The most asked question by my visitors is whether or not they need a website to make money online. Well, the short answer is no; you can still take advantage of PPC services like Adwords, for example, and send traffic directly to your merchant’s sales page without a website. But what we’re going to do now is reevaluate needing a website.
Websites are very helpful and can make you tons of money if done properly. So if someone were to ask that question again I would most likely say yes, you do need a website at some point to maximize your profits.
So lets get things started with…
Rule#1: Your website should be very helpful to your visitors.
The reason why this is my first rule is so that you can have the right frame of mind when building your site from the very start.
Your website should not be built because you want fast money; it should be a reliable source of information that will help people solve their problems. People can see when you are trying to pitch a sale to them or when you’re not being totally honest. When you rush to build a website, the quality will be significantly lower. Customers today are smarter than they ever were; so if you think you can fool them with a low quality website–with affiliate links and Adsense ads everywhere–you are only kidding yourself. If you gain your visitors trust, however, they will follow your recommendations because they trust you.
Please, no one page websites–those are usually short-lived. When building a website, remember to provide answers for your visitors problems.
Building quality content is must…
Obviously if you are going to build a website yourself, you are going to need tons of quality content. A great way to start off is to go to some article submission sites. You will have access to thousands of quality articles you can use for your website instantly (just be sure to always include the authors resource box).
Content will be the most important aspect of your website’s success; so you must make sure you get it right.
Rule #2: Use a reliable domain name and web host.
People obviously want to spend as little as possible; but if you get a website done using a free host, you can bet that people will know you are not that serious about your business. Not only will the quality be much lower than your competitors, free web hosts tend to be unreliable causing your website to suddenly crash; imagine losing all your work that took you a full year to build—it happens all the time and it has happened to me in the past; believe me, it is not a good feeling losing everything you worked so hard for.
Please do not make the fatal mistake of using a free hosts and free domains.
Rule #3: An eye-catching presentation.
Perception really is everything when it comes to websites. When visitors arrive at your site they will recognize your site’s design before anything else. You can have the greatest content in the world, but if your web layout and presentation are not easy on the eyes, all your visitors will press the back button immediately due to poor site design.
I will show you the keys to a fabulous presentation:
A) Consistent design from page to page. Customers like dealing with things that they are familiar with. So be very consistent with your page design, colors, style of writing, AdSense ad placement etc.
B) Please make sure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for. Your navigation should be seamless and easy to use. Your Navigation Bar should be in the same place on all your pages. This may seem like a small point but it’s absolutely vital to your websites success… the last thing you will want to do is frustrate your visitors because they can’t find exactly what they are looking for.
I have seen my profits shoot through the roof simply by making everything super-easy to find.
Even though your content is what wins your visitors over in the end, do not neglect having a good presentation; it is the first thing your visitors will notice. What you want to do is make visitors want to stay… once that is done, then they can be “wowed” by your great content.
Rule #4: Connect with your visitors.
Visitors want to know who is behind the website. So you must have a way that they can contact you through email. Have a contact link where people can easily see it. When visitors know that there is actually someone working behind the scenes willing to answer questions, they will feel more comfortable with what you have to offer.
The benefits of email marketing…
Using your opt-in list is what we call email marketing. When people opt-in to your list they are actually giving you permission to send them emails. The great thing about this is that it’s very easy to set up and it’s highly effective. You should have a monthly newsletter that provides customers with free, yet valuable information. It is important you do not hard sell in your newsletter though; the main job of a newsletter is to get people to your site. A newsletter should address a problem by providing a solution.
A great way to get people to sign up/opt-in to your newsletter is to give something of value away for free. When visitors believe they are getting something of value, they will sign up to your newsletter to receive the free gift. Just make sure what ever you are giving away is of high quality.
Using autoresponders
Another great way for you to connect with your visitors is to use an autoresponder. When people fill out your autoresponder forms, they will automatically receive a series of emails containing your prewritten content (for example, you can have your autoresponder set up to automatically send out 1 email a day for 7 days to anyone who fills out the forms).
You should use autoresponders to send out a series of sequential emails that are packed with quality information. I found this to work very well with all of my websites (as long as you present high-value content to your visitors). Autoresponders are highly effective because the sequential emails constantly remind your visitors that your site exist.
You are not maximizing your profits until you have an autoresponder in full effect. Your opt-in list will have some of your most loyal customers. If making money online has been your goal, you should definitely give autoresponders a shot.
Rule #5: Traffic is your website’s lifeblood
You will need tons of traffic in order to make money with your website. But how does one go about getting traffic? Well, there are really only two ways to get traffic: SEO and PPC advertising.
Search engine optimization involves link exchanging, article submission, one-way back links, keyword density, submitting your site to major directories, 2nd tier directories, and niche hubs directories and so much more. Doing all of the aforementioned does take a lot of work, but the pay off is huge. After a while you will begin to see your site’s keywords in the top 10 for the major search engines. This free traffic will allow your site and business to flourish. The good news about free search engine traffic is that it can last for years and years.
The other way to get traffic to your site is by using pay-per-click advertising. Unlike SEO, this kind of traffic comes instantly. The moment you set up a campaign, traffic starts pouring in to your site, giving you scalable results right away. I recommend using Google Adwords to get started with PPC advertising. Adwords will quickly allows you to see what works and what doesn’t.
As effective as Adwords is, it still takes a little bit of figuring out. Many people lose money with PPC advertising because they simply don’t know what they are doing. What’s worst is that they give up after a while. Adwords is too good to pass up; please learn as much as you can before starting—it will make things much easier.

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In business world, you need a professional image, a professional sales team. Similarily, as one of your company member, is company website performs in professional fashion? Company website is your online sales team, do you know how professional it is?

#1 You have a beautiful website background?

In personal website, we can always find some beautiful background image or eye-catching background color. In some company websites, they also use some company photo, factory photo or product photo as the website background. Actually, it is not the right way to do. The right way is “Make it simple”.

You will never find a background image in Yahoo, Google. People visit your website is looking for information not the beautiful background. Moreover, the background image have disadvantages: loading time will be longer and distract the visitor attention. Think again what information the background image can bring to your customer? If no, take it off.

#2 Full of image

Dont make your webpage in full of image. Use image only if image can present more clear than text. For example, you can use image to present the order process. Size of those images should be small enough, you can take a look on the article about “Image Optimization”.

Remember, company website is not a comic.

#3 Page Frame

Many websites use frame to make the navigation easier. However, more and more website designers dont use frame in the design. It is because frame will distort the whole design and also make the visitor confused and difficult to find the information. Also, using CSS or Javascript can provides similar effect but can keep the design consistency.

#4 Visitor Counter

Put a visitor counter on the web site. This can let visitor know how many people visit the website before, get their attention and build up their confidence. This look true, but we suggest you to take it off.

Actually, these counters are not accurate and can be trigger manually, no one will believe these counters. Why don’t put a testimonial with a real customer name instead of this counter?

#5 Under construction

Have you see those “Road Construction” image? Or those “Under construction, please come back later”? Dont waste your visitor time. If your webpage has not finish, take it away. I can’t remember have I try “come back later”.

If you really need to put this “Under Construction”, we can give you some suggestion. You can package it to become a re-visit event, for example:
- On which day the web page open, the first 100 visitors complete the registeration can get a free gift or discount.
- Raise the visitor curiosity, tell them what surpise they may get once the webpage open.
- Make it like a fiction. Everyday you put some additional information on it, make the visitor re-visit. This can greatly encourage the visitor to visit again.

Remember, no one like those boring “Under Construction”. Turn it into a marketing event.

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There are some myths in affiliate marketing, which attract a lot of people to it believing they are true. First is they think managing an online business is easy and second, they think that one can make a fortune through online marketing in an instant. Probably not even 10% of those who are into affiliate marketing became rich overnight. There may be some who fortunately achieved overwhelming success in just a short span of time after setting up an affiliate program, but not a majority of them can confidently say they only had luck. Anyone who is successful in this kind of business would say he worked hard to get to where he is right now. Success in affiliate marketing takes time and hard work, but it’s worth it.

If you are planning to start an affiliate program, one of the things you have to consider is having your own website, not just an ordinary website but a professional looking one. How do you build an affiliate marketing website? What are the easy steps to build one? First, you must have already decided on the theme or niche of your website. It would be better if you already have an idea what products or services to promote as this would help you plan the design and lay-out of your web pages. The next thing to do is to choose a domain name and get it hosted. The domain name is a unique name used to label the actual address of your website on the Internet. In deciding what domain name to register, look into the type of products you are endorsing and the theme of your site. Having the right keywords in your domain name would give you better chances of drawing more visitors to your website. Also, choose a top level domain or extension, such as .com because it is more popular. In selecting your web host, consider the security of servers and up time guarantees.

Now, you can start creating your webpages. Don’t be disheartened when you know a little in this field. There are page generation tools and fast launch sites available online; you just have to search for them. Countless online sources could help you build an affiliate marketing website, though you might need time to study and learn the whole process. This is one of the reasons why your site or the products you are going to promote must match your interest. Building your marketing website for the first time would be a lot more fun if you know very well the theme of your site. If you don’t have time to make your own website, you can use templates or purchase readily available websites. The latter, however, is a more expensive option.

Creating an affiliate website on your own would be cheaper and more interesting. In the process of building your website, you may also increase your knowledge in information Technology and the use of computers, softwares and the Internet. As you educate yourself in these fields, you are increasing your advantage against other affiliate marketers. It helps a lot, though, if you already know the basics in web page development like programming languages and graphics softwares because you can make your site extra corporate-looking, more convenient to use or easier to navigate. Furthermore, if you are knowledgeable and skillful in this area, you can already concentrate more on the content of the page rather than the design.

The key to draw visitors to your website is to have high quality content; thus, the next thing you must pay attention to in building your marketing website is this. There may be several other factors that contribute to the success of your affiliate marketing site, but a good content tops the list. This is precisely the reason why users choose to enter your site. They want to get information and so when they don’t find it, they would definitely go elsewhere. Write interesting articles related to your theme as this would make them frequent your site. If you have already looked for affiliate programs that complement your site, add links to the business sites and other very good rmative sites. Links contribute to how well you will be listed in major search engines as well. Also, create pages for the products you are endorsing, but don’t just promote the products by putting hyped-up ads. Keep your readers interested by injecting lots of relevant and useful information. This would make them click the link to the business site and buy the product. Remember that no good content means no frequent visitors, no sales and ultimately, no commission.

Make your site simple yet not without a touch of class in order to make it appear more of a business website rather than a personal website. This would be pleasing to the eyes and more interesting to browse. To help you with the design, you can check some successful online stores to get an idea on how you can make your site look better. Make sure you don’t place too many banner ads since these could distract some site users; and thus, instead of clicking your ad, they might just leave your site and look for other interesting websites. After all, banner ads are not the only means of advertising your products. Now your website is complete, submit its URL to major search engines to increase your traffic.

Grow from where you started. Learn about use of keywords for search engine optimization and apply them in your content. Update your site regularly or add new webpages. Make sure to rm your prospects about the latest updates in your site. You can use newsletters to accomplish this. The Internet offers a huge source of information about just anything, make use of it. Continue to educate yourself on how to improve your website and soon you’ll find yourself successful in affiliate marketing.

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