Small Business Information

 No, I’m not talking about ethnic minorities here, I’m talking about the minority of surfers who don’t surf the Net using Internet Explorer. There’s quite a variety of browsers out there and not all will render your website in the same way that IE does.

That means that if you’re trying to sell something online not everyone is going to see your website - or your product - in quite the same way. In extreme cases people who use browsers other than IE may not even be able to buy from you because their browser can’t display your shopping cart.

Even just a minor glitch in the way your site is displayed in their browser could be enough to put them off buying from you. So you really do need to make sure that your site renders correctly in all browsers … otherwise you are going to lose sales.

You can read more about how the online appearance of a site can damage sales here.

Ironically when I view that site in my favourite browser - Firefox - every apostrophe is displayed as a question mark.

Here are the leading online merchants in five important categories for March.

DVD/Video - Amazon

Office Supplies - Office Depot

Consumer Electronics - eBay

Jewellery and Watches - eBay

Toys, Games and Hobbies - eBay

All three companies listed here have affiliate programmes - but, if you’re new to affiliate marketing, don’t rush into advertising any of them. Their commission rates are not big and it is possible for affiliates to earn more promoting other merchants in the same field.

To read more about the top 5 in each of the above categories go here

It seems, much to Microsoft’s chagrin, that many in the small business community prefer XP over Vista. And why wouldn’t we prefer an operating system that’s not buggy, will operate with all our software and doesn’t require big upgrades of hardware?

So how does Microsoft overcome that resistance? Well with Microsoft resistance is futile - especially if you can’t buy a new computer with XP already installed.

You can read more about it here

… but few actually buy.

Yesterday in Affiliate Marketing - The Hidden Benefit for Merchants - I wrote about one of the hidden benefits for merchants (and one of the hidden negatives for webmasters) in affiliate marketing.

Today I’ve got even more ‘bad’ news for those of us who’s small business is involved in affiliate marketing. A new survey has just been released that confirms the findings of several others that were run during 2006 and it doesn’t make great reading for affiliate marketers.

The survey found that lots of people go shopping online but they actually do their buying offline. 68% of consumers research and compare prices for a product online before heading off to make their purchase in a bricks and mortar store.

That means that you really do have to be prepared for a lot of tyre kickers to hit your online stores and you have to work out a way to convert those tyre kickers into people who actually buy from you.

 Small website owners get into the affiliate marketing business in the hope of making money. They display banners and, if they’re more than just beginners, add in some engaging text (or even write a product review or infomercial) in the hope of encouraging surfers to click through to the merchant and make a purchase.

On the other side of the coin the merchant is increasing his market penetration. With the help of affiliates and with minimal upfront costs the product that the merchant sells is exposed to a much greater audience. With an affiliate marketing programme a merchant gets some great advertising that he or she doesn’t have to pay for until a product is sold.

Even if no product is sold by most of a merchant’s affiliates the merchant is still gaining a huge benefit from branding. Every time a surfer visits an affiliate’s page and sees the merchant’s banner there’s a hidden benefit for the merchant.

So if you’re an affiliate what does that mean for you? Think about the value of the real estate on your website. Are you actually earning money from the spots where you’ve placed a merchant’s banners or are you just giving them some free advertising and branding?

If you are giving that space away for free what can you do to turn it into money in your pocket?

Overall sales around the Net are often a little slow in the first quarter of the year. In January people are all shopped out after Christmas. At the end of January and into February people are in shock as they look at their credit card statements and then of course you’re drifting into the northern summer when people are away from their computers.

However sales on eBay have gone against the trend in Q1 this year and are up 14% compared to the same time last year. The number of eBay stores has also risen but store inventory continues to slide.

You can read the full story here

It seems to be the day for travel marketing posts today - here’s another one with some information you may need to stow away in the back of your mind. 

The Courier Mail - a newspaper here in Australia - is running a story today about a small survey that might put a bit of a crimp in your plans if you’re doing affiliate marketing in the travel area.

It seems that the travel industry here in Australia is very concerned that climate change could affect the numbers of people coming to Australia. It seems that the travel industry is looking at the possibility of European travellers turning their back on long-haul travel because of its effects on the environment.

You can find the full story here

 And a hat tip to The Hervey Bay Gossip for linking to the article.

 Wherever you look it seems that all the experts are suggesting that travel is a booming industry on the Net – although just lately several reports have suggested that travel is beginning to fade just a little. When you see all those glowing reports it’s quite natural to think that maybe you should be getting into some affiliate marketing for travel.

Perhaps that’s what motivated Overstock to purchase Ski West Inc in 2005 and launch Otravel.com.

Sadly for Overstock that didn’t turn out to be the wisest investment they have ever made and it never really worked for them. In fact this year they posted a rather nasty loss and it should come as no surprise that Overstock are now trying to sell Otravel.com.

In its place Overstock has developed the O-Cars.com programme where Overstock will display listings for car dealers. Instead of being paid a percentage of the sale figure for each car sold Overstock will be listing the vehicles for a flat rate.

So does that mean travel is out and cars are in for affiliates? No I don’t think it does but if you think you have traffic that’s interested in car parts and collectibles then ShareASale has several merchants that you could push.

If you’re a small business trying to sell your product online there’s an interesting lesson to be learned from allergybuyersclub.com.

This year their first quarter sales have increased by 18% over the same period last year. The company believes that two of the reasons for the increase is better product photography and better copy that appears with each product.

You can read the full story here

Do you make a living selling things through eBay?

If you live in the United States and eBay is where you make your money then you’re one of around 700,000 people who make their primary or secondary income by selling things through eBay and now the IRS wants a piece of your profits.

And if the IRS wants a piece of the profits in the US then you can bet that your local tax man is soon going to want a piece of your action too.

You can read the full story here