Online selling may be relatively new and unexplored in the third world. This could even lead to the perception that it is not as important or profitable as offline selling but a critical analysis could prove that the converse is actually true.

The seemingly unknown truth is that while offline selling is all about "location,"( the probability that someone will pass by your store and get to see whatever you are offering at any time during the course of the day is pretty high) Online selling has more to do with "information" than just letting your potential customers know where you are stationed.

The information I am referring to however, should not be taken at the "face value" because I am talking about information that is targeted at eventually closing the sale, which is the ultimate goal of selling anyway.

Surfers are always out to get information and solutions and not necessarily shopping. It is therefore, as a matter of necessity, vital that you offer them information that will lure them to your website so that they can have a look at what you have on offer. They should however, be lured to the site in a manner that is not suggestive of the fact that you are out to close a sale. In fact, the emphasis should be more on preselling than selling.

Attempts at online selling by many people have ended up in futility simply because they don’t seem to realize that it takes much more than just creating a website to advertise your products. This is simply because there could be millions of sites advertising similar products. This explains why only a mere 2% have managed to make it big in online selling. The other 98% have failed due to the fact that after creating a website, they sit back, relax and wait for people to visit their site, which turns out to be an immense miscalculation on their part and their businesses eventually die off due to lack of traffic.

The secret therefore lies in making your site to have a competitive edge over the others. One of the tested and proven ways of establishing this is "article marketing". It entails writing in depth and "potent" pieces of literature with all the relevant information pertaining your product or service line. These articles however need to meet the following basic requirements:

• The topic needs to be theme based; it should strictly revolve around your website content and essence. For instance if you are selling designer clothes, your topic could be something like, " how to make your wardrobe work for you" or "tips on how to dress for various occasions"

• Information rich content; your articles need to be full of interesting tips and advise which your audience can follow on a practical basis. Include suggestions and practical tips that will give life to your information.

• Use of strategic words; there is need to use keywords that are relevant to your website and popular to internet users. This also makes your article search engine friendly which eventually translates to higher ranking on social media websites. This should be coupled with appropriate "clickable links" which should culminate in better accessibility to your site and increased "organic traffic"

• An end objective; there should be an end objective to be achieved such as a teaser to prompt the reader to subscribe to a newsletter on your website. You could use phrases such as "get state -of –the- art office furniture at gtr.com"

In a nutshell, preselling is more important in online selling than the actual sale. It is all about creating valuable products and letting people know they exist by emphasizing their selling points rather giving a sale speech.

This has been known to build trust and credibility with your visitors, converting them into presold and willing-to-buy traffic which eventually leads to sales or contracts or both.