Do you need successful tips for your small business website?

That’s it. You’re ready to tap into the online market. But where should you start? There are all sorts of websites out there, and clearly some of them are working much harder than others. How can you be sure your website will be a champion?

The key? Planning and Strategy. Think of your website as an employee and make sure you hire the right one. If you approach this project with clear goals in mind, you will be rewarded with a lucrative asset to your business. What’s most important? The questions below will get you started.

1. What are your specific business goals?

How could your website help you achieve them? Need to increase add-on sales? Your website could educate customers about using your products or services together for greater value. Need to reduce time spent in customer service on the phone? You can promote your website as your primary customer service centre, helping to redirect queries that can be easily solved. A little time spent planning a job description for your site will result in a website that works harder for your money.

2. Who is your target market?

What are they looking for in your type of business? Your website will have to appeal to them and speak to their needs. If your site clearly addresses your customers’ needs, visitors will spend more time there and will be more likely to become paying customers. How can your website add value for them? If you need ideas have a look at competitor websites and imagine you are their customer. Identify what they have done well and capitalize on their mistakes. Look at other websites that you like. How did they make such a good impression?

3. What do customers like best about your business?

Is it your high quality products? Your value for money? Your speedy customer service? Your friendly staff? Whatever it is your website should reflect those aspects of your business. They are what set you apart. If you’re not sure why people come back to you consider undertaking a customer satisfaction survey to find out.

4. Do you have identifiable branding that represents the unique personality of your business?

If not, develop a branding identity that will set you apart from competitors, starting with a logo that communicates the character of your business. The visual design of your website is an extension of your brand identity. Be sure your website is dressed for success and represents your business as nothing less than credible and professional.

5. Do you have the time and skills to prepare your own content?

Be realistic here. Your written text should be concise, focus on customer needs, and use language that your customers understand. If writing isn’t your thing, consider hiring a copywriter to massage your copy or even write it for you. Make use of images and video where it will be useful to customers. If you don’t have quality images at hand, consider hiring a photographer or buying stock photography. Don’t be tempted to cut corners and compromise quality just to save a few bucks. The impact of your content is critical to your website’s success.

6. How can you take advantage of interactivity?

There’s no substitute for experiencing your product or service in person, but as this may be your only chance to make an impression, make the most of it! Establish what your customers are interested in, give it to them and lead them to action through the interactive nature of the internet. Engage them with online competitions, printable discount vouchers, product demonstrations, live help, customer feedback surveys, etc. Interactivity can also be a great way to build your customer database or gather market research about your visitors.

7. What is a realistic budget for your website?

To plan and implement a website strategy you’ll need to invest upwards of a few thousand dollars to do it right the first time. Think carefully about your budget. Does it seem reasonable given your business goals? Think about the bottom line benefits in terms of potential cost savings as well as revenue potential.

8. How can you promote your website?

First and foremost, put your domain name on everything! Letterhead, invoices, signs, sales tags, whatever you can. It’s much easier to remember a website address than a phone number. To attract new customers via the internet you’ll need to harness the search engines. Search engine marketing involves optimizing your website so it’s visible to customers searching for your type of business. If you are in a competitive market, you may need to budget for comprehensive search engine optimization for your site. If you’re looking at search engines as a major source of new customers you may also consider adding ‘pay-per-click’ advertising to the mix.

9. Will you manage your own updates?

Keeping your website fresh provides a reason for visitors to return to your website. If you plan to make regular content updates, consider investing in a Content Management System costing as little as a few hundred dollars. It makes more sense to pay your website developer for ongoing development rather than simple changes to content that you can make yourself.

10. How do you know if your website is a champion?

After your site has been live for several months, quantify the gains generated by your website and identify the impact your investment has made on the business. Using software tools you can establish which parts of your website are performing well, and which parts need tweaking. A website strategy is never really complete. You can always improve on the status quo. Set a regular schedule for review and don’t forget to budget for strategy changes and ongoing development.

Getting started

Now that you have the key elements, concentrate on the area that you know best…your business. Whatever your goals make sure you work with a web developer who can help you fine-tune your ideas and turn them into a profitable website strategy

---------- All the very best; Get more success in your Business ----------

How to Start & Grow Your Own Business

In the last three months I read a lot of books and articles about how to start and grow a successful small business. Usually, before I read in detail on a domain or theme I gather a big bunch of materials and skim them in order to get a panoramic view of the domain. After this I read deeper into the gathered materials and outline a new perspective on the theme. From now on I read in detail, in other words, fill the gaps like a puzzle.

Here I show you my vision on how to build your own successful business step by step:

1. Identify an Opportunity

A good way to identify a business opportunity is to make use of your keen observation. Whenever you find yourself in the street traffic or online traffic use your observation to identify niches that aren’t filled or are filled in a way that can be improved. Become an opportunity detective. Train your eyes and mind to detect signs of business opportunities.

2. Find a Creative Way to Fructify the Opportunity

Once you identified an opportunity, the next step is to think as many ways to exploit the opportunity as you can conceive. Don’t assume that there is just a single way to fructify the opportunity. The best way to find as many ways as possible is to put at work not only your own mind but others (friends, colleagues and acquaintances) as well. After this you have to decide yourself which one is the best.

3. Research the Market

This means that you have to gather, analyze and interpret information about your potential customers, about existing competition and about the product or service you offer. I suggest you to begin with what is called secondary data, information that already exist on internet, newspapers and magazines. All you have to do in this case is to find that information and use it in the decision-making process. Primary data suppose you to organize a survey, to apply a questionnaire to your potential customers. This brings you more valuable and personalized information but cost you more time and money.

4. Forming your Business

If you passed successfully the first three steps, this means that you found a gap or niche in the market and now you can begin to form your business. This means a lot of legal requirements. First of all you have to choose: a sole trader, a partnership or a limited company. For a start up first and second (if your potential partner is a reliable person) options are most suitable.

5. Plan your Business

A successful business needs first a well thought and written plan. Who do you think will succeed: one who manages his business by chance and circumstances, or one who manages his business guided by a step-by-step plan (even if there is a lot of adjustment and adaptation)?

I like to think a business plan in terms of Operations Manual of a franchise. Operations manual tell you in detail all you have to do and this is enough (if the manual is well done) for you to succeed, even if you aren’t an expert.

6. Administration & Management

Once you formed and planned your business all you have to do is to creatively administrate and develop your business. We talk here about the four dimensions of management:

Planning – it means setting goals, objectives and strategies to achieve them.
Organizing – imply designing, scheduling, decision-making, time and stress management.
Leading – team building, motivating, directing, delegating and coordinating.
Evaluating – this means setting standards, measuring results and propose changes if necessary.

7. Human Resources Management

It is possible that at the beginning (home-based stage of a business) you don’t need staff or employees. But if you grow and expand your business, you’ll need to build a team. The process of building your team require first interviewing and recruiting, then motivating and collaborating.

Google Adsense Top 10 Paying Topics

Dear Members,

Today I would like share about Google Adsense to earn money from on-line, through 10 different Paying Topics for Adsense.

Adsense is a way many Bloggers earn money. Some Bloggers deliberately write content according to the best paying types of keywords. Instead of quantity, they aim for quality. I took a look at the Top paying list and am pretty amazed that some companies would actually pay so much for just a click. The keywords vary but I have grouped them since it is easier to write for a group to topics instead of writing for keywords.

Interesting many of the top paying keywords are in the Financial, Medical and Legal industries. I guess these industries are really high margin and they can recover their cost from just having one customer. It also reflects a very American market as the products are heavily slanted towards the needs of the American consumer.

Top 10 Paying Topics for Adsense

1. Loans
2. Attorney
3. Insurance
4. Mesothelioma (a form of illness brought about by asbestos)
5. Lasik
6. Credit cards
7. Refinance
8. Domain name
9. Singles (In the context of dating)
10. Plastic Surgery

To see the full list, click here

Another thing that I would like to point out is that the highest paying keywords do not mean that a lot of people search for them. In fact these keywords do not even appear in the Top 10 Search terms. If you see here, you will see that most of the searches are about brands and have nothing to do with the above. This means that traffic to such a site dedicated to high paying keywords might be too little to justify your effort. People will also not bother linking their Blogs or websites to you as very little people are actually interested in reading or Blogging about the topics above.

My personal feel is that the top paying keywords represent a shady but profitable part of both online and offline business word. However instead of having an entire site dedicated to the topics above, perhaps a better strategy will to do occasional post about the topics on your Blog.

Regards,
Amousia Team.