Online Business Adviser

The Forum For Online Business Success

A few weeks ago I wrote about how you position your business to place you ahead of your competitors, using the coffee shop in my office foyer as an example.

Today, I noticed something else they are doing that puts them ahead of the competiton. Pre-paid coffee cards.

Nothing fancy, just a regular coffee loyalty card except this one is pre-paid for 10 coffees. Why is this brilliant? Well for one – the nearest ATM to work is about a 10 minute walk, or you can get cash out from the supermarket that is about 5 minutes away, but need to spend at least $10 in store to do so.  Read more...

If you are one of the many businesses that have decided to create an online sales channel, there is a good chance that you are already operating a bricks and mortar business. If you do, you need to make sure that your online experience extends your business and doesn’t just duplicate it.

Think about it - the experience of a physical store is pretty basic. Products are lined on shelves, register at the front. People come in, browse around, perhaps buy something and then leave.  Read more...

My collection - yes, I'm a fan

Paid versus free content is really under the spotlight at the moment, and I wanted to take a look at one of the most successful brands of recent years and demonstrate how providing information and services at no charge can lead to revenue and more on the back end. This is a post that I have been wanting to write for a while, but with a TV show on air in a couple of weeks, it is timely.

Since being discovered on a TV show, Jamie Oliver has become one of the most successful brands of the last decade. I am a huge fan of everything he does in both cooking and business. Notice I said brand, not chef. Sure he deals with food, but Oliver’s real business? Education. His positioning? Simplicity. The Naked Chef moniker of his early days was derived from the simplicity and accessibility of his food, that you can create something great without too much fuss.  Read more...

In business, there are measures of success, most of them around actual sales numbers. In online, there are so many measurements for the way people interact with your site that often times you can be bogged down in numbers and lose sight of those that are actually important to your business. So how do you work out and focus on those measures that actually matter?

Ideally, start at the end and take one step back.

What does success look like for your business? Is it sales? If so, revenue is obviously a key metric. Perhaps equally though, if not more important, is the number of people actually visiting the page BEFORE they commit to purchase. How many people get to that point and change their mind? If this number is too high, then you have a problem with how that page is set up.  Read more...

To call this post “What’s In a Name?” would have been too easy. But to answer the question – lots. A bad name can negatively affect

My "collector's item"

perception of your product even if the product itself is good.

Just ask Kraft. By way of context, particularly for my international readers, over the last 6 months Kraft has been looking for a name for their new type of Vegemite. Vegemite is a yeast extract spread that is thick, dark brown and has a tar like consistency. It’s fantastic on toast and has been and Australian icon since it’s creation in 1922. Back in June Kraft released a new version, mixed with cream cheese to make it easier to spread, and has sat on shelves with a label reading “name me”. After a public competition to pick the new name, they settled on iSnack 2.0. The backlash from the Australian public was incredible, and only days after (but not before rebranding 500,000 jars), they announced plans to dump the new name and open up a public vote on 6 of the more “tame” suggestions.  Read more...