Marketing Tip

Promote Your Business in the Yahoo! Directory Millions of potential customers visit the Yahoo! Directory every day, so any improvement to your listing's visibility can be a boon to your business. There are two fee-based listing services that provide expedited web site review or improve your ranking if you're already listed in the Yahoo! Directory: Yahoo! Express - If you're not yet listed in a commercial category in the Yahoo! Directory, the only way to be considered for inclusion is to submit your site to the Yahoo! Express program. With a guaranteed seven-business day turnaround time, a Yahoo! Editor will review your site, determine whether it qualifies for inclusion in the directory, and recommend modifications you might need to make to increase your chances of being listed. Learn more. Yahoo! Sponsor Listings - If your web business is already listed in the Yahoo! Directory, a sure way to enhance your placement is to participate in the Sponsor Listings program. This program is only open to commercial businesses whose web sites are already listed in eligible "Business and Economy" subcategories. Participating sites appear in a "Sponsor Listings" section at the top of the appropriate Yahoo! category, and are also highlighted in the regular alphabetical list of sites. Learn more. Of course, as you consider methods to improve your visibility, it's important to recognize that directory listings are only one component of an effective marketing strategy. No matter how good your results, you'll still want to use multiple marketing methods to get your message out there. To explore a variety of ways to market your Yahoo! Store and optimize your site's web presence, go to the Store Manager's Promote menu. You'll find a list of ideas that range from email and affiliate marketing to search optimization services.

Site Building Tip

How to Offer Volume Discounts If you want to offer discounts when customers purchase more than one of the same item (i.e., "one T-shirt for $15, three for $40, five for $60, and so on), here's an easy way to set quantity discounts: Go to the Edit view of an item page. Go to the Price field for the item. Instead of typing a single price, enter a number sequence (explained below) that corresponds to the base price, followed by a quantity and the quantity discount price for that item, followed by as many different discounts as you wish to offer. To display the prices for the T-shirts in our example, "$15, 3/$40, 5/$60," you would enter the numbers "15 3 40 5 60." In this example, 15 sets the base price of the product (i.e., $15). 3 represents the quantity of the item that will be sold at a discount when purchased together (in this example, 3 = three items). 40 sets the discounted price for the preceding quantity of items (i.e., 3/$40). You can repeat steps b. and c. to set additional quantity discounts. In this example we've added the quantity break of "five for $60" -- the end numbers in our sequence (15 3 40 5 60). The price of the item in the cart will reflect the discount level for that number of items. According to our example, "15 3 40 5 60", the following prices will be entered into the cart based on quantity level:   QTY PRICE 1 $15 2 $15 3 $13.33 4 $13.33 5 (or more) $12 Note that where we didn't set specific discounts for particular quantities (such as two items or four items), they automatically get the pricing for the preceding (lower) discount tier. Now you're ready to set up your own quantity discounts! Just sign in at Yahoo! Store.

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E-commerce on the Web

Links to Sites, Features, and Stories Use Testimonials to Your Advantage When online shoppers visit your site, show off a successful track record of satisfying your customers. Consider posting customer testimonials to boost your credibility. A Sure Thing Careful wordsmithing in your item descriptions makes a strong argument for buying your products.