The Silent Avatar Speaks

If you’re someone who has been marketing online you know the lifeblood of an online business is the traffic of a site. The simple equation is this: More visitors = More sales.

However, I would like to share with you some ways that you can tweak your sites to improve sales without the need to get more visitors.

1. The first tweak is to have a good read over your sales page and weave in your personal touch in your sales message. Nobody likes risking cold hard cash with a total stranger, but many people will buy on a recommendation from a friend. If you can convince your audience that you are a personal friend who has their best interest at heart, they will be more likely to buy your products. Just remember to speak to an individual in your sales letter - not to your whole audience.

2. The second tweak is to publish testimonials and comments from your customers. A good idea would be to publish both good and bad comments; that way prospects will be more inclined to see your testimonials as real. When prospects see testimonials on your website, they’ll have more confidence buying from you because human beings follow the herd mentality; when others have bought and proven it authentic, they will jump on the bandwagon and buy too.

3. Use visual representations for the problems and solutions that your product offers. Not everyone reads your sales copy from go to woe, but most people will pay attention to images on your website.

4. Offer quality bonuses to accompany the product. When you offer bonuses that complement your product, your prospects will feel it’s a very good deal and it would be stupid to miss it. Be sure to state the monetary value of your bonuses so that people will be even more compelled to grab your good bargain.

5. Lastly, Go ahead and ask for the sale! Many website owners entice their prospects with the benefits of their product, sell to them with stories of how it has solved many problems, even offer great bonuses but forget to ask for the sale. Give a clear instruction on how to buy your product (e.g. “click the button to buy now!”).

By going over your site and implementing these small but dynamic changes, you will give your site every opportunity to secure the sale. J

Tags: Traffic Generation, Web Design by the silent avatar
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Convincing prospects to purchase from you is a hard job, and you certainly don’t need to make it any harder - but have you ever thought that you could be making the process twice as difficult for both parties when your prospects are convinced and want to buy but don’t know how to buy from you?

In a nutshell, no matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won’t buy if they find the process cumbersome.Time to take a good look at your site and view it through the eyes of a purchaser.

First, you’ll want to check your order form can be found easily and is hassle-free. Write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost.You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site.

Do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via PayPal, others may only want to pay with their credit card, and then there are others who might want to send a cheque.The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects’ preferred payment method. After all, it wouldn’t make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won’t be able to pay you when they want to.You’ll also want to prove that you are a credible merchant.

Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this.You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident about buying from you.

How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing? Do you have a means of a purchaser contacting you without going to the ends of the earth to find your contact details?

Additionally, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects’ confidence. It all goes towards making them feel safe about buying from you, who in truth is a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

In finishing this post , it would be very pitiful if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when he or she is ready to pay.Eliminate any chances of that happening to maximize your profits! Test your site regularly.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Traffic Generation, Web Design by the silent avatar
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The thing I love about blogs is the opportunity to share your knowledge with others to assist them in becoming successful.

I read a lot of information on the web, some I take on board, some I reject. Not because the advice is not sound, but because it may be difficult to implement their suggestions right now (financially and technically). This seems to be common with “newbie” website entrepreneurs.

One of my readers posted a comment to my blog article “How to Get Your Site Visitors NOT Doing What You Want” asking how do they get their website noticed.

There is no one step answer to this question. In fact it’s hard work! However there are many ways which (when you combine them together) you can drive visitors to your site. I will give you my top 4 ways to get your website noticed. Just keep reading…

What we know for sure is that unless you ARE known, the first port of call for anyone looking for answers to their problem (after all we all “search to solve a problem”) is the search engines (aka Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc)

What you do want is to be visible in the search engine listings, and preferably on page 1 or 2 of the search results for your site keywords.

This in itself is a huge ask. Many factors go into getting a PR1 or PR2 in the search listings. I have come to the conclusion that you have to be well versed in website SEO (Search Engine Optimization), have the right keywords for your site (after thorough research using something like Wordtracker), be constantly adding new information (like in the form of a blog), and include a site map.

All of this takes time, education and money (how much of each usually depends on finances).

Or.. you can use Google Adwords to do the same thing without the depth needed to get an “organic search result”.

I won’t go into Google Adwords here - suffice to say that it’s Google’s advertising juggernaut which returns “sponsored listings” to search engine queries based on the keywords used in the search term.

Yes it costs you money, however given the unlikelihood of getting PR1 or PR2 listings of your website through “organic” means (believe me… there are website owners out there whose sole purpose is to tweak their sites until they crack they PR1/PR2 ranking), this is definitely an avenue to explore.

Getting your hands on as much information as you can about how to utilize Adwords to give you the maximum ROI (return on investment) just makes sense. No point throwing good money down the drain because you don’t understand how it works. Advertising is a known medium for driving customers to buy. It’s no different for websites.

Tell A Friend
There’s nothing quite like viral marketing to spread the word. Every website should have the means to tell others about the site and thereby drive more traffic to the site. I wrote about this is a previous blog post.

Affiliates & Joint Venture Partners
Another way to get your site noticed is to bring affiliates on board who can promote your site to their subscribers. Check out what other successful websites in your niche are doing. Look to see if they have affiliate programs.

When launching a website it is possible to search out partners to joint venture with to increase your exposure.

Let me give you an example.

I have a friend who I did a website for her to sell an e-book. She is an accomplished travel agent with a wealth of knowledge only a travel agent could give in her e-book. I suggested to her to partner with an eBay powerseller (one who sells a lot).

Simply look for a powerseller who sells travel goods, write a quick email asking if they would be interested in sending out an email to their list promoting her e-book with a cut of the purchase price going back to the Powerseller. Just be careful how you approach them as you don’t want to be in violation of Ebay rules and have your account terminated.

Print Media Advertising
Offline Print Media can be a great way to boost your exposure. If your site is in a niche,  seek out niche publications to advertise in. Make sure you track your advertising so you know what works and what doesn’t.  Don’t put in small classifieds in publications. Far better to save up and go for a decent size advertisement which has all the elements of good sales copy (sell the benefits!!) to entice the reader to act.

Branding
I couldn’t finish this post without mentioning product branding. We can all see that product branding works (you only have to think McDonald’s).

Branding a website starts with using consistency. Same colours, same logo, same tagline, same, same, same.

Brand your website where ever possible. Put your website details on business cards, letterheads, email signatures, promotional material, all advertising, posters, banners… anywhere where you can put your website details put it!

Getting your site noticed does take time, effort and energy. Consistently applying the methods which I have shared with you above will pay dividends.

Tags: Affiliate Marketing, Business Tips, Internet Marketing, SEO, Traffic Generation, Web Design by the silent avatar
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Listen.. I’m pretty sure you’re going to relate to this…

I’m always reading emails from the  “guru’s” about how it’s imperative you start bulding a list. I don’t know about you, but these guys who have thousands on their lists obviously take the tact that it’s easy. Yeah.. well I say (expletive).

I’ve reads just about everything you can possibly imagine about building a list, and I keep coming back to one thing. It’s a whole different ballgame today as opposed to 4-5 years back.

Back then (which wasn’t that long ago) emails were a novelty. We would actually look forward to getting emails. Now when we get a full inbox I’m sure we all put out a collective groan.

I was overwhelmed with so many emails to read I just had to cull my lists I was subscribed to.

And if I’m doing it then so must plenty of others. Reading emails takes up so much freakin’  time  it really does keep you off track and off focus on what you should be doing - which is building your business.

The big gurus shoot each other an email when they are about to do a product launch, and presto! their launch hits thousands (pretty evident by the number of cut/paste emails I get from various lists).

We all know the benefit of a list, but with information overload, emails flying thick and fast to our in box (and we just ain’t got got the time to read every last word), list building has become a nightmare.

Quite frankly I stay away from lists now like they have the plague. If I need to keep abreast of what’s happening I just read IMNewswatch.

IMNewswatch gives me the heads up on what’s going on in IM circles and saves a hell of a lot of time reading emails.

Now… back to building a list.

Personally, I feel that emails will become a waste of a marketers time. There will come a day when we are all so over reading and replying to emails they will have lost their pull.

Any wonder why RSS has become favourable?

So what do I prefer?

1. Post good quality content to a blog (every day of you can) and offer an incentive (if you must) to get a sign up. If your site’s Alexa Rank is hidden in the millions of others then you are pushing the proverbial uphill with a pointed stick. Better to focus on becoming an authority through offering good advice.

2. Utilise social bookmarking sites and submit your site.

3. Post in forums.  And I’m not talking about IM forums. I’m talking about posting in forums in which you are likely to get customers. For instance; if you have a site which is for handcrafted jewelry components  go visit forums about jewelry making.  Atleast you have potential customers!

4. Use word of mouth. Tell your friends. When you send emails send it with an email signature for your site and get their attention. Be innovative with what you put into your signature tag.

5. If you sell a product JV with someone who is an eBay Powerseller.
For instance, if you have put together an information product to do with travel, JV with eBay Powerseller who sells luggage. Usually they will have a sizeable list to market to.  They just sign on as an affiliate and promote to their list.

If you have any other ideas why not share them by posting a comment. We all need as much support as we can in building our business!

Tags: Traffic Generation by the silent avatar
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