E-Commerce? What is it

 
We have received a number of questions regarding the promotion of electronic products. ranging from how to start, what to promote. Where to promote it, and to whom these promotions should be aimed at.
 
This is quite a wide range of areas, all of which will have a variety of answers. So what we intend to do, is describe the process we use to promote a product. After which we will produce a series of articles, where we use some of the products themselves. to illustrate various methods used to generate product awareness.
 
Firstly a few basic definition explanations may be called for.
 
E-Commerce, what is it?  Simply stated is the sale of  products or services online.
 
You can buy virtually anything online, but for the purposes of this series of articles.
The subject will be exclusively related to E-Products
 
E-Products: These are classified simply as electronic products or services.
They tend to be information products or services, which are downloadable in digital format via a website, or offered as part of a membership package via an exclusive web portal.
 
Promotion Methods
 
There are basically two methods of promotion for e-commerce products.
These are what we refer to a direct marketing. This is where The individual or company that created the product, market it themselves via their own outlets, be that website, specialized web pages, email, directed advertising etc.
 
The second method, is called Affiliate Marketing, and works thus. The individual or company that created a product.
Uses a strategy where other people do the promotion work for them. They essentially grant a license to these promoters to showcase the product. They pay a commission to the promoter for every lead that makes a purchase.
 
It has two advantages to the product owner, it allows them to focus on the product development. Plus saves valuable time and resources in setting up and testing for the marketing methods which will work best for their product.
 
Which  Method is better. Both work well, however, as a product developer the returns from Direct Marketing will be greater. If you already have a market base. Namely an email or webpage subscription list.  You can plan a marketing strategy based on the goodwill contained within your list.. Thus dispensing with the need to set up an affiliate program.
 
Affiliate marketing, because, your promoting another persons product.. You are effectively pointing or driving traffic to another organization/individuals page. You have no control over the marketing strategy of the product owner. Also Vendor changes can have a profound effect  on your promotion strategy. This makes it significantly more difficult  to generate income from this style of marketing.
 
Why use  affiliate marketing?  Most uses of  this method are where an affiliate product will add additional value to a content related site. As an example you run a website about a hobby interest,. This has content where the focus is on a specific fashion style.
 
You simply add links to your pages  which point to sites with related content and offers. For passing traffic to these sites. You will receive a commission on any sales generated. It's a way to effectively and easily monetize your site or blog.
 
 
Affiliate marketing has it's advantages over direct marketing. You are promoting  another persons product. You are pushing traffic in the form of leads to this persons page or site. that's it. You have no overheads in the form of promotion costs, website setup or even product generation and delivery.
 
Finally, by the very fact your promoting another persons product, unless it's very well known, or has a high turnover. Do not expect to generate a  massive income. The pure fact is, affiliate marketing is a long, slow and difficult process to master. However, when used in conjunction with other methods. It can work, above all please do not fall for the hype of instant riches.
 
That covers direct and affiliate marketing
 
For parts two three and four of this article

Direct Marketing

Subscription Lists

Link Building
 
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