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Your online business should be…
… conducted ethically!
This is a critical component to any enduring undertaking.
The best reason for conducting your online business ethically
is that this kind of business is the most rewarding. ALL of
us would ideally like to own a business that makes great money,
but I also believe that all of us would also love that business
to help a lot of individuals and really make them happy. We
want to give them something of real value … something
that really helps them in a huge way and makes a difference
in their lives. Something that puts a big smile on their face
and causes them to feel really grateful for what we have provided
them. Not only does offering a terrific and valuable product
or service make us feel good, but our customers really value
it as well. This develops a relationship of trust that is
crucial to the future and longevity of our online business.
You want happy customers to refer their friends … more
happy customers … to your site!
Sadly, too many people today have fallen for a lie and don’t
believe that one can actually be prosperous and do the right
thing at the same time. They decide to compromise their principles
to come out a little “further ahead”. We’ve
all heard sayings like, “nice guys finish last”.
Even though it isn’t true, many have decided to allow
cynicism to set in and blur their judgment. In this fast paced
modern age, there are many on the web who are lying in wait
to take advantage of the unsuspecting, and many of these individuals
seem to get away with their deception, at least for a time.
It is sometimes tempting as an online business owner to make
use of a tactic that is mildly unethical or deceptive, fraudulent,
or even criminal. I don’t recommend any tactics of this
nature. A few of these tactics include making false offers
or claims to your customers, using deceptive tactics to place
higher in search engine search results (we’ll be talking
about this more later on), or sending unsolicited marketing
emails to people (spamming).
There are perfectly legitimate methods of getting the results
you desire without having to resort to unethical tactics which,
besides just being plain wrong, they can also do you far more
harm than good like getting kicked off of an important search
engine, Internet Service Provider (ISP), or even pursued criminally.
Many of these unethical practices often hurt us all in the
end in one way or another. Don’t be that individual
who makes things difficult for the rest of us. Don’t
be tempted to try something that you know is wrong whether
it is completely criminal or only something mildly unacceptable.
Either way, ultimately it is not worth it. There is plenty
of opportunity for someone to be extremely successful online
without trying something shady. Besides, you’ll sleep
much better at night.
… personal!
Conducting business electronically can tend become extremely
impersonal. It can be impersonal, but it doesn’t have
to be. In fact it shouldn’t be. With all of the opportunities
and advantages of e-commerce, there are also a few limitations
and disadvantages that we must be aware and careful of. The
tendency of becoming impersonal is potentially one of the
greatest of these. While it is true that electronic commerce
doesn’t offer the same kind of human interaction, it
is important that an e-business possess attributes and elements
that give the customer a sense of it being personal. This
is important to make the customer feel like they are at home,
welcome, at ease, and that they matter.
How does one do this? There are many ways, but here are a
few for you to think about. The first and most obvious: communicate
this personal quality in the way that you write! Welcome them,
thank them, make them feel like they are a guest in your home.
Pretend that they are while you write. Write as if you are
having a conversation with your reader. Of course, use the
proper tone in your writing (professional, candid, neighborly
… whatever is appropriate for your site and product.)
Use words, phrases, and a writing tone that makes your visitors
feel welcome and that they matter. Talk to them as a friend
would or a tour guide. Be mildly enthusiastic. Don’t
over do it, but get them excited about what you are saying.
Don’t try to excite them about you, but rather persuade
them to get excited with you. Let them sense your passion
for what you are offering them.
Another great way to let them know that what matters to them
matters to you is to give them an opportunity to let them
tell you what matters to them. Ask them what they think. Ask
them to give you feedback on what you are providing for them.
Invite criticism by asking your visitors how you can improve.
Thank them when they give it to you. Even offering something
small like an online web opinion poll provides opportunity
to opine and gives visitors a sense of importance. If you
employ opt-in email marketing, do your best to make these
emails address them by name if possible. Many newsletter services
that manage you email list for you offer the ability to personalize
your email newsletters automatically. This feature will also
increase the number of emails you send that get read by your
customers instead of just deleted by them.
You can make your website feel more personal visually too.
To do this you of course want to create an environment that
reinforces what you are about and who you are directing your
message/goods to, but do this while using design elements
that convey friendliness and warmth. Whether you desire your
website to appear professional, cutting edge, elegant, or
even wacky, choose colors, type styles, and imagery that convey
this welcoming friendliness and warmth while you are reinforcing
this image. Think of your favorite products, places to shop
and favorite websites to visit that might relate or be similar
to your site or product. What visual qualities and elements
do these products, shops or websites posses in their advertising,
packaging, or site design that you could emulate yours? Look
at fonts, colors, images, shapes, and composition. Don’t
copy them, but by all means be inspired by them and use them
as a springboard.
… offer your customers something
of value for FREE!
Give something away!Giving something away for free
can really do a lot for your online business. Initially when
I say this to people, they react negatively with “How
am I going to make any money with this website if I am giving
stuff away?” Relax. You are not going to be giving it
ALL away. Just a taste of it. Employing this little technique
is so crucial, in fact, it may just be the make or break factor
for an online business. While it is possible to give your
site qualities that make it feel more warm and more personal,
because of the naturally impersonal and fast paced natures
of online information, often that is not quite enough to truly
earn the trust of you new potential customer. So what does
one do about this? Give them a free taste of what you are
offering them! How many times have you been cruising through
the grocery store with your shopping list and someone stuck
a hot and fresh little pizza roll or boneless buffalo wing
in front of your face, and the next thing you know somehow
a box or two of pizza rolls or boneless buffalo wings instantly
jump into your cart and come home with you? I hope it isn’t
just me. If your information or product is as good as it should
be and you know it is, give them a sampling of it and make
them want to come back for more!
Giving something away for free is a great way for your customers
to get a feel for the value of the content you are offering
them. It is a terrific way to earn trust, credibility, and
loyalty with your customers, which is of course exactly what
you want. You want them to direct their friends to you for
the same information and products. Of course, this won’t
be effective if your “free sample” is not truly
representative of what you are encouraging them to purchase
from you, so you need to do your best to make sure that your
sample does not exceed or fall short of what they will be
ultimately purchasing from you. It needs to match their expectations.
Not doing this could potentially damage your credibility and
in turn limit your potential future sales, especially if you
set up an affiliate program (more on affiliate programs later).
How many times have you seen a commercial for a movie that
looked really good in the commercial, but then you went to
see the movie itself and it was not nearly as good as you
expected? Remember this when you give a sample of you product.
Another thing to watch out for is to give away the right
amount. You want to give away enough that the customer feels
as if they are getting something of real value and not so
much that they are no longer hungry for more. Give them a
fantastic taste, but remind them that the full appetizer,
entrée, and dessert are just a click away. Let them
know what delicious items are on the menu, but let them know
that they have to purchase your product to fully indulge in
the full experience. Tease them with something tasty, but
don’t ruin their appetite. Make sense?
Just some food for thought, (no pun intended) as we mentioned
before there are many websites out there that offer extremely
high quality for absolutely free, but they sell eyeballs that
wander through their sites to advertisers to pay their bills.
It is only a small price to pay for a visitor to have to endure
a few banner ads or pop-ups to have access to this high quality
content. If your site develops enough traffic (I will be showing
you how to develop lots of traffic), your site becomes a commodity
in and of itself just because of the number of visitors that
flow through and view its pages. These sites never sell anything
more than a small spot on their pages to advertisers! Many
advertisers begin to find your site a worthy enough to advertise
on if you get at least 10,000 hits per month. I’ll tell
you more about this in the advertising section of this book.
… offer real value … help
people!
Giving someone you care about something really special is
so wonderful, isn’t it? If you are anything like me
at all, just doing something special or providing something
really beneficial to someone, even if you don’t know
them, gives you such a great feeling. Even in business it
is always more fun to provide a service or product that really
makes people happy or helps them in a significant way …
something of real value. When planning and setting up your
e-business, make sure that what you will be offering (your
content, information, product, or service) really offers something
special. Something that people will truly enjoy, makes their
lives easier, helps them become a better person, or helps
them reach their goals and dreams more quickly and easily.
You get the idea. Offering real value in your business not
only makes you feel good about what you do, but it also makes
others really appreciate what you do so much that they want
to come back for more and even bring some friends with them.
Don’t over-focus on the thousands (or even millions)
that you want to make with your business. Don’t worry
about how your are going to get your message in front of thousands
and thousands of eyes. I’ll be helping you with this.
Put your energy into finding a way to give people the most
helpful, beneficial, and valuable content that you possibly
can in the most clear, concise, practical, useful, easy to
use, organized and attractive way that you can. Everything
else will fall into place, I promise.
The problem once again is not lack of information or ideas
but a lack of information that is packaged properly. Your
vital role is to convert the much needed valuable information
into a specialized knowledge presented in a way the consumer
can assimilate and use quickly. Remember that this information
may very well be available on the internet already, but your
visitors have never seen it the way you are going to show
it to them, capice?
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