Make Your Website a Hard-Working Online Revenue Source

I can’t count the times a prospect has told me – “We’re planning to redo our website, and we want somebody who can actually write to do the content for us.” Then, a few minutes later, the person will add, rather awkwardly – “Of course, it’s never made us any money, but we think it’s important to keep it up there anyway.”

Ah, the website that simply sits there – the “brochure site” that’s listed on company business cards but rarely shows up on Google or makes a sale – it can be the biggest money-waster on a business budget!

Brochure sites are actually a relic of the days when business first noticed the Internet…the days when printed marketing collateral was still the Number One way for businesses to inform the public about their products and services. In those days, marketers didn’t realize there was any difference between printed and online media.

In fact, there are two major differences: time and competition.

A brochure is designed to be absorbed in “slow time” – it may sit on your desk for a few days, be picked up again, thrown in a drawer and emerge a month later. With plenty of time to work its spell, it can afford to be unusual, or perhaps self-consciously creative. It is interacting with you alone – unless you intentionally seek out similar companies, you are not distracted by competitors.

Visitors coming to your website, on the other hand, are usually searching for something specific, and know that a screen full of competitors is just a few keystrokes away. If your content does not capture needs to capture their interest within seconds, they will move on. And you will never know they were even there.

Clearly this online audience demands a whole new level of writing – focused, direct, with no frills or fluff. No flowery welcomes, no Home page rhapsodies about your company – there simply isn’t time!

So how do you create a site that actually brings an income? It’s a complex process, but this is the core:

First of all, before you even begin to design the site content, you need to define its purpose, exactly, and know your audience, intimately: Who do you want to come to your site, and why? What do you want them to find? Are you selling your services to new prospects? Offering details about your newest, hottest product? Providing maintenance to existing customers?

Second, once you have identified your audience and purpose, you need to layer your content, moving from fewest words to most words, least detail to greatest detail, big-picture benefits to in-depth specifications, all directly focused on your prospects’ needs.

With only a few seconds to convey this information, your headlines need to be short, simple, strong, and laser-targeted. For example, instead of “Welcome to the FairGreenMarket Website,” you’d want: “The Fair Green Market - Helping the Planet, the People, and Your Budget.”

Once you’ve captured your visitors with a strong headline, your home page body content has only one further purpose: to entice them to a detailed product or service page.

Again, it’s targeted benefits, not specs, that will get them there. For example, if you’re viewing the home page of a website offering baby products, for example, would you rather click on this option:

“The BabySafeXJ5 Monitor features a DCS-5300 Internet Camera Pan/Tilt 10/100TX with Built-In 20 - 20000 Hz/100 ohm Microphone and comes in Cotton Candy and Blueberry Crème”

Or this one?

“The ultra-sensitive BabySafeXJ5 Monitor lets you watch and listen to your baby when you’re not in the room”?

Once you’ve captured your visitors with practical benefits, you have plenty of time to give them all the details on a product or service page. They’ve already taken the initial steps toward buying based on your obvious knowledge of their needs and desires. From there, it’s a few clicks to the shopping cart and a sale!

What is Social Networking, and Why Should I Care? (part 3 of 3)

So we’ve talked about how Web 2.0 social networking is similar to offline networking, and about all the many ways you can show up on social networks…

Now - here's the catch: remember all those new friends you’ve been making?

When you correspond with new colleagues or prospects in real time, do you send them only your own work? Not if you're wise! You might send them a New York Times article, an inspirational Neal Donald Walsch clip, a podcast from the latest Bioneers conference, and - oh, yes, by the way, here's your latest piece of work! And they'll probably be doing the same thing for you.

This is where the “social” part of social networking takes over. You and your social network don’t just share your work and other favorite content among yourselves. You’re actually working together to promote each other. Imagine a professional business referral group on steroids, and you have a rough idea of the power that social networking can offer.

How does it work? Through the many Web 2.0 “social posting” tools. Let’s say one of your new friends sends you a blog post or video they made. Sure, you can comment on it and include your link with the comment. But why stop there?
• You can bookmark it on De.licio.us…a service that not only holds your bookmarks for you, but also tags them for the world as bookmark-worthy….
• Add it to your Google favorites – again tagging them in the process...
• Review it on your Facebook profile with Shareaholic…
• Recommend it to other people using social-posting tools like StumbleUpon, Digg, or Technorati….
• If it’s relevant to your field, post it to your Zimbio wikizine...
• In fact, you might want to send your recommendations for a really good site across the web to multiple networks by using services like Addthis, SocialMarker, SocialPoster, or Pingoat.

This is all part of the new Web 2.0 “netiquette” – sure, you can Digg or Stumble your own content, but you can only do it once per posting without getting “slapped” or penalized in your search engine ranking. Rather like spamming: nice people don't do it. Just as in offline business, the Golden Rule rules – if you give recommendations to others, you are likelier to receive recommendations in return.

In fact, your recommending others’ sites is all part of being a good “Net citizen,” indicating that you’re not head-down focused on marketing your own product or service, but actively taking part in the greater world around you.

There’s much more you can do in a Web 2.0 environment – this brief intro barely scrapes the surface. For an excellent overview of all these tools and concepts, see Mike Mindel’s summary of content from The Thirty Day Challenge by Ed Dale and Dan Raines.

Oh, and if this sounds like a lot of work, rest easy! A blog entry doesn’t need to be more than a couple of paragraphs, a couple of times a week. A video or podcast, of course, is more effort, and at the same time it will go further and last longer, much as a brochure or magazine ad might.

And remember, there’s nothing requiring you to do this writing yourself! Many writers (like Your Words’ Worth) can help you to keep a stream of posts flowing to your target audience. Some (also like Your Words’ Worth) will even write your audio script and then do the voiceover for you.

So – what are you waiting for? There’s a world of social networks out there – have fun!




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