Not even the Internet is immune from this economic downturn. While retail sales at online stores are still growing, it is at a much slower rate. Some ecommerce sectors are apparently hurting a lot worse than others. Some analysts predict that smaller web retailers may feel the effects of the downturn the most.

Online business may see an increase in traffic if they effectively manage their strategies during the downturn. People are traveling less, seeking to save money on oil and gas. They are also looking to save money on sales tax and to comparison shop for the best deal. All these things add up to give online business a tremendous opportunity to increase sales. The question is how do you get more customers during this downturn?

In today’s article, we are recommending two things: Blogs and Coupons.

Whether you have your own blog or get others to publish about you, two-way dialogues between companies and customers is the new marketing. If you don’t yet have a blog, you need to see how you can use this tool. The most important thing for you to understand about blog traffic is how it differs from a typical website, and that is the conversation. A blog is most potent when you’ve entered into a dialogue with a visitor. Some ways to effectively use blogs:

– Send press releases to other bloggers

– Become a write for a blog network that already has exposure

– Guest post at a popular blog so their readers will get to know you

– Include you coupon codes on the blog.

The other area you can use is coupons. Looking for ways to save, consumers are flocking to coupon sites, where traffic in December was up 46%. Searches on the term “coupon” have more than tripled, and more than half (53%) of the online population is using coupons more often. There are two basic types of coupons:

Website coupons, for getting people to your website, and in-store coupons to get people to come into your physical store. These coupons can (and should be) the same.

Some ways to promote your coupons include:

– Email

– YouTube

– Your blog, and

– Publishing your coupons on coupon sites. Look at http://www.couponsandcompare.com for a good listing of these sites.

WebStores Ltd offers extensive coupon tools in our shopping cart software. We also run an online store for scout organizations called Cyberbase Trading Post (www.CyberbseTradingPost.com). Use Coupon Code “Blog040809” and take 20% off our Award Arrows during the month of April.

Greg Jameson