Is Your Web Site Design Hurting Sales
By: John Skorczewski
Hello,
Before we get started I wanted to share a quick idea that was sent to me by one of my readers, David Doyle of duracleanbydoyle.com. David downloaded
my new eBook on using Bumps to increase sales and suggested using an audio clip on your
bump page to "speak" the bump offer to the customer.
That's a great suggestion that I'll be testing
within the next few weeks...I'll let you all know how well it works, but I imagine it'll shoot conversion rates
up through the roof!
Last Week I gave you a fun (and free) way to learn how to write killer copy that sells your products. This
week I want to talk to you about your web site's look, feel, and professional image.
I came online for the first time nearly nine years ago. I was floored, I was amazed, this "Internet thing" was the coolest thing in the world!
I didn't know how all those people had built all those web pages, but I knew I wanted to build my own.
Back then, finding information on how to build a web site was nearly impossible. Most people had never
even heard of the Internet, and hardly anyone had written any books on the subject.
Colleges weren't even teaching web design yet.
After much tedious searching (search engines weren't what they are now), I stumbled onto a place called Anglefire.com that let you build your own web site
and hosted it for free...it also taught you HOW to build a web site. There were a few places around
like this....geocities.com, tripod.com etc.
I spent several months learning to build my own web site. I learned how to upload graphics and make
them appear on the page...I slowly learned very simple HTML.
I've programmed computers since I was about seven years old, so learning HTML was easier for me then it probably would be for your average
computer user....but it was still very slow going!
I Finally finished building my first web site and I was just about as proud as a person could be!
I had conquered this Internet thing...I had staked out my own little corner, I had made my mark!
And the web site? It looked.....TERRIBLE!
It was absolutely horrible looking...it served no purpose. It was just a little personal site that said "Welcome
to my web site" and had a couple of funny animated pictures. It had a loud background, flashing blinking
text...no layout plan....clashing colors. In short, it was very ugly.
I didn't care, I was damn proud of it. I showed it to everyone. Heck, my mom thought it was great!
Shortly after that I started to look at the Internet as a business and I built my first business web site.
It looked only slightly better than the first site I built. I didn't care, I was just as proud of it
as I was the other.
Over the years I've seen the same metamorphosis with many of my consulting clients.
They come online, they slowly start to learn how to build a web site, and they've generally
gotten to the stage where their site looks slightly better than if a grade school kid had scribbled
something with crayons.
But they're damn proud of it. THEY made it...THEY went through the Herculean effort to learn HTML
or learn how to use editing software of some sort. It's their baby....
I know EXACTLY how they feel.
But the problem is, their potential customers don't care about any of that. They only know that they've stumbled
onto a web site that looks.....well.....not so good.
It only takes a person a couple of seconds to decide that a web site isn't professional, and click
off of it.
We spend so much time, effort, and money on marketing and advertising to get a person to come
to our site, it seems like a shame not to spend a few bucks to have a professional looking web site.
I know, if you're just starting out money may be tight. But this is really not something you want
to skimp on.
I've got a pretty good solution for the money conscience person (hey, I'm one of you!).
What you do is this... Create your own web site....do the best you can.
Use frontpage or any of the hundreds of HTML editors. Then once the site is done,
hire someone for two or three hours to go in and clean things up a bit.
You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars hiring a firm to build you a web site. Head over to
your local community college and trek over to the art department and slap a paper on the bulletin
board.
Design Work Wanted:
2-3 hours of web design work
$40 per hour.
Call 555-5555
Those kids are probably talented enough to give you pretty good quality work and it won't cost
you much of anything.
We're talking $80-$100 for some design work from a local college kid to turn
your web site into a professional looking site. A site that someone will be comfortable purchasing stuff from.
It's more than worth the investment! Think of it this way....you don't HAVE to have a professional looking site.
But I guarantee your competition will....and given the choice, who do you think your customer would
rather buy from?
That's all for this week. See you next Monday!
John Skorczewski
(pronounced Score-Chess-Key)
Editor, WebPromotion-Weekly
http://www.WebPromotion-Weekly.com
Want to use this article in your own ezine or web site? You can...as long as you add this signature line
(including the links):
John Skorczewski is the publisher of WebPromotion-Weekly, a free ezine about Internet Marketing,
Promotion, Advertising, And Search Engine Submission as well as the creator of the popular Web Site Promotion software,
the Submission-Spider
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