A new series of articles about how and why your off line business should be online too has just started on the 411 Blogging Guide website.  The first article is called "What Is The Internet?".  And it outlines what and why you could use the Internet to expand your business.

Remember the Internet has been around for a number of years.  It's reach is global.  In today's environment it is important that your business have an Internet presence.

This is a great place to start thinking about how and why to put your business online.

Until the next time,

Craig Childs

Craig Childs
Toronto Ventures LLC
10004 Wurzbach Road, #153
San Antonio, TX 78230
210-595-9304

Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog

Why not?  It is easy to do.  You don't need to be a programmer to do it.  You can do it yourself or outsource the work.  And it is relatively inexpensive.

But the real reason is to be found online.  Over 60% of Americans who want to purchase something will research it online before the purchase.  They will determine if the product meets their needs and find out where they can purchase it.

Finally they will make the purchase in person (at the off line store) or over the Internet.

What happens if they do not find you during their research?  Well most likely they will buy form someone else.  You don't want that to happen.

Form more information go to Why Take Your Business Online and Local Business Search.

Until the next time,

Craig Childs

Craig Childs
Toronto Ventures LLC
10004 Wurzbach Road, #153
San Antonio, TX 78230
210-595-9304

Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog

We have started to write some articles and placing them on pages on a sister site.  The first set of articles will be found under "How to Create  an Online Business".

Today's article is all about branding your online business.  It's called "What is Corporate Branding and Why Should I Care?" And it discusses how and why you should plan your branding early in you Internet Business.

Until the next time,

Craig Childs

Craig Childs
Toronto Ventures LLC
10004 Wurzbach Road, #153
San Antonio, TX 78230
210-595-9304

Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog

Acquire New Customers

Acquiring new customers off line and on line can be a challenge. But the first test for acquiring new online customers is to know what you have to offer.

What do you have to offer?

Not only what it is but what problems dose is solve for your customers? From the customers point of view how does is answer their question - What's In It For Me? You must understand how and what your product does to answer that question.

Who are your customers?

Next you must know who your customers are? What are their sex? How much income do they make? What are their hobbies, wants and needs? Where do they live? What are they afraid of? How does your product respond to these customers?

The better you understand your customers and how your product answers the question of what's in it for me. And finally what need does it fill for your customer. The more successful you will be. Wither you have a local business or an international business the process is similar.

You must find them and then meet their needs to be successful.

Until the next time,

Craig Childs

Craig Childs
Toronto Ventures LLC
10004 Wurzbach Road, #153
San Antonio, TX 78230
Direct: 210-370-7460
Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog

What to Sell Online

You have a business and want to put it online but are not sure what to sell online. The first thing you should do is to look around your business. Is there anything that you could sell online?

If you can ship it – electronically or through the mail – you can sell it online. There are some legal exceptions so you need to be careful. Also if you are going to need a shopping cart each one has some exceptions that it will not allow to be sold using it's shopping cart. So read and be sure it will work with your products.

The people that have the most problem selling products online are usually the service industry. Their services in many cases require face to face interaction – such as a counsellor or many restaurants. So what can they sell online?

The service industry may need to sell their services in two parts. The first part is to develop a list of potential customers by selling an ebook or report on their types of services. After they have signed up for your list, talk to them about purchasing your services.

Until the next time,

Craig Childs

Online Bricks

What are the Steps in Creating an Online Business

There are 12 basic steps to putting your business online.

First you need to have a business to put online. It needs to be a business that lends itself to the online world. One that people are interested in and willing to spend money on.

If you have a successful off line business, in most cases you can increase your business by putting your business online. Even a local business can find more customers online. And if the local business can ship their products, they can have a world wide market by putting their business online.

One of the first steps includes finding keywords for your business and deciding how to brand it online.

Keywords are those words and phrases that the average person would use to search the web to find your business. They will find other businesses also so you will need to optimize your online presence for the keywords you want to use.

Branding is done through the header on your site and the domain name you use. So while you are discovering the keywords to use, see if any of them will fit into a domain name. You don't need to use keywords in your domain name but it can help.

For more information about how to Put Your Business Online look at a product I helped to put together just to help small business put their business online.

Until the next time,

Craig Childs

Online Bricks