Article Marketing Tips For Product Sellers
August 18, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
Sounds too good to be true, right? But it’s not. With a smart strategy to avoid duplicate content penalties and giving your competition an edge over you, you can run a successful article marketing campaign.
Follow the tips before for the best results:
- Write TWO versions of your article. The first and longest version should contain the meat of your topic. Perhaps you’re writing about the benefits of mothers carrying their babies in a sling for the first six months of the baby’s life. When you’re done, you have 20 benefits and an attention catching headline.
- Now it’s time to do some keyword research. Figure out what keywords people use when looking for baby wearing information. Take a look at each of your benefits and find the most popular keywords used to search for information on those topics. For example, if one of your benefits is that being close to mom all the time can help a baby sleep better, research keyword phrases related to baby and sleep.
- Add those keywords to the appropriate sections of the article, making sure that you don’t compromise the style and flow of your writing. Human readers should not notice that you’ve added keyword phrases to the article. Add the general baby wearing benefits keyword phrase to the headline of your article.
- You should now go ahead and add this article to your website.
- Time for the fun part: Write a second version of the article. It should be different from the original version and should contain fewer benefits. For example, you might write it solely for parents of babies who don’t sleep. Include on the the sleep-related benefits. And then write a resource box that links the article back to the main article on your site for more baby wearing benefits.
- Research the keyword phrases related to the topic you have chosen. Do not use the phrase that you used in your original article.
- Once you have added the phrases to your new article, in a natural manner, you will need to submit this article to search engine directories.
- What’s next? Well, you have 20 benefits – so you can write 20 articles, right?
This is an effective way of preventing your site from being carted off to the supplemental index, while making great use of article marketing.
Deciding What Kind Of Jewelry To Make
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
So you want to start your own jewelry business, but you aren’t sure what type of jewelry you want to make? Here are some valid points for you to consider:
What type of jewelry do you personally like? What kinds of pieces are you frequently drawn to? Try your hand at making the kinds of jewelry that you would buy and wear.
Try something simple first. If you aren’t experienced in making jewelry, start out by making something simple, like bracelets.
Make something unique. Do you have a flair for a unique or different style? Match your style to your jewelry-making. If you love animals, can you match that love to the type of jewelry you make? If you are passionate about health, how can you incorporate that into your jewelry? Think outside the box.
Do you have artistic talents? If so, try your hand at designing your own patterns. These pieces of jewelry, incorporated with art, will be even more special to your customers.
Make one-of-a-kind pieces. If you tend to get bored with repetitive jewelry making (making the same pieces over and over again), make one-of-a-kind pieces. These will be appealing to your customers because they can be assured that nobody else has one like it. You can usually charge a bit more for exclusive pieces of jewelry, too.
Hopefully these pointers will give you something to think about and be helpful in your decision making process. Just remember that even though you may decide to make a certain type of jewelry in the beginning, be open to changes if you get tired of what you’re doing.
Michelle Waters helps Work At Home Moms take their home businesses ideas to reality with her ecommerce software and hosting services at www.ShopKitPlus.com. She offers support and business advice for her clients at www.WaterswebShops.com.
Finding The Best Deals For Jewelry Making Supplies
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
Running your own jewelry business can be costly if you aren’t careful. But how do you find the best deals for beads, clasps, wire, charms, etc.? Here are some tips for finding the best deals for jewelry supplies.
Shop around – Taking a little bit of time to visit several different supply shops could possibly save you some cash in the long run. Shopping around will give you a good idea of which places carry the best deals on the supplies you frequently use.
Watch for sales – This one may seem like a no-brainer to you. However, all too often, business owners fail to keep an eye out for good sales because of their busyness. Sign up for free newsletters online to receive special notices of sales. Have your address added to local supply shops to receive fliers and notices of their special sales.
Ask others where they shop – Networking can prove to be extremely useful in learning where to find the best deals. Find other jewelry makers and see if they’ll share some of their favorite shopping spots for the best deals on jewelry supplies.
Be a loyal customer – Many times stores, especially local ones, will give special discounts or deals for their favorite (i.e. loyal) customers. Loyal customers mean word-of-mouth advertising. Ask if they offer a rewards or discount program.
Think outside the box – Brainstorm different ways to find good deals. Sometimes all it takes is a little ingenuity.
Michelle Waters helps Work At Home Moms take their home businesses ideas to reality with her ecommerce software and hosting services at www.ShopKitPlus.com. She offers support and business advice for her clients at www.WaterswebShops.com.
Four Tips To Funding A Business Startup On A Shoestring
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
Are you unsure about whether or not to start your business because of lack of startup funds? Many small and home business owners face this very issue in the beginning. Don’t get discouraged because there are lots of ways you can fund your startup business on a shoestring.
The first thing to remember is that there are endless numbers of success stories of shoestring businesses making it big. Be encouraged and know that you can build a successful business from scratch, but you have to be focused and never willing to quit.
The second suggestion that many who have been in your shoes even suggest, is not to quit your job until your business begins showing a profit. All too often, new business owners are enamored with the idea of owning and running a business and quit their day jobs, only to discover that funds run short fast. Then they’re forced to take extreme measures, or look for another job.
Next, you have to truly know your business inside and out. How much money will it cost to run your business? You should complete a business plan, which will tell you if your business idea will be a feasible one or not. Research similar businesses and find out what kinds of profits and losses they’re seeing.
Finally, if you find that you still need some financial backing but you don’t want to borrow money from a financial institution, find a few investors. Present your business idea, along with your prepared business plan and research to trusted friends and colleagues and request their financial backing for your startup business. Many times you will be able to obtain this kind of monetary help from those who believe in your business and want to see you succeed.
Michelle Waters helps Work At Home Moms take their home businesses ideas to reality with her ecommerce software and hosting services at www.ShopKitPlus.com. She offers support and business advice for her clients at www.WaterswebShops.com.
Reach Out And Touch Your Target Market
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
Now that you have defined your target market, do you know how to reach them? Knowing your market will allow you to greater serve their needs, which means building steady, return business. But first you have to reach your target market.
Benefits
What benefits do you offer to your customers? Think in terms of problem-solving. What problems do your customers have that you can help them solve? In what ways can you make their lives simpler? Easier? How will your business help your customer—peace of mind, protection, improved health, save money, etc. Clearly define the benefits of your business.
Advertising
Advertising, especially unique advertising, can reach more customers than you’d imagine. Focus on touching the emotions of your target market. How will they feel when they purchase your product?
Brand
Branding your business is extremely important. Creating and building your business around a brand helps your customers remember you above all others. Branding is simply the process of creating a unique marketing strategy that makes your customers feel as if you are the only business who can meet their needs. Do this, and you’ll gain customers for life.
Credibility
Can you build a bond of trust with your target market? If your market doesn’t feel like you know what you’re talking about, chances are they’re not going to be very willing to take a chance on buying your service or product. Build credibility by participating in online forums and discussion groups. You can also establish trustworthiness through your ad campaigns and by writing articles for magazines, newsletters, and other publications.
Michelle Waters helps Work At Home Moms take their home businesses ideas to reality with her ecommerce software and hosting services at www.ShopKitPlus.com. She offers support and business advice for her clients at www.WaterswebShops.com.
Five Steps To Learning What Makes Your Target Market Want To Buy Your Products
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
Who is your target market? Before you begin your online business, it is important to know who you will reach with your business. Here are some easy steps you can take to research your target market.
Step One: Google away! The first step you can take to researching your target market is utilizing the internet—namely, Google. Type in specific keywords or phrases that you think your target market might use to find you. How many links return on your search? A lot? Not many?
Step Two: Check out your competitors. From the list you see when you Google, visit the top ten or twenty businesses. How are their businesses different from yours? How do they present themselves to potential customers online? How can you reach the same market, but in a different, more unique, way?
Step Three: Determine the problem/needs. Think like your potential customer. What is her need? What problem does she have that you can solve? Your customers like to know that you can help them solve their problems. She wants to know that your service or item is the absolute and only answer to their problem or need.
Step Four: Is your market large enough to sustain business? Do even more sleuthing. Visit storefronts similar to your business. Ask other business owners if you may interview them. Find out if the market your business targets is enough to build and sustain your business. If the market is not so good, there could be a strong possibility that your business could wane or totally disappear over time.
Step Five: Can you offer expert advice? Do you “know your stuff,” so to speak? If you sell a product, do you know it inside-and-out? Can you explain to your customer how, why, when, where, what, when it comes to the product? Being an expert not only shows your customers that you know what you’re talking about, but it helps to build trust, which is ultimately important.
Michelle Waters helps Work At Home Moms take their home businesses ideas to reality with her ecommerce software and hosting services at www.ShopKitPlus.com. She offers support and business advice for her clients at www.MichelleWatersOnline.com.
Finding Home Business Ideas In Your Own Life
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
For some moms, one of the hardest parts of starting an online business is finding the right idea. There are mothers looking for a way to create an original home based business every day and the internet provides a ready customer base for good ideas that are marketed well. The challenge facing these would-be entrepreneurs is in finding the good idea.
Create Your Own Niche
A common mistake made by new website owners is trying to be all things to all people. On the internet, generalization is best left to large corporations who have the staff and advertising budget to make their wide product offering work for them. Specialization is where a small internet business owner can really shine.
Look Inside Yourself and Your Situation
Ask yourself what small niches you inhabit. Are you a mom with a special needs child? What do you wish you had or which you knew to make that easier? Are you multi-cultural? Does your sub culture have lots of choices when it comes to shopping, services and information?
Solve A Problem
If you’re thinking about creating a business selling homemade diapers, for example, examine the market and see if you can’t spot an under represented niche that needs attention. Take a look at your own experiences and make a list of the items that you wish you had for your newborn. Some very interesting and innovative baby products have been introduced to the market by a work at home mom.
Other mothers will reach into their household cash and spend it with you when you show them how your product makes their life easier or saves them money. What have you created for yourself that could be marketed to others? This doesn’t have to be a fancy new diaper bag or nursing necklace, although there is always a market for something that improves on the old stand by. Perhaps what you have to offer others isn’t a product, it could be information.
Provide Information On A Specific Topic
You could write an eBook on how you helped your kindergartner stop wetting the bed or how you provided healthy, delicious, non-boring meals for a family of four on less than fifty dollars a week. (Sell me that one will you?)
The deeper you dig, the better the nugget you might find. Just realize that you’re not looking for a huge market, you’re looking for a responsive one. Bring your solution to the people who need it and you will be on your way to success.
Michelle Waters helps Work At Home Moms take their home businesses ideas to reality with her ecommerce software and hosting services at www.ShopKitPlus.com. She offers support and business advice for her clients at www.waterswebshops.com.
Top 10 Things You Can Do to Make Your Business Fail – And How to Avoid Them
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
There are so many mistakes to be made when you’re new to marketing your business on the internet. Just in case you need some help in this area, here are some fast lane ideas to make sure that you fail. (Tongue in cheek of course!)
1. Put up a web page with no content – words or images – related to the product or service you’re selling.
2. Use every blinking or flashing graphic you can find to draw attention to everything on your website. Even if you don’t make any sales, you’ll have fun right?
3. Put buttons to every top site list and banner exchange you can find on your home page. As long as you’re going to go to a lot of effort to draw visitors to your site, you may as well send them on to someone else to share the love.
4. Ignore your site. Check for orders once a week – or even once per month. Only read your email when there’s a blue moon out. Subscribe to the ‘If you built it they will come’ philosophy and do not even think about marketing.
5. Crash your visitors’ browsers with special website codes that change their cursor into a butterfly or spell out the name of your business in trailing stars around their mouse. Whether or not they enjoy the special effects, we know you will.
6. Use boring, un-motivating website copy that does nothing to entice your visitors to buy. Spend more time welcoming them to the site and telling them all about your kids and pets than you do telling them about what you’re selling. This makes you appear to be really friendly.
7. Wait a week before responding to customers emails, wait two weeks to ship your products, then disappear from the Internet entirely. You’ll seem mysterious and have hundreds of people talking about you in no time.
8. Start a business with no clear concept of where you are going with it or how you are going to get there. Why make a decision? You’d only have to change your mind later anyways right? You’re a woman, it’s your prerogative.
9. Target the same market everyone else does and sell the same product. Be sure to copy all of the same marketing methods your friends are using. It obviously works well for them.
10. Don’t plan for growth. It’s fun to see your website shut down for exceeding bandwidth limits the day of your big sale. Planning ahead is for boring people.
Ok, so we’re having a bit of fun here. If you’re doing any of the above, you may be feeling a bit silly right now. But don’t worry; we can do something about it! You can change your ways and turn things around just by taking the above list and doing the polar opposite of what it says.
A business is an investment of your time, passion and money. If you take the time up front and make really good decisions about how it is set up it will perform better for you in the long run.
Michelle Waters is the work at home mom behind Shop Kit Plus, an complete website and shopping cart solution for home business moms who want to sell their products on the internet. Find out how Shop Kit Plus can help you create a more successful online business at www.ShopKitPlus.com.
Seven Steps To Financing Your Online Community
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
Setting up a message board on your site is an excellent way to build a community of loyal customers. Your community members can help each other use your product effectively and provide you with fresh ideas. The message board itself gives your customers reason to return to your site often, sometimes even daily. So, the next time they need your product — guess who they think of first…you! And even better, customers will tell their friends about your products and your community, resulting in viral growth that will keep the incoming pouring in.
Or so it would seem.
Let’s take a look at the reality of setting up a message board.
Jenny, a cloth diaper seller, decides to setup a forum so her customers can share diaper care tips, parenting advice and ideas for new product designs. She chooses the message board software recommended by her hosting company and hires a web designer for installation and customization of the forum. Then she emails all her customers about the new site.
A few months later, her forum is booming! New members are signing up daily. Search engines eat up the content on the message board, boosting her page rank and helping her site appear high in the rankings for many related keyword phrases. The problem? She’s using up too much bandwidth for her existing hosting account. She purchases a larger account and the community continues to grow.
But then her hosting company contacts her and tells her that the forum is using up too many server resources. She needs to move to a dedicated server. She looks at several $99 per month server options — but they don’t include the technical support she will need. The hosting companies that do include the support she needs cost several hundred dollars per month — more than she can support on her own.
Jenny is faced with a choice that many small business have had to make: Close the message board to the public or shut it down completely.
Both options will hurt her business.
But wait.
Those aren’t the only choices that Jenny has. She can also monetize the site. Her community is the best asset off her website. She should be taking advantage of the traffic to it and monetize the site.
Monetizing a site means leveraging the traffic and resources it provides to earn money — at least enough to pay server costs. Jenny has many option available to her to create streams of income from her message board. Below of seven of them:
1. One of the most common methods for generating income from a community is to place banner and text ads in the header, footer and sidebar sections. If these banners appeal to your community (work at home moms advertising to each other, for example), this could be a lucrative endeavor. However, there is a downside. Ad blockers may prevent your community members from seeing the advertisements. Your members may ignore the ads. And if you place too many ads on the site, it becomes cluttered and may drive potential members away.
2. You could charge a membership fee for the community. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this for a product support community. However, you may setup special forums within the message board, that are for paid members. Perhaps these paid members would have first access to new products. Be creative, talk to your members and find out what they would find valuable.
3. Join affiliate programs of complimentary businesses and promote them on your website through advertisements, articles and community messages. For example, Jenny is sells cloth diapers that she makes. She could join an affiliate program that sells diaper covers, liners, wool soakers, baby wipes, etc. Join venture partnerships with these businesses would also be an excellent way to earn additional revenue through community promotion.
4. Jenny already sells a physical product to her community members. She can add to her arsenal by creating a digital product. Perhaps an ebook on the benefits of attachment parenting, or how to convince dad that cloth is best. Talk to your community members, and consider what you know about your target market.
5. You can accept donations from your community members. The downside of this is that oftentimes people attach strings to gives (such as donations) which can cause problems later on, if you make a decision regarding your forum that said donator does not agree with. In my opinion, you’d be better off offering an upgraded membership, in which your community members purchase specific upgrades and agree to follow your rules, in exchange for a set amount of money.
6. Selling targeted sponsorships is an option that I haven’t seen around much. However, you can charge more for them than for regular advertising. In a targeted sponsorship, a company pays for advertising space in a specific section of your website. For example, if Jenny has a forum on her community dedicated to breastfeeding babies (who are cloth diapers, naturally), a company selling cloth breast pads may sponsor the just that forum. Jenny would place a banner or text ads in just that forum. Perhaps she could promote the company in articles or her posts in that forum as well, depending on her agreement with the company.
7. You may use a combination of all of these things to diversify your income so if one source of revenue dries up, you’re not left holding a hefty server fee with no money.
While online communities can be a great asset to a community, they can also be a huge liability in terms of server fees and time spent moderating the community itself. Planned wisely and carefully monetized, a community can pay for itself.
Michelle Waters is the technician and creative force behind www.vbMojo.com, your source for online community building products and services.
Ebay Store vs. Ecommerce Website
March 2, 2007 by Michelle Waters · Leave a Comment
By: Michelle Waters
You may be trying to decide how to go ahead with your dreams of an online product sales business. Many times a new product seller is torn between creating an eBay store and setting up a web store on your own domain. Because many sellers get their feet wet by offering a few products on eBay, it’s easy to move smoothly into an eBay store, but is it the right choice for your business?
Positioning is Everything
The first thing to remember is that there isn’t anything magical about setting up an eBay store. Some have the idea that an eBay store gets better exposure online than other options. This just isn’t true. An eBay store only gets as much attention as you stir up for it.
eBay users, the people who do find your store, tend to be looking to pay as little as possible for whatever they want. If you’re looking to make a good profit on your products, a traditional web store is usually a better choice. People who find your web store are more likely to be looking for a good product, not just a bargain.
Financially Speaking.
There are costs involved in creating a presence on the web. When you use a Basic eBay Store, you pay the monthly $15.95* plus any insertion and final value fees. With a Watersweb Shop Kit Plus, you get started with one time license fee and a flat rate of $10 per month. You own your shopping cart and never pay any additional insertion or final value fees on your sales.
Let’s Compare Costs For A New Shop Owner.
If you sell 10 products a month for a full year, each valued at about $25 through an eBay store. You would have sold over $3,000 and paid $417 in costs. With Shop Kit Plus, you’re costs would only be $205.00.
Another Comparison.
The difference in fees gets more noticeable as you grow more successful. If you sell 100 products a month for a full year, each valued at about $25 through an eBay store. You would have sold over $30,000 and paid $2,599 in costs. With Shop Kit Plus, you would still only have paid $205.00 in costs. The only time your costs would increase is if you needed additional storage space, server resources or bandwidth. And then your additional costs are still fixed – instead of growing with each additional sale.
It’s Smart Business
It is better to start now with the big picture in mind. Starting a website now means that all of your time spent in promoting your business will have long term value. As you spread the word, you share your domain name and people will remember it.
With some simple search engine optimization tactics you’ll soon start to receive good traffic from the big search engines. At Watersweb Shops, we include several resources to our new store owners for learning how to market your site, optimize for the search engines and target the people who are looking for your product.
You Can Still Use eBay
Once you have your store ready to go, if you want to reach the eBay crowd, list a few items and put a link to your website in your About Me page. This can be a great option for selling your clearance items – that won’t eat up your profits.
*Ebay pricing accurate as of September 12, 2006
Michelle Waters helps Work At Home Moms take their home businesses ideas to reality with her ecommerce software and hosting services at www.ShopKitPlus.com. She offers support and business advice for her clients at www.WaterswebShops.com.
