Picture yourself in a supermarket that runs 24 hours a day and 7 hours a week.
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Trusting in the Power of the Internet to Make Money
Posts Tagged ‘online’
Trusting in the Power of the Internet to Make Money
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Tips to Ensure Success with Your Email Marketing Efforts
Friday, June 5th, 2009Email marketing is something that many online business owners use to promote their offerings and make money online. However, if you do the wrong things with your email marketing campaign, your subscribers will want to opt out of your list. This will leave you without a platform to effectively communicate with the people who have already shown interest in what you have to offer. What’s worse is that your online business will gain a bad reputation and people online will be less likely to trust you.
Newsletter publishing is the most popularly used email marketing strategy. This is because it is effective not only in attracting customers but in encouraging repeat purchases as well. For the success of your online business, you should consider launching an email marketing campaign composed of weekly newsletters. Make sure that all the emails you send out are informative and beneficial to your readers. If not, you can easily annoy them. Keep your emails short and link each one to relevant pages on your website. Make sure that the content of each one strikes the interest or curiosity of your readers so that they will want to read more. Also, keep the sales pitch off your email marketing campaign and focus on engaging your readers.
Another very important element of a successful email marketing campaign is regularity. Develop a schedule for sending out emails and stick with it. If you promised your subscribers an email once a week, make sure that’s exactly what they will get. Also, send out your emails on the same day (and, if possible, the exact same time) every week. This will allow your subscribers to know when they should expect emails from you. If you send emails when your readers don’t expect them, you not only make them more likely to ignore or delete your email but may also make them feel that your online business is unreliable. Doing that may also annoy your readers and prompt them to unsubscribe from your mailing list. Once they’ve done that, you can be sure that they will no longer support your online business.
Email marketing is something to take seriously as it can easily lead to the success or failure of your online business. Be sure that your readers have something to gain by being on your mailing list. Also, you should use your email marketing campaign to show that your online business is professional and trustworthy. Remember that the longer your readers stay subscribed to your mailing list, the more likely you are able to generate sales from them. In addition, the better the image you are able to portray through your email marketing campaign, the more likely your subscribers are to trust and patronize your online business.
L’Oreal loses court battle against eBay
Friday, May 22nd, 2009Cosmetics giant L’Oreal told by judge that online auctioneer eBay could not be held responsible for sale of counterfeit goods
Cosmetics giant L’Oreal has lost another court battle against eBay after the UK high court ruled that the online auctioneer could not be held responsible for the sale of counterfeit goods on its website.
Mr Justice Arnold ruled todaythat eBay did not have to pay damages to L’Oreal and was not jointly liable with sellers for infringing trade marks. However, he also referred the issue of eBay’s use of advertising keywords to the European Court of Justice for clarification – a result welcomed by L’Oreal.
L’Oreal argued that restricting the distribution of its products and preventing them from being sold on eBay would protect consumers against counterfeit products.
Although some of the sellers on eBay were found to be selling counterfeit goods, the judge said: “There is nothing in eBay’s systems and policies which favours or encourages the listing or sale of counterfeit goods. On the contrary, eBay Europe take active steps to prevent or at least minimise such activities. The fact that eBay could take further steps does not affect this.”
The judge suggested 10 steps that eBay could take to reduce the risk of consumers buying counterfeit goods through the site, including the filtering of listings before they are posted on the site, requiring sellers to disclose their names and addresses when listing items and taking greater account of negative feedback from site users. But he said: “The fact that it would be possible for eBay Europe to do more does not necessarily mean that it is legally obliged to do more, however.”
L’Oreal lost a similar case against eBay in France last week and also suffered defeat in Belgium last year when a commercial court in Brussels said eBay did not have to police its site to prevent counterfeit products from being sold. Further cases are still to be resolved in Germany and Spain. A US court also ruled in favour of eBay against jewellery store Tiffany’s & Co last year.
However, other retailers have won cases against the site. Luxury goods group LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessey, was awarded €38.6m (£33.9m), while Hermes won €20,000.
eBay says just 0.15% of the 2.7bn listings it hosted globally last year were identified as potentially counterfeit.
Richard Ambrose, eBay’s head of trust and safety, said: “When companies try to prevent genuine items being sold through the internet, they demonstrate that they are out of step with consumers, how they use the internet to shop and, at this time when every penny counts, the importance of shopping around to get the best price.
“Following legal victories for eBay in the UK, US, France and Belgium, we reiterate again that cooperation and dialogue is what is needed, not litigation. Only by working together can we collectively address the issues that concern eBay, rights owners and consumers.”
- eBay
- Retail industry
- Law
- Consumer affairs
- Internet
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Three Tips For Making More Money From Your Online Business
Saturday, May 16th, 2009Sustaining profits can be a difficult thing for an online business especially if it seems like it has already saturated its market. However, there are a couple of things that you can do to ensure continuous sales growth. Although they may not be easy, doing them correctly may lead you to ensure the success of your online business for the long term.
1. Brand Your Online Business
Many people seem to think that branding is not necessary when they own a small online business. However, all businesses have a brand image whether or not it was created intentionally by the owner. The brand image is essentially how other people view your business and it is always best to make a conscious effort to control it. If you haven’t branded your business yet, now is the time to do so. Of course, you want your online business to be viewed as professional and trustworthy. Think about your other values and consider them as you build a brand for your online business.
2. Expand the Reach of Your Internet Marketing Campaign
There are always ways to expand the reach of your Internet marketing campaign. Service providers who feel as if they’ve saturated their market should explore other platforms. They could spend more time communicating with potential clients in forums or in other freelancing websites. If your online business involves selling products, you may want to find new ways to increase your traffic such as article marketing or link exchanges.
No matter what you online business involves, you need to continuously find ways to expand your Internet marketing reach to attract more and more potential customers.
3. Offer More Products or Services
If your sales growth has become stagnant, you may want to offer more products or services. Online businesses cannot be sustainable if there are no additions to its offerings. Keep in mind that it costs less to encourage customers to make repeat purchases than to attract new buyers. For this reason, you need to add new products or services to your catalog on a regular basis. By doing this, your sales figures will be sustained by your current customer base and your sales growth will come from new ones.
These are three tips you should consider following in order to grow your online business profits. If these are things you aren’t doing yet, act quickly and make sure to implement them on a continuous basis. By doing so, you will find that your online business becomes more sustainable and you will be able to make money online for the long term.
In the line of fire
Friday, May 15th, 2009Listening to moans and whinges all day sounds like a nightmare, but for some people, dealing with complaints is a source of fulfilment. So why do they do it, ask Phil Chamberlain
“I feel physically sick when I get a letter in green ink with everything underlined,” says Nina Wilton. “But while you might think that is how people complain and that is who complainers are, it really is not true.”
The idea of spending all day fending off angry customers doesn’t sound particularly appealing. However, any firm that values its reputation needs decent complaint handling. For organisations such as local authorities, it is a statutory duty.
So who gets the job of taking the call or the email which starts; “I’m not one to complain, but …”?
Wilton works for Wiltshire council handling, among other things, some of the toughest complaints such as those involving social services.
“I thought, before I started, that I?would be arguing with customers,” says Wilton. “That doesn’t really happen. Most of my problems have been negotiating and persuading my colleagues that this isn’t about blame and we just need to put it right.”
Wilton previously ran a Citizens Advice bureau and so was used to dealing with local authorities. When an opportunity came up to work at what was then Wiltshire county council she thought it was a good opportunity to try change from the inside.
“People expect us to pull the shutters down and be confrontational,” she says. “Our job is to be the person who stops and listens to them.”
Peter Norris, from David Niven Associates, trains people in local government on how to investigate complaints properly, particularly sensitive social service cases.
He thinks that handled wrongly, complaints can be a destructive process for all concerned. “The complainant thinks everybody is sticking together while the member of staff believes the system is weighted in favour of the complainant. Nobody likes to be challenged,” he says.
“When I train managers it is to get them to identify training needs and what went wrong. You do it in a structured way. If it is done properly, then investigating complaints can improve services.”
If a complaint to a local authority can’t be resolved in-house, it can go to a local government ombudsman like Tony Redmond.
The former chief executive at Harrow council has been in local government for more than 30 years. By the time complainants come to him the situation has often become very entrenched.
“People talk about us being a form of dispute resolution and that sounds like head-to-head conflict. It isn’t always like that,” Redmond says.
“Sometimes what happens is [that all someone] really wanted was an apology and one wasn’t forthcoming, and they become more exercised and angry. By the time they come to us they want more than an apology, and that might take some form of compensation.”
Redmond says he finds the job satisfying because he is helping people and helping local authorities correct faulty procedures.
Positive social change
It’s an outlook that finds favour with philosopher Julian Baggini, who has written a book called Complaint: From Minor Moans to Principled Protests (Profile Books).
Baggini says that complaining is at the root of all positive social change but too often, people choose the wrong method or the wrong target.
“Businesses have got quite canny using their customer service lines to defuse serious complaints,” he says. “They have a sympathetic voice just repeating company policy back at you. The business of corporate complaints is not to change anything but to keep people as compliant as possible.”
It is certainly not a job that Baggini would consider. “I would hate it because I imagine if you work on a complaint line your estimation of human nature and intelligence must plummet even lower than where it started from.”
It appears that in the public sector, which has a raft of regulations overseeing complaints procedures, the ability to be impartial and dispassionate is highly prized.
You are unlikely to get the kind of complaint Richard Branson received from one disgruntled customer of his Virgin Airlines service. The six-page humorous missive, complete with photos, became an internet sensation and led to Branson calling the writer personally.
The benefits to the private sector of proper complaint handling are obvious. A recent survey by the consumer watchdog Consumer Focus found that one third of people have decided not to buy a product from a particular company after hearing of someone else’s bad experience.
Audrey Gallacher is head of company performance and consumer experience at Consumer Focus. She says that mobile phone and energy companies, which traditionally have a poor reputation for complaint handling are beginning to put in a bit more effort having long treated it as a Cinderella service.
“Most people have a lot of sympathy for them but staff are often not empowered,” she says. “They don’t have the information or they promise a call back but it doesn’t happen.”
Reputable customer care
That doesn’t sound like Karen Rosterne’s workplace. The 52-year-old is a team leader on Kellogg’s consumer helpline and before that, worked for BT for 29 years in various call centres.
Rosterne has a very soothing voice and seems genuinely enthused at being able to talk to Kellogg’s customers. Still, not everyone gets sent pictures of odd-looking cereal as part of their job.
“We get amazing letters,” she says. “The questions people ask make you realise the power of advertising. We have a huge board with photos people have sent us. We have horses eating cereal and curious-shaped cereal.”
Of course not every call is about a cornflake shaped like Jesus and those complaints which the staff can’t resolve are passed on to Rosterne.
She says: “Sometimes people feel more comfortable talking to a manager. A consumer, if they are not getting the answer they want, might come to me hoping to get something different – but they can’t. I can only reaffirm what one of my team members has said.”
Her Warrington-based team of 11 handles about 150 calls a day, with a slightly fewer number of emails and some 30 to 40 letters. A lot of these will be asking about promotions and competitions. They also get calls about nutrition and health issues such as diabetes.
Does Rosterne make use of complaint lines herself? “I called Sainsbury’s yesterday because I had a soggy cucumber,” she admits. “I have to say they were excellent. I think for any reputable company you expect a?reputable care line.”
Having had a good report on Sainsbury’s, I spoke to Nicola Soper, the supermarket chain’s customer contact operations manager who has worked for the company for nearly 20 years.
Soper, who claims that she is so loyal to Sainsbury’s that if cut she would bleed orange, says that a big part of her job is feeding back information from customers to the business so it can refine its operation. That might be something as small as correcting a?spelling mistake or even reintroducing a discontinued line.
“My job doesn’t feel like conflict,” she says. “The majority of calls are queries. There is going to be the occasional difficult query but we really aim to understand the customer.”
Her staff can draw upon an online knowledge base to answer any of the myriad calls that Sainsbury’s 18 million customers might ring in with.
“A standard call centre which runs to?a script isn’t going to work for us,” she says. “Our staff think on their feet and if they don’t know, they will go and find the answer. We might recruit 20 people to start on our training scheme but only end with 10.”
What about a firm with a really tough reputation for complaint handling. A company that brooks little argument, that insists it’s their way or (literally) the highway. A company such as Ryanair?
I emailed the low-cost airline’s head of public relations asking if I could talk to one of their customer-complaint “stormtroopers” – and have still to receive a reply.
Now, where was that complaint form?
And another thing …
Last week, we asked people in controversial jobs, from abortion doctors to animal testers, how they justified their work. Here’s what our online readers had to say
“Simon Walters [animal tester who said he loves animals], you love animals and they despise you. You cannot reconcile your job with any true empathy for those animals. You are a disgrace.”
booker
“I believe these people have stronger ethical values than an accountant or a salesperson. They know their jobs are controversial and most likely did some thinking about it beforehand. How many of us did the same?”
Ritariba
“To claim that someone has to do the job not only fails to appreciate that no particular person has to, but furthermore reveals that one considers oneself merely as a cog in a rather nasty machine.”
wanderingone
“I’m an aromatherapist and Reiki master. To hear the phone calls I get you’d think I was a hooker! Men think a massage is still something women do before they give the man sex.”
DeeSawdeley
- Work & careers
- Consumer affairs
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Is It Time To Quit Your Job
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009Guest Post by Michelle Meine
One of the main reasons why an individual is unsuccessful in their job is the fact that they do not like their work. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing you are much less likely to put as much commitment, effort and enthusiasm into your work as you would if you liked your job. If you agree with any of the following questions, you may need to consider leaving your job and pursuing the world of online marketing and freelancing. It is relatively easy to earn money from internet, but if you don’t love doing that, don’t.
1. My job is boring, I just wait for the clock to reach 5pm so I can go home but the day seems to last forever.
When you work at home and start earning online, you don’t need to worry about practicing a 9-5 schedule. You pick the hours you work and when you work them. If you need a break, no one will stop you. You are in complete control.
2. I need more flexible working hours to accommodate my family schedules, but my job is too strict.
You decide how much or how little you work. If you need more money, work extra hours. If you need some time off, simply take it when you need it. Flexibility is a key benefit of working for your self.
3. I keep going from one job to another. None of them seem to satisfy me.
Perhaps regular jobs just aren’t for you? There’s nothing quite like being self employed, it’s both invigorating and provides the ultimate workplace freedom.
4. My salary is far too low, I deserve much more than what I’m being paid.
You set the wage you want to earn, set your rates per hour and work out your business plan. Then work to it as much or as little as you like. This means your earnings are almost limitless; all the money just goes directly to you.
5. My boss doesn’t know what he/she is doing; I wish I could be my own boss.
You can, start earning money online today and become your own boss.
6. I hate having to grab holiday’s a year in advance or fight with other co-workers over a day off. I wish I could just go on holiday whenever I needed or wanted to.
As your own boss you don’t need to ask permission to book a holiday. If you need time off, take it off. It’s up to you when you work.
7. I’m much happier when I’m working online on my computer; I wish I could use that to make money!
Making money online is easy and fun with a little time and effort on your part. If your favorite hobby is computers, you’ll have no problems at all making money.
8. My commuting time is ridiculous and costs me a fortune. I wish I didn’t have to travel to work.
You don’t need to go to an office to work online. All you need is a computer and internet access at home and you can eliminate traveling to work altogether. Just roll out of bed in the morning and there you are!
9. I simply can’t do full time work anymore, I need a part time job that’s flexible.
You don’t have to earn money online full time. You choose your hours and how many of them you do. It’s completely your choice.
10. I’m not happy in my job; I want to do something that really makes me enjoy my working day.
Earning money online can help you to achieve job fulfillment. If you put in enough time and effort overall, your online business can provide you with enough regular income to free up your time and allow you to concentrate on more important and more fun activities. Making money online is easy and fun, once you know how.
Burst the Economic Recession and Make Money Using the Internet
Monday, April 13th, 2009Despite there are some positive economic news released lately, it is still very uncertain that when the economy will start recovering. You might be one of the unlucky persons who already lost your job months ago and is in need of money to pay off your bills.
With many Internet based money making opportunities available now, you can do some searches on the Internet to see which opportunity is best for you to earn money.
Whichever opportunity you choose to make money online, you must first take time to learn the basic, how to get started and the methods that you can apply to generate revenue. My friends Imran has released a new e-book called ‘How To Make Your First $1000 Online’ written just to help you in all these aspects.
How To Make Your First $1000 Online will share with you 11 proven online business models. So, you will get to know how you can earn money online in 11 ways. Each of these online business models can potentially earn you a full-time income if you are willing to put the work in and some monetary investments.
How to know Which opportunity is for you from the 11 money making opportunities shared in the e-book?
I have worked hard on the Internet to make a living for more than 2 years. I found that staying focus is vital to achieve the result I expected on.
When you just begin on the Internet, you are suggested to choose an online business model that you like and then focus fully on the business. Don’t choose a business model immediately just because it sounds very interesting and profitable to you.
You need to ask yourself first what you like to do, the field you are best in and what skills you have. For example, many people like to sell goods. So, it will probably the best option for them to set up a website or open an eBay account to market and sell their items for profits. Those who have skill in writing may turn their writing skill into money by publishing blog, becoming a freelance writers or creating their own ‘how to’ info-products and sell to a niche market online.
Thus, by knowing what hobby, skill and expertise you have, you can accurately determine which money making opportunity is for you and staying focus on it to succeed online.
How To Make Your First $1000 Online e-book shared also loads of methods and tips
The e-book doesn’t just give you 11 Internet money making ideas and then lets you figure out how to start and succeed. It will give you proven methods, techniques and success tips for each of the business models. From getting started to working on the online business model you chose, you will have guide to ensure you move to the right way.
This e-book is for you if you are:
- a complete beginner curious about how to make money at home using the Internet
- already in Internet marketing for a while, gained some knowledge but haven’t really make any money yet on the Internet
- wondering how your existing skills can earn you cash from the Internet
- bored with your day job and wanting to start a online business
Download a Copy of How To Make Your First $1000 Online Now
Where Does Making Money Online Lead Us?
Saturday, April 11th, 2009Guest post by Michelle Meine
Once in their lives, everyone gets fed up by their regular job. Millions of reasons can cause that — from not being satisfied with the salary or with colleagues to some simple reasons like not feeling good about getting up early in the morning. It really depends on the person. Regular jobs are good because they guarantee you a regular, steady salary at the end of the month. Therefore, it provides certain security that you will be able to pay the bills. However, all the stress that you go through can sometimes lead to many health problems and many other things.
On the other hand, there is working and making money online. The best thing about working from home is that you are actually your own boss! You get up whenever you want, you do whatever you want. It’s not like you have to do something that day — if you think you can manage to do it tomorrow, then you’ll do it tomorrow. You can take a day off anytime, without the need to go and beg your superiors. Of course, if you’re good with time management, you can create more free time — by outsourcing your work. You don’t have to write 5 articles per day — you can pay someone to do that job for you for a small fee. Of course, that isn’t recommended in the very beginnings until you start earning more money, but you’ll soon get there.
A woman from Ohio, who is working full time from home on the internet, when asked what she thinks is the main advantage of working from home, she replied: “I get to spend time with my kids!” And that’s really true. Family people, if they’re working from 9 to 5 (and especially if they have a second job) barely see their kids, and miss them a lot.
So, if we look at this from a objective perspective, where does making money online lead us? It leads us to being independent, being our own bosses, being able to spend more effective time with our kids and relatives, being able to do things you normally couldn’t do because of the lack of time and many more things. If you’re already in the online business, you know what I’m talking about. If you aren’t, be sure to learn how to earn money online and start your online journey right away.