4 Strategies To Help You To Make Money From Your Website

Copyright © 2006-2007 Trey Pennewell


People always seem to be looking for new ways to make money online. There is nothing wrong with being innovative and trying new methods to make money online. The problem comes up when people, seeking new methods, forget to pay attention to the proven methods of making money online.

What has worked in the past for successful webmasters is still working today, and will likely continue to work into the foreseeable future. There are 4 primary areas that a webmaster must focus on to be successful. These four areas are important regardless of the type of website you run or the product or service that you sell.


Conversions

Conversions are critical. You can get a million visitors to your site, but that means nothing if none of them make a purchase at your site. Conversions are calculated as the percentage of people that make a purchase at your site, compared to the number of total visitors.

The higher your conversion rate, the less traffic that you need to your site. Many webmasters struggle with getting that all-important traffic to their site. So instead of exclusively chasing traffic, also work on increasing the amount of traffic that you can convert into sales. There are a number of ways that you can do this with your online business.

Many webmasters understand that having a compelling sales letter, or sales pitch, is crucial. If you do not have the best possible sales letter, then you are losing potential customers. If you do not feel comfortable writing your own sales letter, consider hiring a copywriter to do it for you. You could also ask the copywriter to develop a few sales letters for your business, and you can do a comparitive analysis to see which ones bring the best conversion results for your business.

You can also improve your conversion ratio by paying attention to the layout of your web pages. There are a lot of different opinions on the best layouts for selling your products or services. For me there are a couple of easy ways to determine web page layouts.

The first thing that I consider is what I like and dislike about other websites. Is it hard to find the product on the page? Is the price hidden? Is a description of the product easy to find? Is the ordering information easy to find?

The other factor that I look at is what successful webmasters before me have done with their layout. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Instead of spending weeks trying to develop my own perfect layout, I will start with a template similar to those that are known for making high conversions.


Linking For Traffic

Now that we have covered conversions, we can talk about linking for traffic. While your conversions may be very good, it will never be 100%. So what this means is that the more of that precious traffic you get (at whatever conversion rate you are getting) will result in more sales and more money. It is known that the more links you have to your website, the more traffic that you will get. The links to your site are critical in driving traffic.

First of all, people click those links. I value a link from a high traffic website as much or more than a link from a high PageRank site, because actual humans are likely to be clicking the link to my website. I also place a very high value on having articles published in ezines and newsletters, because it always results in a nice boost in my website's traffic. The amount of traffic that comes as a result of having an article published in an ezine or newsletter will of course vary depending on the number of subscribers on the list.

A certain percentage of readers will always click the links that I have in a webpage or an ezine. And, a certain percentage of those who visit my website will convert to sales. Having my link appear in some ezines or newsletters can literally translate to thousands or tens of thousands of visitors to my website in a single day!

If you utilize article distributions, you can often get your articles published on a variety of websites and ezines. These articles will have your link in the author box, and you will also have the opportunity to discuss your web site and the products or services that you offer in your author box. This being said, the more effort you put into writing a good article and author box, the more likely you are to get some traffic as a result.


Linking Popularity

Building links for search engine placement purposes is just as important as linking for traffic. The more relevant back links that you have coming into your site, the higher your website will rank in the major search engines for your keywords. Back links are one of the best ways that you can get your online business to rank near the top of the search engines for your niche.

Be sure to use an anchor text on those links that is the same or similar to the keywords that you are targeting. Also, try to get those back links from relevant sites as much as possible. By this, I mean try to get those links from sites and webpages that have something in common with your site. A link from a webpage about bird watching will have little in common with your website about automobiles.

To illustrate the importance of back links, look at Digg.com (http://www.google.com/search?q=link%3ahttp%3a%2f%2fdigg%2ecom). They have a whopping 131,000 back links, which is why they are one of the most popular social book marking sites on the Internet.


Link Baiting

Link baiting is a great way to get those important back links, both for traffic and for link popularity. But, what is link baiting? It is when you have something so interesting / amusing / informative / useful that people will want to link to you, without you asking them to do so. Having something on your site that people will blog about, tell their friends about, or to send emails to their contacts about, is what constitutes link baiting. Your bait is so powerful that the fish will basically jump into the boat, without you ever needing to ask!

What kind of things work as link bait? This will depend a lot on the audience that you are trying to reach. In the SEO world, good link bait is placing free webmaster tools on your site. This means that people will bookmark the site; refer to it on forums, and possibly blog about what they learned by using your free webmaster tools.

If you are able to grow a reputation among your niche market as an expert, people will cite you and your website because of the quality information that you offer. If you run a humor site, people will forward the URL to their friends and tell them to check out a certain page.

Link baiting is also why the social book marking is exploding in popularity. If you have an article that gets onto the front page of Digg.com via link baiting, you will have an explosion in traffic. The same can be said for all of the major social bookmarking sites.

Link baiting is all about offering something unique that people will want to tell their friends about and that they will want to talk about. Spend some serious time thinking about what you can offer to your customer base that will result in successful link baiting for your website.


In Conclusion...

If you spend your time focusing on these 4 ways to make money with your online business, you are sure to be well ahead of most of your competitors. Optimize your site for conversions, build links for traffic, create links for popularity, and dangle some link bait for others to share, and you will find your customer base beginning to grow, and you will see your sales will start to improve.

About The Author:

Trey Pennewell and his team specialize in the design and implementation of linking strategies to help their online business clients improve their inbound link building efforts. LinksAndTraffic.com, owned by Bill Platt, works with their clients to determine what keyword phrases they should target to bring targeted prospects and search traffic to their client's website. Then Trey and Bill work closely together to bring the link building plan to fruition. You can learn more by giving Bill a call at 405-780-7327 between 9am and 6pm, Monday through Friday, or by visiting: http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com

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Three Building Blocks To A Successful Business Website

Copyright © 2007 Rick Sloboda


Are you planning to build or update a business website? The following three questions will save you time, money and frustration, and help you get the results you want.

1. What is your website's objective?
2. Who is your target market?
3. What's your position?

On several occasions, my colleagues and I have come across business owners who spent upwards of $20,000 on website design and development, with literally nothing to show for it.

The reason? They didn't invest time and effort to establish their specific needs.

They rushed ahead. And as they went along, plans changed, different ideas evolved and costly experiments ensued. The targets shifted month after month, right up until funds were finally depleted.

So how do you avoid this pitfall when it's time to launch your business website?

Figure out what you actually need before you start sending out any requests for quotes.

Here are three crucial questions you need to answer before you build a business website:

What is your website's objective?

The objective of your website is to support your business and its goals.

For example, do you want to sell products online, generate leads, build a brand and awareness, attract members, generate feedback or reduce call centre volume?

Here are the most basic business website categories and their purposes:

e-commerce – sell merchandise, increase sales, decrease expenses

Content sales – sell subscription services, generate revenue via ads or subscriptions

Lead-generation – generate sales possibilities, usually for high-priced products or services

Self-service – improve customer service and decrease costs, i.e. online help centre

When you're considering your business website needs, recognize not only your requirements, but what your customer needs or expects.

Base your website around building relationships and loyalty, which will help you achieve consistent, persistent growth over the long term. A short-sighted mindset will limit that growth success. In fact, it could harm your very existence.

Thousands of business websites disappear daily, replaced by thousands more of the same ilk. Industry Canada reports 50 per cent of businesses do not survive beyond the third year.

A carefully planned and executed website can help your business achieve sustained growth and stand out above the rest.

Who is your target market?

Before building a business website, you need to define your target market and understand their needs and wants.

This is essential to appeal to and connect with those you choose to serve. Before your website can sell anything to your target market, you need to be able to answer their questions and put their fears to rest.

Where do you begin? Groundwork. Go where your target audience socializes. Go where they work. Go where they shop. Observe their behaviors, and conduct informal and formal surveys. As well, study how your direct competition caters to them.

What does your target market value? What makes them feel good? And, quite frankly, what makes them reach for their wallets?

Your observations and research data will gain you a sound understanding of your target market's trigger points – what's truly important to them. By focusing on these key areas, you'll have an opportunity to make them noticeably better than the competition.

Moreover, if you take the time to understand your customer, you'll be better versed to provide customized and personalized service. While conducting business in cyberspace, many traditional business practices still apply.

What's your position?

You need to determine what market position you want to establish for your brand. How do you want potential clients to view you? What sets you apart from the competition?

Your business website can significantly influence how you are perceived, especially considering it's a common first point of contact between you and your potential customer.

What's your image of choice? Trendy or practical. High end or affordable. Swift or steady.

Your image will evolve -- for better or worse -- regardless whether you take a proactive, reactive or passive role.

So be proactive and shape how the market views you. Ensure your business website conveys clear messages that reflect who you are or strive to be.

You'll make a good first and lasting impression.

About The Author:

Rick Sloboda is a Senior Web Copywriter at http://www.webcopyplus.com Free web site tool: http://www.webcopyplus.com/tools More web site tips: http://www.webcopyplus.com/faqs

Read More Articles from Rick Sloboda:
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Stop Reinventing The Internet Marketing Wheel

Copyright © 2006-2007 Willie Crawford


There are a lot of really brilliant people building businesses in the Internet marketing niche. Many of them not only have great technical skills but they're also "doers!" At the same time, I have watched many people who were much more brilliant than I am accomplish only a tiny fraction of what I have. I often sat scratching my head, and wondering what kept them from achieving major breakthroughs.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks...

The difference is that when I see something with a lot of potential, I tap into my "Million Dollar Rolodex" and see if this is something someone is already working on. I "sniff around" to see if someone is already "running with" my project idea.

Others see the tremendous potential in a new technology, service, or craze, and they set about inventing their own system for capitalizing on this potential. The problem with the second approach is that the person often takes on such a monumental task that they frequently get bogged down in the little details, and never get the project finished. They never get the product to market. Then, one day they look around, and someone else has fielded THEIR idea.

The big secret of course is to stop "re-inventing the wheel" and to stop operating in a vacuum. It's very UNLIKELY that someone else doesn't have an idea similar to yours. Track down these people and work with them to combine your talents and get the product fielded in a flash!

You connect with people whom you can discuss your ideas with and partner with at seminars, and through online sites set up to facilitate such exchanges. One such site is The Internet Marketing Inner Circle. Inside this membership site you:

Can organize lunch and dinner meeting with "movers and shakers"

Set up joint ventures

Introduce yourself, your interests and your projects to others who probably have similar interests

Listen to interviews by the top online marketers who reveal to you how they achieved major online success, and how you can form partnerships and joint ventures with them

You can join The Internet Marketing Inner Circle at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com

If you're looking for live events to network at, and to meet potential joint venture partners at, the most comprehensive listing of Internet marketing seminars, conferences, and bootcamps that you will find is at: http://InternetMarketingSeminarSchedule.com

Here are a few quick examples of products that I've actually watched develop or even helped to develop over the past six months that illustrate my point, and that will be six or seven-figure projects:

Traffic Geyser is a service that allows you to upload your videos to their server, and from there optimize the videos, and then upload them to the top 30 video hosting sites such as YouTube and Google Video.

Video is hot! It does generate sales and traffic to a site when done correctly. As the cost of bandwidth goes down, and as high-speed connectivity spreads, video is fast becoming the norm. Lots of people saw this and many busily started uploading their videos to these sites.

I did.

However, I tapped into a service that allows me to do it in 1/20th the time. That means I can get 20 times as much work done in the same time as someone who's busily creating their own system, and who is in the meantime doing it the old-fashioned way.

Check out Traffic Geyser, created by a few of my online friends, at: http://VideoReallyRocks.com

Another example is a system, developed by my friend Louis Burleson, that allows you to build a list of "buyers" by using private label rights. Louis has taken some proprietary software, integrated it with a system for both building a list and actually selling product that he has private label rights to... all in one effort. It's a really nice system.

There are undoubtedly thousands of people out there trying to figure out how to build their lists, how to market those PLR products that they have, and how to automate the whole thing.

I met Louis at a seminar, had him show me his system, and now I don't have to invent anything. Louis incidentally was interviewed for The Internet Marketing Inner Circle members. You can check out Louis' "knock your socks off" system at: http://NoHypeInternetMarketing.com/TheKey/

The common thread in the examples above is that they were developed by people who actually did a lot of the brainstorming at seminars and conferences. Another common thread is that they solved obvious problems.

Another product born out of solving a common problem and out of a partnership formed at a seminar is at: http://TrafficGenerationTechniquesThatWork.com


This is the 2 1/2 hour audio recording, and PDF transcript, from a teleseminar on easy to implement, low-cost methods of generating website traffic. The product reveals the very best traffic generating ideas of three seasoned marketers, to include myself :-)

The product teaches how to generate web site traffic, something that every webmaster needs to know. As you listen to the audio, you can actually feel the synergistic energy developing as three minds cover a laundry list of proven ways to generate web site traffic. It's also obvious that neither of the individuals could have produced a product this in-depth by working all alone. It was by not trying to reinvent the wheel, and by not operating in a vacuum, that a hot product was developed that is destined to be a six-figure earner in 2007.

At this point, you should be asking yourself if you spend too much time reinventing the wheel and operating in a vacuum. You need to consider the very real probability that while you "hammer away" at a project, you could probably do it a lot quicker and easier if you just partnered up with the right person. In-fact,

without partnering up with the right person, there's even the very real probability that you'll never even finish your project. My research has shown that the majority of projects and products started in the Internet marketing niche are never even finished.

That brings up another reason that you want to partner up with someone. When you have a partner who is depending upon you, it helps to keep you focused and accountable. If you don't finish your part , or get sidetracked you let someone else down. That generally will keep us moving forward more than just the threat of letting ourselves down. That's a BIG secret to success in Internet marketing.

About The Author:

Willie Crawford has taught thousands how to build successful online businesses since late-1996. His membership site contains over 40 interviews of leading online marketers sharing their views on "How To Break Into The Internet Marketing Inner Circle." You can access those powerful and shocking interviews at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com

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How to Build a Really Great Business? (Super Success Secrets from a Legendary Business Master)

Copyright © 2007 Chet Holmes


Times are tough. The economy is in a constant state of upheaval. Is your company doing better than most? Are you placing greater emphasis on pure performance?

If you haven't maybe it's time for a serious round of intense corporate soul searching. But do you know how?

Business consultant Chet Holmes says that beyond pure financial performance, most companies can really benefit from finding out what it really means to be a great company.

And the answer lies within.

Holmes is a man who is heavily engaged in corporate introspection with Fortune 500 companies.

He is widely credited with bringing a consultant's passion for rigorous self assessment and performance measurement with him.

Now, however, Holmes is obsessed with more than just the numbers. He's saying that companies must examine the company's culture and inner workings to find ways to be more than just profitable.

He's discovered that the breakthroughs can be achieved only if you figure out how to can tap into the incredible treasure trove of knowledge, harness the energies and then channel the efforts of your employees to help you become great.

Just think, you may have invested millions in automated systems.

Have you any real idea how they are being used?

Ask the employees.

Your people may know how to make money for you, but are the procedures and processes based on intuition, personal and professional experience, and corporate memory? Can these systems be readily duplicated or transferred in the event of accidents, sickness or major changes in personnel?

Ask the employees.

"It's possible to become the world's most efficient, relentless, and competitive machine," says Holmes. "But you have to find out what your company is really doing."

How do you do that?

Ask the employees.

Holmes is regularly brought in to lead companies through a discussion to find out what this really means. He has mastered the processes needed to identify the changes needed to make a company better. His skills are in demand.

Usually, he gets permission to hold a series of strategy sessions. He starts by asking employees to tell the boss how the company is doing.

How are we doing?

Is the top management strategy on track? What are we doing right? What hurts? What needs fixing?

Holmes helps the company identify specific items that reveal the things that standing in the way of becoming a much better company.

"Even one process improvement meeting can give you six months of things to fix in your company," Holmes says.


Case in point: Too Many Exceptions to the Rule..."

In one company session one of the items that came up was a vague notion:

"Too many exceptions to the rule."

Holmes asked people for specific instances or situations where this occurs. In an hours time he facilitated creation of a list of specific examples to document what people meant.

The list revealed 19 different situations where this company had never bothered to create procedures, policies or standards by which people operate.

Turned out that very few people really had any concrete idea how things were done across the company. The shock and pain was deep and felt company wide.

Holmes then asked the very same people how to fix it or make it better:

"What can we do to make the pain go away?"

They used a whiteboard to capture all the brainstormed ideas. Then they focused on culling the list of possible actions until they came up with two viable correction strategies for each problem. Using consensus, they went for the reasonable solutions that could reduce the most pain first.

The employees worked with management and implemented the corrective actions until all the 19 problems were fixed within two weeks.

Some of the solutions involved simple form letters. Some involved putting up a section on their website where many of these questions were answered (the customer service people would then send an email with the link).

Some solutions required setting boundaries by which the customer service people could operate, even creating a tiered approach to what they could do. (Meaning, try this, if that doesn't work, do this, if that doesn't work do this, etc...)

Virtually every area where they once had to go to a supervisor was fixed, creating some standard operating procedure for people to refer to and follow that didn't involve the supervisor to the same extent.

The results were astonishing. The entire company runs better now. In two weeks, they solved problems the company had had for a decade.

Many of the problems went all the way up to the president of the company. And when they solved all these problems, it lightened his load, and that of his direct reports, very significantly.

One major benefit was that top management was free to work on more important things.


Case In Point: Lead Generation

Holmes guides companies through process improvement on other pressing business development needs, including lead generation.

One initiative showed just how powerful a process improvement can be.

The first session initiated a discussion that resulted in ideas to drive lead generation. The employees also decided it would be beneficial to tune up communication pieces.

They decided to meet once a week for one hour to work on process improvement.

Next meeting, they looked at how prospects and customers interact with the company.

They identified all possible interfaces and zeroed in on the first point of contact.

Whenever a prospect touches the company via the web, email, phone call, personal interaction or whatever they took each area and asked the simple question,

"What would make this more potent?"

The employees worked their way through the complete sales process.

The issues that resulted focused on:

"How can they establish quick rapport?"

"How can they build even more rapport?"

"How much do they learn about the prospect?"

"How do they create desire?"

A couple of meetings later they decided to looked at how they close the sale.

The employees identified and worked through the issues:

"What could we offer to sweeten the deal?"

"How many different ways could we cost justify?"

"How could we make it so it was painful NOT to buy?"

"Could we offer risk-reversal at the point of sale?"

But they weren't done there-They were so enthused they wanted to look at what happens after the sale is made. So they developed more issues:

"What is the follow up?"

"What else can we offer?"

"How can we get something going that creates an annuity?"

Holmes said, "Over a five month period, every aspect of the sales process was examined and systematically improved. They totally re-invented the entire sales process."

Before the process improvement sessions the company was getting one sale for every 100 internet leads After the sessions that changed to six sales out of 50 leads.

One year after the process improvement effort the Internet had become their primary source of prospects and sales.


Working On The Business

We've all heard the saying: "work ON the business not just IN the business." Here's how you work ON it:

You have to ask people three questions:

Where's the pain?

What needs to be fixed?

What can we do to fix it?

Process improvement can be a very profound and beneficial experience for your company.

"However, the most difficult task may for you to let your people speak freely and let them tell you what they think. You have to resist the desire to tell them what you think."

Many companies have never asked their staff "what's broken?"

Holmes warns however, "Top management has to be prepared to deal with difficult responses without retribution. Ask these questions and the employees will tell you.

But you have to be willing to respond with care, sensitivity, and immunity.

Employees will remain loyal and enthused only if the CEO and management demonstrates respect, integrity, honesty, and forthrightness through the process."

Externally, the company profits and earnings determine the company's net worth.

Internally, it's an achievement when employees can say "I believe in my company and they believe in me and that's why I'm proud to be an employee."

It's pretty difficult for companies to manage process improvement without professional help. Having a trained improvement specialist will help make sure that no one can get hurt by what they say and no one will be made to feel stupid or intimidated.

The ideas matter, not who says them. Give people time to think and write some notes before they share their ideas. Capture ideas but not who says them. That way you'll get way better quality answers.

"If you have a good staff, the only thing the CEO needs to bring to a meeting is his good judgment and the willingness to see things through the eyes of the employees."

"When you do process improvement, for management it's KMS Time (Keep Mouth Shut). It may be difficult but you have to stop talking and listen carefully. You have to let the data tell you what's happening.

Your people will fill you with valuable information and ideas on how to fix problems you didn't even know existed, and lead you to unimagined profits, if only you let them."

About The Author:

Chet Holmes is founder of http://www.howtodoublesales.com is known for Holmes doubling sales of every company given to him as a line executive working for billionaire Charlie Munger. He has conducted training for more than 50 Fortune 500 and other prestigious companies and is author of The Mega Marketing & Sales Training Program, Business Growth Masters Series and Guerrilla Marketing Meets Karate Master. For more information visit http://www.howtodoublesales.com

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