Are you looking forward to the Christmas season?  For many online entrepreneurs, it’s a great time to increase their bottom line. It can be a hectic, exciting and very busy season. To make the most of this opportunity, your first best step is to make sure your website is ready for the Christmas sales.

Here’s how to get your website ready for the Christmas Sales:

Step #1  Holiday Keyword Research
 
A great first step to get your website ready for the holidays is to optimize it for the holidays. Spend some time researching Christmas keywords and keyword phrases customers might use to find you. Then incorporate these keywords in your content, linking strategies and HTML coding.

Step #2  Consider adding Christmas to your website.

In addition to adding holiday products and promotions, consider adding holiday graphics too. This will help your website visitors get into the holiday spirit.

Step #3  Enhance your customer experience.

Give your holiday shoppers ever reason to stay at your website and to come back often. Make sure all your links are complete, all your graphics load quickly and all your downloads are easy to access and quick to download.

If you sell products, give your visitors a user friendly search option so they can find what they need immediately and make sure your website is pleasant to look at and easy to move around in.

Step #4  Is your software ready to support you? 

How does your shopping cart software serve you?  Is it capable of handling an increase in traffic?  Can it handle any special promotions you may have created for the holiday season?  What about your server?  Make sure all of your supporting systems and software is ready to step up to the challenge of the Christmas season.

Step #5 Transparency and authenticity

Today’s customers are perceptive and they’re careful to shop with retailers that not only provide them with a positive customer experience but also retailers who take the extra steps to protect and respect their customers. Make sure your policies and procedures are easy to find and understand. Additionally, publish your privacy statements and make customers aware of any terms and conditions involved in their transactions.

Customers expect retailers to be transparent and authentic. Publishing your policies on your website, protecting them when they make financial transactions and making sure to protect their privacy goes a long way to earning their respect and their business.

 As the holidays rapidly approach, your first and potentially most effective strategy to capitalize on the Christmas season, is to make sure your website is ready for some action. Get your website ready and enjoy the holiday season knowing profits are rolling in and business is booming.

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Visit almost any restaurant, and you’ll see evidence of the increasingly common belief that bigger is better. Fast food restaurants zealously encourage their patrons to upsize their drinks and fries, and upscale dining establishments pile food high on their customers’ plates.

Many websites have taken the “bigger is better” theory to heart, too. Superstores like Overstock.com and Wal-mart have websites consisting of thousands upon thousands of pages. And they are doing quite well for themselves.

When there are so many large sites online, it may seem futile to try to get a piece of the pie. The average person doesn’t have the time or money to set up such an operation, let alone maintain it. But you don’t have to. A mini site can flourish in a land of Internet giants.

The reason mini sites work is because they do not directly compete with the big guys. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, a mini site simply seeks to do well in a small niche. In this case, in a sense, smaller is better.

The most successful mini sites go after a small but underserved niche. They find a need that isn’t being filled, and they fill it. This puts them into a position to get better rankings in the search engines, because the keywords that people would use to find their offerings are not often targeted by webmasters of larger sites. With some good SEO, they can get targeted traffic at very little expense. To find out more about SEO and you mini site go to Mini Site Solution.

Once the visitors are at the mini site, the sales letter grabs their attention and, hopefully, convinces them to make a purchase. Those who are on the fence may sign up for a newsletter or free course. This provides the opportunity to maintain contact and persuade them to buy later.

A mini site can hold its own, even with millions of other web pages online. You just need a good niche, a quality product and a strong sales pitch.

For help with your mini sites, go to Mini Site Solution. A free video will be there to explain what mini sites can do for you and leads you into creating and marketing your mini sites.

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The name of your business is one of those decisions that feels monumental. It’s like naming a child. It represents you, your passions, your goals and your new life. Additionally, the name of a business is a powerful marketing tool. Jane’s Store may feel right to the owner however it doesn’t communicate the benefits and uniqueness of the business to potential customers.

Step One: Give yourself time to come up with a business name that feels right and fits your business niche or theme. Your domain name will let your visitors know what your website is all about even before visiting your site. In other words, give away as much information in your domain name as possible, leaving no room for your visitors to guess what your website is selling.

For example: if your name happens to be Jane Smith and you own a shoe store then www.janesshoes.com would be much more appropriate and informative than www.janesmith.com. Try to keep your domain name within a range of 13-15 characters, as shorter domain names tend to stick in people’s minds. It also makes it easier for them to type out your web address in their browsers without misspelling or leaving out characters.

Step Two: Use Strategic Keywords
When you are able to place your keywords into your domain name, it helps increase your search engine ranking because your domain name is one of the primary places the search engines like Google and Yahoo look to when indexing websites.

Avoid using any extra characters in your domain name like apostrophes and hyphens because they affect rankings and they’re more difficult to remember.

In addition to choosing a name that fits your business and utilizes strategic keywords, there are a few more considerations.

• Make it easy to remember.
• Make it unique.
• Make it easy to spell.
• Make sure it is available.

A quick note. You might be wondering if a .com is the best type of site to have. It is the easiest to remember and offers more credibility. Other options are .net .org .tv .us and so on. Because your business will be internet based, having an extension that is easy to remember will serve your business better.

Once you’ve chosen a domain name, your next step is to register your domain. Be 100% ready to register when you sit down to your computer. Domain names can be snatched up quickly and you will want to capture your ideal domain name as soon as you know it’s available.

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So, you want to create a website.  You already know that having a website puts you in the realm of cyberspace and the entire world.  But, before you create your website, you need to give it a name.

The domain name is how you will be recognized online.  You will be referred to as www dot whatever dot com.  A domain name can have various extensions: .net, .com, .us, .uk, .org, and so on.  What goes between the www and the extension is what is most important.

Choosing a name is like choosing a fine wine.  You want to get it right the first time and every time.  Before choosing a name, consider the reach of your website.  For instance, if you have a storefront business that you want to promote on the Internet, the website will be mainly for your local customers.  A domain name that includes the business name is okay here.

If you want to operate an online business where people all over the world can find you and buy your products, your domain name will need to be more universal.  Here, you will make use of keywords, not necessarily your business name.  The most useful keywords will be the ones people use to find search results.  If you are into jewelry, use keyword tools to determine the most frequent keywords used by someone searching for items in the jewelry category.  Your domain name will include one or two of those.

• Perform a domain name search. See if anyone has your name or any variation of that name.  Also check for different domain name extensions.  If the name is not registered, you can use it.  It is highly recommended that you also register your chosen domain name under other available extensions to avoid copycatting by others.

• Find a website host. Once you have a website, you need someone to host it so you can create your pages.  Choose a web host with large enough bandwidth for your needs, 24 hour support, and tutorials to help you get started.  There is nothing worse than contracting with a web host who provides nothing other than the bandwidth.

• Now that you’ve chosen a name, you’ll want to register it. There are several website registrars who will gladly register your domain name.  Since all registrars do the same thing, choose one with a reasonable yearly rate.  When you register, that domain name(s) is yours for one year unless you register for a longer period.  You will need to renew to keep your names.

The process is simple.  You’ll need your domain name and some information from your website host (DNS IP addresses).  The registrar will ask for a credit card or PayPal account to pay for the domain name.

Here is a partial list of domain registrars:

• Register.com
• Dotster.com
• GoDaddy.com

Registering a domain name is easy and it legitimizes your website and your business.

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The goal of any business is to make money.  To do that the word has to get out about your products or services.  One way that you let people know you exist is with a business website.

Some ask if a business website is truly important.  The answer to that question is found in the advantages of the website to increase business profits.  A business website is an advertising tool you would be unwise to pass up.

Advertising offline is how businesses tell others about their products.  You run newspaper ads, use billboards (if you can afford that), direct mailings, and flyers – to name a few.  The more visible you and your product are, the more people you have a chance to attract.

A business website does the same for online businesses and home businesses that want to move into new markets.  Think of it as your online billboard, but this one is more affordable.  Using a business website, you get to showcase your products in the most flattering light possible.  Anyone who visits will see the best you have to offer them.

Business websites work for small as well as larger businesses.  Websites can be set up to run an online store, answer questions for customers, provide useful content, and gather information from customers.  All of these things you have to do yourself with a brick and mortar business that has no website presence.

Business websites allow for the streamlining of almost all processes pertaining to your business.  You can send electronic invoices to clients, pay business expenses online, and pay any contracted employees.  The paper trail is a thing of the past with virtual businesses.  But, if you did need a document, they can be safely accessed on your computer or flash drive and printed.

Business websites allow for 24-hour shopping.  Showcasing your products at a trade show or flea market allows you 8-10 hours a day to attract customers and make a sale.  With a business website, anyone in the world can view your products on your website and purchase what they want.  It could be three o’clock in the morning where you are but your store is open for business half way around the world where it is later in the day.

For brick and mortar businesses and virtual ones, a website adds credibility to your products.  A potential customer can see and get all the information they need about a product before they buy.  Posting customer testimonials helps, too.  For brick and mortar, a website shows that you have taken the next step in your business growth.  Now, the customers who spread the word about you to their friends have a place to direct them to that doesn’t require getting in the car and driving somewhere.

A business website is a great asset to any business.  With so many web hosting companies, setting one up is easy to do and it gives you an online presence to increase the visibility of your business.

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