Let’s face it, a lot of money is spent on websites. I’m sure if you have a website, or are thinking of creating one, you are also looking to hire professionals to design a beautiful and professional site.
However, if you leave out this important thing, you are wasting money!
There is one thing that every website must have. If you don’t have it, the site is or will become a money pit. You might as well start flushing $100 bills down the toilet, because at least you’ll get the full visual experience of your cash swirling around the drain and ultimately being flushed out into the vast nothingness.
I’m amazed how many sites out there don’t have this one thing that could turn your money sucking sites into productive and profitable sites. Actually, when someone asks us to build a site for them and they leave it out, I immediately suggest it; however, you’d be surprised how much resistance there is to this.
Some people reject this outright or make excuses as to why they can’t do it or why it won’t work for their site. Well, we’ve been in the web business for over 8 years and we’ve seen a lot of sites. I can assure you that everyone can implement this and be successful with it. ALL THE WORLD! So what is this secret? What is this that can turn my cash draining site into something worthwhile?
It’s not really a secret at all. In fact, most of you will say duh, that’s common sense! And I would agree. It is! But a quick look around and you’ll see that a large number, most really (especially with small and medium business sites), aren’t doing this.
All they have to do is: Offer something for sale!
Yes, I know. Wow, that’s common sense. So quickly take a look at your site. Do you have something for sale? I’m not referring to an implied sale or an implied service or something you might offer in the future after a short chat or appointment with a sales rep. I mean FOR SALE! Now!
That last bit is really the trick that most people and businesses are drawn to. Most people will talk about your services and products. Talk about your company. Talk about how wonderful they make customers’ lives after they start serving them. But right now, at this very moment, they don’t have anything that I can click on and buy immediately on this visit using the Internet exclusively to launch, offer and close the sale and cash the check.
Online brochures are 10 years out of date. They were behind 10 years ago! The Internet and the web are such a powerful medium that it is completely foolish not to use it. That’s why building a website and not offering something for immediate sale is a waste of money, if you’re going to spend the money to build a site, do it right and at least take advantage of some form of e-commerce with it. It’s not as expensive as you think! In fact, it’s more expansive and will cost you more money in the long run if you don’t do it right away.
First of all, I want to address all those Nay Sayers who tell me that they don’t have anything to sell immediately online, or that their service doesn’t fit that sales model, or that their products can’t be sold that way without the help of a sales representative. Interaction. All of that is just BS and it’s just business laziness. If you have a business, then you have something that you can sell immediately, I guarantee it.
Now you may have to do a little bit of mental work and critical thinking, but I’m willing to bet that if you spend 1 hour a day for a week you could come up with 10 different ideas that you could implement. No 1, goal 10! Most people don’t stop to think. They only look at what they have and what they have always been doing. The Internet is a powerful new platform that people use to earn billions every year.
Thousands of millions! Not millions and billions! (Apple Computer anyone? Google? Microsoft? Yes, they all have it!)
If that doesn’t grab your attention and make you want to think, well, you should probably stop reading and go back to your normal trading routines. Just about anyone who owns or runs a business can write a 50-100 page book covering introductory questions about their industry.
Using your company’s FAQ is a good place to start. Take 10 minutes a day, just ten. Write as much as you can in those 10 minutes and in 3-4 weeks you will have a great introductory book. Do you need to answer all the questions? Of course, no! In fact, it’s better if they don’t because that’s exactly why you have an advanced sales team to help them with further questions. Sell this as an ebook for $10-20 bucks.
Now you can educate your future customers, stop wasting your time and the sales rep’s time with rudimentary questions, get only highly qualified leads from returned calls AND make money through sales of your introductory ebook. This is just one example that will suit almost any business.
But you can literally find an unlimited number of ways to sell information and help non-customers in this way. Anyone can do this, and to be honest, most web developers love adding this functionality to their client’s site. I know web developers who love to brag about how much their x and y clients make from the sites they built for them.
So don’t be afraid to ask. It will usually only cost a small fee to implement a few basic put options. Most people can get started with Paypal and maybe a couple hundred extra dollars in web design costs to add an e-book or something similar.
Stop spending money on your website! Start making it productive now!
If you need help or assistance with your web design or development, please contact us and we will be happy to help. If we can’t help, we guarantee to find someone who can.
Enjoy!