No Credit Card? No Problem Internet Retailers Allow Consumers To Shop Online With Cash

In today’s economically depressed climate, many retailers are feeling the affects of limited consumer spending  first hand.  Online retailers, in particular, have been offering sales, special deals, and promotions in an effort to attract buyers, and are expected to increase their efforts as the 2009 holiday season approaches.

But what about those consumers who don’t have or use credit cards and/or debit cards? Believe it or not, there are quite a lot of them, about 72 million in fact, according to eBillme.com. Ebillme is trying to capitalize on this demographic by offering them the option to pay for their online purchases in cash.

How does this work?

Through the site’s “walk-in” payment option can purchase items online from 840 different ecommerce sites, and then pay for their purchases in cash at one of Ebillme’s payment locations. Once payment is confirmed, the merchant is notified, and the product is sent.

If this service catches on, more online retailers may have to rethink the types of payment options that they offer their customers, and expand these options accordingly.

While paying in cash for online purchases may allow customers to take advantage of special online deals,  critics also point out that it may also be time-consuming and confusing for some “cash only” customers who are, according to eBillme CEO Marwan Forzley,  primarily seniors or recent immigrants  without access to banking.

Top Internet Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

Whether you are working with an Internet marketing company or on your own, it is important to make sure that your Internet marketing efforts succeed. Just as there are many Internet marketing tricks that you should try, there are also a lot of Internet marketing mistakes that you should try to avoid. This article will discuss some of the most common Internet marketing mistakes and how you can avoid them.

A great looking website goes a long way towards attracting the attention of visitors, but if you website contains graphics that take a long time to load, you will be losing potential customers before they even see your main page. When in doubt, opt for a faster loading web page over one that contains flashy graphics and animation. Many companies make the mistake of assuming that the way that their website looks is more important than how it functions, when in reality, the key to success is to find a balance of both.

Marketing special offers and sales on your site is a great way to drum up customers for you business. If you don’t keep your marketing efforts up to date, however, then your website will become stale and boring. Marketing is an ongoing effort. Going along with this, many businesses incorrectly assume that if they are marketing online, they can stop their offline marketing efforts. Successful marketing of a website include offline, as well as online marketing efforts.

People use search engines everyday to find information that they need, but if your website isn’t listed with the major search engines, the chances of anyone finding you are slim to none. Take the time to manually submit your site to search engines. If you aren’t sure how to do this, contact a professional Internet marketing company for help.

If you are trying to get your site visitors to sign up for a free account or to subscribe to a mailing list, keep the information that you collect from them to a minimum. Studies show that each question that you ask aside from their name and address costs you up to 15% of potential customers.

When it comes to Internet marketing, remember to use common sense and whenever possible, enlist the help of an Internet marketing company or Internet marketing professional. They will be able to take an expert look at your website and help you identify the issues that may be preventing you from reaching the top of the search engine results for your target keywords.

More Small To Mid-Sized Businesses Finding Value In SEM

Image via CrunchBase

Trends In Green Marketing Methods Pave The Way For Increased Internet Marketing Spend

Image by DavidErickson via Flickr

A recent survey, conducted by Nielsen Online and Eloqua, Inc revealed that 60% of marketers will be making the transition from paper-based to online-based ad and marketing campaigns.

This trend is due in part increased awareness of the importance of Internet marketing, including SEO and SEM methods, as well as the growing trend of “green” or environmentally friendly practices.

“What’s good for the environment can also be great for businesses,” says Brian Kardon, Chief Marketing Officer at Eloqua.

The same study also revealed that, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau, 90% of marketers support a more environmentally friendly marketing industry, and an overall decline in the amount of paper-based marketing materials, i.e. brochures, fliers and physical catalogues is also expected to decrease over the course of the next year.

Internet Marketing Twitterati You Should Follow – Who Else?

This is not an exhaustive list. These individuals or companies are considered trend-setters, early adopters and thought leaders in their space.

What other Twitter accounts and serious players in category “Internet Marketing” do you think should be followed or at least considered? And, how do you determine their authority and quality (to be added to the list)? Hat tip to Rich Page for seeding the list.

Andy Beal (Marketing Pilgrim)
http://twitter.com/andybeal

Seth Godin
http://twitter.com/SethGodin

Search Engine Roundtable
http://twitter.com/seroundtable

Rand Fishkin (SEO Moz)
http://twitter.com/randfish

Mike Buonomo
http://twitter.com/SearchBuzz

Search Marketing Gurus
http://twitter.com/smgurus

Fumi Mastubara
http://twitter.com/newmediazoo

Copy Blogger
http://twitter.com/copyblogger

Eric Friedman
https://twitter.com/EricFriedman

Danny Sullivan
http://twitter.com/dannysullivan

Duct Tape Marketing
https://twitter.com/ducttape

Barry Welford
https://twitter.com/BWelford

Search Engine Guide
http://twitter.com/SEGuide

Craig Ritchie
https://twitter.com/craigritchie

Doug Hudiburg
https://twitter.com/dhudiburg

Gator Herb (Marketing Sherpa)
https://twitter.com/gatorherb

The Product Guy
https://twitter.com/theproductguy

Search Marketing Gurus
http://twitter.com/storyspinner

DJ Francis
http://twitter.com/DJFrancis

Newspaper Girl
http://twitter.com/NewspaperGrl

Golden Profits with Golden Ratios?

If I told you that the ratio of 1 to 1.618 could add to your bottom line you’d probably say I am crazy. Well you just may be wrong.

How you say?

Here’s how.

The number 1.618033988749895, which trails off to infinity, is called Phi (pronounced like “fly”) and is a very unusual number with very unique properties. This proportion can be derived from the golden ratio and is represented virtually everywhere in nature, often expressed in the form of a spiral.

Some quick examples can be seen in our DNA, in the cosmos, in plants, animals, fingerprints, faces, population growth rates, cellular division, etc.

So how does this help me? Whether you realize it or not, you are subconsciously attracted to objects which contain the golden ratio. How is this known? There is a wealth of research that suggests this. The golden ratio is found in the most revered art, architecture, music, poetry, and even people. In fact, several studies have shown that people naturally judge others as beautiful or not based on how closely their facial proportions resemble the golden ratio. Volumes have been written about it.

Search the web….you’ll be reading for days.

So if this subtle psychological appeal can be found in a simple proportion, can I apply this to the design of my marketing material to achieve better results? Why not! In fact some notable examples include cars, credit cards, and even iPods.

For all you designers and photographers out there, the golden ratio is considered a more complex version of the “rule of thirds”, which has been considered a benchmark for aesthetic beauty for ages. Despite this, very few are known to have intentionally incorporated the golden ratio marketing strategies in web campaigns, but what have you got to lose? Or perhaps better phrased, how much is there to gain? There are even some great programs to help you.

Here’s how it is derived:

Draw 2 lines so that the ratio of the length of the entire line ‘A’ to the length of larger line segment ‘B’ is the same as the ratio of the length of the larger line segment ‘B’ to the length of the smaller line segment ‘C’. This happens only at the point where ‘A’ is 1.618 times ‘B’ and ‘B’ is 1.618 times ‘C’.