Keep An Eye On The Big Guys...
If there's something you've got to keep an eye on on the internet, it's the big guys. Their movements have ripples that reach to every corner. When Amazon thought of the idea of having other sites reselling their products, they changed internet direct marketing forever. Some caught the wave and surfed to the top, others are still wondering what went wrong.
There are some ripples being made as we speak. eBay in planning to gobble up Shopping.com with classifieds becoming a strong point in the eBay strategy. And with this new acquisition, millions of customers will certainly buy or sell through eBay. If you buy or sell on the internet, you have to watch eBay... great for price reference; many websites owe their entire income to eBay. If you're not one of them, you should give this some consideration. It seems the "eBay way" is here to stay with their endless online promotion. Many people don't even own a website and thanks to this way of selling, they are making pretty good money from their homes.
Have you been tweaking and putting more and more gizmos onto your site? Well, sometimes you'll have a better response if you do exactly the opposite. Any marketing expert will tell you that your site must look professional but plain -- and this is what European mobile phone companies are doing and making big profits in the process! What's chic now is low-tech cellphones targeted for people who want to use their phones to... yes, you guessed it -- talk! That's right -- there are a lot of people who don't care about all the new features the new cellphones have and they're trading in their hi-tech toys for simple-to-use devices. This "just in" from Current Analysis Inc. And this is great news because I have a whole drawer filled with old brick cellphones... finally my ecological conscience will pay off -- maybe an auction on eBay... :)
Skype is also making quite a big of a hype, becoming the popular choice of millions. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is sure to be involved in a lot of online businesses. The visitors will now not only type questions, they will ask them verbally and listen to a human respond to their questions -- making the internet much warmer.
PayPal has reduced the the payment regulations; this will be big for all those web businesses that see the large opportunity of allowing visitors small payments. Ringtones, music downloads, articles with valuable content, greeting cards, pictures, donations, etc. You name it, it can now be sold. And who could refuse to give just some measly pennies? Micropayments can become a big source of income, especially if your website receives a lot of visitors that you have not figured out how to turn into buyers. If you think this is a good idea you can profit from, then why don't you chip in a couple of dollars after reading this article? ;)