Keep 'em Focused with Mini-Sites by Michael Hopkins
INTRODUCTION
This is a copy of an email I recently sent to a customer
of mine. The customer's website had been online for two
weeks and he was concerned that he still hadn't made
any sales...
I wouldn't worry too much yet about sales levels.
Two weeks isn't a long time and, most people
would agree that it takes a little time to build up
steam and get the momentum going.
Of course, the more important questions is not how
'long' the site has been online, but how many visitors
you've had in that time. Another important question
is the 'quality' of the visitors. After all, those visitors
who are searching specifically for the products you
are selling are much more likely to place an order
than those who arrive on your page via Start Page
Exchanges or other poor-quality traffic-generating
methods (by the way, if you're using Start Page
Exchanges, this article will help
you get some more
value out of them).
On the whole, an effective website can expect to
make a sale to between about 1% and 5% of its
visitors. That is to say that for every 20 to 100
visitors you'll make one sale. This rule-of-thumb is
more accurately applied to sales-focused mini-sites
(like my Total Resale website: http://www.totalresale.com)
than to broader websites like yours that sell many
products.
The % conversion rate depends on many factors
like an effective sales page, a professional look,
and so on. Using tools like autoresponders to gather
visitor email addresses and send them, for example,
a free course related to the product you're selling can
do wonders to increase conversion rates.
In the beginning I was selling all my products via
BizzyDays.com and sales were sluggish. Then, I changed
my approach and created individual websites for each
product and things really took off.
Now I attract a lot of traffic directly to each individual
website and the visitors that arrive to bizzydays.com
are sent on the the sales-focused websites of the particular
products they're interested in.
If you're worried about the cost implications of creating
individual websites for each product, then take a look
at this article for ideas on cutting the
cost of this.
I think that the biggest problem with your website at
the moment is its lack of focus. You are promoting
cuddly toys, electronic devices, ebooks and work-at-home
opps. on the one site.
The problem with this approach is two-fold...
Firstly, because of the diversity of products, the
site becomes difficult to promote effectively. Instead
of being able to focus all your marketing attention
on one target market, you have to focus on a whole
range of target markets - each of which requires a
totally different approach.
Secondly, the site risks lacking credibility in the eyes
of the visitor. You see, when a visitor arrives on a site
that focuses on one product or one 'type' of product,
then he/she feels a certain re-assurance that they've
arrived on a site that can be considered 'in the know'
about that product and that can be relied upon to understand
the needs of the customer.
However, when a visitor arrives on a site promoting
a very broad range on unrelated products, their
instinctive feeling is that the webmaster is throwing
mud at the wall in the hope that some of it will stick.
In other words, this is somebody that is trying a
bit of everything in the hope of making a few bucks.
As far as the visitor is concerned, this website has
little or no knowledge or interest in the products
being sold.
I don't want to upset you when I say that. I'm not
saying that you don't know or care for your products.
I'm just drawing your attention to the average visitor's
probable perception of things.
Another point...
Remove the apostrophes in your links. Words like
"downloads" and "services" are plurals and should have
no apostrophe. Spelling errors in general are very bad
for business - I suggest you get someone to look the
site over with you and ensure that it's error-free. Also,
when you find a moment, read this
article on other
things you might need to do to improve the effectiveness
of the site.
One final point...
I'd get rid of the big 'welcome' image on the home
page. This is one of the most important places on
your site. People don't need a welcome, they need
to know quickly what you offer and what your site is
about. Try to use this area to greater affect.
Okay, I'll leave it at that. I hope I haven't annoyed
you with the points I've made - it certainly wasn't
my intention.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Hopkins is a Successful Web Marketer and Owner of BizzyDays Ebook
Publications. Visit Now to Download Original Ebooks for Free at:
http://www.bizzydays.com
This Article First Appeared in Michael's Newsletter, Ebook Times. To subscribe
visit:
http://www.ebooktimes.com
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