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21
Essential Ingredients To A Successful Web Site!
By
Bart Smith, TheMarketingMan.com
| 3,481 Words | Published 06/21/2007
 When
it comes to designing web sites that really succeed online,
here are my "21 Essential Ingredients" every web
site must have!
See
if your site has these 21 essential ingredients. If it doesn't
talk to your webmaster (or if you maintain your own web sites),
be sure these "essentials" are on there!
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FAST DOWNLOADING WEB PAGES |
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If
your site is not designed to load fast, no matter what
you have on it, people will leave your site before they
even get there.
- Optimize
every graphic on your page.
Shrink 'em down so they're fast-loading every time.
- Break
up long tables (usually containing sales
copy) into individual tables. Each table will then
load separately and quickly instead your visitor waiting
for the entire (long) table to load. They can start
reading immediately.
- Use
more text than graphics.
Some visitors turn "graphics off" in their
browser. Some would rather read the text anyway ...
a page with more text and fewer graphics will also
download faster.
- Keep
your website below 300k for fast download
performance.
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NAME/EMAIL OPT-IN BOX |
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 You've
seen these before, these "opt-in boxes" that
ask for a visitors name and eMail address in exchange
for a free offer of some kind (usually), such as a free
eBook, eZine, eCourse, you name it ...
Your
website has two main purposes:
(1)
To build your BANK ACCOUNT
with sales from your site!
(2)
To build your DATABASE
of names and eMail addresses!
You
won't always sell someone on the first visit, but you
might LATER, IF you've collected the name and eMail address
of that visitor upon their first visit to your website.
- Place
your opt-in box, preferably, in the
top right corner of your website.
Visitors scroll up and down your web page with their
mouse using the scroll bar mechanism on the right
side of your browser. Keep the opt-in box in a convenient
location for your visitors = top right corner of your
website.
- You
may also choose to place your opt-in box
on every page. Visitors enter your
site from many different pages (if you have more than
one page to your website). Give your visitors every
possible chance to sign up for your free newsletter,
eBook, audio eBook, eCourse, etc.
- You
may choose not to have the opt-in box on any of your
web pages, but rather as an ENTRY POP-UP,
EXIT POP-UP, DELAYED POP-UP or AUTO-SIGN-UP POP-UP
Need
an opt-in box for your website? Click
here!
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AUTORESPONDERS |
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You're
not always going to be available to communicate, serve
and train your prospects, clients and affiliates. The
only way you can do this is with autoresponders. Autoresponders
are eMails that "respond" "automatically"
to your prospects, clients and affiliates when they request
information from you.
Your
autoresponders can contain news, updates, eCourses, reports,
your newsletter and other vital information you want to
communicate to your recipients.
Need
to put autoresponders on your site? Click
here!
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AUDIO ON YOUR WEBSITE |
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Regular
TEXT/GRAPHICS ONLY web pages are BORRRRRING! Having audio
on your website creates a MORE POWERFUL format for marketing
your messages and learning, let alone, entertaining your
visitors, prospects and customers. Audio packs more power
when it comes to impacting your visitors than text alone
ever will!
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PICTURE OF YOU ON THE HOME PAGE |
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Build
instant rapport with your visitors. Let them SEE who speaking
to them (through your sales copy). See JohnSantangelo.com,
Malinchak.com,
InterviewTactics.com
and Riquette.com
for example.
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GREAT SALES COPY |
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If
you want to sell a product or a service, you've got to
tell your prospect what it's all about. To do this, you
need great sales copy. Great sales copy sells (while it
tells) your prospect that what you have to offer will
help solve their problem.
Great
sales copy identifies a SPECIFIC CHALLENGE or PROBLEM
(your prospect has) and RESOLVES it by offering your
product or service to the prospect for sale.
Great
sales copy draws your reader in close to hear what you
have to say.
Great
sales copy is soft and friendly or loud and exciting!
Great
sales copy grabs the attention of your reader with shocking
statistics, thought-provoking questions and important
statements that instantly relate the reader to what
it is you have to say, sell or offer.
Great
sales copy is tight; to-the-point; thought-invoking;
benefit-rich; "you/your"-statement rich; filled
with bullets; many, short paragraphs; very few graphics;
very small graphics; order buttons scattered throughout
and bonuses to boot!
Great
sales copy leads your customer from point A (identifying
the problem) to point B (resolving the problem).
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TESTIMONIALS, RAVE REVIEWS & CASE STUDIES |
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Before
people buy your product, people want to know what others
have to say about your product or service. List testimonials
from your satisfied customers in text and audio format.
Speaking of audio, audio testimonials are TEN TIMES MORE
EFFECTIVE than written, text testimonials on your website.
Imagine the example below in audio!
"Hi,
my name is Dorothy Hatton, and I just have to say,
when Bart sat down at my computer to perform a system
cleanup, I was BLOWN AWAY by how much better my computer
performed. My programs open faster. I can move around
within my computer faster. And, since we deleted all
those cookies and spyware, I feel much safer that
my privacy is back in my control. Thanks, Bart!"
— Dorothy Hatton, SingleMomsRock.com,
Los Angeles, CA
Similar
to testimonials (where people talk great about you), success
stories and case studies actually go more into depth,
detailing specific results that took place on the basis
of someone (or more) using your product or service. Success
stories and cases studies help win the confidence of potential
buyers every time.
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FAQ PAGE |
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Save
yourself time and serve your customers more efficiently
at the same time by answering some of their most Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) before they contact you. You
might insert a link to your FAQ page from several different
pages in your website.
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ORDER BUTTONS THROUGHOUT YOUR SITE |
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If
you're selling something, give your prospect many opportunities
to buy (throughout reading your sales copy). Don't make
the prospect scroll all the way to the bottom of your
home page just to order whatever it is you're selling.
What's more, DON'T HIDE the order button. Feel free to
scatter a number of order buttons throughout the sales
page of your copy.
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GUARANTEE |
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If
you truly believe in your product, offer a guarantee.
Besides, most folks won't buy anything these days unless
there is some kind of guarantee. Thirty (30) days is the
minimum, a life-time is the maximum. On the other hand,
some sales are final. You be the judge.
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BONUSES |
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If
you really want to be sure you make the sale, add a bonus
or two or three to the products or services you sell to
entice the customer that much more. Display a dollar value
per bonus, then add up each bonus for a total value so
the prospect sees exactly what they are going to receive
after buying your product or service. The added value
just might make that prospect into a customer!
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MEDIA ROOM |
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If
you expect to market using the media, such as TV, radio,
newspaper, offline magazines, etc., you will want to have
a MEDIA ROOM (also called a "Press Room"). This
page of your website will contain all your press releases,
recent news about you, your bio, downloadable photographs
suitable for printing (i.e., 300 dpi quality), any multi-media
samples you have collected from your appearances on TV
and radio shows, etc. You can also include your PRESS
KIT in the media room. Why mail anything to anybody when
the person requesting such information about you can simply
go to your website, download what they need and boom!
You're on air! Well, it doesn't always work like that,
but you know what I'm talking about. See Riquette.com
and JohnSantangelo.com
for example.
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CONTACT INFORMATION |
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People
who visit your web site will want to contact you at some
point in time. Make it easy for them to do so —
list your contact information on every web page within
your entire website. Be sure to include:
-
Your Name and Title (IF APPLICABLE)
- Company's
Name
- Mailing
Address
- eMail
Address
- Website
Address
- Telephone
Number
- Fax
Number
- Map/Directions
It's
a known fact that people enter your website from a variety
of different pages within your website, not just the HOME
page. Therefore, it is imperative that you list your contact
information on every web page. Many people print out web
pages they'd like to read or use as reference at some
later point in time. Well, if you had your contact information
on there, they'd be able to get a hold of you, your product
or your service with just a phone call.
It's
also a good idea to place your contact information at
the TOP and BOTTOM of your website so your prospects,
clients and affiliates can find your contact information
quickly and easily. No one wants to scroll all the way
to the bottom or the top of a home page just to find your
phone number.
On
the contact page, you might also like to include an "online
contact form" for visitors to fill out when contacting
you. Online comment forms help visitors communicate more
effectively with you online, as opposed to just sending
an eMail. Online forms can deliver questions, suggestions,
comments and more to you from your website's Contact Page.
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EASY NAVIGATION |
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Nothing
upsets your visitors more than not being able to find
a link back to the HOME page or a simple ORDER button!
Tips for easy navigation:
HORIZONAL
LINK LAYOUT — You might
choose to keep your links at the top of the page in a horizontal
layout fashion, reading left to right. See JohnSantangelo.com,
PowerOfInfluence.com,
GreatTranscriptions.com
and InterviewTactics.com
as examples.
VERTICAL
LINK LAYOUT — You may
choose to list your links vertically along the left-hand side
of your screen. Since most people read left to right, it's
a good idea to keep your links on the left, but you may choose
to keep them on the right. Either way, make up your mind and
go for it. See Malinchak.com
as an example.
HORIZONTAL
"AND" VERTICAL LINK LAYOUT COMBINED —
If you have a lot of links to pages inside your website,
you might choose to balance all your links with the most
important and most likely to be visited pages at the top
of your website with the remaining links organized on the
left-hand side.
See yours truly, TheMarketingMan.com.
TOP-RIGHT
CORNER LINKS — You
may choose to have the most visited links placed in the
top-right corner of your website for quick and convenient
access. Links like ORDER NOW, MEMBER LOG-IN, VIEW CART,
CHECK OUT, etc.
See yours truly, Postpartum101.com.
AS
FEW LINKS AS POSSIBLE — If you're creating
a one-page website with sharp sales copy to sell a specific
product or service, it's usually a good idea to have as
few links as possible on your home page. You don't want
to give prospects any opportunities to escape your sales
page. The only pages you might want available at the top
of your screen would be: MEMBER LOG-IN, AFFILIATE PROGRAM,
ORDER NOW. See MyTrainingCenter.com
and BSTheBook.com,
for example.
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LEGAL STATEMENTS |
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"All
It Takes Is One Crackpot Lawsuit To Take Away
Everything You've Worked To Build, and Everything You
Own!"
— Len Thurmond and Bruce Safran of AutoWebLaw
When
it comes to protecting your rights and the rights of your
visitors it's always a smart, and in most cases, a legal
necessity, to have the following legal sections added
to your website:
TERMS
& CONDITIONS (or WEBSITE AGREEMENT) —
These are the characteristics that spell out the rights and
privileges of both the visitor and website owner as to what
actions each may or must take. Examples include site rules,
disclaimer of warranties, copyright statements, refunds, modification
of terms & conditions, general statements, exclusions,
etc. See
an example here.
PRIVACY
POLICY — This is usually a simple statement
(or you can go in depth) as to how you will protect the identity
of the visitor coming to your site. And, if you collect their
information, again, how you will protect their information.
See
an example here.
INCOME
DISCLAIMER — If you sell a product/service
that promotes the idea that you could make money, then you
should have an income disclaimer on your website. This is
simply a legal statement that protects you from "claiming"
that your product "will" produce the kinds of results
for people when in real terms the success of any one person
is always based upon the efforts they put forth. See
an example here.
Now,
do you have to come up with the wording for both these sections
on your own? No way! There are programs that help you do this.
You simply fill in your name, your website address an eMail
address and choose from a number of different legal form templates.
How easy is that? See AutoWebLaw!
Check
out our AutoWebLaw
tutorial at MyTrainingCenter.com, too!
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VIDEO ON YOUR SITE |
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Video
is hot and here to stay! If you're selling products, you definitely
need to start using video to help sell your products from
your web site. Here are some great ideas on how you can use
video on your web site ...
Upload
video you make of yourself ...
-
Giving
a presentation
(a) to show in your media room, (b) to sell the DVD
product version of a seminar you recorded or (c) to show meeting
planners and event coordinators who might want to book you
to speak at their events based upon seeing you speak (on your
web site via video).
-
Giving
live interviews to
show in your media room!
- Giving
a weekly/monthly tip or teaching something with
you in the video. Make as many of these as possible and distribute
them all over the Internet.
Create
video informercials for all of the following:
Then,
after your prospect watches any of your videos, redirect them
to an order page, or (at least) an name/eMail address opt-in page
... Uploading video to your web site increases trust in your products
and that which you sell.
Check
out our online tutorials on how to upload
video to your web site.
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WEB SITE STAT COUNTER |
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When
you run marketing campaigns on and offline, you always want
to know how many people are coming to your website, how long
they stay, where they came from and what pages they entered
and left.
This
information can easily be tracked with a great website counter.
There are a lot out there, some free and some for cost. My
favorite? SiteMeter.com.
Why? Not only do they provide me a lot of statistics on visitors
to my website, their counters are quick and easy to install.
They
also offer some "invisible" counters. Why have an
invisible counter? (1) You don't want visitors pre-judging
your site by seeing how many or how few visitors have come
to your site; and besides that, (2) it's a privacy issue.
I don't want my competitors spying on me and checking out
my stats.
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ORDER PAGE "BENEFITS
TEXT" & THANK YOU PAGE |
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Your
customer clicks the order button to buy your product or service,
but they're not sure they really want to buy ... and they
LEAVE YOUR SITE!
FACT:
More than 50% of the people who actually click order buttons
leave the order page without buying!
Why?
Maybe because they're just not sure they need your product
or service ... UNLESS, YOU REMIND THEM AND RESTATE THE BENEFITS
of buying your product or service on the ORDER FORM/CHECK-OUT
PAGE.
Now,
after your customer submits their order, you want to help
them feel confident about ordering online from your website.
So, redirect them immediately to a THANK YOU page you create
that details what they can expect after they order your product.
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POP-UP
BOX |
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Wait,
don't let your visitors get away without asking them a question,
"Wait, can you help us? We'd like to know why you're
leaving our website! Tell us what you think and we'll send
you a free report about bla bla bla!" Sure, pop-ups can
be irritating at times, but to marketers, they can be very
helpful in a lot of ways. Pop-ups can:
- Help
you grab names and eMail address from visitors leaving
your website.
- Help
you improve your site, sales copy and customer service
by asking visitors who leave your website "what was
your experience ..." or "what were you looking
for that we didn't have ...", etc.
- Help
you reinforce a special offer to buy a product, join your
affiliate program, take advantage of a discount or sign
up for your free eBook, newsletter, eCourse, etc.
There
are different kinds of pop-ups:
- Entry
Pop-up —
This pop-up appears when a visitor first visits your website.
- Delayed
Pop-up — This pop-up appears
some time after the visitor has arrived at your site.
Typically, 20-30 seconds into visiting your website, the
pop-up will appear.
- Exit
Pop-up — This is the most
popular pop-up among marketers. It appears when a visitor
leaves your website.
- Auto-Opt-in
Pop-up — This pop-up allows
you to quickly add an instant auto-opt-in pop-up to your
website allowing you to help the visitor sign up for your
newsletter or free eBook without the visitor having to
type their name/eMail address.
Click
here to get PopUpMasterPro, a software program that will
help you design pop-ups easily.
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MEMBERSHIP/SUBSCRIPTION
WEB SITE |
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Unlike
traditional website models, membership sites allow you to
collect subscription profits month after month, year after
year automatically. Charge as little as $10 month for your
knowledge and you could make upwards of $5,000 every month
with only 500 subscribers. Charge $20 and have 500 subscribers
and you can make $10,000 a month.
Having
a membership site can also create multiple streams of income.
Because of your unique relationship with your subscribers,
you'll automatically build a super responsive, 100% opt-in
list of clients ready and eager to buy your back-end products
or to follow your affiliate recommendations.
The
Marketingman.com is a membership community. Many of my
other websites too, are turning themselves into membership
communities.
The
software I use was designed by VisionGateFusion.
VisionGate provides the best solution for operating a profitable,
feature-packed member site without spending thousands of dollars,
hiring programmers or taking weeks to launch your own custom-designed
membership portal community. I personally use and highly recommend
VisionGateFusion.
Click
here to start your own membership website community today!
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ASK CAMPAIGN! |
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Last
but not least, consider conducting an "ask campaign"
on your website. How would you like to guarantee your
product or service will sell before you even take it to market?
How would you like to find out what your own database of prospects,
clients and affiliates are thinking?
Want
to increase sales? Run an "ask
campaign" with your own database
to find out what questions they have about a particular
service or product you sell (or don't sell). Find out what's
on the minds of your own database to determine with surgical
precision just where you can help them (and help yourself
increase your income) by helping them!
Want
to increase your database?
Run an "ask campaign" with someone else's
database of subscribers. Offer to answer any question related
to your field of expertise. By doing so, you'll be helping
people, adding their names to your database and in turn,
helping to bring more future income to you by selling your
products and services to pool prospects.
Want
to price a new product, but don't know what price to settle
on? Ask your database?
Run an "ask campaign" to determine, "What
price would you pay for 'product x' or 'service y.' What
would you be willing to pay?" Your database will tell
you? Go with the most popular price!
Want
to know what the best selling title will be for your new
book? Ask your database? Run an "ask
campaign" to determine, "What title do you like
best? This title, this title, or this title?" Your
database will tell you! Go with the most popular title!
If
you'd like to run your own "Ask Campaign," then
click
here.
Bart
Smith, TheMarketingMan.com, is the founder of MyMarketingCart.com,
which offers shopping carts and other Internet marketing tools
and services to small and large businesses; and MyPaymentServices.com,
which offers merchant accounts and the ability to accept credit
card payments from your customers. Bart is also the creator of
MyTrainingCenter.com,
an online learning resource which offers extensive written, audio
and video tutorials for computers, business, marketing, speaking,
web design and creating information products. Bart also created
ReallyCheapNames.com,
where you can register domain names for "really cheap"
and find web site hosting at extremely low prices. Author
of three self-help books, totaling more than 1,000
pages, Mr. Smith dedicates himself to helping others, personally
and professionally, wherever he goes.
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