Grrr! Why Aren't I Making SALES?! by Cathy Wagner Selling online can be very difficult, more difficult than in
3D world because you do not get any personal contact with your customer. People cannot just browse like they do in a store, they cannot offer feedback, and it is hard to build and maintain trust throughout entire online sales process. What compounds this difficulty is fact that most online marketers have absolutely no experience in field of advertising and sales.
EVALUATE YOUR SALES PROCESS There are many aspects that effect your sales process online and it is possible to track effectiveness at each stage:
PHASE 1 is your advertising. The first step is just to get people to your site.
To measure your traffic you must have some kind of statistics for either your web site or integrated with ads you place, such as ad tracker URL's.
If you can't get people to your site, you must alter your advertising methods or, more likley, your ad copy, there is no way around it. Whether you are using free or paid advertising, a good ad will get clicks (at least some). Remember that no matter how good an ad looks to you, if it doesn't do it's job, it is useless. Keep a log of ads you place along with where and when; don't use ads that do not produce results once they have been given a fair chance.
If your ads never seem to draw visitors, make improving your ad writing skills a priority right away. Today there are many resources available to help you learn to write a better ad, including live personal ad writing workshops and free ad writing seminars.
To be sure that WHERE you are advertising is not problem, it is best to get recommendations from other online marketers for advertising sites and tools that produce results. This will save you time and frustration of trying them all out for yourself. It will also allow you to stay focused on your offer rather than spending your time searching for ways to promote it.
Look for recommendations in marketing chat rooms and ask for their results or find a reputable marketing information site like ONE STOP Internet Business Services (at http://www.onestopinternetbusiness.com ) that will give you plenty of free information along with their proven recommendations.
AFFILIATES without control over their web site need to pay special attention to getting traffic. Presumably offer you are selling includes a web page that sells, after all it sold you.
If you find that you are driving targeted traffic (not just click exchange hits) to your affiliate site, but not making any sales, you need to reconsider your offer: does it really have such a wide public appeal? Maybe new competition has arisen that has made your offer less of a value? Have you given people enough time to consider your offer and have you followed up? Be objective.
