Make Money Online “How to”

Personalize It To Sell!

Social networking is taking off big time with sites like Facebook and Twitter in the top five social networking sites. These sites have created new opportunities to reach people online, even market them, if you know how to do it correctly. One thing that you can be sure of is that people who get on these sites enjoy the way it helps them define their self-identities. So, marketing to anything that helps them say who they are, what groups they belong to, and what values they uphold is a great way to build your contact list, and even in some cases, promote products that will appeal to this demographic.

Look At Me!

One way that Facebook and Twitter allow you to personalize the profile is by using your real name, or in the case of Twitter, a screen name. This draws attention to who that person is and helps to boost their self-image. In the same way, if you are trying to sell cups or calendars, if you have some way that you can include a personalization to make the item more custom, you will generate more orders. Everyone likes to see their name in print!

Generate A Group Identity

On Facebook, you can set up a Facebook page for celebrities, businesses, and products. People then join these pages to become a group of fans that like the page or topic. Once you have a group of people together, it can be a great way to get a group identity together by creating interesting names for the groups, having interactive activities on occasion and creating social badges that show people as being a member of that group. This helps in promoting your group and your business as other people go to other social networking sites. They can then identify themselves by saying they’re a member of that group or using some other form of badge or button that you provide to identify themselves with pride. Even if they never go elsewhere to promote your group, the fact that they are a part of a group that you started gives you a captive audience and relaxes many of the restrictions that you have for marketing in Facebook. You can’t spam others on their profiles with your offers, but in a group, the practice may be more acceptable if it helps to facilitate group activities and uphold group standards of identity.

Social Values That Sell

If you are a non-profit organization trying to use social networking to help generate contacts and promote some of your products, you can sell through the promotion of your social values. For instance, if you are a non-profit that believes in environmental issues, you can promote specific items in your product line-up, in a post to a group wall, that shows how that item helps to save the environment. Since people wouldn’t join the group of a social conscience site without having some of the same values, it provides an excellent trigger to generate buying behavior.

One objection you will probably come across when you are
engaging in Internet marketing is the idea that buying
something over the Internet is a risky venture. Some people
will use online resources to conduct research to get
product information but stop short of ordering items
online. If you are also operating a brick and mortar store,
you can certainly use your website to draw customers to it,
but wouldn’t it be a better marketing strategy to use your
site to sell your products to people from all over the
world

Being able to access a larger pool of potential customers
is a very exciting concept, and having an online presence
means that you are not restricted by traditional business
hours, time zones, or geography. You can offer your wares
to customers in any part of the world.

If you are going to offer products in the virtual world,
you will need to establish a reputation for reliability and
exemplary customer service. How do you do this By putting
yourself in the customer’s shoes, that’s how!

Tell Your Customers Something About You and Your Business

Use your About Us page to share some basic information
about your business. People are more likely to buy from
someone that they feel they know, even slightly. Tell the
visitors to your site who you are and something about what
made you decide to start your business in the first place.
These kinds of details will make you more real to the
potential customer, instead of a faceless entity online.

Have Your Privacy Policy Clearly Indicated on Your Site

Privacy issues are something that many people are concerned
about these days, and who can blame them Any time we hear
about someone being a victim of identity theft, we all
wonder if we are taking all the precautions we should to
keep our private information, well, private.

When you make a point of telling your site visitors that
you will not be sharing their contact or other personal
information with other companies, you are indicating that
you are a reliable company to deal with. Instead of waiting
for the potential customer to ask questions about what you
are doing with the information you collect, you are putting
them at ease by dealing with the issue up front.

Offer Exemplary Customer Service

Another issue that may make a person reluctant to buy
directly from a website is concerns about your customer
service and return policies. Make sure that your customers
can reach you (or someone working on your behalf) quickly
and conveniently. If you have a toll-free number for this
purpose, make sure that it is easy for your customers to
find. If not, then have a dedicated e-mail address for
customer service issues and make sure that it is monitored
on a regular basis. Let your customers know that their
questions and concerns will be dealt with in a timely
manner.

Take away the customer’s objections, and they will be more
comfortable buying from you, and you will see the benefit
in increased sales for your business.

Isn’t It Time You Make Money Online?
Harry

Anyone who has owned a business knows and understands that
they must keep an eye on costs at all times. Any expenses
must be considered in light of whether the cost can be
justified by an increase in revenue. To the person who
thinks that marketing their products or services online is
too expensive, I would suggest that they look at the facts
and adjust their way of thinking.

Internet Marketing is Targeted

You could choose to spend part of your advertising budget
buying an ad in the print version of your local Yellow
Pages. The Yellow Pages is a resource that many people use
to find companies to do business with, but that doesn’t
mean that you will get many responses to your ad.

In another marketing scenario, you could have flyers or
advertising material delivered to every home and business
in a particular neighborhood. You are still throwing out a
huge net to the general public and hoping that your ad will
end up in the hands of someone who is looking for your
product or service at that point in time.

You will have some success with these methods, but the
percentage of viewers that actually respond will likely be
quite low. Out of the number that responds, the number that
ends up buying from you will be smaller yet.

Internet Marketing is Effective

Enter Internet Marketing. Whether you use a Pay per Click
campaign or Search Engine Optimization or a combination of
the two, these strategies target specific niche markets. If
you were looking for leads, wouldn’t you rather talk to
pre-qualified people who have already indicated that they
are in the market for what you are selling Of course you
would!

When you use these techniques to drive targeted traffic to
your website, you are getting visitors that are already
interested in what you are selling and in many cases, are
ready to buy. This is the ideal situation for a
businessperson.

Another advantage to using Internet marketing techniques is
that you have the ability to monitor your campaign closely
to keep a handle on which ones are most effective. If you
find that something you are doing is working well, then you
can continue with it. On the other hand, if you are not
getting the results you are looking for, you can make
changes fairly quickly.

More traditional forms of advertising don’t offer this
option to the business owner, but that doesn’t mean that
they should be abandoned altogether. Marketing for your
business is an ongoing effort that should include a number
of different strategies. It would be a mistake to assume
that you won’t get some results (and generate income) from
Internet Marketing strategies as well as from other, more
traditional, methods.

Keep in mind that a well-designed website is an online
billboard that is capable of promoting your business 24
hours a day, seven days a week. Don’t ignore this wonderful
opportunity to promote your business.

Internet Marketing is a 365/24/7 salesforce

But the best part of Internet Marketing is that is will reach
people all over the globe and it will do it at anytime of the
day or night. This is important because those that realize
that even a fraction of a percent of people online
(currently 1.4 billion) is a massive audience for your product
or message. To reach them you have to do it on their
timetable not yours, and there is no better, easier or more
effective way to do that then on the Internet.

To Your Success,
Harry