In this article you will learn the importance designing your website around your customers and their needs. A websites form and content is what will determine if a visitor will stay just a visitor or turn into your next customer. Today we will discuss how to accomplish the later.
To succeed at your online business (whether you are selling your own product/service or are selling for other merchants as an affiliate), you need a Web site created just for that - a simple, focused site. One that is easy to build, maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and customer-converter.
Having the right tool and the right product alone doesn’t insure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered while designing a site. Unfortunately, most of these are easily ignored by Internet business owners.
Build It for Speed - It's a fact of modern life - people are in a hurry. This means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer's attention. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (JavaScript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.
Target your Market - Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed mostly a teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.
Focus the Site - Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page.
Credibility Is Crucial - The most professionally designed site won't sell if your customers don't believe in you. A clear privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line.
Navigation should be simple - Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many times a lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate through the whole website to find what they are looking for.
Consistency is the key - Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.
Make your site interactive and personalized – Make your website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product. Personalization of your website is another key element that can lead to customer delight and can increase your sales. Personalization technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example, when a person buys a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be offered.
Content is King - Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.
These eight, simple rules will go a long way toward the improvement of your website and most importantly, turn visitors into customers.
Getting subscribers and generating leads for your newsletter
There are many different ways of getting subscribers to your Newsletter. Obviously, the first place you should start is on your website, doing this can get you an immediate flow of subscribers. You should advertise your Newsletter and place a sign-up box on every page of your site. Always use the sign-up box instead of a simple email link when you can because the results are far better. The top of the page is a better place for your sign-up box as it gets more exposure but the bottom is still good. Always include a privacy statement telling people exactly how you are going to use their email address and how you will keep it private, with all the talk about spam nowadays this is bound to reassure them, which in turn will increase the number of new subscribers.
Offer an incentive to your visitors. You should whenever possible offer them a free gift if they subscribe, such as a free report or Ebook. There a hundreds of free Ebooks which you can give away. You are bound to increase your sign-ups by doing this provided you offer them something related to your site's theme.
Next you should submit your Newsletter to all the Newsletter directories you can find, there a plenty of them on the net, and some of them get really big traffic every month. If your articles are good quality and informative then newsletter and website publishers will be interested and your work could end up being published in endless newsletter editions and hundreds of websites. Not only will this increase your credibility, it could result in 1000's more visitors, this is because at the end of all your articles which you allow others to publish will be a link back to your site. Don't forget also if lots or your articles are published on websites then your link popularity will improve drastically. This will result in higher search engine rankings in Google and the other engines which use link popularity as a ranking factor, which or course means lots more visitors and profit for you.
Include details of your newsletter in your signature file. This is the little bit of text that you attach to messages you post on the Internet and the emails you send to people. You then can promote your Newsletter through you signature when you post in email discussion groups. Email discussion lists are great ways of communicating with people who have similar interests as the topic of your Newsletter. Contribute to the discussion by posting solutions to problems. You can also mention "We have put together more in-depth advice on xxx. Feel free to visit our website. You’ll find loads of free information and resources."
This technique alone will drive much more traffic into your site. It also begins to establish you, the author, as an authority in your field. Once your online customers come to trust your information, they will also trust you enough to buy from.
Similar mediums to email discussion lists are newsgroups and online discussion forums. Remember that you cannot advertise your newsletter directly in any of these mediums, but having a little mention in your signature is perfectly OK (in most cases). The amount of subscribers you get through your signature file will depend on the quality of your post, if you post an interesting and useful article people will think that your Newsletter will also be useful.
Apart from these, Ad swaps are a very effective way of getting subscribers. You should find other publishers with newsletters similar to yours and trade ads with them. You run their ad and they will run yours. This helps both sides, which is another plus. You should swap ads with publishers no matter how many subscribers they have. Another method of 'swapping' would be to have the other webmaster recommend your newsletter in the confirmation email he or she sends to people who have just subscribed and you in turn could do the same for him.
It will take a little time to get your newsletter established but if you follow these few steps, you will have a growing subscriber base in no time.
Offer an incentive to your visitors. You should whenever possible offer them a free gift if they subscribe, such as a free report or Ebook. There a hundreds of free Ebooks which you can give away. You are bound to increase your sign-ups by doing this provided you offer them something related to your site's theme.
Next you should submit your Newsletter to all the Newsletter directories you can find, there a plenty of them on the net, and some of them get really big traffic every month. If your articles are good quality and informative then newsletter and website publishers will be interested and your work could end up being published in endless newsletter editions and hundreds of websites. Not only will this increase your credibility, it could result in 1000's more visitors, this is because at the end of all your articles which you allow others to publish will be a link back to your site. Don't forget also if lots or your articles are published on websites then your link popularity will improve drastically. This will result in higher search engine rankings in Google and the other engines which use link popularity as a ranking factor, which or course means lots more visitors and profit for you.
Include details of your newsletter in your signature file. This is the little bit of text that you attach to messages you post on the Internet and the emails you send to people. You then can promote your Newsletter through you signature when you post in email discussion groups. Email discussion lists are great ways of communicating with people who have similar interests as the topic of your Newsletter. Contribute to the discussion by posting solutions to problems. You can also mention "We have put together more in-depth advice on xxx. Feel free to visit our website. You’ll find loads of free information and resources."
This technique alone will drive much more traffic into your site. It also begins to establish you, the author, as an authority in your field. Once your online customers come to trust your information, they will also trust you enough to buy from.
Similar mediums to email discussion lists are newsgroups and online discussion forums. Remember that you cannot advertise your newsletter directly in any of these mediums, but having a little mention in your signature is perfectly OK (in most cases). The amount of subscribers you get through your signature file will depend on the quality of your post, if you post an interesting and useful article people will think that your Newsletter will also be useful.
Apart from these, Ad swaps are a very effective way of getting subscribers. You should find other publishers with newsletters similar to yours and trade ads with them. You run their ad and they will run yours. This helps both sides, which is another plus. You should swap ads with publishers no matter how many subscribers they have. Another method of 'swapping' would be to have the other webmaster recommend your newsletter in the confirmation email he or she sends to people who have just subscribed and you in turn could do the same for him.
It will take a little time to get your newsletter established but if you follow these few steps, you will have a growing subscriber base in no time.
Choosing a Domain Name
In this article you will learn how to chose an effective and memorable domain name and learn how you can actually increase traffic by using an old, expired domain name.
Times wasting so lets get started…
In the physical world, you can distinguish a business because of its structure, window displays, or signs. You can tell that a bank is a bank, or a clothing store is indeed a clothing store.
In the Internet, however, it is an entirely different story altogether. Your domain name is the only clue to your online business. You do not have visual clues: no location, no look, and no store design. Instead, users have to type in a word or a set of words to reach your site. Your prospective visitor has no way of knowing what your site is all about until he/she finds it and reads its contents. Who can ever tell that Amazon.com sells books? Or that Excite is a search engine?
Your domain name can spell your success on the Internet. A good domain name is the best asset you can ever have. It can make your business stand out in the crowd, or just float aimlessly in space.
The need to provide immediate clues to an online business led to the prevalence of generic domain names. Generic names instantly provide the user with an idea of what a business is all about, what to expect and look for in a site. For instance, Etoys.com is a toy store.
The temptation of the generic name has been so powerful; that some companies even paid ridiculously high prices to get the name they want. The domains Loans.com and Wines.com were both bought for $3 million each. Telephone.com was acquired for $1.75 million, while Bingo.com sold for $1.1 million.
However, generic names do not necessarily create the “buzz” that you’d like surrounding your website. Branding has always been about proper names: McDonald's did not name their store Hamburger. Hertz is not called Car Rental. FedEx is not Mail Carrier. Kodak is not Photographs. Microsoft is not Computer Software.
For better branding results, your domain name should be memorable and easy to remember. Remember the following tips when creating a domain name.
Using expired domains to skyrocket your traffic
At some point while you’re building your website, you’re going to have to buy a domain name. This is the address that users type into their browsers to reach your site. That takes about five seconds, and depending on the name you want and whether anyone else owns it, it won’t cost you more than a few bucks.
But domain names are also a golden opportunity to make some easy money.
I’m not talking about Internet real estate, where you buy up good names and sell them on for a profit—if you haven’t got into that now, forget it. The bottom’s fallen out of the market and the best domains are long gone.
I’m talking about expiring domains.
Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to promote their site and build up traffic. Many of them then lose interest and move on, leaving their site active. That means that although they still own the domain, they’re not actively promoting it. But they don’t need to. All the automatic marketing systems they’ve put in place are still bringing in traffic. The site runs itself.
Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going to expire. If you snap up those domains once they come back onto the market, you’ve got a pre-built stream of customers. You can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to your domain. You could set up an affiliate program get paid for users someone else paid for.
It’s that easy.
There are tons of options, and lots of easy ways to make lots of money with very little effort. Opportunities like these are everywhere.
Websites such as www.expiredtraffic.com or www.deleteddomains.com actually do all the legwork and let you reap all the rewards. Expired Traffic even has an affiliate program and www.snapnames.com allows you to back-order a specific domain name.
Do be careful when using other sites though. There are some swindlers out there that will sell you subscriptions, provide you with outdated lists, take your money and keep the good domains for themselves. It happens, and there’s little point in taking a risk when www.deleteddomains.com does such a great job.
Times wasting so lets get started…
In the physical world, you can distinguish a business because of its structure, window displays, or signs. You can tell that a bank is a bank, or a clothing store is indeed a clothing store.
In the Internet, however, it is an entirely different story altogether. Your domain name is the only clue to your online business. You do not have visual clues: no location, no look, and no store design. Instead, users have to type in a word or a set of words to reach your site. Your prospective visitor has no way of knowing what your site is all about until he/she finds it and reads its contents. Who can ever tell that Amazon.com sells books? Or that Excite is a search engine?
Your domain name can spell your success on the Internet. A good domain name is the best asset you can ever have. It can make your business stand out in the crowd, or just float aimlessly in space.
The need to provide immediate clues to an online business led to the prevalence of generic domain names. Generic names instantly provide the user with an idea of what a business is all about, what to expect and look for in a site. For instance, Etoys.com is a toy store.
The temptation of the generic name has been so powerful; that some companies even paid ridiculously high prices to get the name they want. The domains Loans.com and Wines.com were both bought for $3 million each. Telephone.com was acquired for $1.75 million, while Bingo.com sold for $1.1 million.
However, generic names do not necessarily create the “buzz” that you’d like surrounding your website. Branding has always been about proper names: McDonald's did not name their store Hamburger. Hertz is not called Car Rental. FedEx is not Mail Carrier. Kodak is not Photographs. Microsoft is not Computer Software.
For better branding results, your domain name should be memorable and easy to remember. Remember the following tips when creating a domain name.
- The domain name should be short
- The domain name should be simple
- It should be suggestive of your business category
- It should be unique
- It should be easy to interpret and pronounce
- It should be personalized
- It should not be difficult to spell
- It should not be difficult to remember
Using expired domains to skyrocket your traffic
At some point while you’re building your website, you’re going to have to buy a domain name. This is the address that users type into their browsers to reach your site. That takes about five seconds, and depending on the name you want and whether anyone else owns it, it won’t cost you more than a few bucks.
But domain names are also a golden opportunity to make some easy money.
I’m not talking about Internet real estate, where you buy up good names and sell them on for a profit—if you haven’t got into that now, forget it. The bottom’s fallen out of the market and the best domains are long gone.
I’m talking about expiring domains.
Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to promote their site and build up traffic. Many of them then lose interest and move on, leaving their site active. That means that although they still own the domain, they’re not actively promoting it. But they don’t need to. All the automatic marketing systems they’ve put in place are still bringing in traffic. The site runs itself.
Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going to expire. If you snap up those domains once they come back onto the market, you’ve got a pre-built stream of customers. You can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to your domain. You could set up an affiliate program get paid for users someone else paid for.
It’s that easy.
There are tons of options, and lots of easy ways to make lots of money with very little effort. Opportunities like these are everywhere.
Websites such as www.expiredtraffic.com or www.deleteddomains.com actually do all the legwork and let you reap all the rewards. Expired Traffic even has an affiliate program and www.snapnames.com allows you to back-order a specific domain name.
Do be careful when using other sites though. There are some swindlers out there that will sell you subscriptions, provide you with outdated lists, take your money and keep the good domains for themselves. It happens, and there’s little point in taking a risk when www.deleteddomains.com does such a great job.
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