1 Turn part of your web site into a
Members Only
web site. Instead of charging for
access, use it as
a free bonus for one of your products.
If you want to
charge access, give them a little free
information and
include links on your web site that
take them to
an order page to get the rest of the
information.
2 Add a free classified ad section to
your web site.
You could then trade banner ads with
other web
sites that have free classified ad
sections. You could
also send a ‘thank you’ e-mail to
people who submit
their classified ad to your web site.
Just include a brief
ad or signature file about the product
you're selling.
3 Let your past offline customers know
about your
web site. When they visit and sign up
to your e-zine,
it will remind them to shop at your
online store in the
future too. Some day you may not need
that expensive
offline store. Your web site might
create most of your
profits for you.
4 Publish your e-zine only on your web
site. Have
people subscribe to a "new
issue" e-mail reminder.
This could really increase your
traffic and sales. Of
course, you could also send your
e-zine in HTML
format but some people don't like it
or can't read it.
You could show pictures of your
products in
your e-zine.
5 Take on as many of your business'
chores as you
can handle; outsource what you can't.
Only you can
determine how your business operates.
You don't
want too many people making all your
decisions, but
you don't want to take on so much
responsibility
that you become a workaholic.
6 Give people free bonuses when they
order your
product or service. The free bonuses
could be books,
jewelry, reports, newsletters, etc.
Make their bonuses
sound extra valuable by listing their
retail value, either
separately or together in one amount,
or limiting how
long you will offer the bonuses.
7 Offer a free e-book that's published
right on your
web site. People would have to stay at
your web site
to read it. You could have an ad above
or below the
content on the title page and every
other page for the
main product or service you sell. Even
allow other
web sites to link to your free e-book
to increase your
traffic.
8 Create a free e-zine directory.
You'll attract a lot
of traffic from e-zine publishers and
people who want
to subscribe to the e-zines. Your
listings could include
name, subscription instructions,
publisher’s name, etc.
Of course you could put your own
e-zine listing at the
top of your directory to get extra
exposure.
9 When you offer a freebie from your
site, submit
it to freebie sites. They provide
target categories
which mean targeted traffic. So if
you're submitting
software, you could submit it to the
"free software"
section. Just remember, some freebie
sites want you
to link to their web site before they
will list your
freebie submission.
10 Sell advertising space in your
product package.
You could sell inserts, flyers,
brochures, booklets,
and digital ads for electronic
products. For example,
if you sell an e-book, you could sell
advertising
space above each page, beginning of
each chapter
or on the title page.
11 Challenge your visitors to buy your
product or
service. People love a good challenge.
Tell them
if they can find a flaw, you'll give
them a refund.
You could also dare them to buy your
product.
A dare also gives them a challenge.
For example,
you could say, "I dare you to try
out our product
for a week. I doubt you will ever
return it for a
refund."
12 Create joint venture deals with
other businesses.
You can expand your product line and
target other
profitable markets at a lower cost.
The joint venture
deals could be trading advertising,
barter products
or services, joining an affiliate
program, swapping
business strategies, etc.
13 Make commissions without joining an
affiliate
program. Just propose a joint venture
offer to web
sites that don't have affiliate
programs. You could
go to any search engine and find a
compatible
business without an affiliate program.
Once you find
one, buy the product. If you like it
enough, ask the
business owner if you can sell it for
commission.
14 Multiply your marketing and
advertising efforts
on the Internet. You can accomplish
this by starting
an affiliate program, using viral
marketing or both.
For example, you could start an
affiliate program
and give your affiliates customized
e-books with their
own affiliate links to give away.
15 Find out who are your strongest
leads for buying
your product by offering a free
e-zine. The visitors
who are very interested will subscribe
to it. Once
they have subscribed, you can sell
them related
products again and again. Just make
sure your
e-zine has enough original content to
keep them
interested.
16 People love to get free things. A
free e-book is
perfect. They will visit your web site
to get the
free valuable information. You could
also start your
own free e-book directory and allow
other authors
to submit their e-books. You could be
offering hundreds
of free e-books in no time!
17 Keep your loyal customers happy
because they
are your future profits. Give them
discounts and
free gifts as often as possible. If
you are thoughtful
and loyal to your customers, most of
them will be
your customers forever. They will make
up about 80%
of your business and profits.
18 Have some T-shirts made with your
web site
address and other business
information. Your family
or friends could wear them almost
anywhere. Your
online business could get a lot of
exposure if one
of your family members or friends
wears your T-shirt
to a crowded sports event or amusement
park.
19 Make it easy for your affiliates to
make sales. Give
them proven ads to use, make it easy
for prospects
to order and provide helpful affiliate
statistics. Affiliates
want high or fair commissions,
notification of sales,
lifetime income, residual income, a
good tracking
system and professional training.
20 Persuade e-zine publishers or
webmasters to run
your ad for free. Just allow them to
join your affiliate
program and earn commission on the
sales. You
could also offer them a freebie, such
as the product
you’re selling for free, an
advertisement in your
e-zine in return, etc. It also helps
to compliment the
publishers as well as praising their
e-zines.
21 Team up with your competition by
starting an
association for your specific
industry. It could lead
to a profitable partnership with them.
You could
give all the members graphic links to
place on their
home pages. This would increase your
membership
and business exposure.
22 Publish an e-zine for your
employees. This could
motivate them to do a better job or
keep them advised
on where your business is headed. For
example, you
could include articles about friendly
customer service,
being more productive, getting along
with other
employees, employee profiles, etc.
23 Search for your business' name in
newsgroups
and discussion boards. Some of the
comments you
find could help you improve your
business. For
example, you could find someone
complaining about
your customer service, an employee,
your web site
design, product, etc. Then you'll know
what to
improve.
24 Provide your visitors with free
content. Your
content will be more attractive to
your visitors if
it's up-to-date or original. You could
also offer
people the option to reprint the
content in their
e-zine or web site. If your content is
super original,
you could use something like
"Never Seen Before"
in your titles.
25 Offer a free online directory. The
directory
could be full of interesting e-books,
e-zines, web
sites, etc. If people find your
directory to be a
valuable resource, they will visit it
over and over
again. You could also put your whole
directory into
e-book format and allow people to give
it away.
26 Have some business cards printed up
with your
web site address and other business
information.
Pass them out to people you meet or
who might be
interested in your business. You could
also turn your
business card into bookmarks and
donate them
to a local library to give away to
people who check out
books.
27 Use free advertising as much as
possible. Test a
wide variety of free advertising
options like banner
and link exchanges, classifieds,
newsgroups, ad swaps,
joint venturing, viral marketing, web
rings, message
boards, trading content, etc. Don't be
afraid to try
something new.
28 Build credibility for your business
by publishing
an e-zine and writing articles. Your
customers and
prospects will see you as an expert
and trust you.
You could also submit your articles to
other e-zines
for republishing and publicity. Just
require them to
include your resource box at the end
of the article.
29 Answer all your e-mail messages as
quickly as
possible. Nothing will lose a sale
quicker than not
responding to a prospect in time. If
you don't, it could
anger your customers and they could
ask for a refund.
You may lose a sale because they want
you to
answer a question before they order.
30 Hold free online classes or
seminars. They
could be held in your web site's chat
room. The
idea of "live" information
will definitely entice
people to visit your web site. You
will become
known as an expert on the topic. You
could hold
them weekly or monthly to get people
to revisit
your web site again and again.
31 Stay in contact with customers on a
regular basis.
Offer them a free e-zine subscription.
Ask customers
if they want to be updated by e-mail
when you make
changes to your web site. After every
sale, follow up
with the customer to see if they are satisfied.
