Why Are Your Cash Registers Empty? 8 Reasons Why Your Site is not Getting Sales

Ok, you've got your webpage up and running and you have submitted your site to the search engines, now it is time to make that money! Right? Well then, how come your virtual cash register has that hollow ring to it everytime you open it? Your site is not making sales and there are at least 8 reasons why and 8 simple fixes you can implement in order to immediately remedy anything you are doing incorrectly.

1.You have relied on a passive promotion strategy to get the word out about your site. Many of you assume that simply putting up a website will cause tons of visitors to flock to your site with cash in hand practically begging to buy your products or services.

Sorry, a passive marketing strategy may bring you in a trickle of sales or absolutely none at all. Alternatively, by utilizing an active marketing strategy, you do not wait for visitors to come to you, you do everything in your power to bring targeted visitors to your site. Active marketers utilize methods such as ezine advertising and article submissions to targeted ezines in order to draw traffic to their site. They will also use free publicity tools such as press releases in order to get the word out about their site to an audience that cares.

2.You do not offer a simple and secure method of online ordering or accept different forms of payment.

This could be easily solved by getting set up with a merchant account provider that enables you to accept checks and all the major credit cards and provides you with a secure website to process transactions automatically. The best company for this in my opinion is ECommerce Exchange. You can learn more about them here:
http://www.qcaffiliate.com/qc/goldbar

3.You do not have a method of capturing your prospects names and email addresses when they visit your site.

Get this set up immediately and start building a mailing list of interested prospects.

The best way to do this is to offer a mailing list that people could subscribe to. You could offer either a newsletter about a topic that interests your audience or even a small tips sheet that sends people interesting and useful information related to the topic of your website. When you've built up your list to over a few hundred people, then you can begin to send commercial information regarding the products and services you offer. As long as you are also offering quality information for free, your audience will be more responsive to your commercial solicitations.

4.You do not offer enough methods for people to contact you.

You should offer people as many different ways of contacting (and ordering) from you as possible. Here are some cost effective contact methods you can implement: the most natural one on the web is of course email. However, you should also include your phone number for those who prefer to speak with a human being. If you have one, provide a fax number. There is an inexpensive fax solution available from a company called JFax. They will allow you to receive both fax and voice messages in your inbox for an extremely low monthly fee. To learn more visit: http://www.j2.com Lastly, you should always list your snail mail address on your website.

5.You only advertise online.

Big mistake. There are millions of people offline who might be interested in your site and your information. They are often more likely to order immediately as opposed to someone who surfs the web regularly and who knows they can always "come back sometime in the future".

One of the best ways to reach an audience and bring them to your site is to put your URL and your email address on every piece of correspondence you send out. I know of one person who adds his URL to every bill he sends out hoping that it will cause someone to visit. The best part is that this type of promotion is free so you have nothing to lose. One of the most effective offline advertising techniques involves getting your ad onto a card deck that reaches a targeted audience. This is a great way to spread the word about your site to many interested prospects who otherwise may not have had the chance to find out about you.

6.You do not rely on the power of joint ventures to get the word out about your products and services.

Joint venture endorsements have the power to bring in more visitors and sales to your site than any other method I know of. Joint Venture Marketing involves 2 parties: a list owner and someone who wishes to have his product or service introduced and endorsed to the members of the mailing list. This has the ability to pull in a large amount of sales due to the trust built up between the members of the list and the list owner. When he endorses your products or services in his own words to his list, he conveys your legitimacy and in turn they transfer their trust to you. If you have ever heard radio shows like Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern, you will notice that the ads that receive the most response are the ones that these disk jockeys read themselves and almost make a part of their "shtick". They are in effect endorsing a product and in turn generating interest and sales for it.

7.You do not follow up when people ask you for more information.

Huge mistake. That person has indicated that they are interested in what you have to sell. Statistics show that people have to be exposed to your marketing message at least 7 times before they will respond. Sending one email explaining your product is not enough. You must follow up with a prospect and make a concerted effort to close the sale. Explain the benefits of your product or service, refer them to testimonials of satisfied customers, ask if you can call them to explain your product in greater detail. If people see this as badgering and they ask you to stop bothering them by all means do so. A great idea is to automate all of your follow-up by using autoresponders. There are some great tools on the market to help you with this, we highly recommend using GetResponse. Discover some of the great benefits of using this sequential autoresponder by clicking here: http://www.getresponse.com?13323

8.You try to sell too many products and services from your website.

This may work for a site selling books or toys or vitamins where people may be looking for a large variety of products. However, on a site that is geared towards business, too many product offerings can give the impression that your business lacks focus. If someone gets to your site and is immediately bombarded with marketing material, they may become overwhelmed or even annoyed at the commercial nature of your site. Offering many products and services takes away from your credibility by giving the impression that you will sell anything just to make a buck. Instead, develop your site around one or two complementary products and services and offer lots of free, related information. That is sure to build up your credibility with your potential customers. Try to develop a traffic magnet (such as a discussion board or related articles) so you can bring back your targeted audience time and again.

Marc Goldman, Goldbar Enterprises
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