In traditional brick and mortar businesses this has always been a concern.  However, on the web it’s far easier for a dissatisfied customer to just click a couple of times and find another business to spend their money with.

When it comes to maintaining your customer’s loyalty on the web the key to doing so is offering more of what your customers want and backing it with stellar customer service.

While this may seem like a daunting task to undertake, and it does require hard work, it’s not as difficult as you may think.  So how do you offer your customers what they want and how they want it?

The most essential factor in giving your customers just what they want is first, knowing what they want.  This requires research on your part.

If you’ve not yet started your business take the time to check out the successful competition in your niche of choice and see what they offer.

If you’re already in business you need your customers’ feedback.  Include a feedback form on your website to give your customers the opportunity to provide suggestions to you.

Not only will this make them feel important and appreciated, but it will give you valuable insight, too.

Maintaining your customers’ loyalty is not difficult once you get to know them.

Remember, while it will undoubtedly take more time and effort to keep your customers happy and loyal, the amount of time you spend on knowing their wants and needs and meeting them is far less than the time it would take to try to rebuild your business if you lost your best customers to the competition.

Other times the reason could be that traffic is slowing and your sales are slumping and you’re looking for the cause.  What ever the case may be, it must be done to remain competitive.

A general purpose review of your site for keeping content current and links fully functional should be routine and scheduled.  This will ensure that nothing slips through the cracks and becomes a major issue down the road.

Set a reminder for yourself to check your website out at least once a month so that you stay on top of your game.

If you start to notice that your sales are slowing down and you’re just not seeing the traffic that you’re accustomed to you may want to take a long, hard look at your website in comparison to the sites of your competition and other successful websites.

Perhaps your site is not as attractive and engaging as others.  Or maybe you’re lacking some of the interactive tools that today’s customers really want.

So how do you evaluate your site and make the necessary revisions?  Here are a few tips.

First, take a good look at your site.  Jot down notes on what your site offers, how engaging you feel it is and what interactive features it has.

When doing this be sure to look at it from the perspective of a customer, this will allow you to provide a better critique of your site.

You’ll also want to click through your site to test the amount of time it takes to navigate through it and note any slow-loading pages, broken links or difficulty in navigation in general.

Next you’ll need to take a little web field trip.  Search for the sites of some of your best competitors and then one or two sites that are not competition but are simply successful sites.

Spend your time taking notes on the same topics you noted on your own site as well as anything that you feel is particularly attractive to their customers and visitors.

When you’re finished compare your site to the sites you’ve visited and see what you need to do.

Let’s take a few minutes to go over my favorite methods of driving traffic.

1. An easy-to-find website will have more traffic than others.  Making your site easy to find starts with the use of keywords used in search engines.

Ask your webmaster to use keywords that you have provided for your site to "name" each page of your website.  This will increase the occurrence of your site coming up in searches.

2. Viral marketing is another of my personal favorite ways to drive traffic to your site.  While you may believe that this is too difficult an undertaking for you if you’re a relatively new marketer, that is not true.

You can start a viral marketing campaign that’s on a fairly small scale by simply using mailings with an attractive offer to customers on your mailing list.

Be sure to include an invitation for them to pass it along to friends and you should see a noticeable increase in traffic in a fairly short amount of time.

3. My third favorite method of driving traffic to your site is by placing a "recommend this site" area on your website.

This makes it very easy and very tempting for your visitors to recommend your site to people they know.

As you can see by these three examples there are fairly easy methods available for driving traffic to your site.

These methods have been used by scores of marketers with a great deal of success and, if done correctly, should prove to be equally successful for you, too.

If you’re considering joining an affiliate program there are a few things you should know before signing up.
One of the first things you should know is what type of affiliate program it is that you’re considering signing up for.

There are several different types of affiliate program, some of which are named above.  And while they all have something in common, there are important differences you should be aware of.

You’ll want to do your research, read the affiliate information and ask questions first before signing up and investing any amount of time or money into the endeavor.

One of the major differences you’ll find amongst affiliate programs is how much they pay and when they pay.  How much a program pays can range from pennies per click if it’s a pay-per-click program to as much as a 50% commission if it’s a pay-per-sale program.

All of this should be clearly stated in the affiliate agreement.  As for when they pay, that varies from program to program, too.  Some programs pay daily, others weekly, and still others can take up to 90 days to pay.

Again, this should all be clearly stated in the affiliate agreement.

Another topic that needs to be addressed is non-compete agreements.  You need to know whether or not the affiliate program you’re considering signing up for has a non-compete clause in its agreement or if they’ll have you sign a non-compete agreement.

If either of these are the case you need to clearly understand the agreement before signing it.  This type of clause or agreement generally prevents you from taking part in any activity that can be seen as competition for the party who’s requesting the agreement.

This means that if you sign up with "Affiliate Program X" and sign a non-compete agreement with them then you’re not allowed to also sign up for "Affiliate Program Y’s" affiliate program, too.

Most of what you need to know about an affiliate program is clearly stated in their agreement.

Just be sure to take your time and read it carefully and ask any questions you may have before signing up.