Understanding Your Target, the Customer

Having designed a beautiful website or blog you think that you are going to attract clients, right? but unless you really know what your customers are looking for you or what they want to buy, it is most unlikely your going to be make sales or make money.

A Website is like a storefront which must attract customers with things they want to buy. So what are they looking for, best deals, best buy, discounts, bargains or a real must have at any price product?  Spending time researching your target, is time well spent.

Once you have  grabbed the customers attention your next task is to get him/her to either make that purchase or to optin to your mailing list, newsletter or must have special offer. Once there you can proceed with the follow up. A good way to get a response from your mailing list is to email your existing clients and ask them to complete a survey or even ask while they are browsing on your website. Ask them about their choices. Why do they like your products? Do you discount prices or offer coupons? Are your prices consistently lower than others? Is your shipping price cheaper? Do you respond faster to client questions? Are your product descriptions better? Your return policies and guarantees better than your competitor’s? To know your customer you can check credit card records or ask your customer to complete a simple contact form with name, address, age, gender, etc. when they purchase a product. All part of your customer service.

 

Does your website give enough contact information?

 
Selling from a website allows your customer to buy your products 24 hrs a day from anywhere around the globe. Always provide contact information, [compulsory in many countries eg: Germany, the Impressum] which should be visible on every page of your website, complete with mailing address, telephone number and an email address that reaches you.

 

People may need to contact you about sales, ask questions about products, general information or technical problems on your site. Provide your customers with enough options like credit card, PayPal or other online payment service so you never lose a sale and keep it simple. There is nothing more infuriating for customers that being taken from one page to another countless times and never the pay button, and you the seller also want to hear the ‘kerching’ symphony; keep it simple and make sales.
 
Zo Nicholas

Affiliate Marketing is an incredibly inexpensive and effective way to grow a business, and (depending on the type) has an incredibly low-risk factor for business.

In a nutshell, Affiliate Marketing is a way of promoting on-line and web business through affiliates (or publishers.) The affiliate is rewarded for every customer, visitor, subscriber, or sale that is the result of their efforts and advertising. It’s a way of empowering other websites to market your business through their own channels (internet, e-mail etc.)

Affiliate Marketing is often confused with Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM), so some companies prefer to use the term ‘performance marketing’ to limit this confusion. MLM and Affiliate Marketing are simply not the same thing, as MLM is based on an entirely different system. Affiliate Marketing is basically a form of advertising and commission, but the affiliate does not move or sell the product. They merely advertise and are rewarded according to their efforts based on the merchant’s parameters. While there are many multi-tier programs of Network Marketing that use Affiliate Marketing in their program, these are strictly not considered as Affiliate Marketing.

So, what are these types and their differences?

Simply put, in the early days of the internet, Cost-Per-Click (CPC) was the general program used. This is when the affiliate only needs to display banners on their website, or send out emails, advertising the product or merchant. Every time a click on a banner or link in the email happens, a redirect to the merchant’s website happens. The merchant then pays the affiliate a certain amount of money for every ‘click.’

Google’s AdSense program is an example of this kind of Affiliate Marketing, however it’s not entirely the same, as AdSense is more contextual advertising (only displays adverts that relate to the website they are displayed.)

Because CPC could so easily be manipulated, spam sites and emails became prevalent amongst many unethical affiliates, as well as click fraud and other issues. This has resulted in only 1% of the on-line market using CPC these days.

The other types of Affiliate Marketing are CPS (Cost-Per-Sale) and CPA (Cost-Per-Action.) Basically, the affiliate is only rewarded with a commission when the advert they have generated ends in a sale (CPS), or a subscription or lead (CPA.) This can be very rewarding for the affiliate, especially if the customer buys a fairly expensive product, or high quantities. 80% of the market currently uses the CPS system, whereas 19% use the CPA system.

The wonderful thing for merchants on CPS and CPA is that they actually take no risk. The risk now lies with the advertiser or affiliate. And, since this form of marketing is usually just in the form of displaying adverts on the affiliate’s website, there is very little (if at all) risk involved.

Because of the success of early companies like Amazon.com and CDNOW using Affiliate Marketing, proving its high efficiency, it has now become an integrated part of business plans – not just for e-commerce - but for all types of business.

Bruno Auger

Tags:   e-commerce, Cost Per Click, Affiliate Marketing, Adsense, Cost per Sale, MLM, Cost Per Action

YouTube battles on

Following up on the YouTube legal battle vs Viacom that has hit the headlines in the past few days, one has to ask the question, is ANYTHING PRIVATE THESE DAYS? is there no ‘users privacy’ these days? or is privacy a thing of the past.

When joining all these different free video sites, dare we put our information in? Are all users tarred with the same brush that they are there to view ‘illegal’ copies of films etc. If you are no connosieur of the film industry, how is the viewer to  know what is pirated and illegal and what is not. So, where does the responsibility lie, with the viewer to question everything before watching, with the video publisher or the program owner to verify and monitor all uploaded videos?

Why do people join Youtube - for a laugh, for a bit of fun, to show of their creativity, for a bit of exhibitionism or a way to let of steam? Many and varied reasons, thats for sure, but beware, big brother is watching YOU.

A college student claimed it was all a joke when he put his vote in this fall's presidential election up for sale on the Web auction site eBay. But prosecutors didn't see the humor.

A college student claimed it was all a joke when he put his vote in this fall's presidential election up for sale on the Web auction site eBay. But prosecutors didn't see the humor.