disclaimer: do not try this at home, not a Ponoko service…….

We have all heard of laser tattoo removal to get rid of those embarrassing love/hate tattoo’s off of one’s knuckles, or to change Winnona into Wino Forever. But the democratization of access to tools of manufacture and self mutilation have now converged on the instructables site by Tetranitrate.
(more…)

Selling is one of those funny things in life - not that much fun for most of us, until we strike it. Then we’re experts. Until next time!

However, sales means more cash to spend doing lots more of the things we love - creating more cool stuff.

So that’s why we created the world’s first place for anyone to both make and sell their unique product ideas online - to give everyone (not just a few) the ability to make their ideas for real and get them out there into the world.

Importantly there’s no curation process (which feels arbitrary, particularly to those who do not make the cut). So everyone is free to participate. And star.

An excellent example of how to use Ponoko’s Showroom is Chris Jackson’s Instant Photo Frame.

He designed it in hours, had it made and delivered in just a few days, posted it to his Showroom, then promoted it to some blogs (including ours).

He made a load of quick sales direct to shoppers (the first one was within just 16 days of his idea!!), then he entered it into the Ponoko wholesale catalog and he’s sold over 1,000 since then. And he’s just getting started.

Nervous System are also another stellar example - they go to shows, promote their web shops and now have their products in over 40 retailers, and made over 6-figures last year.

What these examples tell us is that the most successful sellers in any marketplace like Ponoko, ETSY, Cafepress or EBay actively promote their online shops.

And to make life easy, they use selling tools like:

1. The Share This tool you’ll see at the RHS of your Showroom - an easy way to email people in your address book.
2. The badges here - to show on their website.
3. These search engine tactics - it’s not rocket science some people make it out to be!
4. The blog promotional tactics here - slow and steady wins the race.
5. Some trust building tactics - get product reviews any chance you get.
6. And here - show you’re on the level.
7. Reacting to our promotional tactics like so - remember, every enquiry could be the whale you’re after.
8. And making sure your prices are set right - take the time to really understand this.
9. Emailing your Showroom URL to retail-at-ponoko-dot-com to be featured in the Ponoko wholesale catalog - for active promotion to over 200 US design store retailers.
10. Setup stands at live events - and get noticed by press and retailers. That’s where our “Maker grants” sponsorship program comes in handy - it is released next week here.

So there’s 10 things to get you rocking.

Please tell us what else you might like to know …

A few weeks ago we made a small change to the Showroom.

We created new shopping categories visible on the homepage. Those categories are:

1. Homeware
2. Lighting
3. Jewelry
4. Kitchen
5. Office
6. Furniture
7. Toys
8. Electronics
9. Everything else

To get your items listed in the appropriate category, upload them into the Showroom and be sure to tag them correctly. Eg, if you upload a lamp to your Showroom, enter the “lighting” category name as one of the tags and it will appear in this category, etc.

A word of caution - please tag your items correctly
Do not be tempted to tag your items will irrelevant tags so you can appear in multiple categories. Because if you actually think about it, shoppers use the categories links to search for something specific. And they are going to get annoyed with you if they see your toy duck appear when they are searching in an unrelated category.

Also, here’s some other tags you can use to appear in the category of your choice: 

Homeware
accessory, accessories, accessory, board, key, cd, cd display, cd frame, cd storage, bike, ornament, clock, clock face, cottage, décor, decoration, decorations, decorative, mirror, figurines, key, home, hanging, hanger, hangers, hanging planter, home décor, home goods, homegoods, homeware, homewares, house, houseware, housewares, keys, keyring, living room, magazine rack, mirror frame, frame, art, ornament, sign, signage, vase, wall, wall art, wall décor, wall hanging, wall mounted, coasters, wine, wine holder, wine rack, winerack

Lighting
lamp, bulb, candelabra, candles, candlestick, chandelier, chandeliers, lamps, hanging lamp, hanging lamps, hanging lights, lamp shade, lamps, lantern, lightbulb, lighting, lights, shade

Jewelry
bracelet, bracelets, necklace, necklaces, cufflinks, ring, earrings, badge, bangle, bangles, beads, body adornment, buttons, charm, charms, hair, hair comb, hair stick, jewel, jewellery, jewellery, jewelry, locket, jewels, brooch, money, money clip, pendant, pendants, pendent, rings     

Kitchen
juicer, coffee, coffee coat, coffee sleeve, coffee table, coffee tray, coasters, dish, dinning, fruit, fruit bowl, kitchen, plastic coaster, plastic coasters, platter, tabletop, tablewear, wine, wine holder, wine rack, winerack

 Office
card, card holder, compass, computer, computer case, pet, desk, ruler, desktop, desk lamp, document, laptop, laptop stand, measure, needle, needle gauge, needlework, notes, notice, office, office game, organize, organizer, organizing, pad, pen, pen holder, pencil, pencil holder, pencil sharpener, stationary, stationery, stencil, work desk 

Furniture
Furniture, bed, bedroom, bedside, table, bookcase, bookend, bookends, bunk, chair, digital furniture, furniture connector, nursery, ornamental, shelf, stool, rest stool, rocker, coffee table, clock, clock face, mirror, hanging planter, magazine rack, mirror frame, frame 

Toys
board game, checkers, chess, crane, doll, ferris, game, game board, gameboy, gamer, games, gaming, jigsaw, kid, kids, maze, mind, mind game, plane, preschool, puzzle, puzzle 3D, puzzlechallenge, puzzlechallengefinalist, rocking horse, spinning top, tank, tictactoe, toddler, toddlers, toy, toys, train 

Electronics
cell, cellphone, cell phone, cellular, robot, gadget, ipod, iphone, laptop, laptop stand, apple, mobile phone, mobile, scanner, reprap

Go for your life!

Pricing your creative product can be a bit of a black art - part emotion, part math.

The stronger your brand, the stronger the emotion, the higher the price might be (based on nothing but emotion).

But let’s look at some basics to ensure you’re not under pricing your stuff. Once you have these basics right, you have a solid foundation on which to build emotion into your prices.

[NOTE: You can scroll to the bottom of this post to get the quick summary].

What is the difference between a ‘markup’ and a ‘margin’?

A 50% markup is not the same as a 50% margin. Why?

A 50% retail markup on a $100 wholesale item, means a $150 retail price. Whereas a 50% retail margin on a $100 wholesale item, means a $200 retail price. Why the difference?

The difference is perhaps best explained with a few examples:

—> A 50% markup on a $100 wholesale item, means a $150 retail price because: $100 x (1 + 50%) = $150.

—> A 50% margin on a $100 wholesale item, means a $200 retail price because: $100 / (1 - 50%) = $200.

Another example:

—> A 70% markup on a $100 wholesale item, means a $170 retail price because: $100 x (1 + 70%) = $170.

—> A 70% margin on a $100 wholesale item, means a $333 retail price because: $100 / (1 - 70%) = $333.

This also means a 50% margin is the same as a 100% markup - IE:

—> A 100% markup: $100 x (1 + 100%) = $200.

—> A 50% margin: $100 / (1 - 50%) = $200.

Got it? Good.

There is no right term to use, it all depends on you and your context. Read on for some examples …

How do you price your products?

For a creative person, there are 3 key components to this:

1. Your cost price
2. Your wholesale price
3. Your retail price

Your cost price = the sum of all the cash costs that go into making each product. This is relatively easy to work out.

Your wholesale price = your cost price + the amount you want to earn for your idea and your time spent on your product. This ‘creative fee’ is the toughest part to work out. But more about that soon.

Your retail price = your wholesale price + the retail margin. This is typically quite easy to work out too - see more below.

Calculating your cost price

The most important thing you can probably do is get this (really) right. And luckily, it’s the most cut and dry to figure out. That’s because it’s easy to measure the cold hard cash you spend on making your product (there’s no emotion here).

So when you make an example thingy with Ponoko, here are the components of your cost price (assuming 1 flatpack / self assembly product):

So now you know the total cost to you. Whatever you do, do not sell to anyone under this price UNLESS you’re doing it consciously and are willing to pay the cost for a good reason (EG - giving a sample at cost to help promote your product or giving a gift to a friend).

But what if you want to earn a little bit of a profit on top of this?

Calculating your wholesale price

Setting your creative fee (or wholesale margin) is where a whole lot of emotion can come into it. Is my brand strong enough to demand a large creative fee? Or am I just starting out with this product and I want to get some early runs on the board?

If it’s the latter you should be looking to earn at least a 10% wholesale margin. Up to 30% is generally acceptable. And while 40% is getting up there a little, anything beyond that you’d save for your subsequent products once you’ve built your reputation a bit more. A 50% margin is great, and a 70% margin is super$%^#!

So given my cost price (above) is $35 and I decide to earn a 30% wholesale margin, this means my wholesale price is:

How did I get the $15 creative fee? Like this:

[$35 / (1 - 30%)] - $35 = $15.

This means that whenever you or anyone else sells your product you will always earn a profit of $15. Great!

Now you might be asking “but what about the 100 hours I put into this product - $15 just don’t cut it!” Well, you need to hope you sell enough at $15 profit to cover your 100 hours. And if you assume you should get paid (say) $75 per hour this means you need to sell 500 of the suckers to recoup that original time investment.

But there is a faster way - by adding a retail margin to your product and selling direct at a higher price …

Calculating your retail price

While there is some emotion to this part too, a really good starting point is a 50% retail margin (aka, a 100% markup on your wholesale price).

This margin is educated by the % almost any retail shop will be happy to sell your stuff. Some strong stores might demand more, particularly if they feel you have set your wholesale price too high (by over inflating your creative fee). But if you have a hot selling item, you might be able to convince retailers to take something less than 50% - which is essentially the same as increasing your creative fee and hence your wholesale price. But that’s the territory for strong brands. Or big balls. Or both.

Importantly, setting your retail price at a 50% retail margin means that when a retailer comes knocking and asks for your wholesale price - you can simply say “You can earn a 100% markup (aka 50% margin) on my products” or ”I’ll go 50:50 with you” or “You can buy from me at half price”. They all mean the same thing. The retailer is getting a great deal that is hard to argue with. And you are secure because you know that even though you will not be selling at your retail price, you will still be earning your creative fee ($15) over and above your costs for every product the retailer buys (and/or sells).

And the really great thing about this 50% retail margin is that you can sell direct at this retail price and collect both the retail margin and the wholesale margin / creative fee (a total of $65 in this example).

Here’s how it works out:

Here’s how I got the retail fee:

[$50 / (1 - 50%)] - $50 = $50.

This means that whenever you sell your product at retail you will collect a profit of $65 (your creative fee + your retail fee). And to recoup your 100 hours @ $75 per hour you’ll need to sell 116 of them (which is easier than selling 500 of them direct!).

Phew!

Quick summary

Here’s how to set your wholesale and retail prices:

1) Calculate your cost price = all cash costs.

2) Calculate your wholesale price = your cost price + your creative fee (a good place to start is at a 10% - 30% wholesale margin).

3) Calculate your retail price = your wholesale price + your retail margin (a good place to start is at 50%). 

Sweet.

Now there’s MANY different ways to do this and just as many exceptions.

For example - an item may have a cost price of $0.50 and typically retail for $10. In this case, assuming your retail fee is $5 (ie, a 50% retail margin), then your creative fee is $4.50 (ie, a whooping 90% wholesale margin!!!).

So please feel free to share your experiences below …

A first round of ‘Certified Shops’ have just gone live.

Free to all Designmake Prime members, Certified Shops are designed to help create a more trusted online marketplace.

You can check out an example and read more about it.

One more step to help you make and market your product ideas online.

We’re out there telling the Ponoko story to online shoppers, particularly via shopping blogs, media and retailers.

So here’s what to do if you get contacted by them:

Contact by shoppers
One thing to remember is to reply to shoppers when they make contact with you. Sounds simple, but trust me, non reply happens more often than you might think! One way to encourage yourself to reply is to realize that the person contacting you may be a buyer for a very large retailer, and they’re testing you out.

Another thing to do is to save their contact details so you can contact them at other times into the future. We’ll talk more about this in a later post. But for now, simply save them all on one place. This list is gold for you.

Contact by shopping blogs / media
Now if shopping blogs and media contact you, they are likely to want to do something special to introduce you to their audience. They may ask for a free sample, a special deal or something like that. One of the easier things to do is to offer free shipping. But other things are possible too - just contact us if you want to talk through some options.

Contact by retailers
They’ll want to buy your product for at least half the price you are selling it at retail. Of course this will be tough going for many of you, so contact us and let’s talk about some wholesale pricing options and how we can make this work with the most ease for you and, importantly, the retailer.

Anyhow, the key thing to remember is that we’re here to support you get your creativity out there and up there. We’re super incentivized to support you in all sorts of ways. So remember to drop us a line at any time and we’ll work stuff out with you!

And if you are interested in getting more people to buy from you, you’ll want to sign up to hear about the new service going live in a few weeks.

The evolution of selling stuff goes kinda like this - Step one: Design and make cool stuff. Step two: Get people to your Showroom. Step 3: Convince them to buy.

We’ve started talking about steps one and two in the past - but what about #3?

Well, one important aspect of this is creating trust. And this can be tough, particularly with a new product.

So here’s 4 ways you can be on the front foot to create trust in your great product:

1) Get product reviews - make sure you get your existing customers to post reviews about your product - there’s absolutely nothing better than this.

2) Show it in action with real people - it’s tough to buy something unique from a few online photos, so a link from your Showroom to a video showing it in context will be a big help.

3) Guarantee it - make it crystal clear you stand behind your product by offering a full refund if things don’t work out.

4) Describe your product fully - tell people about the 101 prototypes you made to get it just right for them!

HOW TO GET PRODUCT REVIEWS
Because this is your #1 way to create trust online, we’ve made it darned easy for you to do!

Just email your customers and ask them to write a review in the box at the bottom of your product page.

You can check out an example at the bottom of the page here.

Let us know how you get on - and feel free to leave comments below to discuss other ways to build trust online.

In my last couple of blog posts we talked about getting more customers to your Showroom.

Today let’s give you some ideas on how to give you more time to create, save your customers some cash and cut down on carbon emissions.

To do this you need to setup your Showroom so your products are made and shipped direct from Ponoko to your customers.

To start off, check out a really good example of a Showroom set up to ship a product direct from Ponoko.

You’ll see it has a number of examples of shipping costs (John continues to add more when buyers in specific locations ask him to). It also sets the expectation that the buyer will be receiving something direct from Ponoko (in the video it shows the buyer will need to pull the protective tape off the material, and self assemble).

To see how it works (what the buyer pays and what you get paid) I recommend you click the green ‘Buy’ button in the example and follow it through to the point you need to put in your CC (no need to make a purchase).

What you’ll see is how the money flows
FIRST #1 - You get paid by your customer the amount you advertise (which is the sum of the product cost in the green color PLUS the shipping cost you advertise below this);

THEN #2 - You pay us the amount quoted in a separate transaction within your MyPonoko account (which is the sum of making + materials + shipping costs).

You just need to make sure that #1 is higher than #2 (both including shipping costs to your customer’s specific location):

Now onto how to make this happen …

How to determine the shipping price to include in your Showroom:

1) First, think about some key places you want to ship to (you’ll see the example above now has 8 locations). Remember you can add to these over time as people ask you to, but it’s good to cover a few base destinations first.

2) Now go to your MyPonoko account and run your product through the quoting system as if you are delivering to the different example locations you have nominated (in the example above this means John went through the quoting system 8 times).

3) Make sure you use the exact product design that you are selling, because the shipping price is different for different designs.

4) As a result of your efforts the quoting system will give you the shipping prices direct from Ponoko to your nominated locations.

5) Write these down and then enter them into Step 4 of the ‘Show’ your item process in your MyPonoko account. They will now appear on the product page in your public Showroom.

Congrats! You know you’re done when your Showroom looks like the example above AND the visible shipping prices you charge buyers are the same as (or higher) than the shipping prices you will pay Ponoko to ship direct to your buyers on your behalf.

How this all comes together

1) Buyer makes a purchase – the amount they pay you is the product price + the shipping price you have stated in your Showroom using the process above.

2) You get a sale email alert from Ponoko – so visit your MyPonoko account to see the details of the order. It will include the shipping details for the buyer which (should) match the shipping destination option they chose in your Showroom.

3) You confirm you have received the money and have some ‘thank you’ conversations with the buyer. You may get to clarify some things with them too - and spark up a relationship for your future products.

4) You then place an order with Ponoko to make and deliver your item direct to the buyer, by entering their shipping details (instead of yours) during the quoting process in your MyPonoko account.

5) After you pay, Ponoko will then make and ship your item directly to the buyer.

Cool! You know you’re successful when the buyer has paid you in a single Ponoko Showroom transaction a sum of money which is more than you have paid Ponoko to make and ship direct to the buyer.

Of course this means you will want to provide self assembly instructions. Something I will cover into the future

Please let me know if you have any questions by posting in the Comments section below.

There are a number of basic things you need to do to promote yourself and sell online.

Once you have an e-commerce website (like your free Ponoko Showroom) and you have populated it with some items for sale (like the ones you make with Ponoko), it’s time to attract the right buyers, keep them coming back and telling others about you.

And last week we started a 2 part series on how to get highly qualified search engine traffic to your product pages.

We talked about how it’s not about playing magic tricks. That we’ve already optimized your Showroom for search engine success and there are 2 key things for you to focus on:
1)    Content – rich descriptions of your products, yourself, your process, etc, etc.
2)    Popularity – getting other people to link to your website.

So last week we went into detail on #1. To summarize, it’s REALLY important that you do 2 things:
1)    Add lots of (relevant) content to your Showroom – without it, you’re selling yourself short. You do not need to use sales language, in fact its best you don’t. You need to describe your product, how to use it, how you made it, your passion for it. That’s it. When you do this, you’ll get more people find you in search engines like Google.
2)    After you’ve done #1 then optimize your content by adding in specific words and phrases that people are ACTUALLY using to find products like yours – this is where http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ comes in.

But if you do nothing else to promote your products and you are not into selling anything to anyone then you MUST add lots of great content to tell a story about it. This is key.

Now in tandem with the website optimization work we have done for your Showroom, the search engines will be able to pick up your content on their radars. Great!

Ok, ok … on to what we want to cover this week …

Now you have some great content, what’s really important now is to increase your online popularity.

Google will give your product a top ranking in its search results if your product page is the most popular among all the other web pages talking about the same sort of product.

So how do you become popular?

Well, you have great content AND you get as many other (quality) websites to link to your product page as you possibly can.

Now you don’t want to run out and buy links or join link farms or anything crazy like that. Instead you want to take your time, identify great websites and contact them to talk about you. And do this on a regular basis. If you did one per week, you’ll be VERY surprised with the results.

The great thing about building your link popularity is that it gives you 2 benefits – first you can get loads of traffic from the website that links to you and second you’ll rise up Google’s ranking, which means more traffic too. So when someone writes about you there’s a bit of a spike in traffic to your Showroom and then over time the search engine traffic will build and build quietly in the background and turn out to be the #1 source of new customers for you.

So the goal is to get as many websites to talk about you and link to you. You can do it via email, so it’s not difficult. And there is no rocket science.

But how do you find them and which ones do you choose?

There’s 2 basic rules:

1)    Choose sites that are relevant
Will they be interested in your product? I mean its kinda useless to contact someone at a motor mechanic website to talk about your jewelry product. So you need to be a match with them, otherwise they will not even consider talking about you and linking to you. Google will also give you a higher ranking if you are linked to by a set of (quality) websites that have a consistent theme.

2)    Choose sites that are popular
It’s always good to start at the top and work down. Get some links. And go back to the top again. There are (at least) 2 ways to figure out who is popular:
•    Check out how much traffic they are getting – enter their name into www.compete.com
•    Check out their Google Page Rank – enter their name into http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

As a basic rule of thumb it’s best to get links from other websites with a Google Page Rank of at least 3.

Easy right? Yes indeedy! As I say, there’s absolutely no rocket science here about how to get search engine traffic to your Showroom.

So the key question right now is where to start – where do you find the first website to check out its relevance and popularity, to then ask for a link?

There’s multiple sources for finding websites to link to you.

Here’s the simplest way to get started:
1)    Use Google to search for websites that are into designer stuff – the best websites are those who target a consumer / shopper audience. But don’t discount websites that target designers also – its great to get links from other designer crafted goods websites because this tells Google that you must be about this stuff too.
2)    When you find a website that you’d like to be seen on, find someone to have a personal conversation with. Save their details so you can record who you have been in contact with. Some people will say yes immediately and some will take time.
3)    If you have a blog, write about them. (We’ll talk about your blog in a future edition – bottom line is that you need a place to share information online and a blog is the perfect tool for this).
4)    Now make contact. Send them an email to strike up a conversation.
5)    Show what you have done for them and ask if you can do anything more for them. And remember to ask them to write about you. Give them a good reason.
6)    Keep the relationship going. They may not write about you immediately but if there’s one thing you can count on, things change over time ☺
7)    Go back to that website and search for other websites they are related to – and repeat the process above.

Here’s an example.

First I searched Google for shopping websites. And I found http://shopping.alltop.com/ - great!

So I picked a few, including www.mightygoods.com. Then I did 2 things. First I checked out how much traffic the website got and how popular Google thought it was. It looked great and it really measured up. So I made contact with Maggie to let her know about Ponoko designers and products. I also clicked around her website and found 2 other very cool sites and found people to make contact with there too – www.shanalogic.com and www.kirtsy.com. And so on ☺

What you should do next …

Check out the Alltop.com website above and do exactly what I have done. Your goal is to get one link every week. In reality this means sending an email to at least 5 per week – and in coming weeks following up those who have not engaged with you. When you have a new product is a great time to make contact – or when you have written about them is another good time.

The more links you get means the more traffic you get direct from those websites AND the more traffic you’ll get from Google as you move up their ranking system because you are becoming more popular online.

—–

Now as an extra bonus for those of you who want to be extra clever and work a bit harder – here’s how to put your popularity quest on steroids. Each time someone links to you, you might ask them to use very specific words in their link pointing to your product page.

Which words should you use? Again, this is where http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ comes in. The very best words to use to link to you are words that people are ACTUALLY using to search for products you have.

BUT remember this is not essential as just getting out there and getting some links ☺

—–

OK that’s it for this week.

Now get out there and update the content in your Showroom, then tell others about it to gain some links to your site.

By doing these 2 things you’ll be doing the critical stuff to rise to the top of the search engines to get the best quality shopping traffic your time can buy.

Next week we’ll cover either some more search stuff, blogging or tell me what you want to hear about by leaving some comments below.

And feel free to share this blog post with others by clicking on the Share This tool below.

There are a number of basic things you need to do to promote yourself and sell online.

Once you have an e-commerce website (like your free Ponoko Showroom) and you have populated it with some items for sale (like the ones you make with Ponoko), it’s time to attract the right buyers, keep them coming back and telling others about you.

So let’s start with attracting the right buyers.

As you know, search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo! are still the #1 way to get the very best qualified buyers to your website for the first time.

They are the first step in a list of things you want to get done to promote yourself online.

So let’s take this step now.

But remember, what you do not want to do is go out and use an automated website submission service - either paid or free. These can leave you with nothing at best and a black mark against your name at worst.

And you don’t want to get all tied up in knots about the supposed SEO (search engine optimization) black magic voodoo stuff either.

However you do want to focus on the 2 key things that are the simplest and most powerful for your search engine success:

1. Content - rich descriptions of your products, yourself, your process, etc, etc.
2. Popularity - getting other people to link to your website.

When you cover these 2 things then you’ll benefit from the SEO voodoo that we’ve taken care of for you. We have optimized your Showroom in a way that means the text content you write to your Showroom is highly visible to search engines.

We’ve given you a canvas, now you need to color it.

OK, first up - content and how to describe yourself
There’s 2 parts to this.

First thing to understand is this - ‘the more you tell, the more you sell’. It’s corny, but search engines LOVE content.

This means, all other things being equal, a webpage with more content will outperform a webpage with little content.

So this first step is to simply add some content, any (relevant and useful) content, to your Showroom - the more the better.

So whether you get to part 2 of this section on content or not, at least add good content describing yourself - it requires no voodoo whatsoever, just plain common sense.

So to be a little more explicit here’s what to do first … add maximum content in these 3 places:

1. On your Profile page
2. In your Showroom Announcement
3. On every one of your Product pages

In specific reference to your Product pages, this means:

1. Choosing a product name that is descriptive of what it actually is - so if it’s a necklace, make sure this word is in the title.
2. Adding a detailed description - this is where you go to town. Again, the more descriptive you can be, the better.
3. Adding tags - these need to be, surprise surprise, descriptive of what the item actually is.

So that’s it! If you can simply let the writer in you shine through, then you’re about 60% of the way there on the content part of this exercise.

Now onto part 2 … adding extra content that search engines love.

Now there’s a little bit of science to this, but that’s a relief - because you are about to take all of the guesswork out of choosing the right words you need to insert into the content you have just written in step one above.

This is particularly important for the product name and the tags you use. And it’s a great idea to include these same words at the start, middle and end of your product descriptions too.

So you need to use words that do 3 key things:

1. They are words that describe your product well.
2. They are the words that other people are using to describe your product when they enter a search query into Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.
3. And they are words that your competitors are not using.

So how do you figure out the right words to use?

The thing to understand is that the words you might typically use to describe your product may be either:

1. Words that no one else actually uses to search for you - hence you are marketing yourself using the wrong words; or
2. Words that all of your competitors use - hence it will be very difficult for you to rise to the top of the search engine results because others have already beaten you there.

So to avoid these 2 things and choose the right words, go and check out www.wordtracker.com - the tool they market as the one to get an unfair advantage in the search engines.

Most of the very successful search engine optimization companies have been using this tool for years - it’s the gold of the trade.

So get it fired up and just enter in a few keywords that you think are relevant to your product. It will give you 3 really important bits of information:

1. A list of keywords other people are ACTUALLY using to search for your type of thing - you do not need to guess at what people are searching for any longer! These are the words to choose from and nothing else.
2. It also tells you how popular each of these keyword is - in other words, how many times has that specific word or phrase been searched for! This helps you pick the very best of the best.
3. And it tells you how many times the word is used on competitor websites. This helps you pick the ultimate words possible.

Now what you do next is choose the words that have the following 3 important characteristics:

1. It is a key phrase that will work best to drive buyers to your webpage to buy your specific stuff;
2. It is a key phrase that has a lot of people searching for it; AND
3. It is a keyword that has very little competition.

(Note that I use the term ‘key phrase’ - you want to find 2+ word phrases people are using to search for what you have. This is because this is far more descriptive of what they want than someone entering in a single keyword - eg, if someone enters in ‘apple’ I can only guess at what they want - but if they enter in ‘buy apple laptop’ I am much more confident to suggest what I think they want).

Ok, so what does all of this mean? Here’s an example:

Let’s say you are selling “XYZ” - here’s what to do:

Enter this keyword into Wordtracker. Select the best key phrases people are using based on the 3 criteria immediately above. Use these phrases in your product name, keywords and description within your Showroom.

The very best key phrase you can find after you enter “XYZ” into Wordtracker will be one that looks something like this:

Search phrase - “buy XYZ now”
Number of searches - 1,000,000
Number of competing web pages - 1

This is the very best because the searcher’s intentions are clear, there are 1 million of them looking to buy XYZ and there is only one competitor - wow!

If you use these words in your Showroom, then you will be the #1 ranking in the search engines for this phrase and this means you will get about 99% of the 1,000,000 searches. And when people click through to your site from the search engines (for free, because this is natural search, not paid search), they are likely to have a high sales conversion rate given the specific nature of their search (and the fact that you actually supply a great quality XYZ).

So go to it - and here’s the free version of Word Tracker to get you started (it does not show you how many competitors each search phrase has, but its a good start in finding out what the most popular search phrases people are using to find what you have to sell.

Check it out now then come back and get your Showroom setup so search engines will love you —> http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Hmmmm - this is much longer than I expected, so I’ll save #2 ‘Popularity’ to another blog post in this series. And this will give you some time to get the content in your Showroom updated, shiny, new and improved and all that.

So check back soon for our post about ‘Popularity’ - you don’t want to miss it because it’s critical just as soon as you have got your content nailed.

So go get your content done now - and remember, simply adding lots of descriptive and useful information to your Showroom even without reference to Wordtracker data will put you a mile ahead, so go do that now.

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