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Are Amazon Business Mentoring and Training Programs Really Worth It?
Are Amazon Business Mentoring and Training Programs Really Worth It?
Amazon is one of the largest online marketplaces for selling products to consumers. In 2014 over 40% of the 5 billion items that Amazon sold were from 3rd party sellers. A 3rd party seller is a merchant that sets up a seller account on Amazon and uses Amazon’s platform to promote and sell their products and services. It is fairly easy to set up a seller account and is only $39.99/month to maintain a seller account on Amazon. While it is a relatively simple process to set up a seller account, there are many things that can affect your ability to make a lot of sales, or will make you more vulnerable to other sellers hijacking you listings.
As a seller, you become more experienced, and begin to learn the tips and tricks that will improve your sales or increase your profits, mostly through trial and error. However, during this learning period, you will be leaving potentially thousands of dollars if income on the table while you figure out what increases sales and what doesn’t. This difference can be even more noticeable in markets that are more competitive because it takes that much longer to get your product noticed and rise in the ranks until your product is on the 1st page of the Amazon search results for your keyword. It takes even more time to eventually land in the #1 position for your main keyword. In many cases, timing can be an issue… especially during the high selling season, so learning the success tips as you battle for position can cost you even more income.
With many of these potential […]
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2 Situations When It Makes Sense To Use a Payment Processor Like Paypal
Every day, a growing number of people venture into the world of online commerce, or ecommerce, in order to sell their goods and services online. When merchants first venture into the online realm, they can get in over their heads by using solutions that are too costly, too complex, or just have way too many features than what the merchants truly need.
The good news is that there are solutions that allow the first time online ecommerce merchant the opportunity to sell their products and services with much less committment and cost on the part of the merchant. Solutions such as Paypal or Square offer the first time ecommerce merchant the opportunity to go into the online realm and get their feet wet without drowning. One must follow the standard safety precautions associated with solutions such as Paypal and they can be on their way to earning an online income.
The next section will go over what you the merchant, will need to consider if you think a payment processing system like Paypal or Square will be work for you or not.
1. Low monthly business volume on your ecommerce website
If you don’t have a lot of sales on your ecommerce site, and especially if they are low ticket items, then you may want to consider using a pay-as-you go type of merchant account system such as Paypal. Usually these types of payment processing solutions have a higher percentage rate that they charge the merchant. Sometimes it can be as high as 15% of the price of the item being sold by the online merchant.
Typical merchant accounts usually have a monthly charge associated with the account, whether you sell anything online or not. They also have […]
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4 Things Paypal Users Should Know to Keep Their Account Safe
Online ecommerce has become a multi billion dollar industry, and with all of those dollars floating around in cyberspace, the opportunity for fraud and scams is ever present. As Internet users, it is our responsibility to take some precautions that will make our online transactions safer.
One area we need to take responsibility for is protecting our online payment information. Online payment providers have come and gone, but one of them, Paypal, has been around for a while and is still the target of scammers. While this may be alarming, there are actually some very simple steps you can take to keep your Paypal account safe from scammers.
1. Never Click on Any of the Links Listed in a ‘Paypal’ Email
No matter how official the email you get from Paypal looks, never click on any of the links in the email. Instead of clicking on the links, open up a browser window, and type in paypal.com to go directly to their site from you browser. Paypal itself has also said this.
As a rule of thumb, only log into the Paypal site if you type in the address into the address bar of the browser yourself.
If you get an email that seems official, but looks suspicious, then forward the email to spoof@paypal.com where they will be able to tell you if it was a valid email from them or not.
2. How to Tell if the Email is Legitimate
If you get an email from what appears to be Paypal telling you that your account has closed or some other urgent matter, there are things you can look at that will give you a good idea if the email is legitimate or not.
The way to do this is to […]
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5 Things You MUST Know Before You Begin Designing Your First Web Site
This is an article I wrote years ago… I find that it still applies to today’s online world.
In today’s world, if you are in business, and you want people to take you seriously, then you need a website. The common response to needing a web site is to just throw up a couple of pages about who you are and what you do and then hope for the best. Unfortunately, because everyone and their aunt does that, your website tends to look and feel like everyone else’s, and your results end up being less than stellar in their performance. Before you put your first page out on the Internet, it is important to have a well-planned Internet Business Strategy. To improve your chances of receiving more exposure and business for your website, you should know these 5 important things before you ever begin to design your first web page.
1) Who is your target audience?
This isn’t just the generic term like “my target audience is people with money to spend”, but who is your target audience really? What are their likes and dislikes? What kind of words and phrases are their “hot buttons”? What are their fears, and what kinds of problems do they have? What services to they require in addition to yours? If you don’t have an answer to any one of these questions, then you don’t really know your target audience enough to target your website specifically to them.
2) What makes you different than anyone else in your field?
You are a unique individual and have your own special way of serving your clients. Why would someone want to do business with you instead of your competition? Remember, people buy experiences along with […]
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Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Use Live Chat
With all of the tools and tricks available on websites today, the ones that many website owners tend to overlook are the ones that don’t seem like they have an immediate affect on the bottom line. Live chat can seem like it would be used mainly as a customer service tool, however it has huge benefits in adding to the bottom line of what a business brings in as well. Using live chat addresses several of the things that stand in the way of a 1st time visitor purchasing anything or taking any other action on your website.
1. Strengthens your connection with your visitors
Live chat allows visitors to feel more comfortable with your web site and your offering because with a real person on the website, they can get their questions answered immediately. Any objections or hesitations can be dealt with in a very personal manner in a way the best written sales letter can’t do. Live chat adds a personalization feeling to each person that engages in it. This kind of service also can assist the visitor with navigating the website, or assisting with filling out the order forms.
2. Allows instant phone to phone connection between the website visitor and the website owner
Some chat programs allow the chat person to connect the website visitor to a sales representative. This is a powerful feature, especially for lead generating sites that allows the business to funnel their website visitors to their higher closing sales reps. THe way this works is the chat person asks the visitor for their phone number and through the software, connects their phone number with the pre-programmed number of the business. The software rings both phone numbers and when each party […]
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The 3 Myths About Merchant Accounts That Can Cost You
Whether you’re a small start-up preparing for a big product launch or a new Main Street retailer opening your doors, chances are you’ve given some thought to the payment structure and capabilities of your business. There are critical financial decisions to be made as you start out, ones that ultimately could affect sales and your bottom line.
When it comes to accepting credit cards, the subject can divide small business owners into two groups: those who see accepting credit cards as an asset and those who think they can afford to stay a cash-only business. If you are launching an eCommerce website, there is just no way around it – you’ll need a merchant account and payment gateway. But if you are starting a new business you may be grappling with the idea of accepting payments and wondering if you really need to or, more importantly, if you can afford to. Let’s take a minute and dispel three myths about credit card processing and merchant accounts.
1. I don’t need to accept credit cards.
The first myth is the perception that customers will always have cash in hand and enough to foot the bill. But when was the last time you paid your grocery bill, ate at a restaurant or filled your gas tank using cash? For the majority of us, the convenience and cultural acceptance of using credit and debit cards has taken hold. So if your business doesn’t accept credit cards, you’re losing sales – and likely alienating customers who will never come back.
2. I can’t afford to accept credit cards.
This myth lingers in the minds of many savvy business owners. The truth is that the fees and costs associated […]
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How Would BtoB Service Oriented Businesses Market Their Services Online?
Business to Business (B2B) service oriented businesses tend to have different marketing needs compared to (Business to Consumer) B2C and product oriented companies. As a result, their online marketing efforts take on a slightly different focus than the other type of businesses. So how would a B2B business approach online marketing online? Below lists a few different area on how a service oriented business would focus their online marketing efforts to get the most return on investment.
1) SEO – Search Engine Optimization
This is still a very effective method to get more exposure for and traffic to your website therefore generating more leads for your business. Ranking for specific keywords is powerful because you are able to specifically target your marketing based on the keywords people use to find your services. If they come to your website from the search engines using your targeted keywords, you can be certain they are interested in your services. Once they get to your website however, you still have to convert the visitors into leads and customers. There are many web conversion tactics that are outside the scope of this article that you can engage in which will increase your percentage of ‘converted’ visitors on your website.
2) Social Media
Social media is a very powerful way of connecting with your target market. For B2B businesses, it is very imperative to know which networks will work best for your because not all networks are the same. In my experience, I have found that while Facebook can be a great resource for generating leads, it depends upon the type of business you have and who your target audience is. For more BtoB service oriented businesses, LinkedIn is usually a better solution because […]
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5 Things You Can Do To Increase The Local Traffic To Your Website
I get questions all the time related to getting more traffic to your website. However, the key isn’t getting more traffic, it’s getting the RIGHT kind of traffic. For businesses who depend on local traffic, online marketing is still effective if done correctly. A business owner must have a unified online strategy to be able to take advantage of all the different marketing venues from social media to strategic blogging and everything in between. So what are some things that you can do that will increase the traffic to your website as well as allow each marketing activity to build upon the other?
All of the methods I mention below will assume and take into account that you have already done appropriate keyword research and know how your target market uses the search engines to find you and your products/services.
Here are 5 things you can do that will increase the local traffic to your website:
1) Submit your website to the Google Places.
Google places is a feature of the Google platform that allows local businesses to place themselves on the maps that you see presented in the search engine results that show you where the local business are. This service is free and just requires you to enter the information. Make sure that when you do enter the information, all of your information is current and you are using the researched keywords in your places title (the one that makes the most sense to use in relating to your business) and fill out as much of the information as makes sense on the form. On a side note, put a picture on your website of your business and in the alt tag of the picture, put […]
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Top 3 Things You Should Consider When Looking For an Online Payment Processing Solution
E-commerce has been around for quite a while since the early days of the Internet. It has come a long way since and now there are many options for businesses in all stages of their development. As the online commerce has evolved, more affordable solutions are now available for startup businesses that don’t create a roadblock for these smaller entities in being able to take payments online where their initial sales volume tends to be small. However, no matter the size of the business or the volume of the sales
When looking for your online payment processing solution, you should first (this goes without saying really) understand your business model and business processes. Once you have this understanding down, then you can pick a solution that will work well to support your model and processes. So what are the top 3 things you should consider when picking a payment processing solution?
1) Customer Service
This is first and foremost because your money is the lifeline to your business and anything that gets in the way of you collecting your money cannot be tolerated. If you are in the middle of a promotion, or are on the road and need assistance, you can’t afford to use a service that will get back to you within 24 hrs. You need a resolution now because every hr delay is costing you money.
Your payment processing service provider should have 24 hr customer support and have someone you can at the very least live chat with. It is preferable to have phone service if you are someplace where you don’t have access to your computer. Again, this will depend upon your business model. If you are always at your computer, or in […]
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