Sofia Rubenstein is a 17-year-old high school student in Washington DC who is in a lot of trouble. She is having to work unpaid in her father's store to pay off the $1,100 bill she ran up by texting her friends on her mobile phone. During one month she sent a whopping 6,807 text messages and made the news in her local paper as a result.

Teenagers clearly love texting. They also love instant messaging, several studies point to the fact that people under the age of 24 prefer instant messaging to email. Like texting, instant messaging leads to instant gratification. "Grown ups" used to get that because most of their communication was face to face. But now with our global connections and our increasingly solo lifestyles, such instant gratification of communication is difficult. Indeed, this may be part of the interplay of factors which are leading to increased levels of depression in older people. We just can't get the instant gratification we need of our communications any more.

Younger people don't have that problem; they have worked out that technology provides the answer to the psychological need for immediate feedback on what you are saying. Texting and instant messaging both do that, even if your connection is with someone on the other side of the planet.

But this has important implications for Internet marketers. Increasingly, people who you are trying to connect with and sell to are not using the traditional tools you are using, such as email, phones, faxes and so on. Instead, they are relying on instant messaging, texting and so on. One problem with the increasing dependence on instant messaging is the variety of systems available such as those provided by Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. If you are on Google and your contacts are on Yahoo, you can't connect directly. However, Meebo provides a solution to this. All you do is sign up for a Meebo account and you can connect with people on any instant messaging system.

Labels: internet marketing, internet psychology

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

At May 31, 2007 11:34 PM  Jeremy Jacobs said…

Post a Comment

Internet marketers appear to think that all they need is a product and a web site and "hey presto" the money will start rolling in. Well, it doesn't work like that. Just like any other business, Internet marketing requires careful planning, constant attention and testing.

Nowhere is the "lazy" approach to Internet marketing more obvious than in "affiliate marketing". Here people appear to believe that all they need is a link to an affiliate product somewhere on their web site and they will "make money while they sleep". But just like any other product, it needs work to generate cash from any affiliate relationships you have. One Internet marketer I know of has over 10,000 affiliates but only ten of them are making any money out of his products. The rest are just lazy, imagining that the link they get is enough to sell stuff.

Even people who are not marketing affiliate products appear to believe that buyers will come flocking if all they do is make their stuff available. But no business has ever succeeded n this way. It would be rather like a new shop opening in town, but the owners not telling anyone about its existence. They would soon close down.

Most new businesses fail within the first year of starting up. Bank managers will tell you time after time this is because the owners did not put enough effort into marketing their business. It's the same online; laziness is the real reason why most people do not succeed in Internet marketing. Either they are not putting enough effort into planning or they are not doing enough marketing, including blogging, PR, articles, link exchanges and so on. People are not going to come rushing to your doors, you have to go and get them.

Labels: internet marketing

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

At May 31, 2007 4:50 AM  Amanda said…

Post a Comment

Bloggers the world over are trying to cash in on blogging. They want to "monetize" their blogs with advertising or affiliate products so they can sit back and see the cash roll in. However, few bloggers are actually earning serious cash from their endeavours.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that many blogs are too general. Sure you can have a general blog if you wish to create or enhance reputation, or build reader loyalty. True, you can have a more general blog if you are not trying to make money from it. However, if you are intending to earn some cash from blogging, then the evidence suggests that general blogging is not the way to go.

General blogging is when you write posts on a specific subject, such as Internet Marketing. You won't make money from such a blog because it is too broad. You could make money from a blog on getting the most from Google AdWords, for instance, which is only a tiny fragment of the whole Internet Marketing arena.

So, if you want to monetize your blog it's best to start a separate blog on the specific topic you are hoping to make money from. If your general blog contains several sub topics, you could make money out of each of them. As an example, I run a web site on presentation skills, but I have a product which is about removing the fear of speaking. The manual has been available on the main web site for a couple of years and sells a trickle of copies. However, when I set up a separate blog on the fear of public speaking, the sales have started to rise. I am able to discuss in that blog specific things related to fear of public speaking and use the entries to sell my manual. I couldn't do that on the more general blog on public speaking because it's not what everyone who visits that blog wants to read about.

Often, people blog generally and hope to make money. But the potential buyers are looking for something much more specific. If your blogs are tightly specified, then you will start to make money from them. If your blog is more general, use that to build reputation instead. In other words, separate blogs for specific purposes - not one blog fits all.

Labels: blogging

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

At May 30, 2007 5:05 PM  Jim Cronin said…

Post a Comment

There is an old saying about advertising that only half of it actually produces any results, you just don't know which half. Many businesses don't bother advertising because it is costly, difficult to analyse without significant research and doesn't always bring in returns.

However, many online businesses would not exist if it were not for advertising. In particular "pay per click" advertising such as Google AdWords has been the saviour of many online companies. In the Daily Telegraph recently there were several examples of online businesses which were only able to succeed simply because of Google AdWords. These businesses were niche businesses which were able to find a small market thanks to advertising.

However, essential to the success of all these businesses was the fact that they analysed their advertising constantly and responded to changes in user behaviour. This is something that many businesses do not do. They stick up an advert and then take it down after spending hundreds of dollars with no results. Indeed, one company came to me after spending around $500 a month for three months and getting no sales as a result. They complained that Google AdWords was useless and how could they attract people to their web site in other ways.

In reality, their advert didn't use any keywords that people were actually typing in. Equally, they only had one advert, which they never changed. Plus they didn't analyse any of the data which Google produced for them. Their strategy was write an advert and hope.

Used together with Google Analytics, Google AdWords provides you with a powerful way of enhacing your online business. However, you need to allocate time for planning and analysis. Unlike advertising in the offline world, pay per click advertising can be highly effective is used properly. The problem is that most businesses do not analyse their advertising campaigns effectively. That may be less of a problem in the future as a new advertising model is beginning to take hold - pay per action. In other words you do not pay for the advert unless the readers of your adverts take your desired action - buying something! That is likely to focus many people's minds on producing really good advertising.

Labels: future, internet marketing

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

Post a Comment

Executives in some businesses have, in the past, been 'economical with the truth' - to say the least. Years ago the holiday industry in the UK was famous for publishing details of hotels that didn't actually exist. They would then take the booking, transport the holidaymaker to the destination and then say 'sorry, you'll have to go to another hotel.' This lie was exposed and new rules were set in place for the industry.

Yet, we still see examples of business executives interpreting the 'truth' in different ways to their customers. Software that doesn't do what the adverts claim, flights to airports that are not actually near the supposed destination and 'low fat' are all examples where marketers have tried to pull the wool over our eyes.

Well, according to Trendwatching, businesses need to watch out. Thanks to social networking sites, review sites and customer feedback pages, people are beginning to share their experiences of products and services, telling the 'truth' that perhaps eager marketers might not want us to know.

Thanks to the Internet, the future of business is going to have to be more transparent. Those companies who try to hide things from us are likely to suffer significantly, if not disappear altogether.

If you have an online business this all means that you simply have to be completely honest and transparent. No more 'marketing speak', no more 'puffery', no more hiding behind anonymity. Instead you are going to have to be upfront, open and honest - even if that means a particular product has fewer sales. So to overcome that, online entrepreneurs are going to need even more market research at the outset, so that they can be mroe frank when they actually launch their product or service.

Labels: future, internet, user-generated

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

Post a Comment

Internet shoppers are spending more money than ever before and the trend is upwards, says a new report on online retailing. However, the report concludes that the future for Internet retailers is one of gentle growth, rather than the substantial rise in online shopping we have seen in recent years.

The report suggests that any rise in online shopping will come from existing customers, rather than new people starting to shop online. However, the authors of the report, Verdict Research, point out that the main reason for the existing growth in online shopping has been the availability of broadband. According to the study of 3,000 Internet shoppers, what held them back from shopping online was the lack of fast Internet access. Once they had broadband they started shopping.

The authors of the report also reveal that only two out of three people have broadband. So their conclusion that growth will come from existing shoppers misses the point. With broadband driving online retail activity and with a third of the population still to get broadband, there's a clear opportunity for additional customers to be found. Hence growth will come from new customers as broadband take-up increases.

What's also interesting in the report is the attitude of retailers. Some are not planning to set up shop online because it will stop people going to their stores. Indeed, in a report by McKinsey consultants suggested that retailers are making strategic choices between "bricks and mortar" and online. Some retailers are integrating online and offline worlds, but many are avoiding the Internet. The UK's clothing retailer Primark is a case in point. This company has decided not to have an online shop. It's web site is quite dreadful and doesn't even tell you what the company does. According to Verdict, companies like Primark are staying off the Internet as they want people to go to their stores.

What companies like Primark do not appear to realise is that even shoppers who visit the physical bricks and mortars stores are now making purchasing decisions online. Many people are looking for products and services online and then going to the shop to buy them. Retailers whose "strategy" is to essentially ignore the Internet are playing a very dangerous game. Especially since the growth of broadband is going to drive even more shoppers online.

If you have anything you sell online the future looks much better than the Verdict report might suggest. However, your stores need to be set up to respond to the way people are now shopping online. No longer are they looking for complete "stores" - they are looking for individual products. And that is a huge challenge for traditional "High Street" retailers. Expect to see some major casualties in the coming few years.

Labels: future, shopping

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

Post a Comment

Social networkers have taken over the Internet - or so it would seem. Everywhere you look these days there's something about social networking. It's the latest online "fad" and in its current form, it will not last.

Currently, internet marketers see social networking sites as vital to their business. Nearly half of them placed material on social networking sites to drive traffic or to sell products, according to a report from eMarketer. It's all so reminiscent of ten years ago when everyone was saying "thank you" for the development of banner advertising. Marketers were telling us that this was the way to go, the future for marketing. Now what has happened to banner adverts - they are largely ignored by Internet users.

So, now we're told to say a big "thank you" for social networking. Indeed, you'll find reports, articles, blogs and so on saying social networking is what the Internet was invented for. Indeed, even on this site you'll find I've written about the immense value of social networking. But things are changing.

Currently, MySpace gets 80% of all social networking traffic. Facebook gets 11% and the thousands of other social networking sites, including Ecademy, Bebo and so on, have to share the other 9% between them. But there is a problem with social networking; it's just too general.

In the physical world you don't socialise or hang out with just anybody. You form small, distinct groups. You find people at work, in your neighbourhood or in the clubs and societies you join as a result of your hobbies and personal interests. What people do not do in the offline world is visit an enormous pub in the centre of town, put up a sign saying "here I am" with a whole list of things they are interested in.

But that's what the likes of MySpace, Facebook and Ecademy do. So, if they run counter to what we would normally do, why are they so successful? Novelty is one reason; financial support in the case of MySpace is another; and the fact that the Internet is full of "early adopters" willing to try out new things.

However, look at what is happening "behind the scenes" of these sites. Most of the activity on Ecademy, for instance, is in the "clubs" which are devoted to special interests. Within Facebook, most activity is within the special groups, such as regional groupings (your neighbourhood). Much the same is true for MySpace which has thousands of sub groups in specialist areas.

What is clearly happening online is what already happens online - people gravitate to like minded people with shared interests. We don't have "general" clubs in the offline world and so it's no surprise that in the online world these general social networking sites are developing along the specialised route.

However, why go to a general social networking site just to then find the specialist group you wanted in the first place? Why not just go to the specialist group? If you want to play tennis, for instance, you probably join the local tennis club rather than go to the local pub in the hope that you may find some tennis players. An example of what happens online successfully is Bounty. This is a social networking site exclusively for pregnant women. It is hugely successful and allows mums-to-be to discuss all the things they find important and valuable. However, some of those women will be interested in running their own business, so they may join another social network devoted to women in business, for instance.

People are capable of separating their interests and joining networks in each exclusive area. This is what we have been doing for thousands of years, so there's no reason to suspect that will change in the online future world.

So what does this mean for what's going on in social networking at the moment? It suggests that the future of social networking is in what you might call "vertical networking". In other words, instead of one amorphous mass of networking, people will join dozens of separate, distinct online networks devoted to their special interests. That means the future for generalised social networking does not look good.

And if you thought this wasn't already happening, pop over to Ning. This is the place where people are creating their own vertical social networking groups devoted to any special interest they like. So if you want your own social network on your special interest, that's the place to go.

Labels: future, internet marketing, social networking

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

At May 26, 2007 7:57 PM  Brandon said…

At May 27, 2007 7:27 AM  Graham Jones said…

Post a Comment

Researchers at Pew Internet, the organisation that is studying the impact of the Internet on our daily life, have discovered that only a few people are what you might call active users of technology. According to their research report, 49% of people are what they call "few tech assets" people.

Essentially, this group of individuals only occasionally use technology, many of them find it annoying and 15% of people in the study have no Internet access and are satisfied without it. Only 8% of people are "omnivores" - those who use the full range of technologies, including blogging, mobile Internet and so on.

If you run your own business online, or you are an Internet marketer, or you are a daily reader of blogs then you are in this top category. If you are selling products and services online, if people contact you via the Internet a great deal or if you research your marketplace online, then it's easy to fall into the "trap" of thinking that many people are like you.

In fact, the ubiquitous nature of the Internet makes it seem as though this technology is fundamental to most people. Every TV programme mentions web addresses, newspapers and magazines encourage you to email them and you look amazed at people you meet who don't have an email address. Yet, according to the Pew Internet study, almost half the people you meet are either Internet virgins or reluctant users.

For anyone running an online business this means that your web pages need to be ultra clear. Since most of the people coming online will be "newbies" they won't be using web pages in the same way as more experienced people. Simplicity in design, a lack of fancy features and obvious "do this next" kind of buttons are things to consider. A good example is Blogger. For newcomers this has an large orange arrow which contains the link to click on each time you need to take the next action in setting up your blog. We can all follow their example and consider ways we can make our web pages easier to use and accessible to people who are newcomers to the online world - most of the people your web site will face.

Labels: internet psychology

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

Post a Comment

German researchers have conducted a massive study that will enable Internet marketers to gain higher search engine positioning. The research was conducted by Sistrix, a search engine optimisation company, and it looked at 10,000 different random keywords. The company analysed the top 100 Google ranked pages for each of those keywords. As a result, they have detailed information on one million web pages.

What they discovered was a series of important factors to get your pages to the top of Google for your particular keywords. Of all of the factors the most important was having your keywords in your "title tag" - the page reference that appears above the menu bar in the browser window. Importantly, though, this is not enough on its own; the title tag also needs to be in the body of the page several times. It appears that Google is checking to see if the page is actually about what the title professes it to be on.

If the domain name (the URL) is also the same or nearly the same as the keyword, then the page ranked more highly than pages without the keywords in the domain name. If the keywords were in the file path, this had no impact. So, what this means is you need separate domain names for your major keywords. Using those keywords as folder/directory names is not having any impact on search engine ranking.

Incoming links were also an important factor. The top result for each keyword had about four times as many links as the 11th result for the same word. What this means is that for each keyword you need specific links - not just links to your site, but to specific keyword rich pages. This is much easier to achieve with blogging than with general web sites, because people tend to link to specific posts.

Interestingly, page headlines (those in the H1 tags of the HTML) had no impact on a page ranking. Instead, subheadings had more of an effect. This is possibly because people have tended to stuff H1 tags with keywords and therefore Google has taken this factor out to prevent web site spamming.

How can you ensure you follow all these search engine ranking rules? Well, apart from creating separate web sites for each major keyword - something I have been advocating for the past couple of years - you should also be using blogs as a major marketing initiative as they are easier to achieve the right combination of links, title tags and so on. Equally, you can measure your site against this research by using something like Internet Business Promoter to help you ensure you are on the right track.

Labels: blogging, internet marketing

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

Post a Comment

Bloggers tend to use blogging technology in one way - to write down their thoughts, ideas and information in an accessible format. However, blogging technology provides your business with so much more that it seems a shame to waste its capabilities. So here are five alternative suggestions for the ways in which blogging can help you or your business.

1. Create a blog that is private and password protected, for your eyes only. Use that blog to record notes, your personal thoughts, contact information and so on. That way you have access to your private information from anywhere in the world providing you can get an Internet connection. You don't need to take your notebook everywhere you go, nor do you need your laptop. You can read and add to your notes in an Internet Cafe, at someone else's office, or even via your mobile phone.

2. Another use for a private, password protected blog would be for project management. Each member of the team could have access to the blog and would be able to contribute information on their progress, discuss matters related to the ongoing project, monitor task deadlines and so on. This means that everyone involved in a project can be kept up to date and informed without the need for special software - all they need is web access.

3. Start a blog for each of your individual customers. The information you provide would be specific to their needs. What you write may be adapted from your more general material, but if the blog is targeted specifically at individual clients they will engage with it more than your general blog. Plus it seems to them that you are providing a much higher level of service than other suppliers. This is an excellent way of providing great customer service.

4. Use a blog to create your FAQ page. That way you can add to it wherever you are in the world and whenever you want. If you use traditional web design programs or a web design company, any changes you want to make to your FAQ page would have to wait or would cost you money. By creating your FAQ page with blogging technology you can update it whenever you want.

5. Set up a links page using blogging. If like most people you visit thousands of web pages each week saving them as Favorites or Bookmarks can lead to a mess in your web browser menu. Plus you can't really remember what those pages were about. Set up a blog with categories for all the types of sites you visit. Then every time you visit a useful site, simply "blog it" to your private links page. You can add some detail about what the site is about and you will then have a personal directory of useful web sites. If you use Blogger to do this and install the Google Toolbar for your browser, doing this is a simple one click process.

So, five ways in which blogs can be used other than promoting your business. What other ways do you use blogs? Add your ideas to the comments below.

Labels: blogging

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

At May 22, 2007 8:46 AM  Lesleywriter said…

At May 22, 2007 12:42 PM  Tracey said…

At May 22, 2007 12:54 PM  Graham Jones said…

At May 22, 2007 2:53 PM  Alfred Armstrong said…

At May 22, 2007 6:52 PM  Robert Redl said…

At May 22, 2007 9:09 PM  Karen Skidmore said…

At May 23, 2007 9:21 AM  Dave Clarke said…

Post a Comment

Online business owners sometimes complain that their competitors are gaining more custom, yet their products and services are not as good. Indeed, that's not a complaint restricted to online businesses. At a networking lunch the other day one business owner was complaining that his competition seemed to get more attention, more customers and more money, yet that company's products and services were inferior to his own.

Being the best is not always equated with success, particularly in business. Yet many online entrepreneurs or would be online business owners I meet seem to be trying constantly to make their products and services "the best" in their field. Indeed, I met one chap recently who was still "tweaking" his web site and "after a year, it's almost finished" he said proudly. That's a year of missed sales, a year where his competition has stolen market share and a year of stress and frustration as he witnessed his competitors marching past him.

Successful businesses are frequently the most well known in their marketplace. The more people who know you, know what you do and know what you stand for, the more business you do. Simple. But how can online businesses become the best known in their particular niche or sector?

It's all about "noise"; you just need more pages on the web that refer to you, link to you, and talk about you. You need to be in the business of creating page, after page, after page of good material that is about you, your business and your products and services. But the problem for many online businesses is how do they generate such material and distribute it. Luckily, there is a service that does both for you. It's called Article Marketer and not only will they distribute information about your online business to millions of readers, they will also help you create the right material as well. Well worth looking into.

Labels: internet marketing

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

At June 04, 2007 2:18 PM  Anonymous said…

Post a Comment

Futurists are convinced that the future of employment is in "portfolio" careers, with people hopping from job to job. Add to that a huge increase in self employment over the past decade and you can see that the future of work is based on individuals, rather than corporations. Indeed, I made this point last week in this blog on future employment trends.

However, European legislators appear determined to prevent this all from happening. They are proposing that the whole concept of freelancing is banned. What they want is that anyone who works for a company will be deemed as an employee - even if that's a one-off piece of work for a very short period of time.

For example, if you are a web designer and you produce web sites for several companies, under the new proposals you will have to be employed by each firm. Similarly, if you are a professional speaker like me, every engagement will be deemed to be employment. The same will happen to freelance writers who produce material for various newspapers; instead of being able to bash their keyboards for themselves, each article they write will be for a separate employment contract.

The prospect of this proposed change is a nightmare. Huge amounts of bureaucracy will be created, lawyers will have a field day dealing with all the extra contracts and the only people who will lose out will be consumers who'll ultimately end up footing the bill.

So what has all this to do with the Internet? Well, the Internet provides a way out of this nonsense. The European proposals only affect companies that operate within Europe; but the Internet provides freelancers with a global marketplace. You can work for people in Australia or America on a freelance basis and the European Commission won't be able to do a thing.

This is what is so amazing about legislators. Here we have a technology that enables people to circumvent proposed legal changes. Yet the European Commission, with all its experts, have been unable to spot it. As the rest of us are busy using modern technologies, such as Web 2.0 features like blogging and social networks, the legislators are beavering away as though the Internet hasn't yet been invented. While we all look to the future, they are clearly living in the past.

Labels: future, internet, speaking

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments:

At June 17, 2007 10:55 PM  Anonymous said…

Post a Comment

Shoppers who buy stuff online appear to have done their "research" on what to buy offline. Buried in a report on online shopping,there's the startling fact that the biggest proportion of Internet shoppers (36%) visit the web site to buy something as a result of having seen the item in a printed catalogue. Furthermore, this report on Internet shopping shows that people visit around four or five web sites looking for their desired item before making a decision.

These are important pieces of information for anyone trying to sell anything online. Firstly, the report confirms that you cannot neglect the offline world. You need to be promoting your products and services in traditional media, as well as online. Having a strategy for search engine optimisation, or spending hours on tweaking your pay per click adverts is going to produce only a few sales compared with the huge benefit of appearing in traditional offline media.

Secondly, what this report suggests is that having your products and services available on one web site is not enough. People are "sniffing around" for what they want. Since they visit more than one web site to help them make a purchasing decision, your items need to be sold on several prominent web sites as well. For those people with a single product web site, this means developing even more web sites using different approaches to sell the same single item.

Labels: internet marketing, shopping

Add this story to:

| BlinkList | BlogMarks | del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Google | LinkRoll | Lycos |

| ma.gnolia | Netscape | Newsvine | Ning | reddit | Simpy | Spurl | Squidoo | Wink |

Email this story to your friends:

Readers' Comments: