How to Learn from Unsuccessful E-Commerce Blogs

It’s true that no matter how good your products or services maybe, the marketplace is likely going to be extremely competitive. It’s also true that there is no such thing as a guarantee that your e-commerce blog is going to be successful. However, despite what the odds may be, and despite how competitive your particular market may or may not be, the prospect of starting your own e-commerce blog is one that should always be explored.

One thing any successful e-commerce blog is going to need to make it is hard work. That’s a give-in. Another give-in is that your e-commerce site is going to need great ideas.

However, you can also learn a lot about running a flourishing e-commerce blog by studying. What you study, of course, are the patterns of unsuccessful e-commerce blogs. The benefits of doing this will be almost immediate. Trends that led to the downfall of one e-commerce blog or another will quickly begin to emerge.

Whatever you do on the road to a successful e-commerce blog, learning from the failures should definitely be on your itinerary. 

Unifying Patterns Of Unsuccessful E-Commerce Blogs

You may notice some unifying threads between unsuccessful on your own, but here are five that you’re definitely going to pick up as you study the ones that just didn't make it:


High Prices

Maybe it’s because of the cost involved, or maybe it’s due to a serious miscalculation on the part of the blog owner, but high prices will almost always reduce someone’s interest in a product.


Poor Shipping Practices

No one is saying you have to offer shipping options as dedicated and far-reaching as a giant like Amazon.com, but with e-commerce, fast, reliable shipping can quickly separate a thriving e-commerce site from a dying one. Make sure you offer fast shipping, with multiple options for those who are willing to pay extra to get their products even faster.

SEO
Search engine optimization is sometimes overlooked by e-commerce site owners. Typically, those sites don’t last very long.

User design
Who cares about great products, if the site is a huge headache to navigate? Make sure customers can find the product they are looking for with the minimal number of clicks.

Products
Keep a theme in mind. Go for a niche market. E-commerce sites that offer too many different things just look cluttered and disorganized.

There are plenty of pitfalls that can sink your e-commerce blog in a hurry. The more you study these pitfalls from past examples, the better you’ll be at avoiding them.

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How to Extend Your Online Ads

The Adwords system offers some rewards for advertisers that use multiple Google products and one very nice bonus is available for advertisers who also have a Google merchant center account. Google's merchant center allows retailers to upload product data that can be found on the other Google properties like Google product search and sometimes even on the Google.com search results page.

For example a search for men's clothing on Google.com/products shows results uploaded from the Google merchant center. You also see Adwords ads on the page. Remember, this is yet another place that your ads can show if you are opted into the search partner network. If you have a merchant center account you can connect it to your Adwords account and showcase your products in an Adwords plus box ad.

So how does this work? Well when your Adwords ad appear, if your Google merchant center account includes a relevant product Adwords may show an extension that includes images, titles and prices of your closest matching products beneath your ad using a plus box format. To set up this extension you do have to have an existing Google merchant center account and have products listed in it. Assuming that you do, you should now connect your Adwords account to your merchant center account.

First just select the campaign that you want to work with over on the left side bar view and then click the add extensions tab. Remember, if you do not see the ad extension tab just use the drop down to the right to make sure that it's selected to show in your account. Make sure that your viewing the product extension set from the drop down to the left. If you have a merchant center account you will be able to select from the products that you have in that account from a drop down. Pick the one that makes the most sense for this campaign and then you are done. Your ads will now be eligible to run with product extensions. That is it; you have now connected your merchant center account to your Adwords campaign.

So take a look at what this report looks like after your product extension ads have been running for a while. Here you can get data on clicks and impressions, click the rates, your costs and even your average positions. A few more things to note about product extensions, Adwords does not allow you to select specific ads to connect with specific products in your merchant center. But you can help the system connect the most appropriate products with your ads by including product information in the merchant center account. These are called attributes and they help Google understand the nature of the products that you are uploading into the system.

You can find all the details over at Google.com/merchants but just know that the more information that you provide the more likely that Adwords will extend your ads with product information and the more likely it will select the more appropriate images from your inventory in the merchant center.

Once you connect your accounts it can take up to twelve hours to see product extensions with your Adwords ads. And remember Adwords does not show them all the time once it's setup you will have a chance to really showcase your merchandise on the Adwords search engine results pages, once again making your ad stand out from the competition.

About the Author: Sadhiv Mahandru has been involved in online marketing for over a decade covering PPC, Affiliate Marketing, SEO, Content Creation and also creating effective websites. A SEO Company in Manchester and providing services throughout the UK. You can learn more about Internet Marketing and SEO by reading his own blog which is updated frequently.
 

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Top Internet Marketing Strategies and Tools

Online marketing has opened a whole new world of possibilities for those who want to promote their products and services more efficiently. Internet not only allows companies to lower marketing costs, it also helps distributing information to an incredibly wide range of potential clients. Now let’s discuss those online marketing strategies and tools that have proven to be effective over the course of time.

Websites

The main difference between websites and other marketing media is that websites are available 24/7, which allows potential clients to find you when your services are needed the most. Unlike ads on TV, radio or periodic press the content you put on your website will stay there for as long as you need. Business owners can always get feedback from their customers thanks to live chats, contact forms, comments and so on, which allows evaluating qualities of your services without having to hire focus groups and conducting surveys.

Forums and blogs 

These internet tools are much cheaper than professional website, but they also give business owners an opportunity to be in touch with customers and create more online awareness of their services and products. Blogs and forums serve as a great platform for discussions between current and potential customers and business owners or marketers, which enables getting helpful feedback.

Social media sites

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, LiveJournal – these social media networks have taken over the internet and provided business owners with another one incredibly effective business tool. Due to the specific of these sites, ads on social networks can be targeted on specific age or gender group, which boost marketing efforts immensely. Social media websites, especially Twitter, can also help to create awareness of your company’s special offers, discounts and promotions.

Pay per lick (PPC) advertising

This is another example of highly effective internet marketing tool, when advertiser pays when users click on their ad. PPC model is extremely popular since here it’s the result that count, meaning you pay only for the number of visitors and not for the number of times your ad has been shown. This model not only brings instant results but also allows showing your ads only in certain locations or on the sites that post related content. It also enables you taking full control over the costs of the campaign since you usually can set upper limits on your total daily spend, which means you spend as much as you can and not more.

Emails

Even with all the new strategies and tools email marketing is still widely used, especially among small business owners who want to enhance or maintain customer relationship and advertise products.

The key to successful online marketing is using these tools in combination. If you choose not to hire professional marketer who would manage your marketing efforts, you are going to need special software for keeping all the aspects of the campaign under control. Work management software can help you create flexible workflows that you can change according to the situation on the market. It will also help you to keep in check any number of promoting campaigns and their status and see which employee is responsible for the task. And built-in task software will help to track costs, deadlines and tasks’ priorities enabling you and your team working more efficiently.

Content Written By Jannet Sparts: Hi, my name’s Jannet Sparts and I’m working as an editor of Online Issues. I write for several blogs sharing my experience and observations. I have worked as a project manager in several companies. So I have tried different PM tools, collaboration programs, including task tracking software solutions. For the moment PM software is my primary field of interest.
 

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How To Make Money Off A blog

What is Blogging? 
Blogging initially began as a means to publish and provide informative articles and ideas online. The emergence of blogs began towards the latter end of the 1990s, as more user-friendly web publishing tools became more widely available, which allowed people to share articles and even diary entries without needing the technical knowledge previously required to post content on the web.

Blogging has become more interactive, and readers of blog posts are encouraged to comment and debate on the articles posted. While blogging began as an informal means of communicating ideas and is often regarded as one of the original methods of social networking, budding entrepreneurial spirits have recently begun capitalizing upon and monetizing their blog posts.

Converting Your Posts Into Cash
In uncertain economic times, many of us are worried about our finances. This means we are searching for ways to bring in a bit of extra income. While it is important to remain realistic about how much revenue your blog could bring in, it’s entirely possible to make a reasonable income from blogging, with successful bloggers claiming to earn well over 50% of their total income online.

If you’re not already in business, the first step to making money off a blog is to come up with an original idea. The web is saturated with blogs on all manner of subjects, so it really pays to be original in your content, tone, style and execution. As with all business ideas, it’s important to do some research and try and spot where the gaps in the market are.

Once you’re satisfied that your idea is a money-spinner, it’s time to get the ball rolling. There are plenty of platforms which facilitate the uploading and hosting of blogs. Most offer similar general features, although there are small differences which you might want to utilize. You’ll also want to register a domain name which is catchy, memorable and related to your subject.

In order to monetize your blog, you’re going to need to exponentially increase the number of visitors to your pages. The more traffic your site receives, the more value it gains and the more advertisers are willing to pay in order to advertise their services on your site. Pay attention to the analytics of your site, and make a note of what blog subjects are bringing in greater levels of traffic.

Making the Most of your Business
Of course, if you already have a business which trades online, blogging needs not be a direct source of income. There is a direct correlation between site traffic and revenues, and blogging about subjects on your website which are relevant to your business means that your search engine rankings will undoubtedly improve, which in turn will lead to potential customers checking out your site and the products you offer, leading to increased sales.

Of course, it's important to remember the old adage: Rome wasn't built in a day. Monetizing your blog takes time, effort and patience, and if you put in the work, you should successfully reap the rewards.
 

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7 Great Tips For Business Blogging

More and more businesses are turning to blogging as a way of advertising their products and services to potential customers and online shoppers. It has become a much easier way to develop an online presence than using the more traditional and cost consuming methods of employing web designers and so forth. Starting a successful business blog can be done quickly and effectively with a minimal costs, time and effort.

Here Are 7 Tips And Techniques To Start You On The Right Path: 

 Choose the right blogging platform

The most popular blogging platforms are Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Drupal, and Movable Type. Many others are also available, so be sure to shop around for the one that best fits your business needs.

Don't Over Advertise
Not all of your posts need to be product adverts or promotion for your company. If there's anything interesting or relevant to your customers or something that you think they might want to read about, don't be afraid to post it. They'll find your blog more appealing and the content variety won't hurt your blog in search engine rankings either.

Choose a Domain Name and a Hosting Provider
Your business site will appeal more to visitors with its own private domain name and hosting. It doesn't cost much to purchase a hosting package and even shared hosting packages are usually sufficient for blogs and come complete with included domain names.

Build a Community
One thing that will benefit your business blog immensely is getting your visitors to interact with you on a regular basis. Posts that encourage your readers to comment, by asking them questions or giving them the chance to contact you or directly influence the content of your blog, will give them a real sense of being important to you and will help bring them back to you. The feedback will be invaluable in giving you fresh ideas for content as well.

Don't Just Write Anything
Don't post something just for the sake of having a post every day. Make sure that everything you post on your blog is there for a reason. It doesn't have to be a product advert or a business update, but ask yourself whether or not it is something that you would want to read yourself. Write posts about the type of subjects that your users find interesting or topics they want to know more about. Even one or two useful or entertaining posts a week are more beneficial to your blog than a daily meaningless comment or advertisement.

Socialize
Make sure that your blog is socially connected. It's easy enough to give your visitors the chance to connect your posts to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social media sites allowing them to share posts that they enjoy reading. Don't stop there though. Interact with other blogs that you find interesting or share a similar market or common theme with your own and interact with them. You'll soon find that many of them will start to take an interest in you.

Look at the big picture
While it might be natural to only pay attention to the products and services you offer, you can benefit as well from widening your range. For example, if you create a blog for your book store, your target audience may be interested in posts about eBooks, used books, or even children`s books. Stick with your overall business blogging theme, but explore related topics.

Although there are numerous other things a business blogger must put forth to become successful online, we think applying these 7 tips and techniques would be a great start for you and get you on the right path to starting a business blog.
 

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5 Ways to to Make Money From Your Blog

Who doesn't like passive income? Here's how your blog, however big or small, can help you take a step in the right direction. There are plenty of ways to make money online from taking surveys to working as a freelancer to selling stock photography. However, I am talking about how you can earn money from your blog, which you already love to write for.

Here Are 5 Of The Most Popular Blog Monetization Methods:
 

1. Banner Advertising

This seems easy to do but can actually be pretty hard to accomplish because you need to get the right kinds of advertisers who are interested in your blog and reaching out to your audience. If you are a big blog, however, you can reach out to companies like BuySellAds to help you get banners to your blog. The most money is usually made when an advertiser specifically wants to reach out to your audience and sees value in doing so. You can start by contacting small businesses in your niche and asking them if they would be interested to advertise for a fixed cost on your blog.

2. Google Adsense
This is a broader class of advertising in the category of pay-per-click, but this is by far the most popular form of pay per click advertising. You get paid not by the impressions of the ad but depending on how many people click on it. Therefore, there is no guarantee of a certain income here, unlike in banner advertising where you know you are getting a fixed amount of money irrespective of how many people actually click on it. Of course the upside is that you get a good amount of money for every person who clicks on the ad, and there is a very good potential to earn a lot of money. A lot of sites rely on Google Adsense for monetizing their websites. One of the biggest advantage of this is its ease of set up. You just enter a code and forget about it - Google takes care of everything else, including contacting the advertisers.

3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can be a highly lucrative way to make money from your blog. A lot of companies have an affiliate program. You just recommend products to your readers and when someone clicks on your link and buys the product, you get a certain percentage of the sale as commission. You get paid only when a sale is completed, irrespective of how many impressions an ad makes or how many people click through to it. The upside is, you can potentially make a ton of money. Big name bloggers regularly earn 6 figure incomes from this method, so it is a large pie that small bloggers have a chance of being a part of.

4. Social Media Campaigns
Brands and businesses want social media engagement. If you have a good and loyal social media following, you should leverage it. Sponsored Tweets, for example, are a really good way to make a few bucks advertising to your followers along with all the regular content that you post. Same is the case with Facebook. If you have a good number of engaged fans, businesses will pay you a nice amount of money to reach them.

5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a very powerful tool that bloggers enjoy. You need to collect leads from your blog so you have their permission to reach out to them whenever relevant. In your regular newsletter, you can sell an ad space for a company. The beauty of email marketing is that you can combine affiliate marketing with this - if you come across a great product that you use, why not promote it to your list and make some money off it too?

These are some of the common ways to earn an income from your blog. What methods appeal to you, and what methods do you use? We would like to hear your thoughts.
 

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