If you consider your web site a money pit, you are not alone.
Quite a few business owners have told me that they have web
sites because "everyone else has a web site", but they haven't
gotten any business from their web site. None. Zero. Nada.
Zip. Many of them have paid thousands of dollars to web designers
to create the web sites for them, and than the web sites
just sit there, gathering the proverbial Internet dust, and
getting enormous traffic consisting of three to five unique
visitors a month.
Your web site should not be languishing in one of the rarely
visited corners of the Net. Instead, it should be working
24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year getting leads and
clients for your business. It should serve as marketing brochure
and as your best salesperson (who incidentally never sleeps,
and doesn't require either salary or commissions).
So how do you turn your dust collector into a lean, mean
sales machine? First, you need to lay down the infrastructure
for your online business. Here are three guidelines your
web site should adhere to before its initial debut:
- Your web site must be easy to navigate, understand and
use. When a web surfer comes to a web site and doesn't understand
what the web site is about in the first few minutes, the
surfer moves on to the next web site (trust me, there lots
of them out there. Approximately 2.7 billion at last count,
give or take a few billion).
If the purpose and intent of your web site is not blatantly
obvious, a surfer will move on. If your web site is difficult
to navigate, a surfer will move on. If your web site is hard
to use (for example, it is not obvious how to contact you
or hire you) a surfer will move on.
- Your web site must discuss what you do AND how what you
do will benefit your customers. Let's say Sue and Jane are
both weight loss coaches. Sue's web site says that Sue is
a weight loss coach. Jane's web site says that Jane is a
weight loss coach who helps women look and feel better by
losing 30 pounds in 3 months. Which coach sounds more appealing?
The one who not only states what she does, but also shows
what is in it for the customer. The site must answer a fundamental
question: Why should I hire you?
- Have a newsletter sign up box on your web site. The majority
of your web site visitors will not contact you about your
services after visiting your web site, but they will subscribe
for a free newsletter. By subscribing, they give you permission
to send them your information-packed newsletter, which will
also serve as a reminder about your business.
Without a newsletter, many people will visit your web site
once and promptly forget about it 10 minutes after leaving
it. By having a newsletter, you are able to capture these
visitors, and tell them about your business again and again.
Take action today! Take a critical look at your web site
and make sure that it conforms to the guidelines outlined
above. A website that follows these forms a solid foundation
for having a marketable web site for your business.
Biana Babinsky teaches business owners how to make more money
online. Learn how to get your web site to make money by getting
Biana's FREE special report, "Top 5 Ways to Increase your Online
Sales" at
http://avocadoconsulting.com/free_newsletter.html
