Create an effective business web presence

You registered your domain and have a hosting company park it for you, now what? Now you need to have your Web site designed. Designing your site to attract business and make money is very tricky. You have to create the site to please the visitor. There is one thing to keep foremost in your mind when creating your site - the visitor will ask "What's in it for me?" You have to provide that answer immediately, or they will just leave.

This may be done in the first line or first few paragraphs, but you have to bring it to their attention. They have to know what you can do for them. This has to be done on every page or your site is a hopeless cause.

One of the best ways to get their attention is to create headlines. If they see your headline in bold lettering, they will take notice. That goes for sub-headlines too.

It's critically important that you know whom your audience is and whom you are trying to attract. You have to understand what their needs and desires are and what they want. By knowing this ahead of time, it will make quite a bit of difference in how you set up your site to sell your product.

You have to build credibility and build rapport with your visitors. Give them information that they can use and they will return for more.

The types of information you put on your site will determine what your market is. If you are aiming for technical people, you need to include all sorts of technical information you think will help them. Perhaps you could have a tech talk page or a technical support page.

If your buyers are ordinary people, you need to give them information in their terms. If you are talking to moms, you want to be soft and considerate. If you are talking to business people, you want to be clean, to the point and professional. That's why you have to know your audience before you build your Web site.

When you build your Web site, you do so in order that a twelve-year-old can understand it. Don't use big words unless you absolutely have to. Make it simple to navigate, and don't assume anything. Don't get caught up in all the hype, fancy graphics, and cool, flashy things. When you are writing copy, you don't want your visitors to be thinking about what you are trying to say; you want them to be absorbing and understanding the concepts as they are reading it.

You need to develop credibility by giving some background on why you are so knowledgeable on the subject you are talking about.

You can use some humor and jokes, but you have to be very careful with this. What you might think is funny, may be quite different from how other people view "funny." You should be very careful with using humor. If you use humor, there is a good chance you will offend someone, even if by accident, or people won't understand your humor. Losing customers this way isn't funny in the least.

Give information to educate the consumer. By doing this you become a resource for them. You will come across as someone who is knowledgeable, and an expert in your field. The result is that visitors are going to believe you and buy from you.

Your site has to be easy to navigate. Have text links or icons on every sub page so people can click back and forth through your site without having to use the back and forward buttons on the browser. Also remember to use the Alt tag for your graphics. If the graphic option should be turned off in the browser, or the stop button is pressed before the page is fully loaded, the viewer will still be able to know what is going to be there in place of the graphic. When you create your Web site make sure to think about speed. Don't think everyone will be using a 56k modem. Some people still use slower speed modems. When they connect to your site they expect to see everything pop up quickly. If they have to wait for more than 30 seconds they will click away. So keep your graphics small and to a minimum when possible.

Many people use animated "gifs" and Java scripting that will give pizzazz to their Web pages. But at the same time this increases download time. You are using your Web site to sell information not fanciness. People care more for content then for quality of your site. Be careful in this area. Make sure your content is easy to read. For quotes use the tags in the HTML code to indent the whole section.

Your site has to be clear to your visitor as to what you are selling. You have to make it easy for them to order. As stated before, you have to build credibility with the visitor before they will buy. Have you created excitement and desire for them? You have to give them several ways to order your products either online or offline.

One thing you have to remember when designing your site is that the Internet is a 24-hour medium. It never closes. In order to sell your products you have to be automated. If you don't provide a convenient way for your customer to order you will lose the sale. Make sure to confirm every order by email. This makes the customer feel at ease. You have to make it easy for customers to pay. You must be able to accept credit cards. If you can't, you will lose over 60 percent of your business. Customers want everything now. If they have to get off the net to phone you or to mail a form for payment, then you can kiss that order goodbye. Credit cards will also give you credibility as a professional company, so you won't seem to be a fly-by-night basement operation.

There are three ways people should be able to order from you
1. Directly Online
2. With an 800 number
3. Postal Mail or fax

You have to make sure that all three options are available for people to order from you or you will be losing orders. Make sure, when setting up your Web site to take orders, that the buyers are guided to a secure server. They don't want to give you their credit card unless they know their credit card information is protected.

If you do not have a merchant account, there are four alternative ways of processing credit card payments: 1. Get your own Visa/MasterCard/AmEx/Discover accounts with a local bank. 2. You get Visa/MasterCard/AmEx/Discover accounts through a broker. 3. You can hire a fulfillment house to use their credit card accounts. 4. You can use a payment type such as Cybercash or First Virtual.

You can expect your orders to be broken down like this: 80% through the secure server; 5% through non-secured server; 13% through the 800 number; 2% through regular postal mail. So, get a merchant account. Your orders depend on it.

I spoke before about content. Don't be afraid to get personal. Make sure you do one thing many people fail to do - ask for the order! It has been proven that sales can increase by at least 80% by just simply asking for the order. Don't give the customer a lot of information about your company. Zero in on the benefits they will get from your product or service. Show how your product or service can specifically benefit the customer, not just its features. Make sure to provide the customer with a money-back guarantee.

Contributions @ Dream City Design