How to Know if your Website is Killing your Business

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How to Know if your Website is Killing your Business

Just because you build it, and they come… doesn’t mean they’ll stay.

So you’ve got Google adwords, banner ads, co-registration and joint venture deals, postcards, print ads, radio commercials, your mother-in-law and everyone else you can bribe, cajole and threaten, driving traffic to your website.

Yes! You’re an absolute genius at driving traffic to your website. You’re getting a gazillion hits and unique page impressions—every minute!

You’ve got so much traffic, tying up so much bandwidth, that Al Gore is thinking of producing a new movie about you: An Inconvenient Internet Presence: How one marketer destroyed what I invented.

And yet, despite all your fame and glory… no one’s buying what you’re selling!

In other words…

Your Website Sucks!

Way back in the stone age of internet history… roughly five or so years ago… a website was a website was a website.

They all looked alike, they all worked alike (which basically meant they really didn’t do anything) and they all accomplished the same thing—pretty much nothing.

A website was a virtual business card. And since every business ordered business cards, every business ordered a website.

And then vanity and misguided creativity took hold of the entrepreneurial imagination.

The business card website quickly evolved into a multi-varied, multi-page behemoth. And as technology grew faster than our ability to master its consequences, the art of website design became an addiction—consuming the health, time, patience and money of the website owner—and the unwary visitor.

Pop-ups, hover-overs and other hovercraft, web 2.0, RSS, flash media, video, audio, 4-wheel drive, GPS, this and that, inspired and invigorated web developers and designers to continually raise the bar. Their ultimate end game: keeping visitors hostage to a website—tossing them into the black hole of web pyrotechnics, where nothing, not even light can escape.

And it didn’t bother them in the least that their Frankenstein website creations required an eternity to load on the average computer screen—eating RAM, disturbing REM, crashing hard drives, destroying transmissions, shackling legs in irons—lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Okay, let’s get back on track here…

Today, there are basically two and a half types of websites… those that inform and educate, those that inform educate and sell… and those that only sell.

Do You Know to Which Group Your Website Belongs?

Are you sure?

As a marketing and sales copywriter—I can tell you in a heartbeat.

I get phone calls and emails—almost daily—from individuals and company representatives lamenting the fact that their website doesn’t convert, and they want to know if I can help.

My first question, of course, is… how much money you got, pal?

Just kidding… but it is in the back of my mind.

Anyway… here are those two and a half website styles in a nutshell… and in their absolute worst incarnations…

The “I’ve really got nothing to say” Website

Typically, this website belongs to a small business owner. They’ve got a single product or a single service that they’re offering—yet, they have 20 or more pages on their website.

They’ve got a home page, a contact page, an about us page, a mission page, a subscribe-to-our-newsletter page, a link page, a testimonial page, a preferred vendor page, a site page, a leave-a-comment page and a product page for each person, animal, business or situation for which this one product can be of use.

But… there’s only two or three sentences on each page—if that much! So by default or design, graphical wizardry fills the remaining and yawning void.

Now, is there anything wrong with having a “brochure” style website?

Of course not—if you’re GE, Amazon, Dell Computer or any other business that has a diverse and extensive product and service mix.

For quicker and easier surfing (read: optimized usability) such a company needs a website that will logically and intuitively segment their wares and information on to different web pages.

But, if your company is a one-trick pony… a microsite will do you just fine.

Why waste your visitor’s time, forcing them to click here and there (and out of boredom flee to your competitor’s website), when everything they need to know and find about you, your product or service can comfortably and ergonomically fit on one page?

“…But I don’t want my website to look like one of those long-scrolling websites, you know, the type that sells information products!”

You’re laughing. Trust me… I hear that all the time, and it kills me.

My preferred retort to that bit of ignorance should be: “Well, those sites, the better conceived ones, typically rack up millions of dollars in sales—usually in a very short time. And so how much did you make last week?”

But instead, I politely suggest that they be sure to tell their web designer that he or she should stay away from that sort of, uh, look—but still put it on one page (two at the most).

Which now brings us to “that” sort of look, or site, the long scrolling, one-page kind.

The Kick-butt, Killer Commando Website

Because I don’t want to get into the debate, again, over whether long copy outsells short copy (it absolutely does!)… let me just state that a long scrolling, one-page, “information product kind” of website has but one purpose in its virtual life. To sell one thing—and to sell that one thing right off the page—right then and there!

And because “properly executed” websites of this kind can sell, and sell very well… uninitiated and salivating entrepreneurs who won’t take the time—or spend the money—to achieve a similar level of selling sophistication… will blindly, poorly and sacrilegiously copy that type of website’s form and style—while ignoring its compelling substance.

They’ll slap up a website, using a website design program they downloaded off the internet the night before.

And then they’ll fill it up with pages and pages (the amount of which seemingly corresponds, oddly enough, to the entrepreneur’s age) of overblown, hype-filled, irrelevant, stream of conscious verbal diarrhea.

And Holy Baloney! the impossible promises they make—with no credible proof provided—and the multitude of “freebies” offered (valued at thousands of dollars more than the .95 or 5 program, system or product being hawked)—is an absolute marvel to behold.

And then, of course, there’s the false deadline and limited supply (without a reasonable explanation as to why).

The list of unadulterated snake oil BS, sales gaffs and obvious chicanery on these sites is endless—indeed, the list is as long as the website.

Fortunately though, few are swindled, and these sites disappear relatively quickly, simply because…they don’t sell well.

And yet… the online, long-copy, scrolling sales letter, when conceived with good and honest intentions and executed with consummate sales skill, can quickly create a fortune, and a loyal and well-deserved following for a gifted entrepreneur where neither existed before.

That cheap imitations have muddied the worth and image of one of the mightiest and most sublime manifestations of salesmanship in print… is unfortunate. But they will endure… to the benefit of seller… and customer.

Which now brings us, finally, to the website by half…

The Landing, Splash, Squeeze Page

This rose by any other name—should be short, sweet and to the point.

What a surgical military strike is to the field of combat, the landing page is to the theater of marketing. Its sole purpose is conversion—to get the reader to buy, subscribe or inquire—fast. All the “selling and persuasion” typically comes before the visitor lands on this short-copy, quick-strike page.

Interestingly, one mistake many marketers make in regard to the landing page is not in the design of one—but in the lack of one.

They’ll do all the right things (hopefully) to generate traffic—but rather than drive the visitor to a page that is a dedicated follow-up to the ad the visitor just read—they drive them to their company’s home page, instead.

Then the visitor has to hunt and click for their particular item of interest.

If you give a visitor/potential buyer the slightest opportunity to get sidetracked and not complete the desired action—they will!

Another mistake is not designing the landing page to look and read the same way as the ad that attracted them in the first place. In short, there’s no continuity—no sense that they’re in the right place—primarily because there’s no repetition of the offer made in the ad.

Even though the potential customer has already been seduced, persuaded and sold on purchasing your product or service—or just providing their email address—you still must continue to seduce, persuade and sell them on your landing page.

You just don’t have to take as much time doing it. Just repeat the salient selling points already made in the ad—including the guarantee or risk reversal element.

But don’t be too quick and smart about it, either.

Don’t request your customer’s credit card number in a cold, calculating and peremptory manner. Continue to entice and excite your customers on your landing page—so that they can’t bear to wait a moment longer to give you their name and email address… or their money.

iPad Is Killing Netbooks

admin    8615     Ipad, Killing, netbooks

iPad Is Killing Netbooks

A new survey shows consumers are “overwhelmingly leaning” toward the iPad instead of netbooks, and cheap laptops are also taking a toll on netbook sales. The study, which surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. consumers, was commissioned by consumer electronics site Retrevo.(HP Pavilion dv3500 laptop battery)

Apple’s iPad has proven popular with shoppers, as more than one million devices have already been sold. That popularity is hurting netbook sales, says the survey, as the iPad offers many of the same advantages that netbooks offer over a traditional laptop, such as higher portability and longer battery life.(dell Inspiron 640m battery)

The Retrevo survey asked consumers whether they are planning on buying an iPad or a netbook: 78 percent said they would be choosing an iPad, while only 22 percent would choose a netbook.(sony VGP-BPS2B battery)

Respondents were asked whether they held off on buying a netbook after Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in January. 30 percent answered that they did, and consequently bought an iPad, while 40 percent did hold back but eventually bought a netbook instead. 30 percent of respondents said they did not hold back and just bought a netbook.

Regular laptops are still popular with U.S. consumers, the survey shows, especially the cheap lower-end models. 65 percent said they would go for a laptop instead of a netbook when faced with the choice this year.

Those who preferred netbooks over laptops or iPads said that the main feature that attracted them to a netbook was the smaller footprint of the machines (55 percent), while 20 percent considered price, and 19 percent considered battery life as the main trait.

Analysts say however, that the iPad won’t cripple sales of netbooks, at least not this year, mainly because the 0 or so gap in pricing between the two types of devices. Jeff Orr, an analyst with ABI Research, reportedly said earlier this month that just one percent of potential netbook buyers would be impacted by tablets, like the iPad.

What are you going to buy this year: an iPad (or any other tablet) or a netbook? Sound off in the comments.

Find More Dell Tablet Articles

The Killing Tips of Creating Targeted Traffic to Website Or What People Are Usually Forgetting About

admin    Web Marketing     About, Creating, Forgetting, Killing, People, Targeted, Tips, Traffic, Usually, website

The Killing Tips of Creating Targeted Traffic to Website Or What People Are Usually Forgetting About

The first thing you should do in creating traffic to your website is you need to make sure that your website is properly created. To explain everything that you need for that I will need a lot of space and time. It is impossible here. You should always make sure that you got your site properly indexed by most of the search engines so that you’re getting the maximum search engine traffic possible. Properly structured website has more chances to get a higher Google search engine ranking. If you need more information about this, look for current books on search engine optimization. This can give you better ideas how to redesign some pages on your website to make sure that you are getting maximum exposure. If you are looking to get more visitors to your website, you may also want to use “Pay per click” advertising. You can bid on your keywords and when people search on these keywords, your ads will show up. You will pay a little amount per click that you receive from your ads being displayed. This will help you because you can target the audience that you want to bring to your website. By bidding on clicks, you are able to control your advertising costs and still receive leads.

Another way to get targeted traffic coming to your site and help in creating good targeted traffic is to offer some free giveaways. There are so many free forums where you can post about free giveaways at your website and this is an additional way to bring targeted traffic to your website. The word free is a magic key to the most people attention. By offering something for free if they visit your website, you will be getting a good amount of hits. When promoting your giveaways you are making someone sign up for your newsletter and they will get a free offer or gift. Always make sure you do not push products in your newsletter but rather soft sell them while pushing information your target audience can use.

The final key when looking at how to get targeted traffic to your website, you need to make personal decision how much you are ready to spend. There are a lot of companies which you can buy traffic from at a very cheap price. But for targeted and more profitable traffic you will have to pay more. Nothing is free in any business at all. You always pay with time, knowledge or finances. The next question for you: How much are you ready to pay and what is more convenient for you today?

Hopefully these couple different tips about creating targeted traffic can help you out. Always make sure that you are creating not only a good site, but also its contents that people will want to read what they find and then come back to your website. These are very simple tips for you on how to keep continuous increasing traffic with new prospects and those, who are willing to come back to your site.

Svitlana Krupka invites you to learn more about Internet business opportunities at http://www.extremeprofitpower.com and sign up to get free 250,000 advertising credits.

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Copywriting: The Big Copywriting Mistakes That Could Be Killing Your Sales

admin    Web Marketing     Copywriting, Could, Killing, Mistakes, Sales.

Copywriting: The Big Copywriting Mistakes That Could Be Killing Your Sales

Are your copywriting mistakes killing your sales? Well, before you can answer this question you have to know what copywriting is. This is known as the process of writing ads and articles that promote an idea, whether it is a person or a business. The whole idea behind copywriting is to persuade the person who is reading it. So now that you have a better understanding of what copywriting is, you can now clearly identify any problems that may be killing your sales. So lets take a look.

The first big mistake is the most common. Whenever people are copywriting, they tend to focus on the business or the advertiser. This is not going to persuade anyone to try your product or use your service. You have to think about how the product is going to relate to the consumer, not to the advertiser. Thus, you need to focus on the consumer, not the advertiser!

Of course, it does matter who you are advertising to. Another deadly copywriting mistake is when companies use bad headlines that do not grab the attention of the person reading it. This is a very big sales killer. If your ad is next to another company (that is selling the same product), and their ad “jumps” out more, people are going to click on that ad. Thus, you are killing your sale before you even have a chance to make one. Think of your headline as the sales pitch to get the prospect to read the whole ad.

The next big mistake that people are doing when copywriting is that they are putting too much information together. The information needs to be broken up into short, readable sets of information. That is why it’s always good to use things like bullets to list your information. People do not like to read very much online, and they usually only end up skimming over information. This means that they are not going to read everything you have to say if you do not break it up a little bit.

Last, but not the least, you need to know that copywriting should flow like a normal conversation. It should not have a whole bunch of to much impressive words, because you are just going to lose your customer. They need to see that they are buying from a person just like them. Not many people walk around and use big words while they are talking to their friends. What would you rather buy from, an ad that uses only big words or an ad that felt real, like it came from the heart. I think the answer is easy to see!

If your copywriting skills are poor, it may be a good idea to hire a professional copywriter. Having great copy is the single most important factor that will decide if your business will prosper or fail miserably.
Double check your own sales copy and eliminate these copywriting mistakes. You will thank yourself later. I promise!

To Your Success!

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Jobs Claimed Google Attempting Killing Iphone Is Wishful Thinking

admin    8615     Attempting, Claimed, google, iPhone, Jobs, Killing, Thinking, Wishful

Jobs Claimed Google Attempting Killing Iphone Is Wishful Thinking

Beijing time January 31, after launching the industry’s long expected iPod in news conference, Steve Jobs held twnhall meeting of Apple Company. According to the foreign media report, Jobs attacked Google and Adobe powerfully in the conference; he elaborated the long wide competitive relation between Apple Company and Google.

Jobs expressed, Apple Company did not step into Internet search field, but choose the mobile phone as the breakthrough of market.

He said, Google is full of ambition, want to kill iPhone, but Apple will not let Google achieve. When mentioning Adobe Company, Jobs blamed Adobe Company is too lazy. The company flash’s support ability to Mac is very unsatisfactory, which exist a large number of software defect, this is also one of the reason that iPod does not support flash of Adobe company.

Jobs also expressed, Flash often make Mac system breakdown. And nobody is willing to use Flash. In the future, HTML 5 will be the standard of the industry, flash is eliminated is unavoidable.

From the speech of Jobs gave in the twnhall meeting, related analysts think:

Apple Company will have large scale upgrade to iPhone, which make Google company’s Android phones never unable to keep pace with iPhone. iPod will joint hands with iPhone and Mac to become the main products of Apple company. Apple thinks a lot of Lala’s technical team as well as Cloud computing experience of music service field, wishes to blend Lala technical team into iTune team via buyout.

The next iPhone will be an A+ upgrade version. Besides, blu-ray software is an awful mess; Apple Company plans to carry on the research and development to blu-ray software after the market opportunity matured.

As a cellphone dropshipping wholesale, cellphone-china.com thinks Google android phones will post a strong threat, as for who will be the winner of the cellphone market in the future, it is decided by the market and consumers.

Related Adobe Apple Articles

Ninjas Are Slowly Killing Off All Social Media Gurus

admin    Web Marketing     Gurus, Killing, Media, Ninjas, Slowly, Social

If you’re one of the many people that hates, just hates, the phrase social media guru, I have good news for you.

They’re slowly being killed off by an elite group of ninjas!

According to LinkedIn, the use of the word “guru” in professional titles is on the decline.

However, in its place is a disturbing upward trend for the word “ninja.”

Really people? Ninjas? What’s next “superhero” or perhaps “rockstar?”

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Twitter On The Verge Of Killing RSS

admin    Social Media Marketing     Killing, Twitter, Verge

For media, there are two primary use cases for RSS :

But, Twitter is killing this use case for RSS.

Something interesting happened along the way, Twitter achieved critical mass and bloggers and mainstream media alike adopted it to promote content. Every post I write is automatically tweeted out with the post title and link to source, not unlike what other sites do, and over the last year I have noticed a steady increase in referral traffic fromTwitter as my followers grew and links to my posts were clicked on… in essence people are following me much like they subscribe to my RSS feed.

Today I use the much improved Twitter search function to find profiles for the publications I like to read, following them and getting their content via links in tweets.

One of the most packed presentations at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco Wednesday was about how businesses should – and shouldn’t – go about using micro-blogging service Twitter.

If I were to make a prediction it would be that publishers increasingly find primary utility for RSS in the backoffice while de-empathizing RSS for audience acquisition, in the process embracing Twitter as a mechanism for engaging an audience and promoting content at the same time.

I think the main difference between RSS and Twitter is that RSS is really a technology that drives a user experience while Twitter (to a certain extent) embodies that user experience.

Source and detail info:

http://techunits.com/content/1413/twitter_on_the_verge_of_killing_rss

Spotting and Avoiding Common Online Marketing Campaign Killing Errors

admin    Web Marketing     Avoiding, Campaign, Common, Errors, Killing, marketing, Online, Spotting

You invest a lot of time in your online marketing campaign. You’re doing all the right things, getting your name out to all the right places. But you’re still not seeing the results you had hoped for. Are you sure you’re not killing your own campaign? Don’t squash it before it gets off the ground. Check yourself by reviewing these common online marketing campaign mistakes so you can steer clear of them.
Yes, you write and submit articles to increase your exposure, get more links back to your site, raise your page rank and get into the top ten in Google’s and Yahoo’s search results. So that means you need to sell yourself, right? Wrong. Article marketing is not advertising. Write articles with the reader in mind. Publishers are looking for articles that deliver fresh, relevant, informative content to their readers. Don’t try to sell yourself, your products or services in your articles or you will limit your publication possibilities.
Successful online marketers pre-sell all the time, though. What is pre-selling? Pre-selling is like priming the pump. You write up compelling content filled articles with useful information. Readers like what they read and look for more articles written by you.
Maybe they click through to your site and take a look around. After the reader has read a few of your articles he begins to see you as an authority on that particular topic. He’s also become more interested in learning about the topic. Maybe he’s interested in ways you can help him with your products and services, which he now trusts you enough to purchase. Bingo! Pre-selling has taken place.
In that same vein, no one is interested in the same-old, same-old. Don’t go around submitting rehashed material lifted from other places or PLR articles that are showing up all over the place with different “authors” listed. Rehashing material won’t get you published very often. And if you do manage to get published in a few places, the stale content won’t get you many fans, or site visitors. You are a unique individual, so submitting original material that will get you noticed isn’t as difficult as you may think it is.
Another thing you want to concentrate on is staying focused and on topic. If your article content meanders off in different directions you’ll lose the readers’ interest. Similarly, if you submit articles about everything from cookware to canoes you won’t establish yourself as an expert in anything. This greatly dilutes the results of your efforts. Pick a niche and stay with it. Make a name for yourself. And keep your article subjects narrowly focused. “Home Improvement” is way too broad. “Installing Crown Molding” is focused. Figure out your target market and hone in on it with carefully focused articles.
Writing great articles is important, but don’t forget the about the author box. This is your one chance in article marketing to sell yourself. Be sure to include your name, many people forget this. This should be the same name you use in your byline. Also include a line or two about what you can do for your readers.
You want to provide the complete website URL for just one site. Avoid the temptation to include addresses of every site you run. Choose the link that best fits the article’s target audience. And always include a call to action. If you’ve done everything right, many of your readers are warmed up and ready to buy, or at least will visit your site. Go ahead and ask for the business with a line such as “set up your new account today.”
All these strategies will help you stop killing your campaign and breathe new life into your internet marketing efforts.

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