Marketing Tips Forum

E-commerce is a booming trend and one that does not appear to be going away anytime soon. More and more people around the world are using the internet to make purchases on everything from music, to home goods, to clothing, to auto parts, and anything else you can think of. The world of e-commerce gives the average person or small business the opportunity to business worldwide and to compete in a way that was never possible before.

In this article we’ll look at the benefits of running an e-commerce website and we’ll list seven of the leading reasons that you should consider starting your own e-commerce site.

1. Very Low Costs and Expenses

Before e-commerce, the costs and risks associated with starting a store were enormous. There are of course costs associated with owning or leasing a building, utilities, overhead costs, inventory costs and more. Because the costs are high, there is also a great deal of risk involved in owning a store.

Quite the opposite, with e-commerce you could possibly start an online store with less than $100 and you could be in business the same day. That’s not to say that it is easy to have a successful e-commerce business, but the risks are astronomically lower because you’ll need to invest so much less.

2. No Need for Employees

One of the biggest headaches of owning a traditional store is dealing with employees and all of the headaches that go along with it. Managing employees is a full-time job, and then some. And that’s not to mention the costs that are associated with having employees.

With an e-commerce business you will need no employees to get started. Depending on what you are selling and to what extent the business grows, you may eventually hire some employees for order fulfillment and financial record keeping, but it is entirely possible to run a profitable e-commerce business on your own if that is how you would choose to do it.

3. 24/7

Traditional stores will have hours of operation, and they’ll be closed at certain times. Some stores are open 24 hours a day, but they also have added costs for doing so.

As an e-commerce business owner you will benefit from having your online storefront available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There will be no need to close up and lock the doors, and customers can come and do their shopping at their convenience.

4. Low Barriers for Entering the Market

Traditional brick and mortar stores have vary large barriers that prevent the average person from being able to start this type of business. Most notably are the need for startup and operating costs. If you are able to manage to get started, some significant barriers to success will also exist.

With e-commerce there are relatively low barriers for entry by comparison. Very little financial investment is needed to get started, and although there will be competition, it won’t prevent you from being able to run a profitable business.

5. Worldwide Market

As a traditional store owner, in order for customers to buy your products they will have to be close enough to your location to come to the physical store. Obviously, this limits your market to those who live or work within driving distance, or those who are traveling through the area.

As the owner of an e-commerce business you can sell to people anywhere in the world, they just need internet access. Yes, there are some issues with shipping, but with higher shipping charges you can sell to other parts of the world, or you can sell electronic downloadable products that never need to be shipped, regardless of where the purchaser live.

6. No Need to Dominate a Market

For traditional brick and mortar stores, there is always a need to stay ahead of the competition in order to remain profitable and in business. If you can’t be one of the leaders in your industry, you probably cannot survive as a business.

However, with an e-commerce business your costs of operation are so low that you do not need to produce as much revenue in order to turn a profit. While you may not dominate a market, only taking a small portion of the business in a specific market of industry can still leave you witha profitable business. Rather than controlling the market you can just take a small piece of the pie.

7. Flexible Working Hours

Running a traditional business means that you will probably need to be there and working just about every hour that it is open. Store owners usually have a very hectic schedule with long hours each week.

Running an online store is work and does require hours, but generally you can choose those hours as you see fit. If you are not a morning person you won’t have to be working early. You will usually be able to work a schedule that you choose.

Every day there are thousands of new blogs being launched. The ease of starting a new blog means that there is tons of competition if you are launching a new blog of your own. This may not be an issue if your blog is personal, but for business blogs developing readership is critical to success.

Many new bloggers underestimate the difficulty that they will face in attracting and retaining readers. When a new blog launches, the first few days present a very valuable opportunity to present your blog as a great new resource for readers.

Here we will cover some of the best things you can do to promote your new blog after it is launched.

1. Tell Your Friends and Family About the Blog

When you’re trying to get traffic to your new blog, one of the easiest places to start is with those that already know you. Mention your new blog to them and send out an email with a link to your blog and a brief description of what they can expect to find there. While you won’t get thousands of visitors this way, it’s still a good place to start, and some of these people may become repeat visitors.

2. Link to Your New Blog from Your Other Sites

If you have other websites or blogs you will be in much better position for promotion, especially if you have an established site in the same niche or industry. Using your existing site(s) as a springboard for your new blog is one of the most effective things you can do to promote it.

If you don’t have any other websites yet, this may seem like a disadvantage. While it may make things a little more difficult for you now, once you get your new blog established it will give you an excellent platform with which you can promote other new blogs that you may launch in the future.

3. Link to Your Blog from Your Social Media Profiles

Most bloggers are active at at least a few social networking or social media sites. If this is the case with you, be sure to take a few minutes and link to your blog from all of your profiles. And if you do not have any profiles, find a few social sites that you want to use, create and account and add a link (and of course, be active at the networking site).

As a new blogger, link building will be more of the most important hurdles that you will have to overcome. Simple links from profiles can be a start.

4. Write Posts and Submit Them to Social Media Sites

There are any number of different ways that you can get people to visit your blog. Search engine traffic is highly sought after, but it takes time to build your site’s reputation with the search engines and develop any type of substantial search traffic. Links and recommendations from other sites are great too, but that also will take time (unless you are already well connected).

Social media is a great resource for new bloggers because with the right type of content, and with quality content, exposure to a very large number of people is possible, and free. New blogs can quickly become recognized in their industry with a few posts that generate interest from social media users.

Many bloggers attempt to use social media with less-than-spectacular results. The key is to produce the highest quality of content possible and develop a network of other social media users. Not every post will be successful with social media, but when you have a hit it could have a huge impact on the growth of your new blog.

5. Commenting on Other Blogs in Your Niche

Leaving intelligent comments on other blogs with related content is a proven way to bring some visitors back to your own blogs. Like some of the other strategies mentioned here, this will not bring huge amounts of traffic, but they will be interested visitors.

The key with commenting is to leave comments that add something to the post of provide some type of valuable insight or discussion. The majority of blog comments tend to be something like “Great post!”, which adds no real value and will not encourage anyone to click through and visit your site.

6. Get to Know Other Bloggers in Your Niche

One thing that all successful bloggers have in common is that they are surrounded by a strong network. Blogging is too personal in nature for someone to have success without developing relationships with other bloggers.

Networking can often start with commenting on another blog, but that is not the only opportunity to network. Get involved at social media and social networking sites to get to know others, especially niche social sites. Also, don’t be afraid to email or contact another blogger through their blog just to introduce yourself.

Every blogger wants to have a lot of readers for their blog. No one wants to be writing without an audience. It’s human nature to always want more, and this is true with blog subscribers and visitors. For bloggers, one of the best ways to promote your site is to use social media and social networking sites.

Bloggers can devote their time in different ways in order to get better results with social media (writing new blog posts, networking with other social media users, etc.), but one thing that tends to get some easy results is to use recognized social media icons and voting buttons on the blog.

Voting buttons and icons work well for very simple reasons. First, they encourage visitors to vote for your content. And second, they make it easy for visitors to do so.

Common Mistakes When Using Social Media Icons/Buttons

Because voting buttons, widgets and icons can encourage votes and lead to more visitors through social media, many bloggers tend to overdo them. You will see blogs with voting buttons for every possible social media site you can image.

This is a bad approach to take. Too many icons and buttons will leave you with a very cluttered blog that isn’t easily readable, and it will be distracting to readers. Additionally, this approach tends to result in votes that are spread out over a large number of social media sites, which will usually produce poor results.

If you have 20 different voting buttons on your site and you get one vote through each button, you’ll see very little, if any, traffic as a result. However, if you have one or two voting buttons and you get 20 votes, it will make a difference in your traffic levels (depending on the particular social media sites).

By showing only a few voting buttons, you are helping visitors by telling them that these are the specific sites where you want votes. With too many buttons they will not know which sites are your preferred places to get votes.

Ways to Use Social Media Icons

The best approach is to only use about two or three buttons on your blog to produce maximum results. Pick the sites that you target based on how well they match up with your blog’s audience, as well as their potential to send visitors to your blog.

Another thing to keep in mind is that small bloggers will typically not have the best results if they are only targeting major social media sites like Digg. With a small audience, you are much more likely to get significant exposure from a smaller niche-specific social media site that will require fewer votes in order to become “popular.”

Some blogs will have audience that consist largely of people that do not use social media. If this is the case for you, consider using your blog to inform your readers about a particular social media site, how they can use it, and how they can vote for you.