4 Crucial Steps For Creating A Profitable Online Business!

Creating an online business has never been easier. With the right combination of software and a great business idea, you can start up a venture quickly. However, if you want to create a profitable online business, you’ll need to follow some simple, but essential, steps in your approach.

Here are four of the essential steps you’ll need to take to ensure your online business goes from set up to profitable — fast!
 

1. Get and maintain a list.

If you ask any online marketer today, they’ll tell you that having an email list is your most valuable asset — yet it’s probably one of the least developed or pursued avenues of most startups. Don’t make the mistake of letting your email list building and maintenance go on the backburner.

Start out with a simple, free list building tool such as Mail Chimp, which easily integrates into many online shopping cart services such as Shopify, or if you have the budget, begin with a more sophisticated email and customer-relationship management integration option such as Infusionsoft.

Regardless of where or how you start, make sure you have a solid communication schedule and strategy to leverage your list and build trust. Then as you grow your online business, you can use your list as a direct sales arm to reach an already interested audience.

2. Optimize for search.

Most people don’t understand search engine optimization. That’s OK — just know that SEO is an important tool for getting visitors to your site. You’ll want to build out organic SEO with industry standard practices such as page titles, keywords and links.

These things can change month over month, so it’s important you hire someone who knows how to manage this for you and is current on all the best practices.

SEO will boost your site rankings and help drive traffic, which means more potential clients on your site. Try sites such as eLance or Fiverr to hire a freelancer who can help you with SEO for cheaper than an agency, and less headache than trying to figure it out alone.

3. Test, tweak and track.

One of the greatest things about having an online business is the adaptability. With a brick-and-mortar business it might take weeks or months to judge the efficacy of campaigns, but online you can test and tweak in real time. To truly create an online business that is maximized for profitability, you should constantly be testing and tracking your efforts.

What’s the effect of changing the color of a call-to-action button? Is orange better than red? What headlines get the most clicks? What are people drawn to on your site?

You can find out some surprising stats on testing from the incredible site Which Test Won? For some free and inexpensive insights into where people are clicking around in your site, check out SumoMe, which offers a “Heat Maps” plugin that actually tracks the highest areas of click actions on your site.

4. Make it easy.

A clean, uncluttered site that is easy to navigate will be more profitable than a confusing site. This is especially important during checkout. You need a clear, easy process. The better your online shopping cart, the better your conversion rate will be and that means better profitability.

According to the Baymard Insitute, nearly 70 percent of all online shopping carts are abandoned. That’s a lot of people ditching your products after they’ve expressed interest in purchasing.

Up your conversion odds at checkout time by streamlining your shopping cart experience with a single page, frictionless experience. While studies and industry best practices may vary, by and large a shorter checkout experience gives the consumer less chance to get frustrated or change their minds.

Follow these simple steps and watch your online business become more profitable.

https://xlim.org/4-crucial-steps-for-creating-a-profitable-online-business/

Video Marketing: Why You Need To Start ASAP!

Fundamentally, the goal of advertising has always been to have your business stand out in your marketplace from your competition and be chosen (and remembered) by consumers. 

Most small to medium size businesses that I work with constantly have the struggle of wanting to do everything to stand out, while keeping a mindful eye of staying within a budget for their marketing efforts. 

Advertising your business in such a fragmented market low cost marketing roi, space  today can get costly and without measures in place to determine what the best mediums to market with, it's hard to figure out how you can capture a low-cost marketing ROI?  That answer is simple: Video Marketing.

When it comes to social and online marketing, video marketing has taken its place as a leader in attracting new customers. According to comScore, just over 45% of internet users viewed at least one video per month, and the average user is exposed to 32 videos per month. 

Companies are realizing that video has a dominant role to play in your content marketing-mix strategy. Video marketing captures the users attention and gives you the opportunity to deliver your message in an easy format that everyone can understand. Here are some great statistics on Video marketing:

90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60K times faster in the brain than text according to Zabisco. Invisia reports that viewers also retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.

•52% of consumers say that watching a video makes them more confident in online purchase decisions according to Invodo.
•92% of mobile users share videos with others according to Invodo.
•87% of online marketers use video content according to Outbrain.
•46% of users take ACTION after viewing a video according to Online Publishers Association
•59% of executives would rather watch a video than read text according to Forbes.
•800% increase in conversion on websites that have videos on their landing pages vs. websites without according to Orion 21
•Blogs that incorporate video attract 3-times as many inbound links as blogs without video.

One of the biggest questions I get asked when discussing video marketing is how long a video should be? Statistics show that 20% of users will click away from a video in 10 seconds or less. If your video is over 2-minutes, you can expect a 60% drop of users clicking away from your video. 

It seems like the attention span for desktop and mobile users capacity to watch a single video is about 2 minutes. The "sweet spot" for most custom video marketing pieces should be one minute.

If video marketing is great for local businesses to stand out in the marketplace, what is the best vessel to reach your current and prospects through video? Most individuals host their video's on YouTube. Why? Google owns Youtube. 

Videos hosted on Youtube appear in more than half of all searches on Google. Makes sense to put your video on Youtube right? By creating a video, you can separately upload your video to social media networks like Facebook. 

Once they are uploaded, create or add these videos to your website through an embedding process. This can create a valuable link for your SEO on your website and hopefully increase your position on search engines over time.

How do I take advantage of video marketing? The best thing about video marketing can be the ability to connect consumers with your business without them even contacting you yet! 

They will understand who you are, what you do, what the inside of your shop looks like, and who might be answering the phone when they call. Due to this, there are companies that specialize in creating professional custom videos that take your business to the next level. 

This gives you an opportunity to connect what I call high-tech with a high-touch customer service while also putting your best foot forward for that all important first impression. I recommend AT LEAST ONE professionally crafted video to use when marketing your business.

If your business is on a tight budget, however, there are still great ways to take advantage of video marketing. Businesses can use their own smartphone cameras and create a "grassroots" video marketing campaign in their store or "on-location" for services businesses. 

They also can set-up product launches, special events or tutorials through video marketing and share that those on your website and through social media! What type of story can you tell that can fulfill a need in your local marketplace and position you as a leader in the industry while simultaneously building your brand?

Micro-videos have been a great tool for businesses to create a 10-second commercial, promotion or testimonial from their consumers and using that on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Vimeo and Instagram. 

Customers can quickly view messages on their social media feeds. Get your customers involved! Ask customers that had a great experience with your company for a quick ten second video reference! They almost never write a positive review on Yelp or Google, so capture their review through video! (Make sure you have them sign a waiver for legal purposes).

Video Marketing is here, and it is powerful! By 2017 video marketing will take up 74% of all online traffic according to Syndacast. Video marketing can be a cost-effective way to market your business with professionally created content as well as DIY marketing. 

Take advantage of a medium that reaches customers in an easy to understand format with statistically proven success rate! 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/video-marketing-why-you-need-start-asap-alex-kowalkoski

Interested In Online Marketing? Read These Tips And Techniques!

If you create sites with strong content that also incorporate online marketing ads, then the traffic you generate will create substantial profits for your business. This article is full of great tips and advice on how to help your affiliate site grow and thrive.

You and your affiliate partners should never abuse this function. At best, this can be very irritating for the visitor. In the worst-case scenario, playing unethical cookie games can propagate viruses and even make it impossible to track customers and award affiliate commissions.

After you have established yourself, you need to consider asking your affiliate program for more money. If you generate enough sales and use good marketing techniques, the program will do everything it can to keep you working for them and give you a raise.

It is a good idea in affiliate promotion to pick an affiliate company that pays in a variety of ways. You may want you money quickly. The policies vary from company to company. Some will cut you a check after you have earned a certain amount of money while others have direct deposit and PayPal options.

Sign up with an affiliate promotion company which always adds new products to it’s lineup. If you want reliable commissions and new product promotion opportunities from a reputable, solid affiliate company, look for one that continuously produces new products for you to promote. Fad products will only benefit you in the short-term.

You’ll need to find new customers as most people will unsubscribe eventually. To catch the attention of new customers, only send them the emails that have gotten great results. This will ensure you grab their interest right away.

Text services are a great technique for affiliates to use in order to earn commissions. While a new service, many affiliates are already using them to keep customers informed and for further boosting their products.

Good affiliate marketers are honest about their business engagements. Tell your site visitors what your affiliations are, and tell them what you want to accomplish with your site. If your potential customers feel you are withholding information about your affiliate relationships, they may choose to purchase from the sites directly, rather than going through yours.

It is important that your readers trust you. When your readers appreciate the content of your site, they are more likely to click on your referrals.

You can make a nice chunk of change in online marketing, but you need to be on top of your game to get anywhere. You will need to find a way to make your blog/website ranked high by all of the search engines. The higher your rank for your keywords, the higher your profits will be.

Putting a time limit on purchasing an affiliate product is a great internet marketing tool. If your visitors see there is a purchasing deadline, they will feel more compelled to complete the sale. You can get your sales up by following these tips.

You should have a lot of knowledge about your target audience in order for your internet marketing endeavors to be successful. You want your message to resonate with your readers. Determine why they are visiting your website. Ask yourself what it is they are looking at.

Attract the proper audiences for your selected affiliate products. If it’s a cheaper product, then just simply having a high traffic flow will ensure that it sells. If it’s cheap enough, people will be more likely to buy it after a quick click and view. When your products are more expensive, more direct targeting is necessary.

Write a handwritten advertisement, scan it and publish it on your website. This gives the advertisement a personal touch which may result in higher sales. Does your handwriting look like a scribble? Find someone whose writing is clear.

Affiliate promotion can lead the way to a profitable business. Your well-developed sites are an investment that will pay off far into the future. However, you must understand that making money through internet marketing is going to take a serious investment of time to improve your website content. If you follow this rule, you will never be wanting for success.

http://beforeitsnews.com/gold-and-precious-metals/2015/07/interested-in-online-marketing-read-these-tips-and-techniques-2650226.html

Why You’re Bonkers For Not Using Email Marketing

Don’t worry, I used to be bonkers.

I never used to think email marketing would be that useful to reach my goals. I received hundreds of emails each week and I barely opened any of them. That was until I started to scale one of my websites and was about to launch my first product.

For 2 years, I had been building a website that received more than 1 million unique views lifetime, and I didn’t bother to collect a single email address. All I could think was how many extra sales I could have made, if I’d only had placed an opt-in form on my site to grab a percentage of that traffic.

Even a 1% opt-in rate on 1 million visitors would have been 10,000 potential leads to pitch my new product. Oh well, an expensive lesson learned.

Does email marketing really work?
While I hardly open my emails, email marketing is extremely effective. The problem most local and aspiring businesses owners face is not knowing how to correctly use email marketing to grow their business.

According to Econsultancy, email marketing returns the best ROI of all online marketing methods:

Furthermore, the Direct Marketing Association found that for every £1 a marketer spent on email marketing, they yielded a £38 gross profit.

What can it help you achieve? Okay, the stats sound great, but what can it help you do?

Capture Traffic – Your website will receive a lot of visitors who will most likely never revisit your website after their first interaction. With the average website bounce rate at 70%, placing opt-in forms allow you to re-engage with prospects that otherwise would have been lost.

Convert a maybe into a yes – Not all prospects will be ready to say yes to your offer. Some will be unsure of your product’s value, they may not trust you or need more convincing.

Ever wondered why so many businesses are giving away free eBooks and reports for email addresses?

It’s to convert the I’m not ready to buy just yet prospects into paying customers. You can send prospects customer testimonials for social proofing, free information to address paint points and valuable content to brand your business as an authority.

These are all common methods to turn ‘maybe prospects’ into paying customers.

Keep customers engaged – You already know that attaining customers is hard enough, the last thing you want to do is lose them through lack of engagement.

Weekly newsletters keeps the relationship between you and your customers healthy, and ensures they don’t forget about you. Holiday and personalized birthday wishes also makes customers feel more valued, and you know what valued customers do? Spend money.

Take this one actionable step today

If you’re not using email marketing to grow your business, start today by taking this one easy step I’m about to show you.

But before I do, do you know which type of email receives the most amount of opens? The welcome email:

For every prospect who signups to your list, 50% of them will click on your welcome email, that’s extremely high given the average email open rate is around 23%.

How can your business leverage this information? If you run an online store, create a welcome email that lists your top products. If profit margins allow it, offer a time-based coupon to encourage them to act now. This is the quickest way you will turn a prospect into a customer.

If you offer a service, list your telephone number or offer prospects a free 10 minute consultation to help solve their problem which they can book by replying to your email. Alternatively, link your most valuable blog posts in your welcome email, this will help build trust and cement social proofing faster.

Don’t send a generic thanks for signing up to my newsletter because you’re wasting a great opportunity to sell or brand your business.

Summary
To really make the most of email marketing you will need an email automation tool.
As with any online marketing strategy, don’t be put off at the start as you will only capture a few email addresses per week, building a high quality lists take time.


http://www.azuremarketing.com/why-youre-bonkers-for-not-using-email-marketing/

Three Top Tips for Online Marketing!

With the internet at everyone’s fingertips, online marketing has become a booming endeavor that looks like anyone may succeed at. However, with all who try there are those who fail. There is a secret language in the online marketing world that it seems some can speak and some cannot. 

You will find the way on the road to success with these three top tips for online marketing. Following these tips will not guarantee complete flawless success but can definitely pave the way.

1.Evaluate the product
It is first important to evaluate and ask the question, what are you selling? Is it a product or a business? The most important question is whether or not your product or service is useful to consumers. After asking that question, it is important to ask whether or not it will be profitable.

If the answer is yes to both of these than the business can certainly be on its way. However, bringing a business to the online market does not only take serious thought, it is important to take in the responses of other outside influences. Testing for potential growth can definitely save a lot of lost revenue.

2.Make the site attractive
If a simple picture is worth a thousand words, than a business website is worth billions. It is important to make an excellent first impression to those surfing the web for your products or services. 

For those brought up in the twenty first century it is easy to tell a badly designed website from a good one. Taking some classes in graphic design or even hiring a team to help design a promising web page can help traffic and sales skyrocket. 

Also creating a statement image can help those clicking around remember and connect the pleasant experience with your product to something visual.

3.Stay Relevant
Connecting to clients through social media consistently can help keep the business relevant even in times of a slow market. Investing time or a team into a social media marketing and public relations can help the business maintain an image for the client to trust.

It is important to address criticisms and complaints with grace and apologies. Surfing the web for honest testimonials about your own brand can bring to light some issues occurring in your business that need to be addressed and better the brand as a whole.

Following these three top tips for online marketing can pave the way for success in the digital world. These tips regard evaluating the business from top to bottom, making a great first impression, and connecting to the consumer of your goods or services. 

All of these tips are easy to act out and understand but weigh so heavily on either the success or failure of a business. Businesses such as Guru Neighbors are sites dedicated to giving advice and leading those just starting out to success. 

They can help with social media advertising, blog startups, and press releases. Connecting with businesses such as this one can help give a running start to those beginning in online marketing.

http://guruneighbors.com/three-top-tips-for-online-marketing/

Great Internet Marketing Starts With This Article!

If you have a knack for finding a niche, you might be a great affiliate marketer. With thousands of companies and millions of products to choose from, you can be an affiliate for any type of business you choose. 

However, you will first need to know more about internet marketing. We will cover some vital information in this article.

One way to get started in the affiliate marketing game is to sell a group of themed products from different vendors. You will offer your visitors a bigger choice than if it was just your website to choose from.

TIP! In order to make the most of affiliate marketing, you need to keep only the affiliates that profit you the most. You should submit your affiliate partnerships to a regular and thorough performance review.

Make sure you understand how order tracking works with the affiliates that you have chosen. If your affiliate ID isn’t connected to the order, either by the client directly calling or mailing the company that processes the orders, you might end up losing large amounts of your commission.

Many affiliate marketers feel a compulsive need to do too much. Generally speaking, they attempt to sell more products than they can effectively promote, and ended dropping the ball on all of them. There is no bar set for maximum results. It is important to take time and look for the best method that will apply to you.

TIP! When you are selecting an affiliate company, try to find one that offers several different ways to access your money. Some companies pay by postal check while others use AlertPay or PayPal.

If you are forthright and direct with visitors about your web marketing, they are more likely to view you and your business in a positive light. However, honesty will get you much further, even in affiliate promotion. 

If your site visitors see that you haven’t just thrown a bunch of affiliate links together and called it a site, they will be much more likely to use those links to buy products.

Put some thought into each product you would like to promote. It may take you a while to learn the best way to arrange your site’s affiliate links, but once you’ve struck upon a successful formula, your profits will rise accordingly.

TIP! You should be truthful about what you are doing in your business. Tell people who you are affiliated with.

Signing up with several affiliate programs whose products are targeted at the same consumer base is one powerful way to boost your effectiveness. You can provide your visitors a variety of places to go if they have plenty of links.

Gaining your reader’s trust is important in building a good reputation. If you build trust, customers are likely to support you and your affiliates by clicking the referral links on your page.

TIP! In order to make money through affiliate marketing, you need to have an understanding of the basics. High rankings with the search engines will benefit your Internet site.

So called “secret links” can be a subtle, yet effective strategy. There are ways that you can include affiliate links in your text without being glaringly obvious. 

Use these to your advantage, but inform your readers so they do not feel you are trying to trick them into anything. Avoid surprising your readers by allowing them to see the context used behind the link.

It’s imperative to have access to real time statistics. These will help you to track how much traffic your site is getting, and exactly how many of your products have been purchased.

TIP! In order to have successful marketing, you need to know your clients. You should be trying to meet your readers’ needs.

You will lose many of your initial customers, and you will need to get more people on board. Make sure to get and keep quality subscribers by providing only high-quality content in your emails.

Banner ads should give the visitor a reason to want to go to your site. Do not mislead your visitors however. Most visitors cannot abstain from clicking your lead banner. You can offer an incentive to people who had the correct answer.

TIP! Once you have made your decisions regarding affiliate products you wish to sell, you should focus your marketing campaign on the correct target audience. Low cost products can succeed through high-volume sales.

If someone visits your sport-themed website, you can be sure that they have one thing on their mind: sports. Putting a link to an affiliate site is not going to benefit you unless it is sports related. Your readers will be primarily interested in clicking links that are relevant to the rest of your site.

Try creating a handwritten ad, scanning it to your computer and then publishing it on your site. This type of personal touch will make you seem more real and approachable to your customers. 

When customers think of you as a real person, your sales will benefit. If you have bad handwriting, try hiring a freelance writer to create your ads.

TIP! Don’t allow your affiliate marketing campaign to rest on a few partner’s shoulders. Participate with many different vendors instead of hoping that one product or market will always be sustainable.

http://affiliatemarketing.passiveprofitssystem.com/great-internet-marketing-starts-with-this-article/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=great-internet-marketing-starts-with-this-article

3 Reasons Your Online Marketing Business Is Failing & How to Fix Them!

I wrote a post last week about how my Internet marketing business is failing to make as much money as I first anticipated. Don’t worry it wasn’t as depressing as that intro sounds but it was quite revealing and raw. 

As a firm believer in taking ownership for what does or does not happen in life, I have taken stock of certain actions over the last seven months and the necessary steps to correct them.

Here is what I observed…

Reason 1: Taking On Too Much, Too Soon
So you know how we all get hyped up on the brand new shiny toy (read business) that we just invested in and started learning about? Yeah, multiply that excitement by 4 if you are like me and have an addictive personality. 

Now, square that if you tend to believe that if you just work at it hard enough it has to happen. And add ten points if you get convinced that late nights and long days lead to faster success. 

Now multiply that by zero if you end up overwhelmed, disillusioned and quitting every time. Yup, it is a cycle and it’s vicious.

Once I started with network marketing, I was a blogging, e-book creating, website building, workshop hopping fool…Am I alone on this?

People like us spend hours just in front of the computer trying to learn everything faster, do it bigger, make it better and get there already. Problem is the more that’s taken on, the less efficient we became: blog content gets crappier and it’s hard to write engaging pieces. 

Our audience gets tired of reading the same regurgitated crap and we simply end up crashing and burning (usually with shame that it’s happening again, le sigh).  

While visions of dollars magically lining up to be counted in your account is lovely, overworking without a plan and burning out is brutal. So how do we ensure it doesn’t happen again?

The Solution 1: Chunk It Up And Chalk Up A Plan
In this book, which I wish I had taken the time and effort to read before starting this business, Yarnell & Yarnell, the authors, point out all the basic advice you can glean from anywhere online and in how to books. 

But they do teach something really important and that is how to be a professional at this business and have the right mindset.

Now if you have read the free e-book - 7 Daily Habits to Make Your Online Business Kick Ass, you would have noticed the primary focus on the mindset. And so going forward, it’s time to to adjust the force it to happen mindset. 

Because while there is nothing wrong with visualizing success and seeing the finish line, there is nothing right about taking on so much that you end up a crying, failing mess either.

Don’t know how to create a plan? Use Scott Bridges’ book Internet Marketing Plan… It’s a really affordable,  informative read. 

Or if you are sick of reading try the Business Planning Kit for Dummies which will give you step by step guide to help you create a business plan, which really goes a long way into chunking things down to bite sized pieces.

Reason 2: Inconsistency
If I had a dollar for every time I… Aww heck, who am I kidding I wouldn’t even be consistent at being inconsistent. If you get bored easily, cannot eat the same meals everyday(the horror!) 

Or find it hard to keep writing the same boring articles then you may find yourself looking at all the other shiny and exciting opportunities out there. 

Since I started Online Marketing, I started with a bunch of affiliates, signed on with Click Bank to become a product creator and even started an online course in e-newsletter marketing-yes, I am like that, judge away.

While multitasking seems great, studies continue to show that it is indeed very problematic. According to an article on Forbes.com, it may be damaging to your brain and even your career. Holy crap! 

It’s evident that doing more than one thing leads to distraction and further inconsistency in skill level and productivity but brain damage? Oy! As if I had anymore brain cells to spare, but that’s fodder for another post-lol.

Multitasking is problematic

The Solution 2: Set Realistic, Enjoyable Daily Goals
The three most important words in the above solution are : realistic, enjoyable and daily. While no no one expects to follow a schedule perfectly(no one sane that is,) every minute of everyday, (actually I can only follow a schedule if it’s a list of suggestions,) we do need to be accountable and strengthen our will power. 

So, for example knowing that you need to write 3-4 articles per week and promote products in each, gives you a measurable outcome. Did you write 2 or was it 6? It also gives you a way to answer the question, now where has the time gone? 

If you are spending more time on research so as to avoid emails or social media, then you can change it to fit the plan. Consistency for me has always been the big, fat fly in my soup. So let’s work on it together eh?

Reason 3: Not Enough Products To Promote
Okay, so this may not be anyone’s fault really. Except in a way it kinda is. See, when we choose our niche, for better or for worse we are choosing all the products that go along with it. 

So as I have choosen the online marketing information sector, I realize that unless I am promoting books and digital products and opportunities, there is hardly anything worth selling.  

And of course I could have chosen a different route but you know with the whole follow your passion and all I figured well, why not teach what I’m learning, ergo the lack of product. 

So what do we do in these situations? Well…seeing that it’s best to think about these things before hand, let’s do some damage control.

What to do when you have no products to promote?

The Solution 3: Consumable Products In A Higher Price Range
Follow your passion is bad business advice

Mark Cuban says, “don’t follow your passion, follow your effort.” Which means, focus on where you spend your time and energy, and build a business from there. But if you’re already knee deep in your pursuit of passion, then finding products that are higher priced and recurring is your best bet.

Sounds easy enough but in this situation, customer knowledge is key. This is where the true understanding of your customers will come in handy. So, for example Clickbank is a great product, for creating and promoting digital products, it also has a recurring element when people sign up for a membership. 

And even my personal favourite Wealthy Affiliate, which does not pay a high amount but does have the recurring payment capability. You can always read a review here and try it by clicking the link above or following the steps in the review. Just be sure to take it slow, because there is a lot of information to take in.

http://stayathomewow.com/3-reasons-your-online-marketing-business-is-failing-and-how-to-fix-them