The Essential Online Solution: The 5-Step Formula for Small Business Success

Praise for The Essential Online Solution

"Turn your small business online opportunities from mystery to mastery by reading this book, and putting the steps into action."
—Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Little Red Book of Selling

"The Internet has made operating a successful small business easier than ever before, but it still takes entrepreneurial drive, an ambitious spirit, and careful planning to pull it all off. This book shares useful insights, potential pitfalls, and efficient stepping stones to making your online business goals come to fruition."
—Nido Qubein, President, High Point University, Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Co.

In The Essential Online Solution, industry experts Rick Segel and Barbara Callan-Bogia provide you with a formula for small business success that begins with the Internet. Filled with in-depth insight and practical advice, this book discusses the important elements of e-commerce and pinpoints the strategies and ideas that have proven most profitable and successful.

The five essential steps covered within these pages will open your eyes to a new way of doing business in today's dynamic environment and give you an edge over the competition.

This information-packed guide will help you:

• Understand the past, present, and future of online business
• Uncover some of the Web's best marketing tools—tools that create a community of fanatic followers, increase your Web activity, and cost nothing
• Design and position your Web site for maximum effectiveness
• Start and create a viable auction business
• And much more

Straightforward and to the point, The Essential Online Solution contains lessons and information—all of which come from discussions with small business owners on the front lines—that can help any small business survive and thrive in today's competitive business environment.

 

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.

Step I: Uncovering the Possibilities.

2 Online Business Solutions.

Where Are We At? Understanding the Past, Present, and Future of Online Business.

3 Why Do People Buy Online?

What Motivates Them?

4 The Big Picture.

The Levels of Online Commerce.

Step II: Building Practical, Powerful, Professional Web Sites that WORK.

5 Understanding Web Sites.

The Front Door to Your Online Business.

6 Our Rules for Killer Sites.

7 Building Your Web Site.

It’s Easier than You Think.

8 The Winners and Losers.

Web Site Critiques of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Step III: Positioning You as the Source: Creating Expert Status.

9 E-mail Marketing or Is It Pinpoint Marketing?

10 The Blog.

The Tool that Can Change Your Business.

11 Podcasting.

The Sweet Sounds of Success.

Step IV: Creating the Buzz with Clicks and Clends.

12 Web Positioning.

How Do They Find You?

13 Pay Per Click: A.K.A. Pay for Performance.

A New Way to Advertise.

14 Advertising.

Traditional and Nontraditional.

15 Viral Marketing.

Step V: Sell, Sell, Sell.

16 Going, Going, Gone—eBay and Online Auctions.

Are They Right for You?

17 Sell for Me.

Affiliate Programs Get You on the Map.

18 Bringing It All Together.

Index.