The Internet is a great way to turn a profit. The way to do it, however, is to follow a second simple rule: register your own domain name for your business. When you register your own domain and build a website to represent the services and products that you have to offer, you legitimize your business, whether you own a brick and mortar store or are opening a home business and your store everything in a corner of your garage.
Once you have your domain set up and you're ready to go, you need a way to reach out to the customers who have purchased from you in the past. It is a 90% more efficient use of your marketing funds (and energy!) to keep a customer you already have than to create a new one. The way to hold onto these customers and turn them into regulars is to keep in touch with them. Don't let them forget about you. Offer them incentives to return, such as a discount on certain products or on a certain volume of certain services bought or if they send a new client your way.
How do you keep each one of your customers up to date with all your new offers, especially when you have a new product you're excited about? You start a newsletter! With a newsletter that is as classy as your business, created with a logo and design that is reminiscent of your website, you can reach out to your mailing list and even contact other email addresses that you've culled through your website via emailed questions or email capturing software.
A few things to remember:
* Keep it short and sweet. No one wants to read a novel when they open an email. Say what you have to say in as few words as possible with minimal graphics and vivid words that capture the imagination. * For all offers, add a time clock. This means that when you tell them that you're offering them a buy one, get one deal, let them know that they have only a certain amount of time to cash in on the deal or else it will be gone! * Always offer a way out. At the bottom of every newsletter that you send, give instructions on how they can stop receiving the newsletters if they'd like to be taken off the mailing list. Be respectful of these requests and fulfill them post haste. * In the same vein, don't send out newsletters too often. A newsletter every week for most businesses is too often. Once a month is just about right. Some even choose bi-monthly depending on the type of service or product you offer. If you offer products that are perishable or renewable in a short amount of time, then you may choose to up your newsletter offers a little bit. Customers will be looking to purchase more of your product. If you offer a service or a product that has an indefinite shelf life, then most likely a customer who purchased from you the week before won't be interested in hearing from you just yet.
Whether you send out a newsletter once a month or once a year, making sure that you keep in touch with those who express interest in your domain and what your business has to offer is key to turning the Internet into a profit-making machine.
Holden, Greg. Starting an Online Business for Dummies, 2nd Edition. IDG Worldwide Books, Inc. Foster City, CA: 2000. p.231-34.
Do you want a step by step system to make money online?
Do you want to get started with your own successful internet home business?
If you answered yes, then this might be the most important article you will ever read.
Here you go...
1. Sell your own products or affiliate products.
2. Either provide a product or service.
3. Research demand in your niche.
4. Research top promotion and advertising tactics.
5. Research your competition.
6. Create a site that sells.
7. Optimize it for search engine traffic.
8. Follow up your leads.
The purpose of this article is to make sure you get started with your internet home business on solid foundation right from the start.
Here's the step by step system...
1. Sell your own products or affiliate products.
You can either sell your own products or sell products of companies to make money online.
2. Either provide a product or service.
If you are planning to create your own product or service make sure that you focus on a recurring model.
If you find out a way to make recurring money from your internet home business this will give you a secured income every month and you will have money to invest in expanding your internet home business on regular basis.
3. Research demand in your niche.
Find out what is in demand and what are the problems of people in your niche.
Create a solution to their problem and you are in business.
You can easily do this by researching your competition.
4. Research your competition.
Visit websites of your competitors and find out what they are doing.
Purchase their products, check out their internet business strategy, see how they are following up their customers, check out the content on their website and go through their sales process.
This will give you tons of ideas to work around with your niche.
5. Research top promotion and advertising tactics.
Research how your competition is advertising.
Start writing articles, participate in forums, do pay per click, search engine optimization, put out ads in ezines, etc to get traffic to your site. Then test what is working best for your internet home business.
6. Create a site that sells.
Focus on creating a quality content rich website.
Create powerful copy for your products and services and then test your website copy.
Create a simple website with attractive graphics that focusses on the benefits of your visitors.
7. Optimize your site for search engine traffic.
Research keywords and include them on your site for search engine traffic.
Focus on getting back links by writing and distributing articles in your niche.
8. Follow up your leads.
Use powerful tools like autoresponders to follow up your subscribers automatically.
Send quality information, content and offers to your list on regular basis. This will build relationship with your customers, get traffic to your site and make you tons of money.
Both Alastair Hayward & Murtuza Abbas are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.