As for the other, 58% of my visitors come from the United States, and it’s overwhelmingly the largest visitor population I get, more than 1,500 visits a month from the closest other country, which happens to be Canada. Truthfully, I think if China wasn’t kind of isolated that it might be the bigger market on the internet, or at least compete with the U.S. on that front. The thing is that most of the affiliate programs I run are only in the U.S., and the few that aren’t, well, based on sales across the board, I don’t think they would be more apt to buy than any of the rest of the visitors.

By the way, I keep meaning to say, have you come across this bloggers website:
http://www.blogengage.com/

It’s not my cuppa tea but it looks like something you might find useful. It seems to be reciprocal social networking for bloggers, all of whom are into affiliate marketting, etc. Maybe check it out for yourself?

As for that extra “at”, it seems there’s a lot of Americans saying that now, and frankly it gets on my nerves. People just make up words that they think makes them sound smarter, and they’re destroying language. Oh well, nothing much I can do about that except fight the good fight when I can.

About the only things I buy online are books, DVDs, very occasionally an item of clothing and sometimes I buy cards by artists (mostly on Redbubble where I have my own work for sale and where I can read something about the artists, their techniques, and can leave them feedback.)

The things that are important to me when I buy online are these:
1. The site’s got to take Paypal and the fact that it does has to be displayed fairly prominently.

2. The returns/refunds and customer service policies must be easily accessible and reasonable.

3. For preference, I like to buy from my own country. This is for two reasons. Firstly shipping costs less and delivery is faster. Secondly, I feel I’m doing my bit for the planet. (However, that said, and apropos my artwork, Redbubble ships from Australia which is on the other side of the world! I’m forever hunting for an UK alternative for my own artwork but so far have only found sites that ask for huge amounts of money to use their rather dubious services!)

4. The TOS/Privacy policy must also be easily accessible and reasonable.

5. I like to buy from sites that have some contact with the people from whom one buys and have a feedback system (though that can also be a pain sometimes).

I find that there’s much too much advertising on your site that just doesn’t appeal to me. Mostly it’s because it’s USA-orientated (excuse me, we Brits put an extra ‘at’ in that word!) and the prices, shipping, etc, wouldn’t be right for me. Also a lot of the stuff just isn’t what I’d be after.

I started buying online when I was almost completely housebound some years ago. It was very freeing for me. So what triggers me to buy is not necessarily something I can only get online and not in the shops, but just that I’m in the habit of buying online now.

Hope some of this has helped.

Now, are you telling us you buy all your groceries online? LOL Actually, my wife wishes I’d stay out of grocery stores also; I think y’all remember my saying I love my grocery store some time ago.

Matty Byloos´s last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: 2.04.09

As for online triggers, it’s really too varied to pin down; but I do try my darndest to not go for the hype/emotional garbage.

Dennis Edell´s last blog post..Free Backlinks: A Traffic Experiment via Commenting & Promotion