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We spend a lot of time in our Newsletter and on our Web Site telling people that there really are no "secrets" to success. It's simply common business sense and hard work. That's a true statement no matter what, and I will always stand by it. However, it is also true that if there is something that's common business sense, but you don't know about it, it could be perceived as a "secret" or a "trick of the trade".

In this article I want to mention some out-of-the-way common sense that I've mentioned in my writings before, but may have been overlooked by many. It's been a while since I've talked about it.

We all know that in order to sell on the Internet, you need an Internet presence of some kind. Whether it's an ECommerce Store or Auctions, it all boils down to the same thing. You have to have some thing, some place on the Net where someone can look at your product, and buy it from you.

Lots of people have that, though! There's a lot of competition out there, right? So the issue, if you want to be successful, becomes making yourself a little different from everyone else. A little more memorable to the people who view your site or your auctions. A little more interesting than the other guy that's selling your same product. You need to give people a reason to like you, to trust you, to remember you, to come back to you time and time again. If there's a "secret" to Internet sales at all, that's it.

How do you do that?

Well, one very good way is information. Tell your customers something they didn't know about the product you want them to buy. Give them information they'll be glad to have when they buy it. Give them ideas on uses for that product that they wouldn't have thought of on their own.

For example, here's what we do with one of our web sites. Our site, www.ElectronicDartShop.com, sells indoor and outdoor games. We concentrate on Darts and Dart Boards on that site. So, we have a page that our customers can refer back to over and over again that gives them all the rules for all the games they can play with our boards! Sounds simple, doesn't it? Yet that one page gets more hits than the rest of the site's pages combined! Those hits tell us that our customers are returning to those Dart Game rules over and over again, telling their dart-playing friends to refer to it, etc. It gives our customers information they can really use, and didn't really expect to find when they first went to our site. Giving a pleasant, unexpected surprise to your customers is absolutely invaluable in ECommerce!

It's not hard to do. We sell Dart Boards on that site, so we give them a compilation of Dart Game Rules. If you're selling Cookware on your site, give them some really good recipes! If you're selling Recreational Vehicle Parts, give them links to information on the highest-rated RV Parks around the country. Anything that lets them take more away from visiting your site than your competitions'. They will remember.

So, let's get down to the reason for this article's title.

There are many good ECommerce Hosting Solutions out there. We recommend the ones we think are the best, in our Resource Center. Finally, though, we've seen someone combine the concept of ECommerce Hosting with the concept of free, valuable information for your store's customers.

I have long respected the work of Dr. Ken Evoy. His sites and books are excellent resources for those who want to be successful on the Internet. He also believes in the concept that we discussed above. He's taken that concept even further, though, by creating www.SiteBuildIt.com.

SiteBuildIt.com takes the products/free information concept and does it the other way around. When you build a web site using SiteBuildIt.com, you present free information first, then you lead people to the products.

This concept works exceptionally well, as long as the information you're presenting is honest, original and valuable.

Let me explain what I mean:

Yesterday, I was searching online for a Cholesterol Testing Kit. Yes, alright, I'm getting older, and I want to be around to watch my kids and my two grandkids get a whole lot older themselves! So, I'm looking for this Cholesterol Testing Kit, and I don't really know anything about them. I went to a search engine, and did a search. At the top of the page, the very first result was a direct link to purchase a particular brand name and model of this kind of kit, for sale in an online store.

Well, perfect, right! Whoever owns that store is doing a good job positioning their products on the Search Engines! That's the way it should work!

In about third or fourth place, though, I saw a link that led to information on what Cholesterol Testing Kits are, and how they work.

Guess which one I clicked on? Yep, I clicked on the link that told me what this product was all about and how it worked.

Like most people, if I'm not really familiar with exactly what product I want, I need to find information on that product before I buy it. I want to know how they work, which ones are better than others, what kind of price range I'm looking at, etc.

That link I found that gave me all of that information was the first one I clicked. When I bought one, I bought it from the site that gave me the free information; and not the site that only gave me a link to buy one particular product.

Promoting information about your products for free is an excellent way to gain loyal customers. That's what SiteBuildIt.com is all out.

Instead of just allowing you to build a web site and put products on it, SiteBuildIt.com walks you through the whole process of creating and distributing information about your products, which will then lead much more qualified customers directly back to your site to purchase from you. Those customers will also stay with you, because they now know where they can go to really understand the products they are looking at, instead of just buying something and hoping it's right for them.

The concept of free, original, quality information is very powerful on the Internet, and when it's linked directly to your products, it becomes almost invincible. I'm really glad to finally see an ECommerce Store Solution that recognizes this and puts it all together so well.

I highly recommend that you go to www.SiteBuildIt.com and take a free Tour. Even if you already have an active ECommerce store, SiteBuildIt's insight into this method is definitely worth a serious look!

Chris Malta
Founder/CEO
Worldwide Brands, Inc.