Fishing The Net
| Category: Net Business Start ups | Date: 2003-06-25 |
If you think about it, the Internet is like a vast ocean of information, our web pages are like a fishing lines each waiting for a fish to bite. Today there are as many fishermen as there are fish. Its getting harder all the time to get noticed on the Internet.
The Internet is a pull medium, that is we have to offer them a reason to visit us in the first place before we have any chance of making a sale. Most of the home pages out there only average a few visitors a day from a pool of millions.
The need for obtaining free Information is how the Internet got started, Its been around for many years as a source of educational information but only in the last three years have people started using the Internet as a media for sales. Many companies use the Internet successfully to offer information and to generate leads but most are only getting a percentage of their total sales generated by the Internet.
I have news for you. The number one reason we all surf the net is to obtain useful information. Using the net as a sales tool is actually pretty to most people who dont understand how it works. There are only a few people that actually buy something on the net, less than 20% of all surfers have actually made a purchase on-line.
Corporate businesses are busy "PUSHING" their sales content through "channels" much as television pushes advertisements everyday. Successful companies are now discovering that offering free useful information works like bait to pull visitors to their sites, once they get the free information they came for they are more inclined to buy something or to return. The average purchase is made on return visits, Help by giving them a reason to return.
The reason most SPAM doesnt work is because most people want to determine their own information sources when they get email they didnt request or have any interest in they will delete it at least 99% of the time. So you can see that one targeted customer can produce more income than 99 untargeted visitors. If your site isnt getting sales its probably cause you havent given them what they are looking for.
Ask yourself how many fish will you catch with one pole and one line in the water. Professional fishermen put out more lines. They also use fish finders to track whole schools of fish. Your servers logs are like a fish finder, they tell you where the fish are. For more Information about tracking your visitors read the following articles:
TRACKING YOUR VISITORS
http://www.smithfam.com/news/d0.html
TRACKING YOUR ONLINE MARKETING RESULTS
http://www.smithfam.com/news/d1.html
GIVE FIRST THEN ASK
So If you want to actually sell something on the internet you must reach out and pull them to your web site. The best way to do this is to offer some of your expertise free. People surf the net to find information. When you supply them with that information or expertise free they will be more likely to return to buy from you later. Its like salting the water with bait, the fish return after a snack for dinner.
So the first thing is to consider is what is your personal area of expertise and then to develop it. You can do this by writing articles and submitting them to some of the thousands of newsletters on the Internet or by attracting customers with information. If you invest 90% of your on-line efforts into supplying free information and 10% to sales your sales will improve.
MORE LINES IN THE WATER
If you want to catch more fish - put more lines in the water. Having one page on the Internet you will usually pull in 1 - 10 visitors a day. If you have two pages with different titles and descriptions for the search engines to index, you may double your traffic. If you offer interesting content to attract your visitors, you will have a much better chance of getting return visits. This Internet works best if you ask them to bookmark your page. They will if you offer the information they were looking for in the first place. Continue developing your content over time. Youll be surprised at how fast your traffic & sales will come.
LINK EVERYTHING TOGETHER
Develop your pages so that all pages refer to mostly to your other pages. If your visitor can click on links to other pages from your site make sure that you have something to gain. Be a content developer and others will link to your site driving their visitors to you. This is often overlooked, but if people value your content they will return to purchase your product of service. Once you get a good bite followup, set the hook so the fish doesnt get away.
DONT RUN YOUR VISITORS OFF
The most common way to lose your catch is to send them away. If you put banners or links on your pages dont send them to someone else for the sale. I never understood why people join in banner exchange programs when they can usually pull people away from your page after you worked so hard to get them there in the first place.
DEVELOP YOUR E-MAIL LIST
If you can draw people to your site through its content, find ways to get them to return. You can market effectively with email without SPAMMING, ask your visitors to leave their email address with you. Offer to send them information on specific topics or develop your own newsletter this will only work if your site content is compelling enough that they want more. Develop your content so that they have to ask to get the best stuff. Dont take advantage, dont sell your email addresses or send too often. Its better to send 1000 messages once a month than 100 several times a week.
TRY SOMETHING NEW
Marketing on the Internet is like trolling for fish. Your marketing should follow your success. If you continually try new adaptations to your marketing plan and track the your results your catch will continually grow. If you blindly do the same things over & over without monitoring your results properly your business will not grow nearly as fast.
DONT SPEND TOO MUCH TO MAKE TO LITTLE
Many times we spend too little on the things that are really important and too much on things that are not. Its a good Idea for most people to get professional help planning, and developing their web site. Its easy to spend more than you earn on the Internet with poorly thought out advertising. Remember there are only a small percentage of buyers surfing the net today but by the year 2000 there will be at least 10- 100 times more buyers. As the Internet goes mainstream more people will feel comfortable making purchases on the Internet. Develop a long term strategy. Products costing less than $50 work much better on-line.
GIVE THEM CHOICES ON HOW TO ORDER
If you develop your site so its easy and safe to order more people will order from you, its just that simple. If you can offer credit card, check by email, snailmail, fax, or telephone you will catch more fish. If you offer several ways to order and to be contacted with different types of bait you have the opportunity to catch more fish.
FORM A MASTERMIND ALLIANCE Probably the most important concept today in Internet marketing is to set up strategic partnerships where you can offer more products & services without doing all the work yourself. Develop relationships with other people & businesses on-line where there is a win-win relationship. You will find synergy in relationships over time more powerful than anything you can do on your own. 1+1>2
DIVERSIFY EFFORTS OVER TIME Another good way to earn more is to offer more products, I find that one online business has led me to offer several over the last 2 years. No single business makes enough on its own but together they do quite well. If you develop your partnerships correctly you can make money every time people visit OR leave your web site.
If your goal is to make a living from home diversify your business into related niche markets over time. You will find that some on-line businesses will help develop traffic for your other on-line businesses. Just dont overdo it. Require a clearly defined purpose for your on-line products and you will do much better.
If you are to develop your Internet niche you must incorporate several strategics over time. Unfortunately the saying "If you build it they will come" only works in the movies. Educate yourself over time, become an active fisherman. Dont just throw one line in the water and wait.
Bob
About the Author.
bob@smithfam.com
http://www.smithfam.com/
The Internet is a pull medium, that is we have to offer them a reason to visit us in the first place before we have any chance of making a sale. Most of the home pages out there only average a few visitors a day from a pool of millions.
The need for obtaining free Information is how the Internet got started, Its been around for many years as a source of educational information but only in the last three years have people started using the Internet as a media for sales. Many companies use the Internet successfully to offer information and to generate leads but most are only getting a percentage of their total sales generated by the Internet.
I have news for you. The number one reason we all surf the net is to obtain useful information. Using the net as a sales tool is actually pretty to most people who dont understand how it works. There are only a few people that actually buy something on the net, less than 20% of all surfers have actually made a purchase on-line.
Corporate businesses are busy "PUSHING" their sales content through "channels" much as television pushes advertisements everyday. Successful companies are now discovering that offering free useful information works like bait to pull visitors to their sites, once they get the free information they came for they are more inclined to buy something or to return. The average purchase is made on return visits, Help by giving them a reason to return.
The reason most SPAM doesnt work is because most people want to determine their own information sources when they get email they didnt request or have any interest in they will delete it at least 99% of the time. So you can see that one targeted customer can produce more income than 99 untargeted visitors. If your site isnt getting sales its probably cause you havent given them what they are looking for.
Ask yourself how many fish will you catch with one pole and one line in the water. Professional fishermen put out more lines. They also use fish finders to track whole schools of fish. Your servers logs are like a fish finder, they tell you where the fish are. For more Information about tracking your visitors read the following articles:
TRACKING YOUR VISITORS
http://www.smithfam.com/news/d0.html
TRACKING YOUR ONLINE MARKETING RESULTS
http://www.smithfam.com/news/d1.html
GIVE FIRST THEN ASK
So If you want to actually sell something on the internet you must reach out and pull them to your web site. The best way to do this is to offer some of your expertise free. People surf the net to find information. When you supply them with that information or expertise free they will be more likely to return to buy from you later. Its like salting the water with bait, the fish return after a snack for dinner.
So the first thing is to consider is what is your personal area of expertise and then to develop it. You can do this by writing articles and submitting them to some of the thousands of newsletters on the Internet or by attracting customers with information. If you invest 90% of your on-line efforts into supplying free information and 10% to sales your sales will improve.
MORE LINES IN THE WATER
If you want to catch more fish - put more lines in the water. Having one page on the Internet you will usually pull in 1 - 10 visitors a day. If you have two pages with different titles and descriptions for the search engines to index, you may double your traffic. If you offer interesting content to attract your visitors, you will have a much better chance of getting return visits. This Internet works best if you ask them to bookmark your page. They will if you offer the information they were looking for in the first place. Continue developing your content over time. Youll be surprised at how fast your traffic & sales will come.
LINK EVERYTHING TOGETHER
Develop your pages so that all pages refer to mostly to your other pages. If your visitor can click on links to other pages from your site make sure that you have something to gain. Be a content developer and others will link to your site driving their visitors to you. This is often overlooked, but if people value your content they will return to purchase your product of service. Once you get a good bite followup, set the hook so the fish doesnt get away.
DONT RUN YOUR VISITORS OFF
The most common way to lose your catch is to send them away. If you put banners or links on your pages dont send them to someone else for the sale. I never understood why people join in banner exchange programs when they can usually pull people away from your page after you worked so hard to get them there in the first place.
DEVELOP YOUR E-MAIL LIST
If you can draw people to your site through its content, find ways to get them to return. You can market effectively with email without SPAMMING, ask your visitors to leave their email address with you. Offer to send them information on specific topics or develop your own newsletter this will only work if your site content is compelling enough that they want more. Develop your content so that they have to ask to get the best stuff. Dont take advantage, dont sell your email addresses or send too often. Its better to send 1000 messages once a month than 100 several times a week.
TRY SOMETHING NEW
Marketing on the Internet is like trolling for fish. Your marketing should follow your success. If you continually try new adaptations to your marketing plan and track the your results your catch will continually grow. If you blindly do the same things over & over without monitoring your results properly your business will not grow nearly as fast.
DONT SPEND TOO MUCH TO MAKE TO LITTLE
Many times we spend too little on the things that are really important and too much on things that are not. Its a good Idea for most people to get professional help planning, and developing their web site. Its easy to spend more than you earn on the Internet with poorly thought out advertising. Remember there are only a small percentage of buyers surfing the net today but by the year 2000 there will be at least 10- 100 times more buyers. As the Internet goes mainstream more people will feel comfortable making purchases on the Internet. Develop a long term strategy. Products costing less than $50 work much better on-line.
GIVE THEM CHOICES ON HOW TO ORDER
If you develop your site so its easy and safe to order more people will order from you, its just that simple. If you can offer credit card, check by email, snailmail, fax, or telephone you will catch more fish. If you offer several ways to order and to be contacted with different types of bait you have the opportunity to catch more fish.
FORM A MASTERMIND ALLIANCE Probably the most important concept today in Internet marketing is to set up strategic partnerships where you can offer more products & services without doing all the work yourself. Develop relationships with other people & businesses on-line where there is a win-win relationship. You will find synergy in relationships over time more powerful than anything you can do on your own. 1+1>2
DIVERSIFY EFFORTS OVER TIME Another good way to earn more is to offer more products, I find that one online business has led me to offer several over the last 2 years. No single business makes enough on its own but together they do quite well. If you develop your partnerships correctly you can make money every time people visit OR leave your web site.
If your goal is to make a living from home diversify your business into related niche markets over time. You will find that some on-line businesses will help develop traffic for your other on-line businesses. Just dont overdo it. Require a clearly defined purpose for your on-line products and you will do much better.
If you are to develop your Internet niche you must incorporate several strategics over time. Unfortunately the saying "If you build it they will come" only works in the movies. Educate yourself over time, become an active fisherman. Dont just throw one line in the water and wait.
Bob
About the Author.
bob@smithfam.com
http://www.smithfam.com/
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