You have a web site or you wouldn't be reading
this. Er...right? Maybe not!
I really must stop making assumptions. If you
don't have a web site, that's OK, too. Here at Neodemesne
we have a ton of resources
available to help you keep your Real Estate related
business on a fast track. And right up there among
those are our recommendations for various web
design options to help you create an Internet
presence for your business quickly.
Whatever the case may be...keep reading! Regardless
of whether you are in the business of selling houses,
financial services, leads, investment opportunities,
course materials or, even, non real estate related
widgets, for that matter, this article is intended
to provide you with a wealth of tools that will
help you build a site that sells.
But, let us make one thing clear at the out set.
We don't have any magic bullets here. As with anything
worth doing, there is effort required. However,
the folks here at Neodemesne are doing the very best
to straighten the learning curve by using all of
our resources to scour the Internet in order
to provide you with the very best tools and
resources of the trade. Right at the top of the list,
Make
Your Site Sell! 2002, is highly acclaimed as "the
bible of selling on the Net."
Whoa! Let's back up a paragraph. I touched on
the possibility that your business isn't Real Estate
related. But, perhaps you are not an established widget
sales person, either. Perhaps you came to Neodemesne
as a home seller, buyer or investor (or other) and
the "Does Your Site Sell
" link caught your attention because you
are intrigued by the notion of creating an online
business, but haven't determined exactly what your
niche will be or how to go about taking the first
step. Please allow me to give you a nudge in the right
direction. Go
right now and find the type of business
that best describes what it is that you do (or want
to do).
*Neodemesne
Tip for Success #1 - Take action! There are
many roads to success, but none can be
traveled without taking that first fateful
step.*
Web sites typically come in three flavors: Informational,
Service-driven or Product-driven.
In a nut shell:
-
Informational web sites are, well, informative,
centered on a main theme and provide relevant
content on the central focus and related topics.
-
Service-driven web sites, as the name implies,
promote of-value services, in any number of fields.
-
Product-driven web sites, of course, exist
to sell some sort of tangible merchandise. An
Internet store, as it were.
If you feel you would really like to become
involved in e-commerce, but just aren't sure where
you would fit in, the best thing to try and determine
is: What makes me happy? What do I enjoy doing? What
interests me? What am I knowledgeable about? What
do I have a passion for?
Next, start thinking about all the different elements
that comprise those things that you enjoy and the
various methods you may employ to market items, ideas
or services that are close to your own heart.
*Neodemesne
Tip for Success #2 - By developing a business
around something that is important or pleasurable
to you, you will be naturally inclined to
commit yourself to it wholeheartedly.*
While the first two web site types require a certain
amount of expertise, and are therefore more specialized,
the product-driven web site provides for the most
flexibility, generally speaking.
Now, I know what you're thinking. (Well, actually
I have no idea what you're thinking, but it makes
a nice segue line.) Perhaps, you are thinking
"I don't really fit into the information or service
theme types and I don't have an inventory of products
in a store, basement or garage, so as much as I would
like to sell something, I can't." However, there
are options for you.
First, lets take a closer look at the premise
"I don't really fit into the information or service
theme...". While it is fairly easy to eliminate
"service" web site from the possibilities
list - either you are a service provider or you're
not - the "information" theme deserves a
closer look. Before passing this one by, examine your
own background and interests. Chances are you will
discover that you possess a wealth of valuable knowledge
that can become the focal point of your very own Information
based web presence. And you don't have to go it alone.
Once again, Neodemesne is here to point you down the
road to success by directing you to a powerful tool
that will help you turn your knowledge into revenue.
With "Make
Your Knowledge Sell!" you will discover how
to create, produce and sell your own Info Product.
We don't want those of you who are service
providers to feel left out of this discussion and
there is no need to be because we have found great
resources for you, too! You can be the very best in
your chosen field, but it does you little good if
no one knows about you. Now, there is no reason why
they shouldn't. Like the Information and Product driven
businesses, your service based business can benefit
every bit as much from an Internet presence and to
guide you through the process of getting established
we are pleased to be able to direct you to this FREE
E- Book ==> "The
Service Sellers Masters Course" . Be sure
to browse the entire list of Free E-Books while your
are there and take full advantage of these poweful
resources while they are still available.
With regards to the Products web site theme, don't
let the lack of a physical inventory of merchandise
stand in the way of your success. Instead, consider
setting up a drop-ship arrangement, where you are
not required to have a preexisting inventory in order
to be able to participate in an e-commerce store.
You choose whatever product line is most suitable
to you, or that you feel would be the most profitable
and find a drop-ship company that offers that which
you seek to sell. You do have to be careful when selecting
drop-shippers. Not all of these companies are capable
of providing the services which they are touting.
The key to avoiding these traps is having the right
information available to you.
One worthwhile and valuable source of information
that we have found is World
Wide Brands, Inc., the publishers of The
Drop Ship Source Directory. Also available, as
a free download, is the popular e-book "Starting
and Running Your Internet Business RIGHT!" by
Chris Malta.
The Market Research Wizard
The FREE
Trial Version of The Market Research Wizard from
World Wide Brands, Inc. is now available. The Market
Research Wizard does in minutes what it used to take
hours, or even days, to do. It's a computer program
in which you can type a couple of words describing
the product you want to sell, and less than a minute
later, gives you an actual Analysis (from 0% to 100%)
of that product's chances of success on the Internet.
That's not all, either. It not only tells you how
much Demand there is for the product you want to sell;
it tells you what key words you should use to market
that product if you decide to do so. It not only tells
you how much Competition you have; it tells you where
your Competition is, so you can decide if the product
is better marketed in an Internet Store, or an Auction.
It not only tells you who your competing Advertisers
are, it gives you clickable links to their ads, so
you can study and out-Advertise the other guys. It
also allows you to export all your instantly generated
research information to any Spreadsheet program, print
your research, recall all your past research on any
product, and more. All in just minutes. Download
It Here!
The Light Bulk Wholesale Directory
The Light
Bulk Wholesale Directory contains ONLY Wholesale
Suppliers who are both willing to work with eBay and
other Internet Seller, AND do not require any more
than a $500 minimum order for genuine bulk wholesale
pricing. That's why it's called the "Light" Bulk Wholesale
Directory...low minimums. World Wide Brands has personally
contacted every Wholesaler listed in this Directory
to verify these things, and to be sure that they are
a genuine Wholesaler; no middlemen! The Wholesale
Suppliers in this new Directory are all PRE-QUALIFIED
to be able to provide exactly what eBay Sellers need!
Learn
more now!
Looking for more ideas? We have them, at Neodemesne,
lots of them. Check back often because we're adding
new resources daily. We recently found this for you
and its a winner. Described as "The Perfect Entry
Into E-commerce", the Net auction business is
an easy, low-cost, no-risk entry into e-commerce.
And everything you need to know is now available as
a FREE download! Get your copy now! ==> "Make
Your Net Auction Sell!, The Masters Course."
Once you have your web
site up and running (hosted),
you will need to start generating some traffic to
your site. One of the initial steps to take is to
submit your web site to the major search engines so
that they will know that they should find you and
crawl your site for indexing in their databases. Search
Engine Optimization (SEO), the maximizing of your
web site content for the best possible page rank positioning,
is a full-blown topic in itself and is beyond the
scope of this article, at present. (However, bookmark
this page, (Ctrl + D) because
it is intended to be an ongoing work in progress and
will provide enlightening information on SEO
and other fascinating subjects as its scope is expanded.)
There are a number of ways to accomplish search engine
submissions. You could manually seek out
each search engine and submit at their respective
sites. If you want to save some time and get a jump
start on the process sign
up for the Submit Express Monthly Newsletter.
Not only do they provide a free submission
service, but, also, their newsletter
is chock-full of search engine placement and web site
promotion tips and tricks. While we are on the subject
of newsletters, no article worth its salt would be
complete without mentioning one of my personal favorites,
Web
Commerce Today. Be sure to make this excellent
newsletter
and information service your one-stop shop for
up-to-date information about e-commerce.
Before I drift away from the subject of search engine
submissions I would like to mention that, as with
most things in life, moderation is the key. Submission
to the major search engines and directories is a good
thing. Repeated submissions to the same search engines
within a short time frame is not a good thing.
The search engines look at such practice as spamming...and
no one likes that. In fact, there are a lot
of things that search engines don't like, and different
search engines don't like different things; too many
keywords in the meta tags, too few keywords in the
meta tags, irrelevant keywords that have nothing whatsoever
to do with the content of the site, hidden text (text
written with a font color matching the page color,
in an attempt to fool the search
engines into thinking your site is about something
that it is not.. Oops! How did the editor miss
that big gap back there? Nope. That's no gap, that's
hidden text (I hope the SEs don't penalize me!), but
I had to demonstrate...not that I think I fooled you,
anymore than the SEs are fooled. Remember, they may
be mindless robots, but they are programs written
by wary propellor heads and pretty much are hip to
all the tricks. For the one or two of you out
there that may still wonder what that gap is
all about (you know who you are) just (Ctrl
+ A) or select the text area. Ah. Hidden text.
Well, there is a bit of search engine stuff I was
saving for when I was really going to write about
it.
One last note about keywords bears mentioning:
There are various software programs and online utilities
available to assist with the task of choosing the
keywords that are right for your site. One of the
best that we have found is Wordtracker.
They have a very cool free
trial available. Give it a whirl.
Oh, what the heck, I might as well mention links,
while I am on a roll. I may end up saying it again,
further down the page, but that's OK, it bears repeating...Content
is King and relevant content Reigns Supreme.
One of the many elements that search engines use in
their mysterious process of indexing pages is 'link
popularity'...those links out there in the ethers
of the Internet pointing straight to your web site.
Once upon a time....they lived happily ever after.
(The world's shortest fairy tale...er...sorry about
that.) Once upon a time the quantity of links was
enough to make a difference in ratings. To think that
still holds true really is a fairy tale. Search
engines are rating link popularity by looking at both
the quantity and relevance of links.
All those Free-For-All link pages and link farms out
there....forget about them, stay away from them. Having
a lot of links from places that have nothing to do
with the theme of your site is poison. On the
other hand, having a meaningful directory of Useful
or Resource
Links leading to relevant content not only
provides added value for your visitors, who will love
you and come back to visit you...but also a basis
for establishing a viable Link
Exchange program with which to swap links with
content related sites which will provide legitimate
links pointing back to you, bringing you targeted
traffic (people who really do have an interest in
your content) and building your credibility with the
search engines. (Any Grammar teachers out here? Was
that last sentence too long?) Whew! Did I say I wasn't
writing about SEO, yet? Time to gracefully exit the
topic for a while with a.....
~ Neodemesne Moment of Reflection
~
Nobody
likes spam.
I know that's true.
Yet, day after day I am forced to delete
page after page of unwanted, unasked for,
useless garbage trying to sell me things I
don't need or want...things that would make me
blush if I had to ask for it (which I don't), trying
to
direct me to the seediest side of the Internet, popping
up
in my face (and in our children's faces) the most
vile and immoral
content anyone could imagine.
And yet, nobody likes spam...so who are these idiots
that keep generating it?
If I am wrong...if the number of people in the country
or the world who respond
positively to this onslaught, this insult to decency,
intelligence and morality is enough
to actually make it profitable for the spammers to
continue their loathsome activities, then
all I can say, all I can pray is...Lord, help us all.
I feel strongly enough about this
subject to say...if any of my readers are among the
creatures who are practitioners of spam tactics...please
go elsewhere...come back if, and when, you have changed
your ways. I may be at risk of losing lots of visitors,
but I don't think so. I think a small percentage of
the Internet community is responsible for the vast
amount of garbage that is being generated. I will
come back to the topic at some other time with useful
ways to help combat spam. I would also encourage my
readers to start a related topic on the Neodemesne
forum if I don't get around to it first.
Check back for the next thought provoking
and action packed installment of.... (here comes a
link, because part of 'making your site sell' (remember
our main theme?) is to provide interesting, useful,
relevant content while marketing your products
or services).... Make
Your Site Sell.
*** And now for a word from our
Sponsors ***
Does
YOUR Site SELL?
If you've been searching for information
about how to sell products or
services online, then you've
probably come across Corey Rudl's name
at least a few times. And, if you're like
me, you've probably wondered what the
story is behind his best-selling marketing
course.
