How healthy is your online business?

Selling herbal remedies and drugs online can be a profitable business for both sides - the producer or seller and the patient or buyer.


The internet can be a profitable business medium where you can set up a virtual shop and sell almost everything: from Cialis and Viagra pills to colon cleanse products, designer perfumes or special cosmetic creams . The maintenance costs for such a virtual shop are very low. There is no need to rent a commercial space (and just think of all the costs this would involve - rent, utilities or staff expenses). A virtual shop is less expensive to maintain and producers or seller can afford to have competitive prices in order to attract more customers and boost their sales.

With good products or services as a starting point, your online business can become a reference website worldwide, visited by thousands of people with health issues and needs who would turn into customers.

Health products may be very profitable to sell online: in 2008 more than two million people in the UK bought health-related products online and one can nowadays buy online blood tests for HIV or chlamydia, pills or read about test results or even get themselves tested in virtual laboratories.

eBooks as tools for business online

There are many tools that you can use to increase your popularity online. Adsense and smart use of various SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools can increase the visibility of your website to various customers. But have you considered an ebook?

Basically, an ebook is an online book usually made in PDF format. Some of the most popular books in print also have editions in eBook in order to be read in eBook Readers but as PDF, they can also be read in computers with little to no effort. As an online freebie, your business can gradually improve with the help of an eBook.

Of course, creating an eBook means you have to write a book but that doesn’t mean you have to write a very long book for your customers. You can create an eBook composed of various tips and basic knowledge that you have in your business. This will give your potential customers an idea of your expertise in business. You can also give your eBook for free to your customers in order to add more value to the product and/or services you give online.

Some have been successful in creating eBooks that they opted to sell their books online. But if you’re a small business whose aim is to attract customers to your store, an eBook could be given for free. Just make sure that you provide references linked to your website. This will allow readers to automatically click on your website and initiate a transaction. It’s a simple addition to your website but a great tool to allow readers to automatically visit your online store.

The ups and downs of forums

One of the best additions you can place on your website is an online forum. An online forum is like a bulletin board - you can place updates and news about the website without changing anything in your main online store. The forum will also allow users to post certain questions or react to certain posts of other users. In gist, a forum will allow you to interact with your customers effectively.

They can simply place questions in the forum and you can answer them as soon as possible. This can even serve as a help line as users can browse through various forum topics for answers.
But a forum might cause more damage than good if they are never implemented correctly. Your competitors can use the forum to sabotage your reputation by placing bad reviews of your products. Some can even inject virus in your forum which could affect every user visiting the forum.

To make sure your forum will work to your advantage, follow certain protocols:
• Allow posting only after signing-up.
• Profanities should never be allowed.
• Only links and no embedding should be allowed.
• Administrator has the right to bad users based on their IP address.
Once you have created a forum, be sure to support the page through updates and prompt replies to questions. It's just a waste of money and other resources if you do not support your online forum. An online forum is a highly efficient tool for online business if they are properly implemented.

Tips to boost your online presence

An online business needs all the help it could get to improve. No matter what niche your business is in right now, there will always be competition that could crush your online business anytime. You need to have all the tools you can get to be at par or be better with your competition to succeed online.

One of the “tools” that you can integrate in your online business is an online article or a blog. Aside from filling your website with products you want to sell or services you want to offer, an additional blog could help you boost your business for the following reasons:

•Show your expertise – posting an article every week means you know what you sell inside and out. Instead of simply posting the specs, you share your opinion on the products that you sell on your site.
•SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – articles are a great way to boost your ranking in search engines. Web crawlers value informative websites more than business websites. With articles, you should be able to slowly improve your web presence.
•Communication with potential customers – let your blog posts and articles have a comment feature so that you’ll be able to know how your costumers or potential customers feel about the products you sell or the tips you provide.

You really don’t have to write a very long essay just to get your customers interested. A 300-word article or a simple list of tips every week should help you increase your online presence and satisfy more clients because of your knowledge.

Improving website security

The success of a small online business partly rests on the website. A good website means professionalism and expertise in online business. A hastily created website without much thought will only work against the online business as this could shun instead of attracting customers.

But aside from its look, a website’s security should be highly considered. While a bad looking website will not attract customers, an unsecured website can practically destroy the business. Important data owned by the business and customers could be extracted and used illegally. When this happens, customer’s trust fades which not only prevents more customers but also destroys the present ones.

The best security measure any webmasters could do in their website is to check the source code. Knowing the files running in your website is not enough. Remember that your source code is hosted in a paid server which means it can be attacked through your service provider. Your source code will reveal the transactions that happen in your website. Identifying unauthorized running transactions could be easily removed.

Also, beware of ads that you chose to add in your website. While some are only there as part of their advertising campaign, some inject a small code to extract data from the server.

Last but not the least; be aware of attacks that could be directed to your website through code injections. Attacks will come in a form of code that contains links which runs a remote code used to go around security protocols.

When these attacks happen, place your website in offline mode as soon as possible. Although this might be an inconvenience to your users, securing your user’s data is and should be a priority.

Tips to avoid abandoned shopping carts

Almost every online store has a shopping cart. This is the part of the online store where the charges are itemized including shipping charges and taxes. This is also the page where the user should enter their payment information (paypal, credit cards, etc) or provide a link for the payment page. This page means the seller is about to make a sale.

But shopping carts doesn’t necessarily mean a sale. In fact more than 75% of users abandon the website once they reach the shopping cart page. This phenomenon is referred to as “shopping cart abandonment” which is a lost sale for online business.

Even though you can’t completely eradicate abandonment of shopping carts, here are some things you can do to minimize the lost sale:

Minimize checkout process – instead of letting creating a separate pages for billing and shipping address, payment information and confirmation page, minimize frustration by using a two-payment stage process.
Add photos and links – sometimes a buyer is having second thoughts of the product purchased. Add photos and link to the original information (opens in new window) so that the buyer could revisit the product.
Offer availability – prevent buyer frustration by providing real time inventory on your website. This will allow buyers to know before hand if the product is available.
Provide contact information – before they reach the confirmation of payment, provide contact information including the physical address to let them know that you can answer their concerns on the phone or through email. By providing contact information, you may be able to save the sale over the phone.

eBay and your business

eBay is one of the most popular websites today because it allows businesses and private individuals to auction or sell their products online. Small businesses could use the extensive tools offered by eBay in order to build an online store wherein they can display the products they sell. Because of the worldwide presence of eBay, customer base will not be limited in your area.

But aside from simple business operation online, eBay could also be used to prove your reputation in the business. Seller and buyer feedbacks are available in eBay and they can be read by practically everyone – even those who do not have an account with eBay. Sellers can use the information to convince buyers that they are not scammers. Buyers are now smarter, and without any actual proof of legitimacy, you will not be able to sell anything online.

Like most businesses on eBay, your number one concern should also be on security. As much as your buyers wanted to legitimate sellers, you should also work with legitimate buyers. Transactions without prior payments should never be entertained. If you can establish your reputation online, you can demand from your buyers that they pay first before you send or do anything in your end. Some buyers are even cautious in working with international buyers because of shipping and the possibility of being scammed.

eBay, however, should not be the sole channel of your business. Amazon and Craigslist are also some of the websites that will allow you to sell your products online with little to no fee required.

Find a niche for your business

The biggest challenge any business will face is competition. It doesn’t’ matter if your business is online or not, competition could easily cause your business to go down. Because of competition, you are forced to lower your prices to the point that you do not post any profits. Competing could be an option but if you’re against a giant who can easily cut costs, your chances of success could be virtually next to nothing.

A good option for small business, especially online is to find a niche. A niche could be a specialty on a specific industry which will differentiate you from other companies. Although you work in the same industry; you focus on a single aspect so that you can corner specific buyers. For example, your online business is on selling DVDs but instead of selling DVDs from different genre, you only focus on horror movies. You can even be more specific such as focusing on independent horror films. Because of your focus on this type of movies, fans of the specific genre will visit your store since you provide more titles on that category.

A niche could easily work in an online setting since your online store is not only open to local customers. Your online store is virtually available to billions of internet users worldwide. If you can ship your products internationally, you should be able to use the niche to your advantage. A small consistent sale through niche products is better than no sale at all because of stiff competition.

Additional equipment for your business

Computers and printers are usually the requirements for a successful online business. But there are additional “must-have” gadgets that you should consider acquiring if you’re aiming for a successful business. These gadgets will help you improve your presence online and will help your online business.

Wireless Router

A router distributes internet connectivity to other computers and gadgets. In today’s business setting, it’s recommended that you consider a wireless router so that you don’t have to purchase additional cable. This also helps your online connectivity since you can use your mobile phone to check your email instead of using the laptop.

Digital Camera

Ask any eBay sellers and they will surely recommend a digital camera as part of your tools for your online business. But even though you’re just a blogger, a digital camera could help you post photos without any problems in copyright. A mid range digital camera should be more than enough if you’re only aiming to post photos without the intention of selling them.

Extra LCD Monitor

If you’re an individual who enjoys multi-tasking, an extra LCD Monitor is right for you. Instead of using one monitor, attach an extra monitor to your computer or laptop so that you’ll be able to have a better view of the things you’re doing.

Powerful Headset

A cheap headset will never help your online business. Invest a little bit in your online business by purchasing a better headset. A good headset will help you reduce outside noise and achieve clearer audio when speaking with your clients or business partners.