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Internet Sparks Brazilian Gold Rush
A gold rush in a remote Brazilian town has been driven by the internet. Up to 10,000 people have cut down huge trees, diverted streams and dug ever-deeper mines, in an area that only months ago was pristine rain forest.
RealNetworks acquires Brazilian game company
RealNetworks Inc. said it's acquired South America casual game site Atrativa for an undisclosed price. According to the Seattle digital media company (NASDAQ: RNWK), six-year-old Sao Paulo-based Atrativa is the most...
Sony começa a vender drive Blu-ray no Brasil
O drive BWU-100, da Sony, é o primeiro gravador de PCs com tecnologia Blu-ray vendido oficialmente no país. O modelo está disponível na Sony Style, a loja virtual da Sony, por 2 999 reais. No mesmo endereço, a mídia...
Soccer, Samba and Outsourcing?
Robert Lazarski, a computer programmer from Denver, met a Brazilian girl on a train in Europe. Soon they married and moved to a beach city on Brazil's northern coast, and Mr. Lazarski was looking for work. So he hung out a shingle on the Internet: outsourcing.
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02.07.07
11 Quick and Dirty Ways to Increase Conversions
 By
Brian Thibault
Increasing conversion rate can be a daunting task that requires a delicate touch and some expertise,
not to mention some trial and error. Don't be afraid to fail at it - just remember to keep trying until you succeed.
If you work hard at optimizing your site, you really can double or triple your conversions. That said, I put together this quick and dirty list to give you a few changes you can make to get started optimizing your e-commerce site for better usability and more conversions.
1. Remove clutter
Cluttered web pages are one of the most common mistakes on the Web. For some reason people like to jam all their information on one page. Clean things up by removing distracting, useless images, charts, or text. Provide users with information as they request it. You don't need to put it all in front of their face at one time. The path you want the user to take should be clear from the homepage. When you stack up text and images, it dilutes the goal message, and can confuse users. Less is more!
2. Remove ads
If you're trying to get people to buy a product or a service and you're running Adsense or another ad system on your site you may be making a big mistake. These ads provide exit points for your traffic (and potential customers). Keep your customers focused on the task at hand. If they leave the site through an ad, "Great you made $.25," but just don't assume that person will hit the back button or ever return to your site. You may have just lost yourself a sale.
Not to mention, ads look extremely unprofessional on e-commerce sites. They are fine for blogs with no other means of monetization, but if you're selling something do yourself a favor and leave the ads off.
3. Offer more payment options
I generally recommend offering 3 forms of payment for e-comm sites. Taking credit card is obviously the first choice. I think two good alternatives to offer are PayPal and BillMeLater. BillMeLater gives you the money right away and then just bills the customer at a later date. This is great for sites that target demographics who may not have credit cards or checking accounts. Adding BillMeLater and PayPal makes sure all bases are covered.
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4. Show shipping costs upfront
How many times have you been ready to purchase an item online only to get to the last step of the process and find out shipping was $15.00? Shipping charges are already a huge deterrent to buying online. Why make it a bigger problem by hiding them?
Be honest and upfront with people about extra charges. When hidden fees are applied, it can anger the customer, and, worse, cause them not to trust you. ( Loss of trust is a loss of sale, and most likely a loss of any future sale.) Put the shipping charges on the shopping cart page before the customer clicks checkout.
5. Sales, Promotions, Free
Many practices from traditional retail simply don't apply online. Running sales, however, is one that does. Incenting customers to buy is a pretty broad and well documented topic. But the basic principle still applies: everybody loves a sale. Experiment with different promotions to up your orders. Also experiment with different wording and calls to action. I recently tested a category on an e-commerce site called "specials". We renamed the category "sales" and click-throughs and orders went up noticeably.
6. Sales copy
Strong sales copy is a must. Check out The new SEOBook sales letter by Brian Clark. Your copy doesn't necessarily need to be a "sales letter" per se, but Brian does an awesome job explaining the benefits of buying the book to the visitor. I am by no means a sales copy expert, but I do know that with more expensive products and services you need more than a simple description. Explain why the potential buyer absolutely needs this product, and needs it now.
Continue reading this article.
About
the Author:
Brian Thibault is an internet marketing guru specializing in E-commerce, SEO, and usability. He is originally from Columbus, Ohio, and enjoys his work, ice hockey, and exercise. Brian's blog can be found at http://www.convertup.com
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