Posts Tagged ‘Working From Home’

The widespread availability of high-speed Internet access has resulted in ever-greater numbers of consumers making online purchases. This means that business owners of all stripes – from individuals working from home to big box mass merchandisers – can reach more buyers and can generate exponentially greater revenue than ever before.

There are many theories about and tips for marketing and advertising your online store, and marketing and advertising is certainly a consideration. But in focusing so much attention on marketing, many business owners neglect a fundamental aspect of successful e-commerce: web page design.

If you don’t have a professional webpage design, it doesn’t matter how much traffic you generate to your site because those visitors won’t convert to customers. It’s crucial to have a website that is compelling and that makes visitors want to stay long enough to buy. Here, then, are six tips to help your web design transform visitors into customers:

1. Keep it Clean. A professional web page designer will tell you that to keep your virtual storefront clean and free of clutter. It should be immediately clear to the visitor the types of items you sell without overwhelming them with dozens of hyperlinks, fonts, and flashing buttons and words. You can certainly incorporate a flash introduction in your web design, but if you do, give the visitor control. He or she should be able to bypass or pause the flash so that the annoyance factor is kept to a minimum.

2. Intuitive Navigation. Your website designer should think like your customer and design a navigation system that easily takes your customer from your home page to the product or products of interest. The fewer number of clicks it takes to get from point A to point B, the more likely it is that your visitor will make a purchase.

3. Search Functionality. Customers need to be able to find what they need quickly and easily. Allowing customers to search by keyword or product number is a great start. Going one step further and allowing “fuzzy” searches that will also return matches for common misspellings is even better.

4. Seamless Shopping Cart. Many e-commerce sites lose customers at the critical juncture between selecting items and committing to buy them. An intuitive and easy-to-use shopping cart is essential to the online shopping experience. Again, your web page designer should think like your customer and utilize a shopping cart that makes checkout a breeze.

5. SSL Certificate. If you’re an online merchant, there’s simply no getting around the need for an SSL certificate. With the problems associated with identity theft, your customers need to have confidence that your website is secure.

6. Leave it to the Professionals. When it comes to web page design, don’t succumb to the temptation to do it yourself. Even if you have a web design program, you should hire a business web page designer to create your web site. Professionals have a variety of tools that will help your business succeed online, and will act as your partner in developing e-commerce solutions that will encourage visitors to stick around and purchase your products.

You’ve decided that you want to give up that 9 to 5 and be your own boss. You’ve decided on your niche and done some research into it. What do you need to do next? Source a product to bring in some money.

There are many websites out there that are legitimate, enabling you to build a substantial business and earn money working from home on the Internet. You could be answering questionnaires for 20 each, reading transcripts of books prior to being published, writing articles. However, there are others, generically called get rich quick schemes. These schemes encourage you to spend money that you haven’t got with false promises on the returns on your investment. The people who run these schemes (scammers) prey on the nave or vulnerable and reel them in. Once, you are under their spell there is no letting go. Some, even ask you to pay money upfront stating that they’ll double even quadruple it for you!

The auction sites are the worst sites for these people to hide in and wait for their prey. You’ve probably all visited one at some time, searching for that special gift for a family member, friend or even yourself. The scammers advertise their merchandise, usually something that is a much sought after product. You see it and snap it up, pay, they get your money and you don’t get the goods. This happens time and time again.

Help is available though. The Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) and Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov) are two organizations that are there to help you keep away from these fraudulent scams and check out the legitimate ones on the Internet to prevent you from losing you’re hard earned cash. They are encouraging people to complain to them about these scams. If you get caught up in one, no matter how much money is involved, you MUST report it and stop it from happening to some other unsuspecting person trying to look for an honest way to make a living online.

You owe it to yourself to check out the Companies or people that are advertising a scheme or goods. Do they have testimonials and are they real? Follow them up by contacting the people who have made the testimonials. Visit their sites and check them out through the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission.

Forums are a good place to get some help. They are full of valuable advice. You can read up on the benefits and pitfalls of schemes or ventures you are intending to embark on or perhaps you’d like to ask some specific questions. All of the members have had to start from somewhere and they will give you good, honest advice.

Ensure that you are aware of what is happening and beware of that email dropping into your inbox stating that you can get rich quick. There is no easy way to make money on the Internet, it takes a lot of time, effort, determination and hard work.

Remember:- If it looks to good to be true, it probably is.