MIBW
Archives
July
27, 2004
Please
note that these are archives so many links to ads and
old pages may not work.
Of
course any contests or special sales you may read about
are obsolete so please don't email me about any
promotions, thank you.
Any
reference to my old domain My IBiz Helper.com will
redirect to Ezine Ad Helper.com, this includes any
email sent to myibizhelper.com
So
please do not send any mail to myibizhelper, it will be
treated as spam.
If you need to contact me, use the
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July 27, 2004
KDM Publishing,is a Proud Master Member of iCop
The Seal of Integrity in Online Business
Created BY the Members, FOR the Members!
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In Today's Issue:
===============================================================
>> Editors' Notes.....
>> Selling Multiple Products? Avoid These Top Blunders By
Marcia Yudkin
>> Looking For Some Good Ezines To Read?: Ezine Ad Swaps
>> Don't Forget to Calculate Your Time into Your Business Costs
By Stone Evans
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Welcome From Your Publisher...
===============================================================
Hi, and welcome to another edition of MIBW. I had a
great Birthday Sunday, thank you to all who sent birthday
greetings.
My newest site is up and running.......Reprinted Articles.com
http://ReprintedArticles.com
Many of you know that I have run an article distribution list
for two years now, well I finally turned it into a full site
complete with an article database and an article submission
service. You can now submit an article for a low fee to
publishers, webmasters globally who are looking for articles
for their site and/or ezines.
=============
Today's articles are here to help you as always. I found some
great articles for you.
Learning how to manage your time and money wisely is very
important. Learning how to avoid costly mistakes is just as
important.
When you first set up your business or even if you are
established, we wear many hats and because of this, we tend to
miss some minor things.
Those minor things is what can cost you a future customer.
So while the sales may be slow, let's take the time this month
to learn how to increase production and enhance what you
already have.
I hope these articles are helpful to you. Thank you for reading
and see you on Friday.
Please look at the Hot Off The Presses section for a great new
deal for you, won't find it at a cheaper price so act fast.
Your Publisher,
Donesia Muhammad
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Selling Multiple Products? Avoid These Top Blunders
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by Marcia Yudkin
When your web site sells more than a dozen items, you may
face a fierce challenge of helping shoppers find what they
are looking for. You'll need to classify products into
categories, but these will serve as obstacles and even deal
killers if those categories do not match those in the heads
of shoppers.
I've seen again and again web sites using classifications
that aren't known or understood by a portion of their
customers. For instance, I once wanted to buy T-shirts and
went to the site of a famous catalog company, where I found
a category called "shirts." So far, so good. But then I
had to choose between a category called "woven" or another
called "knitted." There I got stumped. Are T-shirts woven
or knitted? I was not sure.
Another time I was searching for a Toyota car part, ready
to buy it, but I could not find it on the Toyota parts web
site unless I knew whether it was part of the drive train,
an accessory, the exhaust system or something else. I
hadn't a clue. In both these cases, the site wrongly
assumed that shoppers understood their jargon, and set that
up as a barrier to an online purchase.
Let's suppose that you solve the jargon problem and someone
finds what they are looking for. The next hurdle for
shoppers concerns whether or not people can find answers to
all the questions about availability, shipping charges,
warranties and return policies that they could easily ask
if shopping by phone or in person. In the last year, I
would say that only 50% of the time when I'm shopping
online I've had all of my pre-purchase questions answered
by the web site. Among the multi-product sites I've toured
as a reviewer, I don't remember a single one that answered
enough questions for shoppers.
Before your site launches, you can think up all the
questions people might ask by imagining different kinds of
shoppers - people from other countries, corporate buyers,
gift givers, etc. - and what they'd need to know. Once
your site's been up for a while, collect the questions that
come in by email and phone. Gather the questions and
answers in a Frequently Asked Questions page and make the
FAQ accessible from every page of your site.
Especially do not make people put items into their shopping
cart and begin checking out in order to find out the
shipping charges and refund policies! Another epidemic
blunder is not revealing the address of the company behind
the shopping site. Not only is this necessary to set at
ease the mind of any shopper worried about recourse against
no-show orders or faulty merchandise, it's important for
some people to know where items are being shipped from.
Ditto for your privacy policy. Are you going to be renting
out your list of customer addresses and bombarding everyone
who's bought from you with frequent emails?
Online order forms range from easy to use and complete to
baffling and aggravating. Submit yours to what I call "the
grandmother test" - ask people who've never seen your site
before to place an order and talk through the process out
loud. Button your lips and listen. Note where they get
stuck and fix your ordering procedures accordingly.
Finally, do you have testimonials attesting to the quality
and value of what you sell and the pleasures of doing
business with you? That's the cherry on the sundae of a
well-designed site from a company shoppers recommend and
return to for more purchases!
Marcia Yudkin
is the author of Web Site
Marketing Makeover and 10 other books. A four-time Webby
Awards judge and internationally famous marketing
consultant, she critiques web sites and performs web site
makeovers for clients. Learn more about her detailed
critique sessions on five different kinds of web sites
(including multi-product sites) at
www.yudkin.com/websitequiz.htm .
===============================================================
Looking For Some Good Ezines To Read?
Ezine Ad Swaps
===============================================================
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<<< Home Business on a Budget Newsletter >>>
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without spending an arm and a leg. Each exciting issue is
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<<< The Left Handed Times >>>
Do you want to learn a lot, have fun, get free ads
and find terrific resources to help you with your
business? It's easy! You'll find all that and more in
our quality online newsletter. Its got a personality
you'll love! It's free to subscribe so go take a peek
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<<< Tip of the Day >>>
Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby's Free Ezine
"Tip of the Day" get a Free Ad for their Business on his Web
Page? Subscribe at:
http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm
Great Business and Computer Tips Monday thru Friday
Instructions to place your ad are in the Newsletter.
===============================================================
Don't Forget to Calculate Your Time into Your Business Costs
===============================================================
Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy
http://www.Home-Business.com
Are you an online marketer? Or do you simply promote
affiliate programs? Marketing is truly the most misunderstood
word in use today on the Internet. Let me see if I can clarify
this issue just a bit.
In Marketing 101 at your local university, marketing is
actually the process of Product, Place, Price and Promotion.
PRODUCT
No business can exist without a product or service to sell.
In a nutshell, entrepreneurs are the people who believe in a
product, service or idea, so much that they are willing to
invest their lives into the development of their dream.
Historically, every major corporation in the world was started
by an entrepreneur with a dream and the drive to make it a
reality.
However, there comes a time in the life of every corporation
when those who fear the gambling nature of their founder,
squash the entrepreneurial drive that made the company a viable
concern in the first place. The entrepreneur will either submit
to the careful nature of the stockholders, or he will be forced
to leave the company he created.
The only entrepreneurs who withstand the pressure to move more
carefully are those who have maintained majority control over
their companies.
PLACE
In the offline world, place is defined by location. On the
Internet, place is defined by domain name and the web hosting
service chosen.
Both online and offline, place can make or break a company
without respect to the quality and value of the product,
service or idea.
PRICE
Selecting a price is determined first on a basis of whether
the company wants to be seen as a discount or a value company.
Take for example Wal-Mart and Staples.
Wal-Mart is the lead discounter in the marketplace. Staples on
the other hand is the specialist in office supplies.
Both sell a significant number of office supplies despite the
fact that the lowest price can usually be found at Wal-Mart. As
a value dealer, Staples can afford to charge more for their
products than Wal-Mart.
So the question for you is whether you want to position your
company as a discount or value company.
Testing has shown that products and services can be sold at
any number of prices and still reach a significant number of
people.
The challenge of selecting the best price for your product or
service will require a certain amount of testing.
UNDERSTANDING THE PRICING EQUATION
Let's assume we are selling a product. Let us also assume that
we know that the product can be sold for $10 or $50. Let us
also assume that if the price dips below $10 or rises above
$50, then the product sales fall off significantly.
Our challenge is to determine the best rate at which to sell
our product.
Testing has shown us that we can sell 1000 items a week at
$10. Testing has also shown that we can sell 500 items per week
at $50. And testing has shown that we can sell 650 items per
week at $45. At $10, our projected weekly earnings are $10,000.
When we sell the product at $50, we know that we can earn
$25,000 per week. Most importantly, we know that we can earn
$29,250 when our product is priced at $45.
With the imaginary testing we have done on our imaginary
product, we can easily see that selling our product at $45 per
item will earn us more money over the long haul.
Thus, when we make the decision for a national rollout of our
product, then we will price our product at $45.
Of course, this is a very simplistic analysis of the point I
am trying to make. Though simple, I believe this analogy will
help you understand the methods of developing a product's
prices.
PROMOTION
Promotion, on the other hand, is the process of notifying the
consumers for your product or service of your availability to
serve them.
Methods of promotion vary distinctly and should be arranged to
meet very specific goals.
As with product, place and price, promotion should not be left
to chance. You should test every ad, every media, and every
price point to determine the best bang for your promotional
dollars.
HEADS UP!
If you are an online promoter or marketer, please factor in
the most important element concerning the cost of your
promotions.
What element is that? Your time!
Value your time at a certain dollar amount, and figure in your
time into the cost of your promotional accounting.
I say this because too many online promoters lose sight of
this concept and spend 20 hours to generate one sale while
using free advertising. Even if you rate your time at the
federal minimum wage, then you will have invested $105 of your
time for one sale that might only net you a gross sale of $45!
ARE YOU TRULY A MARKETER OR ARE YOU JUST A PROMOTER?
Most people who run a business on the Internet call themselves
marketers. Yet, most of these same people are really just
promoters wrapped in the label of a marketer.
True marketers do not promote without a lot of advance work.
They spend time planning, testing and measuring their actions
and results to get the most out of every dollar spent and
earned.
Entrepreneurs finesse the art of marketing as they build their
company into a major enterprise.
If you are a promoter who does not keep an eye on the total
marketing equation, then you are bound to fail.
If you do call yourself a marketer, then do what a
professional marketer does. Make sure that every dollar spent
is spent well. Make sure that every dollar earned is put to
good use. Market well so that when the people of the next
generation look at your life, they will see a fine example of a
successful entrepreneur that they will strive to emulate.
About the author:
Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory where
you can find everything you'll ever need to start, run and grow
a home based business at:
http://www.Home-Business.com
To read more articles by Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy:
http://www.home-business.com/nav/articles/
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