If you've been working on your web site for more than a couple of months and still haven't made
any money, or your sales are dismal to the point of being depressing, you should consider the 5
points listed below very carefully.
One or more of them will likely explain why your site still isn't making any money.
No Traffic - People can't buy what they never see, so unless you are actively
attracting visitors to your site using a variety of methods - beyond simply counting on the search
engines to send you free traffic - it's unlikely you'll start making sales anytime soon.
The 3 most effective methods for generating traffic are pay per click advertising, article
marketing and social networking. If you have a budget, start with pay per click marketing to get
visitors to your site fast. If your advertising budget is currently non-existent, concentrate on the
latter two methods to get free traffic. Leave valuable comments on relevant forums and blogs. Build
traffic through your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social marketing accounts.
Then, once your site starts getting traffic and making sales, re-invest your earnings in
advertising.
Problematic Site Design - If you are getting traffic to your site, the next
consideration is how visitors perceive your site. If it looks unprofessional, is impossible to
navigate or is just downright ugly; it's unlikely that visitors will trust you to handle their
orders in a professional manner - regardless of how appealing your products may be.
Take a look at professionally-designed merchant sites (eg. BlueNile and Hammacher.com) and note
how they have simple visual appeal, easy site navigation and basic elements such as contact and
privacy links.
Good basic design is easily and cheaply available to bloggers through professionally designed
Wordpress themes and templates. If you're not a blogger, consider using the services of programmers
at Elance, Scriptlance and RentaCoder or buying a template at BoxedArt.
Untargetted Traffic - If you're driving traffic to your web site through pay per
click advertising and your site design is beautiful, then you may sending visitors to the wrong
page.
For example, if you are advertising a Sony Handycam ® Camcorder HDR-TG1 on Google Adwords and
directing traffic from that campaign to the homepage of your online electronics store, you've
probably just lost a potential sale and wasted money on advertising.
When selling specific items, send your traffic directly to the most relevant page on you site
that gives them exactly what they were looking for.
Copywriting Problems - If you've sent traffic to a beautiful page that promotes
a specific product and you're still not making sales, then your promotional methods may be lacking
or lackluster.
Is the landing page one big banner ad? Is the copy rife with spelling and grammatical errors? Is
the copy too long, too short or somehow fail to clearly communicate what your visitor needs to
know?
The art of good copywriting (and making a sale) lies in your ability to write product reviews
that focus primarily on benefits - how a product will improve a person's life.
Learn how to write product endorsements. Take a copywriting course and keep working to improve
your skills. If you don't like writing or don't want to write that much, consider hiring a
ghostwriter to write your articles and product endorsements.
No Follow-Up. You can send traffic to a beautiful, highly relevant page on your
site that has a professionally written endoresment and still not make many sales. This is
particularly true if you are selling high-end products.
To nail the sale - and this is absolutely critical regardless of what type of product or service
you sell - you MUST followup with your visitors. Every single page on your site MUST MUST MUST
include an email capture form (provided by a 3rd party autoresponder service) that allows you to
present offers to your visitors via email after they leave your site.
Craft your autoresponder series and broadcast messages with a view to sharing worthwhile
information and building relationships with your readers. Be the first to share information about
that new widget that you tested and liked - and say it with enthusiasm! To build trust, let your
subscribers know when to steer clear of the 'bad apples' that they might otherwise be influenced to
buy through your competitors.
In summary, EACH of the items listed above is critical to your online business success.
When you're sending copious amounts of targeted traffic to an attractive user-friendly site on
which the copy focuses on benefits and your subscribers eagerly anticipate your newsletters - you
WILL be making plenty of sales and PLENTY of money.
