Develop a Website That Sells
Check Out Your Finances
How is your present financial situation? You will need some money to obtain and maintain a website.
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Prepare Your Website
Before building your website, target your market. Determine who you are selling your product(s) to. Many people make the mistake of offering everything under the sun, or trying to sell to everyone. This is a mistake. I don't know who originally came up with this remark but it's great - "if you sell to everyone, you sell to no one." Design your site for your targeted customers and forget about everybody else.
On-line shopping malls, offering everything is probably is not a good idea. Think of your competition. Plus, it confuses your customers.
Remember how you have felt at a smorgasbord? Have you felt confused by so many items to choose from that you wound up eating less than usual? This is the same concept.
Plus, what would your key words be with a shopping mall? I don't think you would be noticeable by the search engines.
However, even with fantastic traffic to the mental health sites, the traffic is very low to the shopping mall. Why? People aren't going there to shop.
This teaches us another lesson. Whatever we offer for sale - whether it be an affiliate link or our own product, it must be directly related to the theme of the website. It is better to have few products related to the site, than many products unrelated.
In fact, this is key information in developing a successful affiliate site. More on this later.
Try to pick a niche where there is less competition. A good way to experiment with this is to type in keywords in Alta Vista and see just how many sites you are in competition with. Or, you could go to Overture and type in your keyword. The less expensive your keyword is, the more likely you are to have less competition.
If you don't know how to build a website, I advise you to hire someone. There are free on-line web spaces where you can build your own site without any knowledge of HTML.
If you want to know more on building a successful website, I learned most of what I know and what I have been writing about through the book, "Make Your Site Sell." It's very inexpensive and is packed with information. Even tells you what sells on the net and how to get your website ready to sell and bring traffic.
For Affiliate Websites
Here comes the hard part. If you are just beginning a website and of course you have no traffic yet, some affiliate programs and merchants will not accept you unless you have a great deal of traffic. However many will.
Just sign up for the affiliate programs that are targeted for your customer. One key to your sales is the degree to how targeted your links are to your website. Think about who your targeted customer is. Forget about everybody else. They won't buy from you anyway.
I purchased a software program called "Affiliate Assistant" and used it for a short time but the maker was not supportive and each time I had to redo Windows I not only had to completely redo ALL the material I had stored in the program as it was gone, but the password and ID did not work each and every time and I had to write the maker of the program to get it to work. Finally I gave up and asked for my money back which they did not return.
I do not recommend "Affiliate Assistant."
Get a Domain Name
Getting your own domain name is very important. I recommend that you make it short, easy to remember, relates to the content of your website and is easy for everyone to spell.
Search engines and your customers will have much more respect for your site if you have a domain name. Yes, you will do better with the search engines.
I recommend Network Solutions. Get a domain with easy online account management and great upgrade options. Check this out to see if the domain you want is taken:
Get a Host to Park Your Site
It is imperative that whomever you choose to park your website, that you get 24 hour, 7 days a week tech assistance. This is vital.
Also ask them what their percentage of "up time" is. How often does their services go down which will include your site. Anytime it's down you lose money and if a search engine were to spider your site at a time it's down it may leave their directory at that time.
Make sure your name is on the domain. Some hosts put it in their name. Don't ever let that happen.
There is another alternative available depending upon what your needs are. It's called Site Build It. Site Build It is ideal for those of you who want everything done for you. It's very easy to use and takes care of many things you don't need to worry about. It even writes it's own meta code on the pages for the search engines.
Site Sell says, "You just do your business and thrive, in a tenth of the time at a tenth of price. This streamlined system of automated tools makes it so simple... No HTML, FTP, CGI, graphic or programming skills needed. No Search Engine expertise or consultants required.
SBI! handles all the technology and complexity for you. Everything... from brainstorming to domain name to hosting, from graphic design to Search Engine submission and optimization, from traffic building and analysis to e-zine publishing.
Everything...
All the tools, all in one place, all for one price, and all tied together into a straightforward, integrated, step-by-step process that works. Nothing else comes close."Personally I highly recommend it for a busy person or for someone who wants to get a quality website up with as little work as possible. I've tried it and it's fantastic.
Take a look a the Site Build it Quick Tour Slide Show and see if this is something that would meet your needs.
Material On Your Site
If you are skilled in building your own website, what is usually recommended for a good business is a simple and clean site. Remember, if it takes more than 20 seconds to download a page, some people would call that a slow page so go easy on your graphics. If you need to break the page up into more pages, by all means do so. Remember there are many web surfers who have a 28.8 modem.
Avoid animated gifs all together. This will not only assist with download time, but will make your site look more professional.
When you break up pages, it is vital in regards to your sales to get the person's attention so they will want to go to the next page. Perhaps you could pose a question - just make it interesting. Leave them hanging. Put yourself in the shoes of your target customer.
Your main page is extremely important. It should grab the customer's attention. Remember, web surfers are usually in a hurry and you only have 10 - 20 seconds to get their interest in your site. Write a headline grabber. Use power words such as you, secrets, etc. Try to get the customer to feel something. Write it directly to your targeted customer. Get inside their heads. What do they want. What are they looking for and WHY should they read your site? What are the BENEFITS of your website?
When you write your site, write it directly to your targeted customer. Write down who the website is for. Get a picture of them. How old are they, how much money are they making now, do they own their own home? How can your product or service solve a problem in their life?
They may not even be aware that they need your product. Tell them why they need it and what the benefits are for them.
Do not try to sell to anyone other than your targeted customer. This is a large mistake that many successful entrepreneurs have written about. Forget about all the other people that visit your site. They are not your buyers.
Many people make the mistake of beginning their website with boring information on the history of the company or information about themselves, blah, blah, blah.
The fact is that nobody cares! What the customer is thinking as they reach your site is "what is in it for me?" Speak to them directly, using the word "you" a lot.
Also, you need to direct your targeted customers to your desired response. What is it you want your customer to do? Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter, have them phone you, buy your product immediately, what?
If your product is over $100. perhaps your desired response should be to either/or download the free trial and sign up for your newsletter. This way you can keep in touch with them, always reminding them about your product.
You need to tell them what you want them to do.
People don't buy the first visit. They buy during the second or third visits. Once you have developed their trust and they buy from you, they are likely to buy again.
For fantastic information on writing sales copy I recommend "Make Your Words Sell." SiteSell states "Make Your Words Sell! concerns itself with the only kind of Web copy of interest to serious Internet marketers the world over.
It's about writing Internet sales copy that grabs attention – and holds it tight.
It's about writing Internet sales copy that persuades, and motivates readers into action.
To put it simply...
It's about writing words that sell on the Net."
Develop a Sticky Website
What is a "sticky website?" How do I get customers to come back to my site after their first visit?
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