CyberMalls: 7 Criteria for Selecting a Successful Provider
by Jeffrey Spencer
Cybermalls or Internet shopping centers are collections of commercial
Web sites on the Internet. The idea is that mall merchants benefit from
the promotional efforts of the mall owner to get traffic to their home
page.
I find a lot of people are unsure about what makes a good mall if they
are considering putting their storefront in one. You have to be careful
because there are literally thousands of malls. Most are absolutely
worthless — they draw close to zero traffic!
Before getting a Web site (or a "link" for an existing site) in any
cybermall, you should verify the following information:
1. On and Offline Promotion.
Most malls are only promoted via search engines and random links and
banners. Successful malls know that an offline promotion component is
very essential. Ask specifically how the mall is promoted.
2. Verifiable Traffic.
Find out how many visitors are visiting the mall's home page each month.
The number of "hits" can be an extremely misleading statistic. Every
server seems to count them in a different way. Your concern should be
the number of people visiting the home page. These represent potential
buyers.
3. Promotional Efforts Attract Shoppers (i.e. buyers).
You are paying the mall for the type of traffic they are drawing to
their site. You want this to be shoppers, and if possible, representing
the demographics of your typical buyer. Most mall owners spend all their
promotional efforts on attracting mall merchants. These people are not
buyers — they're merely checking out the mall to make an informed buying
decision. Ask what type of ads they place and where.
4. Secure Credit Card Transactions.
This is imperative to put your buying customer's security at ease. With
out it, your sales potential is dramatically impaired.
5. Don't Overpay for Traffic.
You're paying for expected traffic to your site. Make sure you're not
paying too much in relation to the traffic you think you will get.
6. Theme or Categories Offered.
If a mall's promotional efforts tend to attract business owners, it
makes sense that you should offer something that business owners want.
Check out the categories in the mall. Do any fit your business? Are
there several stores in that category? If not, you may be placing your
site in a mall with the wrong demographics.
7. Reasonable Charges for Changes.
Anybody knows that a successful Web site needs constantly changing
information. That's one strategy to turn visitors into lifetime
relationships. Check into the fees for making changes to your site. If
it's too much, you may be spending too much on "change" fees. Better
yet, see if you can make the changes yourself and upload HTML files to
their server with an FTP utility. HBM
Jeffrey Spencer is the publisher of the nationally recognized newsletter
"Internet Profits!" and author of dozens of internationally published
articles. Send any e-mail for FREE information on his new, controversial
Internet marketing home-study course at mailto:ssip3@infoback.net.
Subscribe to his FREE "Weekly Success Tip" e-mail newsletter by sending
e-mail to mailto:wstsub@ix.netcom.com or visiting his Web site at
http://www.choicemall.com/successstyles.
Originally Published at http://www.homebusinessmag.com/
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