Here's a fact...
 

Your site should, therefore:
Be attractive
Be easy to navigate
Be safe to use
Have a point of contact
Be eCommerce enabled

It goes without saying that your website is Your Business Shop Window.
Make it attractive enough for your customers to remember you and want to return to your 'shop window'.

Remember - You need to maintain a relationship with your customer.
You need to encourage your prospect to give you his/her email address and name so that you can then personalise your site for them. (It only takes a little bit of script in the of your website and it is astonishing the results you can obtain, as if by magic.)

Forget about flashing thingees, spinning thingees, tumbling thingees. How many sites have you been to with all those gizmoes on? How many of those sites did you buy from? I'll wager that probably 1 - 5% actually purchased anything from these zany websites.
Reason.....They were designed by Web Designers not Internet Marketers.

A Web Designer wants to show you how clever he is at designing the latest all singing all dancing web site. An Internet Marketer wants to show his customers his 'focused' product, so they can buy from him.

If you use the services of a web designer please remember to stay in control of your website. His version of a 'Selling' site is going to be different to yours. Oh! Did I tell you that it also costs extras for the bells and whistles? He has to make his living as well. STAY IN CONTROL.

Right now you're sitting there with:
Your Keyword/s
Your Market
Your own Product
Your Domain Name
Your Hosting Company.

So let's see what we can do with what you have...

The Purpose of Your Website.

You spent a lot of time deciding what your Passion was. You should be sitting here now knowing exactly what you are going to do with your Business.

So now you need to go and grab a pencil and paper and spend a little time looking around and checking examples of sites that you like the look of.

Save them to a 'Swipe File'. You should already have a designated folder set aside that you put all the great sales letters you receive, websites that you like, graphics that look brilliant etc etc. You should use the folder/file as a reference point for ideas not as copy and paste. That's naughty!

This is where you are now going to implement the PURPOSE of your site into practice.

For what Purpose is your site designed?:

A Mini-Site to sell your eBook? In all probability this is the main kind of site that most of you will create. You need to consider your sales copy. Heading, Sub Heading and bullets. Are you going to need a Navigation bar? Will you be using a Header Graphic?

An Adsense Site? You will have to consider where to place your advertising blocks in relation to your text. An Affiliate Review Site? You need to figure out how to set out your site so that you can maximise your affiliate links. What about a product of the week etc??

Building a List? This is another name for a 'Squeeze Page'. The most important factor is to get your suibscription box above the fold. (What's the fold? Good question. It's the initial piece of the website that you see when you arrive at the site before you start to use your scroll bar. Make sense? OK.)

Marketing a Service? Are you a Joiner, Real Estate Agent, Mechanic etc etc? Do you have a Logo? Include some testimonials from happy customers.

Now you should well and truly have a clear idea of what you want your site to do. This will actually streamline the process and make the end result a lot easier to do before you start the process of uploading everything to the Web.

Don't panic...It sounds daunting but if you follow the path everything will be revealed.

Once again, , please take your time and study the sites that you like the look of ,and formulate what you want your site to do.

So... you deserve a break after this lesson. In the next lesson we'll be looking at the Tools you will need to design your website and upload them to the World Wide Web

Click Here for the next lesson as soon as you're ready.