Articles Written By Jim Edwards
How To Create Websites that actually make money!
- by Jim Edwards
(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Not a week goes by that half a dozen people don’t ask me
what separates a great, money-making website from a bad one.
In response, I surveyed of a number of different websites,
large and small, to find what they share in common to make
them so successful.
With few exceptions, every extraordinarily great website
contained the following elements.
~ Testimonials
Every great website has testimonials from satisfied
customers. These testimonials help set the potential
customer’s mind at ease that the products or services sold
online will perform as promised.
Truly great testimonials not only endorse the product, but
clearly state how the product increased sales, saved money,
or benefited previous buyers in very specific and tangible
ways.
Testimonials should present real benefits others can readily
identify with, understand and, more importantly, want those
same results for themselves!
~ Headlines
Headlines capture visitors’ attention and get them involved
in the website.
How do you read the newspaper?
If you read like most people the headlines first catch your
attention and determine whether you’ll actually read a
story.
Similarly headlines on a website determine whether visitors
get involved in the information or surf away never to
return.
My own experience has shown that the proper headlines can
easily and quickly double, triple, or even quadruple a
website’s sales almost overnight.
~ Bullets
Bullets communicate various and subtle bits of information
about a product or service without making readers plow
through paragraphs of information to get to the meat of a
website’s offering.
Bullets arouse interest, build excitement and convey a lot
of information very quickly to time-starved web surfers.
~ Bonuses
Every great website offers bonuses to people who buy, apply
or fill out a form.
Nothing induces someone to do business with you online like
offering them something extra for taking the action you
want.
Offering a bonus report, tape, extended membership, extra
quantities of product at a deep discount, coupons, or just
about anything makes people more willing to go ahead with
the purchase decision.
~ Guarantees
Everyone takes a risk whenever they buy anything from
anyone.
The risk centers on whether or not the product or service
will perform as promised. In a retail store most people feel
pretty confident the store will still exist if they need to
make a return or exchange in a few days.
On the web, however, that risk in making a purchase seems
much higher than in the ‘offline’ world.
Every great website makes a point of specifically telling
customers about their return policy and truly exceptional
sites offer 100%, no-questions-asked, money-back guarantees.
People rarely take advantage of such guarantees and I have
personally seen a website’s sales increase by 45% just by
extending the guarantee period an additional 30 days.
~ Phone numbers
Every great website has a phone number with a real live
human being on the other end who can answer questions and
provide product support.
So there you have it!
With few exceptions this represents the formula for creating
or identifying a truly great website.
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Jim Edwards, author of numerous best-selling ebooks, earns
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Increase Sales By Flying Under
Your Prospects’ “Radar Defenses”
- by Jim Edwards
(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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How do you persuade someone to do what you want them to do?
A whole world of marketing exists around us trying to do
that every minute of the day. Do you even notice it anymore
or, like your prospects, have you subconsciously set up a
system of “radar defenses” against the daily bombardment of
marketing messages?
Take a minute and count up the advertising methods which
fight for your attention (and money) every day. Just the
basic list includes:
· Yellow page ads
· Newspaper and magazine ads
· Postcards, catalogs, and direct mail circulars in your
“snail mail” box
· Radio pitches interrupting the flow of your favorite songs
· TV ads - about 20 minutes worth per hour now
· Hundreds of storefronts, “mega” malls, and strip malls
· Highway billboards by the thousands
· Circulars hung on your doorknob
· Illegal signs on stop signs and telephone poles
· Legitimate email messages
· Spam email or UCE (unsolicited commercial email)
Just these 11 sources can overwhelm your brain with
marketing messages. Like trapped rats, people develop
defenses against this never-ending onslaught. They throw up
a wall or a “radar defense” that goes into action the minute
they smell a “pitch” or a sales job. Don’t blame them. We
all do it!
So how can you get around this psychological wall against
the constant sales and marketing messages? Well, the answer
does NOT lie in hitting people with more frequent and
obnoxious advertising or sly, sneaky tactics. You might get
them to trust you for a minute, but it will backfire in the
long run.
You must do two things instead:
1. First, you must establish credibility for yourself and
your business as an expert.
2. Second, you must reduce their fears about doing business
with you.
Doing these two things will get you past their defenses and
allow you the opportunity to persuade them to buy your
product.
So how do you accomplish these two “simple” things? What
will win someone’s attention, raise your credibility, and
lower their fear factor all at the same time? The one-word
answer really applies to most everyone.
Trust!
If a seller can get behind your defenses with information
which makes you trust them, then that credibility will carry
over into a sale much of the time.
How can you get this credibility?
Well, take this next fact as online marketing “gospel,” for
many people have proven its effectiveness.
Fact: Publishing and promoting with free articles gives you
one of the most powerful opportunities available to tip the
buyer’s credibility scale in your favor.
How can we prove this works? Quite easily actually. Take a
break from reading this and go check out a newspaper or
magazine for a minute.
Which do you trust more, the ads or the articles? Most
people will choose the articles hands down. Why? Because
the articles don’t try to “sell” you anything. Instead, they
hand out useful information for educational or other
practical purposes.
Most of us grew up in a culture which says we can believe
and “trust” what appears in the standard “news” or
“information” format. In other words, if it appears in
print, then we can believe and trust the author.
So go ahead! Use this lifetime of conditioning to your
advantage in selling your products and services!
Very few things will create an atmosphere of trust and
confidence in people as reading one of your articles on a
subject that greatly interests them. It shows you know your
business. It also demonstrates you will do more than just
try to sell them something.
Publishing articles literally lets you fly under their
advertising “radar defenses.”
So remember these points when deciding whether or not to use
articles to promote your business:
1. Few things create as much trust and confidence in the
minds of potential customers as reading an article you wrote
on a subject which specifically and intensely interests
them.
2. Articles establish credibility quickly because, right or
wrong, we’ve all been trained to trust the “news.”
3. An article, or series of articles, will differentiate you
from the competition, who bombard people with nothing but
sales messages.
4. Providing content-rich, non-sales-oriented articles will
also help build and solidify your relationship with existing
customers so they give you repeat business.
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Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-
author of an amazing new ebook, “Turn Words Into Traffic,”
that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly
drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or
affiliate link!
Click Here ==> http://tinyurl.com/5j64fw
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Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
“Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for using
FREE articles to drive Thousands of NEW visitors to your
website or affiliate links… without spending a dime on
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