Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internet marketing campaign, and the success or failure of your site depends greatly on how specifically you have defined your website goals. If you don’t know what you want your site to accomplish, it will most likely fail to accomplish anything. Without goals to guide you in developing and monitoring your website, all your site will be is an online announcement that you are in business. If you expect your site to stimulate some form of action, whether it is visitors filling out a form so a representative can contact them, or purchasing a product, there are steps you can take to insure that your website is functioning at peak efficiency. One of the first indicators of how well your site is working for you is finding out the number of visitors in a given period of time. A good baseline measurement is a month in which you haven’t been doing any unusual offline promotional activities.
However, just because hoards of people have passed through your gates does not mean your site is successful. Usually, you want those visitors to actually do something there. It is equally important to monitor the number of visitors to your site who made a purchase. This figure is called the site conversion rate, and it is an essential element of the efficacy of your website. To find the site conversion rate, take the number of visitors per month and figure out the percentage of them that actually performed the action your site is set up for. For example, if you had 2,000 hits to your site, but only 25 of them purchased your product, your site conversion rate equals 1.25%. To get this figure, take your number of visitors and divide that figure by the number of visitors who made a purchase. Then divide that result by 100 (25 ?00 X 100). If your website is set-up to get visitors to fill out a form, make sure to then figure out what the difference is between your site conversion rate and your sales conversion rate. This is because not everyone who fills out your form will actually become your customer. However, whether your site is set-up to sell a service or product, or to get the visitor to fill out a form, the site conversion rate will measure the success or failure of your website whenever you make changes to the site. You may find that you need to implement some additional marketing strategies if you find that traffic to your site is extremely low. There are several effective methods to improve the flow of traffic to your website, particularly launching a search engine optimization campaign. This campaign is targeted at increasing your position in search engine results so that consumers can find your pages faster and easier. You can either research the steps you need to take to improve your search engine rankings, or employ a search engine optimization company to do the work for you.
In either case, after your have improved your search engine positions, make sure you keep on top of them by regular monitoring and adjusting of your efforts to maintain high positions.
Another factor to examine is how easy it is for a visitor to your website to accomplish the action the site is set-up for.
For example, if your goal is for the visitor to fill out a form, is this form easily accessible, or does the visitor have to go through four levels to get to it? If it’s too difficult to get to, the customer may just throw in the towel and move on to another site. Make sure your buttons are highly visible, and the path to your form or ordering page quickly accessible. Finally, have a professional evaluate the copy on your website. The goal is, of course, to get your visitor to make a purchase or fill out your form. Website copy must be specifically geared to your online campaign and not just a cut and paste job from your company brochure. The right copy can make the difference between profit and loss in your online campaign.
Curious about Internet marketing or network marketing, not sure, what it is, or how it works? Is it a modern day version of a pyramid scheme that is now on the Internet? No, it is not a pyramid scheme it is a network of individuals who sell products. You probably have been one of those consumers.
The way that network marketing functions is that certain individuals have an extensive knowledge of the products that are going too sold. This is not the same as going into a store and asking a sales person for information on a product, they then look at you as if you came from another planet, and they have no idea how to answer your question. Those with this information train others to be as knowledgeable as they are and then they do train others and so on. While the training takes place, each representative will sell the products via word of mouth and everyone profits financially. Multi-level marketing (MLM) differs because they are a large company that will train individuals to sell a product and then these new representatives will train another when they have learned about the products and each works at various levels of compensation. In multi-level marketing (MLM) the companies financial growth does not depend on the amount of products sold their profit comes from the amount of individuals that are part of their company selling the products although they do require that the products are only sold through multi-level marketing (MLM) business. In order to rise to the top of company in the economy of today you usually have to work for them your entire life and that is not done as much as it was done 50 years ago. Most employees are always looking for the better off and will not hesitate to leave the firm they are with if they are offered a better financial package. This is one of the draws of network marketing that they can make a residual income for the rest of their lives and work it as either fulltime or part-time. You can work a current job and do network marketing on the side until you are ready to do network marketing full time. What most people like about this form of income is that there are no barriers to the amount of money you can make or any form of discrimination or the thought of not having enough qualifications.
The risk is low, the financial requirement to start is low, and you do not have to restock items. Your primary investment is a good work ethic and a willingness to meet new people and let them know how their lives can change for the better. http://www.payitforward4profits.com/rodl13
There was a time when roads across America were ‘paved’ with dirt. Gravel was an improvement to these roads, but often came with a washboard feel as the vehicles chattered on to their destination. Simple two lane paved roads would eventually follow and the famed Route 66 took folks on a hill strewn ride across the country. As more and more Americans traveled the demand on these roads increased giving rise to the Interstate system. These four lane systems brought relief to congested roads, but ultimately proved too shortsighted a plan.
Larger cities expanded to multiple lanes and elaborate ramp systems were required to allow a free flow of traffic in most instances. Today road crews across the United States are constantly working to expand, repair and replace the existing infrastructure. Toll roads are built to handle congestion and are used by those who don’t mind paying a little extra to avoid the frustration of traffic. How is traffic managed? A map is always a good place to start in helping you find your way, but so too are road signs and now GPS units that can guide you to your final destination. When it comes to traffic building for your website you may find the process similar to the expansion of America’s road system except, when it comes to traffic building on the Internet, you never start with a proverbial dirt road you build a super highway and wait for traffic to catch up. Initially you may find that traffic your website is slow, no one seems to be able to find their way from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ so they take the off ramp and head back home. Obviously you want them to travel as far as they can so you decide to help them. You work at map building. This process starts with solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and continues with a comprehensive site map.
The SEO strategies tell them where to exit and an easy to navigate site allows them to discover where they need to go.
Just like roadside businesses of old you may want to advertise in the ‘map’. On the Internet this is done through banner or PPC advertising. This can also help direct traffic to your destination on the information superhighway. You see, traffic is heavy and without some help in finding your location there will be a whole lot of potential customers that will pass you by going as fast as they can and miss you altogether. For some reason there are online business owners that seem to believe traffic building for their business is about simply developing a website and turning on the welcome sign. Traffic building for the web is all about building the road. Make the road so unavoidable that the buying public can’t miss it. Make the signs very clear, make sure the map includes your business address or in this case the search engines have you ranked well. Make sure the final destination (your website) is worth visiting and spending time with. Build a website – a few might accidentally find you. Build a road – the masses may wonder what’s at the end.
Mark Nenadic When you’re trying to choose the precise niche that your business will fill, the best strategy is to make sure that you know what you’re doing with the product, so that you’ll feel much more comfortable in your niche and you’ll enjoy what you’re doing. The best successes are always achieved by those who like their work. Therefore, the first step that you can take for defining your own niche is to make a list of all the things that you like to do best. This may have to do with your current job, a job you used to have, a hobby you enjoy, an art form, a sport, or anything else that you happen to enjoy in life. Begin by writing down your areas of interest, and then look at each parts of that list separately so that you can break it down into more focused sections. To help to inspire you in building your list, think about the following questions and get your mind moving. Write down everything at first, not really thinking about whether or not it really has potential. The key to this step is simply to get the ideas flowing and see what you come up with, getting it all down on paper. You never know; the idea you write down right now might not seem like much, but when you read it over later, it might stir much bigger thoughts. • Would you like to be in this field every day as your job? • Do you already have any skills or knowledge in that category? • What type of person would be interested in the type of product that would come from that category? • Would you enjoy working with your niche market target? Once you’ve come up with your primary list of interests, use the above questions to go over it and narrow it down to those that have the highest chances of bringing you success.
Give yourself a bit of time to mull over those topics that remain, and choose one of them that appeals to you the most. Use that topic and begin writing down all of the basic things that you would require to learn or obtain in order to achieve success within that category. Put all of these things into a logical order, and then break them down into smaller parts which are then arranged in their own logical orders. Once you’re done, you should have a much clearer idea of what you’ll be able to offer your prospective customers, and if you have the ability and motivation to work toward success in that specific category from your original list. To help determine if your successes are likely, go over your current list and ask yourself the following questions: • Do you have any special knowledge about this topic? • Do you have any skills that are related to this topic? • Are you able to come up with a product that would help or please people in some way within this topic? • Is there anything that you can offer in this topic that is outstanding and not already present in today’s marketplace? Make sure that you’re always writing your ideas down. With all of the thinking and brainstorming you’ll be doing, you’ll be surprised how fleeting ideas are if you don’t get them down on paper. Even if some of them look rather odd when you write them down, when you delve into them, they might have a lot more potential than you first thought. Once you have some substantial ideas in front of you, consider showing them to your friends and family. Listen carefully to their thoughts and opinions and let them inspire you for further ideas and details. You might be surprised at what the people around you might think of that may never have crossed your mind. Another great resource is the internet. Do some research around your topic and prospective product(s), finding websites of general interest and potential competition.
This will give you some great ideas about what’s out there and an understanding of what people are really looking for. It will help you to better polish your idea or develop a whole new one that you think is better.
Filed Under Marketing Techniques | Comments Off on A Successful Niche Matches Your Skills and Knowledge
