The
MASTER PLAN for Developing a Successful
Website
Copyright
Internet Marketing Center
This
article is a follow-up to some of the articles
in a recent Cutting Edge publicatioon. It
seems that people still don't understand
the basic overall plan necessary in making
a website successful. So here it is broken
it down into a few clear steps for you to
follow.
Here
are the five major steps that you MUST implement
in-order-to create a successful website.
1.
Get traffic … get
qualified visitors coming to your website.
This
sounds like a small thing, but in reality
it is a very big job. Use all of the techniques
in my course to generate traffic.
2.
Create a website which makes visitors want
to stay and spend time.
You
need to keep visitors at your website by
giving away good information, and by making
your site attractive and easy to navigate.
You don't want a dog's breakfast of confusing
stuff. Your site should be attractive. It
should focus on a specific topic and target
group. It needs to allow you to create credibility
and rapport with the customer (as that is
what will get you the sale), make the visitors
feel comfortable, make him/her feel you
are there to help them, make it easy to
get the information they want, and make
it easy to order.
3.
Get visitors to come back to the website
once they've left.
Not
all visitors will buy the first time they
see your product or service. Some want to
do more research, some want to wait until
they can afford it, some don't need it until
later, some don't fully trust you and your
claims yet, etc.
This
is critical when you have so many website
out there now. You cannot expect them to
remember you when they are visiting ten's,
if not hundreds of websites in one session
online. You need to capture their email
address and remind them who you are and
how you can help.
A
good way to do this is by offering a free
valuable newsletter at your site. Each month
you can remind people to come and check
out your newest issue.
You
can even offer things like a tip of the
day, week or month. Whatever you do, make
sure it is timely so that visitors will
want to come back and check out your website
all the time to get new information.
If
you offer something like a tip of the day
or month and you don't deliver this through
a newsletter (but just publish it on your
site and expect people to remember to come
back and visit your all the time), the dilemma
you run into is that you can't guarantee
return visitors. Since you have no way of
reminding them to come back to you, they
may forget about you forever.
Personally,
I think it's important that you have a newsletter
to remind them to come back and get the
tip of the month, or see the new article
your have or whatever your most current
information is.
4.
Have a great sales process.
The
"sales process" means to make
sure that you give them the desire to buy
without being pushy (usually through good
sales copy) and make it is easy for them
to order. This is not an easy thing to accomplish
- there are a lot of "tiny" things
that will make a difference... many people
can get the traffic to their site but don't
turn those visitors into sales (which means
you make no money)... so follow my advice
closely in the course (as well as in last
month's issue of the cutting edge) on how
to do this as it will make the difference
between a "winner" site and a
"loser" site. Note: Don't forget
to have great customer service before and
after the sale as that will make a big difference
for #5 below.
5.
Work the backend.
The backend is very critical. And even though
I've mentioned it in the course and in past
newsletters I’ll talk about it again
… because the backend is where you
make your money. If you treat a customer
right and you give them great value and
great customer service you are always going
to be able to sell them something else.
That's where you make your real money.
Once you have a customer it costs you nothing
more to sell to them again especially since
you can email them for free. So everything
you sell them afterwards is pure profit.
There are no advertising costs, no getting
a customer cost, no commissions or referral
fees … everything after the first
sale is pure profit … you keep the
whole thing (other than the product hard
cost).
This
is where you make your money.
No
matter what product you are selling, no
matter what business you are in, the backend
is where your money is … so take this
to heart! This is your master plan of action
for making your business successful. Your
goal is to complete all five steps.
Though
the master plan has been broken down into
5 major steps, each step is made up of dozens
and dozens of smaller, but important actions
which have to happen along the way.
For
example take step number one … getting
visitors to your web site. Getting qualified
visitors is a very hard thing to do, and
it requires taking a lot of individual actions
… following through on a lot of promotional
and marketing techniques -testing different
methods and sale copy, etc. So although
they're listed as one step, don't underestimate
it. It requires a lot of work to get just
that one step done properly … and
in reality, this job never ends. The good
news is that it is very profitable.
"The
Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business
on the Internet" and it includes two
8" x 11" binders... three resource
CDs... and four bonus guidebooks...
...
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www.google.com/toolbar
(Make sure to check the "Enable Advanced
Features" option when you download
it to enable all the options.)
When
you're building a successful online business,
you'll probably need to spend hours at a
time researching your competitors and your
target market and looking for new product
ideas.
The
good news is that there are some nifty free
tools available on the Google Toolbar that
can make this whole process faster and a
lot more productive:
"Google
Groups" search: This is great for product
or market research, as you can search for
your keywords within the thousands of Google
Groups online and find forums relevant to
your web site. By checking these forums
regularly, you'll get to know what's important
to the people in your target market.
"Search
News": This feature lets you find news
stories relevant to your web site, e-zine,
or blog within news pages indexed by Google.
It's great for sparking content ideas or
just keeping up with the latest developments
in your market or industry.
"Web
Directory" search: This option lets
you search Google's directory for sites
that match your search terms. It's ideal
for finding out how many competitors you
may have for a new product, and for seeking
out potential linking partners.
"Search
Froogle": Froogle lets online shoppers
search for products and compare prices.
It displays pictures, prices, and links
to online stores in the results, so you
can use it to quickly research how the pricing
of your products or services compares with
other offerings across the Web. If you have
an idea for a new product, Froogle is a
great place to check out your potential
competitors.
Once
you get the hang of them, these powerful
tools can become a great asset to your business,
as they can save you hours spent on research
-- leaving you more time to concentrate
on developing new products, new marketing
strategies, and other ways to boost your
profits.
3.
Free image-reducing tool and free "tool
kit" trials
www.marketingtips.com/netmechanic
NetMechanic
is a "tool kit" resource, offering
a number of free trials that are great for
easily locating potential problems with
your site and repairing them quickly. Address
problems such as...
-HTML
code errors
-Browser display problems
-Lengthy load times
-Broken links
-Site downtime
Some of these tools will even give you a
free monthly update! However, you'll get
a limited version of each tool unless you're
willing to pay the fee. But NetMechanic's
image-reducing tool, GIFbot, is totally
free and is a particularly useful resource.
Using
GIFBot is an excellent way to reduce the
file size of your images so that your web
pages load faster -- and you don't lose
those impatient surfers. Image files can
be reduced by as much as 50 - 85% in many
cases, and it's so easy to do that nowadays
you'll look totally unprofessional with
huge, lagging image files that take forever
to load on your site.
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4.
Free HTML Editor and HTML tutorials
www.nvu.com
You
don't have to spend hundreds of dollars
on HTML Editors and web design software
to create your own web site. Nvu is a WYSIWYG
(What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor
that's similar to FrontPage or Dreamweaver
-- but completely free to download! The
software allows you to create and manage
a professional-looking web site without
any knowledge of HTML programming, and includes
the following features:
WYSIWYG
editing of pages, meaning you can see what
your web page will look like as you're creating
it
Integrated
file management via FTP, so you can upload
your pages to your web host
Easy-to-use
interface
Free
tutorials
If you are interested in learning how to
code HTML yourself, here are a couple of
excellent tutorial and resource sites where
you can learn everything you need to know:
www.davesite.com/webstation/html/
www.echoecho.com
And,
for those of you who are a little more technically
inclined, you may want to check out some
of the many free CGI script resources out
there. Two good places to start include...
www.scriptsearch.com
www.cgi-resources.com
5.
Free-trial keyword service
www.marketingtips.com/wordtracker
Using
a service such as Wordtracker allows you
to easily discover which keywords are frequently
searched by your target market -- but are
not being used by your competition. Wordtracker
has compiled a massive database of terms
that people search on, so all you have to
do is enter your keyword, and Wordtracker
tells you how often people are searching
that term, how many competing sites are
using that particular keyword, and how much
they are bidding for the pay-per-click search
engines.
A
tool like this will help you optimize your
search engine ranking by targeting keywords
and phrases that are frequently searched
by your best potential customers, but that
few (if any!) of your competitors are competing
under. Capitalize on the streams of neglected
and missed traffic that are passing your
competition by -- and even discover misspellings
of your keywords that may be drawing traffic!
The
free trial version of Wordtracker, however,
will only compare your keywords with MSN,
while the paid version compiles results
from the top search engines, directories,
and pay-per-click engines. If you're happy
to limit yourself to MSN, you can use the
free trial as many times as you like. Otherwise,
the paid version is available for $8.04
per day or $26.81 per week, with monthly
and yearly subscriptions available as well.
You
might also want to try out Yahoo! Search
Marketing's Keyword Popularity and Suggestion
tool, available free at: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Yahoo!
Search Marketing's keyword service will
give you a list of related searches that
include your term and tell you how many
times those terms were searched in Yahoo!
Search Marketing (formerly Overture) in
the last month. This is a good way to find
out the popularity of your keyword, but
the tool doesn't list bidding amounts. If
you're looking for great deals on your keywords,
your best bet is to search in both Yahoo!
Search Marketing and Wordtracker to gauge
popularity, then use Wordtracker to determine
your bidding strategy.
6.
Free browser compatibility service
www.anybrowser.com
The
browser compatibility experts AnyBrowser
offers every tool you'll need to make your
site viewable, as the name suggests, in
any browser. The most useful tool is the
"SiteViewer," which allows you
to see your web pages as surfers will see
them on multiple browsers. For example,
your site may look different in Netscape
Navigator than it does in Internet Explorer
-- images may be broken, tables may shift,
and so on. With AnyBrowser you can ensure
you meet the needs of every browser.
You
can also make sure your coding checks out
and your links aren't broken, and view an
example of how your listing will appear
in the search engines (what description
will be used, what the title will be, etc.).
AnyBrowser
is also a great resource directory, pointing
you toward a variety of really useful free
tools. It's a great place to find online
HTML tutorials, banner exchanges, CGI scripts,
and a ton of free resources such as HTML
editors, classifieds, fonts, graphics, Java
scripts, message boards, and more.
7.
Free search tool
www.answers.com
1-Click
Answers is a downloadable search tool available
from the Answers.com search engine. It allows
you to search multiple information sources
and find instant answers containing concise
information on the topic you're searching
for.
After
you've downloaded the personal (free) version,
you'll have a search bar right on your desktop.
When you search on an item, you'll get results
from some or all of the following resources,
depending on your search term:
Dictionaries
Thesauruses
Atlases
Glossaries
Encyclopedias
... All in just one step! No more messing
around with multiple search tools; 1-Click
Answers consolidates them in one source
to save the precious time of the busy netrepreneur.
8.
Free content
www.freesticky.com/stickyweb
This
resource is a good place to find free (or
cheap) content for your site, so you can
keep your site fresh and interesting for
your visitors -- and keep them coming back.
Find articles, news briefs, headlines, tickers,
tips of the day, and more. The broad variety
of topics range from financial advice to
hip hop headlines, from travel guides to
lottery results. You can also give away
free software applications directly from
your site, many of which are available for
co-branding.
Another
good source for articles is www.EZineArticles.com,
which offers free content designed for both
web sites and e-zines.
Watch
that you don't just load up your site with
a lot of stuff that you think is interesting.
The material you provide has to be relevant
to your business and your customer base.
Also be aware that the sponsorship information
that is usually included can pull your readers'
attention away from your purpose -- and,
most importantly, the sponsors' links can
draw traffic away from your site. It is
always a good idea to have quality content
on your site, use your discretion, and make
sure it's worth the risk involved.
9.
Free e-mail campaign ROI calculator
www.marketingtoday.com/tools/roi_calculator.htm
A
very cool tool… Marketing Today's
ROI calculator is an easy-to-use little
device that allows you to accurately estimate
what kind of return on investment you can
expect from your upcoming direct mail or
e-mail campaigns and promotions.
The
most accurate way to operate this tool is
to use the response rate you received from
your previous mailings to calculate your
ROI for future mailings. All you have to
do is enter the numbers: the number of mailings
you'll be doing, your total costs, the response
rate you expect, the conversion rate you
expect, and how much you expect each buyer
to spend (i.e., the cost of your product
or service).
Hint:
If you do not have previous response rates
and conversion rates to base your figures
on, you should estimate much lower than
you think necessary. If you guess too low,
you'll just end up with extra cash on hand;
guess too high, however, and you'll be making
a costly mistake.
The
ROI calculator is a simple tool that acts
as an excellent reality check when you're
determining your marketing costs.
10.
Free web design tool
www.colormatch.dk
Most
Internet entrepreneurs have very little,
if any, web design knowledge. However, this
doesn't have to be a barrier to creating
a professional-looking web site.
One
of the hardest tasks for someone with no
design experience is choosing the color
scheme for your site. Well, this easy-to-use
free tool allows you to create a complete
color scheme at the click of the button.
It also gives you the HTML codes for the
colors you choose (every web color has a
code, e.g., black is #000000) -- so you
can use them on your site and not have to
worry if that pink really does match that
orange.
11.
Free site search tools
http://sitelevel.whatuseek.com
SiteLevel
can set you up with effective, free search
tools for your web site. If your site is
more than a couple of pages and doesn't
have a good internal search tool, you're
probably losing many a frustrated visitor.
While
appeasing your visitors, a site-level search
engine also enables you to find out what
your users want and need. SiteLevel's search
tools allow you to track what your visitors
are searching for and see what they are
finding or not finding, so you can adapt
to their agendas and increase visitor satisfaction
-- and the stickiness of your site.
SiteLevel
also lets you customize your own search
results page to make it suit the look and
feel of your web site.
The
basic (free) version has more than enough
"oomph" for the average small-business
web site, allowing you to index up to 1,000
pages and incorporate a variety of search
strategies.
12.
More free marketing tools
www.thefreesite.com
You
got it… The Free Site is free stuff!
And lots of it!
Not
everything on this site is e-business related,
but you can find plenty that is. Probably
the most useful section for e-businesses
is the "webmaster" section at:
http://thefreesite.com/webmaster_freebies/
Here
you'll find the "Internet Seer"
site monitoring tool that provides downtime
alerts so you don't lose valuable customers.
You'll also find...
Tools
to help you check your keywords and your
link popularity
Suggested methods of winning awards for
your site
Scripts, banners, and polls
Guestbooks, message boards, and more...
The Free Site also lists free technical
support and online tutorials, free personal
management tools, plenty of Java script
resources, free fonts, clipart, graphics,
icons, and buttons, plus much, much more.
Again, be wary of freebies that ask for
advertising space in return... but you might
want to bookmark this page!
Final
thoughts
One
of the great advantages of starting an online
business, as opposed to taking the more
traditional "bricks and mortar"
approach, is that costs are SO much lower.
Hosting fees are your main overhead, but
these are nowhere near the rent you'd pay
for office space for an offline business.
And when it comes to creating and building
your web site -- as well as marketing it
-- you can further reduce your costs by
making use of some great free tools and
resources.
The
tools I've recommended are personal favorites,
and I know you'll find them incredibly useful.
But when you're choosing free services or
software, always proceed with caution and
stay in control with each decision you make.
Find out whether any advertising will be
included and whether you will be bound by
any restrictions or obligations. "Free"
can sometimes mean only that there's no
charge -- not no consequences.
|
"The
Insider Secrets to Marketing Your
Business on the Internet" (Version
2005 Edition), and it includes two
8" x 11" binders... three
resource CDs... and four bonus guidebooks...
...
All packed with over 1,000+ pages
of step-by-step lessons, quick-start
ideas, resource lists, audio interviews,
tools, and more!
Click
here for details. |
