Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Seven Secrets For A Better Website
Have you ever wondered why it is that some web sites enjoy super success while many others fail miserably? Below are seven secrets to help you make YOUR site one of the winners!
1. SPEED
Several studies indicate, that you have only 10 to 30 seconds to capture visitor's attention. If your site is slow to open, your customer will likely lose patience and close the window. And that means bye.. bye..to your site! Worse..no sale.
2. Website Design
Remember you have only 10 to 30 seconds to capture visitor's attention. So website design is very important. Most people judge something on their first look! When visitors come to your site, they will see the reflection of YOU. Be certain they will like what they see.
Make your site comfortable to look at. Be consistent with the feel and design. Don't use bright colors that jolt the eye and senses. Use a text that is easy to read. Better yet, put a really great picture of yourself on your site. Let your visitors know who they are dealing with, and show them that there is a real human behind the website!
Did my picture capture your attention the first time you visited my website? I hope so. I hope you could see that I was a real, geniune, caring person that you would feel comfortable doing business with. :-)
3. Focus Your Site
Make sure to focus your website on the intended goal. This will help you to target your market easily. For example, if you are interested in a car selling business, most of the contents of your site will naturally be about cars. For instance, your topics could be; My Car Collection, Tips for Buying A Good Car, Millenium Cars, The Secrets of Washing a Car, etc..! :-)
Car Lovers will enjoy visiting your site, because you give them exciting information about a topic they are personally interested in.
When you have laser focus, and great contents, this will create happy customers coming back to your site again and again. This makes it possible for you to repeatedly offer them new sales items to purchase from your site!
Don't clutter your site with too many unrelated products. When you have more than one or two unrelated products, make a unique page for each instead of putting them all on the same page. And do it with some style and thought. Your customers will not appreciate feeling that they have been tricked with an unworthy product.
4. Keywords Density
Many site owners ignore or are ignorant about the importance of Keywords. I have found sites which don't have any keywords at all. This is death for a website! A Good keyword density will help your site listing in search engines!
Remember, 90% of web surfers find what they want by typing in the search engines. So design your site to maximize the placement. Focus on your keywords. Utilize the meta tags keywords, description and title.
If you have no idea what I am talking about or if you don't know how to use HTML code, please, find someone who does or purchase a few good books (I can suggest one or two). I know this may sound terribly confusing but it is one of the most crucial things needed to build a better more successful website.
5. Simple Navigation
Make your site navigation easy. If the customers find it hard navigating your site to find what they want, they will go elsewhere. So, limit the choices, and make the sales process uncomplicated.
6. Make Payment Easy
If you sell a product, offer your customer a variety of payment methods. If your site does not offer a credit card, you are hurting your business...get one right now. You can set up a merchant account such as ClickBank, or use one of the many credit card clearing companies. Take checks online. Provide an address for those who prefer to pay by cash, check, or money order. and provide them with a guarantee.
Make the payment process obvious, easy to access and intuitive to use.
7. Credibility Is Vital
Your professional website design will not sell, if the customers don't trust you! So, provide legitimate contact information online. Your email address, mailing address, phone number and a fax number, if applicable. If you are reluctant to give this information to your customers, why should they trust, or buy from you?
Having your own domain name is also very vital for your credibilty. It will make you look more professional. Choose a domain name that easy to remember and suitable for your business.
Putting testimonials from happy customers is one of the best way to improve your credibilty. When the customer can read what other people say about your service, they will be more inclined to trust you!
Applying the seven secrets above probably will not make your site become as famous as Amazon or Yahoo overnight! But..If they are applied correctly and included into an overall website design and marketing campaign, you will see great improvement to your site's traffic and sales!
---------------------By: Anne Ahira
Editor The BEST Affiliate Newsletter
Labels: design, sales, traffic, webstite
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Viral Marketing: What It Means and How It Can Impact Your Business
Viral marketing basically creates a word-of-mouth referral method by using your existing customers and contacts.
Your message is passed around and around, creating exponential growth for your company.
This is very similar to network marketing. Remember me talking about referring someone to a movie or restaurant you liked? This is the same concept.
Studies have shown that the typical internet user is very vocal about their online experience.
This means that for each person you reach, you are actually reaching a group of their friends as well. And then those friends tell other friends, etc. and you have the kind of growth that is similar to the way downlines grow in network marketing companies.
Let me give you an example of viral marketing in action. Have you ever received a greeting card from Blue Mountain? They are a very popular free greeting card company on the internet. At the bottom of each card you receive, it allows you the option to give a card back to the sender or anyone else you might like. This is viral marketing in action!
The person getting the card now knows that Blue Mountain is a reliable company. After all, their friend uses their service.
This establishes credibility and trust simply by association! The number one barrier to closing sales is already removed by using this method!Another good example of Viral Marketing is seen at Amazon.com.
At the close of each sale, they ask you if you know someone who might like what you have just purchased. If you do, they offer to email them a note saying that you have just purchased this product and thought they might like it as well. If your friend orders the same product within a certain amount of time, they receive a discount. This is a brilliant concept because it allows Amazon to reach more people through a credible third party. With every email they send on your behalf, you are endorsing their website, and taking part in their viral marketing campaign. In essence, they are getting you to do their advertising for them!So, why would someone spread YOUR advertising message around to others?
What have we been talking about in almost every section? BENEFITS! The bigger the benefit that you can offer to people, the more likely that they’ll pass it along.For example, create a free report with valuable content and include a "pass it on" link at the bottom. If you have a newsletter, or write articles for one, put a line at the bottom of your article – "Know someone who would be interested in this? Click here to email it to them!"What benefit does the person sending these receive, you might wonder? They are offering valuable information to friends and colleagues. They are helping them out, and in the process, establishing you as a person worthy of their trust.Contests are also an effective way to generate interest.
Encourage people to refer their friends to sign up for your contest. For each friend they sign up, they could receive another entry into the drawing.In whatever form you chose, remember to ask the person for the referral, rather than just hoping that they’ll do it on their own.Take some time to think about how viral marketing can be used to further your business. Look around and see what other companies are doing. Don’t overlook this far-reaching, powerful marketing technique! If done correctly, it could be the most valuable one you will ever use!
---------------------By: Anne Ahira
