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Before you begin the process of developing a website, it
is important to define your goals. Sure, you want to make
lots of sales, but there is much more to achieving success
than simply building a website and submitting it to the search
engines. In fact there are entire books devoted to the subject
of Internet marketing. We will cover a few basics here to
get you thinking. There is no absolute right way to market
products or services on the Internet, but a substantial amount
of research and planning will greatly increase your odds of
success.
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type of website will you have? |
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There are two main approaches to selling items on a
website:
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1]
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Commercial
- Directly offer products or services for sale.
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2]
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Informational - Offer
meaningful content to attract visitors, then sell related
products or services.
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For most people, option number 1 is the fastest way
to get into business on the Internet.
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What is your budget? If
you are on a shoestring budget, spend as much time as possible
researching and learning about your customers and competition.
Then get some help from a professional. You may think that
you are saving money by doing everything by yourself, but
usually the time and money wasted making mistakes will be
much more than the up front costs of some consultation. If
you've ever played golf, you know how beneficial a few lessons
can be!
How much time do you have?
Depending on your knowledge and skill level, you may be able
to build an e-commerce website in a matter of weeks, but for
most people, it could take months just to learn the basics.
Then the real challenge begins. Attracting customers to your
website requires time or money. It is that simple! There are
many inexpensive ways to market your website and, depending
on your competition or the demand for your product, you may
be able to do much of the marketing work yourself. How much
time can you devote to this? An alternative is to pay for
effective advertising or placement in search engines and directories.
Is your product or service unique
or hard to find? If it is, then you probably won't
have much trouble getting good listings in the search engines
using the most obvious keywords. On the other hand, if your
product or service is in a saturated market, such as consumer
electronics, the only way that you will obtain good search
engine placement is with obscure keywords that your competitors
are not optimized for. In this case, other forms of marketing
may be in order.
What are your strengths?
What benefits do you offer that your competitors don't? What
added value features or services do you offer? Build on your
strengths and use them when writing content.
Who is your target audience?
Design the website for you target audience. Present meaningful
benefits and design the style and content of your website
in the context of your customers' needs and desires.
Keep it simple and to the point.
First impressions are lasting impressions. Avoid distractions
such as moving objects and animation. Use graphics sparingly
and with purpose. Flash and sluggish multimedia plug-ins,
and overindulgent mission statements will slow the loading
time of your pages. The most important aspect of a commercial
website is usually; compelling content, easy navigation, and
a simple way to purchase the product or service. Your website
can still be visually appealing so long as you emphasize function
over form.
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