“Should I Start Over?” – Fifteen Hints

I received an email from a new web site owner that got me thinking about persistence, discouragement, and when it was time to leave “a dead horse” for a new ride, so to speak — change focus from the niche you are working on to a different one.

She wrote that she had worked hard on her new site and business for about a year and then began losing interest in continuing on because she had not made any money yet and feared she never would.  She was debating (in her own mind) whether she should give up on the site and niche … or quit IM altogether.  She said she had no interest in changing niches and starting all over again.  I assume she figured she would then spend another year wasting her time since she had no reason to believe that her “luck” with online business would change any time soon.

I wrote back saying that she was experiencing what many others had … a real struggle with their first online selling attempt and that she may just need to change a few things in order to turn her failure into success.

Which brings me to the first point I’d like to share.  In my mind, it’s much easier and smarter to modify and tweak a functioning web site than it is to start all over again building a new site in a new niche from scratch.

I told my new friend that this advice only held as long as the niche was a viable one.  You see, if you decide to go into a niche that has no money flowing, you are most likely failing before you ever begin.  The same thing holds true for entering a niche where there is no market demand.  If people (consumers and prospects) aren’t actively looking to make a purchase in your marketplace … well, let’s just say you have started off on the wrong foot.  You need to sell into demand … or said another way … you need to fulfill the wants and desires of your prospects.  If a niche doesn’t show you through your research that there are active buyers of niche products, don’t expect that you are going to instantly create demand for your products as soon as you start selling.

OK, so how do you determine as a web site owner, what is wrong with your web site and your business?  Why aren’t you actively selling anything?  And more importantly maybe, how do you tweak your site to turn things around?

I told the lady business owner that she needed to begin analyzing what she was doing in order to learn why no one was buying from her.

Here are the questions I suggested she look into first:

1-  Did you verify demand in the marketplace for your product through your research?  Do you know what your targeted customers are currently buying online and from whom are they making the purchase?
2-  Do you have a decent flow (hopefully a constant flow) of targeted traffic to your web site?
3-  Have to tested various traffic sources as the “quality” of traffic can vary greatly from one source to the next.  You see, all traffic is not equal … leads from one source might outperform the leads from other sources in almost every campaign.
4.  Does your site title grab the attention of the visitor?  You need to stop your browsing traffic and get attention right now.  Today, the competition for peoples’ time and attention is tremendous.  Don’t let your traffic slip away because they lost interest the moment they viewed your web site.
5-  Is you sales copy really compelling?  Boring, confusing, or hype-filled sales copy just isn’t tolerated these days.
6-  Do you have testimonials on your site from happy customers?  Prospects often believe what other consumers tell them before they will believe what you (as the business owner or vendor) tell them!
7-  Do you focus on explaining benefits of your product instead of features?  Benefits show the prospect what the purchase will do for him … how it will solve his problem or fulfill his desire … as opposed to features which typically just explain the details of what the prospect is buying.
8-  Does your sales copy include several strong “calls to action”?  Prospects need to be told to buy.  Don’t be shy about challenging the prospect to click on the buy button or to download the product right now … call him to action!
9-  Is your product valuable, unique, and up-to-date technologically?  The pace of change these days is incredible and as the product seller you must be able to make a strong case for purchasing your product as opposed to the rest of the alternatives for sale.
10-  Is your offer of excellent value and reasonable in price?  Price alone is often not the most critical factor in a purchase decision for folks buying online.  Is your product oozing with readily apparent and discernible value so there is no question that this alternative is the clear winner?
11-  Have you taken the risk of buying away from the prospect?  Does your product have a solid guarantee?  Is it readily apparent how a buyer can contact you if he has any questions or product issues?
12-  Does your site offer credibility and authority to the prospect?  Are you obviously an expert in the niche?  Nurture and educate your audience so they see and experience your authority and expertise.
13-  Are you following up with and engaging your potential prospects so that they are exposed to your offer multiple times?  Often, “yes” to a sale doesn’t happen right away.
14-  Have you compared you product with the competition to make sure your offer is the best available in the niche?  It pays to study the competition, their products, their marketing, and their funnels.
15-  Have you been testing and tracking your site variables so you know which ones convert the best?  Testing, tweaking, and tracking results is a must for every campaign.  Your goal is to optimize everything — you offer, your web site, your sales copy, your product, and everything possible so that you get the highest conversion possible.

There are other things that could be affecting your sales . . . but the fifteen items will typically alert you to easily fixed problem areas.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com