If you sell goods online, whether it is fashion, electronics, books or tools, there are a tonne of virtual shopfronts you can use to increase sales.

Virtual shopfronts can be set up at a variety of stores, like Ebay and Myshopping.com.au. The advantages of having yourselves on these stores is;

1. It increases your exposure to shoppers - comparison sites are becoming more and more popular. Some people use them as their first port of call to compare prices and see who the providers are.

2. It is very low cost, often commission based

3. It increases your exposure in the search engines - for many products, sites like Getprice and Myshopping show up on page 1 search results. If your site isn't on page 1, shoppers could still find your store through Getprice and Myshopping if you are listed.

If you want to increase exposure for your products, you might want to consider stores on;

Ebay                                     Getprice
Shopping.com.au              Shopping.com
Shopbot                               Froogle
Bizrate                                  Shopferrert
Yahoo Shopping                Miracle Shopper
PriceCompare                    Etsy (if your goods are independent, handmade or antique)

 

Wagamama's, a UK restaurant chain which has a few stores here in Australia (international aiport terminal for example) has become the 'first' restaurant to launch it's own iphone application.

The free application allows iPhone users to find the closest Wagamama restaurant, browse the menu, place their order and pay, all through their iPhone. The order is then sent to the kitchen just like the other orders their staff are taking through their wire less hand held devices.

This clever marketing ploy taps into the current zeitgeist which embraces all things iPhone, while also promoting convenience and immediacy, must-have's for the Wagamama demographic.

Free iPhone applications which act as another customer service point or entry point could be the next big thing, and businesses should think about whether there is a feasible app for their particular niche. Of course, the app must be easy to use and actually add value. Like corporate Facebook pages and blogs, these things aren't worth investing in if they don't actually add any value, because people won't use them. They have to add something unique, which is either honestly entertaining or useful.

is addictive.

For a long time I assumed it was one of the online marketing myths, but I have found that actually people DO spend a lot of time on Yahoo Answers, and in fact it is just as valid as any other social media site.

Yahoo Answers is a place where people can post questions on almost any topic and have strangers answer it for them. These questions and answers are stored on Yahoo for a long time, and can be searched to find information. It was established in 2005 and has since

The sections cover everything from health, family and relationships to maths and science. It has been criticised for not being very 'accurate' and more about 'social networking', but that is what makes it such a fun site in which everyone can contribute, and surely what makes it so addictive.

So how can you use it in your own marketing? Lets go back to my favourite fictional store, the online shoe store. Say this was your store and you were an expert on all things shoes. Then you could register on Yahoo Answers and look for questions related to shoes or fashion.

If someone is looking for your product, or asking a question about yours or a related product, then you can answer them, maybe use your store as a resource, and thereby extend your brand name to a potentially interested buyer.

Any links you include in your answers won't be made into clickable URLs until you are a level 2 contributor - which takes a bit of dedication.

Make sure everything you write on Yahoo Answers is truthful and accurate as possible, and don't go the hard sell (remember, this isn't the way to use social media). Yahoo Answers is a community, and you don't want to be banned or ignored for being an annoying contributor.

Apart from introducing you to new, relevant customers, Yahoo Answers is just fun and interesting as of itself. An ability to help people out and feel like a smarty-pants makes for a good website.

According to Compete Site Analytics, Yahoo Answers received 65 million visits in the US in 2009,  but it is actually used all over the world.

So it is the end of the year, and it seems that at the end of every year, every man and his dog is doing either a retrospective of the past year or guess-work about next year.

Since you obviously survived 2009, I am not going to bore you with a re-cap of that. But, since the beginning of a new year always raises curiosity and hopes about what the new year will bring, I thought I would come up with a prediction for the new year, but just one.

2010, according to me, is going to be the year of TRUST. With an explosion of forums, blogs and social media sites on the web, there has never been a better time to say what you want to a huge online audience. But, when you are looking for recommendations, or unbiased product reviews, how do you know who to trust?

Maybe the positive one IS written by them or their friends/family. Maybe the negative ones are written by their competition. Don't you prefer to have recommendations from people you know and trust?

This is why I think in 2010, online marketing is going to have to embrace social media even more. Using your existing networks, and that of trusted friends, to find products and services. Using the reviews of regular commenters, or bloggers, whom you trust - and maybe the ones they recommend.

For every person, there is a 'trust network' of people they could rely on for honest opinions, and this network is now existing and growing online. Businesses and marketers need to learn the importance of this, and figure out how to participate. For example, do they want brand advocates? Do they want to offer freebies? Do they want regular commenters or bloggers to do paid reviews?

One other thing that businesses will have to do to ensure they have the trust of their customers, is to employ AUTHENTICITY. Cutting through the PR-speak and making it more subtle. Making themselves accessible, (maybe through online chat or Twitter), and allowing their faults to be discussed openly so you can understand those negative reviews.

And that's how I see 2010.