A Web site gives you an online identity. It establishes
a place where prospects and customers can find you. It allows you to establish a
portion of cyber real estate to display your products/services.
It's
really your World Headquarters or Branch Office. Prospects and customers come
and visit at all hours of the day (or night), 24/7/365, to get information in
your area of specialization or your Theme. While they are visiting, you could be
sleeping, vacationing, having fun with your family or any other activities that
you desire to be doing.
The Internet is becoming more crowded everyday.
Web sites number well into the millions. Trying to stand out in the crowd is
going to mean that you will have to be more diligent and persistent in bringing
attention to your Web site. The need for the right kind of promotion is becoming
more urgent everyday. The following tips should help you in getting visitors to
your site and causing them to want to come back again:
(1) Become a
Valuable Source to Your Prospects And Customers
What do you have a lot
of knowledge about? What do you like to do? Do you have certain hobbies or
extracurricular activities? Who would be interested in the knowledge that you
have?
By answering these questions you have defined a Theme for your Web
site, as well as defined who your prospects. These are the folks that you want
to become a prime source of information. You can satisfy their need for
information. You may help them by creating a Web site that is loaded with tons
of information that causes these prospects to see you as an expert. This will
lead to them being repeat visitors and referring your site to others.
Here are some things that you could do to make your site an information
oasis or portal:
a) Refer them to other useful sites that are not in
competition with what you have to offer. For example, if your theme is
snowboarding and you sell equipment for snowboarding fans, you may have links to
fabulous places to go snowboarding in the US. You might even set up some special
vacation packages with the owners of these locations.
b) Provide
information to help the visitor improve their skills. Sticking with the
snowboarding example, you may provide interesting articles on perfecting your
visitors snowboarding skills, how to maintain snowboards for maximum
performance, avoiding injury while being a snowboading daredevil. If you provide
this type of information your visitors will continue to come back looking for
more opportunities to improve their skills.
c) You may provide advice to
your visitors. Everyone in your Theme area is constantly looking for advice.
Most of the feedback that I get from subscribers to this newsletter, is from
online marketers wanting advice on the "how to's" of Internet marketing.
Therefore I made the decision to add a discussion board to my Web site. Not only
will they be able to get advice from me, but also from others who visit the
board. The discussion board, http://talk.webprofitsource.com is
open for you to post your questions and comments now. Decide how you can become
a better advisor and draw visitor to your Web site.
(2) Make Your
Prospects Want to Visit Your Site
No matter how magnificent your site is
in your own eyes, you've still got to get visitors there in the first place.
Simply stating what they will find there is not enough. There are hundreds of
other sites that can say the same thing. What can you do to make you stand out?
Try some of these freebies to get them there:
a) Offer a FREE e-book
related to your Theme
b) Offer a FREE Specila Report on your Theme
c)
Offer a FREE newsletter or ezine
d) Offer a FREE Web site review
e)
Offer a FREE hour of your time over the phone
f) Offer a FREE sample of your
product
g) Offer a FREE ad in your newsletter
h) Offer a FREE
teleseminar
i) Offer a FREE e-mail seminar
(2) Make it Easy for
Prospects to Find You
Visitors are eager to learn, if they know about
you and all the information that you have for them. You are more than happy to
help them. So, how do you get to meet each other? There are many ways. Try
these:
a) Exploit your sig file or tag line. Do not send an email from
your desktop without your sig file on it. There is something about sig files
that just makes me want to click on the links and at least find out what the
person is promoting. I have run up on some very profitable tips by clicking on
links in sig files.
b) Describe your website and your services in search
engines and directories. This takes a bit of time, but the payback can be huge.
c) Exchange links, not with everyone, but with sites that offer products
that complements yours. This is best done by visiting the Web site of others and
sending them a personalized email asking for a link. Be sure to compliment the
owner and tell them how he can benefit from linking with you.
(3) Earn
Your Prospects' Confidence
Let's face it, the Internet can be a cold
place to do business. You can't see who you're dealing with, neither can you
hear them. So why should you trust them? And even furthermore, why should you
give them your hard earned dollar$?
As a Web site owner, you will *have*
to gain the confidence of your prospects and customers. One of the easiest ways
to do that is to establish a series of communications with the prospect,
preferably in a non-threatening way. A newsletter is a perfect way to stay in
touch with your prospects.
HOT TIP: If it were not for my newsletter, my
online profits would be very miniscule or non-existent.
I attribute it
to the fact that you keep hearing from me on a weekly basis providing you with
tools, techniques and strategies to make money on the Internet. Yes, I make
offers to you, but they are for items that will help you in your online
endeavors.
The newsletter is delivered to you every weekend with
original content on how to become an Internet success story. When you send me an
email with questions, you get a response within 36 hours, most of the time
within 24 hours.
I make it a rule to thank you for responding and offer
to help you in any way that I possibly can. These kind of behaviors build trust.
You must show your prospects and customers that you do care about them before
you can build a long-term relationship based upon trust.
HOT TIP: If you
want to learn about starting and publishing a profitable online ezine or
newsletter, join in with me and 400 other online publishers on The Publishers
Only List.
mailto:pubsonly-subscribe@topica.com
Closing
By following the tips above, you should begin to see
your hit counter coming alive and your bank account beginning to swell. Both are
very welcome to any Internet marketer who is looking to become an Internet
success story. So get busy turning your Web site into a cyber
magnet.
