Every internet marketer wants to generate huge web traffic.  If you’re in a home based dropshipping business, web traffic is crucial.  When more people visit your website each day, you increase your potential to gain new customers and make more sales. The question is, how do you direct targeted traffic to your online retail shop?

There are many ways to achieve targeted web traffic and one of them is through article writing. By distributing articles to search engines and article directories, you boost your page ranking and help internet users to find your online retail store more easily.  How?

Let Written Articles Boost Your Online Marketing

Internet users use keywords to look for information on the web.  Interested buyers often search the web first to compare merchants and prices.  If your article contains those keywords, it would be included in the list of their search results.  Hence, don’t forget to include your resource box or author information after every article you distribute on the web.

Providing your prospective customers with quality information is the best way to establish brand or name recognition.  Even if they don’t plan to buy your product or avail of your services at the moment, they become aware that your company exists on the web.  If they enjoyed what they read, they can bookmark your site and revisit you when they’re ready to make the purchase or when they need to hire your services.

Furthermore, writing quality articles helps you build stronger business relationships with your clients. Instead of purely advertising your products and services, you are sharing valuable information to your prospects.

Why Written Articles Are So Effective

It is interesting to note that advertising banners tend to annoy internet users. When they see too many ads on a site, they could immediately close their browsers or switch to a different page.  On the other hand, if your website contains interesting articles, more people are enticed to stay longer on your page, read your articles, and learn new information.

Yes, writing articles can be considered as a more subtle yet effective way of advertising.  If you haven’t tried this online marketing strategy to promote your home business, you could be missing a great opportunity.

“But I’m Not A Writer!”

What if you’re not really into writing?  Can you still use this marketing tactic?  The answer is yes.  Many home based business entrepreneurs hire freelance writers to write articles on their behalf.  Writing articles can also be a time-consuming task and if you’re hands are too full to do this added task, you can hire freelance writers to the job for you.

Whether you choose to write your own articles or hire writers, make sure that those articles are original and contain quality information.  See to it that your articles do not contain typos, grammatical errors, incorrect details or misinformation.

Don’t settle for less just so you can have articles to put up on your site.  Remember, those articles represent your home based business.  If your readers decide that your articles are a waste of their time, it would send out a very negative impression.  On the contrary, well-written articles would surely enhance the performance of your home based drop shipping business.

If you frequently surf the web, you might often hear the term Web 2.0 among bloggers, online marketers and other internet enthusiasts.  But what really is Web 2.0?  What role does it play in connection to online marketing?  Can it make a difference in promoting your online dropshipping business?

Web 2.0 is a term used to refer to various ways of enhancing the web.  The term does not really refer to just one particular element on the web.  It pertains to different tools that are used enhance a website’s performance.  For example, CSS programming, blogging, RSS Feeds, HTML, audio and video streaming, SEO, are just some of the concepts and applications that fall under Web 2.0.

If you have an online retail store, how can you use Web 2.0 technology to improve your business?  Here are some tips you can consider:

Plan your tactic.
As we’ve said, there are various tools and concepts that you can apply for your business.  Thus, having a goal, and creating a plan to achieve that goal is an important first step.  What do you want to accomplish?  How much of your resources are you willing to put in?  Do you have sufficient knowledge and skills that are needed to execute your plans?  These are important questions to think about.

Know your target market.
Just like any marketing strategy, it is important that your marketing campaigns reach the right people.  Thus, knowing your target market is crucial get the results you want using Web 2.0.  If you’re efforts are directed to the wrong people, it might just be a waste of time.

Use quality materials.
Web 2.0 focuses on providing useful information.  This means providing originally written articles which are of value to your readers.  Marketing your products and services isn’t just about promoting your business alone, it’s also about educating your customers with information that is relevant to your business.  Advertising isn’t just about selling.  It’s about building credibility and establishing stronger , lasting customer relationships.

Use blogs.
Blogging is the newest trend on the web today.  Almost everyone who surfs the net has a blog of his own.  Blogs are very easy to maintain and best of all, they’re free.  Blogs come with ready-to-use templates and designs which makes uploading contents quick and simple.  If you’re a busy person, blogging is a great way to keep your audience updated regularly.  In addition, blogs allow readers to leave comments and share their views so they are a great way to interact with your readers.

Use audio and video streaming.
By including audio files and video files in your website, visitors in your site can have more option.  If they don’t have the time to read your posts, they can simply listen to an audio recording or watch a video that discusses a topic of interest.  Audio and videos will surely drive more people to your online retail website.

Be active in the online community.
Allocating a few hours of your time each day will surely generate positive results.  Being part of the online community is essential if you want to achieve more web traffic and positive responses.  Visit other blogs and websites, participate in forum discussions, share your own views, and you’ll see what a difference it makes in your marketing efforts.

What is niche marketing? Niche marketing is focusing your marketing strategies to a specific group of people.  Finding a niche means knowing what this particular market wants.

Businesses that focus on niche marketing provide unique products or services that are especially made for that particular group of people.  These products or services are generally not offered by larger corporations in the same field. 

Benefits of Niche Marketing

If you’re running a small drop shipping business, it will be difficult to compete with large corporations in the industry that offers the same products and services that you do.  This is especially true if your competitors are big names in the market and has been around for many years.  They have already established a solid reputation than can be very hard to overtake especially if your company has just started.  However, this does not mean that your business will fail.

As a small business, you need to have a focus, a target market or a niche.  How can you do that?  Of course, you need to find your niche market or your potential market.  Who are these people?  You cannot be marketing your products or service to the general public.  You need to know who has the most potential to buy your products and services.  Finding out your niche is the first step in niche marketing.

Understanding Your Niche Market

After you have defined your niche market, you need to conduct a study about what your target market wants that is not yet in the market.  Or think about what unique product or service can you offer this group?

For example, if your competitor is a leading manufacturer for the whole state, your niche market may prefer to buy locally at a lesser price.  Also if your competitor is selling products in a limited choice of colors or varieties, perhaps you can offer more choices on the products you sell.

It is important to carefully examine your options.  Conduct your own survey and ask questions. Don’t forget to observe how survey participants view your competitors.  More importantly, take into account the location of your prospective niche market.

Take note of the results of these surveys.  Use graphical representations if possible.  Based on these results, you can find ideas on how you can provide the appropriate product or service to your niche market.  Make sure that you concentrate on the specific needs of a specific group of people.

Aside from studying your niche market, don’t forget to pay attention to your own strengths.  Ask from your existing customers what they particularly like about your product or your service.  Encourage them to give their honest opinion about your business.  Also, get their point of view or suggestion about how you can improve your services.

If it’s not possible to create your own unique product, you can still provide a service that is distinctively your own.  Moreover, be aware of your strong points and make sure that you maintain the outstanding quality of the products and services you offer.  Lastly, if you think you’ve found the right niche market, it’s best to conduct an initial trial selling period using the new product or service you will offer.

If you are working online, then I’m sure you have been hearing about social networking. Why bother with sites like twitter.com , myspace.com and other networks? Its a great place for your customers and potential customers to get to know you! If you use your networks correctly you can build a loyal following.

Should you use services to build your social sites? I would have to say no. Social sites should reflect who you are! A service that churns out hundreds of sites for other companies tend to be very general and not that engaging.

We are just getting into social marketing so we will be posting our findings here. Soon you will even be able to read our “tweets” here!

Are you currently using social marketing? Care to share your findings?