My Buy Essay

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Online shopping is the latest trend among customers. Why would you still go to the shop personally when you can do shopping from the comforts of your own home? Because of the rising popularity of online shopping, more and more business persons are setting up their own ecommerce websites to meet the needs of customers and of course, earn big money online.

There is a very bright future for ecommerce websites. As long as there are needs that should be met, there will be customers. For ecommerce website owners, earning money online can be so easy. If people need your products and services, your website will stay alive as long as you want.

Online Competition For Ecommerce Websites

Because of the increasing numbers of online shoppers, there is a need for more ecommerce websites. The problem, however, is that there seem to be several ecommerce websites now. A lot of business persons have answered the call to sell something online. This makes online competition very tough.

Just think about this, if you sell health and beauty products online, there are hundred more several websites like yours. They also offer the same products and services. If there is one customer looking for a health product, he has a hundred choices to choose from. So how can you increase your website’s chance of getting that customer?

Plan Ahead And Market Your Ecommerce Website

This is one thing that most ecommerce website owners do not completely understand. Most of them think that once they have set up their websites, they don’t have to do anything anymore. They will just sit and wait for sales. This may be true ages ago, but with the tough competition now, if you don’t do anything, you won’t get any sales.

Ecommerce websites need two things to consider. First is planning and the second is marketing. Before setting up the website, there must be a thorough planning first. In planning, you must consider the target market, budget, design and other factors that will affect the overall performance of the website.

Second is website marketing. After you have set up your website, you need to work on a marketing campaign. Through marketing, you can make your website more popular and visible to your target market. There are several web marketing options which you can use. The choice of the web marketing option depends on the need of your website.

Remember not to stop working on your website after the set up. If you stop working on it, the sales will also stop. Continually market your website for continuous sales.

Do you know that 95% of the people starting out in their internet businesses fail? In the middle of all the noise and hype on the internet today, not many people realize that all the ideas and techniques you can find are useless if you don’t first understand what your business model is or how are you going to make money on the internet. Even the most remarkable internet marketing technique will not work if you don’t understand how to apply it to your business.

The 3 most popular business models are:

1) Affiliate Marketing

Perhaps the most popular one out there, affiliate marketing provides a good start for newbies. Almost anyone can sign-up for an affiliate program for free and start promoting the chosen product or service. Commissions start coming in if someone will buy or participate in the programs promoted. Affiliate marketers don’t carry any risk, since they do not pay for the creation of the product, they do not handle customer service, they need not know the innards of internet transactions, like merchant accounts, autoresponder (what is that?), reciprocal linking, etc. It’s also possible to be an affiliate even without a website.

Some affiliate marketing programs you may participate in require little up-front investment. Some are free. It’s no surprise therefore that almost everyone and their neighbor promotes an affiliate program or another. In fact, if there is a single reason why the Internet today is so proliferated with ads and banners, it’s because of affiliate programs.

With the millions out there involve in affiliate marketing, only 5% ever make any money and only 1% makes really big money. The “Super Affiliates,” so they are called, do it very differently from the rest, therefore they earn the big checks.

2) Writing an eBook or other type of information product, recording an information CD.

This is a great strategy because there are thousands of possibilities for the type of product that you can create. There are so many niche markets that you can write about. It could be a course on Japanese gardens, how to start your own babysitting business, how to sell your artwork, taking care of your dog’s ears … there are endless topics and still many that have not yet been explored by online marketers. You don’t have to write the information yourself, you can get a ghost writer or hire someone to produce the CD.

EBook authors need to invest more than affiliates do. While affiliates can get something for nothing, the same is not true for the eBook type of business. EBook authors need to learn a lot more than affiliates are required to. They need to spend some amount of money getting the business up and running. However, when done right, the payoff in this online business model is much more rewarding.

These marketers make more money because they have very, very low production and maintenance costs. Once the product is produced, it doesn’t cost a cent to reproduce thousands of copies. Start-up costs can be covered by selling just a few copies of very high-margin eBooks. You can even recruit hordes of affiliates to do the selling for you.

3) Adsense

This has taken the internet by storm. There are tons of testimonials from people making outrageous income from adsense.

Adsense is Google’s advertising program wherein webmasters display ads from Google’s extensive list of advertisers. Unobtrusive text-based ads are served in member sites, who then earn a commission every time someone clicks on the advertisers’ links.

Google Adsense uses a technology to deliver ads that are highly relevant to the content of a page. Google’s engine will scan through the content of the page to determine its topic, and will then serve ads that are relevant to the page’s content. Running Google Adsense is quite simple. First build a website full of content of your desired niche or topic, and then register in Google’s adsense program. Once approved, you then paste a code in your page, and the ads start appearing immediately after you upload the changes to your server.

Google is silent on how it shares the revenue per click with their partners, but how much you will earn per click depends on the topic and the product being advertised. Products with profit margins of $10 for the advertiser will most likely give you a smaller pay per click than a product with a $100 margin. Similarly, ads with high conversion rates will normally give you higher payouts than less effective ads, since they can afford to pay more dollars per click, with a portion of that money going to you.

These are the top 3 most popular online business models today. No matter which model you choose, make sure you understand the basics. Stop buying courses or information not applicable to your business. Information overload can stop you before you even get started.

The number one factor that makes or breaks your website is whether or not people can use it. This is typically referred to as your website’s usability. It seems simple: if people can’t do what you want them to do (buy things, subscribe to things, request a call, etc.), they won’t do it. Yet, because websites are so easy to change, several companies just create websites, web applications, e-newsletters, etc., and hope that the changes will help their business.

What further confuses this is typically a lack of clear insight into your website’s performance. For example, how well does your website convert visitors into buyers? What are the key decisions that visitors must make on your website? Do you give them the information and tools necessary to make those decisions?

This article will help you focus on 3 proven techniques for improving your website’s performance: website analytics, usability testing, and personas. Exactly how you choose to implement these techniques is obviously up to you. However, one thing is guaranteed: all three techniques help you get closer to the people who visit your website: their needs, their desires, and their behaviors. This information is critical if you plan to optimize your website’s usability to achieve your goals.

1. Measure Progress with Website Analytics

Many companies mistakenly install a standard “website statistics” program and only get a group of standard reports. Typically, these reports do very little to help you judge the true effectiveness of your website.

Want to get a jumpstart on creating your own website analytics? Just follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Begin with the end in mind &ndash start with your objectives. Define your website marketing strategy objectives (i.e. “Increase the number of qualified prospects coming from web search engines”), and what you want your website visitors to do to reach those objectives (i.e. “See our listing in the top 10 in Google and click on it)

2. Get in touch with your visitors’ behavior on your website. Track how many unique visitors you get, and how long they stay on your site (including how many pages they view). You want all of these numbers to be going up, since that means you’re getting more visitors who are staying on the site longer. You are maximizing the odds that they will do what you want them to do.

3. Develop your conversion rate. Track how many visitors do the key action you want them to do and compare this number to your total visitors. This helps you determine your conversion rate. For example, if 15 out of 100 visitors requested more information from you (and that is one of your objectives), then your conversion rate for information requests is 15%.

Once you have these key website analytics in place, you can start to evolve your tracking and look for trends to optimize for. Here are two examples:

• Let’s say you notice higher conversion rates on weekends. Then you might want to spend more on online advertising on weekends and reduce your spending during the week.

• Let’s say you need more visitors and embark on a search engine optimization project to improve your rankings. Then you can track the increase or decrease in visitor flow from your project’s activities.

Regardless of what you want to achieve, getting to website usability first starts with solid website analytics. Why? Because website analytics force you to identify those areas that matter most, and identify how well or poorly you are doing in them. Once you know this, you are armed with key data that can help you focus your efforts and determine where things like usability testing can help the most.

2. Leverage Usability Testing

Usability testing is where you take people who would use your website, and actually watch them using it. Typically, you ask the person to do things on the site, and you watch either over their shoulder, behind a one-way mirror, or via a second computer where you can see what’s being recorded on the test computer.

It’s amazing how many things you can make better on your website just by watching people use it. Yet, as you get into it, you may find that hiring a usability professional for a testing project can be unnecessarily expensive. Usability professionals are helpful, since they typically have substantial expertise in planning and conducting tests, as well as interpreting test results. However, usability testing does not have to be fancy or formal: people are going to give you their opinion whether you’re sitting in a research company or at Starbucks. So be careful when hiring a professional that seems to make the testing process complicated or costly. When someone does this, it’s usually only for their own financial gain.

To successfully conduct a usability test, just follow these 5 steps:

1. Define your objectives. Begin with the end in mind. What do you want to accomplish with this usability test? Do you have specific areas of your website that you want to improve? If so, this is a great way to get ideas on how to make those areas better. Are you planning on rolling out a new area of your website? A usability test is a great way to do a “trial run” before the big launch.

2. Recruit the participants. This will take the most time, and can be the most frustrating part of the test process. You have to find people to participate (which can be tough, particularly if you need to match specific demographic profiles), and then you need to schedule them. Then, some will cancel, some won’t show, and some will be great test participants. The best way to get a feel for the person is to talk to them directly more than once over the phone. TIP: Be sure to call the person the day of the test to remind them about it.

3. Script the test. You’ll want to have an intro script, the test script, and a post-test survey. The intro script serves as a checklist of things you want to be sure to cover with the person before you start the test. TIP: During the part, try to focus on making the person feel comfortable giving their opinion, and reiterate that any feedback is good feedback. The next part, the test script, is a checklist of the actual things you want the person to do. This is followed by the post-test survey, which allows you to ask the person questions, and later compare those answers to what they said during the test.

4. Conduct the test. This is the fun part! You sit down with the person, and walk them through the test scenario. Some tests benefit from close “hand holding,” while others benefit from letting the person do whatever they think is right. It completely depends on the objectives, and they information you want to collect. In either case, the best thing to do is to record both the person and what they do on the computer. TIP: Be sure to compensate the person for their time.

5. Report the results. The best way to report the results is two-fold: First, do a quick, one-page or less recap of each session immediately after the test. That way, the information is still fresh in your mind. TIP: Include a picture of the user in your recap, since it will help make that person’s feedback “come alive.” Next, take the information collected during testing, and create 1 to 4 “personas” &ndash user profiles that explain the type of person, what they need from the website, what issues they encounter frequently on the site, and what can be changed to help them. This will help you explain the results to others, and you can reuse these personas later when you are adding or updating areas of your website.

How many people should I test?

For most usability tests, you can learn the maximum amount by only testing ten people. Too many more and you’ll start to see too many recurring patterns. If you go less than ten, you might miss things or not see enough of a pattern.

3. Develop Personas

Let’s face it – no one reads a 20-page usability report from cover to cover. It just doesn’t happen. Usually, key decision makers ask for “recap” presentations, and then “latch on” to one or two key points from the study, quoting that point over and over again.

This presents a great opportunity: why not give those key decision makers something memorable? Enter personas.

Personas are a way to get everyone involved thinking about the actual people who visit your website.

What Personas are:

Fake people based on real data

A practical tool to maintain focus on your target customers

A way to make your data come alive and be more memorable

What Personas are not:

Every possible customer profile

“Made up”; they are created from real data, like usability test results

A replacement for existing ways we design and build our web site

Reporting user tests as personas is a great way to:

1. Get key decision makers on board with the persona concept

2. Communicate web site issues in the context of the people actually using your site

Creating personas from usability testing data is time-consuming, but very valuable. Just look across the data for key trends: what common roles, goals, and actions do you see? Can you group the feedback along those things? You’ll quickly start to evolve a handful of personas which can be refined over time. Add a name and a few pictures of that “person” and you’ll be on your way to creating a more user-focused website experience.

Again, exactly how you choose to implement these techniques is obviously up to you. Even small steps can make a big impact. You don’t have to have super-sophisticated website analytics, test your website with 100 users, or develop extremely detailed personas. Every step you take in these three areas, no matter how big or how small, will help you get more from your website, and your website marketing strategy.

1StepSystem is basically a Complete Automated Home Business, and is promoted as “Hands Free Income”. Co-Founders Rod Stinson and Chris Koehl are known for being tops at what they do, with incredible track records. Rod was rated as “One of the Top 20 Network Marketers in the World”, and is a top producer in several MLM companies, hundreds of thousands of people in his downlines. Chris is an expert internet marketer and had created the online marketing system for many companies. Amongst them are Xango, Oasis Wellness Network, Pro-Step, SeaSilver, LifeForce International, Mannatech, My Golden Leads.com, Best Leads.com, Precision MLM.com and Credit Secrets. Both Rod and Chris wanted to build an organization where people who have ventured into network marketing unsuccessfully over the years could finally have the chance to become successful.

As contrast to traditional concepts of Direct Marketing , there were many difficulties in introducing the system to anyone and more specifically if we ask our freinds and relatives to understand the system.Being on the inside track developing online systems, Chris knows the downsides of MLMs, and why people failed. He quoted in his biography, “Sometimes the problem was the product being marketed, sometimes it was the pay plan, sometimes it was the owner or administrators of my system, and sometimes it was all three. Needless to say it was frustrating. I spent years perfecting my online system but could never find the right business model to plug it into then…Rod Called. You know, sometimes you know, when you know…5 minutes into our conversation I began to get goose bumps, the idea Rod had was exactly what my system needed to be married to &ndash and by doing so, all the previous challenges would be eliminated.”

The idea Rod and Chris had with the 1StepSystem was to build a company where those that had been unsuccessful with network marketing in the past, could finally be given a way to become extremely successful. The ‘system’ has been very good to them and they wanted to find a way to give a little ‘pay-back’. You know what? That’s exactly what they’re doing. Chris and Rod are offering an unheard of 83.7% payout, that’s next to impossible to beat. As a matter of fact, I’m told, that it’s the highest percentage ever offered in the history of the network marketing industry. Now get this, there’s no selling involved at all and the price is affordable and not even close to what most of those companies are charging out there. The prospective customer starts by being directed to a website, once there he signs up for a FREE 37 Minute Tele-seminar.

The product “Ultimate Marketers Tool Box” is like a personal digital library of the most effective marketing strategies known to man. It’s the digital product in the virtual back office of 1StepSystem. The marketing strategies and tools provided along with proprietary marketing software in the box are responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales in any business, online or off.

“I don’t even need to communicate with my prospects, and they send me $500 directly into my account,” says Dawn Henderson. “On my first sale, I practically made back all the money I initially laid out, and I did that in less than an hour after I joined.” Laura Goodman said, “I have tried so many other MLM & Network Marketing opportunities and had always failed. This is the first time I have ever had success at it, and it’s the least I’ve ever had to work.” According to David Track, Leading QA for the 1StepSystem, “I would easily pay $500 for the “ultimate marketer tool box” which consists of proprietary software and other marketing tools designed to help increase sales in any business, whether online or off. Being the owner of an invention marketing company, it has already helped us immensely in our marketing efforts, and has also assisted me in rapidly growing the 1StepSystem business. In fact, I am already earning more with the 1StepSystem then I do at my own company, and I started 1/28/06!”

When I looked into the 1StepSystem for the first time it was back on February 8th. I did a Google search after receiving an email from a fellow marketer. When I did the Google search it, if you can believe this, only brought back (1) link! That’s right (1) link that happen to be to a thread in a pretty well know Forum. It was the standard beginning thread, “Does anyone out there know anything about the 1StepSystem”? To which there were about 4 responses and 2 more questions. The responses seemed favorable and one of them even included a phone number so I gave the fella a call. He fed me with a head full of knowledge about the program and I really considered joining &ndash but it was a little more investment than I could make without the approval of the banker (my wife) so I had to wait. While waiting I talked myself out of doing it &ndash figures huh. Well I went back to the Net a week or so later and Googled the 1StepSystem again and you know what, I came back with 400+ links!! I started checking them out and you wouldn’t believe the forum entries now, this guy made $4350 in 5 days, this other lady made $3,000 in her first 24hrs and this fella over here’s made over $11,000 in the last 2 weeks. Well, that put me over and now I’ve invested in the 1StepSystem too, and now I’m building up one of those “I made $XX,XXX in this many days” stories myself!

Thefirst strategy to make money online is building a list.