Return to 143 articles to start your own home based business opportunity directory 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.

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