The Top 10 Reasons Why Your Internet Marketing is Failing...And What You Can Do About It

By Terry Dean

For a change of pace this week, we are doing our top 10 list of reasons why your internet marketing campaign is failing and what you can do about it...

10) You haven't done anything yet!

This is the best place to start in a list like this...A lot of people have slapped a website together and just put it up on a free server without ever doing any type of promotion for it. You have to promote your website.

Even if you don't have any money, you can still place Free Classifieds & Links, submit to search engines, and participate in chat rooms, forums, and newsgroups. There are so many free ways of advertising online, it is shameful that the average website only gets 100 hits a year!

9) You don't accept credit cards!

If you want to do business in the 90's, you have to accept credit cards. If you aren't currently accepting credit cards, many of your customers will look at your business and see it as a very small time operation.

It used to be difficult to get a merchant account if you were a new business or had anything less than "A+" credit. Now, with new merchant account providers out there, anyone is able to get a merchant account, so you have NO excuse for not accepting credit cards. Check out http://www.bizpromo.com/cards/index.htm for more information on accepting credit cards today!

8) You don't have secure ordering pages!

Someone comes to your website, they are excited by your products, they are ready to order...AND then you make them send an order in by mail! You must be kidding... there is no worse way to lose the sale than this.

If you don't currently have secure ordering forms on your website, you can go to http://www.gta-tech.com for FREE secure ordering forms. This is a resource you shouldn't skip over because I know many people who are paying $10 - $20 monthly for secure ordering sites and they are Free from this company.

7) You don't have your own domain name!

WHAT? You haven't ordered your own domain yet...Well, get busy. This should honestly be one of your very first expenses. Having your own domain name gives your business it's own identity instead of just being a /member/ of a free web host.

Plus, if you ever desire to changes hosts, your domain comes with you. If you change hosts from a free server, your name and traffic stay behind. You are essentially starting over in your online business. For low cost monthly domain hosting, check out Virtualis at http://www.virtualisys.com/vr/tdean2/

6) You have a confusing website!

Way too many webmasters have too many products online, too many pictures, and too many links. The longer I am online, the more I learn that simplicity is the key. We often try to make it way too difficult for ourselves and our prospects.

You will be better off if you try to focus only on one or two products on your website and then use your other products for backends of the main products.

5) You don't give people any reason to come back to your website!

Is your website just one big sales presentation or do you include free information in it as well. Have you considered using Free Classifieds, Free Postcards, or other Traffic Building tools as free items on your site?

You can pretty much guarantee that if all you have is a sales presentation, your website will not make it very far. You have to give people a reason to come back...because most of the time your sales will not be made on people's first visit to your site.

4) You don't follow-up on your prospects!

The fortune in marketing is in the follow-up. If you don't follow-up on your prospects, you could be missing out on the majority of your sales. Do you even try to get the email address of your visitors?

A new type of autoresponder which automatically does your follow-up for you is now available and could be the answer to follow-up to many of us who are too lazy to consistently do our own follow-up emails.

3) You don't have your own ezine!

If you don't have your own online newsletter, you are missing dozens of marketing opportunities. Many people are too scared to start their own ezine because they don't know how to write. That is not an excuse. There are dozens of writers in any type of market online who will be willing to give you good guality articles for your ezine for free.

If you need some in the internet marketing/copywriting arena, check out http://www.bizpromo.com/free which lists some of my most requested articles which you can publish for free in your own newsletter.

Check out http://www.listbot.com for resources in starting your own mailing list for free online...

2) You don't have your own lead product!

Being an affiliate or a reseller of other people's products can be a great opportunity...but I would not recommend it for your primary product if possible. You need to develop your own products. Then, use affiliate programs as secondary products or backend products.

If you own your own product, you can make the maximum profit from every sale. You can set up dealer networks. You can determine the prices. You are in charge.

The easiest product to create is an information product. What do you enjoy doing? What are good at? What would you like to spend even more time studying? Start working on a simple information product in that area. You can be the prime-source for a product or service.

1) You aren't constantly seeking out new internet marketing training information!

Everyone of the successful people who are marketing online are what I call "information gluttons!" They spend hours reading everything they can get their hands on about Internet marketing.