| LED Digest 1977: Building Relationships |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. June 2, 2005 Issue #1977 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Cancelled Orders ==-- ~ Jonathan Webb "...fewer will steal from a private individual..." ~ Ron Coble "I do not know if Corey Rudl's Ebook Pro would work...?" ~ Todd Sumrall "The new compliance standards affect merchants doing 20,000 or more..." ~ Roberta Peters "Success with your online business is all about building relationships." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Dropped off Google ==-- ~ Rhoda Schueller ~ Jenny Halasz ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Jonathan C K Webb Subject: Cancelled orders > Recently, orders from my website have been getting > cancelled and refunds requested... I sell digital content > that is sent to the customer on CD-ROM. - George Oliver, LED 1974 Here is my tip, its not a cure but it helps; Many people are happy to steal from an anonymous website but fewer will steal from a private individual. I have started to change many of the "we's" on my website to "I's" and am slowly emphasising it as a one man business. Most pages aren't changed yet but it will be done eventually. The other thing I do is send clearly hand written emails to each and every client so they know they are buying from a single human being not just a computer. For example on receipt of an order I often write; ------------------ "Many thanks for your order for this picture (link to picture) I will take it down to the lab today so it should be in the post later this week. Thanks and regards, Jonathan Webb" ------------------ Then later I send them an email when it is dispatched; ------------------ "Just to let you know I posted your picture today so you should have it in the next couple of days. I wrapped it in enough bubble wrap to wrap my house so it should be postman proof :o) I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed taking it, thanks and regards, Jonathan" ------------------ Note That by the signature -- the first included my surname to re enforce that I am the business owner and the second is just my first names because they are now a friend... and you don't steal from friends do you. Note also I frequently throw in smiles which is very non professional but works well in my niche as eccentric one man aerial photographer. Sometimes I also write "it is fragile so let me know if its damaged in the post, I can always hand deliver one myself as I'm often in (your town)" I don't sell many pictures, one or two a week, but so far I haven't had a charge back at all. I hope this idea is of use. Regards, Jonathan Webb www.webbaviation.co.uk -------- new post - same topic ------- From: Ron Coble Subject: Cancelled orders I do not know if Corey Rudl's Ebook Pro program would work with CD Roms or not? My "very" basic understanding of this program is that it allows the publisher to control access to the content via a password. The unique thing that I found most interesting about it was how you (the publisher) can actually turn the password off if you receive a chargeback or request for refund. I have not purchased the program but had read up on it quite extensively about a year or two ago as a possible solution for another business we work with who was having chargeback problems. After researching the program I decided that if I ever create a saleable ebook that this would be the system I would go with because if the information is valuable to the buyer and they are informed that upon refund they will lose access or because they have placed a chargeback you have cancelled their access, it would eliminate many of these situations. Ron Coble Import-Export International Business Help Center http://www.importexporthelp.com -------- new post - same topic ------- From: Todd Sumrall Subject: Cancelled orders > Anyone looked very deeply into the Payment Card Industry Data > Security Standard which takes effect at the end of next month? - Dave Starr, LED 1976 The new compliance standards affect only merchants doing 20,000 or more transactions annually. This is the number of transactions and not the dollar amount. It is recommended that merchants doing less than 20,000 transactions do the self assessment and network scan, but is only a recommendation. The exception is if the merchant has ever been hacked and had card holder info stolen. This only applies if the merchant maintains an online database of the transactions. Merchants doing this many transactions annually most likely would be better off with their own merchant account rather than a 3rd party simply because of the difference in card fees. More can be read at visa.com on the various merchant levels and compliance standards. Merchants doing 20,000 transactions up to 6 million transactions are required to do the self assessment and network scan on a quarterly basis. Merchants doing over 6 million transactions will need and onsite audit and this applies to any merchant Visa feels should have the audit as well. Transaction volume and not dollar amount determines the merchant level. The network scan tries to penetrate your online database for security leaks. Todd Sumrall http://totalprocessing.com -------- new post - same topic ------- From: Roberta Peters Subject: Cancelled Orders > I'd like to ask the LED list for advice and or tips as to > how I should best go about thwarting this process > of cancelling an order and issuing refunds. - George Oliver, LED 1975 George, from what I can tell, that issue can be huge, but is a very tight function of how you relate to your clients / customers. I'm studying this Internet marketing thing very closely this year, and over and over, I read the same thing: Success with your online business is all about building relationships. If you sell a product (digital or hard goods), and you don't follow up after the sale, you lose that relationship. In fact, many marketers say, and teach, that the initial sale is just a beginning. You MUST keep them under your wing somehow to continue selling to them again and again. This is called "back end sales," and that is where the real money is. You can experiment with follow-up methods, such as sending them a newsletter, bonus offers and/or gifts, but at the VERY least, send a welcome letter thanking them for the purchase. Then, several days later, send a follow-up inquiry to see how they are doing with the product. Are they having any problems loading it, installing it, using it? Have they even opened the box or file? Do they need any help doing this? Basically, it's all about gaining the customers' trust. If they are cancelling, they have lost their trust somewhere. You need to locate the point in the purchase process where that happened. We've all heard of buyers' remorse, right? That's when people go, oh darn, I shouldn't have spent that money. Guess I'll just send this widget back. It's during this remorse time you need to be supporting the customer, making them glad they bought your product. Give them the relief they need. Congratulate them for buying the product. This shows them how smart they are to have bought it. Point out how glad they are by now, now that they are using your product. Give them something specific to look for with the product. Like, have you seen page 46 yet? Give them ideas on how to get the most out of the product. And don't forget about snail mail. Drop them a post card now and then with some of these messages, too. You want to keep your name in front of them as frequently as possible without looking like a pest. But if they are being complimented and getting useful info about using the product, it's hard to see that as pestering. Besides, they can always opt off your list. Oh, you do have a list, right? Good luck on cracking the marketing code! Roberta Peters ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Rhoda Schueller Subject: Google dropped > My website [webbaviation.co.uk] has just plunged > in Google listings so low its useless. I guess we have > another Google dance and my site appears to be penalised... - Jonathan Webb, LED 1976 Hi Jonathan, I sympathize with you on your Google problems. Google is currently in the middle of an update I've been watching for over two weeks now. I found a post about this update at: (Google Update Bourbon Not Over Yet) http://www.markcarey.com/googleguy-says/ What your site seems to be suffering from is duplicate content. You have 14,000 pages under this address: www.webbaviation.co.uk/ Checking this address: www.webbaviation.plus.com .. shows just over 500 pages. I'm assuming Google sees these as duplicates. I know you have put information on the page telling visitors where to go, etc. but when I looked at a few of the cached pages the redirect information does not show. For the most part the cached page shows the old page structure. The pages are supplemental and as such have old dates of fall 2004 on them. Once a page becomes a supplemental page it never seems to get spidered again. Thus, it is still possible Google sees the content as duplication. Google hates duplication. This update really indicates this. What you need to do is remove the pages from where ever you have them. Then set up a 301 redirect from the www.webbaviation.plus.com name to the www.webbaviation.co.uk name. You should be able to do this on the www.webbaviation.co.uk site. There are different ways to do this depending on the type of server. If you have any questions, check with your tech support. To get Google to see the pages from the .plus.com site for spidering you could put a site map of the links together and place the page temporarily on another site, if you have one, or access to one. This way Googlebot could find the page and follow the links to the new site where it will see the real address is the .co.uk because of the 301. I assume the page on one site is the same as the page on the other site so this would work. It might not if you've changed a file name on the new site so it's now different from the name on the old site. After you've done this you need to have some patience while Google sorts through this and finishes their current update. Your site may not bounce back until the next update, if this is the only problem. Rhoda Schueller, Instructor rhoda, searchengineworkshops.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Jenny Halasz Subject: Google dropped Hi Jonathan, You're absolutely right, the old redirects are what are causing this. Because your old pages are redirected with a 302 (Temporary) redirect, Google won't update your old pages. What you need to do to fix this is place a 301 redirect on every page of your old site (or just a site wide redirect, depending on your server config) and make that 301 redirect go to the new site. Essentially, you need to make the old site obsolete -- don't let any of the old pages resolve -- but redirect them all with a 301 (Permanent) redirect to the new site. Google will update their index in about 2-3 weeks and then you'll be back in the rankings. Jenny Halasz www.websourced.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." - Plutarch |
