Build Traffic Or A Website That Sells?

What should you concentrate on first? Building traffic, or building a website that sells? This is every Internet marketer’s start-up dilemma.

Do you spend all your time building traffic to a website that does not turn visitors into customers or subscribers?

Or are you one of those people who falls in love with their website and spends all their time polishing it with tender loving care, even though it attracts just three or four visitors per day and no sales?

The second case is worse than the first, because although the website looks beautiful, it may still not be very good at converting traffic, if there was any traffic to be converted.

At least someone who has learned to generate traffic has got one thing right and now needs to focus on turning his or her website into a website that sells.

For someone who is setting up an internet-based business from scratch, it would be a good idea to do some prior research into building a website that sells. With that in mind, here are a few pointers.

First, here are some common mistakes people make when setting up a sales website:

1. They make it look like sales website.

2. They crowd it with banner ads.

3. They write a long boring copy, stuffed to the gills with corporate jargon.

4. They make their pitch before winning your trust.

5. They don’t use numbered lists or bullet points.

6. They remain anonymous, as if they don’t want you to know who they are.

7. They think you are going to hang around to watch their tedious flash movie introduction thin gummy. Great, thanks for letting me know you think I can afford to waste my time!

8. They confuse or distract the visitor by offering to many options and links.

Now let’s think about what it is that makes people buy stuff from a website.

Actually, it’s the same thing as makes people buy stuff from newspapers ads, and direct sales letters – words, words, words.

What is different is how the words are put together and presented in each particular medium. The way you write a classified ad in a newspaper is different from the way you would write a direct sales letter. It’s the same with selling off a website. You need to write your copy for a website viewing, Internet surfing audience and not for someone sitting in his armchair smoking a pipe and reading a newspaper.

Here are some quick pointers to get you on the right track.

* People don’t read web pages, they scan them.

* Don’t write a long paragraphs.

* Use bullet points and numbered lists.

* Use short sentences.

* Use conversational English.

* Use contractions.

* Write editorials and reviews to build trust and sell without selling.

* Use the headline of your editorial to arrest your readers and draw them in.

* Make your keywords stand out in bold font to help your readers scan for gist.

* Use subheadings to split up your copy into manageable, scannable portions.

* Use a large font.

* Space everything out.

* Place your opt-in form in a prominent position and give your readers an incentive to fill it in.

Okay, so now we’ve got some of the essentials in place for a website that sells, it’s time to set it up, write some great editorial copy, and go out and start promoting.