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.