Sales From Your Site - Make It Simple For Prospects

Day699
Building a web site often can lead to interesting deviations caused by practicalities and changes in perspective. This is okay so long as you keep things simple for prospects.

Many business owners unintentionally erect barriers between themselves and their customers when it comes to the site sales process. Simple mechanisms can be put in place to remove these barriers.

A business owner that is always looking for new ways to connect with potential customers often finds his or her efforts paying off many times over. Some of the most common web sales barriers are lack of contact methods, payment methods, and delivery methods. To bridge these potential barriers, a business owner can provide more options to crossing each of these barriers.

Contact Barriers

Simply adding contact options can be a great way to create more sales. Some web sites only offer email or even just a contact form as a means of contact. Yet there are many people that prefer to conduct transactions over the phone, by mail or by fax. Retail sites discover this fact the first time they go through a hot sales period such as Christmas. Some people just like to call. No, I don’t know why. They just do.

Providing a broad range of contact options also builds credibility. Having an office address, fax and phone number in addition to an email address shows the prospective client that the business does in fact exist and has made themselves transparent and easy to contact. Providing such information gives people the impression they aren’t dealing with some Nigerian scam.

Using an 800 number is also an excellent way to build credibility and remove a sales barrier. Picking up the tab on calls from potential clients is a polite gesture and may encourage a potential buyer one more reason to call. Toll-free numbers are easy to obtain these days and can cost around 6 cents per minute - a small price to pay for building confidence in your audience.

Payment Barriers

Many web sites provide only one way to pay for merchandise - credit card. There are many reasons to offer more payment methods. For one, not everyone has a credit card. Although in the United States, it seems like almost everyone does, this is not true in over-seas markets where there is resistance to credit. Furthermore, some people just don't feel safe providing credit card information over the web. Regardless of how safe or unsafe Internet transactions may or may not be, it is usually the job of the business owner to provide what the consumer wants.

It is a simple matter to provide an address and a printable order form for most web sites where a check can be mailed. If you are running a home business, a PO box is a simple solution to keep your business separate from your home. Some mailbox services allow for your address to be a suite number instead of a box number, which can further improve the image of your business.

Providing a phone number by which orders can be placed is also a way to remove a barrier between you and your potential customers. Of course this means there must also be someone there to answer the phone. Simply answering the phone can be the difference between a sale and a lost sale.

Delivery Methods

For businesses providing products, providing a variety of delivery methods is yet another way to cater to the desires of your customers and potential customers. Many people have a preference for delivery and meeting this preference could be a deciding factor when deciding whether or not to place an order. For those businesses providing services, providing a delivery pickup service for a deposit and/or contract can be a perfect sale closer.

Conclusion

By removing barriers between you and your potential customers you can increase the chances of making sales. Other options are also available, like instant messaging support, mapped out directions, video conferencing and more. Be careful to not confuse your audience with too many options. It is often a good idea to direct your audience to default options for contact, payment and delivery so as not to confuse people. Other options can be shown as small links or drop down options. By working to connect more with your audience, your sales and customer satisfaction can be increased dramatically.

Author Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com/

Website Success Recommendations from an Ex-Google Employee

Day685
1. Four of the 26 pointers by GoogleGuy speak of adding content.

Add, add, add.
Google loves it, and your visitors will love it.
Assure it is quality content though. You are looking for quality over quantity here.
Sure, you can turn out 5 mediocre articles in the time it takes to write one excellent article. However, once that excellent article is on your site, people will bookmark your page and recommend you to friends and online contacts.

2. Your website should be clean and simple.

The simpler the HTML that you have on your website, the more the search engines will like you. Also, the more simply your visitors can navigate and read your site, the more THEY will like you. How simple is the layout of Google itself?
Yes, very simple.
How popular is it?
Very.

3. Keep your pages small.

Aim for between 5K and 10K. Many of your visitors will still be using dial-up connections. Don't alienate these visitors by building pages that load slowly.

4. Keep your content pages to no more than 500 words, generally speaking.

If it gets longer, that's fine. Assure, however, that it is not rambling, that it NEEDS to be longer. If you can make it shorter, do so.

5. Use your keyword in the following ways:

Once in the title, once in the description tag, once in the heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic and once high on the page. Don't aim for misspelled keywords.
The search engines are getting smarter and now often correct spelling mistakes as people search for them.

6. On each page, link to one or two highly ranked websites, which relate to your industry.

Assure that the links are in context with the rest of the article. Use your keyword in the link.

7. Create links from one page to another within your website.

In this way, you even-out the entire PR of your website, as opposed to having one page which ranks very highly and other pages which don't. So, for example, if when writing one article, you mention a point, which is covered in more detail in another article, link to that article. Use the keyword for the other article in the link.

8. Make your navigation system usable; both for visitors and search engine spiders.

For your visitors, assure that it is a simple and clean system.
For the search engine spiders, assure that your links go no more than 3 links deep.
This means that no page should be any more than one other page from the home page.
Cross-link from articles as much as possible.

9. Submit your website to as many directories as possible.

Here you will find an extensive list of available directories - "Strongest Links"
Many are free. If you can afford it, pay the extra cash to have your site listed in Yahoo and Looksmart.

10. Request link swaps from related website.

Better yet, join a quality link exchange program. I use the "Link Exchange program" supplied for free by SiteSell.com, with whom I host my other website, "Barcelona Explore"

11. Write good, concise content. Keep paragraphs short and to the point.

12. If you are using your website to promote your off-line business, don't just put up an online flyer.

Provide your visitors with information that they can use, not just information about you and your company. Unless they are specifically looking for information about you, they will click away from your site.

13. Study the information provided by your website statistics.

If your web host doesn't provide a good statistic program, use a free one like "StatCounter". Analyze the keywords that people have been using to find your site.
If any surprising ones come up, use them in your site.

14. Partake in forums pertaining to your website.

Absorb all the information that is out there, and more importantly, become part of it. The networking with other people in your sector is invaluable and will prove it's worth by increasing backlinks, viral networking and recommendations.

Following all these points will speed up your success. Success at any speed, however, is a guarantee if you focus on offering your visitors value, by providing excellent content.

About the Author: Ciara Carruthers is a successful website content writer. Employ her services or read her many free to use articles, including how to create a short term traffic building strategy.

Essential Tips to Opening a Payment Processing Merchant Account

Day681
If you want to start accepting credit card payments online for the first time, then this article is a must read. Before obtaining a merchant account, make sure you shop around and do your research. Let the buyer beware certainly applies when choosing a merchant account provider, as there are many important aspects which need to be considered. Making a poor choice is likely to result in numerous complications and high unexpected ongoing costs.

Often, businesspeople new to online business will focus on one merchant account issue: discount rate. A discount rate is the flat percentage taken from each credit card transaction by a merchant account provider. Although getting a reasonable rate is important, there are many other charges, fees, limits and business considerations that need to be considered. Issues like customer service, provider reputation, and how a provider performs risk assessment on your business are all important.

10 tips to consider before choosing your merchant account provider:

1. KNOW YOUR NEEDS – Do you want batch (manual) payment processing or real time processing? If you expect low volume sales then manual processing may be a viable route. Before approaching merchant account processors know your actual or expected margins, transaction volume and internal resources. What will your hardware, software and service requirements be? You can go directly to banks or ISOs for merchant accounts, however putting together all the components to e-commerce (catalog system, credit card processing, order system, billing system, etc) can be a nightmare. This is where sometimes it can pay to partner with a ‘holistic’ payment processor which may charge slightly higher rates, but can provide complete and secure payment processing merchant accounts.

2. 24 HOUR PAYMENT CUSTOMER SERVICE – Not only is it wise for you to get 24 hour technical support for your merchant account, but also of great importance is 24 hour payment support for your own paying customers. Providing 24 hour telephone payment support on your website for high volume sites could increase sales by 20-30%, especially in the early stages whilst you fine tune your site.

3. RELIABILITY & INTEGRITY– Check the merchant account providers trading history and try to get testimonials or reviews of the processor. A dishonest processor can tack on declined transaction charges in numerous ways, so it is important to work with a reputable processing company. Common complaints against merchant account providers include sudden rate increases, long term lock-in contracts, hidden fees and add-on charges, high monthly-minimums, heavy rolling chargeback reserves, high chargeback fees, and surprise monthly processing limits.

4. SPEED OF SERVICE – If it takes more than 3-4 business days to get your merchant account up and running, then start questioning the setup and capability of a processor. Likewise if approval is instant or overnight, alarm bells should also start to ring. Setting up a new merchant account should take 2-4 days to allow for a thorough risk assessment and appropriate account setup.

5. FEES – Make sure you gain full visibility of all fees (application, setup, statement, transaction, discount rate, and fraudulent transactions – chargeback’s). Ask for a full disclosure of ALL merchant account fees and charges before signing anything! Also bear in mind that depending on your business setup; your merchant account processor may have to hold a reserve on your account.

6. UNDERWRITING AND RISK ASSESSMENT – Before approving a merchant account, the merchant account provider will underwrite and perform a risk assessment of your business and business model. Find out if your business will be classified as “High Risk”. If you trade in a high risk industry such as adult, travel, dating, or pharmacy, then you will have to approach a high risk merchant account specialist.

7. FRAUD MANAGEMENT – Chargeback’s and fraud related charges can be a very high cost for some online businesses. Make sure you protect your profits by using a processor that has a sophisticated and comprehensive fraud management system. A large variety of methods to minimize fraud should be in place on your merchant account including customer details verification, geographical location cross-checks, and known fraudster database cross-checks.

8. HIDDEN CLAUSES – Read the fine print. Read ALL of the fine print. Too many people today skim over the content of a service contract, which in the payment processing industry is very unwise. Be warned, low rates rarely equate with merchant friendly policies.

9. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS - A card from outside of the processor's country results in what is often called a non-qualified rate, which can result in a fee of 3.50% - 6% of the sale. If you expect card payments from more than one country, try to choose a processor that has an international payment network, who also supports transactions in multiple currencies. If you wish to advertise to multiple markets, a multi-currency and multi-lingual platform is a must to maximize your revenue potential.

10. MONTHLY LIMITS - As a precaution, many merchant account providers will impose limits on your monthly revenue intake. Processing more than your limit, in some cases will also result in held funds. The length of time the funds are held depends on the risk factor and the bank with which you deal. Should you surpass the limit that the bank is willing to allow for more than three months, you may receive an immediate termination letter. Look for a merchant account that is flexible with your needs. Some merchant account providers have policies with generous limits or no limit at all.

Take a wide perspective on factors such as sensible policies and superior customer service when choosing the best provider for your unique business needs. Evaluate security protocols, reliability, and the degree of customer care your business will receive. Every business is unique, and the best merchant account provider for each business will vary from one provider to the next.

About the Author: Damien Gough is an experienced online business development specialist, who has assisted a variety of internet start up businesses spanning the United Kingdom, USA, and Australia. He has multi industry experience with general ecommerce sites such as recruitment, retail and manufacturing, as well as sites such as dating and travel which require high risk merchant account services.

Building a Successful Ecommerce Website

Day675
Here's a good article called 8 Rules for a Successful Ecommerce Website I found over at about.com:

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/ecommerce/a/ecomentice.htm

Free SEO Tool

Day609
Here’s a free SEO tool that provides an SEO score for your website with custom search engine optimization and marketing advice for your website.

http://www.websitegrader.com

Continuation of Tips on Starting an online business

Day370
I’ve decided to split the remainder of this article into two days instead of one due to length:

5. Choose a Web Hosting Company

A Web host is a company that provides server space for your website. You can think of a web host as a commercial building. The web host provides space for your website just as a commercial building provides space for your shop or office.

What are some of the things you should look for when choosing a web host? The criteria for choosing a free web host and a commercial web hosting solution are slightly different although they do overlap.

A) Web Space

Does it have enough space for your needs? If you envisage that you will expand your site eventually, you might want to cater for future expansion. Most sites use less than 5MB of web space. Indeed, at one time, one of my other web sites, thefreecountry.com, used less than 5MB of space although it had about 150 pages on the site. Your needs will vary, depending on how many pictures your pages use, whether you need sound files, video clips, etc.

B) Bandwidth allotment

Nowadays, many free web hosts impose a limit on the amount of traffic your website can use per day and per month. This means that if the pages (and graphic images) on your site are loaded by visitors beyond a certain number of times per day (or per month), the web host will disable your web site (or perhaps send you a bill).

It is difficult to recommend a specific minimum amount of bandwidth, since it depends on how you design your site, your target audience, and the number of visitors you're able to attract to your site. In general, 100MB traffic per month is too little for anything other than your personal home page and 1-3GB traffic per month is usually adequate for a simple site just starting out. Your mileage, however, will vary.

C) Reliability and speed of access

This is extremely important. A site that is frequently down will lose a lot of visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and he tries to access it but finds that it is down, he'll simply go down the list to find another site. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors (and for you too, when you upload your site).

How do you know if a host is reliable or fast? If you can't get feedback from anyone, one way is to try it out yourself over a period of time, both during peak as well as non-peak hours. After all, it is free, so you can always experiment with it.

6. Shopping Cart

No e-commerce website is complete without a secure shopping cart. There are many shopping cart options. Many e-commerce business owners make the mistake of using Pay Pal to accept payments, which immediately tells visitors that their company is very small and not professional.

A good alternative to Pay Pal is a remotely hosted shopping cart. Remote shopping carts take the burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder and places the responsibility on another company. Remote shopping carts can usually be configured to look similar to your website.

In fact, your customers may not realize that they have left your website to place an order. The remote shopping cart provider will give you the HTML to add to your website. When your potential customer clicks on the Buy Now button, he or she is taken to the remote shopping cart to enter the personal information and payment details.

Depending on your choice of a shopping cart, you may or may not need a merchant account to process transactions. Some shopping cart services allow you to use their merchant accounts for a slightly higher fee.

Tips on starting an online business

Day369
As you can probably tell I’ve been reading a lot! Since this blog is about starting an online store, I’d like to share another article I found called 8 Expert Tips to Start an Online Business by Michel Richer.

It’s a little long, so I’ll print half today and the rest tomorrow with a link to Mr. Richer’s information at the end. This is a very helpful article.

The start up costs for internet home businesses are next to nothing compared to the offline world of business start-ups. In fact it is a lot more simple to start and grow a business on the internet.

All you need is some computer knowledge and some internet marketing basis and a good dose of determination.

Here are some basic tips on how to start an internet home business.

1.Write Your Business Goals
It is important to set goals and objectives and then take action to accomplish them. This will be your Business Plan.

Here Are Some questions you should ask yourself:

- Why do I want to start up an Internet Home Business?
- What product or service can I provide?
- Do I have the knowledge and expertise to provide this service?
- Do I know enough about the competition?
- Where will my customers come from?

Take the time to write down your questions and answers and thoroughly research your chosen market.

2.Choose A Product or Service To Sell

On the internet you can find hundreds of product or services to sell.
You can sell your own product by creating your own, or purchasing resale rights or being an affiliate with a good internet company.

Don't put your personal gains first. Make sure that the product will deliver what it promises. When you promote a product that leaves the buyer dissatisfied, you will only be ruining your business. So sell solutions and the money will come.

3. Business Domain Name

One important first step is to choose the best domain name you can. Keep it as short and simple as possible. Think of domain names like " Google " or " Yahoo ". They are short and easy to remember.

I know that some people say to use keywords in you're domain name. But if you choose " Internet Business " there are millions of sites with this term.

And if you are going to use for example "AprofitableInternethomebusiness.com" it might be a nice name but it is too long and not simple.

4. Web Site

Having a good business website is essential to succeed with an internet home business:
A) Decide on the website design (color schemes, buttons, special effects etc). To help you choose a design, you may wish to check out other people's websites or work with your web designer's pre-set templates.
(b) The content. There are many items you may wish to include on your website. The most common ones include:

1 Products And Services
2. Contact Information
3. Pricing
4. Testimonials
5. Frequently Asked Questions
6. Resources & Articles
7. Refund Policy
8. Privacy Policy
9. About Us
10. Site Map
11. Useful Links
12. On-line store

Good SEO article

Day368
I just read one of the best articles in SEO News called “Seven often-missed SEO opportunities” by Donald Nelson.

It was easy to read and even though I had heard most of this before, this time it really made sense.

One of the most important things we can do on our website is have a great title tag. And each page should have it’s own. Donald explains what this means, why it’s important and how to do it here. He also explains anchor texts and talks about links.

I’m going back tonight and rewriting some of my title tags!

Read his article here