Key 1. Save Time and you Save Money:
Time is the Most Precious Commodity

You have 30 seconds to make a sale at your Web Site. Make sure that your home page text and graphics do not add up to more than a total of 40K (just look on your computer at the file sizes). That will take about 15 seconds to open up, which means you have to hit them with your message immediately.

Think of your site as having three reasons for your customer to visit. Focus on those three reasons and answer them quickly with headlines that link to specific pages. There is an old rule of design called the "Rules of 7"; never give them more than 7 perceived choices to make, or you will confuse them.

Keep it simple, and minimize your links. You can embellish on your other Web Pages, but at your front door, your Home Page, orient and:

A. Focus your customer on exactly what you offer, and why it will benefit them. Everything else is just commentary.

B. Show why they should believe what you are offering. Back up what you say with testimonials, what other people say about you. Have a page where you introduce the owner, with a picture, or show the track record of the business. If you are new and have no testimonials, focus on success stories and show why you follow the same model.

C. Make your site believable. Credibility is 50% of the reason anyone will stay at your site. Prove you can do what you say, and show the results. Put it in percentages, dollars saved or earned, leads, and compare it to your industry. Make the examples so concrete that there are no questions left. If you are beginning, partner with others so you can benefit from their experience as well. After all, every business began some time; don't let this stand in your way.

D. Get them to contact you immediately. Put your free report on an autoresponder, and get them to fill in a small form on your home page immediately. Do not create a home page without such a simple form.

Those Who Predict the Future, Don't Necessarily See It... "Looking into the future in 1990 I would have missed the importance of the Internet. In 1980 I might have missed the emergence of the PC."    Gordon Moore, cofounder, Intel: Red Herring, April 1998

Key 2. Color

The Web brings color printing to anyone; this is a scary proposition. People put so many colors up, it distracts. Adapt the following rules and you'll be safe:

1. Use just a few colors on your Web Page. One trick I use is to focus on the color blue for my links, dark blue for a new link, and then a lighter blue after they have clicked on it.

Try to use just 3 colors on your page; after all, computer screens are based on an RGB (red, green, blue) model for a reason. These three colors are the most reliable ones for looking the same on most screens Too much color just turns people off.

2. No more than 20 percent of your Web Page should be in color. Use white backgrounds, black text, one color for links, and keep your colors simple. Avoid fancy patterns or gradients, because while it may look good on your computer, it can look awful on others. Use color for your left hand border. For areas with extensive text, use white; it works.

Black is a good alternative for a high tech, entertainment, or "cool" site. Minimize the text you use on such backgrounds. Make the text light gray and yellow so it is easy to read. Avoid red text on a black background, it is tough on the eyes.

3. Use simple color lines at the top or bottom of the page to separate sections. If you use text as a graphic, make it a different color to separate sections of your Web Page.

4. Use your color to accent what you are doing, for key points of action, links, and places you want people to go to immediately. Have one main color for your page, and use the other two sparingly.

5. Color affects people psychologically, for example:

Yellow promotes optimism, but too much makes people uneasy.
White is associated with truth.
Orange is associated with fun, while red promotes appetite.
Black is the most dramatic color for backgrounds.
Blue implies authority, financial responsibility, and security.
Green means health and tranquillity.
Blue is the most popular color.

Key 3. Consistency

The style of your Web site should be consistent from page to page. Select a background and colors, then stick with them.

Web pages comes in one, two, or three columns. Ninety percent of the time, a two column format works best. Make your Web Pages about 600 pixels wide, with 20% (120 pixels) for a left hand border. This is where you put your table of contents, or listings. Use the rest to put your text, headlines, banner ads, and key offers.

Most of all, don't change your formatting from page to page. Use the same colors and standard look so people don't think about where things are. It should be easy to get around your site.

If you use a two column format, stick with it. Each time a Web Page looks different, your visitor will be distracted. Get them to focus on your text by being direct, using the same sets of colors on each page, and formatting it the same way.

HINT: The best way to test this is to create your Web Site and invite people to go through it in person. Watch what they do and most of all, don't say anything to them. Sit them down to the Web Site and observe, do not talk. You will find out what works and what doesn't quickly, if you don't show them what to do. At your Web site, no one is there to guide them. Make sure you watch what they do.

Business Success Has Three Keys:    1. Operations, the ability to generate products and services    2. Sales, the ability to sell what you offer    3. Finance, the ability to keep paying for your business.

Key 4. Ad Copy and Testing

Like every other medium (print, radio, and television), it all comes down to your ad copy. Words are what make people respond and react.

Spend your time with your ad copy and test what works. See which headlines pull at your Web Site, and via email. Test and change these most of all, especially on your home page. Don't think of updating, think of testing your ad copy.

Key 5. Design

A Web Site should be easy to navigate, which simply means breaking down your offer into its own logical structure. Try to make everything accessible with one or two clicks of a mouse.

Write an outline of your ideas, then for each of your major subjects, write the name on a piece of paper. Put these on the floor in front of you, and circle them around your home page. If you find yourself branching out so much that there is little floor space, try to reorganize it.

The further you get from the home page, the more you need to edit. If you can make everything available in one or two clicks, you will make it easy for your visitor to quickly get through your site.

Make your files names descriptive as well, so people know what they are looking at. If you focus on writing a site simply, you will find that most sites break down into:

1. The Home Page, i.e. Table of Contents, to center everything around
2. Content that shows what you are doing, and that you know what you are doing;
3. Credibility building pages, like resumes, testimonials, and company information
4. Places to contact the business for emails, faxes, inquires, and phone calls
5. Points of Sales, where they decide to buy or not
6. Products/Service pages, to outline what you offer, the benefits, and the costs.

1. Selling To Everyone Means You Sell to No One

If you do not target your offer, it will confuse your customers. People are not patient. In a recent survey, 73% of people claimed to be "insanely busy". If you do not develop a target customer profile and appeal directly to them, you will lose customers. And they will never come back to your site again.

Visit www.inetdesign.com for my latest version of this approach. I found that people visited for 3 reasons. I define those reasons and get them to contact me immediately via telephone. I met a real estate agent who took the same, lead generating approach with his Web Site. He made 18 sales in one year, not because of the Web Site, but because of the phone calls that came from his Web Site. Like most real estate professionals, he knows that a phone call is more powerful than a "virtual" contact.

2. Web Flea Market: Buy a Web Site or Get a Grocery Coupon

These Web Sites are quickly dying out. You can find them by going to the search engines. People are selling Web Sites, classified advertising, pre-paid legal services, long distance phone cards, and reminder services...All on the same Web Page!

Think about this the next time you go to your grocery store. Do they offer to sell you a Web Site with your pickles? Flea markets diminish the value of what you are selling. Most people who own these sites tell me they depend on selling a high volume of low price items. How do I know this is a doomed approach? Visit their sites and see if there is any life there.

3. Huge graphics that make your site take 30 seconds to open, which is all the time you have to sell your customer on staying.

The worst thing about computers is that they enable us to do things we just should not be doing. Graphic design is a skill; most people get some Paint program and have absolutely no sense of size, or what the graphic makes them look like. If you want to SCREAM AT YOUR AUDIENCE AND BE OBNOXIOUS, then use big graphics.

The average screen is about 600 wide X 440 high (pixels). Keep your graphics down to less than 25% of this screen at most, 150X110 as a general guideline. You can make them wider, just beware of making them too tall. At some sites, all you see on the first screen is a huge company logo.

This is one job you should definitely outsource, especially if your Web developer is a techie...techies often know little about graphic design.

4. Great Gobs of Content.
Remember the early days of the Web, when everyone screamed how content was king? Visitors do not equate into value, unless you convert them. Focus on your marketing copy and give them enough, but not too much.

5. This site has XXXX number of visitors (How many bought?)
Does it really matter to anyone how many people visit your store? The sure sign that a store is visited often is the success and profits of the owner. All the rest is empty bragging.

6. Explaining what technology you use, frames, etc.
To this day it amazes me how people explain the technical design of their Web Page. If you use any reference to technology, you are distracting your customer. Keep it simple.

7. Download the following plug-ins to get this site working.
No one will spend ten minutes downloading the plug-in to see your cutesy message. Avoid plug-ins, with the possible exception of RealAudio.

8. You need a screen 800X600 wide to view this.
You need to get a clue. Don't sell to customers based on their screen size, sell to them based on the benefits you deliver.

9. No place to send an email, or gain a free report.
After spending all this time to create a site, most people forget to ask for inquiries. They just think people will work hard to contact them. Assume that a person will visit your site once, and never return....unless you remind them to via email.

10. Look at all the awards we've won.
Best of the Web awards are nice for entertainment and education, but for business they are just another boring promo of someone else's site. No one knows who gives the awards, and it isn't like an Oscar. Awards have no credibility.

Summing Up

The reason most Web Sites fail is that they fall in love with an idea, and never think of what their customers want. Be sure you focus on:

1. Researching your customer base and finding those select places they go for information and entertainment. Find a way to drive them to your site.

2. Study your competition continuously. Always be on the look out for people to partner with. As one Silicon Valley exec puts it, partner with as many people as possible, because you do not know which ones will succeed.

3. Commit to increasing sales AND decreasing costs. A sales only approach means you miss half the value of the Internet. Create a Web marketing plan and apply it, step by step. Evaluate your cash flow monthly, find out which promotions work, then sink your money into the one or two best places to generate leads and sales for your specific niche.

4. Keep on training and improving your skills. After all, people can always buy a product or service some place else. The reason they work with you is the value you add, and the service you back it with.

Good customer service and attention to your customers is the best, long term, marketing of all. Having the water, sun, and soil is important, but remember that through bad weather and good, your customers are what keep your business alive.

Make sure you do your best to benefit them.

How to Harvest Online Mailing Lists From Your Web Site

1. Establish as Many Points of Contact Possible on Your Home Page

Never expect a visitor to return to your Web Site. Bank on the fact that they will never return. Use your home page as a place to generate emails, phone calls, faxes, and inquiries. Use your autoresponders wisely; get them set up to answer a basic guestbook (tell us why you visited), surveys, sales letters, special announcements, mailing lists, and contests. The more ways you give them to contact you, the better your chances are for understanding who is visiting. Gathering email addresses is really the name of the game.

A Web Site has a few hot spots which will literally triple your response rates if you use it right. The screen a visitor looks at is wider than it is tall. If you want a hint, take a look at the computer interfaces on the two most popular machines, Windows and Macintosh. Most of the places to click on are located on the top and bottom of the screen; the left hand margin in particular is a favorite place to put your intial offers on a Web Site.

Both place all the action points, the points for people to click, in the frame of the screen. The hottest spot to put your words is the upper left hand corner. People who read English read left to right. Their eye naturally drops on the upper left hand corner.

Place your first point of contact in the upper left hand corner. Develop your important sections down the left hand side. Use the bottom of your screen as well, especially the lower right hand corner. This is where their eyes scan.

Example: By placing banner ads at the lower, right hand corner of the screen, a survey found that responses to these banners increased by 200+% over banners in the middle of the screen. Bank on years of experience and put your headlines on top, on the left hand side, and towards the bottom of your screen. Use the middle of the screen for graphics and for listings of areas to visit in your Web Site, as well as more headlines.

3. 10% of Visitors Will Explore your Site: Give Them Enough, but not too much

You will find that people visit about 20% of your entire site, and ignore the rest. This is normal. At a successful business site, people will spend about 7 minutes. For chats, games, entertainment, and high priced news media, these rules may differ. But few people can afford to play that high risk, low return game.

If you focus on updating your site and making it fancy, you will lose marketing time. You will also be out of business quickly. Give them enough information to make the sale, and follow up via traditional means as well. Telemarketing is an excellent tool to use with a Web Site. After all, the Web all revolves around different ways to use the phone.

You can use more than your home page to get people exploring. If you want to promote a specific product, you can direct them to that page. Then give them a place to contact you and make it clear how they can explore further.

The Four-Page Web Site Formula

Many people get overwhelmed thinking about what it takes to create a Web Site. The goal is to create the home page only, a one page document in a word processor. To achieve this, you need to define the four other Web pages using the Formula:

Define these four steps to a Web site for your own business. Use current marketing materials to enhance what you are doing in print and get the Web site going. You can always add more later. What's most important is to make the shopping process easy by having your order form always available, as well as your sales letter.

A successful Web Site is built around the sales letter and order form. You want to direct your customer to your sales letter to get them to buy; content is used to develop interest, believability, credibility, and understanding why they should buy from you. That's why they say that "Content is Advertising"; content is the advertisement that leads them to the sale.

Remember to always link to your order form from your pages; use your links to elicit interest, encourage exploration, and develop curiousity and interest in your product or service. Then give them a link to your sales letter and/or order form to close the deal.

 
1. Label Each Page with its own title.

2. Simple design makes it easy to reach any page; you are never more than 2 clicks away. The customer has two choices; return to the home page or go to a new page in your sales process.

3. This is the easiest way to get your message across, and people won't get lost in your site.

4. At the top of each page, just put a "Return to Home Page" link and a link to your Order Page. Every page lets them go to the home page, the Table of Contents, or to finish up by ordering online.

As you prepare your Home Page, remember to create it as a "Satellite Structure", in which all your information revolves around the central home page.

• Headlines: Use Headlines to spark interest and get people to directly respond to your message by clicking on them as Links.

• Text: Provide information that fulfills your reader's interest and makes them want to come back again and again.

• Graphics: Keep them simple; decorate don't dominate. Too many graphics make a page slow to open and will limit visitors.

• Links: Links let you move around the Web Site and take you three places: