With 95% of all Internet businesses failing, it is important to find out what actually works and what doesn't. Most online business failures can be attributed to one or more of the following marketing errors: 1. Free Domain Hosting. Failure to obtain and use your own domain name gives your site visitors a poor impression of you and your online business. With domain registrations under $10/yr., there is no good reason not to have your own domain name.
2. Poorly Constructed Web Sites. Your web site is an extension of you and your online business. It should be attractive, professional and easy to navigate. Using a lot of white space between paragraphs makes it easier for your visitors to read your message. Include links at the top and bottom of every page so that your visitors don't get lost. It is a good idea to have a friend or business associate review your site and provide feedback.
3. Lack of Good Web Site Content. Offer your visitors free, valuable information and not just a sales pitch. By offering free, valuable information you will establish credibility and make your site visitors feel you genuinely care.
4. Unsecured Credit Card Processing. Be sure that the page on which you ask site visitors to input confidential credit card information is secure. Secure order pages will have ?https? in the address bar. With identity theft on the rise, your customers may be reluctant or even refuse to leave credit card information on an unsecured order page.
5. No credit card processing. Eighty-five percent of all online purchases are made with credit cards. Shoppers like being able to ?whip out? the plastic, complete their order and leave your site knowing the product is on its way. There are a number of companies who offer credit card processing for a very small setup fee and no monthly charges. You can expect to pay a little more per transaction to these companies but you only pay when you make a sale. This is in contrast to the traditional merchant accounts that typically require completion of a lengthy contract, credit checks and monthly fees.
6. No Privacy/Policy Statement. Having a ?privacy/policy? page on your site is pretty much expected these days. Visitors to your site look to see what they can be expect from you in the event there are problems. What is your return policy? At what phone number can you be reached? What happens to the visitor information input on your site? Is that information sold to others or kept confidential within your company? These are just a few of the questions that might be addressed.
7. Failure to build an ?opt-in? email file. Failing to collect the names and email addresses of your site visitors is like throwing money away! Your ?opt-in? list will be the means by which you stay in touch with your potential customers. Most visitors will not buy on their first visit to your site so you must keep your name and web address in front of them on a regular basis and keep them coming back to your site until they purchase
This is because other people tell them that they can get rich online with little or no effort at all. It this article today, I want to show you 4 errors to avoid if you want to succeed on the Internet.
1. Just because you joined a good and honest program that teaches you how to make money online, doesn't mean that you should not devote a few good hours each day to work it. Some people, when they join some sort of an online work at home business, think that money will come in for them with no effort on their part.
The one thing you must do is to do the necessary work each day to make it work for you. That is why so many people have tried to figure out why they have not made any money at all.
2. If you want to succeed online, the one thing that you have to get yourself familiar with is how to get real traffic to your website on a daily basis. One of the most important things that you need to learn and master is "Internet Marketing".
You have to figure out how you are going to bring in unique traffic to your website every day. There are many good ways that you can do this so that is one of the things to focus on.
No Traffic= No Customers= No sales
3. I know a lot of people who spend most of their time making sure that their website has the right colors, the right banners, the right graphics, and make sure that it looks good.
This is clearly not the way you want to go. Sure, you want to have an OK looking site, but this is clearly not the most important thing to focus on. Again, the most important thing for you to do is to work on bringing in traffic to it.
4. In Internet Marketing, in any type of niche out there, the one thing that you must have on your website is a form that lets your visitors have the option to subscribe to your e-newsletter. If you are not offering this, you are losing big money. This is a very common mistake that many website owners do.
Even if you get a lot of visitors to your website every day, you will not make as much money as you can by having an opt in email form on your website to follow up with your subscribers periodically. If you take a look at my website in my resource box below, you will be able to see how I have added a newsletter form to my website.
In every article that I write online, I make sure that I even add a link in the resource box for anyone to go directly to my newsletter form and subscribe.
I can honestly tell you that if you add this to your website too, you will be able to make more money each and every month as your list of email subscribers grow.
If you can avoid these 4 common online home business errors, then you will do very well on the web for months and years to come.
Both Bernie Alexander & Tal Fighel 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.