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10 Simple Ways That You Can Promote Your Website
Back to basics. At times, website promotion can seem confusingly complicated. There seem to be so many, sure-fire new ways to get thousands of hits to your site. Whilst some of these methods work, most just waste your time. So, welcome back to the...
Affiliate Marketing: Tools that are Essential to Your Success
To be honest, the three tools we're going to talk about aren't exclusive to affiliate marketing. Each and every successful online marketer not only knows the value and power provided by these tools, they wouldn't even consider operating without...
Indirect Advertising
I am reasonably certain that anyone reading this article is familiar with all the free online advertising methods such as the all-too familiar Sp-m emails, Classified Ads, FFA pages, Banners, Text Ads, Traffic Exchanges, Newsletters, Guaranteed...
Starting Out In Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate programs are everywhere online. These days you can sell other people's stuff and keep anywhere from 5% to 75% of the price as your commission. However, just because everyone and their uncle has started an affiliate program doesn't mean...
The Basics of Asking for a Reciprocal Link
Asking another webmaster for a reciprocal link is standard practice on the Internet. Webmasters have been asking other webmasters for reciprocal links since the beginnings of the Internet. The very nature of the web is linking websites to one...
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Old Meets New in the Web Store Business Plan
E-commerce may be revolutionizing the way the world does
business, but it shouldn’t change your approach to writing a
business plan. Whether you’re starting a Web store from scratch
or taking an existing outfit online, the basic elements of your
business plan will be no different from a traditional
small-business plan.
Those basic elements, according to the Small Business
Administration, are a description of the business, a marketing
plan, a management plan and a financial plan. Consider each
element in the context of a Web store and you’ll develop a
business plan that can’t lose. Here are some tips to get you started:
Business Description
Define the products and services you’ll be selling online and
evaluate your strengths against online and offline competition.
Describe your Web store content — the information on your site
that merchandises your product or service. Exactly what kind of
content do you expect to provide, and how will it relate to your
product or service?
Marketing Plan
Clearly define your target customers, and define the advertising
and sales plans required to reach them. As you formulate your
marketing strategy, consider the online surfing and shopping
habits — as well as the general usability concerns — of your
customer base. For example, what Internet technologies (browser
brands and versions, connection speeds, etc.) do your customers
probably use? Do they want community features, such as message
boards and live chat? Are they open to “push” marketing, such as
e-mail promotions and newsletters? (Find out more by visiting
www.workz.com/attract/home.asp.)
Management Plan
Identify the key players who will plan, build and maintain your
online operation. Don’t forget to include personnel in
charge of
your back-end systems, such as customer service (check out
www.workz.com/manage/cs.asp), order fulfillment, warehousing, and
shipping. Determine what tasks will go to existing staff and what
tasks you will outsource to consultants, so your business plan
clearly states where these responsibilities will lie.
Financial Plan
Decide what technical functions are necessary to your Web site
and research the costs of delivering those functions. You can use
a turnkey solution to get your site up on the Internet (such as
AOL or Yahoo! Store), or you can pay for technical expertise and
bring these functions in-house. (Try
www.workz.com/build/vendors/host.asp.)
Once you’ve determined your technical requirements, calculate how far your
existing capital will go and then decide whether to seek additional capital
investment. If you’ve been thorough in developing the rest of your plan, you
’ll be able to project income versus expense based on estimated site traffic
and visitor-to-order ratios (the number of visitors compared to the number
of buyers on a site). Your investors will require this type of forecasting.
Remember the old saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the
same." E-commerce strategy combined with a traditional small-business format
is the winning formula for your Web store business plan.
About the Author
David Johnson is the founder, president and director of workz.com. He is a lifelong entrepreneur, small-business expert, and Internet pioneer. He decided to create a trusted resource of objective how-to information to help other small businesses. Because of David's experiences, workz.com continues to provide answers and solutions to the overwhelming issues and challenges facing small businesses on the Web.
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