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E-Commerce Marketing Ideas to increase Online Sales (Part 1)

It’s never an easy job to start an e-commerce website. It’s even more difficult to run a profitable one. Though, you’ll find lots of tips and tricks on strengthening e-commerce sales, but it will out to be completely pointless if you’re not following the right strategies.

For any kind of business, increasing online sales is the key goal for most of the businesses. Whether you run a small business or are employed by a big e-commerce giant like Google, boosting sales is important which looks easy, but in reality, it isn’t.

In this competitive online world, every store struggles to get the smallest opportunity. But in the business of online shopping, most of the retailers follow the similar pattern, “Add these two items and take 10% off” and “Customers who purchased this item also bought…”.

Here are 10 actionable techniques you can use to increase online sales performance.

1. Highlight Reviews

When we make a purchase, we all know how important word of mouth is, whether at a local store or online. In fact, most of the purchase decision is triggered after a positive word of mouth recommendation either from family members, friends or past purchasers.

E-commerce gives you the advantage of highlighting customer reviews right at the point of purchase, just when the customer is deciding whether to buy from you or not. This definitely is a great advantage to have by your side.

2. Target your existing Customers

It’s great for your business if you can keep getting new customers. But, it’s much more cost efficient to go after your existing customer base because these people are already familiar with your brand. They know how to use your products, and there’s no learning curve. So, it’s better to focus on ways to improve their experience.

3. Offer more Discounts

Most of the companies or online shopping websites don’t offer discounts to their customers. So, to increase your profit margin, just jack up the base price of each product and then put it on sale. Everyone loves getting a good deal, so this is a great way to drive sales.

4. Selling Through Social Media

Today, many of the social media platforms available give you the ability to link your online store and sell to consumers in a social setting without pushing forceful advertisements. With a perfect social media marketing strategy you can boost up your sales. One element of it is that make sure that the likes and comments you are receiving aren’t just vanity metrics. Convert those engagements into ROI through product sales.

5. Customize your Content

Businesses must adopt content marketing strategy to communicate with their customers in a way they understand best. Customizing your content will give you a chance of being relevant to your audience, which will further increase your website traffic. A perfect example here would be the development of a blog on your website.

In the next part we discuss about some more E-commerce marketing ideas which can help to market you online and increase e-commerce sales.

E-Commerce Marketing ideas to increase online sales  (Part 2)

In previous post about E-Commerce Marketing Ideas to increase online sales we discussed about

1) Highlight Reviews

2) Target your existing customers

3) Offer more Discounts

4) Selling through Social Media

5) Customize your Content

Today, we take the same forward with some more profitable techniques to increase your online sale

6. Multiple Email Campaigning

Email marketing for your ecommerce store remains one of the most effective marketings channels that is widely used by marketers today. Some marketing include sending out email newsletter containing new arrivals and popular products. You can generate leads using lead magnets on your site like newsletter sign-ups, blog sign-ups, and collect customer information during checkout.

7. Video Marketing

Video marketing is a great way to convey a message and is certainly much more shareable on social media. For any ecommerce store, producing videos should be one of your first ecommerce marketing ideas. The videos could be a product description video or how to use your product video. They are a great way to personalize communication and improve the customer experience.

8. Blog Marketing

To learn more about your business and products you can publish blog articles with informative content on your website for customers. Blog marketing is the best way to create buzz about your brand, grow your SEO strength on search engines, and share more information about your products or your industry. Publish blogs regarding the latest trends, frequently asked questions and product experiences.

9. Optimize for the Mobile World

In the era of digitalization, customers crave mobile responsiveness. Implement a responsive interface so that your ecommerce website transforms for devices like tablets and smartphones. They don’t want to open a completely different mobile site to see a mobile-friendly interface.

10. Provide as many as Payment Options

Provide more payment options, including newer services that are becoming increasingly popular on mobile, you’re making easier for prospects to give you their money. It can be a hassle to optimize your site, but by including all these options is a great way to increase online sales, particularly if your site has strong mobile traffic.

Conclusion :

Successfully running an e-commerce business is never a sure bet, but using the above-mentioned strategies will ensure that you haven’t left things merely to chance. Moreover, all of these strategies will work if implemented correctly!

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How to write a successful blog article in 2018

Blog writing offers you the independence to create account, according to your own choice. In 2018, it’s important to know how to write a successful blog article. If your blog posts are written properly, they can help drive valuable traffic to one’s website.This is because knowing how to write a successful blog article can help build trust with customers, improve keyword rankings, generate leads, educate consumers, and even build better brand awareness.

What makes a blog content perfect?

A perfect blog content is all about the quality. While writing a blog post you need to achieve both technical and creative qualities. So, if you desire to write a successful blog article in 2018, choose valuable and relevant concepts and present them in the best possible format. This will impress your readers as well as the search engines.

Tips for writing a successful blog article in 2018

Provide useful and Informative Content

The main purpose of a blog article should be to inform the reader about your business, product, services or industry. Providing useful and informative content will readers to find value in what you have to say, while also helping build a high level of trust with your target audience. While writing a blog, make sure that the content is unique to your website, as copying and pasting from other websites can result in Google interpreting as duplicate content.

Add Internal Links

To enhance and deepen the overall value of the website, add internal links from your blog article to other pages or post on the company website. While linking to other pages or posts, it is important to link to other information that is relevant to the article topic in order to bolster the authority to both pages.  While linking make sure that the anchor text is keyword optimized and appropriate for the landing page.

Create a logical structure

While writing a blog create a logical structure which will help you to communicate a concept or idea in a clear and concise way, making it easy for readers to follow along. Use headings, subheadings, paragraph breaks, images and videos when applicable. Adding items like a bulleted list or two can help provide a flow for the reader that is easy to read and digest.

Use a Strong Call-to-Call action

Make sure that your blog article has a strong call-to-call action at the end that invites readers to engage further with the website or company. It is extremely important to ensure that you are telling the reader exactly what you want them to do next.

Optimize Content for Search Engines

To make your blog article rank higher on search engines is by following basic SEO rules. Including the following items will help to maximize your articles performance potential on search engines:

  • Keyword optimized title
  • Keyword-relevant URL
  • High-quality images with ALT tags
  • Embedded video if applicable
  • LSI keywords (latent semantic indexing)
  • Keyword optimized meta title tag
  • Engaging meta description tag with a call-to-action

How to start writing a blog in 5 steps:

  • Choose a great blog platform
  • Choose a web host for your blog
  • How to set up a blog on your own domain
  • Design your new blog
  • Useful resources for blogging
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Is your content doing good ? 5 ways to correct content writing

Is your content doing good ? 5 ways to correct content writing

Content is everywhere – from advertisements and social media to blogs and press releases – and is bound to evolve with time. Content writing plays a vital role in boosting businesses as quality content has the power to entice visitors and keep them coming back for more.

In the era of digitalization, it becomes imperative to write compelling content that breaks through the clutter and captures the reader’s attention. Anything short of that is just not good enough.

Here are 5 simple ways to boost your content writing skills:

1. Know your readers

Write in such an effective way that it will resonate with your readers. So, while writing ensures you have a thorough idea of who your readers are, what are the topics relevant to them and what kind of writing style best speaks to them. After defining your target audience you can go ahead and create relevant and effective content.

2. Understand SEO

In the world of digitalization, if you are a content writer you ought to know everything about SEO. It is important to create SEO-friendly content because it has become a norm. SEO tactics are any content you produce for the web.

In your writing it is essential to incorporate SEO factors such as using the right keywords, using backlinks, creating compelling headlines to get Google to recognize your page and improve your SEO rankings, thereby increasing page visibility.

3. Show your Versatility

Content writing comprises of various kinds of writing styles such as – journalistic style to SEO and social media writing. With so many content writing styles, it is important to understand and adopt the different writing styles to ace versatility in writing.

By keeping these things in mind, you can deliver quality and relevant content that specifically speaks to your target audience.

4. Create your own Original Content

Don’t make the mistake of ‘copy paste’ because of it very boring, outdated and unoriginal content. You need to completely own the content you write. In the web, you’ll find multiple contents on the same topic and might wonder if there is any room for originality. Well, there always is. While writing the content you need to give your content an unique tone and adopt an angle that specifically caters to your readers.

Unoriginal content not only put readers off but it also impacts your SEO rankings because Google is strictly against duplicate content.

5. Read Regularly

Read regularly as it will help you to get exposure to different writing styles, forms and genres. It will help widening your thinking horizons and let you tackle different subjects with ease. A good reader naturally develops a better vocabulary and gets inspiration for their own writing.

So, everyday read things that interest you – it can be a work of fiction, a website column or even your favorite magazine. It is also a good idea to read topics and give attention to writing styles that you would like to produce yourself.

Conclusion

Content writing is not only about phrasing sentences, it is about writing great stuff. There is no straight forward formula to become a successful content writer, you have to put in a lot of effort to create something unique and original to allure the readers. So, follow these simple tips and level up your content writing skills with ease.

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Managing domain reputation

Managing domain reputation

This article describes best practices for managing your domain reputation to ensure that your email is considered to be trustworthy.

Prerequisites

  • Applies to: Administrator
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Tools required: DNS host admin access

Manage domain reputation

Domain reputation, in terms of email, is a measure of how trustworthy others believe your domain’s email to be. Every email recipient maintains their own specific measure of reputation, but there are many industry-accepted recommendations that domain owners can follow to build a solid reputation. As more and more email providers are strengthening their rules for what is considered untrustworthy, failure to follow these recommendations might lead to your mail being considered spam, rate limited, or rejected.

The three pillars of any domain reputation strategy are Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC). These features are designed to provide two basic things:

A method of verifying that the email comes from a legitimate source specified by the domain owner.

A way for you, as the domain owner, to tell email providers what to do with messages that do not meet those legitimacy requirements.

Individually, these three pillars are limited in how much they can do, but together they form a fairly clear process for identifying legitimate email from your domain. Providing these clear indicators is fundamental to establishing a good domain reputation. Rackspace recommends the following 1, 2, 3 approach to establish domain reputation:

Create an SPF record. SPF is a DNS record that tells the world where your email is authorized to come from. This record typically contains entries for your email hosting provider and any email services you use, such as ticketing systems, Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs), and bulk sending services.

Enable DKIM. DKIM applies an encrypted signature that is specific to your domain on every message sent from your domain. Most email service providers offer DKIM as a feature of their service. Typically, each sending service listed in your SPF record has its own DKIM signature that it adds to your email.

Create a DMARC policy. DMARC is built on SPF and DKIM. It combines the validation results from both SPF and DKIM, and adds a “sender alignment check” to protect against many forms of spoofing. The policy part of DMARC is what allows you, as the domain owner, to specify what to do with email that fails these checks. It also includes a reporting aspect that is critical to long-term management of your domain’s reputation. This reporting gives you visibility into the email being sent as your domain: where it’s coming from (SPF), whether or not it’s properly signed (DKIM), and whether or not it is passing your DMARC policy.\

Because many companies have multiple domains and use many services that require email, managing reputation across several domains can become complicated. Here are some general recommendations for managing your business email needs across many domains. The following sections offer some general recommendations for managing your business email needs accross many domains.

Separate your email needs

You should always separate mail by purpose and class (marketing, sales, transactional, person-to-person, and so on) by using specific subdomains wherever possible. The following table shows different email purposes and their suggested domain naming conventions:

 

Ticket system emailsMarketing emailsNewsletter emails
support.mydomain.commarketing.mydomain.comnews.mydomain.com

In addition to separating email by purpose, the following recommendations help to properly manage your domain’s reputation:

  • Never share DKIM keys between services. Each source should have its own DKIM key. Most services offer this as a feature. If a subdomain has multiple sending sources, then it has multiple SPF includes and DKIM keys. This is perfectly normal.
  • Segregating emails enables you to lock down each mail stream, as well as isolate each mail stream from any issues the others might have. This is important when it comes to managing the sending reputation of your different email sources. When it comes to managing your domain’s (and subdomain’s) reputation, different classes of email have different considerations.
  • Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for each subdomain.
  • Keep your sending sources segregated and manageable for both SPF and DKIM records.

Person-to-person corporate mail is special

For person-to-person corporate mail, consider the following best practices:

  • Reserve your primary domain for only person-to-person email (your employees).
  • Don’t use vanity addresses on your primary domain for automated systems, such as support@mydomain.com for your ticketing system.
  • Configure an umbrella DMARC policy on the root domain, and create subdomain-specific DMARC policies based on the specific requirements and class of mail it represents.

    For example, you might use p=quarantine on your primary domain (person-to-person email), but p=reject on your outbound-only transactional email (support tickets).

    Taking this step also ensures that the root domain catches all DMARC reporting that might be missed or misconfigured at the subdomain level, as well as catching any unauthorized subdomains attempting to spoof your brand.

 
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Solve 500 Internal Server Error in WordPress

The 500 Internal Server Error is the most unhelpful and nondescript bane of web developers everywhere. It’s a catch-all error message that can literally mean anything. Sometimes, your WordPress site gives no error at all and just shows a blank page. How on earth are you supposed to figure out what’s wrong?

It happens to the best of us, but no need to panic. Here’s my own debug process, in order of likelihood and with solutions.

Plugins

If you’ve just installed a new plugin or if your site is showing 500 errors after a core WordPress upgrade, the most likely cause is an incompatible plugin. There are many reasons for a plugin being “broken”:

WordPress may have removed some core functions the plugin uses.
The plugin may have been coded for an old version of PHP, and not been updated.It could just be coded incorrectly, by referring to default database names rather than using prefixes, for example.

Identifying the plugin is easy if you’ve just installed one and the error has emerged, but how can you disable the plugin if it’s taken down the wp-admin area of your site too? You’ll need FTP access, is the short answer, though the web-based file manager from CPanel or Plesk will work fine too.

Solution:

All you need to do is rename the wp-content/plugins/ folder. Place a _ in front of the plugins folder, so it’s named _plugins, and you should now be able to login again to your WordPress admin area. By renaming the folder, you effectively de-activated every plugin – you should get a bunch of error messages from WordPress saying “X plugin was deactivated because the file Y.php can’t be found”. Don’t worry, you won’t have lost any settings – those are stored in the database, and any decent plugin should find them again upon re-activation.

Rename the folder back again, removing the _. Refresh the WordPress plugins and they’ll all be listed again, but in a deactivated state. You can now re-activate them one by one until you find the culprit; then do it all again, obviously leaving out the bad plugin this time.

It’s unfortunate when this happens, but chances are there’s a better plugin out there that is compatible. Find it.

Incompatible Theme

Disabling plugins didn’t help? It’s probably something in your theme, then. Just like plugins, you can force the active theme to break by simply renaming it. Go back to the WordPress admin area (if you can, of course – if you can’t, it’s probably nothing to do with your theme) and WordPress will alert you that it’s fallen back to the default theme. Check the site again. Of course, this doesn’t really help if you’re committed to a particular theme, so may want to re-enable it and head down to the section on Enabling PHP Debug; or just go and find a newer, compatible theme.

Bad .htaccess

If de-activating your plugins achieved nothing and it’s also not your theme, it’s possible that your .htaccess file became corrupted in some way. Usually when this happens you can still access the admin area of the site. The .htaccess file handles rewrite rules and cache settings, but sometimes you’ll edit this file directly to manually code in things like 301 redirects.

 

Solution:

Rename the .htaccess file in the root of your WordPress install folder to something like .htaccess_old. If you can’t actually see the file there, you need to enable viewing of hidden files – the exact method of doing that will vary according to your FTP client. The “.” at the start of the filename is a way of saying “hide this” in Linux and other UNIX-like systems.

Once you’ve renamed the current .htaccess, go back to WordPress admin area, then head over to Settings -> Permalinks and, without making any changes, hit save. This will automatically generate a new working version of the file, though any changes you made manually will be lost.

Enable PHP Debugging

We can enable a debug log from within WordPress config, which might give a clue as to the exact problem – but at this point you’re on your own. You’ll need to figure out how to fix it, which will require coding skills.

To enable the debug log, open up wp-config.php in the root of your WordPress install. Find the line that says:

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);

Comment it out using // at the start, then paste in the following:

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
define(‘WP_DEBUG_LOG’, true);
define(‘WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY’, false);
@ini_set(‘display_errors’,0);

This will start outputting errors to a file in wp-content folder called error.log. If you refresh your FTP and see nothing after a minute or so, it’s possible it doesn’t have permission to create the file. Manually create a new error.log file and give it permission 666.

Be warned: this file will continue to grow larger until you remove those lines from your config. Don’t forget to uncomment the original line as well. Read the file in any text editor, and check for any critical PHP errors. In this example, I see a lot of PHP Notices about deprecated code, but these won’t actually break a site.

Server config

I recently had a case where roughly half of all page loads were coming up as 500, but with no set pattern and absolutely nothing helpful in the error logs. Activiting WordPress debug logs showed nothing obvious – lots of PHP notices and deprecations but nothing critical. Finally, I realised I had installed APC caching onto the server the weekend before, to use with W3 Total Cache. Uninstalling that completely eradicated the 500 errors.

My point: the 500 error could simply be a combination of server configs that present an incompatibility. This is unlikely if you’re using managed services, but with your own Virtual Private Server (why should you use a VPS instead of shared hosting?) you’re responsible for making sure everything works together, and this is harder than it sounds.

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How to fix the reported Attack Page by Google

Google is policing the content presented in its search engine results. The “Reported Attack Site!” warning page you see on your site is because Google has detected malicious content on your site. In short, your site has been hacked.

To find out the details of what Google found, click on the button titled “Why was this site blocked?“. A new page will display a breakdown of questionable content, including a list of affected web pages and the infections on those pages.

To learn more, please visit:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3258249

Fixing the Problem

Change your Password

The first thing you need to do is change your cPanel/FTP password. Since the Google warning might also block access to your cPanel, you should try accessing the site via the server’s hostname.

To open a support ticket, please log in to your Trafficpullz Please login to your Galaxy Dashboard:: https://galaxy.trafficpullz.com

Send the ticket to the Support department, and include the primary domain name on your account as well as the request to reset your cPanel password. Please indicate you are doing this because your site was hacked and you need a *new* password, not the original cPanel password reinstated.

Remove Affected Files

You will need to remove the affected web pages (and other files) by:

  1. Deleting or cleaning the pages/files
  2. Uploading uninfected copies of the pages/files to your site via FTP.  Despite the Google block, you should still have FTP access to your site.
  3. If you need assistance with the cleanup we would recommend you look at our SiteLock Service:

https://www.trafficpullz.com/site-lock-security/

NOTE: If you are using Soholaunch, WordPress, Joomla or a Content Management System that requires you to log into an Admin section of your website, you may not be able to restore your site until after Google removes the warning (you will not otherwise be able to use the proper tools).

If you want to be absolutely sure all the malicious content is gone, you can request an “account reset”. This will erase *everything* on your account: web pages, emails, databases, settings, etc. You may then upload a new copy of your site and recreate your email addresses.  Please make sure that you have a backup for your site before requesting this.

To request an account reset, please submit a ticket.

To open a support ticket, please log in to your Trafficpullz Galaxy Dashboard: https://galaxy.trafficpullz.com

The ticket should go to the Support department, and should specifically state that you want an account reset. Following that, you will receive an email asking you to confirm that you want your account reset and you will need to reply to this email to confirm some information. Once confirmed, our Tech Support department can proceed with your request.

Request a Review

From Google:

You can request that Google take another look at your site. You will need to do this from a Google Webmaster Tools account. If you do not have one, you can create a new one for free here:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

You will need to upload a web page with a special code that will allow Google to verify that you are the legitimate owner of the account.  Once that’s been done, you can request a review from inside your Webmaster Account by following these steps:

On the Webmaster Tools Home page, select the site you want.
Click “Diagnostics” and then click “Malware.”
Click “Request a review.”

The review will be done within the next 24 hours. If nothing malicious is found on your site, Google will remove the warning. If more malicious content is found, the warning will remain in place and the report page will be updated to reflect the new discoveries.

From StopBadware:

The advantage to using StopBadware is that you do not have to create a Google Webmaster account in order to have the warning removed. To request an independent review by StopBadware (instructions copied from stopbadware.org):

  1. Search for your site in the Badware Website Clearinghouse: https://www.stopbadware.org/clearinghouse/search
  2. Find your site in the search results and click the link for your site. You will be taken to the StopBadware.org report page for your site.
  3. Click the “Request an independent review of partners’ findings” button underneath the “Current Activity” section of the report.
  4. Fill out and submit the review form.

Please note: As part of the review process, information submitted in the StopBadware.org review form will be shared with Google.

Change All Remaining Passwords

Once the warning is removed, please log in to your cPanel and change any other passwords you have. For scripts like Soholaunch, WordPress, Joomla, etc., you will need to log in to the website’s Admin area to change the passwords.

      1. Log in to your Trafficpullz dashboard: https://galaxy.trafficpullz.com
      2. Click on “My cPanel”. If you have more than one domain associated with your HostPapa account, click on the appropriate domain link, then enter your cPanel password if required.

 

 

Ignoring The Google Warning:

We strongly suggest you do not select this option.
There is a tiny text link on the Google Warning page that states: “Ignore this warning”. If you click on it, you may be able to access your site but you will expose your computer to whatever has infected your site. If it is a new form of malicious software, there is no guarantee that your anti-virus software will protect you.

 
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Striking a work-life balance for the self-employed

Being your own boss is great, you get to make your own hours and set your own deadlines. But it hardly means you can take it lightly, on the contrary chances are the thoughts of your business are consuming your every waking hour. It may be extremely satisfying to be doing something that you love, but if it ends up being the only thing that you ever do, that passion may soon wear thin. What you thoroughly enjoyed doing starts to become a chore – either that or other aspects of your life will begin to suffer.

Having no set schedule to follow, combined with the pressure of growing and maintaining a business, can result in some long hours, to the point where you begin to wonder why you even decided to do this in the first place.

A lot of the self-employed struggle with knowing when to stop. The lines are so blurred between work and play that it can be challenging to find the right balance. That is why it’s so important to enforce rules to help you manage your work without burning out.

Here are some tips to help you strike a work-life balance:

1.Have dedicated working hours – While being your own boss means you get to keep hours that work for you and are flexible, there is some wisdom in having a fixed number of regular working hours every day. This helps in setting up a routine and distinguishing between work time and personal time, with the flexibility to make changes. You are more likely to be productive when you work within fixed hours than around the clock.

Also, it avoids “work” and “personal” spheres of your life overlapping too much, leading to the feeling of not being able to unplug.

Plan your day to get the important and urgent tasks done before anything else, so you can be flexible about the rest of the day.

2.Set boundaries – Have a dedicated work space at home that is separate from where you undertake leisure activities. This will help create a mental divide between your work and personal space. When you’re in that space you’re working and when you step away it’s for a break or when you’re done for the day. This will help you be more productive without getting distracted.

It’s also very important to enforce boundaries when it comes to friends and family. Let them know when you are working and can’t be interrupted. Just because you are working from home doesn’t mean you are available to them at anytime. Letting other things encroach on your work periods only means that work will have to get done at another time—like when you’re supposed to be enjoying dinner with your family.

Similarly, stand strong when it comes to the times you are not available to work. Make sure your clients know when and how to reach you, and make it clear from the start that you check your email/phone messages/etc. during certain periods. This ensures that they are aware of the times when you are available to them and can schedule work accordingly.

3.Have some ‘personal time’ – Make time for hobbies, interests and pastimes that are entirely unrelated to your work. Spend quality time with friends and family and distract yourself from that never-ending to-do list. Having some quality ‘personal time’ is crucial if you want to perform at your best when you’re working. It gives you the opportunity to reboot and you will be all the better for it.

4.Create a routine that optimises your energy – A routine is more than just a time management strategy; it can also help you get into work mode and make the most of your body’s energy levels. Depending on when you perform best, whether in the morning or late at night, schedule your work to make efficient and effective use of your energy. When you’re at your productive best work on projects that require effort in terms of creativity, thinking and energy. For the times you are low on energy or capacity, you can finish up simpler routine tasks.

5.Don’t feel guilty – It’s easy to be guilt ridden when not working because you feel you’re being unproductive. Don’t let that happen. If you’re managing your work well and are able to deliver on time, then there is no reason to fret.

Remember if you are self employed, you answer to yourself, therefore any feelings of guilt that you may have for not working are entirely self-inflicted. Remind yourself why it’s important for you to have some leisure time and focus on that when pangs of guilt appear. Getting down time makes you more energised and hence more productive.

Follow these easy tips and you’re sure to have a better work-life balance that will benefit you, both professionally and personally.

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Advantages of getting a Personal Domain Name

A personal domain name acts like a digital CV. It is an extension of your image and a great platform to showcase your work. It allows you to have a professional presence on the Internet and makes you look like one of the “big” players. You don’t have to have a Domain name to be on the net. Individuals can also own a personalised domain name – e.g. www.anitasingh.in. You can brand yourself through a personalized domain and e-mail to help your online image.

Once you own your own domain, you can do anything you want with it. If you are a business owner, you can use it to host your online store or share critical information with a global customer base. If you are an individual, you can create a digital home base that you can use to communicate with friends, family and acquaintances. It’s a real online location to refer people if they want to learn more about you.

Owning a personal domain name is especially important for those offering professional services as individuals. It gives you a strong online presence and identity, making it easy for people to find your website and information about you.

Here are just some of the benefits of having your own personal domain name:

1.Rights to the domain name – Like any trade name, logo, or brand name, your domain name represents a part of your business identity – something customers and business associates can recognise, remember, and positively associate with your services or products. Since names are issued on a first come, first served basis, even if you don’t have a web site yet, or perhaps not even e-mail, it’s important to register your preferred domain name now in order to secure your naming rights. Registering your domain name will at very least prevent someone else from using it.

2.Simplicity – With your own domain name, access on the World Wide Web becomes a simple matter of entering Yourname.com. It is easy to find as people just need to recollect your name. It will also look better on your business card or any other place you plan to mention your website.

3.Credibility – Having your own domain name projects a professional image of you and your company, normally associated with large companies. It tends to say to others that you’re a serious business person, operating an established business, in a professional manner. Prospective customers will more readily transact with businesses with a professional, established online presence – made possible with a personalized domain.

4.E-mail – By doing business under your own domain name, you can use multiple e-mail “aliases”. Every e-mail message affirms your name, e.g. sales@you.com, manager@you.com, service@you.com. A custom e-mail address goes a long way in maintaining professional communications with your customers.

5.Portability – Without your own domain name, your Internet address is tied to that of your service provider. Thus, if you want to change providers you also change your web address and probably e-mail address as well. This involves time and money spent in notifying your clients, suppliers, business associates; and getting the new address printed on cards, brochures or any physical communication you may issue. You can avoid this hassle when you own your domain name, and wish to change your service provider.

6.Permanence – Also, you can keep your domain name for as long as your business is online, and maintain your subscription. No one else can use your domain, unless you sell it to them.

7.Avoids Loss of Momentum – As any web marketer knows, it takes effort to promote a web site, and sometimes months to get it listed on the popular search engines. Fortunately, over time, some of those marketing efforts can build momentum, bringing more and more traffic to your site without additional marketing effort. But, if you can’t take your web address with you when you switch to another ISP or host, you can lose much – if not all – of the momentum gained by your previous web marketing efforts.

8.SEO – Having your own domain name will increase your website’s positioning under search results on top search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

9.Geographic targeting – Google searches can be heavily influenced by a user’s geographical location, so if you appeal to regional customers, take advantage of country extensions in your domain name e.g. “www.yourname.in’’.

10.Future potential – You will have the opportunity to acquire multiple domains with different suffixes (like .org, .net, .me, .co) and associate all of them with your existing domain name.

In today’s internet era, you are expected to be online and have your own website. It becomes the basis on which those who want to associate with you do an initial evaluation of your offering. If you are unavailable on the web, then you might lose out on prospective customers.

The first step in making a digital presence is the registration of a domain name. It is a vital step for all businesses and organisations, whether or not you currently feel the Internet is important to your business. Internet growth continues at an exponential rate and it won’t be long before your customers, suppliers and others demand it from you. Registering your preferred name now will allow you to secure a valuable identity for yourself on the Internet to ensure you make the most of the available opportunities.

 
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Choosing the right Domain Name for your website

So you’ve finally set up your business, everything is in order, got your products ready. You even have the name of your business sorted – Amma’s Homemade Treats. The next step being putting it out there – letting people know about you and creating demand through your website. But despite all the confidence you have, it can be a nerve-wracking to pick the perfect domain name and extension. This is potentially permanent, so you want to get it right.

There are plenty of different aspects to consider before selecting just any name. So how do you ensure your website is represented by the best possible domain name and extension?

Here is just a bit of information on how domain names came about: Before 1984, when University of Wisconsin (USA) technicians developed a name server, there were no domain names, only numbers like http://174.120.153.75/ to designate a website address. That would look awful on a business card and definitely not SEO friendly.

Suddenly in 1985, domain names using the extensions .com, .net, and .org were available to the world. And today, tens of thousands of new domain names are registered every single day – with over 300 domain extensions ranging from .ac to .zw!

Domain names generally cost a few hundred rupees a year – a basic fee, but premium domain names can go up to a lot more.

A .com domain name – It is advisable to get a .com domain name as it’s one of the most common, and generally what people relate to when they think of a website. A majority of websites are .com sites. If you’re going to be telling people what your website address is (as opposed to them finding you in search engine results), there are benefits to using the “default” domain extension .com simply for easy recall.

Availability – In case your domain name is unavailable, there are a few workarounds, such as utilizing a hyphen or an underscore. If you choose do so, limit yourself to one to avoid looking spammy, but consider the possibility of missed opportunities when you tell someone, “That’s ammas-homemadetreats.com.” They may forget the hyphen, or type in “ammasdashhomemadetreats.com.” Seems like a silly mistake, but it does happen.

To avoid these mishaps, consider using keywords in your domain instead of your company name. For example, you could choose the domain name Freshhomemadetreats.com. If you’re concerned about branding, you could always purchase a branded URL later and redirect it to your generic domain name. This is a considerable project, as each individual page must be redirected.

Related extensions – Experts do not recommended that SEO-conscious webmasters purchase low quality TLDs such as .biz, .info, .ws, .name, etc. as a means of increasing traffic.
But, if you’re concerned about protecting a branded website address, then you may want to purchase related domain extensions and redirect them to your home page, just to avoid brand confusion in the future.

Picking the appropriate non .com domain –

1. .Net – If you simply MUST have a domain name that is not available with the .com extension, consider a .net address. These are a good option for tech companies since there is a subtle mental hook – .net = internet or network. This is the second most popular extension and is widely accepted for businesses of all types.

A .net domain is not advisable when you can have the .com or if the resulting domain name gives the wrong impression. “GreatHair.net,” for example, might be good for supplying hairnets to the food service industry, but not for your high-end hair salon!

2. .Org – If you are a non-profit, the .org extension make sense. Technically the .org extension is open to all, but is not recommended for business ventures, as there is an expectation that .org = non-profit.

3..Info – If your site exists purely to compile and provide information, as opposed to promoting a product or service, you could use a .info domain extension. But, if you’re clearly promoting yourself, a product, or a service, a .info extension might be misleading and not even get you the target audience you desire.

4..Biz – If you’re a business owner, you are allowed to use .biz. But deserved or not, it has a trust problem, being frequently associated with poor quality, spammy websites.

5.Lesser Known Extensions – With 300+ available, all can’t be covered, but here are a few examples:

•.name – For use by individuals only.
•.me – Good for personal branding, or if you can cleverly make it part of your business name (i.e., chaiti.me).
•.pro – For registered professionals.
•.tv – Technically for websites in Tuvalu, this is open to everyone and is a good option for a television-related site.
•Specialty domains such as .aero and .travel are reserved for their specific industries and might be a good choice only if your customer base and business associates are extremely well-accustomed to the domain extension.

The Bottom Line on Domain Extensions – While choosing the perfect domain for your new website might feel like a hugely important decision, much more important to the ultimate success of your online endeavours is your decision to commit to creating plenty of quality content, ensuring ease of use, and fostering lead generation potential.

You should also make sure the domain you’re considering doesn’t come with any built-in Google penalties. If purchasing from an existing site owner, ask to see the Google Analytics overview from the last six months. A dramatic drop in traffic is a good reason to reconsider.

Finally – before there is no going back – ask around, friends, family, colleagues, business associates, what they think of your domain name. They just might point out something that you missed, saving you time and trouble before investing in a disastrous domain name.

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CRM for a Small Business

Is CRM even needed for a small business, you might wonder. Before we get to that, let’s understand what it is all about.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, a term first coined in the 1990’s. The literal and original meaning of the expression “Customer Relationship Management” was, simply, managing the relationship with your customer.

Today, Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term that refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving business relationships with customers, assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth.

Like many buzzwords, the term CRM has been adopted by IT system vendors to fit their product. CRM might be used to describe a cloud CRM systems for sales people (Sales Force Automation, Opportunity Management), for marketing people (Marketing Automation, Campaign Management), for Helpdesks (Customer Service and Support), email and voice logging, and so on. CRM systems are designed to compile information on customers across different channels — or points of contact between the customer and the company — which could include the company’s website, telephone, live chat, direct mail, marketing materials and social media. CRM systems can also give customer-facing staff detailed information on customers’ personal information, purchase history, buying preferences and concerns.

According to Wikipedia, “the generally accepted purpose of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is to enable organizations to better serve their customers through the introduction of reliable processes and procedures for interacting with those customers”.

Given the above definition and purpose of CRM, it is obvious then that CRM as a concept, policy or strategy is essential for any and every business irrespective of size.

In fact, some believe that small businesses need CRM more than larger competitors. This is because small companies rely more desperately on the value they get from each individual customer. Local marketplaces typically have a limited population of customers. Plus, you must compete with other large and small businesses for those customers. With CRM, you can get firmer control of which customers offer the most value so that you can dedicate your marketing efforts at getting them in the door and retaining them.

The three key reasons that CRM is important for a small business are as follows:

1.Increase profitability – According to Forbes, it is “six to seven times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.” Therefore retaining an existing customer for life should be a company’s primary objective.

A CRM solution can help organizations increase profitability by building and maintaining strong relationships with their customers and prospects. By retaining customers there will be less need to spend money on marketing, to find and acquire new customers. CRM solutions allow a company to maintain relationships with customers by knowing what they want and when they want it. The data collected from website traffic and enquiries allows a company to be able to strategically target certain products and services to the correct prospect or customer. By knowing what a customer or prospect has been viewing on the website, the company will be able to provide content or a follow up call offering them the services or products they are interested in – thus leading to higher possibility of making a sale. It is also vital to recognize the importance of building new relationships with prospects to bring in additional revenue. A CRM can help with both, nurturing existing relationships and acquiring and building new ones.

2.Increase productivity – Automation is key to increasing productivity. Where a team manually inputs data and searches through different files to find the information needed, a CRM solution automates this for the entire organization, with the click of a button. CRM solutions allow teams to create reports across many different databases with the requisite information, in a few simple steps. Consequently this means that time can be better utilized – for following up leads and converting prospects into customers leading to more sales.

3.Improve customer service – It is estimated that only 7% of organizations follow-up with their web leads within an hour. The sooner a lead is followed up the higher the possibility of converting them into a customer. It’s all about first impressions and getting to your prospects in good time, because chances are they have contacted your competitors too. In fact, according to Forbes, 71% of organizations waste their web leads by taking up to 47 hours to follow up with them.

A CRM system will assist a sales team in following up with leads in real time, as and when they come in. It will give reminders to prompt when a lead or customer needs following up with, allowing the sales team to nurture a relationship with their prospects and customers. Having these reminders will allow an organization to contact their prospects and customers at the right time, meaning time won’t be spent bombarding them with unwanted phone calls and emails, or they won’t go unattended for an extended period of time. Real time customer engagement is about giving the customer an experience as personal as possible.
Businesses essentially want to establish connections with new customers, retain them and develop long-running, loyal relationships. CRM thus becomes extremely important as it greatly aids in that.