Putting The “Service” Back In “Customer Service”

Published on March 14, 2008 in All. 0 Comments Tags: , .

The future of customer service is here. Technology has made seeking out support faster and easier than ever. But, has your digital age company sacrificed true service in the name of automation?

Today, finding customer support is as simple as writing an e-mail or picking up the phone. But, even though you’re not face-to-face with your customers, you still leave a lasting impression. Do you come across as caring and competent, or menacing and mechanical?

Offering stand-out service on the Internet isn’t as hard as it is rare. Take these simple steps towards old-style service in the digital age:

Give Each Customer a Personal Response
Be Clear, But Sincere
Offer Live Customer Support
Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All the Answers

Give Each Customer a Personal Response

When a customer sits down to e-mail your company, it’s because he needs help. He chooses e-mail because it’s quick, but his request still warrants a satisfying and personal response!

Companies eager to save time and money often take automation too far in their customer support. Each customer has a unique question, and deserves a unique answer. Even if you save time by copying and pasting stock replies, change the opening and closing to make the message sound less robotic.

Be Clear, But Sincere

When responding to customers’ e-mail, be sincere and to the point. Before sending a message, try turning the tables. Ask yourself, “Would this answer satisfy me if I were the customer?”

Take that extra moment to give your customer the help he deserves. It might mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a credit card chargeback!

Offer Live Customer Support

E-mail has become an acceptable form of communication. But, live customer support is still necessary. The plethora of information available online can be overwhelming to customers, especially those new to the Internet!

Single your company out from the crowd by providing customers with a real person to talk to. Live phone support is an invaluable way to foster trust. When your customer has reached the end of his Internet rope, and just needs help, your toll free number is the answer he’s looking for.

Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All The Answers

The presence of phone support will do no good if your staff doesn’t know your product! Customer support reps should be warm and friendly, and willing to help with any aspect of your product.

What a good feeling it is to talk to someone who feels confident in his product. It’s even better if he’s knowledgeable enough to solve your problem without transferring you all around the company!

Provide Stand-Out Service; Gain Lifelong Customers

Too many e-businesses skimp on customer service, hiding behind web sites and message boards. Customer support is an integral part of every company, even those operating solely online. Be one of the few to offer stellar service, and gain customers for life!

The Magic Product

Published on February 21, 2008 in All. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I get asked this question a lot. What is the magic product? Before we get into that I just want to clear a few things. If your just starting out and learning about running an internet business. My advice is to learn as much as you can. You have a couple of options. You can learn from someone who already has experience running an internet business or spend the time to surf the internet and do continuous searches with Google.

The magic product is your own knowledge and experiences. What I mean about that is talking about creating your own information product. You don’t have to be a “professional writer” or even consider yourself an expert on a certain topic. But as long as you are willing to learn about something, you can create an information product within that niche market.

Begin by deciding on a niche to go after. There are hundreds, if not thousands niches and micro-niches. Start a brainstorming session. Ask yourself these questions -

  • What is it that you are interested in?
  • What could you become interested in?
  • What do you do in your spare time?
  • What do people ask you about?

Use these questions for a basis of your brainstorming session. Create a list of 10 to 15 ideas of things that you know a lot or even a little about. Begin doing the research for that niche online and see if it’s marketable. Most all niches will be marketable, some more than others, but the internet is so vast and people use it to find everything that they’re looking for. You could be their resource for that specific topic. What you want to create your information product about is up to you.

Advantages to selling an information product online:

  • It is a low-cost product to create. It does take time to do the research for your info product but it won’t cost a lot of money.
  • You can sell your information product online at any time, day or night! You don’t have to be online or even sitting at your computer to sell the info product.
  • You can automate the selling process. You customers can pay you online and they will be able to download the info product automatically.
  • Instant product fulfillment. Your customers don’t have to wait to be able to receive your info product.
  • Forget about shipping. Because your information product is in electronic format, you will not need to worry about shipping a physical product to your customer, saving you time and money!
  • There is a very low-overhead from this info product. You pay small fees to accept payments online, i.e. PayPal, as well as some advertising costs but the rest of the payment will be your profit, i.e. extremely high profit margins!

Start brainstorming today and take the first steps to offering the Magic Product. Keep reading my blog to continue to learn all about information products!

The Business of Love

Published on February 13, 2008 in All. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and like any other holiday, long ago companies decided to capitalize on the great feelings that people like you and me have during such special holidays. What does this mean for us and internet business owners? As internet business owners, we can learn from how those companies market certain products during certain times of the year. Pay attention around the next holiday and notice how companies adjust their marketing strategies to adapt to that particular holiday.

As for those of you that are involved with affiliate marketing, during these holidays. Make sure that you anticipate and plan ahead to be prepared when the holiday arrives because it’s here today and gone tomorrow. If you sufficiently plan to take advantage of these special times then you will be able to skyrocket your affiliate commissions.

Small Success Leads to Big Success

Published on February 12, 2008 in All. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

What do all internet business owners want?  The answer is simple.  They want to be able to make a living from the comfort of their own home, sitting down at the computer.  What is success?  Well, everyone defines success differently.  So ask yourself what it would take for you to consider yourself successful.

A friend of mine really likes the phrase, “Small Success Leads to Big Success!”  I first heard this saying from him.  Every individual that starts out with an internet business should Expect Success.  Expect success and it will come to you.  It may start out as small success such as selling an item or two on eBay but continue with a strong will to succeed.  I believe that everyone needs to have the right attitude and mindset for what it is that they want to accomplish.

Steps that lead to success:

  1. Have a positive attitude toward your current situation.
  2. Envision yourself where you want to be.
  3. Have a clear outline of the goals that you want to accomplish.
  4. Learn and understand the things that you need to do to achieve your goals.
  5. Keep a Success Journal and keep track of your goals and your progress.

This will help you to get on the right track and stay there.   Learn as much as you can and remember the wise words of Yoda from Star Wars, “Do or Do Not.  There is No Try.”

Have something to say? – Podcast it!

Published on February 5, 2008 in All. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

If you love to talk and are passionate about what you talk about then why not tell the world about it. The internet has come along way since the early days. We can thank Apple and their iconic iTunes that have popularized podcasting. For those of you that are newer to this concept, podcasting is a way to broadcast anything over the internet. Whether it’s audio or video, it will be heard by your subscribers. With that said there are websites and companies online that really simplify the process of podcasting and allow you to host your podcast on their servers saving you lots of headaches and sleepless nights trying to figure this “podcasting” mystery.

One podcasting service that I have experience with is MyPodcast.com. I like them because, first of all, you can use their services for free and it’s easy to use.  In addition to allowing you to use their services for free, they give you the tools to generate an income from your podcast with advertising.  Companies will pay to be able to insert a small 30 second advertisement into your podcast.  You have the option of approving the company and advertisement so you remain in control of the content available in your podcast.  The Industrial Strength Internet Marketing Podcast will begin soon and will be available directly through this website as well as on mypodcast.com at isim.mypodcast.com.

Moonlighting on the Internet – A Book Review

Published on January 31, 2008 in All. 0 Comments Tags: , .

This is my first book review. I just opened up an online book store, to visit it just click on the link on the left side under the suggested links. I have started reading Moonlighting on the Internet by Yanik Silver. I am already most of the way through this book. It really goes into details about my previous post called 4 ways to make money online.

Here is the direct link to the book. I definitely recommend it for anyone that is a newbie to an internet business. It’s simple enough to understand that anyone that picks up this book and starts to read will be able to follow along. Easy enough for newbies to understand but it contains enough details that a seasoned internet marketer could also benefit from it and pick up great tips and resources to increase their online revenue.

The 4 main money-making internet business strategies.

Published on January 30, 2008 in All. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , .

1. eBay and other auction sites

Using eBay is a great way to start making money online. You can go ahead and sell things from around your house today. eBay is the most popular auction website but don’t discount the other auction websites yet. Some other auction site may offer less competition but just as many bids on a certain item that you’re selling. Be careful with other ‘lesser-known’ auction sites and do your research about their history and credibility. If you’re just starting out, I definitely recommend eBay as a great starting point.

2. Dropshipping and Product Fulfillment

Dropshipping is a great way to sell on eBay. Especially if you go ahead and do the extra work to find suppliers that other eBay auction sellers aren’t using. Notably, you can use www.Doba.com as a dropshipping resource company. Other dropshipping companies include www.wholesalematch.com and www.worldwidebrands.com which are wholesale and dropshipping directories. Other than eBay, you can setup an ecommerce store such as OSCommerce to sell your products from your own website.

3. Information Products

Information products such as ebooks are a great way to earn revenue online. If you know a lot about a certain category such as “car parts” then you could create an ebook about “how to find car part suppliers online” There will be some research involved with this type of product but the advantages of selling an information product outweigh the time and research involved in creating this type of product. Also, under this same category are downloadable audio and video products.

Advantages include:

  1. Sell through your website any time of the day or night.
  2. Automated Process of Digital products and downloadable products.
  3. Low Overhead. Very low cost to create this type of product.
  4. Sell your product over and over again.

Find a niche market, setup a blog with Wordpress.com and start writing about everything you know about that niche market. When you have enough content, use that same content and create an ebook about that specific topic. Blogs are a great way to start promoting yourself as a knowledgeable person in your niche market.

4. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a method that companies use to promote their services or products and spread the word about their company. Notable companies that have affiliate programs are www.ebay.com, www.yahoo.com, www.apple.com/store, Apple iTunes and many more. You can find these companies and others like them at affiliate networks such as www.cj.com, www.linkshare.com, and share-a-sale.com. Sign up with these affiliate networks and find companies to promote their products for them. They will reward you if someone that you refer makes a purchase of their product. Use you blog to promote these affiliate links.

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Published on January 30, 2008 in All. 0 Comments

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Published on January 30, 2008 in All. 0 Comments Tags: .

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Avoid Writer’s Block: How to consistently write blog entries.

Published on January 29, 2008 in All. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Writing hasn’t always been easy for me, nor do I think of myself as a very good writer.  I know enough to get by without making a high school english teacher cringe while reading my articles.  I decided that I would write about how to come up with things to write in your blogs on a regular basis.  I have several blogs that I try to post an entry on at least once a week.  When I say “consistently” or “regular basis”, I don’t necessarily mean every single day.  Although if you can write that much than you’re probably better or more dedicated to your blog than I am to mine.

Let’s get into it!  Shall we?  (If you already have a blog with a specific theme then you can skip this part about coming up with the general subject of your blog.) If you’re like me, then you like ’stuff’. Whatever that ’stuff’ happens to be, whether it’s current events, politics, American Idol, pop culture, movies and music, etc.  As for me, my main interests are in internet marketing, photography, graphic design, computers and internet, and much more.  First thing to do is to find your niche.  Think about what you like or know the most about and then start by writing those things down.  This is will be our first little brainstorming session.  Once you have at least a dozen of ideas written down on that list.  Off that list, pick one that you know the most about.  That’s what your first blog will be about.

After setting up your blog with a blogging service such as Wordpress or Blogger, then write your first post immediately to just let people know about your blog and what it’s going to be about.  Now here comes the easy part.  You have at least a couple of options, write the blog posts yourself or hire someone to write them for you.  If you choose to outsource the writing expect to pay between $5 and $10 per article.  Some will let you order just one at a time but it would be better to order 10 – 15 articles right from the get go.  That way you have enough to get a jump start on your blog.  Also, freelance writers would rather write them in bulk.  As far as writing the articles yourself, I suggest a second brainstorming session.  Typically, I come up with the titles of the articles first and try to think of a clever and catchy line for the title.  Then just start organizing an outline of what those article titles could be about.  Just start writing. It’s not so bad and you’ll get the hang of it.  I simply prefer using both methods listed above for content.  I will usually write my own articles but if I don’t have enough time during the day then I’ll hire someone else to write them and I’ll always have a few extra articles on hand that I can post when I need to.