Avoid selfishness. It causes problems everywhere and the world of e-commerce is no exception. To be successful, you need to know your audience, care about them, and go the extra mile to find them where they are.

Maybe you are brainstorming ideas for a new website: “My website is about me, my services and my products”

You may not be explicitly saying that, but it could still be your subconscious attitude. Most of us can relate to the joke: “I am not much, but I am all I think about.”

if you should Think about your services and products: their advantages and limits. Think of yourself: your own limits as an entrepreneur. And if you want people to buy, think of these things in terms of your prospects.

• Who are they?
• What are they waiting for?
• What are they looking for?
• How do they perceive your products, your niche, your approach?
• How could you confuse or disappoint them?

Our ever-present selfishness, also known as prejudice, is hard to escape – a huge blind spot to see. The best way to avoid this is by surveying your prospects and, if you can, observing their behavior around what you sell, do or do.

For example, I’ve been planning to write an e-book on public speaking for six months, but haven’t done it yet. I knew it was lower on my priority list, so I bid on my most popular public speaking webpages: “Take this survey and I’ll send you a free copy of this $ 25 ebook when it comes out!” – I already have about 50 answers. When the time comes to plan the content of the book, I will already know what is most interesting for my target market.

Similarly, I did a survey when it came time to title my first alternative medicine book. I brainstormed 100 of them, picked my 10 favorites, and let my online health readers pick their favorite. The one they preferred was the winner by far. It wasn’t even close. It wasn’t the one that I liked either. Watch?

Maybe you are writing a copy: “I will describe my offers in the most natural language for me.”

Sometimes that works. If they are looking to grab them with a particular flavor, you can use, for example, popular language or technical language. But that doesn’t always work. What if they don’t know your lingo? What if they don’t know your favorite words and concepts?

We are so comfortable with the words, phrases and metaphors of our business and social circles that we forget that not everyone knows them. You can keep your jargon if you define it. Otherwise, translate it into everyday language. Even better, find out what the most popular keyword equivalents are and use them.

Trust me as a seasoned writer and public speaker. Too many times, I have been surprised to reap confusion where I swear I had sown clarity. I no longer underestimate how much my audience will misinterpret my meaning. The burden of clarity falls on me, not on them.

Maybe you are building a website: “I am organizing my website around my ideas about my business.”

That can work well, but if it doesn’t, visitors get confused, can’t find what they’re looking for, and leave without regret. On a website that is new to them, there are a limited number of times they will click before disappearing.

What you think of your offers doesn’t matter if you don’t know what your prospects need, what they care about, and what their issues are …

• How do your offers meet your needs and solve your problems?
• What words do you have in mind when you come looking for solutions?
• What referral search terms appear in your web statistics logs?
• Are you using those terms in your navigation?

Your potential customer may have the problem you solve but are not looking for your kind of solution, or they may not call the solution or problem with the same names as you. Jargon again. Find out what they call it and how they think it. Find out what they are really looking for and call it that on your website

Bridge the minds of your potential customers and your own, and they will cross over in droves.