SimonCotter.com » Success http://www.simoncotter.com The Passion of Successful Online Businesses Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:53:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Highly Successful Ecommerce Websites http://www.simoncotter.com/highly-successful-ecommerce-websites.html http://www.simoncotter.com/highly-successful-ecommerce-websites.html#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:45:54 +0000 admin http://www.simoncotter.com/?p=74

ecommerce 300x257 Highly Successful Ecommerce Websites

Why would content matter when you are running an e-commerce site? After all, you provide a product or service that people want to buy, so setting up your site to easily purchase should be your primary goal, right?

Not necessarily.

Let’s look at some of the more successful e-commerce sites on the Web and see how they balance content with marketing and sales techniques to get people to not only return to the site, but buy.

A Huge Ecommerce Site: Amazon.com

amazon logo 300x111 Highly Successful Ecommerce Websites

At first glance, it appears that this site is very focused on selling (as they should be), but if you notice, there is much more there than simply “Click here to buy this book”. There are:

  • Excerpts from the books for sale
  • A list of the 100 “hot” books, updated hourly
  • The top video and audio sellers for the day
  • Reviews both by other customers and professional reviewers
  • Author interviews
  • Contests
  • Reading groups and much more…

Amazon.com relies heavily on content to promote return visits and sales. They encourage their customers to review the products and provide live testimonials. Some customers will return to this site, simply because of the reviews and other resources.

An Ecommerce Movie Site: Netflix

netflix logo Highly Successful Ecommerce Websites

On the surface, Netflix doesn’t seem to be about ecommerce – after all, they are a rental company. But they try to sell two important things:

  • accounts – the more people who rent from them the better they’ll be
  • movies – they also sell the movies to their customers once you’re a member

Netflix relies on free trials and demonstrations as the content to drive sales. They have a huge selection of movies to browse, plus lots of information up front about the plans and how you can buy.

Buy CDs Online: CDNow

cdnow Highly Successful Ecommerce Websites

CDNow provides content to their customers once you get past the first page. You can get News, Reviews, and other information about the CDs offered for sale, as well as the artists involved with the CDs. There is even a section of Web links with links to other sites that are relevant to the band in question.

One interesting feature that CDNow has is the ability to customize the site to your personal interests. You can do things like create a “favorite artists” list so that whenever they have new music, you will find out right away.

The More You Talk to Your Customers, The More They Will Like You

While most e-commerce sites do not rely heavily on content, they do use it to promote return visits and customer loyalty. Remember that 95% of the people who come to your Web page won’t buy anything the first time. They have to become comfortable with your site, used to how you do your business, and feel secure enough to commit their hard earned dollars. If you have reliable and useful content, they will return, with credit card in hand.

Incoming search terms for the article:

]]> http://www.simoncotter.com/highly-successful-ecommerce-websites.html/feed 0 Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg http://www.simoncotter.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg.html http://www.simoncotter.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg.html#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:09:57 +0000 admin http://www.simoncotter.com/?p=41 facebooklogo 150x150 Facebook: Mark Zuckerbergmark zuckerberg 150x150 Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook is undoubtly the most relevant social networking website today. Here is a profile of Mark Zuckerberg, the 24 year old Harvard whizkid that created Facebook.

Programming since sixth grade, he acquired a sensation while he was a Harvard sophomore. Always attractive to affluence the transfer of information between groups, he created an online techno-social that accustomed Harvard students to post profiles, browse or search for fellow students, view uploaded pictures, and share their affiliations and interests. Within two weeks, two-thirds of Harvard students signed up. Three weeks after the February 2004 launch, Zuckerberg opened it up to Columbia, Stanford and Yale; now it’s available to students (and some alumni) at more than 2,100 colleges and universities internationally and 22,000 U.S. high schools.

His first intention was not to create a business, but his success prompted him to take an indefinite leave from Harvard to focus on this project. He’s still learning plenty: “In the academic world, it was this ‘question everything’ mentality–never commit to anything that you can’t rigorously prove [is] correct,” says him. “In the business world, you have to believe in what you’re doing and stick to that. That’s been an interesting change.”

With more than 200 million strong users, two-thirds of whom log on daily, Facebook continues to grow with the influx of new users and added features. Says Zuckerberg, “Our vision is to increase information flow and help people express themselves.” The popularity of Facebook seems to have piqued the interest of potential buyers–its current valuation is $2 billion. At press time, the company still remained in the hands of Zuckerberg, who has found his entrepreneurial experience “awesome.”

“Most people have to work a lot of years to build something cool,” he says. “I’m in a different position.”

Indeed he is.

Incoming search terms for the article:

]]> http://www.simoncotter.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg.html/feed 1