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Alicia Navarro CEO & Founder of Skimlinks | Silicon Real

Getting Up and Running

Making an Internet-based business work and pay for you is more simple than business has ever been before - you just need to know how. The first thing to do is to decide on a price list for things that you will do. In order to make explanation more understandable, let us use an example. If you are a website builder for example, you can set prices based on how complicated or otherwise the site is. A site with an intricate design, multiple pages and interactive content will be a lot more time consuming and demanding than one that simply has a front page with basic information. You would therefore price it more highly.

Having a host site is preferable if you want to do business by way of the Internet. This can again be simple or more complicated. The site is like the front door of a "bricks and mortar" office - it will be what brings customers into contact with you. It acts as a shop front, so making it attractive and intriguing will bring in all the more business. For simplicity, you can set up a blog, something which is highly popular and easy. An original, more customisable site will require some HTML knowledge and other associated competencies - but if you build websites then you will know that.

On the site, you can display some short descriptions of what you do, how you do it and how much you charge. Really, there should be a limit to how much information you give to customers. To overload them will get in the way of things - you can give the specifics when they contact you.

What Makes A Successful Shopify Store

Mobile devices like tablets and smartphones have greatly changed the shopping process and the path to purchase. These days, you can buy anything from a pizza to your own private island right from the comfort of your favorite chair. Due to this simplicity, new online shops are constantly popping up that cater to different customer segments.

It seems so easy to set up an online shop; just combine a domain, good hosting, content management system and theme, and you’re all set. Online stores can be cheaper to run and manage than a brick and mortar. After all, you don’t have to worry about overhead costs like rent.

But in reality it’s quite hard to create a good online store, and it’s even harder to make it successful and user-friendly. Below are useful tips that will guide you through to becoming a successful online store owner.

 

Create an Engaging Homepage

Think of your homepage as the face of your company. It tells your customers the products and services that you offer. Your customers don’t always have the time to figure out what you’re selling so the homepage has to clearly state that.

Be concise and direct in conveying the most important info to your customers (it will also be useful in a variety of other situations). Don’t tell the customer when your business was found or how many sales managers you have, save that info for the ‘About Us’ page. A good homepage also links to the categories to ease site navigation and make user experience seamless. There may also be banners with special offers and promotions.

Sometimes you also need to place contacts or even an online chat to answer all customer questions quickly. Live chats have the highest satisfaction levels for any customer service channel with 73 percent, so you should consider using it for your store.

 

Make the Most Out of Category Pages

Category pages are comparable to the shelves you find in a physical store. This provides you with a chance to show your customers what you have to offer. It’s always a good idea to place pictures, a short description of your products, the price, a small section for review counts, and an ‘Add to Cart’ option under each product indicated in your category pages.

You can also add sorting options (by bestsellers, reviews count, price, newest, etc.) or ajax scroll. If you decide to go for sorting, make sure you set all the canonicals and navigational tags properly. If you choose infinite scroll for your categories, remember to comply with Google guidelines since they can be quite strict about this.

 

Fine Tune Your Product Page

A customer navigates through your site to land on a product page. His intention is to find something interesting and to eventually make a purchase. The final decision greatly depends on the quality and quantity of information you provide but it doesn’t mean you should write a 1000-word description (save the words for a user guide or even a blog post about the product). Your goal is to show all the relevant info as quickly as possible, so it should be organized in a user-friendly manner.

 

Use a Tracking & Analyzing Tool

Don’t stop with just marketing your products and services. As an owner of an online store, it’s important to know if your business is doing well or not. The easiest way to get that info is to set up your Google Analytics. This will help you track key performance indicators so that you’ll know which aspects of your online store needs to be strengthened.

So, is it worth all the effort?

In just the past few years, the eCommerce space has developed by such leaps and bounds that online retailers now have countless tools at their disposal to streamline the process for consumers, allowing them to remain competitive in the face of a wildly growing industry. It’s a tremendous tool that more eCommerce businesses should be utilizing to strengthen their products reach. Therefore the simple answer is yes. Your store is like a sprout; you should take care of it, water it and nourish it. One day your hard work will result in a flourishing tree which will bear fruits regularly!

Here’s more tips on how you can make your online store successful in a short period, watch this short video and you’ll be amazed at how you can actually curate an online store which is aligned with key buyers’ wants and motivations to give you an edge over less mindful competitors.

Is Content Curation for You

One of the most common questions about content curation is...what does it really mean? Are we copying the content of other people and trying to get credit for it? Is it really that simple and if so, what about copyright infringement, etc.? Will Google and other SEs penalize our sites for curating content?

These are all valid questions and important ones because I'm sure some of the lazier and less savory folks may think it's that simple.

The idea behind content curation is to cut out the clutter of noise in the online publishing space and produce more infomative "chunks" for your readers to review.

For example, let's say you have a blog or website about fishing. You may have a passion for this niche and could write articles all day long. This is great but, not a particularly good use of your time. By grabbing content and provding links to other resources/sites that are relevant to your topic, you are providing your readers more information in one location...YOUR site!

If content is curated successfully, meaning you are genuinely providing additional information and sources that support your topic then you can quickly be seen as an authority, not only by your readers but by Google. This can have a huge impact on your earning potential and longevity in the search engines.

By the way, you are NOT stealing other peoples' content. Some webmasters may only provide a link to "other similar stories" while others may provide excerpts or short descriptions about another writer's work and of course provide a hyperlink to that source for the reader to follow if they want to read the full story, etc.

If used correctly, content curation can help provide a huge amount of original content to your website helping you get more traffic, earn more money, and hopefully stay on page one of Google for your niches no matter how many new algorithm changes Google decides to make in the future!