The Internet is a very unique informational format. Used for obtaining information on almost any and all subjects, small business, big business and anything in between. It is a given that learning how to do business on the Internet is tricky and exciting all at the same time. But women and men utilize it differently and as you would expect fulfilling their desires.
According to several surveys taken most Men go online to surf from site to site and hope to run into something that will interest them and most never stop to really look at things unless it catches their eye, just as they do with the television remote and women
Women on the other hand tend to use the internet differently than men do – the average women goes online for a specific purpose, researches 4 topics per session, and prefers to use well organized, easy to navigate directories as opposed to general “surfing.”
Women comprise 45% of all Internet users (Jupiter) Women control or influence over 80% of all purchase decisions (Ad Age) Women will account for almost 50% of all online sales in the year 2000 (Jupiter)
So your website must be an eye catcher with something of interest for the men and organized easy to navigate for women. If both those things are missing from you website you are probably missing out on sales! For that woman or man doing business on the Internet both of these are of utmost importance if they are to handle the amount of customers online with efficiency, speed and professionalism.
The first rule of business – as agreed on by all Internet gurus – is your very own Domain name – a must in the Internet climate. The free websites are given away in order to blast each and every visitor to that site with advertising from the person giving away the website. Why would you deliberately advertise someone elses business before your own? Well sometimes it may be a necessity to get you up and going but it will result in a very slow start for the most part.
The second rule – the software to automatically handle each and every request of information and send out free articles or answer request is an imperative need and not one that advertises another company/person! Sure there are free autoresponders out there but again I repeat, they splash advertising for the person giving the autoresponder away. A fast way to build their business, not yours! Both men and women agree on this point. Dont advertise someone elses business unless you have forever to become successful and make money.
Men and women have different tastes in newsletters and ezines also, unless that particular man or woman is an Ecommerce person then the differences becomes a bit fuzzy and less different. The largest amount of business done on the Internet is geared to people looking for Internet start ups or business information on building a business and ezines and newsletters are one of the largest draws of information and advertising to the masses.
Another area that men and women are closer together in their thinking is that a web site must – GET THE ORDER – GET THE SUBSCRIBER – GET THE LEAD. These three things should be the top priority on your web site. If you do not have them in plain view, easy to read and ambulate through, youre dead (figuratively speaking). Studies confirm that it takes a minimum of seven times for someone to be exposed to your product/service before they will buy on the Internet or offline.
One of the key elements of reaching potential clients or customers is with an ezine or newsletter from you and only you with your offers and business information. Without the proper distribution listserver you probably will not sell the people you wish to sell. Yes egroups, listbot and others will distribute your ezine/newsletter but if you have noticed the very first and last thing your subscriber sees is advertising from them, not your ad but theirs. Doesnt it make sense to have your own advertising appear at the top?
So put the money into purchasing your very own list server for a faster approach at getting your name and company out there.
Traffic is something else that Internet businessmen and women agree on, without it you have a web site in the Sahara Desert and nobody sees it. Drifting along with the sand by the winds of chance! You can spend hours and hours of your time and try to draw business to your web site by submitting to the Search Engines, free classified sites, FFA sites, newsgroups, chats and so on. But the truth of the matter is its going to take you an awful long time to draw sufficient traffic to your site so be prepared for that! Or you can buy email lists, expensive, yes they call them email lists but the truth is they are nothing more than SPAM to people who have not requested YOUR information.
I have found an associate who will feed me traffic at very little cost to me and in most cases no cost to me. I have more than a thousand visitors daily to my site without all the spam emails. Hopefully you will be equally as fortunate.
So you need a website that is of interest to both men and women entrepreneurs unless you are willing to settle for only 45% of the business you could have. My Internet Real Estate Franchise is an example of gender friendly I believe http://www.envirodocs.com Herein lies the crux of the differences in men and women. When all is said and done in the Internet business realm there arent a whole lot of major differences, other than the organization and information presentation. But that is a huge difference and can mean the difference in a successful website with traffic or a website in the Internet Sahara Desert languishing without traffic or sales.
Happy Internet surfing ladies and gentlemen!
Lena Sanchez, a retired Medical Office Nurse/Administrator/Teacher and author of numerous entrepreneurial articles and books CEO of OLH Marketing Enterprise.
Creating a cleaner environment, healthy world and business. www.envirodocs.com Subscribe to her newsletter Natural Environmental Health & Business Facts at www.envirodocs.com/newsletter.htm Get FREE SPAM-FREE EMAIL information at www.envirodocs.com/autoresponse
