The Internet Entrepreneur Diary

Image Source: WhiteMenorah Courtesy of oskay

While reading the blog post on Google Reader, I realized that I have posted “Increase page ranking with DIY marketing strategies” in the past. It was one of my top visited blog posts. Looking at that post again, I felt that I was drawing on the white paper like a young child. It’s nothing but a kid’s play.

Doing serious business requires serious marketing strategies. If I don’t seriously plan my marketing strategies, I will not get anywhere I want my business to be. I have spent two days reading the book I just bought about marketing toolkit for small business. So let’s play like an adult in the business world.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Image Source: the law Courtesy of losiek

This afternoon, I spent 6 hours in the book store and tried to pickup a marketing book that will help me boost my online business. I pick one from the 16 marketing books. The book is written by Beth Goldstein, founder of Marketing Edge Consulting Group, LLC. The book name is The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit: All the Tips, Forms, and Strategies You’ll Ever Need!

I have a lot of reading home work to do. I may come back to pick few of the rest 15 marketing books.

If you read my blog post in the past few days, you probably feel my anger about the marketing company. I have decided to fire my marketing companies and do Internet Marketing on my own. The goal is to lower the marketing cost and boost the sales.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Image Source: My Ghost Courtesy of piccadillywilson

Few days ago, I posted “The key to turn your traffic into cash - Conversion rate.” I realized that conversion rate is the key to identify your success of online business. Web site traffic is important, but it doesn’t bring your profit until the conversion rate kick in.

I have been misled by so-call marketing experts. They promised to generate traffic and increase SERP, but none of them can actually bring me the good conversion rate. Of course, there are many facts that will make your conversion rate up and down. So I decided to learn it the hard way. I truly believe that an e-commerce store can sell anything and still become success, if you know how to find your customers and make them pay. You can read my E-Commerce Golden Rules.

Why those marketing experts failed to bring me a good conversion rate?

First of all, I have to admit that I am no expert in marketing, but I have the basic common senses to identify “Working” and “Not Working.” It’s all about cash flow. If your ROI (return of investment) is negative for 3 months, you need to re-think about your investment strategies. Running small business like mine, I don’t have a lot of money to invest. 3 months is long enough for me to change my strategies.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Image Source: Welcome to…. Courtesy of Ingorrr

First of all, I have to admit that I forgot to post my weekend confession last week. I don’t quite remember what I was busy for. I did spent time on the Internet promoting my online business. It turns out that my online stores have getting more traffic everyday. The shopping season is official started.

In the past week, I have been working extremely aggressively to increase the traffic to my online store. I know the economy is down, but I still believe that people are buying stuff online. According to my conversion with one of the Zappos staff, Zappos is still going strong this year. They must done something right to drive their business forward. You can read my blog post about that at Start Last - Finish First - Are you the next Zappos?

Now I have generated traffic to my stores, how do I turn that into cash? We all know that conversion rate is the key to make good profit and the key of the online business success. I want to turn the red light into a green light for my business.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Image Source: White Ligth… - This image has been cropped, rotated and enhanced.

Oh! Sexy Pink! I can’t really resist the eyes with the pink heart looking straight at me. It turns me on. Oops! It turns my business revenue up! Have you got my attention?

This is another example of using blog post header image to demonstrate the power of image. Picture speaks for itself. I have used this image on my fashion jewelry blog. I meant to spice up my sales a little before the Valentine’s Day.

The question is “Does sexy image drive your business revenue forward?”

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Image Source: Support - This image has been chopped and enhanced

Do you have e-commerce online stores? Do you sell goods for profit? How do you market your site in your niche? Do communicate your customers without interact with them on the phone or face to face?

If you are running e-commerce online store and are having some troubles to reach your customers, you need a blog to rescue your online store. Personally, I am a believer about marketing and branding. I am also a believer of my e-commerce golden rule. I believe that spending time marketing is somehow more important than spending time make perfect products. You can read my golden rule at How to succeed in the e-commerce world? Follow the 30/70 golden rule. You can also join my discussion about your thoughts on that.

What can a blog do for your e-commerce online store?

Popularity: 32% [?]

Image Source: Against Corporate Policy

Are you thinking to start a new online e-commerce store? Do you have great products to sell online? If so, you will need to follow the 30-70 rules.

Who invent this concept? What is the 30/70 rules?

Popularity: 17% [?]

Just one day after post my weird credit card issues with VistaPrint on Warning - VistaPrint Free Business Card will rip you off, I saw two strangers in my web log. One is from Vertrue, the marketing company who has charges me twice for not signing up their crappy deals. And one from VistaPrint, who released my credit card information to Vertrue and trick me to be charged for nothing.

Obviously, they do care about what people say about them. They search Google and found my post about their problems. I am still dealing with my credit card company and trying to dispute the charges. If you are interested in using VistaPrint as your online printing source. Please do yourself a favor! Read their privacy and security policy.

In addition, we may share the information we collect with other companies with whom we have joint marketing arrangements.

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It is also possible that VistaPrint may partner with or purchase another company to continue to do business as a combined entity. In the event that this occurs, it is possible that our customer information may be transferred to the new business entity as one of VistaPrint’s assets. In such an event, we will update this policy to reflect any change in ownership or control of your personal information.

I want to clarify that I was a VERY VERY HAPPY customers of VistaPrint. It’s over!

Popularity: 17% [?]