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Starting your own online store is perhaps the most popular advice you will get to your enquiry “How to make money on the Internet?” Indeed, ecommerce has completely transformed the way product sales are carried out by providing business owners with a remarkable opportunity to target the Global market at minimal investments, while their online marketplaces can be open for prospective clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Nowadays, we are all involved in the ecommerce world either by selling or purchasing various types of goods and services online.

Thousands of online stores appear over the Internet every single day. And as you have probably noticed, they are launched by completely different businesses – from individuals working out from home to large multinational corporations. No matter how big and competitive the market niche is you’re going to take up, you should create your own unique strategy to start and proceed. The truth is, there may be some pitfalls and obstacles on your way and you should be aware of them in order to prevent fatal effects while running your online venture.

Based on my own knowledge and experience in the ecommerce field, I’d like to share my observations on the top five most common eCommerce mistakes online ventures usually fall victims of as well as how to avoid them with your project.

#1 Poor Design and Appearance

The first thing that may turn your prospective clients away from your online store is its poor design and amateurish look and feel. The first impression is very important and rather often online shoppers judge a business and its credibility by its appearance. If your storefront is poorly designed, there is a high chance that your visitors will want to leave your website very soon after they get on it, not to mention about having a little trust in the quality of your products. Remember, your competitors are just a click away.

Advice

If you want to attract your visitors and encourage them to spend their hardly earned money on your products, you should look solid and professional. The entire look and feel of your online store should convince your visitors to buy from you. Take your time or invest in professional assistance to design a unique and sophisticated storefront – this is really worth it. Graphics is one of the first visual elements that differentiate one store from another. With a creative graphical concept and some other web design tricks integrated smartly into your website, you may expect to attract a larger client base.

Note! Be careful with excessive graphics as it may lead to your website slow load time.

#2 The Lack of Information and Visual Content

Starting an online store is pretty much far from stocking your databases with products and integrating web shopping cart and payment options into your project. Unfortunately, many business owners tend to provide very little information and photos of their products, probably because of limited time or for any other reasons. Very often, while shopping online I encounter stores that offer goods with only a couple of words and price under the name of an item and, if there is a bit of luck, a small picture alongside. Believe me, this won’t lead you towards large sale volumes.

What to Do

Let your clients learn everything they may require about any particular item just on the spot when browsing through your online catalog. Provide your products with large and professional photos. Allowing these graphics to be zoomed for a better and detailed product view will work even better.

#3 Confusing Shopping and Checkout Process

The main principle of online shopping that attracts today’s consumers is ease and speed of the process. The more steps you ask your consumers to make to buy something from your store, the bigger chances are that they will leave in a blink of an eye with no desire to complete their purchase. Frankly speaking, if you put more than 5 steps between placing an item into a cart and submitting an order, shopping on your website is full of obstacles. Requiring to sign up for an account to make an order is another serious mistake that will certainly have your visitors leave to look for less demanding web stores.

Solution

Your customers are here at your website to give you money, so don’t make them jump through barriers. Make sure, the whole checkout process is as easy as possible and can be accomplished through a single page. If for any business reason you need your clients to be registered, offer them this option after they complete their orders. You may encourage them to save their account information for a much easier future shopping experience and an excellent opportunity to track their orders. And of course, don’t forget to offer your customers a good choice of payment solutions for an ultimate shopping experience.

#4 Poor Customer Service

You can invest a fortune into your sophisticated and unique storefront design, integrating the latest industry technologies, website promotion and even make your prices dramatically lower in comparison with your competitors, but all these may turn to be a waste of money and time, if your visitors fail to get an adequate support on your website. There are many questions your visitors may want to ask about your products before they make a final decision and believe me, they won’t wait for hours to get assistance.

Advice

A proper and responsive customer service is one of your main competitive advantages. Provide your visitors with several options to contact you, including emails, live chat, online request form, phone numbers, etc., so that they can easily choose a convenient method to get all their inquiries answered on the fly. Create a comprehensive knowledge base and FAQ (frequently asked questions) sections as well.

#5 Mobile Devices Support

Today, more and more people are shopping online through their tablet PCs, iPads, PDAs, smartphones, etc., as they like the idea of doing shopping wherever they are and whenever they want. A very widespread mistake among numerous modern online stores is requiring to download and install a tablet or iPad applications to shop online. In accordance with the recent surveys, the majority of customers find all this stuff with additional applications rather burdensome.

Advice

Developing and customization of specific mobile and iPad applications can be rather costly and time consuming and, in many cases, this may turn to be in vain. Why don’t you just optimize your web store for the ultimate tablet and iPad experience? This is a much more viable alternative.

To sum up, always remember that online shoppers have multiple (hundreds and even thousands) of stores to choose from when they’re going to purchase something online. That’s why, all of your efforts should be focused on convincing your existing and prospective clients that your web store is the only right place they need to make purchases. What is your personal experience? Would you like to suggest your own ecommerce success recipe? Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

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Starting an online store has never been so easy with the number of free, comprehensive and feature rich e-commerce platforms out there. Many can be installed on low-cost shared hosting and run just fine. Of course there is always the option of using a hosted solution like Shopify or CafePress but this post focuses on the open-source software choices that give you maximum control and flexibility.

OpenCart

OpenCart is a fantastic piece of open source e-commerce software. With the fairly recent release of version 1.5.x it now even includes features to manage affiliates and compare products. The default templates look great and the code is highly structured (using the popular MVC model) making it easy for developers to modify and extend. It also runs great on shared hosting without being to resource intensive. There is a large community and as a result a large number of add-ons, many available for free. The platform also supports a range of payment gateways that should cater for most online businesses.

Good For: Medium sized stores and developers.

Magento

Magento is somewhat newer than others yet it has grown incredibly quickly and massed an impressive client list. The free, unsupported version is open-source but there is also a paid, supported version available. The code base of Magento is somewhat more complicated than carts like OpenCart so extending it and modifying the core files is undoubtedly more challenging. It could be a good choice for businesses who want to start out with a free option but potentially upgrade to a paid, highly featured version later.

Good For: Medium-large stores looking to expand in the future.

osCommerce

osCommerce is perhaps one of the oldest and no doubt most established platforms. It is used on hundreds of thousands of websites and therefore has the largest user base. It has all the features that any small to medium store would require and is surprisingly quick and easy to set up. The range of extensions is also great with many paid and free choices. The major downside is the dated front end that can make customizing the look and feel of the site more of a challenge.

Good For: Smaller stores that are less design focused.

Spree

Spree has emerged as the leading Ruby on Rails (a framework for the Ruby language) based shopping cart solution. As a result it is still relatively young but is starting to boast an impressive feature and promised improvement from the growing open-source community. All of these make it a great choice for anyone who’s set on using Ruby on Rails rather than PHP.

Good For: Anyone who wants to use Ruby on Rails.

WordPress e-Commerce

The most popular plugin for adding e-Commerce features to WordPress is the aptly named WordPress e-Commerce. The plugin has a surprising amount of features and allows anyone to create a quick shop using the WordPress platform. It is however lacking when compared to other full-fledged platforms mentioned here. Therefore it’s best to choose this only if you plan on running a relatively small store and are a big fan of WordPress.

Good For: Smaller stores and WordPress fans

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is another highly featured, well designed popular framework. In my view it is perhaps the closest competitor to OpenCart with a virtually identical set of features, a thriving community and a large selection of add-ons. Considering they both have a very similar offering choosing between the two can be quite difficult. Things to look for could be any specific add-ons or templates you may require – check to see if either one offers something the other doesn’t. PrestaShop also has a paid support option which could be a game changer for non-technical people. On the other hand, I prefer OpenCart for its MVC code structure so perhaps that’s the better choice for developers.

Good For: Medium sized stores and non-technical people.

simpleCart.Js

This is perhaps the most unique shopping cart reviewed. Compared to the aforementioned, it is “lacking” in features but that’s also where it thrives. The name simpleCart should have been the giveaway as this is a 100% client-side, JavaScript based solution that allows anyone to add a shopping cart to a basic HTML website with no database or programming experience. It’s ideal if you already have a basic static website, just a few items to sell and some basic HTML experience. It supports PayPal, Google Checkout and Authorize.net meaning payment integration is a breeze.

Good For: Very small stores with just a few items.

About Guest Blogger

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Every day, thousands of people are going to the internet to find a way of making money. As a result, online business has become increasingly competitive, thus making it difficult for anyone to stand out. However, one of the best ways of earning an income online, which is relatively untapped, is through using coupons.

So, how exactly can you make money using coupons?

1. Create Your Own Products and Offer Coupons to Motivate People to Buy

If you want to earn an income using coupons, you should first find a way of branding yourself as an authority in your field. When your prospects begin to trust you and recognize you as an authority in your niche, you can then work towards coming up with your own product.

The best kinds of products are those which can be easily downloaded such as audio or video clips, eBooks, software or electronic courses. Once you have the product, you should then create unique coupons, discounts and promo codes to promote your products on a regular basis.

Coupon offers usually produce in readers a specific sense of urgency. Therefore, if properly used, coupons can significantly multiply the sales of your products.

2. Getting Coupons From Other Product Creators/retailers

If you are not in a position to create your own product, you can also use coupons to market other people’s products. This is referred to as affiliate marketing. Though some product creators run their own affiliate programs, most of them use third part affiliate schemes such as Commission Junction, Affiliate Window, TradeDoubler and Share A Sale to promote their products. Once you join one of these affiliate schemes, you will then need to choose which products you want to promote. Each product has an affiliate link which you can place in your site or blog. When a visitor to your site clicks on the link, they are directed to the merchant’s website.

If they make a purchase, you will then be paid a commission for the sale. An example of an affiliate site is YouLoveCoupons, a coupon blog which promotes london pass promo codes and world soccer discounts.

A very effective way of getting visitors to your site to click on your affiliate links is the ‘click to reveal’ strategy. This is where the visitor is required to click on a button to so as to access some exclusive information.

3. Offer Coupons in Return for Subscription

This is a very subtle and powerful strategy that is rarely used. It simply involves offering people who subscribe to your list discounts and coupons. Let them know that they will be receiving more coupons in future. This will motivate them to open your emails every time you send a message. By building your list, you will be able to increase your sales in the long run.

Charles Mburugu is a technology lover. He recently shared a london pass promotional code and world soccer shop discount code in YouLoveCoupons, a coupon blog. He also blogs about exceptional coupon and discount deals such as london pass coupons and world soccer discounts.

About Charles Mburugu

Charles Mburugu is a professional content developer and an entrepreneur. He often writes about real estate, finance, business start-ups and internet marketing.

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One of the most important lessons anyone can learn with regards to making money online is to diversify your income sources. I learned this rule in the investment world, and the same goes with making money online.

A few years ago I saw what happens if you don’t diversify income earners online. About one and a half years ago my only real income earner drop drastically for a few months, and without another source to offset that earner, it was a lean few months for my blog. Since that time, however, I have been looking at other options of earning money online, and I’ll share what I currently use below.

One important thing to note about the income earners that are listed below is that they are free to join.

Google AdSense

Probably the most popular method of making money online is through Google AdSense. I have been using AdSense from the beginning and still use it today. It is by far my largest income earner on a regular basis, and I continue to experiment with where the ads are placed on my blog.

Unfortunately, the one downside to relying so much on Google AdSense for income is that if I have a bad month, it really has a dramatic impact on my earnings. This is what happened one and a half years ago, as I began to explain above. I had been receiving monthly deposits from Google. Then my income dropped below the $100 threshold for two months, and the deposits had stopped. This got me to think about finding additional sources of income, while at the same time experiment more with AdSense to increase my monthly income about the threshold again.

Since that time I have gone over $600/month in earnings, and have averaged over $400/month over the past 6 months with Google AdSense.

BuySellAds

Private advertising had been difficult for me to earn an income with in the past. The problem was I tried to offer advertising directly through my blog. While I could keep 100% of what I made, there just weren’t very many offers. I decided to look at BuySellAds to handle private advertising on my blog. They take a small fee of the ads that I sell, but I found it much easier to sell advertising, so at least I was making something.

There is a minimum number of pageviews that is required to join BuySellAds, but if you meet that requirement, and are looking to sell ads privately on your blog/site, I suggest you look at BuySellAds. After fees, I make about $60/month through BuySellAds.

Amazon Associates

I joined Amazon Associates a few years ago, but never really looked into taking advantage of the program. Once my Google earnings had dropped, I decided to try and get more out of Amazon Associates.

I began to simply add links to Amazon products on some of my posts. I went back through some of my tutorial posts and linked to the item that pertained to the tutorial. For example, if I provided step-by-step instructions on how to secure a particular router, I would link to that router in Amazon.

I also began to write more review posts about items that I have used, and also link to Amazon from those posts. So far, the review posts have been earning me some sales. The best part is that anything a visitor orders for the next 24 hours after clicking my Amazon link will count towards sales from me, meaning more commission. It is interesting to see what people have ordered.

I still haven’t taken full advantage of Amazon Associates, but it averages about $60/month in income, and I’m hoping to increase my Amazon Associates earnings over the next year.

SocialSpark

I only heard about SocialSpark just over nine months ago, and while it doesn’t provide a consistent income each month, it does provide nice income when I get opportunities. For those that haven’t heard of SocialSpark, let me explain how it works.

When you sign up as a publisher you may be provided with opportunities to write posts on various topics from advertisers. There are usually requirements that go along with post as well as specific links, images or videos. After 30 days of publishing the post, you will be paid in points, with 1,000 points equivalent to $10 USD. You can then cash out the points into your PayPal account once you reach a specified amount.

It could take some time to receive an opportunity, as it did for me. There has also been weeks, and even a few months between opportunities for my blog, but when I do get an opportunity it does pay well. The least I received for a post was $62.50 and the most was $200. The $200 post was a review I did for a shredder in which I received the actual shredder to review in the mail. After writing 7 posts for SocialSpark, I have earned $720.

One other thing about SocalSpark is that they have their own ad network that you can also use to make money online. Their ad units can be used in conjunction with AdSense so it can also be an additional method of making money. I currently don’t use their ads on my blog, but I may look at them in the future.

If you enjoy writing posts and being paid for it, then you should definitely check out SocialSpark.

Those are my current income earners on Technically Easy. I am always looking for other opportunities, and am hoping to get more into affiliate marketing, or even selling my own product or service. The bottom line is that I will continue to diversify my income sources to ensure that I don’t experience another drop in earnings if one earner suddenly drops.

About Paul Salmon

Paul Salmon is the founder of Technically Easy. He is a an experienced PC user, and enjoys solving computer-related problems that he encounters on a regular basis.

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There are many ways to making money online but you need to have some time to think about the right place for you to earn money. The selection of only those things must be done which you like so that you may feel fun rather than dreading yourself in the work you doing. Are you looking for making your own blog for money or website to sell products? Do you want to affiliate yourself with affiliated marketing for the sake of production or shipping or inventory? There are many opportunities for you but the selection is in your hands to make money online.

If you are thinking about commencing your online business, you need to research about it so that you may reach at different consequences before actually going to adopt the business. If your business does not give you benefits, what is the usage of your business? There are various kinds of ads and scam sites where you can be taken at Internet. You would surely have been reading the scam ads that you can earn up to $5000 in a month, and you will surely be thinking about them as scam ads. It is unbelievable to earn such a big amount. Let’s proceed further together to know more about it.

The things you have decided to do need website at any cost. If you are thinking about selling products or goods online, you must get some static website to proceed. Moreover, if you will create a blog, it will change daily and you will be suffering. So, you will have to purchase a domain name in $7-$10 per year and you will have to serve $6-$13 per month for having hosting site. Moreover, there are many free sites are available which you can have for the sake of making money online.

After having website for making money online, you need to add some content into it or the necessary information about the products which you are going to show off in the website. The content must be relevant and you must keep the content relevant to the keywords selected so that you may get some earning. Even the prettiest sites do not earn if they have not keyword focused content in them.

Whatever decision you have taken, you need to be very careful as you are going to adopt it as a business and you need to focus on your work as well. So, if you want to keep it away from your other businesses or if you will give it less importance, you will have to suffer from problems. So, try to adopt it as your habit and give it required time and effort to showcase your skills and the products you want to sell so that you may get the required position and may make money online.

After making your site and posting relevant content into it, you need to focus somewhat on SEO so that you may bring your site higher in ranking and you may increase your chances of getting the desired results. The higher your site goes in ranking, the better chances are there for you to make money. For example, if you are selling products and getting lower numbers of purchasers, you will be earning a bit amount but if you take your site higher in ranking and there are many purchasers at your site on daily basis including visitors, you will get better chances to have higher number of purchases to make a lot of money. So, try to focus on the SEO as well so that you may make your site stable in Google and other search engines and you may make money online with ease.

If you are thinking that you do not have the required skills to make your own site and to sell goods, you can either hire someone who can do this or you can find out online training to establish your website. Moreover, there are various services providers’ sites working out there which you can adopt for the sake of making money online without much trouble and knowledge. So, you can earn money easily now as Internet is the basic source for you to adopt for making money online.

About Guest Blogger

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