Over the past few months I’ve received tips, ideas and advice from many people and places. I’ve compiled much of that information below for easy access. While I can’t give credit for each specific item, if you see your idea in the list, thank you for taking time to send it in.

Marketing Ideas

• Focus on a niche market rather than targeting the masses. Offer content relevant to your niche and give your customers multiple reasons to visit your site. Use niche-specific keywords to drive traffic.

Example: My reseller storefront is www.domain-horse.com (This web site is no longer available on the Internet). I’m catering to people who have horses. I offer a link to my blog where I tell my horse stories and show pictures of my horses, and where people can respond with their own stories. I offer a link to a list of horse clinics in my area. I also offer links to other horse-related Web sites. Some of my keywords are horse, horse clinics, horse links, etc.

• If you are using a search marketing advertising program, write your ads carefully. Read the Writing… Marketing Style article in this blog, read the Help sections for your specific ad program and follow their advice, research what words and phrases other top-ranking sites are using and read books on writing effective advertising. (Check out books written by Herschell Gordon Lewis.*) Learn the most effective ways to communicate your message.
  
• Create business cards and market to local businesses. Send out an offer that includes an available domain name for a business. (If .com isn’t available, try .biz or another extension; or offer a creative twist on the business name). Include additional products with an explanation of how these products work and why they make good business sense. Offer to meet with the business owner to discuss opportunities in person. Be there for the business owner by offering advice and guidance every step of the way.
  
• Look for low-cost affiliate programs to join. Pay other web sites a small commission to bring you sales.
  
• Use your free Express Email Marketing® account to market sales, special promos and new products to your existing customers. Remember the 80/20 rule – 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers. Market to them!
   

Running Your Business

• You don’t necessarily need to have the lowest prices to get sales. If your margin (difference between list price and wholesale) is higher, you can sell less volume and still make the same commission. You niche market audience will be willing to pay more for a domain sold by ‘one of their own.’ Use personal service and value-added content to justify a higher price point.
   
• It’s better to lower your prices than raise them. If you’re concerned about the correct starting price point, begin high. You can always lower the price later if necessary.
   
• Test, test, test... home page layout, search advertising copy, pricing, sales and promotions, product copy, etc. Measure your sales and traffic for each test period, compare the results and make decisions based on those results.
   

Search Engine Registration and Optimization

• Use your free Traffic Blazer® account to optimize custom pages for search engine registration.
• You must have custom pages with unique content. Content is KING! Create a custom home page and custom product pages. Use the source code from the template pages for ‘Buy Now’ button functionality and to keep your navigation consistent.
• Use misspellings as keywords – “doamin”.
• Use your niche keywords – “horse.”
• Use keywords in anchor text.
• Update your content as often as you can – daily, weekly.
• RSS feeds count toward content. Find relevant RSS feeds and add them to your site content.
• Link popularity will help with rankings. Use link exchange programs as a start.
• Use keywords in your title tags.

Examples and Links

• www.shareasale.com – ShareASale affiliate programs.
• www.miva.com – Miva PPC advertising program.
• www.advancedwebranking.com - Advanced Web Ranking shows where your storefront ranks with the competition.
• www.ExactSeek.com – search engine advertising.
• www.howtobeareseller.com – eBook on being a successful reseller
• www.page-zero.com – Online Marketing Services
• www.marketingsherpa.com – Online Marketing Services
• http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion - Overture® search keyword tool.
• https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - Google® Search Keyword tool
• http://www.google.com/analytics/cu/cv_tips_for_writing.html - Google®’s Tips for writing marketing copy.
• http://www.google.com/analytics/cu/cv_preaching_to_converted.html - Google®’s Tips for Creating Online Customer Loyalty

*We are providing this information as a convenience to you, but do not recommend or endorse any of the specific programs or companies listed.

I hope you find information within this article you can use to improve your reseller business. If you’re just getting started, don’t be overwhelmed. Just pick one or two ideas and work those. Once you’ve mastered them, or tossed them out, you can try a couple more.

Please feel free to use the Comments feature to add more tips and ideas as you discover them. Together, we can all be successful!

As always, I wish you success and sales!

Stace