Site was slow/not working properly/not loading

This is actually one of the most common reasons as to why people abandon a website and move onto the next one. Having a site that is loading slowly, or is giving database errors all the time, or using a payment processor that’s giving customers trouble when checking out are all reasons as to why some leave a site without buying anything. Obviously, there are ways to prevent this from happening. Use a reliable hosting solution and an appropriate hosting type for your website. If you get thousands of visitors to your site a day, using a shared hosting account may not be the best. Make sure that all elements of your website work and use diagnostic tools that scour your website to make sure everything is in order.

Deceptive advertising/unclear promotion terms

When you advertise something that’s on your site, try to make the advertisement as clear as possible to prevent confusion. For example, putting “50% Off” prominently in an add and then omitting the fact that it’s only for orders of $200 or more is likely to make some visitors turn away, feeling that you lied to them. All this does is wasting bandwidth as many of these people who clicked on your ad would not have seen your site otherwise if they knew the promotion was only for orders of “$200 or more”. So make sure that your ads don’t mislead people into visiting your site. Doing so only generates bad traffic anyways.

Prices too high

This is a popular reason given by people especially those who are more conscious of their shopping budgets. To prevent this from happening, there are some simple steps that you can take. Look around the web and check out your competitors websites. See what products they have and what their prices are. This is a tactic used by many retail establishments as well as online commerce sites as well. If you see that a competitor offers better value, see if there’s something that you can do to beat what they’re offering.

Unclear product descriptions

If you’re selling physical items such as clothes, make sure you include high resolution, detailed pictures on your site. Also, for any product you sell, give all the details that are relevant, like sizes, technical specifications, uses and advantages of the product, etc. Visitors are more likely to buy a product if they have some information about it.

Why People Leave Sites Without Buying is a post from: Websites For Sale

Twitter is unique in the social media world in the way that it is different from other sites such as Facebook, Google+ and MySpace operate. Twitter is known as a microblogging service where users can post short messages, called Tweets, which are up to 140 characters onto their profiles. They can also share pictures and include a short description, location as well as a website URL on their Twitter profile.

These attributes make it an interesting service to use as part of the overall social media marketing strategy for your business, whether you run an online business or a physical one. As you may have already noticed, the best use of Twitter is to give your audience quick descriptions of new things about your business. These “new things” could actually be quite diverse. For example, a new product or service you are offering, new promotion, post on your blog, YouTube video, or even a post that you made on another social networking page such as your businesses FaceBook Fan Page.

One of the keys to success with Twitter marketing is the integration aspect. While it can be a good tool to use alone, you obviously want to use more ways to communicate with your existing and potential customers. Linking to other content, such as blog posts is an excellent way to draw attention to them.

As such, your Twitter messages need to be clear and to the point. Remember, you only have 140 character, so every single one of them counts for you. For example, if you want the reader to look deeper into something that is on your website or your blog; and you want them to click on the link, include a call to action. A clear call to action has been shown to increase click through rates on Twitter, just like it increases conversions on your main website.

Remember to keep your Twitter profile updated on a regular basis, otherwise your followers may soon lose interest if you haven’t posted anything in a while. However, if you are saying something, be sure that it will be of interest to your followers. Repeatedly posting mundane Tweets such as “Everyone! We’re the best! Check out our Website!” will also get them to lose interest in you. Those who look at your profile without being subscribers will also be unlikely to follow you if all your Tweets look boring and “spammy”.

Getting more followers is not complicated at all. Include a link to your Twitter profile on your other social media pages. Include a button on your main website. Put a link to it whenever you send out a newsletter to your mailing list. Your users will then see that you are on Twitter and will follow you if interested in what you have to say to them.

Using Twitter as Part of Your Social Media Strategy is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Create landing pages specific to your marketing campaigns

If you have advertising campaigns going on which focus on a specific product, or a specific promotion, then you need to create a landing page that reflects it. Don’t simply direct people to your “home” site and then let them find what they want by themselves. Sure, some will. But many others won’t and will simply leave.

So let’s say that you sell clothing online and have a promotion in which jackets are 50% off. You will want to create a landing page specific for that promotion and then from it, direct visitors to the jacket section of your website.

• Use live chat

While not all of us can have people available 24 hours a day to chat with site visitors, if you are able to this is definitely one good way to increase your conversion rates. When someone is browsing your site, by using certain live chat scripts, you can interact with them and ask them if there is something specific they are looking for or if they need some help navigating through your site. Many people will appreciate the fact that you are giving them personal attention and will feel re-assured that there are actual human beings behind the site they are visiting. This is basically called “proactive” live chat, because you are engaging with the website visitor before they contact you.

If you have limited resources, you can also use a “reactive” live chat support model. This means putting a button on your site that allows the visitor to chat with you if they have a question. While it may not seem like much, it can make a difference in conversions. Once again, you need to remember that people are not that patient and do not have big attention spans. Putting up a prominent live chat button with representatives ready to answer their questions could have a very positive impact on your sales, as many people don’t really want to wait several hours to get a response by email, and during that time, there are high chances that they will actually go look for the same product or service from someone else.

There are still many other things you can do on your website to improve conversions. Tomorrow we will discuss some other on-page factors that can be used to increase the conversions that you get from your traffic.

Improving Conversion Rates on Your Website: Some Tips – Part 2 is a post from: Websites For Sale

There are dozens of different e-commerce platforms available out there. Some are free, while some cost thousands of dollars. One free e-commerce platform that many people talk about is Magento. It is included in the automatic installers for many web hosts and is touted as the most advanced free e-commerce platform. But is it really the best choice for you? Especially if you are new to e-commerce?

Well, to be honest, it is not. The first thing that you need to know is that Magento is an enterprise class e-commerce solution. Powerful, yes. But it is also very complicated to use for new users. But what about support? Isn’t there a knowledge base or something? Well there are support forums that are provided for users of the software. The problem with them is that there is not much “support” going on there. Mostly users saying “Oh! Darn this doesn’t work” and others joining in with “Yeah! It doesn’t work for me too! Bummer”. Magento staff rarely answer any questions on the forum and there is a reason as to why: the software is free. The support isn’t. If you want support from them, well then you would need to pay for it.

There are also a few other issues with Magento. The first thing is that the admin panel is quite slow. Sometimes it takes up to one minute for a page to refresh after you have made a change. It is not my hosting or my server that is a problem, believe me. I have tried with a cloud server and a shared hosting account. Both have given the same results.

What about customizing it? Magento says that you can customize their software fully to fit your exact needs and make the site look and work just like you want. Well, this is not a lie. It IS possible. Just extremely hard. There are some templates provided with the software, but they will not work for everybody. You can download some free ones or pay for premium templates, but the issue is that many of them are buggy and have problems working. You can also modify the code, as it is open source software. But you better be an expert on the Zend Framework. Otherwise, expect to spend several months (that’s right, months) learning it before you can accomplish anything useful with it. Quite simply Magento is not the best solution for beginners… unless you just want to take the default template and add a few products for your e-commerce site.

Is Magento E-Commerce a Good Solution for Beginners? is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Don’t run banned campaigns again

Sometimes, instead of banning you, Google will simply disable a campaign that doesn’t play by their rules. This could appear in two different ways. Either Google will actually send you an email saying that your campaign doesn’t play by the rules and has been stopped, or they will simply “ghost” it, meaning that your ads will no longer be displaying, no matter what your bid amount is. If your campaign is stopped and you don’t know why, the best course of action is to contact Google Adwords Support. Sometimes you will get an explanation of what’s wrong with it, while some other times you will just get a generic “this is against the rules… you figure out which one” type of email. What NOT to do, would be to simply take down the campaign, get a new domain, change a few ads and keywords and start again. If you haven’t figured out what’s wrong with the campaign and Google is of no help, then try asking for some explanations on a webmaster or internet marketing forum. Many people there use Adwords and could help you. It could be something simple that you didn’t think of, such as your landing page not complying by the rules (i.e. a mobile offer that doesn’t clearly show the charges per SMS, etc) or simply a product that Google doesn’t like (i.e. many re bill offers).

• Don’t create a new account if you are banned

If you get banned from Adwords, then chances are you are banned for life. That’s right, no more Adwords for you, ever. There are some people who think that they are sneaky and will try to sign back up again, often using the same domains, ads and of course the same name and credit card. That won’t work. Even if it does, it is usually a matter of hours before you get caught and booted again. When you are banned, you are not able to create a new account with the same name, credit card, home address and IP address again. So trying to be sneaky will simply lead you nowhere fast.

But is it possible to use Google Adwords again after you got banned? Oh, come on, you may be saying, it’s not like I was selling crack on my website or something. Well there are a few ways to get back on board with Adwords, however I want to warn you that it is not as easy as you could think it is. Tomorrow we will be taking a closer look at some ways to use Google Adwords again if your account was perma banned.

How to Keep Your Google Adwords Account Safe: Part 2 is a post from: Websites For Sale

However, when it comes to pay per click advertising, Adwords is not the only game in town. Now that Bing has combined their pay per click platform with Yahoo Search Marketing, many people have jumped to create an account and start advertising there. According to a recent survey done by an internet marketing company, over half of small business owners who are using pay per click marketing are already using or are considering using Bing for their online marketing campaigns.

One of the complaints that many advertisers on Bing (formerly Microsoft AdCenter) had is that they weren’t receiving enough traffic. Well, it is a known fact that the Bing search engine receives far less traffic than Google. However, now that they are working together with Yahoo, this should resolve the complaint that many advertisers have. For those who are already used to Google Adwords, using Bing should not be much of a challenge, as the basic way that both advertising platforms work is very similar.

But when it comes to pay per click ads, there is another site that some marketers and business owners sometimes overlook: Facebook. Let’s not forget that this social networking site is the second most popular website on the internet, right after Google. So the traffic is obviously already there, you just need to put your ad in front of people who will be interested in your products. Facebook has a pay per click advertising platform that works in similar ways to Bing and Google Adwords.

The main difference, however is the way the traffic is targeted. Obviously, Facebook is not a search engine, so you can’t really target people that are looking for specific keywords. However, there are some other demographic options that you can use instead to target you ad. All that you have to do to get optimal results would be to target your ad so that it will only be shown to the demographic that would more closely match your customers. You can select things such as age, gender, relationship status, location, etc.

So as you can see, there are other pay per click advertising solutions besides Google Adwords out there. If you are considering using one, all you simply need to do is a bit of research on how it works and whether it is a good platform to use for promoting your specific products online.

Are there Any Alternatives to Adwords? is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Give People What They Want

If your gigs are something that a lot of buyers on Fiverr want, then you will obviously get a better chance at making money from them. When you are on the Fiverr main page, you will see a section in the bottom right that consists of gig requests. If you can do some of the gigs that many people need done, then you should definitely offer them up for sale.

• Create a Catchy Headline

Unless you are offering a gig that is extremely unique, chances are that there will be many other sellers on Fiverr who will be offering the same thing than you. In this case, you will really need to do your best in order to make a good first impression and stand out from the crowd. Your headline, which is the title of your gig, should be interesting, unique and catch the eye of the viewer. Basically, it should stand out from all the other headlines and create interest in the mind of the viewer.

• Offer Samples of Your Work if Possible

If you do a gig where you can easily show a sample or two of work that you have done previously, then you should definitely include a link to it in your offer. For example if you design small web pages, you could include a link to some websites that you have built. This will make you appear a lot more trustworthy in the eyes of buyers, as they will have proof that you are capable of doing what you say you will do.

• Build a Good Reputation

Fiverr uses a feedback system where people can leave either positive or negative feedback, accompanied by a comment. If you want more people to buy gigs from you, then you will need to srive to build a good reputation on the site. This is very simple: provide good quality work on time and you will get positive feedback. Buyers are more likely to buy gigs from those who have a lot of positive feedback, so doing great work will pay off in the long run.

• Learn From Others

Look at some of the top sellers on Fiverr, especially those that are offering the same kind of gig than you. How do they word their headline? What do they put in their description? These are all things that you would need to consider, as you would be learning from those that are the most successful on Fiverr.

Using Fiverr to Make Money: Part 2 is a post from: Websites For Sale

If you run a quality site that is very helpful and informational, many people will tell their friends about it and encourage them to join if they want to learn a few things about online marketing. Indeed, word of mouth marketing can be quite a powerful tool. But if you want to be even more successful with it, then you will need to give incentives to your members so that they recruit others to join. This can be done by various means such as:

• Giving a discount to the member being referred. If someone has been referred by an existing member of the site, they would get a discount on their first month’s membership.
• Creating a contest. By doing so, you can offer a prize to the top 3 people who refer others to your site. This will encourage members to get their friends to sign up for it.
• Giving a special bonus once someone has referred a certain amount of people to the site. This could be a product that you own, or maybe a one on one coaching session with you.

By doing these things, you will encourage members of your site to refer others to your site in greater number than what you would have ever though possible before. But if you want members to tell others about your site, there are also a few other things you need to remember:

• Run a good quality site. This means having useful and informative content on it. It also means that your site must be easy to navigate and function well. Nobody will like a membership site that goes down every few minutes and will definitely not want to recommend this kind of website to their friends.
• Update your site on a regular basis. This doesn’t mean that you will need to add new content every single day, however you should give your members the impression that your site is updated regularly. If members see that your site looks “dead” with no new information added to it in quite a while, then they are less likely to stay members and even less likely to encourage others to join.

Remember, that one of the best advertising tools would be word of mouth referrals. This works well in almost any business and it will definitely work well if you run a membership site. All that you need to do is to give your members the necessary incentives to promote your website to others and chances are, they will actually go ahead and do it.

Let Your Members Promote Your Site for You is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Recurring income

Instead of just making a sale once, you will be able to get a monthly fee from your buyers. As long as you update your site on a regular basis and thus provide them with interesting and new content every month, they will stay. In fact, some of them could stay for many years as long as they find your site to be useful for them. This is much better than simply making a “one off” sale.

• Better perceived value from your buyers

Many people have seen a lot of ebooks, especially in the internet marketing niche. Plenty of them have bought these ebooks before and have been disappointed with their content. However, there are a lot of buyers out there who see membership sites as more valuable and useful to them than just a course or a guide. This is because the sites often have a collection of tools, several sections of learning material, a discussion forum, etc.

• Increased marketing and money making opportunities

With a membership site, as opposed to a stand alone product, you have more opportunities to sell to people, especially once they become members. Sure, having a mailing list can be very good and can make you successful. But the issue here is that plenty of ebook buyers are already on the mailing list of every guru (real or wannabe) in town. They get so many of these emails each day that they might read one or two and ignore the rest. But if they become a member, they will pay a lot more attention to what you have to say.

So if you are promoting another product, whether it is an affiliate offer or one that you created, they are a lot more likely to take interest in it. Also, if your methods involve the use of services, like web hosting or online phone services, you can become an affiliate of these and include your affiliate link in the relevant section of your membership site content. This gives you an even greater opportunity to make some money from your buyers.

Of course, setting up and managing a membership site will require a bit more work than just selling an ebook. But it is not impossible to do and remember that in terms of profits, it can be a very beneficial activity for you.

Why Create a Membership Site? is a post from: Websites For Sale

• Patience

While some people did make a few thousand in their first months, there is nothing guaranteeing that you will be able to emulate them. Becoming a successful affiliate marketer will take some time. First, you would need to make various efforts to make your business become profitable. Next, you would need to consider the fact that most affiliate programs pay you one month after the end of the current month, so it is not instant money like if you would be selling things on eBay or offering services. If you need to make some money right away, like cash to pay some bills, you can try a different business model for the time being and then move onto affiliate marketing later.

• Money to invest

While it is possible to get started here with just a few dollars for a web hosting account, if you want your business to be successful, you will need to invest a lot of money into it. Some of the things that you may need to pay include: hosting, advertising as well as paying other people to do some tasks for you, such as creating landing pages or putting up ads if you don’t want to spend too much time doing these yourself.

• Ability to stay on top of things

The world of internet marketing is one that is always changing. As such, there are new offers for you to promote, new networks for you to do business with, new advertising opportunities, etc. that appear regularly. If you want to maximize the amount of profit that your business will be making, then you will also need to spend some time scouting for new opportunities in addition to running your existing campaigns. This will require some good planning and time management on your part.

• Having no fear of failure

There are many great methods to make money online, however no one will tell you the exact steps that you will need to take to build a successful affiliate campaign. This is something that you will need to figure out on your own. Along the may, it is very well possible that you will make mistakes. The important thing here is not to be afraid to try new things and to learn from your errors so that you can gain a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

Full Time Online Business: Part 3 – What Makes a Good Affiliate Marketer is a post from: Websites For Sale