Tips When Shopping For Ecommerce Development

You’ve decided to hire a professional for ecommerce development and have begun the processes of getting bids. The problem is that you are getting bids everywhere from $500 to $5000 and you don’t have any clue as to what you actually need. Can you get away with a $500 ecommerce website or do you have to go all out and get the $5000 one. What’s the difference? Is there a difference? These are questions that business owners deal with all the time when it comes to ecommerce development. What is too much and what is not enough?

Before you begin this journey you need to determine one thing up front. How are you going to get paid? Are you going to accept credit cards? Are you going to accept Paypal? Are you going to have people mail you checks? This is the first question you need to have answered before you even pick up the phone to call a web designer because this will play a factor in who you hire for your ecommerce development and what sort of options you will need with your ecommerce software.

Here is a a bare bones list of what you need to run an ecommerce store that accepts credit cards.

If you decide to go with Paypal as your payment solution then the rest of this article doesn’t really pertain to you. Click this link to read some of the benefits and drawbacks of using Paypal.

First – You’ll Need a Payment Gateway

The proper way of setting up an ecommerce store is to accept credit card through what is known as a payment gateway. This is not a merchant account. Many people confuse merchant accounts with payment gateways but they are not the same. Merchant account services act, for the most part, as a liaison between your business bank account and the payment gateway. When a customer orders a product from your online business their card is processed via the payment gateway. The money is then moved over to the merchant account service. The merchant account service then moves those newly captured funds to your business bank account.

Payment gateways allow online merchants such as ecommerce store owners or auction sellers to accept credit card payments over the Internet. They authorize the cardholder s credit that is, they check to ensure that the customer has enough money on their credit card to cover the charges. They then place a hold on that amount so the buyer can t turn around and spend that same money elsewhere before it gets transferred to the retailer s merchant account. Banks describes this as the technology necessary to consummate a payment transaction.

Second – You Need a Domain Name

You will need to purchase a domain name for your website. This is the part that comes after the “www” such as http://www.yourwebsitehere.com. Domain names are billed annually and a .com name can be purchased for $9.99 or even less if you shop around.

Third – You Have Put Your Store Somewhere and That is Known as Web Hosting

When you have an ecommerce website built you need to put it somewhere and that is where website hosting comes in. This is paid for in advance by the year. So if you purchase a $6.08 per month plan your initial bill will be for $72.96. This will keep your ecommerce website online for 1 year. There are different price plans based on how much space you will need for your website, how many emails you want associated with your account and how much security you want added your ecommerce website.

Fourth – You Need to Prove Your Website is Secure With an SSL Certificate

If you are planning on accepting credit cards or any personal information on your ecommerce website then you will need to purchase a SSL Certificate. This is proof to your customers that your ecommerce website is secure and that the likely hood of their personal information getting into the wrong hands is minimal.

Fifth – Ecommerce Software

Something needs to run your online store and that something is ecommerce software. This is where the cost starts to fluctuate based on whom you hire to build your store. There are plenty of free ecommerce software solutions out there. That’s right, they are free to download and use as you wish. Open source ecommerce software such as osCommerce and Zen Cart are very popular.

Here at Digi Donkey we use Kryptronic Click Cart Pro software for ecommerce development. It costs $199 but we have specialized in this software so that our ecommerce websites can be built quickly. This software has an easy to learn user control panel. There are plenty of free ecommerce solutions out there but we have found that the learning curve for most non-tech users is so high that it is not worth using it since our customers still ended up having to call us to make all of their edits and changes for them. Plus, Kryptronic has great customer support which is nonexistent with the free ecommerce software that is out there.

You will most likely be at the mercy of your web designer as to which ecommerce software is used for your online store. You definatelty want them using software they are familiar with so that your site is built as quickly (economically) as possible. Just make sure that if they are using licensed software to build your ecommerce site you own the license. The software needs to be registered to you so that you own it.

Sixth – Pictures and Words

Believe it or not this is probably one of the most left out aspects when people come to us for ecommerce development. The business owner has 5,000 products they are wanting to sell without any pictures or product descriptions and they want us to contact their supplier to get that information for them. This is one of those requests than can cost you a lot of money. You really should have your photos and words ready before you hire a web designer. What you’ll need written are these basic things; categories, category descriptions, product descriptions, product options, pricing, your return policy, your privacy policy, your terms of use and a home page greeting. Now there is plenty of more that you’ll need but these are the basics. If you are not good with words then hire a writer . If you don’t know of a writer only then ask your web designer, they probably work with one.

You’ll also need to have pictures of all your products on a CD, DVD or flash drive. The chances of someone buying something online they can’t look at are slim to none. If you are selling 10,000 items then you need 10,000 pictures of those items. Many times we have had clients ask us to go online and download the pictures for them. I’ll tell you now, that is a horrible idea. You need to get your own pictures before hiring the web designer.  Having them do it is going to cost you a ton of money. Now if you have it budgeted and really don’t have the time to do it fine but don’t get upset with your web designer when they hand you an invoice for 80 hours of downloading photos at $50 – $100 per hour before they have even started on building your ecommerce site.

And Finally – Website Design

You are obviously hiring someone because you can’t do this yourself so you will need to pay someone to put all this stuff together for you. This is where the cost really fluctuates. The best advice I can give is for you to do your homework and get a lot of bids. If you are looking at spending serious money on ecommerce development I would even suggest hiring a consultant to go over the bids with you. Dropping a couple hundred dollars on someone who knows more  about this stuff than you to go through the bids you get may save you thousands of dollars.

For any competent web designer the actual set up of your ecommerce website shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. That is getting the server and database set up, installing the software, turning on your SSL certificate and getting it to the point where you can start adding in your categories and products.  The real cost is in the customization of the site and plugging in all your categories, products and options. The more you have your designer do, the more it will cast you. You will most likely need your designer to customize the look of the site for you but beyond that you should be able to take over from there if you want to. Adding in the information to an ecommerce site is usually as easy as filling in a form. If it isn’t then you are using the wrong software.

Make sure you keep all these things in mind when shopping for ecommerce development. What you don’t know will cost you.

How to Be the Best Social Media Douche Bag Ever

Being a great social media douche bag is obviously something a lot of people are interested in becoming.  There are plenty of  social media experts, webinars, seminars, guides, blogs, Twitter tools and other sources of information out there that will teach you how to be the best, or biggest, social media douche bag you can be. Social media douche baggery has even become a business for some and the great thing is that some of these people don’t even need to know what they are talking about in order to get other people to fork over money to them. As far as this writer can tell, becoming a “social media expert” requires 1 of 3 things: the ability to create a Facebook account, the ability to create a Twitter account or the ability to create a social bookmarking account, like Digg or something. Then – POW! Another social media expert is born.

Here are some tips on becoming the best social media douche bag ever.

1. Keep all of your personal friends and family informed about every sale, offer and promotion your business is having. There is nothing people like more than being sold to. Especially from friends and family members.
2. Remember to post the exact same message multiple times a day to all of your social networks. This way you can keep your important information fresh in everyone s mind 24 hours a day.
3. Keep everyone you know informed about how you are doing when playing online video games and ask them to join you. As a matter of fact, please send me all your email addresses so that I can let you all know every time I kick the crap out of my kids while playing Wii Resort because I know you all really care about that.
4. Pay for a system that will get you tens of thousands of more followers on Twitter. There is nothing better than an automated system to get you tens of thousands of more people that have no interest in what you have to say to spam to.
5. SELL, SELL, SELL! All anyone really cares about is what you are selling so ask for the sale in every update,  tweet, message or post. Remember to never offer any valuable information because that would take away the focus from you.
6. Hire someone else and have them pretend to be you. Nobody knows you better than someone else. This is  especially true when it comes to your business. So hire yourself a social media expert to run everything for you. Most “social media experts” have social media douche baggery down to a science already.
7. Remember, spamming really does work. Look no further than the penis enlargement industry as proof.
8. One way communication is key. All that really matters is what you have to say so never respond to messages from people within your social media circle. Just make sure they get your message loud, clear and often.
9. Trick people into thinking your more popular by creating multiple fake user accounts. There is nothing better than tricking your online friends into thinking you are as cool as Ashton Kutcher by creating multiple user accounts and linking them all together for your own personal network of fake social media douche bags. Your online friends will ask themselves, “Who knew that so many other people were interested in making grout?”.
10. Keep all your business associates updated on what’s happening in your personal life throughout the day. Believe it or not, the people you do business with really do love hearing about how you just dropped the kids off at school, how smart they are, how you got over an infection, how your spouse has been and all the other fascinating details of your life.

Just remember that if you are going to use social media for your business it’s best to try to create a community around your services where you can not only educate people about what you do, but also communicate with them too. It’s not just a one-way street where all you do is post, post, post. You also have to be willing and able to interact with people.

In a nutshell, look at social media like an ad in the yellow pages (remember those). If all you did was place the ad and then never answer the phone the ad wouldn’t do you much good would it. After all, if all you’re going to do it put it out there and then never respond what’s the point of putting it out there in the first place. Posting your message all over your social networks and never interacting with the people who actually take the time to read your stuff is a waste of your time. If you are paying someone to do it for you then you are wasting your money too. Make sure you have someone, preferably an employee or yourself, responding to your friends, followers, fans or whatever in a timely manner. A third party (social media expert) may not have the ability to answer questions about your services as professionally as you could so why pay them to do it? You may need help planning and setting up a social media campaign. That’s okay, but running and monitoring it really needs to be done by you or someone within your organization to keep it genuine and real. It is networking after all.

20 Things To Know About Using Social Media For Your Business

These are the Twenty Things that everybody needs to know about Social Media and how they can use Social Media for their business. A lot of Hype has been created around this topic and we want own clients to understand what exactly it means to them.

(1) Don’t Believe the Hype

Our professional opinions are based on our expertise, experience and education. We are not here to repeat what others have to say. We are here to give you the facts not feed you fiction.

(2) It’s Not Cheap Advertising

It is wrong to believe that Social Media is nothing but a cheap channel to spam out a sales pitch. Social Networks are not a place for an infomercial or “Guerrilla Marketing”. Social Networks are not “the new” late night television, they are a new way to communicate with people.

(3) It’s Not Just Numbers

Social Media is not about building large numbers or friends, fans or followers that do not know who you are or do not care about what you have to say. Sending out information to large numbers of people that do not care what you have to say is spam. If you annoy them enough they may even look to see who is spamming them. This is not the way to build traffic to your website, because the only thing that they will remember is to buy elsewhere.

(4) It’s Not Just About You

If you make it just about you, only you are going to want to hear it. It’s easy to spot someone that doesn’t say anything with out posting a link to their website or starts every message with “My new Blog Post”. Words “I” or “Me” from your Social Media vocabulary or else you will create a personal brand that nobody will ever want to buy.

(5) You’re Not a Movie Star

How celebrities and major corporations are using Social Media has very little to do with what is going to work for you. Do not make the mistake of comparing yourself to a super model,  celebrity or professional athlete.  Social Media has nothing to do with who they are or why people are interested in them.

(6) Have Realistic Objectives

You need to know what your objectives are before you even think of starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign and if you are going to be able to realize those objectives for the type of business that you are in.

(7) Develop A Game Plan

An effective Game Plan will create the buzz for your business. Social Media gives you the ability to keep in touch with your loyal customers and to reach out to new ones around the world.

(8) Know Your Marketplace

You need to know your marketplace and why your customers buy from you. The Internet is a global marketplace and people can buy from you from all over the world.

(9) Give It Time

You need to remember that Social Media Marketing is a long term strategy, not a way to become an “Internet Millionaire” overnight.

(10) Treat People As Friends

Talk to people like they are your friends. Abrasive tone, SHOUTING, and pushy sales pitches are not what your friends want to hear. You are not writing copy for an infomercial.

(11) Build A Community

Use your Social Network to build a community around your business and reward your customers for their loyal patronage. Building a community online is how you bring people into your business, because they want to bring their business to you.

(12) Understand the “Vibe”

Every Social Network has a different Vibe and that vibe is created by the people that use the network, not the people that operate the network. For example automatically posting messages from another network is considered to be an acceptable practice on Twitter, but would be considered spamming somewhere else.

(13) Do Something Interesting

Always offer something that people are going to want or else they are not going to be part of your online business community. When you give people the opportunity to do something fun, they are going to bring your business into their circle of friends.

(14) You Must Participate

Internet Communities are about people and you are going to have to be there to carry on a two way conversation or people are just going to blow you off. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they join as many networks as they can find and never become a part of the community. “Auto-blogging” services like Ping.fm can give people the idea that spamming out a sales pitch to as many social networks is going to build traffic to their website. What they don’t realize is that traffic is not converting to actual sales. because people are just looking at their site in contempt.

(15) Encourage Cooperation

People will remember that you helped them and they will come back when they need your services. When you let people ask questions and answer them promptly they will know that someone is listing to what they say. Community pages should always include postings from fans to encourage cooperation between the people in you community.

(16) Build Relationships

Social Networks allow you to meet people around the world and in time you will be able to make friends them. These friendships may also lead to trust based relationships in business with people that you would not have to opportunity to meet otherwise. People that are experienced in business networking understand how this works on the local level, when they join Chambers of Commerce and other networking organizations.

(17) Think Business

Don’t say things that are going to offend the people that paying you money or challenge their political views or religious beliefs. One of things that makes America great is that people have the right to have different views on everything. It’s not your business to try to change what people believe and the only thing you are going to make them believe is they need to do business else where.

(18) Protect Your Reputation

Reputation is the key component in Social Media, the way you deliver your message and the frequency that you deliver it is going to directly impact your reputation.

(19) Never SPAM Your Friends

Friends don’t what to read spam or care about the latest trends in Social Media. Computer programs that send messages over the Internet that nobody wants are spamming. There are places on Social Networks to advertise and build lists of people that want to know about your business. For example, when people join a page on FaceBook they know that they are going to receive messages from the people that run the page.

(20) You’re Not Fooling Anyone

Just be yourself and treat people like your friends and everyone is going to like you. Pretending to offer sage advice only to lure people into some get rich quick website is going to get you nowhere fast. An excellent example is the “Thank Your For Following Me” message on Twitter, that is always generated by a computer program. A tool that will only build traffic to your website from contemptible people or people with contempt for you.

Is Twitter Right For Your Business?

Twitter has made the news again with the recent Ashton Kutcher vs CNN race to 1 million followers. Now that piece of pulp news has given ammunition to all the so-called social media “experts” riding Twitters jock. I’m going to borrow a line from Chuck D and Flava Flav and caution some of you business owners out there, “Don’t believe the hype”.

Your local ad agency, web guy or God forbid “social media expert” may be trying to use this as an example as to why your business should start tweeting. They may even show you examples of various tweeters with thousands of followers trying to convince you that that kind of audience is waiting for your message. After all, what business owner wouldn’t like to have tens of thousands of people to market to on a regular business.

I’ve read some recent blog postings from “social media experts” hailing this event as proof that Twitter can be used to reach a huge audience for business. The scary thing is that I believe some of these “experts” actually have people paying them money for this kind of advice. Someone needs to step up and drop some common sense on the public.

I guess I’ll have to do it.

First thing I have to say is this. Twitter can be useful tool for some businesses. That’s “some” businesses, not all of them.  Another thing is the fact that Ashton Kutcher and CNN have some things going for them that 99.9% of the business owners out there reading this probably don’t have. Fame, popularity and the ability to get their message to the masses through TV and radio for free.

People, if you’re not an “A” list celebrity or a huge corporate entity with a zillion media outlets to promote through then you may need to scale back your Twitter expectations just a little bit.

Here are just a few things you need to ask yourself when considering using Twitter as a tool in your overall marketing scheme.

Do to have time to do this right?

Using Twitter for business works best when you stay consistent. Can you post messages and check responses multiple times per day? Can you do it once a day or once a week. The more you post using Twitter the better the chances are of someone finding one of your tweets interesting and following you. If they follow you, then they are at least interested in something you had to say and maybe, just maybe, they’ll become a client or refer someone to you.

Do you have someone to do this for you?

If you don’t have time but see value to your business ask yourself this question. Are you willing to pay someone to keep up with this for you or are you willing to add tweeting to an existing employees workload. Again, consistency is key. Someone needs to be blasting out messages and responding to your followers in a timely manner.

Are you willing to pay someone to show you how to do it?

There are strategies you can use to promote your business through Twitter. Do you know them? If not, are you willing to attend a seminar or workshop to learn them? Are you willing to pay a marketing specialist or consultant to put together a marketing plan for you. Just because it’s free and 16 year olds are tweeting it doesn’t mean you should just start blasting out messages without knowing what you are actually doing. Just as quick as you can get your business message out a bad rep can be spread by becoming too spamming or self serving in your tweets. The goal is for people to like your tweets – not be repulsed by them.

Will using Twitter bring in actual business or just waste your time?

If you don’t know, you better ask somebody. Some people will immediately see the benefit Twitter can bring to their business others, not so much. Like I said before, it’s not for everyone.

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet consulting firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida. He is also the creator of the Cheap Ass Website.

Advice on Choosing a Domain Name

One of the first things you’ll have to do when planning your website is come up with a domain name and then register it with a domain name registrar like GoDaddy.com or Netfirms.com. Typically the cost to do this is around $6 – $12 per year depending on who you register it with.

Even though many web designers may offer to do it for you, it is in your best interest to register your domain name yourself. This way you have sole access to the account and can choose whom you share the information with. Now, if you hire someone to develop your website for you, they will need access to your domain name. But keeping it in your name will prevent future hassle, especially if you have to terminate your web designer.

You will be given a customer number or login name as well as a password when you register your domain name. Make sure you write this information down and put it somewhere you won’t lose it as recovering this information, if lost, can be difficult.

When selecting a primary domain name consider these points:

• How will you be marketing your website?
• Does the name of your business tip people off as to what service you provide?
• How much online competition do you have?

Write down about 5-10 different names you would like then check online for their ability using GoDaddy.com, Netfirms.com or a similar service.

One of the choices you will need to make will be to go with .com, .net, .org or something else. The .com extension is the most desirable due to fact that most people will assume that is the extension unless your advertising has effectively branded something different. As far as the search engines are concerned, it doesn’t really matter which extension you choose because the content on your website and other factors will determine your website’s search engine placement. The .org extension is typically used by non-profit organizations.

Here is an additional note about your domain name and the search engines. It does help a little bit if your domain name states what it is you do as opposed to just being the name of your business. If, for some reason, the name of your business isn’t available then a good way to choose your domain name would be to name the service you provide as well as the area you provide it. For example, if you’re a plumber and your business is named Joe’s Pipe Works and you are located in Orlando, Florida but the domain name joespipeworks.com, .net and everything else isn’t available then you could consider going with orlandoplumbing.com or joesplumbingorlando.com if they are available. You can also try using dashes. For example: joes-pipe-works.com or joes-plumbing-orlando.com.

If the domain name you prefer is available with multiple extensions (.com, .net, .biz, etc.) you will have a decision to make. Should you just purchase the one you want or should you purchase all of them. This will really depend on how much control you want over the name. For example, if the domain name you choose for your BBQ business is PigInThePoke.com would you be okay with a porn website setting up shop as PigInThePoke.net.? That may sound extreme but it has happened many times to many businesses before and it will continue to happen in the future. The other concern is that of a competitor getting the same domain name with a different extension. If you can afford it, it would be a good idea for you to buy up all the different extensions of your domain name. This is especially true if you want tight control over your branded image. There are other benefits to owning multiple domain names for your business too such as using them to promote landing pages, blogs and other online marketing tools.

Jayme Ward is the Owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet Consulting firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida

6 Tips To Save Money On An E-commerce Website

The title says it all this week. Read on for some tips that can save you hundreds of dollars when you have your E-Commerce shopping cart built.

Now these tips apply to people that are considering having a real bonafide shopping cart built. Not a web page with some PayPal buttons on it. We’re talking real E-Commerce ability here: credit card processing, inventory control, complete administration access, wholesale pricing, affiliate programs, real time shipping quotes, newsletter capability, 24 hr support, the works.

Tip 1: Hire Someone Who Actually knows What They Are Doing

This is not a joke. We get a handful of clients coming to us every year with these aborted abominations they call shopping carts and, of course,  they want us to fix them. My answer is usually to put their existing waste of money out of it’s misery and do another one from scratch the right way. This isn’t to get more money out of them, it’s because, in the world of web programming, fixing someone’s mistake usually takes more time than doing it from scratch the right way.

The problem for the business owner looking to get an E-Commerce site built is the fact that they are usually looking for a bargain (which is akin to using a coupon for cosmetic surgery) and they hire someone who doesn’t know what in the hell they are doing because there bid was the lowest. Why was it the lowest? Because they figured since the software is available for free online they would take your money, learn how to do it on your dime and everything will turn out right. Unfortunately, and ask your local web guy who really does know how to build E-Commerce site to verify this, there are plenty of “freelance web designers” that participate in this practice. And, yes, I did write that the software is available for free. You can download Zen Cart, OS Commerce and a slew of other open source shopping carts for free. As a matter of fact, these carts are sometimes included with your web hosting  tools. Go ahead you do-it-yourselfers. Knock yourselves out then call your web guy once you’ve been at it 50 hours and haven’t figured out how to change the color of your buttons yet.

The point is this. If you hire someone who has experience then the setup and programming won’t take as long. You are most likely going to be billed by the hour, so the less time it takes, the less money you spend. Ask to see a portfolio of shopping cart sites. Do they all look the same or are they different? Do they actually work? Does the designer give you excuses like, well it’s not quite done yet? Have they built more than one? Do they know how to set up credit card processing, PayPal, E Checks? Can they set up real time shipping quotes? If you wanted to set up an affiliate marketing program, could the cart handle it? These are just some of the questions any competent designer with E-Commerce experience should be able to answer. If they can’t, then call someone else.

Here’s a common example of something that happens all the time in the world of web design. A cheap business owner wants a cheap shopping cart. He gets three quotes. Two  for $100 per hour and $95 per hour from professional design firms and one for $50 per hour from some kid just out of college. He reads the three bids and has no clue as to what he’s reading. It’s all too technical so he goes for what he perceives as the better deal of $50 per hour. 40 hours and $2000 later his cart still isn’t quite working right. Instead of taking credit cards the proper way, the kid has convinced the business owner to just have the credit card numbers and orders emailed to him (believe me, this really does happen) since there is some sort of technical problem he can’t figure out with the cart. The business owner gets fed up with the kid and hires the $95 per hour design firm to fix the cart. They build him a new one from scratch (since the one the kid built is crap) that works perfectly in 15 hours for a total cost of $1425. Even if the kid got his cart working, did it really save the business owner anything?

Now, assuming you hire someone who’s competent, the rest will be up to you. If you deliver your materials to the designer all ready organized and set to go then you’ll shave hours off of the production time. If you are paying by the hour you need to make sure that the designer doesn’t have to sift through all your crap looking for what they need to set your cart up. Organization is the key to keeping production time down.

Tip 2: Put All Your Products Into a Spreadsheet

Every cart requires the same information so make sure you create a spreadsheet with all your products on it whether it’s 10 or 10,000. If your products are in Quickbooks or some other type of proprietary software you need to export it into a spreadsheet that anyone can open and read. At the very least have this information organized into columns:

• Product Name
• Keywords – no more than 10 words associated with the product
• Short Description – a one sentence description of the product
• Long Description – a full description of the product
• Image Name – the file name of the photo for this product
• Price

Now this is a bare minimum of the info actually required but just getting this stuff into a spreadsheet can save you hours upon hours depending on how many products you have. If any of your products have options (size, color, brand) you’ll want to list those too.

Tip 3: Organize Your Images

First, rename your images to what they are actually pictures of. Instead of “KDK00398834598627265347.jpg” rename it to “YellowHat.jpg”. When renaming images make sure to not use leave any spaces and only use letters and numbers. This will make it easier for the designers and the easier you make their job the quicker your stuff will get done. Also, deliver large versions of all your images to the designers. Let them resize your images for you. If they have Photoshop this can be very quickly. This way you’ll have high quality images on your site and the designer won’t have to take extra time working with tiny, junky images.

Tip 4: Have Your Shipping Info and Equations Ready

If you are going to be using real time shipping quotes have all your equations written out and ready to be handed over to the designers. DO NOT I repeat DO NOT just give some of the info and expect them to come up with your shipping rates for you. This can be a real time killer, especially if you have thousands of products with different rates for each. It’s your responsibility as the business owner to know what your shipping situation is. Have it ready to save money. Call the carriers you will be using and have them help you come up with your rates. They’ll do it for free, your web designer will bill you for it.

Tip 5: Create an Outline

Once you have all your products in the spreadsheet create an outline just like the ones you did back in grade school. See, you should have paid more attention in writing class. Anyway, organize your products into categories, sub-categories and sub-sub-categories. Make sure that every product, category, option and sub category is accounted for and organized. This is another time killer if not presented to the designer in a clear organized manner.

Tip 6: Use a Skin

Another money saver is to use a skin for the design of your site. Most of the top line shopping cart software has these things called skins available for them. Skins are basically design templates that can be added with the click of a button to make your E-Commerce website look more professional. Now, any designer can customize your site for you but that can be expensive considering that most carts require PHP, ColdFusion or ASP programming skills to customize the look. Your won’t be able to just hire the kid down the street at $10 per hour to do it. A skin can be added to a cart and modified much quicker and cheaper than having a design custom built. Most quality skins cost money but they are also way less than hiring a designer to do the same thing.

There are many, many other things that need to be done when putting together an E-Commerce site like setting up the server, database , SSL certificate, photography, home page content, email set up, affiliate programs, wholesale programs and more but if you at least follow these six tips then you should be able to save yourself some production time. Again, the most important thing is to hire someone who is competent. That decision alone could save you thousands of dollars in production costs.

Well, smart guy. How long should it take?

I’ve received some feedback since posting this that I’d like to address and that’s how long it should really take to build a cart. Now this varies depending on a variety of factors. But, unlike websites, shopping carts are software programs that really only need to be loaded, set up and then customized. Whether it’s 10 or 10,000 items the amount of time to set up won’t vary much if the information is presented to the designer the way they require since they will most likely upload a spreadsheet to populate the cart and run batch image processing to resize the images used. Now, yes, 10,000 items will take a little longer than 10 but not as long as you may think. Customization is where the real time is spent. But back to the question, how long should it take? I know some solid designers than can have skinned carts with hundreds of items up within 7 hours from beginning to end if they get the materials sent to them the way they require. That includes server, database and SSL set up. Now in your area you may have designers who are faster and some who are slower but I can only speak from what I have personally seen.

Jayme Ward is owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet consulting firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida

Using Video To Promote Your Business Online

“What would it take to add video to my web site?”,  is a question I am often asked. This question is usually followed by, “…and what would it cost?”.

Whenever I am asked how much a video will cost I think back to my first job at a video production studio. Ah, back in the days of flat top fades and New Jack Swing. Back then I remember the boss drilling the sales reps with the same mantra over and over, “If they ask you how much it will cost, then they can’t afford it.” Then he would always follow with, “We’re not about saving them money, we’re about doing the job right and making them money.” This is something I try to impress on anyone who is serious about adding video to their marketing tools. Video really only has two options, the cheap way and the right way. If you think this blog is going to teach you how to get a professional video done on a tight budget then don’t waste your time reading any further. I’m going to cover PROFESSIONAL video marketing solutions. If want to do it on the “cheap” then hire your brother-in-law that fancies himself as a video expert because he shot a couple weddings and birthday parties. That way, if your intent on just pissing your money away, at the very least, you’ll be helping out a member of your family.

The issue is that most small business clients (now that I think about it, large ones too) don’t really have a clue as to what goes into video production, the cost involved or even how they would use a video for promotion in the first place. Most just think that it would be cool to have one because, well… there just cool. 5-7  years ago most small business owners wouldn’t even consider video because of the production costs as well as the type of financial commitment a TV campaign would run them. Well, software advancements and the Internet have brought video production into the realm of reality for many small businesses. Or they think it has.

Now video production has come down in price a whole bunch the last few years. The Internet has made video delivery extremely cost effective but the fact is, as a business owner, you need to be educated as to what is available and effective for your business and image. An awesome video is still no good if no one sees it or remembers what the video is promoting. Video is still one of the most, if not the most, effective forms of advertising available to any business today. And with viral marketing techniques you can get more millage out of posting a video online than you could just by running ads on local TV.

I’m not going to cover how much you should be paying for custom professional video production because prices vary depending on where you are. For the same quality of video, a company in New York, NY may charge $40,000 where as a company in Cocoa Beach, FL may charge $10,000 for the exact same thing. I will, however, give you this advice on how to save a little money. If you are in a large city sometimes it may be more cost effective to bring a video crew in from a smaller area. I’ve seen rates fluctuate from $350 per hour to $75 per hour for the exact same service with the exact same equipment run by a producer with the exact same experience. Do your homework, hire a consultant or hire an independent executive producer that’s not affiliated with any production house to handle bidding out the project on your behalf. The cost of bringing in an outside crew, consultant or producer can almost always be offset by how much they can save you in production cost. Remember, these people know a whole hell of a lot more than you do when it comes to producing a video and where money can be saved without ruining the quality.

What I am going to cover is some of the more popular uses of video for business. Some are more effective than others and some are very popular but not really as effective.

The Video Walk On

One of the more popular (at least from all the people I run into selling this service at networking events) uses of video is the Video Walk On. These can be produced for as little as $300 and involve a spokesperson (sometimes professional other times not so much) walking out onto your web site and greeting visitors. They sometimes mention your promotions or specials and usually ask for some type of call to action: Call now, Click this link for more info,  and so on. Many also have some sort of monthly fee for using the service that can run anywhere from $35 a month and up.

The lower cost ones usually involve a template where your business name, contact info and call to action are plugged into a pre-written script. Now these scripts are usually very generic so that they can be used over and over for multiple businesses.  That’s how the production companies keep the cost down. You will usually not have very much say in the format but some companies will customize the video for you at additional cost. The thing to look out for is that the additional cost may be a whole lot more than the advertised price which made you consider this option in the first place.

The more expensive ones usually use scripts that are custom written for your business. They will normally have someone work with you to come up with an effective message. They also usually have more professional spokespeople as well as a larger selection of them. The cost for the higher end Video Walk Ons usually run $1500 and up give or take depending on the part of the country you’re in.

Are Video Walk Ons actually effective? Will they increase sales or leads? Will they increase traffic to your site? Will your search engine ranking go up? I’ll start by answering the last two questions first. No and no. If a sales rep tells you anything other, then they have no clue as to how the Internet works. From a technical standpoint, adding a Video Walk On to your web site will not increase search engine ranking or traffic. Most video nowadays is delivered online using Flash and Flash is not recognized by the algorithms that the search engines use. No matter how cool it looks. Now you may be wondering why in the hell then can you search for a video online and find it or how do YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, AOL Video, Vimeo and all the videos from those types of sites come up in search results. It’s simple, they are using a totally different kind of video delivery system than a Video Walk On does. Will they at least increase sales or leads? The answer is a resounding maybe. It really depends on the type of business you have as well as the product or service you are offering. Why do it then you may ask yourself? It’s all about image baby. If you want to add something to your web site that “pops” then a Video Walk On may be for you. If you want to differentiate yourself from the competition then this might a tool that can help you do so.  Don’t kid yourself thinking that adding this type of thing will drastically increase sales or your bottom line, it’s more for image. But, sometimes, a memorable image may be just what you need to separate yourself from all the other glut on the Internet.

The Template Video

Another low cost marketing tool is the Template Video. This is similar to the Video Walk On in that the script is a template where your companies unique info is plugged into an existing video shell. The difference is that these usually involve a voice over person as opposed to a spokesperson that appears on camera. These type of videos typically use stock video footage and have sections where your logo and message can be easily entered in by the production company. These retail anywhere from $250 and up to produce and usually have a monthly fee attached. The major issue with these types of videos is the fact that they are a template. Your message may not get across exactly as you intend it to but that’s why they are inexpensive. You’re not paying for a solid marketing piece, your paying for a cheap video. The benefit to having this kind of video made is that it’s cheap and at least you’ll have something  to post on YouTube and all the other video distribution sites as well as on your own web site. You can also post it to your blog and if it’s fits into the size constraints your Facebook page as well. You can get a lot of mileage out of one of these as long as your agreement with the production company allows you  to do so. Be careful though! When getting one of these Template Videos you need to make sure that you have complete control over where it can be posted. Some companies will charge you a “distribution fee” if you post it anywhere other than your web site.

Viral Video Campaigns

Viral Videos could also be called Stupid S#!t That People Post Online That Other People Get a Kick Out Of For Some Unknown Reason.

Star Wars Kid, Numa Numa, Dick in a Box and the celebrity filled I’m F*@ing Ben Afflek are just a few examples of successful Viral Videos. These are videos that became extremely popular by people sharing them with each other. Many companies hear of the success of these types of videos and try to replicate that success for themselves. They figure that if some dork with a web cam can get a million views acting like a retard then with all their marketing might they can to. The challenge is producing a video that is not only entertaining enough to stand out from all the dumb crap and make people want to share it but to also produce one that actually promotes your company or brand effectively. Oh, and does it within your companies image guidelines. That’s where most corporate image types show their ignorance regarding the Internet and what kind of videos people actually LIKE to watch and share.

Viral Videos for business need to be entertaining. Your video will competing for face time with dorks, losers, sluts, farting, testicle shots, monkeys, sociopaths and a few individuals with a little talent who all probably know more about what people want to watch and share online than you and your marketing co-horts combined. If you want to keep your video professional, corporate and bland then advertise on TV or on the video sign at your local mall. If you want people to share it with the world, talk about it and have it seen by a large audience then make it funny, sexy or extremely weird.  Check out some examples of successful corporate Viral Videos. Here’s one for Guinness Beer and one for the launch of the PS3. Note – the PS3 spot debuted on TV with an extremely limited run but gained a following online when people started searching  for “the weird Play Station baby commercial”. Consumers actually went out of their way looking for the ad. That’s marketing.

Now producing a successful Viral Video campaign can be a little more challenging than you may think and obviously I won’t be covering ever aspect in this article. Most business owners I have spoken with seem to think that throwing something together and posting it on YouTube is all they need to do and it’s a little more involved than that. For starters, you need to plan the campaign out. If you have the budget, produce more than one spot. The reason why is that if you put all your eggs into one basket and it doesn’t catch on then your money could be wasted. Produce a series of spots and post them over a period of time.You also want to submit your video to more than just YouTube. Believe it or not, YouTube isn’t the be all and end all of sharing video on the Internet. There are also Google Video, Yahoo Video, AOL Video, Vimeo and a whole slew of others. Sign up with as many as you can handle and submit to all of them or pay someone to do it for you. Post your video on your blog, web site and social networking sites. Your goal is to get it seen by as many people as possible so that, hopefully, it will catch on and be shared with the world. Like I stated before, the challenge for a business owner is the fact that your video will be competing for attention with lightsaber guys, strange pets, dudes getting hit in the nuts, half naked women, weird looking babies, MILFs, Club Penguin videos, Justin Timberlake, SNL shorts, drunk people, monkeys being monkeys and other viral marketing campaigns with serious scratch and talent behind them. You need to understand the world your delving into when it comes to Viral Video Marketing. It’s not the same as advertising on TV. Not by a long shot.

Video Podcasting

Video Podcasting is similar to Blogging  in that it’s something you’ll need to do on a regular basis in order for it to be effective. What is it? Basically, it’s producing a series of short videos in which you enlighten the world with your knowledge or observations on whatever subject floats your boat (preferably, expertise in your profession). Now this honestly doesn’t translate well to every single business out there, but for the ones it does, Video Podcasting can be a powerful promotional tool. People get to see you, hear you and become comfortable with you without ever having met you. You can show off the expertise in your field and start branding yourself as an expert whether you really are or not. You tell people your an expert enough times they’ll start buying it.

Now, don’t worry. If you decide to  give Video Podcasting a try but are worried about scheduling time every week to tape and edit your segments I’ll give you an industry hint. Film them all in one day, get them all edited and then release them on a regular basis. I usually suggest filming 13 at a time. That way you have enough for one a week for a quarter of the year. 6-7 weeks into your campaign tape your next 13 and so on. Consistency is key to gaining viewers.

You can then upload your Video Pod Casts to all the previously mentioned video sites, social networks and your blogs but you’ll also want to submit it to Podcasting sites like iTunes, videopodcasts.tv, video.podcast.com, podcastalley.com and tons of others. The more places you post it, the better chance of people seeing it and subscribing.

What About a Normal Old Fashioned Marketing Video?

Let me start out by saying that putting a normal, old fashioned marketing video only on your web site  is a horrendous waste of the Internet’s capability. But if you’re too lazy to post it everywhere or too cheap to pay someone to do it for you here’s what you should do to get the most out of it. At the very least, add a social networking widget like Add This to the page the video is on so that the 6 people who actually see it can share it with others. I’d also make sure that you include video taped testimonials. Video testimonials are powerful marketing tools that really should be included in any video campaign. And don’t just rehash the information that already on your web site. It’s video for goodness sake. Take advantage of it’s capabilities. Video is one of most powerful marketing tools around so use it to it’s fullest extent.

Like I stated before, video has come down a ton in cost the last  few years but it is still a higher end marketing solution. Make sure to plan properly and give the production company enough time, and enough of a budget, to come with something that shows your company in the best light possible. Video can make your company look bigger and better than it is but it can also make you look like a cheap douche bag.  The end product will be a result of your choices so choose wisely.

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet Consulting Firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida.

Are You Networking or Collecting?

Last week I attended a business networking function hosting by one of our local cities. It was a table top event filled with the hustle and bustle of small business owners displaying their wares, hundreds of people navigating through the maze of table tops to get to the food areas and beer lines that seemed to go on forever. It was a fine event with plenty of opportunities to meet new business people.

In fact, let me pause a moment and give the Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce credit for this. They consistently put on one of the best monthly business networking events you’ll find.

Now, as I was standing near the entrance waiting in line to get my free promotional magnet from a vendor’s table top display (I collect promotional magnets and stick them all over every exposed metal area I can find back at the office) I noticed two women in business suits walk in. It looked to be a trainee / trainer situation. One of the women looked fresh out of college, pretty, young, vibrant and wide eyed. The other was more mature, put together well and obviously very comfortable in this environment. These two marketing agents then proceeded to have a conversation that demonstrates the very problem most people have when it comes to networking at business events.

The trainee started scanning the room and pointing out to the trainer people she wanted to talk to. The trainer then cut her off and declared, “We’re here to collect our business cards and leave.”

“We’re here to collect our business cards and leave.”

“We’re here to collect our business cards and leave!”

“We’re here to collect our business cards and leave?”

That phrase stuck with me the rest of the evening. As I mingled, I started noticing how many other people were there just to collect their business cards and leave. Do you do this? Do you set up a goal of collecting “X” amount of business cards at an event so that you can follow up, or, in simpler terms, spam the s#!t out of everyone the following day?

Large networking events are golden opportunities to meet new people and make new contacts. For some business owners, meeting  just one person that eventually gives you a referral makes it worth attending. But it’s hard to really meet people if your just there to collect cards.

Now some of your “Networking Gurus” out there will probably shutter at the following statement but after every networking event I usually end up throwing away anywhere from 15-25 business cards. Why do I throw them away and not add them to my data base of prospects or contacts? Well, for one, they’re not prospects. Introducing yourself to someone at a networking function does not make them a prospect no matter what you’ve read in your sales success books. They are not a prospect until THEY mention to YOU their interest in your services.  And why don’t I just add them to my list of contacts, because honesty, I don’t know them. I separate my business cards into 3 groups: leads for me, leads for other people and junk. The bulk of what I end up with are junk. Now I don’t ask for business cards unless I really want them. All the ones I throw away are given to me without having asked. In turn, I don’t hand my card out unless asked to do so.

At a 2 hour event I usually speak to around 20-25 different people. When I say speak, I mean have some sort of conversation with them beyond, “I’m so and so what do you do?” I use these events to build on existing business relationships and meet new people. I try to stay away from the professional marketing reps because, more often than not, they are there to just “collect” and my goal is to get to know people. If you have ever tried to have a conversation with a professional marketing rep who’s “on” you probably understand what I mean. Everything out of there mouth is pre-scripted crap and they usually couldn’t give a damn about anything you have to say. They are there to do a job and that job is usually to promote, promote, promote.

If you feel uneasy reading this you probably have a little bit of the “card collector” mentality. That’s okay just be aware. To be successful at business networking you need to use the time to develop relationships with people. Don’t just blow through collecting cards so that you can spam them. And yes, it is spamming if they don’t specifically request to be added to your mailing list. You can call it “following up” all day till the cows come home but it’s spamming.

Networking events are golden opportunities to meet new people and get to know them so take advantage and your business will benefit.

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey an Internet Consulting firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, FL.

Does Size Matter In Social Networks Or Is It How You Use It

When using social networks for business is it good to have tens of thousands of friends on Facebook? Should you be following as many people as possible on Twitter? Do you need to connect with every single person you meet on Linked In?

When I went to college there was a guy I knew named Christian who attended the larger University in the city. Now he had a simple goal while in school. To get as much tail as possible. He was a simple guy. He didn’t want to be bothered with dating, buying girls meals or being the douche bag that buys a woman drinks all night to only see her go home with someone else. By his calculations there were roughly 15,000 – 20,000 women on campus. Every year the campus would lose and gain roughly another 2,000 – 2,500. He figured that if he just cut to the chase and asked every woman he met to sleep with him right then and there (whether he thought they were attractive or not) he would make out alright during his four years in school just based on the numbers alone. It would take some balls, but he was up to the task.

Most, if not all, of the aps out there being used for social networking have the ability to add friends, colleagues, followers, Plurkers or whatever. The philosophy most marketers use is the same old as dirt, tried and true Marketing 101 tactic of expose your brand to as many people as possible in order to get the filter down effect for your business. Connect with as many people as possible (which is extremely easy through social networking) and the numbers alone will generate some interest in whatever it is your selling or promoting. That’s why Super Bowl ads cost so much. The commercials are seen by so many people at one time the expense is worth the cost. Well, many business owners and self proclaimed social networking experts use a similar module of if you friend all of them, some will eventually buy.

Christian wasn’t best looking guy in the world but he was in reasonably good shape, funny and personable. His plan finally paid off for him about four months and 100 rejections in. He hooked up with a pretty college sophomore that had just been dumped by a guy she had been dating since she was a freshman in high school. When asked if it was worth all the hassle and embarrassment of the previous months his response was, “Hell yeah!”

The model of exposing your product, business or brand to as many people as possible has been around for as long as there has been marketing and the reason is because it does work. It works in print, tv, radio, direct mail and even online. But realize this, social networking is a new and different medium than we have ever been exposed to before. The dynamics are different than that of the marketing resources we have been dealing with for the last hundred years or so. Naturally, the first instinct of most marketing experts is to do what has worked for them on previous successful campaigns and apply it to this new medium. But this old way of thinking may not be in your company’s best interest.

Toward the end of my first year in school watching Christian hit on every woman he came across on weekends became quite a show for everyone that knew him. He was relentless. He truly didn’t give a damn what the women thought of him. If they said, “No” he’d just move on to the next one. It was akin to a small child asking everyone at a family gathering for a cookie before dinner until someone finally breaks down and gives them one. By the end of the year, from what I remember, he ended up hooking up with 3 or 4 different women using this tactic. After all the time and money he spent in bars (the place he found women would be more likely to accept this blunt type of offer) he felt it was worth all the rejections and considered his first year of chasing tail in college a success.

The point of social networking for business is exactly the same as real life business networking. It’s to meet people, get to know them and have them open up their contacts to you. In real life networking this process can take some time getting the trust built up before they start referring you business. In social networking online many times a person’s entire list of contacts is open to you the second they “friend” or connect with you. This really accelerates the process. You can instantly start corresponding with their contacts adding more and more “friends” at an extremely fast rate but is this really such a smart thing to do?

Midway through year 2 Christian’s tactics started backfiring on him. He began hitting on girls he had already hit on before. Sometimes this was due to the fact that he was drunk off his a$$ but most of the time it was because he had hit on so many the year before he flat out didn’t remember them. Then some of the girls started warning their friends about the creepy guy that hits on everyone. Some of ones that actually got with him also started telling their friends to stay away from him because he was a jerk and he started to get a bad reputation around campus. By the end of the second year he abandoned his plan because it wasn’t working anymore. Too many of the women he met already had a preconceived notion that he was just a player or that he was just a flat out jerk.

Social networking works both ways. You get to see all the contacts that every you know knows and they also get to see everyone you know. Savvy business people can tell when someone is really using the social networks to meet people and when they are just collecting contacts. Can you really correspond with 10,000 different people on a regular basis? How about 1,000? What about 100? Do you have the time in your schedule to follow up with hundreds of emails a week? You may counter with, “Some of those may be real people trying to business with me and if I didn’t have all the contacts then that person wouldn’t have contacted me in the first place” and you would be right. But what if you never opened the email because of the fact that the bulk of your “friends” send you so must spam and junk mail that you can’t keep up with everything. Or maybe, because you’ve received so many messages with pictures of Britney Spears’ gooch from all your “friends” through one particular social network that you don’t even bother to login to that one anymore. If it becomes too big to manage then you may miss more than you get and what happens to a business that doesn’t get back to potential clients? Those unsatisfied potential clients tell their friends. Remember, people are more likely to bitch about bad service to their friends than praise good service so be careful. With social networking this message can get out to many, many people very quickly.

Year 3 is when Christian’s tactics from his freshman year really came back to bite him in the a$$. He met a freshman named Kat that he had become smitten with. They started hanging out a lot and the time came when Christian wanted to get serious (in a dating, not sex way). Now while he was courting her she was also hearing the stories from other women around campus. She eventually told him that, even though he seemed like a nice guy, she couldn’t get serious with someone with his reputation and dumped him.

Many of the social networks have games where you earn points, or karma, or prestige for connecting with as many people as possible. They will also reward you for joining groups or getting others to sign up.  This is in their best interest, not yours. Connect with people that will help you achieve your business goals. It’s better to have a smaller, controllable network than to have something that gets out of control where you can’t follow up with people that may want, or need your services.

One of the most written about success stories on social networking is President Obama’s social networking campaign he ran during the election. He had hundreds of thousands of people following his every move. He got his message out to millions of people online. But there is one other thing… He also had an entire staff of people running it for him. Social networking is about connecting with lots of people but you have to be able to manage it. So make sure you don’t just become a contact collector. Make sure you can actually correspond with your network.

Your business isn’t a game so don’t treat it like one.

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet Consulting firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida.

How a Blog Can Generate Your Business Money

If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.

What’s the point of doing a blog for your business if it doesn’t eventually put money into your pocket? Seriously, blogging is time consuming and as a business owner your time is valuable. If you normally bill out at a rate of $200 per hour for your time and you spend 2 hours during the work week blogging you eventually want to get your $400 bucks back right? Of course you do. After all, you didn’t get into business to give out free advice to strangers online. You got into business to make money. But the question is, how does blogging for your business actually turn into real money?

Now the metrics and process of turning a blog reader into a customer can probably be analyzed and interpreted a zillion different ways so I’m going to do it in as simplified a manner as possible. I’ll be using the most likely scenarios. And just so you know, I’m not just pulling these scenarios out of my a$$. These have either happened to me, one of my clients or a colleague.

Here are a couple of scenarios that should paint you a picture of how a business blog could actually generate you money.

The Do-It-Yourself Guy

A D0-It-Yourselfer searches online for advice on how to (insert your service here). They find some of your blog postings and read them. They take your advice and successfully complete their project. Months later they have another project that is a little over their head. They go the bookmark of your blog and try to find answers but can’t find any or realize that they need more help, supplies or whatever. They remember reading that you are in their area and give you a call because of how your previous post helped them out. You then turn them into a client.

The Search Engines

A potential customer searches online for a service they need and that you provide. Your blog postings are all over the search results (FYI – your blog postings may show up faster, higher and more often than your actual web site pages do). They read your blog posting and like what you have to say or just straight up click on the link to your web site, contact you, and become a customer.

The Referral

Someone on the other side of the country whom you’ve never met becomes a regular reader of your blog and likes the advice you give. They end up connecting with you through social media and you begin corresponding with them on a semi-regular basis. Someone they know, that lives in your area, needs your product or service and they refer that person to you. That referral becomes your client.

The Colleague

You regularly post your blog updates to your various social networking groups and by doing so your online colleagues realize that you really do know your stuff. One of them eventually needs your assistance on a project, contacts you and becomes a client.

Your Blog Blows Up

Your blog blows up generating hundreds of thousands of readers a month. At that point you start making money by selling advertising on your blog.

The Facebook Friend

One of your Facebook friends has been following your blog postings on Facebook. They don’t really do much online other than check email and post junk on Facebook (or MySpace). They never would have ever even known about your blog if it wasn’t for Facebook but they’ve been following it and when the time comes around for them to use you service they give you a call.

Over All Branding

Someone needs your service. They recall your business but can’t put a finger on where they heard about you. Was it your web site, blog, business card, flyer or are you the person they were following on Twitter? The point is, they remember you from something. It may not be any one particular thing you do that generates a new client but it may be a culmination of many things that gets them to walk through your door.

Basically, what it all boils down to is the fact that your blog can show off your expertise in whatever area you are an expert in. You can get into more depth and tackle more offbeat subjects that you would on your web site. Potential clients and colleagues can get to know your take on various things without being sold to or without having ever met you. This will help them formulate their opinion of you and your abilities in a non sales related environment. Now most of the people that read your blog will never become clients or refer you any business but you are betting that some (no matter how few) will. And you are also banking on the hope that maybe one of those few will become a regular client or refer you even more business. And maybe one of those referrals becomes your top referral source or #1 customer in terms of income.

The fact is this, blogging is free and the economy sucks right now. You spend whatever amount of you think it’s worth and stick with it. Make sure you track the results and analyze them with a specialist or your marketing team. Your ROI on a business blog may not be crystal clear for a very long time. This is a very soft form of marketing and there are a variety of other factors that can play into your success.

I’ll leave you with this. A business blog won’t hurt. Some businesses will get more out of blogging than others. As your only be-all-end-all online marketing tool it’s probably a waste of your time. As part of a larger online strategy a blog can be a powerful tool that actually puts money into your pocket.

Read Part 1 How to Blog for Business

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet Consulting Firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida.