The most important part of your Web Site is a clear and focused offer. Many Web Sites try to be everything to everyone, which is impossible.

Whatever you offer, focus on the word "Just". "Just email marketing". "Just Generating Leads". "Just selling books" (Amazon.com is an example of this; will they succeed by also selling music CD's?). The following section will show you how to position your offers at your Web site; consider any offer an affiliate program that you are working with.

What's the point of your site? Focus on what you deliver best, and deliver "just" that.

1. Establish as Many Points of Contact Possible on Your Home Page

   Never expect a visitor to return to your Web Site. Use your home page as a place to generate emails, phone calls, faxes, and inquiries. Use your autoresponders wisely; get them set up to answer a basic guestbook (tell us why you visited), surveys, sales letters, mailing lists, and contests. Gathering email addresses is really the name of the game.

2. Where to Place Your Affiliate Offer So They Will Notice

   A Web Site has a few hot spots which will literally triple your response rates if you use it right. The screen a visitor looks at is wider than it is tall. If you want a hint, take a look at the computer interfaces on the two most popular machines, Windows and Macintosh. Most of the places to click on are located on the top and bottom of the screen; the left hand margin in particular is a favorite place to put your initial offers on a Web Site.

   Both place all the action points, the points for people to click, in the frame of the screen. The hottest spot to put your words is the upper left hand corner. People who read English read left to right. Their eye naturally drops on the upper left hand corner.

   Place your first point of contact in the upper left hand corner. Develop your important sections down the left hand side. Use the bottom of your screen as well, especially the lower right hand corner. This is where their eyes scan.

3. How To Use Web Pages as Optional Entry Points, or Portal Pages, for Affiliate Programs

   You can use more than your home page to get people exploring. If you want to promote a specific product, you can direct them to that Web page. Then give them a place to contact you and make it clear how they can explore further. Give them one choice; it really works. Remember the search engine strategy we suggested? It keeps coming back; give them one choice.

Summing Up

The reason most Web Sites fail is that they fall in love with an idea, and never think of what their customers want. Be sure you focus on:

1. Researching your customer base and finding those select places they go for information and entertainment. Find a way to drive them to your site.

2. Study your competition continuously. Always be on the look out for people to partner with. As one Silicon Valley exec puts it, partner with as many people as possible, because you do not know which ones will succeed.

3. Commit to increasing sales AND decreasing costs. A sales only approach means you miss half the value of the Internet. Create a Web marketing plan and apply it, step by step. Evaluate your cash flow monthly, find out which promotions work, then sink your money into the one or two best places to generate leads and sales for your specific niche.

4. Focus on a few affiliate programs and sell their products. Do not overload your visitors with too many choices, or affiliate programs. Find 3-4 that generate revenues and stick with them; try to generate more sales from fewer affiliate programs.

Five Keys of a Great Web Site

Key 1. Save Time and you Save Money:

You have 30 seconds to make a sale at your Web Site. Make sure that your home page text and graphics do not add up to more than a total of 40K (just look on your computer at the file sizes). That will take about 15 seconds to open up, which means you have to hit them with your message immediately.

Think of your site as having three reasons for your customer to visit. Focus on those three reasons and answer them quickly with headlines that link to specific pages. There is an old rule of design called the "Rules of 7"; never give them more than 7 perceived choices to make, or you will confuse them.

Keep it simple, and minimize your links. You can embellish on your other Web Pages, but at your front door, your Home Page, orient and:

A. Focus your customer on exactly what you offer, your affiliate programs, and why it will benefit them. Everything else is just commentary.

B. Show why they should believe what you are offering. Back up what you say with testimonials, what other people say about you. Have a page where you introduce the owner, with a picture, or show the track record of the business. If you are new and have no testimonials, focus on success stories and show why you follow the same model.

C. Make your site believable. Credibility is 50% of the reason anyone will stay at your site. Prove you can do what you say, and show the results. Put it in percentages, dollars saved or earned, leads, and compare it to your industry. Make the examples so concrete that there are no questions left. If you are beginning, partner with others so you can benefit from their experience as well. After all, every business began some time; don't let this stand in your way.

D. Get them to contact you immediately. Put your free report on an autoresponder, and get them to fill in a small form on your home page immediately. Do not create a home page without such a simple form.

Key 2. Color

The Web brings color printing to anyone; this is a scary proposition. People put so many colors up, it distracts. Adapt the following rules and you'll be safe:

1. Use just a few colors on your Web Page. One trick I use is to focus on the color blue for my links, dark blue for a new link, and then a lighter blue after they have clicked on it.

   Try to use just 3 colors on your page; after all, computer screens are based on an RGB (red, green, blue) model for a reason. These three colors are the most reliable ones for looking the same on most screens Too much color just turns people off.

2. No more than 20 percent of your Web Page should be in color. Use white backgrounds, black text, one color for links, and keep your colors simple. Avoid fancy patterns or gradients, because while it may look good on your computer, it can look awful on others. Use color for your left hand border.

3. Use simple color lines at the top or bottom of the page to separate sections.

   If you use text as a graphic, make it a different color to separate sections of your Web Page.

4. Use your color to accent what you are doing, for key points of action, links, and places you want people to go to immediately. Have one main color for your page, and use the other two sparingly.

5. Color affects people psychologically, for example:
   1. Yellow promotes optimism, but too much makes people uneasy.

   2. White is associated with truth.

   3. Orange is associated with fun, while red promotes appetite.

   4. Black is the most dramatic color for backgrounds.

   5. Blue implies authority, financial responsibility, and security.

   6. Green means health and tranquillity.

   7. Blue is the most popular color.

   Key 3. Consistency

   The style of your Web site should be consistent from page to page. Select a background and colors, then stick with them.

   Web pages comes in one, two, or three columns. Ninety percent of the time, a two column format works best. Make your Web Pages about 600 pixels wide, with 20% (120 pixels) for a left hand border. This is where you put your table of contents, or listings. Use the rest to put your text, headlines, banner ads, and key offers.

   Most of all, don't change your formatting from page to page. Use the same colors and standard look so people don't think about where things are. It should be easy to get around your site.

   Key 4. Ad Copy and Testing

   Like every other medium (print, radio, and television), it all comes down to your ad copy. Words are what make people respond and react.

   Spend your time with your ad copy and test what works. See which headlines pull at your Web Site, and via email. Test and change these most of all, especially on your home page. Don't think of updating, think of testing your ad copy.

   Key 5. Design

   A Web Site should be easy to navigate, which simply means breaking down your offer into its own logical structure. Try to make everything accessible with one or two clicks of a mouse.

   Write an outline of your ideas, then for each of your major subjects, write the name on a piece of paper. Put these on the floor in front of you, and circle them around your home page. If you find yourself branching out so much that there is little floor space, try to reorganize it.

   The further you get from the home page, the more you need to edit. If you can make everything available in one or two clicks, you will make it easy for your visitor to quickly get through your site.

   Make your files names descriptive as well, so people know what they are looking at. If you focus on writing a site simply, you will find that most sites break down into:

   1. The Home Page, i.e. Table of Contents, to center everything around

   2. Content that shows what you are doing, and that you know what you are doing;

   3. Credibility building pages, like resumes, testimonials, and company information

   4. Places to contact the business for emails, faxes, inquires, and phone calls

   5. Points of Sales, where they decide to buy or not

   6. Products/Service pages, to outline what you offer, the benefits, and the costs.

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