When you’re trying to make money online by selling goods, it is usually a good idea not to drive customers away. As shocking as it seems, they don’t want to buy from you if it is a hassle to get what they are looking for quickly and painlessly.

Some of the things that customers like to see before purchasing a product online are, customer reviews, different views of the product, information about the product, free shipping, whether or not the product is in stock, etc.

Jason Miller at WebProNews points to findings from a recent survey:

- Only 37 percent offer multiple images views of products.

- Only 33 percent offer customer reviews.

- 62 percent have difficult to read fonts.

- Only 14 percent allow customers to change the font.

- Only 43 percent offer free shipping.

- Almost two-thirds do not offer in-stock information on the product page.

There are more facts like this that I won’t get into (you can read Miller’s article), but I think you get the point.

The owners of these sites probably sit around and wonder why customers don’t want to buy from them.

Usability is critical to online store success, and if you can’t give customers what they can get elsewhere, you’re not leaving them much reason to buy from you.

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If you’re looking to make money online, there’s a good chance you are also looking to do so from the comfort of your own home. It just so happens that many companies are looking at telecommuting even if they weren’t in the past, as a bi-product of expensive gasoline.

They’re either letting their current employees work from home or requiring people to work from their homes so they can save money on office space. In fact, results from a survey were just released indicating all of this.

So how does this benefit you?

It may be a good time to seek telecommuting jobs online. A huge plus is that by working remotely, you should be able to work for someone from just about anywhere in the world, provided you speak the same language (and hell, there’s even plenty of translators out there that can also be found online and perhaps benefit you in this area).

The bottom line is this: business owners are looking to save money anyway they can, and office space ain’t cheap. There are plenty of online job search tools where you are bound to find some telecommuting jobs that allow you to work from your home. Qualifications are most likely going to be required, however.

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There has been recent talk in Washington D.C. regarding regulation of Internet Advertising. This was mainly sparked by a recent advertising deal between search engine giants Google and Yahoo.

Popular belief among small online businesses who thrive on upon ads that accompany their content is that such regulation could be very damaging. If you are one of these businesses or even if you are one person trying to make money this way, this is a topic you should keep an eye out for in the news.

So far, the government (as discussed in a hearing from the U.S. House Small Business Committee yesterday) has decided that not go forward with any regulation, but some congressmen think there is room for it in the future.

The Internet Advertising Bureau had a strong presence in this hearing, and defended the notion that government regulation was a bad idea. It appears that this battle has been won for the time being.

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As we all know, social networking can often lead to success online, or at least play a part in it. Many people these days are using Twitter for their networking, but it has been hard to find new people to follow for any particular niche.

The WebProNews team has introduced a new tool that makes that much easier, and users are loving it. The tool is called Twellow, and has been well received. Many are calling it a feature that Twitter should have had in the first place.

Mashable has a good write-up on Twellow, which is basically a directory of Twitterers broken down by categories (and sub-categories) of interest.

For example if you want to find some new people to follow in the marketing field, you could go to the marketing category, and perhaps even the CMO category to find some Chief Marketing Officers of companies to follow. They would probably have some useful information right?

There are many categories that contain members based on their interests and bios. You may want to tweak your own bio a bit to accommodate searches.

Twellow is still in alpha, and will probably have plenty of new features and updates in the future.

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Visa and Facebook have partnered up to offer a resource for business owners to network with each other and find valuable tools to get the most out of their online business efforts.

If you are trying to make money online via an actual business, and not just an instant cash prize, this is something that may be well worth looking into. It’s called the Visa Business Network and can be found here.

In a press release, Visa says that it is aimed at helping you:

- Connect with others

- Manage more efficiently, and

- Grow your business.

There are features that let you talk to Wall Street Journal experts, and help you get a presence on Google Maps, just to name a couple of useful ones. Check it out.

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We talked recently about attracting offline eyeballs to your web presence as a way to potentially get more money from your online efforts.

More specifically though, if you are selling physical goods, take a look at the way you are packaging them. Is there room on the packaging to stick some more marketing materials?

SmallBusinessNewz cited two examples of effective package marketing techniques. One from a nut company and one from a gum company.

One used a cartoon character and a message about finding our more online, with a special URL based on that character, as well as having a separate URL for their regular site. The special one redirected to the regular one, but it inspires one to investigate when it is used in conjunction with the character.

The other one takes you to a MySpace page where there is plenty of interactivity and socializing to be found. Both are effective ways to use a physical packaging (that is probably being used regardless) to market a website.

This is a strategy that sellers should keep in mind. I don’t see why this should be limted to companies. You could use this technique as you sell goods on eBay auctions or whatever.

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One way to make some quick cash online is to sell stuff via online classifieds. There are a lot of options out there besides Craigslist.

In fact you can find a good number of them here at the eBusiness Directory from WebProNews.

A few examples include:

- Oodle

- Listasaurus and

- Trader Online

The nice part about sites like this when compared to local newspaper classifieds, is that you can reach people all over the world.

Obviously this is not a new concept, but it is one that you possibly may not have thought about.

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Have you considered offering online coupons to your customers as a way to get them to buy from you? This is a great way to inspire some interest on the customers’ part, and get them to spend some money.

With the economy, people are looking to save money wherever they can, and using coupons is one way to do that. So it might as well be you offering them. Getting the coupons to the customers is the hard part.

Offering the coupons on your site is the best bet to get new customers using them, but then it is going to take a whole lot of Internet marketing (SEO, etc.) to even get found.

A good way to earn repeat business, however is to email the coupons to people who have already bought from you. Of course you need to get permission, and you can do this by including a notice at checkout that they may receive emails from you in the future from which they can opt-out. You should probably also give them the option to not receive the emails in the first place if they don’t want them.

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It’s possible I’ve posted on this subject before, but it’s one that really can’t be stressed enough until we start seeing some improvements in a greater capacity around the web.

I’m talking of course about web design. If you want to make money online and attract customers, it can be very difficult to do so without a decent looking site. Just look through search engine results and directory listings and you will be appalled at how many poorly designed, if not just generic looking sites there are. Let me tell you, the number is infinite.

If you’re really serious about trying to establish a regular income on the Internet, your website is the most important gateway to that income. Make it look good. I realize that not everyone is a designer, but finding a means of getting a design has never been easier with all of the software and templates available online. It’s better to have a uniquely designed site than to use a template, but if that is the only thing that is feasible for you, there are many out there that will at least make your site presentable.

The point is: if you want people to take you seriously on the Internet, where the competition is endless, you better present yourself in a professional manner and stand out from the crowd.

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One might argue that the whole point of trying to make money online is that the market opens up globally and is not confined to the town in which you reside.

This is of course true, but just because you are offering something on a global scale, does not mean you should forget about where you come from.

Many people will buy things based on the fact that they are local. It is just easier to trust someone from your own town than it is from further away. This might not always be logical, it’s just one of those things. Perhaps people feel like they can find you if you rip them off.

Anyway, the point is, you need to be optimized for local traffic. This means getting found in the search engines for local keywords, and finding as many local publications and directories to be listed in as possible.

Your site should clearly state where you are located, and should be optimized for searches for that location.

Not all of your customers will be from near you, but if you make an effort, a lot of them can be.

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