Once your Web site is
up, you must maintain it. Maintenance means changes, and each time you
make a change, you may make a mistake. I'm really grateful when people
point out my Web glitches. You too can be more proactive by checking
your Web site each week.
If your visitors get a link that doesn't work, see incomplete
instructions, or read your dull instead of passionate copy, they will
leave your site immediately, and not bookmark it.
Before you invite potential buyers to see your masterpiece you
need to check and correct all parts of your site, and especially the
home page.Use the last four of the seven tests below to guarantee you
loyal customers and clients.
4. TEST YOUR PRICE.
A price that is too low is as bad as a price too high. Too low a price devalues your product or service.
Potential clients or buyers may think, "If it's that cheap, it
must not be good." One myth is that eBooks have less value than print
books. If your book has information your preferred audience wants, you
must price it accordingly. If your service is invaluable, be sure to
charge what you're worth.
Send another survey and ask your potential buyers what will they pay for your product or service.
Always start your prices high. Later you can offer a discount.
5. TEST YOUR HOME PAGE COPY.
Change testimonials or pictures every so often. Redo your
opening page and closing page. Instead of "Subscribe to my ezine," put
a short testimonial from a famous person in your field right before the
ezine sign up form..
Always give your visitors a reason to buy. Make your copy "you" oriented. Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing Manual, said
this about the free monthly ezine "The Book Coach Says.." ezine is
chock full of useful information - totally worth your time.
Make your Home Web page benefit-driven. Limit your bio to a
few lines. Concentrate on what you can do for your visitor. Post
questions you can answer and put them in bullets to make them easier to
read.. On my third updated home page, my headline: "Let me help you
answer questions about your book"
-How can I get clarity on my message and its value to its
readers? -How can I shorten my learning curve and finish my book fast?
-What are the first steps to writing a great selling eBook? -What is
the best way for me to publish a book? -How can I write a profitable
book for a lifelong income? -Will my potential buyers think my book is
worth the money? -Now that it's written, how can I best promote my
book?
Test the length of your copy. Check the size of your
paragraphs. In general, keep them short, around 1-4 sentences. Imagine
looking at a long line of print before you get to the meat?
Discouraged, you would probably leave the page, and possibly the site!
Check for passive sentence construction too. Why? Because
passive constructions such as "is" and "have" and other linking verbs
slow your reader down. They want your clear, concise, and compelling
information. Your spell and grammar check give you passive percentages
at the end. If your sentences are more than 3-4% passive, you need a
professional coach to check your copy. This article has 1% passives.
6. TEST YOUR SITE LAYOUT.
Know where people are entering your site and exiting. Many
companies out there can give you this service. If potential buyers keep
leaving at a particular page before they go to products and ordering
page, your words deceive or bore, and some changes are in order. You
can track: where your traffic is coming from, what pages visitors like,
what page the majority of visitors enter and exit, and how long are
they there, even which ones signed up for your eNewsletter.
7. TEST YOUR ORDER PROCESS.
Ask friends and
associates to run through different parts of your site. Show your
appreciation by paying them for it with free product or service. Tell
them you have a thick skin, and appreciate their honesty.
One would-be customer couldn't finish the order for one of my
teleclasses. It took a lot of effort to get that mistake rectified with
some free product from me. I know a famous eBook author from whom I
tried and tried to buy a book. I even emailed him about it. He said he
didn't take email orders and sent me back to where the problem was.He
didn't care. From that point on I never bought from him or read his
ezine.
It's much better to have all links work, so your customers
will have an easy ordering experience. Also, be sure to offer your
customers several ways to order. Not all people like to order on the
web. In the copy for each product or service I sell I offer an order
page to mail or fax, an order 800 number and a secure ClickBank order
process.
Know that your job of Web site testing never ends. It's what
we call maintenance, 80% of life is maintenance! Just experimenting
with these tests will bring more sales. Keep testing to know what your
potential buyers really want.
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