Searching for Sales Online

Every week I share a few web business tips in my newsletter, the SistaSense Challenge (www.sistasense.com). I wanted to share my latest post with you.

This month in my web coaching program I am talking about ‘Building Real Relationships Online: Get In the Door and Make the Sale’. Whether you are one of my web coaching members or not, I wanted to share some of my tips with you so that you can understand the importance of building online relationships. The reality is that web shops are not brick and mortar locations; people can’t stop by and see what they are buying. That is why you must develop a strong sense of trust among yourself and your online audience.

Making Sales Online is a big challenge, especially if your online visibility is low. Now if that is the case for you, you might have to start aggressively searching for sales. In other words, making more effort to seek out people who might be potential customers because if they can’t find you then you have to make go out and find them.

When I just started building my business online the first thing I did was try to find business. I went to classified sites, directories, and forums where people were looking for my services. I found several of my firsts clients just by browsing craigslists and making local connections.

One way to market yourself and build a customer base online is to go where your customers are. If you can answer their questions and meet their needs, you can build your business.

Here are several places online where you can find potential customers:

Free Classifieds Directories
• Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org
• Local: http://www.local.com
• Click here to view full list

Freelance Jobs
• eLance: http://www.elance.com
• All Freelance Work: http://www.allfreelancework.com
• Freelance Writing Gigs: http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com
• Click here to view all

These sites are featured in my e-book, The Web Entrepreneur’s Back Pack.

Additional quick tip:
I also like to search for questions online from people in my area of interest. For example if you are selling wedding dresses, I would go to Google and type in “Where can I find Wedding Dresses?” or “I’m looking for wedding dresses in (location)” or “Who carries the best wedding dresses?”. When you search for things that your customers might search for you can find them on forums worth joining or websites worth marketing on.

To join my web coaching program for entrepreneurs click here: http://workandwebwomen.com/join/.

Lashanda Henry