How to Sell Online (Part 1)

You would think that selling online is easy.  After all, most of us know how to buy products and services online.  And the process seems fairly straightforward, doesn’t it?

Well, yes and no.

No one had to teach you how to buy online.  But the process of how to sell online involves some important factors that many of us take for granted as we search for stuff to buy.  So let’s examine those factors you need to master in order to sell online.

How to Sell Online:  Three Essential Tips

The first thing you need to work on if you’re going to sell online is getting people to your website.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Yet, this one factor prevents people from making real money online.  And that’s because though they know what they need to do, they don’t know HOW to do it.

Here’s what I mean.  The “normal” buying process works something like this (assuming you haven’t bookmarked your favorite sites already):

1. go to a search engine and type what you’re looking for (like accordian shutters)
2. check out the listings on the first page
3. go to the 2nd page of results if nothing caught your interest on the first page
4. when you land on the site, you see if what you want is there
5. if so, maybe you check out a few more sites (price checking), or
6. you buy it

That’s pretty much it.  More or less.

Now, here’s the thing.  Millions of people are buying products and services online.  We all do it.  Even my 70 year old dad goes online FIRST before going to a local store or the mall (if at all).

Buying online is intuitive.

Selling online is NOT.

Let’s look at the example above and break out the critical “online selling success” factors.

1.  How to Sell Online: Web Site Search Results

Here’s a screenshot of a search I did not too long ago that will help explain what we’re talking about:

In case you didn’t know this, results on Google’s search page break out this way.  The listings on the left hand side of the page are there because of proper keyword usage and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Results on the right hand side are listed there because they are paying Google for every “click” on their ad.

Anyone selling anything online wants (NEEDS) to be listed on the first page.  It’s not even an option.  Sure, some percentage of online searchers will go to the second page.

And depending on the niche you’re in, you may even see some results even if your website isn’t on the first or second pages.

But we’re not talking about a trickle of web traffic.  To sell online and be profitable, your website has to show up for your targeted keywords on the first or second page of the search engine results page.

And there’s only two ways that happens, as the graphic above indicates.  You need to pay for traffic using pay per click marketing, or you need to learn SEO to get your site found.

This trips up most people who want to sell online.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll discuss the other two tips and how they relate to successfully selling your products and/or services online.  So be sure to

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