Tweet

To Make Money OnlineStart By Giving Away The Farm Success Key Three

Written by: Teresa Bohannon

Article Overview: As I discussed in parts one and two. A friend who was interested in getting started online and finding stuff to sell asked me how to make money online. She was truly concerned about everything from the high prices of gas, to the upcoming election, to all of the financial failures making headlines this week. She started the conversation with, "I don't know what I would do if I lost my job." I knew exactly how she felt because I have "been there...done that" and so I spent about two hours telling her how to make money online. ...And it all starts and ends with the word "Free."

To Make Money OnlineStart By Giving Away The Farm Success Key Three

So the third key to making money on line is service before during and after the sale.

Quick, Friendly and Responsible Customer Service before, during and after the sale is every bit as essential online as it is in your brick and mortar local hometown business.

Responsive Customer Service is something that is sorely lacking online. I have several resale products that I offer whose product value is of unquestioned quality, but I dread having anything go wrong because dealing with the genius behind the product or their poor excuse for a support staff is a total nightmare. If I personally did not have the skill to handle most customer service issues myself, I would simply no longer offer these products. To me, it is not worth risking my reputation to rely on an unreliable service provider who does not live up to a decent standard of service provision.

The Internet is full of people that are old enough to know better and young ones that I (in my little old lady way) not-so-fondly refer to as techno-brats. They are thousands of products out there offered by brilliant freelance programmers, old direct marketing geniuses, and young computer whizzes who were skilled or smart enough to start and operate a business online, but arrogant or socially inept, or morally challenged enough to forget that any success they have depends in the long run on the good will of their customers. The kids you can almost understand, many of them are young and still learning. The older ones should know better, but surprisingly many either do not know or do not care; because unfortunately, the Internet also makes it very easy to shut down shop in one place one day, and reopen under another name the next day.

Think about it, how often have you waited days or weeks for an email response to a query that should have take an hour, or even 24 hours at the most. Good customer service may go unremarked, but it seldom goes unnoticed. The online retail giant Ebay, had to almost completely restructure the way they did business because of scam artists and people that just plain offered lousy customer service. Bad customer service is remembered and talked about...and online that can mean everything from a full blown “I hate So and So” website, to a disparaging blog post.

Unfortunately, these tactics can also be used to harm an innocent business by an competitor. In many ways the Internet is still everything I said it was nearly 14 years ago when naming my first online venture Spun Silk Web Design, in fact it probably more so.

Why Spun Silk?
"Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...Oh My...
Spiders, and Webs and Silks...Oh My"
...The Internet is in many ways, is not unlike the mythical Land of Oz, a strange and wondrous place filled with strange and wondrous sights...a place of beauty and adventure where good and evil abide. A place where chaos occasionally reigns supreme, and hopefully a place from which we all return safely and somewhat wiser for the experience....

Today it is actually probably more like the Wild West than Oz. On some days it seems like the White Hat Sheriffs are few and far between, and the Black Hat gunslingers are running rampant in the virtual streets.

So Good Customer service both before, during and after the sale is one thing you can do to stand out from the crowd. It is something that the legitimate—here to stay—online business entrepreneur cannot afford to ignore. My niche is Internet Marketing products for the beginner, and I cannot tell you the number of people who have written me and been absolutely amazed just to receive a response. As a result I have a more than a few loyal customers from several different countries who have come to trust me, and return to me again and again for their IM needs, or even just advice about other products from other online merchants. You can have that too, if you just remember that the person at the other end of that email or that chat dialog or contact form is every bit as important as they would be if they were standing across a display case, or sitting across a desk from you in your home town.

And that is what is truly, sorely lacking on the Internet. Quality and respectful human interaction. In a way that is what the Social 2.0 like Facebook and MySpace are all about. Back before there was an Internet there were dial-up computer bulletin boards systems(BBS)where people posted messages and information and other people responded to them. They operated a lot like the forums you see today. Facebook and MySpace are just teched up, colorfully illustrated versions of those same old BBS boards. People, finding ways to connect online.

One of the hottest touted technologies today is the wonders of audio and video—and admittedly that's cool—however the problem is they are simply jazzy forms of one-way communication, and the only way to truly build a lasting relationship with your customers is honest-to-goodness, good-old-fashioned two-way communication.

Of course, all of this assumes you have a product of your own to sell in the first place. If you do not have a product of your own, then you want to read my article on affiliate marketing, which teaches you how to use the word free and the "Giveaway The Farm" tactics to make money online, at very little or almost no overhead cost to yourself by selling someone else's product! Or you can read my article “Your Online Business-Multiple Streams of Income and Where To Get Them”


But... for the final part of the puzzle, see the last installment...
To Make Money Online...Start By Giving Away The Farm Real Life Examples

****
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to
be generous, frank and independent.
– W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915

Related Articles
  State Farm Insurance Company - Car Insurance Coverage
  Lesson #3: Be Efficient
  Rolling Into The World: Henry Ford Is Born
  Made in Missouri: James Cash Penney is Born
  How to Work Less and Get More Done

Article Tags: brats, brick and mortar, computer whizzes, customer service issues, direct marketing, ebay, email response, freelance programmers, good customer service, hometown business, little old lady, making money on line, marketing geniuses, poor excuse, resale products, responsible customer service, responsive customer service, service provision, unreliable service, young ones



Related Forum Posts
Re: What or Who Sparks Your Business Interest - It's interesting to see what the different motivations are by Age Category. I've noticed this around me: 20 to 29yr olds: Motivator: Money 30 to 39yr olds: Motivator: Success/Ambition 40 to 49yr olds: Motivator: Family comes first 50 to 59yr olds: Motivator: Leaving a legacy i've only gone that far in my analysis. Of course this is a braid generalization but I find that it helps direct my marketing to individuals in different age brackets. The product/service can be the same but the Marketing message (Benefit Statement) to a 20 year will revolve around "Money" vs. a 30-something would be on their "Self Image"
Re: SES Toronto Next Week - In that case, how about the following? Track: Get Me Up to Speed * State of Search Marketing in Canada Track: Practical & Actionable * Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions Track: Advanced * User Search Behavior * Social Media Success * Web 2.0 & Search Engines * Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
Re: Quote of the Day - "The only people witho - Thanks for sharing this Evan, there are some very powerful quotes in there, I particularly like this one:- You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. regards, Mal.
Body Farm? - [quote:10go0a4k]Dr Bill Bass of the University of Tennessee Body Farm.[/quote:10go0a4k] I'm almost afraid to ask what this is?
Re: Which would you start: a Blog or Online Community? - It is a difficult decision to make. Lets start it this way - What are you more interested in? Money? or Friends? or Both? If its purely Money, then Blog might be an appropriate answer. But consider this - It will be people (visitors) that will bring traffic to your blog and then Money will follow. This will be possible after a time and during this time it will be your friends who will be the starters. If you are looking for friends only, then its true that not many will be interested in knowing how you have beaten them in the game or the other way round. So it will be preferable to have a Forum where they can share ideas with you and others. But you can share your insider knowledge with them and invite comments from your Blog. You can also put up information on what others (including your friends) don't know about Tennis. The blog you create can provide News, Inside Information and also Techniques that can be used by the new entrants in the world of Tennis.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Winning Market Share in a Tough Economy

Ten Reasons to take Notes during Sales Meetings

Join Conversations Politely, Part 1

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.