Secrets to Online Selling

Ihsan Magazine - Every day someone wakes up and decides I will make money by selling stuff online. And every day someone quits the process saying that it is just too tough. Many of those who sell goods and services online are freelancers.

The truth is that selling online is just as easy or difficult as selling in the real world. If you are a lousy salesperson in the real world, there is a good chance that you will remain a lousy salesperson in the virtual world.

It is easier to set up a website as compared to setting up a real physical store and that is the only reason that people get deluded into believing that it is easy to sell online. All the other skills that you need to sell in a physical store are still needed even if they are in a somewhat modified form. That is why if you are selling anything you need to have the attitude of a salesman. It does not matter if you are selling online or offline.

Here are some secrets about selling goods and services online for freelancers.

Don’t Give Up Half Way to the Finish Line

It is not rocket science to be sure, but it is not a snap of the fingers either. It is more of hard work and commitment. There is more to being successful online than merely having a good website offering what you think are interesting products and services.

A whole lot of research goes into the generation of sales for a product. You need to do your market research well and address the needs and concerns of your clients if you intend to make repeat sales online. Then you need to keep making some adjustments to the system once it begins to work to keep improving it.

Think of an online business not in terms of a short cut to major money, but as a regular job at which you have to work in order to earn money. Just as you do not expect a fruit to burst forth from a seedling that you planted yesterday, you should not expect a fledgling website to return billions of dollars worth of sales within a week or a month.

It takes time to learn the ropes of selling online such as website promotion and marketing. Then it takes effort to translate what you have learned into profits from an online business. So give it the respect it deserves and work towards making it a success.

Ask Yourself Would You Buy from Your Website?

One of the easiest ways to gain perspective on website sales is to study it from the eyes of a buyer.

Since most of us do not have great programming skills we tend to be influenced by the person who is developing the site for us. However, you do not have to accept all that they say lying down. It is your site and you have the final say. Have your website designers done a good job?

Try and be objective when you visit your own website. I know from personal experience that this can be very difficult to do since you are so close to the project and emotionally attached to it.

Still it is in the best interests of your business for you to try to see it from the eyes of a stranger. Think of yourself as a total stranger who just happens to come across your website from the search engine result page. Do you get the right impression when you reach the site?

Think of what the stranger will be looking for in the first five second scan before he heads out to try another website. Will the first look at your website instill confidence in your product and will the stranger like what he sees enough to make a purchase?

Think Like Your Client and See What Comes to Mind

If you think like a buyer, you will automatically think of what you need to add to the site to sell the product. There are web design companies that claim to know all about website marketing, but do they know the basic psyche of your average customer?

No they don’t. They do some research to see the demographic of the typical client and then base their work on that. You, on the other hand, have had personal experience with selling your product to real people.

You have addressed their concerns and heard their questions. What is more important is that you have the right answers. That is why your input in the website is invaluable. You need to think like the person who buys from you before you can get the right elements on the website. What will that person like to know? What are the usual questions that you get asked? If you can connect with that person and get them to consider the sale, you are on the right track!

Your Turn

These are just a few of the secrets to selling your freelancing services or products through your website.