By Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

Most Internet entrepreneurs, professional web developers, and designers have one purpose in mind. Simply stated, their goal is to design a website allowing someone to share knowledge, ideas, and products with others. Whether the purpose for the website is to promote collaboration, provoke thought, or simply share information, there is a substantial risk to publishing proprietary information without proper protection. Wise webmasters know the old adage to “not be pennywise and pound foolish!”

A web site is undoubtedly the product of many hundreds or thousands of hours of work and generally a substantial financial investment. Websites contain valuable intellectual property that needs to be protected. Many times the concern is not a normal user copying and pasting material to some friends. More often, it is your competitors taking verbiage verbatim to use on a website that may eventually procure some of your own would-be clientele.

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The eight-fold path to building and maintaining an online business is simple and short.

By Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

1.  Demand and Supply
A common mistake most agents make in the marketing business is trying to sell a product for which the demand barely exists.  The idea behind marketing is to first find the market for a product before starting its supply.  People only search online for products they actually want, and selling something online that the average customer is not searching for is as good as not making a sale at all.  Thus, to begin with, one needs to find a group of individuals with a dilemma they need to make sense of and resolve it for them.

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The following is a presentation summary from a live presentation given at the Internet Merchants Association. The author is posting it as per request from conference participants.

Creating and Maintaining a Web Site that will Blow Away the Competition

As Presented at the Internet Merchant Association Conference 2010

By Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

Abstract

Whether you are planning your first e-commerce web site or redesigning an existing one, there are many important conventions and standards to consider. Keeping your site up-to-date and current is no small feat.

This article will discuss the ‘must-haves’ for every e-commerce site.  This presentation will help you to generate an Internet and Social Media Marketing plan for your site that will blow away the competition!

Introduction
Building and Maintaining Relationships with Customers
Numerous experts have made it clear that the entire purpose for being in business is to procure new customers and keep existing customers. This information relates to any Internet business; whether the company’s web presence is a full blown e-commerce style website or a more basic brochure-style website.

The profits and growth of a company are all contingent on this one variable. So, whether the business is a brick and mortar retail establishment that wishes to extend its reach into the international market; or, a one-man shop with nothing more than a shingle on the Internet, the primary focus should be procuring new customers and maintaining relationships with existing customers.

A company’s website will be the gateway to its Customer Relationship Management. So, it is imperative to understand how to communicate with your customers the way that the customers want to communicate, rather than the old style of e-commerce where a company would develop an Internet presence and expect miraculous profitability. A clear understanding of this dynamic can position a company’s online presence leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

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Blogging Offers Profitable Results for Small Business Owners

This is part one of the Expert Website Services Social Media Series

By Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

Many small business owners struggle with finding new, innovative ways to increase online exposure and improve their online positioning. The Internet is a dynamic, changing vehicle in which savvy business owners can do very well implementing and managing their own marketing strategies. However, in order to do so, one must continually learn and use the latest technological tools for personal and professional promotion.

The Internet has changed. The way people are doing business has changed dramatically in the last several months. Successful Internet marketers understand and embrace this new paradigm consisting of interactive collaboration. The old-style static websites relying on search engine traffic is essentially passé. Today, online consumers are looking for more content-rich collaboration rather than the older model website that was primarily static. This is what is referred to by some as Web 2.0 and the Social Media Revolution.

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By Dr. Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D. and Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

Word-of-mouth marketing is often considered one of the oldest and most powerful forms of advertising.  In fact, most business people understand that it works, they just don’t know how it works.  The rapid takeover of social networking as a way to spread the word even faster makes word-of-mouth marketing an imperative part of any business marketing plan.

Some people think word-of-mouth is something that “just happens” — like the weather — and they let it take its own course. But if you want to be successful at developing word-of-mouth for your business, you should be as organized and thoughtful about it as you are about other types of advertising and marketing.  In fact, if you take this approach, eventually, you can get almost 100% of your business exclusively through word of mouth!  The key to creating a successful word-of-mouth program as part of your daily activity, lies in developing a formal plan for systematically meeting people and cultivating relationships with them.  Here are 15 ways for you, or the sales people who work for you, to get your own word-of-mouth marketing program off the ground:

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By Dr. Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D. and Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

If you have little or no experience with referral marketing, it would be a huge mistake to jump into action without preparing yourself.  Getting people to pass you referrals is tantamount to achieving success with the referral-marketing process.  To do so, they must know exactly what you do—what product or service you provide, how and under what conditions you provide them, how well you do it, and what sets you apart from your competition.

You have to communicate this information to your sources in a clear and concise manner.  Obviously, you have to know the aforementioned yourself before you can effectively communicate it! It is important for entrepreneurs to have a clear vision for their businesses; you have to know what your motivation is, what your goals are and what you plan to accomplish with the businesses you start.  Equally important is your ability to share that vision with others effectively in a well-thought-out vision statement. This is especially true when you are cultivating relationships that you want to result in business referrals.

Before you map out where you’re going to take your business with a referral marketing campaign, pause and get a clear picture of where your business stands today.  Try to answer in simple terms, the following questions:

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By Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D. and Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

Many of my esteemed colleagues have recently indicated that their businesses are at risk of failure. Indeed, this is an endemic issue in times of recession. In turbulent economic times, the economy has an adverse effect on everyone. This recession is particularly difficult as the world is much more intricately weaved than in recessions of the past. We are in a global economy; thus, our economy has a global impact.

When the economy is slow, new business is harder to get. A bad economy; however, should not be an excuse for failure. Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that will not work.” In recessionary times, even the best laid plans need to be revisited. Indeed, a poor economic climate can successfully be used as motivation to grow your business even more! What can you do to build your business in a recessionary economy?
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By Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

Still today, the Internet continues to increase in both popularity and population. There are more users going online every day. The Internet opens global market opportunities for companies to sell their products to an online audience. This can provide businesses a perfect environment for tremendous growth, not only demographically, but also geographically.

There are many ways to strengthen the effectiveness of your Internet Marketing campaign. Consider the following Internet marketing tips and etiquette for doing online business effectively rather than offensively.

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By Kevin S. Taylor, MBA

The rate of technological change continues to increase exponentially. A couple years ago, I was known to say that everyone needs an e-mail address in order to conduct business with the entrepreneur of tomorrow. Yet, today, I find this statement to have some critical flaws.

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Networking must be a priority for your business. It should be mentioned, in detail, in your business marketing plan. It probably has a line item on your financial statements. It should; no, it must if you believe in the power of networking enough to be sitting in a BNI meeting.

As such, networking requires a strategy. Many people choose the beginning of the year as the time to develop and implement new goals and new strategies.
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The Internet offers potential business owners a versatile canvas  to implement any business plan imaginable. Its possibilities are now being explored by people from diverse places, cultures, professions, tastes and skills. The Internet provides a new, surreal galaxy where any entity is free to carve out a niche for itself. The possibilities are truly unlimited. Anyone may create a website as the ultimate instrument for effective communication of his or her opinions, skills, products, interests, ideologies, beliefs, theories and almost anything you wish.
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Many online business owners have invested a great deal of time and money into developing an outstanding web presence. It is only after the site is built that most business owners understand the need for professional search engine optimization and marketing in order to realize a significant return on their investment (ROI). Sure, they get a few web hits with offline marketing endeavors and by passing out business cards with the domain name prominently displayed. However, for many industries, Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing (SEO and SEM) are the only way to bring traffic in droves.
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Everything you need to know BEFORE you begin building an e-commerce website …

The size of a business is not a deciding factor for its presence on the World Wide Web. In fact, the Internet, a wide region for millions of businesses to showcase and sell their products, evens out any differences in size, giving equal opportunity for each organization to display and distribute its services. A website that allows one to do business is an online store that is open 24×7 for customers to stop by and shop. Therefore, it is extremely important that individuals understand the various nuances that make a website suitable for e-commerce purposes. Even if a business is not creating its own e-commerce website, it is advisable to be familiar with what goes into making such a site a successful platform for commercial dealings. Here, one will find various aspects that will help create an e-commerce website in a simple, hassle-free manner.

Click here to read this article BEFORE you start building your website.

The Internet has become the largest marketplace in the world; and Internet marketing is one of the most widely used ways to sell products and services. However, most Internet marketers solely resort to online methods, whereas offline techniques prove to be equally effective yet a less expensive means.

Internet-based businesses often overlook offline advertising. Combining offline and online advertising together in your marketing campaign will result in a better, well-rounded approach to promoting. It also gives the opportunity to attract potential prospects and customers you might not otherwise get.

Read the full article by clicking here!

The corporate world has awakened to the importance of printed and Internet marketing tools in brand building, promotion and profitable sales. To this end, most businesses strive to get myriad marketing materials such as logos, brochures, business cards and websites etc ready, much before the business is set to roll. Winning over clients has become virtually impossible without these marketing tools and therefore experienced brand building organizations are being hired by businesses despite budget constraints.

Read the full article by clicking here.