The 5 Essential Elements Of a Money Making Website

Imagine you’re about to open a big retail store.

You hire a talented architect and design team and they knock it out of the park. I mean this thing is spectacular…the window display, the interior…you could not have asked for anything more!

And in your excitement to open your doors to the public, you kinda let a few things fall by the wayside…

…You don’t train your sales staff…

…You carelessly scatter your inventory across the store, and…

…You stick your cash registers in this out of the way place so no one’s really quite sure where to check out.

Do you think that store would struggle with sales?

Of course it would!

And how would you fix that problem?

Would you…

A. Try and drive as much foot traffic through the front door as possible, or

B. Train the sales staff, fix the inventory issues and move the cash registers?

Clearly B would be the best choice.

But faced with a similar situation on your website, I bet most of you would go for the traffic.

I say that because most business owners come to me thinking they have a traffic problem.  But in more cases than not, the real problem with their website is not a lack of traffic…it’s a lack of conversions.

A conversion can be a purchase someone makes on your website. Or it could be an action they take to get into your sales funnel…signing up for your newsletter, downloading a whitepaper, or calling you.

Having a great looking site that gets lots of traffic is great…but if you take that to the bank and try to deposit it, the teller is, at best, gonna laugh at you and, if she’s having a bad day, may end up calling security!

Conversions are what bring in the cash!

I’d like to share a system with you developed by two online marketers, Terry Dean and Glenn Livingston. It’s the most concise and elegant way I’ve come across to size up a website from a conversion standpoint.

If your website isn’t converting, it’s because it’s lacking in one of more of the following areas…

1. Desperate Problem

People aren’t coming to your website to find out about how wonderful your company is or how wonderful your products and services are…

…They’re coming to your website because they either have a desperate problem they need to solve or a burning desire they wish to fulfill.

And they want to know if you can help them.

That problem or desire is the starting point of your website and the messaging on your website and leads into the…

2. Unique Promise

How do you uniquely promise to solve that problem or fulfill that desire? The last thing you want people thinking when they get to your website is “Oh, I’ve seen that before.” If they think that, they’re gone!

Every one of your businesses is unique. Maybe it’s a special widget you’ve developed…maybe it’s the story you have to tell…maybe it’s a specific niche you focus on in your market.

Whatever it is, let your uniqueness come shining through on your website.

3. Overwhelming Proof

A lot of people fall short on this one. It’s all about backing up the promises, or claims, you make on your site.

And the stronger the claims, the more important it is to have proof because as Terry Dean puts it “a strong claim without proof is just hype.”

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to demonstrate proof but there are dozens of other ways to do it and I’ll share some examples with you in my next post.

4. Irresistible Offer

Hands down, this is the most important one of the 5. Your product/service, your pricing, payment plans, a guarantee, a free trial offer, and things like these all combine to form your offer.

The closer your offer gets to where people think “Man, I’d be a fool to leave this site without taking advantage of this offer”, the stronger your conversions will be.

A truly irresistible offer will make up for a lot of other shortcomings on a website!

5. Immediate Action

Why should people act NOW?! What do they stand to lose by not taking advantage of your offer right then and there?

Because most people, if they leave to think things over or talk about it with their spouse or partner, ain’t coming back!

And give them a crystal clear call to action that lets them know exactly what it is you want them to do next and what benefits they’ll get from doing it.

Problem. Promise. Proof. Offer. Action.

They’re why ugly websites can compete so well in highly competitive niches.

Before I wrap things up here, I’d be remiss in talking about conversions, if I didn’t touch on the importance of tracking and measuring your results.

Do you use Google Analytics on your website?

And, if you do, do you use Goal Tracking so you can track when someone makes a purchase, fills out a form or takes some other key action on your site?

If not, before you do anything else on your website, I’d get that in place. And, if a lot of your leads come by phone, I’d recommend getting a call tracking system in place.

You wouldn’t hand your money over to an investment advisor without having some accountability there. You wanna know how your money’s performing!

Well, your marketing is no different.

Marketing is an investment.

And by having that data from Analytics and call tracking, you’ll:

1. Know what kind of ROI you’re getting (or not getting) from your various marketing efforts, and…

2. Establish a baseline. So if you add more proof to your site or change your offer, you can tell if that increases conversions, decreases conversions or has no effect on conversions.

The business owners who come to me that are in the best shape know their numbers.

A Hole in Your Net?

You could hire me today to run a Pay Per Click campaign and do SEO and Local Search marketing. And you could hire others to help you with email marketing, video marketing, and social media.

And literally you could have thousands of people coming your website…tomorrow!

But if you don’t have your conversion house in order, most of that traffic would be wasted.

Now, am I saying that just sending more traffic to your website is a bad idea? NO!!

Sending more traffic to your site will probably produce more leads and sales for you.

But what I am saying is that, if you’re not focusing on conversions…your results could be so much better!

And, if you’re gonna spend the time and money and effort to drive that traffic to your website, then you should make the most of it!

Think of your website as this big ocean trawler net. And, if you’re not focused on conversions, your net has gaping holes in it. And customers and revenues that should be yours…that are within your grasp…are slipping away.

Plug the holes in your net.

Fix your conversion problem.

And, I promise you, if you do, you will fix your traffic problems.

(There’s A LOT more to the 5 elements than I shared here. If you want to get the full story, I highly recommend that you check out The Total Conversion Code from Terry Dean and Glenn Livingston. That is an affiliate link because I believe this course is one of the top 3 online marketing courses I’ve ever purchased.)