You've started an online business, and decided to go the route of selling e-books, and advertisements (affiliates, adsense etc etc). You paid close to 1000$ to get your website ranked in the top 10 on several search engines, only to be dethroned by some 2 bit hustlers using cloakers. You say to yourself, "It's alright, it cost me a cool grand to learn my lesson" and then write it off as a business expense. Ok so there's an alternative you decide to buy some PPC (pay-per-click) ads. You shop around a little and try several companies you blow another 1000$, and guess what you got a ton of traffic. You think to yourself "Alright I'm back on track". You rub your hands greedily and open the admin panel to your merchant toolbox/account, and to your disappointment you see only a few sales that don't even cover a 3rd of your costs. Where did you go wrong? Click fraud? Crap product? Slow website? I'll some it up in 2 words BAD CONVERSIONS. Simply because you received a couple of thousand visitors, doesn't mean that they will all buy your products. With vastness of today's web, and the tens of millions of websites out there, people will window shop. PPC makes window shopping very expensive, therefore it's important to make sure when visitor does arrive that he is pleased with what he sees and feels comfortable handing over his money for your product. Here are a few tips on converting those visitors to sales and increasing revenue in general. 1. Don't have a 1 page layout.
This is probably the fastest way to make a possible customer click that little X on the top right hand side of their screen screen. Keep it short and sweet. The general populace is lazy they don't want to read through 25 testimonials, just to see what the end product is. Give them a few, and then stuff the rest in that little tab that says click here for more testimonials. 2.Presentation.
I don't think I need to go into to much detail here, just make it look professional. There are many freebie programs you can use out there to make a professional looking website. You wouldn't walk in a store that didn't somehow catch your eye, don't expect anything different from an online visitor to your website. 3. This is my favorite, place an ad for your competition (affiliated of course) on your website. If you can't sell them your product, you might as well make money off your competitors product. 4.Quality content.
What's the first thing you do when you reach any website? If your like me, you probably take a quick scroll through the first page, then you quickly explore all the different categories/tabs, if you like what you see, you the proceed to go back to the starting page, you tie your napkin around your neck and sink your teeth into it. So what's the point you may ask? Why do all this if all you want to do is sell your product? Firstly, it's not just about generating a sale, it's about creating a community. The formula is tested and proven. There is not a single successful ONLINE company out there that doesn't have a consistently changing website. If you have content people tend to feel more comfortable, they will look through what you have to offer, read your blogs, articles and links. If you have message boards, they will check to see what other people have to say about your product. They may even click on a banner (which could lead to additional sales) that might catch their eye. The bottom line is unlike a bar or a caf, you want visitors to stick around even if they don't buy anything, they aren't taking a paying customers seat, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. 5.Added value.
Throw in an illusion of getting something for free if they return on said date, or if they subscribe to your mailing list etc etc. This will give you a second opportunity to sell them a product, or to sell them one of your affiliates products 6. Start an affiliation program. There are two great reasons to do this. Firstly you will only pay traffic on products you sell. Secondly you will generate a lot of free traffic. Some of this traffic may become regular visitors, others may buy products from one of the other companies you are advertising a product for. Any which way you look at this, it's a win win situation. 7. Change your content often. This is important. Visitors are keen on this, and will stop coming to your website if this happens. Real World example, would you shop, or hang out at a store/bar where the people have been wearing the same clothes everyday for the last 2 weeks? Ditto for websites Follow the above tips and you are sure to get a higher conversion rate + additional income from other sources. Rant Off. Cheers! |
