would like to know how to set up an impressive sales-orientated website...read on!

Sites that Sell! - View the table of contents or buy this eBook at our online store for just $US39.95.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Developing a marketing strategy

A decision to sell products or services online starts with a strategy. Issues that you need to consider are:
1. Identifying your style of selling - will you offer a narration of your life and the opportunity to buy the products you used, or will you adopt an online shopping cart, so people can easily select the products you offer.
2. Identify your selling advantage - you will need to identify what is unique about your product or service. You cannot proceed unless you have done that. People make the mistake in thinking that they need to take on the world, but anyone can distinguish themselves if they decrease the size of their target market. There are some pretty flashy websites on the web, but alot of them are not interested in selling outside of their home markets.
3. Developing a revenue model: You need to think about how you intend to generate revenue from your website. Are you going to sell books - physical books sold through Amazon, or downloadable books sold through online credit card and paypal transactions. For credit card transactions, you will need to get a merchant account. In some countries that is not an easy thing to do. Instead you might offer the content for free, and hope to generate revenue from paid advertising. You can solicit companies interested in advertising on your website, or you can sign up for Google's Adsense.
4. Adopting a payments solution: If you hope to generate profits from your website, then you need to establish a payments solution. The options available depend on your location and credit history. If you have a good credit record and are based in a western market you will be able to establish a merchant account with one of the credit card companies - Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club and American Express (Amex). Failing that you can still set up a Paypal account, but with this option your ability to engage in online transactions depends on your customers having a Paypal account as well. Unfortunately many more people have a credit card account than having a Paypal account. This will change eventually. Another payments provider is Verisign, however they are move expensive. Lastly Google has established Checkout as a payments solution, however they are curently only operating the service to residents of the USA and UK. For prospective merchants operating out of developing countries, they can still get a merchant account, but they will only be able to process transactions for customers in their own country....a significant restriction. It becomes apparent that your payment options are likely to determine your marketing strategy. If constrained, and you are able to develop a customer following, the Paypal option is still likely to be a good one since online banking is already popular. Paypal is very easy to set up.

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Sites That Sell - Buy this eBook!

We all learn at our own pace. Some of us were fortune to learn in a family or company certain skills from a very young age, so we developed them like a 2nd skin. Others have to learn those skills later or risk falling behind. Sometimes those skill-deficiencies stop us from achieving what we want. In effect they act as barriers holding us back. What we need are tools to help us jump over such hurdles. If you are considering setting up your own business, then in all likelihood you will be seeking to establish a website to sell your products & services. If you would like to know how to set up an impressive sales-orientated website...read on!

Sites that Sell! - View the table of contents or buy this eBook at our online store for just $US39.95.