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The
IMC Insider
Helping
Real People create wealth and freedom with Internet businesses
since 1998 |
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May
14, 2007
Issue #147 |
Editorial:
The top 10 questions you NEED to ask if your site isn't
making any sales
By
Derek Gehl
Imagine: After weeks of hard work, your website is finally live. You've officially
been open for business an entire week. And yet you haven't made any sales.
Not. One. Single. Sale.
Arggh!
Don't despair -- we've all been there before. In fact, it's one of the most common problems people ask me to solve for them.
Here's something that'll help ease the pain of turning a "dud" site into one that
rakes in the profits: Derek Gehl's surefire "My Website Ain't Making
Money!" troubleshooting checklist!
If you recently launched
a new web site and aren't getting the results you expected,
you need to ask yourself every single question on the list below, starting at number one.
Once you're able to answer "yes" to all ten questions, I guarantee the sales will come rolling in.
Print out the following checklist and start your troubleshooting
right now:
- Is there actually a market for your product?
By that I mean, are you POSITIVE you're selling a product or solution
people are actively looking for online -- and not finding? That's the formula for a successful business.
The best way to answer this question is to do keyword research and confirm
whether people are using search engines to look
for a solution to the problem your product addresses -- but not having any luck finding one.
(Our favorite keyword research tool is Wordtracker. You can
learn more about it here: www.wordtracker.com)
- Are you getting enough traffic? Before you can really judge your website's effectiveness,
you need at least 1,000 unique visitors (not pageviews).
If you've only had 100 visitors and haven't made a
sale, be patient! You just need more traffic.
Once you've had 1000 visitors, then you can begin to assess how effective
your site really is.
- Are you getting targeted traffic? If you've had 1,000+ visitors to your website and
you still haven't made a sale, find out where your
visitor traffic is coming from. That'll help you know
if it's targeted or not.
The best way to get top-quality traffic to your site is by bidding on extremely
targeted keywords in the pay-per-click search engines.
(By "targeted," I mean, keywords that speak directly to the people who are most likely to buy your product.)
If you drive 1,000 visitors to your site -- using
targeted keywords in your PPC ads -- and
you still don't make a sale, then we know
the problem isn't the quality of traffic you're getting.
It's your website.
So let's take a look at that next...
- Is your headline effective? If your site doesn't have a
compelling headline that clearly communicates a powerful benefit,
your potential customers aren't going to stick around for your offer.
Writing a better headline is typically the easiest way to fix a floundering
website. If you get more people to stay on your site and read your offer,
more people will buy your product.
- Are you distracting your visitors from your main sales message?
You need to get rid of everything that encourages your visitors think of something
other than your main offer.
This includes: links to other websites, Google Adsense ads, banner ads for
other products, free articles that don't support the sale... the list goes
on.
Keep your visitors focused only on buying your product -- and
your sales will go up.
- Are you using testimonials effectively? Like I said in
last week's editorial, testimonials are one of your most powerful selling
tools.
Nothing says, "Buy it now!" like an unbiased third-party recommendation.
If your site is brand new and you don't have any testimonials yet,
give your product to a few friends and ask them to provide you with testimonials on how well
it worked for them.
- Does your guarantee take away the risk of buying? A good
guarantee is an essential selling tool -- especially on the Internet.
Unless
you're a major brand (like Sony, Walmart, Pepsi) that your customers inherently
trust, you need to let them know you'll stand behind your product.
Reassure them that if they're not 100% satisfied they can send it right back for a
full refund. And remember, a longer guarantee usually results in more sales -- and
fewer refunds!
- Is your price too high? Or too low? Most people
know that if you price your product too high, you'll hurt your sales. But
this can also be true if your price is too low.
People get suspicious when the price is far below their expectations. They
think it's probably "too good to be true" -- and as a result, they don't feel
confident making a purchase.
- Is your ordering system easy to use? Just because you
can figure out how to navigate through your ordering process, it doesn't mean your average customer can.
If you want to make sure your ordering system is "user-friendly," find a few friends who
aren't very Internet savvy and get them to order your product.
Watch over their shoulders and take notes. Where did they get stuck?
Make sure you fix whatever problems they encountered -- because your potential customers are encountering them,
too!
- Do you have good salescopy? If you aren't using well-written salescopy to sell your product,
then you'll never achieve online success. It's that simple.
It doesn't matter whether your particular
site needs short copy or long copy, the fact will
always remain: Your product isn't going to sell itself!
You need to find the right words to do the job.
So there they are... the 10 questions I ask whenever I look at a website that's not turning visitors into sales.
Once I'm able to answer "yes" to all 10 questions, I always see a substantial improvement to the site's conversion rate.
Now, if you're scratching your head, wondering what a good sales letter looks like... how to test pricing...
how to write a headline... or how to use the pay-per-click search engines -- then I have to be honest and tell you,
you need more help than I can provide in a single newsletter!
If you want detailed, step-by-step training on everything
I mentioned above, then go to www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html
and check out my best-selling Internet marketing course,
The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on
the Internet.
I know I'm biased, but I truly believe it's the best investment you'll ever make.
To your continued success...
Derek Gehl |
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Yahoo
Search Marketing's "Panama" upgrade -- boom
or bust?
By
Nicole Ephgrave
It's been more than six months since Yahoo Search Marketing rolled out its new
ad platform -- named "Panama" -- to Canada and the U.S.
And recently, I've been getting a lot of questions from people who want
to know, "SO? Is it working better than the old Yahoo?"
In my opinion, yes!
There was a big outcry when Yahoo first announced its new ad platform. Some advertisers
didn't want Yahoo to mimic Google AdWords and move away from being a "pure" pay-per-click
program (in which the highest bidder on a particular keyword gets the highest
ranking for that keyword).
Like Google, "Panama" now takes the relevancy of the site into
account as well as the amount advertisers bid -- so there's no way to guarantee
exactly where you'll end up in the listings.
(Of course, the upside is, useless sites without any
meaningful content can no longer take the top position simply because
their owner placed the highest bid!)
When the switch first happened, there was a lot of confusion as advertisers tried
to understand how their ads and keywords should best be managed.
However, the feedback since then has been very positive. Not only that, the upgrade
seems to have halted the steady trickle of advertisers who had been
leaving Yahoo for Google AdWords.
Avenue A| Razorfish -- a large ad agency -- has been using Yahoo's new
ad platform and recently released the following stats. Since they've
been using the "Panama" platform, their...
- Search impressions are up an average of 5%
- Click-through rates are up a whopping average of 10%
- Cost-per-click prices actually decreased an average of 6%
I've heard echoes of these stats across the board. People are
saying their cost-per-click prices with Yahoo Search Marketing are
going down -- while their click-through rates are getting
higher. Interesting stuff!
If you're not aware of the difference between Yahoo's
old ad platform and this latest version, here's a brief
rundown. "Panama's" new features include...
- Multiple ad testing: You can
now have multiple ads running for the same ad group! An ad group
can contain up to 1000 keywords and up to 20 ads and each of your campaigns
can have up to 1000 different ad groups.
Plus, new feature called "Ad Optimize" automatically determines which ad
is getting the best click-through rate -- then makes sure that ad gets shown
the most.
- Geo-Targeting: You can set your ads to be shown only
in specific cities and regions -- which is great if you have a local
business or want to test different ads in certain geographic areas.
However, one drawback is, you still have to set up different accounts for
different countries. (Hopefully, they'll fix that soon.)
- Campaign-based Analytics:
You can use Panama to set your goals -- such as
ROI, for example -- and the system will automatically adjust
to help you reach them.
- More advanced campaign scheduling
and reporting: You now have more control over
the timing of your ads, which will help you make the most
of your budget. (Because you can make sure they only get displayed
at times where you get the most converting click-throughs!) Plus, you
can customize your reports better.
- A bidding structure that rewards relevant
sites with great content: As I mentioned above,
Panama uses a bidding algorithm that looks at more than just the
bid amount. Other factors are considered as well, such as your
click-through rate, landing page relevancy, and
site history.
The more appealing your ad is to your audience,
the better position you'll get -- and the
lower price you'll pay!
- Instant ad and account approval: You used to have to wait
at least two days before your account would be set
up. And once you got your account
and created your ads, you'd have to wait another two days (or longer!) for your ads to be
reviewed before they went "live."
Now you can set up your account and start posting ads immediately. This is
a great improvement!
- A more user-friendly interface: "Panama" gives advertisers
better control over their account and makes it easier for them to target their
exact audience. Gone are the days of waiting for ad approval and having to
set up nearly duplicate campaigns to try testing different ads. And good riddance,
I say!
Of course, the system isn't perfect. Yahoo's still working on some tweaks
and plans to add new features to the ad platform in the near future.
Now, if you're like most of the people I know, your next question if probably,
"Which is better -- the "new" Yahoo Search Marketing platform or Google Adwords?"
Honestly, they both have their pros and cons. Yahoo Search Marketing
still has a minimum bid of 10 cents -- while
Google's minimum is only 1 cent. So depending on the keywords you
target, the paid search program you use could have a major impact on
your ROI. Yahoo is great for "long tail" keywords but you may end up
paying more for general keywords.
However, I recommend you take them both for a test drive and see which works best
for you. If you're a newbie, choose one and learn how to use it well before moving
on to the next. Be patient as you run your first pay-per-click campaigns
and remember to test, test, test.
Before you know it, you'll probably be using both!
[Ed note: Nicole Ephgrave is our in-house SEO "wizard." You can meet up with her in our exclusive
"members-only" Search
Marketing Lab forum.] |
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24 free and cheap design resources to help you build
your site
By
Andrew Mallory
One of the questions we often hear from our Advanced
Mentoring clients is, "How can I build a website?
I don't know the first thing about site design!"
You don't have to build your own site if you don't want to.
You can always outsource the job to someone else.
However, it's a good idea to learn as much about web
design as you can. Even if you get someone else to build your
site, you should learn enough basic HTML so you can
make any necessary changes to your site yourself.
It'll save you a lot of time -- and money! -- if you
don't have to hire a contractor every single time you want to update
your site.
The good news is, you don't need to study for weeks on end to
learn how to use today's most popular design tools. Lots of them have
been built with complete novices in mind and come with great tutorials
that walk you through the whole process.
And the best thing is, lots of them are really cheap to use -- or even
free!
Here's a list of the top 20 resources we recommend
to our top-paying clients. If you want to learn how to
build your own site from scratch -- or want more control over a site that's currently up and running -- be sure
to check out them out!
1. Domain tools
Your domain name is your business's "address" on the Internet, so it's
crucial you choose the right one. Try to find a domain that gives
browsers a hint of what they'll find at your site.
Tools to help you get a domain include...
2. Website hosting
Your web host is responsible for ensuring your web site is
always up and running at top speed. If you site is always down... or if it takes ages to load... you're going to lose money.
So it's essential you choose a host you can trust!
Here's our favorite hosting solution: www.1and1.com
3. Basic HTML tutorials
There's plenty of software you can use to build a site without knowing any code
at all. But it's actually helpful if you at least understand the basics
of HTML. For some good free HTML tutorials, check out these sites:
4. Design tips & resources
For some great tools and information on simple, effective design, check out these sites:
5. HTML editors
"HTML editors" are software programs that allow you to design a webpage with little
knowledge of HTML -- and they're as easy to use as any basic word processor.
- Nvu (www.nvu.com): Anyone
can use this free tool to create and manage a website -- even if they have
no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML. (In fact, I'm using Nvu to write
this article right now!)
- Dreamweaver (www.dreamweaver.com):
This is a tool that's very popular at IMC. It's good if you're willing to
spend some money to get additional features not available on the free HTML
editors out there.
6. "All-in-one" website builders
If you're a bit intimidated by technology, you may want to
consider an all-in-one website builder, where a company provides you
with all the tools you need to quickly piece together a site.
Go here to find our favorite: www.MarketingTips.com/allinone
7. Resources for designing your web site
For good articles and resources on developing effective navigation and a simple,
user-friendly site architecture, check out these sites:
8. Adding "extras" to your site
You may want your site to go beyond basic HTML, especially
when it comes to automating chores and making it more
interactive for visitors. You can find "extras" -- like
forums, content management systems, and shopping carts
-- at these websites:
9. Hiring a designer
If you can afford it, it's a good idea to hire a web designer to build
the initial "template" for your website. Typically, this should include
a logo, navigation menu, and the overall "look" for your homepage.
Then, you can make tweaks as necessary later on.
For a good, affordable designer, try: www.eLance.com
So, those are the tools we most often recommend to people. What are YOUR favorite
design tools? Are there any that aren't on this list? Go to Derek's
blog and tell us about them! We're always on the lookout for great new
resources to share with people.
[Ed. note: Andrew Mallory is one
of IMC's Advanced Mentors and a frequent contributor
to our exclusive Internet Entrepreneur Club. To Learn
more about the benefits of joining the Internet Entrepreneur
Club, please visit: www.marketingtips.com/internetentrepreneurclub] |
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Internet marketing term of the week:
Longtail keywords
By
Derek Gehl
In Nicole Ephgrave's article on Yahoo Search Marketing's "Panama" upgrade,
she mentions the strategy of bidding on "longtail keywords" as an effective
low-cost way to drive targeted traffic to your site.
For those of you who aren't familiar with this term, here's
the IMC definition:
Longtail keywords are 3 to
5-word phrases with a very specific meaning that applies
directly to the product or service you sell.
The more specific, the better!
That's because people who are searching on highly specific phrases are closer
to making a buying decision. And that means they're far more likely to purchase your product than
people who are searching for more general information.
For example, if you sell custom-made hubcaps for antique cars, who do you think is more likely to buy your product:
... someone who does a search on the keyword, "antique car info"
-- or --
... someone who does a search on "1935 Chevy truck hubcaps"?
The second person, obviously!
So when you run your own pay-per-click ads, make sure you try to target as many highly specific phrases as possible.
There'll be fewer people searching on those phrases, but they'll be far more likely to buy your product.
And the great thing is, longtail keywords are cheaper
than more popular ones -- which means you'll get more
converting customers and save money on your ad
campaigns at the same time! |
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Meet
the IMC team of experts
Meet the IMC team of experts -- join us for an exclusive
two-day "Wealth-Building Bootcamp" coming soon to a
city near you!
For two full days in each of the cities listed below,
my IMC team will speak live on stage, giving away the
exact step-by-step blueprint you need to grow a lucrative
Internet business...
... Using the most current, most advanced Internet marketing
secrets, strategies, and technologies that we've used
to generate over $60,000,000 in online sales.
Upcoming Bootcamps:
Edmonton,
AB -- May 26 & 27 (Click
here for more details)
Miami,
FL -- June 9 & 10 (Click
here for more details)
Phoenix, AZ -- June 16 & 17
Raleigh, NC -- June 16 & 17
Nashville, TN -- June 23 & 24
Seattle, WA -- June 23 & 24
To claim your tickets, click on the links above -- or
call my team, who will be happy to answer any of your
questions about these exclusive events -- at 1-800-595-9855. |
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Reprint
IMC's up-to-the-minute marketing advice on YOUR website
or blog -- free!
Click
here to find out how you can use our content
to help grow your business! |
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Do
you have an idea or comment you'd like to share with the
IMC community?
Leave a comment on Derek's blog: http://blog.marketingtips.com/derek/
And let's get the conversation started! |
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To
contact us...
If you have any questions, email info@marketingtips.com
Or, if you would prefer to use postal mail,
please contact us at:
The Internet Marketing Center
Attn: Newsletter Subscription Dept.
1123 Fir Ave
Blaine, WA
98230 |
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