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doesn’t get the viewer to click on the ‘buy’ button!
So what are the elements that get a surfer to have the confi dence and interest to buy your products and services? Many people think that impressive graphics, a beautifully designed layout and fl ash presentations are a must for a good website. Unless you are a design or creative company, all the above elements serve no purpose! In fact, they tend to distract the surfer and reduce sales! If you study the most profi table websites in the world, they are very simply created with no fancy designs. What makes them profi table is their user-friendly structure and powerful sales copy. Again, take a look at Rosalind Gardner’s site www.sage-hearts.com that was featured earlier. She designed her own simple website (so can you) which pulls in over US$400,000 in profi ts a year. Bert Ingley’s site www. maddentips.com, also earlier featured, is also simply laid out and it pulls in US$157,000 a year!
Although simple, your website must include the following seven elements:
1. ‘About Us’ Page
You wouldn’t do business or buy from someone who you do not know about right? In this page, it is important to give the background of your company and yourself. When you give specifi c details and include pictures of yourself, staff and offi ce, it will all add to your credibility and visitors will trust you enough to buy from you.
2. ‘Contact Us’ Page
Again, this is an important page to establish trust and credibility. You want to show your clients that they can contact you easily should they have any questions or problems with their purchase. Always provide contact information like a phone number and a registered offi ce address.
3. A Strong Headline & Powerful Sales Copy
Like an advertisement, the fi rst thing your visitors should see is a strong headline that attracts their attention and presents the most important benefi t (or solution) your website offers. For example, ‘You’re About to Discover the Fastest, Easiest and Safest Way to It is also best if your domain name contains the main keywords that
your potential customers use to search for you. For example, if you are selling toys, you can bet that surfers will enter ‘toys’ into search engines like Google. If you have the keyword ‘toys’ in your domain name (e.g. www.toycity.com, there is a higher likelihood that you will get a better ranking. It is also more likely that customers will click on www. toyscity.com than a link that is meaningless like www.tomsstore.com. If you already have an existing company name like Tom’s Store, then you could put all the different keywords as sub-domains which your programmer can create for you for free. Examples of sub-domains are www.toys.tomsstore.com, www.educationaltoys.tomsstore.com or www.barbie.tomstore.com.
b. Find a Web Host
Just as a store needs to be housed in a building owned by a landlord, a website needs to be hosted on a server that is run by a web host. Web Hosts are companies that offer a service where their server (a powerful computer) stores your web site’s HTML fi les and graphics. Their server allows your web site to be accessed and viewed over the Internet. Web hosts charge a monthly fee anywhere from US$4 a month to US$35 a month, depending on the package you get. Not bad, if you compare this to a traditional business where you have to pay a couple of thousand dollar in rent, a month.
Just ensure that the Web Host you engage is a professionally run company with fast & secure servers, strong customer support and at the same time offer you suffi cient memory space so people can view your website and download fi les easily. www.namesecure.com and www.godaddy.com also offer web hosting packages.
c. Design & Build Your Website
This is the equivalent of constructing your shop and getting interior designers to make it attractive for people to come into your shop to browse and to buy! I must say that this is probably the most fun part but also the most challenging.
The most important thing to bear in mind when building your website is the design. It must be one that sells and doesn’t just look pretty. So many people make the mistake of spending time and money to do a snazzy, fl ashy website that dazzles and entertains but
SECRETS OF SELF-MADE MILLIONAIRES CHAPTER 11 SECRETS OF BUILDING A PROFIT GENERATING WEBSITE
4. Powerful Pictures & Graphics
Pictures grab attention and are worth a thousand words. Pictures add colour, excitement and life to your website. You should have lots of attractive pictures of your products, yourself (or your company spokesperson), models if necessary and satisfi ed customers.
5. An Opt-In Box
Most people who visit your website will not buy the fi rst time. It may take them a couple of visits to get familiar enough with your products and your company before a sale is made. An ‘opt-in box’ is used to collect visitors’ email addresses so you can follow up with them and keep them interested until they buy. You will learn more about this in Step #9. (refer to page 218)
6. A Clear Navigation Bar
All websites need a navigation bar that allows people to navigate through your site and enter the various pages that you have. It should include links to ‘About Us’, ‘Contact Us’, ‘FAQs’, ‘Terms and Conditions’, ‘Order Page’ and of course a link back to your ‘Home Page’.
7. Order Page and Shopping Cart
Unquestionably the most important element is an order page where customers can fi ll up their payment details and your website can process the order. If you have got a few items to sell, you may also want to provide a virtual shopping cart and a ‘check out’ page. You will learn how to set this up in Step #7. (refer to page 203)