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Two Tried And Tested Methods Of Generating Sales On The Internet

By David Hurley

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Published: 19Nov2009
Word count: 806
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It is as true on the Internet as on the high street that people love buying stuff, especially if it's been recommended to them by a trustworthy source, but they hate being sold to, especially if the salesperson is somebody they've never seen before.

With that in mind, we have to ask ourselves what is the best way for work from home Internet entrepreneurs to generate sales with an online business?

A lot of people think the answer is to build an anonymous, impersonal website and pack it with lots of flashing banners and links to their various offers in the hope that visitors to their site will see one that takes their fancy, click on it, and then buy the product.

If you think that is the way to make money on the Internet, you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

The vast majority of people who visit such a site will be put off by the blatant sales pitch. Their first instinct will be to leave the site never to return to it again.

So, what's the best way to generate sales on the Internet for the small home-based online entrepreneur?

There seem to be two methods that work well.

1. Selling unique, highly desirable or hard to get products to a well-defined niche market.

2. Using permission marketing techniques to build a list and sell on the back-end.

Each of these two marketing methods can be run with or without the other. Let's have a look at each of them in more detail.

1. If you have a product that is unique, highly desirable or hard to get, which appeals to a specific niche market and is also easy for you to ship, you could make a lot of money selling it on the Internet, direct from your website.

But how do you know that your product is all of those things?

Easy! Simply test it on eBay.com. If your product sells well on eBay, you can bet that you'll be able to sell it on a niche website of your own.

When you set up your website, make sure that it's friendly and easy to navigate. Post information about yourself, not just about your product. Be up-front about yourself and give the visitor a way to get in contact with you.

Post articles about the benefits of the product. Don't forget to sell the sizzle - sell the dream that the product represents. If your articles are well written you may not even need to do much keyword research in order to get sales, although it is worth checking which keywords generate most searches and incorporating them into your website content.

Start a blog and write about all aspects of your products and services, about your involvement with them, and add a link at the end of each post to your website.

Post a few articles on some of the leading article directories about your product.

Make your product easy to purchase straight from your website. PayPal is an excellent merchant service, and most people feel safe using it on the Internet today.

2. "Permission marketing" is a term that was coined by Seth Godin to describe a method of building trust with customers before pitching your products or services to them. This is by far the best method of selling information and digital products.

Permission marketing is a response to the fact that few people will buy anything from a website that they have never visited before. So, instead of trying to sell something, offer your visitors a unique report, or information kit which they can instantly download after filling in a simple online form.

With permission marketing an auto responder is an essential tool. When a visitor fills in the form on your website, the auto responder will swing into action and direct them to the download page. It will also add their name and e-mail address to your mailing list.

Now you can follow-up with your prospect by sending them more information via e-mail and generate sales by introducing them to your products and services "on the back-end".

In order for this model to be successful, you have to over-deliver with solid useful well-written expert information. You need to focus on the needs and the situation of your prospects and build up a relationship with them through the written word, as well as by audio and video recordings, forum participation, and so on. Present your products as solutions to their problems and sales will follow.

The key with both methods of selling on the Internet is to present yourself and your products in an open, informative and friendly manner.

Combining the two methods of making money on the Internet is an excellent way to generate sales on the front-end and then follow up with those customers through back-end repeat sales via e-mail.

David Hurley is an Internet marketer who lives in Hiroshima, Japan. Keep up with his tweets on http://twitter.com/hirohurl. Click the following link to for more articles on the best Internet marketing strategies.

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