7 Ways To Increase The Profitability Of Your Website

The following article is one of a series of articles which focus on Affiliate, Article and Internet Marketing. All of the articles are based on real experiences and research done over twenty years as a personal and business coach. They are also written in response to questions which I have been asked as well as address common challenges that people have with affiliate marketing, article marketing, internet marketing or running an online business in general. I sincerely hope that you find the following information of value. One idea, one tip, one clue can make all the difference.

7 Ways To Increase The Profitability Of Your Website

It is important for all of us involved with affiliate and internet marketing to keep up to date with those techniques that are proving to be highly successful. Hopefully some of you have benefited from incorporating audio into your site. Now the focus seems to be on using video, either your own or 'borrowed' from sources such as Google and YouTube.

These are great techniques as long as they add value to what already is a welcoming, user friendly website. No amount of audio, video, flash intros or any other marketing trend that may come along will give you the results you are looking for unless you get the basics right.

Get the basics right, then you can look at different ways to complement a site that is already working for you.

So, what are these basics?

1. Give Your Visitors What They Are Looking For

Visitors have arrived at your site because they have a need and they are hoping that you are going to provide the solution to that need. Let them know they have found what they are looking for. Your home page must include clear and concise information that explains what your site is about. Content will always be king but don't ramble on.

Engage your visitors with value-added content and convince them with a few seconds that they have come to the right place. Through whatever means you have used to get these visitors to your site, it's crazy not to want to keep them there.

As soon as they feel you may just be the answer to what they are looking for, you will have ample opportunity to guide them through your site and to whichever call to action you wish them to take.

2. Make Sure Your Site Loads As Quickly As possible

You may be the best copywriter on this planet but that won't be worth a cent if your visitors have moved on through frustration waiting for your site to load.

I know, flash intros, animated images, slick affiliate program banners may look fantastic but they all take time to download. Less of a problem than it used to be, granted, but even the latest technology has its off days. Look at it from your own experience when surfing the 'net and then trying to access a slow loading website - how long is your waiting time before you move on? Mine is no more than a few seconds.

All of that hard work you have put into convincing your visitors that your site has the solution to meet their needs is pointless if they are not going to wait until the page loads.

3. Keep Your Website Simple

I recently recieved some feedback on one of my sites that basically said that technically the site was brilliant but confusing for the user.

Sit back and critically look at the pages you have created. Does the flow make sense? Are you running the risk of frustrating your visitors because they don't understand what they are meant do next? Are they actually having to guess what some of your links are for?

Again, think about it from their perspective. You are a customer, you make buying decisions or are looking to get even more information. So, how easy do you want it to be? Now make it just as easy for your potential customers.

4. Make Sure All Your Links And Navigation Are Crystal Clear

It is all part of the same theme, making it easy for your visitor. Imagine how successful or otherwise a huge shopping mall would be if visitors (especially first time visitors) could not find what they were looking for.

Make it easy for your visitors to a) find the links and b) move around your site - minimize the number of clicks they have to take to get to the information they want.

Typically, navigation bars and text links can be found vertically down the left side of the page or horizontally along the top. One other suggestion I have is to also include the most important links such as returning to home page at the foot of the page instead of making the user scroll up and down looking for a link.

By making it as easy as possible for your visitors will encourage them to stay awhile.

5. Getting The Right Look And Feel Will Make A Huge Difference

This is perhaps a little more subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that but I think it is a case of getting the balance right.

Use colors wisely. Not just in the sense of backgrounds but also in choosing text colors, highlighting, headlines and so on. Basically, is your site pleasing to the eye? Are the words easy to see and read? Are you using so much bold text and highlighting that the points you really need to emphasize have lost their emphasis? Are you using some obscure fonts that you like but won't work when the visitor loads your page?

Two of my favorites...

Keep paragraphs short and use lots of white space. Make it easy for your visitors to read what you want them to read. Pages jammed full of text and nothing else run the huge risk of turning visitors off before they reach the point where you wish them to make a decision.

Careful use of relevant images and graphics will also help to make pages more interesting. Again, think balance - none and the page may seem boring, too many and the key messages may be lost.

6. Where's Your Call To Action?

I am not joking. You have done all the hard work of preselling your offer, the benefits of your product or your affiliate product, the reasons why visitors should subscribe to your newsletter or whatever the purpose of your page was. Have you actually told your visitor what they now need to do?

Believe me I am not being facetious. It's amazing how many websites miss this point or make it too complicated.

Again, keep it simple. Your visitor has stayed on your site long enough to get to this point. Tell them what to do and give them an easy way to do it.

Many potential customers or subscribers will shy away from filling in complicated forms, forms that are too long, or forms that are asking for too much information. Capture only what you need to capture.

And, always, test. Make sure any call to action process works every time.

7. Did You Say Thank You?

As the saying goes a lot of money is "being left on the table". Once your visitor has purchased the product you have been promoting or subscribed to your newsletter or perhaps an ecourse, you have another sales opportunity. Set up a "Thank You" page that your visitor lands on once they have taken action.

Apart from thanking them, think about how you can make the most out of this opportunity. Do you have an actual product that relates perfectly to the ecourse they signed up for? Do you have affiliate products that complement the product they have just purchased? Do you have a report that will add value to their purchase?

The bottom line is that you have been successful thus far, your visitors have taken the action you wanted them to take. Now that you have them in the right frame of mind, sieze the opportunity as long as it is totally appropriate to the action they have just taken.

None of this is rocket science. Simple design basics that help you to help your visitors to take the action you wish them to take and make it a more profitable experience for you.

NOW is the time!

O.K. you have read the article. Now is the time for action. Without action, this article adds no value whatsoever to your affiliate success. But remember, without action, you cannot blame this affiliate marketing article or any article for that matter. So, take action NOW.

Even if only one piece of advice, one piece of information, one tip makes a difference, then the whole article has been worth it for all of us.
NOW is the time!

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