TIP #1: WEB PRESENCE:
Obviously
to run an online business you must have a website to start. Wheter you
running from your own site, Etsy, Storenvy or even a blog. There are
always ways to maximize your web presence. This is key with a website
the more sites you have the easier you get found. Things to
consider: Opening social media accounts, Facebook, twitter, Pinterest
are huge and even Google+. You may already have these accounts but are
using them? Are you engaging the customers? If you want social media to
work for you, you have to give a little. Yes you can make friends pretty
easily on these sites but if you want to make an impression you need to
get involved. One of the biggest ways to gain followers and to get
people to share your content is by sharing and following them. People
appreciate that you share their content and they return the favor.
Sharing is caring!
TIP#2 NETWORKING:
Take
time each week to read through some blogs and social media sites and
sincerely comment, subscribe and read. Look for people who share
interests with you and that engage you.. This tiny fun effort can pay
off BIG TIME. People appreciate when you take time to read there posts
and they will return the favor most of the time. Do this as an effort to
make friends not to just get more readers and comments. That is the key
sincerity....
TIP#3PINTEREST:
Pinterest is one of the most used social media sites.
Make boards based off of keywords for your business so when people are
searching in google your boards show up. Make one for each catagory.
Also pin and re-pin other people boards and pics. Follow people and
comment and they will also return the favor.
TIP#4 KEYWORDS:
Make
sure your keywords are working for you. Are you using keywords that are
relevant that people are even searching? I will be doing a more
in-depth keywords post in the next couple days if you are all
interested. Keywords should help target your customers, you want
keywords that attract customers not just people passing through. For our
business we sell mason jar chandeliers that we custom make. For the
first few months I was stumped on how to advertise or use keywords.
After we sold a few I relized we were selling to people who where mainly
remodeling there kitchens. I used that info to make some awesome
keywords and it worked!
TIP#5 SUCCESS IS AN ATTITUDE:
Are
you confident in your business? Do you expect to be a success? If you
don't then you need to back track and find your mojo. If you are
expecting your business to fail then it will, if you fear the worst and
it happens you are going to abandon ship. Do you know the reason why
most businesses fail??? They give-up to quickly because there hearts are
not in it. If you are in business to succeed you will find a way to do
so. Be all in and expect your business to succeed and nothing will stop
you.
TIPS#6 NEGATIVE NANCI'S:
You
are going to run into a customer or someone who is negative trust me,
the key is not to let this person define you. Let me tell you story....I
make signs and I was extremely busy in October shipping signs. When I
finish a sign I put the packing label on it so I know where it goes.
Somehow, this was a one and only thing 2 signs got switched and they
went out to the wrong customers. They had received the other person's
sign. The first customers said "no big deal" and she returned the sign
and I sent her sign. The other customer was not so happy, she wrote me a
very long email on how unprofessional that was and how my business is
going to fail. I agreed with her it was unprofessional but it had never
happened before and I it will never happen again. Her nasty email hurt
me at first, no one wants to hear that there business sucks! But I wrote
her back and apologized, I explained to her that it had never happened
before and I would do anything to make it up to her. She never wrote
back....The point is she has no idea who I am and how I run my business,
she was judging off what she knew and that wasn't much. In turn I don't
know what is going on in her life, and for me to get upset with her
would be useless. You can't make everyone happy, but you can try and
when you have at least have tried you feel better about yourself. Don't
let anyone ever define who you are, only you can do that and if you do
mess up you can change in a instant. So
never ever get down on yourself it does nothing. No what you need to do
is feel the best you can about yourself it will in turn reflect out and
others will see that in you.
TIPS#7 TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG??
I
recommend to have a blog, I don't care if you only post once a month it
is an important thing to have on the net. I use my other business blog
to display my items and showcase them. I talk about how we make things
and what we are doing. My blog generates more traffic to my website than
anything else. The older and more relevant your blog becomes the
better. For online business it is important to blog!
Tips#8 ENGAGE:
No
matter what account you are on, facebook, blogger, pinterest,
twitter... etc. You gotta think like the reader or the customer. Do you
really want to see ads of what you have on sale all the time? I know I
don't. I made this mistake in the beginning and posted only info about
my store, but I noticed no one cared. Well of course they don't. It
takes people at least 3 times of seeing something before they will even
notice it. This is because we are always going and running mainly on
auto-pilot(or our subconscious). It is like the tree in the yard you
just noticed that has been there the whole time. When you engage you are
asking people to step out of the ordinary making them use there brains
and come out of that auto pilot mode. Think of thought provoking
questions that are related to your business. Post things that people are
interested in. You can't deny a funny video, people love a funny video!
TIPS#9 FIND YOUR ANGLE:
Ok so you are almost done with this article, what you can do next is sit
down and find out what makes you unique and use it. There are so many
online stores out there how do you get recognized?? First off you need
to be yourself find out what makes you unique. Ask questions, ask why
you sell, what you sell and why you opened a store. You need to do some
leg work for yourself, don't just copy other peoples ideas create your
own. We all spend countless hours reading other peoples materials (
which is fine) but if you can come up with your own unique angle, it is
worth more than gold! It is like a picture, you can take 100 decent
pictures and get people to share them a few times or you can take one a
amazing photo and it is shared millions of times! Be unique, be
yourself, find your angle
TIPS#10 NEVER QUIT!:
keep learning, keep growing and keep pushing
never give up if this is your dream. The person who succeeds is the one
that never gives up. I know that seems a little crazy, but I a telling
you read about peoples success stories. Most of them started out broke,
they pushed through all the negativity and keep going until they made
it. Most people are to afraid to fail so they never even try but this is
what causes people to never succeed either. My favorite thing to tell
people, Edison failed almost 10,000 times when trying to invent the
light bulb, and he said he learned 10,000 ways to not make a light bulb.
But the one way he did learn has changed history. You may not think
what you are doing is that important, but it should be. This is your
life and anything that makes your life better should be your top
priority!
This post was one from my other blog:thiscolorfulllife.blogspot.com but I thought it may be of some interest to my rubbish crows as well!
I hope these tips where helpful! Please comment and share if you liked. I would love to hear from you!!
