Abogados de Inmigracion

Including products in these directories can be a highly effective way for small business owners to quickly begin selling their wares online. Even better, you’re only charged if it works. Here’s what you need to know to get started.

If you need to reach new customers or if you're thinking of selling your wares online, comparison-shopping sites, also known product search marketing, may be the way to go.

Yahoo! Shopping, Google's Froogle, Bizrate.com, and other comparison sites make selling easy for small business owners who may not have the name recognition necessary to succeed in the crowded online marketplace. "Product search is an equalizer because it allows small- and mid-sized retailers to use a multichannel strategy and expand into a much larger presence," says Rob Solomon, general manager and senior vice president of Yahoo! Shopping. "So if you're a niche electronic shop, it gives you similar exposure to what Best Buy or Circuit City can get. A consumer can type in 'plasma TV' and the small and mid-sized owners can present products in the exact same way the big guys are doing it."

Product Search Overview
In essence, product search directories are online catalogs that allow shoppers to simultaneously search multiple vendors for a specific product instead of searching one retailer's site at a time.

For example, a shopper who searches a comparison-shopping site for a specific cell phone model will see a page that shows pictures, prices, and links to more information from all of the participating retailers who carry the phone, allowing them to choose the best available price.

The Benefits of Product Search Marketing
"Product search opens a new channel because the average retailer has a finite market, and the Internet allows that same retailer to make products available across the country," Solomon says. "Within a matter of days, they are able to reach a much wider audience."

Other benefits include:

Customers are buyers, not browsers. "People are getting more specific [with their search terms] and if they know they want an MP3 player, they're typing in 'iPod mini pink.' Those people are more highly qualified than a random shopper who walks though the door, and that greatly improves the conversion rate," Solomon says.

You only pay if it works. "The most exciting thing is that it is purely performance-based," Solomon says. With traditional advertising such as print or radio, you pay for space or air time, and there's no guarantee that your ad will bring in customers or increase sales.

Minimal-click shopping. Because a customer's results page contains only the product they are looking for, it takes fewer clicks to make a purchase — and the fewer times they have to click, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

Merchant ratings. Shoppers can see what other customers say about you as a seller. They can find out whether you provided fast delivery, an easy transaction process, and professional customer service in the past. Potential customers are more likely to trust the feedback because it comes from buyers like themselves.

Product ratings. Shoppers can see if others found value in the product, making it easier for them to make an informed decision and making returns less likely.
How Product Search Marketing Works
On most sites, such as Yahoo! Shopping, Bizrate, and Froogle, you'll see a link at the top of the page that reads "Sell on Our Site," or "Click Here to Join." After you click the link, complete the registration form with information about your business, including a credit card number for payment. You will also need to provide images, links, and text for your products.

Here's how your products will be cataloged on the comparison site and appear in search results.

Results Ranking: Your product placement and results page rank will be determined by how well a shopper's keyword search term matches the keywords associated with your product's title, description, and other information you provided when you registered with the site. Choosing the right keywords and being specific will help you achieve higher placement.

Product Categories. To help customers find what they are looking for, all of the products available on a shopping site are grouped into specific product categories such as apparel, sporting goods, toys, etc. Some sites automatically categorize your products as you enter them into the system. You also can manually select product categories, but Yahoo! reviews all manual submissions before placing products on the site, so that could delay your listing.
Fees
There are a number of ways that a comparison site can charge for their services. Most charge fees starting at about $.10 per click for each product. They can also charge for inclusion on the site in one of these two ways:

1. Pay-Per-Click Fixed Fees. You pay a predetermined per-click fee for each category in which you list a product, and you're only charged when a shopper clicks through to your site. Remember that you will be charged even if that shopper doesn't make a purchase from your site.

2. Pay-Per-Click Bidding. Bidding systems give you more control over where your product is ranked on a results page. While you usually can generate better results with this type of payment system, it's often more expensive than fixed-fee placement — especially if you enter products into popular categories. Just as with fixed fees, you're only charged when someone clicks through to your site.
"These systems complement each other quite well, and you only pay based on clicks, so there's no risk at all," Solomon says. "It's a good idea to participate in both if you can rationalize the ROI." He also points out that you can test different approaches quickly and with minimal investment to see if product search is right for you.

"We're literally going through a revolution. Product search marketing is relatively new and the people who found out about it the first five or 10 years of the Internet are really taking advantage of it — and more people will be spending more on it over time," Solomon says. When you're ready to get started, Solomon suggests starting big and investing your time and money wisely. "There are a lot of players in the space, and over time there will be a consolidation to the major players, Yahoo!, Amazon, Google, and eBay, and it behooves most small advertisers to over-invest in the destinations where the most people are hanging out online," he says.