Your Own Website - The Key to Success

Why Do I Need a Website for My Online Business?

Is it really necessary to have my own website?

Isn't it enough to just use all of the available plug and play marketing methods out there?

This is perhaps the most important article that you’ve read so far on this site. The information here could absolutely make the difference between success and failure in your business.

If you’ve been with us step by step, from square one, then you’ve taken all the necessary steps to research industries and companies.

You’ve done some real soul searching to find out if an online business is for you….

If you haven’t done these things, Stop…

…and read our previous articles.

If you’ve done your homework and you’re ready to start your online business, Congratulations. So far, all of your hard work has paid off.

It's time to start thinking about your own website.

That brings us to some very important questions. What about a website? Do I need one? If I do need one, how do I do it? Should I do it myself, or hire someone?

We'll get to those questions, but first let's look at what happened to Joe...

Joe and His "Mega" Mistake

Joe did all of his research and decided on a home based business that really fit his interests and that a lot of people were interested in. After painstaking research, he decided that the health and wellness industry would be the best way to monetize his site. He chose the “latest and greatest – best ever product” called MEGA JUICE.

Joe met a woman personally who had been told by her doctor that she was terminally ill, and nothing could be done. After taking Mega Juice for one month, she was doing so much better that her doctor took her off all her medications.

She still is feeling great today…

Mega Juice also had the Best Pay plan in the industry – bar none!

That was enough for him, he signed up on the spot. He decided to market his Mega Juice on line, but didn’t like the company replicated website. He thought…

“This website is pretty good, but I think it’s a little boring. I’m sure it could be improved upon, so that it would drive tons of customers to my business”

Joe talked to a friend of his who knew a great web master, who had won awards for his graphics. He was an expert in flash and multi-media, and his own website was amazing. This guy came with a big price tag, but Joe knew that he would make so much money from the website, it would all be worth it.

Joe loved the guy’s ideas and hired him to do a very professional web site. Since the economy was a little slow, the guy gave him a “deal” and did the site for $7,500. When the site was done, Joe was absolutely floored! There were so many bells and whistles, he didn’t know what to do with them all…

The Mega Juice bottle even poured its’ wonderful contents into a shot glass. The benefits of the product and the countless testimonies were presented in a way that brought tears to his eyes. There was even a really cool avatar figure explaining the compensation plan in great detail…

His friends and family told him that the site absolutely rocked!Joe was ready. He made sure his interface was working perfectly so it could handle all of the traffic and orders, and he told his web master to “let ‘er rip!” it was about 9:00 p.m.

Joe got up early the next morning so that he wouldn’t get behind on his orders, and excitedly looked at his site, ready to get to work. And…

NOTHING!

Joe wasn’t phased though. He knew that he had the best looking site, the best product and best compensation plan out there. This was a sure thing…“I’ll give it a couple of days so that more people can look at the sight”.

At the end of a week, he had 2 hits to his site and no sales. After 3 weeks, he had 10 hits to his site and no sales. Week after week – month after month went by and nothing happened.

Joe ended up running out of money in 6 months before he ever got close to getting things off the ground. But Joe learned from his mistakes.

More on that later…

What Happened to Joe's Business?

It isn’t!

The online world is a completely different animal from brick and mortar, “face to face” sales.

It’s absolutely critical to understand the psychology of the person searching online, when designing your website. What are people searching for online anyway? What was on your mind when you clicked on this site?

People go online because they want specific information about whatever they’re looking for. And they expect this to be high value, credible information that provides a solution to their problem, an answer to their question, or satisfaction of their curiosity. If they don’t find it, then what happens?

You guessed it! Click…

The fact that you’re reading this page means that you are finding value in what you’re reading now.

Maybe this will help to illustrate my point…

Think about the Real Estate market. What’s the main thing that people tell you, whether you’re dealing with Residential Real Estate or Commercial Real Estate?

Location, location, location… Right?

It’s obvious to all of us why location is important in Residential Real Estate. What about Commercial? Let’s say you own a shop or a store. The exact location of that business is extremely important. Why?

Because the part of town that you’re in dictates the kind of clientele that will visit you. Also, the location on the street and proximity to other similar stores has a huge effect on how much traffic you get into your business.

Targeted traffic is the lifeblood of any business. So how do we apply this to the online world?

How do you make sure that you get visitors (traffic) to your online business? Just like a traditional business, you give them what they’re looking for.

Information is what people are looking for online. They’re not looking for you or your business opportunity. Information is the Real Estate of the internet. The new mantra is…

Information, Information, Information…

Your task is to give people the information they’re looking for. But there’s another side to equation. You have to give the customer what they’re looking for in a way the search engines like.

You do this by building a Theme Based Website with keyword focused content pages. A content rich (providing your customer with the info they’re looking for) web site builds trust, goodwill and credibility.

We’re all the same in that we prefer to buy from people we know, like and trust. By over delivering information, your visitors begin to like, trust and respect you.

This creates an "open to buy" mindset.

Sales site vs Content site...

A sales site is focused on the business owner and/or the product. It’s all about me, me, me and my product, my product, my product…

Since the client's actual needs are not being addressed at all, they quickly tire of reading it and move on to something else.

A content site is what we explained above, and that’s the kind of site you want to build.

If you want any traffic, that is.

What do you enjoy more – a stranger making a sales pitch, or a knowledgeable friend or expert making a recommendation? Me too, and your customers will feel the same way.

This is why 99% of small businesses fail online. Selling is not your first priority.

The desire to earn income must be second to the needs of your customer – see our article, Attraction Marketing

Okay, you may be thinking...

“Well, then when do I get around to the selling? You can’t run a business without selling anything. I can’t run a charity business that exists to give people information.”.

The selling will come later. Your primary focus while constructing your site needs to be content, content, content…

Why?

Because the human visitor is only half the equation. Search Engines are the other half.

When you go online to look for something, say Mega Juice, you type in Mega Juice or some variation of that. You then get a series of websites to choose from, and you click on the one that looks or sounds most interesting to you. How did that website get in front of you when you typed in Mega Juice?

Mega Juice is a specific term, or keyword that people type in when they’re looking for that particular product or information about it.

The sites that you see, come up because they have content which is rich in keywords, in this case Mega Juice.

The search engine has little virtual spiders that crawl around on the web looking for sites that use specific key words the right way, and the right number of times – because this usually means that the page has what you, the search engine’s customer, is looking for.

When the spiders go through your site, and go home and tell Momma Spider that your site’s the real deal – Momma tells Daddy Search Engine, and you’re rewarded with traffic to your site.

This is very over-simplified, but if you're new to this I think that the analogy will help...

Your keyword rich content pleases both human visitors and spiders.

The very last thing that you do it set up your site to make money, monetize it.

Some people have chosen to have a website as their primary home business. This can be very profitable if set up correctly.

For example: Say you're interested in Golf. You could create a content rich website all about Golf. You could set up affiliate relationships with online sporting goods stores, booksellers or any other business having to do with Golf. Practically any interest or hobby can be made into a lucrative website. Your only limitation is your imagination and willingness to work.

Fortunately, there are companies out there which can help you cut years off your learning curve and save you from frustration and eventual failure in designing a Website.

There are many ways to monetize your site, from Google Adsense, to affiliate programs, to referral relationships.

If you’ve done everything we’ve listed above, then your site will get traffic. The monetization is the easiest part…

Does this sound like a lot?

Don’t know where to start?

We built this site through a web design company (link directly above)that taught us how to do what we’ve been talking about in this article. You can build a site that both search engines and human visitors will love. Check out their introductory video series to see what it’s about…

However you choose to do it, just make sure that you follow the principles we've laid out for you. And don't run out and register a domain name for your website. There's a lot of research that you need to do first. You'll get training on how to do this when you click on the web design company link above.

Does all this seem like a little too much right now? You might try blogging first. Blogging will get you going while you're learning to build your website.

P.S. Oh, back to Joe. We can’t leave him hanging out there to dry!

Joe gave his Mega Juice business another shot - this time with a content/keyword rich website, and the rest is history. He owes us some pictures from Tahiti… : )






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