Herrington Web Creations

Some of the world’s greatest writers and filmmakers made a name for themselves telling stories about men and women. The irony is that men and women attract as much as they struggle in their relationship. Make no mistake, men and women had always been different.

A few years ago, back in the 90s, the majority of internet marketing was, more or less, directed towards men. Statistics showed that very few women knew or wanted anything to do with the internet. And those few women, if anything, wasn’t really worth the time and effort to reach out to. Back then women internet users weren’t worth your marketing dollar.

Men on the other hand were already spending time sitting in front of their PCs running on Windows 95 or, the latest, 98 with brand new white keyboards and trackballs. In those days you’d think the Internet was designed by men and for men. Internet marketers knew they had to advertise to the male gender if they wanted to be able to sell anything.

Fast forward to 2005. As of five years ago, researchers are singing a different tune: that women under the age of 65 are as much hooked on the Internet as the opposite sex. Some of them are even more Internet-savvy than men their age! Take note this was in 2005. At the time there was no Farmville, Restaurant City, Pet Society, Café World. There were only a few social media sites on the Internet. “Tweet” was just a word used to describe how birds call out to each other.

This is crucial information for the internet marketer, small business owner or service professional advertising his products or services online. These days you need to put into consideration whether you’re selling to men or women when you advertise online.

Here are some tips. According to recent study, men use the Internet to…

• Download audio files
• Buy stuff from auction websites (eBay)
• Check sports news
• Buy and sell mutual funds, stocks, bonds
• Write on their blogs
• Make reservations in restaurants, hotels
• Read the news

On the other hand women use the Internet to…

• Read religious texts and other spiritual information
• Get health advice
• Join support group websites

This information is based on a 2005 study by Pew Internet and American Life. In 2007, Forrester group also noted that men still spend the most time online. But many experts expect that to change as Flash and online games have become more popular in recent years.

What does all this say about internet marketing in general?

If you wish to market to women, as a service professional or small business owner, you must remember that women prefer simple colors and personality. Your website should make them feel right at home, as if you’re simply talking to them over the kitchen table and handing them good advice. For men, your marketing efforts should be more informative, more features-oriented. They don’t care much for pretty colors, but they do care about their time and prefer to receive the information they want right away so they could move on to the next thing.

Social networking websites are the latest buzzword in e-commerce business community. These sites serve as a platform to connect and interact with family, friends and new people. Using social networking sites for your e-commerce business can immensely help you reach potential customer worldwide and generate sales.

One important word; make sure your ecommerce software is primed to handle this aspect of your business before you start using social networking sites. Given below are 6 useful tips for effectively using such websites.

1)You should start with choosing the most befitting social networking website for your business. To achieve this you should thoroughly research all networking websites that cater to your concerned business. This will help you better focus on prospective customers and improve your chances of generating sales.

2)You then need to create a comprehensive and well-written profile on the chosen social network. This involves giving complete information pertaining to your business and personal interests that will enable visitors to familiarize with you. Additionally you can create pages about the company and also include photographs of the products.

3)The secret to productively using social networks for your e-commerce business is by constantly interacting with your community members. This will enable you in building strong relationship with potential customers and in turn encourage them to do trading with you. It is also good to add exciting and new information regularly about the business or products in order to generate awareness.

4)Do not spam your social network or either use short-term sale strategy to market the products aggressively. This approach is never successful and will bring rejection from potential clients on the Internet. You should provide useful information about your business that will be in your consumer’s interests.

5)Almost all social networking sites offer ecommerce businesses multiple opportunities to promote their products effectively. Some of the common features provided include banner ads, classified ads, blog platforms, article submissions and video hosting platforms. Make use of the features to generate sales and improve business.

6)Finally make sure to invite business colleagues and perspective clients to join the social networking site that you use. Additionally motivate the community members to advertise your products and company on the web.

Selecting Your Shopping Cart Software

Successful businesses grow from good decisions. When you have online store or business, one such crucial decision is choosing appropriate shopping cart software. Such selection should involve intensive searching, collection of information and seeking opinions of experts and users. While many owners leave the choice to web programmers, it is prudent to get involved in selecting this ecommerce software. The software is not only a technical tool for ecommerce, it also serves as marketing tool of your business.

Here are some simple tips to guide you in selecting the software for cart.

- One of the prime issues of ecommerce is mode of payment that you offer to customers. The software that you select should integrate with major credit card processors. When the online business is operated through more than one websites, look for software offering single account for those websites.

- Look for software that is user friendly, customizable and flexible. Your customers should be able to access details of products, prices, options for mode of shipment, charges for delivery, applicable taxes and discounts available from the software. It is desirable that it also provides information about details of products like sizes and shades, depending on types of products.

- If the online business is affiliated with partner sites, orders from those sites would be directed to your online shop. Ensure that your shopping cart is devised to support such affiliate programs.

- Knowing your customers and their preferences is essential for growth of business. Response from registered customers would give you an idea of their preference. While selecting ecommerce cart software make sure it allows registration of customers and is capable of sending newsletters.

- Online software can be managed from any place. If your business involves operations over a wide area, or you are mostly on move, then such facility would give you freedom to work from any place.

- Cart software should be able to track inventory of your online store automatically. This is crucial for maintaining stock of entire range of products. For satisfaction of your customers it is desirable that products like software and e-books are delivered digitally; so make sure your software can handle that.