I've just returned from holiday, and as usual, I'm pumped with thousands of ideas, with no idea where to start because I am jumping from one to the other incase I forget them all. As I try to hold an idea in my head for a moment and follow it up, one thousand more possibilities enter, and I begin to buckle at the knees from the weight of the information in front of me.
It's all just a bit much. For example, just looking at my online store, the realisation that sales don't have to happen on my store just blows my mind. I can sell my stuff on ebay, amazon, my own store, and even if we stop there, there's a heap of things to consider. Amazon have a fulfillment service, which would open up opportunities for me to sell more easily in the US. I can integrate that with my own site, as well as Amazon and ebay...
Because I've just come back, I've done a little check up on my search engine position, and stumbled across microformats, which could get more data displayed in my search result, that would most definitely help attract more visitors to my store. I've got a product range of 500+ so marking up all those products properly will take a little time.
I'm working on my advertising, and know that if I advertise each of my products individually, I will attract more traffic to my site. That will also require touching each of my products at least once to create an advertisement specific to it. If I'm going to split test my ads (I always do) then that's twice the work...
Then, I've got to make sure I've got tracking in place to be sure that the work that I am doing is actually creating conversions, so that I know where I can continue to focus my efforts, and where I need to work harder, or leave be.
That's just the tip of the iceberg, and the kicker is: My online store is just a side business. It's not meant to be taking over my daily work at InternetPro - but it is...
As I work I'm going to find more and more little things to ponder over that could make my store better. Mostly, because there's so many to choose from, I make note of the opportunity and leave it to gather dust, maybe for it to rear it's head in a few years. I could grab on, and try each idea out as I find it, but I get concerned that I could waste lots of time and not get anything back for it.
Lynette Palmen from Women's Network is constantly saying why is XXX selling that? Isn't her expertise in something completely different? Lynette is a very successful woman, and I think it's important to listen and apply that to myself. So the question is: I'm an Internet Guru. Why am I selling Products online?
I think the answer is, because it give me first hand experience at selling products online, that I can refer to when I am working with customers. The funny thing is, I've realised being an Internet expert really has nothing to do with running a successful online business. Giving your target market the product they want, and having great customer service is what makes a good business.
Too many people pin their hopes on web developers who do not have an intimate understanding about your business. Throwing money at a web developer, and expecting it to change your business is short sighted. Knowing what your customer wants, working out how you will use the internet to achieve that, and THEN asking a developer to build exactly what you need is going to get much better results.
As usual this was going to be a post about something different. It's been a while since I've just randomly put my thoughts on a page.
