Tips For Choosing A Profitable E-commerce Domain Name

If you are starting a new e-commerce internet business, one question immediately pops into mind, what name should I choose? Have you heard of the saying in property, “location, location, location”? Most associate buying property with choosing the right location and it may mean that you make or lose money. Your e-commerce domain name is no different. Think of your domain name as your Internet property, which represents your business presence online. Choose a domain name that is customer friendly and easy to remember:

How To Choose A Profitable E-commerce Domain Name?

Keep It Simple And Easy To Remember
Most customers who look for a website want to remember something that is associate with the product or service you are offering. Unless you have a lot of money to spend on advertising like eBay or Amazon your best bet is to choose a domain name that represents your products and services. Use simple and easy to remember words that are spoken often by your customers. For example, your e-commerce business might be selling racing bikes so consider the domain name: racingbikes.com or roadracingbikes.com. Try to avoid names like joesracingbikes.com or smithsracingbikes.com even if your company is called that. We want to make sure your domain name is easy to remember and captures the widest scope of customers.
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Converting Traffic Into Sales Part 1: Generating Leads

In Spreading The Word: Turbocharge Your Traffic, I discussed about the different ways of driving more traffic to your Internet business using social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Once you have an increased amount of traffic to your website, what do you do next? In today’s post I will be talking about how to convert this traffic into leads which will be part one of a three part series of Converting Traffic Into Sales.

For reference, I will be using the term “sales funnel” instead of “converting traffic into sales” for simplicity.

To understand how the sales funnel works we look will look at it from a systematic process, starting at where your prospects come from, to how we will pro-actively guide them through the sales process and become a long-term client. Before any of this can happen, we need to look at how to capture these prospects into a database using some creative flair.

Generating Leads From Traffic
Generating Leads is the most challenging, though fun aspect of the sales funnel. It requires constant testing and monitoring using endless proven methods, which are only limited by your resources and imagination. Where we capture all of this information is from the front-end, or the face of your business on the Internet. As soon as a prospect is interested in a product or service you may offer, we want to qualify and encourage them to opt-in on your website. When this occurs, it starts the first step of the sales funnel and begins to transform an everyday web surfer into a lead showing their interest in receiving more information.

There are many ways for a person to opt-in on your website and it’s crucial to have these mechanisms set up to begin generating leads. Here are some examples of how other Internet businesses capture leads:

• Subscribing to a blog via RSS subscription
• Signing up for a Free Report such as my Internet Business Blueprint located in the column on the right
• Registering for a free online service, for example MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr.
• Ticking a box to receive further information when purchasing an product or service from another site. For example, telephone companies such as Telstra always has a little tick box allowing you to opt-in to receive further marketing material whenever you complete a transaction with them.

When a potential prospect opts-in to your website, then they are agreeing to receive information from you. This is called permission marketing and it was first coined by Seth Godin. If you haven’t read his book Permission Marketing, you can get grab a copy of it on his website or buy it at any book store.

Now I must point out, some Internet marketers have been very successful in selling their products straight off the front-end and have made a lot of money doing so. Though you have to see what type of authority they have in the market and the systems they have in place to do this. I can assure you it has taken them many years and lots of resources to set this up and it’s not an overnight get rich story. Rich Schefren is a classic example of this and has extremely refined front-end and back-end systems that help him continue to generate profits even if his not working. My point here is, not to start selling any products to your new leads but to offer them value through content and building strong rapport with them first. The front-end is a mechanism to generate and qualify leads for your Internet business and is probably the least profitable.

In the next Converting Traffic Into Sales article I’ll go into more detail about how the back-end process works together with front-end and you will realise that the front-end are mostly ways to generate leads and are not necessarily profit centers. You will also learn why the back-end process will be the most important aspect for the long term growth of your Internet business and how it will outlast your competition.

Continue to Converting Traffic Into Sales Part 2: Profiting From The Back-End

Tyrone Shum
Lead Generator

12 Sales Effective Marketing Tips

MARKETING YOUR INTERNET BUSINESS may already be your strength, or you are struggling and just getting by. No matter how your business is performing everyone can benefit by exploring some low cost marketing opportunities that will help grow your business. You don’t have to spend loads of money on advertising, it just requires some creativity and planning. Furthermore, not only does it add more dollars to your bottom line in money not spent on advertising it can also boost your confidence. Here are 12 tips for you to implement into your Internet business.

12 sales effective / low cost marketing tips:

1. Press Release – send a story about yourself relating to your business via email to a newspaper or magazine relevant to your industry. A story will increase your businesses public awareness and credibility and it is free marketing for you as well. Don’t forget to include  a professionally taken photo of yourself.
2. Send Email – contact your existing clients and offer them something via email to entice to visit your website.
3. Public Speaking – offer a presentation at your local service club like Rotary or Leagues and ask if they would be interested in allowing you to present a subject of interest. Don’t do a sale pitch, offer something to people that will be of value and record the session to use for later public broadcasts. You can also use this in your credentials to show people you have spoken in public and is good for press releases as well.
4. Keyword Marketing - not enough businesses use this method and it’s low cost as long as you set your target and budget correctly. You can buy keywords relating to your business from as little as 5c per word. Be really specific and make sure your target audience sees your advertisement.
5. Post Advertisement On Noticeboard - your local shopping centre, schools, universities will have noticeboards for you to post up notices and advertisements. Use them and take advantage of them because many people still read noticeboard and give them an incentive to call (maybe include a tear off at the bottom of your notice).
6. Networking – join a business club or a forum in your area sharing the same interest. Attend these events regularly and swap business cards.
7. Setup A Stall – sometimes just setting up a store at your local fair or market creates brand awareness for your business and is a great opportunity to talk to people in the community and hand out brochures to offer your products or services.
8. Cross-Promote – contact other businesses that offer complimentary services or products to yours and work out a co-operative marketing strategy to promote together. It’s a win-win to help each other out.
9. Promote On Your Car – A very cost effective way if you drive around a lot. You can purchase magnetic signs to stick on your car with your business details. You will definitely get people looking because not enough people do it.
10. Give Away Vouchers – When a consumer purchases your product or service give them a discount voucher for their next purchase to entice them to come back to spend again.
11. Talk To People – Don’t worry, they’re not going to bite you! Talk to your friends and acquaintances, they will be more than happy to refer your details if you approach them nicely.
12. Write A Guest Post – This is becoming more popular across the Bloggersphere where you offer to write an informative article for other bloggers. They may have readers that you want to attract and they are interested in what you have to say, then it’s a great way to market your Internet business.

Try to implement a couple of these ideas over the month and test your results. The best way to find out if they work is to ask your customers when they contact you, “How did you hear about us?”. This is the best way to measure and learn from your customers as it can help you determine what is working and what is not. It’s all about trial and error to find the best marketing method for your Internet business.

Tyrone Shum
Marketing Tipster