5 Things You Didn't Know About Link Liberation 2

If you didn't watch yesterday's video release, there's probably still quite a few things that you don't know about Leslie Rohde and Dan Thies's "Link Liberation 2.0"...

https://seo.infusionsoft.com/go/LLV4/asquared/

LL2 is the new course/software that Dan and Les have just opened for new students/users for a limited time. It's a game changer when it comes to how business will get backlinks from now on...

But here's a list of 5 things about Link Liberation that you wouldn't know unless you watched their video:

1. It's 12 Weeks of Training. Not just about link building, but SEO basics, content creation - even outsourcing so you can hire other people to do all the work for you...

2. Dan and Leslie are Part of the Program. They're there all 12 weeks, in the members' forums, and on the group coaching calls.

3. There's Software. So as you learn the methods, you can immediately implement them in their custom built software. PLUS, it's flexible enough to give access to groups of outsourcers so they can do the "busy work" for you...

(That's worth mentioning TWICE!)

4. 30 day Guarantee. You'll have 5 Modules of content before you even have to decide to keep it. If you change your mind, you get a full, no-hassle refund.

5. It's Affordable. You can pre-pay for access for one year and save 30%. Or you can go with the monthly subscription plan and just pay as you go.

I think this is a killer "Mafia" offer (hard to refuse)... It's worth checking out just to see how top-notch marketing is done. :) If you want full details on ANY of the topics above, everything you need to know is in the video.

https://seo.infusionsoft.com/go/LLV4/asquared/

It's a LIVE Course, delivered directly by Les and Dan. That means even if they don't fill up (which they should), they still have to close the doors to start the course. So if getting top search ranks is a struggle for you, act fast. Just watch this and decide.

And as an added bonus, I'm offering a fr'ee video site review for everyone who signs up (that's a $197 value). After you make your LL2 purchase send me an email with your URL and I'll do a full video site review that covers your entire site from homepage to checkout and everything in between.

https://seo.infusionsoft.com/go/LLV4/asquared/

Plan Your 2010 Holiday Season Profits

Got an hour Sunday night to learn how to maximize your holiday profits?

That's right store owners, it's August and that means it's time to start
planning for Christmas.

If you want to get the most out of your store this holiday season, you
need to start preparing your store now so everything is in order and
no customer is left behind.

Free Setting Up eShop For The 2010 Holiday Season webinar,
Sunday August 1st at 7pm Eastern.

Register here: http://eComIncubator.com

Watch as I take you through every step of my holiday planning so

you can apply my techniques to have the most profitable holiday season

your store has ever seen.

Every webinar attendee gets a 2 Awesome Bonuses. A free downloadable copy

of the presentation and a handy 2010 Holiday Action Plan Calendar to keep

you on track from August right up through January.

This is a totally free event, register now to reserve your seat to
earn the profits you deserve this holiday season!

Register here: http://eComIncubator.com

To your store profits,


Audrey

Boom! Pow! Expand!

"Blowing up" Your eCommerce Business In The New Year

I like to start each New Year by looking over the past and evaluating what was good and the not-as-good over the previous three hundred sixty-five days. I break things down into categories like sales, advertising, promotions, search positioning, and other things like that.

By going through all the major aspects of my store and seeing where things worked (and where they didn’t) helps me gauge what I want to spend time working on in the coming year and what I want to either spend significantly less time on or remove entirely.

For me, the beginning of the year is the time for expansion – growing the things that are making me money and diversifying my business to make it stronger and more secure. For me, eCommerce is about sustainability. It's about creating a business with a solid foundation that only becomes more stable over time. That’s why this type of year-end reconciliation of your store tactics is important for you to do.

Of course you don’t have to do it in January if that doesn’t make sense for you, but for many, the holiday rush is the biggest buying season. So, once it’s over, it makes sense to start planning and implementing so you can increase your profits when it comes back around again.

Figuring out where your tactics and stores stand is the first step to take when looking to expand. So once I’ve figured out what areas are working I then look into ways to expand them and / or grow them. I make the distinction between expanding and growing because I see them as related but ultimately different ideas.

"Expansion" I define as making something bigger, while "growing" I consider more as cultivating. And cultivating can sometimes entail actually culling. They often go hand in hand but separating them makes them easier to talk about.

Expanding Tactics

For instance, one of the things I'm going to be expanding this year is my AdWords presence. I now employ a near full-time Pay Per Click manager, which allows me to triple the amount of AdWords ads I have running. I’m also going to be able to grow my AdWords campaigns by more narrowly focusing efforts and cash on Ad Groups that are already paying off and removing campaigns that have been deemed outdated.

So yes - PPC is one of the big areas I recommend eCommerce storeowners spend more time on in the New Year.

You’ll want to do the same with your natural search optimization tactics, your article marketing efforts, store blogging, sales / promotions, and your site conversion. I also do the same with my vendors. If something isn’t working the way I want it to with any of them, I call them up and discuss it with them. If it’s a big enough issue and they won’t bend, I just grow my business...by firing them as a vendor.

Expanding Products

Now I want to talk about expansion in terms of your products and your store(s). If you have a product or product line that consistently sells well, finding more products like it might be a way to expand on a current success. This might mean simply adding more products from one of your current vendors or it might mean finding a new supplier in order to expand your product line.

Finding new vendors is a great way to expand your business - though it can be a daunting task. Before going out and searching for new vendors by hand, I like to go through the World Wide Brands drop ship source directory at NewVendors.Info. Even if I don’t find a vendor for products to expand my current line, I usually find a few that I’m interested in dealing with, in some way or another. Finding a new line of related products is a great way to expand your store and using World Wide Brands is an easy way to find quality drop shippers and wholesalers without putting in hours of search time.

Now let’s look at another scenario. Let’s say your most profitable product line is pretty large in terms of number of products. Let's say you’re looking to expand it by finding another vendor. So you find one, and the line they offer is also very large. What then?

Consider this. Instead of adding it to your current store, what about opening a new store centered around that product line?

I do this all the time. Over the past few years I have opened a new store every year – it has become one of my yearly goals. The more income streams you have out there, the more stable your business. But a new store doesn’t have to be completely different than your current store(s)! There is nothing wrong with opening a spin off niche site selling some of the same things you’re already selling.

Say, for example, that my Civil War weaponry and costumes are selling like hot cakes. I would happily open a second weaponry store designed for the Civil War niche. I would use the products I get from my current vendors and find a few more that I could source from to fill out the store.
Niche sites are great and they are easier to rank with and maintain than larger stores. Breaking out your successful products in this way will grow your business in a relatively easy way. It’s nice to start a new store knowing you have a product that sells because you’re already successfully selling it.

You don’t have to get rid of the products on your first store when you open the new store either. In fact, I would recommend NOT removing them from you first store. By creating a niche store around items you also sell in your big store you’re creating even more competition for your competitors. That’s a cool idea, huh?

You’re expanding your market reach, getting on your way to dominating the search engine listings, and giving yourself more chances of getting the sale. Competing with yourself is a strategy I also recommend eCommerce storeowners work into their planning.

This year I am opening a brand new store (in a brand new market) and starting a spin off store. The spin off store is going to take much less time to create and I already know where to focus my efforts in terms of SEO and paid advertising. So I’m going to create that one first. I’m confident it will be making money as soon as I get my PPC ads rolling so I’ll begin the brand new store pretty much the day after the spin off is open for business.

If you’re looking to open a brand new store, it’s a good idea to test your market before spending the time and effort it takes to build a whole store. Testing with AdWords is one of the best ways I have found to test my market research and make sure the market I want to dive into is viable. Setting up a few test ads around your main products doesn’t take very long and the numbers will start coming in right away. I recommend this type of testing to anyone looking to open a store. Reaffirming your market research is always a smart move.

Now I’d like to talk a little bit about diversification and different ways of expanding.

Diversifying Your Business

To create a strong, sustainable business you want multiple streams of income, not just one giant income source. You just never know if something is going to happen to jeopardize that one source, which is why having many sources creates a much more stable business environment and adds to your personal financial security.

Diversification doesn’t mean you have to open a new store; any new stream of recurring income that you can bring in is diversifying. In my opinion the more revenue streams the better. I’d rather have ten sites bringing in $1000 each per month than four sites bringing in $2500 each per month. That way if a couple markets take a dip, my income isn’t as effected.

So I have four main online stores. As I mentioned, this year I’m opening two new ones. My stores are my main sources of revenue. I also have in the ballpark of 100-150 affiliate / AdSense sites out there. I don’t make nearly as much with these as I do with my stores but they provide a nice passive income every month. That’s what I set them up for – passive income. I could make more with them if I spent the same amount of time working on and promoting them as I do my stores, but I don’t want to. They are not my main business because I don’t want them to be.

I like being a storeowner and spending my time and effort promoting the things I actually sell. But it makes sense for me to take some time to create affiliate sites and spend a little more time getting them ranked because once they are going to stay going for a while and produce consistent income. Passive income is fantastic because it doesn’t require much work from you and gives you a nice monthly cushion.

When you begin diversifying, I suggest you start by opening a second store. Building your second is a lot easier than building your first. You already know what to do and you’ve done it once – it’s a faster process the second time around.

These are the things I focus on every New Year and I’m always looking and open to new ideas for generating and optimizing income streams. The deeper you look into your existing business the more areas you’ll find where you can optimize and the better ideas you’ll have for diversifying your income.

Move 'Em Out! Streamline Your Checkout And Wow Your Customers

There are a lot of seemingly small, minor details that we eCommerce storeowners overlook when setting up their stores.

This is usually in the interest of getting the site built, live, and ranked. We put aside things like the Contact Us page, Shipping FAQ, Order Confirmation page and emails. Usually the intent is to go back and finish them once you see traffic coming to your store but many times other things pop up that seem more important and the smaller things get put on the back burner.

Including and/or customizing these pages and emails will have an impact right from the start and they are a big help when dealing with customers after they order.

Before The Order

First off, always include a detailed Shipping FAQ that preemptively answers questions like ‘How long before my order ships?’ and ‘What is your return policy?’ This will save you time answering calls and emails that do nothing to drive your business forward.

Second, you can dramatically cut down on monotonous repeat emails and calls by adding .a Contact Us page that contains links to important informational pages in your site like your Terms and Conditions, Return Policy, and Shipping FAQ page as well as having a contact form.
Many online shoppers also expect both of these pages and not having them (or having but not providing much info on them) can take away from the professional quality of your site. It might even lose you customers.

Remember - for every customer who takes the time to call or send an email there are five who simply leave your store. You can regain some of these customers by working on these helpful pages, most of which can be created in less than a day.

Here are some ideas of what you want to have on your shipping and contact pages: On average how long will a customer’s order take to ship? What shipping methods do you offer? From where is the order shipped? What if a customer’s order is not in stock? What is your return policy?

You can also include specific product information on this FAQ. For example on my Armory site I include a Product FAQ on the same page as the Shipping FAQ. This answers questions like: What is my chain mail made of? Are my swords sharpened? And do we offer custom work?

By answering as many of your customers’ questions as possible on the FAQ you’re eliminating the time you or your customer service team needs to spend answering emails or taking phone calls. Take notice of questions that come up over and over again and add them (plus their answers) to the FAQ. Not every customer will check it before contacting you but some will and any amount of time you cut from customer support is time you can spend on finding new sales.

On your Contact Us page, include links to all your informational pages right at the top so people will have the opportunity of answering their own questions before emailing you. Also include your live chat link and phone number on this page. If you are using a platform like Yahoo that doesn’t include a Contact Us form, I would recommend getting a form you can integrate. There are many free and paid form builders you can use. Be sure to choose one that does not put ads on or around the form; you want it to be a seamless integration on your Contact Page.

A Contact Us form is better than just an email link because it provides the customer with some guidance, which is helpful for both them and you. Before integrating contact forms into my sites I would get email questions about orders but not enough information to look them up. So I would have to write back with no answers to try and get more personal information. Customers don’t like that, they expect you to know who they are and what they ordered by heart. A contact form helps you meet that expectation.

Checkout

If you have the option in your store backend to change your checkout flow, make it one single page. Not every platform allows you to do this so if you find that you can’t, then add steps to the pages to let the customer know where they are in the process. For example, if you have three steps in your checkout process add “Checkout Step 1 of 3” at the top of the first page, and so on through the rest.

You also want to make your action buttons – Checkout, Submit Order, etc - big and bold. Lead the customer through the process with these big trail markers; it helps keep them focused and keeps moving them toward placing the order.

A customer will sometimes realize halfway through checkout that they forgot to look at your return policy and leave checkout to go do it. You can alleviate some of this by summing up the policy and adding it to the top of the checkout page. For example, on my Armory site, I have this copy at the top of the checkout page:

Items shipped upon receipt of payment. Returns accepted for 30 days less shipping and a 25% restocking fee. You must be 18 years if age or older to order. If you have any questions feel free to email us at customercare@a2armory.com or call 877-640-9486 between 10-6 EST.

That sums up all the salient points and doesn’t hide anything or deceive the customer in anyway. Once you have a customer headed through checkout you want to do everything in your power to keep them moving forward.

After The Sale

This process does not end after the Submit Order button is clicked. You also need a good order confirmation page and follow up email for buyers. Most shopping cart platforms have some type of default confirmation page and order email, but these are not good enough. You want to include a message about expected shipping time, links to your contact page, and your store phone number. And you want to include all that information and an invitation to contact you about any questions in your confirmation email.

Maybe it seems silly to you. After all, you had all that info on your site, if people had questions they would have looked at those pages or contacted you before ordering, right? Sometimes but not always - you can’t rely on your customer to search out information you have to provide it.

So make it easier for them to find information and contact you than it is for them to contact their credit card company. Put it all right in front of them so if they do contact their credit card company you can prove they knew your policies. Not only will you have fewer wrongful chargebacks, you’ll have fewer customer problems overall.

In addition to the order confirmation email, you also want an order status email. Even if you have link for online order tracking in your confirmation, you still want to send out a status update once their product ships. Seeing a charge on their card with no shipping confirmation to back it up can cause some people to panic because, again, it’s something they’ve come to expect. You can save yourself a lot of customer service work by keeping your customers in the know.

This email can be very simple - as long as it contains shipping information and a tracking number, your customer will be happy. You can take this a step further and use the opportunity to make an offer on a related product, just be sure to show them the tracking information first and the attempt to get more money second.

Whether you sell a single product or run a mega store like Amazon, simply taking the time to create informative FAQ pages and easy to use contact methods will help your business. It will save you time, make your store look more professional, make your customers happier, and provide you with recourse if a customer complains about your policies.

Checklist:

- Create a Shipping FAQ detailing your shipping methods and return policy.
- Customize your Return Policy page and explain, in detail, the return process and what’s needed from the customer.
- Customize your Contact Us page with links to your information pages and a contact us form.
- Create a Product FAQ and add it to your Shipping FAQ or as its own page on your site.
- Customize your Checkout page(s) with step numbers, large action buttons, and a summary of your return policy.
- Customize your Order Confirmation page and email to include estimated shipping time and contact methods.
- Send a follow up email including the customer’s tracking number, another thank you, and a discount coupon.

Dealing with Chargebacks

Chargebacks.

Sooner or later, all eCommerce storeowners have to deal with them. I know I have.

I’m not saying mistakes don’t happen … but at the end of the day 99% of our stores’ chargebacks are unfounded. And the reasons people resort to them are as varied as snowflakes. Some claim they forgot they ordered, some decide they don’t like the return policy, but most just seem to make up whatever story they feel justifies them going to their credit card company (instead of us) to resolve the dispute.

I’m not bashing my customers, as I said mistakes happen, and there are a lot of people out there who are not trying to be malicious. But malicious or not, chargebacks are a hassle for a busy storeowner. Especially if that storeowner doesn’t know the proper way to handle them.



Do you?

Properly handling chargebacks are part customer service and part lawyer and it’s hard not to get frustrated when you open that big fat envelope from your processor , only to see a name you thought you’d dealt with through the normal return process.

Well, my motto is “don’t get mad, get your money back!” Here is what you should do to totally prepare your chargeback defense.

o Keep all customer and vendor correspondence for at least ninety days. I know people who like to purge old emails at the end of every month. Even though each of my stores has a thirty-day return policy I keep everything relating to a sale for six months. Credit card companies are much more inclined to side with the buyer than the seller- that’s part of their customer service. Even if the customer initiates it after the return policy stated on your site the credit card company will make you prove the sale was legitimate. Keep everything!


o Answer the chargeback with everything you’ve got. Don’t get indignant and send just the sales receipt – that will only mean a second notice with a request for more documentation. Send the sales receipt, order confirmation, shipping receipts including the tracking number, and any and all correspondence with the customer - literally your entire history for the sale. You can send documents from your store, your vendor, your shipper, from where ever and whoever as long as they are related to the sale. Provided you are in the right this will return as a judgment in your favor on the first try.

Now here are a couple things you shouldn’t do:

o Don’t call the customer. Even if you were dealing with the problem personally before, they have elevated it. Calling to try to get them to close the dispute rarely works because they either did it on purpose because they’re not happy with how you’re dealing with them or they don’t realize it is a bad thing for you. Either way it’s usually easier to turn in your evidence and let the credit card company make the judgment in your favor.


o Don’t miss the deadline to turn in your rebuttal. You have a finite amount of time to get your case together (about 7-10 days) and presented. Don’t drag your feet. Wait until the last minute and I guarantee you’ll find you need a copy of something from your shipper that they won’t be able to get to you for a day or so. There is nothing worse than losing money that rightfully belongs to you.

Below are the three most common scenarios associated with ecommerce and ways to deal with them.

1. Merchandise was never received:

Look up the original order and check your records to see if it was indeed shipped. If it has been, input the tracking number into the shipping carriers website to pull up all of the transit/delivery information. Include this with your rebuttal, along with a written statement informing the credit card company that the order was shipped in a timely fashion and supply them with the tracking details.

If the order was not shipped, but is still pending or on backorder (this happens with us because we charge upfront for custom work), check your archive folders for any communication with the customer. Make sure to include all of the emails with your rebuttal, stating that the customer was aware of the delay and willingly opted to wait.

2. Item was returned and credit was not received:

This is by far my least favorite because even if you did refund the money, the credit card company will not check before removing the funds from your account. They assume the customer is correct and you have to prove that the refund was issued before the chargeback went through.

Check to see if the item was received back. If it was, check to see if you refunded the customer. If your company has a restocking fee, make sure to also include this information with your rebuttal. Sometimes the customer thinks the restocking fee is not warranted, and they try to get that money back. So, just send along the proof that you refunded the customer, along with a reason for the semi-credit due to the restocking fee. Sending a copy of your return policy is a good idea as well, just so you have all your bases covered.

3. Couldn’t contact the company to do a return properly:

This is the easiest to handle. I have never lost a fight for this reason. All you need is one email where you give them an RMA and return instructions that include an address. You don’t need to use RMAs but many companies do. If you don’t, then just make sure you send the instructions and an address. If your customer requests this information over the phone - give it to them and then send a follow up email with the same instructions. That way you have some written proof that you communicated with them.

If the merchandise was returned but you haven’t refunded the customer yet, don’t. The credit card company will take the money from your account for the customer plus the chargeback fee - you have no recourse. If you then issue a refund you’ll be out double the money.

If you receive a chargeback for any other reason, make sure you supply the credit card company with adequate information, so you're not stuck holding the bill. Always send a copy of the original order, payment receipt, any email correspondence you've had with the customer, and a typed note explaining why you are disagreeing with the chargeback allegations.

Avoid That Chargeback!



Now let’s talk a bit about how to avoid chargebacks so you don’t have to go through all this trouble. There are simple steps you can take on your website and through customer service correspondence to lower your rate of complaints.

First, include a detailed shipping FAQ that preemptively answers common questions like ‘How long before my order ships?’ and ‘What is your return policy?’. The more information you put in front of the customer, the less likely they will try to challenge you. And if they do go ahead and put through a wrongful chargeback you have that informational page on your site , which shows the credit card company that your customer knew your policies.

Second, having a “Contact Us” page that contains links to important informational pages like your return policy and shipping FAQ page (as well as having a contact form) makes it easier for customers to get in touch with you. A customer is much more likely to go for a chargeback if they have a hard time finding your contact info. And again, this is yet another page that you can forward to the credit card company to prove you were available to the customer.

You can also stem the reversals by providing each and every customer with as much information about their order as possible. Email is your friend. Sending a few simple emails or using functions in the backend of your store to keep your customers abreast of their order status saves time and effort in all areas of customer service.

Set your store up so it automatically sends out an email when a customer places an order. This email should include links to your contact page, shipping FAQ, and return policy. If for whatever reason there is a delay in shipping, especially after it has been shipped, contact the customer right away to let them know. The more goodwill you build the more your customer will trust you and go to you first if there is a problem.

Once the order ships…send them the tracking number with instructions on where to go to track it. Depending on your shipper and your store platform, a customer might need to click on a link or go to a website to track the shipment. Don’t leave it to them to figure out, ,make sure you provide clear instructions for every step they need to take.

These simple steps will lower your rate of chargebacks and make any that do come in that much easier to fight.

Chargeback Checklist:

o Save all customer correspondence for at least ninety days.
o Post contact, shipping, and return information clearly on your website.
o Respond to customer issues and shipping delays immediately.
o Send tracking numbers to every one of your customers.
o Don’t get mad…get your money back!

Seven Mistakes eCommerce Store Owners Make

There is a lot that goes into starting a new eCommerce business. Some of it we have a tendency to rush through, some of it we linger on, and some of it we just plain forget about. Here are the top seven mistakes I see new (and established) eCommerce store owners most often making.

#1. Spending too much time researching and not enough time actually doing things to help your store.

Whether it’s keywords, SEO, paid ads, conversion, blogging, or anything else - too much learning and / or researching will cause your growth to stagnate. You don’t need to spend an entire month drilling down into your keywords, or learning everything there is to know about your market, or becoming an expert about your products.

This is typically referred to as paralysis by analysis. You need to sell, that’s how you make money. To be able to sell you need to build your sales mechanism – your store. All you need is a solid base to get started, the learning and research will continue as you business grows. Do something that will help you make money everyday.

#2. Trying to sell everything to everybody.

Some store owners think that their best chance at success is to be all things to all people. They attempt to open up giant Mega eStores that offer everything from classic car covers, monkey statues to computer monitors. They have reasoned that, like a real world department store, shoppers will arrive at their site and browse from department to department, carefully evaluating every product that they have for sale…

That won’t work unless your URL starts with Ama and ends with Zon. The Internet is about focus.

When people are searching for a specific product on the web, they type the product name into a search engine, they join a mailing list that provides information about that specific product, or they look for that specific product in a shopping network. They don’t decide to just “Shop”. People who do that are browsers, not buyers. You want people that already know what they are looking for to come to your site.

The buyers search with a purpose - with a goal. They have a product in mind and they are going to use the incredible reach of the Internet to find the right deal from the right vendor. You want to be the right vendor. Besides, the department stores are already on the web. Target is there, Best Buy is there, all of the big dogs are entrenched and making a profit on the Internet by brand name alone. You don’t want to compete with them!

What’s nice about being online is you don’t have to. Think of it this way; if you want to buy toothpaste, you go to a grocery store or a drug store – not a Toothpaste Store.

How come there is no such thing as a toothpaste store? Because it would cost way too much money to build a brick and mortar store that only carried one type of product. This kind of business model simply doesn’t work in the real world, but it does online.

It is so cost effective to do business on the Internet that you can specialize with laser beam focus. As a matter of fact, I know of multiple stores that sell less than twelve products and make good money!

How can this be? It’s because Internet Shoppers are focused people. And they want to buy from companies that share that same focus. They reason that - if a store is only selling products that cure bad breath, then that store’s owners must be experts in Anti-Halitosis technology. Focus adds to the perception of expertise and people want to buy from the experts!

If your store has focus, if it sells just a few related products that you can offer good information about, then shoppers will consider you to be an expert! An eCommerce store allows you to tell your shoppers how knowledgeable about a product you are – right on the sales page!

Go after those little niche markets! Remember, on the Internet, you have millions of potential customers – and they usually are looking for something specific! Find out what it is and give it to them.


#3. Going into business with a bad vendor.

Basing your business around a mediocre or bad vendor will lower your chances of success. There are a few things to look for and some smart steps to follow when vetting a possible vendor. Going through this process will save you time, frustration, and money.

If you have to pay to join their drop ship / wholesale program you’re dealing with a middleman not the source. Often times these middlemen are drop shippers too and are not only marking the products up so they can make a profit but also passing some of their other costs onto you. So for all the time you put into making sales you will be losing what can amount to a lot of potential profit.

In a perfect world you want to deal with “wholesale to trade only” vendors but that exists predominantly with bulk wholesale companies. So take a look at the companies retail prices and their search engine rankings before adding a single one of their products to your site. Be sure you can compete with their pricing and market presence. Then make sure there is no minimum order or that it is one you are prepared to deal with.

Check out their shipping, return, and exchange policies. You don’t want to be surprised and out money because of a vendor’s non-standard policies. Ask about their stock and ask some specific product questions. You’re going to get questions from customers that you won’t be able to answer – you want a vendor who is knowledgeable about what they are selling. Then place a test order and see how it goes.

When it comes to your business and reputation, assume nothing. Any question that comes up should be asked. You may have specialized concerns based on your product line, don’t leave the answers to chance. Just as you have to apply to their program, make them apply to your business. If you have to spend time worrying about them or dealing with unfavorable terms you’ll be taking away time and effort that should be spent building your business.

#4. Choosing a mediocre shopping cart.

Yeah sure you can always switch, but switching carts sucks and won’t be necessary if you start with a good one. Here is what you absolutely need in a shopping cart:

• An SEO friendly function or module – You need complete control over your meta tags for each and every page.
• Cross Selling – Recommending related products or upselling accessories is vitally important for reaching your highest profit potential.
• Coupons – You need to be able to create discounts for anything in your store and there should be no limit on the number you can create.
• User defined URLs – This isn’t strictly necessary but I prefer creating a custom URL to having the product name used automatically.
• Database functionality – Using a spreadsheet to create and upload your product data is much faster than creating them separately in the backend.

There will be other things you want too like the ability to section your navigation bar, the option for one page checkout, an affiliate module, etc. The best thing to do is call the provider you’re thinking of using and tell them everything you’re looking for. If at any point they say, “We can’t do that”, start looking for another cart.

You also want to look into the availability of outside customization. Unless you’re a developer you’re going to run into things you want done that you’re not able to do yourself. You may have found an awesome, cheap platform that has all the functionality you need but if you can’t find any good developers to help you customize it or the work is prohibitively expensive it doesn’t do you much good.

#5. Focusing solely on SEO.

Being in the top spot on Google is great, all the traffic to your site you get from that top spot is great, but you won’t be able to capitalize on it if your site doesn’t capture customer interest and convert. You can make more money with less traffic if your site is set up for optimal conversion.
Using the built in templates that come with your store is not good enough. You need to design or have designed for you conversion optimized templates. You need to shout your Unique Selling Propositions from the rooftops.

You want your customers to have absolutely no trouble contacting you. You need to have a toll free number, live chat, and an easy to use contact form prominently showcased on your site.
Use more pictures, less text; and the text you use, you want to break up into bite-sized chunks and bullet points. Make it visually clear what your store sells by using product images on the homepage. Feature your popular or bestselling items. Put up pictures of your most visually interesting or unique products to make your site stand out.

Tell visitors why they should buy from you rather than your competitors - tell them what makes you different. If you offer free shipping you need to make it known. If you offer a price match guarantee you need to flaunt it. Come up with reasons that make buying from you a safer bet or a better experience then lay out those reasons for all your customers to see.

Go through your checkout process and make sure it is smooth and distraction-free. One page is best but multiple pages work fine when you make all the instructions clear. Each of your checkout pages should include a step number, name, and brief instructions where necessary.
Doing that makes the page look more organized and gives clear instructions about what the customer has to do.

Conversion optimization is just as important as SEO. It is how you increase your orders and, therefore, your profits without having to increase your traffic.

#6. Trying to do everything yourself.

It will take a long time. It will cause burnout. It will cause important things to remain undone. If you’re working with a limited budget I understand that you may need to do everything on your own at the start but once you begin making sales you need to leverage your profit for business growth.

You need to learn to outsource. Start with the simple but time-consuming stuff like taking product images off of colored backgrounds or the repetitive parts of your product database build. Taking things like that off your plate will free up time and also help your mental state in that it will allow you to focus on tasks or projects that require your brain and marketing knowledge. Let someone else do the jobs that require only a warm body with eyes and hands, you concentrate on the research heavy, extremely important parts of your business.

#7. Not following up with customers.

I can’t blame folks for this one. It’s simply not talked about much in the traditional worlds of eCommerce. It wasn’t until I started listening to what the experts of Internet Marketing were telling me that I understood exactly how powerful and essential this technique is. 80% of your business will be from 20% of your customers. On average, it takes 7-10 contacts with a customer before they buy from you, or move on.

Think about this logically. The most expensive cost your store will incur is acquiring a new customer. After that, if your customer buys from you again, it costs significantly less than it did the first time. In fact, it’s probably close to zero.

Why? Because you don’t have to spend money to advertise to them – you can follow up with something as simple as an email. Don’t think much of that idea? Loathe the thought of sending a customer any correspondence that asks them for more of their money?

Get over it because this will be an important part of your business. Don’t think that you have to follow up with JUST your customers either… you want to create an opt-in on your site and entice shoppers to subscribe with some sort of free-be or coupon. Once you’ve got their name, you can market to them over and over again.

This works. There are folks out there that make their living only by selling other peoples products to their own mailing list. You don’t need a huge list to make money either. If your newsletter subscribers are highly targeted, there’s a better chance that these folks will be buyers that are interested in your product than a broad and unfocused list’s subscribers would be.

Checklist:

- Research thoroughly but don’t let yourself get mired in it.
- Think boutique when deciding what to sell; don’t try to be all things to all people.
- Know your vendor before basing your business around their products. Ask questions and know their policies.
- Choose a worthy shopping cart platform from the start.
- Conversion optimize your site to make the most of your SEO traffic.
- Outsource any tasks that don’t require YOU, to give yourself more time to focus on building your business.
- Build an opt-in list and market to focused individuals who are already familiar with your site.

Simplfiy, Simplify, Simplify...

For every 10 followers I'll post another one of my TNE eCommerce article that will help you get customers to adore your store. Thank you for following me and for your support. To your store profits, I hope my words serve you well. ~Audrey Kerwood, eCommerce Catalyst


Evaluating Your Business Processes To Save Time, Money, and Effort

We've all heard it before - the simplest solution is usually the best. But what does simple mean when it comes to business? Different situations call for different solutions and what is simple for some might not be for others.

"Business Owner A" might think outsourcing is simple because it frees up their time to work on projects that can’t be outsourced. "Business Owner B" might think outsourcing is more complicated because they need someone with specific knowledge for their projects. It is very dependant on your situation, your available resources, and what your goals are.

So if simplifying could mean anything, then why am I bothering to talk about it? The answer is… simple. When you simplify anything in your life whether it be business, daily chores, or even your wardrobe you become more efficient and start to feel and function better. (Tell me that doesn’t sound like something every business could use!) The best part is that it’s actually pretty easy.

Take it one process at a time and think about what your simplification goal is. By this I mean are you trying to save money, time, or something else? Then break down each step related to that process. Chart it, graph it, mind map it, or write it out in some other way. Being able to visualize your business processes will exponentially help you see what areas can or need to be simplified. When you can actually see the “flow” you can pinpoint the areas where it is restricted.

This is an especially important step if you’ve been in business for a while. Let me expand on that statement; as you build your business you put certain processes in place or go with certain solutions because they make sense at the time. Sometimes (more often than most business owners would care to admit) these quick / easy solutions stay in place long after they should.

There are a lot of reasons for that. You might forget that what you put in place isn’t the best thing. It might have to do with an area of your business that you don’t like dealing with so you keep putting it off. You may not even realize it’s a poor solution because you haven’t looked at the process in reevaluation mode. It happens, we’re all human no matter how great of a businessperson you are.

Every business has flaws and most of the time we business owners don’t realize we can fix them. We’re so preoccupied with new issues or whatever is “at hand” that we don’t think about the practices that are already in place. All too frequently reevaluating something that is working fine (or we think is working fine) isn’t the priority because, well, it’s working fine!

That’s far too easy an excuse that many of us give to ourselves unwittingly. But the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality does not work in business. It’s the lazy way out, and one that costs you in the end.

Let me give you an example that illustrates how powerful the decision to simplify can be. This is something I personally did for my business.

When I first added toll free numbers to the stores, the phones instantly started ringing off the hook. Seriously. During the lead up to the holidays that year several of my employees didn’t even have time to check their email because the phone would ring as soon as they ended the previous call. One of them was having nightmares about answering never-ending shipping questions.

So I outsourced to a call center. They had a large staff that would answer typical questions from a crib sheet I supplied them with. Any questions they couldn’t answer they would forward to us during working hours or put in an email for us after hours. They were a twenty-four hour service and charged a based on volume. It was expensive but it gave time back to my employees that they needed to do actual work. Win / win, right? At the time, yes. I needed a quick fix because we were right in the heat of the holidays.

The phone operators couldn’t answer specific order questions, track packages, or answer difficult product questions. When those types of questions came in – which was pretty frequently – they would take the customer’s information and email it to us and we would answer them as soon as we could. They were mostly there to take phone orders and placate worried customers.

So what did I do after the holidays? Nothing. I just carried on using the service because it had solved my problem. It was over a year later when it occurred to me to examine my customer follow-up process and on site policies to see why people were calling so much. I discovered I hadn’t laid out the policies in a clear enough manner and my customer follow-up included only a thank you and a tracking number. Obviously that wasn’t enough.

So I revamped the entire process making how we operated very clear and giving my customers everything they needed to answer their own questions easily. There are a lot of things one can do that are even easier than making a phone call - I provided those things.

Calls dropped by more than fifty percent. Astounding huh?

So the call center service was canceled and replaced by a single ten dollar per hour employee who knows the business and I can give limited store access to so very few questions have to be forwarded to anyone else. Simple.

That saved me roughly $2000 per month. That’s after I pay my phone operator. And now my customers get accurate, personal service as soon as they call. Along with that this simplification increased my customer retention, which in turn increased repeat orders. My chargeback rate also dropped.

None of this is to say the call center was bad or not doing its job. It was quite a good, reliable company. It just wasn’t the most efficient way of handling calls for my business. Had I not taken the time to evaluate the process I would still be spending more than is necessary and making my customers jump through hoops to get the simple answers they need.

All this from one simple evaluation. Now ask yourself - what can you simplify in your business?

Business Simplification Checklist:

- Decide what you want to accomplish by simplifying.
- Zero in on a few processes that you think you can simplify to achieve your goal.
- Visually break down those processes so you can see where your “flow” is constricted.
- Fix the weak points / constraints.
- Watch and evaluate your changes.
- Repeat the process for your next simplification goal.

Vet Your Vendors

You can have the widest selection of products for your niche. You can trounce your competitors in the search engines. You can have your website set up for optimal conversion and have killer sales copy that gets visitors to buy. You can have an incredible customer service system in place to take care of every question or concern known to online man. But none of it will matter at all if you have a crappy vendor.

You need a reliable company to make your business strong. You don’t want to be scrambling around trying to keep your customers happy while your vendor offers nothing but excuses. A good vendor will take a vested interest in your business and treat you as the important part of their business that you are. You put a lot of time, money, and effort into getting the sales that make your business and theirs successful, that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

And it’s not just getting the sales, it’s also all the time and effort you put into getting a new line of products up for sale in your store. Depending on how you build you could be out days (if not weeks) of work or the cost of the freelancer you paid to do it for you. Either way it is a waste and a hassle you should not have to deal with. Even if you choose your vendor from a place like World Wide Brands who does research before listing them, I still recommend doing some follow up. If you are finding your own vendors you definitely need to be as thorough as possible in your vetting process.

So how can you tell if a vendor is no good? There are a few fairly obvious telltale signs you can look for right off the bat.

If you have to pay to join their dropship / wholesale program you’re dealing with a middleman not the source. This is okay to start with if you really want to sell their products but chances are you could dig a bit deeper and find whom your dropshipper is sourcing from and get a better discount. Often times these middlemen are dropshippers too and are not only marking the products up so they can make a profit but also passing some of their other costs onto you. So for all the time you put into making sales you will be losing what can amount to a lot of potential profit.

Find out if the vendor sells retail to the public and check out their retail website if they do. In a perfect world you want to deal with “wholesale to trade only” vendors but that exists predominantly with bulk wholesale companies. I only have one dropshipper that doesn’t also sell to the public. So you need to take a look at their retail prices and their search engine rankings before adding a single one of their products to your site.

Retail first; their wholesale price might be awesome but if they’re selling the products too cheaply to the public you will have no room to make a profit. I’ve come across a few vendors whose retail prices are less than what they would charge me and they throw a dropship fee on top. Such would be a pointless endeavor. Second, check out their search engine presence. If the margin for mark up is large I don’t worry too much about this because I’ll have funds to put toward advertising and getting links; but if it’s tight and they have a solid presence in the SERPs it is going to be tough competition. This isn’t necessarily a deal breaker but it will take more work to profit from than a vendor you don’t have to fight with for rankings.

Make sure there is no minimum order or that it is one you are prepared to deal with. A twenty-dollar dropship minimum I don’t mind but a two hundred dollar one… not unless the products I’m selling cost as least $201 apiece. I always ask the vendor directly about minimums because on more than one occasion I’ve gotten applications and price lists that contained incorrect information. You don’t want to find out after you get an order that you have to spend that sale’s profit plus some to get the item from your vendor. That has happened to me, it sucked and the vendor was entirely unsympathetic.

Know the vendor’s shipping, return, and exchange policies. You want to ask directly about these as well. If their items take longer to ship than other vendors you use in your store, what’s posted on your website, or what falls into the realm of normal human patience you need to know so you can tell your customers ahead of time. If they allow exchanges and returns - you really want a vendor who does - do they charge a restocking fee? Do they pay for return shipping on damaged items? How long is their return period? If their return policy is fifteen days and you have thirty posted on your website you could be out a lot of money and knee deep in returns you can’t actually return.

Ask about inventory. Ask them if they carry a lot of stock, if they say yes ask them if that means all items or just what they consider to be their most popular products. Ask about a few specific items you are interested in selling, getting a few concrete numbers will help you determine what adequate stock means to them. Find out how long it takes them to restock. A couple weeks is fine but I get edgy when the answer is six weeks or longer. I don’t like doing backorders but sometimes they are necessary just be sure you don’t get caught up with a vendor who you constantly have to backorder from. You will lose business, especially around the holidays, if your products are never in stock.

Choose a product or two, write down some questions about them, and call the vendor’s customer service number. Pretend to be an interested customer. You are going to get questions about the products that you can’t answer and you are going to have to deal with this company when you place orders or have order issues. I like to test their knowledge and the quality of their customer service before I decide to do business with them. Some of you may not like the idea of deceiving a customer service rep but it is harmless to them and important for your business. If they don’t answer their phones or can’t answer a few simple questions about their products I don’t want to deal with them.

Find out how the vendor accepts payment and how they will charge for or bill your orders. I have net thirty accounts, charges that are put through instantly, bulk charges that are done twice a week, vendors that accept only certain types of credit cards, and even one who only accepts PayPal. When it comes to payments you never want to be surprised. You need to make sure you can be compatible with the vendor’s requirements and have the necessary means in place or you could run into problems which could cause you to lose your relationship with that vendor. If they had the best prices or are the only supplier of a certain product this could be very detrimental to your business.

The best test of a new vendor is to actually place an order. Add a product or selection of products to your site – this test is more easily done with an established website that has regular traffic and sales – and promote them. Use your homepage, your blog, paid advertising, etc to get a quick sale. Now you can watch and evaluate your new vendor’s performance without putting in a huge time or monetary investment.

When it comes to your business and reputation, assume nothing. Any question that comes up should be asked. You may have specialized concerns based on your product line, don’t leave the answers to chance. Just as you have to apply to their program make them apply to your business. If you have to spend time worrying about them or dealing with unfavorable terms you’ll be taking away time and effort that should be spent building your business.

Vendor Checklist:

- Should be free to apply and join the dropship program
- Should offer fair retail prices so you can compete
- Watch out for minimum order requirements
- Know their shipping, return, and exchange policies
- Make sure they carry adequate inventory and can restock in a reasonable amount of time
- Test their customer service to make sure they will be there to support you
- Get all the details on how you will pay them and make sure you can do it
- Place a test order with the vendor to see if they practice all they promise

Blog Your Store

Monetize Your eCommerce Blog

Let’s start by saying blogging is imperative. There are many good reasons to blog ; search engine optimization, helping your customers get to know you, explaining more about your products, etc.

Basically - blogging for your eCommerce store expands your audience, your brand, and your personal connection with your customer base – three things that can grow your business exponentially. If you run an online store and still don’t have a blog, what are you waiting for?
Get one going ! Your inner SEO expert and sales person will thank you.

As with newsletters many eCommerce storeowners don’t know what to write about on their blogs. There is a bit of fear for most people when it comes to writing things other than sales copy.

The first thing I suggest to quell this fear is to choose a voice for your blog. By this I mean a storeowner should decide how they feel most comfortable writing. Do you speak as you the storeowner, do you personify your store and speak as the store itself, or do you speak as the company? Decide this based on your personal favorite (whatever feels the most natural) writing style. My rule for writing is if it feels forced as you write, that will come through in the post and end up being even less fun to read than it was to write.

Once you decide on your voice think about what your posts will be about primarily. This isn’t set in stone. If at first you decide to post mostly about products and you find your blog isn’t being received as well as you would like...you can always just start posting about something else!

But it’s a good idea to have an idea of what you’re going for ahead of time so you don’t struggle with every single post. Specific topics will of course vary with different industries but a few basic starter ideas are: products, events, anecdotes, and sales.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what I mean . I'll start with products. When new products are added to the store I do a "product announcement" post that includes pictures, a short feature / benefit statement, and links to the products if there are only a few or to categories if a lot of new items have been added. This is not a "sales" post; it’s just a simple showcase of your new products.

Next year I intend to get a booth at the Renaissance Fair for my medieval tapestries and armory products. I’m going to blog about my preparations, what types of products will be on display, where my booth will be located, and the dates it is all going to happen during the lead up to it. These I consider "event" posts, they are not "sales"posts either (although I’m going to throw in a link to a printable coupon blog readers can bring with them.) Mostly they will include links to my store and relevant links for Fair information.

I currently have a guest blogger writing for me once or twice a month. He writes goofy stories about the origins of the products I have for sale. The idea is to create some fun content that readers will enjoy and pass onto their friends. I also occasionally just write a quick post about what’s going on at what I refer to in the posts as “headquarters”. I consider this type of post anecdotal; in the last one of these I posted some pictures of myself in my pirate Halloween costume. These help give the blog and my store a unique, personal identity that my readers seem to like.

One or more of these three types may not be applicable to your business, they are suggestions based on what gets readers to frequent my blogs. You will probably talk about a variety of things over time, you don’t have limit yourself to your primary posting plan, do what comes naturally. The more you mix it up the better but that’s something you should work into as it can be overwhelming at first.

You must also keep in mind that you want to use your blog for search engine optimization as well as communication and sales. As with sales copy, your blog post SEO should come across as natural speech with keyword rich anchor text leading back to pages in your store.

But my focus with this article is not about search engine rankings, it’s about sales. There are a lot of storeowners out there who are not taking full advantage of their store blogs. Most that I see are blogging for SEO only, basically blogging because they have to. That’s what I used to do when I first started blogging for my stores; it was boring but good for rankings so I did it. My posts were geared for spiders only; I didn’t think any humans would be reading them.

One day I was writing a lame post about a new product line and I decided to toss a discount code in out of curiosity. I put it in the middle of the post so only someone who was actually reading the words would see it. I didn’t think anything would come of it, but I was wrong. The response wasn’t overwhelming but four customers used the code that week. So I posted another code, this time making it more prominent. That one was used twelve times the following week. I was shocked.

I now write every post for humans and spiders alike and have increased sales in my two main stores by roughly ten percent. That’s a huge return for a small time investment. The techniques I use should be applicable to just about any product you can sell online.


Not enough eCommerce storeowners run specials or sales for their blog readers!Most do what I used to do which was blogging with spiders in mind instead of sales. Some run promotions for sales going on in their store but that’s one step short of what I’m talking about here. I would prefer to see them running “blog reader specials”.

“Blog reader specials” (this is my own made up-term) are not advertised in the store, instead they are designed for blog readers only. This may sound silly but singling out a group of people and telling them they get something special because they do something not everyone else does makes them feel, well, special. And what’s better than making a potential customer feel good?
There are a lot of ways to go about this and ,as always, testing is key. Your customers may not respond to the same things my customers do...so experiment to see what gets you the best results. My two main tactics are a simple blog reader discount and a "featured "blog reader special product.

The blog reader discount is just a coupon code good for a percentage off any order. I usually work it in at the end of a post. Something like: "Don’t forget, blog readers get a special 10% storewide discount, any size order, simply enter the coupon code: "armorblog" during checkout to receive your discount. " I also make the coupon code bold to make it stand out and catch the reader’s eye.

Since it’s a blanket discount for anything from the store, I try to make sure customers know it. I’ll usually attach one of these to the end of regular posts; I don’t make special posts just for the open discount. I make it its own paragraph for separation from the body of the post and do not mention any products specifically in the offer text.

I provide no guarantees of specific products being in stock and no delivery information. This is because I want my blog readers to know instantly that the discount is not tied to the products mentioned in the post but to all the products in the store. They may not be interested in the products the rest of the post talks about and I don’t want to lose them because I wasn’t clear enough about the nature of the discount.

I do not add the discount text to the bottom of every post because I don’t want my readers to get used to seeing it and unconsciously tune it out. I add it to every fourth or fifth post so it usually appears on my blog’s home page twice – near the top and bottom, this way I have a couple chances to catch the eye of skimmers and scrollers.

The "product special" is basically the complete opposite of the blanket discount; it is a blog only discount on a single item or product line. If my previous post was related to flintlock pistols my product special would specifically feature one of my bestselling replica flintlocks. The post would describe the product a bit but put equal focus on the blog-only nature of the special. I add a nice big picture of the product, another coupon code, and a link back to the product.


So before I run one of these specials, I check stock with my vendor on the product I intend to promote, you don’t want to go all out on a product you have only a few of. I also make a unique coupon code for the product. For example if I was promoting my English Flintlock pistol I would make the code englishflintblog. I run these once or twice a month. They’re a great way to get product images on your blog, links to product pages on your site, and to run sales based on items of which you have a good amount of stock.

I’ve had success with "theme post" sales as well. These are a lot like the featured product sales but they are a little bit more of a showcase of several similar products or a product line. Depending which store I’m writing for I create coupon codes for those particular items I’m featuring or I go with a code for a storewide discount. My armory readers prefer specific product discounts but my tapestry readers like the storewide better. You’ll need to test what works best for your readers.

I have found that coupon codes with the word blog in them get used more often than regular coupon codes. I think it’s just another affirmation that the blog reader is indeed getting something others are not. I have also found that blog featured products that sell well, also sell well to my newsletter list. So I use my blogs as a gauge on what I should feature in my mailings.

I don’t make all my posts sales offers. I break it up to make sure I have enough information and fun stuff to keep my readers interested and coming back. A pure sales blog doesn’t work for me but it might work well for your store so I suggest testing the ratio of sales to informational posts to see what your readers like the best. You should be able to tell based on your traffic and sales analytics.

I have used some of the successes I’ve had with products on my blogs to expand other areas of my marketing. If a new product or product line is received well on the blog I’ll promote it through some of my social marketing sites like Facebook. I’ve found it helps to have an indicator as to the interest in a product before promoting it socially. That crowd is far more sensitive to advertising and will unfriend, unfollow, or otherwise block you if you send them things in which they have no interest.

I also use my blogs to test new product ideas. By this I mean products I have at my disposal but haven’t added for sale yet. For example, one of my vendors had a new Old West cowboy and Indian wine bottle holder set. I thought it was cool and would be fun to add to the armory but it’s so different from my other products I wasn’t sure.

So I mentioned it as a "coming soon" product on the blog and asked my readers what they thought to see if it would spark any interest. I got a bunch of emails expressing enthusiasm so I added it and wrote a new product announcement post. I sold six the first week.

The blog is an incredibly useful tool that goes unused by many eCommerce storeowners. But its power can be tapped into very easily. Blogging is an integral part of my business that I recommend every storeowner get comfortable with so it can be utilized to its full potential.

eCommerce Blogging Checklist

- If you don’t already have one, get a blog going for your store.
- Find your most natural writing voice,
- Decide what type of posts you want to concentrate on,
- Start working "Blog Only Special" codes into your posts,
- Check stock on some of your popular items.
- Try running a few "Blog Only Featured Product" Sales.
- If you have a popular product line run a few "Theme Blog Only" Sales
- Test your sales to information post ratio to find your readers’ sweet spot.
- Use your blogs to test new product interest and apply that to your other areas of marketing.
- Keep on blogging!

I Adore Your Store - Turn Casual Visitors into Red Hot Buyers

Just because your website is pretty doesn’t mean people are going to buy from you. (In fact, sometimes making a site pretty makes it less likely to sell!)

Each and every element of your store needs to be strategically presented to help your store convert better. Nothing should be there that isn’t necessary and anything that is necessary had better be there. There are a couple different ways to talk about eCommerce conversion: what you need, why you need it, and where you need to put it. The header is a perfect place for many of the elements I’m going to talk about; your nav bar and side banner, if you have one, are also excellent places to look for under-utilized space.

Now you know the "where" of most conversion techniques. Let's get to the how. I’m going to dive right into the key elements I use on my websites to increase conversion.

Contact Methods

We’ll start with the utter basics – contact methods. Customers want to know that you’re available. They want to know that if something goes wrong or if they have a question they can easily get in contact with you or your company. You need to have a "contact us" form and a phone number prominently displayed on your site. You may be thinking, “Duh, of course”, but you wouldn't believe how many sites I still see without them.

Even if you’re just a one-person business, get yourself an 800 number! You’ll be amazed by the effect it will have on your conversion. And when I say "contact us" form I mean use a form not just a linked email address. It looks more professional and gives the customer direction, which benefits both of you.

Right along with this ease of contact idea goes "live chat." Setup is easy and it allows customers who are phone shy to get instant answers to help make their buying decision. I’ve tried several different programs and they were all simple enough for even my not-so-tech-savvy employees to use. There are free solutions out there but I think live chat is an important enough element that it warrants more than a “whatever is cheapest” mindset. It will be money well spent.

Safety Logos

Now let’s talk about safety logos. You need them. People may tune them out because they see them so much, but they notice when they are not there. How prominently you need to display them is based on your customer base. Those who are comfortable shopping online don’t need to see them at the top of every page, but the less computer literate crowd does!

As with all of these elements, testing is the only way to determine what works the best for your site. HackerSafe is probably the most common seal but there are many out there to choose from. Your store or shopping cart provider might have some you can use or they might even have a partnership with one of the major companies to get you a discount. This is an important addition for your site.

Opt-In Forms

You also need to have an opt-in that allows you to follow up with your customers with regular newsletter mailings. Newsletters offer you the ability to actively sell to people who are already familiar with your site and liked it enough to sign up for your list.

Give them good content as well as special deals and they’ll stay on your list and continue to buy from you. A great tactic for getting more subscribers is offering an incentive like a discount - just for signing up. Retaining people whom you can then market to is a great way to increase your overall conversion.

Site Design

That covers the main third party items you need to have, now let’s move onto site design and discuss the elements that are built into your store platform. I feel that in order to have complete control over your site you need to know how it is going to look to everyone. Testing it in other browsers is a smart thing to do. I concentrate on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Browsershots.com offers a great, free way to do this. Sometimes a tiny bit of code can work fine in one browser but not work at all in another, take the time to check it out as it's likely that a simple fix is all that is needed.

Along those same lines, I like using a fixed width for my site. It’s very hard to control your layout when the width of your store varies by the size of your visitor’s browser. To make your site convert to its highest potential you need to be precise with your layout and you just can’t do that effectively with a varying width site.

No matter what page of your site you’re building, you want as much of the information as possible divided into easy to digest, bite-size chunks. Remember - a human’s focal point is pretty small and their attention span rather short so if you want to make the most of the eyes that hit your page you need to cater to them. Segment and categorize everything on your site. You want a quick glance to be enough to let someone know what he or she is looking at, they can then decide if it’s something they want to dig further into. You want your visitors to have to work as little as possible to find what they’re interested in.

Use more pictures and less text – in other words, show don’t tell. Make it visually clear what your store sells by using product images on the homepage. Feature your most popular or bestselling items. Put up pictures of your most visually interesting or unique products to make your site stand out. Use images that include people’s faces to draw attention to them. People like looking at people, I use images like this to make my live chat and money back guarantee pop out; it works.

Using in-context images mixed in with your regular product images is a great way to make your site more unique and stand out from the competition. These images allow you to create a visual representation of the ownership experience. These work very well for me; I have a large one on the homepage of the tapestry store and one on each of the main category pages. Seeing how the products will look in context of their 'natural setting' can help customers visualize and get more excited about purchasing. The easier you make it for them, the more you will sell. You can ask your dropshipper or manufacturer if they have any images or create them yourself by taking photos and using an image editor like PhotoShop.

USPs! What's your unique selling proposition? What makes you different? Why should a customer buy from you rather than your competition?

These are your unique selling propositions. If you offer free shipping - you need to make it known. If you offer a price match guarantee you need to flaunt it. A nice little graphic in your header or side banner is a good way to get it across. There is always someone else selling the same thing you are and there comes a point when lowering your price either isn’t possible or isn’t your best option. Come up with reasons that make buying from you a safer bet or a better experience then lay out those reasons for all your customers to see.

Back to categorization; one of the biggest problems I see on eCommerce sites is the nav bar. I see so many that are just one long list of category links with no breaks. This is very hard on your customer’s eyes and many will glance at the top few and the bottom few only and never see what you’ve listed in the middle. Only the determined few will hunt through every link to see if you have what they want. You need to create sections within your nav bar to break up the links so your visitors can easily see all you have to offer.

Most store platforms have "automatic category navigation" by default ...and most ecCommerce store owners don’t know how to change it. It’s actually pretty easy and I’m going to tell you how. So now you have no excuse, my friends.

Go to your site on the web, view your page source, and copy the code for your nav. It should be pretty easy to find, just look for your category names. Then in your backend find your "nav template" – if you don’t already know what it is start with your main template and follow the calls back to the category template.

When you find it, replace the category loop code with the code you copied from your site. Publish and you now have a static nav. All changes to it will have to be done by hand but I think that’s a fair trade for complete control. Now you can go back in and group your categories together and break the column with section headings.

Now let’s talk about product pages for a bit. The two most important elements on a product page are the product image and the "Add to Cart" button. Both should be above the fold and large enough to catch the customer’s eye. You can use a “Click to Enlarge” image but the image on the page shouldn’t be so small that a customer is forced to click it. Again, people like pictures and don’t like having to click more than is necessary. What you ultimately want is for your customers to get to your product page, see the big image then see the "Add to Cart" button...and click it!

I like to keep my product descriptions as simple as possible while still including all the pertinent information. Don’t write more than you need to and use bullet points and multiple short paragraphs to group the info across in easy to read chunks. Use feature / benefit statements to impart relevance and ownership experience to readers. With a little practice you’ll get good at writing succinctly about your products.

You should also always cross-sell and offer option upgrades on your product pages to try to get more out of each conversion. A lot of eCommerce platforms do cross-selling in the shopping cart which is fine but I like to list recommended / related products on my product pages as well. Depending on your platform this is something you might need to think outside the box about or hire an outside programmer to create. But it’s a great way to get more of your products seen and it adds a nice, professional element to your product pages many of your competitors won’t have.

Option upgrades are similar to cross-sells but are listed right before your "Add to Cart" button. The best way to describe them is through example, so here we go: Say you are selling a flashlight. Your product option upgrades are batteries and/or a belt holster. Instead of offering these extra products as on page or in cart cross-sells, you can create a product option that includes them with the flashlight so all the customer has to do is select from a dropdown box.

It’s easy; the customer doesn’t have to even look around the page for the upgrades! You can even go one step further and discount those add on items to entice the customer into placing a bigger order.

Lastly, let's talk about checkout. No matter what, it has to be smooth. One page is best but multiple pages work fine when you make all the instructions crystal clear. Each of your checkout pages should include a step number, name, and brief instructions where necessary.

For instance, at the top of the first page of my checkout process might be: Step 1 "Shipping and Billing Information – Enter your shipping and billing address and payment information below then press continue." Doing that makes the page look more organized and gives clear instructions about what the customer has to do.

Keep in mind that these are all general eCommerce tactics and your customers are ultimately going to be the ones who let you know what works for your site. Make sure you have analytics set up and remember to test everything; it’s the only way to know if you’re making the most out of your store.

Checklist:
- Feature your phone number and a contact form prominently on your site.
- Sign up for a live chat service, a newsletter service, and get a security seal for your store.
- Create graphics that advertise your unique selling propositions. This makes it clear to customers why it’s better to buy from you.
- Use a fixed width for your website and test any changes you make in various browsers to make sure your code is being translated properly.
- Divide your images and text into small chunks and/or bullet points to make them easy to take in with a glance.
- Use text sparingly, the more pictures the better.
- Use in-context images to show your products in their everyday setting.
- Create a static nav that you can break up into sections.
- Center your product pages around your main product image and the "Add to Cart "button.
- Keep your product descriptions simple and use feature / benefit statements wherever possible.
- Use cross-selling and product option upgrades to get more out of each sale.
- Use headings and instructions on your checkout pages to help customers get through the checkout process smoothly.

Make More Money by Selling it Cheap or Giving It Away

Each one of us - no matter what we sell - needs a cash injection sometimes.

I have needed quick cash myself. So I had to get inventive. As an eCommerce store owner, it took some brainstorming and a lot of testing to figure out how to make quick cash and how to make more money in general. Other than running sales on popular items...I was at a complete loss!

Sure, sales usually made me money. But they are far from being the only way a store owner can grab a lot of sales in a short amount of time. So I asked myself, “What else can I do?” Turns out there are a lot of ways to grab anything from a little extra profit per product to moving mass quantities of product in a short amount of time.

Expand marketing sales beyond the store. I’m not talking about just posting on your blog and sending out newsletters about sales you’re running. I’m talking about tapping into your social networks. You should already have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, etc. They are good for a lot of relevant traffic if you build your network right. Set up your page / product / offer for optimum conversion and invite your friends and fans to just "have a look." This can result in a flood of traffic and sales.

Now I know that’s more traffic than sales-related but social networking is something a lot of eCommerce store owners overlook or don’t take seriously. But you should. They offer a way to expand and connect your customer base in a highly effective and personal way.

Extra Products? Extra Opportunity!

Now we’ll move onto sales tactics. Talk to your vendors; let them know you are trying to expand both your business and theirs. Ask if they have overstock or leftover or discontinued items hanging around that they’re having trouble moving or that they would like to move faster. See if you can get a larger discount on these items so you can then run a super discount sale offering these products at a much lower cost. This is easier done if you have a track record and relationship with your vendor...but it’s worth a shot either way.

Along the same lines, if you have a product that sells regularly and some cash lying around, bite the bullet and place a wholesale order. 

As long as you can handle the shipping this is a great way to cut product cost so you can run a mega offer to get people into your store and buying. Keep in mind the main goal isn’t necessarily only to sell a lot of just one item. You get people in the proverbial door with the cheap product so they can see all the other wondrous things you sell and hopefully walk out the door with a couple items.

Sometimes customers don’t follow the proper return procedure and products come back to me rather than going back to my dropshipper’s warehouse. If the item is expensive I ship it back to the dropshipper for a refund and charge the customer the extra shipping. But before I send it back I take pictures of it to put in place of the image I was given by my vendor.

I like to take one that I can easily remove the background on, usually by placing it in front of a white sheet or drape, and I also take a few in-context pictures so my customers can see the product in action as it were. This is a great way to get professional looking pictures of your products without having to invest in stock to do so. This is also a perfect time to do video of your product. Just be sure it gets back to the vendor before their return period is over and in the same condition as when you received it. You don’t want to be stuck with an item you hadn’t intended to keep.

But, if it is a relatively inexpensive item or a product that sells on a regular basis I just hang onto it. (I charge a 25% restocking fee so I make some of my cost back.) Then I just simply wait until I get another order for that item and ship it myself. In the long run I make more off that product by 25%. This is a small strategy as the scenario doesn’t happen that often, but it’s a good way to squeeze out a bit more profit when circumstances allow it.

Give It Away, Now

Now let’s talk about giveaways. Giveaway doesn’t always mean a contest (although you can run them, too!)! Giveaways can also be freebies that you give away with every order or orders that meet certain criteria. They could be anything from product accessories (like tapestry rods) to tee shirts with your company logo on it. They are a great way to promote the “added value” of shopping at your store and in that way get more orders. They are also a great way to achieve a larger average order if you place a dollar amount threshold on them - Free Tapestry Rod with Orders Over $200. People will spend more to get the free item.

You can also wholesale order small items to do this. If you have a good relationship with your vendor they may even hold onto the products and ship them with your regular dropship orders. I can wholesale order say 100 sets of sword hangers and then offer them as freebies along with certain swords on my site. When I get an order for one of those swords I send it to my dropshipper same as normal and include a note to add one of the “pre-paid” sword hanger sets to the package and the customer gets what they were promised and I save a little extra on my value-added item, the sword hangers.

The same tactic can be employed using regular store items too if you’re not into the wholesale thing. Do you have a few items that only cost you a couple bucks? Give them away for free, with related products. Do you have big-ticket items you can stand to spare a little profit on per sale? Give away a less expensive item as an added bonus. Lose a little profit on each individual sale but make it up - and then some - by moving higher quantities.

Make sure you tell people about your offer as well. Yes it’s good and helpful to talk about the free offer on the product page where you get it but you’re relying on the customer to find that product page before they could ever know there was an offer to begin with!

Promote, promote, promote!

You’re trying to draw people to your free offer not just surprise those who stumble across it. Think of it in terms of a brick and mortar store. If you run a sale you would at the very least put a sign outside your shop to bring in passersby who might not otherwise be inclined to come in. If you didn’t put out the sign, only those who were coming to your shop anyway would know about it. Sure you’ll make a little more money from those visitors but you’d be doing absolutely nothing to encourage new shoppers, which is a large part of expanding your business!

Do you have a product or product line at your disposal that you haven’t added to your site yet? Try a product launch to get sales the very same day you add it to your site. You might want to let your vendor know you’re planning to do this and find out the stock situation. I would try and get an estimate of how many are expected to be in stock on your chosen launch day. The closer you work with your vendors, the more they will do for you.

Start talking about the "coming soon" products in your newsletters, on your blog, through your social networking outlets, and in any other medium you use to talk about your store or to your customers. Put a nicely designed ad about it on your home page so visitors will have an image to think on while they’re anticipating the launch and deciding if they are going to buy. Humans are very visual, so give them a juicy image of your product to remember and you’ll have an easier time keeping their attention and interest as you lead up to launch day.

You can take this idea a step further and offer a launch-day-only discount to encourage people to visit on that day and foster excitement about the products. Make sure people know the sale date and talk your products up. Explain all the features and benefits, describe the ownership experience, and show them pictures. The more excited you come across about your products the more people will respond to your marketing. They will relay the message to their friends and come launch day you will have people visiting your site with their minds already made up to purchase.

"Super limited time!" sales work in a similar way except instead of focusing on the newness of a product or product line you focus on the limited time discount you’re offering on an item you already carry. What I consider limited time is a one to three days. I make the discount as high as I can while still comfortably profiting and run the sale, depending on stock quantity, as a 24-hour sale or a weekend blowout sort of thing. For major holidays I run storewide super limited time sales, the rest of the year I discount only vendor overstock and popular products. You can usually make the discount higher with single item discounts than blanket storewide coupons, which is why I focus on those during periods of regular commerce. You market this the exact same way you would a product launch.

Another type of limited time sale I like to run is an ongoing featured "product of the week." I worked out a deal with a few of my vendors where I get four products a month at a larger discount than my normal dropship price. I discount these products higher than I normally could and feature one each week on my homepage. I put in product requests each month and my vendors let me know the stock on each so I can decide what will be featured. Once that is decided I let them know and the higher discount goes into effect on my chosen items.

As with all of these tactics, you can run a limited time sale without an extra discount from your supplier. Just make sure you choose products with a high enough profit margin so you can make the discount large and check stock with your vendor before you run the sale. These sales are great not only because they bring business to your store, they also entice customers to come back regularly to see what you have on sale.

Finally, focus on content. You probably have a lot of it floating around in different areas of cyberspace. Articles, blog posts, newsletters, stuff on sites like HubPages and Squidoo. This is all good, useful content that is largely related to your products. It’s definitely doing you good outside your store and it can also be helpful as part of your store. By this I mean it can be something you give away to your customers.

Say for example I have a bunch of articles, posts, and newsletters related to tapestries and interior design. I could put these together in a PDF and give it away as an added bonus for orders or use it as a giveaway to get more opt in subscribers. It’s a relatively easy way to add a little more obvious value to your customer buying from you, rather than your competitors.
When it comes to squeezing a bit more profit out of your goods or getting more people through your front door - the key is creativity. Running a sale is a great start but you have to think more broadly to get the most out of it. The more reasons you can offer customers to buy from you, the higher your chance of getting that sale over your competitors.

Checklist
- Tap into your social networks for marketing.
- Use vendor overstock and discontinued items to run super discount sales.
- Bulk order regular sellers to cut product costs.
- Take pictures and video of returns to spruce up those pages on your site.
- Keep inexpensive returns and resell them to make a little extra profit.
- Offer a giveaway with your orders to Add Value to your store.
- Do a product launch for new items and discount them on launch day to get a sales boost.
- Run super limited time sales to move more product.
- Run regular limited time sales to provide everyday discounts and reasons for customers to keep coming back to your store.
- Pull your store related content together into a pdf and give it away with all orders.