Make Money Online “How to”

I was doing some research for a few of my upcoming articles,
and I came across a site that I found fascinating.  Here are a
few of the statistics that caught me by surprise:

What country has the largest number of users on the Internet?

My first thoughts were the US or possibly India, but the
correct answer is China with an estimated 253 million users.
The United States was number two with just a little over 220
million.  But here’s what really surprised me, Japan which
was number three had a sharp drop in the total number of
users at only 94 million.

What country has the highest percentage of population online?

Again, here is where I was surprised. My first guesses were
Australia, United Kingdom, or Japan.  But again I was wrong,
as it turns out, Canada has the largest penetration of
Internet users per capita, at over 84%.  Australia comes in
second at 79.4% and Japan comes in number three at just the
little under 74%.

The site gives a complete breakdown of the top 20 countries
with the highest number of Internet users.  There are also a
few other surprises in there that you might find interesting
such as, what country has the highest percentage of user
growth from 2000 to 2008?  The answer I am sure will surprise
you.  It also has some other graphs that puts the Internet
popularity and usage into perspective.  I am sure you will
enjoy checking it out. The site is called "Internet World stats"
at http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm

If you find some that surprises you, do me a favor and leave
a comment on this blog so others can hear what you have to say.

Enjoy,
Harry

When you are building your online business, one of the key
components you need to address is how to make your site
sticky. This means that you not only want to get Web
surfers to visit your site, but you want to make sure they
spend time exploring what you have to offer when they get
there.

If you have a situation where you are getting a lot of
traffic to your site but it isn’t converting to increased
sales, take a look at your site from the point of view of a
potential customer to try to determine where the difficulty
is. Then you can make corrections to make your site
stickier.

Is Your Site Easy to Navigate

When you first click on your own site, can you find your
way around quickly and easily If not, then you need to
make some changes. Keep in mind that people who are surfing
the Internet looking for information will click away if
they don’t find what they want to know in less than minute.
They may lose interest quicker than that!

Make sure that your site visitors know exactly how to get
where they are going by using a menu or tabs that clearly
indicate the page they link to. You also need to make sure
your site visitors can get back to a previous page or your
Home page if they end up in the wrong section of your site.

Tell Your Visitors What You Want Them to Do Next

Make it easy for your site visitors to know what action you
want them to take. It’s perfectly acceptable to put
something on your web site that says, Click Here, Buy
Now, or Learn More. Don’t keep them guessing about the
next step you want them to take. You are far better off
(and will see more revenue) if you tell your customers what
you want them to do than if you leave them to their own
devices.

Make it Easy for Customers to Contact You

Some people are quite comfortable with surfing the Internet
to look for information, but when it comes time to make a
purchase, they would rather place it by phone or go to a
brick and mortar location. If possible, give your customers
multiple options to communicate with you. Offering a live
chat option may be helpful, too; the customer can get the
information they need to make a decision right away,
instead of clicking off your site to get it elsewhere.

Tell Your Visitors to Bookmark Your Site

A potential customer will likely visit a few times before
making the decision to buy from you. Even if they were
really impressed with your site, how are they going to find
you again Tell your site visitors to be sure to bookmark
your site so they can visit again. Web surfers may think
they will remember your URL, but chances are they won’t.
Otherwise, you may have lost out on the opportunity to do
business with that person entirely, which is not your goal
when you are building a business online.

To your Success,
Harry

Are you curious about the world of Internet marketing but
feeling a little intimidated about using it to help your
business grow You don’t need to be. By taking some time to
educate yourself about Internet marketing, you will be able
to add this strategy to your marketing bag of tricks.

There are two main types of Internet marketing campaigns
you should be familiar with Pay per Click (PPC) and Search
Engine Optimization (SEO). To have a better chance at
achieving success marketing your products or services
online, you may want to incorporate both strategies into
your marketing plans.

Pay per Click

Once you launch your site, you will want to generate
traffic (and business) right away. Using a Pay per Click
campaign will help you reach this goal. Here’s how it
works

You bid on search terms keywords that you think people
interested in your products or services would use when
trying to find your site. When someone types in one of the
words you have chosen, an ad with a link to your web site
will appear. You may have seen them in your own search
results as Sponsored links. You are charged a certain
amount when someone clicks on your ad to get to your
website.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN all have PPC campaigns you can
participate in. Choosing keywords for your PPC campaign can
be a bit challenging; you will likely find that the most
popular keywords are also the most expensive ones. Don’t be
afraid to choose keywords that reflect the search terms
that an average Internet user would type in to find your
site, even if they are not near the top of the list. The
idea here is to get visitors to your site, after all.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about getting free
traffic to your web site. It will take some time for your
website to get indexed (listed) by search engines but if
you can get ranked well by one of the Big Three search
engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN), you are likely to get a
steady stream of visitors to your site.

Once your website is up and running, make sure that you
update your content on a regular basis. Search engine
crawlers (bots) go out through the Web to look for new
pages and you can improve your site ranking by keeping it
stocked with new information.

You will also want to make sure that your content has
keywords relevant to your niche market you are targeting.
These are the terms that Internet users will type into the
search box to find you.

Don’t be afraid to use a phrase made up of several words
when you are choosing keywords for your content. Many
people use these long tail keywords to find things they
are interested in online, and when you choose to
incorporate them into your content, you make it easier for
these motivated buyers to find you.

To your Online Success,
Harry