“In Business” by Roland Millward

Most businesses now have a website and spend time and money on developing and promoting it. Such expense and effort will hopefully bring in sales and leads.
However have you thought about generating additional income from your website?

This can be achieved in a number of ways, some of them very simple and easy to do. One that springs instantly to mind is Google Adsense. Simply sign up for an Adsense account and put a small piece of code onto your web page and a Google Ad will appear. You will get paid by Google on the click throughs to the advertiser. You can also incorporate a Google search box and again receive revenue.

There are also banner ads such as Tradedoubler where you will get paid on the number of times a banner is clicked or if a sale results.

Amazon have gone a step further and allow other companies to sell products on their website.

I am sure with a little research and effort your website can incorporate some of these features. One word of warning though is to make sure that you do not distract from your main goal of getting business for your company or make the web pages look untidy. The extra income generated may not make you rich but it could pay the costs of running your website and more.

With millions of websites how can you make sure that yours is successful?

There are 3 principles that you need to follow to make your website work. We can remember these by using the letters A C C. What do these letters stand for?

A is for Attraction
Your website must be attractive to visitors. It must be easy to read and grab the viewers attention in 8 seconds. People that visit the web are by nature looking for information quickly and they need to see that your website will offer what they want in a few seconds. Make sure that is the case with your landing pages. If you are using per per click it is vital that the landing page responds directly to the search terms used and that the page they land on is the one that will provide the information searched for.

Your website is your shop window to the world and once inside your web pages it is your store / office. It needs to represent quality, trustworthiness, efficiency, value, service and all the other qualities that customers are looking for from a business.

C is for Conversion
It is one thing getting customers to your website and staying on it for a while. You now need to convert those visitors into customers.
It is a good policy to try and capture the details of as many visitors to your website as possible by using an online form via a company such as Aweber (this will be vital for the next stage). How do you capture these details? There are 2 ways: You could require everyone has to ‘log in’ to access your website. This method I would not recommend and you will lose more customers than you will gain. The best way is to have a sign up form for a FREE gift such as a FREE eBook or other promotional tool. Aweber will provide you the forms to do this. Here is an example from my website FromeMortgages.co.uk. Notice on the home page there is a drop down form that appears. It is set so that returning visitors will only see it after a space of 5 days between visits. On the left column there is a ‘sign up’ form that appears on all pages. I am only collecting names and email addresses but you can collect more information.

Once you have customers information what is the next step?

C is for Communication

It tis said that it can take around 7 contacts with a person before they become a customer. Good communication from you is vital to build the trust that a potential customer will feel before he buys. This is where email using an auto responder is vital. Then we must not forget the telephone and old fashioned mail.
When you keep in touch with customers it does not mean that each time you try to sell them something. In fact is far better that you don’t. Use your communications to keep them updated. You might tell them about a change on your website or maybe you are extending your stores opening hours or closing for a holiday. Give them information not hard sell. Build up trust for you and your business. Don’t bombard them with forms of communication so that they will begin to get weary. Vary the style and type and make it genuine. For instance if you have posted a brochure of free book then a follow up phone to ask if they have received it would be a good idea, but again on that phone call be brief and don’t push for a sale. This may seem strange for those hard nosed direct sales types but the softly softly approach works far better even if it seems to be a slower process for the impatient one.

So there is my brief of summary of ACC. Take a good look at your website and see how you can put ACC into practice.
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In today’s electronic and virtual world it is important to have a good website. It may that you do not use it to sell goods but that it is simply a showcase for what you do.
Make sure that it looks professional and reflects quality of service. A good website does not have to contain many pages but it should enable the viewer to see what your company offers and is easy to use.
Seek professional help on design and search engine optimization and that you use good copywriters for the material you place on the site. It is a good idea that people can contact you easily, so make sure that there are telephone numbers and a contact form that are easily found. Check out the websites of your competition to make sure that your website does not look poor against theirs and if it does improve it immediately.
Once you have a website make sure that you keep it up to date and occasionally refresh it to keep it looking interesting to visitors. You are advised also to develop links with other websites as that will enable you to rank better on search engines and drive traffic between the linked websites.
There are plenty of good web-designers so search out a few and see what they can do for you.