Anyone who plans to sell goods or services to businesses and markets online must understand the difference between b2b internet marketing and selling directly to a consumer. While some of the basic principles of marketing are the same, there are some differences that if not taken into account can sabotage your marketing efforts. The good news is that in some ways, selling to businesses is easier than selling to consumers, and very often the profits to be made are much greater, especially in the beginning.

One of the biggest differences between b2b internet marketing and marketing to consumers (also called b2c marketing) is that you’re no longer trying to sell to a single person.  That sounds obvious, but business purchasing isn’t just a group of people looking at your product or service at the same time and then making a decision.  The question of whether to buy or not goes from one person to another, sometimes in a very long chain of command, and can take a lot of time (and convincing).

When you’re selling something to a consumer, you’re dealing with one set of eyes and one person to convince.  An important key in marketing to consumers is repetition—most won’t buy the first time, but once your items have been put in front of them multiple times in an appealing way, they’re more likely to buy. With b2b internet marketing the same principle applies, but this favorable impression must last down a long line of people who must make the decision. Getting the item or service in front of them many times is crucial with businesses, too.

Email marketing is one great way of keeping your products or services in front of them, but when b2b internet marketing with emails you have to be even more careful than when marketing to consumers.  Many people who receive an email, particularly one they’ve agreed to receive, are going to be more concerned with the product or service offered, the discount, and what the item can do for them, than how professional and well-done the email is.  This is less likely with a business.

Because the business may have its own b2b internet marketing plan, they’re going to expect a certain level of professionalism in any emails or correspondence you send them. Misspellings, strange line breaks, broken images and anything else that screams “amateur” or “careless” is likely to ensure that your message goes no farther down the line—the kiss of death for anything you’re trying to sell them. Take extra care with your email marketing plan.  Don’t just make them correct and tidy, make them dazzling and attractive.  Your emails and correspondence need to look as good as anything coming from that company if you really want to impress.

If you sell to businesses, you already know your target market very well. Be sure that all of your b2b internet marketing efforts are professional and focus not on you, but how you can fill their companies’ needs, and you’ll get your products noticed.

Are you struggling to build you an e-commerce web storefront on the web?  Perhaps these few tips will help you as you embark on this exciting venture; of joining the other ecommerce site builders.

First things first, you should plan your website carefully.  Determine your goals and lay out which marketing strategies and what outcome you expect from each.  Is it your goal to generate leads?  Do you want to have an online catalog?  Would you like to compile a database of possible clients?  List your objectives in quantifiable form (i.e. increase sales by 20%). This will help you to determine the success of your e-commerce site as time goes on.

Your next task will be to determine the things your possible clients will want and need to know prior to making a purchase.  These things may be:
•    A detailed product/service description complete with pricing guides, key features, product specs, et cetera.
•    Customer reviews and testimonials, reports and studies, customer success stories and positive remarks made by prior customers.
•    A section that covers frequently asked questions (FAQ) to answer questions and cut down on the need for one-on-one assistance.

When planning the construction of your site, you should focus primarily on customer use.  Potential clients will want a site that’s easy to use, easy to navigate, and answers the many questions most consumers have prior to spending money on a product.  You should strive to create a site map that will outline each page of your site, starting with the home page.  You should also plan to implement the use of tools that will track and measure your site activity (i.e. where do customers click most often, and whether or not those clicks lead to a purchase).  This way, as you build your e-commerce web site, you will be able to compare your goals against your results.

As you build, you will want to make certain you’re using the right tools.  Your solidly laid out plan is just the beginning. Next comes the actual construction of your e-commerce web site.  Many business will turn to professionals (a very powerful tool in web building).  The professional web site builders design and create outstanding web sites.  There are unlimited sources of contact for professional web builders.  Use the phone book, or better yet, look online and you will quickly find a firm in your area.

On the other hand, maybe you’re not budgeted to have professional help building your web site.  Many successful e-commerce sites are constructed using tools that are designed to help the layperson create a professional and polished site on their own, without the aid of HTML experts.  Again, resources for such sites can be found all over the Internet and you can even find great web building programs to download for free.

Let’s review.  In order to build a successful e-commerce web site, your primary goal is to keep your customer in mind.  Determine what you’d like to see if you were investigating a product and do your best to build a web page that meets those specs.

10 Best Social Networking Sites

The great thing about social networking is that it is changing how people communicate with friends, family, businesses and everyone else online, and it is even revolutionizing how people make money online as well. You can target new friends, old friends, family members and even new customers on the top ten best social networking sites.

You can also develop relationships and introduce people to what you have to offer. If you have never looked into social networking then it is time that you did. If you do not know where to start when it comes to social networking, you can look no further. Here are the top ten best social networking sites and what they can offer you.

1 – MySpace – This is the biggest general social networking site, and is essential if you want to meet people and facilitate conversations online. There are millions of people using MySpace, are you one of them?

2 – Facebook – This is another general social networking site that is similar in nature to MySpace. What it offers is unique in many ways, making it necessary to be a member of both for best results.

3 – YouTube - YouTube is a social networking website that allows you to build a channel of self-uploaded videos that you can share with others. This is a great way to build relationships through viral video marketing.

4 – LinkedIn – This is a website that allows you to network with professionals in your industry and others. If you want to get to know people with similar business interests, this is the way to do it.

5 – Twitter – Twitter capitalizes on micro-blogging, allowing you to follow what your friends are doing and share micro-updates with the people who want to know what you are up to as well.

6 – Classmates – Classmates is a social networking website that connects you with friends from your past, allowing you to keep in touch with old schoolmates in order to rekindle friendships.

7 – Xanga – Xanga is a blogging community that allows you to share blogs, photos, videos and a lot more so that you can network with people that have similar interests from all over the world.

8 – Squidoo – Squidoo is becoming popular really fast, allowing people to create their own personal websites called lenses about any topic under the sun.

9 – MSN Groups – MSN Groups is a division of MSN that allows you to network with other people in a variety of different and unique ways to facilitate community and conversation.

10 – AOL Hometown - AOL Hometown is similar to MSN groups, though produced by AOL instead. It is a community based division of AOL that allows you to facilitate communication with people from all over the world.

As you well know there are many other social networking sites out there. By understanding the terms of service for each of the above and other adult social networking sites you can become known around the globe. Not just from a social standpoint but also from an internet marketing and business standpoint. Now it’s up to you to leverage your business and social life using the best social networking sites.

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Make Money With A Social Network Script

One of the social network script options that you have available to you when building a brand new social networking website is Phpfox. Is Phpfox the best social network script or social network site creation tool out there?

Phpfox is a powerful social network script that can enable nearly any webmaster to create their own unique niche-based social networking website. Thanks to the popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, new social networking sites are springing up all over the place, as savvy internet marketers discover the profiting potential of having a niche-based social networking site of their very own. What are the benefits of a social network site? It’s simple, really:

- Nearly all of the content is created by your members,

- All of the content is promoted by your members as they invite their friends to the site,

- Members provide you with marketing research as well as demographic info just by filling out their profiles.

The Phpfox script is capable of providing your social network site with all of this necessary functionality and a great deal more. When you research social network script options like phpfox for your own uses, it is important to read reviews from developers, programmers and webmasters to let you know how well other people have found a certain social network script to work for them.

By using phpfox, you can participate in a large and active forum full of members who are willing to help you get started. This forum can be a godsend when it comes to setting up a social network script like phpfox. You can get a lot of help here, and you can also find out more information about add on scripts and modifications that can help you better utilize the phpfox social network script.

Most social network script options are difficult to install and implement, but this is not true when it comes to phpfox. The installation of this social network script is relatively easy, utilizing only three basic steps -

- Create a database,

- Upload your script files and chmod them according to the directions,

- Visit the installation page and put in your information. The information you need is your database name, your username and your password. Once this is done, just run it and the installation file will do the rest of the work for you.

Of course, if you do not want to bother with the installation process yourself, then the Phpfox company will do it for you, but it requires that you pay a nominal fee. After the installation, you should be able to log directly into the admin panel where you can choose a template, and the rest is up to you. Phpfox even offers a template that mirrors MySpace almost exactly, if that is what you are trying to achieve with your social network site and social network script.

Phpfox is an excellent social network script that can work wonders for you if you are trying to build a community network site. Just keep in mind that you have other options as well that are worth exploring.

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Alternative To Social Networking Google Social Networking

These days, Google seems to have its hand in every aspect and facet of the internet. While Google previously did not have anything to do with social networking, but now they are building a presence in the social networking arena as well. Soon, google social networking will be the standard for social networking, as Google has become the standard for many things, including searching through search engines, paid advertising, e-mail, calendar and even web applications and web documents.

We all are aware that social networking websites are beginning to take over the world, at least online. The big social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace are excellent places where people can connect to other people and even market their companies and reach new customers. There are millions of people using these social networking sites, and businesses are beginning to use them as well. Leveraging a social networking site to its fullest potential is a great way for a business to reach out to new target markets and garner larger customer bases.

Just when you thought that the community networking thing may have completely reached its maximum threshold, Google social networking shows up at the party with a completely new project. Google has shown up at the party with a social networking site of its very own, one that is known as Orkut. Orkut may be a strange word, but it is appearing to be a serious contender when it comes to comparing Orkut to other social network websites on the internet.

Orkut has already gained a serious amount of popularity in Latin America and in Asia, and now it is beginning to make a splash in the United States as well. Google social networking is trying to become a very large giant online, and dominating the social networking market is one of the ways that this can be achieved. They want their own piece of a pie that MySpace and Facebook have been capitalizing on for a good long time. The following behind Orkut in China and Japan alone has tripled over the past year to include more than 11 million visitors in a single month.

Time is really going to have to tell when it comes to whether or not Google’s Orkut will get as big as the other social networking giants like Facebook and MySpace in the United States. What is known is that Google does have a good idea of what they are doing, and they have proven themselves to be strong players in a lot of very large markets.

If Google can figure out how to offer more than what the other social networking sites are offering, then they can certainly get in on the action that these other social networking sites are already capitalizing on. If you are not already using Orkut by Google, log into your Google account today and check it out. You are already halfway through the registration process if you have a Gmail account or another account with Google, so jump online and start putting your profile together today for Google Social Networking.

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