him and keep him busywith work he loves.
What did he do to go from sad to glad? He marketed and improved his site. Healso used his first job to build more business. He made sure the work he did for hisone and only client was top-notch so he could refer to the project on his site andinclude a glowing testimonial, which improved his credibility. This led to more busi-ness. In this chapter, you’ll learn some simple and practical approaches to makingyour website more dynamic and effective so that it boosts your business and helpsyou achieve all of your goals, rather than gaining cobwebs due to lack of attention.
202
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:42
PS
PAGE 202
B OO ST IN G Y OU R W EB SI TE ’S EF FE CT IV EN ES S
203
Making Your Site Content Rich
The best way to make your site more attractive is to make its content richer and morevaluable. The Web is perhaps unique among communications media in that theamount of useful information you provide directly affects the likelihood that you’llget a response from your readers. Simply writing long Web pages full of empty wordswon’t do the trick, of course. You have to meet the expectations you raise in theminds of your potential customers on your site as completely as possible. Since youare creating a website that will supplement your auction sales, you need to providecontent that builds trust and encourages people to buy from you. Tell visitors any-thing that will illustrate that you have a good reputation and track record, such as:
• How long you have been in business• How many transactions you have completed successfully• Your feedback rating on eBay or other auction sites• What your customers think about you, in the form of quotes or testimonials
You can also demonstrate how much you know about what you sell by providingsome history of the field, or tips for selecting the right item. Having a set of links toother websites of interest for your target audience might direct visitors away fromyour site momentarily, but it also turns your site into a resource that will keep poten-tial customers coming back again and again.
Managing Your Site’s Links
Websites that don’t perform effectively are in a sort of isolated limbo because theydon’t show up in enough website directories, other websites don’t make links to them,and they don’t contain enough links to websites that their visitors will find relevant.Simply tracking and managing your site’s links—both the links to your site and fromyour site to other locations—can improve your overall visibility and attract more visi-tors.
Checking Your Links to Other SitesIf you are able to include links to other sites you know about and value, and that youthink your visitors will enjoy visiting, you make your own website that much morevaluable and worthy of return visits. It seems like a paradox that you should create a
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:43
PS
PAGE 203
204
S EL LI NG TH RO UG H Y OU R O WN WE BS IT E
page full of links, or a list full of links, to websites that you think people should visit.It seems at first as though you’re trying to send them away from your site to visitother locations. And in a sense you are. But chances are your visitors will find thosesites on their own if you have suggested the right ones. By creating a page full ofvaluable links, you improve your own credibility and you turn your website into aresource that visitors will want to return to on a regular basis.
Tip: Don’t just make a link to another website. Send a message tothe site’s webmaster, offering to place a link on your site if thatperson will reciprocate by including a link to you. The more links youcan make to your site from remote locations, the better placementyou’ll get in search engine results.
When you create links to other sites, you need to make sure the links are accurate.If you send your visitors to too many Web pages that have moved or are simply notonline any more, your own reputation will begin to suffer. People will begin to won-der just how frequently you update and check the content on your own Web pages.You can do the checking manually—the time-consuming way—by following links oneafter another and making sure they still work. Or you can use an online utility likeLink Checker (http://www.siteowner.com/badlinks.cfm), which scans the links on aWeb page and makes sure they are still accurate.
Improving Links to Your WebsiteIt’s also important to check the number of sites that are linking to your site. You cando this, again, by installing a software program, or by using an online site manage-ment utility. Link Checker Pro (http://www.link-checker-pro.com) is a software pro-gram that can check thousands of links both into and out of a website. It costs $75and up depending on the number of Web pages you want to check. The program canbe downloaded as a trial version that you can try out for a thirty-day period. The nicething about the program is that it provides you with a graphical representation of thelinks you make to other sites (see Figure 17-1). The map literally tells you, in a glance,how ‘‘well connected’’ your site is.
What happens if you find that you only have one or two sites making links toyou? You have to roll up your sleeves and make sure some new links are created. Thefirst and easiest approach is to create your own links. The owners of many websitestry to improve their ranking on Google search results by simply creating dozens or
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:43
PS
PAGE 204
B OO ST IN G Y OU R W EB SI TE ’S EF FE CT IV EN ES S
205
Figure 17-1. Link Checker Pro graphically maps links both to and from your website.
(cid:2) Link Checker Pro.
even hundreds of websites that have barely any legitimate contents. The only purposeof the sites is to show up on Google, and to create links to other websites that areowned by the same individual. Usually, the sites have absurdly long URLs, such as:
•••
http://127.34.222.1/this-is-a-really-long-url.comhttp://www.websitesample.net/buying-shoes-online.comhttp://www.massmarketingtips.com/a-web-page-about-a-very-specific-topic.biz
When you click through to these pages, you may or may not actually get thecontent you’re looking for. You are likely to find a set of links to other websites—someof which may be run by the owner of the website you are currently viewing. I’mcertainly not suggesting that you set up such bogus Web pages yourself. However,you can steal a trick or two from these marketers by making links to your current
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:50
PS
PAGE 205
206
S EL LI NG TH RO UG H Y OU R O WN WE BS IT E
website from other websites you own. The obvious example is your About Me page.If you still have an account with eBay, you should set up such a page if only to makea link to your ‘‘real’’ website.
Suppose you have set up a website with a Web-hosting service. You have pur-chased a domain name that takes the form www.mysite.com. You are setting up ane-commerce catalog at that location. You still have a separate account with an In-ternet Service Provider that enables you to get online in the first place. Since thataccount almost certainly includes space for a simple website, why not create a place-holder Web page on that site—a page that contains a little information about who youare and how to contact you and that, most important, links to your primary website?
Tip: If your ISP is America Online (AOL), take advantage of the factthat AOL allows each of its subscribers to have up to seven separatescreen names. Each screen name comes with 2MB of Web serverspace. Many AOL users assign separate screen names to differentmembers of their family. But there is no rule that says a single usercan’t create seven separate screen names, each with its own Webpage. Each of the pages can link to one another—and to your primarywebsite as well.
Once you’ve created as many links as you can to your primary website, you cantake another step and solicit links from the websites of your family and friends.Finally, you can reach out to websites whose content is similar or complementary toyour own and ask the owners or webmasters to exchange links with you. The worstthey can do is say no—but in many cases, you’ll get a positive response because thosesites’ respective owners have just as much interest as you do in maintaining well-connected, well-visited websites.
Creating an Online Sales Catalog
Shoppers on the Web are used to browsing through sales catalogs and making pur-chases. By creating a sales catalog on your site, you are giving them what they wantand expect. As usual where the Web is concerned, you have several options when itcomes to creating a catalog.
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:51
PS
PAGE 206
B OO ST IN G Y OU R W EB SI TE ’S EF FE CT IV EN ES S
207
Adding Your eBay Sales to Your WebsiteIf you still sell on eBay through either individual auctions or an eBay Store, you havean easy way to get your sales listed on your website. You can use either eBay’s EditorKit or Merchant Kit. Both are bits of software code you add to the Web page whereyou want links to your current eBay sales listings to appear. They differ in one signifi-cant way:
•
•
The Editor Kit is a good tool to use if you don’t sell on eBay Stores or eBay’sspecial site for books, CDs, and entertainment items: Half.com. It gathersyour auction sales listings and puts them on your site.The Merchant Kit gathers auction sales listings as well as your eBay Storesand Half.com listings.
To get started with the Editor Kit, go to the utility’s page on eBay: http://affiliates
.ebay.com/tools/editor-kit/. Then follow these steps:
1. Scroll down the page and click GET EDITOR KIT NOW.2. Sign in with your eBay user ID and password when prompted to do so.3. When the Create Your Editor Kit page appears, choose an option from theDimensions drop-down list and an option from the Theme drop-down list tocustomize the look of the listings as they will appear on your page. You canalso specify keyword searches to determine what items you wish to display, orlimit your lists to Buy It Now items only or items with Gallery images only.4. If you want to earn a little money when someone clicks on a link to a sale andthen makes a purchase, choose an option from the Provider drop-down list. Ifyou want to earn money as an affiliate, you need to choose eBay’s affiliateprogram, Commission Junction, as the option. You’ll have to apply to becomean affiliate through Commission Junction and obtain a Commission JunctionPID if you have not already done so. If you don’t want to earn any moneynow but just want to see how the Editor Kit works, choose NOT AN AFFILIATEfrom the Provider drop-down list.5. When you’re finished, click CONTINUE.6. A page entitled Preview Your Sniplet appears with a long and complicated-looking bit of JavaScript code displayed. For example: (cid:4)scriptlanguage(cid:4)‘‘JavaScript’’src(cid:4)‘‘http://lapi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?EKServer&ai(cid:4)behy1knuhyn&bdrcol or (cid:4)FFCC00&cid(cid:4)0&eksize(cid:4)2&encode(cid:4)ISO-8859-1&endcolor(cid:4)FF0000&endtime; eqy&fbgcolor(cid:4)FFFFFF&fntcolor(cid:4)000000&
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:52
PS
PAGE 207
208
S EL LI NG TH RO UG H Y OU R O WN WE BS IT E
fs(cid:4)0&hdrcolor(cid:4)FFFFCC&hdrimage(cid:4)1&hdrsrch(cid:4)n&img(cid:4)y&lnkcolor(cid:4)0000FF&logo(cid:4)3&num(cid:4)25&umbed(cid:4)y&paypal(cid:4)n&popup(cid:4)n&prvd(cid:4)0&r0(cid:4)4&shipcost(cid:4)n&siteid(cid:4)0&sort(cid:4)MetaEndSort&sortby(cid:4)endtime&sortdir(cid:4)asc&srchdesc(cid:4)n&tbgcolor(cid:4)FFFFFF&tlecolor(cid:4)FFCE63&tlefs(cid:4)0&tlfcolor(cid:4)000000&track(cid:4)&width(cid:4)570(cid:8)(cid:3)(cid:4)/script(cid:3)
7. Click just before the first less-than ((cid:4)) sign at the beginning of the script.Then press and hold down the SHIFT key and click just after the last greater-than ((cid:3)) symbol to highlight the entire code. Press CTRL(cid:6)C to copy the codeinto your computer’s clipboard.
Once you have copied the code, you need to paste it into your Web page. Thisrequires you to open up the page where you want to add the listings in a Web editor—not your Web browser, but a program like Mozilla/Netscape Composer, MicrosoftFrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, or Allaire HomeSite. Alternately, if you don’thave any of those applications, you can open up your home page file with the built-in text editor that comes with Windows, called Notepad.
Making Your Site DynamicWebsites that offer a catalog worth of merchandise for sale put a burden on the site’sowner or webmaster. Every time something is sold, it is taken from the company’sinventory. It needs to be removed from the catalog or reordered when no otherexamples of the item remain in the catalog. Not only that, but shoppers also need toknow how many items are currently in stock and what their current price is. You canupdate the information manually, just as you would a typo or other bit of text, bymaking the change and republishing the Web page to your site.
This kind of website is static—the contents don’t change until the site’s Webmasterchanges them manually. In an environment in which thousands of catalog items areoffered and perhaps dozens of them are being purchased in a single day, the burdenof updating the site manually quickly becomes excessive.
Most high-volume e-commerce websites are dynamic—in other words, the contentschange every time someone visits the site. There are several ways to do this. Here arejust two options:
• Assemble the data in a database program, then connect the database’s con-
tents to the website using a program like Macromedia Cold Fusion.
• Write the pages using a scripting language like PHP, and have the contents
drawn from a MySQL database.
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:52
PS
PAGE 208
B OO ST IN G Y OU R W EB SI TE ’S EF FE CT IV EN ES S
209
In either case, the contents that the visitor actually sees are assembled dynami-cally from the database when the user requests the page. It’s beyond the scope of thisbook to set up such a site for you, so you should consult with a Web designer.
Streamlining the Payment ProcessChapter 14 goes into detail about different options available to you for acceptingelectronic payments from your customers. Along with a sales catalog that is eitherfrequently updated manually or dynamically updated, you need some technologicalfeatures that make shopping easier.
Shopping cart software enables your customers to keep track of items that theyselect while they continue to shop through your inventory. When your customer isready to check out, the shopping cart displays the items they’ve selected and totalsup the purchase price as well as any sales tax that might be applicable. The customercan delete any items that he or she doesn’t want, and then move on to make a securecredit card payment (as described in Chapter 14). GoECart (http://www.goecart.com/shopping_cart_software.asp) is a Web-based shopping cart service. It is avail-able for a free thirty-day trial period; after that, the software carries a setup fee of$124.95 to $499.95 and a $79.95 to $199.95 monthly fee. ShopFactory Light (http://www.shopfactory.com/) is software you download and install on your own computer;it supports a sales inventory of fifty products and is available for $149.
Tip: When you sell through your own website as well as on eBay, youneed to ﬁnd an ongoing source of merchandise. See Chapter 20 fortips on how to do this.
Marketing and Advertising Your Website
If you have an eBay Store, you know how important marketing is. You include a linkto the store in your auction descriptions, and you may also purchase eBay keywordsto direct potential buyers there. When you create a website, you need to do the samekind of marketing. How do buyers find your site? You have an advantage if you sellon eBay or other marketplaces, because you can create personal Web pages thatinclude links to your site. And as you develop a clientele of customers, you shouldsend them periodic mailings that include news about new products or special promo-tions you’re offering on your website.
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:53
PS
PAGE 209
210
S EL LI NG TH RO UG H Y OU R O WN WE BS IT E
Other than your own links, the best kind of marketing you can do these days issearch engine keyword advertising. Search engines represent the most popular wayin which consumers locate products on the Internet. A website that tracks Internetstatistics, called StatMarket (http://www.websidestory.com/products/web-analytics/datainsights/statmarket/overview.html.), reported in late 2004 that a full 41 percentof all search referrals were being done by Google (http://www.google.com). The ser-vice that came in second place, Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com), had about 27 per-cent of the search market business. These two services are the ones on which anybusiness needs to concentrate its efforts.
Listing Yourself on Yahoo! and GoogleEveryone who has surfed the Web knows how search services work: A consumerenters a keyword or phrase in a search box on Google or Yahoo!. A keyword is aword describing a subject that you enter in a search box to find information on awebsite or on the wider Internet. Suppose you’re trying to find a source for iPodaccessories. You’d naturally enter the term ‘‘iPod accessories’’ in the search box onyour search service of choice, click a button called SEARCH, SEARCH NOW, GO, orsomething similar.
When you send a keyword to a search service, you set a number of possibleactions in motion. One thing that will happen is that the keyword will be processedby a script on a Web server that is operated by the search service. The script willmake a request called a query to a database file. The database contains contentsculled from millions (even billions, depending on the service) of Web pages.
The database contents are gathered from two sources. In some cases, search ser-vices employ human editors who record selected contents of Web pages and writedescriptions for those pages. But Web pages are so ubiquitous and changeable thatmost of the work is actually done by computer programs that automatically scour theWeb. These programs don’t record every word on every Web page. Some take wordsfrom the headings; others index the first fifty or a hundred words on a website.Accordingly, when I did a search for ‘‘iPod accessories’’ on Google, the sites thatwere listed at the top of the first page of search results had two attributes:
1. Some sites that had the word iPod in the URL, such as http://www.apple.com/
ipod/color/accessories.html.
2. Other sites had the phrase iPod accessories mentioned either in the title or at
the top of the home page.
This is only one kind of search result, however. When you submit a keyword orphrase to a Yahoo! or Google, the search results you get back actually fall into twocategories.
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:53
PS
PAGE 210
B OO ST IN G Y OU R W EB SI TE ’S EF FE CT IV EN ES S
211
The ones in the center of the page are results that indicate how closely the con-sumer’s keywords matched the keywords on a particular Web page, combined withcomplex and secret formulas that indicate how ‘‘popular’’ the Web page is to beginwith (in other words, how many links are made to it).
The results in the right-hand column are paid advertisements. Businesses bid acertain amount to Google or Yahoo! to have the results displayed. When someoneenters a keyword and that keyword is one that businesses have bid on, the highestbidders are displayed in the paid ad area of the search results. Google calls its key-word ad program Google AdWords. It’s one of the most popular and cost-effectiveways to advertise a website because you only pay if someone responds to your ad byclicking it. It’s called pay-per-click advertising; the innovative thing is that you deter-mine how much you’re going to pay for each click.
Purchasing AdWordsThe AdWords program lets you place an ad that appears on Google only when some-one searches for your chosen keywords. You only pay Google when someone clickson the ad. Here’s a real-world example: I was asked to provide some suggestions onhow a major automobile company could advertise a new tire service. I pointed thecompany toward AdWords. I explained that suppose someone is searching for thekeyword tire on either Google or Yahoo! Four companies have placed bids on thosekeywords: Toyota ($.50 per click), Just Tires ($.40 per click), Firestone ($.35 perclick), and Bridgestone ($.30 per click). Toyota’s ad will appear at the top of the paidad area because it has the highest bid. It will also have to pay $.50 to Google everytime someone clicks on the ad—which should be linked to one of Toyota’s Web pagesrelated to tires.
You can either write your own ad or have Google do it for you. You also havecontrol over where your ads appear—you can choose specific countries or cities. Youcan also set a daily budget for your program so your spending doesn’t go over acertain amount.
Google has a Keyword Tool that you can access for free and that suggests addi-tional keywords you might pay for. For instance, people who searched for tire or tireson Google also searched for:
• Rims• Goodyear• Radial•Tread• Yokohama
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:54
PS
PAGE 211
212
S EL LI NG TH RO UG H Y OU R O WN WE BS IT E
••••
PirelliPlyTreadsStudded
The tool also suggested more specific keywords or keyword phrases such as tireratings, Goodyear tires, wheels and tires, tire chains, and tire dealers. It’s worth spend-ing a few more dollars per month to add these related terms to your keyword advertis-ing campaign.
Putting Key Keywords in Your Web PagesBusinesses can and should also take steps to improve their placement in the ‘‘regular’’(nonpaid) search results on Google and Yahoo! One way to do this is to add criticalkeywords to the HTML of their Web pages. There are three places where key termsshould be added:
1. Headings. Most services index the main headings on a Web page.2. The Opening Text. The first fifty words of text on a Web page, some search
services index only the first fifty words and no more.
3. The META Tag Section of the HTML for the Page. This is a part of the HTMLthat doesn’t show up on the Web page that visitors see when they connect toyour site. The person who creates your Web pages knows what META tagsare.
Tip: A service called Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com)does daily surveys of the keyword queries made to various searchengines. It creates lists of what it ﬁnds to be the most popular searchterms. You might be able to look at this site and determine what themost popular tire-related keywords are.
Taking out a Sponsored Ad on Yahoo! or GoogleYou can improve your listing on Yahoo! search results by paying anywhere from $25to $300 or more per year to become a sponsored website. Your site is listed in theSponsored Sites box at the top of a Yahoo! category. The exact cost depends on the
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:54
PS
PAGE 212
B OO ST IN G Y OU R W EB SI TE ’S EF FE CT IV EN ES S
213
popularity of the category. Sponsored Sites appear in a blue shaded area at the topof a page of Yahoo! search results; these listings are separate from the paid keywordads in the right-hand column. When I searched for sponsored ads on Yahoo!, thecompanies at the top of the page were Yokohama, eBay, and The Tire Rack.
A sponsored ad is only one type of advertisement you can take out on the Web,of course. You can also pay to have an old-fashioned banner ad displayed on someoneelse’s Web page. However, targeted keyword ads are efficient and cost-effective, andthey enable you to reach potential shoppers who are actually interested in what youhave to sell rather than everyone who happens to visit the page where your ad isdisplayed. Making yourself visible is important whether you are marketing yourselfonline or offline. In many cases, it can help you to develop an offline presence suchas a brick-and-mortar store so that you can reach buyers in your local area. Chapter18 and Chapter 19 examine the move from online to offline sales.
................. 15844$
CH17
03-27-06 08:31:55
PS
PAGE 213
This page intentionally left blank 
P A R T (cid:3)V
Moving from Onlineto Ofﬂine Sales
................. 15844$
PRT5
03-27-06 08:28:44
PS
PAGE 215
This page intentionally left blank 
C H A P T E R (cid:3)18
Opening a Brick-and-MortarStore
It seems like a paradox to go online to start a business without having to incur theexpense and trouble of opening a real storefront in a mall, shopping strip, or otherreal-world location. But the fact is that a small number of highly successful sellers oneBay and other sites have gone on to open a brick-and-mortar location. It’s a validoption for generating more business close to home.
Opening a physical storefront, even if it’s only a booth in an antique mall orconsignment shop, gives you a new way to sell. It can help you find new sources ofsupply, too. Many suppliers won’t deal with eBay sellers or sellers who only operate‘‘virtually’’ out of their homes. They want to sell to businesses that have a physicallocation. Not only that, but having a physical store encourages residents in your localarea to bring you inventory to resell on eBay.
And I’ve found, from the sellers I’ve interviewed, that having a physical locationthat is separate from your home office brings other advantages. It helps you to bemore organized and to separate your eBay or other sales activities from your homelife. Your family doesn’t have to deal with merchandise piling up all over your home,and they get to see you when you’re not working. Opening a physical location can bea major undertaking, of course; you have to comply with many local regulations andgo through the work of decorating and furnishing your shop. This chapter will exam-ine the pros and cons of this option for moving beyond eBay and becoming a part ofyour local business community.
Choosing the Simple Option: A Space in a Mall
I once asked a husband-and-wife team of eBay PowerSellers how they found a sup-plier. They sell accessories for model railroad collectors. The wife (who didn’t want
217
................. 15844$
CH18
03-27-06 08:31:45
PS
PAGE 217
218
M OV IN G F RO M O NL IN E T O O FF LI NE SA LE S
her name publicized) told me that they had a booth in an antique mall. For a nominalmonthly fee, they could use the antique mall’s address as their own business address.An antique mall is a physical store that is broken into dozens or even hundredsof separate display spaces. A display space might be a small room, a single displaycase, or a shelf within a display case. Individual sellers within the mall rent space sothey can let prospective buyers see and inspect their merchandise. The bigger thespace they rent, the higher the monthly fee they pay to the mall. Malls sometimescharge a flat rate for a square foot of space: you might pay, for instance, $2.50 persquare foot. If you get a booth that is 6 feet by 6 feet, you pay a sizeable $90 permonth in rent—which makes your eBay Store monthly rent look cheap by compari-son. And it’s up to you to arrange your merchandise, put up signs advertising yourbusiness, and price each one of your items.
Note: You don’t need to put up signs advertising your business in some-one else’s antique mall. Many sellers simply put their items on the shelvesand never identify their own name or that of their company.
The idea is that, by gathering many sellers into a single location, an antique mallor consignment shop can attract many more shoppers than each of those sellerswould on their own. There are variations within the mall idea: antique malls special-ize in antiques, while consignment shops sell items that are collectible and valuable,and household goods that are more affordable. However, the idea is the same: manysellers gathered under one roof so buyers can conveniently shop in one location.
Tip: If you’re an eBay seller thinking of moving to an antique mallor other brick-and-mortar location, consult with fellow sellers on theOTWA message boards. You’ll also ﬁnd an informative article ‘‘How toStart and Maintain an Antiques Booth’’ at http://www.ﬁnetuning.com/articles/p0-2110-how-to-start-and-maintain-an-antiques-booth.html.
How do you choose the right mall? Visit some malls in your area and see if youlike how they look. Also search for malls that have merchandise compatible to your
................. 15844$
CH18
03-27-06 08:31:46
PS
PAGE 218
O PE NI NG A B RI CK -A ND -M OR TA R S TO RE
219
own. You don’t want to sell costume jewelry in a mall that specializes primarily infurniture, for instance. Also look for a mall that is not only affordable but that is in awell-trafficked location and that markets itself. If you’re lucky, the booth you