Why Are Your Cash Registers Empty? 8 Reasons Why Your Site i

Marc Goldman Ok, you've got your webpage up and running and you have submitted your site to the
search engines, now it is time to make that money! Right? Well then, how come your
virtual cash register has that hollow ring to it everytime you open it? Your site is not
making sales and there are at least 8 reasons why and 8 simple fixes you can
implement in order to immediately remedy anything you are doing incorrectly.

1.You have relied on a passive promotion strategy to get the word out about your
site. Many of you assume that simply putting up a website will cause tons of
visitors to flock to your site with cash in hand practically begging to buy your
products or services.

Sorry, a passive marketing strategy may bring you in a trickle of sales or
absolutely none at all. Alternatively, by utilizing an active marketing strategy,
you do not wait for visitors to come to you, you do everything in your power to
bring targeted visitors to your site. Active marketers utilize methods such as
ezine advertising and article submissions to targeted ezines in order to draw
traffic to their site. They will also use free publicity tools such as press releases
in order to get the word out about their site to an audience that cares.

2.You do not offer a simple and secure method of online ordering or accept
different forms of payment.

This could be easily solved by getting set up with a merchant account provider
that enables you to accept checks and all the major credit cards and provides
you with a secure website to process transactions automatically. The best
company for this in my opinion is ECommerce Exchange. You can learn more
about them here:
http://www.qcaffiliate.com/qc/goldbar

3.You do not have a method of capturing your prospects names and email
addresses when they visit your site.

Get this set up immediately and start building a mailing list of interested
prospects.

The best way to do this is to offer a mailing list that people could subscribe to.
You could offer either a newsletter about a topic that interests your audience or
even a small tips sheet that sends people interesting and useful information
related to the topic of your website. When you've built up your list to over a few
hundred people, then you can begin to send commercial information regarding
the products and services you offer. As long as you are also offering quality
information for free, your audience will be more responsive to your commercial
solicitations.

4.You do not offer enough methods for people to contact you.

You should offer people as many different ways of contacting (and ordering)
from you as possible. Here are some cost effective contact methods you can
implement: the most natural one on the web is of course email. However, you
should also include your phone number for those who prefer to speak with a
human being. If you have one, provide a fax number. There is an inexpensive fax
solution available from a company called JFax. They will allow you to receive
both fax and voice messages in your inbox for an extremely low monthly fee. To
learn more visit: http://www.j2.com Lastly, you should always list your snail
mail address on your website.

5.You only advertise online.

Big mistake. There are millions of people offline who might be interested in your
site and your information. They are often more likely to order immediately as
opposed to someone who surfs the web regularly and who knows they can
always "come back sometime in the future".

One of the best ways to reach an audience and bring them to your site is to put
your URL and your email address on every piece of correspondence you send
out. I know of one person who adds his URL to every bill he sends out hoping
that it will cause someone to visit. The best part is that this type of promotion is
free so you have nothing to lose. One of the most effective offline advertising
techniques involves getting your ad onto a card deck that reaches a targeted
audience. This is a great way to spread the word about your site to many
interested prospects who otherwise may not have had the chance to find out
about you.

6.You do not rely on the power of joint ventures to get the word out about your
products and services.

Joint venture endorsements have the power to bring in more visitors and sales
to your site than any other method I know of. Joint Venture Marketing involves 2
parties: a list owner and someone who wishes to have his product or service
introduced and endorsed to the members of the mailing list. This has the ability
to pull in a large amount of sales due to the trust built up between the members
of the list and the list owner. When he endorses your products or services in
his own words to his list, he conveys your legitimacy and in turn they transfer
their trust to you. If you have ever heard radio shows like Rush Limbaugh or
Howard Stern, you will notice that the ads that receive the most response are
the ones that these disk jockeys read themselves and almost make a part of
their "shtick". They are in effect endorsing a product and in turn generating
interest and sales for it.

7.You do not follow up when people ask you for more information.

Huge mistake. That person has indicated that they are interested in what you
have to sell. Statistics show that people have to be exposed to your marketing
message at least 7 times before they will respond. Sending one email
explaining your product is not enough. You must follow up with a prospect and
make a concerted effort to close the sale. Explain the benefits of your product
or service, refer them to testimonials of satisfied customers, ask if you can call
them to explain your product in greater detail. If people see this as badgering
and they ask you to stop bothering them by all means do so. A great idea is to
automate all of your follow-up by using autoresponders. There are some great
tools on the market to help you with this, we highly recommend using
GetResponse. Discover some of the great benefits of using this sequential
autoresponder by clicking here: http://www.getresponse.com?13323

8.You try to sell too many products and services from your website.

This may work for a site selling books or toys or vitamins where people may be
looking for a large variety of products. However, on a site that is geared towards
business, too many product offerings can give the impression that your
business lacks focus. If someone gets to your site and is immediately
bombarded with marketing material, they may become overwhelmed or even
annoyed at the commercial nature of your site. Offering many products and
services takes away from your credibility by giving the impression that you will
sell anything just to make a buck. Instead, develop your site around one or two
complementary products and services and offer lots of free, related information.
That is sure to build up your credibility with your potential customers. Try to
develop a traffic magnet (such as a discussion board or related articles) so you
can bring back your targeted audience time and again.

About the Author

Marc Goldman, Goldbar Enterprises
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