SEO Blog and Web Hosting News

Archive for July, 2010

Designers especially the newbies go frantic on how to go about it. It has to be attractive, engrossing, user-friendly and functional. Thus, unraveling the secrets will definitely bind the website.

So, what are these layout secrets?

Together let us unfold them one after another…

1. Centering it all is no good. The secret is doing the contrary and not centering everything. The latter will just make the page disorganized, strewn and drab. The alignment may also seem weak and wanting.

2. The use and mastery of contrast is indispensable. Contrast is one thing that makes the page attractive. The use and mastery of it in color, value, size and weight will greatly affect the site’s appearance and edge. In fact a typeface may appear bigger with the use of contrast in color. The latter can also affect the look of organization of the page. At a glance, a page may appear organized or the exact opposite. That is the secret of contrast.

3. Apply deviations if necessary. Most of the designers practice nowadays is to develop a ‘uniform-pages’ look. They try to use same background colors and other peculiarities to establish similarities to the homepage or other pages. But the fact is that viewers can be easily bored with that scheme. Viewers always want something new and by giving them a repetitious work, they are pissed off and transfer to another site where they can feast both their eyes and mind.

Placing lines in between contents also manifests division. Instead of using these lines, use blank ‘buffer zones’. This way what are created are invisible lines to make the effect subtle.

4. Do not forget that functionality is the king of web development. Moreover, keep the content and information full, tight and pretty useful. Use the space, don’t waste. Only leave a small percentage for blank spaces. Use the space cleverly in order for the website not to look crowded at the same time loose. Multiple columns are also advisable in order to maximize space.

These four topmost secrets in page layout are so crucial that to break them may spell disaster or the end of your precious site.

You may all know about these methods in some way but let’s take a look at the 3 most reliable and efficient ways to boost traffic to your website in good time.

Being a web developer, I know how to build an attractive and functional website that is worth more than the price charged to the customer. If in my head it wasn’t adding value, I wouldn’t bother trying to sell it. I soon realised that building the website was only half of the challenge for my customers, and gaining traffic was the next. The three main ways that we’ll talk about are paying for traffic, sending an email to your mailing list (that itself takes time to build) and lastly to joint venture with another website owner. This means they send you traffic, and you split profits with them 50:50. You can use software to track the number of hits produced from their mailouts.

1. By buying traffic, you can target the people already looking for your product. The biggest player here is Google. I’m sure you know them well  For those new to this industry, whenever you run a google search, the listings that show up on the right hand side can be bought by anyone. You pay 5 cents and upwards for each click. You can have traffic showing up to your website 5 minutes after setting up a Google Adwords account. Other search engines also offer this ‘pay-per-click’ (PPC) service.
The next step after paying for traffic is to monitor results. You can track the number of hits from various sources to focus on those that are producing sales. Let’s say you had 4 different advertising sources producing a total in sales of $200 and you spent a total of $80. That’s a profit margin of 250%. If you were able to see that the $20 you spent with PPC advertiser A produced 0 dollars in sales and the same for advertiser B. Advertiser C brought in $20 in sales but advertiser D brought in a whopping $180 in sales. That’s 900% profit and you could then focus your advertising dollars on that source to maximise profit. Every type of advertising must have a tracking system with strong accuracy.

2. Emailing a list is the next method that becomes your greatest asset with time. There are no overheads and you can create a huge rush of sales everytime you send an email. In a previous article I mentioned that a signup should be between 10 and 33%. That is the percentage of visitors you can expect to sign up to a mailing list. By having autoresponders, you can attract these visitors back to your website again. There’s a good chance they’ll buy the second time around. If they leave, you can send them another email to ask them to return and make them keep returning until they eventually buy.

Knowing how often to send emails to your list is also important. The key here is to add value and send regular free content. Imbetween asking them to buy something, send something free that is of value. Generally, once a month is an appropriate time period between emails, or more often depending on your market. Some people send emails three times a day and it works for them but here’s what works for my mentor so that’s the best of my knowledge.

3. Joint Venture.

The strategy is simple, other websites send out emails and place strategic links on their website to attract visitors to your website. YUou only pay them for the sales produced from any clicks. Generally 50% of the profits is the best since it’s an equal share.

The key here is to make it as easy as possible for you JV partner. Create emails for them, banner ads and any other promotional material that will help them.

JV deals allow you to create a lot of traffic to your site in a short period of time and for you to build your mailing lists very quickly. You can receive JV support from all of the established companies in the field you wish to enter if you approach them correctly.

What keeps you up at night?

It’s a good question for you to ask yourself once in a while. For most eCommerce entrepreneurs one of the answers is the thought of revenue lost as potential customers abandon your web site without buying. That’s 97.4% or so of your visitors, according to the accepted industry average conversion rate. Are you confident that your site converts visitors into customers at the best rate possible? If so, you’re probably getting a better night’s sleep than most.

If not, you’re probably tossing and turning, thinking about ways to increase web site sales. You might think you have already tried every little conversion rate optimization tip or trick. Do you have a strong “Call to Action” benefit? Have you ever tested different messaging with tools such as split A/B landing page optimization? The web is always changing. Unless you are sure that there is no room for improvement, its clearly time to consider how you can take your website to the next level to increase online sales with a value added promotional benefit.

1. Bait your prospects with the right cheese.

Online shoppers are more sophisticated today. You should assume that your prospects will evaluate three to four competitors before deciding to purchase. You need to stand out and provide the right bait to get your prospects to stop and buy at your site, rather than move on to a competitor.. In some cases, merchants need to find a special kind of cheese that will get the mouse to click on certain shipping options or up-sells. Getting creative in what bait you use is what will increase conversion rates if you know what type of cheese will make that mouse click.

2. Create a value-added offer.

Sometimes you need to go beyond your product line to find a potential partner that could benefit from a cross promotion. Some gift items can be presented as bonus offerings that would bring a high perceived added value, such as. Phone cards with a volume discount. Such an item could even be co-branded as a special value- added thank you gift.

3. Offer free gifts that create viral marketing buzz

Think of a gift or promotional item that prospects will keep on them at all times such as inside their purse or wallet. Giving this item away is what creates the viral marketing buzz for increased “buzz”, brand awareness, and ultimately more Internet sales. The example of a free co-branded phone card giveaway is a great way to get your customers to carry your brand at all times and increase repeat orders and referrals. Gifts like phone cards are especially effective because they are designed for repeated use. As a result, the customer will be exposed to your brand for the seven plus times experts say are necessary before a prospect is ready to convert to a sale or reorder. It’s also likely to more than carry its weight in referrals.

4. Create a personalized benefit

Always look for ways to personalize your offer. Instead of “we” or” I”. talk to the customer individually as “you”. Make your prospects feel special, elite and make it personal in any way possible when giving away a value added benefit. Personalize your gift when possible and find a partner with whom you could cross promote a co-branded personalized items.

5. Give away a high perceived value item:

Offering something for FREE is always nice. But the word “free” can carry negative connotations. You always want to keep the perceived value of any gift or offer high.

Example:

Get a Free phone card with your order today

Vs.

Receive a complimentary phone card worth more than 1 hour of free calling to the U.S. and many other countries as a personal thank you gift for your order today.

Grab your prospects today, and give them an incentive to buy on your site. Now its time for you to find your special “cheese” that will get your prospect’s mouse to click on your personalized high perceived-value benefit.