8 Advance Tips to Grow Your Online Business in 2010

We have talked enormously about how to set up an online business (selling service or products) and improve it consistently in the past years. However, many of our customers and readers are advanced – technologically, mentally, psychologically, commercially, and in many other ways that are impossible to gauge.

There are countless websites, blogs, and online businesses today on the web. However, if we don’t ensure that we are at par with the 2010 standards, it quite useless to expect something great of our business. This advanced world demands advanced methods to survive the competition and ever-changing trends.

Here is a comprehensive list of things you need to ensure your website has, if you intend to boost your business, in 2010 –

1. Make regular use of Videos

   I admit I haven’t used this tool till date. Frankly because I wasn’t aware about the power it holds in augmenting a business today. Say, you have a travel blog and instead of explaining every minute detail about a place, you can supplement it with a video of that place. It’s perfectly okay if you don’t have your own video. Find it on any of the search engines and I am sure you will get video for about everything on earth.

   Not only travel or health blogs, this goes for every kind of online business. If you aren’t using this tool, you aren’t utilizing much of the facilities internet has to offer. Make your own videos with tools like Windows Movie Maker or any other software and start uploading frequently. People love video. More importantly, Google loves videos. Be prepared to receive double traffic, if you website has helpful videos.

2. Be Unique; stand out from the crowd

   This point have been discussed over and over again by every blogging expert and it will remain a priority even in 2050 or 2500. Yet we see boring blogs and tedious affiliate marketing sites everywhere. It’s simple. Why would people be attracted to your website, if there are 50,000 other sites offering same service or product in a similar way?

   Make the offer tempting and irresistible in a unique, original way. If you are writing a blog, develop a Unique Selling Point (USP). Have a unique name, unique logo, unique punch line; make everything unique. Check out the top performing websites and list down what’s good and what’s not. Now start thinking how you can beat those sites. Yes, you have to do this. The competition is tougher, tougher than ever.

3. Increased use of Social Media Tools

   

   The year 2009 witnessed astonishing blend of internet and social media tools. Anything and everything is being linked with the social media. So, it’s obvious and commonsensical that the dependency and usage of social media tools will increase rapidly in 2010. Here’s the bottom line: if you aren’t making much use of these tools, either wind up your business or start using it today.

   Use tools like facebook, twitter, dig, etc to expand the availability of your business. Constantly update your facebook page; answer all the questions on linkedin, create your communities; establish yourself on twitter and tweet frequently about new products, news, information, etc. If you have decided to run a business, become an expert in it.

4. Your readers and customers is your priority

   Every business on earth thrives on customer service and customer relation. You’re your readers/customers are happy, they are the most effective source of advertisement available today. However, for this to happen, you need to take little pains. Have a very close and personal relation with every customer. For those who don’t have time for this, forget about success.

   Try to find how you ca improve your service or product with their comments, suggestions, and feedback. Have good email etiquette and reply to all queries, appreciations, suggestions, etc. use Google alerts to know customer views about your business. Retain existing customers and attract huge new traffic by only one tool: extremely excellent customer service. Ask yourself: Don’t you like buy from a store where every sales person knows your name and shopping habits? Everyone loves it. Treat them like KINGS.

5. Let everyone know about you and your business

   

   If you are involved into something, do it wholeheartedly or simply quit. What’s the use of having a site that known to only few of readers, most of them being your friends and relatives?

   Promote! Advertise! Endorse! Let the world know about your website. Make sure to use every possible tool on internet to promote your business. Have your presence everywhere on the internet, yellow pages, directories, guides, indexes, and search engines. Be a part of forum discussions, press releases, write classified ads, targeted lists, and every other source. If you are wealthy enough to afford offline advertisements involve in sending mails, posters, business cards, etc.

6. Wiki it

   Millions of internet users use wikipedia to avail information about everything on earth because they consider it as a reliable source of information. Here is how you can use it to promote your business. Write a short description about your product, service or business or hire some professional writer to draft it and post it in wikipedia. Search engines especially Google love wikipedia. This source can help you spread your business quicker than wild fire because it has excellent page rank. Remember, there are over 685 million wiki visitors. Do you know any market bigger than this to promote your site?

7. Stay alert with media, stay ahead of your competition

   Be alert. Know everything about your business, industry, competitors, and target audience. Sing up for Google alerts, read news articles, explore details and be well-informed. Read news articles regularly, trace them and contact the mead reporters who are always searching stories for their next article. Similarly, get connected with the fellow bloggers and promote your business.

   If you are successful finding a reporter, send out press releases every month. However, make sure make sure it has something useful and you have drafted it properly. These press releases form an amazing source of promotion and trustworthiness among readers.

8. Target, Monetize and Improve

   Target the right market, monetize your website effectively, and improve to generate more value. This isn’t 2010 specific. If your business lasts till 2100, it will still be a significant and constructive point. It’s important to get traffic to your website. However, it worthless if the type of traffic attracted isn’t what you are looking for. Get the right kind of audience and you are sure to succeed, even if you don’t have a great product or service to offer. That’s monetizing your site.

   Lastly, all the stuffs mention here is nothing but an improvement. Your focus should always be how you can improve the service quality, provide better and variety of products, improve overall designs. If you look at your website, even today, you will find every corner needs an improvement, in order to achieve perfection.

Irrespective of the year or century you are in, things are changing everyday, every hour, and every minute. This world, especially internet has developed into a place that needs constant modification, value addition, and commitment to survive and be on the top. Have you done the necessary changes? Are you advanced than the others?