Recently I designed a website for a client’s new online business. They had provided me with a description of the business and a few pages of content – and with that we created a very clean, nice looking WordPress website. We even created a squeeze page with a newsletter sign up so they could get a jump on building their list. Two weeks after the site was complete, I received an email from them complaining that no one had subscribed to their newsletter yet and they were upset. Why was their new site not working? They even went so far as to look into hiring one of those so-called “SEO Guru’s” who promise they will get you millions of customers overnight! (Yeah, sure.) I assured the client that their site was fully set up with all the SEO tools websites can have – and send them a list of things they could do to help draw traffic to the site.
I’m still unsure if they took my advice and starting investing time into promoting their site – but the experience proved to me that many people still have the “If you build it, they will come” attitude about websites. As a designer, that’s a lot of pressure. And pretty much impossible.
So I did a bit of research on the concept of websites just “existing” and making you money. I downloaded every report I could find from so-called guru’s and discovered, through the haze of buzz words and empty promises, that each of these gurus are pushing these magic “X-Factor” techniques that are guaranteed (!!) to make you $10,000 overnight (!!) while you sit on the beach sipping your margarita. Everyone said the same thing, and most of their tools do work. But the thing these gurus left out was the amount of time and energy YOU need to put in your site to build it. Yes, it’s possible to create a website that will make passive income for you. It’s possible to wake up in the morning with those awesome “You’ve got money” emails in your inbox. What is not possible is for you to create a website and then do nothing, and expect the money to just start rolling in. Websites are not the Ronco™ Rotisserie – you can’t just set it and forget it.
The X-Factor Tools
There are tools that have been proven to work in building a profitable website. Below is a list of the big ones, the ones all the gurus profess and I have seen work. Check out your own web business and see if any of these pieces are missing.
- A subscription program (eZine or Auto-responder series)
- A “Pink Spoon” page or section, offering a freebie to your subscribers
- An easy to navigate, browser-friendly website with information on who you are and what you can offer your clients
- A blog or article section of your site with fresh content
- An easy-to-find way to connect with your visitors – contact form, call in number, or email address
- Social Networking accounts for you or your biz (Twitter, Facebook Fan pages, Linked In profiles, etc…)
- RSS Feed – a one-click way for visitors to sign up to receive updates from your site
- Multimedia – use videos and audio to connect with your visitors and promote your site.
- Advertising – either AdWords or cross promoting with your networking buds
- Affiliate Programs
- Membership sites or Forums – so your visitors can interact with each other
- Downloadable products or programs at various price points
By far these are not the only ways to build a profitable business, but these are some “big dogs” when it comes to promoting your business online. But the list – and the work – does not stop there. You have to try and envision your business as a living thing. It needs care and maintenance to survive. It needs YOU to grow.
The You-Factor
So you’ve got a great website, a nice little freebie for your subscribers, and introductory video about your business and a twitter account. What’s next?
- Spread The Word. Once all the basics are in place, you need to start creating the buzz for your business. Take a look at all the contacts that you have – send a quick note to them announcing your business. Add links to your business everywhere you can on the web – social networking sites, friend’s websites, on your email signature – heck, wear your URL on your t-shirt if you think it will help! In the early months of a site, you cannot rely on good SEO alone to drive traffic to your site.
- Tell Your Business’ Story. Make sure when you are marketing your new business you are clearly telling people what you do. I find many times I create a beautiful website for someone and even after it’s launched I still don’t exactly know what they do or how it would benefit me. When promoting your new site, use very specific terms to descirbe what you offer and who it”s for. That will also help with the “word of mouth” marketing. If Suzie gets asked if she knows anyone who does X, and she remembers your new business sells X, she will pass on your info. If she doesn’t know you do X, she can’t spread the word.
- Get Your Expert Status Out There. Don’t rely on your newsletter alone to showcase your knowledge. Take old articles and publish them as blog posts (with a teaser to subscribe to the newsletter at the bottom of the post). Submit your articles to article-sharing sites. (ezinearticles.com) Post your articles on Facebook. Offer guest posts on your friend’s sites. Do anything and everything to get your knowledge – and name – out there.
- Plaster Your Face Everywhere. Don’t let your awesome video just sit alone on your site. Create a You Tube channel. Add your video to MySpace & Facebook. Open up a 12seconds.tv account to share your videos. You can even subscribe to video sharing programs that will put your video out on every video site imaginable (tubemogel.com or heyspread.com)
- Make Sharing Easy. Add “share this” buttons everywhere on your site. Sales pages, regular static pages, blog posts, etc… make it an easy one-click for someone to spread the word on you. Many bookmarking sites provide easy copy&paste code for your site so you don’t even need any code knowledge to add it. (reddit.com, digg.com, stumbledupon.com, Technorati.com or Yahoo Buzz)
- Make Following Easy. Utilize your RSS feed by signing up for a Feedburner.com account, which gives subscribers more options to receive your feed. Add links on your site for your visitors to follow you on Facebook or Twitter.
- Get Your Voice Heard. Record yourself reading your article and add a “listen now” button to your posts (see AudioAcrobat.com). Look into services like Blog Talk Radio where you can share your knowledge and hit a whole new market.
- Make Friends. Join networking sites, enroll in group mastermind programs and participate in events where you can get in front of people AND gain business knowledge. Pass out your business card!! Schmooze! You’d be amazed at the number of people who find me through their networking circles – word of mouth is still the best marketing tool out there.
The real X-Factor in marketing your business is YOU. Think outside the box when you start a new business and use as many tools as possible to promote yourself online. The competition is fierce out there, and the time you invest in promoting yourself really determines your success. Once you have your basic tools in place, start by investing just an hour a day in getting the word out there. You’ll be surprised at how taking just that little amount of time out of your day can increase your site traffic – and your bank account.
PS – Don’t forget to check in on how you are doing! I highly recommend subscribing to tracking software (google.com/analytics) and actively track your sites performance. Take an interest in how people are finding you, and what keywords that are bringing them to you. Take that info and exploit it! If most of your traffic comes in through Facebook, then step up your game on Facebook! It’s obviously working. 
~Victoria Potts Keale is a newbie blogger, website designer, entrepreneur extraordinaire, mom, wife, daughter, sister… well, you get the gist. She lives in her hometown of St. Louis, MO in an old haunted farmhouse with her 2 kids and drummer hubby. She has 15 tattoos and wants more. She loves 80’s music. She thinks writing bios in the 3rd person is wacky. You should email her and tell her what else to put in her bio – victoria@lynnraedesigns.com – but don’t spam her, cause she’ll get angry.
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