Prosper Newsletter: April 2007 > Ecommerce
You understand that the following information is educational in nature and is not intended to be legal, accounting, or tax advice. You are responsible for your own financial decisions and should consult your own legal, accounting, and tax advisors before making your financial decisions.
Web Promotion 101
An ecommerce business is just that, a business. In order to drive business to your website, you must advertise. Online advertising is an important skill to learn. One of the simplest and most effective ways of promoting your business is by using directories.
There are directories of websites provided on the Internet that are helpful tools to promote your website. Free directories are like phone books, and the directory list wants to contain all the information that someone could be looking for, so by putting your information on a free directory, you help them become more comprehensive while you promote your website.
Directories have a page rank for each website, and the higher the number of ranking means the website link has a higher rating. When you are linked to other high-ranking websites, your website automatically ranks higher. A good ranking is four and above, but keep in mind that a lower ranking website might eventually become a high ranking website, so sometimes it's not a bad idea to link to a lower site that will grow in popularity.
A good list of directories can be found at www.seocompany.ca. Each item on this directory has a PR number listed on the left and on the right. The one on the left is the current page rank for the website, and the one on the right indicates any movement that has occurred. For example, if the number on the left is a five and the one on the right is a 1, it means that the website has dropped in ranking. Click on the PR number to sort the rankings from highest to lowest.
Alexa is another directory that searches information on websites, then ranks the websites a bit differently from other directories. It utilizes a formula of how many people are looking at the website, and how many pages they are looking through while they are on the website. Alexa then ranks the lower numbers higher and the higher numbers lower.
You will need to decide if you want to be on a website that ranks by page rank, or that ranks by traffic and how many pages people look through.
In order to submit your website to a directory, find the most appropriate category that fits your website and find the link that lets you add or submit a site to the directory. There are different levels and options of links that you can choose from. By finding a level that links you to at least five high ranking websites, you can increase the rank of your website significantly. Try to find a category in which to list your website that will allow you to be ranked higher on the page.
By listing your website on a directory, you have a fairly easy way to promote your website without having to be good at writing and submitting articles, and it also allows you to have control of what level and category you choose to place your website.
Sales Double in One Month
Starting our E-business in 1996 as an entrepreneur in selling Tailor-made Honeymoon/Anniversary Packages to the South Pacific through the Internet only, we already thought we had a great web-page that generated almost 2 millions in sales. However, through the constant changing of Search-Engines and marketing behaviors we found ourselves struggling more and more every year to keep our sales up and saw our great Search-Engines listings disappearing into Nowhere-land. Working with Chris, gave me a complete different perspective how to see our site and how we are able to improve it. Already minor changes, he suggested, helped us within 2 days to double our quote requests. Working with him over a couple of weeks, we improved the site to a point, where I cannot get enough just looking at it... it's fantastic. Our customers now will visit approx. 5-6 pages where they before only looked at 1-3 Pages. Our orders flow in and we have already doubled our sales within 1 month. I cannot describe how ecstatic we all are about this great success. Our goal is to double our sales in this Year and I am confident that we are on our way, thanks to our coach's fantastic help.
- Claudia S.
When writing a press release there are many elements you will want to keep in mind. Here are some short tips to keep you on track with the overall goal of writing this press release being: driving traffic, creating back-links, and gaining some media exposure.
- Do not write a term paper. Make the press release short and to-the-point. Do not make it sound like an advertisement. Come up with a newsworthy angle about your online business. Focus on how your company can benefit the community.
- The primary function of a press release is not to publicize your business, or to help sell your pro-ducts, but to provide news, entertainment, and relevant information to readers. Write your press release with this in mind.
- The first paragraph is the lead paragraph. This should not be longer than three or four lines long. Answer the 5-w's: What?, Why?, Who?, When? and Where? The rest of the paragraphs should be simple sentences answering these questions. The paragraphs should also be short.
- Write in third person narration so that your writing does not look like you are writing an ad for your company. Write as though you were giving advise, instruction, or directions. Use third person narration terms, such as they, them, their, he, she, and it.
- To get your press release noticed, position your company against competing companies in someway. The press loves conflict.
Remember, you are also writing press releases for search engine optimization. The more you write and submit a month, the more it is going to improve your rankings.
