Internet Marking : An Easy Way to Build Your Network

One of the best things you can do as an entrepreneur is to regularly take the time to assess your business practices. Sit down, think about your regular routine and make note of what is working and what is not.

For a long time, when my internet sales got low I found myself desperately looking for ways to generate more traffic? I put all my time and energy into trying new marketing strategies, until I realized that the key is not just generating new traffic, you have to take the time to work with the traffic / customers / readers / etc. that you already have.

I quickly realized that putting 100% of my time into internet marketing meant I was spending 0% of my time regularly connecting with my current network. To correct this error I started to:

• Respond faster to emails : Getting back to inquiries and or customer emails quickly, is good business practice.
• Send out more promotional messages and or informative articles to regular readers and customers. I realized that by focusing on new traffic, I was regularly losing old traffic from readers due to lack of attention or follow up. This means that gaining new readers and losing old ones meant no real growth as far as reaching my goal to expand me Business groups, Customer Base, and social circles.
• I took a close look at my different websites and realized there were not enough cross promotional links. I spent so much time promoting on other sites, I didn't realize I wasn't taking full advantage of cross promoting my work on my own sites!
• I began to really follow up with site owners interested in cross promotion, collaboration, prize giveaways, interviews, etc. Every potential promotional opportunity you let pass is one lost opportunity to strengthen a network and expand your business presence.

In short, once I stopped looking outward, and started to build from the foundation I already created my social networks and websites really started to grow! Remember sometimes its not quantity, but quality that counts. Go through your old emails, review some of your regular webspots, and think about how you can really tap into your resources and make the most of what you already have.

More internet marketing tips to come, but until then you can make the most of Black Business Women Online by networking with other Black Women and Entrepreneurs. Join today!

URL : http://sistapreneurs.ning.com
Sister Site for Black Moms and Mompreneurs: Black Moms Club.com

Each One Reach One
lhenry

Increasing Your Holiday Web Sales

It goes without saying that the holiday season is a great time to boost your holiday sales. Everyone is online shopping taking advantage of the sales and free shipping; spending money that all us entrepreneurs are dieing to make! Given the fact that this is a great time to profit from your online business, I've been writing quite a few black business posts about internet marketing and generating more traffic to your site. And among the feedback I've been getting one fellow entrepreneur made a great point, she basically said that "It's not the traffic I'm focused on, it's turning those clicks into cash."

Beyond getting more online visitors to your site, I'm sure you too are more concerned with making sales. You and me both. It is for that reason that I've been working really hard on several holiday marketing strategies, some of which Jamila White explains in her article: "Seven Tricks for More Holiday Web Sales". I recently came across Jamila's article and thought she did a really good job at explaining some of the key eCommerce techniques one needs to know when trying to boost web sales in addition to drawing in more traffic.

So in addition to featuring this great post: "Seven Tricks for More Holiday Web Sales", I wanted to show you how I have actually put some of these strategies to pratical good use. Perhaps you can find a few tricks that might work for you.

1. My Sites are extra Holiday Special: Multiple Shades of You, Mahogany Momma, and the Urban Gift Guide all feature images and content related to Christmas and the holidays in general. Tip: Want to know where I get all those great photos for my holiday promotions? istockphoto.com - low cost and great quality.
2. Gift Ideas are a great way to promote your products and create quality holiday content, so I created the Urban Gift Guide, which has generated positive feedback. If you don't have products to sell, but you have a blog and use Google adsense, creating holiday posts is a great way to take advantage of those holiday Google ad clicks.
   
3. Gift Certificates, Giveaways, or Discounts are musthaves during the Holiday Season. My Black Business eBook is currently on sale and I am featuring holiday contests on Black Freebies.
4. Last but not least, in addition to regularly posting/promoting my holiday specials I offer other businesses the opportunity to promote on my pages. My main webpage Multiple Shades of You currently features banner promotion of Cocoaprints Greeting Cards and the new movie movie The Perfect Holiday, featuring an all star cast of Black Actors. Those interested in advertising on the msoy network click here for more details.

Don't let the holiday season pass without taking the initiative to boost your web sales. Tell me, what's been working for you?

lhenry.

Black Websites: Generating more online traffic

Lately I've come across quite a few online entrepeneurs with good business ideas, and great sites, but no clue how to generate web traffic. This is something that even the most web savy business owners are always trying to improve, so I figured I would focus on this topic for a few days.

For any and every newbie out there, when you seriously want to generate more site traffic the first thing you have to do is research! Sounds simple I know, but the question is research what? Well, you need to define your target audience and find out what sites the like as well as what content those sites generally carry.

I'm in the business of creating black websites, so while doing my own research I thought it was a good idea to create a list of some of the most traffic heavy black sites online. If you have a large African American target audience as well, this is definitely a list that you want to check out.

You also want to start visiting websites and forum where fellow web entrepreneurs frequent. I encourage many of my fellow Black Business Women to connect with me though my Sistas Making Money on myspace page or popular forums like izania and connecting black. One imporant part of generating traffic is creating business alliances, these are the people who can give you that free -priceless advice we are always looking for and also potentially provide you with free or lowcost ad space (provided their website attracts the type of people you want to market to). For example my site, Sistapreneurs Network attracts professional black women, so I tend to work with advertisers who want to reach this audience.

You always have to remember that banner advertising isn't just about putting up banners. If you buy ad space on a site that doesn't attract your niche group, then you are wasting your money.

Also, remember that one of the most important traffic builders is search engine optimization. Make sure you have the right keywords listed on your site. If you need help, go to a keyword search tool like: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion or try google suggestions (http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1). In conjunction with having the right keywords you have to have a google site map. The easier it is for google to search your site, the better chances you have of your pages being indexed in the search engine.

So if your ready to start generating more traffic then go check out your competitor pages, put together a strong list of keywords, and advertise on sites that reach your audience.

I'll be sure to post more on this topic in the future, but this is the best place for you to start.