It is incredible how a person’s opinion can turn on the smallest thing. In online business, that would be customer service through a virtual assistant. This is so important to an online business, as customer service can mean the difference between success and failure. The way you handle this can determine how you are viewed compared to your peers and it can make you really stand out, in a good way or a bad way. It has the potential to really build a trust-based relationship with your readers, customers and those who are ‘on the fence.’

Describe Customer Service?

Take a moment and consider these points carefully. A reader signs up for newsletters or your affiliate program. Days go by before they receive a confirmation of your receipt of their request or they receive any information at all. That reader will then decide to take back their request as they don’t want anything to do with you.

It is vitally important, at the very least, to make sure that you follow through with everyone to whom you have made an offer, whether they are customers, or readers. That is why they came to you in the first place. Doing your part helps them make the decision to stay, and this action is essential, for any real chance at success.

Imagine if you were in a store, you wouldn’t want to wait aimlessly without somebody helping you. The moment that you have to ask for help, the point has been passed. It is the job of the business owner to be available in case they are needed.

How Good Customer Service is Provided

Of course it’s unrealistic to think that somebody would be hanging around the computer around the clock, waiting for a random question to be asked by a reader. A process must be put in place, though, so that somebody, like a virtual assistant for example, is waiting for just such an eventuality, 24/7.

Here are some suggestions:

• Auto-responder messages
• Scheduled delivery of newsletters
• FAQ page that is always updated
• User-friendly tabs, site map and links to get around the website with ease
• Answering service
• Virtual assistants

Keep in mind that even when you can’t be available personally, you know that your readers and customers are taken care of. As an example, when you have an affiliate program, the information or links should be sufficient to educate the readers and to tell them how they can go about signing up. Sign up forms need only include pertinent information so they are as simple as possible to complete.

When you have time, go through your email messages for those whose questions didn’t fit one of the recorded categories on your “Contact Us” page. The auto-responder message for them gives you an additional 24 to get back to the reader with the information requested.

Any truly professional virtual assistant will guarantee to you that prompt service on your part is an indication that you are very serious about somebody’s business. You value their action and want to ensure that they are quite pleased with their choice. In business, customer service is such an important part of creating a lengthy relationship with your readers and you should make sure that you attend to it at all times, as you could be sacrificing a potentially great online investment otherwise.

If you have been on the World Wide Web for some time like I have, you will have come across an amazing number of how to get rich quick schemes, gimmicky ideas, ways to make a quick million and so on and so forth, from those who purport to be “masterminds,” Internet marketers, gurus and others who, unfortunately, are morons…

In turn, I have come across many people, who write in and ask me questions, and give advice on their experiences. People who have purchased coaching, courses, eBooks, DVD’s and more on “how to get rich,” tell me they followed all the steps, and are wondering why they are not getting the results they want to achieve. Why is it that “The Tin” tells them to do X, Y and Z – and they do it — BUT, they don’t make a cent?

To be truthful, and in the interest of being realistic, we have to accept that the problem probably lies in the fact that there really aren’t any overnight millionaire solutions, or even those that take a week or a month to achieve a miracle. Unless of course you have access to some excellent reputable affiliates with decent subscriber lists.

It’s important to realise that if you spend a lot of time and hard work creating a reputable brand, with services and products that are in demand and truly first-class customer support, then you will succeed. I absolutely guarantee it.

You of course need a solid marketing strategy in place to make sure people know about your reliable brand, fantastic sought after products and services, and impeccable customer support – and once you have married these items together, you have started the basis for an ongoing, profitable business. If you are looking for experienced guidance on this then my book, “Realistic Down To Earth Online Marketing,” can help you to actually succeed if you’re really finally ready.

When you do this, word will spread; more sales and clients will come. What you then have to do is keep on top of everything, especially the marketing and customer service, which is way too difficult to be done alone, believe me, if you are thinking BIG, you are going to need some serious help. This is where outsourcing comes in; hire a professional online business manager or virtual assistant company to ensure that the quality of your service never suffers — if you skip this all-important step, your business could easily fail.

I am not denying that there are a few people out there who seriously know what they are talking about, people like Tim Ferris and Yaro Starek are well worth listening to – but the biggest questions to ask yourself, before you make the purchase of the “get rich” product are:

1. Is the person selling it legitimate?
2. Is the person selling it rich themselves?
3. And finally… Did the person selling the product get rich from selling the product, or by some other means… You really need to focus on this point.

Sometimes, more often than not it seems, people selling “The Dream of Becoming Rich,” actually made their money selling “The Dream of Becoming Rich,” rather than making their money selling another product or service. Think about it, when people are running a business online, what do they want more than anything else? They want to make money – and if someone is selling a product promising that the product will make them money, then you have an extremely large market right there. Selling “The Dream of Becoming Rich” to the people who want it.

But what happens when you are NOT selling the opportunity to get rich, what about when you are selling fitness machines, clocks, and musical instruments? The market for the number of people who can be sold a product about becoming rich is probably 1000 times larger than one related to the business of buying a clarinet.

So the moral of all this is that before you spend your valuable money on any course which essentially tries to tell you the system for “how to get rich,” if your goal is to sell a particular service or product, make sure that the person you entrust for advice has actually become rich selling this very same service or product. It is so important to make sure that the advice is applicable in your case and that it is based on a solid foundation.

The most common solution that people think about when selling products through website development enterprises online, is that the actual product gets delivered to the front door of the buyer by the Post Office or courier. Physical products are not the only ones sold by online businesses. These days, digital products are a hot commodity in the eCommerce market.

Selling physical products requires a lot of preparation on your website, and serious online business management. You want to make the products visible via photos, create landing pages, market them elsewhere and create a reliable shopping cart process to meet the customer’s needs. When it comes to selling digital products, however, a different approach is taken.

Digital products can be delivered in two different ways, via the mail or as an instant download to the buyer’s desktop. Most online businesses opt to offer downloads since they are easy to receive and require no inventory other than the initial files containing the products.

But, how do you get the products to the customers securely without being scammed yourself?

These are some of the things you need to think about:

Payment Methods

The issue of e-payments is still an issue with digital products. Customers pay at the time of purchase just like for any other product. If you want to accept credit card payments, you will need:

• An Internet Merchant Account
• A Merchant Bank Account
• Payment Gateway Account

A payment receipt still needs to be generated for your records and also for the customer, in case something should go wrong with the download process. Don’t forget that charge backs can be initiated by credit card companies, when digital products are purchased using their cards.

A “person-to-person” payment solution, also known as third party P2P is common for digital situations. PayPal functions in this way. To create an account, a customer or business owner just needs an email address to associate with the account and a bank account for verification. On your website, payments are transacted by entering an email address. This will send the customer to their PayPal account, where they will be prompted for their login details. At this point they will be asked if they want to make the transaction, or not. When this is all over, they go back to the product website during the confirmation process.

You can opt to store your digital products in a special directory online which is protected by a password system. If you do this, unauthorised individuals will not be able to gain access. A very simple way for you to set it up is that when the customer pays, they will receive a login and password, and the link to that particular digital product. Ask your customers not to share the link with anyone else. However, if you’re willing to invest a bit more time, and perhaps hire a professional online business management firm to handle this process on your behalf, you can have a timer set up on the download link as well, for added security.

If you don’t want to bother yourself with all this organisational headache, get a complete digital download solution, where for a monthly fee you have everything you need to do business, digitally. Examples of this include PayLoadz (www.payloadz.com) and ClickBank (www.clickbank.com).

Digital products are all the rage, currently. If you base your eCommerce business on these options, you can make more money as you will have less overhead to worry about. The ultimate system should allow people to access your product easily and quickly, so that they can get their money to you, fast!

The most common solution that people think about when selling products through website development enterprises online, is that the actual product gets delivered to the front door of the buyer by the Post Office or courier. Physical products are not the only ones sold by online businesses. These days, digital products are a hot commodity in the eCommerce market.

You have to do a lot to get your website ready if you plan on selling physical items, and apply real online business management skills. You want to make the products visible via photos, create landing pages, market them elsewhere and create a reliable shopping cart process to meet the customer’s needs. When it comes to selling digital products, however, a different approach is taken.

Digital products can be received in one of two ways: in the mail or downloaded directly to the customer’s computer. Most online businesses opt to offer downloads since they are easy to receive and require no inventory other than the initial files containing the products.

But, how do you get the products to the customers securely without being scammed yourself?

These are some of the things you need to think about:

Payment Methods

Electronic payments need to be considered when marketing digitally. After all, the consumer pays when he or she buys the item, just like any other transaction. In order to accept and process payments via credit card, you have to have:

• Internet Merchant Account
• A Merchant Bank Account
• Payment Gateway Account

The first thing you need to think about is that a receipt of payment must be produced, so that both you and the customer have this information, just in case something goes wrong during download. Don’t forget that charge backs can be initiated by credit card companies, when digital products are purchased using their cards.

Using a third party P2P (Person to Person) payment method is popular for digital products. PayPal functions in this way. All you need to set up an account in this way is an e-mail address to link to the account and a verifiable bank account. On your website, payments are transacted by entering an email address. The customer is directed to their PayPal account where they securely sign-in. At this point they will be asked if they want to make the transaction, or not. When this is all over, they go back to the product website during the confirmation process.

You can opt to store your digital products in a special directory online which is protected by a password system. This is to keep unauthorised individuals from accessing it. In simple terms, you would just give the customer the login and password details after they have paid, together with the appropriate link to the product they’re interested in. Ask your customers not to share the link with anyone else. There are additional security measures however and if you’re willing to put in more time and effort, or get an expert online business management firm to do this for you, attaching a timer of some kind to the download link will help you out.

If you don’t want to bother yourself with all this organisational headache, get a complete digital download solution, where for a monthly fee you have everything you need to do business, digitally. Examples of this include PayLoadz (www.payloadz.com) and ClickBank (www.clickbank.com).

Digital products are hot right now. If you base your eCommerce business on these options, you can make more money as you will have less overhead to worry about. Use a system that allows you to “quickly and easily” get your products to customers and their payments to you.

When customers see your virtual website development storefront, you want them to be truly inspired to buy. When they choose to buy, they need a way to make their payment efficiently. This is where payment gateways come into play.

A gateway is simply a way of getting from one position to another. In terms of eCommerce, the gateway enables the verification and handling of credit card related business. If you plan to accept online payments in your business, you need a payment gateway.

Any internet business consulting firm will tell you that a merchant account is necessary whenever you deal with credit cards. A merchant account can be opened at the bank of your choice. This is where money will be transferred once a credit transaction has been verified through the gateway.

You will find an amazing number of online companies willing and able to act as a payment gateway for merchants who want to accept credit cards. Choose your payment gateway separately. You could opt for an inclusive service that includes this option if you want to. For example, a number of shopping cart related packages will offer you merchant account and gateway elements in addition.

The bare minimum that you require is a payment gateway and a merchant bank before you can start. Be sure to match up the gateway with a merchant account before you proceed and choose the bank, as acceptance methods very. A payment gateway account is a vehicle to enable you to funnel payments between your site and your merchant account. If this seems at all complicated, consider the services of an elite internet business consulting firm, to help you get started.

Any business owner that has a presence online and takes credit cards as a form of payment, must maintain an Internet merchant account. Initially, the funds are sent here from the payment gateway. The funds are transferred, sometimes on a daily basis, to another bank account that you, the merchant, designate for business.

The Basics of How it all Works

Here is a basic representation of how this process works. This may seem complicated, but it happens in just a few seconds in the real world.

1. When the client is ready, he or she goes to your site and selects the chosen product. Moving to purchase, the client goes to the checkout page, verifies the order and selects a form of payment.

2. When payment is made, the transaction (according to your setup instructions) is sent to the payment gateway of your choice. The gateway accepts the payment and pushes the transaction to the processing bank.

3. From there, the data goes to the credit card network. That network forwards the transaction to the bank issuing the customer the credit card being used in the transaction.

4. If there is a sufficient amount of credit to make the purchase, the transaction is approved. Then, it moves back through the system, the same way it came.

5. Once the notification of approval reaches the payment gateway again, the information is sent to the customer on the website and also to you, the merchant.

Payment gateways are great for saving you time and effort in the otherwise complex process of handling credit cards. Now, you can focus on other aspects of your eCommerce business. As you can see, it’s very important to select the best payment gateway for your needs, so that you can go as far as you can with your business aspirations and not be held back.

If you have been on the World Wide Web for some time like I have, you will have come across an amazing number of how to get rich quick schemes, gimmicky ideas, ways to make a quick million and so on and so forth, from those who purport to be “masterminds,” Internet marketers, gurus and others who, unfortunately, are morons…

In turn, I have come across many people, who write in and ask me questions, and give advice on their experiences. People who have purchased coaching, courses, eBooks, DVD’s and more on “how to get rich,” tell me they followed all the steps, and are wondering why they are not getting the results they want to achieve. Why is it that this person or the other tells them to take a variety of steps, which they do, but they never end up making any money?

In all honesty, I have to be realistic and say that the problem lies in the fact that I don’t believe there are any overnight million dollar solutions, or even one week or one month miracles. Unless of course you have access to some excellent reputable affiliates with decent subscriber lists.

It’s important to realise that if you spend a lot of time and hard work creating a reputable brand, with services and products that are in demand and truly first-class customer support, then you will succeed. That’s a guarantee.

One of the first things you will need is a good marketing strategy, so that people can find out about your brand, first-class services and products and untouchable customer support — the trick is to marry all these items and you will then be on your way toward a lasting and profitable business venture. I go into much more detail about this in my book, “Realistic Down To Earth Online Marketing,” which will be of great help to you if you’re actually ready for the “Real Deal.”

When you do this, word will spread; more sales and clients will come. When you have things under way, keep on top of everything, notably customer service and marketing, areas that you will definitely need help with, trust me, especially if you’re thinking about making a significant effort, so understand you really need to reach out, far and wide. This is where outsourcing comes in; hire a professional online business manager or virtual assistant company to ensure that the quality of your service never suffers — if you skip this all-important step, your business could easily fail.

I am not denying that there are a few people out there who seriously know what they are talking about, people like Tim Ferris and Yaro Starek are well worth listening to – but the biggest questions to ask yourself, before you make the purchase of the “get rich” product are:

1. How legitimate is the person selling this?
2. Is the person selling it rich themselves?
3. And finally… Did the person selling the product get rich from selling the product, or by some other means… This is something you really need to think about.

Sometimes, more often than not it seems, people selling “The Dream of Becoming Rich,” actually made their money selling “The Dream of Becoming Rich,” rather than making their money selling another product or service. What do people want more than anything when running business online? Yes, they want to make money and therefore they come across somebody selling a product, promising that it will make people rich, and the market for buying that product is very large in itself. They are selling “the dream of becoming rich,” to the people who have that dream.

But what happens when you are NOT selling the opportunity to get rich, what about when you are selling fitness machines, clocks, and musical instruments? The market for the number of people who can be sold a product about becoming rich is probably 1000 times larger than one related to the business of buying a clarinet.

So the moral of all this is that before you spend your valuable money on any course which essentially tries to tell you the system for “how to get rich,” if your goal is to sell a particular service or product, make sure that the person you entrust for advice has actually become rich selling this very same service or product. It is so important to make sure that the advice is applicable in your case and that it is based on a solid foundation.

You want your virtual website development storefront to be so inspiring to customers when they arrive there, that they are motivated to purchase. As soon as they are ready to purchase, they need to be able to consummate this efficiently. Payment gateways are very important here.

A gateway is simply a way of getting from one position to another. In terms of eCommerce, the gateway enables the verification and handling of credit card related business. If you plan to accept online payments in your business, you need a payment gateway.

Any internet business consulting firm will tell you that a merchant account is necessary whenever you deal with credit cards. Select your bank, prior to opening a merchant account. Whenever a credit is transacted, the money will be verified through your gateway and transferred to this bank.

There are vast arrays of companies online that operate as payment gateways for merchants to accept credit card payments. Choose your payment gateway separately. You could opt for an inclusive service that includes this option if you want to. Some shopping cart software packages include merchant account and gateway options as well.

The bare minimum that you require is a payment gateway and a merchant bank before you can start. When choosing a bank for the merchant account, it is crucial to make sure that they accept payments from the gateway account you will be using. A payment gateway account is a vehicle to enable you to funnel payments between your site and your merchant account. If this seems at all complicated, consider the services of an elite internet business consulting firm, to help you get started.

Business owners selling online and accepting credit cards also have an Internet merchant account. Initially, the funds are sent here from the payment gateway. The funds are transferred, sometimes on a daily basis, to another bank account that you, the merchant, designate for business.

This is how it all comes together.

Here is a basic representation of how this process works. This may seem complicated, but it happens in just a few seconds in the real world.

1. The customer will go to your website and choose a product(s) to buy. Moving to purchase, the client goes to the checkout page, verifies the order and selects a form of payment.

2. You will have set up a system so that when a payment is made the production goes through to the payment gateway you have nominated. The gateway accepts the payment and pushes the transaction to the processing bank.

3. The transaction then proceeds on to the credit card network. That network forwards the transaction to the bank issuing the customer the credit card being used in the transaction.

4. The all-important conclusion is made to determine whether the customer has enough money to make the purchase. Then, it moves back through the system, the same way it came.

5. Once the notification of approval reaches the payment gateway again, the information is sent to the customer on the website and also to you, the merchant.

Payment gateways take the work out of processing credit card payments. In short, you are free to focus on other pressing areas associated with your eCommerce organisation. Choosing the right payment gateway can make all the difference between achieving your wildest dreams, and “not quite making it.”

Search engine optimisation can be one of the hardest and most rewarding tools in your online business arsenal. It helps with marketing, advertising and selling your products or services. Because it is a wide category, there are plenty of places where you can go wrong with it. Here are just five of them:

Under Utilising Your Website – Optimizing your website development involves every aspect of your site. Most people think that the only important part is the content. This is just one piece of the bigger picture. If you don’t leverage all of your site, you are shooting yourself in the foot – don’t just worry about content!

You will get visitors if your content is on-point, but the search engines can rank you even higher if you used keywords in other places too. Remember that the page has a headline, an article can have a title and a picture has an associated caption. Now use all of these to help you.

Keyword Overload – Search engine bots are smarter than most people give them credit for. If you use too many keywords, they will start to ignore your content and automatically give you a lower ranking. Some people seem to think that they can just use as many as they like and they would be more visible, but this is not the case.

Search engines recognise when people are cheating by overstuffing their articles with keywords. Content that is well written will stay within the allowable keyword density. Always ensure that the keywords flow naturally in the article and don’t appear to be contrived.

Keyword Density – You can have too few keywords as well as too many. Some people actually forget about the key words when writing. You might have a strong article that talks about cutting-edge information, but without something to help the search engines look upon you favourably, no one will ever read it. It’s not sufficient to use the word once or twice in an article.

No Variety – For better optimisation, a website shouldn’t use just one keyword. For example, if your primary keyword is “chocolate,” then your whole website won’t be based on that one word. When people are searching, they use a number of words similar to your primary keyword, or in combination. Diversify, for example by using the words “chocolate treat,” “how to make chocolate,” and so on and by not being too specific, such diversity will pay dividends.

Use Reciprocal Links – Back links are important, but they are not all created equal. The search engines prefer organic links. Links should represent the fact that particular sites like your content and want to link. Using quality content on your site, in article directories and on social bookmarking sites can increase your quality inbound links for higher ranking.

Pay particular attention to seo services, and the experts who provide them. Don’t get involved with first-timer mistakes!

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an accomplished Executive Virtual Assistant Service which helps companies of all sizes reach their commercial targets. Want to get more information about online business building success strategies that really work? Contact VMF today!

When it comes to online business services, did you know that according to our friends at econsultancy.com, social network interaction and blog reading represent the fourth most popular online activities, beating out personal e-mail. 10% of the time that we spend when interacting on the web is spent within social media sites. As a measure of the importance of social media sites, search engine giant Bing revealed that second in its list of the top 10 world trends for the year was Twitter. This just goes to show the sheer level of interest in social media and in this case, the new boy on the block Twitter. We have already indicated that Facebook is essential and we suggest that you must pro-actively figure in Twitter to your lives as well.

Twitter has been widely referred to as a micro-blog and has really found its own niche. Pretty much everyone now knows that you can send status messages of up to 140 characters through Twitter and this has really caught the interest of the business world. It is possible to notify clients about special deals, to handle customer relationship matters and to exhibit a sense of visibility that was previously unheard-of.

A Twitter presence for your online initiative should be more than just a straightforward account. Those who are serious about this medium create a targeted background design rather than the generic offering, set up their profiles and links correctly and really consider how to build followers. It is possible to accurately target followers (using keyword research and other tools) who have a vested interest in your particular niche. This, like Facebook, requires regular maintenance and management for best effect. Messages sent through Twitter are known as tweets and you should be sure to get online and interact in this way, once again on a daily basis, as well as checking and responding to direct messages. If you think this is quite a lot of work, just realise that a majority of corporate members do not meaningfully interact through these mediums, and you can set yourself apart. You should aim to be one of the educated few, who really take advantage of what this fantastic medium has to offer.

The world of Internet marketing is obviously dynamic, but it has changed almost beyond recognition in the last few years. Since the effective arrival of “web 2.0” and the social media revolution, marketing online has become much more of a subtle and thoughtful approach. These days you must put every effort you can into making a good name for yourself through a subtle and more considered approach, branding yourself as expert in the field. When you interact through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, do be careful as you go about it – and rarely, if ever, approach prospects with a hard sell. It is highly recommended that you maintain a blog in addition to your main sales site. You can certainly link them and you can even create a subdomain within your website development to actually host your blog, but you should maintain an element of separation.

Consider your core operation. Education is critical as you expose your products or services to prospects. You may know how great your offerings are and may be convinced that they represent a great bargain for people out there in the real world. However, you need to convince others and this is where you must establish yourself and your organisation as experts. A blog is so important and must be well-designed, thought out and presented professionally. You can use a content management system or website development platform such as Wordpress, the leader in this field, as you establish your presence.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a cutting-edge Executive Virtual Assistant Service which assists organisations and enterprising individuals with every detail of their entrepreneurial aspirations. Do you want to peruse some further information on these incredible online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!

The difficult economy has prompted people to look even more keenly for companies that will give them a special deal. Without putting yourself at risk, there are a number of ways you can give potential customers a boost on your website. One such way – a really great way, is to offer coupons.

Many of us are used to the concept of paying at the grocery store with coupons. Retail stores make a habit of giving discount coupons to tempt us to come and have at least a look, if not shop. The online equivalents are often known to give coupon codes that can significantly lower your total bill.

Coupons are a great way for you to promote your website development and possibly increase your conversion rate at the same time. The discount coupon will, at the very least, bring them into the door of your website to see what’s there. You can then use your web content and your fabulous online marketing skills to do the rest.

Remember all those names on the list you worked so hard to build over the last couple of years? You can advertise your coupon offerings in your monthly newsletter when you send it to your email list of names. Set up a page or a section of your newsletter devoted entirely to highlighting these special discounts and coupons, or get a virtual assistant to take care of it for you if you’re too busy.

Here you can create sample coupons that contain a code which you will incorporate into your shopping cart so that customers get their discount. The purpose of the sample coupon is so your subscribers can print it out and pass it along to others. This is a method of viral marketing. Ensure that the coupon has the website name on it of course and detail any terms and conditions you want.

These coupons can also be featured in an email marketing series. For instance, when someone on your list downloads your free report or signs up to buy the featured eBook, they get sent a valuable discount coupon code that they can use towards other products in the future.

Joint ventures are highly recommended projects and you can offer specific discount codes to your partner’s lists which will encourage them, consequently, to come to your site.

How to Set Up Coupons and Discounts, Fast!

Your shopping cart most likely contains an area allowing you to set up specific discounts or codes. Check for specific details within your cart and then plan out your strategy for creating different special offers. If you’d like advice or some expert guidance on shopping cart customisation, contact a professional virtual assistant today!

Coupons can be used for a wide variety of offers to bring you the added traffic you’re looking to achieve. Give away a free report or a free crafting kit (if that’s your niche) with every purchase. You could suggest 20 to 30% off an entire order at checkout or suggest a visit to your virtual store to receive an additional 10% off the sale of the day. This is really restricted only by your imagination, while you receive great website promotion at the same time.