Hi this is Kate Wilber “The Marketing Momma” with Tip # 5 in the “5 Tips To Starting An Online Store” series here at the Work At Home Success Blog. This is my last day here of my week long visit and I just wanted to Thank Leslie for having me here all week.

I have loved sharing my tips to starting an online store and hopefully this info has helped you with your entrepreneur dreams in some small way.

If you missed tips # 1, 2, 3, and 4 you can go here to check them out.

Tip # 5 Make Your First Impression Count

It is important to remember that your potential customers will come to your online store and make their decision to shop with you within only a few seconds of being at your store. This means you have to stand out, you have to draw the customers in and you have to ensure you keep them at your site until they find what they are looking for.  There are thousands of other online stores selling products to your target customer so you need to give them a reason to choose to shop with you.

So, first things first, you should make sure that your overall design is appealing to your customer. Don’t let your website have a dated look to it. Also, having too much text can be distracting and confusing for the reader. Simplicity is key, and be sure to make the pages look as professional as possible. Take a look at my home page at my online store Barefoot Bella to get an idea of what I am talking about.

You also want to keep things up-to-date on your website. What I mean by this is that you want the most recent products, the most recent article links, and the most recent testimonials to show. If it is 2009 and your lead testimonial is from 2003, it will mean nothing to your potential customer.

They want to know the quality of your business now, not six years ago. They also want to be sure that the e-commerce site they are doing business with is still operating and new products can help show them you are indeed still in business. Another way to get their attention is to offer a special deal on your home page whether it be Free Shipping or a discount to your store.  Give them a reason to want to learn more about you and your business.

So that’s Tip #5.  Remember to check out my free report “Top Ten Things To Know About Stating An Ecommerce Store” for more great tips!!

If you know someone who would benefit from these tips to start an online store please send them to this post.

For more step by step guidance to building a successful online store

visit www.startanonlinestore.com

To Your Success!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma

This week is an Interview with Crissy Heron about making extra money during the holidays.



You can listen online here:

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Resources Mentioned On the Show

IndieBizChicks

Hi this is Kate Wilber “The Marketing Momma” with Tip # 4 in the

“5 Tips To Starting An Online Store” series here at the Work At Home Success Blog.

This is day 4 of my week long visit.  If you missed tips # 1, 2, and 3 you can go here to check them out.

Today I wanted to talk about Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Tip # 4 Allow Reviews!

One of the most important things to remember when you are building a business online is that you need to build a relationship with your customers. The internet is a huge place and it is very easy to get lost in the crowd–so that being said you need to find a way to set yourself and your business brand apart from the others.

The best way to do this is by showing your customers what you are all about and building a good relationship with them. One of the best ways to do this is to use your existing happy customers to build your reputation for you.

Think about it—have you ever had a great experience somewhere or come across a place that you absolutely love. You wanted to share that with people right??  People love to share what they are excited about and if a customer becomes your raving fan–make sure you can leverage that by having them tell the world about it. That’s what your reviews should be all about.

Customers want to feel safe online and they want to know that other people have had a good experience with your e-commerce store. So it is very important that you allow your customers to see reviews and testimonials from previous customers. This helps create trust with your customers and it can help you build a reputable business online.

People want to know that they are not alone in something, and if they can see how someone else liked your product, they can make a better decision about whether or not they want to purchase it.

The more information they have, the more confident they will feel about buying a product from you.

So give your customers a great shopping experience and then let them share their experience with others.

If you know someone who would benefit from these tips to start an online store please send them to this post.

For more step by step guidance to building a successful online store

visit www.startanonlinestore.com

To Your Success!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma

Hi this is Kate Wilber “The Marketing Momma” with Tip # 3 in the “5 Tips To Starting An Online Store” series here at the Work At Home Success Blog. This is day 3 of my week long visit.  If you missed tips # 1 and 2 you can go here to check them out.

Today I wanted to talk about one of the most important things to consider when building a successful business online or offline — Customer Service.

Tip # 3 Creating Exceptional Customer Service

When you think of a great business that you have dealt with lately—one that you had a really great shopping experience with—what really stands out?  Sure I bet you loved the product you bought and were happy with it once you got it home and had time to use it.  But you could have bought that product anywhere -right?  Most products on the market right now are available at several different stores—but what makes you buy from one store rather than the other.  Sometimes it’s location, sometimes it’s price, but most of the time I guarantee you would choose a company that has great customer service over any other option.  I know I would.That’s why when you run your own business creating exceptional customer service should be your number one priority.

A happy customer is a loyal customer and good customer service goes a long way.

When you have great customer service you are not only building a great reputation for yourself to bring in new customers but you are also building life long customers that will buy from you over and over again.

So here are just a few tips on creating exceptional customer service that you can build a successful business around.

• First always be available to your customers if they have a concern or question regarding your products or their purchase.  Give them a clear way to contact you and if they do contact you respond to them quickly to help them with their concerns.  There is nothing worse then having a question or concern about a purchase you have made from a company and then not being able to reach anyone about it.

• Second always do your best to keep your customer happy.  Be clear about your policies and procedures of your company but also keep an open mind to every situation and handle them appropriately.  Sometimes you are better off making your customer happy over a small issue that you have to compromise on to build a long lasting relationship with that customer.  Doing so will make them your biggest fan and become a long lasting repeat customer.  Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of –but also don’t be so stubborn that you are unwilling to make exceptions sometimes for the sake of your customer service.

• Third give your loyal customers the opportunity to save money.  Offer them FREE shipping, give them discount codes once a month to show your appreciation for them as a customer, offer free gift wrapping, and so on.  Anything you can think of that will show your customer that you appreciate them and that you want to make their shopping experience with you great.

• The last tip for creating exceptional customer service is to always keep your word.  Building trust with your customer is how you turn new customers into long lasting repeat customers.  If you say their order will ship out to them on Tuesday make sure it ships on Tuesday.  If for some reason you can’t follow through on what you promised make sure you are upfront with your customer and keep them up to date with the situation.  Most people understand if situations arise as long as you keep them informed and explain the situation.  If they know you are doing everything you can to keep your word then you are still building that trust even if things don’t always go as planned.

If you know someone who would benefit from these tips to start an online store please send them to this post.

For more step by step guidance to building a successful online store

visit www.startanonlinestore.com

To Your Success!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma

Hi This is Kate Wilber “The Marketing Momma” again for Tip # 2 in the 5 tips to starting an online store series here at the work at home success blog.  I wanted to Thank Leslie again for inviting me to visit this week.  If you missed yesterdays tip you can check it out here.

Today’s Tip is

3 Important Things You Need To Know First

When you are first starting an online business or actually any business there are 3 key things you need to know first before you set up your business structure.

1. First you need to know who your target market is.
2. Second you need to know what your target market is interested in and are they interested enough in it to pay money for it. And is there enough of your target market willing to pay money for it to build a sustainable business around it.
3. Third how are you going to get in front of your target market.

For the first of the three, there are a lot of ways to choose who your target market is and alot of thoughts on how to go about choosing a good market.  My first recommendation is to choose a niche that you either know alot about or you want to learn alot about.  You need to become an expert in that niche to be able to build a business around it.  If you don’t like a niche or you don’t have any interest in it you aren’t going to be able to stay motivated to keep things moving forward with it over a long period of time.  Plus the whole point of working from home and owning your own business is to enjoy what you do.  So pick something you are going to enjoy!!

Second–Once you have picked a niche next you need to do some research to see if that niche has other people interested in it to and if those people are willing to spend money on it.  Just because you love water ballet doesn’t mean that there are enough other people out there that love it too.  So do some research and see if there is an interest in it.  One easy way to research is to do a search for it on google–then look to see if there are any other companies doing paid advertising around that niche.  Normally if other companies are paying for advertising then that means somebody is buying.  You also would need to use the google keyword tool to see exactly how many people are searching for that product or niche on a daily basis.

For the third importance,  figure out how to get your product or service in front of your target customer.  You can have the best product in the world but if you don’t know how to get that product in front of the people who want or need it then nobody is going to buy it.  So find where your target customer hangs out and get in front of them.  One great way to do this is to search online for forums and blogs that are related to your niche–then make a presence there for you and your business.

If you know someone who would benefit from these tips to start an online store please send them to this post.

For more step by step guidance to building a successful online store

visit www.startanonlinestore.com

To Your Success!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma

Hi, I’m Kate Wilber “The Marketing Momma” and I am visiting here at the work at home success blog this week as part of my month long Blog Tour and I am really excited to be here.  My goal for this week is to give you some great tips on building a business while working from home.

I am a mom of 4 children under the age of 8 and a serial entrepreneur. (It is somewhat of a circus at my house on a daily basis if you can imagine—but I wouldn’t have it any other way) I love to be able to help other mom’s follow their dreams of staying home with their kids and still building a thriving business.  Who ever said that you can’t change diapers and build an online empire at the same time?  It is possible and I am living proof.

So all that being said the theme for this week is

“5 Tips To Starting An Online Store.”

Why you might ask did I choose this topic?  Well that’s easy—I own an online store myself called Barefoot Bella.  I have been in business for 3 years now and I have learned a lot over those 3 years that I want to now share with you.  I have met so many other moms that had the same aspirations as me when I first started out—and the same challenges I faced.  It is so frustrating to hear the same story over and over from people that start an online store, get their store all set up, launch it out into the internet, and then wait, and wait, and wait, for those customers to show up.  There is so much misconception out there when people are first starting out online and sometimes it is hard to find the right direction to get their online store to success.

So this week I wanted to touch on some of the basics that I have learned over the past few years to building a successful online store.  Hopefully some of these tips will be helpful to you if you are just starting out online.  If you want more in depth teaching –go check out my report “Top 10 Things to know about Starting An Online Store” and that will give you some information on a course I am offering that gives you step by step guidance on starting an online store and building it into an online empire. (all while changing diapers if you need to)

There is a lot to learn when starting an online store and so much information and advice out there on what you should and shouldn’t do that sometimes it is hard not to get swallowed up by information overload.  That’s why I love the WorkAtHomeSuccess blog so much.  Leslie has combined everything you could ever need to get headed in the right direction with your work at home goals.

I can really appreciate this because I have spent hours upon hours researching and learning and would have loved to have someone say to me …..WAIT…… I can show you the direct path to success online—saving you money and time….  I would have jumped at that chance.(But then again I have always loved to do things the hard way)

So that’s why it is my great privilege to share a little about what I have learned over the past few years with you this week.  Thanks Leslie for the opportunity to share in your space!!

Today is Tip #1 (Check back all week for all 5 tips!!)

Tip #1 Build a Relationship

How many times have you visited an online store and you couldn’t find out any information about who owned the store or even have a way to contact the business if there was a problem or concern.  How did that make you feel about that store—did you buy from them?  Probably not—at least I hope not !!  It’s a scary thing to put your credit card information in on a website and never know who you are giving your money to—or even if they are a legitimate business.

That’s why it is so important to let your customers get to know you and what your business stands for.

Credibility is important in any business but it is a key element in an online business’s success. Customers want to know that the company they are doing business with is legit and has their best interests in mind. Credibility online is extremely important because you aren’t meeting your customer face to face so your credibility is all they have to go by.

One way to let your customer get to know you is by having an “About Us” page. This allows your customers to come to the page and see exactly what your company is all about.  One great tip is to have photos that show you and anyone who works with you. Photos establish trust and put a face to a name.  Take a look at my About Us page at my online store –I have a picture of me and my kids –this is a great way for my customers to get to know a little bit about me and feel more comfortable doing business with me because they can relate to me in a personal way.

Another great way of establishing credibility with customers is to write a blog. Blogs are extremely popular and are great ways to not only show your customers what you offer, but to get new customers as well. You can highlight sales, new products and special offers to users throughout your blog, I update my customers with current sales and new products by using my blog at Barefoot Bella.

Another great way to build a relationship with your customer is to follow up with them after they have purchased something from you.   You can make customers feel appreciated by simply sending them an e-mail asking how they have liked a product and whether or not there were any problems. You can also show your appreciation to them as a customer by periodically sending them discount coupons through email this is a great way to get repeat customers.  I use This service to follow up with my customers.

It’s all about building a relationship of trust with your customers.  If they feel like they know you and can trust you they are 10 times more likely to buy from you and even become a loyal customer.

If you know anyone who is thinking of starting an online store please forward the link to this post to them.  See you tomorrow for Tip #2.

To Your Success!!

Kate Wilber

The Marketing Momma

P.S. At the end of the week I will be giving out a prize.  I will be choosing the winner from everyone who posts a comment.  So remember you have to comment to win.

Start Your Own Online Store—-Learn How to Here

When I first started looking for work online in the late 1990′s there were many jobs that involved researching and writing content.  Websites needed to fill their sites and databases with information and paid people to help them do that. Those jobs, in that fashion, don’t exist much anymore, but a new type of pay-for-content work has evolved.

You may have heard that “Content is King” on the Internet. In most cases people go online to get information. The sites that have the best information (content) tend to also have the most traffic and therefore make the most money. New news aggregators and content portals are vying for a piece of the pie and are paying people to help them develop quality content.

What’s Involved?

The basics are the ability to find information and organize it in a concise easy to read fashion. You don’t need access to the expensive data bases or a degree in journalism, but you do need to know how to find reputable information on the Internet and string words together coherently.

Most sites want 300-500 word articles that can cover topics of your choice or that the site has requested. The articles can be in a variety of formats including ‘how-to’, reviews, lists, ‘best of’, fact sheets, etc.

How much can you make?

This is the tough question. Like in most work-at-home options, some people make good money and others make nearly nothing. It really depends on the site, your topics, and quality of submissions. Some sites will pay you a small flat fee anywhere from $5 to $30 per article. Others pay you in ad revenue, which over time, if there is lots of traffic, can build. Some do a combination of both.

My opinion on this type of work:

If you want to be a full-time freelance writer, these options aren’t for you mostly because most magazines don’t view these sites as “clips” to add to your portfolio. And the pay isn’t as good as writing for magazines.

But if you want to make a few hundred to a thousand dollars a month AND have the time to write and submit frequently, and help the site build traffic to your submissions, then this is a good option. It’s extremely flexible…you write what you want, when you want. But you aren’t going to see that money overnight. Most people who work on it consistently indicate it takes a couple of months to see a steady stream of income.

Where’s the work?

There are many places such as Demand Studio and Associated Content that pay for content. But not all are worth the time and effort.  For example, Examiner is posting lots of work on job boards, but the pay is so low (1 cent per page impression) and not guaranteed. Plus it says it can take and reuse, rewrite, and redistribute your work without additional compensation to. That’s not fair. You’re better off to go with a site that doesn’t pay well but at least you own your work and submit it to more than one place. Or that will pay you more to have exclusive rights to your work.

What should you do next?

If this sounds interesting, take the time to do more research. Like most work-at-home options, a single article can spark an idea, but you need the nitty gritty details to know what do to next. You can start by checking out some of the content sites (all are free to join) and learn what sort of content they want, how they pay, and what’s involved.

I was able to get a hold of Matthew Sherborne’s Cash for Content System. I read a lot of ebooks and most aren’t that helpful, but Matthew’s is very good. It takes you through the steps of finding good profitable topics, how to put together quality content even if you don’t like or aren’t’ sure how to write, and the best ways to maximize profits at many of the best web content sites. He uses screen captures so you can follow along with him and not have to guess what he’s talking about. Plus he’s added toolbox that takes you step-by-step through the process of brainstorming ideas, writing content, and keeping track of the best paying sites. I’ve also thrown in a bonus that lists some additional sites that aren’t in Matthew’s book.

Check out Matthew’s great resource at Cash for Content System.

Written by Crissy Herron

Are you feeling like you are stuck in a routine? Does it seem like tasks are piling up but you have no energy to work on them? Does working on your business seem like a chore or a drain – when it used to feel fun and energizing? If so, I think you might be stuck in a rut.

Ruts can happen to the best of us, so if you got caught up in one, don’t feel bad. The point is to recognize the rut and figure out how to get out of it. Quickly! (Ruts can harm your business – so you really don’t want to stay in one for too long!)

Here are some tips on getting un-stuck:

Get out of your comfort zone!

This is probably the number one reason people fall into ruts. They spend too much time on doing things that are “comfortable.” So let me ask you a question: What is one thing you know you need to do for your business, but haven’t done, because it scares the hell out of you?

Guess what? I want you to start working on that thing … today! Don’t wait! Do it today!

Get out of your house!

If you work from home, it can be very easy to fall into a rut. In fact, your business rut can start extending into your life. It can be really easy to sit at home in your pajamas all day and never  get dressed, or fix your hair, etc. If you find yourself doing this everyday, that’s a rut, my dear.

If the above pajama person sounds like you, I want you to get out of your house. Today. And not just to go to the grocery store. I want you to pack up your laptop and head to your local coffee shop and work there for an hour or two.

If you have kids, you can schedule this activitiy for when you can fiind a sitter. But that doesn’t mean you get out of it completley! You still gotta break free from that rut, so you better find time to leave the house sometime this week! (you’ll thank me later.)

Find A Mentor

I am assuming that most of you reading this are “solopreneurs.” That means you are basically a one-woman show. When you work on your business by yourself, it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture.  Have you ever wished you could turn to someone for advice? Someone who has been in the trenches and could give you insight on how to develop your business and succeed?

Finding a mentor can help you tremendously. They can help you figure out what pices of the puzzle are missing. This can breathe new life into your business and help give you the motivation to take things to the next level.

About The Author:
Crissy Herron is the founder of IndieBizChicks.com and host of the corresponding podcast. In addition to managing her own website, she enjoys working with other business owners and teaching them how to market their businesses online

This week I interview Angela Wills of MarketersMojo on how to keep from being overwhelmed in running your online business.



You can listen online here:

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Resources Mentioned On the Show

Marketers Mojo

Aweber

WordPress

RoboForm

This week I give tips on how to evaluate work-at-home jobs.



You can listen online here:

Or Download here:

You can also subscribe through iTunes.

Resources Mentioned On the Show

Better Business Bureau

Federal Trade Commission